ReportWire

Tag: sharia law

  • Keller mayor asking council to vote on resolution rejecting sharia law

    [ad_1]

    The Keller City Council will consider a resolution stating that it will reject sharia law and other foreign legal systems.

    The Keller City Council will consider a resolution stating that it will reject sharia law and other foreign legal systems.


    Joyce Marshall

    Star-Telegram/Joyce Marshall

    Keller Mayor Armin Mizani is proposing a resolution rejecting sharia law and other foreign legal systems and affirming that the city will only abide by the Constitution and U.S. laws.

    The City Council will vote on the resolution during its regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

    When asked why he is proposing the resolution, Mizani said, “The resolution reaffirms that in Keller, we only abide by the U.S. Constitution and U.S. law.”

    According to the Council on Foreign Relations, sharia — meaning the correct path in Arabic — refers to the divine counsel that Muslims follow to be close to God and live moral lives. Most of the Muslim majority countries have laws referencing sharia. Some countries have laws administer what critics believe are cruel punishments or place undue restrictions on women and minorities. But people also misunderstand sharia and how it is applied, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Mizani, who is also running in the District 98 Republican primary for the Texas House, said there is a “growing concern” with outside influences in Texas, citing examples that include legislation prohibiting “hostile foreign nations” from purchasing property in the state.

    Mizani also discussed a proposed development in Collin County formerly called EPIC City. The development is now called The Meadow. The East Plano Islamic Center is proposing the development, which will include 1,000 residential units, a faith-based K-12 school, a mosque and stores according to the Texas Tribune.

    The development has gotten backlash from politicians, including Gov. Abbott, and in early December, Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the developer, alleging securities fraud by misrepresenting the proposed development’s location and its leader’s compensation in relation to the project.

    ⭐ Our editors also recommend:

    Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the DFW chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said he heard about the proposed resolution in Keller, calling it “tiresome.”

    Carroll said Muslims have been a “political football” since 9/11.

    “People don’t even know what sharia law is,” he said. “Sharia law says Muslims must follow the laws of the land.”

    Carroll said politicians must talk about bringing people together.

    “At this point, we are so divided at this point. They keep bringing up sharia law because it helps them fire up their supporters,” Carroll said.

    Mizani said he believes the resolution will pass.

    “We recognize and embrace freedom of religion. What we’re not going to recognize is any sort of development, foreign entity or organization that wants to create its own standards and own set of rules. Anyone wanting to create a development only open to one segment of the population goes against our Constitution. People have the right to be Christian or Catholic or Muslim, but the minute you propose a development that elevates one religion, that’s where we have an issue,” Mizani said.

    Elizabeth Campbell

    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    With my guide dog Freddie, I keep tabs on growth, economic development and other issues in Northeast Tarrant cities and other communities near Fort Worth. I’ve been a reporter at the Star-Telegram for 34 years.

    [ad_2]

    Elizabeth Campbell

    Source link

  • No, Zohran Mamdani is not ‘bringing Sharia law to America’

    [ad_1]

    Less than 48 hours after Zohran Mamdani won New York City’s mayoral election, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., sent a fundraising email for her gubernatorial campaign that targeted Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor-elect.

    Under the words “Stop Muslim radicals,” the Nov. 6 email framed Mamdani’s victory as a civilizational battle. “Republicans must treat the rise of Islamic radicalism as another 9/11,” it said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

    The email said, “New Yorkers — the same people directly impacted by 9/11 — voted to elect a man who’s bringing SHARIA LAW to America.”

    Shariah (sometimes spelled “Sharia”) is a wide-ranging set of rules that governs aspects of Islamic life, including religious practice, daily living and financial dealings. It’s a religious-based Islamic legal code.

     

    Mace’s email resurrects a talking point that peaked in the 2010s, usually inspired by the false belief that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. and was actually a Muslim, a movement that came to be known as “birtherism.“

    During that time, PolitiFact consistently debunked the notion that Shariah was usurping traditional law in the U.S. 

    The talking point reemerged after Mamdani — who was born in Uganda and moved to the U.S. when he was 7, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018 — gained national attention for his bid to run the nation’s most populous city.

