Muslim Women Leaders From US In Israel On Solidarity Mission
New Age
Islam News Bureau
16 December 2023
·
Muslim
Women Leaders From US In Israel On Solidarity Mission
·
Women
Granted Access to Tehran Stadium
·
Women In
Gaza Search For Beauty Between The Bullets
·
Taliban Sending
Afghan Women To Prison To Protect Them From Gender-Based Violence, Says UN Report
·
US Yazidis
Sue France’s Lafarge For Aiding ISIL Violence
·
Women’s
Participation A Must For Progress: Mushaal Hussein Mullick
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-us-israel-solidarity-mission/d/131323
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Muslim Women Leaders From US In Israel On
Solidarity Mission
The American
Muslim leaders meet in Sderot with Meirav Barkai of Kibbutz Be'eri, whose
81-year-old mother and 20-year-old nephew were murdered in the Hamas attack on
Oct. 7. Photo by Yoav Lin.
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December 15, 2023(OFAKIM, Israel, JNS) —
A reverential silence fell on the room
as the four American-Muslim women bowed their heads in prayer on Friday for the
victims of the Hamas attack on Israel.
Moments earlier, the interfaith crowd in
the apartment in this western Negev city, which included Muslims, Jews, a
white-turbaned Sikh, a mixed Israeli family and Mayor Yitzhak Danino, stood
mesmerized as the Arabic words of supplication for the Israelis murdered in the
massacre were intoned.
“The Muslim world was [mostly] silent
about what happened on Oct. 7,” Bangladeshi-born Farhana Kohrshed, 51, who
moved to Boston as a teenager, told the group. “We are here to denounce what
Hamas has done to you.”
Not your usual tour group
The extraordinary delegation of Muslim
women leaders traveled, in extraordinary times, through war-torn southern
Israel this weekend, braving renewed Hamas rocket attacks as the cease-fire
collapsed and taking cover outside as the projectiles struck nearby.
The group, which was organized by the
Combat Antisemitism Movement, first made its way to the abandoned city of
Sderot, which at its nearest is less than a mile from the Gaza Strip.
They hunkered down under a playground as
rockets struck while they viewed damaged homes and heard the story of
81-year-old GeulaBaher. When the Hamas terrorists broke into her home in
Kibbutz Be’eri, she told her husband and nephew to hide. The terrorists then
fatally stabbed her in her living room.
About 10 percent of the Gaza border
kibbutz’s 1,100 residents were murdered on Oct. 7.
Be’eri had been on their itinerary, but
with the end of the ceasefire and the renewal of the war, it was closed to all
non-military personnel on Friday.
Next, they traveled to Ofakim, which
lost 52 residents in the attack. They visited the bullet-ridden home of Rachel
Edri, the grandmother who outsmarted the Hamas terrorists who had taken her and
her husband hostage.
They then met the Elfasi family. The
mother, Tali, a 40-year-old Moroccan Muslim woman, and her husband, David, a
56-year-old Moroccan Jew, have six children and have lived in the city for the
last two decades. They do not have a safe room, and so sheltered with an
ultra-Orthodox Jewish upstairs neighbor during the Hamas attack.
The visitors then headed to a meeting
with leaders in the Bedouin city of Rahat, who spoke about some of the 19
members of their community who were among the 1,200 persons murdered on Oct. 7.
At each stop, the women repeatedly
embraced the victims’ families, offering them strength.
The real Israel
“This is the real Israel that you never
hear about on the news,” said Anila Ali, 56, president and CEO of the American
Muslim and Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council. “This is the Israel nobody
knows about,” she told JNS during the tour.
Ali was born in Pakistan where, she
said, she was taught to “hate and fear,” and moved to the United States as a
young mother after several years in Saudi Arabia showed her a different version
of Islam. She recently made headlines—and received death threats from California,
where she used to live—for her speech at last month’s massive March for Israel
in Washington, D.C., which ended with the Hebrew words “Am Yisrael Chai,” “The
Nation of Israel Lives.”
As Muslim Americans we are in a unique
position to show others a mirror,” she said. “The evil is [among] us who do not
allow our children to live in peace and want perpetual war.”
The war that began nearly two months ago
is not about Israelis and Palestinians but about good and evil, Ali said.
‘Israel is fighting for the world’
“Universally we are taught that Israel
is the oppressor and that the Palestinians have lost their homeland,” said
Soraya M. Deen, 60, from Los Angeles, who was born in Sri Lanka and came to the
United States as a young adult. “It’s like an oath to support the Palestinians,
and people don’t even differentiate between Hamas and Palestinians. Many lines
are blurred.”
She said that the muted reaction of the
Muslims in the world and their failure to acknowledge Hamas’s brutality on Oct.
7 as well as concern about the growing antisemitism in the United States
prompted her to come on the five-day trip.
“Evil prevails when good people do
nothing,” Deen said. “I feel Israel is fighting for the whole world.”
Source: heritagefl.com
https://www.heritagefl.com/story/2023/12/15/news/muslim-women-leaders-from-us-in-israel-on-solidarity-mission/19252.html
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Women Granted Access to Tehran Stadium
Around 3,000
women were granted access to Azadi Stadium on December 14 to attend the Iran Pro
League match with nearly 60,000 men,
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December 15, 2023
FIFA President Gianni Infantino has
trumpeted that his policy of engagement with the Islamic Republic of Iran over
the discriminatory treatment of women in football is bearing fruit after a small
group were allowed into the Tehran derby this week.
Around 3,000 women were granted access
to Azadi Stadium on December 14 to attend the Iran Pro League match with nearly
60,000 men, after Infantino met in September with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi
in New York to discuss “progress made regarding the presence of women in
football stadiums.”
"It was, therefore, with great
delight that I learned around 3,000 women attended the Tehran derby between
Persepolis FC and Esteghlal FC today. Thanks to the ongoing dialogue between
FIFA and the Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation, progress is being
made," the head of football’s world governing body said in a statement
issued on the social media platform X.
“It was, therefore, with great delight
that I learned around 3,000 women attended the Tehran derby between Persepolis
FC and Esteghlal FC today. Thanks to the ongoing dialogue between FIFA and the
Islamic Republic of Iran Football Federation, progress is being made.
For more than four decades, Iran's
clerical establishment has opposed the idea of women being allowed in stadiums
with male fans, and only a restricted number of them have been allowed to
attend a few games in recent years.
There has been minimal progress on the
issue since calls were made on FIFA last year to ban Iran from the World Cup in
Qatar because of the continued exclusion of women from football matches.
The calls came against the backdrop of
women-led nationwide protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini
while she was in police custody for allegedly wearing her mandatory headscarf
improperly.
The testimony of a young Iranian woman
who sought to attend the Tehran derby this week highlights the challenges faced
by women who wish to attend men's sport events.
She said she had witnessed several women
being denied entry to the stadium despite having valid tickets.
"They were told that the seats were
full and to go home," the woman said. "Their tone was harsh. One of
the officers even shouted, 'Either you leave or we'll take you away.'"
The witness herself, who asked to remain
anonymous, tried to purchase tickets online shortly after they went on sale,
but a message stated that the stand was already full.
"Tickets were being sold on the
black market for between 2 and 5 million tomans ($40 - $100)," she said.
"My sister and I decided to go to the stadium in person to see if we could
get tickets."
In 2019, a football fan named Sahar
Khodayari died after setting herself on fire over fears that she would be
jailed for trying to attend a match while wearing a disguise.
Infantino said he would be traveling to
Iran “in the near future to further discuss football-related matters”
"Iran is a significant force in
Asian football and it is important that we continue to nurture the positive and
fruitful working relationship we have built," he added.
Source: iranwire.com
https://iranwire.com/en/women/123571-little-progress-women-granted-access-to-tehran-stadium/
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Women In Gaza Search For Beauty Between
The Bullets
15 December, 2023
If the open-air prison of Gaza wasn't a
claustrophobic enough backdrop for Arab and Tarzan Nasser's 2015 feature debut,
then the beauty salon thirteen ladies find themselves trapped in definitely is.
Theirs is a female-centred story, a
truly cynical one, highlighting the tension, anxiety and feminine rage
experienced by a cross-section of Palestinian women trapped both physically and
mentally by the patriarchal forces of Israeli occupation.
