Photo: Malaysian Court To Decide If Sharia Law That Criminalizes Transwomen Violates Their Rights.
Young Indian-American Muslim Woman Raheela Ahmed Wins Key Maryland Primary
Shiite, Sunni Muslim Women Gather to Find What's Common, Not Different
Denying Entry to Women at Haji Ali: The Double Standards of Secular Politicians Exposed
Nigerian Princess Seeks Funds to Help Boko Haram Survivors
'Muslim Women Can Save the World from ISIS' Says Bafta Nominated Film Maker
In The Age of Intolerance, Here Muslim Women Carry the Torch of Hope for Male Entrepreneurs
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Malaysian Court To Decide If Sharia Law That Criminalizes Transwomen Violates Their Rights
29, Apr 2016
A Malaysian appeals court is expected to rule on Thursday whether a Sharia code that criminalizes transgender people violates their fundamental rights.
There are state laws throughout most of Malaysia that enforce Islamic codes, including a provision that criminalizes “any male person who, in any public place wears a woman’s attire or poses as a woman.” Transwomen are routinely detained by the police in several states in Malaysia, according to a recent investigation by Human Rights Watch, and they are sometimes subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of police. Some transwomen reported being arrested more than 20 times.
Far more is at stake in this case than just the safety of Malaysia’s trans community, say the activists who helped bring it to court. It is fundamentally about judicial independence in a country whose Islamist ruling party has stoked anti-LGBT sentiment as part of a political strategy to hold on to power. (The opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was recently thrown back in jail for a sodomy charge he says was a politically motivated slander.) The ruling will also test whether state religious codes or human rights protected in Malaysia’s secular constitution are supreme.
“What’s special about this case is the fact that we’re challenging the constitutionality of state Sharia law, which has never been done before,” said Thilaga Sulathireh of the Malaysian trans rights organization Justice for Sisters, which is working with the three women who filed suit.
This case will be heard in the appeals court of Putrajaya in the state of Negeri Sembilan, south of the country’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. It has been making its way through the courts for three years. Four litigants first filed a constitutional challenge to the Sharia code in February 2011, and the Negeri Sembilan High Court ruled against them in October of 2012. A lawyer working on the case, Aston Paiva, explained that the judge essentially ruled that if Sharia codes are “consistent with the teachings of Islam” then protections for “fundamental liberties can be excluded.”
The ruling came as a surprise to those involved, said Sulathireh of Justice for Sisters, since the judge had seemed very sympathetic during the hearing and expressed doubt as to whether it was right to consider the litigants male in the first place. The fact that the judge tacked so hard to the right — including what Sulathireh called an “unnecessary” reference to the Quran — called into question the courts’ ability to consider cases fairly.
“If the political situation in the country was not so hostile towards LGBT people, maybe the decision could have been different,” she said.
One of the women who first brought the suit withdrew from the case when it was appealed, and none of the litigants would agree to be interviewed. But Sulathireh said at the time they decided to go to court, reports were coming almost every other day that religious police had arrested transwomen, and often on flimsy pretenses. One of the litigants was actually dressed in gender-neutral clothing when she was arrested, and was not even wearing a bra — many transwomen avoided wearing bras because they could be used as evidence by police. But officers approached her on the street because she had long hair and other feminine physical features, lifted her shirt to check for breasts, and put her under arrest.
“The facts of this case was perfect [to take to court] in sense it showed the brutish attitude by the State authorities against a defenseless and voiceless minority,” said the lawyer, Aston Paiva. Though such a Sharia provision had never been challenged in court before, he said, there was no reason why it couldn’t be.
There is a complicated relationship between religious and secular law in Malaysia, a country which is about 60 percent Muslim. The country’s constitution declares,”Islam is the religion of the Federation,” but also says, “other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.” The article establishing Islam as the official religion also states, “nothing in this Article derogates from any other provision of this Constitution,” presumably including protections for fundamental rights. Sharia laws also technically only apply to Muslims, but all ethnic Malays — who account for half the country’s population — are automatically defined as Muslim.
Sharia laws were put in place by the secular legislatures of the Malaysian states, Paiva argued. “What are termed ‘Syariah laws’ are in fact secular laws that codify aspects of substantive Islamic law. Thus, there is no reason why these “Syariah laws” cannot be tested against the Constitution or subjected to constitutional review by the Courts like any other law.”
If they lose in the state appellate court on Thursday, Paiva said, he is prepared to take this argument to the federal courts.
