Women Lawyers Can’t Appear With Face Veil: J&K HC
New Age Islam News Bureau
24 December 2024
· Women Lawyers Can’t Appear With Face Veil: J&K HC
· Turkey's Environmental Activist, NejlaIşık, Among BBC's 100 Inspiring Women
· Kremlin Denies Reports Assad's British-Born Wife, Asma Al-Assad, Has Filed For Divorce
· Women Rally For Equal Rights In Syria After Assad’s Fall To Islamists
· Iran: UN Experts Condemn Escalating Persecution of Baha’i Women
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-lawyers-appear-face-veil/d/134124
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Women Lawyers Can’t Appear With Face Veil: J&K HC
Fayaz Wani
24 Dec 2024
SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has held that women advocates cannot appear before the court with their face covered. Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi cited provisions under the Bar Council of India (BCI) while making the observations in the order dated December 13.
The order is related to an incident on November 27 when a woman identifying herself as an advocate named Syed Ainain Qadri refused to remove her veil when Justice Rahul Bharti, who was hearing the case then, asked her to do so. The woman claimed it was her right to appear with face covered, adding the court can’t force her to remove the veil.
Following this, Justice Bharti did not entertain her appearance as counsel saying the court was unable to confirm her identity. The bench also warned the petitioners the woman purportedly represented that their case could be dismissed if proper representation was not ensured.
The court then proceeded to adjourn the case to another date and sought a report from the Registrar General on the rules of dress code for lady advocates. The Registrar submitted the report on December 5.
After examining the Registrar’s report, the court held that the rules prescribed by the Bar Council of India do not mention any such right.
However, the court did not go further into the matter as the lawyer chose not to appear again. Later, another lawyer stepped in to represent the petitioners, whom Justice Kazmi heard before reserving the case for judgment on December 6.
The petition was dismissed on December 13 after the court found there was an alternative remedy available.
Source: newindianexpress.com
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2024/Dec/24/women-lawyers-cant-appear-with-face-veil-jk-hc
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Turkey's Environmental Activist, NejlaIşık, Among BBC's 100 Inspiring Women
23 December 2024
Image by Arzu Geybullayeva on Canva using screenshots from +90 official on TikTok and Akbelen ilk değil | Ağaçlar kimin için kesiliyor? on YouTube. Fair use.
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Every year, the BBC announces a list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world. This year, in the category of “Climate Pioneers,” is NejlaIşık, the head of Ikizkoy village from Turkey. The village and its women were at the heart of an environmental campaign against deforestation in the Akbelen forest in Muğla province.
İkizköy village
İkizköy village is situated near the Akbelen forest in Turkey's southwestern province of Muğla. Since 2019, residents of the village have been trying to prevent deforestation in the Akbelen forest but have met with a crackdown.
In July 2023, two companies — Limak Holding and İÇTAŞ Enerji — with ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) moved to cut down trees in the Akbelen forest. This followed the decision by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to hand some 740 decares (740,000 square meters) of forest land over to YK Energy — a joint company set up by Limak and İÇTAŞ — to mine for lignite in April 2021.
Shortly after the destruction of the forest began, a group of women from İkizköy village became the symbols of the local resistance. Among them, was NejlaIşık. In an interview with Fayn Studio, a Turkish online media outlet, Işık said making it to the list gave the community renewed hope and an opportunity to have the world hear of their struggle. She said before the forest was destroyed, “We had a dream-like village. They cut our wings and made us suffer. I wish, instead, that our forest was kept alive, and I was not on that list. We really believed that we could save our forest, fought hard, and did not give up, but with those trees, they also cut our happiness to live.”
During local elections in March 2024, Işık was elected as the village's first woman mukhtar or the village head.
Business interests
In Turkey, preserving green spaces is not a priority for the ruling party, which has no sound environmental policy.
