Islamic State Beheads Women in Northern Syria
New Age Islam News Bureau
2
Oct 2014
Photo: Salesgirls Sell Cattle for Eid Al Adha in Malaysia
• Hijab
Debate Returns To France After Student Asked To Remove Her ‘Thing’
• Contrary
to Popular Belief, Islam Demands Respect for Women
• Salesgirls
Sell Cattle for Eid Al Adha in Malaysia
• Female
Imams, a Chinese Innovation
• Parents
of Suspected British ISIS Recruit, Yusra Hussein, Plead For Her Return
• Uganda:
Pregnant Student Cries Foul Over Suspension
• Modern
Slavery Rises In UK Led By Sex, Labour Trafficking: Study
• Alleged
Woman Attacked on Train Raises Questions of Anti-Muslim Views in Australia
• UK Must
Channel Aid to Fight FGM in Sierra Leone - Lawmakers
• Australian
PM Not In Favour Of “Burqa” In Parliament
'• South Asian and Muslim Women Should Complain More about NHS Service'
• 700
Pakhtun female vaccinators to help make polio drive a ‘success’ in city
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/islamic-state-beheads-women-northern/d/99353
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ISIS
Beheads Women in Northern Syria
2
October 2014
Militants
from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beheaded three women near the Kurdish
town of Kobani in northern Syria, the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, citing
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The
London-based SOHR said ISIS beheaded the three women, who were fighting
alongside Kurdish forces, along with five of their fellow male fighters, a
Kurdish male civilian and four Syrian Arabs.
The
observatory told Reuters that the aim of the beheadings was “to scare people.”
The
Daily Mail reported that the Kurdish fighters were captured by ISIS during a
battle near Kobani, also known as Ain al-Arab.
Dozens
of ISIS militants and Kurdish fighters were killed during the battle, the SOHR
said.
Images
showing the women’s heads circulated on social media.
“There
are real fears that the ISIS may be able to advance into the town of Kobane
itself very soon,” SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.
Kurdish
leaders have appealed to the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS to provide air
support to the town’s defenders.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/10/02/ISIS-militants-behead-three-women-near-Syria-s-Kobani.html
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700 Pakhtun
Female Vaccinators To Help Make Polio Drive A ‘Success’ In City
2 October
2014
KARACHI:
The Sindh health department has identified 41 high-risk areas in the city — all
predominantly Pakhthun localities — for which the World Health Organisation
(WHO) has agreed to provide 700 female vaccinators belonging to the same community,
officials said on Wednesday.
They
said out of 41 high-risk union councils, eight were ‘super high-risk’ UCs —
three of which were in Gadap Town, where eight out of 16 polio cases of Karachi
had been confirmed.
“The WHO
has agreed to provide 700 local Pakhtun women volunteers on a permanent basis
to help us reach the virtually inaccessible predominantly Pakhtun
neighbourhoods and get the children who had missed out in campaigns
inoculated,” said Khalid Shaikh, special secretary in the provincial health department.
The
officials said the WHO would bear all the expenses of the female Pakhtun
volunteers and they would be at the disposal of the expanded programme on
immunisation (EPI) of Sindh permanently.
“Security
for immunisation campaigns is a big issue and it gets bigger in the
neighbourhoods where Pakhtuns are in majority,” said Mr Shaikh.
Officials
said it would be much easier for Pashto speakers to blend in the Pakhtun
population because of same culture and language and that could come in handy
while convincing the community to get their children vaccinated against polio
because a large number of them had normally refused vaccination.
They
said the number of refusals during anti-polio campaigns had been on the rise in
Pakhtun localities, a matter of concern for the government, which had been
promising throughout the year that the crippling disease would be eradicated
from Sindh by 2015.
“Though
it is highly difficult to root out polio in a year, at least we are doing our
best to get it as minimised and restricted as possible,” said a senior official
in the health department.
Apart
from introducing Pakhtun volunteers, the government is working on several other
projects to reach out to maximum number of people during its future campaigns
and misgivings about polio campaigns that grew a great deal after a the
CIA-sponsored fake polio campaign in 2011 that was designed to hunt down Osama
bin Laden.
One such
measure is the formation of a provincial scholars’ task force — a scheme to be
assisted by religious scholars to convince the people, who refused polio teams
to inoculate their children, to change their views.
