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Abu Dhabi, UAE
CNN
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A weeping Iranian girl is seen kneeling by her lifeless brother’s coffin as she slashes through her hair with a pair of scissors. Her kinfolk wail for justice as she tosses strands onto the coffin.
They have been grieving for 36-year-old Javad Heydari, who was fatally shot final week at one of many anti-government protests which have gripped Iran.
Photographs like these have galvanized girls the world over to affix Iranian girls protesting the loss of life of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. She died in hospital on September 16, three days after being pulled off the streets of Tehran by morality police and brought to a “re-education middle” for classes in modesty.
From the Center East, Europe and throughout the USA, girls across the globe have proven solidarity with Iranian girls’s plight in rallies and demonstrations. Some have additionally lower or shaved their hair in public or whereas being filmed.
Now of their twelfth day, protests have swept by greater than 40 Iranian cities, together with the capital Tehran. Iranian safety forces have been cracking down on protesters, with tons of arrested and at the very least 41 killed, in response to state media. Some human rights organizations say the loss of life toll is as excessive as 76. CNN can not independently confirm these figures.
So, why are girls chopping their hair?
For a lot of Iranian girls, chopping off hair – an indication of magnificence that’s decreed to be hidden within the Islamic Republic – is a poignant type of protest.
“We need to present them that we don’t care about their requirements, their definition of magnificence or what they assume that we must always appear like,” mentioned 36-year-old Faezeh Afshan, an Iranian chemical engineer dwelling in Bologna, Italy, who was filmed shaving off her hair. “It’s to indicate that we’re indignant.”
Afshan attributes the apply of chopping off hair to historic cultural practices. “In our literature, chopping the hair is a logo of mourning, and generally a logo of protesting,” she informed CNN. “If we are able to lower our hair to indicate that we’re indignant… we are going to do it.”
The apply is cited in Shahnameh, a 1,000-year-old Persian epic and a cultural mainstay in Iran written by Ferdowsi. Made from almost 60,000 verses, the poem tells the tales of the kings of Persia and is without doubt one of the most essential works of literature within the Persian language. In a couple of occasion by the epic work, hair is plucked in an act of mourning.
“Girls chopping their hair is an historic Persian custom… when the fury is stronger than the facility of the oppressor,” tweeted Wales-based author and translator Shara Atashi. “The second we’ve been ready for has come. Politics fueled by poetry.”
Within the Shahnameh, after the hero Siyavash is killed, his spouse Farangis and the ladies accompanying her lower their hair to protest injustice, Atashi informed CNN.
The characters portrayed within the poem “are in on a regular basis use as symbols and archetypes,” she mentioned, including that the poem has helped form the identities of Iranians, Afghans and Tajiks for 1,000 years.
“However there may be haircutting within the poetry of Hafez and Khaqani too, at all times about mourning and protests in opposition to injustice,” she mentioned, referring to different Persian poets.
The apply can also be frequent in different historic cultures. The Epic of Gilgamesh, a 3,500-year-old poem from historic Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) covers themes of grief and despair, the place chopping or pulling out one’s hair is used to precise anguish. The poem is taken into account to be one of many world’s oldest works of literature and is claimed to have influenced neighboring cultures.
Shima Babaei, an Iranian activist residing in Belgium who mentioned she was arrested by Iran’s infamous morality police in 2018 for publicly eradicating her hijab as an indication of protest, informed CNN that hair chopping had “historic that means” for Iranians. Girls who lose a direct relative would generally lower their hair as an indication of mourning and anger, she mentioned.
“For us, Mahsa was our sister,” she mentioned. “And so, on this approach, we’re protesting.”
Slicing hair, mentioned Atashi, “is itself a ceremony of mourning to raised expose the depth of struggling on the lack of a cherished one.” And in at present’s context, she provides, it’s a signal of “protest in opposition to the killing of our individuals.”
Saudi king names MBS as prime minister
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz has named his son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (referred to as MBS) as the dominion’s prime minister and one other son Prince Khalid as protection minister, in response to Saudi state media.
