AIMIM UP Chief Stokes Row, Says Those Who Threaten Muslims 'Marry One, Keep Three Mistresses'
16 October 2022
•
AIMIM UP Chief Stokes Row, Says Those Who Threaten Muslims 'Marry One, Keep
Three Mistresses'
•
Viral videos of naked protest by women on the streets are not from Iran
•
Hijab – an exercise in choice
•
Everything you need to know about International Day of Rural Women
•
Mumbai: Muslim women reclaim their right to fitness
•
Listen — Iran: The protests, Islam and women
•
Hijab Verdict Decoded: Why Essential Religious Practice Test Won't Serve the
Muslim Side
•
Ban on hijab has liberated Muslim girls, says Shobha Karandlaje
•
Desert test brings out the best in ‘warrior’ women
•
Pakistan Women’s team features in FIFA Rankings after six years
•
Iran protests: Joe Biden says US stands with ‘brave women’ after MahsaAmini
death
•
The chant of ‘Women, Life, Liberty’ echoes around Iran
•
Shaheen Akhtar’s ‘Beloved Rongomala’: A complex tale of love, gender and class
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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AIMIM
UP Chief Stokes Row, Says Those Who Threaten Muslims 'Marry One, Keep Three
Mistresses'
The
Wire Staff
16-10-2022
Uttar
Pradesh AIMIM President Shaukat Ali speaking at an event in Sambhal on
Saturday, October 15. Photo: Screengrab via viral video
------------
New
Delhi: Uttar Pradesh state unit chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen
(AIMIM) Shaukat Ali has stoked controversy with his provocative speech made at
an event in Sambhal on Saturday, October 15, where he said “those who threaten
Muslims” marry one woman but keep several mistresses and produce illegitimate
children with them.
He
has been booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police for allegedly disturbing communal
harmony. The video of his speech has now gone viral, drawing ire from various
sections.
AIMIM
UP leader, Shaukat Ali caught on tape making a hate speech while responding to
Virat Hindu sabha hate mongering. @asadowaisi should sack him, the cops should
book him. Zero tolerance for ALL hate speech, party/community no bar. Hate
begets hate, firm hand needed !🙏 pic.twitter.com/yYMBdzP5H6
“When
BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] starts losing ground, they go after Muslims…They
say Muslims have more children; sometimes they said we marry twice. Yes, it’s
true that we marry twice but give respect to both wives, but you marry one and
keep three mistresses and no one gets to know. You give respect to none of
them,” he can be heard saying in the video.
Apparently,
the “you”, he referred to in his speech, was obliquely aimed at the members of
the Hindu community. However, Ali denied that he was referring to any community
in particular, including the Hindu community.
“Even
if we marry two women, we give equal respect to them, some people marry once
but have three wives outside and hide them from society. I was only talking
about such men, I didn’t mention ‘Hindu’, my intention was not to hurt the
sentiments of any community,” news agency ANI quoted him saying, a day after
his speech stoked controversy.
In
Saturday’s speech, the AIMIM leader also referred to Mughal emperor Akbar’s
marriage to Rajput princess Jodha Bai saying “we [Muslims] uplifted your people
along with us” but now you are threatening us.
“You
are threatening us? We have ruled worms and insects like you for 832 years, and
you used to do ‘ji huzoor‘ with your hands folded at the back, and now you are
threatening us,” he can be heard saying in the video.
“Who
is more secular than us? Akbar married Jodha Bai. We are uplifting your people
too along with us. But you have a problem. One sadhu [Hindu saint] says Muslims
should be butchered. Why? Are we like carrots, radishes, onions?” he added. He
challenged the “sadhu” that if he gets to see an angry Muslim’s face alone, his
bowel movements would stop.
According
to ANI, Sambhal superintendent of police Chakresh Mishra said that a complaint
was filed against Ali “for his alleged disrespectful, derogatory statement
against Hindu Community in a viral video”. He said cases were registered under
Sections 153A (promoting enmity), 295A (outraging religious feelings), and 188
(disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal
Code and further investigations were underway.
Ali’s
controversial comments close on the heels of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks made during his Dusshera annual speech where he
had spoken of “religion-based population imbalance”.
