New
Age Islam News Bureau
18
December 2020
• Prosecutor’s Office in Saudi Arabia Seeks Maximum Jail Sentence for Women's Rights Activist Loujain al-Hathloul
•
Iran Transfers Ninth Female Dissident to Harsher Prison
•
Saudi Women Make Up 6% of Engineers In Labour Market
•
Women Inspectors Document 4,000 Violations in Riyadh
•
Yemeni Woman Makes Epic Eight-Month Journey To Reach UK
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-56-countries-experienced-social/d/123805
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Women in 56 Countries Experienced Social Hostilities for Clothing Deemed Too Religious – Or Too Secular
BY
VIRGINIA VILLA
DECEMBER
16, 2020
(Rolf Vennenbernd/DPA/AFP via Getty Images)
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Religious
restrictions around the world often target women, who in many countries face
censure because their clothing is considered too religious – or not religious
enough. These restrictions frequently take the form of social harassment by
individuals or groups, but also sometimes involve official government actions.
Women
in 56 countries experienced social hostilities – that is, harassment from
individuals or groups – due to clothing that was deemed to violate religious or
secular dress norms, according to the sources analyzed for a recent Pew
Research Center study of 198 nations. Social harassment can range from verbal
abuse to physical violence or killings motivated at least in part by the
target’s religious identity; incidents for this measure took place between 2016
and 2018.
Meanwhile,
women in 61 countries faced government restrictions on dress – specifically,
regulations on their head coverings. This measure covers rules that were in
place or incidents that occurred in 2018.
The
number of countries where women faced social hostilities and government-imposed
restrictions related to their dress has risen in the five most recent years of
the study.
Social
hostilities
In
42 of the 56 countries where sources indicated that social harassment took
place between 2016 and 2018, women were targeted for violating secular dress
norms, such as by wearing a hijab or other religious garb. In 19 countries,
women were harassed for not adhering to religious dress codes, such as by not
wearing head coverings or dressing in other ways deemed offensive to religious
norms. (In five countries in the study — Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel and
Russia — women experienced both types of harassment.)
In
four of the five regions covered in the study, social harassment for overly
religious clothing was more common than harassment for overly secular clothing.
The exception was the Middle East and North Africa, where women more commonly
faced harassment for clothing deemed too secular.
In
20 European countries, women were harassed for clothing not deemed secular
enough
Europe
had the most countries where women faced social hostilities for violating dress
norms, with incidents recorded in 20 countries, or 44% of the 45 nations in the
region. In all of these cases, Muslim women faced discrimination, physical
violence and other forms of abuse for wearing head coverings. In Denmark, for
example, a driver refused to cede a parking space to a Muslim woman in 2018
because she was wearing a headscarf. And in Germany, a woman hit a Muslim woman
and tried to remove her headscarf.
The
Asia-Pacific region had the second-most countries with such incidents, with
women facing harassment for violating dress codes in 14 of the region’s 50
nations, or 28%. In 10 of these countries, women were harassed for clothing
that was deemed too religious, whereas in six countries, they experienced
harassment for attire that was considered too secular (in two countries – India
and Indonesia – both types of harassment occurred). In Malaysia, for instance,
police in 2018 arrested a man who admitted to assaulting a woman because she
was not wearing a headscarf. And in Kyrgyzstan in 2016, billboards sparked
debate over religious dress in the country by displaying photos of women in
various forms of Islamic dress with the caption “Oh, poor nation, where are we
headed?” The displays were seen as a commentary on the spread of foreign and
overly religious dress customs in the country.
Women
faced social hostilities for violating dress codes in seven countries in
sub-Saharan Africa and six countries in the Americas. In sub-Saharan Africa,
women were harassed for violating secular dress codes in four countries, and
for violating religious dress codes in three. In parts of Kenya, for example, a
teacher’s union reported in 2018 that female teachers were required to wear
hijabs, while in Liberia, Muslim women reportedly experienced workplace
discrimination for wearing headscarves.
In
the Americas, all instances of harassment targeted women who wore clothing
considered too religious. In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, a Muslim teacher
at a Hindu school in 2018 was told to remove her hijab or leave the premises.
