'Remarkable' Women Of Gaza Acknowledged At London Arabia Awards Ceremony
New Age Islam News
Bureau
01 March 2024
Gaza was on the minds
of winners of the London Arabia Arab Women of the Year Awards
------
·
'Remarkable' Women Of Gaza
Acknowledged At London Arabia Awards Ceremony
·
Maryam Nawaz’s Journey To
‘Takht-e-Lahore’ No Small Feat
·
Women's Rights Activists
Sara Jahani, Hooman Taheri, Yasamin Hashdari Await Verdict After Trial In Iran
Court
·
German-Iranian Woman, Nahid
Taghavi, Returned To Tehran Prison After Medical Furlough Cut Short
·
Palestinian-US Woman,
Samaher Esmail, Held For Supporting Hamas Freed On Bail To West Bank Home
·
Dr. Fatima Al Balushi,
Member SWC Participates In Arab Women Committee Meeting To Empower Bahraini And
Arab Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/gaza-london-arabia-awards/d/131829
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'Remarkable' Women Of Gaza Acknowledged At London Arabia
Awards Ceremony
Gaza was on the minds
of winners of the London Arabia Arab Women of the Year Awards
------
Lemma Shehadi
Feb 29, 2024
Gaza was on the minds of winners of the London Arabia
Arab Women of the Year Awards on Thursday, as tearful speeches were made amid
the celebrations.
Shirine Khoury-Haq, the first female chief executive of
the British supermarket brand Co-op, could not hold back tears when she spoke
about the war after receiving her award.
“I am very grateful for the recognition but also aware
there is a very ungrateful allocation of opportunities,” she said.
“As a woman of Palestinian descent, I dedicate this to my
Palestinian sisters and brothers and especially to the children of Palestine,
and hope that very soon they see peace and will have the opportunities to shine
in this world.”
Paediatrician Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, who has worked as a
medical trainer in Gaza and the occupied West Bank with Medecins Sans
Frontieres, dedicated her award to the women doctors in the besieged enclave.
“This is a difficult award for me to accept because I
stand in the shadow of remarkable women,” she said.
Journalist Baria Alamuddine, who opened the award, did so
with prayers “for the people of Gaza”.
The award, now in its tenth year, celebrates the
achievements of women in the Arab world and the diaspora and was held during a
gala dinner at the Carlton Tower Jumeirah in London.
“Too often the successes of Arab and Muslim women are
written by authors from the West. Tonight is about us talking about our
successes in our own voices, talking about what we’ve learnt along the way,”
Nusrat Ghani, UK Minister of State at the Department for Business and Trade
told The National.
“This week, as a British politician it's wonderful to end
the week with so many powerful Arab and Muslim women,” she said.
Others talked about the challenges they faced pursuing
career paths deemed “unusual” in the Arab world.
Award-winning Egyptian opera singer Farrah Al Dibbany,
talked about the challenges of pursuing an operatic career while growing up in
Egypt, as she received an award. “Opera is not the thing [in Egypt], despite
having the support of my family,” she said.
“People asked why do you have to go to Germany to study
alone for seven years.”
Emirati Kholoud Hassan Al Nuwais was awarded for her
contributions to social development, including her “pivotal” role in
establishing the Emirates Foundation in 2005. “My family's belief in me has
been my greatest strength,” she said.
“My journey from the private sector to philanthropy was
driven by the desire to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.”
Speaking to The National, she said she hoped for
"more women to come together to be the key change-makers around social
development issues."
"Women should believe in themselves and no obstacle
should stop them. They have to keep going and the doors will open," she
added.
Omar Bdour, the awards’ founder and chief executive said
the event this year was marked by the large number of women who travelled to
the UK to attend the ceremony.
“The highlight is having a group of Arab women travelling
from all over the world just to attend the event,” he told The National.
London remained a crucial hub for the Arab world despite
a sense of “disunity” at present, owing to the war in Gaza, he added.
"Many Arabs call London home, it will always welcome
Arabs with open arms. Lately there is a feeling of disunity, but that disunity
is not making London far from the Arab community and the Arab world. London
will always be close to Arab hearts," he said.
"You can't divide what's going on Gaza away from the
people who see it every day. What we called for is, no matter what religion you
are, a woman is a woman and her suffering should be acknowledged," he
said.
