Taliban to Allow Girls to Return To School ‘Soon’: Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
New
Age Islam News Bureau
21
September 2021
• Dozens of Girl
Students Flee Afghanistan To Settle In Canada
• Islamic scholars to
decide role of women in Afghanistan: Kabul Mayor
• Iranian Women Fear
Setbacks In Hard-Earned Rights Under Raisi
• Delhi: Muslim Woman
in Custody for Minor Alleged Offence Accuses Police Officer of Brutality
• Thailand Urged Not
To Deport Trans Woman Charged In Malaysia
• As Kerala's Men Push
For 'All Against All' War, Women Provide the Antidotes
• Over 100 Saudi
athletes compete in 2nd Women’s Karate Championships in Jeddah
• Saudi Arabia women’s
team win bronze at 2021 Karate 1 Premier League in Cairo
• Saudi speed bike
racer and rallyist Dania Akeel felicitated as first REDTAG ‘Real Hero’
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/girls-afghanistan-zabihullah-mujahid/d/125409
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Taliban to Allow Girls to Return To School ‘Soon’: Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid
21
September, 2021
Al Arabiya
Taliban
to allow girls to return to school 'soon': Spokesperson | Al Arabiya English
------
Girls
in Afghanistan will be allowed to return to school as soon as possible, the
Taliban said Tuesday, after announcing the remaining positions in its all-male
cabinet.
“We
are finalizing things... it will happen as soon as possible,” spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid said on girls’ education.
It
comes after the education ministry ordered male teachers and students back to
secondary school at the weekend, but made no mention of the country’s women
educators and girl pupils.
Mujahid
also made no reference to the now-closed women’s affairs ministry, which was
shut down last week and replaced with a department that earned notoriety for
enforcing religious doctrine during the previous Taliban regime.
“These
positions are considered important for the functioning of the Emirate,” he said
announcing the final cabinet appointments, which included additions to the
health ministry.
The
first appointments to the Taliban interim government were announced earlier
this month -- drawn exclusively from loyalist ranks, with established
hardliners in all key posts, despite previous promises of an inclusive
administration for all Afghans.
Source:
Al Arabiya
--------
Dozens
of girl students flee Afghanistan to settle in Canada
Barry
Ellsworth
20.09.2021
About
200 girl students and dancers made a daring escape from Afghanistan with the
help of the Toronto, Canada Prince Charles charity, Canadian media reported
Monday.
The
girls and their families will resettle in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan
within the next few weeks, said the Canadian immigration minister.
“(We
will) exhaust all the options to help Afghan refugees get to safety in our
country,” Marco Mendicino told the Canadian Press news service. "Offering
refuge to women, girls and persecuted minorities is at the heart of Canada’s
humanitarian response to the crisis in Afghanistan.”
The
refugees fled Afghanistan to escape Afghanistan’s Taliban interim government,
which issued a decree late last week that girls could not return to high
school.
The
refugees tried to get out via the airport in the capital Kabul but it was too
dangerous. Rebuffed, the group spent weeks trying to find a safe passage by
land and eventually did, reaching Pakistan. The exact route is being kept
secret for security reasons.
In
2010, Britain’s Prince Charles set up Prince's Charities Canada, whose Toronto
branch played a key role in planning the escape. The group expressed relief
that the Afghans got out safely.
“They
are a highly inspiring community and now they have an opportunity to grow and
continue their education in Canada,” said Mark Fell, the chair of Prince’s
Charities Canada.
In
about three weeks, the girls and families will travel to Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, where they will settle after going through COVID-19 quarantine.
Saskatoon
has a population of about 274,000. There is an Afghan community there. but the
number of Afghans was not immediately available. However, some of the refugees
who escaped reportedly have family there.
The
country’s 2016 census shows there are about 76,000 Afghans living in Canada,
according to Taylor and Francis, a UK-based company that publishes academic
books and journals.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
--------
Over
100 Saudi athletes compete in 2nd Women’s Karate Championships in Jeddah
SALEH
FAREED
September
21, 2021
RIYADH:
Women’s sport in Saudi Arabia continued its rapid rise with the hosting of the
2nd Women’s Karate Championship at the Asian Arts Center in Jeddah this week.
The
tournament was attended by Saudi Karate Federation President Dr. Musharraf
Al-Shehri, who praised the standard of the competition, the organization of the
event and the large number of participants, saying all are an indication of the
sport’s rising popularity in the Kingdom.
