Iran Arrests Three Female Journalists, Melika Hashemi, Saideh Shafiei And Mehrnoush Zarei, Amid Protests Triggered By The Death In Custody Of Mahsa Amini
New
Age Islam News Bureau
24
January 2023
• Saudi
Girls Razan Al-Ajami Jumps out Of Planes for Fun; First in the Kingdom to Get a
Skydiving License
• Saudi
Arabia Appoints 34 Women to Leadership Positions in 2 Holy Mosques
• First
Boxing Club Opens Doors Exclusively For Women in Gaza
• Though
A Tiny Religious Minority, Bangladesh's Nuns Chart New Path for Nursing
• 30
Female Iranian Prisoners Call for End to Protester Executions
• Yazidi
Women Kept As Slaves by IS Appeal to UN to Intervene In Their Fight for
Compensation
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Iran
Arrests Three Female Journalists, Melika Hashemi, Saideh Shafiei And Mehrnoush
Zarei, Amid Protests Triggered By The Death In Custody Of Mahsa Amini
Anti-Hijab
protests have been going on since September 2022. (Representational)
-----
January
24, 2023
TEHRAN:
Iranian authorities have arrested three female journalists in the past two
days, local media said on Monday, amid months of protests triggered by the
death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Iran
has been gripped by protests since the September 16 death of Amini, a
22-year-old Iranian Kurd who had been arrested by morality police for allegedly
breaching the country’s strict dress code for women.
Authorities
say hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been
killed and thousands arrested during what they label as “riots” incited by the
“enemies” of the Islamic republic.
“In
the past 48 hours, at least three female journalists, namely Melika Hashemi,
Saideh Shafiei and Mehrnoush Zarei, have been arrested in Tehran,” reformist
newspaper Etemad quoted the Tehran journalists’ union as saying.
The
paper said the three women had been transferred to Evin prison, where many of
those arrested in connection with the protests are being held. Shafiei is a
freelance journalist and novelist, while Zarei writes for various reformist
publications and Hashemi works for an outlet named Shahr, according to local
media.
It
estimated that about 80 journalists have been arrested since the start of the
unrest in the country four months ago.
Source:
Dawn
https://www.dawn.com/news/1733326/iran-arrests-three-female-journalists-amid-protests
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Saudi
Girls Razan Al-Ajami Jumps out Of Planes for Fun; First in the Kingdom to Get a
Skydiving License
Razan
Al-Ajami is one of the first licensed female skydivers who dreams of seeing the
sport expand in the Kingdom. (Supplied)
----
RAHAF
JAMBI
January
23, 2023
RIYADH:
In a jumpsuit and safety helmet, Razan Al-Ajami is ready to fly, as the young
Saudi woman is the first in the Kingdom to get a skydiving license.
Al-Ajami
obtained a freestyle skydiving license and indoor skydiving license from the
UAE, where the sport is quite popular. However, she first tried the sport in
Saudi Arabia.
She
told Arab News: “I first fell in love with skydiving when I tried it a few
months ago at an event organized by the Ministry of Sport. I figured, why not
give it a shot, so I got professional training and did three jumps before
realizing that this is what I want to do.”
Al-Ajami
is now pursuing her goal of becoming a professional skydiver. Although she was
afraid at first, with perseverance and diligent training sessions, she has been
able to overcome her worries.
She
described the skydiving experience: “At first, the feeling of the wind on your
face and your body floating in the air is frightening, but once you get used to
it, you’ll want to leap out of a plane once more.”
In
the process of learning more about skydiving and obtaining her license,
Al-Ajami faced challenges such as the lack of local avenues for skydiving, and
the initial fear of jumping.
She
is hopeful about the sport’s future in the Kingdom. “I’m glad to be one of the
few licensed Saudi skydivers and hope that this sport will become more
well-known in the near future. Freestyle skydiving is not a widespread sport in
Saudi Arabia, and I had to travel to other locations, like Dubai, to practice
it.
“There
are certified clubs in Dubai where you may receive training and a skydiving
license. I later obtained a license for indoor skydiving and I am currently
working at the Superfly indoor skydiving program in Boulevard World.”
Al-Ajami
has been encouraging and inviting more Saudi women to try the sport, and the
Superfly at Boulevard World is an amazing opportunity to do so.
“The
majority of visitors to this enjoyable indoor flying experience are children,
and I adore their reactions since they are always so joyful. Everyone is
welcome to participate as long as they weigh less than 140 kg,” she added.
Al-Ajami
shared that her ultimate dream is to represent Saudi Arabia while competing at
the skydiving world championship. She wants to leave a mark and make Saudi
Arabia a global hub for the sport.
As
an ambitious young woman, she is striving to start the country’s first
skydiving club and form a women’s team.
