Afghan Officials Reverse Ban on Girls Singing After Social Media Backlash
New
Age Islam News Bureau
15
March 2021
•
Minority Females Fight For Education in Pakistan
•
Human Rights Board of OIC Slams Switzerland over Burqa Ban
•
‘Daughters of Kobani’ Balances Eye-Opening Details with Broad Take On Women in
Battle
•
For Turkish Women Headscarf Is as Much about Women’s Rights as About Religion
•
Sham Al-Ghamdi a Step Closer to Becoming Saudi Arabia’s First Female
International Referee
•
The Female Afghan Tech Entrepreneurs Inspiring Each Other
•
Pakistan- Women Must Not Always Look Towards Men for Help: Shagufta Malik KP
Assembly Member
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-officials-reverse-ban-girls/d/124547
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Afghan
Officials Reverse Ban on Girls Singing After Social Media Backlash
Education authorities in Kabul had banned the
participation of teenagers in public singing.
-----
MAR
15, 2021
A
ban on girls singing in public imposed by education officials in the Afghan
capital last week has been overturned after a social media campaign that
included local women uploading videos of themselves belting out their favourite
songs.
Schoolgirl
choirs are a regular feature of official Afghan events, but when education
authorities in Kabul banned the participation of teenagers it prompted an
immediate backlash.
The
order raised fears that education officials were "Talibanising" the
country, heralding a return to when the authoritarian Islamist group barred the
participation of women in almost all parts of society outside their own homes.
Late
Sunday, the education ministry issued a statement saying the ban "does not
reflect the positions or policies of the Ministry".
The
announcement followed a furious backlash from social media users using the
hashtag "#IAmMySong" to raise awareness.
"In
Afghanistan today the Ministry of Education suffocated the voices of our little
girls by making it illegal for them to sing," tweeted Shamila Kohestani,
former captain of the national women's football team.
"They
are quite literally teaching girls that they have no voice. #IAmMySong.'
On
Facebook, Tayeb Safa wrote: "I feel the Taliban are making a
comeback."
The
controversy comes amid fears for a possible Taliban return to power as the US
mulls pulling its remaining troops from the country in the coming weeks in
accordance with a landmark deal signed with the insurgents last year.
Peace
talks between the Taliban and the government have largely stalled in recent
months, while a targeted assassination campaign -- including the murders of
high-profile Afghan women -- has further rattled the country.
Afghanistan
continues to be one of the most oppressive countries for women despite decades
of international aid and the fall of the Taliban.
Gains
in urban areas, however, have raised hopes that opportunities for women were
slowly gaining traction.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/afghan-officials-reverse-ban-on-girls-singing-after-social-media-backlash-101615795477322.html
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Minority
Females Fight For Education In Pakistan
Students at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in St.
James's Parish in Sialkot in Punjab province. (Photo supplied)
-----
Kamran
Chaudhry
March
15, 2021
When
Roshni Chahat asked her parents for permission to study in Lahore, they
referred to nearby cities.
“It
was a challenge to convince them. I argued and cried for four days. They were
afraid of the ongoing forced conversions of Hindu girls in Sindh province,”
said Chahat.
“Similar
fears lead to early marriages of minority girls. We cannot step outside without
family members. It affects our education as well.”
The
activist hails from the southern Pakistani city of Shahdadkot in Sindh province
where the enrollment of girls in schools has declined while the dropout ratio
has risen, according to Alif Ailaan, a pro-education NGO. More than half a
million of Hindus are settled in Sindh where several cases of forced conversion
and marriages of Hindu girls have been reported.
In
Lahore, Chahat was asked about her nationality by her classmates.
“They
asked if I own an Indian identity card. Minority women have to struggle more in
our patriarchal society. Discussions and group visits to different places of
worship can clear the myths,” she said.
Since
2019, Chahat has been promoting peace and interfaith harmony among youth. She
was one of the female speakers at a March 9 conference on the "Status of
Minority Women and their Rights and Challenges" by the Centre of Social
Justice (CSJ) in Lahore.