The
winners were crowned by Dr. Nouf Al-Hammad, women’s sports officer at the
federation, and Dr. Iman Al-Husseini at the end of the tournament in which more
than 100 athletes from 10 centers from across the nation took part.
In
the individual kata competitions, Lama Abdelaziz from the Heroes’ Steps Center
came first , ahead of Sabah Yamen from the Expressions Fitness Center in second
and Malak Al-Khalidi from the Heroes’ Steps Center in third.
In
the group kata competitions, the Heroes’ Steps Center took first place, with
the Asian Arts Center and the Sartieh Center second and third, respectively.
In
the fighting disciplines, Malak Al-Khalidi from the Steps of Champions Center
won the under 50kg category, while Noura Al-Rashed from the same club won the
under 55kg competition.
Dana
Mansour from the Asian Arts Center won the under 61kg category and Rana Viad from the Bagdo Sports Center
claimed top spot in the under 68kg.
Al-Shehri
also presented the Shield of the Federation to the Asian Center for Martial
Arts in appreciation of their hosting of the tournament.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1932766/sport
--------
Islamic
scholars to decide role of women in Afghanistan: Kabul Mayor
Sep
20, 2021
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban-appointed Kabul Mayor, stated that a journalist
had falsely claimed that he, as the mayor of Kabul, had stated that women would
not be allowed to work.
According
to the media reports, he had said that only those women municipal workers in
Kabul whose positions men "could not fill" have been permitted to
return to their posts. However, those women whose work can be done by men have
been asked to stay at home "until the situation is normalised". Their
salaries will be paid.
Speaking
to WION correspondent Anas Mallick in an interview, he claimed the Taliban have
never said that women should not come to work.
The
exclusive interview is below:
WION:
It's been over a month since the Taliban takeover, how do you see the situation
in Kabul city now?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: Thank you so much for coming, I welcome you. There are big
changes that have come in in the past one month, a new government came in. When
we first came to Kabul on day one, the situation was quite bad and people were
using the Taliban’s name and seeking benefits. At that time, the crime rate was
quite high. Since the Taliban took over, the crime rate is at zero. At this
point, the situation in Kabul is quite normal.
WION:
Will you allow women to work?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: About women, we did a press conference yesterday at GMIC. A
journalist wrongly alleged that I have as the mayor of Kabul said that women
will not be allowed to work. No it's not like that.
About
women, the Islamic Emirate government is working out a way to ensure that the
rights of women are delivered within the framework of Sharia. Our Ulemas are
working on the framework within Sharia and as per the teachings of Prophet
Muhammad (PBUH).
This
is upon Ulema and they are working on a law to ensure the Islamic framework for
women so that they can study, work and do general community interaction, there
would be a meeting soon to decide the framework.
WION:
Have you assessed the workforce if women are not allowed to work? Because, for
the past 20 years, we have seen women are now an integral part of the society.
They are literally in every corner and every place, so if you don’t allow them
over here, would this not serve as a hindrance because the international
community wants them to be included as inclusive concept as well?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: We have never said that women should not come to work. For
the time being, they should come to work, until our Ulemas don’t devise a
framework for their movement within Sharia then all the women should go out and
do their work as per the framework.
WION:
Coming to the security situation, we recently saw an attack by ISIS in Kabul.
How do you intend on securing the city specifically the area where you govern?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: There is no doubt that Daesh is not present in Afghanistan.
The Daesh members who were foreigners have left. Those in Daesh now are those
who are Afghans. Our, Taliban’s intelligence is following Daesh so that we can
get rid of them, fight them, and eliminate them. In the past month, we have
seen that Daesh’s activities have been reduced. For example, what happened in
Jalalabad, one or two attacks were claimed by Daesh, but there were no attacks
here in Kabul.
WION:
Will you be seeking international donors to run the capital city of Kabul
because in the absence of recognition by the international community, how do
you intend on running the city affairs?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: Our request is for the international community on a
humanitarian basis. Human beings are living creatures. We want that our
relations with all foreign countries should be good, they should assist us and
we should help them too. That's the reason government of the Islamic Emirate is
trying to ensure it has good relations with foreign governments under the
Islamic framework to work out if there are any issues, to solve them.
In
the past 20 years, the international community was working with the Kabul
municipality, they enjoyed a good relationship which has now stopped. We are
now holding meetings with UNOPS, Mercy Corps – German Foundation, European
Union, we are trying to get some projects from them so that the city of Kabul
can benefit, fundraising can be done through that so that Kabul can be
developed through it.
