Mehsa Ghorbani, Iranian Female Referee Banned from Leaving Iran Barred from International Matches
New Age Islam News Bureau
06 April 2024
·
Mehsa Ghorbani, Iranian Female
Referee Banned from Leaving Iran Barred from International Matches
·
Noted Iranian Activist, Sepideh Qoliyan,
Begins Hunger Strike in Prison
·
Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, Were
Forced To Remove Hijabs For Mug Shots. NYC Will Pay $17.5 Million To Settle
Their Suit
·
Iran’s Nobel Laureate, Narges
Mohammadi, Exposes ‘Barbaric’ Abuse Of Imprisoned Kurdish Women
·
“I’m Fasting, I Can’t Drink
During Ramadan” – Alhaja, A Muslim Woman,
Collapses By The Roadside, Refuses Malt Drink
·
Amnesty Intl Calls for Reopened
Schools for Afghan Women and Girls
·
Woman 'Grabbed Hijab Of Islamic Female'
In Stoke Newington Hate Crime, Say Metropolitan Police
·
Nigeria: Ten Years After Chibok Girls’
Abduction, A Film Remembers Them
·
Foreigners Hired Iranian Women to
Shed Hijab, Says Khamenei
Compiled by New Age Islam News
Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mehsa-ghorbani-iranian-female-referee/d/132094
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Mehsa
Ghorbani, Iranian Female Referee Banned from Leaving Iran Barred from
International Matches
Mahsa Ghorbani; the first Iranian woman referee for
men's competition
-----
APRIL
5, 2024
The
name of Mehsa Ghorbani, an international referee for Iranian women's football,
has been removed from the roster of active international referees since March,
as reported by IranWire.
According
to information obtained by IranWire from a reliable source within the Iranian
Football Federation, the decision was made by security forces to bar her from
leaving Iran.
According
to FIFA guidelines, only referees nominated by their respective national
football federations as active international referees are eligible to officiate
official or friendly football matches in international competitions and beyond
their country's borders.
Ghorbani,
an Iranian international football referee, was scheduled to serve as an
assistant video referee (VAR) during the Tehran Derby on March 13.
However,
just two days before the match, officials informed the Football Federation that
Ghorbani would not officiate.
According
to IranWire's source, some federation directors were insulted by the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intelligence representative during a meeting
about Ghorbani.
They
were threatened that failure to cooperate with the IRGC intelligence
organization would result in facing security charges and the reopening of their
legal cases.
IranWire's
source disclosed that during the meeting with the IRGC intelligence
representatives, Mehdi Taj, the president of the Football Federation, asserted
that he had previously received final approval for including female referees in
the derby from the Ministry of Sports and Youth on March 9.
“After
the incidents during the Tehran derby, Mrs. Ghorbani's situation has largely
gone unknown,” the source said.
"Despite
having received numerous commendations for her work with local referees, the
federation has opted to remove her name from the roster of active international
referees, effectively barring her from leaving the country to officiate
matches," the source added.
Ghorbani
was previously considered by FIFA as a potential referee for the 2022 World Cup
in Qatar.
However,
the Iranian Football Federation expressed concerns about her potential
selection as one of the tournament's female referees.
As
a result, her participation in international tournaments was canceled.
Source:
iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/127052-iranian-female-referee-barred-from-international-matches/
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Noted
Iranian Activist, Sepideh Qoliyan, Begins Hunger Strike in Prison
Noted Iranian Activist, Sepideh Qoliyan
------
APRIL
5, 2024
Sepideh
Qoliyan, a prominent civil rights activist imprisoned in Tehran's Evin Prison,
began a hunger strike on April 3 for prison transfer.
Her
demand is to be transferred to Ahvaz Prison, located closer to her hometown.
A
source close to Qoliyan's family confirmed the hunger strike to the Human
Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA).
Qoliyan
was initially detained during a workers' strike in November 2018 and later
sentenced to 19 years and six months in prison. The sentence was reduced to
five years on appeal.
The
activist was released on March 15, 2023, after being granted
"amnesty". However, she was soon re-arrested after shouting outside
Tehran's Evin prison, "Khamenei the Zahhak! We'll take you down into the
grave."
She
referred to a mythical king who was said to have fed serpents growing out of
his shoulders with young people's brains.
In
May 2023, Qoliyan was sentenced to two years imprisonment for
"insulting" Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Source:
iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/127044-noted-iranian-activist-begins-hunger-strike-in-prison/
------
Jamilla
Clark and Arwa Aziz, Were Forced To Remove Hijabs For Mug Shots. NYC Will Pay
$17.5 Million To Settle Their Suit
April
5, 2024
New
York City has agreed to pay USD 17.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by two
Muslim women who were forced to remove their head coverings to be photographed
after they were arrested.
The
class-action lawsuit was filed in 2018 by Jamilla Clark and Arwa Aziz, two
Muslim women who said they felt shamed and exposed when they were forced to
remove their hijabs after they were arrested.
“When
they forced me to take off my hijab, I felt as if I were naked. I’m not sure if
words can capture how exposed and violated I felt,” Clark said in a statement.
“I’m so proud today to have played a part in getting justice for thousands of
New Yorkers.” Clark was arrested on January 9, 2017 and Aziz was arrested on
August 30, 2017.
The
lawsuit said police officers threatened to prosecute Clark, who was sobbing
after being arrested for violating a bogus protective order filed by her
abusive former husband, if she did not remove her head covering, The lawsuit
said Aziz, who also had been arrested because of a bogus protective order, felt
broken when her picture was taken where a dozen male police officers and more
than 30 male inmates could see her.
City
officials initially defended the practice of forcing people to remove head
coverings for mug shots, saying the policy balanced respect for religious
customs with “the legitimate law enforcement need to take arrest photos.” But
the police department changed the policy in 2020 as part of an initial
settlement of the lawsuit and said it would allow arrested people to keep their
head coverings on for mug shots with limited exceptions such as if the head covering
obscures the person’s facial features.
The
financial settlement was filed Friday and requires approval by Judge Analisa
Torres of Manhattan federal court.
City
law department spokesperson Nick Paolucci said in a statement that the
settlement resulted in a positive reform for the police department and “was in
the best interest of all parties.” O. Andrew F. Wilson, a lawyer with Emery
Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP who is representing the women
along with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said, “Forcing
someone to remove their religious clothing is like a strip search.
This
substantial settlement recognises the profound harm to the dignity of those who
wear religious head coverings that comes from forced removal.” Paolucci said the
proceeds from the settlement will be shared by approximately 4,100 eligible
class members.
Wilson
said that once the settlement is approved, the funds will be divided equally
among everyone who responds by a deadline set by the judge, with a guaranteed minimum
payment of USD 7,824 for each eligible person.
Source:
indianexpress.com
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/2-muslim-women-forced-remove-hijabs-mug-shots-nyc-pay-17-5-million-suit-9253838/
---
Iran’s
Nobel Laureate, Narges Mohammadi, Exposes ‘Barbaric’ Abuse Of Imprisoned
Kurdish Women
06/04/2024
Narges
Mohammadi, the human rights activist who was last year awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize while held behind bars in Iran, has exposed the ‘barbaric’ abuse, beating
and isolation meted out to Kurdish women and children held in the country’s
notorious Evin prison.
The
revelations refer to a brief 2018 encounter which the Nobel Laureate had with a
group of other female prisoners in Evin, typically held in isolation from other
women. Ethnic Kurds and other political prisoners are regularly held, tortured,
denied medical attention and executed at the notorious detention centre. In a
secretly-conducted audio interview subsequently released to the news website
Iran Wire, Mohammadi recalled how the Kurdish women and their children were
singled out for particularly harsh treatment, allowed only an hour of outdoor
exercise per week.
“The
conditions were dire—no sheets on the beds, just a mattress, pillow, and
blanket,” she said. “These children had nothing, not even toys. We proposed
purchasing toys for them, but the prison authorities refused.”
Nonetheless,
other prisoners were gradually able to offer support and solidarity to the
women, singled out for further abuse on the basis of their Kurdish identity.
“Despite being denied contact, Kurdish women gradually established clandestine
communication with other prisoners,” Mohammadi recalled. “This bond extended to
sharing cosmetics and receiving support from political prisoners who provided
food, toys, and candy for Kurdish children.”
