Hijab Row: Muslim Girl Asked to Remove Hijab, Boycotts Exam in Response to the Diktat
New
Age Islam News Bureau
16
February 2022
•
Qandeel Baloch Case Pakistan’s Acid Test for Blood Money Law; Acquittal Shows
It Has Failed
•
Saudi Arabia Embraces Its First-Ever Female Basketball Generation
•
Shah Bano judgment comes to woman’s rescue
•
Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women demands designating Houthi as terrorist
organization
•
UAE: Emirati Women in Government, Private Sector Should Get Uniform Leave, FNC
Member Says
•
Civil Society, Rights Activists Protest Constant Harassment of Women Students
in Pakistan’s Sindh
•
Pak Witnesses Four Heinous Crimes against Women In One Week
•
Woman Stabs Cab Driver in Gurgaon, Punches Cop; Claims She Is From Egypt
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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Hijab
Row: Muslim Girl Asked to Remove Hijab, Boycotts Exam in Response to the Diktat
Photo:
Representative Image
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15th
February 2022
Bengaluru:
The Hijab row continued to simmer in Karnataka on Tuesday over alleged denial
of entry for girl students into schools with their headscarves on in some
places, as one such girl announced boycotting her exam in response to the
diktat.
Scenes
of angry parents of such children arguing with police and school authorities
and an instance of a student trying to flaunt a saffron scarf as an apparent
retaliation were also reported.
The
Karnataka High Court, in its interim order last week restrained all the
students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag
within the classroom.
High
schools were reopened across the state on Monday, even as there were instances
of students turning up in Hijab and burqa then, only to be denied entry or
asked by officials to remove them, citing the High Court order.
On
Tuesday, at a school in the district headquarters town of Shivamogga, a
Burqa-wearing girl refused to write her exam when the school authorities asked
her to remove her Hijab first.
“We
have grown up wearing Hijab since our childhood and we cannot give it up. I
will not write the exam and I will go home,” the girl told reporters.
In
a government school in Indavara village in Chikkamagaluru district, Muslim
girls were not let inside the school and were asked to go back.
Soon,
their parents reached the school and staged a protest. They barged into the
campus, raised slogans and demanded that the order should be given to them in
writing.
As
the protest intensified, another student pulled out a saffron scarf from his
school bag. On the direction of his teachers, he put it back inside.
Sensing
the situation, the principal closed the school for the day.
In
another institution in Chikkamagaluru town, tension prevailed over denial of
entry to the students with hijab. Parents swarmed the school and questioned the
school authorities how their children were not allowed inside.
Policemen
deployed there told the crowd that there was a High Court order not to let
anyone wearing Hijab or saffron scarves but the parents were not ready to
listen and insisted that their wards be allowed to write the exam.
In
SVS School in the district headquarters town of Tumakuru, Muslim parents
thronged its premises after their daughters were turned away for wearing hijab.
Subsequently,
policemen rushed to the spot and made the parents and girls leave the school.
They too cited the High Court order.
Meanwhile,
in Udupi district, parents of students staged a protest before the Maulana Azad
high school at Mallar Pakirnakatte against the authorities for forcing
hijab-clad students to sit in a separate room.
The
parents demanded that the students be allowed to sit in classes wearing the
hijabs. They also told the authorities that their children will not be sent to
school without headscarves.
According
to sources, at least 20 students who had arrived at the school on Monday with
their hijabs on and were made to sit separately, were absent on Tuesday.
However,
eight students of the government Urdu primary school in Mallar, who came
wearing hijabs were allowed to write their examinations today. Education
department officials visited the school.
The
full bench of the Karnataka High Court, hearing the matter pertaining to the
Hijab ban, had in its interim order restricted the entry of anyone wearing
Hijab and saffron scarf till the final order.
Students
from Udupi and Kundapura who had approached the court had said Hijab was an
essential religious practice and questioned the government order of February 5
which prohibited any student from wearing cloth that can disturb peace, harmony
and law and order.
The
government order then came following tension in the schools and colleges over
Hijab versus saffron scarves row.
On
January 1, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference
held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the
college authorities denying them entry into the classroom wearing Hijab.
This
was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear Hijabs in
classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear Hijab to the
campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college
principal Rudre Gowda had said.
“The
institution did not have any rule on Hijab-wearing as such and no one used to
wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the
demand had the backing of outside forces,” Gowda had said.
Source:
Siasat Daily
https://www.siasat.com/karnataka-muslim-girl-asked-to-remove-hijab-boycotts-exam-2276288/
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Qandeel
Baloch Case Pakistan’s Acid Test for Blood Money Law; Acquittal Shows It Has
Failed
File
photo of Qandeel Baloch | @realQandeelBaloch/Facebook
-----
Tenzin
Zompa
15
February, 2022
New
Delhi: Qandeel Baloch’s murder case became Pakistan’s acid test for its
controversial “blood money” or “forgiveness” laws. A high court has now allowed
the murderer — her brother Muhammad Waseem—to walk free. Waseem had admitted to
killing his 26-year-old sister for posting “shameful” pictures on Facebook in
2016.
Under
Pakistan Penal Code’s Section 311, which is based on the Islamic concept of
“Qisas” or retributive justice, a murderer who may be punished with a death
sentence can be pardoned if he or she provides “Diyat” (blood money), a
compensation payable to the victims or their legal heirs.
In
a report published in Pakistani daily Dawn, Waseem’s lawyer Sardar Mahboob
said: “The trial court had “wrongly exercised its power” and sentenced Waseem
under the Pakistan Penal Code’s Section 311, dealing with fasad-fil-arz
(mischief on earth), even though he had been pardoned by the deceased’s heirs”.
Qandeel
Baloch’s parents had announced a pardon for their son in 2019 but the court
went ahead with the sentencing, Dawn report said.
Activists
and journalists in Pakistan have denounced the acquittal order and said the
case showed “how severely the criminal justice system is broken” in the
country.
In
an oped article for Dawn — titled the ‘honour’ in murder — Pakistani lawyers
Sahar Bandial and Nighat Dad wrote, “Qandeel asserted her independence. For
that, she was seen as someone who deserved to be killed”. They further
elaborated on how things may still go wrong after amendments in the existing
laws if the Supreme Court continues to uphold “treating the ‘affront’ to his
honour” and “culpable homicide” like it did in a case in 2018.
Pakistani
film actor Osman Khalid Butt wrote: “We are in the concluding stages of a
high-profile and incredibly brutal murder case even now – how does this ruling
inspire any confidence (except to the guilty) in our judicial system?”
Questioning
the loopholes in their judicial system that spares these murderers, Butt
further said, “This is not the first time sentences for heinous crimes have
been reduced or overturned. Why do these loopholes still exist in our judicial
system whereby murderers can eventually walk free?”
A
Twitter user by the name Yasmine Mohammed pointed out how Islam enables people
in Pakistan to commit honour killing: “Islamic law in #Pakistan allows for a
man who murdered his sister in an ‘honor killing’ to walk free. Remember this
when they tell you honor killings have nothing to do w Islam”.
“The
brother who confessed to killing his sister Qandeel Baloch was acquitted today.
He was the prime suspect in this case since the murder. Men here will tell you
how bad Valentine’s day is and how we should observe haya sharam. They will
conveniently ignore femicide in PK”, said another user.
Expressing
shock, a user by the name Nighat Dad wrote, “This man who confessed of killing
Qandeel, his own sister, is a free man today in the same country where Qandeel
couldn’t live her life freely & was honor killed for the choices she made
as a free citizen of this country. #qandeelbaloch #honourkilling”.
Source:
The Print
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Saudi
Arabia embraces its first-ever female basketball generation
February
15, 2022
JEDDAH:
With basketball in hand, Saudi basketball player Mohanned Shobain has
successfully scored many hoops in life and on the court.
