Afghan Women Cyclists Gear Up For New Life In Italy After Fleeing Taliban
New Age Islam News Bureau
09 April 2022
• Turkish Woman Makes History As 12th Superfetation
Case
• US Coach Starks Giving Saudi Female Boxers A
Platform To Rise
• Muslim Women Face Discrimination By UK Prison Staff:
Report
• Women Facing Stark Health Challenges In Northwest
Syria
• Yemeni Women Press For Greater Inclusion In Peace
Talks
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-women-cyclists-italy-taliban/d/126762
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Afghan Women Cyclists Gear Up For New Life In Italy After
Fleeing Taliban
Afsana Nawrozi, a 17-year-old member of the women’s
national cycling team
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Sofia Barbarani
April 08, 2022
After risking their lives to flee the Taliban and
spending six months in limbo, 38 young female cyclists from Afghanistan are
gearing up for a fresh start in Italy.
Fearing for their safety when the Taliban seized power
in Afghanistan last August, the women joined hundreds of thousands of other
refugees who crossed the border into Pakistan, where they continue to wait in
hope that their Italian visas will be processed to allow them to move by next
month.
They are part of a group of 64 refugees who were able
to leave the country with the help of several private individuals and
organisations, including women’s rights activist Shannon Galpin, sports
journalist Francesca Monzone and road cycling team Israel-Premier Tech.
Source: Independent UK
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Turkish Woman Makes History As 12th Superfetation Case
Sevinç Çelik with twins Poyraz,
Ayaz
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March 23 2022
In a rare medical incident ever recorded in Turkey, a
Turkish woman from the western province of İzmir experienced double pregnancy,
becoming pregnant with two babies conceived about a month apart.
“This is the only case in Turkey and one of the 12
rare cases across the globe in the last 100 years,” daily Milliyet reported on
March 22.
According to the report, the rare incident occurred in
2017 when Sevinç Çelik experienced a phenomenon called superfetation, which is
the simultaneous occurrence of more than one stage of developing offspring in a
body.
“I was pregnant with my boy, Poyraz, when I learned
that I got pregnant again with another boy I named Ayaz. I gave birth to both
on Oct. 6, 2017,” Çelik, who has officially been registered in global medical
records as the 12th superfetation case, told the daily.
Technically, the superfetation babies are not twins.
But due to successive pregnancies, the babies are “considered” twins.
“I was worried when Ayaz was born weighing only
one-and-a-half kilos. He stayed in an incubator for 20 days,” she noted.
However, those days are gone. The boys are 5 years old
and healthy. “The development of Ayaz is a little behind Poyraz’s. We make
medical checks often,” she added.
When asked about reasons behind superfetation,
molecular biologist Korkut Ulucan said, “It may be a hormonal incident.”
As Çelik is the only case in Turkey to have
experienced superfetation to date, there is not enough data to know the reasons
behind the phenomenon.
“Normally ovulation stops after pregnancy. In this
case, we see that it did not,” Ulucan added.
Source: Hurriyet Daily News
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-woman-makes-history-as-12th-superfetation-case-172407
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US coach Starks giving Saudi female boxers a platform
to rise
HUSSAM AL-MAYMAN
April 08, 2022
RIYADH: Boxing in Saudi Arabia is on the rise.
For a new generation of aspiring female boxers,
however, a platform for development in the “sweet science” hasn’t always been
accessible. But thanks to one boxing veteran, that is now changing.
“I created TKO Fighters because when I came to Riyadh,
I found out that they (female fighters) had only two shows a year, and so I was
like, man, you know, they can’t really get a lot of experience that way? So I
decided to create the team so that they can travel outside of Saudi Arabia to
get experience, different experiences,” said Saudi-based American boxing
trainer Lee Starks.
Starks has been a boxing coach for the past 21 years,
having started training young fighters in his home state of New Jersey. In that
time, he has received numerous honors by the city of Plainfield and the state
for his achievements in amateur boxing, which included producing 29 champions
that came out of his Plainfield Boxing Academy.
In 2009, he was selected as one of the coaches for the
US National Boxing Team.
Since then, he has been working with professional and
amateur fighters — as well as hosting training camps — in the US, the UAE,
Saudi Arabia and several other countries in Africa and the Middle East.
Starks founded TKO Fighters, the first ever women’s
boxing team in the Kingdom, in 2021. He started with four ambitious young
female boxers and led them to a historic debut championship in Riyadh, one of
the first women’s boxing tournaments in the GCC.
They did not disappoint, winning one gold and three
silver medals between them.
“I did boxing before in Vietnam,” said Christin
Reuter, a pro-amateur boxer from Munich, who boasts a master’s degree in
psychology and works as a business consultant. “My background is Muay Thai and
kickboxing, taekwondo and kung fu, and I just came straight from Vietnam
actually, before Saudi Arabia, I lived there.
