Women in Islam

[kmaherali]

In Former Taliban Stronghold, Defiant Women Hit the Gym

A women’s health club in Kandahar challenges conservative Afghan traditions that vilify exercise for women. Many work out secretly.


Maryam Durani, left, guiding a gym member through an exercise at her fitness club for women in Kandahar. Women agreed to be photographed only while wearing fully concealing clothing instead of their usual workout clothes.Credit...Farzana Wahidy for The New York Times

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Homa Yusafzai felt terrible. Her weight was up, she had diabetes and high blood pressure, and at just 27 she felt lethargic and depressed.

Then she heard that Kandahar’s first health club for women had just opened — the miracle she had been waiting for, she thought. Her husband at first refused to let her join. Kandahar is a deeply conservative city, a former headquarters of the Taliban where men still dictate the most prosaic details of women’s lives.

But ultimately, he relented, and Ms. Yusafzai now works out six days a week, straining through hand-weight repetitions and pounding a treadmill. In six months, she said, she had shed almost 50 pounds, lowered her blood pressure and brought her diabetes under control.

“I feel so healthy and I have more energy — I’m so happy,” she said as she rested between workouts.

The health club was opened late last year by Maryam Durani, 36, an indomitable women’s rights advocate who has survived two suicide bombings, an assassination attempt and countless death threats — not to mention harsh public condemnation for opening the club.

The gym has survived, tucked away in a windowless basement inside a locked compound, shielded from prying eyes. It is the latest addition to the Khadija Kubra Women’s Association, run by Ms. Durani with her father’s help since 2004. It includes a radio station, English and literacy classes for women, an Islamic school and a seamstress center that sells clothing made by women.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/12/worl ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

Egyptian Teen Seeks Justice in Rape Case, and a Battle Erupts Over Women’s Rights

A generation of young women in Egypt who have found their voice on social media are challenging the old rules that blamed women when they were attacked by men.

CAIRO — It was a party Aya Khamees has tried hard to forget.

One evening in May, the 18-year-old woman met up with a few friends, and a few of their friends, at a seedy hotel outside Cairo, not far from the majestic pyramids of Giza. They brought chicken and rice, beer and hash, and rented a few rooms to hang out, flouting Egypt’s strict social rules prohibiting unmarried men and women from mixing in private.

Around 1 a.m., a quarrel broke out. According to prosecutors, a young man, pretending to console Ms. Khamees, walked her into a room, held a razor to her face and raped her.

She went to a police station, battered and bruised, and was turned away, told to go to a different one. With no family to look to for support, she said she felt abandoned and alone.

So she turned to her virtual world. Looking directly into a phone, her eyes blackened, her face cut, she broadcast an account of her attack on TikTok, where she had hundreds of thousands of followers.

“If the government is watching, I want them to get out and get me my rights,” she demanded.

The video went viral, and within days the police had rounded up the entire group — the accused rapist, the other party guests, and Ms. Khamees. She was charged with prostitution, drug use and a crime recently added to Egypt’s penal code: violation of family values.

Blaming the victim for a sex crime is not unusual in Egypt.

But as the video continued to garner views online, a hashtag campaign arose demanding justice, and her case became the subject of the TV news and talk shows. After a three-month probation, during which she was required to complete a rehabilitation program, the charges were dropped.

“At first the government wasn’t going to help me,” Ms. Khamees said in an interview. “But when people spoke up, when my story became a public case, things changed.”

While dropping charges against the victim may seem like scant progress, the case was a harbinger of big changes rocking Egypt’s traditional male-dominated culture. A generation of young women who have found new freedoms online and a voice on social media are challenging the old guard of a socially conservative, patriarchal state that policed the morality of women while allowing crimes against them to go unpunished.

Her case was the leading edge of a moment that seemed to burst out of nowhere all at once.

In July, dozens of women went public with accusations in a serial assault case, leading to an arrest and prosecution. In another high-profile case, a woman testified against a group of wealthy young men, accusing them of gang-raping her years ago in a five-star hotel. And hundreds of reports poured into the National Council for Women with accusations of assaults.

But the groundswell didn’t come out of nowhere. It had been brewing quietly on social media, one of the few remaining precincts of free expression under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, whose government tightly controls traditional media like television and newspapers.

Now the state is pushing back against what some argue amounts to the unraveling of the country’s fundamental values.

A cybercrime law passed two years ago, partly in an effort to regulate social media, created the crime of violating “Egyptian family values.” The values were not defined, leaving it to judges and prosecutors, most of whom are men, to decide what constitutes a violation.

This year, the law took on the wildly popular TikTok app, a network for posting brief videos that young Egyptian women have seized on to flaunt their sexuality in ways they can’t do in real life. The women often wear trendy clothes that push the boundaries of what most Egyptian women can wear in public, and the most popular accounts have amassed millions of followers.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/worl ... ogin-email

[kmaherali]

When I Step Outside, I Step Into a Country of Men Who Stare

Pakistan fails its women from the very top of government leadership to those who live in our homes.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — I am angry. All the time. I’ve been angry for years. Ever since I began to grasp the staggering extent of violence — emotional, mental and physical — against women in Pakistan. Women here, all 100 million of us, exist in collective fury.

“Every day, I am reminded of a reason I shouldn’t exist,” my 19-year-old friend recently told me in a cafe in Islamabad. When she gets into an Uber, she sits right behind the driver so that he can’t reach back and grab her. We agreed that we would jump out of a moving car if that ever happened. We debated whether pepper spray was better than a knife.

When I step outside, I step into a country of men who stare. I could be making the short walk from my car to the bookstore or walking through the aisles at the supermarket. I could be wrapped in a shawl or behind two layers of face mask. But I will be followed by searing eyes, X-raying me. Because here, it is culturally acceptable for men to gape at women unblinkingly, as if we are all in a staring contest that nobody told half the population about, a contest hinged on a subtle form of psychological violence.

“Wolves,” my friend, Maryam, called them, as she recounted the time a man grazed her shoulder as he sped by on a motorbike. “From now on, I am going to stare back, make them uncomfortable.” Maryam runs a company that takes tourists to the mountainous north. “People are shocked to see a woman leading tours on her own,” she told me.

We exchanged hiking stories. We had never encountered a solo female hiker up north. When I hike solo, men, apart from their usual leering, offer unsolicited advice, ask patronizing questions and, on occasion, follow in silence. I pretend to receive a call from my imaginary husband who happens to be nearby and wants to know exactly where I am. Even in the wilderness, you can’t escape.

Years ago, a friend told me about the time her dad beat her up after he saw her talking to a boy outside school. It wasn’t the first time. Until she left for college in the United States, she lived in constant terror of when the next wave of violence would arrive. Her mother stood by and let it happen.

Internalized patriarchy rears its head often when Aunties (an Auntie is any older woman who exists to profess her uninvited opinion) are concerned that you are not married. Aunties emphasize that motherhood is your assigned purpose on this planet. Aunties comment on your body as if you are not there.

This country fails its women from the very top of government leadership to those who live with us in our homes. In September, a woman was raped beside a major highway near Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city. Around 1 a.m., her car ran out of fuel. She called the police and waited. Two armed men broke through the windows and assaulted her in a nearby field.

The most senior police official in Lahore remarked that the survivor was assaulted because, he assumed, she “was traveling late at night without her husband’s permission.”

An elderly woman in my apartment building in Islamabad, remarked. “Apni izzat apnay haath mein.” Your honor is in your own hands. In Pakistan, sexual assault comes with stigma, the notion that a woman by being on the receiving end of a violent crime has brought shame to herself and her family. Societal judgment is a major reason survivors don’t come forward.

Responding to the assault, Prime Minister Imran Khan proposed chemical castration of the rapists. His endorsement of archaic punishments rather than a sincere promise to undertake the difficult, lengthy and necessary work of reforming criminal and legal procedures is part of the problem. The conviction rate for sexual assault is around three percent, according to War Against Rape, a local nonprofit.

Mr. Khan’s analysis of the prevalence of gender-based violence is even more regressive. Fahashi (indecency) in society is the culprit, deflecting responsibility from the police and government. Mr. Khan blamed Bollywood for widespread incidents of rape in neighboring New Delhi, missing the point that, like Pakistan, India suffers from similar issues with policing, public safety and the judicial system.

The highway assault shook the women of Pakistan, but it did not shock us. We grew up with stories of women killed for “honor” and women raped for revenge. Women doused with acid and women burned with stoves. Pakistan ranks 164 out of 167 countries on the Women, Peace and Security Index 2019-2020, barely hovering above Yemen, Afghanistan and Syria.

