German Muslim Women May Not Wear Burqa While Driving: Administrative Court Neustadt an der Weinstraße
New Age
Islam News Bureau
07 August 2023
• German Muslim Women May Not Wear Burqa
While Driving: Administrative Court Neustadt an der Weinstraße
• Saudi Woman, Nawda Al-Qahtani, Goes
Back To School At 110
• Muslim Woman, Summer Homayed, Walks
Off 'Survive The Raft' Claiming She Was 'Targeted'
• The State And Its Men Are Not The
Messiahs Of Muslim Women
• Chinese Woman Converts To Islam In Iran's
Hamedan
• ‘Get Rakhi Tied From Bilkis Bano’: Uddhav
Thackeray On PM’s Muslim Women Outreach
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/german-muslim-women-burqa-weinstraße/d/130404
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German Muslim Women May Not Wear Burqa
While Driving: Administrative Court Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Photo AFP,
Tauseef Mustafa
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07-08-2023
Muslim women are not allowed to cover
their faces while driving. That is the ruling of the Administrative Court
Neustadt an der Weinstraße.
The judges considered the case of a
Muslim woman who had filed a complaint against the authority that issued her
driver's licence, Tagesschau reports. The woman had requested to be exempted
from the so-called veil ban in traffic. She wished to keep on her Niqab, which
does not only cover her hair but also her face while driving. The licensing
authorities rejected her application, after which the woman took the case to
court.
However, the judges ruled in favour of
the licensing authority. They pointed out that every driver needs to be
recognisable behind the steering wheel. Therefore, face coverings are not
allowed, and a Niqab covers everything except for the area around the eyes.
The judges do not think the ban violates
the German Constitution, as it does not “severely restrict religious freedom.”
Instead, the practice of religion is “only restricted in a narrowly limited
life situation that is typically not essential for freedom of religion”, the
verdict continues.
In addition, the judges deemed legal
interests to be more important. They said that if the face of a driver is not
identifiable, one can not hold him or her accountable for traffic violations or
checks. That would mean that a Niqab could be misused to violate the law, the
judges said.
The plaintiff has one month to appeal
the verdict at the Higher Administrative Court in Koblenz.
Source: cne.news
https://cne.news/article/3444-german-muslim-may-not-wear-burqa-while-driving
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Saudi Woman, Nawda Al-Qahtani, Goes Back
To School At 110
Nawda
Al-Qahtani thanked the Kingdom’s leaders for their efforts to eradicate
illiteracy. (Supplied)
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August 06, 2023
MAKKAH: A Saudi woman has proven the old
adage “better late than never” by going back to school — at the age of 110.
Nawda Al-Qahtani returned to her studies
with the help of Al-Rahwa Centre in the Umwah governorate in the Kingdom’s
southwest.
The mother-of-four — her oldest child is
80 and the youngest is in his 50s — told Arab News that learning to read and
write has transformed her life.
Since joining an illiteracy eradication
program at the centre several weeks ago, she has attended school every day
along with more than 50 others.
The students of all ages are taught the
basics of the alphabet and some verses of the Qur’an.
Al-Qahtani said she enjoys the lessons
and makes sure she completes her homework by the end of each day.
The Ministry of Education's branch in
Bisha shared a post on X about Al-Qahtani in which the 110-year-old expresses
her gratitude toward the Kingdom’s leaders for their efforts to eradicate
illiteracy.
Contemplating a return to study “was a
difficult matter, especially for someone over 100 years of age,” she told Arab
News.
However, she said the move was long
overdue and she should have completed her schooling many years ago.
Al-Qahtani expressed regret over the
years that have passed without improving her education, adding that it
“certainly would have changed a lot in my life and the lives of others.”
The delay was not due to an individual
issue in her life, she said, but was common for hundreds of girls from the
region’s rural areas and villages, who were unable to complete their studies
because of the geographical isolation.
