All-India Ulema Board Asks Qazis to Officiate Interfaith Weddings in Presence of Parents
New Age Islam News Bureau
22 February 2022
• Saudi Women Can Apply For Air Hostess Jobs with
Saudi Arabian Airline Saudia
• My Hijab: Nigerian Muslim Women on Faith and Fashion
• Pakistan Govt to Counter 'Aurat March', Promote
International Hijab Day: Report
• Turkey’s Women Journalists Are under Attack from the
State
• Women’s Costumes in First Saudi State Diverse to
Each Region
• Pakistan: Religious Affairs Minister Appeals to
Imran Khan to Declare Women’s Day As International Hijab Day
• Far-Right Jewish Extremist, Or Leibler, Discovers
Her Biological Parents Are Muslim
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/ulema-board-qazi-interfaith-weddings/d/126427
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All-India Ulema Board Asks Qazis to Officiate
Interfaith Weddings in Presence of Parents
(Photo: Getty)
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Feb 21, 2022
BHOPAL: The All-India Ulema Board has asked Qazis to
officiate interfaith weddings only in presence of parents of couples for the
sake of peace and harmony, the organisation’s president said on Monday.
Cases have been filed over inter-religious marriages
in states such as Madhya Pradesh under the anti-conversion law, which provides
for imprisonment up to 10 years.
Qazi Syed Anas Ali Nadvi, the board’s president, said
such marriages happening without the approval of parents was harming harmony.
“A letter has been written in this regard to all the Qazis to solemnise
inter-religious weddings only in the presence of parents of couples,” he said.
Nadvi said it is not permissible to get married
without the consent and presence of the parents. “It is necessary that at the
time of registering the marriages, the necessary documents should be checked
for their authenticity,” he said. He added the purpose of such marriages should
not be only conversion.
Nadvi said they were receiving complaints about secret
marriages, which are unnecessarily creating tensions. “It is not right to
change religion for marriage. It has come to our notice that people have
changed their names according to Islam just for the purpose of registering the
marriages but they are living with their old identities.”
He added action will be taken against qazis who
violate the order. Nadvi said marriages without the consent of parents were
hurting the harmonious culture.
Ishrat Ali, a qazi in Indore, said they were not
officiating inter-faith marriages since the enactment of the anti-conversion
law in Madhya Pradesh. “According to Islam, any adult man and woman can marry
each other in the presence of two witnesses. The presence of parents is not necessary.”
Madhya Pradesh is among the Bharatiya Janata
Party-ruled states that have criminalised what they call forced religious
conversion, including through interfaith marriages. Critics of the legislation
say they are being misused to target minorities and tend to infantilise women
to prevent them from choosing who they wish to marry.
Vigilante groups have targeted interfaith couples and
the anti-conversion laws were passed after a campaign against “love jihad”, the
term Hindu groups use to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu
women. The groups believe “love jihad” is an organised conspiracy of Muslim men
to trick Hindu women into marriage.
Source: Hindustan Times
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Saudi Women Can Apply For Air Hostess Jobs with Saudi
Arabian Airline Saudia
February 22, 2022
Khitam Al Amir
Dubai: Saudi women aged 20-30 can from now on apply to
work as flight attendants at Saudi Arabian airline Saudia.
The airline stipulated secondary education and fluency
in English as minimum qualifications for the job.
Shortlisted candidates will have to clear admission
stages and tests, and undergo a two-month training. They will also have to
clear a medical examination.
In 2020, Flynas, a low-cost Saudi private airline,
started recruiting Saudi women to work as air hostesses, in a new first while
creating new job opportunities for women. It was the first among Saudi carriers
to recruit women in senior positions.
Source: Gulf News
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My Hijab: Nigerian Muslim Women on Faith and Fashion
21 FEBRUARY 2022
Maiduguri — 'I'll tell my daughter: Know your rights,
love yourself, and always have your own money!'
What's in anyone's wardrobe is inherently political.
That's especially true in Nigeria's northeast, a region at the centre of a
more-than-decade-long jihadist conflict where how a woman dresses comes under
particular scrutiny.
