A leader of the Muslim community in Jersey has praised the work of volunteers for helping people observe Ramadan in the island.

Organisers said they had seen seen rising numbers of islanders come together at the Jersey Islamic Centre to break fast during the holy month.

Ramadan is the most important time in the Islamic calendar where Muslims fast and refrain from eating or drinking between dawn and sunset.

Muslims also believe it is a time for self-reflection and renewing their faith to Allah.

Manik Ahmed Memon, the Iftar co-ordinator at Jersey Islamic Centre, said “a lot of work goes on in the background” to make sure people were able to break fast together.

“It’s great to see different people from different backgrounds coming together,” he said

“We have got great volunteers here who do the heavy lifting and families come together to cook the food which we serve at the centre.”

The centre is able to serve food to between 50 to 75 people coming to break fast every evening.

Amna Salim and Mohammed Attari were both observing Ramadan in Jersey for the first time.

Ms Salim said: “It’s been great.

“I didn’t know everyone would get together like this when I first came to the island.

“Jersey is very different to Pakistan, where I’m from originally, but it makes the move much easier being around people who celebrate your religion and your culture.”

Mr Attari said: “It’s really important for the community to have something like this because we’re a small community so it’s good to be connected.”

Dr Sarfaraz Jamali, the head of Jersey’s Muslim Community, said more than 75 people had gathered on one night for Iftar.

“We started with very few people maybe four or five,” he said.

“It gives a thought about how we’re going to deal with the increasing numbers of people coming here with the space we’ve got.”

By Chris Craddock – BBC News

L’article Ramadan event helping bring community together est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Cultural awareness of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is growing in coastal communities, Muslim families have said.

Ramadan, the Islamic holy month, which this year began on Wednesday 22 March involves fasting during daylight hours.

The fast-breaking evening meals of Iftar in Haverfordwest mosque see Muslims and non-Muslims eat together.

Schools in Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire have been holding assemblies on Ramadan, with advice on how pupils can help their friends who are fasting.

During the month, Muslims fast – which involves abstaining from eating and drinking during daylight hours – as well as focus on self-improvement, self-reflection and giving to the less fortunate.

Sajida Madni, 43, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, said cultural awareness of Ramadan had increased in her local community over the last year following the opening of the first mosque in the town last Ramadan.

Mrs Madni said: “In this area there is generally less exposure to other cultures, so there were concerns when we first started up about what we would be doing at the mosque.

“So we invited all of the neighbours for Iftar to show them that we are regular people sharing food and coming together.

“We are part of a wider community, part and parcel of British society, and we should celebrate that.”

The mosque runs a youth club with a range of activities for the community which is attended by Muslim and non-Muslim people alike, and many people bring their friends to share in the evening Iftar meals during the month.

Mustafa Yunis, a trustee at Haverfordwest Central Mosque, said: “A mosque is meant to be a hub, a community centre where everyone is there and it’s brilliant to have representatives from our local community coming to eat together with us.

“We want people to feel that they are part of our community as well.”

Overcoming barriers

Mrs Madni also highlighted the level of support offered by her children’s school.

Mrs Madni’s daughter, Aayah Yunis, and two children who she is a guardian for – Aziza and Mariam Akhtar – are the only Muslims at their secondary school, but she says the school has been incredibly supportive with helping them celebrate the holy month.

Castle School in Pembrokeshire has held an assembly on Ramadan, giving tips to students about how they can help their school friends who are fasting, as well as provided the three children with a prayer room.

The assembly also helped break down barriers and open up conversations about the Muslim faith.

“So many of her friends were able to ask her questions after that assembly that they felt they couldn’t ask beforehand,” Mrs Madni said.

Describing the impact on her, Aayah said: ‘It’s really nice to teach people about it because it helps people learn new things and helps me express my Islamic identity.”

Castle School said that programmes that allowed pupils to interact with different cultures was “further enriching their learning experiences and broadening their horizons”.

‘A positive shift’

Sara Ahmed, 40, from Ceredigion said she had noticed a “positive shift” in her children’s school’s approach to Ramadan, which also proactively held an assembly on the tradition.

“Prior to this year I’ve usually had to call into school and explain that the kids will be fasting, and that they will not be having food or water during the day and that they may need breaks during PE. The school has always been fine and positive about this.

“It wasn’t anything that parents spurred on either – this was the first time in my experience that that has happened and I really appreciated that,” she said.

She said one of her son’s friends even contacted him and said she wanted to try and fast a day with him.

“In the kids’ school, there’s probably less than 10 Muslim pupils. But compared to other schools in the area that’s quite a high number,” she said.

