NISA, A Muslim Women’s Forum, Suggests Codification of Muslim Personal Laws before Launching Uniform Civil Code
New Age
Islam News Bureau
23
May 20123
• NISA, A Muslim Women’s Forum, Suggests
Codification of Muslim Personal Laws before Launching Uniform Civil Code
• Ridiculous Questions Asked from
Nadeine Asbali, British-Libyan Writer, for Wearing Hijab
• Afghan Women Ban Makes Taliban Recognition
near ‘Impossible’: UN
• Taliban Unmoved by UN Call to Lift
Bans on Afghan Women, Girls
• UN Refuses Taliban’s Suggestion to
Replace Women Staff with Men in Afghanistan: ‘We Are Steadfast’
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/nisa-muslim-ucc/d/130059
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NISA, A Muslim Women’s Forum, Suggests Codification of Muslim Personal Laws before Launching Uniform Civil Code
VP Zuhara of
Nisa Progressive Muslim Women’s Forum | Gireesh Kumar
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June 22, 2023
NISA, a Kozhikode-based progressive
Muslim women’s forum, has suggested codification of various aspects of the
Muslim Personal Law against the backdrop of the Law Commission of India issuing
a public notice seeking suggestions on the Uniform Civil Code.
In a letter to the commission, V.P.
Zuhra, president, and Mumthas, secretary, said that the Indian Muslim Family
Law remained uncodified even 76 years after India became independent. They
pointed out that an immediate move to go for a Uniform Civil Code instead of codification
of all the personal laws making them gender just would not be properly
appreciated.
Intestate Succession
They said that the Law of Inheritance
should be codified by amending the Indian Succession Act and inserting a
chapter in it for Intestate Succession among Muslims, in line with the
Christian Intestate Succession. Intestacy is the condition where a person dies
without having a valid will or other binding declaration. The Divorce Act
should be applicable to Muslims to make divorce and other matrimonial remedies
available to them.
The Guardians and Wards Act must be
applicable to minor Muslim children after making necessary amendments to it, as
suggested by various Law Commissions. The protection of the body and property
of minor children can be ensured after considering the rights of LGBTQIA+
community, and making sufficient amendments to it, to render it more inclusive
and gender just.
The Juvenile Justice (Care &
Protection) Act also should be made applicable to Muslims to help them adopt
children. The forum also attached the draft of a Muslim inheritance Bill along
with its letter. The NISA functionaries submitted a copy of the letter to Chief
Minister PinarayiVijayan.
Source: thehindu.com
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/kozhikode/nisa-suggests-codification-of-muslim-personal-laws-before-launching-uniform-civil-code/article66997709.ece
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Ridiculous Questions Asked from Nadeine Asbali,
British-Libyan Writer, for Wearing Hijab
Nadeine Asbali,
British-Libyan Writer
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Nadeine Asbali
Teacher and columnist
Thursday 22 Jun 2023
Summer is here, and for visibly Muslim
women like me that means one thing: Questions, over-the-top concern, gawps,
stares and comments.
Any Muslim woman who wears the hijab in
Britain has experienced it.
‘Aren’t you hot in that?’ (hint: if you’re
hot in your T-shirt and shorts then I probably am hot in this, yes) and ‘can’t
you just take it off for the summer?’, or even ‘it’s so cruel that you’re made
to wear that during a heat wave’.
Not that it’s anyone’s business, but I
cover my body because I believe my creator asked me to and I feel satisfied
knowing that I will be rewarded even when I struggle through the heat under
more layers than everyone else.
While misogyny still worms its way into
every crevice of our society, I think that there’s at least a general social
consensus that women should not be shamed for the clothing choices they make –
especially in the height of a muggy British summer.
Women wearing less clothes during a heat
wave, for example, aren’t faced with the same judgement as those wearing more
clothes than is considered socially acceptable.
And even if some think that showing too
much flesh is unacceptable in public – Muslim women still face a unique kind of
saviour complex where (perhaps) well-intentioned strangers try to liberate us
from the supposedly oppressive forces that are keeping our heads and bodies
covered at 35 degrees.
Nadeine standing in front of a brick
wall in a hijab
I think there’s a national misconception
about Muslim women in Britain (Picture: NadeineAsbali)
Likewise, when I’m with friends who wear
short dresses in the middle of winter, they don’t tend to get asked ‘aren’t you
cold in that?’ and ‘aren’t you allowed to at least wear a pair of tights?’.
They aren’t faced with peculiar
scenarios from colleagues and acquaintances like, ‘so what would happen to you
if you wore a coat or a long-sleeve top? Would you get disowned?’ the same way
that Muslim women face bizarre questions about what would happen to us if we
removed our hijabs or adorned a pair of shorts during the hot weather.