In the two months since the highway assault, a police officer raped a woman in her home. A girl was murdered by her cousin and uncle for speaking to a male friend on her phone. A woman waiting for a bus after work was kidnapped and raped. A teenager committed suicide after being blackmailed by the men who raped her and videotaped the assault. A six-year-old was clubbed to death by her father for making noise. Between January and June alone, there have been 3,148 reported cases of violence against women and children. Many go unreported.

There are slices of Pakistan where a woman can bare her arms, smoke, drink, escape abroad, become a minister. But class does not protect her from the stares and the fears of assault when she ventures outside. Yet for women in the lower socio-economic strata of society, women in rural Pakistan, things are much worse. The insecurity and harassment working-class women face daily at a bus stop are experiences that are foreign to those behind the wheel of a Mercedes.

On a recent afternoon, I pulled up to a traffic stop. Twenty or so motorcycles zigzagged their way up to right under the light, as they commonly do here. The riders were men. With one exception. I only noticed her because the men around her were consuming her. It’s rare to see women driving bikes in Pakistan — probably because when they do, they’re on display.

Although she had her back to me, face obscured by a helmet, I imagined her staring resolutely ahead, pushing through the discomfort, the sheer creepiness, of being watched. A wave of fury passed over me. Don’t let the bastards grind you down, I tried to telepathically transmit to her, a refrain from “The Handmaid’s Tale” that frequently floats through my head when I’m back here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/opin ... 778d3e6de3

[swamidada]

DECEMBER 06, 2020
The last colony
Sulema Jahangir

THE Indian and Pakistani constitutions provide equality for all, yet the rights of citizens from different religious groups in matters such as marriage, divorce, maintenance and succession, depend on religious identity. A Muslim man can practice polygamy but this is denied to men from other faiths. Muslim women in India are unable to claim substantive maintenance from their former husbands after divorce whereas women from other religions do. In Pakistan, it is more difficult for Hindu and Christian couples to divorce than Muslim couples.

Post Zia, there has been slow but steady progress on improving women’s rights in the domestic sphere through legislation, but this has left out women from religious minorities. Successive governments have either ignored the matter or attempted to appease members of the ruling male elite from religious minorities, who have wanted to hang on to patriarchal rules on religious pretexts. Hence, women from religious minorities face the patriarchal standards of their own religious leaders as well as exploitation from right-wing elements in the majority community.

In 2017, in a landmark judgement, then Lahore High Court Chief Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, observed that the Christian Divorce Act 1869 fell foul of the fundamental rights guaranteed to minorities under the Constitution. The law prescribed strict fault-based rules including proving adultery for Christian couples to obtain a divorce. The judge stated: “The limited grounds of divorce under the state divorce law when compared with the rights enjoyed by Christians in the world, amounts to discriminating against the Christian minority in Pakistan.” Perhaps one did not need to look outside the country — the law for Muslim couples in Pakistan to obtain a divorce has been amended a few times so that fault no longer remains relevant. Regrettably, the matter did not become a judicial precedent as the case was appealed and is pending adjudication.

Laws have left out women from religious minorities.

Hindus in Pakistan have fared no better. Until recently, there was no law providing for registration of Hindu marriages. Hence, the legal and social consequences of marriage were denied to Hindu families. Women were more often the victims and could not pursue claims to inheritance or maintenance for themselves or their children if they could not prove the marriage. According to the Pakistan Hindu Council, lack of official recognition of marriage also made it easy for miscreants to forcibly marry Hindu girls. Hindu marriage, divorce, remarriage and right to maintenance are now regulated by the Sindh Hindu Marriage Registration Act, 2016, and the Hindu Marriage Act, 2017. While the law was hailed as a positive step by most, for others it was too little too late. As with Christians, divorce could only be obtained on narrow fault-based grounds requiring evidence.

Not only do laws applicable to Hindu and Christian marriages make it difficult to divorce they also do not provide for interfaith marriages. If a spouse converts to another religion the marriage is considered void. Unsurprisingly, this has led to several Christian and Hindu women converting to Islam. Ironically, in 1939, the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act was the first statutory law providing the right to Muslim women in India to divorce their husbands. The intent of the law, as stated in its preamble, was to discourage married Muslim women from converting to other faiths to escape abusive marriages. Almost a century later, non-Muslim women in Pakistan face the same humiliation of having to choose between mistreatment and faith. Unlike the majority of women, they have to stand in court to satisfy a particular judge’s notion of cruelty or neglect.

India and Pakistan are often at loggerheads but have much in common in the treatment of their religious minorities. After an era of colonial domination, the founders of both countries firmly endorsed non-discrimination, but since then, the fundamental rights of an ‘under-class’ have been frequently abandoned for political expediency.

In 1986, the Congress rulers in India rushed in legislation to appease Muslim religious leaders who opposed the supreme court’s decision in the Shah Bano case to grant a paltry sum of spousal maintenance to an indigent Muslim woman. For the Congress government in 1986, the Muslim vote bank counted and Muslim religious leaders felt that a man had no obligation to provide even basic sustenance to his former wife of 30 years. In contrast, in 2017, the BJP government hailed the decision of the supreme court which outlawed an unregistered triple talaq for Muslim women. For them, the right-wing Hindu vote bank counted more. What does not count in both countries are the lives of millions of women from religious minorities who are already at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder; they will always remain the last colony.

The writer is a board member, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, an advocate of the high courts, Pakistan, and a solicitor of the senior courts of England and Wales.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2020

https://www.dawn.com/news/1594265/the-last-colony

[swamidada]

‘A woman was raped by 20 men; anyone could be the next victim’ – what life is like for women in Sudan
Anna Pujol-Mazzini
The Telegraph Thu, January 14, 2021, 11:50 AM

When Samah Idrees read about a woman being raped by a mob of armed men in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, she was horrified but not surprised. Most shocking was the banality of the violence: it reminded her of all the other news she had read about all the other rapes in her country.

Yet this one, involving one woman being attacked by 20 men on a busy street earlier this month, was particularly hard to stomach for the 16-year-old student.

“I just couldn’t stay silent about a woman being raped by 20 men. It’s terrifying to think that anyone can be the next victim,” she says.

The group wanted to show their support to the survivor of the brutal attack, and to lift women who are often blamed for their own assaults in the East African country, where activists say sexual and domestic violence are on the rise.

“We’re trying to raise awareness because people always discuss what the victim was wearing, what time she was out, why she was alone. If we blame the victims, rapists are walking free while the victims are traumatized for life,” Idrees says.


The hashtags quickly went viral on Sudanese Twitter, as thousands rallied in support, in an online campaign some have likened to the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

Groups of women wearing Covid masks protested on Monday in front of courts in Khartoum and in the Darfur region against the violence. Their signs read: “Silence does not mean consent,” and “Don’t rape”. Many featured the campaign’s hashtags.

Initially, it was not clear whether the online reports of the gang rape were true, as no evidence had been published and no arrests made. Since then, women’s rights groups have been investigating the incident.

“We have confirmation that the incident happened but not many details on the victim or the perpetrators,” explains Yosra Akasha, a programme co-ordinator at the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) in Sudan. Several other groups confirmed the attack to The Telegraph.

“A group of mobs were attacking and harassing women who passed by in that area. This woman was brutally attacked, beaten, stabbed and her clothes were taken off, she was gang raped in the street. She was then put into a car by a couple of men who took her to hospital,” says Akasha.


Violence against women has been steadily rising, fuelled by a perfect storm of political instability, economic crisis, Covid and natural disasters, according to women’s rights campaigners in Sudan. More than 500 cases of sexual abuse on children, mostly girls, were reported last year.

Sudanese strongman Omar al-Bashir was ousted by the military in 2019 after months of mass protests for democracy and better economic conditions, in which women were a driving force. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the demonstrations, including in a deadly crackdown by security forces on June 3 2019 in which at least 60 women reported being raped, according to several groups working with survivors. One told The Telegraph as many as 150 women were thought to have been raped on that day.

In the western Darfur region, where rebels have been at war with the Sudanese government since 2003 and Bashir is suspected of committing genocide, rape has long been used as a weapon of war.

Last month, the violence reached a peak as hate speech against women going out in public spaces spread online. SIHA, Akasha’s women’s initiative, addressed a letter to the ministry of interior asking for the police to protect women on New Year’s Eve.

“Women now are dressing freely in public spaces, so people, especially Islamist groups, are assuming this role of policing women in public spaces,” Akasha says.

“A group […] said they were going to beat up every woman they find on the street during the holiday time, especially if they are not properly dressed or wearing the hijab. All the signs were there that women would be attacked on New Year’s Eve.”

The law offers little protection to survivors: perpetrators are rarely brought to justice and in some cases, women who report rape have been convicted themselves for adultery or “indecent acts.”

In 2018, the case of teenager Noura Hussein made headlines as she was sentenced to death for killing her husband in self-defense during an attempted rape. She is still in a women’s prison and her sentence has been reduced to five-years following an appeal.

