11 May WorkBook
21/03/19 Statistics
- In 2016 57% of worlds working age women are in labour force, compared to 70% of working age men.
- Women with full time jobs still only earn about 77% of their male counter-parts earnings.
- 62 million girls are denied education all over the world
- every year an estimated 15 million girls under 18 are married worldwide with little or no say in the matter.
- 4/5 victims of human trafficking are girls
- on an average 30% of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner
- female genital mutilation affects more than 200 million girls and women alive today in 3o countries
- at least 1000 honour killings occur in India and Pakistan annually
- around the world only 32% of all national parliamentarians are females
- less than 30% of the worlds researchers are women
- 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non -partner sexual violence in their lifetime
26/03/19
Marian khan, a Muslim writer talks about her view of feminism.
Marian was 23 when then UK prime minister David Cameron described Muslim women as “traditionally submissive”.
As a feminist, who had been the first from her family to go to university; khan did not feel remotely submissive.
“For me, it was pivotal, we all said, ‘no, hang on, you do not get to make us something we are not” – “we do speak up, we are present, we do contribute.”
29/03/19
After asking a couple of my Muslim friends who wear a hijab. I have come to know that these young women see the hijab as a form of resistance.
Most of these young women see it as empowering, not only religious wise but also as a way of not feeling the need to dress a certain way or put make up on for others acceptance.
Oppression to them is taking away someone’s power; they believe through the hijab they are merely covering their body and hair, not oppressing their voice.
Economics student Zuhra says, “The unsettling truth is that many western countries believe that all Muslim women are exploited, and don’t have many rights, however the developed countries such as Denmark, have passed on laws such as banning women from wearing ‘burqa’; which is a true sign of oppression; it is forcing young Muslim women to abandon their beliefs and dress according to them.”
02/04/19
Well-known brands such as ‘Nike’ and ‘H&M’ have been one of the very few to take a step and promote the hijab, in a new light which shows hijab women as working women; women who haven’t oppressed their dreams.
Anam khatib, a neurology major at the university of Maryland, believes wearing a hijab is the most feminist statement a women can make in a society where consumerism and capitalism constantly tell women what to wear and how to look like and what body type we should have.”
09/04/19
To mark world hijab day (1st Feb); model and public speaker Mariah Idrissi believes that the hijab can be a powerful feminist statement.
The day is created as a way for women around the world to be able to experience wearing a hijab and be able to foster understanding and tolerance between different cultures, countries and communities.
“ I can still do what I want to do wearing a hijab, and I don’t have to compromise any of my morals or beliefs to do that.”
Miss Idrissi went on to say, “there is no denying that some girls are forced. Maybe because of their family, upbringing or the country they live in.”
However according to Mariah, social media platforms such as Instagram and Youtube have allowed Muslim women to feel included and comfortable in wearing a hijab in public.
“What really does help is the social media side of the whole world of modest fashion that is obviously helping because its giving young girls a better understanding of the hijab.”
“Even if they just like the way it looks and they just see it as something that is fashionable. As they grow, I’m sure they will research more into why are they actually doing it?”
Like Mariah, model Halima Aden, made history in 2016 by becoming the first ever women to wear a hijab and enter the ‘Miss Minnesota USA Pageant’.
Muslim women like Mariah and Halima are very well aware that the hijab they wear pose no threat to anyone in society, yet there are demeaned and humiliated and attacked daily.
14/04/19
In many Muslim countries women aren’t given the right to dress how they want – this is the view many westerners have about Muslim women, but the same thing is happening in many western and European countries, where women aren’t allowed to dress how they would like to.
In multiple European countries, there have been legal bans enacted against it, and intense debates have raged about its supposed purpose to oppress Muslim women.
Feminism is about the freedom of women, and women being who they want to be, dressing how they want to dress, and living how they would like to live and being equal to men.
On august 1st 2018, Denmark banned women from wearing the ‘burqa’ – a true sign of oppression; forcing young Muslim women to abandon their beliefs and dress according to them is happening in the 21st century.
During the same time, former UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson compared Muslim women wearing ‘burqas’ to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers.”
20/04/19
Many Hijabi women see feminism in a different light, they believe we live in a world where a womens value has somehow been reduced to how sexy she looks and dresses; these women believe it is empowering to be able to stand against that notion. They believe by rejecting that, they are rejecting the idea of how a women must dress sexy to please the eye of society and have their curves on display.
