Two Arab Female Filmmakers Have Been Nominated For An Oscar
New
Age Islam News Bureau
16
March 2021
•
For Activists in Turkey, the Headscarf Is a Women’s Rights Issue
•
Hanan Ashrawi: Palestinian Champion of Women’s Rights
•
Madawi Becomes First Licensed Saudi Female Jockey
•
Once Again, Pakistan’s Women’s March Is targeted with a Vicious Smear Campaign
•
Malala Yousafzai Receives Women Leaders Award
•
Tunisia's Gender Violence Law Struggles To Get Beyond Paper
•
Somalia Women Drivers Dare Country's Islamists, Conservatives
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/two-arab-female-filmmakers-been/d/124553
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Two
Arab Female Filmmakers Have Been Nominated For An Oscar
“The Present” by Farah Nabulsi has been nominated
for an Oscar. Supplied
-----
March
15, 2021
DUBAI:
The Oscar 2021 nominations are finally here, and there are two Arab films
competing for an award at this year’s ceremony set to take place on April 25.
Tunisian
director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin” and Palestinian
filmmaker Farah Nabulsi’s “The Present” have both been nominated for an Academy
Award.
“The
Man Who Sold His Skin” is competing in the category of the Best International
Feature Film. It is up against Jasmila Zbanic’s war drama “Quo Vadis, Aida?,”
the Alexander Nanau-directed “Romania, “'Another Round” from Danish filmmaker
Thomas Vinterberg and Kwok Cheung Tsang’s “Better Days.”
Meanwhile,
“The Present” is up for the “Best Live Action Short Film” award.
The
short film is competing against Doug Roland’s “Feeling Through,” short drama
film directed by Elvira Lind “The Letter Room,” “Two Distant Strangers” by
Travon Free and the Tomer Shushan-directed “White Eye.”
“The
Man Who Sold His Skin,” stars Yahya Mahayni as a Syrian refugee who allows his
own body to be turned into a work of art. Part love story, part art-world
satire, the film is a complex study of a refugee’s struggle with borders and
residency permits.
Inspired
by the story of a Swiss national who was tattooed by the Belgian artist Wim
Delvoye, the film already won Mahayni the Orizzonti Award for Best Actor at the
Venice Film Festival.
“The
Present” is a short film that tells the story about a man named Yusef and his
daughter who set out in the West Bank to buy his wife a gift.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1825926/lifestyle
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For
Activists In Turkey, The Headscarf Is A Women’s Rights Issue
AKP has viewed headscarf-wearing women as
loyalists
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Burcu
Ozcelik
Mar
16, 2021
Turkey
has a long history of pigeonholing women. Women who chose to cover their heads
were labelled “backward” and uneducated while those who went uncovered
represented the modern ideal of a woman bravely rejecting religious
conservatism. The headscarf symbolized the battle between the forces of
modernity and arch-conservatism. But for a new generation of women, it is as
much a political statement about their rights as about their religion.
Wearing
the headscarf was banned in public institutions, including universities, in the
early 1980s, but morphed into a women’s rights symbol in the 1990s and 2000s as
Muslim women campaigned on university campuses all over Turkey for the right to
wear it. Often, the campaigners found themselves doubly isolated. Harassed by
the secular authorities and denied public-sector jobs, the wider women’s
movement also shunned them as a “single-issue” regressive group.
The
battle appeared to be won when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice
and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Veiled women had worked hard
for the party, canvassing door-to-door, but it was another eight years before
the ban on head coverings in universities was lifted. Worse, the AKP took full
credit for it, trivializing, denigrating or simply ignoring the part played by
the many women activists who had strived for years to bring about that outcome.
And
now the headscarf – and those who wear it – is again at the centre of a protest
movement.
For
a long time, the AKP has viewed headscarf-wearing women as loyalists, and in
truth, many were. The party is popular among a significant portion of religious
women who credit the AKP for making it possible to live their faith openly and
for legitimizing Islam as a central pillar of Turkish national identity. Many
of these women fear losing those rights if Erdogan were no longer in power.
