#Taliban banned women from daily life

[in-sightjournal]

Ask A Genius 999: Human Rights Watch and Gender Equality Regression

Rick Rosner, American Comedy Writer, www.rickrosner.org Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Independent Journalist, www.in-sightpublishing.com Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So I want to discuss the backlash against women’s rights progress. This has happened recently, and for several years before that, I will be reading from Human Rights Watch. They know, according to the UN, that women’s gender disparities are…

[editorbit]

I’m literally so sick and tired of misogyny riddling every little corner of the world, big and small. It’s inescapable, and so often it’s disregarded as "political opinions" and "just the way it is", or not even acknowledged at all. Not to mention the repercussions of it being non-existent or minor enough to not make much of a difference.

I tweeted something the other day but I did delete it because I have to admit I took my anger too far in the wrong direction and said something I didn’t really mean. It was more so something I said just out of anger and frustration against something I feel like I can’t fix, but want to. Like I can’t just snap misogynists out of existence and end the problem completely just like that, but I wish I could you know. There is a scary amount of people, usually men, wanting to halt the progress we’ve made these last 100 years, and it’s infuriating beyond belief. The mindset these people have, which they on top of that are promoting to young and vulnerable audiences, is insane. People that think that way should not exist. Those are not silly little opinions people should be allowed to have and share with others, especially not on national fucking television; those are horrible and damaging views to have about other humans.

Women all over the world are suffering the effects of misogyny, no matter how far along each country claims to have gotten in terms of equality. You have the extremes like the Taliban having "banned women’s faces and voices in public", basically hiding them away from the world and not even letting them exist outside. You have thousands of women being murdered by their partners, raped by their coworkers, assaulted by strangers every single day for who knows how many centuries now. Then you have the less extreme but very common examples such as misogynistic comments and content riddling every platform available, anything stereotypically feminine being sexualised or ridiculed, sexist remarks in daily life, and so much more I can’t even mention them all.

Sure, not all men have done or will do these things, but a concerning amount have and a concerning amount do nothing to prevent it from happening in the future. Because in the end they don’t reap the major consequences, they don’t have to cast an extra glance over their shoulder at night, and they don’t have to worry about the government denying them the care and the services they need because "sorry, your safety is against the law now."

When I say I hate men I don’t mean it literally. I don’t mean I hate every single man in existence, and never would I ever even get remotely close to treating men the way they at their worst treat women. Rather I hate the systems and procedures that make them turn out this way, as well as the end result and how widespread that is. I hate men who hurt women, I hate men who want to hurt women, and I hate men who don’t care. Women don’t have the luxury to tune it all out and go about their life, because this IS their life. Oh my God I’m so fucking tired of men and their bullshit.

[ech0st4r]

Afghan/Taliban rules for women.

It not only bans women from showing any part of their bodies or faces in public, but silences their voices as well. It also seeks to regulate many aspects of daily life, from music and games, to travel, dress, and sexual practices.

From the age of eight onward, girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close "blood relative", husband, or in-law (see mahram).[22] From September 1996 to December 2001, when the Taliban were in control of 90 per cent of Afghanistan, it imposed the following restrictions on women:

2 days ago

[thepursuitroom]

Female Students Turned away from Afghan Universities after Taliban Ban

Kabul: Female university students in Afghanistan have turned away from campuses on Wednesday after the Taliban-run administration said women would be suspended from tertiary education.

The decision to ban the women was announced on Tuesday evening in a letter to universities from the Ministry of Higher Education, which was condemned by foreign governments and the United Nations.

“We went to university, the Taliban were at the gate and told us you are not allowed to enter the university until further notice’ … everyone was crying,” said Shaista, a business studies student at a private university in Kabul.

The bar on women students is likely to complicate the Taliban administration’s efforts to gain international recognition and to get rid of sanctions that are severely hampering the economy.

The U.N.’s mission in Afghanistan asked the Taliban-run administration to immediately revoke the decision.

It also urged the authorities to reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and “end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life”.

Hasti, a third-year political studies student, was preparing for her final exam scheduled for Wednesday when she heard the news and spent the evening crying in front of her study materials instead.

“I have done my best to study, but it is very hard for me because right now I have to stop my studying and my goals are not achievable…. if the situation continues like this for women, it means women and girls are being buried alive,” she said.

[marketingstrategy1]

UN condemns Taliban decision to bar women from universities, calls for ‘immediate’ revocation — Global Issues

UN condemns Taliban decision to bar women from universities, calls for ‘immediate’ revocation — Global Issues

In a statement, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) also urged the de facto authorities to “reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life”. Clear and present violation UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk described the ban as “another appalling and cruel blow to the rights of Afghan…

[airasilver]

'If we can't speak, why live?' - BBC meets women after new Taliban law

8 hours ago

Yogita Limaye

BBC News, Kabul

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Contains some upsetting scenes.

1:40

Contains some upsetting scenes.

Watch: BBC meets women who feel new laws treat them "like animals"

The daily English lessons that Shabana attends are the highlight of her day. Taking the bus in Kabul to the private course with her friends, chatting and laughing with them, learning something new for one hour each day - it’s a brief respite from the emptiness that has engulfed her life since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

In another country, Shabana* would have been graduating from high school next year, pursuing her dream to get a business degree. In Afghanistan, she and all teenage girls have been barred from formal education for three years.

Now even the small joys that were making life bearable are fraught with fear after a new law was announced saying if a woman is outside her home, even her voice must not be heard.

“When we got out, we’re scared. When we’re on the bus, we’re scared. We don’t dare to take down our masks. We even avoid speaking among ourselves, thinking that if someone from the Taliban hears us they could stop and question us,” she says.

The BBC has been in Afghanistan, allowing rare access to the country's women and girls - as well as Taliban spokespeople - reacting to the new law, which was imposed by the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The law gives the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry – the Taliban’s morality police - sweeping powers to enforce a stringent code of conduct for Afghan citizens.

For women who have already had their freedoms crushed bit by bit by a relentless series of decrees, it delivers another blow.

“If we can’t speak, why even live? We’re like dead bodies moving around,” Shabana says.

Two Afghan school girls sit on the floor

Teenage girls are unable to attend school. The BBC is not showing their faces to protect their identities

“When I learnt about the new law, I decided not to attend the course any more. Because if I go out, I’ll end up speaking and then something bad might happen. Maybe I won’t return home safely. But then my mother encouraged me to continue.”

In the three years since the Taliban takeover, it's become clear that even if edicts aren’t strictly imposed, people start self-regulating out of fear. Women continue to be visible in small numbers on the streets of cities like Kabul, but nearly all of them now are covered from head to toe in loose black clothes or dark blue burqas, and most of them cover their faces with only their eyes visible, the impact of a decree announced last year.

“Every moment you feel like you’re in a prison. Even breathing has become difficult here," said Nausheen, an activist.

Until last year, whenever new restrictions were announced, she was among small groups of women who marched on the streets of Kabul and other cities, demanding their rights.

Veiled woman sits with hand on face

Now the Taliban have imposed a new rule, banning women from raising their voice in public

The hospital struggling to save its starving babies

What happened to the women who took on the Taliban?

The protests were violently cracked down on by the Taliban’s forces on multiple occasions, until they stopped altogether.

Nausheen was detained last year. “The Taliban dragged me into a vehicle saying ‘Why are you acting against us? This is an Islamic system.’ They took me to a dark, frightening place and held me there, using terrible language against me. They also beat me,” she says, breaking down into tears.

“When we were released from detention we were not the same people as before and that’s why we stopped protesting,” she adds. “I don’t want to be humiliated any more because I’m a woman. It is better to die than to live like this.”

Now Afghan women are showing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, their faces covered, singing songs about freedom. “Let’s become one voice, let’s walk together holding hands and become free of this cruelty” are the lines of one such song.

