Bangladesh Muslim Women’s Group Launches Campaign For ID Cards Sans Photos To Maintain The Islamic Custom Of Purdah
New Age Islam News Bureau
29 April 2022
• Woman Suicide Bomber Change In Baloch Rebels’
Strategy?
• Today, The Abaya Is A Far Cry From The Plain Black
Cloak Of The Past
• Pakistani Women Fight Gender Norms To Build Online
Health Business
• Iraqi Communists Raise Flag For Women's Rights,
Secular Politics
• Women In Yemen Trapped By War, Abuse
• Samsung Ad Featuring Woman Running Alone At 2am
Criticised As ‘Naive’
• SC Agrees To Consider Listing Pleas Against
Karnataka HC’s Hijab Verdict
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/bangladesh-muslim-islamic-custom-purdah/d/126893
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Bangladesh Muslim Women’s Group Launches Campaign For
ID Cards Sans Photos To Maintain The Islamic Custom Of Purdah
Representative Photo: La Parensa Latina
----
April 25, 2022
By Azad Majumder
Dhaka, April 25 (EFE)- A group of Muslim women in
Bangladesh have launched a campaign demanding the authorities issue them the
National Identity Card (NID) without a photo, thus allowing them to maintain
the Islamic custom of purdah (veil), which mandates that women should not be
seen by men not related to them.
The initiative was launched in late March, when dozens
of women covered in black burqas from head to toe held an unusual press
conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka and voiced their demands.
“We raised two demands to the government: first, give
us the National Identity Card without a photo so that we can maintain purdah,”
and second, “appoint enough female officials at all offices so that women, who
want to maintain purdah, can communicate,” Sharmin Yasmin, leader and
spokesperson of the group Mohila Anjuman, told EFE.
Yasmin acknowledged that the identity card was
required for official work such as registering property and managing bank
accounts but insisted that “we cannot compromise purdah for this.”
The group has suggested providing a proof of identity
with the help of digital biometric fingerprints and iris recognition.
Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country with a
traditionally moderate image, and therefore such campaigns based on a
conservative interpretation of Islam are rare and draw special attention.
The NID, launched in 2008, is prepared on a plastic
chip and is required for services such as obtaining a driving license,
passport, buying and selling land and property, opening bank accounts,
accessing government financial aid or support, vehicle registration and
marriage registration.
Since 2010, it has been made mandatory for every adult
Bangladeshi citizen to carry the card.
The group’s demand has been rejected by some experts,
who have said that the face is key to identifying a person.
“An id card without a photo is not practical. You won’t
see it anywhere in the world, including Saudi Arabia,” former election
commissioner M Sakhawat Hossain told EFE.
He said that when the card was being introduced in
Bangladesh, many women had initially refused to be photographed citing
religious reasons.
“They were then assured that in Islam there was no bar
on giving photos for official purposes. They were convinced this would not be
used for any purpose other than government works,” Hossain said.
Mohila Anjuman leader Sharmin argued that there are
instances of issuing identity cards without a photo even in the western world.
She cited the example of Amish and Mennonite
communities in the United States, who refused to be photographed and lived
without ids for more than 100 years until the state of Virginia in 2019 passed
a law to give them id cards without photos.
“Amish and Mennonite communities have it in their
religion that they won’t take photos for ids and that’s why they did not have
id for 100 years. We have it in our Islam and we raised our demand that way,”
she said.
The leader insisted that her group did not want photos
to be removed from all NIDs, but simply wanted to be allowed an exemption from
the requirement for those who did not want to be photographed.
“We don’t have a problem if someone else wants to be
photographed,” she said.
Sharmin said that the group was set to formally
present their demand to the authorities, but in March a woman had filed a writ
petition in court demanding photo-less ids.
Source: Laprensalatina
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Woman Suicide Bomber Change In Baloch Rebels’
Strategy?
BLA released this photo of
Shari Baloch, the suicide bomber behind the University of Karachi attack
[Handout/BLA]
-----
By Kiyya Baloch and Akbar Notezai
28 Apr 2022
It is doubtful the minibus driver paid any attention
to the inconspicuous woman standing by the roadside as he swung his vehicle
into the entrance of Karachi’s Chinese cultural centre on Tuesday.
