French-Iranian Academic Fariba Adelkhah Temporarily Released In Iran: Lawyer
New Age Islam News Bureau
05 October 2020
• Young Muslim Women at the Front of A Growing 'Modest Fashion' Movement in Australia
• 'Churails': New Pakistani Female-Fronted Series
Challenges Negative Views of the Niqab
• Nobel Nomination Is Recognition For Afghan Women
Fighting To Be Heard: Fawzia Koofi
• Saudi Arabia: Husbands, Fathers Subject Of Most
Abuse Complaints
• Female Social Reformers Who Dedicated Their Lives to
Empower Women
• Winning Florida Before It Slips Away: Muslim Women
Speak Out
• Saudi Arabia: At 453 Kilograms, Woman Claimed To Be
World’s Heaviest Transported to Hospital by Civil Defence and Red Crescent
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/french-iranian-academic-fariba-adelkhah/d/123046
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French-Iranian Academic Fariba Adelkhah Temporarily Released In Iran: Lawyer
03 October 2020
The academic was given a six-year jail term on
national security charges in May
----
French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah has been
temporarily released from prison and is currently in Tehran with an electronic
bracelet, her lawyer told AFP on Saturday.
Adelkhah “was released with an electronic bracelet.
She is now with her family in Tehran,” attorney Saeed Dehghan said, adding that
“we hope that this temporary release will become final.”
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
A specialist in Shia Islam and a research director at
Sciences Po university in Paris, Adelkhah was arrested in June last year.
She was sentenced on May 16 to five years in prison
for “gathering and conspiring against national security.”
Her trial started on March 3 with the last hearing
held on April 19 at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
She is a citizen of Iran and France, but Tehran does
not recognise dual nationality.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said in early June
that Adelkhah had been “arbitrarily arrested in Iran” and called her detainment
“unacceptable.”
Iran has slammed Paris’ calls for Adelkhah’s release
as “interference” in the Islamic republic’s internal affairs.
Adelkhah’s French colleague and partner Roland
Marchal, who was detained along with her, was released in March in an apparent
prisoner swap.
Marchal was freed after France released Iranian
engineer Jallal Rohollahnejad, who faced extradition to the United States over
accusations he violated US sanctions against Iran.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/03/French-Iranian-academic-Fariba-Adelkhah-temporarily-released-in-Iran-Laywer
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Young Muslim Women at the Front of A Growing 'Modest
Fashion' Movement In Australia
4 October 2020
'I didn't feel that there was somebody that I could
relate to in the sense of fashion or having a Muslim sister that I could look
up to,' 21-year old Ms Sari (pictured) said
-----
A group of young hijab-wearing women who began posting
pictures on Instagram to connect with friends and family have become unexpected
influencers catering to Australia's 'modest fashion' market.
Narwal Sari had been working multiple jobs when she
began posting self-styled fashion snaps to the social media platform in 2014
after noticing a gap in the industry.
'I didn't feel that there was somebody that I could
relate to in the sense of fashion or having a Muslim sister that I could look
up to,' the 21-year old told the ABC.
Ms Sari, from Liverpool in western Sydney, said her
account began getting a life of its own about 12 months ago and has continued
growing.
Her followers have now ballooned to more than 180,000.
She explained she has now ditched her other jobs and
posting fashion shoots has become her full-time occupation.
Her new job hardly involves sitting back as the money
rolls in, however, with Ms Sari adding she has not had a single day off since
with her time filled with with planning, shooting and posting her photos.
'I booked a few jobs like Nike and Supre, but it
wasn't until I got management that they really pitched for me and I really got
my foot in the door of a market that I could never get in by myself,' she
said.
She added she spends up to two hours setting up
photoshoots herself.
Also from Sydney, Sana Sayed, is another young woman
who has caught the eye of Australia's modest fashion labels after garnering a
following of more than 130,000.
Her story echoes Ms Sari's, with the 20-year old signing
up to Instagram in 2017 to post pictures for friends and family, but she too
found a wider audience.
While still a full-time university student she has
managed to attract the attention of Grammy award winning singer Rihanna's
makeup business Fenty Beauty.
