Experiences of Desi muslims in the hands of Global Ummah

[ramana]

Vicky Nanjappa had a very good article on same subject of treatment of Indian Muslims abroad in Islamic countries.

[Neshant]

I don't know what its like in the middle east for (poor) Indians.
But in US/Canada, the feeling one gets is as if we are all working hard in a corporation with bankers milking us from below. The central focus is making as much money as possible and stashing it away.

I can't say this is bad. For the most part, if people left us alone and we're free to pile up dough (without banking crooks stealing it), there's not much to complain about. There's no attachment to the country as most see it as a kind of corporation but hey, who cares.

As for being a part of the country, because Indians look visibly different from white folks they will always be treated different. This however is normal human behavior shaped over millions of years. You'll trust a tribe member who looks like you carrying the majority of your genes way more than some guy who came in from some other tribe with less genetic affiliation.

As long as the dough is piling up under the mattress, I don't think most Indians care one way or the other.

[Lilo]

Desi Muslim expats face ‘pervasive racism’ in Arabia
By Mariam Nihal

Most expatriates living in the Kingdom admit to facing some sort of racism in their workplace and public spaces, including restaurants and schools.

Many parents who spoke to Saudi Gazette expressed concerns about future generations carrying forth a disturbing, regressive and discriminating attitude.

Many reports of maid and labor abuse have surfaced in rapid succession over the past few years.

The tragedy of foreign laborers working in the Middle East has impacted the region and created more awareness on social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

Most expatriate men in Saudi Arabia are likely working with or for Saudis as they cannot operate independent businesses.

Bashir Ahmed, a 29-year-old Pakistani driver from Peshawar, told Saudi Gazette that locals look down upon him and his friends because of their nationalities.

“We are always called Bengali, Hindi or Pakistani, like it is something bad. The way they say it feels like an abuse, as if our only job is to serve.”

Salary disparities between different nationalities performing the same jobs are common in the Kingdom and are most commonly seen among south Asians and Saudis.

Salma Ahmed, a Pakistani teacher living in Dhahran, told Saudi Gazette that she was offered SR2,500 compared to Saudi teachers who are paid SR5,000 basic as a starting salary.

She said: “Luckily my husband and I applied for Canadian citizenship. “Now I got an offer from an American school and they offered me four times my salary. The prejudice is so blatant and shameful.”

Many expatriate women complained that activities and opportunities to engage with the local community are limited and they feel left out because they are not able to communicate in the same language or do not work together.

Kauser Iqbal, a 34-year-old Indian living in Jeddah, said: “It is this kind of estranged feeling.

“I am a housewife, taking care of four kids. My usual routine involves going to the parks, malls and restaurants.

“I moved my location to Kababish (off Prince Majed Street) to feel closer and less discriminated against.

“Our old neighborhood was full of Arabic speaking people who never really made an effort and I felt they kept their families and children further away from us because we are south Indians.”

She said her husband Iqbal also faces constant discrimination at work. “He works as an IT assistant and he feels he will never get promoted because of his nationality.

“He has had four Saudis take the job above him, who make him work and even then get fired just to be replaced with another national or Arab.

“I feel upset and very sad for my children's future. I feel love for this place and its people but it is true to state that we south Asians feel very hurt and discriminated against.”

Since the Saudi government began issuing warnings last year, hundreds of thousands of foreign workers were deported.

Most were able to avoid arrest by getting proper visas in an amnesty program.

Zainab Khan, a 12-year-old Indian girl studying at an international school in Jeddah, said she feels left out of most activities because of her ethnicity.

She said: "I am not Arab, American or British. The teachers don't treat me the same.

“They don't pick me in plays or other activities and talk harshly to me. I feel like skipping school and going to another Indian school where we can all be friends.”

[member_27991]

“I feel upset and very sad for my children's future. I feel love for this place and its people but it is true to state that we south Asians feel very hurt and discriminated against.”

Still feel love for the place blah blah....there you go.

[JE Menon]

These same people often come back and refer to Hindus as Iblis or kuffar... And also look down on fellow Muslims who haven't travelled to Saudi.... As if just visiting there has made them superior. I'm sure Mallus have observed this phenomenon.

[panduranghari]

I don't know what its like in the middle east for (poor) Indians.
But in US/Canada, the feeling one gets is as if we are all working hard in a corporation with bankers milking us from below. The central focus is making as much money as possible and stashing it away.

I can't say this is bad. For the most part, if people left us alone and we're free to pile up dough (without banking crooks stealing it), there's not much to complain about. There's no attachment to the country as most see it as a kind of corporation but hey, who cares.

As for being a part of the country, because Indians look visibly different from white folks they will always be treated different. This however is normal human behavior shaped over millions of years. You'll trust a tribe member who looks like you carrying the majority of your genes way more than some guy who came in from some other tribe with less genetic affiliation.

As long as the dough is piling up under the mattress, I don't think most Indians care one way or the other.

Well put Neshant saar. As a fellow doomster on global economic thread, I more or less agree with this perspective. Your last statement -As long as the dough is piling up under the mattress, I don't think most Indians care one way or the other. - is telling. And its sad. Social support is missing for most overseas Indians, including Muslims. The reverse migration when it begins like a trickle will turn into a veritable tsunami. I do wonder if the circumstances of the Indian workers in west asia is any different from those in the rest of the world. Will the foreign passport many of us willingly accepted, be used to prevent us from leaving when the going gets tough? Sorry for the digression.

[Lilo]

An Arab asks himself: Why do our kids kill cats and then skin them? Why do they throw stones on South Asian workers found alone on the street?

In the shop next to my house, there is a home delivery service which is run by an Indian. He is a good man, hardworking and devoted to his job. I talk to him whenever he delivers something to my house and he talks to me about the time he spent working in Abu Dhabi and of his dream to live in London.

Last week I asked him to deliver a newspaper to my house. When he delivered it to me, he asked me whether I wrote in it. I told him that I did and he asked me to write about why young Saudis hate foreign workers, particularly Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. He asked, “Why do they throw rocks at us when they see us in the street?” He said that in India they were taught to love others because that is the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). I was moved by his words and promised him that I would write on the subject.

I took his question to my students and started a discussion in class. The students agreed that they had harassed foreigners, particularly South Asians, in the street. One said that seeing a worker in the street was a perfect chance for them to beat him up and then run away. Some admitted searching for foreign workers to beat up, throw eggs at and generally abuse. I asked my students why they behaved in this way, what was the reason. Some said it was just fun, nothing more or less. Some said it was because those people were weak and unable to fight back. Some said that their favorite pastime was to catch cats, kill them and skin them. I was shocked and disturbed by all this violence and wondered what was causing it.

The classroom discussion ended but my questions would not go away. Is this violence only committed by children or can we see it at other levels in other forms? How do older people deal with foreign workers? Do the workers feel that we respect them? Sadly, the rude and sarcastic way we often refer to them sprang to my mind. Can such relationships be called humane? Are they based on equality? Are they in keeping with the tenets of Islam?

Do we adult Saudis who sponsor and employ foreigners fulfill the conditions of their contracts — which both we and they have signed? How many housemaids never get a day off?

I remember a worker in the school where I work who was on the job every day and who had not been paid for six months. I remember another unpaid worker who asked humbly and politely for his dues and received nothing but curses and insults. It seems to me that our children’s violent behavior has its origins and roots in the behavior and attitudes of adults. My Indian friend’s question should have thus been directed toward all ages and not just at the young.

Are these things related to education? Can we blame this shameful behavior on a lack of education? The answer came all too quickly to my head. I remembered one of my colleagues, a teacher who belongs to a certain tribe. He believes that a student lacking a tribal name is a man with no roots and hence of no importance{Is this why desi muslims adopt Saudi surnames like Kawaja,qureishi etc?}. Then I remembered a preacher who visited the school after 9/11 and warned the students against dealing with non-Muslims. I also remember a sheikh in a mosque who would not allow a foreigner to pray next to him — simply because the man was not Saudi.

It is not difficult to come up with examples of our relations with people in our country who belong to different religions and cultures. And I will not discuss our own relations with other Saudis. Many of us will not allow our daughters to marry someone just because he is from a certain place or because, for some reason, we look down on him. Behind all these examples are beliefs and thoughts toward “others” which glorify us and our egos and degrade them and theirs. Such a situation is fertile ground for the idea of hate and infertile ground for the idea of love.

Those brought up to love people will not throw rocks at them and curse them. Those brought up to love people will not degrade those who are different from them? Where is love in our lives? Has it given way to hate? What answer can I give my Indian friend? Is he going to understand that it will take a long time to change this culture of hate? I do not think that it will be easy since so many of us do not want to and so many believe they are unique and the best in the world. I remember when I was in England last summer, arriving at the front door of the house where I was staying. I saw a little girl standing outside the house next to mine. I wondered if she would curse me or throw stones at me or whether she would just look away in disgust. Instead, she carried on watering the flowers in the small garden; then she looked up and waved at me, with a big smile on her face. Could that have happened here?

[Singha]

Ndtv

An artist's impression of the Al-Bayt Stadium.
Doha: An Indian worker died at the construction site of the Al-Bayt 2022 World Cup Stadium after he fell ill, the tournament's organising committee announced today.

