Bengal Muslim Women Win Awards, Feted for Breaking the Stereotype and Breaking the Glass Ceiling
New Age Islam News Bureau
10 June 2022
• Bleak, Hidden and Uninviting: Time to Improve
Women’s Prayer Spaces in UK Mosques
• Saudi Women Passport Officers Serve Abroad To Assist
'Makkah Route' Pilgrims
• Women in Kabul Call for Right to Work, End of
Restrictions
• Bradford Muslim Women's Council Tackles
Cost-Of-Living Crisis
• Women at Kabul Exhibition Display Handmade Products
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/bengal-muslim-awards-stereotype/d/127216
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Bengal Muslim Women win Awards, Feted For Breaking the
Stereotype and Breaking the Glass Ceiling
The awardees at the event
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Jun 10, 2022
KOLKATA: Seventeen Muslim women from different age
groups and diverse fields, like media, education, medicine and the culinary
arts, were feted on Thursday for breaking the stereotype and breaking the glass
ceiling. Each is an achievers in her own right.
Uzma Firoz, a costume jeweller, had a tough time
breaking the mould. “My family was sceptical about how far it could go. When I
started eight years ago, there was no Instagram, or other platform where we
could connect with clients and display our work. There is also some stigma of
working in a creative field by older members of our community. Many older
relatives initially reacted negatively to me,” she said.
Firoz started with a small exhibition and, over time,
got more clients. Until recently, before her Instagram was hacked, she had over
55,000 followers. “The appreciation I received made me feel proud of myself for
doing something different,” she said.
Saboohi Aziz has been working in NGOs, like the All
Bengal Muslim Women’s Association, for decades and has toiled to provide young
Muslim girls a platform where they can express their talent. “For decades, we
went around squalor settlements around the city to try to get some of the girls
educated. We were often met with a lot of resistance. Many of those children
are well placed in high positions now. One of them wanted to be an IPS officer.
Many of the girls we taught have also joined the field of medicine,” said Aziz.
Hena Nafiz, who has recently enrolled into Harvard
University for a Masters degree, works in preventive health and nutrition,
which is a field where there is very little representation of the Muslim
community. “As a result of this under-representation, when a premature death
happens in the community, we find the education of the next generation is
stalled. Education is essential for empowerment,” she said.
The women were awarded the Zard Sitara Award presented
by local social organisations. Social entrepreneur Imran Zaki said, “The women
before me have been role models. I believe that recognising their achievements
will inspire others in the community.”
Co-partner in the initiative Farah Khan said, “There
is so much that girls in our community have done, but there is hardly any
platform that celebrates it. We hope that with this initiative, we can continue
to represent and inspire their talent.”
Source: Times Of India
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Bleak, Hidden and Uninviting: Time to Improve Women’s
Prayer Spaces in UK Mosques
‘The whole geography, the
whole mindset is geared around men,’ one woman says
(Getty Images)
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Saman Javed
Jun 10, 2022
Icould count the number of times that I’ve prayed in a
mosque on both hands. I could count the number of times I’ve prayed in a mosque
in the UK on just one finger. The city I grew up in has had a mosque for as
long as I can remember, and in recent years it has more than doubled in size.
But if you were to ask me about this worship space I’m supposed to call mine,
the truth is I couldn’t tell you anything about it. I imagine the carpet in the
men’s area is soft, and that the prayer mats are jewel-toned and decorative,
and that it is bright and airy. Then I think of the women’s section, and my
memory casts me back to a dimly lit, small room I prayed in on only one
occasion. Among dozens of women huddled together in the tight space, I tried to
finish my prayer as quickly as possible as I knew plenty more were waiting
outside.
Like many women across the UK, I don’t feel
comfortable going to a mosque. It’s not because I have had a negative experience,
or that I’ve been turned away. It’s certainly not because of anything decreed
in Islam – a religion that champions the rights of women and gives them equal
status to men – it’s because I grew up with the internalised belief that
mosques were spaces for men. While my father and my brothers would attend the
local mosque every week, my sister and mother never did, and I never questioned
why.
As per the latest statistics, compiled in 2017, there
are approximately 1,795 mosques across the UK. Of these, 72 per cent were found
to have facilities for women. While this figure may seem promising, it is
mostly a reflection of smaller factions of the UK’s Muslim population. The two
different branches in Islam are the Sunni and Shia sects. Under each sect there
are various schools of thought due to how the religion has been interpreted by
scholars over time. Most Muslims in the UK follow the Hanafi Deobandi teaching,
which falls within Sunni Islam. Of the UK’s mosques, 796 of these are Deobandi,
but just 49 per cent of these have facilities for women.
