Indian Muslim Woman Goes To Court against Bigamy
New Age Islam News Bureau
11
Sept 2015
Malala opened up to Ellen about how she found that she had won the prestigious award, and what it's like meeting world leaders. - Photo courtesy: Ellentube
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• Women Face Job Restrictions in India: World Bank
• Indian Women Protest against Rape of Nepalese Women outside Saudi Embassy
• Restrictions Holding Women Back In Pakistan: WB Report
• Malala Appears On America’s Popular TV Show
• H&M Model Rocks a Hijab in the Clothing Giant's New Campaign
• 109-Year-Old Saudi Woman Registers to Vote
• Saudi Woman Works On Riyadh Metro
• Egypt Schoolgirl Turns an Icon Against Corrupt
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/indian-muslim-woman-goes-court/d/104551
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Indian Muslim Woman Goes To Court against Bigamy
Sep 11, 2015
AHMEDABAD: Can a Muslim man remarry without the consent of his first wife? Does it amount to bigamy under the Indian Penal Code? A petition to quash a complaint of bigamy against a man from Chhattisgarh led Gujarat high court to discuss whether IPC should prevail over Muslim personal laws.
The questions arose during the hearing of a petition filed by one Zafar Abbas Merchant from Raipur in Chhattisgarh. Merchant's wife Sajedabanu had returned to her parental home in Bhavnagar from Raipur in 2001 following marital discord. Merchant remarried in 2003 without her consent. A year later, Sajedabanu filed a police complaint accusing Merchant of bigamy.
The Bhavnagar police booked him for bigamy, cruelty, wife-beating and also under dowry prohibition laws. The offence of bigamy, section 494 of the IPC, was invoked for not taking consent of his first wife for second marriage.
Merchant moved the high court in 2010, claiming that his second marriage is not bigamous as Muslim personal laws permit a man to marry four times. Against this, Sajedabanu's lawyer argued that provision of personal law — of giving equal justice to all wives — was violated by not obtaining the first wife's consent and ill treating her. Hence, dilution of conditions of personal laws invites offence under IPC, the lawyer said.
The HC appointed an amicus curiae to assist the court. He read out aayat from Sura-e-Niqah justifying more marriages; he also read out passages saying a man is permitted more than one wife but should do justice between them.
The amicus curiae submitted there was no compulsion to get consent from the first wife for a man to marry a second time as per sharia laws as well as country's personal law. When the marriage is not illegal as per personal law, second wedding does not attract IPC provisions, he said.
After all parties referred to plethora of court judgments and literature on religious laws, the HC reserved is order on the subject.
Court query
"I am a judge. I am expected to decide on this issue. Don't misunderstand me and this is not to hurt any sentiment. But there is one God, who made rules. Then why are there separate rules for different communities?"Justice J B Pardiwala
AMICUS CURIAE'S REPLY
"God made same rules for entire mankind. Bigamy is there in all religions, and there are examples in all mythologies. But the man-made rules later restricted the practice. Till the enactment of the Hindu Marriage Act in 1955, even Hindus were allowed to practice bigamy".
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Muslim-woman-goes-to-court-against-bigamy/articleshow/48907052.cms
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Women face job restrictions in India: World Bank
September 11, 2015
ISLAMABAD - Women in India face widespread restrictions for jobs and there are no laws to protect them against sexual harassment at public places.
In a report released on Thursday, the World Bank said in India job restrictions remain widespread, with women not allowed to work in mining or in jobs that require lifting weights above a certain threshold or working with glass.
The law also prohibits women from jobs "involving danger to life, health or morals".
In addition, there are no laws to protect women against sexual harassment in public places, protection which exist in 18 other economies around the world, the report said 'Women, Business and the Law 2016'.
By introducing a law mandating at least one female member on the board of publicly-listed companies, India became the only developing country and one of only nine in the world to mandate female inclusion on corporate boards, it said.
"I would say, on the question of where some of the job restrictions are coming from in India, actually, one of the main sources that we see is legacy legislation.
And by that, I mean something like the Factories Act, which actually came from the British," said Sarah Iqbal, the report's lead author.
"You see the same act in India, you see it in Pakistan, you see it in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and it basically restricts the type of work that women can do.
Even more interesting is Jamaica has almost the same act, the Factories Act, which they just reformed in the last two years, and they removed the restrictions on women's work in certain jobs and factories," she said.
In India, while they're debating it at the state level in certain states, it still exists, the World Bank official said.
