12 Million Child Marriages, 84 Per Cent Hindus And 11 Per Cent Muslims In India, Rival The Population Of J&K, Shows Data
New Age Islam News Bureau
11 July 2022
• Saudi Arabia Women Don Colourful Robes at Guardian-Free
Hajj
• Saudi Authorities Seize Rainbow Toys For Promoting
Homosexuality
• Saudi Women Unemployment Rate In Q1 Lowest In 20
Years
• Pressure Ramps Up In Iran To Impose The Compulsory
Hijab On Women
• Saudi Arabia Focused On ‘Real Empowerment Of Women,’
Says Kingdom’s UN Envoy
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/child-marriages-hindus-muslims/d/127458
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12 Million Child Marriages, 84 Per Cent Hindus And 11
Per Cent Muslims In India, Rival The
Population Of J&K, Shows Data
Photo: Shutterstock
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July 10, 2022
Nearly 12 million Indian children were married before
the age of 10 years — 84 per cent of them Hindus and 11 per cent Muslims
—reveals an analysis of recently released census data. To put it in context,
this number is equivalent to Jammu & Kashmir’s population.
As many of 7.84 million (65 per cent) married children
were female, reinforcing the fact that girls are significantly more
disadvantaged; eight in 10 illiterate children who were married were also
girls.
The data further reveals that 72 per cent of all Hindu
girls married before 10 were in rural areas, compared to 58.5 per cent Muslim
girls, with higher levels of education correlating with later marriage.
Jain women marry late (at a median age of 20.8 years),
followed by Christian women (20.6 years) and Sikh women (19.9 years). Hindu and
Muslim women have the lowest median age at first marriage (16.7 years),
according to a report by Nirantar: A Centre for Gender and Education — a
Delhi-based advocacy group. Women from urban areas, on average, marry more than
two years later than their rural counterparts.
Chart
The report also noted that the level of teenage
pregnancy and motherhood is 9x higher among women with no education than among
women with 12 or more years of education.
As many as 5.4 million (44 per cent) married children
under 10 were illiterate — 80 per cent of them female — indicating how lower
levels of education correlate with early marriage.
As many as 1,403 females have never attended any
educational institution for every 1,000 males who have not.
In developing countries, girls with less access to
quality education are more likely to marry early, wrote Quentin Wodon, an
advisor in the World Bank’s education department.
Better and safer job opportunities for girls may also
reduce child marriage, as might better access to basic infrastructure (water,
electricity), which frees up time spent on domestic chores for schooling, wrote
Wodon.
Source: Business Standard
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Saudi Arabia Women Don Colourful Robes at
Guardian-Free Hajj
Women pray in the shade as
they face the very hot desert weather, during the annual hajj pilgrimage in the
Saudi holy city of Mecca. (Credits: AFP)
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JULY 11, 2022
With her husband back at home in Tunisia and draped in
a national flag, Laila al-Qarni urges all Muslim women to attend Saudi Arabia’s
hajj without a male guardian, after the requirement was shelved last year. The
Saudi authorities’ move has brought a whole new dimension to the annual
pilgrimage. “Why do women have to be accompanied by a male anyway? Why?"
she said, speaking near the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, in
western Saudi Arabia. “Women are capable of handling themselves. I encourage
every woman to come here without a male guardian," the 60-year-old added.
This year’s hajj, the first large-scale edition since the guardian requirement
was dropped in 2021 amid Covid, has taken on a different hue with thousands of
unaccompanied women joining the rituals.
Many of them have abandoned the black robes
traditionally preferred by hajj organisers, adding a dash of colour with reds,
greens, oranges and blues dotted around the crowds.
Arab women should be “courageous and able to
adapt" to different circumstances, said Al-Qarni’s sister, Hayat Abdul
Malek.
“A woman is worth 100 men," said the mother of
three, who managed 1,400 employees at the company where she worked before
retiring.
Last year, the Saudi hajj ministry allowed women of
all ages to make the pilgrimage without a male relative, known as a
“mehrem", on the condition that they go in a group.
Authorities previously stipulated a male guardian for
any female pilgrim under the age of 45, preventing many women around the world
from performing one of the five pillars of Islam.