For me, I think there’s a national
misconception about Muslim women in Britain that is so pervasive that it’s hard
for us to prove wrong.
On TV and in the news, we are so often
associated with coercion and oppression, with meekness and a lack of agency
that it becomes impossible to see us as individual human beings with beliefs
and decisions of our own.
Of course, it goes without saying that I
feel hot with my whole body covered in the middle of summer. Any human being
would. And, unfortunately last time I checked, Muslim women don’t come with an
inbuilt air conditioning system to help us weather the humid climes.
But the point is, my religious
justifications for choosing to dress this way simply don’t expire for three
months a year, and perhaps if Muslim women were considered autonomous and
capable of deciding what to do with our own bodies then we wouldn’t face the
all-too-intense concern of strangers who want to liberate us.
Nadeine standing under a leafy arch,
smiling to camera, wearing a hijab
My religious justifications for choosing
to dress this way simply don’t expire for three months a year (Picture:
NadeineAsbali)
As a teenager, I felt incredibly
self-conscious about wearing more clothing than my peers during the summer. And
having teachers, the parents of my friends and even strangers remark on how
unbearably hot I must be just made me feel more of a social outcast than my
mind was already telling me I was.
I remember spending an entire bus
journey when I was 17 reassuring an old lady who had decided to be very
concerned about me that I was indeed not about to faint in the heat and, no, I
wouldn’t be excommunicated if I removed my hijab and that I wore it for my own
spiritual convictions.
At university, a staunch feminist on my
course criticised me for being a ‘sell-out’ for covering my body when it is,
according to her, a lack of clothing that liberates women today.
Likewise, I once overheard my friends at
school discussing how ‘weird’ it was that I was wearing full length sleeves and
tracksuit bottoms on sports day (a day that might as well have been renamed
sunbathing day at our school).
One school friend even offered to speak
to my dad about letting me wear cooler clothes – without ever bothering to
ascertain whether my dad had anything to do with how I was dressing in the
first place (he didn’t).
Nadeine inside a restaurant wearing a
hijab and looking to camera smiling
I can’t help but feel like it’s time
society catches up (Picture: NadeineAsbali)
My insecurities led to me trying to
dress like my friends, but in a way that I felt was conducive to my hijab –
like wearing the same short dresses as them but over jeans or leggings, or the
same t-shirts as them but adding a long sleeve tee underneath.
And the outcome was that I was even
hotter than I would have been in the first place, adding multiple layers just
to make an outfit look more socially acceptable or to fit in better with
friends who ultimately had no interest in supporting me for who I really was in
the first place.
But as I entered my twenties, and now as
I edge closer to my thirties, I realised that I don’t need the permission of
random members of the public – or my friends and family – to dress in a way
that matches my own inner beliefs.
Having said that, I can’t help but feel
like it’s time society catches up. If we see someone in longer sleeves or
full-length trousers in hot weather, very few of us would go up to them and ask
why they had made that decision.
And yet, when it’s Muslim women, it
feels like for some, we are fair game to criticise, question and ridicule.
But if we are serious about tackling
misogyny, making our feminism intersectional and making sure all women feel
safe in public then we have to extend the same respect and agency to Muslim women
as we do to everyone else.
Do you have a story you’d like to share?
Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
Source: metro.co.uk
https://metro.co.uk/2023/06/22/this-summer-dont-ask-muslim-women-if-theyre-feeling-hot-in-their-hijabs-18996702/?ito=newsnow-feed
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Afghan women ban makes Taliban
recognition near ‘impossible’: UN
22 Jun 2023
It will be “nearly impossible” for the
international community to recognise the Taliban government as long as
restrictions on women and girls remain in place in Afghanistan, the United
Nations envoy to the country and head of the UN Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said.
Roza Otunbayeva told the UN Security
Council on Wednesday that the Taliban have asked to be recognised by the UN and
its member nations, “but at the same time, they act against the key values
expressed in the United Nations Charter”.
“In my regular discussions with the de
facto authorities, I am blunt about the obstacles they have created for
themselves by the decrees and restrictions they have enacted, in particular
against women and girls,” Otunbayeva told the Security Council.
“We have conveyed to them that as long
as these decrees are in place, it is nearly impossible that their government
will be recognised by members of the international community,” Otunbayeva said.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government is not
officially recognised by any foreign country or international organisation
since seizing power in August 2021 as United States and NATO forces were in the
final weeks of withdrawing from the country after two decades of war.
The Taliban initially promised a more
moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001, but
have since started to enforce restrictions on women and girls, including
barring women from most jobs and public places such as parks, baths and gyms.
Girls are also banned from education beyond sixth grade.
The Taliban also have brought back their
strict interpretation of Islamic law, including public executions.
Despite appeals to the Taliban,
Otunbayeva reported no change to the restrictions on women and girls, including
an April ban on Afghan women working for the UN.
Otunbayeva said the Taliban had given
her no explanation for the ban, “and no assurances that it will be lifted”,
according to the UN News site.
“It is also clear that these decrees are
highly unpopular among the Afghan population. They cost the Taliban both
domestic and international legitimacy while inflicting suffering on half of
their population and damaging the economy,” Otunbayeva said, according to UN
News.
The UN remains “steadfast” that female
national staff will not be replaced by male staff “as some Taliban authorities
have suggested”, she added.
In late April, the Security Council
unanimously approved a resolution calling on the Taliban to swiftly reverse the
increasingly harsh constraints imposed on women and girls and condemned the ban
on Afghan women working for the UN, calling it “unprecedented in the history of
the United Nations”.
In her frank political assessment, the
UN envoy also told council members that the Taliban regime “remains insular and
autocratic”, with “an unaccountable central authority” and an all-male
government almost entirely from its Pashtun and rural base.
And while the country’s economy is
currently stable in terms of inflation and exchange rates, which the UN envoy
said was due in part to a reduction in corruption, severe household poverty is
a concern with 58 percent of the population “struggling to satisfy basic
needs”, UN News reported.
Concluding her address to the council,
Otunbayeva said the UN in Afghanistan will continue to engage with the
country’s Taliban rulers, but noted that much more could be done if
restrictions on women were lifted.
“We could do much more, however, if the
Taliban rescinded its punishing restrictions on its female population,” she
said, according to UN News.
Source: aljazeera.com
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/22/afghan-women-ban-makes-taliban-recognition-near-impossible-un
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Taliban Unmoved by UN Call to Lift Bans
on Afghan Women, Girls
June 22, 2023
ISLAMABAD —
Afghanistan's Taliban rejected a fresh
call Thursday from the United Nations to remove what it says are
"punishing restrictions" on the impoverished country's female
population.
The rebuke comes a day after a meeting
of the U.N. Security Council was told the restrictions block Afghan women and
girls from accessing education and work and participating in public life at
large.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan
in August 2021, the Taliban has banned girls from universities and teenage
girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade. They have also ordered
most public sector female employees to stay at home. Women have also been
barred from visiting parks and gyms.
Responding to the criticism from the
U.N., the Taliban-led foreign ministry in Kabul called the remarks an
interference in the country's internal affairs.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
remains committed to international norms and obligations that do not contradict
the principles of Islamic law, contravene Afghanistan's cultural norms or
undermine our national interests," the statement said, using the official
name of the Taliban government.
"We, therefore, urge all actors to
respect the peremptory norm of non-interference and cease all attempts at
meddling in our internal affairs, including the modalities and composition of
our governance and laws."
The Taliban is not recognized by any
foreign government or international organization and their curbs on women and
girls are seen as a major obstacle in its efforts to be regarded as
Afghanistan’s legitimate government.
While briefing the U.N. Security Council
on Wednesday, Roza Otunbayeva, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in
Afghanistan, slammed Taliban edicts banning her organization and other agencies
from employing local women.
She urged the Taliban to
"rescind" the ban to enable the United Nations to continue its full
support to millions of Afghan families in need of urgent assistance.
Otunbayeva also rejected Taliban
suggestions to replace female national staff with male Afghans. Since the ban
went into effect on April 5, the U.N. has instructed its female staff to work
from home and for non-essential male staffers to also work remotely.
"We have been given no explanations
by the de facto authorities for this ban and no assurances that it will be
lifted. We will not put our national female staff in danger and therefore we
are asking them not to report to the office," she said.
The U.N. envoy said she had told the
Taliban that as long as restrictions on Afghan women "are in place, it is
nearly impossible that their government will be recognized by members of the
international community."
In a meeting earlier this month, Taliban
Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada directed government spokespersons to
emphasize the enforcement of Islamic law in their statements.
"The United Nations and the United
States have held the entire world hostage and nothing moves without their
dictation," he told the meeting in the southern city of Kandahar, which is
known as the birthplace of the Taliban.
"The Islamic Emirate [the Taliban]
effectively controls all parts of Afghanistan, but non-Muslim and even Islamic
countries refuse to recognize it," the reclusive Taliban leader, who
rarely leaves Kandahar, was quoted as saying.