And in Canada in 2016, a woman spit on and pulled the hijab and hair of a
Muslim shopper in a supermarket in Ontario.
In
the Middle East and North Africa, eight of 20 countries saw harassment for
overly secular attire, while two countries saw it for overly religious
clothing. In Israel, for instance, a group of Orthodox Jewish men in 2018 were
seen chasing and yelling at a girl for dressing that they perceived as
“immodest.” In Qatar, a Muslim woman in
2016 was criticized for appearing on a news program without a hijab.
Government
restrictions
Official
rules about the wearing of religious symbols – such as hijabs for women and
beards for men – are another form of religious restriction observed around the
world. In the vast majority of countries where such restrictions were recorded
in 2018, they targeted head coverings for women.
Every
region had at least some rules about women’s headdress. Europe had the most
countries where women’s head coverings were restricted by the government, with
instances in 21 of 45 countries. In Norway, for example, the government passed
a ban on face-covering clothing at educational institutions, preventing
students and teachers from wearing niqabs and burqas in schools and daycare
centers. The country continued to ban religious headwear and other religious
symbols from being worn with police uniforms, but allowed religious headwear in
the military.
Governments
regulated women’s headdress in 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, nine in
the Middle East and North Africa, nine in sub-Saharan Africa and six in the
Americas. In Australia, for instance, a judge did not allow a woman to wear a
niqab in the court’s public spectator gallery during her husband’s trial on
charges of terrorism. In Turkey, by contrast, students and parents claimed a
school principal in the city of Urfa threatened that female students would
receive failing grades if they did not wear head coverings.
In
some countries, governments have specific rules for the type of religious
clothing women should wear. In Iran, for example, the government requires all
women to adhere to “Islamic dress” standards in public, including covering
their hair and bodies in loose clothing.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/16/women-in-many-countries-face-harassment-for-clothing-deemed-too-religious-or-too-secular/
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Prosecutor’s
Office in Saudi Arabia Seeks Maximum Jail Sentence for Women's Rights Activist
Loujain al-Hathloul
16
Dec 2020
Loujain al-Hathloul has
been detained several times for defying the ban on women driving and for
campaigning for an end to the male guardianship system, which makes women
second-class citizens. Photograph: Reuters
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The
state prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia is seeking the maximum possible jail
sentence for the women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, raising the
possibility that the campaigner could face 20 years behind bars after a verdict
in her case is announced next week.
In
a hearing on Wednesday at Saudi Arabia’s notorious terrorism court, the judge
said he would deliver a verdict and possible sentencing in the case on Monday,
said Hathloul’s sister Lina, who also shared a copy of the prosecution’s
indictment with the Guardian.
Later
on Wednesday night, however, Loujain’s parents, who act as her legal team,
received a text message summoning them to Riyadh’s criminal court on Thursday
morning. It is not yet clear what this development means for Hathloul’s case,
which was transferred from the criminal court to the terrorism court last
month.
“My
sister must be released … All she has done is ask for women to be treated with
the dignity and freedom that should be their right. For that, the Saudi
authorities are seeking the maximum sentence available under the law – 20 years
in prison,” said Lina al-Hathloul.
“They
say she is a terrorist – in reality she is a humanitarian, an activist and a
woman who simply wants a better fairer world.”
Hathloul,
31, is one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent human rights activists. She has
been arrested and detained several times for defying the country’s ban on women
driving and for campaigning for an end to the male guardianship system, which
makes women second-class citizens.
She
was kidnapped and arrested along with several other activists in May 2018, just
before the law on women driving was changed, in what was interpreted as a
message from the Saudi leadership that reform in the ultra-conservative kingdom
can only come from the top down.
Since
then, relatives say Hathloul has been sexually assaulted, tortured with
beatings and electric shocks, and held incommunicado for long periods of time.
Several hunger strike attempts have also led a UN women’s rights committee to
express alarm about her failing health.
After
being tried in Riyadh’s criminal court on spurious charges including
destabilising national security and working with foreign entities against the
state, Hathloul’s case was transferred in November to the specialised criminal
court (SCC).
