New Age Islam News Bureau
24 October 2020
• How a Young Saudi Female Engineer Broke Into GE’s Male-Dominated Environment
• Saudi Arabia to Establish Future Women’s Civil
Association
• Iran Transfers 66-Year-Old German Iranian Woman to
Notorious Evin Prison: Reports
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/karachi-court-issues-warrants-cleric/d/123253
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Karachi Court Issues Warrants for Cleric in Rape, Abduction And Illicit Marriage Of An Underage Christian Girl
Naeem Sahoutara
23 Oct 2020
Police has booked five suspects in the case pertaining
to the alleged abduction and rape of the girl - AP Photo
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A Karachi court has taken cognisance of the marriage
of an underage Christian girl, who was allegedly abducted and raped after being
forcibly converted to Islam, it emerged on Friday.
The judge issued bailable warrants for the arrest of
cleric Qazi Mufti Ahmed Jaan Raheemi — who allegedly performed the marriage of
the girl when she was a teenager, her husband Muhammad Imran and his relatives
Muhammad Rehan Baloch, Sundus and Azra. The suspects will be able to secure
bail against a surety of Rs10,000 each, according to the judgement.
Police had booked five suspects, including two women,
in a case pertaining to the alleged abduction and rape of the girl in Ittehad
Town locality. The main suspect, Imran, was subsequently arrested.
The court's order came after the victim lodged a
complaint against the suspects — including Imran, Baloch, Sundus, Azra and
Raheemi — under Sections 3 (punishment for male contracting party), 4
(punishment for solemnising a child marriage) and 5 (punishment for parent or
guardian concerned in a child marriage) of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint
Act, 2013.
The matter came up before judicial magistrate (West)
Wajid Ali Channa, who observed that the victim had recorded her statement under
Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) while the statements of the
witnesses had also been recorded in the case.
The judge noted that the statements of the witnesses
duly supported the complainant's statement. “On careful examination of the
statements recorded during preliminary inquiry, it appears that the complainant
in her statement stated that she is less than 13 years [old] and she was not
willing in the nikah with the accused Muhammad Imran.”
He further noted that the “nikah was solemnised
without her consent under pressure, coercion and influence. Hence [...] the
offence under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act,
2013, read with Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, is prima facie
made out against the accused persons namely Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Rehan, Mst
Sundus, Mst Azra and Qazi Mufti Ahmed Jaan Raheemi.”
The judge further observed that under the Sindh Child
Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, the marriage of either party who is less than 18
years old is prohibited. "In the circumstances, cognisance of the offence
under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, is
hereby taken. Let the private complaint be admitted and brought on regular file
and registered,” he ordered.
The judge directed the court office to issue bailable
warrants for the arrest of the suspects and directed the suspects to ensure
their presence before the court on October 26.
The complainant was told to file a list of the
witnesses and obtain certified copies of their statements. The court asked the
office to also provide copies of the documentary evidence to the suspects by
the next date of the hearing.
Case history
In May 2019, three of the five suspects in the cases
had easily escaped from the court after an additional district and sessions
judge recalled the pre-arrest bail granted to them against a surety of Rs30,000
each.
The judge had noted at the time that according to the
case record, the complainant was a minor. Recording her statement before the
judicial magistrate, the victim had denied accepting Islam and execution of her
free will in performing her nikah with suspect Imran.
The judge further stated that “she deposed that they
(suspects) forcibly obtained her signatures on plain papers and the co-accused
committed zina with her.”
Initially, a case was registered under Sections 365-B
(kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage etc), 376
(punishment for rape), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 506 (punishment
for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code
at the Ittehad Town police station on the complaint of the victim.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1586630/karachi-court-issues-warrants-for-cleric-others-in-case-involving-rape-abduction-and-illicit-marriage-of-minor-girl
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How A Young Saudi Female Engineer Broke Into GE’s Male-Dominated
Environment
October 23, 2020
Nour Al-Rammah wrote a manual for everything
GE-related made simple for those with no engineering background
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JEDDAH: Nour Al-Rammah never expected to work for GE
Power because she lacked an engineering degree.
But the Al-Yamamah University graduate managed to
overcome this hurdle through perseverance and resourcefulness, as well as
writing a 400-page manual for others like her who wanted to work for one of the
world’s biggest companies but did not have the technical background.
“I never saw myself reaching there,” she told Arab
News, reflecting on her accomplishment of breaking into and succeeding in a
competitive and male-dominated environment. “When I studied marketing at
university, I expected to land in a marketing company, doing some public
relations, marketing and advertising. But I ended up in an engineering
company.”
She was born and raised in France until she completed
her schooling, returning to Saudi Arabia after 17 years and settling in Riyadh.
She attended Al-Yamamah University to study for a bachelor’s degree in business
administration, majoring in marketing and finance.
Her path to GE Power, which has been ranked in the
Fortune Global 500, was not easy. She wanted to join the company’s elite
leadership program, which only selects one candidate in the Kingdom every year.
She was rejected the first time she applied. “It’s very difficult to join, and
one of the major prerequisites is an engineering background.”
Before that she had taken up a sales and commercial internship
with GE Power without really knowing much about the company and what it was
offering in the market at the time, although she was familiar with its logo.
She had several opportunities that presented themselves to her, but it was the
GE Power internship that caught her attention.
“Today in Saudi Arabia, we have more than 500 GE
turbines that generate over 60 percent of the Kingdom’s electricity. I could
not reject such an offer. I wanted to explore the opportunity and I do not
regret my decision.”
Once the internship ended she could not envision
herself working elsewhere, adding: “Because of the amazing experience I got, my
objective was just (there’s) no way out. It’s either I take a full-time job in
this company or whatever way I could to stay in the company, like extend the
internship.”
To secure her position she wrote “Nour’s Book,” a
manual for everything GE-related made simple for people without an engineering
background.
“What inspired me to write Nour’s Book was to join the
elite and most competitive commercial leader program, known as the CLP
(Commercial Leadership Program) in GE. I felt so much empowerment to not let
this (lack of engineering background) stop me, or be an impediment to me.
Instead, I used this 400-page technical handbook to accelerate the technical
learning curve, and I made it through the program thanks to the success of this
book.”
The book discusses GE’s portfolio, products, gas
turbines, commercial terms and conditions, customer requests, and acronyms
across four chapters.
It is not available for purchase nor is it available
to anyone except GE employees. Now, her book is given to every new employee
upon entry as a manual.
Another reason she wrote the book was to transfer her
knowledge to company newcomers, from trainees to employees.
“I wanted to leave a legacy, a footprint. What did
Nour leave behind her to help all these new employees join the power business
without having an engineering degree? If I did it, then everybody can do it.”
She also wanted to show GE Global how Saudi women had
an opportunity to join the energy sector, achieving her goal through compiling
articles, simplifying technical language, and attending internal courses.
Whenever she came across something confusing, she would consult GE engineering
experts around her or across the globe.
Al-Rammah is a commercial manager with GE Gas Power
and said she had never felt inferior to her male coworkers despite being the
only woman on the team.
“I feel the equality with my peers. Going to GE for me
feels like going to my second home. Believe it or not, I spend more time at the
office than I do with my family. I feel empowered by my male colleagues. When I
ask for help, they always give me (more) than what I ask. If I need any
explanations, they share documents or connect me to the right person. In
meetings, my points are always taken into consideration. When I make mistakes,
they correct me without leaving me intimidated or they call me after the
meeting and correct me. They make sure that I always do better.”
She said that today’s Saudi Arabia was capable of
empowering and inspiring women. “We do live in a country that gives golden
opportunities to ambitious ladies.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753171/saudi-arabia
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Saudi Arabia to establish Future Women’s Civil
Association
October 24, 2020
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is to establish a Future Women’s
Civil Association to help develop the work of the volunteer and nonprofit
sector in the Kingdom. Saudi Minister of Human Resources and Social Development
Ahmed Al-Rajhi said his decision to set up the civil society was in line with
the Vision 2030 reform plan to grow the charity sector in the country.
The association’s mission will be to empower, develop,
promote, and educate women to contribute toward the objectives of the national
vision, while supporting female participation in leading the Kingdom’s future
social, economic, and cultural development.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1753201/saudi-arabia
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Iran Transfers 66-Year-Old German Iranian Woman to
Notorious Evin Prison: Reports
Yaghoub Fazeli
23 October 2020
A 66-year German Iranian dual national has been
transferred to Tehran’s notorious Evin prison after being arrested last week, a
German rights group reported on Friday.
Nahid Taghavi, an architect, was arrested last Friday
at her home in the capital Tehran and taken to an unknown location, the Human
Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), a news site run by a collective of
Iranian human rights advocates, first reported on Monday.
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channel online or via the app.
Security forces searched Taghavi’s home and
confiscated some of her personal belongings, including her German
identification card, passport, laptop, smartphone and some cash,
Frankfurt-based rights group the International Society for Human Rights (ISHR)
said Friday.
Taghavi was then moved to solitary confinement in
Tehran’s Evin prison, according to the ISHR.
Taghavi was arrested “on the pretext of endangering
security,” ISHR cited Taghavi’s daughter, Mariam Claren, as saying.
Claren wrote on Twitter on Friday that she has not
heard from her mother for seven days.
According to ISHR, Taghavi is considered a political
prisoner since “she has been campaigning for human rights in Iran for years.”
Taghavi recently underwent surgery and suffers from
high blood pressure, HRANA cited a source close to her family as saying. Since
her arrest, she has been denied access to her medication, the source added.
“Her family took her blood pressure medicine to Evin
prison, but officers refused to take them and said she was in solitary
confinement,” HRANA quoted the source as saying.
Taghavi was born in Iran but has lived in Cologne
since 1983 and has been a German citizen since 2003, according to ISHR.
Iran has not yet officially addressed the reports of
Taghavi’s arrest.
A number of dual and foreign nationals are currently
under arrest in Iran, including Iranian British aid worker Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, French Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah and
Australian-British academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.
Last month, Germany, along with France, and the UK,
summoned Iranian ambassadors in a coordinated move to protest against Iran’s
detention of dual nationals and its treatment of political prisoners.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/Iran-transfers-66-year-old-German-Iranian-woman-to-notorious-Evin-prison-Reports
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/karachi-court-issues-warrants-cleric/d/123253
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