Most Muslim women in the main city of Maiduguri, the
birthplace of Boko Haram, believe their religion calls on them to cover their
hair, and will wear at least a headscarf known as a hijab, usually paired with
a floor-length gown.
How thick or long the hijab, how loose or tight -
adorned or plain - the gown, is all wrapped up in cultural perceptions of how a
northern woman should dress.
At the extremist end of the dial are the jihadists,
who obsess over the control of women and their bodies. Their puritanical
ideology holds that women should be largely confined to their homes, and, when
out in public, as anonymous as possible.
Veils, headscarves, vibrant robes - even socks and
gloves for the more conservative - what Muslim women wear reflects a culture of
"modesty" and a negotiated and shifting idea of appropriate attire.
The passages in the Quran recommending what today is
understood to be a hijab means "covering" is generally interpreted as
a religious duty. Even among women in the northeast who describe themselves as
feminists, the discussion is less about the rights and wrongs of this
injunction, but the broader - and evolving - issue of women's position in
society.
For Muslim women, there are a range of traditional
hijab and gown styles to choose from, depicting differences in region and
class. From the long gele veil, to a tight bodice atampa in African ankara
print, or a more conservative Gulf-style Abaya.
By playing with length, pairings, and fit, cultural
attire can be creatively reinvented.
But a new generation of women in the northeast rejects
that hyper-masculine creed. Dressing modestly is their choice, they say - an
expression of their religious identity, not a dress code commanded by the
jihadists, nor a symbol of their diminishment, as some view the hijab.
The New Humanitarian sat down with four upwardly
mobile young women - Aisha Muhammed, Fatima Lawan, Samira Othman and Zainab
Sabo - to get their take on the changes underway in gender relations in the
northeast, and how that is reflected in fashion.
To capture the feel and flavour, the four were
photographed at the city's derelict railway station by Fati Abubakar, a
photojournalist from Maiduguri who has chronicled the impact of the war on her
home region.
The station is across the road from a pile of rubble
once known as the Markas or "centre", the former home of Boko Haram
when it was still just an extremist sect. It was bulldozed by the army in 2009
after the group launched a short-lived insurrection that marked the beginning
of their jihad.
"Around the railway station area, young girls
weren't free to move around [during the days of Boko Haram]," said Zainab,
who runs a bakery business. "Boko Haram came up with something new that
was very extreme; they were forcing their views on people."
But here, a decade on, this group of graduates is
proud to don their hijabs, and determined to leave a mark on society. By fully
owning the headscarf, they have turned it into an item of couture, to be worn
with style and panache.
"It's different from 10 years ago [when Boko
Haram was active in Maiduguri]. Then, there would be that stigma that you
weren't dressing correctly," said Aisha, a local NGO worker. "But now
I'm wearing my small little veil, and I feel free!"
These women embrace a global modesty movement that
argues fashion need not be revealing or a challenge to one's faith. They
described how social media allows a pan-African sharing of the hijab aesthetic
- an empowering affirmation of their identity as Muslim women that transcends
Boko Haram's parochialism.
Although there's a cultural necessity to
"covering", they argue it's their choice as Muslim women - despite
the social pressure and the much-debated notions of "choice" and
autonomy.
The larger battle
Dress code conformity wins Muslim women in the
northeast a stake in a bigger battle. Compliance allows them to compete in the
job market, and with that comes greater personal independence and financial
security - all anathema to the jihadists.
The surge in aid and development money to the
northeast has created job openings that women have enthusiastically stepped
into. Ultra-conservative gender roles have been further eroded by the economic
fallout of the conflict, with everyone in a Maiduguri household now expected to
pull their weight.
"You can't depend on your father or husband as
the sole provider; you have to flex your entrepreneurial skills," said
Fatima, an aid worker, referring to the welter of new home-based businesses,
from perfume and cosmetics to IT.
"Everybody is doing something," she nodded.
"It's still very hard [because of the state of the economy], but the
number of women that now have skills and are hustling - this is the peak."
Culture does change - sometimes quickly, sometimes
slowly. Historically, veils were rare in the northeast. Instead, variations of
hairstyles - for both men and women - were important markers of age and status,
especially among the Kanuri, the largest ethnic group in the region.
