Queen Rania of Jordan Joins Unsung Women Heroes In Al Karak Castle For Iftar
New
Age Islam News Bureau
06
April 2022
•
Fatma Güngör, Turkish Woman In UK Named ‘Chef Of The Year’ at the British Kebab
Awards 2022
•
UAE Sentences Israeli Woman To Death For Drug Possession
•
SR117,000 Seized From Asian Woman Beggar In Makkah
•
Hyderabad: Poverty Sole Mate Of Single Muslim Women In Old City
•
Female Voters’ Turnout In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Local Govt Polls Remained 30pc:
Fafen
•
Exploitation Of Children And Women Is Human Trafficking Crime, Says Saudi
Public Security
•
Slain US Relief Worker Kayla Mueller’s Mother Recalls Pleas To Islamic State To
Spare Her Daughter
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/queen-rania-jordan-karak-castle-iftar/d/126738
--------
Queen
Rania of Jordan Joins Unsung Women Heroes In Al Karak Castle For Iftar
Queen Rania commended the women for their roles in
education, social welfare, culture, volunteering, and humanitarian efforts.
(Petra)
------
April
06, 2022
KARAK:
Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan joined an iftar in the historic Karak Castle,
in the Al Karak Governorate on Tuesday, which hosted a group of women who have
contributed to the local community.
Queen
Rania commended the women for their roles in education, social welfare,
culture, volunteering, and humanitarian aid.
“Ramadan
is always a month of goodwill, blessings, and reconnecting with loved ones, but
this year it feels even more special than usual – perhaps because we have been
unable to get together for Iftar like this for the past two years,” Queen Rania
said.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2057696/middle-east
--------
Fatma
Güngör, Turkish Woman In UK Named ‘Chef Of The Year’ at the British Kebab
Awards 2022
Fatma
Güngör, the owner of a famous Turkish restaurant in London,
-----
April
06 2022
Fatma
Güngör, the owner of a famous Turkish restaurant in London, has been named
“Chef of the Year” at the British Kebab Awards 2022, which has been held in the
United Kingdom for 10 years.
Providing
service with a rich menu involving mouth-watering meals at an eaterie named
Fatma’s Kitchen in the Haywards Heath quarter of the British capital, Güngör
became the first woman to have ever won the award.
“We’d
like to thank everyone who voted, the judges that chose Fatma and also all of
our wonderful customers who have dined with us over the years. This award
really means a lot, and we’d like to thank each and every one of you from the
bottom of our hearts,” said the Instagram account of the restaurant.
Born
and raised in the Aegean province of İzmir, Güngör had previously practiced as
a chef in Turkey and several places abroad, but she always dreamed of opening a
restaurant, according to daily Milliyet.
Noting
that she went to London through the Ankara Agreement, a visa scheme deal for
Turkish businesspeople to move and settle in the U.K., Güngör continued her
life working in various restaurants in the country.
After
five years, she took the first step towards realizing her dream by buying a
restaurant that stopped service at the beginning of the pandemic and was on the
verge of bankruptcy, turning the crisis into an opportunity.
Source:
Hurriyet Daily News
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-woman-in-uk-named-chef-of-the-year-172746
--------
UAE
sentences Israeli woman to death for drug possession
April
06, 2022
OCCUPIED-AL-QUDS:
The United Arab Emirates has sentenced an Israeli woman to death for drug
possession, her lawyer said on Tuesday, adding that she would appeal the
decision. Fidaa Kiwan, a 43-year-old Arab Israeli photographer from the
northern port city of Haifa, was arrested after half a kilogramme of cocaine
was found in her Dubai home last year.
Source:
The News
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/947729-uae-sentences-israeli-woman-to-death-for-drug-possession
--------
SR117,000
Seized From Asian Woman Beggar In Makkah
April
05, 2022
MAKKAH
— The security authorities in Makkah arrested an Asian woman who practiced
beggary. The woman managed to collect approximately SR117,000, in addition to a
number of foreign currencies and gold jewelry.
The
security forces have arrested a total of 3,719 beggars from various regions of
the Kingdom during the week starting from March 22 to 30. The Public Prosecution
officials are investigating the cases against each one of the arrested beggars,
including men and women.
The
Public Security emphasized that begging in all its forms and manifestations has
been banned.
It
urged the public to report about those who are found engaged in beggary or
extending support to beggars by any means through contacting over phone number
911 in the regions of Makkah and Riyadh, and 999 in all other regions of the
Kingdom.
The
Public Security had announced that the competent security authorities would
arrest anyone who engages in beggary and will refer them to the competent
authorities.
It
urged citizens and residents to provide their alms through regular means that
ensure that it reaches the needy people and discourage the practice of beggary.
Brig.
Gen. Sami Al-Shuwairekh, spokesman of the Public Security, confirmed that the
prescribed penalties will be applied to anyone who is caught practicing
beggary, or incites others, or helps others to practice beggary.
He
said the violators will face imprisonment for a period not exceeding six
months, or a fine not exceeding SR50,000 or of both. The penalties will be
doubled for those who are part of the organized beggary rackets.
Whoever
engages in beggary, manages beggars, incites others, and assists beggars as
part of organized rackets will be awarded with a maximum jail term of one year
or fine not exceeding SR100,000 or both.
Source:
Saudi Gazette
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/619037/SAUDI-ARABIA/SR117000-seized-from-woman-beggar-in-Makkah
--------
Hyderabad:
Poverty sole mate of single Muslim women in Old City
Apr
6, 2022
HYDERABAD:
A pre-Ramzan survey in the slums of Old City has revealed that single Muslim
women, mostly widows, divorced or abandoned, are living in abject poverty along
with their children.
The
annual pre-Ramzan survey to understand the economic conditions of Muslims
living in the slums focussed on post-pandemic widows and single women this
year.
The
survey by NGO Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) revealed that many are barely able
to make ends meet, forcing 68% of boys in such homes to quit school to work as
daily wagers to support the family. About 65% of widows and single women said
that their only companions are stress and insecurity as they struggle to find
the next meal.
According
to the survey, 18% of women are single and 6% divorced. Among the widows, 76%
lost their spouses prematurely to chronic diseases, 18% to age-related health
complications and 6% to accidents.
“Women
from marginalised sections who are widows, divorced or abandoned are living in
penury along with their offspring. The survey was conducted in five major urban
slums spread over 35 bastis and colonies. It brought to light painful and
worrying condition of widows and single women in old Hyderabad. The slums
surveyed are part of Rajendranagar, Hasanagar, Achi Reddy Nagar, Shaheen Nagar
and Jalpally,” said HHF managing trustee Mujtaba Hasan Askari.
Only
22% of widows have the security of having their own home, but often spread over
a mere 30 square yards. A majority (71%) of the widows said they live in rented
houses, with half of their meagre income going towards rent. About 6% live on
charitable donated spaces.
“About
50% of widows work for their survival. But 90% of them are domestic helps with
a nominal monthly income. One-third are dependent on extended family for
support and 14% survive on alms,” the survey said.
Only
45% women said they receive monthly pension from the government.
“About
20% of widows borrow money on interest, while 80% borrow when need arises on
non-interest basis due to fear of harassment by money lenders,” Askari added.
Source:
Times Of India
--------
Female
Voters’ Turnout In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Local Govt Polls Remained 30pc: Fafen
Iftikhar
A. Khan
April
6, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
The female voters’ turnout remained 30pc compared to 41pc of males during the
second phase of the local government (LG) elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The
Free and Fair Elections Network (Fafen), in a report, said statistics were
based on the gender-disaggregated data available for 49 tehsils. It said none
of these tehsils reported women turnout less than 10pc of the total polled
votes.
The
returning officers responsible for Bahrain, Khwazakhela, Bazai (Swat) and
Martung and Chakisar (Shangla) tehsils did not provide gender-disaggregated
data of polled votes on Form-XIX (Provisional Consolidated Statement of Results
of the Count).
The
report also revealed that the number of ballots excluded from the count were
more than the margin of victory for the seats of chairmen in 28 tehsils.
Report
says 34,734 candidates were in the run at tehsil, neighbourhood, village
council levels
Fafen
said around 41pc of the 8.5 million registered voters in 18 districts turned
out to vote on March 31 to elect 12,875 representatives on general and reserved
seats in an election that was largely peaceful, orderly and transparent.
Against
the backdrop of political uncertainty amid the impending no-confidence motion
against the prime minister and resulting political fragmentation, the election
process remained largely peaceful with a reasonable voter turnout, it noted.
The
election remained highly competitive as political unity among opposition
parties at the centre did not translate into electoral alliances or seat adjustments
at the local level.
As
many as 34,734 candidates, including the ones fielded by 25 political parties,
were in the run for general and reserved seats at the tehsil, neighbourhood and
village council levels.
In
what was an undeniably a complex, complicated and largescale electoral exercise
with more than over 72,000 deployed election officials to manage 6,170 polling
stations (3,951 combined, 1,151 male and 1,068 female) comprising 16,509
polling booths (9,218 for men and 7,291 for women), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has
become the first province to have fulfilled its constitutional responsibility
under Article 140-A(1) to form the third-tier of governance providing
representation to local representatives including the marginalised communities
such as peasants, workers and women.
However,
the election followed a delay of more than two years primarily due to weak
political will to decentralise powers that manifested in the shape of legal
complications and inadequacies.
The
provincial government legalised the delay through an amendment to the KP
Epidemic Control and Emergency Relief Act, 2020 on the pretext of coronavirus
disease 2019 (Covid-19).
The
ECP had initially scheduled the second phase of KP’s local government elections
for March 27, but the date was changed to March 31, following the Supreme
Court’s reversal of an earlier order by the Peshawar High Court that required
the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold these elections after
Ramazan.
During
the second phase, the LG elections were held to elect mayors of two city
councils, chairmen of 63 tehsil councils, and members of 1,659 village and 171
neighbourhood councils across 18 districts, including Abbottabad, Swat,
Malakand, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Lower Dir, Upper Dir, Shangla, Tor
Garh, Lower Kohistan, Upper Kohistan, Kolai-Palas, Mansehra, Battagram, Kurram,
Orakzai, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.
The
elections were postponed in a neighbourhood council Sainabad (Mansehra) due to
wrong allotment of election symbol, and two village councils – VC Wahab Khel
(Shangla) and VC Mekahband (Malakand) – due to the deaths of the contesting
candidates.
Moreover,
voting at 18 polling stations in eight districts (South Waziristan, North
Waziristan, Kolai Palas, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Kurram, Upper Kohistan and
Battagram) was halted and subsequently postponed due to incidents of violence.
While
election result of 11 tehsils is still awaited, the turnout in 54 tehsils where
provisional consolidated results have been notified remained 41pc – highest being
55pc in Seo tehsil of Upper Kohistan and the lowest 14pc in Serwakai tehsil of
South Waziristan.
The
number of ballots excluded from the count at the polling station level was
disconcerting, and remained almost 7pc (177,375) of the total votes polled (2,642,982).
Of
the 54 provisional results announced so far, there were 28 tehsils where the
margin of victory was less than the total number of ballots excluded from the
count of the contests of seats of chairmen.
For
instance, in Kalkot tehsil of Upper Dir, the margin of victory between the
winning and runner-up candidates for the chairmen seat was of seven votes,
whereas the total ballots excluded from the count were 1,633. The Election
Commission may ascertain the reasons for exclusion of ballots as per Section
8(b) of the Elections Act, 2017 to inform its voter information and education
campaigns for future elections.
According
to the ECP, results of 52 seats for tehsil chairmen and two of city mayors, the
largest vote share was bagged by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) with 29.02pc of
the polled votes, followed by Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz with 13.64pc, Jamiat
Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan (JUI-P) with 12.24pc, Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JIP)
with 10.21pc, Pakistan Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) with 8.86pc,
Awami National Party (ANP) with 7pc, Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) with
1.3pc, Majlis Wahdatul-i-Muslimeen Pakistan (MWMP) with 1.16pc and the
remaining 12 political parties received less than one percent of the polled
votes.
The
independent candidates secured 13.61pc votes of the total votes polled.
Source:
Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1683604/female-voters-turnout-in-kps-local-govt-polls-remained-30pc-fafen
--------
Exploitation
of children and women is human trafficking crime, says Saudi Public Security
April
5, 2022
The
United Arab Emirates has sentenced an Israeli woman to death for cocaine
possession, Israeli media reported Tuesday, in a major test of new relations
between the Mideast countries.
Israel’s
Foreign Ministry confirmed that it is working on the case of the woman,
identified in local news reports as Fida Kiwan, a 43-year-old Haifa resident
who owns a photography studio.
The
Israeli news site Ynet said Kiwan was arrested on March 21, 2021, with half a
kilogram (over 1 pound) of cocaine that she claimed did not belong to her.
Kiwan’s lawyer is reportedly appealing the sentence, which could be converted
to a prison term.
The
UAE’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
The
UAE’s harsh drug laws could test burgeoning relations between Israel and the
UAE under the “Abraham Accords,” a series of diplomatic pacts between Israel
and four Arab countries brokered by the Trump administration in 2020.
Normalization
has turned glitzy Dubai into a freewheeling Israeli tourist destination.
Israel’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, have met with
their counterparts in the Gulf state, and the UAE was part of an unprecedented
meeting of Arab and Israeli foreign ministers in Israel’s Negev desert late
last month.
As
for Kiwan, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it “is aware of the incident and is
taking care of it through the division of Israelis abroad in the consular
department and Israeli representations in the UAE.” Israeli media reported that
Kiwan came to Dubai for work at the invitation of a Palestinian acquaintance a
little over a year ago. She was arrested a short while later after a search of
her apartment turned up the drugs.
Officials
with knowledge of the case told The Times of Israel, another Israeli news site,
that they expect the sentence to be reduced to a long prison term upon appeal.
The
UAE is one of the world’s most restrictive nations when it comes to people
importing and possessing drugs, including substances for personal use like
cannabis and even over-the-counter medications like narcotics.
Trafficking
typically carries a life sentence and possession a shorter jail sentence. While
UAE law allows for the death penalty in certain cases, capital punishment is
rarely carried out. The last known executions were in 2011 and 2014, against
two men convicted of murder.
Source:
Indian Express
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/uae-israeli-woman-death-penalty-7854462/
--------
Slain
US Relief Worker Kayla Mueller’s Mother Recalls Pleas To Islamic State To Spare
Her Daughter
6
Apr 2022
The
mother of slain US relief worker Kayla Mueller testified on Tuesday at the
trial of one of her daughter’s alleged Islamic State (IS) captors, recounting
the desperate pleas for her release and tortuous negotiations.
Marsha
Mueller’s emotional testimony came on the fifth day of the trial in US federal
court of El Shafee Elsheikh, a 33-year-old former British national.
Elsheikh
is accused of involvement in the murders of Kayla Mueller and three other
Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter
Kassig.
Marsha
Mueller’s testimony came a day after Kayla Mueller’s boyfriend, Rodwan
Safarjalani, took the witness stand against Elsheikh, an alleged member of the
notorious IS kidnap-and-murder cell known to their captives as the “Beatles”
because of their British accents.
Occasionally
dabbing tears from her eyes, Marsha Mueller recalled how her daughter had
worked at an orphanage in India and taught English to Tibetan refugees in
Dharamsala before going to Syria.
“She
was always interested in helping people,” Mueller said.
Kayla
Mueller was captured by IS in August 2013 while accompanying Safarjalani, a
Syrian national, on a trip to a hospital in Aleppo where he was contracted to
repair a satellite dish.
Marsha
Mueller told the court about email exchanges with her daughter’s captors, who
were demanding a ransom of five million Euros or the release of Aafia Siddiqui,
a Pakistani woman who is imprisoned in the United States for the attempted
murder of US soldiers.
“We
don’t want to harm her,” the hostage-takers said in a May 2014 email. “She is
like a guest with us at the moment.”
But,
they warned if the Muellers could not meet their demands their daughter would
serve “a life sentence just like Siddiqui.”
The
Muellers told the kidnappers they were asking for “an astronomical amount of
money from a family with limited resources.”
In
one email, they said Kayla’s father, Carl Mueller, had retired from the auto
repair business he operated in Prescott, Arizona.
They
received a curt reply. “Retiring will not help you get your daughter back so go
back to work and earn some money,” it said.
Mueller
said the family had been told by the US government that her captors “will not
harm a woman,” but they decided to make a personal appeal to then-IS leader Abu
Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“Kayla
is not your enemy,” Marsha Mueller said in the video message. “Show your mercy
and release our daughter.”
It
did not come up at the trial on Tuesday, but it has been reported previously
that Kayla Mueller was handed over to Baghdadi, who allegedly raped her
repeatedly before killing her.
In
September 2014, Kayla’s captors added another demand: a halt to US military
activities against the Islamic State.
The
Muellers received no response to numerous subsequent emails, and IS claimed in
February 2015 that Kayla had been killed in an airstrike by Jordanian
warplanes.
During
a break in the proceedings on Tuesday, Safarjalani, Kayla’s boyfriend,
approached Elsheikh as he was being led out of court by US Marshals and shouted
at him in Arabic that he would end up in hell.
Judge
T.S. Ellis warned Safarjalani when the court reconvened that he would be thrown
out if there was another outburst.
The
judge said he was allowing him to remain in the public gallery because he had
only made a “prediction” and not a “threat.”
The
IS “Beatles” held at least 27 people in Syria between 2012 and 2015, including
a number of European journalists who were released after ransoms were paid.
Videos
of the brutal executions of Foley, Sotloff and Kassig were released by the
group for propaganda purposes.
Elsheikh
and another “Beatle,” Alexanda Amon Kotey, were captured in January 2018 by a
Kurdish militia in Syria, turned over to US forces in Iraq and flown to
Virginia in October 2020.
Kotey
pleaded guilty in September 2021 and is facing life in prison.
“Beatles”
executioner Mohamed Emwazi was killed by a US drone in Syria in November 2015,
while the fourth member of the cell, Aine Davis, is imprisoned in Turkey after
being convicted of terrorism.
Elsheikh
has denied the charges and his lawyers claim his arrest is a case of mistaken
identity. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Source:
The Guardian
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/queen-rania-jordan-karak-castle-iftar/d/126738