A Devout Muslim, Fatima, Does Yoga, Breathing With Name of Allah
New Age Islam News Bureau
22
Jun 2015
Syed Rubab Fatima who led the international yoga day celebrations in Bhopal
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• Egyptian Women Protest outside Presidential Palace
• Competition to Promote Entrepreneurship among Saudi Women Launched
• 'Fear They Will Find Me': Death Threats Stalk Afghan Acid Victim
• Muslim Students at Jihadi John's Former University 'Harass and Intimidate Women'
• Dropout Rate of Girl Students Decreases in Mansehra, Pakistan
• Female Activist Jailed For Criticising Kuwait Emir
• Assistant Professor Dhaka University Rumana: Social Evil Can Be Defeated, Will You Join Me?
• Saudi ID Protects Women
• 18,000 Saudi Women Found In Fake Jobs
• Gujarat: Hindu Woman, Muslim Paramour ‘Elope’, Patels Threaten Stir
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/a-devout-muslim,-fatima,-yoga,/d/103605
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A Devout Muslim, Fatima, Does Yoga, Breathing With Name of Allah
Ramendra Singh,TNN | Jun 22, 2015
BHOPAL: She's a devout Muslim. She offers Namaz five times a day. And she also does Surya Namaskar, breathing in with the name of Allah. Syed Rubab Fatima, 47, has been practising yoga since 2000 and led the international yoga day celebrations at the sprawling Lal Parade Grounds in Bhopal, sharing the dais with chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Clad in spotless white, she performed four kriyas with athletic zeal for 30 minutes, her postures sometimes motionless and trance-like.
And it was a massive heart attack in 2007, which drew her to yoga. "Doctors said I have to follow a strict health regime and advised me to do asanas. Soon, I stopped taking medicines after six months. I was healed. I began advising others to do yoga."
READ ALSO: Millions across the world mark inaugural International Yoga Day
Fatima feels there's no religious contradiction in yoga. "Namaz is the best yoga. If you are offering Namaz five times a day, you are actually doing yoga. But, yogic breathing exercises boost concentration. I can breathe in with the sound of Allah and not say Om'. And the benefits are the same," said Fatima.
She was lucky not to face opposition from her family when she decided to take the plunge. "There's so much controversy about Suryanamaskar, but I perform this asana regularly, but breathe in with the name of Allah. I am a Muslim, but I feel there's no religious conflict in performing Asanas."
She learnt her first yoga lessons from a well-known yoga master, Pawan Guru. "Now, I am doing asanas at Shaskiya Yoga Kendra near Red Cross Hospital, Bhopal, under guidance of Dev Dayal Bharti. I never felt any discrimination for being a Muslim at yoga classes. My guru emphatically said that I can take the name of my God and practise breathing. And I need not pronounce Om."
Fatima wants to launch a yoga centre, particularly for Muslim women in Bhopal. Hindus too are welcome, she says. "Yoga is a fitness regime. Muslim women are usually in purdah and can neither go to gym or are aware of fitness regimes. These women can come in burqa and perform asanas indoors under a female instructor and still be in purdah. There are 99 names of Allah and I am trying to discover a similar vibration which is closer to Om," said Fatima.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Fatima-does-yoga-breathing-with-name-of-Allah/articleshow/47761740.cms
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Egyptian women protest outside presidential palace
Jun 21, 2015
Dozens of women have held a demonstration outside Egypt's presidential palace in Cairo against an anti-protest law, calling for the release of those detained.
The women held a vigil on Sunday and raised photos of detainees while some protesters carried banners that read: "Ramadan is not the same without you," in reference to the Muslim holy month of fasting that brings families together.
The vigil organizers said that they had not sought prior permission from authorities for the demo near the palace of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, which was cordoned off by police forces.
The protest law, in place since 2013, criminalizes any gathering of more than five people without prior police permission and imposes hefty fines and prison sentences on violators.
Thousands of people have been detained over the controversial law, with some sentenced to up to 15 years in jail.
While Egyptian authorities insist that the law is necessary to end chaos after the 2011 revolution, activists believe that it is used to crack down on any kind of anti-government protests.
Following the 2011 popular revolution, Mohammad Morsi rose to power and became Egypt’s first democratically-elected president in 2012, but was ousted in July 2013 in a military coup led by the then head of the armed forces and current President Sisi.
The Sisi administration has been cracking down on any opposition since Morsi's ouster.
http://www.presstv.in/Detail/2015/06/21/416925/Egypt-women-protest-vigil-Ramadan-
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Competition to promote entrepreneurship among Saudi women launched
Last updated: Sunday, June 21, 2015
JEDDAH — Building on the theme of “promoting the spirit of enterprise” and with a key focus on social entrepreneurship development across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the King Khalid Foundation and TRACCS signed a strategic partnership agreement to launch the Jeddah Entrepreneurship Meet and Competition. The competition is a unique program that opens doors for all budding entrepreneurs to present their ideas or existing business modules to be eligible for its mentorship and funding program.
Enhancing the development and understanding of social entrepreneurship the King Khalid Foundation will serve as the strategic partner for the social entrepreneurship category. Encompassing a systematic participation, assessment, evaluation and training program the King Khalid Foundation and TRACCS have designed a specific process for this category.
The Jeddah Entrepreneurs Meet and Competition is an entrepreneurial development and sustainability promoting platform open for women across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to present innovative business ideas or existing businesses within three categories: social entrepreneurship, manufacturing and production and educational and lifestyle development.
The competition allows all potential candidates to apply online on www.jem-yje.com and go through the assessment and evaluation process before participating in select workshops and sessions in order to present their business ideas to the judging committee for the selection of the winners in each of the categories.
“Social entrepreneurship is an avenue of key importance to us at the King Khalid Foundation and our partnership with TRACCS to launch the Jeddah Entrepreneurship Meet and Competition is centered on that segment as such. Social entrepreneurship isn’t about launching an idea or doing a community initiative as such it takes on a much bigger role in identifying a challenge and innovating a solution that is applicable, achievable and sustainable,” said Princess Banderi Bint Abdulrahman Al Faisal, Director General of the King Khalid Foundation.
“As change agents in their communities, social entrepreneurs are a fundamental aspect in the social and business arena in the Kingdom and will help identify the opportunities, open doors for innovative solutions and allow them to create solutions that help improve society,” she added.
As one of the leading roles models in philanthropic and development work, impacting people’s lives by providing innovative solutions to critical socio economic challenges in Saudi Arabia, the King Khalid Foundation support programs in Saudi Arabia leader and role models the King Khalid Foundation partners with organizations to initiate and establish such programs through its grant funding. Within the past three years, the Foundation has awarded 21 grants to organizations across Saudi Arabia, reaching over 64,000 beneficiaries.
“The Jeddah Entrepreneurs Meet and Competition is a unique program with a unique offering and benefits that is open for entrepreneurs across the Kingdom,” said Mohamed Al Ayed, TRACCS CEO.
He added “JEM brings together know-how, on-hand experience and seed money for provisional funding, giving each entrepreneur the success factors to be able to work and grow her business. And our partnership with the King Khalid Foundation is an important element that showcases partnerships between the public, private and NGO organizations are how successes are built and how such collaborations are of benefit for sustainable and development programs that support the economic growth, open new business avenues and help in job creation and employment.”
“We thank the King Khalid Foundation for their unwavering support and partnership to take social entrepreneurship and JEM into greater heights,” he further said.
Serving as a platform for budding entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, financial, business entities, and governmental and business leaders to interact, foster and promote a culture of business development in Saudi Arabia the Jeddah Entrepreneurs Meet and Competition has officially launched.
Participants can apply online and go through the process of assessment and an independent judging committee to receive their funding and 18-month mentorship program will identify selection before the final winners announcement is made at the end of the year with winners in the three set categories.
“We are excited to witness the second phase of JEM and look forward to seeing more success stories that are integral components of the business and social community. To create the diversity in the business spectrum engaging in economic and job creation availability a society needs a strong SME base and programs such as JEM can help make an impact through the partnerships developed and the business opportunities at hand,” said Sarah Al Ayed, TRACCS Co-Founder and Board member and Chair of the Jeddah Entrepreneurs Meet and Competition. — SG
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20150622248052
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'Fear they will find me': death threats stalk Afghan acid victim
June 22nd, 2015
KUNDUZ: Four years after a militiaman doused Mumtaz with a flesh-searing acid for rejecting his marriage proposal, leaving her disfigured, scarred and traumatised, death threats have forced the 20-year-old Afghan into hiding.
Her ordeal encapsulates the major issues roiling Afghanistan — a silent tsunami of violence against women, anti-Taliban militias bringing further turmoil to an already conflict-torn country and a seemingly dysfunctional state unable to offer Afghans even a modicum of security.
Swaddled in a cobalt blue scarf partly covering her jagged facial scars, Mumtaz vividly recalls the horrors of that night when the jilted lover stormed into her house with six other assailants, holding up the corrosive liquid.
