Afghan Women and Girls Flock Online to Evade Taliban Curbs on Female Education
New Age
Islam News Bureau
2nd January 2024
·
Afghan Women and Girls Flock
Online to Evade Taliban Curbs on Female Education
·
Muslim Schoolgirl Scared to
Wear Hijab After Alleged Assault Outside London Greenford High School
·
National Commission for Women
Received 28,811 Complaints Of Crime Against Women In 2023
·
‘Being Called a Homo Made Me
Feel Angry’: Transgender Activist Recounts Her Childhood in Her Memoir
·
Transgender Teacher in
IndiaRemoved from Services Due to Sexual Orientation Moves SC
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-gilrs-online-taliban-female/d/131441
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Afghan Women and Girls Flock Online to
Evade Taliban Curbs on Female Education
Since
regaining power in 2021, the Taliban have systematically restricted women’s
right to study, work, travel and even leave the house © Omer Abrar/AFP/Getty
Images
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New Delhi, 2 January 2024
Tens of thousands of Afghan women and
girls have been able to join online study programmes despite the Taliban
government’s ban on female education, according to internet-based course
providers.
The providers say they have seen strong
demand from Afghanistan for courses on subjects including English language,
science and business since the Taliban extended their ban on female attendance
at schools to include higher education in December 2022.
The Taliban say the restrictions are
justified by their conservative interpretation of Islamic law. Unicef, the UN
children’s fund, estimates the ban has affected more than 1mn girls.
But online learning has surged as a way
to get around the curbs, despite the dangers of discovery and difficulties with
internet connectivity and power supplies.
Access to the internet remains low and
uneven across Afghanistan. A Gallup survey in 2022 found 25 per cent of men
reported having access compared with 6 per cent of women. In rural areas, just
2 per cent of women said they had internet access.
UK-based online learning platform
FutureLearn said it had enrolled over 33,000 Afghan students, the vast majority
of them female, since it offered free access to its premium digital learning
platform a year ago for the duration of the Taliban female education ban.
FutureLearn, which was launched by the
Open University in the UK in 2012 and has been owned by Global University
Systems since December 2022, offers over 1,200 courses, with English language
accounting for four of the five most popular classes among Afghan students.
University of the People, a
US-accredited non-profit higher education institution, said that more than
21,000 Afghan women had applied in the past year for its degree courses, with
over 3,100 currently enrolled to study subjects including business, computer
science, health and education.
UoPeople said power cuts and erratic
digital connections were major issues for Afghan women and that it provided
asynchronous sessions and online textbooks to allow students to catch up as
well as scholarships to cover their costs.
Since the Taliban regained power in 2021
after a 20-year insurgency, they have set about creating one of the world’s
most repressive regimes for women.
Despite initially saying there would be
no blanket ban on girls’ education, the country’s rulers have systematically
imposed tight restrictions on women’s right to study, work and travel.
Human rights group Amnesty International
has documented how women and girls found violating Taliban restrictions on
gender freedoms have been punished with arbitrary arrest, detention and even
corporal punishment. The Taliban have detained campaigners for girls’
education, including activist Matiullah Wesa, who was released in October after
seven months in prison.
“To protect their safety, UoPeople asks
our Afghan female students to study behind closed doors so they are not
detected by the Taliban,” said Daniel Kalmanson, the online university’s
vice-president for public affairs. “In addition, we allow them to use a fake
identity in their classes.”
Kalmanson added that while women were
the focus of the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s involvement in education,
the curbs were “also impacting Afghan boys since there are not enough male
teachers left to educate all of the male children”.
The Taliban, who banned girls’ education
when they first ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, have given various reasons for
their current restrictions, including concerns about the curriculum and
uniforms.
However, members of the group say the
decision to impose sweeping curbs on women’s rights represents the triumph of
its most hardline faction, led by elusive supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The ban on girls’ education has helped
turned the Taliban into international pariahs and has been condemned by Islamic
scholars around the world.
No government has recognised their
regime and many international donors have cut ties with the country, depriving
it of vital humanitarian aid.
Despite the ban, some community and
underground schools have continued to educate women in Afghanistan.
Maaz Arabi of the UK-based Sabar Afghan
Online School said the YouTube channel of video classes it launched in February
2022 had been viewed 200,000 times, with the most popular courses being in
science and English. “We continuously receive feedback messages from parents
and students [on] how our YouTube channel is helping them,” he said.
Source: ft.com
https://www.ft.com/content/3ac4860f-02dc-4015-88af-e2be74c9d1b9
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Muslim Schoolgirl Scared to Wear Hijab
After Alleged Assault Outside London Greenford High School
UMESH
MARPALLY/ The students say they are not allowed to attend class
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1st January 2024
“An adult can approach a minor, hurt
them physically, hurt them emotionally and then get away with it.”
EXCLUSIVE: The mother of a Muslim
schoolgirl who allegedly had her hijab ripped off by a parent outside Greenford
High School in November tells 5Pillars how her daughter remains traumatised and
“scared to wear her hijab” following the fight which went viral.
The incident, which involved two
students and an adult, was allegedly sparked after Summaya Khan’s daughter came
to school with a Palestine flag painted on her hand.
Met Police confirmed no arrests have
been made, it was not reported as a hate crime but investigations continue.
Source: 5pillarsuk.com
https://5pillarsuk.com/2024/01/01/muslim-schoolgirl-scared-to-wear-hijab-after-alleged-assault
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National Commission for Women Received
28,811 Complaints Of Crime Against Women In 2023
January 01, 2024
New Delhi: The National Commission for
Women (NCW) registered 28,811 complaints of crime against women last year and
about 55 per cent were from Uttar Pradesh.
The highest number of complaints were
received in the right to dignity category that involves harassment other than
domestic violence and it stood at 8,540, according to The National Commission
for Women data. This was followed by 6,274 complaints of domestic violence.
Dowry harassment complaints stood at
4,797, molestation complaints at 2,349, police indifference against women
complaints at 1,618, and rape and attempt to rape complaints at 1,537, the data
showed.
There were 805 complaints of sexual
harassment, 605 of cyber crime, 472 of stalking and 409 of honour crimes, it
stated.
Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest
number of complaints at 16,109 followed by Delhi 2,411, Maharashtra at 1,343,
according to the data.
Bihar recorded 1,312 complaints, Madhya
Pradesh 1,165, Haryana 1,115, Rajasthan 1,011, Tamil Nadu 608, West Bengal 569
and Karnataka 501.
The number of complaints have seen a
drop since 2022 when 30,864 complaints were received, the highest since 2014.
Source: ndtv.com
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/the-national-commission-for-women-womens-panel-received-28-811-complaints-of-crime-against-women-in-2023-4782149
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‘Being called a homo made me feel
angry’: Transgender activist recounts her childhood in her memoir
Santa Khurai
January 02, 2024
My memory goes back to the summer of
1989. It was the beginning of May; I must have been about 16 years old at the
time.
The high school examinations had finally
come to an end. Suddenly I had plenty of leisure time – no books, no studies,
no school. I waited lackadaisically for the results, I was not too concerned
about what the outcome would be. On one of those days, I decided to pay a visit
to Ebok, my maternal grandmother. The occasion was the yearly chaklonkatpa, the
ritual meal offered to the deity of the clan.
As far as I can remember now, it was my
first visit to Ebok’s house. I still have a vivid memory of the house – it was
situated at the entrance of the Kongpal neighbourhood. The first thing one saw
was the imposing sangoi, an outhouse with a roof of aluminium sheets, that
stood majestically in the spacious courtyard. The courtyard was surrounded on
three sides by living quarters that also had aluminium roofs. The eastern side
of the house was flanked by a thick cordon of giant reeds and Indian cedars, and
to the south of the sangoi, there grew a big chorphon, a Ceylon olive tree. A
small lane ran outside the compound wall beyond which lay the Kongba river. As
I recollect it, the basin of the Kongba river was very narrow. I did not see
children playing along its basin, which struck me as unusual; river basins were
usually the playground for children those days. Only a few babul and ficus
trees stood timid and deserted on the bare banks of the river.
All the men present at the chaklonkatpa
ceremony wore pheijoms, a dhoti-like piece of clothing. Amidst this uniformity,
two men stood out. While all the menfolk wore the pheijom in the traditional
manner, these two had worn it in the lungi style, that is, the hem of the
pheijom almost reached their ankles. They had also covered their heads with
white enaphis, the shawl worn by Meitei women on religious occasions, leaving
only their faces bare. They appeared quite extraordinary to me, and I was
filled with curiousity about them.
In the course of the day, I came to know
their names – Romen and Manimohon. After everyone else had gone inside, they
continued to linger at the gate of the house. It was evident to me that they
were waiting for someone important to appear. Both men were deep in
conversation, oblivious to their surroundings. After a while, a man arrived on
a bicycle. He wore a pair of dhoti pants and had a sling bag strung across one
shoulder. The two men must have been waiting for this newcomer.