"But one thing that India has done in the past few years which we found very heartening is India is the first developing economy that has a quota for women on corporate boards for publicly-listed companies," Iqbal said.
"The quota in India is at least one woman has to be a member of the corporate board.
Every other economy that we see is actually a developed economy.
So, India is the first developing economy to do this," she said.
http://nation.com.pk/national/11-Sep-2015/women-face-job-restrictions-in-india-world-bank
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Indian Women Protest against Rape of Nepalese Women outside Saudi Embassy
September 10, 2015
NEW DELHI: A group of women's rights activists held a protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy demanding action against one of its diplomats who allegedly confined and raped two Nepalese women at his flat in Gurgaon today.
The activists of All-India Democratic Women's Association shouted slogans against the diplomat and demanded justice for the two women.
They also demanded that no diplomatic immunity should be given to the diplomat.
The two women, who were allegedly confined and raped by the diplomat and his "guests", were rescued by Gurgaon Police on Monday.
Police last night had sent a "detailed" report to the External Affairs Ministry on their investigation into the case. The report was sent hours after a second medical examination of the two women confirmed rape and sodomy, said Rajesh Chechi, ACP (Crime) of Gurgaon Police.
The Saudi embassy had issued a statement yesterday terming the allegations "false" and said it has protested the police intrusion into a diplomat's house against "all diplomatic conventions".
Saudi Ambassador to India Saud Mohammed Alsati along with some embassy officials had also met senior officials to register their protest with Indian External Affairs Ministry.
http://nation.com.pk/international/10-Sep-2015/women-protest-against-rape-of-nepalese-women-outside-saudi-embassy
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Restrictions holding women back in Pakistan: WB report
Sep 11, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Many restrictions hold women back in Pakistan in their quest for economic advancement, says a new World Bank report.
According to ‘Women, Business and the Law 2016’, published every two years, married women in the country need to include their husbands’ name, nationality and address in order to register a business, and they need to do this in the presence of a witness.
For women, there are no laws guaranteeing equal remuneration for work of equal value and no laws mandating non-discrimination based on gender in hiring, said the report which was released by the World Bank on Wednesday.
However, Pakistan has introduced a couple of reforms over the past two years. It set the legal age of marriage for both boys and girls at 18 years and introduced criminal sanctions for men who contract marriage with a minor and anyone who performs, facilitates or permits under-age marriage. The country also introduced a 22 per cent quota for women in local governments, the report mentioned.
According to the report, women in South Asia continue to trail their peers in many other parts of the world, as discriminatory laws thwart their economic advancement. The report examined laws that impede women’s employment and entrepreneurship in 173 countries throughout the world.
The report expands coverage in South Asia from five to eight countries, adding Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives. The region as a whole has been lagging in enacting reforms in areas measured by the report, with only three reforms made in two countries in the past two years.
The report claimed that in nearly 100 countries of the world, women face gender-based job restrictions. Yet, it notes, over the past two years 65 countries carried out 94 reforms increasing economic opportunities for women.
The report also found that laws protecting women from domestic violence were becoming more common around the world, partially in response to growing international efforts and commitments on violence against women. Today, 127 countries have legislation against domestic violence, compared to almost none 25 years ago. Yet, that leaves 46 countries among the ones measured that still do not have this legal protection.
Drawing conclusions, the report said that in 18 countries, husbands could legally prevent their wives from working. Around 46 countries now have laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence.
Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1206217
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Malala appears on America’s popular TV show
MASOOD HAIDER
Sep 11, 2015
NEW YORK: Pakistan’s celebrated education activist Malala Yusufzai appeared on America’s popular TV show “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and talked about her struggle for children’s right to get education, winning the Nobel Peace Prize and about her father who gave her full freedom “to fly as high as I can”.
Ms Yusufzai, whose family members were part of the audience, opened up about how she found out that she had won the prestigious award, and what it’s like meeting world leaders, and more.
Also read: Must see: Malala Yousafzai's inspiring tale captured in a new documentary
A blurb posted online said Malala, the film “He named me Malala “ is set to open in American theatres on Oct 5, in the TV show she also spoke candidly about her relationship with her family and her meetings with world leaders.
On finding out she won: “So I was in my chemistry lesson in school and just studying about atoms and those things and suddenly my teacher came in, surprised me, she said that “you have won the Nobel Peace Prize”. And I said, OK and then I said I want to finish my school. And because I am standing up for education and I have been given this award because I am fighting for children’s rights to go to school, so I deserve this right to study today in school. Finish my school day and then I’ll go and have press interviews and stuff. So I finished that day.”