The ruling potentially could have a broader reverberation in the region, said Sulathireh. Before the sultan of the tiny neighboring nation of Brunei enacted a new Sharia code on May 1, Malaysia was the only country in Southeast Asia with Sharia law. Activists in the region have been fighting to get the regional trade bloc that includes both countries, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to recognize LGBT rights as fundamental human rights. A court ruling striking down the Sharia code could make their argument stronger.
stressfreeattorneyusa.com/blog/malaysian-court-to-decide-if-sharia-law-that-criminalizes-transwomen-violates-their-rights/
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Young Indian-American Muslim woman Raheela Ahmed wins key Maryland primary
28 Apr 2016
Washington, Apr 29: A 22-year-old Indian-American Muslim woman has won a key primary election in the US state of Maryland, upsetting a veteran in the process. Raheela Ahmed, received 9,624 votes as against incumbent Jeana Jacob (6,004 votes) in the Board of Education District 5 primary elections held on Tuesday.
She along with her runner up Cheryl Landis who got 8,072 now advance to the November general elections. Her win is considered to be significant given the anti-Muslim rhetoric’s coming from top Republican candidates in particular its presidential front-runner Donald Trump. (ALSO READ: White powder mailed to Donald Trump campaign office ruled harmless)
“If Mr Trump’s views were a true reflection of Americans beliefs, I would not have won this election decisively. My district has around 56,000 voters and Muslims are less than one per cent of that. “Mr Trump can make outrageous and offencive statements for political reasons, but I am a strong believer that America’s diversity is our strength,” Raheela said, who attributed her win to America’s diversity.
If elected in November general elections, she would be the youngest Indian-American to be elected to this top education post in Maryland. “The plan of action is to win the general election, which I lost by 3 per cent in 2012. I will be engaging all sorts of stakeholders over the next several months. I love grassroots campaigning…It’s the core of my candidacy,” she told PTI.
Raheela’s father, a technology entrepreneur immigrated from Hyderabad at the age 25, while her mother moved to the US when she was five years old from Pakistan. “By attacking aspects of people’s identity like gender, ethnicity and faith, Mr Trump is dividing the masses. Strength comes from unity, collaboration, trust and understanding. If he really wants to make America great again, he needs to stop dividing and start uniting!” she added.
She said she believes that no religion condones violence, extremism, or terrorism. Islam is no exception. “The majority of Muslims are peaceful people. The word ‘Islam’ itself means peace. Terrorists that act under the name of Islam are twisted in their understanding of the faith,” she said.
“I’m representing individuals that largely do not identify with my faith, ethnicity, youth and gender, in a time where Islamophobia, racism and discrimination are around every news corner. However, this election win shows that people see what they want to see,” she said.
“I won because more people connected with my shared values and aspirations than those turned off by my differences,” said Raheela , who is currently an Advisory Associate with the Global Public Sector at Grant Thornton LLP.
india.com/news/world/young-indian-american-muslim-woman-raheela-ahmed-wins-key-maryland-primary-1146399/
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Shiite, Sunni Muslim Women Gather to Find What's Common, Not Different
29, Apr 2016
Iram Jafri's older brother was 39 when he was killed as he left his office in Pakistan in 2001.
Raza Jafri, she said, was targeted by terrorists because he was a prominent surgeon who also was a Shiite Muslim. He left behind a wife and three young sons.
"He was someone that everyone looked up to. He was very loving, very nurturing. He would guide me," said his sister, a pediatrician who lives in Galena, Delaware County. "He was an icon in a lot of ways for the family and for the community."
As a Shiite, Jafri doesn't blame Sunni Muslims. She blames extremists.
Though a theological disagreement between the Shiite and Sunni denominations is viewed as the cause of conflict in many parts of the Muslim world, Jafri said it has never been an issue for her or the Muslim women — both Shiite and Sunni — she calls friends.
"The divide is not there in our hearts," she said.
Jafri, 47, is one of a handful of Shiite Muslim women who recently began fostering friendships with Sunni Muslim women from the Columbus branch of the Turkish American Society of Ohio.
The Shias worship at the Ahlul-Bayt Society of Columbus, about a half-mile from the TASO office on Dublin-Granville Road west of Worthington, but they only recently met, linking up through Worthington Interfaith Neighbors. They gathered on Monday at the home of the group's co-founder Barbara McVicker, a member of St. John's Episcopal Church in Worthington.
"We don't want to live in a polarized world," Jafri said. "And we don't want to live in isolation. We want to know each other."
Extreme voices are often heard in the media, but these women live lives of moderation, said TASO member Gulcin Ozer, 40, of Worthington.
"As moderate people, we want to get together, and as we get together we see our commonalities are much more than our differences. So those are the things we want to highlight in this kind of gathering," said Ozer, a biomedical informaticsresearcher at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center.
A hope is that the women's friendships can encourage similar bonds in their communities, said Nimet Alpay of TASO.
"Women are the true community builders, and they are family builders, they are relationship builders," said Alpay, 42, of Worthington. "I really value the togetherness of this group, women coming together, trying to reach out to each other and trying to learn from each other, and just being together and setting an example to others."
But, the women say, there are hurdles in the effort to encourage other Muslims to mingle with groups that are different from themselves. Many speak English as a second language, lack the confidence or knowledge to reach out or simply stick to the comfort zone of people who share the same cultural background.
TASO's women's group has branched out, holding conversation events and cooking classes. Recently, it hosted an interfaith gathering that allowed participants to try the Turkish art of Ebru. Alpay said such efforts take dedication to community outreach, volunteers and fundraising.
She first learned of Shiite Muslims at a small Islamic center she attended as a doctoral student at Michigan State University 20 years ago.
"That was the first time I noticed the diversity in my own faith," said Alpay, a mathematics and statistics faculty member at Franklin University who is Sunni. "It was so beautiful. People came from different countries, from different backgrounds. ... They worshipped in the same way, in front of the same God, Allah. That was so empowering for me."
Saba Hashim, 38, of Powell, is an Iraqi-born Shiite who grew up in the United Kingdom and has spent about 16 years in the United States, where she is studying to become a certified public accountant. She wasn't aware of the Sunni-Shiite split until the Iraq War.
"It didn't even occur to me that a Sunni brother or sister would be different," she said.
Regardless of denomination, these Muslim women also find commonality in their disgust of Islamophobic rhetoric in the media and their loathing of extremists.
Ayser Hamoudi of Dublin, a Shiite and retired physician, noted that many Muslims are among the victims of the brutal ISIS militant group.
"These people know no religion. There's no way you can believe in a creator and do what they do," Hashim added. "No religion teaches hatred toward any of your brothers or countrymen or humans, and Islam is very much about brotherhood of humanity."
She said several members of her extended family have been killed in Iraq by suicide bombers.
"So we hate them just as much as the next person."
dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/04/28/shiite-sunni-muslim-women-find-whats-common-not-different.html
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Denying entry to women at Haji Ali: The double standards of secular politicians exposed
29Apr 2016
At the outset, let me say that Trupti Desai's mission Haji Ali was not at all activism but rather a publicity stunt. When the matter is pending at the Mumbai High Court, why to go for such a stunt? Courts are already looking in to the matter of gender discrimination in places of worship; hence there shouldn't be any such acts that could result in law and order issues.
Anyway, this article is not intended to look into the merits or demerits of Trupti Desai's activism. What really surprised me was the way politicians took a u-turn on this gender discrimination issue!
Zee-TV aired two versions of statements from BSP supremo Mayawati and Congress leader Pramod Tewari. In Shani Shingnapur temple entry controversy, both Mayawati and Pramod Tewari had criticized the age old system of not allowing women into temples. They had demanded abolishment of such discriminatory customs. But when they were asked on barring women's entry into Haji Ali, they said that such matters should be left to religious people, read clerics only. Forced entry at Haji Ali may create communal tension. Religion is a private matter, thus there should not be any activism to change some customs forcefully.
During the Shani Shingnapur controversy too many SP leaders had advocated for women's entry. But on Thursday the partymen of SP were standing in front of Haji Ali gate to oppose Trupti Desai's attempt of entering into the shrine. Isn't it interesting? If ban on Hindu women entering temples are discriminatory, isn't also a ban on Muslim women's entry into a dargah discriminatory? Is it just vote bank politics that prompts them to use double standards?
May be temple entry is a Hindu matter and hence it's communal. BJP is referred to as pro-Hindu, hence in order to oppose BJP they have started opposing all Hindu customs (right or wrong). But perhaps Haji Ali row is a secular issue; hence all self proclaimed seculars have started supporting the customs (right or wrong). They can take jibes at Hindu babas and dharmagurus but have no courage to ask questions to Muslim religious leaders.
That's the exact problem why Indian Muslim community is suffering badly. The entire community is under diktats of clerics and because of vote bank interest, no one dares to displease them. Thus, the community on a whole is languishing.
