New Age Islam News Bureau
09 January 2023
• Sharifa Al-Sudairi, Saudi Mom-Of-2 Aiming High As
Kingdom’s 1st Female Skier
• Herat Female Entrepreneur Creates Jobs For 100
Locals
• Quranic Circles for Women Received Well in Egypt
• Facing Islamophobia, Calgary's Muslim Women Share
Their Experiences Of Discrimination
• Mumbai: Speakers Counter Legislation On Interfaith
Marriage At 'Love In The Time Of Hate' Event In Colaba
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/hoda-muthana-isis-extremists/d/128835
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Alabama Woman, Hoda Muthana, Who Joined ISIS Hopes To
Return To US And Advocate Against The Extremists
Hoda Muthana, who is from
Alabama, ran away at age 20 to join Islamic State in Syria and had a child with
one of its fighters.(News Movement)
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08 January ,2023
A woman who ran away from home in Alabama at the age
of 20, joined ISIS and had a child with one of its fighters says she still
hopes to return to the US, serve prison time if necessary, and advocate against
the extremists.
In a rare interview from the Roj detention camp in
Syria where she is being held by US-allied Kurdish forces, Hoda Muthana said
she was brainwashed by online traffickers into joining the group in 2014 and
regrets everything except her young son.
“If I need to sit in prison, and do my time, I will do
it... I won’t fight against it,” the 28-year-old told US-based outlet The News
Movement. “I’m hoping my government looks at me as someone young at the time
and naive.”
It’s a line she’s repeated in various media interviews
since fleeing from one of the extremist group’s last enclaves in Syria in early
2019.
But four years earlier, at the height of the
extremists’ power, she had voiced enthusiastic support for them on social media
and in an interview with BuzzFeed News.
ISIS then ruled a self-declared Islamic caliphate
stretching across roughly a third of both Syria and Iraq. In tweets from 2015
she called on Americans to join the group and carry out attacks in the US,
suggesting drive-by shootings or vehicle rammings targeting gatherings for
national holidays.
In her interview with TNM, Muthana now says her phone
was taken from her and that the tweets were sent by ISIS supporters.
Muthana was born in New Jersey to Yemeni immigrants
and once had a US passport. She was raised in a conservative Muslim household
in Hoover, Alabama, just outside Birmingham. In 2014, she told her family she
was going on a school trip but flew to Turkey and crossed into Syria instead,
funding the travel with tuition checks that she had secretly cashed.
The Obama administration canceled her citizenship in
2016, saying her father was an accredited Yemeni diplomat at the time she was
born — a rare revocation of birthright citizenship. Her lawyers have disputed
that move, arguing that the father’s diplomatic accreditation ended before she
was born.
The Trump administration maintained that she was not a
citizen and barred her from returning, even as it pressed European allies to
repatriate their own detained nationals to reduce pressure on the detention
camps.
US courts have sided with the government on the
question of Muthana’s citizenship, and last January the Supreme Court declined
to consider her lawsuit seeking re-entry.
That has left her and her son languishing in a
detention camp in northern Syria housing thousands of widows of ISIS fighters
and their children.
Some 65,600 suspected ISIS members and their families
— both Syrians and foreign citizens — are held in camps and prisons in
northeastern Syria run by US-allied Kurdish groups, according to a Human Rights
Watch report released last month.
Women accused of affiliation with ISIS and their minor
children are largely housed in the al-Hol and Roj camps, under what the rights
group described as “life threatening conditions.” The camp inmates include more
than 37,400 foreigners, among them Europeans and North Americans.
Human Rights Watch and other monitors have cited dire
living conditions in the camps, including inadequate food, water and medical
care, as well as the physical and sexual abuse of inmates by guards and fellow
detainees.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Sharifa Al-Sudairi, Saudi Mom-Of-2 Aiming High As
Kingdom’s 1st Female Skier
Sharifa Al-Sudairi during
her recent participation in the Ski Dubai event.
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Aisha Fareed
January 08, 2023
Riyadh: A Saudi mom-of-two has been getting a piste of
the action as the first woman to represent the Kingdom in skiing.
Sharifa Al-Sudairi hit the headlines after
successfully competing in the recent Ski Dubai event.
The Jeddah-born 35-year-old found herself up against
25 top skiers from around the world in the competition but still managed to
secure second, fourth, and fifth places in different categories.
She is among a growing band of Saudi sporting talents
making a name for themselves as part of the Kingdom’s push to promote sport for
all, host major international events, and compete on the global stage.
Brought up in the Red Sea port city, Al-Sudairi went
to a boarding school in Switzerland and attended universities in London where
she gained a bachelor’s degree in fine art and a master’s degree in art and
business.
Supported by her family in her dream to become a top
skier, she told Arab News that her father had always encouraged her to be sporty
and independent.
She said: “I have always enjoyed being active and have
taken part in many different sports while growing up including tennis,
basketball, surfing and, of course, skiing.”