'I post fashion advice and I show different ways of
how I style outfits and my Hijab, which I think inspires women,' Ms Sayed
explained.
She revealed her payment for a sponsored post can
begin at about $400 and then go up to anywhere as much as $4,000.
Longer sleeves, higher necklines, looser fits and
opaque fabrics are the signatures of the fashion movement.
The styles have been worn for years among women from a
number of cultural and religious backgrounds - but the designs are also finding
a wider audience among fashion trendsetters.
The modest fashion industry in Australia is sizable -
with a 2018 report estimating Muslim citizens, along with about 565,000
tourists, spent more than half a billion dollars on clothing in Australia that
year.
Globally the numbers are staggering with a 2016 report
estimating the modest fashion industry was worth $250billion.
By 2022 that number could rise to $373billion,
according to The Washington Post.
Stores such as H&M have released modest fashion
lines while global giant Nike waded into the movement in 2017 releasing an
athletic-wear hijab followed by modest swimwear in 2019.
Natalie Giddings, managing director of The Remarkables
Group, says influencers have increasingly become a major focus for brands because
they are able to directly reach a large audience.
Ms Giddings pioneered influencer marketing in
Australia with the Sydney based agency in 2012 and now calls a number of
Australia's largest companies her clients.
She says shoppers are more likely to trust
recommendations from Instagrammers they follow because they feel they have a
personal connection with them, as though they are following a friend.
Not to mention the numbers of followers are also
impressive - causing marketers to shift towards a new style of promoting
products over traditional publications.
Ms Giddings explains a magazine such as Vogue would
sell about 55,000 copies each month, while some of the people her business
works with would have hundreds of thousands of people receiving each post.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8803239/Meet-Australias-hijabi-Instagram-influencers-cater-countrys-modest-fashion-market.html
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'Churails': New Pakistani female-fronted series
challenges negative views of the niqab
Hafsa Lodi
Oct 5, 2020
Actress Sarwat Gillani's character Sara, wears blue
niqabs throughout the show. Asim Abbasi
-----
“The veil denies men their usual privilege of
discerning whomever they desire. By default, the women are in command. The
female scrutinises the male. Her gaze from behind the anonymity of her face
veil, or niqab, is a kind of surveillance that casts her in the dominant
position,” says Pakistani author Maliha Masood of the Niqab.
It’s a powerful description of a garment frequently
associated with patriarchy and repressiveness in the West. However, niqabs can
embody a spirit of fierce feminism, as shown in the provocative Pakistani web
series, Churails, which was released in August and quickly went viral.
Written and directed by Asim Abbasi, the Zee5 show
stars Sarwat Gilani, Yasra Rizvi, Nimra Bucha and Mehar Bano in lead roles, and
tells the story of a band of women taking on Pakistani patriarchy headfirst.
The Urdu word “churail” translates to hag or witch,
but in the series, it’s the name chosen by a group of women from diverse
backgrounds and social classes who come together and form a secret detective
agency to save other women from patriarchal injustices. They open a modest
fashion boutique called “Halal Designs” as a front for their agency, and while
running their vigilante missions, they wear colourful niqabs.
“The whole idea of Churails was based around
subversion, and how you subvert something that is rife with negative
connotations, take ownership of it and give it a positive spin,” Abbasi tells
The National. “The idea of the clothing store cover came from one of the
central themes of Churails, which is a woman’s autonomy over her body and her
lack of the autonomy over that body in a society that is mainly made up of men,
who are in positions of power and dictate what a woman can and cannot wear.”
Niqabs, often regarded as “Islamic” garments, are worn
by a minority group of women in Pakistan, and while there are varying opinions
and debates about face veils even within the Muslim community, niqabs are
cultural garments imported from the Middle East, rather than historically
rooted South Asian attire. In some patriarchal families, they are enforced upon
women, but in other cases, they are willingly worn as a symbol of religious
conviction.
“In many ways, they are a symbol of respect and
femininity in our society,” says Samiya Ansari, the show’s costume designer. “I
wanted to keep it simple yet bold, and respect the silhouette and style, while
paying homage to all the women who wear burqas and niqabs on the daily. It was
challenging because I’ve never dealt with niqabs personally and had to learn
the different ways of tying them.”
