"I'm An Afghan Girl, I Want To Become A Doctor, Don't Oppress Us And Take Away My Dreams": Placard During Australia-Afghanistan Cricket Match
New Age Islam News Bureau
02 March 2025
• "I'm An Afghan Girl, I Want To Become A Doctor, Don't Oppress Us And Take Away My Dreams": Placard During Australia-Afghanistan Cricket Match
• Survey: 75.9% Of Bangladeshi Women Have Experienced Violence In Their Lifetime
• Original Statue Of Our Lady Of Fátima Headed To Rome For Jubilee Of Marian Spirituality
• Powerful New Film, One Must Wash Eyes, Inspired By Woman, Life, Freedom Movement
• An Antithesis Of Human Trafficking: How A Pakistani Youtuber And Bangladeshi ‘DesheFera’ Group Reunite Families Across Borders
• Kasaragod Woman Receives 'Triple Talaq' From Husband In UAE Via Whatsapp; Family Lodges Complaint
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-girl-doctor-cricket-match/d/134761
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"I'm An Afghan Girl, I Want To Become A Doctor, Don't Oppress Us And Take Away My Dreams": Placard During Australia-Afghanistan Cricket Match
Gomesh S
02 Mar 202
Afghanistan cricketers at the Junction Oval, Melbourne during the exhibition match against Cricket Without Borders XIINSTAGRAM
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CHENNAI: As AzmatullahOmarzai produced late fireworks to help Afghanistan men post 273 runs against Australia in the ICC Champions Trophy match on Friday afternoon in Lahore, among the thousands of fans in the stands cheering for them was an Afghan girl. Holding a placard above her head, the young girl was sending a message to not just her country, but the cricketing world. The English translation of the pashto message read along the lines of: "I'm an Afghan girl, I want to become a doctor. Please don't oppress us and take away my dreams."
That young girl in the stands of the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore on Saturday is not alone. About 10,500 kilometres away, in Melbourne and Canberra, Australia, several women cricketers from Afghanistan were staying up in the night to watch the men's team do what they have been stripped of and fighting for — play cricket for their country — since the Taliban took over in 2021.
In the time since Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, women have been banned from playing sports, secondary education for girls is suspended beyond sixth grade, they are prohibited from entering public baths, public parks, gyms, sports clubs and amusement parks, banned from university education and as late as December 2024, Taliban announced a new decree according to which new buildings should not have windows through which it is possible to see “the courtyard, kitchen, neighbour’s well and other places usually used by women”.
“Seeing women working in kitchens, in courtyards or collecting water from wells can lead to obscene acts,” according to the decree posted by government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on social media platform X.
According to a United Nations report, 80 per cent of school-aged girls and young women, accounting for about 2.5 million people, were out of school as of 2023. The UN has termed the situation of women in the country as gender apartheid with a real threat to the lives of women in Afghanistan on a day-to-day basis.
Growing up in the oasis city of Herat in the western part of Afghanistan, Firooza Amiri did not like cricket. Football was the popular sport in her city. It was Amiri's sister who liked cricket and made sure it was on the television all the time. At some point, Amiri gave in, wanting to know what the fuss was all about. The moment she picked up the bat in hand, she was in love. It did not take long for her to go from there to a national selection camp in Kabul which led to the then Afghanistan Cricket Board handing her a contract among other 23 cricketers in 2020.
From that day, they had one dream. Donning the blue Afghanistan jersey and playing cricket at the global stage. It was a dream they had been living for. But in August 2021, it all came down crashing. With the Taliban inching towards capturing Herat, Amiri was at home with her four siblings and parents not knowing what to do. Sitting with her family in her grandmother’s home, having tea, when her older aunt came and announced the Taliban take over, Amiri’s heart sank.
“I went into shock,” Amiri recalls in a conversation with this daily. “I was completely in shock for a couple of days. Taliban, they are a terrorist group and how hard is living in a situation where they are in the regime. So, I was worried so much about how am I going to still survive here? Am I going to go somewhere?,” her thoughts lingered.
Nobody is crazy enough to be a national player and leave everything behind. There was a must that we leave Afghanistan and there was no choice. There was a political thing going on in Afghanistan that we never know what's going to happen for players and there's no organisation behind us.
