Afghan Refugee Breaker, Manizha Talash, Disqualified For Wearing ‘Free Afghan Women’ Cape At Paris Olympics
New
Age Islam News Bureau
11
August 2024
•
Afghan Refugee Breaker, Manizha Talash, Disqualified For Wearing ‘Free Afghan
Women’ Cape At Paris Olympics
•
Pakistani Transgender Women Demand Safety
•
Politics Dominates Female Iranian Athletes’ Presence In Paris Olympics
•
Women Engineers Electrify Karachi Orphanage With Solar Power
•
Volleyball-Brazil's Women End Turkey's Dreams Of Bronze
•
‘Wild Women’: Anthology Of Bhakti Poems Shows How Women Shaped Language
Subconscious In India
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Afghan
Refugee Breaker, Manizha Talash, Disqualified For Wearing ‘Free Afghan Women’
Cape At Paris Olympics
By NOREEN NASIR
August
10, 2024
Refugee
Team's Manizha Talash, known as Talash, wears a cape which reads "Free
Afghan Women" as she competes during the B-Girls Pre-Qualifier Battle at
the breaking competition at La Concorde Urban Park during the Paris Olympics.
AP
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PARIS
(AP) — Refugee breaker Manizha Talash, or “b-girl Talash,” was disqualified
from the first ever Olympic breaking competition on Friday after she wore a
cape that said “Free Afghan Women” during her pre-qualifier battle against
India Sardjoe — known as “b-girl India.”
The
21-year-old, originally from Afghanistan and representing the Olympic Refugee
Team, lost in the pre-qualifier battle against Sardjoe and would not have
advanced even if she hadn’t been disqualified.
Political
statements and slogans are banned on the field of play and on podiums at the
Olympics. World DanceSport Federation, the governing body for breaking at the
Olympics, issued a statement afterward that said she “was disqualified for
displaying a political slogan on her attire during the Pre-Qualifier battle.”
“I’m
here because I want to reach my dream. Not because I’m scared,” she told The
Associated Press before the Olympics from Spain, where she was granted asylum.
The
one-off pre-qualifier battle between Talash and Sardjoe was added in May, when
Talash was included in the Olympic roster after the b-girl from Afghanistan
missed registration for qualifying events. The International Olympic
Committee’s executive board invited her to participate after learning of her
efforts to defy the strict rule of the Taliban in her home country.
Source:
Apnews.com
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Pakistani
Transgender Women Demand Safety
Azmat
Ali Shah
August
10, 2024
Transgender
women have rallied in Peshawar, northern Pakistan, to demand protection from
hate crimes. The protesters gathered in the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Province on August 9. Their slogan "Arrest blackmailers!" refers to
gangs who kidnap transgender people and extort ransom. Pakistan legally
recognizes a "third gender," but its members say violence against
them goes unpunished too often.
Source:
Www.Rferl.Org
https://www.rferl.org/a/pakistan-transgender-protest-rights/33073793.html
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Politics
dominates female Iranian athletes’ presence in Paris Olympics
Maryam
Sinaiee
11-08-2024
Politics
overshadowed the performance of female Iranian athletes at the Paris Olympics,
where current world taekwondo champion Nahid Kiyani won a silver medal after
defeating her former teammate and defector, Kimia Alizadeh.
Kiyani
and Alizadeh, who secured bronze for her new country, Bulgaria, shared a long,
warm embrace and posed for photos after receiving their medals. Kiyani was also
seen kissing her former roommate and friend on the shoulder.
However,
this emotional moment was omitted from Iran's state television coverage. The
state-run sports commentator referred to Alizadeh only as "she" or
"the rival" and described the match as "a historic
revenge."
Many
Iranian social media users have condemned the “oppressive” policies of the
Islamic Republic that forced Alizadeh and two dozen other athletes sports
people leave their homeland and their teams behind to live in exile in recent
years. Most female athletes who defect to other countries, including Alizadeh,
speak against the Islamic Government's oppression.
Another
emotional scene was created in Paris Thursday when Sabah Shariati, an Iranian
wrestler who competed for Azerbaijan’s team, lost against Iran's bronze
medalist Amin Mirzadeh. Mirzadeh lifted him on his shoulders as a sign of
respect when he found out this was Shariati’s last match.
Kiyani
who remained in Iran, as her Instagram posts show, is not a conformist, either.
She supported the Woman, Life, Freedom movement of 2022-23 and campaigned
against capital punishment on social media. “My silence doesn’t mean I’m
happy,” one of her Instagram stories read.
If
not for the prospects of a medal, and consenting to wear the hijab, she would
not have been allowed to compete in Paris or any other international
competitions. She may even face repercussions for embracing her friend instead
of turning her back on the “traitor’ in Paris Olympics.
“Iran
is the home of all Iranians. I wish Kimia could return to Iran and to be a
winner again,” former minister of communication Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi, a
close ally of the reform-oriented President Masoud Pezeshkian, posted on X
Thursday.
Alizadeh
was given a hero’s welcome by Iranian officials in 2016 for winning an Olympic
bronze. She was showered with gifts and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lauded her
for her victory which he said proved that hijab is no impediment to women’s
success.
In
2020, however, Alizadeh defected to Germany to avoid competing for the Iranian
Olympics team in protest to oppression of Iranian women and discarded her veil.
She competed as a member of the refugee team in Tokyo Olympics where she and
Kiyani had to face each other. Alizadeh won 3-0 but both were eventually
eliminated.
“I’m
one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran who they played in whatever
manner they wished,” she said after her defection about being used for
propaganda by the authorities when she was a member of the Iranian team such as
obliging her to dedicate her 2016 medal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and saying
that wearing the hijab was created no obstacles to female athletes.
In
the aftermath of the Woman, Life, Freedom protests, Alizadeh supported the
leadership of Iran's exiled Prince Reza Pahlavi.
Iran's
Supreme Leader has imposed a ban on Iranian athletes competing with Israelis.
The ban forces athletes to forfeit matches or claim injury to avoid facing
Israelis even at the cost of losing medals.
Source:
Iranintl.Com
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202408092014
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Women
engineers electrify Karachi orphanage with solar power
Shazia
Hasan
August
11, 2024
KARACHI:
The sky was sunny sometimes and cloudy the next, but the 26 women electrical
engineers in Barbie pink t-shirts and canary yellow safety helmets along with
big, bulky boots and thick rubber gloves wouldn’t let an overcast sky dampen
their spirits. They cheerfully went about their work, installing the solar
panels on the rooftop of the Husseini Dar-ul-Atfal orphanage in Liaquatabad
Town on Saturday afternoon.
Speaking
to Dawn, these women of energy, some of whom were undergraduates, mostly fourth
year students, and also graduates, said that they were glad to have installed
solar panels on the rooftop of the orphanage.
All
were part of an NED-certified course backed by LADIESFUND Energy (Pvt) Ltd, a
woman-owned, primarily women-run renewables company that is currently also
engaged in building a 50 megawatts solar generation plus storage project in
Gharo, Sindh.
Iman
Batool of Dawood University said that it was the first time in Pakistan’s
history that an all-female team had come up to do that kind of work. “So my
parents have been very supportive,” she said.
Aruba
Yousuf Iraqi of the Dawood university said that her parents were so proud of
her and the team “that they have said that they will call us when they decide
to install solar panels on their roof,” she smiled.
“It
is going to be needed badly in the near future as electricity bills have
skyrocketed with new charges and taxes being included every month. And
switching to solar energy is a one-time cost with more benefits,” she said.
Muskaan
Iqbal, also from the NED university, said that solar panels have a life of 25
years. “That is, if you take care of their maintenance and safety. These days,
children or other elements can be the cause of some damage to the panels or
their wiring,” she added.
“It
is also all DC or direct current which is more dangerous than AC or alternating
current. Naughty kids also shouldn’t be allowed to disturb the wiring so care
must be taken. Then solar panels are also known to be stolen,” she said,
pointing to protective wiring with current installed all over the rooftop walls
to keep away thieves and robbers.
When
reminded that batteries to provide power during the night can cost a lot,
Farhat Anjum, who also belonged to the NED said that they are still cheaper
than paying exorbitant electricity bills month after month. “You should look at
the battery costs as an investment. Then there is also so much research going
on in batteries,” she added.
Tara
Uzra Dawood, the founder and CEO of LADIESFUND Energy (Pvt) Ltd, who also
received training with the 28 women electrical engineers, told Dawn that the
installation is of 24 kilowatts with six lithium batteries, which happen to be
the best kind of batteries that would last 10 years and also come with a
five-year warranty. “It is the first time in the history of not just the
country but the world that an all-female team is solarising buildings. We have
solarised factories too,” she said.
“Right
now the women are interns, but we are hopeful that with their expertise they
will be hired by the industry. We have 86 more girls on our wait list. Among
this group there are two girls from Balochistan, two from Nawabshah and one
from Sanghar,” she added.
Dr
Mohammad Mohsin Awan, associate engineer in the department of electrical
engineering at the NED university, who is also the director of the Renewable
Energy Centre at the NED, trained the women engineers.
He
said that they were already studying or had studied electrical engineering so
only required five days of training in solar installation.
Hussein
Dada, whose family built the Husseini Dar-ul-Atfal, also spoke on the occasion.
The event was also attended by the Mayor of Karachi Barrister Murtaza Wahab as
the chief guest, who greatly appreciated the initiative.
Source:
Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1851503/women-engineers-electrify-karachi-orphanage-with-solar-power
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Volleyball-Brazil's
women end Turkey's dreams of bronze
11
Aug 2024
PARIS
:Brazil denied Turkey a first Olympic medal in women's volleyball when the
South American side won the bronze medal match 3-1 at the Paris Games on
Saturday.
The
25-21 27-25 22-25 25-15 victory gave Brazil, runners-up at the Tokyo Games,
their third bronze in Olympic women's volleyball, taking them to joint highest
in the all-time medals table with six.
Gabriela
Guimaraes led the way for Brazil with a game-high 28 points, while Thaisa de
Menezes - a twice-Olympic champion who came out of retirement last year - had
17 with seven blocks.
"This
means a lot to us," Guimaraes said. "We put in a lot of work till
now. We were so frustrated not to be in the final tonight and to be fighting
for the gold medal.
Just
as in the previous games in Paris, Turkey's attack flowed through tournament
top scorer Melissa Vargas, who scored 26 points in the match, but that also
underlined the lack of balance in their squad.
Turkey
battled their way to a set point in the second but Brazil fought back and took
a 2-0 lead when they could not deal with a Guimaraes spike.
"We
were 24-23 ahead and we made a mistake on our serve. We had already lost a set
in this way," Turkey coach Daniele Santarelli said.
The
third set was tied at 15-15 before Turkey raised their game, racing into the
lead and taking it, giving themselves hope of a comeback.
But
Brazil were in no mood to hang around in the fourth as Guimaraes and De Menezes
took them home, with the latter fittingly applying the final touch to make a
block on match point and clinch the bronze before she retired again.
"Making
her a three-times Olympic champion was a big motivation for us," Brazil's
Ana Da Silva said. "Before this match, I told her that since she didn't
have a bronze medal, that was the one we were going to get her."
Source:
Channelnewsasia
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/volleyball-brazils-women-end-turkeys-dreams-bronze-4539876
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‘Wild
Women’: Anthology of Bhakti poems shows how women shaped language subconscious
in India
Anamika
11-08-2024
With
Wild Women, a wide-ranging anthology of hand-picked Bhakti poems from all the
major Indian languages, poet Arundhathi Subramaniam has joined the great league
of scholars like Susie Tharu, K Lalita, Vanamala Viswanatha, Malashri Lal, Ruth
Vanita, Mrinal Pandey, Mamta Kalia, and Kshama Sharma. Subramaniam will be
remembered not only for her poems but also as one of those luminaries of
post-colonial women’s studies, who fought against the unipolar dominance of the
West by recharging native traditions, local knowledge systems and movements
like the Bhakti tradition.
How
did she recharge these indigenous traditions? Through the electric sockets of
what is called “thick translation” – translations adorned with footnotes, brief
biographies, insightful prefaces, and (in some cases) also with adaptations or
intertextual transplantation of what the 9th Century poet and critic
Anandavardhana had once referred to as dhwani inlaid in Anyayoni poems.