A fashion and celebrity stylist, wardrobe designer and
former style blogger, Ansari’s forte is high fashion and elegant evening wear,
and she says she had never given much thought to face veils before this
project. “It was just a way of life that many people had chosen for themselves and
I always thought it’s a matter of choice – as long as it’s not forced upon
someone, which I understand in many cases, it is, in our culture,” she says.
Abbasi says it was important to highlight the niqab as
a symbol of choice and freedom, rather than oppression. “The idea of autonomy
and free will is very important here; these women choose. If you choose to use
an item of clothing that works for you then you should be allowed to use it as
you deem fit. And if it does not work for you then no man should be telling you
that you should be wearing it,” he says.
Throughout the show, niqabs are instrumental in
protecting the anonymity of the Churails as they lead their missions – from
threatening an abusive husband to saving a member of their clan from a forced marriage.
And, to keep the costumes captivating even while faces are covered, colour
plays a vital role. “We all wanted them to have an individual aesthetic on the
camera, because you’re only seeing their eyes – if they were all in black it
would have been very hard to decipher them, and black on camera would become
very dull for an extended period of time,” explains Abbasi. “Samiya was very
keen on choosing those colours and giving each woman a standout piece.”
From Bano’s character, Zubeida, a sparky teenage
boxer, to the snobbish event planner Jugnu, played by Rizvi, each role was
complex and layered, and the attire was key to forming their on-screen
identities. “The colours had to be bold, bright and vibrant, just like the
women donning them,” says Ansari.
“They stood out from miles away, and that is
empowering enough when you are running top-secret missions to save and give
strength to other ladies, plus you are out in the open, willing to be seen. It
also showed that they aren’t doing something they’re guilty about, but rather,
very proud of.”
One of the most powerful scenes of the series is when
the Churails line up outside of their store, protecting their business from a
throng of angry male protesters. “That one image was the manifestation of
everything, when they are standing outside of Halal Designs, and forming that
wall, saying, ‘We are going to protect our home.’ For me, that was the
culmination of sisterhood in a society that is so deeply patriarchal – one way
of dealing with it is bonding together and finding strength in numbers, which
is what these women do,” says Abbasi.
While Muslim women’s dress codes can make for
sensitive topics, the makers of Churails by no means disparaged niqabs – on the
contrary, the garments are celebrated throughout. “I hope that people who see
the show will realise that we were using it outside the parameters of that
religious conversation, and that the idea of taking the niqab and taking
ownership of it did not stem from a disrespectful place at all,” says Abbasi.
Often stereotyped as garments that hide women from
society and prohibit their participation in the public spheres, throughout
Churails, the colourful niqabs serve as a reminder that symbols of modest
fashion – including face veils, in no way restrict women from being empowered
heroes and change-makers.
https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/television/churails-new-pakistani-female-fronted-series-challenges-negative-views-of-the-niqab-1.1088152
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Nobel
Nomination Is Recognition For Afghan Women Fighting To Be Heard: Fawzia Koofi
Suhasini
Haidar
OCTOBER
04, 2020
Afghanistan’s
first woman Deputy Speaker in Parliament Fawzia Koofi talks about being
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, negotiating with the Taliban in Doha, and
the most recent attack she faced
Fawzia
Koofi, Afghanistan politician and negotiator at the peace process underway with
the Taliban in Doha, says her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, which was
disclosed by a Norwegian Peace Council list of frontrunners last week, is
recognition for all Afghan women fighting to be included in the reconciliation
process, and to have a place at the table.
How
do you feel about being shortlisted for the Nobel Peace Prize, and also for
being considered one of the frontrunners?
I
think it's a combination for all the efforts that people of Afghanistan have
made and the struggles and sacrifices that they have paid during the war,
because everyone in Afghanistan is a victim of war. Women in particular have
faced injustice, discrimination, lost their loved ones, but also had
opportunities taken away from them - opportunities for education and work
[during the Taliban regime]. So, they needed to be part of the peace process,
they need to make sure that their rights will not be compromised.
And
I think this [nomination] is a recognition of all the efforts that women have
made to be included in the process and to be heard. And I think it will help a
lot in the process by giving such a high recognition to the efforts of the
Afghan woman. It gives me personally, much more power, along with my other
three sisters [women on the 21-member negotiating team] who are in this process
of negotiation.
Do
you expect to win?
The
fact that we have come up to here is a big achievement for Afghan women. It indicates
that the international community and the world is watching the peace process
and understands the importance of inclusion of women. Even if I don't win, and
I know that they have a tough process of selection, just the fact that we have
come up to here [in the Nobel nomination process] is a big success for not only
the women but for all of Afghanistan.
How
are the talks in Doha going?
What
we have to keep in mind is that the war has gone on for four decades in
Afghanistan. I understand the expectations back home are high, people want to
see the peace process impact their life quickly. But the process has its own
challenges as well, we want to really make the foundation of these talks
strong. So right now, we are working on the foundation, and the rules of
procedure.
Taliban
has in the past said that women should not be part of the talks process. How
did the Taliban leadership react to your presence there?
Well,
at this stage, I do not want to be considered as just a woman. I want to be
considered as a representative of my country and as a politician, who has equal
rights to sit across the table and discuss the future of her country. Not only
the future of women but the future of everyone in that country. I don't expect
the Taliban to react negatively to the representative of 55% of their society,
if they want to really reconcile and if they want to pursue their political
agendas, not through bullets, but through ballots. They have to respect the
diversity and understand that we are part of the new Afghanistan.
If
the Taliban is to come back into the mainstream, how will the progress made in
this “new” Afghanistan, in terms of rights for women and minorities, of
democracy be protected?
I
know that the people of Afghanistan are worried and women in particular have
legitimate concerns [about this]. The kind of situation they have been through
during the civil war, but in particularly during the Taliban regime, because
the Taliban basically denied all basic human rights for women. If the
perception is that we surrender to one ideology, or to the other, I don't think
that talks will actually succeed. We are working together, we have differences,
huge differences, and these talks aren’t easy. My understanding is that we hope
we will come to a political agreement, not an agreement that will surrender
Afghanistan to one or the other idea. So hopefully, we will get something that
will accommodate the diversities of Afghanistan today.
Is
there a bottom line? Are there things that are non-negotiable, that women
cannot be taken out of the workforce, that women will be able to enjoy equal
rights?
Women
have already suffered a lot. If you look at the social indicators, yes, we have
had progress over the past 20 years in terms of women’s education, health,
political participation, access to economic resources, nothing to compare to
the time when Taliban were in power, but still Afghanistan is a country which
has the worst indicators, the highest numbers for maternal mortality, highest
illiteracy rates etc. So how much more shall we pay for the sake of peace?
Peace,
with integrity and with dignity and inclusivity is the only way to bring
stability. We also have Hindus and Sikhs in our country, we have sectarian
minorities, so no peace will be long lasting if everyone in Afghanistan does
not feel that they are being heard.
Tell
us about the most recent attack you faced?
About
a month and a half ago, I was coming from one of the provinces. I had gone to
offer condolences to the family of an army officer who lost his life in the battlefield.
On the way back, two cars began chasing us and while [militants in] one car
stopped my car, those in the other one began shooting from the back. My right
hand was fractured, and I still have to go to the hospital here every day to
clean the open wound. My daughter was with me during the attack, and I was
lucky, if it was three or four centimetres closer to my chest, probably I would
have not been alive.
What
has it been like to engage with the Taliban, given they were responsible for
the violence in Afghanistan, and for the violence that you have suffered
personally? What was it like to be at the table with them?
I
did go through some emotional moments. I had to go through certain process to
accept the fact that we cannot continue to pursue our agendas through violence
and more killing and more bloodshed. Every day in Afghanistan, people are
losing lives. So yes, we are all victims of war. I have personally gone through
so much, not only in terms of losing my family members, my brother, father, my
husband, into the war. Even parts of my body, and my right hand [injured in an
assassination attempt in August 2020] is not fully operational yet.
It’s
also about the opportunities that were taken away from us, from me as woman. I
could have been a medical doctor; the other young women of Afghanistan have
also lost opportunities. Now the option is, are we going to continue to kill
more people to pursue our political agenda, or there is a better way, by being
an example of humanity that can rule minds and hearts of people. If Taliban
think they will have a victory through bloodshed, they have to really correct
themselves.
What
are your expectations from India at this point in Afghanistan’s history?
Regardless
of what the politics of our governments have been, we have always had a
friendly relationship with India. My expectation is that the regional countries
will put their efforts forward to support the establishment of a peaceful
settlement. I hope that India as one of our great friends will get engaged. I also
hope that India continues to support our education system as they have been
doing.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/nobel-nomination-is-recognition-for-afghan-women-fighting-to-be-heard-fawzia-koofi/article32767418.ece
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Saudi
Arabia: Husbands, Fathers Subject Of Most Abuse Complaints
October
05, 2020
Samir
Salama
Abu
Dhabi: Of 306 abuse complaints lodged with the Saudi Human Rights Society last
year, Saudi wives filed 137 of them, or 36 per cent, against abusing husbands,
local media reported.
Fathers
were the subject of 89 complaints while only a single complaint against a wife
was reported, an official report by the National Society for Human Rights for
the year 2019 revealed.
According
to the report, 306 of the total complaints were about physical and
psychological violence, 15 were against deprivation of the father, 10 involved
deprivation of marriage, eight each were against deprivation of education,
accommodation, or work, seven were against absconding, four were against
violence resulting from addiction and two were against defamation.
Oppression
of women
Legal
advisor Asim Al Mulla explained to Al Watan that the rules on protection from
abuse included penalties against offending husbands, fathers and brothers.
The
system forbids unfairness against women or the person who has guardianship over
her, such as the father or uncle.
He
added that the rules stipulate that a person has the right to work, education,
employment, housing, independence, and any person who prevents women or harms
them socially, educationally and practically, shall face one year imprisonment,
a fine of 50,000 riyals, or both.
Khula
cases against husbands
Cases
in Saudi Arabia involving “Khula,” a divorce at the insistence of the wife in
which she has to return her dower and pay her husband a certain amount of money
to cover anything he spent on her during the duration of the marriage, are on
the rise.
Legal
experts say Islamic law gives married women this right so they can divorce
their husbands in the event the latter refuses. According to family counselors,
women who bring Khula cases against their husbands have often suffered great
mistreatment and abuse.
A
wife can go to a Personal Status Court and file a Khula case there. She
mustsubmit sufficient evidence that supports her claim. The judge examines the
grounds and determines whether they should be taken into consideration when
accepting or rejecting the plea.
If
a judge is convinced there are valid reasons to ask for a Khula, he will grant
one, in which case the husband must be given monetary compensation by the wife.
The
judge sometimes estimates the amount of money the wife should pay the husband.
The judge can also order that the woman doesn’t need to pay any money. This
happens when the grounds or reasons for divorce are very strong and there is no
hope in the marriage.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-husbands-fathers-subject-of-most-abuse-complaints-1.74342456
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Female
Social Reformers Who Dedicated Their Lives To Empower Women
02
October, 2020
Just
when we thought that women are finally breaking free from the reins of
patriarchy, the consecutive rapes in Hathras and Balarampur, tore apart this
thin veil of illusion. They compelled us to take a hard look at the intensely
archaic system that continues to thrive in our nation’s supremacist
environment.
However,
protests have erupted in different parts of the country against rapes and
crimes against women, many of which are led by women. This in many ways
reassures that the future, some incredible female social reformers had
envisioned for Indian women, can be attained.
Also,
it is of vital significance today, that we look back at the journeys of these
female social reformers who struggled throughout their lives to give women the
power and resources they deserve.
Savitribai
Phule (1831-1897)
A
Dalit woman and a pioneer of the Indian feminist movement, Savitribai Phule
championed the cause of education for women in India. She was the country’s
first female teacher who went on to establish several schools for women of all
castes. Along with her husband Jyoti Rao Phule, Savitibai campaigned to abolish
caste and gender discrimination and set up ‘Balhatya Pratibandhak Griha’ to
prevent female infanticide. She worked with other women to uplift the victims
of rape and prevent killings of widows. Today, every educated, privileged
Indian woman should be deeply grateful to Savitribai Phule and her associates.
Tarabai
Shinde (1850-1910)
A
feminist activist and an associate of Savitribai, Tarabai Shinde’s thoughts and
opinions remain controversial to date because of their progressive and
non-conformist nature. She was an ardent critic of the inherent patriarchy of
Hindu scriptures and worked extensively to highlight the disparities between
men and women. While she shared the same views on gender and caste-based
discrimination as Savitribai’s, she also believed that women all around the
world are similarly oppressed. Her first published work was her Marathi book
named “Stri Purush Tulana” (Comparison of men and women) which is frequently
cited among the Indian feminist circuit to date as it is deemed as one of the
first modern feminism texts in India.
Ramabai
Ranade (1863-1924)
Married
off as a child of 11, Ramabai Ranade decided to devote her life to the emancipation
of women. Fortunately, her husband was encouraged her to study and widen her
horizon of knowledge. She went on to establish Seva Sadan in Pune and Mumbai
which focussed on teaching women various life skills. Seva Sadan continues to
educate girls to this date. She was also the president of All India Women
Conference and was the first Indian woman to address a public gathering in
English. She had devoted her life to make women independent, financially and
otherwise.
Fatima
Sheikh (DOB-DOD unknown)
When
Jyoti Rao Phule and Savitri Phule were forced to leave their home owing to
their activism, they sought shelter at siblings Fatima and Usman’s residence.
Savitribai went on to open her first school for the marginalised communities
with Fatima and together they challenged the orthodoxy of Hindu and Muslim
traditions.
A
Muslim woman of the 19th century, Fatima showed unparalled grit by defying the
patriarchal and conservative norms of the society.
It
is true that the recent events have shaken our hopes of a better tomorrow but
it is not to be forgotten that women like Savitribai emerged during a time of
grave darkness and with some many women coming forward to seek justice, there
is no reason that, that cannot happen again!
https://www.mid-day.com/articles/female-social-reformers-who-dedicated-their-lives-to-empower-women/23021257
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Winning
Florida Before It Slips Away: Muslim Women Speak Out
05
October, 2020
Even
with Trump testing positive for COVID-19, unable to host social-distancing be
damned rallies, “Don the Con” seeks adulation in his second home state of
Florida, where his growing cult of right-wing conservatives and QAnon
conspiracy theorists continues to promote the Republican neo-fascist agenda of
immigrant-bashing, tax scams for the rich, erasure of the Affordable Care Act,
privatization of the United States Post Office, the militarization of the
police and lies about non-existent election fraud.
Five
Thirty Eight’s latest Florida Presidential poll (Sept. 15-22, 2020) shows Biden with a mere 3% lead in Florida,
the state that in 2000 put George W. Bush over the top, with help from the Bush
v. Gore legal team that included Amy Coney Barrett, Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
It was this team that convinced a Republican-dominated US Supreme Court to stop the ballot counting
in Florida when it looked like Gore might win the state’s decisive electoral
votes.
We
are in troubled waters and about to drown in Florida unless the Biden campaign
snaps out of its reverie and steers this ship in the direction of victory.
Political pundits predict Florida’s 29 electoral votes will be decisive. Every
ballot counts in a state with Democrats and Republicans dueling for the vote of
independents. On August 31, 2020, Florida’s Secretary of State reported the
following nail-biting voter registration statistics:
Democrat:
5,203,795
Republican:
5,020,199
Independents:
3,653,046
Third
Party: 188,587
While
Trump’s bumper stickers, flags, and yard signs can be spotted from Apalachicola
to Marco Island, Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” and “Biden/Harris” campaign paraphernalia is largely missing in
action. To make matters worse, the local Joe Biden team takes a month to put
together a digital flyer and cannot schedule events without time conflicts. The
Joe Biden National Headquarters bickers with organizers on the ground as the
Florida Democratic Party watches from the sidelines.
In
the middle of a severe pandemic and historic economic downturn, we can win
Florida if the campaign properly targets the youth vote and actively courts
votes from the African American, Latino, and Muslim communities. To date,
outreach to these communities has been abysmal as we constantly hear complaints
from our own Muslim community on the lack of engagement. Muslim votes are to be
mined in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater and Orlando.
In
addition, the campaign should seek to flip the historically Republican counties
of Seminole, Duval and Pinellas and dedicate staff to reach out to these counties, instead of
neglecting these areas, presuming they are a lost cause.
To
boost turn out amongst youth and people of color, the campaign should adopt a
distributive organizing model and allow anyone access to digital tools to host
events, power map, and leverage their personal networks to get out the vote.
Although Bernie Sanders did not win the Democratic Party primary, his campaign
showed the power of mass movement organizing on a distributive model versus the
current top-down presidential campaign which expects grassroots activists to
take directives from Biden’s national headquarters.
With
Biden leading Trump by 31 points among likely female voters, the Biden campaign
must target women in every county in Florida, a state with a half a million more
women than men, according to the last US Census. To appeal to women, the
campaign must focus on the issues most important to women: reproductive rights,
health care and climate change.
As
you probably have guessed by now, we want Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie
Rizzo to spill her morning coffee when she reads this piece, then sit up, wake
up and seize the moment, lest the staff at Mar-a-Largo use this admonition to
line the resort’s garbage bins or crumple it for a make-shift golf ball because
the Trump administration will be in business for a long time at the rate the
state party and the Joe Biden campaign are moving, rather crawling.
The
next four years of Trump fascism and ignorance could spell the end of democracy
as we know it.
Hence,
we are sounding the alarm that we cannot afford to lose this election. There is
a vacancy in the Supreme Court that can be filled any day with a conservative
ideologue striking down what is left of a broken healthcare system and
reproductive rights. We need a Biden win in 2020 to expand the number of
justices on the Court and mitigate the Republican grip over the highest court
in the land.
It
will take Herculean organizing involving phone banking, fundraising, and
canvassing, not nonchalant MSNBC armchair chin-scratching, to breathe new life
into what should be a vibrant Presidential campaign. We want to see the Biden
campaign distributing masks, feeding the hungry, calling more voters to provide
immediate resources during these perilous times.
As
Muslim Americans, we have much to lose under another term of Trump: four more
years of visas denied to family members, relatives separated across seas,
grandchildren denied the love of their grandparents, Islamophobic slurs, hate
speech, attacks on mosques; drone bombings of Muslim-majority countries, where
the victims of Trump’s unchecked militarism dread a sunny day because that is
when the drones fly overhead, terrorizing neighborhoods and sowing the seeds of
generational hatred.
In
the 2016 Presidential election, Democratic Party Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz
bowed to party hacks and corporate interests, undermining progressives with her
mocking of Bernie Sanders during the Primary. She called for unity without
attempting to fully engage progressive Democrats advocating for healthcare and
a clean energy economy. The result? Trump beat Hillary Clinton, 48.6% to 47.4%.
We must not repeat the mistakes of 2016. The Biden campaign and the Florida
Democratic Party need progressives to put Biden over the top in November.
https://www.laprogressive.com/muslim-women-speak-out/
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Saudi
Arabia: At 453 Kilograms, Woman Claimed To Be World’s Heaviest Transported to
Hospital by Civil Defence and Red Crescent
October
04, 2020
Samir
Salama
Abu
Dhabi: The Taif Health Emergency Department in Saudi Arabia has transported an
obese woman weighing 453 kilograms to King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital.
Participation of specialised units from the Civil Defense and the Red Crescent
was required, local media reported.
The
spokesman for Taif Health Department, Siraj Al Humaidan, said the Red Crescent
had received an alert to transport the Saudi patient, claimed to be the world’s
heaviest, to the hospital, and accordingly, a highly-equipped squad from the
Emergency Department, the Red Crescent and Civil Defense moved the woman from
her home to the ambulance, then she was transferred to King Abdulaziz
Specialist Hospital to receive the necessary treatment.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-at-453-kilograms-woman-claimed-to-be-worlds-heaviest-transported-to-hospital-by-civil-defense-and-red-crescent-1.74323712
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/french-iranian-academic-fariba-adelkhah/d/123046
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