But the 1970s saw the beginning of the spread of a
stern wahhabi doctrine from Saudi Arabia. Religious leaders who had studied in
the Gulf promoted the hijab, embraced by Maiduguri's educated elite as part of
a growing religious revival.
The modesty movement provides a new twist: From the
hip-hop and commercial high street fashion-influenced hijab popular in the West
to the more conservative apparel of the Gulf and Turkey favoured by women in
Maiduguri.
But there has been a global counter reaction to modest
fashion by some male trolls. They argue that by jazzing up their hijabs, and
being hypervisible on Instagram, women are ignoring the essence of the
headscarf.
That negative, regulatory voice is also heard in
Maiduguri, said Zainab.
Sitting around a conference table in a private house
converted to workshop rooms - one small example of the impact of the
development industry - these women see themselves as having far more
opportunity than their mothers ever did to impact society.
"Nobody can stop us. We're moving forward,"
said Aisha, caught up in the positivity around the table. "When you've
tasted freedom - especially the financial independence part - nobody wants to
go back to the way it was."
Beyond the city
So far, so middle class. But gender roles are also
being tentatively reshaped in the displacement camps, bursting with people who
have fled the rural areas where the war is being fought - a conflict that has
killed at least 35,000 people and forced more than two million people from their
homes.
Women-headed households are common due to the deaths
of husbands and sons - or their detention by the security forces. Even when
there is a man around, wives receive direct aid payments, which gives them a
measure of control over family spending.
Yakura Abakar sews traditional caps to supplement her
food ration in the Dalori displacement camp, just outside Maiduguri. She now
sends her daughters to school, which had not been the case in her old rural
village, close to the town of Dikwa, near the Cameroonian border.
"Women have become very wise, very active,"
Abakar told The New Humanitarian. "These young [NGO] women teach us how to
do things, and some of the attitudes we've learnt from them."
But it's more a case of incremental change than
revolution. Boko Haram's austere gender authoritarianism has deep roots within
traditional society. Whatever softening has taken place at the margins, the
gender dynamics mean that men - as around the world - still retain considerable
political, economic, and cultural power.
"As a woman, you're judged all the time,"
said Samira, one of the four interviewees. "Men do worse things, the real
haram [forbidden] things, but patriarchy says that it's always the woman who is
wrong."
In the majority Christian south of Nigeria, wearing a
hijab has also become politicised. For some, the headscarf is synonymous with
"Islamisation", part of a perceived plot to overturn the country's
secular constitution: School classrooms have become a particular point of
friction.
Crises driven in part by identity-based tensions have
deepened under the northern-led government of President Muhamadu Buhari: the
jihadist conflict, expanding banditry that's linked to young Muslim
pastoralists, and a growing demand for secession by the militantly Christian
southeast.
"What hijab-critics need to realise is that it's
not being worn for you - it's being worn by Muslim women who want to cover and
be modest as part of their freedom of expression," Rahama Baloi, a
conflict specialist, told The New Humanitatrian.
When she worked in the cosmopolitan capital, Abuja,
Baloi said she was at times teased by colleagues that her hijab denoted
sympathy for Boko Haram.
"I don't align politically on the basis of my
hijab," she explained. "My hijab doesn't define what I believe in -
but it's what you grew up with; it's what you feel comfortable with."
Yet the women around the table were confident they
were asserting a new Islamic vision of feminism - one harking back to the early
days of their faith and quranic ideals of equality. What went unsaid was what
happens to women in the northeast who transgress, who ignore the cultural
guardrails - and who sets the punishment?
The male backlash
Hauwa Mahdi, an academic who has done key work on the
hijab in Nigeria, told The New Humanitarian she remembers walking past a mosque
in Maiduguri in the 1980s wearing a hijab, but also jeans. That drew furious
shouts from men in the area who accused her of being "disrespectful".
"You can't be in a Muslim country and just go out
anyhow; you'll be quickly judged as ill-mannered," said Aisha, explaining
the sensitivity of compliance. "It's a northern thing. The culture,
regardless of the religion, is to cover. Even Christians [in the northeast] are
more comfortable covering their bodies."
