UAE explores economic cooperation with Cuba

The Abu Dhabi and the Cuban chambers of commerce met at the Expo 2020 Dubai event, and a Cuban minister visited an Emirati renewable energy company.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt launches a fun run at Expo 2020 Dubai Site on Nov. 13, 2021 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. - Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for PepsiCo

Al-Monitor Staff
February 18, 2022 —

The United Arab Emirates’ capital city is interested in doing business with Cuba.

Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Mohamed Al Mazrouei met with president of the Cuban Chamber of Commerce Antonio Carricarte Corona at the Expo 2020 Dubai yesterday. Mazrouei noted the “eagerness” of Abu Dhabi businesses to learn more about trade with and investment in Cuba. He called for business-focused exchanges between the two areas. The chairman also said the chamber is ready to support trade between Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, the official Emirates News Agency reported.

The Expo 2020 Dubai is a cultural and business forum with participants from across the UAE, the Middle East and the world. The event has yielded several agreements on the part of Emirati businesses. The Emirati technology firm Group 42 signed yesterday a memorandum of understanding with the Serbian government to develop joint cloud and artificial intelligence tools.

Other Emirati entities are also interested in doing business with Cuba. Yesterday, Cuba’s Trade Minister, Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz, met with the Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar to discuss potential cooperation, Masdar tweeted.

Cuba has good relations with Iran and Syria in the Middle East. Cuban and Iranian scientists jointly developed a COVID-19 vaccine last year. Syrian and Cuban officials also discussed vaccine cooperation late last year.

The UAE is a close ally of the United States. However, the US places several sanctions on Cuba and maintains a trade embargo on the Caribbean island in opposition to its communist government.

Trove of inscribed pottery reveals details of daily life in ancient Egypt

A joint German-Egyptian archeological mission has found a large number of pottery fragments inscribe with revealing texts about daily life in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.

A general view of the ruins of a 3,000-year-old lost city on April 10, 2021, in Luxor, Egypt

. - Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images

Hagar Hosny
Archaeology
February 19, 2022 —

CAIRO — A joint German-Egyptian mission has discovered more than 18,000 pottery shards called ostraca dating to the Ptolemaic period and the beginning of the Roman era. The discovery, announced Feb. 8, was made during excavations in the area of ​​Sheik Hamad near the Temple of Athribis, in the west of Sohag governorate.

According to researchers at the University of Tubingen, Germany, the 2,000-year-old inscriptions on pottery fragments of broken jars offer details of ancient Egyptian life. They include lists of deities, menus and trade information, as well as grammar exercises and arithmetic problems for children, including lines apparently written as punishment by misbehaving students.

More than 80% of the inscriptions discovered were written in the Demotic script (a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics), one of the three ancient scripts found on the Rosetta Stone. Others included hieroglyphs, hieratic, ancient Arabic and Coptic.

Many of the pottery pieces originated from an ancient school, according to University of Tubingen professor Christian Leitz, who led the excavations along with a team from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. “There are lists of months, numbers, … and a 'bird alphabet,'” Leitz said in a press release.

Egyptology researcher and tour guide Bassam el-Shammaa told Al-Monitor that the ostraca inscriptions outweigh temple ruins in terms of historical importance. He explained, “A temple would not reveal the daily details of customs, transactions and problems of the ancient Egyptian society. Despite their artistic and architectural importance, temples remain a royal mouthpiece for these periods, whose purpose is mostly to glorify the kings, while the ostraca are notepads.”

Hundreds of pottery pieces shared a single repeated symbol, according to the mission's press release. The archeologists believe it is evidence that "misbehaved students" were forced to write as punishment.

Other findings included a child's drawing of three human figures as well as pictorial representations of deities, geometric figures and creatures such as scorpions and swallows.

The University of Tubingen's press statement read that it is very rare to find such a large trove of ancient pottery. A similar amount was discovered only once before, during excavation at an ancient settlement of craftsmen in Deir el-Medina, near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Shammaa said, “These pottery pieces may not be impressive in terms of shape compared to other archeological finds, but they are rich in information about ancient Egyptian life.” He continued, “This discovery comes in second place in importance in the 21st century, after the Wadi Al-Jarf papyri discovery near the western shore of the Gulf of Suez. The ostraca are more revealing about ancient Egyptian history and people than the papyri.”

