Yazidi Woman, Fawzia Sido, Kidnapped By IS Freed From Gaza After Decade In Captivity
New Age Islam News Bureau
04 Oct 2024
· Yazidi Woman, Fawzia Sido, Kidnapped By IS Freed From Gaza After Decade In Captivity
· All-Women Artificial Intelligence PhD Program Launches in Africa
· 5 Things About Displaced Afghan Women As European Court Of Justice Decides Their Refugee Status
· Malaysia: Court Stops Indigenous Woman From Practicing Her Faith, Identifies Her As ‘Muslim’ Based On Conversion As A Child Without Her Consent
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/yazidi-fawzia-sido-isis-gaza/d/133356
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Yazidi Woman, Fawzia Sido, Kidnapped By IS Freed From Gaza After Decade In Captivity
Fawzia Amin Sido, 21, was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several failed attempts due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s war in Gaza. (Source: X)
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Thu 3 Oct 2024
A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq more than a decade ago has been freed from Gaza in an operation led by the US.
The operation this week also involved Israel, Jordan and Iraq, according to officials.
The woman is a member of the Yazidi religious minority, which saw more than 5,000 members killed and thousands more kidnapped in a 2014 campaign that the UN has said constituted genocide.
Silwan Sinjaree, the chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister, said she was freed after more than four months of efforts including several attempts that failed because of the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s military offensive in Gaza.
She has been identified as Fawzia Sido. Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment.
Iraqi officials had been in contact with the woman for months and passed on her information to US officials, who arranged for her exit from Gaza with the help of Israel, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Officials did not provide details of how exactly she was freed, and Jordanian and US embassy officials in Baghdad did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The director of the digital diplomacy bureau at Israel’s foreign ministry, David Saranga, posted on X: “Fawzia, a Yazidi girl kidnapped by Isis from Iraq and brought to Gaza at just 11 years old, has finally been rescued by the Israeli security forces.”
The Israeli military said it had coordinated with the US embassy in Jerusalem and “other international actors” in the operation.
It said in a statement her captor had been killed during the Gaza war, presumably by an Israeli strike, and she then fled to a hideout in the Gaza Strip.
A US state department spokesperson said the US on Tuesday had “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza a young Yazidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq”.
The spokesperson said the woman was kidnapped from her home in Iraq when she was 11, then sold and trafficked to Gaza. Her captor was recently killed, enabling her to escape and seek repatriation, the spokesperson said.
Sinjaree said she was in good physical condition but was traumatised. She had been reunited with family in northern Iraq, he added.
More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by IS militants in Iraq’s Sinjar region in 2014, with many sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkey and Syria.
Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with about 2,600 still missing.
Source: theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/03/yazidi-woman-islamic-state-freed-gaza-iraq
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All-Women Artificial Intelligence PhD Program Launches in Africa
03 Oct 2024
A pioneering Africa-Europe collaboration aims to train 700 African Doctor of Philosophy (PhDs) in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next decade. The first intake of this program, however, will be unique: it will consist entirely of women. This initiative is the brainchild of CORE AI, a research partnership uniting universities from both continents. The program intends to enrol 100 African women with PhD aspirations in AI each year, with the first all-female cohort starting in February 2025. Supporting women researchers, particularly in fields with low female representation like AI, is a core principle for CORE AI. While this specific focus on women is not limited to the African continent, CORE AI emphasizes the need to address systematic discrimination faced by women in AI research, even within their own European institutions.
Source: bitcoin.com
https://news.bitcoin.com/all-women-ai-phd-program-launches-in-africa/
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5 Things About Displaced Afghan Women As European Court Of Justice Decides Their Refugee Status
October 4, 2024
The European Court of Justice on Friday will decide whether Afghan women can be granted the status of refugees based solely on their gender and nationality. While Sweden, Finland, and Denmark automatically provide this status, other European nations evaluate applications individually.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, it has faced immense backlash from the United Nations over its human rights record and has been accused of systematically depriving women and girls of their liberties.
Three years ago, the Taliban had allayed the fears of the international community about their governance by saying things would be different this time as compared to their previous rule. They said that women living under its leadership would be provided freedom based on the “Islamic law” norms.
However, as expected, women are the ones bearing the brunt of the Taliban’s authoritative rule with little ray of hope of the situation ever changing for them.
Here are five things to know about displaced women in Afghanistan:
Although Taliban’s rule has forced many Afghans to flee, the majority of them are women. Since 2021, some 80 per cent of women and children have been displaced, according to UN data.
While many women have been internally displaced, a considerable number of them had to flee Afghanistan altogether and are now living in various other countries across the world
Many women face significant risks, including gender-based violence, restricted access to education, and limitations on their freedom of movement. As a result, a growing number are seeking refuge in other countries
The UN reports that there are 6.4 million Afghans worldwide who are either refugees or seeking asylum, with an estimated 48 percent of them being women and girls
Last year, Switzerland became the fourth country to automatically grant refugee status to displaced Afghan women and girls after a court ruled that “a self-determined life for women and girls in Afghanistan is not possible under the current regime”
Source: firstpost.com
https://www.firstpost.com/world/5-things-about-displaced-afghan-women-as-european-court-of-justice-decides-their-refugee-status-13822000.html
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Malaysia: Court stops indigenous woman from practicing her Faith, identifies her as ‘Muslim’ based on conversion as a child without her consent
4 October, 2024
An indigenous woman (Orang Asli), belonging to the jakun tribe, was recently denied the right to practice her real Faith and profess her cultural and spiritual beliefs in Malaysia.
The victim had moved the court to nullify her conversion to Islam as a child. However, her plea before the Court of Appeal was dismissed by a 3-member panel in a 2:1 verdict.
Reportedly, the indigenous woman was converted to Islam when she was just 2 years old. She was fathered by a Muslim man, who did not marry her mother (belonging to the jakun tribe).
Victim converted to Islam as a child
Her mother had converted to Islam on 14th November 1995. The victim argued that she did not recite the oath of allegiance to Islam (Kalimah Syahadah) and did not consent to the conversion.
The indigenous woman’s petition, to be declared a non-Muslim, was turned down by the Kuantan High Court last year. Now, the Court of Appeals has also dismissed her application.
Justice Datuk Azhahari Kamal Ramli, in his majority verdict, claimed that the victim’s conversion was recorded in her mother’s conversion certificate (Islam bersama Ibu).
Court prevents adult woman from practicing her real Faith
“The plaintiff (appellant) was at all material time in the mother’s custody. The mother raised her alone,” he stated, adding that her absentee Muslim father must have ‘consented’ to the conversion.
The court did not take into consideration that the victim was only 2 years old at the time and could not have consented to her own conversion.
While preventing the adult indigenous woman from professing her cultural and spiritual beliefs, the judge said that a Syariah court was the right place to decide her case. He rationalised his verdict by claiming that the case involved the renunciation of Islam.
Source: opindia.com
https://www.opindia.com/2024/10/malaysia-jakun-tribe-orang-asli-woman-conversion-to-islam-as-child-upheld-right-to-practice-tribal-customs-dismissed/
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/yazidi-fawzia-sido-isis-gaza/d/133356