The West is looking at Iran’s deadly hijab protests the wrong way

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 21 October 2022

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BY HADIA MUBARAK, The News Observer. 18 October 2022

Since the tragic death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last month, two other young women in Iran have been killed by Iran’s security police for joining protests and violating the country’s dress code. Nika Shakarami and Sarina Esmailzadeh were only 16. As a professor of religion at Queens University of Charlotte who has spent a decade researching and teaching on women and gender in Islam, I find myself fielding familiar questions from students, colleagues and at interfaith events about this tragic incident of gender violence. Many of us in the West are quick to read such stories through a cultural-religious lens. It becomes for us yet another example of the way a “misogynist” Islam or patriarchal Muslim world oppresses women. Cases like that of Mahsa Amini need to be accurately understood through the lens of contemporary politics, history and sociology. To understand why hijab has become so politicized in Iran one needs to examine the country’s recent history and politics, not religious texts.

It was less than a century ago that the Iranian government banned the headscarf, known as hijab. In 1936, Reza Shah Pahlavi, declared a ban on hijab in an effort to promote European attire. Iranian women who failed to comply faced punishments such as imprisonment. Ironically these are the same punishments women face today for not observing the hijab. When Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979, enforcement of hijab became a political statement of resistance to the previous Shah’s western-oriented reform. In both cases, women are denied agency to choose how they dress in public.

When authoritarian regimes and extremist movements, such as the Taliban, ISIS, or Iran’s current regime, weaponize religion and religious symbols like the hijab, it reinforces the stereotype that women have no choice in the matter. By forcing women to observe this religious practice, they have undermined its spiritual value for millions of Muslim women and denied them their God-given agency to choose whether they observe the hijab or not. In fact, based on many ethnographic studies, the majority of women who choose to cover their hair do so out of a spiritual commitment to God. In correcting the narrative, I make four points. First, the Qur’an, which Muslims regard as the words of God verbatim, explicitly states that religion can never be forced upon people. The Qur’anic verses that ordain the headscarf for Muslim women start out by commanding men to lower their gaze and observe modesty. These verses undermine the myth that women are selectively required to be modest, while men are free to gaze and lust after women as they please.

The case of Amini has much more to do with Iran’s contemporary politics and recent history than with religion. To accurately understand gender violence in countries like Iran, we must stop laying all problems on the doormat of Islam and recognize how modern nation-states’ recent histories shape the present.

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Hadia Mubarak is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Queens University of Charlotte.

Liz Truss resigns as prime minister becoming shortest serving UK PM

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 20 October 2022

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LONDON - Liz Truss has confirmed she is resigning as prime minister after 45 days in office, becoming the shortest serving PM in UK history.

Truss has faced calls to quit over the disastrous fallout from her mini-budget, with pressure ramping up ever since following a series of screeching U-turns that saw party unity disintegrate.

In a brief statement outside Downing Street, Truss said: "I recognise… given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

She confirmed she had spoken to the King in order to inform him that she was stepping down.

Her successor will be chosen within a week, though no details as to the process have yet been given.

Truss has clocked up 44 full days in the role – a long way behind the next shortest premiership, that of Tory statesman George Canning, who spent 118 full days as PM in 1827 before dying in office from ill health.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for an immediate general election in the wake of her resignation.

He said: “The British public deserve a proper say on the country’s future. They must have the chance to compare the Tories’ chaos with Labour’s plans to sort out their mess, grow the economy for working people and rebuild the country for a fairer, greener future. We must have a chance at a fresh start. We need a general election – now.”

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has also called for a general election, tweeting: “We don’t need another Conservative prime minister lurching from crisis to crisis."

“We need a general election now and the Conservatives out of power.”

On Wednesday, Truss insisted she was a “fighter, not a quitter”, but the pressure from her own mutinous MPs proved to be too much.

On Thursday, Sir Graham Brady, the powerful chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers was seen arriving at No 10 in what appeared to be a hastily-arranged meeting.

Deputy prime minister Thérèse Coffey and party chairman Jake Berry were also seen entering the building.

Things unravelled in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night after Suella Braverman resigned as home secretary over a breach of ministerial rules relating to sending an official document from her personal email.

However the real reason for her departure is understood to be a blazing row with Truss over immigration policy.

Braverman raised “serious concerns” about the government in her resignation letter, raising questions over Truss's competence and “commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers”.

There were also ugly scenes in the Commons on the same evening as Tory MPs were ordered to vote against a Labour motion on fracking.

The chaotic night prompted more Tory MPs to publicly call for the prime minister to resign.

Truss was protected from a confidence vote during the first 12 months of her leadership, but it quickly became clear she could not command the support of her MPs and it became impossible for her to continue.

King Charles III's coronation date confirmed as 6 May 2023

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Written by northsouth

Category: Europe

Published: 11 October 2022

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LONDON - Buckingham Palace has confirmed the coronation of King Charles III will take place in May next year.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, will also be crowned alongside the King.

The Palace said the date was chosen in consultation with the Government, the Church of England and the Royal Household, but no further details have been given on why it was picked.

It remains to be seen how the ceremony will compare to the late Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, but reports suggest it will be significantly less lavish.

It has not yet been confirmed who will attend the ceremony and whether or not Harry and Meghan will be among those invited, or whether they will be able to attend since it will be their eldest child - Archie's - birthday.

Here is what we know:

When is King Charles III's coronation?

King Charles III's coronation will take place on Saturday 6 May, 2023.

It will take place at the historic Westminster Abbey, where the Coronation Ceremony has taken place for the last 900 years.

Charles' coronation will be rooted in traditions that are over a 1,000 years old, while staying in the spirit of what the monarch's role is in the modern world.

He will be crowned alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort.

Will there be a bank holiday?

The coronation falls on a Saturday and it is yet to be confirmed by the government whether that will mean an additional bank holiday.

Large royal events, such as the Queen's Platinum Jubilee earlier this year, are usually declared bank holidays.

The Telegraph has reported that some officials within the government are worried an extra day off could stifle economic growth, with models putting the cost of an extra bank holiday at £1.36 billion.

However, Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has publicly supported the idea of a bank holiday to mark the coronation, saying: "The coronation is an important symbolic act with constitutional resonance about the stability of our system.

"To have a day off for that is perfectly reasonable, and the effect on growth will not be enormous."

What about previous coronations?

The late Queen's coronation took place almost 16 months after she ascended to the throne following the death of her father, George VI. He died on 6 February, 1952, and her coronation took place on 2 June, 1953.

George VI's own coronation took place five months after he became king (the date was already set for Edward VIII before he abdicated), but the five preceding monarchs all had to wait at least a year before their ceremony.

What will happen at the coronation?

At the age of 73, Charles is the oldest person in British history to become king.

He will be coronated alongside the Queen Consort at Westminster Abbey in London, in a ceremony carried out by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Archbishop will anoint, bless and consecrate the new King, in a ceremony which is both deeply religiously significant and solemn and a day of celebration.

Taking the coronation oath, he will promise to rule according to law, to exercise justice with mercy and to maintain the Church of England. However, it is thought Charles may wish to make the ceremony more inclusive of other faiths.

Charles will receive the orb and sceptres, before the Archbishop places the crown on the King's head.

Does Charles's coronation have a codename?

Yes, it is known as Operation Golden Orb, and plans for the event have been discussed for many years.

The Palace said the ceremony will be “rooted in longstanding traditions and pageantry” but also “reflect the monarch’s role today and look towards the future”.

Charles III will be anointed with holy oil, receive the orb, coronation ring and sceptre, be crowned with the majestic St Edward’s Crown and blessed during the historic ceremony.

What about Camilla?

The Royal Family's website says the Queen Consort - the title given to Charles's wife Camilla by the Queen before she died - is crowned with the King "in a similar but simpler ceremony".