Shamma added, “The time has come to rewrite history based on ostraca and not on temples. I believe the texts written on the ostraca are true because whoever wrote them did not, in my opinion, need to lie because he did not write them for the purpose of documenting history.”

The Temple of Athribis is located near the present-day city of Sohag on the west bank of the Nile. The University of Tubingen and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities began work there in 2003, searching for a temple built by Pharaoh Ptolemy XII. The wider archeological site includes the remains of a tomb, quarries and a settlement.

Hussein Abdel Basir, director of the Antiquities Museum at Bibliotheca Alexandrina, told Al-Monitor via phone that ancient writing on pottery was more “widespread because it was cheaper than papyri and easily accessible.” He added, “The demotic script was the common script for commoners. It appeared in the 25th Dynasty, continued through the end of the Pharaonic eras and extended into the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.”

Abdul Basir explained, “The large number of pieces that were found, particularly the ones with repeated symbols, will contribute to the study of ancient scripts. They will help us translate demotic texts, the scarcity of which has made them difficult to decipher.”

Hamas targets Sufis in Gaza

Sufis have opposed the way the Hamas government came to power, prompting the movement to shut down their institutions and restrict their religious activities.

Whirling dervishes perform during a festival at the mosque of Nabi Musa, where the tomb of Prophet Moses is believed to be located, in the Judean Desert near the town of Jericho, West Bank, April 8, 2016. - Abbas Momani/AFP via Getty Images

Hadeel Al Gherbawi
@hadola_gh
TOPICS COVERED
Gaza
February 6, 2022 —


A number of Sufi mosques are spread across the Gaza Strip, and each sheikh practices his own way of Sufism. But they all participate in performing the weekly “session,” which is a Quranic session in which prophetic invocations and praises are chanted.

Sufism in Palestine can be traced back to the Mamluk era, and some Sufi families in Gaza have become well known, such as the Sa’afin and Khalidi families.

Sufism has always raised controversy among some Muslims, but it remains a very important issue as many have studied Sufism in an attempt to reach a conclusion about Sufi thought. However, many Sufis refused to talk to Al-Monitor for fear of repercussions from Hamas.

One sheikh of the Alawiyya order told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The origins of our order [religious institution] go back to Sheikh Ahmad bin Alawi. Sufism is one of the foundations of Islamic beliefs. The weekly session we hold is a clearing of worries and sins; followers gather to remember God and the verses of the Quran without distortion as some describe it and without holding celebrations and drumming.”

He said that he keeps good relations with the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip, but the order’s rejection of Hamas’ rule is based on the movement’s insistence to rule by force of arms. “There is nothing in the Book of God or the sunna that motivates me to fight those who oppose me with weapons, for God says, ‘And speak kindly to all people.’”

A Sufi affiliated with the Ahmadiyya order told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Society’s negative view of Sufism stems from the new generation’s ignorance of the true meaning of Sufism. Our only goal is to restore the time of the Prophet Muhammad, and Sufism serves to reform oneself away from the inclinations and malice of political parties and their only interest to assume political positions.”

When Hamas assumed power in 2006, it shut down many Sufi zawiyas (meeting places) on the pretext that they posed a danger to society.

Nasser al-Yafawi, a Gaza-based historian who opposes Hamas’ actions against Sufis, told Al-Monitor, “The Sufis are wonderful. I have visited the Qadiriya, Jaririyah and Rifa’i orders, and I witnessed a full weekly session with them. There is no difference between the orders. Their session is a spiritual imagining of God and their celebrations are considered a religious dance to draw closer to God.”

He said, “At the beginning of its rule, Hamas closed many Sufi zawiyas, claiming Sufis pose a danger to Gazan society. This is a major false accusation because Hamas wants to monopolize the leadership of the Islamic movements. I do not support Hamas’ point of view and unjustified actions. It wants to rule so-called Islamic movements and disagrees with all parties, not just Sufis.”

Yafawi noted, “Some rumors spread about Sufis practicing freemasonry rituals and that they carry out acts that violate social values. Hamas closed some zawiyas of the Ahmadiyya, Shadhiliyya and Alawiyya orders, restricting their movements and preventing them from holding religious ceremonies and weekly sessions. This is a violation of freedom of expression. I have personally verified this and discovered that it’s all malicious rumors and false arguments.”

