Reality TV Star Kim Kardashian Helps Afghan Women Soccer Players Flee To UK In The Wake Of The Taliban Takeover Over Of Afghanistan
New
Age Islam News Bureau
•
Reality TV Star Kim Kardashian Helps Afghan Women Soccer Players Flee To UK In
The Wake Of The Taliban Takeover Over Of Afghanistan
•
Iran's New Population Law Blasted For Restricting Access To Contraceptives,
Abortions
•
Meet Shahana Hanif, the First Muslim Woman Elected to the New York City Council
•
Women In Crypto: Raise Your Hands (So We Can See You)
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/kim-kardashian-afghan-soccer-uk-reality/d/125801
--------
Reality
TV Star Kim Kardashian Helps Afghan Women Soccer Players Flee To UK In The Wake
Of The Taliban Takeover Over Of Afghanistan
Kardashian and her shapewear brand SKIMS funded the
chartered flight to the UK with help from a New York rabbi and an English
Premier League football club. (AFP)
------
Arab
News
November
19, 2021
DUBAI:
Reality TV star and entrepreneur Kim Kardashian this week helped a group of
young female Afghan soccer players and their families flee to the UK in the
wake of the Taliban takeover over the country.
According
to AP, Kardashian and her shapewear brand SKIMS funded the chartered flight to
the UK with help from a New York rabbi and an English Premier League football
club.
The
female footballers received help from the nonprofit US group Tzedek
Association. Founder Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, who has previously worked with
Kardashian on criminal justice reform in the US, asked her to help pay for a
chartered flight to the UK.
Women
have been banned from playing sport by the Taliban, and hundreds of female
athletes have left Afghanistan since the group returned to power and began
controlling women’s education and freedom.
Khalida
Popal, a former captain of the Afghan women’s soccer team, said: “Many of those
families left their homes when the Taliban took over. Their houses were burnt
down.”
She
added: “Some of their family members were killed or taken by the Taliban. So
the danger and the stress were high, and that’s why it was very important to
move fast to get them away from Afghanistan.”
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1971126/lifestyle
----------
Iran's
New Population Law Blasted For Restricting Access To Contraceptives, Abortions
Critics say Iran’s new population law represents a
"regressive U-turn" that denies women access to abortions.
------
By
Golnaz Esfandiari
November
18, 2021
Gouya,
a 43-year-old woman in Iran, decided that she will not have children. But her
right to choose is now being threatened by the state.
Authorities
have approved new legislation that imposes further restrictions on abortions,
bans the free distribution of contraceptives by the public health-care system,
and provides added state benefits to families with more children.
In
recent years, a growing number of Iranian women have chosen to have fewer or no
children -- mainly due to economic woes, changing gender norms, the growth of
girls’ education, and family planning programs.
That
trend has seen Iran’s population growth rate drop from over 4 percent in the
1980s to 1.29 percent in 2020, according to the World Bank, a development that
has alarmed Iran’s clerical establishment.
Rights
groups and health experts warn that the new law will restrict women’s access to
abortions, lead to unwanted pregnancies and the birth of children with
congenital defects, and increase the spread of sexually transmitted diseases,
including AIDS.
Gouya,
who lives in an upscale area of the capital, Tehran, described the new law as
“ridiculous,” decrying the state’s interference in citizens’ personal lives.
She said women like her will find ways to circumvent the new rules.
“Instead
of resolving economic problems, [authorities] want to further interfere in our
lives,” Gouya, who revealed only her first name for fear of retribution, told
RFE/RL. “It’s none of their business. It’s my decision.”
In
Iran, abortions could be legally performed during the first four months of
pregnancy if three doctors agreed that a pregnancy threatened a woman's life,
or if the fetus had severe physical or mental disabilities that could produce
extreme hardship for the mother.
The
new law also requires state broadcasters to produce content that encourages
women to have more children and denounces celibacy or abortion. It also bans
the production, distribution, and publication of any content that violates the
country’s population policies.
“It
is shocking to see the extent to which the authorities have applied criminal
law to restrict women’s fundamental rights,” the UN experts said in a statement,
adding that the law will cripple the right to health for women and girls.
Human
Rights Watch (HRW) said last week that the law "further violates women's
rights to sexual and reproductive health and puts women's health and lives at
risk.”
“The
population growth law blatantly undermines the rights, dignity, and health of
half of the country’s population, denying them access to essential reproductive
health care and information,” HRW researcher Tara Sepehrifar said in a
statement on November 10.
Tehran-based
demographer and health sociologist Simin Kazemi told the daily Shargh that the
new law degrades women. “They are seen as tools for reproduction at the service
of the government,” he said.
Saeed
Paivandi, a Paris-based professor of sociology, told RFE/RL that Iranian
society “has undergone significant changes" and "mental and cultural
transformations in the past 20 to 25 years.”
“This
is one of the reasons for the decrease in the population," he said.
"Women do not want to be only mothers and wives like in the past, and this
is not acceptable to the establishment."
He
added that mounting economic difficulties in Iran and the high cost of living
have also contributed to women’s decisions to have fewer or no children.
“The
truth is that economic problems do not allow young people to get married or
have children after marriage,” said Massoud Pezeshkian, a former health
minister and a current member of the parliamentary health commission.
“Our
youth are unemployed, [and] as long as the unemployment issue is not resolved,
these incentives won’t bring any changes,” he said.
Iran
was praised for its effective population policies following the devastating
1980-88 war with Iraq that discouraged pregnancy among underage girls, offered
free condoms and subsidized vasectomies, and encouraged families to have two or
fewer children.
But
those policies have gradually been reversed in recent years, with Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling on Iranians to have more children while
offering warnings about the country’s aging population.
In
a speech last year, Khamenei was quoted as saying that “any action and measure
for the decrease of the population should [only] be taken after [the
population] reaches 150 million.”
Tehran-based
sociologist Saeed Madani told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that the clerical
establishment wants to increase the population for ideological reasons.
“It
believes that the increase of the population will lead to the increased
influence of religious ideas,” he said. “According to this ideology, people are
seen as tools [that can] spread religion or increase [Iran’s] power and
influence.”
Source:
Rferl.Org
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-abortions-sterilizations-contraceptives/31568161.html
---------
Meet
Shahana Hanif, the First Muslim Woman Elected to the New York City Council
By
Adam Kuperstein
November
18, 2021
Winning
the race for City Council in Brooklyn's District 39 is a big deal on its own:
the last two people to hold that seat are the current mayor, Bill de Blasio,
and the next comptroller, Brad Lander. But, the democratic candidate that was
elected this time is breaking barriers.
Even
in the melting pot of New York City, home to the largest Muslim population in
the country, no Muslim woman had ever been elected to the City Council until
now.
In
January, the 30-year-old activist will also become the first South Asian
councilmember and the first woman to represent her district in City Hall.
Before
campaigning she traveled to Bangladesh and spent seven months working on her
language skills "to be able to talk to everyday people in my community
about the issues impacting us on housing, workplace harassment."
Every
New Yorker meets about three Bangladeshis every day. We are taxi workers. We're
food vendors. We are domestic workers," she said. However, Hanif is not
surprised to also be the first Muslim woman on the City Council -- citing
political realities after 9/11 and historical gender inequities.
"In
this community there aren't youth centers. There aren't spaces that are
empowering young women in particular so I set out to do that," she said.
"I'm
going into City Hall with a lot of responsibility for this community and for
Bangladeshi South Asians, Muslims across this entire city," Hanif said.
When
she is sworn in, Hanif will be part of the largest class of woman ever elected
to New York City Council -- the first female majority.
Source:
NBC New York
------------
Women
In Crypto: Raise Your Hands (So We Can See You)
SARA
HAMDAN
November
18, 2021
Boardrooms
and banks have historically been dominated by men. But with a brand new
industry like the cryptocurrency market — one that is built on the openness of
the internet — are there more women at the virtual table?
After
the 2008 financial collapse, Bitcoin was created as an alternative to
traditional banking. But that promise of financial equity somehow did not
translate into diversity. A recent report by consultancy Gemini titled “The
State of US Crypto” revealed that 75 percent of crypto investors are men.
Ladies, where you at?
Ola
Doudin has established herself as a key player in the nascent crypto scene in
the Middle East and North Africa. She is the CEO and co-founder of BitOasis, a
bitcoin consumer wallet and instant exchange focused on cash-based emerging
markets. BitOasis was established in the UAE in 2015 and is recognized as the
largest and most-trusted crypto platform in the region today.
“There’s
been a lot of talk about the crypto space being male dominated, but
unfortunately that’s been the case with traditional financial services and
technology industries too,” said Doudin.
“At
BitOasis, our team makes a conscious effort to keep the workplace balanced.
It’s good to see that the skewed gender ratios are slowly improving as we’re
seeing more women in crypto and fintech, with an increasing number of them
taking on high-impact roles.”
As
more crypto companies and startups open in the region, we are gradually seeing
more women taking on senior roles. “I do think that hiring decisions in the
crypto industry are driven by sexism or other stereotyping,” said Alina
Parfilava, compliance manager at Midchains, a crypto startup based in Abu Dhabi
that is one of the first regulated crypto exchanges in the UAE.
“There
are no barriers for women to become active in crypto and other tech related
startups. In fact, I am evidence of the crest of a wave for more female
representation in the technology sector. Daily, we are doing business with
women from crypto related startups, regulators and consultancies.” Zina Ashour was approached about her role as
marketing co-founder of iOWN Group, a tech company that invests in developing
fintech solutions built on blockchain in the region.
“I
don’t see many women active in the space, perhaps because everyone is
underestimating the value of blockchain and the future of crypto,” she said,
adding: “Financial education, particularly for women, is key.”
The
Gemini research report details an interesting split on this point: There may be
more men actively investing in crypto, but women expressed just as much
interest. Fifty-three percent of women — compared to 47 percent of men —
identified as “crypto curious,” meaning they want to learn more about the
market. So the interest and appetite from women is there.
Nagham
Hassan, a crypto content creator, is trailblazing in this space with her
educational YouTube videos in Arabic discussing all things crypto. She started
the YouTube channel after trying to find Arabic videos that would explain the
new digital asset class to her father and discovering no good ones existed.
She
took crypto seriously when her native Lebanon’s centralized banking system
began to crumble. Unable to withdraw large amounts of her own money from the
bank and struggling with inflation, the Dubai-based creator became “mesmerized
by the underlying blockchain technology and the concept of decentralization.”
“I
was shocked to find that only 4.4 percent of my viewers are female and 95.6
percent are male,” she said. “This variance concerned me because it meant women
are less exposed to crypto and they are missing out on a huge opportunity.
That’s why I address this topic in live chats and I urge women to learn about
it. It’s not a techie guy thing, it is the future and it will impact our day to
day lives.”
Hassan
will be a speaker at Blockchain World, part of DSC in Dec. 15-17 in ADNEC
alongside industry heavyweights. Natalie Brunnell, who hosts a popular video
podcast on cryptocurrencies, will be flying in from Los Angeles for the event.
“While
the tide is turning, and we are noticing an increasing number of women entering
the industry, there is still a lot of work to be done to speed up the process
of achieving a more equal and inclusive industry,” said Brunell, CEO of
American Dreams Media. “Bitcoin not only has the power to transform global
financial systems, but it can also disrupt gender inequality.”
This
is how a community is built, through real and virtual conversations that
feature more female faces in the crowd. We will see more NFT launches, new
coins launched, and new funds led by women. Investment follows education, and
the more diversity we see in this space, the better it will be for all.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1970931
-----------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/kim-kardashian-afghan-soccer-uk-reality/d/125801