Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai unite to highlight Afghan women's struggles in new documentary Bread and Roses
New Age Islam News Bureau
24 November 2024
• Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai unite to highlight Afghan women's struggles in new documentary Bread and Roses
• Arab women disproportionately victims of murder in 2024, watchdog report says
• Hamas says female captive killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza
• Afghan women turn to entrepreneurship under Taliban
• Paris march in support of Palestine women
• 'Don't forget us': Teenage refugee reminds Gen Z of silenced Afghan girls
• Minor girl from Bangladesh engaged in massage parlour in Cuttack, rescued
• British teen Marcus Fakana held for sex with 17-year-old girl in Dubai
• Meghan Markle's half-sister says what she did to Royal Family is...
• Iran's women's futsal team: A forgotten champion!
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
-----
Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai unite to highlight Afghan women's struggles in new documentary Bread and Roses
November 23, 2024
Lawrence, 34, and Yousafzai, 27, handed the camera to Mani, who documented the experiences of women she knew in Afghanistan after the US military's withdrawal in August 2021.
------------
Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai have united to produce a documentary titled Bread and Roses, now streaming on Apple TV+. The film focuses on the lives of women in Afghanistan following the Taliban's retaking of the country in 2021. Directed by Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, the documentary highlights the struggles and resilience of Afghan women under the new regime.
Lawrence, 34, and Yousafzai, 27, handed the camera to Mani, who documented the experiences of women she knew in Afghanistan after the US military's withdrawal in August 2021. The abrupt exit led to the immediate collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban's re-establishment of a regime that severely restricts women's rights.
Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban attack for her advocacy of women's education at the age of 15, emphasised the importance of global solidarity with Afghan women. She told PEOPLE, "Jennifer's role is so important because we need to share solidarity with Afghan women, globally. And it's a message that women all around the world are standing united with Afghan women and girls in their fight against the Taliban's oppression."
The documentary features the stories of three women: Zahra, a dentist pressured to close her practice by the Taliban; Taranom, an activist hiding near the Afghan-Pakistani border; and Sharifa, a former government employee confined to her home.
Lawrence expressed the urgency of the project, fearing that "people would move on and forget what's happening to the people of Afghanistan, which is, of course, exactly what the Taliban wants."
Source: www.moneycontrol.com
-----
Arab women disproportionately victims of murder in 2024, watchdog report says
24-11-2024
Illustrative: A protest against violence against women in Tel Aviv, December 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
--------------
The Israel Observatory on Femicide releases its annual report on the killing of women, noting that Arabs have been disproportionately killed in 2024.
There have been 20 women killed in Israel in 2024 so far, a similar murder rate to last year, the watchdog says.
The organization says half of the women murdered this year in Israel so far were Arabs, including Bedouin, while one victim was Druze. Eight of the victims were Jewish and two had foreign citizenship.
Arab women were disproportionately victims, given that the community makes up 21 percent of the population.
The report finds that in the vast majority of cases, the victim knew her killer or suspected killer — in half the cases it was her husband. In many other cases the suspects were other family members, including sons and brothers.
Just 20 percent of the victims had approached the authorities for help amid domestic violence prior to their killing.
The Israel Observatory on Femicide says that a number of the killings are linked to the criminal gangs, with “a probability that the female victims were targeted since they were an ‘asset’ or the ‘property’ of men from underworld gangs in the Arab sector.”
Prof. Shalva Weil of the Israel Observatory on Femicide calls for the government to take action.
“The heinous crime of femicide, the murder of women in Israeli society just because they are women, continues this year unabated, both among Jews and among Israeli Arabs. The vast majority of the victims knew the perpetrators, who were husbands, partners and even brothers,” Weil says.
“In addition, women were murdered in Israel as a result of fights between warring gangs. The government has to pay attention to the plight of women in society, even if a war is raging,” she says.
Source: Www.Timesofisrael.Com
-----
Hamas says female captive killed in Israeli strike in northern Gaza
24 Nov 2024
A demonstrator lifts a flare while carrying a portrait of Ofer Kalderon, one of the Israelis held captive in Gaza, on November 23, 2024 [Jack Guez/AFP]
--------------
A female captive has been killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza, according to a statement by Hamas’s armed wing, as Israel continued its deadly military operation and ordered forced evacuation of Palestinians in Gaza City on Sunday.
Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obeida said late on Saturday that contact had been re-established with the woman’s captors after several weeks, and it was determined that she had been killed in a northern Gaza area where the Israeli army has been operating.
Abu Obeida pointed out that there was a danger to the life of another female captive, holding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leaders of his army “fully responsible for the lives of the Israeli captives”.
In a statement, the Israeli army said it was investigating the claim after Hamas “released footage allegedly showing a hostage who had been killed”.
“[Army] representatives are in contact with her family and are keeping them updated with all available information,” the statement said.
Hamas took some 250 captives during an attack on southern Israel on October 7 last year, according to Israeli authorities. Among them were 23 Thai nationals, one Nepali national and one Filipino national working or studying in Israel.
“To our beloved hostages, if you can hear us, everyone here loves you. Stay strong. Survive,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening.
The Israeli government has been facing intense public pressure to secure a new deal to bring the remaining captives home alive. During a one-week truce in November last year, 105 captives were released, including 80 Israelis, in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
In June, Israeli forces killed at least 274 Palestinians and wounded nearly 700 others to rescue four captives during an operation at Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
Hamas says several captives have been killed in Israeli air raids and failed rescue attempts. Israeli soldiers mistakenly killed three Israelis who escaped captivity in December.
Qatar, the United States and Egypt have led months of negotiations for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. Earlier this month, the Gulf state suspended its mediation efforts. Since the one-week pause in fighting last year, brokered by Qatar, successive negotiations have made no headway.
Israel has repeatedly announced it will not stop its bombardment of Gaza until it achieves its war objectives to defeat Hamas and bring the captives home. But 13 months later, Hamas fighters continue to battle Israeli soldiers and dozens of captives remain in Gaza.
Israel has since killed more than 44,000 Palestinians in what campaigners call “a war of vengeance”, turning large swaths of Gaza into rubble. The United Nations and various rights groups have accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and residential areas – actions they said amounted to war crimes.
Source: Www.Aljazeera.Com
-----
Afghan women turn to entrepreneurship under Taliban
November 24, 2024
KABUL: When Zainab Ferozi saw Afghan women struggling to feed their families after Taliban authorities took power, she took matters into her own hands and poured her savings into starting a business.
Two-and-a-half years after putting 20,000 Afghanis ($300) earned from teaching sewing classes into a carpet weaving enterprise, she now employs around a dozen women who lost their jobs or who had to abandon their education due to Taliban government rules.
Through her business in the western province of Herat, the 39-year-old also “covers all the household expenses” of her family of six, she told AFP from her office where samples of brightly coloured and exquisitely woven rugs and bags are displayed.
Ferozi is one of many women who have launched small businesses in the past three years to meet their own needs and support other Afghan women, whose employment sharply declined after the Taliban took power in 2021.
Before the Taliban takeover, women made up 26 per cent of public sector workers, a figure that “has effectively decreased to zero”, according to UN Women.
Girls and women have also been banned from secondary schools and universities under restrictions the UN has described as “gender apartheid”.
Touba Zahid, a 28-year-old mother-of-one, started making jams and pickles in the small basement of her home in the capital Kabul after she was forced to stop her university education.
“I came into the world of business... to create job opportunities for women so they can have an income that at least covers their immediate needs,” Zahid said.
Saleswomen like Zahid “cannot go to the bazaar to promote and sell their products” themselves, said Fariba Noori, chairwoman of the Afghanistan Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI).
Another issue for Afghan businesswomen is the need for a “mahram” - a male family member chaperone - to accompany them to other cities or provinces to purchase raw materials, said Noori.
Despite these challenges, the number of businesses registered with AWCCI has increased since the Taliban takeover, according to Noori.
The number went “from 600 big companies to 10,000” mainly small, home-based businesses and a few bigger companies, said Noori, herself a businesswoman for 12 years.
Khadija Mohammadi, who launched her eponymous brand in 2022 after she lost her private school teaching job, now employs more than 200 women sewing dresses and weaving carpets.
Though businesses like Mohammadi’s are a lifeline, the salaries ranging from 5,000 to 13,000 Afghanis, cannot cover all costs and many women are still stalked by economic hardship.
Qamar Qasimi, who lost her job as a beautician after the Taliban authorities banned beauty salons in 2023, said that even with her salary she and her husband struggle to pay rent and feed their family of eight.
“When I worked in the beauty salon, we could earn 3,000-7,000 Afghanis for styling one bride, but here we get 5,000 per month,” said the 24-year-old.
“It’s not comparable but I have no other choice,” she added, the room around her full of women chatting as they worked at 30 looms.
But starting her business in 2022, aged 18 was not easy in a country where the labour force participation for women is 10 times lower than the world average, according to the World Bank.
Source: Gulfnews.Com
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/afghan-women-turn-to-entrepreneurship-under-taliban-1.104747104
-----
Paris march in support of Palestine women
24 November 2024
Human rights associations say that Israeli aggression against Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip alone has left more than 15,000 women dead and at least 35,000 others injured ever since October last year. To mark next week’s ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls,’ pro-Palestinian activists have staged a march in northern Paris to commemorate the victims.
