U.N. urges 57 countries to reclaim women, children from Syrian camps
New
Age Islam News Bureau
09 February
2021
• New Saudi civil laws to include minimum age limit on
marriages: Justice Minister
• Switzerland’s
referendum on burqas is an insult to women’s rights and dignity
• Unlike
men, Muslim women should take divorce for second marriage: Punjab and Haryana
High Court
• UN
Agencies Urge Somalia To Pass Law Prohibiting Female Genital Mutilation
Practice
• Sexual
violence in Pakistan: How female police officers are helping victims
• Turkey’s
women need more inclusiveness and rights, not a women-only university
• Gulalai
Ismail, Pashtun activist in exile whose father is now held for ‘terrorism’ in
Pakistan
• Local
Assembly In Pakistan Bans Women From Visiting Child Wellness Centers
• Turkish
women more active in politics since 1935
• MoufidaTlatli,
first Arab woman to direct a feature film, dies aged 73
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
--------
U.N.
urges 57 countries to reclaim women, children from Syrian camps
FEBRUARY
8, 2021
---------------
GENEVA
(Reuters) - U.N. rights experts urged 57 states on Monday to repatriate nearly
10,000 of their citizens - women and children associated with Islamic State
fighters - held in camps in northeast Syria in “sub-human” conditions without
legal process.
Under
international law, these states have a duty to repatriate their citizens and,
if there is evidence, to prosecute adults for war crimes or other offences at
fair trials in their domestic courts, the experts said.
Some
9,462 foreign women and children are among more than 64,600 people detained at
al-Hol and Roj camps, run by Syrian Kurdish authorities, where the majority of
residents are Iraqi and Syrian nationals.
“The
matter is one of extreme urgency,” FionnualaNíAoláin, U.N. special rapporteur
on protecting human rights while countering terrorism, told a news briefing
after the independent experts issued a joint statement.
She
called the list of 57 countries - which include Britain, China, France, the
Russian Federation and the United States - a “list of shame”. She also decried
“an uptick in nationality stripping”, noting it was unlawful to leave someone
stateless.
“These
women and children are living in what can only be described as horrific and
sub-human conditions... The conditions in these camps may reach the threshold
of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law,” NíAoláin
said.
Some
women had been “groomed online” as brides of Islamic State fighters, while
children “had no say in what brought them there”, she said.
The
United Nations said last month it had received reports of 12 Syrian and Iraqi
nationals being murdered in the first half of January at al-Hol camp, which
holds internal refugees and families of Islamic State fighters.
Canada,
Finland and Kazakhstan have repatriated some nationals, NíAoláin said,
welcoming “the trickle of returns”.
She
compared the “illegal detention” to that of security suspects held at the U.S.
detention facility in Guantanamo Bay for years without charge.
“These
women and children are a convenient battering ram on all the fears of state and
the public. They are made objects of hate, ridicule and shame,” she said.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-security-un-rights/u-n-urges-57-countries-to-reclaim-women-children-from-syrian-camps-idUSKBN2A81V4?il=0
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New
Saudi civil laws to include minimum age limit on marriages: Justice Minister
09
February ,2021
New
reforms to Saudi Arabia’s civil laws will include the setting of a minimum age
on marriages for both genders and granting women more marital contract rights,
according to the Kingdom’s Minister for Justice.
“For
the Personal Status Law, perhaps the most prominent general features are the
setting of a minimum age for marriage for both parties, as well consolidating
the consideration of a woman's will in all aspects of the marriage contract in
addition to childcare rights and interests of the child,” Saudi Justice
Minister Dr.Walid bin Mohammed al-Samani.
Saudi
Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced on Monday four new laws to
reform the Kingdom’s judicial institutions and efforts toward improving the
“legislative environment” in the Kingdom, according to an official
announcement.
The
four new laws include the Personal Status Law, the Civil Transactions Law, the
Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences, and the Law of Evidence.
The
Crown Prince said the current laws of the past have been “painful” on many
individuals, especially women.
“This
was painful for many individuals and families, especially women, permitting
some to evade their responsibilities. This will not take place again once these
laws are promulgated pursuant to legislative laws and procedures,” the Crown
Prince said in a statement.
The
Justice Minister told Al Arabiya that reforms to the legislative system would
include reforms in the way judges sentence individuals according to the crime
committed.