    Between June 24 and Oct. 31, there were at least 2,868 social media posts by 2,132 distinct users that referred to Shariah or Islamic theocracy in relation to Mamdani’s campaign, according to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

    Laura Loomer — a confidante of President Donald Trump, who played a key role in spreading birtherism before he ran for president — posted on X on June 26 that “this isn’t hyperbole. This is reality for New Yorkers. Sharia Law is coming.”

    We reviewed media coverage of Mamdani’s campaign and interviewed experts and found no evidence that Mamdani seeks to implement Shariah.

    “I’m not aware of anything he has said or done that suggests that he supports imposition of Shariah or even advocates policy positions that are based on Shariah,” said Nathan J. Brown, a George Washington University professor of political science and international affairs.

    Further, it would be impossible to accomplish in the U.S. 

    “No one can impose religious law on anyone in the United States because we have such a thing as the Constitution,” said Cyra Akila Choudhury, a Florida International University law professor. “The First Amendment prohibits the state from establishing a religion, so just as Christians and Jews cannot impose either canon law or Jewish law on anyone, Mamdani cannot impose Shariah.”

    Mace’s evidence for the statement 

    Mace’s campaign pointed PolitiFact to three pieces of evidence for the statement.

    One was an Oct. 22 X post from the account Wall Street Apes that includes a compilation of video clips of Mamdani. In one clip, a man asks Mamdani about Shariah, saying he has to renounce it, and Mamdani responds, “What does Shariah law have to do with this? I am running for mayor of New York.” In another clip, Mamdani, wearing a red bandana across his face, says, “We came here to remake this state in the image of our people.” The X post’s caption says, “Zohran Mamdani is a practicing Muslim. Islam tells them to lie to advance takeovers.”

    The second link is an Oct. 20 Republican National Committee blog post that criticized Mamdani for meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, a New York City Muslim religious leader; the blog post linked to a New York Post report identifying Wahhaj as an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. (Others, including critics of Wahhaj, dispute the Post’s characterization of him as a co-conspirator.)

    The third point is a Fox News article in which Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., called on Mamdani to denounce the phrase “globalize the Intifada,” saying, “People that glorify the slaughter of Jews create fear in our communities. The global intifada is a statement that means destroy Israel and kill all the Jews.”

    However, the X post the Mace campaign cited doesn’t show Mamdani advocating for Shariah, and the RNC blog post, the New York Post article it’s based on and the Fox News article do not mention the word Shariah. Individually or collectively, they are not proof that Mamdani is seeking to implement Shariah.

    Mamdani’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this article.

    Mamdani’s views clash with Shariah law

    Timothy P. Carney and Sadanand Dhume — two commentators with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. — have expressed reservations about some of Mamdani’s stances, but both agreed that the claim that Mamdani wants to implement Shariah is bogus.

    Mamdani “obviously doesn’t believe in Sharia law,” Carney wrote in the Washington Examiner. 

    Dhume wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “Is Zohran Mamdani a radical Islamist? Contrary to what some Republicans have suggested, the answer is clearly no.”

    Dhume told PolitiFact that Mamdani’s support for gay rights and decriminalizing sex work, among other positions, “are the antithesis of Sharia law as understood by those who seek to impose it. This line of attack is a scare tactic aimed at ignorant voters by conflating being a Muslim with supporting Islamism.”

    Mamdani’s background does not include anything to suggest that he supports Islamic fundamentalism. “My mother’s side of the family is Hindu, and I grew up celebrating Diwali, Holi and Raksha Bandhan,” he told The Indian Eye. “Though I identify as Muslim, these Hindu traditions and practices have shaped my worldview.” 

    There was no evidence during Mamdani’s lengthy campaign that he would undertake “the kinds of things that Islamists typically do when they take power in Muslim-majority countries,” Dhume said, such as cracking down on alcohol sales, encouraging or forcing female students in public schools to wear a hijab and shutting gay clubs.

