Australian Muslim Woman Thrown From Moving Train in a Racist Attack
New Age Islam News Bureau
6
Oct 2014
Iranian sisters struggling for future in Turkey after escaping lashes for music video
• Kurdish
Female Fighter Blows Herself Up On ISIS
• French
Teen Girl Stopped 'On Way to Jihad in Syria'
• Row over
Turkish Singer’s Remarks Likening ISIL Militants and Those Who Sacrifice
Animals
• Iranian Sisters
Struggling For Future in Turkey after Escaping Lashes for Music Video
• For
First Time, Saudi Women Work At Slaughterhouse
• UK Muslim
Women Respond To Calls to Ban Burqas, Say Face-Covering Can Be 'Liberating'
• India: Put
More Stress On Muslim Women Education
• Australian
Muslim Woman Stopped Wearing Hijab For Fear Of Being Attacked
• Less
Sexual Harassment in Cairo, over Eid Doesn't Mean Problem Is Decreasing:
Initiative
• Woman
Completes Co-Wife’s Family — Gives Her a Boy and Then a Girl
• 8
Brothers Vie To Serve Mother Perform Haj
• Pakistani
Man Sells Home To Undertake Hajj To Honour Dead Wife
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/australian-muslim-woman-thrown-moving/d/99398
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Australian
Muslim Woman Thrown From Moving Train In A Racist Attack
06 Oct,
2014
A woman
believed to be a Muslim was left shaken and traumatised after she was thrown
out of a train the northern part of Melbourne in a racist attack. Reports said
the 26-year-old woman was on a train on the Upfield line when another woman
approached her and began verbally abusing her with racist remarks.
The
woman’s abuser grabbed her by the hair and neck as her head was bashed several
times on the wall of the train’s carriage. The Muslim woman was then pushed off
the train when it arrived in Batman Station in Coburg North. According to Senior
Constable Michael Potter, the racist attack had happened as the train
approached the station on the night of Sept. 25.
Potter
declined to confirm the race of victim. Victorian Chief Commissioner Ken Lay
had earlier urged the Muslim community to report any incident of racial abuse
amid heightened terror alerts and escalated tension in Australia following
counter-terrorism raids. Potter refused to release more details about the
victim since this would only reveal her identity and lead to possible future
attacks.
Police
said two men who witnessed the attack had offered to help the woman. The other
woman who abused her was described as having a solid build with short brown
hair, light eyebrows and an estimated height of 177 centimetres, reports said.
Lay had
claimed the police had no information to confirm the rise of “prejudice-related
crime” but he was aware of a number of issues in the community that have not
been reported to the authorities, The Age reports.
The
commissioner acknowledged that Muslim women are “insulted about their garb”
while on the street. He said the police are looking into CCTV footage related
to the attack on the woman on the train.
According
to the results of the latest Mapping Social Cohesion survey, racism in
Australia is on the rise. The survey in 2013, conducted by the Scanlon
Foundation, found that 19 percent of Australians struggle with some form of
racial or religious discrimination. The current figures reveal that racism is
at its highest level since Scanlon Foundation began the survey in 2007
In 2011,
another survey conducted by a group of
Australian universities found that half of the population in Australia have
anti-Muslim views. Since the national terror threat level was raised in
Australia, the Grand Mufti has called on the Muslim-Australian community to be
calm and exercise restraint since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria issued
threats against Australians through social media. Incidents of Australians
hurling offensive and racist remarks on Muslims were reported to the police.
http://www.abna.ir/english/service/east-asia/archive/2014/10/04/642201/story.html
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Kurdish
Female Fighter Blows Herself Up On ISIS
06 Oct,
2014
A female
Kurdish fighter carried out a suicide bomb attack against jihadists from the Islamic
State group outside the embattled Syrian border town of Kobane on Sunday, a
monitor said.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the woman blew herself up at an ISIS
position east of the city, killing a number of jihadists who have surrounded Kobane
and are battling to seize it.