Subramaniam’s
grand anthology of such translations is going to be a throbbing presence for at
least three kinds of people: Radical thinkers, fellow poets, and students of
intricate mass movements like Bhakti. First of all, it is quite a soul support
for radical thinkers and fellow citizens of our troubled times, who keep
wondering why a pursuit as poetic as religion should be allowed to be
highjacked by the most non-poetic segment of society, the fundamentalist
forces, and also why both religion and enlightenment which had once promised
redemption on earth, now stand defeated as claims with fragmented value.
Subramaniam
cogently establishes Bhakti as the binary of spineless sycophancy by
highlighting the edgy brazenness of voice- and body-centricity of these
outstanding poets who foreground our dream of breaking social hierarchies by
pulling down the barrier between the cosmic and the commonplace, the macro and
the micro, the body and the mind in their metaphors. Underlining the good old
theory of correspondence, which visualises the world as an interconnected web,
they enact a wild bear hug between the heterogeneous opposites with the tropes
of comparison:
Subramaniam
terms the anthology a “fellowship of vagabonds, lovers, moon gazers, of all
those who have lost their citizenship cards “ – everything but their ragged
longing for more. Doesn’t this “citizenship card” ring a bell? This is the job
of a good poet – to play with the various dhwanis and make a mocktail of all
rasas. Subramaniam has selected primarily – but not exclusively – women poets
who surrendered not to external authority but to the dictates of the spirit,
the ones like Meera. For instance:
It
goes without saying that Meera’s denial of the patriarchal mode of control is a
bold “no” even to royal patronage. Whatever she has to say, she announces loud
and clear. Her playful aradhya (and also of those of other women Bhakt poets
like Janabai) sees her prayers transformed into a blueprint of the kind of man
every sensitive woman yearns for:
Flipping
through the pages of the book, fellow poets of our times will also identify
with a seeker’s angst in every poet, the angst that Subramaniam calls “lying on
bathroom floor and smelling the 3 am desolation of the pillow.” They will
derive solace from the fact that they are not alone in their “terrors, longings
, meltdowns.”
Even
in her scholarly endeavour, the poet in Subramaniam is alive and she
deconstructs the Bhakti poets, cracking the central aporia in key texts from a
historical perspective. Floating the text intelligently against the current,
she does something enormously useful for students of mass movements like
Bhakti, especially in presenting the role women and the lowly-born played in
shaping up its linguistic subconscious.
When
Buddhism and Islam, the two new religions, started playing the Pied Piper to the
masses, Dharmadhikaris were shaken out of their slumbers. With the dead being
awakened, they released scriptures from the custody of Sanskrit and let the
essence of Yoga, Tantra and Sankhya flow into local languages, the lingua
franca of women and the lowly-born who were denied the privilege of formal
education (and, thus, access to Sanskrit, this classical language of
scriptures). When women and the lowly-born entered the folds of Bhakti, the
texture of poetry underwent a sea change. It became more informal, chatty,
body-centric and lucid.
Why
body-centric? To my mind, this was because both women and the lowly-born had no
other assets but their bodies to boast of, the body which was the sole source
of labour, production, and, in the case of women, also of reproduction. Why
chatty and even witty? Because these people had never held the seats of power,
which teaches you to be tight-lipped:
Even
today, when a woman is seen having “satsang” with men over a cup of coffee in
Mandi House, a hurricane of wild speculation comes her way. Now imagine
beautiful women like Andal, Akka, Meera, Bahinibai, Muktabai and Rani having
“satsang” with men on chowrahas in medieval India. Subramaniam’s insightful
preface helps us visualise such grand spectacles, highlighting situational
ironies with tongue-in-cheek remarks. She begins her introduction with a
reference to her chanting of the Sahasranama in a remote temple in South India,
quietly hinting at how each name opened like a petal in the sahasrar and how
the multiple names, highlighting the various aspects of the Mother Principle in
each of us, finally bloomed into this book celebrating multiplicity in the best
sense of the term.
Source:
Scroll.In
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