"He grabbed me by my hair and hurled the acid at my face with such vengeance, as if to say 'now let's see who will marry you'," Mumtaz, who goes by one name, told AFP in a safe house in the volatile northern province of Kunduz.
She remembers screaming and writhing as the acid, some of which splattered on her sisters and mother, burned through her flesh.
Mumtaz has undergone multiple surgeries and painful skin grafts since the attack in 2011 — and is now forced to live in hiding due to threats purportedly from the assailants, some of whom are still at large.
Read: 80pc victims of 1,500 acid attacks reported each year are women: charity
Her plight is worsened by an escalating conflict in Kunduz, where the Taliban recently launched a large-scale offensive, creeping ever closer to the provincial capital and trapping civilians between insurgents and a miscellany of pro-government forces and militias.
Statistics are scant but acid attacks are common in Afghanistan, often used to deface and cripple women even for minor transgressions such as refusing to wear a head scarf or rebuffing unsolicited lovers.
Mumtaz reaches for a burqa before catching transportation from a safe house in Kunduz. —AFP
Mumtaz reaches for a burqa before catching transportation from a safe house in Kunduz. —AFP
'Helpless feeling'
When she was 14, Mumtaz, known within her extended family for her doe eyes and flawless skin, hid herself behind the folds of a burqa to evade the amorous advances of a militiaman called Nasir.
The daughter of a wheat farmer stopped going out unchaperoned and avoided the main village thoroughfares. But Nasir, who gained local infamy for his links to an anti-Taliban militia, stubbornly lingered outside her house and waylaid her even as her family in a heated exchange warned him to back down.
Two years later, when Mumtaz got engaged to another man, he burst into her house to avenge the humiliation of rejection by wrecking her beauty.
He escaped after the horrific attack but a court sentenced three of his accomplices to a decade in prison, a rare judgement in a nation that offers female victims little legal recourse.
Also read: Girl refuses to let acid attack kill hope
Ironically, though, Mumtaz's real troubles began when they were put behind bars.
"They threatened to behead me. 'We will kill your whole family when we get out of prison', they said. 'We will come after you'," Mumtaz said.
Armed intruders have attempted to break into her house, said Women for Afghan Women (WAW), a nongovernmental organisation which helped Mumtaz with legal aid and seeking treatment for acid burns in India.
"We are very concerned about her safety," Haseena Sarwari, the Kunduz manager for WAW, told AFP.
"The men in Mumtaz's household are forced to carry firearms and take turns to sleep at night," she said, clarifying that the motive of those intruders was not always clear as cracks of mock gunfire from inside were enough to deter them.
Mumtaz's father, Sultan, said the attempted intrusions forced them to move houses but going to his farm was fraught with risks.
Relatives of the jailed assailants have chased him down by motorcycle, threatening him with consequences if they did not get out of prison soon.
"They will never leave us alone," Sultan said with a lump in his throat. The attack on his daughter makes him writhe with fury but also shudder with fear.
"We are barely living, confined to our home, stripped of our livelihood," he said. "It's a helpless feeling."
'Abusive militias'
AFP could not access the families of the assailants, residing in an outlying village of Kunduz city that has seen regular skirmishes between insurgents and militias.
In recent years Afghanistan has seen a rise of militias, former mujahideen strongmen both feeding off and fuelling the conflict, and accused of a litany of abuses including rape and forcibly collecting “protection tax” from civilians.
When he came to power last year President Ashraf Ghani vowed to disarm the militias, blamed for devastating Afghanistan during the country's civil war in the 1990s and setting the stage for a Taliban takeover. But as the Taliban insurgency spreads north from its southern stronghold, the government appears to be remobilising them to augment Afghan security forces.
Know more: Afghanistan harnesses anti-Taliban militias as insurgency spreads
"The predatory behaviour of these militias, and abuses that include extrajudicial killings, beatings, and looting, have left civilians trapped between them and the Taliban and has bolstered some support for the insurgents," Patricia Gossman of Human Rights Watch said in a recent statement.
"But the Afghan government is again reactivating militias that threaten the lives of ordinary Afghans. If there is to be any hope of a long-term security in Kunduz — and across Afghanistan — this reliance on abusive militias has to end."
Earlier this year Mumtaz married the man she was engaged to, bringing a faint glimmer of hope in her life.
"But I live in constant fear that they (the assailants) will find me one day," she said.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1189735/fear-they-will-find-me-death-threats-stalk-afghan-acid-victim
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Muslim Students at Jihadi John's Former University 'Harass and Intimidate Women'
Jun 21, 2015
The University of Westminster, where the notorious Islamic State terrorist studied, could become a "place of indoctrination" if the society remains "ultra-conservative", a report warned.
But complaints about alleged harassment by society members were repeatedly ignored "for fear of appearing Islamaphobic", the report added.
One student wept as she gave evidence to an independent panel about the intimidation she allegedly suffered at the hands of the group.
Jihadi John, whose real name is Mohammed Emwazi, studied Information Systems at the London University between 2006 and 2009.
He is believed to be responsible for the gruesome beheadings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Peter Kassig, British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines and Japanese hostages Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.
The society's former president, Yassin Nassari, was jailed in 2007 for trying to smuggle blueprints for a rocket into the country.
And anti-extremist group Student Rights claimed 24 university events since March 2012 have featured "speakers with a history of extremist views".
The independent panel, whose full report will be published in August, said the students' union should be "more proactive in monitoring" the society.
It also called for the creation of a complaints hotline, plus training for more staff to understand Prevent, part of the government's counter-terrorism strategy.
But it found no evidence that Jihadi John was a member of the Islamic Society or was radicalised on campus.
A spokesperson for the university said the report was commissioned to review current policies and ensure it complied with Prevent.
The panel refused to comment.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/585901/Jihadi-John-Islamic-Society-Westminister-University-women-London-ISIS
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Dropout Rate of Girl Students Decreases In Mansehra, Pakistan
June 22nd, 2015
MANSEHRA: The dropout rate of girl students had decreased in the district because of the effective role played by civil society and parents, said District Education Officer Nagmana Sardar.
“I would appreciate the efforts of civil society organisations for sensitising parents. Now dropout rate of girl students has been decreased and admission ratio increased in the district,” she said while speaking at the monthly meeting of parents alliance, constituted by Sarhar Rural Support Programme (SRSP) under its Alf Ailan initiative here on Sunday.
The parents from across the district attended the meeting and shared their views about admitting more students to the schools and reducing the dropout percentage.
Besides others, the district education officer male, Safaraz Khan, and SRSP regional programme manager Shakeel Ahmad also spoke on the occasion.
Ms Sardar said that government was addressing the issues faced by schools in far off areas and in such circumstances awareness regarding importance of education for the girls through Alf Ailan played an important role.
“Now parents are taking their daughters to schools in remote areas,” she added.
Speaking on the occasion, Sarfaraz Khan said that parent teachers councils constituted at every school in the district were proven highly effective as funds meant for the welfare of students were being spent fairly.
He said that government was addressing the issues faced by students and pointed out by PTC and funds in that regards were released to schools concerned.
Official credits civil society, parents for increase in number of enrolled students
A committee was also constituted in the meeting which would take up the issues of schools and education department with local lawmakers and high-ups of the government.
Speaking on occasion, Shakeel Ahmad told the meeting that ‘every child in school’ drive last month was underway and the desired results were being achieved.
He said that under the drive an awareness walk was also organised in Naran the other day which was attended largely by students, parents and local people.
Mr Ahmad said that under the Alif Ailan initiative his organisaiton was focusing on Article 25-A of the Constitution which gave equal rights of education to men and women without any discrimination.
LOADSHEDDING: The duration of unscheduled power loadshedding has been increased to 16 hours a day in Darband area of Oghi, local people complain.
A group of the residents of the area, led by Mohammad Akram Tanoli, told journalists that after the start of Ramazan the duration of electricity loadshedding was increased that made life of people miserable.
Mr Tanoli said that children and elderly people fell unconscious due to scorching heat but Pesco increased the duration of loadshedding instead of decreasing it.
He said that prime Minster Mian Nawaz Sharif had announced that no loadshedding would be observed at Sehr and Iftar but people were still facing power outages not only during Sehra and Iftar but also during Taraveeh.
He said that people would block Darband-Oghi Road for an indefinite period if the unscheduled loadshedding was not ended.
Published in Dawn,
http://www.dawn.com/news/1189701/dropout-rate-of-girl-students-decreases-in-mansehra
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Female activist jailed for criticising Kuwait emir
June 22, 2015
KUWAIT CITY - A Kuwaiti court sentenced a female rights activist to three years in jail on Sunday after convicting her in absentia of publicly criticising the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler.
The lower court convicted Rana Jassem al-Saadun of repeating parts of a speech made by prominent opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak for which he is serving a two-year jail term, according to the ruling.