He may not have even seen the next moment, captured on
CCTV, when the veiled woman, dressed in traditional clothes and facing away
from the oncoming vehicle, took a tiny step sideways and detonated the
explosive-laden bag she was clutching.
The video shows the suicide bomber, identified as
Shari Baloch, a 31-year-old mother of two, instantly disappearing in a ball of
flame that ripped through the minibus.
Four passengers were killed, including three Chinese
citizens who were on the way to teaching Chinese at the University of Karachi’s
Confucius Institute.
The attack was swiftly claimed by the Baloch
Liberation Army (BLA), a banned group fighting for the independence of
Pakistan’s troubled Balochistan province. It often targets Chinese personnel.
In an email to Al Jazeera, the group said: “The
mission was carried out by the first female fidayeen (martyr) of the Brigade.”
“Targeting director and officials of Confucius
institute, the symbol of Chinese economic, cultural and political expansionism,
was to give a clear message to China that its direct or indirect presence in
Balochistan will not be tolerated,” the email added.
In its statement, the BLA warned China to immediately
halt what it called its “exploitation projects” in Pakistan. Otherwise, the
group warned, hundreds of its “highly-trained male and female members” are
ready to carry out “harsher” attacks in future.
BLA’s first female suicide bomber
The Majeed Brigade, the BLA wing charged with organising
suicide attacks, said it was their first-ever operation carried out by a woman.
The arrival of a female suicide bomber has alarmed
Pakistan’s security analysts, who say the attack demonstrates the “remorseless
radicalisation” of the separatists waging a bloody rebellion for more than 20
years.
Until recently, the Baloch separatists denounced
suicide bombing, especially by women.
They see themselves as secular nationalists and have
little in common with Muslim armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban, who
have long made extensive use of suicide bombing.
Mohammad Amir Rana, an Islamabad-based security
analyst, said the Baloch rebellion increasingly resembled Peru’s Shining Path –
a leftist armed group known for using brutal methods of attacks.
The Peruvian group’s top leaders often give examples
of revolutionaries such as Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela and Bhagat Singh while
talking about resistance movements. They also denounce religious extremism.
“The group [BLA] is not worried about using the
operational tactics used by the Islamist militant groups as long as it is
fulfilling the purpose,” Rana told Al Jazeera.
Shari Baloch is emblematic of how the separatist
movement, once run by tribal chiefs, has come to be dominated by Balochistan’s
often highly educated, middle-class professionals.
According to a document shared with Al Jazeera by one
of Pakistan’s security agencies, Baloch was a school teacher with a master’s
degree in zoology. At the time she blew herself up, she was enrolled in another
postgraduate programme at the University of Karachi.
Baloch’s husband is a dentist and professor at Makran
Medical College in southern Balochistan. Her father is a retired civil servant
who worked as a registrar at the University of Turbat, her hometown.
Her three brothers are a doctor, a deputy director at
a government-funded project, and a civil servant. One of her five sisters
teaches English at the University of Turbat.
Her uncle is a retired professor, a renowned author,
poet, and human rights activist.
At least two of her relatives are known to have been
involved in the armed struggle in Balochistan.
Opposed to Chinese investments
There have been five rebellion movements in
Balochistan since Pakistan’s independence in 1947. The current one, which began
in 2000, is the longest.
The fighting has killed thousands. Many people
suspected of supporting the rebellion have been subjected to illegal
“disappearances” by Pakistan’s security forces.
In 2018, the leader of the ethno-nationalist
Balochistan National Party (BNP), Akhtar Mengal, presented a list of 5,000
alleged victims of enforced disappearances to the then government of Prime
Minister Imran Khan.
However, Mengal parted ways with Khan’s Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf-led coalition government two years later, accusing it of
failing to find the missing persons.
The Baloch nationalists are opposed to China investing
heavily in the region’s roads, power stations, and the Arabian Sea port of
Gwadar. They accuse Beijing of looting and taking away their resources without
providing benefits to the local residents.
The BLA also accuses China of not only aiding Pakistan
but strengthening it in its fight against rebels by providing equipment to the
Pakistani military.
The separatists fear the wave of investment will
encourage people from elsewhere in Pakistan to move to the province, making
them a minority in their traditional lands.
There has been a spate of attacks against Chinese
nationals in Karachi and Balochistan in recent years.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the latest
attack and visited the Chinese embassy in Islamabad to express his grief.
“[This incident] would be investigated expeditiously and the country would make
an example out of the culprits behind this horrific attack,” he tweeted.
The premier also directed the authorities to increase
the security of Chinese residents and institutions in Pakistan.
Michael Kugleman, a United States-based Pakistan
expert, said China would not be put off by such attacks.
“China is willing to tolerate a lot of risk in its
investment strategy, including terrorism concerns,” he said. “This horrific
attack won’t prompt China to pack its bags and leave Pakistan.”
‘Not a time not to push for peace’
The Majeed Brigade has been behind most of recent
suicide attacks in Pakistan, including an armed assault on the Chinese
consulate in 2018 and a similar strike on the city’s stock exchange in 2020.
The group was founded in 2011 and named after Abdul
Majeed Baloch, who attempted to assassinate former Pakistani Prime Minister
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1974 for ordering a military operation against the
Baloch nationalists a year before.
Pakistani security forces killed Majeed before he
could assassinate Bhutto.
With an intensive military crackdown on Balochistan
rebels, security analysts believe the BLA is likely to refocus its energies on
Karachi and make greater use of female fighters who can operate without
attracting suspicion.
“It’s certainly the worst security situation China has
faced in Pakistan since the late 2000s but now the economic presence is far
greater and so there’s far more at stake for both sides,” Andrew Small, an
expert on China and a transatlantic fellow with German Marshall Fund Asia
programme, told Al Jazeera.
Islamabad-based columnist Mosharraf Zaidi said the new
government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif should reach out to mainstream
Baloch politicians to try and engage with the separatists.
“The primary challenge of the wave of terrorism in
Pakistan today is the need for government to engage with separatists from the
Baloch belt,” Zaidi told Al Jazeera.
“There is not a time not to push for peace.”
The suicide attack by a Baloch woman has also caused
fear among other women from the community protesting in various cities of
Pakistan for the release of their loved ones whisked away by Pakistani
intelligence agencies.
“This shift in insurgency is scary,” said Sammi
Baloch, 23, the daughter of Deen Muhammad, a medical doctor missing since
mid-2009.
Sammi was only 10 when her father was kidnapped from
his clinic in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district. She has since been protesting in
Islamabad, Karachi and Quetta for his release.
“Families of missing persons are already under the
radar. Such an attack by a Baloch woman allows Pakistani authorities to repress
peaceful women, who have been struggling peacefully for the safe recovery of
their beloved ones for many years now,” she told Al Jazeera.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Today, The Abaya Is A Far Cry From The Plain Black
Cloak Of The Past
Khaoula Ghanem
April 28, 2022
DUBAI: For thousands of years, the Abaya has been a
sartorial staple for women across the Middle East. The loose robe-like garment,
which dates back 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia, constitutes national dress
in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, serving as a symbol of modesty.
Today, the Abaya is a far cry from the plain black
cloak of the past. With time, the floor-length robe has evolved into a fashion
statement, with many different designs available. The new wave of garments,
while engineered for modesty, feature contemporary elements like
jewel-encrusted palm trees, black lace trim and embroidered hearts, and come in
experimental and playful colours, silhouettes and fabrics that are anything but
basic.
However, no matter how much it has evolved, the Abaya
remains the ultimate garment for women across the region. Read on for five
contemporary Abaya brands that need to be on your radar.
Designer Rawdha Thani’s abaya line, which means “my
daughter” in Berber, is known for its beautiful contemporary and ethereal
designs. The Emirati-Moroccan designer’s instantly recognizable label, launched
during the pandemic, has gained recognition for its pastel palette, fringed
sleeves and celestial-inspired embroidery. The collection of pistachio,
lavender, mint, rainbow sorbet and canary-coloured robes has practically
revolutionized the concept of the abaya, spawning a number of copycats along
the way. The brand recently introduced a line of colourful heart-embellished
tote bags made out of shiny vegan leather, and a range of kaftans for Ramadan,
which sold out before the designer even had a chance to shoot a look book.
Saudi designer Nora Aldamer launched Chador in 2013
after noticing increasing demand for traditional clothing with a modern twist.