“For
the penal system, the draft affirms that the scope of the punishment is always
limited to the acts stipulated in the legal code, as there is no
criminalization except by the statutory text. As well as the principle of the
personality of the punishment and the emphasis on the presumption of innocence,
the approval of alternative penalties to imprisonment and the reduction of
aspects of penalties depriving freedom,” added.
In
applying the statutory text to the facts, the justice minister said, judges
will be able to devote themselves to their basic work in implementing these
legislations in addition to paying more and more attention to the realistic
aspect of any case.
While
no specific details of the which laws would be reformed were announced on
Monday, the Crown Prince did say that they would be released later this year
after submitted to the Council of Ministers and its bodies for review and
consideration, in accordance with the legislative process, and in preparation
for submission to the Shura Council, pursuant to its law.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/02/09/Saudi-women-New-Saudi-civil-laws-to-include-minimum-age-limit-on-marriages-Justice-Minister
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Switzerland’s
referendum on burqas is an insult to women’s rights and dignity
byRabina
Khan
Feb.
8, 2021
On
March 7, Switzerland will hold a referendum to decide whether to ban full
facial coverings such as burqas and niqabs. Polls show that more than 60
percent of Swiss voters favor the burqa ban. Although the Swiss cantons of St.
Gallen and Ticino already have a ban on full face coverings following regional
votes, the Swiss government has recommended voters reject the federal proposal,
saying a nationwide constitutional ban would “undermine the sovereignty of the
cantons, damage tourism and be unhelpful for certain groups of women.”
Those
“certain groups of women” are Muslim women.
It
is ironic that the vote will take place on the eve of International Women’s Day
on March 8, which strives for a gender-equal world. Removing a Muslim woman’s
right to wear a face veil is not equality.
Why
should a Muslim woman who chooses to cover her face because of her faith not be
allowed to do so? People of different faiths adhere to different dress codes,
yet it is Muslim women who bear the brunt of this policing around the world.
Switzerland
is far from the first country to propose laws limiting Muslim women’s choice of
attire: France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Latvia, Austria, Bulgaria, Belgium,
Republic of the Congo, Chad, Gabon and Sri Lanka all have laws prohibiting the
wearing of religious face coverings. These bans are called a “security
measure,” even though women’s role throughout history in political violence is
not linked to the clothing they wore.
Although
other countries have typically imposed the ban through legislative votes,
Switzerland has approached the question through a public referendum. It is bad
enough for politicians to bow to bigotry and introduce repressive laws on
women’s dress, but there is something uniquely sinister about the notion of
politicians whipping up popular outrage against an oppressed minority among the
voting public.
So,
what is the petitioners’ motive for wanting a burqa ban? The group behind the
proposal — the EgerkingerKomitee — includes members of the right-wing Swiss
People’s Party who instigated a ban on minarets in 2009, sparking the belief
that this is motivated by religious bias. Supporters of the ban on minarets
felt they were alien to Swiss traditions and values.
Switzerland
is becoming more diverse; 5 percent of the population is Muslim. A survey
conducted in the country in 2018 showed that mistrust of Islam was three times
more prevalent than negative views of Muslims. If niqab-wearing women are being
judged more negatively because of a perceived association to the extremist side
of Islam, this is a false stereotype that we have to break down.
If
the ban on burqas and niqabs comes into force, what message will this send to
the world about Switzerland? A beautiful country that relies heavily on tourism
needs to attract foreign visitors, not deter them — particularly given the dire
effects of the pandemic on the country’s tourism industry.
As
a recent article in the Conversation highlights, face-covering bans are
especially hypocritical in this moment because “we are all niqabis now.” If we
can become accustomed to communicating with each other while all parties are
wearing face masks, then surely we can adapt to communicating with one woman
wearing a niqab. And as Maria Iqbal, a niqab-wearing Muslim woman, wrote in
Flare, niqabs and burqas do not have to inhibit communication because “our eyes
play a big role in projecting happiness, and can even show more genuine joy
than smiles.”
There
are certain situations where it is necessary for a woman to remove her face
covering, such as situations involving security, a courtroom or an emergency
medical situation. But the legal normalization through laws banning Muslim
women’s clothing paves the way for them to be discriminated against or harassed
for following their faith. That is fundamentally wrong.
