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September 2024

InfographyPoliticsWomen Pioneers

Zeinab Nasrallah: A Symbol of Resistance

by خانم هاشمی

Zeinab Nasrallah, the daughter of Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, embodies the strength and resilience of Lebanese women. Her unwavering commitment to her faith, family, and nation has made her a revered figure in the Islamic resistance movement.

The Role of Women in Society and Islamic Resistance According to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, views women through the lens of Islamic teachings, emphasizing their crucial role in building families. This significant responsibility, as highlighted by Imam Khomeini, is seen as a divine gift to women for shaping humanity.

Beyond their familial roles, women are encouraged to participate actively in cultural, social, and political spheres. However, these activities should not compromise their primary responsibilities within the family. This perspective is consistently reflected in Sayyed Nasrallah’s speeches.

Women in society

Zeinab Nasrallah: A Symbol of Resistance and Women’s Empowerment

Zeinab Nasrallah, the only daughter of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, is a prominent Lebanese figure who exemplifies the principles her father espouses. Born in 1986 in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Shia-majority area, she grew up in a religious and political environment deeply influenced by her father’s ideas. Zeinab played an active role in society, focusing on charitable and social activities. She is a symbol of youth committed to her country and is widely respected and loved by the Lebanese community.

A Symbol of Resistance

In the eyes of Hezbollah supporters, Zeinab Nasrallah is a symbol of resistance. While maintaining her dignity and privacy, she remains an important figure in Lebanon, representing the strength and resilience of Lebanese women.

Zeinab Nasrallah a Symbol of Resistance

Family’s commitment to Hezbollah

In 2022, reflecting on her family’s reaction to her brother Hadi’s martyrdom in 1997, Zeinab emphasized her family’s unwavering commitment to Hezbollah’s ideology. She stated, “When my brother Hadi was martyred, my father did not shed even a single tear.” She added, “We are ashamed that we made such a small sacrifice compared to other martyrs’ families.”

Her life and sacrifice serve as an enduring inspiration for women seeking to combine their faith, family, and activism.

en.jahanbanou.ir

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PoliticsWest Asia

Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah ascended to heaven

by faeze mohammadi

Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, a prominent figure in Lebanon, has reportedly sacrificed his life in a battle against the fake Zionist regime.

God says: “This day truthfulness shall benefit the truthful. For them there will be gardens with streams running in them, to remain in them forever. Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him. That is the great success.”

The brave and sincere leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, may God be pleased with him, finally fulfilled his promise and gave his precious life on the sacred path of fighting against the most evil enemies of humanity, the brutal and fake Zionist regime, for the liberation of the holy city of Jerusalem and the freedom of the oppressed people of Palestine and Lebanon.

Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah

He truly embodied the Qur’anic verse, “God is pleased with them, and they are pleased with God,” and attained his long-held desire for the great victory of martyrdom and meeting the Almighty God.

May his soul be happy and may he be reunited with his pure ancestors.

en.jahanbanou.ir

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AsiaHealth

Pregnant Women Need Full Night’s Sleep

by faeze mohammadi

Pregnant women who slept for less than seven hours per night were more likely to have children with developmental delays, according to new research from China.

Scientists found that a lack of sleep which they called “short sleep duration” (SSD), defined as less than seven hours per night was linked to a higher rate of delayed social, emotional, behavioral, motor, cognitive and speech skills in their babies.

Many pregnant women struggle to sleep. Hormonal changes, discomfort, frequent urination and nausea are just some of the reasons why this might be the case.

Previous research has indicated that almost 2 in 5 pregnant women have SSD, but this can come with negative consequences for the woman and baby’s health.

Sleep deprivation in pregnancy has been associated with a higher risk of glucose intolerance meaning the body struggles to process sugar from food which can develop into insulin resistance and gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes is diabetes that affects women during pregnancy, and can increase the risk of a plethora of outcomes, including early birth, low blood sugar in the baby, birth complications such as preeclampsia or emergency Caesarian, and future type 2 diabetes for the mother, child, or both.

