Swat Women Foresee Change after Malala’s Nobel Win
New Age Islam News Bureau
13
Oct 2014
The members have made a number of decisions supporting women’s entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia. (File photo)
• Meerut
Love Jihad Row: Girl Denies Rape, Forced Conversion to Islam
• Female
Imams Have Important Role in China
• 20-Year-Old
Woman Ran Off To Join Malaysian Jihadists in Syria
• Ukrainian
Women Join ISIS in Mosul as Assassins and Medics
• Saudi
Women in Shoura ‘An Important Landmark’
• Saudi
Women Launch Fresh Push For Right to Drive
• Malala:
The Award Is For All Children Who Are Voiceless
• This
12-Year-Old Norwegian Girl Is Getting Married On Saturday
• Two Upper
West Side Artists Think NYC Women Should Give The Hijab A Try
• New
Research Says 10 Million Women in UK Are 'Depressed' Over Body Image
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/swat-women-foresee-change-after/d/99495
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Swat
Women Foresee Change after Malala’s Nobel Win
13 Oct
2014
MINGORA:
Saima Bibi was just 13 when she was married off to settle a debt of honour, a
common custom in Swat Valley where Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousufzai
grew up.
A top
student who got the highest marks in class, Saima was forced to drop out of
school and give up her dreams of an education.
Now aged
22, she says Malala has given her the “courage” to speak up to her husband and
in-laws to try to go back to school, and is determined her four children will
finish their studies.
“When
Malala’s picture was being printed in the newspapers, everybody in my family
used to say it’s a conspiracy against Islam. But I liked her from the
beginning,” she told AFP on a visit to a doctor in Mingora.
Malala’s
award has been widely hailed by the country’s political leaders and the press.
It has
also cast a spotlight on the abysmal rates of educational enrolment and
literacy for children, especially girls.
While
the 17-year-old campaigner was forced to leave Pakistan after being shot in the
head by Taliban gunmen two years ago, millions of other children miss out on
schooling for various reasons, including marriage, getting involved in work to
support their families’ income, etc.
The
Taliban razed hundreds of schools when they ruled Swat from 2007 to 2009 and
while the militants have mostly been pushed back into hideouts in tribal areas,
problems remain.
Some 25
million children aged from five to 16 in Pakistan are out of school, 14 million
of them girls, according to Alif Ailaan, an education campaign group.
Ghost
schools
Sumera
Khan said she too was forced to drop out after eighth grade – not because of
marriage but for a lack of schools where she grew up.
“I was
fond of studying but...there were no middle and secondary level schools for
girls in my village,” the 21-year-old told AFP in Mingora, as she prepared
dinner at home while her two children played on the floor.
“My
family did not allow me to continue education with boys in higher classes,” she
added.
Sumera
said she was inspired by Malala.
“She
gave me courage to resume my studies and now I am planning to study
privately...I will raise my voice for myself like Malala.”
Official
figures show 69 per cent of boys and 44pc of girls are enrolled in primary
schools in Swat, figures that drop to just 5pc and 2pc by the time they pass
middle school aged 14 and enter secondary education – broadly mirroring
national trends.
Iffat
Nasir, a senior education official, said the majority of girls dropped out
around the age of 13 to get married, while it is difficult for students in
rural areas to access education.
“There
is poverty in the region, so the girls start embroidery and tailoring work
after primary school,” she said.
“Families
also use them for domestic labour.”
Such
issues are by no means restricted to Swat or the country’s militancy-wracked
north-western areas, with chronic underinvestment leading to around 7,000
“ghost schools” where the buildings stand but no classes are taught.
Classes
may also not occur because of a lack of teachers.
`My
father backed me’
Girls
who are able to overcome the odds are often reliant on a strong male figure,
like Malala’s father Ziauddin Yousufzai, to battle hostility from within their
family.
Fazeelat
Akbar, a 32-year-old doctor, said she hoped Malala’s success would help more
men change their minds.
“I
forced my family to let me continue my education after high school. I was
determined to continue my studies and luckily my father backed me,” she said.
Observers
have hoped the goodwill surrounding Malala’s Nobel win can be leveraged to
improve the fortunes of all schoolchildren, but many are pessimistic.
“I don’t
think (the government) will have a wake-up call and go `Oh gosh Malala won the
Nobel now we have to make this a priority,’” said writer Bina Shah.
