Saudi Teenager Ritaj Al-Hazmi Is Titleholder of a Guinness World Record for Being the Youngest Writer of a Novel Series
New
Age Islam News Bureau
14
July 2022
• Morocco’s
Lionesses Secure A Maiden FIFA World Cup Place
• Pope
Francis Names Women to Bishops Advisory Committee for the First Time
• Social
Media Effect: Islamic Emirate Not Against Girls’ Education, Say Authorities
• Iranian
Women Say ‘No to Hijab’, Publicly Remove Veil to Protest Draconian Chastity
Laws
• Kyrgyz
Imam in Hot Water after Blaming Soaring Meat Prices on Women's Skimpy Clothes
• SIS:
Dark Day for Muslim Women after SM Faisal’s Ex-Wife Emilia Arrested in Protest,
Without Prior Warrant
• Afghan
Women, Children Grappling With Opioid Addiction Live In Fear Of Being
Imprisoned By The Taliban
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-teenager-ritaj-guinness-novel/d/127481
--------
Saudi
Teenager Ritaj Al-Hazmi Is Titleholder of a Guinness World Record for Being the
Youngest Writer of a Novel Series
Ritaj
Al-Hazmi retains the Guinness title for her novel series
-----
July
14, 2022
JEDDAH:
A 14-year-old teenager, Ritaj Al-Hazmi, remains the titleholder of a Guinness
World Record for being the youngest writer of a novel series.
She
was first named in 2020 by the Guinness Book of Records for this achievement.
Al-Hazmi
began writing short stories at the age of six with the support of her family,
who sent her on special creative writing courses.
She
published her first two English-language novels “Treasure of the Lost Sea” and
“Portal of the Hidden World” in 2019 when she was 10. In 2021, she published
her third novel “Beyond the Future World.”
She
has recently completed a new novel, “The Passage to the Unknown,” and is
preparing to publish.
Al-Hazmi
said she wants to inspire others to read by producing these works.
She
told the Saudi Press Agency that she is currently working on a science fiction
novel entitled “The Day Before 2050,” about the potential danger of climate
change to humans and animals.
She
recently published an article on the subject, and said she chose the title
because 2050 is the date set by many countries to reach net zero emissions.
Al-Hazmi
remains dedicated to the craft of writing.
“It
takes me about a year to write a book, depending on the type of book. The
writing mechanism that I follow is one of the most famous international methods
called ‘Save The Cat Method,’ which depends on dividing the composition of the
novel into main points. Moreover, some electronic applications help me organize
my ideas and ensure the correct sequence of events in the novel while writing,
and (I) refer to them before the proofreading stage.”
Al-Hazmi
thanked the government for supporting artists in the country.
Her
father Hussain Al-Hazmi is proud of her achievements. “Getting this title is
one of the most important awards she has received, and I am very happy for her
that she has been able to reach her goals and make her dream come true.”
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2122121/saudi-arabia
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Morocco’s
Lionesses Secure A Maiden FIFA World Cup Place
Morocco
secure maiden World Cup berth
-----
July
14, 2022
Morocco
have reached the semifinals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations for the first
time after beating Botswana 2-1 on Wednesday at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium
in Rabat.
The
win means that the Atlas Lionesses have confirmed their maiden qualification
for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup set to take place in Australia and New
Zealand. It is the first time that a team from North Africa has managed this
achievement.
The
tournament hosts will now face the winner of tonight’s quarterfinal game
between South Africa and Tunisia in Monday’s last-four clash.
Sanaa
Mssoudy gave the home team an early lead at three minutes but Botswana
equalized through Keitumetse Dithebe only four minutes later, and the teams
went in at halftime all square.
Fatima
Tagnaout, already with an assist to her name, set up Yasmin Mrabet’s winner on
59 minutes to ensure Morocco took their place in the semifinals.
Earlier
in the competition, Morocco had topped Group A with a maximum of nine points
after beating Burkina Faso 1-0, Uganda 3-1 and Senegal 1-0.
Zambia,
who defeated Senegal 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Wednesday’s other
quarterfinal, will face the winner of the match between Cameroon and Nigeria,
which also takes place on Thursday night.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2122181/sport
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Pope
Francis names women to bishops advisory committee for the first time
July
13, 2022
VATICAN
CITY — Pope Francis has for the first time named three women to serve as
members of the Vatican committee that vets bishop nominations.
Italian
sister Raffaella Petrini, French sister Yvonne Reungoat and laywoman Maria Lia
Zervino will join the previously all-male office, the Vatican said on
Wednesday.
The
appointments are the latest in a series of significant moves allowing women
more say in Catholic Church governance.
The
dicastery oversees the work of most of the church’s 5,300 bishops, who run
dioceses around the world.
Its
members — including cardinals, bishops and now women — meet periodically to
evaluate new bishops who are proposed by Vatican ambassadors.
The
pope still has the final say despite the consultation and vetting process.
Petrini
was the first woman to be appointed as the secretary-general of the Vatican
City State, in charge of museums and other administrative parts of the
territory.
Sister
Reungoat previously served as superior general of the Daughters of Mary the
Helper, a religious order also known as the Salesian Sisters.
Maria
Lia Zervino meanwhile is president of a Catholic women’s umbrella group, the
World Union of Female Catholic Organizations.
Church
doctrine still reserves the priesthood for men, and women have often complained
they have a second-class status to the all-male clerical hierarchy of the Holy
See.
Most
of the Vatican's work in running schools, hospitals, while passing on the faith
is done by women. — Euronews
Source:
Saudi Gazette
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/622905
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Social
Media Effect: Islamic Emirate Not Against Girls’ Education, Say Authorities
July
14, 2022
Following
a series of campaigns on social media for the reopening of girls’ schools,
authorities said the Islamic Emirate was not against girls’ education.
Hundreds
of social media users, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, were going
online posting texts about girl students above grade seven and asking the
Islamic Emirate to reopen their schools all over the country.
They
called education the rights of the Afghan women and girls and said they should
be paid their rights.
“Why
should women go begging but not going to schools and getting educated,” said
one of the social media users who called on the Islamic Emirate to allow girls
and women get their rights.
Another
social media user said women can tolerate poverty but not illiteracy.
“Prevention of girls from schools causes the country’s future to remain in
darkness more than ever,” said Farida who said her ambition was to become a
doctor in the future.
“Illiteracy
is idolism and ignorance and I don’t want to remain ignorant and illiterate. I
call on the Islamic Emirate to put an end to the girls’ waiting and allow them
to rejoin their schools,” she said.
Meanwhile,
the Ministry of Education said that girls’ schools above grade-seven will
remain closed until the next decision.
One
of the officials said reopening girls’ schools would be happen soon after a
plan for the types of their hijab or burqa is finalized.
“The
Islamic Emirate is not against girls’ education and their schools will be
reopened soon after the discussion is ended,” said an official of the ministry
of education adding the schools would soon be reopened after the ministry
receives permission from the leadership of the Islamic Emirate.
Some
officials of the Islamic Emirate said the reason behind girl schools’ closure
is that the related officials were working on the type of clothing they have to
use while joining their classes.
More
than 92,000 of up to 242,000 schoolteachers, comprising 38 percent of the total
teachers, are women. Over 2,700,000 girls have registered with first to seventh
grades in schools this year.
Saida
Ahmadi
Source:
The Kabul Time
https://thekabultimes.gov.af/islamic-emirate-not-against-girls-education/
--------
Iranian
women say ‘no to hijab’, publicly remove veil to protest draconian chastity
laws
DISHHA
BAGCHI
13
July, 2022
New
Delhi: Iranian women Tuesday participated in an anti-hijab campaign across the
country, where they defied the Islamic Republic’s strict hijab rules by posting
videos of themselves publicly removing their veils, Iran’s state news agency
reported.
