Islam, Women and Feminism ( 24 Oct 2014, NewAgeIslam.Com)
The Woman Who Murdered Her Alleged Rapist Has Been Executed In Iran
Photo: Saturday Turkey Mothers Meet for 500th
Time In Hope Of Finding Lost Loved Ones
South
Sudan’s Women Suggest Intimacy Strike to End the War
Boko
Haram Frees Abducted Women, Girls Rumoured Married Off to Insurgents
Malala
Seeks To Come Pakistan, Join Politics
U.S.
Girls’ Journey to Join Islamic State Shows Travel Flaws
Colorado
Girls Urged Friends to Pray For Them As They Headed To Syria
Meet Syrian
Girl, the internet sensation dismissed as a Kim Kardashian wannabe
Work-From-Home
Opportunities Offered To Abha, Saudi Arab, Women
Saturday
Turkey Mothers Meet for 500th Time In Hope Of Finding Lost Loved Ones
WA
Muslims Hold Open Day at Mosque as Women Wearing Hijab Bear Brunt of Tensions
350,000
school-aged Syrian children in Turkey, just half receiving education
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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The
woman who murdered her alleged rapist has been executed in Iran
25 Oct,
2014
The
Iranian woman charged with the murder of man who allegedly attempted to rape
her has been executed, according to her mother.
Reyhaneh
Jabbari, 26, was arrested in 2007 for the killing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi,
a former employee of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence who she said tried to
sexually abuse her.
She was
first sentenced to death by a Tehran court in 2009 and her execution verdict
was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Ms Jabbari’s case drew international outcry
and sparked a petition urging her release, which gained hundreds of thousands
of signatures and her execution was postponed several times.
Despite
the campaign, Mabbari’s mother Shole Pakravan told BBC Persia that she was
hanged in a Tehran prison on Saturday.
Last
last night Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui has called on Iran to order a re-trial.
http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-woman-who-murdered-her-alleged-rapist-has-been-executed-in-iran--g1LxaZoqIe
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South
Sudan’s women suggest intimacy strike to end the war
25 Oct,
2014
JUBA: A
group of South Sudanese women peace activists has suggested that men in the
civil war-torn country be denied sex until they stop fighting.
The
suggestion emerged after around 90 women, including several members of South
Sudan’s Parliament, met in the capital Juba this week to come up with ideas on
how “to advance the cause of peace, healing and reconciliation.”
A key
suggestion was to “mobilize all women in South Sudan to deny their husbands
conjugal rights until they ensure that peace returns,” organizers said in a
statement Thursday.
Other
proposals included finding ways to meet the wives of President Salva Kiir and
his arch-rival, rebel Chief Riek Machar, to “ask them to join the search for
peace and reconciliation by impressing upon their husbands to stop the war.”
Civilians
have been massacred, patients murdered in hospitals and people killed while
sheltering in churches.
Almost
100,000 people are sheltering in squalid UN peacekeeping bases fearing they
will be killed if they leave.
Tobias
Atari Okori, from the government-backed South Sudan Peace and Reconciliation
Commission, acknowledged that the idea highlighted that people were desperate
for the war to end.
“People
are experiencing great suffering, and it is the women, children and the aged
who are suffering the worst,” he told AFP.
The UN
special envoy on sexual violence Zainab Bangura said this month the levels of
rape are the worst she had ever seen.
http://www.arabnews.com/middle-east/news/649276
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Boko
Haram Frees Abducted Women, Girls Rumoured Married Off to Insurgents
25 Oct,
2014
Yola--The
Boko Haram insurgents, who reportedly abducted about 50 women and girls from
two border villages between Adamawa and Borno states have freed the women among
their captives.
This was
disclosed in an interview by villagers, who spoke on the issue with newsmen on
the telephone from their hide-outs.
They
however, said that the exact number of those released could not be ascertained,
but that no fewer than 45 girls were still being detained.