    U.S. governance wouldn’t permit Shariah law supremacy

    Muslims living in the United States can put marital disputes and other personal matters in front of a tribunal made up of faith leaders. That’s allowed and has been used by Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, Baptists and other religions for decades. It falls under the umbrella of mediation, when people agree to work out their differences through a process outside of the courts.

    For any other situation, the Constitution reigns, legal experts said. In 2009, the trial judge in a New Jersey domestic abuse case deferred to Shariah tenets, but the state’s Superior Court rejected that decision. And in no American community does a code based on Islamic, Jewish, Catholic or other religious precepts take precedence over American law.

    “The laws that apply in New York City come from the legislature of New York state as well as local ordinances and regulations created by New York’s city council,” said Peter Mandaville, a George Mason University government and politics professor. “While the mayor of New York can propose legislation, it is not possible to unilaterally decree laws that have not been passed by the city council.”

    Our ruling

    Mace’s email said Mamdani “is bringing Sharia law to America.”

    Mamdani has expressed no intention to implement Shariah in New York City. Mamdani’s background and policy positions do not include anything to suggest that he supports Islamic fundamentalism, and an expert told PolitiFact that Mamdani’s support for gay rights and decriminalizing sex work are the “antithesis” of Shariah. 

    No one can implement Shariah in the United States, given legal protections under the Constitution.

    We rate the statement Pants on Fire!

    PolitiFact Staff Writer Nick Karmia and PolitiFact News Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Two gay men publicly caned in Indonesia after being caught kissing

    [ad_1]

    Two men were publicly caned in Indonesia on Tuesday after being found to have engaged in sexual relations — despite not actually having sex.

    The men, ages 21 and 20, were caught kissing in a public restroom at the Taman Sari Park in June. Depsite only being seen hugging and kissing, a panel of judges at the Banda Aceh Sharia Court found that they violated the province’s laws against same-sex sexual relations, and sentenced them to be caned.

    The men’s sentence was carried out on Tuesday in a park in the province’s capital Banda Aceh. The two were caned 76 and 82 times, with the one accused of instigating the relationship receiving extra lashes, according to an Agence France-Presse reporter who was present.

    “This public flogging of two young men under Aceh’s Islamic Criminal Code for consensual sex is a disturbing act of state-sanctioned discrimination and cruelty,” Montse Ferrer, Amnesty International’s Regional Research Director, said in a statement. “This punishment is a horrifying reminder of the institutionalized stigma and abuse faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Aceh. Intimate relationships between consenting adults should never be criminalized. Punishments such as flogging are cruel, inhuman and degrading and may amount to torture under international law.”

    Aceh is the only province out of 38 in Indonesia where same-sex sexual relations are criminalized. The 2001 Special Autonomy Law gave Aceh the independence to enforce Sharia law, which was used in 2014 to implement parts of the Islamic Criminal Code outlawing liwath (sodomy), musahaqah (lesbian), and zina (sex outside of marriage). Punishments for gay sex acts include up to 100 lashes and up to 100 months in prison.

    Sharia law also permits citizen’s arrests, allowing civilians to turn others over to authorities for investigation, as was the case with the men. The amount of lashes for each was reduced based on time spent in detention the past three months.

    The law was first used in 2017 against two men accused of having consensual sex. Several others have been sentenced to similar punishments since.

    “Indonesia, as a member of the UN Human Rights Council and a state party to the Convention Against Torture, must align its laws – including in Aceh – with its constitutional commitments to equality and non-discrimination,” Ferrer continued. “The criminalization of same-sex conduct and corporal punishment has no place in a just and humane society.”

    This article originally appeared on Advocate: Two gay men publicly caned in Indonesia after being caught kissing

    RELATED

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Taliban Fast Facts | CNN

    Taliban Fast Facts | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Taliban, a Sunni Islamist organization operating primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    The group’s aim is to impose its interpretation of Islamic law on Afghanistan and remove foreign influence from the country.

    Taliban, in Pashto, is the plural of Talib, which means student.

    Most members are Pashtun, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

    Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada has been the Taliban’s supreme leader since 2016.

    Reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar led the Taliban from the mid-1990s until his death in 2013.

    The exact number of Taliban forces is unknown.

    1979-1989 – The Soviet Union invades and occupies Afghanistan. Afghan resistance fighters, known collectively as mujahedeen, fight back.

    1989-1993 – After the Soviet Union withdraws, fighting among the mujahedeen erupts.

    1994 – The Taliban forms, comprised mostly of students and led by Mullah Mohammed Omar.

    November 1994 – The Taliban take control of the city of Kandahar.

    September 1996 – The capital, Kabul, falls to the Taliban.

    1996-2001 – The group imposes strict Islamic laws on the Afghan people. Women must wear head-to-toe coverings, are not allowed to attend school or work outside the home and are forbidden to travel alone. Television, music and non-Islamic holidays are banned.

    1997 – The Taliban issue an edict renaming Afghanistan the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The country is only officially recognized by three countries: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

    1997- Omar forges a relationship with Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, who then moves his base of operations to Kandahar.

    August 1998 – The Taliban capture the city of Mazar-e-Sharif, gaining control of about 90% of Afghanistan.

    October 7, 2001 – Less than a month after terrorists linked to al Qaeda carry out the 9/11 attacks, American and allied forces begin an invasion of Afghanistan called Operation Enduring Freedom.

    December 2001 – The Taliban lose its last major stronghold as Kandahar falls. Hamid Karzai is chosen as interim leader of Afghanistan.

    November 3, 2004 – Karzai is officially elected president of Afghanistan.

    December 2006 – Senior Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani is killed in an airstrike by the United States.

    December 11, 2007 – Allied commanders report that Afghan troops backed by NATO have recaptured the provincial town of Musa Qala from Taliban control.

    October 21, 2008 – Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal confirms that Saudi Arabia hosted talks between Afghan officials and the Taliban in September. It is reported that no agreements were made.

    April 25, 2011 – Hundreds of prisoners escape from a prison in Kandahar by crawling through a tunnel. The Taliban take responsibility for the escape and claim that 541 prisoners escaped, while the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force says the number is 470.

    September 10, 2011 – Two Afghan civilians are killed, and 77 US troops are wounded in a truck bombing at the entrance of Combat Outpost Sayed Abad, an ISAF base in Afghanistan’s Wardak province. The Taliban claim responsibility.

    September 13, 2011 – Taliban militants open fire on the US embassy and ISAF headquarters in central Kabul. Three police officers and one civilian are killed.

    February 27, 2012 – The Taliban claim responsibility for a suicide bombing near the front gate of the ISAF base at the Jalalabad airport in Afghanistan. At least nine people are killed and 12 are wounded in the explosion. The Taliban say the bombing is in retaliation for the burning of Qurans by NATO troops.

    June 18, 2013 – An official political office of the Taliban opens in Doha, Qatar’s capital city. The Taliban claim they hope to improve relations with other countries and head toward a peaceful solution in Afghanistan.

    September 21, 2013 – A Pakistani official announces that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, one of the founding members of the Taliban, has been released from prison. Baradar had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2010.

    May 31, 2014 – The United States transfer five Guantánamo Bay detainees to Qatar in exchange for the release of US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. It is believed Bergdahl was being held by the Taliban and the al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network in Pakistan. The detainees released are Khair Ulla Said Wali Khairkhwa, Mullah Mohammad Fazl, Mullah Norullah Nori, Abdul Haq Wasiq and Mohammad Nabi Omari.

    July 29, 2015 – An Afghan government spokesman says in a news release that Taliban leader Omar died in April 2013 in Pakistan, citing “credible information.” A spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence service tells CNN that Omar died in a hospital in Karachi at that time.

    September 28, 2015 – Taliban insurgents seize the main roundabout in the Afghan provincial capital of Kunduz, then free more than 500 inmates at the prison.

    December 21, 2015 – A police official says Taliban forces have taken almost complete control over Sangin, a strategically important city in Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

    May 21, 2016 – Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour is killed in an airstrike in Pakistan.