So
it came as a shock to the party to see young, headscarf-wearing women
protesting against the appointment in early January of an AKP member as rector
of Boğaziçi University, Turkey’s most prestigious seat of learning.
Traditionally, rectors are chosen by teaching staff. Students, present and
past, and academics alike decried the appointment of Melih Bulu, a former
parliamentary candidate for the AKP, as an abuse of political power, an attack
on academic freedom and further evidence of Turkey’s diminishing commitment to
democracy.
Covered
Muslim women were also among those defending a students’ art exhibition that
featured a poster depicting Islam’s most sacred site surrounded by LGBT+ flags.
Once praised for their piety, they found themselves recast by the authorities
as un-Islamic, amoral, unpatriotic puppets of the West. The interior minister
denounced them on Twitter as “deviants.”
Sociologist
Feyza Akinerdem, a Boğaziçi graduate, summed up the reaction thus: “When a
woman in a headscarf is visible or heard in a way that the patriarchy deems
politically damaging to their cause, she is denigrated as morally corrupt or as
failing her religion.”
In
reality, pious women in Turkey – as everywhere in the Middle East – have never
been a homogenous bloc. The main opposition party, the secular Republican
People’s Party (CHP) has religious women among its membership. Muslim women
took part in the protests against urban development plans for Istanbul’s Gezi
Park in 2013 and some joined the left-wing group, Anti-Capitalist Muslims. No
one paid them much attention then and things are no better now, they claim.
“I
cannot breathe, my friends cannot breathe,” says Seyma Orhan, a literature
student at Boğaziçi. “We live in perpetual limbo where we don’t belong in
either the government’s neighbourhood or the secular neighbourhood. We are in
no-man’s-land.”
Another
student, Seyma Altundal, was arrested and handcuffed during the Bulu protest
and claims she was not allowed to put her headscarf back on after it fell off.
News of her arrest exploded on social media and when she was released later the
same day, she posed outside the courthouse making the peace sign with one hand
and holding up the index finger of the other, signifying the indivisibility of
God. She explained, “We are servants of Allah and not the state and we know Him
as the only authority.”
Recent
years have seen the emergence of women’s groups and bloggers talking about the
challenges of womanhood, motherhood and feminism from a Muslim perspective. In
December, the Havle Women’s Association, which claims to be the first Muslim
feminist organization in Turkey, hosted an online conference on how Muslim
identity is compatible with feminist goals. One of the speakers was Amina
Wadud, an American Muslim theologian, known variously as the Lady Imam and the
“rock star of Islamic feminists.”
“The
Muslim women’s movement evolving into a Muslim feminist movement has expanded
the parameters of what is permissible for us to talk about and stand up for,”
says Rümeysa Çamdereli, one of the founders of Havle.
Unlike
the previous generation of women, who were forced to remove their headscarves
if they wanted to work in the civil service, the young Muslim women of today
demand the right to express their culture, their religiosity and their dissent.
For them, their faith is not incompatible with speaking the truth to unchecked
political power.
They
have also highlighted the need to keep an eye on the future. Turkey is a young
country; more than 15 per cent of the population is aged under 25. It is
difficult to gauge the influence this young generation of proudly headscarved
women wields, but it is not negligible. As student Seyma Orhan put it, “We may
not represent the majority of Muslim women in Turkey today, but we are also
more than just a handful.”
https://www.timesnownews.com/columns/article/for-activists-in-turkey-the-headscarf-is-a-women-s-rights-issue/732632
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Hanan Ashrawi: Palestinian champion of women’s rights
MAR
16, 2021
Hanan
Ashrawi, the distinguished Palestinian leader, legislator, activist, scholar,
women’s rights advocate and best-known spokesperson for the Palestinian cause
in the Western press, quit her senior post in the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) at the end of 2020, calling for political reforms.
The
daughter of Daoud Mikhael and Wadi‘a As‘ad, Hanan was born in 1946 in Nablus,
where her father worked as a physician. The family moved to Tiberias before
fleeing to Amman in 1948, eventually settling in Ramallah, where Hanan grew up
with her four older sisters Huda, Muna, Abla and Nadia.
