First For Saudi As Domestic Flight Takes Off With All-Female Crew
22 May 2022
•
First For Saudi As Domestic Flight Takes Off With All-Female Crew
•
Women TV Presenters Defy Taliban Order To Cover Faces On Air
•
Phone Kiosks For Female Worshippers Installed In Mecca Grand Mosque
•
Muslim Women Canvass Support For Bola Tinubu’s Presidential Ambition
•
Imran Khan Owes Apology Not Just To Maryam But To All Women: Pak Rights Group
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-flight-female-crew/d/127061
--------
First
For Saudi As Domestic Flight Takes Off With All-Female Crew
The number of Saudi female pilots has grown
recently. (Supplied)
-----
Nada
Hameed
May
21, 2022
JEDDAH:
Saudi low-cost airline Flyadeal have announced the first domestic flight in the
Kingdom with a fully female crew, most of them Saudis.
The
announcement was made on the airline’s official Twitter account @flyadeal on
Friday: “For the first time in Saudi aviation history! #flyadeal operated the
first flight with an all-female crew, the majority of which are Saudis by the
newest A320 aircraft. Flight 117, flew from #Riyadh to #Jeddah”
Saudi
women have proved themselves in many careers that men dominated for a long time
including aviation-related positions.
Flight
117, with a crew of seven, was co-piloted by Yara Jan, 23, who is also the
youngest Saudi female pilot.
Jan
told Arab News that she was extremely proud to be taking part in such a
historic moment in aviation for Saudi women.
“As
a Saudi woman trying to lead my country with a proud step it was a moment of
pride and joy.”
Jan
graduated from flight school in Florida, US, in 2019, and joined Flyadeal a
year ago.
She
said that being the co-pilot means assisting the pilot in many key role tasks
such as navigation and completing many checklists.
Jan
is aware of how important this is for young Saudi women.
“Although
being a Saudi woman pilot is new, it is not impossible for our generation,
especially with the backing that we are receiving from our beloved country and
our respected leaders, who have supported me a lot to become the youngest
female pilot in a Saudi airline. I will always be pleased to have the chance to
make a positive change.”
The
number of Saudi female pilots has grown recently. Three names stand out: Hanadi
Zakaria Al-Hindi, the first female pilot to fly with a Saudi commercial pilot
license; Rawia Al-Rifi the first to fly an Airbus A320 internationally as a
civil aircraft from the UAE; and co-pilot Yasmin Al-Maimani, who was the first
woman to co-pilot a commercial plane in the Kingdom.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2086611/saudi-arabia
-----
Women
TV Presenters Defy Taliban Order To Cover Faces On Air
FILE - Basira Joya, 20, presenter of the news
program sits during recording at the Zan TV station (women’s TV) in Kabul,
Afghanistan, May 30, 2017. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers ordered all female
presenters on TV channels to cover their faces on air, the country’s biggest
media outlet said on May 19, 2022. | Photo Credit: AP
----
AFP
May
21, 2022
KABUL:
Women presenters on Afghanistan’s leading TV channels went on air Saturday
without covering their faces, defying a Taliban order that they conceal their
appearance to comply with the group’s austere brand of Islam.
Since
surging back to power last year the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions
on civil society, many focused on reining in the rights of women and girls.
Earlier
this month Afghanistan’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat
for women to cover up fully in public, including their faces, ideally with the
traditional burqa.
The
feared Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice ordered women TV
presenters to follow suit by Saturday.
Previously
they had only been required to wear a headscarf.
But
broadcasters TOLOnews, Shamshad TV and 1TV all aired live programs Saturday
with women presenters’ faces visible.
“Our
female colleagues are concerned that if they cover their faces, the next thing
they will be told is to stop working,” said Shamshad TV head of news Abid
Ehsas.
“This
is the reason they have not observed the order so far,” he told AFP, adding the
channel had requested further discussions with the Taliban on the issue.
Taliban
orders such as this have caused many female journalists to leave Afghanistan
since the hard-line Islamists stormed back to power, a woman presenter said.
“Their
latest order has broken the hearts of women presenters and many now think they
have no future in this country,” she said, requesting not to be named.
“I’m
thinking of leaving the country. Decrees like this will force many
professionals to leave.”
Mohammad
Sadeq Akif MoHajjir, spokesman for the vice ministry, said the women presenters
were violating the Taliban directive.
“If
they don’t comply we will talk to the managers and guardians of the
presenters,” he told AFP.
“Anyone
who lives under a particular system and government has to obey the laws and
orders of that system, so they must implement the order,” he said.
The
Taliban have demanded that women government employees be fired if they fail to
follow the new dress code.
Men
working in government also risk suspension if their wives or daughters fail to
comply.
MoHajjir
said media managers and the male guardians of defiant women presenters would
also be liable for penalties if the order was not observed.
During
two decades of US-led military intervention in Afghanistan, women and girls
made marginal gains in the deeply patriarchal nation.
Soon
after they took over, the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh
Islamist rule that characterized their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
Since
the takeover, however, women have been banned from traveling alone and teenage
girls barred from secondary schools.
In
the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted from office in 2001, many women in
the conservative countryside continued to wear a burqa.