1:20

Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat tells the BBC that the edict is in accordance with Islamic Sharia law

Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who didn’t want to be pictured with a woman or sit directly opposite me, justified the new edict, which came accompanied with copious footnotes - references to religious texts.

“The law approved by the supreme leader is in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. Any religious scholar can check its references,” he says.

Shireen, a teacher, does not agree.

“This is their own interpretation of Sharia. Islam has given the right to both men and women to choose if they want to study and progress.

"If they say that women’s voices should not be heard, let’s go back to history. There are so many women in Islamic history who have spoken out.”

Getty Images KABUL, AFGHANISTAN-MAY 14: Women pass by as phones and accessories sit on display in a store in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 14, 2024. Three years after the Taliban takeover, Afghan women and girls are using the internet to fill the gaps left by bans affecting women's education, work, and social life. (Photo by Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images)Getty Images

Women, seen here looking in a Kabul shop window, get fewer and fewer chances to meet

Shireen is part of a network of Afghan women running secret schools quietly rebelling against the restrictions. Already operating under a great deal of risk, often having to move the location of the school for safety, the new law has compounded her fears.

The danger of discovery is so great, she cannot speak to us at home, instead choosing a discreet location.

“Every morning I wake up asking God to make the day pass safely. When the new law came, I explained all its rules to my students and told them things would be more difficult. But I am so tired of all this, sometimes I just want to scream,” she says. “They don’t see women as human beings, just as tools whose only place is inside the home.”

Karina, a psychologist who consults with a network of secret schools, has previously told us that Afghan women are suffering from a ‘pandemic of suicidal thoughts’ because of the restrictions against them.

After the new law was announced she says she had a surge in calls asking for help. “A friend of mine messaged me to say this was her last message. She was thinking of ending her life. They feel all hope is gone and there is no point in continuing living,” she said. “And it’s becoming more and more difficult to counsel them.”

Kaynat - midwife training student

Kaynat - a student midwife - is one of the few women in training

I asked Hamdullah Fitrat about the Taliban government’s responsibility towards women and girls in their country who are being driven into depression and suicidal thoughts because they’re banned from education.

“Our sisters' education is an important issue. We’re trying to resolve this issue which is the demand of a lot of our sisters,” the spokesman said.

But three years on, do they really expect people to believe them?

“We are awaiting a decision from our leadership. When it is made, we will all be told about it,” he replied.

From earlier meetings with Taliban officials, it has been evident for a while that there are divisions within the Taliban government on the issue of women’s education, with some wanting it to be restarted. But the Kandahar-based leadership has remained intransigent, and there has been no public breaking of ranks with the supreme leader’s diktats.

We have seen some evidence of the difference in views. Not far from Kabul, we were unexpectedly given access to a midwife training course regularly run by the Taliban’s public health ministry. It was under way when we visited, and because ours was a last-minute visit, we know it was not put on for us to see.

More than a dozen women in their 20s were attending the course being conducted by a senior female doctor. The course is a mix of theory and practical sessions.

The students couldn’t speak freely but many said they were happy to be able to do this work.

“My family feels so proud of me. I have left my children at home to come here, but they know I’m serving the country. This works gives me so much positive energy,” said Safia.

Many acknowledged their privilege, and some expressed fear about whether even this might be stopped eventually. The Taliban’s health ministry didn’t answer questions about how they would find students to do this course in the future, if girls were not receiving formal education after grade six.

Public health, security, arts and craft are among a handful of sectors where women have been able to continue working in parts of the country. But it isn’t a formal decree that gives them permission. It’s happening through a quiet understanding between ground-level Taliban officials, NGOs and other stakeholders involved.

The new law leaves even this informal system vulnerable to the scrutiny of the Taliban’s morality police.

Sources in humanitarian agencies have told us they are grappling to understand how the law should be interpreted but they believe it will make operations more difficult.

The law was announced less than two months after the Taliban attended UN-led talks on engagement with Afghanistan for the first time – a meeting that Afghan civil society representatives and women’s rights activists had been kept out of, at the insistence of the Taliban.

It’s led many in the international community to question whether it was worth accepting the Taliban’s conditions for a meeting, and what the future of engagement with them might look like.

Reacting to the new law, the EU put out a sharply worded statement describing the restrictions as ‘systematic and systemic abuses… which may amount to gender persecution which is a crime against humanity’. It also said the decree creates ‘another self-imposed obstacle to normalised relations and recognition by the international community’.

“The values laid out in the law are accepted in Afghan society. There are no problems. We want the international community, especially the UN and others to respect Islamic laws, traditions and the values of Muslim societies,” Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said.

Less than two weeks ago the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said it would no longer co-operate with the UN mission in Afghanistan because of its criticism of the law.

It’s evidence that relations which seemed to be progressing just two months ago, appear to have now hit a significant roadblock.

“I believe that when it comes to aid, the world should continue helping Afghanistan. But when it comes to talking to the Taliban, there should be a rule that in each discussion women must be present. And if that can’t happen, they [the international community] should stop talking to them,” psychologist Karina said.

“The world must care about what’s happening with Afghan women, because if it doesn’t this mentality could easily spread to them, to their homes.”

* The names of all women interviewed for this piece were changed for their safety

Additional reporting by Imogen Anderson and Sanjay Ganguly

this sums up the article pretty well all on its own

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Since August, secondary school girls from grade 7 and up have effectively been banned from education. While the Taliban claims the restrictions are temporary, saying they want to create the right Islamic environment for girls to learn, Afghanistan remains the world’s only country where girls are barred from education.

Kabul pharmacist Mohammed Mohibullah says that while the overall sales of antidepressants and sleeping pills have gone down, the number of women buying such medication has increased. “Since the Taliban’s takeover, it has been mostly peaceful. The war has stopped and there have been fewer attacks. But what I’m noticing now is a sharp rise in women asking for antidepressants, stress relievers or sleeping pills, even without a specific prescription. They are under a lot of pressure. While many men tell me they feel more at ease compared to before, it is the opposite for women and girls.”

Medical professionals in the country warn they are seeing a rise in depression among teenage girls. “Afghans – especially girls who have been at home for the past months – are confronted with an even more uncertain future than before. For many, this has fostered stress and hopelessness, which has caused depression to rise. Many feel as if they have lost control of their dreams, goals – their lives,” says psychologist Rohullah Rezvani, adding that, with society still largely stigmatising mental health, most Afghans never seek professional help and are often left struggling for years.

“People will admit to ‘having problems’ and might even take medication to calm stress levels, but that’s about it,” Rezvani says.

Muska, an ambitious 15-year-old who one day wants to pursue medical studies, says she has “lost hope”.

“We always lived in fear of daily attacks, but for me, not going to school and not knowing what my future holds is still worse,” she says. “I was nearby several explosions, with one of them being a close call. It was scary, but I always had hope that the situation would eventually improve and that there could be a future where girls and women have equal rights and opportunities. The Taliban have robbed me of that hope,” she says from her Kabul home, which she has barely left since August. “When they first announced the ban, I couldn’t stop crying. I felt paralysed. Living without purpose makes my life meaningless.” For months, Muska has spent her days doing little but watch television. “I can’t even get myself to study and I haven’t seen any of my friends. For what kind of future anyway?”

The Taliban say girls will eventually be allowed back to school. Deputy minister of culture and information, Zabihullah Mujahid, says the group is “not against education”, even though girls’ schools across Kabul remain closed, with just a few provincial schools remaining open to girls.

“The policies pursued by the Taliban are discriminatory, unjust and violate international law,” says Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnès Callamard, urging the reopening of all secondary schools to girls. “Across the country, the rights and aspirations of an entire generation of girls are dismissed and crushed.”

Teachers and activists have already opened ad hoc schools, similar to the secret schools of the previous 1996 to 2001 Taliban regime. Gatherings are mostly held in people’s homes. Laila Haideri, who runs one of the schools, teaching English and computer science, says she hopes it will help counter loneliness and foster ambitions many girls might have lost. “Regardless of what the Taliban decides and what the future holds, we will not let our girls stop learning,” she says.

