Kazakhstan: Bride Kidnapping Caught On Video
New Age Islam News Bureau
14
Oct 2014
Photo: Kashmir Muslim Women Welcome Sikh Volunteers with Roars of “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal”
-----------
• Young
Girls Married in Hyderabad, India, as Temporary Brides
• ISIS
Sold Muslim Women to Jews, Kuwaiti Cleric Charges
• Obama
Girls, Malala, Lorde Make Time's 'Influential Teens' List
• Kashmir
Muslim Women Welcome Sikh Volunteers with Roars of “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri
Akal”
• How the
Islamic State Justifies Kidnapping Non-Muslim Women as Sex Slaves
• Divorces
in Saudi Arabia Taking Too Long, Say Disgruntled Wives
• Saudi
Woman Struggles To Get Nationality for Children
• Saudi
Women Harassers Face SR500, 000 Fine, up to 5 Years in Jail
• Women’s
Role in Islamic Art, Architecture Highlighted
• Girls at
Risk as Bangladesh Mull Lowering Age of Marriage
• 13
Brides Tie Nuptial Knots under Madhya Pradesh’s CM Nikaah Scheme
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/kazakhstan-bride-kidnapping-caught-video/d/99513
----------
Kazakhstan:
Bride Kidnapping Caught On Video
October
14, 2014
A
“Borat”-style bride kidnapping was caught on tape in his home country of
Kazakhstan — where taking a woman to be your lawfully wedded hostage is a very
real and widely accepted custom.
Disturbing
video footage titled “Stealing the Bride” shows a girl in the central Akmola
region screaming and crying as she is dragged to the home of her future
husband, Central European News reports.
The
scene has all the makings of a traditional marriage ceremony — Kazakh music, a
special bridal carpet and loads of confetti being thrown in celebration.
But
instead of a blushing bride-to-be enjoying her big day, the shocking video
shows a frightened girl being seized from her home and forced into marrying
someone against her will.
Forcibly
seizing a woman and marrying her is very common in Kazakhstan, according to
CEN.
The
shocking deed was jokingly made famous by Sacha Baron Cohen in his 2006 hit,
“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan.” In the movie, Borat kidnaps Pamela Anderson because he wants to
marry her — a scene which is meant to be ridiculous and funny, but is also very
accurate and startling.
n
reality, an anxious groom will pay relatives and friends to use deception,
cohesion or force to physically take a girl and bring her to his home.
Once she
arrives, the girls in his family will dress the kidnapped bride in a special
neckerchief called an Oramal — something Kazakh women must accept to show their
“consent” to marriage.
The
process of accepting this garment can often take days of being locked up, but
money almost always plays a role in saying yes.
“Often
the families of the victims agree because the groom pays them a lot of money,”
said local women’s rights activist Anfisa Zuyeva. “But it is an outdated and
horrific tradition which has no place in modern Kazakhstan.
“No
wonder people think we’re backward and barbaric,” she added.
Due to
the latest video going viral and the fact that over 60 percent of adults and 74
percent of teenagers had either been victims or knew people who were,
authorities are now looking to make bride-kidnapping illegal in the country.
http://nypost.com/2014/10/13/bride-kidnapping-caught-on-video/
----------
Young
Girls Married in Hyderabad, India, as Temporary Brides
October
14, 2014
HYDERABAD,
INDIA—Tasleem Begum didn’t get a new dress for her wedding day. Instead, she
put on her usual worn-out outfit, a white and blue shirt with pants and a long
scarf, her dark hair tightly braided, and picked up the small tattered brown
satchel filled with half-a-dozen Grade 8 textbooks.
But it
would be a day like no other.
Her
mother said she would walk Tasleem to school. Instead, Shahnaz Begum took her
to a two-storey house with tall gates, where she exchanged a few words with two
men and two women in the living room. Then her mother took Tasleem to a small
room for a quiet moment. There, Shahnaz told her daughter, 14 years old with
almond eyes and dimples, that she was getting married. Her husband was to be a
61-year-old from Oman.
April
15, 2014, is the day Tasleem got married and divorced. Though, she didn’t know
about the divorce until much later.
Her
mother, Tasleem found out later, had been paid about $700 — the price of the
14-year-old’s virginity.
“I
hadn’t even showered that day,” she says. “I was running late for school.”
She is
sitting on the floor of a friend’s house, sipping tea. Her voice cracks every
time she talks about her wedding, the man from Oman and how he repeatedly raped
her during the two nights she was forced to spend with him.
In Hyderabad,
in southern India, Tasleem’s story isn’t uncommon. Since the 1990s, the city
has been the hunting ground for men from oil-rich Arab countries seeking young,
virgin brides — some as young as 11 or 12. The connection between the city’s
poor Muslims and wealthy, older men from the Gulf countries was forged in the
’70s and the ’80s by expats from Hyderabad.