Al-Qahtani’s four children support her
studies and are optimistic about the new development in her life. They also
believe that it is long overdue, but was delayed by God’s will.
Her 60-year-old son Mohammed told Arab
News that he takes his mother to the center every morning and waits for her at
the end of classes.
He is happy and proud that she is
learning something new every day.
“We certainly know that this matter is
not easy for our mother, who is over 110 years old. But it is a step that makes
all members of the family feel proud.
“We really wish we could go back in time
to provide her with the best educational services.”
The governorate has only one high school
for girls, which puts it under huge pressure, he said.
Al-Qahtani added that he hopes the
authorities will establish more schools for public education so that others can
become literate and complete their education.
The country’s leaders are keen to combat
and eliminate illiteracy in all regions of the Kingdom, he added.
“We would like our governorate to be
completely free of illiteracy. Everyone must join hands to eliminate illiteracy
so as to obtain a distinctive formal education that serves our sons and
daughters alike and helps them obtain good job opportunities in the future.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2350666/saudi-arabia
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Muslim Woman, Summer Homayed, Walks Off 'Survive The Raft' Claiming She Was 'Targeted'
August 7, 2023
A Muslim woman exited the new Discovery
show Survive the Raft Sunday after saying she felt isolated from and targeted
by the other cast members on the show. The show's host, Nate Boyer, gave Yahoo
Entertainment News her thoughts on what actually went down in the episode.
The new series is based on a 1973 social
experiment called “Peace Project” from anthropologist Santiago Genovés and
features a group of nine Americans on a raft together who were “handpicked to
disagree about everything.”
And as the season continues, the group
is offered the chance to swap out a current cast member for a new one, which is
where the drama began on Sunday for 41-year-old Summer Homayed. When a
potential new castmate arrived on the raft — also named Summer — Homayed
immediately felt threatened, as if she would be the first name brought up to be
voted off. (The actual first — and unexpected — exit occurred after a
contestant suffered a seizure on the inaugural episode and had to be
evacuated.)
But in an attempt to shift the chopping
block spotlight onto 36-year-old cast mate LashannaLintamo, Homayed was
ultimately accused of embellishing a story and stirring the pot.
Later, Homayed claimed that Lintamo was
threatening her and the group, but another cast mate who heard the conversation
didn’t agree and again accused her of stirring the pot. At that point, Homayed
got the sense that the target was officially on her back.
“100% the team is looking for their
moment to get rid of me, and I don’t want to sit here and say it comes down to
a racial thing, but I'll leave that for the world to see,” Homayed said in a
confessional interview. “We don’t speak the same language, we don’t have the
same culture. I feel singled out, absolutely, I didn’t come here for that. What
the heck am I doing here?”
Homayed decided to tell the rest of the
group to go ahead and vote her out. But then she engaged with Lintamo about how
she was feeling, and Lintamo responded.
“You better step back because you’re
looking stupid,” she said to Homayed. “You’re a liar, you’re fake, you’re
stirring the pot. I’m done eating your nasty food, I’m done. You’re a liar. And
the world doesn't see it. You’re messing up the opportunity for women to break
free in the Muslim community.”
And with that, Homayed began packing her
bags to leave but ended up joining the group for a brief meeting with show host
Nate Boyer, where she told the group how she was feeling.
“I felt isolated since day one, I really
did, I even came out to you guys. I spoke about it. I am different,” Homayed
said.
She then left the raft without any votes
being cast and spoke with Boyer, telling him that she felt “targeted.” He then
asked if she felt that way on the raft or in the real world.
“Both places, I am targeted. I am a
Muslim woman," Homayed said. "Maybe I can’t sit with them for their
conversations. Maybe I can’t have sex talk because I’m reserved. Maybe I can't
assimilate like they can. We’re different."
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment
about the episode, Boyer said that he understands why she would have feelings
of isolation and targeting, given her “unique story and background,” and
assumes she has probably felt those things in her life before the raft as well.
