Pushpa Kolhi: Pakistan's First Hindu Girl to Serve Sindh Police As Officer
New Age Islam News Bureau
4 Sept 2019
• At A Sprawling Tent Camp In Syria, ISIS Women Impose A Brutal Rule
• 100 Females Enrol In King Fahd University Of Petroleum And Minerals For Higher Studies For First Time
• 52% Married Women In Pakistan Have Unmet Contraceptive Needs
• Paris Pool Closes Due To ‘Pro-Burkini’ Protest
• Palestinian Woman Allegedly Killed After Posting Picture With Fiance
• Egypt's Islamic Institutions Set Four Conditions For Freezing Women's Eggs
• Women have key to peace and development of nation: moot
• Egypt’s Women’s Right Center Condemns Assault On Woman By Niqab Wearers
• Egyptian MP Proposes Law to Allow Women on State Council
• MP Proposes Allowing Female Judges In State Council Positions
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/pushpa-kolhi-pakistan-first-hindu/d/119653
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Pushpa Kolhi: Pakistan's First Hindu Girl to Serve Sindh Police As Officer
September 4, 2019
© Provided by Gulf News Pushpa Kohli
-----
The Sindh Police is all set to welcome Pushpa Kolhi - a Hindu woman - as part of its force in a historic first.
Kolhi will serve as Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) in the province and has risen to the stature after passing the competitive provincial examination.
The ecstatic news, shared by human rights activist Kapil Dev on Tuesday, suggested:
"Pushpa Kolhi has become the first girl from #Hindu community who has qualified provincial competitive examination through Sindh Public Service Commission and become Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) in Sindh Police. More power to her!" Dev's tweet reads.
Kapil Dev
@KDSindhi
Excellent News: Pushpa Kolhi has become the first girl from #Hindu community who has qualified provincial competitive examination through Sindh Public Service Commission and become Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) in Sindh Police. More power to her! #WomenEmpowerment
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Earlier in January, Suman Pawan Bodani, a Pakistani belonging to the Hindu community, was appointed as judge to the civil and judicial magistrate.
Suman Pawan Bodani who hails from Sindh’s Shahdadkot area, stood 54th in the merit list for the appointment of civil judge/judicial magistrate.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/522127-pushpa-kolhi-pakistans-first-hindu-girl-to-serve-sindh-police-as-officer
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At A Sprawling Tent Camp In Syria, ISIS Women Impose A Brutal Rule
September 04, 2019
AL-HOL, SYRIA: The woman told aid workers it was an accident. Her 14-year-old daughter had slipped and fallen, she said. There was nothing they could have done.
But the body told a different story. The girl's neck had been broken in three places, doctors said, and she died with eyes open, biting her lips and struggling to breathe. Photos and medical records suggested she had been beaten about the torso, then strangled. It was murder, not a misstep.
The teen, an Azerbaijani girl who had lived until earlier this year with her mother under the Islamic State's caliphate, had run afoul of the die-hard ISIS adherents who have come in the past few months to dominate parts of the al-Hol displacement camp here in northeastern Syria, according to camp residents. They said she had suggested dispensing with her black niqab, the face covering worn by ultraconservative Muslim women.
Half a year after the territorial defeat of the Islamic State, the vast sprawl of tents at the al-Hol camp is becoming a cauldron of radicalization. About 20,000 women and 50,000 children who had lived under the caliphate are held in dire conditions at the camp, which is operated and guarded by 400 U.S.-supported Kurdish troops. With the men of ISIS imprisoned elsewhere, the women inside the fences of al-Hol are reimposing the militant group's strictures, enforcing them upon those deemed impious with beatings and other brutality, and extending what residents and camp authorities call a reign of fear.
AL-HOL, SYRIA: The woman told aid workers it was an accident. Her 14-year-old daughter had slipped and fallen, she said. There was nothing they could have done.
But the body told a different story. The girl's neck had been broken in three places, doctors said, and she died with eyes open, biting her lips and struggling to breathe. Photos and medical records suggested she had been beaten about the torso, then strangled. It was murder, not a misstep.
The teen, an Azerbaijani girl who had lived until earlier this year with her mother under the Islamic State's caliphate, had run afoul of the die-hard ISIS adherents who have come in the past few months to dominate parts of the al-Hol displacement camp here in northeastern Syria, according to camp residents. They said she had suggested dispensing with her black niqab, the face covering worn by ultraconservative Muslim women.
