Educating Women 'Fully Compatible' With Islam - UAE Envoy Lana Nusseibeh Tells Taliban
New Age Islam News Bureau
03 March 2022
• All Appointed Egyptian Female Judges To Sit On
Judiciary Podium For 1st Time March 5th
• British Council to Hosts Second Virtual Women Of The
World Festival in Pakistan
• War-Related Sexual Violence Persists Despite UN
Efforts
• Nigerian Women Protest Parliament Rejection of
Pro-Equality Bills
• Women Up: EU-Turkish Project Aims to Bolster Female
Employment
• Egypt Jumps 5 Points in World Bank Report on Women
Empowerment
• ‘The Conversion’: How a New Film On ‘Love Jihad’
Touches Raw Nerves and Shakes One’s Conscience
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
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Educating Women 'Fully Compatible' With Islam - UAE Envoy Lana Nusseibeh Tells Taliban
UAE Ambassador Lana
Nusseibeh to UN
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Mar 02, 2022
The UAE's ambassador to the UN Lana Nusseibeh on
Wednesday urged the Taliban in Afghanistan to let girls inside classrooms,
saying educating women was “fully compatible” with Islam.
Ms Nusseibeh said the UAE “stands by the women and
girls of Afghanistan”, who have faced restrictions on their education and job
opportunities since the Taliban routed the US-backed government and swept back
to power last August.
She spoke with reporters alongside the UN ambassadors
from Norway, Albania and Brazil before the UAE led its first UN Security
Council meeting since taking over the 15-member body’s rotating presidency on
Tuesday.
“Religion cannot be used to justify extremist ideology
or to excuse discrimination against women and girls,” Ms Nusseibeh said in New
York.
“The UAE stands by the women and girls of Afghanistan
and as they demand their rights to work, to education and to participate in
public life, which is fully compatible with the religion of Islam and with our
culture.”
The Taliban have rolled back women's rights gains made
during the two decades of foreign involvement in the country, excluding many
women from the workplace and limiting travel unless accompanied by a close male
relative.
Most girls have been barred from attending school
beyond the age of 12 or 13. The militant group says that all girls will be
allowed to return to classrooms later in March.
“We're strongly committed to maintaining that women
and girls have full access to education, the workplace and public life and will
vigorously pursue this objective,” said Ms Nusseibeh.
This could be achieved by “stressing that their
empowerment and protection are not just a moral and an ethical duty, but a
necessity for building a peaceful and stable Afghanistan”, she added.
Later, addressing the council, the UN’s envoy to
Afghanistan Deborah Lyons expressed concern over women protesters who were
rounded up by Taliban fighters last month and “disappeared”, released only
after a public outcry.
“Although they were released, another group of women
was arbitrarily arrested and remains in detention,” said Ms Lyons.
“We are concerned by restrictions on women and girls’
fundamental rights, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and
arbitrary detention, respect for minorities, and freedoms of assembly and
expression.”
The UAE, Albania, Brazil, Gabon and Ghana joined the
UN council for two-year terms beginning on January 1, meaning they can take
part in meetings, vote on resolutions and help draft official statements.
Members take turns in alphabetical order to hold the
council’s presidency each month, during which they manage the agenda, preside
over meetings and decide on topics for debate.
Source: The National News
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All Appointed Egyptian Female Judges To Sit On
Judiciary Podium For 1st Time March 5th
02 Mar 2022
In a historic moment, 98
women in Egypt have been sworn in as the first women judges in the country’s
State Council, one of its main judicial bodies that had previously been all
male.
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CAIRO - 2 March 2022: All female judges, who were
recently appointed at the State Council, will sit on the judiciary podium with
their fellow judges as of March 5th for the first time, marking a historic move
by Egypt to empower women with powers and competencies as judges.
In October 2021, a number of women judges arrived at
Egypt’s State Council to sworn-in, to be the first batch of female members at
the council.
In March 2021, a decision was issue to appoint 98
women judges at the State Council and the prosecution for the first time, in
implementation to the directions of the President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, and in
line with the country’s plan to empower women to reach different positions.
On June 3, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Judicial
Bodies made the historic decision to approve women’s appointments as judges and
prosecutors to the Administrative Judiciary.
The appointed female judges will occupy a position of
(delegate) or a position of (deputy) in the Council.
Ahead of taking the oath, women judges expressed their
happiness with what they considered as a great historical incident.
“The State Council is the bulwark of rights and
freedoms.. we swear that we live up to the responsibility, and preserve the
rights of Egyptian citizens,” said Counselor Iman Sharif before she was sworn
in.
