Sprinter Kimia Yousofi: Fighting For All Afghanistan Women At Paris Olympics
New
Age Islam News Bureau
18
August 2024
•
Sprinter Kimia Yousofi: Fighting For All Afghanistan Women At Paris Olympics
•
Kamala Harris Bets America Is Ready For First Black Woman President
•
Pakistan badly needs facilities for women athletes: Arshad Nadeem
•
Knot What It Seems: Five Marriages, Zero Commitment, 'Bride' And Gang Nabbed
After Serial Wedding Scams In Karnataka
•
Kolkata RPF Constable Groped Me To ‘Check Gender’: Transwoman Files FIR
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Sprinter
Kimia Yousofi: Fighting For All Afghanistan Women At Paris Olympics
Aug
18, 2024
Suresh
Menon
Powerful
statement: After her 100-metre heats in the Paris Olympics, Kimia Yousofi of
Afghanistan held up these words on paper: ‘Education’, ‘Sport’, ‘Our Rights’. |
Photo Credit: REUTERS
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Kimia
Yousofi is not a name that has a ready recall. The Afghan sprinter did not
break any records at the Olympics. After her 100 metre heats, she held up these
words on paper: ‘Education’, ‘Sport’, ‘Our Rights’.
Of
the six Afghan athletes in Paris, the ruling Taliban recognises only the three
men.
Source:
The Hindu
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Kamala
Harris Bets America Is Ready For First Black Woman President
August
18, 2024
Democratic
presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force
Two at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, on August 16, 2024, in
Morrisville, N.C., after a campaign event | Photo Credit: AP
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WASHINGTON:
Is America ready to elect a Black woman as its president? Vice President Kamala
Harris, who will be officially confirmed as the Democratic US presidential
nominee in Chicago next week, is betting that it is.
“In
my entire career, I’ve heard people say when I ran... people aren’t ready, it’s
not your time, nobody like you has done that before,” the Democrat said in 2019
when she ran against Joe Biden in the primary presidential campaign.
If
Harris, 59, manages to beat Donald Trump in November, she will become the first
woman and the second Black person, after Barack Obama, to run the world’s
leading power.
In
so many ways, Harris already is a trailblazer. Born to an Indian mother and a
Jamaican father, she was the first woman attorney general ever elected in
California, on top of being the first African American and Asian American to
hold that post. She then became the first vice president in US history in those
same categories.
In
a survey published in September 2023, the Pew Research Center, a
Washington-based think tank, found that for a majority of Americans, gender
does not play a role in choosing a president.
Sixty
percent of respondents said that a female president would handle pressure as
well as a man, while 27 percent believed that she would do better.
“While
female leadership — whether as presidents, queens, prime ministers, and heads
of state — has become the norm in many parts of the world, including Europe,
Asia, South America, and African nations, the United States has yet to
experience this moment,” said Sonia Gipson Rankin, a law professor at the
University of New Mexico.
She
noted that even though Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the electoral college and
therefore the presidency to Trump in 2016, she won the popular vote.
Regina
Bateson, a professor of political science at the University of Colorado
Boulder, believes that voters’ biases may not themselves be the issue.
“The
problem is often not that voters are actually biased,” Bateson said. “It’s that
party insiders and delegates and political donors worry that the voters will be
biased.”
That
leads them to withhold support from a woman of color, a phenomenon that Bateson
calls “strategic discrimination,” which usually manifests itself during the
primaries when a candidate must demonstrate that he or she is able to rally
many groups of voters.
Harris,
however, took over from Biden after the 81-year-old leader withdrew from the
race, thus sparing her “this process of trying to convince people that she’s
electable” during the primaries.
Flanked
by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a 60-year-old white man,
Harris now hopes to win the trust of all Americans, regardless of ethnicity or
gender.
Some
are already convinced such as “White dudes for Harris,” a group that brought
nearly 200,000 people together for a Zoom fundraiser for Harris in late July,
raising more than $4 million.
The
former president’s running mate, J.D. Vance, caused an outcry recently when a
2021 video resurfaced in which he dismisses the Democratic Party as being run
by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives... and
so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too.”
Harris
is married to Douglas Emhoff and helped in raising his two children from a
previous marriage. She does not have any biological children of her own.
Vance’s
comments caused a backlash amplified by Hollywood stars such as Jennifer
Aniston and Glenn Close, and were widely considered a political misstep in a
country where the fertility rate is historically low.
Vance
has sought to walk back his remarks saying they were taken out of context.
Source:
Arab News
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Pakistan
badly needs facilities for women athletes: Arshad Nadeem
August
17, 2024
Arshad
Nadeem, the javelin throw gold medallist in the recently-concluded Paris Games,
said Pakistani women athletes should be given modern facilities so that they
can perform at the highest level.
Since
returning home with Pakistan’s first gold in the Olympics since 1984, Nadeem
has been showered with cash prizes worth around 280 million, cars and other
gifts.
Source:
The Hindu
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Knot
what it seems: Five marriages, zero commitment, 'bride' and gang nabbed after
serial wedding scams in Karnataka
Aug
18, 2024
A
35-year-old woman, who married an agriculturist's son and vanished three days
after tying the knot, her two associates and a marriage broker have been
arrested for cheating the groom's family of Rs 2.5 lakh.
Gubbi
police in Tumakuru district are now flooded with calls from people in both
Karnataka and Maharashtra, claiming the gang had cheated them in a similar
manner. Cops confirmed they have details of four other such marriage frauds by
the gang in the past three years. The accused are bride Lakshmi Balasaheb
Janakara alias Komala, marriage broker B Lakshmi, 40, both residents of
Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Siddappa, 45, and his friend Lakshmi
ShambhulingaKubusada from Hubballi. Police are looking for one more man,
identified as Vijay, who had claimed to be Komala's brother.