Hana Basrawi, a Saudi fitness and wellness influencer
with more than 1.2million followers, told The National she travelled from
Jeddah specifically to attend the event.
"Being a Saudi woman I feel like we have something
to prove. The Western media has had an image of us that hasn't been correct for
so long," she said.
"We're very passionate and creative, for us to have
a chance to showcase our heritage and our talent is quite honouring," she
added.
Source: thenationalnews.com
https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2024/02/29/remarkable-women-of-gaza-acknowledged-at-london-arabia-awards-ceremony/
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Maryam Nawaz’s Journey To ‘Takht-e-Lahore’ No Small Feat
Maryam Nawaz Sharif |
Photo: @pmlnawazofficial | Instagram
------
NAILA INAYAT
01 March, 2024
After Maharani Jind Kaur, Maryam Nawaz Sharif will rule
the Takht-e-Lahore. Jind Kaur, popular as Rani Jindan, took over as queen
regent in 1843, ruling on behalf of her five-year-old son Duleep Singh, who
ascended the throne after the death of his father Maharaja Ranjit Singh. She
remained queen until the end of the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846.
Nearly 180 years later, Pakistan Punjab is finally
getting its first female chief minister. No mean achievement in a
male-dominated political setup where women are often relegated to the
sidelines. And certainly not a small feat in a family where every third person
has been or wants to be the chief minister of Punjab province.
Maryam’s first prominent appearance was in a BBC
interview, where she detailed her father’s incarceration by General Pervez
Musharraf in the October 1999 coup. While Nawaz and other male members of the
family were imprisoned, his fearless wife Kulsoom and daughter Maryam rallied
for public support. “I can smell the danger, but who is on the wrong side?
Ultimately Gen Musharraf is going to be in trouble,” Maryam had said. First
lesson learnt – dictators die politically, but civilian leaders live through
generations.
Facing political persecution with resilience and defiance
made Maryam Nawaz a political force long before she began her parliamentary
career. The ‘How to Become a Successful Politician in Pakistan’ guide will have
one chapter, really — let thyself be persecuted at the hands of the real rulers
of this land. In the case of Maryam, this persecution began years before she
fought her first provincial and national election in 2024. If Nawaz was
targeted by the Pakistan Army, Maryam was hounded with trumped-up political
court cases that only served to enhance her popularity.
Let’s rewind to July 2018, when hundreds of paramilitary
soldiers apprehended the father and daughter at Lahore airport, taking them
into custody just days before the general election that year. The imagery of a
defiant daughter, standing next to her father and willingly accepting arrest,
is what catapulted Maryam to where she is today. Going to jail before getting a
political launch is the best start to the career for any Pakistani politician.
In the next four years of Imran Khan’s Army-backed hybrid
government, Maryam continued to be hounded with arrests, court cases,
harassment and even death threats. In 2021, the government threatened and
intimidated Maryam to make her fall in line. Nawaz warned that if any harm were
to befall his daughter, then Imran, the Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed
Bajwa, Director General Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt Gen Faiz Hameed,
and Maj Gen Irfan Malik, DG Counter Intelligence ISI, would be responsible.
Maryam became the face of PML-N in 2013, during her
father’s third term as Prime Minister. While she didn’t hold any government
position, she set up a Strategic Media Communications Cell in the Prime
Minister’s Office and took on an honorary role as chair of the PM’s youth
programme. Considering Maryam was widely recognised as Nawaz’s political heir,
she was heavily disliked by the political establishment, which often conspired
to link her to controversies.
There were, for instance, attempts to implicate her in
the so-called Dawn Leaks of 2016, which revealed that the Nawaz Sharif
government had allegedly confronted the military establishment to take
appropriate action against militant groups or face international isolation.
News channels went on a witch-hunt, hell-bent on associating her with the
leaks. When that didn’t work, she was accused of supporting blasphemous
content.
A set of dissenting bloggers were abducted in 2017 by
intelligence agencies. Upon release, they revealed that they had resisted
giving a forced confession. The confession they had resisted was about Maryam
allegedly running a blasphemous Facebook page called ‘Bhensa’ at the behest of
the Indian intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
The bucket list tricks to keep civilian leaders in line –
corruption, religious fatwas, and India-friendship blanketed as ‘gaddari’.
