Hijab Ripped, Muslim Schoolgirl Amina, Beaten And Punched In The Head In Horrific Attack In London
22 January 2023
• Hijab Ripped, Muslim Schoolgirl Amina, Beaten And Punched In The Head In Horrific Attack In London
• ‘Why I Would Talk To Shamima Begum’ : Shelina Janmohamed Hosts First UK News Podcast Fronted By A Muslim Woman
• Riyadh Turns Pink For Korean Girl Concert Group BLACKPINK
• Iran Minister Orders Probe Into Sexual Assault Of Teen Footballers
• ‘Teach Boys Not To Touch Women Without Their Consent’: Observes Kerala High Court
• ‘I Remember How My Face Was Blackened, Head Tonsured’: A Year On, Shahdara Gang Rape Victim Is Scared, But Resilient
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/hijab-muslim-girl-amina-attack-london/d/128937
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Hijab Ripped, Muslim Schoolgirl Amina, Beaten And Punched In The Head In Horrific Attack In London
By Mariam Khan
20 JAN 2023
Amina was attacked on her way home
(stock photo) (Image: Getty images)
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A Muslim schoolgirl was savagely beaten in an unprovoked attack in Hounslow. Victim Amina was punched in her jaw before her hijab was ripped from her head in the horror attack on January 3, and her friend who was with her at the time was also punched in the face.
After buying some school supplies in the city centre and heading to a nearby bus stop at around 5.40pm, both girls were spotted by two other girls. Fatima, Amina's mother, told My London: “My daughter didn’t feel safe so she walked away from the bus stop towards a nearby car park.”
Amina's friend walked a little further ahead to call her mother and ask to be picked up. Fatima added: “The girls followed her and when one girl asked why they were ignoring her, my daughter told her she wasn’t.”
Then Amina was asked who her friend was calling and she replied, “nobody.” Right after this is when one of the girls punched Amina’s friend in the face. Fatima said: “Amina being shocked, said ‘what are you doing?’ and then she was attacked.”
During the attack, Amina claims one of the girls, who she described as white, egged on her friend and filmed it. Fatima added: "She was punching [my daughter] repeatedly over and over again in side of the head, her temple, her jaw and between ear and jaw. The girl is a lot bigger than her. My daughter is quite short and petite, there was no way my daughter could protect herself.”
At one point when the girl had moved away, Amina said: “What’s wrong with you, you are making my hijab come off?” The girl replied: “What do you think you are bad? It’s not come off yet” and then the attack continued again.
Fatima said: “The pin in my daughter headscarf dug into the skin on her head.” Amina’s hijab eventually fell to the floor. The two girls ran back towards the bus stop and got on a bus and the girls were picked up by Amina's friend's mum and driven home.
Fatima said: “When Amina got home she was in shock and shaking.” She then reported the incident to the police, who told them to go down to the local station the following day to make a statement.
After the intensity of the past few days Fatima says Amina had a “meltdown” the day after which led her to staying at home and missing her mock exams. On January 7 Fatima took Amina to the hospital but she became so anxious she begged to go home.
Fatima said: “She saw the nurse and she got anxious. She kept saying ‘there is someone there and I don’t want to be here, please can we leave'.” So they left.
Fatima and Amina then went to Hayes police station a few days later to file a victim support statement. Fatima said: “There were two female officers, they were really helpful."
On the affect the attack has had on her and her daughter, she said: “Now if I can’t get a hold of her [Amina] I panic, I’ll just rush to her school, I panic and get really scared. I have lived in London all my life and you never think this type of thing will happen to your child and it’s not taken seriously.
“Amina feels humiliated and there is footage of her out there without her hijab on and she’d really upset over that. As a Mom, I want justice for my daughter. My daughter is quiet, she keeps to herself but this has completely isolated her.”
A spokesperson for the Met Police said: "Police are investigating an allegation of assault that was reported to have occurred at approximately 5.50pm on Tuesday, January 3 in Hounslow.
"It is alleged that a 16-year-old girl was assaulted by a teenage girl near a bus stop. Based on an initial account from the victim, the assault is being treated as racially-motivated. Officers are carrying out enquiries, including a review of CCTV from the area. No arrests have been made. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 6754/03Jan."
