Iranian Rights Activists Urge Iranian Women to Publicly Unveil To Protest Crackdown
New
Age Islam News Bureau
13
July 2022
• "Ms.
Marvel “On Disney Plus Has Resonated With Muslims in the West
• Netflix
Launches Section for Films by Female Arab Directors
• In
UAE, Women Led the Way to Launch Businesses after Pandemic Disruption
• Afghan
Girls Face Bleak Future As Ban On Secondary Education Persists
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-rights-activists-unveil/d/127471
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Iranian
Rights Activists Urge Iranian Women to Publicly Unveil To Protest Crackdown
A
poster, depicting the appearance of women in Islamic Iran, widely shared on
social media. (Photo: Twitter/@@SharOBalaa)
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12 July,
2022
Iranian
rights activists have urged women to publicly remove their veils on “National
Day of Hijab and Chastity” on Tuesday, risking arrest for defying the Islamic
dress code as the country’s hardline rulers crack down on “immoral behavior.”
Under
Iran’s Islamic law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to
cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their
figures. Violators face public rebuke, fines or arrest.
But
decades after the revolution, clerical rulers still struggle to enforce the
law, with many women of all ages and backgrounds wearing tight-fitting,
thigh-length coats and brightly colored scarves pushed back to expose plenty of
hair.
Critics
and activists see the establishment’s stepped-up efforts to enforce hijab
compliance as part of a wider clamp-down on dissent amid deepening resentment
over economic hardship at home and growing Western pressure on Iran over its
disputed nuclear program.
As
the state holds ceremonies across the country to celebrate the “National Day of
Hijab and Chastity,” rights activists have criticized the move and called on
women to remove the veil.
“The
National Day of Hijab and Chastity is only an excuse to target women and launch
a new wave of repression against Iranian people and in particular women,”
dozens of prominent women’s rights activists said in a joint statement on
Monday.
In
a display of civil disobedience, the hashtag #No2Hijab has been widely
distributed on social media for days by Iranians outside and inside the
country.
Videos
of women removing their hijab as they walk in the streets or resisting the
morality police have flooded social media. Reuters could not verify the
authenticity of the videos.
“I
should have the right to decide what I want to wear and not be imprisoned
because of my choice. #No2Hijab,” tweeted a female user.
No
veil to remove
Some
women who voluntarily wear a veil and men have joined the campaign too.
“I
don’t have a veil to remove. But I will come to the street to support and
defend the women and girls of my land. #No2Hijab,” tweeted @mashmolak.
The
New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) said on
Monday there were “serious concerns over more potential violence and detentions
on July 12.”
Iran’s
semi-official Fars news agency said several people were arrested on Monday.
The
#No2Hijab campaign overlapped with months of protests by teachers, retirees,
workers and government employees over unpaid wages, low pensions and
sky-rocketing food prices that have hurt the establishment’s legitimacy with
protesters calling for political change.
“This
is like pouring fuel on fire. People are already angry because of high
inflation and rising prices. They are very frustrated,” said a former Iranian
government official. “Coercion has never worked.”
Waves
of the hijab protests have hit the clerical establishment in the past years. In
2014, rights activist Masih Alinejad started a Facebook campaign “My Stealthy
Freedom”, where she shared pictures of unveiled Iranian women sent to her.
It
was followed by a campaign in 2017 for women to wear white headscarves on
Wednesdays and the hijab protests in 2018 when women took to the streets
holding their veils aloft. Dozens of women have been jailed in Iran for their
activism against forced veiling, according to rights groups.
“The
establishment fears a revolution by women that has already started today,”
Alinejad told Reuters.
Source:
Al Arabiya
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"Ms.
Marvel “On Disney Plus Has Resonated With Muslims in the West
Ms.
Marvel as a Pakistani Muslim woman
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Jul
13, 2022
Jumana
Zakir knows who she is going to be for Halloween this year. Hint: Her new
favorite superhero is a lot like her – female, teen, Muslim, American and
"totally awesome."
"Kamala
Khan is me," said the exuberant 13-year-old from Anaheim, California.
"She is just like me."
Khan
is the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first Muslim superhero to headline her own
television show. "Ms. Marvel," which launched on Disney+ June 8, has
struck a chord with South Asian Muslims in the West because of its relatability
and how it portrays Muslim families. Advocates for inclusion and representation
hope the show will open the door to more nuanced on-screen portrayals of
Muslims and their rich diversity.