‘Aurat raj’ and how
From Benazir Bhutto to Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan’s women
politicians haven’t had an easy journey to the top. The vile discourse
surrounding women in jalsas, assemblies and online platforms isn’t new, but it
has certainly become worse over time. Take Imran, who has taught sexist and
ageist slurs such as “nani”, along with sexual innuendos like “Maryam, don’t
take my name with such passion, your husband will mind,” to his workers and
followers alike.
If Madam CM folds her hands in the assembly or touches
her father’s feet out of respect, critics retort, saying this ain’t our
culture. “Haw, hai, yeh sab to Hindu kartay hain (Hindus do these things).”
What defines our culture, then? Shouting “taxi, taxi” or hurling shoes, charas
packets, bottles, and lotas at a female PML-N assembly member in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa?
With Maryam, PML-N seeks to redeem its lost glory in
Punjab. Her first speech after her election in the Punjab assembly refreshingly
touched upon the issues of religious minorities, marginalised transgender
community, and care for individuals with autism. Along with, of course, the
compartmentalised government plan she wishes to implement. A much-needed break
from the anda-cow-murginomics of former Prime Minister Imran Khan that left us
in splits but Pakistan on the brink. A relief that there is a Punjab CM who
won’t be asking officials: Yeh corona kaat-ta kaise hai? (how does this
coronavirus bite)? This was the only worthwhile contribution of Usman Buzdar –
also known as ‘Wasim Akram plus’— in all the years he spent as Punjab CM. Of
course, other than aiding and abetting the Imran, Bushra, Gogi raj.
Source: theprint.in
https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-from-pakistan/maryam-nawazs-journey-to-takht-e-lahore-no-small-feat-she-will-restore-pml-ns-lost-glory/1984585/
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Women's Rights Activists Sara Jahani, Hooman Taheri,
Yasamin Hashdari Await Verdict After Trial In Iran Court
March 1, 2024
Twelve women's rights activists who were arrested last
year for alleged involvement with planned unrest in Iran are awaiting the
verdict after being tried in a regime court.
Activists including Sara Jahani, Hooman Taheri, Yasamin
Hashdari were charged with offences including "anti-establishment
propaganda" and "membership in an illegal group".
They faced proceedings under Judge Mehdi Rasekhi in a
revolutionary court in the northern city of Rasht on Thursday
The defendants were represented by their lawyers Mustafa
Nili, Ramin Safarnia, and Mohammad Ali Kamfirouzi.
Sources reported that at the conclusion of the court
session, the judge announced that the trial had ended, and the activists would
await the verdict.
The women were detained by security institutions of the
Islamic Republic in cities including Rasht, Fooman, Anzali, and Lahijan on
August 16. The Intelligence Office of Gilan Province confirmed their arrest,
alleging their involvement with "foreign elements" and planning to
incite unrest and sabotage on the anniversary of the 2022 uprising against
regime in Gilan and Kordestan.
After spending approximately two months in custody, the
activists were temporarily released from Lakan Prison in Rasht upon posting
bail.
The Islamic Republic has faced criticism for its
consistent detention and imprisonment of civil and political activists. The
nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic since September 2022 has seen
intensified suppression of dissenting voices by the government, with activists
continuing to face harassment and imprisonment.
Source: iranintl.com
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202402293825
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German-Iranian Woman, Nahid Taghavi, Returned To Tehran
Prison After Medical Furlough Cut Short
February 29, 2024
A German-Iranian woman has been ordered back to jail in
Tehran after several weeks of medical leave despite mounting concerns over her
health, her daughter said on February 29.
Nahid Taghavi, 69, was sent back to Evin prison
"arbitrarily and for no clear reason" on February 28, said Mariam
Claren on X, formerly Twitter.
Taghavi's supporters have previously said she suffers
from a herniated disc, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Claren said she
developed "a painful eye disease in the last weeks, which must be strictly
monitored by doctors."
Taghavi, held in Iran since 2020 on national security
charges, was granted a medical furlough on January 9 under strict conditions,
including that she wear an electronic tracking device and remain within 1
kilometer of her home in Tehran.
Her daughter said the conditions made it almost
impossible for her to receive necessary medical care.
Taghavi, an architect, was convicted in 2021 of
"leading an illegal group." She was sentenced to 10 years in jail,
according to her lawyer. She has been forced to endure prolonged solitary
confinement.
