No-Go Areas in Leicester for Muslim Women Wearing Niqab
New Age Islam News Bureau
9
Jul 2014
Inmates of Bachchiyon Ka Ghar in Old Delhi. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar.
• Bradford Muslim Girls' School Is Criticised For
All-Female Staff by Ofsted
• London Woman Accused of Attempting To Smuggle Cash to
Syria Fighters
• Bachchiyon Ka Ghar: Vagabonds Make Life Difficult For
Orphanage Inmates
• Women Train with AK-47s to Defend the Streets Of
Baghdad
• Ruling on Sharia Courts Bolsters Rights Of India's
Muslim Women, Campaigners Say
• Malaysian-Based Internet Scams Target Lonely American
Women
• Syrian Refugee Women Face Harassment, Poverty
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/no-go-areas-leicester-muslim/d/98000
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No-go areas in Leicester for Muslim women wearing Niqab
09 July, 2014
Muslim women who wear a full veil say there are no-go
areas in Leicester which they feel frightened to visit – even in a car.
They claim they are subjected to abuse every day and
that it is getting increasingly difficult to avoid such incidents in the city
centre.
The revelations are contained in a new book by two
criminology lecturers at the University of Leicester.
More than 100 Leicester-based Muslim women were
interviewed over a 12-month period for the book, called Islamophobia,
Victimisation and the Veil.
One woman who took part in the study told the Mercury:
“People feel free to have a pop at us every day.
“They swear, stare, spit and tell us to go home. They
call us terrorists.”
The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “There
are areas in Leicester we don’t go to, even in a car.
“It is also becoming more difficult to wear the niqab
in the city centre. I don’t go in any more unless I really have to.”
A niqab is a veil which covers part or most of the
wearer’s face, leaving the eyes visible.
The woman added: “I am as British as anyone. We follow
the football and the tennis at home. My boys try to make a joke of it calling
me ‘Ninja mum’.
“We had thought that if we ignore it, it would go
away. It hasn’t.”
The book was written by Dr Irene Zempi and Neil
Chakraborti.
Dr Zempi wore a niqab for a month to understand what
her interviewees experienced.
“Attitudes to me changed over night,” she said.
“People were abusive and threatening, and where previously shop assistants were
friendly, they simply ignored me.
“I did not want to go out and I became depressed.”
She added: “The level of abuse that participants faced
depended upon whether they were in their local community or whether they were
leaving their ‘comfort zone’.
“Some participants referred to ‘no-go zones’ for
Muslims in Leicester such as the traditionally white areas of Braunstone,
Beaumont Leys, Saffron Lane, New Parks, Hamilton and even Leicester city
centre.”
Many of the women interviewed said they had moved to
the city in the belief that Leicester would provide a better life for them and
their families.
However, one woman said she had tea thrown at her and
another said she was elbowed in the stomach when pregnant.
A 36-year-old quoted in the book said: “It is worse
elsewhere, but there are racist people even in Leicester.
“We moved to Leicester because it’s a safer community
here. It’s better for our children as well. Leicester is more tolerant, but
there is still Islamophobia.”
Another woman, who moved to Leicester from Holland,
says in the book: “We are a bit more sheltered here, but no matter how diverse
a place is, it’s always going to happen.”
Another added: “I don’t understand why everyone says
Leicester is safe. It’s much easier to do niqab in Birmingham.”
Shaista Gohir, chair of the Muslim Women’s Network UK,
who studied at De Montfort University, said: “I would urge women to report all
incidents of abuse. I am sure that there is underreporting of such issues.
“When I was a student in Leicester 25 years ago we
were told to avoid those areas which have been mentioned if we had a brown
skin. The veil and the head scarf were very rare then.
“It appears that attitudes in those areas have not
changed.”
A police spokeswoman said there had been 11 instances
of religiously-based abuse aimed at women in the past year. There had also been
one incident of a man removing a woman’s veil.
She said: “Police safer neighbourhood teams are
continuing to work hard at making all places of Leicester, Leicestershire and
Rutland a safe place to work and live.
“We would always encourage anyone who feels that they
may have been a victim of a crime to contact police so the matter can be fully
investigated.
