Christian Girl Misbah Imdad of Pakistan, Hiding To Escape Forced Marriage and Conversion to Islam
New
Age Islam News Bureau
27
October 2021
•
Women in Saudi Arabia Have Thirty-Three Percent Share of Human Rights Reforms Approved
In Recent Times
•
Fifty-four Percent Workers in Tourism Sector of Saudi Arabia Are Women
•
Iran’s Women’s Basketball Team to Hold Camp in Turkey
•
Aminah Shafiq a Birmingham Engineer's PPE Headscarf Design to Inspire Muslim
Women
•
In Somalia, a Rare Female Artist In The Highly Conservative Horn Of Africa
Promotes Images Of Peace
•
Egypt Reviews Efforts To Empower Women At UNHCR Session
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/christian-misbah-imdad-pakistan-conversion/d/125658
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Christian
Girl Misbah Imdad of Pakistan, Hiding To Escape Forced Marriage and Conversion
to Islam
10/26/2021
17-year-old Christian Misbah Imdad
-----
By
Shafique Khokhar
Faisalabad
(AsiaNews) - For over a month, 17-year-old Christian Misbah Imdad has been
forced to live with her family hidden in fields and makeshift shelters to
escape from Muslim Muhammad Saqib.
Faisalabad
(Punjab) has the record for the highest number of cases in Pakistan of forced
marriages and conversions to Islam. The minor has ended up in the sights of the
man who wants her in marriage against her will. Pakistani law, often
disregarded in practice, does not allow marriages of minors without explicit
consent.
Local
sources report Saqib's repeated threats to the girl's father, Imdad Masih, to
force him to give up his daughter in marriage. Faced with refusal, the Muslim
denounced his son (and Misbah's brother) Shahnawaz Masih for stealing money and
kidnapping Saqib's daughter. In reality, these are trumped-up charges for
crimes that never happened, but the police were satisfied with the complaint to
arrest Shahnawaz, who is currently in prison.
Contacted
by AsiaNews, from her hiding place Misbah confirms the situation of extreme
difficulty in which the family finds itself: "My brother's small
children are here with me, but we can
not feed them because we have to stay hidden to escape Saqib." Meanwhile,
her father Imdad launches an appeal for his son to be cleared of false charges
and to be allowed to return to freedom, in addition to calling for justice for
the whole family.
The
Christian activist Baba Intazar Gill says the release of 24-year-old Shahnawaz
should be a matter of hours upon payment of a bail, but there is no official
announcement yet.
The
story of Misbah is not an isolated case. According to the NGO based in Lahore
Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), in mid-October there were at least 36 young
people under 18 years old who were not Muslims but were kidnapped and forcibly
converted to Islam. Of these, 21 are Christian and 15 are Hindu. In addition,
cases of forced conversions increased by 177% last year.
Against
the phenomenon of kidnappings for forced marriages had also intervened the
Pakistani Parliament, with a law discussed and approved in the Senate in May
2019, but never applied in practice. In the House, in fact, members of the
Assembly and the government linked to the Ministry of Religious Affairs opposed
it because it was "contrary to sharia and Islam." 2019 Unicef data
for Pakistan reported that 21% of girls are given in marriage by their family
of origin before they turn 18, 3% before even 15. The country is 6th in the
world for the number of child brides.
Source:
Asian News
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Women
in Saudi Arabia Have Thirty-Three Percent Share of Human Rights Reforms
Approved In Recent Times
(Representational Photo)
----
By
Syeda Faiza Kirmani
27th
October 2021
Women
in Saudi Arabia have had a significant share of human rights reforms that the
Kingdom has approved in recent times, a senior official was quoted by the local
media. Out of over 90 human rights reforms that the Kingdom has approved, 30
reforms cater to women and family alone, boosting women’s rights.
In
a speech at the Saudi Family Forum 2021, Head of the Human Rights Commission,
Dr Awwad Al Awwad said that there are several programs to support families
including those for the women, the elderly and those with disabilities. Al
Awwad hailed the recent changes as ‘historic’ and informed that there has been
a significant decrease in cases of violence, issues of divorce, custody and
alimony.
