London: Muslim women to get self-defence training

Via Islington Tribune:

A TAEKWONDO champion is teaching Muslim women how to defend themselves, after a series of vicious street attacks.

Theresa Thomas, 52, has been snapped up by the One True Voice women’s charity to run classes for women wearing the hijab, who have become targets for muggers.

“I first heard about this when I was running an Asian women’s self-defence group in East London,” she said. “Then when I came to work in Finsbury Park, after One True Voice asked me, many of the women told me that muggers had been deliberately targeting them, taking the pin from their hijab and stabbing them in the head with it.”

She said the women found it hard to defend themselves because they were often carrying shopping bags or had children with them.

(source)

Salams everyone!

Germany: Muslim car-pool service

Via TAZ (German, h/t Snaphanen)

Selim Reid (24) is the founder of MuslimTAXI, a Muslim ride-sharing service. The service is free, and is ad-supported. He says he thought of the idea because of complaints he heard that regular carpools don’t implement gender discrimination.

Reid immigrated from Iraq to Germany with his parents in 1996. He studied automotive and aircraft technology in Hamburg. He says he once organized a ride for his parents from Hamburg to Berlin, but when he brought his parents to the meeting point, it was clear that the driver did not like foreigners. The driver assumed the parents couldn’t understand German and since they couldn’t get off in the middle of nowhere, they had to listen to his rants the whole way.

Reid says his service is no different from how some Christian communities organize to help their members. He says non-Muslims are also invited to join.

His site allows people to choose the gender of the driver and passengers. He says until now it was difficult for Muslim women to use regular carpool services unaccompanied. He also says he’s heard of many affairs that started in such cars and that destroyed marriages.

He says the best thing about it is that it encourages Dawa. Since the Muslims who meet on his rides have only one thing in common – Islam. And this way other faiths get introduced to Islam. He goes on to say that Islam unites all religions and that there is only one true God.

Asked whether gender segregation isn’t a thing of the past, Reid answered that more and more people are converting to Islam, many of them women, and they adopt the headscarf of their own free will. Islam is unchanging and its principles are lasting, and so women will want to keep the headscarf even 1000 years from now. Islam is the true religion and since God is flawless, so is the religion he gave.

Reid says he already got 2,000 sign-ups, as well as thank-you calls and emails. He was also criticized, but he says that doesn’t mean he’s wrong.

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UK: Why British Muslim women struggle to find a marriage partner

Via the Guardian:

First, there has always been a tradition for British men originating from the Indian subcontinent to marry women from their country of origin. Families encourage their sons to do so for a host of reasons, including the cultural expectation that girls from “back home” will stay with and look after their in-laws.

The second trend is for Muslim men to marry “women of the book” (Christian or Jewish women), which is permissible in Islam. Men are more likely to work and socialise with British Christian women than their female Muslim counterparts, which leads to a higher chance of such marriages occurring.

(source)

UK: The New Muslim suffragettes

Via the Independent:

An increasing number of Muslim women activists are receiving death threats, fatwas and even hate-mail from extremist male and female Muslims. Their crime: Rescuing fellow Muslim women from violent and life threatening situations.

With heightened media sensitivity surrounding forced marriage, honour based violence and domestic violence we are all too aware of the suffering experienced by vulnerable and marginalised Muslim women. But we know little about the Muslim women activists who risk their lives to fight for the rights of oppressed Muslim women. These women are the New Muslim Suffragettes (NMS) of The United Kingdom.

(source)