Giorgia Meloni, Set to Become Italy’s First Female, Fascist PM after Mussolini, Praises ‘Heroic Uprising’ Of Iranian Women
New Age Islam News Bureau
29 September 2022
• UK Academics Call on PM Liz Truss to Help Release
Saudi Women's Rights Activist, Salma al-Shehab
• ISIS-Linked German Woman Charged With ‘Enslaving’
Yazidi Victim
• Amsterdam City Council Pushes For End of Nationwide Burqa
Ban
• Saudi Woman Jailed For Shooting Video of Couple
without Their Consent
• Malala Calls Out Hollywood: Muslim Actors Only Make
Up 1% of Popular TV Series Leads
• 10.7 Million Egyptian Women Receive Social
Insurance, Pensions: Social Solidarity Minister
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/giorgia-meloni-italy-fascist-iranian-truss/d/128063
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Giorgia Meloni, Set to Become Italy’s First Female,
Fascist PM after Mussolini, Praises ‘Heroic Uprising’ Of Iranian Women
Giorgia Meloni
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28 September, 2022
Giorgia Meloni, set to become Italy’s first female prime
minister, hailed on Wednesday “the heroic uprising of Iranian women” following
the death of a young woman in police custody.
The tweet was one of Meloni’s first statements since
her nationalist Brothers of Italy party won a parliamentary election on Sunday,
propelling her conservative alliance to power and opening the way for her to
become prime minister.
“All my sympathy to the brave women who are fighting
in Iran and around the world to defend their rights and freedom,” Meloni wrote.
“Dozens are dead and hundreds of activists, lawyers and journalists arrested.”
Protests have broken out across Iran after Mahsa
Amini, 22, died in custody following her arrest on Sept. 13 in Tehran for
“unsuitable attire” by the morality police who enforce the Islamic Republic’s
strict dress code.
Iranian officials have said 41 people, including
members of the police and a pro-government militia, had been killed during the
protests. Human rights groups have reported a higher toll.
Source: Al Arabiya
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UK Academics Call on PM Liz Truss to Help Release
Saudi Women's Rights Activist, Salma al-Shehab
Salma al-Shehab, 34, is a
well-known activist who called for women's rights in Saudi Arabia (Social
media)
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28 September 2022
Hundreds of academics and research students in UK
universities have sent a letter to Prime Minister Liz Truss, calling on her to
help release Saudi student Salma al-Shehab, who was a British resident when she
was sentenced to 34 years in prison.
Shehab, 34, is a well-known activist who has called
for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.
She was arrested in January 2021 and sentenced in
August to 34 years in prison, followed by a 34-year travel ban, for her
peaceful activity on Twitter, supporting women’s rights, basic freedoms and
prisoners of conscience in the country.
Almost 100 individuals from the University of Leeds,
where Shehab was doing a PhD in dental hygiene, have signed the letter to
Truss.
"Despite their constant rhetoric of reform and
support for women’s rights, the Saudi authorities have shown themselves to be
hell-bent as ever on crushing any form of peaceful dissent – and western
leaders’ embrace of Mohammed bin Salman makes them feel empowered to do
so," the letter said, referring to the Saudi de-facto ruler, known as MBS,
who was appointed as prime minister this week.
The academics asked Truss to help secure British
consular access to Shehab and help secure her immediate release, nulling her
conviction and condemning her imprisonment by the Saudi authorities.
"Salma should be looking forward, like us, to the
new academic year, instead of languishing behind bars for the ‘crime’ of
tweeting her legitimate opinions. She must be freed, reunited with her family,
and allowed to finish her PhD in the UK," the letter added.
Shehab is the mother of two young children.
ALQST, a Saudi rights group based in London, said that
Saudi authorities should "immediately and unconditionally release Salma
al-Shehab and other prisoners of conscience detained for their peaceful
activism, and to drop all charges against them."
In August, an alliance of more than 30 rights groups
called on the international community to pressure Saudi authorities to release
Shehab, days after a court imposed a prison sentence on her.
Since taking de-facto control of the kingdom in 2017,
MBS has overseen a widespread crackdown on dissent, even as he pushed a number
of nominally liberalising reforms.
Hundreds have been executed, with 120 executions
carried out so far in 2022 alone. In March, the kingdom executed 81 men in its
largest single mass execution in decades.
Source: Middle East Eye
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ISIS-linked German woman charged with ‘enslaving’
Yazidi victim
28 September, 2022
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday said they had charged
a German woman with war crimes and abetting genocide with the ISIS extremist
group in Syria by “enslaving” a Yazidi woman.
The authorities brought the charges, which also
included crimes against humanity and membership of a foreign terrorist
organization, against the suspect identified only as Nadine K. on September 16
before the superior regional court in Koblenz.
The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement
that Nadine K. had travelled with her husband in December 2014 from Germany to
the ISIS-controlled part of Syria where they joined the terrorist group.
Months later the couple and their daughter settled in
the Iraqi city of Mosul, the former “capital” proclaimed by ISIS, where they
hoarded weapons and established a hostel providing room and board for “single
female members” of ISIS.