WION:
You were previously the mayor of Kabul too, there's a lot of corruption in the
capital city of Kabul. How do you intend on getting over it and how different
it is from 20 years earlier and now?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: There is no doubt that in the previous government's system,
there were problems. There was a lot of foreign intervention too.
In
Ashraf Ghani and Karzai’s government, decision-making ability was not with
their men. It's like their hands were tied on and the government went on.
That's the reason corruption was rampant.
However,
now, since the Islamic Emirate took over, the Emirate has its system in place.
There are certain things for which we want lawmaking to be done, and then there
are some things on which the laws need to be updated.
Now
all the things are in control, and by the grace of God, there would be no
corruption in our rule. We are going by the Sharia and Islamic framework and
have assured the people the same that in our rule, there would be no
corruption.
WION:
Among the youth who are here, 50 per cent are women. How do you intend to
approach the task with the international community? Because when you are
striving to become a better nation with young people, and 50 per cent of them
are excluded, how do you intend to do it?
Molavi
Hamdullah Nomani: The sort of trust that donors would want, it's not our
compulsion. We will be making a working framework for both male and female
youth so that they can work according to it.
We
will make a system that benefits the young people who have experience. The
system will benefit from them. The donors should work here and they should restart
their work diligently at the earliest.
Source:
WION
--------
Iranian
women fear setbacks in hard-earned rights under Raisi
By
Maysam Bizaer
19
September 2021
Ebrahim
Raisi’s pick for Iran’s vice president for women and family affairs has raised
eyebrows across the country, with many fearing the appointment of Ensiyeh
Khazali is a harbinger of potential setbacks for women’s rights under the
hardline president.
Khazali,
the only female member of Raisi's cabinet and former dean of Iran’s first
women-only public university, has previously made controversial remarks in
support of early marriage of girls and her objection to Unesco’s 2030
sustainable development agenda.
Azam
Haji Abbasi, the secretary-general of the conservative all-female Zeynab
Society party, reacted to Khazali’s appointment on Twitter by describing it a
"bitter joke regarding women’s rights".
Marziyeh
Mohebbi, a lawyer and a women’s rights activist in Mashhad, told Middle East
Eye that she does not expect Raisi’s government and his VP for women’s affairs
“to have a plan for gender justice or increasing women's participation.”
Mohebbi
added that appointing Khazali “can never indicate a determination to address
the issue of women.”
Meanwhile,
Iranian journalist Parisa Salehi recalled her first-hand experience as a
student under Khazali’s management when she was the dean of al-Zahra
University.
"Of
course it only felt like a university inside the classrooms. Outside, it
resembled nothing like a university, but rather a big Basij [militia] base,
which only corresponded to ten percent of students there," Salehi wrote in
a thread on her Twitter account.
While
a great majority of reactions towards Raisi’s pick for his only female cabinet
member have been negative, there have been some people who welcomed it.
In
a short message sent to MEE, Minoo Aslani, the head of the women and family
department at Iran's General Staff of the Armed Forces, welcomed Khazali's
appointment and described her as “a capable person who adheres to the
revolution’s principles and values with capacity to build public participation
of women in different issues.”
Women’s
rights under the Islamic Republic
Following
the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the change of the constitution, various
restrictions were imposed on women under Islamic law, many of which are still
in place four decades later, including mandatory hijab and a ban on female
singers performing for male or mixed audiences.
This
is while other laws such as unequal child custody rights, inability to seek
divorce unless otherwise agreed upon at the time of marriage, and
discriminatory inheritance laws, remain in place since the rule of Mohammad
Reza Shah.
But
discrimination against Iranian women also extends to other kinds of
restrictions that are enforced by religious authorities for being “un-Islamic”
or “against women’s values”. Running for president or riding a motorcycle are
just two examples of the areas where women face discrimination despite there
being no legal ban under the law.
For
all these restrictions, however, the Islamic republic has encouraged education
for women. For years, female students have outnumbered men at universities to
the point that authorities have at times placed restrictions or quotas for
admitting female students in some majors.
With
a population of 84.5 million, according to figures published by the Statistics
Centre of Iran, of which 49 percent are women, having a highly educated and
skilled female population has resulted in a major transformation of women’s
expectations in Iran, which has in many cases overturned the traditional roles
of women in society.
The
struggle of Iranian women fighting for their rights has been dangerous, as the
state generally considers activism as a threat to national security and
therefore there is no tolerance towards any major activities in this regard.
