Sameera Fazili and Aisha Shah, Two Kashmiri-Origin Women Named In US President-Elect Joe Biden Team
New
Age Islam News Bureau
17 January 2021
•
Sameera Fazili and Aisha Shah, Two Kashmiri-Origin Women Named In US
President-Elect Joe Biden Team
•
Skokie's Bushra Amiwala, 22, Youngest Muslim-Elected Official In U.S.
•
Harris To Be Sworn In By First Latina Justice Sotomayor At Inauguration
•
Gunmen Shoot Dead Two Women Supreme Court Judges In Kabul
•
Saudi Female Participation In Science Rising
•
13 women among 20 Indian-Americans roped in by Biden for key White House
positions. Take a look
•
Before He Stormed Capitol, Republican Lawmaker Harassed Women At Abortion
Clinic
Compiled By New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/sameera-fazili-aisha-shah-two/d/124088
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Sameera
Fazili and Aisha Shah, Two Kashmiri-Origin Women Named In US President-Elect
Joe Biden Team
Jan
17, 2021
Indian-American
women, Sameera Fazili and Aisha Shah, have been named in the team of US
President-elect Joe Biden
-----
Two
Indian-American women, Sameera Fazili and Aisha Shah, have been named in the
team of US President-elect Joe Biden so far. Kashmiri-origin Fazili's parents
wanted her to be a physician, but she was not quite in agreement. Fazili's
plans fructified on Friday when the Biden-Harris Transition named her as the
deputy director of the National Economic Council at the White House. The
council coordinates the economic policy-making process and provides advice to
the US president.
Fazili
is the second Kashmiri-origin Indian-American appointed to a key position in
the incoming Biden administration. Her appointment has sparked off jubilations
in her extended family in Srinagar. "We are very proud. Everybody in
Kashmir should be proud as it is a proud moment for the whole Kashmir,"
her uncle Rouf Fazili told PTI.
"It
is a great honour and respect for every one of us and a great occasion."
"She was not born here and her parents left the Valley in 1970-71, but she
has a strong affinity with Kashmir," Rouf Fazili said. "The last time
she visited the valley was in 2007."
Rouf
Fazili did not have the opportunity to speak to her niece as she was very busy
with US President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, which will take place on Wednesday.
"But, I spoke to the rest of the family and, obviously, they are very
happy!" he added. Another close family member said Sameera Fazili, whose
father is a surgeon and the mother is a pathologist, was a bright child and
brilliant in her studies. "Her parents wanted her to be a physician, but
she had other plans. Her inclination was towards public service," the
relative said.
Sameera
Fazili is a very active person who loves skiing, swimming, tennis and
travelling, the relative said, adding that she was very fond of Kashmiri
cuisine. She is currently the economic agency lead on the Biden-Harris
Transition and was earlier posted at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where
she served as the director of engagement for community and economic
development.
In
December, another Kashmiri-origin woman, Aisha Shah, was named as partnerships
manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy. In the Obama
administration, Sameera Fazili served as a senior policy advisor on the White
House's National Economic Council and as a senior advisor at the US Treasury
Department in both Domestic Finance and International Affairs.
Prior
to that, she was a clinical lecturer of law at Yale Law School. Originally from
Buffalo in New York, she now lives in Georgia with her husband and three
children. Sameera Fazili is a graduate of Yale Law School and Harvard College.
https://zeenews.india.com/india/two-kashmiri-origin-indian-american-women-sameera-fazili-aisha-shah-in-us-president-elect-joe-bidens-team-know-who-they-are-2336305.html
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Skokie's Bushra Amiwala, 22, youngest Muslim-elected official in U.S.
January
17, 2021
Bushra
Amiwala
------
The
youngest Muslim-elected official in the United States of America, Bushra
Amiwala, is advocating for young voices in politics.
First
running while in college, Amiwala's campaign received recognition from TIME
Magazine, Teen Vogue, and The New York Times.
She
was named Glamour Magazine's College Woman of the Year for her first campaign
though she lost.
She
decided to run again, passionate for public service and education, she kept
advocating for others in her community and won!
