Latest news with #hijab
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘This isn't living': Afghan girls beaten in Taliban hijab crackdown
Nafiseh's only mistake was showing her wrist. The 17-year-old was shopping for clothes with her friends in Kabul when Taliban officers grabbed her, pulling her hair as they threw her into the back of a waiting van. The men with long beards and American rifles slung across their shoulders beat her all the way to the police station west of Afghanistan's capital, her uncle said. By the time they reached the police station, Nafiseh's complete black hijab – the covering that should have protected her according to the Taliban's laws – was stained with her own blood. 'She did nothing wrong,' her uncle said, his voice carrying the weight of a generation's helplessness. 'She was wearing a complete black hijab from the Arabs. They arrested her anyway.' When Nafiseh's father arrived at the police station, the Taliban officers turned their rage toward him, their fists finding a new target in his desperate flesh. 'As soon as he arrived, they started beating and insulting him,' the uncle explained. 'They told him why first he let his daughter go out without a man, then why her wrist was visible.' To secure Nafiseh's release, her father was forced to sign a pledge – a document promising to restrict her movements even further than before. Dozens of women and girls, aged 16 to 27, were arrested across at least six neighbourhoods this week alone, with the Taliban claiming they were not wearing the hijab properly. But witnesses told The Telegraph that girls were being arrested even when they did follow the strict dress code – like Nafiseh. The systematic round-up of women in Kabul represents an escalation in the Taliban's crackdown, with the victims' families threatened into silence. It's also a far cry from the image Taliban officials are trying to present to the West when encouraging tourists to visit the nation. In the labyrinthine alleys of Kabul, terror now wears the uniform of virtue police – an equivalent of the notorious morality police across the border in Iran. Witnesses describe scenes of armed jihadists chasing girls through narrow streets, with their victims running terrified and crying, seeking refuge in doorways that offer no protection. 'It was Saturday, and a group of women were walking,' one witness told The Telegraph. 'Of course, their male guardians were not always around to accompany them, but they needed to go and buy groceries. 'Then I saw girls running through the alleys, terrified and in tears, with Taliban fighters chasing after them. 'I asked what was happening, and people said the Taliban were arresting any girl they found on the street. 'The girls were scrambling in all directions. I watched as the Taliban beat them and forced them into a van. It was heartbreaking. 'One of my relatives was even wearing a mask, but they arrested her too. Because Afghanistan is such a traditional society, my uncle's family refuses to talk about her detention. She was held for two days. Now she's deeply depressed.' Some of the girls were also arrested simply for being outside after dark. In western Kabul, authorities have begun issuing public warnings via loudspeakers, instructing residents to comply with hijab regulations. At checkpoints near busy commercial areas, officials from the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have been seen monitoring women's clothing and detaining those they deem non-compliant. The Orwellian body has employed women to monitor Instagram pages and report instances where other women dare show their faces online. 'They are needed to handle other women,' an official from the ministry said. Girls wearing hijabs with decorations, bright colours – banned by the Taliban – or with strands of their hair showing are frequently targeted Vehicles with tinted windows have been stationed near alleyways and shops and restaurants, ready to bundle women and girls away to be questioned. Many are taken to the Intelligence Directorate, where they can be held for up to three months – regardless of whether any formal charges are brought. One woman, beaten and detained for hours, returned home to a family too scared to speak of her arrest. 'She doesn't speak and stays in bed all the time. We're really worried about her,' her brother said. 'We're afraid she might harm herself – there's so much pressure on women here.' He added: 'They arrested her just for wearing a small plastic flower on her headscarf. The Taliban called us in. She wanted to become a doctor, then they closed universities and when she hung out with her friend, they arrested her. 'They humiliated me and my father, filmed us, and forced us to say on camera that we wouldn't let my sister go out alone again.' In Afghanistan's traditional society, a woman's violation becomes the family's 'dishonour', creating a conspiracy of quiet that serves the Taliban's purposes. 'We are like caged birds' A former university student described life for women in Afghanistan as being 'like a caged bird, just waiting for men to decide when to feed us'. She said one of her friends took her own life a few months ago but her family refused to call it suicide as they saw it as a humiliation. 'This isn't living – we're just breathing inside our homes, with no access to anything. 'The Taliban want us all dead. Their problem is with our gender. The entire government is focused on controlling women – so men don't go to hell by looking at us.' Women have been ordered not to speak loudly inside their homes, lest their voices escape and 'tempt' men outside. Zahra Haqparast, a dentist and women's rights activist who was imprisoned by the Taliban in 2022 and now speaks from exile in Germany, said: 'No woman goes out in Afghanistan without a hijab. 'The Taliban's problem is women themselves. As a woman, you do not need to commit a crime. In the Taliban's view, you're a criminal by being a woman.' The temperature in Kabul can reach 45C in summer. But the Taliban requires women to wear long black coverings in this heat, turning the simple act of existing outdoors into physical torture.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Jalsa Salana: UK Muslim women ‘concerned' over negative attitudes toward hijab