The crackdown in 2013 against a group of environmentalists trying to prevent the destruction of Gezi Park was a defining moment, marking the AKP's anti-environmental turn. Since then, scores of protests have erupted across Turkey, often organized by local residents trying to protect the remaining green spaces and prevent the expansion of power plants. However, with a government that lacks any green vision, prioritizes the economy at the expense of the environment, and allows companies to fill their coffers at the expense of regular citizens, it is a struggle that is here to stay.
The deforestation in the Akbelen forest that began in July 2023 was a brazen example of this. The companies behind the forest destruction refused to comply with a court order that suspended the project in the first place.
The scale of destruction of forest areas over the last 10 years in Muğla was documented by one local media news platform, Fayn Studio, with a time-lapse video showing the gradual deforestation.
Meanwhile, AKP party ally, the National Movement party (MHP) at the time, accused the residents of the village of being provocateurs. In a statement, the leader of the MHP, DevletBahçeli, lashed out at the protesters, describing them as criminals and terrorists trying to “destroy the inner peace” at Akbelen. Ironically, the residents and all those who joined them accused the ruling government of doing the same.
Out of 35 coal-fired power plants worldwide, three are operating in Muğla — Yatağan (in operation since 1982), Yeniköy (in operation since 1986), and Kemerköy (in operation since 1993). All three were privatized in 2014. Yeniköy and Kemerköy were purchased by YK Energy, a joint company set up by Limak Holding and İÇTAŞ Enerji. Both Limak and İÇTAŞ are known for their ties to the ruling government.
Since taking over plant management, the companies have done little to address the devastating health and environmental implications of the plants. Local residents have documented these effects extensively in local and international reports. These implications also did not stop the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources from launching a new regulation in March 2022 that opened the natural olive groves in the area to development and green-lights mining activities for the power plants.
The same month, the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization, and Climate Change made amendments, for a fourth time, to a regulation governing protected natural areas (national parks, nature parks, environmentally protected zones, and wetlands), opening these areas for mining and construction. These decisions were announced amid an ongoing court case filed by the residents of İkizköy village. Dismissive of the protests by residents, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry handed over the 740 decares of forest land for lignite mining.
In a statement signed by 16 environmental non-governmental organizations at the time, the signatories said, “Deforestation should not be allowed for the continuity of thermal power plants, which cause premature deaths and are one of the main causes of the climate crisis. Fighting the climate crisis is possible by working with nature, not against it. We cannot sacrifice forests, which account for more than half of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions we have caused in the last 10 years, for the sake of coal power plants that threaten natural areas, climate, and the lives of all living things.”
In recent years, Turkey has been hit by a series of natural disasters and environmental crises such as drought, wildfires, floods, and mudslides, and in February 2023, a devastating earthquake. Reports of forest fires have been making headlines each summer. Experts say that while climate change or excessive weather conditions may have had a role to play, these disasters were also the result of poor planning and incorrect decisions made at the government level.
According to the Climate Transparency Turkey report, Turkey continues to generate more than 30 percent of its electricity through coal. The report adds, “Despite the decrease in coal-powered generation in 2021–2022, Turkey has no intention to phase out coal and has approximately 20.4 GW of new coal capacity in the pipeline, placing it sixth globally. In June 2022, the first block of the China-financed 1.3 GW coal power plant opened in Hunutlu. While the coal capacity pipeline decreased by 63 percent in comparison to 2020, to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or achieve Turkey’s goal of net zero emissions by 2053, no new coal power plants should be built.”
Turkey only ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement, which set a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in October 2021, five years after signing the agreement. At the time, Turkey also announced its goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2053.
According to Climate Action Tracker, the country's efforts to reach the Paris Accord's goals are “critically insufficient.” And ratifying the Paris Agreement was not done with pure intentions. The decision came shortly after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received guarantees of financial support from France, Germany, the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, according to reports by Politico and Reuters. Previously, Ankara said the reason it had not signed the agreement was unfair classification. Turkey was ranked as an Annex I group country — a “developed” or “industrialized” country — which prevented it from seeking funding, unlike nations ranked as “developing.”
