'Hijab or Hell,' say Egypt Salafists in Alexandria

Chinese navy signs up Uygur Muslim women for deep sea missions

Apr 1, 2013

BEIJING: The Chinese military has began recruiting Uygur Muslim women for its navy in what appears to be first such experiment to open up its ranks for minorities, especially from volatile Xinjiang province where Islamic militants are fighting a separatist movement.

Twenty Uygur women were recruited for the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) who now started their voyage missions on naval ships, according to state-run China Daily.

"It is an honour that I am among the first 20 Uygur women to serve our country in the navy," said Aytulun Xukrat, a 19- year-old woman who joined the navy along with two of her sisters.

Xukrat, from Turpan in Xinjiang, now works in the communications section on the Jinggangshan, one of the Chinese navy's most advanced landing craft.

"After I was recruited in 2011 and later joined the navy's South Sea Fleet, two of my younger sisters followed suit and are now serving in the North Sea Fleet and East Sea Fleet. We are the pride of our family," she told the Daily.

The Chinese navy has three fleets and began to enlist Uygur women in 2011. The move has triggered the enthusiasm of a large number of these women who harbour dreams of becoming sailors, the report said.

Their recruitment was significant as Uygurs, Muslims of Turkish-origin, were restive for the past several years agitating against the increasing settlements of Han Chinese nationals from the mainland.

Scores killed in several violent attacks prompting China to deploy a large number of security forces including some of its elite commando forces there. China blames the East Turkistan Islamic Movement for trying to build a separatist movement.

Analysts say this may the first such attempt by China to recruit minorities like Uygurs and Tibetans whose numbers in government services other than those regions.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Chinese-navy-signs-up-Uygur-Muslim-women-for-deep-sea-missions/articleshow/19326388.cms

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Jamaat-E-Islami Hind Denies Allegations against Its Girls' Wing

March 31, 2013

Mumbai: Intelligence agencies in Maharashtra have sent letters to all police stations in Mumbai asking them to monitor the activities of the Girls Islamic Organization (GIO). The organization is trying to "motivate girls towards Islam", the letter warned, a media report said. GIO is girls' wing of Jamaat-e-Islami in India and denies the allegations.

 The letter stated that the GIO is trying to recruit young women and girls.

 It also mentioned names of two women, Swaleha Baji and Smaiyya. While the former has been referred as the Maharashtra chief of GIO, Smaiyya is said to be recruiting people, according to a report published in the Times of India and some other newspapers.

"People are now attracted towards science. These women are trying to ask girls to wear a burqa and study Islam. We have asked police stations to monitors their activities," The Times of India quoted Sanjay Shintre, who heads the special branch's intelligence wing, as saying.

However, the Jamat office, an official spokesperson vehemently denied the allegations and said they were planning to sue the Mumbai police for making defamatory statements against them.

“We are not a violent organisation. Our job is to connect with Muslims across the country and do good work. We work for social reforms and fight for women’s rights too", Sunday Mid-Day quoted Tauffiq Aslam Khan, president of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, as saying.

"We do believe in Jihad, but in non-violent, spiritual Jihad. We are considering legal action against the Mumbai police,” he added.

http://www.ummid.com/news/2013/March/31.03.2013/police-alert-on-gio.htm

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Trading of Women Rife in East Afghanistan

 April 01 2013

(KABUL) - The sale and exchange of women as goods is rampant in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province with as many as two women traded per day, according to the findings of a sociology researcher.

In a report obtained by TOLO news, researcher Assadullah Ahmadi stated that he found some women had been traded up to five times in three Nangarhar districts – Rodat, Mohmand, and Shinwar – as part of the socially-accepted use of wives and daughters as possessions.

"It is [happening] in Mohmand and Rodad, and all of the Shinwar, and the spot of sale is the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan," Ahmadi said.

In his report, Ahmadi says that the eastern Afghan women were often sold across the border into Pakistan and usually for less than the cost of a mule.

"There are even women that have been sold three to five times and in some cases sold along with their daughters. When we went to them, we came to know their price is less than a mule," he said.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Hajj and Islamic Affairs on Saturday told TOLOnews that it is aware of women being sold in Afghanistan and especially in eastern Nangarhar province, stating that it is a cultural practice that even the clerics are not capable of preventing.

