Twilight Zone / The Moroccan Model - Jewish & Muslim Coexistence

A visit to the Jewish community of Morocco reveals surprising coexistence.

By Gideon Levy

In a small room within a large house − its construction nearly complete − with a breathtaking view of a valley of argan trees, a Moroccan carpenter planes doors made of local cedar wood. It seems unlikely that he knows exactly what he is making. In fact, for the past few weeks he has been building the holy ark for the synagogue of the Moroccan community of Kfar Sava. When the ark is ready, the owner of the house, Claude Senouf, a Jewish painter and journalist, will ship it to the central Israeli city, where it will be dedicated in honor of his grandfather, Raoul, who was one of Morocco’s moneyed elite. By then, too, the construction of Senouf’s magnificent home in western Morocco, not far from the town of Essaouira on the Atlantic coast, will be finished.

Full Article from Haaretz in Israel - May 7, 2010

Afghan Airforce Includes Female Pilot

Female Pilot Helps Afghan Air Force Take Off

From CNN - May 7, 2010

Decades ago, Afghanistan's air force was in full operation. Today, that air force is being rebuilt, with some of the same helicopters and some of the same pilots as well - including the first woman in the Afghan Air Corps and currently the only one.

The only time Capt. Latifa Nabizada left the force was to flee to Pakistan when the Taliban took over in the 1990s - a woman pilot was a prime target for them.

"I wanted to be a pilot since I was a child," she says. "I also, as a woman, felt it was a responsibility to serve my country. So I joined 20 years ago. ... I stayed in because it's the love of my life, and I still feel the responsibility to not give it up."

Today, she is one of about 50 pilots training in Kabul, with a few others elsewhere in Afghanistan. And U.S. forces are helping mentor the pilots, training them on modern air force techniques for the 50 or so aircraft in the Afghan air force fleet.

Nabizada revels in the new training: "I've seen remarkable changes since we started this. We get training in air traffic control, pre-flight checklists, English language, instruments, navigation. These are skills we didn't have before."

On the training base in Kabul, a regular sight is Nabizada's 4-year-old daughter Malali.

"Being a pilot and a mother is hard, actually," Nabizada says. "My husband is a doctor in the air force and we have no one to take care of her, so she comes with me every day. One day I'd like to see childcare in the air force."

Until then, Malali learns first hand about her country's air force and her mother's groundbreaking role. Will she follow in her mother's footsteps in the future? "Exactly," says Nabizada. "She will be a pilot in the future."

Reaching Out Quietly to Muslims in America

Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Rashad Hussain, 31, a White House lawyer, was appointed to become the United States' special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Full Article from the New York Times - April 18, 2010

U.S. Muslim groups walk fine line in efforts to confront extremism

As organizations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations begin to publicly confront the radicalization of Muslim youths, they are facing a backlash from their own community.

Full Article from the Los Angeles Times - April 19, 2010

Online Muslim Sex Shop in the Netherlands is All Halal

From the Times of London (UK)

March 31, 2010

Roger Boyes, Berlin

It's not quite the Kama Sutra or The Joy of Sex but it does offer a similar kind of assistance: the first online sex shop for the Islamic world has opened in the Netherlands.

But there is nothing sleazy about "El Asira" — "Society" in Arabic. Indeed, the website looks positively demure. The home page depicts a street divided by a line; women customers click on the left of the line, men on the right. Inside the shop — navigable in Arabic, English and Dutch — customers can shop for massage oils, cocoa butter lubricants and aphrodisiacs such as Pure Power, a capsule that claims to "heighten male performance, desire and pleasure".

Whether these services will also heighten the pleasure of religious fundamentalists or Dutch Islamophobes remains to be seen. Tensions run high in the country of Geert Wilders, the far-Right politician who has denounced what he calls a "tsunami of Islamification" of the Netherlands; six years ago the film-maker Theo van Gogh was murdered by a Muslim for making a documentary about Muslim women.