The worker, 48, died on Wednesday after suffering a cardiac arrest at the stadium's construction site in the Qatari city of al-Khor, reports Efe.

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Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of the 2022 World Cup announced that it has opened an investigation into the death of the Indian labourer to determine the circumstances of the incident.

The conditions of workers building the Qatar World Cup stadiums have been reported as very poor by several human rights organisations.

Reports have also emerged of the deaths of hundreds of workers.

In March, Amnesty International warned against labour exploitation of immigrants in the construction works of the 2022 World Cup stadiums and facilities, and said workers were living in subhuman conditions, without even basic rights.

[Singha]

Peninsula qatar

DOHA: Indian embassy registered deaths of 97 Indians in Qatar in April, the mission said on Thursday. The number of total deaths of Indians registered last year was 279. The same number of deaths were registered during 2014 as well.

The details were released following the monthly open house held at the embassy premises.

Ambassador Sanjiv Arora, Deputy Chief of Mission R K Singh and other officials met Indians attending the event, discussed their problems and promised to follow up on their cases with Qatari authorities. Arvind Patil, President, Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF), was also present.

The Labour and Community Welfare Section of the embassy received a total of 1,482 complaints from Indian workers since the beginning of this year. The number of complaints received during 2015 was 4,132. On the basis of requests received from Qatari authorities for travel documents for Indian expatriates in the Search and Follow Up Department, the embassy issued 33 Emergency Certificates (ECs) in April. Also the embassy also issued19 air tickets to Indian nationals distress for their return to India.

Officials at the Indian embassy visited the central prison and the Search and Follow Up Department to enquire about the welfare of Indians there. Currently there are 129 Indians in the Central Prison and 103 Indians in the Search and Follow Up Department.

ICBF continues to help Indian workers through various welfare measures, including provision of air tickets, financial assistance and medical help.

The Peninsula

[Lilo]

25-year-old Indian maid Asima Khatoon tortured to death in Saudi Arabia
Mon, 9 May 2016-09:10am , ANI


A 25-year-old Hyderabadi woman who went to Saudi Arabia to work as a 'house maid' was allegedly tortured to death, as she succumbed to her injuries while undergoing treatment at the King Saud hospital for chest diseases in Saudi Arabia.

The family members of Asima Khatoon were informed about the death on Thursday when an unknown person called her mother from Riyadh and informed that Asima was no more.

Asima used to call her family and lament about the torture being allegedly meted out to her at the hands of her employer.

Three days before her death, Chief Secretary of Telangana Dr. Rajiv Sharma had made a request in writing at the behest of the deceased's family to rescue her from the clutches of her employer and repatriate her back to Hyderabad.

Asima, a resident of Shah Colony in Dabeerpura, had left for Riyadh in December 2015 on a 'house maid' visa procured via an agent.

Since the government had stopped issuing 'house maid' visas about two years ago, she was in fact, sent to Riyadh on a business visit visa for 90 days and was illegally kept there in confinement.

Though there was no information from her since her departure, she telephoned home about two months ago informing the family about the instances of torture that had been meted out to her from the hands of her employer, Abdul Rahman Ali Mohammed.

She told her mother on the phone that she was being harassed mentally and physically and requested her family to make arrangements for her return at any cost.

The Police is presently investigating the case.

[Lilo]

X-post

"Sex Tourism" In India
Apologies for posting this 2013 report ; am sure that relevant steps must have already been taken to stop this barbaric practice !

Teenager exposes India's 'one month wives' sex tourism

A 17-year-old girl has exposed the scale of Islamic sex tourism in India where Muslim men from the Middle East and Africa are buying 'one month wives' for sex.

Campaigners for Muslim women's rights said while short term 'contract marriages' are illegal in India and forbidden in Islam, they are increasing in Hyderabad, in southern India, where wealthy foreigners, local agents and 'Qazis' – government-appointed Muslim priests – are exploiting poverty among the city's Muslim families.
The victim, Nausheen Tobassum, revealed the scale of the problem when she escaped from her home last month after her parents pressurised her to consummate a forced marriage to a middle aged Sudanese man who had paid around £1,200 for her to be his 'wife' for four weeks.
She told police she had been taken by her aunt to a hotel where she and three other teenage girls were introduced to a Sudanese oil company executive. The 'groom', Usama Ibrahim Mohammed, 44 and married with two children in Khartoum, later arrived at her home where a Qazi performed a wedding ceremony.

Shiraz Amina Khan of Hyderabad's Women and Child Welfare Society, said there were up to 15 'contract marriages' in the city every month and that the number is rising.
"They come to Hyderabad because it has maximum downtrodden families. Thirty to forty per cent of families are going for the option of contract marriages to relieve their poverty. It has to be stopped," she said.
Nausheen Tobassum, who is now living in a government home for girls said in an interview before she was placed in care, that she had filed a complaint to stop the same thing happening to other girls.
"I didn't know what was happening and I agreed in ignorance. They forced me. They changed my date of birth certificate and made a fake one, where I was shown as 24 years old. They exploit girls and that's why I went to police. I had to show courage to go to police against my parents. I don't want to go back to my home, I am scared," she said.

[Karan Dixit]

It is really up to Desi Muslims how much value they attest to self respect. It is not my place to step in their internal religious affairs. However, we should encourage our Dharmic people to be cautious about taking migratory trips to Muslim countries. We should also take active steps and provide help to our Dharmic population that finds itself in bad situation there. Also, if necessary, take retaliatory measures against those countries that cross lines in dealing with our Dharmic people.

[Lilo]

https://youtu.be/v6_RR5omrao


https://youtu.be/j9KE09xun8A


https://youtu.be/5nrviG-kwiU

Published on Feb 12, 2014An Interview of Overseas Pakistani Workers who are oppressed by their sponsors in Saudi Arabia, their Sponsors (Kafeel) asking for bribe to just make a signature or issue a Sponsorship-Transfer letter. Situation become more worst when Jawazat (Passport Office Officials) arrest them and put them in Jail and treating them like animals, offering poor kind of food and water with money.

These people are purely legal, their iqama (labor permit) are valid for up to 8 months, they came to Saudi Arabia on legal work permits issued by Labor ministry & stamped by Saudi Embassy in Pakistan. Still these people are treated as illegals and arrested and asked for bribe by Saudi sponsors to proceed their jobs in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabian authorities need to control black market of visa trade if they really want to control un-employment of Saudi Nationals in Saudi Arabia. At one side they are arresting existing workers and at other side they are issuing more and more work visas every year

https://youtu.be/GEG7vTjFJRk


https://youtu.be/pPrIS0B4kCg

[Lilo]

https://youtu.be/seqS_CyuAmY

are being tortured and raped by their employers.

Around six months ago, a woman from Kurigram who went to Saudi Arabia as a housemaid, was raped by her master and got pregnant. She took shelter at the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh and was sent back home on 6 April.


Talking to Prothom Alo, the woman shared her horrific experience of Saudi Arabia life on Friday.


According to Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh, Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment, Wage Earners Welfare Board and families of victim women, as many as 150 such women were victims of physical and mental torture last year in Saudi Arabia.


Around 150 female housemaids took refuge in the safe house of the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh in 2015 because of work burden and torture.

Of the 150, at least 100 women were repatriated and another 35 were requested by their families to be sent back home from Saudi Arabia.

Bangladeshi maids face physical and sexual assault in other Middle East countries including UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman and Qatar.

The expatriates' welfare and overseas employment ministry and the Wage Earners Welfare Board received letters from the families of 60 female maids living in Saudi Arabia, 43 in Lebanon, 44 in Jordan, 33 in Dubai, 10 in Abu Dhabi, 14 in Oman and 10 in Qatar, asking that they should be brought back home.


Of them, 100 have already been repatriated.


A total of 20,952 Bangladeshi domestic workers arrived in the Kingdom in February, 2015 and another 20,036 went there in the first three months of 2016.


Expatriates' welfare and overseas employment minister Nurul Islam told Prothom Alo, “These incidents are sad. We take action whenever come to know any complaint like this. We already brought 100 women back home.”


“A high-profile ministry team has already travelled to Saudi Arabia and talked to its concerned authorities over the problems Bangladeshi maids face in the country,” he added.


Rape, sexual assault: Three female workers, who have returned from Saudi Arabia, recalled the oppression. One of them was from Jessore. She said that she went to Saudi Arabia by Fatema Overseas. She suffered torture and sexual oppression from the landlord, his son and son’s friends.

A resident of Shahbagh in the capital said that his wife was confined into a room and tortured there. Another housewife from Keraniganj was offered as a sex worker.


Scenarios of such oppression were also cited in Bangladesh embassy in Saudi Arabia. The ambassador Golam Moshi had written a letter to minister of expatriates’ welfare and overseas on November last year that at least 55 women fled from work places and took shelter at the embassy due repression, extra burden and ill-treatments.


Three to four workers on average are taking shelters everyday to the embassy. There allegations of repressions against many landlords there.


Bangladeshi Migrant Women Workers Association (BOMSA) director Sumaiya Islam told Prothom Alo, ‘We have been getting reports of torture and repressions of Bangladeshi female workers at Middle East almost on every day. The government must take strong steps to prevent such incidents.

We have been demanding mobile phone using facilities for these female workers. Besides, the embassy should supervise and take care of them.

Oppression in some other countries:A woman of Daulotpur upazila in Khulna told Prothom Alo that her sister went to Jordan last year. She suffered mental and physical oppression at the work place.


The woman of Khulna said that she asked the government is to bring back her sister. But the government is yet to bring her back.


Oppressions of female workers are also reported in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Dubai, and some other counties.

[Lilo]

^Re linking above deleted video.



Another report on Bangladeshi maids being tortured in the Gelf - video in Bengali.

[g.sarkar]

Sorry if this was posted earlier, about a week old:
http://www.oneindia.com/feature/why-doe ... 09660.html
Why does ISIS refer to Indian Muslims as the 'Hindi Miskeens'? By: Vicky Nanjappa Published: Thursday, September 15, 2016, 11:51 [IST]
We have heard of the stories of how Indian Muslims joining the ISIS in the so-called Caliphate have ended up cleaning toilets. To add to their misery, they are tricked into becoming suicide bombers as Indian Muslims are considered not good enough to fight. Amidst so much insult here is another terminology that the ISIS has for the their recruits from India- Hindi Miskeen.
The term Miskeen is something that the Saudis use for Muslims from Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines and Indonesia. This has been picked up by the ISIS who refer to Indians in their camps as the Hindi Miskeens. The word Miskeen found in the Quran means someone who is completely down and out. In Hebrew, the word means poor. It is derived out of the Arabic word skn which means one who has lost all movement. In Urdu the word saakin means static, the one who cannot move. A false dream The story of Areeb Majeed, the youth from Kalyan who joined the ISIS only to return in panic after he was told to clean toilets and was ill-treated could be a case study why the Indian Muslims should avoid the ISIS. Going through various investigation reports and intelligence bureau files both from India and abroad, it is clear that the ISIS does not have even an iota of respect for the Indian Muslim. All Indians who reach the so-called Caliphate in Syria or Iraq are greeted with, "welcome Hindi Miskeen," before they are taken away to the Hind camps (A camp for Indians). For the ISIS, the Arab and the fighters from the West are superior and they are the ones who are given battle duty or even can be part of the ISIS police force. The Europeans are referred to as rafiq which means friends.
The Arabs are referred to as Ummah, which broadly means all Muslims are one nation. Most Indian Muslims have landed up with the ISIS while chasing a false dream. They are made to believe that they are entering the Caliphate and will become true Muslims if they join the ISIS. However on reaching there, they realise that the story is something else. At first Indian Muslims are given menial jobs to perform. These would include cleaning, cooking and in the case of women, prostitution......
Gautam

[Lilo]

^
Nope not posted before .
Highlighting some interesting portions

All Indians who reach the so-called Caliphate in Syria or Iraq are greeted with, "welcome Hindi Miskeen," before they are taken away to the Hind camps (A camp for Indians). For the ISIS, the Arab and the fighters from the West are superior and they are the ones who are given battle duty or even can be part of the ISIS police force. The Europeans are referred to as rafiq which means friends. The Arabs are referred to as Ummah, which broadly means all Muslims are one nation. Most Indian Muslims have landed up with the ISIS while chasing a false dream. They are made to believe that they are entering the Caliphate and will become true Muslims if they join the ISIS. However on reaching there, they realise that the story is something else. At first Indian Muslims are given menial jobs to perform. These would include cleaning, cooking and in the case of women, prostitution. While allowing these people to pose with guns and upload photographs on the internet so that it generates an interest for possible recruits, the ISIS does make it clear that they will not be allowed on the battle field. No training is even imparted to them However, in the case of the six Indian recruits who have died, it has been found that all of them were cheated. They were asked to step into an explosives laden vehicle and told to deliver it at a particular point. They were further told to park the vehicle in a crowded area where a contact would pick up the explosives. On reaching the destination, they would call the contact and the vehicle would explode as the bombs are triggered off through the cell phone.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/feature/why-doe ... 09660.html

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyJV_aWoykA

Zaid Hamid, the designated leader of impending Gazhwa-e-hind & his begum Tayyiba hamid explain the training they underwent in the hands of Saudi officers.
The ghazi was arrested in madina while doing their umrah in holy month of Ramadan,due to his opposition to Pakistani involvement in Yemen war.
He was given training in jail for 4 months & she was held with Saudi Arabia for the same period.

[Lilo]

A SaudiArab upholder of Islamic piety executes a Bangladeshi miskin muslim for failing to match to the exacting Saudi standards.

Bangladeshi muslim shot dead in Saudi Arabia for 'failing to make prayer call' News Desk, bdnews24.com

A Bangladeshi expatriate worker has been shot dead by a muezzin in Saudi Arabia for allegedly failing to make prayer call on his behalf.

The incident took place on Sunday at Ortawwiyah in Majmaah district, some 30km from Riyadh, Arab News reported on Thursday.

The Bangladeshi has been identified as Mohammed Rafiqul Islam, 36.

Islam hails from Brahmanbarhia's Ashuganj Upazila.

He used to work at a date firm and also as a part-time car driver, his brother Kamal Uddin told bdnews24.com.

Arab News quoted Bangladesh Embassy's Labour Councillor Mohamed Sarwar Alam as saying that Islam used to call for prayers at a mosque in Ortawwiyah at times.

Locals said he used to make prayer calls for the muezzin but had failed to do so on Sunday and it infuriated the muezzin.

Labour Councillor Alam said they had informed Islam's family of the murder and added the embassy was sorting out paperwork of the victim.

Another expatriate Indian worker was also wounded in the firing.

He is undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Police did not disclose his identity but said he was out of danger.
....

[Lilo]

Bangladeshi women public torture in Saudi Arabia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsW21cNrjvY



http://newsupdate24bd.com/bangladeshi-w ... di-arabia/

[Lilo]

Rohingya MUSLIMS: Stateless at home & no refuge elsewhere!
It's an irony that countries in Asia and elsewhere – particularly Muslim countries – have shown little or no desire to help ease the situation.
By Syed Neaz Ahmad, The Milli Gazette Jan 07, 2015

THEY are thought to be the world's most persecuted refugees. It is also argued that they are one of the most forgotten too. Some five years ago I saw and met hundreds of inmates from Burma in Jeddah prison. Thousands of Burmese Muslims from Arakan – often called Rohingyas – were offered a safe haven in Saudi Arabia by King Faisal but with the change in rulers in Saudi Arabia the rules underwent a change too. A permanent abode of peace that was offered to these uprooted Arakanese is now nothing less than a chamber of horrors.

There are some three thousand families of Burmese Muslims in Makkah and Jeddah prisons awaiting their deportation. Women and children are held in separate prisons nearby. The only contact the men have with their wives and children is through mobile phones and clandestine courier service provided by hawkers of food & water - aided & abetted by the prison officers for a small fee!

But the interesting question is: Where will they be sent? Burma (Myanmar) doesn't want them. Bangladesh with a large population, porous border and poor economy doesn't have the inclination or the ability to handle a refugee population of this size. The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are having a rough time as it is. Pakistan's offer to accept part of the Rohingyas – awaiting deportation in Saudi prisons – is seen as mere a diplomatic exercise. Against the background of Islamabad's treatment of some 300,000 stranded Pakistanis – living a miserable life in camps in Bangladesh – senior Rohingya inmates look at Pakistani overture with suspicion.

But who are these people called Burmese Muslims, Arakanese or Rohingyas? The people who call themselves Rohingyas are the Muslims of the Mayu Frontier area, present-day Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships of Arakan (Rakhine) State, a province isolated in the western part of the country across the river Naf which forms the boundary between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

After Myanmar had gained independence, a concentration of nearly ninety per cent of the area's population – of Islamic faith formed an ethnic and religious minority group on the western fringe of the republic. In the beginning they favoured a policy of joining Pakistan. This policy faded away when they could not gain support from the government of Pakistan. Later they began to call for the establishment of an autonomous region instead.

Their insistence to call themselves 'the Muslims of Arakan' and adoption of Urdu as their national language indicated their inclination towards the sense of collective identity that the Muslims of Indian subcontinent showed before the partition of India .

In June 1951 All-Arakan Muslim Conference was held in village Alethangyaw, and 'The Charter of the Constitutional Demands of the Arakani Muslims' was published. It called for 'the balance of power between the Muslims and the Maghs (Arakanese), two major races of Arakan.' The demand of the charter read: North Arakan should be immediately formed a free Muslim State as equal constituent Member of the Union of Burma like the Shan State, the Karenni State, the Chin Hills, and the Kachin Zone with its own Militia, Police and Security Forces under the General Command of the Union (Department of the Defence Service Archives, Rangoon: DR 1016/10/13).

It is noteworthy that in the charter these peoples are mentioned as the Muslims of Arakan and not Rohingyas. The word 'Rohingya', it is claimed, was first suggested by Abdul Gaffar, an MP from Buthidaung, in his article 'The Sudeten Muslims',

During his campaign for the 1960 elections, Myanmar Prime Minister U Nu promised statehood for Arakanese and Mon people. When he came to power the plans for the formation of the Arakan and Mon states were forgotten. Naturally, the Muslim members of parliament from Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships denounced the plan and called for the establishment of a Rohingya state. (SOAS bulletin of Burma research, 2005)

In 1973, Ne Win's Revolutionary Council sought public opinion for drafting a new constitution. The Muslims from the Mayu Frontier submitted a proposal to the Constitution Commission for the creation of a separate Muslim state or at least a division for them (Kyaw Zan Tha, 1995).

'The proposal was turned down. When elections were held under the 1974 Constitution the Bengali Muslims from the Mayu Frontier Area were denied the right to elect their representatives to the "Pyithu Hlut-taw" (People's Congress). After the end of the Independence war in Bangladesh some arms and ammunitions flowed into the hands of the young Muslim leaders from Mayu Frontier. On 15 July 1972 a congress of all Rohingya parties was held at the Bangladeshi border to call for the Rohingya National Liberation' (Mya Win, 1992).

Myanmar's successive military regimes persisted in a policy of denying citizenship to most Bengalis, especially in the frontier area. They stubbornly grasped the 1982 Citizenship Law that allowed only the ethnic groups who had lived in Burma before the First Anglo-Burmese War that began in 1824 as the citizens of the country. By this law those Muslims had been treated as aliens in the land they have inhabited for more than a century.

'According to the 1983 census Muslims in Arakan constituted 24.3 percent and they were categorized as Bangladeshi, while the Arakanese Buddhists formed 67.8 percent of the population of the Arakan (Rakhine) State' (Immigration and Manpower Department 1987:I-14).

'In the 1988 Democracy movement Muslims raised the Rohingya issue. Subsequently when the military junta allowed the registration of the political parties they asked for their parties to be recognized under the name "Rohingya." Their demand was turned down and so they formed the National Democratic Party for Human rights (NDPHR) that won in four constituencies in 1990 elections – eleven candidates of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) were elected to the legislature. However, the Elections Commission abolished both the ALD and the NDPHR in 1991. Some of the party members had to go into exile.'

In 1978 the Burmese junta created a situation for the Arakanese Muslims that forced them to leave their country for safety elsewhere. However, those who crossed over to East Pakistan or Thailand were never considered as welcome visitors. The Myanmar government has consistently refused to recognise the Rohingyas as citizens, who have been forced to flee their homeland since 1978 – to neighbouring Thailand and as far as Japan.

According to Amnesty International, in 1978 over 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the Burmese army's Operation Nagamin. Most – it is claimed by Yangon – were eventually repatriated, but around 15,000 refused to return. In 1991, a second wave of about a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled Myanmar to Bangladesh

The Malaysianinsider.com reports that in January, shocking news emerged of the mistreatment by Thai security forces of over a thousand 'boat people' travelling from Bangladesh and Myanmar to Thailand and Malaysia. Most of them were Rohingyas. They drifted at sea for weeks, without sufficient food and water, after having been beaten, towed out, and abandoned. The Indian navy rescued about 400 in different batches; Indonesia rescued a further 391. The rest were reported missing, presumed dead.

In Bangladesh, it is said that there are over 250,000 Rohingyas, some 35,000 of them in overcrowded camps.

There are a further 13,600 registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia (although there are thousands yet unregistered), an estimated 3,000 in Thailand, and unknown numbers in India.

All of these countries have not ratified the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, its 1967 Protocol, the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Most Rohingyas in Asia are considered irregular migrants. Without official papers, they are often subject to arrest, detention, punishment for immigration offences and deportation. Forced to work in the informal labour market, they are often exploited and cheated.

In Malaysia, where some Rohingyas have resided since the early 1990s, they continue to be rounded up in immigration operations, whipped, and handed over to human traffickers on the Thai-Malaysia border. Some have been deported multiple times; some have 'disappeared' along the way. Around 730,000 remain in Myanmar, most of whom live in the Arakan state. The State Peace and Development Council, the military regime that rules Myanmar, continues to disavow Rohingyas as citizens.

Consequently, the Rohingyas are still subject to forced labour, forced eviction, and land confiscation. Strict restrictions are placed on their freedom of movement, freedom to marry, and freedom to own property. Many who return from abroad have been imprisoned for years, punished for crossing the border 'illegally'. Conditions in the Arakan state continue to deteriorate, increasing the likelihood of further outflows into neighbouring countries.

The UNHCR has been allowed limited access inside Burma. The UN agency claims that it has helped more than 200,000 to get better healthcare and some 35,000 children to education. But this kind of help is merely a drop in the ocean. It's an irony that countries in Asia and elsewhere – particularly Muslim countries – have shown little or no desire to help ease the situation.

The UNHCR spokesman in Asia, Kitty Mckinsey says: 'No country has really taken up their cause. Look at the Palestinians, for example, they have a lot of countries on their side. The Rohingyas do not have any friends in the world.'

Obviously, an immediate and sympathetic solution is needed; otherwise, it can plunge Rohingyas into deeper suffering, cause resistance amongst host societies, and fail at stemming the onward movement of Rohingyas into the region.

The late King Faisal's decision to offer them a permanent abode in Saudi Arabia was a gesture that reflected his noble approach to the problems faced by Muslims in other countries. However, later Saudi rulers have found the Burmese Muslims a thorn in their side. With strict regulation on their employment and movement within the Kingdom Saudi police find them easy targets for extortion and torture.

Although Myanmar Muslims have showed collective political interest for more than five decades since the country gained independence, their political and cultural rights have not been recognised. On the contrary, the demand for the recognition of their rights sounds like a direct challenge to the right of autonomy and the myth of survival for the Arakanese majority in their homeland.

It is said that there are some 250,000 Burmese Muslims in Saudi Arabia – majority living in Makkah Al-Mukarramah's slums Naqqasha and Kudai. They sell vegetables, sweep streets, work as porters, carpenters, unskilled labour, and those fortunate enough become drivers.

The correct number of the Rohingya refugees living in Asian countries – Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and Saudi Arabia – is anybody's guess. But this diaspora of refugees attracts human traffickers. It is not uncommon for poor Rohingyas to marry off their very young – sometimes underage – daughters to old and affluent Saudis in the hope of getting 'official favours'. But with a high rate of divorce in Saudi Arabia in the Saudi society this hasn't worked for many. Rohingya wives of Saudi men are not easily accepted in the Saudi society and they have to survive – as second class wives – on the periphery of the social infrastructure.{the ultimate fate of every miskeen in Saudi}

Those whom I met in Jeddah prisons seem to have accepted the situation as fait accompli. But it is unfair that these innocent people be made to suffer in a country which is considered the citadel of Islam, that houses the two holiest places of worship on earth and the rulers style themselves as Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

King Abdullah is not only the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, he is also the Custodian of those living in that country, including Rohingya refugees who were invited by one of his illustrious predecessors. Will Saudi Arabia live up to its promises and expectations? Dhaka - with friendly ties with Saudi Arabia - must impress upon Riyadh to find an early solution to this thorn in the side of humanity.

Syed Neaz Ahmad, who taught at Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, is a London-based journalist. He writes for British, Arab & Bangladeshi press.

[Lilo]

Rohingya Muslims trafficked to Saudi Arabia to join ISIS using fake Indian passports: Report
Last Updated: Friday, January 15, 2016

Delhi: A human trafficking racket busted in Delhi has revealed that fake Indian passports were used to traffic hundreds of Rohingya Muslims to Saudi Arabia.

CNN IBN quoted Delhi Police sources as saying that the displaced minorities from Myanmar were trafficked to join terror group Islamic State or the ISIS.

The report said that the police had arrested five operatives regarding the case.

At least 500 Rohingya Muslims reportedly were sent to Saudi Arabia by this gang.

Arab fourfathers in ISIS consider Rohingya miskeen to be quite useful as toilet cleaners & cannon fodder, it seems.

[Lilo]

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Young Indian girls sold to sex tourists for sham marriages

Hyderabad, India (CNN)"That night he took me with him. He forced himself on me. I was crying. [He said] I've bought you, I can do whatever I want. I've given your parents money, I can use you for as long as I like. Keep your mouth shut."Muneera Begum, now aged 19, lives in Hyderabad, India. She says she was just 12 years old when her parents sold her into a forced marriage with a man from Oman. He was aged 70.She calls the so-called wedding night "torture."

"I wasn't educated and I couldn't understand anything that was going on," she said. I had a childishness in me."
She says that for two months, he kept her locked in a room, using her repeatedly for sex."If he had to go anywhere he would lock me from the inside, come back later and then again that torture would start," she said.

Agents are located in several countries in the Middle East and Africa. They know brokers in Hyderabad (the city with the largest Muslim population by percentage in India) who approach poor families and convince them to sell their underage daughters because they need the money.The agents have clients, usually elderly men, who then travel to Hyderabad. There, the broker shows them the girls and they choose the ones they want.

A religious cleric who is also a part of the criminal network then signs a wedding certificate (which has no legal standing) and a post-dated divorce certificate at the same time. But according to one of the most senior religious authorities in Hyderabad, Islamic law requires a girl's consent before she can be married.

After a few weeks or months of using the girl for sex, the client leaves her, never to come back. Some of the girls are gang raped. Many are given drugs by their buyers, making them helpless, unable to stop what is happening.

