New
Age Islam News Bureau
06
November 2021
• Saudi
Women Obtain Favourable Verdicts in ‘Adhl’ Lawsuits against Their Parents or
Legal Guardians Who Refused To Let Them Get Married
• Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan bar Afghan Women from Operating as Aid Workers
• Islamophobia
in London: Muslim Women Live In Fear of Racism
• Discover
the Hijabi Photographer Whose Self-Portraits Are En Vogue
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/arab-women-freezing-eggs-motherhood/d/125723
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Arab
Women Freezing Their Eggs to Pursue Their Dream of Motherhood When the Time Is
Right
Law
that states eggs frozen for 'social' reasons must be used within ten years
(stock image)
-----
Natasha
Tynes
05
November, 2021
Egg
freezing or mature oocyte cryopreservation is gaining traction among Arab women
who want to secure their ability to get pregnant in the future.
A
combination of public awareness and social media campaigns by women who have
done the procedure have prompted many to pursue their dream of motherhood by
banking their eggs for future use when the time is right.
"We
have seen an increase over the past two years of proportionately more Arab
women freezing their eggs," Katherine Borge, CEO of the UAE branch of
Bourn Hall fertility clinic, told The New Arab.
"In
2019, about 40 percent of our total egg freezing patients were of Middle
Eastern descent, including from the GCC, compared to now where over 60 percent
of our total egg freezing patient population in 2021 are Arab women,"
added Katherine.
Awareness
campaigns on social media
UAE-based
fertility doctor Ahmad Fakih agreed that more Arab women are going through the
egg freezing procedure.
"The
number of Arab women seeking fertility preservation is on the rise thanks to
the increasing awareness around the subject, with influencers sharing their
fertility preservation journey, and with the law in the UAE being recently amended
to allow single women to undergo the treatment," Dr Fakih told The New
Arab.
Several
Arab influencers who had gone through the egg freezing procedure posted about
it on social media to their thousands of followers; among them was Tracy
Harmoush, who has over 200K followers on Instagram, and Alanoud Badr, who has
over 1 million followers.
"We
hope that this will help break down potential barriers or misconceptions about
this procedure and choice and open up a more healthy dialogue," said
Katherine.
Delaying
marriage
Jordanian
businesswoman Zayna Al Hamarneh who went through the egg freezing procedure
after she turned 35, told The New Arab that she had personally chosen to delay
getting married to focus on building her business and being financially independent.
Zayna,
who has been vocal about her journey on social media, said she would recommend
it for every female over 25 years old.
"It's
not only for becoming mums. There is research indicating that you can extract
stem cells from eggs and use them for medical treatment. The more medicine
develops, the more we have the ability to cure ourselves of different
diseases."
Zayna
said that while she was not the first who did the procedure for social reasons
in Jordan, she believed she was the first to speak about it publicly in her
country.
"A
number of my friends approached me after I spoke out and told me they had
already done the procedure outside of Jordan, but were embarrassed to talk
about it."
Criticism
Despite
the rise of several Arab women going through the egg freezing procedure, the
concept is still not fully embraced in the Arab World.
Egyptian
business coach Reem Mehanna who had done the procedure in her mid-thirties and
posted about it on social media was fiercely attacked online.
"After
I talked about it on social media, my video went viral, and I was attacked from
all fronts; from women and men, from people from different educational
backgrounds and different social standards, religious and non-religious,"
she told The New Arab.
"Even
members of the Egyptian parliament discussed my case and criticised me,"
she added.
"The
men who oppose it is because it is empowering for women," she said.
"They don't want to marry a woman who is in her forties and has the power
to choose whomever she wants to marry and who doesn't want to rush into
marriage just to have kids."
However,
many women approached Reem asking her for advice.
"It
made me happy that I helped women who would have married anyone for fear of
missing on motherhood, instead of waiting for the right person."
Soon
after her story went viral, Dar al-Iftaa, Egypt's primary Shariah law
legislature, issued an edict in favour of the procedure. The organisation
deemed egg-freezing legal, halal, provided the husband's sperm fertilised the
oocytes.