Following her successful campaign, Samah Idrees plans to create more permanent social media pages to collect women's testimonies and reach a wider audience with her message against sexual violence.

But she knows there is a long way to go until women can walk freely on the streets of Sudan. “It doesn’t feel comfortable to be alone in some places, in public places,” she says. “There are going to be more victims.”

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/lifesty ... 20962.html

[kmaherali]

Pioneering scientists formulate plans for a better world



International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated on 11 February every year to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls.

Despite recent advancements in science and technology, there is still much to discover and accomplish to improve lives across the globe. Women and girls continue to play a leading role in this regard, not least via the sciences, while members of the Ismaili community are at the forefront of this field, working to better understand our world and make it a better place for us all.

Throughout history, great Muslim intellectuals and scholars have served as an example of the rich heritage of learning which contributed towards the flourishing of global civilisation, particularly in the discipline of science.

One example is the notable female astronomer Mariam al-Ijliya, who advanced and fine-tuned Greek instruments such as the astrolabe in 10th-century Syria. The astrolabe helped to make a significant contribution to what would later become known as space science.

Following in her footsteps centuries later, members of the Jamat have worked hard to gain a foothold in science-related fields, and today find themselves at the cutting edge of innovation. Like any area of study, the scientific world benefits from diversity. Bringing in fresh perspectives, talent, and creativity is how innovative ideas develop, and how new knowledge is formed.

One increasingly prominent area of science is robotics, a rapidly-evolving sphere with the potential to completely change how our world functions. A robot is a programmable machine, capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. It is the chosen domain of study for Dr Malika Meghjani, an assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, who also last year featured on a list of the world’s 50 most renowned women in robotics.

She works with marine robots such as underwater vehicles, which play an important role in observing environmental changes in coral reefs, and monitoring iceberg movements. This not only helps to provide early warning signs for potential flooding, but also avoids humans having to repeatedly dive into freezing waters.

“I think robots can do a wonderful job by doing repeated surveys of the region and going down and collecting the video footage that is required,” she said.

Malika has also worked with ground robots such as self-driving cars, teaching them how to avoid collisions and reach their destinations safely.

“It looks as if we’re going to have a long transition phase where autonomous vehicles and manually driven vehicles would both be on the road for a very long time, and that’s why it’s very important for the autonomous vehicles to understand the intent of human-driven vehicles and be able to integrate into such environments.”

All aspiring scientists need an initial opportunity for discovery, to understand what to look for, and to learn from one another. A small event or reaction in one place can have a big effect somewhere else, a concept that has become known as ‘the butterfly effect.’

Hoping to inspire young minds during lockdowns last year, a collaboration of Aga Khan Education Boards launched The Global STEM Festival, for 3-17-year-olds to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics activities at home.

During the festival, six-year-old Maria Ahmad from Portugal was able to test whether items such as coins, cotton, a rock, a balloon, and a shell would float when placed into a small pool of water.

“This was my second science project with water,” said Maria. “By doing this I could feed my passion for the water world and also learn the reasons why each item floated or not. It was an amazing experience and I cannot wait to try it again with different items.”

Similarly, high school student Vaneeza Rupani has been captivated by space exploration ever since she was a little girl. She fed her interest by reading books about space at her school library and visiting the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

“The idea that there is an endless number of worlds out there waiting to be discovered is fascinating, and the idea that anything at all could be found is extremely exciting,” she said.

Fueled by her passion for space, Vaneeza entered a NASA essay contest, and among thousands of participants, won the opportunity to name the helicopter that accompanied NASA’s 2020 Mars mission. She later had the opportunity to meet the team that designed the helicopter, and was invited to view the launch of the rocket last summer.

One experiment or activity can ignite the spark that eventually leads to a career choice, which can make a substantial impact on the lives of many people, now and into the future. A young scientist today, with the right grounding and training, could later become a recognised personality on the international stage, like Rumina Velshi.

Rumina, President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and Chairperson of the commission on safety standards for the International Atomic Energy Agency, has advocated for alternative sources of energy to reduce humanity’s dependence on fossil fuels, and thereby reduce the negative effects of climate change.

“What is being accepted increasingly is that our source of energy has to change,” said Rumina, who trained as a professional engineer and has over 35 years of experience in positions at Canada’s largest nuclear utility.

“There is a recognition that we need more renewables, and increasing acceptance that nuclear power needs to play a much larger role when it comes to energy production. Currently 10% of electricity comes from nuclear power, and that needs to change not only to control climate change, but also to address the issue of energy poverty.”

At the present time, around one billion people on Earth don’t have access to electricity, and three billion people don’t have access to clean fuels for cooking, which comes at a high health cost due to indoor pollution.

One proposed solution for generating clean energy in an intelligent way is the small modular reactor (SMR), a safe, affordable, and easily-transportable power plant.

“I believe that SMRs are going to transform the energy sector,” said Rumina.

“They will do to the energy sector what the smartphone has done to the telecommunications business. It’s a great opportunity for those of us in the industry, to be here at this time, when there is so much exciting work happening.”

https://the.ismaili/global/news/communi ... tter-world

[kmaherali]

Women in Science and Global Health: Webinar hosted by AKU

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-3WaOWejiU

Health outcomes are defined by many factors. Amongst them, biological considerations have an obvious impact, but it is also imperative to understand gender-sensitive analyses of socioeconomic, political and environmental concerns. In addition, evidence shows that roles and relationships based on male and female status, gender identification, values and behaviours all influence the health outcomes of individuals and societies.​ On November 25, 2020, the Aga Khan University (AKU) hosted a webinar to explore these topics, bringing together female leaders who talked about their work, its impact on global health and its relationship to driving gender equity.​ Today, AKDN is releasing the webinar on its channels to help commemorate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

[swamidada]

BBC Woman's Hour accused of 'hostile' interview with Muslim leader
BBC Thu, February 18, 2021, 5:23 AM
Zara Mohammed
Zara Mohammed was elected to lead the Muslim Council of Britain at the end of January
A BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour interview with the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain has been criticized for being "strikingly hostile".

More than 100 politicians, writers and other prominent figures have signed an open letter complaining about Zara Mohammed's "mistreatment" on the show.

It said host Emma Barnett "appeared intent on re-enforcing damaging and prejudicial tropes" about Islam.

A BBC spokesperson said the corporation would reply "in due course".

Emma Barnett
Emma Barnett became the main host of Woman's Hour at the start of the year
The letter's signatories include Conservative peer Baroness Warsi, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Naz Shah, journalist Afua Hirsch, Rizzle Kicks' Jordan Stephens and the Muslim Council of Britain's founding secretary general Sir Iqbal Sacranie.

"The BBC needs to address its engagement with and representation of Muslim women," it said.

In particular, it took issue with Barnett for "persistently" asking how many female imams there are in Britain.

"Despite Mohammed's repeated claims that religious adjudication was not within the parameters of her role leading a civil society organization, Barnett asked the question about female imams four times, each time interrupting Mohammed's answer," it said.

The interview "mirrored the style and tone of an accountability interview with a politician, rather than authentically recognizing and engaging in what this represented for British Muslim women", the letter added.

It said "the false equivalence between imams with rabbis and priests in a religion that has no clergy reflected a basic lack of religious literacy needed for authentic engagement with British Muslim communities".


After the letter was published, the BBC spokesperson said: "This is a topic we've been responding to already and now that we've received this letter we will reply to it in due course." Barnett has not addressed the issue since her tweet after the interview.

The letter also criticised a "lack of representation" within the BBC, calling for the broadcaster to release a public statement "recommitting to engaging with Muslim women" and recruit Muslims in leadership positions.

The Muslim Council of Britain is the largest umbrella organisation for British Muslims, with more than 500 members including mosques, schools, charities and professional networks.

Muslim Council of Britain elects first female head

After the interview on 4 February, Barnett retweeted a clip of that section of the interview, saying "I still have the question and genuinely would like to know" about the number of female imams. She also thanked Mohammed "for our wide-ranging discussion".

The program later deleted the clip from Twitter, however, saying it "should have included more of the radio interview to provide full context of the discussion".

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/bb ... 43963.html

[kmaherali]

Muslim Council of Britain elects first female leader



Zara Mohammed said it was an "honour" to be appointed as the new secretary general after winning the most votes in a poll of affiliate groups of the UK's largest Muslim umbrella organisation.

She succeeds Harun Khan, who completed a maximum of four years as the head of the MCB.

The 29-year-old from Glasgow said she hoped more women and young people would be inspired to seek leadership roles.

She said: "I think women sometimes hesitate to take on leadership roles even though they are more than qualified to do so.

