Saudi TV Anchor, Narjis Al-Awami, Says She Was Sexually Harassed In Mecca During Umrah Pilgrimage
New
Age Islam News Bureau
13
January 2022
• In
Africa, Hijab Is No Barrier To Success In Beauty Pageants; Shatu Garko, Adar
Yusuf Ibrahim Are Examples
• Saudi
Arabia’s Largest Women Walking Team With 700 Members Formed In Jubail
• Viral
Egypt Dance Video Fuels Women's Rights Debate
• Afghan
Women Face Hardship As Taliban Struggles To Revive Economy
• Israel
Arrests 4 Women For Providing Intelligence To Iran
• UN
Official Condemns Harassment Of Muslim Women In ‘Sulli Deals’
• Where
Progress On Saudi Women's Rights Is Heading In 2022
• 3
Mln Women Downloaded KADES Emergency Support App
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/saudi-tv-narjis-awami-mecca-umrah/d/126151
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Saudi
TV Anchor, Narjis Al-Awami, Says She Was Sexually Harassed In Mecca During
Umrah Pilgrimage
12 January,
2022
Narjis
al-Awami an anchor on the private broadcaster MBC
----
Saudi
media personality Narjis al-Awami has revealed she was sexually harassed in
Mecca six years ago, during a umrah pilgrimage.
Awami,
an anchor on the private broadcaster MBC, said via Snapchat that she was
assaulted while waiting her turn to kiss the Black Stone at the Kaaba, Islam’s
holiest site.
"We
were on our way to perform Umrah. I stood towards the Black Stone, where there
was a queue of women and men, but there were men in the women’s queue and their
purpose [of being in the queue] was dishonorable; they wanted to harass
women," al-Awami said in a video, which has been shared on other social
platforms since Thursday.
“Someone
came behind me, then moved next to me, and touched my thigh. I turned around
and I hit him like I never hit someone before. The police then arrested him.”
She
said that she hoped that telling her story would show that women can be
subjected to harassment anywhere, from religious pilgrimages to music festivals.
"I
don’t accept [these kinds of] things, whether it’s in Mecca, or Sayahed, or
MDLBeast, or anywhere else in the world”,
al-Awami said.
A
court in another Islamic holy city, Medina, has also publicly named a man
convicted of sexual harassment, The National reported, in an unprecedented
move.
Yasser
al-Arawi was found guilty of harassing a woman using obscene remarks. He was
sentenced to eight months in prison and fined the equivalent of US$1,220.
The
anti-harassment law, which took effect in 2018, provides for penalties of up to
two years in prison and fines of up to $27,000 .
Saudi
Arabia amended the law last year to allow for the name and punishment of
offenders to be published in local media at their own expense. Al-Arawi is the
first person to have been named and shamed as a result of the amendment.
Despite
these legal steps, some Saudi women have said that the authorities are still
not doing enough to bring an end to harassment.
Source:
The New Arab
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/saudi-tv-anchor-says-she-was-sexually-harassed-mecca
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In
Africa, Hijab Is No Barrier To Success In Beauty Pageants; Shatu Garko, Adar
Yusuf Ibrahim Are Examples
Adar
Yusuf Ibrahim won Miss University Africa
-----
January
12, 2022
By
Fredrick Nzwili
NAIROBI,
Kenya (RNS) — In late December, 23-year-old Adar Yusuf Ibrahim won Miss
University Africa, a non-bikini, continent-wide beauty pageant, becoming the first
woman in Africa to win the title while
wearing the hijab, the head covering worn by some Muslim women.
Ibrahim,
who lives in Eastleigh, a Nairobi neighbourhood that is home to many ethnic
Somalis, represented Somalia, her country of birth. Somalia, where an Islamist
war has been going on since 2006, is 99% Muslim.
She’s
not the only young Muslim African to defy religious and cultural barriers to
grace international beauty pageant catwalks in hijab, which traditionally, and
sometimes controversially, is worn to signify modesty and privacy in Islam.
On
Dec. 9, Shatu Garko, an 18-year-old hijab-wearing model from the northern state
of Kano, was named Miss Nigeria, beating 17 other contestants.
The
two beauty queens appeared to follow in the footsteps of Halima Aden, a Somali
American model who quit the fashion industry in November 2021 after she was
allegedly forced to compromise her religious beliefs, but has recently
returned, saying her mother had reminded her of the impact she could have on
behalf of other young Muslim women.