Polio
campaign
A
three-day national immunisation days (NIDs) campaign came to an end in
Karachi’s west, central and south districts on Wednesday.
The
officials termed the campaign a ‘success’ and said a similar three-day campaign
would begin in the city’s remaining districts of Malir, Korangi and east after
Eid.
A
special two-day campaign will be launched on Thursday in 14 high-risk union
councils of the city.
According
to deputy commissioner of central Dr Syed Saifur Rehman, about 350,000 children
under five years of age were administered polio drops during the three days.
He said
the campaign remained ‘a success’ across the 42 union councils of the district
in which 1,158 polio teams took part.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1135599/700-pakhtun-female-vaccinators-to-help-make-polio-drive-a-success-in-city
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Contrary
to Popular Belief, Islam Demands Respect for Women
2
October 2014
NFL
players such as Ray Rice and others have infamously made national headlines for
alleged abuse. Unfortunately, some of our very own Longhorns are facing the
same charges. Martez Walker, of the Longhorn basketball team, has been
suspended indefinitely after being charged for assaulting a woman, and both
Kendall Sanders and Montrel Meander, of the Longhorn football team, were
suspended indefinitely after being arrested and charged with sexual assault, a
second-degree felony. This streak of violent acts making the headlines exposes
a longstanding reality of sexual violence, causing alarm to many communities.
Actress Emma Watson recently gave a speech at the U.N that highlighted the
HeForShe campaign, “a solidarity movement for gender equality that brings
together one half of humanity in support of the other of humanity, for the
entirety of humanity.” On this same note of solidarity for justice, the Texas
Muslim Council, a representative body of all the Muslim organizations at the
University of Texas at Austin, released a statement on Tuesday spurning such
acts and calling for community wide solidarity against this “stain on
humanity.”
Eight
Muslim organizations make up the Texas Muslim Council, representing a diverse
Muslim demographic. Their public statement came out of an obligation to speak
up against what they see as an “injustice that threatens justice everywhere.”
They argue that remaining silent makes one complicit in any form of oppression.
This is also an opportunity to make clear that while the Muslim world does experience
gross violations of women’s rights, Islam is very clear on protecting women’s
rights. The unfortunate reality of women’s rights in the Muslim world is the
result of culture corrupting religion and ignorance betraying the legal
sources, like the Quran.
Islamic
law is derived from three sources, the Quran, the sayings of the Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh), and the traditions or actions of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
From each of these sources, the message of love, affection and mercy are
consistently made clear. Of the many instances, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is
said to have consoled his wife, lain in her lap and assisted in housework. Such
narrations and traditions exemplify what the Quran preaches.
“And of
His signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates that you may find
tranquillity in them; and He placed between you affection and mercy. Indeed in
that are signs for a people who give thought.”
In
addition to speaking out against these violations, the Muslim community is
taking an active role in providing relief and combating the problem. For
example, on Oct. 9, the UT Muslim Students Association will be holding its
first-ever fundraising dinner concerning domestic abuse. The charity dinner
will be co-hosted with UT Voices against Violence, a program under the
Counselling and Mental Health Centre that addresses issues such as relationship
violence, sexual violence and stalking, and the Texas Muslim Women’s
Foundation, an organization that seeks to empower, promote and support all
women and their families. The fundraiser will be the first of the “Be an
Anchor” initiative through VAV. The proceeds raised will support VAV Survivor’s
Emergency Fund, which provides aid to victims of domestic and sexual violence
in the UT Community, and will go toward making UT MSA the first “anchor,” or
sponsor, for VAV.
It is
regrettable that it takes the suspensions of football players and the like to
have this conversation, but nonetheless, we are presented with an opportunity
to make it extremely clear that violence against women will not be tolerated
and will not represent the UT community or humanity. The march in solidarity
for women’s justice is a long one, but the right one. It will not be easy, but
we have a diverse group of allies. Islam is not a religion that condones abuse
against women, and its followers are allies. Let’s end abuse together.
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2014/10/01/contrary-to-popular-belief-islam-demands-respect-for-women
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Salesgirls
Sell Cattle for Eid Al Adha in Malaysia
2
October 2014
A
salesgirl waits for customers as she sells cows for the upcoming Eid al-Adha
festival at a cow showroom in Depok, outskirt of Jakarta Tuesday. The cow
showroom has adopted a unique way of selling cattle for Eid al-Adha by
employing salesgirls to attract customers. According to the owners of the
showroom, this has led to an increase in sales since they started employing
salesgirls three years ago, having sold around 400 cattle in 2012, 440 in 2013
and 510 this year.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141001219856
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Female
Imams, a Chinese Innovation
October
02, 2014
At the
Yinta Mosque in China's Muslim heartland, Tian Xinghong teaches other Muslim
women scriptures from the Qur'an every morning from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.
The
28-year-old, donning a black robe and pink scarf, has 60 students at the mosque
in Wuzhong City in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where many
of the country's Muslim Hui ethnic minority live.
Although
Muslim women pray at home, Tian also leads them in prayer and chanting on
special occasions such as festivals, either at a women's mosque or another
mosque's restricted areas for women.
She is a
female imam, or "ahong," pronounced "ah-hung," from the
Persian word "akhund" for "the learned." In China, female
imams, rare in Arab countries, are an innovation.
Tian was
born into a religious family. Her grandmother was one of the first female imams
in Ningxia.
She was
sent to a local mosque at the age of 12 to study Islamic scripture and further
her studies at a Chinese-Arabic school for girls in neighbouring Gansu Province
in 2001, where she studied Islam and Arabic.
In 2003,
Tian passed a qualification test to become an ahong organized by the regional
Islamic association. More than 300 Muslims applied for the test, and of the
five female applicants, Tian was the only one to pass.
"Many
female Muslims did not have much formal education, especially the elderly.
Although they are Muslim, they know nothing about the Qur'an. I want to teach
them the Holy Scriptures and hope they can be inspired, think independently and
have their own careers," she said.
Tian's
husband is an imam at the Wunan Mosque, the biggest mosque in the city. In
addition to her religious duties, Tian takes care of their two children.
As early
as the late Ming dynasty (around the 17th century), followers of the faith set
up schools for Muslim women and girls around the country. These later became
mosques for women operated by female imams in the late Qing dynasty (around the
19th century).
Female
imams then spread throughout Chinese Muslim societies, said Shui Jingjun, a
Henan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences researcher.
During
the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), religion was banned. It was revived in the
1980s, leading to growing numbers of Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims and
Christians, among other faiths. The government's push for gender equality
helped broaden Muslim women's roles.
However,
China's female imams do not have equal status to male prayer leaders. They do
not lead Salaat, the five daily prayers considered among the most important
Muslim obligations. The prayers are instead piped via loudspeakers into women's
mosques from the nearby mosques for men.
Still,
the female imams guide others in worship and are the primary spiritual leaders
for the women in their communities. In the women's mosque, women can study the
Qur'an and Islamic doctrine, as well as the Arabic language.
In the
Litong District of Wuzhong City, where Tian lives, there were 12 female ahongs
out of 600 registered ahongs as of the end of 2013, said Tian Xuewu, an
official with the district religious affairs administration.
"Whether
male or female, whoever can teach us the Islamic scriptures and religious
knowledge is our respected ahong," said Du Shaocheng, who prays at the
Yinta mosque.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/n/2014/1002/c90782-8790612.html
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Parents
of Suspected British ISIS Recruit, Yusra Hussein, Plead For Her Return
2
October 2014
The
Somali-born British parents of a 15-year-old suspected of travelling to join
the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria appealed on Tuesday for her return home.
“Please
come back, we just want you to be safe,” said the parents of Yusra Hussein, the
Daily Telegraph reported.
Hussein
had been reported missing after she was last seen going to school last
Wednesday.
She
never arrived at her school, and a police investigation found that she took a
bus to Heathrow airport, where she boarded a plane to Istanbul.
Police
and her parents say they fear that she flew to Turkey to cross into Syria to
join ISIS.
Louisa
Rolfe, assistant chief constable of Avon and Somerset police, said of Hussein:
“There are indications she may have been radicalized, but at the moment our
priority is to find her before she crosses the border to Syria and make sure
she is safe.”
People
who know Hussein have described her as a bright, articulate girl who wanted to
become a dentist.
Her
school friends described her as “very religious” and “very intelligent,” adding
that no-one had noticed any signs of her becoming radicalized.
The
Bristol Post reported a 15-year-old girl who met Hussein at a local mosque as
saying: “She is a very nice girl. She worked very hard and wanted to do well in
school.”
