UP Samajwadi Party Chief's Letter To Election Commission Seeks ‘Ban’ On Removing Burqas Of Women Voters
New Age Islam News Bureau
20 Nov2024
· UP Samajwadi Party Chief's Letter To Election Commission Seeks ‘Ban’ On Removing Burqas Of Women Voters
· Why Does It Matter What We Call the Oppression of Afghan Women?
· Afghan girl, who protested oppressive rules against women, wins children’s peace prize
· Iran says woman detained after undressing released without charge
· Phone doc details Afghan women's struggle
· Afghan woman teacher, jailed Tajik lawyer share top rights prize
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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UP Samajwadi Party Chief's Letter To Election Commission Seeks ‘Ban’ On Removing Burqas Of Women Voters
November 19, 2024
NEW DELHI: A missive by Samajwadi Party (SP) Uttar Pradesh chief Shyam Lal Pal to the Election Commission (EC) regarding Muslim women voters has sparked off a major controversy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing it of communalising and vitiating the electoral atmosphere in final hours ahead of state Assembly by-polls slated for November 20.
BJP called it a fresh attempt to polarise the minority community and said that their gameplan stands exposed now while RJD sought to put the ball in PM’s court.
Shyam Lal Pal, the SP UP chief in his letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Tuesday, urged that the poll panel should issue directions to its officers and police personnel that they won’t remove Muslim women’s burqas for identity verification during voting.
The issue triggered reactions from political leaders.
BJP’s Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi stated that this was merely a move to divide the community on religious lines.
“This is what you will hear when fake voters and pseudo secular voices will be exposed,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, RJD MP ManojJha chose to skirt direct answers on the controversia letter and said that it was incumbent on the Prime Minister to take a call.
“It is happening in every part of the country. A lot depends on PM Modi as to how he wants to build this country. It is sad to see such differentiation taking place. As a PM of our country, he should treat everyone equally,” Jha said.
Pal’s letter, addressed to the Election Commission, demands that a directive be issued to Returning Officers, District Magistrates, and law enforcement officers, emphasising that ‘no police official have the authority to verify voter IDs of burqa-clad women’.
The SP leader highlighted a worrying incident from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where Muslim women voters, particularly those supporting SP, were allegedly forced to remove their veils by police officers. This, Pal claims, instilled fear among voters, discouraging many from casting their ballots and potentially affecting voter turnout.
“Many SP supporters, especially Muslim women, left polling stations without voting due to the discomfort and intimidation they faced,” he wrote.
The letter comes ahead of the November 20 by-elections, when nine seats of Uttar Pradesh including Meerapur, Kundarki, and Ghaziabad will go to the polls. –IANS
Source:muslimmirror.com
https://muslimmirror.com/letter-to-ec-seeks-ban-on-removing-burqas-of-women-voters/
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Why Does It Matter What We Call the Oppression of Afghan Women?
By NazilaJamshidi
November 20, 2024
DepositPhotos
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Recently, the Taliban in Afghanistan forbade Afghan women from praying loudly or reciting the Quran in front of other women, following the introduction of terrifying yet unsurprising new “vice and virtue” laws requiring women to cover their entire bodies, including their faces, whenever they are in public. The Taliban claim that women’s voices alone could inspire men and grown women to sin. So, the Taliban also decreed that women should not speak, sing, or recite anything aloud in public.
Afghan women feel that the world has turned a blind eye as the Taliban have gradually reduced them to prisoners in their own homes.
Many diplomats and foreign analysts speculated that the Taliban would soften their harsh rule in exchange for aid and international recognition. We Afghan women knew better. Many of us warned the world that withholding recognition alone is not enough to change the Taliban’s policies on women. The new laws clearly demonstrate the Taliban’s intent to establish a gender apartheid, a society in which the regime systematically segregates and excludes women from public life.
I was born in Herat, a city in Afghanistan known for its art and poetry. I spent my childhood as a refugee in Iran, a country known for restricting women’s freedom, but it was still far better than the harsh Taliban rule of the 1990s. When I returned to Afghanistan as a young woman after the U.S. invasion, I had no prior experience of freedom. I worked as a teacher and community organizer, traveling across 27 provinces. I had the right to stand up against male family members in a court of law, a first in my family.
The tangible changes brought about by U.S. engagement in Afghanistan were evident in every province I visited and in the lives of women there. While many women remained trapped by cultural norms, for the first time in decades, we could imagine a different future.
That hope was shattered three years ago when everything we’d gained vanished overnight.
I am part of a campaign, End Gender Apartheid, supported by hundreds of prominent jurists, public figures, academics, civil society leaders, and activists. The campaign aims to include gender apartheid in the U.N.’s crimes against humanity treaty and to ensure international leaders call the Taliban’s actions what they are. This initiative emerged from the collective frustration of Afghan women and allies worldwide, recognizing that without explicit legal recognition of these atrocities, accountability would remain elusive. Our goal is to build a robust coalition that pressures governments and international bodies to act decisively in defense of Afghan women.
