Muslim Women Newsletter

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

Please find herewith attached the copy of the latest issue of the Muslim Women Newsletter. Kindly send us the feedback and acknowledge the receipt.

With regards,

Yours sincerely,

Qutub Jehan Kidwai

Institute of Islamic Studies,

Mumbai.

 

	Institute of Islamic Studies  (Reg. No. E-8900 (Mumbai)
Muslim Women's Newsletter - Vol. 6   No.62, May 2012.   Address: 602 & 603, Silver Star, Behind BEST Bus Depot, Santacruz (E), Mumbai: - 400 055. E-mail: csss@mtnl.net.in, Phone no: 91-22-26102089,26149668; Fax: 91-22-26100712

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by

Qutub Jehan Kidwai

 

To 
Our Readers.

Dear sisters and brothers,

This year we are completing 6 years of Muslim Women Newsletter being published electronically.  Ms. Qutub Jehan is working hard for this cause voluntarily. Our Institute of Islamic Studies is committed to gender equality and is trying to blast the myth that is only capable of being wife and mother and her role is limited to being homemaker. We have tried to see that woman is capable of not only great achievements but in many fields she has even managed to achieve more than men can. She has excelled both intellectually as well as physically in several fields which were so far out of bounds for her. It is for this reason that Qur'an never discriminated between men and women. However patriarchal culture comes in her way and still trying to limit her role but now it cannot be easily prevented from achieving what she is determine to achieve.

Though we have severe limitations of various kinds, but we are trying our best to continue this newsletter. We hope we will get full cooperation from our readers and the kind of feedback receive shows that our efforts are worth continues.

Yours sincerely.

Asghar Ali Engineer

Director

Institute of Islamic Studies,

Mumbai

 

 

A  STEP FORWARD

 

Young Muslim woman's fierce passion for learning sparks big changes

PHAUNG DAW PYIN, Myanmar, May 11 (UNHCR) - With her quiet voice and demure manner, 21-year-old Rozeya is not an obvious pioneer. But over a large swathe of Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, this young Muslim woman's steely determination to overcome obstacles is convincing many fathers and religious leaders of the importance of educating girls, and has turned her into a role model for teenage girls.

 

Rozeya teaches a classroom of students at a middle school

"It's always been common for boys to get education, but not girls," says Rozeya, the first resident of UNHCR-sponsored girls' hostels to pass the national matriculation exam. "But now it's changing."

Rozeya, like many people here, goes by only one name. Along with her two older sisters, she was passed over for education and stayed at home in the hamlet of Phaung Daw Pyin while her two younger brothers were sent off to school.

Her father, a 55-year-old basket maker and widower who struggles to support his family on the equivalent of 60 US cents a day, saw no point in educating girls. Even if they go to primary school, by tradition Muslim girls here have to drop out at puberty, stay behind closed doors and wait to get married.

Awli Ahmed's change of heart came one day in a market while trying to buy the raw material for his bamboo baskets. He could speak only his local dialect and the vendor could speak only Burmese. They finally found an educated girl to interpret.

"He came home and said one of his daughters should study and get an education," Rozeya recalls, taking a break from teaching middle school in another UNHCR-funded programme.

Today, her father's pride glows in every soft-spoken word. "Because of Rozeya now many girls want to study," says Awli Ahmed, outside his daughter's classroom. But it wasn't easy getting here. Since Rozeya had already missed out on primary school, she tried to catch up by enrolling in a children's language programme sponsored by the UN refugee agency.

After one glance, the teacher judged her to be too young and sent her away, even though she was actually old enough to qualify. Undeterred, Rozeya went to class every day regardless- until the teacher finally relented and allowed her to replace a drop-out.

Food supplied by another UN agency, the World Food Programme, convinced Awli Ahmed to keep her in class because the whole family could share the rations.