The
human rights activist, who is detained for running an organisation protesting
Iran’s use of the death penalty, witnessed Kurdish women being beaten in front
of their newly-born children. She said:
“One
of them named her child Abdullah upon his birth. The first was a boy, and the
second, a girl named Jenan, was born in March. One night, I heard a commotion
in the corridor again, and I rushed over. I witnessed them taking Jenan’s
mother away and beating her. She was heavily burdened, unable to walk properly,
and I watched from the top of the stairs, tears streaming down my face. The
authorities confiscated the baby’s belongings, usually brought by a loved one,
and when they took the mother away that night, they returned her the next day.
They didn’t allow her to stay in the hospital.”
The
detention of children alongside their mothers is an issue of particular concern
in a country where child detainees as young as twelve have been subjected to
‘flogging, electric shocks and sexual violence’, according to Amnesty
International.
“When
they arrived here, the children were emaciated… devoid of vitality. One child,
Fatemeh, was particularly frail and listless,” Mohammadi said. “Her mother
would often embrace her… The moment the mother stepped away, she would wail as
if scorched or fallen from great heights. She couldn’t bear to be separated
from their mothers even for a moment, as a result of the bombings, fleeing,
destitution, hunger, and loss of family. The father is dead, and she was always
crying.”
Mohammadi
further recalled older children being forcibly separated from their mothers,
leaving a void which “couldn’t be filled by anything”, as well as particular
conditions of isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. More broadly, female
protesters and activists held in Evin Prison and other correctional facilities
suffer in extremely poor conditions, including limited access to drinking
water, fresh air, squalid hygiene, and other degradations of basic rights.
Prisons are overcrowded and can only provide water in the showers for two days
a week, resulting in hair loss and fears of lice, according to reports by human
rights activists.
The
prison administration does not provide cleaning products for self-hygiene,
toilets are not cleaned, and most prisoners are already suffering from
infections. As a form of punishment, prison guards refuse to let inmates use
toilets, this results in kidney issues. Meanwhile, poor ventilation causes
disease to spread rapidly.
But
clandestine solidarity with Kurdish prisoners is not the only way in which
women held in the detention centre have resisted their treatment. Last year,
seven female activists detained in Evin held a sit-in protest, announced by
Mohammadi, on the anniversary of the protests that erupted after the death of
22-year-old Jina ‘Mahsa’ Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police.
In
a statement at that time, the detainees said: “It has been one year since Jina
Amini was killed by agents of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The deep grief and
anger we feel at the loss of our fellow citizens in the streets and prisons,
the brutal suppression of protests, the arbitrary arrests, torture and
imprisonment of those who dare to speak out, weigh heavily on our hearts.
Despite these challenges, we remain steadfast in our determination to continue
our struggle until we achieve victory.”
Source:
medyanews.net
https://medyanews.net/irans-nobel-laureate-exposes-barbaric-abuse-of-imprisoned-kurdish-women/
---
“I’m
Fasting, I Can’t Drink During Ramadan” – Alhaja, A Muslim Woman, Collapses By The Roadside, Refuses Malt Drink
Gistlover
Stella
April
6, 2024
Alhaja,
a Muslim woman, stirred a debate when she collapsed by the side of the road and
refused to drink malt from a stranger, stating she couldn’t eat anything since
she was fasting during Ramadan.
This
occurrence was filmed in a video with the remark, “She did not drink malt
because she is fasting.”
A
spectator who saw the event published many videos on social media.
According
to one of the films uploaded below, Alhaja collapsed while going down the
street. Passersby rushed to help her, waking her up by spraying water on her
face and conducting other medical treatments.
Alhaja
was provided a malt drink to stabilize her and avoid further unconsciousness,
but she declined despite spectators’ pleadings.
She
refused the drink for several hours, despite repeated pleadings from multiple
individuals, claiming she would not break her Ramadan fast.
Alhaja’s
activities drew notice on social media, with many people commenting on the
post.
See
some reactions below:
??OLUWAFERANMI??:
“Dat 1 self Dey but she is on fasting and she fainted.”
Dean
Osanyintuyi Sam: “Awe ti ja already now, the Man putting his hands around her
is not her Husband or relation now. Abi na me dey wrong ni?.”
Abas
Abidemi: “She doesn’t understand the religion she’s practicing, if she go kpai
like that, she get question to answer, she go explain why she no save herself
in.”
AshabiShabbie:
“Make I cut my fasting for 6:00 ehnehn .. ??Abi she don drink an ..Ona no see
say na evening ni.”
