Lebanese Reporter, Zeinab Yassin, Forced to Resign For Wearing A Hijab
New Age Islam News Bureau
5 April 2025
· Lebanese Reporter, Zeinab Yassin, Forced to Resign For Wearing A Hijab
· France’s Hijab Ban in Sports Leaves Muslim Athletes in Limbo
· Muslim-Majority Village in Haryana Elects Hindu Woman, Nisha Chauhan, As Sarpanch
· ‘Hijab-Clad Children Should Be Escorted into Turkish Cypriot Schools By The Police’: Transport Minister’ ErhanArikli
· Female Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Faces Down a ‘Classic Abuse of Power’ in Nigeria
· Sony Music West Africa to Launch Mentorship Program for Women
· All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board Backs Waqf Amendment Bill
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/reporter-resign-wearing-hijab-forced/d/135069
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Lebanese Reporter, Zeinab Yassin, Forced to Resign For Wearing A Hijab
04 April 2025
This photo shows Lebanese journalist at Tele Liban, Zeinab Yassin.
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A Lebanese journalist at Tele Liban has been forced to resign from the state-owned television channel after being banned from appearing on air for wearing a hijab (an Islamic veil).
Zeinab Yassin, who was an employee in the social media department, suddenly stopped appearing on air after reporting on Israel’s aggression on Lebanon for 10 months, Al-Akhbar Arabic-language newspaper reported.
The daily cited sources as saying that Yassin was denied a transfer to the correspondents’ department due to her Hijab, despite her strong performance. The paper noted that the issue required “a political decision.”
During a closed meeting of Lebanon’s Minister of Information Paul Morcos and the administrators of the TV channel, Pauline Yammouni, the minister’s adviser, brought up the issue of Yassin, saying “Hijab does not resemble the air of Tele Liban and it is a religious symbol,” according to the daily.
In her resignation letter to the information minister, Yassin referred to the decision as discriminatory.
The Committee to Support Journalists also condemned the decision to prevent Yassin from joining the correspondents’ team, stating that it represents a blatant violation of freedom of belief.
It also called for “a transparent and urgent investigation” into the incident to hold those responsible for this decision accountable.
According to its statement, the committee also urged a review of the TV channel’s policies to ensure their alignment with Lebanon’s constitution and the government’s pledge to remove barriers to women’s participation in public life.
The case of Zeinab Yassin is reportedly the latest in a series of sectarian problems in Tele Liban.
Last year, economic presenter Nada el-Hout was banned from her TV show after she wore hijab, sparking nationwide anger, according to al-Akhbar.
Source: presstv.ir
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/04/04/745574/Lebanese-reporter-resigns-Hijab-ban
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France’s Hijab Ban in Sports Leaves Muslim Athletes in Limbo
By Usama Mustafa
Apr 5, 2025
France is inching closer to a nationwide ban on religious symbols—including hijabs—in all domestic sports competitions, leading to widespread concern among female Muslim athletes.
The proposed law, which passed the Senate earlier this year, would apply to both amateur and professional athletes, and if it clears the final vote in the National Assembly, athletes may be forced to choose between their sport and their beliefs.
According to current policies, it’s up to individual sports federations in France to decide what athletes can or can’t wear. Some allow religious attire while others don’t, but the new law would cut through that patchwork, imposing a blanket rule against “conspicuous religious symbols” across the board. Crosses, turbans, kippahs—everything would fall under the ban, but in practice, critics say, it’s hijab-wearing Muslim women who are being singled out for their religious expression.
France’s government continues to maintain that the ban on the hijab in sports was introduced to protect France’s secular tradition, and supporters of the bill claim it’s a necessary step to maintain neutrality in public spaces and guard against extremism. Opponents, however, see it as another step in a long-running pattern of exclusion.
“This is about visibility,” said legal scholar Rim-Sarah Alouane. “Secularism was meant to keep the state neutral—not to police people’s beliefs, especially not in sports.”
France’s strict version of secularism—laïcité—dates back more than a century. It’s meant to keep religion out of state affairs. But over the years, it’s become a lightning rod, especially when it comes to Islam: hijab bans in public schools, headscarf restrictions for public employees, and now, sports.
With a final vote expected soon, the future of many hijab-wearing athletes in France is uncertain. Some might stop competing, while others may walk away entirely. But many are speaking out—not just to defend their right to play, but to remind people what sport is supposed to be about.
