With A Secret Home ‘Lab’, Woman Beats Taliban Ban, Bags IIT Degree
New Age
Islam News Bureau
27 May 2023
• With a secret home ‘lab’, woman beats Taliban ban,
bags IIT degree
• Convicted Islamic State member Lisa Smith freed after
serving one year in jail
• Filmmaker Nida Manzoor’s vision of the modern Muslim
woman: funny, rebellious—and imperfect
• Watchdogs Call for Investigation into Restrictions on
Afghan Women
• EU-Central Asia Meeting Urges Afghanistan to Lift
Restrictions on Women
• Five held for distributing pamphlets warning Muslim
women against 'saffron love-traps'
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghanistan-taliban-lab-/d/129868
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With A Secret Home ‘Lab’, Woman Beats Taliban Ban, Bags IIT Degree
Hidden from prying eyes, Behishta Khairudddin ran lab experiments
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May 27, 2023
NEW DELHI:
Hidden from prying eyes, Behishta Khairudddin ran lab experiments on borrowed
beakers and her sister’s microwave oven in her home and studied chemical
engineering on a computer with an unstable wi-fi connection for two years even
as the Taliban retook the reins of power in Afghanistan and banned women from
high school and universities.
The indomitable
26-year-old had enrolled in IIT-Madras for a master’s in chemical engineering
during the tumultuous Taliban takeover of 2021. She was stuck in her province
in northern Afghanistan. Isolated and confined to her home, she wrote and
cleared all her semesters remotely, with IIT-Madras extending a long helping
hand to the gifted Afghani woman whose name means ‘paradise’ in Persian.
Behishta is
among hundreds of students who cleared their post graduation programme from one
of India’s top institutes this year. As she revels in an achievement few women
can even imagine in her country today, Behista lashed out at the regressive
ideas of the fundamentalist regime.
“I don’t feel
any regret. If you stop me, I will find another way. I feel sorry for you
(Taliban) because you have the power, you have everything, but you are not
using that. It’s you who should be sorry, not me,” she said in a phone
interview with TOI.
Behishta almost
missed admission in IIT after clearing the interview because of the diplomatic
fallout when the Taliban took control of her country. “After that, I did not
receive any response from ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations, which
provided scholarships to students from Afghanistan). My account on the portal
was deactivated. I reached out to the global engagement of IIT-Madras.
Professor Raghu (Raghunathan Rengasamy) was there, and I emailed that I have
cleared the interview and had these issues. They gave me a scholarship and I
started my studies a month later,” she said.
She worked
hard, learning everything at home thousands of kilometres away from her alma
mater. “I struggled for the first two semesters. Everything was new for me.”
She stayed glued to the computer studying all her waking hours — resting just
four-five hours at night. She said, “I learned a lot of things compared to my
knowledge” acquired in Afghanistan where she did her BTech from Jawzjan
University.
Education has
always been a priority in Behishta’s household. “I was born in an educated and
supportive family. My father is a social science graduate and my mother a
doctor. My older sister is an IIT PhD student, who too is stuck in Afghanistan.
My second sister studied law, and my brother studied social science. I’m the
fifth child.”
Behishta speaks
fluent English, a language she has taught herself online. She had all along
studied in Dari or Pashto. “...I want to go to academics and not any industrial
job. I can feel the need for an education system in Afghanistan. Now that I
have seen the high standards of IIT-Madras, I want to bring this standard to my
country,” Behishta said.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/with-a-secret-home-lab-woman-beats-taliban-ban-bags-iit-degree/articleshow/100537471.cms
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Convicted Islamic State Member Lisa Smith Freed After Serving One Year In Jail
Lisa Smith
outside court
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27-05-23
Lisa Smith has
been released from prison just one year after being sentenced to 15 months for
joining the terror group Islamic State.
The former
Irish Army soldier left Limerick Prison on Wednesday afternoon and was
collected by a family member.
All prisoners
are entitled to 25pc remission and the Dundalk woman had been described as a
model prisoner.
Speaking to the
Sunday World last year, she rejected calls to leave the religion of Islam
behind her, saying: “That’s not going to happen. I love my religion, it’s what
I live for now.”
Asked at the
time if she was hopeful of avoiding a jail sentence, Smith said: “It doesn’t
matter. My life is my life, my journey is my journey.”
She had
previously been living in tough conditions at a Syrian refugee camp with her
young daughter before being sent back to Ireland in December 2019, where she
was arrested.
During her time
at the refugee camp, she s aid in o ne interview that she was not involved in
fighting. She also denied claims that she had trained girls to become fighters.
She also
claimed she had been visited more than once by the FBI for questioning, and
agents had taken her fingerprints and DNA.
The mother of
one was found guilty in May 2022 after a nine-week trial at the non-jury
Special Criminal Court.
Delivering the
verdict, Judge Tony Hunt said the court had established that Smith travelled to
Syria “with her eyes open” and pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS).
He noted that
while Smith was at low risk of reoffending, she was persistent and determined
in her efforts to travel to Syria and join IS. He also said she had shown no
remorse for her actions.
The judge said
it was “serious” for an Irish citizen to take up allegiance with a terrorist
organisation and persist with it.
In October
2015, she bought a one-way ticket, travelled from Dublin to Turkey, and crossed
the border into an IS-controlled area of Syria.
In March of
this year, the Court of Appeal ruled against her appeal on the severity of her
sentence.
Source: independent.ie
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/convicted-islamic-state-member-lisa-smith-freed-after-serving-one-year-in-jail/a36264026.html
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Filmmaker Nida
Manzoor’s vision of the modern Muslim woman: funny, rebellious—and imperfect
May 26, 2023
What does it
mean to be a Muslim in the modern world? That is the fundamental question that
underpins the work of Nida Manzoor, whose creativity spans music, film and
television. The question may come off as heady and serious, but Manzoor
approaches it with no shortage of humor and an immense sense of fun. Manzoor’s
primary artistic goal is to show that the culture surrounding Islam is as three
dimensional and dynamic as any other faith’s, complete with its own unique set
of trials and rewards. Manzoor wants you to know that Muslims—more
specifically, Muslim women—can be anything, even if that includes being a total
failure.
The key lies in
Mazoor’s ability to craft relatable characters. Take, for instance, her debut
feature, “Polite Society,” an action-comedy set in the insular world of
upper-crust Pakistani-British immigrants. The film stars a pair of rebellious
South Asian Muslim sisters as its leads: Lena, a painter dissatisfied with her
art, and Ria, who refuses to give up on her dream to become a stuntwoman. Both
still live at home, their parents not exactly pleased at the direction their
daughters’ lives have taken. When Lena agrees to an arranged marriage, Ria
feels like her sister is giving up on her passion and plots to sabotage the
engagement by any means necessary.
“Polite
Society,” which has been receiving stellar
reviews from both audiences and critics, is emblematic of Manzoor’s
methodology: tackling cultural issues not by addressing them head on but by
commenting through character-based humor. Ria may be a trained martial artist,
but she is largely in over her head when it comes to infiltrating the
upper-crust spaces that Lena has found herself in, which leads to a lot of
hijinks. Meanwhile, Lena begins to learn that rebelling for the sake of rebelling
might not be the best idea, especially if you find yourself happy within your
cultural space. This naturally leads to conflict between the stubbornly
progressive Ria and the more traditionally inclined Lena.
Manzoor has
written and directed her first film with aplomb and style. Inspired by the work
of filmmakers like Edgar Wright, “Polite Society” is filled with crazy action
scenes and wacky dialogue. Manzoor’s interpretation of a fight between siblings
is quite literal, as they engage in a martial arts battle that leaves their
bedroom in ruins, just before they both begrudgingly go downstairs for dinner.
Similar fights happen throughout the movie, not to mention clumsily executed
heists and a silly plot to kidnap Lena from her own wedding. The film never
takes its narrative too seriously, even as it always treats cultural issues
with care.
“Polite
Society” may be saying things about arranged marriages, the appropriation of
Western power dynamics by immigrant communities and tradition overriding common
sense, but at the end of the day, it is more concerned with having fun. Manzoor
is that rare artist who understands the nuances of her cultural struggles and
manages to communicate them through her work without allowing them to overwhelm
the actual story. “It’s a joyful film about a South Asian Muslim woman,”
Manzoor said in an interview with The New York Times.