The German Foreign Ministry condemned the decision to
send Taghavi back to jail, which it said was "taken in blatant disregard
of her health."
The ministry said Taghavi was seriously ill and should be
receiving medical treatment.
"Her furlough was terminated abruptly, without her
even being able to receive the necessary medical treatment," the ministry
said, adding that Germany will "continue to work tirelessly for her
release."
Human rights groups and Western governments have accused
Iran of imprisoning foreign nationals and dual citizens in order to pressure
other countries into releasing jailed Iranians in prisoner swaps.
Tehran has repeatedly said it does not recognize dual
nationality and denies holding foreign nationals for political reasons.
Source: rferl.org
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-germany-taghavi-prison-health/32842751.html
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Palestinian-US Woman, Samaher Esmail, Held For Supporting
Hamas Freed On Bail To West Bank Home
March 01, 2024
A US citizen who was taken from her home and detained by
Israeli authorities for over three weeks was released on bail Thursday to wait
out the remainder of her trial in the West Bank.
Samaher Esmail, a 46-year-old mother of Palestinian
origin and resident of New Orleans, had been in the West bank for under three
months when she was charged with incitement for several photos and messages she
posted to social media. Some of them involved images of top Hamas terror
leaders, including a notorious bomb-maker who orchestrated suicide bombings
that killed dozens of Israelis in the 1990s, but did not explicitly call for
violence.
Esmail is now allowed to return to her West Bank village.
She will only be able to go back to the US once her trial concludes, which
could take months, and only if she is found not guilty.
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That a US citizen is being tried in military court — a
legal system for West Bank Palestinians separate from the Israeli civilian
courts — has drawn widespread criticism. Israel says it provides due process
and largely imprisons those who threaten its security. Palestinians and human
rights groups charge the system is awash in violations of due process and
almost always renders guilty verdicts, with 95 percent of military court
hearings ending in convictions, according to Israeli watchdog Military Court
Watch.
Esmail’s representatives and family celebrated Thursday’s
decision to release her on bail but expressed dismay at what they perceive as a
tepid US government response to the incarceration of an American by Israel.
“We’re ecstatic because we feel like this rarely
happens,” said Esmail’s son, Suliman Hamed, who lives in New Orleans. “I feel
like because of all the media coverage they may have done it fairly this time
around. I really thought I might never see her again.”
A video of Esmail being taken out of her house by Israeli
forces on February 6 provoked outrage on social media. Esmail’s lawyer charges
that Israeli forces beat her during the arrest, did not give her time to put on
her hijab and her Israeli interrogator did not ask properly if Esmail wanted an
attorney present.
Little was known publicly about her whereabouts, the
charges against her, or her condition.
She was not able to see a lawyer until four days after
her arrest, according to court documents from her initial hearing. Esmail
reportedly did not have access to her medications for at least the first six
days of her detention and fainted in prison, according to a letter written to
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken by Jonathan Franks, a crisis management
consultant who represents Americans detained abroad and is working for Esmail’s
family. A consular officer did not visit Esmail until 14 days after her arrest,
Franks said Thursday.
“I was extremely frustrated, given the issue of her
potentially having been abused in custody, that it took 14 days to get a
consular officer to see her,” said Franks, who flew from the US to attend
Thursday’s hearing. “I would like to see a public statement from the embassy
that it’s our expectation that Americans are not going to be put through these
military commissions. And I don’t think that that’s too much to ask of a
friend.”
The judge ruled Thursday at Ofer prison that the military
court did not have jurisdiction to prosecute Esmail for posts she made while in
the US, but charged her with incitement for posts she made while in the West
Bank. Esmail attended the hearing remotely, via video conference from Damon
prison.
Three of the posts involved a figure resembling Abu
Obeida, the spokesman of Hamas’ armed wing. Under two of the images was the
inscription “Victory or death of the Saints, God willing,” according to court
documents. Esmail also changed her profile picture to a masked man resembling
Obeida twirling a ball on his finger, emblazoned with US and Israeli flags.
She also posted a photo of Yahya Ayyash against the
backdrop of the al-Aqsa mosque. Nicknamed the Engineer, Ayyash was known for
both developing Hamas’s use of suicide bombings and building many of the
explosives used in attacks that took the lives of dozens of Israelis in the
early and mid-1990s. He was killed by Israel in 1996.
