Allow Married Women to Bear Fathers’ Names – Muslim Rights Concern Tells Nigerian Govt, Gives Reasons
New Age
Islam News Bureau
19 December 2023
· Allow Married Women to Bear Fathers’ Names – Muslim Rights Concern Tells Nigerian Govt, Gives Reasons
·
Women’s Rights Activist Julia
Parsi Freed from Taliban Prison
·
Alarms Over Women’s Absence in
Judicial Commission of Pakistan Rules Review
·
Iranian Civil Activists Say
Forced Hijab A Tool for Oppressing Women
·
Artist And Filmmaker Shirin
Neshat on Protest, Performance Art, and the Power of Iranian Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/married-bear-muslim-rights-nigerian/d/131343
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Allow Married Women to Bear Fathers’
Names – Muslim Rights Concern Tells Nigerian Govt, Gives Reasons
Photo:
Supreme Magazine
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December 19, 2023
Ochogwu Sunday
The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has
called on the Federal Government to review the Nigerian marriage laws with the
aim of allowing women to bear their father’s names after marriage.
MURIC’s executive director, Prof Ishaq
Akintola, made the call in a statement he issued on Monday.
Akintola is of the opinion that the
current practice that permits women to bear only their husbands’ surnames is
wrong, describing it as gender discriminatory, archaic, and oppressive.
He argued that it is unfair for a man
who did not take part in the upbringing of a woman to suddenly surface and
change her surname.
He said, “No woman dropped suddenly from
the sky and even if some appear out of nowhere, they must have been born, bred,
nurtured, and marmaladed by certain parents before they grew up and matured
into womanhood.
“Their education was also sponsored by
their parents at a time when the future husband probably knew nothing about
them and spent no kobo on their upbringing and their education.
“It therefore beats logic, fairness, and
natural justice that a husband appears out of nowhere to commandeer a woman’s
parental identity simply by marrying her”.
He lamented that most educated women are
forced to advertise their change of names in newspapers to retain the validity
of their documents and properties obtained before marriage.
Source: dailypost.ng
https://dailypost.ng/2023/12/19/allow-married-women-to-bear-fathers-names-islamic-group-tells-nigerian-govt-gives-reasons/
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Women’s Rights Activist Julia Parsi
Freed from Taliban Prison
Julia Parsi,
a women’s rights activist, senior member of the spontaneous women’s protest
movement and founder of the women’s library, was released from prison on
Monday, December 18th.
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Fidel Rahmati
December 18, 2023
Julia Parsi, a women’s rights activist,
senior member of the spontaneous women’s protest movement and founder of the
women’s library, was released from prison on Monday, December 18th.
According to the source, Ms Julia Parsi
was released on bail from the Taliban administration after nearly three months
of incarceration and has returned home.
A
number of women’s rights activists have also confirmed Julia’s release from the
Taliban’s prison.
Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan
government’s House of Representatives member, wrote on her X network account:
“I am sure that prison has strengthened your and your comrades’ will to fight.”
Julia Parsi, a leading women’s rights
activist, was arrested in Kabul on 28 September, causing widespread public
dismay. Having avoided formal education during the Taliban’s initial reign,
Julia was detained for her advocacy nearly 23 years later, under the Taliban’s
second rule, on charges stemming from her activism.
A native of Takhar province, Julia
dedicated many years to teaching Persian language and literature in local
schools. Her teaching mission continued in Kabul until the city’s fall on
August 15, 2021. The closure of the schools she worked at following this event
marked a turning point, fueling her advocacy efforts.
With the Taliban’s ascent to power,
Julia’s name became synonymous with bravery in the face of adversity. She
became a well-known figure in protests, where she and other women stood unarmed
on the streets of Kabul, facing armed Taliban forces and voicing their demands
for freedom.