“Along
with population control, population balance on a religious basis is also a
matter of importance which cannot be ignored,” he had said, indirectly
targeting the Muslim community.
His
comments were in line with the worn-out trope that RSS and its political front
BJP have long advanced to hold the largest religious minority group in the
country – the Muslims – responsible for population growth.
However,
empirical evidence disputes both the claims of alarming population growth and
the perceived differentials in Hindu-Muslim population growth.
Source:
The Wire
https://thewire.in/communalism/aimim-up-chief-row-shaukat-ali
-----
Viral
videos of naked protest by women on the streets are not from Iran
BY
KALIM AHMED
15TH
OCTOBER 2022
A
video of a group of women demonstrating in their bare bodies in front of a
life-size figure that appears to be dressed like police in riot gear is viral
on social media as visuals from anti-hijab protests in Iran.
The
anti-Hijab protests in Iran which have since turned into anti-government
protests began in the last weeks of September after the death of 22-year-old
MahsaAmini in the custody of the morality police, which enforces the country’s
strict Islamic rules. Since then several videos and photos have emerged from
Iran where the public, especially women, can be seen ripping off and burning
their head coverings to protest the hijab law.
In
the context of these protests, right-wing propaganda outlet Kreately shared the
video on Twitter with the hashtags ‘#IranProtest’, ‘#Hijab’,
‘#AntiHijabProtest’. It is claimed that the viral video shows visuals from the
streets of Iran. (Archive.)
Alt
News has received requests on its official mobile app pertaining to the video
of women allegedly protesting naked on the streets of Iran.
Another
video of women protesting topless allegedly on the streets of Iran is also
viral on social media. One user shared the clip with a caption in Hindi that
reads, “The anti-Hijab protest has not turned into topless protests…”
Source:
Alt News.In
https://www.altnews.in/viral-videos-of-naked-protest-by-women-on-the-streets-are-not-from-iran/
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Hijab
– an exercise in choice
Raj
Shekhar Sen
October
16, 2022
The
current protests in Iran around the hijab and the ensuing debate in India around
choice are intriguing. On the surface, women in Iran are protesting against the
hijab and being lauded by the mainstream, pro-government Indian media. This is
happening to portray a contrast between what happened in India recently, with
protests against the regime’s apparatus where Muslim students were forced to
take off their hijab to enter classrooms in Karnataka and a few other parts of
the country. The point made by the pliable Indian media is how action against
hijab is justified in India when women of a Muslim country like Iran are
against it. What this orchestrated debate — which wants to drive us to a
specific point — is missing is that choice is often a function of our life
situation and conditioning.
A
person born and raised in Mexico would probably choose to eat chicken fajitas
every time over chicken biryani, all the while thinking it is a conscious
choice they are making. That is normal. What is not is when you go outside of
your conditioning and current situation and want to make a different choice.
Almost always, such a choice that goes against the grain is about subverting
the authority that governs your daily life and, therefore, choices. Like what
is happening in Iran or what happened in India. Confusing the choices made by
bright, young women in Iran and India is naïve or, worse, diabolical on the
part of Indian media houses.
To
see protests in this light, not just in these two cases but in any other
situation, would make it much easier to understand protests and why they happen
and, more importantly, where to place ourselves morally around something like
this. So, when the Hindu minority in Pakistan or Bangladesh speaks up for their
rights in those countries, they are going against the dominant authority of the
state. Same as when Indian Muslims protest against a law like the CAA/NRC. The
CAA protests were interesting because the media, which is usually following
talking points provided by the government, was saying the law should be
supported since it is an endeavour to expand rights (of the minority
communities in our neighbouring countries). And, in general, any law that tries
to expand rights is a good law while any law that tries to curtail it isn’t
(like the abortion rulings in the U.S.). In the case of the CAA, the law was
also trying to get the minority Indian Muslim population to reaffirm their
citizenship by proving to a state, which notoriously does not like them and
would use any means to marginalize them, that they are citizens.
Outside
of that, choice by itself is just a material of our conditioning, so while in
principle you may not agree with a person making a certain choice, you can
still support them if your lens to look at them is filtered with the idea of
choice and authority. In fact, we would all be better off if we understood how
our conditioning impacts the choices we make and allow others to engage in what
they choose to do. Our assessment of others is made on an assumption of not on
who they are but who they are not, i.e. ‘not us’. So, when a Westerner meets a
Hindu who worships idols, they see someone who is unlike them and therefore
barbaric. And when a Hindu upper-caste vegetarian meets someone who eats meat,
to them they are impure. We are always judging ‘the other’ and the choices they
make based on our personal preferences, birthing a casual xenophobia with every
interaction.
I
once asked a dear friend what he would want to eat if he could only eat one
thing for the rest of his life and he said without a second thought, ‘Biryani.’
I said what about chicken fajitas and he made a face and said, ‘Not as good as
biryani.’ This ‘choice’ quandary is also why it is so tough to be objective
when looking at others and their way of life and the food they eat, and that
loss of objectivity fuels our narrow parochial desire to feel better than them
but, in some cases, makes them better per our standards like Kipling said about
‘the White man’s burden’. But humanity
has grown a lot more since Kipling and now, if you want to, it is not too
difficult to see others and not colour them by your expectations and to
appreciate the diversity they bring into your lives. Of course it is subject to
how you understand choice and, in some cases, how much you want to.
At
the end of the day, when you find yourself in a predicament over whom to side
with when you do not fully understand the choices they are making, an easy test
would be to stand by those who are fighting authority. Stand by those who fight
those who have more power. Stand by those who have no tools, just the courage
of their convictions.
Source:
Freepress Journal
https://www.freepressjournal.in/analysis/hijab-an-exercise-in-choice
-----
Everything
you need to know about International Day of Rural Women
by
Tanuj Chakravarty
October
15, 2022
Representational
image
---------
The
International Day of Rural Women is observed every year on October 15. This day
is dedicated to the women living in remote, rural places and celebrates the
achievements and contributions of these women towards agriculture and rural
development.
The
idea of empowering and honoring rural women was put forward by the United
Nations during the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995.
The UN suggested to observe October 15 as the International Day of Rural Women
to appreciate the contribution of rural women in agriculture, food production,
and food safety.
On
December 18, 2007, during the United Nations General Assembly, it was declared
in its resolution of 62/136 that October 15 would be celebrated annually as
International Day of Rural Women worldwide.
On
this day, various events and programmes are organised worldwide to recognise
and celebrate the efforts of women residing in rural areas across the globe.
Source:
East Mojo.
-----
Mumbai:
Muslim women reclaim their right to fitness
Oct
16, 2022
The
crowded Zakaria Masjid Street area at Masjid Bundar, a few minutes walk from
Mohammed Ali Road, is an unlikely place to boast of a women's fitness centre.
Eateries and pavement food stalls sit cheek-by-jawal at the Muslim pocket's
bustling streets . Aroma from myriad meat-based cuisines waft out, earning it
the nickname 'khao gully', especially during Ramzan.
Presence,
therefore, of a 'Ladies Fitness Centre' here signals a change in future
reputation of not just the area, but also suggests a wave of change sweeping
through the community where girls are not encouraged to choose fitness training
as a career.
Nine
months ago, Sheena Darvesh and Sameera Merani founded Ladies Fitness Centre and
Silent Helpers' Foundation. They say the Centre and Foundation go together.
Subsequently, four more girls joined the group.
"Since
we experienced the many benefits of working out regularly ourselves, we decided
to facilitate other girls and women to make working out a habit," says
Darvesh. She proudly declares that she doesn't need to cite someone else's example
to prove that regular workouts bring benefits. "Before I joined a gym, I
was overweight at 104 kgs. I have reduced to 68 kgs and look better, am more
confident as no one can call me moti (fat) any longer," laughs Darvesh.
"More girls in the community are becoming fitness trainers. But this
centre is not exclusively for Muslim women. Anyone can join." The women
choose it as a career because they love it. "Those who come to us
requesting to make them fitness trainers are told to first slog at the gym to get
toned, slim and flexible figure," says Meerani.
