Huda Mukbil Canada’s First Black Arab-Canadian Muslim Spy at the Forefront of Fight against Terrorism
New Age Islam News Bureau
12 May 2023
• Huda Mukbil Canada’s First Black Arab-Canadian Muslim
Spy at the Forefront of Fight against Terrorism
• Saudi Storytellers Showcase Rich and Diverse Talent,
Says Jordanian Filmmaker Deema Azar
• Berlin Lifts Hijab Ban on School Teachers; Muslim
Brotherhood Victorious
• Muslim Women Want Female Education Prioritised In
Nigeria
• Article 370 Going Ended the Anti-Women Inheritance
Regime of J&K
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Huda Mukbil Canada’s First Black Arab-Canadian Muslim Spy at the Forefront of Fight against Terrorism
Huda Mukbil
Canada’s First Black Arab-Canadian Muslim Spy. Photo: The Star
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By Shree
Paradkar Social& Racial Justice Columnist
Fri. May 12,
2023
Months after
two passenger planes flew into the World Trade Centre and another crashed into
the Pentagon on 9/11, Huda Mukbil joined Canada’s spy agency as an intelligence
officer.
Months after a
white supremacist gunned down six Quebecers praying in a Quebec City mosque in
2017, Mukbil turned whistle-blower.
Those 15
intervening years are captured in a recently released book that tells the story
of how Canada’s first Black Arab-Canadian Muslim spy was treated at the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
It depicts an
agency dragging its heels on recognizing the relevance of diverse staff and
describes how biases including misogyny, racism and homophobia obstruct the
agency from doing the job with which it’s tasked: national security.
In the memoir,
Mukbil chalks out her service in terms of fulfilment and purpose but also glass
ceilings and dashed dreams, with a pit stop at Britain’s MI5 along the way.
Her story of
being a rarity — an Arab (Yemeni) and African (Ethiopian) who grew up in Egypt
and Canada and who could speak English, French, Harari and Arabic — along with
possessing intelligence and drive meant she quickly became an expert at the
forefront of the fight against terrorism.
“The way I was
made to feel was that I have a certain skill set that they need and so they
will tolerate having me there,” she writes.
The book states
— and this is no spoiler — that the spy agency, which until 1984 was a branch
of the RCMP and continues to recruit people from there, operated with the same
prejudices as the police force and with the same impunity.
It details the
red flags that signalled institutional discrimination, from culturally
incompetent hiring practices to women being passed over for advancement for men
with fewer qualifications, as well as shocking levels of Islamophobia Mukbil
says she experienced.
Mukbil’s
decision to start wearing a hijab in 2004 challenged CSIS’s fragile tolerance.
She expected to have to handle some stereotyping, she writes, but “Most
managers were former RCMP officers. The culture was deeply conformist and
intolerant, and I was an unprepared fool.”
After the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, intelligence officers went into Muslim
communities in what the head of a Muslim organization in 2004 described to the
CBC as “fishing expeditions,” “a witchhunt type of interrogating … that left
people very, very confused and very traumatized.”
Around the time
she decided to wear a hijab, the agency’s focus was shifting from middle-aged
Muslim men to young first- and second-generation Muslims, she writes. Mukbil
says she quickly began to be perceived as an inside threat. Her manager asked her
to disclose all her “conflicts of interest” and her “community involvement” and
told her she needed approval before attending events in the Muslim community.
Soon, she
writes, all her managers “wanted to know what I was doing on my weekends and in
my private life.”
Eventually, her
performance scores dropped; her manager said she lacked judgment as evidenced
by her continued engagement in the Muslim community. He engaged Internal
Security, the branch that investigates security breaches and conflicts of interest
to determine employee loyalty.
Mukbil
underwent 10 hours of interrogation: how often did she pray, why did she decide
to wear a hijab, what did she think of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, the
Muslim Brotherhood and suicide bombers. When Internal Security found nothing on
her, they asked her to return to work, she says.
In the book,
Mukbil contrasts this alienation with the warmth and cordiality in Britain’s
MI5. Soon after a series of bomb attacks in London in 2005 that killed 52
people, the MI5 sent out a special communiqué to the Five Eyes intelligence
community (U.S., Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Australia), she writes. They
were seeking officers and analysts with top-secret clearance and East African
linguistic and cultural background to assist with the investigations. She was
almost immediately seconded there.