It was not long before the Parsons graduate’s label made a name for itself in
Aldamer’s hometown of Riyadh. With its tailored, trench-inspired Abayas in
non-traditional hues, the brand found great success with Saudi women seeking
something to fulfil their contemporary taste while remaining conservative and
sticking to their roots.
This handmade Abayas label was founded by Emirati
electrical engineer-turned-fashion-designer Al Anood Al-Mansoori. Inspired by
the movement of birds, Al-Mansoori has churned out a lineup of on-trend abaya
designs for the holy season that will ensure you are the best dressed person at
any sahoor gathering. Standout designs include a graphic printed chiffon abaya
that comes with a matching dress and opera gloves that can also be worn on
their own. In addition to a Ramadan collection, Wings features an expansive
lineup of edgy and contemporary designs that includes an exquisite black
overlay embroidered with a giant bird on the back, and creations that merge the
trenchcoat with the traditional abaya, and can easily double as outerwear.
If you feel like you have been seeing Kamin’s abayas
everywhere, well, it is because you have. Our Instagram feeds have been flooded
with pictures of regional it-girls smiling and posing in an array of chic
pieces named after traditional Arabic female names from the Dubai-based brand.
Everyone from Riyadh-based Nia Amroun to Emirati blogger Nouf Al-Tamimi have
been spotted wearing the label’s super-affordable tailored sets and satin
kaftans. For Eid, the brand has whipped up a new festive collection of overlays
with matching sheilas in a muted color palette of grey, ivory, blush and black.
But those who wish to get their hands on the coveted new collection may want to
act fast — two of the designs are already sold out.
Founded in 2017 by an anonymous local design duo
hailing from the UAE, the rising brand is coveted for its modern take on the
Emirati woman’s sartorial staple by way of deconstructed tailoring, oversized
silhouettes and a vibrant color palette, making it anything but the traditional
black abaya. The brand earned its name from the duo’s sustainable business
model that entails producing limited pieces for purchase. Once an item is out
of stock, even if there’s a demand, the designers will not produce more. “We
just want girls to feel like they have something exclusive and that’s just for
them,” explained the designers.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2072546/lifestyle
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Pakistani women fight gender norms to build online
health business
Apr 28 2022
After surviving a car crash that left her
hospital-bound and unable to walk for months, Saira Siddique embarked on a
mission: to make health care accessible to Pakistanis.
The 45-year-old left her high-profile job in
government health to pitch her app linking doctors and patients by video to
investors.
Months later, with COVID-19 hurting businesses across
Pakistan, Siddique's firm, MedIQ, burst on to the scene as the country's first
"virtual hospital".
"(The pandemic) really gave a boost to my
company," said Siddique.
With face-to-face doctors' appointments restricted due
to contagion risks, Siddique's company, connecting patients across Pakistan
with doctors and pharmacies, was suddenly in demand.
MedIQ served 16,000 patients in its first six months.
Almost two years on, the number has increased by nearly 20 times.
Siddique is one of a growing number of women in
Pakistan who are defying conservative gender norms by jumping into the health
tech industry.
"Running a startup business is like riding a
bull," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from the capital
Islamabad.
"You never know which way or how hard it's going
to buck."
Siddique's company raised $1.8 million in an early
stage of financing last week after receiving mentoring in the World Bank-backed
WeRaise programme, which helps women-led ventures in Pakistan raise capital.
Doctor brides
Others are blazing a similar path.
Two entrepreneurs in Karachi wanted to use the
untapped potential of tens of thousands of so-called "doctor brides"
- female doctors who quit their medical practice after marriage in a country
where millions have no access to medical care.
Iffat Zafar Aga and Sara Saeed Khurram's platform
allows female medics to provide e-consultations from their homes to patients in
mostly rural communities.
In the country of some 210 million the doctor-patient
ratio stands at just a little over one for every 1,000 patients, according to
the World Bank.
Countries such as the United States, Japan and Brazil
have more than two doctors for every 1,000 patients, while Britain has nearly
four.
The pair has set up dozens of 'e-health clinics' in
low-income communities where, for as little as 80 rupees ($0.43), a patient
visits a nurse who uses the online platform to reach a doctor.
Khurram said they provided free consultations during
COVID-19 after the government sought their help - a task made possible by their
team of 7,000 doctors, many of whom are former doctor brides.
