Egypt's Cabinet Toughens Law Banning Female Genital Mutilation
New
Age Islam News Bureau
21
January 2021
• Zahara
Begum, Organizer, Tahera Trust Raising Funds For Ram Temple In Ayodhya
• Jean
Castex, Macron’s Premier Rejects Veil Ban For Muslim Girls in France
• Ayesha
Wants To Encourage Women In Profession Of Marriage Registrar
• Qatar
Forum For Female Engineers Launched
• Hyderabadi
Woman, Kauser Banu Facing Torture In Oman After She Refuses To Marry Old Omani
National
• Cosmetics
Entrepreneur Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman Pleads Not Guilty To Dressing Up As
A Woman
• Coronavirus:
Israel Includes Pregnant Women On COVID-19 Vaccines Priority List
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/egypt-cabinet-toughens-law-banning/d/124117
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Egypt's
Cabinet Toughens Law Banning Female Genital Mutilation
January
21, 2021
By
Menna A. Farouk, Thomson Reuters Foundation
CAIRO,
Jan 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Egypt’s cabinet has toughened a law
banning female genital mutilation (FGM) - imposing jail terms of up to 20 years
as part of efforts to stamp out the ancient practice.
Nearly
90% of Egyptian women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone FGM,
according to a 2016 survey by the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the ritual
is practised widely by both Muslims and Christians despite the 2008 ban.
Amendments
to the FGM law approved by the cabinet on Wednesday include hiking the maximum
sentence from the current seven years and banning doctors and other medical
staff involved in FGM from practising their profession for up to five years.
Under
the changes, prison terms of between five and 20 years will be recommended
depending on who performed the surgery and whether it caused permanent damage
or death, a government statement said.
The
person requesting FGM will also face imprisonment, according to the amendments,
which must still be approved by parliament and the president.
FGM
typically involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia and
can cause long-lasting mental and physical health problems including chronic
infections, infertility and childbirth complications.
It is
the second time that Egypt’s government has approved amendments to the
legislation banning FGM.
The
law was tightened five years ago to make it a criminal offence to request or
carry out the widely condemned practice.
But
highlighting the difficulty of eliminating FGM in Egypt, where there is
widespread acceptance of it, no one has been successfully prosecuted under the
2016 law and women’s rights groups say the ban has not been well enforced.
“It’s
a good step, but we don’t want only laws on paper with no implementation,”
Entessar El-Saeed, director of the Cairo Foundation for Development and Law,
told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
El-Saeed
said imposing strict prison terms on doctors and other perpetrators of the
crime could prove difficult because there is an entrenched belief in Egyptian
society that FGM is not a crime.
While
Somalia has the world’s highest FGM prevalence, with 98% of women having been
cut, Egypt has the greatest number of women who have undergone it, according to
UNICEF.
Reda
El Danbouki, executive director of the Women’s Center for Guidance and Legal
Awareness, said the amendments would not help eliminate the practice unless
judges, policemen and other law-enforcement officials started to take the issue
seriously.
"Most
of them do not take cases seriously because they believe it is for the benefit
of the girl to undergo female circumcision for the protection of her
chastity," he said. (Reporting by Menna A. Farouk; Editing by Helen
Popper; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of
Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle
to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org)
https://www.reuters.com/article/egypt-women-law/egypts-cabinet-toughens-law-banning-female-genital-mutilation-idUSL8N2JW26Z
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Zahara
Begum, Organizer, Tahera Trust Raising Funds For Ram Temple In Ayodhya
Jan
20, 2021
Zahara
Begum, organizer, Tahera Trust
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VIJAYAWADA:
Zahara Begum, organizer, Tahera Trust in on an unusual mission – she is
exhorting fellow members of the Muslim community to contribute funds towards
the construction of a grand temple for Hindu god Lord Ram at Ayodhya.
Speaking
to Deccan Chronicle, she recalled that all communities, including Muslims,
would pool efforts to support their Hindu brothers and sisters in organising
Pooja for Vinayaka Chavithi, Dasara and Ram Navami by offering donations, in
the true spirit and tradition of India, and its rich ‘Unity in Diversity’.
She
appealed to Muslim community to come forward generously to cooperate in all
possible manners, including offering donations, towards the construction of Ram
temple at Ayodhya in the same spirit.
Ms
Zahara appealed to fellow Muslims to donate money through Nidhi Samarpana,
during the Nidhi Sekarana program for building of Ram temple at Ayodhya, purely
on a voluntary basis. She said that Muslims can start contributing donate from
Rs 10 to any larger amount of their choice towards the fund.
