World

Taliban orders feminine Afghan TV presenters to cowl their faces on air

Published

2 years ago

May 22, 2022

KABUL: Ladies presenters on Afghanistan’s main information channels went on air Sunday with their faces lined, a day after defying a Taliban order to hide their look on tv.

Since seizing energy final yr, the Taliban have imposed a slew of restrictions on civil society, many centered on reining within the rights of girls and women to adjust to the group’s austere model of Islam.

Earlier this month, Afghanistan’s supreme chief Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for girls to cowl up absolutely in public, together with their faces, ideally with the normal burqa.

The dreaded Ministry for Promotion of Advantage and Prevention of Vice ordered girls TV presenters to observe swimsuit from Saturday.

However the presenters defied the order and went on air with their faces seen, solely to fall in keeping with the directive on Sunday.

Sporting full hijabs and face-covering veils that left solely their eyes in view, girls presenters and reporters aired morning information bulletins throughout main channels like TOLOnews, Ariana Tv, Shamshad TV and 1TV.

“We resisted and had been in opposition to carrying a masks,” Sonia Niazi, a presenter with TOLOnews, instructed AFP.

“However TOLOnews was pressured and instructed that any feminine presenter who appeared on display with out overlaying her face have to be given another job or just eliminated,” she stated.

“TOLOnews was compelled and we had been pressured to put on it.”

Ladies presenters had been beforehand solely required to put on a headband.

TOLOnews director Khpolwak Sapai stated the channel was “pressured” to make its workers observe the order.

“We had been instructed ‘You might be pressured to do it. You will need to do it. There is no such thing as a different approach’,” Sapai instructed AFP.

“I used to be referred to as on the phone yesterday and was instructed in strict phrases to do it. So, it’s not by selection however by power that we’re doing it.”

‘Not in opposition to girls presenters’

On Sunday, male journalists and staff of TOLOnews wore face masks within the channel’s places of work in Kabul in solidarity with girls presenters, an AFP correspondent reported.

Different girls staff of the channel continued to work with their faces seen.

Ministry spokesman Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir stated authorities appreciated that media channels had noticed the gown code.

“We’re proud of the media channels that they carried out this accountability in a very good method,” he instructed AFP.

Mohajir additionally stated that the authorities weren’t in opposition to girls presenters working within the channels.

“Now we have no intention of eradicating them from the general public scene or sidelining them or stripping them of their proper to work,” he stated.

Akhundzada’s decree orders authorities to fireside girls authorities staff in the event that they fail to observe the gown code.

Males working in authorities additionally danger suspension if their wives or daughters fail to conform.

Authorities have additionally stated that media managers and guardians of defiant girls presenters can be responsible for penalties if the diktat was not noticed.

Throughout 20 years of US-led army intervention in Afghanistan, girls and women made marginal positive aspects within the deeply patriarchal nation.

Quickly after resuming management, the Taliban promised a softer model of the cruel Islamist rule that characterised their first stint in energy from 1996 to 2001.

World

Irish writer Paul Lynch clinches 2023 Booker Prize

Published

12 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Pakistaneo.com

LONDON: Irish writer Paul Lynch gained the 2023 Booker Prize for fiction on Sunday for his novel “Prophet Track,” a dystopian work about an Eire that descends into tyranny.

The 46-year-old pipped 5 different shortlisted novelists to the celebrated award at a ceremony in London.

He turns into the fifth Irish author to win the high-profile literary prize, which has propelled to fame numerous family names, together with previous winners Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.

“This was not a straightforward ebook to write down,” Lynch mentioned after accumulating his award, which comes with £50,000 (round $63,000) and an enormous increase to his profile.

“The rational a part of me believed I used to be dooming my profession by scripting this novel. Although I needed to write the ebook anyway. We wouldn’t have a selection in such issues,” he added.

Lynch’s ebook is about in Dublin in a close to future model of Eire. It follows the struggles of a mom of 4 as she tries to avoid wasting her household from totalitarianism.

There aren’t any paragraph breaks within the novel, which is Lynch’s fifth.

Canadian novelist Esi Edugyan, who chaired the five-person judging panel, known as the story “a triumph of emotional storytelling, bracing and courageous”.

“With nice vividness, Prophet Track captures the social and political anxieties of our present second,” she mentioned.

“Readers will discover it soul-shattering and true, and won’t quickly overlook its warnings.”

The Booker is open to works of fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and printed within the UK or Eire between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023.

– Murdoch, Doyle –

None of this yr’s six finalists — which included two People, a Canadian, a Kenyan and one other Irish writer — had been shortlisted earlier than and just one had beforehand been longlisted.