According
to the villagers, the women and girls were abducted from Waga Mangoro which was
between Gwoza in Borno and Madagali in Adamawa states.
Relatives
of some of the abducted women who were later released by the insurgents also,
told newsmen in Yola that some of the girls have been turned to cooks while
others were married off immediately to some of the insurgents.
A
relative to the one of the women who spoke on the condition of anonymity said;
"Initially, the insurgents captured 80 girls and women whom they later
loaded into their vans and zoomed off into the bushes.
Later in
the night, the insurgents separated the elderly women from the girls and
released the women, who are now languishing in the forest because they could
not relocate the towns because they were razed down by the insurgents.
"We
are confused that hours after the so called cease fire agreement between the
Federal Government and Boko Haram insurgents, our girls are still being abducted
by the insurgents.
"We
are at a loss about government's insincerity on the whole issue and we urge
them to rescue our daughters without further delay as we are ready to die
searching for our missing ones."
http://allafrica.com/stories/201410240496.html
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Malala
Seeks To Come Pakistan, Join Politics
25 Oct,
2014
ISLAMABAD
– Nobel Peace prize winner 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai urged Pakistan and
India to spend on education of children while putting aside their differences.
In an
interview to state broadcaster PTV along with her father and mother in United
Kingdom, she again invited Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to attend the award ceremony of Nobel Peace Prize to be
held in December.
Malala
said that she would spend her share of the $1.1 million prize money on projects
for education in Pakistan. She said that focus should be on the education of
girls and she has gained enough experience to continue to advocate and urge
people to invest in education.
“We have
to work together as 57 million children are still out of school in Pakistan. My
dream is that every Pakistani child should get good quality education,” she
said. She said that she was not expecting to win Nobel Peace Prize.
“I was
in my chemistry class and I was not that much concerned, then the teacher came
and told me that I have won the Nobel Peace Prize. All teachers and students
gathered in the assembly and I nervously made a little speech before them,” she
recalled.
Malala
Yousafzai said one of her projects from the prize money will be to set up a
high quality school in Pakistan. "When I started working for education, my
first project was a school for working children in Swat,” she said while
telling about Malala Fund set up by her.
She said
that the aim of Malala Fund is that children in Pakistan get education
facilities. Her Malala Fund is also supporting 25 orphan kids for lifetime in a
project run by an organisation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Malala emphasised that
her goal was to convince everybody to invest in education and in her meetings
with global leaders like President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth; she
persuaded them to invest and focus on education.
To a
question, she said always told the reality about the situation in Swat and many
times pointed out that Taliban were responsible for stopping girls from going
to school. “Its true that I live abroad but my heart and mind are in Pakistan.
When I opened my eyes for the first time in UK, I was in Birmingham hospital
and then my parents came and gradually we settled down in Pakistan,” To a
question about her stay in United Kingdom, Malala said.
“I have
special kind of feeling of love for Pakistan. Here in UK there is a lot of cold
but in Swat we enjoyed four seasons." Malala said her soul is in Swat and
she is hopeful to go back to Pakistan and join politics. "My vision is to
create awareness and resolve problems of the people. I want to start politics
at local level and then move to the national and international level after
gaining experience."
Malala
advised all political parties to work for the progress and prosperity of
Pakistan. "We should work collectively. We have to be united and aim of
political parties should be to provide basic facilities like food and education
to the people,” she remarked. Malala said her efforts have a favourable impact
on the education sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
"International
community wants to focus on education in a sustainable manner due to my
efforts," she said. Malala's father Ziauddin Yousafzai congratulated
Pakistani nation for winning the Nobel Prize and said he always told school
going girls in Swat to pursue their dreams.
To a
question about criticism against them, he said, "Our arrival in United
Kingdom was an incident and our recognition by the international community was
because of special circumstances." He requested people not to blindly
follow those who have biased opinion against them.
