Iranian Actress, Anahita Hemmati, Shaves Head to Protest “Hijab and Chastity” Law
New Age Islam News Bureau
7 December 2024
· Iranian Actress, Anahita Hemmati, Shaves Head to Protest “Hijab and Chastity” Law
· Nearly Half Of Women Feel Unsafe On UK Streets In Dark During Winter Time
· Study: 1 In 20 Pregnant U.S. Women Experience Emotional, Physical Abuse
· Everyone Abandoned Me At D-Chowk: Bushra Bibi Breaks Silence After Islamabad Protest
· Iran's New Hijab Law May Carry Risk Of Death Penalty
· Two Afghan Activists Receive 2024 Diana Award For Advocating Girls’ Education In Afghanistan
· Saudi Arabia Issues Guidelines For Female Pilgrims To Holy Mosques
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-actress-protest-hijab-chastity-law/d/133962
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Iranian Actress, Anahita Hemmati, Shaves Head to Protest “Hijab and Chastity” Law
DECEMBER 6, 2024
Anahita Hemmati described being a woman in Iran as “nothing but torment and humiliation.”
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An Iranian actress has shaved her head in protest against the “Hijab and Chastity” law and posted about her action on social media.
Anahita Hemmati described being a woman in Iran as “nothing but torment and humiliation.”
Hemmati explained that she shaved her head “to prevent others from committing a sin” because of her hair.
The actress criticized the social and cultural pressures faced by women under Iran’s strict dress codes, expressing a wish that she had been born a man.
She asked her fellow citizens to view her as “an ugly bald woman with no place in society.”
Her protest comes amid ongoing tensions surrounding Iran’s enforcement of mandatory hijab regulations, which have been a source of significant public resistance since the 2022 protests.
The “Hijab and Chastity” law, approved after several revisions between Parliament and the Guardian Council, comprises 74 articles and will be officially communicated to enforcement agencies on December 13.
It introduces severe financial penalties and extensive social restrictions for women who refuse to comply with mandatory hijab regulations.
Despite the Islamic Republic’s policies criminalizing non-compliance with the mandatory hijab and the increasingly harsh treatment of women by both official and unofficial forces, many women continue to resist through acts of civil disobedience.
Since April 13, Iran’s law enforcement agencies have intensified the enforcement of hijab regulations under the national action plan “Noor.”
Across Iran, there have been numerous reports of women being arrested and subjected to force for perceived violations of dress codes.
Users across social networks are participating in a spontaneous campaign using the hashtag “war against women” to document their experiences and observations regarding the government’s crackdown on opponents of mandatory hijab.
Source:iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/136864-iranian-actress-shaves-head-to-protest-hijab-law/
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Nearly half of women feel unsafe on UK streets in dark during winter time
06.12.2024
Trafalgar square, London, United Kingdom ( Hasan Esen - Anadolu Agency )
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Almost half of women in the UK feel unsafe on the street during the winter time with more than two-thirds of people change their route over safety fears, a survey revealed on Friday.
New data suggested that almost half of women (44%) and a fifth of men (21%) feel unsafe when walking in the dark, even when making daily journeys, including commuting to work.
The figures by Mities, a London-based security provider, showed that almost three quarters (69%) of people say they have made changes after clocks turn back to feel safer or avoid walking in the dark.
The most common changes made are walking a different route with 34%, taking a taxi or public transport with 28%, and driving a short distance to avoid walking with 24%.
The survey noted that these changes cost people average an extra £100 ($127) a month.
It comes as Mitie and WalkSafe, a personal safety app, has announced a new partnership designed to support safer communities, particularly for people travelling alone, offering additional personal safety support for their colleagues through a specialist 24/7 contact center.
Citing the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC), Mities pointed out an "epidemic scale" of violence against women and girls as police recorded that this type of violence related crime increased by 37% between 2018-2023.