The Taliban welcomed parts of
Otunbayeva's speech on Wednesday, where she acknowledged that the group's ban
on opium cultivation in Afghanistan had been "effectively enforced,"
and decreased the cultivation "significantly."
New satellite images examined by
geospatial analytics firm Alcis and longtime Afghanistan expert David Mansfield
revealed this month that the scale of the reduction in opium production across
the country is unprecedented, with cultivation in southern provinces down by at
least 80% compared with last year when the Taliban banned the growing of
poppies for opium.
The U.N. envoy also praised the
Taliban's efforts to improve the Afghan economy, reduce corruption and generate
"sufficient" revenues to finance government operations, including
paying civil-service salaries.
Source: voanews.com
https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-unmoved-by-un-call-to-lift-bans-on-afghan-women-girls/7148616.html
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UN refuses Taliban’s suggestion to
replace women staff with men in Afghanistan: ‘We are steadfast’
23-06-23
The United Nations will neither replace
its female staff in Afghanistan with men nor endanger their safety, a top
official for the global agency has pledged.
It comes after the Taliban banned the UN
and other agencies in Afghanistan from employing local women.
‘‘We will not put our national female
staff in danger, and therefore we are asking them not to report to the
office,’’ said Roza Otunbayeva, the UN’s General Special Representative for
Afghanistan, in a briefing to the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday.
‘‘At the same time, we have asked all
our male national staff performing non-essential tasks to stay home to respect
the principle of non-discrimination.’’
‘‘Finally, we are steadfast: female
national staff will not be replaced by male national staff as some de facto
authorities have suggested,’’ she said.
In the first such briefing that aimed to
hold the Taliban accountable at the UN table, the envoy warned the hardline
Islamist regime that its bid to gain international recognition will remain
‘‘nearly impossible’’ until it lifts severe restrictions imposed on girls and
women who have been barred from access to education and employment.
Ms Otunbayeva told the UNSC that while the
Taliban is pushing its agenda to seek recognition from the UN and its 192
member nations, ‘‘at the same time they act against the key values expressed in
the United Nations Charter’’.
The Taliban has ‘‘specifically targeted
the United Nations’’ in its ban that stopped women from working with
international organisations, the envoy said.
Since taking control of Afghanistan
after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the Taliban regime has carried out
public executions and floggings to punish homosexuality and adultery as well as
illegally detaining and imprisoning hundreds of people.
The regime also banned girls from
schools above the sixth grade and shut colleges and universities for women.
In its latest edict issued in April this
year, the Taliban stopped women from working with international NGOs and UN
agencies – hampering the delivery of food and humanitarian aid for millions.
In a swift U-turn from its initial
promise of moderate rule, the Taliban has revoked a wide range of human rights
established under Ashraf Ghani’s Western-backed regime.
“The ban against Afghan women working
for the UN adds to earlier restrictions placed on Afghan women and girls by the
de facto authorities: against women working for NGOs, against women working for
other diplomatic entities; preventing girls attending non-religious secondary
and tertiary education institutions; against girls and women visiting public
parks, baths, and gyms,” Ms Otunbayeva told the UNSC.
“These and other edicts limit the
physical movement of women and girls and their participation in economic,
social and public life.”
Reeling from a major financial crisis,
Afghanistan has been negatively impacted by these bans and they have obscured
some of the de facto regime’s achievements, the envoy said, referring to a
recent and significant decrease in opium cultivation.
“The Afghan economy remains stable,
albeit at a low equilibrium,” she said. The World Bank reports that inflation
is declining and the exchange rate remains steady but there is “severe
household poverty”.
“According to the World Bank, 58 per
cent of households struggle to satisfy basic needs. United Nations humanitarian
efforts continue to address the needs of the nearly 20 million people who need
some form of assistance. Afghanistan, I would remind you, remains the world’s
largest humanitarian crisis,” Ms Otunbayeva said.
In a frank political assessment, she
called the Taliban regime “insular and autocratic” with “an unaccountable
central authority” and an all-male government almost entirely from its Pashtun
and rural base.
Afghanistan has been plagued by
multi-faceted crises.
A plague of locusts damaged crops in
northern provinces, threatening 1.2 million tons of wheat, Save The Children
said on Monday.
Meanwhile, eight million Afghans were
cut off from food aid in the past two months due to funding shortfalls, and
more than 15 million people – a third of Afghanistan’s population – are
projected to face crisis levels of hunger over the next five months.
Source: independent.co.uk
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-asia/taliban-afghanistan-un-staff-female-male-b2362215.html
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/nisa-muslim-ucc/d/130059