"There
are reasons for doubts of people as there is a gulf between Pakistan and the
West and the United States,” he said. Malala's mother Taur Pakai said for her
every girl is like Malala and should be supported. She said that she missed
Pakistan and they were living in England for the sake of Malala. "Our life
revolves around Malala," she added.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/national/24-Oct-2014/malala-seeks-to-come-pakistan-join-politics
-----------
U.S.
girls’ journey to join Islamic State shows travel flaws
25 Oct,
2014
PARIS—The
teenage sisters told their father they were staying home sick from their
suburban Denver school. Instead, they took $2,000 and their passports and
headed off for Syria with a 16-year-old friend. They made it as far as Germany
before border guards detained them for questioning.
The fact
that adolescent girls could make their way across the Atlantic might come as a
surprise to many parents, but a patchwork of laws and rules governing
international air travel in many cases makes it easy for teenagers to travel
with nobody’s permission but their own.
Airlines
have a range of rules governing minors’ travel: Many major carriers including
United Airlines and Scandinavian airline SAS place no restrictions on children
over 12, while others let even young minors travel as long as they are
accompanied by someone over 16. Yet others, including American Airlines,
require a parent to accompany travellers under the age of 15 to the gate, while
those 15 and over face no restrictions.
Countries
have a separate set of laws that is no less haphazard, from a Russian
requirement for notarized parental permission to the U.S. system where
adolescents with valid passports are free to come and go.
In
Spain, both parents must fill out a permission form at a police station before
a minor can travel alone. In Germany, where the American teens were stopped,
border guards are required to verify that minors have parental permission to
travel.
And in
France, which is Europe’s single largest source of would-be jihadis, parental
authorization had to be received by city hall — until January 2013.
That’s
when a small administrative change took effect suspending the requirement for
parental approval. The government said it would streamline unnecessary
bureaucracy and officials remarked that few runaways went abroad, and even
fewer stayed there.
Fast-forward
22 months, and nearly every week new reports emerge of French adolescents
leaving for Syria. Teenagers from France can travel within the European Union
with a valid ID; outside the EU, they need only a passport.
Under
French law, parents can have their children flagged if they fear they will
leave the country to join extremists. But for many of those who have left,
their families had no warning.
Lawyer
Agnes Dufetel-Cordier represents a teenage boy from Toulouse who left in
January to join the Al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, before coming back to his
family to face criminal charges. She said the teen — now 16 — gave no sign he
was about to bolt for Syria, and his departure came as a shock to his parents.
He was not stopped at the airport in Marseille, nor on arrival in Turkey or crossing
into Syria.
“If you
reverse the regulation that lets them travel without their parents’ permission,
you will see right away that minors are no longer leaving,” Dufetel-Cordier
said. “Today in France, in the case of most minors who go to Syria, the families
have absolutely no idea ahead of time.”
At age
17, Sahra Ali Mehenni went so far as to ask her mother to get her a passport,
saying she wanted her paperwork in order before she reached adulthood. When she
left for Syria on March 11, departing from the Marseille airport just as the
teen boy did, she took her burgundy-bound passport and nobody stopped her
before she boarded the flight to Istanbul.
“If I go
out and I run a red light, they’re going to get me right away,” said her
father, Kamel. “But these minors are going to Istanbul — and if they’re going
to Istanbul, it’s to go to Syria. They know it. You can’t say they don’t know
it. And no one stops it.”
The same
concerns apply in the United States, where parental permission is required to
obtain a passport — but none is needed for travel.
The
teens who flew to Germany were stopped because their parents, part of suburban
Denver’s tight-knit East African community, reported them missing quickly, and
American authorities contacted German authorities before they landed.
“Kudos
to those family members in Colorado,” said Omar Jamal, CEO of American Friends
of Somalia. “Time is of the essence. They did the right thing.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/10/23/us_girls_journey_to_join_islamic_state_shows_travel_flaws.html
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Colorado
girls urged friends to pray for them as they headed to Syria
25 Oct,
2014
Three
Arapahoe County teen girls urged friends on social media to pray for them as
they set off on an overseas trip apparently aimed at joining Islamic State
militants.