As she sped through primary and secondary school, her father fended off pressure from other villagers and religious leaders who wanted Rozeya to drop out and come home. "It's because my whole family was supporting me that I was able to overcome all the obstacles on my way," Rozeya says.

In 2008, she joined the first group of girls to move into the UNHCR-funded girls' hostel in Taung Bazar, a dangerous 90 minute walk from her hometown. UNHCR funds Community and Family Services International of the Philippines to run three hostels in this area.

The hostels not only give girls from poor remote villages a place to live while attending state schools, but also provide extra lessons and teach them social skills.

Her whole class from the Taung Bazar hostel failed the national matriculation exam on their first try in 2009. Rozeya was the only one to make a second stab at it, and she passed the following year. She's back teaching very close to her home hamlet and changing attitudes by her very presence.

"When I first started travelling around, many mullahs looked at me with an uneasy eye," she says. "But now they appreciate my work. Almost the whole community is happy to receive me back." What's more, many of the mullahs who are now trying to secure places for their own daughters?

At the Taung Bazar hostel, the 19 girls now in residence cite Rozeya's exemplary study habits and achievements as their own inspiration. "There are no women engineers from this area so I want to become the first one," says 16-year-old student Tawsmin, one of seven children from a hamlet of only 28 houses.

"Most of the families are poor, so the girls have to go to the mountains and deep jungle to collect firewood [to sell]," Tawsmin explains. "When I went home for the break, all the village girls told me I was different after living in the hostel. They said, 'You are so changed in your appearance, your bearing, your confidence, your communication.' They were really impressed."

Back at the middle school where Rozeya has taken a break from teaching Burmese, she reflects on how different her life would have been if she had not single-mindedly pursued her education.

"I would just sit at home 'behind the curtain,' never going out of the house, waiting to get married. Or maybe I'd be a housemaid in the village or grilling chili peppers" to earn a pittance, she adds. Instead, she's determined to get a university education and says "I'd like to become an English teacher, go back to work at one of the hostels and eventually work for UNHCR."

 

Muslim Woman Wins $5.1M Judgment in Work Discrimination Suit

KANSAS CITY, MO. — A former Kansas City woman who converted to Islam in 2005 said she was harassed for years at AT&T, and that the abuse boiled over in 2008 when her boss snatched her head scarf and exposed her hair.

A Jackson County jury on Thursday awarded Susann Bashir $5 million in punitive damages in her discrimination lawsuit, along with $120,000 in lost wages and other actual damages.

The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/JKWbqR) reported Saturday the award appears to be the largest jury verdict for a workplace discrimination case in Missouri history.

Bashir said in court documents that her work environment became hostile immediately after she converted, with her co-workers making harassing comments about her religion and referring to her hijab as "that thing on her head."

"I was shocked. I thought, 'What is going on?'" she told the newspaper. "Nobody ever cared what I wore before. Nobody ever cared what religion I was before."

Bashir worked at AT&T's office in Kansas City for 10 years as a fiber optics network builder before being fired from her $70,000-a-year job. She claimed she endured religious discrimination nearly every day of the final three years she worked there, including being asked if she was going to blow up the building and being called a "towelhead" and a terrorist.

AT&T said Friday it disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal.

Despite the jury's award, Bashir stands to receive much less than $5 million because Missouri law caps such awards at five times the actual damage amount, plus attorney fees.

Amy Coopman, Bashir's lawyer, said attorney fees will be determined later by the judge.

The previous largest such verdict came in 2009, when Mohamed Alhalabi, an Arab-American Muslim, was awarded $811,949 in St. Louis County Circuit Court in a case against the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

That same year, a Jonesboro, Ark., jury ordered AT&T to pay $1.3 million to two former employees fired for attending a Jehovah's Witnesses convention.

Bashir said she called an employee help line in March 2005 and asked the company to provide sensitivity training for her co-workers.

"It was a worthless call," she said. "Nothing ever changed."