In July, NPCC said in a statement that police leaders are calling for a whole-system approach that brings together criminal justice partners, government bodies and industry, in a new partnership that seeks to reduce the scale and impact of VAWG due to the epidemic scale of offending.
The survey also revealed the differences in threat awareness when walking in the dark differs between men and women as 51% of women cite being followed by a stranger at the top of their list of fears, with awareness of the threat of sexual assault also running high for over a third.
However, only a fifth (17%) of men fear being followed by a stranger and less than one in twenty (4%) list sexual assault as a concern.
Due to the ongoing concern, 71% of people are calling for more to be done to improve safety on the streets and two thirds believe that the government and local authorities can do more to protect people.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged 13,000 extra neighborhood policing officers to make UK streets safer, with every neighborhood in England and Wales will get a named, contactable police officer.
"With app users surging since the clocks changed, we want to do everything we can to ensure people can get home safely in the dark," Emma Kay, founder of WalkSafe said.
Jason Towse, managing director of Business Services, Mitie, said: "Our friends, families and colleagues should all be able to travel safely, whether on transport networks or simply walking home, yet violence against women and girls and minority groups is increasingly prevalent across the UK."
Source:aa.com.tr
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/nearly-half-of-women-feel-unsafe-on-uk-streets-in-dark-during-winter-time/3416168
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Study: 1 in 20 pregnant U.S. women experience emotional, physical abuse
DEC. 6, 2024
New research shows that 1 in 20 American women suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse during pregnancy. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News
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Pregnancy can be a trying time for women at best, but new research shows that 1 in every 20 pregnant American women also suffer physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Abuse can take a toll on the mental and physical health of the mom-to-be and her baby, because it's strongly linked to "delayed prenatal care, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]," the research team wrote.
The new study also showed that abuse experienced in pregnancy can raise risks for maternal substance abuse, premature delivery and low birth weight.
The research was led by Megan Steele-Baser, of the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Her team looked at 2016-2022 data on self-reported levels of physical or sexual violence and emotional abuse for pregnant women living in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.
Women were also asked about the state of their health and health care during the pregnancy.
The data showed that more than 1 in every 20 of the women (5.4%) had some experience of abuse from an intimate partner during their pregnancy.
Emotional abuse (denigrating comments, yelling and other abuse) was most common, with 5.2% of women citing these experiences, while 1.5% of women suffered physical violence from a partner and 1% cited sexual violence.
All of this could seriously impact pregnancy outcomes.
For example, experiencing emotional abuse was linked to a near-tripling of the risk for depression during pregnancy, and it greatly raised the odds that a mom-to-be would smoke or use alcohol or marijuana.
Physical violence inflicted on a pregnant women upped her chances of depression nearly three-fold, and it raised her chances for gestational high blood pressure by 30% and preterm birth by 50%, the research showed.
Sometimes, outcomes can be fatal: According to Steele-Baser and colleagues, 40% of homicides affecting pregnant women coincide with intimate partner violence.
The researchers also noted that suicide, drug overdose and other forms of fatalities linked to mental health issues remain the leading cause of death for pregnant women. All may be linked to depression, which can easily arise in the context of abuse by an intimate partner.
According to Steele-Baser's team, more can and must be done to prevent these tragedies.
"Addressing multiple intimate partner violence types through comprehensive prevention efforts is critical to supporting maternal ad infant health," they wrote.
The new findings were published Thursday in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
More information
Find out more about signs of depression in pregnancy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Source:upi.com
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2024/12/06/study-1-in-20-us-pregnant-women-abuse/4521733502637/
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Everyone abandoned me at D-Chowk: Bushra Bibi breaks silence after Islamabad protest
By Sabz Ali Tareen
December 06, 2024
CHARSADDA: Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, said that she was left completely alone at D-Chowk in Islamabad following a crackdown by authorities on protesters last month.
As per reports, the PTI workers were frustrated with the ones leading the November 24 protest, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Bushra Bibi, after they retreated abruptly in the wee hours of November 27.
The party leadership suspended the protest after the authorities launched a late-night crackdown on the protesters who had forced their way to D-Chowk, despite several hurdles along the way.
Although she appeared only rarely in official photos, shielded from view during court appearances by large white sheets and always wearing a face veil, Bushra Bibi led the rally demanding her husband's release.
When the protest was put off, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told the media that Bushra, CM Gandapur, and others had "made a run for it" after the crackdown.
Meanwhile, a video also surfaced showing Bushra Bibi moving from her own car to CM Gandapur's vehicle following the protest's culmination. However, the former first lady said the vehicle was changed as Bushra's car had a flat tyre.
Today, when Bushra went to visit the family members of deceased PTI worker Tajuddin, she told the party supporters that she had been in pain for the last few days as so many deaths had taken place, "due to which I was confused and could not figure out why people were lying".
"I am not a woman who runs away. I would especially not leave those who had come out for Khan. No one knew which car was mine. At D-Chowk, I was all alone in my car till 12:30am," she said.
"Several cars had come there because they were forcefully pushed out of D-Chowk. Bibi did not move because Khan did not say. I had told everyone not to leave me alone, but everyone left me alone. I was all alone."
Present on the occasion, a PTI worker backed her story, saying that he was a witness to the situation. At this, she said, there were several witnesses.
"The ones evacuating the area are also witnesses. As I was staying put and not leaving, my car was fired upon. The rest of the convoy came later. I came here because Khan told me to visit the families of those who had died."
Source:thenews.com.pk
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/1258754-everyone-abandoned-me-at-d-chowk-bushra-bibi-breaks-silence-after-islamabad-protest
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Iran's new hijab law may carry risk of death penalty
Azadeh Akbari
DECEMBER 6, 2024
Iran’s new chastity and hijab law has drawn criticism from journalists and activists who warn it represents a new weapon in the state's arsenal against women which could authorize extreme punishments including the death penalty and flogging.
The new Hijab and Chastity law, approved by parliament in September 2023 and finalized by the Guardian Council in September 2024, enforces compulsory hijab with harsher penalties, including hefty fines, longer prison sentences, and restrictions on employment and education.
Two particularly extreme provisions in the new law were highlighted by human rights advocate Shadi Sadr on Friday.
One grants the judiciary authority to issue death sentences to individuals accused of promoting nudity, unveiling, or improper attire in collaboration with foreign entities, classifying such acts as "corruption on earth".
As reported by Revolutionary Guards Corps-affiliated Fars News, a clause in the new Hijab and Chastity law reads: "Anyone who, in collaboration with foreign governments, networks, media outlets, groups, or organizations hostile to the state, or with individuals associated with them, or in an organized manner, engages in promoting or advertising nudity, immorality, unveiling, or improper attire shall be sentenced to fourth-degree imprisonment and third-degree fines, unless their crime falls under Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code."
Article 286 of the Islamic Penal Code defines "spreading corruption on earth", which is punishable by death. If authorities interpret a hijab violation as falling under this article, it could lead to a death sentence.
The other provision ensures that flogging remains a punishment for non-compliance with hijab regulations—targeting women, trans individuals, and non-binary people.
Under Article 638 of Iran's Islamic Penal Code, any act deemed “offensive” to public decency is punishable by a prison term ranging from 10 days to two months, or by up to 74 lashes.
"The new law explicitly legalizes the violent repression of personal freedoms, escalating an already brutal system of control," Sadr said in a post on X Friday.
Masih Alinejad, journalist and women’s rights activist, called the legislation "a deliberate, calculated weapon to crush women, silence voices, and obliterate the fight for equality."
"This is not a law; it is a tool of terror," she added. Alinejad urged global solidarity, calling on women and men alike to stand united against what she described as "gender apartheid" imposed by the Islamic Republic.
Silence and control
Over 140 Iranian journalists , including veteran and well-known figures, decried the law in a joint statement, warning it will lead to widespread violations of fundamental rights, including privacy, basic freedoms, and protections for women and children.
"We warn that the 'hijab law' is a widespread violation of fundamental citizen rights," they said in their statement Friday, also criticizing the law for threatening press freedom and contradicting constitutional and international obligations.
Iran's Guardian Council approved the controversial hijab law in mid-September, typically requiring the president to formally communicate such laws to government agencies for implementation within days. However, President Masoud Pezeshkian has yet to take this step. The law is now set to be referred to him on December 13, giving him five days to sign and implement it.
If the president does not proceed, the responsibility falls to parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who recently suggested that the announcement and enforcement of the legislation had been postponed due to “security concerns linked to the anniversary of the 2022 protests.”
With this the law's future remains uncertain, as critics both within and outside Iran continue to raise alarm over its potential consequences and call for action opposing it.
Source:iranintl.com
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202412067072
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Two Afghan activists receive 2024 Diana Award for advocating girls’ education in Afghanistan
By Fidel Rahmati
December 6, 2024
Two Afghan activists have received the prestigious Diana Award 2024 for their unwavering efforts to promote girls’ education in Afghanistan, a cause severely threatened under Taliban rule.
Robina Azizi, education activist and the founder of Path of Change, was awarded for her unwavering commitment to advocating for Afghan girls’ education. After being forced to flee Afghanistan in 2023, Azizi established Path of Change to campaign for the reopening of schools and universities for girls in Afghanistan, inspiring thousands around the world.
“The Girls on the Path of Change movement is a testament to the leadership and dedication of countless volunteers who share our mission,” Ms. Azizi said.
Muzhda Akbari, education activist and the founder of CoodGreenAfg.org, was also recognized for her efforts to promote girls’ education. Akbari dedicated her award to the resilient women of Afghanistan and the dedicated team behind her initiatives, highlighting the ongoing fight for education despite Taliban-imposed bans.
Ms. Akbari, who leads CoodGreenAfg.org, dedicated her award to the women of Afghanistan. She wrote on Instagram, “This award is not just for me, but for all the girls I fight for, my amazing team, and everyone who has supported me. I dedicate this honor to the strong women of Afghanistan who inspire me every day.”
Both Azizi and Akbari emphasized the collective efforts behind their work. Azizi acknowledged the leadership and dedication of volunteers supporting the Girls on the Path of Change movement, while Akbari honored the women of Afghanistan who inspire her daily in the ongoing struggle for girls’ education.
As Robina and Akbari receive the Diana Award 2024, it is a call to action for the international community to intensify efforts in supporting the education of Afghan girls. Their story serve as a testament to the resilience of young people who, even in the most challenging of circumstances, refuse to give up on their dreams of a better future.
Source:khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/two-afghan-activists-receive-2024-diana-award-for-advocating-girls-education-in-afghanistan/
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Saudi Arabia Issues Guidelines For Female Pilgrims To Holy Mosques
December 06, 202
Dubai: The General Authority for the Care of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque has issued a set of nine guidelines for female pilgrims to ensure a smooth and respectful experience during their visit to the sacred sites.
The guidelines were shared via an infographic on the Authority’s official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The advisory encourages female visitors to adhere to specific practices while in prayer areas. These include wearing appropriate Islamic attire, cooperating with staff, avoiding sleeping or sitting on the floors, and maintaining the alignment of prayer rows.
Other recommendations stress the importance of cleanliness, refraining from eating or drinking in prayer areas, keeping noise levels down, and avoiding walking on carpets with shoes. Pilgrims are also urged not to leave personal belongings unattended.
These measures aim to preserve the sanctity of the space and enhance the collective worship experience for all pilgrims.
Source: gulfnews.com
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/saudi/saudi-arabia-issues-guidelines-for-female-pilgrims-to-holy-mosques-1.1733495182491#
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-actress-protest-hijab-chastity-law/d/133962