Families Torn Apart As Western Girls Join Islamist Cause
New Age Islam News Bureau
9
Oct 2014
A Muslim woman was turned away from a pool for wearing an Islamic dress over a shirt and pants, Reuters
• Iraq's
Sole Yazidi Lawmaker Says 25,000 Girls Abducted By IS To Be Raped, Sold
• Muslim
Woman Barred From Pool over Dress in Colorado City
• Muslim Youth Summit Told FGM Is Not Part of Islam
• Fashion
Conscious 'Hipster Hijabis' Reinvent Muslim Dress Code at Dubai Fashion
Festival
• Style
Savvy Muslim Women Turn To Turbans
• Australian
Group Don Hijab for Fellow Muslims
• Kenya:
Kakamega Muslims Side Back Out of Girls League
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/families-torn-apart-western-girls/d/99446
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Families
Torn Apart As Western Girls Join Islamist Cause
09 Oct,
2014
PARIS
(Reuters) - Foad, a French truck driver of Moroccan origin, travelled alone
through Syria to rescue his 15-year-old sister from an Islamist group she said
was holding her captive. But when they finally stood face to face, in tears,
she would not leave.
Foad is
convinced that his sister Nora, whom he described as an impressionable teen who
loved Disney movies before leaving for Syria one afternoon in January, stayed
on because she was threatened with execution by the French-speaking commander,
or emir, of the group she joined.
The
former high school student is among dozens of European girls, many of them her
age, living with such groups in Syria. It is an aspect of the conflict that is
beginning to worry European governments previously more focused on the flow of
young men to join the ranks of Islamic State and others.
Many of
the youngest girls are lured with promises of humanitarian work. It is only
once in Syria that they discover their fate: forced marriage to a fighter,
strict adherence to Islamic law, a life under surveillance and little hope of
returning home, say parents, relatives and radicalization experts.
"When
she saw me enter that room, she couldn't stop crying and holding on to me. At
one point I said, 'So, are you coming back with me?'" Foad, 37, told
Reuters. "She started to bang her head against a wall saying, 'I can't, I
can't, I can't.'"
Foad,
who asked not to be identified by his full name to protect his family in
France, said Nora had told him her first location was in Aleppo. He declined to
give the location of their second encounter because he said French police had
asked him not to reveal details relevant to investigations.
Foad
said a conversation he overheard between his sister and the emir suggested she
was warned to stay. Nora had repeatedly asked her family over the phone to be
rescued from militants whom she called "hypocrites" and
"liars".
While
Western governments have focused on the thousands of male jihadist volunteers
who have left to Syria and Iraq, security officials in Europe are expressing
alarm about a smaller but steady stream of female groups heading the same way.
Making
up about 10 percent of all departures for Islamist-held areas, according to
government officials and terrorism experts, young women are seen as prizes for
fighters keen to marry.
Teenaged
Westerners are often targeted by older, female recruiters, many of whom are
based in Europe and use social media, phone calls and false friendships to
convince them to do charitable work in war-torn areas. Others need little
convincing, keen to have a role in what they perceive to be jihad, or holy war.
A video
recorded in secret by a woman in the Islamic State-held city of Raqqa in Syria
and broadcast last month on France 2 TV gave a glimpse of the reality: women
walking in burqas and one called to order by Islamic police for not adequately
covering her face.
While
women do not fight - although some form police units - their homes are near
combat zones and exposed to bombing from coalition warplanes fighting the
Islamic State. Women have little hope of escaping if they have regrets.
Austrian
media reported that a girl of Bosnian origin, who left for Syria in April, had
been killed in fighting. Reuters has not been able to verify the report.
Foad
said all contact with his sister had been cut off since his May visit.
"Of
the young women whom we follow, none have returned alive," said Dounia
Bouzar, a French anthropologist in charge of a French mission to de-radicalize
candidates for jihad.
STRICT
SURVEILLANCE
As with
other girls, Nora's embrace of radical Islam came as a shock to her family,
which is not strictly observant.
Studious,
sensitive and even childlike at home, Nora had a double identity including a
mobile phone, Facebook account and Islamic garments that she kept secret from
her family and which Foad only discovered after her disappearance.