It's good that some progressive Muslims have started questioning such clerics like the Hindus question self proclaimed contractors of religion. These progressive people have started comparing provisions of other Muslim countries and asking whether Indian clerics are more Islamic than their global counterparts.
But my point is what to do with such politicians with double standards? Shouldn't they also be blamed for the poor condition of the Muslim community? How can they allow a community to languish just for their selfish vote bank politics?
It's time people should come out in the open and ask some serious questions to such politicians indulging in double standards.
merinews.com/article/denying-entry-to-women-at-haji-ali-the-double-standards-of-secular-politicians-exposed/15915771.shtml
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Nigerian Princess Seeks Funds to Help Boko Haram Survivors
29,Apr 2016
ATLANTA (AP) — It pains Nigerian princess Modupe Ozolua every time she hears about the suicide bombings, killings and kidnappings by the Boko Haram militant group in her ancestral homeland.
But Ozolua feels just as troubled when the plight of survivors dealing with the aftermath of the attacks goes unheard. The princess, a member of Benin Empire in southern Nigeria, doesn't want those victims to be forgotten.
Ozolua is taking a step toward raising awareness and money to assist displaced victims at her inaugural "Rise Above Terror" African Art Gala at the Besharat Gallery on Saturday in Atlanta. She hopes the money can help rebuild schools, homes, provide medical relief and food to help some of the millions who have been unable to leave an area with destroyed schools and burnt villages.
"When people hear about Boko Haram, you think about 'Bring Back Our Girls' only, but it's much bigger than that," Ozolua said. "Figures are being thrown around about how many people are being killed. It's bigger than that. There are millions of people who have survived these attacks, seeing their families killed in front of them. Their lives are completely traumatized. Nobody is giving much attention to them. Our focus is on them. They should be assisted."
"Vampire Dairies" actress Kat Graham will co-host the gala. The event will auction off African artwork including 29 paintings and 11 handmade wood and brass carvings.
Ozolua, a cosmetic surgery philanthropist, has brought aid to victims in Africa since she started her nonprofit foundation, Empower 54, in 2003. But this is first time she is holding the fundraiser in the United States, calling it a "coming out party."
"It's my privilege to join Empower 54 and help internally displaced persons in northeast Nigeria," said Graham, who is of Liberian descent. "The horrors of IDPs losing their loved one's possessions and rendered helpless does not make them hopeless."
The Boko Haram militant group has killed and kidnapped thousands in a campaign of violence in recent years as it seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of 170 million people that is divided almost equally between mostly Christians in the south and Muslims in the north. The Nigeria-based Islamic extremist group has forced young men to be its fighters and girls to be sex slaves or even suicide bombers.
The nearly seven-year insurgency, that has launched attacks beyond Nigeria's borders into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, has killed at least 20,000 people, according to Amnesty International. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says the violence has also displaced 2.8 million people in the region, mostly those from Nigeria. Millions more face dire food shortages.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful," in the local Hausa language, in 2015 swore allegiance to the Islamic State group.
While Boko Haram is thought to have abducted thousands of people over the years, the mass kidnapping of more than 200 girls from a school in the town of Chibok in 2014 brought the extremist group to the world's attention.
Ozolua said she wants to give underprivileged children in Nigeria a better option. Last year, the princess said her event in Nigeria raised $100,000. She hopes the gala on Saturday can produce more than $400,000.
"A lot of the children there are resentful and hurt," Ozolua said. "If we do not start giving them a reason to have self-worth, and get past this hurt, then someone will give them another direction to point to. Money will be applied to those camps. We have to continue to rebuild schools and provide books so they can have something positive."
Ozolua attended college in Los Angeles and traveled much of the country. But she chose Atlanta for the fundraiser after hearing about the work of MedShare, a medical supply recovering organization in suburban Atlanta.
The princess said she also felt good about bringing her efforts to Atlanta because of the established Nigerian community and the presence of a consulate general. She doesn't have an official sponsor, but has several partners for the event including the city of Atlanta, the Andrew Young Foundation and the Nigeria High Consulate in the city.
"We are a global city with a large diaspora of people from different communities and cultures," Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall said. "Atlanta's legacy in the movement for civil and human rights compels us to partner on issues such as this."
usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-04-29/nigerian-princess-seeks-funds-to-help-boko-haram-survivors
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'Muslim women can save the world from ISIS' says Bafta nominated film maker
29,Apr 2016
On ITV’s Loose Women, comedian Shazia Mirza raised eyebrows recently by suggesting that the men of ISIS were ‘hot.’
While I’m in no rush to get my hands on a calendar of bearded murderers caressing their AK-47s, I recognise that Shazia was not trying to shock, so much as she was trying to explain why girls run away to the battlefields of Iraq and Syria.
It’s no secret that many Muslim girls live under severe restrictions at home, particularly when it comes to boyfriends and sex, and that these restrictions are often justified in the name of Islam.
For teenage Muslim girls, brimming with hormones, hopelessly naïve about relationships and enclosed with religious hang-ups, these men are ‘halal meat’, as Shazia describes it – a permissible target for young women’s sexual fantasies.
They imagine that relationships with jihadis will be more meaningful than with the immature boys they see in school, or the awkward cousins their parents expect them to marry.
But there is more to it than this. The promises – of status, sex and self-determination – and of being the founders of a new and perfect state, are intoxicating for girls from sheltered homes.
It’s like a short-cut to adulthood. Some girls’ lives are so constrained by the traditions of their families that they would almost be freer under ISIS.
For some, the decision to leave home was the first real act of independence in their young lives.
For others, there is a warped sense of idealism.
In the two years I spent interviewing convicted terrorists, jihadis and former extremists for my film Jihad: A British Story , one woman told us that she believed in establishing a caliphate – an Islamic state – because she had been failed by British courts, and hoped that sharia law would bring justice against her abuser.
Of course, women can be as violent and as fanatical as men, but often radicalisation is a process which develops through relationships with other people.
Some are brought to believe that the fight is noble, failing to realise that they are creating another wave of suffering and oppression for people in countries already broken by war, and who in fact resent the arrogance of these Western born jihadis.
Recruiters describe the Internet as a ‘fishing net’.
They spend hours and hours online every day, listening to the hopes and dreams of young women and girls when no-one else will.
They send them gifts, offer them friendship, painting a rosy and unrealistic picture of life within the caliphate.
One young British woman was told that she would live in a mansion with a swimming pool.
For girls forbidden to socialise outside the family, these relationships are emotionally intense. They become distant from family and friends.
In some cases, families want to help, but are lost in dealing with new technology, and confused by the complexities of parenting young people growing up between two cultures.
As most parents know, teens would rather listen to anyone else but their parents.
Prevention is better than knee-jerk reactions. Muslim women can provide valuable insights.
For decades, campaigners for minority women have directly identified the issues in Muslim communities, such as forced marriage and other abuses in the family, and the need for an education that liberates young women, providing them with the skills to critically analyse extremist propaganda.
Too often, we have followed a script that understands women in Muslim communities either as victims or potential threats.
We have neglected one of the greatest resources in the fight against extremism.
Our policies have often been based in consulting with so-called ‘community leaders’, elderly conservative men who refuse to accept that there are problems within Muslim communities, and blame the West for everything that ails them.
It was these men who told us that forced marriage was not a problem, while every Muslim woman knew of someone in their family or community that had been taken home and married off because she had become ‘too Westernised’.
Meanwhile, religious schools flourish under our current government’s policies.
In these schools, girls are often isolated, and groomed for marriage, and separated from children of other backgrounds – making it easier to sign up to conspiracy theories and hatred for the West.
Within a society that has often treated minority populations as if they were separate, following their ‘own cultures’ (defined, usually, by male elders, based in their own misogyny).
When we place these ‘cultures’ beyond criticism, we are failing to generate a set of common values we can all support.
For too long now, women of Muslim heritage have been left on the side-lines of these issues, even though they have a lot to tell us.
It frustrates me most when Muslim women are only seen as ‘mothers of potential extremists’, required to report their children to the government for interventions, when they should be included in debating the real causes of radicalisation, and in developing solutions that work.
Out of this frustration, I decided to launch sister-hood, a platform to raise difficult and taboo topics through an online magazine and series of live events, speaking out about the problems within Muslim communities and families.
We will promote alternatives to radicalisation and challenge fundamentalism and discrimination in our communities.
Women are often the first to notice the growing influence of fundamentalism – the increasing pressures to cover their heads - and to close their mouths.
Female activists working in Muslim communities have been alerting us to growing extremism for decades.
Often, there is a great deal more awareness of the dynamics of the community shared around kitchen tables than there is within the mosques.
Grassroots Muslim women’s organisations benefit from an intimate knowledge of the community, at a family level, and many try to present alienated young people with a sympathetic ear, and to present alternate ways to channel their energies – often doing so without sustainable funding, and with little support or recognition from the state.
