Saudi Arabian Women’s Football Team To Play First Ever Match At Home
25 September 2022
• Saudi Arabian Women’s Football Team To Play First
Ever Match At Home
• Pakistani Women MPs, Activists Condemn ‘Brutal
Killing’ Of Iranian Woman, Mahsa Amini, In Police Custody
• Community Of Adidas Runners Bids To Empower Riyadh Women
• Two Hindu Teenage Girls, Woman Abducted And Forcibly
Converted To Islam In Pakistan
• Pakistani Journalist’s Son Bludgeons His Canadian
National Wife To Death With A Dumbbell, Pakistanis Seek #JusticeForSara
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-arabian-women-football/d/128029
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Saudi Arabian Women’s Football Team To Play First Ever
Match At Home
Saudi Arabia's women's national football team – the
Green Falcons – will compete in their first two home matches against Bhutan on
September 24 and 28 in the south-western city of Abha. Photos: Saudi Arabia
Football Federation
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By Team KT
24 Sep 2022
In another first for women’s sport in Saudi Arabia,
the country’s women’s national team, also known as the 'Green Falcons,' will
make their home debut with two fixtures against Bhutan.
The Green Falcons opening matches saw them play the
Seychelles and Maldives at the National Stadium in Maldives’ capital Malé in
February 2022, with both contests finishing as 2-0 victories.
The fixtures will take place at the Prince Sultan
Stadium in Abha and are the latest chapter in the women’s transformative sport
journey in Saudi Arabia.
As part of Vision 2030, the country is aiming to
inspire participation and interest at all levels of women’s sport. Thanks to
unprecedented investment, female participation in sports in the Kingdom is up
150% over the last four years, and 195,000 girls aged between 5-15 are
currently playing sports on a weekly basis.
As the number one sport in the country, women’s
football is one of the seven key strategic priorities for the Saudi Arabian
Football Federation. The Federation has ambitious plans to grow interest and
participation at all levels of the women’s game, with unprecedented investments
in areas such as grassroots, player development, coaching, facilities,
competitions and governance. The ultimate plan is to provide new opportunities
by launching multiple new regional training centres welcoming over 1,000 girls
in every corner of the Kingdom. Today, there are almost 450 registered female
players, 49 qualified referees and over 800 D, C and B licensed coaches in the
Kingdom.
The country appointed its first ever women’s coach
last year, the highly respected Monika Staab and, following the successful
launch of the first regional women’s football league last year which welcomed
16 teams, next month will see the introduction of a new 8-team Premier League
launch. The competition has now rebranded to the First Division Women’s League
and will see 17 teams compete across three cities, taking the total number to a
record 25 clubs across the two divisions.
Earlier this summer, the country also successfully
staged the West Asian Football Federation 3rd Women’s Futsal Championship in
Jeddah, with the hosts finishing with a silver medal. In another landmark
moment, the federation announced an intention to host the 2026 Women’s AFC
Asian Cup, with growing the grassroots of the women’s game in Saudi Arabia and
across the continent central to the bid.
Commenting on the national team’s opening home
fixtures, SAFF’s President Yasser Al Misehal said: “Win, lose or draw, these
home matches are a historic moment in the transformative journey that women’s
football is on in Saudi Arabia. Following an unbeaten opening two games against
the Seychelles and Maldives, this is a landmark moment for the women’s game and
is a first opportunity to play on home turf and in front of friends and family.
As well as developing and improving on-pitch, the team’s impact is being felt
by the number of women and girls throughout the country, who are being inspired
to play and follow football.”
German head coach Monika Staab added: “After the
historic opening matches for our country’s women’s team, these fixtures give
our players the chance to play on their home soil for the first time ever. As a
team, we continue to improve and get better while as a sport, we’re making huge
progress at all levels and are proudly making history together. We look forward
to these testing fixtures against Bhutan and I am sure the whole squad will
cherish this special moment forever.”
Source: khaleej Times
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Pakistani Women MPs, Activists Condemn ‘Brutal
Killing’ Of Iranian Woman, Mahsa Amini, In Police Custody
Women hold up signs depicting te image of 22-year-old
Mahsa Amini, who died while in the custody of Iranian authorities, during a
demonstration denouncing her death outside the UN offices in Arbil on September
24, 2022. (AFP)
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Buraq Shabbir
September 24, 2022
KARACHI: Leading Pakistani women politicians and
rights activists on Saturday joined the growing global outcry over the death of
Iranian Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being detained by Iran’s
so-called morality police for disobeying the country’s strict dress code.
At least 35 people have been killed during widespread
protests across Iran in the past week, according to Iranian state media, amid
mounting anger over allegations that Amini, 22, was the victim of police
brutality.
Amini was arrested in Tehran on Sept. 13 for allegedly
wearing a hijab in an “improper” manner. She was taken to a detention center
where she collapsed shortly afterwards.
In Iran, women are required to follow a strict dress
code which includes wearing a headscarf over their heads and putting on long,
loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. The laws are based on Iran’s
interpretation of Islamic law.
In several clips that have gone viral on social media,
women can be seen cutting their hair publicly and burning headscarves, an open
challenge to Iranian authorities.
Protesters are demanding an end to what they say is
police brutality, as well as moral policing, and say that women should have the
right to dress as they please.
Pakistani women politicians reacted angrily to Amini’s
death, calling for an impartial investigation into the case and demanding more
freedom for women in Iran.
“It’s really sad and if what is being reported is
true, it’s a shocking and blatant violation of fundamental rights,” Shazia
Marri, Pakistan’s federal minister for poverty alleviation, told Arab News on
Saturday.
Iranian police said that Amini’s death was caused by a
heart attack, and denied reports that officers had struck her with a baton and
banged her head against one of their vehicles.
Sharmila Sahibah Faruqui, a lawmaker of Pakistan’s
provincial Sindh Assembly, told Arab News that it is “heartbreaking to see how
Mahsa Amini was brutally killed by law enforcement authorities for not wearing
a hijab.”
Sehar Kamran, a former Pakistani senator, said that
“Iran must ensure that a few individuals do not smear the name of law and
Islam, and should bring the culprits to justice.”
Anis Haroon, a member of the Women’s Action Forum in
Pakistan, said that women’s rights have suffered in Iran due to compulsory
dress codes, segregation and torture by the morality police.
“The role of the morality police should end,” she
said. “The state has no right to intervene in the private lives of people.
Women of Iran should be allowed to live like free human beings under the rights
granted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she said.
Nighat Dad, a leading lawyer who runs the Digital
Rights Foundation — a think tank tackling digital rights through a gender lens
— said that Amini’s death has sparked resistance, “which the regime won’t be
able to stop now.”
She told Arab News that men supporting these protests
is a “testament to what the people of Iran basically want from the regime now.”
“And it is actually their own choice. When we say ‘my
body, my choice’ in Pakistan, that is exactly what we mean — that we should
have control over our body, not other people controlling it,” she added.
She said that the Iranian state’s warnings to citizens
and an Internet blackout are “ominous signs that reflect the intention of the
totalitarian regime to use more brutal force against the protesters.”
Nayab Gohar Jan, a Pakistan People’s Party activist,
told Arab News that it is time for Iran to have serious conversations about
women’s rights.
“Given the scale of protests across the country, it
may also be time for Iranian authorities to open up dialogue on these issues,”
she said.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2168836/world
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Community of Adidas Runners bids to empower Riyadh
women
NADA ALTURKI
September 24, 2022
RIYADH: As the sounds of Fajr (early morning) prayers
are heard in Riyadh, the sun still submissive to the night sky, you will find a
group of women around Wadi Hanifa every Wednesday, pounding a path for anywhere
between 4 and 8 km.
Adidas Runners is an international community of
joggers and runners that brings together people from various walks of life,
uniting them with the goal of becoming a better version of themselves.
The runners see the 4 a.m. wake-up call as a small
price to pay for the experience, given the health benefits and friendships it
brings them.
Asma Azhari, 31, has never considered herself the
consistent athletic type. From mindful yoga to swimming sessions and breezy
bike rides, she wanted to try it all and never committed to just one
discipline. Only in June 2021 did she discover the Adidas Runners community.
“I felt like dying,” she said. “It was my first run
and I thought, ‘I am not cut out for this sport.’ But after a few months I
tried again, and committed even though it was way out of my comfort zone. And
here I am now, a runner,” she told Arab News.
While she began her journey barely completing the 4K
run, Azhari is now training for her first 21K trail race. She aims to
participate in a full international marathon next year.
What kept her coming back every week was the community
surrounding the running group. She said: “The people, the spirit, the energy,
the commitment that everybody shows every single morning before sunrise, and of
course the love and support everyone is getting, all of these aspects helped to
get me into running. I’m loving it.”
On a personal level, running has benefited her by
laying the groundwork for discipline in many aspects of her life, including
work and family. It has also done much for her physical and mental health.
“Sports should be accessible for everyone regardless of gender, age and
ethnicity,” she said.
Another member, Hadeel Ashour, told Arab News: “I
don’t think that if I started off running on my own in public, I would be as
motivated and persistent in the sport as I am today.”
Ashour, 23, had been physically active for years, but
a year on from discovering Adidas Runners, she has found that her training
helps to complement her participation in CrossFit (interval training) and
cycling.
She said: “I generally love outdoor sports and
activities that give me a sense of community. Running for me was a beautiful
combination of both these things.”
While the health benefits of running are plenty,
including better sleep and eating habits, Ashour emphasized the mental profits
of the exercise.
She added: “I started running in a stage of my life
when I was most vulnerable and unconfident. Running has liberated me from these
negative feelings and restored my confidence in myself.”
The group is working toward creating the first-ever
women’s training program to run a 5K, starting on Oct. 22 and free to all women
in Riyadh.
She said: “My goal now is training to run the 20K
distance in the Tuwaiq Hope Trail Race in November. In the far future, I hope
to run full marathons and ultra-marathons both locally and internationally, and
aid in expanding the community in Riyadh.”
She added: “I had the pleasure to meet strong and
influential fellow runners who never failed to push me forward and explore my
limits.
“Though the number of women runners is not that big,
the presence and persistence of the few makes a big difference. We women are
unstoppable when we run together.”
Club member Nourah Alshehri, 38, told Arab News: “I’m
ecstatic for all the wonderful positive transformations in my country and the
justice that women have obtained in various fields.
“I am very fortunate to have experienced fair
regulations and laws that guarantee freedom for everyone without harming anyone
or anything."
The first-ever women’s-only race will take place on
Dec. 24 in pursuit of creating a safe and healthy running culture for all in
Riyadh.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2168756/saudi-arabia
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Two Hindu Teenage Girls, Woman Abducted And Forcibly
Converted To Islam In Pakistan
by Lingamgunta Nirmitha Rao
Sep 24, 2022
A woman and two teenage girls belonging to the Hindu
community have been kidnapped with two of them forcibly converted to Islam and
married to Muslim men in Pakistan’s Sindh province, the latest in a string of
such atrocities committed against members of the minority community.
Meena Meghwar, 14, was abducted from the Nasarpur area
and another teenage Hindu girl was kidnapped while returning home from the
market in Mirpurkhas town, police said.
In the third instance, a married Hindu woman with
three children went missing from Mirpurkhas and later showed up after allegedly
converting to Islam and marrying a Muslim man.
In the last case, police have refused to register an
FIR on the complaint of the woman’s husband Ravi Kurmi who says she was
forcibly abducted and converted to Islam by their neighbour Ahmed Chandio who
used to harass her wife.
The abduction and forcible conversion of young Hindu
girls have become a major problem in the interior of Sindh province which has a
large Hindu population in Thar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Ghotki and Khairpur areas.
Most of the Hindu community members are labourers.
In June this year, teenage Hindu girl Kareena Kumari
told a court here that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married to a
Muslim man.
In March this year, three Hindu girls – Satran Oad,
Kaveeta Bheel and Anita Bheel – were abducted, converted to Islam and married
to Muslim men within eight days.
In another case on March 21, Pooja Kumari was brutally
shot dead outside her home in Rohri, Sukkur. Apparently, a Pakistani man wanted
to marry her but she refused and he and two of his accomplices opened fire on
her a few days later.
On July 16, 2019, the issue of abducting and forcibly
converting Hindu girls in various districts of Sindh province was taken up in
the Sindh Assembly, where a resolution was debated and unanimously passed after
it was modified over objections of certain lawmakers that it should not be
restricted to Hindu girls only.
But the bill which criminalised forcible religious
conversions was later rejected in the assembly. A similar bill was again
proposed but rejected last year.
Source: Hindustan Times
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Pakistani Journalist’s Son Bludgeons His Canadian
National Wife To Death With A Dumbbell, Pakistanis Seek #JusticeForSara
25 September, 2022
Op India Staff
On Friday (September 23) morning, the son of a
renowned Pakistani journalist killed his wife of 3 months in Shahzad Town of
Islamabad in Pakistan.
As per reports, the accused was identified as
Shahnawaz Amir. He is the son of renowned Pakistani journalist Ayaz Amir and
his wife Sameena Shah. Shahnawaz had married the victim, identified as a
Canadian national Sara Inam, about three months ago. She worked in Abu Dhabi
but moved to Islamabad at the insistence of Shahnawaz’s parents.
A day before the brutal murder, Sara had a fight with
the accused after the latter changed the ownership of her Mercedes car to his
name without her knowledge. On Friday morning, they fought again over the same
issue and an angry Shahnawaz then bludgeoned her to death.
Reportedly, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the
Shahzad Town police station, Nawazish Ali Khan, was informed by the accused’s
mother about the gruesome killing of Sara Inam. On receiving information, he
rushed to the farmhouse with a team of police officials.
The cops detained Shahnawaz, whose hands were said to
be soaked in blood. As per reports, the accused confessed to killing his wife
with a dumbbell and hiding her dead body in the bathtub of his bathroom.
The police recovered the body of the deceased, besides
the murder weapon that was hidden under the bed. Sara’s body was sent to the
Polyclinic Hospital in Islamabad for autopsy.
On Saturday (September 24), a local court in Islamabad
issued warrants for the arrest of Shahnawaz Amir’s parents. The court had also
remanded the accused to 2-day police custody.
However, the police had initially sought 10 days
remand of Shahnawaz. They also sought custody of his parents under the belief
that they could influence the probe in the case. According to a police
official, the duo went into hiding after the issuance of the arrest warrant.
The police official confirmed that efforts were underway to nab them at the
earliest.
The incident sparked a massive social media outrage,
with celebrities and influencers speaking out about the plight of women in the
Islamic republic.
Artist Muniba Mazari wrote, “Another day. Another
life. Another hashtag. This society has raised monsters & this ongoing
vicious cycle of violence & terror seems never-ending. While Noor Muqaddam
still awaits justice, we’ve lost Sara, another soul, another human killed by
her own husband! #JusticeForSara”
Feminist Maheen Ghani questioned the deafening silence
on the murder of Sarah Inam. “Is it because he’s Ayaz Amir’s son?
#JusticeforSara”, she asked.
“We haven’t yet gotten justice for Noor Muqaddam and
#JusticeforSara is trending. How many hashtags is it going to take as the dead
bodies of brutally murdered Pakistani women pile up? Justice through hashtag
isn’t working. Systemic rot is delaying justice. Take a look at that,” wrote
journalist Saba Eitizaz.
Journalist Asma Ali Zain pointed out, “We believe that
when a woman is educated and financially independent, it becomes easier to walk
away from toxic relations. But neither could Noor do that nor Sarah. Toxic men
just don’t stop until a woman stops existing. #JusticeforSara”
Journalist Hamza Azhar Salam pointed out the political
connection between Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and murder accused
Shahnawaz Amir.
“Unfortunate that most PTI leaders are not condemning
Ayaz Amir’s son for murdering his wife just because the father-son duo enjoy a
close relationship with Imran Khan. Ayaz Amir once sought a PMLN ticket for his
son but it was rejected by the party,” he emphasised.
Earlier, the high-profile murder case of Noor Mukadam
had generated shockwaves across Pakistan. The 27-year-old woman was killed on
the night of July 20 by her boyfriend Zahir Jaffar.
Mukadam was the daughter of former Pakistani diplomat
to South Korea and Kazakhstan, Shaukat Ali Mukadam. She was shot then stabbed
and mercilessly beheaded with a sharp weapon by Jaffar. The accused is the son
of the chief executive officer of a leading construction company in Islamabad.
Reports suggested that Jaffar had brutally murdered
the victim after she broke up with him. He could not handle the refusal and
killed her. He was arrested on the spot and taken to the police station.
Source: Op India
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-arabian-women-football/d/128029