Afghan Woman, Elaha, Arrested After Accusing Taliban Official of Rape
New
Age Islam News Bureau
02
September 2022
• Ons Jabeur Eyes No. 1 Ranking, Joy at Women's Tennis
Association Tournament Coming To Tunisia
• Rise of Saudi Women Filmmakers Shatters Gender
Stereotyping
• Abu Dhabi to Host UN Conference Promoting Women's
Role in Peacebuilding
• Saudi Arabia Living Model for Women Empowerment and
Entrepreneurship, Says Saudi Minister
• Women's Group Tackles Taboo Subject, Menstrual Hygiene
Products, To Aid Pakistan Flood Victims
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-woman-elaha-taliban-o-rape/d/127862
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Afghan Woman, Elaha, Arrested After Accusing Taliban
Official of Rape
The woman said she had
been caught by the Taliban trying to flee the country.(AP: Mustafa Najafizada)
-----
Rahim Faiez
September 01, 2022
ISLAMABAD — The Taliban announced they have arrested and
will soon sentence an Afghan woman who appeared in a video on social media
earlier this week and said a senior Taliban official forced her into marriage
and raped her repeatedly.
In the video, the woman, who identified herself only
by her first name Elaha, wept as she described being beaten and raped by former
Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Saeed Khosti. She said she was speaking
from an apartment in Kabul where the Taliban had confined her after she tried
to escape the country, and she pleaded for rescue.
"These may be my last words. He will kill me, but
it is better to die once than to die every time," she said.
Late Wednesday, a day after the video surfaced, the
Taliban-run Supreme Court said in a tweet that Elaha had been arrested for
defamation on orders of the chief justice Abdul Hakeem Haqqani. Without
mentioning any trial taking place, it said she would "soon be sentenced
according to Sharia law."
"No one is allowed to harm the name of Mujahideen
or defame the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the 20-years of holy
jihad," it said, referring to the Taliban and their war against U.S.-led
troops and the U.S.-allied government, which the hardline insurgents toppled
just over a year ago.
Since the Taliban takeover of the country in August
2021, Afghan women activists, as well as Amnesty International, have reported
an increase in forced marriages of women — including cases where Taliban
officials coerced women into marriage by intimidating them or their families.
In the video, Elaha identified herself as a medical
student at Kabul University and the daughter of an intelligence service general
under the former government. She said Khosti had forced her into marriage six
months ago, when he still held the spokesman post. Khosti tried to marry her
sister to another Taliban official, but her family successfully fled, she said.
"Saeed Khosti beat me a lot. Every night he raped
me," she said, breaking into tears.
She said she tried to escape to neighboring Pakistan,
but the Taliban arrested her at the border crossing and brought her back to
Kabul and confined her to an apartment there. After they brought her back, she
heard a Taliban member telling Khosti that she had lived under the former
government for 20 years and should be stoned to death as an infidel, she said.
In tweets Wednesday, Khosti confirmed that he had
married Elaha, but he denied mistreating her. "I assure you that I have
not done anything illegal," he wrote. In recent months, Khosti was
transferred out of his spokesman post, and it is not clear what his new
position is.
Khosti said he divorced her after finding she
"has a problem in her faith" and he accused her of insulting Islam's
holy book, the Quran.
Elaha's video was widely shared on Facebook, Twitter
and WhatsApp groups, sparking a wave of calls for help and denunciations of the
Taliban from women activists.
Since seizing power, the Taliban have imposed
increasing restrictions on women. They have prevented many women from working,
barred teenage girls from school and required women in public to cover
themselves completely except for their eyes. The world has refused to recognize
the Taliban's rule, demanding it respect human rights and show tolerance for
other groups.
Source: USA Today
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Ons Jabeur Eyes No. 1 Ranking, Joy at Women's Tennis
Association Tournament Coming To Tunisia
Ons Jabeur
----
September 02, 2022
It was recently announced that a WTA tournament will
be staged this October in Monastir, Tunisia, and I couldn’t be happier.
It’s a lot of pressure but it’s a good kind of
pressure, the kind that helps you perform well in front of your home crowd.
