Tahirih, A Persian Theologian, Sings Solo In Historic Mosque, Defying Law Against Women Singing In Public
New Age
Islam News Bureau
22 July 2023
• Tahirih, A Persian Theologian, Sings Solo In
Historic Mosque, Defying Law Against Women Singing In Public
• 'Discrimination Will Not Stop Us!': Arab Women
Scientists Are Fighting To Learn
• Morocco To Make History As The First Arab Football
Team To Play In A Women's World Cup
• Mom Of Castle Rock Teen Accused Of Trying To
Join Islamic State Blames FBI "Encouragement"
• CAIR Calls on University of Kentucky Police to
Probe Detention of Muslim Woman, Forced Removal of Hijab
• Women's Beauty Salons Banned for Neglect of
Guidelines: Ministry
• Iran’s Women’s Football Coach Azmoun Satisfied
With Russia Warm-Up Matches
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/tahirih-persian-theologian-mosque/d/130281
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Tahirih,
A Persian Theologian, Sings Solo In Historic Mosque, Defying Law Against Women
Singing In Public
07.21.23
Just
before the historic 1848 Woman’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, a
woman on the other side of the globe was making her own call for women's
rights. Tahirih, a Persian theologian, poet and social activist, walked into a
gathering of men without wearing her veil. While a veilless woman hardly seems
notable to Western sensibilities, in 19th-century Persia—what is now Iran—it
was an unspeakable act of heresy.
Baring
her full face, Tahirih boldly proclaimed that the day of the equality of men
and women had arrived. Gender equality was a core tenet of the Babí faith she
had embraced, and she would be executed for it just four years later—choked to
death with her own scarf, her body unceremoniously tossed into a well.
But her
reported final words echo to the present day: "You can kill me as soon as
you like, but you will never stop the emancipation of women."
Nearly
two centuries later, the women of Iran are still fighting for their
emancipation from oppressive laws. We've seen waves of protests in the streets
since the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, with women demanding the
right to choose whether or not to wear the hijab, the Islamic head covering,
without fearing for their lives.
The
current Islamist regime enacted the hijab law in 1983, the same year the
Iranian government publicly hanged 10 Bahá'í women—most of whom were in their
20s, one only 17—for refusing to recant their faith. Those executions,
conducted one by one so the women were forced to watch each other die, showed
the lengths the regime would go to in their extremism, drew condemnation from
around the world and further demonstrated the courage and fortitude of Iranian
women who refuse to bend to injustice.
Acts of
civil disobedience are dangerous for women in Iran to this day, but that hasn't
stopped them from happening. In a video shared by Iranian-American journalist
Masih Alinejad on Twitter, we see a woman standing in what Alinejad shared is
in one of Esfahan's historic mosques. All the woman is doing is singing, but
that alone is a crime in Iran, where the government has forbidden women from
singing in public.
This
woman insists that her beautiful voice be heard, however. Even when a man
approaches to stop her, she doesn't skip a beat. Rather, she continues her
chanting while holding up her finger as if to say, "Nope. You will wait
until I'm finished." Incredibly, he immediately backs off in the face of
her calm confidence and courage.
Watch
and listen:
In a
country where women have been killed for daring to question authority and
challenge the status quo, such an act of defiance is all the more impressive.
According to ClassicFM, the woman was singing a poem from the Sufi tradition, a
mystical form of Islam that gave us the widely beloved poetry of Rumi and
Hafiz.
People
in the comments responded with awe at the woman's voice and the way she
commanded respect with her very presence.
Iranian
women have a long history of using their voices—and their actions—to proclaim
their inherent right to freedom. And until their basic human rights are secured
for good, the rest of the world will continue to stand with them in support and
solidarity.