In a world
inundated with superhero cinema that requires a whole semester’s worth of
research to keep up with and with franchise sequels that seem determined to
display no individuality, it’s far too uncommon to find a filmmaker who is in
possession of an actual personality and understanding of what makes movies
enjoyable. As Manzoor said at the premiere of “Polite Society,” the film was
“something [she] made for [her] teenage self.”
Manzoor was
born to a Pakistani-British Muslim family and grew up in London, where she
discovered a love of the arts. While she is mainly a filmmaker, having
showcased her writing and directing talents on local British programs like
“Enterprise” alongside more well-known fare like “Doctor Who,” her first love
was music, something she shared with her siblings.
“Music was my
first passion,” she said in an interview with Digital Spy.
“Polite
Society” features a variety of musical sequences, but it was her previous work,
“We Are Lady Parts,” that showed just how obsessed she is with the craft of
songwriting. Featuring a punk band of maladjusted Muslim girls in London,
Manzoor and her siblings were responsible for writing the entirety of the
fictional group’s music. “We Are Lady Parts,” which began as a 14-minute short
and eventually became a television series on the Peacock streaming service, is
nothing short of a master class on youthful rebellion.
“Sometimes,
growing up, I felt like I couldn’t show all of myself, you know?” Manzoor said.
“In creating the band Lady Parts, I wanted to show this group of women who all
have love for each other and their differences.”
It is these
differences that make Manzoor’s work unique. Manzoor’s Muslim women are allowed
to be rebels, artists and failures. While this is certainly true of the sisters
in “Polite Society,” it is in “We Are Lady Parts” that Manzoor showcases her
most incisive commentary. One of the bands’ songs is titled “Ain’t No One
GonnaHonour Kill My Sister But Me,” which is exactly as anti-establishment,
punk rock and specifically Muslim as it sounds.
Another of the
band’s songs, “Voldemort Under My Scarf,” is about the fear and distrust
suffered by Muslims who wear hijabs. “Are you Hufflepuff? Are you Gryffindor?/
No I’m Slytherin, I’m f— Voldemort!” roars the song. Another of their tracks,
“Fish and Chips,” talks of the band’s collective experience being “Broken by
the empire, raised by MTV/ But still, it’s fish and chips for tea.” All of this
is delivered with no shortage of style: one song might feature backing vocals
from Muppets while another’s emotion is enough to literally conjure a tornado.
Manzoor’s
songwriting is hyper-specific as that of a young Pakistani-British woman, but
her work remains strikingly universal. Much of this is owed to the earnest
humanity with which she infuses her characters. Manzoor does not allow their
problems to be solely the result of culture and ethnicity; sometimes they’re
just mad because a boy doesn’t like them back, or they’re nervous because
they’re not sure they really want to get that Ph.D. in microbiology. So often,
mainstream perceptions of Islam revolve around what we hear on the news. It’s
not that common to hear about the everyday struggles and concerns of its
adherents—many of whom are exactly as young and raucous as children of other
faiths. Their worries, though sometimes unique, are not at all unrelatable.
At the same
time, Islam remains an integral and inseparable part of her work. “We Are Lady
Parts” may feature a punk band whose members are often irreverent and
ill-mannered, but they are at their core Muslim women. Islam is never treated
as the sole reason for their problems, nor is it seen as incompatible with
being a woman in the world today.
When one of the
Lady Parts band members is questioned as to why she wears a whole-body-covering
niqab, she answers, “Well, to feel close to God which is obvs really nice in
these crumbling times. But also wearing it makes me feel confident, like Queen
Nefertiti or Beyoncé.” The Lady Parts’s frontwoman, Saira, describes the band
as “sisters who pray together, play together, speaking truth to whoever can be
asked to listen.”
Manzoor is a
filmmaker who allows her minority actors to inhabit roles they don’t often get
to play. “Polite Society” and “We Are Lady Parts” show that Muslim women can be
anything from stuntwomen to artists to musicians.
Of course,
Manzoor is careful never to get too caught up in the seriousness. At their
core, her works are comedies, and she does not allow the drama to overtake her
commitment to being funny. That, out of everything, may be the secret to her
success.
“Polite
Society” is available on digital. “We Are Lady Parts” is streaming on Peacock.