What Afghan women face is not just misogyny. It is systematic oppression from the top down – a characteristic of apartheid – that goes beyond the inequalities most societies are still striving to overcome. By establishing a gender apartheid regime, the Taliban’s actions meet the legal criteria for crimes against humanity: a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population with intent to marginalize and exclude a group (in this case, women) entirely from society. This legal framing aligns with precedents set by international law, ensuring that such actions are condemned and punished appropriately.
This isn’t just theory or academic talk; it’s the real, ongoing oppression of women happening right now in our lifetime. We are recording all the decrees and restrictions that the Taliban are imposing on women and making this information accessible to advocates and human rights defenders worldwide. We have trained hundreds of Afghan advocates and civil society leaders on the legal and technical aspects of the campaign. This work is being done in our personal capacities, not as a formal job that pays the bills. It is the most grassroots campaign I have ever seen among Afghans.
Some may question why terminology matters. What leaders call the situation in Afghanistan won’t instantly change the reality for women there. Even with labeling the Taliban’s actions as a crime against humanity, the international community won’t enforce rights in a country they’ve abandoned. But calling oppression what it is is the first step to resisting it. Real change can’t occur in a fog of denial and disinformation. Afghan women can’t speak their truth, so we must do it for them.
This is personal to us. Today, many women across the world live better lives than their mothers and grandmothers. Women in many places are often financially independent and have the freedom to make their own choices regarding romance and reproduction, freeing them from dependence on men. In more traditional societies, women still face some restrictions, but they still enjoy far more freedoms than their grandmothers could have imagined. This trend holds true almost everywhere – except for Afghan women. My generation was supposed to experience something different. Instead, we’ve traveled backward in time.
Today, I still have a better life than my mother and grandmother, but this privilege came at the cost of leaving Afghanistan and becoming an American. Afghan women in the diaspora often experience a form of “survivor’s guilt” for the women we left behind, and so we have no choice but to be their voice in the face of an indifferent world.
What we want is for the cruelty being endured by women and girls in Afghanistan to be called what it actually is: gender apartheid, and a crime against humanity.
Source:thediplomat.com
https://thediplomat.com/2024/11/why-does-it-matter-what-we-call-the-oppression-of-afghan-women/
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Afghan girl, who protested oppressive rules against women, wins children’s peace prize
November 20, 2024
Nila fled Afghanistan with the help of 30 Birds Foundation along with her family to Pakistan. Thereafter, she left for Canada where she continues to advocate for Afghan girls. (Image: KidsRights.org)
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A 17-year-old girl, NilaIbrahimi who has been barred from speaking in her own country, Afghanistan, has won the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize for advocating for the rights of girls in Kabul.
On Tuesday at a function in Amsterdam, Nila was honoured with the prize which has been previously awarded to Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg and Nkosi Johnson.
In Afghanistan, women have been silenced through various diktats and oppressive rules by the Taliban administration which came to power in 2021 after the US’ withdrawal from the country. Nila was awarded with the prize for her “courageous work to fight for the rights of girls” in Afghanistan.
Interacting with The Independent, Nila narrated her first steps as an activist and said “It was risky. It felt risky at the time, but maybe I didn’t grasp the whole idea of it, because I was just 13 or 14.”
Afghanistan girl nila wins peace prize On Tuesday at a function in Amsterdam, Nila was honoured with the prize which has been previously awarded to Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg and Nkosi Johnson. (Image: KidsRights.org)
She further said, “If women’s rights are suffering in one part of the world, the whole world will suffer in one way or another.”
In March 2021, around six months before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the Kabul Education Directorate banned girls over the age of 12 from singing in public. Nila protested the order and refused to stay silent. She recorded a protest song as part of the #IAmMySong movement and it went viral. The order was overturned within a few weeks.
“That was the first time that I thought, wow. Like if I do want it, if I do think this is the way I want to live, I can speak up and that can be accepted,” Nila said, as reported by CNN.
Nila fled Afghanistan with the help of 30 Birds Foundation along with her family to Pakistan. Thereafter, she left for Canada where she continues to advocate for Afghan girls.
Source:indianexpress.com
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/afghan-girl-wins-childrens-peace-prize-9678846/
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Iran says woman detained after undressing released without charge
Nov 19, 2024
Jacqueline Howard
An Iranian woman will not face charges after she stripped to her underwear in an apparent anti-hijab protest at a university in Tehran, Iranian authorities say.
Earlier in November, video went viral on social media capturing the moment the woman, named by BBC Persian as AhooDaryaei, undressed on a university campus before being forcibly detained.
A spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary said the woman had been treated in hospital and returned to her family.
Her detention drew international condemnation, with Amnesty International among those calling for her immediate and unconditional release.
"Considering that she was sent to the hospital, and it was found that she was ill, she was handed over to her family... and no judicial case has been filed against her," judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday.
A student movement organisation first published the video of the arrest, reporting that MsDaryaei had an altercation with security agents over not wearing a headscarf, leading to her undressing during the scuffle.
Iranian authorities at the time said MsDaryaei was "sick" and had been taken to a psychiatric ward.
It is not the first time Iranian authorities have branded a woman protesting compulsory hijab laws with a mental illness.
Following MsDaryaei's arrest, Iranian activists on social media condemned what they said was a pattern of diagnosing women's right activists.
One woman, who fled Iran for Canada in 2018, said her family had been pressured by the Iranian regime to declare her mentally ill.
“My family didn’t do it, but many families under pressure do, thinking it’s the best way to protect their loved ones. This is how the Islamic Republic tries to discredit women, by questioning their mental health,” said AzamJangravi, who fled after being sentenced to three years in prison for removing her headscarf during a protest.
It became mandatory for women in Iran to cover their hair and dress modestly following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Two years ago, Kurdish woman MahsaAmini died in police custody after being detained for not wearing hijab “properly”.
More than 500 people were reportedly killed during months of nationwide protests that erupted in the aftermath of her death.
Source:bbc.com
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy42vxd99po
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Phone doc details Afghan women's struggle
November 20 2024
A rare inside account of the Taliban authorities' impact on Afghan women hits screens next week with the smartphone-filmed documentary "Bread & Roses."
Produced by actress Jennifer Lawrence and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, this feature-length film immerses the viewer in the daily struggles endured by half the population of Afghanistan since the withdrawal of U.S. troops paved the way for Taliban leaders to seize power.
"When Kabul fell in 2021 all women lost their very basic rights. They lost their rights to be educated, to work," Lawrence told AFP.
"Some of them were doctors and had high degrees, and then their lives were completely changed overnight."
The documentary, which debuted at Cannes in May 2023, was directed by exiled Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani, who reached out to a dozen women after the fall of Kabul.
She tutored them on how to film themselves with their phones, resulting in a moving depiction of the intertwined stories of three Afghan women.
"The restrictions are getting tighter and tighter right now," Mani told AFP on the film's Los Angeles red carpet. And hardly anyone outside the country seems to care, she said.
"The women of Afghanistan didn't receive the support they deserved from the international community."
The documentary captures the first year after the fall of Kabul, including moments of bravery when women speak out.
"You closed universities and schools, you might as well kill me!" a protester shouts at a man threatening her during a demonstration.
These gatherings of women under the slogan "Work, bread, education!" are methodically crushed by Taliban authorities.
Protesters are beaten, some are arrested, others kidnapped.
Slowly, the resistance fades, but it doesn't die: Some Afghan women are now trying to educate themselves through clandestine courses.
Three years after the Taliban fighters seized power from a hapless and corrupt civilian administration, no countries have officially recognized their new government.
For Mani, that rings alarm bells.
Giving up on defending the rights of Afghan women would be a serious mistake and one the West could come to regret, she said. "If we are paying the price today, you might pay the price tomorrow," she said.
Source:hurriyetdailynews.com
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/phone-doc-details-afghan-womens-struggle-202799
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Afghan woman teacher, jailed Tajik lawyer share top rights prize
Nov 19, 2024
An Afghan teacher and a jailed lawyer from Tajikistan on Tuesday won the Martin Ennals Award, one of the world's most prestigious rights prizes, with the jury hailing their "exceptional courage".
ZholiaParsi, a teacher from Kabul who began protesting for women's rights after the Taliban returned to power three years ago, shared the prize with lawyer ManuchehrKholiqnazarov, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in connection with his human rights work.
The chairman of the prize jury, Hans Thoolen, said the pair were "exceptional laureates" who had "paid too big a price for justice and equality to be respected in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and the international community must support their efforts instead of battling geostrategic interests in the region."
Parsi began her activism after losing her career and seeing her daughters deprived of their education in the wake of the Taliban takeover in August 2021.
She founded the Spontaneous Movement of Afghan Women (SMAW), which has mobilised communities in various provinces to resist the Taliban's policies and practices, the jury said.
Parsi had "displayed remarkable leadership and resilience in organising numerous public protests despite the risks involved," it added.
She was arrested in the street by armed Taliban in September 2023 and detained along with her son, it said, adding that she was only released "after three months of torture and ill-treatment... which further strengthened her resolve to resist Taliban oppression and repression."
Kholiqnazarov is a human rights lawyer belonging to the Pamiri ethnic group from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) region in eastern Tadjikistan.
He headed the Lawyers Association of Pamir, and lobbied among other things for minority rights and the incorporation of international human rights standards into domestic law and practice.
He played a key role in investigating the November 2021 death of youth leader GulbiddinZiyobekov.
That investigation turned up critical evidence indicating the young man may have been the victim of an extrajudicial execution, the jury's statement said.
It also pointed to unlawful use of force in the violent repression of the mass protest in the regional capital Khorog that followed Ziyobekov's death, resulting in two deaths, 17 people injured and hundreds detained, it added.
Kholiqnazarov himself was arrested on May 28, 2022 "amid a widespread crackdown on local informal leadership and residents of the GBAO", the prize jury said.
The Martin Ennals Award, named after the first secretary general of Amnesty International, was first given in 1994.
The jury comprises representatives from 10 leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.
The award ceremony will take place in Geneva on Thursday.
Source:al-monitor.com
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/11/afghan-woman-teacher-jailed-tajik-lawyer-share-top-rights-prize
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