She
recalled that while working for years with villages, sometimes remote, though
several of them have over the last decade advanced a lot, she had noticed that
in almost all villages, Hindus have donated land for construction of mosques,
idgahs and also for burial grounds for the Muslim community.
“Non-Muslims
have donated a great extent of cultivable land of their volition to Muslims,”
she said, adding not only giving land, Hindus have also helped construct
masjids, Idgahs and kabarastans (graveyards).
Ms
Zahara further said, “we are blessed to be in a country where Lord Ram was
born. We are fortunate that the temple is going to be built during our time.
Lord Ram has taught ‘Dharma’ as a way of life’ and stands as an exemplar for
the entire world.”
“Let
us come together and participate in this divine activity and help in
construction of a great Ram temple at Ayodhya with an open heart,” she added.
She
further said India means spirituality, a rich heritage, multi-traditional,
multi-cultural, multi-linguistic milieu, unlike any other country in the world.
People of all communities, including Muslims, have freedoms in India unlike in
many other countries and share pride in being Indian.
https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/in-other-news/190121/muslim-woman-raising-funds-for-ram-temple-in-ayodhya.html
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Jean
Castex, Macron’s Premier Rejects Veil Ban For Muslim Girls in France
By
Ania Nussbaum
January
19, 2021
French
Prime Minister Jean Castex ruled out a proposal to outlaw religious veils for
children as his government seeks to strike a balance between upholding a
secular tradition and respecting cultural differences.
The
idea of legally stopping minors from wearing a facial covering seen on Muslim
women was from a member of Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party. It comes as
the president is up for re-election next year and trying to put through
parliament a controversial law to fight combat Islamic extremism.
Castex
said targeting minors was not the goal.
An
amendment -- which would have banned minors from wearing head scarves in public
-- was rejected on Monday despite the backing of some senior figures in
Macron’s party and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
The
symbol of the veil, and what it represents in modern French society, runs the
risk of damaging Macron at a sensitive time when he’s fighting a pandemic and
the lingering outrage from the beheading of a teacher by a terrorist.
Macron
Plows Ahead in Fight Against Extremism With Key Law
His
response, which included empowering the police and closing mosques suspected of
receiving illicit money, opened him up to criticism from countries such as
Turkey that France was now targeting Muslims and stirred a debate on tolerance,
rule of law and methods to combat extremism.
France
banned visible religious signs in schools in 2004 and clothing that covers
faces, including burqas and niqabs, in 2010.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-18/macron-s-premier-rejects-veil-ban-for-muslim-girls-in-france
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Ayesha
Wants To Encourage Women In Profession Of Marriage Registrar
Tapos
Kanti Das
Jan
21,2021
Ayesha
Siddiqa whose petition to become a Muslim marriage registrar was rejected by
the High Court for being a woman has said that she would continue her legal
battle to achieve her target for the cause of women.
The
HC, after hearing a writ petition filed by Ayesha, of Phulbari in Dinajpur,
challenging the legality of Sekendar Ali’s appointment as Muslim nikah
registrar, on February 26, 2020 upheld a law ministry order appointing Sekendar
as registrar, instead of Ayesha.
The
full verdict, released recently disqualifying women from Nikah registration,
says, ‘It has to be borne in mind that due to certain physical condition, a
woman cannot enter the mosque during a certain time of the month. She is even
excused from performing the mandatory daily prayers during this particular
time.’
The
judgement continues, ‘This physical disqualification does not allow her to
conduct religious task. We are mindful of the fact that Muslim marriage is a
religious ceremony and has to be guided by the terms and dictates of Islam.’
After
the release of the full judgement, different political parties and rights
organisations expressed their dissatisfaction, saying that the court’s decision
contradicts with the constitution.
Talking
to New Age, Ayesha, 39, said that she passed Fazil examinations from a
madrassah and had all the qualifications to become a Nikah registrar.
She
applied to be a marriage registrar in 2012 after seeing a circular for
appointing Muslim marriage registrars for Phulbari municipality.
The
circular did not mention that only males and not females would be able to
become a Nikah registrar, she said.
After
an interview, her name was sent to the law ministry for appointment by a
five-member panel but the ministry in 2014 rejected the selection.
Later,
she challenged the government decision in the HC.
‘There
is no female Nikah registrar in the country. As both men and women are working
in all the sectors in the country, I felt encouraged to apply. If I can become
a marriage registrar, I would be a pioneer in bringing women in the profession
and there would be jobs for women in this sector,’ she said.
‘During
the marriage, both the bride and bridegroom have their legal guardians and
witnesses and an individual solemnise the marriage. A marriage registrar’s task
is to registrar the marriage after reviewing whether all the rules and
regulations have been followed properly. So, any physical condition should not
be a bar to do so,’ she said.
The
Nikah registrars must graduate from a recognised madrasah or Islamic school and
live in the area where they would work.
‘I
will continue my legal battle. I appealed to the Appellate Division challenging
the High Court order on March 9, 2020. My appeal has been pending for hearing.
I hope I will get justice this time,’ she said.
In a
statement on January 12, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad president Hasanul Huq
Inu and general secretary Shirin Akhter said that the verdict contradicted with
the constitution and the state could not differentiate between men and women
for their gender identities.
They
urged the Chief Justice to review the ‘anti-constitutional’ verdict by forming
the full court of the Appellate Division.
In a
separate statement, women rights organisation Naripokkho said that they were
disappointed, stunned and enraged at the HC judgement and said that the verdict
proved that the country was advancing along the path of conservative way, not
towards progress.
The
organisation alleged that the verdict was a violation of women’s constitutional
right to select their own profession.
https://www.newagebd.net/article/127829/ayesha-wants-to-encourage-women-in-profession-of-marriage-registrar
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Qatar
Forum For Female Engineers Launched
05
Jan 2021
Doha:
The first meeting for Qatar Forum for Female Engineers recently took place
virtually. Over half of the Forum’s 80 registered members, representing various
sectors in the State of Qatar, attended the event. The meeting included the
opening speech by the Forum’s Chairperson, Dr. Hanan Farhat, and the
Vice-Chairperson, Eng. Abeer Buhelaiqa.
Aysha
Al Mudahka, Director of Strategic Initiative and Partnership Development at
Qatar Foundation’s CEO’s office, praised this important initiative to enhance
capabilities, job opportunities, and development for Qatar’s female engineers.
Two leading female figures in Qatar delivered keynote speeches, Dr. Amal Al Maliki, Founding Dean of the
College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, and
Dr. Buthaina Al Ansari, an expert in strategic development and human resources
at Beacon Consulting and one of the influential women in the Middle East.
Dr.
Al Malki’s talk focused on the challenges that women in Qatar face. “It is easy to find bright, successful
examples if we look at other Arab women and their stories, yet every country
has its distinctive history, culture, and sociopolitical characteristics that
shape the stories of its women. Our countries in the Arabian Gulf are unique
and different from other Arab countries. As a cultural entity, it has been most
resistant to change. The case in Qatar is a reflection of that with its
developing climate that is in constant negotiation in terms of gender identity
and gender parity and what it means to the existing cultural and religious structures,”
Al Malki said.
“Qatari
women now enjoy somehow equal opportunities in both education and employment,
and this is being translated into laws and regulations that are and hopefully
will continue to be set to protect such rights.”
Al
Malki emphasised Qatar Foundation’s support for a thriving climate that
connects education, community, and decision and policy-makers.
“The
number of female graduates across Education City has increased dramatically,
feeding the job market and more importantly providing new career areas with the
first women employees. For example, in Texas A&M-Qatar, 46 percent of the
student body are women, and 51.6 percent of undergraduate engineers are women,”
she said.
On
the other hand, Dr. Al Ansari focused on the development and the importance of
empowering women. She stressed the importance of Qatar’s indicators, numbers,
and advanced centers from the sustainable development goals in developing major
projects, as the numbers and indicators indicate the quality of services provided
to the individual and society.
She
discussed the comparison between equality and justice to empower women
socially, economically, and legally to become partners for men in developing
society and providing women with skills and proper education and equal
opportunities in positions, elections, and promotions in the labour market. She
talked about the importance of developing and updating human resources
policies, including working hours, promotions strategy in the career ladder,
the maternity leave period, training, and development methodology. These
policies should focus on women’s leadership skills, including communication
skills, negotiation skills, decision-making skills, and team building.
Dr.
Hanan Farhat, the Chairperson of the Forum, who worked in the oil and gas
industry for over 25 years before joining Qatar Foundation, said, “Establishing
this Forum dates back to 2019, when we noticed that a large number of women,
who have obtained an engineering degree find it difficult to get engineering
jobs, especially engineering field positions. Several of these women leave the
workforce within the first three years of employment. This raised an alarm,
especially that women are half of the workforce in the country, who should be
empowered and strengthened.”
Engineer
Abeer Buhelaiqa, Vice-Chairperson of the Forum, an active member in the oil and
gas sector, said, “The Forum’s vision is to inspire and empower female
engineers as leaders in the engineering field.”
https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/05/01/2021/Qatar-Forum-for-Female-Engineers-launched
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Hyderabadi
Woman, Kauser Banu Facing Torture In Oman After She Refuses To Marry Old Omani
National
2nd
January 2021
Hyderabad:
A Hyderabadi woman, Kauser Banu is reportedly facing torture in Oman after she
refused the marriage proposal to an old physically-handicapped Omani National.