“We would urge all victims of hate crime to report it
to us by calling 101.”
http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/areas-Leicester-Muslim-women-wearing-niqab/story-21342283-detail/story.html#ixzz36ugpyxnx
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Bradford Muslim Girls' School Is Criticised For
All-Female Staff by Ofsted
09 July, 2014
A Muslim girls’ state school which recruits only
female staff has been criticised by Ofsted inspectors for a lack of male
influence on pupils.
Feversham College in Bradford has been told to
introduce male role models to its ‘all-female environment’.
The 664-pupil school was visited by inspectors last
month as Ofsted’s ‘Trojan Horse’ probe into attempts to impose a strict
religious agenda on schools was extended beyond Birmingham.
The watchdog found that music was not taught as a
separate subject to 11 to 14-year-olds and some teachers were given performance
targets to develop the school’s ‘Islamic ethos’.
Inspectors also reported that the school operated an
‘all-female learning environment’ which extended to male governors ‘not
interact[ing] with students’.
Ofsted urged the school to ‘increase opportunities for
the broadest range of positive role models, including men and male governors,
to be part of students’ learning’.
The college was also told to ‘continue to review the
breadth and balance of the curriculum’, although it currently met legal
requirements.
The school’s recruitment policies are already being
investigated by the Department for Education amid concerns they may be
unlawful.
DfE officials intervened earlier this year after the
school ran job adverts specifying women teaching staff.
Now the department’s Education Funding Agency (EFA)
says it is ‘working with’ the college to ensure recruitment procedures are
‘fully compliant’ with equality law.
Feversham – motto ‘In the name of Allah the Beneficent
the Merciful’ – aims to educate girls aged 11 to 18 ‘in the context of the
Islamic Sunni faith as a way of life’.
The designated faith school was judged ‘outstanding’
at its last full Ofsted inspection and is regularly among the
highest-performing state comprehensives in the country.
Ofsted placed five schools in Birmingham special
measures earlier this month after investigating allegations of a concerted
attempt to introduce a strict Islamic agenda in state schools.
It uncovered an ’organised campaign’ to impose a
‘narrow faith-based ideology’ on schools which was resulting in pupils being
poorly prepared for life in modern Britain.
The watchdog made a snap inspection at Feversham last
month because the ‘chief inspector was concerned about the effectiveness of
safeguarding and leadership and management at the academy’.
In their report, inspectors praised many aspects of
the school – which became an academy with extra freedoms in 2011 - and noted
that students were ‘prepared for life in modern Britain’.
The school is ‘aware of the risk of extremism and
radicalisation’ and implements the Government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy aimed at
combating it, the report said.
‘An annual “health check” by the local
counter-terrorism unit ensures the academy is following best practice,’ it
added.
The report said music was not taught as a separate
subject to younger pupils but noted that pupils were exposed to music in
classes such as drama and allowed to stage performances.
It added: ‘Some teachers’ targets are linked to the
development of the academy’ s Islamic ethos but these are in the minority’.
The report said governors ‘express a range of
different views on the rationale for the retention of an all-female learning
environment’.
It added: ‘Male governors are not role models within
the academy because they do not interact with students in this all-female
environment.’
Ofsted warned that if the school’s recruitment policy
is found not to comply with Government requirements, future Ofsted ratings for
the head and governors could be affected.
The school’s two ‘priorities for further improvement’
were to increase pupils’ exposure to male role models and ensure the curriculum
‘continues to extend students’ range of experience’.
Defending its job adverts specifying women staff, the
school’s head, Clare Skelding, said earlier this year the policy had been
accepted by the Government when the school – previously a private school -
entered the state education system.
‘Feversham College was established in 1984 for 11 to
18-year-old Muslim girls, in response to parental demand for single-sex
education based on religious beliefs’ she said.
‘When applying for voluntary-aided status in 2001, it
was made very clear to the DfE (DfEE as was) and the City of Bradford
Metropolitan District Council (LEA) that the school’s intention was to continue
to operate with female-only staff, based upon two legal opinions obtained at
the time by the school.
‘This position was accepted by the DfEE and LEA at the
time. The school has recently taken further legal advice from a leading QC, who
has confirmed that the school’s policy of a female-only teaching environment is
not unlawful and complies with the terms of the Equality Act 2010.’
But Pavan Dhaliwal, of the British Humanist
Association, claimed the school’s actions were ‘plainly unlawful’.
The outcome of the Department for Education
investigation could have implications for other Muslim faith schools employing
single-sex staff.
A DfE spokesman said: ‘All schools must comply with
equality law.