British Muslim women attending the UK's largest Islamic convention have expressed their concerns after a survey found half of Britons believe Muslim women are pressured into wearing the hijab. Held annually at Oakland Farm in Alton, Hampshire, the Jalsa Salana attracts more than 40,000 participants in the Ahmadiyya Muslim community from across the world. As the event concluded on Sunday, a number of Muslim women in attendance reacted to the findings of a recent YouGov polling commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which found that 49% of respondents believe 'most British Muslim women who wear a hijab do so because they feel pressured by their family or community.' 'I was very disappointed, but maybe not all together surprised,' Munazzah Chou, 40, said. 'I think the scale was quite eye-opening, because it's quite a significant proportion.' Ms Chou, who works as an ophthalmologist in the NHS, added: 'The misconceptions about Muslim women in particular are slightly insulting toward the intellectual capacity of Muslim women. 'People make choices every day that we don't understand: as a doctor, I see patients and we offer them treatments, and they often make choices that we wouldn't recommend, but I never jump to the conclusion that they're being coerced. 'I know that my choice to wear hijab is just based on my religious belief.' Referring to the Jalsa Salana convention, she added: 'There are 20,000 women here who would have a different journey towards wearing their hijab, but I think every single one of them would tell you how this is not a coercive practice. 'They've done it out of personal choice, and all from possibly slightly different, nuanced reasons – but all out of free will.' Syeda Ahmad, 23, said the polling results made her feel as though Muslim women 'keep having to have the same conversations and make the same points over and over again'. 'We do make our own choices, and we are fully thinking human beings who are able to do that ourselves,' she said. 'I feel like the results are maybe a reflection of a certain kind of attitude towards Muslim women that is more concerned with telling us how we feel and what we need, as opposed to asking us.' University student Unaizah Ahmad, 25, said she felt 'concerned' over the polling results. 'When there are calls made for hijab bans, I wonder if this is the mentality that is playing in the background and plays a role in people,' she said. 'And in my experience, it's the complete opposite. 'My hijab is completely my own choice. My religion, the way I practice it, is completely my own choice. 'I've never felt coerced or pressured to do with it. 'To people who hold that belief: I would encourage them to speak to Muslim women who wear a hijab, and hear it from them instead of giving in to preconceived biases.' In June, Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said there should be a 'national debate' on banning the burka. This came as former party chairman Zia Yusuf resigned following an internal row, in which he described a question asked to the Prime Minister by the party's newest MP, Sarah Pochin, about banning the burka as 'dumb'. Syeda Ahmad also further raised concerns over how these renewed calls for a ban on face-covering clothes will impact upon Muslim women and girls. 'If you're actually concerned about Muslim women and how we might be feeling, one of the worst things you can do is project your own prejudices and assumptions onto us,' she said. 'We've seen in other European countries that have introduced things like hijab bans or burka bans – we know from research that only serves to alienate Muslim women. 'It restricts them from places of education. It restricts them from places of work.' Wearing face-covering clothes is currently banned in seven European countries – France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Bulgaria – while other countries have enacted partial bans. 'A great thing about Britain is that there are no bans like that,' Ms Ahmad added. 'That's why you'll find Muslim women in this country working in all manner of professions, as confident people.' She added: 'Religion is personal to people. 'They decide what they want to do, what they want to follow, how far they want to follow it, and there's no punishment for not wearing a hijab in Islam. 'Crucially, Islam allows you to make a personal choice.' A spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community said the survey's results 'highlight a persistent misunderstanding about Islamic teachings on modesty and women's choices'. The YouGov survey of 2,130 adults in Great Britain in mid-July asked people if they felt different groups of immigrants by religion generally have a positive or negative impact on the UK. While 41% said Muslim immigrants have a negative impact, the proportions feeling this way were much lower for other groups. Just under a quarter (24%) of respondents felt Muslim immigrants had a positive impact on the UK, lower than for any of the other religions stated.
The Independent
5 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Muslim women say the hijab is empowering as half of Britons believe they are ‘pressured into wearing it'
Muslim women have spoken about how wearing the hijab is 'empowering' in the face of a new poll that has revealed almost half of Britons believe that women are pressured into putting it on. The survey found 49 per cent of the British public believe Muslim women wear the hijab due to family or community pressure, while just a quarter (26 per cent) see the decision as a personal choice. The new YouGov survey – which was commissioned by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and involved polling 2,130 UK adults earlier this month – comes as more than 20,000 Muslim women gather at the country's biggest Muslim convention, Jalsa Salana UK. Dr Munazzah Chou, 40, one of the over 6,000 female volunteers at Jalsa Salana helping to run a tent city on 210 acres of Hampshire farmland, told The Independent she started wearing the hijab at the age of 16. 'There are many choices we make everyday,' she said. 'I have made the choice to wear the hijab, as an expression of my religious beliefs.' Her words were echoed by Dr Maleeha Mansur, who felt the hijab was 'empowering'. Responding to the findings, the 36-year-old obstetrics and gynaecology registrar from Uxbridge, west London, said: 'I'm not surprised by the results, but it's disheartening, because I wish people would listen to how Muslim women actually feel.' The women we spoke to at Jalsa Salana believe that wearing the hijab is a liberating choice. 'Wearing the hijab is a choice like any other, and the hijab enables us to feel spiritually grounded in a world that is materially oriented', said Dr Chou, an ophthalmologist from Farnham, in Surrey. 'It's empowering because when I'm going about my day to day life, I don't have to think or worry about appearances – I don't think that's the most important thing', echoed Dr Mansur who is also a teaching fellow at the Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford. 'It's empowering because I choose who gets to see my beauty and who doesn't.' The survey results also showed that the majority (53 per cent) of Britons believe that Islam is not compatible with British values. And a stark disparity was found between the number of people who view Muslim immigrants negatively (41 per cent) compared to Christians (7 per cent), Jews (13 per cent), Sikhs (14 per cent) and Hindus (15 per cent). Meanwhile, almost a third of the British public (31 per cent) believes Islam promotes violence, according to the research. At Jalsa Salana, the Union Jack will be raised along with an Islamic flag to mark the beginning of a three day 'Muslim festival' with over 40,000 people attending from across the world. The annual event, held by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, features a series of keynote addresses by His Holiness Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the Caliph and worldwide head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. Attendees at this year's event which also showcased exhibitions, bookstalls and a bazaar, insist that there is no conflict between being British and being Muslim. Media narratives are to blame for the rise in misconceptions, believes Dr Chou. 'Public perceptions are not formed in a vacuum. I do think that media coverage of Muslim women perpetuates the idea that we are 'other' rather than fully fledged members of society.' Iffat Mirza-Rashid, 26, a doctoral student at Cambridge University, said of her decision to wear the hijab: 'Look at society today – there's a lot of pressure on women to look a certain way. The hijab is a powerful response and resistance to that sort of pressure. It encourages the people around us to see us for who we are, rather than what we look like – and that's really empowering.' The comparative literature researcher continued: 'It's just a piece of cloth – but then it's so much more, because it's a reflection of your beliefs. It's powerful to be able to express your beliefs because you can make a certain statement about who you are and what your priorities are.'
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
New York's mayoral race exposes the deep roots of American Islamophobia
My only interaction with the FBI came soon after 11 September 2001. A man and woman visited my family's home in Philadelphia – we had recently moved from Palestine – showed their credentials and asked to enter. My parents invited them in and a conversation about political views followed. They left soon afterwards but I knew we were suspect, and I understood why. At the time, I was in high school. Two or three years later, one of my sisters, who wore the hijab then, was confronted by an elderly white man at a department store. 'What's the significance of the trash you're wearing on your head?' he asked. Just a few years ago I was traveling through JFK airport from a trip abroad. I was pulled out of line for a side conversation – a semi-regular occurrence – when a policeman with a bull face said: 'Do you hate America?' Pure bait. Watching Zohran Mamdani's treatment in the run-up to his commanding victory over the Democratic establishment caused me to reflect on these experiences. In Mamdani's case, the frenzy started when an Andrew Cuomo-affiliated group lengthened and darkened his beard in an ad. And there were clumsy efforts to associate Mamdani with antisemitism. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator from New York, went on the radio to claim Mamdani had raised concern among Jewish New Yorkers and made 'references to global jihad', whatever that means. Democrats, activists and voters were outraged at the smear, and Gillibrand apologized. But it was Mamdani's victory in the primary – and the national attention he has justifiably received – that caused the sluice gates to open. Brandon Gill, a representative from Texas, posted a video of the young democratic socialist eating biryani with his hand, appending a note, saying: 'Civilized people in America don't eat like this.' Andy Ogles, another Republican congressman, has called for Mamdani's citizenship to be withdrawn, a new front in the Republican war on everything. Meanwhile, Randy Fine, a Florida representative, has decried the emerging 'caliphate' of New York. Comically – you have to have a sense of humor about some things – Marjorie Taylor Green posted a picture of the Statue of Liberty cloaked in the niqab. Nor have the Democrats relented, despite Gillibrand's grassroots censure. The strategist James Carville has commented about the 'fact that [Mamdani] won't denounce' the 'intifada': 'Come on man,' he said, 'just get it out your mouth.' Mamdani's rise, which is a threat to a weak Democratic leadership, will only invite more racist attacks. This is Trump's America now; bad faith arguments and unmasked bigotry have attained new heights in public discussions. But Islamophobia has deep institutional roots. The phenomenon, a messy amalgam of racist tropes ensnaring Sikhs, assorted South Asians and Middle Easterners, is durable and widespread. Hopes that Barack Hussein Obama's election in 2008 would take the edge off were premature. It's worth examining why. At an individual level, prejudice exists among all kinds of people: no one is immune to its effects, or to effecting it. I've encountered racism directed at white people, Black people, Indians, east Asians and just about everyone else. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman shed some light on prejudice in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. He and his colleagues concluded through rigorous experimentation that people rely on intuitive systems and mental shortcuts in making certain kinds of quick decisions. Often, those intuitive beliefs are based on existing stereotypes and biases. You can't contain all the information in the world in your head, so you rely on representations for things to navigate a complex and information-rich environment. Heuristics, in other words. But if all prejudice is created equal, it doesn't stay that way for long. A powerful person's racism exerts greater leverage than the ordinary prejudice of a recent immigrant who disapproves of interracial relationships. That's because power is defined, in part, through the ability to participate in and shape institutions, which are themselves containers of cultural DNA. They reproduce assumptions that exist among a critical mass of their participants. It is institutions that form the basis for structural racism – a cohesive, majoritarian racism that devalues certain lives through a society's ordinary operations. Structural racism is dangerous in a way that the personal prejudices of marginalized people cannot possibly be, if only because of how power is organized in society. A critic might argue that there is a basis for regarding Muslims with suspicion. People who serve in the national defense or security establishment, for instance, might perceive a real-world basis for adopting what might be considered biased or racist views. Consider the fact that all of the men who perpetrated the attacks on New York in September 24 years ago were Middle Eastern and Muslim. Heuristic thinking might suggest a travel ban that assumes all Muslim men, or even men from the Middle East, are a potential source of terror will secure the US. It's a logical argument: preventing all Muslims from entering the US will prevent all the domestic crimes perpetrated by Muslims. But a corollary exists: all able-bodied white males between the ages of 11 and 70 are potential mass shooters or insurrectionists. We may protect our school-aged children and our constitutional democracy by preventing members of that group from accessing guns. The illogic of Islamophobia lies in the breach: the arguments, which are constructed along roughly similar lines, have very different chances of impacting policy in this country. That's because the FBI and local law enforcement – and the leaderships of the Democratic and Republican parties – contain a complex and copious set of information about the range of behaviors that white men may participate in, as compared with Muslim men. Yes, white men kill children at schools, but they do a lot of other things besides. Mamdani, through his visibility, charm and unflagging cheerfulness presents a new source of information about Muslim men in America. The decision by Cuomo affiliates to try to exploit the gap in information about Muslims – to rely on a racist heuristic – by darkening Mamdani's beard was a cynical one. But it failed through the superior communications of the candidate himself. Mamdani was visible and is likable. He succeeded in reaching voters on his own terms and new information has succeeded in short-circuiting old ideas, at least for now. Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
New York's mayoral race exposes the deep roots of American Islamophobia