Boyer was a United States Army Green
Beret, having served six years and multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan,
which he said gave him a personal perspective on the matter.
“Living in the United States and being
of a Muslim background, that’s gotta be tough on a lot of people. And I know
that from some of the interpreters and Special Forces folks that I worked with
from Afghanistan, they come back here and people don’t understand their story.
And they don’t understand their beliefs, and it's hard for people to relate to
them. And I'm sure that can be very lonely and scary," Boyer said.
"And yes, this country is pretty good, and I think it has the potential to
be great, but we’re not perfect. I think some people definitely get the shorter
end of the stick compared to others. So I wonder if a lot of that contributed
to those feelings. And then when you’re in a sensitive and vulnerable state,
maybe you’re a little bit more easily triggered. So I could absolutely see why
she felt that way.”
However, Boyer went on to say that he
didn’t think the group had targeted Homayed or intended to make her feel
singled out.
“Whether it was fair or not, I don’t
think she was specifically… I don’t think the group was in on it to get her,”
Boyer said. “But it probably felt like that, and I can’t blame her for feeling
those things. She has every right to feel that way.”
Source: yahoo.com
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/muslim-woman-walks-off-survive-the-raft-targeted-show-host-nate-boyer-responds-exclusive-061738842.html
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The State And Its Men Are Not The Messiahs Of Muslim Women
Aug 7, 2023
By Zainab S Qazi
It is 2023 and it is unfortunate that
even today, the State and its men still feel entitled to command and tell
Muslim women what to wear and what not to, how to behave, what to choose, where
to go and where not to, and most importantly, how to live. It comes as no
surprise for a woman like me who wears a hijab, asserts her identity, and
experiences such incidences daily, all while receiving education in a
well-known heterogeneous university in the capital city of Delhi.
At the same time, I cannot stop thinking
about how many Muslim women in Karnataka and a few other parts of the country
have recently been asked to choose between their hijab and their education. On
the contrary, we have a situation in Iran where women like Mahsa Amini are
killed for not wearing the hijab or their way of wearing it. In both
situations, Muslim women and their identities are getting deprived and killed
simultaneously, with regards to the piece of cloth they are wearing or not
wearing. In both situations, we have the State, majorly composed of men, who
claim to be the messiah of Muslim women and thus feel that their patriarchy is
threatened if women resist and oppose any of their ways and decisions. If
anything, authoritative regimes and their sick mentality still feel that women
are their property and will continue to submit to their authority.
Men, god complexes and the rooted
incidents of everyday life affecting Muslim women
I want to shed light on the more rooted
and ground-level issues, for a while. I strongly believe these small and local
issues ultimately lead to bigger tragedies for Muslim women. In one such
incident, I learned the extent men can go to exercise their unwanted opinions
on women and how well these men assert their presence again and again in
society. My mother wears an abaya (a long veil worn by Muslim women with a
hijab) and sometimes, she just covers her head, without an abaya.
Recently, I went shopping with her in a
local market nearby, a shop we often visit to buy necessary items. A
50-year-old man is the owner of the shop. The moment we enter the shop, he says
to my mother, ‘Aaptohabayapehentithi? Utaarkyundiya,
abayatohmusalaamaurtonkopehennachahiye, galatkiyaaapne‘. (Didn’t you use to
wear an abaya? Why did you remove it? Muslim women should wear it, you did a
wrong thing by removing it). I was stunned and taken aback the moment I heard
this statement, I could not comprehend why anybody would say that. I came out
of the shop with my mother and since then, I cannot stop thinking about the
audacity of men to even observe what women are wearing or not wearing around
them, let alone feel an obligation to say such things to them, especially in public
places.
In an equally saddening incident, my
aunt who is a news reporter uploaded a video reporting an incident. She is seen
wearing an Indian suit and a man out of nowhere comments, ‘She should cover her
head, but no worries, at least her chest is covered with her dupatta‘. For a
few seconds, my mind could not comprehend this. I read this comment while
watching her video, and truth be told, I was not surprised.