“From early 2016, Nadine K. and her husband kept a
Yazidi woman as a slave,” prosecutors said. “The man raped and beat the woman
regularly, which Nadine K. knew.”
They said Nadine K. kept watch to prevent the woman
from fleeing and forced her to do housework and care for children while
observing Islamic rituals.
“All of this served the declared purpose of ISIS, to
wipe out the Yazidi faith,” prosecutors said.
Nadine K. and her family are believed to have moved to
Syria in autumn 2016 with their “slave” and lived in ISIS-controlled territory
until March 2019 when the suspect was captured by Kurdish forces and the Yazidi
woman “regained her freedom.”
The suspect was arrested last March upon her return to
Germany in one of several repatriation operations.
A German court last November issued the first ruling
worldwide to recognize crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, in a
verdict hailed by activists as a “historic” win for the minority.
The Kurdish-speaking Yazidis hailing from northern
Iraq have for years been persecuted by ISIS fighters who have killed hundreds
of men, raped women and forcibly recruited children as fighters.
In May, a German woman who joined ISIS in Syria as a
teenager was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence but cleared by a court
in Naumburg, central Germany, of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Amsterdam City Council pushes for end of nationwide
burqa ban
Selman Aksunger
28.09.2022
AMSTERDAM
Local leaders in Amsterdam have taken an important
step to encourage scrapping the burqa (face-covering clothing) ban in the
Netherlands, which came into force in 2019.
On Sept. 14 the city council in the Netherlands’
capital and largest city passed a proposal to repeal the burqa ban, as many
call it. The proposal has no legal force, but was accepted with a large
majority of 35-10 on the Amsterdam City Council, and next Mayor Femke Halsema
will convey it to the Dutch Parliament.
City Council members Sheher Khan and Suleyman Koyuncu
from the Denk Party spoke to Anadolu Agency on the successful proposal, which
was originally made by their party.
Koyuncu said that the main purpose of the ban is to
prevent Muslim women from wearing veils or burqas, adding: "After this ban
was introduced, people wanted to interfere with veiled Muslims and complain to
the police."
He added that the next step after the city council
passed the proposal to encourage repealing the law was Halsema submitting it to
parliament in the nation’s administrative capital, The Hague.
Discrimination, violence against Muslim women
Saying that around 100 women wear face veils in the
Netherlands, Koyuncu said they saw an increase in the cases of discrimination
and violence against veiled Muslims.
Adding that women who wear face veils are insulted and
face verbal and physical interference, Koyuncu said that in the early years of
the ban, some Dutch people detained Muslims wearing face veils under the guise
of "civil arrest" until the police arrived.
We aim to halt rising Islamophobia in Europe
Saying the law was introduced under pressure from
far-right Dutch parties, Koyuncu said: "We aim to halt the rising
Islamophobia in the Netherlands and Europe through parliament accepting the
motion."
Khan added that though the law seems to be for the
general public, in fact, it targets Muslim women in particular.
Law is ineffective
Saying that the law has not been enforced for the past
three years, Khan said that no veiled Muslim has so far been punished under the
law.
As the police have never sanctioned anyone under the
law for wearing a veil, the law is "ineffective," he said.
Saying that the law, which imposes fines on veiled
women, is already obsolete in practice and that it causes restrictions beyond
its purpose, fueling hatred and discrimination against Muslim women, he
stressed: "For this reason, we want the law repealed."
Dutch academics oppose ban
University of Amsterdam anthropologist Martijn de
Koning told Anadolu Agency that over the years many religious arrangements had
been made in the Netherlands, but with the ban, these steps began to target
Muslims.
Annelies Moors, an anthropologist and sociologist also
at the University of Amsterdam, said: "Such restrictions trigger violence
and discrimination against Muslims in society."
Tendayi Achiume, the UN rapporteur on contemporary
forms of racism, added: “This law has no place in a society that prides itself
on promoting gender equality.”
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Saudi woman jailed for shooting video of couple
without their consent
September 27, 2022
Khitam Al Amir
Dubai: A Saudi woman was sentenced to two days in
prison for shooting a video of a couple without their permission while they
were at a restaurant in Jeddah, local media reported.
The ruling was issued by the Jeddah Criminal Court
after a man filed the case, accusing the woman of invading his privacy by
filming him and his wife while they were in a restaurant on the Jeddah
Corniche.
He also accused the woman of mocking and uttering
offensive words against him and his wife. The court while sentencing her also
ordered the woman to undertake a pledge not to repeat such an act.
The unnamed woman appeared in the court and admitted
that she had taken the video of the complainant and his wife but she denied
uttering offensive words against them. She also justified the filming as a
proof of the couple’s offensive words against her. The accused also clarified
that she had filmed the couple following a dispute between them before they
entered the restaurant.
The court listened to the two parties and confirmed in
its ruling that woman’s act is considered an invasion of the privacy of others,
thus infringing the personal rights of the couple.