Aishatu Kabu quit an international NGO job to start
her own women's empowerment organisation. In a region with the country's worst
social and health indicators for women, freedom to wear what you want is not on
her list of priorities.
"What we're battling for here is against child
marriages, the need for girls' education, reproductive health - we haven't gone
beyond that level yet," Kabu told The New Humanitarian.
She fears the gender gains made so far are fragile,
that a backlash is building among men over their perceived loss of control,
which extends from displacement camps - where men are resisting the
women-centred focus of aid delivery - to the marital home.
Mahdi, the academic, is also concerned. "If women
are not organised to preserve their [empowerment] wins, then, as soon as peace
returns, it's back to the kitchen," she explained. "That's how
patriarchy operates."
Yet Zainab, the baker, insists her generation of women
is "woke" and different.
"I'll tell my daughter: 'Know your rights, love
yourself, and always have your own money!'"
Source: All Africa
https://allafrica.com/stories/202202220021.html
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Pakistan govt to counter 'Aurat March', promote
international hijab day: Report
Feb 22, 2022
As women in Pakistan prepare for 'Aurat March'
scheduled to be held on International Women's Day on March 8, the Imran Khan
government is seeking to thwart their efforts for women empowerment by hailing
hijab in order to promote conservatism, said a think tank, Policy Research
Group (POREG).
In order to roll back 'Aurat March' organised every
year by Pakistani women on International Women's Day, Minister for Religious
Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to declare
March 8 as International Hijab Day.
The minister has claimed that the 'Aurat March' held
across Pakistan on that day since 2018 goes "against the principles of
Islam."
In his letter to Imran Khan, Qadri has suggested a
regressive measure to alter "the status of an UN-designated international
day that aims to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political
achievements of women", reported the think tank.
"No organisation should be allowed to question or
ridicule Islamic values, norms of society, hijab or the modesty of Muslim women
at the Aurat March or any other event held in connection with International
Women's Day as these acts hurt the sentiments of Muslims in the country,"
read the letter written by the minister.
However, Qadri's statement drew flak from women
lawmakers, diplomats and civil society leaders, following which, he issued a
clarification saying "Obscenity and hooliganism in the name of rights
should not be allowed under any circumstances," further alleging that his
letter "reflected the collective thinking of the Pakistani society,"
reported POREG.
Aurat March, which was first held in the city of
Karachi in 2018, is now organized every year to celebrate International Women's
Day. The march highlight the issues women face in Pakistan.
In the last four years, educated urban women, many
from mainstream political parties and from the academia in Pakistan have made
good use of the Aurat March on the streets and on social media to create
awareness of women's dismal conditions in the country, according to the think
tank.
Ironically, misogyny and patriarchy in Pakistan have
also united staunch rivals- Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and
opposition Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)- as they both have come together
to oppose 'Aurat March' in the country, reported the Dawn newspaper.
Source: Hindustan Times
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Turkey’s women journalists are under attack from the
state
21/02/2022
Journalism is in peril in Turkey, a country that is
becoming known more for its jailed journalists than the quality of their
reporting. Increasingly, though, it is Turkey’s female journalists, once the
frontline defenders of Turkish media freedom, who are in the crosshairs. From
institutional bias to the government’s repressive gender policies, being a
woman in the Turkish news business is a thankless and often costly, endeavour.
Two years ago, the story read differently. In December
2020, the Turkish edition of Madame Figaro featured “The Jedi Women of The
Fourth Estate”, five successful female journalists who were fighting the
industry’s dark forces. Not only had these women established themselves in
Turkey’s male chauvinistic media ecosystem, but they were still airing critical
views despite an expanding bubble of censorship that was granted a legislative
boost after a failed coup attempt in 2016.
Fast forward to 2022, and at least three of the five
“Jedis of journalism” have appeared to become casualties of Turkey’s war on the
press.