Shaheen also rescues girls and helps rehabilitate them, teaching them skills like tailoring, applying henna or how to use computers, all to help them become financially independent.Jameela Nishat began Shaheen more than 20 years ago and says she has helped more than 100 girls directly, and almost 1,000 indirectly. "My dream is that every girl should be happy and enjoy her life to the maximum, and feel free," she said.After she went to Shaheen, Begum filed a police case and the authorities arrested the middleman involved in selling her. It's taken years to recover, but now, she's vowing to never let anything like that happen to anyone else."The way I got caught up, I don't want other girls to face the same [thing]," said Begum. "In my heart, I feel the pain I faced; the next person shouldn't face that pain."

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/201 ... s-sale.cnn

[Lilo]

Another horror story from Saudi Arabia: Hyderabad woman sold to kafeel for Rs 3 lakh, faces torture
Omar bin Taher | TNN | Updated: Apr 24, 2017, 05:41 PM IST



CHARMINAR: One more Hyderabadi woman was deceived by agents. She is facing mental and physical harassment at the hands of her kafeel (sponsor) in Saudi Arabia.
Salma Begum, 39, a resident of Babanagar 'C' block was allegedly sent to Saudi Arabia by two agents identified as Akram and Shafi of the same locality on January 21, 2017 on a housemaid visa.
Salma Begum's daughter Sameena told TOI that her mother was cheated by Akram and Shafi. "My mother is in trouble in Saudi. She wants to return home but her Kafeel is not allowing her to get back here. I even met Akram requesting him to get my mother back, but he did nothing so far. We went to Kanchanbagh police station, but the police appear to be unmoved by the matter and has not taken any action so far,'' Sameena said.
Sameena further said that she had learnt that her mother was sold to the kafeel for 3 lakh. "The torture started when she denied to a contract marriage with her Kafeel in Saudi Arabia. She however informed me sending message that she was sold by agents. so the Kafeel does not want to send her back,'' Sameena added.She alleged that despite several complaints and requests, the Kanchanbagh police have failed to take action against agents Akram and Shafi. Akram was called to the police station once.
He had assured us that he would bring our mother back home by February 20, 2017, but so far she has not returned home,'' Salma Begum's daughter said.

Salma has now sent an audio message to her daughter Sameena, in which, she is requesting the Indian government to bring her back to India.
"I am trying all efforts to bring my mother back home. I kindly request Telangana and central governments to bring my mother back to India,'' Sameena Begum appealed.
Financial woes and debts drove Salma Begum to Saudi Arabia.

The GCC countries -Bahrain, Kuwait,Oman,Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE - manage its "temporary" migrant workforce through the sponsorship or Kafala system. Under this system, a local citizen or local company (the kafeel) must sponsor foreign workers in order for their work visas and residency to be valid. This means that an individual's right to work and legal presence in the host country is dependent on his or her employer, rendering him or her vulnerable to exploitation.

In most GCC states, migrants cannot leave or enter the country without their employer's permission

[Lilo]

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Relatives "Sold" Hyderabadi Girl To Omani Sheikh for 5 Lacs ! Sheikh lured Girl With Enticing Videos Of Burj Khalifa, Mall. Now Relatives Want Police To Bring Her Back Due To Abuse

Omani sheikh lured 16-year-old girl with videos of Burj Khalifa, malls, says police

Videos of the Burj Khalifa hotel, glitzy shopping malls in Muscat and Dubai, and luxurious villas owned by him were used by 65-year-old Omani Sheikh M Ahmad to lure a 16-year-old girl from Falaknuma in Hyderabad into “marrying” him, police investigation has revealed.

The girl’s aunt and her husband also showed her similar videos to convince her to marry the sheikh in order to enjoy a luxurious life, the police said. But they reportedly did not tell her that they were actually selling her for Rs 5 lakh.

Officials at Falaknuma police station are trying to establish contact with the girl, who recently called her mother and pleaded to be rescued from the sheikh, who was allegedly mistreating her.

Additional Inspector of Falaknuma police station T Murali Krishna said that until the qazi who performed the marriage was arrested they would not know when and where the marriage took place. “The marriage took place during Ramzan, but we do not know the exact date. The girl’s mother is also not sure. The girl’s uncle is absconding, and her aunt is in Muscat,’’ he said.

ccording to the investigation, the girl and her younger brother were living in poverty and were largely depended on their aunt. Their father is a daily wager while their mother stays at home. The girl attended a government school near her aunt’s residence — where the siblings used to spend a lot of time.In May, the aunt reportedly spoke about a marriage proposal from a rich Omani sheikh for the teenager, but her mother rejected it saying she was only 16. However, during Ramzan, the aunt and uncle allegedly secretly organised the marriage at a lodge in Chandrayangutta area here.

After spending four days with her, the sheikh reportedly dropped the girl back at her aunt’s house and asked them to arrange for a passport. He returned to Muscat and sent her a visa, the police said.

“The aunt and uncle contacted an agent who arranged for her Aadhaar card and passport. In July, the aunt and the girl flew to Muscat and went to the sheikh’s house, where they are now living,’’ an official said. The police are also trying to ascertain the relationship between the sheikh and the aunt. The "poor" girl has probably become another "plaything" in the hands of the lecherous Sheikh

When the girl’s mother spoke to the sheikh, he reportedly told her that he had paid Rs 5 lakh to the uncle and aunt and that he would release her only if the money was returned. The police are now looking for the uncle and an agent named Mohammed Haji, who are absconding.
South Zone Deputy Commissioner of Police V Satyanarayana said all those who were involved in getting the minor married would be booked under non-bailable offences.

[Lilo]

Laham Mandi is fast becoming the Riwayati dish of Hyderabadi Muslims

TNN | Sep 25, 2015, 02:39 AM IST
HYDERABAD: The traditional Hyderabadi dastarkhwan has a new entrant: Laham Mandi. From the exotic ( pissful ) desert peninsula, the simple dish of rice and tender mutton has taken the city by storm. And nothing could explain the success that it has found as it enjoys a place alongside zafrani biryani, a delicacy Hyderabadis swear by.
But how did Laham Mandi make inroads into the Hyderabadi dastarkhwan that denizens are so fiercely protective of? Experts point out that it is the Hyderabadi diaspora, spread across Arabian countries, which has imported Mandi and its variants to the city.
"There was an import of culture as soon as Indians set foot in the Middle East. Though shawarma came to India before Laham Mandi, the latter became a huge hit with the youngsters. They want something different. The trend, particularly with wedding feasts is about two years old," says Chef Taha Mohammed Quadri from Feast Express, a company that specialises in Arabian cuisine. "Now, bridegrooms are insisting that Mandi be on the dulhe ka dastar along with biryani," he adds.
Ask Mohammed Abdul Rasheed, an engineer who recently tied the knot, why Mandi was on the menu and pat comes the reply, "All my friends love gorging on Mandi. Also, it is something different from the tried and tested affair."
Traditional bawarchis say that the dish itself is simple to make. The meat is boiled in water till the time it is succulent and the rice is cooked separately. However, others, like seasoned chef Mir Asif Ali Khan from Arabian Nights argue that Laham Mandi is a madfoon dish, meaning that it is cooked in a cavity in the earth. He has lost count of the number of Hyderabadi weddings in which he has served Laham Mandi, he claims. While listing the traditional Hyderabadi fare on a dastarkhwan, he says, "The traditional dastarkhwan cannot go without lukhmi, qubani ka meetha, double ka meetha and of course, biryani. The introduction of Mandi is a fad."
Khan explains that affordability and its large portions have led to its popularity. "The quantity of rice per person is huge, so much so that as many as three people can share it. Not just that, the average quantity of meat per portion is around 300 grams, for just Rs 240. What else would a youngster want," he asks.
Others like Mohammed Moinuddin from Moghal Caterers says that for those who are not too keen on having Laham Mandi at weddings, the dish has found its place in pre-wedding parties. "Sanchak and Mehendi rituals are examples," he says.

Experts say that restaurants in Toli Chowki like Four Seasons were one of the first to introduce the dish in the city about a decade ago. But, it was around three years ago that it started to gain popularity -courtesy the Arab tribals residing in Barkas, an Old City suburb. According to sources, of the 50-odd restaurants and cafes in the area, almost a third of them serve Mandi.
"The Yemeni tribes in Barkas used it to their advantage. They exploited their exotic lineage, made Mandi affordable and experimented with it by offering chicken and fish Mandi," says Waseem Khan, a Mandi lover. The ambience in these restaurants is exotic, he adds. "You sit cross legged on the floor and people eat from the same large plate. Portraits of Arab rulers hang from the walls and there is calligraphy. All this adds to the exoticism," he explains. Restaurants in Toli Chowki with Arabic names have mushroomed. Others like Spice 6 and All Seasons have made Laham Mandi a fine dining experience, he adds.

Laham Mandi's popularity could also arise from the fact that it's the Riwayati dish served by Hyderabadi Muslims while offering/selling their Mothers,Sisters or Daughters to visiting Arab Sheikhs.