She
now serves on the Board of Education for Skokie School District 73.5 at just
22-years-old.
https://abc7chicago.com/localish/youngest-muslim-elected-us-official-lives-in-skokie/9689524/
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Kamala
Harris To Be Sworn In By First Latina Justice Sotomayor At Inauguration
By:
AP
January
17, 2021
Kamala
Harris
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Vice
President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia
Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South
Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first
Latina justice.
Harris
chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision.
She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to
Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.
Harris
has expressed admiration for both Sotomayor and Marshall. She and Sotomayor
share experience as prosecutors, and she once called Marshall _ like Harris, an
alumnus of Howard University one of her “greatest heroes.”
The
vice president-elect said in a video posted to Twitter that she viewed Marshall
as “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a lawyer,” calling him “a fighter”
in the courtroom.
And
this will be the second time Sotomayor takes part in an inauguration. She swore
in President-elect Joe Biden as vice president in 2013.
https://indianexpress.com/article/world/kamala-harris-to-be-sworn-in-by-first-latina-justice-sotomayor-at-inauguration-7149888/
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Gunmen
Shoot Dead Two Women Supreme Court Judges In Kabul
January
17, 2021
by
Taboola
Kabul:
Gunmen shot dead two Afghan women judges working for the Supreme Court during
an early morning ambush in the country's capital Sunday, officials said, as a
wave of assassinations continues to rattle the nation.
Violence
has surged across Afghanistan in recent months despite ongoing peace talks
between the Taliban and government -- especially in Kabul, where a new trend of
targeted killings aimed at high-profile figures has sown fear in the restive
city.
The
latest attack comes just two days after the Pentagon announced it had cut troop
levels in Afghanistan to 2,500, the fewest in nearly two decades.
The
attack on the judges happened as they were driving to their office in a court vehicle,
said Ahmad Fahim Qaweem, a spokesman for the Supreme Court.
Afghanistan's
Supreme Court was a target in February 2017 when a suicide bomb ripped through
a crowd of court employees, killing at least 20 and wounding 41.
In
recent months, several prominent Afghans -- including politicians, journalists,
activists, doctors and prosecutors -- have been assassinated in often brazen
daytime attacks in Kabul and other cities.
Afghan
officials have blamed the Taliban for the attacks, a charge the insurgent group
has denied.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/gunmen-shoot-dead-two-afghan-women-supreme-court-judges-in-kabul-2353711
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Saudi
female participation in science rising
RAWAN
RADWAN
January
16, 2021
JEDDAH:
In the past five years, Saudi women have taken great strides in scientific
fields and, with the support of the government, the best seems yet to come.
Saudi
women are now serving as leaders in their research fields, and many have gone
on to serve as deans, directors of research centers and more.
In
an interview with Al-Arabiya, Hind Al-Zahid, undersecretary for women’s
empowerment at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, said
that “the percentage of women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and
mathematics) is higher than men” in the Kingdom.
According
to a 2020 study published on statista.com about the gender distribution of 2018
STEM graduates in Saudi Arabia, Communications and IT is the most popular major
among female graduates.
Asrar
Damdam, founder and CEO of UVERA, is one of the many Saudi women who are not
only pursuing degrees in STEM but also working for the empowerment of women by
providing them with job opportunities.
She
told Arab News that she followed her passion and obtained a bachelor’s degree
in electrical and computer engineering followed by a master’s degree. “Now I am
a Ph.D. student at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. It
wasn’t an easy start but as soon as I entered the job market five years ago,
many companies were not only welcoming to women but many were searching for
them to join. Times have changed and you now see more women exploring their
options in various fields of science.”
With
her company based in Silicon Valley, she opened a syndicate in the Kingdom.
Damdam has found that her recent female recruits are passionate about their
work and are going through the learning curves required to excel in their
respective fields.
“Their
work ethics are exceptional and their passion is felt as they continue to
provide insight and finding innovative ways to reach the company’s goals,” she
said. “It’s because of their passion that they are able to contribute and it
wouldn’t have been achievable without the programs that provided me and the
many women in the fields of STEM with these opportunities.”
This
was reiterated by Al-Zahid, who spoke of Saudi Arabia’s eagerness to pursue
empowerment for women and to provide them with adequate positions fit for their
fields of expertise.
“The
numbers tell the story,” she said, adding that international markers have shown
the Kingdom’s pursuit in empowering women in the labor market is exceeding
expectations.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1793791/saudi-arabia
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13
women among 20 Indian-Americans roped in by Biden for key White House
positions. Take a look
PTI
January
17, 2021
US
President-elect Joe Biden has nominated at least 20 Indian-Americans, including
13 women, to key positions in his incoming administration, a record for the
small ethnic community that constitutes one per cent of America's population.
As many as 17 of them, including Neera Tanden who has been nominated as the
Director of Management and Budget, would be part of the Biden administration in
the powerful White House complex.
The
January 20th inauguration, the 59th in all, where Biden, 78, would be sworn in
as the 46th President of the United States is already historic in the making as
for the first time ever a woman, Kamala Harris, would be sworn as the
Vice-President of the country. Harris, 56, is also the first ever Indian-origin
and African-American to be sworn in as the Vice President of the United States.
It is also for the first time ever that so many Indian-Americans have been
roped into a presidential administration ever before the inauguration. Biden, a
Democrat, is still quite far away from filling all the positions in his
administration.
Topping
the list is Tanden, who has been nominated as Director of the White House
Office of Management and Budget and Dr Vivek Murthy, who has been nominated as
the US Surgeon General.
Vanita
Gupta has been nominated as Associate Attorney General Department of Justice,
and on Saturday, Biden nominated former foreign service official Uzra Zeya as
the Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights.
“The
dedication that the Indian-American community has shown to public service over
the years has been recognised in a big way at the very start of this
administration! I am particularly pleased that the overwhelming majority are
women. Our community has truly arrived in serving the nation,” Indiaspora
founder M R Rangaswami told PTI.
Mala
Adiga has been appointed as Policy Director to the future First Lady Dr Jill
Biden and Garima Verma would be the Digital Director of the Office of the First
Lady, while Sabrina Singh has been named as the White House Deputy Press
Secretary.
For
the first time, the Indian-Americans nominated for Biden administration include
two who trace their roots to Kashmir: Aisha Shah, who has been named as
Partnership Manager at the White House Office of Digital Strategy and Sameera
Fazili, who would occupy the key position of Deputy Director at the US National
Economic Council (NEC) in the White House.
White
House National Economic Council also has another Indian-American, Bharat
Ramamurti, as Deputy Director. Gautam Raghavan, who served at the White House
in the previous Obama administration returns to the White House as Deputy
Director in Office of Presidential Personnel.
Among
Biden’s inner circle is his top confidant for years Vinay Reddy, who has been
named as Director Speechwriting. Young Vedant Patel is all set to occupy a seat
in the White House lower press, behind the briefing room, as Assistant Press
Secretary to the President. He is only the third-ever Indian American to be
part of the White House press shop.
Three
Indian-Americans have made their way to the crucial National Security Council
of the White House, thus leaving a permanent imprint on the country’s foreign
policy and national security.
They
are Tarun Chhabra: Senior Director for Technology and National Security, Sumona
Guha, Senior Director for South Asia, Shanthi Kalathil: Coordinator for
Democracy and Human Rights.
Sonia
Aggarwal has been named Senior Advisor for Climate Policy and Innovation in the
Office of the Domestic Climate Policy at the White House and Vidur Sharma has
been appointed as Policy Advisor for Testing for the White House COVID-19
Response Team.
Two
Indian-American women have been appointed to the Office of the White House
Counsel: Neha Gupta as Associate Counsel and Reema Shah as Deputy Associate
Counsel.
Also,
for the first time in any administration, the White House would have three
other South Asians in key positions -- Pakistani-American Ali Zaidi as Deputy
National Climate Advisor White House; Sri Lankan American Rohini Kosoglu as
Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President and Bangladeshi-American Zayn
Siddique: Senior Advisor to the White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
“As
President, I'll also continue to rely on Indian-American diaspora that keeps
our two nations together, as I have throughout my career,” Biden had said in
his address to the Indian-American community during a virtual celebration of
India’s Independence Day on August 15, 2020.