Upon
graduating from Ramallah’s Friends Girls School, Hanan enrolled in 1964 at the
American University of Beirut to study English literature. Here, she joined the
local branch of the General Union of Palestinian Students – becoming its
spokesperson – and the General Union of Palestinian Women, participated in the
activities of several associations, such as the Fifth of June Society, and
worked in the social and media fields in Beirut’s Palestinian refugee camps.
Ashrawi’s
political activism was inspired by her father, whom she described as an
“advocate of women’s rights ... quite progressive,” and a “socialist.” She told
the Sojourners magazine in 2005 that her father explicitly told her that, “We
raised you not to feel in any way that you are handicapped by your gender or
your upbringing, so do not accept to be defined or limited by others.”
She
recalls that her parents instructed her to be daring and courageous, speak up
and stand up, engage actively in matters of justice, and act on issues
important to her according to her own convictions.
Having
earned a bachelor’s and a master's of arts in English literature from the
American University of Beirut, she traveled in 1969 to the United States, where
she continued her graduate studies at the University of Virginia. But she
returned to Palestine in 1973, before completing her thesis in comparative and medieval
literature, to found Birzeit University’s Department of English Language and
Literature, which she chaired until 1978 and again from 1981 to 1984.
While
on leave, she returned to Virginia to complete her doctoral thesis, defending
it during the 1981-82 academic year.
In
1986, Ashrawi was appointed dean of Birzeit University’s Faculty of Arts and
remained in that post until 1995. A founding member of the Committee for Legal
Aid and Human Rights, established at Birzeit University in 1974, she was a member
of this committee also until 1995. Furthermore, she helped establish Birzeit
University’s Professors and Employees Union.
As
a Birzeit university faculty member, Ashrawi was frequently the target of
harassment by the occupation authorities because she joined demonstrations and
strikes organized to protest Israeli soldiers’ violent incursions into the
campus or their repeated closures of the university. She was detained for one
day on many occasions, frequently on specific dates on which mass protests were
organized to commemorate events such as the 1967 occupation of the West Bank,
East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on June 5, as well as the issuing of the
Balfour Declaration on Nov. 2 in 1917.
Ashrawi’s
political and advocacy engagement has been a lifelong pursuit. She was a member
of the political committee of the first popular intifada that erupted in
December 1987.
Entrusted
by the PLO leadership, she then became a member of the Palestinian delegation
that met with then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker before the opening of
the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991.
Subsequently
and during the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in Washington, Ashrawi acted as
the official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation, headed by Haydar Abd
al-Shafi, articulating the Palestinian quest for statehood to the world. She
also served as a member of the delegation’s steering committee.
In
January 1996, Ashrawi was elected a member of the Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC), representing Jerusalem, and headed the council’s political
subcommittee for one year and the Legislative Reform Committee between 2000 and
2005.
Between
1996 and 1998, she served as the minister of higher education and scientific
research, resigning from her post to protest the Palestinian Authority's (PA)
failure to implement government reform plans and due to differences with the
Palestinian leadership over the conduct of peace negotiations. In 2006, she was
reelected to the PLC, representing the list "the Third Way," headed
by Salam Fayyad.
A
champion of women’s rights, she was in 2009 the first woman to be elected a
member of the PLO’s executive committee where she also served as head of the
Culture and Information Department. In 2018, she was reelected, heading its
Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy until her resignation in December
2020.
The
timing of the news
Ashrawi
did not provide an explanation for her resignation from the PLO Executive
Committee but did say that the committee had been marginalized. “I believe it
is time to carry out the required reform and activate the PLO in a manner that
restores its standing and role, which includes respecting the Executive
Committee’s mandate rather than marginalizing and excluding this body from
decision-making,” Ashrawi said in her resignation letter.
“The
Palestinian political system needs renewal and must be reinvigorated through
the inclusion of youth, women, and further qualified professionals,” she added.
Sama
Aweidah, the general director of the Women’s Studies Centre human rights organization,
commented on Ashrawi’s resignation, saying: “I’m sure that Dr. Hanan has good
reasons for resigning. She is not a careless person and takes no decision
lightly. Dr. Hanan refused to accept that the PLO Executive Committee was
prevented from playing a meaningful role and that all decisions were taken by
the president’s circle. I certainly respect her position and agree that she
should not accept such an inactive role.”