Shobain
is the CEO of the Jeddah Swish Basketball Academy and one of the first Saudi
coaches to train Saudi female basketball players. He is also a licensed coach
from FIBA (International Basketball Federation), and is currently in the second
year of pursuing his FIBA Europe Coaching Certificate, which will enable him to
coach anywhere in the world.
A
Saudi Premier League champion, Shobain said: “I am the only Saudi and one of
the two people selected from Asia to take this course. I am so thankful that
I’ve been picked along with another Japanese coach because only NBA coaches
take this course. It’s a very, very powerful license.”
For
Shobain, basketball is more than just a sport.
“It’s
a passion, and I feel like I can influence a lot of people to change the way
they think, their mind toward the sport itself. It is not just a hobby, but
it’s a lifestyle, and we can learn a lot
from being inside the court such as dealing with people during the game,
communication, leadership, sportsmanship, and anger management among others. It
has taught me a lot of life lessons.”
After
Shobain completed his master’s degree from Cleveland State University in 2016,
he wanted to help the Saudi community through sports. “I saw there was a lot of
demand in basketball as both male and female were hungry to learn,” he said,
adding, “and, the programs that we had were exactly what they needed.”
In
2017, Shobain opened the doors to the Jeddah Swish Basketball Academy for
budding basketball players both male and female. The academy played a pivotal
role for Saudi female basketball players and coaches as it offered them both
training programs and opportunities to grow.
The
teams from the Swish academy have participated in national and international
tournaments. “We have taken the girls’ team to Romania, Bucharest to play a
three-on-three World Cup qualification tournament in 2019. We also took our
boys team to Dubai once in 2018, and we’ve hosted the Saudi Kingdom Cup here in
Jeddah in 2021,” he said proudly.
Shobain
feels the new generation of Saudi female basketball has great potential, they
just “need fine-tuning.”
“I
do see that there’s a lot of skill, a lot of good talent, a lot of good
potential. They just need the right training, the right equipment, and
opportunity, such as this opportunity of playing in the Saudi Basketball
Tournament to develop their game, gain experience, and influence others to love
and start playing basketball.”
The
Jeddah Swish Basketball Academy has organized its first ever female Saudi
Basketball Tournament with the Saudi Basketball Federation in Jeddah and
Riyadh, which started on Jan. 22 and will finish on March 3.
During
this summer, Shobain will take the girl’s basketball team to Europe for a
basketball camp to further develop their skills. “The aim of this basketball
camp is to get them ready for next year’s female Saudi Basketball Tournament,”
said Shobain, who has previously assisted in coaching the Cleveland State
basketball female team.
Saudi
Arabia is embracing its first-ever female basketball generation.
“The
performance is not expected to be of any comparison to WNBA level, but still,
it’s just incredible to see these girls do what they do since they don’t have
existing face-to-face role models here that they can talk to and see when it
comes to female sports,” he said.
Dareen
Sabban, 28, has been playing basketball since she was 17. She now wants to
become a certified basketball player, recently joining one of Swish’s coaching
programs. “I played with my university team at the first women’s basketball
tournament at Al-Johara for an event that was organized by the Ministry of
Health and the General Sports Authority in 2021, and we won first place,” said
Sabban, who was also part of the Swish girls’ basketball team that went to
Romania.
Sabban
wishes to represent Saudi Arabia in basketball internationally and bring
laurels to her country by winning championships and setting an example for
future generations to take up the sport professionally. “Currently, I’m playing
with my Swish team at the female Saudi Basketball Tournament and we have
qualified for the semifinals,” she said.
Abrar
Alghamri, 33, is another member of the Swish team and has been playing
basketball since she was 10.
She
told Arab News that basketball had taught her how to be patient, how to keep
putting in efforts until you succeed and are satisfied with your performance.
“It taught me sportsmanship, and how to deal with failures and successes. I
realized that while I’m playing basketball, I’m learning about life as much as
I’m learning about the game,” she said.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2025541/sport
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Shah
Bano Judgment Comes To Woman’s Rescue
Dhananjay
Mahapatra
Feb
16, 2022
NEW
DELHI: A Muslim man leading a luxurious life went disappointed from the Supreme
Court, which chided him before dismissing his plea seeking reduction of monthly
maintenance to his first wife, whom he had given Talaq 12 years back, from Rs
15,000 to 10,000 on the ground that he had to maintain his second wife and
children.
Importantly,
it was the landmark Shah Bano judgment — which ruled that though under Shariat
law Muslim men are obliged to give maintenance to the wife only during the
Iddat period, under the secular criminal procedure code they have to giv e
alimony to the divorced wife till she remarries — came to the rescue of the
first wife.
A
bench of Chief Justice N VRamana and Justice A S Bopanna pooh poohed the man’s
claim that he had an income of only Rs 25,000 and0 that it was difficult for
him to dish out Rs 15,000 every month to the first wife. His counsel P R
Kovilan Poongkuntran said that the first wife did not have any children and
lived with her parents. “She does not need any financial assistance from the
husband, who has remarried and has to support his second wife and their
children. Please reduce the monthly maintenance from Rs 15,000 to Rs 10, 000,”
he pleaded.
A
livid bench asked, “Does the first wife vanish in thin air after divorce? Does
she not need money to survive?” The bench then referred to the Madras HC
judgment, which said that “even from his (the petitioner M S Khader Basha) own
disclosure, it is seen that the firm in which he is the partner has an annual
turnover of Rs 1,48,00,625. But he stated that the said turnover of the firm
generates only a net income of Rs 3, 54,349. ”
The
HC also said, “It is difficult to understand that a firm which is having a
turnover of Rs 1. 5 cro e is getting only a profit of Rs 3, 54,349. So it is
understandable that the petitioner has given some low figures just to create a
make-belief that he has no sufficient income."
Pointing
out that the man lived a “luxurious life” and had paid bills up to Rs 1 lakh
after getting treated at a premier hospital in the city, the HC said, “No
person having just Rs 25,000 as monthly income could meet such huge medical
expenses by opting to get admitted in a costly hospital.”
Dismissing
the petition, the SC said, “When you live in luxury, you need to main tain your
divorced first wife. Rs 15,000 per month is not such a huge sum for the SC to
interfere with. If the first wife had stayed with you, you would be spending
much more than Rs 15,000 per month.
Source:
Times Of India
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Yemeni
Coalition of Independent Women demands designating Houthi as terrorist
organization
February
12, 2022
GENEVA
— The Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women in partnership with 90 local,
regional and international civil society organizations published Human rights
statement on Saturday to demand the designation of the Houthi group on the list
of terrorist organizations.
The
Coalition called on the United Nations General Assembly, with its 193 members,
to designate the Houthi coup militia as a terrorist group, given the fact that
the approach of the militias affiliated with this group represents a real
threat to peace and security in Yemen as well as the building of the modern
Yemeni state.
“We
are following with a great concern the crimes of the Houthi group, that it
deliberately commits on a daily basis by bombing civilian objects in populated
Yemeni cities and in Saudi Arabia as well as the United Arab Emirates with
ballistic missiles and drones. The resulting is killing and injury of civilians
and those are war crimes,” the statement read.
They
urgently demanded the international community to stop these crimes with
decisions that ensure that they will not be repeated in the future.
“Dealing
with the Houthi group has contributed to the exacerbation of the humanitarian
situation, starting with the increase in the number of displacement of
thousands of families who have become homeless as a result of the devastating
wars waged by the Houthi group, in Ma’rib, Shabwa, Al Dhale’, Al Jawf, Al
Hodeidah, Taiz and other areas.
“In
addition to that the victims of mines reached, within a month last January, 73
civilians dead, and a number of wounded in various Yemeni cities and in the
countryside.”
The
Houthis has recruited more than 35,000 children since 2014, and used schools,
mosques, and summer camps to brainwash at least 60,000 children, train them and
send them to the fronts for its wars on behalf of the Iranian regime.
This
group has turned airports and ports into military barracks for operations
targeting the security and safety of international navigation, targeting
international shipping lines, attacking piracy of commercial humanitarian
ships, Blowing boats, and trying to control waterways.
“The
quick response of the international community to classify the Houthi militia as
a terrorist group, placing it on the international terrorist lists, and
prosecuting its leaders in the International Criminal Court, will contribute to
the success of the pressure policy on the Houthi terrorist group to stop its
crimes and its sources of support.” — SG
Source:
Saudi Gazette
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/617019
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UAE:
Emirati women in government, private sector should get uniform leave, FNC
member says
by
Ismail Sebugwaawo
15
Feb 2022
A
member of the Federal National Council (FNC) has proposed for a uniform
maternity leave and other leaves for female Emiratis working in government and
private sector.
Sabreen
Hassan Al Yamahi said in a parliamentary report addressed to the Ministry of
Human Resources and Emiratisation that the difference in the leaves, especially
those related to mourning, childbirth, breastfeeding hours, and work,
significantly and negatively affect the social and job stability of citizens
working in the private sector.
It
also affects the attitudes and convictions of fresh graduates looking for jobs
in the private sector.
Al
Yamahi says maternity leave period granted to female government employees also
be extended to citizens working in the private sector firms so they get equal
benefits.
According
to the federal law on maternity leave in the federal government, a female
employee in a permanent position shall be granted maternity leave of three
months (90 days) with full salary. After that, for 4 months from the date of
the employee resuming work, she is entitled to 2 hours' reduced working hours
to nurse her child either at the beginning or at the end of the working hours.
Maternity leave may not be combined with leave without pay.
A
female worker in the private sector is entitled to a maternity leave of 60
days. The first 45 days with full pay and the next 15 days with half pay.
“The
child whose mother works in a government job enjoys 240 hours of breastfeeding
reduced from their mother’s working hours, while the one whose mother works in
the private sector gets 180 hours of breastfeeding,” Al Yamahi explained adding
that there should be uniformity in the maternity leave days and breastfeeding
hours for citizen mothers working in government and private sector jobs.
The
FNC member also urged the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation to
address this issue of Emiratis in private sector jobs getting lesser maternity
leave days compared to their colleagues working in public departments, by
taking advantage of Article No. (4) of the Decree-Law Regulating Labour
Relations No. (33) of 2021, which calls for putting place measures that would
attract Emiratis to the private sector jobs.
"How
can we apply double standards in dealing with a citizen working in the
government sector and another one working in the private sector? Let us apply
the existing provisions of the law to make these changes so all citizens get
equal benefits,” she said.
In
January, Al Yamahi had requested that the government extend the
two-and-a-half-day weekend granted to government employees to citizens working
in the private sector firms so they get equal benefits following the recent
weekend change in the UAE.
Federal
government departments in the UAE moved to a four-and-a-half-day working week
from January 1, 2022. Friday half-day, Saturday and Sunday had formed the new
weekend in the country, aligning it with global markets.
Al
Yamahi said her proposals are in line with what the UAE leadership seeks to
achieve, including; stability and job satisfaction for UAE nationals working in
the private sector, and to achieve maximum equality in job privileges between
the public and private sectors, especially in light of the comparisons between
the two sectors.
Source:
Khaleej Times
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Civil
society, rights activists protest constant harassment of women students in
Pakistan’s Sindh
14
February, 2022
Karachi
[Pakistan], February 14 (ANI): Expressing concerns over the constant harassment
of female students at Sindh’s universities, rights activists have staged a
protest criticising Pakistan’s provincial government for its failure to stop
these kind of incidents.
The
News International reported that a large number of civil society and women’s
rights activists took part in the demonstration on Sunday.
