Rashida Tlaib Submits Names Of Child Casualties In Gaza To Congress, Calls It Genocide
New Age Islam News Bureau
22 September 2024
• Rashida Tlaib Submits Names Of Child Casualties In Gaza To Congress, Calls It Genocide
• Iran's Morality Police Will Not 'Bother' Women, President Says
• Rights Group Warns Of ‘Great Risk’ In Deporting Women To Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
• Georgia's Palestinian American Ruwa Romman: First Muslim Woman in State House Navigates Complex Political Landscape
• “Let’s Become One Voice”: Afghan Women Won’t Be Silenced
• What New Taliban Morality Law Means For Afghan Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Rashida Tlaib Submits Names Of Child Casualties In Gaza To Congress, Calls It Genocide
Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of the U.S. House of Representatives
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By Fidel Rahmati
September 20, 2024
Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has submitted a list of names of children killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza to Congress.
She noted that the Israeli government has killed 710 infants in Gaza. Tlaib expressed hope that her colleagues in Congress would take notice of this list.
According to statistics from the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, over 41,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, including more than 15,000 children.
Earlier, a United Nations committee accused Israel of violating the global convention protecting children, stating that the child casualties in Gaza from these attacks are historically unprecedented.
The rising number of child fatalities in Gaza raises serious concerns about the humanitarian crisis and the protection of innocent lives.
The international community must urgently address the ongoing violence and work towards ensuring the safety and rights of children in conflict zones.
Source: www.khaama.com
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Iran's Morality Police Will Not 'Bother' Women, President Says
(Photo: BBC News)
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17 September 2024
Frances Mao
BBC News
EPA An Iranian woman (l) without a mandatory headscarf, or hijab, walks in a street in Tehran, Iran next to a woman wearing a headscarf on15 September 2024EPA
Iran's new president has said that morality police will no longer "bother" women over the wearing of the mandatory hijab headscarf, days after the UN warned women were still being violently punished for breaking the strict dress code.
Masoud Pezeshkian's comments came on the second anniversary of the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly not wearing the hijab properly, sparking nationwide protests.
The UN last week said Iran's government had "intensified efforts" since that period to suppress women's rights and crush any last vestiges of activism.
He was responding to questions from a female reporter who said she had taken detours en route to the press conference to avoid police vans. She was wearing her head scarf loosely with some hair showing.
His comments were broadcast live on major state TV networks, including rolling news channel IRINN. The clip of the conversation with the female journalist has since gone viral online.
During his election campaign he pledged to oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory hijab headscarf. He has also vowed to ease some of the country's long-standing internet controls.
Signs of a potentially more relaxed attitude to the country's strict dress code for women were present at Pezeshkian's press conference on Monday, where some female journalists wore loose head coverings.
This was a noticeable departure from previous official events where female journalists are required to appear in full hijab, BBC Monitoring reported.
But the UN's latest fact-finding mission in the country says women "still live in a system that relegates them to second class citizens".
In its report released last week, the UN said: "State authorities have expanded repressive measures and policies to further deprive women and girls of their fundamental rights."
It noted the government had "enhanced surveillance of hijab compliance" in both public and private environments while also endorsing an escalation in violence in punishing women and girls who break the rules.
"Security forces have further escalated pre-existing patterns of physical violence, including beating, kicking, and slapping women and girls who are perceived as failing to comply with the mandatory hijab laws and regulations," the UN said.
It said authorities had also increasingly invoked the use of the death penalty against women activists and "scaled up" executions of those who had expressed solidarity with the 2022 protests known as the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
The UN mission also noted that a “Hijab and Chastity” bill was in the final stages of approval before Iran’s Guardian Council and could be finalised imminently.
"The Bill provides for harsher penalties for women who do not wear the mandatory hijab, including exorbitant financial fines, longer prison sentences, restrictions on work and educational opportunities, and bans on travel," the UN investigators said.
Source: www.bbc.com
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgnn3562yjo
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Rights Group Warns Of ‘Great Risk’ In Deporting Women To Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
by Amu TV
22 September 2024
A women’s rights movement based in Iran, led by activist Hadia Sahibzada, condemned Iran’s recent efforts to deport refugees, warning that returning to Afghanistan under Taliban rule poses a “serious” threat to the lives and rights of women and girls.
In a statement, the group described the risks faced by deported Afghan women, emphasizing that the Taliban has systematically violated “all basic women’s rights” since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021.
