Mohaddesa Jafri, The First Shia Girl In Maharashtra To Become A Commercial Pilot; Being Toasted Inside The Community
29 May 2022
• Mohaddesa Jafri, The First Shia Girl In Maharashtra
To Become A Commercial Pilot; Being Toasted Inside The Community
• Karnataka: Woman Dies By Suicide, Family, Hindu
Outfits Allege 'Love Jihad'
• Karnataka Hijab Row: Mangaluru Muslim Students Seek
Permission To Wear Hijab, Submits Memorandum To Deputy Commissioner
• Like The Linda Lindas, This Teen Girl Band In Benin
Makes You Dance
• Pakistan: Violence Against Women Rampant Regardless
Of Rural-Urban Divide
• How Women Break The India-Pakistan Wall Over
Whatsapp, Biryani & Banoffee Pie In Dubai
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mohaddesa-jafri-shia-maharashtra/d/127119
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Mohaddesa Jafri, The First Shia Girl In Maharashtra To
Become A Commercial Pilot; Being Toasted Inside The Community
Mohadessa Jafri, a
26-year-old fan of India-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla, returned from
South Africa with ommercial pilot’s licence
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May 29, 2022
Clerics generally are not known to encourage their
daughters to become pilots. But a Jogeshwari West couple, Maulana Sher Mohammed
Jafri and wife Aalema Farah Jafri, both senior Shia preachers and clerics, are
being toasted inside the community and beyond as their daughter Mohaddesa Jafri
has just returned from South Africa with a pilot's licence.
"She is the first Shia girl in Maharashtra to
become a commercial pilot. My wife and I are preachers. It is because of
blessings of Allah and Hazrat Imam Hussain (Prophet Muhammad's grandson who was
martyred at the battle of Karbala in 680 in Iraq) that she could realize her
dream," said the proud father.
Tall and slim, Mohaddesa, now 26, was barely seven
when India-born American astronaut Kalpana Chawla died in the Space Shuttle
Columbia disaster in February 2003. She was out in the streets with her father
and saw posters and banners of Chawla everywhere. Her father explained to her
how the brave astronaut had gone to space but died when the spacecraft she and
her other colleagues were travelling in disintegrated while returning to earth.
"I silently became Kalpana Chawla's fan and as I
grew up, I read several biographies and hundreds of articles and watched many
videos on her. I told my parents I wanted to join the aviation industry,"
said Mohaddesa, who even worked with an airline's office in Bengaluru briefly
before the bug of flying took her to a flying school in 2020 in Springs near
Johannesburg, South Africa. Since his father had lived in South Africa for many
years, it was easier for him to put in a flying school there.
But months before she left for South Africa and while
she trained there, back home her parents had to endure "uncharitable
remarks" mostly from relatives. "How could a maulana and alema
(female religious scholar) put their only daughter into a pilot's course?"
was the unkind comment they heard. "We kept quiet as we knew we were not
doing anything wrong. If our daughter had a dream and there was nothing
irreligious or immoral in it, we had to support her," said her mother. Her
parents became the winds beneath her wings.
Both mother and daughter use hijab and Mohaddesa is
ready to tackle the situation when she encounters them in future.
Source: Times Of India
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Karnataka: Woman Dies By Suicide, Family, Hindu Outfits
Allege 'Love Jihad'
Young woman suicide case
takes twist in K'taka, Hindu organisations allege love jihad. Photo : IANS
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May 28, 202
A 25-year-old woman Shilpa Devadiga died by suicide
after consuming poison over a love affair in Kundapur of Udupi district. The
victim's family has accused the Aziz of enacting the drama of love and
threatened to convert to Islam. Hindu organisations alleged that she was a
victim of 'love jihad'. The police have recovered a letter from the residence
of Shilpa.
Source: Times Of India
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Karnataka Hijab row: Mangaluru Muslim students seek
permission to wear Hijab, submits memorandum to Deputy Commissioner
NewsX Bureau
28th May 2022
Muslim students of Universities & Colleges in
Mangaluru went to the Deputy Commissioner’s office to present a memorandum
requesting permission to wear hijab in classes.
This comes after the degree college declared a ban on
hijab or headscarves on campus on May 16.
“After the court decision, nothing happened, and we
went about our tests in peace. However, we recently received an unauthorized
message instructing us to attend lessons without wearing a hijab. With HC’s
permission, we went to the principal and attempted to speak with him. He
expressed his helplessness. VC echoed the same sentiment” Fathima, a student,
expressed her thoughts.