Where mosques do cater to women, the quality of these
facilities greatly vary across the country. Some mosques only permit women for
prayers during key events of the Islamic calendar, such as Ramadan or Eid. This
contrasts with services for men, who are welcome to pray each of their five
daily prayers in the mosque every day of the year. Muslims of Britain, a
directory of UK mosques, also notes in its research that some of the facilities
for women may be passed over to men during busy periods, and that some spaces
are inaccessible to those with limited mobility.
It is largely accepted that during Prophet Muhammad’s
(PBUH) lifetime, both men and women prayed in the same space, but in separate
lines. Today, most mosques have interpreted this segregation as a need for
separate areas for the sexes. However, prayer spaces for men are often far
larger and better kept in comparison to women’s areas.
This was recently highlighted by a group of women who
visited Brick Lane Jamme Masjid. Sharing details of their experience online,
they described plush carpets, grand chandeliers and two spacious floors for
men, which were directly accessible from the entrance on Brick Lane. The women
were instructed to walk down a flight of metal steps, past the mosque’s funeral
service, to reach what they described as “an underground shelter with a bit of
carpet in it”. A far cry from the men’s area, the “very small and very stuffy”
room had a low ceiling and resembled that of a basement. The group said the
experience was “degrading, disappointing, embarrassing and anger-inducing”.
Although this recount is not unique and the problem
persists across many parts of the UK, the quality of facilities is not the only
barrier Muslim women face when visiting their local mosque. For decades, many
mosques in the UK have been seen primarily as spaces for men. This is largely
due to the belief that going to the mosque is obligatory for men – they must
pray Jummah, the Friday prayer, in congregation – while it is optional for
women.
Faiza Hussain*, 22, from London, recalls being shouted
at and being asked to leave a mosque by a male staff member. Hussain had been
out for dinner with friends in the Paddington area when the group sought a
space to pray in. Like the mosque in Brick Lane, the women were guided down a
“dark, narrow” staircase into a basement room. “The carpet was damp and felt
like it had been flooded,” she says. The women’s facilities for wudhu – the
cleansing of the body Muslims must perform before prayers – were also in poor
condition and hadn’t been maintained. The area was so poorly lit that one of
the group members almost slipped and fell. Shortly after the women began
praying, they were interrupted by a male staff member. “He came into the female
prayer area and started yelling at us. He told us we needed to leave, because
it is better for women to pray at home.”
While this view, put forward by the staff member, is
not universal, it is largely accepted by most Deobandi mosques. And with
Deobandi mosques making up most of the worship spaces in the UK, this has had a
lasting impact on how women feel about attending their local mosque. The belief
comes from a hadith – records of sayings or traditions from the time of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH) – that says it is more beneficial to a woman to pray at home.
However, other hadiths state that women should not be prevented from going to
the mosque and that prayer in congregation is preferred.
Nahim Ruhi-Khan, from Leeds, travels past the three
closest mosques to her home before reaching one which feels most welcoming for
women. There is even one mosque within walking distance of where she lives, but
she doesn’t feel comfortable attending alone. “There is space, and you can
pray, but do I feel able to go if I don’t have my family, or another woman with
me? The answer is no,” she tells The Independent. “I’m a confident woman, I’m a
professional, I speak at conferences. But it doesn’t feel like it’s my space,
it feels like a space that belongs to men.”
This is echoed by Rizwana Babar*, 36, who says that if
she’s outdoors in an unfamiliar place and needs to pray, “the mosque is not the
first place I think of, because I don’t know if it will have a space for me”.
“There’s no worse feeling than being turned away from a mosque. There may also
be that embarrassment of accidentally going through the men’s section and
getting funny looks,” she explains. “My relationship with mosques in general is
not amazing, and my first thought is usually to either go home and pray or go
in a shop and use their changing room.”
Ruhi-Khan and Babar’s experiences were reflected in a
March 2022 report by Vibrant Scottish Mosques, an organisation that campaigns
for the inclusivity of women in mosques. It found that “the overwhelming
majority of women felt the mosque was a male dominated space and one in which
they can be made to feel unwelcome and unwanted”. For some, this feeling of
isolation starts at the mosque door. Julie Siddiqui, from Slough, visited a
local mosque during Ramadan and was told by a man at the main gate that the
woman’s entrance was around the side, and down a dark alleyway. “It was
horrible. I didn’t want to walk down there on my own,” she says. “The whole
geography, the whole mindset is geared around men. And that needs to change.”
Siddiqui says some of her experiences in mosques have left her feeling like a
“burden”. “Being given a second-rate space, where you don’t know where the
direction of prayer is, or whether the Imam has started reciting or not, it’s
horrible. It feels so upsetting. And then people wonder why women aren’t coming
to the mosques,” she adds.
