In Sunita Williams’s Native Village, Goddess Dola Is a Muslim Woman
New Age Islam News Bureau
4 Apr 2013
Photo: Legend has it that over 250 years ago, Dola fought off infiltrators and looters valiantly but died. It is believed that her body metamorphosed into a flower and that the temple came up on the spot of the miracle.
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• Hai’a arrests expat over illicit seclusion
• “Ladies-Only” Days at 2 Prime Beach Parks in Dubai
• Film on Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai to Be Shot In Kanpur
• Madonna to Auction Art for Afghan, Pakistani Girls
• Um Omar, The Mother Feeding Syria’s Mountain Rebels
• Saudi Women Are Allowed To Cycle – But Only Around In Circles
• Hai’a Denies Allowing Women to Ride Bicycles
• Pak Elections: My passion is to educate girls, says Badam Zari
• PML-N's Women Wing Leader Held For Attempted Suicide
• Activist Gamila Appointed Organisational Chief of Egypt's Constitution Party
• Women’s Group Slams Gaza Law on Gender Segregation
• Madonna Takes Children to Native Home In Malawi
• Fashion Pakistan Lounge Launches Spring Exhibition
• Nomination Papers of 36 Women Candidates in Pakistan Accepted
• Fall in Egyptian Pound Weighs Heavily on the Ill
• Attacks on Elderly Armenian Women in Turkey Awaken Fears
• Kazakhstan designer receives enthusiastic comments at Ukrainian Fashion Week
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
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In Sunita Williams’s native village, goddess Dola is a Muslim woman
Bharat Yagnik, TNN | Apr 4, 2013
AHMEDABAD: Jhulasan, a small village 40 km north of Ahmedabad, might be famous as the birth place of Indian-American astronaut Sunita Willaims's father. But it's also as interesting as the space woman. The village has perhaps the only Hindu temple that worships a Muslim deity - Dola Mata.
Legend has it that over 250 years ago, Dola fought off infiltrators and looters valiantly but died. It is believed that her body metamorphosed into a flower and that the temple came up on the spot of the miracle.
"The temple has been built in the memory of this brave Muslim woman whose name nobody really knows," said Dinesh Rawal, Williams' cousin and a former chairman of the municipal school board of Ahmedabad. "The fact is that though there has been no Muslim family in Jhulasan for years, villagers believe that the deity will always fight adversities and offer them protection."
Rich villagers contributed Rs 4-odd crore in the recent past to build a decorated temple for their deity. President of the Jhulasan Kelavani Mandal, 71-year-old Ranjitsinh Vaghela, says it is true that the shrine was built in the memory of a Muslim woman. "The temple does not have any idol or picture. A yantra is placed upon a stone and is covered with a saree," said Vaghela. "When there is any calamity, villagers chant 'Dola Mata taara ghoda dodaye' urging the mother to fight for them."
The shrine is also famous as 'Dollar Mata' temple because 1,500 people from the village of 7,000 are settled in the US. The deity is believed to fulfill the wishes of residents who want to immigrate to foreign lands. People take a pledge to hold a garba in the honour of Dola Mata once they reach the US safely.
Sunita Williams will offer prayers here, as usual, on April 4 after her arrival. The villagers had lit up an "akhand diya" for Williams that glowed continuously till her safe return to earth last November from her four-month-long space odyssey.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/In-Sunita-Williamss-native-village-goddess-Dola-is-a-Muslim-woman/articleshow/19372251.cms
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Hai’a arrests expat over illicit seclusion
April 04, 2013
MAKKAH — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) arrested an expatriate working for a well-known recruitment office located in Makkah’s Al-Aziziah district for illicit seclusion with a woman while the rest of the office had left to perform Isha prayer.
Before the call for Isha prayer, a Saudi man who had entered the office found a woman in full makeup engaged in a conversation with a recruitment employee.
The citizen was offended when he asked the employee about a transaction involving his workers and was told to visit the office another day.
The local muezzin made the call for Isha prayer and the employees left the office along with the Saudi man.
However, the Arab employee and the woman did not leave the office. He said at this point he became suspicious and he reported the matter to the Hai’a.
A Hai’a source said the citizen reported the matter to the commission, which sent a team to the location.
At the end of the prayer, while the rest of the employees were entering the recruitment office, the Hai’a members arrested the Arab employee and the woman.
The employee was handed over to the police.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130404159835
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“Ladies-Only” Days at 2 Prime Beach Parks in Dubai
Sajila Saseendran / 4 April 2013
Come summer and women residents and tourists in Dubai will be able to choose from four days of a week solely devoted to them in two prime beach parks in the emirate. And they will be able to suggest which days they prefer as ladies-only days.