The
Denver Post on Thursday reviewed dozens of tweets by the girls, by at least one
of their fathers, and by several supporters and detractors. The accounts of the
three girls and the father have been deleted, but The Post retrieved cached
messages sent from their accounts.
"Please
if you read this tell me where you are? We are so worried about you #Isis
#raqqa #Colorado," the father of one of the girls tweeted at his daughter
on Saturday.
Raqqa is
a city in Syria that is considered the capital of the Islamic State militants.
The
girls tweeted about Islam in the days leading up to their trip, which began
Friday.
"I
started to notice the people I called 'friends' weren't my true friends,"
one of the girls tweeted.
Authorities
believe the three teens — two sisters, 15 and 17 years old, of Somali descent
and another, 16 years old, of Sudan — likely were recruited online to travel to
Germany, apparently on their way to join the Islamic State, school officials
said Wednesday.
The
girls' parents reported them missing on Friday night, hours after they failed
to show up at school or return home from the library. One of the families said
the girls took $2,000 and fled with their passports.
The
girls were then stopped by German police at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany,
before being sent back to their parents in Denver. German authorities say they
were alerted to the girls' arrival by U.S. officials.
The
Cherry Creek School District, where the girls attend high school, said the
teens tweeted with fellow students about their trip, which first alerted school
officials to the teens' whereabouts.
"Students
came in on Monday morning and reported the tweets to us," said Tustin
Amole, a Cherry Creek School District spokeswoman. "They said they were going
to Germany and try to go to Turkey. Some of the students (on Twitter) told them
it was a bad idea; others said good luck."
Amole
also said authorities believe the teenagers likely were recruited online.
"Our
understanding, our belief is that they were recruited online," Amole said.
"That's our belief based on information we have from various sources,
including investigators. ... That's my understanding of what likely
happened."
In a
tweet sent hours before she was reported missing, one of the girls said:
"Please please please make (prayer) for me wherever you are. I truly need
it, may Allah bless you all."
"Please
make (prayer) for us three," one of the other girls tweeted. "It's
extremely urgent!"
Those
holding Twitter accounts in the United Kingdom and east Africa offered words of
support via Twitter, calling for blessings. Some of the girls' tweets were
retweeted dozens of times.
Others
projected disgust and worry. One man tweeted: "All three of you scum can
enjoy prison."
The Post
is withholding the Twitter handles, names and the high school of the three
girls after school and law enforcement officials expressed concerns about the
teens' safety. The Twitter handle of one girl was first obtained by 7News.
Undercover
federal agents have used social media to infiltrate and identify potentially
radicalized U.S. citizens, and officials have said that social media is a
powerful recruitment tool for militants.
Federal
officials continued their silence on the situation surrounding the girls on
Thursday. The Colorado U.S. Attorney's Office said "it's a matter under
review that cannot be commented on."
"Not
only is the FBI and all levels of law enforcement very much engaged to ensure
that young people don't get over in harm's way in Syria with ISIS or any other
terrorist organization, but also I will say to the credit of the Arab and
Muslim community here in Colorado there is a very real level of attention given
to this issue," John Walsh, Colorado's U.S. Attorney, said during an
unrelated news conference on Thursday.
"That
is a community that understands and is horrified as anyone else with the
prospect of young people being enticed by terrorist organizations to go over
there and potentially lose their lives and freedom overseas."
Walsh
said he's "met with community leaders over the years many, many times, and
they are loyal and highly concerned citizens who want to make sure the right
things happen for their children and families just like any American."
Attempts
to reach the girls and their families have been unsuccessful, although a family
spokesman said the girls are in good condition. Voice mails left on a cellphone
of one of the girl's fathers were not returned on Thursday.
A U.S.
official told The Associated Press that the girls were headed to Turkey en
route to Syria and that investigators are reviewing evidence, including the
girls' computers.
The news
of the three teens follows revelations that a 19-year-old Arvada woman was
taken into custody as she tried to board a flight en route to Syria to fight
alongside militants.
Shannon
Maureen Conley pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support to
al-Qaeda and affiliates, including the Islamic State.
She is
scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 23.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26784744/colorado-girls-urged-friends-pray-them-they-headed
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Meet
Syrian Girl, the internet sensation dismissed as a Kim Kardashian wannabe
25 Oct,
2014
She has
been labelled everything from a government spy to a pro-Bashar al-Assad
mouthpiece to a Kim Kardashian wannabe.
But
Syrian-Australian blogger Maram Susli, who goes by Mimi Al Laham or 'Syrian
Girl', says she is just a patriot 'dedicated to the truth'.
The
27-year-old, who lives in Australia, has a large and like-minded following on
social media.
Her
YouTube channel has received more than 2.5 million views, where she posts
videos such as 'Exposed: The "Assad backs Al-Qaeda" Myth' and 'If
Syria Disarms Chemical Weapons We Lose The War'.
Born in
Damascus in 1987 to what she describes as a middle class, professional family
of the majority Muslim sect, Ms Susli moved to Australia when she was a child.
'My
mother was a big fan of the series Neighbours during the early 90s and was
convinced Australia would be just like it,' she said.
Ms Susli
says she speaks out on social media because she is dismayed by watching her
birth country being destroyed. She is critical of Syrian rebels, ISIS and the
United States. She wants to see Syria's 'army strong' and its 'borders solid'.
'People
are dying, and I have a duty as a human being and as someone of Syrian origin
to expose the truth about why,' Ms Susli said.
'A duty
to give a voice to those Syrians who have not been heard, who have rejected the
instability caused by the US support of the extremist rebels.'
But
along with her loyal followers come her many detractors who say she is a
fame-hungry conspiracy theorist.
Some of
her more controversial assertions include that 9/11 was an 'inside job', that
Ebola could be a US biological weapon and that chemical weapons are Syria's
'only hope'.
She says
she was recently accused by one commentator of doing what she does because
aspires to have 'Kim Kardashian fame'.
'Highly
offensive when I do what I do because I'm watching the country of my birth
destroyed before my eyes.'
Ms Susli
believes that many don't take her seriously simply because she's a female
talking about politics.
'You
have to fight tooth and nail for respect and legitimacy that would have comes
naturally if you were a middle-aged man in a suit and tie,' she said.
'But far
worse are journalists who, because they disagree with my point of view, attack
me with misogyny rather than argue against me with facts.
'They
would rather abuse me with accusations of plastic surgery than discuss the
content of what I'm saying.'
She is
often described as being 'pro-Assad' – a label she rejects.
'One
doesn't need to be pro-government to support their military against an external
terror threat,' she said.
Ms Susli
is currently studying a postgraduate degree in Australia after completing a
science degree with a double major in biophysics and chemistry.
But she
dedicates a large amount of time to blogging about her country of origin, which
she has visited many times while living in Australia over the past two decades.
'Politics
has been my passion even before the war in Syria, so it's logical that when war
began in the country of my birth, which I visit often and where my extend
family reside, I'd be even more passionate,' she said.
'When
people I know have died, when others have had their lives turned upside down,
when it's my family that I couldn't go back to say goodbye to on their death
beds, how would I not become emotional about that?'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2801099/meet-syrian-girl-internet-sensation-dismissed-middle-eastern-kim-kardashian-fearlessly-posts-views-isis-al-assad-conflict-destroying-homeland.html#ixzz3H94SOT9M
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Work-From-Home
Opportunities Offered To Abha, Saudi Arab, Women
25 Oct,
2014
More
than100 job-seeking Saudi women have registered their names at the Abha Chamber
of Commerce and Industry to enroll in the “work-from-home” program provided by
the chamber, in cooperation with Unilever and Bab Rizq Jameel.
Nawal
Bafaqih, assistant director of communication at Unilever, introduced the
program at the Abdullah Abu Malha Hall at the chamber, introducing current
success stories of marketing job opportunities for women who worked from home
in Asir. The event was attended by more than 200 women.
The
associated programs seek to empower women by offering them the skills to work
from home, in order to acquire increased morale, self-respect, pride, work
efficiency and financial independence by working as sales representatives and
beauticians.
Bafaqih
stressed that Saudi women are aware that job availability is an issue in the
Kingdom, compelling them to find nontraditional jobs. She added that working
from home, or remote working, is one of the most successful types of employment
for Saudi women today.
It is
expected that the program will be implemented in several regions of the
Kingdom, including Madinah, Jeddah, Makkah, Jazan and, for the first time, in
Abha. Bafaqih noted that the program seeks to reach a total of 5,000 trainees
in Abha.
Elaborating
on the extent of acceptance in Saudi society for women to participate in the
work force, she said: “Saudi women are still not convinced that working from
home is feasible. But seeing examples of success will give credit to the
program, and convince them that it is a workable concept and a good solution to
female unemployment.”
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/649326
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Saturday
Turkey Mothers meet for 500th time in hope of finding lost loved ones
25 Oct,
2014
The
mothers of people who have disappeared at the hands of the state in recent
decades, known as the “Saturday Mothers,” will meet for the 500th time today
since their first gathering in the mid-1990s. The landmark meeting comes amid
calls for solidarity from the Scholars for Peace initiative.
The
initiative, group together over 150 scholars from 50 universities, published a
statement in solidarity with the Saturday Mothers and called for attendance at
the rally.
The
statement said the mothers would meet for the 500th time today, noting that the
individuals responsible for the disappearances had yet to be investigated
despite the passage of decades.
“Neither
past administrations nor the current one have investigated or punished the
individuals responsible for the loss of hundreds of people. As if this weren’t
enough, some of those responsible have even made advancements and received
promotions in their ‘careers,’” read the statement.
“Even
though the public knows who is responsible, and even though some of the
perpetrators have confessed, these crimes against humanity continue to go
unpunished,” it added.
The
Saturday Mothers, who since the mid-1990s have gathered every Saturday in front
of Galatasaray High School on Istanbul’s central İstiklal Avenue, carry posters
of missing family members who have disappeared after being detained by security
forces, or who have died in unsolved murders, especially in the dark days of
the 1990s.
Every
week, two or three relatives read a message or a poem for their loved ones,
while anybody who wishes can take part in the demonstrations by holding a
picture of one of the missing people.
The
Scholars for Peace said they would continue to follow the cause of the Saturday
Mothers and tell their stories in classes to their students.
The
scholars also called on other colleagues “to stand on the side of those who
have suffered the wrath of the state, starting with the Saturday Mothers.”
The
mothers received the fifth International Hrant Dink Award on Sept. 15, 2013,
which is named in honor of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/saturday-mothers-meet-for-500th-time-in-hope-of-finding-lost-loved-ones-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73436&NewsCatID=339
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WA Muslims
Hold Open Day at Mosque as Women Wearing Hijab Bear Brunt of Tensions
25 Oct,
2014
Women
who wear Hijabs are bearing the brunt of community tensions about Islam,
according to Muslim Youth WA.
The
group's vice president Ali Chaudhry also said opinions were inflamed when Perth
man and Islamic preacher Junaid Thorne's comments were reported in the media.
He
welcomed reports Mr Thorne was preparing to leave the state for Sydney.
Mr
Chaudhry is one of the organisers of events at the Masjid Ibrahim mosque, in
Southern River, as part of the inaugural national mosque open day.
He hoped
it would help break down misconceptions about Islam and foster greater
understanding.
"If
anybody in general does have fears about the faith, they have an opportunity to
come and ask Muslims directly," Mr Chaudhry said.
He
thought events in the Middle East, such as the ongoing conflict in Syria and
Iraq, had skewed some people's ideas of what Islam is about.
"People
may get the impression that this is what the faith is about, when 99.9 per cent
of Muslims are just like everybody else," he said.