[jkottke]

The Taliban's Return Is Catastrophic for Women in Afghanistan

Pulitzer prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario has covered Afghanistan for the past 20 years. In the Atlantic, she writes about the effect of the return to power of the oppressive Islamic-fundamentalist Taliban will have on the country's citizens, particularly women and girls. Here she describes life under the Taliban in 2000 and 2001:

Perhaps the silence of life under the Taliban sits with me more than anything. There were very few cars, no music, no television, no telephones, and no idle conversation on the sidewalks. The dusty streets were crowded with widows who had lost their husbands in the protracted war; banned from working, their only means of survival was to beg. People were scared, indoors and out. Those who were brave enough to venture out spoke in hushed voices, for fear of provoking a Taliban beating for anything as simple as not having a long-enough beard (for a man) or a long-enough burka (for a woman), or sometimes for nothing at all. Shiny brown cassette tape fluttered from the trees and wires and signs and poles everywhere-a warning to those who dared to play music in private. Matches in Kabul's Ghazi Stadium had been replaced with public executions on Fridays after prayer. Taliban officials used bulldozers or tanks to topple walls onto men accused of being gay. People who stole had their hand sliced off; accused adulterers were stoned to death.

After the Taliban fell in 2001, Addario observed women returning to public life:

I photographed the defeat of the Taliban in Kandahar in late 2001, and returned to the country with my camera at least a dozen times in the subsequent two decades. From Kabul to Kandahar to Herat to Badakhshan, I photographed women attending schools, graduating from universities, training as surgeons, delivering babies, working as midwives, running for Parliament and serving in government, driving, training to be police officers, acting in films, working -- as journalists, translators, television presenters, for international organizations. Many of them were dealing with the impossible balancing act of working outside the home while raising children; of being a wife, a mother, a sister, or a daughter in a place where women were cracking glass ceilings daily, and often at great peril.

Now those women, especially those involved in politics or activism, are in danger now that the Taliban have seized power in Afghanistan again.

[newstfionline]

Thursday, July 8, 2021

California braces for another heat wave (Yahoo News) The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning Tuesday for much of California that will last from Wednesday through next Monday, the third potentially record-breaking heat wave over the last two months in a state racked by a drought made worse by climate change. Temperatures are forecast to reach 116 degrees in the valleys of San Diego over the weekend, and even higher in desert portions of the state. In the Central Valley, where much of the nation’s food is grown, temperatures are forecast to reach 111 degrees on Sunday, and Yosemite National Park could see temperatures of over 108 degrees for several days in a row, the National Weather Service warned.

Haitian President assassinated (BBC/AP) Haitian President Jovonel Moïse, 53, was killed in his private residence at 1 a.m. local time by armed assailants, amid political instability in the impoverished Caribbean nation. First Lady Martine Moïse was injured in the gunfire. Moïse had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections and parliament was dissolved. Prime Minister Claude Joseph assumed leadership of Haiti with help of police and the military and decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse’s killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the Western Hemisphere’s highest poverty, violence and political instability. Inflation and gang violence are spiraling upward as food and fuel becomes scarcer, while 60% of Haitian workers earn less than $2 a day. The increasingly dire situation comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 following a history of dictatorship and political upheaval.

Dutch journalist shot who exposed the mob (Washington Post) It was evening in Amsterdam when Peter R. de Vries stepped out of the television studio and into the downtown streets. Decades investigating cold-case killings had earned the silver-haired 64-year-old accolades and a reputation as one of the most famous journalists in the Netherlands. His career in crime reporting had also earned him death threats, but friends said he laughed off the danger. Shortly after leaving the TV studio on Tuesday, de Vries was shot. “He was seriously wounded and is fighting for his life,” Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema told reporters. “He is a national hero to us all. A rare, courageous journalist who tirelessly sought justice.” The Netherlands has one of the lowest violent crime rates in Europe. But its long shoreline, numerous ports and excellent infrastructure has made it a major hub for drug trafficking, and de Vries had been working against them.

Russia’s pandemic response (Foreign Policy) Russia is firmly in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic’s third wave. Every day, there are about 22,000 reported new infections—twice as many as during the peak of the first wave in May 2020—and more than 600 deaths. The new delta variant of the virus, which Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said is responsible for 90 percent of new infections in the Russian capital, has caught Russia almost completely unawares. Now, the campaign for parliamentary elections in September could make fighting the pandemic even harder, since the ruling United Russia party may be even more reluctant to impose unpopular measures like lockdowns.

Taliban Try to Polish Their Image as They Push for Victory (NYT) In June, when the Taliban took the district of Imam Sahib in Afghanistan’s north, the insurgent commander who now ruled the area had a message for his new constituents, including some government employees: Keep working, open your shops and keep the city clean. The water was turned back on, the power grid was repaired, garbage trucks collected trash and a government vehicle’s flat tire was mended—all under the Taliban’s direction. Imam Sahib is one of dozens of districts caught up in a Taliban military offensive that has swiftly captured more than a quarter of Afghanistan’s districts, many in the north, since the U.S. withdrawal began in May. It is all part of the Taliban’s broader strategy of trying to rebrand themselves as capable governors while they press a ruthless, land-grabbing offensive across the country. But the signs that the Taliban have not reformed are increasingly clear: An assassination campaign against government workers, civil society leaders and security forces continues on pace. And in areas the insurgents have seized, women are being forced out of public-facing roles, and girls out of schools.

Iran nuclear worries (Foreign Policy) Iran has begun the process of making enriched uranium metal, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Tuesday, a move which the United States called “an unfortunate step backwards” while France, Germany, and the United Kingdom said the process fulfilled “no credible civilian need.” Development of uranium metal was banned under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal due to its use in the core of a nuclear weapon. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s representative at indirect U.S.-Iran negotiations in Vienna noted Iran’s breach of the deal on Twitter while offering a reminder that Biden’s failure to lift Trump-era sanctions on Iran also constitutes a breach. Ulyanov said another round of Vienna talks and a full restoration of the deal was the “only way out of this vicious circle.”

Vietnam’s biggest city sees panic-buying over virus lockdown fears (Reuters) Anticipation of stricter movement curbs triggered panic-buying in Vietnam’s economic hub Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, the epicentre of its coronavirus outbreak, while media reported unrest at a city jail where dozens of inmates were infected. The health ministry said outbound travellers from the city of 9 million people would be subjected to a week of quarantine and testing at their destinations, a day after dozens of flights were suspended to control the spread. Shelves at the supermarkets were being emptied since late Tuesday, witnesses said, in preparation for tighter measures, as the country reported more than 1,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time.

Australia’s largest city Sydney locks down for third week (AP) Sydney’s two-week lockdown has been extended for another week due to the vulnerability of an Australia population largely unvaccinated against COVID-19, officials said on Wednesday. The decision to extend the lockdown through July 16 was made on health advice, state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. The extension of the lockdown, which covers Australia’s largest city and some nearby communities, means most children will not return to school next week following their midyear break.