The move is part of the civic body’s plan to make the leisure destinations more women-friendly so as to encourage them to do more physical activities and keep fit, Director of the Public Parks and Horticulture Department Ahmed Abdul Kareem told Khaleej Times.
At present, there is only one ladies-day (Monday) observed in the Jumeirah Beach Park, which received a total of 292,000 visitors in 2012. “There were a lot of women visitors on Mondays. And we got the feedback that there should be more days dedicated for them. So, we decided to extend it for one more day in Jumeirah Beach Park and give two other ladies-only days in Al Mamzar Beach Park,” said Abdul Kareem.
The Al Mamzar Beach Park, Dubai’s most popular park with a total of 1.85 million visitors in 2012, did not have a ladies-only day ever since it was stopped some six years ago. The director said there were not many takers those days.
He said the extra days for ladies would be decided after studying visitors’ opinions and suggestions. “We are committed to know their requirements and facilitate our services according to that. We will take the feedback from tourists, residents, employees of private and government offices and students.”
The surveys will also analyse if frequent visitors can be given memberships instead of making them wait in long queues for tickets, if beaches should be dedicated for different groups of visitors and what special facilities should be arranged for each categories. “For example, we have five beaches in Al Mamzar. If we find the need, we will assign one beach for the tourists, one for local residents, one for students and so on.”
Abdul Kareem said the municipality was gearing up to prepare an appropriate beach park management system for the ladies-only days. “We will have to increase the number of female staff and provide special facilities for organising women’s-only events and special meals. We want to encourage them (women) to do more exercise. We will be assigning more female fitness trainers and female lifeguards.”
The municipality’s move complements the Dubai government’s multi-pronged initiatives aimed at providing better health to residents and reducing the burden of lifestyles diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension as well as its related risk factors.
Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s Yas Water World has announced a Ladies’ Night every Thursday from April 18 until the end of May, starting at 8pm to midnight, while in June the timings will be moved back one hour.
The evenings, where boys under nine will be allowed to attend with relatives, were not due to begin till May but had been brought forward due to a “huge demand”, the park said in a press release.
sajila@khaleejtimes.com
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-
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Film on Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai to Be Shot In Kanpur
Sumit Jha, TNN | Apr 4, 2013
If everything goes as per plan, then parts of Amjad Khan's film on teenage Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai, will be shot in Kanpur.
The filmmaker, who had a fatwa issued against him for his film Le Gaya Saddam, will be in the city soon to seek permissions for the shoot.
Confirming the news is Kanpurite and actor Shahbaz Bajwa, who plays the role of an Afghani extremist in the film. "Amjad Khan will be coming to Kanpur soon to finalise the locations. As of now, he is keen to shoot in areas like Chamanganj and Beconganj, for their similarity to the illegal weapon market of Swat valley located at Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Though Amjad knows that shooting the film in congested areas like Chamanganj and Beconganj would be a tough task, but for the sake of making the film as realistic as possible, Amjad is adamant to shoot in these areas," said Shahbaz.
When we got in touch with Amjad Khan, the filmmaker told us over the phone, "My film would be a tribute to this teenage education activist. Malala has proved that age is no bar when it comes to courage and fighting the evils."
About his Kanpur plans, he adds, "We would be shooting for at least 15 days in Kanpur and most probably our shoot will start from May 22 or 24. I will be shortly coming to the city to meet the administration to seek due permissions for the shooting."
In an interview earlier, Khan had said they would guard the identity of the girl playing Malala for the sake of her security, and Khan persists with that explanation even now.
"At the moment we cannot disclose who would be playing Malala's role but yes, actors like Danny, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, KK Menon and Seema Biswas are playing strong roles in this movie. We would be shooting in Bhuj, Iran and the USA, apart from Kanpur," Khan informed.
The filmmaker has also decided to donate the first day collections of the film to Malala's school in Swat district.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Film-on-Pakistans-Malala-Yousafzai-to-be-shot-in-Kanpur/articleshow/19361945.cms
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Madonna to auction art for Afghan, Pakistani girls
April 4, 2013
Pop star Madonna and Sotheby’s announced on Wednesday the auction of a Cubist masterpiece by French artist Fernand Leger to support an education project for girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The painting “Trois femmes a la table rouge”, estimated at $5-7 million, will go on sale in New York on May 7, with proceeds going to the Ray of Light Foundation.
Madonna, who has been made enormously wealthy through her pop singing career, said she wanted to help “countries where female education is rare or non-existent. I cannot accept a world where women or girls are wounded, shot or killed for either going to school or teaching in girls’ schools”.
“I want to trade something valuable for something invaluable – educating girls,” she said in a statement.
Madonna has owned the painting since 1990. It goes on view in Hong Kong and London before returning to New York in time to join the spring evening sale of Impressionist and modern art.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2013\04\04\story_4-4-2013_pg9_9
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Um Omar, The Mother Feeding Syria’s Mountain Rebels
, 4 April 2013
At 53, Um Omar has decided to wage her own type of “jihad” in Syria’s northern Turkmen Mountains, toiling over pots and pans every day to cook for the area’s rebel fighters.
“I wake up at 5:00 in the morning to prepare their meals, and I haven’t missed a single day’s work in almost a year,” she says, ladling diced potatoes she sliced earlier that morning out of a pan of simmering oil.
“In the snow, the rain, and even under a hail of rockets, she never once stopped cooking for us,” says Assad, a young rebel from the Jabal al-Turkman (Turkmen Mountain) area in Lattakia province, the cradle of the al-Assad clan that has ruled the country for over four decades.
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/perspective/2013/04/04/Um-Omar-the-mother-feeding-Syria-s-mountain-rebels.html
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Saudi Women Are Allowed To Cycle – But Only Around In Circles
April 4, 2013
Saudi Arabia's religious police are encouraging women to cycle, but not to go anywhere: they must be in parks, covered up, accompanied by a male relative
"Get on your bike" is a political refrain for ever associated with Norman Tebbit and unemployment in 1980s Britain, but will it do anything for Saudi Arabia? The country's religious police are now said to be encouraging women to get on their bikes – even motorised versions. Riyadh paper Al-Yawm reports the news of their two-wheeled liberation as if it were some kind of enlightened breakthrough in the social order of a notoriously misogynist state. The deceit is that women, who were always banned from bicycles and motorbikes, are now going places – alone and even under their self-generated power.
Full report at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-womens-blog-with-jane-
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Hai’a denies allowing women to ride bicycles
April 04, 2013
RIYADH — The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Hai’a) has denied issuing any statement allowing women to ride bicycles.
The Hai’a said it has never issued any directive or circular to its personnel on this subject.
It said personnel receive instructions and directives from their superiors through clear and regulated mechanisms.
The commission called on the media to contact official sources whenever they wanted to know something concerning the public.
The commission said it has opened all communications channels so it can answer queries by the media and ensure information is precise and reaches the public quickly.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130404159831
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Pak Elections: My passion is to educate girls, says Badam Zari
April 4, 2013
KHAR: “I am contesting the election with passion, with a clean heart and a clear conscience. My passion is to educate the future generation, girls and women, and to serve them,” says Badam Zari — the first female candidate to run for the elections from Fata.
Zari is a Pakistani housewife, who cannot read or write despite being married to a head teacher and has made history by becoming the first woman approved to run for election in the Taliban-infested tribal belt.
Zari, 53, may have little chance of winning, but her enthusiasm has been seized upon as a step towards emancipation in one of the most conservative parts of Pakistan, where women live in purdah and few even vote.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/531029/elections-my-passion-is-to-educate-girls-says-badam-zari/
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PML-N's women wing leader held for attempted suicide
PTI | Apr 3, 2013
ISLAMABAD: A leader of the PML-N's women wing was arrested after she attempted self-immolation in Quetta city of southwest Pakistan after being denied a ticket for the May 11 general election, police officials said today.
Police arrested Sakina Mengal on the charge of trying to commit suicide during a news conference at the Quetta Press Club yesterday.
While addressing the conference, Mengal and other women leaders of the PML-N alleged that the party's leadership had ignored old workers who made many sacrifices and instead awarded tickets to persons who had joined the party only recently.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/PML-Ns-women-wing-leader-held-for-attempted-suicide/articleshow/19358580.cms
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Activist Gamila Appointed Organisational Chief of Egypt's Constitution Party
Mohamed ElBaradei's liberal Constitution Party makes prominent activist Gamila Ismail head of party's Organisation Secretariat in advance of contentious internal elections
3 Apr 2013
Political activist and former parliamentary candidate Gamila Ismail has been appointed organisational secretary of the Constitution Party, the liberal party announced on its official Facebook page Wednesday.
The organisation secretariat that Ismail will take charge of, the party added, will be tasked with drawing up a special committee to oversee internal party elections this summer.
Full report at:
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/68400/Egypt/Politics-/Gamila-Ismail-appointed-organisational-chief-of-Eg.aspx
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Women’s group slams Gaza law on gender segregation
April 04, 2013
GAZA CITY — A new Gaza law mandating separate classrooms for boys and girls from age nine is another worrisome sign that the territory’s Hamas rulers are gradually imposing their fundamentalist practices, the head of a Gaza women’s group warned Tuesday.
Since seizing Gaza in 2007, Hamas has issued a series of rules restricting women or requiring them to cover up in the traditional Islamic dress of long robes and headscarves.
