Fawzia Amini, Afghan Female Judge Awarded Prestigious Human Rights Prize from the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
New Age Islam News Bureau
25 May 2022
• No Country Can Develop Unless Giving Opportunities
To Women: Pakistan Minister Shazia Marri
• Will Arrested Woman in Karachi University Attack Get
Same Justice as Mazari: Pak Senator
• Women Activists from Mansehra to Join March: PTI
Leader
• Iran Women Victorious Over Thailand In IWBF Asia
Oceania Championships
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/fawzia-amini-judge-human-rights/d/127087
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Fawzia Amini, Afghan Female Judge Awarded Prestigious Human Rights Prize from the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
Judge Fawzia Amini
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Diane Taylor
24 May 2022
One of Afghanistan’s top female judges has been
honoured with an international human rights award while she continues her work
to advocate for her country’s women and girls from a London hotel.
Fawzia Amini, 48, fled Afghanistan last summer after
the Taliban takeover of the country. She had been one of Afghanistan’s leading
female judges, former head of the legal department at the Ministry of Women,
senior judge in the Supreme Court, and head of the violence against women
court.
Amini is one of three Afghan women who have received
this year’s Lantos Prize, a prestigious international human rights award from
the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. Previous recipients include
the Dalai Lama and the Hong Kong human rights activist Joshua Wong.
The other two recipients of the prize, awarded to the
women on 18 May in Washington DC, are the country’s first female tech CEO, Roya
Mahboob, and Khalida Popal, co-founder and captain of Afghanistan’s first
women’s soccer team. All three live abroad.
Amini, her husband and the couple’s four daughters,
have been stuck in a London hotel for almost nine months along with thousands
of other Afghans the UK government pledged to resettle here. Government sources
have admitted there are still 12,000 Afghans in hotels, a number that has
changed little since the end of November 2021, although government sources told
the Guardian that officials have been working as fast as possible to move
Afghan families into homes of their own. The sources described hotels as a
“first step” and a “stopgap”.
The sources added that more than 6,000 people had
moved – or were in the process of being moved – into permanent accommodation
since the first rescue flights in June 2021.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have begun enforcing an
order requiring all female TV news presenters in the country to cover their
faces while on air, as part of a hardline shift that has drawn condemnation
from rights activists. Most female presenters have been seen with their faces
covered after the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the
Prevention of Vice began enforcing the decree.
Amini remains focused on trying to rescue 93 female
judges and their families who are at risk in Afghanistan, a figure that has not
reduced in recent months.
She also continues to advocate for the rights of women
and girls in Afghanistan, participating in secret Zoom sessions to educate
girls and women about their basic rights. These rights appear to be
increasingly disregarded by the Taliban who have reneged on their promise to
allow girls to attend secondary schools, and have issued new restrictions on
freedom of movement for women outside the home saying that they must cover
themselves from head to toe if they venture out.
Amini told the Guardian that while she was delighted
to have received the prestigious human rights prize she was increasingly fearful
about the safety of women judges and the lack of rights for women and girls.
“I am so worried that so many girls are losing their
opportunities. They have no hope, no jobs and no food.”
She said that while she and her family were very
grateful to the UK government for rescuing them and very appreciative of the
kindness shown to them and other Afghans by the British people, they, and
around 100 other Afghans in the same hotel, had no idea when they would be
moved to their own homes.
“Our children are attending school and my husband and
I are attending college to improve our English. This hotel has become our
community and our house.”
Source: The Guardian
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No Country Can Develop Unless Giving Opportunities To
Women: Pakistan Minister Shazia Marri
Shazia Marri
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MAY 25, 2022
Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social
Safety, Shazia Marri Tuesday said that no country can develop without the
provision of opportunities to women for their contribution in national growth.
“No country or nation can develop unless allow their women to stand side by
side with men counterparts to play their role for nation development”, she said
while speaking at the “Pak-Afghan interlocutors interaction on the future of
Afghanistan” arranged by Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
Expressing concern over the current situation in
Afghanistan, Shazia Marri said that since Pakistan and Afghanistan are
immediate neighbours and share a border of around 2600 kilometres so there is
no way to forget about Afghanistan. “Both the countries are connected with each
other in many things and whatever happens in Afghanistan does have an effect on
Pakistan and its people”, she said. The federal minister said that Pakistan
wants Afghanistan to overcome the challenges, develop and excel as it directly
impact our people.
All nations that have developed around the world have
achieved growth through giving equal excelling opportunities to both the
genders. “Being born in the country where women have the constitutional rights,
laws that protect them and social nets that take care of them, I can say
whatever happening in Afghanistan is of more concern”, she said. “If a girl or
woman is talented and she can contribute to her country’s development, she
should be given an opportunity and appreciated for her spirit”, she observed.
Shazia Marri said that although she has not visited Afghanistan these days but
the news coming out of there are not promising.
She said being a Muslim country, Islam gives rights to
women and has attached great importance to the role of women which needs to be
acknowledged by the Afghanistan’s government. Shazia Marri emphasized that
there should be an inclusive government in Afghanistan which give importance to
all the stakeholders. She said the relationship Pakistan and Afghanistan share
has historical roots right from the time when refugees came to Pakistan,lived
with our communities and shared our culture.”Pakistan supports Afghanistan and
take pride in its development”, she said. “Although I completely respect the
sovereign status of the country, I can hope there will be more inclusion in
policy making by the current government in Afghanistan”, she said. She said
that the policy makers in Afghanistan must understand that Pakistan will always
be concerned about the situation there as an immediate neighbour and a well
wisher.
About the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP),
Shazia Marri said that the BISP Kafaalat program is financially supporting 7.28
million people in the country. She said generally a man is considered as a head
of a family but it is women who qualifies for this program. She mentioned that
the program is targeted to expanded upto eight million till June and 10 million
afterwards. Responding to the recommendations of the participants, the federal
minister said that she will forward a proposal before the current government to
support the women from Afghanistan financially. She also assured to take up the
visa related issues being faced by Afghan people with the higher authorities.
Source: Daily Times
https://dailytimes.com.pk/940573/no-country-can-develop-unless-giving-opportunities-to-women-marri/
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Will arrested woman in Karachi University attack get
same justice as Mazari: Pak Senator
25 May, 2022
Islamabad [Pakistan], May 25 (ANI): Pakistan’s
National Party Senator Tahir Bizenjo asked the federal government whether the
Baloch woman, who was arrested on suspicion after the Karachi University terror
attack, will get the same justice as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader
Shireen Mazari received, Pakistan vernacular media reported.
Bizenjo further said that in the past, many Baloch
women were arrested and were kept in the camp without any facilities. He asked
the governmnet, “What message is being given to the masses?”
Earlier, on May 16, hundreds of people blocked a
highway to protest against the Counter-Terrorism Department here for arresting
two women allegedly for a planned attack on Chinese nationals.
Pakistan police arrested two women while accusing one
of them of being a would-be suicide bomber who planned to blow herself up near
a vehicle carrying Chinese nationals along the CPEC highway, the Express
Tribune reported citing a police statement.
This comes two weeks after three Chinese nationals,
among the four persons, were killed in a car explosion, carried out by a female
suicide bomber Shari Baloch, inside the premises of the University of Pakistan
in Karachi.
The report further said that the alleged militant was
arrested in the southwestern Balochistan province that borders Afghanistan and
Iran adding that the accused belongs to the separatist Baloch Liberation Army
(BLA), which has started using women militants as suicide bombers.
“The woman wanted to target a convoy of Chinese
nationals and the attack was planned along a route of CPEC” police said, as
quoted by the Express Tribune.
Police recovered explosives and detonators from the
woman and investigated her, revealing her plans to target Chinese nationals.
(ANI)
Source: The Print
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Women activists from Mansehra to join march: PTI
leader
May 25, 2022
MANSEHRA: A record number of activists to join the
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf long march today, a party leader claimed here on
Tuesday.
“Though a large number of men activists will go to the
federal capital to be part of the march, the participation of a great number of
women would also be a record in history of Hazara division,” Ambreen Swati, the
PTI’s coordinator for the march, told reporters.
Swati, who was notified as one of four coordinators
from Hazara Division for the march, said that the party’s female activists were
actively pursuing their task to mobilise the women to the federal capital.
“The central president of PTI’s women wing, Kanwal
Shahzaib has also notified MPAs Momina Basit and Maleeha Asghar and Reena Malik
as coordinators for the Hazara division e,” she said.
The Hazara division’s coordinator said women were the
PTI’s strong force and would stand shoulder to shoulder with their leader Imran
Khan during the March.
Source: The News Pakistan
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/960511-women-activists-from-mansehra-to-join-march-pti-leader
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Iran women victorious over Thailand in IWBF Asia
Oceania Championships
May 23, 2022
The Iranian team had lost to Australia 61-30 in their
opening match on Saturday and also lost to Japan 66-34.
They will play Japan on Wednesday.
China won the women's tournament at the last IWBF Asia
Oceania Championships, but are absent this year for COVID-19 reasons.
Australia, Japan, Thailand and Iran are contesting the
women's tournament.
The women's competition is scheduled to wrap up on May
27.
Source: Tehran Times
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/fawzia-amini-judge-human-rights/d/127087