“Your Hijab, Tuck It In, It Can’t Get In The Way”: ‘Sisterhood Football Club’ Uniting Football And Faith In A London Team
New Age Islam News Bureau
26 November 2022
• Iraqi Furniture-Maker, Nour al-Janabi, Carves up
Stereotypes
• Ruwa Romman Feels 'Huge Responsibility' As First
Muslim Woman Elected To The Georgia House
• Female Survivors Of Assad's Prisons Face Suffering
Even After Release
• Dozens Arrested At Women’s March In Istanbul To Mark
International Day For The Elimination Of Violence Against Women
• Islamic Emirate Says on the International Day for
the Elimination of Violence Against Women: It Has Upheld Women's Rights
• US Police In Hate Crime Probe After New York Subway
Attack On Muslim Woman
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/hijab-sisterhood-football-faith-london/d/128497
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“Your Hijab, Tuck It In, It Can’t Get In The Way”:
‘Sisterhood Football Club’ Uniting Football And Faith In A London Team
Sisterhood FC team members
take a break during a training session in Hyde Park, London. Credit: Reuters Photo
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Hannah McKay
November 26, 2022
On a soccer pitch in a central London park, Sisterhood
Football Club – a Muslim women’s team – is making a substitution.
“Your hijab, tuck it in. It can’t get in the way,” a
teammate calls out as the replacement player runs on.
Despite the warmth of the afternoon, all of
Sisterhood’s players are clothed from head to foot in the club’s all-black
colours. Some wear training trousers, almost all of them have hijab head
scarves and one is in a full-length Abaya robe.
On the sidelines, a squad member unfurls a mat and
kneels to pray while her teammates play on against a team led by Brazilian
women in bright pink and blue shirts and shorts.
Founded in 2018, Sisterhood has doubled in size to
almost 100 players, allowing its members to enjoy playing football without
anyone querying their Muslim dress code or asking why they refrain from
socialising in a pub after their games.
“It’s a football club for Muslim women to come and
feel free and relaxed and be able to play in their attire,” Kamara Davis, 30,
says.
She converted to Islam at age 17 and felt that she
would never play soccer again because it seemed incompatible with the
religion’s traditional dress. But when she heard about Sisterhood, she jumped
at the chance to join.
“Honestly, it just feels so good, it’s like a release.
It feels really nice when I am able to shoot the ball with power,” Davis says.
The club also offers a chance to Muslim women to enjoy
a break from traditional roles that many say are expected of them.
Fatima Ali, 26, says some families struggled at first
to understand why their young women members wanted to play sport. “I think a
lot of people have approved of it,” she says. “But it is still going to take
time, it’s not just a one-step process.”
“Even your brothers might be like what’s the point of
you going all the way from west London to southeast but I’ll be like: ‘I enjoy
playing, we’ve got a team, this is it, we’ve got a match, we’ve got to go to do
this.’”
Yasmin Abdullahi, Sisterhood’s Somali-British founder,
recalled the surprise of many fellow female Muslim students when she told them
that she was playing football for London University’s Goldsmiths College whilst
a student.
“They could not believe that they were seeing a girl
that wears a hijab and saying that she plays football,” Abdullahi, a
30-year-old professional fashion model, says.
So she set up the club as a way to reconcile the
interest in playing sport among many Muslim women and their adherence to their
faith. To underscore the point, Sisterhood’s club badge features the image of a
hijab, which was barred by soccer’s world governing body FIFA on safety grounds
in 2007. The ban was only relaxed in 2012, with the hijab fully permitted in
2014.
Like many of Sisterhood’s players, Abdullahi is
excited about the World Cup in Qatar. “What comes with the World Cup is such a
beautiful experience, watching matches with your family and your friends.”
But like other club members, Abdullahi drew the
contrast between the funding for the England men’s team compared with the
national women’s team which won the Women’s European Championship this year for
the first time.
“If they’d had equal investment and equal opportunity,
where would the women be?” she asked.
Unsupportive school
Sisterhood runs a weekly training session and its
first team competes in the Ladies Super Liga for 5- and 7-a-side teams.