For
instance, last December, lawyer Hoda Amid and sociologist Najmeh Vahedi were
sentenced to a total of 15 years in jail on charges of "cooperating with
the hostile government of America against the Islamic Republic” on issues
related to women and families.
Slow,
but continuous progress
While
the struggle of Iranian women continued even in the early days of the
revolution, it lost its tempo during the devastating war that late Iraqi
president Saddam Hussein waged against Iran (1980-1988), and the following
years of reconstruction.
However,
social freedoms and women’s rights in Iran witnessed a degree of transformation
during the presidency of reformist Seyed Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005), before
being pushed a few steps back under his successor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
(2005-2013).
Despite
the setbacks, however, a historic achievement was made for Iranian women when
Ahmadinejad appointed Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi as his health minister, against
all the odds and objections by religious authorities, making her the first and
only woman to have served as a minister
under the Islamic Republic.
In
2013, the landslide victory of Hassan Rouhani, who had run a presidential
campaign with a promise to bring equality for women, hope was renewed for
rights activists.
While
these changes were not as radical as some had expected, Rouhani made some
progress in slowly expanding social freedoms and job opportunities for women.
His administration became the first in the Islamic republic to appoint women to
senior roles such as ambassador, foreign ministry spokesperson, governor, among
others.
Additionally,
Iran approved a decade-overdue bill in October 2019 granting women the right to
pass their citizenship to their children born of marriages with foreigners.
Despite
the progress that Iranian women have achieved over the past four decades, the
country’s international ranking in gender equality is still among the lowest.
According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum,
Iran ranked 150 out of 156, making it one of the countries with the largest
economic gender gaps along with India, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and
Afghanistan.
Future
of women’s rights
“Both
Khazali and Raisi ascribe to ‘wives and mothers’ first and foremost, and will
probably propose policies similar to what we saw during Ahmadinejad’s
presidency, where mandatory hijab will be enforced more vigorously and women
will be policed more intensely in public spaces,” said Sussan Tahmasebi, the
director of FEMENA, an organisation working to promote women's rights in the
Middle East and West Asia.
Fatemeh
Hasani, a sociologist and women’s affairs activist in Tehran, echoed the same
concerns.
“We
are worried that, like in the Ahmadinejad era, we will not only not make
progress, but also have serious setbacks,” Hasani told MEE.
“The
ideological background of those in charge of the government is that the
presence of women in the community is not important and is actually something
against family consolidation.”
In
regards to the prospect of women’s rights in coming years, Tahmasebi added that
“women will be encouraged through incentives and disincentives to choose
marriage and motherhood over careers and singlehood.”
However,
she added, due to the country's severe economic woes, “these policies will be
difficult to sell to women, and financially difficult for the government to
implement.”
While
the country’s unemployment rate among women stands at 27.8 percent, some 71
percent of all female graduates remain jobless. According to Hasani, women make
nearly half of the country’s population and the government can’t easily ignore
their demands and needs without significant consequences.
While
seeking equality in the economy and the job market might be a major demand for
many years to come, there are many others, especially among the younger
generation, who aspire for more social freedoms in addition to the right to
work.
“There
are fundamental gaps between the real demands of women and what is being done
by the socio-cultural policymakers,” said Hasani, adding that these gaps “could
have major consequences for the society if they are not rightly addressed.”
Source:
MIDDLE EAST EYE
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iran-women-rights-fear-setbacks-raisi
--------
Delhi:
Muslim Woman in Custody for Minor Alleged Offence Accuses Police Officer of
Brutality
Ghazala
Ahmad
Sep
21, 2021
New
Delhi: A 37-year-old Muslim woman with a disability from Northeast Delhi has
alleged that she was brutally beaten in custody by Girish Jain, the station
house officer (SHO) of Dayalpur police station, after she intervened in a
heated argument between her neighbours and her tenant on August 30, 2021.
Hamida
Idrisi filed a complaint on September 3 against SHO Girish Jain at the
Seelampur office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Northeast Delhi, and
demanding strict action against the officer for inflicting “physical and sexual
brutality” on her.
A
copy of the complaint has been sent to the Delhi Commissioner of Police, the
Delhi Human Rights Commission and the Delhi Minorities Commission.
Idrisi
was born with no movement in one leg.
The
events of August 30
Hamida
and her husband, Mumtaz Idrisi, own a single-storey house in Nehru Vihar,
Karawal Nagar, and have rented a part of this house to Kareem, whose sons Suhel
and Suheb use it as a shop to sell beverages. The rent from the shop is the
couple’s sole source of income.