Al-Sudairi learned to ski at a young age while on
family holidays in Switzerland, and she now considers her participation in the
sport more as a passion than a career.
“Skiing for me encompasses all of the things that make
me happy; you get to be active and healthy, while in the majesty of nature.
“Skiing on beautiful white slopes in incredible
surroundings reminds me how dramatic and wonderful Earth is.
“But what started as a hobby and favorite pastime,
evolved into me taking this on professionally,” she added.
She was able to further develop her skills through
training sessions with several race instructors at Swiss ski resorts and was
recently introduced to the president of the Saudi Winter Sports Federation,
Ahmad Al-Tabbaa, and the organization’s vice president, Rabab Mahassen, who
provided support and encouraged her to join the Saudi ski team.
The Ski Dubai tournament was Al-Sudairi’s first
official competition success having previously raced and won in smaller
community events in Switzerland.
She said: “I won fourth and fifth place in the general
races and also managed to get second place in one of the categories.”
The competition was organized by the UAE’s Ski
Federation and the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, the world’s
leading governing body for the sport.
“Given my love for my country and for skiing and all
the support from the federation, I decided to pursue this on a professional
basis,” she added.
Al-Sudairi said she was proud and honored to be the
first Saudi woman to represent the Kingdom in Alpine skiing, describing it as a
way to serve her country in times of positive change.
“It also means I get to play a role, among other
incredible women that I admire, in being part of a movement that puts women at
center stage in Saudi Arabia.
“This will hopefully encourage a whole new generation
of women in the country to achieve their full potential and follow their
dreams,” she added.
And she hopes to be a source of inspiration for others
to follow their ambitions.
“I think this is an incredible moment in Saudi history
and for me, especially in the field of sports.
“I am thrilled to see the many sporting events that
the country has been hosting; we have seen an increase in interest in sports
among Saudi citizens and especially among youth,” she said.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2228616/saudi-sport
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Herat female entrepreneur creates jobs for 100 locals
January 9, 2023
A woman in Herat province has created a carpet weaving
and sewing workshop for more than a hundred other women with her personal
investment.
In this workshop, some women are working and others
are learning carpet weaving and sewing.
Zainab Firouzi, the person in charge of this workshop,
said that she is trying to support poor and homeless women.
“The environment here is completely female, this is a
good environment for women to earn the family’s expenses,” she told to the
Etilaat Roz newspaper.
According to Mrs. Ferozi, women working in this
workshop receive a monthly salary of 3 to 4,500 Afghanis.
Mrs. Firouzi added that the restriction on women’s
employment made her act in order to provide work for women.
In her workshop, 50 women work in the carpet weaving
department and 60 women work in the sewing department.
A number of women working in this workshop say that
this work is a source of income for them.—Afghanistan Timews
Source: Pak Observer
https://pakobserver.net/herat-female-entrepreneur-creates-jobs-for-100-locals/
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Quranic Circles for Women Received Well in Egypt
January 09, 2023
The ministry said women have shown great interest in
participation in these programs, which include sessions featuring reflection on
the verses of the Quran and understanding its concepts, Youm7 website reported.
The events also include Quran interpretation, Fiqh
(Islamic jurisprudence) and lesson on the Seerah of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), it
noted.
It added that such programs are organized in line with
the ministry’s efforts to elevate the role of women in society and enhance
their participation in Quranic activities.
They would help to promote moderate ideas and raise
awareness among women, the ministry went on to say.
The Awqaf ministry will continue to hold Quranic
events for women in various governorates of Egypt including Alexandria,
Menofia, Al-Sharqia, and Gharbia, it underlined.
Egypt is a country in North Africa with a population
of around 100 million. Muslims account for around 90 percent of the country’s
total population. Quranic activities are very common in the Muslim-majority
Arab country
Source: IQNA
https://iqna.ir/en/news/3482007/quranic-circles-for-women-received-well-in-egypt
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Facing Islamophobia, Calgary's Muslim Women Share
Their Experiences Of Discrimination
Jan 08, 2023
Jo Horwood, Omar Sherif
At 19-years-old, Duaa-Azeem Choudhary is already no
stranger to hate.
Born in Quebec to Pakistani immigrant parents who
didn't speak French, Choudhary and her family tried to escape the racism they
faced in that province by moving to Calgary.
But in her new home, Choudhary became a target of
Islamophobic-driven harassment while riding the bus one day. She remembers
being the only person on the bus wearing a hijab when a group of men began to
stare at her.
"There was a group of white guys that I noticed
that kept looking back and I got dirty looks," Choudhary said. She ignored
the men hoping that the situation wouldn't escalate, but after they got off the
bus, they stopped directly in front of her window.
"One of them spat directly [at] my face. And I
don't know, that was like a moment of shock for me because I had never experienced
anything like that before and I felt singled out."
That incident happened when Choudhary was 17-years-old
— two months after she put on a hijab for the first time. Before that, she says
she didn't experience as much racism.