Half a year after the territorial defeat of the Islamic State, the vast sprawl of tents at the al-Hol camp is becoming a cauldron of radicalization. About 20,000 women and 50,000 children who had lived under the caliphate are held in dire conditions at the camp, which is operated and guarded by 400 U.S.-supported Kurdish troops. With the men of ISIS imprisoned elsewhere, the women inside the fences of al-Hol are reimposing the militant group's strictures, enforcing them upon those deemed impious with beatings and other brutality, and extending what residents and camp authorities call a reign of fear.
Kurdish security officials, affiliated withe U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces, say they have the troops to guard the facility but do little else. "We can contain the women, but we can't control their ideology," said the intelligence official. "There are many types of people here, but some of them were princesses among ISIS. There are spaces inside the camp that are like an academy for them now."
In a report last month, the U.S. Defense Department's inspector general, citing information from the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, warned that the SDF's inability to provide more than 'minimal security' at the camp has allowed for the 'uncontested' spread of ISIS ideology there.
In some places, children, including an estimated 20,000 born in the caliphate, are literally a captive audience.
Near one gate of the camp, guards have collected homemade toy guns and Islamic State paraphernalia that children have made to pass the time. Replica weapons are made from water pipes and bound tightly with duct tape. Flags have been colored in painstaking detail, the hand neat but unmistakably childish.
"The children need help here, you can see it," said the intelligence official, fixing the pile with a tired stare. "How do we stop them becoming their parents?"
Conditions are desperate in the camp, erected on a barren hillside. Sewage has leaked into tents, and residents are drinking water from tanks containing worms. Many women have yet to learn what happened to husbands or teenage sons when they were carted off by the SDF that defeated the caliphate and now mans various camps and prisons.
Since the start of the year, when the camp accommodated fewer than 10,000 people, al-Hol has swelled dramatically. Many of the women and children were transferred to the camp after the last ISIS stronghold in the Syrian village of Baghouz was overrun by the SDF, with U.S. military backing.
The residents are now segregated by nationality. Most sections house Syrians and Iraqis, while more than 9,000 others - among them the camp's most radical inhabitants - are penned behind chain-linked fences in a sun-bleached and closely guarded patch known as the "Annexe." It is home to Arabs, Asians, Africans and Europeans, among others.
The guards enter this zone warily. An ambush late last month left one with broken bones.
"They can do anything to you here," said one European woman in her 20s, her blue eyes darting around the camp as she spoke.
Three camp residents said that they had been stopped by women who first corrected their attire and then threatened that repeat behavior would be punished.
The relative of a European woman confined in the Annexe with three children described her as more fearful than ever before. The woman had changed tents several times after a group of Tunisian and Indonesian women began threatening her upon learning that the family's lawyer was trying to bring her home, according to the relative.
"They threaten other women who either gave interviews and declared they were no longer supporting ISIS, or who are trying to return to their countries," the relative said.
In the nearby city of Hassakeh, two doctors said that patients from the camp were refusing to come for follow-up appointments in facilities run by Kurdish authorities or international organizations. "They tell us 'we cannot come,' " said one. "They say, 'If we come to you, [hard-liners] beat us, or worse.' "
Nor is this growing menace confined to al-Hol. Aid workers from the smaller al-Roj camp, an hour's drive away, describe frequent disputes between Iraqi and other foreign residents. In one instance, an Iraqi woman was barred from communicating with her neighbors after she removed her veil. In another, the children of alleged Islamic State fighters tried to bury a young Iraqi boy alive.
As conditions deteriorate, the inhabitants remain in limbo. Some of the women want to return to their home countries, but few foreign governments are eager to take them back, fearing in part the risk that unrepentant ISIS adherents might pose and that the evidence against them might not hold up in court. The SDF says it cannot be counted on to hold the camp residents indefinitely. But neither the United States - which ultimately holds sway in this corner of Syria - nor European and Arab allies have advanced a workable solution.
"Given that ISIS had women's units and also taught them how they should still spread the idea and ideals of the caliphate once they are back in their countries of origins, they are a serious risk to the society, so their children could be also," said an Arab intelligence official.