“We live every day with the harsh reality that we may be killed by the Taliban. Our basic rights, such as the right to education, work, and living freely, are being stripped away. In this critical situation, we need your support and solidarity,” the statement read.
The movement urged host countries, particularly Iran, to heed the voices of Afghan women’s rights activists and protect the Afghan women and girls who have sought refuge abroad. “We seek new opportunities, security, and a bright future. Let’s join hands to strive for human rights and women’s equality,” the statement added, calling on the international community to provide immediate support.
Since the Taliban’s takeover, women and girls in Afghanistan have been subjected to sweeping restrictions. The Taliban has banned girls from attending school beyond sixth grade and barred women from higher education. Women are also prohibited from leaving their homes without a male guardian, and a recent decree forbids their voices from being heard in public.
The situation for Afghan women remains dire, with activists calling for global action to prevent further human rights violations.
Source: amu.tv
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Georgia's Palestinian American RuwaRomman: First Muslim Woman in State House Navigates Complex Political Landscape
by Nabaparna Bhattacharya
September 21, 2024
Arab-American voters, represented by 31-year-old Palestinian American RuwaRomman, face a complex dilemma this election season in Georgia.
Romman, a legislator in the swing state, was nominated to represent the Uncommitted National Movement, reported Al Jazeera. This protest initiative aims to urge Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to reconsider her support for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Romman embodies the struggle many Arab-Americans experience as they balance their support for the Democratic Party with criticism of its largely pro-Israel platform.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, she mentioned that, had she been allowed to speak, her address would have included an endorsement for Harris.
Romman viewed her potential speech as a chance to humanize the plight of Palestinians, who have lost over 41,250 lives in the ongoing conflict. When questioned about whether she would rule out endorsing Harris, Romman indicated that she didn’t have a definite answer. She mentioned that she had extended her endorsement, but noted that neither the Harris campaign nor the DNC acknowledged it.
Born in Jordan, Romman made history in 2022 as the first Muslim woman elected to the Georgia State House of Representatives. She was part of a record wave of 153 Muslim-American candidates who won office during that year’s midterm elections.
Source: Benzinga.Com
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“Let’s Become One Voice”: Afghan Women Won’t Be Silenced
by Viv Griffiths
22-09-2024
In January 2020, two Afghan women joined my beginners’ English class, which was mainly for refugees from Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Maryam and Amina (not their real names) were sisters who had just escaped from war-torn Afghanistan with their husbands and children and were in the process of seeking asylum. While Amina spoke virtually no English, Maryam had learnt some through online classes and private study and both women were eager to learn.
Maryam was desperate to progress – and indeed she moved up to the next level class within a month. She told me that their only future was here in the UK, because of the problems accessing education that women and girls faced in Afghanistan.
The first Covid-19 lockdown in March that year led to the classes being discontinued and sadly, I lost touch with the sisters, but fervently hope they were allowed to stay in the UK.
Life was not easy for Afghan women in 2020, but since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have been further eroded.
Secondary schools for girls were closed in September that year and, despite promises from the Taliban, were never re-opened, resulting in despair amongst young women. One told the BBC: “I feel like I have buried my dreams in a dark hole.” Taliban leaders justified this due to lack of a “safe environment” for girls and argued that the syllabus needed remodelling along Islamic lines. Yet no other Muslim-majority country bans education for women.
By the end of December 2022, an indefinite ban on university education for women was also made. This was especially cruel, as thousands of girls had only recently sat university entrance exams. Young women were understandably “distraught” that their “hopes and dreams were crushed”.
Some women, like Maryam and Amina, have managed to escape the country in order to get an education abroad, but most are unable to leave. Gordon Brown called the ban “one of the gravest and most indefensible injustices of our generation.”
Women’s freedoms have been further curtailed by restrictions on work and travel, the impositions of strict dress codes and a bar on women entering parks, gyms and swimming pools. By mid-2023, hair and beauty salons were also banned – one of the few places that women could gather in safety.
Yet women continued to resist these relentlessly cruel bans, setting up secret schools and salons in their own homes. Until recently, some even risked detention and violent punishment by marching on the streets.
It’s very hard to imagine life for women and girls with so many constraints, but the Taliban has now gone even further with a raft of new “vice and virtue” laws. Women must completely cover their bodies, including their faces – only head-to-toe burqas are allowed in public – and must not be heard singing or reading aloud, including from inside their own houses.
The BBC gained access to some women in Afghanistan, who told them they felt the new laws “treat them like animals”. An understandable reaction was fear: “We’re scared,” said one, too frightened to talk even amongst themselves in case the Taliban overheard them.