Fauzia
Shaikh joined this gym six months ago. She reduced her weight and looked fresh
so much so that she inspired many women in her family. "I used to feel
dull, tired and stressed before began stretching and working the treadmill
among other exercises. My sister-in-law and cousins saw the change in me and
decided to join a gym," says Fauzia who plans to become a personal trainer
and later open her own fitness centre.
Workouts
help not just shape up but feel positive "Many women face ailments like
irregular periods, back pain and obesity. If they workout, these conditions can
be controlled," says Darvesh.
What
is fuelling the desire to become fitness trainers is the craze to look good,
slim and fit among would be brides. They approach the master trainers with a
common request: "Aapamujhepatli aur acchidikhnehai (sister, I want to look
slim and attractive)." "Two or three months before the marriage
season begins, we see increase in registrations. There are married women who
visit us complaining about weight gain post-pregnancy," explains Merani
who has 60 students enrolled.
Seeing
the spike in demand to stay fit and become fitness trainers among women, these
enterprising trainers have also started mehndi classes, yoga, stress management
and meditation classes.
Source:
Times Of India
-----
Listen
— Iran: The protests, Islam and women
Mohamed
El-Doufani
16th
October 2022
Iranian
academic Dr FarhangJahanpour analyses the extraordinary protests that have been
sweeping Iran for the past month.
Since
the protests were triggered by the death of MahsaAmini, a 22-year-old Iranian
woman who died while in the custody of the morality police for being “inappropriately”
dressed — an incident that highlighted the status of women in the Islamic
Republic of Iran – Dr Jahanpour talks about what Islam actually says about
women and the hijab, and how this compares with the status of women in other
religions and cultures.
Source:
Redress Online
https://www.redressonline.com/2022/10/listen-iran-the-protests-islam-and-women/
-----
Hijab
Verdict Decoded: Why Essential Religious Practice Test Won't Serve the Muslim
Side
By:
Anusha Soni
OCTOBER
15, 2022
The
hijab debate in India is a clash of two established norms — the first
pertaining to individual religious expression, and the other about the freedom
of government-run schools and colleges to frame their own rules. The debate is
about institutional autonomy vs religious rights and the two judges of the
Supreme Court, who handed a split v`erdict in the matter, gave precedence to
one over another, hence differing in their final judgments.
While
it’s a split verdict, both the judges on the bench opine that the Essential
Religious Practice (ERP) will neither be applicable nor benefit the petitioners
in the case. Justice Hemant Gupta emphasised that the Constitution provides no
definition for the word ‘religion’ despite it being used in various Articles of
Part three of the Constitution that deals with fundamental rights. Justice
Gupta, who ruled in favour of the hijab ban in government schools of Karnataka,
thus gave precedence to the concept of ‘uniform’ in schools.
It
is argued in his judgment that if the state has taken measures in its wisdom
for reform and development, it is competent to do so. It said that if a
“practice/belief/part of any religion is in existence and is found to be
subjected to either social welfare and reform, such right will have to give way
to social welfare and reform”. The ban on hijab in classrooms qua regulation of
the dress code is termed reformist and hence upheld.
Here
is an interesting titbit from the judgment of Justice Gupta. Citing a
precedent, it was argued that Quran permits a Muslim man to marry four times
but if he doesn’t, the man doesn’t cease to be a Muslim, essentially
reiterating that everything prescribed in religion is not an essential
religious practice whose non-observance may affect the core beliefs of the
follower. (Javed and Others vs State of Haryana, 2003).
Source:
News18
-----
Ban
on hijab has liberated Muslim girls, says Shobha Karandlaje
Oct
15, 2022
UDUPI:
A day after the Supreme Court issued a split verdict on the right of Muslim
girls to wear the hijab inside the classrooms, Union minister of state for
agriculture and farmers' welfare Shobha Karandlaje on Friday defended the state
government's decision to ban the headscarf, which she said had freed the girls
of the community. Admitting that the case was likely to be transferred to the
Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court, Shobha, who was in Udupi, expressed
confidence of the judiciary acting in a manner that would ensure freedom for
all women.
"Muslim
girls don the hijab out of fear of the men, who are exerting pressure on them.