“The
lack of a Saudi women’s team prevents me from competing abroad. I want to
create a team that will represent Saudi Arabia,” she said.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2237641/saudi-arabia
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Saudi
Arabia Appoints 34 Women To Leadership Positions In 2 Holy Mosques
Ibrahim
Al-Khazen
23.01.2023
Saudi
Arabia has appointed 34 women to leadership positions in the two holy mosques
in Mecca and Medina.
In
a statement, the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Mosques said the
appointments are aimed at "developing services for visitors to the two
holy mosques"
The
move, the statement said, "is part of the qualitative changes the Kingdom
is seeking for qualified Saudi women to serve female visitors to the two holy mosques."
In
August 2021, Saudi Arabia appointed two women as assistants to the head of the
General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques.
Earlier
this month, Saudi Arabia announced the appointment of 32 women as drivers in
the Haramain Express Train Leaders Program.
The
oil-rich kingdom has taken a number of measures to empower women in recent
years, including allowing women to drive and enlist in military service.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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First
Boxing Club opens doors exclusively for women in Gaza
23
January ,2023
In
Gaza’s only boxing club for girls, 15-year-old Farah Abu Al-Qomsan is
practicing her moves, trading jabs and punches with the other girls training
with coach Osama Ayoub at the Palestine Boxing Centre.
Since
taking to the sport at the age of nine, Farah has found a release from the
daily stresses of life in Gaza, a narrow coastal strip where some 2.3 million
Palestinians live blockaded by both Israel and neighboring Egypt.
“We
used to train in a small garage. Now we train according to the full rules and
release bad energy,” the 15-year-old girl, at the territory’s first women-only
boxing center.
Six
years ago, Ayoub, started with two girls. As more joined, they moved out of the
garage and began training on the beach or in rented spaces before moving into
the new club building.
“The
girls are ready. I trained them hard for five years,” said Ayoub. “We are
setting an example.”
Now
around 40 girls train in the center with its full-size boxing ring, training
equipment and posters of boxing heroes such as Mike Tyson on the walls, defying
expectations in a region where boxing has traditionally been a sport for men.
“Some
people used to tell me ‘Why boxing, what are you going to benefit from it, go
and learn something girly’,” Farah said. “I benefit a lot from boxing and today
my ambition is to represent my Palestinian people and take part in world
championships.”
Source:
Al Arabiya
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Though
a tiny religious minority, Bangladesh's nuns chart new path for nursing
BY
UTTOM S. ROZARIO
January
23, 2023
Sister
Mary Dipali chose to go into health care mostly because of her vocation, but
also her willpower.
"Through
this profession, people can be approached a lot," said Sister Mary Dipali
of the Associates of Mary Queen of Apostles, popularly known as the SMRA
Sisters. "A nurse is needed from birth to death. I get to be around
people, and many people are blessed through this profession."
Sister
Mary Dipali, 60, was born under the watchful eyes of the sister nurses of St.
Mary's Catholic Mother and Child Care Hospital in Tumilia, Gazipur, in the
Dhaka Archdiocese. The SMRA Sisters provided her an education and cared for her
when she was ill.
"I
was born by Catholic nun nurses, and many children have been delivered by my
hand in my almost 30 years of nursing service," Sister Mary Dipali said.
"I think I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for being around the
sisters and having my family."
Although
Christians make up less than half a percent of Bangladesh's population of
approximately 165 million, the Catholic Church runs around 80 hospitals, health
centers, dispensaries and clinics across the country with the help of nuns from
the SMRA Sisters, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the Sisters of Our Lady
of the Missions, the Missionaries of Charity, the Little Handmaids of the
Church, and the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate.
After
seeing the work of these nuns, many girls from remote areas now show interest
in becoming nurses, which was unimaginable 20 years ago.
Back
then, the Muslim majority in Bangladesh used to view the nursing profession
badly, assuming that nurses on duty with male doctors overnight developed
illicit relationships. Nurses also did not wear veils like Muslim women did.
But this idea has been changed by Catholic sisters.
"When
I saw the service of the Catholic sisters, I was encouraged to enter the
nursing profession, but first I had to fight with my family. I had to fight
with society," said Sabina Akhter, 47, a senior nurse and mother of three
who works in a government hospital. "Society and my family did not think
that a Muslim girl should enter the nursing profession.
"But
I made one of my two daughters a nurse and the other, a doctor. I am grateful
to the Catholic sisters for this success, especially for me and my family.
Without their services, I would not be where I am today," Akhter told
Global Sisters Report in a recent interview.
