Loujain al-Hathloul, Female Saudi Activist , Jailed since 2018 On Hunger Strike To Protest Detention Conditions
New
Age Islam News Bureau
28
October 2020
•
Australian Woman Recalls ‘Terrifying’ Moment Female Passengers Strip-Searched
in Qatar
•
Saudi Women Achievers Make A Pitch For Kingdom’s First Female-Only Golf Tourney
•
Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association Cleanup Recently Adopted Highway In Bradford
•
As A Scientist, Woman, Arab American, I'm Voting For A President Who Respects
All Three
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/loujain-al-hathloul-female-saudi/d/123295
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Loujain al-Hathloul, Female Saudi Activist , Jailed since 2018 On Hunger Strike To Protest Detention Conditions
27
October 2020
Al-Hathloul
has been in jail since 2018 [Getty]
-----
A
prominent female Saudi activist, who has been jailed in the kingdom since 2018,
launches an indefinite hunger strike in protest at her detention conditions,
especially a ban on her receiving regular calls and visits from her family.
Loujain
al-Hathloul’s sister told Reuters on Tuesday that she had started her campaign
a day earlier.
She
“told [our parents] she is exhausted of being mistreated and deprived from
hearing her family's voices," Lina al-Hathloul cited her as saying.
Hathoul
last went on a hunger strike for six days in August after being allowed to take
no more than one family phone call and two visits throughout six months.
The
31-year-old graduate of University of British Columbia in Canada is being held
at the capital Riyadh's al-Hair prison. She has been one of the staunchest
supporters of removal of the kingdom’s ban on females’ driving and its
high-handed male guardianship laws.
She
was arrested that year alongside at least a dozen other women activists
surprisingly after the kingdom’s ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was
reported to have canceled the ban and relaxed the guardianship system.
Al-Hathoul
had first been detained in 2014 and held for more than 70 days in custody after
attempting to drive from the neighboring United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia.
According
to her family and rights groups, Loujain and two other of the female activists
faced solitary confinement as well as sexual harassment and torture during
interrogation.
Saudi
officials have denied torture allegations and said the arrests were made on
suspicion of “harming Saudi interests and offering support to hostile elements
abroad.”
Bin
Salman has been trying to project himself as the champion of reformation in the
kingdom. His 2017-present tenure as the country’s heir to the throne has,
however, witnessed sweeping arrest campaigns, including against activists,
dissidents, and clerics.
In
2018, the crown prince’s incumbency witnessed its yet most gruesome
Saudi-linked atrocity that featured assassination of dissident journalist Jamal
Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Turkish
officials say Khashoggi’s body was dismembered upon his assassination and his
remains are yet to be found. In the aftermath of the killing, a CIA report said
that the Saudi crown prince had ordered the assassination of the journalist,
who was an outspoken critic of bin Salman.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/27/637365/Saudi-Arabia-female-activist-hunger-strike-al-Hathoul
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Australian
Woman Recalls ‘Terrifying’ Moment Female Passengers Strip-Searched in Qatar
October
26, 2020
Australian
Foreign Minister Marine Payne speaks during a press conference at Parliament
House in Canberra, Monday, Oct. 26, 2020. (AP Photo)
------
LONDON:
An Australian woman has recounted the moment female passengers were removed
from a Qatar Airways flight in Doha to be strip-searched without permission in
an airport carpark.
Kim
Mills said she was “terrified” after she and eight other women were asked to
leave the plane, bound for Sydney, on Oct. 2 without explanation, as
authorities tried to identify the mother of an infant who had been found
abandoned in the toilets at Hamad International Airport.
Australian
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said the incident was “a grossly, grossly
disturbing, offensive, concerning set of events.”
After
boarding the flight and changing into more comfortable clothing in order to
sleep, Mills said the aircraft was delayed without the crew being able to give
the 34 passengers any details as to why.
“Every
hour, the captain or the co-pilot came on (the intercom) and apologized for the
delay, saying that he was waiting for permission to taxi,” Mills told Guardian
Australia.
“And
I just went back to sleep. I was finally woken, I guess it was three hours
later, by the head steward actually shaking me awake. He said I had to get my
passport and leave the plane,” she added.