The girls should pursue higher education, and secure good employment,"
Shobha said. Weighing in on the ongoing agitation by the women of Iran against
the rule mandating the hijab, Shobha said, "In any religion, mistakes must
be identified, and corrected. The agitation by the women of Iran, I hope,
offers guidance to the Muslim women of India."
The
Bharat Jodo Yatra of the Congress had so far merely affirmed the former All
India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi's fitness levels, said
Shobha. "Rahul's dreams of evolving into a tall leader who ranks alongside
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will remain just that. How can someone who failed
to run his own party lead a nation? The people of India have rejected Rahul's
mental fitness," said the Union minister.
Reacting
to the arrest of a teacher who allegedly raped and murdered a 10-year-old girl,
Shobha pointed to the law to award death penalty to rapists having been passed
in the Parliament. "All states must enforce this law, in letter and
spirit," she said.
Following
reports of Belthangady MLA Harish Poonja being threatened in Farangipet, Shobha
attributed such acts to mounting frustration among the activists of the Popular
Front of India (PFI), following a ban on the outfit by the Centre. "The
incident reported at Farangipet is part of a series of such events being
orchestrated to trigger panic among us. Police must conduct a thorough
investigation into this incident, and ensure that the accused are meted out
harsh punishment," said Shobha.
The
Union minister said that, even before the PFI was banned, she had received
calls threatening her on those occasions when she had spoken in favour of the
Hindu religion. "I have been receiving similar threats on the internet
following the ban on PFI. It is difficult to trace such calls," she said.
Source:
Times Of India
-----
Desert
test brings out the best in ‘warrior’ women
AMEERA
ABID
October
15, 2022
JEDDAH:
Three young women from different backgrounds have had their friendship tested
in dramatic fashion as part of a reality show filmed amid the striking
landscapes and scalding heat of AlUla.
Saudi
Amy Roko, Egyptian Hadeel Marei and Sudanese Maha Jaafar have been friends for
years, but were forced to face individual challenges under extreme conditions
in “Dare to Take Risks,” which is due to stream on Discovery+ on Oct. 18.
The
show is set against the backdrop of different Middle Eastern countries, with
Dala Najjar, one of the producers, saying: “MENA’s fast-growing industry
inspired us to do something related to this region. Warner Bros. is committed
to further bringing its presence in MENA by increasing its resonance with the
regional audience.”
“We
wanted to have unique locations in the Arab world that have their character, so
here it was. We wanted to bring all the elements together — it should be
adventurous, beautiful, and interesting. If we could get a visually beautiful
place, then the content will also be beautiful and will attract the audience.”
The
show follows Roko and Marei, who are given a certain amount of money, while
Jaafar set out to make their journey through the challenges as difficult as
possible. They are asked to solve puzzles and face their fears — and if they
fail to complete a task, Jaafar takes away the money.
“We
started the planning process with one thing in mind, where we wanted the girls
to reach in the end,” AimaneZaimi, the designer behind the puzzles, told Arab
News.
The
Arab News team saw the production unit at work during the shooting of one
puzzle in which Marei and Roko searched through clues in a bid to find a
mystery object.
“Emotions
were at the backdrop of each puzzle; they were designed in a way that certain
emotions were prompted out of the participants. We also tried to create puzzles
that would enhance something in their personality or push them to do something
which was not the norm for them,” he said.
Zaimi
described it as the best experience he has ever had, adding: “When I work with
shows, my presence is not required. This is the first time I am traveling with
them. It is a big show, so it is all new and I am learning a lot.”
Mahmoud
Abdallah, the show’s director, said that filming with real personalities can be
more challenging than working with professional actors.
“You
never know what reactions you will get or what conversations will happen. These
can take the show in a very different direction, and you will have to be agile
in adapting to keep it authentic,” he said.
Despite
the physical and mental challenges, the three young women emerged from filming
saying their friendship had only been strengthened.
Jaafar,
who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for Sudan, said that “Dare to Take
Risks” has had an “extremely positive” effect on their relationship.