The shortlisted novels, introduced in September, have been chosen from a 13-strong longlist that had been whittled down from an preliminary 158 works.

Amongst them was Irish writer Paul Murray’s “The Bee Sting”, a tragicomic saga which seems to be on the position of destiny within the travails of 1 household.

Murray was beforehand longlisted in 2010.

Kenyan author Chetna Maroo’s transferring debut novel “Western Lane” about grief and sisterhood follows the story of a teenage woman for whom squash is life.

The judges additionally chosen “If I Survive You” by US author Jonathan Escoffery, which follows a Jamaican household and their chaotic new life in Miami.

He was joined by fellow American writer, Paul Harding, whose “This Different Eden” — impressed by historic occasions — tells the story of Apple Island, an enclave off the US coast the place society’s misfits flock and construct a brand new house.

Canada was represented on the shortlist within the form of “Research for Obedience” by Sarah Bernstein. The unsettling novel explores the themes of prejudice and guilt via a suspicious narrator.

The Booker was first awarded in 1969. Final yr’s winner was Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilaka for “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”.

The earlier Irish winners are Iris Murdoch, John Banville, Roddy Doyle and Anne Enright.

World

Hamas army wing confirms martyrdom of 4 leaders since October 7

Published

13 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Pakistaneo.com

GAZA: The army wing of the Palestinian group Hamas has claimed that 4 of its leaders have been martyred since October 7.

Al-Qassam Brigades mentioned these killed included Ahmed Al-Ghandour, a member of the Navy Council and commander of the Northern Brigade.

“The Al-Qassam Brigades is mourning a bunch of its heroic leaders, specifically Commander Ahmed Al-Ghandour, often known as Abu Anas, a member of the Navy Council, the commander of the Northern Brigade, and the leaders: Wael Rajab, Raafat Salman, and Ayman Siam,” the group mentioned in a press release.

Nonetheless, it didn’t present particulars in regards to the dates of their deaths. The group additionally declared their “dedication to the liberty path”.

The Israeli military had beforehand introduced the deaths of Hamas leaders in airstrikes on Gaza throughout its army marketing campaign. Nonetheless, most Israeli strikes have resulted in heavy civilian casualties and vital infrastructure destruction within the area.

A four-day pause within the hostilities, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, went into impact on Friday, quickly halting Israel’s onslaught on the Gaza Strip. Within the first two days of the ‘pause’, Israel and Hamas exchanged 41 Israelis and foreigners for 78 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Beneath the settlement, hostages will probably be launched in batches through the 4 days.

Israel launched a large army marketing campaign in Gaza following a cross-border assault by Hamas on Oct. 7. It has since martyred at the very least 14,854 Palestinians, together with 6,150 kids and over 4,000 ladies, in response to well being authorities within the enclave. The official Israeli loss of life toll stands at 1,200.

World

India’s envoy to US faces backlash from Sikh neighborhood at NYC Gurdwara

Published

14 hours ago

November 28, 2023

Pakistaneo.com

NEW YORK: A gaggle of Sikh neighborhood members confronted Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu at a New York Gurdwara who was visiting Hicksville Gurdwara in Lengthy Island on the event of Gurpurab.

Within the footage, it could possibly be seen that a variety of protesters surrounded him and began shouting and accused him of plotting the assassination of Canadian nationwide Hardeep Singh Nijjar and likewise conspiring to get one other chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun murdered.

The video of the change between Sandhu and the Sikh neighborhood members has been taking rounds. The footage begins with the envoy telling the protesters that he’s visiting the gurdwara for seva (service).

US authorities thwart conspiracy to kill Pannun

Monetary Occasions reported that US authorities had thwarted a conspiracy to kill Pannun, chief of Khalistani organisation Sikhs for Justice, on American soil. Requested in regards to the report, the White Home stated the US is “treating a reported plot to kill a Sikh separatist on American soil with utmost seriousness” and has raised the problem with the Indian authorities “on the senior-most ranges”.

White Home spokesperson Adrienne Watson stated Indian authorities had “expressed shock and concern” within the matter and “said that exercise of this nature was not their coverage”.

Canada expels India’s envoy
Canada in September expelled New Delhi’s head of the Analysis and Evaluation Wing (RAW)— India’s international intelligence company—stationed in Ottawa accusing India’s involvement within the killing of a Khalistani chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June.
The already strained relations between Ottawa and New Delhi took a dramatic new low.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau knowledgeable an emergency session of the parliamentary opposition that his authorities had credible proof linking Indian brokers to the killing of Khalistan chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in June in British Columbia.

He referred to as within the strongest potential phrases for the Indian authorities to cooperate in clearing up the matter.