Last month, journalist and television presenter Sedef
Kabas, the first Turk ever hired by CNN International, was detained for
allegedly insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Her crime: reciting a
proverb about a bull, a palace and a barn on television. With a
disproportionate show of force, Kabas’s home was raided at 2am and she was
taken into custody. Prosecutors have demanded an 11-year jail term. After the
sudden arrest, fellow Madame Figaro “Jedi” Ozlem Gurses, reported the arrest on
social media, lamenting the fate of her colleague.
Since the cover shoot, each of the other three women
featured by Madame Figaro have left their positions. Ahu Ozyurt, a Columbia
Journalism School graduate with more than 30 years of experience in news, lost
her job at TV100 in a round of lay-offs. Tuluhan Tekelioglu left her job as a
television anchorwoman to pursue documentary filmmaking. Even Esra Aysan, the
editor-in-chief of Madame Figaro who brought the women together, has left the
magazine.
“My heart is breaking,” Gurses wrote on Instagram.
“All of us are educated, smart, conscientious, hardworking, strong women. The
outcome should have somehow been different.”
Even in more emancipated countries, women are
underrepresented and underpaid in the media landscape, especially in executive
positions. In the United States, 73 percent of the top management jobs in the
media sector are held by men. The gender gap seems hardest to bridge at the top
echelons of liberal journalism. At The New York Times, for instance, two out of
every three bylines are by men.
It was only after the #MeToo movement that Western
media warmed up to the idea of female executives. In 2019, the Financial Times
appointed its first female editor-in-chief, Roula Khalaf, in its 131-year
history. In 2015, Katharine Viner broke the glass ceiling at the 194-year-old
The Guardian and Zanny Minton Beddoes became the first female editor at the
Economist in its 170 years. If it took this long for women in the West to
ascend to the highest rungs of the media ladder, how can one expect Turkey’s
female journalists to get there sooner?
Still, the gendered headwinds that Turkish journalists
must navigate are particularly fierce. Turkey ranks 133 out of 156 countries
for gender equality, according to the World Economic Forum and women make up
less than one-third of Turkey’s labour force. Meanwhile, President Erdogan has
pursued policies that have infuriated women’s rights activists, lawyers and
opposition politicians. He has gone on record saying that women are not equal
to men and has accused feminists of rejecting motherhood. Last year, he
annulled Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against
women, bending to hardliners.
All of this translates to a dismal showing for women
in Turkey’s media industry. In 2014, the Bianet news agency found that 90
percent of newspaper editors-in-chief were men and just 16 percent of newsroom
executives were women. Further analysis conducted in 2020 by Yunus Erduran and
Dilek Icten, for the Media Research Association (MEDAR), found that 20 percent
of employees in print media and 16 percent in television, are women. Moreover,
a February 2018 survey of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey’s Women and LGBTI
Commission, found that six in ten female journalists have been discriminated
against due to their gender and more than 55 percent believe they are victims
of unequal pay.
It is hard not to conclude that Turkey’s leaders have
no interest in reversing these trends. Months before withdrawing from the
Istanbul Convention, a report prepared by the Coalition for Women in Journalism
(CFWIJ) ranked Turkey first in the world for violence against female
journalists. Even more troubling, CFWIJ found a 158 percent spike in police
violence against women in the news, a horrific uptick that can only be read as
the state deliberately targeting female journalists.
Legal harassment and intimidation by the state have
become daily hazards for journalists in Turkey and in 2021, 18 journalists were
behind bars (down from 84 in 2016). Sedef Kabaş is one of the state’s most
recent victims. The government’s position is clear: journalists who speak their
minds have no place in today’s Turkey and that goes double for women.
Source: The Arab Weekly
https://thearabweekly.com/turkeys-women-journalists-are-under-attack-state
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Women’s costumes in first Saudi state diverse to each region
February 22, 2022
RIYADH — The ancient costumes of Saudi women who lived
in the first Saudi State were simple, yet unique. Women’s dresses at the time
of the founding of the state were mainly made of natural materials and fabrics.
These costumes varied in accordance with different regions and special
occasions.