They
protested on 12 July which Iran celebrates as the ‘National Day of Hijab and
Chastity’, and government institutions and agencies are instructed to promote
it for a week.
The
country’s security forces in recent months have strictly tried to reinforce the
dress code, prompting calls by women to oppose it.
On
Tuesday, Iranian women’s rights activists removed their hijabs publicly and
shared these videos on social media.
At
the same time, the Iranian state television aired a video of a ‘Hijab and
Chastity’ ceremony which showed 13 women — wearing green hijabs and long white
robes – dancing to a narration that quoted verses from the Quran and stressed
the importance of women being covered. The video was met with ridicule on
social media.
The
Islamic hijab rule has been prevalent in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in
1979. The law mandates women and girls over the age of nine to wear a head
covering in public. However, its severity varies from one administration to the
next, depending on the political background of the incumbent president.
Backed
by the country’s very conservative religious elite, Iranian President Ebrahim
Raisi described the recent backlash to the hijab law as “an organised promotion
of moral corruption in Islamic society”.
Yet
women have found ways around the law by wearing colourful scarves and showing
some of their hair.
This
raised concern among religious scholars, who said the women breached the
Islamic republic’s principles of the “chastity and hijab” guidelines.
Similarly,
early this month, the deputy prosecutor of Mashhad in northeast Iran wrote an
order preventing women without hijabs from visiting offices and banks or using
the metro. While the mayor initially opposed the decision, he eventually
allowed the order.
Following
this, women’s rights activists and civil activists urged citizens, including
men, to resist the mandatory wearing of hijab. The call elicited a positive
response with many posting videos and photographs on the morning of July 12.
New
York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI) feared
“potential violence and detentions on July 12”.
The
anti-hijab social media campaign has been led by US-based activist Masih
Alinejad who has been behind several online campaigns in the past decade.
Ahead
of the protest, Masih Alinejad tweeted: “Tomorrow Iranian women will shake the
clerical regime by removing their hijab and taking to the streets across Iran
to say #No2Hijab. This is called Women Revolution. In Iran #WalkingUnveiled is
a crime. Iranian men will also join us”.
On
12 July, she tweeted again, “As we promised!, We remove our hijabs and I hope
everyone joins us. Forcing women to wear hijab is not part of Iranian’s
culture. It is the culture of Taliban, ISIS and Islamic Republic. Enough is
enough. #No2Hijab”.
The
hashtag #hijab_without_hijab was used in over 76,000 tweets globally on Monday
and Tuesday. On the Iranian Tagminer website, the hashtag was listed as the
second most popular tag in the country as of Tuesday evening.
Iranian
Fars News Agency dismissed the protests, calling it an attempt by the
“counter-revolution” to “promote promiscuity and bad hijab in Iran”. It claimed
the hashtag failed to trend on Persian Twitter and that the main accounts
speaking about the protest were anonymous and supported the US and the Shah –
the former ruler who was overthrown in the 1979 revolution.
Source:
The Print
--------
Kyrgyz
Imam In Hot Water After Blaming Soaring Meat Prices On Women's Skimpy Clothes
July
13, 2022
An
imam is courting controversy in Kyrgyzstan after he blamed skyrocketing meat
prices in the Central Asian country's bazaars on women who "cheapen"
themselves by showing too much skin.
"Do
you know when meat prices go up in your town? It goes up when women's flesh
cheapens. Woman's meat becomes cheap when she bares skin, exposes her thighs
like a thumb," Sadybakas Doolov told a congregation in the capital,
Bishkek, earlier this month.
The
award-winning mullah, who had served as the head of an Islamic university,
called on elderly men to put an end to "this disgrace" and stop women
from wearing skimpy outfits.
The
comments by Doolov, 53, provoked a lot of angry replies in the predominantly
Muslim country after footage of his sermon was shared on social media. Some
accused the imam of insulting and discriminating against women and called for a
criminal investigation.
The
country's highest Islamic authority, however, is standing by the imam, saying
his comments haven't broken any rules.