When she
returned to CSIS, the MI5 commendations she received for her help with tracking
down the perpetrators shielded her, albeit briefly.
Because its
operations are shrouded in secrecy, there appeared to be little incentive for
CSIS to take internal complaints seriously, until, it seems, someone was
willing to sacrifice their career and blow the whistle.
When Mukbil and
four colleagues told CSIS they were preparing to launch a legal challenge in
2017, the agency conducted a “Workplace Climate Assessment” in the Toronto
Region. No surprise, the assessment validated the complaints of an old boys’
culture, where swearing and demeaning comments about racialized people were
rampant.
“The Friday
night drinking (with select employees) is where decisions were being made on
not just operations, but who gets promoted,” said Mukbil.
CSIS director
David Vigneault called the behaviours “categorically unacceptable in a
high-functioning, professional organization” in a public statement then.
CSIS had just
been recognized as one of the country’s top 100 employers in 2017.
After the five
claimants’ $35-million civil lawsuit against the agency caused a media and
political outcry, CSIS reached a confidential settlement with the five, who had
used pseudonyms in their allegations, as directed by CSIS; Mukbil was “Bahira.”
Media reported
on the lawsuit claims such as managers calling one Muslim analyst a “sand
monkey,” and telling another to “complain to Allah.” One email referencing a
complainant who was often called a gay slur said, “OT for the homo is
approved.”
CSIS’s
post-9/11 culture was also one of conflating Muslims with terrorists and it was
affecting assessments, leading to innocent Canadians being tortured abroad with
CSIS knowledge. In addition to the damage they were doing inside the agency and
to Muslim communities, CSIS’s prejudicial attitudes were also risking
democracy, with rising far-right and white supremacist threats obstinately
remaining in the agency’s blind spot.
When the Quebec
mosque attack took place in 2017, Mukbil says, CSIS were “completely
surprised.”
“They didn’t
see it coming,” she says, “despite the fact that the FBI was looking at far
more seriously prior to 2017” and the phenomenon was growing in Europe.
“CSIS’s
database was full of information about Muslims, but had contained almost
nothing on the far-right threat.” She says it took years for CSIS to determine
that the white supremacist threat needed its attention.
It might be
tempting to think Mukbil’s book details past culture and practices that have
little bearing on the present.
According to
CSIS’s data, representation of employees from racialized groups nudged up from
16.9 per cent in 2018-19 to 19.8 per cent in 2022-23. After various recruitment
and retention initiatives, executives are about 80 per cent white.
“While the work
of making CSIS more diverse and inclusive is ongoing, we are proud of the
significant strides that have been made in recent years and credit employees in
helping drive that change,” CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam told the Star via
email. “Director Vigneault has been very clear in stating to both employees and
Canadians that, unfortunately systemic racism exists everywhere across Canada,
including at CSIS.
“CSIS
leadership is actively engaging employees through open and honest conversations
to deepen the organization’s understanding of racism, diversity and inclusion,”
Balsam told the Star. It collaborates with employee-led networks such as a
women’s network, pride network, a BIPOC network, he said.
Mukbil still
sees signs of those blind spots, citing the truckers’ convoy, which laid siege
on Ottawa last year and caught the nation unawares.
“Where was the
intelligence to see that they were going to stay?” Mukbil asks. “If there was a
group of Muslims with trucks full of gasoline sitting in front of Parliament …
there would have been like this whole ‘what is going on in this country?’ ”
The CSIS
spokesperson told the Star: “Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism (IMVE)
poses a significant national security threat and is on par with the religiously
motivated violent extremism (RMVE) threat to Canada. IMVE threat actors often
target equity-deserving groups including racialized individuals and religious minorities
… CSIS now dedicates 50 per cent of its counterterrorism resources to
investigating this threat.”
When Mukbil
began her career, the desk that oversaw al-Qaida-linked investigations was
called the “Sunni Islamic Extremism Middle East desk.” It’s interesting to note
that when it came to white extremism, the agency shies away from using the
identifier “white.”
Unpacking why
it did not have the same qualms with “Sunni Islamic Extremism” might just get
to the heart of one of the knottiest challenges within.