It was almost like I was transported
hundred years back to when women and their entire identities were reduced to
their bodies and certain body parts, functioning under the commandments and
authority of the men around them, where they had zero agency over themselves,
and where a woman, with all of her faculties out in public, is a nightmare for
the patriarchy.
Then, what is left for men to do? They
resort to giving unnecessary opinions, suggestions, and sick observations. Even
worse, they post unsolicited comments under videos and pictures in the new
emerging technological world.
What is worth observing in both
situations is how minutely mansplaining works, especially in local and
day-to-day events where everything seems to be in a rush. Thus comments and
observations like these are not given much attention and thought. Incidents
like these are then not just limited to Muslim women, it takes a bigger picture
into account where almost every woman goes through such experiences daily, yet
is expected to be ignorant and silent, passively surrendering to the man’s
world.
The State and male saviour narratives
targeting Muslim women
The word ‘messiah’, which translates to
‘a leader regarded as the saviour of a particular country, group, or cause‘ has
recently been reinterpreted to align with the male saviour narrative when it
comes to saving Muslim women from the so-called oppression they are said to be
facing. In an equally concerning situation, the same messiah considers himself
to be the commander of the religion of Islam, where what he does is of no
importance but how well the Muslim woman carries her religion is of utmost
significance. This largely comprises state functioning which controls and
restricts the choices of Muslim women.
» Also read: Book Review | The Hijab:
Islam, Women And The Politics Of Clothing By P.K. Yasser Arafath And G. Arunima
To talk about my home country which is
under the saffron stronghold, where anybody who does not fit into this color
scheme is marginalised, deprived, and asked to pay a very hefty price on
account of their identity. Of course, it starts with controlling a woman’s
education. Once education is under control, no woman can raise her voice thus
dissent is stifled forever. This comes as no surprise because this is what is
precisely followed by the Indian state where Muslim women must choose between
their education or the hijab. On the flip side, the Iranian state makes women
choose between wearing a hijab or embracing death by execution.
In the latter situation, the messiah
takes the form of the oppressor where the source of oppression is no longer a
woman’s hijab but the men, who feel they must show women their place in an
important Islamic society. Men either believe that they must liberate women or
bring them under the umbrella of religion and protect them. In both situations,
women are considered too weak to make decisions for themselves and are imagined
as non-agential beings who are in dire need of a male to save them from any
threat or oppression.
Easy solutions, tough implementations
How any Muslim woman carries her
religion is not the business of any State or man. It is solely between her and
her god. A woman is mature enough to make decisions for herself. What parts of
her body she covers or reveals is the last thing any man or any State in the
world should be concerned about. The solution is very simple but it can be
easily complicated by states like India, Iran and even the local streets,
shops, and localities where men have taken the power structures in their hands
and continue to misuse it by constantly critiquing women and their choices.
Where to draw the line, then? How does a
Muslim woman tackle her identity in such situations and when does the State
consider her as a human being where she is more than what she wears, how she
looks, and what she chooses? When are choices truly free for any Muslim woman and
she feels incorporated in the mainstream state structure? There are multiple
questions for feminist scholars of today’s day and age to deal with. Waking up
to news of women’s choices incurring harsh punishment is not unusual today. Yet
it is saddening and heartbreaking. It is high time the State and its men take a
step back, shed their shrinking male egos, and start working to solve the
actual ground-level challenges present not just in states like India and Iran
but in every state which claims to be inclusive, independent, and free for all
of its citizens in the 21st century.
Muslim women should be free. They should
be allowed to exercise their freedom, choice, and individuality. They should be
considered voiced beings, who are able to decide and choose what is good and
what is bad for them. They should have a space to live life on their own terms.
The State and its men have to exit from their world for them to enjoy complete
freedom and liberation in India, Iran, and everywhere else, in today’s age.
