Female Journalists of Middle East Resist Targeted Online Sexual Harassment Campaign
New Age Islam News Bureau
18
Jul 2020
•
Princess Reema Bint BandarElected as International Olympic Committee Member
•
Saudi Ministry of Islamic Affairs Appoints Female Workers in Medina Mosques
•
Muslim Woman Says Kansas City Area Gun Range Turned Her Away for Wearing Hijab
•
Muslim, Christian Women Collaborate to Support Vulnerable Families
•
Saudi Arabia’s Humanitarian Aid Center Discusses COVID-19 Impact On Women
•
Shahrdari Bam Confirmed As Iran’s Women Football League Champions
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/female-journalists-middle-east-resist/d/122407
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Female
Journalists of Middle East Resist Targeted Online Sexual Harassment Campaign
18.07.2020
Ola Al-Fares was hit by massive online abuse
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Two
prominent female Al Jazeera journalists have been targeted in what one
researcher described as an "industrial level" misogynistic campaign
by Saudi Arabian social media accounts, drawing condemnation from advocacy
groups.
News
anchor GhadaOueiss and Ola Al Fares were subjected to a barrage of sexual
allegations and innuendos about their successful careers in June after Oueiss
said her phone was hacked and images of her in a swimsuit were leaked.
Oueiss
and Al Fares had recently covered issues sensitive to Saudi Arabia, such as the
murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In
response, Ouiess notified Twitter but said they were slow to act. Last week,
she published her reaction in US newspaper The Washington Post, describing an
attack of 40,000 tweets in just a few hours that left her shaken. She said she
refused to be silenced.
Advocacy
groups such as the International Press Institute (IPI) and Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) said that such campaigns are part of a range of ways powerful
state actors target critics and highlighted Twitter's slow response.
"Political
leaders and others who target journalists, including with online harassment
campaigns, are essentially allowed to use these platforms to propagate these
campaigns," Courtney Radsch, the Advocacy Director at CPJ, told DW.
"While Twitter has acknowledged the problem of online harassment, they
haven't really come up with enough tools to address it."
Nationalism
goes digital
Marc
Owen Jones, a professor at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, where Al
Jazeera is based, told DW the campaign was amplified by local news
organizations reporting unverified tweets. Such campaigns are extremely common
and "systemic," he said.
"Many
of the accounts spreading this disinformation — doctored tweets and false
narratives based on misattributed images and slut-shaming — are against Saudi
law for example, yet no action is taken," Owen Jones said.
Oueiss
wrote that almost all of the accounts involved displayed Saudi flags and images
of Saudi and UAE rulers. Saudi Arabia has cultivated a new hyper-nationalism in
recent years, with influential social media accounts pushing government
narratives, according to an analysis by Saudi researcher EmanAlhussein,
formerly a fellow at the think tank European Council for Foreign Relations
(ECFR).
One
UAE-based Twitter user, responding to Owen Jones' analysis of the attack, said
that journalists who criticize Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and their leaders
"should be ready for everything."
'I
won't be silenced'
Numerous
studies have shown that women are targeted by online harassmentsignificantly
more often than men.
Nearly
two-thirds of female journalists have experienced online abuse, according to a
2018 survey conducted by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
"Another
worrying result is that the majority of abused respondents said these attacks
had had psychological effects such as anxiety or stress (63%), while 38%
admitted to self-censorship and 8% lost their job," the IFJ said.
A
report published last year by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) showed that the
Middle East was a particularly hostile region for journalists.
"As
a result of wars, persecution by authoritarian regimes, as well as the number
of journalists killed, threatened, silenced or forced into exile, most of the
region's countries are ranked low in the World Press Freedom Index," the
report said.
Improving
Twitter's response rate is essential in mitigating attacks but newsrooms are
also obliged to protect staff and freelancers, "so the burden of reacting
and preventing these attacks should not fall on the target," Javier Luque
Martinez, Head of Digital Communications at the IPI, told DW.
"Counter
speech" and journalists tracing back their own digital footprints to
minimize their exposure, especially before publishing on sensitive topics, are
among the measures recommended in the IPI's toolkit, Martinez said.
Oueiss
has taken "counter speech" one step further, declaring she will not
stop her critical coverage of the region. As she wrote in her op-ed: "I
won't be silenced by online attacks."
https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-female-journalists-resist-targeted-online-abuse/a-54224906
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Princess
Reema Bint Bandar Elected As International Olympic Committee Member
17
July 2020
Princess Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan has been
elected as a member for International Olympic Committee (IOC) during its
session on Friday. (Twitter: @alekhbariyatv)
-----
Saudi
Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud has
been elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after her
inclusion was approved during the sporting body’s 136th session.
The
IOC made the announcement on Friday in which Princess Reema joined four other
new members to take the sporting body’s total members to 105.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Honored
to be elected as a member of #IOC. Thank you to the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques King Salman, HRH Crown Prince, and @AbdulazizTF for their support. It
has been an honor to serve my community through the universal language of
sports,” Princess Reema tweeted after her election.
The
four others who join Princess Reema are World Athletics President Sebastian
Coe, ex-Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Cuban Olympic Committee
Board member Maria de la Caridad Colón Ruenes and Acting President of the
Mongolian National Olympic Committee Battushig Batbold.
Princess
Reema bint Bandar bin Sultan, is the daughter of a former long-time ambassador
to the United States. She became ambassador to Washington in February 2019,
making her the Kingdom’s first female ambassador.
The
Saudi Arabian princess has a long involvement and career in sports in the
Kingdom. In 2016, Princess Reema was appointed as the Undersecretary of the
Women’s Division in the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia. A year later,
she became the President of the Saudi Federation for Community Sports, making
her the first woman to lead a federation covering sporting activities for men
and women in the Kingdom.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/07/17/Saudi-Arabia-s-Princess-Reema-bint-Bandar-elected-as-IOC-member.html
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Saudi
Ministry of Islamic Affairs appoints female workers in Medina mosques
July
17, 2020
Tawfiq
Nasrallah
The female workers’ duties will include
supervising or managing in female’s departments of mosques.
Image Credit: TNS
-----
Dubai:
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Islamic Affairs has appointed female workers in
Medina mosques to serve in the female sections.
The
female workers’ duties will include supervising or managing in female’s
departments of mosques. The Ministry said it will still be supervising the
situation and supporting the workers wherever possible to help perform their
duties.
They
will also help control or maintain prayers with measures. Currently, this is
related to social distancing and preventing measures, in addition to developing
women’s advocacy and other activities related to the section of the mosque.
However,
this is not new or major change as the same have been seen similar setup in
Mecca and Madinah. But it will now be more normal to help and maintain the
safety of everyone.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-ministry-of-islamic-affairs-appoints-female-workers-in-medina-mosques-1.72652937
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Muslim
woman says Kansas City area gun range turned her away for wearing hijab
BY
ROBERT A. CRONKLETON
JULY
16, 2020
A
Lee’s Summit gun range discriminated against a Muslim woman by denying her
access to their facility, according to a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights
organization that demanded an immediate federal probe on Thursday.
Rania
Barakat said staff at Frontier Justice denied her access to the gun range after
she refused to remove her hijab, a religious head covering worn by Muslim
women.
“I’ve
encountered racism before, but it was never to the point that someone has told
me to remove my scarf in order to enter a facility to do any type of activity
like this,” she said.
Representatives
of the national office and the Kansas chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested the investigation during a news
conference on Facebook Thursday morning.
Bren
Brown, Frontier Justice’s president, denied that Barakat was discriminated
against.
Rather,
she was asked to adhere to a dress code that are applied to all patrons
equally, Brown said. The dress code prohibits head coverings other than a
forward-facing baseball cap on the range for safety reasons.
“It
saddens us that anyone would say we are not inclusive, given that we serve all
races and religions every single day in all of our stores,” Brown said in a
written statement. “ We pride ourselves on this fact, and we strongly believe
in America and the second amendment that is for every single American. Period.”
The
incident occurred during the afternoon on New Year’s Day when Barakat went with
her husband to Frontier Justice. At the time of the visit, she was wearing a
hijab in accordance to her religious belief.
Her
husband had been there multiple times and has had no issues.
“He
wanted to take me there for a fun experience, instead we experienced racism and
discrimination,” she said.
The
couple enjoys going to gun ranges and had visited others without any issues
with her hijab. But when Barakat and her husband approached the cashier, she
was told that she must remove her hijab to go into the gun range.
“We
were kinda both confused and honestly really shocked to hear this,” Barakat
said.
Barakat
told the employee that she couldn’t remove her scarf because of her religion.
The
employee pulled up the dress code policy on a computer and said, “hats, caps,
bandanna, or any other head covering will be removed in the facility, except
baseball caps facing forward.”
The
employee had the gun range manager come over, who said the dress code was for
her safety and that gun particles could come back and burn her and her scarf.
When
Barakat tried to explain that she had been to other gun ranges before and that
her hijab had never been a problem, the manager replied, “this is not other gun
ranges. This is their gun grange and this is their policy,” Barakat said.
The
couple ended up leaving.
“Clearly
they were not going to let us shoot and I didn’t want to waste any more time,”
Barakat said.
She
checked Google for Frontier Justice and found reviews from other Muslim women,
some who were friends and others she personally knows, who also said they had
been discriminated against at Frontier Justice for different reasons, including
that the hijab hides a person’s identity.
“To
have this happen to me personally was very sad and frustrating and I would
never want anyone to go through what I went through,” she said. “It saddens me
that this is America. That this is the norm. And we must change that. It is
unacceptable.”
CIVIL
RIGHTS ACT
During
Barakat’s visit, no one cited religion or any of her personal attributes as a
barrier to access to the range, according to the statement from Frontier
Justice. She was invited to stay in the store and shop, but would not be
allowed on the range unless she complied with the safety rules.
“We
cannot have a head covering on the range that could potentially catch brass and
cause an adverse and unsafe movement of a person holding a firearm,” the
company said. “There are hundreds of videos of persons on a range that have brass
hit their skin, who then flinch and have killed bystanders because of the
uncontrolled action in response to the hot brass.
“It
doesn’t matter if it’s a hoodie or a head scarf, potential hazard is there and
as a business catering to the public, we cannot assume this risk.”
ZanahGhalawanji,
CAIR National staff attorney, said that Frontier Justice’s actions violates the
Civil Rights Act by refusing service to Barakat unless she removed her hijab.
“We
have this law because historically Black Americans were excluded from or
segregated in restaurants, motels, theaters and other public places,”
Ghalawanji said. “This law prevents public places from sending us back to a
time in history were certain groups of people are treated as lesser and
prohibits public places from discrimination and segregation.”
Frontier
Justice made it clear to Barakat when they excluded her family and other Muslim
women from the gun range that Muslim women are not welcomed in their
establishment, Ghalawanji said.
“Frontier
Justice, you know they say they value faith, family and freedom — that appears
to be their motto — but their actions tell us that they have shown otherwise,”
she said.
In
addition to asking that the Justice Department investigate Frontier Justice,
CAIR is asking that Frontier Justice accommodate Muslim women who wear the
hijab and implement policies that specifically allow for it and other religious
head coverings to be worn in the facility.
Moussa
Elbayoumy, the board chair of CAIR Kansas, said while they appreciate that
Kansas and the Kansas City communities have embraced them as a faith group,
there are still a minority of people who exhibit xenophobia and and
unacceptable of Muslims.
He
said that they had received reports from others about Muslims being denied
service at Frontier Justice around the same time. The concern is that the
denial of service was not based on any legitimate safety concerns.
Rather,
“it’s meant to exclude Muslim women and other Muslims from exercising their
rightful rights and legal rights,” Elbayoumy said.
The
civil rights organization is asking anyone else who was discriminated against
to come forward.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article244269377.html
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Muslim,
Christian women collaborate to support vulnerable families
17
July 2020
NASRUL-LAHI-L-FATIH
Society of Nigeria (NASFAT), The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in
Nigeria (FOMWAN) and Women Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria
(WOWICAN) have collaborated to distribute food items to vulnerable families in
Lagos, Ogun, Kano and the Federal Capital City Abuja (FCT).
The
interfaith women palliatives distribution is targeted at cushioning effects of
COVID-19 pandemic on women and to sensitize the general public on the
devastating effects of domestic violence.
The
group plans to provide food items worth of N10,000 (Rice,Garri, noodle,
groundnut oil) to 76 members of NASFAT, 27 in Lagos, 11 in Abuja, 11 in Ogun
and 27 in Kano, while the gesture will also be replicated in the other two
organisations (FOMWAN and WOWICAN).
During
the distribution, the Women Affairs Secretary of NASFAT, AlhajaSuweebah Bola
Kupolati represented by AlhajaFauziyahOladoja, said the purpose was not for the
palliative alone, but to also signify that interfaith can play a significant role
in peace building in communities.
She
noted that the COVID -19 pandemic has very serious impact on women generally.
“Women have been hit hard by the stay at home orders and this has seriously
affected their businesses, source of income and in some cases have led to
domestic violence.
“A
good number of our women are petty traders and retailers; some work in
industries like leisure and hospitality, restaurant, education and health
services. The number of job losses has impacted all these areas in the last few
months.
“Women
who have been able to keep working through the pandemic are facing another
issue: childcare. With schools, daycares and summer camps closed and children
home all day, women have taken on the majority of caregiving responsibilities
at home. In whichever direction you look at, COVID -19 has a serious impact on
women across the globe” she said.
Kupolati
added that in an effort to lessen the impact of the pandemic on women,
Government has been able to provide various types of support for different
categories of women, the widow, vulnerable families, unemployed, elderly ones
and others.
The
spokesperson for the interfaith collaboration, AlhajaSaidatOnike-Azeez, said
domestic violence become rampant in the country due to lockdown. She said: “The
organisations realize that the statistic of domestic violence is on the
increase. Thais is why we decided to sensitise the public and raise awareness
on the dangers of domestic violence in order to let people know that religion,
Islam and Christianity kicks against violence”. She advised victims of domestic
violence to speak out and let
people
know what they are going through.
https://guardian.ng/features/friday-worship/muslim-christian-women-collaborate-to-support-vulnerable-families/
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Saudi
Arabia’s humanitarian aid center discusses COVID-19 impact on women
July
18, 2020
RIYADH:
The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) took part in a
meeting that discussed the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on women in Arab
states. The event was co-organized by UN Women and the Japanese Embassy in
Saudi Arabia.
The
meeting discussed steps to protect women in Arab states during the pandemic,
including health care, provision of information by government institutions, and
cooperation between UN organizations, community-based groups and government
bodies to deliver vital services.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1706241/saudi-arabia
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Shahrdari
Bam confirmed as Iran’s Women Football League champions
July
18, 2020
Shahrdari
Bam were crowned the champions based on the classification of the table on
points per game. Shahrdari Bam led the table with 54 points, six points above
second-place VochanKordestan.
ShahrdariSirjan
also finished in third place with 41 points.
The
women league were postponed in November due to coronavirus outbreak and the
football organizers decided to conclude the 2019-20 season.
The
Kerman based football team have won the title for the third time in a row.
Shahrdari
Bam are the most decorated football team in the Kowsar Women Football League
with seven titles out of 12.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/450150/Shahrdari-Bam-confirmed-as-Iran-s-Women-Football-League-champions
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