Al-Qarni’s husband could not attend because he is over
the maximum age of 65.
The new ruling has also encouraged women over 45 who
had been hesitant to attend without their brothers, sons, fathers or husbands.
Don’t be scared
One million people, including 850,000 from abroad, are
allowed at this year’s hajj after just tens of thousands could attend over the
last two years, due to pandemic restrictions.
On Saturday, the local women of Mecca are expected to
celebrate the first day of Eid al-Adha, which marks the end of the hajj, in
traditional, colourful Saudi dresses that were abandoned for decades before recent
moves to modernise the conservative country.
The decision to drop the “mehrem" is part of the
social reforms rolled out by de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
who is trying to shake off the kingdom’s austere image and open up its oil-reliant
economy.
Since his rise to power in 2017, women have been
allowed to drive and to travel abroad without a male guardian.
Counter-balancing the new freedoms, critics of Prince Mohammed’s rule have also
suffered a harsh crackdown.
Suhail Mohammed, an Egyptian pilgrim and mother of
three, has worked as a manager in a department of the ministry of defence for
more than three decades.
“Come and don’t be scared," she said, encouraging
other women to make the trip without male relatives.
“It gave me confidence… It empowered me and made me
stronger," she said of tackling the five-day pilgrimage.
“Women who stay at home are the ones who can feel
afraid" of performing rituals such as the hajj, which requires mental and
physical resilience, she added.
Gender gap
Women in the Arab region have long faced a combination
of “patriarchal structures, prolonged insecurities, and protracted
crises", a Middle East Institute study said in October.
“The Arab region’s diverse collection of 22 countries
has one thing in common: women continue to experience a backlash against their
own long-overdue rights and fundamental freedoms," it added.
The region ranks the “lowest in the world in terms of
women’s rights, with a gender gap that needs 153 years to close".
Despite hardships, women in countries such as Tunisia
and Lebanon enjoy more social freedoms than others.
Things are also changing in the Gulf region, with more
women entering the workforce and some going into politics, holding cabinet
positions in the United Arab Emirates and parliament seats in Kuwait.
In Mecca’s Grand Mosque, many women this week
performed the opening hajj rituals alone.
Some of them video-called their relatives back home,
and others read long prayers from electronic tablets.
“For those (women) who are able to (perform the hajj),
don’t lose the opportunity," even if it means going without a male
guardian, said retired Egyptian financial expert Faten Abdel Moneim, 65.
“This is a spiritual joy that cannot be described. You
are in the house of God, what more could you ask for?"
Source: News18
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Saudi authorities seize rainbow toys for promoting
homosexuality
By David Gritten
Authorities in Saudi Arabia have been seizing
rainbow-coloured toys and children's clothing, which they claim encourage
homosexuality, state TV says.
An Al-Ekhbariya report showed commerce ministry
officials removing a range of items from shops in the capital Riyadh.
They included hair clips, pop-its, t-shirts, hats and
pencil cases.
One official said the items "contradict the
Islamic faith and public morals, and promote homosexual colours targeting the
younger generation".
The commerce ministry tweeted separately that its
teams were confiscating "products that contain symbols and signs calling
for deviation and contradicting common sense".
Shops found to be selling them would face legal
penalties, it added.
In December, authorities in neighbouring Qatar
announced that they had confiscated rainbow-coloured pop-its and other toys
from shops for "bearing slogans that go against Islamic values".
Although Sunni Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia has no laws
regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, sexual relations outside
marriage, including homosexual sex, are strictly prohibited.
Under the country's interpretation of Islamic law,
consensual same-sex sexual conduct is punishable by death or flogging,
depending on the perceived seriousness of the case.
It is also illegal for men to "behave like
women" or to wear women's clothes, and vice versa, and for anyone to carry
out online activity impinging on "public order, religious values, public
morals, and privacy".
In April, cinemas in the kingdom did not screen the
film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness after Disney refused a request
from Saudi authorities to cut what they called "LGBTQ references".
A source close to Disney told AFP news agency on
Tuesday that its new animated film Lightyear, which features a same-sex kiss,
had also been banned in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials have not yet confirmed such a move,
but the kingdom's two main cinema chains are not advertising screenings.