These women are very well aware that the hijab they wear pose no threat to anyone in society, yet there are demeaned and humiliated and attacked daily, and the reason for this is simply because these women resist commercial imperatives.
02/05/19
feminism to most people has a different definition when it comes to muslim women wearing hijab and covering up. They see the hijab as a sign of oppression and can’t see how a muslim women covered head to toe can be a feminist.
Many Muslim women have shown that they have chosen freely out of their own will and beliefs to cover up and don’t understand why they can’t be seen as feminists as they as dressing how they would like to.
In multiple European countries, there have been legal bans enacted against it, and intense debates have raged about its supposed purpose to oppress Muslim women.
Simply put, the twisted perception that has been provided by sensationalised Islamophobia has been prioritised over the actual lived truth of millions of Muslim women.
07/05/19
The truth of the matter is that “for many Muslim women, wearing the headscarf has become a feminist act, serving as a symbol of their identity and a way to counter cultural imperialism,” according to the Public Broadcast Service. “Muslim women are defining and developing feminism — on their own terms.”
The politics of the hijab are complicated by the fact that there are many women who are forced to wear the hijab in certain countries – sometimes through violence.
“Some might say there’s nothing inherently liberating in covering up, just as there’s nothing inherently liberating in wearing next to nothing. But the liberation lies in the choice,” said Muslim feminist Hanna Yusuf, who wears a hijab, in a video testimony on Everyday Feminism.“By assuming that all veiled women are oppressed, we belittle the choice of those who want to wear it. Even when women are vocal about wanting to wear the hijab, they are conveniently unheard or silenced.”
09/05/19
One of these is violent physical attacks on women who wear the hijab – the number of attacks on the Muslim hijab and women who wear them have been on the rise in recent years.
This is an issue that concerns the global community – in London, there has been a “70 percent increase in the number of attacks recorded between July 2014 to 2015 (against Muslim or Muslim-perceived people),” according to the Daily Mail. “Around 60 percent of victims are women who wear a headscarf or hijab.”
In London there has been a 70% increase in the number of attacks recorded between July 2014 and July 2015 – around 60% of the victims are women who wear and headscarf or hijab.
https://www.salford.ac.uk/arts-media/news/journalism-awards-2019
https://www.makers.com/blog/study-finds-men-less-attracted-intelligent-women
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/muslim-women-burqa-mariam-khan/
https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/world-hijab-day-feminist-statement-video-mariah-idrissi/249387
https://dailyevergreen.com/9952/opinion/feminism-of-the-hijab/
https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/muslim-women-burqa-mariam-khan/
Live News Day and Radio Podcast – 18th march 2019
The live show which airs every Thursday at 3pm exactly at the JLDN site is 15 minutes long. The show that is broadcasted, focuses on student related topics around London.
The show starts with a strong lead on hard news stories, and gradually shifts towards softer news, reporting the fun segment of E-Sports.
In each show, we have a production team, which consists of Editor, Director, assistant director, news bulletins presenter, social media presenter, our two presenters on the sofa, and a sofa reporter. This takes place within our studio at LSBU. On this particular occasion we were also doing a podcast.
I was assigned the role of a reporter, and given the opportunity to come up with a story near the Southwark area. My duty was to find a story and research, as well as report on it. Therefore, I decided to head to the Blackfriars crown court to see if I could come across an interesting case.
I was able to come across some interesting cases at the court, and one in particular I found very interesting was of a 37-year-old woman, who was found guilty of smuggling drugs as well as a phone and chargers into a prison for her former partner.
I believe I did a good job in reporting this case, as I was able to speak to the clerk, as well the prosecutor as well as the defendant’s attorney, which helped me in gathering a lot of information about the case, as well as the defendant herself. I was also able to sit through the sentencing of the defendant on the same day, which was very important.
The case was about a mother of 4 who was caught smuggling drugs into a prison in Pentonville, she was also found guilty of other charges such as dishonestly receiving a disabled badge and a Mercedes car, but she was given a very lenient sentence and let off only with a suspended 17-month prison sentence and 100 days of community work, because of her young kids.
Finally, after having all my research and interviews conducted, I decided to write down my script, which was going to be reported by another JLDN reporter Ralitsa. I started by writing the script for the show first, which I went into more detail, compared to my shorter script for the podcast, as we only had 30 seconds to report on the radio, whereas on the show we were able to make a longer news report.
Overall, I believe I did well as I was able to not only be able to produce a written script with interviews in a short amount of time, I was also able to produce a news content in the form of a podcast as well as a news report, which I also recorded and edited by myself.
Symposium
‘how and why are Afghan arranged and forced marriages still happening in the UK?’
1)What is my project about?
My aim in creating this film was to get some answers as to whether or not religion and culture play a major role in arranged and forced marriages of afghan women living in the UK. I felt that it was important to let young Afghan women know what kind of help is available to them if they are ever in that situation or even simply don’t understand that they are being pressurised or manipulated by their family under the name of culture or religion. Thus, I wanted to find out what kind of help is available to women who have had an arranged marriage, are either being abused by their spouse or are not happy and would like to maybe get out of it.
2)What went well?
my main questions which I wanted answered were; how big of a role does religion play in arranged/forced marriages of young afghan women in the UK?; What role does culture play in this?, and what kind of help is available to these women.
I believe I was successful in answering these questions in my film, as well as my article, as I had done a lot of research on this topic, and the experts, as well as my case studies ‘Nazifa and Nooria’ had helped in giving me more insight in the difference between an arranged and force marriage. For instance, Nazifa was coerced into her marriage by her father to repay debts, whereas Nooria was only introduced to her husband through her brother, and the decision was hers.
3) What didn’t go well?
One of the biggest problems I faced, which I saw coming, was having to consistently reassure, and gain the interviewees trust, as they were afraid of the backlash they could face on speaking on a topic that’s seen as forbidden in their culture.
I was aware of the difficulties I would possibly face in doing my project around a taboo subject such as arranged and force marriages in the Afghan community, but I was determined in gaining some answers and shedding light on something important to me. I found that many people were afraid of dishonouring and making their families look bad, which was the biggest factor in why many women did not want to get involved. I tried to make my interviewees open up, especially when it came to religion, as religion is a very touchy subject which can easily cause outrage and people weren’t willing to voice their opinions whether it was against it or for it.
However, because this was such an important topic which was close to my heart, I found it imperative to find the right people and get it done.The victims were also afraid of coming in front of camera in fear of being recognised by a family member, hence why I only had the option of either blurring out their face or having them cover their face, which is what Nooria has done. The experts I interviewed were not convinced easily as they were afraid that many victims would be not want their stories shared, and kept private and between the professional and themselves and therefore the organisations and charities were afraid they would be breaching confidentiality, which would stop more women from asking for help.
On the other hand, one of my biggest strengths was the fact I was not an outsider, I was an Afghan woman myself who understood exactly the importance of culture and religion in the Afghan community, and therefore could relate to these women and understand them, is what made them agree to let me film them. Sharing my own experiences of seeing my own family members go through arrange marriages made me talk openly to the victims which helped them open up to me in return about their incidents.
With organisations and charities, I had faced more difficulty than finding the victims themselves as they were afraid of breaching their confidentiality and therefore had the only option of speaking to the volunteers and workers about the kind of help they provide these women. As mentioned previously, because religion is a very delicate topic I thought the best thing to do would be to get someone who knows about Islam and the Afghan culture of marriages. After being rejected by many Imams, I was able to find an Afghan Imam who was happy to talk to me, which I believe made my project more valuable, coming from someone who witnesses these marriages on a daily basis and understands the real way the religion of Islam says a marriage should take place
Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the way the sound came out with some of the interviews; it was either too low or mixed with the background noise, which is sometimes hard to understand, especially because my more recent interviews are much clearer and louder, so it does not flow that well together, and if I had the chance to do my interviews again, I would use better equipment, as I was not able to get the mic on time for some for my interviews.
4)What I would change?
If I could do my project again, I would want to have more experts, such as a therapist or even an Afghan women solicitor who deals with these issues Afghan women face daily and has a clear understanding of what they go through and how they provide them help.
During filming, my two case studies, Nazifa and Nooria would get very nervous, and in order to make it easier for them, I would stop and record again, which is why my film has a lot of cuts, and I did not want that, therefore if I had the opportunity to do my film again, I would try to do my interview in one go.