Source: propakistani.pk
https://propakistani.pk/2025/04/05/frances-hijab-ban-in-sports-leaves-muslim-athletes-in-limbo/
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Muslim-Majority Village in Haryana Elects Hindu Woman, Nisha Chauhan, As Sarpanch
Apr. 5, 2025
Perry Greene on Friday publicly apologized for verbally harassing a group of Muslim women in an Alpharetta parking lot.
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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A man who was caught on camera verbally harassing a group of Muslim women at an Alpharetta shopping center apologized during a news conference on Friday.
“I just wanted them to know that I humbly apologize to them because nobody should be treated that way, and that’s not the right way for us to treat anybody with any differences,” Perry Greene said Friday afternoon after attending a prayer event with Muslim leaders. “Hopefully they’ll find it in their hearts to forgive me.”
Greene is the ex-husband of Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Republican known for her unwavering support of President Donald Trump.
The group of Muslim women said that on Sunday, they put a prayer rug in an empty parking space at Avalon, the shopping mall. They were trying to pray before going to the shopping center to enjoy Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.
That’s when Perry Greene first walked by and threw curse words at them, they said.
Greene then got into a Tesla Cybertruck and continued his tirade, which is when the women started recording. He told them to go back to their country multiple times — even though all the women were born and raised in Georgia — and said they were worshipping a false God.
“It did feel very long in the moment. Like, it just wouldn’t stop. Attack after attack, insult after insult,” one of the women told Atlanta News First on Tuesday. “All of it was just out of pure hate and his disgust of us, which I don’t understand.”
In a statement, Alpharetta police called the man’s comments “disgusting” but said he didn’t commit a crime and won’t face charges.
Atlanta News First and our D.C. Bureau reached out to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office for comment, but did not hear back.
Source atlantanewsfirst.com
https://www.atlantanewsfirst.com/2025/04/04/marjorie-taylor-greenes-ex-husband-publicly-apologizes-verbally-harassing-muslim-women/
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‘Hijab-Clad Children Should Be Escorted into Turkish Cypriot Schools By The Police’: Transport Minister’ ErhanArikli
04 April2025
Children wearing hijabs should be escorted into Turkish Cypriot schools by the police, the north’s ‘transport minister’ ErhanArikli said on Friday, as what some in the media have dubbed the “headscarf crisis” rumbles on.
“The education ministry should do what is necessary and take those children to school with the help of the police. And they should open an investigation into the trade union and into the teachers who want to stop the children going in,” he told news website KibrisGercek.
He added, “you cannot prevent a constitutional right”.
“A teacher can discipline a child but never not let them into school. Therefore, the union and the teachers are committing a constitutional crime here. The education minister must immediately report this to the police and file a complaint,” he said.
He also said the teachers’ decision to not allow children wearing religious garments into schools was “arbitrary” and “completely unacceptable”.
“This is not just a legal issue, it is a matter of conscience,” he added.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar stressed to KibrisPostasi TV that whether or not a child wears a hijab is a “personal choice”.
“In this country, there are those who have religious beliefs and those who do not; there are those who go to mosques and those who do not. These are personal choices,” he said.
“It is a very wrong approach for teachers’ trade unions to not allow a child to go to school because of her headscarf. Is it a legal right to not allow a child to go to school because of her headscarf? No one is talking about this.”
He also criticised trade unions for their rhetoric during protests.
“Unions are constantly saying, ‘Turkey, get your hands off us’. They are using the phrase ‘go home’ in the direction of Turkey’s ambassador in Nicosia. This is not talked about enough,” he said
On the matter of whether the wearing of headscarves by children in schools will in the end be legalised, he said, “I am sure that [‘prime minister’] UnalUstel and [‘education minister’] NazimCavusoglu will do what is necessary”.
Across town at northern Nicosia’s central police station, two teachers’ trade unions filed complaints to the police over alleged “personal insults and threats” made against high-profile union members and the unions themselves over the matter in recent weeks.
Outside the police station, lawyer CansuNazli said Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem was “personally sent threats of violence, death threats, insults, and hate speech”, while public social media posts containing similar content were also allegedly published by some individuals.
In total, Nazli said, “almost 30 people” were reported to the police.
Earlier, Ktoeos and the Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union (Ktos) announced their joint intention to hold a protest next Tuesday evening.
“The aim of these political interventions imposed on the Turkish Cypriots is to separate the Turkish Cypriot community from its identity. This aim is supported by the interventions made in our education system. We will all go out onto the streets an raise our voices to say ‘stop’ to those who ignore secular education and our secular society,” Eylem said.