Amnesty
International alleges that the secretive body routinely hands down lengthy jail
sentences and death sentences to those who defy the country’s absolute monarchy
and obtains confessions under torture.
“A
regime that sees women’s activism as terrorism is deeply broken. There is no
moral or legal case for [activists’] continued imprisonment, and their
prolonged incarceration is not even in the narrow interests of the Saudi
regime,” said Lucy Rae, a spokesperson for the human rights advocacy body Grant
Liberty, which campaigns on behalf of Saudi prisoners of conscience.
“Saudi
Arabia will never rehabilitate its reputation while it continues to imprison
and torture those who campaign for basic freedoms.”
Riyadh
has embarked on a series of wide-reaching social reforms since Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman was appointed heir to the throne in 2017: as well as
allowing women to drive, the country’s notorious morality police have been
reined in and women now have the freedom to travel without the permission of a
male guardian.
The
reforms, however, have been accompanied by a mounting state crackdown on
dissenting voices.
While
Donald Trump cultivated a personal relationship with Prince Mohammed,
supporting the heir to the throne’s intervention in Yemen’s war and defending
him against allegations of involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, president-elect Joe Biden has promised to re-evaluate US-Saudi ties.
In
a sign the kingdom may be doubling down on its repressive tactics, however, on
Tuesday, the prominent dual-national Saudi-American doctor Walid Fitaihi was
sentenced to six years in prison on charges that included getting US
citizenship without approval and sympathising with an unnamed terrorist
organisation.
Riyadh
has not publicly commented on his case.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/16/saudi-prosecutor-seeks-maximum-jail-sentence-for-womens-rights-activist-loujain-al-hathloul
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Iran
Transfers Ninth Female Dissident to Harsher Prison
By
Michael Lipin, Ramin Haghjoo
December
18, 2020
WASHINGTON
- Iran has transferred a women’s rights activist from Tehran’s main prison to a
notorious women’s jail on the capital city’s outskirts, according to a relative, making
her the ninth female dissident to face harsher detention in Iran in recent
months.
Saba
Kord Afshari, a campaigner against Iran’s compulsory hijab (veil) for women in
public, was transferred from Evin prison to the quarantine section of Qarchak women’s prison on Dec. 9,
her sister, Sogand Kord Afshari, said in a series of recent
tweets.
In
a Tuesday tweet, Sogand Kord Afshari wrote that her jailed sister’s last phone
call from Qarchak’s quarantine ward was on Saturday and since then there had
been no further news about her.
Iranian
authorities arrested Kord Afshari in June of last year and later sentenced her
to 15 years in prison on national security charges for her peaceful act of
removing her hijab in public as part of a women’s right’s campaign against the
Islamist-ruled nation’s compulsory hijab laws.
In
a Dec. 11 interview with VOA Persian from Iran, a knowledgeable source said
Kord Afshari’s family was concerned about risks to her already fragile health
from being placed in Qarchak’s quarantine ward.
“They
worry that she will contract the coronavirus while in quarantine,” the source
said.
Kord
Afshari, who is in her early 20s, has suffered from preexisting
gastrointestinal problems that worsened because of her imprisonment, according
to a source who spoke to VOA in October. The source said authorities had denied
her proper medical treatment while she had been detained at Evin.
Iranian
state media have been silent on Kord Afshari’s apparent transfer to Qarchak
prison. VOA cannot independently verify the circumstances of her detention
because it is barred from reporting inside Iran.
In
a Sept. 2 report about prisons in Iran, the Washington-based rights group the
Abdorrahman Boroumand Center said Qarchak’s quarantine ward was a holding area
for prisoners suspected of coronavirus infection and by early August housed
more than 30 such cases. The group said it sourced the information from
unpublished correspondence with Iran’s Human Rights Activist News Agency.
The
report also said most of Qarchak’s inmates are accused of drug-related crimes
and its living conditions are poor.
“Sanitary
conditions in the prison are substandard. Every day, [its] sewer system
overflows into the wards’ courtyards, filling the grounds with a terrible
stench that draws in swarms of insects,” the group said.
