Muslim Women Forum in Kerala Presses for Addressing Gender Discrimination before UCC
New Age Islam
News Bureau
22
May 20123
• Muslim Women Forum in Kerala Presses for Addressing Gender
Discrimination before UCC
• Islamic Abaya Controversy Puts Secularism in French Education to the
Test
• Public Protests Are Over but More Iranian Women Are Refusing To Wear the
Hijab
• German Woman Convicted Of Keeping Yazidi Woman as a Slave in Iraq
• Kuwaiti Women Second Least Fortunate in Politics among Arab Females: Report
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-kerala-gender-ucc/d/130053
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Representative
image. Credit: iStock Photo
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JUN 22 2023
While various
Muslim outfits have been expressing concerns that the proposed Uniform Civil
Code (UCC) will curtail religious rights and freedoms, a forum of progressive
Muslim women in Kerala is pressing for ensuring gender justice in personal laws
b...
NISA, a forum of
progressive Muslim, said in a presentation to the Law Commission that the need
of the hour was codification of all Muslim personal laws by doing away with
gender discriminations. NISA also submitted representation to the Kerala
gover...
NISA secretary V P
Suhara, who has been fighting for gender discriminations in Muslim personal
laws over the last many years, said that the Indian Succession Act, Divorce
Act, Guardians and Wards Act and Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection)
Act sh...
"It is
unfortunate that the Muslim personal laws were not codified even around 75
years after the Constitution that prohibits discrimination in the name of
religion, caste and sex came into effect," said Suhara.
The discriminations
in the Muslim personal laws got much attention recently after a Muslim couple
hailing from Kasargod in Kerala registered their marriage under the Special
Marriage Act on this International women's day on March 8 around three decad...
Source: deccanherald.com
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/south/muslim-women-forum-in-kerala-presses-for-addressing-gender-discrimination-before-ucc-1230064.html
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Islamic Abaya
Controversy Puts Secularism in French Education to the Test
File photo
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21/06/2023
Amid an escalating
debate that tests the edges of secularism in French education, the rising
number of Muslim girls wearing the Islamic Abayas in French schools has sparked
widespread discourse in the secular country, according to a report by Yahoo
News.
The current
situation underlines the country's struggle to uphold secular principles while
grappling with charges of increasing Islamophobia.
While the French
law of 2004 prohibits the display of overt religious symbols in educational
settings, the abaya - a full-length, loose-fitting garment worn for religious
modesty - remains in a legal gray area. The national controversy has been
further inflamed by the echoes of a 2020 incident in a Paris suburb where a
radicalized Chechen refugee beheaded a teacher, an event that shook the nation.
Public figures have
voiced mixed opinions. Eric Ciotti, the leader of the right-wing Republicans
party, critiqued the presence of abayas in schools, denouncing legal
"ambiguities" as a benefit to Islamists. Conversely, the French
Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) refuted the notion that clothing should be
classified as "a religious sign" and condemned the escalating
stigmatization surrounding Islam. This sentiment was echoed by MathildePanot, a
key figure in the France Unbowed party, who decried the perpetuation of
Islamophobia in media discourse.
Academics highlight
the evolving interpretation and usage of the abaya as a significant factor in
the contentious debate. HaouesSeniguer, a lecturer at the IEP Lyon university,
noted the abaya's non-religious origins in Gulf Arab countries, while Professor
Mihaela-Alexandra Tudor from the Paul Valery Montpellier 3 University
highlighted how globalization has transformed the abaya into a fashionable
garment, adding complexity to the public discussion.
Meanwhile, social
media platforms like TikTok have amplified the popularity of the abaya,
particularly among young girls. However, DouniaBouzar, a former member of
France's National Secularism Observatory, warned that the primary purpose of
the abaya to conceal feminine forms could position it within the ambit of the
2004 law, which was designed to maintain secularism in education.
Government
representatives, such as spokesman Olivier Veran and Education Minister Pap
Ndiaye, have advocated for adherence to the 2004 law and expressed a
willingness to revise current measures to address the ongoing controversy.
Source: yenisafak.com
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/islamic-abaya-controversy-puts-secularism-in-french-education-to-the-test-3665468
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Public protests are
over but more Iranian women are refusing to wear the hijab
June 20, 2023
In Iran, mass
protests against rules forcing women to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf,
have ended. But demonstrators are finding new ways to make their voices heard.
MICHEL MARTIN,
HOST:
In Iran, public
protests against rules forcing women to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf,
have ended, at least for now. Meanwhile, though, Iranian lawmakers are working
on new legislation aimed at toughening the crackdown against women for improper
wearing of the hijab. But protesters are still finding new ways to make their
voices heard. As NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Istanbul, among the latest
battlegrounds are shopping malls and private businesses.
PETER KENYON,
BYLINE: I reached Tarlan (ph), a 36-year-old researcher and market analyst from
Tehran, via WhatsApp. She asked that her family name not be used. She worries
about government reprisals for speaking with the media about the protests.
Tarlan says the mass demonstrations sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa
Jina Amini in police custody last year may have stopped, but the struggle for
women's rights is definitely continuing. And it's not hard to see signs that
the protests have had an impact. For example, she says for decades, authorities
have forced businesses to shut down if they permitted women on the premises
without the hijab. In the past, she says, once businesses reopened, they would
routinely warn women to wear the headscarf or leave. But now they don't bother.
TARLAN: (Through
interpreter) The fact that they decided to shut a major shopping mall in the
hope of stopping such acts of civil disobedience and to force women to wear the
hijab made us think that once they reopened, the shops would warn us or not let
us in. But this is not what happened.
KENYON: Tarlan says
there's also a new freedom in restaurants. In the past, if a woman's scarf fell
off, a waiter would rush to warn her to put it back on. Now, she says, no one
says anything. Iranian lecturer on human rights MoeinKhazaeli also consults for
human rights organizations in Sweden. I reached him in Malmo, where he told me
that the norms of Iranian society are definitely shifting since Mahsa Jina
Amini's death. Unfortunately, he says, the government's attitude hasn't
changed. Khazaeli says, for instance, officials announced amnesties for
thousands of protesters earlier this year. But after reaping the positive
publicity, he says they launched a new series of prosecutions against some of
those same demonstrators.
MOEIN KHAZAELI:
(Through interpreter) Many of them are now facing new charges that they weren't
facing in the past, actually. So it's getting even worse since the order by the
leader in February that these people should be forgiven.
KENYON: Analysts
say hard-liners are pushing for harsher punishment for protesters. And a new
law is being drafted that is expected to provide them. Tara Sepehri Far, with
Human Rights Watch, says the authorities seem to be particularly worried about
female actors and other well-known Iranian women not wearing the hijab because
that sends a message to millions of Iranian women that they, too, can discard
the headscarf if they want to.
TARA SEPEHRI FAR:
Over the past month or so, we have seen the judiciary opening cases against
several actors, female actors who have appeared in public without the hijab.
And the draft law that is being proposed has very clear provisions that in the
case of those who can be categorized as public figure, there's a different
level of punishment.
KENYON: Sepehri Far
says it's hard to see how the huge changes of recent months could be reversed.
SEPEHRI FAR: Public
discontent is at an all-time high. The reality is that the message of respect
for freedom of choice is getting momentum by the day. It is a transformation
that has been in the making. Women have been the lead for that. It's also
asserting the agency of women at various layers of the society, including
family. And that is not reversible.
KENYON: She doesn't
think new legislation will change public attitudes. And she wonders what Iran's
hard-liners will try next in their bid to quash displays of what critics call
the people's contempt for their leaders.
Peter Kenyon, NPR
News, Istanbul.