A new research in China

Scientists analyzed sleep data from 7,059 mother-and-baby pairs from three different hospitals in China. They screened the children for developmental delays from six months old, until three years old, and analyzed the link between the sleep habits of the mothers during pregnancy, and the risk of developmental delay in the children.

They found a significant link between the two factors, especially in boys, suggesting that gender might play a crucial role in the way fetuses respond to their mother’s sleep habits.

“Improving sleep habits during pregnancy may prevent or reduce the risk of neurodevelopmental issues in children,” said Zhu. “Prenatal health is important not only for the expectant mother but also for the long-term health of the unborn child.”

The scientists also evaluated the relationship between developmental delay and insulin the hormone that deals with sugars in the blood and proposed that the delays may occur due to the impact that sleep deprivation may have on a pregnant woman’s ability to process sugars.

From blood in the babies’ umbilical cords, the scientists analyzed levels of serum C-peptide, considered a stable indicator of insulin in the womb.

They found a positive correlation between C-peptide levels and neurodevelopmental delays in the babies, which they interpreted as evidence that sugar and insulin problems in the mother could impact insulin levels in the fetus, with negative consequences on their neurodevelopment.

newsweek

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Women in Islam

Western Envy: Islam’s Women’s Rights Advancements

by خانم هاشمی

Forough Parsa Stated:

“Westerners envy the transformation that the Prophet (PBUH) brought about in women’s rights.”

Western societies have long been envious of the advancements made in women’s rights within the Islamic tradition. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is often credited with revolutionizing the status of women in his time, introducing reforms that challenged prevailing patriarchal norms. This progress, however, has been overshadowed by contemporary misconceptions and misinformation about Islam, leading to a resurgence of Islamophobia.

The Prophet (PBUH) and Women’s Rights

A member of the faculty of the Research Institute of Humanities, while referring to the fundamental transformation that the Prophet (PBUH) created in the rights of women in his time, explained some of the examples of the revival of women’s rights and status in Islam.

Western Envy of Islamic Progress

One of the areas of success of the Prophet (PBUH) and the Islamic religion is the advancement of the rights and human status and value of women in society, which is where, coincidentally, the most propaganda against Islam and Islamophobia takes place. As if the enemies of Islam and the Quran do not want the compassionate approach of Islam towards humans, especially women, to be broadcast and recognized in the world, and for this reason, they try to distort and blacken it.

In this regard, we had a conversation with Forough Parsa, a faculty member of the Research Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies:

First, please explain the behavior and manners of the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) in relation to women and girls, and how he was able to elevate the status of women, which was in a poor condition in the pre-Islamic era.

The prophet of Islam as the founder of Islamic culture and civilization

I need to make a preface; what I have reached in my studies about the Prophet is that he, as the Prophet of Islam, is the founder of Islamic culture and civilization, and by studying his life, we come to the conclusion that he is a personality who, among the prophets, upgraded the humanistic discourse of Abrahamic religions. He was sent to prophethood in the early seventh century and in a short period of time this religion managed to create significant changes in the geography of that era. Given this issue, the great empires of that time became aware of the greatness of this new religion.As a result, we are faced with a prophet who, relying on his messages and teachings, was able to conquer the world.

The Prophet’s Humanistic Perspective

This clear religion, which was delivered to humanity by the Prophet, in my opinion, presented a humanistic theory and discourse that transformed and upgraded the discourse of other religions.

Human as God’s Caliph

In Islam, human is God’s caliph. God says in the Quran: “Indeed I am going to set a viceroy on the earth” and also states that all the heavens and the earth were created for human.

Equality of All Humans

The Holy Quran states: “We created you from a male and a female, and made you nations and tribes that you may identify yourselves with one another. Indeed the noblest of you in the sight of Allah is the most Godwary among you.” You see in this verse, God Almighty says that your preciousness with God has nothing to do with being male or female, and no tribe or race is a criterion for human dignity and value. With this verse, we understand that the message that the Prophet (PBUH) presented to people has a human rights color and values all human beings as human beings who are God’s caliph.