"Her
friends told me about the other Facebook account. When I connected, everything
became clear: it was full of calls to jihad, of pictures of mutilated Syrian
children," he said. "Three days later we got a message from her
saying she was in Aleppo, that she was happy, well fed - as if she was in
Disney World."
His
quest to bring her home took him to Turkey's border with Syria, where he was
taken in by Islamist militants and driven to a city he declined to name due to
the sensitive nature of the information. The town was "full" of
foreigners, each nationality having its own supply stores, including one area
that was totally French-speaking, he said.
His
sister currently lives with the close aide of an emir and was in charge of
daycare for jihadists' children. She had earlier escaped a forced marriage
arranged by a French recruiter who has since returned to France and is being
held in custody.
Foad
said his sister had identified the man as a Franco-Moroccan recruiter and
former Al Nusra Front member, who returned to France in September and has been
placed under formal investigation for various terror-related charges.
Severine
Mehault, whose daughter Sarah disappeared from their home in southern France
six months ago, said she believed her daughter, 17, also lived under strict
surveillance.
"When
we speak, it's always the same: 'I'm fine, I have everything I need, I'm not
coming home,'" said Mehault, who last spoke to her daughter on Sept. 27
after 17 days of silence. "But I know somebody is listening, even writing
in her place. The rare times she is alone, I can tell because her tone is
different. She sounds like my daughter."
Security
officials and radicalization experts say many women being radicalized hail from
moderate Muslim households. But volunteers have also come from atheist,
Catholic and Jewish households, both rich and poor, urban and rural.
"Recruiters
have refined their methods to such a degree where they can take in people who
are doing fine," said Bouzar. "Some are contacted on Facebook, others
were chatted up on dating sites. Others met a friend who became a sort of
guru."
Bouzar
added that some of the women 'thought they were in love' after being groomed by
men over the web or telephone - a trend also present in Germany.
"The
romance of jihad is very pronounced in propaganda and used by women to recruit
other women," Hans-Georg Maassen, head of Germany's domestic intelligence,
said in a recent parliamentary briefing. "There is a real euphoria in the
German Salafist (radical Islamist scene) right now, with people wanting to join
this new state."
Of the
400 people who have left Germany for Syria, about 10 percent are women, he
said. French officials estimate around 1,000 departures, with 60 of those being
women. Of 85 jihadis who have left from Sweden, 15-20 were women, said Magnus
Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at Sweden's National Defence College.
"They
want to marry martyrs," he said. "There is almost an obsession with
paradise and the afterlife, which makes it like a death cult. Death matters
more than life."
"Women
also become more revered. There is an internal hierarchy. If you become a
widow, you become a mentor to the younger women and you would get status,"
added Ranstorp.
Bouzar -
who follows 130 families concerned by the radicalization of their children -
said her CIPD anti-radicalization group focused on stopping teens from leaving
because the likelihood of getting a young woman back from Islamic State or
other Islamist groups was nearly nonexistent.
Many
French-speaking girls were housed together in an area controlled by the al
Qaeda-linked Al Nusra front, she said.
"Some
of them come to their senses over there," she added. "But that's
almost worse than anything else, because they may be back to their old selves,
but they are stuck over there."
http://news.yahoo.com/families-torn-apart-western-girls-join-islamist-cause-094013968.html
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Iraq's
Sole Yazidi Lawmaker Says 25,000 Girls Abducted By IS To Be Raped, Sold
09 Oct,
2014
Iraq's
only ethnic Yazidi member of parliament says that the human rights situation in
her country is "deteriorating," with Islamic State (IS) militants
kidnapping, raping, and selling Yazidi women.
"They
are still without any shelter. They are sleeping on the streets. The situation
is not good and the winter is [advancing], and it's raining, actually, in Iraq
[now]. So the situation is deteriorating," legislator Vian Dakhil told
RFE/RL in an October 8 telephone interview from Iraq's Kurdish region.
Dakhil,
who has been cited by U.S. President Barack Obama, was named the winner of the
2014 Anna Politkovskaya Award on October 6 by the organization Reach All Women
in War. The award, named after the murdered Russian journalist, honors women
working to help those trapped in conflict.
The
lawmaker, who is currently recovering from injuries she suffered in an August
12 helicopter crash on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq, said that while IS
militants have forced Christian women from their homes, Yazidi women often
suffer worse fates.
"Only
Yazidi women are kidnapped. We don't know, actually, why exactly the Yazidi
women [are targeted]," she said.
Dakhil
says that of the more than 500,000 Yazidis in Iraq, some 25,000 Yazidi girls
have been abducted by IS militants.
"We
don't know exactly [where all of them are], but some are [kept] at [various]
prisons here, still in Iraq, and some have been taken to Syria, and some are in
Mosul," she said. "They are taken to be raped, and they are selling
them -- $150 for a girl."
Dakhil
called on the international community to step in to help the plight of the
Kurdish religious and ethnic minority that has faced religious persecution for
centuries and that has been dubbed "devil worshippers" by some
Muslims.
"I
ask every government -- not only here -- to take some action to save these
people here because the situation is really bad. What is happening here cannot
be solved by [the] Iraqi government only," she said.
Dakhil
gained international attention in August after making an impassioned plea to
the Iraqi parliament about Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar, which was
surrounded at the time by IS militants. She called it genocide.
"My
family is being butchered, just like all Iraqis are being killed. … And today,
the Yazidis are being slaughtered. Brothers, away from all the political
disputes, we want humanitarian solidarity. I am speaking here in the name of
humanity. Save us! Save us!" she told lawmakers on August 5.
The
speaker of parliament interrupted her speech, while others shushed her emotional
address, after which she collapsed.
The
speech caught the attention of the U.S. president, who referenced her on August
7 when announcing U.S. air strikes against IS militants and a humanitarian aid
effort to rescue the Yazidis.
"Earlier
this week, one Iraqi in the area cried to the world, ‘There is no one coming to
help.’ Well today, America is coming to help," Obama said.
'What
Would You Feel?'
Dakhil
broke both legs and several ribs in an August 12 helicopter crash on Mount
Sinjar. The pilot of the aircraft, which was carrying about 35 people, was
killed in the accident, while "New York Times" reporter Alissa Rubin
was injured.
Dakhil
said that she plans to return to parliament once she is fully healed.
She also
asked Western Muslim women who are supporting IS militants -- an estimated 30
of whom have actually traveled to Iraq or Syria -- to look at what the group,
which is also known as ISIL, is doing to Yazidi women.
"Every
girl [in the West] who is supporting ISIL should put herself in any [local]
girl's [shoes] and see what she has gone through. Twelve-year-old girls [are
being] raped. Ten-year-old girls [are being] raped. I would like to ask [women
supporting ISIL], if she was in their situation, what would she feel? If she
was from your family, what would you feel?" Dakhil said.
"This
girl could be your daughter, she could be your sister, she could be your
neighbor,” she continued. “[Would] you be totally comfortable if someone raped
your daughter, or your sister, or your neighbor?"
http://www.rferl.org/content/iraq-yazidi-vian-dakhil-politkovskaya-award-islamic-state/26627843.html
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Muslim
Woman Barred From Pool over Dress in Colorado City
09 Oct, 2014
A Colorado city is standing by its decision to turn away a Muslim woman from its recreation centre pool for wearing an Islamic dress over a shirt and pants.
Saba Ali told KMGH-TV that she offered to just wear the shirt and pants to swim on the weekend but was denied.
Commerce City spokeswoman Michelle Halsted says street clothes aren't allowed in the pool because they can increase the likelihood of contamination and waterborne illness.
She says full body swimsuits are allowed, including "burkinis" - loose fitting full-body swimsuits with a hood made for Islamic women.