“My
constituents in Delaware, my staff in the Senate, the Obama-Biden
administration, which had more Indian-Americans than any other administration
in the history of this country and this campaign with Indian Americans at
senior levels, which of course includes the top of the heap, our dear friend
(Harris) who will be the first Indian-American vice president in the history of
the United States of America,” Biden had said in his video address.
Biden
and Harris will be sworn in as President and Vice President of the United
States during a largely-virtual swearing-in ceremony on January 20.
But
it won't be a typical inauguration, for several reasons. The ongoing
coronavirus pandemic and fresh security concerns following a pro-Trump mob
breaching the Capitol last week have combined to force some major changes to
what is a historical American day.
https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/world/20-indian-americans-joe-biden-administration-us-white-house-top-positions-13-women-full-list-678695
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Before
he stormed Capitol, Republican lawmaker harassed women at abortion clinic
Samantha
Schmidt
17-01-2021
Derrick
Evans walked with his phone out in front of him, camera facing forward, as he
advanced on the patient in the abortion clinic parking lot. Surrounding the
car, clinic volunteers tried to shield the patient with umbrellas and their own
bodies. It was no use: on this February morning in 2019, Evans captured the
patient on Facebook live, streaming to tens of thousands of followers.
"You
will not do this in secret in West Virginia," Evans said. He wore a
"Make America Great Again" hat, as he did every week when he
protested outside the Women's Health Centre, the only abortion clinic left in
the state.
Evans
was a fixture at the clinic for much of 2019, with a reputation for harassment
so severe that the clinic erected a 10-foot fence to deter him. A volunteer
escort obtained a restraining order against him, accusing him of stalking her.
When Evans was around - often accompanied by dozens of supporters - women would
cry in the waiting room, said clinic patient Hunter Crites, afraid they'd be
identified and screamed at as soon as they stepped outside.
By
the time Evans stepped foot in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, he had amassed over
32,000 followers on Facebook - and enough votes in the 2020 election to win him
a seat in the West Virginia legislature. Everywhere he went - the abortion
clinic, Black Lives Matter protests, drag brunches - Evans brought along his
phone, and his following, doing what he could to shame and agitate the people
around him.
On
Jan. 6, those followers cheered him on as the state lawmaker joined a pro-Trump
mob pushing its way into the U.S. Capitol, chanting, "Who's house? Our
House!" Wearing a helmet, Evans told the viewers of his live stream that
he had been pepper-sprayed in the eye, but was marching forward anyway.
"We're
in!" he shouted on his Facebook Live as he walked into the Rotunda of the
revered building. "Derrick Evans is in the Capitol! Let's go!"
Days
later, Evans resigned from his office in the House of Delegates after he was
arrested and charged with two federal misdemeanours of unlawfully entering
restricted grounds and violent entry and disorderly conduct. Evans's arrest and
resignation, just weeks after he was sworn into office, punctuated a years-long
effort to build a brand as a confrontational local activist known for harassing
people he deemed as immoral or threatening. Usually, his targets were women or
people of colour.
Many
of the women who had been the subject of Evans's taunts were not surprised to
see him join the group storming the U.S. Capitol. For almost two years, staff
and volunteers at the abortion clinic urged police officers and legislators to
take Evans's behaviour seriously, said Jamie Miller, the clinic escort who was
granted the restraining order. Instead, he was voted into elected office.
Evans
did not respond to requests for comment, and his family members declined to be
interviewed. But John Bryan, a lawyer representing Evans, defended his client
as an "independent activist and journalist, who has long exercised his
constitutional rights to engage in peaceful protest."
"The
people that voted for him, they knew that they were getting a conservative
political activist," Bryan said in an interview with The Washington Post.
"His constituents knew about that and were supportive of that, or at least
a majority were."
Evans's
arrest came just days before he was set to begin his first session in the West
Virginia House of Delegates, after being elected in his second bid to claim a
spot in the legislature. After a failed attempt to run as a Democrat, Evans
campaigned as a Republican last year, focused on banning abortion, protecting
gun rights and attacking the transgender community.
