New
Age Islam News Bureau
07
November 2021
•
Iran's Supreme Court Sentences Gay Pair To Death For Adultery
•
'Change Your Name ... If You Are Not Muslim': Sara Ali Khan Trolled For
Kedarnath Temple Visit
•
Women’s Rights Activist And Economics Lecturer Frozan Safi Shot Dead In Afghanistan
•
The Women Who Stayed In Afghanistan: One Decided To Work With The Taliban, The
Other Is Determined To Fight Them
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-supreme-court-gay-adultery/d/125724
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Iran's
Supreme Court Sentences Gay Pair To Death For Adultery
Illustrative: In this picture taken on Saturday,
April 16, 2011, and released by the semi-official Mehr News Agency, a
blindfolded man waits to be hanged in public, as two police officers, look on, (AP
Photo/Mehr News Agency, Mohammad Hadi Khosravi)
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November
06, 2021
Tehran:
Iran's supreme court has upheld death sentences for adultery against a
27-year-old and his 33-year-old lover after the man's father-in-law denied them
clemency, a reformist newspaper reported Saturday.
The
man's wife, who presented police with video evidence of her husband's
infidelity early this year, had asked the courts to spare the pair the death
penalty, the 'Shargh' daily said.
Iranian
law provides that if a victim's family forgives the accused in a capital crime,
the convict can be either pardoned or given a jail sentence.
Under
the interpretation of Islamic sharia law in force since Iran's 1979 revolution,
adultery is punishable by stoning.
But
Tehran changed the law in 2013 to allow judges to order an alternative method
of execution, usually hanging.
It
was unclear what form of execution the court ordered in the latest case.
According
to human rights group Amnesty International, Iran carried out 246 executions
last year, just one in public.
Source:NDTV
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-sentences-pair-to-death-for-adultery-report-2601501
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'Change
Your Name ... If You Are Not Muslim': Sara Ali Khan Trolled For Kedarnath
Temple Visit
Photos of her Kedarnath trip shared by Sara Ali Khan
(Photo | Instagram)
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06th
November 2021
By
IANS
MUMBAI:
When Sara Ali Khan posted a picture of her with Janhvi Kapoor at Kedarnath with
the caption: "Back to where it all began (emojis) #jaibholenath #grateful
#blessed", little must she have imagined that it would cause the troll
army to see red.
Kedarnath
has been in the news lately because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to
the holy shrine to unveil a statue of Adi Shankaracharya. For Sara Ali Khan, it
was an Instagram moment, but it exposed her to a vicious troll attack, which
her father, Saif Ali Khan, is more used to.
Her
attackers were miffed with Sara for visiting the temple despite being a Muslim.
They flooded her Instagram account with hate messages. Some even went to the
extent of asking her to denounce her religion if she wished to engage in idol
worship. One of the trolls wrote: "Change your name ... If you are not
Muslim."
An
overwhelming number of her followers, however, supported Sara for her choice.
And the number of likes -- 2.17 million, and counting -- showed that the trolls
were in a hopeless minority.
Source:
New Indian Express
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Women’s
rights activist and economics lecturer Frozan Safi shot dead in Afghanistan
WION
Web Team
Nov
06, 2021
Since
the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, activists and journalists have
been living in fear. Activists have said that they are being hunted down by the
Taliban. In a tragic incident, a 29 year old activist, Frozan Safi has been
shot and killed in northern Afghanistan. She worked as an economics lecturer.
The
Guardian newspaper quoted a doctor named Meraj Faroqi as saying that the
Taliban security forces brought the bodies of two unidentified women who had
been shot dead.
The
bodies were alongside those of two men in a house in Mazar-i-Sharif. Zabihullah Noorani, Taliban’s director for
information and cultural affairs in Balkh province, suggested that this could
have been the result of a “personal feud”. He further told that the police were
investigating the case.
It
has been revealed that Frozan received a call from an anonymous number. She was
asked to gather proof of her work as a rights defender and leave for a safer
place. The activist believed that her request for asylum in Germany was under
way. Therefore, she stuffed some documents, including her university diploma,
and left home, her sister told. Rita said that they are completely unaware of
who killed her.
Recently,
the Human Rights Watch said that the rules formulated by the Taliban have been
prohibiting most women from operating as aid workers in the country. This is
further contributing into a humanitarian disaster.
Women
have been holding nationwide protests regularly against the Taliban. They
demand that their rights should be restored and protected.
Source:
Wio News
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The
Women Who Stayed In Afghanistan: One Decided To Work With The Taliban, The
Other Is Determined To Fight Them
Nov
6, 2021
KABUL:
Two women from different walks of life — one a rebel, the other a bureaucrat —
face an unknown future in Afghanistan. One decided to work with the Taliban,
the other is determined to fight them. Both vow they will never leave their
homeland.
