Women in Iran Flaunt Their Uncovered Locks
26
February 2023
•
Women in Iran Flaunt Their Uncovered Locks
•
British Muslim Women Honored For Achievements In Business
•
Book On 100 Muslim Women Achievers From Karnataka Released
•
First UPSC Coaching Centre For Poor Muslim Girls In Mumbai
•
'A Thousand Splendid Suns' Opera Spotlights Afghan Women
•
The Arab Women Making Noise in the Fintech and Blockchain Industry
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-flaunt-uncovered-locks/d/129200
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Women in Iran Flaunt Their Uncovered Locks
Photo:
The Times of India
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By
Farnaz Fassihi
Feb.
25, 2023
An
engineer strode onstage at an event in Tehran, wearing tight pants and a
stylish shirt, and clutching a microphone in one hand. Her long brown hair,
tied in a ponytail, swung freely behind her, uncovered, in open defiance of
Iran’s strict hijab law.
“I
am Zeinab Kazempour,” she told the convention of Iran’s professional
association of engineers. She condemned the group for supporting the hijab
rules, and then she marched offstage, removing a scarf from around her neck and
tossing it to the floor under a giant image of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei.
The
packed auditorium erupted in cheers, claps and whistles. A video of Ms.
Kazempour went viral on social media and local news sites, making her the
latest champion for many Iranians in a growing, open challenge to the hijab
law.
Women
have resisted the law, uncovering their hair an inch or a strand at a time,
since it went into effect two years after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
But
since the death last year of Mahsa Amini, 22, while in the custody of the
country’s morality police, women and girls have been at the center of a
nationwide uprising, demanding an end not only to hijab requirements but to the
Islamic Republic itself.
Women
are suddenly flaunting their hair: left long and flowing in the malls; tied in
a bun on the streets; styled into bobs on public transportation; and pulled
into ponytails at schools and on university campuses, according to interviews
with women in Iran as well as photographs and videos online. While these acts of
defiance are rarer in more conservative areas, they are increasingly being seen
in towns and cities.
“I
have not worn a scarf for months — I don’t even carry it with me any more,”
said Kimia, 23, a graduate student in the Kurdish city of Sanandaj, in western
Iran, who, like other women interviewed for this article, asked that her
surname not be used for fear of retribution.
Kimia
said that many female students at her college did not cover their hair even in
classrooms in the presence of male professors. “Whether the government likes to
admit it or not,” she said, “the era of the forced hijab is over.”
Iran’s
hijab law mandates that women and girls over 9 cover their hair, and that they
hide the curves of their bodies under long, loose robes.
The
death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of the morality police led
to a nationwide uprising against Iran’s theocratic rule.
A
Deadly Crackdown: Since the protests began in September, Iran’s security forces
have killed hundreds of people. Here is a list of the Iranians who have been
executed and those who are on death row.
The
Protesters: Iranians who have taken part in the demonstrations spoke to “The
Daily” about why they are willing to brave such severe punishments to help
bring about change.
U.N.
Ousting: In response to Tehran’s crackdown on the demonstrations, Iran was
kicked out of the United Nations women’s agency — the strongest symbolic
gesture taken so far by the organization.
Many
women still adhere to the rule in public, some by choice and others from fear.
Videos of the traditional bazaar in downtown Tehran, Iran’s capital, for
example, show most women covering their hair.
But
videos of parks, cafes, restaurants and malls — places popular with younger
women — show more of them uncovered. Many prominent women, including
celebrities and athletes, have removed their hijab in Iran and while
representing the country abroad.
The
state has long promoted the hijab law as a symbol of its success in
establishing the Islamic Republic, but enforcement has varied, depending on
which political faction was in power.
After
the election in 2021 of Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-liner, as president, the rules
have been increasingly enforced, and with a strictness and brutality that have
enraged Iranian women, many of whom were fined, beaten or arrested by the
morality police after they were said to be in violation.
Source:
Ny Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/25/world/middleeast/iran-women-hijab-hair.html
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British
Muslim Women Honored For Achievements In Business
Sarah Kaisar, founder and director of Sarah Artistry
Academy, won the Businesswoman of the Year award for her positive impact in the
industry. (AN Photo/Sarah Glubb)
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SARAH
GLUBB
February
25, 2023
LONDON:
British Muslim women have been celebrated for their outstanding achievements in
the rapidly expanding community of Muslim female entrepreneurs in the UK.
The
inaugural Saverah Women in Business Awards ceremony, at the London Marriott
Hotel Regent’s Park, featured 17 categories, including businesswoman of the
year, food and beverage, start-up, beauty, health and wellness, fashion,
digital, SME, family, and young businesswoman of the year.