On meeting world leaders: “So if I like feel shy and if I think he would mind it than these issues would never get highlighted so it’s telling the world, just reminding them of their duties. You’re not asking them to do something extra, but you are demanding them that these are their responsibilities, they need to listen to their people’s voices. We want them to take action. We want them to do something and it’s important that you highlight it to them.”
On her family: “Well my father always says that ‘ask me what I did, but ask me what I did not do. And I did not clip her wings.’ So he has not clipped my wings, he has allowed me to fly as high as I can. And this is how we want parents to be, to allow their children to fulfil their dreams to achieve who they want to be. It’s not that girls don’t have the skill or don’t have the talent to do something in their life it’s that they’re stopped in society. So my father did not stop me. And I’m really thankful to him, also to my mother for giving me the strength and the courage to go forward. A little bit to my brothers, a little.”
http://www.dawn.com/news/1206215/malala-appears-on-americas-popular-tv-show
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Restrictions holding women back in Pakistan: WB report
Sep 11, 2015
ISLAMABAD: Many restrictions hold women back in Pakistan in their quest for economic advancement, says a new World Bank report.
According to ‘Women, Business and the Law 2016’, published every two years, married women in the country need to include their husbands’ name, nationality and address in order to register a business, and they need to do this in the presence of a witness.
For women, there are no laws guaranteeing equal remuneration for work of equal value and no laws mandating non-discrimination based on gender in hiring, said the report which was released by the World Bank on Wednesday.
However, Pakistan has introduced a couple of reforms over the past two years. It set the legal age of marriage for both boys and girls at 18 years and introduced criminal sanctions for men who contract marriage with a minor and anyone who performs, facilitates or permits under-age marriage. The country also introduced a 22 per cent quota for women in local governments, the report mentioned.
According to the report, women in South Asia continue to trail their peers in many other parts of the world, as discriminatory laws thwart their economic advancement. The report examined laws that impede women’s employment and entrepreneurship in 173 countries throughout the world.
The report expands coverage in South Asia from five to eight countries, adding Afghanistan, Bhutan and the Maldives. The region as a whole has been lagging in enacting reforms in areas measured by the report, with only three reforms made in two countries in the past two years.
The report claimed that in nearly 100 countries of the world, women face gender-based job restrictions. Yet, it notes, over the past two years 65 countries carried out 94 reforms increasing economic opportunities for women.
The report also found that laws protecting women from domestic violence were becoming more common around the world, partially in response to growing international efforts and commitments on violence against women. Today, 127 countries have legislation against domestic violence, compared to almost none 25 years ago. Yet, that leaves 46 countries among the ones measured that still do not have this legal protection.
Drawing conclusions, the report said that in 18 countries, husbands could legally prevent their wives from working. Around 46 countries now have laws specifically protecting women from domestic violence.
Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2015
http://www.dawn.com/news/1206217/restrictions-holding-women-back-in-pakistan-wb-report
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H&M model rocks a hijab in the clothing giant's new campaign
Sep 11, 2015
Fast-fashion Swedish company H&M has been ranked the second largest clothing retailer globally for years, after Zara. It's reach is mammoth — so when they decided to use a girl in a hijab as one of their models, it makes sense that Muslims all over the world rejoiced.
The image of Maria Hidrissi clad in wide-legged palazzos, an oversized powder pink trenchcoat, checkered scarf and big shades started circulating on social media earlier this week.
The brand didn't just stop there; their upcoming 'Close the Loop' campaign, which features their new collection made from recycling old clothing is meant to encourage conserving materials and turning them into updated styles and also showcases a wide array of cultures.
This conscious step by H&M is not really about fashion though — It's about representing people of colour and promoting diversity in the media. Who says Muslim women can't be stylish or a turban can't look high fashion? We, for one, are digging Hidrissi's effortlessly chic get-up.
In a brilliant marketing move, the clothing giant has managed to appease many fans and probably made customers out of many.
What do you guys think?
http://www.dawn.com/news/1206324/hm-model-rocks-a-hijab-in-the-clothing-giants-new-campaign
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109-Year-Old Saudi Woman Registers To Vote
11 September 2015
DAMMAM: A 109-year-old woman has become the oldest citizen to register as a voter in the kingdom's third municipal elections.
The woman, who was using a wheelchair, signed up at a precinct in the Eastern Province.