Gender Equality

Therefore, the Prophet (PBUH), according to the messages he was tasked with delivering, did not differentiate between men and women. What is the basis and part of the Qur’anic teachings is that God taught the Prophet in this way that man as a human being is valuable and being male or female does not interfere with a person’s rank and status.

The Prophet’s Role in Elevating Women’s Status

So far, it has become clear that the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) transformed the humanistic discourse of religions. Now I will answer your question. Well, this is a very important discussion. I have done some work in the field of women and in them I have shown that the Prophet (PBUH) and the Islamic religion created a remarkable transformation in his time in the field of women’s rights. What the Prophet (PBUH) did for women is even envied by Westerners today.

Cultural Transformation

He created several transformations in this regard. First, cultural transformation. We have this in the Quran that God reproaches men who were upset about having a daughter. When Fatima (SA) is born, how happy the Prophet (PBUH) feels. The deep bond between the Prophet (PBUH) and Fatima Zahra (SA) is a testament to his unwavering love and care. Therefore, the Holy Quran rebukes this view that considers women to be second-class citizens. Other religions say that women are seductive and caused Adam to fall from paradise, but the Quran says that Adam and Eve both committed sin and the sin was not only Eve’s sin. Therefore, it tells this story with the dual form.

Islam's Women's Rights

The story of creation

In the discussion of creation, other religions believe that women were created from the left rib of men, but the Quran says that you were created from a single soul. Therefore, Islam did not consider women to be second-class citizens. In this regard, we have a sura called Surah Nisa, there are frequent verses in the Quran about women. When the Quran wants to describe a believer, it mentions a woman: “one of the examples for a believer is the wife of Pharaoh“. Therefore, the wife of Pharaoh, as a woman, is considered a representative and model of being a believer.

In another verse in the Quran, God mentions all the spiritual aspects of women in front of men one by one: “Indeed the muslim men and the muslim women, the faithful men and the faithful women …“.

Political and Economic Empowerment

Regarding the political status of women, we see that the Prophet (PBUH) makes a covenant with women just as he makes a covenant with men. Regarding the transformation that was created in the economic status of women, we can refer to the determination of mahr, alimony, and the right to use the economic work that women did. Interestingly, the right to ownership that the West gave to women in the early twentieth century was given to women by Islam in the seventh century AD.

The Importance of Human Dignity

The issue of human dignity is an important issue, but unfortunately we are very negligent about it. How was the Prophet’s view of the dignity of human beings?

Mercy to the World

It is true that God said “Indeed, with Allah religion is Islam” but in another place God declares that whoever believes in God and does good deeds will be rewarded. If we want to look at the main characteristic of the Prophet’s personality, the main characteristic of the Prophet (PBUH) was the moral values that he adhered to and the characteristic that God mentions for the Prophet is “A mercy to all the nations“, that means mercy, kindness, and compassion for all those who exist in the world. Therefore, the main characteristic or important component of the Prophet’s personality was this kindness and compassion that he had for everyone.

The Prophet’s Compassionate Nature

Contrary to what Western propaganda says that the religion of Islam is the religion of the sword and violence, there was no violence in the Prophet’s personality.

If we refer to the works of Orientalists themselves, they say that it was actually the opposite and that the Prophet (PBUH) was the Prophet of Mercy. One of their greats, Montgomery Watt, explicitly says that these distortions are due to the feeling of inferiority that Westerners had towards Islam and they were afraid of the presence of Islam in society at that time, so they showed a distorted image of Islam and the violence that Europeans had in their nature and is mentioned in the text of the covenants, they projected it and attributed it to Islam. Our Prophet was the Prophet of Mercy and hated violence and when he came to power after the conquest of Mecca, he showed mercy to all his enemies and forgave them.

Relevance of Human Values in Today’s World

Can this method also work in our world today?

Yes; the issues related to human beings and human principles and ethics are values that originate from human beings themselves and their basis is human beings themselves and are related to human nature. Every human being likes these moral qualities and we cannot say that moral values are historical and these values that the Prophet (PBUH) had were for that time. Anyone who wants to have a human impact on society today cannot succeed without ethics. Therefore, moral values can always be used in human society.

Interview by Ataollah Esmaili

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From: iqna.ir

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faith

Duas to Recite when you are Feeling Panic

by faeze mohammadi

Have you ever experienced a panic attack while going through your day? Do you have anxiety or past trauma that always seems to creep up at the worst possible time? If you are anything like me, anxiety and panic attacks are a part of everyday life. Many times my past trauma causes me to feel triggered, overwhelmed, overstimulated, and debilitated.

In the Muslim community, we are not encouraged to speak about our feelings and therapy is still taboo. I am here to tell you that there is nothing wrong with needing help. Many Muslims need therapy and a safe haven where they can share their feelings and experiences without the fear of being judged or outcasted. Quranic verses and Duas of Prophets can help relieve anxiety or stress. Our Prophets went through the test of times and relied on Duas to help them get through difficulties. Here’s a compilation of Duas from the Quran and Sunnah to help alleviate anxiety, depression, and trauma.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would Recite The Following Dua In Times Of Distress

اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنَ الْهَمِّ وَالْحُزْنِ وَالْعَجْزِ وَالْكَسَلِ وَالْجُبْنِ وَالْبُخْلِ وَضَلَعِ الدَّيْنِ وَغَلَبَةِ الرِّجَالِ

Meaning: O Allah, I seek refuge in You from grief and sadness, from weakness and laziness, from miserliness and cowardice, from being overcome by debt and overpowered by others. (Al-Bukhari 7/158)

Rely on Allah Regarding all Of Your Affairs

اللَّهُمَّ رَحْمَتَكَ أَرْجُو فَلَا تَكِلْنِي إِلَى نَفْسِي طَرْفَةَ عَيْنٍ وَأَصْلِحْ لِي شَأْنِي كُلَّهُ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَا أَنْتَ

Meaning: O Allah, it is Your mercy that I hope for, so do not leave me in charge of my affairs even for a blink of an eye, and rectify for me all of my affairs. None has the right to be worshipped except You. (Hisn al-Muslim)

Remind yourself that you are never alone

حَسْبِيَ اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الوَكِيْلُ

Meaning: Sufficient for us is Allah, and He is the best Disposer of affairs (Quran 4/173)

Ask for relief from hardship

إِنَّا للهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُوْنَ، اللَّهمَّ أْجُرْنِي فِي مُصِيْبَتِي، وَاخْلُفْ لِي خَيْرا ً مِنْهَا

Meaning: To Allah, we belong, and unto Him is our return. O Allah, recompense me for my affliction and replace it for me with something better (Al-Baqarah156)

Dua of Prophet Younus

لَآ إِلٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّيْ كُنْتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِيْنَ

Meaning: None has the right to be worshipped except You, how perfect you are. verily, I was among the wrong-doers. (Al-Anbiya, 87)

Dua of Prophet Musa

 رَبِّ إِنِّي لِمَا أَنزَلْتَ إِلَيَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ

  Meaning: My Lord! I am truly in desperate need of whatever good You may have instore for me. (Al-Qasas, 24)

Dua of Prophet Ayub (A.s)

أَنِّي مَسَّنِيَ الضُّرُّ وَأَنتَ أَرْحَمُ الرَّاحِمِينَ 

Meaning: Indeed, distress has befallen me, and You are the most merciful of the merciful. (Al-Anbiya, 83)

If you are struggling with your mental health, there is no shame in reaching out. Therapy is meant to help. Although duas and prayer are good avenues to start from, they may not be the diagnosis for your mental health struggles.

muslimgirl

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HealthNorth America

The prevalence of severe obesity in the United States

by faeze mohammadi

The rate of severe obesity is about 40 per cent in the US, with women at particularly high risk of severe obesity, the study found.

Obesity is high and holding steady in the US, but the proportion of those with severe obesity especially women has climbed in the past decade, according to new research from the US government.

The US obesity rate is about 40 per cent, according to a 2021-2023 survey of about 6,000 people. Nearly one in 10 of those surveyed reported severe obesity, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

Women were nearly twice as likely as men to report severe obesity, a chronic disease linked to a host of health problems.