Women’s clothing in the first Saudi State differed
according to regions. These included clothes for daily use and others for
special occasions. In this context, the official website of Saudi Arabia’s
Founding Day stated: “Women’s fashion varied at the time of the establishment
of the first Saudi State and its types were diverse as each region had its own
costumes.”
Women’s clothes in the northern Saudi Arabia at that
time were called the Maqrona, which is a black kerchief that is folded with its
middle to form a triangle. Woman wraps this clothing on her head.
In southern Saudi Arabia, women used to wear the dress
called the Sheyla. It is a piece of black cloth decorated on its edges with
threads of different colors, or with types of beads, and is fastened with a
yellow or red band.
Reviewing women’s clothing in various regions during
the first Saudi State, the website noted that women in central Saudi Arabia
used to wear a dress called the ‘Mukhannaq,’ which was a transparent silk
fabric made of chiffon or tulle, completely sewn except for the opening to
encircle the face. Young girls wore this dress when they ventured out of their
homes.
The dress that was worn by women in eastern Saudi
Arabia was known as the Batoola, which covered the entire face except for the
opening of the eyes. Elderly women favored this dress. It was made of thick
fabric and dyed with indigo with lines inside.
The website pointed out that women in western Saudi
Arabia used to wear the Misdah, which is a loose dress that does not show the
features of the body, and it consists of five pieces of different sizes, which
are fixed to each other so as to take the shape of a uniform. This dress was
made of plain or patterned fabrics.
The ancient costumes during the first Saudi State were
designed in a way that it well suited various seasons and special occasions,
such as the abaya called Daffat Al-Maahoud, which was decorated with black silk
threads, well fitted to the body of the bride, the website noted.
Source: Saudi Gazette
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Pakistan:
Religious Affairs Minister appeals to Imran Khan to declare Women’s Day as
International Hijab Day
22
February, 2022
Islamabad
[Pakistan], February 22 (ANI): Pakistan’s Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul
Haq Qadri has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to declare March 8,
International Women’s Day, as International Hijab Day, said a think tank,
Policy Research Group (POREG).
This
comes at a time when the Aurat March organisers on Friday announced its
manifesto for 2022 based on the theme of “Reimagining Justice” in Pakistan.
Aurat
March, which was first held in the city of Karachi in 2018, is now organized
every year to celebrate International Women’s Day. The march highlight the
issues women face in Pakistan however the Minister’s appeal to Imran Khan do
not promote forward-thinking which the women desire.
The
minister said that “Aurat March” held across Pakistan on that day since 2018
goes “against the principles of Islam.”
His
request to Imran Khan is nothing but a way to demean “the status of an
UN-designated international day that aims to celebrate the social, economic,
cultural and political achievements of women,” reported POREG.
In
a statement he wrote, “No organisation should be allowed to question or
ridicule Islamic values, norms of society, hijab or the modesty of Muslim women
at the Aurat March or any other event held in connection with International
Women’s Day as these acts hurt the sentiments of Muslims in the country.”
According
to Dawn newspaper, the Minister is trying to “possibly take advantage of the
controversy around the hijab in parts of India.”
The
newspaper noted that “This is a critical juncture in history, when women’s
rights movements are gathering momentum not only in Pakistan but around the
world, in the wake of increasing gender-based crimes and injustices.”
The
Imran Khan-led PTI government is opposing the Aurat March and it reeks of
deep-seated misogyny and patriarchy in the country. (ANI)
Source:
The Print
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Far-Right
Jewish Extremist, Or Leibler, Discovers Her Biological Parents Are Muslim
By
Tobias Siegal
21
February 2022
A
prominent far-right Jewish activist has been forced to reexamine her beliefs
after finding out her biological parents were Muslim, she acknowledged in an
Israeli television report broadcast on Sunday.
Or
Leibler, 22, has become a well-known figure among both Muslims and Jews in the
Old City of Jerusalem.
She
became increasingly involved with far-right groups in the capital following
last year’s 11-day war between Israel and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group,
Channel 13 news noted, attending protests organized by Lehava, a far-right and
Jewish supremacist group that opposes the intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews,
and openly sharing her extreme ideology influenced by the late Rabbi Meir
Kahane.