“They
will say that `It is nice, we are proud of her’ and they are going to go back
to doing the same thing.”
Back at
the clinic, AFP asked Saima Bibi’s husband Javed Alam what he made of her plans
to finish her schooling.
“I am
thinking about it, and I will let her know,” he said.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1137644/swat-women-foresee-change-after-malalas-nobel-win
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Meerut
Love Jihad Row: Girl Denies Rape, Forced Conversion to Islam
13 Oct
2014
The
Meerut gang rape and forced conversion case, which had put the state of Uttar
Pradesh on the verge of communal riots, has weakened in light of a new
revelation by the victim where she has denied both the gang rape and conversion
charges, and instead said that she had eloped with her Muslim boyfriend on her
own.
According
to a report in the Hindu the girl told the police that she had made the charges
because she was being threatened by her family. She also gave a written
statement denying both the gang rape and the conversion.
She
wrote in the statement, "I was staying with my parents, but I ran away
from home because I feel a threat to my life from my parents and relatives...I
went with the boy belonging to a different community out of my own will.”
The man
named Kaleem and eight others were arrested when the first complaint of
gangrape and conversion was filed in August.
Superintendent
of Police (Meerut Rural) MM Beg told the Hindu that the after running away from
her house, the girl "approached a women’s police station on Sunday
morning" and had been present before a Magistrate. She has been to the
Meerut Nari Niketan as she had requested, adds the report.
When the
initial reports about the gang rape had emerged, discrepancies were noticed in
the girl's tale.
In her
complaint, the girl had claimed that she was kept captive after she was
abducted on July 23 and taken to a madrasa in Hapur where she was gang raped
before being shifted to Muzaffarnagar. She also claimed that in Muzaffarnagar
many other girls were held captive but she couldn't meet them. The police had
not discovered any such captive girls when they had raided the madrasa.
The girl
had also alleged that her attackers had forcibly operated upon her on 23 July.
It was later discovered that the stitches on her abdomen were from a surgery
for an ectopic pregnancy.
An
Indian Express report had pointed out that the time that the victim's statement
had a lot of discrepancies.
For
instance she had given a timeline that appears inexplicable. She was quoted as
saying then, "When Ramzan started, again they started trapping me. I was
taken to a madrasa in Hapur on 23 July where I was gang raped and got pregnant.
They did an ultrasound and got me operated. I was taken to another madrasa in
Muzaffarnagar on 30 July where an old woman would beat me up and feed me cow
meat."
While
the girl has dropped her charges now, her initial revelations had caused a
political storm in the region.
The BJP
and Sangh Parivar has taken up the issue of her conversion and alleged that the
incident revealed that the issue of 'love jihad' a ploy by Muslim men to trick
Hindu girls into falling for them and then forcing them to convert was a real
threat in the region. BJP MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath had raked up the
issue during the UP by polls campaign and said in a provocative speech that for
each Hindu girl converted to Islam, Hindus should convert 100 Muslim women to
Hinduism.
He
wasn't the only who tried to play up the issue of love jihad.
BJP's UP
state leaders Laxmikant Bajpai and Vinay Katiyar had discussed the issue of
'love jihad' in the party's meeting ahead of the by polls and insisted that it
should figure in the party's political resolution. Although it was not
specifically mentioned in the final version of the statement, the party
compromised by expressing 'concern' about reports of forced conversions.
Fringe
groups like Dharma Jagran Manch in Meerut had also raked up the love jihad
issue and even launched a campaign to tie Rakhis to Hindu girls, requesting
them not to fell prey to Muslim youths who lure them to convert their religion.
Where
the BJP was concerned, not everyone was convinced that this was an issue of
importance. One leader had told IANS, "Bajpai has a penchant for
melodramatic words in public discourse which should be avoided at all costs
because they harm the party's prospects...This 'Love Jihad' is a non-issue. It
will have no takers outside the fringe." Home Minister Rajnath Singh had
then tried to avoid the issue altogether by saying that he had never heard of
the term Love jihad.
For the
BJP, though the issue didn't really prove to be of any political help in the
recently concluded by-elections, as the party lost 7 out the 11 seats they had
in the state, including one belonging to its ally, the Apna Dal. The result was
in fact, seen as a rejection of 'polarising politics' by the BJP, although
there was no real evidence to say how or if the issue had impacted the final
poll results.