Aweida
added: “Dr. Hanan means a lot to me. When in 1978, I was dismissed for political
reasons from the University of Jordan, Dr. Hanna Naser (the exiled president of
Birzeit University, who was living in Amman) was very supportive and
recommended that I meet with Dr. Hanan once I was back in Palestine. I did, and
she was very reassuring and helped me enroll in Birzeit University without any
obstacles.
“Moreover,
Dr. Hanan has always supported women and stood by feminist organizations,
participating in their activities and advocating for their demands at various
levels. To me, like every Palestinian woman, Dr. Hanan is truly an example of a
strong woman. She is one of the women who have proven that women can make their
voices heard,” Aweida asserted.
When
asked about his opinion on Ashrawi’s sudden resignation, business consultant,
writer and activist Sam Bahour said: “I have a lot of respect for Dr. Ashrawi.
Growing up in the diaspora in Ohio, I knew of her activism in the first
intifada that began in 1987. When she made headlines at the 1991 Madrid
Conference, I witnessed how impactful she was in articulating our struggle to
foreign audiences, especially in the United States. Being a woman, Christian,
fluent in English, and rational in her politics carries a lot of weight in the
West. As I have lived in Palestine during the last 25 years, I have been able
to follow her work more closely. I gained a more nuanced understanding of her
character when I watched her operate locally – as tends to be the case with
Palestinian leadership figures who are idolized abroad – even though most Palestinian
leaders’ engagement with the grassroots is limited.
“Sentimental
values aside, Dr. Ashrawi has been part and parcel of the PLO leadership
apparatus that has been part of the problem for decades now. Having accepted to
go with the flow for so long – even though we can assume that behind closed
doors, she was a voice of dissent – her stepping down this late in the game
seems more an indication of jumping a sinking ship than real opposition, even
though she calls for reforms.
“When
I think of her generation of Palestinian leaders, I recall a line I recently
read, published in Medium by the writer Sal who wrote that sometimes, the aura
of a person becomes more significant than the person itself. I think this
applies to many of our movement’s leaders,” Sam concluded.
Her
organization legacy
A
number of organizations have been founded and headed by Ahsrawi, most
significantly the Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights (renamed the
Independent Commission for Human Rights in 2007) that aims to protect the individual’s
rights in Palestinian legislation and PNA practices; the Palestinian Initiative
for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) that aims to uphold
the principles of democracy and sound governance in Palestinian society and
advocates decision-makers and world public opinion regarding the Palestine
cause by engaging in dialogue and information exchange; and the Coalition for
Accountability and Integrity (AMAN), a civil society movement that seeks to
combat corruption and enhance integrity, transparency, and accountability in
Palestinian society.
Ashrawi
is a board of trustee member of several Arab and international institutions,
including Birzeit Universit, the Institute for Palestine Studies, the
Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), the United Nations Research
Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) and the Council on Foreign Relations
in Washington, D.C.; she serves on the World Bank’s organizational unit for the
Middle East and the northern Africa region.
Several
honorary doctorates have been awarded to Ashrawi from a number of Arab and
foreign universities, including Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada
(2000); the American University in Cairo (2003) and the American University of
Beirut (2008).
Among
the prizes and medals she has won are the Exceptional Arab Woman Prize for
Political Activism from Dubai’s Center for Arab Women’s Studies (2005),
Sweden’s Olof Palme Prize (2002), the Sydney Peace Prize (2003), UNESCO’s
Mahatma Gandhi Medal (2005) and the French Ordre national du Mérite (2016).
An
inspiring figure
Ashrawi
will remain a pioneering Palestinian national, political and feminist figure,
remembered as one of the outstanding women of Palestine and the Arab world,
excelling in politics, diplomacy, the media, academia, culture and on the
social level.
Her
contributions to the development of Palestinian civil society include the
founding of civic institutions and the transmission of the voice of Palestine
to the world. Her writings include works on Palestinian literature, literary
criticism and articles on Palestinian culture and politics, as well as poems
and short stories.