For Counselor Hind Ahmed, she said “this is a great
day to us to be the first batch of female members of the council, which was
established in 1946, and we hope to be a good addition to the council.. the
appointment is a victory for Egyptian women.”
Source: Egypt Today
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British Council to hosts second virtual Women of the
World festival in Pakistan
March 03, 2022
Karachi: The British Council, the UK’s international
organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, in partnership
with the WOW Foundation, a UK based independent organisation working to build,
convene and sustain a global movement to advance the empowerment of women and
girls, and curating partners Entrepreneurship and Community Development
Institute (ECDI) and Olomopolo Media are set to host the second virtual edition
Women of the World (WOW) festival in Pakistan, on 5 and 6 March.
With the theme of ‘Rani’, the two-days festival
explores the many facets of the female identity, and will feature critical
conversations on leadership, allyship, and accountability in a post pandemic
world while also celebrating progress made toward a more equitable future.
This will be done through panel discussions,
interactive workshops, talks, performances, children’s storytelling and more.
Like last year, WOW Virtual Pakistan 2022 will also have ‘check-ins’ hosted
Sania Saeed and Mira Sethi in between sessions to help navigate the various
aspects of the festival and will host some surprise ‘guests’ as well.
WOW Virtual Pakistan 2022 will be opened virtually by
keynote speakers Senator Sherry Rehman and Jude Kelly CBE, Founder and
director, WOW Foundation.
Commenting on the significance of the festival, Laila
Jamil, Director Arts, British Council Pakistan said: We are so pleased to have
put together this festival with our curators. It is a sensitively curated
programme that offers great insight into contemporary Pakistani concerns and
highlights the inspiring work being done by women and non-binary people across
a variety of sectors.
Source: The News Pakistan
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War-related sexual violence persists despite UN
efforts
DR. ABDEL AZIZ ALUWAISHEG
March 02, 2022
During her visit to the region this week, the top UN
official in charge of combating sexual violence during conflicts made an appeal
for support of the organization’s efforts to deal with this scourge.
Regrettably, the Middle East’s many conflicts have witnessed unspeakable
atrocities targeting women and girls. On Monday, when the UN Security Council
adopted Resolution 2624, describing the Houthi militia in Yemen as a “terrorist
group,” the council cited its policy of sexual violence and repression against
politically active and professional women.
The UNSC resolution condemned the Houthis’ “sexual and
gender-based violence, including sexual violence in conflict and torture, and
particularly in detention facilities,” and stressed the need for sufficient and
appropriate protections for women and girls in refugee camps and elsewhere, as
well as for remedy and assistance for survivors of sexual violence.
Resolution 2624 was issued under Chapter VII of the UN
Charter, thus making it directly enforceable and binding on all nations. It
further condemned “in the strongest terms” Houthi violations of international
humanitarian law and international human rights law, as well as human rights
abuses, “including those involving conflict-related sexual violence in
Houthi-controlled areas.”
The resolution was presented by the UK and all five
permanent members voted in favor. It reaffirmed that sexual violence in armed
conflict is a violation of international law and could constitute a
“sanctionable act” that threatens the peace, security or stability of Yemen.
Pramila Patten, the UN’s undersecretary-general and
special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict,
sought support from the Gulf nations.
While gender-based violence is also prevalent during
peacetime, conflicts and situations of instability exacerbate preexisting
patterns of violence against women and girls because of the breakdown in law
and order during conflicts and lack of police protection. The problem is
further intensified when populations are driven from their homes, rendered as
internally displaced in their countries or refugees in other countries.
Gender-based violence also continues even after
conflicts have ended due to the weak rule of law, the availability of weapons,
and breakdown of social and family structures. The trafficking of women and
girls thrives in such environments. And the lack of delivery of essential
services experienced during conflict and afterwards can have a disproportionate
impact on vulnerable populations, including women and girls.
Conflict-related sexual violence thrived in areas
under Daesh control in the Middle East, in areas where Boko Haram operated in
Africa and in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen. There have also been credible
reports of sexual violence from the Congo, Central African Republic, Ethiopia,
Myanmar and elsewhere. Regular forces, militias and terrorist groups have been
implicated in these reports. In the 1990s, there were persistent reports of
horrific sexual violence in the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict, especially by
Serbian militias.