Source: Mylondon.News
https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/muslim-schoolgirl-16-beaten-punched-26026924
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‘Why I Would Talk To Shamima Begum’ : Shelina Janmohamed Hosts First UK News Podcast Fronted By A Muslim Woman
19/01/2023
By Adam Sherwin
“I find it intriguing that just because
I’m a Muslim woman, I get asked by the media to give my opinion about a
terrorist attack. Why should I have a view?,” asks Shelina Janmohamed.
The award-winning advertising executive, who wrote a best-selling book about growing up as a British Muslim woman, has just landed a job heading a major national news podcast, and believes existing news coverage has got a problem.
“All the commentators you see on the news are from the same bubble,” says the author, named one of Britain’s 100 most influential women by the BBC.
“They leave me shouting at the TV. The perspective and experiences of young Muslim women and other groups are missing from the limited range of voices on air. Muslim women are talked about in the news but never allowed to tell their stories.”
It’s a deficit that the mother-of-two hopes to fill with The Shelina Show, the first UK-wide weekly news podcast fronted by a Muslim woman.
Body image, poverty, “nepo babies” and Andrew Tate all come up for debate in the series, launched this week, which the presenter believes is “ground-breaking”.
“We don’t have Asian representation across the British media,” she says. “That’s why the Muslim population is portrayed as something to be feared. If you dehumanise and stereotype a population, that isn’t going to encourage society to move forward.”
Janmohamed says she is prepared to tackle the most controversial subjects, but wants to do so in a different way. She would be prepared to have Shamima Begum, who left Britain to join Islamic State as a schoolgirl in 2015, as a guest on her podcast, but might take a different line of questioning.
“It’s a big debate about whether she should have been stripped of her citizenship but I’m interested in unheard perspectives,” Janmohamed says.
“It never really comes up that she had three children and they all died in quick succession. When she was being detained for interview, she was in post-partum depression. We need to have a conversation about terrorism but that conversation got completely missed.”
Begum’s radicalisation and her treatment by the British authorities should be used to spark a discussion about “how children from minority and ethnic groups get treated as adults much earlier,” suggested Janmohamed, who was brought up in London, studied at Oxford University and charted her 10-year quest to find a husband through the arranged marriage process in her memoir, Love in a Headscarf.
Her podcast, launching this week, promises an in-depth discussion of the week’s events, with a diverse range of guests including topical comedian Ahir Shah and historian Dan Snow.
The untapped “Muslim pound” is another passion for the 48-year-old who has written about the growing global influence of young Muslims in her book Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World.
Through her work at Ogilvy, she has been working with the world’s largest brands to engage with Muslim audiences. “More than half the UK Muslim population was born here, they have a real sense of Britishness,” she says.
“You’ve got four million Muslims in Britain spending £20bn with £200m of that at Ramadan alone. But we just don’t see them catered for.”
Those numbers clearly impressed commercial audio company Global, which offered Janmohamed a podcast, to help it access a hard-to-reach audience. “Different perspectives can help connect that audience to those setting the news and policy agenda,” she says.
A board member of Impress, the independent press regulator which oversees around 200 smaller publications, she says understands why many young people believe newspaper coverage of Meghan Markle has been “racist.”
“People can draw their own conclusions from the different treatment of Catherine, Princess of Wales and Meghan,” says the author, who published a biography of Serena Williams for children.
“What was interesting to me was when Oprah Winfrey interviewed Meghan, you had a black woman owning her own platform talking to a biracial woman. It’s a shift in the balance of power.”
A sought-after commentator on Muslim social and cultural trends, Janmohamed has suffered “implied” racism herself. “As soon as I walked into one job interview, I saw the guy’s face fall. The interview lasted five minutes and the feedback was I was ‘too weak.’ He could tell that from five minutes? Or I got told I spoke English ‘very well’ and was very articulate.”
She sees Rishi Sunak’s elevation to Prime Minister as a “historic moment, whatever you think of his politics”. “People from South Asian backgrounds were trying to ‘claim’ him. But his ethnicity was little remarked upon and we moved on, I am still not sure if we should have noted it more.”