"There is no doubt that women are being sold, and for three reasons: past practices, poverty, and illiteracy. The women whose husbands doubt them, the women that are not liked by their husbands, and the women whose husbands are poor are sold. However they are not sold as servants but they do the Nikah," said Dai-ul-Haq Abed, deputy minister of Hajj and Religious Affairs.

The Nikah is the temporary or fixed-term marriage allowed in Islam under certain conditions.

"In a discussion with the Hajj and Religious Affairs of Shinwar, they told us that it's a very ingrained trend. We have tried to work on this issue through Islamic means. The phenomenon is decreasing but not eradicated," Abed added.

The Nangarhar provincial council also acknowledged it was a problem, saying that for years women have been sold in Shinwar and that elders of the tribe are involved.

"The selling of women has been out there in the past and now. One who overlooks this matter, overlooks the truth," said Mofti Moeen Shah, a member of the provincial council.

"In our tribe of Shinwari, they do it [sell the woman] when the husband dies," he added.

According to the council, aside from being traded for money, girls as young as five-years-old are given to victims of crimes committed by the girl's family member. After receiving her, the victim will often sell the girl and keep the money.

"In districts of Nangarhar, there are married women between ages of 16 to 80 who are sold when either her husband needs money or wants to marry another girl," said Angiza Shinwari, a member of the provincial council.

"This practice has been done for years now, and it has recently increased because there is no rule of law and there is no punishment of the criminals," she added.

However Nangarhar deputy governor Mohammad Hanif Gardiwal, while admitting that there was abuse of women, rejected that they were being sold.

"[We accept that] ill-treatment of women is present. We have acted against it with officials from districts, education department, and the clerics so that they can make people and the youth understand that women cannot be sold or given as 'baad' [traded in return for crimes]," he said.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march312013/afghan-women-sa.php

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Painful Payment for Afghan Debt: A Daughter, 6

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

2013/04/01

As the shadows lengthened around her family’s hut here in one of Kabul’s sprawling refugee camps, a slight 6-year-old girl ran in to where her father huddled with a group of elders near a rusty wood stove. Her father, Taj Mohammad, looked away, his face glum.

“She does not know what is going to happen,” he said softly.

If, as seems likely, Mr. Mohammad cannot repay his debt to a fellow camp resident a year from now, his daughter Naghma, a smiling, slender child with a tiny gold stud in her nose, will be forced to leave her family’s home forever to be married to the lender’s 17-year-old son.

The arrangement effectively values her life at $2,500. That is the amount Mr. Mohammad borrowed over the course of a year to pay for hospital treatment for his wife and medical care for some of his nine children — including Janan, 3, who later froze to death in bitter winter weather because the family could not afford enough firewood to stay warm.

“They said, ‘Pay back our money,’ and I didn’t have any money, so I had to give my girl,” Mr. Mohammad said. “I was thankful to them at the time, so it was my decision, but the elders also demanded that I do this.”

The story of how Mr. Mohammad, a refugee from the fighting in Helmand Province who in better days made a living as a singer and a musician, came to trade his daughter is in part a saga of terrible choices faced by some of the poorest Afghan families. But it is also a story of the way the war has eroded the social bonds and community safety nets that underpinned hundreds of thousands of rural Afghans’ lives.

Women and girls have been among the chief victims — not least because the Afghan government makes little attempt in the camps to enforce laws protecting women and children, said advocates for the camp residents.

Aid groups have been able to provide a few programs for women and children in the ever-growing camps, including schooling that for many girls here is a first. But those programs are being cut as international aid has dwindled here ahead of the Western military withdrawal. And the Afghan government has not offered much support, in part because most officials hope the refugees will leave Kabul and return home.

Most of the refugees in this camp are from rural southern Afghanistan, and they remain bound by the tribal codes and elder councils, known as jirgas, that resolved disputes in their home villages.

Few, however, still have the support of a broader network of kinsmen to fall back on in hard times as they would have at home. Out of context, the already rigid Pashtun codes have become something even harsher.

“This kind of thing never happened at home in Helmand,” said Mr. Mohammad’s mother as she sat in the back of the smoky room. Watching her granddaughter, as she laughed and smiled with her teacher, Najibullah, who also acts as a camp social worker and was visiting the family, she added, “I never remember a girl being given away to pay for a loan.”

From the point of view of those who participated in the jirga, the resolution was a good one, said Tawous Khan, an elder who led it and is one of the two main camp representatives. “You see, Taj Mohammad had to give his daughter. There was no other way,” he said. “And, it solved the problem.”

Some Afghan women’s advocates who heard about the little girl’s plight from news media reports were outraged and said they had asked the Interior Ministry to intervene, since child marriage is a violation of Afghan law and it is also unlawful to sell a woman. But nothing happened, said Wazhma Frogh, the executive director of the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security.

“There has to be some sort of intervention,” Ms. Frogh said, “otherwise others will think this behavior is all right and it will increase.”

The Camps

The dark, cramped room where Mr. Mohammad lives with his wife and his eight children is typical of the shelters in the Charahi Qambar camp, which houses 900 refugee families from war-torn areas, mostly in southern Afghanistan.

The camp is the largest in the capital area, but just one of 52 such “informal settlements” in the province, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Abjectly poor, the people in the camps came with little more than a handful of household belongings. Seeking safety and aid, they instead found themselves unwelcome in a city already overcrowded with returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran.

For years Charahi Qambar did not even have wells for water because the government was reluctant to let aid groups dig them, said Mohammad Yousef, an engineer and the director of Aschiana, an Afghan aid group that works in nine camps around the country as well as with street children.

The refugees’ skills as farmers and small village workmen were of little use here since they had neither land nor houses. Penniless, they gravitated to others from the same area, and the camps grew up.

Mr. Mohammad, like most men in the camps, looks for work almost every morning as an unskilled laborer, which pays about $6 a day — not even enough to buy the staples that his family subsists on: green tea, bread and, when they can afford them, potatoes. Meat and sugar are the rarest of luxuries.

Many days, no one hires the camp men at all, put off by their tattered clothes, blanketlike wraps and full beards. “People know where we are from and think we are Taliban,” Mr. Mohammad said.

After four years in the camp, he is thinking now of going back to Helmand as a migrant laborer for the opium poppy harvest so that he can earn enough to feed his family and save a little for next winter’s firewood.

“It is too cold, and we wish we had more to eat,” said Rahmatullah, one of 18 deputy camp representatives and one of the few who spoke against the jirga’s decision to have Mr. Mohammad give his daughter to pay off the debt.

Rahmatullah, who uses just one name, did note a positive difference in camp life, however, adding, “We do have one thing here — we have education.”

Education was unheard-of for most camp residents at home in Helmand, and Rahmatullah, like many camp residents, said that at first he was suspicious of it. Shortly after arriving in the camp four years ago, he was shocked to see young girls walking on the street.

He was even more amazed when another camp resident explained that the girls were going to school.

“I did not know that girls could go to school, because in my village only a very few girls were taught anything and it was always at home,” he said. “I thought, ‘Maybe these are the daughters of a general,’ because where I come from women do not leave their homes, not even to bring water.”

“I talked to my wife, and we allowed our girls to go to the camp school, and now they are in the regular Kabul school,” he said.

His daughters were lucky. The schools in the camp were run by Aschiana, which gives a healthful lunch to every child enrolled — 800 in the Charahi Qambar camp alone. They try to bring the children up to a level where they can keep up in the regular Kabul schools.

However, that program has just ended because the European Union, amid financial woes, is not renewing its programs for social protection. Instead, it is focusing its aid spending on the Afghan government’s priorities, ratified at last year’s international aid meeting in Tokyo, which do not include child protection, Alfred Grannas, the European Union’s chargé d’affaires in Afghanistan, said in an e-mail.

The World of Women

Like most dwellings in the camp, Mr. Mohammad’s hut has a tarpaulin roof, lightly reinforced with wood, an unheated entry room, and an inner room with a stove. A small, grimy window lets in a faint patch of light, and piled around the room’s edges are the family’s few possessions: blankets, old clothes, a few battered pots and pans, and 10 bird cages for the quails he trains to sing in hopes of selling them for extra money.

For his wife, a beautiful young woman who sat huddled in the shadows, a black veil drawn across her face as her husband discussed their daughter’s fate, there is little to look forward to day to day. Back in their village in Helmand, even poor families have walled compounds and sometimes land where a woman can go outdoors.

In the camps, though, the huts are crammed together, with narrow mud pathways barely more than foot wide between them.

“There’s no privacy in the camps, and for women it is like they are in a prison,” said Mr. Yousef, the Aschiana director. “They are constantly under emotional stress.”

Like many Afghan women, Mr. Mohammad’s wife, Guldasta, let her husband speak for her — at first. He explained that she was too upset about what was happening to her daughter to talk about the situation.

But then in a quiet moment, she turned, lifting her veil to reveal part of her face and said clearly: “I am not happy with this decision; it was not what I wanted for her.”

“I would have been happy to let her grow up with us,” she said.

The family’s case is a kind of dark distortion of the Afghan tradition of the groom’s family paying a “bride price” to the family of the wife-to-be. The practice is common particularly in Pashtun areas, but it exists among other ethnic groups as well and can involve thousands of dollars. In this case, the boy who is receiving Naghma as a wife, instead of paying for her, will get her in exchange for the debt’s forgiveness.

Because Naghma, whose name means melody, was not chosen by the groom, she will most likely be treated more like a family servant than a spouse — and at worst as a captive slave. Her presence may help the groom attract a more desirable second wife because the family, although poor, will have someone working for it, insulating the chosen wife from some of the hardest tasks.

Anthropologists say this kind of use of women as property intensified after the fall of the Taliban, said Deniz Kandiyoti, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

The most recent anthropological studies of the phenomenon were of indebted drug traffickers who sold their daughters or sisters to settle debts, she said. These are essentially distress sales. And unlike the norm for marriage exchanges before the past three decades of war, the women in some cases have become salable property — stripped of the traditional forms of status and respect, she said.

Regrets

Almost from the moment he agreed to the deal, Mr. Mohammad began to regret it and think about all that could go wrong. “If, God forbid, they mistreat my daughter, then I would have to kill someone in their family,” he said as he stood at the edge of the camp in a muddy lot in the cold winter dusk.

“You know she is very little, we call her ‘Peshaka,’ ” he said, using the Pashto word for kitten. “She is a very lovely girl. Everybody in our family loves her, and even if she fights with her older brothers, we don’t say anything, we give her all possible happiness.”

He added: “I believe that when she goes to that house, she will die soon. She will not receive all the love she receives from us, and I am afraid she will lose her life. A 6-year-old girl doesn’t know about having a mother-in-law, a father-in-law, or having a husband or being a wife,” he said.

Adding to their fears, the mother of the boy that Naghma will marry came to Mr. Mohammad’s home to ask his wife to stop sending the girl to school, he said.

“You know, my daughter loves going to school, and she wants to study more and more. But the boy she is marrying, he sent his mother yesterday to tell my wife, ‘Look, this is dishonoring us to have my son’s future wife go to school,’ ” he said.

“I cannot tell them what to do,” he added, looking down at his boots. “This is their wife, their property.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/world/asia/afghan-debts-painful-payment-a-daughter-6.html?ref=world

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First FATA woman files nomination for Pakistan polls

 March 31, 2013 

PESHAWAR: In an unprecedented development, a female candidate from Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has submitted her nomination form to participate in the upcoming general elections.

 Thirty-eight year old Badam Zari from Bajaur Agency has become the first woman from tribal areas to submit a nomination form in a bid to contest for a national assembly seat, NA-44.

 Earlier, the tribal traditions disallowed women to exercise their right to franchise.

 Speaking to Geo News Badam Zari said she was contesting as an independent candidate in an effort to serve women from her area.

 “I want women to prosper in all fields and stand side by side with men.” Zari added that she would actively campaign and keep herself informed with problems being faced by the residents of her area despite the law and order situation in the agency.

 She praised the residents of Bajaur Agency and said they hold women in high regard. “In my opinion the residents of the area will support me.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-94699-First-FATA-woman-files-nomination-for-Pakistan-polls

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Seven-year-old girl crosses over to Pakistan, efforts on to get her back

TNN | Apr 1, 2013

JAIPUR/BIKANER: A seven-year-old girl, who had crossed the international border and entered Pakistani territory through the fencing at 43KYD village in Bikaner district on Friday, is likely to be returned by Pakistani Rangers on Monday.

According to sources, the girl, Pooja Meghwal, was grazing cattle in the area and unintentionally crossed over to Pakistani territory as the fencing was a bit damaged in the sector. Pakistani Rangers, after witnessing the entry of the child, informed BSF men about it.

Since then, the BSF has held several flag meetings with Pakistani Rangers to get the girl back.

"Since Friday, we have been conducting flag meetings with Pakistani counterparts. Let's hope that on Monday when a flag meeting is scheduled, the Rangers after completing their investigations might hand over the child to us," said a senior officer of district collectorate.