Ashrawi
worked tirelessly to bring democracy and gender equality to Palestine and her
advocacy for human and women's rights, policy formation, peacemaking, and
nation-building efforts have had a significant impact on the region.
One
of the most influential women in the Arab world, she will remain an advocate of
Palestinian self-determination and peace in the Middle East as she continues to
highlight “the importance of raising your voice on behalf of peace, justice,
human dignity, and,” as she asserts, “the integrity of life itself.”
*
Palestinian author, researcher and freelance journalist; recipient of two
prizes from the Palestinian Union of Writers
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/hanan-ashrawi-palestinian-champion-of-womens-rights
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Madawi
Becomes First Licensed Saudi Female Jockey
March
15, 2021
RIYADH
— Madawi Al-Qahtani broke into the world of horse racing by becoming the first
Saudi woman rider, obtaining jockey license from the Equestrian Square in
Janadriyah.
Madawi,
who started riding 15 years ago, had earlier secured show jumping training
license from the Saudi Arabian Equestrian Federation.
“Saudi
women have determination and persistence, but we lack academies that have race
tracks for us to learn and practice, and so we are making our best efforts to
compete in open fields,” she said while speaking to Al-Arabiya.net.
Madawi
established the first female horse riding school in the Janadriyah region in
2016. “During my learning days in horse riding, I sustained injuries, but such
odds did not prevent me from accomplishing my ambition until I got the license
that qualifies me to compete in races.”
Madawi
said that her goal is not to win championships, but to train riders in show
jumping, endurance and other races. “I participated in show jumping
tournaments, the most recent of which was in 2019 when I won the second
position,” she added.
Areej
Al-Qahtani, sister of Madawi posted a video clip of her sister on social media
as she prepared to enter one of the official races at Janadriyah Square, thus
becoming the first Saudi woman to obtain a jockey license and participate in
horse races in the Kingdom.
Reacting
on getting the jockey’s license by Madawi, Areej tweeted: “I am honored to
announce, with love and happiness, that my sister, the rider, Madawi
Al-Qahtani, has obtained a jockey’s license, so as to become the first Saudi
woman to obtain it and become the first jockey to enter the world of racing in
the Kingdom...congratulations, my love.”
Several
popular social media users celebrated Madawi’s winning of the rare honor. Ahmed
Al-Rashed, head of the competitions committee of the Saudi Professional League
reacted: “Saudi women are today a partner of the Saudi men in the development
of the homeland without discrimination... We are inspired by the Prince of the
Youth — Muhammad Bin Salman.”
“The
rider Madawi Al-Qahtani has got a jockey’s license as the first woman in the
Saudi equestrian history. She recently went to the world of racing, and worked
hard to obtain this honor... we are proud of her...,” he added.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/604429/SAUDI-ARABIA/Madawi-becomes-first-licensed-Saudi-female-jockey
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Once
Again, Pakistan’s Women’s March Is Targeted With a Vicious Smear Campaign
By
Allia Bukhari
March
16, 2021
On
March 8, dozens of Pakistani women in all major cities took to the streets to
highlight discrimination, inequality, violence, abuse, and injustices against
them and other marginalized communities in the country. Despite threats and
right-wing attacks on the Aurat March last year, the demonstrators were
resilient and undeterred in putting forward their demands, which emphasized
prioritizing healthcare for women during the pandemic and ensuring protection
against patriarchal violence among others. But as is all-too-typical for
Pakistan, the women’s day demonstration — on the only day when women voice
their concerns in large numbers — was met by resistance and a smear campaign.
A
disinformation campaign was unleashed on social media with a doctored video
purporting to show “blasphemous” slogans taking over Twitter. The video was
even shared by some right-wing TV anchors and journalists without fact-checking.
A feminist organization, Women Democratic Front’s (WDF), had its flag
misrepresented on social media as that of France to portray the movement as
anti-Islam, given the anti-Muslim discourse is on the rise in the European
country.
When
opponents of the march couldn’t justify their anti-women arguments with reason
and intellect, they resorted to propaganda – and that too involving extremely
volatile and sensitive sentiments around religion and blasphemy in a society
where people have been jailed or even killed over such accusations. Clearly
certain quarters will go to any lengths to malign the women’s rights campaign
without regard for the repercussions the move may have, including endangering
innocent lives. The Pakistani Taliban also threatened the march organizers and
demanded that the government prosecute them for blasphemy.
The
horrific motorway rape incident last year along with the steady stream of honor
killings and forced marriages are a shameful reminder of the country’s
collective failure to ensure women’s safety. At a time when cases of violence
against women have recently doubled, as revealed by a report titled “Tracking
Numbers: State of Violence Against Women and Children in Pakistan,” women’s
rights campaigns are crucial to highlight atrocities against them.
On
the economic front too, Pakistan is one of those countries where limited
opportunities are available for women. Just 20 percent of women are part of the
workforce in the country, while the pay gap between men and women has also
increased. A United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report revealed that
Pakistan topped the list of countries holding prejudiced views against women;
the percentage of people holding at least one sexist bias was the highest in
Pakistan of the countries surveyed, at 99.8 percent.
Despite
such worrying statistics and the abysmal state of affairs for women, any
attempt to empower and speak up for the female population in Pakistan, whether
it’s the global #MeToo movement or the annual Aurat March, has largely been met
with sheer ignorance, toxic chauvinism, and intolerance from society at large.
Misogynistic, hateful comments on social media and demeaning posts become a
regular occurrence every Women’s Day. While elsewhere in the world, people
celebrate women’s achievements and advocate for their better representation and
rights, in Pakistan the moral brigade takes over to issue judgements on what is
socially acceptable and what is not, seemingly protecting the non-egalitarian
norms and values that have been largely formulated to control and suppress
women and gender minorities.
Several
factors have contributed to this backlash and hate against women, who are
already greatly discriminated against. Opponents term these yearly marches as
un-Islamic and “immoral” based on some of the slogans like “mera jism meri
marzi” (my body, my choice”) that are used in marches.
In
a country where conservative values are central to the national narrative, this
phenomenon traces back to the time of independence. With the demand to have a
separate homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent, religion became the
basis for Pakistan’s very existence. Thus non-egalitarian religious nationalism
has always been at the core of society’s values. The rise of fundamentalist
leaders, however, especially military dictator Zia-ul-Haq’s Islamization and
the absence of real democracy, meant that these values got instilled deeper and
deeper into the country’s social fabric and were started getting misused to
maintain a certain balance of power. Rules have been made by men for men.
Feminist
scholars argue that there are “limits to Muslim women’s piety” – again, as
defined by men in patriarchal societies – and there is a need to promote the
potential for females’ autonomy and liberal freedoms in such societies.
Pakistani women are now standing up to intimidation, injustice, and an
environment of fear and inequality. They demand autonomy and structural and
transformational changes. In doing so, they are seen as challenging male
dominance, and are therefore bearing the brunt of online vitriol and smear
campaign from all corner
https://thediplomat.com/2021/03/once-again-pakistans-womens-march-is-targeted-with-a-vicious-smear-campaign/
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Malala
Yousafzai Receives Women Leaders Award
16
Mar, 2021
ISLAMABAD
– In commemoration of the International Women’s Day, Pakistani activist, UN
Messenger of Peace, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize recipient and the co-founder
of Malala Fund, Malala Yousafzai was honoured at the 2nd HUM Women Leaders
Award, for her outstanding public service and contributions in the field of
education, and for being a symbol and source of hope, courage, determination,
and inspiration for girls and women across the globe.
Dr.
Maliha Khan, Chief Programming Officer at Malala Fund, who received the
accolade on behalf of Malala Yousafzai, who joined the award ceremony via video
link at the event hosted at the President’s Secretariat in Islamabad. The
honourable President of Pakistan His Excellency Dr. ArifAlvi graced the
occasion as the Chief Guest along with various other notable personalities from
a diversity of fields.
“I
dedicate this award to all the young girls who wish for a bright future, who
have a desire to learn and get an education. The pandemic has amplified the
education crisis in Pakistan, even more so for girls who continue to pay the
highest price Poverty, gender, and marginalisation have intersected to
accentuate inequalities, making it harder than ever for girls from poorer,
rural households to learn. With Malala Fund and our new projects, it is our
mission to prioritise the education of girls with an even greater emphasis
during this pandemic, so they can continue to learn during [the pandemic]
without hindrance. I hope for a day in Pakistan when every girl is able to go
to school, get an education, be able to fulfill her dreams, and lead without
fear.” said Malala Yousafzai on receiving the HUM Women Leaders Award.
Co-founded
by Malala and her father Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala Fund is working to ensure
every girl around the world can access 12 years of free, safe, and quality
education. The organisation supports girls’ education programmes in Pakistan,
as well as Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, and Turkey.
Inspired by Malala and Ziauddin Yousafzai’s roots as local activists in
Pakistan, Malala Fund established the Education Champion Network which invests
in education advocates and activists who are challenging the policies and
practices that prevent girls from going to school in their communities. Today,
Malala Fund supports 57 Education Champions.
Malala
Fund, in its November 2020 report on Girls’ Education and COVID-19 in Pakistan
highlights how the pandemic has impacted students and their families in
Pakistan, especially girls. Although Pakistan has made significant progress for
girls’ education in the last decade, over 12 million girls remain out of
school, with only 13% of girls reaching grade nine. Malala Fund Education
Champions in Pakistan aim to work closely with federal and provincial governments
as well as independent bodies to ensure the safe, gender-responsive reopening
of schools, alleviate the economic effects of the pandemic to help families
prioritise education, protect education gains and build back Pakistan’s
education system with gender at the centre to promote inclusive growth and
ensure every girl can learn.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/16-Mar-2021/malala-yousafzai-receives-women-leaders-award
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Tunisia's
Gender Violence Law Struggles To Get Beyond Paper
07/03/2021
When
Nadia told police about her husband's violence during a coronavirus lockdown in
Tunisia, she nearly lost custody of her daughter, illustrating a chasm between
a gender law and enforcement.
Adopted
in 2017, the celebrated law greatly expanded the scope of punishable violence
against women and in theory provides wide-ranging support to victims, making
the country a pathfinder among regional peers.
But
getting justice remains a battle without any guarantee of success, due to
waning political will and scant funding.
For
several years, Nadia, in her forties, weathered threats and mistreatment at the
hands of her husband.
With
no income of her own, she did not feel she could complain.
"He
would do it when drunk, then apologise," Nadia said.
"He
left for several months every year to work abroad, so I preferred to do
nothing" about the abuse, she added.
But
things became intolerable during a three-month lockdown to forestall the spread
of the coronavirus a year ago.
"He
was stuck in the house, stressed. He drank a lot," Nadia said.
"One
day my daughter told me of inappropriate advances" of a sexual nature.
Nadia
immediately called the police, who summoned her a few days later.
She
was one among many Tunisian women who suffered a surge in violence during the
March to June lockdown, as reported cases spiked five-fold, according to
authorities.
And
cases remain high.
-
'Nearly lost everything' -
But
Nadia says she was completely blindsided by what happened next.
While
her initial interaction with the police was positive, things quickly turned
sour.
Her
husband was able to afford a lawyer, while she is destitute and fears he may
have bribed the police or magistrates.
The
police requested she put together an evidence file herself.
After
several weeks without any progress and by now desperate and terrified of losing
custody of her daughter, Nadia turned to a women's group for help.
The
Association of Women Democrats (ATFD), which provides everything from shelter
to legal help, linked her up with a lawyer who found that the police station
had not even sent her evidence to court.
The
file was then sent to a second magistrate and a few days later her husband was
finally arrested.
"Fortunately
I found some support," Nadia said.
But
by that stage, "I had nearly lost everything, even my daughter."
The
2017 legislation, known as Law 58, was drafted in consultation with women's
activists and associations.
In
theory, it covers prevention, suppression and protection against violence,
along with compensation.
To
improve the care of women seeking police protection, the interior ministry has
established 130 specialist brigades since 2018.
Specific
education on such violence is now provided in police schools, while officers
who attempt to discourage women from lodging cases face prison terms.