“I
thought: ‘What are you talking about, what’s going on?’ He said: ‘The police
need to talk to you, and you need to get your passport and come straight away’.”
She
said she was led off the plane with the other female passengers, and when she
asked a female guard what was happening, she was told: “You’ll find out when we
take you downstairs.”
Mills
continued: “They took me downstairs in a lift which felt like you were going
down to the bottom of the airport. And then I came out of the lift and there
were two officers … I thought: ‘What are they doing with me, where are they
taking me?’ All of these things are going through my head. I still didn’t know
the reason … I noticed they had at least two ambulances lined up … I thought:
‘Oh, they’re going to do a coronavirus test, they must be doing all the females
first.’
Mills
added: “They told me to step forward, to go into the ambulance, and as I
stepped forward another officer … stood in front of me and said: ‘No, no, you
go, you go.’ As I was standing there with this officer telling me to go, a
young lass came out of the ambulance, and she was crying and distraught.
“I
just turned around and started walking with her trying to comfort her. I said:
‘What’s wrong, what’s going on?’ And she told me that they’d found a baby in
the bathroom at the airport and they were examining all the women.
“I
was the luckiest one on the whole flight because I have grey hair and I’m in my
60s. They probably looked at me and thought: ‘Well, that’s impossible, it could
not be her’.”
Afterward,
Mills said, they were taken back upstairs to an interview room to provide their
flight details, before being put back on the plane to Sydney.
The
airline staff were “absolutely horrified” when they learned what had happened,
she added.
“My
legs were just wobbling; I was just so pleased to be back on the plane because
I was terrified they were going to take me away somewhere … Why didn’t they
explain to us what was going on? It was horrible, not knowing, to me that was
one of the worst parts of it.”
Mills
said the crew apologized to them over the intercom upon the plane’s arrival in
Sydney. She added that the women involved discussed what had happened as they
waited for 90 minutes to travel by bus from the plane to the airport terminal.
Some
of them revealed that they had been instructed to remove their underwear in
order to be examined.
One
of the women collected the contact details of her fellow passengers to hand
over to Australian police.
“It
was absolutely terrible,” Mills said of the ordeal. “I can’t imagine what it
was like for those poor young girls, it must have been horrendous … I don’t
know why they had to put (the other women) through that, I really don’t.”
Payne
said: “We have made our views very clear to Qatari authorities on this matter.
This is an extraordinary incident and I have never heard of anything occurring
like this in my life.”
She
added that Australia’s government has formally raised the issue with the Qatari
ambassador, along with a demand for an investigation to be launched.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1754376/middle-east
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Saudi
women achievers make a pitch for Kingdom’s first female-only golf tourney
October
28, 2020
JEDDAH:
Inspirational Saudis who overcame gender barriers to achieve a string of firsts
for women in the Kingdom have reflected on the groundbreaking nature of their
feats, in a new video series heralding the country’s first all-female golf
tournaments.
Dalma
Malhas, Saudi Arabia's first female Olympic medalist, Mariam Fardous, the first
Saudi woman to deep dive in the Arctic Ocean, Nelly Attar, founder of Move
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s first dance studio, Maram Al-Butairi, general manager of
Eastern Flames, the first Saudi female football team, and DJ Cosmicat, the
Kingdom’s first female DJ, came together to share what it means to them to have
been a “first woman” in Saudi Arabia.
The
initiative was organized by Golf Saudi as a means of illustrating the milestone
of next month’s debut Aramco Saudi Ladies International, presented by the
Public Investment Fund (PIF) — the Kingdom’s first ladies golf tournament, and
only the second ever international, women-only professional sports event held
in the country.
Fardous
— who was only the third woman to deep dive in the Arctic when she took the
plunge in 2015 — said: “I believe that everyone should make their own mark in
life. This is my one rule. I wanted to make a mark — one mark that could be
seen and felt by everyone.
“I
hope to be a source of inspiration for women, especially girls who don’t
believe that we can achieve the impossible. I imagine that our vision — and the
fact we have achieved something — will make girls see that they can overcome
anything and achieve their dreams, and that they can think outside of the box
in creative ways. We can be poster women for our country,” she added.