Amiri wasn’t the only one. Every Afghan woman, including cricketers and footballers, were going through a similar situation. From Amiri to NahidaSapan to Benafsha Hashimi to every sportswoman, they are feared for their life. They know what awaited them under the Taliban regime. Their scorecards were burnt, medals were thrown away, bats were destroyed in an attempt to ensure their and their families’ safety.
“We burnt all our cricket stuff. I got my jersey, the first one that I got with the national camp. I was wearing it under my dresses because the Taliban cannot see it. But everything else, my medals, my certificates and everything, I burnt. They're all gone. Obviously, at that time, I was only thinking about my family. Because as I said, my family was so supportive of me. The only thing that I was worried about was I don't want anything to happen to them because of me. I was just thinking about safety and just leaving Afghanistan,” Amiri recalls.
That is when word spread about a chance to leave the country and seek refuge in Australia. Hasimi had gotten into touch with former Australian cricketer Mel Jones through a senior Indian journalist in Sharda Ugra to see if there was even a slightest chance of getting out of Afghanistan. Jones got in touch with Emma Staples, lecturer at Victoria University now and was Consultant to the Office for Women in Sport and Recreation for Victoria state government in 2021, and Dr Catherine Ordway, an Assistant Professor in Sport Management at the University of Canberra, and they got the ball rolling.
Source: Www.Newindianexpress.Com
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Survey: 75.9% of Bangladeshi women have experienced violence in their lifetime
01 Mar 2025
Photo: VectorStock
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According to a recent survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 75.9% of women in the country have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime.
The rate is 76% in rural areas and 75.6% in urban areas. In terms of regional statistics, Barisal has the highest rate of female violence at 81.5%, while Sylhet has the lowest at 72.1%.
The survey report, titled "Violence Against Women Survey-2024," was jointly released by the BBS and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday.
This is the third survey conducted since 2011 and 2015, providing a contemporary picture of the nature, extent, and impact of violence against women in Bangladesh.
The second-highest rate is in Chittagong, with 34.1%, followed by Khulna (29.9%), Dhaka (27.8%), Rajshahi (27.2%), Mymensingh (23%), Rangpur (26.6%), and Sylhet (28.2%).
In the past 12 months, 9.4% of women nationwide have experienced sexual violence. Barisal has the highest rate at 13.2%, followed by Chittagong at 11.2%.
In Dhaka, 8.7% of women have faced sexual violence, 9.1% in Khulna, 7.8% in Rajshahi, 7.6% in Mymensingh, 9.1% in Rangpur, and 10.7% in Sylhet.
Source: Www.Dhakatribune.Com
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/375121/survey-75.9%25-of-bangladeshi-women-have
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Original Statue Of Our Lady Of Fátima Headed To Rome For Jubilee Of Marian Spirituality
By AlmudenaMartínez-Bordiú
March 2, 2025
The original statue of Our Lady of Fátima during a previous jubilee year visit to the Vatican. | Credit: Dicastery for Evangelization
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On the occasion of the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, scheduled for Oct. 11–12, the original statue of Our Lady of Fátima will be taken to Rome.
The famous image of Our Lady, known to the faithful throughout the world and a symbol of “hope that does not disappoint,” will be present among the pilgrims who participate in the Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, Oct. 12, at 10:30 a.m. local time to “further enrich this moment of prayer and reflection.”
This will be the fourth time the statue has left the shrine at Fátima to be taken to Rome, as it only happens at the express request of the pope. The first time was in 1984, on the occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of the Redemption, when on March 25 Pope John Paul II consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The second was during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and the third was in October 2013 on the occasion of the Year of Faith with Pope Francis.
The Dicastery for Evangelization said in a statement that access to St. Peter’s Square for the Eucharistic celebration will be free and no ticket will be required. Registration to participate in the jubilee event is already open on the jubilee website and will end on Aug. 10.
“The presence of the beloved original statue of Our Lady of Fátima will allow everyone to experience the closeness of the Virgin Mary,” said Archbishop RinoFisichella, the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.
“It is one of the most significant Marian images for Christians throughout the world, who, as the Holy Father points out in the bull of indiction of the jubilee Spes Non Confundit, venerate her as ‘the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children.’ At Fátima, Our Lady told the three little shepherds the same thing that she continues to assure each of us: ‘I will never leave you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the path that will lead you to God,’” the prelate said.