But
Muslim clerics and scholars in Africa are alarmed by the recent pageant
winners, criticizing their participation as contrary to Islamic teachings and
African culture.
“As a
woman, exposing the body to people who have no right to see you is an
abomination in Islam. A woman can only expose her body to her husband. If done,
it’s against her culture, it’s against Islam and even against humanity,”
Abdallah Kheir, a senior lecturer in religion in several Kenyan universities,
told Religion News Service.
Kheir
added that wearing hijab in a beauty pageant was “camouflage” meant to draw
Muslim women into secular Western culture. “It’s not about the hijab. I think
they want to attract more (Muslim) girls. There is a hidden agenda,” said Kheir.
Sheikh
Abdullatif Sheikh, a cleric at Jamia Mosque, considered the seat of Islam in
Kenya, said women should not be paraded like items for sale.
“Islam
highly values the woman and her beauty is not made for everyone,” he said,
while emphasizing that headscarves are meant to obscure Muslim women’s hair,
not their brains, and that traditional dress does not mean a woman is backward
or less educated, as critics of hijab often suggest.
Miss
University Africa has been held annually since 2010 and draws contestants from
55 African countries. In the contest, bikinis and swimsuits are excluded. The
winner of the pageant receives $50,000 in endorsement deals, a new car and is
named a United Nations student ambassador.
Ibrahim
arrived in Kenya with her family at age 11 and has always observed Islamic
modesty. As she grew up and joined the fashion industry as a model, she kept
her hijab.
“It
was a personal choice even though I don’t think all Muslim women have to dress
the same. I love it,” Ibrahim told the Daily Nation, a Kenyan newspaper. She
hopes her win will inspire more women and girls to participate in pageants.
Garko,
Miss Nigeria, won a prize of about $24,000, residency in a luxury apartment for
a year and a new car. Her title will give her opportunities for marketing
deals.
But
reports say Shariah police in Kano had threatened to question her parents for
allowing the teenager to participate in the pageant, which is “illegal and
unknown to Islam,” and Garko said she received direct messages and comments
that she was doing something wrong.
Covering
the body with a simple headscarf or head-to-toe cloak is considered an act of
worship for many Muslims and is also embraced in Christianity and Judaism,
among other religions, in Africa.
Sheikh
called for the respect of each other’s cultures and traditions, saying that a
woman’s height, weight and figure added no value to her worth as a human.
“Our
standard would be different,” he said. “You judge a lady as per intelligence,
her morals and her behaviours and attitudes, other than her looks.”
Source:
Religion News
https://religionnews.com/2022/01/12/in-africa-hijab-is-no-barrier-to-success-in-beauty-pageants/
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Saudi
Arabia’s largest women walking team with 700 members formed in Jubail
January
13, 2022
JUBAIL
— A Saudi woman, Abeer Al-Dayel, has formed Saudi Arabia’s largest women's
walking team, comprising 700 members, in the Eastern Province city of Jubail.
According
to Al-Arabiya channel, walking reduced the weight of 70 percent of the team
members, and 15 percent of them reported recovery from certain chronic diseases
they previously suffered from.
The
founder of the team, Abeer Al-Dayl, said what motivated her to form the team
was her personal belief that Jubail’s city structure is well-designed for all
types of sports activities on the beaches, neighborhoods and parks.
She
additionally pointed out that in the past four years, the team has conducted more
than 100 initiatives in health awareness.
Source:
Saudi Gazette
--------
Viral
Egypt dance video fuels women's rights debate
Jan
13, 2022
CAIRO:
A video of an Egyptian mother-of-three dancing that went viral online prompting
her husband to divorce her and her employers to sack her has reignited fierce
debates over women's rights.
The
brief mobile phone video of Aya Youssef, a 30-year-old primary school teacher,
shows her wearing a headscarf, trousers and a long-sleeved top as she dances
alongside colleagues, smiling as she enjoys a river cruise on the Nile.
But
the video, which has been shared widely on social media since it was posted
earlier this month, has split opinion.
Some
critics accuse her of breaching the conservative values of a largely Muslim
society -- while others stand firmly with her in solidarity.
In
recent years, Egypt has witnessed several cases in which women have been
subjected to defamation campaigns on social media, stirring angry demands for
those responsible to be held to account.
It
comes as rights groups warn of a broadening crackdown on freedom in the
increasingly conservative North African nation ever since President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi took office in 2014.
Youssef,
in a recent interview with a private TV channel, said she had been
"happy" on the trip and that her moves were "spontaneous".
Other
colleagues were dancing alongside her on the boat in the sunshine, some waving
their hands in the air. "All of us were dancing," she said.
But
after the video was shared online, some who watched provided scathing comments
on what they saw as "unbecoming" behaviour.
One
Twitter user, Jihad al-Qalyubi, said the teacher's actions were
"shameful".
Another,
Ahmed al-Beheiry, said he "couldn't fathom how a married woman would dance
in this lewd way".
But
-- in a country where 90 percent of women aged between 18 and 39 reported
having been harassed in 2019, according to a survey by the Arab Barometer
research network -- others were supportive.
After
the video went viral, Egypt's education ministry in Dakahlia region --
northeast of Cairo -- referred the teacher to a disciplinary committee, where
she was sacked from her job in the city of Mansoura.
Amid
a subsequent outcry, she was this week reinstated.
Nihad
Abu al-Qumsan, head of the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights, defended the
teacher and offered her a job.
"We
will ask the court about the correct dance rules -- so that all women would
conform to the right rules if they dance in their brother's or their son's weddings,
or at birthdays," Qumsan said sarcastically.
The
fact that Youssef's husband also divorced her after watching the video prompted
an angry reaction from popular Egyptian actress Sumaya al-Khashab, saying it
showed double standards.
"Why
don't men take their wives back?" Khashab asked.
"There
are so many women who stand by their men when they even go to prison, for
example, or don't abandon their husbands when their conditions
deteriorate," she added.
Youssef
told Egypt's Al-Watan newspaper that she did not know who had published the
video online, but vowed legal action gainst those who "defamed and ruined
her home".
It is
not the first such case of online shaming to have triggered anger in Egypt.
Two
young men were arrested this week after a 17-year-old schoolgirl committed
suicide last month.
She
swallowed poison after she was allegedly blackmailed with digitally altered
photos after she reportedly refused to have an affair with them.
And
in July 2021, a Cairo court sentenced two women to six and 10 years in prison
for "breaching public morals" after they had published videos on the
social media channel TikTok.
They
were among a dozen social media "influencers" arrested in 2020 for
"attacking society's values" in Egypt.
Opinions
are shifting; Egypt has long been regarded as the birthplace of belly dancing,
but several belly dancers and pop singers have been targeted in recent years
over online content deemed too racy or suggestive.
Egypt
has seen its community of homegrown dancers shrink, largely due to the
profession's increasing notoriety as the country has become more conservative
over the past half-century -- and to a broadening crackdown on freedoms.
Source:
Times of India
--------
Afghan
women face hardship as Taliban struggles to revive economy
By
Arwa Ibrahim and Mohsin Khan Momand
12
Jan 2022
Kabul,
Afghanistan – For Zaigul, a 32-year-old housewife from Nangarhar province who
lives at the Nasaji camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near the
capital, Kabul, life was already difficult before the Taliban seized power on
August 15 last year.
She
worked as a maid while her husband Nasir worked at construction sites to bring
food to the table for their seven children, but not any more. Since the
Taliban’s return to power, the country has plunged into unprecedented economic
crisis, with banks running out of cash and state employees suffering from
months of unpaid salaries.
The
freezing of billions of dollars of Afghan assets by the US and suspension of
funds by international financial institutions have caused a near collapse of
the fragile economic system marred by decades of war and occupation.
Zaigul,
like millions of other Afghans, has no work as most economic activities have
run aground following the collapse of the West-backed government of President
Ashraf Ghani and the chaotic withdrawal of the US forces in August.
“The
most pressing issue is the financial difficulties,” said Zaigul, as she sat on
the floor of her one-room home, her children huddled around her.
“You
can live without freedom, but you can’t live if you have nothing to eat,” she
told Al Jazeera.
The
United Nations on Tuesday said about 22 million people – more than half of
Afghanistan’s population – face acute hunger. It sought nearly $5bn in aid for
the country to avoid a humanitarian “catastrophe”.
Economy
in freefall
Like
many families in Afghanistan, Zaigul and Nasir’s household income has been
slashed over recent months.
With
most building projects coming to a halt after the Taliban takeover, and many
families becoming unable to afford help at home, the couple has been
unemployed.
“Neither
of us can find work any more. We lack the most basic things – food, warm
clothes and a heater to keep the house warm,” said Zaigul, as she wrapped a
thin black shawl around her shoulders.