Janmohamed admits to being a little starstruck at being handed a high-profile show at Global, where she shares a stable with Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel’s The News Agents podcast, as well as Andrew Marr and James O’Brien.
“What’s important is that this is a show that just happens to be fronted by a Muslim woman, “ she says. “It’s not a ‘Muslim show’. I want to look at issues like poverty and my generation having to care for their parents with depth and nuance.”
“I’m not interested in getting involved in a culture war, or soundbites and polemics. But it’s true that I can’t think of another Muslim woman who has been given this weekly platform.”
Source: Inews.Co.Uk
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Riyadh Turns Pink For Korean Girl Concert Group BLACKPINK
Afshan Aziz
21 January 2023
The four band members took to the stage
and thanked their fans for their ongoing love, admiration, and support.
(Supplied)
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JEDDAH: K-pop fans in the Kingdom were treated to a spectacular concert by the wildly popular Korean girl group BLACKPINK on Friday at BLVD International Festival Site in Riyadh.
BLACKPINK are just one of the international bands participating in Riyadh Season 2022. The sold-out show — the group’s first in the Middle East — attracted visitors from across the Kingdom and overseas.
Many of the Saudi capital’s prominent landmarks such as Kingdom Tower, King Abdullah Financial District, Al-Faisaliah Tower, Digital City, and Boulevard World, were lit up in pink to celebrate the concert, which was part of the band’s BORN PINK World Tour, which will also include performances in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Jakarta, and Bangkok, among other major cities.
The four band members — Jisoo, Jennie, Rose and Lisa — took to the stage and thanked their fans for their ongoing love, admiration, and support. The venue was filled with fans singing along and waving pink light sticks.
Due to the great demand for tickets, the concert was moved from Mrsool Park to the BLVD International Festival Site. The show was divided into four parts and climaxed with each member of the band putting on a solo performance. Following the farewells from the band, the venue was illuminated by a spectacular fireworks display.
Rose thanked the audience, saying, “Riyadh wins with the crowd. You guys are absolutely crazy.”
Sayeda Fatima, a 25-year-old fan, said: “My wish was to watch BLACKPINK perform live and it came true. Even though it was cold, there was a lot of good energy in the crowd and we couldn’t stop chanting and cheering for them.”
Another BLINK — as the band’s fans are known, Mona, shed tears while listening to her favorite band perform. “Their performance was amazing,” she said. “I really wish them the best and hope they shine even brighter in the future.”
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2236551/saudi-arabia
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Iran minister orders probe into sexual assault of teen footballers
21 January 2023
TEHRAN: Iran’s sports minister has ordered a probe into allegations of sexual assault targeting teenagers at a football academy in the country’s northeast, state media reported Saturday.
“A former media manager for the Shahr Khodro football team has claimed on social media that the parents of 15 players from this club and its academy have filed a complaint against the club and its coaches for sexually assaulting their children,” state news agency IRNA reported.
“Minister of Sports Hamid Sajadi two weeks ago ordered an investigation into reports of assault at a football academy for teenagers in Mashhad,” IRNA added.
On Friday, the local newspaper Shahrara reported on its website that the families of players from the club had gathered outside the headquarters of the provincial football organization to protest the “tragedy.”
A similar controversy erupted in 2017 when an official in the Iranian football federation’s ethics committee said more than 10 teenage members of a club has been sexually assaulted.
Source: Arab News
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2236421/middle-east
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‘Teach boys not to touch women without their consent’: observes Kerala High Court
Jan 22, 2023
Kochi: Kerala High Court asserted that respecting women is not an age-old custom. The boys have to be taught not to touch girls or women without the latter’s permission, the court added. The court’s observation came up while considering the plea submitted by an engineering student against the principal’s disciplinary action for allegedly misbehaving with a girl in the college.
The court noted that sexual abuses against girls are increasing in schools and colleges in the state. The efforts to inculcate values among children have to begin from primary classes. The mindset of gender inequalities are usually seen in many boys from childhood. Only weak men attempt to dominate women by attacking them, observed the court.