“These
famous golfers who are coming to Saudi Arabia have certainly had their own
difficulties, but we can see how they’ve managed to succeed and how they were
able to make their own mark in life. They are all great achievers. I’m so
excited to learn more about golf here in Saudi Arabia, in my own country, and
see these inspirational female athletes compete.”
The
five-part video series — which launches Tuesday on the event’s official Twitter
and Instagram channels (@saudiladiesintl) — invited each of the five women to
share their journey to creating Saudi history.
They
each explained what drove them to shatter the glass ceiling above them, and how
they saw their achievements inspire other women across the Kingdom, the wider
Middle East and the world.
Malhas
said: “Representing Saudi Arabia at the Youth Olympic Games and winning a
bronze medal was a moment that was full of honor, pride and glory — and it
definitely changed my life. I think it is very important for young girls to see
women achieving their goals and pursuing their dreams. It just raises an
awareness that it is now possible for them to do the same.”
The
new tournament has been orchestrated by Golf Saudi, who are hoping this will
drive more Saudi women to take up golf. As announced last week, the governing
body will also make golf free for up to 1,000 women from next month, when they
launch their Ladies First Club membership.
Golf
Saudi CEO Majed Al-Sorour said: “The Aramco Saudi Ladies International,
presented by the PIF, is yet another significant and historic step forward for
Saudi Arabia, and is the latest on the same path these five women and thousands
more have helped carve throughout the Kingdom in recent years.
“Our
two tournaments next month will be only the second and third international,
professional women-only sports events to ever be held in our country. We feel
that’s something of incredible impact, and in celebrating it, we are
highlighting the pioneering Saudi women who have helped make it possible,” he
added.
“This
unique video series does that, and it is our honor to have these exceptional
women encapsulate the ethos of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International — and the
excitement around it — in this way.”
The
$1 million prize tournament takes place Nov. 12-15 at Royal Greens Golf &
Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), and will be followed two
days later by the unique format of the Saudi Ladies Team International, Nov. 17-19, where teams of four players will
battle together for a share of $500,000.
Both
events will feature more than 100 female European Tour golfers, including
Solheim Cup heroes Georgia Hall and Charley Hull, and a host of other top
names.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1755041/sport
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Ahmadiyya
Muslim Women Association cleanup recently adopted highway in Bradford
28
October 2020
The
ladies of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Association were out Sunday afternoon,
collecting garbage found along Sideroad 5 in Bradford, as part of their
initiative for a cleaner community.
Just
this past summer, the association adopted two sections of roadways in Bradford,
one along Yonge Street from Line 8 to Line 12, and another on Sideroad 5 from
Line 12 to Highway 89, as part of the Adopt-a-Highway program through Simcoe
County. Adopted roadway sections are usually anywhere from two to five
kilometres in length.
The
program allows volunteers to pick up litter along certain county road
rights-of-ways with residents, community organizations, private business and
industry contributing to a cleaner, healthier environment.
Under
the program, groups and individuals agree to adopt a section of a Regional
right-of-way and keep it clean. In addition to the satisfaction of creating a
cleaner environment, the volunteers are recognized through signs erected on the
adopted roads.
On
Sunday, 14 members of the assosciation collected garbage along 5 Sideroad in between Line 12 and Highway 89,
between Bradford and Innisfil. Once garbage bags were full, the women set them
on the side of the road for the county to come pick up.
"We
believe that “cleanliness is half of faith,"said Sadaf Naseem, outreach
secretary for Ahmadiyya Muslim Women Associationn, Bradford. "This inspired us to take on this
project as a way to give back to our community by keeping it clean."
The
group had previously cleaned up their adopted roadway section along Yonge
Street, and were happy to be out on the weekend to clean up Sideroad 5.
Throughout
the pandemic, the group has been unable to gather in congregational prayers.
They miss their weekly and monthly events in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community.
Instead they have been meeting online through Zoom calls.
"Our
members are working on adopt-a-road while keeping the social distancing
protocols," said Naseem. "We missed celebrating the Muslim heritage
month in the Library Zima room and at our schools. I hope we will be able to do
so next October."
https://www.bradfordtoday.ca/local-news/ahmadiyya-muslim-women-association-cleanup-recently-adopted-highway-in-bradford-2822274
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As a scientist, woman, Arab American, I'm voting for a president who respects
all three
26
October, 2020
On
5 November 2016, the day after Donald Trump was elected president of the United
States, I stayed home from work.
I
was overwhelmed with a paralysing sense of fear; one that manifested as a
constant stream of tears and inability to sleep. I reached out to my friends,
many of whom are women, LGBTQ+, and members of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and
People of Colour) communities.
Their
fears mirrored mine. I remember intimate conversations sharing our fears about
what this election meant for them, and for me. As a scientist. As a woman. As
an Arab American.
My
anxieties have continued throughout this administration. As a scientist, I have
been infuriated and heartbroken watching them ceaselessly sabotage scientific
integrity. In their coronavirus response, this administration has put American
lives at risk by blatantly lying about its danger and dismissing peer-reviewed
and scientifically accepted mandates like mask usage, social distancing, and
self-isolation practices.
In
their climate response (or lack thereof), the Trump administration has gutted
necessary regulations to curb greenhouse emissions and limit pollution. They
have pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords, dismissing global warming as a
"hoax". They have gutted agencies like the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in a coordinated effort
to cripple science in public health discussions and decisions.
The
science denialism that has become a hallmark of this administration is
intimately tied with their complicity in racism. Within days of taking office,
President Trump enacted the Muslim Ban, and its chilling effects were felt by
thousands of Arab Americans, including in the scientific community. His
administration embraced an isolationist foreign policy strategy that directly
impacted the United States' competitive status as a leader in science.
A
diluted but equally concerning rule was proposed on 24 September 2020, when the
Department of Homeland Security suggested restricting the tenure of
international students in the United States. This science denialism directly
undermines the Arab culture and scientific presence in the United States.
As
a woman, I have watched in fear as the Trump administration undermined my
rights. Most recently, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to
fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court. Her position on the Court
will realise the very real threat of overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark
ruling that legalised abortion.
Her
career and statements on religious liberty paint a picture of a Supreme Court
hostile to the rights of women and LGBTQ+ folks. President Trump's nomination
of Judge Barrett is only the most recent blow to women's rights, and its impact
will be felt most directly by Brown and Black women.
It
is impossible to separate these actions from the racist framework that they
uphold. Efforts like dismantling abortion coverage, undermining health and
reproductive provisions in the Affordable Care Act, halting equal pay,
weakening the Title IX Amendment, and rolling back overtime protections
disproportionately affect marginalised communities and women of colour.
For
example, the United States leads the developed world in maternal and infant
mortality, and Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than
white women. By stripping away reproductive rights and diluting - or flat out
overturning - provisions to protect women, this administration is complicit in
a system that endangers some of the most vulnerable members of our community.
As
I cast my vote for the 2020 presidential election last week, I reflected on the
last four years of the Trump administration. I reflected on the experiences of
my fellow scientists, afraid of being banned from the country they call home,
no longer able to do their research. I reflected on the experiences of my Black
friends, fearlessly leading the Black Lives Matter movement against systemic
racism in America.
I
reflected on my LGBTQ+ friends, who have faced an onslaught of discriminatory
policies from the Trump administration. And I reflected on the countless others
who have suffered at the hands of an administration that prioritises the rights
of white, straight, able-bodied, cisgender, men above the most vulnerable among
us.
I
have never felt more empowered and ready to cast my vote for Joe Biden and
Kamala Harris. I am tired of watching the Trump administration systematically
strip the rights of marginalised people in our communities. I am tired of
watching the administration denounce science-backed policies, especially those
that directly impact American lives and the global community.
When
I cried casting my ballot, they were tears of relief mixed with profound
sadness about all that we've endured over the last four years. They were tears
of hope, too. Hope in a future - and an administration - that embraces science,
dismantles the racist structures upholding privilege in our society, and
protects the lives of all Americans.
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/comment/2020/10/27/this-arab-american-woman-scientist-is-voting-for-respect
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/loujain-al-hathloul-female-saudi/d/123295
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