It’s great to see that we are evolving and are staging bigger tournaments in
Tunisia. I’m glad the Tunisian tennis federation and my country have taken this
big step. It’s also nice to see more and more tournaments staged in Africa, in
general. Hopefully it’s going to be a great one. I cannot wait to invite every
player to come and play and hopefully they will have a great first impression
of Tunisia.
The tournament will take place in the same town that
is home to the very first club I ever practiced at. It’s going to be in a hotel
and they’re building a big centre court with several outside courts. I do my
preseason training block there every year and it’s a great place. Hopefully
I’ll have a home court advantage. The crowd will be there to support me for
sure.
It’s also great they are giving more importance to
women’s sport. I think in Tunisia specifically, when a Tunisian woman or a man
does something good, the people automatically get interested in that sport. So
since they have me in tennis, they’re following tennis more and more. I know
some Tunisians who have told me they previously followed Nadal and Federer and
now don’t even know what the guys are doing, so now they’re just following me
and following women’s tennis. This is a great thing. Hopefully people will
discover more and more about women’s tennis because there really are some
amazing players on the WTA tour.
I saw what Andrea Petkovic said about the WTA being a
very competitive environment but that it also felt like a sisterhood. I think
before it was tougher to feel the sisterhood part. Some players tend to forget
they are human beings. But now I feel like that has changed. With time, I have
come to feel very close to a lot of players.
I am someone who loves to put the human being before
the player, so it’s nice to talk to my peers on tour about so many things. I
even offer them help from time to time. I don’t see it as: “Okay, if I’m going
to help you, you’re going to beat me later.” Or anything like that. It is a
family to me, the WTA, and I think there is more and more humanity on tour
right now, which is really great. And I hope we can continue evolving in that
way, because I feel as women, we should stick together.
It’s the opposite of what some outsiders think it is;
like we’re fighting in the locker room or something. No way! We are actually
nice to each other and are very supportive of each other. Sometimes a player
would come to me and say: “You deserve to be on a big court, why did they
schedule you on that court? You deserve better.” Which is really unbelievable
to come from another player, but it’s true. We care about each other.
New York has been fun so far and I’m happy to have
gotten through my first two matches at the US Open. I got to meet lots of
people including Seal, the British singer. It’s the second time that I have met
him; the first time was in Indian Wells.
I saw him the other day in the players’ area and he
was like: “Nice to see you again.” I know he’s a huge tennis fan and he said:
“I was supporting you at Wimbledon, my heart was with you.” It’s nice to have
that kind of support, and you could see he is very passionate about my game; he
calls it the “sneaky game,” because he knows I hit a lot of drop shots and
slices. He said I was representing all of Africa, that I’m being a great
example and he loves it every time I send that powerful message. It’s very nice
of him really.
It’s important to me to use my platform to speak about
things I believe in. But I also have to be very careful because some people can
misunderstand my views. I think if you decide to stand up for what you believe
in, you have to accept that there will be a lot of people that can criticize
you for that, which is very powerful to understand at that stage. I love what
Coco Gauff is doing, I love what so many players are doing with their platform.
Definitely I want to get more involved and speak up about so many things and
help my country more.
On the court, one of my goals is to become world No.
1. It’s a process and it will take time. The process has already started though
and I feel if everything goes well, hopefully by next year I can really achieve
that goal. Still, for me, the ranking is not as important as my game. I need to
improve my game to really deserve that spot, to really handle the pressure of
being No. 1 and keep going. I feel like Iga Swiatek is doing a great job at
handling that top position and she deserves to be there, for now (laughs). She
pushes me to do better, I definitely push her to do better, and all of us are
trying to inspire each other and hopefully the entire top 10 field will be even
stronger than before.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2155001/sport
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Rise of Saudi women filmmakers shatters gender
stereotyping
RAY HANANIA
September 01, 2022
CHICAGO: Saudi and Arab women filmmakers are outpacing
their counterparts in the US and Europe, leading voices in the industry and
media said Wednesday.
Documentary filmmaker Danya Alhamrani, co-founder of
EggDancer Productions based in Jeddah, said that women are changing long-held
stereotypes.
This view was supported by Arab News Deputy Sections
Head and Regional Correspondent Rawan Radwan, whose research shows that more
women directors from the region are involved in the industry compared to their
peers in the US and Europe.
During an appearance on The Ray Hanania Radio Show
Wednesday, Alhamrani said that one problem with movies made in Hollywood or by
Western male filmmakers is that the stories of Arab women have always been told
by others.
“I think for so long we have had people tell our stories
for us. And they are being told from the perspective of somebody who has not
walked in our shoes and so therefore can’t tell our stories authentically. And
so this is something we are really striving to do, to tell our own stories and
in our own voice,” said Alhamrani who in 2006 became with her business partner,
Dania Nassief, the first women in Saudi Arabia to own and manage a film
production company.
Alhamrani said the biggest challenge is getting the
industry to support their projects. Their first long format documentary is
“Rise: The Journey of Women in Saudi Arabia,” which conveys the evolution of
female empowerment in the Kingdom.
“It is about the history of women in Saudi Arabia
starting in the 1950s when education for women was first started and schools
were first opened and how that changed their trajectory. And so our film is
full of female pioneers and different industries, from sports to art to media,
and business, and even in law and politics,” Alhamrani said.
“So I think the stereotype that is very common about
Saudi women is that we are oppressed. But that is why it was so important for
us to make this film. Why? Because it actually shows the different side in the
history of Saudi women who have been working in all these industries and pushing
boundaries for a very long time.”
Alhamrani said she and company co-owner Nassief prefer
documentaries because it allows them to engage directly with people and
experience their real lives rather than pursuing fiction which imagines a life
and often feeds stereotypes.
“We like to do stories with a social issues slant. Our
goal is to bring the stories, our local stories here in Saudi Arabia, to tell
stories that are biased and for us but also to bring our stories to the world,”
explained Alhamrani, who led the late celebrity chef, author, and travel
documentarian Anthony Bourdain on a tour of Saudi Arabia in 2008 for his CNN
program “Parts Unknown.”
EggDancer Productions is online at EggDancer.com.
Alhamrani is one of several women filmmakers who were
part of a special feature by Arab News’ Radwan which explored this growth in
the Kingdom and across the region.
“There are more women behind the cameras than one
would expect,” Radwan noted. She said data shows that “26 percent of directors
are female in the Arab world, but only 8 percent are female directors in the
US.”
Arab women filmmakers are also now submitting more
independent productions at Cannes than their European peers.
“All of these women are out there and they have been
in the scene for more than 10, 15 years now. Just because it is not mentioned
in the news, just because you don’t look at us or have a microscope on us,
doesn’t mean we are not out there,” Radwan said.
“And yes, there are challenges as it is with every
female filmmaker in the world. It is not a problem that is just isolated here
in the region. It is a global problem. Look at the numbers. We just said 8
percent in the US and 26 percent here in the Arab World. That is a lot. That is
a huge comparison.”
Radwan added that there was “a growing appetite” to
make films beyond the typical television game shows or interview programs, with
Saudi women getting support from the Film Commission established in the Kingdom
several years ago.
“They invited men and women filmmakers to participate
rather than going outside of the country,” she said.
Danya Alhamrani and Rawan Radwan appeared on The Ray
Hanania Radio Show on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, broadcast on the US Arab Radio
Network in Detroit and Washington D.C. The radio program is rebroadcast in
Chicago on Thursdays.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2154576/offbeat
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Abu
Dhabi to host UN conference promoting women's role in peacebuilding
Sep
01, 2022
Abu
Dhabi will host a UN conference to advance the participation of women in
peacemaking and conflict prevention across the world.
Held
under the patronage of Sheikha Fatima, Mother of the Nation and Chairwoman of
the General Women's Union, the high-level International Conference on Women,
Peace and Security, will take place on September 8, 9 and 10.
The
conference will review the achievements and challenges in the implementation of
the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
Passed
in 2020, the first landmark Security Council resolution on women, peace and
security addresses the impact of war on women and the importance of their full
and equal participation in conflict resolution, peacebuilding, peacekeeping,
humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction.
It
also aims to protect women from violence.