A
married father of three children, with a fourth on the way, Evans previously
worked as a teacher with Wayne County schools and as an assistant football
coach at Tolsia High School. He was also a real estate investor and property
manager, according to local news reports during his campaign. But in the
community, he was known by the name associated with his Facebook profile:
"Derrick Evans - The Activist."
Before
Evans became her colleague in the legislature, state Del. Danielle Walker knew
him as the man who would stake out lawmakers at the Capitol and put a camera in
their faces, recording videos for his Facebook. Walker, a Black woman and a
Democrat, recalled a time when, a day after a gala for the American Civil
Liberties Union, Evans "just sat in his car and took pictures and videos
of us and posted it online, saying we're a threat to the country." On a different
day at the Capitol, "GOP Day" in 2019, Evans went up to Walker and
another Black delegate and "yelled the most disgusting things at us,"
she said.
"He
told us we didn't have a place in the state Capitol," Walker said, adding
that her oldest son was with her that day at the Capitol. "He told us to
go back where we came from."
Walker,
a queer woman and the mother of a gay son, has often been the subject of
Evans's Facebook posts. He has called her "satanic," she said, and
claimed her support of LGBTQ rights amounted to defending paedophilia. For the
last several months, in part due to attacks from Evans and others, she has
started wearing a bulletproof vest every time she leaves the house - at the
Capitol, at Walmart, at the salon. If her son rides in the passenger seat of
her car while she's driving, she said, he wears one, too.
At
the Women's Health Center, Evans targeted clinic staff and volunteers, calling
them "deathscorts" and "baby murderers." He knew everyone's
full names, said Katie Quinonez, the executive director of the Women's Health
Center - and would repeat them, again and again, on his live stream.
He
knew an unsettling number of personal details, Quinonez said. Once, when she
was helping a patient into her car, Evans sprinted toward her with his phone.
Standing so close that she could feel his spit on her face, she said, he yelled
her fiance's name and the name of his business. Then he promised to "eat a
cheeseburger" in her honour.
Clinic
staff and volunteers worried about their safety, said Stacy Kay, another clinic
escort. Many received threatening messages from Evans's followers - or found
pictures and memes of themselves floating around his Facebook group. Kay lived
only a short drive from the clinic, driving past it every day on her way to
work. She often worried that Evans or his followers might follow her home, she
said.
Evans's
confrontational behaviour at times extended beyond his activism. Reva
Sanders-Wallace was the principal of Tolsia High School when Evans worked with
the football team, and said Evans frequently yelled in her face.
"He
pretty much insisted he didn't have to listen to anything I had to say,"
Sanders-Wallace said. "I don't know where he developed that sense of
trying to demean women, but he did it consistently."
Sanders-Wallace
is an avid Trump supporter, but she disagreed with Evans's decision to storm
the Capitol. "I have no idea why he pushes every button to the
extreme," she said.
In
the hours and days after his arrest, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers
in the West Virginia House called for Evans's removal from office. One of them
was Del. Ben Queen, a 25-year-old Republican. He sees Evans as representing the
influence of President Trump on conservative men, many of whom use social media
to seek validation and energize supporters.
"I'm
sure that emotion led him into the Capitol," Queen said. "It's just a
shame that we have to use force and aggression to get our way."
"People
are donating thousands of dollars to him. There are some like-minded people that
feel he had every right to do that," said Walker, referring to Evans's
decision to storm the Capitol. "What else do they feel that he has a right
to do?"
Kay,
the clinic escort, has been thinking about the last time Evans faced legal
repercussions, in May 2019. The day after the judge granted Miller's
restraining order - requiring Evans to stay away from the clinic - a new group
of men showed up on the sidewalk.
They
carried pistols and rifles, Kay said, wearing hats and T-shirts that read,
"Oath Keepers," a designated hate group.
"It
was definitely to make a statement," she said.
Miller's
restraining order expired on 31 December.
The
clinic staff and volunteers aren't sure what to expect, Miller said. Evans
could be back outside the clinic any day.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/capitol-siege-derrick-evans-trump-maga-b1788368.html
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