Iraq has yet to repatriate tens of thousands of its citizens, and other governments are evacuating their nationals at a trickle. Eight American citizens were repatriated from the camp to the United States in June. President Trump has urged European countries to "take back" and prosecute their citizens.
One European intelligence official said the approach had to be "pragmatic" and "case by case," adding, "We will have to study: Who was this woman married to? What role did [she] play inside ISIS? Is [she] really ready to give up the ideology?"
But aid agencies insist that the international community does not have the luxury of time and cite the dangers that al-Hol now poses to the children trapped inside it.
Aid workers from Save the Children, one of the largest organizations working with children in the camps of northeastern Syria, say they often show signs of deep trauma. Boys, in particular, can be aggressive. Girls have faced early marriage or sexual violence.
"The children who have been traumatized by living through all of this need a lot more than we can really offer in a camp," said Sonia Khush, the Syria country director for Save the Children.
"It's not only the missing out of school, it's the violence that women and children were exposed to. People talk about seeing the beheadings in the town square, seeing the heads roll around," she said.
Some of the women interviewed said they are no longer true believers, and some said they never were but had been coerced by radicalized husbands to go to the Islamic State. Others, however, said they remained proud to have joined a group that tries to foster what it describes as an Islamic paradise.
In a video posted online in July, several women, fully veiled and holding the Islamic State's black-and-white banner, said they were delivering a message from al-Hol. "Brothers," one urges, "light the fire of jihad and free us from these prisons.'
And then, addressing the "enemies of God," she says, "To you we say, women of the mujahideen: You think you have us imprisoned in your rotten camp. But we are a ticking bomb. Just you wait and see."
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/at-a-sprawling-tent-camp-in-syria-isis-women-impose-a-brutal-rule-2095236
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100 Females Enrol In King Fahd University Of Petroleum And Minerals For Higher Studies For First Time
September 3, 2019
DAMMAM — For the first time in the history of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), about 100 girl students have enrolled for higher studies.
The first batch of girl students joined their classes on Sunday for postgraduate studies in the disciplines of mathematics, computer science and business administration.
They were chosen from among 600 applicants after passing the criteria and conditions of admission under the university rules.
Last year, the University Council session allowed girl students to enroll in graduate courses (Master’s degree and PhD) in a number of disciplines.
Welcoming the girl students to the university, Dr. Sahl Abdul Jawad, president of KFUPM, said his institution aspires to provide students with the opportunity to pursue their studies in a way realizing the aspirations of the government in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 that aims to nurture qualified women leaders in key development sectors.
“The university focuses on qualitative improvement in education and creating employment opportunities for Saudis while working out its programs, activities and academic initiatives,” he said, adding that the university will provide girl students opportunities to enhance their innovative skills and develop their technology base.
KFUPM has formed specialized committees to create an appropriate educational and research environment for students as well as for members of the academic faculty, staff and management.
The university was able to formulate a precise plan to achieve the requirements for the start of the study in a typical manner, including preparation of school buildings and setting up of an academic faculty consisting of distinguished female graduates from prestigious universities.
It also developed introductory programs about the university, its systems and advantages while the Deanship of Academic Development prepared development programs on teaching methods, dealing with students and creating opportunities for scientific research at the university.
The university also prepared an introductory program for female students on university systems, rights, duties, educational, technical and advisory services provided to them, methods of academic excellence to help their success, interviewing some officials and visiting university facilities.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/576287/SAUDI-ARABIA/100-females-enroll-in-KFUPM-for-higher-studies-for-first-time
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52% Married Women In Pakistan Have Unmet Contraceptive Needs
September 4, 2019
At least 52% of married women in Pakistan aged 15–49 who want to avoid a pregnancy have an unmet need for modern contraception, said a report by US-based Guttmacher Institute.
If all unmet needs for modern contraception among married women in the country were met, overall unintended pregnancies would be reduced by an estimated 82% or 3.1 million annually, said the report titled Adding It Up: Investing in Contraception and Maternal and Newborn Health in Pakistan.
Unplanned births, abortions and miscarriages would decline by the same proportion, said the report by the Guttmacher Institute which is a leading research and policy organisation committed to advancing reproductive health in the United States and globally.
Fully meeting married women’s need for contraception would lead to an estimated reduction of nearly 1,000 maternal deaths annually. Even more lives would be saved if all women’s needs for maternal and newborn health care were fully met simultaneously.
