Women In Post-Taliban Afghanistan

From The Independent:

Just before she leapt from her roof into the streets of Kabul, Farima thought of the wedding that would never happen and the man she would never marry. Her fiance would be pleased to see her die, she later recalled thinking. It would offer relief to them both.

Farima, 17, had resisted her engagement to Zabiullah since it was ordained by her grandfather when she was 9. In post-Taliban Kabul, where she walked to school and dreamed of becoming a doctor, she still clawed against a fate dictated by ritual.

After 11 years of Western intervention in Afghanistan, a woman's right to study and work had long since been codified by the U.S.-backed government. Modernity had crept into Afghanistan's capital, Farima thought, but not far enough to save her from a forced marriage to a man she despised.

Farima's father, Mohammed, was eating breakfast when he heard her body hit the dirt like a tiny explosion. He ran outside. His daughter's torso was contorted. Her back was broken, but she was still alive.

In a quick burst of consciousness, Farima recognized that she had survived. It was God's providence, she thought. It was a miracle she hadn't prayed for. But it left her without an escape. Suddenly, she was a mangled version of herself, still desperate to avoid the marriage her family had ordered.

Wanted Women - Martyr & She-Devil

From Salon:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Aafia Siddiqui

Deborah Scroggins’ engrossing new book, “Wanted Women: Faith, Lies, and the War on Terror: The Lives of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Aafia Siddiqui,” is the story of a martyr and a she-devil. Or the story of a she-devil and a martyr, depending on your perspective. However, the author (a prizewinning international journalist) subscribes to neither view. By juxtaposing the lives of two (in)famous women involved with the so-called War on Terror — a celebrated critic of Islam and the only woman included on the FBI’s most-wanted list of al Qaida-linked international terrorists — Scroggins aims to show how “women like Ayaan and Aafia became symbols in battles that were really about other things.”

Although Hirsi Ali and Siddiqui have never met, and Scroggins wasn’t able to interview either one of them for “Wanted Women,” although there is no obvious connection between the two, the book works astonishingly well. Cutting back and forth between the two stories fosters a considerable amount of narrative suspense, and the juxtaposition of two similar personalities with two very different ideological positions keeps prompting the reader to look beyond easy or knee-jerk assumptions. Scroggins ultimately concludes that both women were “useful to the real drivers of conflict in their countries” because their stories provided political cover. Hirsi Ali’s talk of women’s oppression justified “Westerners who want to keep the Muslim world under Western rule,” and Siddiqui’s visible crusade against Western dominance masked the fact that jihadi were (at least in part) “fighting to maintain their control over women.”

Womens' Rights Campaigner Warns of Yemani Uprisings

From The Guardian:

A campaigner for women's rights in Yemen has claimed that key figures in the anti-government protest movement are abusing human rights and have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the unrest.

"To those who talk of a pro-democracy Arab spring in my country," she told the Observer in London, where she is seeking asylum, "I would say that it was not President Saleh who threatened my life or made me too frightened to carry on with my work or stay in Yemen, it was the opposition."

"Sara" does not want to give her real name out of fear for the consequences for her family and colleagues back in Yemen, but she is anxious to highlight what she believes is a profound misunderstanding in the west of what is really going on in her country, where over 400 people have died since the start of the uprising.

"I welcomed the protests when the young people first starting gathering in Sana'a in what they have renamed Change Square. Yemen needs change and an end to the corruption, but when the shooting and shelling started in March, the people in the square were the innocents caught in the middle of the real battle for power that is still going on."

Women Live in Fear During Chechnya's Islamic Revival

From VOA News:

Many Chechen women are the first in three generations to cover their heads. In the officially atheist Soviet Union, women in the Caucasus burnt their headscarves, in an effort to dissuade youth from falling under the sway of religion.

“The headscarf is a symbol of purity and worth,” says Malika Omarova, head of the Union of Chechen Women in Grozny. “When I was a student, I never wore a headscarf, not one person forced me. But, I want our women to wear them - it is in our blood. That is what makes us Chechen.”

The Russian republic of Chechnya has seen two of modern history’s most brutal separatist wars in the last two decades, with atrocities committed by both rebels and federal forces. But Mr. Kadyrov, a former rebel who changed sides after the first war, has brought a semblance of stability to Chechnya, which has seen massive investment by the Kremlin. But Mr. Kadryov’s reign has also seen a resurgence in Islamic belief and practice.

In today’s Chechnya of cafes and fashion boutiques, the mandatory headscarf symbolizes this Islamic revival.

“Chechnya is already among one of the world's most repressive societies, with the state controlling almost every aspect of daily life," wrote Jennifer Windsor of Freedom House in a report on Chechnya “With the Kremlin largely out of the picture, the culture of impunity we have seen develop under [Mr.] Kadyrov is likely to worsen, leaving the population more vulnerable to abuse.”

The battle is being played out in universities, state buildings and now in the street, where a wave of attacks last year took place on women for not wearing headscarves. Mr. Kadyrov denies his men were involved.

Shari`ah Laws and Women

From OnIslam:

Women issues are the real test for the current Islamic reform. The reason is that groundless and unfair differentiation between men and women is deeply embedded in many popular opinions that we inherited from the eras of decline of the Islamic civilization.

Continue reading the article by Jasser Auda.

This World - Stolen Brides

From the Guardian:

This World: Stolen Brides (BBC2) was a harrowing account of the repopularisation of an ancient Chechen practice: kidnapping women off the streets in order to force them into marriage with men they have barely met.

Lucy Ash's investigations took her into the homes of recently kidnapped women, where mullahs and family patriarchs sat together to decide what their daughters and granddaughters' fates should be; into the presence of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, who is allowed by Moscow to promulgate his version of Islam and Sharia law within the supposedly secular state in return for his work putting down insurgencies; and into the new Islamic Medical Centre where women are exorcised of the demons that are preventing them from settling down happily with their new husbands. Scatter inverted commas throughout that last sentence as you see fit. I, frankly, am too depressed.

The interviewed relatives were often distraught, occasionally aggrieved and ultimately resigned. The husbands were unrepentant – though not, to judge from their discomfort at the questions Ash put to them about the possible cruelty of their actions, wholly oblivious. A picture emerged of the fertile soil in which the tradition had begun to flourish once again. A history of violence and subjugation has left generations of Chechen men frustrated and radicalised, willing to bend religion's rules to allow them to seize this method of making themselves feel empowered again. Cultural traditions must be clung to if any sense of national identity is to survive Russia's stranglehold.

China: Female Imams Lead The Way

From KOSU:

It is 5:50 in the morning, and dark shadows scurry through narrow alleys to the mosque, as the call to prayer echoes from a minaret in Kaifeng. This city in central China’s Henan province has an Islamic enclave, where Muslims have lived for more than 1,000 years.

In an alleyway called Wangjia hutong, women go to their own mosque, where Yao Baoxia leads prayers. For 14 years, Yao has been a female imam, or ahong as they are called here, a word derived from Persian.

As she leads the service, Yao stands alongside the other women, not in front of them as a male imam would. But she says her role is the same as a male imam.

“The status is the same,” Yao says confidently. “Men and women are equal here, maybe because we are a socialist country.”

China has an estimated 21 million Muslims, who have developed their own set of Islamic practices with Chinese characteristics. The biggest difference is the development of independent women’s mosques with female imams, something scholars who have researched the issue say is unique to China.

Egypt: History of Women

Back in 2007 I found this rather interesting article on the Egyptian State Information website, and thought it may be of interest.

Women have played a significant role in Egyptian society. The earliest appearance of woman in public life in Egypt goes back to the Pharaonic era, where she enjoyed an equal status with man and engaged in politics and government. Queen Hatshepsut reigned from 1479 to 1457 B.C. She played an effective historical role in enhancing State structure in the realms of religion, trade and domestic and foreign policy. The same course was pursued by Nefertiti, Cleopatra and Shajaret ad-Dorr in later eras. With the rise of the modern State under Mohammed Ali's reign a magnificent role for women emerged.

SA: Women Only Mosque

From Times Live (South Africa):

The Sandton Muslim Jamaat Mosque for women is the first of its kind in the country. Women worshippers now have a place to offer prayer adjacent to the men's mosque.

Rashid Mayet said they decided to build the mosque because of their large worship base.

He said people travelled from as far afield as Durban and Cape Town to attend the mosque.

"The ladies' facility will allow them to pray while their husbands and male family members are attending prayers at their mosque," said Mayet.

Construction started in January. The interior decor and landscaping was recently completed.

The building cost about R800000 and was funded with public and members' donations. Materials for the building were sourced locally.

The mosque accommodates about 30 women in the prayer room and includes a facility for babies.

Somalia: Women's Organisations Closed

From Reuters:

Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents closed three grassroots women's organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa on Monday to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.

The group wants to impose its own version of Islamic law on areas it controls, and Washington says it is al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of African nation.

"We have taken this step after we recognised that women need to stay in their homes and take care of their children ... Islam does not allow women to go to offices," Maalim Daaud Mohmed, the chairman of Balad Hawa, told Reuters by telephone.

The organisations closed by al Shabaab are the Halgan Businesswomen's Organisation, the Sed Huro Human Rights Organisation and Farhan Woman for Peace, he said.

The insurgents have banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing and watching soccer.

Courts have ordered executions, floggings and amputations in recent months, mostly in the southern Kismayu region and rebel-held districts of the capital.

The rebel leader said they would also close five non-governmental organisations in the region. He did not name them.

West Aceh: No Trousers For Women

From the Jakarta Post:

Women wearing jeans and other trousers in West Aceh will now face sharia police, as will clothes vendors selling slacks for women.

West Aceh Regent Ramli M.S. issued the controversial regulation on Tuesday.

Those found wearing tight trousers, such as jeans, will have them cut by sharia police, and will be forced to wear loose-fitting attire.

"We have issued the regulation to further enforce Islamic sharia granted by the central government," Ramli told The Jakarta Post by phone on Tuesday.

To anticipate the huge number of slacks to be cut by police during raids, the West Aceh regency administration has prepared around 7,000 long skirts, which will be provided for free to those caught wearing trousers.

According to Ramli, the new regulation will be effective as of Jan. 1, 2010.

The regulation also prohibits clothes vendors in the regency from selling slacks or jeans to women.

Kuwait: No Head Covering For Women

From Reuters:

Kuwait's top court has decided that two women lawmakers are not required to wear an Islamic head cover, the official KUNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

An Islamist voter had sought to force parliament members Aseel al-Awadhi and Rola Dashti to cover the heads, citing the Islamic holy book the Koran. Several male MPs had also protested.

"This is not just a victory for myself and my colleague Rola, but a victory for the constitution. Wearing the veil or not does not have an effect on our performance and dedication to serving citizens who elected us," Awadhi told Reuters.

Women in the Gulf Arab state are not obliged by law to wear head covers although many do. The case was based on an article in election laws that say women candidates and voters should abide by Islam in general terms.

Women in Kuwait, the only Gulf Arab state with a parliament that has full legislative powers, won the right to vote and run in public elections in 2005 but women entered parliament through ballots only this year.

Film, Women & Islam

From the Inquirer:
"With its harrowing scenes of rape and abuse and its rousing calls for equality, a new film on the oppression of women in Islamic societies is courting controversy in Indonesia.

The film, "Perempuan Berkalung Sorban" (Woman with a Scarf Around her Neck), by local filmmaker Hanung Bramantyo is the latest Islam-inspired movie to ride the wave of a cinematic revival in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.

The film, which is based on a 2001 book by Abidah El-Khaliqey, tells the story of the rebellion of Anissa, the headstrong and intelligent daughter of the head of an Islamic boarding school on Java island.

But Indonesia's women's minister Meutia Hatta said the film is an important tool to correct centuries of tradition, and the creeping influence of religious hardliners drawing inspiration from the Middle East."

Women and Islam

Read about one woman's journey toward Islam in "Islam Took Me By Surprise" by Na'ima B Robert, as presented in the Tehran Times.

"It is often assumed that there is a Muslim man in the background, pulling the strings, offering marriage and family if she agrees to become a Muslim. Another explanation is that she has been brainwashed by a group of religious zealots and just needs time and patience to grow out of this “phase”. Other explanations include a desire to rebel against family and society, to make a political statement, to opt out of normal life, or simply cry out for attention. But I did not become Muslim for any of these reasons."

And so Na'ima takes us on her journey of self-discovery and her acceptance of Islam.