“This statue leaves the shrine at Cova da Iria in a totally exceptional manner and only at the request of the popes,” said Father Carlos Cabecinhas, the rector of Fátima shrine.
“In this time of the jubilee, Our Lady of Fátima is the woman of Easter joy, even in the painful times that the world is experiencing. Once again, the ‘lady dressed in white’ will be a pilgrim of hope and, in Rome, she will be with the ‘bishop dressed in white,’ as the little shepherds of Fátima affectionately called the Holy Father,” he said.
The sculpture, a work of the Portuguese artist José Ferreira Thedim, was made in 1920 and is normally located in the Chapel of the Apparitions of the Fátima Shrine.
There, between May and October 1917, the Virgin appeared six times to the shepherd children Lucia dos Santos, 10, Jacinta Marto, 7, and Francisco Marto, 9.
The statue is 41 inches tall and was carved from Brazilian cedar following the descriptions given by the three shepherd children. It was solemnly crowned on May 13, 1946, and the bullet that wounded St. John Paul II in the 1981 assassination attempt on his life in St. Peter’s Square was later embedded in the crown.
Source: Www.Eurasiareview..com
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Powerful New Film, One Must Wash Eyes, Inspired By Woman, Life, Freedom Movement
Hamid Jafari
02-03-2025
Inspired by the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, a new film by a North Shore-based filmmaker tells the powerful story of an Iranian international student who faces severe consequences after being photographed at a protest in Vancouver.
SepidehYadegar’s feature film, One Must Wash Eyes, will open the 20th annual Gender Equity in Media Society Vancouver (GEMFest) on March 5 at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver, running March 5–9, 2025.
Yadegar, an Iranian-Canadian writer, director, and producer who lives in North Vancouver, began developing the film in 2020. Initially set in 2012, she later updated the script to reflect the ongoing struggles of Iranian women following the 2022-23 uprising sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
During the Women, Life, Freedom movement in Iran (2022-23), there were 22,000 arrests, and at least 537 people were killed in the regime’s crackdown. The movement began following the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested in Tehran by the morality police on Sept. 16, 2022.
The film follows Sahar, played by PegahGhafoori, an Iranian international student whose life takes a dramatic turn when she is photographed at a Woman, Life, Freedom rally in Canada. As Iranian authorities crack down on those linked to the movement, Sahar finds herself caught in a harrowing situation that mirrors the real-life experiences of many in the Iranian diaspora.
“Vancouver has such a large Iranian community and a huge international student population. It was the perfect location for this story,” she said. The film also explores themes of exile, immigration, and the emotional toll of witnessing oppression from afar.
Working with a budget of less than $150,000, Yadegar and her team had to be resourceful in securing locations and production support.
“Finding locations was one of the biggest challenges,” she said. “We didn’t have a big budget, but we were lucky to find great places that fit the film’s vision.”
Yadegar’s work goes beyond storytelling, as she hopes the film will help refine the meaning of being an immigrant or refugee for non-Iranian audiences.
“I wanted the film to be like a friend telling people what’s really happening in Iran and how it affects the Iranian diaspora,” she explained.
GEMFest, which celebrates women and gender-diverse filmmakers, will host a special Q&A session with Yadegar and her team following the screening, moderated by fellow Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Ghazal Elhaei.
As Yadegar continues to develop new projects that explore themes of identity, activism, and belonging, she invites audiences to see One Must Wash Eyes and experience the film’s message firsthand. The screening will take place on March 5 at 6 p.m. at VIFF Centre in Vancouver.
The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver will also screen the movie on March 20, the day Iranian-Canadians celebrate Persian New Year (Nowruz). Showtime is 6:30 p.m.
Source: Www.Nsnews.Com
https://www.nsnews.com/local-news/powerful-new-film-inspired-by-woman-life-freedom-movement-10303517
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An antithesis of human trafficking: How a Pakistani YouTuber and Bangladeshi ‘DesheFera’ group reunite families across borders
01 March, 2025
A Bangladeshi volunteer group and a Pakistani YouTuber are working together to help trafficked and displaced Bangladeshis reconnect with their families, often after decades of separation. Through their combined efforts, these long-lost family members are rediscovering each other with the help of technology and social media
On 15 January, Khadija Begum, an elderly woman in Karachi virtually met her biological daughter Minu and her grandson Osman (not his real name) in Bangladesh.