She says the city's swimwear brochure will be updated to make clear full-body swimsuits but not street clothes are allowed.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/odd/a/25218155/muslim-woman-barred-from-pool-over-dress/
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Muslim
Youth Summit Told FGM Is Not Part of Islam
09 Oct,
2014
A youth
summit of extra than 100 young Gambians has been told by an Islamic scholar
that the practice of female genital mutilation is not Islamic. Hama Jaiteh told
the Muslims gathered at the initially youth summit on female genital mutilation
(FGM) in Banjul, Gambia, that Islam was being utilized to “shield an evil
intention [that is] harmful to a person’s development”.
The
event was arranged to enable construct up a legion of young persons prepared to
tackle the practice across the nation.
Taking
on the religious arguments employed to justify FGM – a procedure that can
generate lifelong mental and physical issues for the women subjected to it –
was crucial to altering preconceptions and practices across the country, where
virtually 80% of girls were cut as children, Jaiteh stated.
Speaking
at the youth summit – a two-day event being co-funded by the Guardian, and The
Girl Generation, a consortium funded by Britain’s international improvement
division – Jaiteh stated FGM was not justified by either the Qur’an or the
sunnah or hadith (traditions and sayings of Muhammad).
Directing
her words to “venerable so-named Islamic scholars” Jaiteh mentioned: “There is
no valid hadith they can bring to support their claims [...] he who designed a
lady knows the advantage of that factor there, leave it. Let everyone go back
and read, conduct research. Islam is Islam, it is right here to preserve the
interests and rights of the woman. This FGM is fully against Islam.”
Jaha
Dukureh, the face of a Guardian campaign to raise awareness of FGM in the US,
who has taken her campaign back to her household nation, mentioned equipping
young men and women at the occasion with religious arguments was crucial in the
battle to end FGM inside a generation.
“Almost
absolutely everyone who practises FGM believes it is a religious obligation,
and this religious scholar has told us that this is not the case,” she said.
Jaiteh
applied the example of altered public health practices caused by the Ebola
outbreaks to show that traditions could adjust, and promptly.
“Shaking
hands is an obligation in Gambia,” he mentioned. “But now Ebola has led to that
practice being curtailed. Shaking hands is of course therefore basically a
cultural practice – when it is discovered that culture can lead to harm, it is
stopped. Islam is right here to safeguard and repel whatever causes harm.”
The
impassioned youthful audience engaged in the detail of Islamic argument, and
some young women urged other individuals not to be afraid to challenge practices
and laws created without the need of their consent.
“Women
had been not there when these laws had been getting made for them,” said
Ruqayah Sesay, attending the summit. “So considerably injustice is getting
accomplished to women in the name of Islam and we are afraid to challenge it.
But we must not be afraid to challenge, we have to have to stand up and be
element of creating these laws ourselves.”
Amie
Bojang-Sissoko, a veteran anti-FGM campaigner, who has worked with the Gambian
feminist organisation Gamcotrap for extra than 20 years, said she hoped young
folks would go directly to the Qur’an to arm themselves with the details.
She
stated: “If the prophet was mentioned to appreciate and care for his kids, why
cannot we discover from him? If he is this variety of person why would he
condone cutting a female body in the name of Islam? I don’t consider he would.”
Bojang-Sissoko
said that the youth summit had offered new power to the campaign to end FGM in
Gambia, adding that she hoped young men and women would continue to push for a
law that would make FGM illegal. “I am so proud to be working with these young
persons. At 1 point I felt we had been losing our activism, but now I really
feel it has been re-energised,” she said.
Our
editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our
readers.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/08/muslim-youth-summit-fgm-islam-gambia
http://www.dailynewsen.com/uk/muslim-youth-summit-told-female-genital-mutilation-is-not-part-of-islam-h2751724.html
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Fashion
Conscious 'Hipster Hijabis' Reinvent Muslim Dress Code at Dubai Fashion
Festival
09 Oct,
2014
A
subculture of Muslim fashionistas who have dubbed themselves "Hipster
Hijabis" are taking Dubai's Fashion Forward festival by storm.
The
fashion-conscious women don the Hijab or head scarf in creative and stylish
ways, in a bid to prove Muslim women can be trendsetters while staying true to
their faith.
American
teen fashion blogger and founder of Hipster Hijabis Summer Bulcher has more than
22,800 followers on Instagram, where she posts her latest looks.