    May 25, 2016 – The Taliban name Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader. He is a senior religious cleric from the Taliban’s founding generation.

    January 25, 2017 – The Taliban release an open letter to newly elected US President Donald Trump. The letter calls on Trump to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan.

    April 21, 2017 – The Taliban attack a northern army base in Afghanistan, killing or wounding more than 100 people.

    July 25, 2017 – CNN reports it has exclusive videos that suggest the Taliban have received improved weaponry in Afghanistan that appears to have been supplied by the Russian government. Moscow categorically denies arming the Taliban.

    August 3, 2017 – Taliban and ISIS forces launch a joint attack on a village in northern Afghanistan, killing 50 people, including women and children, local officials say.

    January 27, 2018 – An attacker driving an ambulance packed with explosives detonates them in Kabul, killing 95 people and injuring 191 others, Afghan officials say. The Taliban claim responsibility.

    February 28, 2018 – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says the government is willing to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate political party as part of a potential ceasefire agreement.

    April 12, 2018 – At least 14 people, including a district governor, are killed and at least five are injured in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan’s southeastern Ghazni province.

    June 7, 2018 – In a video message, Ghani announces that Afghan forces have agreed to a ceasefire with the Taliban between June 12 and June 21. The proposed truce coincides with the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, the period during which Muslims celebrate the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting.

    June 15-17, 2018 – The three-day-old ceasefire between the Taliban, Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition is marred by two deadly attacks. ISIS, which did not participate in the truce, claims responsibility for a suicide bombing in the Nangarhar province that kills at least 25 people, including Taliban members and civilians. A second suicide bombing is carried out near the Nangarhar governor’s compound, killing at least 18 people and injuring at least 49. There is no immediate claim of responsibility for the second attack.

    August 10, 2018 – The Taliban launch an attack on the strategic Afghan city of Ghazni, south of the capital Kabul, seizing key buildings and trading fire with security forces. At least 16 people are killed and 40 are injured, most are Afghan security forces.

    October 13, 2018 – The Taliban issues a statement announcing that the group met with the US envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, to discuss the conflict in Afghanistan. The United States does not confirm that the meeting occurred.

    November 9, 2018 – In Moscow, Taliban representatives participate in talks with diplomats from Russia, Pakistan, India and other countries, as well as officials from the Afghan government. The United States sends a diplomat from its embassy in Moscow as an observer.

    January 22, 2019 – Authorities say at least 12 members of the Afghan military were killed and another 28 injured when the Taliban carried out a suicide attack on a military base in the central province of Maidan Wardak.

    January 28, 2019 – Officials from the United States and the Taliban announce they have agreed to a framework that could end the war in Afghanistan. The framework for peace would see the Taliban vow to prevent the country from being used as a hub for terrorism in return for a US military withdrawal. An Afghan source close to the negotiations tells CNN that while a ceasefire and US withdrawal were both discussed, neither side came to final conclusions.

    January 30, 2019 – In its quarterly report to the US Congress, the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction declares the Taliban expanded its control of territory in 2018 while the Afghan government lost control of territory. In October 2018, the Afghan government controlled just 53.8% of districts in the country, according to the report. The insurgency made gains to control 12.3% of districts while 33.9% of districts were contested.

    February 5-6, 2019 – Talks are held in Moscow between Taliban leaders and politicians from the government of Afghanistan.

    March 12, 2019 – Peace talks between representatives from the United States and the Taliban end without a finalized agreement. Khalilzad, the main American negotiator, says that progress has been made and the talks yielded two draft proposals.

    September 7-8, 2019 – Trump announces that Taliban leaders were to travel to the Unites States for secret peace talks over the weekend but that the meeting has been canceled and he has called off peace talks with the militant group entirely. Trump tweets that he scrapped the meeting after the Taliban took credit for an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed a dozen people, including an American soldier.

    November 28, 2019 – On a surprise trip to Afghanistan for a Thanksgiving visit with US troops, Trump announces that peace talks with the Taliban have restarted.

    February 29, 2020 – The United States and the Taliban sign a historic agreement which sets into motion the potential of a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. The “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” outlines a series of commitments from the United States and the Taliban related to troop levels, counterterrorism and the intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about “a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.”

