Morocco's Bouchra Karboubi First Arab Woman To Referee Men's Football Final
New
Age Islam News Bureau
14
May 2022
• CNN
Arabic Platform Provides Training Dedicated To Female Journalists, Content
Creators
• Rise
in Abandonment of Muslim Women in Hyderabad
• 'He
Elevated Emirati Women's Status': How Sheikh Khalifa Championed Gender Equality
• When
Pasoori Dancer Sheema Kermani Used Sari And Dance To Defy Zia Regime In
Pakistan
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/morocco-bouchra-karboubi-arab-woman/d/127007
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Morocco's
Bouchra Karboubi First Arab Woman To Referee Men's Football Final
Bouchra
Karboubi
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14
May 2022
Morocco's
Bouchra Karboubi will become the first woman in the Arab world to referee a
men's national football final on Saturday, the sport's local federation said.
The
police officer will oversee the final of the Moroccan Throne Cup, delayed due
to the coronavirus pandemic, in the city of Agadir.
The
North African kingdom's football federation, in a statement carried by local
media on Friday announcing her selection, said it was a first in the Arab
world.
Karboubi
had, however, also been a video referee during February's Africa Cup of Nations
final between Senegal and Egypt.
Karboubi,
34, became an international referee in 2016 and was the first woman to referee
a top league match in Morocco.
Her
deputy will also be a woman, Fatiha Jermoumi.
Saturday's
match pits Rabat's AS FAR, the Moroccan Armed Forces club, against Moghreb
Atletico de Tetouan (MAT).
Source: Super Sport
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CNN
Arabic Platform Provides Training Dedicated To Female Journalists, Content
Creators
Photo:
Emirates News Agency
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10-05-2022
ABU
DHABI, 10th May, 2022 (WAM) -- CNN Arabic’s Her Story (Hikayatoha), a
multi-platform editorial and training initiative focused on the many Arab women
who are creating an impact in their local communities launched earlier this
year, conducted a virtual training programme for female journalists and content
creators from different Arab countries.
The
programme, in partnership with the Arab Network for Science Journalism, was
focused on podcasting.
Samya
Ayish, CNN Arabic journalist and producer, conducted the training programme focusing
on the different types of audio content, script writing, recordings, montage,
and publishing.
Attended
by 40 Arab female journalists from the region, the training session started
with a brief speech by Caroline Faraj, VP and Editor in Chief of CNN Arabic,
followed by a speech from Ahmed Al-Shamir, President of the Arab Network for
Scientific Journalism.
The
training included the importance of podcasts and audio content in journalism
followed by an explanation of the different stages of podcast production
including the theme, research, script, recording, montage, and publishing. It
underscored how, rather than the techniques, it is more important for podcasts
to have a solid theme and also included a session where the trainer addressed
the attendees’ questions on podcasting touching on the tools required to launch
a podcast.
Following
the completion of the training, the participants were provided with the
opportunity to pitch proposals and ideas for possible stories and the winning
ideas will be commissioned and published on the CNN Arabic Her Story page.
Source:
WAM
https://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395303045669
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Rise
in Abandonment of Muslim Women in Hyderabad
May
14, 2022
Hyderabad:
Almost three years post the ban on instant trip talaq, cases of abandonment are
on a steady rise. Recent surveys conducted by NGOs in the Old City show that
more and more Muslim women are being subjected to it, with their husbands
unwilling to get caught in the legalities of the ban. Helping Hand Foundation,
over the last two months collated data on 700 single women – 40% of whom are
abandoned. “This is only from the last 60 days. As the survey covers more
women, the number is sure to rise. In fact, every third of fourth house has a
case of abandonment here,” said Rizwana working with the foundation. Another
survey comprising 2,000 women done last year, pegged the percentage of
abandoned women at 25 to 30. Tnn
Source:
Times Of India
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'He
elevated Emirati women's status': How Sheikh Khalifa championed gender equality
by
Ismail Sebugwaawo
13
May 2022
Members
of the Federal National Council (FNC) are mourning the death of the UAE
President His HighnessSheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who passed away on
May 13.
They
hailed him for his visionary leadership, which played a vital role in building
the nation and achieving gender parity.
Saqr
Ghobash, Speaker of the FNC, said: “The FNC expresses its condolences to the
people of the UAE, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the entire world on the
death of the UAE President and leader of the empowerment process. We pray to
Allah Almighty to rest his soul in eternal peace and grant.”
"We
knew Sheikh Khalifa as a wise and inspiring leader, and a caring father to the
people of the UAE and world over. His achievements will bear witness to the
fact that he has fulfilled the trust and performed it well.”
Women’s
participation in UAE’s politics is notably high, as Sheikh Khalifa's government
had introduced policy measures to redress the gender imbalance.
