Discrimination against hijab-wearing Muslim women at all-time high, campaigners say

Supporters protest against a hijab ban in educational institutes of Karnataka state, in Karachi on Feb. 10, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 02 February 2023
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Discrimination against hijab-wearing Muslim women at all-time high, campaigners say

  • The organizers of World Hijab Day, on Feb. 1, said many women face pressure to remove their head scarf to ‘show solidarity’ or make a political statement
  • ‘The theme for World Hijab Day 2023, #UnapologeticHijabi, is bolder and stronger than ever before: Muslim women unapologetically wearing the hijab proudly,’ WHD said

LONDON: “Hijabophobia” is at an all-time high “due to the current political climate,” as a result of which hijab-wearing Muslim women face increasing discrimination in everyday life, the organizers of World Hijab Day said on Wednesday.

“Muslim women are being pressured to remove their hijab to ‘show solidarity’ and make political statements, while parts of the world enact legislation that prevent hijabi women from participating in society,” WHD told Arab News.

It had called on women of all backgrounds to “take a stand against hijabophobia by donning a headscarf” on World Hijab Day, Feb. 1, to help raise awareness of the Muslim tradition and women’s rights.

“The theme for World Hijab Day 2023, #UnapologeticHijabi, is bolder and stronger than ever before: Muslim women unapologetically wearing the hijab proudly,” the organization said.

 

 

“Due to the current climate, Muslim women wearing the hijab are portrayed as oppressed, submissive and backward, and the hijab is used to justify discrimination and abuse against them.

“This can lead to a lack of understanding and empathy toward Muslim women, and can make it harder for these women to fully participate in society and access opportunities.”

WHD said women who choose to wear the headscarf, whether for reasons of modesty or religious observance, face challenges integrating into educational and workplace environments.

“In some cases, there may be religious discrimination, or a lack of understanding and acceptance of the hijab,” the organization said.

 

 

It added that “in schools, some hijabi students may face discrimination or harassment from classmates or teachers, or be barred from getting an education altogether; such is the case in Karnataka, India.”

This was a reference to a decision by the High Court of Karnataka in February last year that banned thousands of Muslim girls from wearing religious garments in school.

WHD also cited examples of discrimination it said hijab-wearing women face in the workplace, and bias during the hiring process.

“Experimental studies suggested that the chances of being hired, and so gainfully employed, were on average 40 percent lower among Muslim women wearing the hijab than they were among otherwise similar Muslim women not wearing the hijab, in the West.

 

 

“For example, a 2022 study found that in the Netherlands, almost 70 percent of job applications that included a photograph of an unveiled woman received a positive callback for jobs requiring high customer contact. But for applications with hijab-clad photographs, the positive rate was 35 percent.”

WHD, which was founded in 2013 in New York by Bangladeshi American woman Nazma Khan, said: “Muslim women in European countries are more likely subjected to hijabophobia in public spaces and the labor market.”

In particular it referred to a December 2020 study by US-based think tank the Pew Research Center, which found: “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.”

The study said that women were targeted for violating secular dress norms, including wearing a hijab or other religious garb, in 42 of 56 countries in which sources alleged that social harassment took place between 2016 and 2018.

 

 

However, WHD said: “While there are challenges to the integration of hijabi women in schools and the workplace, there have also been efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of hijabi women in these settings,” including World Hijab Day itself, which aims “to promote integration and acceptance of hijabi women in these settings.”

The organization, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, said it expected thousands of people in more than 150 countries to celebrate World Hijab Day 2023, including in the UK, Japan, Korea and Switzerland.

“Most notably, we see more and more non-Muslims taking part in wearing the hijab on Feb. 1,” It added. “Many of them share their experiences with us, which we believe helps others to learn more about the hijab.”

 

 

WHD said that efforts to raise awareness through its movement have helped to change views on the hijab around the world, with two-thirds of past participants reporting positive experiences that changed their views on wearing the headscarf.

This year, the organization added, it hoped to further raise awareness, grow its platform, increase the confidence of women who wear the hijab, and “welcome those with curiosity and misunderstandings to an open forum and place to ask questions.”

WHD is also a fundraising event and money raised this year will go toward creating diversity and inclusion workshops on Muslim culture for schools, to help foster a safe and healthy educational environment for Muslim students, the organization said.