This
problem extends well beyond Switzerland and the countries that have banned face
coverings. As I describe in my forthcoming book, “My Hear is Pink Under This
Veil,” while running in a mayoral election in East London’s Tower Hamlets in
2015, a White man asked me what color my hair was under my veil. I said it was
pink. Throughout my journey from my childhood in Kent in the 1970s — where my
family was the only family of color on our street — to my life today in London
as a hijab-wearing Muslim politician, campaigner and writer, I have endured
discrimination and worked to overturn stereotypes.
Muslim
women do not need fashion tips and restrictions from lawmakers and the public.
They need the world to know that they have the right to choose and have an
equitable place in society.
This
year’s International Women’s Day theme is #ChoosetoChallenge. The challenge for
countries that impose bans on Muslim women is: How are these bans really
helping to forge a truly gender-equal world? I choose to challenge those who
undermine Muslim women and attempt to write off our contributions, and I choose
to challenge the structural inequalities that hold us back.
As
a Muslim woman, I challenge those who try to break us.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/08/switzerlands-referendum-burqas-is-an-insult-womens-rights-dignity/
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Unlike
men, Muslim women should take divorce for second marriage: Punjab and Haryana
High Court
Feb
09, 2021
New
Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that a Muslim man can marry
another woman without taking a divorce from the first wife, but a Muslim woman
has to take a divorce for her second marriage.
The
Muslim woman will have to get a divorce from her first husband under the Muslim
Marriage Act 1939.
Justice
AlkaSarin pronounced the judgment while hearing a petition that sought the
protection of a Muslim couple of Mewat district in Haryana.
The
couple told the High Court that they were both married in the past. The Muslim
woman alleged that her first marriage was against her will and that is why she
is now married to her lover.
The
High Court was told that the couple's family members were against their
marriage. The family members were also threatening to kill the couple and evict
them from the property.
During
the hearing, the couple's lawyer told the bench that the couple is Muslim and
according to the religion, they are allowed the second marriage.
On
this, the Bench stated that the couple's marriage is illegal as a Muslim man
can marry more than once without divorcing his first wife, but if a Muslim
woman has to marry someone, she will have to divorce her first husband under
the Muslim Marriage Act 1939.
The
news comes almost two years after the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on
Marriage) Act, 2019 was introduced. It prohibits divorce by pronouncing 'talaq'
thrice in one occasion by Muslim women's husbands. It makes instant triple
talaq a cognizable offence and may attract up to three years of imprisonment
and a fine. Under the act, an accused can be arrested without a warrant.
https://zeenews.india.com/india/unlike-men-muslim-women-should-take-divorce-for-second-marriage-punjab-and-haryana-high-court-2340549.html
--------
UN
Agencies Urge Somalia To Pass Law Prohibiting Female Genital Mutilation
Practice
06
February, 2021
Mogadishu
[Somalia], February 6 (ANI/Xinhua): Two UN agencies on Saturday called on the
Somali government to commit to ending female genital mutilation (FGM) by
passing a law that eliminates the practice.
The
UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN children's fund (UNICEF) called on the
government to revive efforts for passage of the FGM Bill which has been stuck
in the legislative process for several years.
"FGM
is a harmful practice that scars girls and women and endangers their health for
life depriving them of their rights and denying them the chance to reach their
full potential," UNFPA Representative for Somalia Anders Thomsen said in a
joint statement issued in Mogadishu to mark the International Day of Zero
Tolerance for FGM.
Thomsen
also urged the government to pass the Sexual Offences Bill to act expeditiously
to end the practice and protect the rights of girls and women.
According
to the latest Somali Health and Demographic Survey, the Horn of Africa nation
has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world.
The
survey says 99 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 have been
subjected to this extremely harmful and unacceptable practice.
According
to the UN agencies, there are various forms of FGM practiced and two out of
three Somali women have undergone the most extreme type of FGM called
infibulation.
The
UN agencies said providing a legal framework that bans FGM will empower
families and communities to stand firm and refuse to let their daughters be
cut, putting an end to this gross violation of human rights.
"We
must collectively renew our commitment to ending this harmful practice and work
with all stakeholders to change attitudes so that the next generation of girls
can live healthier lives," Jesper Moller, UNICEF Deputy Representative in
Somalia.
The
UN says there are many reasons that FGM is almost universally practiced in
Somalia including the fact that many religious and community leaders encourage
the practice, wrongly justifying it as a religious necessity.
Families
also view cutting as a way of protecting their daughter's chastity and that it
is a prerequisite for marriage, the UN agencies said. (ANI/Xinhua)
http://www.businessworld.in/article/UN-agencies-urge-Somalia-to-pass-law-prohibiting-female-genital-mutilation-practice-/06-02-2021-374552/
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Sexual
violence in Pakistan: How female police officers are helping victims
Mavra
Bari
08.02.2021
Violence
against women is rampant in Pakistan, with several rape cases over the past
year making national headlines and causing an uproar in the Muslim-majority
South Asian country.
But
activists say the recorded cases are only the tip of the iceberg, as most cases
of gender-based violence go unreported in the country. In many instances, women
do not come forward and report the abuse to authorities.
One
of the reasons behind this is a sense of fear. As much of Pakistan's police
force and judiciary is male-dominated, women are reluctant to interact with
them. There have been reports of harassment in police stations during
investigation.
Human
rights groups are urging the government to pass a new law to establish special
courts for rape trials, so that victims of sexual abuse and gender-based
violence feel more secure. They also demand that the number of female police
officers and female judges be increased to deal with such cases.
Women
make up only 1.8% of the country's police force. In the past few years, there
has been a modest increase, but gender balance in the police is still a distant
dream.
Encouraging
women to report
"We
don't have many women officers in police stations, but our senior officers go
through a rigorous training. At the same time, we need to empower young
policewomen, who, I think, are very capable," Muhammad Ahsan Younas, a
deputy inspector general (DIG) for the Rawalpindi city police, told DW.
Younas
has launched several projects that are led by policewomen. For instance, to
encourage women to report cases of harassment and violence, the police station
has established a separate unit to deal with complaints.
He
has also set up a helpline that is operated only by female police officers.
Women in Rawalpindi and surrounding areas can call the toll-free 111-276-797
number to report domestic abuse or harassment without having to go to the
police station. After the complaint is lodged through the helpline, a female
police officer makes an appointment with the complainant.
AmnaBaig,
a 29-year-old female police official and one of the main figures behind the
helpline, says it is a difficult task for women to report harassment.
"Most of the times it is not even an option for them because of the social
stigma. Women going to the police station is considered a taboo in Pakistan.
Our helpline ensures anonymity and safety," Baig told DW.
The
helpline was launched on December 8, and as per statistics provided by
Rawalpindi's women police station, scores of women called the helpline in
December, and police registered 25 formal complaints as a result of it.
According
to police, complaints about teasing in public spaces accounted for 52% of
calls, 12% were about sexual harassment and around 36% about domestic violence.
Baig
notes that while the helpline is encouraging more women to lodge a complaint,
formal police reports are still rare, as women often succumb to family and
social pressures to forgive the culprits, especially when they are family
members.
Model
women officers
Baig
is hopeful that more women will join the police force in the coming years.
"I come from a common Pakistani household. If a female family member has
an issue that involves police, a male member takes it up for her," she
said.
"Pakistani
women can easily go to a hospital or a school because there are many women
working there. I wanted to join the police force so that women can access
police services without fear," she said.
Baig
has over 80,000 followers on Twitter. She is tech-savvy and represents a change
in the Pakistani police force.
But
it was more difficult for women to join the police in the past. Shahida
Yasmeen, a station house officer (SHO), has been a police officer for the past
three decades.
"When
I joined the force, a female police officer was pretty much unheard-of. I am
happy to see that it is not the case anymore," Yasmeen told DW.
"We
were often harassed by our male colleagues, and we could do nothing about it.
Now, male police officers are more respectful, and gender-sensitized," she
added.
Yasmeen
is planning to start a career counseling service to encourage young women to
join the police force.
https://www.dw.com/en/sexual-violence-in-pakistan-how-female-police-officers-are-helping-victims/a-56500163
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Turkey’s
women need more inclusiveness and rights, not a women-only university
Alexandra
de Cramer
Feb
09, 2021
A
gender-segregated education system has long been one of the top goals of
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP. Until now, the
government of RecepTayyipErdogan has been working to separate men and women
attending co-ed institutions. But now, there are plans for a wholly women-only
university to be opened by 2023. Such a development will be to the detriment of
women’s rights in Turkey, already assailed from many directions.
Erdogan,
the president, became attached to the idea of a women-only university during
his visit to Japan in 2019 to attend that’s year’s G20 summit. In conjunction
with the trip, he was accorded an honorary doctorate at Mukogawa Women’s
University. In his acceptance speech, Erdogan said he was impressed with the
idea of a women-only institution. He later asked the embassy in Tokyo to study
Japan’s women-only universities, and in October last year, the government
announced that a women-only institution would be established under the auspices
of Turkey’s latest development plan.