(SOUNDBITE OF AK
AND TIM SCHAUFERT'S "TIDES")
Source: npr.org
https://www.npr.org/2023/06/20/1183152677/public-protests-are-over-but-more-iranian-women-are-refusing-to-wear-the-hijab
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German woman
convicted of keeping Yazidi woman as a slave in Iraq
June 21, 2023
BERLIN -- A German
woman was convicted Wednesday of keeping a Yazidi woman as a slave during her
time with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, and sentenced to nine
years and three months in prison.
The state court in
the western city of Koblenz convicted the 37-year-old of crimes against
humanity, membership in a foreign terrorist organization and being an accessory
to genocide, German news agency dpa reported. Authorities have identified her
only as Nadine K. in line with German privacy rules.
The court found
that the defendant for three years abused a young Yazidi woman “in her own
interests as a household slave.” It said that her husband brought the woman to
their home and regularly raped her, and that the defendant enabled those
assaults and should have intervened.
Prosecutors have
said that the defendant traveled to Syria with her husband in 2014 and joined
IS. In 2015, the couple moved to the Iraqi town of Mosul, where they allegedly
kept the Yazidi woman.
The defendant was
arrested in March 2022 after being brought back to Germany from a camp in
northeastern Syria where suspected members of IS have been held.
In a statement read
out at her trial by a defense lawyer, she denied having coerced the Yazidi
woman at any point. She said there had been frequent arguments with her husband
over the woman's presence and she was ashamed of not having done more for her.
In February, the
Yazidi woman testified at the trial and said she recognized the defendant.
She traveled to
Koblenz again for the verdict. “She hopes that others follow her example” and
that all who committed similar crimes face trial, said her lawyer, SonkaMehner.
The trial is the
latest of several in Germany involving women who traveled to regions controlled
by the IS group in Syria and Iraq.
In one case, a
German convert to Islam was convicted in 2021 on charges that she allowed a 5-year-old
Yazidi girl she and her husband kept as a slave to die of thirst in the sun.
Her husband was subsequently convicted as well.
Earlier this year,
an appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing for the woman, who was given
a 10-year sentence. She now risks a longer prison term.
Source: abcnews.go.com
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/german-woman-convicted-keeping-yazidi-woman-slave-iraq-100267847
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Kuwaiti women
second least fortunate in politics among Arab females: Report
KUWAIT: In a list
of least Arab women’s participation in political work issued recently by V-Dem
Institute, Kuwait was ranked second among Arab countries, after Yemen.
According to a report by the Arabian Gulf Center for Studies and Research
(CSRGULF) – the first think tank in Kuwait – the index is about Arab women
practicing politics and assuming leadership positions. The study shows although
women represent the largest percentage of the total number of Arab voters,
their representation in legislative councils remains weak and uneven.
The report noted
that Yemeni women were the least fortunate in politics, followed by Kuwaiti
women and Sudanese women. On the other hand, Emirati women topped most Arab
women practicing political work because of the encouragement, training and
empowerment programs supported by their country. Moroccan, Iraqi and
Mauritanian women followed Emirati women on the list. This reflects the
remarkable presence of women in these countries in political work, especially
in the legislative and governmental fields.
The report said
some countries have succeeded in overcoming obstacles to support women’s
practice of politics and succeeded in empowering them through quotas in
government or legislative councils, or by promoting a culture of political
action among women and granting them confidence in assuming leadership
positions. However, while women in these countries are fortunate, women in
other countries have not had the same luck, such as women in Sudan, Syria and
Oman, who followed Kuwait on the list.
In Arab countries,
there is a large disparity between the sexes in this field, based on data on
democracy and human rights in the Arab world, in addition to studying estimated
variables of the percentage of Arab women’s representation in legislative
councils and the extent to which they obtained an equal share with men in
political power during the last 10 years, which led to a conclusion on the
order of assessment of the extent to which women exercised political work.
Source: kuwaittimes.com
https://www.kuwaittimes.com/kuwaiti-women-second-least-fortunate-in-politics-among-arab-females-report/
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-kerala-gender-ucc/d/130053