Meanwhile, many support shutting down Sufi zawiyas. Saleh al-Raqab, a professor of Islamic faith at the Islamic University of Gaza and a former minister of endowments, told Al-Monitor, “Sufism in Gaza is made up of groups affiliated with sheikhs outside the enclave, such as the Shadhiliyya and Alawiyya orders, and they have many heresies and myths, as we see in their many zawiyas, such as dancing in mosques. They have very corrupt beliefs, but in the Gaza Strip they apply them without understanding their meanings, such as begging for the Prophet Muhammad to fulfill their needs.”

He said, “There is also a lot of polytheism, which is exemplified in their book 'The Unity of Being' by Ibn Arabi. This person is an atheist since he sees all existence as one and believes there is no difference between a Creator and a creature. The Sufis here in Gaza practice rituals without the slightest understanding. They kneel to their sheikhs as we kneel to God. They even kiss the sheikhs’ hand and this represents polytheism and disbelief in God. The Sufis do not offer anything to Islam, but separate religion from politics. They are using social media nowadays to attract the younger generation, and this is a disaster.”

Raqab noted, “Dozens of young people are joining Sufism in the Gaza Strip because they have a great spiritual void that needs to be filled. I am not aware of the fact that Hamas closed Sufi zawiyas, nor about restricting their movements and celebrations, because I have seen many zawiyas opening. But they must be closed before they spread further.”

Raqab explained that his doctoral thesis was about Sufi sects from an ideological point of view, and he also teaches these topics to university students as he believes that Sufism in the entire Arab world has major deviations and contradicts Islam altogether.

I OF COURSE DISAGREE FOR EXACTLY THESE SAME REASONS 

SEE: 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: My Favorite Muslim 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFI 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SUFISM 

Bleak economy pushes Gazan women toward domestic work

The difficult economic conditions in Gaza have prompted women to resort to domestic work, a profession fraught with challenges as they live in a very conservative society.

A displaced Palestinian woman washes her family's laundry at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City on May 18, 2021. - MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images

Hadeel Al Gherbawi
Gaza
February 20, 2022 —

The bleak economy, the constant wars and the Palestinian division have pushed many women in the Gaza Strip to opt for domestic work.

House cleaning can be a lifeline for families who have lost their breadwinner, either due to divorce or death. But some workers face harassment or accusations of theft and are afraid to speak up, let alone go to court, for fear of losing their jobs.

H.D., 35, found herself working as a housemaid in central Gaza. She has five children to provide for. The $200 per month that her husband earns as a school janitor does not cover the needs of the family, so when a neighbor offered her $150 for housekeeping and for looking after her children and her elderly mother-in-law, "I reluctantly accepted because I had no other choice.”

H.D., who refused to reveal her name, told Al-Monitor that domestic work is socially stigmatized. “The people at the house always feel as if the maid is an intruder and they do not trust her. … When I would prepare the coffee, serve it and sit down to rest a little after a long day of hard work, the housewife would tell me, ‘Go to the kitchen, don't sit down here.’”

Um Ahmed, 33, has separated from her husband, leaving her to care alone for her three children. Her father is deceased and her mother is elderly. She lives with her family in a rented apartment. “My children and family have no one to provide for them," she told Al-Monitor. Even the $200 social affairs check that is paid every three months to poor families has been suspended for a year now. "So I resorted to my family’s Mukhtar [head of the family] in order to provide us with a good job. ‘I can offer you a domestic job either at a house or at a clinic,’ he told me.”

“Domestic work is a profession of exploitation, and [customers] take advantage of us with many jobs, such as washing the carpets, cleaning the house completely, and taking care of the children for an amount not exceeding $4 per day,” she added. “Moreover, the housewife often says, ‘Why didn’t you clean well? Clean this again!’”

She took a job at one house because the woman promised $200 per month, a higher figure than she had ever received in home service. But a month later, "her husband was taking advantage of his wife’s leaving for work and his children’s going to school and trying to get close to me. … On one occasion he got very close to me and tried to lure me with $6, but I took my purse and ran away from the house and never came back. I didn't dare tell anyone.”

Companies that provide domestic services, such as WECAN Serve And Clean, Ibn Sina Company, and White Pal provide uniforms for workers and work contracts that guarantee their rights. Hanan Barham, director of White Pal, told Al-Monitor, “The situation is unstable due to the repeated wars. I felt that opening a company to hire housekeepers was like a venture, and I faced many criticisms.”

She added, “My company provides contracts between the people who need the service and the service providers, provided housekeepers work in a safe environment free of violence. But unfortunately, despite this, we faced many difficulties that we had to solve in court.”

Among the applicants to work for her company, Hanan continued, are "university students who cannot afford to pay their tuition fees, so they opt for domestic work.”

“Domestic work is a new and very disturbing phenomenon in a tribal society where women’s dignity is a top priority," Fadel Abu Hein, a doctor of psychology at Al-Aqsa University, told Al-Monitor. "I see that girls are the ones knocking on people’s doors for work, so this is a dangerous phenomenon that should not spread."

But the reason it happens, he said, is "the deteriorating economic situation in Gaza and the lack of job opportunities for graduates. Due to men’s inability to meet the family’s needs and requirements, women resorted to domestic work, and when a woman owns a sum of money and starts showing it to other women, this prompts them to start looking for similar jobs.”

“The psychological impact this has on workers results from several variables, such as the outlook of the family to whom they work. Will they be treated well or ill? Will the family members treat them condescendingly? When workers are well treated, they feel good. But when they are treated ill and do not allow them to sit on their sofas, they feel humiliated,” he continued. “Society’s view [toward maids] could either be one of sympathy and pity, or one of defamation, both of which greatly affect workers’ psychological state.”

Boater Falls Into Ocean, Swims 5 Hours to Oil Rig 'Helped' by 'Angel' Seal

CC0 / A_Different_Perspective /

Sofia Chegodaeva

All materialsWrite to the author

The man believes his survival was truly miraculous as he had to swim in chilling waters and in complete darkness for hours.

A boater from California who fell into the Santa Barbara Channel in the middle of the night earlier this month told reporters that he was preparing to die until a seal came to his rescue and pushed him to a nearby oil rig.

In an interview with ABC7, Scott Thompson said he accidentally fell overboard while on his boat several miles off the coast of Santa Barbara. His boat sped away and he was left alone in the water wearing only shorts and a T-shirt. There wasn't even moonlight to guide him, he said, adding that he noticed an oil rig and decided to swim towards it as the coast was too far away. As he swam, he suddenly heard a splash and felt something touch his leg.

"It was a medium-sized harbour seal...The seal would go underwater and he came up and nudged me like a dog comes up and nudges your leg," Thompson said, adding that he believed that was "an angel" who came to his rescue.

It took him five hours to reach the rig, where he was rescued and given medical aid. He was then taken to hospital and treated for hypothermia.

Lie, Cheat, Steal, Cry? 

US Military Intelligence Overwhelmed by Toxic Workplace Complaints: Report

Ilya Tsukanov

All materialsWrite to the author

The Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, is tasked with collecting military information both public and classified sources around the world, with its data accounting for about one quarter of the overall intelligence the president receives in his daily briefs.

The DIA’s European operations are fraught with toxic workplace environments, bullying, harassment and colleagues spending time snooping on each other instead of concentrating on adversaries, according to witness statements and complaints provided to House and Senate intelligence committees and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

“The toxic culture within DIA is a threat to national security,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col Ryan Sweazey, an agency employee involved in collecting evidence. Sweazey blew the whistle on conditions inside the DIA after being reprimanded for attempting to report his concerns up the chain of command during his posting as an assistant defense attaché at the US Embassy in Rome.

Sweazey resorted to personally collecting and submitting complaints to Congress after being stonewalled by the DIA’s Inspector General, whose office is supposed to deal with workplace complaints. The IG has been accused repeatedly of impeding probes and ‘watering down’ reports detailing problems inside the agency.

Among the information gathered by the whistleblower is a complaint that a DIA officer in Rome gathered and secretly passed negative information about co-workers’ job performance, creating a ‘hostile atmosphere’ and disrupting intelligence gathering efforts. The practice is feared to be widespread across DIA offices in Western Europe.

“As a defense attaché at a US Embassy in a foreign country, I should not have to spend a large portion of my time looking over my shoulder for someone nefarious from DIA. There are plenty of other foreign threats for me to worry about,” one office said in his testimony.

Another DIA employee indicated that a private medical condition was discovered by superiors and used against him. The same officer said his enthusiasm for the job and writing ‘too many’ intelligence reports was shunned, and that he was removed from assignment early and punished by superiors for taking the initiative.

A US Army lieut. col studying at the Joint Military Attache School in Washington, DC said his criticism of the curriculum led faculty to falsely accuse his wife of running a political blog in an bid to bar him from overseas service.

Two other incidents cited by Sweazey pointed to harassment by an instructor who poked a woman pilot in the chest, and an end of study video featuring pictures of scantily clad students set to the Right Said Fred song ‘I’m Too Sexy’.

A September 2020 Defense Attaché Service survey cited by WSJ found that nearly half of 79 respondents experienced hostile behaviour in the workplace, ranging from intimidation and harassment to bullying and discrimination, including prejudice on racial, gender and other grounds.

In a statement, the DIA emphasized that the agency has “zero tolerance” regarding violations of its high standards. “The Defense Intelligence Agency is a professional foreign-intelligence organization with a highly trained workforce, including dedicated men and women of the armed forces…We would respond as appropriate to any credible allegations of misconduct, abuse, or activities that conflict with our core values,” the intelligence service assured.

Senators Uncover Secret CIA Programme Collecting Americans’ Data Without Any Oversight

11 February, 11:54 GMT

Headquartered at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, the DIA has about 16,500 employees, about three-quarters of them civilians. The agency has its share of scandals under its belt, including allegations of coming up with new means to torture detainees using mind-altering substances, sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation and beatings, forcing straight detainees to watch gay porn, draping Muslim detainees with the Israeli flag, and, in some cases, impersonating FBI agents. During the ‘War on Terror’ in the mid-2000s, the agency was granted expanded powers to surveil US citizens. In 2011, the DIA was enveloped in a scandal in Germany after failing to report the murder of a policewoman by a Neo-Nazi terrorist group while surveilling an Islamist group.

Lithuania Prepares to Sell Former CIA ‘Extraordinary Rendition’ Site Where Abu Zubaydah Was Tortured

25 January, 00:10 GMT

STOP THE SABRE RATTLING

Russia warns West's 'daily' predictions of Ukraine invasion may have adverse consequences

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
20 February, 2022

'The daily exercise of announcing a date for Russia to invade Ukraine is a very bad practice,' Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said this could create 'detrimental consequences' [Mikhail Japaridze/TASS/Getty-archive]

Repeated Western predictions of a Russian invasion of Ukraine are provocative and may have adverse consequences, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he was convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a decision to invade Ukraine, and though there was still room for diplomacy, he expected Russia to move on the country in the coming days. Russia has repeatedly denied preparing to invade Ukraine.

Putin takes no notice of such Western statements, Peskov told Rossiya 1 state TV.

"The fact is that this directly leads to an increase in tension. And when tension is escalated to the maximum, as it is now, for example, on the line of contact [in eastern Ukraine], then any spark, any unplanned incident or any minor planned provocation can lead to irreparable consequences," he added.

"So all this has - may have - detrimental consequences. The daily exercise of announcing a date for Russia to invade Ukraine is a very bad practice."

(Reuters)

'The only reason is to humiliate Muslims as much as possible': India lurches to the right with school hijab ban

Nationwide protests have erupted after a number of Muslim schoolgirls were prevented from wearing their hijab in the Indian state of Karnataka. The continued fuelling of anti-Muslim sentiment by the BJP will likely provoke further unrest.

Sabena Siddiqui
14 February, 2022

In the southern Indian state of Karnataka, a Muslim girl was recently told by Hindu nationalists they would prevent her from attending school should she continue wearing her hijab, an incidence further provoked by some government schools endorsing the policy in recent months.

Despite attempts by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) movement to intimidate her, Muskan Khan nonetheless made her way into school, unfazed.

As she would later explain to the Indian television channel NDTV, "I was just there to submit an assignment; that’s why I entered the college. They were not allowing me to go inside just because I was [wearing] the burqa. We will continue (our protests) because it (wearing a hijab) is a part of being a Muslim girl; they (friends from other communities) even supported us.”

"The only reason is to humiliate minority Muslims as much as possible. This is part of the ruling regime’s larger agenda of creating a Hindu state. It polarizes the society, helps them to get the majority in the elections, and with it getting an electoral legitimacy to enforce Hindu majoritarianism"

Muskan's refusal to be cowered by mob rule has since gone viral online and has led to widespread protests, starting in Karnataka's Udupi district, spreading nationwide. Notably, Karnataka's Udupi district is a BJP stronghold, previously described as a “laboratory for majoritarian Hindu politics” in the past.