‘The Education Funding Agency is working with
Feversham College to make sure their recruitment processes are fully
compliant.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2685412/Muslim-school-criticised-female-staff-Ofsted-orders-college-introduce-male-role-models-inspection.html#ixzz36uhKXQcF
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London Woman Accused of Attempting To Smuggle Cash to
Syria Fighters
09 July, 2014
Two women have gone on trial accused of arranging to
smuggle cash to fighters in Syria after one was allegedly found with 20,000
euros in her underwear.
Nawal Msaad, 27, from north London and Amal El-Wahabi,
27, from north-west London are appearing at the Old Bailey.
Ms Msaad was stopped at Heathrow Airport boarding a
flight to Istanbul on 16 January. She was recruited by Ms El-Wahabi, whose
husband is fighting in Syria, it is claimed.
Both women deny all charges.
Prosecutor Mark Dennis QC said that when Ms Msaad was
arrested she was asked if she understood what was happening and replied:
"I do, but I'm in shock."
'Buying gold'
The court heard that when she was searched at the
airport she pulled a roll of cash - made up of 500-euro banknotes - from her
underwear, which Mr Dennis said had been concealed in her body inside a condom.
There were also four 200-euro notes and two 100-euro
notes found inside the stash.
Ms Msaad told police she had been planning to buy gold
for her mother, the jury heard.
But Mr Dennis insisted the money "had been raised
in this country and had been destined to support the jihadist cause" -
which Ms El-Wahabi's husband Aine Davis was "now pursuing with like-minded
supporters".
The prosecution alleged that the smuggling attempt had
been instigated by Mr Davis, who, it was claimed, is fighting with jihadists in
Syria.
The court heard that Mr Davis adopted the name
"Hamza" and had spent time living in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Mr Dennis said Mr Davis had left the UK on a flight to
Amsterdam in July 2013, and messages to his wife indicated that he had decided
to stay "in Muslim lands".
The jury was told that on the same day that Ms Msaad
was arrested, police also went to Ms El-Wahabi's home where they seized mobile
phones.
Ms El-Wahabi denied to police any knowledge of her
husband's alleged jihadist behaviour, but material recovered from the phones
was at odds with this claim, the court heard.
Kalashnikov
Mr Davis had sent her photos and videos which contained
jihadist propaganda, Mr Dennis said.
He said one video sent in September 2013, showed a
"boy martyr" aged between 10 and 13 holding a Kalashnikov rifle.
The court heard that Ms El-Wahabi, who was living on
benefits, had been reluctant to follow her husband, and leave behind her
friends and family.
But by December last year she was warming to the idea
of joining him, jurors were told.
The case continues.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28206160
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Bachchiyon Ka Ghar: Vagabonds Make Life Difficult For
Orphanage Inmates
RANA SIDDIQUI ZAMAN
09 July, 2014
Four rooms, 52 to 90 girls, one kitchen, three
washrooms, five toilets, no medical facility, no conveyance, no play area but a
lot of love. This is what defines Bachchiyon Ka Ghar – an orphanage for Muslim
girls at Matiya Mahal in Old Delhi.
The oldest in the Capital, built in 1891 by freedom
fighter and pioneer of Unani medicine Hakim Ajmal Khan, the orphanage’s
approach is through a congested and filthy dark lanes and by-lanes. It is a
home to girls aged between seven and 18, and two wardens – Iftekhar Begum, who
has been working here for 21 years, and Shahida Sultana, who joined recently.
Bachchiyon Ka Ghar is housed in a three-storey
building. It is neat but cries for lack of space.
In one hall among six very small rooms – one of which
is used by two wardens and one as a store plus changing room – some 13 to 16
girls sleep on the floor, whatever be the season. The hall serves every purpose
for them: it is their drawing room, a dining room, bedroom, reading room and
entertainment room. There is a television, carrom board and ludo for
entertainment and indoor games.
Girls can’t play outside. All they do in the name of
outdoor game is skipping at the home courtyard. Other rooms, the children say,
are rat-infested, who often bite them when they sleep on the floor. Sometimes
the rats also bit their shoes and clothes – due to which many girls are sent
back from their schools. Lack of sufficient number of refrigerators and heaters
in winters further make their lives difficult.
The salaries of the staff vary from Rs.1, 100 to
14,000. The girls get Rs.5 to Rs.10 – depending on their seniority – per month
as pocket money.
All this is still fine, the inmates say, but the most
difficult part is the atmosphere right outside the orphanage. The exit to the
street meets Karim Hotel, Jama Masjid and hundreds of shops.
“The narrow street we pass by is always full of
vagabonds. They chase us till our schools and back. They hit us with their
elbows. One elderly person hurls unspeakably filthy invectives in our ears
every day. Recently, a boy took off my dupatta, and I came back crying to the
home,” cried 16-year-old Sania Afzal.
Fouzia Karimuddin, who is of the same age, added: “The
other day four of us were coming back home when a boy held my hand.”
Afshan, a younger one, too complained: “Now we feel
scared of even going to the school. If we resist, they make false complaints
against us.”
Agreed warden Shahida: “Till the time girls come back
from school, we feel restless and scared of untoward incident.”
Despite everything, love binds them all. “These
children live like sisters. They go to school in the morning. They study in
corporation and government schools within the Old Delhi area. Girls in primary
schools come back by 12-30 and the senior ones by 2-30 p.m. “Four girls take
turns to cook dinner every day. They are also taught knitting and tailoring for
self sustenance in future. They also read the Quran,” said Begum.
Though a cook prepares food in the first half, and a
peon stays with them till the late evening, the home doesn't have medical
facility, ambulance or any vehicle for use in case of emergency. “The office
has not kept a male security or attendant for us either. In case of medical
emergency, we wardens and the freelance Quran teacher have to take the girls to
nearby hospital by any public conveyance which is usually not available during
late nights,” said Begum.
“We don’t have lack of ration, clothes and bedding as
we get it from the office and there are also a lot of donations, especially
during the holy month of Ramzan. The main problem is space and the filthy
atmosphere outside,” noted Shahida.
Tejpal Bharti, the vice-president of the home, too
moaned: “We applied for a piece of land for the orphanage 14 years ago and did
regular follow ups. But it is stuck between Delhi Government and Delhi
Development Authority.”
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/vagabonds-make-life-difficult-for-orphanage-inmates/article6184658.ece
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Women train with AK-47s to defend the streets of
Baghdad
09 July, 2014
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — With one hand, Zahra Hassan
clutches a purse that matches her red blouse and skirt trimmed in blue.
In the other, she holds an AK-47.
Peering through her blue veiled hijab, the traditional
Muslim head cover, the petite 25-year-old watches as the man in a military
uniform with no insignia shows her how to switch off the rifle’s safety, take
aim and fire.
Then it’s her turn. In red ballerina flats, she
positions herself, levels the AK-47 toward a thick patch of date palms and
pulls the trigger. Bang! The feel of the weapon discharging a round startles
her a bit.
“Then you turn the safety on and lower the weapon,”
the man tells her. She follows his instruction.
This is day one of a five-day course being offered by
the Badr Brigade, a powerful Shiite militia with an estimated 10,000 members,
to the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters of the group.
Hassan is not training to go to the front line to
fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and its allied Sunni militants, but
rather to defend her home if the terror group makes its way into Baghdad and
ignites sectarian fighting in the streets.
With most of the men in her family leaving home to
volunteer to fight ISIS and its allies, Hassan says she has no choice now but
to learn how to fight.
“I must do this,” she says.
More than 450 women have been through the training
since the group started it this year, a step that was taken after ISIS began
its battle for the flashpoint city of Falluja in Anbar province — a battle that
was a bellwether of things to come in Iraq.
And thousands more are waiting, says Maj. Kareem
Abdullah of the Badr Brigade, sitting in his office in a fortified compound in
Yarmouk, a mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad.
The number of women volunteers swelled in June after
ISIS seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, and then began a march on the
Iraqi capital, vowing to hit the city of more than 7 million people and
overthrow the Shiite-dominated government.
“We are training these ladies to make them ready if
(ISIS) makes it into their neighborhood,” Abdullah said.
“They will be the ones who have to defend their home.”
Memories of past violence
Hassan remembers the sectarian fighting — Shiite vs.
Sunni, sometimes neighbor vs. neighbor — at the height of the Iraq War that
nearly tore the country apart.
Her older brother, 36-year-old Ali Hassan, was among
the thousands who reportedly disappeared during the fighting.
The last time she ever saw him was the morning of May
28, 2007, when he left their home in Mahmoudiya, a Sunni-dominated city of
about 500,000 people dubbed the “Gateway to Baghdad” because of its proximity
to the Iraqi capital.
She doesn’t know what happened to him. But she and her
family believe he was a victim of the sectarian fighting.
“Maybe somebody kidnapped him?” she says, looking down
at the gun in her hand. “Maybe he was killed in an explosion?”
Ask any of the women, who range between the ages of 14
and 60, at the Badr Brigade training center if their family has a “martyr” —
somebody who has been killed in the fighting — and nearly three-quarters of the
hands go up.
Ask if any of them know of anybody who’s one, and
everybody’s hands go up.
Jaffar Hassan is the man in the military uniform
instructing the women. He is not related to Zahra Hassan, but she could be his
daughter.
By the time the week is done, he says, the women will
be proficient enough to protect themselves and, if necessary, kill.
Teen learning to protect her family
Fourteen-year-old Ageel Fadhil sits against the trunk
of a towering date palm, listening to Hassan. An AK-47 lays across her lap.
Her tender age is evident by the white hijab she
wears. The other women, all older, wear hijabs in dark colors. Her mother,
Shama, already knows how to use the weapon. She is an Iraqi police officer, one
of the thousands of women who were trained in such roles when the U.S. military
was standing up Iraq’s military.
She also was among the first to complete the Badr
Brigade training, and today she is helping to instruct the women at the
training center to handle the weapons.
Ageel must learn how to protect the family,
specifically her 7-year-old brother Ali, she says. “When her father and I are
at work, what is she going to do if someone comes in the house to kill them?”
With school out for the summer, most of Ageel’s
friends, she says, are watching television and reading magazines. She asked
them to volunteer with her, but only a few did, she said.
When its Ageel’s turn to fire, she moves to the front
of the group.
“So I take aim like this, and I get ready to fire,”
Hassan says, lifting the AK-47 and leveling it toward the trees. “Then I fire.”
He hands it to Ageel, who follows his instruction. She
squeezes the trigger. Bang!
Nice shot, he tells her.
Her mother, wearing a green camouflage headscarf that
matches her uniform, smiles at her and gently pats her on her back.
It’s not what a mother wishes for her daughter, Shama
Fadhil said. “But in Iraq, this is the reality.”
By the end of the lesson, Ageel appears more at ease with
the AK-47, cradling the weapon in her arm — just like she has seen soldiers on
the streets do.
But could she kill somebody? Could she point the gun
at somebody and pull the trigger?
She thinks about the questions for a moment and then
looks to her mother before she answers.
“If God wills it, yes,” she says. By Chelsea J. Carter
http://fox2now.com/2014/07/08/taking-aim-at-isis-women-train-with-ak-47s-to-defend-the-streets-of-baghdad/
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/08/world/meast/iraq-women-train-to-fight/
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Ruling on Sharia courts bolsters rights of India's
Muslim women, campaigners say
09 July, 2014
NEW DELHI: (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A ruling by
Supreme Court stating that fatwas issued by Sharia courts are illegal will help
protect the rights of Muslim women who are often forced to abide by inhumane
diktats, women's rights activists said.
The court on Monday rejected a petition which sought
to ban Sharia courts, but said that their rulings over Muslims had no legality
and could not be enforced against an individual's will.
There are almost 140 million Muslims in India, many of
whom follow their own laws relating to issues such as marriage and divorce and
use Sharia courts to help settle disputes.
But women's rights groups say while Sharia courts are
important for Muslims as they can provide speedy justice, their rulings are
often unfair and violate the rights of women.
"We whole-heartedly welcome today’s judgment …
against fatwas that trample upon rights of individuals and stating that diktats
which are in violation of rights of any individual are to be considered illegal
and invalid," said Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila
Andolan (Indian Muslim Women's Movement).
"This far-sighted judgment will go a long way in
enabling the poor and women among the Muslim community to get speedy justice
and at the same time their fundamental rights will not be subject to arbitrary
interpretations and violation."
The Supreme Court ruling resulted from a case
involving a woman who was told by a Sharia court to leave her husband and
children and live with her father-in-law who had raped her.
Many people from poor backgrounds cannot access civil
courts and seek resolution through Sharia courts, said Soman.
She called for a new, well defined Muslim Personal Law
to make 18 years the minimum age of marriage for girls and to criminalise
polygamy for Muslims. Under the current law, Muslim girls can marry when they
reach puberty.