My only interaction with the FBI came soon after 11 September 2001. A man and woman visited my family's home in Philadelphia – we had recently moved from Palestine – showed their credentials and asked to enter. My parents invited them in and a conversation about political views followed. They left soon afterwards but I knew we were suspect, and I understood why. At the time, I was in high school. Two or three years later, one of my sisters, who wore the hijab then, was confronted by an elderly white man at a department store. 'What's the significance of the trash you're wearing on your head?' he asked. Just a few years ago I was traveling through JFK airport from a trip abroad. I was pulled out of line for a side conversation – a semi-regular occurrence – when a policeman with a bull face said: 'Do you hate America?' Pure bait. Watching Zohran Mamdani's treatment in the run-up to his commanding victory over the Democratic establishment caused me to reflect on these experiences. In Mamdani's case, the frenzy started when an Andrew Cuomo-affiliated group lengthened and darkened his beard in an ad. And there were clumsy efforts to associate Mamdani with antisemitism. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democratic senator from New York, went on the radio to claim Mamdani had raised concern among Jewish New Yorkers and made 'references to global jihad', whatever that means. Democrats, activists and voters were outraged at the smear, and Gillibrand apologized. But it was Mamdani's victory in the primary – and the national attention he has justifiably received – that caused the sluice gates to open. Brandon Gill, a representative from Texas, posted a video of the young democratic socialist eating biryani with his hand, appending a note, saying: 'Civilized people in America don't eat like this.' Andy Ogles, another Republican congressman, has called for Mamdani's citizenship to be withdrawn, a new front in the Republican war on everything. Meanwhile, Randy Fine, a Florida representative, has decried the emerging 'caliphate' of New York. Comically – you have to have a sense of humor about some things – Marjorie Taylor Green posted a picture of the Statue of Liberty cloaked in the niqab. Nor have the Democrats relented, despite Gillibrand's grassroots censure. The strategist James Carville has commented about the 'fact that [Mamdani] won't denounce' the 'intifada': 'Come on man,' he said, 'just get it out your mouth.' Mamdani's rise, which is a threat to a weak Democratic leadership, will only invite more racist attacks. This is Trump's America now; bad faith arguments and unmasked bigotry have attained new heights in public discussions. But Islamophobia has deep institutional roots. The phenomenon, a messy amalgam of racist tropes ensnaring Sikhs, assorted South Asians and Middle Easterners, is durable and widespread. Hopes that Barack Hussein Obama's election in 2008 would take the edge off were premature. It's worth examining why. At an individual level, prejudice exists among all kinds of people: no one is immune to its effects, or to effecting it. I've encountered racism directed at white people, Black people, Indians, east Asians and just about everyone else. The psychologist Daniel Kahneman shed some light on prejudice in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. He and his colleagues concluded through rigorous experimentation that people rely on intuitive systems and mental shortcuts in making certain kinds of quick decisions. Often, those intuitive beliefs are based on existing stereotypes and biases. You can't contain all the information in the world in your head, so you rely on representations for things to navigate a complex and information-rich environment. Heuristics, in other words. But if all prejudice is created equal, it doesn't stay that way for long. A powerful person's racism exerts greater leverage than the ordinary prejudice of a recent immigrant who disapproves of interracial relationships. That's because power is defined, in part, through the ability to participate in and shape institutions, which are themselves containers of cultural DNA. They reproduce assumptions that exist among a critical mass of their participants. It is institutions that form the basis for structural racism – a cohesive, majoritarian racism that devalues certain lives through a society's ordinary operations. Structural racism is dangerous in a way that the personal prejudices of marginalized people cannot possibly be, if only because of how power is organized in society. A critic might argue that there is a basis for regarding Muslims with suspicion. People who serve in the national defense or security establishment, for instance, might perceive a real-world basis for adopting what might be considered biased or racist views. Consider the fact that all of the men who perpetrated the attacks on New York in September 24 years ago were Middle Eastern and Muslim. Heuristic thinking might suggest a travel ban that assumes all Muslim men, or even men from the Middle East, are a potential source of terror will secure the US. It's a logical argument: preventing all Muslims from entering the US will prevent all the domestic crimes perpetrated by Muslims. But a corollary exists: all able-bodied white males between the ages of 11 and 70 are potential mass shooters or insurrectionists. We may protect our school-aged children and our constitutional democracy by preventing members of that group from accessing guns. The illogic of Islamophobia lies in the breach: the arguments, which are constructed along roughly similar lines, have very different chances of impacting policy in this country. That's because the FBI and local law enforcement – and the leaderships of the Democratic and Republican parties – contain a complex and copious set of information about the range of behaviors that white men may participate in, as compared with Muslim men. Yes, white men kill children at schools, but they do a lot of other things besides. Mamdani, through his visibility, charm and unflagging cheerfulness presents a new source of information about Muslim men in America. The decision by Cuomo affiliates to try to exploit the gap in information about Muslims – to rely on a racist heuristic – by darkening Mamdani's beard was a cynical one. But it failed through the superior communications of the candidate himself. Mamdani was visible and is likable. He succeeded in reaching voters on his own terms and new information has succeeded in short-circuiting old ideas, at least for now. Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace
