Iranian-American Female Soccer Player, Melika Mohammadi, Honoured After Tragic Death
New Age
Islam News Bureau
1st January 2024
·
Iranian-American
Female Soccer Player, Melika Mohammadi, Honoured After Tragic Death
·
522 Women,
Underage Girls Sexually Assaulted In Karachi Last Year
·
Paula
Abdul Files Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Former ‘American Idol’ Producer
·
"He
Is Our Bhaijaan": PM Modi's Minority Outreach Draws Praise From Muslim
Women
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-american-female-soccer-melika/d/131433
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Iranian-American Female Soccer Player, Melika Mohammadi, Honoured After Tragic Death
Iranian-American
Female Soccer Player, Melika Mohammadi
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Maryam Sinaee
January 1, 2024
Iranian women's national soccer team
player, and Emory University team member Melika Mohammadi, tragically died in a
car accident last week, while visiting Iran.
On Sunday, she was commemorated at
Tehran's Azadi Stadium before her repatriation to the United States for burial.
Born in the southern Iranians city of
Shiraz in 2000, Mohammadi died on December 24 at the age of 23 in a car
accident near the city of Bam in eastern Iran where she played for the city’s
Khatoon FC, the winner of the 2022-2013 Iranian league title.
“Melika was also a women’s right
activist and large empowering force to younger generations,” her teammates at
Emory women’s soccer team for which she played for two years wrote on
Instagram.
Female fans of Esteghlal FC honouring
the memory of Mohammadi at a match in Tehran on December 30.
“She really wanted to empower other
women in Iran and had plans for setting up several soccer schools in Iran with
her own money to help other girls whose training opportunities are very
limited,” a family member told Iran International.
The memorial during which Mohammadi’s
flag-draped coffin was carried by military guards was attended by Mohammadi’s
parents and other family members, friends, some sports officials, and several
athletes.
Mohammadi’s sister, Aida who was wearing
her sister’s number 18 national team shirt, and several others, ran a victory
round at the stadium Sunday in her honor.
This was the first time such a ceremony
was being held for a female athlete at Azadi Stadium. As a woman, Mohammadi had
never practiced or played there due to an unwritten ban.
Women have not even been allowed to
watch men’s matches at Azadi and other stadiums for four decades, except in a
few rare cases, due to the ban. The world’s soccer authority (FIFA) has tried
to convince the Islamic Republic for nearly a decade to lift the ban on women
attending stadiums to watch male players. In recent months the ban has been
relaxed somewhat.
Women’s matches are also never shown on
TV.
Mohammadi’s coffin being carried at
Azadi Stadium
Mohammadi started playing soccer from a
very young age. She was invited to play for the national girls’ soccer team at
the age of eleven and later to the under-17 team and the national women’s team.
Most recently, Mohammadi played as a
midfielder for the national women’s soccer team. She played a pivotal role in
her team in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asia Cup, the first ever win in the games for
Iran's women’s team.
Since the age of 13, when she moved to
the United States with her family, Mohammadi had also simultaneously played for
Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland as well as Emory University of
Atlanta, Georgia, from where she received her Bachelor of Science in
anthropology and human biology.
To be able to play for the national team
in Iran and study in the US, she had to travel back and forth between Iran and
the United States throughout these years.
Her mother said in a speech at the
memorial ceremony at Hafezieh Stadium of Shiraz that her daughter decided to
play in the Iranian league and the national team to help “shatter the glass
ceiling” keeping Iranian women from success.
In the past few days Mohammadi has been
remembered by fans with posters, silence, and chants at several matches.
Video posted by former national team
coach, Maryam Irandoust, shows Melika and her teammates singing on a train
during a tour.
“Iranian women who do not have a share
of Azadi Stadium are only given their right of presence there after they die,
... Melika Mohammadi is truly commemorated only when women can freely be
[allowed] presence at Azadi,” one of the tweets about the event read.
“Alas that Melika came to Azadi Stadium,
for the first and last time, in these circumstances,” the very popular former
TV football commentator and producer Adel Ferdosipour, who attended the
ceremony at Azadi Stadium, told reporters referring to the unwritten ban on
women’s team practicing and playing at the stadium like men’s team.
“Melika darling, you were the reason …
Iranian female soccer players could go Azadi Stadium, a stadium where they had
never trained there even once,” Hajar Dabbaghi, another national soccer team
player wrote on Instagram while criticizing male soccer players for failing to
show up at Melika’s remembrance.