In
addition to apparently transferring Kord Afshari to a prison with poor
conditions, Iranian authorities also separated her from her mother, who had
been detained alongside her at Evin.
Authorities
arrested Kord Afshari’s mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, in July of last year and
detained her for several days for advocating on behalf of her daughter. Ahmadi
later was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison for national
security offenses and began serving her sentence at Evin on Feb. 20.
"Saba
has been separated from her mother, and this is a violation of human rights and
an example of the psychological torture of the two women and their family,”
said the source who spoke to VOA on December 11. The family also is concerned
about Ahmadi’s health, as she suffers from a thyroid problem that is aggravated
by nervous tension, the source added.
Mahmood
Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, told VOA
Persian that Iranian authorities typically transfer dissidents to prisons such
as Qarchak to put them under additional pressure.
“One
reason for transferring Kord Afshari from Evin to Qarchak and separating her
from her mother could be to pressure her into giving a televised confession or
to break her resistance,” he said.
Amiry-Moghaddam
said Kord Afshari is one of nine Iranian women transferred from Evin to Qarchak
in the past five months. The most prominent of the other dissidents is human
rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose transfer occurred Oct. 20.
Sotoudeh
has been jailed since June 2018 for her legal work
in defending other women’s rights activists
who were arrested for removing their hijabs in public. She has been serving a more
than 30-year sentence for national security offenses, according to rights
activists.
In
a message to VOA Persian, Abdorrahman Boroumand
Center executive director Roya Boroumand said Iranian authorities have another
motive for transferring dissidents such as Kord Afshari and Sotoudeh from Evin
to Qarchak.
She
said Evin ostensibly is meant to house detainees charged exclusively with
security-related crimes, whereas Kord Afshari and Sotoudeh also have been
charged with “spreading prostitution.”
“This
kind of distinction adds insult to injury,” Boroumand said. “It denies
political prisoners the right to be recognized as such and is most likely yet
another attempt to demean them.”
https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/voa-news-iran/iran-transfers-ninth-female-dissident-harsher-prison
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Saudi
Women Make Up 6% of Engineers In Labour Market
December
17, 2020
RIYADH
— The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development has revealed that
Saudi women engineers make up six percent of engineers in the labor market,
according to the data of the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI).
A
source in the ministry said that this percentage represents the size of female
engineering graduates compared to their male counterparts, and this percentage
could be higher due to the delay in granting accreditation of various
engineering specializations for girl students.
Speaking
to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, the ministry source said that this field is one of the
promising areas for Saudi women engineers in the future, especially in the wake
of the ministry’s recent decision to Saudize engineering professions.
The
source noted that Saudi female engineers can join their professions in five
majors and they are interior design, project engineer, architect, computer
electronics engineer, and general industrial engineer.
According
to the source, the ministry is seeking to raise the Saudization rates based on
the volume of male and female engineers graduating annually, and to monitor the
changes in the labor market with regular updates in order to maintain a balance
between supply and demand.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/601559
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Women
Inspectors Document 4,000 Violations in Riyadh
December
18, 2020
RIYADH
— Women inspection teams from the branch of the Ministry of Human Resources and
Social Development in the Riyadh region have documented around 4,000 violations
during their raids over the past six months.
The
women teams carried out more than 21,000 field visits, covering commercial
complexes, private schools, workshops, and women’s sports clubs, in addition to
some small women’s projects within the neighborhoods of the city of Riyadh and
various governorates of the region. The inspections focused on ensuring that
business owners adhere to commercial laws and regulations of the market.
Most
of the detected violations were pertaining to paragraphs 20 and 21 of the Labor
Law that prohibit employment of non-Saudi workers in occupations restricted to
Saudis and the employment of male workers in jobs restricted to Saudi female
workers. The teams also detected violations such as the absence of labor
contracts and medical insurance.
The
branch of the ministry stated that the work of inspectors is not limited to
detecting and filing violations, but also extends to professional counseling
for female employees in the private sector and answering their inquiries
regarding their rights and duties. It stressed that the inspection campaigns
carried out by the ministry’s branch, represented by the Women’s Inspection
Sector, continue throughout the year to ensure compliance with directives to
feminize and Saudize women’s accessory shops, as well as regulations of the
labor market.
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/601556
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Yemeni
Woman Makes Epic Eight-Month Journey To Reach UK
Diane
Taylor
8
Dec 2020
A
woman who crossed eight borders, two deserts and one sea to get to the UK to
claim asylum has spoken for the first time about her incredible journey.
The
29-year-old, who calls herself Noor, escaped from Yemen when her life was
threatened and travelled alone with only smugglers and other desperate migrants
for company en route. It is highly unusual for a woman from a country such as
Yemen to embark on this kind of journey unaccompanied.
She
was determined to flee not only because her own life was in danger but also in
the hope of rescuing her four children from the Yemen civil war once she had
reached safety.
Noor
was forced into marriage at the age of 14, but later managed to divorce her
husband and became a human rights campaigner, focusing on girls’ rights to
education and the right not to be forced into marriage as children.
Her
oldest daughter is at risk of child marriage in Yemen and she says time is
running out to bring her daughter and three younger sons to safety.
Yemen
has been described as one of the worst places in the world to be a woman and
has been ranked last for 13 consecutive years in the World Economic Forum
Global Gender Gap index.
Now
that she has arrived in the UK she wants to campaign against child marriage and
lack of rights for girls and women in Yemen.
“I
have been through a lot,” she says, describing her eight-month journey. She
fled Yemen when it became too dangerous to remain there because of the conflict
and her work as a human rights activist employed by a monthly youth magazine.
Noor’s
journey began on 14 November 2019 by plane and continued by Jeep through one
desert, then through another on foot before reaching Europe and crossing to the
UK by small boat from Calais in July 2020. She had passed through Egypt, Mauritania,
Mali, Algeria, Morocco, Spain and France.
She
was not able to take many possessions with her before leaving her four young
children in the care of family members, but packed two items – cash and battery
acid.
“I
sold all my gold jewellery and borrowed as much money as I could from friends
and family to pay all the different smugglers who helped me to move from one
country to another,” she said.
“As
well as the money I took with me I drained the acid from a car battery and
concealed it in an empty bottle of face cream. I decided that if any man
attacked me on my journey I could throw the acid at them to fend them off.”
Fortunately,
she did not need to use it.
There
were several points during her journey when she was sure she would never
achieve her dream of reaching the UK.
“We
were walking across the desert through the night. It was very dark. The
smugglers knew the route but I did not. I fell and injured my hand and legs and
became separated from the others. It is so cold at night in the desert I was
sure I would die. I clung on to a tree and by some miracle the smugglers found
me after three hours.”
She
said crossing from Algeria to Morocco was particularly difficult and it took
her 17 attempts.
“I
finally made it to Spain but suffered a lot of abuse so travelled to France. I
stayed by myself in a tent in Calais and paid out the last bit of my money to
smugglers there to get me to the UK. Altogether, I paid smugglers €17,000. The
smugglers said the boat was for 15 people but they crammed in 21. It started
filling with water. We thought we would drown but the UK coastguard rescued us.
I was lucky to cross at the first attempt and I was lucky to survive.”
Noor
said she was forced into a marriage at the age of 14. “My father forced me into
the marriage and my uncle falsified documents to say I was 18. Within a year I
had given birth to my first child, a daughter who is now almost the same age as
me when I was forced into marriage. I hope I can get her and my other children
out of Yemen before the same thing happens to my oldest daughter.”
Noor
has been accommodated in a hotel in London by the Home Office and is waiting
for her claim to be processed.
“I
am emotionally broken by everything that has happened on my journey to the UK.
I feel so weak. But what keeps me going is the need to deliver my message about
human rights and the importance of change for women and girls in Yemen.
“Maybe
I survived this terrible journey so I can deliver my message.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/08/yemeni-woman-makes-epic-eight-month-journey-to-reach-uk
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-56-countries-experienced-social/d/123805
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