Son of Singapore’s founding PM Lee Kuan Yew says plans to demolish family home

Updated 9 sec ago
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Son of Singapore’s founding PM Lee Kuan Yew says plans to demolish family home

  • Lee Kuan Yew’s three children were split on what to do with their father’s home after his death in 2015
  • Lee Hsien Yang says the single-story bungalow should be demolished in accordance with their father’s wishes
SINGAPORE: The youngest child of Singapore’s founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said on Tuesday he would apply to demolish the statesman’s home in line with his wishes, following the death of Lee’s daughter last week.
Lee Kuan Yew’s three children, one of whom is Singapore’s third Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, were split on what to do with their father’s home after his death in 2015, in a public spat that saw the siblings estranged.
Eldest son Lee Hsien Loong, who stepped down as Singapore’s prime minister earlier this year, thought it should be up to the government to decide what to do with the property, including potentially retaining it as a heritage landmark.
However his sister, Lee Wei Ling, who died on Oct. 9, and younger brother Lee Hsien Yang say the single-story bungalow, built in 1898 in central Singapore, should be demolished in accordance with their father’s wishes.
“After my sister’s passing, I am the only living executor of my father Lee Kuan Yew’s estate,” Lee Hsien Yang wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
“In his will, he wished for the house to be demolished ‘immediately after’ Wei Ling moved out of the house. It is my duty to carry out his wishes to the fullest extent of the law.”
He said he would apply to demolish the house and planned to build a small private dwelling to be retained by the family, adding that it was time for the government to approve the demolition.
The office of current prime minister Lawrence Wong did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee Kuan Yew told the Straits Times newspaper in 2011 that he wanted the house demolished because it would “become a shambles” if it were opened to the public, and he hoped its removal would improve land values in the neighborhood.
In 2018, a ministerial committee set up to consider the future of the house laid out three options, and said the decision would be left to a future government.
The options were to retain the property by gazetting it as a national monument or for conservation, retain the basement dining room which has the greatest historical significance and tear down the rest of the property, or allow the property to be fully demolished for redevelopment.
At that time, Lee Hsien Loong said he accepted the committee’s conclusion and the range of options laid out.

China deploys record 125 warplanes in large-scale military drill in warning to Taiwan

Updated 21 min 55 sec ago
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China deploys record 125 warplanes in large-scale military drill in warning to Taiwan

  • The military drills come four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day
  • Taiwan’s Defense Ministry deploys warships to designated spots in the ocean to carry out surveillance and stand at ready

TAIPEI: China employed a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday, simulating the sealing off of key ports in a move that underscores the tense situation in the Taiwan Strait, officials said.
China made clear it was to punish Taiwan’s president for rejecting Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the self-governed island.
The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.”
“This is a resolute punishment for Lai Ching-te’s continuous fabrication of ‘Taiwan independence’ nonsense,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said 90 of the aircraft, including warplanes, helicopters and drones, were spotted within Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. The single-day record counted aircraft from 5:02 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Shipping traffic was operating as normal, the ministry said.
Taiwan remained defiant. “Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately,” Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s security council, said at a forum in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office also called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
A map aired on China’s state broadcaster CCTV showed six large blocks encircling Taiwan indicating where the military drills were being held, along with circles drawn around Taiwan’s outlying islands.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said the six areas focused on key strategic locations around and on the island.
China deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier for the drills, and CCTV showed a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the deck of the carrier.
China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Senior Captain Li Xi said Monday evening that the drill was successfully completed.
Li said the navy, army air force and missile corps were all mobilized for the drills, which were an integrated operation. “This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing that China did not consider relations with Taiwan a diplomatic issue, in keeping with its refusal to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.
“I can tell you that Taiwan independence is as incompatible with peace in the Taiwan Strait as fire with water. Provocation by the Taiwan independence forces will surely be met with countermeasures,” Mao said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it deployed warships to designated spots in the ocean to carry out surveillance and stand at ready. It also deployed mobile missile and radar groups on land to track the vessels at sea. It said as of Monday morning, they had tracked 25 Chinese warplanes and seven warships and four Chinese government ships, though it did not specify what types of ships they were.
On the streets of Taipei, residents were undeterred. “I don’t worry, I don’t panic either, it doesn’t have any impact to me,” Chang Chia-rui said.
Another Taipei resident, Jeff Huang, said: “Taiwan is very stable now, and I am used to China’s military exercises. I have been threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it.”
The US, Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally, called China’s response to Lai’s speech unwarranted. “This military pressure operation is irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilizing,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement. “The entire world has a stake in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and we continue to see a growing community of countries committed to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
“We call on (Beijing’s government) to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
China held similar large-scale exercises after Lai was inaugurated in May. Lai continues the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China’s demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China.
China also held massive military exercises around Taiwan and simulated a blockade in 2022 after a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, who was then speaker of the US House of Representatives. China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a “dead end” and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability. China’s military has increased its encircling of Taiwan’s skies and waters in the past few years, holding joint drills with its warships and fighter jets on a near-daily basis near the island.
Also on Monday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced it was sanctioning two Taiwanese individuals, Puma Shen and Robert Tsao, for promoting Taiwanese independence. Shen is the co-founder of the Kuma Academy, a nonprofit group that trains civilians on wartime readiness. Tsao donated $32.8 million to fund the academy’s training courses. Shen and Tsao are forbidden to travel to China, including Hong Kong.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power.