Aylin
Nazliaka, the chair of the opposition Republican People’s Party’s Women’s
Branch, issued a statement calling such a plan another way of creating
“obedient women”. She further noted that the decision was made without
consultation with women’s organisations, political parties or students.
In
the 19th and early 20th century, women’s colleges began to be established in
the US, Britain and elsewhere (Japan and what would become South Korea,
included) to give women access to the higher education that had been denied
them. Today, only a few US colleges – Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, for
example – remain all-women institutions. In Britain, while all Oxford women’s
colleges now are co-ed, three (soon to be two) at Cambridge remain women-only.
In
the West and many parts elsewhere, the march toward gender equality (sadly, not
a straight-line progression) has meant that women can attend almost any college
previously reserved for men. The few that remain women-only see such an
environment as a means of empowering women toward excellence. EwhaWomans
University in Seoul, for example, is among the most prestigious universities in
South Korea.
In
Turkey, however, where women already long have had access to higher education,
the belated creation of a women-only institution is a massive step backwards,
and hard to reconcile with the need to advance women’s rights.
According
to the World Economic Forum’s latest Gender Gap Index, Turkey is down at 130
among 153 countries surveyed. While Japan is not far from Turkey, at 121 on the
list, the underperformance of women is something the government and society
desperately want to fix (although there often is resistance from some parties).
While women-only institutions elsewhere are predicated on the idea of expanding
opportunities for women, in Turkey, the plan simply is to keep them away from
men. The Turkish government seems obsessed with preventing women and men from
mixing, advocating almost a form of the society-wide modern harem.
In
2013, co-ed dorms in higher education began to be removed. The minister of
youth at the time called the decision a “humanitarian one, not an Islamic one.”
A couple of months later, an AKP parliamentarian said co-ed education was a
“big mistake” that the AKP intended to fix.
Five
years later, a new regulation removed the requirement that certain high schools
and vocational training institutes should be co-ed. A spokesman for the
president then made the inexplicable claim that this was meant to create a more
“inclusive” education system. The Science Academy – a non-governmental
organisation based in Istanbul – has said that since 2015 the Turkish Council
of Higher Education had stopped actively promoting gender equality in higher
education.
No
observer can escape the conclusion that women’s rights are being abbreviated,
and that the establishment of a women-only university will only further that
trend. Rather than a reflection of an aspiration for the advancement of women,
the idea of segregated women-only institutions can only be seen as an attempt
to downgrade the citizen status of women. It is an idea not fit for purpose in
the 21st century.
https://www.timesnownews.com/columns/article/turkey-s-women-need-more-inclusiveness-and-rights-not-a-women-only-university/717861
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Gulalai
Ismail, Pashtun activist in exile whose father is now held for ‘terrorism’ in
Pakistan
TARAN
DEOL
9
February, 2021
New
Delhi: Pakistani human rights activist Gulalai Ismail, currently seeking
political asylum in the US, has been at the centre of another political storm
after her father — Muhammad Ismail — was arrested on 2 February on charges of
terrorism and sedition. Muhammad’s bail plea was rejected and a Pakistani court
sent him to police custody on 3 February.
Several
international rights groups such as Amnesty International have called for his
release while the US State Department said it is monitoring allegations of
harassment against the Ismail family.
Gulalai
took to Twitter Monday, alleging “torture cell”-like conditions in which her
father has been kept. “I’ve been informed that my father has been kept in very
miserable conditions in the quarantine of Peshawar Central Jail. He has been
quarantined in a cell with 60 other inmates. He is forced to sleep on the bare
floor despite that he still not yet completely recovered from Corona,” she
said, adding how he is not being given proper food or access to the jail’s
cafeteria.
She
had earlier said her home in SwabiMarghuz was raided by the Peshawar police’s
counter terrorism department who planted “fabricated papers/receipts” there.
Who
is Gulalai Ismail?
Gulalai
and her family have been the target of the authorities in Pakistan since 2019
for her work as a women’s rights activist and her involvement with the Pashtun
cause.
A
vocal advocate for human rights since the age of 16, Gulalai founded an NGO —
Aware Girls — when she was a teenager. The NGO aimed to “empower young women,
advocate for equal rights of young women, and to strengthen their capacity
enabling them to act as agents of women empowerment and Social Change”.
