attransferd

Positioning himself as a socio-economic reformer can be a cynical ploy to weaken factions in the clerical establishment opposed to him.In foreign policy, Saudi Arabia finds its proxies near total defeat and its Syrian war strategy in shambles.In September 2011, the late King Abdullah granted Saudi women the right to vote and contest as candidates in local body elections from 2015 onward. Abolishing the whole fulcrum of the guardianship legal frame and the Sharia justifications behind it would amount to implosion of the Wahhabi monarchy itself.Feminists hold that all nation-states, not just hardline Islamic ones, are "gendered" to some extent as they are built upon unjust distribution of rights and duties that disadvantage women and legalise their inferiority. The kingdom has been lobbying fervently in the United Nations to block an independent inquiry into war crimes its military has committed.

This may have been motivated by fear of the Arab Spring fervour spreading into the kingdom and triggering a revolution.The list of forbidden activities for the fairer sex is too voluminous and entrenched in the Saudi body politic to be wiped out clean. It is incapable of opening a wedge in the absolute patriarchal system of laws and enforcement which relegates women to the status of less-than-full human beings. According to the World Bank, women constitute just 20 per cent of the Saudi labour force, comparing poorly even with GCC member-states like Bahrain (39%), Oman (30%), UAE (42%), Qatar (53%) and Kuwait (48%).Statistics tell the true story of Saudi women’s caged situation.Treating women’s liberation as a standalone issue, separate from the broader question of Saudi Arabia’s democratisation, is a reductionist folly.So, given the overall rigidity of Saudi gender apartheid, the most the royal family is willing to do at critical junctures are paltry incremental sops like lifting the ban on women driving.By extending "political rights" to over half the population, the idea is to contain the spirit of democratisation and other secular tendencies. When a state authority driven by Wahhabi Islamic ideology is in power, there simply can’t be genuine autonomy for women to make their own choices.Ann Elizabeth Mayer of the University of Pennsylvania is interwoven into the fabric of governance and legitimacy underpinning the ultraconservative rule of the Saudi monarchy. Preventing women from driving was one of several factors marring women from working and increasing their income levels. But in the Saudi context of an entrenched hereditary monarchy, voting and elections have negligible impact and letting women cast ballots is another cosmetic measure. Saudi women are at the bottom in terms of citizenship, and will remain so as long as there is a "Saudi" Arabia.

The unparalleled surveillance and punishment of women in public and private spheres through the notorious moral police (Mutaween) is a central mechanism for the Saudi monarchy and its Wahhabi theologians to maintain order and their own supremacy.Further, she argues that "controlling women’s religiosity, appearance, movement, education, work, economic activity, property and marriage are the most cherished devotions of Saudi religious nationalism, its priesthood and the state". But the ban on women working in many sectors of the economy where there could be sexual intermixing and restrictions on female mobility without the permission of male guardians can obviate the practical benefits of women getting driver’s licences. The young heir to the throne hopes to consolidate his own power and displace rivals in the transitional phase. The image problem that constantly dogs Saudi Arabia for its foreign policy misadventures and export of sectarian Sunni fundamentalism is being sought to be softened through rescinding the driving ban on women.Saudi Arabia’s royal decree allowing women to drive automobiles is a weeny symbolic change in an overwhelmingly gender-unequal country. Saudi Arabia is the epitome of this process — its guardianship laws and prohibitions have so many "not allowed" categories for women compared to men that finally securing the right to drive cars is akin to the proverbial drop in the ocean of misogyny and intolerance.The journey for the emancipation of almost-enslaved Saudi women is long and tortuous, and will require fundamental political and religious transformation rather than token administrative gestures. Whenever the Saudi state is under duress and scared of rising dissent, it looks for safety valves by easing a little bit of pressure on society while keeping the overarching principles untouched. This is because the system aptly described as "gender apartheid" by Prof.

The World Economic Forum ranks Saudi Arabia 141st out of 144 nations in the Gender Gap Index, with only Syria, Pakistan and Yemen faring worse. She shows how the Saudi state and its allied Wahhabi clerics consciously use suppression of women to Wholesale Functional Fabric Factory forge a unified nationalistic narrative over heterogeneous pre-Islamic tribal traditions and set Saudi Arabia apart as an exceptionally pure Islamic country.Saudi social anthropologist Madawi al-Rasheed has analysed how women are subordinated and excluded from the public domain to maintain the world’s "most masculine state".For every allegation that Saudi Arabia is a theocratic state with links to jihadi terrorism, the idea is to retort with a liberal projection of a stable and gradually reforming country where women are being empowered. Overturning of the ban might minimally improve women’s presence in the Saudi workforce and boost the "Vision 2030" economic diversification blueprint of the new crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.But when Saudi women covered in the abaya (head-to-toe loose robes) do start revving engines on the streets, it would not compensate for their overall second-class status in law where their testimony equals half of that of a male Saudi.Politically, the recent sensational palace coup which upstaged the previous crown prince and elevated Mohammad bin Salman to the pinnacle offers some context to the surprising edict easing women’s driving conditions.

