Female Cyclists in Indonesia Forced to Apologise for Violating Islamic Sharia Laws by Wearing 'Sexy' Clothes in A Team Photo In
New Age Islam News Bureau
9
Jul 2020
• Women from
Kenya And Nigeria In Running for WTO's Top Job
• Tuesday’s
Primary Features N. J’s 1st Muslim Woman Candidate for Congress
• Afghan Women
Spin New Careers by Reviving Ancient Silk Road Crafts
• Pakistani
Female Footballer Abiha Haider Among 30 Most Powerful Muslim Women in Sports
• One Million
Jobs for Saudi Women By 2030
• Hindu Family
Cremates Muslim Woman as AIIMS Mixes Up Bodies Of 2 Covid Patients
• Pregnant Women
in Saudi Arabia Warned to Take Special Care During Pandemic
• Qatar Expresses
Concern Over Women Scribes Being Targeted in Arab World
• Kuwaiti Women
Call to A Change in Citizenship Laws
• Justice for Sadaf
Zahra Naqvi Will Prevail When A Man’s Slap Is Considered A Legal Crime in Pakistan
• Wazeeran
Bibi: Family Seek Justice After Pregnant Pakistani Woman Beaten To Death
Compiled ByNew Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/female-cyclists-indonesia-forced-apologise/d/122328
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Female
Cyclists in Indonesia Forced to Apologise For Violating Islamic Sharia Laws By
Wearing 'Sexy' Clothes In A Team Photo In
8 July 2020
The government
spokesman said the cyclists were allowed to go home after they apologised
'voluntarily'
------
A group of
Indonesian female cyclists have been forced to apologise for violating Islamic
sharia laws by wearing 'sexy' clothes in a team photo.
The nine women
were summoned by authorities in the conservative province of Banda Aceh after a
photo circulated online.
The women were
pictured in long-sleeved pink t-shirts and dark trousers, and most were not
wearing headscarves under their helmets.
The picture
enraged the mayor who ordered officers to track the group down, and made the
women undergo religious counselling.
'They have
violated the Islamic sharia provisions in our province which forbid sexy
clothing,' Irwan, a spokesman at the provincial government said.
He said the
women, as well as one man, were summoned
to the office.
'They have
admitted their mistake, publicly apologised and said they would not do it
again,' Irwan said.
Aceh, on the
western tip of Indonesia, is the only province that practises sharia law.
People in the
area have been publicly flogged for selling alcohol, adultery and for engaging
in gay sex.
An Acehnese
law, known as Qanun 11/2002, requires Muslims to 'dress modestly', but does not
explicitly require all to wear Muslim-approved attire, Vice reported.
Many Acehnese
support canings in public, while local religious police and vigilantes often
raid homes and workplaces to detain people on suspicion of criminal behaviour,
according to human rights groups.
The government
spokesman said the cyclists were allowed to go home after they apologised
'voluntarily'.
He said the
women were given counselling that they should dress modestly under Islamic
teachings.
Local media
showed video clips of the group apologising for their 'regrettable' act.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8502415/Female-cyclists-apologise-violating-Islamic-sharia-laws-wearing-sexy-clothes-team-photo.html
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Women from
Kenya And Nigeria In Running for WTO's Top Job
08.07.2020
Nigeria's
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a development economist and former finance minister (left
in photo), and Amina Mohamed, Kenya's sports, culture and heritage minister
(right), are among seven candidates to be the next director-general of the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
----
Nigeria's
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a development economist and former finance minister (left
in photo), and Amina Mohamed, Kenya's sports, culture and heritage minister
(right), are among seven candidates to be the next director-general of the
World Trade Organization (WTO).
Okonjo-Iweala
and Mohamed have been nominated alongside candidates from Egypt, South Korea,
Mexico, Moldova and Britain. Nominations close July 8.
The
Geneva-based organization is looking for a replacement for Brazil's Roberto
Azevedo, who is stepping down in August — a year before the scheduled end of
his four-year term.
Azevedo's
successor will need to steer the WTO through reforms and negotiations in the
face of rising protectionism, a deep recession caused by the coronavirus
pandemic and growing trade tensions — notably between the United States and
China.
There is broad
support to pick a candidate from Africa and a woman, sources following the
process told the Reuters news agency.
No African has
been director-general since the formation of the WTO in 1948.
'Political heavy
hitter'
Okonjo-Iweala
is a development and finance specialist who spent a 25-year career at the World
Bank as a development economist, rising to the position of managing director.
"Few
doubt that Okonjo-Iweala is a force to be reckoned with," the US news site
Politico reported in June, calling her a "political heavy hitter" in
an article about her nomination.
Okonjo-Iweala
was also Nigeria's finance minister twice, serving from 2003 to 2006 under
President Olusegun Obasanjo and 2011 to 2015 under Goodluck Jonathan.
During her
second term as finance minister, Okonjo-Iweala was "credited with
developing reform programs that helped improve governmental transparency and
stabilizing the economy," according to the US business magazine Forbes,
which ranked her No. 48 among the world's top 50 "Power Women" in
2015.
The
Harvard-educated economist, who holds a PhD from MIT, has also served as
Nigeria's foreign minister.
The 66-year
old sits on the board of the Twitter social media network and Standard
Chartered bank, and chairs the board of Gavi, a global vaccine alliance.
"I'm
interested in [the WTO] position because I believe in the power of trade to
lead to a shared prosperity, to lift people's lives," Okonjo-Iweala told
DW in a Facebook Live interview when her nomination was announced.
"Everybody
knows that the WTO is going through a rough time," she said, speaking from
Washington, DC.
