Doa Al Aubra, First Muslim Woman From The Israeli Bedouin, Appointed Deputy Head Of United Hatzalah’s Rahat Branch
New Age Islam News Bureau
9 December 2024
· Doa Al Aubra, First Muslim Woman From The Israeli Bedouin, Appointed Deputy Head Of United Hatzalah’s Rahat Branch
· Saudi Designer, Wejdan Al-Faqiri Finds Inspiration In AlUla’s History
· Excluding Women from Medical Institutes Threatens the Future of Healthcare in Afghanistan
· Urgent Calls To Repatriate 'Terrified' Australian Women And Children From Syria
· A Step Forward For Egypt As Stakeholders Gear Up To Review Women's Land Rights And Tenure Security Guidelines
· America Is Silent About Christian Girls Kidnapped By Islamists
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/doa-al-aubra-muslim-woman-israeli/d/133976
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Doa Al Aubra, First Muslim Woman From The Israeli Bedouin, Appointed Deputy Head Of United Hatzalah’s Rahat Branch
08 Dec 2024
Doa Al Aubra, a volunteer emergency responder and a primary school teacher, is also training to become an ambulance driver. Photo courtesy of United Hatzalah
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Doa Al Aubra, a 30-year-old teacher from the Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat, made history when she was appointed deputy head of United Hatzalah’s Rahat branch. She is the first Muslim woman to hold this leadership position in the emergency medical services organization.
Al Aubra first joined the volunteer-based United Hatzalah in 2022. Her decision to become a first responder was met with initial skepticism from some in her community who were unaccustomed to seeing a hijab-wearing woman in this role.
“At first, people thought it was strange for a religious woman to volunteer in this way,” Al Aubra explained. “But over time, they realized how important it is, especially when the patient is a woman.”
Over time, though, Al Aubra became many residents’ first point of contact in a medical emergency. “Sometimes, a familiar face makes all the difference in a crisis. People feel more comfortable, and that’s what matters,” she says.
Al Aubra’s commitment to emergency medical services stems from a personal tragedy: the loss of her mother in a car accident when she was 10 years old. She is also motivated by the often slow ambulance response times in her community.
“It could take 20 minutes or more for an ambulance to arrive. That’s too long when someone’s life is on the line,” she reflects. “That’s why I believe so strongly in what we do.”
In addition to her new role as deputy branch head, Al Aubra continues to teach in a primary school, while also serving as a first responder, teaching first-aid courses and training as an ambulance driver.
United Hatzalah’s Rahat branch head, Jaber Abu Jaffar, praised Al Aubra’s appointment. “She’s the most deserving person for the role,” he said. “Her commitment is unmatched.”
Source: israel21c.org
https://www.israel21c.org/trailblazing-deputy-emt-marks-a-first-for-muslim-women/
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Saudi Designer, Wejdan Al-Faqiri Finds Inspiration In AlUla’s History
December 08, 2024
Drawing from the unique essence of her surroundings, Saudi designer Wejdan Al-Faqiri crafts designs that echo heritage and embody the region’s identity. (SPA)
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RIYADH: In AlUla, a region rich in history and natural splendour, young Saudi designer Wejdan Al-Faqiri finds her muse. Drawing from the unique essence of her surroundings, she crafts designs that echo heritage and embody the region’s identity.
Al-Faqiri’s venture into clothing design stems from her deep appreciation for AlUla's details, evident in her creations and her love for handicrafts, according to a Saudi Press Agency report.
Recognizing the potential in AlUla’s scenic beauty, such as rock formations and date palms, and historical sites, including ruins, Al-Faqiri translates these elements into products that narrate the essence and long-standing stories of the region.
From clothing to accessories and sculptures, Al-Faqiri’s creations feature natural materials like wool and dates. Her work is characterized by earthy colors and motifs inspired by Nabataean art, the SPA reported.
Al-Faqiri’s designs have garnered praise from tourists and visitors. Through her artistry, she aims to shine a spotlight on heritage preservation and the repurposing of discarded materials.
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2582253/saudi-arabia
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Excluding Women from Medical Institutes Threatens the Future of Healthcare in Afghanistan
9 December 2024
MSF gynaecologists check the medical records of mothers at Khost Maternity Hospital.
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Excluding women from medical institutes will impact women's health in Afghanistan. The announcement from the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan to bar women from studying in medical institutes will have far-reaching consequences on women’s health in the country, said Doctors Without Borders (MSF) today.
This is another stage in the removal of women from public and professional life. The insufficient number of female healthcare workers in the country already impacts the availability of healthcare in Afghanistan, especially given the separation of male and female hospital wards. New constraints will further restrict access to quality healthcare and pose serious dangers to its availability in the future.
“There is no healthcare system without educated female health practitioners”, says Mickael Le Paih, MSF’s Country Representative in Afghanistan. “At MSF, more than 50 percent of our medical staff are women. The decision to bar women from studying at medical institutes will further exclude them from both education and the impartial provision of healthcare.”
The medical needs in Afghanistan are huge, and more women Afghan medical staff need to be trained to address them. For this to happen, women need to have access to education. The education restrictions put in place in 2024, 2022 and 2021 considerably reduce the availability of future female medical staff. In Khost, one of MSF’s busiest maternities worldwide, it is already challenging to fill all necessary positions – including midwives and gynaecologists – and female staff are essential for maternal healthcare programmes. From January to June 2024, MSF assisted 22,300 deliveries.
“If no girls can attend secondary school, and no women can attend university or medical institutes, where will the female health professionals of the future come from and who will attend to Afghan women when they are at their most vulnerable? For essential services to be available to all genders, they must be delivered by all genders,” continued Le Paih.
MSF in Afghanistan remains committed to serving all those in need of medical care by continuing to advocate for women to have continued access to medical education and education more broadly.
MSF runs seven projects in Helmand, Kunduz, Herat, Khost, Kandahar and Bamyan, focusing on delivering secondary healthcare. In 2023, MSF teams were responsible for over 132,600 outpatient consultations, 96,000 inpatient admissions, 383,600 emergency room consultations, 15,200 surgical interventions, and assisted 45,260 deliveries. There were 10,500 patients enrolled in the ambulatory therapeutic feeding centres and 12,500 patients admitted to inpatient therapeutic feeding centres.
Source: msf.org.za
https://www.msf.org.za/news-and-resources/press-release/excluding-women-medical-institutes-threatens-future-healthcare
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Urgent calls to repatriate 'terrified' Australian women and children from Syria
9 December 202
Zahra and her three boys are among at least 34 Australians have been detained in Syrian camps for five years after the fall of the Islamic State group's self-proclaimed caliphate. Source: SBS / Dateline
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A new push to bring home Australian women and children held in Kurdish-controlled Syria has been given added urgency following the weekend fall of Syria’s Bashir al-Assad government, say family members and a children's rights group.
The 42 Australian citizens are detained in camps in a north-eastern pocket of Syria controlled by US-backed Kurdish forces. This region was not taken by the rebel forces that captured the capital, Damascus.
The future of the Kurdish-controlled region, however, is uncertain but faces potential threats from the Islamist rebels and their Turkish backers.
Türkiye has long attacked Syria’s Kurdish forces with airstrikes, claiming they’re aligned with a Turkish-Kurdish independence movement.
KamalleDabboussy, whose daughter and grandchildren were repatriated from Syria in 2022, says the remaining Australian women and children there are "terrified".
"They are scared for their lives — the fear is palpable," he says.
Dabboussy says the women "report a reduction in the number of guards" at their al-Roj detention camp, where it’s believed the guards are being redeployed to reinforce Kurdish defences elsewhere.
CEO of Save the Children Australia, Mat Tinkler, says he’s "deeply concerned" about their deteriorating security situation.
"For years we have been urging the Australian government to act before it’s too late," he said.
"We urge the Australian government to arrange for the group’s immediate repatriation before the situation becomes even more volatile."
Sources close to the families say the Australian government has intervened to secure the relative safety of two Australian children by requesting they stay under their mothers' care in the camp.
The two boys are both 12 years old or over and are at risk of being moved into men's jails.
Human Rights Watch has documented that boys are routinely taken to "rehabilitation centres" or adult prisons once they become teenagers.
Dabboussy says with fewer Kurdish guards at the camp, the risk of the boys being taken away is greater.
In February, SBS Dateline met one of the Australian boys, Mohammad, in the al-Roj camp.
His mother, Zahra Ahmad, shared her fears of losing her sons at the time.
"If they take them away from me, I might never see them again," she told Dateline.
"I can't have that happen to my kids.
"They are innocent. They haven't done anything wrong. I don't believe they should be punished for something they don't even have anything to do with."
Zahra Ahmad’s uncle in Melbourne, Abraham Abbas, is wracked with concern for his 13 family members in the camp
He says his "main concern would be the rebels taking control of the camp."
"We're thinking about them day and night, and especially the children. Until they're safe, I don't think we'll be able to rest."
"I'd like the Australian government to... repatriate them as soon as possible," he says.
Originally from suburban Melbourne, the circumstances of how Zahra Ahmad’s extended family came to be in Syria are contested.
Some male members of her family reportedly joined the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) group, but Zahra maintains the women had no choice but to follow.
"I didn’t make this bed," she said.
When the IS group was defeated in early 2019 by US-backed Kurdish forces, surviving women and children were detained in camps while men and teenage boys were sent to prisons.
In October 2022, the Albanese government repatriated four Australian mothers and their 13 children from al-Roj camp.
But 14 Australian women and 28 children were left in Syria.
In 2023, Save the Children Australia took the Australian government to the Federal Court to compel them to repatriate the remaining Australians but lost the case.
At a Monday press conference, SBS News asked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese if there were efforts to get the remaining Australian children out.
He said he’d been "briefed" on Syria, but that at "this stage, there’s no change to the assessment that’s been made there."
The governing Kurdish forces have long called for countries such as Australia to repatriate its citizens, arguing that guarding foreigners diverts their forces away from other needs.
SBS has also counted 13 Australian men detained in north-eastern Syria, bringing the total number of known Australians held in the region to 55.
One of the men is Yusuf Zahab, a young Australian once declared dead only to be found alive by SBS Dateline in February.
Now 21, he was separated from his mother at the age of 15 and imprisoned as an unaccompanied minor alongside adult IS group fighters. His situation is understood to remain unchanged.
Zahab, who is originally from the Sydney suburb of Bankstown, says he hasn't completed his medication course for tuberculosis and fears he’ll die in prison.
Fionnuala D. NíAoláin, a former UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, previously reported that there is an undercount of people arbitrarily detained in north-eastern Syria, where their confinement conditions include overcrowding, rampant tuberculosis and physical torture.
A Kurdish spokesperson has previously denied any mistreatment of prisoners.
Watch Dateline's award-winning documentary about Australians who remain in indefinite detention in north-eastern Syria.
Source: sbs.com.au
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/dateline/article/urgent-calls-to-repatriate-terrified-australian-women-and-children-from-syria/jtvzkofsl
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A step forward for Egypt as stakeholders gear up to review women's land rights and tenure security guidelines
9 December, 2024
Sharm El-Sheikh, 9 December 2024: As a critical aspect of implementing the pursuit of and fulfilling the tenets of The AU Declaration on Land Issues and Challenges in Africa, the Economic Commission for Africa and have convened stakeholders to review draft guidelines on women’s land rights and tenure security in Egypt from 10-12 December 2024.
“The involvement of member states is key to championing the process of turning decisions into action on key AU decisions. This work entails moving the dial on the AU Gender agenda on land and the decision made by the Specialized Technical Committee, which in 2016 committed Member States to a minimum 30% target for women’s documented land rights – a related 30% campaign has been in place since, explains Joan Kagwanja, Coordinator of the AU African Land Policy Centre hosted by ECA, ahead of the review meeting.
“According to Ms. Kagwanja, “addressing the complexity of land issues and related challenges is about ensuring that land laws provide for equitable access to land and related resources among all land users, including the youth and other landless and vulnerable groups such as displaced persons.”
She adds that reviews such as the one in Egypt are key to strengthening the security of land tenure for women and require active engagement by stakeholders and more importantly, special attention by relevant ministries.
“However, a part of this work is ensuring the guidelines are practical, comprehensive, useful, and reflective of the diverse contexts across Africa; everyone involved, including affected women, is central to ensuring the guidelines are technically sound, culturally sensitive and readily applicable,” stresses Ms. Kagwanja.
The participatory approach being applied in Egypt ensures the guidelines are well aligned with on-the-ground realities, as this will pave the way for their successful adoption and implementation across the continent.
Source: uneca.org
https://www.uneca.org/stories/a-step-forward-for-egypt-as-stakeholders-gear-up-to-review-women%27s-land-rights-and-tenure
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America is silent about Christian girls kidnapped by Islamists
8 December, 2024
In Egypt, Islamists continue to kidnap Coptic Christian girls and women who are sexually abused, forced into marriages and conversion to Islam, yet America and its human-rights community ignore these crimes.
Julia Atef, a 21-year-old Coptic Christian woman, was kidnapped by Islamists in broad daylight on her way to a church event near Cairo on Oct. 26. As the Coptic Solidarity reported on Nov. 2:
“The girl’s family went and filed a report with the Shubra El-Kheima Second Police Department, No. 29760 for the year 2024, Shubra El-Kheima Administrative Department, and her fate has not yet been revealed.”
Julia’s is not an isolated case. Within the past decade, hundreds of Coptic girls have been kidnapped, raped and forcibly converted to Islam.
As Raymond Ibrahim, an expert on the history of Egypt and the Middle East, reported:
“On Jan. 22, 2024, Irene Ibrahim Shehata, 21, disappeared in between mid-term exams at the Faculty of Medicine at Assyut National University, where she was a second-year student. Her frantic family immediately went to the police. Although charges were eventually brought against a man whose identity is concealed, from the start police were uncooperative and even hostile to the family.”
About four months later on May 10, another Coptic Christian woman, Martina Mamdouh (22 years old), was taken by a Muslim man from Cairo University. The culprit sent Mamdouh’sfather a certificate to demonstrate her “conversion: to Islam. While in tears, Mamdouh’s mother appeared in a video circulated on social media, where she asked the Egyptian authorities and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to intervene in her return. She was then rescued.
Lindsay Rodriguez, director of development and advocacy of the organization Coptic Solidarity, told JNS:
“It is hard to get exact statistics because so many families are pressured to retract their reports under threats. If a girl is returned, the families almost never speak out because it is a sort of informal trade to not create more awareness and expose the crimes in exchange for the return of the woman.”
Tragically, the American administration—and nearly all the cultural institutions in the West –– are silent about these horrors while it could act powerfully on behalf of the women captives. According to Coptic Solidarity:
“The U.S. Embassy in Cairo and the State Department should be raising these cases of abductees, urging the immediate return of abducted Coptic women, that the perpetrators are brought to justice … ”
“These cases should be included in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), published by the State Department. The U.S. and other governments should raise this issue during Egypt’s Universal Periodic Review as well to apply pressure on the Egyptian government to stop ignoring crimes against the indigenous Coptic women of Egypt.”
The problem is that America and its human-rights groups are generally silent when it comes to the treatment of non-Muslims in Muslim-majority countries. This is so even when the minorities are the very people—blacks, women, religious minorities and LGBT+—that we go to great lengths to protect in our own society. And it remains U.S. policy even in cases that would normally tug at the heart.
In Egypt, for example, minority Coptic Christians have for centuries experienced severe persecution. Their historic churches are often degraded or destroyed. Permission to build new churches is obstructed. Many Copts have been killed for faith-related reasons or arrested on “blasphemy” charges. Egyptians are forbidden to change their religious faith from Islam to Christianity. The current constitution of Egypt specifies Islam as the state religion and the principles of Sharia as the main source of legislation. Yet nowhere in American educational institutions will students learn of such matters, and they remain invisible in American foreign policy and are of little interest to our human-rights behemoths: Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch.
Yet they are the sort of underdogs that Americans typically warm to: Copts are the indigenous people of Egypt. According to the Coptic Solidarity,
“Copts are Egypt’s ethno-religious population that identifies as the descendants of ancient Egyptians, demonstrated by their DNA, their undeniable link to the land of Egypt, unique language, calendar and traditions that root back to the ancient Egyptian civilization. There’s been a historical continuity of discrimination against Copts since the first Arab invasion of Egypt in 693 C.E. and how their situation has evolved until current times.”
Islamic conquests of vast areas of the Middle East and Africa, and Islam’s treatment of those conquered are mostly unknown to Americans because they are forbidden topics to American educators and government spokesmen. Yet the basic historical facts about these conquered peoples have shaped the modern world. Egypt was once a Christian country with a sizable Jewish community. It was part of the Roman and Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empires from 30 C.E. to 642 BCE.
The Islamization and Arabization of Egypt mirrors that of many conquered African nations, where the same American and Western silence prevails. In Egypt, these processes started the moment Arab Muslims invaded in the seventh century. Demographic changes then began through the (mostly forced) conversions of the Christian Egyptian populace to Islam. Arabic became the lingua franca following the Arab invasion.
From 1517 to 1914, Egypt was under Ottoman Turkish occupation. The Minority Rights Group notes:
“The Copts were persecuted by their Muslim rulers, in turn Arab, Circassian and Ottoman. Churches were destroyed, books burnt, and elders imprisoned. By the time the British had taken Egypt in 1882, Copts had been reduced to one-tenth of the population, mainly as a result of centuries of conversion to Islam.
“Arab Muslims governed Christians and Jews according to the rules of Islamic Sharia. According to Islamic law, they were viewed as dhimmi, i.e. non-Muslims granted a special status in return for paying a heavy poll tax. They had to wear different colors and clothes from Muslims, could not build new places of worship or repair old ones without permission, or construct them in such a way as to overshadow those of Muslims.”
Christians and Jews lived throughout the Muslim world as dhimmis—subjugated second-class people “protected” from violence by the majority as long as they paid a poll tax, the jizya, which is still demanded by radical Islamists today. Since the founding of Egypt, Copts have experienced this systematic discrimination, leading to their exodus from the country. Christians comprised around 20% of the Middle East and North Africa population a century ago. However, today, because of the decades-long persecution, they are less than 4%.
The life and suffering of the Coptic minority in Egypt is due to the Islamic invasion, dominance and ongoing persecution that occurs under Islamic rule. But it continues unchallenged because the entire matter remains a taboo subject in the West. Julia Atef, Irene Ibrahim Shehata, Martina Mamdouh and who knows how many others are victims of the West’s self-inflicted blindness. For shame.
Source: jns.org
https://www.jns.org/america-is-silent-about-christian-girls-kidnapped-by-islamists/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/doa-al-aubra-muslim-woman-israeli/d/133976