Ever Given: Ship that blocked Suez Canal sets sail after deal signed (BBC) A huge container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March—disrupting global trade—is finally leaving the waterway after Egypt signed a compensation deal with its owners and insurers. Witnesses say the Ever Given weighed anchor shortly after 11:30 local time (09:30 GMT) and headed north towards the Mediterranean escorted by tugs. The ship has been impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Egypt had demanded $550m (£397m). The vessel, with an Indian crew, is still loaded with about 18,300 containers. It is due to undergo safety checks at Port Said before sailing to Rotterdam in the Netherlands and then to the UK port of Felixstowe where it will offload its containers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Khalid bin Salman Gets Quiet Washington Welcome (Foreign Policy) Prince Khalid bin Salman, the son of Saudi King Salman and brother of Crown Prince Mohammed, meets with State Department officials today on a trip to Washington that the White House would rather not talk about. Prince Khalid’s visit was not publicly announced by either U.S. or Saudi officials, and is the highest profile visit by a Saudi official since the Biden administration declassified an intelligence assessment surrounding the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul in 2018. On Tuesday he met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. As Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister, there is nothing unusual about a representative of a U.S. regional partner meeting with U.S. officials. However, the lack of fanfare underlines the Biden administration’s wariness in dealing with a government that then-candidate Joe Biden promised to treat as a “pariah” for human rights abuses, chief among them the killing of Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and critic of the Saudi government. Biden initially held true to his promise that “America will never again check its principles at the door just to buy oil or sell weapons,” when he announced a pause in proposed weapons sales to the kingdom; the decision will likely be watered down to a suspension in the sale of air-to-ground offensive weaponry.

South Africa’s ex-leader turns himself in for prison term (AP) Former South African president Jacob Zuma turned himself over to police early Thursday to begin serving a 15-month prison term. Just minutes before the midnight deadline for police to arrest him, Zuma left his Nkandla home in a convoy of vehicles. Zuma handed himself over to authorities to obey the country’s highest court, the Constitutional Court, that he should serve a prison term for contempt. Zuma, 79, was ordered to prison for contempt because he defied a court order for him to testify before a judicial commission investigating widespread allegations of corruption during his time as the country’s president, from 2009 to 2018.

[thesewomenarebadass]

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai was born on the 12th of July 1997. She is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize laureate. She is known for human rights advocacy.

Malala Yousafzai was born in Mingora, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan to Ziauddin Yousafzai and Tor Pekai Yousafzai. Her family are Sunni Muslims of Pashtun ethnicity. She has two younger brothers, Khushal and Atal, and was named after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pashtun poet and warrior woman from Pakistan.

Yousafzai was educated mostly by her father, who was a school owner, poet and educational activist. It was her father who persuaded her to become a politician instead of a doctor, and she was inspired by Benazir Bhutto and Muhammed Ali Jinnah.

She started speaking about women’s educational rights in September 2008, at an event that had a lot of press coverage. In 2009, she began as a trainee and then a peer educator in the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's Open Minds Pakistan youth programme.

In 2008, Aamer Ahmed Khan of the BBC Urdu website and his colleagues decided to ask a schoolgirl to blog anonymously about her life there. Their correspondent in Peshawar had been in touch with Ziauddin Yousafzai but could not find any students willing to do risk the danger. Finally, Yousafzai suggested his own daughter, 11-year-old Malala. At the time, Taliban militants were taking over the Swat Valley, banning television, music, girls' education, and women from going shopping. On 3 January 2009, Yousafzai's first entry was posted to the BBC Urdu blog. The blog records her thoughts during the First Battle of Swat, as military operations take place, more girls stop coming to school, and her school closes. The Taliban set an edict that no girls could attend school after January 2009 and had already blown up more than a hundred girls' schools. The following day was the first time she read excerpts from her blog that had been published in a local newspaper.

Following the decree, the Taliban demolished several more local schools. Yousafzai wrote: “It seems that it is only when dozens of schools have been destroyed and hundreds others closed down that the army thinks about protecting them. Had they conducted their operations here properly, this situation would not have arisen.”

In February 2009, girls' schools were still closed, so in unity, private schools for boys decided to close until 9 February. On 7 February, she and her brother returned to Mingora, where the streets were empty, and there was an "eerie silence". Their home had been robbed and their television was stolen.

After boys' schools reopened, the Taliban removed restrictions on girls' primary education, but only where there was co-education. Only 70 pupils attended, out of 700 pupils who were registered.

On the 18th February, she spoke out against the Taliban on Capital Talk, the national current affairs show. Three days later, local Taliban leader announced on his radio station that he was removing the ban on girl’s education, and women would be allowed to attend school until they sat their exams, but they had to wear burqas. When the schools reopened, Yousafzai write that the atmosphere in class was almost like it had been before, and 19 out of 27 pupils came to class, but the Taliban were still active in the area. Shelling continued, and relief goods meant for evacuated people were stolen. Only two days later, there was a battle between the military and Taliban.

Her blog ended on 12 March 2009, and she and her father were approached by a New York Times reporter about filming a documentary.

In May, the Pakistani Army moved into the region to regain control during the Second Battle of Swat. Malala’s home was evacuated, and her family was separated. She was sent into the countryside to live with relatives while her father went to Peshawar to protest and lobby for support. Then, after criticising militants at a press conference, her father received a death threat by a Taliban commander. That summer she dedicated herself to becoming a politician.

Eventually the prime minister made an announcement saying that it was safe for them to return home. The Yousafzai family reunited, and they headed home, after briefly making a stop to meet with a group of activists that had been invited to see Barack Obama's representative, Richard Holbrooke. Yousafzai pleaded with Holbrooke to intercede in the situation. When her family finally did return home, they found it had not been damaged, and the school had remained mostly unscathed.

Following the documentary, Malala was interviewed on AVT Khyber, Daily Aaj, and Canada's Toronto Star. She made a second appearance on Capital Talk. Her blogger identity was revealed by December 2009. She also began advocating for female education on TV. From 2009 to 2010 she was the chair of the District Child Assembly of the Khpal Kor Foundation.

In 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu nominated Yousafzai for the International Children's Peace Prize of the KidsRights Foundation. She was the first Pakistani girl to be nominated for the award, but she did not win it.

On 19 December 2011, the Prime Minister awarded her the National Peace Award for Youth. At the proceedings, she stated that she hoped to create a national political party to promote education. The prime minister authorised the set up of an IT campus in the Swat Degree College for Women at her request, and a secondary school was renamed after her. In 2012, Yousafzai was beginning to organise the Malala Education Foundation, which would help poor girls go to school.

As she became more famous she began receiving more and more death threats. When the threats didn’t get her to stop her work, the Taliban leaders decided to kill her. A spokesman said they were "forced" to act. On 9 October 2012, a gunman shot Yousafzai when she was on her way home from an exam. She was hit with a bullet, which went through her head, neck, and ended in her shoulder. Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan were also injured in the assault but were stable enough to describe the attack.

Yousafzai was flown to a military hospital, where doctors were required to begin operating after swelling developed in the left part of her brain. After a five-hour operation, doctors managed to remove the bullet, and the following day they carried out a decompressive craniectomy, in which part of the skull is removed to allow room for the brain to swell. Offers to treat Yousafzai came from all over the globe. On the 15th of October, she went to Britain for further treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Yousafzai was out of her coma by October 2012, was responding well to treatment, and was said to have a good chance of fully recovering without any brain damage. She was discharged on the 3rd of January and underwent a five-hour long operation on 2nd of February to reconstruct her skull and give her a cochlear implant.

The attack was covered by media outlets all over the world, and outrage and compassion for Malala came rushing in. Several Pakistani cities held protests against the murder attempt the next day, and the Right to Education petition received over 2 million signatures, Pakistani officials offered 10 million rupees for information leading to the attackers. Asif Ali Zardari described the shooting as an attack on "civilized people".

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that Malala "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity", and threatened to attack her again if she lived. The Taliban justified the attack, stating that the Quran says that "people propagating against Islam and Islamic forces would be killed", and that "Sharia says that even a child can be killed if he is propagating against Islam".

The day after the shooting police named Atta Ullah Khan as the shooter in the attack. As of 2015 he remained at large. Six men were also arrested for involvement in the attack, but there was not enough evidence to condemn them. As of November 2012, Mullah Fazlullah, who ordered the attack on Malala, was confirmed to be hiding in Eastern Afghanistan.

In 2014, Major General Asim Bajwa told the media that the assailants belong to a militant group called "Shura". Israrur Rehman was the first group member to be recognised and detained. All other members of the group were arrested using intel received during his interrogation. In 2015, the arrested men were sentenced to life in prison with the chance of eligibility for parole, and possible release, after 25 years.

In June 2015, it was exposed that eight of the ten men had been covertly acquitted, and one of them was the organiser of the assault. It is believed that all the others who shot Malala escaped to Afghanistan afterwards and were never caught.

Malala spoke at the UN in July 2013, at the request of Gordon Brown. In September, she spoke at Harvard University, and in October she met with Barack Obama and his family. In December, she addressed the Oxford Union. In July 2014, Yousafzai spoke at the Girl Summit in London, advocating for rights for girls. In October 2014, after receiving the World Children's Prize for the rights of the child in Mariefred, Sweden, she donated $50,000 to help rebuild 65 schools in Gaza.

The 12th of July 2013 has been named "Malala Day".

Yousafzai was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize and is the youngest Nobel laureate. The prize was shared with Kailash Satyarthi, a children's rights activist from India.

Yousafzai opened a school in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, near the Syrian border, for Syrian refugees. The Malala Fund subsidises the school.

Yousafzai's book I Am Malala, co-written with British journalist Christina Lamb, was published in October 2013.

[ptsdcollab]

Afghanistan Government Lays Out New Penalties To Curb Sexual Slavery & Abuse Of Boys

Afghanistan Government Lays Out New Penalties To Curb Sexual Slavery & Abuse Of Boys   THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS LINKS TO GRAPHIC VIDEO AND IMAGES  I first wrote about this issue some two years ago. The accusations and cries of this not being a issue astounded me. As recent as last month I was in a meeting and a member of the U.S. military suggested to me that we had no right to interfere in Afghan internal affairs because the sexual abuse and trafficking of boys had been going on for years and it was an issue of ‘anthropology’ and cultural sensitivity – pussy.   Well apparently the  Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission  does not agree. It sees sexual abuse and rape of boys as a violation of human rights and a major recruiting tool for ISIS. The use of rape and torture of boys as a recruitment tool was reported in 2016 in the  International Business Times  article by   Callum Paton . In a video posted on the Daily Mail, a new  ISIS video shows child soldiers hunting and killing prisoners . All of these boys, ISIS ���Cubs’ as they are called, have been subjected to horrendous acts of humiliation and torture, and forced to participate in the torture of men, women and children to break their spirits and souls, making them “perfect soldiers.” Recently, a video surfaced of young boys, including a British lad,  slaughtering Kurdish prisoners execution style  in Syria.  Here is an excerpt from the article  Afghanistan Government Lays Out New Penalties To Curb Sexual Slavery & Abuse Of Boys . I encourage you to read the entire piece.   It has sadly become a common tool for extremists and violent groups to use rape as a way to control, capture and diminish the lives of women and girls,  especially in conflict zones and war . And while we often read stories about young boys being recruited as child soldiers or being groomed by extremists, there are also some who are forced to become sex slaves by groups who you would least likely suspect – policemen, military, and security forces.  In 2016, the  AFP reported on the secret ” bacha bazi” , meaning “boy play” which is the sexual slavery and abuse of boys which has been taking place in  Afghanistan  under the radar for many years. They described the practice of bacha bazi in the following manner:  “Powerful warlords, commanders, politicians and other members of the elite often keep ‘bachas’ (boys) as a symbol of authority and affluence. Bachas, sometimes dressed as women, are often sexually exploited. They can also be used as dancers at private parties. Bacha bazi is not widely seen as homosexual behavior — popularly demonized as a deviant sexual act, prohibited in Islam — and is largely accepted as a cultural practice,” it stated.  Although the practice was banned while the Taliban ruled from 1996-2001, recently it has seen a resurgence. Afghanistan is now under democratic rule, but without enough emphasis on policy to tackle this issue, bacha bazi has mostly gone unpunished, especially in rural areas still considered Taliban strongholds where the boys, commonly between the ages of 10-18 and often illiterate, originate.      Here is the final statement from the President of Afghanistan….in summary Sexual Abuse, Rape and Torture are HUMAN Rights Issues, NOT gender rights issues as many lobby groups in the west would have us think.   President Ashraf Ghani has been  very vocal about championing the rights of women and girls  under Afghanistan’s democratic rule, and  these rights must also extend to every vulnerable member of society, including young boys.  It is imperative that activist groups continue to keep pressure on authorities,  policy-makers and the government  to show that an addition to the penal code is not just lip service.  Just as young girls deserve a life of equality and prosperity, so do young boys.    If you would like to financially support our efforts here in the USA and worldwide,  please click here.  If you would like to have us speak at an event around these topics,  please contact us here.

http://www.drjohnaking.com/the-voice/new-penalties-to-curb-sexual-slavery-abuse-of-boys/

[technologyinfosec]

'Evergreen': Afghan Elvis's legacy endures, decades after death

Sporting a black quiff and sideburns, Ahmad Zahir sang of love and heartbreak in liberal 1970s Kabul - a city now plagued by war and suffering, but where the popularity of Afghanistan's "Elvis" remains undimmed 40 years after his death. Zahir - the son of a former prime minister with a penchant for brandy and his red Mercedes - rose to fame in an era when the capital hummed with Western tourists and women strolled through the streets in high heels. "Everybody loved him," 73-year-old Safiullah Sobat, a long-time friend of Zahir, told AFP news agency. Zahir - an ethnic Pashtun - played concerts in various locations across the country and had fans among all ethnic groups in Afghanistan, which is far more polarised now than at the height of his fame. "Today we see ethnic rivalries have sadly increased but Ahmad Zahir's music is still connecting people," explains Basir Burhan, a 30-year-old amateur musician. Wherever you go in Afghanistan, he said, "if there is music, there'll definitely be one Ahmad Zahir song playing". Former DJ Zubair Rezaee, 27, described Zahir as "evergreen". He endures because when "you listen to his songs ... you think they are for you, at any time, at any place". "The wars, the changes in society and a different generation, nothing has affected the quality of his songs," he said.

Rumours and secrets

The 1960s and 70s are remembered as a golden age of music for Afghanistan, when young musicians were mostly influenced by Indian classics and would flock to Radio Kabul - the only radio broadcaster at the time - to record hits at their studio. Zahir's best-known works were inspired by Persian poets like Rumi and Hafiz, and he sang mostly in Dari or Afghan Persian. "At night-time, girls would come outside his house and honk the horn of their cars." But on the day of his 33rd birthday in 1979, Zahir was found dead in his car in mysterious circumstances. His death - much like his life - has become a part of folklore. In Afghanistan today, where space for music and dance has shrunk under the shadow of war, music channels still play his songs daily and fans - even those born decades after his death - continue to snap up his albums and join Facebook groups created in his honour. "His songs will touch your heart no matter what mood you are in, happy or sad," says Hashmat, who goes by one name and is the manager of 'Ahmad Zahir's Cottage', a colourful restaurant in downtown Kabul. The 26-year-old welcomes his customers - mostly young couples - with tea, a hookah pipe and most importantly, their hero's songs. But he did not shy away from covering Western greats such as France's Enrico Macias and, of course, Elvis Presley. "At a time when singers shaking their bodies or dancing on stage was seen as awkward, he appeared on stage and screen doing exactly that," said Zahir's friend Sobat, who also runs Ahmad Zahir's Art and Culture Centre in Kabul. "He was talking about Elvis a lot and when you look at his hairstyle, his clothes, the way he moved his body in concerts, you realise he was inspired by Elvis." Over the decades since his death, conflicting accounts have surfaced about whether Zahir - who recorded more than 20 albums in his short life - was killed or died in a car accident. The official line was that he was killed in a crash near the Salang Pass, north of Kabul. But many maintain the communist regime assassinated him after his songs became increasingly critical, or because of rumours he had a secret affair with the daughter of the then prime minister. Sobat believes he was murdered. "When I saw his body in the coffin, there was hole in his forehead with signs of burns. He was shot at close range," he said. Years of war have followed and under the Taliban, who banned music, his grave in Kabul was desecrated. But it has been rebuilt and since then, every June 14, his birthday, pilgrims have flocked to Shohada-e-Salehin cemetery on the southern edge of Kabul to lay flowers on his grave and play one of his last memorable songs. "My death shall arrive one day/ In a spring bright with waves of light/ Oh, perhaps my lovers at midnight/ lay wreaths on my sorrow grave," the lyrics read. Read the full article

[ericfruits]

Pakistan’s borderlands at last win a say in their own administration

NAHEED AFRIDI is something of a spectacle. She is canvassing for votes in Khyber district ahead of elections later this month. In a region where women are largely confined to their homes, her progress through villages near the Afghan border attracts curiosity and admiration, but also criticism. “I know I have challenged the ego of so-called strong men, and that’s why they tell me it’s against our religion and culture,” she says.