The protest is being supported by opposition political parties the CTP and the TDP, as well as other minor political parties and a plethora of trade unions.
The ruling coalition had initially legalised the wearing of hijabs in schools midway through March, but faced a fierce backlash from teachers, the majority of whom are staunchly secular, before withdrawing the amendment on the morning of the protest at the embassy.
Teachers were nonetheless keen to show their displeasure at the amendment and their view that the embassy had played a role, with some even believing it was put down to deliberately sow division in Turkish Cypriot society.
At the protest, Eylem called on ambassador Ali Murat Basceri to “go home”, with footage of her speech now having gone viral in Turkey, where political tensions are heightened for separate reasons.
Tatar had demanded that legal action be taken against teachers who “disturbed our peace” during the protests, saying that he would meet with Turkish Cypriot police chief KasimKuni and chief public prosecutor SarperAltincik and “request that legal steps be taken”.
On Thursday night, Tatar had been forced to deny that a meeting he had held with Turkish ambassador Ali Murat Basceri and the north’s ‘prime minister’ UnalUstel was called over the matter of hijabs.
Previously, teachers had refused to let planned school exams go ahead, and at the same time refused to allow children wearing hijabs, and other religious garments including a chador – a full-body cloak which covers the body from head to toe – to enter schools.
A girl had also been sent to northern Nicosia’s IrsenKucuk middle school wearing a hijab and being turned away. What ensued was a standoff between the girl’s parents and schoolteachers, with the teachers refusing to budge.
Source: cyprus-mail.com
https://cyprus-mail.com/2025/04/04/hijab-clad-children-should-be-escorted-into-schools-by-the-police
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Female Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Faces Down a ‘Classic Abuse of Power’ in Nigeria
April 5, 2025
When Nigeria’s third most powerful politician was accused of sexual harassment on national television this year, a fierce backlash ensued — against his accuser.
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of four women in Nigeria’s 109-seat Senate, was suspended for six months without pay in February. She said the suspension was punishment for speaking out against GodswillAkpabio, the president of the Nigerian Senate.
Then, angry voters in her constituency in central Nigeria began campaigning to have her removed.
The ordeal has highlighted what women in Nigeria say is the sexism faced by female politicians in their country, and the risks of speaking out in a nation where few women hold political power.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and sub-Saharan Africa’s second largest economy, but it has the lowest representation of women in Parliament on the continent. It ranks in the bottom five globally.
Through a written response sent by a lawyer, Mr. Akpabio denied Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan’s accusations, and he declined an interview request, citing continuing legal proceedings.
“It’s a first at that level in Nigeria,” ObiageliEzekwesili, a former Nigerian minister of education, said of the accusation against such a high-ranking official. “But it’s a classic abuse of power, where a woman is denied the right to be heard out,” she added.
Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan, 45, who was elected in 2023, said that Mr. Akpabio made sexual advances in December of that year when she and her husband visited Mr. Akpabio’s home. Mr. Akpabio squeezed her hand and told her, “I will make an opportunity for us to come here and have a good moment,” she said.
Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan said that Mr. Akpabio later invited her to a hotel and made lewd remarks in the Senate building, including, “‘You can enjoy a lot of benefits if you make me happy.’”
In an interview with The New York Times, Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan said she kept rejecting the advances, but did not talk about them or file a legal complaint.
“The moment you speak out on sexual harassment, you’re guilty,” she said. Throughout her two senatorial campaigns in 2018 and 2022, Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan faced repeated online harassment and accusations that she was a prostitute. Such accusations are commonly leveled against women in Nigerian politics.
“We are made to bear it, to see it as part of life,” she added.
Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan said that last year, she began avoiding the Senate cafeteria and other areas of the building where she might run into Mr. Akpabio, just to escape his sexual advances.
In February, Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan said that her seat had been moved to a remote corner of the Senate without her consent, and that she was not told why. She came out with her accusations against Mr. Akpabio on Nigerian television later that month.
Days after she went public, the Senate’s ethics committee suspended Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months, accusing her of unruly behavior during a dispute over the new seating arrangement. It also dismissed a sexual harassment petition she filed against Mr. Akpabio, citing a rule that prohibits victims from filing their own complaints. (The petition must be filed by someone else on the victim’s behalf.)
Since the suspension, Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan has received no public support from her three female peers. Mr. Akpabio’s wife has filed a defamation lawsuit.
“Women are part of the same patronage system as men are in Nigerian politics,” said AyomideLadipo, a Nigerian analyst. “Speaking out against a powerful man with lots of resources and political clout makes you risk being blacklisted or victimized.”
Mr. Akpabio, 62, is a close ally of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president of Nigeria and leader of the governing All Progressives Congress. Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan is a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party.
Another female public official, Joy Nunieh, accused Mr. Akpabio of sexual harassment in 2020. Nigeria’s former vice president, AtikuAbubakar, an opponent of Mr. Akpabio, said he had a “habit of abusing women.”
Thousands of supporters rallied on Tuesday when Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan made an impromptu visit to her district in Kogi Central. But even in Kogi Central, nearly half of all registered voters signed a petition last week calling for her removal, just short of the 50 percent threshold needed to force her out.
No major political party has ever nominated a woman as a presidential candidate in Nigeria. The share of female lawmakers is under 10 percent, according to Invictus Africa, a nonprofit.
Other economic powerhouses on the continent have greater representation of women in politics. In Kenya, a quarter of lawmakers are women. That rate reaches 40 percent in Senegal, and nearly 50 percent in South Africa. Rwanda has the world’s highest rate of female lawmakers, at 61 percent.
All have implemented quota systems in some capacity. Nigeria has not.
“Men make you feel like sitting in the Senate is a privilege,” Ms. Akpoti-Uduaghan said. “I’ve earned my seat. A hostile environment to women sets our democracy back.”
Source: nytimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/05/world/africa/nigeria-sexual-harassment.html
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Sony Music West Africa to launch mentorship program for women
by Stuart Dredge
April 4, 2025
Last week saw Sony Music West Africa hold its two-day ‘In Her Element’ conference in Lagos, Nigeria, gathering women from all levels of the music industry for panels, networking and performances.
The event also saw the label reveal its plan for the next phase of ‘In Her Element’ – a mentorship program in partnership with Music Business Academy for Africa and Girls in Afrobeats.
20 aspiring female professionals will be matched with 10 mentors from West Africa and the UK. The scheme is open to people aged 18-30 who are students, early-career professionals or creatives who want to break into the music industry. An online application form can be found here.
Last year, Girls in Afrobeats published a ‘Gender Dynamics in Afrobeats‘ report with TurnTable Charts, surveying people on women’s representation in Afrobeats music, as well as in leadership roles within the industry around it.
The new mentorship scheme – and the ‘In Her Element’ event – continued the work to put those lessons into practice within the industry.
“Women in entertainment need platforms, access, and the right rooms to step into. In Her
Element proved that when those doors open, there’s no limit to what’s possible,” said OmololaIge, head of marketing for Sony Music West Africa.
“Our goal at Sony Music is to see more women taking up leadership positions in music and entertainment. That means investing in their growth: supporting them to get advanced degrees, professional certifications, and the right training to be the strongest and smartest in every room.”
“This initiative is more than just a moment; it’s a movement,” she added. “We look forward to continuing it every year.”
Source: musically.com
https://musically.com/2025/04/04/sony-music-west-africa-to-launch-mentorship-program-for-women/
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All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board backs Waqf Amendment Bill
Apr 5, 2025
All India Muslim Women Personal Law Board has expressed its support for the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, which has been passed by Parliament, and urged the government to bring transparency in the working of Waqf board and ensure rights to women.
Shaista Amber, President of All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board, said earlier governments and religious leaders should have taken the step that the government has taken today.
“Positive work should be done. Those who donate to the Waqf, their intention is that their donation will be used for the poor… But it was not happening. It’s not that all the Waqf lands were misused, but the Waqf board didn’t work honestly and did not do what they should have. We expect and request from the government that if the bill has come, the Waqf lands be used for the poor section with full transparency. None of the govt to date worked for the Muslims, and they just did the politics for votes,” she told ANI.
Shaista Amber said that the enchroached Waqf lands should be freed.
“We request the BJP government to provide the rights of women and bring transparency to the Waqf board. What other parties did till now, were they asleep? I request the current government that whatever happened to date, they should now help free the lands of Waqf, which have been illegally encroached, an investigation must be done, and action must be taken against the culprits,” she said.
She suggested that houses should be built on Waqf property for divorced women from Muslim community.
She met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2017 and had demanded that Waqf properties should be freed from illegal occupation.
Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2025, was passed by Parliament earlier this week. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha witnessed marathon debates on the bill. The bill was opposed by parties in the INDIA bloc.
Source: thenewsmill.com
https://thenewsmill.com/2025/04/all-india-muslim-women-personal-law-board-backs-waqf-amendment-bill/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/reporter-resign-wearing-hijab-forced/d/135069