Palakshaiah's
son Dayananda and Komala were married in Oct 2023. Palakshaiah's friend
Basavaraju had given him the number of a marriage broker (Lakshmi), who
introduced Komala to him as an orphan.
To
finalise the marriage, Komala and others visited Palakshaiah in Aug 2023.
Siddappa and Lakshmi Shambhulinga claimed to be Komala's maternal uncle and
aunt. Palakshaiah had to pay around Rs 2.5 lakh to Lakshmi towards brokerage
fee and to meet expenses for a sari and ornaments for the marriage. Palakshaiah
also purchased gold mangalsutra and earrings, weighing 16 grams, for his
daughter-in-law.
But
soon, Komala left for Hubballi, saying it was a custom for the bride to return
to the parental home three days after marriage. Komala soon became
incommunicado, with her mobile switched off.
"I
went to Hubballi and enquired with broker Lakshmi. She pleaded innocence. Then
I visited the house of Siddappa and, to my shock, they had vacated it. Only
then I learnt Siddappa was not Komala's maternal uncle. Speaking to more
neighbours, I learnt that this was the work of a professional gang that cheats
people on the pretext of marriage," Palakshaiah's complaint read.
A
special team was formed to nab the gang. By then, broker Lakshmi too had
vanished. The gang had taken shelter in north Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Police
recently managed to trace Komala to a house in Miraj, Maharashtra. When they
knocked on her door, they found that only four days earlier, she had married a
youth in that household.
Ahead
of the marriage with Miraj, Komala had claimed she was an orphan and Siddappa
and Lakshmi were her maternal uncle and aunt. That marriage too was fixed by
broker Lakshmi. The gang had taken Rs 2.5 lakh in cash and some gold ornaments
from the groom’s family.
“Komala
has two children. She had distanced herself from her husband Janakar,” said DSP
BK Shekhar, adding they have no clue about the husband’s whereabouts. Her
20-year-old son is in Hubballi, while 16-year-old daughter is in Kolhapur.
Source:
Times Of India
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Kolkata
RPF Constable Groped Me To ‘Check Gender’: Transwoman Files FIR
Aug
18, 2024
Kolkata:
A group of transwomen who were heading to RG Kar Medical College on Friday to join
the protest have filed an FIR alleging that one of them was groped by an RPF
constable to check her ‘gender' at RabindraSadan metro station.
A
video grab of the incident shows the transwoman in tears while the alleged
accused is seen trying to avoid the camera. Her companions went live on social
media. Other footage released by activists who are fighting the case show the
station manager intervening and cops coming in but the accused RPF personnel is
nowhere to be seen. The group also produced a copy of a written apology on a
blank paper that carries a ‘Kolkata Metro' stamp.
RPF
and Metro Railway have denied the allegations and filed a counter FIR against
the transwomen, accusing them of raising slogans and attempting to disturb
peace.
The
alleged incident happened on Friday evening when three transwomen reached
RabindraSadan metro station after participating in a protest by the community
near Academy of Fine Arts and bought tickets till Shyambazar. While two of them
were allowed entry to the platform, the third, a 27-year-old Kasba resident,
was allegedly stopped by an RPF constable.
"I
told the security personnel that I was not a terrorist and he could check my
bag. Out of the blue the constable touched my breast to check my gender and
made a lewd remark that he was checking if it was real or fake. I am shocked
and humiliated," the 27-year-old said. A heated exchange followed, with
one of her companions pushing back the constable. "CCTV footage was seen
again and again by our officials and it clearly revealed that the RPF personnel
wasn't at fault. None of these protestors were stopped or touched by any RPF
personnel as has been alleged," a Metro Railway spokesperson said.
"When
we started protesting, another male security person came and pressed my hand and
pulled me saying, ‘aapthodashanthain, thoraandar room meinchalkebaatenkartehain
(you are a quiet person, let us go to a room and talk)'. Will any male cop do
that to a biological female?" said a 29-year-old transwoman, who is a
make-up artist by profession. A commotion followed with around 20 transwomen
and rights activists rushing to the spot on hearing the news.
"The
RPF is supposed to ensure safety of commuters. But in this case they turned
perpetrators. Can't we be part of society and show solidarity with the RG Kar
rape-murder victim," said another transwoman, a 25-year-old who was at the
spot with her mother.
A
case under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights, 2019), was registered at
Bhowanipore Police Station. "We are collecting CCTV footage and footage
from the group. We will conduct a preliminary probe and send a legal notice to
the accused RPF personnel to join the probe. Their statements will be verified
and the next course of action decided," said an investigating officer.
"RPF
is a central agency and it is shameful that its personnel are not even
sensitised about transgender rights," said transgender activist and former
member of West Bengal Transgender Development Board, Ranjita Sinha who had to
rushed to help her colleagues out.
According
to Metro Railway, 10-15 transgender commuters entered RabindraSadan station
around 6.20 pm on Thrusday and started shouting "We Want Justice"
slogans. An RPF lady constable and other RPF personnel requested them not to do
so as it was disturbing other passengers but they refused to pay heed and began
arguing with them. They also blocked the north side station gates that hindered
passengers' movement. Some commuters were also assaulted. A sub-inspector and
other RPF personnel reached the spot from Kalighat post and tried to pacify the
commuters. When they failed, Bhowanipore police station was informed. Cops
arrived and tried to bring the situation under control but the chaos persisted
for hours. In order to solve the problem, RPF personnel also apologised to
them. Ultimately they left the station premises at 11.20 pm," a Metro
Railway spokesperson said.
Source:
Times Of India
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