In an attempt to end the crisis, the Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Mommai closed all the educational institutions in the state for three days. According to the state government, the clothes were banned as they disturbed “equality, integrity and public order.” But BC Nagesh, the state's education minister, refused to lift the ban, saying that, “those unwilling to follow uniform dress code can explore other options”.

Women take to the street holding placards at a candlelight march to protest against the Karnataka hijab ban in educational institutions [Getty Images]

Negotiations between government representatives and the protesting students have thus achieved little breakthrough. For a while, one of the schools did allow girls in hijab to attend school, but they were made to sit in separate classrooms. So in response, one of the students filed a case in the Karnataka High Court in the state capital of Bengaluru, stating that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right accorded by Articles 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the Indian constitution, which provides the freedom to profess, practice and propagate religion.

Though no final order has been passed by the judge, hearings continue.

Currently, a stand-off prevails in Karnataka with minority groups fearing that their persecution may continue to spiral out of control, a phenomenon lay at the feet of Narendra Modi's exclusionary policies. In this case, as has happened in so many others, ruling BJP members have made matters worse by issuing statements that defend the hijab ban.

Between virus and violence: Being Muslim in India

Discussing why religious intolerance is growing in India, Ashok Swain, Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at the Uppsala University in Sweden, told The New Arab, “The only reason is to humiliate minority Muslims as much as possible. This is part of the ruling regime’s larger agenda of creating a Hindu state. It polarizes the society, helps them to get the majority in the elections, and with it getting an electoral legitimacy to enforce Hindu majoritarianism.”

Modi’s 2014 election victory has strengthened hard-line Hindu supremacist lobbies, and in doing so undermined the country’s secular traditions. Since then, the ruling Bharatiya Jannata Party (BJP) has implemented a number of policies designed to appease the 79.8 percent Hindu majority in India. PM Modi has always maintained that his economic and social policies are beneficial for all Indians.

"Karnataka's Udupi district is a BJP stronghold, previously described as a “laboratory for majoritarian Hindu politics” in the past"

Sadly, the space for religious minorities is constantly shrinking in India, despite its ostensibly democratic character. Even as right-wing parties get more popularity and guarantee large electoral gains, deepening religious fault-lines threaten national unity. If not given urgent attention, there may be long-term damage.

Discussing the phenomena of right-wing politics in India, Lakshmi Sreenivasan, a psychologist and D&I consultant from Mumbai explained to The New Arab, “This is a politically motivated issue. We have seen how Right-Wing (RW) students marched in hordes with saffron colour coordinated shawls and ‘safaa’. To call this harassment would be trivializing the current plight of Muslim communities in India. The right-wing politics, abetted by the media and funded IT cells on social media have consistently targeted Muslim women for their religious identity, as well as vocal women from other communities for their opinion.”

In Sreenivasan’s opinion, “Minority persecution is foundational to India's right-wing policies. The hijab is just an excuse, this is entirely about a woman’s choice. The constitution gives the right to practice one’s religion and hence more than a practice of faith, it is about constitutional rights.”

There are fears that the matter may not end with the Muslim religious community, with the same right-wing lobbies now legislatively able to victimize Sikhs, Christian minorities and even lower castes Hindus in the days ahead.

As Sreenivasan has aptly summed it up, “segregation and exclusion only breed hatred, and that is precisely what India's right-wing is aiming for, so it is both critical and urgent that every citizen who believes in secularism, equal rights, and inclusion must stand in solidarity to protect Muslim communities’ constitutional rights.”

Over the last two decades, the use of the hijab has come under debate even in Western countries. The practice was banned in public schools in France in 2004 but India happens to have a much larger Muslim population at around 14 percent. Moreover, the use of the scarf was never criticized previously.

Modi's Anti-Muslim Jihad

As Zakia Soman, founder of a Muslim women’s group, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan says, “singling out hijab for criticism is unfair and discriminatory. Those opposing it are on record decrying secularism and for openly espousing majoritarianism.”

This matter requires urgent attention from Indian politicians and policymakers before it is too late. Considering the ban “a culmination of a growing climate of hate against Muslims,” Afreen Fatima, a student activist in New Delhi has said, “What we are seeing is an attempt to make Muslim women invisible and push them out of public spaces."

Sabena Siddiqui is a foreign affairs journalist, lawyer, and geopolitical analyst specialising in modern China, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Follow her on Twitter: @sabena_siddiqi

Iranian teachers protest in more than 100 cities: media

The demonstrations on Saturday were the latest in a string of rallies by teachers as well as other public sector employees in recent months over the impact of soaring inflation on incomes.

