Norwegian Peace Council added Fawzia Koofi among Nobel Prize’s Favourite
New
Age Islam News Bureau
03
October 2020
• Somali Women’s Basketball Team in Black and Blue Headscarves, Defy Prejudice, Hostility
•
Sydney Hijabi Influencers, Nawal Sari. In 'Modest Fashion' Who Make a Living
from Instagram
•
British Female Daesh Suspects Escape Syria Camps Using Online Donations
•
Pakistan Taking Initiatives to Curb Violence against Women, FM Tells UN
•
Iraq urged to investigate attacks on women human rights defenders
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/norwegian-peace-council-added-fawzia/d/123029
--------
Norwegian Peace Council added Fawzia Koofi among Nobel Prize’s Favourite
By
Mohammad Haroon Alim
03
Oct 2020
Fawzia
Koofi among Noble Prize's Favorite
-----
Norwegian
Peace Council added the name of former parliament member and current peace
negotiations member in Qatar, Fawzia Koofi among 5 Noble Peace Prize Favorites
for 2020.
She
was listed among the 5 favourites due to her efforts for women’s rights and
ongoing peace negotiations.
Besides
being a delegation member in ongoing peace negotiations in Qatar, Fawzia koofi
also leads the movement for change party.
“There
are 318 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020, of which 211 are
individuals and 107 are organizations, 318 is the fourth-highest number of
candidates ever. The current record of 376 candidates was reached in 2016”, the
Nobel Prize organization states.
Reporters
Without Borders, American lawyer Benjamin Ferencz, New Zealand Prime Minister
Jacinda Arden, and the Equal Justice Initiative organization have also been
shortlisted for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
https://www.khaama.com/fawzia-koofi-among-noble-prizes-favorite-9876456/
--------
Somali
Women’s Basketball Team in Black and Blue Headscarves, Defy Prejudice, Hostility
October
03, 2020
Former
basketball player Nasra Mohamed leads Somali women during a basketball practice
session at a court within Hamar Jajab district of Mogadishu, Somalia September
16, 2020. (REUTERS)
-----
MOGADISHU:
Whistles screech on the sea breeze as three female Somali coaches inspect a
line of women in black and blue headscarves dribbling basketballs.
It
is not just the heat that makes it hard: The women are also braving the scorn
of their families and the threat of attack by gunmen who think women should not
play sport publicly.
“We
cannot openly say we are going to play. We put our playing clothes and shoes in
schoolbags and carry them that way to the field and we pretend we are going to
school or university,” said Fardawsa Omar Ahmed, 20, a university graduate who
also plays volleyball and football.
Her
family used to discourage her from playing, but now they accept it, she said.
The
women only play in compounds behind high concrete walls, which shield them from
the gaze of the curious or those who might attack them.
One
of the coaches, Suham Hassan Sobran, 40, played as a child before civil war
broke out in Somalia in 1991. She restarted in 2009, when the Al-Shabab
insurgency still controlled large swathes of the city.
Now,
Sobran and her two friends train some 30 other women on a court enclosed in
Mogadishu’s Hamar Jajab district office. A police checkpoint lies nearby — such
checkpoints are often a target for Al-Shabab, which was driven out of Mogadishu
in 2011, but still mounts frequent attacks.
On
the court’s gate is a painting of a woman playing basketball and slogans
promoting good sportsmanship.
Another
of the coaches, Faduma Ali Abdirahman, 39, now a mother of six, once played on
Somalia’s national team, traveling to Djibouti and Uganda for matches.
The
women receive no funding. When they play matches, the trainers pool money to
buy a cheap cup as a prize. But they love what they do, and dream of starting
teams all over Somalia.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1743456/middle-east
--------
Sydney
Hijabi Influencers, Nawal Sari. In 'Modest Fashion' Who Make a Living from
Instagram
By
Housnia Shams
03
Oct 2020
Nawal
Sari noticed a gap in the market and is now a full-time Instagram
influencer.(Instagram @Nawalsari)
-----
When
Nawal Sari began posting pictures of her trendy outfits on Instagram four years
ago, she had no idea it would end up becoming her full-time job.
The
21-year-old from Liverpool in Western Sydney is one of a handful of hijabi
influencers who cater to Australia's growing "modest fashion" market.
Nawal
said she was inspired to start posting after noticing a gap in the market.
"I
didn't feel that there was somebody that I could relate to in the sense of
fashion or having a Muslim sister that I could look up to," she said.
Before
her Instagram took off, she was working multiple jobs to make ends meet, but
all that changed 12 months ago.
With
more than 180,000 followers, Nawal has created a social media presence that's
also paying the bills.
"It's
been about a year now that I've done this [Instagram] full-time and I've been
busy every single day since," she said.
"I
booked a few jobs like Nike and Supre, but it wasn't until I got management
that they really pitched for me and I really got my foot in the door of a
market that I could never get in by myself."
Inspiring
women
It's
a similar story for Sana Sayed from Dundas in Sydney's north-west.
The
20-year-old says she initially signed up to Instagram in 2017 to share pictures
with family and friends.
But
she quickly began attracting the attention of local modest fashion brands,
helping her garner a following of more than 130,000 people.
"I
post fashion advice and I show different ways of how I style outfits and my
Hijab, which I think inspires women," Sana says.
The
full-time university student says she has worked with global brands including
singer Rihanna's cosmetics company Fenty Beauty and retailer JD Sports.
She
says payment can vary depending on the brand she is promoting.
"You
can start off from $400 to $500, up to $3,000 to $4,000 for one post," she
says.
'Following
a friend'
Natalie
Giddings from Sydney marketing company the Remarkables Group says brands are
increasingly turning to influencers to advertise their products because they
have significant reach.
"Influencers
in this day and age are outshining a large number of traditional publications
that marketers like myself would have previously gone to," Ms Giddings
says.
"A
magazine like Vogue for instance has about 55,000 people that buy the magazine
each month … but some of the people that we work with are well into the
hundreds of thousands in audience alone."
Ms
Giddings says audiences feel like they have a personal connection with
influencers and are in turn more likely to trust their product recommendations.
"The
number one reason why people tune into and follow influencers is because it
feels like they're following a friend."
Billion-dollar
industry
The
global rise of modest fashion has given hijabi influencers like Ms Sari and Ms
Sayed a platform and an audience.
Modest
fashion typically includes clothing that is stylish yet adheres to religious
requirements.
The
modest fashion market is worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally.
According
to a report by research and advisory firm DinarStandard, Australia was rated
the 17th best Islamic economy globally in 2018.
It
revealed Muslims, including roughly 565,000 tourists, spent more than $500
million on clothing in Australia in 2018.
The
co-owner and designer behind Sydney modest fashion brand Twiice, Mawluda Momin,
says she was inspired to start her business after struggling to find modest
clothing that was stylish.
"Jumpsuits
with a modest twist are really popular — so are dresses that are less oversized
and more fitted, flattering and feminine."
Along
with her sister and a friend, Ms Momin opened a store in Sydney's south-west in
2018.
Since
then, they've built a devoted customer base.
"We
do find a lot of non-Muslim women and non-hijab wearing women interested in our
designs as well," she says.
She
also says influencers had have helped grow her business.
"Some
influencers are purely for exposure and some other influencers are purely for
driving sales — they definitely benefit our business."
Two-hour
photos
Ms
Sari and Ms Sayed say a lot that goes on behind the scenes to capture the
perfect Instagram picture.
When
out in public, family and friends become unlikely photographers — but the pair
also shoot and edit their own shots.
"When
I'm collaborating and promoting products for a business, I take the photos myself
and it can take up to two hours," Ms Sayed says.
"The
audience loves consistency, so I try to post once a day."
But
both women say they receive hateful comments online from people who don't agree
with their clothing choices.
"I
feel like the comments I do get are from trolls, mainly men, who feel as if
they have a place to comment on my body and to comment on how I express myself
and the makeup I'm wearing, which is absolutely ridiculous," Ms Sari says.
"When
I do get them, I literally just block and move on."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-03/hijabi-fashion-influencers-who-make-a-living-from-instagram/12724642
--------
British
female Daesh suspects escape Syria camps using online donations
September
9, 2020
British
and European female Daesh suspects are reportedly escaping detention camps in
north-east Syria by being smuggled out, mostly through the use of funds raised
online.
According
to Daesh figures on social media sites such as Facebook and Telegram, funds
must be raised through online means to free women suspected of being part of or
affiliated with the terror group.
In
one video, a British woman in Idlib known as Maryam Al-Britaniya was seen
claiming that “Being sent out from the Islamic State [Daesh] to the camps was
by far one of the worst moments of my life.” She urged sympathisers to donate
money, stressing: “It’s obligatory on you to free them. Help them and donate
every month to help smuggle them out.”
The
camps they are attempting to escape from, including the infamous Al-Hawl camp,
are being controlled and guarded by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) militias, which hold tens of
thousands of family members of former Daesh fighters.
Many
of those held at the camps are nationals of foreign countries, including at
least dozens of British women who fled to Syria to join the terror group.
Other
examples of women from other nationalities calling for donations were also
seen, with one post in German saying: “This sister has to have the money by
Friday, €1000 ($1,182) is still missing,” and one pose in French claiming that
“Only €3000 more is needed to free two of your sisters. Add this good deed to
your balance, it may gain you entry into paradise.”
Smugglers
reportedly charge an approximate amount of £12,000 ($15,785) to help families
escape from Al-Hawl and other camps, which is mostly paid through online
payment systems such as Bitcoin and Paypal.