Karima
Mayar Amiri, 54, heads a department in the Taliban-run Health Ministry. She is
among the few women able to retain a leadership position in the new
government's bureaucracy and believes Afghans must be served no matter who is
at the helm.
Many
years her junior, Rishmin Juyunda, 26, could not disagree more. Afghan women
will never be served with the Taliban in power, she says. The rights activist
is part of an underground network determined to fight harsh Taliban policies
that restrict women's freedom.
They
represent a broad spectrum of women who have remained in Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan after many fled, fearing a return to the brutal repression that
marked the group's previous rule in the late 1990s. The international community
has linked recognition of a Taliban government to factors such as guarantees
for women's rights.
It
is not clear what rights women will be able to retain. Under the Taliban, women
in most government ministries are now unable to work, teen-age girls are
prohibited from going to school, the interim cabinet is comprised entirely of
men. This deepens mistrust toward the Taliban.
Amiri,
a mother of six, retained her senior position as the director of the ministry's
Quality and Safety Department after the collapse of the previous US-backed
government. Her case is rare; most senior female bureaucrats have been barred
from work across government portfolios except for health.
She
is at the office by 9am to manage a team of five. Nearly every day she meets
with her Taliban-appointed superiors to review action plans to combat the
spread of diseases from the coronavirus to dengue fever.
"It
was not a difficult decision for me to stay. I have my own department. If they
request a plan, I will provide it. The Taliban leadership wants me to work for
them, and I am ready," she said. "As long as I am healthy, I will
work for them, for my people, my country."
Juyunda
is entering her last semester majoring in economics at Zahra University in
Tehran. She chose to stay in the capital of Kabul and study remotely after the
Taliban's August takeover. Textbooks crowd her worktable, but her focus is
interrupted by a buzzing phone. In a string of WhatsApp messages, rights
activists proposed slogans for the next demonstration.
Like
many young women who grew up after the US invasion in 2001, Juyunda's dreams
were dashed overnight after the Taliban seized Kabul and consolidated control
of the country. Many of her friends have left, unwilling to wait and see how
the dust will settle following the dramatic US exit.
She
stayed. "I will never leave Afghanistan. I have to stay and make a
change," she said, her lively hazel eyes framed by a scarlet headscarf.
Between
the Aug. 15 fall of Kabul and the final US exit two weeks later, thousands of
Afghans, including many women, rushed to the city's airport in a desperate
attempt to get out.
Three
days after the Taliban overran the capital, she was back in the office to help
meet the growing need in the crumbling health sector. International aid that
once funded hospitals and health worker wages had stopped abruptly. Hospitals
across the country were being hit hard by an economic crisis brought on by
international sanctions against the Taliban.
When
a Taliban guard attempted to inspect her bag at the ministry gate one morning,
she refused and asked that a separate room be erected for female checks. They
complied.
A
graduate of Kabul Medical University 31 years ago, she has worked for the
Health Ministry since 2004. Five health ministers have come and gone during her
tenure. "Why should the Taliban be any different?" she asked.
The
only change they introduced was for women to don Islamic dress. Amiri, a devout
Muslim, was already in the habit of wearing a headscarf.
"Health
is not political," Amiri insists. The guidelines her office formulates are
sent to thousands of public hospitals, clinics and facilities across the
country. "Life goes on," she says.
It
took her weeks to recover from the shock of the takeover. Her family of 11 had
greatly benefited after the US invasion. She and her four sisters were able to
attend school in Ghor province. Her parents held well-paid government jobs. She
was on her way to becoming an economist brimming with ideas to improve her
country.
From
social media she came to know of a women's protest organized outside the
Pakistan Embassy in Kabul in September. Shortly after she arrived, a Taliban
unit showed up and the group had to disperse. She stood there holding a sign
"Education is a right" and repeated to herself, "I am strong,
they are weak."
The
Taliban have said they have no issue with the right to protest, but that the
activists must seek their permission to demonstrate. Subsequent sit-ins have
not been able to draw large numbers. But Juyunda said to seek permission from
the Taliban would be an implicit acceptance of their rule.
Amiri
was a gynecologist in the conservative Wardak province, a Taliban stronghold as
far back as the 1990s when the group was first in power.
"During
that time, I went to the hospital, I treated patients, delivered babies and did
surgeries, and then I went straight home. That was my life," she said.
In
2021, she reverted to the same tactic. After 3:30 p.m., she leaves the office
and goes straight to her Kabul home to spend the evening with her children and
grandchildren.
Juyunda's
childhood was marked by the violence of the Taliban insurgency in the years
after the US invasion. She saw entire buildings go up in flames after rocket
strikes and bombings.
At
night she would sleep with a glass full of water. "I thought, if a bomb
ever hit our home, I could use it to put out the flames," she recalled,
smiling at the thought of her childhood naivete.
Source:
Times Of India
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-supreme-court-gay-adultery/d/125724