The phenomenon of doctor brides remains pervasive with
many families encouraging their daughters to study medicine not for a career,
but to bolster marriage prospects.
More than 70% of the country's doctors are women, but
only half will ever practise, according to the Pakistan Medical Commission.
Late-night deals
From domestic violence to anxiety over job losses and
the grief of losing family members to COVID-19, requests for virtual
appointments on ReliveNow, an online mental health care platform, surged during
lockdowns.
Amna Asif, its founder and CEO, said most of the
clients were women, including single mothers, struggling to juggle children
while working from home.
"This put us on the radar, and helped increase
our sales," said Asif by phone.
Founded in 2018, ReliveNow has clients - 80% of whom
are women - in dozens of countries including Pakistan, Britain, Canada and
Australia.
But the road to success for firms like MediIQ and
Sehat Kahani has been paved with misogyny, stereotypes and discouragement.
Entrepreneurship has long been a boys' club that
rarely opens its doors to women in Pakistan where they are typically home-bound
while men work and call the shots.
Businesswomen say they have to work twice as hard to
be taken seriously and are scrutinised far more than their male peers.
"There is a perception that women cannot start a
successful business, let alone scale it up," said Siddique, adding that
she had to pitch to nearly 140 investors - twice as many as men usually do.
Venture capitalists, nearly all of whom are men,
frequently asked Siddique why she didn't have male co-founders. Sehat Kahani's
Khurram was asked to be accompanied by a man in future meetings.
Her business partner Aga was pregnant with her second
child when a prospective investor told her that he would invest only if he got
a 70% share of the firm.
"On top of that he advised me to take care of
(the) kids and my home and not take on so much stress," she said as
Khurram recounted how another asked her what she would do if she had to pick
between her family and business.
Social and cultural norms limit women's opportunities
to meet potential investors or even mentors, the women said.
Aga said she had to decline several late night
meetings over coffee or shisha.
"Many fundraising deals are clinched in a
lighter, more informal environment after dinner or over a smoke," said
Siddique of medIQ.
"I wasn't able to do that."
Double bias
That may explain why there are so few businesswomen in
Pakistan.
Despite the pandemic, 83 startups in Pakistan raised
$350 million in 2021 - more than five times the amount in 2020 - according to a
report by Islamabad-based invest2innovate, a consulting firm that supports
early-stage enterprises in emerging markets.
But only 1.4% of all investments raised in the past
seven years were by solely women-run startups, it found.
Kalsoom Lakhani, founder of invest2innovate, urged
investors to stop asking women "ridiculous questions".
"As investors it's important to be more aware of
... unconscious biases," she said, adding that the first step was to
rethink "how we speak to women founders who are fundraising".
ReliveNow's Asif said she has her male employees
present the pitches.
"I am the brain behind them," she said.
That's why it is important for women investors to join
the fray since they are more likely to invest in women-led businesses, said
Shaista Ayesha, CEO and director of impact investor SEED Ventures.
"(They) understand their struggles and what a
woman has gone through to be there, and would be more willing to offer
assistance and mentoring," she said.
Plus, she said, women find it more comfortable to
pitch to female investors.
But Asif faces a double bias, with investors reluctant
to fund a startup that works on mental health in a country where there is still
a lot of stigma associated with mental illness.
"It has been extremely difficult to find
investors," she said, adding that the absence of a mental health authority
exacerbates the problem of legitimacy.
While other women in the industry forecast their
companies' growth in the millions, ReliveNow, which largely survives on
revenues, grants and awards, may be forced to shut shop, said Asif.
"It is good to know when to let go."
Source: Geo TV
https://www.geo.tv/latest/414222-pakistan-women-fight-gender-norms-to-build-online-health-business
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Iraqi Communists raise flag for women's rights,
secular politics
29/04/2022
For now the movement with the hammer-and-sickle banner
and the peace dove logo -- Iraq's oldest active political party, founded in
1934 -- claims only a few thousand members and no deputies in parliament.
The party, which on Sunday marks the May 1 Labour Day,
boycotted last October's election to protest against the country's
"corrupt ethno-sectarian power-sharing system that was installed after the
US war and occupation of the country in 2003".
Iraq's other parties represent religious and ethnic
groups: Shiite Muslims, who by convention hold the prime ministership, Sunnis
who take the parliamentary speaker's post, and Kurds who control the
presidency.
The ICP, by contrast, advocates a political system
independent of religion -- a remote prospect for now in the country of 40
million where Christian and Turkmen minorities also have their own, small
parties.
"The rhetoric around the separation of mosque and
state in Iraq is still very weak," said political scientist Marsin
Alshamary, with the Middle East Initiative project.
For now political power is concentrated in the
majority Shiite camp, split between firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr's bloc and a
rival alliance of pro-Iran groups, the Coordination Framework.
"The religious parties that control the country
make life hard for women and for young people who want freedom," said one
ICP supporter, Zeinab Aziz, a 53-year-old civil servant.
"The Communist Party is the first to defend
women."
'Voice for underprivileged'
The ICP may be on the margins now, with only two MPs
in the previous parliament, but in Iraq's turbulent history, it has had its
moments of glory.
In the 1940s and 1950s, it "promoted social
justice, anti-imperialism and gave a voice to the underprivileged," said Tareq
Ismael, political scientist at the Canadian University of Calgary.
After the revolution of July 14, 1958 which overthrew
the monarchy, Communist support for Abdelkarim Qassem, the country's first
president, was decisive.
The ICP suffered repression in the 1970s under the
ruling Baath party of Saddam Hussein, but was reborn in the wake of the US-led
invasion and the fall of the dictator.
Today, the ICP has just "a few thousand"
members, said party chief Raed Fahmi, 71, down from about 15,000 in the 1960s.
For now it wants to promote ideas rather than govern,
mainly social justice and women's rights -- a challenge in a country where
patriarchal and tribal traditions remain strong.
A recent UN report found that "significant
barriers persist in Iraq" to gender equality, and the World Bank says
women make up only 13 percent of the workforce, one of the lowest rates in the
world.
'The Old Guard'
The Communists want to change that, vowing in a
statement "to promote women's participation and economic empowerment,
ensuring their safety and providing protection for them within the family and
society".
"The role of women is difficult, but there is
progress," said Fahmi. "We see young people who have a much more open
attitude."
Progressive ideas around rights and social justice
were picked up passionately by a youth-led protest movement that emerged in
October 2019, venting their rage against Iraq's graft-tainted governing elite.
But the ICP failed to make itself heard strongly at
the time, remaining mostly engaged with its traditional allies such as trade
unions and student associations.
"In many ways, it represents the old guard of
civil society," said Alshamary.
"The culture of the ICP is not keeping up with
the political culture of the street.
"And this is a lost opportunity for the ICP,
which could easily capitalise on the anti-Islamist wave and position itself as
the torchbearer of all that is liberal and secular."
One of the party's loyal supporters, Abdallah Ghaleb,
was hopeful for a bright future for the ICP.
At 22, he said he calls himself a communist
"because there is too much corruption and unemployment in Iraq. The
Communist Party supports ordinary people."
Source: France24
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Women in Yemen trapped by war, abuse
April 28, 2022
A recent report by a Yemeni-based NGO revealed
shocking numbers regarding the scale of abuses women in Yemen have faced since
the beginning of the war.
SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties said in its
report issued March 8 on International Women’s Day that more than 4,000 cases
of abuses against women were recorded until the end of 2020, including murder,
injury to the body, arbitrary arrest, forced disappearance, torture and
prevention of movement.
The report also indicated that there are more than
900,000 displaced women in the camps of the Marib governorate as a result of
the ongoing war in the country.
The Houthi movement has the highest rate of abuses
against women with 70% of the cases, followed by Yemen government forces with
18%, the Southern Transitional Council with 5% and other parties with 7%. The
violations varied between deliberate killings and severe injuries against
female civilians and activists — acts that are tantamount to war crimes and
crimes against humanity, according to the report.
Former Yemen Minister of Human Rights Houria Mashhour
told Al-Monitor, “The war is a calamity for all people, affecting both men and
women. But its impact on women is more severe. These usually lose their male
relatives who perish in the conflict, and (the women then) become the sole breadwinner
for their children and families, struggling to get work and the basic
necessities of life such as water, food, medicine and other needs that have
become scarce.”
“The war affects young women and men as well. The
latter have to drop out of school to go to the battlefields. Also, women face
health problems, especially mothers, in light of the deterioration of health
services and the dispersal of families due to displacement or asylum,” she
added.