Sara Taleghani, 25, says she struggled to reconcile
her faith and her hopes of playing sports when she was at school in Ireland.
“I constantly had coaches trying to compromise my
religion,” says Taleghani, who works as a social media manager for a public
relations agency.
Teachers used to say that her head scarf posed a
hazard and they insisted that she wore shorts. “I think that’s the reason I
stopped playing sports at school,” she says.
For Faezeh Deriss, 23, who recently completed a degree
in child psychology, being able to wear what she wants while playing is vital.
“I’ve been to a couple of other football places but
there weren’t any girls who looked like me,” she says. “Other teams I played
with, they tried to make me wear shorts. I tried wearing shorts with leggings
underneath but it didn’t feel right.”
There is no such conflict at Sisterhood. “I feel
confident saying to the team that I am just going to go and pray. It’s not an
issue,” says Deriss.
Taleghani says she was encouraged to see other Muslim
women’s football teams but she had a sense of regret that some players of her
generation will never fulfil their potential, given how recently they were
given the chance to play.
“If there had been spaces like this when we were
growing up, I know a few girls who would have made it as pros,” she says.
For founder Abdullahi, the most important achievement
of the club is the sense of togetherness among its members, many of whom have
become friends.
“I think the thing that honestly brings tears to my
eyes is the fact that we’ve actually built our little community,” says
Abdullahi. “The name Sisterhood FC, it’s not by accident – like we have
literally built a sisterhood.”
Source: Independent UK
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/muslim-women-football-faith-london-b2225397.html
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Iraqi Furniture-Maker, Nour al-Janabi, Carves up
Stereotypes
Iraqi carpenter Nour
al-Janabi works at her home furniture workshop in Baghdad's Abu Dsheer area, on
Nov. 13, 2022.
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November 26, 2022
BAGHDAD —
With hammer and saw, Nour al-Janabi is building her
latest creation, a candy-pink sofa, in the carpentry workshop she runs in
male-dominated and conservative Iraq.
"At the start, relatives criticized me,"
said the 29-year-old carpenter and furniture-maker, who is also a mother of
four. "They would say: 'But you're a woman... You're an amateur... It's a
men's trade.'"
Covered in velvet or imitation leather, the sofas and
armchairs that she designs, makes and mends in her south Baghdad workshop go
from rustic style to Louis XV.
Her order book is full, with new lounges starting at a
cool around $480.
Janabi has been making furniture for several years,
and launched her business, Nour Carpentry, a few months ago. She recently moved
operations from her home to a house turned workshop, where she has four
employees — one of them her retired husband.
"But it's not right to say it like that,"
she said with an embarrassed smile, her hijab covering her hair.
In oil-rich Iraq, women make up just 13.3 percent of
the labor force, according to the World Bank, while the World Economic Forum
ranked the country 154 out of 156 in its latest Global Gender Gap Report.
A study published last year by two U.N. agencies noted
that while most Iraqis consider tertiary education equally important for men
and women, "attitudes toward equal rights in employment are discriminatory
against women."
Janabi attributes her success largely to
do-it-yourself tutorials that she first posted on Facebook to share her passion
for carpentry and furniture-making.
She uploads videos — about everything from how to re-stuff
an old sofa to using a sander — to TikTok and Instagram too, where she has more
than 94,000 followers.
"I am the first Iraqi woman to do this trade and
break the barrier in this field," she claimed, in a country still largely
dominated by conservative attitudes about women's role in society, and where
those perceived as too independent are sometimes even considered immoral.
She said she receives comments from women and men
telling her: "You make Iraq proud and you have accomplished
something."
"May God give you strength and health!" one
user commented on a video of Janabi presenting a sofa decorated with a floral
pattern.
One of her clients, Abu Sajjad, dropped by to see how
his sofa repairs were going — untroubled by prejudices some others might harbor
against dealing with a female carpenter and business owner.
Most working women in Iraq are teachers or nurses,
though a small number have entered the police or armed forces.
One of them is Angham al-Tamimi, who this year became
the first woman army general.
In a video broadcast by the military's press service,
she said she had "faced the non-acceptance of women in the military."
But she said she had succeeded thanks to her
"persistence" and "passion."
Source: VOA News
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Ruwa Romman feels 'huge responsibility' as first
Muslim woman elected to the Georgia House
By Peter Biello
November 22, 2022
LISTEN: On Election Day, Ruwa Romman made Georgia
history: She became the first known Muslim woman elected to the Georgia House —
and the first Palestinian American elected to any office in the state. GPB's
Peter Biello speaks with the representative-elect.
On Election Day, Ruwa Romman made Georgia history: She
became the first known Muslim woman elected to the Georgia House of Representatives,
and she is also the first Palestinian American elected to any office in the
state. She'll be representing District 97, northwest of Atlanta. Romman spoke
with GPB's Peter Biello.
Peter Biello: What made you want to run for office?
Ruwa Romman: I did not want to run for office — that
is the sort of ironic joke of this. I was helping a friend at Georgia Muslim
Voter Project. She had developed a training and said, "You should really
come to this and we'd love your feedback." And that was sort of the point
of me going. And there was a reporter there, and she had done this beautiful
writeup about the importance of women — and particularly minority women — in
politics. And her focus ended up being on Muslim women. And she started that
article and the first sentence was, Ruwa Romman is contemplating a run for
office, which I was absolutely not. I was going to run a marathon this year and
like help out statewide later on in the year. But the response was so
overwhelming for my community. And then we found out that I lived in a new
district that recently was created through the redistricting process. And 15
days later, we launched my campaign.
Peter Biello: Did you ever end up running the
marathon?
Ruwa Romman: No. Sadly, I ended up listening to way
more Taylor Swift than usual, which says a lot.
Peter Biello: Well, what does it mean to you to be the
first Muslim woman and the first Palestinian elected to the house?
Ruwa Romman: Yeah, it's a huge honor and it's a huge
responsibility. So it's incredible. And I'm so stoked that we did this in
Georgia. At the same time, I recognize that this comes with an added layer of
what people expect from you. It's not just your district that now has
expectations. It's these groups of people that for a long time have been marginalized,
ignored — in whatever capacity, whether as politically or economically or
otherwise. And so it's definitely a huge responsibility. And I feel that.
Peter Biello: What expectations do you feel are being
placed on you?
Ruwa Romman: In general I mean — this is also me
growing up. I wear a headscarf, I wear a hijab. And even from when I was
younger, it felt as if anytime I did something wrong, it almost reflected on
the entire 1.2 billion Muslims around the world, which is incredibly unfair.
But for a lot of people who never met a Muslim before or never met a
Palestinian before, all of a sudden you are the expectation that they put on
those groups of people. And so, you know, you kind of have an extra layer of
responsibility there.
Peter Biello: So are there policies that you're going
to pursue out of the gate?
Ruwa Romman: They're the same policies we've been
running on all year, which is expanding access to health care, fully funding
public education, bridging the economic opportunity gap, making sure that
access to the ballot box is something that people continue to have.
Peter Biello: And are there policies that you expect
from the other side that you are ready to fight?
Ruwa Romman: We don't know what's going to happen with
the recent decision on abortion because we know it's going to go up to the
Georgia Supreme Court. But if that decision holds, we do expect another bill
attempting to ban abortion in Georgia. So that is definitely something I plan
on fighting because to me, abortion is health care. Similarly, I think that
we're going to see more efforts to privatize education, which, at a time when
people are desperate for good thinkers, good workers, it seems to me as if
we're setting ourselves and setting our state up to fail in the future.
Peter Biello: Where do you think you'll see the most
common ground with Republicans in the House?
Ruwa Romman: Ironically, also public education. There
is actually quite a broad coalition, especially Republicans coming from rural
areas that don't have access to private schools, that don't have access to
these privatized options, that want to keep public school in their districts
and want to maintain that support system for the kids in their district.
Peter Biello: You'll be sworn in in January. What are
you doing now to prepare?
Ruwa Romman: I am actually trying to slow down a
little bit, which is not happening, especially with the runoff. But I am
someone who genuinely believes that in order for us to give the best for our
community, we have to do the best for ourselves as well. So my plan is to find
some time to rest, recover and recharge while simultaneously setting aside time
to look at what are my policy areas, what are my priorities, and also how do I
start writing those bills, figuring out the different procedures, going to
trainings, talking to my fellow freshman Democrats who are also trying to
figure it all out — and also fellow freshmen Republicans.
Source: GPB
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Female survivors of Assad's prisons face suffering
even after release
Omer Faruk Madanoglu
25.11.2022
Shamed and abandoned; women held in the Assad regime's
prisons in Syria face social rejection after they were released.
Thousands of Syrian women and children have been
subjected to torture and detention by the Assad regime since 2011, when the
civil war began in the country.
Syrian ex-prisoners Lama Larin Jesry, chairman of
NISVA, an association for solidarity with Syrian women, and Ala al-Dari, who
changed her name for security reasons, shared their stories with Anadolu
Agency.
Jesry was imprisoned for over 100 days by the Syrian
regime.
"I was detained for a week during demonstrations
in Aleppo in 2012. In 2014, I had one last class left to graduate when I was
arrested at the university campus. I was imprisoned for 100 days. They were
hard times. They inflicted all kinds of torture on me."
Jesry said that she was deprived of even the most
basic rights such as eating in prison and that she was subjected to severe
torture.
"Women who were sexually abused by the guards in
the Assad prison were tortured for miscarriage. If pregnancy could not be
prevented, babies were brutally killed," she said.
Forced to confess crimes she did not commit under torture
Jesry was in coma for 12 days due to torture she was
subjected to.
"They thought I was dead and dragged me to the
morgue. I regained my consciousness when my head hit the stairs. They
transferred me to a military hospital. I had been taken back to the prison
before I regained my health. Since the Assad regime intelligence was in
Damascus, I was interrogated there for a week. I was tried for the death
penalty. I was then released for paying a large sum."
The Syrian ex-prisoner was forced to admit crimes she
did not commit under torture.
"When I was released, I went to my family in
Aleppo. My family was so happy that I was saved, but I was shocked to see that
the society stigmatizes detained women with the 'seal of shame.' Eastern
societies stigmatize women who are imprisoned with the seal of shame. Realizing
this, it caused me a lot of pain in my inner world," Jesry said.
She pointed out that Syrian women endure inhumanly
torture in prisons, but they cannot bear the psychological violence of the
society when they go out.
"Behind the bars, I suffered inhumanly torture. I
will work until my last breath to deliver the message of female prisoners
because they are our honor. Those women sacrificed their freedom for the
freedom of others."
Women who escape from prison forced to migrate
Al-Dari was detained by the Assad regime forces two
months after the civil war began, and she was tortured for a year in four
different prisons.
Al-Dari said she could not stand the torture and had a
heart attack, and was imprisoned again after her treatment.
Although the physical violence ended for former women
prisoners, psychological violence still continues, she said.
"Society thinks that the 'honor' of women who
enter regime prisons was 'tainted' due to the torture they undergone. Women who
were unjustly arrested have to migrate to other places after they are released
from prison. Those who cannot migrate continue their lives on the condition
that they do not speak."
Al-Dari also said that the women could not express the
torture and sexual abuse they suffered not to be neglected by their husbands,
families and society, and that they could not file a criminal complaint with
international courts.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Dozens Arrested At Women’s March In Istanbul To Mark
International Day For The Elimination Of Violence Against Women
November 26, 2022
Police arrested dozens of people in Istanbul on Friday
at a rally to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
Women.
The unauthorised protest convened at Taksim Square, a
traditional rallying point for demonstrations.
Riot police were out in force and the marchers were
impeded by a series of barriers blocking the streets. “Barricades to the
murderers, not to the women,” read one banner carried by protesters.
AFP reporters observed dozens of arrests.
The rally, called by the “November 25 platform”, a
coalition of women’s groups, brought hundreds of people on to the streets.
They chanted in Turkish and Kurdish “Woman, Life,
Freedom, taking up the slogan of Iranian women in their struggle against the
hardline regime.