The poll on July 20th, in which candidates will vie for one of 16 slots in the provincial assembly, is a milestone for Pakistan’s neglected tribal borderlands: it is the first time they have been allowed to vote for local administrators. Since colonial times, the area has been run directly by the central government. But last year a constitutional amendment brought the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), as the frontier zone used to be known, into the political and legal mainstream by merging it into the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In theory, that gives the region’s 5m inhabitants the same rights as other Pakistanis. But the ballot follows a military crackdown against the very movement for civil liberties which has recently been invigorating local politics.

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FATA has been starved of development and repressed for decades—in part, presumably, because its people had little say in how it was run. The Frontier Crimes Regulations—passed more than a century ago—awarded a colonial official nearly absolute power. The set-up stayed in place after the British left because it suited the Pakistani authorities too.

Life for residents worsened when FATA became a battleground after 9/11. Used for years as a base for Islamist insurgents who served as Pakistani proxies in Afghanistan, and then colonised by Afghan militants, it became a haven for jihadists. Residents, mainly from the Pushtun ethnic minority, found themselves caught between the militants and the army’s repeated offensives. The most recent, in a part of FATA called Waziristan in 2014, finally pushed the militants out and ended a bloody domestic terrorist campaign by the Pakistani Taliban.

The army now claims that peace has been restored in the tribal borderlands and that rebuilding is under way. Opposition parties say that its tough tactics undermine promises of reform and show it has little intention of allowing civilian governance to bloom. The disagreement is at the core of the forthcoming election. Although security in the country has improved, military campaigns have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and soldiers stand accused of human-rights abuses.

A popular protest movement called the PTM arose in the area in 2018. Its activists complain of oppressive curfews and checkpoints, and also decry extra-judicial killings and disappearances. Supporters thronged to its rallies. Unaccustomed to such dissent, the army at first tried to appease the PTM. Then its intolerance returned. In April infuriated generals publicly warned that the PTM’s time was up. The following month troops at a checkpoint in Waziristan fired into a crowd of its supporters and killed 13. The army claimed the soldiers were fired on first; the PTM says the crowd was unarmed. Two MPs who support the PTM and were at the scene, Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir, are being held under anti-terrorism laws. The army accuses the PTM of anti-state activities, backed by India and Afghanistan. Journalists have been ordered not to cover the group.

The crackdown shows that power still lies with the army, despite the democratic promise of the approaching elections. In Waziristan a ban on rallies and political meetings was in place until two weeks before the contest. Opposition politicians say the reason given—to ensure security—is a pretext to constrain them and so help the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which is in government at both the provincial and national level.

Whoever wins the privilege of representing the region will have their work cut out. Large investments are needed in schools, hospitals, roads and water supplies to bring services in the area to a level similar to the rest of Pakistan. But promised money has yet to arrive. Adopting a proper judicial system is another headache. The borderlands have no courts and tribal police flail in the face of paperwork and investigations. Lawyers in interim courts say cases suffer when caught between the old and new systems.

Despite growing disaffection with the slow pace of reforms and the pain of austerity measures imposed by the national government, the PTI is expected to do well at the polls. Ameer Muhammad Khan, a candidate for the party, says he meets scores of enthusiastic party workers at his campaign office each day. The vote will prove “historic in the life of every tribal person”, he says. It will also test the limits of the army’s forbearance. ■

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Political camouflage"

https://ift.tt/2YjhtKd

[caveartfair]

Lessons from the Afghan Women Who Weave Modern War into an Ancient Tradition

Photos by Kevin Sudeith. Courtesy of Warrug.com.

Women of Central Asia have been weaving hand-made rugs of intricate design for thousands of years. But in 1979, the carpets began to change radically. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan displaced more than a million citizens and devastated the region. Its effects impacted everyday life so deeply that women in Afghanistan and those living as refugees in Pakistan and Iran began to incorporate icons of war into their carpets. Flowers, birds, and decorative knots were replaced by machine guns, grenades, helicopters, and tanks in what were otherwise traditional weavings. These symbols were at first subtle additions, and were later emphasized for a niche market of Western collectors.

After a brutal decade of guerilla warfare in which many civilians were killed, the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, but a civil war continued between the Afghan army and the Mujahideen throughout the 1990s. By the end of the decade, the Taliban had seized control; the extremist group quickly implemented a severe interpretation of Sharia law. Women’s economic and social independence, as well as their basic access to public life, was grievously curtailed by the practice of purdah, or female seclusion.

Photo by Kevin Sudeith. Courtesy of Warrug.com.

Aniconism was also decreed based on a hadith, or Muslim religious text; depicting living creatures became idolatrous. Photography—in addition to most art forms—was also banned. In this context, the flowers and fauna incorporated into many traditional carpet patterns became riskier. Strangely, parachutes and bombs easily took their place. War in the region continued with the American invasion in 2001. Iconography in propaganda leaflets dropped from U.S. military aircrafts began to appear in the women’s carpets, including the image of the burning Twin Towers.

Despite decades of war, ancient pattern techniques that can take months or years to complete are still passed from mother to daughter. Testimony from the makers of these carpets is difficult to obtain, as many of these works remain unattributed, and the female weavers lack easy access to modes of international communication. But the largest online archive of Afghan war rugs, maintained by New York–based artist Kevin Sudeith, offers information and an online store. Still, the weavers’ authorship is often lost when these works go to market, yet their masterful compositions reveal a dark humor and complex commentary on contemporary life.

In the carpets’ compositions, perspectival viewpoints merge and flatten to integrate three-dimensional forms with maps and repeating decorative patterns. Some of the rug designs are based on Charbagh, a quadrilateral layout inspired by the four gardens of Paradise described in the Qur’an. Another genre of rugs depicts national maps of Afghanistan, which may have been influenced by Alighiero Boetti’s map series.The Italian Conceptual artist traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 1980s and worked with female weavers, first in Kabul and later in Peshawar, to create brightly colored tapestries depicting world maps with national flags labeled with bold text. In keeping with his interest in chance, Boetti sometimes left the color choices up to the women. While their aesthetics impacted his work, hints of his style are also apparent in some of the war rugs, which feature Roman characters spelling out “USSR,” “Made in Afghanistan,” or “Long Live US Soldiers.”

Mappa, 1983-1984. Alighiero Boetti Tornabuoni Art

The New York–based artist Leah Dixon first encountered the war rugs online in 2010. She was intrigued to read that Afghan refugees in Kashmir created some of the first war rugs. Purportedly, Muslims used them as prayer rugs and Hindus used them as yoga mats. This rumored moment of bizarre social cohesion stopped her in her tracks. At the time, Dixon was making figurative paintings while bartending at Welcome to the Johnsons, a Lower East Side dive bar where she frequently served soldiers who had just returned from tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. She began to research contemporary artists who addressed the wars, but nothing she saw could compare to the surreal intensity of the war rugs.

“The idea that these rugs are not only brilliant storytelling platforms, but are also being used by people who have been in conflict for hundreds of years, absolutely blew my mind,” the artist told me when we met near Beverly’s, the bar and popular artist-hangout she co-founded in 2013. Her experiences living and bartending in Lower Manhattan over the past 15 years gave her insight into wide-ranging human stories, with one repeating motif: “Let me count the ways that I want to talk about September 11th,” she said, noting how conversations about the event with patrons from every walk of life have deeply impacted her. As New Yorkers collectively grappled with that trauma over long nights at the bar, the iconic symbol of the Twin Towers became the most shared imagery in the world. “These images’ circulation contributed to the current speed of image and information sharing that has characterized my generation’s experience of childhood into adulthood,” Dixon said. From then on, her work began to explore precarious constructions, propaganda, and the military, in tandem with the sociality of nightlife.

Because many artists shy away from this touchy subject matter, Dixon found unlikely peers in the anonymous rug weavers. The horrors of violence and the destruction of everyday life manifests in these carpets with an absurd levity. Dixon first created her own version in 2010—not woven but cut from colorful yoga mats. She described the work as an homage to the carpet weavers—and a jab at the United States’s commercialized relationship to war.

Photos by Kevin Sudeith. Courtesy of Warrug.com.

Cartoonish, masculinized war motifs settled into the language of her work, which now often incorporates competitive party games, home-improvement objects, and wood models of the Twin Towers scaled to the artist’s height. The suburban connotations and cheery colors of Dixon’s yoga mat sculptures tame the wartime symbolism to a disturbing degree. The Afghan carpets also achieve this effect; they do not simply commemorate a victory or mourn the departed, they fixate on the physical paraphernalia of warfare and its endless proliferation of deadly merchandise.

The reaction to Dixon’s work has been suspiciously enthusiastic at times, much like the Western market for war rugs. “People thought, ‘Wow, you must love yoga,’” Dixon laughed. “I told them, ‘I’ve never done yoga in my life.’” Several companies reached out to Dixon to license images of her works for mass-produced yoga mats—requests that the artist refused.

Dixon’s work gestures to the large-scale depoliticization of the American public during the wars in the Middle East. Her pieces are additionally critical of “self-care culture, which, during this pre-Instagram time, was already spiraling out of control,” she said. These concerns might seem far apart, but concurrent trends fused them together. Mass media normalized the violent reality of the wars, while a cultural turn, brewing since the 1980s, shifted personal responsibility toward the isolated improvement of the self. The promise of health and even spiritual fulfillment continues to fuel consumer crazes of which custom yoga gear is just one example. But the political condition that tethers civic participation to personal spending finds no better example than President George W. Bush’s appeal to the nation after 9/11 to not let fear prevent them from shopping.

Leah Dixon, Imperial Ambitions, 2013. Courtesy of the artist.

Leah Dixon, Don't See a Need for Middlemen I, 2017–19. Courtesy of the artist.

While a carpet or yoga mat is generally conceived as a zone of civilian leisure, these uniquely hybrid objects have made the physical machinery of war enter the home in an unexpectedly appealing way. The intricate Afghan rugs and Dixon’s sporty versions break down normative boundaries of war and peace. Their craftsmanship and compositional ingenuity are aesthetically stunning, while the danger they symbolically depict threatens art and civilization itself.

Dixon has continued to produce yoga mats over the years, but makes sure to linger over their conceptual friction. “Every time I’ve been made uncomfortable in this years-long process of making the American yoga mat war rugs, I’ve remembered how vital they are to my practice,” she said. These objects make the paradox of peace apparent: Even seated on a sumptuous rug, you can never truly be at ease with a grenade by your side. Perhaps the intentional introduction of discomfort into daily life is the true genius of these works. Dixon and the Afghan weavers who inspire her offer a moral imperative in cheeky disguise: to let no room of the house lack vigilance.

from Artsy News

[whittlebaggett8]

Malala’s Father: ‘I Did Not Clip Her Wings’

Let Her Fly is the story of a father who stood up towards all odds to challenge gender discrimination in a society deeply rooted in patriarchy and male chauvinism.

Ziauddin Yousafzai, father of Nobel laureate and girls’ training activist Malala Yousafzai, subtitles the ebook “a father’s journey and the struggle for equality.” Co-authored with Louise Carpenter, Let Her Fly recounts Ziauddin’s journey from his smaller village in Shangla district to turning out to be a global figure.

Lengthy ahead of the birth of his “blessed baby,” Ziauddin was sensitive to the discriminatory conduct by his mother and father towards his five sisters in phrases of food items, outfits, and education and learning as as opposed to him and his brother.

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However, his serious battle commenced with the delivery of Malala, when his father refused to rejoice the female little one. Following arrived the dilemma of her instruction and the family at the time once again noticed no cause in educating a female, who is destined to be a bride and make a spouse and children.

The personalized wrestle for equality, which started for Ziauddin’s household on July 12, 1997, Malala’s birthday, grew to become a motion when Ziauddin, together with his “unwelcomed” baby, challenged the ban on girls’ education by the Taliban.

Most people in rural Pakistan see boys as a hope for a better future, both of those socially and economically. Not only do ladies have reduced position as compared to boys, but at moments they are given absent to settle blood feuds and family members financial loans.

“When I say of Malala ‘I did not clip her wings,’ what I imply is that when she was smaller, I broke the scissors employed by the modern society to clip girls’ wings. I did not allow these scissors around Malala. I wanted to let her fly high in the sky, not scratch all-around in a dusty courtyard, grounded by social norms,” Ziauddin writes in his 169-page individual memoir.

He abhors the norms that prohibit girls’ education and discriminate against them in the loved ones and modern society. “I do imagine that social norms are like shackles that enslave us. We are information in the slavery, and then when we split the shackles, the initial feeling of liberation may possibly be shocking at first, but as we begin to come to feel the independence we perception in our souls how satisfying it is.”

Ziauddin’s silent battle entered a new and perilous stage when the Taliban took above most parts of Swat, the serene valley in Pakistan’s northwest also known as the Switzerland of Asia.

The Taliban aired threatening sermons from their unlawful FM radio station warning that “wrong-doers,” like parents sending woman youngsters to colleges, experienced turn into a new standard in the valley.

Ziauddin did not back down. As a substitute, he redoubled his endeavours by bringing ahead his 10-calendar year-aged daughter to obstacle the Taliban ban on girls’ education and learning. All around that time, I observed small Malala reciting a poem during a gathering in the Peshawar Push Club.

A father’s battle against social norms, gender discrimination, and patriarchy became the struggle of both of those father and daughter against a additional really serious risk: The Taliban and their antagonism to girls’ training.

Detractors however concern Ziauddin’s determination to put young Malala in a wrestle from violent extremists, but only a guy with sturdy belief in his ideals can choose these kinds of a hazard.

He loved his ideals, his loved ones, and his trigger and when he saw the Taliban violently having more than Swat and banning women from faculties, he could not hold back. “I would stand on the lender of River Swat and would cry: Oh, the globe is so gorgeous!”

Like lots of other reporters covering the Talibanization of Swat, I was a witness to Ziauddin’s wrestle for peace and girls’ education from the platform of his very little-known “Global Peace Council.” I joined him more than at the time in BBC Pashto language debates on the condition in Swat, exactly where he applied to brazenly challenge the Taliban logic of banning girls’ education and learning.

Ziauddin does connect with himself “naïve” for disregarding the danger to Malala’s daily life. But in spite of all their brutalities, no a single was anticipating the Taliban to focus on a teenager, and a woman.

“Malala was shot by the Taliban due to the fact of the electrical power of her voice. It had began to make a real distinction in Pakistan. It had grown louder and more strong involving 2009 and 2012,” he writes.

Just before the assault on Malala, Ziauddin experienced been given death threats from the Taliban in 2008 and 2009, but they did not target him in the end. “By concentrating on Malala, the Taliban had discovered a way of silencing me,” he believes.

