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Islam, Women and Feminism ( 18 Nov 2020, NewAgeIslam.Com)
Netherlands Boxing Star Ruby Jesiah Mesu Has Converted To Islam
New Age Islam News Bureau
19 November 2020
• Palestinian Nayla Abu Jubbah Became The First Female
Taxi Driver In The Deeply Conservative Gaza Strip
• Fayza Haidar Egypt’s First Female Coach To Train A
Male Soccer Team
• Meet Salma al-Rashid: Saudi Arabia’s Women 20 Sherpa
• Calls Flood In After Dhaka Police Launch Women’s
Cyber Support
• India: Clamour For Justice To Muslim Girl, Gulnaz
Khatoon, 20, Burnt Alive
• Azhar Grand Sheikh: Islam Bans Marriage Of Muslim Women
To Non-Muslims
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Netherlands Boxing Star Ruby Jesiah Mesu Has Converted To Islam
News Desk -November 18, 2020
Ruby Jesiah Mesu
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Netherlands, Netherlands Boxing star Ruby Jesiah Mesu
has converted to Islam. The boxer announced the news on her official Instagram
account.
According to the details, Jesiah was born Christian,
however, she started practicing the religion a few years ago. Now, the
teachings of Islam inspired her to officially accept the religion. She took her
shahada in a mosque with witnesses in the Netherlands.
Pictures of her wearing hijab went viral on social
media. She received appreciation and love from the Muslim community across the
globe. She made the announcement two days on social media. Ruby is also known
as the kick-boxer and “The Lady Tyson”.
Back in 2016, Jesiah met a horrific car accident in
which she broke her neck and that halted her budding career in the field of
kickboxing and martial arts. After critical surgeries the doctors were able to
fix the plates in the seven cervical vertebrae, however, she could not fully
rotate her neck even after the surgery.
It took Jesiah months of physical and mental
rehabilitation and therapies to regain her confidence back. After a
year-and-half, she returned to kickboxing while also recovering from the
accident.
Read more: New Zealand Police introduce hijab for
Muslim officer uniforms
In one of her previous interviews with Vice, Jesiah
asserted that kickboxing was her passion. She said that “Before the accident, I
was really working to achieve a goal. If all of that suddenly disappears, you lose
motivation. You’re young and you suddenly have no idea how you’re going to do
it all.”
“I have always kept that drive to kickboxing, to
become a champion. I was constantly told by the doctors: no, no, that is no
longer possible. But if I’m not kickboxing, I just don’t get happy,” said
Jesiah.
“I am not a person who just goes to ballet, although I
have also danced for a long time and taught it. But fighting gives me a lot
more satisfaction. After a year and a half of hard work, I got an agreement
from the hospital to fight again,” the boxer added further.
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/netherlands-star-boxer-ruby-jesiah-mesu-accepts-islam/
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Palestinian Nayla Abu Jubbah Became The First Female
Taxi Driver In The Deeply Conservative Gaza Strip
November 19, 2020
Nayla Abu Jubbah
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GAZA: Palestinian mother-of-five Nayla Abu Jubbah
launched a small revolution this week by becoming the first female taxi driver
in the deeply conservative Gaza Strip.
In the impoverished Palestinian territory, women have
the same legal rights as men to drive a vehicle, but in practice the trade of
taxi driver has been exclusively male — until now.
“One day I was talking with a friend who works as a
hairdresser and I said to her: ‘What would you say if we started a taxi service
for women?’ She said it was a crazy idea,” the 39-year-old told AFP.
The Israeli-blockaded territory was suffering 50 percent
unemployment even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
After drinking a steaming cup of tea in her home, the
social work graduate in a headscarf puts on a face mask and marches to her car
parked outside.
After slotting her smartphone into its holder and giving
a toot on the horn for show, she starts the engine and is off on the roads of
Gaza, where the Islamist Hamas movement has ruled for more than 13 years.
Abu Jubbah does not cruise the streets for fares,
taking only advance bookings.
“I leave my home and I will pick up my clients, to
bring them for example from the hairdressing salon to a wedding,” she says.