Cost of meeting reproductive health needs
Satisfying the unmet need for modern contraception among married women would increase the annual cost of services (based on public-sector costs) from an estimated Rs8.91 billion to Rs19.03 billion. The total cost would cover contraceptive commodities, staff salaries, health infrastructure upgrades, contraceptive counselling, outreach activities, and improvements to programmes and systems.
If contraceptive services were to stay at current levels, providing all pregnant women each year with a comprehensive package of maternal and newborn health care would cost Rs207.9 billion.
Because the cost of preventing an unintended pregnancy through the use of modern contraceptives is far lower than the cost of providing care for an unintended pregnancy, expanding modern contraceptive services and maternal and newborn care simultaneously would result in cost savings compared with expanding maternal and newborn services alone.
Healthy communities
Modern contraceptive services and maternal and newborn health care are essential for promoting the well-being of women, their families and communities.
Contraceptive use enables couples to plan the number and timing of their children, while maternal and newborn care — along with contraceptive use — greatly improves women’s chances of having a healthy pregnancy and delivering a healthy newborn.
Providing a comprehensive package of maternal and newborn care that includes antenatal, delivery, postpartum and postabortion services is costly and can pose a challenge for low and middle-income countries.
One way to manage such costs is to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies — that is pregnancies that occur among women who want to postpone pregnancy or stop childbearing altogether.
Need for modern contraception based on 2017 data, there are an estimated 10.1 million pregnancies in Pakistan each year, 3.8 million (37%) of which are unintended. Twenty per cent of these unintended pregnancies end in unplanned births and 69% end in induced abortion (and the remainder end in miscarriage).
Nationally, 52% of married women aged 15–49 who want to avoid a pregnancy have an unmet need for modern contraception, which means they are not using contraceptives at all or are using a traditional method.
Most unintended pregnancies result from unmet need for modern contraception. Unmet need for modern contraception is substantial in every province and region of Pakistan. It is highest in Balochistan and Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA), where about two-thirds of married women wanting to avoid a pregnancy have an unmet need, and lowest in Islamabad Capital Territory, where the proportion is nearly half.
Need for maternal and newborn health care
Maternal mortality in Pakistan is estimated at 178 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 — approximately equivalent to the average for the Southern Asia region as a whole (176). This mortality ratio translates to the death of an estimated 10,000 women in 2017. The country’s neonatal mortality rate of 42 deaths in the first 28 days of life per 1,000 live births is well above the median rate for Southern Asia (28).
Millions of women in Pakistan do not receive the maternal and newborn care they need to prevent and manage health complications that may arise during pregnancy, delivery and the postpartum period.
According to recent national data, half of pregnant women obtain the recommended minimum of four antenatal care visits with a health care professional, and about two-thirds (69%) of births take place in a health facility. While these maternal health care indicators have improved significantly in recent years, large disparities persist in Pakistan by region.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2019/09/03/52-married-women-in-pakistan-have-unmet-contraceptive-needs/
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Paris Pool Closes Due To ‘Pro-Burkini’ Protest
3 Sep 2019
A public pool in Paris closed this weekend after pro-burkini activists mounted a protest against the ban on the body-covering swimsuit, and demanding “access for all to leisure facilities”.
Protesters gathered at the pool in the 11th arrondissement on Sunday September 1, holding a banner that read: “Pool for everyone, stop Islamophobia”, and chanting “We will swim, even if racists don’t want us to, we will swim”.
A “burkini” is a set of clothes, made out of swimming costume material, which covers the entirety of the body, except for the face, hands, and feet. It is worn by Muslim women who wish to swim and enter the water without showing their body or hair.
Five Muslim women wearing burkinis entered the pool to swim, supported by other protesters wearing one- and two-piece swimsuits. Most of the protesters were women, although some men, and some who identified as transgender, were also present.
The police were called and the pool was closed to the public for around 30 minutes as the protest was dispersed. No-one was injured and there was no violence.
In a press release, the protesters called for: “a change in internal regulations for pools, and access for all to leisure facilities”. It continued: “Our bodies belong to us, and we will cover and uncover them for our own reasons.”
Louz
@louzlapoetesse
• Sep 1, 2019
Replying to @louzlapoetesse
Tout le monde doit pouvoir accéder aux services publics. Les femmes n’ont pas à être infantilisées: elles doivent pouvoir se baigner dans la tenue qu’elles ont choisie. La seule contrainte hygiénique est le lycra. La longueur du maillot doit être un CHOIX.#PiscinePourToustes
Louz
@louzlapoetesse
Dans la continuité des actions de Grenoble et Lyon, nous propageons la campagne pour les droits civiques des femmes musulmanes.
Nous avons co-écrit un communiqué relatant nos opinions politiques ainsi que nos revendications : #PiscinePourToustes
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One woman, who swam in a burkini, denounced “growing islamophobic ideas”, and told news network FranceInfo: “The objective is for us to access the pool as hijab-wearing women. We want to reclaim our choice to wear [the hijab], and to be able to continue our leisure activities without being inconvenienced by discriminatory regulations.”
But in an interview on news channel BMFTV, minister for equality Marlène Schiappa said: “No-one wants to stop women in burkinis from swimming. But put simply, I believe very sincerely and very deeply that the major issue here is respect for rules - it’s the same for people who throw rubbish on the ground [for example].
“If someone wants to cover their hair while swimming, which I do not disagree with, you can simply put on a swimming cap. But each pool has its own internal rules, it is not for me to tell pools what to do. But I am quite disturbed by the fact that these militants have succeeded in making out as though there are millions of French women demanding their right to swim in a burkini.
“I am sorry, I receive hundreds of letters a day, I have worked for 15 years on the question of women’s rights, and it is not true that there are millions of women in France who wake up and thinking, “I want to go the the pool in a burkini”. These are the wishes of a minority...and we should not fall for it.
“We must discriminate no-one; all women should have access to swimming pools, but if the rules say that we must come uncovered and unclothed, then we don’t go out [in the pool] wearing clothes, quite simply. We must respect the rules that exist.”
Louz
@louzlapoetesse
• Sep 1, 2019
Replying to @louzlapoetesse
Tout le monde doit pouvoir accéder aux services publics. Les femmes n’ont pas à être infantilisées: elles doivent pouvoir se baigner dans la tenue qu’elles ont choisie. La seule contrainte hygiénique est le lycra. La longueur du maillot doit être un CHOIX.#PiscinePourToustes
Louz
@louzlapoetesse
Dans la continuité des actions de Grenoble et Lyon, nous propageons la campagne pour les droits civiques des femmes musulmanes.
Nous avons co-écrit un communiqué relatant nos opinions politiques ainsi que nos revendications : #PiscinePourToustes
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A similar protest took place in Grenoble, in mid-June.
At the time, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said that public pool rules should be respected, and that “no religious belief” should be taken into account to allow people to break these rules.
https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Paris-pool-closes-due-to-pro-burkini-feminist-and-Islam-protest
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Palestinian Woman Allegedly Killed After Posting Picture With Fiance
September 04, 2019
Dubai: Unconfirmed reports of the possible murder of a young Palestinian woman by her family have hit the internet by storm.
Social media posts have alleged that Israa Ghrayeb, 21, died following beatings by her family members in a so-called “honour killing”.
What started it all?
Local media have published unconfirmed reports that she was killed by her family after posting a picture her fiance.
She allegedly posted the picture on her Instagram account, which appeared to have been deleted Monday.
What was the family’s reaction?
Her brother, Ihab — a Canadian citizen — was reportedly angered by the video, believing it was a family dishonour to show herself with her betrothed together before a formal wedding ceremony takes place.
Citing social media posts, The New Arab reported Ihab’s father called for his daughter’s beating after other family members saw the video.
Local media reported Ghrayeb fell from the second floor of the family home while trying to escape family violence.
The fall caused severe spinal injuries.
While in hospital awaiting a spinal cord operation, Ghrayeb, who worked as a makeup artist, stated on an Instagram story she had to cancel all August and September makeup appointments because of her bad state of health.
Ola Al Fares
✔
@OlaAlfares
لم أستطع النوم هذه الليلة..صوت صراخها في المستشفى في الفيديو المتداول لا يِفارقني.#اسراء_غريب الله يرحمها
تؤكد بعض الجهات
انها تعرضت للضرب المفضي للموت
أرفض الظلم والإضطهاد بكل اشكاله كيف عندما يُمارس على إمرأة!
