Aliya Assadi, a Karnataka Gold Medallist Hijabi: My Hijab Is At a Stake, and As an Indian, I See My Constitutional Values Have Been Violated
New Age Islam News Bureau
15 March 2022
• Abd al-Aziz, First Female Afro-Iraqi TV Presenter
Says 'Time to See All Iraqi Colours’
• Iran, Qatar Stress Enhancing Ties In Empowering
Women Field
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/aliya-assadi-gold-medallist-hijabi-hijab/d/126576
--------
Aliya Assad, a Karnataka Gold Medallist Hijabi: My
Hijab Is At a Stake, and As an Indian, I See My Constitutional Values Have Been
Violated
Aliaya Assadi speaking on
International Women's Day
-----
By Sheikh Saaliq
15 March 2022
UDUPI, India -- When Aliya Assadi was 12, she wore a
hijab while representing her southern Indian state of Karnataka at a karate
competition. She won gold.
Five years later she tried to wear one to her junior
college, the equivalent of a U.S. high school. She never made it past the
campus gate, turned away under a new policy barring the religious headgear.
“It’s not just a piece of cloth,” Assadi said while
visiting a friend’s house. She wore a niqab, an even more concealing garment
that veils nearly the entire face with just a slit for the eyes, which she dons
when away from home. “Hijab is my identity. And right now what they’re doing is
taking away my identity from me.”
She's one of countless Muslim students in Karnataka
who have found themselves thrust into the center of a stormy debate about
banning the hijab in schools and the Islamic head coverings' place in this
Hindu-majority but constitutionally secular nation.
The issue has become a flashpoint for the battle over
the rights of Muslims, who fear they are being shunted aside as a minority in
India and see hijab restrictions as a worrying escalation of Hindu nationalism
under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
On Tuesday, an Indian court upheld the ban, saying the
Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam.
The hijab is worn by many Muslim women to maintain
modesty or as a religious symbol, often seen as not just a bit of clothing but
something mandated by their faith. Opponents consider it a symbol of
oppression, imposed on women. Hijab supporters deny that and say it has
different meanings depending on the individual, including as a proud expression
of Muslim identity.
The furor began in January in India, where Muslims
make up just 14% of the country's 1.4 billion people but are still numerous
enough to make it the second-largest Muslim population of any nation, after
Indonesia.
Staffers at a government-run junior college in Udupi,
a coastal city in Karnataka, began refusing admission to girls who showed up in
a hijab, saying they were violating the uniform code.
The students protested by camping outside and holding
their lessons there, arguing that Muslim students had long been allowed to wear
headscarves at school. More schools in the state soon imposed similar bans,
prompting demonstrations by hundreds of Muslim women.
That led to counter protests by Hindu students wearing
saffron shawls, a color closely associated with that religion and favored by
Hindu nationalists. They shouted slogans like “Hail Lord Ram,” a phrase that
traditionally was used to celebrate the Hindu deity but has been co-opted by
nationalists.
At one campus a boy climbed a flagpole and hoisted a
saffron flag to cheers from friends. At another a girl in a hijab was met by
shouted Hindu slogans from a group of boys; she raised her fist and cried,
“Allahu Akbar!” — “God is great,” in Arabic.
To quell tensions the state, governed by Modi’s
Bharatiya Janata Party, shut schools and colleges for three days. It then
slapped a statewide ban on the hijab in classes, saying “religious clothing” in
government-run schools “disturbs equality, integrity and public law and order.”
Some students gave in and attended with their heads
uncovered. Others refused and have been barred from school for nearly two
months — students like Ayesha Anwar, an 18-year-old in Udupi who has missed
exams and is falling behind her peers.
“I feel like we are being let down by everyone,” Anwar
said while surrounded by friends in a dimly lit cafe, her voice barely a
whisper from behind her cloth veil.
Six students sued to overturn the state's ban, now
upheld by the court, arguing it violates their rights to education and
religious freedom. One of the plaintiffs to the challenge was Aliya Assadi.
“I’m an Indian and a Muslim,” she said. “When I see
this with the point of view of a Muslim, I see my hijab is at a stake, and as
an Indian, I see my constitutional values have been violated.”
There's a cost to her activism: Hindu nationalists’
doxxed her personal details on social media, unleashing a flood of online abuse
and harassment. She lost friends who depicted her actions as Muslim
fundamentalism.
But she's steadfast about wearing the hijab. She first
did so as a child, imitating her mother, carefully arranging the headscarf in
front of the mirror each morning. Today she enjoys the privacy it affords and
the sense of religious pride it conveys: “It makes me confident.”
Ayesha Imtiaz, another student barred from school,
said she wears it as a token of devotion to Islam but acknowledged that
opinions vary even among Muslim women.
“There are so many of my friends who do not wear hijab
inside the classroom,” said Imtiaz, 20. “They feel empowered in their own way,
and I feel empowered in my own way.”