The
situation has worsened in the past couple of years, becoming a de facto child
prostitution supermarket.
But a
group of women has taken justice into its own hands: they pose as desperate
child-sellers while wearing Burqas with hidden cameras in unorthodox “sting
operations.”
In two
years, they have done more than police have in two decades.
About 10
million girls under the age of 18 get married every year around the world; 40
per cent of those weddings take place in India. There are economic reasons,
like poverty and marriage costs, cultural traditions, concerns about girls’
safety and family honour.
But what
is happening in Hyderabad is different.
The city
of 7 million is a mix of new and old unlike any other city on the subcontinent.
It is a thriving tech hub and a base for companies such as Google, Microsoft
and Facebook, whose gleaming glass towers congregate in the new area called
Cyberbad. The Old City, home to forts, bazaars and narrow streets that attract
tourists, has a history going back more than 400 years.
The city
is predominantly Hindu but Muslims make up 40 per cent of the population,
dominating neighbourhoods around the Old City. They are abysmally poor.
It is
hard to pinpoint when Arab nationals started arriving in Hyderabad to seek very
young, virgin brides. Miriam Alam, a lawyer, believes it began when Muslim men
started taking oil and construction jobs in the Middle East and, it is
believed, talked about how poor their families were in Hyderabad.
Some
expats may have tried to play matchmaker between Hyderabad families and men
from their adopted homeland, says Alam, adding that it didn’t start as a child
bride bazaar. But “in the ’80s, people started seeing Arab sheikhs, in their
50s, 60s and even 70s, flock here to buy young brides.”
They
came from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman.
Soon,
there were marriage brokers, who for a steep price could find a child bride for
an aging man.
For many
poor Muslim families in the Old City, the financial proposition was
irresistible. Such families are typically large, with six to 10 children. Once
the girls are of marriageable age, which could be any time after puberty,
prospective grooms and their families seek exorbitant sums of cash as dowry,
which was outlawed in 1961 but remains pervasive in India.
Rather
than paying a groom’s family, desperate families were willing to receive money
from wealthy Arab men in exchange for a young girl in marriage.
At
first, many men took the girls back to their home countries as second, third or
fourth wives. Some were treated well, had children and regularly returned to
visit Hyderabad. Some even sent money back to their families.
But
increasingly the young brides became sex slaves or maids.
Then a
10-year-old named Ameena inadvertently blew the lid off this secret world.
In
October 1991, Ameena was on a flight from Hyderabad to New Delhi. She was
sitting with an older man and sobbing in her seat. A flight attendant took her
aside and Ameena confided that the man was her husband and they were going to
Saudi Arabia.
According
to media reports, Yahya M. H. al-Sagih, 60, had come to marry Ameena’s
14-year-old sister but he found her “dark and ugly.” He liked Ameena. Her
family received about $240 in return.
Ameena
was taken off the airplane and the story made headlines for days in India and
around the world.
Arab men
continued to seek young brides in Hyderabad but it became more secretive. “Neighbours
would talk of girls disappearing overnight ... or teachers would realize that a
girl was gone when she didn’t show up at school for a few days,” says Alam. “It
would turn out that they were married off.”
There
was yet another twist. In the mid-2000s, Gulf countries started banning their
citizens from bringing in foreign brides without prior permission.
For a
while, everyone thought this would end child marriages. It hasn’t.
Men and
marriage brokers — Alam calls them pimps — have changed their modus operandi:
rich men from Arab and lately African countries arrive in Hyderabad, marry
young girls and sign divorce papers at the same time. The divorce papers are
dated for a week or two after the marriage. They take the girls to posh hotels
and when it is time for the men to leave, the girls are sent home. (Islam
forbids prostitution; these short-term “marriages” circumvent that.)
Many
families secretly hope the rich foreigner will actually like their daughter and
either set her up in a home in Hyderabad or take her with him, says Alam. It
hardly ever happens.
It costs
a “husband” between $500 and $1,500 for a bride. Typically, the fee is divided
between the girl’s family, the marriage broker and the qazi, the Muslim judge
who performs the wedding. Sometimes, there are multiple brokers involved and
the family’s share shrinks.
The
“wife” is left stigmatized — and sometimes forced into prostitution. In most
cases, the girls are supposed to stay with the man for a fixed period, usually
between a week and a month, during which they are repeatedly raped.
When the
man leaves, the girls return home as a divorcee. But in some cases their
parents don’t let them back in because they are “unclean” — no longer virgins
and of little value.
Schools,
too, shun them.
“They
have little education, no skills,” says Alam. “It is tough for them to survive
on their own ... many of them fall into the prostitution trap.”
They end
up in brothels in Mumbai, India’s financial capital.