Iran has a large diaspora in Turkey, which was
estimated at 120,000 people in 2021.
One group of activists unfurled a banner in front of
the police proclaiming: “For our freedom we don’t stand silent, we don’t give
up on our lives, we don’t bow down to patriarchal state violence.”
Yesim Tukel, a member of the November 25 platform,
said: “The police who don’t intervene against the perpetrators of violence
against women or the murderers of women, closed all roads leading to Taksim
under the excuse of security.
“We are not afraid of the state violence today,” said
fellow activist Burcu Gulcubuk.
“We are here saying that we will not bow down and we
will not be silenced in face of such a violence.
“One day these police who attack us will go away and
these streets will be ours again.” In the face of a crackdown on most public
protests, women and LGBT movements are the latest to call for large-scale
demonstrations in Turkey.
Source: Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1723224/dozens-arrested-at-womens-march-in-istanbul
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Islamic Emirate Says on the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence Against Women: It Has Upheld Women's Rights
By Fatema Adeeb
November 26, 2022
The Islamic Emirate said on the International Day for
the Elimination of Violence Against Women that women's rights are respected in
Afghanistan more than ever before and that the current government is committed
to upholding the rights of all citizens.
"All of our citizens' rights are protected by
Islamic Sharia and the Islamic system, but, at the same time, I can affirm that
before the Islamic Emirate's arrival, the rights of women and girls—including the
right to family, the right to dignity, the right to honor, and the right to
property—were completely not respected. And none of their rights were upheld,
according to Bilal Karimi, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.
Meanwhile, some international organizations, including
UNAMA, have said that the protection of women's rights is a crucial factor for
stability, prosperity and any lasting peace in Afghanistan.
“The fundamental rights of Afghan women need to be
protected and concrete steps need to be taken for an enabling environment which
is free from all forms of violence. Protecting the rights of women is a crucial
factor for stability, prosperity and any lasting peace in Afghanistan,” said
Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for
Afghanistan.
The European Parliament adopted three resolutions for
three countries including Afghanistan. A press release said: “They call on
Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to ensure that women can again actively
participate in public life. This must be a key condition, they say, if the
international community is to engage with the Taliban. Denouncing the egregious
ban on secondary education for girls, Parliament recalls the Taliban’s promises
that women’s access to education would be restored and demands that the Taliban
now honor their own commitments.”
"Afghan women are victims of violence,
restrictions, and judgment because of their gender more than ever,” said Maryam
Marouf Arween, a women's rights activist.
"Afghan women are going through a very critical
period as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
is celebrated in the world,” said Selsela Ahmadi, another women's rights
activist.
Source: Tolo News
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-180905
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US police in hate crime probe after New York subway
attack on Muslim woman
25 November, 2022
New York police's hate crime department is
investigating an alleged physical and verbal attack on a young Muslim woman in
the city's subway earlier this week.
A 28-year-old Muslim woman was in the New York City
subway on Tuesday when a stranger approached her and made an advance. After
rejecting him, the man allegedly grabbed the woman, cut her with a sharp
object, and made anti-Muslim comments.
A bystander who tried to come to her aid was
repeatedly slashed as well, according to a report in local media.
As of Thursday, the alleged attacker was still at
large, leaving local residents on edge at a time when subway crime is on the rise.
According to the NYPD, compared with the same period last year, through the end
of October, transit crimes are up 41.7 percent.
The incident particularly highlights the vulnerability
of Muslim travellers, particularly women who are often more conspicuous than
men in a community where hate and bias incidents are high but reporting is low.
"We want to encourage our community to report
hate crime," Afaf Nasher, executive director of the New York chapter of
the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told The New Arab.
Nasher noted that only around four percent of
anti-Muslim hate crime in the US is reported by the community.
"Unfortunately, this is all too common," Nasher added.
Around 75 percent of those who responded to a survey
by CAIR, which published a report called Feeling the Hate, said they had been
targeted, though only a small proportion had come forward, calling the process
"a waste of time".
Source: New Arab
https://www.newarab.com/news/hate-crime-probe-after-attack-muslim-woman-ny-subway
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