Dubai Police Unveils First All-Woman Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) Team
New Age Islam News Bureau
13 January 2023
• Tunisia Hands Prison Terms To All-Women Extremist
Group
• Suspended Aid Chief To Ask Taliban Leaders To Scrap
Ban On Female Workers
• Jewish Women’s Aid Appoints New Chief Executive
• Malala Yousafzai Boards ‘Stranger at the Gate,’
Oscar Shortlist Film About U.S. Marine’s Conversion to Islam
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/dubai-police-woman-swat/d/128867
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Dubai Police Unveils First All-Woman Special Weapons
And Tactics (SWAT) Team
Photo: GULF BUZZ
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12 Jan 2023
Dubai Police have revealed the city’s first all-woman
SWAT team.
As part of its efforts to empower women across all
policing disciplines, the Dubai Police General Command launched the unit.
Lieutenant General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri,
Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, said that the force is proud of its female
personnel, who are ambitious and eager to master every challenging field and
specialisation.
Dubai all-female SWAT team
“Our female officers break the norm by conquering
specialisations and fields that were dominated by men,” he said.
“In fact, women in Dubai Police have always been
present across all departments and have played vital civil and military roles.
“They have also held senior ranks and proudly
represented the force in many local, regional and international forums and
events,” he said.
Al Marri praised the all-women SWAT team for their
results during the 5th Police Championship for Specialised Teams in Alrowayya,
Dubai.
He added that they constitute a significant added
value to the police work and are role models for their peers towards
perseverance and excellence.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Obaid bin Yarouf Al Ketbi, Acting
Deputy Director of the General Department of Organisation Protective Security
and Emergency and Chairman of the Organising Committee for the UAE SWAT
Challenge 2023, said team members were selected based on a set criterion and
their passion for working in this field.
“They have received specialised training covering
every aspect of SWAT missions, including tactical shooting, raids, snipers and endurance,”
he said.
Source: Arabian Business
https://www.arabianbusiness.com/culture-society/dubai-police-unveils-first-all-woman-swat-team
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Tunisia Hands Prison Terms To All-Women Extremist
Group
A file photo shows Tunisian
anti-terrorism brigade officers cordon outside the Bouchoucha military base in
Tunis. (Reuters)
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12 January ,2023
Tunisia has jailed nine members of an all-women
“terrorist” group accused of plotting to assassinate a government minister,
media reported Thursday.
In the North African nation’s first known case of an
all-woman extremist group, two of the ringleaders were jailed for 25 years,
while the other seven were handed sentences ranging between three and 14 years.
One woman was acquitted.
The sentences were handed out by a court in the
capital Tunis on Tuesday, but Tunisia’s prosecution service has no spokesperson
and has not responded to journalists for months.
The justice minister declined to give further
information on the case.
The case dates back to 2016, when reports appeared on
social media of an attempt to assassinate then-interior minister Hedi Majdoub
during a visit to his parents – something his office denied.
Private radio station Mosaique FM reported that one of
the women lived next door to Majdoub’s parents, and was accused of passing
along information about his visits.
Following its 2011 revolt, which overthrew president
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisia
experienced a series of extremist attacks that killed dozens of people
including numerous security personnel and foreign tourists.
The authorities say they have made major progress
against extremists in recent years.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Suspended Aid Chief To Ask Taliban Leaders To Scrap
Ban On Female Workers
January 13, 2023
Kabul: The head
of a major aid group that suspended work in Afghanistan after the Taliban
banned female NGO workers said on Thursday he would write to the
administration's senior figures in Kandahar and ask them to change the policy.
Jan Egeland, the Secretary General of the Norwegian
Refugee Council, told Reuters it was crucial to engage with the leadership in
the southern city, home to the Taliban's supreme leader, Haibatullah
Akhundzada.
"The letter I'm drafting will say: We know you,
we worked in ... areas controlled by the Taliban for many years. You know us.
"You know that our female staff have always used
the hijab. They've had ... a male chaperone on longer travel. Your people are
suffering because of your ban on female workers. "
The Taliban administration last month ordered all
local and foreign aid groups to stop letting female staff work until further
notice.
It said the move, which was condemned globally, was
justified because some women had not adhered to the Taliban's interpretation of
Islamic dress code.
Many NGOs suspended operations in response, saying
they needed female workers to reach women in the conservative country.
Egeland, who visited the capital Kabul this week, said
officials there had told him they were in favour of women working at NGOs, but
that the order had come from Kandahar. Spokespeople for the Taliban
administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Egeland said he had arranged meetings in Kandahar with
the Ulema Council, made up of religious scholars, and the provincial governor,
as it was not possible for foreign humanitarian agencies to meet directly with
Akhundzada.
But after bad weather halted flights, he said he would
write instead and try to arrange online meetings.
He said he welcomed some signs of flexibility in
health and others areas, where some female and male workers worked alongside
each other. But he called for a full reversal of the ban.
"Our male staff cannot go to widows, single
mothers and their children, to all of the vulnerable female groups here and
thereby were prevented from doing all work," he said.
Source: ND TV
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Jewish Women’s Aid appoints new chief executive
By MICHELLE ROSENBERG
January 12, 2023
A Jewish charity supporting women affected by domestic
abuse and sexual violence has appointed the former head of WIZO as its new
chief executive.
Jewish Women’s Aid (JWA) said interfaith activist
Alison Rosen will begin in March, taking over from Naomi Dickson, who was asked
to lead the Jewish charity Norwood late last year.
Dickson, who has grown JWA during her eight-year
tenure, will now pass the mantle to Rosen, a former chief executive of The
Griffin Institute, a surgical training and medical research charity.
Rosen is an ex-chief executive of the Women’s
International Zionist Organisation (WIZO) who currently co-chairs Nisa-Nashim
Bushey, the Jewish Muslim Women’s Network, and is a founding trustee of Polly
for Women CIO, a charity offering free telephone support.
“Given the current financial crisis, it will be of
great significance to me to contribute to where women across the breadth of the
Jewish community really need help,” said Rosen.
“I am looking forward to working again within the
Jewish community and getting to know the various organisations in the wider
violence against women and girl’s sector.
“I aim to help grow the charity’s income so that the
ever-increasing need for services can be met, ensuring that no Jewish woman
needs to face domestic abuse and sexual violence alone.”
JWA co-chairs Madeleine Abramson and Caroline Ratner
said Rosen “has a passion” for the charity’s work and “an understanding of what
we need to do to drive the charity forward and meet the growing demands placed
on us as awareness of domestic abuse and sexual violence grows in our
community”.
Source: Jewish News
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/jewish-womens-aid-appoints-new-chief-executive/
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Malala Yousafzai Boards ‘Stranger at the Gate,’ Oscar
Shortlist Film About U.S. Marine’s Conversion to Islam
By Patrick Frater
13 Jan 2023
Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has boarded
the Oscar-shortlisted documentary short film “Stranger at the Gate” as
executive producer.
The film, which charts the surprising change of heart
of a PTSD-suffering former U.S. Marine who set out to bomb a mosque but instead
converted to Islam, was a prize winner at the 2022 Tribeca Festival.
“This film is a powerful true story of forgiveness and
redemption,” Yousafzai said in a statement. “I hope the film challenges every
viewer to question their assumptions and show kindness to everyone they meet.”
Directed by Joshua Seftel, “Stranger at the Gate” is
distributed by The New Yorker as part of the magazine’s New Yorker Documentary
series.
The film tells the true story of U.S. Marine Richard
“Mac” McKinney. Suffering from PTSD, McKinney decides to bomb the mosque in his
hometown of Muncie, Ind. When he arrives at the mosque to gather more
information for his plan, the congregants, including Afghan refugees and an
African American convert, welcome him and show him kindness. Soon after,
instead of committing an act of violence, McKinney converts to Islam and
becomes president of the mosque.
“At this time of division and hate, the story at the
heart of ‘Stranger at the Gate’ gives me hope,” Seftel said. “The heroes in the
film have inspired me to believe that love really can conquer hate.”
Yousafzai began her activism by blogging about life in
Pakistan under the Taliban and was shot in the head for speaking out. She
received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work for education and
equality. An Oxford University graduate and a self-professed TV fan, she struck
a multi-year programming pact with Apple TV+ in 2021 through Extracurricular
Productions, where she is president.
In October 2022, Yousafzai boarded “Joyland” as
executive producer. The film tells the tale of a young Pakistani man from a
patriarchal family who joins an erotic dance theater and falls for an ambitious
transgender starlet. Directed by Saim Sadiq, the film premiered in the Un
Certain Regard section at Cannes and was selected by Pakistan as its contender
for best international feature at the Oscars. It remains in the Oscars race,
having been included on the long list in the international feature category.
Yousafzai has also thrown her influence and media
attention on other film projects. This includes working with “Don’t Look Up”
director Adam McKay for a “Disorientation” adaptation and boarding an untitled
A24-Apple documentary about the matriarchal “haenyeo” society of fisherwomen
who live on South Korea’s Jeju Island.
Source: Variety
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