She bought the vehicle with her inheritance when her
father died.
“I said to myself one day that I needed to take
advantage of the car, to put it to work,” she said. “Hence the project of a
taxi service entirely for women, to put them at ease.”
Today she is driving through the streets of Gaza City
to pick up 27-year-old Aya Saleem for a shopping trip.
“We live in a conservative society. So when I saw that
there was a taxi company especially for women ... I felt a kind of freedom,”
says Saleem.
She wears a long brown tunic, beige headscarf and a
pale blue mask and carries a stylish bag.
“When I’m with a woman, I feel comfortable ... I feel
freer and then we can talk,” she says, adding that women’s taxi services are in
line with sharia, the Islamic code which Hamas promotes in the Gaza Strip.
Saleem is delighted with the idea and hopes to see
more female taxi drivers on Gaza’s roads soon.
Abu Jubbah says she wants to expand her business.
“A woman called me recently to tell me that she wanted
to work as a taxi driver by my side,” she said.
“I told her that we would talk again but I already
have the feeling that the project will gain momentum.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1765181/middle-east
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Fayza Haidar Egypt’s First Female Coach To Train A
Male Soccer Team
Rasha Mahmoud
Nov 18, 2020
Fayza Haidar
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A female soccer coach stands near the stadium’s
benches giving her instructions to the male players passing the ball to each
other.
“It is not common in Middle Eastern society for a
woman to join a soccer team and there are very few teams for women's soccer in
Egypt. Men still refuse to play against women in the same stadium, let alone
being trained by a woman,” soccer team captain Fayza Haidar, 36, told
Al-Monitor. She recounted how difficult it was for her to be accepted as a
coach of male soccer teams. “I endured criticisms, attacks and challenges, but
I made it,” she said.
Recently, Haidar became the first Egyptian coach
accredited by the English Football Association to be among the Egyptian
ambassadors in England along with Egyptian professional soccer players Mohamed
Salah, Mohamed el-Neny, Trezeguet and Ahmed el-Mohamady. Haidar has broken
several social norms in Egypt that restrict women's participation in sports,
specifically in soccer, especially after she was appointed as the first female
coach in the Premier Skills program. She also made it as the first general
coach for a men’s soccer team in Egypt, as she was signed up by the fourth
division side Ideal Goldi, one of the country's professional men's clubs.
“This is a big win for women. I am very excited and
proud, and I hope this will pave the way for more girls and women to challenge
the status quo and believe in themselves,” Haidar said.
The Premier Skills program in Egypt is a program aimed
to empower women and girls through soccer. It trains them in leadership and
communication skills in order to thrive in society and address the challenges
they face in daily life.
According to Haidar, since the launch of the Premier
Skills program in Egypt in 2007, the number of youths and trainers has reached
nearly 200,000, of whom 67% are females. She noted that the state-sponsored initiative
dubbed “1,000 Girls: 1,000 Dreams” and implemented by the Ministry of Youth and
Sports in partnership with the British Council, reached out to 1,200 girls
across Upper Egypt and the Delta.
Recounting her success story, Haidar said, “I
discovered my talent for soccer while accompanying my younger brother who
played at the East Helwan youth center. I caught the eye of one of his coaches
at that time, who asked my parents if I could join the soccer school. They
refused at first, but then I convinced them by accepting to play during my
brother's training. Back then, most trainers would compliment my talent, most
notably one of the Zamalek club officials. In 1997, I joined the Helwan team
and competed in the first women's club championship in Egypt when I was 14
years old. A year later, I joined the national team, and in 2003 I moved to the
Aviation Club, and I was the team's top scorer.”
At the end of 2010, Haidar, who had just turned 25,
was about to make a life-changing decision. “My brother had received an offer
to play at Petrojet Football Club in 2007, and I decided to personally train
him at the East Helwan youth center. One of the officials there asked me to
handle the team’s technical tasks. I immediately agreed, and thus became the
first coach of a men's soccer team in Egypt in 2008,” she added. “I kept
playing with the Aviation Club and we made some huge wins. I won the Junior
Championship eight times and the team reached the final round for the first
time in the history of the club.”
Haidar started her coaching career by taking several
training courses in the field of soccer coaching. She explained that in 2011,
the British Council organized a training course for 100 coaches to learn the
basics of coaching and how to serve the community through soccer. The course
promoted the game in Helwan’s schools and attracted around 100 girls. Then a
delegation from the English Football Association attended one of the course’s
sessions and coordinated with the ministries of youth and sports, and education.
They agreed to organize classes to teach the game to girls in schools.
The young coach was not spared bullying throughout her
soccer career. “When I was coaching at the East Helwan club, the other clubs’
fans would throw bricks at me and shout, ‘Go back to the kitchen.’”
This pushed her to accept coaching the Special
Olympics Egypt's female Unified Football team. “My players felt they were just
like any other player and that they can achieve whatever they want despite the
bullying they were exposed to. The team won third place in the Unified Football
World Cup in Chicago in July 2018.”
In 2012, Haidar traveled to the United States to learn
more coaching skills. In late 2013, she applied to become a certified trainer
with the English Football Association. The association sent three foreign
experts to follow up on the female candidates; she obtained a coaching license
on Sept. 15, 2014. She also obtained an official coaching certificate from the
English Premier League, in addition to her experience as a player in the
Egyptian women's soccer team.
In 2017, Haidar received a professional offer from
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid as a player, and she also received an unofficial
offer to take part as a player in a training camp with the English club
Liverpool.
Female soccer players first appeared in Egypt in 1989.
At the time, the women's soccer team took part in the African League, which was
one of the first tournaments that the Egyptian women's soccer team played in.
Egypt was nominated among the eight best African countries to reach the World
Cup.
Mohamed Kamal, head coach of Wadi Degla club’s women's
soccer team, believes that women's teams do not obtain equal financial rights
like the men's teams. He said in a press statement that this is not the fault
of the clubs but rather due to the game's marketing system, as there are no
sponsors for women teams.
Kamal added that the media fails to promote these
players the same way it does with male players, as the audience prefers men's
soccer games. Kamal called on the Egyptian media to highlight the positive side
of female soccer players by showing the talents of the players and the support
they receive from their families.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/11/egypt-women-soccer-coach-male-teams-norms.html
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Meet Salma al-Rashid: Saudi Arabia’s Women 20 Sherpa
Tamara Abueish
19 Nov 2020
Salma al-Rashid is representing Saudi Arabia at the
Women 20, the official G20 engagement group on women, ahead of the G20 Summit
this weekend.
As the official Women 20 Sherpa, al-Rashid is tasked
with organizing conferences for the event and will be holding a media briefing
in Riyadh on Thursday under the heading “Paving the way post COVID-19:
Unleashing the power of women in the economy.”
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Al-Rashid was appointed Women 20 Sherpa after a long
career as a practitioner in the social sector, where she oversaw a number of
development projects with a focus on women’s empowerment.
She has participated locally in various committees to
influence policy and worked alongside decision-makers to ensure a holistic
approach to social development.
Al-Rashid has also represented civil society
internationally at several UN human rights conventions, leading the
organization’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) applications and
participating at the Commission on the Status of Women.
She has represented Saudi Arabia at the Women20 as the
head of the delegation to Argentina and Japan since 2018, as well as engaged in
activities and dialogues to promote gender-inclusive social and economic
growth.
With an intensive background on gender and development
issues, al-Rashid ensures that the Women 20’s work is always aligned with its
mission, the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 goals, and the UN’s Sustainable Development
Goals.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/11/19/G20-Meet-Salma-al-Rashid-Saudi-Arabia-s-Women-20-Sherpa-
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Calls flood in after Dhaka police launch women’s cyber
support
SHEHAB SUMON
November 19, 2020
DHAKA: Two days after launching an all-female team to
combat online abuse targeting women, Bangladeshi police say they have received
almost 1,000 complaints of cyber harassment.
“The phones are ringing constantly. We are receiving
calls from women all over the country,” Nasrin Akter, assistant superintendent
of the police cyber support for women (PCSW) unit, told Arab News.
“Since launching the service, we have registered
around 1,000 phone calls,” she added.