"That
was a very positive step, said Mehanna. "After it was announced that is
allowed in Islam, many women came forward to do the procedure."
Jordan-based
fertility doctor Dr Suleiman Ghunaim said that most of the criticism his
patients initially receive is from their families because of a lack of
awareness.
"Criticism
comes from the family because they don't want their daughter to go through a
procedure. They are worried about her virginity," Dr Ghunaim told The New
Arab.
"If
the women are not sexually active and want to do the procedure, there are ways
to keep their virginity intact such as going through the abdomen,"
explained Ghunaim.
Dr
Ahmad Fakih conquered. “Yes, most
virgins have concerns over their hymen. The procedure could be done vaginally
or abdominally. Vaginally the risk of complication is much smaller and yield of
eggs much higher at the expense of damaging the hymen,” he pointed out.
He
went on to explain that it is a “trade-off.”
“After
proper counselling, all patients elect the vaginal route as it’s much safer
with much better oocyte yield,” he explained.
The
future of eggs
So,
what happens to the eggs if the women change their minds about having kids?
"I
will call the lab and ask them to discard the eggs," said Reem. "I
don't want them to be in an experiment or get donated."
"I
won't have kids if I'm not married," she added.
Meanwhile,
Zayna said she would keep her eggs frozen. "Maybe the rules and
regulations will change in Jordan, and I can help someone else become a mom if
I didn't want to become a mother," she said, adding that she would want to
raise kids within a family setting.
Egg
donation is still illegal in many Arab countries.
"When
it comes to the law in Jordan, you can preserve eggs for many years as long as
you pay your annual fees," explained Dr Ghunaim.
"The
eggs are a priority for the patient. She can discard them or she can ship them
with her to another country. However, frozen eggs will only be fertilised if
there is proof of marriage," he added.
So,
what does the future hold for women's fertility in the Arab world?
Starting
with women's empowerment is the first step in the right direction, according to
Katherine.
"I
think that as we empower women to be represented amongst the leadership and
decision-making roles in healthcare, we'll see that impact in regulations,
research, education, and patient care, especially in the fertility
industry," explained Katherine.
Natasha
Tynes is an award-winning Jordanian-American author and communications
professional based in Washington, DC. Her byline has appeared in the Washington
Post, Elle, Esquire, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, and the Jordan Times, among
many other outlets.
Source:
The New Arab
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/why-are-more-women-freezing-their-eggs-arab-world
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Saudi
Women Obtain Favourable Verdicts in ‘Adhl’ Lawsuits against Their Parents or
Legal Guardians Who Refused To Let Them Get Married
Saudi young women enjoy coffee
in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. AP photo.
----
November
05, 2021
RIYADH
— A total of 23 young Saudi women in various regions of the Kingdom have
obtained favourable court verdicts in adhl lawsuits they filed against their
parents or legal guardians who refused to let them get married. The verdicts
were issued in the last four months.
The
practice of preventing women by their legal guardians from getting married is
known in Islamic Shariah as adhl.
The
maximum time took by the courts to complete the procedures on a lawsuit was
less than 30 days. The courts issued their verdicts within 10 to 14 days in
some of the cases while in other cases they took from 25 to 30 days. The trial
period depended on the nature of each case.
The
quick disposal of the cases came in continuation of the enforcement of the
rules approved by Minister of Justice and President of the Supreme Judiciary
Council Dr. Walid Al-Samaani for the speedy adjudication of adhl cases.
The
rules stipulate that the adhl lawsuit filed by a woman, or by any person with
an interest in the case, such as her mother or her brothers, shall be accepted
in file by the court, and for this the presence of the suitor is not required.
In
order to speed up the completion of these lawsuits, the rules stress that the
court shall take its decision on the lawsuit referred to it within 30 days. The
consideration of the lawsuit shall not be postponed from the scheduled date
except when it is absolutely necessary.
A
statement shall be issued, citing the reason for the postponement of the case
for a period not exceeding 10 days, and it is not permissible to postpone a
case for the same reason more than once.
The
rules also stipulate that the courts must take into account the privacy of such
cases and allow the judicial department to take what it deems appropriate to
preserve the privacy of the parties involved and the confidentiality of the
hearings.