“The old lady went to Safwa polling center in Qatif to register her name. Despite her old age, she insisted on participating in the elections, which reflects the high level of election culture among all segments of society,” said Mohammed Al-Sufaian, spokesman of the Eastern Province municipality.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/804646
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Saudi woman works on Riyadh Metro
11 September 2015
JEDDAH: There are often raised eyebrows when male workers see her at the Riyadh Metro project’s construction sites, but Rima bint Sultan bin Turki bin Rabiean believes she has earned the right to be there.
The 25-year-old architect is working on one of the largest railway projects in Saudi history, a SR22.5 billion initiative that will see a metro built across the capital city by 2018.
As a child, Rima was always fond of drawing. After studying architecture at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh, she graduated at the top of her class and soon joined the company carrying out the project as its first Saudi woman employee.
Rima says she faces some difficulties at work. She has shifts of up to 12 hours in the field, and has to contend with the intense heat. However, she remains determined to leave her mark on this historic project.
Rima is responsible for “architectural drawings of precise plans, attends meetings, supervises large machines manufactured for drilling in Germany, and visits the construction sites every week.”
She works alongside two Spanish female engineers with long experience in the field, and another Saudi female mechanical engineer. She is the first and only Saudi architect to join the metro project.
“My work on the metro project is a golden opportunity because I have made contact with considerably experienced people who are among the world’s top engineers,” she says.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/804721
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Egypt schoolgirl turns an icon against corrupt
Sep 11, 2015
SOFTLY spoken schoolgirl Mariam Malak has become an unlikely symbol of the fight against corruption in Egypt after scoring the sum total of zero in her final exams.
The 19-year-old top student, a teacher’s daughter in a small village in the poor southern province of Minya, dreams of becoming a doctor like her two brothers.
In previous years she aced her exams, and had expected a similar result in her final year.
Now nicknamed the “zero schoolgirl” in the local press, Malak had scored 97 percent in her previous two years.
But Malak was shocked to find that she had been failed in her finals, and says her answers had been replaced with someone else’s — clearly not in her handwriting.
“Since the results came out I’ve been living a nightmare,” Malak told AFP after coming to Cairo from her home in southern Egypt.
“When I was shown the so-called copy of my answers, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said.
Malak said she had written page after page in the exams, and what she was shown consisted of a few lines.
In highly bureaucratic Egypt with its confusing legal system, challenging rampant corruption or wrongs suffered by the average citizen can be a formidable task.
But Malak, who wears thick glasses and has her hair in a simple ponytail, is standing up for her rights and challenging the exam results.
Her lawyers believe Malak’s exam papers could have been swapped with those submitted by the child of a person of influence.
When the final result first came out, a disbelieving Malak appealed to the education authority in the southern city of Assiut, which dismissed the complaint.
So she appealed to the prosecution service, which tasked a forensics team in Assiut to determine if the answers were in her handwriting.
Malak was again stunned when the experts ruled that the answers were indeed in her handwriting, and the prosecution closed the case. So she again appealed against the decision.
“When she first heard of the forensic report she fainted,” said her brother Mina, a doctor in his thirties who accompanied his sister to Cairo.
Malak was hospitalized briefly, and then appeared in tears on a television show, a catheter for a drip still inserted in her hand. “I know I’m fighting corruption because the way my results were announced and forged means that corruption exists,” she said.
By the time Malak lodged her second appeal, her story had become a mainstay of television talk shows and in the newspapers, with people taking to Twitter with the hashtag “I believe Mariam Malak”.
Her case finally came to the attention of Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, who invited Malak to the capital for a meeting and issued a statement backing her.
Mahlab said he would “support the student in her appeal as if she were his daughter”.
The Coptic Pope Tawadros II also asked to meet her, but Malak, a Christian, declined lest it appear a sectarian issue, saying her case was “that of an Egyptian citizen”.
The prosecution service has now reopened the case, this time appointing a forensics team in the capital to study the handwriting in the answers attributed to her.
Malak’s case has seized the public imagination as Egypt reels from a corruption scandal that led this week to the arrest of the agriculture minister immediately after he was told to quit.
There are also rumors in the press of a pending cabinet reshuffle. At the education ministry, a senior official insisted that justice would be upheld in Malak’s case.
“We are not with anyone or against anyone, and we respect justice,” said Mohamed Saad, adding that the prosecution findings would be implemented. “If you respect my rights in my country, all those who live in injustice will know they can claim theirs as well,” she said. — AFP
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20150911256218
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/indian-muslim-woman-goes-court/d/104551