The conflict in Ukraine has raised the alarm once
again about another potential wave of sexual violence. In 2017, the Office of
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report covering
conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine for the period from March 14, 2014,
to Jan. 31, 2017. While it could not find evidence that sexual violence was
used deliberately for strategic or tactical ends in the armed conflict, it
nevertheless documented many cases of sexual violence committed in places of
detention or deprivation of liberty. It found that cases of sexual violence
were usually underreported, including because of the stigma and trauma
associated with it. The OHCHR noted an “overwhelming lack of effective remedies
for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. Access to services and justice
is particularly limited to survivors living in the territory controlled by
armed groups.” The problem persisted beyond that period, according to a
November 2020 report by Amnesty International about what it described as an
“epidemic of violence against women in conflict-torn east Ukraine.”
The UN has adopted numerous strategies to combat
conflict-related sexual violence on both the prevention and accountability
aspects. In 2019, the UNSC strengthened justice and accountability for
survivors of such violence and adopted a survivor-centered approach to the
prevention and response to these crimes. Its resolution 2467 established a
useful instrument in the efforts to eradicate them by stressing prevention
through justice and accountability and affirming, for the first time, that a
survivor-centered approach must guide every aspect of the response.
Sexual violence persists as a tactic of war and
terrorism and there is, unfortunately, a centuries-old culture of impunity in
many regions. To help change that, national and international efforts must be
intensified to reaffirm a culture of accountability and increase the cost and consequences
for those who commit, command or condone sexual violence in conflict.
The UNSC now requires that conflict-related sexual
violence is addressed in all UN peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building
initiatives, including in the context of security and justice sector reform
efforts and in the negotiation of peace agreements and ceasefire verification
mechanisms.
The council has called for the provision of
reparations for survivors as well as livelihood support to enable them to
rebuild their lives and support their families, including the children born of
sexual violence in conflict, who are also stigmatized and suffer in silence and
shame. Some are rendered stateless by denying them the citizenship of their
mothers, leaving them vulnerable to recruitment and radicalization by armed
groups.
Despite these efforts, the problem persists. As
conflicts erupt around the world, the prospect of associated sexual violence is
there. Financial, administrative and legal support for those efforts,
nationally and at the UN level, is urgently needed to control this epidemic
and, hopefully, eradicate it altogether.
• Dr. Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC Assistant
Secretary-General for Political Affairs & Negotiation, and a columnist for
Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not
necessarily represent GCC views.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2034371
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Nigerian women protest parliament rejection of
pro-equality bills
By Ope Adetayo
2 Mar 2022
Nigerian women have converged at the country’s
parliament in Abuja to protest its decision to vote against the adoption of
five gender bills.
As early as 8am on Wednesday, hundreds of women showed
up at the National Assembly Complex in the Nigerian capital to demonstrate
against the Senate’s decisions at yesterday’s constitution amendment session.
‘’I am here [at the protest] because I am angry,”
Nimisire Emitomo, a 25-year-old writer, who joined others to sing and chant
about Nigerian legislators neglecting their concerns at the parliament gates.
“When I saw the vote yesterday, the first thing that came to my mind is why do
they hate us so much? They are literally saying we are second-class citizens,’’
After two years of deliberations, the legislature had
voted on a series of bills to amend the controversial 1999 constitution,
adopted during the transition from military rule to democracy that year.
One of the amendments, if passed, would have granted
citizenship to foreign-born husbands of Nigerian women; the Nigerian
constitution already confers automatic citizenship on foreign-born wives of
Nigerian men. Another would have given a woman the right to become indigenes of
their husband’s state after five years of marriage.
There were also provisions to assign 35 percent of
legislative seats to women, as well as reserve 35 percent of political party
leadership, for women.
Protesters said the rejections have pushed back years
of efforts by female lawmakers, lobbyists and activists.
For months, Chioma Agwuegbo, executive director of
TechHerNG and other activists had held consultations on the bills with
legislators, civil society groups and various other stakeholders. All of their
efforts ended up being futile.
’They shut the bills down with a vehemence that
actually scares us,’’ said Agwuegbo, one of the organisers of the protest.
‘’The reason why women are out today and tomorrow and keep having this
conversation is because women are not just good only for votes. You cannot lead
us without us.’’
Women and girls make up nearly half the entire
country’s population in Nigeria but are grossly underrepresented in Nigeria’s
political space. Only 19 of the 469 legislators currently serving in Nigeria’s
bicameral legislature – a meagre 4 percent – are female.
No woman has ever been elected governor or president
and only a handful of cabinet appointments are handed to women. Consequently,
the West African state is ranked 180 out of 190 according to the
Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Tuesday’s vote was the fifth attempt to review the
1999 constitution since its adoption. The latest review began in 2020 and the
committee overseeing the amendments was led by Deputy Senate President Ovie
Omo-Agege. It submitted a total of 68 bills last week.
Of the 68 bills voted on, 49 were passed, including a
bill on financial autonomy for local governments, Nigeria’s third tier of
governance. A bill to cap the timeline in prosecuting criminal and civil cases
was also rejected.
Activists have said the vote against bills granting
women more autonomy was symptomatic of what is still a deeply conservative
society.
‘’It is clear that [the rejection of the bills] is a
continuation of patriarchal structure in the society,” Ayisha Osori, director
of Open Society Foundations, told Al Jazeera. “As diverse as Nigeria is, in
terms of how divided we seem to be when it comes to ethnic, religious and class
divides, one thing that unites Nigerians more than anything is the common
hatred for women.”
Sponsors and lobbyists of gender-related bills usually
face an uphill battle in the legislature due to religious sentiments. Last
year, a similar bill seeking to promote gender equality in employment and
property inheritance was discarded for the third time after male senators from
the northern region complained that such bills were ‘’anti-Islam”.
To enact constitutional changes, the vote results have
to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the 36 state parliaments and then
sent to the president for assent. The protesting women are asking that
Tuesday’s decisions be reviewed before that step is taken.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Women Up: EU-Turkish project aims to bolster female
employment
MAR 02, 2022
Turkey’s efforts to boost women’s employment, which
still lags behind men, continue with a new project. The Social Security
Institution (SGK) teamed up with the European Union (EU) for the Women Up
project to give women more opportunities in the business world.
Women Up provides a maximum of 320 euros ($355)
allowance to female employers for hiring women, on the condition that the cost
of recruits will not exceed 65% of total costs. By 2022, employers will be
provided with a monthly stipend of around $282 (TL 3,984). The project will
continue for 32 months.
Donations will be available for employers and
employees in the provinces of Şanlıurfa, Aydın, Kahramanmaraş, the capital
Ankara, Samsun, Denizli and Istanbul. The provinces were specifically picked
based on the high number of female employers. Some 8,000 employers and
employees will benefit from the project, which can be applied through Turkey’s
e-governance website.
SGK President Cevdet Ceylan said they aim to encourage
female entrepreneurs, make them stronger against the competition and decrease
unregistered women labor.
Women Up primarily caters to small businesses with
nine and fewer employees and seeks to boost the number of women employees.
Ceylan said unregistered labor and lack of female
labor were the primary issues Turkey’s social security system faced. “Women’s
participation in the workforce is also important for economic growth, to reduce
poverty. Compared to men, both in Turkey and in the world, women are
comparatively less employed. However, compared to men, women are less employed
in Turkey and globally. We have a social security law to introduce affirmative
action for women, and Turkey is also pursuing various projects to boost women's
employment," Ceylan noted.
He highlighted that the number of women with social
security had reached about 5.1 million in late 2021, compared to about 1
million in 2002.
The applications to Women Up began on Feb. 21. Female
employers are eligible to apply if they have nine employees at most or none at
the moment and if they set up their business after March 5, 2012. Employers
whose unpaid premium debt is less than gross minimum wage are also eligible for
application. Authorities plan to give away free loans to 900 employers in
Ankara, 500 in Samsun and 400 each in other provinces included in the project.
Employers are also required to employ women aged 65 and below and should not be
pensioners or related to the employer for eligibility.
Women’s participation in the workforce is around 26%,
according to official figures from 2020. It is far below the average of 48% in
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and 62%
in EU countries. The majority are employed in service and agriculture sectors,
though Turkey seeks to diversify the employment statistics. Female
entrepreneurs flourish in the country thanks to a string of incentives provided
by the government and, in some cases like Women Up, jointly funded with the EU.
Also, to encourage more women to reenter the workforce
after they gave up their careers to raise children, the government offers
partial coverage of daycare costs for working mothers. It also increased the
length of maternity leave for working women, and grandparents looking after the
children also are entitled to allowances as part of the employment scheme.
Other incentives include financial support for women’s cooperatives and
interest-free loans for female entrepreneurs.
Ceylan said at an event to introduce the project on
Tuesday in the capital Ankara that the unregistered labor rate decreased more
among women compared to men but unregistered labor was still higher in small
businesses. Unregistered labor means financial losses for the country's
macroeconomy and a lack of access for employees to social security benefits,
something essential, especially for women who often depend on their spouses for
a livelihood. Economic independence with social security is also essential for
women, especially in light of domestic violence cases where women are sometimes
forced to stay in a troubled relationship plagued by violence inflicted by
their husbands and boyfriends due to a lack of economic means.
Source: Daily Sabah
https://www.dailysabah.com/turkey/women-up-eu-turkish-project-aims-to-bolster-female-employment/news
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Egypt Jumps 5 Points in World Bank Report On Women
Empowerment
2 MARCH 2022
Egypt has scored 50.6 points in the World Bank's
Women, Business and the Law 2022 report, up from the 45 points it got in the
2021 report, International Cooperation Minister Rania Al-Mashat said on
Tuesday1/3/2022.
This score puts Egypt among the list of nations that
embarked on positive measures to promote gender equality and women's
empowerment and eliminate any practices depriving women of their rights, to
serve the country's sustainable development efforts, the minister said.
The report depends on eight indicators structured
around women's interactions with the law as they move through their careers:
Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets, and
Pension.
Highlighting Egypt's policies on women's empowerment
and equality, the report cited a government strategy adopted in 2021 that had
resulted in the prime minister issuing Decree No. 827/2021 to establish a
"one-stop shop for protecting women victims of violence" to receive
any violence reports or complaints and take a decisive action to address them.
As for the entrepreneurship indicator, Egypt made
access to credit easier for women by prohibiting gender-based discrimination in
financial services, the report says, noting that Egypt's score in the World
Bank's entrepreneurship indicator accelerated to 100 in the 2022 report, up
from 75 recorded in 2021.
Source: All Africa
https://allafrica.com/stories/202203020553.html
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‘The Conversion’: How a new film on ‘love jihad’
touches raw nerves and shakes one’s conscience
Satya Dosapati
March 02, 2022
We all hear about 'love jihad' which is an issue that
comesu p often in the news. Some states in India have laws relating to it and
the topic gets a lot of chat on the social media. However, unless you see the
upcoming film, The Conversion, the full impact cannot be grasped by an outside
observer. It touches raw nerves and leaves you shaken.
The filmmakers seem to have taken enormous pains to
script and enact the whole process of 'love jihad', how it starts, and what it
leads to, usually a terribly helpless situation for the girl.
This is not unique to only Hindus; in fact, there are
reports on how Christian girls are victims in states like Kerala and in
Mangalore. According to a Hindustan Times report, between 2006 and 2009 there
were 2,868 Kerala Christian girls who were victims of love jihad as reported by
the Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance of Kerala Catholic Bishops
Council.
It is not only unique to Bharat, but also in countries
like the UK Sikh and white girls were trapped and abused. In Rotterdam, UK,
many Pakistani-origin Muslims abused 1,400 young white girls. Recently an
orthodox Jewish woman in New York was duped by a Lebanese Muslim who convinced
her that he was an orthodox Jew and this is being investigated by FBI and other
agencies. Just few days ago in Khandwa Madhya Pradesh, a 15-year-old tribal
girl in Kandha, Madhya Pradesh, was duped into marriage; she was gang-raped
which they videotaped and then pressured to accept Islam.
What is ‘love jihad’? According to a Hindu activists
portal, it is “a holy war carried out by Muslim males/females using deceit
(hiding their identity) and love as a weapon to marry non-Muslim persons with
the sole purpose of converting them to Islam”. There is nothing wrong if two
adults consent and marry, but there is everything wrong if deceit and fake love
is used to convert a woman. Violence against women happens in all communities.
However, there is something sinister about faking for purposes of conversion
and the eventual abuse that follows because the marriage is not out of true
love.
The movie does not just cover the act of duping,
feigning, marriage and conversion. It goes far deeper on certain practices of
Islam in India such as triple talaq, nikah and halala that gives excuse for
male family members to commit sexual abuse. When the intent of marriage itself
is based on fake premises, there is a great chance for the girl to be abused.
Worst, when the girl’s family disowns her, the girl is completely at the mercy
of the abusers. There is no one to look after the welfare of the girl and
report any abuses. Many times the girl is terrified into accepting her fate
with little future and cannot even dare to request help from friends and
relatives.
In covering the whole contours of ‘love jihad’ and
certain Islamic practices that abuse women, The Conversion has made enormous
contribution to highlight this issue. We should not be shy of discussing things
that are not comfortable. It is such healthy discussion that leads to
abolishment of triple talaq. We need to investigate the institutional practice
of ‘love jihad’, the practice of halala and even that of polygamy. It is a
tragedy that it is happening even in the 21st Century and the longer we wait to
openly discuss and address the more difficult it would get. The movie also
conveys a very important lesson to the girl's parents: That rather than
disowning your child, it is important to accept and be engaged with her, so
that she is not abused in her marriage.
This movie, which is expected to release in April,
needs to be seen by every young girl and parents, administrators and lawmakers
so that we can discuss and deal with this scourge against young women.
The writer is a US-based activist who has played a
critical role in the introduction of a paper trail for India's Electronic
Voting Machines called VVPAT. Views expressed are personal.
Source: Firstpost
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