On
the evening of August 30, a quarrel broke out between Suheb and four of
Hamida’s neighbours across the street, named Soni, Arif, Suhail and Shahrukh.
When
the argument threatened to turn into a fight, Hamida stepped in to mediate and
separated the two groups. The shop was then closed and Suheb went to his home.
“But
after some time, when everything had settled down, Girish Jain, the SHO of
Dayalpur police station, and other police personnel barged into my house and
asked me to produce the lease agreement with my tenant and the verification
form. I immediately produced an 11-month lease agreement. They then asked me to
take them to my tenant’s home, but I refused as my husband was not home,”
Hamida told The Wire.
There
were five policemen including Jain, Hamida said. Three of them were in uniform
and two in plainclothes. There was no policewoman among them.
Hamida
continued: “The policemen dragged me into their jeep and took me to the police
station for inquiry. Soni, my neighbour’s son, was with them. After we reached
the police station, they kept me sitting there till 10 pm, and then a lady
constable named Komal tied my hands and pushed me into a small room. Then SHO
Girish arrived with a green pipe of the kind used for cleaning and started
beating me vigorously on my thighs and back. He used abuses and communal slurs
to target my religion and continued to beat me for the next two hours.”
Hamida
claimed that Jain had taken off her dupatta and hit her with the pipe till her
skin was cut and bruised and she was bleeding. “Even 15 days after it happened,
my body still has clear marks of the brutality inflicted upon me by the
officer.”
Eventually,
she said, she was let go later that night at 2 am after the officer threatened
her with consequences if she ever spoke about what had happened.
“I
remember his actual words,” said Hamida. “He said: ‘Don’t say a single word
about this or I will destroy your entire family and your future and will do
worse to you than I did this time’.”
They
only released her after she paid them a bribe of Rs 5,000, Hamida added. “They
wanted more, but that was all I had,” she said.
When
Hamida got home, she found that her house and Kareem’s shop had been ransacked
by the police and several valuable items, including a sofa, had been destroyed.
Counter
allegations
Hamida
and Kareem allege that Jain had taken her into custody and beaten her at the
behest of Soni, her neighbour’s son, because Soni’s family had wanted the shop
the Idrisis had rented to Kareem.
The
two of them accused Soni of bribing the police with Rs 50,000 to arrest and
beat Hamida.
Soni
had been with the police when she had been taken to the police station, Hamida
recalled. She said that at the police station, when she had appealed to Soni to
sort out the issue through discussion rather than police intervention, he had
said: “Bahut bol rahi thi, na, tum ladai khatam karwate waqt. Ab bolo (You said
a lot, didn’t you, when trying to end the fight. Now talk).”
Girish
Jain, the SHO of Dayalpur Police Station, denied Hamida’s claims.
“Her
claims are false,” Jain told The Wire. “I took her to the police station but
only for inquiry and let her go after that.”
Asked
about Hamida’s complaint against him, Jain said that Hamida was “dragging him
into a conspiracy” because he had brought crime in the area under control.
But
Sanjeev Kumar Singh, the deputy commissioner of police, Northeast Delhi, said,
“Hamida’s complaint was heard and attended thoroughly by a senior official. It
has been marked to the public grievance cell and the investigation is underway.
Appropriate action will be taken after the investigation.”
‘Sheer
contempt of humanity’
Ever
since the communal violence that set Northeast Delhi aflame last February,
Muslim residents of the area have been feeling harassed and targeted by the
police.
Even
Kareem, Hamida’s tenant, believes that she was picked up by the police simply
because of her religion.
“They
took Hamida for no crime of hers. Since the Delhi pogrom in 2020, the police
have become more hostile towards Muslims in Northeast Delhi. It has become
normal for uniformed men to pick up anyone and put them in jail though they
have not committed a crime,” Kareem alleged.
Zafarul
Islam Khan, former chairperson of the Delhi Minorities Commission, has been
following Hamida’s case since it was first reported and raises serious concerns
about the alleged brutality of the police and their hostility to Muslims.
“No
day passes without some such incident of attack on hapless Muslims,” Khan told
The Wire. “But the attack on Hamida was doubly alarming because the only reason
given for taking her to the police station was that she had failed to have her
tenant verified. Shecould have been fined or even sent to jail for a few days
for what the police believe is such a “grave offence”. But to use that excuse
to unnecessarily beat a handicapped woman black and blue is sheer bestiality
and contempt of humanity.”
Ghazala
Ahmad is an independent journalist based in Delhi.
Source:
The Wire
--------
Thailand
urged not to deport trans woman charged in Malaysia
21
September 2021
Kuala
Lumpur, Sep 21 (AP) A human rights group urged Thailand not to deport a
transgender businesswoman to her home country of Malaysia, where she is charged
under Islamic laws for insulting Islam by cross-dressing.
Malaysian
police are seeking to extradite Nur Sajat, 36, who left the country after she
was charged in an Islamic court in January for bringing contempt to Islam by
dressing in feminine clothing at a religious event in 2018. Sajat, who runs a
cosmetics business, faces up to three years in jail for the offense.
Sajat
failed to appear for a February court hearing and reportedly received death
threats after she mulled renouncing Islam in a video on social media that has
now been removed.
Malaysian
police said in a statement late Monday that Sajat was detained by Thai authorities
on Sept 8 for having an invalid passport. She was charged with immigration
offenses and released on bail. The statement didn''t say why her passport was
canceled. Police said she is wanted in Malaysia for other offenses, including
obstructing authorities in carrying out their duties.
Phil
Robertson, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director, said the U.N. Refugee
Agency has granted Sajat refugee status and that she shouldn''t be sent back
under any circumstances.
“She
needs to be sent to a country that will offer rights protections, not
persecuted for being #LGBT which is what will happen if she is sent to
Malaysia," he tweeted late Monday. Local media reported that Sajat plans
to seek refuge in Australia.
The
UNHCR agency couldn''t be reached for comment Tuesday.
Malaysia
has a dual-track legal system. Shariah laws govern Muslims, who account for
two-thirds of Malaysia''s 32 million people, in family, marriage and personal
issues. Ethnic Chinese, Indian and other minorities are covered by civil laws.
Rights
activists say the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has faced
increasing harassment with the rise of conservative Islam. (AP) MRJ
Source:
Outlook India
--------
As
Kerala's Men Push For 'All Against All' War, Women Provide the Antidotes
N.P.
Ashley
Sep
21, 2021
While
the last word on how Kerala as a state managed the COVID-19 pandemic will have
to wait, one thing is largely felt: Kerala economy is likely to be among the
worst hit due to this crisis. This is not surprising given the state’s economy
has been deeply entwined with the global economy for the last five decades, be
that export of human resources or tourism.
With
the pandemic putting global capital under suspension and its implications in
one’s life – in terms of shrinking of economic fortunes and thinning down of
opportunities – people have been driven into a state of insecurity and
desperation.
There
are two ways of responding to such a situation. The constructive way would be
to formulate projects and reorganise channels so that, as a people sharing a
common destiny, a solution could be found through a social approach. The second
is cynical and commonplace in the majoritarian grammar of political
organisation: invent external enemies and concoct fears to create a sense of
community.
Kerala’s
men seem to have chosen the second, and the outcomes are rather alarming.
Hate
campaigns and majoritarian positions
The
Bishop of Pala, Mar Joseph Kallarangatt, was in the news recently for making a
case for “narcotic jihad”; the allegation that young Muslim men are trapping
Christians by getting them into substance abuse in order to convert them into
Islam. The Bishop has been criticised for creating fear and enmity between two
communities, and it has been pointed out that he has bothered neither to
explain nor substantiate his wild allegation.
Men,
at the helm of all political parties, have condoned Kallarangatt’s position:
the Bharatiya Janata Party, understandably, decided to extend their support to
further such allegations, while the ruling Communist Party and the opposition
Congress party have both paid visits to the Bishop rather than demand details
or condemn such a callous and dangerous statement outright.
This
is not surprising given the community arithmetic of the state: Christians have
evolved to be the most important political community. In a state where Hindus
are only half of the population, without either Muslim or Christian support,
there is no way in which the BJP can ever come to power. The North East model
of Hindu-Christian alliance is their only hope. The Congress-led United
Democratic Front (UDF) loosely had the social base of Muslims, Christians and
Nairs through alliances with communitarian political parties. Due to the Nair
vote-base shifting to the BJP, Congress has no hope without getting back
Christians, who have shifted sides to the Left in the last assembly elections.
The Left is aware that, with its largely Ezhava and Dalit votes, in addition to
the party votes that cut across communities of religion and caste, it could be
re-elected to power because of the Christian votes, and losing them could turn
out be damaging. So the male leadership
of Kerala parties decided to somehow keep the Bishop with them, rather than
engaging with the statements.