"The
operation caused deaths, but there is no confirmed number," Observatory
director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said
it was the first reported instance of a female Kurdish fighter carrying out a
suicide bombing against the Islamic State group, which has itself often favored
the tactic.
ISIS
began its advance on Kobane, Syria's third largest Kurdish town, on September
16, seeking to cement its grip over a long stretch of the Syria-Turkey border.
The
fighting around the town, also known as Ain al-Arab, has prompted a mass exodus
of residents from the area, with some 186,000 fleeing across the border into
Turkey.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/10/05/Kurdish-woman-suicide-bomber-attacks-ISIS-monitor.html
-----------
French
teen girl stopped 'on way to jihad in Syria'
06 Oct,
2014
VILLEFONTAINE,
France: A 15-year-old French girl was in police custody after she disappeared
from her family home in southern France, suspected of wanting to travel to
Syria to wage jihad.
Assia
Saidi was "found on Saturday night by her parents in a bar, near Marseille
station, where she had been working for a few days," a source close to the
investigation told AFP.
Investigators
discovered a Facebook page under a pseudonym which "unequivocally"
showed she was planning "to leave France and wage jihad," according
to prosecutors.
"That
was the goal," the girl told LCI television, before admitting she had
quickly changed her mind.
The case
has made waves in France, home to Europe's largest Muslim population, where
some 930 citizens or residents, including at least 60 women, are thought to be
either actively engaged in jihad in Iraq and Syria or planning to go.
France
has taken a leading role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq,
participating in US-led air strikes there, although it has not yet taken
military action in neighbouring Syria, where the jihadists also hold large
swathes of territory.
Assia is
in police custody for stealing her parents' bank card. Her mother told BFMTV:
"We decided to go to Marseille. We looked for her all day ... she threw
herself into our arms. We're so happy. Everyone hugged, cried, laughed."
"We so relieved, so happy that she has not gone abroad," the mother
said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/French-teen-girl-stopped-on-way-to-jihad-in-Syria/articleshow/44412769.cms
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Row over
Turkish singer’s remarks likening ISIL militants and those who sacrifice
animals
06 Oct,
2014
A
Turkish singer’s remarks in which she likened the Islamic State of Iraq and
Levant (ISIL) militants who behead people to people who sacrifice animals have
created controversy in the country during Eid al-Adha.
“According
to me, ISIL and those who put a knife to an innocent animal’s throat are at the
same emotional level. ISIL doesn’t surprise me,” Leman Sam, a prominent figure
in the Turkish indie pop music scene, wrote on Twitter.
Sam took
to Twitter to respond to the criticism, tweeting that sacrifices have existed
since the pre-Islamic era.
“You
uneducated [people], sacrifices also existed in pagan religions when there was
no Islam. It is not only part of Islam. You’re waiting to attack like vultures.
Smarten up,” she wrote.
“I am
ashamed of being the same kind as you. You are deluded, uneducated and decayed.
I cannot even be mad at you,” she added.
Many
people, including Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, reacted against the
singer’s remarks, with Arınç condemning Sam as “miserable.”
“A
Muslim knows what the sacrifice is, the story of the Prophet Abraham and the
rest of it. I condemn this miserable person who put the sacrifice and the deeds
done by those who cannot be deemed as human, who are a group of executioners
that we cannot call Muslims, together. It is sad,” Arınç said Oct. 5 while
addressing Justice and Development Party (AKP) supporters during a rally in
Bursa.
Arınç
recalled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s previous remarks about a lawmaker who
threw stones at military forces during clashes on the Syrian border, saying
there was a “level of politeness” that should be observed.
“Of
course, there are such confused people in every society. We don’t intend to
discard them, but how can someone say this to a believing society? … She
doesn’t intend to apologize, but we will apologize in her name to everyone who
performed this worship thanks to Allah,” Arınç said.
