US Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad Showed What Muslim Women Can Do in Sport
New Age
Islam News Bureau
19 September 2023
·
US Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad
Showed What Muslim Women Can Do in Sport
·
'The Strength of the Hijab':
Huge 16ft Sculpture Celebrating Muslim Women In The Black Country Takes Shape
·
Palestinian Female Activist Aya
Khateeb to Serve 4 Years in Israel for Raising Funds for The Hamas Movement
·
Amnesty Intl: Secondary Schools
Should Be Reopened for Afghan Girls
·
Chance Encounter with An
American Tourist Transforms, Maleesha Kharwa, Girl from Mumbai Slum into
Teenage Model, Internet Influencer
·
India: Women’s Reservation Bill
Passed in Lok Sabha
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/us-olympian-ibtihaj-sport/d/130713
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US Olympian Ibtihaj Muhammad Showed What
Muslim Women Can Do in Sport
US Olympian
Ibtihaj Muhammad
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By Iman Amrani
18 Sep 2023
Fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad made history in
2016 by being the first US-team member to compete in the Olympics wearing a
hijab.
It was a year that saw rising
anti-Muslim sentiment in the country with then-candidate Donald Trump’s talk of
a so-called “Muslim ban”.
In a new episode of Generation Sport,
Muhammad told Al Jazeera that this put an uncomfortable spotlight on her
compared to her teammates, as she was asked to weigh in on Trump and his views.
“I definitely had apprehension answering
these questions”, she said, “but I felt like this was my opportunity to dispel
a lot of stereotypes that people have about the Muslim community, about where
we’re from, what we look like”.
Prior to qualifying for the Rio
Olympics, where she won a bronze medal, Muhammad graduated from Duke University
where she was an active student athlete on the fencing team, and during her
time there decided to switch from studying medicine to studying International
Relations and African American studies.
“I feel like I owed it to the people who
came before me to learn about my own history, where I’m from, and these
beautiful moments that have created, not just me, but the existence of my
people”.
This engagement with African American
history as a student paved the way for Muhammad to create her own path as a
Muslim African American female athlete and find her purpose as an athlete.
“It’s easy to get caught up in this
hustle and bustle of life where it can be so self-focused,” she said. “Through
sport and learning about the history of people like Jackie Robinson or Muhammad
Ali and Althea Gibson, I had the opportunity to understand that my journey is
bigger than me and I can actually create meaningful change with my platform if
I choose to do so”.
In order to reach the Olympics in the
first place Muhammad had to break down external barriers that she faced due to
race and religion, but she has also spoken about having to overcome internal
struggles with depression and performance anxiety.
Since winning her medal at the 2016
Olympics she has published her autobiography in which she details these
experiences, as well as two children’s books and continued with her modest
clothing line, Louella, which caters to Muslim fashion-conscious women, and she
continues to use her platform to represent hijabi women.
“Historically, the world has been
obsessed with the hijab for whatever reason”, she says. “I think that it is
rooted in racism. I think it is rooted in Islamophobia. It’s not really about
the hijab”.
With her work and projects taking her
around the world, she also feels close to Muslim communities and their
struggles beyond the United States. She has less apprehension now about
speaking out on issues linked to Islamophobia and Muslim communities in other
countries.
“As a Muslim, you feel obviously very,
very attached to what’s happening in Palestine, what’s happening in China [with
the treatment of Uighur Muslims], or the recent police killing that happened in
France, I happened to be there”.
The killing of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk
by police in Paris on June 27 sparked riots in France this summer and made
Muhammad reflect on the issues of police brutality that have led to the
#BlackLivesMatter movement in the US too.
“I believe that if we start to care more
and try to force policy changes, and to hold the police accountable, we won’t
have this happen as often. But we have to do something to shake the room and
wake us up. This is not normal”.
Source: aljazeera.com
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2023/9/18/ibtihaj-muhammad-fencing-olympics-muslim-women-sport
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'The Strength of the Hijab': Huge 16ft Sculpture Celebrating Muslim Women In The Black Country Takes Shape
18 SEP 2023
Harry Leach
An incredible 16ft steel sculpture
celebrating Muslim women in the Black Country is taking shape. The huge piece
of artwork, named 'The Strength of the Hijab', will be moved to its permanent
home near Brasshouse Lane, Smethwick, later this year.
