Married Indian Woman Anju Becomes Fatima, Weds Her Pakistani Facebook Friend, Nasrallah, After Converting To Islam
New Age
Islam News Bureau
26 July 2023
• Married Indian Woman Anju Becomes
Fatima, Weds Her Pakistani Facebook Friend, Nasrallah, After Converting To
Islam
• Women Have Become Vital Contributors
To Saudi Arabia’s Economic Future: Princess Reema
• Malaysian Woman Who Embraced Islam For
Boyfriend Seeking Return To Christianity
• Iran Sentences Unveiled Women To Jail,
Washing Dead Bodies In A Cemetery And Undergoing Therapy
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/married-indian-woman-anju-fatima-pakistan/d/130304
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Married Indian Woman Anju Becomes
Fatima, Weds Her Pakistani Facebook Friend, Nasrallah, After Converting To
Islam
Indian
national Anju, who travelled legally to Pakistan, during a sightseeing trip
with her Facebook friend Nasrullah, in Upper Dir district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Province, Pakistan on July 25, 2023. | Photo Credit: PTI
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Jul 25, 2023
Peshawar, July 25
Anju, the Indian mother of two children
who travelled legally to Pakistan, married her Pakistani Facebook friend on
Tuesday after converting to Islam, a senior police official said.
Anju, 34, was staying at her 29-year-old
Pakistani friend Nasrallah’s home. They became friends on Facebook in 2019.
The couple tied the knot in a local
court of a district and sessions judge.
"Nasrullah and Anju's marriage was
solemnised today and proper a Nikah was performed after she converted to
Islam," senior officer at Moharrar City Police Station in Upper Dir
district Muhammad Wahhab told PTI.
Both appeared in the district court in
Dir Bala in the presence of family members of Nasrullah, police personnel and
lawyers, police said.
Malakand Division Deputy Inspector
General Nasir Mehmood Satti confirmed the nikkah of Anju and Nasrullah and said
the Indian woman has been named Fatima after her conversion to Islam.
He further stated that the Indian woman
has been shifted to home from the court under police security, Geo News
reported.
Earlier on Monday, both Nasrullah and
Anju went on a sightseeing trip amid tight security. They visited the Lawari
tunnel connecting Dir Upper District with Chitral District, police officials
said.
In the pictures of their visit to the
picturesque tourist spots, Anju and Nasrullah were seen sitting in a lush green
garden and holding hands.
Anju, who was born in Kailor village in
Uttar Pradesh and lived in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, has shared a short
video in which she says she "feels safe here" in Pakistan, Geo News
reported on Tuesday.
"I want to give this message to all
that I have come here legally and with planning as it was not about two days
that I came here all of a sudden, and I am safe here," she said in the
video.
"I request all the media persons
not to harass my relatives and children," she said. Anju is married to
Arvind, who is in Rajasthan. They have a 15-year-old daughter and a
six-year-old son.
Anju has travelled to Pakistan legally
from India via the Wagah-Attari border. According to an official document of
the Ministry of Interior sent to Pakistan's High Commission in New Delhi, the
chancery was informed that it had been decided to grant a 30-day visa to Anju,
valid for Upper Dir only.
Nasrullah, a science graduate from a
University in Sheringal, is the youngest among five brothers.
He has given an affidavit to local
authorities, stating that there is no love angle to their friendship, and Anju
will return to India on August 20.
According to a senior police official
from the region, the travel documents of the Indian lady have been found to be
in order and she has been allowed to stay with Nasrullah, who has been
instructed to look after her.
"She travelled to Pakistan on a
month-long visit visa and all her travel documents are valid and
complete," Upper Dir District Police Officer (DPO) Mushtaq Khan said on
Monday.
"Anju has come to Pakistan from New
Delhi for the sake of love and is living happily here," Khan was quoted as
saying by Geo News.
Anju's husband Arvind told the media in
Bhiwadi, Rajasthan that she left home on Thursday on the pretext of going to
Jaipur but later the family came to know that she was in Pakistan. He said he
was hopeful that she would return home.
Anju's incident is similar to Seema
Ghulam Haider's case. Seema, a Pakistani mother of four, sneaked into India to
live with Sachin Meena, a Hindu man she got in touch with while playing PUBG in
2019.