AKP
Antalya lawmaker Gökçen Özdoğan Enç also slammed Sam’s words, urging the singer
to respect religious values and beliefs.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/row-grows-over-turkish-singers-remarks-likening-isil-militants-and-those-who-sacrifice-animals-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=72580&NewsCatID=341
-------------
Iranian
sisters struggling for future in Turkey after escaping lashes for music video
06 Oct,
2014
Three
Iranian sisters are struggling to secure a future in Turkey, after escaping
from lashings and prison sentences for shooting a music video in their
homeland. The women’s hopes were recently hit by a United Nations decision that
rejected their claim of refugee status.
The
sisters, 29-year-old Nafiseh Mansouri, 24-year-old Zahra Mansouri, and 21-year-old Fatameh Mansouri, were sentenced
in Iran to 74 lashes and one year in prison after they shot a music video that
was shared widely on social media. The punishment was suspended on condition
that they would not repeat the “mistake.”
Police
had tried to arrest the three sisters during an attempted live performance, but
they managed to escape the police raid. They then fled to Turkey, along with
their little sister, Fatemah.
The
sisters, who have been living in Turkey for two years, applied to the United
Nations to obtain refugee status. However, the body’s office in Turkey rejected
their application on the grounds that they were escaping from the laws, not
from cruelty defined in international refugee laws.
“Yes you
are escaping and are scared. We believe you, but the sentences that you
received do not comply with the refugee law,” the body reportedly said.
“[According
to refugee law] you are not escaping from cruelty, torture or disproportionate
punishment. There is no oppression due to religious, political, ideological,
national or racial reasons, defined in the 1951 Geneva Convention. You are not
escaping from cruelty, but from laws,” it added.
Appeal
against UN decision
The
sisters have appealed against the U.N. decision.
“If we
return to Iran, we will be punished with 74 lashes and one-year jail terms. We
will also be fined for leaving the country. Our only guilt is to have made
music, which is something universal, and sharing it. We demand to receive
refugee statues regarding international conventions and human rights
declarations,” the sisters said in the objection petition.
The
U.N.’s office in Turkey has so far avoided commenting on the incident.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/iranian-sisters-struggling-for-future-in-turkey-after-escaping-lashes-for-music-video.aspx?pageID=238&nID=72548&NewsCatID=341
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For
First Time, Saudi Women Work At Slaughterhouse
06 Oct,
2014
For the
first time ever, 15 Saudi women are supervising the slaughtering of sheep,
cattle and camels at Al-Moaissim Model Slaughterhouse, near Mina, this hajj
season.
Bandar
al-Suhairi, chairman of the company operating the slaughterhouse, said the
women are supervising the slaughtering of animals, assisting other women who
want to use the slaughterhouse and distributing meat among the poor and needy.
He said
the women employees were assigned the tasks of supervision and control and they
prevent other women from entering the place where animals are being
slaughtered.
“These
are seasonal workers. The women are being employed for the first time at a
slaughterhouse during the hajj,” he said.
Al-Suhairi
said about 45,000 heads of sheep were slaughtered during the first day of Eid
al-Adha.
“Under
the Islamic Sharia, the slaughtering of sheep begins at sunrise and continues
until sunset,” he said.
During
the next three days about 10,000 heads of sheep will be slaughtered daily.
Al-Suhairi said about 1,000 people are working in the slaughterhouse such as
butchers, cleaners and other workers.
“There
are about 65 Saudis who are doing the supervision and control work. They are
organizing entry into the slaughterhouse,” he said.
There
are 26 veterinarians at the slaughterhouse who examine the animals before and
after slaughtering to ensure they are in good health and that their meat is
suitable for human consumption.
He said
slaughtered meat was stored in a large fridge until it is time to be
distributed among the poor and needy by the welfare societies. There are five
slaughterhouses in Moassim with a daily capacity of slaughtering 500,000 heads
of animals.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/10/05/Saudi-women-work-at-slaughterhouse-this-hajj-season.html
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UK Muslim
Women Respond To Calls To Ban Burqas, Say Face-Covering Can Be 'Liberating'
06 Oct,
2014
Tony
Abbott's budgie smugglers are 'confronting' - but we're not calling for them to
be banned.
That is
the common refrain of the Islamic community to fierce calls for the Burqa to be
outlawed.
The joke
is told by community leaders such as Mariam Veiszadeh, by Muslims on the
streets of south-west Sydney and is the subject of a meme widely shared by the
Islamic community on Facebook.
'It's a
light hearted way of making the point.... if you want to dress down or dress up
we should all be able to do it,' Ms Veiszadeh told Daily Mail Australia on
Friday.
The Burqa
debate - fuelled by conservative senators' calls and Prime Minister Tony
Abbott's comment he finds the face-covering 'confronting' and 'wishes it was
not worn' - has frustrated the country's Muslim community, who say only a tiny
minority of women wear the full face covering anyway.
For a
brief moment on Thursday, there was even a plan to keep Muslim visitors who
wanted to watch proceedings at Parliament House in a glass enclosure.
The plan
was quashed late last night by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, following community
uproar and backlash from members of his own party.
Islamic
community leaders told Daily Mail Australia they are sick of the Burqa (a form
of dress where the face is covered by a mesh grill) being confused with the
niqab, a more popular dress where the face is covered but the eyes are not.
'It (the
Burqa) is not common,' Ms Veiszadeh said. And while there are no reliable
statistics, 'only a tiny minority' of Australian Muslim women wear the niqab,
she said.
A number
of Muslim women told Daily Mail Australia that Australians who wear the niqab
find it liberating, rather than oppressive, as critics have said.
'It's an
amazing feeling of freedom,' said Maha Abdo, the executive officer of the
Muslim Women's Association.
'You can
see clearly, but no one can see you.'
Ms Abdo
chose to start wearing Hijab 30 years ago, but she has worn a niqab while
spending time overseas.
She said
her headscarf reminds her of her spirituality.
'For me
it's a reminder of my own purpose in this life and how to be the best that I
can be,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
Mary
Succati, who sells Islamic clothing to women at a store in Greenacre, in
south-west Sydney, agreed that the handful of people she knows who wear the
niqab found the experience rewarding.
'They're
not perceived as oppressed - they feel liberated,' she told Daily Mail
Australia.
The
furious debate is occurring at a time of celebration for many Muslims.
The Eid
Festival, one of the most important dates in the religious calendar, will be
held over the long weekend, concurrent with the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Friday
was the busiest day of the year at Ms Succati's store for Islamic women.
Her
small shop was crowded with women buying new clothes for Eid. Ms Succati, who
wears a Hijab, was planning to keep her store open until midnight.
She does
not sell niqabs in her store, but many women in Niqabs come in to buy clothing
for their children.
The
fashion of the season? 'There's a lot of floral at the moment,' Ms Succati
said, with customers ditching drab winter clothing for more colourful, but
still modest, spring wear.
It will
be a big weekend in Greenacre for another reason, too. The Bulldogs are facing
off with South Sydney in the NRL Grand Final at ANZ Stadium on Sunday.
Ms
Succati's staff, avid Bulldogs supporters who insisted her store be decked out
in blue and white, will be watching.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2779101/Tony-Abbott-s-budgie-smugglers-confronting-not-calling-banned-Muslims-respond-Burqa-ban-call-explain-difference-niqab-Burqa-Hijab.html#ixzz3FMVNqBd7
-----------
India: Put
More Stress on Muslim Women Education
06 Oct,
2014
A recent
seminar by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) stressed on the need to
unveil special measures to ensure adequate education for Muslim girls. The
seminar, organised in association with the Committee on Girls' Education,
National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Government of India
and All India Confederation for Women's Empowerment Through Education, New
Delhi saw people from outside the city as well.