In a climate of increasing fear, with
reports of her fellow protesters in Balkh facing disappearance or death, Julia
remained visible in the media. She boldly spoke out about the fundamental
rights of women to education and work, becoming a symbol of resistance and
courage.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/womens-rights-activist-julia-parsi-freed-from-taliban-prison/
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Alarms Over Women’s Absence in Judicial
Commission of PakistanRules Review
December 19, 2023
ISLAMABAD:
The Women in Law Initiative Pakistan
voiced serious concerns on Monday regarding the absence of female
representation in the committee tasked with reviewing the Judicial Commission
of Pakistan (JCP) Rules 2010.
This initiative, dedicated to promoting
equal opportunities and visibility for female legal professionals in Pakistan,
penned an open letter addressed to the committee.
Established in 2016, the forum operates
as a non-registered, non-partisan collective comprising female lawyers.
The chairman of the Judicial Commission
of Pakistan (JCP), Qazi Faez Isa, had on December 4, 2023, formed a committee
specifically to assess and revise the JCP Rules 2010.
Notably, the forum has put forth six
suggestions for the committee's consideration in the final draft of the rules.
"While it is heartening to note
that diversity in high court appointments was considered as an agenda item, we
steadfastly maintain that the process of reform must not only incorporate
diversity in substance but must also be inclusive and transparent in its
composition and procedure," the letter stated.“In this regard, we as women
lawyers feel unrepresented.”
"As equal stakeholders in the legal
profession, we feel that our voices and input have been excluded from a process
that may set the course for judicial appointments for the next decade and
beyond," it added.
"Such a state of affairs is
unacceptable and untenable in the context of Articles 25 and 34 of the
Constitution of Pakistan—constitutional commands with which the Judicial
Commission of Pakistan must comply and ensure that women are included through
affirmative action and are enabled to fully participate in national life,
including in all decisions that will have an impact on them," it further
maintained.
On December 16, the committee met under
the co-chairmanship of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice (r) Manzoor Ahmed
Malik. The committee discussed its mandate to propose such rules of procedure
for the commission which comply with the collegial and inclusive
decision-making process enshrined in Article 175-A of the constitution.
The committee further deliberated on the
process of calling nominations and meeting of the commission, a procedure for
initiating nomination of the appointment of SC judges, high court judges and
Federal Shariat Court judges, representation of advocates and judicial officers
in high court appointments, diversity in high court appointments, criteria for
determining merit, procedure and criteria for confirmation of additional judges
and establishing a secretariat for the commission.
The committee had has also resolved to
finalise the draft Rules on 29 December 2023.
"We reiterate that judicial
appointments are amongst the most important aspects of women’s representation
in the justice sector because the jurisprudence that emerges from higher
courts, and in particular the Supreme Court of Pakistan has the potential to
impact women directly in family cases, criminal cases, political cases,
fundamental rights and constitutional cases," stated the open letter by
Women in Law Initiative Pakistan.
"Given that reforms are a rare
opportunity, and with over a decade since the last review of the judicial
appointment process, it is crucial that mistakes of the past are not repeated
and that this time around all stakeholders including women, minorities and
marginalised groups are actively involved. Such engagement is necessary to
foster a judicial system that is inclusive, transparent, safe and accessible
for all."
It urged the committee that gender and
diversity should be the underlying lens for all reform measures.
The committee should employ all
necessary measures to this end, including but not limited to: (i) Setting up a
Standing Committee on Diversity and
Inclusion to support the Secretariat in outreach and training that enables a
diverse pool of applicants/candidates to be prepared and available to be
considered when suitable vacancies arise, and (ii) If nominations model is to
continue, then the list of proposed nominees by JCP and/or the Chief Justice(s)
must be gender balanced.
"The nominations-based model should
be abandoned and replaced by a process of inviting applications against
vacancies instead. This would be more democratic and enable the eligible
candidates to send their applications for consideration for judicial
appointment as opposed to the power vesting in the hands of one or a few
individuals in the JCP."
In this regard, the Secretariat of the
JCP that is to be established can be empowered to handle the applications
and/or vet them technically for completeness before moving them forward for
consideration on merit by the JCP members, the letter added.
It further stated that the Standing
Committee on Diversity and Inclusion as proposed above, may also be empowered
to support the process of technical vetting.