Source: thestar.com
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2023/05/12/she-was-a-muslim-spy-at-the-forefront-of-csiss-fight-against-terrorism-then-she-turned-whistleblower.html
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Saudi Storytellers Showcase Rich and Diverse Talent, Says Jordanian Filmmaker Deema Azar
Jordanian
Filmmaker Deema Azar
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May 11, 2023
DHAHRAN:
Jordanian film producer and script consultant Deema Azar recently mentored four
promising writers at the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture, or Ithra,
which she says demonstrates the rich pool of talent available in the country.
The creatives
were chosen from eight scriptwriters, who were selected out of 401 applicants,
for the Screenplay-in-Progress Competition of the Saudi Film Festival.
Azar’s project,
Feature Script Development Lab, was a six-day program that ended on Thursday,
which focused on the process of developing a picture-perfect script.
“A film’s
journey, be it short or feature-length, starts with the script. The script
should undergo a development process, one that could take various forms, which
allows it to grow by working towards ensuring that the story it tells is coming
across as flawlessly as possible in terms of story elements, structure, tone
and pace,” said Azar, who is also the co-founder and managing partner at
TaleBox, a women-led production company based in Amman, Jordan.
Azartraveled to
the Kingdom to attend the film festival and offer her services to aspiring and
talented Saudi scriptwriters.
“These past few
days at the Screenplay Development Lab have been quite intense as we delved
deeply into story origins and elements, characters’ journeys and overall
structure and form of each screenplay.
“The process
has been quite profound and concentrated and I believe the participants will
leave the lab seeing their scripts in a complete new light given the amount of
useful feedback that came out of the workshop, and which I hope will be
integrated (and) reflected in their next screenplay drafts,” she said.
Azar expressed
her excitement to work alongside Saudi talent who she says have a world of
stories to tell. “It is such an exciting and stimulating process to discover
original Saudi stories and the talented voices behind them and to work closely
with the participants towards a polished version of their scripts,” she said.
“The diverse
nature of stories in this year’s lab, which also happen to be very different
from last year’s lab, confirms to me that the pool of storytelling diversity in
Saudi Arabia is deeper and richer than originally anticipated and that is so
exciting,” Azar added.
Azar hopes that
the trainees have gained knowledge and will apply it to their future projects.
“Like their screenplay characters, I hope that the participants have taken a
similar journey that enriched them through their participation in the Screenplay
Development Lab here at the 9th Saudi Film Festival.”
Azar believes
that the Saudi cinema industry is on the right track and hopes to see a greater
focus on scriptwriting.
“I believe that
Saudi cinema is taking steady steps towards establishing a complete and
sustainable cinema industry and ecosystem in the Kingdom, which would support
local and Arab talents.
“I look forward
to seeing the next Saudi creations on the big screen and hope the necessary
focus on developing scripts before turning them into films receives the
attention it deserves, to ensure that local stories coming out of Saudi Arabia
are conveyed to wider audiences as powerfully as possible.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2301826/saudi-arabia
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Berlin Lifts
Hijab Ban on School Teachers; Muslim Brotherhood Victorious
bySoeren Kern
May 9, 2023
Muslim teachers
in Berlin, the German capital, have been authorized to wear Islamic headscarves
in the classroom after a court determined that the city's religious neutrality law,
which imposes a blanket ban on sectarian clothing and symbols in public
schools, is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Muslim Brotherhood associated
figures and organizations were instrumental in reversing the ban and are
treating the decision as a major victory.
Berlin is one
of eight German states with neutrality laws of this type. Berlin's abandonment
of this measure is likely now to lead to Islamist efforts to rescind parallel
laws in the other states.
German
political commentator, Anabel Schunke, who has followed the headscarf ban issue
for many years, told FWI that the policy change, which marks the latest chapter
of a decades long legal battle between Islamists and their opponents over
headscarves, is "a symptom of the general incapability of German
politicians to realize that criticizing the archaic rules of radical Islam has
nothing to do with racism." Headscarves, she said, "are not 'just a
piece of cloth' but a symbol of political Islam." She added that the
pressure within the Muslim community to wear a headscarf "has been
increasing for years" and "the more girls with headscarves in school,
the greater the pressure on the others." A teacher with a headscarf
"will make the situation even worse."
Berlin's
two-decade-old neutrality law, which was designed to combat the spread of
political Islam in the public school system, has long been a target for the
Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups that — mirroring the U.S.-based
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — have fought tooth and nail
against headscarf bans.
Berlin's
Neutrality Act (Neutralitätsgesetz) was promulgated in January 2005 amid a
raging nationwide debate over the growing presence of Islamist symbols —
exemplified by the hijab and other female head coverings — in public sector
institutions. The measure focuses on public schools because teachers in Germany
are civil servants.
The neutrality
law prohibits "teachers and other employees with a pedagogical
mandate" from wearing "visible religious or ideological symbols that
demonstrate affiliation to a specific religious or ideological community"
including "conspicuous religious or ideological clothing" while on
the job in public primary and secondary schools. This includes Islamic
headscarves as well as Christian crosses and Jewish skullcaps.
Ever since the
law entered into force, Islamist groups, including some with ties to the Muslim
Brotherhood, have tried to nullify it through anti-"Islamophobia"
campaigns, government lobbying, and strategic lawsuits.
One such legal
action involved a Muslim woman who was fired from a teaching position in Berlin
in 2017 because she refused to remove her headscarf in the classroom. In August
2020, Germany's Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) ruled in the woman's
favor. It declared that a blanket ban on wearing a Muslim headscarf on the job
"violates the freedom of religion" that is protected by Article 4 of
the German Constitution, known as the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). The court
ordered Berlin to pay the woman more than 5,000 euros in compensation. Berlin
appealed the decision.
In January
2023, Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) upheld
the lower court's ruling by declining to review the case. The decision, which
is final, was in line with a previous ruling by the same court in January 2015
which held that a blanket ban on headscarves for teachers in public schools in
the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia was unconstitutional. The judges
declared that attempts to "privilege Western Christian educational and
cultural values" violate the Basic Law.
On March 28,
the Berlin Senate Department for Education (Senatsbildungsverwaltung) sent a
circular to all public school principals in the German capital, stating that
Berlin's government will henceforth "move away from its previous literal
application of the neutrality law." It explained that it would abandon a
blanket prohibition on religious clothing and symbols, which will only be
banned from classrooms "in cases where there is a specific threat to
school peace or if it endangers state neutrality."
The demise of
Berlin's Neutrality Act is a major victory for the Muslim Brotherhood and its
affiliated organizations, which have long opposed the law. One of these groups
is a Berlin-based Islamic association called Inssan (Arabic for
"people"), which is tied to the Brotherhood and generously funded by
George Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF).
Inssan operates
from the premises of an Islamist group called Muslim Youth in Germany
(MuslimischeJugend in Deutschland, MJD), a proselytizing organization dedicated
to spreading fundamentalist Islam among Muslim and non-Muslim children. The
property that houses Inssan was purchased by one of Europe's most prominent
Muslim Brotherhood operatives, the Egyptian-German Islamist Ibrahim El-Zayat.
Although MJD
claims to be independent, an investigation by the German Parliament (Bundestag)
revealed that it is closely tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliate,
the Brussels-based Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organizations
(FEMYSO), an influential Islamist group that actively opposes European laws
that promote secularism.
A key figure in
the legal effort to defeat Berlin's Neutrality Act is Turkish-German lawyer
ZeynepÇetin, who was, before receiving unwanted media attention for her
aggressive activism, a project coordinator for the so-called Network against
Discrimination and Islamophobia (NetzwerksgegenDiskriminierung und
Islamfeindlichkeit). The group is part of Inssan and is tied to the German
Muslim Association (Deutsche MuslimischeGemeinschaft, DMG), formerly called the
Islamic Community of Germany (IslamischeGemeinschaft in Deutschland, IGD),
which, according to German intelligence, is the central organization for Muslim
Brotherhood followers in Germany.
Other Islamist
groups involved in the campaign to overturn Berlin's Neutrality Act included
the Anti-Discrimination Network of Berlin (ADNB), which was founded by Inssan
and the Turkish Federation in Berlin-Brandenburg (TBB), a group that, among
other aims, seeks to repeal a longstanding rule that only German may be spoken
in city schoolyards because it "disrespects" Muslim students. ADNB
lawyer Maryam HaschemiYekani litigated the lawsuits aimed at bringing Islamic
headscarves into Berlin classrooms.
Inssan activists
also exerted influence on the so-called Expert Commission on Anti-Muslim Racism
(ExpertenkommissionzuantimuslimischemRassismus), which was established by the
Berlin Senate to investigate "Islamophobia" in the German capital.
The commission's final report criticized the neutrality law as "systematic
and institutionalized discrimination against women with headscarves," and
branded it as an example of "institutional and structural anti-Muslim
racism."