Despite
calls by human rights organisations and the US for the UK and other European
states to repatriate their citizens and put them on trial back in their home
countries, many have refused or been reluctant in doing so, citing security
risks they would pose once they return.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200909-british-female-daesh-suspects-escape-syria-camps-using-online-donations/
--------
Pakistan
taking initiatives to curb violence against women, FM tells UN
Anwar
Iqbal
03
Oct 2020
UNITED
NATIONS: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has assured the international
community that Pakistan is taking “legislative initiatives” to curb violence
against women.
Addressing
a high-level meeting on the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Women
on Thursday, he also said that the National Action Plan on Human Rights had
‘protection of women’ as one of its key priority areas.
“Through
legislative initiatives, we are continuously addressing the issues of violence
against women, domestic abuse, harassment, social and property rights
protection,” Mr Qureshi said, adding that the government had also set up
protection centres and a 24-hour helpline (1099) to provide free legal advice,
redressal and referral mechanism to women.
October
1, 2020 marked the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform
for Action, which was adopted unanimously by 189 countries. The declaration
laid down the agenda for women’s empowerment and is considered a key global
policy document on gender equality.
However,
UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other world leaders, who addressed
this high-level meeting on the sidelines of the 75th UN General Assembly,
acknowledged that this empowerment had not happened yet. In 1995, when the
declaration was signed in Beijing, there were 12 female heads of state or
government. Today, there are only 22 among 193 countries. A recent World Bank
report said it could take 150 years for women to achieve parity in lifetime
earned income.
Urging
people everywhere to “push back” against the forces holding up equality for
women, the UN chief said this was fundamentally a question of power.
“We
need to start now ... to recapture and ‘fast forward’ from the modest gains
made since 1995 that are now under threat,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive
director of UN Women, told leaders joining the virtual conference. “We need
big, bold steps, not incremental ones.”
German
Chancellor Angela Merkel told the virtual meeting that states with women
leaders were “the very states that are successful, economically and socially”.
She said the states that resolved their conflicts peacefully “are also often
those where women are among those shouldering responsibility”.
President
Emmanuel Macron of France lamented that “everywhere, women’s rights are under
attack, as are human rights, from which they are inseparable”.
Ethiopia’s
first female President Sahle-Work Zewde said that while women were in the front
lines in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, “they are also being pushed to the
edges because of its multifaceted impacts”.
She
said that in much of the developing world, women depended on the informal
economy to earn their living, and now “they find themselves in extremely
difficult condition to sustain the lives and well-being of their families”.
Reports
in the US media show that the pandemic has also made women more vulnerable to
domestic violence. Yet, only 48 countries have included violence against women
in their Covid-19 response plans, a UN report says.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1582938/pakistan-taking-initiatives-to-curb-violence-against-women-fm-tells-un
--------
Iraq
urged to investigate attacks on women human rights defenders
2
October 2020
In
a joint appeal on Friday, the seven experts also called on Baghdad to ensure
that it was safe for everyone who stood up for people’s rights in the country.
The
development follows the deadly shooting in August of Dr. Riham Yaqoub and the
attempted assassination of Lodya Remon Albarti, in Basra.
Both
rights defenders had led women’s marches within the protest movement against
corruption and unemployment that began in 2018 in the southern city.
Survival,
and death
On
17 August this year, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a car carrying Ms.
Albarti, who had previously been subjected to a long smear campaign that forced
her to flee the city for her safety. She
survived the shooting, but sustained leg injuries.
Since
the attempted killing, the human rights defender has been the target of threats
and slander online.
Two
days later, Ms. Yaqoub, a doctor and defender who also advocated for the rights
of women to exercise in public and use sports facilities, was killed by two
unidentified gunmen riding a scooter as she drove through the centre of Basra.
“Clearly
the Iraqi government has little regard for the lives of human rights
defenders”, the UN experts said. “Both of these attacks were entirely
preventable. Both women had received threats in the past and the State had done
nothing to keep them safe.” ‘Multi-layered threats’
Although
all human rights defenders in Iraq face serious risks, the experts said women
face multi-layered threats.
“Women
are a leading force in the human rights community but – as in many countries –
they face additional threats simply because they are women,” the experts said
in a statement.
They
added that amid war and insecurity, “women human rights defenders faced
“prejudice, exclusion by society and by political leaders, as well as physical
attacks, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture
and even death”.
End
impunity
They
said that it was an outrage “that women in Iraq have to risk or lose their life
to defend human rights”, while also calling for an end to impunity “that allows
these crimes to continue”.
“We
also call on the Government to ensure a safe and enabling environment for human
rights defenders in Iraq”, their statement concluded.
The
Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups are part of what is known as the Special
Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
The
independent experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not
receive a salary for their work.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1074522
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/norwegian-peace-council-added-fawzia/d/123029
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism