Maryam Rayed, Afghan Women’s Rights Activist, Recognized As The Advocate Of The Year
New
Age Islam News Bureau
05
October 2022
•
Taliban Appoints Female Doctor Dr. Simin Mushkin Mohmand, as Hospital’s Chief
of Staff in Afghan Capital
•
Afghan Girls Exhibit Their Art in Herat
•
In Iran And Karnataka Hijab Protests, Women Are Fighting For The Right To
Choose
•
Women In Turkey Stand In Solidarity With Women Of Iran
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/maryam-rayed-afghan-rights-activist/d/128111
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Maryam
Rayed, Afghan Women’s Rights Activist, Recognized As The Advocate Of The Year
Maryam Rayed, an activist for democracy and women’s
political empowerment
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05
Oct 2022
Women
in Government Relations, a US-based organization has recognized Maryam Rayed,
an activist for democracy and women’s political empowerment as an advocate of
the year in an event that was organized in Washington DC on Monday.
The
Excellence in Advocacy Awards is a prestigious annual program that has honored
women advocates and leaders in the field of government relations and advocacy
since 2001.
This
year and for the first time, the organization recognizes an Afghan woman for
her activism and advocacy in the category of Advocate on the Rise. Rayed has
founded and co-founded several nonprofit organizations in Afghanistan and the
region, including the Afghanistan Women’s Think Tank and Democracy Pen, a
non-profit organization that works for the endowment of democracy, women’s
education and free press in Afghanistan. Both grassroots research and advocacy
centers provide a safe platform for women’s meaningful participation in
political and social arenas and promote democracy.
Currently,
Rayed is a Fulbright scholar pursuing her second master’s degree in Governance
and Diplomacy at Georgetown University of Washington DC. According to Rayed,
her research focuses on Women, Peace and Security, and the US Foreign Policy in
the Middle East and South Asia.
Speaking
about her background to Khaama Press, Maryam said that she has also served as a
fellow at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR),
where she conducted research on Afghanistan’s SDGs agenda.
She
believes that the women’s global movement should stand in solidarity with women
from Afghanistan, Iran, and those living under authoritarian rules and harsh
circumstances.
“In
building a free, peaceful, and just world, we must make sure women in these
parts of the world are treated with dignity and equality,” she told Khaama
Press.
Rayed
believes that diversifying stages and platforms to include vulnerable voices is
an urgent need for women’s global movements to achieve their ultimate goal.
Source:
Khaama Press
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-womens-rights-activist-recognized-as-the-advocate-of-the-year-97898/
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Taliban
Appoints Female Doctor Dr. Simin Mushkin Mohmand, as Hospital’s Chief of Staff
in Afghan Capital
Dr. Simin Mushkin Mohmand, Chief of Staff of the
Rabia Balkhi maternity hospital
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By
Saqalain Eqbal
04
Oct 2022
The
Taliban administration appointed Dr. Simin Mushkin Mohmand as the Chief of
Staff of the Rabia Balkhi maternity hospital, one of the busiest hospitals in
Kabul, the Afghan capital.
Dr.
Mohmand officially began her duties as the chief of staff of the Rabia Balkhi
maternity hospital on Monday, October 3, after an introduction ceremony.
When
introducing Dr. Mohmand as the new chief of staff, the deputy minister of the
Taliban Ministry of Public Health said that the department puts forth every
effort to hire experienced and knowledgeable people.
Under
Taliban rule, Dr. Mohmand is the second woman to be designated as the appointed
hospital head as the Taliban previously appointed Dr. Malalai Faizi as the head
of the Malali Maternity Hospital.
Despite
the Taliban’s appointment of a woman to a leadership position, the majority of
women who held significant government positions under the previous
administration are ordered to remain at home.
Additionally,
since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan one year ago, schools have been
instructed to close their doors to female students in sixth grade and above
until further notice.
Women’s
rights activists have frequently protested for the reopening of schools in
Kabul and some provinces both inside and outside of Afghanistan, but the
schools are still closed, depriving girls of an education.
Source:
Khaama Press
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Afghan
Girls Exhibit Their Art in Herat
October
5, 2022
Fifteen
female artists showed their paintings at an exhibition in Herat.
“They
even told us to not do paintings, but no, everything is going on, like
painting,” said Kawsar Omari, an artist.
“I
am determined in my work, and I will continue my profession,” said Alnaz
Frotan, an artist.
The
organizers of the exhibit said the purpose of holding this exhibition is to
motivate women.
“The
purpose for holding this exhibition is to motivate women and girls to show them
that they can still progress,” said Sayeqa Jamshide, an organizer.
“It
is really a place to be happy that in this situation they can hold such an
exhibition and girls can show their abilities,” said Fatema Karimi, a visitor.
Meanwhile
the Department of Culture and Information in Herat said that they support these
art activities.
“The
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Department of Culture and Information in
Herat completely supports art and artists and will provide help to artists,”
said Nayeemulhaq Haqqani, head of the culture and information department in
Herat.
In
this exhibition, more than 50 clay works are also exhibited.
In
the last few years, art especially painting, has made good progress in Herat
and hundreds of artists, many of them women and girls, are busy with art
activities.
Source:
Tolo News
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/provincial-180141
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In
Iran and Karnataka hijab protests, women are fighting for the right to choose
SRINA
BOSE
4
October, 2022
Mahsa
Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from the north-western city of Saqez in
Iran, died in hospital on 16 September, after spending three days in a coma.
She
was visiting Tehran with her family when she was arrested by the morality
police, who accused her of violating the law requiring women to cover their
head with a Hijab and their arms and legs with loose clothing. She was then
forcibly taken to a re-education centre where she was physically assaulted.
The
government refused to acknowledge any connection with her death, saying that
she died due to a heart attack or epileptic fit, although her CT scan revealed
fractures around her head area, suggesting that she was struck from behind.
The
death of this young woman has sparked widespread protests that have now gone
viral on social media.
A
few months ago, we witnessed another hijab controversy, this time in Karnataka.
College students in Udupi were barred from wearing the hijab, resulting in mass
upheaval. Petitioners had argued that wearing a hijab was an essential
religious practice and barring it was a breach of the freedom of religion
guaranteed underneath Article 25 of the Indian constitution.
The
Karnataka High Court responded by saying that the wearing of the hijab was a
socio-cultural practice, instead of a religious one. Hence, it did not merit
constitutional protection.
This
decision by the High Court was rather hurried and has been questioned.
Nevertheless,
these two situations from two very different parts of the world, which happen
to concern the same piece of cloth, give us a glimpse of the complexity in the
intersection of gender and religion.
Also
read: Leaked documents reveal Iran ordered forces to be ‘merciless’ with
protestors, says Amnesty
The
Western perception of Islam and the hijab is another riveting element that
worsens the already dire situation of Muslim women.
Before
the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran was a rather ‘progressive’ nation, at
least in the West’s view. In 1936, the pro-Western ruler Reza Shah banned the
wearing of all veils and headscarves in an effort to ‘modernise’ the country.
This changed after the Islamic Revolution.
In
an interview conducted by Haleh Esfandari in her book Reconstructed Lives:
Women and Iran’s Islamic Revolution one interviewee mentions, “When the veil
was finally abolished officially, it was certainly a victory for women but a
tragedy, too, because the right to choose was taken away from women, just as it
was during the Islamic Republic when the veil was officially reintroduced in
1979.”
This
one sentence from that interview perfectly depicts the commonality between the
two controversies in Iran and in Karnataka. The right to choose was purloined
in both.
Isn’t
liberty and progress meaningless if it is not accompanied by this essential
freedom?
The
interpretations of freedom vary from person to person and even scholar to
scholar.
In
the paper ‘Veiled Women: Hijab, Religion, and Cultural Practice’, Sara
Slininger says: “Concealing a woman’s body is presented as being modest or to
protect her from harm: it is not to oppress or exclude women from the
community, but for safety.”
Western
nations, however, do not always hold this view. The hijab is instead seen as an
object perpetuating oppression. Women of the Middle East are often categorised
as women who ‘need to be saved’. Their societies are portrayed as barbaric,
backwards and uncivilised.
Although
these generalisations and stereotypes originated from some level of truth and
concern from the West, they are oversimplified and incomplete.
Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryll Wu Dunn wrote in
their book, Half the Sky: “The conservative attitudes in Islamic countries have
little to do with the Koran and arise from culture more than religion.”
In
their essay ‘Is Islam Misogynistic?’, they noted the classic error in
differentiating between causation and correlation by suggesting that in
predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern regions, even religious minorities and
irreligious people were deeply repressive towards women.