The harassment continued and in March 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched an investigation after she filed a complaint.

She said that made some workers angry and led to the final encounter with her boss.

Bashir said she became so stressed out that she couldn't return to work. She asked that her boss be removed or that she be transferred, but neither happened.

She was fired after not returning to work for nine months.

"By firing me, they stole my ability to work at a job I liked," Bashir said.

She said the incident was hard on her mentally and physically and tore her family apart. She is going through a divorce, and in October she and her daughter moved to Anchorage, Alaska, where she works as an apartment manager.

"I have mixed feelings," Bashir said. "I'm happy not to be reporting to that management structure. But it's hard in this economy to find a job with that level of compensation. I didn't want to lose my job, because I felt I was doing good work."

 

Muslim Women's contribution to our society

 

Robina Iqbal has worked as a community worker for many years, with Birmingham City Council. Robina is married to Maz Iqal and they have three children.

As a community worker, she has worked with some of the most deprived communities that face many challenges on a variety of issues.

 

Her work involves working with women, children and vulnerable adults around education, health, confidence building, leisure/social activities and citizenship.

 

Some of her projects where aimed at specific target groups to encourage participation, like Muslim women.

 

She noticed that they did not access many of the services so where not being consulted or engaged about important issues that would affect them.

 

Robina was instrumental in this area and used various methods to encourage these women to take up activities that were educational or recreational, in an environment that was culturally sensitive and met their needs.

 

She also helped to set up the Playgroup in the area,which is now a popular pre-school nursery providing quality care at a decent price to women in that area.

 

Alongside this work she has done projects in: Mental Health. Capacity Building for community organisations. Ward Development work, consulting with NHS on community engagement.

 

Robina is very passionate about her work in the community and also does a lot of voluntary work to help women and children.

 

She is chair of Sparkhill Asian Women Association and Vice Chair of MuslimWomens Network UK, Board member of  WAITS (Women Acting In Today's Society) former chair of WAITS Policy Forum and until recently she was a Board member of Groundwork UK where she was involved in shaping a strategy for them to look into their equality policy and its implementation throughout the organization.

 

She has also mentored with the MOSAIC project which supports young people in education and gives them the tools to aspire and achieve. Over the two years she has mentored sixth form  girls at a local school and a mothers and daughter project at a local primary school.

 

Nationally, she is also a member of the CEDAW Steering Committee in London (Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women). She is also a member of the FRA (Fundamental Rights Agency) in Europe and was one of the final candidates to stand for election to the advisory board.

 

Robina's work and voluntary experience is valued by organisations that are looking to engage with women and children, especially Muslim women. These have included government, local authorities, NHS, local groups like the police, neighbourhood forums. She was invited to No 10 Downing Street when Tony Blair was Prime Minister to be part of a consultation around Muslim women.

 

Robina have received two prestigious awards for her volunteering activities in the community. One was from Women in Cultures as part of the British Asian Hafta and the other was from WAITS. Robina was invited to Brussels and Vienna to see how European politics play a role in our lives here in the UK.

 

Woman who founded human trafficking shelter honoured

 

A woman who helped to set up a shelter for victims of human trafficking has been honoured as the Most Inspirational Arab Woman at L'Official Abu Dhabi Arab Women Awards. Sarah Suhail was one of the founders of Ewa'a Shelters for Women and Children.

"It has been a challenging experience as it's the first shelter of its kind in the region," Mrs Suhail said.

"In saying this, the team and I have managed to achieve successful milestones, which have been highly regarded by different countries and regions internationally." More than 400 women attended the awards.

STRUGGLE CONTINUE

 

Human Rights Groups Condemn Woman's Stoning Sentence 

Khartoum (Allafrica) — Human rights group Amnesty International has called on Sudanese authorities to stop the execution a women condemned to stoning for alleged adultery, and release her 'immediately and unconditionally' (Reuters).

 

Intisar Sharif Abdallah was sentenced by Judge Sami Ibrahim Shabo at Ombada criminal court in Omdurman on 13 May on charges of adultery, under article 146 of Sudan's criminal code of 1991.

 

According to Amnesty International (AI), Intisar 'did not have access to a lawyer during her trial, and was convicted based on testimony she gave after being beaten by her brother.'

 

Intisar, who has three children, is being detained with her newborn baby and is suffering from psychological distress and does not understand the nature of her sentence, as she has a limited knowledge of Arabic, an AI report stated.

 

Her age is in dispute with some reports giving Intisar's age as either 16-17 years-old or 20 years-old. This is significant because if she is a minor corporal punishment is illegal under international law.

 

Also, AI state that, executing someone whose trial has not met international standards is a violation of the right to life, and is therefore illegal, as is the execution of nursing mothers.

 

The conviction is reported to have been based solely on a confession given after she was beaten by her brother, according to AI and other human rights groups.

 AI, urged the government in a statement 'to have the best interests of Intisar Sharif Abdallah's child as their primary consideration during the judicial process and until she is released'.

 

Strategic Initiatives for Women in the Horn of African (SIHA Network) released a statement on the case describing the judgment as 'problematic in multiple ways least of all for the application of one of the most brutal forms of corporal punishment. In addition, the judicial process has been explicitly violated whereby Intisar had no legal representation in court, doubts exist relating to her age and her admission was made following a period of torture and beatings by her brother. Stoning remains a complex process even within fundamental Islamic Sharia sects and it is shocking that the decision was been made so rapidly after a single court session.'

 

The judgment, according to the SIHA Network, 'demonstrates the scale of discrimination against women and girls in Sudan and the biased judgments made against them for acts which require two parties - a man and woman. It is incredulous that the man with whom she has been accused is able to walk free showing explicitly the strong anti-woman sentiment and harsh management of family disputes that exists within both the Sudanese judicial system and in society.'

 

SIHA has called on the Sudan Ministry of Justice and other relevant Sudanese government bodies to investigate Intisar's and overturn the judgment.

 

The women's rights group also called on the 'African Union, The Arab League the United Nations and all women/human rights organizations and the international community to intervene to stop this act of brutality.'

 

SPORTS

Golfer Sahra Hassan awarded by Muslim Women's Sport Foundation

A professional golfer from Wales has been recognized for her role as a successful Muslim woman in sport.

Sahra Hassan, 24, has been named UK sportswoman of the year by the Muslim Women's Sport Foundation at Wembley Stadium.

The night honoured female role models from the Muslim community who have made sport more accessible.

Hassan, from Newport, south Wales, said: "I didn't expect to win, I hadn't even prepared a speech."

Hassan was presented with her award by FA chairman David Bernstein at the ceremony on Wednesday.

She said: "I thanked the Muslim Sport Foundation for giving me the award and to everyone who voted for me."

Hassan turned pro three years' ago and in her first year on the European Ladies Tour.

"I used to play tennis and then at 13 I took a break and started playing golf because my dad played - and I've never looked back.

"I played amateur golf for six years at a high level and I was good enough to try pro so I took a gamble," she added.

Break America

So far this year Hassan has been to China, Toronto and travelled across Europe. Next week she will jet off to Turkey before another five-week stint in Europe.

"In the next year I want to try and win one or at least come top five," she said.

And she is certainly putting in the training. Hassan plays three times a week; practices every day and works out at a Cardiff gym every day with her trainer.

She is currently ranked 30th in the world and hopes to break America.

"I'll see how I go in Europe but I want to base myself in America and join the LPGA tour," she said.

USOC lifted the bar for Muslim woman A year later, competing for Pakistan, she hopes for Olympic chance

 

Next week at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in South Korea, a computer engineer from Atlanta will take another step she hopes could lead to the 2012 London Olympics.

That Kulsoom Abdullah has gotten this far is nothing short of a miracle, given what she needed to overcome in the often hidebound world of international sports.

 

It is a miracle for which the United States Olympic Committee deserves global praise at a time when much of the world criticizes the USOC for being selfish because it wants a fair and necessary share of both U.S. television rights for the Games and global Olympic sponsorship rights, more than half of which come from U.S. multinationals.

 

Without the USOC - especially Dragomir Cioroslan, its international relations director --- Abdullah's petition for rule changes about competition costumes that would allow her to feel comfortable as both a Muslim woman and a weightlifter never would have reached the proper authorities.

 

The result of the USOC's help is Abdullah, a U.S. citizen, has been able to compete in major events  - for her parents' native country, Pakistan.

 

"I clearly believe this shows we are a selfless organization," Cioroslan said.

 

While that clearly is not true in all cases, as cash-starved U.S. athletes who chafe at the big USOC management salaries can point out, it definitely is true in this one.

 

And Abdullah's case represents progress for all Muslim women, even as the repressive sheikhs in Saudi Arabia still refuse to name a woman to their Olympic team.

 

This all developed barely a year ago, when the Council on American-Islamic Relations sent a letter to USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun asking for support in effecting the changes Abdullah needed to compete in major U.S. events.

 

Blackmun turned to Cioroslan, a vice-president of the International Weightlifting Federation.

 

"Scott told me, `If we can help, this is the right thing to do,''' Cioroslan said.  "We feel sports should be accepting and inclusive."

 

Cioroslan somehow succeeded at getting the item on the IWF agenda for a key meeting a month later. To its credit, the international federation immediately adopted changes that would accommodate both the sport's technical rules and Adbullah's desire to satisfy her cultural and religious norms.

"(After) CAIR and the media took my plight to the USOC, their (USOC) subsequent intervention in helping me have my voice heard was monumental for me," Adbullah said in an email.

 

"The time and effort spent finally became a reality, officially breaking boundaries, leading myself and other women to potentially more opportunities."

 

Abdullah's first event was last summer's U.S. Championships, where she was a distant fifth of six in the 106-pound class.  After that, she contacted the Pakistan Weightlifting Federation, which chose her as the first female lifter to represent the country at the World Championships last November.

 

The USOC was fine with that.

"It's not unusual for an athlete to pursue an Olympic dream through all avenues open to them," Cioroslan said.

 

Abdullah, who turned 36 in March and began, competing only two years ago, was among just eight women representing a predominantly Muslim country in a field with 223 entrants.   She finished 23rd of 27 in her weight class, lifting 100 pounds less than the 22nd finisher.

 

"I feel very fortunate to be able to compete at high levels when my abilities are not as high as the other athletes from other countries. . .and at the same time help make a difference," she said.

 

Pakistan has not earned an 2012 Olympic women's weightlifting spot, but it can get one of 12 "wild card" invitations.

 

It would be easy -- and not wrong -- to say there are so many women whose results far outweigh Abdullah's that she should not go to London ahead of them.

 

But the international federation already has made a statement by giving Abdullah -- and all women who prefer more coverage of their bodies, not just Muslims  -- the freedom she needed to compete.

 

That is how Abdullah came to follow U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the lectern at a State Department reception for Eid ul-Fitr last September. Clinton introduced her by saying she is "forging the way for Muslim women athletes to maintain their freedom of expression and still compete at the highest level."

 

Weightlifting, a sport as old as Atlas, has shown itself to be far more progressive about women athletes than sports like volleyball, which has insisted women wear skintight short shorts for the indoor game and until recently mandated bikinis for beach volleyball.

 

The attention Abdullah would get in London would spread the message IWF president Tomas Ajan insisted was behind the change.

 

`This rule modification has been considered in the spirit of fairness, equality and inclusion,'' Ajan said.

 

So was the USOC's decision to help a woman who never will wear "USA" on her costume. 

 

*****