Source: Gulf News
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Malala Calls Out Hollywood: Muslim Actors Only Make Up
1% of Popular TV Series Leads
By Manori Ravindran, EJ Panaligan
Sep 28, 2022
Malala Yousafzai used Variety’s Power of Women event,
presented by Lifetime, to make the case for representation in Hollywood,
specifically highlighting the fact that Muslim actors only make up 1% of
popular television series leads.
“Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson presented
Yousafzai with her Variety honor, calling her one of “the most influential
advocates of our time.” Yousafzai, who remains the youngest Nobel Laureate in
history, recently revealed the first slate of projects out of her production
company Extracurricular. The outfit, which is headed by Yousafzai and her head
of production Erika Kennair, struck a multi-year programming deal with Apple
TV+ last year.
At the heart of her first projects is a rich diversity
that reflects Yousafzai’s resolve to tell representative stories that haven’t
always had a place in Hollywood.
“I learned that Asian people like me make up less than
4% of leads in Hollywood films. Muslims are 25% of the population, but only 1%
of characters in popular TV series,” Yousafzai underscored at the Power of
Women dinner.
Among her first projects are a feature documentary
with A24 about South Korea’s matriarchal Haenyeo society of elderly
fisherwomen, currently in production; a scripted series based on Asha Lemmie’s
coming-of-age novel “Fifty Words for Rain,” about a woman’s search for
acceptance in post-World War II Japan; and a feature film with “Don’t Look Up”
director Adam McKay and his production company, Hyperobject, based on Elaine
Hsieh Chou’s book “Disorientation” — a satire about a college student’s
revealing dissertation about a young poet.
Yousafzai is also throwing her influence behind Riz
Ahmed’s Pillars Artist Fellowship, which supports emerging Muslim directors and
screenwriters. The program is timely, with Yousafzai having cited new data from
a recent USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative during her speech.
“I know that the executives have passed on dozens of
quality, equally amazing projects because they thought that the characters or
their creators were too young, too Brown, too foreign, too poor,” she remarked.
“Sometimes it feels like they’re saying we just don’t belong here.”
On Oct. 9, it will be 10 years since Yousafzai became,
at 15, a survivor of a ruthless assassination attempt on a child by the
Taliban. In 2012, the Afghanistan-headquartered group, which had slowly been
stripping women of their civil liberties in the region, targeted Yousafzai for
her father’s activism — at the time, he was operating the Khushal School for
girls in Mingora.
The Taliban shot Yousafzai in the face while she was
riding the bus home from school. She was flown to England for lifesaving
emergency treatment and has lived there ever since, recently moving from her
family’s home in Birmingham to London with her new husband, Asser Malik.
Speaking at Variety’s event, Yousafzai spoke about the
formative experience at 11 years old that set her on a path toward activism,
pushing to champion creative perspectives from diverse and underrepresented
backgrounds in the entertainment industry.
“I know the tale of having a dream and being told to
forget it,” Yousafzai said. “Today, I am a storyteller, activist and producer.”
Yousafzai, along with Hillary Clinton and Chelsea
Clinton, Elizabeth Olsen, Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay, are honorees at this
year’s Power of Women event in Los Angeles.
Source: Variety
https://variety.com/2022/tv/events/malala-variety-power-of-women-1235385355/
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10.7 million Egyptian women receive social insurance,
pensions: Social Solidarity Minister
September 29, 2022
Atotal of 10.7 million Egyptian women receive social
insurance and pensions, representing 58% of the total pensioners in the
country, Minister of Social Solidarity Nivine El-Kabbag has stated during her
participation in the inauguration ceremony of the 6th Arab Pensions Conference
in Sharm El-Sheikh.
The number of insured persons in Egypt reached 14
million, of whom women constitute 23%. Pensions have increased during the past
three years by nearly 50%, with a plan to further raise minimum insurance and
pension to EGP 916.
According to the Central Agency for Public
Mobilization and Statistics, the labour force increased during 2021 by 3.2%,
and this was reflected in the increase of employed people, to reach about 27.2
million; 11.6 million people in urban areas and 15.5 million in rural areas. It
is worth noting that more than 40% of the workforce in Egypt works in the
informal sector, the minister said.
El-Kabbaj noted that about 78% of the people above
retirement age receive pension, while only 19% of the unemployed receive
unemployment compensation. Moreover, 34% of people with disabilities receive
disability compensation, while only 35% of the official labour force receives
compensation for work injuries at the global level.
Despite the advantages that have become available in
insurance systems, the efficiency and effectiveness of pension systems has
become a source of many fears, and these fears have increased during periods of
economic crises, periods of economic reform, labour market shifts, and budget
cuts.
She further pointed out that beneficiaries of the cash
support programme “Takaful and Karama” (Solidarity and Dignity) has reached 5
million families, women representing 74% of the total beneficiaries.
El-Kabbaj recommended the expansion of insurance for
non-covered groups, including the informal sector and expatriates, through
maximising the investment of insurance funds. In addition, she called for
developing pension plans to ward off the risks of global financial and economic
crises, and currency fluctuations.
The minister also recommended strengthening social
welfare funds in insurance and pension authorities. Moreover, she called for
benefiting from the expertise of retirees in all fields, and integrating them
into the labour market.
Source: Daily News Egypt
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