“It
was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the amazing talented British Muslim
women that we have, and I think it’s really good to have all of these positive
role models and we’ve got so many young girls out there who are aspiring to do
the best that they can do,” Ridwana Wallace-Laher, one of the judges, told Arab
News.
Wallace-Laher’s
charity Penny Appeal was one of several organizations to sponsor the ceremony,
which raised at least £50,000 ($60,000) for victims of the earthquakes in
Turkiye.
Sarah
Kaisar, founder and director of Sarah Artistry Academy — a beauty and aesthetic
global qualifications provider, won the Businesswoman of the Year award for her
positive impact in the industry.
The
London-based company, which also provides aesthetic treatments and skin and
cosmetic products, provides accessible and feasible opportunities for thousands
of women around the world that want to potentially pursue a career in the
beauty or aesthetics sector, she said.
“My
main aim has always been to break the stigma against the sector,” Kaisar, 30,
said. “I reach out to communities that may not have the means to follow their
career paths, and I would ideally reach women to give them an opportunity to
make something of themselves.”
Sweet
Lounge, which was set up in 2014 and specializes in vegan and halal
confectionery, received the Food and Beverage Business of the Year award.
The
Midlands-based company stocks in a number of UK chains, but has also started
exporting to the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
“As
a Muslim businesswoman, the way that people may look at me, it might be
slightly different from others, as you can understand business is a very male
dominated industry already,” said Greta McDonald, CEO and founder of Sweet
Lounge Group.
McDonald,
who converted to Islam eight years ago, said the UK was a very multicultural
country, with “no limits” and plenty of opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
The
Digital Business of the Year award was given to rotibox, a modern solution for
making traditional homemade rotis with no mess, which was created by
entrepreneur and mom Sophia Choudry three years ago.
“To
win this award is amazing, especially to be the winner of digital business,
because three years ago, I didn’t even have an Instagram account, so it means a
lot that I’ve been recognized for all the efforts that I’ve made across all the
social media platforms,” she said.
LCFitness,
a ladies only fitness business specialized in high strength workouts, won the
Health and Wellness Business of the Year award, honoring seven years of hard
work.
“I’m
a Muslim woman, a hijabi woman, and at the time, ladies only fitness, there was
only something like Zumba or dance, and that was something that I wasn’t
interested in,” she said.
Crisp,
who converted to Islam at the age of 17, said it was important for women in the
fitness industry to work together and support and champion each other.
“At
the end of the day, that’s the only way that we’re going to be able to grow as
Muslim females if we push each other up and raise each other up and there’s no
competition because we’re all unique. We’re all different and we’re striving,”
she added.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2257896/lifestyle
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Book
on 100 Muslim women achievers from Karnataka released
Nina
George
FEB
26 2023
Rising
Beyond The Ceiling (RBTC) launched a book titled Rising Beyond The Ceiling
Karnataka on Saturday.
It
was launched by former Governor of Rajasthan Margaret Alva. The book honours
100 Muslim women achievers from the state, who have made noteworthy
achievements in 14 categories, ranging from politics, art, defence to social
work.
Curated
by Zoya Fatehally, the co-ordinator of RBTC Karnataka Chapter, and Aiman Ansari
for over 18 months from 2021, the e-book was launched on November 1, 2022.
Speaking
to DH, Dr Farah Usmani, the founder of RBTC, said, “The book aims to celebrate
the contributions of Muslim women in the country to nation building and show
the diversity among the Muslim women population in the country.”
Dr
Farah Afraz, a doctor and former IAF wing commander, who was one among those
honoured, said that the initiative helps broaden the narrow view of Indian
Muslim women.
“This
event showcases how many women across all fields are doing good work, and this
is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
Modelled
on the lines of ‘BBC 100 Women’ and the Forbes’ ‘The World’s 100 Most Powerful
Women’ list, the collective aims to release these lists of 100 inspiring women
in 14 states in the country, once every two years, to showcase how the Muslim
women...
Source:
Deccan Herald
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First
UPSC coaching centre for poor Muslim girls in Mumbai
Feb
26, 2023
Muslim
girl aspirants of civil services have just got a reason to rejoice. The
Fatimabai Musa Patel Competitive Examination Training Centre for Women
(residential and non-residential) at Mohammed Ali Road, opening this week,
fulfils an old need of the community.
Initially
accommodating 20 residential and around 30 non-residential candidates, the
Centre helps give wings to many girls who aspire to become civil servants and
want to give the tough IAS and provincial services exams a shot.
"The
need for a proper place exclusive for the girls who want to prepare for UPSC
and MPSC exams has been felt for a long. Some like-minded people have joined
hands to prepare this facility," said former MLA Bashir Musa Patel who
owns this place and has dedicated it to the memory of his mother Fatimabai.
Though
Patel and a few other good Samaritans came forward to create this Centre, the
motivating force is former CEO of Haj Committee of India and ex-registrar,
Mumbai University, Dr Maqsood Ahmed Khan. With experience of mentoring civil
services aspirants at the Haj House's coaching centre, Khan was suited to show
the path here too. "They roped me in to do honourary mentorship here. We
have already selected candidates. Initially most of the candidates are those
who previously appeared for the UPSC entrance examinations but didn't succeed
and wanted to prepare again," said Khan.
On
Friday, the Centre's director Zubia Shaikh, through a power-point presentation,
explained the abysmal low representation of Muslims in the civil services.
According to the Sachar Commission Report, the representation of Muslims in the
civil services is only 3%.
"This
Centre will propel girls to reach their goals. Even if some don't succeed in
these tough examinations, the very dream and preparations will equip them to
face challenges in life," said Shaikh.
Two
candidates who cracked UPSC exams last year and were allotted IPS cadre-Mavis
Tak and Tahseen Banu Dawadi-too addressed the small gathering virtually. Both
are preparing again to upgrade their UPSC ranks.
"The
facility created here for the girls is very important. It is not possible to
prepare for this examination at home as you need the right environment,
guidance, mentorship and company of fellow aspirants," said Tak who
graduated from Mira Road-based Royal College. Soon after Tak, daughter of a
freelance translator cracked the UPSC exams, several organisations and individuals,
including Mira Road-based ex-MLC Muzaffar Hussain and Royal College,
felicitated her and her parents. In her interview to TOI, she had said that her
father was the main motivating force as he had dreams of becoming an IAS.
"He wanted me to achieve what he could not," Tak had told TOI.
Hijab-wearing
Dawadi comes from Karnataka and said that hijab was no hindrance to education
and qualifying for the UPSC. Ayesha Kazi who is awaiting her UPSC final results
this year said a centre like this where girls felt secured, confident and
comfortable was needed to encourage others to aim for a career in civil
services.
"The
densely populated Muslim pockets in the city do not have enough facilities for
students, especially girls, to concentrate and study for UPSC exams. More such
centres are needed at different pockets in the city," said businessman
Sabir Nirban.
Source:
Times Of India
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'A
Thousand Splendid Suns' opera spotlights Afghan women
25th
February 2023
Minutes
before Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat entered her first Seattle Opera production
meeting for an adaptation of the novel "A Thousand Splendid Suns,"
she learned that her hometown of Herat had fallen to the Taliban.
The
celebrated director's first foray into opera started out as a look back at a
painful chapter in her country's history through Khaled Hosseini's story of two
women whose lives are marked by the Taliban's brutal and repressive rule in the
1990s.
But
the surge back to power of the hardline Islamists in August 2021 brought the
story roaring back to the present for Afghan women.
And
it added new weight to the production, as the Taliban again placed an
ever-tightening vice on women's liberties, despite vowing a departure from
their infamous first reign.
"When
I started I thought, let's try to have more symbolic elements and move between
surreal expression and realities," she told AFP ahead of the opera's
premiere on February 25 in Seattle, Washington.
"It
wasn't just something that changed emotionally for me. There was a change to
what I was thinking for the structure of the opera and I decided I should use
more realism and bring out the reality of the situation," in everything
from colors, to costumes and set design.
It's
a reality Sadat is intimately familiar with, having pushed boundaries to create
under the first Taliban rule when arts were harshly controlled, before becoming
one of the country's first women filmmakers after their ouster in 2001.
Her
most successful films -- including "A Letter to the President" and
"Three Dots" -- focus on women and their perseverance in the face of
extreme odds.
It's
a theme that courses through "A Thousand Splendid Suns" for Sadat,
who said the opera is a narrative of the resilience of women, who are
"always the first to suffer" from conflict and political violence.
"Right
now the only strong dissidence is from women in Afghanistan," she said.
"Even if the Taliban tortures them, even if they ban them... they have
their voices."
Composer
Sheila Silver was first drawn to the story as rich material for opera nearly 15
years ago, because of the characters of Laila and Mariam and the bond they form
as their lives are upended by familial and political turmoil.
"Opera
is larger than life and they're larger than life," Silver said.
"Their resilience and their love for one another sustains them and they
survive through the power of their love."
Drawing
inspiration from the story's setting as she went to work with librettist
Stephen Kitsakos, she wove Western operatic tradition with music at home in
Afghanistan.
Silver
studied Hindustani music traditions -- which she described as "the
classical music of Afghanistan" associated with the country since the 16th
century -- and incorporated its melodic and harmonic structures.
The
opera opens with one of the tradition's foundational drones under intertwined
cello and bansuri -- an ancient bamboo flute and one of the instruments added
to the orchestra that create a sense of place even without sets or costumes.
Creating
an experience true to the story's context was a priority, with Afghan cultural
consultant Humaira Ghilzai brought on board in 2016.
In
a medium where performers' voices are paramount, she consulted on elements
including body language so as not to have "a bunch of people in Afghan
dress walking and talking like Westerners" and to help draw the audience
into "a different world."
Along
with contributing to a slate of Seattle Opera events highlighting Afghan art
and culture alongside the production, she has worked to bring the Afghan
community into what -- as it was for her -- may be the unfamiliar territory of
the opera house and encourage further "intersection of cultures."
But
with a heavy sense of responsibility, she wanted to draw attention to the
"heartbreaking" situation in the country her family fled in 1979
during yet another violent chapter in its uneasy history, she added.
"I
feel the weight of the world on my shoulders with this production because the
world has turned its gaze away from Afghanistan."
Source:
New Indian Express
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The
Arab Women Making Noise in the Fintech and Blockchain Industry
FARAH
RAFIK
25
FEBRUARY 2023
In
an industry that deceivingly appears to be dominated solely by men, women in
the Arab world are not only invested in crypto-currencies, but they are also
redefining their role in the fintech & blockchain industry.
Although
a study conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2021 indicates that ‘women are
underrepresented in the blockchain industry’, tides are changing–especially in
the Arab region.
As
the global crypto wave makes its way into the Arab world—with the opening of
crypto startups and companies—more women are acquiring imperative roles.
Emerging as founders, CEOs, and blockchain specialists, these Arab women are riding
the inescapable crypto wave.
A
force to be reckoned with, Dina Samaan is the founder and Managing Director of
CoinMENA, the fastest growing crypto exchange based in Bahrain. CoinMENA allows
users to deposit, trade, and withdraw crypto assets in “safe, transparent, and
regulated ways,” Samaan notes.
Samaan
has been in the crypto assets blockchain space for a long time, and is one of
the first people to provide access to crypto assets in the MENA region.
Known
as the ‘Bitcoin Pioneer’ in the region’s cryptocurrency, Ola Doudin has
established herself as a key player in the nascent crypto scene in the MENA
region. Doudin is the CEO and co-founder of BitOasis, a bitcoin consumer wallet
and instant exchange.
Her
company was established in the United Arab Emirates in 2015, and is recognized
as the largest and most-trusted crypto platform in the MENA region.
Bringing
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) to the Saudi region, Salwa Radwi is the CEO of Saudi
Arabia’s first NFT market place Nuqtah. With a passion for creating a community
of blockchain advocates and art enthusiasts, Radwi’s end goal is to boost Saudi
Arabia’s creative economy.
An
entrepreneur, financier, and social activist, Iman Mutlaq is the CEO and
founder of INGOT, a consortium of multinational companies that offers global
crypto services. INGOT provides users with blockchain technology that aims to
reduce transaction cost, create liquidity, and provide efficient market
pricing.
Noha
Shaker is the founder and Secretary-General of the Egyptian Fintech Association
and the elected Vice President of the African FinTech Network. She is also the
founder of TechFin Holding, a company that builds and invests in financially
inclusive businesses.
Shaker
was selected as one of the leaders influencing the future of the financial
industry for the 2019 FinTech hotlist by Innovate Finance for her efforts in
building inclusive and collaborative echo systems for fintech startups.
With
over two decades of experience in the financial services sector, Raja Al
Mazrouei is a multi-award-winning digital transformation leader specializing in
the financial and technology sectors.
Al
Mazrouei is the Executive Vice President of FinTech Hive, and she oversees the
region’s first fintech accelerator. Her financial and technical expertise has
led FinTech Hive to become a leading contributor in the UAE’s digital economy.
Amber
Ghaddar is the founder of Alliance Block, a company that aims to build a
‘Decentralized Finance Ecosystem.’ She started off her career in Global
Investment Research at Goldman Sachs London, and later on, spearheaded the
Macro Systematic Trading Strategies effort at JP Morgan London, focusing on
fixed income dynamic risk premia trading strategies.
Ghaddar
is lecturer and speaker at varying world-class conferences, including TEDx,
Money2020, UN Women, and Davos, where she talks about capitalism and
calibrocracy. She has also been featured in the Crypto Powerlist in the Fintech
Times in 2020.
Source:
Egyptian Streets
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-flaunt-uncovered-locks/d/129200