None of the posts in question received more than 11
likes.
“The posts constituted incitement and support of an
illegal organization, and are therefore not protected speech,” the judge said
Thursday.
The court’s decision means that Esmail will have to
remain in the West Bank until the legal proceedings against her are complete.
During that time, Esmail is barred from posting publicly on social media. Her
next trial at a military court is set for March 31, according to Franks.
In the meantime, her family is worried that she will not
have access to adequate cancer treatment in the West Bank and that Israel may
arrest her again.
Thursday’s hearings followed a previous military court
hearing six days after her arrest in which the military judge assigned to her
case openly questioned the wisdom of prosecuting an American citizen and
wondered if the court had jurisdiction, according to case files obtained by The
Associated Press.
“It is not wise to file an indictment against her based
on the allegations,” the judge said at the time. “In the substantial sense, nor
even in the political sense (in its international sense).”
Despite the judge’s recommendation that Esmail be
released on bail, the military prosecutor filed an indictment — leading to
Thursday’s hearing.
The case comes at a time of tension between the US and
Israel over the war in Gaza, which erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacres,
which saw thousands of terrorists burst across the border, killing some 1,200
people and kidnapping another 253, mostly civilians.
Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched a wide-scale
military offensive that Gaza health authorities say has claimed over 30,000
lives. The figures issued by the Hamas-run health ministry cannot be
independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas
members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket
misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza, in
addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Since that day, Israel has clamped down on online speech
perceived to glorify Hamas or the Palestinian cause. Rights groups say
Palestinians have been arrested by Israeli authorities, fired by Israeli
employers and expelled from Israeli schools for speech deemed incendiary.
Hamed, Esmail’s son, said the family was disappointed
that the embassy did not send a high-ranking official to attend Thursday’s
hearing, despite the family’s representatives asking them to.
The US Embassy did not have an immediate comment.
Esmail’s family said she often traveled back and forth
between the West Bank and the US, where she manages a family-owned grocery
store in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna and worked as a tutor at a nearby
high school. She was in the West Bank to see relatives and to testify at a
hearing about a previous encounter with Israeli forces where she was beaten,
her representatives said.
“It’s clear why they’re holding her,” said Hamed.
“They’re trying to use her as an example and to intimidate Palestinians. Cases
like these have people deleting their social media, and canceling their trips
to Palestine. They’re trying to silence us.”
Since October 7, IDF troops have arrested some 3,400
wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,500 affiliated
with Hamas. Even before then, tensions were elevated in the West Bank, with
Israeli forces carrying out nightly raids in the northern West Bank against
increasingly emboldened Palestinian terror groups.
Source: timesofisrael.com
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-us-woman-held-for-supporting-hamas-freed-on-bail-to-west-bank-home/
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Dr. Fatima Al Balushi, Member SWC Participates In Arab
Women Committee Meeting To Empower Bahraini And Arab Women
29 Feb 2024
Manama, Feb. 29 (BNA): The Supreme Council for Women
(SWC) participated in the 43rd session of the Arab Women Committee, as part of
the kingdom’s constant support for all Arab efforts aimed at advancing women
across various development fields.
It also reflects the SCW’s keenness to strengthen its
partnership and alliance with the Arab League’s Arab Women Committee to serve
and empower Bahraini and Arab women.
Addressing the session, Dr. Fatima Al Balushi, SWC
member, praised the collective Arab effort in addressing women's issues in the
region.
She called for taking advantage of cumulative experiences
to develop strategies aimed at preserving and increasing Arab women's
achievements.
Al Balushi underscored the SWC's major role in enhancing
gender equality, noting that its successful experience has become a role model
regionally and internationally.
The Committee endorsed the SWC’s remarks on the draft
"Arab Statement for the 68th Commission on the Status of Women," set
to convene at the United Nations headquarters in New York City from March 11 to
22.
The pan-Arab panel discussed several topics, including
following up on the implementation of the 2030 Arab Women’s Development Agenda,
in addition to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in the Arab world.
Discussions also covered a joint initiative with the UN
Women Regional Office for the Arab States to increase women's employment in the
Arab region.
Source: bna.bh
https://www.bna.bh/en/news?cms=q8FmFJgiscL2fwIzON1%2BDshcEig1MWMnaCq3daoJSa0%3D
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/gaza-london-arabia-awards/d/131829