Despite
living in southern Israel, she would make weekly commutes to one of Jerusalem’s
most explosive areas, while walking around with an Israeli flag. Her activity
has been described by some as a deliberate attempt to cause provocation, a
claim she strongly denies.
“In
this day and age, in the State of Israel, being Jewish is provocative,” she
insisted.
Leibler
regularly shared videos of her confronting Arabs near Damascus Gate, one of the
main entrances to Jerusalem’s Old City, located south of the flashpoint
neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
“Anyone
who supports Palestine is a potential terrorist,” she said on one occasion. “I
have a problem with Palestinians who don’t recognize the State of Israel… who
don’t recognize me as a Jew who belongs here. I see them as murderers for all
intents and purposes.”
In
another video, she can be seen holding an Israeli flag, saying, “this flag
represents love and peace,” while telling a nearby Arab activist waving a
Palestinian flag that his flag “represents murder and Jew-hatred.”
“They’re
after our blood, it’s that simple,” she has said.
And
yet, the discovery she would soon make would be anything but simple for her.
Leibler
was adopted when she was 30 days old, after her biological parents, reportedly
drug addicts, struggled to support her.
“[Doctors]
had to clean my body from drugs for about two or three weeks after I was born,”
she said.
Her
adoptive parents, a Jewish couple from northern Israel, provided Leibler with a
new chance at life. Describing herself as a restless child, Leibler said she
gave her parents a hard time growing up, “always looking for new ways of
crossing the boundaries.”
While
describing her adoptive parents as “supportive and loving,” she left home at
the age of 18 and lost touch with them: “After I turned 18, I decided that
their path was not the same as mine.”
At
that point, Leibler’s relationship with Lehava intensified, as she gradually
became an active member of the organization.
“I
was always interested in videos posted by Lehava… it made me want to get up and
do something,” she said, claiming the real purpose of the organization is to
“fight assimilation.”
She
decided to open her adoption file after giving birth to her son at the age of
20, during her mandatory military service.
“I
wanted to know where I came from,” she told Channel 13.
Nothing
could have prepared her for the next meeting she had with her social worker,
who told her that her biological father was Muslim and her biological mother
was born Jewish but had recently converted to Islam.
“At
that moment, my whole world fell apart,” she said, realizing she was a
20-year-old, soon-to-be single mom, who was going through an identity crisis.
“Your
identity is suddenly shattered,” she said. “What am I really?”
Leibler
said she has never had anything against Muslims or Islam but describes her
discovery as a challenging blow to her Jewish identity.
“I
can’t describe what it feels like, how happy I am to be Jewish. It’s something
that comes from within and makes me want to shout: ‘I am a proud Jew,'” she
said. “It’s not easy… I used to stand in front of the mirror and tell myself,
‘I’m not Muslim, there’s no way I’m Muslim.’
“You’ve
already formed your ideology, you already know which way you’re headed, left or
right, and then it hits you — wait, but I don’t belong here.”
Leibler
eventually decided to meet her biological parents, hoping to get some answers
about her past, and perhaps her future.
However,
the ideological differences between Leibler and her parents that had developed
over the span of 20 years proved too hard to overcome.
Describing
the encounter with her biological mother as cold, she said she couldn’t bring
herself to feel like she belonged.
“It
wasn’t the place I came from,” she said, describing walking into her biological
mother’s home for the first time. “I felt unrelated to her,” she added.
She
said she hugged her father “out of respect,” but said “there was nothing else
there.”
A
while later, Leibler recalled receiving a message from a friend, telling her
that her biological mother had posted a comment on one of her TikTok videos.
The
comment, posted on a video showing Leibler confronting Arabs in Jerusalem,
read: “This is my daughter, I’m ashamed of her.”
Leibler
said the comment made her become even more entrenched in her extreme beliefs.
“That’s when I took it to the next level, looking for confrontations,” she
said.
However,
as a young single mother two years later, Leibler said she wants to try and
renew the relationship with her biological parents once again. Meeting and
confronting them again, she said, would give her some closure.
Source:
Times Of Israel
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/ulema-board-qazi-interfaith-weddings/d/126427