As soon as the call connected, Minu cried out, "Ammu! Ammu!" while Khadija responded, "Ma! Ma!" a heartfelt exchange after nearly 40 years apart.
Apart from Khadija and her family in Bangladesh, others also attended the Google Meet video call. One was Monzur Ahmed, the key contact person in Bangladesh responsible for this family reunion. He moderated the meeting.
Among the attendees was the man who had come across a Facebook post on the DesheFera page—where Monzur serves as the chief coordinator and immediately recognised Khadija as his former neighbour from his childhood village.
During the call, he shared his memories of Khadija, recalling how she had gone missing as a young woman and was never seen again. At the time, Minu was just a toddler.
Amid all the back and forth, Monzur asks if the family in Bangladesh recognises Khadija. Osman, a tailor by profession, gently asks, "Are you okay there?" Then, with a mix of emotion and disbelief, he adds, "I am your grandson."
As the men speak and Minu lingers in the background, Khadija seems lost in the moment. She doesn't dwell on how this call came to be, whether she can visit Bangladesh, or even where her next meal will come from. None of it matters; she is simply overwhelmed with joy at seeing Minu again.
On the call, on Pakistan's side, Khadija, who is in her 60s now, cannot work a smartphone. She was with a man in an open yard who helped her. Monzur cut the language barrier by speaking both Bangla and Urdu.
Khadija's story is one of nearly 80 Bangladeshi families reunited through the collaboration between the DesheFera group (a 14-member team including Monzur) and Pakistani YouTuber and activist Waliullah Maroof to unite families.
The details of how they wound up in Pakistan from Bangladesh decades ago remain unclear—except for the common denominator: they were trafficked.
"I used to see a woman while growing up—everyone said she wasn't from here," Maroof shared with TBS in a Zoom call in January, speaking in Urdu. "She always claimed she was from Bangladesh, that she had been 'brought' here."
Not just this first case—later turned out to be a woman named Jaheda from Jenaidah, Bangladesh—but Maroof became more and more aware of these women, mostly elderly, who lead impoverished lives and claim to be not from here.
"It was my mother who first said—You are always on your phone; why don't you make some good use of it?" Maroof explained. This urged him to speak with the person, film and record the story, and put it up on YouTube.
Maroof's voluntary work is not limited to Bangladeshis. In nearly seven years, he has "through social media, helped reconnect over 180 families across Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Yemen, and Jordan, some after decades of separation." These families were "separated by human trafficking, migration, and geopolitical conflicts," reads his YouTube channel.
In many of Maroof's YouTube videos, you can see a large number of people, mostly family members and neighbours, gathered in an open yard while the video call between Bangladesh and Pakistan takes place. This is filmed and later posted on the channel. In several videos, the emotions run high as this collaboration virtually reconnects long-lost loved ones.
With a YouTube channel of 24,000 subscribers currently, Maroof's expenses to help these lost people not only reconnect but in many cases process the paperwork to travel to the respective country of origin are crowdfunded, he said.
In December 2024, Hamida Banu made headlines: "A missing Indian woman found in Pakistan returns home," wrote the BBC. The reunion happened after both countries ran extensive background checks on Hamida, said the report.
Maroof's video of Hamida on YouTube was shared by an Indian journalist on his platform. Eventually, it gained traction, and Hamida's grandson spotted her. Then it took 18 months for Hamida to return to India.
Hamida reunited with her family after 22 years. She was trafficked to Hyderabad in Pakistan with a promise of a lucrative job in Dubai. She later married a street vendor, who died in the Covid pandemic.
"Some of the stories are incredibly gruesome and what these women experienced," explained Maroof, who opts to keep those details of violence perpetrated against them out of his YouTube content.
The Bangladeshi volunteer group, DesheFera, has reunited nearly 80 families who were separated by trafficking using social media and grassroots efforts.
After Maroof started his YouTube channel, he connected with Monzur Ahmed, an imam from Bangladesh. By 2019, Monzur's volunteer group, DesheFera, had been working on this humanitarian mission to reunite lost individuals with their families.
As the channel gained traction, Maroof began receiving more requests. "In most cases, the woman herself or someone connected to her reaches out to me. They tell me that a Bangladeshi—or someone from another country—is living here. Can I help?"
Maroof does his due diligence, and "it is not possible to take on every case. I will say, Bangladeshi cases outnumber those from India substantially," he added. After he made contact with the person, getting as many details as possible, he passed it on to Monzur and also posted video content on his channel.
Monzur, in turn, posts on the social media platforms of DesheFera. This social media network propelled by good samaritans across the country reunites families. Beyond social media posting, the team does much more.
"The work is divided between members. We look at the Bangladesh National Information Broadcasting to find the address (given by the person in Pakistan who claims to have roots in Bangladesh); if the address is found, then great; otherwise, we reach out to upazila-specific Facebook groups, use Google Maps, etc.," explained Monzur.
It's not easy. "For example, in one case, we were given an address in Pabna as the person's home and her maternal uncle's address in Dinajpur. It took us two years to finally locate her family in Bangladesh—they were actually in Sirajganj. Only then could we reconnect them," Monzur explained.
"I know Monzurbhai. He contacted me about Amma," Rezina told TBS over the phone. Rezina's father has three wives. While her biological mother is the third wife (who she calls Ma), Rezina has vivid memories of Amma—the woman named Jaheda from Jenaidah—and Maroof's first case.
"Before Amma was lost, she was sold in Bombay in the 1980s by an extended relative after my father and she were separated. She cannot recall any of it. She was unconscious when the travels happened. This is a story I know—my mother met her because Amma and Baba stayed in my maternal uncle's house for a while. Amma and Ma were close, actually," Rezina said.
When Jaheda was allegedly sold but surely lost and never to be seen again, she left behind a 1-year-old son who was taken in by Rezina's mother. "So my borobhaiDalim is the only sibling I am close with. And I am my mother's only child," Rezina said.
One such case is Muniran, a woman in her 60s who was in Karachi for medical treatment. Speaking to TBS over a WhatsApp video call in February, she said, "I've found about 16 women—of different ages—who share similar life stories. They're from Bangladesh but now living in Pakistan."
Muniran first reached out to Maroof, which eventually led her to Monzur. Through this collaboration, she was also able to reconnect with her own relatives in Bangladesh.
The immigration officials and embassies have not been helpful when it comes to Bangladesh, according to Maroof. "It is not how Hamida's case worked out, mainly for the speedy cooperation process. It is extremely difficult to get the paperwork done. While everything is crowdfunded (Maroof also gifts smartphones to those he works with for easier communication), the process is taxing," he said.
Hafiz Kabir, currently in his Bagherhat village living with his wife, explained his hardship over the phone. Hafiz went to Pakistan through India in the 1980s looking for a better life, to earn a decent income, but fell victim to bad actors, he alleged.
"I am back now (through Maroof and Mozur's efforts) with no money. I swear I never remarried. I wanted to see my wife before this life ended. My children here work meagre jobs in other districts. I am back for good," Hafiz, likely in his 80s now and recently had an accident, told TBS.
In the January video call where Khadija was virtually reunited with her family in Bangladesh, at one point, Monzur asked Khadija's family if anyone had asked them for money, and they replied no. Monzur continued to say, "We strive to be transparent; please know that no one is supposed to ask for money from you. All this is done voluntarily."
Monzur then tells the family that Khadija's circumstances are dire. She is often compelled to beg on the streets to get by. Osman, the grandson, asks his mother on the call, "Do you want to bring her (Khadija) or also her son?"
"These can be discussed later," Monzur remarks, because the process is anything but easy to reunite or bring back those, even for a visit, who had been taken decades ago.
Source: Www.Tbsnews.Net
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Kasaragod woman receives 'triple talaq' from husband in UAE via WhatsApp; family lodges complaint
01 March 2025
Kasaragod: A 21-year-old woman residing in Kerala's Kasargod was shocked when her husband sent a "talaq, talaq, talaq" message on WhatsApp to her father.
Abdul Razzaq's message had the words "talaq" being repeated three times, signalling that his 'marriage' with his wife was over.
Triple talaq is a form of divorce in Islam that allows a Muslim man to divorce his wife by saying "talaq" three times. Incidentally,
Source: english.mathrubhumi.com
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-girl-doctor-cricket-match/d/134761