They
write, “Americans not only come off as patronizing but also often miss the
complexity of gender roles in the Islamic world.”
If
we look at the hijab row in Karnataka, it is not associated with the saviour
complex of the West. The Hindu majority party in Karnataka has no interest in
saving Muslim women. It is simply a blatant attack on religious freedom, which
is dictated more by politics rather than the religion itself.
The
case of Mahsa Amini is also shaped more by politics than we realise.
It
is those in power who lay out the definitions of ‘freedom’ and ‘safety’. It is
these influential definitions that decide who we burn and who we worship, and
in whose name we protest on the streets.
Although
Muslim women fight different fights in different regions, the last thing they
wish is for the West to ‘save’ them. Writing pay cheques and funding local NGOs
is more than enough from their side. Muslim women are more than capable of fighting
their own fight.
One
thing to note is that these fights aren’t only black and white, as one would
want them to be for the sake of simplicity. There is the fight to wear a hijab
in Karnataka, the fight to be free of one in Iran, and lastly, the fight to
choose. And that, has always been the hardest fight.
Srina
Bose is a student at Springdales School Dhaula Kuan, Delhi. Views are personal.
Source:
The Print
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Women
in Turkey stand in solidarity with women of Iran
Arzu
Geybullayeva
4
October 2022
From
video campaigns circulating on social media to street protests and singers
cutting their hair on stage — women from all walks of life in Turkey have
expressed solidarity with the ongoing protests in Iran. In a country where
women’s rights keep deteriorating, the murder of Mahsa Amini hits close to
home.
On
September 21, crowds gathered outside the Consulate of Iran in Istanbul,
holding Mahsa Amini’s photographs and banners. Local police prevented a similar
protest from taking place in Istanbul’s iconic Taksim Square on September 20,
according to local reports.
Women
from cities across Turkey joined protests in solidarity in the days following
the news of Mahsa Amini’s death at the hands of Iran’s morality police.
Turkey’s
pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said in a press statement the party
condemned the killing of Mahsa Amini by the despotic morality police:
“We
support the revolt of women and tell them, ‘Your protest is our protest.’ This
struggle is the joint struggle for freedom because we all know very well this
mentality of animosity against women. We are against the male-dominated system
that tries to remain standing by seizing women’s rights and lives. We will
continue to call (authorities) to account for all femicides. And once again,
from here, from everywhere we struggle, we salute the protests on Iran streets,
the slogans of ‘Jin, Jiyan, Azadi’ by also uttering the slogan of ‘Jin, Jiyan,
Azadi.’”
“Jin,
Jiyan, Azadi” means “Women, life, freedom” in Kurdish.
HDP’s
jailed leader, Selahattin Demirtas, also joined the protests in solidarity from
his jail cell by shaving off his hair.
During
her concert on September 26, Turkish singer Melek Mosso cut strands of her hair
before she said, “Tonight I sing my songs for all the women, no one can take
our freedom from us.”
Founder,
artistic director, and conductor of the well-known Bogazici Jazz Choir tweeted
“Enough!” sharing a clip of the choir that went viral.
Speaking
to journalists in Ankara on September 29, the leader of the opposition Republican
People (CH) Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said, “Women should not be the ones
paying the price in any country or the corner of the world. What we have to do
is respect women.”
In
a Twitter thread, the woman leader of the right-wing Iyi (Good) Party said,
It
is the most basic and sacred right of women to lead a happy and peaceful life,
to be free in their choices and to live without being pushed around.
We
can never accept the contrary.
On
this occasion, I wholeheartedly greet the women who took to the streets for
their freedom and rebelled against oppression in Iran;
I
call on the Iranian administration to listen to the right voice raised by women
for a dignified life and to make urgent reforms that befit human dignity.
The
vocal support for protests in Iran was absent among members of the ruling
Justice and Development (AK) Party. Speaking to Al-Monitor, Isin Elicin, the
producer of
“FemFikir”
[FemIdea], a program hosted by an independent media outlet Medyascope said the
silence was not at all surprising given the ruling party's experience during
country-wide Gezi protests and continuing rallies organized by women against
the country's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention.
Source:
Global Voices
https://globalvoices.org/2022/10/04/women-in-turkey-stand-in-solidarity-with-women-of-iran/
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