Chauhan, an active member of the Indian community in the New York area, said in the release he was honoured to be appointed to the position of Deputy Comptroller and would continue to support the Comptroller’s efforts to provide equal opportunity for minority and women owned enterprises to do business with Nassau County.It however underlined the need to do more for the rights of the minority communities.New York: Indian-American Dilip Chauhan has been appointed to a senior position focusing on increasing outreach to the minority communities in Nassau County here.Chauhan had joined the Comptroller’s office in 2015 as Director for Community Affairs, South and East Asia and has served as senior advisor to the Comptroller since early 2017.Chauhan was China Jacquard Fabric Manufacturers named Deputy Comptroller for Minority Affairs by Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos, according to a statement issued here.

The statement said that minority communities are an integral part of the fabric of The Nassau County and the Comptroller’s Office has been a driving force in advocating for increased business opportunities for Minority and Women Owned Enterprises (MWBEs), and Veterans to meet the County’s goals..In the press release, Maragos lauded Chauhan’s efforts in assisting members of the minority communities to better navigate local government and helping resolve governmental issues faced by minority constituents.

He requested the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council to reconsider this on an urgent basis and bring it under the 5 per cent slab.He said the lower tax will provide relief to the textile industry from the extra burden as majority of the work of textile manufacturing is with small and medium enterprises and is carried on through job works especially in the power loom, knitting, processing and garment manufacturing sectors. Giving reasons for lowering the tax rates, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the objective was to maintain equivalence to the existing taxation Mattress Fabric Manufacturers level.Thulasidharan welcomed the announcement on revision of GST rates on job work of textile yarn and fabric manufacturing activity from 18 to 5 per cent.

The Council yesterday fixed the tax rate on job workers in textile, diamond processing, leather, jewellery and printing at 5 per cent, as against the normal 18 per cent GST rate for services.In a statement, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry Chairman J Thulasidharan said the industry is apprehensive about the made-ups and garment sector as the job work related to these still comes under 18 per cent service tax slab.New Delhi: Textile industry today urged the GST Council to lower the service tax on job work related to made-ups and garment sector, saying the proposed 18 per cent tax would escalate the prices of final goods making them uncompetitive in the international market.

"Whenever we took a break to try and regain some energy in order to keep going on, I would take out my notebook," he says, adding his notebooks helped him with that mental strength. He then recalls one such story when he saw a Nooristani woman extending her hand as if she was seeking alms.He says he would write to his wife almost every hour. Family is number one in our hearts but our nation is just as important to most patriotic people," he asserts. I took a few steps in her direction and saw that in her outstretched, there were four walnuts," he recalls. At that moment, one of the men said loudly, ‘Khalili Sahib, she has something for you.

The book is an account of the search for ever elusive peace in a country ravaged by war — a war that changed the landscape of the country and the fabric of its society.He describes his book as a journey of a young political officer who wanted to bring peace in his country.The inspiration for writing diaries came to him from love of his family and even more so the love for his nation. Alongside his friend, Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, Khalili travelled on foot, horseback and donkey, sharing the tales of pain, despair, and despondence of his countrymen and women.And now years later, one of those notebooks has been translated by his son into Whispers of War, a heart- wrenching tale of freedom and hope. It was very unusual. This one is the trip to Herat."It Heat Transfer Printing Factory was strange to me to see a woman begging in Nooristan.In letters to his wife Sohaillah, he writes of his journey through the Himalayan range, accompanied by a team of foreign journalists.Whispers of War: An Afghan Freedom Fighter’s Account of the Soviet Invasion by Khalili, ambassador of Afghanistan to Spain and son of great Afghan poet Ustad Khalilullah Khalili, is published by Sage Books. It is a totally different kind of feeling because I travel through the Southern provinces of Afghanistan, which has a different people and culture than people of the North," Khalili says.According to him, it is very hard to know the real life stories of the people unless one hears these from them.As a young political leader, Khalili motivated his people and led them in their fight against the Red Army. One of those notebooks is the one that my son translated and we made into Whispers of War," he says."My son, Mahmud, who translated Whispers of War has plans to translate one more of my notebooks."

As I travelled through the high mountains of Afghanistan, I would miss my wife and the only thing that could console my heart, would be to take out my yellow notebook and write the different things that I saw, felt, heard and experienced," the author says."But more than the story of that young political officer, it is the story of the tears, pain, and suffering of the common people of that poor, war-torn country," Khalili told PTI.."I wanted my wife, for whom I was writing, to really understand the depth of the struggle of my people as I was learning it by being with them.

When Afghan diplomat Masood Khalili travelled through the high mountains to mobilise people against the invading Red Army, he missed his wife and to console his heart, he would take out his notebook and write the things he saw, felt, heard and experienced."In my 13 trips into Afghanistan over the course of the whole jihad, I travelled to every corner and in each one, I had one thing always with me and that was my notebook to my wife.He wrote over 40 notebooks, some political, some military and the others for his wife.’ As I turned back, I saw that the woman instantly covered her face with her old black headscarf and kept one hand extended towards me. I moved past quickly. They are poor but not beggars.