    August 9, 2020 – Afghanistan’s grand assembly of elders, the consultative Loya Jirga, passes a resolution calling for the release of the last group of some 5,000 Taliban prisoners, paving the way for direct peace talks with the insurgent group. The release of the 400 prisoners is part of the agreement signed by the US and the Taliban in February.

    April 14, 2021 – US President Joe Biden formally announces his decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan before September 11, 2021, deeming the prolonged and intractable conflict in Afghanistan no longer aligns with American priorities.

    August 15, 2021 – After the Taliban seize control of every major city across Afghanistan, in just two weeks, they take control of the presidential palace in Kabul. A senior Afghan official and a senior diplomatic source tell CNN that Ghani has left the country.

    August 30, 2021 – The last US military planes leave Afghanistan.

    September 7, 2021 – The Taliban announce the formation of a hardline interim government for Afghanistan. Four men receiving senior positions in the government had previously been detained by the United States at Guantánamo Bay, and were released as part of a prisoner swap for Bergdahl in 2014.

    November 30, 2021 – New research released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) details “the summary execution or enforced disappearance” of 47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces who had surrendered or were apprehended by Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31. A Taliban deputy spokesman rejects the HRW report, saying that the Taliban established a general amnesty on their first day of power in Afghanistan.

    December 27, 2021 – The Taliban says it has dissolved Afghanistan’s election commission as well as its ministries for peace and parliamentary affairs, further eroding state institutions set up by the country’s previous Western-backed governments.

    February 11, 2022 – Biden signs an executive order allowing $7 billion in frozen assets from Afghanistan’s central bank to eventually be distributed inside the country and to potentially fund litigation brought by families of victims of the September 11 terror attacks. The Taliban has claimed rights to the funds, which include assets like currency and gold, but the United States has declined access to them after Afghanistan’s democratic government fell. The United States has not recognized the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

    March 23, 2022 – The Taliban prevents girls above the 6th grade in Afghanistan from making their much-anticipated return to school. They are told to stay at home until a school uniform appropriate to Sharia and Afghan customs and culture can be designed, the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported. The Taliban originally said that schools would open for all students – including girls – after the Afghan new year, which is celebrated on March 21, on the condition that boys and girls were separated either in different schools or by different learning hours.

    November 13, 2022 – The Taliban orders judges in Afghanistan to fully impose their interpretation of Sharia Law, including potential public executions, amputations and flogging, a move experts fear will lead to a further deterioration of human rights in the impoverished country.

    December 20, 2022 – The Taliban government suspends university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

    December 24, 2022 – The Taliban administration orders all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs.

    June 15, 2023 – The United Nations releases a report saying that since re-taking control of the country,the Taliban has committed “egregious systematic violations of women’s rights,” by restricting their access to education and employment and their ability to move freely in society.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • The truth about travelling in Aceh, Indonesia’s marijuana-crazy, ultraconservative Muslim-majority province, where sharia law rules – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    The truth about travelling in Aceh, Indonesia’s marijuana-crazy, ultraconservative Muslim-majority province, where sharia law rules – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    [ad_1]

    The truth about travelling in Aceh, Indonesia’s marijuana-crazy, ultraconservative Muslim-majority province, where sharia law rules Original Author Link click here … Read More

    [ad_2]

    MMP News Author

    Source link

  • The Taliban pledged to honor women’s rights in Afghanistan. Here’s how it eroded them instead | CNN

    The Taliban pledged to honor women’s rights in Afghanistan. Here’s how it eroded them instead | CNN

    [ad_1]



    CNN
     — 

    When the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 in a lightning takeover following the withdrawal of US troops, the radical Islamist group appeared keen to distance itself from its earlier period of rule in the 1990s, presenting itself as more moderate and committed to the internal peace process.

    Among its new commitments, the Taliban pledged to honor women’s rights within the norms of “Islamic law.”

    The group’s spokesman Suhail Shaheen said at the time that women would be allowed to continue their education up to university – a break from the strict restrictions under the Taliban regime that ruled between 1996 and 2001.

    The promises of a softer approach were met with skepticism, both within the country and abroad. Over a million Afghans have reportedly fled since the Taliban retook power.

    Sixteen months on, the Taliban appear to have reneged on their word. Women and girls are facing blanket bans on education after a series of decrees steadily eroded their rights in almost all aspects of life and upended the gains they had fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

    Just days after retaking power, the Taliban reinstated the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice as a public morality watchdog tasked with enforcing the Taliban’s version of Islamic law. The ministry has since been central to the systematic chipping away of women’s rights in the country.

    Here are some of the ways women’s rights have been eroded:

    The Taliban announced on September 12, 2021, that women could attend universities with gender-segregated classrooms while wearing compulsory hijabs. But in March 2022, the government barred girls from attending secondary school. Girls’ secondary schools were set to resume on March 23, 2021, after months-long closures imposed after the Taliban takeover. The group ordered them shut just hours after they were due to reopen. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

    In its latest step in the clampdown on women’s education, the Taliban on Tuesday suspended university education for all female students. A letter published by the education ministry said the decision was made in a cabinet meeting and the order would go into effect immediately.

    Women’s access to public spaces has been significantly curtailed under the Taliban.

    On November 10, women were banned from entering all parks in Kabul. Women had previously been allowed to visit parks three days a week, and men on the remaining four. The new rules mean that women are no longer allowed to do so, even if accompanied by male relatives.

    The same day, a Taliban official in Kabul announced that women would be barred from using gyms across the country. A spokesperson from the ministry of virtue said the ban was being introduced due to people ignoring segregation orders and women not wearing the hijab.

    Women in Afghanistan can no longer work in most sectors. The Taliban ordered working women to stay at home after their seizure of power in August 2021, saying they were not safe in the presence of the group’s soldiers.

    Women’s right to travel within Afghanistan and abroad has also been restricted.

    Late last year, it was announced that women would require a male escort to travel long distances within the country. Any woman traveling further than 75 kilometers (46 miles) was required to be accompanied by a male chaperone. Mohammad Sadiq Hakif Mahajer, spokesman for the virtue ministry, told CNN at the time that the new law was meant to prevent women from coming to any harm or “disturbance.”

    The new rules also called on drivers not to allow women who weren’t wearing the hijab into their cars.

    And in March, Afghanistan’s airlines were ordered to stop women from boarding flights unless accompanied by a male chaperone, Reuters reported.

    This summer, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered women to fully cover themselves, including their faces, in public. The decree suggested that women should stay at home where possible, as this was the “best option to observe the sharia hijab.”

    Prior to the order, hijabs were only mandatory for women studying at university and girls studying at secondary school. This was mandated in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power, when the new government said female students, lecturers and women in employment must wear hijabs in accordance with the group’s interpretation of sharia law.

    Taliban authorities have also ordered female television journalists to cover their faces while presenting.

    A member of the Taliban replaces a sign of the Department for Women's Affairs with one of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice at a government building in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in October 2021.

    Since sweeping back to power, the Taliban has abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, a key body to promote women’s rights through law. In its place, the new regime set up the notorious Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which has become instrumental in curtailing the rights of women.

    It has also rolled back the Elimination of Violence against Women Law, signed in 2009 to protect women from abuses – including forced marriage, leaving them without recourse to justice, according to the UN.

    Over the past year, the Taliban’s restrictions on women have increased international concern and are likely to further isolate the country on the world stage.

    Commenting after the decision to ban women from university, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the move will “further alienate the Taliban from the international community and deny them the legitimacy they desire.”

    US Ambassador Robert Wood, the alternate representative for special political affairs, echoed this sentiment, telling a United Nations Security Council briefing that the “Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all Afghans, especially the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls.”

    The restrictive new measures could stir further unrest within the country. In the wake of the ban on university education, women on Thursday took to the streets of Kabul to protest the decision. The Taliban arrested five women taking part in the protest, according to the BBC.

    [ad_2]

    Source link