“There aren’t that many Muslims in the community here and you can sometimes feel you stick out a bit. So it’s really great to see people taking an interest and embrace our culture.”

By Sanjana Idnani – BBC News

L’article Ramadan: Coastal communities help Muslims celebrate est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.

Hypocrisy. This is the first word that came to mind when I learned of the United Nation’s decision to appoint the Islamic Republic of Iran – a government with a proven history of discriminatiion against women and minorities – to its Commission on the Status of Women, the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women” and “documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

The secret ballot vote which took place on April 21 and was carried out by the UN’s Economic and Social Council, gives Iran a 4-year term on the committee. It drew the ire of several prominent female human rights activists and the executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, who called the move “absurd” and “morally reprehensible.”

Neuer equated the decision to elect the Islamic Republic of Iran to a post meant to protect women’s rights “like making an arsonist into the town fire chief.” Neuer is correct. This move only further legitimizes and rewards the Islamic Republic of Iran’s bad behavior.

The abuse of women in Iran by the regime and its operatives is no secret and has drawn widespread condemnation, increasingly so over the past few years and especially during the previous administration which was the toughest on the Iranian government in modern history which empowered many to speak out more fervently against the government’s civilian abuses.

It is public knowledge that Iran’s compulsory hijab law has been a tool of oppression for the more outspoken women in the nation. Many courageous women’s rights activists who have been openly opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime have seen the inside of Iran’s notorious Evin prison. These include Nasrin Sotoudeh, Monireh Arabshahi, Yasaman Aryani, Mojgan Keshavarz. These women protested peacefully. However, any internal act of opposition to the Iranian regime – no matter how peaceful – is seen as a betrayal and dealt with as such.

Acclaimed Hollywood producer Marcia Ross and her husband Jeff Kaufman produced, directed and wrote “Nasrin”, a film that was taped in secret over several years in Iran and documents the extraordinary bravery of the human rights attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, whose personal sacrifice on behalf of all Iranian women must not be taken in vain.

On April 26, Iran sentenced Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe to another year in prison. Ratcliffe has been jailed in Iran since 2016, found guilty of propaganda activities against the Iranian regime. She was not given a fair trial nor was there proof to substantiate the regime’s claims against her.

In Iran, the legal system is heavily biased against women. In fact, it often prevents women from being able to get a divorce if they are in an abusive marriage and their lives are at risk. Among Iran’s fundamentalist mullahs’ abuse of women is a law which allows for girls to marry at age 13 and even younger with parental and judicial consent.

Ironically, in December 2020, the UN Women’s account tweeted, “Women are not objects.” However, their actions do not match their words.

In March 2015, Amnesty International reported on proposed law that would reduce women to “baby making machines” by restricting their ability to use contraceptives. The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline (Bill 446) set out to abolish family planning programs and blocking access to educational reproductive services.

The contrast between women’s rights under the Islamic Republic of Iran and the late Shah of Iran are stark. In 1963, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi launched the White Revolution (the name is attributed to the fact that it was bloodless) which included his enacting of the Family Protection Laws; a series of laws that included women’s rights to divorce. The laws also raised the minimum marriage age for all, curtailed polygamy, and mandated spousal consent before lawfully marrying a second wife. It also allowed women to divorce their husbands if they were suffering or unhappy and provided them with the right to keep custody of their children. All of this went away following the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Many women’s rights activists took to social media to condemn Iran’s appointment to the UN commission on women’s rights including Masih Alinejad, renowned for starting white Wednesdays during which Iranian women take to the streets and remove their head coverings to rail against the compulsory hijab. Alinejad wrote, “This is surreal. A regime that treats women as 2nd class citizens, jails them for not wearing compulsory hijab, bans them from singing, bars them from stadiums & doesn’t let them travel abroad without the permission of their husbands gets elected to UN’s top women’s rights body.”!!

Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who was held hostage in Iran on charges of espionage for 804 days (September 2018 -November 2020), expressed shock that the UN would elevate the IRI to such a sensitive post. 

The more the Islamic Republic of Iran is permitted to get away with its abuse of women and minorities by being rewarded with posts that run counter to the regime’s ideological underpinnings, the more emboldened they will become and the greater the suffering of women living in that oppressive environment will be. The UN has already lost tremendous credibility. It must now correct its errs before its largely symbolic role is further denigrated in the rolls of history.

By Adelle Nazarian – newslooks.com

L’article Electing Iran to UN Women’s Rights Post an Insult est apparu en premier sur زوايا ميادين | Mayadin Columns.