Some
girls, says Alam, are “married” multiple times.
“This is
Hyderabad’s curse,” says Jameela Nishat. “There are at least a dozen cases that
we hear about every month ... and I know there are many more that we don’t
(hear about).”
Nishat,
a published poet and activist, is the person to whom most women in the Old City
turn for help. She heads the Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Association,
better known as just Shaheen. It educates and empowers poor Muslim women,
teaching them skills like embroidery and stitching, it has a shelter for
abused, ostracized women and it recently started a hotline for child brides to
call when they need help stopping a forced marriage.
“But I
realized it wasn’t enough when stories of young pregnant child brides abandoned
by men would make the local news, tug at the conscience of the people for a few
days and then everything went back to normal. Until the next such story.”
While
India prohibits marriage of women under 18 and men under 21, civil law based in
part on Hindu and Muslim religious practices does sanction marriage among
minors. In the case of Islamic law, girls who have reached puberty are
permitted to marry, if they agree to the match.
Most
young girls are blindsided by the marriage and have no say. “The parents will
usually tell the girl that there is no money, not even to feed her siblings and
if she marries (the older man), she will be the saviour of the family,” says
Nishat.
Few
girls complain, largely because of shame.
The
solution, says Nishat, was to expose the unscrupulous marriage brokers and the
men who prey on children. That’s how the “sting operations” started.
A woman,
usually a Shaheen worker, pretends to be the mother of a 12- or 13-year-old
girl looking for a foreign groom. She lets it be known in Old City bazaars that
her family is poor. When a broker approaches with details of a prospective
groom, she agrees to meet. She goes with other women — for safety reasons — and
all wear burkas fitted with hidden cameras and microphones.
They
record the conversation about the age of the girl and proof of virginity. They
reach a bargain about how much money the family, the broker and the qazi, the
man who will perform the wedding, will get.
The
women promise to return with the girl.
Instead
they give the video and pictures to TV channels and newspapers. Nishat says the
revelations have shocked people who didn’t know how the sleazy world of
temporary contract marriages works.
“Ideally,
when a marriage broker is talking about a young child to a man in, say Bahrain,
he should think about us ... that we could do a sting operation and his face
could be all over TV.
“He
should be so scared that he shouldn’t do it.”
The
group has done six stings to date and all have been nerve-wracking, says
Shaheen Sultana, 48.
Sultana
usually plays the mother in stings. Shaheeda, an outspoken woman in her 20s,
plays her young daughter, while Sultana Begum, a fast-talking woman in her late
20s, plays an aunt.
The
burkas shield their identities and allow Shaheeda to pretend to be so young.
About
six months ago, Sultana heard about a man from Yemen looking for a virgin, not
more than 15 years old, and willing to pay about $200.
“I told
(the man’s marriage broker) that I needed a foreign groom for one of my
daughters,” Sultana says.
They met
at a hotel and Sultana says the man from Yemen was bald and seemed to be in his
70s. He was accompanied by two marriage brokers and a man who looked like a
guard. The Yemen national saw Shaheeda, who was posing as a 15-year-old, and
liked her. Then he threw a bombshell: he wanted to marry her right there.
He was
willing to go up to $250.
“We
freaked out,” says Shaheeda. “We didn’t know what to do. It seemed for a few
minutes that they wouldn’t let us leave.”
Sultana
tearfully told the broker that she had sewed a wedding outfit for her daughter.
He let them go on the promise that they would return that evening.
Police
descended on the hotel room a few hours later and arrested the brokers and the
Yemeni man.
Some
stories are so appalling that it is hard to believe they are true.
Tayaba’s
story is one of these.
“She was
just 13 when her parents married her to a man in his 50s,” says Shaheeda.
Tayaba had never attended school, was rarely allowed outside the house and like
every other woman in the Old City, she wasn’t allowed to look at a man in the
eye. On the wedding night, the man tried to rape her and a petrified Tayaba bit
him. He phoned her mother, who “gave her some sort of injection that knocked
her out.”
The
second night, Tayaba’s mother sat outside the hotel room so that she did as she
was told. But the 13-year-old had heavy vaginal bleeding and had to be taken to
a hospital. There, a nurse called Shaheeda.
“It took
Tayaba a long time to tell me what happened ... she was so ashamed,” says
Shaheeda.
A mother
feeding her daughter date rape drugs is not uncommon, says Nishat. “The mother
wants the marriage consummated so that the broker doesn’t ask her to return the
money.”
In some
cases, the broker gives the money to the family after the marriage has been
consummated.
Fatima,
13, was married to a 54-year-old from Sudan in 2011. He gave the family $150,
which they used to buy a refrigerator, a television and clothes. He spent a
month with the girl at a guest house close to the Old City and then left for
Sudan, promising to send her a visa and immigration papers. The family never
heard from him again. She has a 2-year-old son with short, curly hair and dark
skin.