On Thursday, students from Mangaluru University
College organized a protest on campus against the wearing of hijab in
classrooms. The college was chastised by the students for failing to comply
with the Karnataka High Court’s directive on hijab in educational institutions.
Hijab demonstrations erupted in Karnataka in January
and February of this year, when several students at the Government Girls PU
College in the state’s Udupi region said they were prohibited from attending
courses. Some students said they were denied admission to the college because
they wore hijab during the rallies.
A bench of Karnataka High Court dismissed a batch of
petitions filed by Muslim girls studying in pre-university colleges in Udupi
seeking the right to wear hijabs in classrooms on March 16, stating that
wearing the hijab is not an essential religious practice in Islam and that
freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution is subject to
reasonable restrictions.
The Court also upheld a state decree issued on
February 5 that suggested that wearing hijabs in government institutions where
uniforms are required can be prohibited — ruling that “prescription of a school
uniform” is a “reasonable restriction” that is “Constitutionally lawful.”
Source: Newsx
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Like The Linda Lindas, this teen girl band in Benin
makes you dance
May 28, 2022
The first time that Star Feminine Band – a group of 7
girl musicians from the ages of 12 to 19 – played a show in their West African
nation of Benin, many in the crowd broke out in both applause and tears.
While the country has seen its share of successful
female musicians – singer Angélique Kidjo, for example, has won five Grammys –
residents of Natitingou, a town in Benin's conservative north had never seen
musical female power in action.
"It was the first time [that girls in the
community] saw women play instruments," says Sandrine Ouei, the group's
19-year-old drummer, recalling the event in 2016. "We're showing the world
that women have the capacity and the potential, that they can make music."
That's the ethos of Star Feminine Band. Since the
group's debut, self-titled album in 2020 – which blends rock and roll with
traditional Western African and Beninese music – their music has captured
listeners' attention across the globe for pushing boundaries lyrically,
linguistically and culturally. They've made a splash in their hometown, signed
onto an international label and played shows in France and Switzerland — and in
June they're playing at Roskilde, a major music festival in Denmark.
"These girls, when they sing, you just feel the
power," says Abbey Wright, founder of the campaign Planet Resolution. Her
project aims to get an artist from every country in the world to record a song
about climate change. She commissioned the band's latest single
"Resolution Song," released in April.
In fact, many of the band's songs – available to
stream for free online – tackle social problems, especially girls' and women's issues.
So they're kind of like The Linda Lindas, the all-girl teen punk sensation from
Los Angeles — only from Benin.
In "Femme Africaine," for example, the
singers declare: "You can become prime minister of the country. Get up, we
have to do something. African women, be independent." That's an important
message in a country where, as of February 2021, a little over 8% of seats in
parliament were held by women, according to U.N. Women.
And in the song "L'excision," they sing
about female genital mutilation, which 9.2% of women between the ages of 15 to
49 have undergone in Benin, according to UNICEF. "Africa, my Africa, we
must stop destroying our women," they sing.
Star Feminine Band does all this in eight languages –
English, French and the local languages Waama, Ditamari, Bariba, Fulfulde,
Yoruba and Fon. "It's to pass on our message to those who don't understand
French," says 12-year-old drummer Angelique Balaguemon. Although it's the
country's official language – used in school, politics and the media – not
everyone speaks it.
"It's not difficult to [sing about these topics]
because we're women ourselves," says Dorcas M'po, a 14-year-old percussion
player. And she knows women in town who have experienced these issues, too.
He was inspired by a dark memory from his own
childhood. On a walk home from school, he saw a man beating his wife. The
visceral image stuck with him.
To get the group started, Balaguemon would first need
to teach girls how to play instruments. So he moved to Natitingou from the
country's capital Cotonou to offer free music lessons.
To financially support this endeavor, he rented out
two houses he built in central Benin. The mayor's office got on board with the
project, provided a practice space and helped advertise the lessons over the radio.
Soon, girls started trickling in.
And so Star Feminine Band was born. He put his
daughters Angélique on the drum kit and 14-year-old Grâce Marina on the
keyboards. Anne Sayi, 15, joined as the guitarist; Julienne Sayi, 17, as the
bassist; and Urrice Borikapei, 17, Dorcas and Ouei as drummers.
At first, people in Natitingou "didn't understand
the project," says Balaguemon. Critics told him that "girls shouldn't
play music." But after that first concert on the town square,
"everyone started liking Star Feminine Band."
Many girls and women in the area love the band's
message – including former child brides, says Dorcas. "They support us
[for singing about them]."
In one song, "The Forced Marriage," for
example, the girls sing: "Why impose a man on your daughter? African
parents, think of us and our future."
That the music is resonating among local girls this
way "shows that people who are closer to this scourge are better placed to
talk about [these issues]," says Beninese journalist and culture writer Eric
Azanney. "It grabs attention."
Girls aren't the only fans. "There are boys who
love the [gender equality] subjects" of their music too, says Dorcas –
including classmates and members of the school administration and local
government.
Star Feminine Band's big break onto the international
stage came by chance. Jérémie Verdier, a trumpet player originally from
Avignon, France, was taking time off from work to volunteer in Benin in 2018.
He overheard the group practicing in what he calls a "a teeny tiny
room" in a building behind Natitingou's local museum.
At the mere mention of him being a musician, the girls
invited him to play with their band in a concert later that week – before they
even knew if he was any good, he jokes. On stage, he quickly fell in love with
the band's music.
The girls were still on his mind when he returned to
Europe. In 2019, he hooked them up with the Parisian record label Born Bad,
known for its off-the-beaten-path artists. It released Star Feminine Band's
first record.
Since the band's formation, the girls have played
countless shows in Natitingou, made several music videos — and later this year,
they'll release their second album and tour Europe again.
For now, practice continues in Natitingou. The girls
get together three times a week when school is in session and more during
vacations. And every Sunday, they huddle around a computer screen to Zoom with
Verdier. He's teaching them English so they can communicate with fans when they
go on international tours.
During one Sunday lesson, the girls perform an
acapella version of an unreleased, English-language song from their upcoming
album. They swing back and forth, swaying in unison.
"Women stand up, stand up for your rights. Get
up, stand up, stand up for your rights," they sing, nearly chanting.
"Don't underestimate her – because she can do what you do, too."
Source: Npr.Org
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Pakistan: Violence against women rampant regardless of
rural-urban divide
28 May, 2022
arachi [Pakistan], May 28 (ANI): Amid growing violence
against women in Pakistan, another case of two Pakistani-origin Spanish sisters
Arooj Abbas and Aneesa Abbas being allegedly tortured and shot dead has been
registered as they failed to get their respective husbands’ visas to settle
with them in Spain.
Both the sisters, who are Spanish nationals, were
married to their cousins in Pakistan more than a year ago, and were not happy
with their marriages, reported Just Earth News, citing the police officials.
Cases of honour killing are frighteningly regular in
Pakistan, especially in areas close to the tribal regions in the north and
west.
More than 470 cases of “honour” killing were reported
in Pakistan in 2021, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP).
In 2016, the murder of Qandeel Baloch, known as
“Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian”, by her brother Waseem Azeem sparked national
outrage and demands for changes to the law. Azeem strangled her in her home in
the Punjab province after she shared photos on Facebook of herself with a
Muslim cleric.
Azeem was sentenced to life imprisonment but was
acquitted in February this year after his parents sought his release. His
lawyers used what is known as the Qisas and Diyat law to circumvent the new
legislation.
According to Just Earth News, Pakistan is the
sixth-most populated country in the world. But it’s one of the world’s worst
performers when it comes to gender parity, according to the World Economic
Forum’s 2020 gender gap report.
In a derogatory remark in 2021, Former Pakistan Prime
Minister Imran Khan said, “Men are not robots, ladies wearing small clothes
impact them,” thereby subscribing to a view long refuted by a significant body
of research that shows that sexual violence is a consequence of perpetrators
dehumanising female bodies.
In the name of honour killing, murder committed on the
pretext of family honour, women in Pakistan continue to suffer in the hands of
perpetrators legitimising their actions through a misplaced sense of justice.
According to a Supreme Court judgment in 2020,
Pakistan has one of the highest per capita honour killings in the world.
However, by using words like ‘honour’, the Pakistan society not only downplays
the atrocity of the crime but legitimises it with a belief that ‘bad
character’, particularly pertaining to a woman, needs to be punished or it will
tarnish the community at large.