Contemporary research on women’s spaces in UK mosques
is lacking. Open My Mosque, an initiative that documents the good and bad
experiences of using UK mosques, recently surveyed more than 300 male and
female British Muslims on improvements needed within mosques. According to
interim findings shared with The Independent, 75 per cent said mosques must
change to become more welcoming for women, while 45 per cent said they
themselves, or someone they know, have had at least one negative experience at
a mosque due to being a woman. Additionally, 85 per cent said they want prayer
spaces for both men and women that are always available – not just on key
Islamic dates – while 68 per cent said they believe mosques do not adequately
understand female worshippers’ needs.
Anita Nayyar, co-founder of Open My Mosque, says it
shouldn’t be taken lightly how important it is for women to have a space to
pray. Muslims are required to pray five times a day, as a fundamental pillar of
Islam. “Our research showed that it is the number one thing people want to be
able to do,” she says. “There’s an anxiety that comes with missing a prayer.
When you can’t access a mosque, and you don’t have anywhere to pray, that’s
damaging to our spiritual wellbeing. At the very least we should be able to do
that, because that outlines our day, and it connects us to God.”
When it comes to shifting the mindset towards
inclusivity, the Covid-19 pandemic somewhat provided a helping hand. As
lockdown shuttered worship spaces across the UK, many men realised the impact
of not having a communal space, says Sahira Dar, founder of Vibrant Scottish
Mosques. “Men suddenly realised the mental wellbeing that mosques provided, but
as women, we’ve always known we didn’t have that. While men felt the void that
the pandemic brought, imagine the void in women’s lives the rest of the time.
It was a real learning opportunity.”
Women across the UK – myself included – have grieved
this absence of community, but many are reluctant to speak openly about the
issue. Some fear that shedding a negative light on mosques could fuel a false,
Islamophobic perception that Islam opresses women. Their concerns are not
without merit; Islamophobia is still rife, and Muslims were the target of 2,703
religious hate crimes in the year ending March 2021 – 45 per cent of all those
recorded in the UK that year. Additionally, a report by Muslim Council of
Britain’s Centre for Media Monitoring found that 60 per cent of online articles
portray Muslims in a negative light.
But this reluctance to speak out “provides a kind of
protection for the mosque leaders who discriminate against women,” says Nayyar.
“Islam says Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mosque didn’t put women in a second-class
space. There were equal spaces for both men and women.” She adds: “The way
these modern day mosques are operating, it’s actually undermining what Islam is
and it ignores women’s voices. We are fighting for the rights that we were given,
and we are seeing in our research that men also want the same. But it’s a very
small minority of men with a particular ideology that are stopping women from
going to the mosque.”
Women’s groups believe the key to making worship
spaces more inclusive is increasing the presence of women on mosque advisory
boards and committees. While data on the number of women in governance of
mosques is lacking, experts say it is “extremely rare”. Raghad Altikriti, chair
of the Muslim Association of Britain, says individual mosques need to appoint
women to evaluate whether their facilities are sufficient. “We can’t have a man
saying, well, we think we are catering to women. It should be a women’s
committee that can assess the situation and see what is missing. There are
always going to be gaps, and there has to be the engagement of Muslim women to
see those,” she says. This is supported by the Muslim Council of Britain, which
says it is encouraging “more constructive dialogue and solution-focused
approaches to ensuring increased access and opportunities for Muslim
women."
As with many women’s issues, concrete improvements can
only happen when men also take steps towards change. Following the complaints
against the mosque on Brick Lane, board members have overhauled the women’s
space. Those visiting the mosque must no longer walk past the funeral service,
or through a dark corridor to the basement floor. “The women’s entrance is now
right next to the men’s, and there are stairs which directly take you to the
prayer area,” Maruf Ahmed, an imam at the mosque explains, adding that he is
hoping to recruit women to the advisory committee in the near future. The
change is already having a ripple effect. While the mosque previously saw
groups of just three or four visit for Eid prayers, earlier this month they
welcomed a congregation of 50 women.
As for me, my local mosque recently expanded to create
a dedicated women’s space. The area has a signposted entrance, wudu facilities,
and is open for all daily prayers. I’m hopeful that the development will
provide a space of commune for women, and young girls will grow up with a
worship space that I never had. And I’m hopeful that, because of this, one day
soon I’ll finally be able to shake the familiar feeling of isolation from the
mosque that I’ve come to accept.
Source: Independent UK
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/womens-prayer-spaces-mosques-uk-b2097613.html
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Saudi Women Passport Officers Serve Abroad To Assist
'Makkah Route' Pilgrims
June 10, 2022
JAKARTA — The passport authorities in Saudi Arabia
have despatched female officers abroad to serve pilgrims coming through the
Makkah Route Initiative for this year's Hajj.
The Ministry of Interior has published a video on its
official account on Snapchat showing female passport officers at King Abdulaziz
International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah serving the pilgrims preparing to depart
from Jakarta under the scheme.
Deputy Sergeant Amal Al-Ghamdi and the first private
Noura Saad Al-Ghamdi said they were chosen from the KAIA in Jeddah to
participate in the Makkah Route Initiative and to serve the pilgrims from
Indonesia at Jakarta airport during the 2022 Hajj season.
They said it was an honour to serve the pilgrims,
noting that they were looking forward to playing their role in representing the
Kingdom and the Saudi women to the fullest and in the best manner.
The Makkah Route Initiative, which is launched in
Indonesia for the first time this year, is one of the initiatives of the
“Pilgrim Experience Program” under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
The initiative aims at completing pilgrims’ travel
procedures, starting from issuing visas electronically, collecting biometrics
and completing entry procedures at the airport of the country of departure
itself after ensuring that they meet all the health requirements.
The procedures also include labeling and sorting
luggage according to the transportation and accommodation arrangements in Saudi
Arabia. This cuts down the waiting period at the arrival airport where the
pilgrims will board immediately upon landing buses waiting to take them to
their residences in Makkah or Madinah. Logistics agencies will deliver their
luggage to their residences.
The first batch of Indonesian pilgrims who benefited
from the Makkah Route Initiative landed at Prince Mohammed Bin Abdulaziz
International Airport in Madinah on Thursday. The pilgrims departed through the
Makkah Route terminal at Jakarta International Airport.
Source: Saudi Gazette
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Bradford Muslim Women's Council Tackles Cost-Of-Living
Crisis
By Jo Winrow
Jun 10, 2022
BRADFORD-based Muslim Women’s Council has been awarded
funding and support to help the charity tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
The charity, which works to empower women for the
benefit of society, has been selected as a 2022 Weston Charity Awards winner.
The award gives the charity the chance to invest in
its future with ten months of support from a dedicated team of four business
experts, thanks to pro bono charity Pilotlight and a grant of £6,500 from the
Garfield Weston Foundation.
The Bradford organisation was chosen from more than
100 applicants, all of whom are frontline charities delivering youth, welfare
or community services in the North of England, the Midlands and Wales.
Bana Gora, chief executive of Muslim Women’s Council,
said: "Muslim Women's Council are delighted to be chosen as a Weston
Charity Awards winner. The funding grant will enable us to develop our projects
and workstreams, and we look forward to working with Pilotlight to improve our
organisation in as many aspects as possible."
Philippa Charles, director of the Garfield Weston
Foundation said: “As the cost-of-living crisis hits families and communities,
we see a critical role for small charities in key regions who are supporting
vulnerable people in a range of ways.”
Source: The Telegraph And Argus
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Women at Kabul Exhibition Display Handmade Products
Jun 10, 2022
More than 100 women displayed their handmade products
in an international exhibition held in Kabul.
The exhibition was held for four days under the title
of “Bahar-e-Naw” and was part of a week-long promotion of industry.
Some female entrepreneurs said that holding such an
exhibition is important to motivate women to display or sell their handmade
products in the market.
“We, the women, are motivated and when we are
motivated, we can work,” said Pashton Amiri, a female entrepreneur.
Their products are handmade materials made from
precious stones, textile and other materials.
All of the organizers and participants of the
exhibitions are women who came from various provinces of the country to display
their products.
“The number of our employees include 72 women who work
with us, 32 women are working with me,” said Fatima Hossieni, a female
entrepreneur.
“We were not able to visit the traders because the
section for females is separated from the male. The men couldn’t visit our
displays,” said Noorzia Safi, a female entrepreneur.
A German entrepreneur called Setara said that she has
been working in the rose business for the past seven years in Afghanistan.
Setara, who is one of the participants of the
exhibition, said that in the rose season she hires around 150 female employees.
“The women are ready to work but there are still
economic problems,” she said.
The visitors of this exhibition are also women. They
called on the citizens to use the domestic products in order to support
domestic entrepreneurs.
“The products which we have seen were symbols of
Afghan culture and identity,” said Sahar Ahmadi, a visitor.
Meanwhile, female entrepreneurs urged the Islamic
Emirate to support women traders and to facilitate such an exhibition which
could be effective for their business.
Source: Tolo News
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-178381
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/bengal-muslim-awards-stereotype/d/127216