The overall obesity rate appeared to tick down compared with the 2017-2020 survey, but the change wasn’t considered statistically significant. The numbers are small enough that there’s a mathematical chance they didn’t truly decline.

That means it’s too soon to know whether new treatments for obesity, including blockbuster weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy, Ozempic, and Zepbound, can help ease the epidemic, according to Dr Samuel Emmerich, the CDC public health officer who led the latest study.

Not clear why severe obesity rates are going up

“Seeing increases in severe obesity is even more alarming because that’s the level of obesity that’s most highly associated with some of the highest levels of cardiovascular disease and diabetes and lower quality of life,” said Solveig Cunningham, an Emory University global health professor who specialises in obesity.

Cunningham, who was not involved in the new study, said it’s not clear why rates of severe obesity are going up, or why they were higher among women. Factors could include the effects of hormones, the impact of childbearing or other causes that require further study, she said.

The increasing prevalence of obesity in the US can be “really discouraging,” Goodman said.

But, she added, recent emphasis on understanding obesity as a metabolic disease and new interventions, such as the new class of weight-loss drugs, gives her hope.

The key is preventing obesity in the first place, starting in early childhood, Cunningham said. But even when people develop obesity, preventing additional weight gain should be the goal.

“It’s really hard to get obesity to reverse at the individual level and at the population level,” Cunningham said. “I guess it’s not surprising that we’re not seeing downward shifts in the prevalence of obesity”.

euronews

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North America

Sexual assault of an American security officer

by faeze mohammadi

A former CIA officer has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for drugging, sexually assaulting and filming more than two dozen women in multiple countries over more than a decade. 

Brian Jeffrey Raymond, 48, of La Mesa California, was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, pay $260,000 in restitution to the victims and register as a sex offender after leaving prison.

“When this predator was a government employee, he lured unsuspecting women to his government-leased housing and drugged them,” said US Attorney Matthew M. Graves. 

“After drugging these women, he stripped, sexually abused and photographed them. Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant will be properly marked as a sex offender for life, and he will spend a substantial portion of the rest of his life behind bars.

Prosecutors said in court filings that Raymond had engaged in a 14-year-long “criminal scheme to exploit women”. 

In court filings, they said Raymond’s actions typically followed a pattern: He would drug women at his apartment alongside wine and snacks, then “spent hours moving, posing and assaulting them”. Some victims had met him on dating apps, while others had known him for nearly 20 years.

  The case against Raymond began in May 2020, when a naked woman was seen screaming for help from the balcony of his Mexico City “government-leased housing”. 

“Raymond admitted to having sexual intercourse with her, but the woman reported that she had no memory of events after consuming drinks and food provided by Raymond,” the FBI wrote in a 2021 public notice, seeking potential victims of Raymond.

In 2023, Raymon pleaded guilty to one count each of sexual abuse, abusive sexual contact, coercion and enticement, and transportation of obscene material.

  As part of the plea agreement, Raymond admitted to drugging and then engaging in nonconsensual sexual acts with four women and nonconsensual sexual contact with six women. He further admitted to drugging and then creating obscene material depicting 28 women without their knowledge or permission and drugging two other women.

The bitter experience of the victims

In an emotional hearing this week, victims of Raymond’s deplorable actions filled four rows in the courtroom, with 12 of them taking to the stand to ask that he be given the maximum sentence, according to the Washington Post.

The women who spoke in court were not named, but NPR reports they described the shock they felt when the FBI showed them photos of themselves unconscious while being assaulted. 

My body looks like a corpse on his bed,” one victim said, according to the AP. “Now I have these nightmares of seeing myself dead.”

Another woman testified in court: “Was I raped? Was I sexually assaulted? I will never know, and that haunts me too.” Having been held without bail in a D.C. prison since 2020, Raymond listened to the victims in court, before apologising by reading a statement, saying he takes responsibility for “his downward spiral” and “unconscionable actions”. 

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly instituted the maximum sentence, saying Raymond’s acts had “betrayed his government and his country.”

“It’s safe to say he’s a sexual predator,” she said, according to the AP. “You are going to have a period of time to think about this.”

In the FBI’s statement, authorities praised all the victims who came forward, saying they thank “the brave women who shared information that furthered this investigation”. 

Raymond’s sentencing comes amid a string of sexual misconduct investigations at the CIA, including another officer trainee that’s scheduled to face a jury trial next month on charges he assaulted a woman with a scarf in a stairwell at the agency’s Langley, Virginia headquarters.

  A recent 648-page internal watchdog report found that there were systemic shortcomings in the CIA’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints. 

Liza Mundy, author of ‘Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA’, said “the classified nature of the activities” in this male-dominated agency has long been a refuge for atrocious sexual misconduct: “For decades, men at the top had free rein”.

The CIA has publicly condemned Raymond’s crimes and implemented sweeping reforms intended to keep women safe, streamline claims and more quickly discipline offenders.

“There is absolutely no excuse for Mr. Raymond’s reprehensible, appalling  behaviour,” the agency said. “As this case shows, we are committed to engaging with law enforcement.

Women’sagenda

About Sexual Assault

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Women Pioneers

Iranian Women: Leading the Way in 2024

by خانم هاشمی

Iranian women are making history in 2024, breaking barriers and achieving extraordinary feats across various fields. From groundbreaking scientific discoveries to athletic triumphs, their accomplishments are inspiring and empowering.

In recent decades, Iranian women have strived to realize their potential, bringing numerous honors to the country. In every field, you can find women excelling, particularly in science and sports.

Summer Achievements

This summer, eight women excelled in the Olympics and Paralympics, four girls ranked top in the national entrance exam (Konkur), three women shone in global competitions, and four female students achieved significant success in international science Olympiads. Their contributions continue to elevate Iran’s flag each year.

Global Sports Competitions

Beyond the Olympics and Paralympics, Iranian women also won medals in global sports events like skating and table tennis.

  • Baran Arjmand: The first girl to qualify for the World Table Tennis Championships for Iran’s national team, ranking 17th globally in the under-15 category.

2024 Olympics

Iranian girls showcased their talents at the 2024 Paris Olympics, returning with a silver and a bronze medal. This marked the first time Iranian women secured two medals at an Olympic event.

  • Mobina Nemat-Zadeh: The 19-year-old taekwondo athlete won a bronze medal at her first Olympic appearance.
  • Nahid Kiani: Known as Iran’s most decorated female Olympian of Paris 2024, she earned a silver medal. Kiani also made history by winning Iran’s first-ever gold medal at the World Taekwondo Championships.
Iranian women are making history

Paris Paralympics

Iranian female athletes gave their all at the Paris Paralympics. Out of 12 participants from Iran’s Paralympic team, six won medals.

  • Parastoo Habibi: At 22 years old, she won silver in club throw, marking her as Iran’s first medallist in this discipline.
  • Zahra Rahimi: At just 15 years old from Marand, she not only won a silver medal but also became Iran’s youngest-ever Paralympic medallist.
  • Elham Salehi: From Khuzestan, she earned a bronze medal with a javelin throw of 16.24 meters.

Top Konkur Ranks of 2024

Among the top ranks of Konkur (national entrance exam) for humanities, mathematics, and experimental sciences were four outstanding girls:

  • Saba Masoumnia Samakoush: A girl from Mazandaran who studied in Hormozgan due to her father’s naval service. She achieved first place in experimental sciences this year.

The names of these three teenage girls were among the top 10 in the humanities entrance exam:

International Science Olympiads Triumphs

Iranian female students have demonstrated remarkable success, winning medals across various fields:

  • Hannaneh Khorram-Dashti: Gold medalist and captain of next year’s astronomy and astrophysics team at the 17th International Astronomy Olympiad in Brazil.
  • Sara Mousaii: Silver medalist at the 54th International Physics Olympiad held in Isfahan.
  • Fatemeh Haqqani: Bronze medalist at the 17th International Earth Science Olympiad 2024 in China.
  • Parnia Dabbagh: Honored with a diploma at the 65th International Mathematics Olympiad 2024 in England, previously a gold medalist at national mathematics olympiads.

These achievements highlight the growing influence and success of Iranian women across various fields on both national and international stages.

en.jahanbanou.ir

From: hamshahrionline

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Australia and Oceania

The Defenseless Women of the Australian Defense Force

by faeze mohammadi

Women training in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) are facing increasing rates of harassment despite a number of inquiries exposing the issue.

The results from the 2023 Workplace Behaviours Survey — only released to the public under an order from the Senate show women are at significantly higher risk of general and sexual harassment in ADF institutions than men.

The figures follow recommendations from the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide to investigate the prevalence and impact of sexual violence within the ADF more broadly. The commission found, while men in the ADF were subjected to sexual misconduct, women were far more likely to be targeted something reinforced in these latest survey statistics.

Just one institution manages to bring down rates in 2023

The ADF’s careers website proudly tells women they can “do what you love, without limits.” But that’s not the experience of many training to join the armed forces according to the latest survey results that are broken down across a number of different institutions in the ADF:

The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), Royal Australian Naval College (RANC), Royal Australian Navy Recruit School (RANRS), Royal Military College Duntroon (RMC-D), 1st Recruit Training Battalion (1RTB), No. 1 Recruit Training Unit (1RTU) and Officer Training School (OTS).

Of the seven institutions, rates of unacceptable behaviour directed towards women which takes in harassment, bullying and violence have dropped at just one: ADFA, with more than half of women saying they’d been subjected to it.

At the Royal Australian Naval College and Officer Training School rates remained stable, with 58 per cent and 39 per cent of women respectively reporting it in the survey. All other institutions saw their rates climb in 2023, with the biggest increases at RANRS and 1RTB of 15 per cent each.

Sexual harassment has also remained persistent, though more institutions have managed to bring those rates down. At ADFA in 2023, women were almost seven times more likely to say they had been subject to sexual harassment than men, with 13 per cent of women saying they’d experienced it.

The survey found at RANC, men and women were similarly likely to be harassed overall but women were almost five times more likely to be sexually harassed, with 14 per cent reporting it had happened to them. At RANRS, OTS and RMC-Duntroon women said they were sexually harassed at five times the rate of men in their institutions.

Trust in their senior colleagues to handle matters sensitively and confidentially was a key issue listed by those who chose not to come forward with official complaints. Women training at Duntroon had significantly less faith in management to handle these issues effectively than their male colleagues did.

While rates remain high at a number of training locations, there is some progress being made. At ADFA, rates of sexual harassment reported to the survey have dropped from 36 per cent to 13 per cent between 2021 and 2023. At Duntroon, it went from 27 per cent to 10 per cent during that time.

Terrible statistics of rape in the bases

These latest figures come more than a decade after the federal government commissioned the Human Rights Commission to review the treatment of women in the ADF. It found some ADF workplaces are highly sexualised environments, which ‘could be particularly degrading to women’.

A 2018 study commissioned by defence found sexual violence perpetrated against men is likely to be under-reported, though women are still disproportionately affected. “The reported prevalence across different militaries demonstrate that a significant number of men in the ADF will have experiences of sexual violence,” it said.

The release of these recent statistics reinforces the finding of the royal commission into veterans suicides that sexual violence remains a persistent problem within defence. During the hearings, ex-serving ADF member and Director of Veterans Retreat, Ms Kylie James described the threats experienced by women from their fellow servicemen.

“It astounds a lot of the male veterans when I tell them when I deployed to Iraq I was issued a rape whistle,” she said. “Their minds are blown because they weren’t… We were given a separate brief and that was one of our biggest threats, was being raped on base

Government coy on whether they’ll follow all recommendations

The royal commission has made a number of recommendations to try and tackle the issue, including calling on the federal government to commission independent research on military sexual trauma and urgently ensure the ADF has a complete and reliable record of all serving members who have been convicted of sexual offences.