Sister
Mary Dipali works as matron of Kumudini Hospital, a well-known hospital run by
the Hindu community in Mirzapur, and Kumudini Nursing College, the country's
first nongovernmental nursing institution. Another SMRA sister, Sister Mary
Rina, is principal of the Kumudini Nursing College.
We
are proud to be working in top positions at a well-reputed non-Christian
hospital," Sister Mary Dipali said. "We are also witnesses of God and
spread his word to other communities. There are no Christians around the
hospital, so people know Christianity by us and our work."
British-style
nursing was introduced at Dhaka Medical College in 1947. In the same year, a
few sister tutors, sisters and staff nurses from India established Bangladesh's
first professional senior nursing school at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital.
The
local SMRA congregation was established in 1933. In Muslim-majority Bangladesh
at that time, girls were veiled and almost all doctors were men, so even if
village women were sick or pregnant, they did not go to the doctor. As a
result, many mothers and children died in childbirth.
Holy
Cross Bishop Timothy Crowley, the founder of the Associates of Mary Queen of
Apostles, saw the situation of the women of the villages and together with Holy
Cross Sr. Rose Bernard Gehring established the SMRA congregation with public
education and health as main vows.
Beginning
in 1945, the SMRA nuns began to travel from village to village to provide
health services to rural women and children in small houses in Tumilia Parish.
"Since
the SMRA congregation started working on rural women's health before Dhaka
Medical College, and we were the first to go abroad for degrees in nursing and
came back to serve our people, it can be said that we are pioneers in the field
of nursing in Bangladesh," said Sister Mary Chamily, the director of St.
Mary's Catholic Mother and Child Care Hospital. Now, the hospital runs a
nursing institution with approximately 50 students.
There
are currently 214 Associates of Mary Queen of Apostles in Bangladesh, about 50
of whom are working in the health sector, said Sister Mary Chamily. They also
run eight health care centers and two hospitals.
The
mentality of members of the Christian community in Bangladesh has changed over
the years after being exposed to Catholic sisters from an early age. Many
parents have willingly sent their daughters into nursing.
"When
I was young, my parents showed me a sister and told me, 'You have to serve
people like that sister.' It was ingrained in my mind," Sumana Biswas, 40,
a senior nurse at a government hospital, told GSR.
Biswas
obtained her diploma in nursing from Kamudini Nursing College in the presence
of those Catholic sisters.
The
sisters have sometimes had bad experiences while working in nursing, but
mostly, they have had a happy ministry.
"When
someone comes to the hospital for service, I serve him and, at the same time, I
also do the work of spreading the message of God," Sister Mary Chamily
said. "For example, giving medicine to someone who comes for service and
saying, 'I will pray for you' or 'God will heal you.' I think these words give
them peace of mind and increase their dependence on God."
About
80% of the patients who come to missionary hospitals or dispensaries are not
Catholic and have heard about the services by word of mouth, since missionary
hospitals do not advertise, she said.
"Our
service centers do not charge high service charges because our patients are
mostly from poor families," Sister Mary Chamily said. "But we don't
have all kinds of medical equipment. To buy them, a lot of money is spent, and
at the same time, money is needed for manpower and space."
According
to the Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council, the country had 73,043
registered nurses and 102,997 registered doctors as of April 2020. Countries in
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have on average three
nurses for each doctor, which means Bangladesh has only 24% of the nurses it
needs, the nursing council says.
The
Christian Medical Association of Bangladesh said there are about 280 Christian
doctors and about 4,000 Christian nurses in Bangladesh in this tiny minority
religious community.
Maruf
Hossain, a doctor and government health official from Rangpur Medical College,
said Christian nurses are pioneers.
"I
have worked with many Christian nurses in my career. Their efficiency and
dedication to work are unmatched," Hossain told GSR. "The fact that
service is a religion cannot be understood without seeing nurses, especially
Christian nurses. I hope more Christian nursing colleges will be established in
Bangladesh."
Now,
the Bangladesh Catholic Church runs three nursing institutions nationwide, but
some Catholic nuns and lay nurses teach in non-Christian nursing institutions.
"The
health sector has now become a business, not a service," Sister Mary
Dipali told GSR. "To come out of this, you have to be humane. We are
trying very hard to get our Christian girls into the nursing profession."
Source:
Global Sisters Report
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30
female Iranian prisoners call for end to protester executions
24th
January 2023
Tehran:
Thirty female political prisoners in Evin Prison in Iran on Sunday have signed
a petition calling for an end to the execution of protesters in the country,
local media reported.
The
prisoners, including Franco-Iranian researcher Fariba Adelkhah and Faezeh
Hashemi, the daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, wrote in a
petition that they had “come together to say ‘no’ to execution. We to defend
people’s right to live in justice.”