The United Arab Emirates culture ministry said it had
banned Lightyear on Monday "due to its violation of the country's media
content standards".
Source: BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-61813390
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Saudi women unemployment rate in Q1 lowest in 20 years
June 30, 2022
RIYADH — The unemployment rate among Saudi women aged
15 years and above reached 20.2 percent at the end of the first quarter of 2022
compared to 22.5 percent by the end of the fourth quarter of 2021.
This is the lowest unemployment rate recorded among
Saudi women in 20 years since 2001 when it was 17.3 percent, according to a report
carried by Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper based on official data.
On the other hand, the economic participation rate of
Saudi women in the labor market decreased to 33.6 percent by the end of the
first quarter of 2022, against 35.6 percent by the end of the fourth quarter of
2021.
The economic participation rate of Saudi women at the
end of the fourth quarter of 2021 was the highest in history. Thus, the
economic participation of Saudi women exceeded the target of 25 percent set in
the National Transformation Program 2020, while the rate of economic
participation set as a baseline within the program was 17 percent, recorded in
2017, the report indicated.
Source: Saudi Gazette
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Pressure ramps up in Iran to impose the compulsory
Hijab on women
July 8, 2022
Tehran’s Friday Prayer leader, Ahmad Khatami, insulted
the brave Iranian women who resisted the misogynist mullahs’ pressure to impose
the compulsory Hijab on them. Khatami indirectly called these women thieves.
Khatami commented on women’s resistance against the
regime’s efforts to impose the compulsory Hijab, “The very minute we say Hijab,
they say, ‘don’t fuss about four strands of hair. You would better catch up
with embezzlement and corruption.”
He then added, “We fussed as much as needed. Theft,
embezzlement and removing the veil are all sinful. Many of those who remove
their veils are wives and children of the thieves.” (The state-run
Khabaronline.ir – July 8, 2022)
Khatami added, “Hijab is not a secondary but a major
issue. Confronting women with improper veiling must be done legally. Hijab is a
law… Let me say this, the term, compulsory Hijab, is a wrong phrase aimed at
questioning the Hijab itself. Removing the veil deals a blow to the society’s
psychological safety (i.e., the mullahs’ rule).”
On Thursday, July 7, 2022, a member of the mullahs’
parliament wrote an open letter to the Commander of the State Security Force
(SSF), Hossein Ashtari, revealing the brutal treatment of Iranian women by the
guidance patrols while attempting to impose the compulsory veil.
Earlier, the Anti-Vice Headquarters in Khorasan Razavi
Province announced that according to their agenda to impose the compulsory
Hijab, women were not allowed to use profile photos in which they appear
without the Hijab. (The state-run Rokna.ir– July 5, 2022)
As a supervisory body, the headquarters has seriously
begun its work in Mashhad, and the headquarters of 21 Tir has been established
in this regard.
Sports activities on Kish Island beach considered a
crime
The Iranian regime has announced it will deal with
mixed-gender group sports activities seen on beaches in Kish Island, off the
southern coast of Iran, in the Persian Gulf.
The police will deal with individuals who gather on
the shores after sunrise in mixed-gender groups under the pretext of sports
activities. The SSF Commander in Kish, Ali Asghar Jamali, said the measure was
part of a project called “thunder.”
Jamali reiterated that since June 22, more than eight
unauthorized photography teams had been identified on the beach through the
Thunder plan, and their beach decoration was rounded up. Jamali added, “The
police will deal with violators according to the law!”
More than 21 cars and electric motorbikes spotted with
unveiled drivers and passengers have been seized according to the same plan.
(The state-run aftabnews.ir – July 8, 2022)
The Women’s Committee of the National Council of
Resistance of Iran (WNCRI) urges the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Violence against Women to condemn the atrocities against Iranian women. The
committee also calls on her to visit Iran to learn more about the violation of
women’s rudimentary rights, especially in the regime’s prisons.
Iranian women are fanning the flames of the uprisings
against the mullahs’ regime with the chant of “no to compulsory religion, no to
compulsory hijab, and no to the compulsory regime.”
Source: Women NCR
https://women.ncr-iran.org/2022/07/08/impose-the-compulsory-hijab/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/child-marriages-hindus-muslims/d/127458