The
country’s parliamentary body, the FNC’s electoral process, has included women
as both voters and candidates right from when elections were introduced in
2006. And since then, the number of women in the FNC has grown tremendously.
Currently, the UAE has one of the world’s highest rates of female participation
in the government, with women making up 50 per cent of the FNC members.
Within
the public sector and governmental employment, as of 2015, women occupy 66 per
cent of public sector jobs, one of the highest proportions worldwide. Thirty
per cent occupy senior leadership positions associated with decision-making
roles.
In
2020, Sheikh Khalifa had issued a decree stipulating equal wages for women and
men in the private sector. The decision was aimed at strengthening the
country’s regional and international status for upholding gender equality.
FNC
member Sara Mohammed Falaknaz says the UAE has lost a visionary and great
leader who prioritised women.
“Sheikh
Khalifa’s wise leadership greatly helped in elevating Emirati women to all
spheres, including great participation in the nation's politics and holding
senior leadership positions,” she said.
"Emirati
women have been given quality education, tools and capabilities and the chance to
lead and participate in the government's decision-making.”
Falaknaz
added: "Today, 50 per cent of the FNC is comprised of women. We also see a
big number of women in ministerial posts and others heading very important
government offices.”
“In
2015, a woman assumed the position of FNC Speaker. Also, many women have headed
different parliamentary committees.”
According
to Falaknaz, 28 per cent of the current UAE Cabinet comprises women, one of the
highest levels of representation in the Middle East and the world.
Dhirar
Belhoul Al Falasi, FNC member, said the nation is devastated by the news of
Sheikh Khalifa's death.
“His
leadership has seen the UAE stride to greater heights economically, socially,
politically and all other spheres,” he said.
“Sheikh
Khalifa has empowered Emirati women. They are now key in the country's
important decision-making and play a prime role in all fields.”
Al
Falasi noted that Sheikh Khalifa’s directive, which saw Emirati women occupy
half the seats on the FNC, made the UAE one among the few countries with the
highest levels of women’s participation in parliament.
FNC
member Maryam Majid Bin Theneya said: “May God have mercy on our father and
leader, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is truly the best
successor to the best predecessor.
“Sheikh
Khalifa completed the path of the late father, Sheikh Zayed, in building the
renaissance of the UAE and realising his dream of empowering women, access to
space and other development projects that brought the UAE to the ranks of the
first countries in the world.”
She
said the Sheikh Khalifa’s concern for UAE citizen's interests was the focus of
his interest and was manifested in many residential development projects and
healthcare centres throughout the country.
“He
also implemented many charitable projects that extended beyond the borders of
the UAE to include care for every needy in the world.
Source:
Khaleej Times
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When
Pasoori dancer Sheema Kermani used sari and dance to defy Zia regime in
Pakistan
by
Suanshu Khurana
May
14, 2022
In
Pasoori (meaning conflict), Coke Studio’s recent music video in Technicolor
that has India and Pakistan bonding over its Punjabi lyrics and pulsating
rhythm, one spots a dancer, in a big black bindi and temple-border mustard
sari. She comes and goes, swivelling in an old Karachi haveli gracefully, to a
mellifluous jugalbandi between Pakistan’s Ali Sethi and Shae Gill, in the
latter’s breakthrough debut. Sethi’s lyrics, inspired by the lines Agg laavan
teriyaan majbooriyaan nu (set fire to your worries), which he found written on
a truck, is layered with interludes on baglama (a long-necked lute used in
Ottoman classical music) and electronic drums and octopads. The composition by Sethi and Zulfiqar “Xulfi”
Jabbar Khan, that has crossed all borders, has become a global chart-topper and
accrued over 11 crore views on YouTube in the four months since its release.
The
song, which speaks of estranged lovers and forces that keep them apart, could
well be a metaphor for the two countries. Sethi had composed it a couple of
years ago, after he wasn’t allowed in India to collaborate on a project in
Mumbai. He knew the music, like all good music, would find its own way.
Appearing in the video, Pakistan’s classical dancer Sheema Kermani has become a
symbol of harmony, tolerance and freedom of expression, standing for the
subcontinent’s composite culture that made space for cultural collaborations
despite political differences.
But
Pasoori is just a short pit stop in Kermani’s accomplished life in art. She’s
also a social activist, a theatre person and runs Tehrik-e-Niswan, a cultural
action group that works for women’s movements. “I thought that this (Pasoori)
would bring a little sense of classical dance and its root in Pakistan’s
younger generation, which I am hoping they might get attracted towards. In
Pakistan, there’s very little encouragement by parents or families for their
children to come closer to the classical arts,” says Kermani, 70, who was
initially apprehensive to be a part of a song whose language (Punjabi) was
alien to her, and also because five decades of her work in human rights took on
capitalist corporations.