Local
councillor Hibaq Jama said Bristol’s Somali community was concerned that other
children might be tempted to follow suit.
A
spokesperson for Scotland Yard police confirmed that a 17-year-old from
Lambeth, south London, had been missing from her home since last Wednesday, and
that she was believed to have flown to Istanbul with Hussein.
Academics
at King’s College London estimate that some 50 British females - mainly aged
between 16 and 24 - have joined ISIS, many travelling to its de facto capital
in Raqqa, Syria.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/10/01/Parents-of-suspected-British-ISIS-recruit-plead-for-her-return.html
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Uganda:
Pregnant Student Cries Foul Over Suspension
2
October 2014
Several
female students from a university in Uganda are crying foul after they were
suspended for conceiving from Uganda Christian University (UCU) in the city of
Mukono earlier this year. Sylvia Arinaitwe (21), one of 27 students who have
been recently suspended, says her dreams have been shattered.
Not
married
"It
was on the third of April this year, when I was found to be pregnant by the
university administration. At that time, I was sitting for my final third year
exams in Public Administration. I had done the first paper and when I reported
the next day for another, I was blocked on grounds that I was pregnant yet not
married."
The
university then gave her a letter reading: "Dear Sylvia Arinaitwe, the
disciplinary committee of the college that sat on the fourteenth did establish
that you were found pregnant while at campus, yet you are not married. The
administration therefore upholds the decision to suspend you for one year and
this takes immediate effect."
Uganda
Christian University, the second biggest university in the country, was founded
by Church of Uganda.
Unfair
treatment
"I
felt this was too unfair, because it was my final year at university and I had
already sat for one paper by the time when they stopped me. They should have
allowed me to complete my exams even if I was pregnant. This has affected me a
lot and I don't know if I will ever recover from it, because my parents had
paid tuition for me to complete my education."
"As
we speak now, I don't know whether I will be able to resume school again,
because my parents are saying that they already paid my tuition. Will the
university allow me to resume school using the previous money? If they refuse
then that's the end of my dream."
Sylvia
is among the many students who are suspended from Uganda Christian University
every year for conceiving while at campus. On the fateful day, she was
suspended together with two other classmates.
University
response
"Every
student who is admitted at Uganda Christian University knows that there's a
policy barring them from getting pregnant unless someone is married," explains
Joseph Basoga, the Uganda Christian University public relations officer.
Basoga
says the students who were suspended shall only be allowed back to the
university after serving their one-year suspension. Suspended students have
little recourse since their student leaders tend to side with the
administration.
Waiting
Blessed
Murungi, the Uganda Christian University Guild president, says the victims are
to blame for their fate. She explains that Uganda Christian University does not
condone immoral acts like fornication. Each student who joins the university is
given a book containing the code of conduct that they are expected to follow
and that those who break it are to blame, according to Murungi.
Meanwhile,
Sylvia remains in limbo.
"I'm
so devastated by the decision that the university took. And worst of all: I
produced and the baby passed away shortly after. I'm now just seated at home
waiting to see if I will be allowed to resume school in January 2015 as they
indicated in their suspension letter."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201410010513.html
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Modern
Slavery Rises In UK Led By Sex, Labour Trafficking: Study
October
02, 2014
(Thomson
Reuters Foundation) - The number of people locked in slavery in Britain rose by
22 percent last year, with online dating, social media sites and Internet job
advertisements used increasingly to recruit victims, a new report showed on
Tuesday.
Britain's
National Crime Agency (NCA) identified 2,744 people, including 602 children, as
potential victims of human trafficking in 2013 with more than 40 percent ending
up in the sex trade and almost 30 percent forced into manual labour.
The
third annual human trafficking report listed Romania as the most prevalent
country of origin for victims for the third consecutive year, with more than
half exploited for sex, and Poland as the most common country for labour
trafficking.
Although
the number of victims of slavery in Britain is hard to pin down, studies have
shown there has been an increase in human trafficking in recent years,
prompting the government to prepare a bill to more effectively tackle slavery
offences.
Karen
Bradley, who was appointed modern slavery and organised crime minister earlier
this year, described modern slavery as an appalling crime that has "no
place in today's society".
"Yet
these figures show it is taking place here - often out of sight - in shops,
fields, building sites and behind the curtains of ordinary streets,"
Bradley said in a statement as the NCA report was released.