The
state-backed Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (DUMK) launched
a probe into Doolov's controversial speech. The DUMK said its investigation
found that Doolov's remarks didn't violate any Islamic laws, didn't insult
anyone's honor and dignity, and didn't interfere with politics. The probe
examined Doolov's speech according to those three criteria, it said.
The
agency has also spoken with the imam, who was awarded the DUMK's prestigious
Aikol medal in 2020. According to the DUMK, Doolov's speech was merely
misunderstood by many.
The
DUMK's probe came after two Kyrgyz activists filed official complaints with the
State Committee for National Security and the Prosecutor-General's Office,
calling for an investigation.
Doolov
says the comments made during a 30-minute sermon were taken out of context and
misinterpreted by critics. The unapologetic mullah said he meant for people to
examine their own moral values and not to "blame authorities or traders
for everything."
"There
were some words on why you're talking about the [high] price of meat but your
honor is not offended when women walk around with their naked bodies,"
Doolov explained. The imam said he didn't intend to demean women.
But
many Kyrgyz social-media users accused him of misogyny, ignorance, and
misrepresenting religion.
"Simply
genius! Now, please check on Google the price of meat in some Arab countries
[where women are covered head-to-toe] and see if your theory works there,
too," one commented.
A
Kyrgyz woman reacted with sarcasm, saying she wouldn't have worn short skirts
had she known it had such severe consequences. "Women must be behind the
economic crisis and bad roads, too," she wrote.
A
Kyrgyz man wrote that Doolov's remarks represented extremist ideas and that his
interpretation of Islam should be examined by the security services.
Several
others voiced concern that religious figures with questionable ideas are
teaching Islam to the young generation.
Doolov
is active on social media, often sharing videos with his more than 124,000
followers on Instagram and nearly 200,000 subscribers on YouTube.
He
reportedly received his religious education at a private madrasah in
neighboring Tajikistan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Doolov also studied
philology at the Osh State University in southern Kyrgyzstan.
According
to Kyrgyz media reports, Doolov had worked as the head of at least two Islamic
schools in Kyrgyzstan. He currently is an imam at a mosque in Bishkek's
Sverdlov district.
Source:
Rferl
https://www.rferl.org/a/kyrgyzstan-imam-meat-prices-short-skirts/31942193.html
--------
SIS:
Dark day for Muslim women after SM Faisal’s ex-wife Emilia arrested in protest,
without prior warrant
By
Soo Wern Jun
27
Jun 2022
KUALA
LUMPUR, June 27 — Women’s rights group Sisters In Islam (SIS) has expressed its
disappointment towards the Shariah Court system today and its handling of cases
related to Emilia Hanafi, the former wife of businessman Datuk SM Faisal SM
Nasimuddin Kamal.
In
a statement today, SIS said sending Emilia to Kajang Prison to serve a
seven-day jail sentence earlier marks a dark day for all women especially
Muslim mothers and wives in the country.
“The
Shariah judiciary, which is supposed to be responsible for upholding justice
and safeguarding the welfare of the affected family members from oppression,
instead acted to issue a seven-day jail arrest warrant on the mother simply
because she had changed an ex-husband’s visit date at the request of the child
— her son.
“The
mother, named Emilia Hanafi, arrived at the Federal Territory Shariah Court at
about 9.45am to surrender, in protest and unwillingly, to the court. However,
when we arrived at the court, we got the news that the arrest warrant was never
actually served on Emilia and the judge in question refused to see her or her
Shariah lawyer,” said SIS.
According
to SIS, it was only known later that the arrest warrant had not been served
before, as it was handed over to Emilia just this morning when she was in
court.
“Emilia,
who is also the ex-wife of entrepreneur and businessman SM Faisal Nasimuddin
had filed a domestic violence report against her ex-husband in 2015. Although
it has been seven years, her domestic violence case is still ongoing.
“However,
Emilia’s case is not an isolated case as many women have experienced
difficulties in our Shariah court system in Malaysia,” the group said.
Earlier
this morning, Emilia was sentenced to a seven-day jail sentence for failing to
comply with the Shariah High Court’s order on the visitation dates of her three
children.
The
sentence was meted out after she surrendered herself to the Shariah Court here.
According to her lawyer, Nazri Yahya, Emilia will be serving her sentence
starting today at the Kajang Women’s Prison.
Citing
its own legal aid clinic Telenisa, SIS said many Muslim women continue to face
various issues related to Islamic family laws in cases involving wife and child
alimony claims, matrimonial property, and childcare, which they said are
time-consuming, complicated and expensive.
It
also pointed to the several gaps in the Shariah judiciary, such as lack of
digitisation unlike the civil courts, no audio or video recording, and no
platform for reference to cases.
There
were also findings on complaints about very complicated procedures such as
dissolution of marriage and claims of rights after divorce where the client has
to open several files in the different Shariah courts.
“Clients
are given two to three different dates for each claim. The procedure is highly
harassing and the claims cannot be heard in full,” the group said.
It
also listed several issues involving alimony claims, polygamy, and child
marriages.
SIS
said the situation is very worrying and sad as women are already facing
injustice and oppression under the roof of their own homes, when they turn and
hope to the institution of justice in defending their destiny, the difficulties
and other difficulties that they have to face.
“Who
else can women hope to get justice for themselves and their children? By 2021,
as many as 75 per cent of Telenisa callers will be from the B40 (bottom 40 per
cent) group who will have difficulty paying for legal services that are too
expensive and have never been controlled.
“Therefore,
the Shariah Court must ensure that the rights of these mothers are guaranteed
and justice is upheld immediately. Delayed justice is denied justice,” said
SIS.
Source:
Malay Mail
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Afghan
women, children grappling with opioid addiction live in fear of being
imprisoned by the Taliban
KATHARINE
LAKE BERZ AND SHARIF SHARAF
July
14, 2022
Armed
with Kalashnikovs, two Taliban soldiers forced their way into a home near
Kandahar last month, searching for a 40-year-old woman. They had come to arrest
Farzana, a mother of eight children who was suspected of using drugs.
Farzana’s
husband, Nasraullah, had been arrested a few weeks before, but had escaped from
a moving van and was in hiding.
The
soldiers were met by Farzana’s seven-year-old daughter, Osmania. Trembling and
gasping for breath, Farzana said, Osmania told them that she was not there.
Osmania promised that her mother would surrender when she returned. (Farzana
and her family do not have surnames, which is common in rural Afghanistan).
This
was another moment in a desperate cat-and-mouse game Farzana and her children
were playing to avoid the Taliban crackdown on illicit drugs announced in
April.
Farzana
was indeed addicted to heroin and opium and some of her children – all under
age 14 – were too. But prison would offer neither safety nor therapy, and
shunned by the rest of their family and neighbours, they longed to stay
together.
Farzana’s
life is part of an escalating tragedy. As Afghanistan grapples with poverty and
starvation, opioid addiction is raging. More than 10 per cent of Afghanistan’s
40 million people are addicts according to the United Nations, and
drug-treatment programs are scarce.
Drug
addiction is not a new problem in Afghanistan. The country has been the world’s
largest cultivator of opium and producer of opiates for at least 30 years. But
rates of addiction have skyrocketed.
UN
reports say that the number of female addicts grew more than 600 per cent over
the past decade, as the extended military conflict left them vulnerable to
anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, common risk factors for
developing drug-use disorders.
Since
the Taliban’s ban came into effect, thousands of men who use drugs have been
rounded up and imprisoned, according to two Taliban police officers. The Globe
and Mail interviewed the Taliban officers, one from Kandahar and one from
Helmand province, in Pashto over WhatsApp. The Globe is not identifying them
because they fear retribution for speaking publicly on the issue.
But
part of the story is largely kept secret. Women and children are being
imprisoned for illicit drug use too.
Official
statistics report that women represent less than one per cent of the country’s
addicts. But the police chief from Kandahar told The Globe that the Taliban
prefer to hide the problem of female addicts because they believe that women
who use drugs bring deep dishonour in patriarchal Taliban society.
Almost
one million Afghan women use drugs, according to the most recent international
data. A Kandahar addiction-support volunteer told The Globe that women are
suffering in staggering numbers. Some are in hiding and others are in prison,
he said, and some are preyed upon by men for sex. The Globe is not revealing
his identity because he is afraid of persecution for speaking to the media.
Under
the Taliban crackdown, he said, women live in grave danger.
Farzana
said that people swear at us and throw stones, saying they want us to die.” She
is terrified that her children will starve to death but acknowledges that she
is so addicted that she often buys drugs before food. Some days, they have no
food at all; on others, they are lucky to get dry bread.
“I
have heard of people who have sold their daughters for drugs,” she said. “But I
love my daughters and I hope I won’t have to sell them.”
Noor
Bibi, a 30-year-old addict and mother of seven in Kandahar province lives in
hiding. She, too, is terrified of being imprisoned and losing her children.
“I
must hide indoors,” she said. But she risks arrest to beg for food and money to
buy heroin and opium.
“When
I can’t get it, I cry like a crazy woman, I am out of control.”
Ms.
Bibi’s 40-year-old husband, Asadullah, is incapacitated by addiction and is
often away or in jail. Her voice cracked when she spoke of her children.
“My
eldest son is 13 years old and uses opium and heroin every day.” Her youngest
daughter is two years old and very small for her age, she said.
“I
am scared even my baby is addicted.”
Her
situation is not unusual. In 2021, the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes and UNICEF
reported that as many as half of parents in the north and south of Afghanistan
are giving drugs to their children to treat headaches, fevers and stomach
problems.
Women
also give opioids to their children when they are short of food, the
addiction-support volunteer said. He worries that an even larger percentage of
Afghanistan’s next generation may be plagued by addiction.
He
and other Afghans who spoke with The Globe said that with the economy in free
fall and drug prices rising, Afghanistan’s female drug users and their children
are at acute risk of starvation or death.
There
were 102 drug-treatment facilities before the Taliban returned to power in August.
Only five of them were open to women and children, according to the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime.
But
since the recent crackdown, the Taliban are bringing some female addicts and
their children to prisons, forcing them to go cold turkey among hardened
criminals. In Kandahar’s Sarpoza prison, drug-addicted mothers and their
children are housed separately alongside more than 1,400 male addicts already
there, according to prison director Movlavi Hussaini.
Addicts
there live in shocking conditions, Mr. Hussaini told The Globe. The women
suffer from insect-borne diseases and illnesses linked to raw-sewage exposure.
The prison is more than 20 per cent over its capacity and has only two doctors
for its 2,260 prisoners, almost all of whom need medical help, he said.
“But
without medicines, what can they do?”
One
prisoner, Fahima, who appeared unwell, spoke with us as a toddler hid behind
her. She trembled uncontrollably as she described her two months in jail with
her five children who are also addicted to opium. The eldest is just nine years
old.
A
physician at Sarpoza, Ghulam Zawak, said that women arrive at the prison in
much poorer health than men, and with severe mental-health problems.
But
Dr. Zawak is not trained in psychiatry or women’s health and is not able to
help them, he said. He has begged the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC) to help Afghanistan’s addicts. But they told him that “treating
addiction is not in our plan.”
Luc
Christen, ICRC public relations officer in Kabul confirmed by e-mail that the
ICRC does not have plans to help with addiction treatment at Sarpoza or
elsewhere in Afghanistan. “This is not our field of expertise,” he wrote.
But
female and child addicts need urgent help, Dr. Zawak said, or Afghanistan’s
addiction crisis could overwhelm society in the years to come.
“Addiction
is a disease and prisons are not going to help.”
Source:
The Globe And Mail
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-afghan-women-addiction-taliban-illicit-drugs/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-teenager-ritaj-guinness-novel/d/127481