British Muslim Women Scared to Wear the Hijab or Even Leave Their Homes After Widespread Unrest
New Age Islam News Bureau
02 Sep2024
· British Muslim Women Scared to Wear the Hijab or Even Leave Their Homes After Widespread Unrest
· Iran Appoints Fatemeh Mohajerani as First Female Government Spokesperson
· Here’s How We Can Help Oppressed Women and Girls in Afghanistan
· Naseeb Crossing
· Aster Volunteers and Dubai Foundation for Women &Children Conduct Health And Wellness Initiative For Emirati Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/british-woman-hijab-scared-unrest/d/133106
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British Muslim Women Scared to Wear the Hijab or Even Leave Their Homes After Widespread Unrest
A Muslim woman waits for Friday prayers in Liverpool, one of the cities where race riots broke out this month. Reuters
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Nicky Harley
August 30, 2024
For two decades Baroness ShaistaGohir has been championing Muslim women’s rights and set up a charity to help those facing abuse and hate.
Since the UK was rocked by recent riots, following false information circulating online that the suspect in a fatal stabbing of three young girls was a Muslim asylum seeker, she has worked on compiling a report to address the impact on Muslim women.
The charity she founded, the Muslim Women's Network, has recorded a huge surge in calls to its helpline.
We had Islamic prayer signs on our front door to welcome guests and we had to take them down, so our house was not recognisable
Amina Atiq
A poll conducted by the charity, which she plans to present to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, found three quarters of women now feel unsafe compared with 16 per cent before this month's rioting.
Nearly one in five of the 200 people interviewed said they had encountered hostility since.
Damage caused by riots in the UK - in pictures
Tell Mama, a monitoring group that tracks complaints of anti-Muslim hate crimes, has said such rose fivefold during the riots when at least 10 mosques were attacked or threatened. For Baroness Gohir the trouble did not ease when the clashes ended.
“Our helpline has been overwhelmed with women concerned about what has been happening,” she told The National.
“The helpline we run is predominantly for abuse but over the last 12 months we have had women calling up over other issues of hate and during the recent riots we have seen a massive spike in incidents.
“Women are telling us that they thought the UK was the safest country in Europe, where they can practice their faith and wear what they want without fear of violence but now they are in shock.
“They knew there was always racism there but with the levels of violence seen recently they are worried not just for themselves if they wear a headscarf, but also for their children going to school.
“We have found they are worried about elderly people going to the shop, they have started doing shopping online because they are afraid to go out. They have started to go out in groups, [are] less likely to take public transport and have even received abuse while driving. They have been forced to change the way they behave and we need to address this.”
In Northern Ireland, schools near the sites of recent anti-immigration protests and racist attacks are to conduct risk assessments for the community as the new term starts.
Education Minister Paul Givan has written to a group of 400 Muslim women to reassure them that there has been a review of safety precautions at schools following the recent unrest.
Businesses owned by Muslims were targeted during race-related disorder in Belfast this month.
In Leeds a group has started Self Defence Sundays, a set of free hour-long classes for Muslim women, specifically to address issues triggered by the riots.
Yemeni-British poet Amina Atiq, who left Yemen aged four and grew up in Liverpool, told The National she and her family were forced into “lockdown” during the riots, too scared to leave the house.
Rioters attacked her local mosque, the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque in Liverpool, in which people were trapped inside.
She has been scared to leave the house in case she was a target due to wearing traditional dress and is anxious about returning to work in an educational establishment next month.
Poet Amina Atiq was too afraid to leave her home during the UK riots. Photo: Amina Atiq
“It has been a very scary time for Muslim women,” she said.
“We saw places where we have [previously] been safe attacked. I have stayed inside, it was like another lockdown for my family and I.
“We had Islamic prayer signs on our front door to welcome guests and we had to take them down, so our house was not recognisable. I’m really active and my dad goes running every day but we just didn’t go out. We did our food shopping online so it was delivered.
“I finally realised I cannot stay at home forever and the more I go out the more I realise another Muslim will feel safe too. I’m a lot more cautious, though, I would go out in sunglasses and headphones but now I don’t because I need to be able to see and hear if anything happens. Before this I felt safe. I’m worried about going back to work in September and travelling on my own.”
She is concerned there will be a rise in youth violence when schools start again.
“It seems like things have calmed down and because of the tough sentences people are having to face the consequences of their actions. But there needs to be work done in my city and others.
“I feel we will see the rise of youth violence, I feel anxious, especially with the young people going back to school. There were a lot of young boys involved in the rioting and I’m worried it will fuel tensions.
“I work to create peace and social cohesion through my creative writing. This is the first time I have felt differently. It is the first time in my life I feel like we have taken a massive step backwards, especially after the changes made by Black Lives Matter we have gone 10 steps back. There needs to be a lot of work done now to address what has happened. We need to be more vocal on Islamophobia and how to protect Muslim women and be a lot more aware.”
Baroness Gohir, who became a life peer following her work with Muslim women, will table a question in the House of Lords next month asking the government what the drivers of hate crime against Muslims are and how this can be addressed.
She has previously published a report on Muslim women’s experiences of the criminal justice system, which shone a light on the justice gap faced by victims of abuse, while her latest report, which will be published next month, focuses on the harm experienced by Muslim women during the recent unrest.
“We need all this hate and abuse logging now, so the government has a true picture of what is happening,” she said. “The aftermath of the riots are going to be felt for many years to come and I want to keep up the momentum.”
When Parliament returns from summer break she hopes to submit her report to each government department to push for tougher laws.
“I think the government needs to strengthen hate crime legislation and we need a campaign to encourage women to report it,” she said.
“There is an issue if the majority who experience it are not reporting it to the police. We need to reform the current system. I will taking this report to all the government departments to show them the impact hate crime has had on Muslim women before and after the riots, and ask what they are going to do about it.
“I want to make sure that the views of Muslims are being considered in that process. I want to make sure Muslims are informed and are shaping it. I hope our report will be a powerful tool to hold the government to account.”
She is also hoping to set up a dedicated helpline for Muslim women to report hate crime.
“It is really important as Muslim women are more likely to be affected by it,” she said. "In my opinion the situation in the UK has got to this point because the previous government did very little to tackle hate crime and it emboldened people to think racism was acceptable.
“There have been very few consequences on the far right until now and, only now after riots, are they being locked up with heavy consequences. They can now see there are consequences for hate crime.
Baroness ShaistaGohir is writing a report into how Muslim women have been affected by the UK riots. Photo: UK Parliament
“I do blame some politicians for what has happened, if they do not call people out then they will carry on. I would like to see stronger codes of ethics in Parliament.”
Her concerns have been echoed by the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which reviews all countries' records on race hate every few years.
It urged Britain to pass measures to curb hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric, which it said had played a direct role in fuelling the summer riots.
"[The Committee] is concerned about the persistence and in some cases sharp increase of hate crimes, hate speech and xenophobic incidents," it said, following a review of Britain's record.
This included racist and xenophobic speeches by politicians and public figures, it said.
Committee member Gun Kut identified a direct link between xenophobic speeches and racial violence, and raised concerns about institutional racism in Britain's policing and justice system. He urged Britain to set up a mechanism to investigate complaints.
"There is an obvious concern about hate speech by prominent figures in the public," he said.
Baroness Gohir said the views of Muslims need to be at the fore as the dust settles. “We can’t let this rest, we have to keep the momentum up and show the government what is truly happening on the ground,” she said.
“Muslims need a voice as we look to ways to address this.”
Source: thenationalnews.com
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/uk/2024/08/30/british-muslim-women-seeking-help-as-hate-surges-after-riots/
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Iran Appoints Fatemeh Mohajerani as First Female Government Spokesperson
Fatemeh Mohajerani
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August 28, 202
In Iran, for the first time, a woman will be the government spokesperson. At the suggestion of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and with the approval of the Cabinet of Ministers, Fatemeh Mohajerani was appointed as the first female government spokesperson.
Mohajerani, 54, is a Doctor of Business Administration from Edinburgh and has earlier served as the head of the Technical and Vocational Training University of Shariati (for women).
This is the latest appointment of a woman to a senior position. Besides her, three women hold high positions in the government including Shina Ansari who was appointed last week as head of the Department of Environment.
Pezeshkian administration has indicated appointing more women in the government.
Source: newsonair.gov.in
https://www.newsonair.gov.in/iran-appoints-fatemeh-mohajerani-as-first-female-government-spokesperson/
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Here’s how we can help oppressed women and girls in Afghanistan
1 Sep 2024
Your harrowing report on the worsening oppression of women in Afghanistan reminds us that our business in that country, despite the withdrawal of troops in 2021, is not done (‘Frightening’ Taliban law bans women from speaking in public, 26 August). Controversial though aspects of the Afghan campaign were, one undisputed success was the positive movement towards achieving the development goal of improving women’s education and rights. All that has been lost under the Taliban, and it would appear that they now wish to restrict women’s rights still further.
Short of another intervention, what can we do? For a start, we should open up the Afghan civil resettlement scheme still further: all those women thrown out of university by the Taliban should be offered visas and a chance to finish their studies in the UK. It will not be easy for them to get out, but it is not impossible.
Further, using the resources of the BBC World Service, we should offer a comprehensive distance-learning package to all women in Afghanistan.
The last element is to extract the costs of these measures from our bloated aid budget to Pakistan, which remains one of the major recipients of overseas development aid. While there is much need in Pakistan, it also manages to keep nearly 1 million (mostly) men under arms and has an active nuclear weapons programme. If it can afford those, it does not need our aid. Since the Pakistani spy agency, the ISI, has historically supported the Taliban, the country’s responsibility for the plight of Afghanistan’s women is manifest.
In effect, by providing Pakistan with aid, we are subsidising both its militarism and the oppression of Afghan women – this must stop.
Simon Diggins
Defenceattache, Kabul 2008-10
The situation for all Afghan women and girls is indeed dire, as spelled out in your editorial (20 August). Just when 11- and 12-year-old girls in Britain are about to start at their secondary schools, their contemporaries in Afghanistan are denied any education, and only a small minority are able to access teaching online. Many young girls are being forced into child marriages, especially if their mothers are impoverished widows, and prohibited from working outside the home. Their futures tragically damaged, their hopes crushed. What can be done for them?
Recently, I was able to put one such girl in Kabul, who had managed to learn English online, in touch with an 11-year-old schoolgirl here, and they are now joyfully corresponding – opening their hearts and minds to each other, each one learning about another sort of life.
Is this not an arrangement that we can spread across the country? Fostering such relationships between young girls from different cultures could be a source of hope for future peace.
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Source: theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/01/heres-how-we-can-help-oppressed-women-and-girls-in-afghanistan
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Aster Volunteers and Dubai Foundation for Women & Children conduct health and wellness initiative for Emirati Women
September 2, 2024
Dubai: In celebration of Emirati Women’s Day, Aster Volunteers, the global CSR arm of Aster DM Healthcare, in collaboration with the Dubai Foundation for Women & Children (DFWAC), successfully organized the second edition of “Noor – Dreams Empowered” at the Foundation’s Al Warsan facility. The event, themed “Women’s Role in Sustaining GCC’s Meteoric Rise for the Next 50 Years,” was a day dedicated to health and well-being, empowerment and recognition of 126 Emirati staff members of DFWAC.
The event commenced with a preventive medical screening and check-up session, facilitated by the Aster Volunteers Mobile Medical Bus, which was staffed with doctors and paramedics from Aster Hospitals and Clinics. Noor 2024 expanded its offerings to include comprehensive medical check-ups, including gynecological and general practitioner consultations, health awareness sessions, Basic Life Support (BLS) awareness training, and first aid training for the Emirati staff members of DFWAC.
This was followed by an inauguration ceremony, where Senior Leaders from Aster DM Healthcare, DFWAC along with Ms. Habiba Al Marashi, President of Arabia CSR Network, addressed the audience on the critical role played by women in shaping the future of UAE and the importance of sustainable development.
Commenting on the initiative, Ms. Alisha Moopen, Managing Director & Group CEO, Aster DM Healthcare FZC, said, “Emirati Women’s Day is a celebration of the incredible achievements and resilience of women of UAE. Through Noor 2024, we not only celebrate their contribution to the region’s development but also encourage them to take charge of their own health and well-being, while they take on greater roles in the sustainable development of UAE. At Aster DM Healthcare with 224 Emirati women employees, we remain committed to supporting the growth and well-being of the women who form backbone of our society.”
Aster Volunteers, in partnership with DFWAC, were honored to facilitate this knowledge exchange platform, which highlighted the significant contributions of Emirati women leaders and inspired the Emirati staff of the Foundation to continue their vital work in the community. The event was further enhanced by the distribution of gift hampers, featuring premium cosmetic products from Aster Pharmacy, as a token of appreciation for the participants’ dedication and hard work.
The event concluded with the distribution of mementos and gifts to the participants, symbolizing the shared commitment to health, well-being, and the empowerment of Emirati women. Noor 2024 stands as a testament to the enduring partnership between Aster Volunteers and the Dubai Foundation for Women & Children, and their shared vision of a future where women continue to lead and inspire.
Aster DM Healthcare also conducted an inspirational event for Emirati female employees who are a part of the company and contributing steadily to its progress and success.
About Aster Volunteers, the global CSR programme of Aster DM Healthcare
Aster Volunteers, the global corporate social responsibility initiative of Aster DM Healthcare, was launched on occasion of the company's 30th anniversary in 2017 and provides a platform which bridges the gap between people who would like to help with those in need. Driven by Aster DM Foundation, it focuses on various activities in healthcare, education, social empowerment, environmental sustainability, and disaster aid initiatives. 5 million+ lives have been touched by Aster Volunteers across various geographies engaging the registered volunteer force of more than 76,900 people and its associates as of March 2024.
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