Full report at:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Seven-year-old-girl-crosses-over-to-Pakistan-efforts-on-to-get-her-back/articleshow/19313757.cms

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Women Constitute Only 5.33% of Indian Police Forces

PTI | Mar 31, 2013

NEW DELHI: The country has just 5.33 per cent women in police forces despite growing demands for more representation in law enforcement agencies.

According to Home Ministry statistics, out of 15, 85,117 personnel working in state police forces, only 84,479 or just 5.33 per cent are women.

Besides, there are just 499 all-women police stations in the country out of a total 15,000 stations.

The demand for more women in police forces has been growing since the gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi on December 16. There were also 2, 28,650 incidents of crime against women reported in 2011, of which 24,206 were of rape.

Full report at:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Women-constitute-only-5-33-of-police-forces/articleshow/19302422.cms

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Saudi Woman, 28, Takes Refuge in a Shelter Alleging Abuse

 March 31, 2013

ABHA — Zubaidah, a 28-year-old Saudi woman, has taken refuge at the Social Protection Home in Abha. She alleged that her brothers started to physically abuse her after they had refused to let her marry a young man who proposed to her on the pretext of tribal incompatibility.

Zubaidah said her misery continued at the Protection Home which abused her and prevented her from leaving, but the director of the home, Asthma Ismail, categorically denied these allegations and said nobody in the home had “ever touched her.”

Zubaidah said she was a graduate of the Education College of King Khaled University, and is currently jobless. She said after her father died her eldest brother became her guardian.

She said her plight began five months ago when she insisted on marrying Ibrahim, a young man who proposed to her.

Full report at:

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130401159374

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Lebanese Diva Donates To Boost Egyptian Tourism

 April 01, 2013

BEIRUT – Lebanese diva Haifa Wahbe is going to donate the profits of her concert, scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi soon, to the Egyptian tourism sector, Arabic daily reported.

Wahbe said she loves Egypt with her heart and soul because her stardom took off there. “I’ll always help Egypt and Egyptians.”

http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130401159383

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Girl’s school blown up in Bannu, Pakistan

 April 01, 2013

LAHORE: Militants on Sunday targeted a government-run girls school with explosives, however no causality was reported, officials said. According to local police, unknown militants had planted explosives material in government school of the Bannu city which exploded with a loud bang. Resultantly the school building was badly damaged but no injury or causality was reported as the building was empty at the time of explosion.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\04\01\story_1-4-2013_pg7_9

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Hijab Brought Me to Islam: Jessica Rhodes

March 31, 2013

By Imaan Ali

Jessica Rhodes is a 21 year old female from Norwich, UK who works as a telesales consultant and is also a student. She was a Pagan before reverting to Islam a month ago.

She was born in 1991 and was adopted in 1993. Grew up in a small seaside town on the south east coast of England, she went to university at 19 to study for a degree in Music and she hopes to do postgraduate qualifications in counselling starting September 2013.

She has an amazing story of her reversion and how she got attracted to Islam. New York based lady Nazma Khan started a campaign known as ‘world Hijab day’. The movement has been organised almost solely over social networking sites. It has attracted interest from Muslims and non-Muslims in more than 50 countries across the world. For many people, the Hijab is a symbol of oppression and divisiveness. It’s a visible target that often bears the brunt of a larger debate about Islam in the West. World Hijab Day is designed to counteract these controversies. It encourages non-Muslim women (or even Muslim women who do not ordinarily wear one) to don the Hijab and experience what it’s like to do so, as part of a bid to foster better understanding.

Full report at:

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/hijab-brought-me-to-islam-jessica/

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Iran hijab singer angers ultraconservatives

31 March 2013

Winners usually take it all, the prize and the fame. But for 31-year-old Iranian singer Ermia Va Majid, it is a rather different climb to victory and fame.

Ermia was declared the grand winner of the Iranian version of X-Factor, Googosh Academy, which is being filmed and transmitted to Iranian viewers from London by an exiled TV channel.

Taking home a staggering amount of $25,000 during the announcement of winners last Friday, Ermia is now the topic of discussions and forums online – but this is not about money.

Iranians are worried about two major things – the voting system that helped the judges decide and Ermia breaking the Shariah law by singing, especially while wearing the hijab headscarf.

Iranian conservatives are fuming over the fact that the married winner challenging the Islamic restrictions on married women performing and singing in public.

Full report at:

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/03/31/Hijab-singer-Iran-s-female-vocalist-angers-ultraconservatives.html

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Two Tribal Women, Out To Make History by Contesting Pakistan National Assembly Elections

 Anwarullah Khan and Haleem Asad   

 April 01, 2013

KHAR/TIMERGARA: Two women, one from Bajaur tribal agency and the other from Lower Dir district, made history on Sunday when they became the first tribal women to file nomination papers to contest elections for National Assembly.

Election Commission officials told Dawn that 40-year-old Badam Zari, wife of Sultan Khan, filed papers for NA-44, Bajaur, on Sunday. Bajaur has two seats of the lower house of parliament.

Full report at:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-168734-The-legacy-of-the-PPP-government

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Increasing Female School Enrolment in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

 March 31, 2013

A seminar titled “Female Education in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P)” was recently held to discuss factors that can be utilised to improve girls’ education in the province. The seminar was organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) to discuss findings of its long-term impact assessment study, begun in 2006, to analyse the effectiveness of a stipend programme to encourage girls’ enrolment in K-P’s secondary schools. The group found that when a stipend of Rs200 was given to each girl between grades six and 10, school enrolment increased by seven per cent. The study also found factors that impact school enrolment include distance between home and school, unequal socio-economic conditions and family size.

Full report at:

http://tribune.com.pk/story/529183/increasing-female-school-enrolment/

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Indian Woman with One Leg Out to Conquer Everest

March 31, 2013

New Delhi: Arunima Sinha lost her one leg after she was thrown out of a moving train. Nearly two years after the tragedy struck, she is preparing to conquer Mount Everest - the world's highest peak at 8,848 metres above sea level.

"When I was undergoing treatment at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) for four months, I could not do anything on my own. But then one day I decided to climb the Everest," Sinha told reporters here Monday.

Full report at:

http://www.ummid.com/news/2013/March/31.03.2013/woman_on_evrst_one_leg.htm

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Indonesian Students Get Closer Look At Sexual Assault

Mon, April 01 2013

Mortification, sadness and indignation were among the responses of female senior high school students at Lazuardi Global Islamic School in Sawangan, Depok, after seeing a presentation on how common sexual assault actually is in the country and other parts of the world.

On the other hand, many of the boys laughed when learning about the types of molestation and sexual assault during the presentation recently conducted by Muhamad Berkah Gamulya, manager of the Earth Dweller Music Syndicate (Simponi).

Full report at:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/04/01/students-get-closer-look-sexual-assault.html

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Gender Equality Remains A Touchy Subject In The Far South Of Thailand

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation

April 1, 2013

While pushing for gender equality in Buddhist-majority areas of Thailand is difficult, selling the idea in the predominantly Muslim southernmost provinces is even tougher, the Law Reform Commission of Thailand (LRCT) discovered last week at a meeting with locals.

On the one level, there are specific teachings in the Quran about women's roles, which might appear to be very restrictive to non-Muslims, and on the other there is distrust as a result of the ongoing separatist violence in the deep South. Then there's the question of Malay identity.

Full report at:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Gender-equality-remains-a-touchy-subject-in-the-fa-30203092.html

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Islam Accommodates Women: Chairperson KPA

Fadriyah Fayumi: protecting children

 April 01 2013

If you want to know about how Islam accommodates women, then Badriyah Fayumi is the person. She can explain that Islam never looks down on women and, she has many arguments based on Prophet Muhammad’s Hadith.

That is not surprising, for Badriyah, who is now the chair of the Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI), graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo majoring in commentary on the Hadith.

Full report at:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/04/01/badriyah-fayumi-protecting-children.html

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Queen of Jordan to visit Azerbaijan

 April 01 2013

Baku. Mubariz Aslanov – APA. Honorary co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Queen Noor of Jordan will arrive in Azerbaijan to attend “South Caucasus Forum” organized by Nizami Ganjavi International Center and Club of Madrid with the support of the State Committee on Work with Diaspora.

 The Committee told APA that Queen Noor will also attend the Supreme meeting of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center and listen to the annual report.

Full report at:

http://en.apa.az/news_queen_of_jordan_to_visit_azerbaijan_190277.html

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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/new-age-islam-news-bureau/“hijab-or-hell,”-say-egypt-salafists-in-alexandria/d/10962