New Age Islam News Bureau
23
Feb 2020
The protesters are also supporting nationwide strike call by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad
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• Female Imam, Kahina Bahloul With Christian And Jewish Backgrounds Leads Prayer in Paris' First Mixed Mosque: Liberal Islam Or Western Influence?
• Demanding Repeal of The Citizenship Law,1,000 Jafrabad Women Block Delhi Road Over CAA, Back Bhim Army's Strike Call
• Saudi Arabia’s Reform Drive Empowering Women, Morgan Ortigas, US Diplomat Says
• Rising Divorces, A Sign of Justice, Not Arrogance
Compiled By New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/female-imam-kahina-bahloul-with/d/121131
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Female Imam, Kahina Bahloul With Christian And Jewish Backgrounds Leads Prayer In Paris' First Mixed Mosque: Liberal Islam Or Western Influence?
Riham Darwish
February 23rd, 2020
Photos of the first female Muslim imam to lead Friday prayer in Paris' first mixed-gender mosque prompted many angry responses across social media, especially among Arabic-speaking users who argued that her unprecedented prayer "goes against Islamic rules".
Kahina Bahloul, the founder of the Fatima Mosque, was born to a Muslim Algerian father and a French mother with Christian and Jewish backgrounds and grew up in Algeria where she studied law before moving back to France where she earned her doctorate in Islamic Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études.
According to Bahloul, the main premise of her mosque that she named after prophet Mohammad's daughter, is to be an example of liberal Islam.
At the Fatima mosque, men and women will be able to pray in the same room, unlike other mosques where they pray in separate rooms. Moreover, all sermons will be delivered in French by one of two imams: herself and Faker Korchane. Women will have the option of whether to wear the headscarf or not.
But news of Bahloul's first Friday sermon received strong backlash from social media commentators who condemned it and considered it "an un-Islamic prayer," saying that "only men are allowed to lead prayers in Islam."
Photos of the first female Muslim imam to lead Friday prayer in Paris' first mixed-gender mosque prompted many angry responses across social media, especially among Arabic-speaking users who argued that her unprecedented prayer "goes against Islamic rules".
Kahina Bahloul, the founder of the Fatima Mosque, was born to a Muslim Algerian father and a French mother with Christian and Jewish backgrounds and grew up in Algeria where she studied law before moving back to France where she earned her doctorate in Islamic Studies from the École Pratique des Hautes Études.
According to Bahloul, the main premise of her mosque that she named after prophet Mohammad's daughter, is to be an example of liberal Islam.
At the Fatima mosque, men and women will be able to pray in the same room, unlike other mosques where they pray in separate rooms. Moreover, all sermons will be delivered in French by one of two imams: herself and Faker Korchane. Women will have the option of whether to wear the headscarf or not.
But news of Bahloul's first Friday sermon received strong backlash from social media commentators who condemned it and considered it "an un-Islamic prayer," saying that "only men are allowed to lead prayers in Islam."
albawaba.com/node/liberal-islam-or-western-influence-female-imam-leads-prayer-paris-first-mixed-mosque
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Demanding Repeal of The Citizenship Law,1,000 Jafrabad Women Block Delhi Road Over CAA, Back Bhim Army's Strike Call
Reported by Sayed Ali Abbas Naqvi, Sukirti Dwivedi, Edited by Swati Bhasin
Delhi: February 23, 2020
New Delhi: Attempts are being made to clear an arterial road in northeast Delhi's Jaffrabad, blocked by around 1,000 women and about 500 men protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA, police said today. The protesters are also supporting nationwide strike call by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, who is leading demonstrations today over the Supreme Court order, which said that "quotas and reservations for promotions for government jobs is not a fundamental right".
Demanding repeal of the citizenship law, about 200 women began the sit-in near the Jaffrabad metro station last night; they were seen carrying national flags as they shouted "Azaadi (freedom)" slogans amid heavy police presence. The crowd swelled overnight as more women and children joined them. "We want freedom from CAA, NRC," said one of them. The metro station was temporarily closed this morning due to the protests.
The area has been barricaded. This morning, senior police officer Ved Prakash Surya said that policemen are holding discussions with the protesters to clear the road. "We are holding talks with the protesters so that they leave... they can't block a major road like this. We have called paramilitary security personnel also," he said.
This is the latest anti-CAA sit-in led by women in the national capital after Shaheen Bagh - the epicentre of demonstrations against citizenship law - inspired similar agitations across the country. A key road connecting the national capital to Noida, which was closed due to the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh, reopened yesterday after 70 days.
In December, thousands of protesters - holding placards and national flags - had gathered at Jaffrabad metro station against the citizenship law.
With blue bands on their arms, the women at Jaffrabad metro station last night raised ''Jai Bhim (Long live Bhim) slogans. Chandrashekhar Azad is leading protest marching today after the top court on February 9 said that states are not bound to provide reservation in appointments and promotions and that "quotas are not a fundamental right".
"I appeal to (members of) Bahujan Samaj that it is our fundamental right to raise voice against injustice, observe shutdown in a peaceful manner. People of the BJP will try to provoke you, do not get provoked," the 33-year-old, who was arrested in December over anti-CAA protests, tweeted this morning in Hindi.
In visuals shared by news agency ANI, he was seen holding a protest march in Maharashtra's Aurangabad.