"الله ينتقم من كل ساقط يمارس تخلفه وجهله وتسلطه على امرأة"
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The family denies the claims and insists Ghrayeb, from Beit Sahour near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, had a stroke.
“I’m strong and I have the will to live — if I didn’t have this willpower, I would have died yesterday,” she reportedly wrote.
While in hospital, Ghraybeb was allegedly attacked a second time. She later died.
Footage circulating online is purported to show the screaming of Ghrayeb as she is beaten by relatives in hospital shortly before she died.
“Israa was communicating with her friends during the time she was suffering,” Minerva Jaraysah, a women’s right activist and sociology lecturer at Bethlehem University, told media.
“All the material that was published on social media is an indicator that she was hurt and beaten to death by her family.”
How has the public reacted?
The death has caused anger in the occupied West Bank, with the hashtag “We are all Israa Ghrayeb” trending on Palestinian social media.
Nancy Ajram
✔
@NancyAjram
• Aug 31, 2019
الشرف مش بالقتل.. الشرف مش بالضرب والتعذيب والتعنيف!!! #كلنا_اسراء_غريب واليوم وبأعلى صوت العدالة لازم تتحقق والقاتل لازم يتعاقب ويتحساب.. هو وحده المجرم مش البنت اللي حبِّت وراحت تشوف خطيبها!
Hanan
@han12___
#كلنا_اسراء_الغريب
وكل بنت انظلمت وما وصلت قصتها للعالم
لازم تكون قصتها محرك لسن قوانين تجرم وتعاقب
كل من تسول لة نفسة الإقدام على هيك جريمة
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It has been a trending on Twitter as tens of thousands of people from all around the world, especially from the Arab world, tweet about it.
Arab celebrities Nancy Ajram, Elissa, Nishan, and Shams have tweeted about Ghrayeb, expressing sympathy and condemning the killers.
Nancy Ajram
✔
@NancyAjram
الشرف مش بالقتل.. الشرف مش بالضرب والتعذيب والتعنيف!!! #كلنا_اسراء_غريب واليوم وبأعلى صوت العدالة لازم تتحقق والقاتل لازم يتعاقب ويتحساب.. هو وحده المجرم مش البنت اللي حبِّت وراحت تشوف خطيبها!
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Meanwhile other Palestinian and Arab social media users vow to not stop protesting until she receives justice.
Calls for accountability
Dozens of Palestinian women protested for women’s rights Monday outside the office of prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, following the death of a 21-year-old woman in suspicious circumstances.
Police sources said they were investigating, without further details, and no autopsy results have been released.
The protesters chanted: “We want security and protection.”
Similar demonstrations were held Saturday near her hometown.
Shtayyeh responded Monday by announcing that a number of people had been called in for questioning, without saying if they were members of Ghrayeb’s family.
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa on Saturday quoted Shtayyeh as saying legal protections for women should be strengthened.
Investigation ongoing
Ammar Dweik, director general of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, told AFP the details of the case remained unclear and demanded a full investigation.
Majeda al-Masri, a former Palestinian minister who took part in the demonstration, said she believed Ghrayeb had been killed.
“This demonstration is not only to hold the perpetrators accountable, but to demand that the government assume its responsibility to enact the family protection law.”
The law, drafted in 2004 and which is supposed to provide protection to women from domestic violence, has been under consideration by the Palestinian government for years.
The Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling, a Palestinian NGO documenting abuses in the West Bank and Gaza, said there were 23 cases of what it called femicide in 2018, and 18 so far in 2019.
The term is defined as the killing of women because they are females, though it can also include suicide in cases of bullying.
Last year, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas repealed an article in the penal code that allowed alleged rapists to escape prosecution if they married their victims, according to Human Rights Watch.
https://gulfnews.com/world/mena/palestinian-woman-allegedly-killed-after-posting-picture-with-fiance-1.66200478
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Egypt's Islamic Institutions Set Four Conditions For Freezing Women's Eggs
September 3, 2019
CAIRO 4 September 2019: Following the controversial announcement of Egyptian women Reem Mehanna on freezing her eggs, Egypt's Dar al-Iftaa, the government's principal Islamic legal institution for issuing fatwas (religious edicts) announced four specific rules that regulate Muslim women egg-freezing.