"We believe that a codified Muslim Personal Law
based on the Koranic principles of justice and equality can go a long way in
furthering the cause of justice. There is need for the institutions such as
Sharia courts to be made accountable," said Soman.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/india-muslims-sharia-sc-idINKBN0FD1FV20140708
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Malaysian-based Internet scams target lonely American
women
09 July, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Hundreds of American women are
being ensnared by Internet scammers based in Malaysia, with some losing over a
quarter of a million dollars, as the country becomes an epicentre for online
crime perpetrated by Africans, US officials say.
The mostly Nigerian conmen, who enter Malaysia on
student visas, take advantage of the country’s good Internet infrastructure to
prey on lonely, middle-aged women, wooing them on dating websites before
swindling their savings, they said.
The scams are more sophisticated than most
Nigeria-based operations - which most Internet users have experienced at some
time either via email or advertising - helped by Malaysia’s advanced banking
system, which allows perpetrators to quickly set up accounts and receive
international transfers.
US officials say Malaysian police lack the resources
and expertise to tackle the problem and have yet to launch a single prosecution
of a case involving a US victim.
Malaysian police were reported by local media last
December as saying that the number of Internet scam cases more than doubled in
2013 with total losses of more than US$11 million (RM34.8 million). A total of
476 Africans had been apprehended for suspected involvement, the report said.
The Malaysian police and the Nigerian embassy in Kuala
Lumpur did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment. A spokesman for
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said he was not aware of
scammers operating in Malaysia, but added they were known to have international
networks.
Tim Scherer, consul general at the US embassy in Kuala
Lumpur, told Reuters that complaints about such scams now made up more than 80
per cent of inquiries to duty officers at the mission, with a dozen new cases
reported every week.
Citizens of Australia, Canada and Europe had also been
targeted, he said.
“These are not rich widows who are being preyed on,
these are middle-class Americans who don’t have this kind of money to spare,”
he said. “It can really transform their lives in a very terrible way.”
The US embassy estimates that US victims are losing
several million dollars a year, with two women in the past 12 months losing
more than US$250,000 each. There are more than 600 cases a year, and the amount
lost by each victim averages in the tens of thousands of dollars, it said.
The actual figure of total losses is probably far
higher, Scherer said, because many victims are too embarrassed to come forward
or do not know who to contact. He said the scammers were highly sophisticated,
often grooming victims for months and using convincing techniques such as
forging letters purportedly from the US ambassador in Malaysia.
Fake romance
Large teams of scammers typically trawl dating or
Christian websites and contact middle-aged women, the US officials said. They
pretend to be a Western man who then gets into legal or business difficulties
in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
One US victim told Reuters she transferred a total of
US$260,000 to Malaysia, where the man who claimed to love her said he was being
prevented from returning to the United States by Malaysian bureaucracy — which
required hefty payments to negotiate.
The 59-year-old widow from Phoenix, Arizona, who
declined to be identified, said she had gone heavily into debt to make the
payments to “Charles”, and even flew to Malaysia in March to meet him. He never
showed up, but a European woman claiming to be his lawyer managed to bilk
another US$25,000 out of the woman before she returned to Arizona.
Another victim, a women in her late 50s in the eastern
United States, said she sent her life savings of US$300,000 over two months to
a Malaysia-based “American” man she met on dating site Match.com, three years
after her husband died.
“I felt like I was in love with this man and we’d be
moving forward with a life together real soon,” she told Reuters.
Match.com did not respond to a Reuters request for
comment. Along with other major US-based dating sites, it features prominent
warnings about scammers, specifically telling users to be wary of people who
say they are Americans based abroad.
Student scam
The conmen have exploited Malaysia’s drive to become a
global education hub, securing student visas to attend college, the US
officials said.
Malaysia has pursued a policy of attracting
international students for more than a decade, allowing dozens of foreign
colleges to set up Malaysian campuses.
Scherer said it was likely that many of the Nigerians
in Malaysia were not genuine students. As of March, there were 9,146 Nigerians
on student visas in Malaysia, the education ministry said, out of 123,000
overseas students in total.
“Once in the country as students, there’s very little
effort to verify their studies,” Scherer said.
An official with Malaysia’s education ministry said
that last year it tightened its vetting and tracking of overseas students.
“We are aware of problems with some international
students, especially Nigerians,” the official said.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/malaysian-based-internet-scams-target-lonely-american-women#sthash.YKl0nJIO.dpuf
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Syrian refugee women face harassment, poverty
Associated Press
Jul. 09, 2014
HALBA, Lebanon Before she began working as a
hairdresser, poverty forced Syrian Umm Mahmoud to seek donations for food and
rent money to survive as a refugee in Lebanon.
Often men suggested she have sex with them to show her
gratitude, the 32-year-old said.
Her experiences echo among Syrian refugee women.
Across the region, they lead about a quarter of all Syrian refugee families,
which number some 145,000, the United Nations estimated in a report issued
Tuesday.
"If you want to eat in Lebanon, you must eat your
dignity," said Umm Mahmoud. Her husband was disabled in fighting in Syria,
leaving her to care for their five children alone. "To stay honorable, it
means to go hungry sometimes. She who doesn't have a husband or protector —
they are always the most vulnerable," she said.
Syrians made refugees by the war in their country, now
in its fourth year, number nearly three million across neighboring Lebanon,
Turkey and Jordan. Most live in poverty as they hustle for food, jobs,
accommodation and health care.
Women-headed households face additional burdens: they
are often poorer, and many must push their children to work instead of
attending school. Their husbands were either killed, captured, badly wounded or
divorced.
The U.N. says they struggle particularly to pay rent
and keep food on the table.
Women also say they are sexually harassed by
landlords, employers and local charity workers. In the region's conservative
societies, they say, women who don't have a male protector are viewed as easy
prey and sexually promiscuous.
"The women who are widowed, or whose husbands are
missing, or disabled, they face (sexual) extortion and pressure," said
Saadia Ghneim, the head of a community center in the northern Lebanese town of
Halba. The center offers courses like hairdressing, sewing, computer and
language training, helping Syrian and Lebanese women in an impoverished
district find jobs.
Umm Mahmoud's life turned around after a hairdressing
course that allowed her work in a salon. She stopped asking local charities and
Muslim sheiks for help, and only receives food aid from the U.N.
Umm Mahmoud, from the Syrian city of Homs, said that
before she found work, she survived by pretending not to hear the offers of sex
suggested to her as she knocked at the doors of charities.
"They would ask, why are you coming in the day?
Why not come at night?"
For women who lived in poverty in Syria, becoming
refugees has worsened their situation. Such is the lot of Yasmine Shreiteh, 27,
who shelters with her father and four sisters in a garage they rent for $100 a
month.
Her father fell from a balcony in Syria, breaking his
back. One of her sisters was born disabled, and their mother abandoned them,
she said.
"I am learning how to sew so I can support my
family," said Shreiteh, as she stitched a pair of trousers in the sewing
course at the community center in Halba. "And also to support myself for
the future and to have a profession, so I won't need to rely on anybody
later," she said.
In other women-led households, children are pushed
into work.
Zeinab Abu Salah, 16, came from an education-focused
family. But her father was wounded in the war, and the family fled to Lebanon.
The teenager said she watched her mother struggle as a hairdresser, trying to
feed and educate her and her four brothers.
"One person can't take care of everything,"
said Abu Salah. "When I saw she needed help, I had to help."
The teen said she was in eighth grade, having lost
years of school to war. She was also taking a hairdressing course and working
alongside her mother, helping pay for her siblings' educations.
The U.N. has repeatedly pleaded for more money to help
Syrian refugees, having only funded one-third of their budget for the task.
They also ask governments to help protect Syrian women, and call on wealthier
countries to resettle women-led households as a priority.
"Syrian refugee women are the glue holding
together a broken society. Their strength is extraordinary, but they are
struggling alone," said Angelina Jolie, the U.N's refugee agency special
envoy, in a statement following the report.
For Umm Mahmoud, a conservative Muslim, she said her
experiences of being vulnerable made her realize how far Syria's communal
fabric had unraveled. One experience, meeting a Syrian widow with children who
worked as a prostitute in northern Lebanon, changed her.
"I used to see these women and fault them. Now I
think of (the widow's) children and the situation in Syria, and how nobody
cares about her, and I can't blame her anymore. I see now that God's forgiveness
is mighty."
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/07/09/5032392/syrian-refugee-women-face-harassment.html#.U7xgB5RdU4U#storylink=cpy
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/no-go-areas-leicester-muslim/d/98000