Courts
are also allowed to consider adhl cases outside normal working hours, taking
into account the urgency of concluding a marriage contract.
The
rules also allow the court to authorize whoever it deems appropriate to perform
the marriage contract with the authorized official at a place agreed upon by
the two parties involved.
Source:
Saudi Gazette
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Islamic
Emirate of Afghanistan Bar Afghan Women From Operating As Aid Workers
November
06, 2021
Image Source: AP
-----
In a
new set of guidelines, the Taliban have now prohibited Afghan women from
'operating as aid workers', which is preventing the desperately needed
lifesaving aid from reaching Afghans. A local media quoted Human Rights Watch
(HRW) as saying.
"The
Taliban's severe restrictions on women aid workers are preventing desperately
needed lifesaving aid from reaching Afghans, especially women, girls, and
women-headed households. Permitting women aid workers to do their jobs
unfettered is not a matter of agencies or donors placing conditions on
humanitarian assistance, but an operational necessity for delivering that
assistance," TOLO news quoted associate women's rights director at Human
Rights Watch, Heather Barr as saying.
Only
three out of 34 provinces officially allowed the female workers to operate,
reported the news channel citing HRW.
"The
document, reviewed by Human Rights Watch, indicates that, as of October 28,
2021, Taliban officials in only three provinces had provided a written
agreement unconditionally permitting women aid workers to do their jobs. In
over half the country, women aid workers face severe restrictions, such as
requirements for a male family member to escort them while they do their jobs,
making it difficult or impossible for them to do their job effectively,"
TOLOnews quoted the report as saying.
"This
deprives the women and children who are in dire need in the far provinces, and
this also intensifies the crisis," the news channel quoted women's rights
defender, Zarqqa Yaftali as saying.
"The
Islamic Emirate (Taliban) should cooperate with the United Nations in
Afghanistan to get recognition and the (UN) will continue its assistance to the
people," TOLO news quoted civil rights activist Soman as saying.
India
TV News
--------
Islamophobia
In London: Muslim Women Live In Fear Of Racism
November
6, 2021
The
chairman of a mosque in Finsbury Park of London said they have seen a rise in
hate attacks towards Muslim women.
Mohammed
Kozbar, from the Finsbury Park Mosque in St Thomas’ Road, has called on the
government to now “recognise Islamophobia is real”.
He
said this week: “We hear a lot from women who are the main targets of
Islamophobia. They look like Muslims because of their hijab or headscarf and
sometimes they can’t defend themselves. Many of them are targeted when they are
out in public, when they take their children to school, in work or at
university.”
He
added: “Unfortunately it is happening especially for women and this is very
serious because some of them stop going out alone because they think they might
be attacked at any time.
“For
them to feel that here in the UK and in London particularly, where we have a
multicultural society, is quite disturbing and quite frightening.”
The
mosque responded to the Covid-19 crisis by opening its doors to run a
vaccination clinic, running a 24 -hour helpline for those suffering bereavement
and mental health issues and distributing leaflets abut social distancing. It
also ran a community centre giving out meals for the homeless.
November
marks Islamophobia Awareness Month.
Mr
Kozbar said the mosque itself has experienced hate crime recently via prank
calls. In the past an attempt to set fire to the mosque failed due to heavy
rainfall in 2015. In 2010 a pig’s head was placed outside on the railings.
“There
are different types of Islamophobia and different ways of attacking,” said Mr
Kozbar. “This is why Islamophobia Awareness Month is important. It is about
awareness, it is about educating the society and the communities about what is
happening.”
He
added: “In one way or another, people normalise Islamophobia. People accept
Islamophobia. Some of these women who were attacked, no one helped them to show
support or solidarity. They felt alone as if no one cared for them. This is
difficult for these British citizens to feel that way – to be marginalised in
their society and normalising the attack on them.”
Prime
minister Boris Johnson launched a report in 2019 following complaints of
Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. This year the long-awaited review was
published and did not find evidence of “institutional racism”, although found
anti-Muslim sentiment was present at individual levels.
Mr
Kozbar said: “The way forward is for the politicians to recognise Islamophobia
is real. It is there.
“They
have to deal with it as if it is any other form of racism, like antisemitism or
racism in general. It is happening in both of the main parties, Conservative
and Labour, and we haven’t seen any real action to fight it.”
He
added: “We’ve seen talk from our politicians, one of them is our prime
minister, talking about Muslim women as bank robbers and mailboxes and so on.”
The
mosque is holding an awareness-raising event on November 26 with guest speakers
and a tour of the mosque.
It
is also working with the council and the police to contact schools and hold
assemblies raising awareness about Islamophobia.
Islington’s
community chief Councillor Una O’Halloran said: “At Islington Council, we
recognise that everyone has a part to play in calling out discrimination and injustice.
There is simply no place for hate here – we are proud to be a welcoming,
inclusive borough that celebrates diversity, champions inclusion and challenges
inequality.”
Source:
ABNA24
https://en.abna24.com/news//islamophobia-in-london-muslim-women-live-in-fear-of-racism_1195892.html
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Discover
the hijabi photographer whose self-portraits are en vogue
Hafsa
Lodi
05
November, 2021
“I
am not below a man. I am not beaten. I do not need saving.” These are the
phrases that adorn the lower half of a blue maxi dress worn by a barefooted,
hijabi woman as she sits on the toilet next to the bathtub that contains her
young son. In another photo, she wears a burgundy version of the dress and
headscarf and stands amid her child’s toys.
The
woman in these photos is Jodie Bateman, a British-Muslim photographer whose
series titled My Hijab has a Voice: Revisited will be on display at Vogue
Italia’s Vogue Photo Festival in Milan from November 18 to 21.
As
one of 35 artists selected by an international jury from over 2,500
photographers, her work will appear at the prestigious publication’s Reframing
History exhibition.
It’s
a fitting theme for Bateman’s work, since throughout history, Muslim women have
been framed by both Orientalist stereotypes on one hand, and patriarchal dogma
preached by male leaders of Muslim communities, on the other.
Bateman’s
self-portraits are a breath of fresh air, giving power, control and a voice
back to Muslim women.
Bateman
and her sister Hannah are the subjects of the photos in this series. “They show
my character and humanise me, with bits of my belongings like my son’s toys and
my kitchen, to show who I am,” she says.
Muslim
women are misunderstood, to say the least, in the mainstream Western media, and
Bateman says that since veiling, she has dealt with her fair share of
prejudiced stereotypes: “That I’m oppressed, that I’m forced, that I wear it
for my husband, that I’m not modern, that I can’t mix into society and be an
artist. Especially in England anyway, people think that Muslim women can’t be
more than a bit of cloth,” she explains.
Bateman,
who currently lives in Surrey, converted to Islam in 2017 and has worn the
hijab since 2018. She says that she has always been passionate about
photography, ever since she first began clicking photos on her Sony Erickson
camera phone.
“When
I was applying to college, I was told to do something that makes me happy, and
I just thought, ‘what makes me happy? Taking pictures makes me happy.’ So I
just pursued it, and I’m so glad that I did because it blossomed into something
so great,” she says.
After
earning her undergraduate degree in photography, Bateman completed her master’s
in fine arts photography. Now, her work is attracting an international
audience, and will continue to do so with her inclusion in Vogue Italia’s
upcoming Photo Festival – an opportunity which Bateman says still feels
surreal: “I really didn’t expect it, I literally felt weak when I found out.
It’s really huge publicity.”
The
fashion magazine’s interest in Bateman’s work could be an extension of the
industry’s newfound fascination with modesty and veiling.
Over
the past decade, designers have been increasingly catering to Muslim women,
making modest silhouettes and marketing them through partnerships with hijabi
models and influencers, in attempts to tick diversity boxes while also
attracting Muslim spending power.
This
movement towards modest fashion has helped shine a light on the fact that
Muslim women who cover their skin for faith-based reasons can be just as
“modern”, “empowered” and “fashionable” as their Western, non-religious peers.
It’s
important for this movement to translate in the art world too, especially since
the Western lens often focuses on the Muslim women who “de-veil”, or portray
the hijab as a stifling symbol of repressive patriarchy.
“There’s
a lot of art that I’ve seen that’s about the women who don’t want to wear it,
and how they’re pushing it in places like Iran and I think that’s really
important as well, but I haven’t seen something like this, that celebrates
women who are wearing it,” says Bateman.
Celebratory
stories about hijabs are often overshadowed by gloomier news pieces, like the
banning of hijabs and niqabs, the Islamophobic attacks on visibly-Muslim women,
the exclusion of hijabi athletes, the “white-saviour” teachers telling their
students to take off their headscarves – the list goes on. This seemingly
simple piece of cloth is imbued with politics, but the heated discourse it
provokes often excludes those who relate to it most – Muslim women.
Too
often are Muslim women spoken about by those who don’t share their diverse
lived experiences, and Bateman hopes that her work will help change the
mainstream narrative about Muslim women who choose to cover.
Bateman
holds the shutter release cable in plain sight of her self-portrait photos when
she could have easily edited it away. Symbolising autonomy and empowerment,
it’s important for her to own her work in this way, to show that the gaze from
which she’s capturing images, is in fact her own.
Her
activist motivations have artistic roots: many of her photos are influenced by
paintings, and how female figures were historically objectified for the viewing
pleasure of men. They were portrayed nude and vain, often holding mirrors, and
Bateman juxtaposes this theme with symbols that offer more coverage – and more
substance.
“Instead
of having mirrors I had books,” she says of an image she recreated with her
sister, Hannah. The bodies of both women are fully covered, save for their
faces and hands, and in the corner of the image is a pile of books, trading in
a timeworn focus on female beauty, for female education and empowerment.
Bateman
says that John Berger’s popular book, Ways of Seeing, which analyses the hidden
messages in visual images and explores the history of artists’ fascination with
nude females as the subjects of their own idealisation and desires, deeply
impacted her photography approach. “It honestly changed my whole perception on
painting and women in art,” she says.
Bateman
also recreates an 1895 painting called Flaming June by Sir Frederic Leighton,
which features a woman with long, auburn hair, robed in an orange dress,
sleeping decadently on an armchair. Her photo inspired by this iconic painting
shows her sister Hannah in a pink dress and beige shawl lounging on a sofa
covered in sheets. “Instead of having her hair flow I used a hijab to bring
emphasis to the hijab in a state of beauty, elegance and power,” stated Bateman
in the photo’s caption on Instagram.
Bateman
hopes to now capture more Muslim women from her lens, this time combining
photography with interviews. “It’ll be more collaborative, not just my
experience but the experience of others too,” she says, adding that she is
currently seeking participants for this project.
Will
it set the stage for another photography exhibition? Perhaps, but Bateman
believes the project even has the potential to become a book.
The
platform she gains through Vogue Italia’s Photo Festival is incredibly
opportune. Muslim women are in the spotlight, with the perception of their
veils at stake, as evidenced through Western governments’ prejudiced policies
regarding hijabs.
And
on the other side of the world in Afghanistan, Muslim women remain uncertain of
their role in society, barred from attending schools and excluded from
government cabinet positions under the Taliban’s repressive rule.
Stock
images of burka-clad Afghan women, faceless, and identity-less, have
consequently become the go-to images to represent Muslim women.
As
a storyteller with unique, feminine and faith-inspired insight, Bateman is
changing the narrative, allowing the women, their faces, fashions and
surroundings, to speak for themselves.
Hafsa
Lodi is an American-Muslim journalist who has been covering fashion and culture
in the Middle East for more than a decade. Her work has appeared in The
Independent, Refinery29, Business Insider, Teen Vogue, Vogue Arabia, The National,
Luxury, Mojeh, Grazia Middle East, GQ Middle East, gal-dem and more. Hafsa’s
debut non-fiction book Modesty: A Fashion Paradox, launched at the 2020
Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
Source:
The New Arab
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/features/hijabi-photographer-whose-self-portraits-are-en-vogue
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/arab-women-freezing-eggs-motherhood/d/125723
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