The
show tells the story of Khan, played by Pakistani Canadian actor Iman Vellani,
getting her powers from a magical bangle that allows her to walk on air and
conjure glowing light shields. But she is also a regular South Asian Muslim
teen who goes to mosque, performs wudu or ritual ablution before praying,
sometimes wears traditional attire called shalwar kameez, dances to Bollywood
numbers at her brother's wedding, and breaks curfew to hang out with her buddy
Bruno Carrelli at AvengerCon.
The
final episode of the series is expected to drop Wednesday.
Munir
Zamir, who is British Pakistani and grew up in East London, said seeing a
"brown, Pakistani Muslim girl from New Jersey" in the comic books
and, now, watching "Ms. Marvel" with his teenage children -- has been
powerful. Zamir, 50, has been a Marvel fan since he was 7 and has followed the
evolution of Kamala Khan since Ms. Marvel's inception in comic books in 2014.
"For
Muslims in particular, representation matters a lot because, for many years,
misrepresentation has mattered too much," he said.
Zamir
points out that there are other Muslim superheroes in the Marvel universe like
Sooraya Qadir also known as Dust. She wears a flowing black outfit, covers her
hair and face, and can transform her body into a cloud of dust.
"Even
in that description there are some classic tropes," Zamir said. "But
Kamala Khan is not some exotic woman from a Muslim country. That instantly sets
her apart in the Marvel universe."
The
diverse experiences of Muslim women in "Ms. Marvel" are among aspects
that stand in contrast to findings of a report published last year examining
Muslim representation across 200 top-grossing movies from the U.S., the U.K.,
Australia, and New Zealand that were released between 2017 and 2019.
The
study found women were particularly underrepresented, with just 23.6% of Muslim
characters in these movies being female. Conducted by the University of
Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, with support from others,
it also found that 90.5% of these films didn't feature Muslim speaking
characters and yet 39% of "primary and secondary" Muslim characters
were perpetrators of violence.
Making
Ms. Marvel more relatable was intentional, said Sana Amanat, one of Kamala
Khan's creators and an executive producer on the show. She wanted to portray a
Muslim character who "feels like someone you know."
"She
is not put on a pedestal," she said. "She is awkward. She is funny.
She is a sweet person who ultimately wants to do better."
Amanat
and her co-creators felt it was important to show Khan's everyday life as a
Muslim American teen.
That
idea of normalcy resonated with Hiba Bhatty, a Pakistani American fan of the
show. She particularly liked how Khan's father, Yusuf, was portrayed as "a
loving dad," as opposed to a scary stereotype.
Bhatty,
a Los Angeles-based architect, previously displayed Ms. Marvel comics on her
desk at work as conversation starters. Now, she is getting ready to give
co-workers a "Ms. Marvel" presentation. To her, it exemplifies how
many in her community have moved beyond wanting to just be portrayed as "normal
Americans," to actually telling their own nuanced stories.
"Ms.
Marvel" is also "reclaiming language that has been weaponized against
Muslims," said Arij Mikati, managing director of culture change for the
Pillars Fund, which supports Muslim civic leaders and artists.
In
one scene, Khan and her family joyously break into chants of "Allahu
akbar," or "God is great," in celebration of her brother's
wedding.
"When
you hear the call to prayer, that's usually a sign that you're somewhere unsafe
on television," Mikati said. "And all of these things are being
reclaimed in this show.... That's really beautiful because those day-to-day,
small moments of our faith have really been taken from us in the media."
Pillars
Fund's initiatives include a Muslim artist database, created in collaboration
with and support from The Walt Disney Company, to bring more Muslims into the
filmmaking process.
"A
superhero story is not a genre where you expect a Muslim to be, and I love that
this story is changing that," Mikati said.
The
show touches on issues from surveilling mosques to what wearing head scarves
means for some. Khan's friend, the hijab-wearing Nakia Bahadir, is played by
Yasmeen Fletcher. One of the most important conversations between Khan and
Bahadir happens in the girls' restroom, where Bahadir talks about how she feels
like herself, with a purpose, when she dons her hijab.
Jumana,
the teen from Anaheim who plans to wear a hijab in a year or two, said she
appreciated the show's portrayal of what the hijab means to some young girls
like her.