The cyber support unit was initiated by Bangladeshi
police chief Benazir Ahmed following growing public concern at a rise in
gender-based violence and cybercrimes against women.
“Around 68 percent of women in the cyberspace have
been victims of cybercrimes. Of these, 73 percent have been subjected to
cyberbullying or harassment,” Ahmed said this week.
Police hope the unit will encourage women to report
digital abuse, including “revenge porn,” misuse of social media content and
blackmail, since complainants will share their personal details with an
all-women team instead of men.
“Although we had several specialist units to deal with
cybercrimes, there was none to help women and children exclusively,” Sohel
Rana, assistant inspector-general of police, told Arab News.
According to the Bangladesh Telecommunications
Regulatory Commission, there are more than 100 million active internet users in
the country. Mobile internet use is believed to be limited to 33 percent of men
and 16 percent of women.
Rana said that with a steady increase in internet use,
it was important to create an “exclusive” space where women could voice issues
related to cybercrime.
“A lot of the complaints are about harassment. We
register the complaints and provide necessary legal advice,” he said.
The unit employs 12 police officers who provide
support to victims from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
“We receive complaints through the hotline and our
Facebook page. In some cases, we provide instant solutions. But if the case
requires further investigation, we refer them to the nearest police station to
file an official complaint,” Akter said.
In all cases, the “identity of the complainant is kept
confidential.”
The launch of the women’s cyber-support unit follows
legislation to introduce the death penalty for convicted rapists.
Bangladesh was hit by nationwide protests after two
gang-rapes in the country’s Noakhali and Sylhet districts.
However, activists say that neither the death penalty
nor the launch of the cyber unit will “change the reality,” citing a spike in
rape cases in the past month.
According to one media outlet, 183 rape incidents were
reported in the country in the four weeks to Nov. 13 — a 58 percent increase on
the previous month.
Women and gender experts welcome the police
initiative, but are calling for an “integrated campaign” to limit violence
against women and children.
“Many women don’t know the proper uses of social media
platforms. They don’t have any idea how to protect themselves from abuse,”
Prof. Tania Haque, of Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“We need to focus on eliminating this sort of crime
through a massive awareness campaign,” she added.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1765156/world
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India: Clamour For Justice To Muslim Girl, Gulnaz
Khatoon, 20, Burnt Alive
Shuriah Niazi
18.11.2020
NEW DELHI
Many political leaders and women organizations in
India have joined to demand justice for a Muslim girl, who was allegedly burnt
alive by a Hindu boy in the eastern province of Bihar.
Gulnaz Khatoon, 20, was burnt after the accused poured
kerosene over her in Rasoolpur village in Vaishali district of Bihar on Oct.
30.
The girl's family alleges that the police have not
been able to catch the accused identified as Satish Kumar Rai, Chandan, and
Vinod Rai.
Khatoon sustained 75% burn injuries and later died in
Patna Medical College Hospital, the largest hospital in the province, on
Sunday. She was engaged and the marriage ceremony was scheduled after four
months.
Satish Kumar Rai had been forcing Gulnaz to marry him.
Enraged at her refusal, Satish and his friends killed the girl. Family members
say the girl refused to enter into an interreligious nuptial knot with Rai.
Media reports said Gulnaz was burnt when she went out
to discard household garbage on Oct. 30 evening.
According to the video statement of the victim before
her death, she was caught by three accused, all residents of Rasoolpur village
and they started molesting her.
When she resisted and threatened to inform her mother
about their misconduct, the angry accused poured kerosene on her.
The statement names Satish Rai, who poured kerosene
and set her on fire. Soon the villagers gathered after hearing her screams.
Vaishali District Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav
Mangla said that the accused persons were on the run and three police teams
have been formed to arrest them.
"Investigations in the case were in progress and
the accused persons would be arrested very soon," said Mangla.
The in-charge of the local police station has been
suspended for negligence in the case.
Alleged killers on the run
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Khatoon’s younger sister
Gulshan Parveen said the killers escaped from the scene as soon as villagers
gathered after hearing screams.
"The accused persons had been stalking and
sexually harassing my sister for the last three-four months and pressurizing
her to marry Satish Rai. They killed her because she refused," she said.
The victim’s father Mukhtar had died in 2017. The
family of five sisters and four brothers survived on the wages of mother
Shaimuna Khatoon and brother Istkar Ahmed. They work in provincial capital
Patna where mother stitches and son sells clothes.
The victim’s family had complained to the parents of
the accused about the harassment. But they allegedly did nothing.
"After her marriage was fixed, Satish Rai started
harassing her even more and pressurized her to marry him. However, she told him
that she cannot marry him. Enraged over her refusal, he threatened to kill
her," said the victim’s brother Istkar.
Videos of Khatoon narrate the story
Several videos of Khatoon have gone viral, where she
is pinpointing the accused and narrating the incident in detail.
There was also an appeal on Facebook seeking help in
treating the victim.
After Khatoon’s death on Sunday, her family staged a
demonstration at a city square to press punishment to culprits.
"We want Justice. It has been 17 days but there
has hardly been any progress. We complained but it was not considered. We are
powerless, we have no one to help us," Shaimuna Khatoon, mother of the
victim, told Anadolu Agency.
Many women organizations have demanded immediate
arrest of the accused and compensation of two million rupees ($27,000) and a
government job to the victim's family, besides conducting a fair investigation
and trial in a fast track court.
Taking to Twitter, leader of India’s main opposition
Congress party Rahul Gandhi attacked the government and attributed it to
misrule and false notion of good governance.
Sharing the newspaper report Gandhi wrote: "Whose
crime is more dangerous. Those who carried out this inhuman act? Or those who
hid it for electoral gains to lay the foundation of his false good governance
on this misrule?"
Bihar recently saw the completion of an election
exercise for the provincial assembly in which an alliance of Hindu nationalist
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata dal United (JDU) emerged the winner.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/india-clamor-for-justice-to-muslim-girl-burnt-alive/2048170
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Azhar Grand Sheikh: Islam bans marriage of Muslim
women to non-Muslims
Al-Masry Al-Youm
November 18, 2020
Statements made by Al-Azhar’s Grand Sheikh Ahmed
al-Tayyeb in 2016 refute the controversial statements made this week by Azhar
University Professor of Islamic Thought and Philosophy Amena Nosair on the
marriage of Muslim women to non-Muslim men.
Nosair had sparked a fierce debate among social media
users after stating in an interview that nothing in Islam prevents a Muslim
woman from marrying a non-Muslim man.
Responding to questions from members of Germany’s
Parliament in March of 2016, Ahmed al-Tayyeb said that Islam forbids a Muslim
woman from marrying a non-Muslim, because affection is missing in this
marriage.
Tayyeb clarified that a non-Muslim does not believe in
the Prophet Muhammad, and his religion does not command him to enable his
Muslim wife – if he marries her – to perform the rituals of Islam, or respect
her sacred things, because Islam came after Christianity.
He concluded that the husband, in this case, hurts his
wife morally by not respecting her religion, her prophet, and her sacred
things.
“Marriage in Islam is not a civil contract as it is
with you [Germans], but rather a religious bond based on affection between its
two ends,” Tayyeb said.
However, he went on, a Muslim man may marry a
non-Muslim woman, because Islam orders a Muslim man to allow his non-Muslim
wife to practice her religion freely, therefore ensuring affection and respect
in the marriage.
Nosair argued that Christians and Jews are people of
the book, meaning they believe in the same god and are not idolatrous
worshipers, but practice a different religion.
“In such a case, he [the husband] does the same as a
Muslim man when he marries a Christian or a Jew, he does not force her [the
wife] to change her religion, does not prevent her from her mosque, does not
deprive her of her Quran and does not prevent her from performing her prayers,”
she said.
When asked what religion would the children of such a
marriage follow, Nosair responded that the children follow the father.
She went on to say that this is the reason such
marriages are not permitted, as they decrease the number of Muslims in the
world.
https://egyptindependent.com/azhar-grand-sheikh-islam-bans-marriage-of-muslim-women-to-non-muslims/
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