- Background: The crown prince was promoted from protection minister and has been the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia for a number of years. Khalid beforehand served as deputy protection minister. MBS mentioned the dominion has elevated its self-sufficiency in army industries to fifteen% from 2% and plans to succeed in 50% underneath the newly appointed protection minister, state-run Saudi Press Company reported. King Salman will nonetheless preside over the cupboard conferences he attends, the decree confirmed.
- Why it issues: MBS has modified Saudi Arabia radically since rising to energy in 2017, main efforts to diversify the economic system from its dependence on oil, permitting girls to drive and curbing clerics’ powers. His reforms, nevertheless, have include a crackdown on dissent, with activists, royals, girls rights’ activists and businessmen jailed.
Turkey summons German envoy after politician likens Erdogan to ‘sewer rat’
Turkey’s international ministry summoned the German ambassador to Ankara on Tuesday to protest feedback made by a senior German politician who likened President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to a “little sewer rat,” Reuters reported. “We condemn within the strongest phrases the insulting statements made by Wolfgang Kubicki, the vice-speaker of the German Federal Parliament, about our president in a speech through the Decrease Saxony state election marketing campaign,” Turkish international ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic mentioned in an announcement.
- Background: Kubicki confirmed to Reuters that he made the remark throughout an election marketing campaign rally whereas making an attempt to attract consideration to an increase within the variety of unlawful migrants transferring from Turkey alongside the so-called Balkan route in direction of Germany. “A sewer rat is a small, cute, however on the identical time intelligent and artful creature that additionally seems in kids’s tales,” Kubicki mentioned, citing the favored animated film “Ratatouille” for instance.
- Why it issues: Turkey is a candidate for EU membership however negotiations have lengthy been stalled amid disagreements on plenty of points together with Ankara’s human rights report, migration and geopolitics. Insulting the president is a prison offense in Turkey, the place Erdogan and his ruling AK Get together have held energy for twenty years.
No less than 4 Palestinians killed, dozens wounded in one among this yr’s deadliest Israeli West Financial institution raids
No less than 4 Palestinian males have been killed and 50 wounded throughout an Israeli army raid in Jenin Wednesday morning, Palestinian officers mentioned, making it one of many deadliest Israeli raids within the occupied West Financial institution this yr, which has already seen over 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli troopers. The Israel Protection Forces (IDF) mentioned the raid was associated to an assault in Tel Aviv in April which left three individuals lifeless, and that the suspects Wednesday fought again with explosives and gunfire.
- Background: For months, Israel has been usually raiding cities within the West Financial institution, focusing particularly on Jenin and Nablus, saying it’s concentrating on militants and their weapons caches earlier than they’ve the prospect to cross into Israel and perform assaults. The operation, dubbed “Breaking the Wave” by the IDF, was launched after a sequence of assaults on Israelis. No less than 20 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in assaults concentrating on civilians and troopers in Israel and the West Financial institution up to now this yr.
- Why it issues: That is already the deadliest yr for Palestinians within the West Financial institution since 2015, in response to the Palestinian Ministry of Well being. Greater than 35 of these killed have been in Jenin. Israel says most killed have been participating violently with troopers throughout army operations, however dozens of unarmed civilians have been killed as nicely, human rights teams together with B’Tselem have mentioned.
Henna, a reddish-brown dye famously used for physique artwork in lots of elements of the Center East, could also be making its solution to becoming a member of the UNESCO record of intangible cultural heritage.
Within the strategy of being nominated by the UAE and the Arab League, henna has lengthy been a part of Center Jap, North African and South Asian heritage and id.
Courting again hundreds of years, the short-term dye is used to create elaborate designs primarily on one’s fingers, usually for spiritual festivals and celebrations.
Representatives from 16 Arab international locations met this month to debate the nomination, in response to the Abu Dhabi authorities media workplace, stressing that henna performs an essential function in Arab and Gulf tradition and id.
UNESCO’s record of intangible cultural heritage consists of each inherited in addition to fashionable traditions, and is supposed to advertise practices that contribute to “social cohesion” and encourage a shared sense of id.
The record consists of practices corresponding to falconry, yoga, and Arabic calligraphy.
By Nadeen Ebrahim