The
speakers discussed the socioeconomic and legal rights of minority women in
terms of education, health, forced conversions and gender-based violence. The
conference resolution urged the government to gather credible data to assess
the socioeconomic status of minority women.
"They
lag behind in literacy rates, employability in prestigious professions, equal
wages, job security, etc., therefore affirmative action should be brought to
make them equal in rights and as beneficiaries of opportunities," it
stated.
“Through
legislative and educational measures, women and girls must be ensured that they
are free from physical abuse, domestic violence and rape, or being subjected to
any medical procedure without informed consent, and deprivation of reproductive
autonomy and rights.”
Christians
pioneered modern education on the subcontinent. In 1849, two Presbyterian
missionaries established the first English-medium school in Lahore. Anglicans
and Catholics organized education at primary and secondary level. After the
creation of Pakistan in 1947, missionary schools were known for their
discipline and quality education.
Several
political and government leaders studied at missionary schools and colleges.
Prime Minister Imran Khan received his early education at the Cathedral School
Hall Road Lahore run by the Church of Pakistan. Former premier Benazir Bhutto,
the first woman elected to lead an Islamic state, studied at the Convent of
Jesus and Mary in Karachi and Murree.
According
to CSJ research published last year, the nationalization of Pakistan's private
schools in 1972 resulted in low literacy levels among the Christian community,
weakened church institutions and created fear among them.
As
per the latest Catholic Directory, the Church manages more than 500 educational
institutes in the country. The Catholic Bishops' Conference reviewed the
progress of church-run schools, along with other commissions, during their
annual meeting earlier this month.
“Hate
material in syllabus and the upcoming single national curriculum were the major
issues raised by the Catholic Board of Education and National Catholic
Education Commission,” Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad told UCA News.
“The
literacy rate of Christian females is higher than that of the Hindus. We are
trying to enroll more females in our schools. However, a large percentage of
Hindu-majority districts in Sindh province have no schools at all.”
Survey
findings
In
2017, the Punjab Bureau of Statistics and Punjab Commission on the Status of
Women (PCSW) undertook the “Women’s Economic and Social Wellbeing Survey” with
women, minority women, women with disability (aged 15-64) and a survey for male
perception (aged 15-64). Separate industrial surveys for employers and working
women were carried out in eight big cities of the province.
It
included an additional purposive sample of 1,645 women with disabilities and
2,488 minority women. As per its key findings, 50 percent of non-Muslim women
never attended school, 13 percent studied to primary level, 12 percent to grade
10, and 3 percent to graduation or above.
While
22 percent of mainstream (Muslim) women aged 18-29 could study until grades 12
and above, the literacy rate of minority women was lower (11 percent). Four
percent of non-Muslim women sought employment and 2.6 percent were employed.
Fifty
one percent were employed in the formal sector while 48 percent were in the
non-agriculture sector. In villages, 48 percent were employed while 57 percent
were employed in urban areas. Twelve percent of minority women could make their
own decision about marriage while only 4.2 percent of Muslim women could do
that. None of them sought shelter seeking help against violence.
According
to Fauzia Waqar, former chairperson of the PCSW, it was the first time data was
gathered on minority women of Punjab.
“There
is a need to work on employment of educated non-Muslim women. Their political
participation is slightly better. Sadly, the results were never published,” she
said.
“Early
child-bearing of minority women in Punjab is lower than the mainstream; this is
good news. However, most of the young mothers, poor and uneducated, are from
minorities. A lower literacy rate of minority women is a matter of concern.
Their labor force participation is also lower than the mainstream.”
https://www.ucanews.com/news/minority-females-fight-for-education-in-pakistan/91749#
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Human
Rights Board Of OIC Slams Switzerland Over Burqa Ban
Dilara
Hamit
13.03.2021
The
human rights board of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Saturday
strongly condemned last Sunday’s referendum in Switzerland passing a ban of
facial coverings.
On
Twitter, the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) said
it “strongly condemns Swiss ban on facial veils as grossly discriminatory,
disproportionate, contrary to ideals of pluralism and tolerance” and violating
international and regional human rights obligations.
It
added: “Such Islamophobic measures are counterproductive for societal cohesion."
It
further urged the Swiss government to accord precedence to its obligations
under international human rights law and reject the ban.
It
said Swiss Muslims should exhaust domestic remedies and approach the European
Court of Human Rights, UN treaty signatories, and the international community
to engage Swiss civil society to “strengthen communal respect and
solidarity," it said.
In
the controversial March 7 referendum, the Swiss voted narrowly in favor of
banning face coverings in public, including the Burqa or niqab worn by Muslim
women.
The
"Burqa ban," launched in 2016 by a right-leaning initiative
committee, was accepted by 51.2% of those who cast ballots, with voter turnout
of 51.4%.
Sunday's
referendum was put forward by a group associated with the right-wing Swiss
People's Party, which campaigned with slogans such as "Stop
extremism" and in some areas with posters of Muslim women in veils.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/muslim-bloc-committee-slams-switzerland-over-Burqa-ban/2175080
--------
‘Daughters
of Kobani’ Balances Eye-Opening Details with Broad Take On Women in Battle
Joseph
Hammond
March
15, 2021
Los
Angeles: Women were often at the forefront in the brutal house-to-house,
street-to-street fighting to free Syria from the grip of Daesh. The “Daughters
of Kobani” offers a compelling profile of some of the women in these units.
Readers may be familiar with the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) which first
received international attention in 2014 during Daesh’s siege of the Syrian
border town of Kobani. In addition to the YPJ, the author also notes that after
the creation of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), many Arab women joined
their fight. The stories of some of these brave women are covered in the book,
including one woman who survives the Daesh occupation of her town by reading
the works of Naguib Mahfouz. The book’s strength lies in its ability to juggle
such small details with the broad swathe of crucial battles and the lives of
the women involved. The horrendous treatment of women and minority groups by
Daesh is another motivation for the SDF forces that the author discusses, given
the large number of women enslaved by Daesh. The book’s overall message is
that, rather than becoming victims, a large number of women fought back and indeed
spear-headed the ultimate defeat of Daesh as a nascent state.
Author
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon spent hundreds of hours interviewing participants in the
various battles of the campaign. Lemmon’s previous books have also looked at
conflict issues related to women, from entrepreneurship in Afghanistan to the
first women in an elite US army unit. A company founded by former US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea has purchased the rights to
the book to develop it as a television mini-series.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1825626/lifestyle
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For
Turkish Women Headscarf Is as Much about Women’s Rights as About Religion
3/15/2021
Turkey
has a long history of pigeonholing women. Women who chose to cover their heads
were labelled 'backward' and uneducated while those who went uncovered
represented the modern ideal of a woman bravely rejecting religious
conservatism.
The
headscarf symbolized the battle between the forces of modernity and
arch-conservatism. But for a new generation of women, it is as much a political
statement about their rights as about their religion.
Wearing
the headscarf was banned in public institutions, including universities, in the
early 1980s, but morphed into a women's rights symbol in the 1990s and 2000s as
Muslim women campaigned on university campuses all over Turkey for the right to
wear it.
Often,
the campaigners found themselves doubly isolated. Harassed by the secular
authorities and denied public-sector jobs, the wider women's movement also
shunned them as a 'single issue' regressive group.
The
battle appeared to be won when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice
and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Veiled women had worked hard
for the party, canvassing door-to-door, but it was another eight years before
the ban on head coverings in universities was lifted.
Worse,
the AKP took full credit for it, trivializing, denigrating or simply ignoring
the part played by the many female activists who had striven for years to bring
about that outcome.
And
now the headscarf – and those who wear it – is again at the center of a protest
movement.
For
a long time, the AKP has viewed headscarf-wearing women as loyalists, and in
truth, many were. The party is popular among a significant portion of religious
women who credit the AKP for making it possible to live their faith openly and
for legitimizing Islam as a central pillar of Turkish national identity. Many
of these women fear losing those rights if Erdogan were no longer in power.
So
it came as a shock to the party to see young, headscarf-wearing women
protesting against the appointment in early January of an AKP member as rector
of Boğaziçi University, Turkey's most prestigious seat of learning.
Traditionally,
rectors are chosen by teaching staff. Students, present and past, and academics
alike decried the appointment of Melih Bulu, a former parliamentary candidate
for the AKP, as an abuse of political power, an attack on academic freedom and
further evidence of Turkey's diminishing commitment to democracy.
Covered
Muslim women were also among those defending a students' art exhibition that
featured a poster depicting Islam's most sacred site surrounded by LGBT+ flags.
Once praised for their piety, they found themselves recast by the authorities
as un-Islamic, amoral, unpatriotic puppets of the West. The interior minister
denounced them on Twitter as 'deviants.'
Sociologist
Feyza Akinerdem, a Boğaziçi graduate, summed up the reaction thus: 'When a
woman in a headscarf is visible or heard in a way that the patriarchy deems
politically damaging to their cause, she is denigrated as morally corrupt or as
failing her religion.'
In
reality, pious women in Turkey – as everywhere in the Middle East – have never
been a homogenous bloc. The main opposition party, the secular Republican
People's Party (CHP), has religious women among its membership.
Muslim
women took part in the protests against urban development plans for Istanbul's
Gezi Park in 2013 and some joined the left-wing group, Anti-Capitalist Muslims.
No one paid them much attention then and things are no better now, they claim.
'I
cannot breathe, my friends cannot breathe,' says Seyma Orhan, a literature
student at Boğaziçi. 'We live in perpetual limbo where we don't belong in
either the government's neighborhood or the secular neighborhood. We are in
no-man's-land.'
Another
student, Seyma Altundal, was arrested and handcuffed during the Bulu protest
and claims she was not allowed to put her headscarf back on after it fell off.
News
of her arrest exploded on social media and when she was released later the same
day, she posed outside the courthouse making the peace sign with one hand and
holding up the index finger of the other, signifying the indivisibility of God.
She explained, 'We are servants of Allah and not the state and we know Him as
the only authority.'
Recent
years have seen the emergence of women's groups and bloggers talking about the
challenges of womanhood, motherhood and feminism from a Muslim perspective.
In
December, the Havle Women's Association, which claims to be the first Muslim
feminist organization in Turkey, hosted an online conference on how Muslim
identity is compatible with feminist goals. One of the speakers was Amina
Wadud, an American Muslim theologian, known variously as the Lady Imam and the
'rock star of Islamic feminists.'
'The
Muslim women's movement evolving into a Muslim feminist movement has expanded
the parameters of what is permissible for us to talk about and stand up for,'
says Rümeysa Çamdereli, one of the founders of Havle.
Unlike
the previous generation of women, who were forced to remove their headscarves
if they wanted to work in the civil service, the young Muslim women of today
demand the right to express their culture, their religiosity and their dissent.
For them, their faith is not incompatible with speaking truth to unchecked
political power.
They
have also highlighted the need to keep an eye on the future. Turkey is a young
country; more than 15% of the population is aged under 25.
It
is difficult to gauge the influence this young generation of proudly
headscarved women wields, but it is not negligible. As student Seyma Orhan put
it, 'We may not represent the majority of Muslim women in Turkey today, but we
are also more than just a handful.'
https://menafn.com/1101752393/In-Turkey-headscarf-is-a-womens-rights-issue
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Sham
Al-Ghamdi a step closer to becoming Saudi Arabia’s first female international
referee
ZAID
KHASHOGJI
March
15, 2021
DUBAI:
Sham Al-Ghamdi looks set to become the Kingdom’s first international female
referee after the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) took an official
decision that will enable her to obtain a FIFA license.
Speaking
to Alwatan newspaper, Al-Ghamdi, a former player herself, revealed that gaining
certification from the SAFF was a major step towards accreditation by world
football’s governing body.
“I
am happy to have been approved by the Saudi Football Federation, and this is
the first step before obtaining a FIFA license,” she said. “It had to be
approved by the federation in order to be able to apply for a FIFA license.”
The
24-year-old Al-Ghamdi has long had a dream to officiate at the game sights
level.
“I
spend hours reading and listening to advice from refereeing experts,” she told
Arab News in 2019. “To referee a World Cup match would be a dream come true.”
Al-Ghamdi
was the first Saudi football referee to oversee matches in the Women’s Football
League (WFL), which launched in the Kingdom in November 2020, and she also took
charge of a number of friendly matches that preceded this competition.
“My
experience in league officiating is very distinctive, because it was part of a
program of coexistence with international referees from whom I gained so much
experience,” she told Alwatan.
“I
lived with them day-to-day, where I learned different methods, more than
attending any session.”
Al-Ghamdi
says she fell in love with football from a very young age, but after
representing Jeddah Eagles she suffered an injury to the knee which prevented
her from playing again.
But
she was determined not to leave football and instead turned to refereeing.
She
took courses in officiating under the supervision of former international
referee Marai Al-Awaji, and then received practical lessons at the hands of Dr.
Ayman Al-Rifai.
“As
a soccer referee, I made sure to be familiar with all the laws, provisions and
updates that should be available in the game on the field,” she said.
She
also attributed her success in refereeing to her passion for the game.
The
young Saudi referee strongly believes in the future of sports in the Kingdom,
and hopes to play a vital role in helping achieve success in her field.
“Sport
is part of the vision of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and it is our duty
to raise the flag of the homeland and compete for future titles and successes,”
she said.
“And
I hope we continue to get support from the bodies specialized in this field of
sports related to women.”
As
a referee, Al-Ghamdi is also no stranger to criticism, something which she
accepts as part of the game.
“Criticism
is part of any field, and refereeing is one of the areas that face the sharpest
criticism,” she said.
“But
I must accept the strong opinions and listen to directions to avoid and help
change them in the coming times.”
Al-Ghamdi
believes that in time, and with the right support system, more women will take
up refereeing duties in the Kingdom.
“I
ask the Saudi government to set up a special referees committee for women under
the umbrella of the Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Arabian Football
Federation,” she concluded.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1825736/sport
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The
female Afghan tech entrepreneurs inspiring each other
By
Lynzy Billing
15
Mar 2021
As
a child, Somaya Faruqi would watch her father fix cars in the motor repair shop
that he owns in Herat city, in western Afghanistan.
“His
work is what got me interested in mechanics and engineering,” says Somaya. “I
am the eldest of four children so even though I am the only girl, I used to
help him out in the shop after school, and I learned how things work in a very
simple sense, but I always wanted to learn more, and have access to more
knowledge in this area.”
The
musty old shop is packed full of old tools and salvaged car parts. “When I was
younger,” says Somaya, “I used to only fix car radios but now I help my father
with big works also.”
Now
18, Somaya is the leader of the Afghan Girls Robotics Team – also known as the
“Afghan Dreamers”, a name they gave themselves. All five girls in the team are
aged between 14 and 18 and attend different high schools in Herat. Every day
after school, they meet for an hour and a half to learn and practice
programming and robotics.
“When
I work in engineering I feel so proud of myself because in Afghanistan, there
are not a lot of girls that work in this field and it can be a complex area but
I’m good at it so I feel confident building and creating things,” Somaya says.
“There
are a lot of people in our community and across Afghanistan that think that
only boys should be mechanics, but I don’t know why because girls can be
mechanics also. They just need their society to believe in them and have the
support of their family and then they will prove it. It was always a goal of
mine to prove it.”
Somaya’s
mother had to leave school when she was 10. It was 1996 and the Taliban had
come to power and banned education for girls. “I think this is why she supports
me as much as she does because she can see that I’m doing what she never got to
do,” says Somaya. “Now she tells me how much I inspire her.”
Designing
and building a ventilator
Somaya
and the team first made headlines in 2017 when, despite displaying their
remarkable ingenuity in robotics, they were denied visas to the United States
to attend a robotics tournament. (When their story got the attention of
international media and some US politicians, then-US president Donald Trump
eventually granted their visas.)
Then,
in March 2020, Abdul Qayum Rahimi, the then-governor of Herat, put out a design
challenge after doctors told him how few ventilators there were in the region,
which at the time had the largest number of coronavirus cases in the country.