It depicts a Muslim woman wearing a
hijab with the words 'it is a woman's right to be loved and respected whatever
she chooses to wear' inscribed across its base. Artist Luke Perry said
inspiration for his piece came from speaking to Muslim women in the area who
felt "under-represented".
The talented sculptor said that -
despite a large Islamic following in Smethwick - they were saddened that
"nothing looked like them". The artwork will provide
"visibility" for Muslim women and show they too are "powerful,
beautiful and strong", he added.
Read more: Sculpture celebrating Black
History takes shape ahead of Birmingham and Smethwick trail
Mr Perry, who installed another steel
sculpture celebrating Black History along Birmingham Canal Old Line earlier
this year, told us: "I'm really pleased with it how it's turned out. But
the most important thing is the feedback we get - which so far has been great.
Huge sculpture celebrating Muslim women
to be installed in Smethwick
"The idea for the piece came from
speaking to Muslim women who I work with at Community Connect Foundation. I
asked them what artwork they would like to see and they talked about how they
have no representation; nothing that looked like them.
"They want to be able to show their
children things in the environment which makes them feel connected, important
and gives them pride. Not just endless history on rich white men.
"It's nice to represent the times.
It's about making people feel like they belong somewhere. In my artwork I like
to convey themes of 'home' and having pride in the community."
The stunning art piece, which has taken
six months to build, but is not quite complete, was approved by Sandwell
planners in August. It will be installed on land adjacent to Brasshouse Lane
and Galton Valley Pumping Station in early November.
Source: birminghammail.co.uk
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/black-country/huge-16ft-sculpture-celebrating-muslim-27735090
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Palestinian Female Activist Aya Khateeb
to Serve 4 Years in Israel for Raising Funds for The Hamas Movement
September 18, 2023
Palestinian female activist Aya Khateeb
turned herself into the Israeli Jalameh Prison Monday morning, September 18th,
2023, to serve 4-year sentence in prison after a verdict was issued by the
Israeli central court in Haifa against her.
Al-Khatib, from the town of Arara in the
occupied West Bank, was allegedly accused by the Israeli occupation of raising
funds for the benefit of the Hamas movement.
The prisoner had previously spent a year
and two months in the Israeli prison of Damon before the final sentence issued,
on August 15th, by the mentioned court, which convicted her of “raising funds
to support Palestinian resistance fighters belonging to Hamas movement.
Israel’s accusations are contrary to the
prisoners’ humanitarian work. Aya Khateeb has been active on her Facebook page
in collecting donations basically for sick children in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza who are being treated in Israeli hospitals. She also assisted many
humanitarian and social campaigns targeting Palestinian university students,
who face economic difficulties in paying their tuition fees.
On February 17th, 2020, she was arrested
and underwent several weeks of interrogation by the ‘Israeli intelligence
agency’ before being charged on March 18th, 2020, with recruiting funds to
support “terrorism”.
Al-Khateeb denied all these fake charges
against her and stressed that her humanitarian work was only in service of sick
children and in reaching out medicines and aid to humanitarian organizations.
She had been on trial for three and a
half years and was actually imprisoned for a year and four months before being
transferred to house arrest with electronic monitoring in the villages of Basma
Tab’un and Zalafa.
Before she turned herself in prison,
numerous activists and members of Khateeb’s family took part in a supportive
demonstration organized by the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens in
occupied Palestine, defending her and demanding of her release.
There are currently 37 Palestinian
female prisoners held under harsh conditions in Israeli occupation jails,
including mothers and activists.
Source: daysofpalestine.ps
https://daysofpalestine.ps/female-activist-detained-over-humanitarian-work/
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Amnesty Intl: Secondary Schools Should
Be Reopened for Afghan Girls
September 18, 2023
On the two-year anniversary of the ban
on girls' education in Afghanistan, Amnesty International has requested the
Islamic Emirate to take immediate action to reopen secondary schools for girls.
Amnesty International added that the
future and dreams of thousands of Afghan girls are at stake, and it's been two
years since the ban on girls' access to secondary school in Afghanistan and the
situation remains the same.
Today, Monday, September 18 (27
Sonbula), two years have passed since the Islamic Emirate banned girls from
attending secondary and high schools in Afghanistan.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
said that Monday marks two years since girls were banned from attending high
school in Afghanistan.
Guterres added that this is an
unjustifiable violation of human rights that inflicts long-lasting damage on
the entire country.
The Secretary-General of the UN added
that girls belong in school. "Let them back in," Guterres said.
Two years ago today, the Islamic Emirate
announced that the classes for girls above the sixth grade were closed until a
"second order."
Meanwhile, the acting minister of higher
education, Neda Mohammad Nadim, said that the Islamic Emirate is not against
modern science but is determined to take a better step in the field of
education and with the capacity-building of universities in the country.
Speaking at a meeting in Ghor province,
Nadim added that in the past twenty years, there has been much distance between
religious schools and universities, and the Islamic Emirate is working to
remove these distances.
In these two years, the Islamic Emirate
has emphasized the need to create a solution to reopen schools and universities
for girls, but so far the solution has not been universal.
Source: tolonews.com
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-185147
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Chance Encounter with An American
Tourist Transforms, MaleeshaKharwa, Girl from Mumbai Slum into Teenage Model,
Internet Influencer
September 19, 2023
MUMBAI: Three years ago an inquisitive
American tourist wandered into a waterfront slum in Mumbai and met a tiny,
smiley girl.
MaleeshaKharwa is now 15, still tiny,
and with the same winning smile, and her family still has hutment on a
shoreline strewn with garbage, but they now also rent a one room apartment,
with its own toilet and running water, just a short distance away.
In March, a luxury Indian cosmetics
brand Forest Essentials chose Maleesha as the face of its Yuvati campaign
celebrating young Indian women.
Before that, she shared a cover of
Cosmopolitan India magazine that bore the strap line: "Guts! Guts!
Guts!"
Maleesha hopes these successes will be
the springboard to a career as a model or a dancer, though she intends to
concentrate on her studies until she finishes school.
"I feel good, because I look
different on camera and in real life," Maleesha told a Reuters
photographer at her home, surrounded by poster-covered walls.
"Now many people recognise me and
click pictures. I feel very proud of myself at that moment," she said,
before adding that on some days she feels people take too many photographs.
Her story has drawn comparisons to the
Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire set in Mumbai.
And her breakthrough reflects gradually
changing attitudes in a country where advertising, popular culture and
Bollywood films glorify fair-skin as an ideal of beauty.
Forest Essentials must have seen
something similar to what Robert Hoffman saw, when the American actor and
choreographer posted videos on Instagram and YouTube of time spent with girl
and her family in 2020. Cheeky and polite, Maleesha talks in a voice that
bursts with happiness, belying the hardship she's known, having lost her mother
at a young age, leaving her father to juggle his day job while raising two
children.
Knowing the power of the Internet,
Hoffman helped her launch a "Go Fund Me" campaign.
Since then, Maleesha has become a social
media influencer, using the hashtag 'the princess from the slum' in some of her
posts. At the last count her Instagram account had 367,000 followers, and
rising. – REUTERS
Source: nst.com.my
https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2023/09/957180/chance-encounter-transforms-girl-mumbai-slum-teenage-model-internet
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India: Women’s Reservation Bill Passed
InLok Sabha
19th September 2023
Syeda Faiza Kirmani
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the
second day of the special Parliamentary session, announced that the Women’s
Reservation Bill was given a nod in the key Union cabinet meeting that was held
yesterday.
In his first speech at the new
Parliament, PM Modi announced the Women’s Reservation Bill that reverses 33
percent quota for women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
After the Bill was introduced in the Lok
Sabha by the minister of law and justice Arjun Ram Meghwal, it was passed
unanimously by a voice vote.
The Bill has been tabled several times
in the last 27 years but was stopped repeatedly, The Bill was last brought up
in 2010 and was passed in the Rajya Sabha, but the bill lapsed as it could not
be passed in the Lok Sabha.
The bill will be applicable for 15 years
and the number of women in the Parliament will rise to from 82 to 181.
As per a report by NDTV, the Bill will
come into effect after a delimitation exercise with provisions for 1/3 quota
for SC and ST candidates.
Source: siasat.com
https://www.siasat.com/pm-modi-announces-womens-reservation-bill-in-lok-sabha-2700129/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/us-olympian-ibtihaj-sport/d/130713