Ziauddin story is incomplete without a point out of his wife, Tor Pekai. Although quite a few in the conservative Pashtun modern society do not point out the names of their female relatives in public and refer to them using their associations to male relatives customers these kinds of as “mother of,” “sister of,” or “daughter of,” Ziauddin proudly calls his wife his ideal good friend.

He wed Tor Pekai in an organized-cum-like relationship and he openly talks about his really like affair within the confines of that conservative rural modern society.

Tor Pekai instructed me in an interview that village ladies utilized to gossip about her sitting down with Ziauddin on the identical bed or taking in collectively immediately after their marriage. In rural parts, the wife is not meant to eat jointly with her partner or sit on the very same mattress. Gals were also intended to retain quiet though males examine spouse and children challenges. But “I located Ziauddin a unique gentleman who gave me the bravery to converse in front of our male relatives users,” she explained.

Ziauddin is a feminist who only arrived to know the this means of the word “feminism” when he landed along with his loved ones in Britain. But even in London patriarchal norms run deep. Ziauddin recounts a conversation with a cab driver who advises him to never ever belief three “Ws” in London – work, temperature and girls. In convert, he advises the driver that it need to be two “Ws” and one “M” instead – work, weather conditions and men.

Let Her Fly encompasses the battle of a father, a spouse, and a peace activist towards social norms, taboos, and male chauvinism. He feels harm when people today, largely his countrymen, taunt him for bringing ahead his daughter. But he does not care. “I am a person of the couple of fathers of the earth who is identified by a acknowledged daughter,” Ziauddin explained to me in a recent dialogue.

Now that Malala is no lengthier a baby, Ziauddin attracts inspiration from her energy. He feels proud when Malala proclaims that she does not want to be identified as the woman shot by the Taliban, but somewhat “the lady who fought against the Taliban.”

He also feels very pleased that his daughter strongly believes in women’s capacity to modify the globe. Ziauddin remembers that Malala adjusted a single properly-regarded Tapa, a Pashto folk poem. The primary Tapa states: “If the males failed to earn you honor, O my state, then the girls will do that.” But Malala, soon after surviving a would-be assassin’s bullet, developed a new variation: “irrespective of the males successful or shedding, O my nation, the ladies will unquestionably acquire you honor.”

In his memoir, Ziauddin requires the audience to his tiny, impoverished village in the mountainous and remote Shangla district in Pakistan’s northwest. The inclusion of moment particulars about his village and loved ones daily life in Shangla demonstrates his deepest adore for his land.

“I would not waste a minute heading again to my country and commence assisting my folks the day I arrive to know there is no danger to the life of my family members members,” Ziauddin pledges.

Though Allow Her Fly is an work by Ziauddin Yousafzai to convey to the environment about the existence and hardships of a father in that conservative element of Pakistan, it is also an endeavor by a father to inform his countrymen that educating and allowing for flexibility to lady young children does not deliver shame. “Trust your daughters as a lot as you trust your sons and they will not disappoint you,” he advises.

This own memoir of the male powering a daughter as courageous as Malala Yousafzai carries a powerful concept for mothers and fathers in Pakistan and Afghanistan: have confidence in the qualities of their female little ones by letting them fly in its place of clipping their wings.

Daud Khattak is Senior Editor for Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty’s Pashto language Mashaal Radio. Right before signing up for RFE/RL, Khattak worked for The News International and London’s Sunday Instances in Peshawar, Pakistan. He has also labored for Pajhwok Afghan News in Kabul. The sights expressed listed here are the author’s very own and do not represent those of RFE/RL.

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[leobellicose]

Former Taliban captive Yvonne Ridley converts to Islam

Former Taliban captive Yvonne Ridley converts to Islam

BRITISH-born, award-winning journalist Yvonne Ridley is well known in the Muslim world for her outspoken views and defence of Islam.

She endeared herself to the Muslim community in Britain when she reverted to Islam 30 months after making international headlines when she was captured by the Taliban on an undercover assignment in Afghanistan.

She was a senior reporter of the Sunday Express at the time, having spent nearly 10 years in Fleet Street working for several prestige titles including The Sunday Times, The Observer, Daily Mirror and Independent on Sunday.

If you were being interrogated by the Taleban as a suspected US spy, it might be hard to imagine a happy ending.

But for Ridley, the ordeal in Afghanistan led her to convert to a religion she says is “the biggest and best family in the world”.

The formerly hard-drinking Sunday school teacher became a Muslim after reading the Koran on her release.

She now describes radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri as “quite sweet really” and says the Taleban have suffered an unfair press.

Working as a reporter for the Sunday Express in September 2001, Ridley was smuggled from Pakistan across the Afghan border.

But her cover was blown when she fell off her donkey in front of a Taleban soldier near Jalalabad, revealing a banned camera underneath her robes.

Her first thought as the furious young man came running towards her? “Wow – you’re gorgeous,” she says.

“He had those amazing green eyes that are peculiar to that region of Afghanistan and a beard with a life of its own.

“But fear quickly took over. I did see him again on my way to Pakistan after my release and he waved at me from his car.”

Ridley was interrogated for 10 days without being allowed a phone call, and missed her daughter Daisy’s ninth birthday.

Of the Taleban, Ridley says: “I couldn’t support what they did or believed in, but they were demonised beyond recognition, because you can’t drop bombs on nice people.”

It has been suggested the 46-year-old is a victim of Stockholm Syndrome, in which hostages take the side of the hostage-takers.

But she says: “I was horrible to my captors. I spat at them and was rude and refused to eat. It wasn’t until I was freed that I became interested in Islam.”

‘Flappy knickers’ Indeed, the Taleban deputy foreign minister was called in when Ridley refused to take her underwear down from the prison washing line, which was in view of soldier’s quarters.

“He said, ‘Look, if they see those things they will have impure thoughts’.” “Afghanistan was about to be bombed by the richest country in the world and all they were concerned about was my big, flappy, black knickers.

“I realised the US doesn’t have to bomb the Taleban – just fly in a regiment of women waving their underwear and they will all run off.”

Once she was back in the UK, Ridley turned to the Koran as part of her attempt to understand her experience.

“I was absolutely blown away by what I was reading – not one dot or squiggle had been changed in 1,400 years.

“I have joined what I consider to be the biggest and best family in the world. When we stick together we are absolutely invincible.”

What do her Church of England parents in County Durham make of her new family?

“Initially the reaction of my family and friends was one of horror, but now they can all see how much happier, healthier and fulfilled I am.

“And my mother is delighted I’ve stopped drinking.”

What does Ridley feel about the place of ?

“There are oppressed women in Muslim countries, but I can take you up the side streets of Tyneside and show you oppressed women there.

“Oppression is cultural, it is not Islamic. The Koran makes it crystal clear that women are equal.”

And her new Muslim dress is empowering, she says.

“How liberating is it to be judged for your mind and not the size of your bust or length of your legs.”

A single mother who has been married three times, she says Islam has freed her from worry over her love life.

“I no longer sit and wait by the phone for a man to ring and I haven’t been stood up for months.

“I have no man stress. For the first time since my teens I don’t have that pressure to have a boyfriend or husband.”

But there has been a phone call from at least one male admirer – north London preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.

“He said, ‘Sister Yvonne, welcome to Islam, congratulations’.

“I explained I hadn’t yet taken my final vows and he said, ‘Don’t be pressured or pushed, the whole community is there for you if you need any help, just call one of the sisters.’

‘Straight to hellfire’ “I thought, I can’t believe it, this is the fire and brimstone cleric from Finsbury Park mosque and he is quite sweet really.

“I was just about to hang up when he said, ‘But there is just one thing I want you to remember. Tomorrow, if you have an accident and die, you will go straight to hellfire’.

“I was so scared that I carried a copy of the vows in my purse until my final conversion last June.”

And the hardest part of her new life?

“Praying five times a day. And I am still struggling to give up cigarettes.”

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