Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

Given modern distractions, the need to understand Islam better has never been more urgent. Through this forum we can share ideas and hopefully promote the true spirit of Islam which calls for peace, justice, tolerance, inclusiveness and diversity.
ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#1

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:28 pm

Women in the Muslim world taking the fast track to change

While much work remains to close the equality gap for the 800 million Muslim women worldwide, the rates of education and employment for some have increased dramatically in a short span of time.

The oft-uttered phrase “the Muslim world” suggests a monolithic body. Yet the reality includes rich petro states at the cusp of dramatic change, such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, and countries such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, which are part of what Goldman Sachs calls the Next 11, countries the investment bank says could rival the G7 over time. The world’s 1.6 billion Muslims amount to nearly a quarter of the global population and contribute 16 percent of global GDP, a rate that is growing at 6 percent annually.

Some 800 million of these people are women—more than the combined populations of Brazil, Russia, and the United States. And an untold and still unfolding story exists in their lives, hidden in their classrooms, careers, and handbags. Changes that took half a century in the United States are being compressed into a decade in today’s Muslim world, and they are only likely to accelerate. It’s as if the United States had compressed into a few short years the half-century evolution from Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. That is the magnitude of this sweeping change.

In the space of two generations, a widespread education movement has elevated the prospects of millions of Muslim women, from Tehran to Tunis. Most governments in the region, especially those that possess oil wealth, have made massive investments in education over the past decade, rapidly increasing primary- and secondary-education rates from abysmally low starting points only 40 years ago. This shift has also occurred for women in higher education: In Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia, university-enrollment rates for women now exceed those of men.

These accelerations are not only massive and underreported but ongoing. In Turkey, for example, both women and men are enrolling in university in much greater numbers than before, but women’s rate of enrollment is increasing faster—ten years ago, their levels were 75 percent of men; today they are 85 percent. In Egypt, there were three women for every four men in university a decade ago. Today, those numbers are nearly equal. And in resource-rich countries, the situation is even more extreme. In the United Arab Emirates, women enroll in university at three times the rate of men. In Saudi Arabia, the university gender gap was closed ten years ago, but the absolute numbers are also rising: of all women in the university age bracket today, about 50 percent actually attend, compared with 30 percent a decade ago. That rate is higher than in China, India, or Mexico.

What does all this mean? As female education becomes deeply rooted and normalized within family structures, the next wave of change is under way: more women are going to work. Nearly 40 million Muslim women have joined the labor force in the past ten years: among them, 9 million in the Arab world, 8 million in Indonesia, 7 million in Pakistan, 7 million in Bangladesh, 2 million in Turkey, and 1 million in Malaysia.

All of this underlines the conscious, often deeply personal and brave decision of millions of ordinary Muslim women and men to break family tradition and sometimes shun cultural pressures. As a result, a new segment of the labor market has emerged—and unprecedented consumer power. But the work is far from complete. Large gaps between women and men’s labor-force participation remain: for example, about 47 percent of women in the United Arab Emirates that could be working are employed, compared with about 92 percent of men. If, during the next 15 years, the participation of women in the workforce across the Middle East and North Africa simply reaches that of two-thirds of men—around 60 percent—it has the potential to spike regional GDP by 20 percent or more. As businesses and policy makers recognize the benefits and momentum gathers to eliminate the barriers blocking Muslim women from full economic participation, this largely unseen population will truly become a force to be reckoned with.

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/social ... k-oth-1503

Munira_RV
Posts: 157
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 4:38 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#2

Unread post by Munira_RV » Sat Mar 14, 2015 11:15 am

In the last fourteen hundred years no sect in Islam have ever given any formal office (hierarchy title) to any women!!! Unfortunately no Islamic sect have ever given any respect to or trusted women!

EXCEPT: Fatimi Dawat.

Only we are the maslaq who made women "Governor" of entire country, Molatina Hurra Maleka a.q. was made Governor of Yemen country by Syyedna Imam Mustansirbillah a.s.

Women (Syyeda Sitt-al-Mulk a.q.) was made Regent (Quasi-caliph) of Syyedna Imam Zahir a.s - Regent of territory bigger than that of Alexander the great. Abbasi Caliphate was decimated to smaller irrelevant pockets was Baghdad.

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#3

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Mar 14, 2015 5:26 pm

Munira_RV wrote:In the last fourteen hundred years no sect in Islam have ever given any formal office (hierarchy title) to any women!!! Unfortunately no Islamic sect have ever given any respect to or trusted women!
Please come down from your high horse........