Two
of her teenage daughters were crouched next to her, while the youngest, a
toddler named Sana, sat playing with old rags in the back. Despite the cold,
her feet were bare, and her clothes sparsely covered her small limbs.
Zaigul’s
one-room home was empty except for a few worn-out mattresses that were splayed
across a cold stone floor. In the daytime, the family used the mattresses to
sit on, before converting them to beds for the night.
In
the corner, an emptying bag of flour sat next to a rusted stove which she used
to make bread at night.
Zaigul
recounted life before the takeover, saying that despite being poor, her family
got by on a meagre income and donations from international NGOs that helped
them through the winter season.
“But
now, even that [the aid] has stopped,” she told Al Jazeera.
“My
children go out to collect rubbish which we try to sell, or paper to burn to
keep us warm. Sometimes, I think about going on to the street to beg,” she told
Al Jazeera, as she dropped her head into her palms and tears formed at the
corners of her eyes.
Western
sanctions have dealt a heavy blow to the aid-dependent country, forcing
international NGOs to stop operations in the country.
The
UN and other aid agencies have since tried to navigate the sanctions to deliver
much-needed aid to the country, as public hospitals became unable to afford
essential medical supplies or to pay staff salaries.
Donations-dependent
population
Like
Zaigul, Eloom Bibi, a widowed mother of six from Shemol village on the
outskirts of Jalalabad, also depended heavily on donations after her husband –
who worked in the police – died four years ago.
“Charity
from people helped me a lot. But now, there’s nothing [coming in] and I
understand why. People are jobless,” said the 35 year old.
“There
are thousands of widows in this country who used to work. Now that the Taliban
has taken over the country, all women have been made to stay home.
“What
can a woman do to support her family?” she asked, as her youngest,
three-year-old Baba-ji, climbed on to her lap.
Bibi
has been struggling to pay her rent, buy food for the children “who are too
young to work”, or afford their school fees.
“Things
were better before,” she lamented as she hugged her three girls. “My kids were
going to school – girls and boys. We used to receive donations, and women were
free,” she said.
According
to independent Afghan analyst Ahmed-Waleed Kakar, “the main challenges for
women are those reflected across the country at large – the financial and
economic,” he told Al Jazeera.
For
Afghan women, economic challenges engulfing the country have been compounded by
further restrictions on their freedoms, employment, education and even
movement.
Kakar
said most Afghans live in rural areas where people depend on agriculture rather
than formal employment to make a living. But now, “they are struggling to get
by and there’s a massive surge in food insecurity,” he said.
With
the economic crisis and severe drought debilitating Afghanistan’s agricultural,
economic, financial and banking sectors, it has also affected the government’s
ability to pay the salaries of civil servants.
“Women
who were in the public sector, alongside the men, are receiving salaries
irregularly, if at all,” said Kakar.
Masuda
Sultan, an Afghan women’s rights activist agreed.
“Teachers
comprised the largest bulk of women’s employment in Afghanistan,” said Sultan,
adding that they have not been paid their salaries since May or June, “except
for some small payments made by the Taliban.
“While
it is good that the international community has agreed to pay them, the money
has not yet been mobilised and this has left them in a very bad place,” she
told Al Jazeera.
Sultan,
who has worked on women’s rights in Afghanistan for more than two decades, said
that many businesswomen were also unable to access their funds at banks.
“The
biggest challenge [for women] is an economic one, with the assets and aid being
frozen,” she explained.
Growing
restrictions on women
Despite
coming from a family that was financially stable before the takeover, things
have also deteriorated for Anzorat Wali, a 19-year-old member of the Afghan
national women’s taekwondo team.
While
Wali’s brother, a civil servant, continues to work at the foreign ministry, he
has not been paid in months.
Meanwhile,
her mother – who previously supported the family – lost her job at the Ministry
of Education after the Taliban called on women in the public sector to stay
home.
For
the teenager, life under the Taliban has meant no school, nor what she loved
most – taekwondo.
Taking
out a photo of one of her recent competitions, the teenager recounted the days
when she could practise martial arts along with her sister.
In
the picture, the young athlete’s eyes beamed with pride as she stood in her
white dobok and black belt to show off a hard-won medal and certificate for
third place.
Although
she was frustrated over the ban on female sports, Wali feels more pained by the
restrictions on women’s education and her family’s financial struggle.
“For
me, the biggest challenge is that I can’t work or study,” said Wali, who
despite being her final school year, has stayed home after the Taliban shut her
school.
Mounting
confusion
Although
the Taliban has not officially banned girls’ education, the group’s fighters
have shuttered girls’ secondary schools and barred women from public
universities in many of the country’s 30 provinces.
More
recently, however, secondary-level education has returned to about 15
provinces, according to Obaidullah Baheer, a lecturer in transitional justice
at the American University in Afghanistan.
“For
the rest [of the provinces], we heard different things,” he said, explaining
that the Taliban has delayed the reopening of many girls’ schools.
“The
Taliban – whether by accident or design – has had a very elusive and confusing
approach with regards to their policies and position on women within society,”
said Baheer, explaining that even the group’s leadership is divided on the
topic.
Baheer
said that while the Taliban clearly banned women from holding positions of
leadership, they have not announced other sectors where women are officially
barred.
“The
result is that many of their fighters are confused about what should, or should
not, be done,” he added, explaining that the directives banning women’s travel
alone for long distances pushed taxi drivers to refuse to drive women to work
for fear of breaking the rules.
“In
some provinces, women have been discouraged by fighters on the roads from going
to their jobs [and girls to schools] but in others, some women are still in
government jobs.
“Every
province is making its own decision,” he said, highlighting the depth of the
confusion and arbitrary implementation.
But
for Wali, the details do not matter.
“We
[women] used to go to school or work. Now, we just aren’t allowed,” said the
teenage athlete.
“What
matters now, is that my family is facing a crisis and that it’s very hard to
survive, especially if you are a woman,” she added.
Source:
Al Jazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/1/12/afghan-women
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Israel
arrests 4 women for providing intelligence to Iran
12.01.2022
JERUSALEM
Four
Israeli women were arrested for providing intelligence information to an
Iranian agent, Israel’s domestic intelligence service Shin Bet said on
Wednesday.
Shin
Bet said in a statement that indictments were filed against the four women, but
without revealing their names.
The
four women are immigrant Jews from Iran, who sent photographs for several sites
across Israel, including the US Embassy, upon a request by an Iranian agent,
the statement said.
According
to Haaretz newspaper, the women were indicted on charges of making contact with
a foreign agent, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.
The
women did not name the Iranian agent, saying they had no intention of harming
Israel’s security, Haaretz said.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
There
was no comment from Iranian authorities on the report.
--------
UN
official condemns harassment of Muslim women in ‘Sulli Deals’
January
13, 2022
GENEVA:
Harassment of Muslim women in India through social media apps such as “Sulli
Deals” must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as they occur, a UN Special
Rapporteur has said. UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Dr Fernand de
Varennes took to Twitter to raise concern on the issue of minorities in India,
saying “Muslim women in India are harassed and sold in social media apps”.
“#Minority
Muslim women in #India are harassed & ‘sold’ in #socialmedia apps,
#SulliDeals, a form of #HateSpeech, must be condemned and prosecuted as soon as
they occur. All #HumanRights of minorities need to be fully & equally
protected,” Varennes said in a tweet on Tuesday.
The
Delhi Police last week arrested Aumkareshwar Thakur, 26, who is believed to be
the creator of “Sulli Deals” app from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, the first arrest
made in the case.
Hundreds
of Muslim women were listed for “auction” on the mobile application with
photographs sourced without permission and doctored.
The
accused, a Bachelor of Computer Application degree holder, admitted that he was
a member of a group on Twitter and the idea to defame and troll Muslim women
was shared there. “He admitted that he had developed the code/app on GitHub.
After the uproar regarding the Sulli Deals app, he had deleted all his social
media footprints,” a senior police officer said.
In a
separate “Bulli Bai” case, the Delhi Police on January 1 registered an FIR in
connection with an online complaint submitted by a city-based woman journalist
against unknown persons for allegedly uploading her doctored picture on a
portal.
The
case pertains to the creation of the ‘Bulli Bai’ app, which targeted Muslim
women by putting up their images online for “auction”.
According
to Delhi Police, Niraj Bishnoi, 21, who was arrested from Assam, was the
alleged mastermind and creator of the ”Bulli Bai” application.
He
had disclosed during interrogation that he was in touch with the person behind
the Twitter handle @sullideals, the alleged creator of the ”Sulli Deals” app
that was hosted on GitHub in July last year. —PTI
Source:
Kashmir Reader
https://kashmirreader.com/2022/01/13/un-official-condemns-harassment-of-muslim-women-in-sulli-deals/
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Where
progress on Saudi women's rights is heading in 2022
January
13, 2022
In
2018, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was asked in an interview with US
news network CBS if women were equal to men. His answer was unambiguous, and
rightly so: “Absolutely.”