She
is also the leading member of rights group Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) that
demands accountability from Pakistan’s military for alleged “grave human rights
violations against Pashtuns in the country’s northwest”. The movement believes
Pashtuns have been the victims of both Taliban and Pakistani military for two
decades. The PTM also demands a “truth and reconciliation commission to address
claims of extrajudicial killings and missing persons”.
Born
in Swabi and raised in Peshawar, Gulalai, daughter of an Urdu professor, earned
a Master’s degree in biotechnology from Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University in
2012. She later shifted focus to human rights, gender-based violence and
countering extremism. Her work has brought her audiences with powerful woman
leaders — the likes of former US first lady Michelle Obama and Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth II in 2015.
Booked
for ‘anti-state activities’
Gulalai
made headlines in January 2019 when she took to Twitter and Facebook, alleging
“that government soldiers had raped or sexually abused many Pashtun women”.
Soon after, on 21 May, a police complaint was registered against her for
attempting “to divide people on ethnic lines and incite them to commit
treason”.
While
Pakistani officials maintain they have no issues with her work on women’s
rights advocacy, Gulalai currently faces six cases against her for anti-state
activities.
Gulalai
was banned from leaving the country, but she managed to escape to the US after
being on the run.
Prior
to that, the Ismail family alleges, several raids were carried out, numerous
police officers were deployed and many family members and friends were abducted
and tortured to extract information about Gulalai’s whereabouts, but to no
avail.
The
34-year-old ethnic Pashtun shifted from one house to another, stayed away from
any phone or computer and covered her face for the limited time she would spend
outdoors. She first flew out of Pakistan to Sri Lanka with the help of some
friends and then to the US. “Security officials later admitted they were
frustrated that she had managed to slip out of the country,” The New York Times
reported.
Gulalai
currently lives in New York and has applied for political asylum.
‘They
want to harass my family’
Political
scientists suggest that the recent protests in Pakistan are a sign of rising
anger and indicate that many acknowledge the military as the real power behind
the Imran Khan government and a “cause for the political and economic woes
afflicting the country”. Moreover, the country continues to be an unsafe place
for women where “girls are murdered here by their own fathers to protect the
family’s sense of honour, countless women are denied education, and, in many
areas, beating a woman is not considered a crime”.
“What
she (Gulalai) has been saying, however harsh, falls under freedom of
expression,” RasulBakhshRais, a professor of political science at Lahore
University of Management Sciences, has been quoted as saying. “But the
institution she has talked about doesn’t want to be talked about.”
The
institution that Rais is referring to is Pakistan’s military — a body that has
long faced criticism by Opposition leaders for its “chokehold” on politics.
Gulalai
has won many awards — Chirac Prize (2016), the Commonwealth Youth Award (2015)
and the prestigious Anna Politkovskaya Award (2017).
“They
just want to harass my family and to break their nerves,” Gulalai has said. “To
break their morale to set a precedent, that if any… father lets his daughter
speak her mind and use her freedom of expression, then the parents will also
not meet a good fate.”
https://theprint.in/world/gulalai-ismail-pashtun-activist-in-exile-whose-father-is-now-held-for-terrorism-in-pakistan/601555/
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Local
Assembly In Pakistan Bans Women From Visiting Child Wellness Centers
February
06, 2021
A
local assembly in Pakistan’s remote Bajaur tribal district has banned women
from visiting child-welfare centers that provide regular cash allowances for
mothers from impoverished backgrounds.
The
assembly, or jirga, in Bajaur’sMamoond area said that women’s visits to the
offices of the Child Wellness Grants violate local cultural norms. The jirga
said that as of February 6 any household that allows a female member of the
family to visit the child-welfare centers will face a fine.
The
jirga also prohibited women from taking part in radio call-in shows, claiming
that “vulgar language” is often used during phone-in programs aired by local FM
radio stations.
Many
families in the religiously conservative area don’t allow women to work outside
home or even leave their homes without a male companion.
The
Bajaur district government condemned the jirga’s announcement.
“Banning
women from visiting the centers or calling radio stations is a violation of
basic human rights,” BajuarFayaz, the district’s deputy commissioner said on
February 6.
Fayaz
said he has arranged a meeting with the jirga members to resolve the issue.