Abdul
Razak????: “I returned back to the gym last 2 weeks during Ramadan after some
years I left gym in London I almost died and just lying down in the gym but
after some minute I was ok and didn’t still break my fast.”
kaffyluv230:
“My mom too when she had a serious accident she refused to drink anything it
was when we were talking angrily that she complied.”
Source: gistlover.com
https://www.gistlover.com/im-fasting-i-cant-drink-during-ramadan-alhaja-collapses-by-the-roadside-refuses-malt-drink/
---
Amnesty
Intl Calls for Reopened Schools for Afghan Women and Girls
05
Apr, 2024
Amnesty
International in a report called for the immediate reopening of schools and
universities for girls in Afghanistan.
According
to the report, following the return to power of the Islamic Emirate in
Afghanistan and the imposition of restrictions, the country is on the brink of
"irreversible destruction."
Amnesty
international said it calls "on the Taliban de-facto authorities to grant
women and girls their full spectrum of rights including access to education for
girls of all ages by immediately re-opening all schools and universities,
ensuring access to healthcare, and allowing women to return to work,”
Meanwhile,
a number of girl students are once again demanding the reopening of schools and
universities.
Asma,
a student who has turned to calligraphy for the past five months, said she
prepares every year to go to school; but this year, she has once again lost the
dream of going to school.
"Our
demand of the Islamic Emirate was to open schools and universities for girls,
but it still did not happen. We are very disappointed," Asma told a
TOLOnews reporter.
"Last
year I used to go to school at this time and I was very happy, but this year I
did not go to school, and it was disappointing for me," said Mehriah, a
student.
Other
girls who have been left out of school describe their unfulfilled hopes.
"This
year we were hopeful that school gates would be opened for girls, but once
again we were not allowed to go to school," said Marwa, a student.
"My
request of the Islamic Emirate is simply to give basic rights to girls, which
include education, and to open the doors of schools and universities for
them," said Friba, another student.
Although
seventeen days have passed since the start of the new academic year in the
country, the Islamic Emirate has not yet commented on the return of girl
students to school.
Source:
tolonews.com
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-188176
----
Woman
'grabbed hijab of Islamic female' in Stoke Newington hate crime, say
Metropolitan Police
William
Mata
6 April 2024
Police
are searching for a woman who struck an Islamic woman in the face and grabbed
her hijab in a hate crime attack in north London that left the victim with
facial cuts.
On
Saturday, the Met released an image of someone they wish to speak to after the
racially and religiously motivated assault in Stoke Newington on November 18.
A
woman in her 40s and her three children left a shop on Stoke Newington High
Street when another woman made an offensive gesture toward her.
The
victim asked the woman what she was doing and the aggressor began racially
abusing her before lashing out, hitting her face and grabbing her hijab - a
head covering worn by Muslim women.
The
victim received lacerations to her face, the Metropolitan Police has said,
adding that officers are treating the incident as a hate crime.
Detective
Constable Harriet Ford, leading the investigation said: “This was a terrifying
incident for the victim, made all the worse as it was witnessed by her young
children.
“I
would ask the public to take a good look at this image and consider if you have
any information about her identity.”
Anyone
who recognises the person in the image is asked to call 101 quoting CRIS
4632311/23.
Information
can also be shared anonymously with the independent charity Crimestoppers on
0800 555 111.
Source: yahoo.com
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/woman-grabbed-hijab-islamic-female-102521210.html
----
Nigeria:
Ten years after Chibok girls’ abduction, a film remembers them
05
Apr, 2024
Not
a day goes by without LawanZanna remembering his daughter Aisha in prayers. She
was among the 276 schoolgirls kidnapped 10 years ago when Islamic extremists
broke into their school in northeastern Nigeria’s Chibok village.
“It
makes me so angry to talk about it,” said Zanna, 55, whose daughter is among
the nearly 100 girls still missing after the 2014 kidnappings that stunned the
world and sparked the global #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign.
The
Chibok kidnapping was the first major school abduction in the West African
nation. Since then, at least 1,400 students have been kidnapped, especially in
the conflict-battered northwest and central regions. Most victims were freed
only after ransoms were paid or through government-backed deals, but the
suspects rarely get arrested.