However,
some comments by Mr Thorne made the task of calming tensions "more
difficult for the majority of most Muslims", Mr Chaudhry said.
Mr
Chaudhry said it would make the job easier if he left WA.
"Because
each time he may have a comment to make it goes across all the papers, all the
news and so so, and that does inflame certain opinions and some people then
unleash it onto innocent Muslim women, because they wear the Hijab and are
easily identifiable," he said.
Mr
Thorne returned to Perth from Saudi Arabia in July last year.
He had
gone into hiding there after his passport was confiscated when he protested
against the detention of his brother Shayden Thorne, who had been convicted of
terrorism-related offences.
On
October 6, a photo was posted on the personal Facebook page of Mohammed Junaid
Thorne, showing Mr Thorne and a group of other people giving the one-finger
salute of terrorist group Islamic State.
Mr
Thorne has previously been investigated by federal authorities over alleged
support for Islamic State.
But he
has denied supporting the organisation and stated he did not "incite
terrorism, or encourage unjustified acts of violence".
Mr
Thorne was contacted for comment.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-25/mosque-open-day-in-southern-river/5841458
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350,000
school-aged Syrian children in Turkey, just half receiving education
25 Oct,
2014
The
number of school-aged children out of the 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey
is now more than 350,000, new figures have shown, demonstrating the size of
Turkey's ongoing refugee burden.
However,
only around 140,000 of these children are able to receive an education, with
the remaining 200,000 unable to enroll in school. Syrian refugee teachers have
been instructing the 140,000, who are being provided education, according to
the Syrian national curriculum.
As of
September, Turkey had received only 25 percent of the funding it requested as
part of the 2014 Syria Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRP6). RRP6, coordinated
by the United Nations, brought together more than 155 donors to help Syrian
refugees and the local communities hosting them in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon and Iraq.
However,
the hundreds of thousands of school-aged refugees herald the potential
humanitarian impacts of the absence of a viable solution to the Syrian crisis,
which shows no signs of slowing.
Of those
Syrian citizens who are under temporary protection, 250,000 are living in camps
set up by Turkey’s disaster agency, the Disaster and Emergency Management
Directorate (AFAD). In those camps, formal education is given for children from
pre-school age to Grade 12.
Among
them, 7,500 are pre-school age, 35,000 are attending primary school, 20,000 are
in middle school and 10,000 are enrolled in high school.
The
Education Ministry has been coordinating with both AFAD and the Interior Ministry's
Directorate General for Migration Management in all of its planning and
activities regarding Syrian and Iraqi citizens who have come to Turkey as part
of huge recent refugee influxes. The ministry, meanwhile, released a circular
in September that removed bureaucratic obstacles to the registration of child
refugees at schools operating under its authority.
Turkish
officials hope to create opportunities to ensure that an additional 100,000
refugee children receive schooling later this year.
At schools
operating under the Education Ministry’s authority around the country, there
are currently 5,000 refugee students in primary schools, 3,000 in middle
schools and 1,000 in high schools. These numbers, however, are expected to
increase this year, with officials estimating that the total figure will jump
from 9,000 to 30,000.
Within
the framework of the same circular, the ministry has been setting up temporary
education centers that have been allocated solely for Syrian refugees.
Currently, there are more than 90 temporary education centers that are serving
around 70,000 children.
During
the 2013-2014 school year, around 1,800 Syrians attended universities in
Turkey, while this number is expected to rise to 4,000 for 2014-2015, with the
Directorate of Overseas Turks under the Prime Ministry (YTB) planning to
deliver scholarships to around 1,000 Syrian students.
Meanwhile,
UNICEF and Turkish officials have been coordinating efforts to train volunteer
Syrian teachers at refugee camps, providing instruction to 3,500 teachers so
far.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/350000-school-aged-syrian-children-in-turkey-just-half-receiving-education.aspx?pageID=238&nID=73456&NewsCatID=341
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