Several
hundred police officers, including many women, have received specialist
training in order to lead investigations or enforce restraining orders.
But
activists say they still face an uphill slog.
"There
is an enormous gap between the law of 2017, which is still very recent, and
institutional and social practises," said Yosra Frawes, who heads the
ATFD.
Her
organisation reports that many more women are seeking support than this time
last year.
Enforcement
of the law "requires infrastructure, counselling centres, refuges -- but
the state has no budget" for such things, Frawes noted.
"The
issue of women has disappeared from the public debate" since elections in
2019, when avowedly conservative candidates performed well, she lamented.
A
2018 bid to overhaul Tunisia's inheritance law -- currently based on Islamic
law, meaning that women inherit only half of their male siblings' share -- has
subsequently foundered.
"We
must fight two parallel battles -- those of laws, and those of attitudes",
said Frawes, noting that much work still needs to be done in training the
police, judges, lawyers and doctors in appropriate responses.
https://www.africanews.com/2021/03/07/tunisia-s-gender-violence-law-struggles-to-get-beyond-paper/
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Somalia
Women Drivers Dare Country's Islamists, Conservatives
25/02/2021
At
19 years old, Asha Mohamed is divorced and drives a taxi in Somalia, defying
conventions to support her family in one of the world's most conservative and
dangerous countries.
For
the past year, the young woman has crisscrossed the capital Mogadishu in her
white taxi, with a faux fur throw covering her dashboard.
Her
career choice was driven by passion, but also necessity, after she divorced her
husband -- whom she married at age 16 - and was left to take care of her two
children and her mother.
Taxi
driving in Mogadishu is not only typically reserved for men, but is also
dangerous in a city where Al-Shabaab Islamists regularly set off car bombs at
intersections and security checkpoints.
In
a recent blast on February 13, three people were killed and eight wounded.
But
car-loving Mohamed, who enjoys playing racing video games on her phone, was not
put off.
"In
my childhood, it was my passion to be a driver one day, but I was not thinking
that I will work as a taxi driver," she told AFP.
She
said she had been given the opportunity by a relatively new company called
Rikaab taxi.
"The
number of women working as taxi drivers were small for security reasons, but...
the number of women taxi drivers is gradually growing," said Ilham
Abdullahi Ali, the female finance chief at Rikaab Taxi.
However,
only three of the company's 2,000 taxis in Mogadishu are driven by women.
Mohamed
earns up to $40 a day, allowing her to take care of her family, and hopes that
by defying tradition, she can contribute to changing the minds of her
countrymen about the role of women.
Clients
are often taken off guard when they climb into the white taxi and see Mohamed,
wearing light make-up and a colourful hijab, behind the steering wheel.
Sadiq
Dahir, a student at the Salaam University, admits he was surprised when he
first saw her arrive to pick him up, but that his view has changed.
"Recently
I have been using this Rikaab taxi service. Although it is male dominated work
I prefer the female taxi drivers because they drive safely and arrive on
time."
'Alarming'
gender inequality
The
Somali capital, situated on a pristine white coastline with turquoise waters,
remains dogged by violence a decade after the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab was
ousted from the city by African Union peacekeepers fighting alongside
government troops.
The
1991 overthrow of president Siad Barre's military regime ushered in decades of
chaos and civil war.
Thirty
years later, the internationally backed federal government has yet to gain full
control of the country or hold the first one-person, one-vote ballot since
1969, which had been promised this year.
Even
the holding of a complex indirect vote has been delayed by political
infighting, which recently led to gun battles between opposing camps in the
capital.
Women's
rights are low on the list of priorities, and the most recent data, in 2012,
showed the country among the bottom four on a United Nations gender equality
index.
The
report described gender inequality as "alarmingly high", in a country
where 98 percent of women have undergone genital mutilation.
"Women
suffer severe exclusion and inequality in all dimensions of the index --
health, employment and labour market participation," it noted.
"Somali
girls are given away in marriage very young, and violence against girls and
women is widespread."
https://www.africanews.com/2021/02/25/somalia-women-drivers-dare-country-s-islamists-conservatives/
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