Almost
30 million people are enslaved worldwide, trafficked into brothels, forced into
manual labour, victims of debt bondage or born into servitude, according to
rights group Walk Free Foundation that produces the Global Slavery Index.
It
estimated that between 4,200 and 4,600 are enslaved in the United Kingdom.
The NCA
report found 41 percent of victims identified in Britain last year were
trafficked for sexual exploitation, up from 35 percent a year earlier, while
the number of those forced into manual labour rose to 27 percent from 22
percent in 2012.
The
number of victims from Albania, Slovakia and Lithuania increased significantly
last year, the NCA said, while the number trafficked from Vietnam and Hungary
also rose slightly.
Another
shift was also the number of victims from Thailand which jumped to 89 from nine
a year earlier, making it one of the 10 countries with the largest numbers
trafficked to Britain.
Liam
Vernon, head of the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre, said the NCA was
working closely with a range of partners to tackle "this disturbing
crime".
"The
National Crime Agency is committed to continually disrupting what is a vicious
and criminal trade in human misery, which exploits the most vulnerable people,
both here and abroad, for financial gain," Vernon said in a statement.
The NCA,
Britain's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, came into
operation last October with the aim of better coordinating police action on
issues such as child sex abuse and organised crime.
http://www.trust.org/item/20140929230055-vfel0/?source=dpMostPopular
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Alleged
Woman Attacked on Train Raises Questions of Anti-Muslim Views in Australia
2
October 2014
A woman
believed to be a Muslim was left shaken and traumatised after she was thrown
out of a train the northern part of Melbourne in a racist attack. Reports said
the 26-year-old woman was on a train on the Upfield line when another woman
approached her and began verbally abusing her with racist remarks.
The
woman's abuser grabbed her by the hair and neck as her head was bashed several
times on the wall of the train's carriage. The Muslim woman was then pushed off
the train when it arrived in Batman Station in Coburg North. According to
Senior Constable Michael Potter, the racist attack had happened as the train
approached the station on the night of Sept. 25.
Potter
declined to confirm the race of victim. Victorian Chief Commissioner Ken Lay
had earlier urged the Muslim community to report any incident of racial abuse
amid heightened terror alerts and escalated tension in Australia following
counter-terrorism raids. Potter refused to release more details about the
victim since this would only reveal her identity and lead to possible future
attacks.
Police
said two men who witnessed the attack had offered to help the woman. The other
woman who abused her was described as having a solid build with short brown
hair, light eyebrows and an estimated height of 177 centimetres, reports said.
Lay had
claimed the police had no information to confirm the rise of "prejudice-related
crime" but he was aware of a number of issues in the community that have
not been reported to the authorities, The Age reports.
The
commissioner acknowledged that Muslim women are "insulted about their
garb" while on the street. He said the police are looking into CCTV
footage related to the attack on the woman on the train.
According
to the results of the latest Mapping Social Cohesion survey, racism in
Australia is on the rise. The survey in 2013, conducted by the Scanlon
Foundation, found that 19 percent of Australians struggle with some form of
racial or religious discrimination. The current figures reveal that racism is
at its highest level since Scanlon Foundation began the survey in 2007
In 2011,
another survey conducted by a group of
Australian universities found that half of the population in Australia have
anti-Muslim views. Since the national terror threat level was raised in
Australia, the Grand Mufti has called on the Muslim-Australian community to be
calm and exercise restraint since the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria issued
threats against Australians through social media. Incidents of Australians
hurling offensive and racist remarks on Muslims were reported to the police.
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/568423/20141002/australia-racism-melbourne-muslim.htm#.VC1HZWddU4U
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UK must
channel aid to fight FGM in Sierra Leone - lawmakers
October
02, 2014
LONDON,
Oct 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain must set up a programme to tackle
female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone, where the practice is seen as a
prerequisite for marriage and even used as a political tool, a parliamentary
committee said.
The
International Development Committee said on Thursday it was astounded that
Britain - which has put itself centre stage in global efforts to eradicate FGM
- had left Sierra Leone out of its £35 million programme to help end FGM in
Africa.
"It
concerns us greatly that Sierra Leone - the UK's largest per capita bilateral
recipient of aid - does not currently have a single UK-funded programme to curb
female genital mutilation when this country has one of the highest prevalence
in the world of this barbaric practice," committee chairman Sir Malcolm
Bruce said.
He
called on Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) to act
immediately.
Nearly
90 percent of women in Sierra Leone have undergone FGM, a ritual involving the
partial or total removal of the genitalia. The vaginal opening is sometimes
also sewn up.
An
estimated 140 million girls and women worldwide are affected by FGM, most of
them in Africa. Many countries are now trying to stop the practice which can
cause serious physical and psychological problems.
However,
experts say it is particularly difficult to tackle FGM in Sierra Leone because
it is performed by secret women's societies that wield enormous clout.
In the
report, one children's charity described some girls running away from home and
living on the streets to avoid being mutilated.
"FINGER-WAGGING
BRITS"
British
FGM campaigner Alimatu Dimonekene, who grew up in Sierra Leone, said
politicians were complicit in the practice.
"It
is a well-known fact that some politicians sponsor state cutting of girls as a
form of gaining the trust of a community and in turn votes during election
campaigns," the report quoted her as saying.
"Any
politician who criticises the practice is unlikely to win the election."
One
Sierra Leonean woman told the committee during its visit to the west African
country that a government minister had threatened her after she spoke out about
FGM.
International
aid agency GOAL urged Britain to use its position as the largest donor in
Sierra Leone to lobby for action at the highest government levels.
According
to DFID, Sierra Leone was not included in the £35 million programme partly
because of its low political commitment.
International
Development Minister Lynne Featherstone told the inquiry the FGM initiative
should be led by African countries, adding, "we cannot turn into
imperialist finger-wagging Brits".
One FGM
survivor quoted in the report suggested including FGM in the school curriculum
to empower girls to say no and help dispel myths such as the belief that having
sex with an uncut woman leads to impotence.
http://www.trust.org/item/20141002091447-3uxln/?source=leadCarousel
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Australian
PM not in favor of “burqa” in parliament
2
October 2014
Sydney-
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott today said that he wished the burqa
"was not worn" in the country while indicating his view on backing a
call for a ban on the Muslim veil for women inside parliament.
Abbott
said Parliament House had to be treated as a secure building. "It is
perfectly appropriate that in certain circumstances people be required to show
their face. There can't be one rule for one form of attire and a different rule
for another form of attire," he said. "It has to be the same rules
for everyone and if the rules require you to show your face, well you show your
face," he said adding, "This is a secure building and it is important
that people be able to be identified, it is important that people be able to be
recognized as the people for whom a pass has been issued".
However,
Abbott stated that there was no record of the “burqa” ever being worn into the
building. "Has anyone ever sought entry to this building so attired? As
far as I am aware, no," he said. "And making a big song and dance
about a hypothetical situation I am not sure is particularly helpful. But I
just want to stress that this is a secure building and it should be governed by
the rules that are appropriate for a secure building and obviously people need
to be identifiable in a secure building such as this," he said.
"I
have said before that I find it a fairly confronting form of attire," he
said. "Frankly, I wish it was not worn. But we are a free country, we are
a free society and it is not the business of the government to tell people what
they should and shouldn't wear," he said.
The
“burqa” debate was pushed by a politician Jacqui Lambie, who had called for a
widespread ban even in public places. The call was backed by coalition
backbenchers Cory Bernardi and George Christensen.
Opposition
leader Bill Shorten, who does not support a “burqa” ban in Parliament House,
called on Abbott today to silence the voices within his party "out there
pushing socially divisive arguments".
http://nation.com.pk/international/01-Oct-2014/australian-pm-not-in-favor-of-burqa-in-parliament
-----------
'South
Asian and Muslim Women Should Complain More about NHS Service'
2
October 2014
Health
Ombudsman says South Asian and Muslim women should complain more about NHS
service The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has launched an outreach
campaign to get more South Asian and Muslim women to complain when they receive
a poor service from the NHS.
The
Ombudsman which is the last port of call for complaints found that women from
these groups where far less likely to air any grievances compared to their
white counterparts.
Research
carried out alongside the Muslim Women’s Network UK through focus groups in
major English cities including Manchester, discovered that only 5.7% of NHS
related complaints to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman came from
people of Asian heritage.
This is
despite the fact that 7% of England’s population is classified as Asian.
In contrast
88% of complaints came from those described as White British with the English
population of the same category totalling 80%.
The main
reasons behind the reluctance to complain are said to be a fear of
repercussions with some women saying they were made to feel ‘inferior’ and that
they ‘were in the wrong for complaining’, according to case summaries gathered.
The
Health Service Commissioner for England, Dame Julie Mellor emphasised the point
about disparities between different ethnicities saying: “‘We are worried that
South Asian and Muslim women’s voices are going unheard because they are less
likely to complain about their NHS treatment than white British women.”
Britain’s
health tsar highlighted how four out of every ten people who were unhappy with
a public service they had received failed to complain because they felt it will
not make a difference. “We want South Asian and Muslim women to feel confident
in making a complaint about their NHS treatment and to know that complaining
can make a difference,” she added.
As part
of an outreach campaign launched today, the ombudsman service is sending out
25,000 leaflets in five different south Asian languages – Hindi, Bengali,
Gujarati, Punjabi and Urdu – explaining how to complain about the NHS
treatment.
More
than 5,000 posters in six different languages are being sent to advocacy groups
in the five cities including Bradford and Manchester which have a high
proportion of residents from South Asian and Muslim backgrounds.
An
animated advert in Hindi for Asian TV channel Star Plus which has approximately
1.3 million viewers will air for two months to further promote the campaign.
http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/11509793._South_Asian_and_Muslim_women_should_complain_more_about_NHS_service_/
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Hijab debate
returns to France after student asked to remove her ‘thing’
2
October 2014
Controversy
surrounding the Muslim female headscarf in France has returned after a student
was ordered to remove it during a class at the prestigious La Sorbonne
university.
“Are you
planning on keeping your thing on throughout all my classes?” the geography
lecturer asked the student, French daily Le Monde reported. The names of the
lecturer and the student were not made public.
“I’m
here to help you integrate into professional life, and that [headscarf] is
going to cause you problems,” the lecturer added.
When the
student refused to remove it, the lecturer reportedly asked her to “go to
another class.”
A 2004
law prohibits the wearing or open display of religious symbols in all French
schools, but it does not apply to universities.
In 2010,
a law banned the wearing in public places of the full Muslim face veil, known
as the niqab or burqa. However, it did not include the headscarf.
France
argues that the ban, which was approved by the Constitutional Council, is
necessary to protect the country’s secular culture and the strict division
between religion and state.
Recently,
a French government agency responsible for maintaining the country’s secular
values recommended a ban on Muslim headscarves in universities to limit
tensions.
Rare
incident
Jean-Marie
Salamito, professor of the history of ancient Christianity at Université
Paris-Sorbonne 1, told Al Arabiya News that this latest incident was “very
rare.”
He
added: “French university professors are generally very open-minded and
tolerant, and France is the country of freedoms. Calling the Islamic headscarf
a thing can be considered a sign of disrespect to the student and to Islam.”
However,
“the attitude and comments of one professor doesn’t reflect how French
professors treat veiled students,” and it does not indicate a rise in
Islamophobia in France’s education system, Salamito said.
Apology
Seeking
to contain the growing indignation over the incident at La Sorbonne, the
president of the university, Philippe Boutry, apologized to the student this
week, Le Monde reported.
In his
apology letter, Boutry said the incident was due to the lecturer’s
misunderstanding of the 2004 law.
However,
the student said the lecturer was aware of the law. She is demanding that the
latter be punished to avoid similar incidents in the future.
The
incident, which is not the first of its kind in France, has led professors to
discuss the role of Muslim dress in the integration of individuals in French
society.
Headdress
should not be a measure of integration, but burqas may be problematic, said
Salamito, because “a professor isn’t able to see the face of the person they’re
talking to. It’s a matter of normal communication.”
Leila
al-Hakim, a Muslim student at La Sorbonne, told Al Arabiya News that she was
shocked by the incident, and that university personnel must respect students
“no matter their origin or religion.”
Hakim
said even though she had never faced discrimination from professors, the
incident reflected persistent inequalities between Muslim and other students at
the university.
The
Egyptian-born student added that the number of students displaying religious
symbols on campus is limited.
France
has one of the largest Muslim populations in Western Europe. Of the country’s
estimated 5 million Muslims, between 400 and 2,000 women wear face veils.
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/features/2014/10/01/Hijab-controversy-returns-in-France-after-student-asked-to-remove-her-thing-.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/islamic-state-beheads-women-northern/d/99353