The founder of the website has been careful to take religious advice and so far his business has been a hit. "We had 70,000 hits in the first four days," said Abdelaziz Aouragh, a Dutch citizen born and raised in Amsterdam of Moroccan parents. His aim, he says, is to change the idea that Islam is in some way hostile to women.

"The image of women in the kitchen, submissive, dressed in a burka isn't true," he told the Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. "There is a lot of love. Islam has a lot of respect for women. Our shop puts the woman at the centre of things."

To be on the safe side, Mr Aouragh consulted Boularia Houari, who preaches in various Dutch mosques and gives lessons in the Koran. The imam told him: "It's important in Islam that both men and women reach orgasm. If a woman is not satisfied, she will use impure methods such as masturbation or vibrators."

Another imam, Abdul Jabbar, also said that there was no fundamental objection to selling sexual aids providing that they were not toys and were sold only to married couples.

It is unclear how the online shop will determine the marital status of its clients but it does make a big point of trying to treat sex with respect. All ingredients are halal, that is to say, permissible under Islam. None of the products displays naked people and there are no vibrators or pornography in stock. Even the mildly racey pink panties are said to be halal.

"We want to share with other Muslims in a positive way our contribution to a broader view of sexuality and eroticism within the Muslim community," the website says. The shop seems set to stay online for the time being, unwilling to risk the wrath of more conservative clerics who warn of the corruption of morals of second-generation Muslim immigrants.

Video: Arab-American's Concerns about Census

Arab-American Leaders Push Census Participation

From CNN - April 2, 2010

New York (CNN) -- For Muslims living in the United States, the call to prayer requires a response at least five times a day. But when the U.S. Census Bureau comes calling once every 10 years, some Arab-Americans still hesitate to return the survey.

"There's a fear factor that this information may be used against you, or used for inappropriate reasons," said Rami Nuseir, president of the American Mideast Leadership Network. He said a misunderstanding of the census translates into some Arab-Americans simply not filling out the form.

His organization is working directly with the Census Bureau to educate the Arab-American community about the importance of the survey.

"By law, the Census Bureau cannot share this information with the IRS, FBI, CIA or any other government agency," said Nuseir. "We've been complaining about discrimination, we've been complaining about lack of resources, and here this is a chance to tell the whole world we exist."

The 2000 census estimated there were 1.2 million Arab-Americans living in the United States. But the Arab American Institute says that number is too low. Based on community surveys and immigration data, the nonprofit group says the real number is closer to 4 million.

Mailing back the census form has benefits for the entire country. Data gathered from the survey helps disburse nearly $400 billion in federal funding. In addition, legislative districts are redrawn based on population change, providing important adjustments for representation in Congress.

Recently, high school students at the Razi School in Queens, New York, attended a presentation on the census, given by Nuseir. The Muslim school is just one of many institutions where the Census Bureau is conducting sessions on the survey, hoping to reach parents through their children.

Amirelsamad Isi is a senior at the Razi School. After the presentation, he was optimistic his parents would return their household's census form.

"In the beginning they might be a little scared, because everyone is scared. But when you learn the positive effects ... they'll learn, and they can tell other people," he said.

In addition to sending its message into schools and mosques, the Census Bureau also has workers hitting the streets.

Ahmed Shedeed, a Census Bureau partner specialist, was hired to specifically work the Arab-American community. For the past several months, he's visited New York and New Jersey neighborhoods, encouraging households to return their forms.

In Astoria, Queens, Shedeed handed out flyers printed in Arabic to bolster participation and dispel anxieties about the census.

"I came to this country almost three years ago, and I know the fear," he said, handing the flyer to a young man outside a coffee shop. "Everyone's information is well-protected."

The results of efforts put forth by census workers like Shedeed are already being measured. The 2010 Census Web site has an interactive map that shows what percentage of any U.S. region's population has returned the survey -- http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/.

As of Thursday, the national return rate was 52 percent. New York State trailed the national rate, at 46 percent.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN Thursday the rate of returns still lags in his city compared with the rest of the country. Thirty-seven percent in New York City have filled out the survey so far.

Shedeed said he hopes his work pays off for Arab-Americans not just in Queens and not just in New York, but everywhere in the United States when the April 15 mailing deadline comes.

"It's our participation that will make everybody's life better," said Shedeed. "It's important for our community to be known."

A Kingdom Slowly Changes (Reform in Saudi Arabia)

From the NY Times & International Herald Tribune

By IAN BREMMER
Published: March 16, 2010

When you doze off on a flight to Saudi Arabia, you wake to find that the Saudi women who were in Western clothes on departure have changed to traditional dress in preparation for landing. But that, I found out on a recent visit, no longer tells the whole story.

Before my recent trip, I had asked my government host to arrange a meeting with Saudi women entrepreneurs. I was pleasantly surprised that my request was quickly approved. I was even more intrigued by the meeting itself.

It was not the clarity, savvy and energy with which these Saudi businesswomen spoke that surprised me. I’d seen that before. The surprise was how easily and informally they shared their sometimes provocative views in a public place in the heart of Riyadh.

I asked one young Saudi businesswoman for her views on the country’s business climate. Like most of the group, she appeared more relaxed in a one-on-one conversation with a man than I’d ever experienced before inside the kingdom.

Her comments revealed both strong opinions about professional standards and a mischievous sense of humor. Among other things, she confided that she was more comfortable than she used to be in formal dress because she was now wearing sweat pants underneath.

Indeed, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface in Saudi society. King Abdullah still governs a deeply conservative country. But both Saudi society and the kingdom’s economy reveal dramatic shifts in the four and a half years since he formally assumed power.

For one thing, there’s a substantial generational change in social mores and economic attitudes now separating young Saudis from their parents.

The implications of this emerging generation gap cut across many aspects of Saudi society. I saw much more public mixing of young people on this visit than was evident even two years ago — and heard more questions from them about the social standards of other countries (particularly in the more liberal Gulf regimes).

Attitudes towards marriage have likewise shifted. In the past, brides and grooms in arranged marriages often met for the first time on the day they became engaged. A wedding quickly followed. Today, many urban couples meet several times — in the presence of family, to be sure — before an engagement is agreed, and have unsupervised dates before the wedding.

But it’s the expanded educational opportunities for all those ambitious young women that may be making the biggest difference. In September 2009, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology opened its doors, allowing Saudi women and men to attend class together for the first time. Religious police are not permitted on campus. Women are also allowed to drive now. For a Westerner, these reforms may sound quaint, even retrograde. For Saudi Arabia, they are remarkable.

Women now attend Saudi universities in record numbers, though daughters of the elite are still more likely to study abroad. There is a focused government effort to address labor shortfalls by bringing more women into the workforce — and not just in traditional roles such as teachers and nurses. This year, Saudi law schools will graduate the first significant numbers of women. And a surprising number of Saudi start-up firms founded by female entrepreneurs are now up and running.

Men’s lives are changing as well. Saudi society has long fed an unsustainable sense of entitlement, one that stigmatizes Saudi men who accept work associated with low social status. Menial labor is for immigrants from South Asia or less affluent corners of the Arab world. Over time, this has created a mismatch between an exploding population of Saudi young people and the number of jobs they’re trained to handle.

For many years, the government has pursued various forms of “Saudization” of the economy. This process, intended to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on foreign workers, has proven an uphill struggle, especially in ultra-conservative Riyadh, where cash-strapped families often get by with less before a head of household will accept work he feels is beneath his station. That’s why it’s all the more striking to find young Saudis working these days at the local Starbucks.

King Abdullah’s reforms extend to the media. Direct opposition to the Saudi government remains off limits, but it’s increasingly common to read and hear public criticism of the country’s most conservative policies — even of certain members of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, the kingdom’s religious police. Such reports could not appear even in Saudi Arabia’s more liberal newspapers without the government’s blessing.

There are still powerful individuals and groups fundamentally opposed to all forms of liberalization. Saudis remain deeply dependent on petrodollars and foreign labor. But it’s worth noting that technology and management training are among the country’s fastest growing industries. The state will have a hard time turning back the clock on that trend — and it doesn’t appear to want to.

Don’t be surprised if King Abdullah is one day remembered as the man who brought the beginnings of real change to a place that badly needed it. And don’t be surprised if Saudi women are the ones to make the most of the new opportunities.

Ian Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, and author of “The J Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall.”

Sky is the Limit for Pakistan's Women Fighter Pilots

pakistan

Sky is the limit for Pakistan’s women fighter pilots

From the Dawn Newspaper - Sunday, 07 Mar, 2010

In a country where extended family is important and most middle-class women rely on servants for household work and child-minding, Ambreen and Nadia may be saved some of the problems faced by women in the West. —AFP Photo

ISLAMABAD: Ambreen made Pakistani history by becoming one of the country’s first female fighter pilots, but on Sunday she was due to swap her flight schedule for an arranged marriage.

“It’s all set and planned, but I haven’t talked to him,” she admits, her face scrubbed clean and wearing a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jumpsuit – a far cry from the make-up and ornate gown she’ll wear for the wedding.

The wedding between Flight Lieutenant Ambreen Gul, 25, and an engineer from Islamabad has been arranged by their families in the best Pakistani tradition.

When she wakes up on Monday – International Women’s Day – she’ll be married to a man she has only seen once before and with whom she has barely exchanged a word.

Pakistan is a conservative Muslim country, where the United Nations says only 40 per cent of adult women are literate. Women are victims of violence and abuse, and the country still lacks a law against domestic violence.

But in 2006, seven women broke into one of Pakistan’s most exclusive male clubs to graduate as fighter pilots – perhaps the most prestigious job in the military and for six decades closed to the fairer sex.

Ambreen’s company manager father was delighted. Ironically it was her housewife mother who initially feared her daughter would bring shame on the family.

“It was because of our eastern culture. She thought people would say, ‘Why are you letting your daughter go out of the home?’

She and 26-year-old Flight Lieutenant Nadia Gul say PAF is a trailblazer for women’s rights. As respected officers with a 60,000-rupee-a-month salary, they are living out their dreams.

“It’s a profession of passion. One has to be extremely motivated. I love flying. I love to fly fighter jets, to do something for my country that is very unique,” smiled Ambreen, her hair stuffed into a pony tail.

Signing up aged 18, only a handful of girls beat homesickness and stiff competition to pass a six-month selection process and graduate after three-and-a-half years of training.

“It was the toughest time we’ve ever faced,” Ambreen remembers.

During a training flight on a Chinese-made F-7, she once blacked out for a few seconds before survival reflexes kicked in.

Nadia, whose army captain husband is serving on the front line of Pakistan’s war against the Taliban in the mountains of Swat, won a prize for academic achievement at PAF’s first women fighter pilot graduation.

“It was the first time. It was history,” she remembers, a bottle-green hijab covering most of her hair and tucked into her padded pilot’s jacket.

“I was just a girl who went to college and came back home, but now I’m in a great profession,” said Nadia.

Commanding male subordinates, they bat aside any question of sexism or men who don’t take kindly to being ordered about by a woman.

They love the respect that comes with official fighter pilot status in the armed.

“Families are very fascinated. Everyone’s very impressed,” says Nadia, describing her husband as “very supportive” and “proud”.

Forbes ranked Pakistan in 2010 as the fourth most dangerous country in the world. Officers say only a tiny elite – and no women – actually fly in combat in Pakistan’s tribal belt, a battleground against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

While PAF is outwardly very proud of its women pilots, some wonder privately whether women are strong enough to reach the top of the profession.

But flying transport and cargo planes, ferrying VIPs like cabinet ministers around the country, Nadia feels women’s lot is improving and takes issue with Western perceptions of Pakistan as backward.

“PAF are giving us this chance on an equal basis. It was really a bold step that the Pakistan Air Force has taken in recruiting lady fighter pilots,” she said.

In a country where extended family is important and most middle-class women rely on servants for household work and child-minding, Ambreen and Nadia may be saved some of the problems faced by women in the West.

They believe marriage and – in the future – motherhood can complement, not replace, a career, “provided you have a supportive family.”