For Işık, the struggle continues. “This is a battle for the right to live in peace in our small village, refusing what has been imposed on us. They destroyed half of our forest last year but didn’t find the coal they were hoping for. Still, we’ve never lost hope or determination,” she said in an interview with local media.
Source: globalvoices.org
https://globalvoices.org/2024/12/23/turkeys-environmental-activist-is-among-bbcs-100-inspiring-and-influential-women/
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Kremlin Denies Reports Assad's British-Born Wife, Asma Al-Assad, Has Filed For Divorce
23rd December
The British-born wife of deposed Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is not seeking a divorce, a Kremlin spokesman has said.
Reports in Turkish media had suggested Asma al-Assad wanted to end her marriage and leave Russia, where she and her husband were granted asylum after a rebel coalition overthrew the former president's regime and took control of Damascus.
Asked about the reports in a news conference call, Dmitry Peskov said, "No, they do not correspond to reality."
He also denied reports that Assad had been confined to Moscow and that his property assets had been frozen.
Russia was a staunch ally of the Assad regime and offered it military support during the civil war.
But reports in Turkish media on Sunday suggested the Assads were living under severe restrictions in the Russian capital, and that the former Syrian first lady had filed for divorce and wanted to return to London.
Mrs Assad is a dual Syrian-British national, but the UK foreign secretary has previously said she would not be allowed to return to Britain.
Speaking in parliament earlier this month, David Lammy said: "I want it confirmed that she's a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK."
He added he would do "everything I can in my power" to ensure no member of the Assad family "finds a place in the UK".
In a statement attributed to Bashar al-Assad last week, he said he had never intended to flee Syria, but he was airlifted from a Russian military base at Moscow's request.
Asma al-Assad in pictures
Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in the UK to Syrian parents in 1975 and grew up in Acton, west London.
She moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married her husband just months after he succeeded his father as president.
Throughout her 24 years as Syria's first lady, Mrs Assad was a subject of curiosity in western media.
A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her "a rose in the desert" and described her as "the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies". The article has since been removed from the Vogue website.
Just one month later, Mrs Assad was criticised for remaining silent while her husband violently repressed pro-democracy campaigners at the start of the Syrian civil war.
The conflict went on to claim the lives of around half a million people, with her husband accused of using chemical weapons against civilians.
In 2016, Mrs Assad told Russian state-backed television she had rejected a deal to offer her safe passage out of the war-torn nation in order to stand by her husband.
She announced she was being treated for breast cancer in 2018 and said she had made a full recovery one year later.
She was diagnosed with leukaemia and began treatment for the disease in May this year, the office of then-President Assad announced.
A statement said she would "temporarily withdraw" from public engagements.
Source: bbc.com
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8n6lk97r2o
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Women rally for equal rights in Syria after Assad’s fall to Islamists
December 23, 2024
QAMISHLI, Syria: Thousands of women rallied in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli on Monday to demand the new Islamist rulers in Damascus respect women’s rights and to condemn Turkish-backed military campaigns in Kurdish-led regions of the north.
Many of the protesters waved the green flag of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), an affiliate of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia (YPG) that Turkiye deems a national security threat and wants disbanded immediately.
“We are demanding women’s rights from the new state ... and women must not be excluded from rights in this system,” said Sawsan Hussein, a women’s rights activist.
“We are (also) condemning the attacks of the Turkish occupation against the city of Kobani.”
Kurdish groups have enjoyed autonomy across much of the north since Syria’s civil war began in 2011. The Kurdish YPG militia, which leads the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) armed group, is a major force in the area.
But Syria’s power balance has shifted away from these groups since the Islamist Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group (HTS) swept into Damascus and toppled Bashar Assad two weeks ago, establishing a new administration friendly to Ankara.
Syria’s dominant Kurdish groups embrace an ideology emphasising socialism and feminism — in contrast to the conservative Sunni Islamist views of HTS, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
Turkiye views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
Hostilities between the SDF and a Turkiye-backed Syrian force known as the Syrian National Army have escalated since Assad was ousted, with the SDF driven out of the northern city of Manbij.
Syrian Kurdish leaders have warned that Turkish forces are mobilizing for an offensive on the SDF-controlled city of Kobani at the Turkish border, also known as Ayn Al-Arab.
There is widespread apprehension among Syrians that the new Damascus administration will gravitate toward hard-line Islamist rule, marginalizing minorities and women from public life.
Obaida Arnout, a spokesperson for the Syrian transitional government, said last week that women’s “biological and physiological nature” rendered them unfit for certain governmental jobs.
Hemrin Ali, an official in the Kurdish-led administration of northeastern Syria, told Reuters at Monday’s rally: “Yes to supporting the YPJ. Yes to preserving the rights and gains of the women’s revolution in northern and eastern Syria.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2584112/middle-east
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Iran: UN Experts Condemn Escalating Persecution of Baha’i Women
24-12-2024
Independent human rights experts have raised urgent concerns about what they describe as an alarming increase in systematic targeting of Baha’i women in Iran. This marginalized religious minority is facing intensified persecution through arrests, interrogations, enforced disappearances, and various forms of societal and institutional discrimination.
Baha’i women reportedly make up two-thirds of all Baha’i prisoners in Iran, with many detained without due process and their whereabouts unknown. Such practices, experts warn, demonstrate a disturbing pattern of gender-based and religious discrimination.
“In the broader context of the challenges to gender equality in Iran, this rise in persecution against Baha’i women is particularly alarming,” the experts stated. “This affects individuals who face dual layers of discrimination: as women and as members of the Baha’i religious minority,” they said.
Intersectional Discrimination and Lifelong Barriers
Baha’i women, alongside their male counterparts, are subjected to extensive restrictions that affect them socially, economically, and intellectually. These include denial of access to higher education, bans on public employment, and systemic barriers to cultural participation. This discrimination often spans their entire lives.
The experts noted a pattern of arbitrary accusations against the Baha’is, such as charges of “threat to national security” or “propaganda against the State.” Such charges are routinely used to justify the suppression of peaceful religious practices and other fundamental freedoms.
“We are deeply concerned about the criminalization of freedom of religion or belief, freedom of opinion and expression, and the right to participate in political and cultural life,” the experts said. “These actions not only violate international human rights standards but also create a chilling effect for other members of the Baha’i community.”
Government Denial Contradicted by Recent Sentences
Despite the Iranian Government’s assertion that Baha’is enjoy full citizenship rights without restrictions, the situation on the ground tells a different story. In response to the experts’ concerns, Iranian officials claimed there was no targeted discrimination against the Baha’i minority. However, just days after this response, 10 Baha’i women in Isfahan were sentenced to a combined 90 years in prison.
These women reportedly faced arbitrary arrests, torture in Dolat Abad prison, heavy fines, and permanent confiscation of personal and family assets. They have also been banned from international travel. Such measures starkly contradict the government’s official statements.
Call for Immediate Action
Human rights experts have called on the Iranian Government to immediately cease all forms of persecution against the Baha’i community, particularly women, and to uphold its obligations under international human rights law.
“The international community must not remain silent in the face of these egregious violations,” the experts emphasized. “Urgent intervention is needed to protect the fundamental rights of the Baha’i community and to ensure accountability for the systematic targeting of women.”
This escalation of persecution comes amidst broader societal challenges in Iran, where women continue to confront severe restrictions on their rights and freedoms, compounded by intersecting forms of discrimination.
Human rights organizations and the global community are urged to amplify their efforts in advocating for the protection of Baha’i women and the safeguarding of their basic human rights.
Source: devdiscourse.com
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/law-order/3205093-21-year-fugitive-nabbed-in-maharashtra
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/women-lawyers-appear-face-veil/d/134124