Roko
said: “For me, it’s just that every single day we spend together, we learn
something new about each other. But if there is something that got solidified
and crystalized in front of my eyes is that Hadeel is a warrior. Her burning
passion for bringing the right energy to the set made me realize how lucky I am
to have a friend like that, and that inspired me.”
“I
don’t see a lot of representation of plus-size people doing these things; it is
always the athletic, fit adrenaline junkies. I never thought that my body could
withstand that kind of a challenge.”
Roko
said that being authentic, remembering their core values, and being respectful
and accepting of each other’s cultures helped their friendship survive the test
in the desert.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2181591/saudi-arabia
-----
Pakistan
Women’s team features in FIFA Rankings after six years
By
A Sports
October
15, 2022
ZURICH:
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) reinstated
Pakistan’s women’s team to the FIFA rankings table on Monday, after a six-year
absence.
Following
the national women’s team’s historic 7-0 victory over the Maldives in the
recently-held SAFF Women’s Championship 2022, the football governing body has
added back the national side to the rankings table.
Following
their reinstation in the rankings table, the green shirts occupied the 160th
rank with a total of 928.4 points.
It
is worth mentioning here that the SAFF Women’s Championship 2022 marked the
first tournament in which Pakistan was taking part after FIFA lifted the ban on
the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) on June 29.
Source:
Sports.Tv
https://a-sports.tv/pakistan-womens-team-features-in-fifa-rankings-after-six-years/
-----
Iran
protests: Joe Biden says US stands with ‘brave women’ after MahsaAmini death
Sat
15 Oct 2022
Joe
Biden has said he is “stunned” by the mass protests in Iran and that the US
stands with that country’s “brave women”.
The
US president said at a college in Irvine, California, during an address to a
group of protesters holding “Free Iran” signs: “I want you to know that we
stand with the citizens, the brave women of Iran.”
Biden
said: “It stunned me what it awakened in Iran. It awakened something that I
don’t think will be quieted for a long, long time.”
Iran
has seen its biggest wave of demonstrations in years after the death of
22-year-old MahsaAmini following her arrest by the morality police. More than
100 people have been killed since, according to Oslo-based group Iran Human
Rights.
The
unrest has continued despite what Amnesty International called an “unrelenting
brutal crackdown” that included an “all-out attack on child protesters”,
leading to the deaths of at least 23 minors.
Biden
spoke briefly about the Iran protests ahead of a speech on lowering costs for
American families in Irvine, near Los Angeles, which has a large Persian
community.
“Women
all over the world are being persecuted in various ways, but they should be
able to wear in God’s name what they want to wear,” the president said.
Iran
“has to end the violence against its own citizens simply exercising their
fundamental rights”.
Biden
told the local Persian community: “I want to thank you all for speaking out.”
Source:
The Guardian
-----
The
chant of ‘Women, Life, Liberty’ echoes around Iran
John
Dobson
October
15, 2022
Those
watching TV in Iran last Saturday had a huge surprise. As the presenter of the
9 p.m. bulletin read out the normal pro-regime-biased news, a mask suddenly
appeared on the screen, followed by an image of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
with flames around him and a target on his head. Alongside were images of
MahsaAmini, the 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been detained by Iran’s
morality police for not covering her hair properly and who died in custody on
16 September. Also on the screen were photos of three other women killed in
recent protests. Two captions accompanied the images, one saying “join us and
rise up”, the other “our youths’ blood is dripping off your paws”. The
interruption lasted only a few seconds before being cut off, but the message
was clear: join the insurrection. A group called “Adalat Ali”, or “Ali’s
Justice” had hacked the state-run broadcast, much to the fury of Iran’s
theocratic regime.
MahsaAmini’s
death had sparked an unprecedented wave of protests across the country in
which, according to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights, at least 201 people,
including 28 children, have been killed across 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces. As
the regime has shut down the internet, verification of the numbers massacred
has been difficult. The protestors initially sought to push back on what people
saw as the morality police’s heavy-handed enforcement of Iran’s dress code and
violent treatment of young women. But now, after four weeks, the protestors
could even bring down the regime itself.
Since
Iran’s popular uprising in 1978-79, which resulted in the toppling of the
monarchy and led to the establishment of an Islamic republic, women have been
second-class citizens in the country. They have no laws to protect them from
gender-based violence. They cannot travel without the permission of their
husbands or next-of-kin male. Women cannot become judges serving on the Guardian
Council, nor can they become president or supreme leader of the country. Most
shocking of all, the inception of the Islamic Republic, saw the legal age of
marriage for girls lowered from 18 to 9. This was later raised to 12, but girls
as young as 9 can still be married with the permission of their father or a
judge. For more than 40 years, women in Iran have not only been fighting
against compulsory hijab, but also for their right to choose what they study
and what jobs they can hold. Despite all this, women are far more educated than
men, a testament to their tenacity and a driving force in their fight for
freedom.
The
bitter reality is that the Islamic Revolution in Iran has created an apartheid
state for women, who are separated from men in the workplace, in classrooms and
on beaches. They are banned from attending sports arenas, riding bicycles and
even singing solo in public.
Women
in Iran must even sit at the back of buses. According to the World Economic
Global Gender Gap Report of 2022, Iran ranks 143 out of 146 countries, with
only the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Afghanistan performing
worse.
While
Iran has become accustomed to mass protests every decade or so, neither the
student protests of 1999, which called for the replacement of the Islamic
Republic with a government that upheld the ideas of a secular democracy, nor
the protest in 2009 against the rigged elections which brought the brutal
Mahmood Ahmadinejad to power, or even the “Bloody November” protests of 2019
when according to Amnesty International 321 people died, has there been such
fighting back against the security forces. Police patrol vans have been
toppled, government bill-boards have been torn down, and pictures of the
founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, have been set on fire. The
movement’s slogan, “Women, Life, Freedom” is being chanted loudly around the
country—the first time in Iranian history that a chant is demanding something
positive, rather than the end to, or the death of, someone or something.
What
differentiates the current protests from the past is that they have been female
led, perhaps for the first time in history. Women have been both the spark and
engine driving the protests, taking to the streets in vast numbers. Young
Iranians, including teenagers, university students and schoolchildren have been
heavily involved in the demonstrations. Despite the dangers of arrest and
death, women have not only been removing their hijabs, but have been setting
them ablaze, cutting their hair in protest and chanting “we don’t want an
Islamic Republic”. This presents an enormous challenge to the authorities
because the issue of women’s hijab, the covering of women’s heads, is one of
the pillars of their revolution. To give in on that would knock down that
important pillar and question the continued viability of the revolution and the
regime itself.
A
particular problem for the authorities is the age of the protestors. According
to the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, the average age of those
arrested is just fifteen. Day after day, on open streets and in gated schools,
young girls have captured the world’s imagination by a flood of tweets and
brazen videos ridiculing the theocracy that deems itself the government of God.
A
video appeared last week, widely shared on social media, of schoolgirls
giggling at their audacity as they stomped on a framed photo of the two Supreme
Leaders, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his successor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
who have ruled since the 1979 revolution. They ripped up the photos and threw
the pieces joyfully into the air. With their backs to the camera, the girls
formed a line and pulled off their head scarves, shouting “don’t let fear in,
we stand united”. Other girls were photographed again from the back in order to
protect their identities, raising their middle fingers at pictures of the two
Supreme Leaders. In another video from Karaj, schoolgirls gathered in front of
a male official and shouted in unison “get lost”, tossing their empty water
bottles at him as he fled through the gates of the school. Such audacity from
such young people is a new phenomenon in Iran.
While
the spark of the current protests was the brutal treatment of MahsaAmini,
beaten to death by the morality police for showing just a few strands of hair
from her standard hijab, the underlying strength of the growing movement comes
from decades of repression and oppression of any viable opposition to the
hardline clerical regime, from an economy in free-fall and the hypocrisy of the
ruling elite. These allow their own children to parade on the streets of Europe
and America in revealing outfits and to party in luxurious mansions purchased
with the stolen riches of their country. All at the time that they refuse to
allow women in Iran to even loosen their hijabs.