"So I'll
be looking to see what critical reforms members can subscribe to — either
reforms to the dispute settlement system or in updating the rule book of the
WTO, which will take time," Okonjo-Iweala said.
Okonjo-Iweala
noted that Africa's share of world trade is only 3% — something that she
believes she could help increase if she were to become the WTO's
director-general.
"Going
there, I will be working for all members," Okonjo-Iweala said. "But,
of course, I'm African and I'll be interested to make sure that Africa also
benefits from whatever the WTO has to give. There is absolutely no reason why I
cannot make sure that Africa also benefits."
The Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has supported Okonjo-Iweala's
candidacy.
Mohamed:
Skilled diplomat
Kenyan Sports,
Culture and Heritage Minister Amina Mohamed is a lawyer, diplomat and
politician who has vast public service experience at the national and
international levels.
"She has
been an important player in Kenya's multilateral negotiations in bodies like
the Commonwealth and the World Trade Organization," according to the book
Muslim Women in Postcolonial Kenya, which noted "her skills in economic
and commercial diplomacy."
Mohamed, who
is from an ethnic Somali family, also held the position of foreign minister
from 2013 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold this position and the first
Muslim woman in Kenya's Cabinet.
Last Friday,
she was officially admitted to the state bar.
The
58-year-old, who speaks English, Russian and Swahili, rose through the ranks in
Kenya's diplomatic service to become Kenya's ambassador to the WTO and, in
2005, the first woman to chair the WTO's General Council.
Mohamed is a a
former assistant secretary-general of the United Nations and deputy executive
director of the UN Environment Program's Africa Office, in Nairobi.
She received a
master's of law National University of Kyiv, in Ukraine, and later a
postgraduate diploma in international relations at the University of Oxford.
Mohamed ran
for the WTO director-general position in 2013, but lost to Azevedo. He was
reelected in 2017 as the sole candidate.
https://www.dw.com/en/women-from-kenya-and-nigeria-in-running-for-wtos-top-job/a-54097484
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Tuesday’s
Primary Features N. J’s 1st Muslim Woman Candidate for Congress
Jul 03, 2020
N.J.
congressional candidate Amani Al-Khatahtbeh
-----
Like many
challengers to sitting House Democrats in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, writer
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh supports Medicare for All and the Green New Deal and wants
to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What makes her
different is that she is the first Muslim woman to run for Congress from New
Jersey, according to Jetpac, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group that trains
American Muslims to run for public office and become active in politics.
Al-Khatahtbeh
is one of two progressive Democrats challenging Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. in New
Jersey’s 6th District. Also running is Russ Cirincione, a housing lawyer with
the New York state government, who is on a slate of supporters of Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders.
At a time when
President Donald Trump ran on a platform of banning Muslims from entering the
country and went all the way to the Supreme Court to impose restrictions on
visitors from several Muslim majority nations, Al-Khatahtbeh said her candidacy
was “a moral obligation to this moment in time.”
“It’s
reclaiming our place here,” she said. “We need more representation at the
table. I grew up with my family’s Arabic satellite at home. Most kids are
saying, ‘I want to be lawyer, I want to be a doctor.' The earliest notion of
what I wanted to do was, ‘I said to myself, I want to stop a war from happening
one day.‘”
In a 2017 Pew
Research Center poll, 74% of Muslim Americans said Trump was unfriendly towards
them, with only 12% saying he was friendly.
Al-Khatahtbeh
celebrated her 28th birthday on the campaign trail. She grew up East Brunswick,
graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in political science, and now
lives in New Brunswick. She is the founder of the blog MuslimGirl.com and
author of the book Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age.
She said she
took inspiration from the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, Reps.
Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. She has talked to both of them
during the campaign, considers them mentors, and it was “because of their
fearlessness and support that I felt the courage to run for Congress.”
“I always knew
that I wanted to run for public office one day but I don’t think I ever even
imagined running this young,” she said. “I felt empowered to do so because now
we are breaking those glass ceilings.”
https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/07/tuesdays-primary-features-njs-1st-muslim-woman-candidate-for-congress.html
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Afghan Women
Spin New Careers by Reviving Ancient Silk Road Crafts
JULY 9, 2020
In this
picture taken on June 26, 2014, an Afghan worker weaves a carpet at a
traditional factory in Herat. (AREF KARIMI / AFP)
------
HERAT,
Afghanistan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Once an important Silk Road trading
hub, the Afghan city of Herat has long been a cultural centre, but decades of
war have ravaged its ancient traditional crafts.
Now thousands
of women are returning to the ancient practices, seeking to revive the
traditions of a city where traders once came to haggle for silk in thick-walled
houses and dome-shaped bazaars offering respite from hot summers.
On the
outskirts of the ancient city, about 4,000 women work to cultivate silk, from raising
silkworms, feeding them and harvesting their cocoons to spinning the yarn by
hand - a month-long, labour-intensive process.
Mariam Sheikh,
30, was given a box of 20,000 silkworm eggs by a local aid group last year and
has already produced about 40 kgs (88 lb) of silk, which sells at 300 Afghani
($4) per kg.
“My
great-grandfather was a silk maker, so there is pride in picking up his work
again,” Sheik, who lives in Herat’s Zinda Jan district, told the Thomson
Reuters Foundation.
Her small
village is surrounded by lush, green mulberry trees, planted years ago to feed
the growing silkworms.
“Our community
respects and encourages the silk trade and besides that, it has helped me gain
financial independence,” she added.