She says
she took the alliterative moniker to attract underground style seekers.
"At
first I thought it sounded really cute because it matched - and then I also
knew that I wanted to inspire hipsters, people who stray away from mainstream
fashion ... and Hijabis, which I
represent myself as a Muslim who wears the scarf," she said at Fashion
Forward in Dubai.
The
Fashion Forward Festival brings together style aficionados from around the world
to sample the latest catwalk creations designed for Arab women.
The
festival also discusses fashion issues pertinent to Islam, like modesty in
fashion.
Many of
the young women say there is a huge gap in the market for people who want
modest pieces that are still trendy and cutting-edge.
"I
want to stay as modest as I can, which is why I still wear a headscarf, but at
the same time I like my fashion so I like to incorporate that into
modesty," said Somali fashion blogger Dee Mohammed.
Palestinian
blogger Maria Al-Sadek said Hijabis had traditionally been conservative, so
getting hipsters onboard could make the Hijab more daring and stylish.
"Most
people tend to do the safer route, they're not really into style as much, and
hipsters, I guess, they're the ones who cross boundaries and lines that most
traditional hijabis didn't do," she said.
Mainstream
brands have been slowly catering to this growing demand, with designer label
DKNY releasing a Ramadan collection exclusively for the Arabian Gulf, and Karl
Lagerfeld also unveiling designs inspired by Middle Eastern culture.
Some
more conservative Muslims have criticised the hip hijab movement, saying it
contradicts the Islamic principles of humility and simplicity.
Last
year a group calling themselves 'Mipsterz', for Muslim hipsters, drew mixed
reactions for their video Somewhere In America, showing young American Muslim
women showing off their style.
Some
commentators criticised them for wearing skinny jeans and tights, saying it
defeated the purpose of the Hijab as a symbol of modesty, while others like
blogger Fatimah Waseem criticised the women for their "fluffed" and
"frivolous" treatment of a sacred practice, even saying it is
exploitative.
But
these women disagree.
"People
are resistant to change and people like to keep things the same, they like
normality, you do something different, you wear something different it's just
like why? It's a stigma to be stylish and resemble Western wear sometimes, and
I just think that you have to be confident and do what you believe in and what
makes you comfortable," said Ms Al-Sadek.
"Wear
what you want - and it's between you and God in the end whether it's right or
wrong."
https://au.news.yahoo.com/entertainment/a/25218929/fashion-conscious-hipster-hijabis-reinvent-muslim-dress-code-at-dubai-fashion-festival/
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Style
Savvy Muslim Women Turn To Turbans
9 October 2014
Fashionable
turban head covers are the entire rave as women who seek to cover their hair
raid their closets for stylish looks that offer an alternative to the Hijab.
Once a
typically male accessory, the turban is breaking the mould and is being picked
up by many Muslim women across the Gulf.
“The new
ways of wearing the Hijab is becoming a new global phenomenon,” Lezley George,
professor of fashion at the Heriot Watt University in Dubai, told Al Arabiya
News. It combines the desire to look Muslim and appear more fashionable, George
added.
“Variation
in the world of turban styling” is one reason why many girls like the trend,
according to George. “What they find exciting with the headscarf in general is
the way you can customize it and personalize it.”
‘Practical’
for different occasions
Sara
Adel, a fashion blogger and digital designer living in Dubai told Al Arabiya
News that the turban-style Hijab gives more head-covering options to Muslim
women, especially in hot weather.
“On some
days, I have to shoot outdoors and it’s a relief to wear a turban on a sunny
day,” Adel said.
Like
Adel, Jihad M’nasria, a Tunisian TV producer based in Dubai, said that due to
the long hours she spends in the heat a turban is a practical choice.
“I do
find it practical and chic,” said M’nasria.
“Personally
I’ve been wearing Hijab since I was 13 years old and I’m bored of wearing it
the same way over and over,” she added. “I tend not to be a routine kind of a
person and Hijab kind of limits you to some head-wear styles.”
Heba
Ashraf, an Egyptian dentist, told Al Arabiya News that the turban style is
“very practical” for celebratory occasions such as weddings.