They greeted him with affectionate
banter and then accompanied him in the direction of the house. The newcomer had
a slim, oval face, a thin layer of powder on his cheeks and a light hue of
crimson on his lips. Later, I got to know that the newcomer’s name was Denao. A
modest patch of skin glimpsed through the open collar of his shirt revealed a
fair complexion. After parking the bicycle at the corner of the sangoi, Denao
and his friends disappeared into a room.
The ritual meal was ready, all the
guests at the ceremony had taken their seats. But the trio who had aroused my
curiosity was not to be seen in that august crowd. They were huddled together
in a room, engaged in some private conversation. A middle-aged woman stood at
the door of the room and called out in a peevish tone, “You, homos, come out
now. Everyone is ready for the meal. What mischief are you hatching in the
room?” (In those days, in Manipuri society, “homo” was the term used for all
effeminate men and boys – anyone whose mannerisms were like a woman’s, or even
men who were controlled by their wives.)
A voice from inside the room called out,
“Be patient, we are coming.”
The woman replied, “You have all sorts
of replies. Does anybody understand you? It is useless talking with you.”
Another from the group replied, “Memcha,
you are pure annoyance. Aren’t you the one pointlessly replying? We said that
we were coming.”
When they finally came out of the room,
Denao had changed into a pheijom, which he wore in the same manner as his two
friends. It was evident that even when they wore pheijoms, they adapted that
article of male clothing to suit their peculiar style. They sat in a row along
the wall of the sangoi, and I sat down in the row in front. While they ate,
they continued to talk in muted voices. Every now and again, they would glance
at the immediate surroundings, make a mysterious gesture followed by a subtle nudge
at each other and covert chuckles. It appeared as though they had some secret
knowledge of their milieu. To me, their gestures suggested a spirit of mirth
and gaiety.
An elderly woman sitting behind them
chastised them, “Why are you giggling?”
One among the trio impudently replied,
“Well, you are old and look like a tattered wicker basket. You surely would not
understand why I laughed!” Those who heard the rejoinder broke into loud
laughter. The elderly woman had no choice but to laugh. “Nobody can compete
against a homo’s rebuttals,” she said.
Whatever I heard and saw that day – the
group of three men uniquely dressed and addressed as “homo”, the candid
exchange of light yet bold banter between them and elder women – was very new
to me. It was true that some people did call me “homo” at school, but the word
was never mentioned in my domestic environment. Hearing it used so casually by
everyone at the chaklonkatpa venue filled me with both fear and indescribable
nervousness.
“Homo” was a derogatory term, associated
with all kinds of obnoxious characters, like men whose behaviour, physical
features and character was deviant from the conventional idea of manliness or
masculinity. Whenever anyone called me by that term, it made me feel angry and
ashamed.
Source: scroll.in
https://scroll.in/article/1060995/being-called-a-homo-made-me-feel-angry-transgender-activist-recounts-her-childhood-in-her-memoir
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Transgender teacher in India removed
from services due to sexual orientation moves SC
02 January, 2024
New Delhi, Jan 2 (PTI) The Supreme Court
on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea of a transgender person whose services as
teacher were terminated by two private schools of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh
after her sexual orientation became known to employers.
“We will see what we can do,” said a
bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwla and
Manoj Misra while issuing notices to the Centre, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh
governments on the plea of the transgender woman.
Besides the government, the top court
also sought responses from head of the school in Jamnagar in Gujarat and the
chairperson of another private school based at Khiri in Uttar Pradesh.
“The grievance of the petitioner is that
her services were terminated in schools of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat after her
gender identity was revealed. The petitioner says that she cannot pursue her
remedies in two different high courts,” the bench said and fixed the plea for
hearing after four weeks.
The counsel appearing for the
transgender person said she was given a letter of appointment in an Uttar
Pradesh school and also taught for six days before being removed.
In Gujarat school, she was given the
letter of appointment and later denied the opportunity to join after her sexual
identity was known, the lawyer said.
The petitioner seeks enforcement of her
fundamental rights. PTI SJK SJK DV DV
Source: theprint.in
https://theprint.in/india/transgender-teacher-removed-from-services-due-to-sexual-orientation-moves-sc/1907829/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-gilrs-online-taliban-female/d/131441