Berlin's public
school system has become a battleground between Islamists and secularists due
to mass migration and the staggering number of Muslim students, who comprise
the majority in roughly half of the 120 secondary schools in the city. In some
schools, more than 90 percent of students are Muslim. This has fueled concerns
that Berlin schools are becoming hotbeds of Islamic radicalism and separatism.
Germany's
largest women's rights organization, Terre des Femmes, denounced the reversal
of Berlin's Neutrality Act. In a statement it said that "from a Western
point of view, we tend to view the headscarf from a non-political
perspective," but "in political Islam, which is not compatible with
the basic values of our democracy, the headscarf manifests the unequal
treatment of men and women." It added that Muslim girls who do not wear a
headscarf often "suffer religious bullying" and are sometimes
"referred to as 'sluts' and 'unclean whores,'" and that teachers
wearing headscarves will "reinforce such stereotypes."
German Islamism
expert Zara Riffler wrote that the defeat of Berlin's Neutrality Act "is a
success for political Islam, which for years has fought it in the courts and
lobbied against it in politics." She described the law's reversal as
"a step backwards" for Berlin.
Anabel Schunke,
the German political commentator, told FWI that Germany is losing the fight
against Islamism. "If you ask me, it is already too late," she said.
"In many German schools (not only in big cities like Berlin) most of the
students are migrants, most of them Muslims. Muslim kids are not integrating
into the German culture, but rather, German kids are integrating into the
Islamic culture."
Source: meforum.org
https://www.meforum.org/64403/berlin-lifts-hijab-ban-on-school-teachers-muslim
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Muslim women
want female education prioritised in Nigeria
May 12, 2023
THE Federation
of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) has urged the government and
other stakeholders to prioritise female education in Nigeria.
The Amirah of
FOMWAN in Lagos State, AlhajaShereefahAjagbe, who gave the counsel at the
chapter’s 35th Family Day held at the TafawaBalewa Square (TBS), described
women empowerment as key to a better society.
According to
Ajagbe, women are mothers of the nation, moulders of lives and character
trainers.
She said women
must get certain facts right to be able to perform excellent roles in the
society, noting that positive impacts of women on their children are of great
benefit to the family and the nation at large.
She said the
‘Family Day’ event is a social aspect of the association that brings together
members, young and old, within and outside the state, to mark the completion of
Ramadan.
“It is also an
occasion to widen our scope on spirituality and ponder on current global
issues. Hence, the theme for this year, ‘Socio-religious Responsibility in a
Dynamic Society: the Role of a Muslim Woman’, is apt and timely,” she stated.
The National
Amirah of FOMWAN, HajiyaRafiahSanni, said it is crucial for every Muslim woman
to be educated as it would be a form of guidance on how to run the affairs of
the family.
“Ignorance is a
perilous disease and it goes a long way to destroy the home, which is the
bedrock of every society. The Holy Prophet (SAW) told us that the condition of
every nation would depend on the woman in that society. This has to do with her
knowledge about her God, herself and the community,” HajiyaSanni said.
She stated that
a Muslim woman must possess Islamic and Western education to be a vanguard of
change in the society.
“If a woman is
educated, everything about her life will go in the right direction and she will
be able to play her role effectively as a wife, mother, sister and member of
the community,” she said.
Before the
advent of Islam, she explained, the life of women in the Arabia was nothing to
write home about.
According to
her, at that time, a woman did not have a say in anything that concerned her,
did not have a life of her own but went by the dictates of men. Women in those
days lived a miserable life, she said.
The FOMWAN
leader said: “At the advent of Islam, everything about women’s life changed
owing to the regulations sent by Almighty Allah through the Holy Prophet (SAW).
“If a woman
gave birth to a female child, the father would feel sad and depressed and would
bury the girl-child alive. At the advent of Islam, Allah nullified the belief
and stopped the killing of female children, while the Holy Prophet (SAW)
encouraged the Sahabas (his companions) to educate their female children.”
She underscored
the need for every Muslim to acquire the knowledge of the Qur’an and study the
life of the Holy Prophet (SAW) in order to achieve a dynamic society.
“A Muslim woman
must be a reader because readers are leaders. She must read the Qur’an and know
its interpretation and application.