"Technical requirements like number
of judgements, seniority etc. that are anti-women and anti-representation must
at all costs be avoided and should NOT be made part of the criteria for
appointments of judges in High Court, Supreme Court or the Federal Shariat
Court."
"Separate interview lists for women
for licenses of Advocate High Court and Advocate Supreme Court must be prepared
to expedite their opportunity to advance in the profession that otherwise
restricts their access and impedes their progress."
"Enabling infrastructure and
women-friendly policies for maternity and child-care must be promoted in the
courts which can include, the provision of fully staffed and functional
day-care, baby changing facilities, functioning washrooms, the appointment of
females as court staff in greater numbers, implementation of sexual harassment
policy and the committee to address complaints of sexual harassment in
accordance with the 2010 law."
"Affirmative action to ensure the
appointment of District and Sessions Judges as judges of the high court should
be considered as well as the appointment as judges of advocates who may not
have as much practice in the high courts but who have a volume of practice in
trial courts and subordinate courts."
"This can be done via ensuring that
a certain percentage of nominations for appointments as judges in the high
court must come from subordinate judiciary and those who practice in
subordinate courts, if the nominations model is to continue."
Women in Law Initiative Pakistan in its
letter expressed hope that due consideration will be given to these proposals
and that some of them will be reflected in the final outcome.
The existing process of obtaining
licenses for the lower and high courts is encumbered with bureaucratic
complexities, the letter added.
Acquiring a high court or SC license,
which hinges on (reported) judgments, interviews, and various verification
steps such as degree authentication, disproportionately hinders the progress of
women and minorities in the legal field.
"Women, often discouraged from
active practice and litigation in law firms, confront additional obstacles in a
work environment lacking in essential support such as separate washroom
facilities, safety and protection from harassment, maternity and child-care
policies and infrastructure."
Females are likely to take maternity
leave during which time they cannot be actively accumulating judgements in
courts.
As a result, they have fewer judgements
(reported or otherwise) that delay their licenses for higher courts.
Licensing is also dependent on how soon
a law degree can be verified and then on when a candidate is called for an
interview.
The call to such interviews is
discretionary with no clear timeline or fixed protocols in place. Interviewees
often have to wait for years before they are called for an interview which can
further impact or delay their progression and “seniority.”
These arbitrary procedures derail female
advancement in the justice sector.The letter also added that the JCP and the
Committee must be mindful of these challenges so that they are aware how such
technicalities result in gatekeeping women from accessing these positions. It
is also crucial to acknowledge that female voices largely remain missing from
representative bodies such as the PBC, provincial bar councils, and JCP.
"Therefore, a meaningful
opportunity to be heard must be extended to women lawyers as key stakeholders
in the profession and as representatives of half of Pakistan's
population," it said.
Source: tribune.com.pk
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2450494/alarms-over-womens-absence-in-jcp-rules-review
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Iranian Civil Activists Say Forced Hijab
A Tool For Oppressing Women
2023-12-18
In a renewed show of solidarity, nine
political and civil activists in Iran issued a joint statement on Saturday,
expressing their unwavering support for the demand for optional hijab.
Prominent figures such as Zahra
Rahnavard, a leader of the Green movement, and Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights
lawyer, lent their signatures to the statement.
The activists called for an end to all
discriminatory policies imposed by the Islamic Republic against women in
various personal and social spheres. The statement labels the hijab law in Iran
as "a major social, political, and security dilemma," characterizing
it as a "tool for violating the dignity and honor of Iranian women and
undermining their rights."
In a powerful assertion, the signatories
declared, "In an era when the discourse of the equality of human rights,
regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, belief, and religion, has become the
central theme of human progress, the Islamic regime has invented the issue of
hijab to enforce multiple discriminations against women."
The statement also delves into
developments in Iranian society over the past year, particularly referencing
the protests known as Women, Life, Freedom. It condemns the "inhuman and
violent actions" of the Islamic Republic's regime in enforcing compulsory
hijab, highlighting the lasting impact on the hearts and consciences of the
majority of the people.
The protests, initially sparked by the
death of Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality patrol, faced severe
suppression by the security forces of the Islamic Republic. Human rights
activists report that the protests resulted in over five hundred deaths.
Despite becoming a catalyst for widespread civil disobedience among Iranian
women, challenging compulsory hijab, the Islamic Republic persists in enforcing
related laws.
Source: iranintl.com
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202312188694
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Artist And Filmmaker Shirin Neshat on
Protest, Performance Art, and the Power of Iranian Women
December 18, 2023
Roselee Goldberg
“I never wanted to make political art,”
said the artist and filmmaker Shirin Neshat to the crowd at Performa’s
Biennial. “My work is politically charged because of the life that I have lived
and because many of my collaborators, most of us, are living in exile.” Since
leaving Iran at seventeen, Neshat has been living in the U.S., making work that
captures the experiences of women and children living under fundamentalist
regimes. Her photographs, videos and sculptures meld abstraction and poeticism;
the hallmark of her work is the Farsi script that often runs across her
subject’s faces, where a veil might lay, which serves to “break the silence”
imposed upon women.
Since her first solo show Unveiling
(1992) at Franklin Furnace, she has exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American
Art and The Art Institute of Chicago, working with collaborators like composer
Philip Glass, singer Sussan Deyhim, and the cinematographer Ghasem Ebrahimian.
At the Performa Biennial 2023, as part of Protest and Performance: A Way of
Life, Neshat screened excerpts of two earlier films from Logic of the Birds (2001) and The Fury
(2023), by way of introduction to a conversation between Neshat and Performa’s
Founder and Chief Curator RoseLee Goldberg, in which they discuss Neshat’s
filmography, the charge of opportunism, and the difference between art and
activism. Edited for clarity and brevity.
ROSELEE GOLDBERG: Shirin, it’s been 22
years since you made the film that was just screened. That scene with Sussan
Deyhim disappearing into the water just took my breath away. So 22 years later,
there’s quite an evolution in terms of your thinking. I’d love to hear what
it’s like for you to see the first few minutes of Logic of the Birds and a
section of The Fury.
SHIRIN NESHAT: First of all, thank you
for coming. The videos that you just saw, they’re integral with the live
performance, so it’s not a film on its own. It’s interactive with what happens
on the stage. It was a collaborative work that I did with a group of other
Iranian people, the cinematographer Ghasem and Sussan, the singer and composer.
But essentially, it’s based on The Conference of the Birds. It’s a very ancient
mystical narrative written by Attar, which I believe is from the 12th century.
And it’s a very beautiful, metaphorical story about us always looking for a
leader. And at the end, the story is that we ourselves are that beautiful bird,
we are the leaders. So it was our idea of reinterpretation of an ancient
mystical text into something that had a more contemporary meaning. And of
course, it’s still very relevant. But I have basically been navigating between
Persian music and literature from both contemporary and ancient times. It was
also a song that was sung by Nika, a young 14 or 15-year-old kid who was killed
by the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Woman, Life, Freedom [the movement
for Kurdish independence]. It became a sort of a national anthem.
GOLDBERG: You found a way to talk about
very disturbing political issues while always finding an extraordinary visual
way to tell the story. It’s a bit like a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine
go down. We had that discussion with Isaac Julian once, about the work being so
beautiful, and then you suddenly realize it’s kicking you in the gut. Can we
talk about how you face that, the difference between politics and aesthetics?
NESHAT: I was thinking today, in
preparation for what we’re going to be talking about in terms of protest art
and performance. And it really made me think about how I never wanted to make
political art. My work is politically charged because of the life that I have
lived and because many of my collaborators, most of us, are living in exile. So
a lot of the subjects are informed by issues that we face as people. And it
made me think a lot about western artists as opposed to non-western artists
such as myself, how we take certain risks in different parts of the world. But
for us, it’s the risk of our lives. It’s arrest, it’s torture, it’s execution.
And I think for the westerners, where you live in a more democratic society,
you have the freedom of expression, so the risk that you might take is the
influence it might have on your career.
GOLDBERG: I think there is a distinction
between art that has political content and art that is activist. Isaac Julian,
for example, his work is deeply political, yet he stays away from actual
activism or protest. With somebody like Tania Bruguera, whose work is
political, she also takes enormous physical risk and has been imprisoned in
jail and so on. Ai Weiwei is another artist who’s taken this huge risk. How
does the artist comment with protest and yet do it in some kind of safe place?
NESHAT: Well, I’m very privileged
because I live outside of Iran, so I have a lot of freedom. And yet, I always
consider that I draw a difference between activism and art. In activism, you
differentiate between good and evil and right and wrong, but in art you allow
the audience to draw their own interpretation. You cannot decide for them who
is good and evil. Otherwise, it’s propaganda. But I draw a distinction between
Iranian artists living in Iran during the political upheaval such as the
current Woman Life Freedom movement, the Green Movement in 2009, the revolution
in 1979, when they’re in the middle of it. Their art and activism is one,
because whatever they do is fighting against a fascist regime. Where for me, I
can process it, take my time, and my work becomes more symbolic in terms of
political injustice, tyranny, oppression, discrimination. But I can be
criticized for the fact that I don’t have a way of making an immediate reaction
with my work. Last year, during Woman, Life, Freedom, I went through a lot of
upheavals. We were very vocal, we were at the protests, and then suddenly my
work was drawn into it and attacked, because if your work is used as a
representation for the voice of the people of Iran, but you live outside, it’s
problematic. And I was accused of being opportunistic. I felt extremely
unprepared and that maybe I should be more silent and allow my work to speak
for itself. But Iranian people expect you to be vocal in a time of political
turmoil. So you see, you’re damned if you don’t and you’re damned if you do.
And this is the dilemma: where do we draw the boundary between our work and
what we say in public?
GOLDBERG: And yet your work has kept you
as an exile, so there’s real danger. You have family and you can’t go back to
Iran. Your work is so intrinsically about Iran in certain ways, but it’s also
universally about men and women and freedom and repression. How are you
handling this next phase of making art?
NESHAT: I want to say that, in my
opinion, in order for a work to be effective, the artist has to have lived it.
Pain is not something that you can make up. I deal with very dark material,
violence and oppression, and it’s because I’ve experienced it. I did once have
an experience that was quite horrifying in Iran when I was trying to leave with
my young son. I was captured and I had hours of interrogation. And it was this
moment that I felt my life had ended, that my freedom was taken away from me.
So, in other words, I don’t choose subjects because they’re topical or they’re
interesting. They’ve happened to me. Now, you asked me about universality. I
think the works that are most ethnically specific are the most universal. It
doesn’t have to be in Iran. It could happen in Ukraine, in Africa, in the U.S.
Everything I make is highly stylized and fictionalized, so I don’t really have
a command or authority to tell anyone how things are anywhere. But my intention
is to basically respond to the life that I live in.
GOLDBERG: I’m sure you all know the
image of women climbing into a boat and pushing off from the shore, and the men
were sort of standing there all dressed the same, in their black pants and
white shirts, sort of waving. And somehow the women had this incredible
strength. In your work I see not just feminism, but a female position that
you’re taking. Can you talk a bit about that?
NESHAT: I’ve always been very clear that
my biggest inspiration in my life have been Iranian women across generations.
And I don’t know of many places where women are so far against the wall but
have continued to fight back, from my mother’s generation and my grandmother’s
and even the current generation. The more you push Iranian women away and use
them as some kind of a battleground for men’s ideology, the more they come back
and fight with you. Where the men, oddly enough, are far more conformist. So I
made a lot of use of Iranian women’s poetry. I made a movie called Woman
Without Men, based on a novel by an Iranian woman. I have always looked up to
Iranian women artists, not only their creations but the lives they lived, which
are always a projection of their strengths and courage. So, for me, this has
been really central.
Source: interviewmagazine.com
https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/shirin-neshat-on-protest-performance-art-and-the-power-of-iranian-women
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/married-bear-muslim-rights-nigerian/d/131343