Massive protests have swept the country against the citizenship law, which makes religion test for citizenship for the first time in India. While government says it will grant citizenship to minorities from three Muslim-majority neighbouring countries, critics have called the law "anti-Muslim".
https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/hundreds-of-women-block-delhi-road-back-bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-shutdown-call-2184296
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Saudi Arabia’s Reform Drive Empowering Women, Morgan Ortigas, US Diplomat Says
NOOR NUGALI
February 23, 2020
RIYADH: Few people outside Saudi Arabia grasp the scale of the Kingdom’s reform drive, especially in empowering women, a leading US diplomat has told Arab News.
“I was reminded of this … by a prominent Saudi woman, who is happy and proud of the reforms,” said US State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus.
“She made the excellent point that Saudi women have been strong, capable and educated for a long time.”
The woman told Ortagus that Saudi women wanted their peers in the US to understand them, not feel pity for them. “Saudi women are not in need of being rescued,” Ortagus said,
Ortagus lived in Saudi Arabia for almost two years after she was appointed deputy US Treasury attache in 2010, and has been revisiting for the first time since then.
“It doesn’t even seem like the same country,” she said. “I didn’t recognize it. I couldn’t believe that it was the same diplomatic quarter that I used to live in 10 years ago — it is totally transformed.”
Washington would always welcome Saudi input on Middle East issues, she said. “We’d love the Kingdom’s help on things like the peace plan and vision that Jared Kushner has laid out. It may not be a perfect plan, but if we’re ever going to have peace in this region, it’s going to come from Saudi Arabia getting in and being involved.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1631856/saudi-arabia
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Rising divorces a sign of justice, not arrogance
SA Aiyar
February 23, 2020
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has made headlines by saying divorce is commoner in educated and affluent families “because with education and affluence comes arrogance, as a result of which families fall apart.” In the ancient days that Bhagwat reveres, India had affluent and educated men. It did not have affluent, educated women. They were denied equal inheritance rights and education, and kept at the complete mercy of male masters. Social customs meant women could not stand independently on their two feet, so divorce was not an option.
Education makes people uppity and demand rights, and this outrages those with power. In the era of US slavery, laws made it a crime to educate slaves, for education might give the blighters notions of freedom or equality. In British India, Macaulay and other grandees in London sought to create a cadre of educated Indians to help run the colony. But that idea was hated by the British stationed in India, who loved illiterate peasants (that posed no threat) but hated educated Indians (who were uppity enough to talk of independence).
Ancient Hinduism had no formal divorce procedures. But women could be thrown out by their husbands even on the most outrageous grounds or false rumours (ask Sita).
Bhagwat should celebrate the fact that such terrible gender inequality is now forbidden by the Indian Constitution. This declares there can be no discrimination on the grounds of religion, caste, race, sex, or place of birth. Sadly, all ancient traditions — including Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and other faiths —practised all these forms of discrimination. The grey eminences that formulated the Constitution were educated, affluent and arrogant enough to ban the traditional discriminations of all religions.
Hindu tradition gave males power over property, marriage, occupation and all family matters. Marriages were financial deals between parents entailing dowry payments. Child marriage was standard. Katherine Mayo’s ‘Mother India’ lists examples of six-year-old girls hospitalised with crushed pelvises after forced sex with older husbands, who nevertheless wanted their wives back to meet their sexual needs.
Sati condemned women to be burned on the funeral pyres of their late husbands. Men were not expected to immolate themselves on their late wives’ pyres.
Fortunately, women are getting educated and affluent, and are no longer helpless pawns. They can think and act for themselves, including shedding undesirable husbands. Rising divorces are a sign that male tyranny is finally getting contested and punished. This is justice, not arrogance.
A Family Health Survey revealed that one-third of women above 15 years had suffered domestic violence, with broken bones, teeth and eye injuries. Yet only 14% of the sufferers sought to stop it. The good news — Bhagwat may disagree — is that women who went to school are more likely to report violence and will hopefully dump their torturers.
Every faith and tradition has a damnable record of oppressing women. Islam requires a raped woman to produce four witnesses, making it almost impossible for her to complain. Instant triple talaq is an outrage. Many Islamic countries force women to stay home and never move out unless accompanied by a male relative. In Iran, women cannot watch a football match because that will allow them to see exposed men’s legs, and that, apparently, will destroy Islamic society.
A Human Rights report in 2010 in Pakistan says almost 800 women were victims of “honour killings”. Tradition empowered village elders to order the rape, murder or barter of women for love affairs involving them or family members. India is not much better — honour killings continue here too.
Christianity discriminated against women too. Through most of history, Christian countries gave males a monopoly of property and other rights. St Thomas Aquinas, a great philosopher, declared that rape was less sinful than masturbation because rape contained the possibility of procreation, a noble Christian cause, while masturbation did not.
Roman Christian Emperor Constantine defined elopement as rape. If the female had consented, she was burned at the stake along with her male friend. If she had not consented, she was still considered an accomplice on the grounds that she could have saved herself by screaming for help.
Another terrible Christian tradition declared old widows to be devil-worshippers and witches, and so burned alive. The accusations were often brought by greedy male relatives wanting to seize the women’s property.
Fortunately, Europeans have now become affluent and educated enough to become what Bhagwat calls “arrogant”. They denounce ancient traditions as terrible crimes.
Bhagwat is educated and reasonably affluent. Let’s hope this makes him arrogant enough to denounce the many Hindu customs that mistreated women shamefully in the name of tradition.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Swaminomics/rising-divorces-a-sign-of-justice-not-arrogance/
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