Hindutva
groups for their part rejected the idea of abandoning the issue. According to
this report in The Hindu,
In the
aftermath of the BJP losing seven of its Assembly seats to the Samajwadi Party,
the proponents of anti-‘love jihad’ campaigns in Western UP told The Hindu that
their campaigns would go on with the “same or even more vigour and focus”.
According
to the report:
Ajay
Tyagi, an industrialist who formed Hindu Bahen Beti Bachao Sangharsh Samiti,
refused to buy the argument blaming Mahant Adityanath’s campaign time focus on
“love jihad” for the electoral drubbing. As part of his Samiti’s work, Mr.
Tyagi has started helpline numbers on which he attends calls, as he claimed, by
“distressed” Hindu parents about their daughters being lured in ‘love’ by
Muslim men.
He told
this correspondent that the BJP would have won more seats, had Adityanath
visited mote constituencies and raised the polarizing issue. “Look at the fact.
Mahant Adityanath ji visited two constituencies-Noida and Lucknow and talked
about ‘love jihad’ and the BJP won both of them,” he said.
There
has been no reaction from the BJP or any of the other Hindutva groups, now that
the poster child of their favourite issue has revealed herself to be a fraud.
Will
this be enough to convince them to let go of the issue once and for all?
Unlikely.
http://www.firstpost.com/india/meerut-gangrape-love-jihad-girl-says-eloped-muslim-man-1754339.html
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Female
imams have important role in China
By
Xinhua in Yinchuan
13 Oct
2014
At Yinta
Mosque in China's Muslim heartland, Tian Xinghong teaches other Muslim women
scriptures from the Quran every morning from 6:30 to 9:30.
The
28-year-old, wearing a black robe and pink scarf, has 60 students at the mosque
in Wuzhong in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region, where many of
the country's Muslim Hui ethnic minority live.
Although
Muslim women pray at home, Tian also leads them in prayer and chanting on
special occasions such as festivals, either at a women's mosque or another
mosque's restricted areas for women.
She is a
female imam, or ahong, pronounced ah-hung, from the Persian word akhund for
"the learned." In China, female imams, rare in Arab countries, are an
innovation.
Tian was
born into a religious family. Her grandmother was one of the first female imams
in Ningxia.
She was
sent to a local mosque at the age of 12 to study Islamic scripture and furthered
her studies at a Chinese-Arabic school for girls in neighboring Gansu province
in 2001, where she studied Islam and Arabic.
In 2003,
Tian passed a qualification test organized by the regional Islamic association
to become an ahong. More than 300 Muslims applied for the test and, of the five
female applicants, Tian was the only one to pass.
"Many
female Muslims did not have much formal education, especially the elderly.
Although they are Muslim, they know nothing about the Quran. I want to teach
them the holy scriptures and hope they can be inspired, think independently and
have their own careers," she said.
Tian's
husband is an imam at Wunan Mosque, the biggest mosque in the city. In addition
to her religious duties, Tian takes care of their two children.
In the
late Ming Dynasty (around the 17th century), followers of the faith set up
schools for Muslim women and girls around the country. These later became
mosques for women operated by female imams in the late Qing Dynasty (around the
19th century).
Female
imams then spread throughout Chinese Muslim societies.
During
the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), religion was banned. It was
revived in the 1980s, leading to growing numbers of Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims
and Christians, among other faiths. The government's push for gender equality
helped broaden Muslim women's roles.
However,
China's female imams do not have equal status to male prayer leaders. They do
not lead salat, the five daily prayers considered among the most important
Muslim obligations. The prayers are instead piped via loudspeakers into women's
mosques from the nearby mosques for men.
Still,
the female imams guide others in worship and are the primary spiritual leaders
for the women in their communities. In the women's mosque, women can study the
Quran and Islamic doctrine, as well as the Arabic language.
In the
Litong district of Wuzhong, where Tian lives, there were 12 female ahongs out
of 600 registered ahongs as of the end of 2013, said Tian Xuewu, an official
with the district religious affairs administration.
"Whether
male or female, whoever can teach us the Islamic scriptures and religious
knowledge is our respected ahong," said Du Shaocheng, who prays at Yinta
Mosque.
http://www.chinadailyasia.com/nation/2014-10/13/content_15176928.html
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20-year-old
woman ran off to join Malaysian jihadists in Syria
13 Oct
2014
KUALA
LUMPUR — Police have confirmed that former Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa
Selangor (KUIS) student, Syamimi Faiqah left for Syria on October 4 and is
believed will join militants of the Islamic State (IS) there.