Sindh
Women Development Minister Syeda Shehla Raza, and the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement-Pakistan’s Senator Khalida Ateeb and MNA Kishwer Zehra also attended
the protest to show solidarity with the victims of gender-based violence at the
province’s academic institutions.
Quoting
the speakers at the protest, The News International reported that the civil
society and women’s rights groups view sexual harassment at educational
institutions with great concern, adding that the recent case of Parveen Rind, a
nursing house officer at the Peoples Medical University Nawabshah, is
reminiscent of the atrocities committed against Noshin Shah, Nimrata Kumari and
Naila Rind.
Furthermore,
they said that the literacy rate is already low in the country, but it is even
lower for girls, adding that after rising harassment cases, the civil society
is afraid that girls who have access to education can also be forced to stay at
home. “Because of it, the country will lag far behind in the race for
development,” civil society groups said in a joint statement cited by The News
International.
The
speakers demanded that the provincial government find those responsible for
sexual harassment at higher educational institutions and punish them severely.
The
incident comes amid the annual report of State of Human Rights in Pakistan
released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) for the year 2020
that has set alarm bells ringing over the plight of women in the country. (ANI)
Source:
The Print
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Pak
witnesses four heinous crimes against women in one week
12-02-2022
Pakistan
has witnessed four horrific incidents against women in different parts of the
country in one week, suggesting a rise in crime against women. A young woman in
Lahore, who had chosen to marry of her own free will, was attacked by her
father in court. Later, she was rescued, and the father was arrested, according
to The News International.
In
Kot Momin, in the same province, a young girl who had been gang-raped, was
murdered by her brother on the grounds of 'honour'. In yet another horrific
incident, two women were kidnapped, paraded naked and then gang-raped in
Pakistan's Sindh province, according to local media.
A
woman in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was admitted to hospital in
Peshawar with a nail hammered into her head, on the direction of a fake 'peer'
(faith healer), in order to give birth to a baby boy. In Pakistan, at least 11
rape cases are reported daily with over 22,000 rape cases reported to police in
the last six years from the country, as per the data obtained from various
bodies including the Police, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Only
77 of the accused in the 22,000 cases were found to be convicted and the
conviction rate is around 0.3 per cent. "Sadly, rape culture is
predominant in Pakistan -- one that blames the victims of sexual assault and
frames all men as naturally violent. Many are working to try to change this
discourse, but it is an uphill battle," said Nida Kirmani, a professor at
Lahore University of Management Sciences, as saying. (ANI)
Source:
Devdiscourse
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Woman
Stabs Cab Driver In Gurgaon, Punches Cop; Claims She Is From Egypt
February
15, 2022
Gurgaon:
A woman, believed to be a foreigner, allegedly stabbed a cab driver in Gurgaon
on Tuesday, police said.
The
incident took place at Gurgaon's Rajiv Chowk around noon, they said. The
burqa-clad woman tried to flee the scene but police chased her down.
After
being cornered by on-duty PCR staff, the woman, who claims to be from Egypt,
started shouting in her native language. A video of the incident also shows her
punching and manhandling a policewoman.
The
suspect was taken to Civil Lines police station, where she is being questioned.
However, no FIR was registered till filing of this news report.
The
woman had thrown her knife while running away and police had yet to recover it.
No
passport or visa has been recovered from her possession, police said. She
doesn't understand English or Hindi so police are arranging a translator.
The
cab driver, Raghu Raj, said he runs his vehicle to Anand Vihar in Delhi on a
sharing basis.
"I
was inside the cab with one passenger when she came from behind. I lowered my
pane, thinking that she had to go somewhere. But, she stabbed me in the
shoulder and ran away. I pursued her, but she scratched my face. Police caught
up and cornered her," Mr Raj told news agency PTI.
Police
said they were waiting for the driver to lodge a complaint against the woman so
that action can be taken in accordance with the law.
Source:
ND TV
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URL: