Heartbreaking Final Letter of Hanged Iranian Woman
New Age Islam News Bureau
29
Oct 2014
Basketball More Than Just a Game for Saudi Women
• Basketball More Than Just a Game for Saudi Women
• Good Words for Malala Stuck In KP Assembly Secretariat
• Conditional Recruitment for Female Expat Teachers in Saudi Arabia OK’d
• Women Seek Age-Old Therapies for Childbirth Problems
• Saudi Female Researcher at Leeds University Honoured
• Bangladesh Cities Mostly Unsafe For Women
• Good Words for Malala Stuck In KP Assembly Secretariat
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Heartbreaking Final Letter of Hanged Iranian Woman
October 29, 2014
The young interior designer hanged yesterday in Iran for killing the man she claimed was trying to rape her sent a moving final letter to her mother, asking her to make sure she had her organs donated after her death.
The heartbreaking letter, written in April but circulated today by Iranian peace activists, was from 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari to her mother Sholeh Pakravan, who had called on the judges to hang her instead of her daughter, for the murder of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former intelligence agent.
Activists said that Pakravan was only allowed one final hour with her daughter earlier in the week, and had only been informed of her imminent death with a few hours notice.
According to the court ruling Jabbari stabbed Sarbandi in the back in 2007 after purchasing a knife two days earlier.
Jabbari was found guilty of premeditated murder in 2009 but the sentence was only carried out after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi had hinted in early October that a “good ending” was in sight, and the victim’s family could have saved Jabbari’s life by accepting blood money but they refused to do so.
Amnesty said the verdict was legally flawed, with Jabbari claiming Sarbandi had tried to rape her, and that she had stabbed him, but another man in the house had actually killed him.
The full letter reads:
Dear Sholeh, today I learned that it is now my turn to face Qisas [the law of retribution in the Iranian legal system]. I am hurt as to why you did not let me know yourself that I have reached the last page of the book of my life. Don’t you think that I should know? You know how ashamed I am that you are sad. Why did you not take the chance for me to kiss your hand and that of dad?
The world allowed me to live for 19 years. That ominous night it was I that should have been killed. My body would have been thrown in some corner of the city, and after a few days, the police would have taken you to the coroner’s office to identify my body and there you would also learn that I had been raped as well. The murderer would have never been found since we don’t have their wealth and their power. Then you would have continued your life suffering and ashamed, and a few years later you would have died of this suffering and that would have been that.
However, with that cursed blow the story changed. My body was not thrown aside, but into the grave of Evin Prison and its solitary wards, and now the grave-like prison of Shahr-e Ray. But give in to the fate and don’t complain. You know better that death is not the end of life.
You taught me that one comes to this world to gain an experience and learn a lesson and with each birth a responsibility is put on one’s shoulder. I learned that sometimes one has to fight. I do remember when you told me that the carriage man protested the man who was flogging me, but the flogger hit the lash on his head and face that ultimately led to his death. You told me that for creating a value one should persevere even if one dies.
You taught us that as we go to school one should be a lady in face of the quarrels and complaints. Do you remember how much you underlined the way we behave? Your experience was incorrect. When this incident happened, my teachings did not help me. Being presented in court made me appear as a cold-blooded murderer and a ruthless criminal. I shed no tears. I did not beg. I did not cry my head off since I trusted the law.
But I was charged with being indifferent in face of a crime. You see, I didn’t even kill the mosquitoes and I threw away the cockroaches by taking them by their antennas. Now I have become a premeditated murderer. My treatment of the animals was interpreted as being inclined to be a boy and the judge didn’t even trouble himself to look at the fact that at the time of the incident I had long and polished nails.
How optimistic was he who expected justice from the judges! He never questioned the fact that my hands are not coarse like those of a sportswoman, especially a boxer. And this country that you planted its love in me never wanted me and no one supported me when under the blows of the interrogator I was crying out and I was hearing the most vulgar terms. When I shed the last sign of beauty from myself by shaving my hair I was rewarded: 11 days in solitary.
Dear Sholeh, don’t cry for what you are hearing. On the first day that in the police office an old unmarried agent hurt me for my nails I understood that beauty is not looked for in this era. The beauty of looks, beauty of thoughts and wishes, a beautiful handwriting, beauty of the eyes and vision, and even beauty of a nice voice.
My dear mother, my ideology has changed and you are not responsible for it. My words are unending and I gave it all to someone so that when I am executed without your presence and knowledge, it would be given to you. I left you much handwritten material as my heritage.