Source: americamagazine.org
https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2023/05/26/nida-mazoor-muslim-lady-parts-polite-society-245353
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Watchdogs Call
for Investigation into Restrictions on Afghan Women
26-05-23
Amnesty
International and the International Commission of Jurists in a joint report
said the “Taliban’s severe restrictions and unlawful crackdown on women and
girls’ rights should be investigated as possible crimes under international
law."
The report
presents a “detailed legal analysis of how the Taliban’s draconian restrictions
on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls, together with the use of
imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, could
amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution under Article
7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC)."
Girls above
grade six have been banned from attending school since the Islamic Emirate came
to power.
Last December,
the interim government in two decrees banned women from going to universities
and working at NGOs.
Female students
have repeatedly urged the interim government to reopen their schools and
universities.
“We call on the
Islamic Emirate to provide work opportunities for women and to reopen
universities and schools for girls,” said Raihan, a student.
“Some of the
families have the responsibility of their families. They need to pay the
expenses themselves,” said Diba Poya, a student.
The Islamic
Emirate said that rights women for women are preserved within an Islamic
structure.
“We deny it.
They should understand the realities. The women maintain dignity within the
isamic Emirate’s umbrella. They are saved from aggression and harassment. Of
course, they also work within the government’s body. Thousands of our women and
our sisters are working in health and education centers and also in other
sectors,” Mujahid said.
The
international community has made ensuring human rights one the main conditions
to consider in recognizing the interim Afghan government.
Source: tolonews.com
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-183529
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EU-Central Asia
Meeting Urges Afghanistan to Lift Restrictions on Women
May 27, 2023
The envoy said
in a joint statement that these restrictions have “detrimental effects on the
ability of the international community to deliver humanitarian aid to the
Afghan people, and need to be lifted for the Afghan economy to prosper, and
ultimately for Afghanistan to achieve long-term stability and peace.”
They also
“underlined the importance of establishing an inclusive and representative
government and upholding all Afghans’ civil, political, social economic and
cultural rights.”
The
participants also discussed the prospect of security and stability in the
country and urged the Taliban authorities to prevent the country from being
hideouts for the militants and extremists.
The
representatives also “called on the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan to prevent Afghan
soil from being used as a safe haven for hosting, planning, training,
financing, or exporting terrorism and violent extremism to other countries.”
The
participants claimed that the region’s security is interlinked with the
security of Afghanistan, and the security dynamic will spill over to the
neighbouring countries and regions.
Meanwhile, the
participants discussed the prospects and challenges ahead of Afghanistan and
the country’s economic stabilisation.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/eu-central-asia-meeting-urges-afghanistan-to-lift-restrictions-on-women/
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Five held for
distributing pamphlets warning Muslim women against 'saffron love-traps'
Sat, May 27
2023
Bhopal, May 27
(IANS): Two days after pamphlets were distributed in Madhya Pradesh's
commercial capital Indore, alerting Muslim girls against "saffron
love-trap", five persons involved in the matter have been arrested, state
Home Minister Narottam Mishra said on Friday.
Mishra, in a
video message, said: "Indore police on Friday have arrested five persons
for misleading people through open letters. They have mention RSS in the
pamphlets distributed with a wrong purpose and they all have been booked under
Section 153 of the IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of
religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc)."
Two days ago,
pamphlets titled 'Khula Khat' (open letter) advising Muslim women to escape
from from "saffron love-trap" the RSS and associated right wing Hindu
outfit Bajrang Dal were distributed in several residential colonies in Indore,
police had said.
As per the
police, the pamphlets said that "attempts are being made to turn 10 lakh
Muslim girls into Kafirs (non-believers)" and about 800 Muslim girls in
Amravati city of Maharashtra were subjected to conversion.
As per police,
the pamphlets were distributed in several Muslim dominated colonies in
Khajrana, Chandan Nagar, Rawji Bazar and Bombay Bazar areas in Indore, besides
being shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Specific inputs
were received regarding pamphlets being distributed by some youngsters in
Muslim dominated areas of the city since the last few weeks, police said.
The incident
had prompted the Home Minister to order a high-level investigation into the
matter on Thursday.
Source: daijiworld.com
https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=1083745
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/afghanistan-taliban-lab-/d/129868