Priyanka Chopra attacked on social media for supporting Iranian women protesting against hijab, called a hypocrite, Muslim hater
09 October 2022
•
Priyanka Chopra attacked on social media for supporting Iranian women
protesting against hijab, called a hypocrite, Muslim hater
•
Mother says police beat daughter to death in Iranian protests
•
Voices from the Arab press: Will the women of Iran bring down the law imposing
the veil?
•
How the U.S. Can Help Support the Women of Iran Calling for Change
•
Sexual violence against women in Afghanistan on the rise under Taliban
•
Iran’s brave young women must break their own chains. The west won’t help
•
Woman, 22, killed in hit-and-run after car mounts kerb outside Shropshire
takeaway
•
‘Darkest of days for Donegal’: Girl (5) and her father among 10 victims of
petrol station explosion, alongside teen girl and mother
•
Hindu woman molested by a Muslim in Shridurga Puja Mandap in Bangladesh
•
Why Iran’s female-led revolt fills me with hope
•
Dua Lipa Shows Support for Women’s Rights in Iran Following Protest Deaths:
‘Keep the World Watching’
•
Muslim federation to reserve seats for women in its panel
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Priyanka
Chopra attacked on social media for supporting Iranian women protesting against
hijab, called a hypocrite, Muslim hater
8
October, 2022
On
Saturday, actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas was attacked for extending her support
to the Iranian women protesting against the death of a 22-year-old woman named
MahsaAmini. Amini was arrested by the ‘morality police’ in Tehran for not
properly wearing a hijab as per mandatory hijab laws of the country and she was
then killed by the police on 16 September 2022. Since then, dozens of young
people have been killed and hundreds jailed in the ongoing protest against the
Islamist regime.
Priyanka
directed a message to Iranian protesters, stating that she admires their
bravery in fighting for their rights. “Women in Iran and around the world are
standing up and raising their voices, publicly cutting their hair and many
other forms of protest for MahsaAmini, whose young life was taken away so
brutally by the Iranian Morality Police for wearing her hijab ‘improperly’. The
voices that speak after ages of forced silence, will rightfully burst like a
volcano! And they will not and MUST not be stemmed”, the message read.
“I
am in awe of your courage and your purpose. It is not easy to risk your life,
literally, to challenge the patriarchal establishment and fight for your
rights. But, you are courageous women doing this every day regardless of the
cost to yourselves. To ensure that this movement will have a lasting effect, we
must hear their call, understand the issues and then join in with our
collective voices”, the 40-year-old actress further said.
However,
netizens on Twitter and her followers on Instagram could not digest the fact
that the actress was supporting the Iranian protest against the hijab and
attacked her for allegedly not standing by her country amid the hijab row. “I
appreciate this post but also point out your hypocrisy for not extending the
same supportive voice to Hijabi women from your own country who are being
harassed by your country’s government for their freedom of choice and being
forbidden from taking exams because of their hijab. Can you stand up for them
too? Can’t probably”, one of her Instagram users commented.
Meanwhile,
another one said that the actress had failed to stand by the women in India,
France, and Germany who want to wear hijab. “Why didn’t you say anything when
women were brutally treated in India, France, and Germany who wanted to wear
hijab? It’s everyone’s own choice. Why just show support when they don’t want
to wear hijab? Is it really about rights or agendas?”, the comment read?
Chopra’s
support was also condemned by the leftists and Islamist citizens who accused
her of maintaining silence in many incidents favoring the Islamist community.
“Priyanka Chopra’s concern for Iranian women is hugely appreciated, but her
silence on BilkisBano and the state-enabled persecution of Muslims, especially
marginalized women in her home country, India is worth introspection”,
commented claimed journalist Rana Ayyub.
Source:
Op India
-----
Mother
says police beat daughter to death in Iranian protests
Martin
Chulov
8
Oct 2022
Nika
Shahkarami, 16; her mother rejects the official account of her death.
Photograph: Twitter
-------------
The
mother of a 16-year-old Iranian girl, Nika Shakarami, who died during protests
that continue to sweep the country, has rejected official claims that her death
was caused by falling from a building and insisted she was beaten to death by
regime forces.
Nasreen
Shakarami said authorities refused to notify the family about her daughter’s
death for 10 days and then removed Nika from the morgue, burying her in a
remote village without the family’s consent. Her mother says records of Nika’s
death show her skull was severely damaged and her injuries were consistent with
being struck repeatedly on her head.
The
death of the young student has emerged as another icon of a protest movement
that is now entering its fourth week and is seen as the biggest challenge to
the Iranian regime’s authority in at least 13 years. Iran’s leaders have
attempted to characterise the protests as a foreign plot, and a separatist push
by a Kurdish minority. However, a groundswell of people from all walks of life
continues to fuel a movement that is drawn from widespread social grievance.
Meanwhile,
another teenage girl was reported to have been killed by security forces.
Sarina Esmailzadeh, a 16-year-old who posted vlogs on YouTube, was reportedly
killed when security forces beat her with batons at a protest in Gohardasht in
Alborz province on 23 September, according to Amnesty International.
Demonstrations
across the country are centred on women’s rights, in particular demands to
eschew the hijab, which the theocratic regime enforces as mandatory.
“The
protests are the continuation of a century-long desire and struggle for change
and improvement in Iran,” said Dr Allan Hassaniyan, from the University of
Exeter’s Arabic and Islamic Studies centre. “It is too early to call them truly
nationwide, but they are certainly widespread. Whatever happens next, the
uprisings have already redefined the state-society relationship in Iran and
have shaken the Islamic Republic to its core.”
Hassaniyan
said the movement marked the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979
that communities in the central regions of Iran had expressed solidarity with
protest leaders who were campaigning against the state.
Protests
started in Kurdish regions of Iran after the death of 22-year-old MahsaAmini in
the custody of Iran’s feared morality police who had detained her for being in
violation of the dress code for women.
However,
they quickly spread to other parts of the country, including the capital.
Nearly one month on, the movement has galvanised women in many towns, cities,
and even villages, where momentum shows little sign of slowing and defiance of
social norms shows signs of increasing.
Students
have been at the forefront of demonstrations and men have also expressed
solidarity. “Gender struggles have proved to be an important unifying dynamic,”
said Hassaniyan. “The fact that this movement has followed the lead of Kurdish
demonstrators is an important sign that new forms of solidarity are
developing.”
Defying
officials, Nika’s bereaved mother spoke to a Persian language service, Radio
Farda, rejecting official attempts to frame her daughter’s death as an
accident. She said forensic reports had shown that her body was intact, but
bones in her teeth and the back of her skull were broken and some teeth were missing.
“The damage was to her head,” she said. “Her body was intact, arms and legs.”
Iran’s
state news agency also claimed on Friday that a coroner’s report into Amini’s
death showed she had suffered multiple organ failure from cerebral hypoxia – a
condition caused by lack of oxygen to the brain.
Human
rights groups have roundly condemned Iranian authorities for the ongoing
crackdown. Amnesty International says many dozens of people have been killed
across the country, claiming that 66 demonstrators were killed in one day in
the city of Zahedan. Human Rights Watch has also accused the government of
being quick to “crush dissent with cruel disregard for life”.
“The
security forces’ widespread shooting of protesters only serves to fuel anger
against a corrupt and autocratic government,” said Tara Sepehri Far, the
organisation’s senior Iran researcher.
Despite
the growing demonstrations, there has been no sign of splintering among the
ranks of Iran’s vast security state. Over 43 years, the Revolutionary Guards
have consolidated a ruthless hold on social and cultural mores, and have shown
no sign of yielding to dissent of any kind.
Source:
The Guardian
-----
Voices
from the Arab press: Will the women of Iran bring down the law imposing the
veil?
By
MEDIA LINE
OCTOBER
9, 2022
VEILED
WOMEN in Tehran.
(photo
credit: Raheb Homavandi/TIMA/Reuters)
------------
There
is no doubt that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi would have liked to win the
sympathy of the delegates sitting at the UN General Assembly hall during his
speech, but even those who could sympathize with him had in mind the sights of
Iranian police chasing women, arresting them and shooting them.
The
soul of MahsaAmini, who succumbed to the wounds inflicted upon her by the
Iranian police, hovered over everyone present in the room. As you might recall,
MahsaAmini was arrested because some of her hair showed through her veil, which
was against the law. The Iranian regime first imposed the veil laws in 1981.
But the truth is that the laws weren’t just imposed in Iran; they also made
their way to most Gulf and Arab countries. Inspired by the Iranian Revolution,
other counties in the region began imposing their own laws pertaining to head
covering.
At
this time when Iranian women are revolting against the most important symbols
of authoritarianism, I recall the late Fatema Mernissi, the renowned Moroccan
sociologist, whose research focused on the veil. One of Mernissi’s most
important books was “Behind the Veil,” in which she refuted the claim made by
some clergymen about women’s hair and face as a fitnah – a temptation – for
men. In this book, Mernissi claims that men who are afraid of seduction should
lower their gaze. It seems that Iranian President Raisi remains adamant about
his position on the veil, so he refused to meet CNN reporter Christian Amanpour
if she was not veiled. Amanpour declined the request out of empathy with her
sisters in Iran who are being killed for their rebellion against the veil. If
further political unrest unfolds in Iran, President Raisi will bear the
consequences, and even conservatives will hate the day he became president.
Many
of us wonder not about the future of veiling in Iran and the Arab region, but
about the future of the regime in Iran. Unfortunately, there is no law or
mathematical formula that accurately predicts what will happen in Iran over the
next few years. Certainly, women in Iran after September 16, 2022, are
different from women before this date. If they manage to overturn the veil law,
it is expected that many women on the opposite side of the Gulf will reconsider
their options as well. Hopefully, I will be able to visit Iran one day in the
future without seeing public signs indicating that the wearing of a head scarf
is required by every woman in every public setting. – Hamed Al-Hamoud
Over
the decades, many complaints were filed over the noise caused by mosques
located in residential neighborhoods. At first, the government attempted to
deal with the issue by promising that the Adhan – the call to prayer usually
played on loudspeakers – would be limited to one mosque per neighborhood.
However, this solution was short-lived and was soon replaced with the idea of
implementing a unified call to prayer, which would be sounded by all mosques
simultaneously. But even this initiative hasn’t been met with success across
the country.
The
demand to standardize the call to prayer has yet to be met. Recently, Minister
of Endowments Dr. Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa explained that the delay in
implementation has been caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. But the obvious
fact is that the project is progressing very slowly. The excuses made by senior
officials in the ministry have been prevalent since 2019. To date, very few of
the mosques located in Greater Cairo have joined the initiative. It turns out
that there are many mosques that fall outside the jurisdiction of the ministry,
allowing them to sound whatever Adhan they want. Sadly, many mosques still
believe that having the loudest call to prayer distinguishes them from other
mosques, even if they disturb the peace of their neighbors and violate the
public’s right to a basic quality of life. – Ahmed Abd Al-Tawab
The
speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid at the UN General Assembly
revolved around the two-state solution. Whereas the Israeli Right, led by
Binyamin Netanyahu, has opposed the Palestinians’ right to establish a state of
their own, a new camp, led by the likes of Lapid, supports such a move. For
Lapid to speak about the two-state solution just weeks before Israel’s next
election – the fifth Israeli parliamentary election in three and a half years –
is a huge bet. It is true that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas acknowledged
Lapid’s speech with skepticism. But Lapid’s position is an important one in the
Israeli political scene. His announcement of support for the two-state solution
seems to have been a calculated move aimed at highlighting his distinction from
Netanyahu. Publicly supporting the two-state solution may also be a way for
Lapid to woo over the Democratic administration in the White House, which is
also concerned with Netanyahu’s potential return to power.
Meanwhile,
the Israeli public has grudgingly grown used to the idea that the Arab vote in
the election will determine the identity of the next coalition. The Arabs in
Israel make up about 21% of the total population. However, the percentage of
those eligible to vote, due to the age structure, stands at only about 17%
percent. Nevertheless, this percentage is supposed to allow the Arabs to obtain
more than 20 Knesset seats out of the total of 120. But division, the
multiplicity of parties and low voter turnout all have prevented this from
happening. Some reports in 2019 spoke of right-wing settler parties financing
the Arab boycott of the election, and Arab MP Aida Touma raised the matter at
one time. On the other hand, reports these days speak of foreign funds, some of
them American, aimed at encouraging Arabs to participate in the election.
But
what caught my eye was the eagerness shown by Jordan towards the Arab political
parties in Israel, in an attempt to push them toward unity that would grow
their parliamentary presence. Whereas Washington is hiding its historical
“hatred” of Netanyahu, Amman is publicly working to avoid his return to office.
In the 2020 election, the Arabs ran under one party, the Joint List, achieving
their highest-ever representative power by obtaining 15 seats. This number was
reduced to 10 seats in the 2021 election following the split of the bloc into
smaller parties. Mansour Abbas, whose list won four seats, allowed for the
establishment of a government by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid. He joined the
government coalition, which sparked an Israeli debate on the issue of the Arabs
determining the fate of a government and an Arab debate about Abbas’s choice to
formally join an Israeli government.
If
the Abbas phenomenon emerged from a bilateral Arab division in the last
election, this time the Arab candidates are even more fragmented. The split
will lead to more dispersal of the Arab voice. Polls suggest that the voter
turnout will drop to 40% after it reaches 70% in 2020. However, other pundits
believe that this pluralism of parties will strengthen the vitality of the
electoral campaign in the Arab community. In the polls, Netanyahu’s bloc will
get 59 seats compared to 56 for his opponents. This means, once again, that
whoever will rule Israel will need a few seats that must be found among one of
the Arab lists. Indeed, Arab voters will play a pivotal role in the Israeli
election. Within the Arab community, there are those who fear that this fact
will lead to more extremism against the Arabs in Israel.
Source:
Jpost.Com
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-718851
-----
How
the U.S. Can Help Support the Women of Iran Calling for Change
Oct.
8, 2022
Stephanie
Keith/Getty Images
----------
The
hijabs that thousands of Iranian women and girls have been burning in defiance
over the past few weeks — since the death of MahsaAmini in the custody of
Iran’s morality police on Sept. 16 — are a symbol of far broader discontent
with Iran’s corrupt and incompetent leaders. The protests since Ms. Amini’s
death, led by women, have persisted for weeks and have brought Iranians in
dozens of cities into the streets to reveal the depth of their anger. Iranians
who are sick and tired of living under a tyrannical theocracy deserve the support
of the United States and its allies.
The
death of Ms. Amini, who was detained by the guidance patrol for allegedly
wearing her hijab improperly, is an outrageous sample of the violence the
Islamic Republic has visited on women since coming to power in 1979. The
religious cabal that has led Iran since then, currently led by Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, the supreme leader, regards enmity with the United States and keeping
women in their place as critical to their survival in power.
The
threat of a virulently anti-American and anti-Israeli regime obtaining nuclear
weapons is real, but the diplomatic efforts to block it must go hand in hand
with efforts to help Iranians who are seeking respite and change.
Ayatollah
Khamenei is 83 and ailing, and he is among the last of the Islamic
revolutionaries who overthrew the monarchy. His passing, however, would be no
guarantee of a more liberal regime in Tehran. As Karim Sadjadpour of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace wrote in a recent essay in The
Times, his cohort of true believers have been largely supplanted by
opportunists in search of wealth and privilege.