Every
child marriage activist in Hyderabad knows the story of Rehana. First married
at age 13, by the time Rehana turned 18 she had been “married” 17 times to men
from Arab and African countries. She has a daughter but doesn’t know who the
father is.
Her
family refuses to acknowledge her now.
Umapathi
Sattaru, a high-ranking police officer in Hyderabad with experience in human
trafficking investigations, is loathe to call these stories forced child
marriages.
“Children
being forced to have sex ... is trafficking.”
An
imposing man with a booming voice, Sattaru says many young girls from Hyderabad
end up in Mumbai brothels because, after they lose their virginity, they are of
no value to their family and are usually unwelcome at home. He estimates there
are a dozen cases of forced child marriage every month.
When he
was posted at the Hyderabad airport in the late ’90s, it was common to see
little girls leaving with much older men. There was nothing he could do if they
had marriage certificates.
Sattaru
says “local politicians can do much more but they don’t. They don’t want to
lose votes so they have kept quiet and let the situation be. This is a
community that listens to its political and religious leaders ... and they have
kept quiet.”
Minutes
before Tasleem got married, to Madasari Masaaod Rashid, 61, her mother took her
aside and told her that she had to marry because the money would help her
father buy his own auto-rickshaw.
Tasleem
couldn’t eat anything all day. That night, she was so tired that she passed out
as soon as she and her new husband reached a hotel in Banjara Hills, a posh
Hyderabad neighbourhood. She remembers waking up in the middle of the night:
the man was on top of her.
She says
she screamed because she was frightened, and the pain was unbearable. He put
his hands on her mouth and raped her.
He raped
her seven times that night and the next day, she says.
The
pain, she says, got worse every time.
On the
third day, when she was alone for a few minutes, she called an uncle. She
sobbed loudly and couldn’t talk coherently. Within an hour, her uncle was at
the hotel with two police officers. Rashid was arrested along with three
brokers.
Tasleem’s
mother was also arrested. She spent six weeks in prison.
“If I
had known that my mother would have also been arrested, I would have never
called my uncle,” says Tasleem. “I didn’t want any trouble for her ... it was
so painful that I didn’t know what else to do.”
Tasleem’s
family didn’t let her back into the house, saying she had brought them shame.
They also kicked out Naseem, her 16-year-old sister, for supporting Tasleem.
Her school made it clear that she wasn’t expected back.
The two
young women now live with a family friend. Tasleem is trying to get a job, any
job. For now, the two sisters attend classes at Shaheen’s office every morning.
But
Tasleem is grateful she didn’t end up being “married” again and again, or wind
up in a Mumbai brothel.
“I don’t
know what I’ll do now ... but it can’t ever be this bad again.”
As for
Rashid, he was charged with raping two minors. It turned out that he had
“married” another 14-year-old Muslim girl from Hyderabad’s Old City, just days
before he met Tasleem.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/10/13/indias_prostitute_brides_girls_raped_as_temporary_wives.html
----------
ISIS
sold Muslim women to Jews, Kuwaiti cleric charges
October
14, 2014
The
coalition to fight ISIS is a fraud and ISIS is selling Muslim women to Jews,
according to Kuwaiti Shi'ite cleric Imam Saleh Jawhar.
In a
video released by The Middle East Media Research Institute, Jawhar can be seen
making the remarks in a recent sermon in Kuwait.
"Even
if we accept everything else - what kind of religion allows the capturing of a
Muslim woman, and on top of that, allows her to be sold to a Jew?!" the
cleric asks in the sermon entitled The False War on ISIS.
Jawhar
points to ISIS's successes in the northern Syrian town of Kobani as evidence
that the US-led coalition fight against the extremist Islamist group may not be
real.
"Today,
on the northern border of Syria, all those countries are fighting ISIS, yet
ISIS has managed to capture that city [Kobani].. Is this conceivable? Or
perhaps there is a premeditated scenario at play here.
"It
was reported that ISIS members had managed to survive the air strikes by
starting fires and generating black smoke that concealed them. But [the
coalition] has cameras, and can even smash through rocks, and see through cave
walls, so how come they cannot see through some smoke?," he queried.
Jawhar
said the coalition itself created ISIS, and has a vested interest in its
survival.
"These
people, commanded by Mistress America, are lying hypocrites. They do not really
want to fight ISIS and destroy it," he said.
The
cleric has doubts regarding the real intentions of the coalition, he also says
he does not back ISIS which he charges has sold thousands of Muslim women and
girls to Jews in Israel.
"What
kind of religion is this?! Even if we accept everything else – what kind of
religion allows the capturing of a Muslim woman, and on top of that, allows her
to be sold to a Jew?," he asks.