The
Secretary-General of the Family Affairs Council, Dr. Hala Al Tu.waijri said
that they worked on many steps including family counselling, providing support
for the first 100 days of a child’s life, taking into account the child’s best
interest in all procedures and legislations.
The
Forum is one of the building blocks of awareness for the Saudi family and helps
them to chart the right path to a better future.
“The
radically new approach reflected in Vision 2030, the National Transformation
Programme 2020, recognizes the need to encourage full female participation in
the job market, which will drive the cultural changes needed to enable women to
become both more economically productive and more independent,” Al Tuwaijri
said.
Reforms
for women have only come in recently with crown prince Mohammad bin Salman’s
plans to introduce a family law to safeguard women from facing discrimination
and difficulties in marriage, divorce and all aspects involving their family.
A
few of the many laws introduced and amended to suit a modern Saudi woman’s
needs include rights of inheritance, enforcing court rulings regarding child
custody and family law with the help of police. The laws also ensure that the
man refusing to abide by these new reforms is brought to court, by force, and
may also be punished with imprisonment of up to 3 months.
Source:
Siasat Daily
https://www.siasat.com/33-of-reforms-in-saudi-arabia-cater-to-womens-rights-official-2215346/
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Fifty-four
Percent Workers in Tourism Sector of Saudi Arabia Are Women
October
26, 2021
RIYADH
— Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb said that 54 percent of workers in the
tourism sector are women.
Al-Khateeb
made his remarks at the fifth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII)
here Tuesday.
“The
salaries of female employees in the tourism sector are fair enough when
compared to their male peers.”
He
expressed optimism for the pandemic to end soon and for the sector to receive a
growth era soon, especially that nations are now interconnected.
Al-Khateeb
revealed that the tourism sector in Saudi Arabia targets 100 million visitors
annually by 2030.
“Saudi
Arabia will witness a huge wave of growth and many initiatives will be launched
in the near future in this sector, as it is considered one of the largest
investment areas in the region.”
The
minister stressed that the Kingdom is working to unify travel protocols around
the world, especially that travel during the novel coronavirus pandemic has
become a nightmare for passengers. He highlighted the importance of developing
unified travel laws for the world.
The
tourism sector is one of the most affected sectors by the pandemic, as it has
decreased by 80 percent, he said. The minister added that 60 million jobs were
lost in the tourism sector during 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Al-Khateeb
noted that the crisis resulting from the pandemic forced countries to offer
several long-term plans with the aim of recovering from the pandemic, noting
that the tourism sector is among the most affected sectors in the world along
with the travel and transport sector. The crisis has severely affected the
sector that contributes to one out of ten jobs.
The
minister also called on countries to cooperate with the private sector that
runs the tourism sector, noting that the role of the Ministry of Tourism is
legislative and organizational and that there are more than seven billion
people living on the planet, including 1.6 billion who managed to travel in
2020.
This
is a record number, where the World Travel Organization estimates the number to
exceed three billion, noting that 80% of the tourism industry are served by
small- and medium-sized enterprises.
He
also expressed Saudi Arabia's aspiration to play an important role to create
several initiatives, whether at the training or sustainability level, through
launching a global center for sustainability.
During
a session titled "Future of tourism-global perspectives", in the FII,
which saw the participation of Corporation Carnival CEO Arnold Donald along
with the minister, the Carnival CEO said that government and the private sector
have to cooperate to contribute to the recovery of the tourism and travel
sector and face challenges that the sector endured during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He
noted that several jobs in the sector have been lost in 2020, stressing the
importance of harmony among all sectors in all countries.
He
also highlighted the importance of fair distribution of vaccines among
countries, enabling people to take it as easily as possible, noting that
countries should prepare laws and health procedures to allow travel for all,
such as the digital passport and putting public health as a top priority.
He
said: "Governments should support their economies in a way that serves growth
according to certain policies, and countries should work together to guarantee
speeding up achievements related to sustainability and economic sustainability
to ensure the resumption and sustainability of travel and tourism sector and
caring for the climate change.”
He
pointed out that life is gradually coming back to normal, which allowed
creating more than two million jobs after the pandemic.
Source:
Saudi Gazette
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Iran’s
women’s basketball team to hold camp in Turkey
October
26, 2021
The
Iranian team are going to play Botas, Cankaya Universitesi and Ormanspor ahead
of the competition.
The
FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 Division B will be played at the Prince Hamza Hall
in Amman, Jordan from Nov. 7 to 13.
For
the Group Phase, the six teams are separated into two groups of three according
to the latest update of the FIBA World Ranking..
Iran
will play Lebanon in their opening match on Nov. 7. The 2017 runners up
Kazakhstan will then start their search for promotion to Division A against
Indonesia. Hosts Jordan will play their first game against Indonesia later on
Nov. 8 against Indonesia.
The
Final Phase starts on Nov. 10 with two Qualification to Semi-Finals games
between teams that finished 2nd and 3rd place in their groups.
The
top team from each group will directly advance to the semi-finals which will be
played on Nov. 12 after a rest day. The 5th place classification game will also
be played as the first game on this day.
The
Final of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 Division B will then be played on Nov.
13 as well as the 3rd place classification game.
The
winner of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 Division B gain promotion to play in
the Division A for the next edition of the Women’s Asia Cup.
Source:
Tehran Times
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/466357/Iran-s-women-s-basketball-team-to-hold-camp-in-Turkey
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Aminah
Shafiq a Birmingham Engineer's PPE Headscarf Design to Inspire Muslim Women
Oct
27, 2021
A
senior engineer says she hopes her PPE headscarf design will inspire Muslim
women who want to pursue a career in engineering and construction.
Aminah
Shafiq, from Birmingham, said her design makes it safer for women wearing a
headscarf to work in operational jobs.
The
24-year-old, who works for Severn Trent, said she came up with the idea during
lockdown.
She
said she hopes it "represents them and accommodates" women.
"I
started thinking about the two concerns I had - the free flowing material and
the fact that the helmet wouldn't fit over my head," she said.
"I
took inspiration from the athletic headscarves which have more of a snug fit
and none of the free-flowing materials."
Ms
Shafiq, who graduated in engineering two years ago and is now a senior water
advisor, added that she did not want women to "struggle" like she
did.
"Let's
create something that represents them and accommodates them and maybe convince
them to pursue operational roles."
Dr
Freeha Azmat, an associate professor at University of Warwick's manufacturing
group, welcomed the integrated design.
"When
you have a hijab you have a lot of pins and by having the pins away from the
PPE, this gives a lot of advantage because you don't need to worry about
adjusting your hijab," she said.
"On
top of that, pins could be a hazard as well, so I think by having something
that is just integrated into the uniform, it gives a lot of protection."
Student
Nageen Fatima said she felt it helped Muslim women to "visualise
themselves" and "not limit themselves to different professions that
do not allow for these customisations."
Source:
BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-59053217
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In
Somalia, A Rare Female Artist In The Highly Conservative Horn Of Africa
Promotes Images Of Peace
By
HASSAN BARISE
Oct
27, 2021
MOGADISHU,
Somalia (AP) — Among the once-taboo professions emerging from Somalia’s decades
of conflict and Islamic extremism is the world of arts, and a 21-year-old
female painter has faced more opposition than most.
A
rare woman artist in the highly conservative Horn of Africa nation, Sana Ashraf
Sharif Muhsin lives and works amid the rubble of her uncle’s building that was
partially destroyed in Mogadishu’s years of war.
Despite
the challenges that include the belief by some Muslims that Islam bars all
representations of people, and the search for brushes and other materials for
her work, she is optimistic.
“I
love my work and believe that I can contribute to the rebuilding and pacifying
of my country,” she said.
Sana
stands out for breaking the gender barrier to enter a male-dominated
profession, according to Abdi Mohamed Shu’ayb, a professor of arts at Somali
National University. She is just one of two female artists he knows of in
Somalia, with the other in the breakaway region of Somaliland.
And
yet Sana is unique “because her artworks capture contemporary life in a
positive way and seek to build reconciliation,” he said, calling her a national
hero.
Sana,
a civil engineering student, began drawing at the age of 8, following in the
footsteps of her maternal uncle, Abdikarim Osman Addow, a well-known artist.
“I
would use charcoal on all the walls of the house, drawing my vision of the
world,” Sana said, laughing. More formal instruction followed, and she
eventually assembled a book from her sketches of household items like a shoe or
a jug of water.
But
as her work brought her more public attention over the years, some tensions
followed.
“I
fear for myself sometimes,” she said, and recalled a confrontation during a
recent exhibition at the City University of Mogadishu. A male student began
shouting “This is wrong!” and professors tried to calm him, explaining that art
is an important part of the world.
Many
people in Somalia don’t understand the arts, Sana said, and some even criticize
them as disgusting. At exhibitions, she tries to make people understand that
art is useful and “a weapon that can be used for many things.”
A
teacher once challenged her skills by asking questions and requiring answers in
the form of a drawing, she said.
“Everything
that’s made is first drawn, and what we’re making is not the dress but
something that changes your internal emotions,” Sana said. “Our paintings talk
to the people.”
Her
work at times explores the social issues roiling Somalia, including a painting
of a soldier looking at the ruins of the country’s first parliament building.
It reflects the current political clash between the federal government and
opposition, she said, as national elections are delayed.
Another
painting reflects abuses against vulnerable young women “which they cannot even
express.” A third shows a woman in the bare-shouldered dress popular in Somalia
decades ago before a stricter interpretation of Islam took hold and scholars
urged women to wear the hijab.
But
Sana also strives for beauty in her work, aware that “we have passed through 30
years of destruction, and the people only see bad things, having in their mind
blood and destruction and explosions. ... If you Google Somalia, we don’t have
beautiful pictures there, but ugly ones, so I’d like to change all that using
my paintings.”
Sana
said she hopes to gain further confidence in her work by exhibiting it more
widely, beyond events in Somalia and neighboring Kenya.
But
finding role models at home for her profession doesn’t come easily.
Sana
named several Somali artists whose work she admires, but she knows of no other
female ones like herself.
Source:
AP News
https://apnews.com/article/africa-religion-islam-somalia-mogadishu-e7f7959afc49a1b80a6f33c0b7429fe4
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Egypt
reviews efforts to empower women at UNHCR session
26
Oct 2021
In
a speech before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in
Geneva, Maya Morsy reviewed the progress Egypt made to implement the articles
of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) in the past 10 years.
The
NCW chief pointed to the prime minister's decision to establish the first unit
to combat violence against women nationwide.
Egypt
was the first Arab country to conduct the Economic Cost of Gender-based
Violence Survey, which showed an increase in the rates of domestic violence by
19% and an increase in the rate of wives being subject to violence from their
husbands by 7%, Morsy said.
She
added that the 2014 constitution included more than 20 articles regulating the
issues of citizenship, equality and criminalising violence and
non-discrimination.
Since
2014, the representation of women in parliament has increased to 28%, in the
Senate to 14%, in ministerial posts to 25%, and in the diplomatic posts to 56%,
she said.
A
woman, Faiza Abu El-Naga, was appointed as a presidential adviser for national
security in 2014 for the first time in Egypt, Morsy said. Two women have been
appointed as governors, a female has been named president of an economic court,
and a woman was appointed as first deputy governor of the Central Bank.
She
added that, for the first time, 109 female judges and prosecutors have been
appointed in the State Council and the Public Prosecution last week.
The
unemployment rate among women decreased from to 17.7% from 24% in 2020.
On
women health, the chairman of the NCW said presidential health initiatives were
launched for women, including one for the early detection of breast cancer and
other diseases which reached 19 million women, leading to a decrease in the
percentage of women suffering from the disease.
Source:
Ahram Online
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