“Every moment you feel like you’re in a prison,” said a woman activist. “If we can’t speak, why even live?” said another. Unsurprisingly, mental health among Afghan women has deteriorated markedly. One psychologist reported that there is a “pandemic of suicidal thoughts” among women.
Even now though, in the face of severe threats to their own safety, Afghan women are voicing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, singing songs about freedom. “Let’s become one voice, let’s walk together holding hands and become free of this cruelty” are the words of one song.
Some videos show Afghan women singing alone or in small groups, using hashtags such as “#My voice is not forbidden” and “#No to Taliban”. “I am not that weak willow that trembles in every wind,” one sang. “I am from Afghanistan.”
Another song says: “Their boots might be on my neck. Or their fists to my face. But with our deep light inside, I will fight through this night.” This show of resistance is incredibly brave and moving.
These shocking “morality decrees” have been condemned by human rights groups. Amnesty International posted: “This decree is yet another brazen attack on human rights and must be immediately revoked.” Amnesty and the UN have called it a form of “gender apartheid”.
Roza Otunbayeva, the special UN’s representative for Afghanistan, stated: “It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls.” A leading Afghan lawyer argued: “This document not only violates Afghanistan’s domestic laws but also broadly contravenes all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
Similarly, the EU described the new restrictions as: “systematic and systemic abuses… which may amount to gender persecution which is a crime against humanity”.
In the UK, I was pleased to see a strong statement from the UK Government to the UN Human Rights Council, condemning the recent edicts as “appalling” and “unjust”. The statement continues:
“The UK will not stop fighting for the rights of women and girls and will continue to find ways to support them in Afghanistan…The Taliban must reverse this edict.”
Source: sussexbylines.co.uk
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hat new Taliban morality law means for Afghan women
MODASER ISLAMI
September 21, 2024
KABUL: With few employment possibilities available to Afghan women under Taliban rule, Ayesha Azimi was able to remain professionally active as a religious studies teacher — a role she is now struggling to keep in the face of a recently announced “vice and virtue” law.
The rights of Afghan women have been curtailed since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan three years ago. Women and girls have been gradually barred from attending secondary school and university, undertaking most forms of paid employment, traveling without a male family member, and attending public spaces.
The only remaining public educational institutions allowed for women have been madrasas — Islamic schools that focus on religious training. Under the new rules introduced last month by the Taliban-run Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, even religious schools are now difficult to access.
“Last week, when I was going to the madrasa, I spent more than an hour on the road to get a taxi, but the drivers didn’t want to give women a ride, fearing the Taliban. I had to call my husband to come and pick me up with his motorbike,” she told Arab News.
“The Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice staff in the area told taxi drivers to not pick up any woman without a male guardian otherwise they will be fined and punished.”
“Most women have been observing proper hijab, particularly during the past three years, but there are still increasing restrictions on women, limiting their role in the society,” she said. “It feels like women have no value and contribution in society, while traditionally Islam gave women an important role and responsibility.”
For Jamila Haqmal, a 24-year-old living in the capital, the new restrictions, on top of those already in place, leave women entirely dependent on male relatives — a situation impossible for many since decades of war have left Afghanistan with one the highest numbers of widows.
“Some families don’t have a male caretaker at all,” she said. “I am worried for women who don’t have a male caretaker in the family. They will have to rely on other men for support or face numerous problems in their daily life. There’s actually no other option.”
The new law has been compared to the draconian regulations the Taliban introduced when they ruled the country for the first time in the late 1990s. The rules were in place until they were ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
After 20 years of war and foreign military presence, Afghanistan’s Western-backed government collapsed as the US withdrew from the country and the Taliban regained control in August 2021. Shortly afterwards, they began to introduce restrictions resembling those of their first stint in power.
“The nature of the system and their ideological policy remain the same. However, there are some differences in treatment. Even though the law has been ratified, they use a relatively mild approach in its implementation,” Naseer Ahmad Nawidy, a professor of political sciences at Salam University in Kabul, told Arab News.
The new law contains general and often vague provisions on a variety of topics, including men’s and women’s dress codes and appearance, women’s travel and voice, media, as well as rulings related to non-Muslims residing temporarily or permanently in the country.
“Previously, the restrictions were in the form of decrees. Now that it (has taken) the form of a law and has a specific enforcement body, things might get even more difficult for women,” Nawidy said.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2572237/world
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