Source: feminisminindia.com
https://feminisminindia.com/2023/08/07/the-state-and-its-men-are-not-the-messiahs-of-muslim-womenthe-state-majorly-composed-of-men-who-claim-to-be-the-messiah-of-muslim-womenentitled-to-command-and-tell-muslim-women-what-to-wear-and-what/
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Chinese Woman Converts To Islam In
Iran's Hamedan
TEHRAN, Aug. 06 (MNA) – The video
footage shows when a Chinese woman converts to Islam in the presence of the
Friday Prayers Imam of Hamedan in the west of Iran.
Source: en.mehrnews.com
https://en.mehrnews.com/news/204242/VIDEO-Chinese-woman-converts-to-Islam-in-Iran-s-Hamedan
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‘Get rakhi tied from Bilkis Bano’:
Uddhav Thackeray on PM’s Muslim women outreach
Aug 6, 2023
By Saurabh Vaktania: Shiv Sena (UBT)
Chief Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday launched a scathing attack against Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government at the
Centre. Responding to reports about PM Modi asking MPs of the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) to get rakhis tied from Muslim women, Uddhav
Thackeray said, “If you have guts, get rakhi tied from Bilkis Bano.”
Addressing workers of Shiv Sena (UBT)
and activists of Sambhaji Brigade in Mumbai, Uddhav Thackeray said, “I want to
tell you what happened in NDA meeting, what MPs of NDA were told by PM Modi. He
(PM Modi) said, this time organise Raksha Bandhan with Muslim women, let Muslim
women tie rakhi.”
Taking a jibe at PM Modi and the BJP,
Uddhav Thackeray said that they should get rakhi tied from sisters in Manipur
as well.
"...Think about sisters in Manipur
as well and tie rakhi from them," Uddhav Thackeray said. "Get rakhi
tied rakhi by Bilkis Bano, have such Raksha Bandhan. Bilkis Bano was pregnant
when she was raped...All culprits in the case were released by the Gujarat
government. If you have guts, get rakhi tied from Bilkis Bano."
Uddhav Thackeray criticised Prime
Minister Narendra Modi who had derided the opposition INDIA alliance. Uddhav
Thackeray said the INDIA bloc comprises the parties that oppose those who
strangle democracy and freedom.
"We feel proud when PM Modi meets
foreign leaders abroad. Do you meet them as the prime minister of India or as
Pradhan Sevak of Indian Mujahideen?" he asked.
The former Maharashtra chief minister
was referring to PM Modi's criticism of the opposition alliance INDIA wherein
the latter had cited names such as East India Company and Indian Mujahideen to
assert that people cannot be misled merely by the use of the country's name.
‘BJP BACKSTABBED US’
Uddhav Thackeray reiterated his reason
for aligning with the Congress, stating that the BJP had “backstabbed” him. He
reminded the audience of his father Balasaheb Thackeray's unwavering support
for the BJP when nobody else stood by the party.
Drawing parallels between incidents in
Karnataka and Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray said, "In Karnataka, they got
hit with the gada of Bajrang Bali. Now, in Maharashtra, they keep chanting ‘Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb’. I am saying we don't want followers of Aurangabad."
Launching an attack against Maharashtra
Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Uddhav Thackeray accused him of being unaware
of the activities in Maharashtra.
Uddhav Thackeray said, “You (Devendra
Fadnavis) are home minister, you don't know what activities are happening in
Maharashtra, so why are you home minister? Today, let me tell you, Aurangzeb is
still alive. Look at what is happening here (in Maharashtra). There is Aurangzeb
who divided Shiv Sena, there is Aurangzeb who divided NCP. Fadnavis, Aurangzeb
is within you."
Accusing the BJP of internal divisions
and playing political games, Uddhav Thackeray added, "They backstabbed us.
They don't have any soldiers. They make each other fight like Sena vs Sena and
NCP vs NCP.”
Source: indiatoday.in
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/uddhav-thackeray-shiv-sena-mumbai-attacks-pm-modi-nda-2417170-2023-08-06
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