"My
non-Muslim friends already know about my decision and respect it," she
said. "But if more people can realize that by watching this show, that's
great."
Fletcher
said she has been touched by such powerful responses.
"The
whole point of Nakia's character is to break down the stereotypes around hijabi
women," she said.
For
the show's seven writers – four of whom are Pakistani – representing Muslims
and South Asians realistically was crucial, said the show's head writer Bisha
K. Ali, who is British Pakistani.
"We
felt a hunger for being seen in a way that was celebrated and beautiful, and
comes from a place of love and compassion," she said.
While
it's impossible to capture the experience of nearly 2 billion Muslims, Ali said
the writers leaned into telling the story of this one family in an authentic
way.
The
show takes a similar approach to talking about the Partition in 1947 when
British India was divided along religious lines into India and Pakistan,
triggering one of the largest mass migrations in history. The violence from
tensions between Hindus and Muslims led to a refugee crisis, which the show
weaves in as part of Khan's family history.
Ali
said the show's goal was not to point fingers in any direction, but to tell one
family's story of the inter-generational trauma triggered by this chapter of
history, and convey "a sense of empathy for the amount of pain on all
sides."
Ali
described the mood in the writer's room as "incredibly emotional," as
they talked about what their mosques were like growing up and contacted
relatives on WhatsApp to gather more details.
Sitting
in the belly of Marvel Studios in a windowless conference room, Ali said she
had lost count of the number of times the writers looked at each other as if to
ask: "Are we really here? Are we really doing this?"
Source:
The Daily Star
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Netflix
launches section for films by female Arab directors
David
Tusing
Jul
12, 2022
Netflix
has released a catalogue of 21 films that it hopes will shine a light on and
"celebrate the creativity of the Arab world’s greatest female
storytellers".
Spanning
various genres including documentary, drama and romance, the films are
accessible under a dedicated collection called Because She Created, and include
works by acclaimed directors from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia.
"Women
filmmakers have beautiful, complex, and nuanced stories to tell — stories which
have the power to resonate with people not just in the Arab world, but across
the globe. Arab women have been telling these stories for decades," the
streaming service said.
Titles
include Let’s Talk by renowned Egyptian filmmaker Marianne Khoury. A dive into
the life of legendary Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, who is also Khoury's
uncle, the 2019 documentary film is told from the perspective of four women
representing different generations in the family.
Stateless
by Moroccan director Narjiss Nejjar looks at North African history from a
female perspective, while Suha Arraf’s Villa Touma, her debut feature which was
released in 2014, is set in Ramallah and follows three Palestinian sisters who
cling to their aristocratic past and whose lives are turned upside down when
their niece comes to live with them.
Tunisian
filmmaker Leyla Bouzid’s A Tale of Love and Desire is a love story set in Paris
between a French-Algerian freshman and his Tunisian classmate, and how their
attraction to each other clashes with their respective values.
Meanwhile
Saudi actress Ahd Kamel directs and stars in Sanctity, about a recently widowed
and pregnant woman who tries to make ends meet while fending off a persistent
suitor.
"While
these stories are distinctly and authentically Arab, the themes will resonate
with women across the world, uniting women from all walks of life through
beautiful and poignant series and film," Netflix said.
"We
hope these voices provide inspiration for the wider creative community and
highlight the importance of equitable representation storytelling, and why it
matters."
Netflix
launched the Because She Created platform last year as a virtual panel
discussion hosting Arab women filmmakers to talk about the evolving role of
women in the Arab film industry. It also teamed up with the Cairo International
Film Festival in December to host a second event as a fireside chat with
renowned actress Hend Sabry.
Earlier
this year, Netflix awarded a grant to five female Arab filmmakers to help them
bring their projects to life on screen.
The
one-time grant worth $250,000 was awarded through its Netflix Fund for Creative
Equity launched in 2021 in partnership with the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture.
The
21 films in the Because She Created collection can be found at
netflix.com/becauseshecreated.
Source:
The National News
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In
UAE, women led the way to launch businesses after pandemic disruption
July
13, 2022
Dubai:
The pandemic sure had positive outcomes too – more women in the Middle East and
elsewhere used the disruptions to launch startups. It was effectively about
women seeking to take ‘control of their careers’, according to new data from
LinkedIn.