Huda al-Sarari, head of the Aden-based Defense Foundation
for Rights and Freedoms, told Al-Monitor, “Over the past few years of the war,
women have faced gradual systematic practices to strip them of their rights
amid the absence of laws, the disruption of state institutions and the
militias’ control of most areas across the country, especially groups
affiliated with the Houthis.”
“The de-facto authorities have committed crimes and
violations against women that have never occurred in the history of Yemeni
conflicts, stripping women of their rights and committing transgressions with
purely ideological motives,” she said. “Many women have been sacked from their
jobs and were not allowed to take up jobs in certain professions. This is not
to mention restrictions of their rights, freedoms and prohibition of travel
except with a male companion."
Sarari added, “Women have been under close scrutiny
when it comes to community activities. They are banned from gathering and
marching to call for rights and freedoms. This is not to mention arrests and
[forced] disappearances. Many women faced death sentences and life sentences in
prison for their actions, judged as being immoral from a wrong and narrow
religious perspective.”
“Women face great challenges in demanding justice in
the absence of laws and the lack of legal protection. Meanwhile, women’s and
human rights organizations have been preoccupied with humanitarian relief as
the war is still ongoing, in which women continue to be the first victims
through systematic attacks on their lives and physical safety in the absence of
psychological support, laws to protect women in armed conflicts, and the lack
of commitment by the warring parties to international human rights laws and
absence of accountability in Yemen,” Sarari said.
In a report issued in December 2020, the Yemeni
Network for Rights and Freedoms documented 4,282 cases of abuse against women
in Yemen from Sept. 21, 2014 (the start of the war), to Oct. 25, 2020. This
figure includes 1,456 deaths; 2,379 cases of injury as a result of artillery
shelling, the explosion of mines and explosive devices, and sniping; and 447
cases of kidnapping, disappearance and torture.
Qoboul Abdo al-Absi, head of the Qarar Foundation for
Media and Sustainable Development, told Al-Monitor, “The war has caused the
displacement of millions of Yemenis from the conflict areas. Some 5 million
were displaced, mostly children and women who were left to look after their
families amid poor basic services, which made them vulnerable to exploitation,
torture, violence, deterioration in economic conditions and deprivation of
education.”
“Women were also marginalized in the government
formation (in 2020), with only one woman being part of the negotiations. Many
women are also arrested and tortured with no regard to social morals. Many
female activists and journalists are being threatened and arrested. They are
not immune to abuses and killings in the most horrific ways, torture or
boobytrapped, as was the case of the journalist Rasha,” she added, in reference
to Rasha al-Harazi who was killed in a car explosion in Aden in November 2021.
Source: Al Monitor
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/03/women-yemen-trapped-war-abuse
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Samsung Ad Featuring Woman Running Alone At 2am
Criticised As ‘Naive’
Hibaq Farah
Thu 28 Apr 2022
A Samsung advertisement featuring a woman jogging
alone at 2am has been criticised as “unrealistic” and insensitive.
The ad, titled Night Owls, which was promoting the
Galaxy Watch4, Galaxy Buds 2 and Galaxy S22 phone, features a young woman
running at 2am, with earbuds in, through dark streets and alleyways. At one
point she runs past a man on a bike on a deserted bridge.
While the young woman is running, the voiceover says:
“Sleep at night. Run faster. Push harder. Follow the herd. Not for me, I run on
a different schedule: mine.”
The advert comes after the death of 23-year-old
Ashling Murphy, who was attacked while out running along a canal near
Tullamore, west of Dublin, earlier this year, and the murders of Sarah Everard
and Sabina Nessa.
Jamie Klingler, the co-founder of Reclaim These
Streets, said the ad was “completely and utterly tone deaf, especially in light
of Ashling Murphy”.
“It’s the Kendall Jenner Pepsi moment for Samsung. It
isn’t safe for us to run at night and the last thing I want is for anyone to
violate our space while we are trying to exercise. It’s almost laughable how
bad this ad lands,” she said.
Klingler said it was difficult to imagine a woman who
would feel safe running at that time of night, and that was what made the ad
“beyond unrealistic”.
Sahra-Isha Muhammad-Jones, the founder and head of
partnerships of Asra running club, a group for Muslim women, said: “There seems
to be an unawareness of how unsafe it is for women running at this time. As a
woman who is running, it’s not safe already, but as a Black Muslim woman, it’s
even more unsafe. This advert felt like what would happen in an ideal world.”
“It can be triggering for women watching this advert
and then having to come to terms with what is actually happening in reality to
women in this country.”
Muhammad-Jones added that the advert felt like a
missed opportunity to spark a meaningful discussion on women’s safety.
“My first reaction was to laugh. The ad is completely
unrealistic and totally blinkered,” says Esther Newman, the editor of Women’s
Running magazine.
“We have worked for years on the issues of women’s
safety when it comes to running and the vast majority of women in our audience
have felt unsafe whilst running, from heckling to actual abuse. We know that
women often think about stopping running because of this,” says Newman.
“Women feel unsafe when it comes to running at any
point of the day. Seeing a woman choosing to run at 2am, with headphones, it’s
just ludicrous.”
Newman said that the ad was not empowering and instead
was “shortsighted, naive and comical”.
Samsung said: “The Night Owls campaign was designed
with a positive message in mind: to celebrate individuality and freedom to exercise
at all hours.
“It was never our intention to be insensitive to
ongoing conversations around women’s safety. As a global company with a diverse
workforce, we apologise for how this may have been received.”
Source: The Guardian
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SC Agrees To Consider Listing Pleas Against Karnataka
HC’s Hijab Verdict
Apr 27, 2022
The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it will
consider listing for hearing a bunch of petitions against the Karnataka high
court’s verdict that held the wearing of hijab by Muslim women was not an
essential religious practice.
“I will list. Wait for two days,” Chief Justice of
India NV Ramana told senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, who represents one of the
petitioners in the appeals filed last month.
In March, the Chief Justice declined to put a date to
hearing these cases on two separate occasions when lawyers for the petitioners
urged for an urgent hearing of their appeals challenging the high court’s March
15 verdict.
On March 16, he refrained from indicating any date of
hearing after senior counsels Sanjay Hegde and Devadatt Kamat implored the
court to urgently list the matter. Hegde appeared for girl student Niba Naaz,
while Kamat represented another student, Aishat Shifa.
Again, on March 24, justice Ramana declined to assign
a date of hearing, observing that cases pertaining to the ban on hijab have
nothing to do with school examinations and the matter should not be
sensationalized.
On that day,
solicitor general Tushar Mehta intervened on behalf of the Karnataka government
and opposed urgent listing of the petitions.
On March 15, a full bench of the Karnataka high court
declared that wearing the headscarves was not mandatory in Islam. It upheld the
ban on hijab by the state government in schools and colleges through a February
5 executive order, which led to widespread protests.
The high court’s three-judge bench, headed by chief
justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, held that the Quran does not mandate wearing of hijab
for Muslim women and that the attire “at the most is a means to gain access to public
places” and a “measure of social security”, but “not a religious end in
itself”.
The court also favoured a “speedy and effective”
investigation into the stoking of the hijab controversy in Karnataka,
suspecting some “unseen hands at work to engineer social unrest and disharmony
in the state”.
Dismissing a bunch of petitions filed by some girl
students pressing wearing of hijab as their religious right protected under the
Constitution, the court upheld the state government’s authority to prescribe
uniform in educational institutions under the Karnataka Education Act, saying
that “adherence to dress code is a mandatory for students”.
Hours later, Niba Naaz filed an appeal in the Supreme
Court, arguing that the high court had erred in creating a dichotomy between
the freedoms of religion and conscience, and had inferred that those who follow
a religion cannot have the right to conscience.
“The Hon’ble High Court has failed to note that the
right to wear a hijab comes under the ambit of ‘expression’ and is thus
protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It is submitted that
clothing and appearance fall within the ambit of the right of expression
guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution,” the petition argued.
Aishat Shifa, another petitioner before the high
court, also filed an appeal in the Supreme Court a day after the March 15
judgment. The petition by students of PU College in Udupi – epicentre of the
protests seeking to wear the hijab – was mentioned by Kamat for an urgent hearing
on March 16 when the court said it would look into the plea, but did not set
down the cases for hearing.
Source: Hindustan Times
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/bangladesh-muslim-islamic-custom-purdah/d/126893