But
most Afghan women, including TV presenters, opted for the Islamic headscarf.
Television
channels have already stopped showing dramas and soap operas featuring women,
following orders from Taliban authorities.
Source:
Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2086516/world
-----
Phone
kiosks for female worshippers installed in Mecca Grand Mosque
May
22, 2022
Special
phone stations for female worshipers have been provided inside the Grand Mosque
in Mecca.
Saudi
Arabia’s General Presidency of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque
announced this, adding that the women-only phone kiosks aim to ease the
performance of rituals inside the grand mosque and provide female worshippers
answers to their inquiries.
Noura
bint Hillel Al Dhuwaibi, Vice President for Scientific, Intellectual and
Women’s Guidance Affairs at the Grand Mosque, clarified that the service is
available 24\7 and dedicated for women worshippers only to maintain their
privacy and facilitate the performance of rituals inside the mosque. It is also
provided in several languages by experts in Sharia.
According
to recent statistics, more than 600 women are working in the General Presidency
for the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque.
Source:
Gulfnews
-----
Muslim
Women Canvass Support For Bola Tinubu’s Presidential Ambition
By
Opeyemi Babalola
22
May 2022
Muslim
women under the aegis of Coalition of Muslim Women for Asiwaju (COMWA),
yesterday, threw their weight behind the candidacy of the National leader of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, to emerge as the flag bearer
of the party in the upcoming primary election.
At
a press conference in Lagos, the group, representing Muslim women across all
the political zones, is seeking support from party delegates to support the
ambition of Tinubu.
The
chairperson of the group, Rasheedah Adebari, said the former two-term Lagos
State Governor, deserved the position he is seeking, saying he has “contributed
in no small measure to building the nascent democracy we are savoring today.
“From
the North to South, West to East, he carved a microcosm of Nigeria in the womb
of Lagos’s entire system of governance and extends dividends of democracy to
all residents without any form of stratification.
“Combining
true federal character with emulatory religiosity, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
extols the virtues of religious tolerance in practical terms by bringing the
finest, polished people of diverse religious backgrounds to the limelight of
politics. He even married an ordained
pastor, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu,” she added.
Adebari
noted that among the presidents Nigeria had in the past, the coming of Tinubu
would make it the first time the southwest region will be producing a Muslim
president.
She,
however, urged all patriotic APC delegates to vote Tinubu, “whose political
trajectory is not just a living encyclopedia of reference for Nigeria of our
dream, but indeed a working template, which has traversed its experimental
enclave in Lagos to the drawing boards of both the Federal and state governments
in driving the forces of giant developmental projects and programmes in various
states of the nation.”
In
her remarks, the National Mobiliser and Legal Adviser COMWA, Mutiat
Orolu-Balogun, stated that the women, especially the Muslims, will be taking
active participation in the politics unlike before.
She
added that the group has begun a voters’ card sensitisation programme for
women, as part of their contributions in ensuring that the best candidates
emerge in the 2023 general elections.
Source:
Guardian
https://guardian.ng/news/muslim-women-canvass-support-for-tinubus-presidential-ambition/
-----
Imran
Khan owes apology not just to Maryam but to all women: Pak rights group
May
21, 2022
ISLAMABAD:
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) on Saturday came down heavily on
former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan after he made a sexist comment
against Pakistan Muslim League-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz during his Multan
rally which led to outrage in the country.
Severely
criticising Imran, the rights group said Imran Khan's vile remarks about Maryam
at the PTI's Multan rally have "plumbed the depths of misogyny."
"It
is simply unacceptable that the political narrative should crumble into such
glaring intolerance and sexism," the HRCP said in a tweet.
"Mr
Khan is a national leader. He must learn to conduct national conversations with
his political rivals. He owes an apology not just to Ms Sharif but to all
women," the group added.
Earlier,
while addressing the Multan rally, Imran Khan citing Maryam Nawaz's Sargodha
rally said, "In that speech, she uttered my name with such passion that I
would like to tell her, Maryam, please be careful, your husband may get upset
because you were constantly repeating my name."
After
his comment went viral, politicians, journalists and civil society members from
around Pakistan criticized Khan for his "sexist and misogynist"
statement.
Taking
to Twitter, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who also happens to be
Nawaz's paternal uncle, expressed strong disapproval of Imran Khan's statement
and said that the entire nation, especially women, should strongly condemn the
"deplorable language used against the daughter of the nation Maryam
Nawaz."
"Your
crimes against the country and the nation cannot be hidden under your lowly
humour. How could those -- who cannot respect the sanctity of Masjid Nabawi
(PBUH) -- be expected to respect the honour of someone's mothers, sisters, and
daughters?" Sharif tweeted.
"Imran
is the first person in history to fall into this abyss of rudeness as the
leader of a party. His party went out to make a nation but spoiled the morals
of the people instead. To Allah, we belong and to Him, we shall return,"
he added.
Condemning
the derogatory language used by the PTI Chairman, former President Asif Ali
Zardari said "Those who have mothers and sisters in their homes do not use
such language against other women."
Source:
Times Of India
-----
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-flight-female-crew/d/127061