Much
of the evidence that has surfaced shows that “narcotic jihad” allegation is
just one among the many dangerous conspiracy theories that float around in
these spaces. This allegation of alluring Christian women doesn’t seem to be
limited to Muslim men alone. Another parson, Father Royi Kannanchira of
Changanassery, in a training programme for teachers has warned believers
against the mysterious plans of Ezhava men. The insecurity of Kerala’s dominant
communities and the resultant arbitrariness of public debates are such that any
such wild allegation is lapped up immediately, with cyber warriors lining up on
both sides.
One
major provocation for enmity between Kerala Muslim-Christian communities was an
article by the Indian Union Muslim League leader Sadiq Ali Shibab Thangal in
the Muslim League mouthpiece Chandrika, supporting Turkey President Recep
Tayyib Erdogan’s conversion of Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque. This went
against his own party’s stated commitment for communal harmony and was
completely out of tune with a party that stood for minority rights when the
Christian minorities of Turkey – which would also make the Christian minority
of the state anxious and feel alienated – were at the receiving end. Thangal’s
position supporting Muslim majoritarianism elsewhere contributed to the growing
apart of the communities in the state. The Taliban capturing of Afghanistan has
also contributed to communitarian divide in the state.
The
Malayalam social media space is filled with hate messages, making it a war of
all against all. Newspapers and TV channels are too scared to address any such
issue because criticism of any dominant community is treated with a boycott of
the media house by a large section of the community. More so, politicians keep
custodians of community vote banks happy regardless of long term implications.
What is on display is a tragic farce.
Women
countering the male madness
Kerala
has four dominant communities, all of whom should be counted among the most
powerful communities in socio-economic, demographic and political terms in the entire
country: Ezhavas, Muslims, Nairs and Christians. All four emerged significant
through communitarian social development – the practice of each community
growing in the educational and economic sphere through intra-community work –
without any social antagonism against other communities, and hence working as
tributaries to the state’s common growth. In most cases, this growth
necessarily entailed community reform as well. All four have also benefitted
substantially from Kerala’s journey of economic growth over the last half a
century.
But
this model, a remarkable possibility, started turning into a liability when
community leadership, in the interest of the rich businessmen and powerful
politicians, started using the institutions for extracting the wealth brought
in by foreign remittances. Financial corruption became naturalised in the
educational institutions of Kerala. While being hyper capitalist and
plutocratic, the state stayed incorrigibly feudal in attitude and the political
rhetoric was all socialist, thanks to long and effective political action and
education by the Left.
There
were three casualties for this state apportioned by the dominant communities:
women of all sections, who have been exploited by the capitalist economy as
well as feudal social system; Bahujan groups, who have been systemically denied
the economic, educational and political capability and the all-too obsessively
exploited ecological system.
Communitarian
antagonism always uses women as the site of a community’s honour and hence
controlling women’s bodies and restricting female spaces is in its very DNA.
But quite encouragingly, women of both the Christian and Muslim communities
have recognised this male design and are standing up resolute to be heard.
Where
male politicians and community leaders hesitated and feared to respond to the
hate mongering in the church masses, the nuns of Kuruvilangad, under the
leadership of Sister Anupama, walked out of a church service saying the priest
was making anti-Muslim remarks during the speech in the church. Sister Anupama
was earlier in the news as part of the legendary protest on the street against
Bishop Franco Mulakkal for sexual exploitation. They categorical said “no” and
“not in my name” to the male leadership, all over again to the male matrix that
claims the community’s ownership.
At
the same time, Haritha, the young women’s organisation of the Indian Union
Muslim League, is ushering in a new debate on issues of gender equality in
Kerala. What started as an intra-organisational issue of a member in the male
wing slut-shaming the office bearer of the female wing in a meeting of office
bearers has gone on to become a compelling debate on gender justice. The senior
male leadership has taken the drastic step of dismissing the entire state
committee of Haritha and of removing the National Vice President of Indian
Union Muslim League’s student body, Fathima Thahliya, for supporting the young
women of Haritha.
The
disbanded state body, led by Najma Thabashira and Mufeeda Tesni, have decided to take the male
leadership of the party head on and have gone public with it, including filing
a complaint with the Women’s Commission. These women give a wonderful sense of
sorority, question the gender biases of both the party and the society and claim
a tradition of women’s political work connecting often side-lined women – from
Gauri Amma to Haleema Beevi – and push the agenda of constitutional nationalism
with the historical content of gender justice. Their fight “in the party
against the party for the party” is giving a sense of direction to the male-ego
induced heedlessness to the political debates of Kerala.
When
men, in their fear and absolute lack of political imagination or ethical
commitment, work to make despair convincing, the women’s antidotes to these
male designs make the hope possible that there is a more egalitarian, inclusive
tomorrow to work towards.
N.P.
Ashley teaches English at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Source:
The Wire
https://thewire.in/communalism/kerala-men-communalism-women-reform-gender-bias
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Saudi
Arabia women’s team win bronze at 2021 Karate 1 Premier League in Cairo
September
06, 2021
The
Saudi Arabian women’s kata team has won bronze in the third round of the 2021
Karate 1 Premier League in Cairo, Arabic sports daily Arriyadiyah has reported.
The
event in the Egyptian capital was part of the second-largest competition
organized by the International Karate Federation.
The
Kingdom was represented by Manal Al-Zayd, Lama Abdelziz, Shahd Al-Ammar and
Raef Buges, with technical staff supervised by May Gamal.
Egyptian
Minister of Sports Ashraf Sobhy and Antonio Spinos, president of the
International Karate Federation, presented the winning competitors with their
medals.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1923601/sport
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Saudi
speed bike racer and rallyist Dania Akeel felicitated as first REDTAG ‘Real
Hero’
September
19, 2021
RIYADH
— With every step in her extraordinary journey, Saudi motorsport star Dania
Akeel has smashed glass ceilings, and left stereotypes in the dust of her
racing wheels. Dania has emerged as an icon in her sport, and is an inspiration
to millions of fans. Her extraordinary feats are the reason REDTAG, the
region's homegrown value fashion and homeware brand, has selected Dania to be
their first ‘Real Hero’.
REDTAG’s
‘Real Heroes’ initiative acknowledges talent, leaders, and changemakers in the
KSA, who have achieved extraordinary things, overcoming the obstacles in their
path, to inspire the next generation of youth, and show them that possibilities
are unlimited, when they pursue their dreams with passion, perseverance, and
commitment to achieve success, in any field.
Dania’s
journey is especially inspiring in light of the fact that it comes in a
non-traditional field for women, and also since women did not even drive in the
KSA, until recently. In a series of firsts, Dania has blazed a trail of her
own, becoming the first Saudi Arabian woman to qualify for a Speed Bikes
Competition License, and the first Saudi woman to take part in an international
rally.
Dania
recently won the FIA Cross Country Bajas World Cup in the T3 category, after a
fourth place finish in the eighth round of the championship, in Baja Italy,
with one round still to go. This historic result means Dania is the first woman
to ever win this championship. Significantly, this was also her first time
participating in the event. By showcasing her story, REDTAG seeks to inspire
countless others to pursue their dreams - young or old, man or woman.
“Dania’s
inspiring commitment to her dream, and her extraordinary achievements, are the
perfect example of the dynamism that is characteristic of the new emerging KSA,
as the nation’s 91st National Day draws near”, says Shehbaz Shaikh, chief
retail officer at REDTAG. “Our aim, with the Real Heroes initiative, is to
showcase such achievers and pioneers, to inspire the next generation of Saudi
youth to dream bigger and achieve fearlessly”.
Apart
from being a trendsetter with her choice of sport, Dania has also faced
physical challenges along her journey, which underscore the demanding nature of
her chosen field, where even the smallest mistake has consequences. Despite
having an accident during the Bahrain Season in March 2020, which resulted in
three pelvic fractures and affected her spine — Dania has relentlessly followed
her passion. After extended physical therapy in Saudi Arabia, Dania was quick
to return to her passion of racing at the earliest.
“My
message to any Saudi woman or girl is that if she has a hobby that she would
like to pursue, whether in sports or any other field, she should pursue her
passion, and personal growth,” Dania said. “I’ve received a lot of support
throughout my journey, and I would like to thank REDTAG for making my story a
part of their ‘Real Heroes’ initiative. I am positive that this will encourage
other young women in Saudi to make decisions that improve their lives and empower
them to follow their dreams, in any field they are interested in.”
View
Dania’s inspirational message for the youth of KSA and for all young men and
women, to pursue their dreams with passion - https://tinyurl.com/b3kr5v89 — SG
Source:
Saudi Gazette
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/girls-afghanistan-zabihullah-mujahid/d/125409