"It is really important to engage young people, engage more women and diversify the organisation and the work we are doing."

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan tweeted that Ms Mohammed's appointment was "terrific".

Mr Khan said: "I wish the very best of success to Zara Mohammed - may she continue to lead this organisation to greater heights for the betterment of our communities across the country."

Ms Mohammed is a masters graduate in human rights law and a training and development consultant.

She said that she aimed to "continue to build a truly inclusive, diverse and representative body", driven by the needs of British Muslims "for the common good".

She previously served as an assistant secretary general for the MCB.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55883189?xt ... 5Bisapi%5D

[swamidada]

to vote on banning face veils in referendum criticized as Islamophobic
John Revill
Reuters Wed, March 3, 2021, 6:49 AM

ZURICH (Reuters) - "Stop Extremism!" urges a red billboard in a quiet village outside Zurich above an image of a scowling woman wearing a black headscarf and face veil.

The billboard is part of a campaign by the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) to ban face coverings in public and which will be voted on in a binding national referendum on Sunday. Opinion polls suggest most Swiss will back it and the ban will become law.

"In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms," said Walter Wobmann, an SVP member of parliament and chairman of the referendum committee.

The proposal predates the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen all adults forced to don masks in many settings to prevent the spread of infection. It gathered the necessary support to trigger a referendum in 2017.

It does not mention Islam directly, and also aims to stop violent street protesters and football hooligans wearing masks. Still, local politicians, media and campaigners have dubbed it the burqa ban.

The proposal compounds Switzerland's tense relationship with Islam after citizens voted to ban building any new minarets in 2009. Two cantons already have local bans on face coverings.

Wobmann said the vote was not against Islam itself, but added, "the facial covering is a symbol for this extreme, political Islam which has become increasingly prominent in Europe and which has no place in Switzerland."

France banned wearing a full face veil in public in 2011 and Denmark, Austria the Netherlands and Bulgaria have full or partial bans on wearing face coverings in public.

No one in Switzerland wears a burqa and only around 30 women wear the niqab, the University of Lucerne estimates. Muslims make up 5.2% of the Swiss population of 8.6 million people, with most having their roots in Turkey, Bosnia and Kosovo.

Swiss Muslims have said right-wing parties were using the vote to rally their supporters and demonize them and others have warned a ban could stoke wider divisions.

"The niqab is a blank sheet which allows people to project their fears onto it," said Andreas Tunger-Zanetti, manager of Lucerne University's Centre for Research on Religion.

"But ... you are very unlikely to meet someone on a Swiss street wearing one."

He said a ban risked cementing Switzerland's image as anti-Islamic and could create resentment amongst some Muslims.

Rifa'at Lenzin, 67, a Swiss Muslim woman, said she was totally against the ban, which was tackling a problem which didn't exist, in a country where Muslims were well integrated.

"Changing the constitution to tell people what they can and cannot wear is a very bad idea.. This is Switzerland, not Saudi Arabia."

"We are Muslims but we are Swiss citizens who have grown up here too," Lenzin said. "This vote is simply racist and Islamophobic."

(Reporting by John Revill; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/sw ... 27666.html

[kmaherali]

Finding Her Voice: Adiba's Story

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFkWRkIRFt8

“We don’t need to prove that women are strong. Women are already strong. Our mission is to change the perception of people.”

[swamidada]

Pakistani Taliban threaten organizers of Women's Day March
Umar Farooq
Reuters Fri, March 12, 2021, 1:14 PM
People chant slogans against women's right activists, who organized demonstrations marking the International Women's Day, during a protest in Karachi

By Umar Farooq

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban on Friday threatened women's rights activists who organized demonstrations to mark International Women's Day in the country, accusing them of blasphemy and obscenity.

The Taliban statement followed a flurry of falsified images and video clips on social media that suggested participants in the March 8 protests had insulted Islam, which they strongly denied.

"We want to send a message to those organizations who are actively spreading obscenity and vulgarity in our beloved Pakistan," the statement said, addressing the marchers.

"Fix your ways, there are still many young Muslims here who know how to protect Islam and and the boundaries set by Allah."

Islamist groups held demonstrations on Friday in several Pakistani cities to demand that the government prosecute the march organizers for blasphemy, and they threatened vigilante action.

Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan. Although Pakistan has never carried out such a sentence, vigilantes often kill suspects before they are brought before a court.

Messages spread on social media, in some cases shared by journalists and politicians with millions of followers, included false allegations that the French flag was waved at the Women's Day march, while doctored video and audio showed participants chanting slogans viewed as blasphemous against Islamic figures.

'MALICIOUS CAMPAIGN'

"Each and every one of these allegations is completely false and part of a malicious campaign to silence women from speaking out about their rights," the march organizers said in a statement.

The Women's Democratic Front, a leftist group founded in 2018 and one of the orgazers of the march, said their flag - with red, white and purple stripes - had been misrepresented as the French flag, which has blue, white and red stripes.

Pakistan has seen violent nationwide protests against France over issues such as the Charlie Hebdo cartoons and restrictions on the Islamic veil there for Muslim women.

Hassan Abbas, a security expert at the National Defense University in Washington, said the Taliban statement should be a "wake-up call" for Pakistani security agencies.

"(It is aimed at) creating fear, gaining the sympathy of religious radicals and recruiting extremists in urban centres of Pakistan," he said.

(Additional Reporting by Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad)

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/pa ... s-19144426

[swamidada]

TODAY'S PAPER | MARCH 15, 2021

Javed Hussain Published March 15, 2021

The "controversial material" shared on social media concerning the Aurat March held on March 8 is being investigated, Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri said on Sunday.

"[We] will expose the culprits involved and register cases against them," he said in a statement.

The minister said the elements who photoshopped banners from Aurat March before sharing them online "will also be punished".

The move comes after a video from the demonstration held in Karachi was doctored to falsely show participants raising blasphemous slogans and widely shared online.

The orga­ni­zers of Aurat March clarified that the participants of the march did not raise such slogans and their video was edited to defame their struggle.

On Friday, dozens of people from different groups blocked Khayaban-i-Suharwardy and Srinagar Highway in Islamabad during a protest against Aurat March.

Officials of the capital administration and police said that the Sunni Rabta Council, State Youth Parliament Muslim Talba Mahaz and Muttahida Talba Mahaz staged separate protests at Aabpara Chowk. They demanded registration of FIRs against organizers and participants of Aurat March.

In his statement, Qadri said blasphemous acts could not be allowed at any cost in Pakistan, adding that officials were trying to get to the bottom of the "controversial material shared on social media".

According to the minister, the banners displayed and alleged "blasphemous" slogans raised during the Aurat March events are also being investigated.

Aurat March has become an annual feature since 2018 and every year faces backlash from certain religio-political parties, who have been opposing the event.

The marches are organized in major cities to highlight issues facing women and condemning incidents of violence against them as well as gender discrimination, economic exploitation and misogyny.

Following this year’s march on International Women’s Day, heated debates were once again seen on social media for and against the march.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1612519/contr ... d-minister

[kmaherali]

MON Mar 22 • 9am PT | 12pm ET • Live Stream

Reflections on Art and Design: Canadian Muslim Women’s Perspectives

Three thinkers on the leading edge of arts and design in Canada share their insights as Muslim women in the field as part of a fascinating webinar on Monday, March 22.

Participating in this special event in celebration of International Women’s Day 2021 are:

• Dr. Tammy Gaber, associate professor of architecture, Laurentian University

• Timaj Garad, multidisciplinary storyteller, arts educator, and creative consultant

• Dr. Nadia Kurd, curator, University of Alberta Museums Art Collection

This wide-ranging panel conversation will stream on the Museum’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UfQA ... 1xrNaamrcg at 12 pm ET.

Reflections on Art and Design: Canadian Muslim Women’s Perspectives is presented by the Aga Khan Museum, the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, and the Global Centre for Pluralism.

Visit the Aga Khan Museum event page https://www.agakhanmuseum.org/programs/ ... and-design for more information.

[kmaherali]

Trial of Woman Who Killed Her Husband Highlights Domestic Abuse in Turkey

The case against Melek Ipek, who is being supported by women’s rights groups, has become a touchstone issue in Turkish politics.

ISTANBUL — Handcuffed and naked, Melek Ipek endured a night of beatings, sexual assault and death threats from her husband that left her and their two daughters battered and traumatized. By morning, after he went out and came back to the house, she had picked up a gun and killed him in a struggle.

Ms. Ipek, 31, was detained after calling the police to the scene in the southern Turkish city of Antalya in January. On Monday, she went on trial, charged with murder and facing a life sentence in what is shaping up to be a politically contentious case for women’s rights in the country.

Women’s rights organizations have leapt to support her, saying that she acted in self-defense and had suffered years of abuse by her husband before a long night of torture. If she had been given health care and a psychiatric evaluation after the assault, she would not even be on trial, the Antalya Feminist Collective said in a statement.

For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of a conservative Islamist movement who has championed the traditional family as the Turkish ideal, episodes like Ms. Ipek’s case have become an increasingly explosive issue. His opponents accuse him of allowing violence against women to soar during his tenure, and women in his own party, if more cautiously, are supporting better protection for women.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

Turkey withdraws from European treaty protecting women

ISTANBUL — Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first country to sign 10 years ago and which bears the name of its largest city.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s overnight decree annulling Turkey’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women’s rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence. Hundreds of women gathered at demonstrations across Turkey on Saturday to protest the move.

The Council of Europe's Secretary General, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, called the decision "devastating."

“This move is a huge setback to these efforts and all the more deplorable because it compromises the protection of women in Turkey, across Europe and beyond,” she said.

The Istanbul Convention states that men and women have equal rights and obliges state authorities to take steps to prevent gender-based violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.

Some officials from Erdogan’s Islam-oriented party had advocated for a review of the agreement, arguing it is inconsistent with Turkey's conservative values by encouraging divorce and undermining the traditional family unit.

Critics also claim the treaty promotes homosexuality through the use of categories like gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. They see that as a threat to Turkish families. Hate speech has been on the rise in Turkey, and the country's interior minister described LGBT people as “perverts” in a tweet. Erdogan has rejected their existence altogether.

More...

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/tu ... li=AAggNb9

[swamidada]

Indonesian girls traumatized by push to wear hijab - HRW
Reuters Videos Thu, March 18, 2021, 7:47 AM
Ifa Hanifah Misbach was just 19 when her father died. Her family told her he would not go to heaven because she refused to wear the hijab - a Muslim head covering.26 years on, Misbach now works as a psychologist in West Java. She has counseled dozens of Indonesian girls who have been ostracized, bullied and threatened with expulsion from school because they wouldn't wear the veil .In some extreme cases, her clients have even considered suicide "I want to pray to my religion with honesty, I want to be honest to myself. I chose not to wear hijab and I don't want to feel like a hypocrite and hope people think that I'm a good Muslim woman. But the truth is I'm lying to my God and that's where I felt my first anxiety. "Misbach's experience is one of many shared by women and girls in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. Conservatism and a growing intolerance of beliefs other than Islam has risen in Indonesia over the past two decades. A Human Rights Watch report identified over 60 discriminatory local bylaws issued since 2001 to enforce female dress codes. And a 2014 government regulation heavily implies that all female Muslim students should wear a hijab at school. The report comes after a Christian schoolgirl in West Sumatra who was forced to wear the hijab sparked outcry last month, leading the education and religious affairs ministry to issue a decree banning public schools from making religious attire mandatory. Here's HRW researcher, Andreas Harsono:"This hijab regulation is abusing freedom of religion, freedom of expression, privacy of the woman, the best interests of the child, because children should be free form bullying and children should be free from intolerance, and of course the right to education. For some women it might mean they lose their job. "HRW found cases of female civil servants and lecturers who resigned due to pressure to wear the hijab. Others were unable to access government services because they chose not to veil. The education and religious affairs ministries did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/wa ... 23964.html

[kmaherali]

The Middle-Class Women of Iran Are Disappearing

And the United States is partly to blame.

A few weeks after the Trump administration withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned “brutal men of the regime” in Tehran for oppressing Iranian women who were demanding their rights.

“As human beings with inherent dignity and inalienable rights, the women of Iran deserve the same freedoms that the men of Iran possess,” Mr. Pompeo said.

But the Trump administration then dealt a tremendous blow to Iranian women by reimposing sanctions on Iran, restricting oil sales and access to the global banking system, and pushing the economy into a deep recession.

Since the spring of 2018, the Iranian rial has lost 68 percent of its value. In March 2020, inflation hit around 41 percent; today it hovers around 30 percent. In the same period, the gross domestic product shrank by 6.5 percent, and unemployment stood at 10.8 percent. The sanctions scuppered one of the nuclear deal’s key dividends: the foreign investment and job creation that was set to accompany the opening of Iran’s markets to the world.

The decimation of Iran’s economy is unfolding in the lives of the very constituency that has been working for reform and liberalization, and in whose name Mr. Pompeo and other leading American officials speak: middle-class Iranian women. The slump is tearing away at their fragile gains in employment, upper management positions and leadership roles in the arts and higher education, while reducing their capacity to seek legal reforms and protections.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/opin ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

Women, 86 Percent Absent From Jordan’s Work Force, Are Left Behind

“As long as women are absent from the labor market, they are absent from the public sphere,” one advocate said.

AMMAN, Jordan — Marwa Alomari’s compassionate and patient style made her a popular English teacher, filling her classes in Irbid, Jordan, with eager students and her off hours with private tutoring.

A university graduate, she was paid up to $3,000 a month, far more than most fellow Jordanians.

But after she married an army officer and moved in with his family, he began to resent that she was paid more than he was. Even though she contributed to the household with both money and housework, he and his family discouraged her from working and the marriage nearly fell apart, she said.

“I became adamant that I wasn’t going to quit, but eventually I found no support and I just got tired and gave up,” said Ms. Alomari, 35. “I went back to cooking, cleaning, gossiping with women. And this wasn’t my ambition.”

Her story reflects what is happening across Jordan — a small Arab monarchy that has been a steadfast ally of Western countries — where women’s status in terms of labor force participation, health and politics has been regressing for years, even lagging behind more conservative countries in the region.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/03/worl ... iversified

[swamidada]

Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad says ‘religious freedom is a human right’ after proposed France hijab ban
Megan Sims
Yahoo Life Tue, April 13, 2021, 10:40 AM
US Ibtihaj Muhammad reacts during the womens team sabre bronze medal bout between US and Italy as part of the fencing event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, on August 13, 2016, at the Carioca Arena 3, in Rio de Janeiro. / AFP / Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV (Photo credit should read KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)

Ibtihaj Muhammad won't stand for Islamophobia in France.

Muhammad, who is a member of the U.S. fencing team and the first Muslim woman to wear a hijab while competing in the Olympics in the country's history, shared a photo of herself in her fencing garb donning her hijab. Alongside the image, she wrote about the French Senate passing an amendment that would ban women from wearing their hijabs in public, which would affect Muslim athletes who would also be prohibited from wearing them at competitions, including nationally. She also opened up about the challenges she's faced being a Muslim athlete.

"Being the first Muslim woman in hijab on Team USA was a journey riddled with obstacles, but never was I denied the opportunity to play sport because of my faith. Religious freedom is a human right. It’s painful to see how far France has digressed and how normal virulent xenophobia has become," she wrote in the caption. "My first world championships was actually in Paris, France. It was held at the Grand Palais and one of my most vivid memories of that competition was the support I received from all of the French Muslims in the stands — my hijab serving as a marker of the faith we shared."

Muhammad also gave thanks to Les Hijabeuses and Lallab, organizations that fight for the rights of Muslim women for their work against Islamophobia.

"Every woman should have the choice to wear what she wants and the opportunity to play sport, regardless of her faith. We must stand together and vehemently denounce discrimination in all of its forms. Thank you to my French sisters @leshijabeuses and @assolallab who continue to push against anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic legislation, helping to defend not only the rights of Muslim women in France, but for women around the globe," she concluded.

Fans, including celebrities like Katie Couric, took to the comments to praise Muhammad for shedding light on the issue and to denounce the French ban.

"I cannot like this post enough," Couric said.

"Such a shameful agenda, the French government and Senate has! Hijabs are harmless!" a fan wrote.

"How are Muslim women expected to participate at the Olympics held in France? This is maddening. Keep pushing the fight. I heard you on a panel talk last week and you were so inspiring," someone added.

"You are an inspiration for so many!!" Someone continued.

According to Al Jazeera, an amendment was passed in the French Senate that would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to wear a hijab — or any "conspicuous religious sign by minors and of any dress or clothing which would signify inferiority of women over men” — in public.

Though the ban is not yet in effect, social media users coined the hashtag #HandsOfMyHijab and #FranceHijabBan to continue to bring awareness to the issue. France's recent actions follow the country's ban on full-face Islamic veils in 2011. In 2018, the U.N. called the ban a violation of human rights.

Muhammad, who is the first Muslim-American woman to win an Olympic medal, has never shied away from speaking about her experiences with Islamophobia among other prejudices as a Black woman. She has also spoken about the significance of her hijab. In a September 2019 interview with NPR affiliate WBUR, she said she believed "people have a hard time seeing things that haven't been done yet."

"And within my sport — a historically white sport — to have an African American woman climb up the ranks who also wears hijab, for whatever reason, was just never received well," Muhammad said. "And my personality, I would say, is to challenge this idea of 'no.' Why is it that people are intimidated by my hijab or intimidated by my ethnicity, and why can't we exist and have the same opportunity. So it was never a question of, 'Why am I here?' for myself anyway. I knew that I had a job to do and that was to make this space more inclusive not for me but for anyone coming after me. I wanted to get through the door and hold it open for hopefully more young girls and young boys to be in this space where traditionally we haven't been welcome."

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ibtihaj-

[kmaherali]

Afghan Women Fear the Worst, Whether War or Peace Lies Ahead

Whatever happens once the United States withdraws will not bode well for Afghan women. But even the gains made for them over the last 20 years have often been fleeting.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighbor in her village in northern Afghanistan was flogged by Taliban fighters last month. The crime: Her face was uncovered.

“Every woman should cover their eyes,” Ms. Ahmadi recalled one Taliban member saying. People silently watched as the beating dragged on.

Fear — even more potent than in years past — is gripping Afghans now that U.S. and NATO forces will depart the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, who many expect will seize more territory and reinstitute many of the same oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s.

The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women — members of civil society, politicians, journalists and others — about what comes next in their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them.

Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country in which an end to nearly 40 years of conflict is nowhere in sight, many Afghans talk of an approaching civil war.

“All the time, women are the victims of men’s wars,” said Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan’s Parliament. “But they will be the victims of their peace, too.”

When the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school, and practically made them prisoners in their own homes.

After the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban and defeat Al Qaeda in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Western rallying cry for bringing women’s rights to the already war-torn country seemed to many a noble undertaking. The cause helped sell the war to Americans who cringed at the sight of a B-52 carpet bombing insurgent positions.

Some schools reopened, giving young women and girls a chance at education and careers that many before them didn’t have. But even before American troops touched Afghan soil, some women had already risked their lives by secretly pursuing an education and teaching themselves.

Over two decades, the United States spent more than $780 million to promote women’s rights in Afghanistan. The result is a generation who came of age in a period of hope for women’s equality.

Though progress has been uneven, girls and women now make up about 40 percent of students. They have joined the military and police, held political office, become internationally recognized singers, competed in the Olympics and on robotics teams, climbed mountains and more — all things that were nearly impossible at the turn of the century.

As the conflict dragged on over 20 years and setbacks on the battlefield mounted, American officials and lawmakers frequently pointed to the gains of Afghan women and girls as proof of success of the nation-building endeavor — some measure of progress to try to justify the loss of life, both American and Afghan, and billions of dollars spent in the war effort.

Even in the twilight weeks before President Biden made his final decision to pull out all U.S. troops by September, some lawmakers and military officials argued that preserving women’s rights was one reason to keep American forces there.

“I remember when Americans came and they said that they will not leave us alone, and that Afghanistan will be free of oppression, and will be free of war and women’s rights will be protected,” said Shahida Husain, an activist in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar Province, where the Taliban first rose and now control large stretches of territory. “Now it looks like it was just slogans.”

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/18/worl ... iversified

[kmaherali]

I Met a Taliban Leader and Lost Hope for My Country

Afghan women know the cost of the wars started by men, and we will continue to suffer after American forces withdraw.

By Farahnaz Forotan
Ms. Forotan is an Afghan journalist who fled her country after her life was threatened.

As men continue to bicker over the future and control of Afghanistan, I have already lost my home and my country. I worked in Kabul as a television journalist for 12 years, and finally left in November after threats to my life.

I know how the Taliban plan to shape the future of my country, and their vision of my country has no space for me.

For what turned out to be one of my last assignments, I traveled from Kabul to Doha, Qatar, in October to report on the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Like many Afghans, I was somewhat hopeful that the talks might help end the long, pitiless war in our country.

In Doha, I had the opportunity to interview members of the Taliban negotiating team at the conference hall where the talks were being held. The experience reinforced my sense that postwar Afghanistan, dominated by the Taliban, was bound to be a bleak place for Afghan women.

The incident that crystallized that dreadful feeling was my interview with Suhail Shaheen, the spokesman for the Taliban. I approached Mr. Shaheen for an interview in a room full of people. Like many young women in Kabul, I do not wear a head scarf. He couldn’t hide his disdain at my presence and set about to ignore me. I didn’t budge. I refused to be invisible and continued pointing my phone camera at him while asking my questions.

Afghan women live with a sense of being invisible. In our workplaces or in meetings like this one, our voices go unheard, our existence barely registered. Our presence in any public space is celebrated as gender equality in and outside Afghanistan, but all we experience in daily life is inequality and discrimination. It filled me with rage.

My encounter with Mr. Shaheen filled me with terror. When he finally answered one of my questions, his eyes moved in every direction but mine: He examined the walls, the carpet on the floor, the chairs, the door. He couldn’t look at me, even while I stood in front of him. It was as if he saw me as an embodiment of sin and evil. I felt unsafe, even in a room full of people, thousands of miles away from Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s notions of religion, politics and governance are based on a combination of a very orthodox interpretation of Islam, Shariah and tribal values. The “Emirate” they established in Afghanistan in the 1990s, which they are now seeking to establish again, barred women and girls from most jobs and forbade us to continue our education at schools and colleges, turning us into prisoners in our homes.

The Taliban see their Islamic government as duty bound to safeguard Muslim society from corruption and moral decadence, which they blame on the presence of women in public spaces, including universities and offices. They want to reduce us to bearing children.

The wars that men started and fought in Afghanistan have disproportionately devastated the lives of women. Yet the compositions of the peace delegations from Afghanistan reveal that women are barely considered as worthy of having a say. It is this knowledge and the memory of the Taliban rule in the 1990s that make me fear for the future of Afghan women.

My pessimism proved correct. On Nov. 9, a few weeks after I returned to Kabul from Doha, I received a call informing me that my name was on “the hit list.” Several journalists and rights activists were assassinated in October. Some more were killed in November.

About 200 female journalists in Afghanistan stopped going to work, and 50 journalists, including 15 female journalists, had to leave Afghanistan. According to Nai, a nonprofit group that supports Afghan journalists, of the 1,900 female journalists who were working in the country in January 2020, about 200 had left the profession by November. After I received the call about the threat to me, I made the extremely painful decision to leave my family and my country and seek safety elsewhere.

In November, gunmen attacked Kabul University and killed at least 21 students; it was not clear who was responsible. Fear and confusion took over Kabul. All we could be certain of is that the killings of journalists and civil society activists were deliberate and organized.

The Afghan authorities are not competent to investigate and prove culpability, the Taliban have denied they are responsible for these killings, and no one knows whether “the hit list” really exists or who created it. Yet the Taliban’s enmity toward the media is no secret. In 2016, the Taliban threatened to kill Afghan journalists if they continued their “unfair coverage” of the group. They carried out their threat and killed seven journalists working for Tolo TV.

The Taliban have a long history of using assassinations to heighten the sense of insecurity among the people. The inability of the Afghan government and security forces to stop such attacks exposes their failures.

The Taliban have come close to achieving their goals through the use of force and military supremacy. After the United States concluded it couldn’t win the war in Afghanistan, even after two decades of fighting the Taliban, it entered into negotiations with them last year. That decision offered the Taliban greater legitimacy than they had ever enjoyed.

The wars that men started and fought in Afghanistan have disproportionately devastated the lives of women. Yet the compositions of the peace delegations from Afghanistan reveal that women are barely considered as worthy of having a say. It is this knowledge and the memory of the Taliban rule in the 1990s that make me fear for the future of Afghan women.

My pessimism proved correct. On Nov. 9, a few weeks after I returned to Kabul from Doha, I received a call informing me that my name was on “the hit list.” Several journalists and rights activists were assassinated in October. Some more were killed in November.

About 200 female journalists in Afghanistan stopped going to work, and 50 journalists, including 15 female journalists, had to leave Afghanistan. According to Nai, a nonprofit group that supports Afghan journalists, of the 1,900 female journalists who were working in the country in January 2020, about 200 had left the profession by November. After I received the call about the threat to me, I made the extremely painful decision to leave my family and my country and seek safety elsewhere.

In November, gunmen attacked Kabul University and killed at least 21 students; it was not clear who was responsible. Fear and confusion took over Kabul. All we could be certain of is that the killings of journalists and civil society activists were deliberate and organized.

The Afghan authorities are not competent to investigate and prove culpability, the Taliban have denied they are responsible for these killings, and no one knows whether “the hit list” really exists or who created it. Yet the Taliban’s enmity toward the media is no secret. In 2016, the Taliban threatened to kill Afghan journalists if they continued their “unfair coverage” of the group. They carried out their threat and killed seven journalists working for Tolo TV.

The Taliban have a long history of using assassinations to heighten the sense of insecurity among the people. The inability of the Afghan government and security forces to stop such attacks exposes their failures.

The Taliban have come close to achieving their goals through the use of force and military supremacy. After the United States concluded it couldn’t win the war in Afghanistan, even after two decades of fighting the Taliban, it entered into negotiations with them last year. That decision offered the Taliban greater legitimacy than they had ever enjoyed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/21/opin ... 778d3e6de3

[kmaherali]

Coronavirus: Why some mosques are closed to women during Ramadan

Millions of Muslims around the world are currently observing Ramadan. But some mosques in the UK are not allowing women inside to pray. Some say it is time for change.

Almas barely has time for her religion. She is a single mother-of-three and is studying for a university degree. That's why Ramadan - the holy month of fasting in Islam - means so much to her.

"I was looking forward to reading Taraweeh prayers on the weekends especially, when we have more time," she says. "But when I spoke to my local mosque, they said 'no elderly, no children and no women were allowed'."

Almas is not alone. Several mosques across the UK have decided to close their women's prayer space this month. Most say it is because of coronavirus restrictions.

Women like Alma aren't just missing Taraweeh prayers, an optional prayer at night held only during Ramadan, many are unable to worship at all in their mosque, including Friday prayers.

More...

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56937289

[swamidada]

Khadija Siddiqui stabbing case: Punjab govt says 'technical remissions' behind attacker's release
Dawn.com Published July 27, 2021 - Updated about 13 hours

Shah Hussain (L) was to serve a five-year prison sentence after being found guilty of stabbing Khadija Siddiqui (R) 23 times but managed to secure an 'early release', thanks to technical remissions granted to him. — Dawn/File
Ten days after the early release of Shah Hussain — who was convicted and sentenced for stabbing law student Khadija Siddiqui 23 times — the Punjab government provided an explanation, saying that Hussain did not receive any "legal remission" from the government but had actually availed "technical remissions".

In 2018, Hussain, the son of a senior lawyer of the Lahore High Court, was sentenced for five years after being found guilty in the case. However, it came to light last week that he managed to secured an early release and served only three and a half years of his original sentence.

According to a notification of superintendent of Central Jail, he had been released on July 17. The development caused an uproar on social media, with lawyer and rights activist Jibran Nasir questioning the merit of Hussain's release.

Siddiqui, the victim, took to Twitter on Monday, asking why she was not informed of the development and held Chauhan "responsible for allowing early release of my attacker".

Subsequently, in a video statement released today, Punjab Prisons Minister Fayyazul Hassan Chohan stressed that Hussain did not receive any relief in the form of legal remission from any official such as the president, the prime minister or the chief minister.

Instead, Hussain availed "technical remissions" which are granted for good conduct and blood donations, Chohan said, adding that the details of the release had been released.

The minister said that Hussain received the remissions as per the law and the Constitution.

The Punjab government's response comes after civil society — already enraged over a spate of violent incidents against women — questioned how authorities could allow Hussain's early release.

Remission 'not in keeping with fundamental right'
Reacting to Shah's early release on the basis of remissions, Parliamentary Secretary for Law Maleeka Bokhari said the "grant of remission by the prison authorities in Punjab is not in keeping with fundamental right to life of the victim" for a "grave and brutal crime".

Sharing a picture of the details of remissions granted, Bokhari said that as a lawyer and a woman parliamentarian, "I advise the Punjab Gov[ernment] to suitably amend the prison rules so that equitable justice is meted out to women victims of heinous offences."

She also urged the government to stand with all vulnerable victims of violence.

'Never seen such generous remissions': Siddiqui
Speaking on Geo News programme Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath on Monday, Siddiqui, the victim, said that she was "surprised" when she heard of Hussain's release.

"On what basis was he released, on what grounds and what remission he was given ... I have no record of this," she said, adding that she had written to the Punjab Prisons IG and the Punjab Prisons minister in this regard but had not received a response.

"Yes our prison rules allow remissions [...] but a year-and-a-half? I have not seen such generous remissions," said Khadija, herself a lawyer. She also questioned how her attacker's remission was allowed when the Lahore High Court was observing holidays.

"There are cases pending in the Supreme Court and in the high courts for the past 12 years, so how can their cases be heard so quickly?" she asked.

Voicing his support, Nasir, the rights activist, called on Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari to give answers.

"We aren't asking something which requires a cabinet approval or passage of a new bill, not asking anything which may be beyond your individual powers. Can your office not even tell Khadija Siddiqui the reasons/grounds on which #ShahHussain was released early?"

Victim says 'no response' over request for security
Meanwhile, Siddiqui said that upon being informed of Hussain's release, she submitted an application to the Lahore police chief for security. "However, I did not receive a response," she said, adding that she had submitted a similar application a few months ago as well.

She further said that jail authorities neither made her a party in the case nor informed her about the developments.

"The Punjab government should have informed me or at least given me prior notice that [Hussain] is being given remission and whether I have any objections. I was not asked about anything," she said.

Asking for the details of Hussain's release, she said that it would be acceptable if it was legal. "If not, then I will pursue it through the available legal avenues," she said.

Shah Hussain availed 'remission admissible under the rules': Jail authorities
According to a notification issued by the superintendent of Central Jail, Lahore, Shah, now an ex-con, was released on July 17 after getting "remission admissible under the rules" and deposited approximately Rs0.3 million at the gate.

It noted that Hussain's total sentence was five years of rigorous imprisonment in addition to various fines. Giving a breakdown, the notification said that Hussain was given "ordinary remission" of eight months and eight days.

He was also given annual good conduct remission (one month) and remission for blood donation (one month). Further, he was also given education remission (seven months and 15 days). Therefore, the total remission granted to the accused was one year, five months and 23 days.

Case history
A judicial magistrate had on July 29, 2017, sentenced Hussain to seven-year imprisonment under Section 324 (attempted murder) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), two years under Section 337A(i) (causing injuries), five years under Section 337A(ii), one year under Section 337F(i), three years under Section 337F(ii) and five years under Section 337F(iv).

However, a sessions court in March 2018 had commuted the rigorous imprisonment by two years awarded by the trial court to Hussain while setting aside other minor penalties.

Hussain, the son of a senior LHC lawyer, then appealed against his conviction in the high court and was acquitted in June 2018.

The LHC had on June 4, 2018 acquitted Hussain giving him the benefit of the doubt. The court had observed that the prosecution had failed to establish its case and the courts could not solely rely upon the statement of the injured witness/victim. The Supreme Court, however, had restored the sentence.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1637224/khadi ... rs-release

[kmaherali]

The beheading of a diplomat's daughter shows how badly Pakistan is failing its women

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN)Few cases of femicide make headlines in Pakistan, but the beheading of an ambassador's daughter promises to test a legal system activists say has repeatedly failed victims of violence and needs urgent reform.

According to a police report seen by CNN, Noor Mukadam, 27, died on July 20 after being allegedly tortured and killed by an acquaintance -- Zahir Jaffer, the 30-year-old son of an influential family and a dual Pakistan-US national.

Mukadam's death may have been lost in Pakistan's crime statistics, if not for her status and Jaffer's family connections, as well as the affluent location of the killing in block F7, one of Islamabad's most exclusive neighborhoods.

In the days after her death, Pakistanis demanded #JusticeforNoor on Twitter, and a GoFundMe page to raise money for her family's legal fees hit almost $50,000 before her family requested it be closed, according to a message on the site.

The message suggested the family faces a long legal battle, despite claims of "strong circumstantial and forensic evidence" of Jaffer's guilt by their chief legal counsel, Shah Khawar.

Jaffer was arrested at the scene of the alleged attack and later charged with premeditated murder. His lawyer, Ansar Nawaz Mirza, said he hadn't spoken to Jaffer since the alleged attack but said his client "deserves a fair trial."

Photos and more...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/07/asia/pak ... index.html

[swamidada]

Hit and Run Driver Ran Over Two Women for Not Wearing Full Hijab
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Tue, August 10, 2021, 6:19 AM
Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters

Two women are in critical condition after an angry driver targeted them on a busy street in northwestern Iran because they were not wearing full hijab head coverings, according to Iran’s Labor News Agency Ilna.

The vehicular assailant reportedly first yelled at the women that they were being “un-Islamic” because he did not think they were sufficiently well-covered. All females over the age of 9 are required to cover their heads and curves after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, but it is increasingly common for women in Iran’s larger cities to defy the ruling.

The man then drove over them in his Peugeot, causing serious but not life-threatening injuries. Images on Ilna agency show a woman dressed in a pink smock lying on the pavement.

While Iran’s leadership does support the hijab rule, Hojjatoleslam Behnam Delrish, the secretary of the headquarters for the group that enforces such rulings, condemned the attack. “Yesterday’s behavior is the wrong behavior,” he told Ilna. “We ask the media to enlighten because such scenes are not related to enjoining the good and forbidding the evil, and people should not be allowed to abuse.”

The driver, who fled the scene, was identified and arrested late Monday night. The public prosecutor said he is cooperating. “After being informed of a deliberate accident on Kashani Street and injuring two women in this incident, the necessary orders were immediately issued to the investigator and the necessary measures were taken to arrest the perpetrator, who finally cooperated effectively,” he said. “The culprit will be investigated and punished with determination. We will not allow arbitrariness and lawlessness to anyone, and anyone who endangers the lives, property, honor, and security of the people will be dealt with severely.”

Iran’s vice president for Women’s affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, has asked that the charges be increased to include attempted murder.

Iran is notoriously easy on crimes against women. In 2019, a bill meant to provide greater protections was heavily criticized by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), which said it “does not provide effective and sufficient guarantees to protect women against violence and, in many cases, promotes and supports stereotypical, discriminatory, and sexist views toward women.”

The group said the bill, which did eventually pass, did not clearly define the term “violence” or “domestic violence” as punishable crimes. Nor did it provide for the removal of victims from their abusers. The bill also requires women who file complaints against their abusers to go through a one-month reconciliation process before court proceedings can begin in case the dispute can be resolved outside the judicial system. The group also condemned the absence of any measure for an abused woman to get a divorce on the grounds of abuse until and unless her husband is convicted three times.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/hi ... 53193.html

[swamidada]

Women in Taliban-held areas are reportedly not allowed to leave home 'without a male escort'
Brigid Kennedy, Contributing Writer
Thu, August 12, 2021, 3:06 PM
Afghan woman.
Afghan woman. SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
As the Taliban continues to quickly conquer swaths of Afghanistan, reports of "harsh" restrictions on the movement of women in recently captured regions have surfaced, including accounts of forced marriage between unmarried women and fighters, writes The Wall Street Journal.

According to local residents, women in many Taliban-held areas are not allowed to leave the house without male relatives or without wearing burqas, reports the Journal. "Hampering a woman's ability to leave home without a male escort also inevitably leads to a cascade of other violations of the woman," added Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In late June, in the Rustaq district of the northern province of Takhar, a senior Taliban figure notified residents that "all girls over the age of 15 and widows younger than 40 should be married to the insurgent fighters," a local man told the Journal. The same man was "later summoned and ordered to hand over his 15-year-old daughter."

Experts note such a conspicuous demand for women illustrates how the militant group has been influenced by the Islamic State — who "enforced sexual slavery on women on a massive scale" — and has thus grown "even more extreme" since their reign in the 1990s. A Taliban spokesman denied the allegations of forced marriages, per the Journal.

On Thursday, Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city, fell to the Taliban, bringing the total number of provincial capitals seized by the militant group to 11 out of 34, reports The Associated Press. With security quickly deteriorating, the U.S. will send in troops to help evacuate the U.S. Embassy, which has urged American citizens to leave the country "immediately."

Earlier this week, in response to the escalating Taliban offensive, the U.S. government lowered its estimates as to how long Kabul, the country's capital, might hold on.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/wo ... 41350.html

[swamidada]

Horrific assault
Editorial Published August 19, 2021

A VIDEO of a woman being assaulted by a crowd of men during Independence Day celebrations near Minar-i-Pakistan has shaken citizens to the core. Clips of the incident, now viral on social media, are unbearable to watch. The woman is assaulted, manhandled and groped by scores of men, with some unabashedly filming the crime. The men are brazen and ruthless. The complainant says she was attacked by nearly 400 men, some of whom scaled the enclosures to attack her and rip her clothes off.

The episode has proved a trigger for many women who described on social media how they themselves were assaulted or how they feared they would sooner or later face a similar situation. The trauma and anger among the women is palpable. This incident rubs salt in the deep wounds inflicted by the misogyny rampant in our country — the toxic mentality that allows for repeated assaults, victim-blaming and gaslighting of women. A case has been registered by the Lahore police against hundreds of men, with officials saying the video footage of the attack will help authorities track down the culprits. But bringing these perpetrators to justice is just one part of the solution. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to correct the public narrative around women’s rights.

All too often, the country is gripped with horror as gruesome crimes against women make national news. While the thorough investigation of these cases is very important, it must be supported by unambiguous messaging by members of our government that such actions will be punished. Key officials must use their platforms not only to strongly condemn violence against women, but also to actively set the tone for women’s rights and opinion to be respected.

They must repeatedly and at every forum say that threats and harassment directed at women will not be tolerated, and then match these statements with action against the offenders. Unless the judicial process is supported by such a robust campaign, the environment that enables such crimes against women to take place will continue. But more needs to be done also at a subliminal level in the classrooms across this country when young Pakistanis are forming ideas about the world, and about the place of women in it. Respect for women is not conditional, and they are in the public sphere by right, not on the sufferance of the men in this country.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2021

https://www.dawn.com/news/1641483/horrific-assault

[kmaherali]

Aga Khan Development Network | Breaking Barriers | Razia's Story



Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWbRKMhAUT8

“When I was pregnant, I used to work full-time, even until the ninth month… My husband encouraged me. My husband supports me a lot.” Razia is a Lady Health Visitor in northern #Pakistan. In the global #genderequality index, Pakistan consistently ranks near the bottom. In this short film, we learn how women like Razia are crucial to elevate the status of #women, and how women’s empowerment can lead to better health care for women and children in the community.

[kmaherali]

At Pro-Taliban Protest, a Symbol of America’s Lost Influence: Faces Obscured by Veils

Several hundred women wore the head-to-toe garments at a pro-Taliban demonstration on Sept. 11. The march was a reminder of how after years of war, Afghanistan’s women are again at the mercy of the militants.


A Taliban fighter stands guard while women, many wearing burqas, march in support of the Taliban in Kabul on Saturday.Credit...

Hundreds of women, many wearing full-length robes, their faces obscured by black veils, filled the auditorium of a Kabul university on Saturday holding signs — many of them in English — in support of the Taliban and its strict interpretation of Islam, including separate education for men and women.

The Taliban said the demonstration at Shaheed Rabbani Education University, which followed anti-Taliban protests last week by Afghan women demanding equal rights, was organized by female university lecturers and students.

Reporters on the street near Saturday’s march were kept away from the protesters by Taliban fighters armed with automatic rifles and were not allowed to speak with any of the women. Later attempts to reach the participants through social media or the university went unanswered.

The demonstration, held on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, served as a stark reminder of how despite two decades and more than $780 million spent promoting women's rights, after the departure of American forces last month, the women of Afghanistan could be thrown back decades, if not centuries.

When the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women and girls from holding most jobs and going to school, and practically made them prisoners in their own homes. In public, women were forced to wear the burqa, a tentlike garment that covers them from head to toe, with a crocheted mesh grill over the eyes. Its use to erase the appearance of women from public life was seen in the West as a symbol of Taliban oppression.


Image
The veiling of women’s faces has long been seen in the West as a symbol of Taliban oppression, but the demonstrators said they welcomed the group’s interpretation of Islam.

The veiling of women’s faces has long been seen in the West as a symbol of Taliban oppression, but the demonstrators said they welcomed the group’s interpretation of Islam. Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times
The demonstration ofwomen wearing head-to-toe garments and face coverings on the 9/11 anniversary was a sharp rebuke to the United States and its allies, which long cited women’s rights as a reason for continuing the war in Afghanistan long after the Taliban was toppled, Al Qaeda was defanged and Osama bin Laden was assassinated.

Many of the women appeared to be wearing a form of dress familiar to conservative Muslims in Southern Afghanistan, including a veil, while others wore the more traditional blue burqa.

Since the United States and its allies departed Kabul on Aug. 30, leaving Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban, the country’s women have been at the forefront of protests demanding that their rights continue to be respected.

Taliban leaders have responded to those protests with violence, beating participants, including women, and insisting that anyone taking to the streets for a public demonstration must first be granted approval from their caretaker government.

The Ministry of Education of the acting Taliban government said that the women at Saturday’s pro-Islamist demonstration had asked for and received their permission to hold the event.

“Unlike other demonstrations in Kabul, this is the second all-women protest which was nonviolent and the journalists were allowed to cover the protest freely,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The women also welcomed the scheme of separate classes for boys and girls in all universities and institutes and pledged that they would be working for strengthening the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan,” the ministry said.

But the presence of Taliban fighters, the efficiency with which images of the event and official statements were disseminated and its timing — on Sept. 11 — suggest that the demonstration was not just approved by the Taliban but potentially orchestrated by it.

More...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/11/worl ... 778d3e6de3