“We,
the political and ideological prisoners in the women’s ward of Evin Prison,
demand an end to the execution of protesters and an end to unjust sentences of
prisoners in Iran,” said the petition.
The
petition was also signed by Niloufer Bayani, the former representative of the
United Nations Environment Program in Iran who was sentenced to 10 years in
prison in 2020 for “conspiring with America as a hostile government,” AFP
reported.
Human
Rights Activists News Agency (Hrana) reported that four people have already
been executed and 110 others face execution in protest-related cases.
Iran’s
protests erupted on September 16, following the death in custody of 22-year-old
Mahsa Amini, after she was arrested for wearing a headscarf improperly.
Source: Siasat Daily
https://www.siasat.com/30-female-iranian-prisoners-call-for-end-to-protester-executions-2509200/
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Yazidi
women kept as slaves by IS appeal to UN to intervene in their fight for
compensation
Kaamil
Ahmed
24
Jan 2023
Five
Yazidi women held as slaves by an Islamic State fighter are appealing to the UN
to intervene in their case for compensation in a move lawyers hope will help
fix a “lawless” global system that is failing torture survivors.
The
women, captured in Iraq in 2014, were taken to Syria as slaves by IS fighters,
including the Australian citizen Khaled Sharrouf, who was pictured standing
next to his young son holding a severed human head.
The
women, in a case due to be filed next week, want the UN’s Committee Against
Torture to remind Australia of its obligation to provide survivors of violence
with redress under the UN’s torture convention, which the country has ratified.
The Australian authorities have so far denied all requests for compensation.
Lawyers
had argued that the women were entitled to compensation under New South Wales
law because Sharrouf was born in Sydney and NSW was his last known place of
residence. The NSW Victims Rights and Supports Act entitles survivors to
$10,000 and other means of support. However, the Australian courts, including
the high court, ruled against the women.
Philippe
Sands KC, one of the lawyers leading the case, said the purpose of taking the
complaint to the UN committee is to end the impunity of western governments who
have pledged to support Yazidis in their quest for justice.
“You’ve
got a situation of utter lawlessness in which western governments who have
committed to rooting it out seem unwilling to take responsibility to provide
the institutional and financial mechanisms to deliver on that commitment. If
there’s a gap, and unless that gap is filled, you have impunity and more
lawlessness,” said Sands.
“The
legal framework as it stands seems incapable of delivering, so this application
is intended to fill that gap and seek to recognise the responsibility of a
state like Australia to ensure that justice is done for the victims.”
In
their complaint to the UN, the women argue that Sharrouf’s crimes were of
universal jurisdiction, and Australia’s obligation to act under the torture
convention is not limited by territory. They also state that Australia had
failed to prevent Sharrouf from leaving the country, despite previous arrests
for terror offences.
Yasmin
Waljee, the international pro bono partner at the law firm Hogan Lovells, which
is representing the women, said the women cannot be compensated by IS or the
perpetrator, as Sharrouf is presumed to have been killed in a 2017 US
airstrike. Waljee said the case highlighted how difficult it is for survivors
to access compensation, even when their abuse had been widely condemned.
“We’ve
got women who experienced sexual violence and violence generally as part of
this horrific movement which the world condemned, and yet they’ve left the
victims on their own without any remedy,” said Waljee. “It’s shocking – you’re
dealing with post-traumatic stress, suicides, all sorts of horrendous long-term
impacts.”
Waljee
said survivors have short and long-term needs – like healthcare, mental health
support and accommodation – that require money. While a positive ruling from
the UN committee cannot compel Australia to provide compensation, she said, a
finding that the government had breached the convention against torture would
be “a move forward” in international law.
“It
is important that the experience of these courageous women is widely recognised,
documented and remembered. If we don’t draw these issues into the light,
there’s no hope that improvements will ever be made,” said Waljee. “The world
condemned this movement [IS] and continues to condemn it, but then doesn’t try
to support the victims in any way.”
Lawyers
believe the outcome of this case can have implications for survivors of
violence in other conflicts, especially those by non-state militias.
Erin
Rosenberg, senior legal adviser to the DRC-based Mukwege Foundation, said:
“Right now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, one of the
most vicious and brutal is a non-state actor, M23. It’s crucial that victims
could be provided with redress even when the perpetrator is a terrorist or
militia.”
Rosenberg,
who previously worked at the international criminal court, said that
international justice is too focused on prosecuting individuals for crimes
against humanity and does not offer enough support for victims. The need for
compensation is recognised by most countries but, in reality, few are willing
to pay.
“We
see a lot of rhetoric from a lot of states about the idea of a victim-centred
approach, ensuring victims are provided with redress and able to rebuild their
lives, but these talking points are often deprioritised when it comes down to
the nuts and bolts of paying,” she said.
Source:
The Guardian
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