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/ISIS-sold-Muslim-women-to-Jews-Kuwaiti-cleric-charges-378834
----------
Obama
girls, Malala, Lorde make Time's 'influential teens' list
14 Oct,
2014
(Reuters)
- The daughters of U.S. President Barack Obama, entertainers, a Nobel laureate
and a girl baseball player all made Time's annual list of most influential
teenagers, the magazine said on Monday.
First
daughters Malia, 16, and Sasha, 13; Grammy-winning New Zealand singer Lorde,
17; and Nobel Prize Winner Malala Yousafzai, 17, the Pakistani education
activist winner, were all on the unranked list dominated by 20 females.
Time
said it compiled its list of 25 teens - 29, counting accolades shared by
siblings and partners - by analyzing their social media following, business
successes and cultural importance.
The
youngest were Sasha Obama and fellow 13-year-old Mo'ne Davis, a pitching
sensation who led her Philadelphia boys' baseball team to the Little League
World Series and landed a spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Tavi
Gevinson, the 18-year-old fashion writer and founder of popular online magazine
Rookie, was noted as emblematic of the contemporary teen in the Internet age,
while transgender activist Jazz Jennings, 14, and Hong Kong pro-democracy
activist Joshua Wong, 18, also made the list.
The
dominant categories were athletes, actors and singers.
Actors
taking center stage were Kiernan Shipka, 14, of "Mad Men," Rico
Rodriguez, 16, of "Modern Family" and "The Equalizer's"
Chloe Grace Moretz, 17.
Pop
singers Becky G, 17, and Austin Mahone, 18, earned plaudits as did New Zealand
pro golfer Lydia Ko, 17, and Afghan National Cycling Team member Salma Kakar,
17.
Teens
noted for business success include 15-year-old Erik Finman, founder of the
online tutoring site Botangle.com; YouTube fashion star Bethany Mota, 18, and
actress-turned-stockpicker Rachel Fox, 18.
Irish
trio Ciara Judge, 16, Emer Hickey, 17, and Sophie Healy-Thow, 17, were noted
for their discovery of bacteria that deposits nitrogen from the atmosphere into
soil.
Los
Angeles teen chef Flynn McGarry, 15, joined stars of Twitter's Vine short-form
video service, Nash Grier, and singer Shawn Mendes, both 16.
Smith,
16, son of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, was recognized for acting
and his Twitter following, while reality TV stars the Jenner sisters Kendall,
18, and Kylie, 17, were noted for their burgeoning Hollywood and merchandising
careers.
Also in
the spotlight were 19-year-olds Megan Grassell, founded of the Yellowberry
clothing company that makes bras for teens, and South African-Australian
YouTube star and actor-musician Troye Sivan.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/10/14/people-teens-influential-idINKCN0I222420141014
----------
Kashmir
Muslim Women Welcome Sikh Volunteers with Roars of “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri
Akal”
14 Oct,
2014
JAMMU
& KASHMIR, India— The Sikh Relief (SOPW) team, which has been providing
humanitarian aid to the flood hit areas of Jammu & Kashmir, was welcomed in
Bimla Nagar of Kashmir with roars of “Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal” by the local
Muslim women.
The Sikh
Relief team, along with other Sikh humanitarian organizations, have been
providing aid to local towns and villages which have been cut from the
world. In addition to food supplies,
Sikh volunteers have handed out clothing, medicines and other materials to put
the families at ease.
The
humanitarian aid has been distributed without discrimination of religion or
caste by the Sikh volunteers.
The Sikh
Relief team posted that in Bimla Nagar of Kashmir, its volunteers distributed
blankets to 250 Muslim families. A Sikh
Relief Sevadar posted online that, “our Muslim sisters were so overwhelmed
[that] their thank you was with the roar of jakare Bole So Nihal.”
The Sikh
Relief project is funded by Sikhs living in Europe. In addition to this team, Sikh Awareness
Foundation, a group spearheaded by Sikh Youth from Canada has also been
providing much necessary aid to the flood victims.
Sikh24
urges its readers to support the work by Sikh organizations in Jammu &
Kashmir through monetary donations.
http://www.sikh24.com/2014/10/13/kashmir-muslim-women-welcome-sikh-volunteers-with-roars-of-bole-so-nihal/#.VDzRFbDF84V
----------
How the
Islamic State Justifies Kidnapping Non-Muslim Women as Sex Slaves
14 Oct,
2014
Islamic
State militants use their interpretation of Muslim theology to justify
kidnapping non-Muslim women as sex slaves, CNN reported.
“One
should remember that enslaving the families of the Kuffar — the infidels — and
taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Shariah,
or Islamic law,” the group said in an online magazine published Sunday, CNN
added.
The
title of the article in question? “The Revival of Slavery Before the Hour,”
which refers to Judgment Day, CNN noted.