“Endeavour to
read about the lifestyle of the Holy Prophet and his wives. There are numerous
lessons to be learnt from the life of the Holy Prophet (SAW). When you talk
about medicine, finance and general knowledge for human development and growth,
it is embedded in the Qur’an and the lifestyle of the Prophet (SAW),” she said.
The chairperson
of FOMWAN’s Board of Trustees and former Lagos State deputy governor,
AlhajaLateefatOkunnu, said the fundamental role of women in society is to take
care of the home.
“Seek education
for the proper handling of your home. Your role, as designed by Almighty God,
is to take care of your family,” she stated.
AlhajaOkunnu
advised Muslim women to seek knowledge to manage the home.
“Your primary
duty is to care for and educate the children. When they are grown, you can then
face other things,” she said.
Source: tribuneonlineng.com
https://tribuneonlineng.com/muslim-women-want-female-education-prioritised-in-nigeria/
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Article 370
going ended the anti-women inheritance regime of J&K
12-05-23
It may sound
unbelievable but is true that the Muslim women of India’s only Muslim-majority
State Jammu and Kashmir had no inheritance rights till 16 years ago.
It was left to
the whims and fancies of their male relatives to decide on the distribution of
parental property and in most cases, it went to the male heir. A woman's wishes
and aspirations were to remain a guarded secret, lest she faces strong backlash
from society for being a "greedy sister.".
Under the
provisions of the State’s Constitution that have since been abolished, women’s
inheritance was to be done as per the local traditions. This ended in
perpetuating the male preference of the families in the distribution and
ownership of wealth and property.
Forget about
equality, the Quranic provisions on inheritance that give one-third of parental
property to the daughters did not apply to the women although violation of
these edicts is considered un-Islamic and a sin.
It was only in
2007, during the Chief Minister-ship of Ghulam Nabi Azad that a law based on
Sharia on Muslim personal code on inheritance was enacted in J&K.
Ironically, the
initiative for the law came in the form of a private members’ bill in the
J&K Legislative Assembly. A private members’ bill rarely becomes a law in
the Indian legislature since the responsibility of drafting a law is that of
the government.
The bill that
eventually became the J&K Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act,
2007, was passed by a voice vote. Members cutting across the parties spoke
against the injustices meted out to Muslim women for a long period. Members
spoke about the overdue inheritance rights of women.
Added to this,
were the provisions of Article 35A that have since been abolished. This
particular provision was used by the J&K rulers to deprive women of J&K
who were married to non-J&K Indians or foreigners of their inheritance.
Under the
autonomy granted to the former State under Article 370 - since made redundant –
the women who married non-state subjects - as the residents of J&K were
called officially till August 5, 2019 - could not inherit or own the
properties.
After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court
granted them the right to inherit property but still, they had no right to pass
it on to their children born out of the marriage with a non-resident.
This double
whammy denied the ownership of the ancestral or any property to such women. It
was a brazen form of gender discrimination.
However, as it
happened in Kashmir, due to insurgency and political unrest, all the important
gender issues were pushed under the carpet and a conspiracy of silence
enveloped these for too long.
This way the
abrogation of the special status of J&K and bringing the former state and
what is today’s Union Territory at par
with the rest of the country has not only ended discrimination against several
communities – scheduled castes, war refugees, west Pakistan refugees,
Internally-displaced Indians, it has also helped women get rights as other
Indian women.
After August 5,
2019, big-ticket changes in J&K saw the abolition of the State's special
status and its bifurcation into two Union territories, the J&K residents
are not required to have a Permanent Resident Certificate (RPC) to prove their
bona fide.
All the people
who belonged to the former state and some other category people are now
supposed to apply for domicile certificates. This includes women who had lost
their PRC status after marrying outsiders.
According to
reports, nearly four lakh people have so far acquired domicile certificates,
and out of these, there are just about 80,000 applicants in the Kashmir
division. Authorities say between 2 and 3% of them would be women married to
spouses from outside J&K.
There are a lot
of Kashmiri women who got married to outsiders during the last three decades of
turmoil. Firstly, many parents thought it safer to marry their daughters to
non-locals due to fear of terror links of the perspective matches that came the
traditional way through matchmakers in Kashmir that their daughter might end up
with a man who may be on the wrong side of the law.
Source: awazthevoice.in
https://www.awazthevoice.in/women-news/article-going-ended-the-anti-women-inheritance-regime-of-j-k-21369.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/huda-mukbil-canada-black-arab-terrorism/d/129761