PS:Note the menu description on Laham Mandi in a local Hyderabadi restaurant - it's supposedly the "ancient traditional" dish from the "exotic desert" sands of Saudi Barbaria.To get it's true authentic taste one has to cook the halal meat in a cavity dug in the pissful desert sands of Barbaria - Madfoon esthyle.

[Lilo]

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"Saved" Indian Muslim Women Returns Back From Saudia With A Harrowing Tale !

Indian woman ‘beaten up, sexually harassed’ in Saudi Arabia returns to Hyderabad

A woman hailing from Hyderabad, who was tortured, beaten up and sexually harassed by her employer in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh, has been brought back home safely. This comes closely a month after her sister requested external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to bring her back. The woman, Humera Begum, speaking about the ordeals, told ANI that she was beaten up by her employers. “I was in a lot of trouble there. I was not even given food. They tortured me and beat me up. They didn’t let me talk to my sister back home. They did things like holding my hand when I served them food,” she said. “I want to thank the Indian embassy that helped me a lot and brought me here,” she said. Thanking the authorities for bringing her back, Humera said around 15 more women were still there in the same condition, trying to escape, but were unable to find a source to do so.

Humera returned to India with the help of Sushma Swaraj and protector general of emigrants MC Luther. In August, Humera’s sister sought Swaraj’s help to rescue her. Humera went to Riyadh on July 23, believing the promises of an agent, named Sayeed, who said she would get an opportunity to do umrah there. Umrah is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken any time of the year, unlike haj which has specific dates.Humera said she was told by the agent that she would also have to work as a caretaker of a small family, on a monthly salary of Rs. 25,000.

There were days when Humera was forced to go without food; though there was never any respite from work. When she objected, she was brutally beaten and abused. "When I asked for it or questioned the ill-treatment meted out to me, they used filthy language and beat me up. Beside this, an ageing kafil tried to exploit me whenever I went to feed him in this room. Though the matter was brought to his family members' notice, they did nothing. Instead they only tortured me more," Humera Begum said. Relieved to be home at last, the young girl and her sister, Reshma Begum, profusely thanked external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, and others who helped her escape from the clutches of her tormentors.

[Lilo]

Marriage most foul

K. Venkateshwarlu
09 SEPTEMBER 2017 00:02 IST
UPDATED: 09 SEPTEMBER 2017 10:35 IST


They are married to Arab men old enough to be their fathers. K. Venkateshwarlu reports from the old city of Hyderabad on child brides

Noorjahan (name changed) was like any other 15-year-old Muslim girl from the old city of Hyderabad — bound by tradition, and coy, but as impetuous as the average teenager. She wore a burqa to the government school where she studied and the garment helped hide her torn school bag, a mark of poverty. Noorjahan and her friends were pranksters and the one kilometre walk to school was never short on adventure.

Both Noorjahan’s house and school are located in the Muslim-dominated Nawab Saheb Kunta, a ghetto of labyrinthine lanes. This squatter settlement that came up on the bed of a pond is only a stone’s throw away from the Nizam-era’s opulent hilltop palace named Falaknuma, now a five-star hotel belonging to the Taj group. Wealth and poverty sit side by side in this area of the old city.

Noorjahan was different from her classmates. While everyone dreamt of lucrative careers post studies in professional courses, the young girl, perhaps acutely conscious of her modest family background, harboured dreams of becoming a schoolteacher. Though rated average by her class teachers, Noorjahan tried hard to score better marks, recalls her primary schoolteacher, Amtul Habeeb.

As the summer holidays approached after a good academic year in school, Noorjahan was looking forward to spending time with her paternal aunt, Ghousia, and her cousins, one of the attractions in their house being the air cooler. The cool breeze of the boxy device was a luxury for Noorjahan, the daughter of a homemaker-bearer couple. Her father got an opportunity to work whenever there was a nikah or walima at the S.K. Garden Function Hall, a venue for weddings. The family could not afford material comforts like air coolers.

But little did she know how life would change after her brief stay at her aunt’s place. The signs were all there. All day aunt Ghousia and uncle Sikander never lost an opportunity to tell her that she must share the responsibility of taking care of her poverty-ridden family. Their brainwashing worked; her stay there changed Noorjahan. She soon lost interest in going to school. When the school reopened after the summer vacation, there was no sign of Noorjahan in the eighth grade. “We were surprised and sent a word to her brother. Now, after two months, we hear this unfortunate news of her marriage,” Amtul says.

When the moon was sighted and fasting during the holy month of Ramzan began May-end, Noorjahan got the first hint of what lay in store for her. Her aunt, uncle and their “friends” began visiting frequently. In hushed tones, a marriage proposal, and how the family would benefit from it, was discussed. And then one day Noorjahan was summoned. A “good marriage proposal” from an Omani had come, she was told, and with it came a mehr of “thousands of rupees”, a house, an air cooler, a two-wheeler for her father, and a monthly remittance of ₹5,000.

Little Noorjahan was shocked to hear the groom’s age. He was 65, twenty years older than her father. But as her aunt and uncle hammered away, she gave in. After all, her father was not getting any younger and his meagre daily wage of ₹300 troubled her. Noorjahan became quiet and withdrawn. All that was required now was for her to say ‘Nikah qubool hai’ (I agree to the marriage) in the presence of a qazi (who performs a marriage), after which a bundle of notes would be pressed into her father’s hand and she would be required to sign on blank papers which would be used later in the event of a divorce{She was sold to the Arab like cattle are sold in the Market } . A file of fake documents, including a voter identity card and an Aadhaar card, would be furnished to show her age as 18, and a video of a grand lifestyle she could lead in West Asia would be passed around for her relatives to see.

The modus operandi

Noorjahan is not an isolated case of ‘Arab nikah’, as this type of Muslim marriage is known in Hyderabad. The modus operandi is the same. Detailed conversations with multiple sources in the police and the community reveal the sad picture of how a group of dalals (touts) persuade vulnerable, impoverished families with three or four minor daughters with a story of how sheikhs hold the promise of altering their lives for the better. In some cases, they say this is a ‘short-term marriage of convenience’ in exchange for money.

Once convinced, the family pressures their young daughters. Touts produce documents to show the girl as an adult and her signature is taken on blank bond papers, to come in useful later in the case of a divorce. Meanwhile, the touts enter into a deal with the sheikhs, who fly into the country and camp in local hotels and guest houses once the deal is sealed. A pliable qazi is located, and the marriage solemnised within minutes. In most cases, the sheikh spends some time with the little girl and leaves for home after divorcing her. In the last seven years, over a dozen such child marriages to wealthy Arabs have been performed, at least two to three a year, most of these marriages lasting from a few days to a few months.

Such marriages have become public largely on account of cases registered in five police station limits in Hyderabad. Many more may have escaped the radar, such as the case of a 17-year-old girl who had approached the Santoshnagar Police Station stating that her parents and touts were trying to perform her marriage for the sixth time in January 2014. Her five marriages in the previous two years had ended in divorce, she had said in her statement.

The girl’s ordeal began soon after she completed tenth grade. She was first married to Basheer of Nagpur, an NRI, and then to Jamal of Pune, both for ₹30,000 each. Next in line were two Saudi sheikhs after payments ranging from ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh were made. Her fifth marriage was to a Bahrain national, and the sixth to a Sudanese, both weddings together bringing home her parents ₹2 lakh. But it was before the sixth marriage that she fled, and with the help of a local NGO, filed a complaint against her parents. In the complaint, she narrated how her parents spent all the money they received in leading a luxurious lifestyle. Her father, who had four wives, got her two sisters married in the same way in return for money.

But unlike her, not many Hyderabadi Muslims want to speak about this child bride bazaar, let alone acknowledge it as commonplace. With a close vigil on such practices, however, the Arab nikahs appear to have come down, even if they show no signs of ending.

The heyday of such marriages was in the late 1970s and ’80s, and the chosen months were July, August and September when wealthy Arab sheikhs would dash to Hyderabad, indulge in multiple marriages with the help of touts, and then scoot home.

When the marriages did not work back home, the sheikh would simply say ‘talaq, talaq, talaq’ and dispatch the young girl to Hyderabad with the promise of sending maintenance, which would never come. The police estimate hundreds of such contract marriages. A few years ago, Hyderabad saw the unusual spectacle of these hapless women left behind by sheikhs hitting the road seeking support for their livelihood. Many of them have ended up as domestic helps.

In the 1990s, ten-year-old child bride Ameena’s case shot into the limelight when flight attendant Amrita Ahluwalia rescued her from Yahya al-Sagih, a 60-year-old Saudi who married her and was taking her to his country. Asked why she was married off like that, her father, Badruddin, an autorickshaw driver, had this to say: “I earn ₹20 to ₹40 a day, which is hardly enough to feed my wife, six daughters, and two sons.”

Duped by relatives and touts

Noorjahan’s case is somewhat different. While a majority of those who got married to sheikhs were left behind after short-term contract marriages, her husband, Ahmed, took her to Oman. But even before the wedding mehndi on her palms dried, she ran into problems.

Noorjahan frantically made calls to her parents to rescue her, often crying that she was treated worse than a slave. When her father called Ahmed, the sheikh made it clear that he would not send the girl back till the family returned the mehr of ₹5 lakh. By now it was evident to the family that they had been duped not only by the sheikh, but also by their own relatives and a ring of touts.