Federal
Police Special Branch principal assistant director (Counter-Terrorism Division)
SAC Datuk Ayub Khan Mydin Pitchay said Syamimi, 20, left from the Kuala Lumpur
International Airport (KLIA) at 11.55pm on that day.
“Based
on the latest information available, Syamimi is now believed to be at the
Turkey-Syria border and is waiting to slip into Syria. When she arrived at
Istanbul airport, there were already two individuals waiting for her to bring
her to Syria overland through the Hatay province (in Turkey).
“Once
she reaches the border area, a syndicate will smuggle her into Syria,” he told
Bernama today.
A local
daily today reported that Syamimi had run off to Syria to marry an IS militant
known as Akel Zainal, whom she got to know via Facebook.
Akel
Zainal is understood to be a former member of a local rock group which was
famous in the 1990s and is now in Syria to fight for IS.
Ayub
said Akel is believed to be trying to entice women in particular Malay girls
from local higher learning institution to join IS militants.
“What is
worrying is that just through Facebook they were able to convince her to leave
her family and could even make arrangements to fetch her from her home to be
brought to KLIA,” he said.
He added
that since police started monitoring the involvement of Malaysians in Syria, so
far five have been reported killed and six others injured in clashes between
militants and the security forces there.
It has
been reported that so far 22 Malaysians, including three women, have been
detected to be with militant groups in Syria.
Twenty-three
others have been detained in the country for alleged links with these groups.
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/cops-confirm-20-year-old-woman-ran-off-to-join-malaysian-jihadists-in-syria#sthash.3jsi7E3h.dpuf
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Ukrainian
women join ISIS in Mosul as assassins and medics
13 Oct
2014
Iraqi
local authority sources reported that Ukrainian women joined the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group in Mosul city.
The
duties of these women concentrated on medical treatment and assassination
operations, Iraq TradeLink reported Saturday.
The
sources confirmed the presence of one Ukrainian woman in the city's hospital,
but cannot speak Arabic fluently.
No
information was given how these women entered Mosul city.
Security
and intelligence sources reported the presence of hundreds of foreign and
European members within ISIL ranks in both Iraq and Syria.
The ISIL
Takfiri terrorists currently control parts of Syria and Iraq. They have
threatened all communities, including Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Ezadi
Kurds and others, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq.
Senior
Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Persian Gulf Arab
states for the growing terrorism in their country.
The ISIL
has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by
the Israeli regime.
http://www.globalterrorwatch.ch/?p=75776
http://www.iraqinews.com/features/urgent-ukrainian-women-join-isis-mosul/
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Saudi
women in Shoura ‘an important landmark’
13 Oct
2014
RIYADH —
One of the most important landmarks of the era of Custodian of Two Holy Mosques
King Abdullah was allowing women to participate for the first time in the
Shoura Council, said a researcher from King Faisal University in Abha,
Al-Riyadh daily reported.
Uhood
Al-Wadei, who works at the university’s Prince Sultan Tourism College, said:
“At present, with the international challenges and the latest developments due
to the fast tempo of life today, women in the Kingdom have been promised during
this era with ample support and big expansion opportunities in the business
field and allowed to contribute to all economic, social and cultural fields.”
Al-Wadei,
who developed a study on the difficulties facing female entrepreneurs in small
projects in Abha and Khamis Mushayt, said 80 percent of Saudi women are in the
education field.
She said
seven fields have been opened for women in the labor market with the aim of
reducing unemployment among women.
Al-Wadei
said there are many jobs that Saudi women can take up such as administrative
positions in courts, notary public offices and municipalities.
“Also,
factories exclusively run by women can be set up, such as factories for food,
handicrafts, fabrics, carpets, clothes, designs, fashion, gold ornaments,
interior design, and computer centers.
“Women
can also work as researchers, lawyers and legal investigators for women and
juveniles.
“Malls,
bookstores, research centers, universities and schools can be established
exclusively for women.”
Women’s
participation in the Shoura Council has made a difference to the
decision-making body, she said.
“Many
issues were solved and others were closed quickly when women were allowed to
participate in the decision-making process.”
Al-Wadei
said according to a study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the number
of Saudi businesswomen holding commercial registrations has exceeded 30,000.
The
amount of cash held by Saudi women in banks has reached SR65 billion.