Source: www.presstv.ir
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/11/24/737802/Paris-Palestine-women
-----
'Don't forget us': Teenage refugee reminds Gen Z of silenced Afghan girls
Flora Drury
24-11-2024
When Nila Ibrahimi set out to build a website telling the stories of Afghan girls, it wasn't just to give them a voice.
The 17-year-old Afghan refugee was also determined to remind her fellow Gen Zs in her adopted country, Canada, that they were similar - they even listened to Taylor Swift just like other teenage girls around the world.
"I want to make them as real as possible so that other people, especially young people, Gen Z specifically, can put themselves in their shoes," she told the BBC.
Nila spoke to the BBC earlier this week, before picking up the International Children’s Peace Prize previously won by education campaigner Malala Yousafzai and climate activist Greta Thunberg.
EPA Two Afghan girls walk down an outside corridor with blue and white walls, their hair covered. They wear brightly-coloured clothes, and the sun is shiningEPA
Nila's is, perhaps, not an easy task. The plight of Afghanistan's women and girls can feel a world away to young people living in Canada, where Nila found a home after fleeing her home country as the Taliban took over three years ago.
In that time, the Taliban have banned teenage girls from education, banned women from travelling long distances without a male chaperone, and now ordered them to keep their voices down in public - effectively silencing half the population.
That is why she helped set up HerStory - a place where she and others help share the stories of Afghan women and girls in their own words, both inside and out of the country.
Nila's first stand for women's rights came in March 2021, when she joined other young Afghan girls in sharing a video of her singing online.
It was a small but powerful protest against a decree by the then-director of education in the Afghan capital, Kabul, who tried to ban girls over 12 singing in public. The attempted order was never implemented.
"That was when I really understood the importance of performing, the importance of speaking up and talking about these issues," explains Nila, who was part of a group called Sound of Afghanistan.
But less than six months later, everything would change - and, aged 14, she would have to flee with her family as the Taliban arrived.
The family - who are part of Afghanistan's Hazara minority - made the difficult journey to Pakistan, where they spent a year before being granted asylum in Canada.
She was also invited to speak at events, about her experiences of Afghanistan, allowing her to advocate for all the girls left behind.
People, she says, were surprised at how eloquent she was. But Nila knew there were millions of women and girls in Afghanistan who were just as capable - although with less access to the opportunities she had.
"So I thought if my potential can surprise these people and they don't know about how educated girls from Afghanistan can be, what if that information was accessible to them?"
Getty Images A woman wearing a blue burqa walks down a street in Kabul with a red sack over her shoulder. You cannot see any of her faceGetty Images
HerStory - the website which grew out of this thought - started in 2023. It features interviews and first person accounts from both refugees and women inside Afghanistan.
The idea is to create a safe space where a group of people who "grew up with the stories of the first period of Taliban and how horrible the lives of women were at the time" share their stories - and their "shock and anger" at finding themselves in an increasingly similar situation.
The award, she says, is a chance for Afghan girls to once again remind the world about the restrictions they face on a daily basis - a reminder "not to forget Afghan girls".
Marc Dullaert, founder of the KidsRights Foundation, which runs the award, pointed out that a "staggering" number of young women were currently being excluded from education.
"Nila’s inspirational work to provide them with a voice that will be heard across the world makes her a truly worthy winner of this year’s 20th International Peace Prize,” he added.
"I think so many times when we talk about issues and different causes, we talk about it with the very adult like approach of oh, this is very serious," she says.
"The world is a very scary place, but there is an approach that is more Gen Z-like... and we can take little steps and... do whatever we can."
Source: Www.Bbc.Com
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgz55wn0g6o
-----
Minor girl from Bangladesh engaged in massage parlour in Cuttack, rescued
Cassian Baliarsingh
24 November 2024
Apolice operation has led to the rescue of a minor girl from Bangladesh who was allegedly trafficked to Odisha on the false pretence of employment and later forced to work in a massage parlour in Odisha. Deprived of her salary after working for months, the victim fled the massage parlour and was wandering around Link Road when Madhupatna police rescued her.
The incident has sparked concern, highlighting issues related to human trafficking. The young girl alleged that she was brought from Bangladesh to India by an acquaintance she met on Facebook, who promised her a job. According to her statement, the individual initially took her to Kolkata before shifting her to Bhubaneswar and subsequently to Cuttack, where she was forced to work in a massage parlour without any payment.
Madhupatna Police found her alone near Link Road in Cuttack and placed her under the care of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), which is investigating the matter in coordination with the local authorities. Efforts are being made to confirm her nationality through communication with the Bangladesh High Commission, given her lack of identity documents.
Steps are being taken to ensure her safety and to probe the legitimacy of her claims. Additional efforts are underway to identify and apprehend those responsible for the alleged trafficking.
When contacted, Pramod Acharya, Chairman of CWC said, “The Madhupatna police had rescued the girl on November 10. She was produced before us and we learnt that she is a Bangladeshi. But, she does not have an identity proof or any travel documents.”
“Sometimes around August to September, the victim was promised of job due to financial necessity in her family and brought to Kolkata from Dhaka. Later, she was brought to Bhubaneswar and then to Cuttack where she was illegally engaged in massage parlour. Probe is on and we are making efforts to hand her over to her hometown. We have approached the DCP in this regard,” Acharya added.
When contacted, Cuttack DCP Jagmohan Meena said, “She was rescued from Link Road and handed over to CWC. Prima facie, it is a case of illegal migration as she doesn’t have any documents with her. We have informed the Embassy. Further probe is on.”
Source: Odishatv.in
-----
British teen Marcus Fakana held for sex with 17-year-old girl in Dubai
Nov 23, 2024
An 18-year-old British tourist is facing potential jail time in Dubai after engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old London girl he met while on holiday. Marcus Fakana was arrested and charged after the girl's mother discovered their communication and reported it to Dubai authorities.
Dubai enforces a strict age of consent of 18. Although the girl has since turned 18, their relationship occurred while she was still considered a minor under UAE law. Media reports suggest that the teenager could face up to 20 years in prison.
Fakana was on holiday with his family in the UAE when he met the girl. "We really liked each other, but she was secretive with her family because they were strict," Fakana told Detained in Dubai. "My parents knew about our relationship, but she couldn't tell hers. She had to meet me without telling them it was to see a boy."
The girl returned to the UK, and both parties hoped to continue their relationship in their home country. However, her mother discovered their communications and contacted authorities in Dubai.
Dubai police subsequently arrested Fakana at his family's hotel, holding him for three days without permitting contact with his family.
"The girl was just a few months younger than Marcus, and he didn't know that at the time. Since his arrest, she has turned 18, and Marcus would not be facing 20 years in jail," said Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Dubai, a group that assists individuals facing legal issues in the UAE, according to a Sky News report. "This is not something Dubai should be prosecuting."
Dubai Public Prosecution said, "Under UAE law, the girl is legally classified as a minor, and in accordance with procedures recognized internationally, her mother—being the legal guardian—filed the complaint. Dubai's legal system is committed to protecting the rights of all individuals and ensuring impartial judicial proceedings."
Currently, Fakana is not in police custody but is prohibited from leaving Dubai. He said his family is spending £2,000 on Airbnbs until his case is resolved.
Fakana and his family are also requesting assistance from British authorities, including their MP and the Foreign Office. Fakana's family is incurring significant expenses while awaiting the resolution of his case.
The UK Foreign Office confirmed they are providing support to Fakana and are in communication with his family, according to the Sky News report.
Source: Timesofindia
-----
Iran's women's futsal team: A forgotten champion!
November 23, 2024
Despite securing two Asian titles in 2015 and 2018 and being recognized as one of Asia's futsal powerhouses, the Iranian women’s futsal team are currently in a precarious state. With crucial tournaments like the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup and the FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup Philippines 2025 qualifiers on the horizon, the Iranian Football Federation has yet to outline a clear plan for the team.
Following their 2018 triumph, the federation had pledged comprehensive support for the team. However, these promises have largely gone unfulfilled. While the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly posed challenges on the team’s plans, the federation's continued neglect post-pandemic is alarming, especially considering the active preparations of rivals Asian teams.
The team's recent performance in the 2024 CFA (Chinese Football Association) International Women's Futsal Tournament served as a stark warning. Despite these setbacks, Iran football federation’s president Mehdi Taj and the futsal committee appear indifferent to the team’s plight.
A simple request for friendly matches against top Asian and global teams has become an unattainable dream for Forouzan Soleymani's squad! Such matches are crucial for enhancing the players' technical and tactical abilities.
With the 2025 Asian Cup and the 2025 World Cup qualifiers scheduled for May next year, the women’s team are in dire need of a strategic plan.
As other countries invest heavily in women’s futsal, it’s imperative that the football federation take immediate action to ensure the continued success of Iran's women's futsal team. With proper support, this team have the potential to bring more glory to Iran on the international stage.
Source: Tehrantimes.Com
https://tehrantimes.com/news/506630/Iran-s-women-s-futsal-team-A-forgotten-champion
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/jennifer-lawrence-malala-yousafzai-afghan-women/d/133802