In
a way, these women by launching their own businesses were doing their bit to
close the gender gap. In 2020, women-owned startups were up 68 per cent in the
UAE while those launched by men recorded a 46 per cent increase compared to
2019.
“Women’s
careers faced many challenges during the pandemic as they were more likely to
work in service sector jobs such as retail and hospitality, which were most
affected by lockdowns,” the report states. “The pandemic also saw many women
bear the double responsibility of work and caregiving, forcing them to seek
greater flexibility than they were offered by their employers.”
According
to Sue Duke, Head of Global Public Policy at LinkedIn, “The pandemic hit working
women harder than men, as traditional gender roles took hold and
female-dominated sectors bore the brunt of lockdowns.”
Gender
diversity problems persist
LinkedIn
released these finds as part of the 2022 Global Gender Gap Report, which shows
women remain under-represented in leadership positions globally. In the UAE,
they hold only a fifth of leadership roles. “While women hold almost a third of
entry-level roles in UAE, they hold under a quarter (22 per cent) of managerial
roles and a little over one eighth (13 per cent) of C-suite leadership roles,”
LinkedIn finds.
The
UAE government has passing laws in these three years towards ensuring equal pay
and a 50:50 representation in the Federal National Council. All publicly-listed
companies must have at least one woman as board member. It also enacted
legislation that prohibits all forms of discrimination in the workplace on the
basis of gender, race, color and national origin.
The
new LinkedIn findings also record gender bias in internal promotions, with men
being almost a quarter more likely (22 per cent) to receive internal promotions
to leadership roles than women in 2021 on average. This goes up to 33 per cent
for men at the global level.
The
sectors that saw the largest share of participation from women in the UAE were
education (54 per cent), wellness and fitness (50 per cent) and healthcare (44
per cent). Even within these sectors, female leadership was still below parity
at 44-, 38- and 26 per cent, respectively.
“The
serious lack of women in leadership positions continues to be a real problem,
yet data shows that male colleagues are far more likely to be promoted into
leadership roles,” said Sue.
Source:
Gulf News
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Afghan
Girls Face Bleak Future As Ban On Secondary Education Persists
13
July, 2022
Kabul
[Afghanistan], July 13 (ANI): The Taliban’s ban on secondary education has
already caused girls in Afghanistan to lose 300 days of their studies with
devastating consequences for them, their families, and the country’s future,
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday in a new video
feature.
The
video features six prominent Afghan women: Tamana Ayazi, a filmmaker; Sahar
Fetrat, a Human Rights Watch researcher; Yalda Hakim and Zahra Joya,
journalists; Elaha Soroor, a musician; and Heela Yoon, an activist. They
discuss how education changed their lives and the devastating consequences of
the current ban for this generation of Afghan girls.
“It
feels beyond belief that we could be having a conversation in 2022 about whether
girls should be allowed to study,” said Sahar Fetrat, assistant women’s rights
researcher at Human Rights Watch and the producer of the project. “We’re so
grateful to the strong Afghan women who spoke with us. The world should listen
to them and do more to end this shocking abuse. Every day, millions of Afghan
girls are losing opportunities and dreams they can never get back.”
The
Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 and imposed policies severely
restricting basic rights–particularly those of women and girls. They dismissed
all women from leadership posts in the civil service and prohibited girls in
most provinces from attending secondary school. According to HRW, Taliban
decrees prohibit women from traveling unless accompanied by a male relative and
require women’s faces be covered in public–including women TV newscasters.
The
Taliban have carried out broad censorship, limiting critical reporting, and
have detained and beaten journalists. Taliban forces have carried out revenge
killings and enforced disappearances of former government officials and
security force personnel.
On
September 18, 2021, a month after taking over the country, the Taliban ordered
the reopening of boys’ secondary schools but made no mention of girls’
secondary schools. This was interpreted as a ban on girls’ secondary education.
In several provinces, under community pressure, Taliban officials allowed
girls’ secondary schools to reopen, but the vast majority of these schools
remained closed.
On
March 21, 2022, the Taliban pledged to reopen all schools on March 23, but on
that date they closed girls’ secondary schools again. An indefinite ban remains
in place with no clarity about when or if these schools will reopen. Yalda
Hakim, a BBC news presenter who participated in the project, has been counting
down on Twitter the days since the ban began, on July 14 it will be 300 days.
(ANI)
Source:
The Print
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-rights-activists-unveil/d/127471