Dar al-Iftaa stated the four rules are: First, the frozen eggs should be used only in marriage and should be fertilized by the husband’s sperm. In case eggs were fertilized after divorce or death, it is religiously forbidden.
Second, the eggs should be kept in highly-safe places and under strict control to prevent intentional or inadvertent confusion with other frozen eggs of different women.
Third, the fertilized egg should not be put inside a different woman’s womb. Meanwhile, the fourth condition provides that the freezing process should not negatively affect the egg to prevent birth defects.
Breaking social taboos and Egyptian conservative norms, Mehanna announced on her Facebook account that she had frozen her eggs 2 years ago.
“I decided to announce publicly that I had frozen my eggs. YES, I had frozen my eggs […] when I asked the doctor to make this surgery, he was shocked, telling me ‘I’d never heard this request from a girl in Egypt.’,” said Reem Mehanna posted on her Facebook account.
Mehanna added that she underwent an abdominal ova freezing surgery and her doctor made a laparoscopy to get out her eggs and put themin a freezing environment, saying “the frozen eggs stay for 20 or 30 years without expiring.”
Egg-freezing is not a burning issue in Egypt only, but also in the United Arab Emirates. In April 2019, the UAE drew up a draft law to allow freezing eggs, sperms or embryos in a way to prevent surrogacy or egg and sperm donation. Lebanon is another Arab country where egg-freezing is being conducted.
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/1/74460/Egypt-s-Islamic-institutions-set-four-conditions-for-freezing-women
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Women have key to peace and development of nation: moot
September 4, 2019
PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar here on Tuesday underscored the fact that women are among the disempowered and vulnerable groups in Pakistan and that it is imperative to challenge the discriminatory norms and practices so that inclusive and cohesive democratic practices lead to a representative and pluralistic society in the country.
The seminar titled ‘Role of Women in Peacebuilding’ was organised by Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Peshawar, in collaboration with Paigham-e-Pakistan and Dukhtaran-e-Pakistan initiatives of the Government of Pakistan.
A large number of faculty members, women activists, civil society representatives and female students attended the event. Addressing the participants, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Vice Chancellor Dr Razia Sultana said women are the natural leaders and they have the key to peace and development of a nation. Now is the right time for young women to realise their true potential and unleash their abilities to work toward the development of society, she maintained, adding that role of educated women is vital for the development of the country.
The vice chancellor said conflicts and crises have adversely affected the social and economic circumstances of women and girls in Pakistan. Ensuring women’s participation at all levels in decisions related to peace and security in the country is essential, she said, and stressed the need to take concrete measures at social and political levels that will pave the way for greater participation of women in peacebuilding and peace processes.
Other speakers said that the media needs to make conscious and serious efforts to change stereotypes about women in society, adding that women need to be provided adequate space and opportunities to discuss wider issues related to peace and security. They maintained that the promotion and achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment was a means to the elimination of extremism and terrorism, which glorify violence and aggression in the society. They said empowerment of women is crucial to advancing the culture of peace in all its vectors and at all levels in a family, community, country, region and globe.
The basic objective of the activity was to highlight the role women can play in establishment of a peaceful and stable society by helping counter the prevalent challenges including hatred, extremism, violence and terrorism.
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/521789-women-have-key-to-peace-and-development-of-nation-moot
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Egypt’s Women’s Right Center Condemns Assault On Woman By Niqab Wearers
September 3, 2019
The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECDR) has condemned an assault by two women wearing niqab (face veils) on another woman at a metro station.
The two grabbed the victim by her hair and cut it with scissors.
The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights in a statement on Monday urged to investigate and take action regarding the incident, which they described as a “blatant violation of the personal freedom and security of women.”
“We know that wearing the niqab is a major security challenge, as it hides the identity of the perpetrator of any crime,” the statement said.
The Center added that it is afraid the incident might be intended to undermine the efforts made by security authorities to establish security.
The head of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, Nihad Aboul Qomsan, condemned the physical and psychological abuse suffered by the victim and called for increasing police presence, especially in crowded places like metro stations.
She also urged for surveillance cameras to catch anyone violating the freedom of others and preserve the personal security of women.