Some of the most prominent Muslim female leaders are former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto (served 1988-1990 and 1993-1996), Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri (elected 2001), former Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller (served 1993-1995) and the Bangladeshi Prime Ministers Begum Khaleda Zia (first elected in 1991) and Sheikh Hasina Wajed (first elected in 1996).

Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah, an Islamic institute that advises Egypt's ministry of justice, has said female rulers and judges are allowed in Islam.[

The Prophet also appointed Umm Waraqa as a female imam of both men and women

Afghanistan

Miss Kubra Nurzai

First female minister of Afghanistan. The third Afghan Constitution (in 1964 under King Zahir Shah) gave women the right to vote and enter parliament as elected candidates for the first time. As a result, in elections the following year three women were elected as members of the parliament and two appointed as members of the senate. Kubra Nurzai was appointed Minister of Public Health in 1965 and re-appointed in 1967

Azra Jafari

One of 200 women who participated in the loya jirga after the fall of the Taliban in 2002. She is the first female mayor in Afghanistan. She is the current mayor of Nili, a town in Daykundi Province of Afghanistan

Fawzia Koofi

In 2014 she became a candidate for President of Afghanistan after being elected as the Vice President of the National Assembly of Afghanistan in 2005. As Vice President she became the first female Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
Sima Samar

She served as the Afghanistan Ministry of Women's Affairs from 2001-2003.

Azerbaijan

Lala Shevket

She is a Professor and Doctor of medicine. She became the first female ambassador in Azerbaijan in 1993. She served as the Secretary of State in Azerbaijan from 1993-1994. She chose to resign from this position because of her dissatisfaction with corruption within the government. She founded the Azerbaijan Liberal Party in 1995 and has conducted Presidential runs as the head of this party

Bahrain

Lateefa Al Gaood

First female elected to the Council of Representatives of Bahrain in 2006 and is the only female to ever have been a council member

Nada Haffadh

First ever female cabinet minister when she was appointed as the Minister of Health in 2004. She also served within the upper house of parliament in the Consultative Council in 2007

Egypt

Nearly one-third of the Parliament of Egypt- the fifth most populous Muslim majority nation- also consists of women

Jordan

Toujan al-Faisal

She became Jordan's first female member of Parliament when elected in 1993.

Kosovo

Atifete Jahjaga

In the Muslim majority region of Kosovo, President Atifete Jahjaga was unanimously elected by the Assembly of Kosovo on April 7, 2011

Senegal

Mame Madior Boye

She was elected as the Minister of Justice in 2000 and was Prime Minister from 2001 to 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_fem ... al_leaders

Munira_RV
Posts: 157
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2012 4:38 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#4

Unread post by Munira_RV » Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:13 am

All examples cited by you are result of democratically elected public servants (not Islamic servants) by votes of every citizen of their respective places including votes from non-Muslims and their appointments are not by the state governed by Islamic caliphate model. And also all your examples are of last twenty years, conveniently BLINDING eyes on total time period of FOURTEEN HUNDRED YEARS!

In Caliphate - represented by Sunni's Banu Abbas or Ummaiiyad or Ithna Asheri's Safawid Dynasty in Iran or Ottoman's or anyone in past fourteen-hundred years - no Caliphate (no Islamic sects) in Islamic history have never ever trusted nor respected their women to Governmental office (office bearer)!!!

Prophet Mohamad PBUH initiated the concept to respect women folk (not to kill nor to bury alive your daughter, gave them right in the inheritance). This initiative of Prophet Mohamad PBUH was taken to its zenith ONLY by Prophet's progeny of Fatimi Imam a.s. who honoured their women with highest Government office's in their caliphate - Regent (quasi caliph) of entire caliphate, Governor of entire country!

Subhan'Allah.

qutub_mamajiwala
Posts: 1051
Joined: Tue Jul 23, 2013 4:17 am

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#5

Unread post by qutub_mamajiwala » Sun Mar 15, 2015 8:50 am

how can they give them any when they want them to forever shroud in burqa and not even giving permission to drive or marry or take
any decision of their own for their life. if she cannot take decision of her life or go out without mehram or permission, how can u expect her to take public decision in goverment body?