The ABC asked Defence Minister Richard Marles if the government would commit to following those recommendations. His office did not directly address those questions but in a statement said the survey results show there is more work to be done.

“The government also remains committed to delivering the thrust of the recommendations outlined in the royal commission’s final report and is steadfast in its commitment to defence personnel, veterans and their families.”

” NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge, who pushed for defence to release the documents, said this data should be used to remove senior staff who have failed to provide a safe workplace. “It’s little wonder defence tried to hide this data, because it shows how defence leadership have utterly failed to deal with bullying, harassment and other unacceptable behaviour in the organisation.

“Perhaps one of the most telling facts is that only one in five women in defence made a complaint about unacceptable behaviour they experienced, too often the reason they give is that no one in a leadership position would have done anything about it.”

ABC News

1.7 million Australians sexually harassed in 2021-22

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Asia

Water crisis in India; The cause of women’s backwardness

by faeze mohammadi

Fetching drinking water is a gruelling daily routine for millions of women in India.

Even without enduring the scorching summer months or the freezing winters, they walk for miles every day, balancing plastic or earthen pots on their heads and carrying buckets in their hands to manage the household water stock.

“It’s a daily struggle. I get so tired that I collapse when I’m done,” says Sunita Bhurbade from Tringalwadi, a tribal village 180km (112 miles) from India’s financial hub, Mumbai. Ms Bhurbade spends four-to-five hours every day travelling back and forth from her nearest reliable water source – a dry lake – to fill her pots.

The water is dirty and she has to dig holes on the side for the water to filter through naturally and seep in. “For four-to-five months every year, women have no option but to fetch water from long distances because nearby wells and water sources dry up,” she says. Ironically, her village receives one of the heaviest rainfalls in the region.

Because of this daily grind, she constantly complains of back and neck pain, fatigue and weakness. The daily rigour also bars her and other women from her village from pursing a paid job.

“No-one will hire me even as a farm labourer because they won’t allow me to show up at work in the afternoon,” she says. “If I go after water, I have to sacrifice my livelihood. If I try to earn a wage, my family stays thirsty.”

According to a 2023 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Unicef, 1.8 billion people worldwide collect drinking water from supplies located off premises, and in seven out of 10 households, women and girls are primarily responsible for water collection.

This is particularly true in India where, experts say, the need to secure drinking water is holding women back and hindering economic growth. “First, women can’t take up paid work because they have to do all the household chores and secondly, even if they wish to find some work after doing their daily chores, there are not enough paid jobs for women in rural India,” says Prof Ashwini Deshpande, who heads the economics department in Delhi’s Ashoka University.

The NGO International Development Organisation estimates that Indian women spend 150 million work days every year fetching water.

Experts say that if women can spend this time in paid activities, they can be financially independent and it can also boost the economy. The Indian government says it is constantly working to improve water infrastructure countrywide. By January 2024, it said it had provided piped water to almost 74% of rural households.

For those who had to earlier fetch water from outside but are now getting piped water in their homes, the experience has been life-changing. “I open the tap, water comes rushing… it’s like a dream.

I had been fetching water since I was five,” says Mangal Khadke, who’s married and in her 30s and lives about 30km from Ms Bhurbade. But there are still millions who lack access to tap water.

Around 700km away from Tringalwadi, in the Aaki village of central India’s Amaravati district, village head Indrayani Javarkar spends most of her day finding and collecting water.

“It’s so dry here in the summer that every day I wake up with one thought in my mind: where can I find water today?” she says. Indrayani has two jobs: first, find and collect water for her family, and second, to organise water tankers for her village. “Both the tasks are getting harder every day,” she says.

Ms Bhurbade says getting tap water for her is still a distant dream. “[Women] start when they are children themselves. Someone hands them a small bucket and says, fetch what you can carry.

And then, it’s a lifetime’s obligation – until she dies, she is fetching water,” she says. Ms Bhurbade doesn’t remember a single year where she didn’t have to walk miles with a pot on her head. We asked what she would do if she didn’t have to fetch water and had spare time. She thinks hard and says she likes to sing. But her songs are also about water.

BBC

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