Child
Wellness Grants, which are funded by the World Bank, are aimed at improving the
health and nutrition of the poorest children in Pakistan by financially
supporting their mothers.
https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/local-assembly-in-pakistan-bans-women-from-visiting-child-wellness-centers/31089511.html
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Turkish
women more active in politics since 1935
February
09 2021
Noted
as among the first nations to give women voting rights in the 1930s, Turkey
marks the anniversary of the first day when women lawmakers entered the Turkish
Parliament.
A
year after women were given the right to vote and stand for office, 17 women
were elected for the first time to the Turkish Parliament following the
elections held on Feb. 8, 1935.
With
17 women lawmakers in the parliament, the country had quite a remarkable start
in terms of welcoming women into politics.
The
ground-breaking move also meant that Turkey leapfrogged many nations at the
time, which had yet to grant voting rights to women. Those nations included
France and Switzerland at the time.
A
by-election in 1936 saw their number increase to 18 and they constituted 4.6
percent of the Turkish Parliament, the second biggest proportion of female
lawmakers in the world.
Out
of the 17 female lawmakers, five of them were school principals, six municipal
councilors, two farmers, three teachers, one mukhtar (local head) and one
doctor.
Among
them were graduates of London and Sorbonne Universities as well as those who
graduated from Turkish higher education institutions known as Darülfünun. While
11 of the women lawmakers had completed their higher education, 13 of them had
command of at least one foreign language.
While
the rate of female representation in the parliament was expected to increase
over the years, the fact that the Second World War shook daily and political
life deeply, these expectations were dashed to the ground. The 1940s and 1950s
were not so bright years for women politicians.
In
the 1954 elections, the number of women parliamentarians saw its lowest point
with only two lawmakers. But in the 1960s, the situation gained new momentum,
and the number of women in the parliament started to rise again.
Appointed
independently from outside the parliament as the minister of Health and Social
Security, TürkanAkyol became the country’s first female minister in 1971.
In
1993, a woman prime minister was elected for the first and the only time in the
country’s history. TansuÇiller, a professor of economics, was elected as the
first woman prime minister of Turkey who served until 1996.
In
2007, the percentage of women represented in the parliament was 9.1 percent,
and this number increased to 14.7 percent, with 81 lawmakers out of 550 elected
as women in the 2015 elections.
Finally,
the rate reached 17.1 percent in the 2018 elections, making the representation
of female lawmakers in parliament reach its highest level in history.
Today,
women politicians have become ever more active and ever more effective, with
103 lawmakers in the parliament since Feb. 8, 1935.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-women-more-active-in-politics-since-1935-162260
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MoufidaTlatli,
first Arab woman to direct a feature film, dies aged 73
9
Feb 2021
MoufidaTlatli,
the pioneering Tunisian film-maker hailed as the first Arab woman to direct a
feature film, has died aged 73. News media said that she died on Sunday, with
the news confirmed by the Tunisian ministry of culture.
Tlatli
remains best known for her breakthrough 1994 feature The Silences of the
Palace, a lyrical study of a woman’s return to an abandoned royal residence,
which tackled the themes of exploitation and trauma as experienced across
generations of Arab women. It won a string of international awards, including
the Sutherland trophy at the London film festival for the most “original and
imaginative” film of the year, and was named as one of Africa’s 10 best films
by critic and director Mark Cousins. The film was inspired by her mother’s
difficult life; in 2001, Tlatli told the Guardian she “was riven with guilt …
It was so insupportable, exhausting, suffocating.”
By
becoming a director, Tlatli had broken the mould: “Traditionally in the Arab
film world, a girl works in continuity or is an editor. I had never thought of
making films.” In her next film, released in 2000, Tlatli dealt with not
dissimilar material about relations between the sexes. The Season of Men is
about a community on the Tunisian island of Djerba whose males spend most of
the year away working, and return only for a month. The Guardian’s Peter
Bradshaw called it “a beautifully lucid, compassionate film [and] a powerful
and deeply engaging family drama”. Like Silences of the Palace, The Season of
Men found much favour on the international film circuit, winning a number of
awards.
Tlatli
was born in 1947 in SidiBou Said and studied film editing in Paris, before
returning to Tunisia in 1972 to work as an editor. She completed a third
feature, Nadia etSarra, in 2004, starring Palestinian actor-director
HiamAbbass.
In
2011, Tlatli was appointed minister for culture in the transitional government
after the Tunisian revolution.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/feb/09/moufida-tlatli-tunisia-first-arab-woman-to-direct-feature-film-dies
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