CAIR Files Suit Against Minnesota Federal Correctional Facility for Removing Muslim Woman’s Hijab
New Age
Islam News Bureau
05 October 2023
·
With
Iranian Girl Armita Geravand in Coma, Suspicion Falls on Iran Government
·
80
Countries Condemn Diktats Against Women in Afghanistan: Report
·
Training
Program in Pakistan Helps Afghan Women
·
Iran
SaysUS, UK, Germany "Express Insincere Concern Over Iranian Women And
Girls" - X Platform
·
23-Year
Afghan Woman Embarks on Journey to Freedom in Iran Amid Immigration Challenges
·
Israeli,
Palestinian Women Hold Joint Rally for Peace
·
London
Muslim Women’s Centre Firebombed
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/cair-minnesota-muslim-hijab/d/130829
CAIR Files Suit Against Minnesota
Federal Correctional Facility for Removing Muslim Woman’s Hijab
October 4, 2023
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/4/23) – The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil
rights organization, today filed a lawsuit against Minnesota’s FCI Waseca, a
federal correction institution, for removing a Muslim woman’s hijab,
photographing her and forcing her to carry that photo on her ID card.
“Mrs. Jama was often threatened if she
did not comply with orders to remove her hijab – including threats to cut off
her communication with her children,” said CAIR Legal Fellow Aya Beydoun. “The
hijab is a sacred part of Mrs. Jama’s identity and her connection to God. No
one should be forced to choose between their faith and the ability to speak to
their children.”
CAIR’s lawsuit states in part:
“The Free Exercise Clause of the US
Constitution has long guaranteed individuals the right to practice their
religious beliefs without interference from the government. Key legislation has
been born from its ideals, ensuring the safeguarding our freedoms, specifically
during interactions with law enforcement.”
The lawsuit seeks “an order that
Defendants take all possible steps to destroy Ms. Jama’s uncovered photographs
from their database and to end its practice of taking and using uncovered
photographs.”
READ THE LAWSUIT.
BACKGROUNDER:
Muna Jama, a Somali-American Muslim
woman incarcerated at FCI Waseca, has been forced to carry around an ID photo,
which features a picture of her without her hijab or abaya. Her head, ears, and
neck are on full display each time male officers need to identify her during
headcounts, at commissary, and other check in points throughout FCI
Waseca.
Each time Jama swipes her ID card, her
hijab-less photo appears on the database screen for any males in the vicinity
to view. This hijab-less ID has caused Jama a great deal of shame and
embarrassment. Her identity as a Muslim woman wearing hijab has been
compromised and her beliefs violated on a near daily basis.
FCI Waseca has violated the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act, a landmark piece of legislation that prohibits the
federal government from substantially burdening a person’s exercise of their
religion.
While she is able and continues to wear
her hijab throughout the facility, to the degree that most officers and fellow
inmates do not even recognize her without it, FCI Waseca and the Federal Bureau
of Prison’s Regional Manager Andre Matevousian have forced her into a situation
in which she must identify herself to male staff without her hijab.
The Federal Bureau of Prison’s own
policies allow female incarcerees to wear their religious headwear (including
hijab) throughout the facility, but no logical reason has been provided as to
why incarcerees at FCI Waseca like Jama are forced to take their photos without
a hijab.
The officials of FCI Waseca continue to
violate her rights as a Muslim American, despite the dozens of complaints she
has filed and the endless pleading she has done with officers to allow her the
dignity of covering up.
She has repeatedly been ordered to
remove her hijab for transfers and photographs between facilities, with the
constant threat of solitary confinement if she should refuse. On one occasion
an officer threatened to cut off her communication with her family if she did
not remove her hijab.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR offers a
Know Your Rights guide on interactions with law enforcement.
CAIR: Know Your Rights with Law
Enforcement
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil
rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American
Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las
libertadesciviles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y
empoderar a losmusulmanesenlosEstados Unidos.
Source: cair.com
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-files-suit-against-minnesota-federal-correctional-facility-for-removing-muslim-womans-hijab/
--------
With Iranian Girl, Armita Geravand, in
Coma, Suspicion Falls on Iran Government
16-year-old Armita Geravand
-----
By Farnaz Fassihi
Oct. 5, 2023
Exactly what happened to Armita
Geravand, 16, is unclear, but the circumstances have fuelled accusations that
agents enforcing Iran’s dress code must have harmed her.
The 16-year-old girl, her short black
hair uncovered, entered a subway car in Tehran early Sunday on her way to
school, security camera footage broadcast by Iran’s state television showed.
Minutes later, she was dragged out unconscious and laid on the train platform.
All week, the girl, Armita Geravand, has
been in a coma, guarded by security agents in the intensive care unit of a
military hospital in Tehran and evoking broad comparisons with Mahsa Amini, who
died last year at 22 in the custody of the morality police after being accused
of violating Iran’s hijab rules, which require women to cover their hair.
Exactly what happened to Armita on
Sunday is not clear, and the government has not released footage from inside
the train that would reveal what made the teenager collapse.
But the news of another young woman in a
coma under murky circumstances — another girl, another metro station, another
hospital, another grief-stricken family — was enough to stir outrage in Iran
and fuel accusations that the government’s hijab agents must have harmed her.
Ms. Amini’s death last year set off a
nationwide uprising, led by women and girls, demanding an end to Iran’s
clerical theocracy. The “Mahsa movement,” as it was called, morphed into the
most serious challenge to the legitimacy of the ruling clerics since they took
power in 1979. In crushing the protests, the government killed more than 500
people, including teenagers and children, and arrested tens of thousands of
demonstrators.
Thousands of protesters heading last
October to the cemetery in western Iran where Mahsa Amini, who died in the
custody of Iran’s morality police, was buried.Credit...via Agence France-Presse
— Getty Images
Farzad Seifikaran, a journalist with
Radio Zamandeh who first reported the story about Armita on Sunday, interviewed
two of her relatives, a friend and another person familiar with the episode.
The sources told him that Armita and two of her friends, who were also not
covering their hair, argued with officers enforcing hijab rules, Mr. Seifikaran
said, and that one of them pushed Armita.
She fell and hit her head on a metal
object on the train and suffered cerebral hemorrhaging, Mr. Seifikaran said the
sources told him.
The government says she fainted because
of a drop in blood sugar after skipping breakfast. Masoud Dorosti, head of the
Tehran Metro Operating Company, told the Iranian news media that footage from
its cameras showed no sign of a verbal or physical confrontation between
passengers and municipality employees.
The state news agency, IRNA, published a
video of Armita’s parents looking shellshocked and repeating the government
narrative. “My daughter, I think her blood pressure, I don’t know what, I think,
they say that her blood pressure dropped then she fell down and her head hit
the edge of the metro,” said her mother, Shahin Ahmadi, stumbling on her words
as her voice shook.
Her father, Ahmad Geravand, looked down,
arms folded, as she spoke. Mr. Geravand said Armita had been healthy and did
not use any medications, and he asked for prayers for her.
Armita lives in a working-class
neighborhood of western Tehran and is an art student at a vocational art and
design high school, her classmate and relatives told Mr. Seifikaran. She has a
passion for painting and pursued taekwondo training semiprofessionally, they
said.
The government’s lack of openness and
the tight security at the air force hospital have contributed to the suspicions
that the authorities had a hand in harming Armita. Anger has spilled out this
week on social media, with people denouncing what they see as the government’s
brutality.
“Transparency means all the security
agents leave Fajr Air Force Hospital and surrounding areas and journalists be
allowed to report on what happened to the 16-year-old girl,” wrote Mohsen
Borhani, a lawyer in Tehran, on X, the social media platform formerly called
Twitter.
The authorities eventually stifled
street protests over Ms. Amini’s death, and they violently squelched
commemorations of its anniversary last month. But sporadic small protests still
erupted in several cities, with people chanting, “Death to the dictator.”
Many women and girls across Iran have
continued to defy the mandatory hijab rule by letting their hair show in
public. This collective act of civil disobedience has been risky, as the
government has come up with new ways to catch and punish such women, including
the use of facial recognition software.
Many Iranian women still defy the
authorities’ conservative dress code.Credit...Vahid Salemi/Associated Press
A group of Iranian teachers’ unions said
in a statement on Wednesday that the Education Ministry’s security director had
visited Armita’s high school and warned teachers and staff that they would be
fired if they spoke about her, and that her classmates were threatened to keep
them silent.
Security agents have swarmed the
hospital, locked down the ward where Armita is kept and threatened to arrest family
members and her classmates if they spoke to the news media, according to rights
groups and activists. Maryam Lotfi, a journalist for the daily newspaper Shargh
who went to the hospital on Sunday, was arrested as she was interviewing
Armita’s mother and detained for 24 hours, according to her colleagues and
editors.
“We can confirm that Armita’s family is
under immense pressure to adhere to the state’s narrative, while she lies
unconscious and guarded by state security personnel in a military hospital with
all visitors banned,” said Jasmin Ramsey, deputy director of the Center for
Human Rights in Iran, an independent advocacy group based in New York. “If her
case were as straightforward as they claim, why all the restrictions and
secrecy?”
In Iran, parents of teenage girls are
once again anxious about their safety. During the uprising last year, Iranian
security forces systematically targeted not only adults but teenagers and
children who were staging a revolt in schools, launching raids that intimidated
students and detaining up to 1,000 minors.
An image taken from video purportedly
shows children fleeing security forces last year in the Iranian city of Khash,
in Sistan-Baluchistan Province.Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Many parents and students were already
fearful because of another unexplained trauma: Hundreds of schoolgirls in
dozens of cities were hospitalized early this year with respiratory and
neurological symptoms that the authorities said were partly caused by
deliberate attacks with toxic chemicals.
“As a mother, I am feeling very stressed
these days,” said Fariba, 46, whose daughter is a student in Karaj, near
Tehran, and who asked that her last name not be published out of fear of
retribution. “I cannot let my daughter leave the house alone; I am afraid that
something bad would happen to her. She does not want to wear a hijab. So many
of our girls these days have become extremely brave.”
The plight of Iran’s women and their
courage in pushing for their rights have reverberated widely, both within the
country and abroad. Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, was among
those reacting to the news about Armita, posting Wednesday on X, “Once again a
young woman in Iran is fighting for her life.”
“Shocked and concerned about reports
that Iran’s so-called morality police have assaulted 16-year-old Armita
Geravand,” Abram Paley, the U.S. deputy special envoy on Iran, wrote on X. “We
continue to stand with the brave people of Iran and work with the world to hold
the regime accountable for its abuses.”
Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting
from Brussels.
Farnaz Fassihi is a reporter for The New
York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war
correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle
East. More about Farnaz Fassihi
Source: nytimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/world/middleeast/iran-armita-geravand.html?auth=login-google1tap&login=google1tap
-----
80 Countries Condemn Diktats Against
Women In Afghanistan: Report
Taliban
authorities closed most girls' high schools, barred women from university.
-----
Asian News International: October 05, 2023
Kabul: Around 80 countries condemned the
diktats issued by the Taliban on Afghan women putting restrictions on them
since the group returned to power in 2021 and urged them to reverse the orders
passed by them.
Amid the deteriorating conditions of
Afghan women, eighty countries in a joint statement delivered to the UNGA 78th
meeting expressed their concerns over the violation of women and girls' rights
in Afghanistan, reported TOLO News.
Taliban authorities closed most girls'
high schools, barred women from university and stopped many female Afghan aid
staff from working.
Countries including, UAE, Australia,
Japan, Spain, Chile, along with 75 other member states and observers have asked
the Taliban to respect women's and girls' rights based on the Taliban values
and international human rights.
The countries in the joint statement
called the Taliban's women-related edicts 'systematic discrimination',
oppression and violence, according to TOLO News.
They further urged the Taliban to ensure
full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in public and
political life of Afghanistan.
Lana Nusseibeh, Permanent Representative
of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations said, "We call on the de
facto authorities to allow women and girls to exercise their rights and
contribute to the social and economic development of the Afghan society in
accordance with international human rights laws and teachings of Islam."
Moreover, according to the joint
statement, the Taliban's edicts against women and girls contradict Islamic
values as well as, universal human rights.
However, the Taliban have claimed
women's rights in Afghanistan are protected based on the Sharia Law.
Spokesperson of the Taliban Zabiullah
Mujahid said, "Those rights of women and girls which have been given to
them by Islam, have never been violated and will never be violated either. The
Islamic Emirate considers it its obligation to correct women's rights in the
country."
According to a political analyst, the
Taliban should come to a decision whether they want to live with the world or
not.
"We have seen tens of statements
and declarations which have had no result. The Islamic Emirate should make a
decision whether they want to live with the rest of the world or not,"
said Muhammad Sangar Amirzada, a political analyst.
Earlier this week, the Taliban-appointed
acting minister of Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadim emphasized that based
on Sharia, men and women are not equal, reported TOLO News.
He noted that despite Western nations
trying to demonstrate that men and women have equal rights, women and men are
"not equal".
Earlier, UN Deputy Secretary-General
Amina Mohammed called for putting pressure on the Taliban to ensure women's and
girls' rights to education and work in Afghanistan.
Moreover, countries including the United
States, France, Britain, Japan, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Switzerland,
Ecuador, Albania, and Malta, referred to the treatment of Afghan women and
girls by the Taliban as "gender-based violence", according to a joint
statement.
Last month, the United Nations held a
session to recognize the "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan under the
Taliban rule, for the first time as part of their efforts to support human
rights, Khaama Press reported.
Richard Bennett remarked that the global
community has betrayed the women in Afghanistan, adding that the current
situation in Afghanistan can only be remedied through practical actions, not
condemnations and expressions of sympathy.
Source: ndtv.com
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/80-countries-condemn-diktats-against-women-in-afghanistan-report-4451924
------
Training Program in Pakistan Helps Afghan Women
October 04, 2023
In a small building in Peshawar,
Pakistan, a group of Afghan women watch a teacher show them how to use a sewing
machine.
The training program was established
last year by Mahra Basheer who saw an increasing number of women coming from
neighboring Afghanistan. Since the Taliban took over in 2021, women in
Afghanistan have faced growing restrictions and an economic crisis.
Basheer created the program to provide
choices for women to support themselves. She teaches sewing, digital skills and
beauty treatments. And Basheer quickly found hundreds of women wanting to join
the program.
"If we get assistance, I think we
will be able to train between 250 and 500 students at one time, empowering
women who can play an important role in the community," Basheer said.
Officials say hundreds of thousands of
Afghans have traveled to Pakistan since the Taliban took over in 2021. Even
before then, 1.5 million registered refugees were in the country. This is one
of the largest such populations in the world, the United Nations refugee agency
says.
More than a million others are estimated
to live there unregistered.
Struggling with an economic crisis of
its own, Pakistan's government is increasingly worried about the number of
Afghan refugees. Many Afghans have been arrested in recent months. Lawyers and
officials say they do not have the correct legal documents to live in Pakistan.
Basheer said that her main aim was
expanding operations for Afghan women. But she has also included some Pakistani
women in the program to increase their choices in the conservative area.
The training program lasts three months.
When they complete the program, the women direct their attention to earning
enough money to survive. Many women begin their own businesses.
Fatima, a nineteen-year-old from
Afghanistan, completed the training program. She said she wants to open a
beauty salon in Peshawar. It is currently banned in her home country just a few
hours away.
"Right now my plan is to start a
salon at home. Then to work very professionally so that I can eventually open a
very big salon for myself," she said.
I’m Gena Bennett.
Mushtaq Ali reported this story for
Reuters. Gena Bennett adapted it for VOA Learning English.
Source: learningenglish.voanews.com
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/training-program-in-pakistan-helps-afghan-women/7288944.html
------
Iran says US, UK, Germany "express
insincere concern over Iranian women and girls" - X platform
Reuters
October 5, 2023
DUBAI, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The United
State, Britain and Germany "express insincere concern over Iranian women
and girls", Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on
the X social media platform on Thursday.
An Iranian teenaged girl is in critical
condition in a coma in hospital, two prominent rights activists told Reuters on
Wednesday, after what they said was a confrontation with agents in the Tehran
metro over violating the country's hijab law.
Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena
Baerbock said on X: "Once again a young woman in #Iran is fighting for her
life. Just because she showed her hair in the subway. It is unbearable. The
parents of #ArmitaGarawand do not belong in front of cameras, but have the
right to be at their daughter's bedside."
Reporting by Dubai Newsroom Editing by
Bernadette Baum
Source: reuters.com
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-says-us-uk-germany-express-insincere-concern-over-iranian-women-girls-x-2023-10-05/
------
23-Year Afghan woman embarks on journey to freedom in Iran amid immigration challenges
Fidel Rahmati
October 5, 2023
Amina, a 23-year-old woman, left her
parents in Afghanistan and immigrated to Iran. She was determined and aware of
her pursuit of freedom, lacking in Afghanistan.
However, immigration has another aspect;
as she put it, “It is not pleasant in itself, and when the stamp of being an
immigrant is applied to someone’s forehead, it means that person is deprived of
all the rights and privileges they should have.”
Amina says, “One of the biggest
challenges that was very worrisome for me was finding housing in a country that
does not grant any privileges to immigrants, even though their constitution
explicitly mentions all the rights and privileges of citizens, but none of them
applies to foreign citizens, intentionally depriving them.”
Amina had strived for everything she had
before the Taliban: “As a young person who had struggled for years to obtain my
desired job with difficulties and challenges, immigration was certainly one of
the biggest failures in my life. Migration is a reflection of people’s failures
in this regard. Condescending attitudes, discrimination in immigration, and the
lack of human rights and privileges are things that, when combined, form the
concept of migration.”
She compares life in Afghanistan to a
cage, and the thought of escaping from it is appealing. It’s something an
immigrant experiences at the beginning of their journey: a sense of freedom and
flight. But flight to where?
Amina reflects, “When I thought about
escaping from this cage, I was happy that I could finally breathe freely by
leaving. I could pursue my lost dreams, but as the days passed one by one in my
journey, a feeling I couldn’t quite explain crept into my being. I don’t know if
it was fear, longing, or any other name I could give it; when I looked into my
father’s eyes and remembered that I might never see them again when I faced my
mother’s kindness, my heart turned into a piece of fire. I told myself that if
I go, I may no longer have these beauties of life with me.”
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/23-year-afghan-woman-embarks-on-journey-to-freedom-in-iran-amid-immigration-challenges/
--------
Israeli, Palestinian women hold joint
rally for peace
October 5, 2023
JERUSALEM: Hundreds of Palestinian and
Israeli women rallied in Jerusalem and the Dead Sea in the occupied West Bank
on Wednesday, calling for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We want peace,” chanted the
demonstrators, many dressed in white and holding placards that read “Stop
killing our children”.
“Our message is that we want our kids to
be alive rather than dead,” Huda Abu Arqoub, a Palestinian activist and
director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace NGO, said as participants
initially rallied in Jerusalem.
“This is the first time that we have a
real partnership between Israeli and Palestinian women on an equal level.” The
protesters later headed to the Dead Sea in the West Bank where they were joined
by more demonstrators, a correspondent reported.
The Alliance for Middle East Peace
represents two women-led associations — Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun —
that organised Wednesday’s rally.
“I feel very happy to be here and to
feel that we, the Palestinian women, are not alone and there are many women who
want to end the killings,” said Yasmeen Soud, a Palestinian from Bethlehem at
the demonstration in Jerusalem. Pascale Chen, a coordinator from Women Wage
Peace, said they wanted the conflict to brought to an end through talks.
Spource: dawn.com
https://www.dawn.com/news/1779375/israeli-palestinian-women-hold-joint-rally-for-peace
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London Muslim women’s centre firebombed
4th October 2023
A Muslim women’s hub in West London has
been ransacked and set on fire in what may have been a hate crime.
The Al-Falah Institute in Hayes was
attacked last week and is appealing to the Muslim community for help to replace
burned Qurans and rebuild the centre.
If you would like to donate please do so
here: https://gofund.me/00bc8ab5
The Al-Falah Institute said their alarm
was disarmed around 10pm on September 26 and then the perpetrators broke the
glass of the front door.
Staff checked to see how much damage had
been done and found that the donation box had been opened, some of the drawers
were on the floor, there was mess in the kitchen, and they had also damaged the
doors.
A phone call was made to the police but
they said they were busy and would come around the following day.
Later, at around 2am the alarm system
company called and said the cameras were all black and it appeared as though a
fire had been set inside the building. They said they had already called the
fire services.
Al-Falah Institute says classescwill
carry on as normal.
“Alhamdulillah, by the Grace of Allah,
we have not let this horrible heart-breaking incident stop us and we have been
continuing with the Seerah of the Prophet (Prophet Muhammad SAW’s Life)
lectures with Professor Maimoona Murtaza as guest speaker.
“We seek Allah SWT’s help and aid in
this difficult time and it is at such times your Al-Falah needs you more than
ever – we request all the sisters to make special duas for Al-Falah and for
donations.”
A spokesperson for Metropolitan Police
said: “Police were called to a premises on Yeading Lane, Hayes by the London
Fire Bridge (LFB) at around 02:20hrs on Tuesday, 27 September after a fire was
reported at the address. LFB dealt with the fire; there were no reported
injuries.”
Source: 5pillarsuk.com
https://5pillarsuk.com/2023/10/04/london-muslim-womens-centre-firebombed/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-armita-geravand-coma/d/130829