Girls and women targeted by ISIS are often vulnerable and naive.
If we had attended to the problems in their families and communities earlier, and if we had found ways to include them in our national life, we might have spared them from this brutal exploitation.
To do this, we need to listen to the women in Muslim communities who have been challenging the real social problems behind radicalisation for decades, rather than the ‘establishment’ of old Muslim men who have brought us to where we are today.
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/muslim-women-can-save-world-7845191
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In the age of intolerance, here Muslim women carry the torch of hope for male entrepreneurs
29,Apr 2016
While country is debating over intolerance here in Chandigarh a woman entrepreneur workshop has all Muslim workers. With each hand movement, the piece of cloth seemed to be coming alive. A riot of colours was slowly revealing itself in a beautiful pattern. For most of us it would be embroidery, cutting and stitching, for those involved in the work, it means life. They are not stitching wedding costumes but also their families’ life and added colour to it as well. This goes on in a workshop in Burail, Sector 45, Chandigarh. They are busy in designing luxury made-in Chandigarh bridal brand costumes.
It seems like a daunting industry to break into but you will be surprised how easily one women entrepreneur from Himachal Pradesh did it. AnjuChauhan belongs to Jubbal in district Shimla stepped away from the hills to Chandigarh. She did her graduation from MCM, DAV, Chandigarh and then did MA in financial control from the Panjab University. Married to an IT Professional indeed boosted her spirits to do something creative of her own with an ever supporting husband who apart from being an IT Professional is also an hobbyist photographer of International fame. Her earlier ambition was to become a teacher and hence she did B.Ed but her creativity took her to be a bridal costume designer and launched a brand “ THREADS by Vivans “.
On asking why THREADS the brand name, she smilingly says, “ Threads are an Integral part of any fabric worn by us. Craftsmanship, Fashion, Elegance, Exclusivity and Quality have been stitched strongly by THREADS of trust. Each fabric has been handpicked and chosen with stringent quality parameters and then crafted into dresses at state of the art workshop by an elite panel of designers.We at THREADS recommend each Dress to be a part of your loved wardrobe, to always keep you one step ahead in the world of fashion.
The passion for colours forced her to create plush dresses for soon-to-be bride, said MrsAnju. In a short amount of time, she has carved a niche for herself as one of the best bridal costume designer and continues to present unique and exquisite wedding clothes. While talking to Daily Post she said that within a year she had designed and stitched wedding clothes of eight marriages not only for the bride but also her family members. A wedding Trousseau of a NRI from London and one from Dubai have been a part of her her elite customers. She did a complete Wedding Trousseau of a local school Principals daughter and her family including the principals sister from Canada. Now she is doing the Bridal wear of this lady’s daughter fromCanada. Each marriage Trousseau costs around Rs 8 lakh. All sewing and designing machines were imported from Indonesia, she said.
She hired a space in Aroma Hotel and started a Display and Sales store , “ THREADS by Vivans “ for full service to the customers who are searching for reasonable quality at affordable prices. Her inventory consist all types of wedding costumes to more casual dresses in various varieties. The space effectively illustrates the need for a high quality and reasonably priced bridal costumes is apparent that she is aware of fashion trend and receptive to customers’ needs.
Dwelling on future plans she said that she had just taken a showroom in Sector 7 and renovation work is on full swing for a mid May Launch. Soon it would be opened to serve the customers. In the near future she plans to open chain “ THREADS by Vivans” showrooms in Shimla and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. The region though lives in not-so-rich condition yet from their lavish wedding ceremonies, the wedding culture is a part of a reason here has been a boom for bridal dresses, she feels.
MrsChauhanhaving herself done some quick courses in designing from USA, has an in house state of the art production house having own professional designers and qualified workers . She further revealed that she was in a process to reach out to such girls with some level of literacy wanted to make it a livelihood to impart training to them in embroidery, designing, cutting and stitching of bridal costumes either to absorb them in her organization or to start their own business.
Making a mark in the world of Bridal and Women Apparels ,MrsChauhan has a vision to grow along with her team of workers whom she refers as her second family and has thought of supporting and making employability for all needy girls.
punjabnewsexpress.com/special-stories/news/in-the-age-of-intolerance-here-muslim-women-carry-the-torch-of-hope-for-male-entrepreneurs-49142.aspx
- See more at: http://newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/new-age-islam-news-bureau/malaysian-court-to-decide-if-sharia-law-that-criminalizes-trans-women-violates-their-rights/d/107145#sthash.omcItoJR.dpuf
7:45 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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