British Girls Face Being Passed Among Islamic State Men at A Rate of 'One A Week'
An Egyptian woman who disguised herself as a man for 43 years in order to make a living for her daughter after the death of her husband
Aqsa Did Not Recruit Jihadi Teen Girls: Parents
Canadian MP Apologises Over Anti-Niqab Comments
Egyptian Woman Dresses Up As Man for 43 Years to Feed Family
Study Blames Consanguineous Marriages for Hearing Disabilities
Parents Must Consider Children's Happiness in Marriage
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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British Girls Face Being Passed Among Islamic State Men at A Rate of 'One A Week'
By TOM BATCHELOR
Mar 17, 2015
The extraordinary claim from a ex-member of the terror group - responsible for a series of brutal beheadings of Western hostages - comes amid growing concern about the influence of the group on British teenagers.
The informant claims young girls are forced to marry and sleep with older commanders in marriages that last just seven days, before being divorced and partnered with a new spouse.
The revelation will raise fresh fears over the fate of the three British schoolgirls, whom authorities fear have travelled to Syria to link-up with the extremists.
Shamima Begum, Amira Abase, both 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, left the UK last month, flying first to Turkey before traveling by land to the Syrian border.
The east London schoolgirls, who attend the Bethnal Green Academy, are now believed to be in based in the Syrian town of Raqqa – the Islamic State's self-declared capital.
A 33-year-old former Islamic State fighter named Hamza has now described the shocking conditions young women might face if they travel to the war-torn region.
"There were some Tunisian Muslim girls who came from Syria," he told The Independent.
"Those Muslim girls were sleeping with some commanders under a marriage contract for a week only and then they were divorced and married to another one.
"I asked one of them how she had come to be in Syria and she answered that she had travelled first to Turkey and then across the Turkish-Syrian border."
Hamza said he left the group after he was invited to rape girls the Islamic State had captured from the Yazidi community - a religious minority that has faced persecution by jihadist forces.
He said an invitation to behead a hostage also turned him away from the extremist group.
Describing murders he was forced to watch during his 'training' to join the Islamic State (otherwise known as Isis) , Hamza said he had avoided carrying out a beheading prior to fleeing the group.
"I had been shown some videos made with impressive visual and audio skill," he told the newspaper.
"After watching many of these, we were being taken to attend public executions.
"I was not ordered to do [an execution] because according to Isis rules, the trainee needs more than six months to be ready to carry out an execution."
A Scottish Jihadi bride also said to be living with militants in Syria has rejected a claim that she recruited the three London schoolgirls to join IS.
The parents of Aqsa Mahmood, 20, from Glasgow, said yesterday that their daughter had contacted them to reject claims she was involved in the girls' disappearance.
Initial reports suggested Mahmood had been instrumental in encouraging the group to travel to the region, after a message was sent to her on Twitter by Begum.
A separate group of British teenagers - this time male - were stopped as they attempted to cross from Turkey into Syria to join IS over the weekend.
Turkish officials seized two boys aged 17 from London and a man aged 19, before they were flown back to the UK on Saturday night.
The group were arrested on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts and have been released on bail.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/564552/Islamic-State-British-schoolgirls-Syria-face-marrying-one-husband-week
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Aqsa Did Not Recruit Jihadi Teen Girls: Parents
March 17, 2015
London- The parents of Aqsa Mahmood, the Scottish teenager who travelled to Syria to join the so-called Islamic State rebels, have said their daughter had no contact with three girls from London who also travelled to the country.
Speaking to BBC News correspondent James Cook, Muzaffar Mahmood said Aqsa denied radicalising the three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green.
"She said she doesn't even know their names," he said.
Her mother, Khalida, shared her disbelief at what has been reported about her daughter saying: "She is not a Jihadi wife".
Solictor Aamer Anwar has asked why the authorities failed to contact their Turkish counterparts while Aqsa was still known to be in the country, before she crossed over to Syria.
http://nation.com.pk/international/17-Mar-2015/aqsa-did-not-recruit-jihadi-teen-girls-parents
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Canadian MP apologises over anti-Niqab comments
March 18th , 2015
OTTAWA: A legislator with Canada’s governing Conservatives apologised on Tuesday for saying Muslim women who do not want to remove their face-coverings when taking the citizenship oath should “stay the hell where (they) came from”.
It was the second embarrassing backtrack this month by the ruling Conservatives as they gear up for an October election that they have signalled they will centre on the economy and the fight against what they call “jihadist terrorism”.
The incident occurred on Monday when Conservative member of parliament Larry Miller spoke out against a woman who is fighting in court for the right to wear her Niqab, at her citizenship ceremony.
“Frankly, if you’re not willing to show your face in a ceremony that you’re joining the best country in the world, then frankly, if you don’t like that or don’t want to do that, stay the hell where you came from,” he said.
“That’s maybe saying it a little harshly, but that’s the way I feel.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has spoken strongly against using the Niqab in citizenship ceremonies, but Miller apologised after being in contact with the prime minister’s office.
http://www.dawn.com/news/1170221/canadian-mp-apologises-over-anti-niqab-comments
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Egyptian woman dresses up as man for 43 years to feed family
March 17, 2015
Cairo- An Egyptian woman who disguised herself as a man for 43 years in order to make a living for her daughter after the death of her husband was honored Tuesday by the government as the “ideal mother” of Luxor governorate.
The Social Solidarity Directorate of Luxor said it was awarding the “woman breadwinner” award to Sisa Abu Daooh for her years of hard work providing for her daughter and her grandchildren.
The 64-year-old Abu Daooh lost her husband while she was pregnant and after giving birth, she found herself without an income.
Sisa Abu Daooh dressed as man for 43 years to provide for her family. (Al Arabiya Net)
Her situation was complicated by a local culture opposed to women in the work place, which forced her to dress as a man and work outside the home to support her baby daughter Houda.
She worked making bricks and polishing shoes in the street among other jobs. Eventually, she married off her daughter to a man who later fell ill and couldn’t work. So, being a resourceful woman, Abu Daooh kept up her work as the breadwinner of her family.
She donned a local “jilbab” - a loose, full-length robe with wide sleeves – as well as a white turban, or sometimes a men’s hat known as a “Taqiyah” and black masculine shoes.
“I preferred working in hard labor like lifting bricks and cement bags and cleaning shoes to begging in the streets in order to earn a living for myself and for my daughter and her children,” she said.
“So as to protect myself from men and the harshness of their looks and being targeted by them due to traditions, I decided to be a man … and dressed in their clothes and worked alongside them in other villages where no one knows me.”
Sisa Abu Daooh dressed as man for 43 years to provide for her family.
She added that she worked in an array of jobs, from “polishing shoes, to construction to agriculture.”
At the moment, Abu Daooh says she is polishing shoes, which earns her a “decent income.”
Her daughter Houda said: “my mom is the one who still provides for the family. She wakes up every day at 6 a.m. to start polishing shoes at the station in Luxor. I carry the work kits for her as she now advanced in age.”
Abu Daooh gave thanks to those who had helped her along the way. “Thanks to everyone who has helped me. I hope to see Egypt in a better situation.”
http://nation.com.pk/international/17-Mar-2015/egyptian-woman-dresses-up-as-man-for-43-years-to-feed-family
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Study Blames Consanguineous Marriages for Hearing Disabilities
18 March 2015
The first regional survey on problems of hearing deficiencies in the Kingdom and the Middle East has been published. The survey was done in participation with a number of regional and local specialists on hearing loss, and showed that 71 percent of Saudi citizens with disabilities have been classified as having a hearing impairment.
According to the survey, most of the disabilities result from consanguineous marriages (marriage between cousins).
The results were announced during a press conference with Dr. Abdul Rahman Jajar, president of King Abdullah Specialist Ear Centre and chairman of the Saudi ENT Society, Dr. Abdul Munim Al-Asheikh, chairman of the board of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS) and director of Cochlear Implant Program at King Fahd Hospital in Jeddah, and Tamer Al-Shahat, regional director for MedEl in Saudi Arabia.
The first regional survey highlighted problems related to hearing loss and detailed comprehensive scientific results about hearing disabilities in the Kingdom and the Middle East.
Dr. Abdul Rahman said that the results of the survey stress the importance of increasing education in the community about problems related to hearing, and reasons for hearing loss in the Kingdom in particular and the Middle East in general.
Because many hearing impairments are the result of consanguineous marriages, more stress needs to be placed on educating young parents about this problem so that they are aware of the possibilities of hearing loss in their children.
Patients usually begin looking for a solution three years after the problem is first noticed, which means an increase in problems of social integration.
Dr. Abdul Rahman said that World Health Organization (WHO) data estimates the number of individuals suffering from hearing problems in the Middle East at 3 percent. However, experts in the region say the percentage is much higher.
Dr. Abdul Munim said the study led to the imposition of a compulsory hearing test on newborns in all countries of the region.
“We started to apply these test four months ago on all newborn babies in the Kingdom,” he said. “Parents of a sick child start looking for a cure after the first three years of the child’s life, when the problem becomes obvious and starts affecting his life; but dealing with the problem becomes much more difficult then,” he said.
Tamer Al-Shahat said: “We are proud of this report, and by looking at the results we can identify the nature of the problem and understand this disability which has been widely overlooked.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/news/719801
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Parents must consider children's happiness in marriage
March 17, 2015
I am writing with regard to the article "Bride walks out of wedding when groom fails math test" (Mar. 14). I pity women all over the developing world who are pressured or forced to marry strangers (and then expected to obey and serve them like dogs). Congratulations to the brave young woman in India who walked out of her wedding ceremony because the bridegroom could not add two simple numbers together. She avoided a lifetime of misery, chained by the neck to a man with no schooling. Let all parents be warned: to avoid shaming yourselves, consider your children's happiness in marriage, not your selfish profits. Too many girls are suffering because of this backward system. In India, at least, things are changing.
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20150318237261
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11:30 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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