So
will these protests, now in their fifth week, bring the regime down? The
tentacles of the Revolutionary Guard, the defenders of the revolution, are
widespread and the idea that in Iran people can privately decide that they are
going to do something and keep it secret is difficult. The Guard and the
clerical establishment will lose everything if the regime falls, and will
therefore fight ruthlessly to make sure that it doesn’t. Although there is
currently considerable violence on the streets, with tear gas and metal pellets
being fired, there is still plenty left in the Revolutionary Guard’s lockers.
But this time they see their wives, mothers and daughters protesting on the
streets, which could cause them to hesitate. They are currently at a loss as
every week the protests are not subsiding, they are intensifying.
Last
week something also happened that might have sent shivers down the spines of
the theocratic leadership—workers at two oil refineries joined the protests by
staging strikes, later spreading to a major crude refinery in the southwest.
This is reminiscent of the steps that led to the Iranian revolution four
decades ago.
Then,
a combination of mass protests and strikes by oil workers and shopkeepers
helped to sweep the clergy to power. Today, the memory of oil workers is
omnipresent, so could history be about to repeat itself, this time by protests
and strikes sweeping the clergy out of power?
Source:
Sunday Guardian Live
https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/world/chant-women-life-liberty-echoes-around-iran
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Shaheen
Akhtar’s ‘Beloved Rongomala’: A complex tale of love, gender and class
Oct
16, 2022
Aradhika
Sharma
Shaheen
Akhtar’s stunning book reads less like a novel and more like a fable of yore,
full of grand passions, overweening ambitions, treachery, stories behind the
story and subplots. It tells of the relationships between Raj Chandra
Chowdhury, a petulant feudal king, his childlike wife Phuleshwari, and his
low-caste mistress Rongomala, whose beauty is unparalleled. The plot plays out
in the small kingdom of Bhulua in southern Bangladesh, where the king,
oblivious of the threat of the increasing influence of the British East India
Company, plays his idle pleasure games. Owner of a crumbling estate, he still
lives in the glory of erstwhile times, while his family and courtiers spend
time in family feuds and palace intrigues.
‘Beloved
Rongomala’, originally ‘ShokhiRongomala’, is the award-winning Bangladeshi
author’s third book. At the centre of the plot is the murder of Rongomala,
which Akhtar transforms into a saga of class and gender struggle. While
Rongomala has the minor king, Raj Chandra, irrevocably under her spell even as
the family wealth of Queen Phuleshwari is the reason for the king’s affluence,
the power in this gender equation clearly lies with the man. A foolish and vain
king dominates the women, including the queen mother, Ma Shumitra.
The
book is full of evocative sensual pictures — women running to pick the fallen
mangoes after a storm, the enigmatic mountains of Tripura, the star-studded sky
that hangs over a calm sea, smoke wisping in the air, and the crows cawing and
shrieking as they soar overhead in hundreds. The humid greenery of the marshy
region of Samatata, the hard summer heat and the torrential rains add to the
heavy atmosphere of the book. The marsh is home to the marginalised Mog
community of lake diggers, to which Rongomala belongs. She lives in Nor House,
a cottage on stilts inside a lake, which later becomes her and the king’s
pleasure house.
The
fate of the two women — the wife and the mistress — intertwines. While the
concubine is ambitious and charming, the wife is the eternal child bride,
occupied in “feeding, bathing and play-weddings of her pet birds”. Intensely
jealous of Rongomala, she imagines her even in the act of lovemaking with her
husband. The women characters are well fleshed out and seem better equipped for
survival than the men. Even as they must succumb to the dictates of the man,
they are not victims. Rongomala herself rebels against her reduced status as a
lower caste woman. Her immortality and fight for wealth is punished. “That
unfortunate girl had perished because of her fancy to have a lake cut in her
name — an honour a lowborn woman couldn’t claim.”
Shabnam
Nadiya’s translation does full justice to Akhtar’s cinematic prose. She has
captured the cultural nuances and contextual allusions of southern Bangladesh
in the 18th century. The translation retains Akhtar’s lyrical tone and
storytelling style.
Source:
Tribune India
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/reviews/story/complex-tale-of-love-gender-class-441730
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/aimim-up-chief-muslims-marry/d/128189