North Korea blows up parts of inter-Korean road on its side of border, Seoul says

Updated 15 October 2024
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North Korea blows up parts of inter-Korean road on its side of border, Seoul says

  • South Korea’s military had ramped up surveillance and its readiness in response

SEOUL: North Korea has blown up sections of an inter-Korean road on its side of the heavily militarised border between the two Koreas, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Tuesday.
At around midday, some parts of the road north of the military demarcation line dividing the countries were blown up, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to media.
South Korea’s military had ramped up surveillance and its readiness in response, it said. Seoul had warned on Monday that Pyongyang was getting ready to blow up the roads.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been increasing amid an escalating war of words after the North accused its rival of sending drones over the country’s capital Pyongyang.
North Korea on Friday said the drones had scattered a “huge number” of anti-North leaflets over the city, in what it called political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.
A spokesman for the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff declined on Monday to answer questions over whether the South Korean military or civilians had flown the alleged drones.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had overseen on Monday a meeting with defense and security officials to discuss how to respond to the “enemy’s serious provocation that violated the sovereignty of the DPRK,” state media KCNA reported. DPRK is short for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.


US warns Iran to stop plotting against Trump

Updated 15 October 2024
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US warns Iran to stop plotting against Trump

  • Biden briefed regularly on threats, directs team to address Iranian plotting
  • Iran denies plotting, cites US interference in its affairs
  • White House warns of severe consequences for any attack on US citizens

WASHINGTON: The United States has warned the Iranian government to stop all plotting against Republican Donald Trump and said that Washington would view any attempt on his life as an act of war, a US official said on Monday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US President Joe Biden has been briefed regularly on the threats and directed his team to address Iranian plots against Americans.
At Biden’s direction, top US officials have sent messages to the highest levels of the Iranian government warning Tehran to cease all plotting against Trump and former US officials, the official said.
The Iranians have been told that Washington would view it as an act of war if any attempt was carried out against Trump’s life, the official said.
Iran has denied interfering in US affairs. Tehran, in turn, says Washington has interfered in its affairs for decades, citing events ranging from a 1953 coup against a prime minister to the 2020 killing of its military commander in a US drone strike.
In January 2020, Trump ordered a US air strike that killed Iran’s then-top military commander, Qassem Soleimani, after receiving intelligence that Soleimani was planning imminent attacks on US diplomats and armed forces in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Trump, a Republican, is now seeking a return to the White House after losing the 2020 election to Biden. Trump is now in a battle against Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the Nov. 5 election.
His campaign said on Sept. 24 that Trump was briefed by US intelligence officials on the alleged threat from Iran.
The White House said the United States has been closely tracking Iranian threats against Trump for years and it warned of “severe consequences” if Tehran was to attack any US citizen. “We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats. Should Iran attack any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett.
He said “appropriate agencies are continuously and promptly providing the former president’s security detail with evolving threat information.”
“Additionally, President Biden has reiterated his directive that the United States Secret Service should receive every resource, capability, and protective measure required to address those evolving threats to the former president,” Savett said.


Arab American PAC rejects both Trump and Harris over their support for Israel

Updated 15 October 2024
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Arab American PAC rejects both Trump and Harris over their support for Israel

  • Analysts said Harris’ chances could be hurt if Arab and Muslim Americans did not vote or voted for a third party. Many from those communities have lost relatives in Gaza and Lebanon and have urged supporters to not vote for Trump or Harris

WASHINGTON: The Arab American Political Action Committee said on Monday it will not endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican former President Donald Trump citing what it called their “blind support” for Israel in wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Nov. 5 US elections will mark the first time AAPAC has chosen not to endorse a candidate since the group’s 1998 inception. It usually endorses Democrats.
Polls show the race between Harris and Trump as tight. Arab and Muslim Americans overwhelmingly backed President Joe Biden in 2020 but have been vocal opponents of US support for Israel, which has eroded their backing of Democrats.
Trump has historically had low approval from that community due to past statements and his policy of a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations when he was in office. Like Harris and Biden, Trump has also been a vocal supporter of Israel.
Analysts said Harris’ chances could be hurt if Arab and Muslim Americans did not vote or voted for a third party. Many from those communities have lost relatives in Gaza and Lebanon and have urged supporters to not vote for Trump or Harris. Some like advocacy group Emgage Action have backed Harris, citing Trump as a bigger threat.
“Both candidates have endorsed genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon,” AAPAC said in a statement. “We simply cannot give our votes to either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, who blindly support the criminal Israeli government.”
Israel has denied genocide allegations at the World Court and said it is defending itself after an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants that it estimated killed about 1,200 people and in which around 250 were taken hostage.
Israel’s assault on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 people, the local health ministry said, while displacing nearly its entire population and causing a hunger crisis. In Lebanon, where Israel said it is targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, the death toll is over 2,000, the Lebanese government said.