Source:
Ny Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/opinion/iran-protests-women.html
-----
Sexual
violence against women in Afghanistan on the rise under Taliban
KATHARINE
LAKE BERZ
09-10-2022
Mehr,
a 24-year-old university graduate in Kabul, lives in hiding. Dozens of men have
a digital photo of her wearing nothing but underwear, she said, and some of
them are threatening to get her arrested if she doesn’t have sex with them.
Before
the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August, 2021, she shared the image
with a man she had hoped to marry. Now, violating the new regime’s strict
modesty standards for women is a crime. She said the situation has left her
fighting suicidal thoughts every day. She fears that if she is arrested she
will be killed.
Threats
against women are now common in Afghanistan. Advocates for victims say sexual
violence is on the rise under Taliban rule, and that previous supports to which
women had access are no longer available to them.
The
Globe and Mail spoke with six Afghan women who have faced gender-based violence
since the Taliban came to power, and two local journalists who cover women’s
issues. All of them described a worsening of conditions for women over the past
year. The Globe is not identifying them by their full names out of concern for
their safety.
For
Afghan women, “the absence of war is not peace,” said Ayesha Jehangir, a war
and conflict researcher at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.
Dr.
Jehangir, who is Pashtun, said some gender-based violence stems from a southern
Afghan societal code called Pashtunwali, which predates the region’s conversion
to Islam in the seventh century. The code prohibits women from interacting with
men outside of their families and has long been used to justify honour
killings. Women who endure gender-based violence are often victimized again by
their communities, whose members blame the women themselves for being sexually
assaulted, Dr. Jehangir said.
By
upholding Pashtunwali views of women as property, the Taliban have destroyed 20
years of progress on women’s equality and escalated sexual violence, Dr.
Jehangir added. The regime has withdrawn a major advance in women’s rights
introduced in 2009, known as the Law on Elimination of Violence against Women.
The law had allowed victims to report abuse and prosecute perpetrators.
And,
in September, 2021, the Taliban shuttered the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. It
was replaced by the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,
the Taliban’s morality police.
A
25-year-old woman said she was the mistress of a former government official
before the Taliban takeover. She now has no choice but to remain the married
man’s sex slave indefinitely. If she refuses him, he will kill her and the rest
of her family, she said.
A
33-year-old journalist who rallied for gender equality in Kabul in December
told The Globe that three of her fellow protesters were imprisoned, tortured
and raped by Taliban officers. The women were released a few months later, the
journalist said. But they were warned to stay silent, or videos of the rapes
would be publicized – a probable death sentence.
The
journalist also confirmed through friends in Afghanistan that eight women who
survived a brutal gang rape in January reportedly committed by Taliban
officials in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif were later killed by their families.
The women were imprisoned, stripped naked, whipped, electrically shocked and
repeatedly raped over several weeks, she said. Their families, fearing they
were pregnant, killed them to protect family honour.
Afghan
women are murdered in myriad ways, including beheading, immolation, hanging,
laceration, strangulation, shooting and electric shock, the sources who spoke
to The Globe said. A 21-year-old being blackmailed by a man who is threatening
to tell her father that she is not a virgin wrote that she fears being buried
alive.
And
there are few places for survivors to hide. An Amnesty International report
said the Taliban have looted and closed women’s shelter services. Some
survivors had to return to abusive families and some live in hiding, the report
said; others were imprisoned for “immoral behaviour” at Pul-e-Charkhi prison,
near Kabul.
A
28-year-old former employee of the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the
northeastern province of Baglan said she still tries to help abused women. But,
with shelters closed, there is little she can do. Her own husband brutally
beats and rapes her, she said, assaults that have become more frequent and
vicious since the Taliban takeover.
Sexual
violence in marriage is prevalent in Afghanistan. A 2021 survey by the Afghan
Ministry of Women’s Affairs reported that 40 per cent of women in Afghanistan’s
Kandahar province had experienced sexual violence and more than 60 per cent
nationwide were married without their consent.
Maryam
Said Anwar, an Afghan refugee who is now living in Vancouver, said she was
drugged and tortured by her husband before she fled. “Even as l lay full of
pain and blood on the ground, he would hit my face and remove my nails with
heavy-duty pliers,” she said.
The
Taliban are ignoring murders of men in domestic disputes as well, several
sources told The Globe. A former Afghan government official said his neighbour
killed another man and took the man’s wife as his own. The Globe is not naming
the official because he fears reprisal from the Taliban.
The
Taliban have also created a list of unmarried girls, some as young as nine
years old, and is forcing their fathers to marry them off to Taliban men, Dr.
Jehangir said. Families live in fear because many Afghans are willing to turn
in their neighbours’ daughters to curry favour with the Taliban.
Mia
Bloom, a Canadian gender violence expert at Georgia State University in
Atlanta, said women in Afghanistan are crestfallen and heartbroken.
The
only chance for Afghan women is for Western countries to connect humanitarian
funding to improving women’s security in Afghanistan, she said, or “we’re going
to lose an entire generation of women.”
The
Afghan women who spoke to The Globe said they suffer violence without allies or
weapons. Many resort to blaming themselves for their anguish.
Source:
The Globeand Mail
-----
Iran’s
brave young women must break their own chains. The west won’t help
Simon
Tisdall
8
Oct 2022
In
Hong Kong in 2019-20, millions took to the streets to oppose the repressive
actions of an authoritarian regime. But ultimately their voices were silenced,
their leaders jailed and China stripped away their democratic rights – as
western leaders looked on, wringing their hands.
In
Belarus, nationwide protests erupted when a cruel dictator stole the 2020 election.
The UN said hundreds of people were abused, tortured, raped. But the dictator,
Alexander Lukashenko, propped up by his loathsome buddy in Moscow, remains
truculently in power.
In
Myanmar, the army launched a coup last year, replacing elected politicians with
a military junta. Its boss, General Min Aung Hlaing, stands accused of
overseeing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya minority – but has got
off scot-free so far.
It’s
a pattern that repeats with dismaying frequency around the world. Just look at
the Arab spring “revolutions” in Syria and Egypt. The people rise up, the
people are crushed – and the western democracies, crying foul, eventually
accept the new-old reality.
Is
this the fate now awaiting the young women of Iran who have bravely taken the
lead in challenging the latest lethal excesses of Tehran’s morally bankrupt
regime? Like other countries, Iran’s 1979 revolution vanquished a tyrant, only
to have another take his place.
Yet
today’s ongoing nationwide protests, defying brutal crackdowns, are unusual in
several respects. While most seem to be led by young women and schoolgirls,
backed by young men, a wide range of ages, ethnic groups and social classes is
represented.
The
uprising has no leaders, organisation or manifesto other than “Women, life,
liberty” – a slogan signalling collective commitment to human rights, free
expression and democratic self-determination. Little wonder this vile regime
cannot comprehend it.
Most
strikingly, the women show no fear. They refuse to be cowed (or covered). These
vigorous younger generations care nothing for the Islamic Republic’s 43-year
history of grand designs, broken promises and bloody wars. For them it is
corrupt, anachronistic and irrelevant.
Nor
has the unrest anything to do with “foreign plots” – the regime’s hackneyed,
catch-all excuse for failure. It has everything to do with high educational
attainment, the internet and social media, globalised culture, and the denial
of personal and career freedoms that are the accepted norm elsewhere.
Whether
or not the mullahs realise it, these courageous young women are Iran’s future.
No longer can they be silenced, closeted and forcibly isolated from the world.
They’re connected. They inhabit the era of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. They
know it, celebrate it.
After
years in gestation and several wrenching false starts, citizen-based politics
has arrived in Iran. It’s setting an agenda for change. And there’s no putting
that genie back in the bottle. For the supreme leader, the arch-reactionary
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and for his placeman president, Ebrahim Raisi, the
message is plain: give way or “get lost”.
Next
week or next year, sooner or later, the second Iranian revolution is coming.
The wheel is turning anew. And over time, no amount of killings, detentions,
censorship and threats, no amount of shaming of young women, no futile efforts
to persist with mandatory hijab – that potent symbol of revolt – can stop it.
That
said, the Shia clerical oligarchy will not willingly embrace this dawning
reality. It will resist every which way it can. Its victims, such as the
heroic, much-persecuted women’s rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, know how
viciously the regime clings to its beliefs, prejudices and power.
And
yet, as Shirin Ebadi, one of Iran’s first female judges and 2003 Nobel peace
prizewinner, has noted, the battle is not with Islam but with those who exploit
and distort it for their own ends. Men like the Islamic Republic’s theocratic
founding dictator, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
“An
interpretation of Islam that is in harmony with equality and democracy is an
authentic expression of faith,” Ebadi wrote in her 2006 book, Iran Awakening.
“It is not religion that binds women, but the selective dictates of those who
wish them cloistered.”
Iran’s
women’s revolt comes amid increased scrutiny of the subjugation and abuse of
women in Muslim countries. The Saudi government attracted deserved opprobrium
in August after the outrageous jailing for 34 years of Leeds university student
Salma al-Shehab for her use of Twitter.
In
Afghanistan, the Taliban’s misogynistic diktats, such as closing girls’
schools, have wrecked its hopes of international acceptance. The nightmare
world of 1990s Kabul, unveiled in Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns,
is back with a vengeance.
Yet
across the developing world, positive examples may be found of self-empowered
Muslim women taking charge. I’ve witnessed it myself, at a women-owned village
crab business on the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh, an agricultural collective in
Mindanao in the Philippines, and a domestic violence support group in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
In
Idlib, north-western Syria, women have taken the leading role in providing
education, food distribution and healthcare for refugees from the civil war.
It’s a huge cultural shift – and appears permanent.
Viewed
in this more hopeful context, it’s clear that Iran’s women are not alone in
challenging the archaic shibboleths of male-dominated societies. And today’s
upheavals belong to a continuum. Iran has changed massively since I first
visited in 1977. The emancipatory process is slow and uneven, but it has no
reverse gear.
Evidently,
Iran’s regime will not go quietly or quickly. So what will the west do? As
already discussed, recent history suggests: not a lot. A few harsh words here,
a few sanctions there, and the global caravan moves on.
This
is no surprise. And it’s a hard truth. Iran has many friends and well-wishers
abroad who will do what they can. But for their second revolution to succeed,
Iranians must firstly rely on themselves.
Source:
The Guardian
-----
Woman,
22, killed in hit-and-run after car mounts kerb outside Shropshire takeaway
By
Siba Jackson
9
October 2022
A
22-year-old woman has been killed in a hit-and-run incident after a car mounted
a kerb outside a takeaway in Shropshire.
The
car struck the woman and another person in front of the Grill Out restaurant in
Oswestry at around 2.50am on Sunday, police said.
Aston
Villa's Dalian Atkinson celebrates after scoring against Tottenham
Hotspur at White Hart Lane. Aston Villa won the match 4-3.
"I'd
like to thank the members of the public who worked tirelessly at the scene to
help the victims and deliver crucial first aid.
Source:
News.Sky.Com
-----
‘Darkest
of days for Donegal’: Girl (5) and her father among 10 victims of petrol
station explosion, alongside teen girl and mother
Adrian
Rutherford
October
08 2022
Ten
people have died after an explosion at a Co Donegal petrol station which police
believe was a tragic accident.
Fatalities
are understood to include a five-year-old girl who was being accompanied by her
father, as well as a teenage girl and her mother, and another teenage boy.
A
search and recovery operation had continued through the night for “further
fatalities” amid the debris of the Applegreen service station.
In
Northern Ireland, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and First Minister designate
Michelle O’Neill were among those offering prayers.
A
gas leak is thought to be the most likely cause of the blast which destroyed
the village’s only shop, as well as apartments overhead, on Friday afternoon.
"At
this point in time, we have to keep an open mind in how we investigate this but
our information at this point in time is pointing towards a tragic accident.
Emergency
services from Northern Ireland have helped with the rescue operation. Assisted
by local volunteers, emergency teams had worked through the night to reach
people still trapped in the debris. Sniffer dogs drafted in from Belfast were
also assisting with the search.
Source:
Belfast Telegraph
-----
Hindu
woman molested by a Muslim in Shridurga Puja Mandap in Bangladesh
09
Oct 2022
Dhaka
(Bangladesh) – A Muslim named Aftab Hussain molested a Hindu woman after
entering a Shridurga Puja Mandap in Dhaka.
Aftab
Hussain, a religious fanatic, was arrested in this case from Jagannath Hall on
the Dhaka University campus. ‘Voice of Bangladeshi Hindus’ has shared this
information on Twitter.
Source:
Sanatan Prabhat
https://sanatanprabhat.org/english/65073.html
-----
Why
Iran’s female-led revolt fills me with hope
Kamin
Mohammadi
8
Oct 2022
It
was in the strange days between the Queen’s death and her funeral that the bad
news from Iran broke through the blanket coverage of the state mourning
rituals. The news that pierced this was the report that a young woman had died
in the custody of Iran’s morality police.
MahsaAmini,
a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been taken into custody because of “bad hijab”.
She was visiting relatives in Tehran with her brother when the morality police
challenged her about a few strands of hair that were showing from her standard
hijab. According to her brother, she was in custody for just two hours before
collapsing and being taken to hospital, where she lay in a coma before dying on
16 September. The authorities claimed that she had a heart attack from a
pre-existing condition. Her family deny this, and state that her head and body
were covered in bruises and signs of being beaten.
As
an Iranian who has grown up and lived in Britain since the age of nine, I am
long accustomed to the horror stories that come out of my birth country. So
when protests started in Mahsa’s homeland of Kurdistan – a western province in
Iran – I shuddered at the possible arrests and violence that may be meted out
on those taking part, but didn’t think more of it. Protests at the abusive
treatment of women, minorities and students have become commonplace in the past
years and I have become reluctantly accustomed to observing passively while the
Iranian authorities suppress people’s peaceful demonstrations with increasingly
violent force.
Ethnic
Kurds have long experienced discrimination in Kurdistan. Mahsa’s real name –
Jhina – is Kurdish and as such could not be registered on her birth certificate
as only Persian and some Islamic names are lawful. There are also laws against
the teaching of the Kurdish language in schools. It so happens that my paternal
homeland is the very town that JhinaAmini came from and so when I heard about
the protests in Kurdistan, I prayed that my family would be safe.
However,
in spite of 250 people reportedly being arrested and five killed during two
days of protests in Kurdistan, the demonstrations didn’t stop. In fact, they
spread to the rest of the country, and the Kurdish freedom cry of “Woman Life
Freedom” became the dominant chant in what have become the biggest nationwide
protests that Iran has seen since the revolution of 1979. As I write this, BBC
Monitoring has recorded protests in at least 350 locations in the country over
the past 20 days.
In
images that diasporic Iranians like me have been sharing on social media, we
see the protests are led by women, predominantly very young women (Gen Z), who
are tearing off their headscarves to wave them triumphantly in the air, to burn
them, to joyfully dance as they consign them to bonfires.
What
started as a protest against the mandatory hijab soon became a demand for
freedom. “Woman Life Freedom” is the first time in Iranian history that a chant
demands something positive rather than the end to, or the death of, someone or
something. The brutal treatment of MahsaJhinaAmini over “bad hijab” – and now
many other young women, including 16-year-old Nika Shakarami, killed in these
weeks – was the spark that lit this conflagration of rage. But the real heat of
this movement comes from decades of repression and oppression of any viable
opposition to the hardline clerical regime, a freefalling economy and the mass
corruption and hypocrisy of the ruling elite, which refuses to allow Iranian
women some loosening of the mandatory hijab even as their own children stalk
the streets of LA clad in revealing outfits and post pictures of parties they
hold in luxurious mansions bought with the pilfered riches of our country.
The
headscarf that is being waved, banshee-like, by Iranian women is, for the
people of Iran, no longer anything to do with Islam but a symbol of the
oppression that the regime has visited on its own people in the name of
religion. This is not a call for the end of Islam, it is a call for the end of
the symbols of state power and abuse, a call that even religious Iranians have
joined. As my quietly devout Iranian aunties tell me, this regime has taken the
symbols of their faith and turned them into a tool for the suppression of half
the population. They and women like them are joining the protests alongside the
girls who have so courageously whipped off their hijab to face the regime’s
forces with their hair flowing.
The
women of Iran have been demanding freedom ever since Ayatollah Khomeini took
power in 1979 – the first demonstration against mandatory hijab was three weeks
after Khomeini’s arrival. Before the revolution, Iranian women had some of the
most liberal laws in the Middle East: they could wear what they liked, they
could work and even rise to be judges, they had equal rights to divorce and the
custody of children, and they had been voting since 1963.
It
was not until 1983 that mandatory hijab was finally made law for all women in
Iran – and arguably it was only because of the devastating war with Iraq that
started in 1980 that the regime was able to impose this. The fact that Iranian
women enjoy the right to work and vote and appear in public spaces is testament
to their relentless fight for their rights in the Islamic Republic.
Of
Iran’s population of 84 million people with a literacy rate of 97%, women make
up 65% of university graduates. And all this for a gender whose word in court
is worth half that of a man (you need two female witnesses to attest where one
man will do), who cannot sing, dance or show its hair or body in public, and
can be married aged 13.
Significant
uprisings in Iran led by women have taken place in 1999, in 2005, in 2009, 2017
and again in 2019. From 2009 onwards, men have joined women in these protests,
often adopting the hijab themselves to express their equality with women.
In
reality, Iranian people’s struggle for freedom and democracy goes back more
than 100 years. The Constitutional Revolution of 1906 was quashed by imperial
Russia and Britain. In 1953, democratically elected prime minister Mohammad
Mossadegh, who nationalised Iranian oil, was removed in a coup engineered by
the CIA and MI6 – until that point Britain had received 87% of the revenue from
Iran’s oil and after the coup, America occupied the main place as the foreign
power stealthily colonising Iran.
These
demonstrations feel different in significant ways. In spite of a bloody
crackdown, which has seen live and rubber bullets shot into protesters, the
mass rounding up of university students, dystopian scenes of schoolchildren
being beaten by security forces on the streets and a massacre in another ethnic
minority province, Sistan and Baluchistan, the people of Iran are not giving
up. Protests which took place mainly at night have now spread to broad
daylight.
Many
shopkeepers are not opening, university students are on nationwide strike and
there are increasing instances of quiet civil disobedience – women going about
their daily lives dressed as you and I are, without the mandatory hijab. Now
that high schools are back, schoolgirls are joining the protests in their
droves, baring their hair in the school yard and chasing out the
representatives of the regime.
There
is a power and energy to these protests. The sight of young girls with flowing
locks taking down pictures of the two elderly ayatollahs Khomeini and Khamenei,
the current supreme leader, that brings tears to my eyes and makes even my
cynical heart burn with hope. It is as if the Furies have been unleashed in
Iran and these extraordinarily brave young women, who are prepared to walk into
bullets for the sake of the right to choose how to live, have lost all the fear
that has kept previous generations repressed.
I
say cynical heart because, as a member of Iran’s huge diaspora, as a proud
British-Iranian, I have spent a large part of my adult and working life trying
to introduce my countries to each other, and it has seemed to no avail.
So
much of my work has been about humanising the people of Iran in my adopted
country in the hope that if the British people realised that the people of Iran
are not the regime, that they are peace-loving, educated and cultured just like
in the west, then perhaps the chances of war being waged on my country would
lessen.
Since
George W Bush’s “axis of evil” speech, some of us diasporic Iranians have been
walking a particularly tricky tightrope: not daring to speak out too
passionately about the atrocities of the regime against our people for fear of
repercussions for our family in Iran, for losing our own ability to travel
there safely, and also for feeding the toxic narrative of Iran in the west.
Yet
20 years after some of my biggest articles were published – some even nominated
for awards from Amnesty and the American Society of Magazine Editors – I see
that the western narrative on Iran has hardly changed. And now that our women
and children are dying in the demand for basic human rights, the indifference
of much of the mass media and even social media on this topic is palpable.
It
seems that the death of MahsaJhinaAmini has not captured the world’s
imagination in the same way as the death of George Floyd did, and the
subsequent global protests in solidarity with the Iranian uprising have had few
column inches, in spite of mobilising some 500,000 people around the world in
one day alone (1 October).
But
now, as I watch the unity in Iran and the cry of this generation which carries
within it the stifled cries of all the generations gone before, for the first
time in many years I am allowing myself to dream that one day I too can enter
Iran without fear gripping my heart and accompanying every step I take there.
I
am quietly resurrecting the long-buried wish to one day walk down Vali Asr
Boulevard in Tehran (the longest street in the Middle East) with my hair loose
under the Iranian sun and to lean in to kiss my man without fear of being
arrested or shouted at or slapped on the street, or taken to be beaten to death
in the back of a morality police van. This is a fragile hope that I keep tucked
in my back pocket.
Meanwhile,
I hope that the world wakes up to understand that what is happening in Iran is
the frontline of feminism right now: the simple expression of desire for
equality, for dignity, for life without fear. And as such, it touches us all.
Say it with me: Woman Life Freedom.
Source:
The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/08/iran-mahsa-amini-women-girls-revolt-hope
-----
Dua
Lipa Shows Support for Women’s Rights in Iran Following Protest Deaths: ‘Keep
the World Watching’
By
Mitchell Peters
08-10-2022
The
27-year-old pop superstar took to social media on Saturday (Oct. 8) to bring
attention to the death of numerous young females at the hands of Iranian police
and security forces amid ongoing protests in the country.
“Sarina
Esmailzadeh, 16, beaten to death by Iranian security forces for protesting for
women’s rights in Iran. Nika Shakarami, 16, killed after burning her headscarf
in protest. Hadis Najafi, 23, shot multiple times during demonstrations sparked
by the death of MahsaAmini, 22, after her arrest by the country’s morality
police,” the “Levitating” singer captioned a gallery honoring the girls on
Instagram.
Protests
recently erupted throughout Iran following the death of Amini, who was detained
by the country’s “morality police” in the streets of Tehran due to the style of
her hijab. The woman was taken into a van by officers, fell into a coma in
police custody, and died two days later. While Iranian officials claim she died
from a heart attack, a United Nations report as well as Amini’s relatives say
she was brutalized during her arrest and later died, presumably as a result of
her injuries.
“Just
four young women out of more than 100 protestors to pay with their lives,” Lipa
continued in her post. “An estimated 1,200 more are in police custody. Please
don’t turn away, keep the world watching. Every one of us can lend our platform
and together we can make some fkn noise. I stand with the women of Iran.”
Lipa
is one of many musical artists showing their support for the women of Iran,
including Justin Bieber, Yungblud, Ricky Martin and Halsey. In late September,
Lipa also took to Twitter Live to discuss Amini and the subsequent protests.
“The
images of women protesting in the streets by cutting their hair and burning
their hijabs is one of the most powerful and inspiring things I’ve seen for
many years,” she said. “To any listeners in Iran or from Iran, we see you, we
hear you, and we stand in solidarity with you.”
Source:
Bill Board
-----
Muslim
federation to reserve seats for women in its panel
Ziya
Us Salam
OCTOBER
08, 2022
In
a development likely to have far-reaching implications for leading Muslim
organisations in the country, All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat has
announced plans to reserve seats for women and Pasmanda community
representatives to the body’s 25-member national executive. Besides, plans have
been announced to bring on board four members from southern States and one
representative of northeast India.
Two
seats each have been earmarked for women and notified Muslim OBC
representatives. This is the first time ever that seats have been reserved on
caste lines in any Muslim body in the country.
Incidentally,
the Mushawarat is the umbrella body of 12 Muslim organisations, including
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, the Muslim League, Indian National League and Jamiat
Ahl-e-Hadith. The changes have been brought in with select amendments to the
constitution of the Mushawarat. The amendments were brought in through a
referendum that took place via a postal ballot.
“The
moment the amended constitution got the consent of the members, it was
considered passed,” says Navaid Hamid, President, AIMMM. A little over 81% of the
members voted in favour of reservation for women through a referendum while
nearly 74% voted in favour of Pasmanda reservation.
The
groundbreaking changes come with a cloud of uncertainty. Three leading
organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, its student wing SIO, and Indian National
League boycotted today’s deliberations. It was argued that Mr. Hamid is a
caretaker president and hence, not authorised to bring in far-reaching changes
to the constitution. They argued that Mr. Hamid’s extended tenure as the president
of the body ended in September this year. Hence, the changes he has brought in
cannot stand legal scrutiny.
Among
those who participated in today’s deliberations were representatives of Jamiat
Ahl-e-Hadith, Markazi Ahl-e-Hadith-e-Hind, All India Momin Conference, Jamiatul
Quraish and Association of Muslim Professionals, while others sent in letters
of support.
“His
elected term ended on December 31, 2019. His grace period also ended on
September 5, 2022. He is not authorised to amend the constitution. His plans to
reserve seats for women and Pasmanda are unprecedented. In Mushawarat, we have
never seen the caste of a person occupying a seat,” says Zafarul Islam Khan,
former president of the Mushawarat, adding, “When I became the president in
2008, the first choice was Maulana Abdul Haq Ansari who was the president of
Jamaat-e-Islami. He was a Pasmanda. It did not matter to any member. However,
the Jamaat’s policy was to not accept any presidency. So, he did not become the
president of the Mushawarat and I got a chance.”
Mr.
Khan contends that the Mushawarat today is a mere coterie of yes men, and Mr.
Hamid is a mere caretaker till fresh round of elections take place; the changes
go against the letter and spirit of the body.
Mr.
Hamid argues that he has every right to be in the seat till the elections and
the changes are legally sound as they have been ushered in through a
referendum. “Those questioning the referendum, they also participated in it
though through negative voting. Why did they participate in the referendum? It
means they accepted the process.”
Source:
The Hindu
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/priyanka-chopra-women-protesting-hijab-muslim/d/128136