Seema, 30, and Sachin, 22, live in the
Rabupura area of Greater Noida, near Delhi, where he runs a provision store,
according to Uttar Pradesh Police.
Source: tribuneindia.com
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/married-indian-woman-anju-becomes-fatima-weds-her-pakistani-facebook-friend-after-converting-to-islam-528900?
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Women Have Become Vital Contributors To Saudi
Arabia’s Economic Future: Princess Reema
Princess
Reema called for more women to be in leadership positions in Saudi Arabia’s
workforce. (Atlantic Council)
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July 26, 2023
RIYADH: Saudi reforms have positioned
women to become key contributors to the economic future of the country, said
Princess Reema bint Bandar, the Kingdom’s ambassador to the US.
Princess Reema outline some of the
progress made in the Kingdom since the introduction of the Saudi Vision 2030
reform program. She said the national agenda, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, has put inclusivity at the forefront.
“Today in the Kingdom, we have more
women receiving advanced degrees than men, more women enrolling in STEM, and
more than 40% of small and medium-sized startup companies are owned by women.
Women today in Saudi Arabia enjoy equal pay,” she said. “The World Bank looked
at 190 economies and they ranked Saudi Arabia number one in terms of economic
and social progress for women.”
“The recent progress for women is so
truly profound”, she told a an Atlantic Council panel titled “The rising female
workforce in Saudi Arabia and its impact on the private sector.”
But Princess Reema said there was still
more work to be done. She said it was important to ensure there were more women
in leadership roles to promote inclusivity.
“Half of the world's population are
women and yet we still make up a fraction of leadership positions, of business
owners, of middle management, and still too small a part of the overall
workforce. So that needs to change because when women succeed we all succeed.”
She said it was essential that there is
investment in women’s empowerment and that advancement needs to embrace gender
equity because if it doesn’t, it is not real advancement.
“We need more women in leadership roles
paving the way. We need more women in middle management positions continuing
the work. We need more women business owners, more mentorship programs focused
on female success, and more people investing in women-led startups,” Princess
Reema said.
But she also said one of the ways of
getting there was through access to education and training.
“More women in education, training and
mentorship paves the road to our destination, to greater inclusivity.”
She said that education helps to level
the playing field and allows women to be on an equal footing in the workplace
and fosters gender equality and equity.
“It also gives women greater control
over their own financial lives, enabling them to participate more fully in the
economic decision making within their families and their communities.
“Because education and training is about
having the real life skills. It's about confidence building, about preparing
women to take their rightful place in society, as full participants. We can
shift cultural attitudes and norms around gender and business.”
Princess Reem told the panel: “We can
contribute to break down the barriers in the biases that hold women back and we
can foster a world where the next generation of women can thrive. And when we
do that, we’ll not only create a more equal and inclusive society but also a
more prosperous one.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2344311/saudi-arabia
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Malaysian Woman Who Embraced Islam For Boyfriend Seeking Return To Christianity
By R. Loheswar
Wednesday, 26 Jul 2023
KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — The High Court
will decide on September 21 whether or not to hear the judicial review filed by
a Malaysian woman seeking to be declared no longer a Muslim.
The 26-year-old woman converted to Islam
to marry her then boyfriend who was a Malay Muslim on August 18, 2017. Their
relationship ended before the wedding and now she wants to return to being a
Christian.
Judge Datuk Ahmad Kamal Md Shahid set
the decision date on whether or not to grant the woman leave for judicial
review after hearing arguments from her lawyer and the Attorney General's
Chambers (AGC) representing the government and the Islamic authorities earlier
today.
The woman who is the plaintiff is not
named to protect her privacy. She is seeking declarations that the Shariah
Courts do not have the jurisdiction under the Administration of Islamic Law
(Federal Territories) Act 1993, also known as Act 505, to cancel her status as
a Muslim but rather the Registrar of Muallaf (ROM) who oversees Muslim
converts.
The three respondents named in the
judicial review application are: the Federal Territories ROM, the Federal
Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) and the government of Malaysia.
Her back story
The woman had requested to leave Islam
on January 27, 2022 admitting to still being a practising Christian despite
converting to Islam.
She said she only became a Muslim for
administrative reasons as she wanted to marry her then Muslim boyfriend.
She said she doesn't read the Quran and
is a believer in the concept of the Holy Trinity and the Bible since she was
baptised at age one by her Christian parents.
She sent three letters to the ROM dated
January 31, February 20 and March 17 this year to the ROM asking to leave
Islam, but claimed to have received no replies to any of them except an
acknowledgment of receipt.
Reasons for judicial review
The woman was represented by Iqbal
Harith Liang from Messrs Fahri, Azzat& Co while the federal counsel was
Muhammad SalehuddinMd Ali who acted for the three respondents.
In his argument this morning, Iqbal
submitted that this client felt that it was unconstitutional and oppressive of
the ROM not to entertain her requests.
He also argued that Section 91 of Act
505 is unconstitutional as it states that those who embrace Islam are Muslim
for life, adding that this provision is in conflict with Article 11(1) of the
Federal Constitution, which provides that every person has the right to profess
and practise his religion and, subject to Clause (4), to propagate it.
He also said that Section 85(1) of Act
505 is unconstitutional as it states that those who utter the kalimahsyahadah —
the declaration of belief for Islam — automatically becomes Muslim, but the
provision does not state that those who do so must believe in the religion.
“Such an irrebuttable presumption is
contrary to Article 11. There is a concern that if she remained as a Muslim but
in practice is a Christian she would be subject to laws governing Muslims like
solatfardu, fasting and paying zakat.
“We're relying on how Item 1 of the
State List is worded grammatically. The provision requires a person to be
‘professing’ Islam. It’s a present tense, so when one renounces Islam he/she is
no longer ‘professing’,” Iqbal told Malay Mail when contacted today.
Apart from that, he said the judicial
review is not prohibited under Article 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution,
which makes the civil court not have jurisdiction over matters that already
fall under the jurisdiction of the Shariah Courts.
The applicant has said she was never a
practising Muslim, never believed in Allah and had never been a “person
professing the religion of Islam”, which is why the Shariah Courts should have
no jurisdiction over her decisions.
Instead, she said the authority lies
with the civil courts, which is why she is seeking a judicial review under the
“Statutory Judicial Review” and “Constitutional Judicial Review”.
She cited a past case of Sisters In
Islam Forum Malaysia vs the Selangor state government in 2022 at the Federal
Court to back her assertion that the civil courts were the right legal platform
to seek redress.
The applicant said she is living in fear
and pretending to be a Muslim, fearing repercussion or reprisal from the
authorities and the public due to the laws in place governing Muslims.
Salehuddin on the other hand argued that
despite the woman renouncing Islam on her own all such renunciation cases have
always fallen under the Shariah Courts jurisdiction and it is provided by law.
He said Act 505 only gave the ROM powers
to register a person as a Muslim and not the power to renounce them from it.
Source: malaymail.com
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/07/26/woman-who-embraced-islam-for-boyfriend-now-seeking-return-to-christianity-to-know-if-high-court-will-hear-her-case-on-sept-21/81815
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Iran sentences unveiled women to jail,
washing dead bodies in a cemetery and undergoing therapy
On July 17, the court in Varamin in the
Tehran province sentenced a woman to choose between jail or spending a month
washing corpses — a ritual that includes the genitals and anal area — in Iran’s
largest cemetery: Behesht-e Zahra. The “crime” that earned her this conviction
was driving her car without wearing a veil, according to Iranian media in exile
and activists who have circulated a copy of the verdict on social networks.
Another court, also in Tehran, sentenced a medical doctor to clean the Interior
Ministry for 270 hours on the same grounds a few days ago if she did not want
to spend two months in prison.
Like these, other Iranian women who have
dispensed with the hijab — obligatory from the age of nine — are being
sentenced to prison or other, unusual punishments often accompanied by an order
to undergo psychological therapy for an alleged “antisocial personality
disorder” whose only “symptom” is not covering their hair. Last week, the
Iranian website Vaklapress published another ruling by a third criminal court
in Tehran defining not wearing the veil as “a contagious mental illness that
causes sexual promiscuity.” The defendant was sentenced to two months in prison
and ordered to pay for six months of psychological treatment.
There are just two months to go before
the September 16 anniversary of the start of anti-regime protests sparked by
the death in police custody of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman — Mahsa Amini was
arrested in Tehran by the morality police for wearing her veil incorrectly. The
Iranian authorities are stepping up repression against the many women who no
longer cover their hair. It is viewed as a gesture of civil disobedience that
keeps demonstrations for change visible, and which the regime has harshly
suppressed. At least 500 people have been killed by members of the security and
paramilitary forces, according to Iranian NGOs in exile, and more than 22,000
detained. Seven men have been hanged in connection with the protests. One of
them in public, using a crane.
The latest official move to force
Iranian women to put the hijab back on came on July 16, when a police spokesman
confirmed that the morality police had been redeployed on the streets to arrest
hijab-less women, seven months after a regime official alluded to their alleged
disappearance. It was an announcement Iranians greeted with disbelief. On July
15, a viral video on Iranian social media showed a terrified teenage girl
screaming “help” as a female police officer tried to drag her into a police
van.
Lawyer and women’s rights activist Shadi
Sadr, co-founder of the NGO Justice for Iran, explains from her exile in London
that the “main reason” for resuming the deployment of this police force is due
to September 16. “With two months to go before the anniversary of Jina [Kurdish
name for Mahsa] Amini’s death, the regime aims to avoid another wave of
protests... They plan to achieve this by repressing women and instilling fear
throughout the nation.”
This lawyer — sentenced in absentia in
2010 to six years in prison and 74 lashes for defending human rights in Iran —
believes that her country’s regime “intends to convey to those who participated
in the protests the message that, despite the deaths of more than 500 people,
thousands of wounded, numerous arrests, forced disappearances and executions,
their efforts have not been successful. Even the small achievement of being
able to go out on the street without wearing hijab has now been crushed.”
Threats have been constant in recent
months, recalls Sadr, who alludes to how “the attempt to intimidate women by
identifying them with cameras on the street proved ineffective.” “Subsequently,
they resorted to employing their [paramilitary] Basij or other plainclothes
forces in the cities, who filmed women without hijab and reported them to the
police. Now, as a last resort, they have redeployed the morality police,” she
adds.
Public faces aren’t exempt from
persecution
The Iranian regime’s strategy of
branding unveiled women as mentally ill extends to cultural personalities. Two
well-known actresses, AfsanehBayegan and AzadehSamadi, have also been forced by
the courts to undergo therapy to treat alleged “antisocial personality
disorders.” The former has also been given a two-year suspended prison
sentence, while the latter will not be allowed to use her social networks for
the next six months, according to Iranian human rights organizations in exile.
Another actress, Leila Belukat, has been
sentenced to ten months in prison, a two-year ban from working as an actress
and a five-year ban from using social networks for disseminating a photo of
herself wearing only a hat. Actor Mohammad Sadeghi was arrested at his home on
July 16 for criticizing the return of the morality police during a live video
broadcast. Iranian activists fear he will be accused of “promoting
homosexuality” because he had painted fingernails in the images.
The modernity conveyed by the image of a
man with nail polish in an Islamic society contrasts with the extreme
conservatism of the Iranian regime. Political scientist exiled in the United States
SaeidGolkar highlights the gulf between the “Islamist regime” and an
“increasingly secularized” society in which a growing number of women are
“willing to go out on the streets without hijab.”
“The Islamic Republic has already lost
in its project to Islamize society and achieve an Islamist utopia. They [the
regime] know that civil disobedience is going to continue, but they don’t care
about the population; what they want is to satisfy the small social base that
supports them,” Golkar says. With measures such as the deployment of the
morality police, the political scientist asserts that they are trying to “take
advantage of religious sentiment” and secure the support of their religious and
conservative base. This comes at a time when Moharram (one of the sacred months
of the Muslim calendar) has just begun and, at the end of July, the religious
day of Achura will be observed. It is one of the most important in Shiism, the
branch of Islam of the majority in Iran.
“Will they achieve their goal?” the
expert asks rhetorically, “I think it will be very difficult for women to
return to how things used to be.” Attorney Sadr concurs, “Brave Iranian women
remain determined not to return to the state of affairs they refer to as
‘before Mahsa [Amini].’ Since the return of the morality police, many women
have shared photos of themselves in public spaces without hijab, with a
declaration: we will not go back.”
Source: english.elpais.com
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-07-25/iran-sentences-unveiled-women-to-jail-washing-dead-bodies-in-a-cemetery-and-undergoing-therapy.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/married-indian-woman-anju-fatima-pakistan/d/130304