Born
in a progressive “army family” in Rawalpindi and raised in Karachi, dance for
Kermani began in the ’60s, when the nascent nation was just about finding its
feet. She was eight when she began learning Western classical music. But
Kermani’s mother, from India’s Hyderabad, who’d learned Bharatanatyam, was keen
that her daughter discover the vitality of dance. At home, Kermani would dance
to Noor Jehan’s LPs. When she was 13, Kermani enrolled in a Karachi-based dance
school run by Guru Ghanshyam and his wife Nilima, who’d been students of Uday
Shankar in Almora.
Prospects
of a film had taken Ghanshyam to present-day Pakistan in 1952, the film didn’t
get made but he stayed back and taught dance. He set up the centre in 1954 when
Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a patron of the arts who would go on to be
Pakistan’s prime minister, attended a performance by Ghanshyam in Karachi.
Ghanshyam was neighbours with Suhrawardy in Calcutta in the ’40s and that’s how
the two knew each other. Kermani came to him and his wife in 1964 and learnt
for two decades, until the early ’80s. General Zia’s military regime deemed
dance as un-Islamic and banned it in 1977.
The first TV programme to be banned on PTV was Payal (1978), Kathak
dancer Nahid Siddiqui’s show explaining the artform. Later, Siddiqui lived in
exile in England, where she taught dance until she returned to Lahore many
years later and set up an academy.
Before
the Ghanshyams left Karachi for Calcutta, Kermani visited India in 1983 and
enrolled herself in the dance programme at Delhi’s Shriram Bharatiya Kala
Kendra. The Indian capital city felt
familiar yet distinctive, Kermani began to study Bharatanatyam under Leela
Samson, Kathak with Ram Mohan Maharaj, and Odissi with Aloka Panicker and
Mayadhar Raut. “Dance felt like freedom for my body, physically and
emotionally,” says Kermani.
Kermani
kept returning in the ’80s; once with an Indian Council for Cultural Relations
scholarship. “I came to imbibe the arts. I had a wonderful time in Delhi. I was
sharing a room with a Bangladeshi girl who was there for classical vocals. So,
sometimes, I’d go and attend Pt Amarnath’s classes with her. I knew I was not
there forever and thus wanted to absorb everything I could. I’d run to every
class that I could and attend as many performances as possible in the evening.
It turned out to be the most beautiful time of my life,” she says.
In
India, wherever she went, she was met with mild curiosity. Since dance was
banned in Pakistan, Kermani’s gurus in Delhi would joke if she’d go back and
dance in her bathroom. “I never encountered any resentment from anyone. They
taught me with a lot of affection and I always felt this dynamic cultural
aliveness,” says Kermani, adding, she now encounters bits of aggression while
speaking to people in India.
Her
sociopolitical awakening happened in the late ’60s, when she was studying fine
arts at London’s Croydon College, and found herself in the midst of a social
movement (Summer of Love), resurgence of the political left movement,
anti-Vietnam-war movement and feminist Kate Millett’s seminal book Sexual
Politics (1970). On her return, in 1979, Kermani founded Tehrik-e-Niswan to organise
seminars on domestic violence and Aurat Marches.
But
dancing wasn’t easy. As the only dancer living in Pakistan through the Zia
years, and who frequented India, she was disliked by the government and the men
of her country. “When a woman stands up on stage with confidence, is ready to
perform, and demands respect from the viewer, the message she is giving is this
woman is in control of herself, her life and now they cannot control her; that
transference of power is what men find challenging,” she Kermani, who loved a
good challenge. “I wanted to perform and do it in a clever way so that I wasn’t
caught or arrested,” she chuckles.
Students
were always few and far between. Kermani, a Pakistani Muslim woman, would don
the banned sari and a bindi, in political defiance and for aesthetics. For
years, she would go from one government office to another for no-objection
certificates. If she uttered “dance performance”, she wouldn’t get it.
“Cultural programme” worked. She didn’t announce her institution as a dance
academy but said she was giving movement classes, and eventually used it for
protest theatre.
“I’d
sometimes perform without the ghungroos (considered haram) because that’s what
they had a great objection to,” says Kermani, who improvised to take dance to
people. “If I’d been a purist, I wouldn’t have been able to do it all. Since
I’ve taken it as a challenge, not as oppression, I’ve been able to fight it,”
she says.
Her
Sufi dhamal performance at Lal Shahbaz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan Sharif, only
days after the 2017 suicide bombing there killed 88 people, found much
attention. “I wanted that attack to not change anything, so I went and danced
there,” she says. The subcontinent’s “fundamentalism” has been detrimental to
its cultural environment. “Religious minorities didn’t feel as discriminated
against as they do today. And there’s no other dialogue more impactful than
cultural dialogue,” says Kermani, who believes the only way forward is to
integrate culture with politics. “Politics of both our countries needs to mean
what it should — justice, liberty, equality. And these things can only come
about when there’s a conscious cultural change in people’s minds,” she says.
Source:
Indian Express
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/morocco-bouchra-karboubi-arab-woman/d/127007