The
conference also seeks to achieve consensus on procedures to implement the UAE
National Action Plan, which aims to empower and support women globally by
promoting adherence to UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
The
conference will review the work done by the General Women's Union in supporting
the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the international level.
It
will also assess the impact of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Women Peace and
Security Initiative, which promotes the role played by women in decision-making
and policies more effectively.
Sheikh
Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation,
said the UAE is committed to achieving gender equality and promoting the role
of women in society, especially in light of its current non-permanent
membership in the UN Security Council.
Mohammed
Ahmed Al Bawardi Al Falasi, Minister of State for Defence Affairs, said that by
organising the conference, the UAE wants to emphasise the importance of the
role of women in global peace and security.
“All
stakeholders have worked to develop the military capabilities of women and
their knowledge of the foundations of peacekeeping,” he said.
“The
Ministry of Defence has supported the training of more than 350 women from
various Arab, Asian, and African countries at the Khawla Bint Al-Azwar Military
School with great success and we will continue to implement these training
programmes.”
The
Khawla Bint Al-Azwar Military School opened in 2014 and is the Gulf region's
first military college for women.
After
completing their training, the women can be sent to military and civilian areas
to provide support, protect women's rights and help reduce sexual violence.
The
UAE also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UN Women in September 2018,
to develop the capabilities of Arab women in military and peacekeeping operations.
Noura
Al Suwaidi, Secretary General of the General Women’s Union said the conference
will help in creating an empowering environment for women and raise awareness
of the issue.
Women
in peacekeeping
According
to UN data, in 1993 women made up 1 per cent of deployed uniformed personnel.
In
2020, of approximately 95,000 peacekeepers, women constituted 4.8 per cent of
military contingents and 10.9 per cent of formed police units, that are pledged
by member states to UN missions, and 34 per cent of justice and corrections
government-provided personnel in UN Peacekeeping missions.
The
UN's 2028 target for women serving in military contingents is to push it to 15
per cent, and 25 per cent for military observers and staff officers. For formed
police units, the target is 20 per cent.
Dr
Mouza Al Shehhi, director of the UN Women Liaison Office for the GCC, said:
“Women have long been doing important work in peacebuilding in many conflict
zones, but there is a sharp contrast with their participation in formal peace
negotiations, where women still largely do not play any formal roles.
“Between
1992 and 2019, on average, only 13 per cent of negotiators were women, although
studies show that women’s participation increases opportunities for sustainable
peace and leads to agreements containing more provisions that benefit women and
men equally.
“The
conference aims, through its various sessions, to bring together
decision-makers and stakeholders from different countries to analyse the role
of women in peace and security, in line with the objectives of the UN Security
Council Resolution 1325."
The
conference will be organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
International Cooperation, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, the
General Women's Union, UN Women, the League of Arab States and the Abu Dhabi
Ports Group.
Several
international decision-makers, senior officials, diplomats, and advocates of
women's role in peacebuilding are expected to participate.
Source:
The National News
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Saudi
Arabia Living Model for Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, Says Saudi
Minister
September
01, 2022
RIYADH
— Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah
Al-Swaha has stressed that sustainable and comprehensive recovery paths as well
as the creation new economic horizons rely on technology and innovation.
He
was referring to the bold and proactive steps Saudi Arabia has adopted to
support future and innovation economics, which can be seen in the announcement
made by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of
Defense, and Chairman of the Higher Committee for Research, Development and
Innovation, regarding the National Aspirations and Priorities for Research,
Development, and Innovation (RDI).
The
Kingdom’s RDI aspirations and priorities are: Health and Wellness; Sustainable
Environment and Supply of Essential Needs; Energy and Industrial Leadership;
and Economies of the Future, which will enhance the Kingdom’s global
competitiveness and leadership, in line with the directions of Saudi Vision
2030, and strengthen the Kingdom's position as the largest economy in the
region.
Al-Swaha
made the remarks at a meeting on digital economy in Bali, Indonesia, on
Thursday with the participation of ICT ministers and experts in G20 member
states.
The
minister said: “The support received by the sectors of technology, innovation
and entrepreneurship from the wise leadership has contributed to the pioneering
status of the Kingdom to become a regional hub for technology and innovation in
the region”. He pointed out that the qualitative growth in the bold capital
investments last year by 270% exceeded what had been achieved in 2020 and 2019
combined.
As
for women’s participation, Al-Swaha pointed out that the Saudi Vision 2030 is
keen on supporting the Saudi women as one of the important elements for the
development of the homeland. The Kingdom has improved in the women empowerment
field from 7% in 2017 to over 30% in 2022, he said, revealing that Saudi
Arabia, as a regional hub for technology and innovation, seeks to train more
than 600 women in the Middle East and North Africa, as part of its cooperation
with Apple Developer Academy.
In
concluding his speech, the minister referred to innovative efforts in bridging
the digital gap and enhancing green energy projects in NEOM. He praised the
outcomes of Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency, which resulted in changing G20
Digital Economy Task Force (DETF) into the Digital Economy Work Group (DEWG),
which played an appreciable role in seizing opportunities provided by the
digital economy age and increasing development rates and economic growth for
the member countries. — SPA
Source:
Saudi Gazette
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/624504
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Women's
Group Tackles Taboo Subject, Menstrual Hygiene Products, To Aid Pakistan Flood
Victims
SEP
1, 2022
LAHORE,
Pakistan - As aid organisations mobilise to provide relief for victims of
Pakistan's catastrophic floods, one group of women is focused on a necessity
that is frequently taboo in the conservative Islamic nation - menstrual hygiene
products.
Over
30 million people have been affected by floods that cover a third of the
country following record monsoon rains, with hundreds of thousands made
homeless. Half of the victims are women and girls.
"Periods
do not stop during floods. Women need this assistance," said Ms Bushra
Mahnoor, a university student in eastern Lahore who founded the Mahwari Justice
campaign to provide help.
Ms
Mahnoor recalled her experience with floods that hit Pakistan in 2010 when she
saw a young girl with period stains on her clothes. She learned that women
"were using leaves" to manage their periods, so decided to take
action.
$3.50
can make 'an enormous difference'
Since
June, Ms Mahnoor and colleague Anum Khalid have mobilised friends and
volunteers to raise money to buy, pack and distribute emergency sanitary kits
containing pads, underwear and soap.
Each
kit costs just 200 rupees (S$3.50), but can make an enormous difference for
women trying to retain their dignity in desperate times.
Calls
to the manufacturers of period products went unanswered, so Ms Mahnoor haggled
with wholesalers in Lahore's bazaars to get the lowest possible rates for the
kits.
Mahwari
- which means "period" in Urdu - has already sent thousands of kits
to some of the worst-hit areas, but their reach is set to get even bigger.
After
a social media appeal, dozens of girls and women volunteered to help pack the
kits.
"I
put myself in their place and thought this would have been such a huge problem
for me if I didn't have these things," said volunteer Nyle Imtiaz,
describing her motivation.
Similar
meet-ups are happening in other cities, including Multan, where the transgender
community has taken the lead in the local effort.
Resistance
Ms
Mahnoor said she met resistance when she first spoke to men about the kind of
specialised help she wanted her group to provide and asked for help in
distribution.
"Menstruation
is a big taboo in Pakistan, and it was not easy," she said.
Much
of Pakistani society operates under a strict code of honour and speaking openly
about women's issues such as menstruation and sexual health is rare.
The
reach of the floods includes Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the most conservative
part of Pakistan, where women are rarely seen in public and often wear the
all-covering burqa or shawls.
For
many flood victims who have fled their homes for makeshift camps, women are
mixing with men who are not their relatives for the first time. The camps have
no showers and only a few shared toilets.
Public
conversations and campaigns invoking menstruation often provoke disgust and
draw public anger. On social media, the campaign has been accused of pursuing a
"liberal agenda", taking away funds from more worthwhile causes such
as food and medicine.
"I
don't understand what is there to hide, and what's there to be ashamed
of," said Ms Nimra Akram, another Lahore volunteer. "It would be more
shameful in my opinion to see a girl who has her period and doesn't have this
kit."
Ms
Mahnoor said even her own family has tried to stop her from being so public.
"My
mother tells me I'm being such a shameless woman for even talking about
menstruation so openly," she said. AFP
Source:
Straits Times
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