“It is a
change because we Hijabi girls sometimes get bored of looking the same all the
time so we like to change it up,” Ashraf said.
Meanwhile,
George said some girls like to wear the turban while travelling to abroad, as
it makes veiled girls look less typical and is seen by some as more fashion
savvy.
Is it
modest enough?
While
some may regard the style as a proper head cover, others argue that is cannot
be considered a proper Islamic veil.
“Some
consider it not modest enough because there are different types of turbans
which might expose your neck,” George said.
“Some
might be critical that you’re not converting sufficiently,” she said. However,
people perceive modest dressing differently.”
To those
who think wearing a turban is not modest enough, Ashraf says wearing under-
garments to cover up the neck and the ears can be used “if you think it is
revealing.”
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/life-style/fashion-and-beauty/2014/10/09/Under-wraps-Style-savvy-Muslim-women-turn-to-turbans.html
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Australian
group don hijab for fellow Muslims
09 Oct,
2014
A group
of non-Muslim Australian women organized a show of support with the Islamic
community in Canberra earlier this week by putting on the Islamic headscarf and
offering flowers to Muslims celebrating the feast of Eid al-Adha.
In a bid
to send a “message of love and solidarity,” some 10 women attended an Islamic
festival in the Australian capital to give away flowers to feasting Muslims,
The Canberra Times reported.
The
event organizers said that they wanted their “fellow Canberran Muslims” not to
feel left out amid an anti-Islamic rhetoric that has recently surfaced in the
country.
"We
told them we were sorry you've been treated so badly in the media and we wanted
to say we stand with you in solidarity and we want to share love instead of
hate," said Annabelle Lee, a 26-year-old who helped organize the event.
She said
some Muslims had been cautious at first but then welcomed the gesture.
"And
when they heard that, many of them wanted to give us a hug, many smiled and
some were brought to tears," she added.
Annabelle
Lee said they gave flowers to women, children and men attending Eid morning
prayers at the AIS Stadium in Bruce. Some men asked to take flowers for their
wives at home.
Islamic
Society of Belconnen vice-president Hassan Warsi said members of Canberra’s
Muslim community were “touched” by this gesture.
"They
had people coming forward and putting a [hand] on their shoulder, saying 'Look,
we're here with you. We know you guys are good people like us and we are all in
a community, caring and sharing and it should be an exception," he said.
"It
was obviously a very good feeling and people were touched by that."
The
gesture comes at a time when tensions between Australia’s Muslim community and
its politicians have escalated over fears of attacks by radicalized Muslims.
Australian
Muslims have reportedly said that their community is being unfairly targeted
following a series of security-related raids.
Australia
recently began flying combat operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria (ISIS) in the two countries that they operate in, Iraq and Syria.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2014/10/08/Australian-group-don-hijab-in-support-of-fellow-Muslims.html
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Kenya:
Kakamega Muslims Side Back Out of Girls League
09 Oct,
2014
NATIONAL
Premier League side Kakamega Muslim girls have pulled out of the league due to
lack of funds ahead of the second leg.
The
Kakamega-based team who failed to honour their matches during the last stage of
the first leg said admitted they are broke and not able to carry on with their
assignments.
The team
was scheduled to play four matches on October 18, according to the team manager
David Musyoka. "This is an extremely hard decision to make considering
that without the appropriate funding, it is hard to move forward as a
team," said Musyoka.
He said
it has been the worst season for the girls despite the efforts they have tried
to make. "We have really struggled to stay strong throughout the first
leg. But we have had no choice but to pull out of the second leg. We don't have
money to honour our matches," he noted.
Meanwhile,
eighth-placed Eldoret Falcons have been pitted against league leaders Oserian
Girls, Soccer Sisters and Thika Queens respectively on October 18 at the Pumwani
grounds.
Head
coach Joshua Ariko said they have prepared well and they are looking forward to
a good performance. " The girls are quite focused and we hope to win all
the matches. However I would like to appeal to referees to improve on their
officiation."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201410090899.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/families-torn-apart-western-girls/d/99446