Giving
the details of the series of event that landed Kauser Banu into trouble in
Oman, her elder sister, Syeda Rafeeqa Banu said that it all started after a
woman by name Fatima who runs a chain of beauty parlours in the Middle East
country offered a job.
According
to Rafeeqa, one day, Kauser who used to reside in Chanchalguda and work in a
beauty parlour in Hyderabad came in contact with Hyderabadi-origin woman Fatima
who had settled in Oman after marriage with Omani National.
Hyderabadi
woman was offered job
“Later,
Fatima offered Kauser the job of a beautician in her beauty parlour with a
salary of Rs 50,000 in Muscat, Oman. On December 8, 2020, Kouser went to
Muscat”, Syeda Rafeeqa Banu said.
“After
Kauser reached Oman, Fatima asked her to marry an old physically-handicapped
Omani National. When my sister rejected the marriage proposal, Fatima started
torturing her,” Rafeeqa added.
It is
not an isolated incident wherein Indian women are tortured in the Middle East
countries. In 2020, two similar incidents were reported in Hyderabad.
Similar
cases
In
the month of March, a case surfaced wherein a Hyderabadi woman who used to work
at her Kafeel’s residence was tortured by her employer. She was not even given
adequate food.
Earlier,
a woman from Falknuma was trafficked to Oman by a local agent on the pretext of
giving her employment. In Hyderabad, she was offered a job of a beautician,
however, after reaching Oman, she was forced to work as a housemaid in a local
residence.
https://www.siasat.com/hyderabadi-woman-facing-torture-in-oman-after-she-refuses-to-marry-old-man-2058694/
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Cosmetics
entrepreneur Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman Pleads Not Guilty To Dressing Up As
A Woman
January
20, 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR: Cosmetics entrepreneur Muhammad Sajjad Kamaruz Zaman, or better known
as Nur Sajat, has been charged in the Shah Alam Syariah High Court with
dressing up as a woman at a religious event three years ago, and bringing Islam
into contempt.
In
the proceedings that took place on Jan 6, Muhammad Sajjad, 35, however, pleaded
not guilty after the charge was read out to him before Syarie judge Mohammad
Khalid Shaee @ Shaii.
The
accused, as a man, was accused of bringing contempt to the religion of Islam by
dressing up as a woman at a Yasin recitation and solat hajat event.
The
offence was allegedly committed at his beauty centre in Section 16, Shah Alam,
at 7.30pm on Feb 23, 2018.
The
charge under Section 10(a) of the Syariah Criminal Offences Enactment
(Selangor) 1995 carries a fine of up to RM5,000 or imprisonment up to three
years, or both, upon conviction.
The
court allowed Muhammad Sajjad bail of RM3,000 and fixed Feb 25 for case
mention.
Deputy
syarie prosecutor Atras Mohd Zain appeared for the prosecution.
On
Jan 6, a video of the cosmetic entrepreneur crying in distress while being
handcuffed went viral on social media.
A few
days later, in a posting on his Instagram account, Muhammad Sajjad explained
that he was detained by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) over a
report that was lodged against him in 2018.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/01/20/nur-sajat-pleads-not-guilty-to-dressing-up-as-woman/
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Coronavirus:
Israel includes pregnant women on COVID-19 vaccines priority list
20
January 2021
Israel
has included pregnant women among those getting priority access to COVID-19
vaccines, seeing no risk to them or their fetuses, a senior public health
official said on Wednesday.
The
decision followed the hospitalization this week of several pregnant women with
COVID-19 complications amid surging coronavirus contagions. At least one was
put on a ventilator and her baby delivered by Caesarean section, Israeli media
said.
Israel
launched a vaccination drive on December 19 with a focus on the elderly, those
with risky medical conditions and some emergency workers. More than a quarter
of its citizens have now received the Pfizer Inc. vaccine, health officials
say.
“Today
we are recommending that pregnant women, mainly those with high morbidity risk
factors, get the vaccine,” Nachman Ash, the national coordinator on the
pandemic, told public broadcaster Kan radio. “We have put them on the priority
list.”
He
said that despite the absence of research into the vaccination of pregnant
women, “when looking at the biological logic, we assess that there is no risk
to the pregnancy, no risk to the fetus”.
A
Pfizer spokeswoman said use of the vaccine on pregnant women is “a health
regulatory organization’s decision”.
The
European drug regulator last month said the Pfizer vaccine, developed with
German partner BioNTech, should be considered for pregnant women on a
case-by-case basis.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/20/Coronavirus-Coronavirus-Israel-includes-pregnant-women-on-COVID-19-vaccines-priority-list
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