There have also been bans on women smoking water pipes in public, riding on the backs of motorcycles or getting their hair done by male stylists.
Full report at:
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130404159866
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Madonna takes children to native home in Malawi
(AFP) / 4 April 2013
US pop icon Madonna on Wednesday took her four children to a famous orphanage in central Malawi, from where she adopted one of them, seven-year-old David Banda.
Madonna, who adopted David in 2006, last visited the Home of Hope three years ago.
The singer also received reports on how the financial support she has provided the orphanage since 2007 have helped the up to 500 children there.
When she adopted David, Madonna promised that she would be bringing him home “to stay connected to his Malawi culture...to keep connected to his cultural heritage”.
In 2009, Madonna also adopted Mercy James, now aged seven, from another Malawian orphanage.
Full report at:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/kt-article-display-
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Fashion Pakistan Lounge launches spring exhibition
April 3, 2013
LAHORE: Fashion Pakistan Lounge (FPL) hosted its annual spring exhibition, Best of What’s New, on April 1. This one day event featured established and upcoming names from Lahore and Karachi. As spring is in full swing in Lahore with summer not far behind, women are constantly stocking up on their summer wardrobe to gear up for the hot weather ahead.
The exhibiting designers included Sadaf Malaterre, Wardha Saleem, The Pink Tree by Mohsin Sayeed, Sana Barry, Attraction by Kamal Fabric, MBM (Maria Basit Malik), Aleem Mehta, The Clothes Company, Turquoise and Agha Noor.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/530610/fashion-pakistan-lounge-launches-spring-exhibition/
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Nomination Papers of 36 Women Candidates in Pakistan Accepted
April 3, 2013
PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has accepted nomination papers of 36 candidates for seats reserved for women in the National Assembly, while eight have been asked to get their degrees verified by April 7.
Provincial Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch, who is also the returning officer for reserved seats for women and minorities, conducted the scrutiny process and accepted nomination papers of 36 out of the 44 candidates.
An ECP official said previously, 77 candidates from different parties submitted their nomination papers. Of these, 33 were automatically rejected after political parties sent their priority lists.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/530743/reserved-seats-for-women-nomination-papers-of-36-candidates-accepted/
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Fall in Egyptian Pound Weighs Heavily on the Ill
By FARAH HALIME
April 4, 2013
In the tiny village of Nagaa al-Khalasab on the outskirts of the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan, the parents of 11-month-old Butheyna Ali Khalil have struggled to acquire medicine to treat her hepatitis C.
As a wave of pharmaceutical shortages has swept across Egypt, exacerbated by a steep drop in the pound, the family has had to rely on the good will of friends for a sporadic supply of black-market Silymarin tablets to treat their daughter. Her condition, meanwhile, has worsened, and access to the medicine is becoming more difficult.
“All I can do is pray to God because I cannot do anything else,” said her father, Abdel Maksoud Khalil. “I am helpless.”
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/world/middleeast/fall-in-egyptian-pound-weighs-
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Attacks on Elderly Armenian Women in Turkey Awaken Fears
By TIM ARANGO
April 4, 2013
ISTANBUL — The man in the ski mask struck in the twilight of late afternoon, strangling the elderly woman from behind, beating her senseless and leaving her for dead. He ran off with 50 Turkish lira, about $30, and her engagement ring, a last memory of her long-dead husband.
“He just beat me, over and over again,” said the woman, Turfanda Asik, 88, who spent two weeks in an intensive care unit. “He hit my back, my skinny back. What have I done to him? What did he want?”
Ms. Asik was left bruised and blinded in one eye. Her beating is thought to be the first of a string of attacks in the last few months on elderly Armenian women in Samatya, Istanbul’s historic Armenian quarter. Until recently in Samatya, a neighborhood of wooden houses built long ago and centuries-old churches, residents left their doors unlocked.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/world/europe/attacks-on-elderly-armenian-turks-
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Kazakhstan designer receives enthusiastic comments at Ukrainian Fashion Week
04.04.2013
The new fashion collection of Ainur Turisbek of Kazakhstan that was presented at Ukrainian Fashion Week impressed the audience a lot, Tengrinews.kz reports.
Famous Kazakhstan designers and couturiers Sayat Dossybayev and Alexey Dzhen along with the manager of Kazakhstan Fashion Week project Irina Baizhanova attended the event. “It was the debut of the Kazakhstan designer and participant of Kazakhstan Fashion Week at the Ukrainian Fashion Week. According to the media, the audience liked the collection and Ukrainian fashion journalists queued to interview the Kazakhstan designer after the presentation. We are happy with her success,” Dossybayev wrote in his Facebook.
Full report at:
http://en.tengrinews.kz/show_and_style/Kazakhstan-designer-receives-enthusiastic-
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