In the speech, delivered at a public rally in October 2012, Barrak warned Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah against amending the electoral law to help the government control parliament.
Saadun was outside the country when the verdict was delivered, the court said.
Activists online reported that she was in Lebanon.
In April 2013, the lower court sentenced Barrak to five years in jail for insulting the emir and undermining his authority.
The sentence was later reduced to two years.
Opposition groups had staged demonstrations to protest the sentence and dozens of activists repeated parts of Barrak's speech in solidarity with him.
Saadun, a founding member of rights group the National Committee for Monitoring Violations, told the judge in March that she repeated the speech not because she supported its content but in defence of freedom of expression.
Last week, the same court gave two-year suspended jail terms to 21 other activists for repeating the same speech.
During the past three years, Kuwaiti courts have several times handed down jail terms against online activists and former lawmakers for making comments deemed offensive to the emir.
http://nation.com.pk/international/22-Jun-2015/female-activist-jailed-for-criticising-kuwait-emir
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Assistant Professor Dhaka University Rumana: Social Evil Can Be Defeated, Will You Join Me?
June 22nd, 2015
I have lost my sight but I have gained my vision, Rumana Manzur expressed her confidence with smiley face, brave open eyes and the blind stick in hand to call for unity against violence on women worldwide in a Vancouver speech in Canada.
The stick, which might help her recognise the streets, house, the reading table and reach her beloved daughter Anushe, while Rumana was outlining latest statistics of violence on women throughout the world, the stick also echoed with colour of strength – black grip, white middle and red knocking end at the stage of a TED conference in Vancouver of Canada on May 23.
The speech was published in TEDx YouTube channel in a title ‘Yes, we can reduce violence against women’ on June 18.
Rumana Monzur, an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations of Dhaka University, is now studying law after completing MS in political science at the University of British Columbia on a Commonwealth scholarship in September 2010. She was blinded by her husband Hasan Sayeed Sumon in a brutal attack during a trip back 2011 to see her daughter in Dhaka.
She survived and gained light despite her darkness and announced and struggling for a global fight to reduce violence against women.
She came up with the statistics as 43% women face violence, 21% in North America, in Europe and Central Asia it is 29%, Latin America and Carrabia 33%, Africa and the Middle East 40%. Most of the violence occurred by intimate partners and most of the cases are unreported, Rumana highlighted.
“I was never thought even such violence could happen with me but the incident took my sight away but I achieved a third eye as it showed the women are all same in the male dominated evil society,” she said.
“I decided that I would not let anyone harm my life also to take control of my life, told myself ‘happiness and sorrow’ they are just chemicals playing with your brain and I want to be the chemist who would control those chemicals,” she said in a lethal vocal.
Rumana Manzur tried to inspire the lights of change saying: “Why did I survive that day, why did not I die and why am I still living?”
She continued the only answer was came to me was maybe there is a reason, maybe I need to be a voice for hundreds of millions of female sufferings from silence, who does have not access to any power and privileges. The realisation made me stronger, gave me a purpose also my duty as a mother did not let me back and locked myself in a corner.
Even now, each day I face many challenges but my motivation overcome those challenges and my desire to lead a meaningful life, she added.
I invasion, a world which is ‘Free of violence against women’, I know we all do. But how can we do that?, she asked.
Rumana opined the ways:
Firstly, we must raise bareness against violence of women, we must hate it the way we all hate child prostitution, child pornography and human trafficking only then we be able to take action.
Secondly, we must believe in our power and strength that believes will give us the confidence to bring change. The confidence which is needed to challenge the existence structure that allows for systematic violence.
Thirdly, we must intervene and fight for the victims as Edmund Burke says: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” I would replace the word good men to good people.
I have lost my sight but I have gained my vision my third eye become more powerful and strong but I have endured since June 2011 has prepared me for this journey, said the victim.
Rumana firmly said she is on fight this global, social evil of violence against women.
“I am determined to play my part because I know I can make the difference. I know you can make a difference and most of all if we all try together the social evil can be defeated. Will you join me?”
Rumana Manzurre placed her voice with laughing little loud then and knocked the colorful cane again at the stage, in search of light to see her beloved keen Anushe among all daughters of the world.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2015/jun/22/rumana-social-evil-can-be-defeated-will-you-join-me
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Saudi ID Protects Women
22 June 2015
ABHA: Many Saudi women have confirmed that their Saudi identification protects them when it comes to various documents and government applications.
Specialists called for having an ID for women or activating the fingerprint system for families that refuse to allow the woman’s photo. This will prevent acts that might occur because of the women’s having no ID.
Legal counsel Hadi Al-Yami said that the country did not oblige women to have a “national ID.” He referred to exploitation by some men who encroach on women’s property, and exploit them in business transactions, inheritance, or impersonate her in family and legal matters.
He stressed that the issuance of women’s IDs are optional except in certain cases — for example if she is a university student, a scholarship student, if she wants to get a loan, and for those who want to file a complaint.
He expressed his regret that more than 80 percent of women are ignorant of their legal rights.
He stressed that fingerprinting could save many families from social embarrassment as it is more accurate and safer and avoids the possibility of fraud.
إعلان
As for protecting women from exploitation and extortion, he suggested continuing to grant women a national ID and called for the employment of women in women’s civil service departments in order to facilitate the procedure for issuing national identity.
Saud Al-Dhahian, sociology professor, looked at men’s rejection of women as a form of male power, misogyny and exploitation of women.
He stated that the issuance of a national ID for women would bring equality for them.
Al-Dhahian advocated the need for women’s courts that deal with women’s issues, and all situations relating to women.
He also proposed the establishment of family care offices in which the office would have the authority to transact women’s business, such as buying land.
“In case the father or husband refuses to allow an ID for for the woman,the judiciary may order him to do so and if needed, the judge becomes the woman’s guardian and follows up the completion of her own procedures,” Al-Dhahian said.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/765651
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18,000 Saudi women found in fake jobs
Adnan Al-Shobrawi
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
JEDDAH – Some 18,000 Saudi women were found to have fake employment in private sector companies to help keep these firms in the Nitaqat (Saudization) green zone.
These women were registered in social insurance in a number of jobs, according to sources.
The Ministry of Social Affairs cancelled social insurance assistance to these women after discovering the wrong-doing, the sources said.
The sources said the women also deleted their records in the Ministry of Commerce to apply at the social insurance office to be reinstated as beneficiaries.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20150622248064
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Gujarat: Hindu Woman, Muslim Paramour ‘Elope’, Patels Threaten Stir
June 22, 2015
A week after Nadiad town witnessed a Bandh called by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) over the alleged “love jihad” after a Muslim bootlegger eloped with a 21-year-old Hindu girl, now, 25 kilometres away, Gangapur village of Kathlal taluka in Kheda district is witnessing a similar protest.
The local Kutch Kadva Patel community has submitted a memorandum to the taluka officer against the alleged “abduction” of a married Hindu woman by a married Muslim man from the village. The community members have warned the district administration that in absence of action against the man, the village will observe a bandh.
The police, however, said the two were in a relationship and it appears that the woman “voluntarily” accompanied the man.
The memorandum submitted by the community to the district administration officer on Friday states that on June 15, Inayat Kanumiya Malek abducted a married woman from the village. A complaint in this regard has been registered at the Kathlal police station by the husband of the woman under Section 366 of the IPC. However, Kathlal police say they will record the statement of the woman, who is the mother of three children, as part of the investigations. An investigating police officer said, “Our investigations have revealed that the woman and Inayat were in a relationship and she seems to have voluntarily accompanied him. Even the call record data of both the woman and Inayat have shown that they were in frequent touch for the last three years. Their last location was also same after which their phones have been switched off. We will have to record her statement first to ascertain if it is indeed abduction or not.” Locals in the area are angered by the prospect of a Muslim eloping with a Hindu married woman from the village. A member of the Kutch Kadva Patidar community in Kathlal said, “It has become a practice for Muslim men to lure Hindu women. In this case, the woman has three young children who are dependent on their mother. Our worst fear is that this man might entice her to embrace Islam and marry her in another state where conversion laws are not as strict as Gujarat.” The convenor of the community from the area Dahyabhai Patel said that the memorandum was submitted by members of the community in his absence but the community was determined to resolve the matter and bring the woman back. “We are certain that we need police action in bringing back this lady safe and sound for her children. The police are just sitting back although the husband has filed a complaint,” Patel said. When contacted Kapadvanj SDPO Vijay Patel said, “We have registered the complaint of the husband on June 15. It was two days later that he informed us from his own finding that his wife had disappeared with this man Inayat. We have recorded his statement. Till the time the woman returns and records her statement about the incident, we will be unable to conclude the nature of the case. We are trying our best to locate the two.”
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/tension-in-kheda-hindu-woman-muslim-paramour-elope-patels-threaten-stir/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/a-devout-muslim,-fatima,-yoga,/d/103605