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#6

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Mon Mar 16, 2015 7:26 pm

qutub_mamajiwala wrote:how can they give them any when they want them to forever shroud in burqa and not even giving permission to drive or marry or take
any decision of their own for their life. if she cannot take decision of her life or go out without mehram or permission, how can u expect her to take public decision in goverment body?
Br qutub_mamajiwala,

Were the women mentioned above forced to wear burqa or not given permission to drive or marry ? Did the likes of Benazir Bhutto go to the parliament with mehram ? Didn't they take any public decisions by themselves ?

Muslim First
Posts: 6893
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2001 4:01 am

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#7

Unread post by Muslim First » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:15 am

Women's Work
From Washington Post

Women are highly educated, frequently wealthy and economically active but their participation in Saudi society is often misunderstood in the West.

There's a secret weapon in Saudi Arabia often forgotten and frequently ignored by the West: Saudi women — and they are smart, intelligent and qualified. Thanks to the Muslim injunction to seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave, they are educated to the same level as, if not higher than, the men, and their grades are often better. They are PhDs, have second degrees and exercise huge influence in the family, or extended family; they organize the households, marriages and other rites of passage and they understand the social and tribal webs and networks.

Because of the basis of inheritance in shari'ah (Islamic law), they own considerable fortunes in their own right and indeed a good part of the wealth of the country. They also don't have to change their names following marriage. Under shari'ah a woman is supposed to have control of her inheritance, dowry before and after marriage. Many businesses are owned by women, according to the lists kept by the regional Chambers of Commerce & Industry. But these lists have not made a distinction between those businesses actively run by women and those owned by them. For instance, in the industrial sector industries owned by women amount to more than SR4.5 billion ($1.2 billion), but few women are actively running these investments.

Read more at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-adv/sp ... art14.html

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#8

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:38 pm

Jamila Afghani Is Educating Imams In Afghanistan On The Value Of Women In Islam (All Together Podcast)

Today, our subject is women and Islam and the setting is Afghanistan, where there has been significant progress over the past years in numbers of girls in school and employment in civic society. Afghanistan is a deeply patriarchal country with a strong presence of Islam. But where some see Islam as an obstacle, others, like my guests today, see it as key to lasting change in the lives of women and girls.

Joining me today is Jamila Afghani, whose own story is inspiration enough. She's the first girl in her family to go to school, eventually received two master degrees and is currently working on her Ph.D. However, her education has led her to found and run an important organization called the Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organzation (NECDO), a local Afghan women's NGO serving women, youth and children.

Jamila is deeply religious herself, and in her efforts to combine her faith in God with her desire to empower women, she started working with local imams, since they hold important moral authority in the country. What started in 2009 as a group of 25 has expanded to over 6,000 Muslim clergy who are now training one another to preach and teach about the importance of the dignity and empowerment of women and girls within Islam.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raus ... verride=in

ghulam muhammed
Posts: 11653
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2008 5:34 pm

Re: Women In Muslim World Taking The Fast Track To Change

#9

Unread post by ghulam muhammed » Sat Jun 06, 2015 5:42 pm

Prominent Scientist Sworn In As Mauritius' First Woman President

Prominent scientist Ameenah Gurib-Fakim was sworn as president of Mauritius today, becoming the first women to hold the ceremonial position in the Indian Ocean island nation.

"My ambition is to bring the Mauritian nation together around the national flag," Gurib-Fakim after her inauguration, held at the presidency outside the capital Port Louis.

She said she was dedicating her appointment to her parents, "who had the vision to educate their daughter at a time when it was boys who were given the priority," and added she was "proud and filled with humility".

Gurib-Fakim, 56, is the first female president of the island, which gained independence from Britain in 1968 and replaced Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state in 1992.

Mauritius is one of the richest -- and least corrupt -- countries in Africa, a middle-income nation of some 1.3 million people with a per capita GDP of just over USD 9,000 (7,200 euros).

Once dependent on sugar exports, the island has built up a strong outsourcing and financial services sector, and an important tourism industry.

Gurib-Fakim is currently director of the Mauritius- headquartered Centre for Phytotherapy Research (CEPHYR), which carries out research on plants for use in cosmetics, nutrition and therapy.

An alumni of the universities of Exeter and Surrey in Britain, she is also the chair of organic chemistry at Mauritius University, and has worked with the World Bank and other international institutions.

Former president Kailash Purryag, who had been put in place by the previous government, stepped down as the island's figurehead last week, having served as president since July 2012, when he was appointed by the island's previous Labour party government of former premier Navin Ramgoolam.

The Labour party lost elections to new Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth last December, with voters rejecting a constitutional reform plan that would have strengthened the powers of the president.

http://www.outlookindia.com/news/articl ... ent/900771