Source: upworthy.com
https://www.upworthy.com/women-iran-sings-solo-mosque
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'Discrimination
Will Not Stop Us!': Arab Women Scientists Are Fighting To Learn
The head of the gynecology department of the in vitro fertilization unit
at Aziza Othmana hospital, Fethi Zhiwa (L), speaks in the egg and sperm
processing and freezing laboratory with the medical biologist and associate
professor in reproductive biology of his service, Khadija Kacem Berejeb, on
February 9, 2022 in Tunis. - ETHI BELAID/AFP via Getty Images)
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July 22,
2023
From
Sudan to Germany, passing through Oman, Sudanese researcher Marwa Shumo has
endured discrimination to pursue her dream to become a successful scientist and
open a lab to teach in her own country.
Shumo
was born in Oman and received a bachelor's degree in biotechnology from the
University of Nizwa in the sultanate in 2009. She was unable to continue her
studies as a Sudanese expatriate in Oman, and the Sudanese government doesn't
support postgraduate students who pursued their undergraduate studies abroad.
She
decided to continue her studies in Germany. Despite the sexism and discrimination
she suffered, Shumo graduated with a master’s degree in environmental sciences
from the University of Cologne in 2012, a doctoral degree in agricultural
sciences from the University of Bonn in Switzerland in 2019 and an
international doctorate in development studies from the Center for Development
Research in Germany, where she got a job as an associated researcher at the
center in 2020.
“As a
migrant woman and not a citizen, I worry whether they will discontinue my
contract. [If they do] I would lose my residency permit and my career. In
addition, many of the professorships are still limited to German citizens,”
Shumo told Al-Monitor.
Shumo,
or the “Lady of the Flies” as she is called in the lab, is an expert on organic
waste recycling and the use of insects for food. She is currently working on a
research project in Tanzania to extract protein from insects with women from a
village in the capital, Dar es Salaam. “These women were previously engaged in
female genital mutilation in order to make a living, but the project helped
them integrate rather than punish them,” she said.
Shumo is
one of few Arab female researchers in a field that has been dominated by men.
So it was a surprise to see that most of the Arab young scientists who
participated in the 72nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting that took place in
Germany on June 25-30 were women (13 women and five men).
Nobel
laureates meeting
At the
meeting where 40 Nobel laureates met more than 600 young scientists from all
over the world, Shumo and her Lebanese colleague RashaShraim, a doctoral
candidate at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, were sitting side by side with
four laureates on the main panel discussion about diversity and merits in
science.
“I think
we have reached a time where scientists are well educated in all aspects and
discrimination is way behind us. We reached the point where whomever is
qualified fits the position and gets the opportunity,” Natalie Youssef, a
Lebanese doctoral student in biomedical sciences at the American University of
Beirut, told Al-Monitor. [At the same time] the success for every woman and
even for men in science and outside science definitely depends on family
support.”
Youssef
said that she is lucky because her husband takes care of their child when she
is at science events like the Lindau meeting.
Her
mother's support was a key to success for Egyptian researcher Amira Salim who
hails from a Bedouin community in MarsaMatrouh, 440 kilometers (273 miles)
northwest of Cairo. It wasn’t easy for her to convince her father of her desire
to continue her postgraduate studies after she got a bachelor’s degree in
agricultural science from Alexandria University in 2015. Yet she persevered,
and with her mother's help her father agreed.
However,
Salim endured verbal discrimination, eventually causing her to stop her studies
in Egypt and look for an opportunity abroad.
“I have
unfortunately encountered professors who still believe that women should stay
at home taking care of housework,” she said.
Salim
received an opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in Italy, and she moved
immediately. She has lived there since 2018 and will finish her doctorate in
molecular microbiology from the University of Sassari by the end of the year.
“Women
in Egypt always need to make so much effort just to convince others that we are
capable and qualified enough to take part in the science field,” she told
Al-Monitor. “Such behavior drives us as women to give more and more and always
prove ourselves in our field,” Salim said.
Amin
el-Meligi, professor of physical chemistry at the National Research Center in
Egypt and former head of research and vice president for academic affairs at
the University of Technology in Bahrain, believes that “discrimination is a
very bad word. It means that there is no humanity.”
However,
he argues that discrimination against women nowadays is not the same if we
compare it with the past.
“We
can’t say this is a general trend but there are some instances related to
salary and promotion; this is a worldwide phenomenon by the way,” he told
Al-Monitor.
Meligi,
who spent more than 30 years working in labs in many countries — including
Egypt, the United Kingdom and Bahrain — noted an increase in the number of
women in labs during the past two decades.
“In
1992, for example, mainly men worked in my lab in Egypt, but now about 70% of
the staff are women,” he said. “I have seen a lot of females from Egypt,
Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia traveling for their undergraduate or graduate
studies as well,” he added, attributing this to a change in culture and mindset
in the region.
Improvement
in Middle East?
According
to a 2021 UNESCO report, one in three researchers is a woman, and that ratio
could be much higher now. However, men and women still do not enjoy equal
opportunity and equal pay in the workplace: only 12% of members of national
science academies are women, a United Nations report from February revealed.
In its
report, the UN called on countries “to adopt gender-transformative policies and
programs that level the playing field from the schoolground to the highest
levels of decision-making.”
In Saudi
Arabia, Asma Al Amoodi finished her doctorate in bioscience at King Abdullah
University of Science and Technology last month. She was one of three Saudi
women participating in the Lindau meeting. “I discovered that the women in the
West still also face discrimination in science,” she told Al-Monitor.
“Not
like us,” she said, adding that she felt more efforts were being deployed in
Saudi Arabia to eliminate discrimination. She referred to Saudi Arabia's de
facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who pushed for reforms and
revamp of its ultraconservative image.
Since
his rise to power in 2017, women have been allowed to drive and travel abroad
without a male guardian, while female participation in the workforce reached
37% in 2022, according to January data by the kingdom’s Ministry of Human
Resources and Social Development, compared to 17% in 2016. Most recently, the
oil-rich country sent its first female astronaut on a space mission in May.
This is
why Amoodi believes that supporting women in education is the key to ending
gender-based discrimination in the science field.
French
scientist Emmanuelle Charpentier, 2020 Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, sees a
number of compelling movements happening in the Middle East. “A lot of females
are university professors. Maybe because it’s less attractive for men to work
at universities,” she told Al-Monitor. “It is important for these countries to
consider that women are the majority of the next teachers and researchers as
well, and that’s why I hope it’s going to evolve.”
At the
same time, she sends a message to young female scientists around the world: “My
message to them is to continue what you have decided to do, to try your best to
not be hindered and indicted by your society and move forward as difficult as
it is.”
“If we
look back in history and what has happened to women and what they endured, we
find some hope for them to continue on their journey regardless of the
obstacles we, as women, face,” Shumo concluded.
Source: al-monitor.com
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/07/discrimination-will-not-stop-us-how-arab-women-scientists-are-fighting-learn
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Morocco
To Make History As The First Arab Football Team To Play In A Women's World Cup
Sat 22
Jul 2023
Months
after the men's groundbreaking run to the semi-finals in Qatar, Morocco's women
will make World Cup history of their own on Monday.
When the
Atlas Lionesses face two-times former champions Germany in Melbourne they will
be the first Arab team to play at a Women's World Cup.
It has
not gone unnoticed in a country mad about football and still buzzing from what
their men did at the Qatar World Cup in December.
"They
will do just as well as the men," said 14-year-old Rabab Tougha after a
training session at the football school of the local club in the Casablanca
neighborhood of Avadas.
It is
her ambition to play the sport internationally, "especially after what the
Atlas Lionesses have done".
Morocco's
women enjoyed a surprise run to the final of last year's Africa Cup of Nations,
which they hosted, before losing 2-1 to South Africa in front of over 50,000
spectators in Rabat.
That was
followed by the men's remarkable performance in Qatar when they became the
first African and first Arab team to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup,
where they lost to France.
Those
performances have encouraged girls to take up football and the number of
players registered at the Avadas academy -- for youths who often come from
underprivileged families -- has increased to more than 50 from about 10 a year
ago.
"The
girls are motivated and want to learn how to play football" after seeing
the success of the men's and women's national teams, coach Mohamed Jidi told
AFP.
"We
can see the impact. We had a girl who played rugby, others who played
basketball or did athletics. But then they all wanted to start playing football
because they decided there was a future in it."
Morocco
are in Group H at the Women's World Cup and as well as Germany will face South
Korea and Colombia.
They are
one of the lowest-ranked teams in Australia and New Zealand and it would be a
surprise if they get out of the group, but captain GhizlaneChebbak knows the
men have raised expectations.
"Moroccan
fans have that passion, as do us players, and we will give everything to make
them satisfied," she told FIFA.com.
"The
men have shown us that nothing is impossible if you fight for it and you stay
focused," she added.
That
women's football is growing in popularity in Morocco is thanks to a development
strategy put in place in 2020.
"The
federation invested in women's football. Since then, mentalities have changed
and the interest and evolution are palpable," Khadija Illa, president of
the Moroccan women's league, told AFP.
In 2021,
the North African kingdom set up a two-division professional women's league
with 42 clubs, each of which committed to also launching teams at Under-17 and
Under-15 level.
The
Royal Moroccan Football Federation picks up 70 percent of the expenses of each
club, where players earn a minimum salary of 3,500 dirhams ($360) per month in
the top flight and 2,500 dirhams in the second tier. The average monthly salary
in Morocco is $400.
"Its
success is reliant on a sporting policy that works and financial help."
said Illa, a former professional player.
"The
more you invest, the better results you get."
Source: khaleejtimes.com
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/sports/morocco-motivated-to-make-history-as-the-first-arab-team-to-play-in-a-womens-world-cup
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Mom Of
Castle Rock Teen Accused Of Trying To Join Islamic State Blames FBI "Encouragement"
JULY 21,
2023
The
mother of a Colorado 18-year-old who is accused of trying to become a fighter
for the Islamic State group says her son has never had the motivation to follow
through with things.
Deanna
Meyer, of Castle Rock, testified Thursday that she does not think her son,
Devin Meyer, would have taken action to travel to the Middle East were it not
for the support of people he recently met who shared his views. That included
FBI informants posing as Islamic State facilitators.
"I
bet my life he would never do that without that encouragement," Deanna
Meyer said in federal court in an unsuccessful attempt to convince a judge to
allow her son to stay with her while he is being prosecuted. He was arrested
July 14 as he tried to board a plane to Turkey and has been charged with
attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist
organization.
Deanna
Meyer was responding to a question from Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter
about whether her son, who has autism, understood the gravity of the situation,
given his condition.
She
reached out to law enforcement last year about Devin when he was 17 because she
was concerned about the escalation of his "radical Islamic beliefs"
and openly expressing violent intentions, according to court documents. The FBI
was later notified, it said.
While
authorities said Devin Meyer had threatened to kill his mother, she told
Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter that he had stopped making threats in
September, about two months before he turned 18.
Partly
because of the previous threats, Neureiter said he could not allow him to live
with her, ordering him instead to remain in custody.
"It's
not a risk I'm prepared to take," Neureiter said.
Soon
after Meyer turned 18, he began communicating online with the first paid
informant, whom he believed was an Islamic State facilitator, his arrest
affidavit said. Later that informant introduced Meyer to a second informant,
who presented themselves as an ISIS travel facilitator, it said.
Assistant
U.S. Attorney Melissa Hindman argued that Devin Meyer was committed to radical
Islam by the time he started talking to them and was determined to become a
fighter for the Islamic State. She said he had done his own research on his
plan and kept up with news about the Islamic State, including knowing when one
leader of the group was killed and knowing that he needed to then declare his
allegiance to the new leader. While expressing some anxiety about going ahead
with his plan, he did anyway, she said.
"He
tried to board the plane thinking ISIS would be greeting him with open arms on
the other end," Hindman said.
She said
Meyer also communicated with others besides the informants — a man in the
United Kingdom who supports ISIS who had been previously convicted and sentenced
and then recently rearrested for supporting terrorism but did not identify him.
The U.S.
Attorney's Office declined to comment on his identity.
Source: cbsnews.com
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/devin-meyer-mother-colorado-teen-accused-trying-join-islamic-state-blames-fbi-encouragement-castle-rock/
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CAIR
Calls on University of Kentucky Police to Probe Detention of Muslim Woman,
Forced Removal of Hijab
Ismail
Allison
(WASHINGTON,
D.C., 7/21/23) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s
largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is calling on the
University of Kentucky Police Department and the Lexington-Fayette Division of
Community Corrections to launch a transparent investigation of the alleged mistreatment
of a Muslim woman who was detained over a minor issue and refused the right to
wear her Islamic head scarf, or hijab, in detention.
All
charges against the woman were dismissed prior to an arraignment
yesterday.
That
Muslim woman, an immigrant physician of Iraqi heritage, reports that she was
stopped Monday night by University of Kentucky police allegedly because she did
not have her headlights on.
She told
CAIR she was taken to jail because of an issue related to a late registration
from a couple years ago, which she said she delayed due to COVID. She was
reportedly handcuffed and held for hours and forced to take her hijab off for
the booking photo. The Muslim woman reports that she was asked several times
what her religion is.
In a
statement, the woman said: “Once the handcuffs were put on they wanted to
search me and asked me to take off my headscarf. This was not done in a private
room, this was done in the public hall where everybody could see me. I refused
this and requested that this would happen in a more private place. I was then
brought to another room which had a window door and put on a toilet were there
was a half wall which would still not cover my head. I was forced to sit bent
over for a long time which I couldn’t hold very long. Then I used my dress as a
headscarf to be able to sit straight and without back pain….I truly feel
terrorized, terrified and abused by those officers”
She says
she was never told she was under arrest and does not recall being read her
Miranda rights. Ultimately, she was released on $100 bond, which she says was
taken out of her purse.
In a
letter sent earlier this week to University of Kentucky Police Department
Chief
Joseph Monroe and Chief of Corrections Colonel Scott Colvin, CAIR National
Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in part:
“We
respectfully request that your agencies investigate this reported incident
involving [the detained Muslim woman] and establish clear policies permitting
people of faith to keep their hijabs and other religiously required hair
coverings on while in detention.”
He noted
that CAIR offers both a “Law Enforcement Official’s Guide to The Muslim
Community” and “A Correctional Institution’s Guide to Islamic Religious
Practices” designed to prevent such incidents from occurring.
Mitchell
added that CAIR has intervened in a number of such cases to defend the
religious rights of detainees.
Earlier
this year, CAIR’s New jersey chapter welcomed the New Jersey Department of
Corrections’ (NJDOC) new policy allowing incarcerated people to wear religious
head coverings for intake mugshots that are publicly available.
In 2022,
CAIR’s Michigan chapter settled three similar lawsuits for Muslim women who
were forced to remove their hijab for identification photos, one against the
city of Detroit and a second one against the Michigan Department of Corrections
(MDOC), the third against the City of Ferndale.
Video:
CAIR-MI Files Notice of Claim Against Sheriff’s Office for Hijab Removal During
Booking Photo
In 2021,
CAIR’s New York chapter announced a settlement that ended the Yonkers Police
Department’s discriminatory “hijab removal” policy.
In 2018,
CAIR’s Greater Los Angeles Area office announced a settlement with Ventura
County and the county’s Sheriff’s Office on behalf of a Muslim woman who had
her religious head scarf (hijab) removed by Ventura County sheriff’s deputies
while in custody.
CAIR’s
mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote
justice, and empower American Muslims.
Source:
cair.com
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-calls-on-university-of-kentucky-police-div-of-community-corrections-to-probe-detention-of-muslim-woman-forced-removal-of-hijab/
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Women's
Beauty Salons Banned for Neglect of Guidelines: Ministry
22 May
2023
The
Ministry of Vice and Virtue said that women's beauty salons were banned because
they neglected to bring into effect the guidelines provided by the ministry.
The
ministry said that the guidelines were sent four months ago to the women's
beauty salons but the guideline were not followed.
TOLOnews
saw a copy of the guidelines which have the following instructions:
- The
female make-up artists should perform prayer during the prayer time.
- They
should observe the Islamic hijab.
- Their
makeup materials should not cause a break in Wudhu (ablution).
- The
women should take ablution before taking makeup.
- There
should be no security camera inside the women's beauty salon.
- The
men are not allowed to be present in the women's beauty salon.
- The
place for ablution should be provided in every woman's beauty salon.
- The
female make-up artists should not go to the houses of the clients.
“We have
allowed them in whatever condition for several months but as they didn’t
fulfill the guidelines in the letter and it was not implemented, they were
closed,” said Mohammad Akif Mahajar, a spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and
Virtue.
Meanwhile,
the union of women's beauty salons said that the Ministry of Vice and Virtue
had no plan to monitor the implementation of the guideline after it was
submitted to the women beauty salons. The union said that the order to close
the women’s beauty salons was made abruptly.
“They
told us and we coordinated it with the female make-up artists that Tato should
not be performed in your salons… the clients should not be without hijab and
observe hijab inside your salons,” said Meena Sultani, head of the union of
women's beauty salons in Kabul.
“We are
Muslim. We prayed and we took ablution. We don’t charge our clients with
expensive prices,” said Wazhma, a woman's beauty salon owner.
However,
the female make-up artists said that they are ready to implement any kind of
guidelines provided by the Islamic Emirate, but their shops should not be
closed.
“They
should have done a survey and checked the beauty salons and monitored who does
not observe the 14 principle guidelines, and those who were not implementing
it, should have been held accountable,” said Sadaf, a female make-up artist.
“I call
on the Islamic Emirate to give us a chance. Those who fulfill the guidelines,
should be allowed to work as they are the breadwinners of their families and
those who don’t fulfill it, their shops should be closed,” said Mahtab, a
female makeup artist.
According
to the union of female makeup artists, more than 50,000 workers who are working
in around 12,000 women's beauty salons, are expected to lose their jobs if the
order goes into effect.
Source: tolonews.com
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-184285
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Iran’s
women’s football coach Azmoun satisfied with Russia warm-up matches
July 22,
2023
TEHRAN –
Iran’s women’s football team head coach Maryam Azmoun says that two friendly
matches against Russia will help them to prepare well for the Olympic
Tournament Paris 2024 qualification.
Iran are
drawn along with Australia, Chinese Taipei and the Philippines in Group A.
Azmoun’s
girls lost to Russia twice in Kazan and Moscow. The Persians suffered a 4-0
loss in their first match and also lost 2-0 in their second match.
“The
matches helped us to see our weaknesses. It was a good test for us to
strengthen ourselves for the Olympic qualification,” Azmoun said in an
interview with Iran football federation’s website.
“We are
happy to play with powerhouse Russia, who are ranked 24 in FIFA ranking. To
play with weaker opponents will not be helpful for us,” she added.
“These
matches helped my team to develop their self-confidence. I am sure these kinds
of the warm-up matches can be helpful for our teams,” Azmoun concluded.
Source: tehrantimes.com
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/487091/Iran-s-women-s-football-coach-Azmoun-satisfied-with-Russia-warm-up
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/tahirih-persian-theologian-mosque/d/130281