Source: The Print
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How women break the India-Pakistan wall over WhatsApp,
biryani & banoffee pie in Dubai
SAADIA AHMED
29 May, 2022
Before moving to Dubai, I barely had any Indian
friends. Living in Lahore, I did meet a few lively Sikh yatris travelling from
one part of Punjab to another to visit their holy places. Pakistan of the ’90s
was quite unlike what children experience today. Sikh yatris would merrily roam
the streets of Anarkali Bazar in Lahore chatting and mingling with the locals.
Being the granddaughter of immigrants from Jhajjar who took deep pride in their
Haryanvi roots, I also knew pre-Partition India through my grandmother’s eyes.
However, the post-9/11 world presented different realities and things changed.
The tensions between India and Pakistan also heightened. The walls and fences
became higher.
My first friend in Dubai was my Indian neighbour Mini
who helped me settle in a new country in every possible way. From handing me
the number of the guy who delivered water cans to encouraging me to start my
own food catering business, Mini made my life in Dubai seem much easier than it
was. Through Mini, I got to know more women in the neighbourhood who were also
Indians.
We were a subject of interest for our respective
mothers back home and while visiting Dubai. I remember one of my friends
sending my photograph to her mother in Nagpur to show her how a Pakistani girl
looked! Of course, I was a rare specimen for her family back home. We both
laughed when she hit the send button on WhatsApp. My mother in Lahore was
elated to know that I was making friends from India and would often ask me
about them. Now when I come to think of it, I realise that she did so because
this was the closest that she could feel to the country her parents came from.
Even when she visited me once in Dubai, all my mother wanted was to have food
at the Indian restaurants because she loved the Indian thali.
In due course, Priya, who was from Kerala, became my
best friend in Dubai. We had set up this unsaid birthday ritual of cutting our
cakes together. On one of those occasions, Priya’s mother was also visiting
from India. “Auntie” was a quiet person but the whole act made her so happy
that she recorded a video of us cutting Priya’s birthday cake. We chuckled at how
it would potentially turn into a WhatsApp message forwarded to the entire clan.
Interestingly, despite being among the first of their
Pakistani friends, the Indian-Pakistani distinction diminished in no time.
Initially, we avoided talking about anything that could potentially lead to a
conflict. In fact, we were more polite to each other than we were to people
from our own countries. But this is not how genuine friendships work. Soon the
inhibitions started falling off and we initiated deeper conversations. We would
discuss everything under the sun from the role of patriarchy in governing our
lives to the politics that had crippled the lives of the common people. It did
not take us long to realise that our similarities are much deeper than our
differences.
When I started my catering business, my first client
was an Indian, Nahid Sabir who asked me to make her biryani and banoffee pie.
She loved my food so much that soon I started receiving orders from many other
people in the community. My very Pakistani biryani was an instant hit among my
Indian clientele. Many would also order vegetarian options, which I was happy
to explore and create. Not only food, but our families were also not much
different. Many of us had similar experiences with our ‘in-laws’. We found more
comfort in our mothers’ homes than with the ‘in-laws’. Most of us dreaded trips
back home because we had found our peace in a life away from the chaos in our
own countries. We wanted to break free and live our lives on our own terms. Why
am I forgetting the Bollywood films and Pakistani dramas? Most of my Indian
friends could not help gushing over Fawad Khan!
Through these friendships we were living our
grandmothers’ wildest dreams; the women who had to leave their homes to migrate
to lands unknown in 1947. Perhaps we were the manifestation of our dead
ancestors’ longing to see their old home, mohallas, and friends.
The stereotypes we had about each other’s cultures and
countries came crumbling down through these friendships. I am sure that none of
my Indian friends thinks that Pakistani women remain within the confines of
their homes wearing a burka. I am also not of the view that all Indian women
wear bindi and saris. Some of my friends have never worn a sari their entire
lives.
When I was leaving Dubai for Australia, we had tears
in our eyes. We knew that despite being just a few kilometres away from each
other in our home countries, we might never be able to visit each other. To see
each other we had to travel thousands of miles. Perhaps we would never have
known the joy of our precious friendships had we not lived together in Dubai.
These walls would have never come down had we not stepped away from home and
met on these foreign lands. For each of us, the future is brighter now, but we
still must travel a thousand miles to hug our friends from the other side of
the border.
Source: The Print
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mohaddesa-jafri-shia-maharashtra/d/127119