Once the
cocoons are dried, the processing into yarn is traditionally done by hand,
although the women hope to import a machine to help speed up the process.
At the moment
there is only one old spinning machine in Herat city, with not enough capacity
to process them all.
‘PRIDE IN OUR
ART’
Women have
made huge strides in the conservative country since the Taliban rule of 1996 to
2001, when they were banned from attending school or work and could not even go
outside without a male relative.
Growing
numbers of women now complete education and work in previously male bastions,
but they still face hurdles.
Four decades
of war, from occupation to internal fighting, have destroyed the economy,
rendering it among the poorest in the world, with few jobs - especially for
young women, who occupy a particularly precarious place.
Many face
cultural barriers and hostility not just from conservative family members, but
also hardline Islamist groups, for pursuing financial independence and greater
equality.
According to
World Bank data, just over 20% of Afghan women work, up from about 15% in 2001,
when the Taliban fell.
There are
fears that a final withdrawal of U.S. troops, the winding down of international
engagement and the re-emergence of the Taliban may reverse gains.
“Herat is a
traditional province where few women are seen - or even allowed by their
families - to work outside,” said Mariam Zemoni, one of about 30 women who
weave the silk into scarves and fabric.
“That’s
another reason why weaving silk is perfect for me,” said the 23-year-old, who
makes at least two scarves a day, selling them for 250 Afghani each.
Nazir Ahmad
Ghafoori, head of the Rehabilitation Association and Agriculture Development
for Afghanistan which has supported the women, said 70% of the cocoons were
sold to Iran and Pakistan because of a lack of processing capacity.
He hopes to
involve more women in Afghanistan’s silk production, expanding to provinces
beyond Herat.
“The tradition
is thousands of years old, and we Afghans find pride in our art and culture -
and the revival of it,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation
Since working
with the women in Zinda Jan, his organisation has set up the ethical fashion
initiative, aiming to export silk produced under fair working conditions
worldwide.
An executive
board of 50 women in the district oversees and reports on each woman’s working
condition.
Sheik, who is
on the board, said the business had boosted the economy throughout the
district.
Whatever silk
is not exported or sold in other parts of Afghanistan makes it to Herat’s old
silk bazaar, where vendors sit in small shops with high ceilings decorated with
carved ornaments reminiscent of the Silk Road era.
“For the past
years, our country has been known for war,” said Sheik. “It’s time the world
knew Afghanistan for its arts and crafts, its culture, people - and its silk.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-women-crafts-trfn/afghan-women-spin-new-careers-by-reviving-ancient-silk-road-crafts-idUSKBN24A19G
--------
Pakistani
Female Footballer Abiha Haider Among 30 Most Powerful Muslim Women In Sports
09th July,
2020
Gulmeena Hamid
Abiha Haider,
the young football player from Pakistan, just bagged another achievement. The
young footballer is known for her immaculate performance and inspiration. She
has made to 30 Most Powerful Muslim Women In Sports.
-----
Abiha Haider,
the young football player from Pakistan, just bagged another achievement. The
young footballer is known for her immaculate performance and inspiration. She
has made to 30 Most Powerful Muslim Women In Sports.
This is not
the first time she has outdone herself. Since 2010, Abiha Haider has been
participating and representing Pakistan. This young athlete also wins a series
of international and national honors for her outstanding performance and has
made Pakistan proud.
The female
footballer took to her social media and shared the good news. She wrote,
Abiha Haider
has also succeeded in starting out as a quite influential person since she was
just 14. She was invited to a Sports United Exchange program.
While giving
an interview to a local newspaper, Haider expressed her love for sports and
said,
“Sports are
full of positive energy. It gives you a chance to know your inner abilities, to
develop yourself, and to develop your character, it gives you the confidence
which goes unbreakable throughout life.”
She went on to
say,
“‘Never let
your talent die because of the opinion of people. I have never done that. I
have worked tirelessly; changed the opinions of people through my personality,
my character, my ambition and now the same people hold their pride in me.”
Actor Faysal
Qureshi and other netizens have congratulated Abiha for brining another
achievement to the country.
https://www.bolnews.com/sports/2020/07/pakistani-female-footballer-abiha-haider-among-30-most-powerful-muslim-women-in-sports/
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One Million
Jobs for Saudi Women By 2030
July 7, 2020
GENEVA — Saudi
Arabia’s Vision 2030 aims to provide jobs for around one million Saudi women by
the year 2030, according to Mishaal Al-Balawi, an official at the Permanent
Mission of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations in Geneva.
He underscored
the importance of the role of women in strengthening the Kingdom’s economy,
saying that women enjoy protection and empowerment with access to a large share
of reforms and developments witnessed by the Kingdom, especially in the
employment market.
Al-Balawi,
head of the human rights division at the Kingdom’s mission, made the remarks
while attending the discussion on a report of the working group on the issue of
discrimination against women at the Human Rights Council on Monday. The
discussion mainly focused on women’s rights in the changing global employment
scenario.
He said that
the Kingdom has taken several measures aimed at empowering women and enhancing
their equality with men in the light of the provisions of Islamic Shariah. “The
Saudi Vision 2030 and the National Transformation Program 2020 have put women
empowerment among their most important priorities. The Kingdom has banned
discrimination against women in jobs, and ensured equalization of women with
men in their wages, and enhanced awareness about the importance of women’s
participation in the employment market.”
Al-Balawi also
highlighted the emphasis given in the Kingdom’s Vision to end the structural
patterns in the work of women and men. “The Kingdom seeks to encourage women to
study various disciplines, especially science, technology, mathematics, and
engineering as this provides a variety of opportunities for them in the labor
market,” he said while drawing attention to the recent royal decree issued by
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman to appoint 13 women to the Human
Rights Commission Council, representing half of its members. “This is a
continuation of what the Kingdom’s government is doing to empower women to
occupy key positions,” he pointed out.
Al-Balawi said
that Saudi Arabia is exerting all efforts to put an end to violence and
harassment against women at their workplaces. “The Kingdom, through its
regulations and agencies, is striving to address the phenomenon of violence
against women at their workplaces as well as to enable them to work in a safe
environment. This is through enacting laws to protect women and preserve their
rights, such as the Anti-Harassment Law and the Law of Protection from Abuse,”
he added.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/595203
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Hindu Family
Cremates Muslim Woman as AIIMS Mixes Up Bodies Of 2 Covid Patients
Tanseem Haider
July 9, 2020
Ashocking case
of medical negligence has come to light from the country's premier medical
institution, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.
A resident of
Kailash Nagar in Ghaziabad, 52-year-old Kusumlata was admitted to AIIMS-Delhi
due to poor health. She died on Sunday evening, following which a body was
handed over to Kusumlata's family the next morning.
Owing to her
samples testing positive for the novel coronavirus, kin cremated the body
handed over to them as per Hindu rituals at the Punjabi Bagh crematorium.
It was only on
Tuesday evening that Kusumlata's kin received a call from AIIMS telling them
that they were mistakenly handed over the body of another patient while
Kusmlata's body was still at the hospital. Shocked and grieving, the family
members went to AIIMS, collected Kusumlata's body and finally cremated it.
Officials
later revealed that the body handed over to them earlier was that of Anjum, a
resident of Bareilly.
Anjum's
relatives had admitted her to the AIIMS Trauma Centre on July 4. She was tested
and turned out positive for Covid-19. During the course of treatment, Anjum
succumbed to the infection at 11 AM on July 6.
Her kin was
informed by the hospital administration about her death at around 2 PM that
same day. The family prepared to bury her at a cemetery in Delhi but realized
that the body handed over to them was not Anjum's. Family members immediately
alerted AIIMS-Delhi and came to know that Anjum's body had been mistakenly
handed over to Kusumlata's kin who cremated it as per Hindu rituals.
Following the
incident, the AIIMS administration has suspended two mortuary employees. Kin of
both the deceased, however, claim that this negligence should be met with legal
repercussions. A complaint has been given to the Delhi Police in this regard
but an FIR is yet to be registered.
AamAadmi Party
(AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti also arrived at AIIMS, Delhi and met with family
members of the two deceased women. Bharti also discussed the negligence with
the hospital administration and demanded an investigation in this regard.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/covid-victim-cremated-by-another-s-family-as-2-bodies-swapped-at-aiims-mortuary-staffers-suspended-1698497-2020-07-09
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Pregnant women
in Saudi Arabia warned to take special care during pandemic
July 09, 2020
JEDDAH:
Pregnant women have been told to take special care in following precautionary
measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi Ministry of Health has
cautioned, as they are thought to be particularly at risk from complications.
The ministry’s
recommendations come as many have expressed concerns about the impact of the
infection on their health. The ministry has reiterated the importance of
practicing hand hygiene, maintaining social distancing to limit the spread of
the virus and wearing a mask in public at all times, especially in areas where
it's hard to observe social distancing.
The ministry
announced a total of 3,036 new cases of in the Kingdom on Wednesday, bringing
to 220,144 the number of people in Saudi Arabia have now contracted the
disease.
There were
60,035 active cases, 2,263 of them critical.
37 percent of
the newly announced cases are female, 63 percent are male. Of those infected,
86 percent were adults of working age, 5 percent were over 65 and 9 percent
were children.
3,211 new
recovered cases have been announced, taking the total number of recoveries to
158,050, while 42 new deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 2,059.
The ministry
urges everyone to use the self-assessment service in the “Mawid” application or
to visit Tataman clinics that have been set up by the ministry for those who
feel they are displaying COVID-19 symptoms; there are 237 such clinics.
It also
recommends calling 937, its central operator, for consultations and inquiries
around the clock.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1702051/saudi-arabia
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Qatar
expresses concern over women scribes being targeted in Arab world
09 Jul 2020
Geneva: The
State of Qatar expressed yesterday deep concern that journalists in the Arab
world are being targeted for practising the profession of journalism and for
being women, and subjected to death and kidnapping threats and defamed on
social media platforms by the so-called social bugs of some countries.
This came in
the speech that was delivered by Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission of
the State of Qatar to the United Nations in Geneva Abdullah bin Khalifa Al
Suwaidi, during the interactive dialogue with Independent International
Commission of Inquiry on the violence against women, its causes and
consequences.
Al Suwaidi
expressed Qatar’s strong condemnation that journalists, especially women, are
being subjected to harassment, abuse, threats, defamation, and fabrication of
false news, as well as violence that sometimes reaches the point of killing,
with the aim of undermining their credibility.
Qatar pays
great attention to the issue of freedom of expression as a basic human right,
he explained, stressing the need to protect journalists and ensure their right
of freedom of opinion and expression, and that no restrictions should be placed
except within the framework permitted by international standards.
He also
stressed the importance of ensuring that journalist and the media provide
accurate news coverage to help raise awareness that can save many lives,
especially at a time when the world is facing the coronavirus pandemic
https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/09/07/2020/Qatar-expresses-concern-over-women-scribes-being-targeted-in-Arab-world
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Kuwaiti women
call to a change in citizenship laws
July 08, 2020
Yasmena Al
Mulla
Kuwait City:
An online petition has gained more than 17,000 signatures, calling on the
National Assembly and the cabinet of ministers to grant citizenship to children
of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis.
The issue
resurfaced due to many factors, ranging from the demographic imbalance to the
benefits citizens received during the pandemic.
“For a lot of
women who have families stuck abroad, this issue has become even more serious
after the COVID-19 crisis,” Al Anood Al Sharekh, director of Ibtkar Strategic
Consultancy, told Gulf News.
Many families
of Kuwaiti women are still stuck outside Kuwait as they are not able to return
owing to the closure of airports.
“It is
important to highlight that there are many children of Kuwaiti women who are
working and volunteering on the frontlines during the pandemic,” Gray Area, a
social initiative focused on empowering children of Kuwaiti mothers, as well as
raising awareness about the legal, social and cultural barriers they face, told
Gulf News.
Kuwait is one
of the 25 countries that does not permit women to pass on their nationality to
their children or spouses.
“I think this
issue exists because of a patriarchal idea that bloodline belongs to men,” Dr
Ebtehal Al Khateeb, a Kuwaiti academic and activist, told Gulf News.
As of 2016,
there are 19,000 Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men and with
approximately 56,000 children, according to the Public Authority for Civil
Information.
“Their lives
are precarious especially as they get older because then you have to think of them
as any other expat. You have to apply for a work permit or a way for them to
stay in Kuwait and if you die [the wife] before them you have to figure out a
way for how to keep their inheritance,” explained Al Sharekh.
Children of
Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men face challenges from applying for a
scholarship to obtaining a job. The government covers their education up to
university level, plus their health care.
“Many of the
legal rights of children of Kuwaiti women are dependent on their mothers. Thus,
children of Kuwaiti mothers are never seen as fully independent,” Gray Area
explained. “Children of Kuwaiti women are treated like their fully Kuwaiti
counterparts until the age of 21, but after that, their legal and social
statuses are uncertain and unstable.”
“This creates
a mental and psychological strain on children and their families,” explained Al
Khateeb.
On the other
hand, non-Kuwaiti women who are married to Kuwaiti men could qualify for
citizenship after being married for five years, according to the Ministry of
Interior.
“Just like we
nationalise the wife of a Kuwaiti man, for the sake of the family, the husband
and children of a Kuwaiti woman should be nationalised as well,” said Al
Khateeb.
Since 2018,
Gray Area has been creating various videos, highlighting stories and initiating
campaigns across social media to raise awareness on this issue and deliver it
in a format that reaches as many people as possible.
“The campaign
name was inspired by the fact that children of Kuwaiti women are neither
categorised as Kuwaitis nor expats, thereby existing in a sort of grey area,
both socially and legally,” Gray Area said.
‘Aware of the
sufferings’
Other than
Gray Area, there have been calls from various other civil societies, from
Kuwait Women Without Borders to Kuwait’s Women’s Cultural and Social Society,
to grant citizenship to children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men.
“The youth are
more aware of the sufferings that this group faces and there has been more
dialogue recently around the issue,” Al Sharekh clarified.
Upcoming
parliamentary elections
“Given the
upcoming elections, we are going to hear candidates speak about various issues
concerning women, including nationalising the children of Kuwaiti women,”
explained Al Sharekh, “although campaign promises don’t always translate into
concrete actions in parliament.”
Parliamentary
elections are scheduled for November.
“After the
petition, the buzz will have parliamentary candidates talking about this topic
during their campaigns. Are they going to take it seriously? I do not have much
hope,” said Al Khateeb.
Stateless
people
There are
approximately 500,000 stateless people, otherwise known as Bidoon, in Kuwait.
Kuwait is one of seven countries that have nationality laws that create a
greater risk of stateless people.
“Many people
try to separate the discussions regarding stateless nationals and children of
Kuwaiti mothers, but these issues intersect. For example, there are many
children of Kuwaiti mothers who are stateless for it is not uncommon for
Kuwaiti women to marry stateless nationals for various reasons, including
familial ties. With the current citizenship laws, however, there is little to
no pathway to obtaining citizenship,” explained Gray Area.
“There is an
intersection between the children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men
and the Bidoon issue, both of which is regarding citizenship,” explained Al
Khateeb.
https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/kuwait/kuwaiti-women-call-to-a-change-in-citizenship-laws-1.72475696
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Justice for
Sadaf Zahra Naqvi will prevail when a man’s slap is considered a legal crime in
Pakistan
July 09, 2020
MehrTarar
Tina Turner,
Christina Aguilera, Halle Barry, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Charlize
Theron, Pamela Anderson, Whitney Houston, Diane Lane, Reese Witherspoon, Kerry
Washington, Katy Perry, Robin Givens, Rati Agnihotri, Zeenat Aman, and
TehminaDurrani.
What do all these
very famous, some internationally, some regionally, women have in common, other
than their uncommon brilliance, larger-than-life personalities, massive talent,
and enviable physical beauty?
All these
magnificent women were victims of domestic/spousal/relationship physical
violence and abuse.
All of them
left their abusive relationships, turning their unhappy, chaotic lives into
beautiful, inspirational stories of reshaping their lives as the survivors of
the worst. They became the icons of what could be.
Not all women
are that fortunate. Millions of women are not. Some are not strong enough to
leave their abusive husbands and partners. Some of them live with their abusers
until the abuse ends for some reason. Some of them walk away from their abusive
relationships. Some of them find strength within themselves to tell their
stories of incredible bravery, superhuman patience, endless resilience. Many of
them vanish without telling their stories. It is not that they don’t have a
story. It is because they are silenced.
They are
killed. Or they are driven to kill themselves.
This world of
ours resounds with their unheard wails, their muffled pleas, their soundless
screams. They are all around us. They are our sisters. They are our friends.
Some are names we hear. Some are faces we recognise. Their mascaraed lashes
shade their unshed tears. Their despair is etched in their smiles. Their
carefully dressed bodies are in premature decay, in a clumsy attempt to hide
their wounds. Their careful words cover their jagged breaths. Their rational
minds do a macabre tango with the memory of the latest beating, the last verbal
assault, the newest attack on their character, their habits. Their lips are
shaded in dark hues to hide the bruise of the slap that left a deep mark on the
left side of their face. Their eyes are kohled in their pain.
They walk
among us like ghosts. Most of us pretend they only exist in stories that don’t
touch us. We remain fearful of them haunting our idyllic notions of marriage,
relationships, love that is forever, romance that nourishes our weakest bits.
We downplay their tragedies to overcompensate our personal fears. We avoid eye
contact with them, fearful they might break into smithereens the dream of our
ideal relationship. As they live amidst us, carefully holding together the
pieces of their broken hearts and shattered bodies, their destroyed dreams and
fractured ribs, their damaged souls and black eyes, their traumatised minds and
bruised legs, we console ourselves with clichés, in hushed whispers. That
things are not as bad as they are.
Only that they
are. Worse than what is perceptible, audible, conveyed, shared, discussed,
lamented. Those who suffer in silence are often silenced forever. Their stories
are buried with them. If it wasn’t for the brave few who speak up, even if it
is to a very few people very close to them, or those courageous ones who unable
to trust their loved ones share their pain on social media in the world of
technology that is invasive and inclusive, cruel and empathetic, judgemental
and sincere, expansive and cosy, in equal measures, most of the stories of
domestic abuse would remain what they are: a taboo. Forbidden. Private. Not to
be talked about.
Pakistan is
patriarchal. Unabashedly. Male dominance is unquestioned. So is male
entitlement. Even in families that pride themselves on being non-discriminatory
in their treatment of their male and female children, the binaries of the do’s
and the don’ts of the two genders are underscored in bold letters. The third
gender is invisible in a patriarchal world.
Rules are made
to protect the beloved daughter from harm, to keep her chastity, her purity,
her perfection unblemished, un-creased, in a closet of impeccably stacked
morality. Different yardsticks are applied in different families of varied
sensibilities, financial standing, and societal clout, or lack thereof.
Religion, that
teaches equality of genders in all the ways that matter, becomes a tool to
mould a female child into a model woman, suitable for marriage and raising a
family. Cultural ethos is the metaphorical whip to teach a female child what to
do, how to behave, what to bear, how to adapt, what to change. Familial
emotions come into play to convince a female child to make a promise not to let
anyone be privy to her real self. It starts at home. It is based on rules made
by the men of the family. It is taken forward by the female members of the
family. It starts when a female child is born. It ends when that female is
dead.
Fear of
patriarchal punishment is the disciplinary stick in almost every Pakistani
household. I’ll tell-your-father is the common threat. The warning
your-brother-will-break-your-legs-if-you-meet-that-boy hovers over young
females like an unhinged drone. Ever present is the imminence of a physical
punishment for “crossing of a line.” A constant inculcation of lessons of “good
behaviour”, indispensable to a happy life, are a childhood staple.
Log-kya-kahenge is a mandatory good girl tutorial.
Family's
honour
The prevalence
of subliminal, and even blatant acceptance, of violence against women in films
and TV dramas is acting as systemic desensitisation towards the very real issue
of domestic abuse. Violence is blind, but in a patriarchal society, even
violence convolutes, mostly, into a gender-based show of strength.
“Honour” of
almost every family in Pakistan, even in 2020, is umbilically tied to a woman’s
body, her character, her “goodness.”
Despite
assumptions that much has changed, loud proclamations that women rights are
human rights, brave slogans that women are equal to men, progressive laws that
vow to improve women’s lives, and inspirational posts on social media
celebrating how far women have come, suddenly, an incredibly painful event
jolts your newfound confidence, pushing you into a corner where you want to
hide and whimper. Or scream. Or punch a wall. Nothing has changed.
On June 1 was
the news of the murder of the eight-year-old Zahra. She was, allegedly, beaten
for freeing two parrots. She was beaten so mercilessly she died a few hours later.
The entire month of June little Zahra’s lifeless face haunted me.
In June the
hashtag was “Justice for Zohra Shah.” Pakistan’s media thought that Zahra was
Zohra.
On July 8, the
news of another Zahra’s death shook Pakistan’s social media. Sadaf Zahra Naqvi,
a lovely, bright woman with her whole life ahead of her, mother of a beautiful
one-year-old baby girl, and wife of Ali Salman Alvi, a man known to countless
Twitter users of Pakistan, “died” on June 29. The husband announced she had
committed suicide. Her family suspected murder.
Without Alvi’s
knowledge, reportedly, a post-mortem was conducted, confirming their worst
fears. Sadaf’s sister found her hanging from the fan in her room. Her face and
body had marks of violence on her. A suicide note was also found. The details
of the post-mortem report are still unknown. Alvi is in police custody.
No one would
have known what happened to Sadaf if her friend had not tweeted a thread about
her married life and her alleged murder. For nine days, the news of the death
of a woman was kept on mute. On Twitter where even a politically incorrect word
becomes a huge deal, no one knew that a woman had died. Murdered. Killed. I’m
waiting for someone to uncover the mystery of this unusual silence.
The life of
the one-year-old baby girl, before even the enunciation of Mama and Baba, is
turned upside down. Her mother is dead. Her father is the alleged killer of her
mother. The sheer enormity of this tragedy is devastating. And heart breaking.
Not much
changes on Pakistani Twitter.
In July the
hashtag is “Justice for Zahra.”
The thread
posted by Sadaf’s friend unravels a horrifying story – of a bad marriage, a
cheating spouse, a patient wife, a painful miscarriage, the birth of a baby
girl, constant lies, infidelity, betrayal, blackmailing and extortion of money
from various women, Alvi’s fake identities, Alvi’s repeated violence on Sadaf,
Alvi’s womanising, and Sadaf’s endless patience for the sake of maintaining the
façade of a complete family for her little girl.
On Sadaf Zahra
Naqvi’s twitter timeline, her pinned tweet is a thread. It is on domestic
violence. It is dated January 7, 2020.
Was it
addressed to Alvi? Was anyone able to decode the personalness of that 11-tweet
thread?
The details of
the indescribable tragedy of Sadaf’s alleged murder are imprecise, at the
moment.
The outrage is
predictable, understandable.
What will
happen?
Nothing will
change as long there is a familial, societal, cinematic and dramatic
glorification of the “right” kind of woman. As long as mothers, in various
tones, in different languages, in diverse scenarios, perpetuate the importance
of “proper” behaviour, not many homes will be safe for females. Two other words
are taught to, arguably, every female in Pakistan: compromise and sacrifice.
This is no way
an incitement to break away from accepted norms. Neither is it an endorsement
of any kind of disruption of religious boundaries. What I write is what I have
experienced, observed, heard stories of, seen all around me. My belief is
simple. It all starts at home. It starts with the mother. It is created by
patriarchal ethos. It is propagated by maternal sensibilities.
The basic, the
most important step for the creation of a violence-free world is to raise male
children as good, decent, kind human beings. Teach your boys what to do, not
your girls what not to do. The rest will be simple. Good, decent, kind human
beings do not harm anyone–human or animal.
That
overhauling of systemic rot in male attitudes is long term. The short term is
achievable, even if it is in tiny ways. Tiny things, en masse, have the power
to create a collective ripple to undo centuries of misguided patriarchy and
inherent misogyny. It is not easy to walk out of a bad marriage. Parents find
it traumatic, for myriad familial and societal pressures, to see their daughters
ending a marriage. Despite religious and legal sanctioning, and its grudging
acceptability, divorce is still commonly considered a social stigma.
When a woman
opens up about physical abuse, parents react the way they should. They tell her
to pack her things and come back to her first home. They console her, they give
her strength. Sometimes, her parents and that of her husband, state that she
“asked for it”. She “deserved” what happened to her. When she is found
blameless, lectures, from the woman’s family and her in-laws, are given to the
violent husband. Promises are made. The woman is convinced to return to her
husband. Many women return without any parental pressure for the sake of their
children. Broken families are considered incomplete families.
A number of
women return to an abusive, a cheating, a lying husband, because of the deep
feelings they have for him for having known him for a long time. Countless
women do it to keep the idea of a home intact. In numerous immaculate homes, in
middle class neat bungalows, in derelict little houses of the poor, there is a
woman stuck in a dead-end marriage because of her financial dependence on her
husband.
There is also
a large number of women who forgive their men each time they find them lying or
cheating, or when they are violent with them. Trivialisation of the spousal bad
is commonplace. Stuck in a violent relationship, many women fear the idea of
“alone-ness” of a divorce. The Stockholm syndrome-isation in an abusive
relationship is a recurrent motif in today’s world of overdependence on bonds
that defy simple explanations.
Suffering in
Silence
Lifelong
conditioning to maintain silence, to not create a scene, to not “dishonour” the
family, and to not let anyone into their “private” matters are neatly placed in
the playbook of a good, strong, home-making woman. Physical, verbal or
emotional abuse is not a private matter. Listen to your daughter, your sister,
when she opens up about the painful parts of her apparently immaculate life.
Don’t shush her agony with a sub-theek-ho-jayega trope. Learn to read her words
when she texts you or posts cryptic despair.
In certain
scenarios, women also enable violence against women. It is a lamentable but a
very real fact.
The worst
swear words in Pakistan are threats of acts of sexual violence to mothers,
sisters and daughters of the person being abused.
The debate is
not about the “badness” of men. Happy marriages are not a hallmark card, they
are as much a reality as the abusive ones. A good man is not a dream. He is
around us in the unchanging love of amazing fathers, wonderful brothers,
beautiful sons. He is the childhood friend who is always there, a cousin who is
a phone call away, an acquaintance who is a great help in time of need, a
complete stranger who surprises you with his kindness, a colleague who helps
without being asked, an elder who gives brilliant advice, a teenaged nephew who
makes you smile with his goofiness.
But…
All the good
in the world is not an antidote for pain inflicted on anyone who is in any
position of weakness – physically, materially, in a societal hierarchy. A
violence-free world would be attainable when men stop “being men.” When men and
women, united, say: enough.
Think.
As long as
there is even ONE woman facing domestic abuse, if there is even one woman dying
because her husband or partner pushed her to death or killed her, there is
redundancy in any celebration of female equality. One dead woman is a symbol of
all that is wrong, all that is inhuman, all that is so horrific it makes all
good things lose their sheen. Not for a day, not for a month, not for a year,
but for as long as justice evades that dead woman.
One more dead
woman is not a mere statistic in the data of violence against women. One more
dead woman is an indelible stain on the very soul of a society.
There is one
question, and that is the only one that matters today: will Sadaf Zahra Naqvi
get justice?
Justice for
Sadaf will be justice for every girl or woman who is a survivor or a victim of
domestic abuse. Justice for Sadaf will be relevant when every female is safe
with her husband, her partner. Justice for Sadaf will be celebrated when
divorce is no longer a stigma in a relationship stuck in a cul-de-sac. Justice
for Sadaf will matter when the life of a woman is more important than her
marriage. Justice for Sadaf will be a reality when a family’s honour is
disassociated from a woman’s marital success or failure.
Justice for
Sadaf will be the truth when even a man’s one slap, one kick, one punch, one
push, one across-the-room dragging, one fistful of her hair in his clasp is
considered a moral, a social and a legal crime.
Where is that
justice?
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/justice-for-sadaf-zahra-naqvi-will-prevail-when-a-mans-slap-is-considered-a-legal-crime-in-pakistan-1.1594279448667
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Wazeeran Bibi:
Family Seek Justice After Pregnant Pakistani Woman Beaten To Death
July 9, 2020
The family of
a pregnant woman who was tortured and beaten to death in Pakistan have revealed
that she was reluctant to return to her husband's home in the weeks before her
death.
Wazeeran
Bibi’s murder in the Jamshoro district of southern Sindh province on June 28
sparked outcry online. Her body was dumped by the side of a motorway, the
family and police confirmed to The National.
Police say the
killing was linked to the practice of wattasatta - literally meaning give and
take - wherein Bibi was matched with her husband Ali Bux in exchange for an
agreement her younger brother would later marry into Bux’s family.
Police alleged
that when the deal began to go awry, 30-year-old Bibi was murdered by her
husband and accomplices.
“The killers
pretended it was an accident and the body was unrecognisable with severe head
and face injuries,” said Police Inspector Rasool Bakhsh Sheikh, who is
investigating the murder.
A postmortem
report seen by The National indicates Bibi died after “lethal injuries to the
brain and face caused by hard and blunt substance," leading to accusations
she was stoned to death. Bibi was 8 weeks pregnant at the time of her death,
the report stated.
“I need the
same punishment for the murderer and all should be hanged who killed my
innocent daughter. If we do not get justice then we will take revenge by
ourselves,” Bibi’s father Gul Mohammad told The National.
“My daughter’s
body was fully injured and her face was unrecognisable and women who bathed her
for the last rites could not bear the scenes and fainted. It takes courage to
see such a brutally injured body. It’s like our blood has flown down in river
Indus,” Mr Mohammad, a livestock worker by profession, said.
The case
caught the attention of social media users after a video showing Mr Mohammad
sobbing at his daughter’s graveside and begging for justice was posted on
Twitter and viewed 150,000 times.
Social media
users created a hashtag, #JusticeForWaziranChachar, to demand accountability
and raise awareness of violence related to the practice of wattasatta.
Inspector
Sheikh said Bibi’s husband Ali Bux and his elder brother Kareem Bux had been
arrested, but a third suspect, Abdul Qadir, is on the run. Police said the
investigation will take some time.
In Pakistan’s
conservative interior and southern regions of Sindh and Punjab the exchange of
girls between two families is a common tribal practice.
In 2015, surveys
published in the Open Journal of Social Sciences found that 92 per cent of
respondents in southern Punjab who were married by wattasatta were wedded to
cousins.
Numerous
studies and reports have found such exchanges often lead to violence being
meted out against the women exchanged.
Bibi married
five years ago on the condition that her brother Javed, who was 8 years old
that time, would marry Ali Bux’s niece, Zaira, who was then just 5 years old.
When the time
came for Javed, now 13, and Zaira, now 10, to wed, the Bux family refused to
hand the little girl over. The resulting row between the families led to Bibi’s
father bringing her back to the family home and Mr Bux threatening to divorce
Bibi, Allah Waraya, a family member of Bibi’s told The National.
The dispute
was later settled by local chieftain Mohammad Ilyas in a jirga - assembly of
local leaders - and Bibi was sent back to her husband.
Mr Waraya said
that Bibi expressed her concerns about returning to the relationship and to her
husband's family.
“Just two
weeks before her murder, Bibi, the eldest amongst six siblings, told her
concerns to her mother Meer, saying ‘my husband and brother in law Kareem Bux
are threatening me and please don’t demand a girl for Javed, it will ruin my
life’,” said Mr Waraya.
Activists have
long campaigned against the practice of wattasatta due to severe threat of
retaliation and violence under this type of marriage settlement. It is a
widespread issue - a survey conducted by Rutgers World Population Foundation in
2013 found that more than 77 per cent of marriages in Pakistan were settled
under customary practices such as wattasatta and 66 per cent of married women
had experienced violence in their marriage.
“The issue and
the reason for the murder of Ms Bibi is not yet clear, but it is obvious that
crime against women has reached such a brutal level that killers haven't spared
single part of her body to be mutilated,” women rights activist in Sindh, Amar
Sindhu, told The National.
“This case has
shown misogyny at work in many layers of society,” she added, saying at the
family, police and judicial levels, women are not protected and predicting
Bibi’s suspected killers would be released on bail soon.
“In between,
there is society or the social norms which are also only to raise insecurities
in women. Woman are easy prey for society,” she said.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/wazeeran-bibi-family-seek-justice-after-pregnant-pakistani-woman-beaten-to-death-1.1046290
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/female-cyclists-indonesia-forced-apologise/d/122328