With no trace of Sikander, Ghousia, or their friends, Noorjahan’s mother knocked on the doors of the Falaknuma Police Station. Police investigations have so far revealed that Sikander has arranged the marriages of several women with Arabs. “I made a mistake by marrying her off like that and relying on Sikander,” laments Noorjahan’s father. “A poor but young rickshaw-puller would have been better. All he has given us so far is ₹7,000, a used Honda Activa, and an air cooler.”

Falaknuma Inspector of Police P. Yadagiri says they have booked cases under provisions of the Child Marriage Act, POCSO (Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act), and Sections of the Indian Penal Code relating to rape, trafficking, and cheating by the people named by Noorjahan’s parents. Though the parents are equally culpable, the police is taking a sympathetic view in this case.

But the case got bigger and bigger. Given the gravity of the situation, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Tajuddin Ahmed, was appointed as the investigating officer. As the news spread via national TV channels and social media, Union Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi tweeted seeking the help of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. Even as the Indian Embassy, the Government of India, and the Government of Telangana try their best to get her back, Noorjahan’s plight has once again brought into focus the poor economic and living conditions of Muslims in the old city of Hyderabad.

Why are there child brides?

The narratives here have common elements: illiteracy, religious beliefs, and a desperation to earn money, with the dubious role of qazis thrown in. Families who marry off their minor girls often disappear to escape detection. “Among a section of Muslims, there is this belief that attaining puberty is enough to marry off the girls, not when the girls turn 18. There are families in Hafeez Baba Nagar who find nothing wrong in minor girls being married off to elderly Arab sheikhs. Then there are qazis who advocate marriage at the age of 16, their contention being that sexual desires start around that age,” says Jameela Nishat, a social activist who runs an NGO called Shaheen that works for gender justice and rehabilitation of child brides deserted by sheikhs.

But not many are as outspoken as Jameela and no Muslim politician has come forward to offer his or her views on this regressive practice, let alone condemn the marriages. Neither has the practice of child marriage to sheikhs found political traction, nor has it entered popular discourse. Mazher Hussain, executive director of the Confederation of Voluntary Associations, a national network of voluntary organisations working for communal harmony and empowerment, says the trend is “nothing but trafficking in the garb of nikah.” He says it is a “gross misuse of nikah”. Though poverty is a factor, the bigger danger is the acceptance of this practice as a norm, Mazher says.

A ritual left behind

Hyderabad had a long history of Nizams hiring Chaush Arabs, mostly from Yemen, as military guards who were lodged in barracks (now known by the corrupted colloquial name of Barkas). These Arabs brought along with them the ritual of paying dowry and offering gifts to families who gave their girls in marriage. When oil was struck in Saudi Arabia and other parts of West Asia, and the situation turned tumultuous in Hyderabad in the late 1940s, a number of Chaush Arabs preferred to return to their country, taking with them their local wives and relatives. But the ritual stayed behind. Payment for brides became the vogue, although at that time the intention for this was supposedly good. It was meant to help the families of the brides and prevent the decline of economic status of Muslims after the rule of the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, ended in 1948, resulting in the merger of the erstwhile Hyderabad State with the Indian Union. “This has now degenerated into this practice of buying child brides,” Mazher says. “We need to attack this norm by discrediting it much like how the practice of Sati was discredited.” Also a section of qazis, who follow a system of appointing naib qazis (assistant qazis) who perform these child marriages, have to be blamed, he says.

The qazis don’t agree. “Qazis are being blamed unnecessarily. We go by the documents submitted to us and not by the people who request us to perform the marriage. Will it be proper to lift the veil and see how old the bride is?” asks Syed Shakir Ali, a qazi from Nampally. “Yes, there are some unscrupulous qazis, but to say everyone is like that is wrong. The onus is on the parents of the bride. They ought to be careful. Before performing the nikah, I insist on seeing the passport, or the Aadhaar card, or the voter identity card and (conduct the marriage) in the presence of the father or the guardian and two witnesses. If somebody forges one of these documents, how can the qazi be held responsible? What is the Telangana government doing to end the social menace?” he asks.

In response, the Secretary of the Minorities Welfare Department of the Telangana government, Syed Omar Jaleel, says, “The government plans to bring out an ordinance and later a legislation banning all foreigners from marrying girls here unless they come with proper documents or a declaration before immigration authorities stating that their purpose of visit is to marry a woman of statutorily mandated marriageable age and that they would take care of them,” he says. “The man will be liable to undergo imprisonment of seven years under Section 196 of the IPC (if found guilty).”

To address poverty, which is at the root of this problem, the government is proposing to launch a women empowerment programme. This will involve extending loans for women and offering financial assistance of ₹50,000 to each family to perform the marriage of their daughter. Mr. Jaleel also spoke of revamping the outdated Qazis Act of 1880 and changing rules to make the qazis more accountable.

Economic support to the poor and compulsory education of girls could address this issue, says a young girl who was married off at the age of 12 to a 70-year-old man from Oman. She described to this correspondent her marriage that lasted all of three months, the whole time during which the old man stayed with her in a hotel room before leaving her.

“I was helpless,” she said. “My father was an alcoholic and my mother worked as a domestic help. Under the influence of dalals, they married me off to an elderly Arab. He promised to take me with him soon after the marriage. But he failed to keep his promise. One day he uttered talaq thrice over the phone and slammed the phone down. That was the last time I heard from him.”

She now has a baby to look after and works as a domestic help. She also attends tailoring classes in the hope of securing a future for her child. At least her daughter must get an education that she had to sadly forgo. Dreams of the next generation must not die young

So if you are a poor muslim with six daughters and two sons conceived continuously upto that number, only because your pious qazi said birth control is Haram as it's Allah himself who held out the promise in Quran to sustain your kids(what ever be their count) ....
Accept this promise of Allah as a business proposition , because Allah supposedly always has a plan to enrich you and the pious qazi with bounties beyond your dreams ..... as soon as you start selling your kid daughters to the old Arab sheikhs and the sons as camel riders or as future jihadi's to the Sheikh's Islamic state recruiters(aka mullah's).

If your consience pricks you at the prospect of selling your kid daughters and sons as slaves to the Arab Sheikhs , remember this verse from Quran which you recited first back in the madrassa on how Allah sustains one as a Slave and other as a Arab Sheikh and both the ways are justified as All praise is for Allah alone.

Allah propounds [to you] the parable of [two men-] a man enslaved, unable to do anything of his own accord{except producing kid daughters and sons for the Sheikh to purchase} , and a [free] man upon whom We have bestowed goodly sustenance [as a gift] from Ourselves, so that he can spend thereof [at will, both] secretly and openly{to buy the Slave's kid daughters and sons for a pittance}. Can these [two] be deemed equal?{never} [85] All praise is due to God [alone]: but most of them do not understand it. - 16:75 (Asad)

[Falijee]

Blind Arab on dialysis hunts for his 11th bride

[Falijee]

" Old Araps" Still "Hungry" For Young Indian Ayeshas

Indian child brides sold in 'package deals' to men from Gulf states
by Roli Srivastava |
Thomson Reuters Foundation

HYDERABAD, India, Oct 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For years, Haji Khan - a lanky man in his thirties - moved inconspicuously in the bylanes of Hyderabad's Old City, scouring the streets for child brides for older men visiting from Gulf states, pocketing about 10,000 rupees ($150) for each girl.

Khan struck two kinds of deals: 'Pucca' meant long-term marriages where the girl would fly back with her husband to his home country, and 'time pass' marriages ( mutah marriage !) that lasted for the duration of the man's stay in India. It is legal in Islam !

"We lined up 20 to 30 girls for each Arab in a hotel and he would select one. They (the men) gave the rejected girls 200 rupees ($3) (pocket money to "cover expenses" !)to go back home," said Khan, now a police informer.

"The men came with old, used bridal clothes, soaps and nightgowns for the girl they would marry. ( recycled from prior such adventures ) Most marriages were 'time pass'," Khan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Police in the southern Indian city, a hub for tech companies, last month busted a racket involving wealthy men from Gulf states such as Oman and Dubai "marrying" teenage Muslim girls in Hyderabad for the duration of their stay in India.At the time of the marriage, the men signed post-dated divorce documents, to be delivered to the brides after their new husbands had left the country.The marriages were performed by a Muslim officiant, or qazi, who forged the bride's age to show her as an adult. The main qazi who performed these marriages in Hyderabad was arrested last month. Hope he does "time pass" in jail

"Most of the girls do not know that they will be abandoned within 15 or 20 days of the marriage. The men would come on tourist visas, perform a contract marriage and leave after a month," said V. Satyanarayana, a deputy commissioner of police in Hyderabad who is investigating the issue.

In the few cases when the young brides did accompany their husbands back to their home country, they were forced into domestic servitude or sexual slavery, police said.About 30 people including brokers, qazis, prospective bridegrooms from Oman and Qatar and hotel owners were arrested last month and charged with human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, said police officials.In the crackdown, 14 girls, all under 18, were rescued before they had been married off. Nearly half the brokers arrested were women who had been victims of the crime themselves, police said. Alternate avenues of employment must be found for them !

In the 19th century men from what is now Saudi Arabia and Oman were recruited as soldiers by the Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad - then a princely state in southern India.Their descendents continue to live in the city and older generations recall "good marriages" of Hyderabadi girls to young Arab men visiting relatives in the city in the 1970s and 80s.The trend turned into a business in recent years after a qazi was sanctioned by the government to perform "Arab marriages".

"They think they will see the Burj Khalifa (Dubai's landmark skyscraper) and live in palatial homes like Atlantis (hotel) if they marry an Arab. They are ignorant of the consequences," Satyanarayana said. The flip side of globalization !

Growing up in a one-room tenement that she shared with her five siblings and parents, an offer to marry a rich man seemed like the perfect escape for one seventh grader who did not want to reveal her identity."I was 14 and our neighbour told us that a rich Arab boy was looking for a bride. We went to meet him. He was not a boy. He was 62," the girl told the Thomson Reuters Foundation."The broker convinced me that my life would change if I married him. I was promised gold, money and a house for my parents. I believed him."

Misrepresentation and false pretences !

She was married in a no-frills ceremony to the man who paid her mother 30,000 rupees ($460). He paid another 50,000 rupees to the brokers and the qazi who performed the wedding - his second such "marriage" in five days."The girl and the man had already spent a day at a hotel when we rescued her after his first wife, also a teenager, alerted the police," said Rafia Bano, legal officer with Hyderabad District Child Protection Unit.Following the marriage, the family moved house - unable to cope with the volley of uncomfortable questions that their neighbours and friends asked them. The girl resumed her studies, is now in the 11th grade and divorced.

In the narrow streets that snake through the bustling Old City of Hyderabad - where the majority of residents are Muslim - there are countless stories of girls married as children, only to be sexually abused and divorced a few days later.But government data underestimates the problem - Rafia Bano's office has recorded only seven cases in the last three years - as campaigners and police say a sex tourism industry under the garb of marriage is flourishing. Girls' education is the key. Cannot be solved overnite !

Hyderabad - once known for its polished pearls and the famous 16th century monument of Charminar - emerged as a major tech hub in the early 2000s, with Indian firms and global giants including Facebook and Google setting up offices in the city.But barely 12 miles (20 km) from the city's shiny IT district are the narrow lanes of the Old City where girls often drop out of school when they reach puberty. Tabassum, 15, left school to help her mother stick glittering beads on bangles that tourists buy in the bazaar near Charminar, becoming easy prey for marriage agents.

Her mother, Zareena, didn't think she was harming her daughter when she showed her to an old Omani man for marriage. "We are poor people and I had heard of girls getting married and getting a good life," she said.But in a rare act of defiance, Tabassum ran away and the marriage was called off.
"This is a business," said Jameela Nishat, founder of charity Shaheen that works with victims of contract marriages. "The sale of one girl feeds many families." Former agent Haji Khan is familiar with both sides of the business."I made 50,000 rupees in one month last year. The money is good. But it is very sad for the girls," he said.He knows. His own wife was forced into a contract marriage, and was rescued three years ago by Khan who paid 100,000 rupees for her release. But he continued to source child brides for other Arab men until recently turning police informer. Hope that he does not go back to his old ways !

"It's the games we play for money," he said.

[Prem]

delete

[Falijee]

Another Indian Girl "Falls Victim" To A "Smooth Talker" Who Took Her To Saudia

Husband took me to Saudi as sex slave, planned to sell me: Kerala woman

Thiruvananthapuram: A 25-year-old woman on Friday approached the Kerala High Court alleging that she was forcefully converted after her marriage to a Muslim and taken to Saudi Arabia for sex slavery. This pattern has been repeated many times. Maybe, the New, Brash, Crown Prince of Saudia should take a "closer look" at this problem also !

The woman has filed a petition in the high court calling for her marriage to be nullified. She alleged that she was sexually exploited, forced into sexual relationship and blackmailed with videos before getting married, according to a report in NDTV.

"After reaching Saudi Arabia, the 9th respondent showed his real colour. He was considering the petitioner as sex slave. maal -e- ghanimat He has other plans to go to Syria, and informed to the petitioner that within a few days they will shift to Syria and his plan was to sell the petitioner to the ISIS terrorists. He also forced her to attend Islamic classes and watch videos of Zakir Naik," ( what "more proof" is needed for his hateful preaching !) the woman in her petition said.

The woman, who is a Keralite, was born and brought up in Gujarat. She met Muhammed Riyaz, whom she accuses of forcefully marrying her, while studying at a private institution in Bengaluru.

She also alleged that her forced conversion and marriage had connections with the fundamentalist organisation, Popular Front of India. However, the woman managed to contact her parents and asked them to rescue her.he case will be considered on November 13.

Her marriage has been challenged in court by her father, who alleged that it was a form of recruitment by ISIS in Kerala.

[Falijee]

Slaves In Saudia In The Guise Of "Maid Work". Now Poor Punjabi Girls Falling Victim To This Scam !

Arabian nightmares: How women from Punjab end up in ‘Gulf of slavery’

It’s like someone died. But Gurbaksh Kaur — crying intermittently as relatives hug her — insists it’s her second birth. She returned from Saudi Arabia on November 4 after three months of “torture” while working for a family there. She’s crying because the fate of her daughter, Reena, 21, wasn’t known till two days ago.Reena was finally home on Friday.

A school dropout, 40-year-old Gurbaksh worked as a cleaner at a college near Fateh Garhi Khan village in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar (or Nawanshahr), for Rs 5,000 a month. Reena, younger to a brother and a sister, was ambitious ever since she completed Class 12 – the highest qualification in this Dalit peasant family.

Ambition in this case — particularly in the Doaba region of Punjab — means going to the West. She tried for three years but did not get the required IELTS score. So, she settled for Malaysia. The mother thought of going with her. “Here in India, work meant washing utensils; how much worse could it be?” says Gurbaksh. They were promised Rs 18,000 a month each. Father Gurmail Ram had already invested Rs 50,000 in Reena’s IELTS training. “I sold off a part of my 10 marlas of land for Rs 1.6 lakh, and paid Rs 1.2 lakh to the agents,” he says.

n July, Gurbaksh and Reena were dropped off at the Delhi airport by the family. An agent they call “Neha madam” was the contact. The mother was flown out first and the daughter three days later — to Saudi Arabia, not Malaysia.

False pretenses

“I worked for a family with 15 members, including 10 children. I was the lone servant. They did not consider me human,” says Gurbaksh. Saudi Arabia did not abolish slavery "officially" until the 60''s. For all its PR- giri, the society is living in ancient times governed under "strict Islamic laws" - whatever that means !

She has since become the face of a growing menace in Punjab wherein women are taken to Saudi Arabia to work as maids, and then appear in videos on social media, crying over slavery-like conditions. The pattern involves a tweet by a political leader and the embassy then locating and deporting them.In several cases, there is a contradiction as to whether the women went to the police or were handed over by “owners” after the case got highlighted. Gurbaksh says she was left on the road with a knife in hand. “The police arrested me, from where the return process began.” It is doubtful whether these kind of changes will change under the "new crown prince" !

An agent in Rahon, 6 km away, Sukha Ram, says Gurbaksh may be speaking the truth, “but a lot of times it is a case of building a rosy picture to match imaginations”. He sends workers – masons, mechanics, et al – to the Gulf, “but no women”. “Even men get homesick and send videos seeking help. About 90% cases are such.”

An agent in Rahon, 6 km away, Sukha Ram, says Gurbaksh may be speaking the truth, “but a lot of times it is a case of building a rosy picture to match imaginations”. He sends workers – masons, mechanics, et al – to the Gulf, “but no women”. “Even men get homesick and send videos seeking help. About 90% cases are such.”

The dreams make “gullible and poor” people trust fraudsters, he says. “The Gulf is a hot, sandy region, and you have to work hard – this has to be told. But these agents or sub-agents are faceless.”

The faces that matter – of agents in Delhi and beyond – remain unidentified. Police register cases of cheating, but cash transactions and oral agreements mean little material evidence. “We’re working on locating this ‘Neha madam’,” says assistant sub-inspector Shah Ram, probing Gurbaksh’s case.

“Neha madam” resurfaces in a case 50 km away in Jalandhar’s Goraya town, where we meet Lal Chand, a mason-turned-musician whose wife Sonia Ram Murti, 42, went to Saudi Arabia around the same time, and has now sent a video in which she talks of “inhuman conditions”. She has wired Rs 18,000 a month regularly to Lal Chand, though.

Every year, of the thousands who go to the Gulf for work, most are from southern states. In Saudi Arabia, maids from India are preferred besides Filipinos and Sri Lankans. An estimated 5 lakh maids have gone there from India.

In Gurbaksh’s case, the family used media attention. “I told her to send us a video over WhatsApp, which she did from the police station using a South African woman’s phone somehow,” says nephew Jaswant Kumar, “And then I called local channels and papers.”
Now that his wife and daughter are home, Gurmail says, “I just want our old life back, howsoever bad it may be.”
Elsewhere, the circle goes on. Agents are now issuing advertisements for work permits in New Zealand and Canada with “preference to the Gulf-returned”.