In her eyes, the bans segregate women according to
faith and contravene core Indian values on diversity.
“It’s Islamophobia,” Imtiaz said.
Hijab restrictions have surfaced elsewhere, including
France, which in 2004 banned them in schools. Other European countries have
enacted regulations for public spaces, usually aimed at the more concealing garments
such as niqabs and burqas. Usage of head coverings has divided even some Muslim
communities.
In India, the hijab has historically been neither
prohibited nor limited in public spheres. Women donning the headscarf is common
across the country, which has religious freedom enshrined in its national
charter with the secular state as a cornerstone.
But critics of Modi say India has steadily drifted
from that commitment to secularism and today is deeply fractured along
religious lines. The prime minister and top Cabinet officials often perform
Hindu rituals and prayers on television, blurring the lines between religion
and the state.
Since coming into office in 2014, Modi's government
has passed a raft of laws that opponents call anti-Muslim, though his party
rejects accusations of being discriminatory.
Meanwhile calls for violence against Muslims have
moved from society's fringes toward the mainstream. Watchdog groups such as
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have warned that attacks could
escalate against Muslims, who are disproportionately represented in India's
most impoverished neighborhoods and in prisons.
Some of the anti-Islam sentiment has specifically
targeted women — recently many in the country were outraged by a website that
was set up offering a fake “auction” of more than 100 prominent Indian Muslim
women, including journalists, activists, artists and movie stars.
Muslim students allege that behind the counterprotests
in Karnataka was Hindu Jagran Vedike, a nationalist group associated with
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Hindu organization ideologically
linked to Modi’s political party.
Mahesh Bailur, a senior member of Hindu Jagran Vedike,
denied that his group organized demonstrations and said it only offered “moral
support” to the saffron shawls and their cause.
“Today these girls are demanding hijab in colleges.
Tomorrow they will want to pray there. Finally, they’ll want separate
classrooms for themselves,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”
Bailur, 36, is a proponent of a discredited conspiracy
theory that holds Muslims are plotting to convert India's Hindu population and
eventually remake it as an Islamic nation. Demands to wear the hijab in
classes, he argued, are part of that.
Manavi Atri, a human rights lawyer based in Bengaluru,
the capital of Karnataka, said the hijab ban is among many assaults on
expressions of Muslim identity in India today, violates principles of state
neutrality on religious matters, and inflates an “us-versus-them philosophy” in
a country already riven by sectarian divisions. Most troubling, she said, is
the pressure it puts on girls and young women in their formative years.
“This choice (between education and faith) that people
are being forced to make is not a choice one has to be exercising at that age,”
she said.
In the court case, lawyers for Karnataka state argued
that the Quran does not clearly establish wearing the hijab as an essential
spiritual practice, so banning it does not violate religious freedom.
Many Muslims reject that interpretation.
On a recent Friday, Rasheed Ahmad, the head imam of
Udupi’s grand mosque, delivered a sermon before hundreds of worshippers. His
voice thundering through loudspeakers mounted on the minarets, he railed
against the bans as an attack on Islam.
“Hijab is not just our right,” he said later in an
interview, “but an order from God.”
Assadi said she and the others are determined to
prevail.
“We are brave Muslim women,” she said, “and we know
how to fight for our rights.”
Source: ABC News
--------
Abd al-Aziz, First Female Afro-Iraqi TV Presenter Says
'Time to See All Iraqi Colours’
Randa Abd al-Aziz reading
the news on autocue screen inside Al-Iraqiya Channel news studio in Baghdad on
December. 13, 2021. Photo by: Azhar Al-Rubaie. -
-----
Azhar Al-Ruabie
March 12, 2022
BASRA, Iraq — The Afro-Iraqi population is estimated
to be 1.5 to 2 million (out of around 40 million Iraqis) and exists in many
Iraqi cities — with the majority living in the port city of Basra, the
second-largest city in Iraq after Baghdad. They also live in some of Baghdad’s
neighbourhoods such as the Sadr City district.
In fact, Iraqis of African descent are a big community
and are barely visible in the public space or in Iraqi media. They struggle for
rights, job opportunities and representation in the government.
Now, some see signs of hope with the appointment of a
Black woman, 27-year-old Randa Abd al-Aziz, as a TV presenter on state media.
Abd al-Aziz, a TV news anchor with Al-Iraqiya TV, said
the job opportunity — her first — came “out of the blue” when in 2021
state-owned Iraqi Media Network announced the job vacancy. She applied, along
with many others, and was offered the position. “My expectation to be a
journalist or TV presenter was only 6%, but when that person offered me this
chance, I discussed the matter with my family and close friends, and all of
them agreed and were happy to take this step."
“It was so difficult for me to enter the journalism
field as no one in my family or relatives is a journalist; it's such a
challenge. But it is a wonderful adventure to take,” she added.
Before ever going live on air, she experienced
intensive training under the supervision of senior journalists at the network
for a period of six months. “The network employees were so happy to have me.
They treat me in a special way that I feel we are a family and not just
colleagues,” she said. “I was chosen not because of my skin color but because
of my skills. [The administration] found me to be a good addition to the
network."
Iraq's first TV station was established in 1956 and
was the first Arab television during that time period. Iraqi media outlets had
never employed Black Iraqi journalists until Abd al-Aziz.
Abd al-Aziz has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural
economics from the University of Baghdad, but journalism was always her
passion. “If you have a desire and the will to work in any field, you can make
it … but with hard work. Nothing is free,” she said.
Abd al-Aziz added, “I am still doing my best to go on
air in the most professional manner, as Iraqis want to watch me. Furthermore,
my appearance on TV will inspire many Iraqi women, regardless of their color,
to follow my path.”
“I do not face discrimination at work; on the
contrary, they treat me fairly. I am still remembering that moment when I read
all the briefs/newsflashes with zero mistakes. Everyone behind the camera was
happy, and my family and friends were very glad," she said.
Abd al-Aziz’s smartphone does not have any social
media apps, and the only application she uses is WhatsApp for making calls and
chatting. She doesn't know what people write about her, and her family and
friends keep her updated on what others comment.
“Of course, there is a reason why I do not have social
media accounts. Actually, I would like to focus on my career and reaching my
goals, and I know social media needs a lot of time. [I can spend that time
developing] myself — and God willing, [I can] reach the world,” she added.
Nabil Jassim, head of the Iraqi Media Network, told
Al-Monitor in an interview, “Since 2003, Al-Iraqiya TV has reflected only one
color — and one opinion, which is affiliated with the government or certain
parties. That’s why when I took the position to run the network, I took into
consideration making TV represent everyone.”
He added that Iraqis of African origin are "a big
community and deserve to be part of the Iraqi Media Network.”
The presence of Afro-Iraqis in the country goes back
to the Abbasid era when many immigrants came to Iraq and were farmworkers and
also worked in fishing.
Saad Salloum, a professor of political science at
Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, told Al-Monitor, “Afro-Iraqis have been
part of the community for centuries, but they have suffered social
discrimination due to their skin color.”
Salloum added, “And there is no law or legislation in
the constitution that guarantees their rights. The Iraqi Constitution recognize
only a few ethnic and religious groups.”
Despite the plight of Afro-Iraqis, they continue to
preserve their cultural heritage, customs and traditions that were brought to
the country. Many of them established bands to celebrate events and weddings.
Majed al-Khalidi, spokesperson of the Black People Society
in Basra, said to Al-Monitor, “We face all kinds of discrimination, either by
government or by people. Many people still call us ‘abd,’ which means ‘slave’
in Arabic — not only do people call us that, but we also are called that in
comedy shows and TV series. They intentionally show Black people as slaves or
make fun of them.”
Khalidi added, “We struggle to get the rights of our
community met, but what makes it hard is because we have no support by Islamic
parties nor any affiliation with any politicians.”
“Seeing Randa Abd al-Aziz on TV is a wonderful step,
and she shed the light on our community. But this is not what we dreamed. It is
not a big deal compared with what we deserve.”
Source: Al Monitor
--------
Iran, Qatar stress enhancing ties in empowering women
field
Mar 15, 2022
Iranian Vice-President for Women and Family Affairs
Ensieh Khazali met and held talks with Qatari Minister of Social Development
and Family Mariam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad on Tuesday on the sidelines of
the 66th Session of UN Commission on Status of Women (CSW).
During the meeting, the Iranian Vice-President pointed
to the recent visit of President Ebrahim Raeisi to Doha to sign several
Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs).
Khazali proposed Qatari side for setting up a special
Working Group for women for realizing most objectives in this respect.
Qatari diplomat welcomed the cooperation plan as
proposed by Iran’s Vice-President and stressed the importance of the role of
women in the family and the need for a multidimensional view of the role of
women in the family.
The two sides also discussed women's empowerment, the
outstanding role of women in the family unit and children and exchanged views
on new ways of educating children.
Qatari minister pointed to the cultural similarities
between the two countries of Iran and Qatar in terms of the role of women in
the family and highlighted the key role of women in family and childcare,
especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Khazali also held talks with Italy’s Minister for
Equal Opportunities and Family on the vulnerability of women in calamities and
the necessity for helping them.
During the talks, Khazali said Iranian women have been
among those who could well help vulnerable strata in the society in critical
conditions.
Khazali made the remarks while referring to the
pandemic conditions when women more than others helped and supported the
patients by providing face masks for them and giving cash help.
Source: Mehr News
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/184884/Iran-Qatar-stress-enhancing-ties-in-empowering-women-field
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/aliya-assadi-gold-medallist-hijabi-hijab/d/126576