"I could certainly feel a slight change, like
colder interactions … but nothing like that had ever happened, so it just took
me a while to process it," she said.
Wearing the hijab
Wearing the hijab is considered an act of worship.
It's both a personal and independent choice that Muslim women make when they
come of age.
Inspired by her mother, Choudhary always wanted to
wear the hijab, eventually making the change when she started university.
"A lot of people know that there was an incident
in the Prince's Island Park and in that incident a woman who was wearing hijab,
it was a hate motivated crime, and she was actually attacked," said Zainab
Khan, project manager, Canadian Pakistani Support Group (CPSG) Maskan — a
project intended to provide temporary shelter and demand-driven support for a
women and children.
In recent times, incidents similar to Choudary's and
that at Prince's Island Park have become common. Several women of the Islamic
faith have been victims of both verbal and physical assaults in Calgary because
of their appearance.
After the Prince's Island Park incident, Khan said
that some people within the community were questioning themselves and wondering
if they should allow their daughters to wear hijab.
"Should they lose their identity … those were the
confusions, those were the things that were going on in the community
unheard," she said.
"Those were the things that should be given
voice, those experiences."
All of this has made Choudhary begin to wonder if the
harassment she and others face are due to misconceptions of Islam.
A more tolerant future
At an event organized by CPSG centred around sharing
concerns and recommendations about combating hate crimes and racism, Muslims and
non-Muslims came together to recount their experiences and come up with ways to
attempt to eradicate hate.
"If these hate crimes are happening because of
false perceptions of our religion, then maybe we need to talk about what our
religion is," Choudhary said.
The event is an instalment of the provincial
government's anti-racism series — a plan set out by the Government of Alberta
to bring about more tolerance and understanding.
More specifically, the event focused on voicing the
concerns and experiences of Muslims and Muslim women — especially those who
wear hijabs — in an attempt to gather information for the government to combat
discrimination.
For both Choudhary and Khan, the way forward is
simple. Educate people about Islam and highlight the religion's messages of
peace, tolerance, and equality.
"It takes all of us to build an inclusive and
diverse Alberta. And for us it's important that we learn about different
cultures and religions," said Khan.
"It's all about connecting with each other and
spreading the message of peace."
Young Calgary
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shape the news.
You can join our text messaging community to share
your ideas.
Highlight the heroes in your life. Tell us about the
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Source: CBC
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/muslim-women-calgary-alberta-hijab-1.6706113
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Mumbai: Speakers counter legislation on interfaith
marriage at 'Love in the time of hate' event in Colaba
January 08, 2023
Mumbai: Prominent personalities from all walks of life
emphasised on the need to counter-hate at an event on Saturday. Titled ‘Love in
the time of hate: State regulation of interfaith relationships’, the event was
organised by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) at YMCA in Colaba.
The speakers said that the legislation on interfaith
marriage is surprising in a progressive state and is meant to do away with
diversity and “maintain purification of culture”.
Speakers surprised at the legislation brought in
Maharashtra
Among the participants were Dr Sai Thakur, Assistant
Professor at the Centre of Study for Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policies,
TISS; Irfan Engineer, Director of Centre for Study of Society and Secularism;
Utkarsha Rupwate, Member of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women; actor
Ratna Pathak Shah; and senior counsel Mihir Desai.
Terming the legislation on interfaith marriage as
“state-sponsored Khap”, Dr Thakur said that conversions did not happen in as
many instances as it was put out to be. A case study from Kerala stated that of
the 229 interfaith marriages, conversions took place only in the case of 63
(all religions). She said that the idea stemmed from the thought process that
Hindu women’s sexuality needs to be “protected”, while that of Muslim women
needs to be “exploited”. She said, “It is something Savarkar said while
criticising Shivaji Maharaj when he sent away the daughter of Muslim
respectfully. He called it Sagud Vikruti.”
Speakers said that the legislation was a surprise in
Maharashtra that always considered itself to be a “progressive state”. “The
idea is that the choices need to be controlled and Hindu women should be within
the community. It is like the Apartheid South Africa that had banned inter-racial
marriage and sexual conduct,” said Mr Engineer.
Lack of data, points out Women’s Commission
Ms Rupwate said that the Women’s Commission was
surprised when the committee on interfaith was formed as there existed no data
on it. “The cases that come to us regarding violence and multiple marriages are
cases of the same religion and notinterfaith. It is slow poisoning,” she said.
Ms Shah said the question of Hindu or Muslims never
struck her until her child asked about it during riots. “Even when I was
married to Naseeruddin, people said he is married, has children but no one
mentioned he is Muslim. I thought that was the India I grew up in…,” she said,
adding that hate and disruption are difficult to sustain but one should not
live in a dream world and pretend everything is fine like in films.
Mr Desai who focused on legislations and
anti-conversion laws in the state said that the committee is a precursor to an
anti-conversion law that is in the coming. “It’s a facade of being progressive.
This committee is to get the data, which will then form the basis of a law that
is passed in 11 states,” he said.
Source: Free Press Journal
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