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
20 February, 2022

Thousands of Iranian teachers have protested in more than 100 cities [Getty]

Thousands of Iranian teachers have protested in more than 100 cities against delays in salary and pension reforms, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

The demonstrations on Saturday were the latest in a string of rallies by teachers as well as other public sector employees in recent months over the impact of soaring inflation on incomes.

Reformist newspaper Etemad said teachers demonstrated outside parliament in the capital Tehran and in front of education ministry offices in provincial capitals including Isfahan, Shiraz and Mashhad.

The teachers have for months demanded that the government speed up the implementation of reforms that would see their salaries better reflect their experience and performance.

Last week, Iran's parliament said the new system, which has been delayed for more than a decade, will be implemented from the start of the new Iranian calendar year, which begins on March 21.

Iran teachers protest low wages, demand '80% ranking plan'

The demonstrators have also demanded that their pensions be aligned with those of other public sector employees.

Protesters moreover called on the authorities to release teachers detained in earlier protests.

The educators chanted "The jailed teachers should be freed" and "From Tehran to Khorasan, teachers are in prison", during the protests on Saturday, according to the newspaper.

Protesters said 15 teachers were arrested during clashes with security forces across the country, according to Etemad.

Hit by biting economic sanctions imposed since 2018 by the United States, Iran has seen inflation soar to over 40 percent, exacting a heavy toll on the standard of living of public sector staff and others on fixed incomes.

Civil servants in one of Iran's most powerful sectors, the judiciary, held rare demonstrations in January calling for their pay to be increased.

MYOB
Chicago police, firefighters donated to Canadian trucker convoy

One firefighter apparently used an official city email address to contribute.

by Jim Daley

February 17, 2022

Engine 123 of the Chicago Fire Department.Credit: Eric Haak

About 200 Chicagoans donated more than $13,000 to a fundraiser for truckers who blockaded the Canadian capital and key border crossings to protest COVID restrictions, according to data released by the nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets).

More than $900 of that was apparently donated by a dozen Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Chicago Fire Department (CFD) employees, one of whom used a city email address on the donation form.

The self-styled “Freedom Convoy” began last month, when truckers protesting vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions descended on Ottawa, Canada’s capital. Truckers also blocked traffic at border crossings in Montana and Michigan, where they shut down the Ambassador Bridge—normally the busiest international crossing in North America—for days. On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked rarely used emergency powers to put a halt to the protests.

The donations were collected via the website GiveSendGo, which touts itself as “The Leader In Christian Fundraising.” Convoy supporters used the website to give at least $8.7 million to the truckers’ campaign after the crowdfunding site GoFundMe shut down a similar fundraiser for violating its rules on violence and unlawful activity. More than half of the donations given to the truckers via GiveSendGo came from the U.S. Last year, GiveSendGo hosted a fundraiser for Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot and killed two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin during protests against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, after GoFundMe halted donations during Rittenhouse’s trial.

On Sunday, hackers breached GiveSendGo and stole documents showing who gave donations to the truckers. DDoSecrets, a whistleblower website that released a cache of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s emails last year, made the documents available to journalists and researchers. The documents include donor information related to a “Freedom Convoy 2022” fundraiser and an “Adopt-a-Trucker” campaign.

The Reader reviewed the data, which includes names, email addresses, ZIP codes, and other identifying information of donors as well as the amounts each gave, and compared the lists to a database of current city employees.

Nine donations totaling more than $400 apparently came from fire department employees. The largest was $110, from a donor who is listed as a firefighter in the city’s employee database.

One donation to the “Adopt-a-Trucker” fundraising campaign was associated with the official city email address of Rocco Diaz, a Chicago firefighter. The donation was made with the comment “Love from Chicago!”

Diaz did not respond to emails from the Reader. A fire department spokesperson said that “use of a City of Chicago email account for non-city business is strictly prohibited,” and that “this specific matter will be referred for investigation.”

One of the largest donations from a Chicago ZIP code was for $200, and apparently came from a police officer with more than 30 years in the department. A police lieutenant donated $100. Another officer apparently gave $50. A former Chicago cop who previously ran for state legislative office as a Democrat also gave to the fundraiser.

A CPD spokesperson referred the Reader to a department policy which states members will not be disciplined for engaging in lawful activities involving the advocacy of ideas or the practice of any belief.