However, before my death I want something from you that you have to provide for me with all your might and in any way that you can. In fact this is the only thing I want from this world, this country and you. I know you need time for this.
Therefore, I am telling you part of my will sooner. Please don’t cry and listen. I want you to go to the court and tell them my request. I cannot write such a letter from inside the prison that would be approved by the head of prison; so once again you have to suffer because of me. It is the only thing that if even you beg for it I would not become upset although I have told you many times not to beg to save me from being executed.
My kind mother, dear Sholeh, the one more dear to me than my life, I don’t want to rot under the soil. I don’t want my eye or my young heart to turn into dust. Beg so that it is arranged that as soon as I am hanged my heart, kidney, eye, bones and anything that can be transplanted be taken away from my body and given to someone who needs them as a gift. I don’t want the recipient know my name, buy me a bouquet, or even pray for me.
I am telling you from the bottom of my heart that I don’t want to have a grave for you to come and mourn there and suffer. I don’t want you to wear black clothing for me. Do your best to forget my difficult days. Give me to the wind to take away.
The world did not love us. It did not want my fate. And now I am giving in to it and embrace the death. Because in the court of God I will charge the inspectors, I will charge inspector Shamlou, I will charge judge, and the judges of country’s Supreme Court that beat me up when I was awake and did not refrain from harassing me.
In the court of the Creator I will charge Dr Farvandi, I will charge Qassem Shabani and all those that out of ignorance or with their lies wronged me and trampled on my rights and didn’t pay heed to the fact that sometimes what appears as reality is different from it.
Dear soft-hearted Sholeh, in the other world it is you and me who are the accusers and others who are the accused. Let’s see what God wants. I wanted to embrace you until I die. I love you.–The Huffington Post
http://nation.com.pk/international/29-Oct-2014/heartbreaking-final-letter-of-hanged-iranian-woman
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Basketball more than just a game for Saudi women
October 29th, 2014
JEDDAH: As the NBA season kicks off in America this week, a group of Saudi women and girls will be pursuing their own hoop dreams.
Women's basketball is gaining in popularity in a kingdom rife with public restrictions on female movement and activity. With the help of some US-trained coaches, female enthusiasts are using basketball to push for greater rights for women on and off the courts in Saudi Arabia.
“We are an activist team,” said Lina Almaeena, who started the first women's basketball team here 11 years ago. That led to the creation of Jiddah United in 2006, the first sports club in Saudi Arabia to include women.
“We took it upon ourselves to really promote the sport at a time when it was a big time taboo ... when there was a self-imposed censorship on women's sports.”
For the players, basketball is not merely a sport but an act of defiance in a country where female access to exercise is outright shunned by ultraconservatives; physical education is still not on the curriculum for girls in Saudi public schools.
Women are bound by strict rules when it comes to their attire, so they cannot be seen by men while jogging in sweat pants, much less wearing fitted or revealing shorts. Most women in Saudi Arabia cover their hair and face with a veil known as the niqab and all women are required to wear a loose black dress known as the abaya in public.
Nevertheless, Saudi women's basketball is on the rise, and women from the ultraconservative kingdom are even playing in other Arab countries. Hadeer Sadagah, 20, started playing eight years ago with Almaeena at Jiddah United. She now plays at the collegiate level for the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.
“I wouldn't be the person I am today without the sport and the team,” she said. “It made me be more active in society, school and in studies. It made me more social. It made me confident.”
At a recent afternoon basketball practice in Jiddah, girls as young as four years jumped, took shots and ran on open-air basketball courts behind gated concrete walls. Boys played in nearby courts. The children and their coaches stopped for daily prayers. Almaeena says basketball is becoming popular among Saudi girls because it offers the camaraderie of a team sport. Basketball is also seen as more societally acceptable since girls can practice in loose, conservative clothes, and the sport can be played indoors and outdoors.
From its humble beginning at Jiddah United, the sport has grown into a network of teams in different cities. No formal league exists but women's teams play in privately organized tournaments against a handful of other private schools, universities and club teams across the kingdom.
Despite the growth, women's basketball in Saudi Arabia still faces a host of logistical obstacles due to the kingdom's strict gender-segregation rules.
Women's teams are not part of the kingdom's federation that oversees sports, and women often struggle to find facilities to train and are not allowed to attend matches in stadiums.
In Jeddah, the older female players practice and play in a female-only gym. They only play tournaments in front of other women, and even their male coaches do not attend games.
It wasn't until 2012 that Saudi Arabia sent its first female athletes to the Olympics — exactly two of them. And two years later for the 2014 Asian Games, the kingdom reverted to its tradition of sending an all-male delegation.
There's also a strong conservative sentiment against women playing sports. Well-known clerics have spoken out against sports like basketball, saying the exertion could tear a woman's hymen and cause her to lose her virginity. Others argue that sports blur gender lines and make women more masculine.
Almaeena's team generated some negative publicity in 2009 after they played a tournament in Jordan. The players were not wearing their abayas and photographs of them in modest track suits landed in local newspapers. They were labelled “immoral” and “satanic”, Almaeena said.
It makes sense that Jeddah would become the incubator for women's basketball in Saudi Arabia. The coastal city is easily the country's most liberal and cosmopolitan.
Jeddah's residents are a melting pot of ethnicities whose ancestors settled along an ancient trade and pilgrimage route, unlike the largely tribal roots of other Saudis. The result has been a distinct and more open culture than Saudi cities like the capital, Riyadh.
"Jeddah is where women are most physically active in society,” said Sadagah, the Jeddah-born collegiate player in Sharjah. “I think it's the society. We are different. We are not the same (as Riyadh)."
Jeddah created public spaces where women and young girls briskly stroll alongside men in sporty black robes — a novelty in a kingdom where women exercising is largely a private activity. Even with the comparative liberalism, women's sports in Jeddah still face restrictions that render it an upper-class and elite pastime.
Joining a club like Jeddah United costs around 600 riyals ($130) a month. Getting to a gym or sports club also requires paying for a chauffeur because women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.
For now, women's basketball in Saudi Arabia remains a fringe phenomenon, but for enthusiastic players and parents, its presence is a much-welcome source of both exercise and confidence-building life lessons.
“The concept of sports brings what we're trying to teach. Leadership skills, role playing and how to manage your time,” said New York-born American coach Umar Abdul Salam, who has been training girls and boys in Jiddah for more than a decade. “You want to get good at something? Work for it. “
Alaa AlShuwayer, a pharmacist and mother to two young girls, recently checked out a basketball practice with Abdul Salam in Jeddah and was considering enrolling her daughters.“I know 100 per cent there's nothing wrong with girls or boys playing sports,” she said. “I'd rather they play sports than buy them dresses and earrings.”
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141133/basketball-more-than-just-a-game-for-saudi-women
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Good words for Malala stuck in KP Assembly secretariat
By Zulfiqar Ali
October 29th, 2014
PESHAWAR: A resolution for Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has got stuck in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly secretariat as Jamaat-i-Islami, a partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf-led ruling coalition in the province, has made its inclusion in the house’s agenda conditional on the tabling of a similar resolution for scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui imprisoned in the US over links to terrorists.
Law and parliamentary affairs minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi told Dawn that PTI would support its coalition partner on the matter.
He expressed ignorance about keeping the resolution pending in the assembly secretariat.
The minister said some lawmakers had reservations about the resolution and was not sure if the Awami National Party would gather support of the opposition parties in favour of its pro-Malala move.
Notably PTI chairman Imran Khan had congratulated Malala on winning Nobel Peace Prize. However, the PTI-led provincial government did not issue any statement to praise the teenage activist for girls’ education.
ANP MPA Syed Jafar Shah had submitted the resolution to the assembly secretariat on October 20, which has so far not been brought on the house’s agenda.
Jafar Shah told reporters that he had requested Speaker Asad Qaisar to put the resolution on the agenda but the latter showed reluctance.
“It may create problems for us,” Jafar Shah quoted Speaker Asad Qaisar as saying during a meeting.
JI opposed to move until pro-Aafia resolution made part of house agenda
He said the Senate, National Assembly and Punjab and Sindh assemblies had passed resolutions to congratulate Malala Yousafzai on receiving Nobel Peace Prize.
The MPA said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced to establish a university in the name of Malala. He said the young activist belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore, the provincial assembly should take the lead.
“I don’t know why the government is so scared about the resolution,” he said, adding that he had suggested in his resolution that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should set up university in the name of the Nobel laureate.
When the house began proceedings on Tuesday, Pakistan People’s Party MPA Nighat Orakzai through a point of order drew Speaker Asad Qaisar’s attention towards the resolution.
She said not only Malala Yousafzai was a national hero but she was an international icon as well.
Orakzai said Malala’s efforts for the promotion of education had been recognised around the world and that she was given the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards in recognition of her courage and contributions for the promotion of education.
“This is very unfortunate that a resolution submitted by a member of the opposition has been intentionally blocked,” she said, asking the chair to bring the resolution for Malala on the house’s agenda.
The MPA said the treasury and opposition should unanimously pass resolution.
Lawmaker of Jamaat-i-Islami Mohammad Ali Khan said Dr Aafia Siddiqui was the daughter of the nation and that he had great contributions for Islam. He said the house should pass a joint resolution for Dr Aafia and Malala.
Speaker Asad Qaisar remained silent on the point of order raised by Nighat Orakzai and moved to the agenda.
Insiders said Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, which had been opposing Nobel Peace Prize for Malala, was also not in favour of the resolution.
A JUI-F MPA told Dawn in the assembly’s lobby that his party might not support the resolution.
“I have informed my friends (ANP lawmakers) that he will not support the resolution,” he said, adding everybody knew the motive behind the award of Nobel Peace Prize to Malala.
In January this year, the provincial government had stopped a civil society organisation from organising a ceremony at the University of Peshawar to launch the book of the Nobel laureate, I am Malala.
Similarly, the banned militant outfit, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, had warned leading booksellers against selling the book.
Also, the house admitted an adjournment motion about the prevailing law and order situation in the province for detailed discussion.
JUI-F member Mufti Syed Janan, who moved the motion, portrayed the worst scenario in the province.
He said 44 policemen and other officials were killed in Peshawar in 2013 and the number had reached 138 in the current year.
The MPA said the nighttime flight operations at the Bacha Khan International Airport had been suspended due to the recent firing incident. He said the government had failed to provide protection to citizens and that the government’s writ had been confined to the Civil Secretariat and Police Lines.
Later, the Delimitation of Local Councils Ordinance, 2014 and Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 were tabled in the house.
The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation Bill, 2014 after incorporating several amendments of the opposition in it.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141110/good-words-for-malala-stuck-in-kp-assembly-secretariat
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Conditional Recruitment for Female Expat Teachers in Saudi Arabia OK’d
29 October 2014
Ending days of speculation on the matter, the Labour Ministry on Tuesday announced that expatriate women teachers on dependent visas can work at private schools without transferring their sponsorship.
In an exclusive statement to Arab News, Ahmed Al-Humaidan, undersecretary for labour policies at the ministry, said: “The decision is aimed at offsetting the shortage of teachers at private schools with a view to utilizing locally available expertise rather than bringing in new teachers from abroad.”
However, teachers would have to apply for posts through the Labour Ministry’s Ajeer system and get formal approval from the Education Ministry to ensure they have the required qualifications and experience. The system does not accept applications not approved by the Education Ministry, Al-Humaidan stated.
Moreover, the applicant would have to undergo tests by the Education Ministry similar to those for resident teachers. Preference would be given to Saudis. If Saudis are not available, then women expatriate teachers would be employed, he said.
The announcement comes after conflicting comments by labor ministry officials over the past few days. Initial reports, quoting unnamed labor ministry sources, had claimed that expatriate women teachers would be able to work without transferring their sponsorship. This was followed by an official in Jeddah on Monday saying that a proposal on the matter is being considered, but not approved.
The initial media reports had resulted in many teachers expressing happiness that they would be allowed to work while remaining under the sponsorship of their husbands, fathers or brothers.
Arab News had received hundreds of calls and queries from teachers asking to verify the reports.
http://www.arabnews.com/news/651856
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Women seek age-old therapies for childbirth problems
29 October 2014
An increasing number of Saudi women are seeking out age-old therapies to help solve issues of conception and childbirth.
These women are convinced that natural medicines and techniques like cupping, abdominal massages and rubbing can facilitate the conceiving and birthing process. “There is a high turnout of women seeking relief for body pain, infertility issues and repositioning the uterus in preparation for conception,” Aziza Al-Omari, a therapist, said.
The technique of massaging is handed down the generations and practitioners of these ancient methods generally work from home or go to the patients’ homes upon invitation and are paid for their efforts.
Masseuse Um Ahmed said she learnt the massaging techniques from her mother who learnt it from her mother in turn.
“It is very popular among women,” she said, adding that the therapy is painless and very comforting. She told Arab News that her grandmother’s generation did not have recourse to doctors and they had depended on natural remedies. “I receive many calls from women asking me to come to their house and give them the massage suited to their health condition,” Um Ahmed said.
The therapist added that this practice was widely recommended for women as a natural way of preparing their bodies to conceive.
According to Um Ahmed, women can have their womb readied in three sessions with the therapy starting on the fourth day of menstruation.
“Some wombs are bent forward or backwards making it difficult to conceive. We try to return them to their natural position which is in the middle of the pelvis,” she said adding that in some cases, the uterus loses its position following a birth or a miscarriage.
At SR50 per session, Um Ahmed’s schedule is fully booked. At times, she is so busy that she is unable to accept even one more appointment. Most of her patients suffer from the displacement of the uterus and need to have it repositioned.
The process, however, is not smooth. Before the session, Um Ahmed asks her patients a few questions about their menstruation, whether they are painful, if they are regular or if the women have pain in their heels, whether they experience pain during intercourse or see brown stains or black clots at the end of their cycle, to name a few.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/651791
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Saudi Female Researcher at Leeds University Honoured
29 October 2014
The University of Leeds, one of Britain’s most prestigious academic institutions, has adopted the research study of a Saudi female Ph.D. student of biomedical sciences, local media said.
Nada Abu Arab is researching on ion channels in one of the specialized medical labs at the university.
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf, Saudi ambassador to London, has honored the talented researcher.
Her research focuses on clarifying unknown mechanisms which cause the death of cells including blood cells that cause atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes, Al-Jazirah daily said.
Commenting on her achievement, Nada said the support being given to Saudi students by the government of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Saudi Embassy in London in the provision of valuable scientific research is behind the excellence of the students, and have impressed both foreign students and British universities.
Nada was selected among the top 10 Saudi students in the United Kingdom.
She was also honored by Leeds University for obtaining the first rank at the annual conference of Ph.D. students on biomedical sciences.
Nada had earlier joined scientific conferences in the UK and the United States.
She was also honored by the College of Medicine at King Saud University for excelling at medical studies for the year 2014, the paper said.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/651771
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Bangladesh Cities Mostly Unsafe For Women
October 29, 2014
Sexual harassment or violence against women is not limited to women of any certain age. Women experience sexual harassment at some point in their life irrespective of their age, a survey conducted by ActionAid shows.
About 81 percent women, however, do not prefer to seek help from law enforcement agencies fearing further harassment.
According to the survey carried out from June to September of this year, 47.5 percent women in urban areas feel unsafe in public places like markets, streets and public transport while 88 percent have reported harassment by pedestrians, passengers of public transport and buyers in market places.
ActionAid Bangladesh unveiled the survey findings at the launch of a nationwide campaign "Safe Cities for Women" at Spectra Convention Centre yesterday.
The survey covered a total of 1,200 people including 800 women and adolescent girls from seven cities in a bid to understand people's perceptions on sexual violence against women in public places, and to explore links between violence against women and urban public services.
The survey has also found that 64 percent of the female respondents avoid going outside at night as a preventive measure against sexual harassment and 60 percent prefer going outside in groups.
MA Mannan, senior research fellow of BIDS, presented the survey findings.
The findings show that the root causes of sexual harassment and violence include inadequate laws and their poor enforcement, ineffective and untimely prosecution of the offender, complicated and lengthy legal process, and lack of gender sensitivity among police, hospital staff and judicial authority.
To stop sexual violence against women, the survey underscores the need for collective efforts by the government, political leaders, donor communities, NGOs, women rights organisations, human rights bodies and civil society representatives.
The survey proposes a set of recommendations which include amendment of existing laws related to sexual harassment, ensuring protection of survivors by police and judiciary and human rights groups, and inclusion of gender sensitive courses on the school curricula.
Stressing the need for strict enforcement of laws, Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy said that government could prevent sexual violence against women if it wanted to.
Perpetrators of sexual violence often take political shelter which hampers punishment and this needs to be stopped, she added.
"A criminal is a criminal and he must be punished," she said.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said special training is necessary for the police to learn how to behave with a woman.
Inu also said he would suggest the DMP commissioner to include women police along with their male colleagues in patrolling the cities of the country.
He urged women and girls to protest instantly in the case of their subjection to harassment or violence instead of keeping silent.
Among others, Lynne Featherstone MP, parliamentary under secretary of state for international development of the UK, spoke at the programme as a special guest.
Hafizuddin Khan, treasurer, executive board of ActionAid Bangladesh and former adviser to a caretaker government, chaired the programme.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/cities-mostly-unsafe-for-women-47878
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Good words for Malala stuck in KP Assembly secretariat
By Zulfiqar Ali
October 29th , 2014
PESHAWAR: A resolution for Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has got stuck in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly secretariat as Jamaat-i-Islami, a partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf-led ruling coalition in the province, has made its inclusion in the house’s agenda conditional on the tabling of a similar resolution for scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui imprisoned in the US over links to terrorists.
Law and parliamentary affairs minister Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi told Dawn that PTI would support its coalition partner on the matter.
He expressed ignorance about keeping the resolution pending in the assembly secretariat.
The minister said some lawmakers had reservations about the resolution and was not sure if the Awami National Party would gather support of the opposition parties in favour of its pro-Malala move.
Notably PTI chairman Imran Khan had congratulated Malala on winning Nobel Peace Prize. However, the PTI-led provincial government did not issue any statement to praise the teenage activist for girls’ education.
ANP MPA Syed Jafar Shah had submitted the resolution to the assembly secretariat on October 20, which has so far not been brought on the house’s agenda.
Jafar Shah told reporters that he had requested Speaker Asad Qaisar to put the resolution on the agenda but the latter showed reluctance.
“It may create problems for us,” Jafar Shah quoted Speaker Asad Qaisar as saying during a meeting.
JI opposed to move until pro-Aafia resolution made part of house agenda
He said the Senate, National Assembly and Punjab and Sindh assemblies had passed resolutions to congratulate Malala Yousafzai on receiving Nobel Peace Prize.
The MPA said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had announced to establish a university in the name of Malala. He said the young activist belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore, the provincial assembly should take the lead.
“I don’t know why the government is so scared about the resolution,” he said, adding that he had suggested in his resolution that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government should set up university in the name of the Nobel laureate.
When the house began proceedings on Tuesday, Pakistan People’s Party MPA Nighat Orakzai through a point of order drew Speaker Asad Qaisar’s attention towards the resolution.
She said not only Malala Yousafzai was a national hero but she was an international icon as well.
Orakzai said Malala’s efforts for the promotion of education had been recognised around the world and that she was given the Nobel Peace Prize and other international awards in recognition of her courage and contributions for the promotion of education.
“This is very unfortunate that a resolution submitted by a member of the opposition has been intentionally blocked,” she said, asking the chair to bring the resolution for Malala on the house’s agenda.
The MPA said the treasury and opposition should unanimously pass resolution.
Lawmaker of Jamaat-i-Islami Mohammad Ali Khan said Dr Aafia Siddiqui was the daughter of the nation and that he had great contributions for Islam. He said the house should pass a joint resolution for Dr Aafia and Malala.
Speaker Asad Qaisar remained silent on the point of order raised by Nighat Orakzai and moved to the agenda.
Insiders said Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, which had been opposing Nobel Peace Prize for Malala, was also not in favour of the resolution.
A JUI-F MPA told Dawn in the assembly’s lobby that his party might not support the resolution.
“I have informed my friends (ANP lawmakers) that he will not support the resolution,” he said, adding everybody knew the motive behind the award of Nobel Peace Prize to Malala.
In January this year, the provincial government had stopped a civil society organisation from organising a ceremony at the University of Peshawar to launch the book of the Nobel laureate, I am Malala.
Similarly, the banned militant outfit, Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, had warned leading booksellers against selling the book.
Also, the house admitted an adjournment motion about the prevailing law and order situation in the province for detailed discussion.
JUI-F member Mufti Syed Janan, who moved the motion, portrayed the worst scenario in the province.
He said 44 policemen and other officials were killed in Peshawar in 2013 and the number had reached 138 in the current year.
The MPA said the nighttime flight operations at the Bacha Khan International Airport had been suspended due to the recent firing incident. He said the government had failed to provide protection to citizens and that the government’s writ had been confined to the Civil Secretariat and Police Lines.
Later, the Delimitation of Local Councils Ordinance, 2014 and Local Government (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2014 were tabled in the house.
The assembly passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Civil Servants Retirement Benefits and Death Compensation Bill, 2014 after incorporating several amendments of the opposition in it.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1141110/good-words-for-malala-stuck-in-kp-assembly-secretariat
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