The
Afghan Dreamers were one of six teams (and the only all-girls team) contacted
to design a low-cost ventilator to help treat COVID-19 patients.
Somaya
explains how the team looked online for open-source design ventilators and came
across a low-cost, low-tech ventilator design called the MIT E-Vent, released
by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US. Working around
their classes, the girls spent months building an emergency ventilator
prototype based on this design.
Components
for the device were hard to come by, but undeterred, they made do with what
they had. “We had never worked on ventilators or any medical devices before. It
was completely new,” Somaya explains.
“I
think our biggest challenge at the time was that we didn’t have the facilities
to build some of the parts in, so my father would drive us to a workshop 20
minutes outside the city where we would work on the ventilator but we didn’t
have access to a lot of resources and materials that we needed to build a
ventilator, so we had to build the prototype out of spare parts from old Toyota
Corollas.”
Following
feedback from doctors and the ministry of public health, the team members have
continued to refine their design.
“We
are trying to get the machine to be able to sense a patient’s breathing pattern
and adjust the amount of air they get accordingly. We had to wait to receive
the pressure sensors critical to the ventilators for this,” says Somaya,
explaining that for the ventilator to do this, the team needs two parts: a
“pressure transducer” – a sensor that converts pressure measurements from
breath into electrical signals – and a microprocessor, neither of which they
can source locally or ship into Afghanistan.
Last
December, Minister of Industry and Commerce Nizar Ahmad Ghoryani donated
$10,000 to the team and also secured land to build a factory where the
ventilators will be produced in the near future.
“These
girls shone a spotlight on the importance of girls’ education. And they put
Afghanistan on the global stage – for all the right reasons,” said Mustapha Ben
Messaoud, acting representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF).
Somaya
says it is important for girls to have female role models to look up to and
that one woman in particular has inspired her. Roya Mahboob is an Afghan tech
entrepreneur and businesswoman who has supported the Afghan Dreamers since they
formed and is always just a phone call away for Somaya.
The
teenager says that seeing Roya, another Afghan woman from Herat, building a
successful career in tech, shows her what she can achieve.
“For
girls in Afghanistan, technology and engineering is so new and we don’t have
enough information about it …. I feel that I should share my knowledge with
other girls, just like Roya shared hers with me. Roya always told me not to
give up on my goals, to keep going because it’s not only for me but for the
women and girls in Afghanistan that follow also.”
Discovering
computers
Roya
Mahboob remembers the first time she discovered computers and the possibilities
they offered.
“My
family had just returned to Herat in Afghanistan from Iran in late 2003/early
2004,” she recalls. “I was 15 years old and at the time, there were no
computers and just one old library that only had a few old books, and most of
the information in them was out of date.”
Then,
one day, she came across a computer shop in Herat.
“I
went in and before I had even sat down, the owner told me to leave, saying it
was a place for boys only.”
She
returned a few days later and asked the owner to teach her how to use a
computer. “He finally agreed to but only if there … [were] at least 20 of us in
the class, so I asked all my relatives and friends to join me,” she says. “And
that’s how I first learned to use a computer and that was really the moment
that I was opened up to how big the world really was, and the wealth of
information I could have access to.”
Today,
Roya is the CEO of the Herat-based Afghan Citadel Software Company, which works
to create jobs for recent university graduates – particularly women – in
Afghanistan’s growing tech market. In 2012, Citadel of New York was founded to
develop and promote Examer, an interactive and educational social networking
platform with a Micro Scholarship Payment System, which Roya also helped to
develop.
In
2013, Roya was named one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the
World” for her work in building internet classrooms in Afghan high schools
through the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), a non-profit she founded that helps
girls and women around the world access technology. According to UNICEF, 3.7
million Afghan children are out of school, 60 percent of whom are girls. In the
hardest-to-reach areas of Afghanistan, and conflict zones, around 85 percent of
out-of-school children are girls.
“Our
mission through internet classrooms and STEM (science, technology, engineering
and mathematics) education is to increase women’s participation and advancement
in the workplace and [to help them] be ready for future jobs,” says Roya. “[We
plan] to expand our internet classes programme in villages in the provinces. We
are also working on our online education platform so that would help girls have
access to our online education from everywhere.”
“I
started the Digital Citizen Fund with a goal and a dream,” she explains. “That
goal was to make technology an accessible option for everyone. The dream was
that everyone, especially young women and girls even in conservative countries,
would have the same opportunities and education available to them, regardless
of gender or social status.”
Roya
says she wants to see young women design and implement digital solutions to
problems in their local communities, as the Afghan Dreamers are doing.
“I
would tell young Afghan women who want to get into tech or robotics or
engineering that in the new world young women will need to seek out
opportunities for building individual wealth and, in the process, high-value
economic models for their nations.”
She
believes STEM education is the key to their futures in an increasingly
globalised world.
“In
the West, kids are having conversations about how robots are replacing people
in the workforce,” she says. “[But] the problem is Afghanistan is so far
behind. It is behind in the education system. What is the point in training
girls for jobs that barely exist for women now and likely won’t exist when they
finish their studies? I’m talking about preparing these girls for real
opportunities in their futures. They have already been set back and now we need
to catch them up, but we need to be realistic.”
After
a meeting with the Afghan President in 2019, the Ministry of Education pledged
to incorporate STEM into the national curriculum and Mahboob’s dream of
building the country’s first STEM school is set to become a reality. The school
is due to open in 2022 and will be named ‘The Dreamer Institute’ commemorating
the Afghan Dreamers and their accomplishments.
Roya
believes it was seeing her mother, who was a manager at the Ministry of Labour
and Social Affairs, “working and opening doors for herself so that she could be
financially independent” that made her want to be independent and brought her
“to that small computer shop … trying to learn, all those years ago”.
“After
my studies [at the computer shop], opportunities started opening up for me and
I realised I could have the career that I dreamt of as a girl but I knew that
there were millions of girls just like me,” Roya says. “Girls who were curious,
but given only a narrow world to explore.”
It
was this that inspired her to launch the DCF. Today, the Afghan Dreamers hold
weekly workshops with the DCF in Kabul and Herat to teach girls the basics of
robotics.
‘Just
kids working hard’
While
the Afghan Dreamers have received nationwide praise, Roya believes they have
also been placed under more pressure than the many other teams working on
ventilators using the MIT design, including some in Afghanistan. They have been
singled out by the media, she says, “because they were the only all-female
team”.
“If
the girls do great things they will be under the limelight, but if they do
normal things they are under the limelight also,” she says. “But they are girls
so if they fail they will be more criticised and if they do well it will be
triumphed more. It’s the curse of being an Afghan woman working in any area.
But the reality is they are just kids working hard to do something good. And
that should be good enough in itself. It shouldn’t be amazing because they are
girls but because of the skill the challenge takes itself. For example, the
Afghan Dreamers were the first to figure out that windshield-wiper motors could
be finagled into powering a working ventilator.”
Roya
agrees with Somaya that it is important for young Afghan girls to have role
models and mentors. “It’s important for any teenager, anywhere in the world.
And it’s important to show young Afghan girls what is possible, and having more
women in the tech and science industry will inspire them to be more ambitious
and change the view of women’s ability in … [a] male-dominated industry,” she
says.
“I
have seen the incredible power of technology and education in my personal and
professional life and I believe that the internet and technology is able to not
only open new realities but also to break down barriers.”
She
describes how by embracing the tools of the global information society, she has
become something bigger than herself: a digital global citizen.
New
projects
The
Afghan Dreamers’ prototype ventilator is part of a series of projects organised
by Roya.
“What
we built was an automated add-on solution to a pre-existing bag; we call it the
bag-valve-mask,” she explains. “This ventilator could reduce the load of
existing ventilators, acting as a manual ventilator to help patients who are in
respiratory difficulty, but it was never intended as one to replace ventilators
in hospitals assisting patients in critical condition.”
She
says that the team connected with many people around the world who were willing
to help from afar, including an MIT professor and Harvard-educated surgeon.
A
year on from the first prototype ventilator, the team have taken on two other
projects that they designed. The UVC Robot is equipped with UV sterilisation
lamps to fight against COVID-19 by sanitising indoor areas. The Spray Robot is
a disinfection robot, which is able to sanitise indoor and outdoor areas.
“They
were approved by the Ministry of Health and we are building a factory to
produce them in now,” says Roya.
‘She
is their role model now’
Roya
remembers the first time she met Somaya in person. It was 2017, when the team
arrived in Washington, DC to participate in the robotics tournament.
“She
was really very shy and a bit nervous as it was her first time outside of her
country. Of all the girls, Somaya was the most quiet,” she says. But her
protege is no longer the quiet girl she first met.
“In
the beginning, I was concerned how she would handle the pressure with her
country and the West watching her. But although she was quiet, she was
determined and I look at her now and she has grown up so much. She is patient
and a good listener and these are great leadership qualities. Younger kids,
both girls and boys, look up to her and she is their role model now.”
Roya
believes that Afghanistan’s deteriorating security situation is now the biggest
hurdle for the girls she aims to help. “I had a lot of challenges in my career,
I mean, people will try to stop you in any way and it’s targeted. But I think
the challenges for Somaya and other girls her age are security with the way
things are in Afghanistan, lasting cultural issues and a lack of resources and
access to good quality of education, but I see opportunities, adventures, and
great success in all the girls’ futures.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2021/3/15/the-female-afghan-tech-entrepreneurs-inspiring-each-other
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Pakistan-
Women Must Not Always Look Towards Men for Help: Shagufta Malik KP Assembly
Member
3/14/2021
PESHAWAR:
In our society, women cannot openly tell men about all their problems, and
neither men can solve all the issues of women, so it's better for women to take
part in political activities and don't always look at men for help.
This
was stated by the Awami National Party (ANP) Member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
Shagufta Malik in a special interview with TNN. She believes that the problems
related to women's basic rights, education, healthcare and other issues can be
resolved in a better way if they are made part of the decision-making process.
Shagufta
says most women in Pakhtun society are still deprived of their basic rights due
to lack of awareness and conservative approach. 'This is the reason why women
are still subjected to domestic violence and mental torture,' she said.
The
ANP lawmaker says she had presented a bill against domestic violence in the KP
Assembly. She says when people were confined to their homes due to coronavirus
lockdown, the complaints of domestic violence increased, and finally the bill
was passed from the assembly.
'It
was a difficult task, but it became possible due to the special efforts of
women lawmakers,' she said.
Salient
features of the bill
According
to the bill, those indulging in violence against women would face up to
five-year imprisonment and fine. A helpline would also be established for
reporting domestic violence cases. The applications regarding domestic violence
would be submitted in courts within 15 days of such incident.
Shagufta
says the court would be bound to announce its verdict in two months. Upon
non-implementation of the court verdict, the violators will face one-year
imprisonment and Rs300,000 fine. The amended bill has ensured that women remain
safe from violence and no injustice is made with men as well. District
committees would be formed under the bill which would include deputy
commissioner, social welfare officer, public prosecutor, representatives of
police, khateeb, gynecologist and psychologist who would decide about the
extent of violence in the cases brought before them. The committees would also
work for reconciliation between parties to dispute and also arrange shelter
home accommodation for the complainants. The district protection committee
would also provide legal help and advice to the affected women.
A
brief introduction
Shagufta
Malik from Peshawar started her political career in 2004 and was elected
district president of ANP in 2005. She holds a Master's degree in political
science. The ANP awarded a ticket of KP Assembly to Shagufta Malik in 2008.
Shagufta
says she originally belongs to a Khudai Khidmatgar family that is why she
initiated her political journey from the platform of ANP as she wanted to
follow the footsteps of Bacha Khan. She says the ANP is a great champion of
women's rights. She says several Jirgas of women have been organised at Bacha
Khan Markaz in Peshawar in which a message has been given to the world that
Pakhtun women are peace-loving and they are promoting peace at their homes and
in the entire country.
https://menafn.com/1101748795/Pakistan-Women-must-not-always-look-towards-men-for-help-Shagufta-Malik
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-officials-reverse-ban-girls/d/124547
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