The
fourth edition of the group’s English-language digital magazine Dabiq said that
female members of the Yazidi sect, an ethnically Kurdish minority living mostly
in Iraq, may legitimately be captured and forcibly made concubines or sexual
slaves, CNN reported.
The
Islamic State forced scores of Yazidis to flee their homes in August during an
offensive in Iraqi Kurdistan, CNN noted, adding that in the aftermath hundreds
of Yazidi women and girls, many of whom were sold or given away to militants as
“spoils of war.”
The
glossy Dabiq is a “propaganda magazine aimed at recruiting jihadists from the
West,” according to Tarek Fatah, a Canadian journalist and moderate Muslim.
This
latest issue titled ”The Failed Crusade” also includes an alleged copy of slain
American journalist Steven Sotloff’s last letter to his mother and claims his
Jewish identity justified the Islamic State beheading him, CNN added.
British
journalist John Cantlie, another Islamic State captive, allegedly wrote the
last section of the magazine, noting he expects to be killed soon “unless
something changes very quickly and very radically,” CNN reported.
The
Islamic State’s magazine issue coincided with a Human Rights Watch report on
crimes committed by the terrorist group against the Yazidis in Iraq based on
interviews with 76 displaced people in Dohuk, CNN said:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/10/12/how-the-islamic-state-justifies-kidnapping-non-muslim-women-as-sex-slaves/
----------
Divorces
in Saudi Arabia Taking Too Long, Say Disgruntled Wives
14 Oct,
2014
HOFOUF,
Al-Ahsa — The divorce process is too convoluted, according to women looking to
leave their husbands.
This is
not only due to judicial procedures that must be followed and the necessity for
both parties to attend hearings, but also the judicial authorities’ desire to
mediate between the two parties and keep them together, they said. This leads
to cases being postponed many times.
Even a
woman seeking a Khula, where she can petition for a divorce without the
husband’s consent and without having to prove any grounds for wanting it,
requires the services of a professional lawyer, Al-Sharq daily reported. Abeer
Abdullatif said she has a divorce case and the hearings are immediately
adjourned the moment the man requests mediation, even if she objects.
A grace
period is provided for the woman to reconsider her decision. She said: “One
grace period after another is given and the woman is left in a state of limbo
for 18 months to two years or even more.
“The man
comes up with excuses with the intention of delaying the divorce and
humiliating his wife.”
Mona
Ahmed, who is also in the middle of a divorce, said a woman suffers due to
delayed verdicts.
“Many
women lose several years of their lives waiting for the divorce verdict. “The
numerous personal status cases in the courts could be one of the factors that
delay the issuance of verdicts in such cases, but this should not be a
justification because it is the woman who suffers due to the delay.”
Noora
Saud, who is also going through a divorce, said: “Why does a man have the right
to divorce his wife before the judge immediately without requiring her to be
present at the court?
“Some
women do not know that they have been divorced for some time. “They might even
suffer from shock.
“How is
it that a woman does not get the opportunity to express her opinion in a case
that concerns her?”
Sociologist
Fathiya Saleh said delays in resolving divorce, khula or custody cases can lead
to instability in the family and society.
She
said: “This leads to an aggravation of social problems and family breakups. “It
creates a big gap in social relations between members of the same family. “This
might increase resentment in women toward men. “It might become an obstacle in
women’s future lives.”
Saleh
said it is necessary to employ women in courts and grant those who are
qualified advocacy licenses to resolve these problems, because in some cases
certain matters cannot be disclosed to a man.
Furthermore,
many women are ignorant about the law and their rights.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141013220965
----------
Saudi
Woman struggles to get nationality for children
14 Oct,
2014
HOFOUF,
Al-Ahsa — Um Maaz, a Saudi woman, has long forgotten the taste of happiness.
Living
in a derelict house in Hofouf, Eastern Province, with her five children, she
has been dealing with the triple threat of diseases, debts and the fruitless
search for Saudi nationality for her children.
“All the
doors have been closed in my face and I have only the door of God still open,”
she told Al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday. Um Maaz was married to an Arab
expatriate for 32 years. She said their life together was happy and smooth.
They had five children, three boys and two girls.
Um Maaz
said her ordeal started about five years ago when her old and sick husband
traveled back home looking for free medical treatment.
“At that
time my eldest daughter got a chronic disease. “I have to take her every month
to King Fahd Teaching Hospital in Al-Khobar.”
Um Maaz
said the debts have accumulated since then and she is now not able to pay her
rent of SR12,000 a year.
“My
three boys are unable to assist me because they cannot find jobs as they are
not considered Saudi citizens. “I have applied for Saudi nationality for all
five of them several times but nothing has happened so far.”
Um Maaz,
who has a heart condition, said she was not able to go to hospital for the open
heart surgery she desperately needs because she cannot leave her children
alone.
She said
the social security money that she and her children live on is not enough to
sustain them.
“We had
no new clothes for the past Eid Al-Fitr. “Many times during Ramadan we did not
have iftar (breaking the fast) because we had no money to buy food.”
Um Maaz
appealed to philanthropists to help her financially and urged the authorities
to grant her children Saudi citizenship.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141013220960
----------
Saudi
Women Harassers Face SR500, 000 Fine, up to 5 Years in Jail
14 Oct,
2014
Harassers
may face up to five years in prison and incur a SR500, 000 fine under a new
draft law that is currently being studied by the Shoura Council’s Social
Affairs Committee.
The move
comes in the wake of increasing cases of harassment against women at
workplaces, streets and malls.
The
draft law proposes that anyone found guilty of making sexual advances be
punished according to its articles. However, it pointed out that specialized
courts would have the right to issue alternative forms of punishment.
The law
considers harassment a crime since it violates an individual’s honour. The law
also covers individuals and groups involved in the crime.
“The law
aims at protecting honour and prestige and preventing all types of harassment,”
a Shoura official said.
Badr
Almotawa, a political analyst, emphasized the significance of the law, saying
it would serve as a deterrent for sexual perverts.
However,
he pointed out that harassment cases in the Kingdom are fewer compared to
Western countries, where one case is reported per minute on average. He
attributed this to people’s adherence to Islamic values.
He said
the establishment of women-only work places and institutions is one solution
for preventing harassment and cited the Kingdom Tower, of which the third floor
is women-only, and Princess Nora University as good examples.
Almotawa
also stressed the need to punish anyone found guilty of drunk driving.
“These
people, who endanger their own lives and those of their families and road
users, deserve tough punishment. They have caused many road crashes in Riyadh,
Jeddah and other parts of the country, killing innocent people,” he said.
http://www.arabnews.com/featured/news/643546
----------
Women’s
role in Islamic art, architecture highlighted
14 Oct,
2014
KARACHI:
History has been unkind to women. There is an apparent gap left that relegates
their contributions to the abyss of times, crediting them sparingly for some
achievement or the other. This trend is also prevalent in art and architecture
and so it was a relief to come across historical documentation of the
contributions of women in Islamic art and architecture, at a talk at T2f on
Saturday.
Led by
Noha Sadek, a specialist in Yemeni art and architecture, the focus of the
presentation was on “women as patrons and as creators of art and architecture
in the Islamic world”. It has always been a fact that only women enjoying a
certain stature and privilege became prolific patrons, and as a result of their
significance in society, their work got documented.
One of
the main reasons, according to Ms Sadek, why women rampantly indulged in this
patronage was because they considered it a charity; they also wished to leave
their individual mark on society which is why most of the work commissioned by
such women carries a distinctive flavour of the times they were built in and as
well as the position the patron enjoyed.
Presenting
snippets of history and the various contributions of women to art and
architecture, the presentation revealed some valuable information. One such was
the story of the Darb Zubaydah, a 900-mile pilgrimage road beginning at Kufa in
Iraq and ending at Makkah. Ms Sadek spoke of how the road had a series of
wells, reservoirs and artificial pools built as ordered by one of the Abbasid
princesses, Zubaydah bint Ja`far. In lieu of her contributions, the road was
renamed in her honour and had a lasting impact on Muslim pilgrims travelling
back and forth.
Zubaydah’s
endeavours were later emulated by another significant historical character, the
wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, Hurrem Sultan, who shaped much of the
architecture in 16th century Ottoman period. Ms Sadek showed many images of
buildings that Hurrem had commissioned that greatly “testify to the
considerable wealth she must have accumulated”. She is credited for building a
mosque which comprised a school, an extensive library and even a soup kitchen.
The hospital for women that she set up is still functional. Her daughter
Mihrimah is credited for the grand Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Istanbul.
Another
interesting element of the discussion was the endowment both women enjoyed. Ms
Sadek displayed images of the vakfiye or the deed of endowment that established
the meticulous documentation of the properties both owned as well as
stipulating “the salaries and duties of the staff”. For Ms Sadek this is
probably one of the first instances of the use of such a deed, one that is
being replicated in the modern world in many charitable institutions.
Ms Sadek
insisted on the significance of these historical sights and documents and how
“the presence of women in terms of architecture can be felt all over the Islamic
world” employing examples from different parts of the Islamic world, such as
Yemen, Syria, Central Asia and Ottoman Turkey to showcase the nature of this
patronage. Another trend that she credits to Muslim women is that of the
mausoleum. According to historical records, this trend can be attributed to
Shajar Al-Durr, who ruled Egypt after the death of her husband, Sultan Al-Salih
Najm al-Din Ayyub. In memory of her late husband, she built a mausoleum in 1250
which is now known as the mausoleum of Al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub.
For Ms
Sadek, almost all architecture commissioned by known and obscure women was
generally marked with political intrigues. However, this does not in any manner
mitigate the importance of their impact on the Islamic world. She went into
great detail about the construction of these monuments as well as the materials
and aesthetics employed. There were also references to subcontinental art and
architecture, especially the contributions of Nur Jahan.
The
audience especially appreciated Ms Sadek’s extensive knowledge about women
calligraphers. Giving examples from the 10th century Cordoba and Tunisia,
slides depicted different scripts of Quranic calligraphy as practised by women
calligraphers. Even though many were proficient enough to become masters and
teach professionally, their names are lost as the practice of calligraphers
signing their names was not widely practised.
The
well-researched talk reinforced the premise that women did hold a particular
position as patrons of art and architecture in a male-dominated industry, and
their aesthetic influence shaped further eras, though history does not
recognise them in the manner they deserve.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1137559/womens-role-in-islamic-art-architecture-highlighted
----------
Girls at
risk as Bangladesh mulls lowering age of marriage
October
14, 2014
NEW
DELHI - Millions of girls are at risk if the Bangladeshi government goes ahead
with a proposal to lower the age of marriage to 16, Human Rights Watch warned
on Monday.
The
impoverished South Asian nation has one of the highest rates of child marriage
in the world, despite a three-decade-old law which bans marriage for girls
under the age of 18.
Human
Rights Watch (HRW) said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government was now
considering an amendment to the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which would also
lower the age of marriage of men to 18 from 21.
"Setting
the age of marriage for girls in Bangladesh at 16 would be a terrible step in
the wrong direction," said Liesl Gerntholtz, HRW's women's rights
director. "The rate of child marriage in Bangladesh is already off the
charts.
Meher
Afroze Chumki, Bangladesh's junior minister for women and child affairs, said
no firm decision had been made yet.
"We
will discuss the proposal in detail and whatever is suitable for society, we
will do that based on a consensus," Chumki told Reuters.
"There
are certain countries where even 14 years is allowed to get married. To avoid
any illicit relations or living together, we will consider (changing) the law."
Bangladesh
has the second-highest rate of child marriage in the world, after Niger, says
the United Nations children's agency, UNICEF. About 74 percent of Bangladeshi
women currently aged 20 to 49 were married or in a union before 18.
Human
rights campaigners say child marriage triggers a series of violations that
continues throughout a girl's life such as rape, domestic violence and forced
pregnancies.
It
starts with forced initiation into sex and on-going sexual violence, resulting
in early and unplanned pregnancy, which may put her life or that of her child's
at risk.
Girls
married as children are often denied the chance to go to school and are
isolated from society and forced into a lifetime of economic dependence as a
wife and mother.
Yet the
practice continues largely due to a combination of social acceptance and
government inaction, say activists.
"Recent
media reports indicate the prime minister's cabinet is considering a revision
to the law to make 16 the minimum age of marriage for girls," HRW said in
a statement.
"The
proposed revisions would reverse stated government aims to reduce child
marriage among girls," Human Rights Watch said.
At a
July summit, Hasina pledged to take steps to reduce, and ultimately end, child
marriage in Bangladesh by 2041.
She told
the Girl Summit in London that she was committed to end marriage for girls
under age 15 and reduce by more than one-third marriage among girls between
ages 15 and 18 by 2021.
http://www.trust.org/item/20141013123142-5dbb9/?source=fiOtherNews3
----------
13
Brides Tie Nuptial Knots under Madhya Pradesh’s CM Nikaah Scheme
By FPJ Bureau, October 14, 2014
Nagda :
The Municipal Council organized a programme under the CM Nikaah ( marriage)
Scheme to marry off 13 Muslim community girls. MLA Dilip Singh Shekhawat was
the Chief Guest of the programme.
The
programme was held under the presidency of the Council President Shobha Gopal
adav and former MLA Lalsingh Ranawat, Sajjansingh Shekhawat, Dharmesh Jaiswal
and Gopal adav were the Special Guests. The guests informed that the Municipal
Council has implemented the scheme at first. The girls will be provided with Rs
25,000 to support their married lives. The government also provided Rs 5,000 to
buy necessary stuff after marriage and Rs 7,000 will be transferred to the
accounts of the girls’ right after one day of the marriage.
The
Nikaah procession was taken out from the railway station which passed through
various roads and reached to Eidgaah Garden. The guests and Emams were welcomed
at Eidgaah Garden.
http://freepressjournal.in/13-brides-tie-nuptial-knots-under-cm-nikaah-scheme/
----------
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/kazakhstan-bride-kidnapping-caught-video/d/99513