This
year, to mark the 10th anniversary of a largely forgotten tragedy, members of
Borno state's Chibok community gathered Thursday (Apr. 4) in Nigeria’s economic
hub of Lagos to attend the screening of “Statues Also Breathe,” a collaborative
film project produced by French artist Prune Nourry and Nigeria’s Obafemi
Awolowo University.
“This
collaboration aims to raise awareness about the plight of the girls who are
still missing while highlighting the global struggle for girls’ education,”
Nourry said.
Horros
of captivity
The
17-minute film opens with an aerial view of 108 sculptures — the number of
girls still missing when the art project began — that try to recreate what the
girls look like today using pictures provided by their families, from their
facial expressions to hairstyles and visible patterns.
The
film captures the artistic process behind the art exhibit, first displayed in
November 2022, featuring human head-sized sculptures inspired by ancient
Nigerian Ife terracotta heads.
In
the film, one of the freed women talks about the horrors she went through while
in captivity. “We suffered, we were beaten up. (But) Allah (God) made me
stronger,” she said.
It
also conveys a flurry of emotions as heartbroken mothers reminisced about life
when their daughters were home.
“When
it is time for Ramadan (...) Aisha adorns my hair with henna and all sorts of
adornments,” one of the women in the film said of her missing child.
But
Aisha has not been home in 10 years.
Another
scene shows a woman hesitating when asked to go and see her daughter’s face
that was sculpted. “If I go and see it, it will bring sad memories,” she said,
her weak voice fading away.
Nigerian
authorities have not done enough to free the remaining women and those who have
regained their freedom have not been properly taken care of, according to
ChiomaAgwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
“We
have normalized the absurd in Nigeria,” Agwuegbo said of the school kidnappings
in Nigeria. “10 years on, it is an indictment not just on the government but on
our security forces and even on the citizens themselves.”
Analysts
worry that the security lapses that resulted in the Chibok kidnapping remain in
place in many schools. A recent survey by the United Nations children’s
agency’s Nigeria office found that only 43% of minimum safety standards are met
in over 6,000 surveyed schools.
According
to NnamdiObasi, senior adviser for Nigeria at the International Crisis Group,
“the basic security and safety arrangements in schools are weak and sometimes
non-existent," adding that military and police personnel are still
"very much inadequate and overstretched."
Authorities
rarely provide updates on efforts to free the Chibok women. However, some of
the freed women have said in the past that those still missing have been
forcefully married to the extremists, as is often the case with female kidnap
victims.
About
a dozen of the Chibok women managed to escape captivity since early 2022. They
all returned with children.
“I
think we shouldn’t even think about them anymore,” said one of the Chibok
mothers in the film. “I feel like they are already gone."
Source:
africanews.com
https://www.africanews.com/2024/04/05/nigeria-ten-years-after-chibok-girls-abduction-a-film-remembers-them/
---
Foreigners
Hired Iranian Women to Shed Hijab, Says Khamenei
APRIL
5, 2024
Iran's
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has claimed that foreigners have hired women to
remove their mandatory hijab.
"I
received credible reports that they [foreigners] hired some [women] to break
the rules in the society and appear without hijab," Khamenei said.
However,
he did not present any evidence.
During
a meeting with government officials on Wednesday evening, he underlined the
mandatory nature of the hijab.
Khamenei
emphasized that "maintaining the hijab was of utmost importance,"
framing it as the primary objective, as "the enemy intends to regress the
country to a pre-revolutionary era," which he characterized as
"disgraceful."
Addressing
the gathering, Khamenei labeled noncompliance with mandatory hijab among women
as an "imposed challenge." He asserted that such an issue had not
existed in the country previously.
"Hijab
is an integral component of Sharia law, applicable to all Muslim women. It is a
legal mandate that transcends personal beliefs, demanding compliance from both
adherents and non-adherents of Sharia," he said.
Further
emphasizing the imperative of adherence to wearing hijab, Khamenei stressed its
obligatory nature across governmental, judicial, and other institutional
domains.
All
women in Iran are required to wear a headscarf and loose-fitting trousers under
their coats in public.
But
a growing number of women have appeared in public without a headscarf since
months-long protests erupted in September 2022 following the death of a
22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody.
Amini
had been arrested in Tehran for allegedly wearing her headscarf
"improperly."
Source:
iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/127053-foreigners-hired-iranian-women-to-shed-hijab-says-khamenei/
---
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/mehsa-ghorbani-iranian-female-referee/d/132094