The events are limited to not just one
hot day but one location, the aforementioned salon run by Christine (Victoria
Balitska) a Russian woman who married a Palestinian student she met at
university.
She has lived in Gaza for 12 years with
her now husband and daughter, who is desperate to leave the shop but is
forbidden because of the lingering threat just outside the door. That this
military-controlled city is a more attractive place to live than Christine's
homeland tells you a little about the sort of struggles faced by those normal
working people battling corrupt government oppression.
"The Nassers transform this typical
haven for female solidarity and turn it into a danger zone with animosity
threatening to bubble over into all-out warfare"
Christine employs Wedad (Maisa Abd
Elhadi), a tearful, anxious young woman in a toxic relationship with local
criminal Ahmed (Tarzan Nasser). He lurks outside the salon with a stolen lion
that makes him and his gang a target for Hamas, who soon show up and trigger a
new violent conflict to erupt.
Keeping the men mostly in the periphery
adds to the confined atmosphere in this dilapidated salon with limited beauty
resources. The visual irony of women wanting to do themselves up in a place so
run down reinforces the film's title too.
The customers bide their time quietly
(and not so quietly) judging one another in sometimes funny but mostly
uncomfortable ways. If sharp looks and side-eyes could cut then there would be
no one left standing in this salon.
From the loudly whispered criticism of
divorcee Eftikhar (HiamAbbass) to the snide remarks levelled at Salma (Dina
Shuhaiber), a young bride-to-be, by Sameeha (Huda Al Imam) her mother-in-law,
these interactions speak to a culture still defining women in terms of the
Madonna-Whore complex and built on internalised sexism, misogyny and religious
hegemony.
The Nassers transform this typical haven
for female solidarity and turn it into a danger zone with animosity threatening
to bubble over into all-out warfare. In the latter half of the film, it does.
This sort of characterisation feeds into the more catty tropes around women
which, I found at times hard to swallow.
Yet even at their most horrendously
malicious moments of name-calling and literal hairpulling, the strong ensemble
cast articulates these women's fears, motivations and hopes without veering
into melodrama. Shots often capture more than one person in a frame, adding
emotional texture to the cause and effect of various snipings or reactions to
the outside world.
Despite Eftikhar's arrogant, uppity
persona, Abbass uses subtlety to display the insecurity of being left for a
younger woman in the way she observes Salma's bridal preparation.
Balitska maintains a patient air as her
customers throw shots at her and the other women but the frustration in her
eyes tells a different story.
Manal Awad provides much of the comic
relief as Safia a drug taker with zero filter whose insertion into other
people's dramas is a way to deflect from her own experience of domestic abuse.
Awad shines in a particularly potent
scene. The salon goes quiet as Safia imagines a government run by women and she
goes around the room giving out various job titles.
Where Nadine Labaki's 2007 salon-set
drama Caramel avoids directly mentioning the current events of its Beirut
setting (it was shot just before the Israel-Lebanon war broke out in July
2006), Dégradé is explicit.
References to Israeli drones and
checkpoints, the corruption of Hamas, Fatah and various political entities,
inform the heavy bitterness festering in nearly every woman.
It's heavy-handed, for sure, and the
climactic final act jarringly shifts from the female to a male perspective.
short-changing our investment in the story. But maybe that's a more honest
reflection of the poisonous power of patriarchy, especially with the continuing
conflict in Gaza. Men are the driving force and women are taken for a ride.
Source: newarab.com
https://www.newarab.com/features/degrade-women-gaza-search-beauty-between-bullets
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Taliban sending Afghan women to prison
to protect them from gender-based violence, says UN report
December 16, 2023
Taliban officials are sending Afghan
women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a new
UN report.
Before the Taliban seized power in 2021,
there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centres in Afghanistan where
survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge.
Now there are none, said the UN report
published on Thursday.
Officials from the Taliban-led
administration told the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that there was no
need for such shelters or that they were a Western concept.
The Taliban sends women to prison if
they have no male relatives to stay with or if the male relatives are
considered unsafe, the report said.
Authorities have also asked male
relatives for commitments or sworn statements that they will not harm a female
relative, inviting local elders to witness the guarantee, it added.
Women are sent to prison for their
protection "akin to how prisons have been used to accommodate drug addicts
and homeless people in Kabul," the report said.
The Associated Press contacted
Taliban-led ministries about where survivors of gender-based violence can seek
help, what protection measures are in place, and the conviction rates for
offenders, but nobody was available for comment.
August 15 is now known as a national
celebration day for the Taliban in Afghanistan, but the UN says it's nothing
worth celebrating.
Women and girls have been increasingly
confined to their homes since the Taliban takeover in 2021. They are barred
from education beyond sixth grade, including university, public spaces like
parks, and most jobs.
They are required to take a male
chaperone with them on journeys of more than 72 km and follow a dress code.
A Taliban decree in July ordered the
closure of all beauty salons, one of the few remaining places that women could
go outside the home or family environment.
Afghanistan has, for years, ranked among
the worst places in the world to be born female.
Millions of girls were out of school
before the Taliban takeover for cultural and other reasons. Child marriage,
violence and abuse were widespread.
Rights groups warned that Taliban rule
would enable violence against women and girls and decimate any legal
protections for them.
Women are no longer working in the
judiciary or law enforcement, not allowed to deal with crimes of gender-based
violence, and only permitted to attend work when called upon by their male
supervisors, according to the UN report.
Source: abc.net.au
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-16/taliban-sending-afghan-women-to-prison-gendered-violence/103237818
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US Yazidis sue France’s Lafarge for
aiding ISIL violence
15 Dec 2023
Hundreds of Yazidi Americans have
launched a class action lawsuit accusing French cement maker Lafarge of
supporting violence carried out by ISIL (ISIS).
Led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia
Murad, the group filed the lawsuit on Thursday at a court in east New York,
accusing the French conglomerate of conspiring to provide material support to a
campaign of violence. Now United States citizens, the Yazidis are survivors of
ISIL violence that started when the group targeted their homeland of Sinjar in
northern Iraq in 2014.
During that campaign, Murad was
kidnapped and held by ISIL for three months. After escaping and fleeing to
Germany, she became an activist working with survivors of trafficking and
genocide. In 2016, she sued ISIL commanders with the help of human rights
lawyer Amal Clooney. In 2018 she was awarded the peace prize.
“When ISIS attacked Sinjar, my family
was killed, and I was taken captive as a slave. I was exploited and assaulted
every single day until my escape,” said Murad.
The plaintiffs were represented by
Clooney, former US diplomat Lee Wolosky, and US law firm Jenner & Block.
According to the lawsuit, Lafarge “aided
and abetted ISIS’s acts of international terrorism and conspired with ISIS and
its intermediaries”. The plaintiffs demand that the company “must pay
compensation to the survivors”.
Lafarge has admitted to a conspiracy
that aided ISIL by providing millions of dollars in cash to the group,
according to a statement by law firm Jenner & Block and is alleged to have
provided ISIL with cement to construct underground tunnels and bunkers used to
shelter ISIL members and hold hostages, including captured Yazidis.
This is not the first time the company
has faced such accusations. Families of US soldiers and aid workers killed or
injured by ISIL fighters at the al-Nusra Front filed a similar lawsuit against
Lafarge in July.
The French company also pleaded guilty last
October in a US court to a charge that it made payments to groups designated as
terrorists by the United States, including ISIL, so that it could continue
operating in Syria. Lafarge agreed to pay $778m in forfeiture and fines as part
of the plea agreement.
“It is shocking that a leading global
corporation worked hand in hand with ISIS while ISIS was executing American
civilians and committing genocide against Yazidis,” Clooney said in a
statement. “We hope that this case will send a clear message that supporting
terrorists cannot be ‘business as usual’ and that there will be justice for the
victims.”
Centuries of persecution
For centuries, the Yazidis have been
persecuted for their religious beliefs by the Ottomans, Arabs and most
recently, ISIL.
“Our religion is an ancient Mesopotamian
one, connected to nature. We pray to TawusîMelek, who is symbolised as a
peacock. So, because we pray to a ‘peacock angel,’ we’ve been called ‘devil
worshippers,’” Wahhab Hassoo, co-director of NL Helpt Yezidis, a Dutch
organisation fighting for the rights of the community, told Al Jazeera.
Yazidis mainly inhabit the mountainous
regions of northwest Iraq. They consider the mountain valleys of Lalish and
Sinjar sacred. The community can also be found in parts of Turkey, Armenia and
Syria.
ISIL views Yazidis as devil-worshippers.
When the group took control of Iraq’s major cities in 2014, it killed and
enslaved thousands, forcing many into camps for displaced people in Syria and
Iraq. Some also fled to other parts of the world to seek refuge.
In 2016, The US determined ISIL
committed genocide against Christians, Yazidis and Shia Muslims.
In May 2021, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan,
special adviser and head of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote
Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD), said: “I can
confirm to the [UN Security] Council that based on our independent criminal
investigations, UNITAD has established clear and convincing evidence that
genocide was committed by ISIL against the Yazidi as a religious group.”
Murad said that the tragedy for them is
that the horrors they experienced took place under the awareness and support of
powerful corporations like Lafarge.
“Still, the responsible parties have not
been held accountable,” she said.
“In filing this lawsuit, I stand
alongside my fellow Yazidi Americans seeking justice and accountability from
those whose actions enabled our nightmare.”
Source: aljazeera.com
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/15/yazidis-in-the-us-file-lawsuit-against-french-company-lafarge-for-aiding-is
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Women’s Participation A Must For
Progress: Mushaal Hussein Mullick
December 16, 2023
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime
Minister for Human Rights and Women Empowerment, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, on
Friday emphasized the pivotal role of women’s full-fledged participation in
driving economic prosperity.
She was speaking at the inaugural
ceremony of the “Pakistan Style and Furniture Expo,” which showcases articles
from all provinces, capturing the richness of their respective cultures.
Mushaal expressed admiration for the
Expo, acknowledging its impressive presentation of the intricate and diverse
cultural lifestyle trends inherent to Pakistan.
She articulated that the Expo serves as
an invaluable platform, offering an opportunity for artisans, designers, and
businesses to showcase their most exquisite creations.
She said that artisans and designers had
poured their creativity and dedication into crafting these articles, creating
pieces that resonate with the diverse and dynamic global design landscape.
Mushaal Hussein Mullick and Sabein
Hussein Mullick (Focal Person to SAPM) were deeply moved by the remarkable
craftsmanship and innovative spirit showcased by the artisans. They were of the
view that every exhibit stood as a powerful testament to the nation’s rich
heritage, artistic ingenuity, and contemporary innovation.
Mushaal applauded the participation of
women and transgender entrepreneurs in the expo.
Mushaal highlighted that narrowing the
gender gap in Pakistan through dedicated efforts in women empowerment,
particularly within the political sphere was a main component of the 100-day
plan initiated by the Ministry of Human Rights.
She proposed the establishment of an
Implementation Council underscoring the significance of translating legislative
intentions into tangible actions.
The council would play a vital role in
ensuring the enforcement of passed legislations related to women’s empowerment,
she added.
Mushaal remarked that the nation’s
economy was demonstrating signs of stability, with the stock market displaying
positive indicators. She specifically commended the personal endeavours of the
Chief of Army Staff, acknowledging and appreciating his significant
contributions to the overall economic stability of the country.
Expressing deep concern, Mushaal
conveyed the distress her family was experiencing due to the persecution of her
husband Yasin Malik by India.
Critiquing the recent Indian Supreme
Court’s verdict on the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status, she emphasized
the verdict had no legal standing.
Mushaal also unveiled her initiative to
establish a Kashmir Advisory Committee under her leadership. She elaborated
that the committee would offer comprehensive recommendations to the Government
in response to the Indian Supreme Court’s decision.
She also drew attention to the
demographic changes being made in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir
(IIOJK) by the Modi-led Indian government to influence any future plebiscite.
Source: tribune.com.pk
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2450182/womens-participation-a-must-for-progress-mushaal
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-us-israel-solidarity-mission/d/131323