A report
submitted a couple of months ago by the post-Sachar evaluation committee to the
Centre revealed that there has been little improvement in the condition of
Muslims in general due to poor implementation of the Sachar committee
recommendations.
"Muslim
women are a minority within a minority. The Constitution gives equal rights to
women of all communities. The Holy Quran also has made learning and gaining
knowledge compulsory for Muslims, with no discrimination between men and
women," said Dr Shabistan Gaffar, chairperson of NCMEI's Committee on
Girls' Education.
Sudheendra
Kulkarni, Chairman of ORF Mumbai, said the BJP government at the Centre should make
Muslim girls' education a matter of high priority. "It should
significantly increase budgetary provisions for establishing schools and
colleges, constructing adequate number of hostels, and giving scholarships to
meritorious students," he said.
It is estimated
that only 2.5% of Muslim women are graduates, the lowest among religious
communities in India. It has also been seen that there is a high school dropout
rate among Muslim girls. "Many talented girls who are eager to pursue
higher education are unable to do so because of resistance from within families
and the community. This must change," Kulkarni said.
Shrinivas
Shastri, under-secretary, school education, mentioned about the newly set up
Quality Cell, which is looking at grievances from all stakeholders and will
address quality education across the board.
The
participants unanimously agreed that it is important to bring on board
municipal corporation, department of minority development, department of social
justice, and departments of higher and technical education.
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-put-more-stress-on-muslim-women-education-2023771
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Australian
Muslim Woman Stopped Wearing Hijab For Fear Of Being Attacked
06 Oct,
2014
Canberra
Muslim woman Nurcan Baran says she has stopped wearing her Hijab for fear of
being attacked.
On
Thursday Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry approved new
interim rules to force Muslim women who cover their faces to sit in a separate
glass-enclosed public gallery in Federal Parliament.
But
Prime Minister Tony Abbott stepped in and asked Ms Bishop to reconsider the
ruling.
Mrs
Baran said the increasingly strident debate has stirred unease with Canberra's
Muslim community.
The
22-year-old mother and part-time law student at the University of Canberra
began thinking about wearing a Hijab at 13, but did not start wearing one until
she was overseas in 2012 aged 19.
The
self-proclaimed "proud Muslim feminist" emphasised she chose to wear
the Hijab and was not forced.
"They
say it is meant to stop men looking for you. It is not," she said.
"It
is for that woman's own modesty and I think instead of being viewed as a tool
of oppression it needs to be viewed as a woman's choice."
But Mrs
Baran said she chose to stop wearing the Hijab in December 2013 because of
negative treatment she was receiving in Canberra.
She told
7.30 ACT she was worried she would be attacked while out with her daughter and
felt forced to take off the Hijab in order to feel safe.
She said
there was no difference between those forcing women to cover up and those
forcing women to uncover.
"I
don't think men have the right to tell women how to dress whether you are
Western or from the Middle East," she said.
"I
think we really need to make it clear that they really don't have that
right."
But
despite her stance Mrs Baran made her own decision to not wear her Hijab in
Canberra.
"I
didn't feel self confident. I didn't want to go out. I didn't want to take my
daughter for walks," she said.
"I
didn't want to go back to uni, and I just kept on thinking to myself, 'how can
I become a lawyer and help people if I can't even face the world?' And that's
what I felt as a Hijabi woman in Canberra."
Mrs
Baran said she was treated differently to women who do not wear a Hijab.
"When
I was in labour, I went to the delivery ward uncovered because I wanted to make
sure that I get the best possible treatment," she said.
"A
look, a grimace, is just as bad. [It's] a look of silent judgment and it is
pretty much the same as verbal abuse because you don't know what is behind that
look and it stays with you.
"By
itself it might be insignificant but when you go through it every single day
and every time you go out it really ruins your self confidence... that was one
of the reasons why I took it [the Hijab] off."
Mrs
Baran said she had also experienced prejudice from government officials.
"I
put it down to probably she was having a bad day, we all have those and I sat
down and I waited to be seen by someone else," she said.
"Then
I saw her treat another person who wasn't in a Hijab, much kinder.
"That
was one of the first instances where I realised that this is really becoming
very bad and I left the building and I cried because I felt very
isolated."
But Mrs
Baran said the current political climate was particularly worrying to the
Canberra Muslim community.
"I
knew after the election and the new Prime Minister, and the minority parties
that he was backing, I knew that the climate would change in Australia,"
she said.
"It
was in January or December when I decided to take it off, I knew that something
was going to change and Islamophobia was present before then but I knew it was
going to get worse."
She said
she did not feel a part of Team Australia.
"Not
Tony Abbott's version of Team Australia, but I do feel like I am
Australian," she said.
"I
think a lot of people would say that Tony Abbott's Team Australia is not the
Team Australia that they want to be a part of."
'What is
happening is not Islam'
Canberra
Muslim community elder Ahmed Youssef said the horrific events happening
overseas were not Islam.
"It
is not part of the religion and it is affecting all the Muslims," he said.
"I
would like to see that people refrain from sensationalism both in the media and
in the Parliament.
"They
think that they can get some votes from this but I don't think so."
Canberra
Interfaith Forum secretary Amardeep Singh said there was unease across the
multicultural community.
"A
lot of Sikh people, particularly the taxi drivers, have faced abusive comments
and abusive behaviours and some comments like 'you Muslims go back to your
country'," he said.
"I'm
not at all saying that it is okay to do that to Muslims, but we are also not
Muslims."
Canberra
Interfaith Forum president Muhammed Sadar-ud Dean Sahu Khan said many people
fear what is different and they do not understand.
"This
has to stop," he said.
"Today
it is Islam, tomorrow it is going to be the Hindus, the next day it is going to
be Judaism.
"This
has to stop and the only way that I can see it being stopped is if we all come,
irrespective of our faith, as a united voice that these things are not going to
be tolerated in Australia but most importantly at the moment in Canberra."
http://www.abna.ir/english/service/europe/archive/2014/10/04/642173/story.html
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Less Sexual
Harassment in Cairo, over Eid Doesn't Mean Problem Is Decreasing: Initiative
06 Oct,
2014
Extra
police and army personnel in Cairo helped limit sexual harassment incidents, a
local anti-sexual harassment initiative said.
The imitative
– called "Shoft Taharosh" (I Saw Harassment) – reported 20 verbal and
one physical sexual harassment incident on its website. All 21 incidents were
stopped by the initiative's volunteers, who were present in downtown Cairo from
12pm to 10pm.
Saturday
was the first day of the Islamic Eid Al-Adha holiday. Past Eid holiday seasons
in Egypt have become associated with increased sexual violence and mass
incidents of harassment and rape.
The
initiative stressed that the lower number of sexual harassment incidents on Saturday
was not due to a decrease in the phenomenon – but rather a step up in security
presence due to possible terrorist threats.
Egypt's
interior ministry said in a statement that the deployment of police patrols in
public areas during the first two days of Eid was responsible for the decrease
in sexual assaults.
Policemen
could be seen lined up along pavements in crowded areas in Cairo to anticipate
the crowds – an unfamiliar scene on past Eid holidays.
Interior
ministry spokesman Hani Abdel-Latif went so far as to say that sexual
harassment had "completely disappeared" from Egyptian streets,
according to a statement released to state news agency MENA.
He said
the ministry's division combating violence against women had intervened in 103
cases of verbal harassment in Cairo – but didn't mention if similar action had
been taken in other cities.
The
anti-sexual harassment initiative, Shoft Taharosh, said it was present only in
Cairo's downtown, and that other governorates and public parks could have seen
more sexual harassment incidents.
Meanwhile,
Egypt's state council for women said on Thursday that it would create a hotline
for females to report cases of sexual assault during the four days of Eid.
A United
Nations study from last year found that over 99 percent of Egyptian women and
girls have been subjected to verbal or physical sexual harassment of some kind.
Egypt's
authorities recently passed a new anti-sexual harassment law and sentenced
several assailants to lengthy jail terms.
The law
punishes sexual harassment with a prison sentence, a fine or both.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/112396/Egypt/Politics-/Less-sex-harassment-over-Eid-doesnt-mean-problem-i.aspx
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Woman Completes
Co-Wife’s Family — Gives Her a Boy and Then a Girl
06 Oct,
2014
Some
stories are too strange to be believed. One such is that of a 46-year-old
pilgrim from Aurangabad in India’s Maharashtra state. It is a story of
sacrifice and love for another human being.
Yusuf
Khan was married to Parveen Jahan 24 years ago. The wedding was a grand affair.
Since Khan was the only son of his parents, they were extremely delighted at
his marriage. The reason for their excitement was the expectation that the
marriage would result in children which would then fill their life with joy.
A year
passed, and then one more. The wait became unbearable and eight years passed.
Khan’s father waited and waited to see his grandchildren but to no avail. And
one day he passed away.
Khan and
Jahan became desolate and approached doctors and underwent fertility treatment
but nothing happened. In between, Khan’s mother had a paralytic attack that
immobilized her left side.
Jahan, a
teacher by profession, took immense care of her mother-in-law who now became
completely dependent on her. Khan and his wife became more desperate to have a
baby to bring cheer to their ailing mother.
One day,
after mustering a lot of courage Jahan suggested that Khan go in for a second
marriage. “Your mother wants to see your children and we have tried
everything,” said Jahan to Khan. “The only option left is for you is to take a
second wife and hope for the best,” she said.
Khan’s
instant reaction was a resounding no. “Who knows? The problem may be with me.
Why should I marry another woman? You remain very dear to me and you have taken
so much care of my mother, I cannot do this,” he told her. Both cried that
night.
The next
day, Jahan said that he should marry and that if Allah blessed the new couple
then the first child would be hers. To Khan, this seemed a good proposal. It
would bring cheer to his issueless first wife and his endlessly waiting and
paralyzed mother.
The
proposal seemed good but was it workable? And would they find a girl who would
agree to give away her first child to her husband’s first wife? That seemed
difficult.
Jahan
herself started looking out for a second wife for her husband. Her search ended
in Rehana Begum, a young woman whose husband had died only a year into their
marriage.
A
proposal was sent to Begum’s relatives and they were told of the circumstances
which pushed Khan into a second marriage.
Begum’s
parents, who come from a good family from the neighbouring town of Jalna, were
reluctant to accept Khan’s and Jahan’s proposal for their widowed daughter, but
finally, they accepted. Begum too agreed after she was persuaded by her
parents. She agreed but never thought that things would happen that way.
“I too
yearned for children and how could have I agreed to a proposal that would be
tantamount to snatching my child as soon as he/she was born,” she said to Arab
News here in Mina while narrating the details.
The
marriage took place and Jahan, the first wife, took an important part in the
ceremony much to the wonderment in a society that could not imagine that a
first wife would help her husband marry a second one. Within a year of their
marriage, Begum and Khan were blessed with a healthy baby boy. And as per the
unwritten agreement, the boy was given to Jahan.
“It was
both a day of celebration and stress for me,” said Khan. “My son, Aamir, was
placed in my mother’s lap and she was absolutely thrilled. She kissed him and
hugged him, and kept looking at me with a broad smile. She was very happy.”
Khan
said after his mother, Jahan, his first wife was extremely delighted. “But
Begum, the second wife, was happy at being blessed with son but upset that he
had to be given to the first wife,” said Khan.
Those
were difficult days for Khan. “I told Begum about the agreement and went away.
I couldn’t wait to see the handing over ceremony,” he recalled. Begum parted
with her son with extreme reluctance and wept continuously. “Those were our
difficult moments,” said Khan.
A year
after Aamir’s birth, Begum and Khan had another child. This time a baby girl.
They named her Sana. Begum was upset that the second was not a boy. “It hurt me
that I had to give away a baby boy and I was left with a girl,” she said.
In the
next five years they were blessed with two more children, a son, Asim, and
daughter, Ayesha. Begum soon realized that her first son, who was now being reared
by the first wife, was all alone so she voluntarily gave away her last child, a
daughter, Ayesha, to the first wife.
Begum’s
two children know the facts but they remain attached to Jahan. “She takes good
care of them and has in fact taken better care of them than their biological
mother would have ever taken,” said Khan.
They are
now one big happy family. Begum is attached to Jahan because she is taking care
of her two children and Khan is happy that they have become one big happy
family. “Everyone is attached to the other for obvious reasons,” said Khan. “I
am very attached to my first wife because she demonstrated sacrifice and
allowed me to marry the second time,” he said. “I am very attached to my second
wife because she sacrificed and gave away her first and last children.”
The
children are happy because they know the truth. “I am here at Haj with my two
wives to thank Allah for the incredible happiness that he has bestowed on me,”
said Khan. “I can never forget the smile on my late mother’s face when she saw
my first-born for the first time.”
http://www.arabnews.com/news/639981
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8
Brothers Vie To Serve Mother Perform Haj
06 Oct,
2014
This
year’s Haj witnessed eight sons of a woman competing with one another in
assisting their mother to perform her Haj rituals comfortably. They all wanted
to gain special reward from Allah for doing goodness to their beloved mother.
Many
people accompany their elderly mothers and fathers for Haj and Umrah to show
their love and commitment toward them, inspired by the teachings of the Qur’an
and Sunnah that urge the faithful to support their elderly parents.
Seventy-year-old
Aysha came for Haj this year with her eight sons, and each one them wanted to
provide maximum care to her. In order avoid conflict; the youngest of them,
Mustafa Al-Faisal, proposed that everyday two of them carry her in a wheelchair
to perform the rituals.
“It was
a good suggestion,” said the eldest brother Moussa. “During the past 20 years
we have been saving money to perform Haj with our mother,” he said, hoping that
Allah would accept their Haj and prayers.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/640326
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Pakistani
Man Sells Home To Undertake Hajj To Honour Dead Wife
6
October 2014
A
45-year-old Pakistani pilgrim had to sell his house and few goats to be able to
collect enough money to do the hajj on behalf of his wife, who died before
fulfilling this dream.
“My wife
died at the age of 38 when the roof of our house fell down on her. She was
always talking of performing hajj. I had to fulfil her dream,” said Ashraf
Rahmah.
He said
the money he had collected from selling the house and the goats was not much
but it was enough to bring him and his six children to the Kingdom and perform
hajj for his dead wife.
“The
death of my wife is a destiny from which we cannot escape but my children and I
are still wrapped by the sadness from her eternal separation,” he told local
daily al-Madina.
Unstable
Rahmah
said he got married about 15 years ago and all the time during their time
together his wife never stopped talking about the hajj. He always promised his
wife that he would try to take her to hajj but his financial conditions never
allowed him to do so during her lifetime.
Rahmah
said he could not leave his children behind because of the unstable security
conditions in his country.
He said
he met a Saudi in the Holy Sites who has promised to find a job for him in the
Kingdom. “The kind man asked me to visit him in his home in Jeddah after the
hajj and promised to find a job that will sustain me and my children,” he said.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/special-reports/hajj-2014/2014/10/06/Pakistani-pilgrim-sells-home-to-undertake-hajj-for-his-dead-wife.html
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