He
was asked this question because Saudi Arabia had long courted controversy
regarding the public role of women in its society. Since the interview, he has
put pen to paper. A series of major domestic reforms to strengthen women’s
rights have been unveiled in the four years since, a key part of a wider
programme to open up Saudi society. In 2018, the ban on Saudi women driving was
lifted. This week, women were allowed to become taxi drivers.
Reforms
appear to be working across a number of metrics. A crucial one is the
employment rate of women, which rose from 66 per cent in 2016 to 75 per cent in
2020.
These
measures are significant, but their implementation is even more so in light of
the Covid-19 pandemic, the consequences of which the world will live with for
years to come.
As
with any crisis, the pandemic has hit certain groups in society harder than
others. The largest group to be affected disproportionately is women. McKinsey,
a global consultancy firm, estimates that, worldwide, their jobs are 1.8 times
more vulnerable to the pandemic than men’s, largely because women are taking on
an unequal share of unpaid care, whether it be of children out of education or
sick relatives.
It is
even a grave threat to their safety. UN Women lists cramped conditions,
isolation with abusers and empty streets, all a result of the pandemic, as
factors that have exacerbated gender-based violence in the past two years.
The
Middle East is no different. Indeed, it is perhaps worse, given the
already-disadvantaged position of women in some of its countries. Forty per
cent experience some form of violence during their lifetime, according to UN
Women, which also suggests that the real rates might be significantly higher.
In a
country as large as Saudi Arabia, reform in favour of women’s rights will make
a big difference. Last January, it amended anti-harassment laws to include
provisions for publishing the names of the offenders. This week, a court did
just that, ruling to name and shame a man convicted of verbally abusing a
woman. The man, Yasser Mussalam Al Arwe, will serve eight months in prison. His
conviction and sentencing will illustrate to women that their concerns are
being heard, while also showing men that the government is serious about
clamping down on such behaviour.
These
measures, from allowing taxi driving to enforcing anti-harassment laws, have
been implemented in a matter of days since the beginning of the New Year by the
government of Saudi Arabia. Its society is progressing towards both more
opportunities for women but, also changes to its economy that can benefit all
members of society.
Source:
The National News
--------
3 mln
women downloaded KADES emergency support app
January
12 2022
KADES,
an emergency support application for women which directs security units to the
place of violence in just minutes upon notification, has been downloaded by
more than 3 million women since 2018, the country’s interior minister has said.
“This
year, we aim to teach men across the country to practice self-restraint in
order to put an end to domestic violence,” Süleyman Soylu said in a conference
called “2022 National Plan: Fight With Violence Against Women.”
According
to data obtained from Soylu, besides KADES, security units also had some 279,000
notifications from women calling for help in these three years. “We have also
set up special bureaus in police departments of all 81 provinces to combat
violence against women,” he added.
“The
number of femicides in the country was 268 in 2020. It made a 15 percent
increase in 2021, reaching 307,” Family and Social Services Minister Derya
Yanık said in a conference organized by her ministry.
Justice
Minister Abdülhamit Gül was another participant in the conference. “Our
ministry established some 215 offices for investigating domestic violence and
femicides,” Gül highlighted.
Giving
information to the public about girls’ education, Education Minister Mahmut
Özer said, “Since 2014, the number of female students started rising, and as of
2021, it has surpassed the number of male students.”
Another
woman ‘falls from balcony’
The
conference was held at a time when the country was shocked by the news of a new
“accidental fall of a woman” from a balcony.
Sedef
Nur Çağlar, 23 years old, was alleged to have “fallen from an apartment’s
balcony on the 7th floor” in the northwestern province of Kocaeli. The
university student is struggling between life and death in the ICU of a state
hospital.
According
to media reports, she and her boyfriend visited a friend’s house late on Jan.
9. They all drank alcohol until the early hours of Jan. 10, when “all of a
sudden,” she and her boyfriend started to quarrel.
“It
was around 6 a.m. when she jumped from the balcony,” her boyfriend alleged in
his first police testimony.
The
ongoing police investigation will clarify if Çağlar jumped or was pushed from
the balcony instead.
Source:
Hurriyet Daily New
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/3-mln-women-downloaded-kades-emergency-support-app-170702
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