In the verdict, the justice quoted the words of medieval Islamic theologian and spiritual writer Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya: ‘Women are one half of society which gives birth to the other half so it is as if they are the entire society’. The High Court ordered to forward a copy of the verdict to the chief secretary, General Education department secretary, Higher Education department secretary, and boards including CBSE and ICSE.
The court noted that the University Grants Commission also has its role in this subject. The complainant had reported to the High Court that the disciplinary action against him had been taken without hearing his side. Hence, the court directed to form a complaint redressal committee within 2 weeks at the college level.
Source: Eastcoast Daily
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‘I Remember How My Face Was Blackened, Head Tonsured’: A Year On, Shahdara Gang Rape Victim Is Scared, But Resilient
by Arnabjit Sur
January 22, 2023
“I enter the house from another lane now as taking the front lane brings back horrific memories,” said the 21-year-old woman — who was, a year ago, allegedly gangraped and publicly paraded by her neighbours around the lanes of Shahdara
“I cannot look at myself in the mirror anymore… Whenever I do, I remember how my face was blackened and my head tonsured even as I pleaded for help from everyone… all the trauma from that incident comes back.” At the home of the 21-year-old woman — who was, a year ago, allegedly gangraped and publicly paraded by her neighbours around the lanes of Shahdara — the mental scars are still palpable.
Speaking to The Indian Express, she recalled how, ever since the incident, she has become much more reclusive and scared to step out of her house. “It changed me in multiple ways… I liked cooking for everyone and going out for household chores. Now I mostly stay home as people in the locality keep looking at me and I feel ashamed.”
On January 26 last year, the woman was kidnapped from her house, gangraped, tonsured and publicly shamed with a garland of shoes around her neck for more than an hour even as bystanders made videos of the incident.
A total of 21 persons, including 16 adults and five minors, were taken into custody and a 762-page chargesheet was filed in April last year, stating that the crime was committed with the intention of “killing the victim” and “taking revenge for the death of their relative”.
The relative of the accused, a teenager, had allegedly proposed to the woman, and committed suicide on November 12, 2021, because she rejected his advances. His family members and neighbours had blamed the woman for his death.
A day after the minor’s death, the victim along with her husband had approached police regarding threats from his family and neighbours. However, senior police officers had said the accused couldn’t be contacted at the time and the couple were told to live somewhere else.
The woman currently lives with her husband, who works as a hotel attendant, her toddler son, and her in-laws in another area. She comes to her paternal home in Shahdara once a week to meet her younger sister. Her father died last month of sustained illness.
“I enter the house from another lane now as taking the front lane brings back horrific memories,” she said, adding that she wears a face mask and covers her head with her scarf so that no one can identify her in the area.
She said that even her son has faint memories of the incident. “He saw me being paraded and shamed… sometimes, when he sees my hair, he tells me that he remembers that I was tonsured.”
Her sister, an eyewitness to the incident, said that she never wishes to see anyone go through a similar fate as her sister. “It’s been a year but how can one forget the incident… The scars always remain. My sister, who was once a jolly person, now barely remains a shadow of herself,” she said.
The 21-year-old said that over the year, she has become emotionally stronger. “Court visits were initially difficult; I used to break down as relatives of the accused would call me names outside the courtroom and tried to break me so that I would give a wrong statement… but now I put up a brave face and have become immune to their taunts.”
All the five minors and the owner of the auto, who helped aid the kidnapping and was also named in the chargesheet for destroying evidence, have been granted bail. “Some of the juveniles still live in the vicinity but whenever I see them, I take the other route,” she said.
Initially, after the incident, the victim said that she was frightened and had lost faith. “After coming back to my in-laws’ house from the rescue home, I stayed inside my room for several days and didn’t talk to anyone… my family gave me hope to fight back. Once all the accused were arrested, I realised that only the courts can serve me justice,” she said.
After the legal proceedings are over, the 21-year-old plans to move away from the city with her family. “There is nothing left here. I have lost everything after that incident and it is better to start afresh,” she said.
Advocate Tej Pratap Singh, who is representing the victim, said the charges against all the accused were framed in November and evidence is currently being examined in the case.
Source: Indian Express
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/hijab-muslim-girl-amina-attack-london/d/128937