“So I did Muay Thai and some boxing, I had a boxing
fight also in Vietnam, my first boxing fight. And when I came here, I was
looking for any kind of martial arts and then I found this female boxing group.”
TKO Fighters has become a haven for local fighters
looking for a home.
“We’re a boxing group that travel around and go to
different competitions to compete,” said Salma Fahad, a fresh high school
graduate. “Personally, like five to six months, I’ve only just begun.
“I used to go to boxing classes, but not technical
classes, they were cardio-based classes.”
The members have gained far more than just boxing
experience from Starks.
“It’s not only about boxing or fighting, it’s about
him teaching us a lot of things about life, and how this can affect our life,”
said Sara AlShahrani, an experienced MMA fighter, kickboxer, bodybuilder and
fitness instructor. “And we choose, is it going to affect our life in a good
way or a bad way? We are so passionate about it and so disciplined. We always
find a part in ourselves we didn't know about before.”
Another member, Atheer Abdulaziz, a nursing student at
Princess Nourah Bint Abdul Rahman University, added: “I was a judo fighter, I’m
still a judo fighter, a brown belt.
“I’ve also competed in jiu-jitsu championships, and I
finished second in my last one. Now, I’m a boxer.”
For Kaysie Joy, a physiotherapist as well as a fitness
and dance instructor from Lagos, Nigeria, joining TKO Fighters has been a whole
new experience.
“It’s been three months now, and prior to that I was
teaching shadow boxing, more like Les Mills body combat,” she said. “But it is
not the same. That was more of just cardio-based, but it wasn’t technique
specific. This is actually different.”
Next up for Starks and his group is a trip to Europe.
In June and July, the coach will assemble a team to
represent Saudi Arabia in Germany, Sweden and France.
In just one year, Starks has managed to change the
complexion of competitive women’s boxing in the Kingdom. With each passing day,
with each passing fight, the future looks brighter.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2059341/sport
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Muslim Women Face Discrimination By UK Prison Staff:
Report
April 08, 2022
LONDON: Muslim women are facing the normalization of
racial and religious persecution at the hands of UK prison staff, British
website The Independent reported citing a damning report.
The Criminal Justice Alliance and the Independent
Monitoring Board, which surveyed hundreds of female black, Asian, minority
ethnic and overseas-born inmates, found that Muslims are being singled out for
their faith.
One Muslim inmate of black African heritage told the
report: “I feel as if black prisoners or those that are Muslim are seen as
intimidating.”
She said officers often express this through a
reluctance to provide prisoners within these categories “trustworthy roles,”
adding that they only do so to “appear like they are not racist.”
Other treatment detailed included a Muslim being
attacked while reading the Qur’an, and staff responding to frequent use of the
N- and P-words by telling prisoners to “deal with it.”
Of the hundreds of women surveyed, a third described
their treatment as “poor” or “very poor,” with 40 percent saying they have
experienced discrimination, including reduced access to prison employment.
Nina Champion, director of the CJA, said: “This
ground-breaking project centres on the lived experiences of black, Asian and minority
ethnic women in prison — their accounts of direct and indirect racism and poor
treatment are shocking and distressing.
“Even more upsetting is their sense of fatalism — they
see this treatment as part of their everyday lives.”
Included in the report is a dozen recommendations for
the prison service and Ministry of Justice, including provision of improved
leadership on equality, ramped up anti-racist training, and external scrutiny
of prisoner discrimination claims.
A ministry spokesperson told The Independent: “We are
working hard across government to tackle the deep-rooted causes of racial
disparity in the justice system.
“Racism and discrimination are not tolerated in our
jails, and we take strong action to ensure the fair, equal and decent treatment
of all prisoners and staff.”
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2059356/world
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Women facing stark health challenges in northwest
Syria
06-04-2022
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Eleven years of conflict in
Syria has taken a profound toll on women’s health, Doctors Without Borders
(MSF) warned on Wednesday, with thousands living in precarious conditions,
suffering from food insecurity, and struggling to access healthcare in northwest
Syria at a time when health facilities and projects are reducing their
activities in the country.
According to MSF, 80 percent of the 4 million people
in northwest Syria are women and children, who lack access to healthcare
support including vital sexual and reproductive services. Over the last year,
various health facilities and projects have downscaled their activities or
closed altogether after losing funding, the international humanitarian medical
NGO warned in a statement on Wednesday.
In Syria’s conflict setting, “even the normal stages
in a woman’s life, such as menstruation, pregnancy, or breastfeeding, become a
complex burden”, Teresa Graceffa, Medical Coordinator for MSF in Syria, said as
she sought to draw attention to the urgent need for greater support.
During the conflict, hundreds of medical facilities
have been damaged or destroyed with medical staff either killed or forced to
flee the country. Essential medicine and medical supplies are often
unavailable, MSF continued, with potentially devastating consequences for
access to essential services for pregnant women, girls and newborn babies.
While MSF has stepped up its activities in the
northwest and northeast regions, the NGO says there is still a significant gap
in the humanitarian response to women’s health services. “Women in northwest
Syria need long-term quality provision of sexual and reproductive health
services to have a chance to lead healthy lives. Now is certainly not the time
to let them down,” Faisal Omar, MSF head of mission for Syria, added.
The poverty rate in Syria is an unprecedented 90
percent and over 14 million people in Syria depend on humanitarian aid, a
report released last month by the UN Syria Commission into the country’s human
rights situation over the last six months of 2021 found.
On Monday, four children aged between 12 and 15 years
old were killed as they made their way to school in Syria’s northwest province
of Idlib as regime forces shelled their
rebel-held town, Maarat al-Naasan, on the frontline of the Assad regime.
Source: Rudaw
https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/06042022
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Yemeni Women Press For Greater Inclusion In Peace
Talks
Mina Aldroubi
Apr 07, 2022
Women in Yemen must be included in all aspects of
peace talks for the sake of long-term stabilisation in the country, female
officials and academics have told The National.
Female stakeholders in the nascent political process
said they had not been allowed to participate fully in talks in Riyadh that
concluded on Thursday.
Consultations over the war in Yemen began last week in
the Saudi Arabian capital under the aegis of the Gulf Co-operation Council,
although the Iran-backed Houthi rebels did not accept an invitation to attend
the talks.
A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United Nations
began on Saturday.
The discussions also led Yemeni President Abdrabu
Mansur Hadi to transfer power to a presidential council.
“Women’s participation in the Riyadh consultations
were little but effective. They participated in five committees but were
excluded from the security and combating terrorism one, which I think was the
most important,” Hooria Mashhour, Yemen’s former human rights minister who
participated in the talks, told The National.
“It was vital to include them in the security
committee as they can contribute effectively and can include the victim’s
points of view."
Yemeni women are among those hit hardest by a conflict
that has led to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster and killed thousands of
civilians.
Beyond suffering from malnutrition and a lack of
access to health care, Yemeni women are disproportionately affected by rape and
other forms of sexual violence that tend to increase during war.
Wessame Abu Bakr Basindouh, president of the Yemeni
Coalition for Independent Women, told The National the issue of women who are
forcibly detained and subjected to the most horrific forms of torture must be
at the forefront of the discussions.
“I appeal to all participants in the consultations to
make the issue of abducted women inside Houthi prisons, as well as those
forcibly disappeared, sentenced to death, survivors of militia prisons and
displaced women, in their list of priorities,” said Ms Basindouh, who is participating
in the talks.
“Abductees live in tragic conditions which are still
worsening with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan,” she said.
“It is hoped that these consultations will strengthen
the national cohesion that was destroyed by the war and we hope that it will
represent an opportunity to achieve peace in Yemen."
Women provide essential services and are vital in
mediation efforts to end armed conflicts, Muna Luqman, executive director of
Food4Humanity Foundation, one of Yemen’s first women-led civil society
organisations, told The National.
"Women are key to mediating armed conflicts over
natural resources, facilitate negotiations over the opening of humanitarian
corridors, facilitate the release of detainees and work to demilitarise
schools."
They also have the power to "divert the youth
from taking up arms and mobilise them towards peace-building and they are
critical for reconciliation and lasting peace", she said.
Ms Luqman, who attended and participated in the Riyadh
talks, said the international community must understand that "water, food,
energy, electricity, healthcare and jobs are of far greater concern to the
average Yemeni than any other agreement or settlement".
Ensuring these factors are covered in peace talks will
mean that women must have a greater role in the negotiations, she said.
"We are here in Riyadh on a national duty and
responsibility towards the people of Yemen to help in ending this ugly war that
has had terrifying impacts," she said.
Aid agencies have issued repeated warnings that
Yemen's 30 million people are in urgent need of assistance.
Ms Luqman, similar to the other women participating in
the talks, said "the people in Yemen are in need of a nationwide emergency
response plan that cannot be implemented or successful while the country is at
war".
Yemen's seven-year conflict has divided the country
between an internationally recognised government, which was led by Mr Hadi and
backed by Saudi Arabia, based in the southern city of Aden, and the
Iran-aligned Houthi group, which controls the capital Sanaa.
Source: The National News
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghan-women-cyclists-italy-taliban/d/126762