A bill banning Niqabs was widely rejected across Egypt after stirring controversy in November with Ghada Agamy, a member of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Relations Committee, having backtracked on the draft law she submitted to ban the niqab in public places and government institutions.
https://egyptindependent.com/egypts-womens-right-center-condemns-assault-on-woman-by-niqab-wearers/
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Egyptian MP Proposes Law to Allow Women on State Council
SEPTEMBER 3, 2019
Egyptian member of Parliament Ehab al-Khouli revealed plans to amend a law barring women from sitting on the State Council, reports Egypt Today.
Khouli, a member of the parliamentary Legislative Affairs Committee, said on Monday that he will propose an amendment to allow women to apply for positions in the prestigious judicial body in the upcoming session. He explained that “experiment has proven that women can [successfully] bear responsibilities. There is not [a single] advanced nation that excludes women as active members [in public life].”
According to Article 190 of the 2014 Egyptian constitution, “the State Council is an independent judicial body that is exclusively competent to adjudicate in administrative disputes, disciplinary cases and appeals, and disputes pertaining to its decisions. It also solely competent to issue opinions on the legal issues of bodies to be determined by law, review and draft bills and resolutions of a legislative character, and review draft contracts to which the state or any public entity is a party. Other competencies are to be determined by law.”
Egypt is currently pushing for gender equality in all leadership positions as part of the government’s agenda. Last July, the country hit a milestone for women when judge Fatima Qandil sat at a judges panel in an Egyptian criminal court for the first time in history.
As of today, Egypt has eight appointed female ministers. These include Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate’s Affairs Nabila Makram, Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem, Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali, Minister of Environment Yasmeen Fouad, Minister of Tourism Rania Al-Mashat and Minister of Health Hala Zayed.
There are also two female governors, Nadia Abdou, Governer of Beheira, and Manal Awan Mikhail, Governor of Damietta, who is also Egypt’s first female Coptic governor.
As part of the country’s 2030 vision to achieve gender equality, women have also been integrated into the country’s judiciary system. In 2015, 26 new female judges were appointed. This was the largest number since 2007, and in 2018, 16 female Egyptian judges were promoted to higher judiciary positions.
Although the current number of female judges makes up only 0.5 percent of judges in Egypt. The government’s strategy aims to pull up the figures to 25 percent by allowing women to apply to the State Council as well as other judicial bodies.
https://egyptianstreets.com/2019/09/03/egyptian-mp-proposes-law-to-allow-women-on-state-council/
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MP Proposes Allowing Female Judges In State Council Positions
September 3, 2019
CAIRO – 3 September 2019: Member of Parliament Ehab al-Khouli has said he will propose legislative amendments to the State Council law so that it allows the appointment of women in the prestigious judicial body.
Khouli, member of the parliamentary Legislative Affairs Committee, said Monday he will make his bid during the upcoming session. He added that his proposal comes in light of the Egyptian government’s policy in gender equality.
“Experiment has proven that women can bear responsibilities in full success. There is not advanced nation that excludes women as active members,” Khouli said.
Khouli reminisced about the Egyptian society being a pioneer in that aspect, providing examples such as Sameera Moussa, a nuclear physicist who took several steps to allow the medical use of nuclear technology affordable, who died in 1952 in a car accident in the U.S. that is highly suspected to have been an assassination.
He also mentioned Fatma al-Yusuf, a journalist who founded the acclaimed news magazine Rose al-Yusuf in 1952, a major step for a journalist and a woman at the time.
Egyptian judges have consistently fought to assume top positions, but the first major step was taken by former President Hosni Mubarak, when he appointed Tahani al-Gebali as the vice president of the Constitutional Court in 2003.
In July, judge Fatima Qandil was the first woman to sit at a judges panel in an Egyptian criminal court, in another milestone for female judges. The State Council, however, remains a male-only domain.
Article 190 of the 2014 constitution states that “the State Council is an independent judicial body that is exclusively competent to adjudicate in administrative disputes, disciplinary cases and appeals, and disputes pertaining to its decisions. It also solely competent to issue opinions on the legal issues of bodies to be determined by law, review and draft bills and resolutions of a legislative character, and review draft contracts to which the state or any public entity is a party. Other competencies are to be determined by law.”
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/2/74431/MP-proposes-allowing-female-judges-in-State-Council-positions
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/pushpa-kolhi-pakistan-first-hindu/d/119653