Source: iranintl.com
https://www.iranintl.com/en/202401010387
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522 Women, Underage Girls Sexually
Assaulted In Karachi Last Year
January 1, 2024
Imtiaz Ali
KARACHI: More than 500 women and
underage girls were sexually assaulted in Karachi alone during the year 2023
which also saw 4,042 cases of physical assault on them, the police surgeon
said.
Separately, the Edhi Foundation said
that as many as 714 people were shot dead and 3,022 suffered bullet wounds
during the year 2023 in Karachi, registering a 15 per cent increase in violent
deaths compared to 2022.
A spokesperson for the charity told Dawn
on Sunday that the data was based on the figures of those killed or wounded
across the city and reported at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC),
Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) and Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH)
during the past year.
Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed — who heads
the team of medico-legal officers deputed in the city’s three major hospitals —
also said that as many as 1,565 bodies were brought to the three hospitals for
a post-mortem examination. Those died included murder victims, traffic accidents,
suicides, etc.
714 persons shot dead, 223 bodies of
newborns recovered in 2023, says Edhi Foundation
According to the Edhi Foundation’s data,
248 persons died due to torture while 23 were killed in cylinder/gas explosions
and other incidents.
The record showed at least 180 men and
women committed suicide. Thirteen persons were killed by trains and 23 people
burned to death in different accidents.
The number of people died of
electrocution was 119. As many as 191 people drowned in different incidents in the
city during 2023.
The Edhi spokesperson said that 750
people were killed in road traffic accidents and 11,728 suffered injuries. He
said that 63pc of those killed and injured in traffic accidents were
motorcyclists.
The data compiled by the Edhi Foundation
also said that 224 cases of infanticide were reported across the city during
the year 2023.
In a statement, Faisal Edhi expressed
his disappointment over the cases of infanticide but claimed that a
‘significant reduction’ in the recovery of bodies of newborn babies was
witnesses in the outgoing year.
522 women sexually assaulted
Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed told Dawn
522 women and young girls were sexually assaulted during 2023.
She said that 4,042 cases of physical
assault on women were reported in the outgoing year.
She said that 22 bodies were exhumed on
the orders of judicial magistrates / courts during the year 2023.
Meanwhile, a police spokesperson said
that till Dec 29, 3,158 encounters took place across Sindh in which 21
policemen were martyred while 1,726 criminal gangs were eliminated.
He also said that 188 encounters took
place with dacoits in katcha areas (riverine) in which 40 bandits were killed
while 136 others were arrested.
According to Sindh Rangers, they had
conducted 163 operations against terrorists, targeted killers, kidnappers and
extortionists along with the police and arrested 197 high-profile suspects who
were members of different banned religious/sectarian, sub-nationalists and
gangs.
The rangers also said because of their
actions against water theft, around 25 MGD (million gallons daily) of water was
saved, which resulted in the increase of revenue generation for the Karachi
Water & Sewerage Board up to Rs200m monthly.
Source: dawn.com
https://www.dawn.com/news/1802215/522-women-underage-girls-sexually-assaulted-in-karachi-last-year
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Paula Abdul Files Sexual Assault Lawsuit
Against Former ‘American Idol’ Producer
31 December 2023
LOS ANGELES — Paula Abdul has accused
former “American Idol” producer Nigel Lythgoe of sexually assaulting her in the
early 2000s when she was a judge on the reality competition show, according to
a new lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed Friday in Los Angeles
also accuses Lythgoe of sexually assaulting Abdul after she left “American
Idol” and became a judge on Lythgoe’s other competition show “So You Think You
Can Dance.”
The Associated Press generally does not
identify alleged victims of sexual assault unless they come forward publicly,
as Abdul has done.
In a statement Saturday, Abdul’s lawyer
Douglas Johnson applauded the singer and dancer for speaking out publicly.
“It was clearly a difficult decision to
make, but Ms. Abdul knows that she stands both in the shoes and on the
shoulders of many other similarly situated survivors, and she is determined to
see that justice is done,” Johnson said.
Lythgoe said in a statement that he was
“shocked and saddened” to hear of the allegations made by Abdul, whom he said
he considered a “dear” and “entirely platonic” friend.
“While Paula’s history of erratic
behavior is well known, I can’t pretend to understand exactly why she would
file a lawsuit that she must know is untrue,” Lythgoe said in the statement.
“But I can promise that I will fight this appalling smear with everything I
have.”
The lawsuit states Abdul remained silent
for years about the alleged assaults out of fear of retaliation by “one of the
most well-known producers of television competition shows.”
Before “American Idol” and “So You Think
You Can Dance,” on which Lythgoe served as a judge for 16 seasons, he was a
producer on the British show “Pop Idol,” which became a global franchise that
includes the US iteration starring Abdul.
According to the lawsuit, the first
sexual assault occurred while Abdul and Lythgoe were on the road filming
auditions for an earlier season of “American Idol,” which premiered in 2002.
Abdul says Lythgoe groped her in the
elevator of their hotel after a day of filming and “began shoving his tongue
down her throat.” Abdul pushed him away and ran to her hotel room when the elevator
doors opened.
“In tears, Abdul quickly called one of
her representatives to inform them of the assault,” the lawsuit says, “but
ultimately decided not to take action for fear that Lythgoe would have her
fired from American Idol.”
Abdul, a Grammy- and Emmy-winning
artist, starred as a judge for the first eight seasons, leaving in 2009.
In 2015, Abdul became a judge on “So You
Think You Can Dance,” appearing alongside Lythgoe.
Around that time, Abdul alleged in the
lawsuit, Lythgoe forced himself on top of her during a dinner at his home and
tried to kiss her. Abdul said she again pushed Lythgoe away and immediately
left.
Abdul left the reality show after two
seasons. She has not worked with Lythgoe since.
The lawsuit also accuses Lythgoe of
taunting Abdul about the alleged assaults, saying to her years later that “they
should celebrate” because “the statute of limitations had run.”
Abdul filed the suit days before the
December 31 deadline of a California law that opened a one-year window for
victims to file lawsuits involving sexual abuse claims after the statute of
limitations has run out.
More than 3,700 legal claims were filed
under a similar law in New York that expired last month.
Source: timesofisrael.com
https://www.timesofisrael.com/paula-abdul-files-sexual-assault-lawsuit-against-former-american-idol-producer/
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"He Is Our Bhaijaan": PM
Modi's Minority Outreach Draws Praise From Muslim Women
[31/December/2023]
Tripti Nath
The 108th episode of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's monthly radio address, 'Mann Ki Baat, drew a cross-section of
audience on Sunday, with women from the Muslim community turning out in numbers
for a special broadcast at Mahila Park near the iconic Jama Masjid of Old
Delhi.
The special broadcast, organised by the
Indian Minorities Foundation, an NGO, cones at a time when the BJP has been
making a conscious effort to reach out to all communities, beyond its core
voters, with an eye on next year's Lok Sabha elections.
The broadcast drew Muslim participants
from diverse age groups, especially women.
The 'Mann Ki Baat' is a platform for PM
Modi to communicate directly with the people. He has been using the forum to
raise issues of national importance with the people while exhorting them to be
stakeholders in the pursuit of a 'developed nation' in the coming years.
Giving her take on PM Modi's radio
address to ANI on Sunday, one of the attendees at the broadcast, Shabana
Rehman, said, "We all have gathered here to listen to PM Modi's 'Mann Ki
Baat.' All of us support PM Modi."
Calling PM Modi 'bhaijaan', Rehman
underlined his efforts to reach out to a cross-section of communities.
"No other party or government did
as much for us as this government. Be it 'triple talaq' or extending the
benefits of the government's social welfare schemes, PM Modi has done a lot for
us. He is our 'bhaijaan'," she told ANI.
Another attendee at the special
broadcast, Nawab Qureshi, said he is a regular follower of PM Modi's 'Mann Ki
Baat' address.
He also voiced his contentment over the
strides that the Muslim community, especially women, has made under the
leadership of PM Modi.
"I listen to PM Modi's 'Mann Ki
Baat' every last Sunday of the month. Our country is moving on the road to
development at a rapid speed," he said.
"In the last nine-and-a-half years,
under the leadership of PM Modi, Muslims in the country have made progress and
are happy," Qureshi added.
Earlier, in a significant move marking
the positive impact of PM Modi's outreach to the minorities, a former litigant
in the Ayodhya land dispute case, Iqbal Ansari, was seen showering petals on PM
Modi's motorcade during his roadshow in the temple town on Saturday.
PM Modi received a grand welcome in
Ayodhya, with a huge number of locals cheering, waving and showering petals on
his motorcade.
However, Iqbal Ansari's presence as a
cheerleader stood out among the teeming thousands that turned out to welcome PM
Modi.
Source: awazthevoice.in
https://www.awazthevoice.in/india-news/he-is-our-bhaijaan-pm-modi-s-minority-outreach-draws-praise-from-muslim-women-26197.html
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iranian-american-female-soccer-melika/d/131433