Quoting Huda Al-Jeraisi, head of the
Saudi businesswomen’s section at the Council of Saudi Chambers, she said the
number of investment and economic projects owned by Saudi businesswomen has
exceeded 100,000 and are worth in excess of $80 billion.
According
to the council’s figures, the number of commercial registers belonging to Saudi
businesswomen as of 2012 has reached 72,494, while the number of female
subscribers in the chambers of commerce and industry has reached 38,750.
Al-Wadei
said recently the topic of improving Saudi women’s participation in economic
development has occupied a prominent place in the list of strategic priorities
and national development plans.
A number
of decisions were issued supporting women’s entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141013220958
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Saudi
women launch fresh push for right to drive
13 Oct
2014
RIYADH —
A group of Saudi women launched a new campaign to be allowed to drive their
cars, Al-Hayat daily reported.
The new
campaign, called “I Drive by Myself”, reiterates the women’s calls for freedom
of movement and transportation without having to resort to private drivers.
Dr. Hala
Al-Dawsari, member of the campaign, told Al-Hayat daily the constant campaigns
launched by women will eventually lead to two things: either authorities lift
the ban imposed on women who want to drive or they should provide a good
explanation why women are not allowed to get behind the wheel.
“All
active women want one thing: free movement without any cost or social
restrictions,” Al-Dawsari said.
There is
no written law that explicitly and clearly states that women cannot drive.
Saudi
law requires citizens to have valid driver’s licenses when operating a vehicle
inside the country. However, women cannot obtain driving licenses, making it
difficult for them to drive on the road because they will be breaking the law.
Al-Dawsari
presented a working paper about women driving at the Council of Human Rights in
Geneva this month. She launched a campaign encouraging people to participate in
the issue and document their demands in a bulletin that will be issued on Oct.
26.
The
campaign, launched a week ago, has so far attracted 30,000 supporters,
Al-Dawsari said, adding that only Saudi women can end the ban imposed on them.
“Women
driving is a legitimate right all over the world and there are no logical
reasons why they should not be allowed to drive,” she said. The issue is still
heavily debated in Saudi society.
Women
have been working hard to lift the ban on driving while religious scholars
still oppose the idea vehemently.
The
voices calling for allowing women to drive increased when June 17, 2011 was set
as the date when women would drive their cars on the street.
However,
they had to push the date to June 29 following the death of then Crown Prince
Naif Bin Abdulaziz. In commemoration of the June campaign, a group of women and
men have called on authorities to reconsider this issue, stressing that they
will not violate laws or cause any trouble to authorities.
They
agreed that all they need is to allow a woman who lives alone and does not have
a man to help her to drive to the market and buy her stuff herself.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141013221040
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Malala:
The award is for all children who are voiceless
13 Oct
2014
OSLO —
Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai, who became the youngest ever winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize on Friday, made a high-level peacemaking move after sharing the
award with India’s Kailash Satyarthi for championing children’s rights.
The
17-year-old girls’ education activist — who heard of her win during a chemistry
lesson at her school in Birmingham, England — invited the prime ministers of
oft-warring India and Pakistan to the ceremony in Oslo in December when she and
the 60-year-old Indian activist will receive the award. “The award is for all
the children who are voiceless, whose voices need to be heard,” she told a
press conference held at the end of the school day so she wouldn’t miss class.
The
selection of such a young winner was bound to make headlines, but it also came
amid news that 17 civilians died in the worst violence in decades in the
disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.
Malala
did not miss the significance of the moment, paying tribute to her co-winner
anti-child labor activist Satyarthi and inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi as well as his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif to celebrate their joint
win.
The
Norwegian Nobel Committee said the duo had been chosen for their struggle
against the repression of children and young people and “for the right of all
children to education.” “Through her heroic struggle Malala has become a
leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education,” the committee said.
Standing
on a box so she could reach the podium, the teenager joked that the Nobel would
not help in her exams or in arguments with her young brothers. And she paid
emotional tribute to her father, “who did not clip my wings.” Joyful Pakistanis
celebrated her receiving the prestigious award in her home town of Mingora with
dancing, singing and the sharing of cakes.
Ayesha
Khalid, who was at school with Malala, said: “It’s not Malala alone winning
this award, the girls of Pakistan have won it...(she) is the light of our eyes
and the voice of our heart.
“She has
proved that you can’t put a halt to education by blowing up schools.”
Satyarthi,
who founded a consumer campaign in the 1980s to combat child labor in the
handmade carpet industry, said he was “delighted,” calling the Nobel prize
“recognition of our fight for child rights.”
The
low-profile activist heads the Global March Against Child Labor, a combination
of some 2,000 social groups and union organizations in 140 countries.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20141012220895
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This
12-year-old Norwegian girl is getting married on Saturday
13 Oct
2014
Thea is
a 12-year-old girl from Norway. On Saturday, she will marry her fiancé, Geir, a
thirty-seven year-old man. The young girl is even blogging about the special
occasion and all the fun things she is doing to prepare, like tasting food and
testing her wedding-day hair.
“My
dream has always been that I want to be a vet because then I can work with
horses and stuff like that all the time. But when I talked about it today so
Mom said that I do not really need and work on some things or going to school
now that I’m marrying Geir,” blogged Thea yesterday.
You are
probably thinking, “There is no way this is real.”
You are
right.
Thea’s
marriage to Geir is not real. However, the 39,000 girls that are married each
day before turning eighteen is real. More than two out of every three girls are
married before eighteen in Chad, Niger and the Central African Republic. It is
a global problem that some predict will see 142 million girls married before
turning eighteen in this decade.
The
campaign by Plan Norway is intended to provoke and illustrate the global
problem of child marriage. It is working. More than 660,000 unique visitors
from Norway have visited Thea’s blog. That represents roughly 12 percent of the
country’s population.
Quite a
few people have been duped by the blog posts. And you can’t blame them. The
honest blog posts describe all the ways Thea is getting ready for her wedding.
Amid descriptions of cakes and makeup, Thea describes the challenges to being a
child bride and how it will disrupt her life.
Some
visitors think it is real. Recent posts are filled with comments providing
earnest advice and feedback to Thea. Plan Norway hopes that the outrage about a
potential child bride in Norway can be channeled to child marriage around the
world.
“Actually
I’m not very happy today just because I and my mom just arguing. I asked her if
I could ask Sara and Annikenin wedding because I do so want them to come so
they can know that we can remain friends even though I’m getting married and
not see at school every day,” writes Thea in a translated post.
“To open
the eyes of Norwegians to these tragic facts, we needed to adopt strong
measures. Therefore we decided to put the brutal reality in a Norwegian
context, so that the whole population takes an active position and helps in the
fight against child marriage. This has shown to be a very effective way of
telling the stories,” said Annika Diseth Yri, a Plan Norway communications
staffer, via email.
Visitors
to the blog are directed to Plan International’s “Because I am a Girl”
campaign. The top of the blog reads “Stopp Bryllupet” (stop the wedding) and
provide links to the campaign, Plan’s work and how to sponsor a girl. They are
encouraged to join the campaign to stop child marriage and share it through
social media with the #stoppbryllupet tag.
The
Because I am a Girl campaign has reached more than 10 million people, said Yri.
She expects global media coverage for the wedding this weekend, including
television outlets from Russia and Germany. The run-up to the wedding was
covered this week by Buzzfeed and the Independent.
Making
the personal connection is behind the success of the campaign.
“We
believe this massive response is due to the fact that we chose to bring the
issue of child marriage home to a Norwegian context,” said Yri.
“We have
seen that this has been effective method to get people engaged in the issue. We
as Plan Norway are both impressed and grateful of the response of the Norwegian
people. People who normally don’t engage in development issues, are now
campaigning to stop child marriage and sharing our message.”
http://www.humanosphere.org/human-rights/2014/10/12-year-old-norwegian-girl-getting-married-saturday/
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-truth-behind-norways-first-child-wedding--lyHKZMEaBg
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Two Upper
West Side Artists Think NYC Women Should Give The Hijab A Try
The
covered-girl look is great, say two Upper West Side artists who think NYC women
should the Hijab a try
13 Oct
2014
Saks
Afridi and Qinza Najm spread the word with their selfie campaign about the virtues
of wearing a traditional veil
The Hijab
is hot!
That’s
the message two Upper West Side artists want to spread by encouraging women
around the city to put on the veil and snap a selfie.
“Women
who wear a Hijab by choice are in complete control of their sexuality,” says
Saks Afridi, who started the #DamnILookGood campaign with project partner Qinza
Najm. “Here in New York, it’s very brave for a woman to wear one out in
public.”
Najm had
started wearing a Hijab around New York City as an experiment, just to see what
it would be like. Though she was raised in Pakistan, she and her family members
do not wear the traditional head covering worn by some Muslim women. But one
day she put on a Hijab in her Lower East Side art studio and went for a walk
around the neighbourhood.
“Someone
started screaming at me to ‘Go home!’ ” Najm recalls. “I was surprised because I figured
people in New York would
have more tolerance.”
She
spent the next week wearing the Hijab around town, and encountered more angry
New Yorkers on the streets and subways. This aggressive reaction to a garment
that’s quite common in many Muslim cultures prompted Najm and Afridi to do the
project.
They
launched it at the DUMBO Arts Festival last month, where hundreds of women put
on the head covering and posed for selfies, posting them to sites like Twitter,
Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #damnilookgood.
“A
selfie suggests you are feeling confident and good about yourself,” says Najm,
who put her Hijab back on for the project and posed with the other women.
Almost
none of the women who participated in the #DamnILookGood project had ever worn
a Hijab before.
Some,
like Erin Zeitler, 25, from the Upper West Side, had always assumed that women
in Hijabs were being forced to wear one, and not doing it as a fashion
statement.
“It was
mind-opening to put one on,” she says. “It was like looking at the world
through someone else’s eyes.”
Her
boyfriend says he was also thinking about eyes — but mostly how sexy his
girlfriend’s eyes looked with the rest of her face covered.
And it
wasn’t just women who stopped by to try on the traditional head covering. Men
and kids also tested the veils out, which is exactly what the artists wanted.
“I would
not say this is a celebration but rather an exercise in tolerance,” says
Afridi. “We are not for or against the Hijab, we are just posting the question
about how it makes people feel to wear one.”
If
anything, the artists hope their project will encourage respect for women who
choose to cover their heads in public. As Najm discovered, it’s not easy to
stand out from the crowd and invite stares.
The Hijabs
for the #DamnILookGood project were all donated by local Muslim women who also
wanted to stir a discussion about wearing them.
The
artists are clear that their project is not about supporting laws that require
women to wear Hijabs in public, as some Middle Eastern countries do. This is
about women who have a choice to wear one, and choose to do it.
“With
it, she is in complete control of her sexuality, and ultimately that’s what
makes her so beautiful,” reads the artists’ statement on their website.
Najm was
actually surprised by how much she missed covering her regular clothes when she
stopped wearing the Hijab.
“You can
wear pajamas or crappy clothes underneath,” she says. “You can be a total
slouch. It’s just very comfortable.”
“Well,”
Afridi says, “it’s uncomfortably comfortable.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/covered-girls-aim-show-Hijab-hot-article-1.1970678
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New Research
Says 10 Million Women in UK Are 'Depressed' Over Body Image
By
Radhika Sanghani
13 Oct
2014
Almost
10 million women in the UK have reported that they 'feel depressed’ because of
the way they look, according to new research.
The
study, which coincides with the launch of Body Confidence Week, finds that one
in four women feel their body image has held them back from having a fulfilling
relationship.
Another
quarter believe that anxiety around the way they look has stopped them going
for a job they wanted.
Out of
the 2,339 women surveyed, 36 per cent say they do not exercise due to the way
they feel they look. While 26 per cent struggle to stick to exercise regimes,
and a quarter skip meals to lose weight.
The
study claims that a total of 10.2 million British women do not exercise because
of body anxiety.
The Be
Real campaign aims to change attitudes to body image. It was founded in
response to a 2012 report by a parliamentary group on body image, which showed
an urgent need for change.
Almost
four fifths of women agree the UK is suffering from a body confidence epidemic
and 54 percent of women think issues relating to body image are increasing.
More
than half say they feel powerless about society’s obsession with looks.
Caroline
Nokes MP, chair of that group, says: “Low body confidence is a critical public
health issue that we cannot ignore. It affects everyone – all ages, both sexes
– and starts as young as five years old.
“Through
this campaign, we’re driving change through three priority areas. We want to
ensure children and young people are educated about body confidence from an
early age, to promote healthy living and wellbeing over weight loss and
appearance, and to encourage the media, business and advertisers to recognise
diversity and positively reflect what we really look like.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-health/11151074/Body-confidence-week-New-research-says-10-million-women-depressed-over-body-image.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/swat-women-foresee-change-after/d/99495