A00034 - Shireen Abu Akleh, Trailblazing Al Jazeera Journalist

 Abu Akleh, Shireen

Shireen Abu Akleh (b. January 3, 1971, Jerusalem – d. May 11, 2022, Jenin, State of Palestine) was a Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for the Arabic-language channel of Al Jazeera for 25 years, and was a household name across the Middle East for her decades of reporting in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. She was shot and killed on May 11, 2022, while covering an Israel Defense Forces raid on the West Bank city of Jenin.  Abu Akleh was one of the Arab world's leading journalists, a veteran reporter who was described (by The Times of Israel) after her death as having been "among Arab media's most prominent figures". 

Abu Akleh was born on January 3, 1971, in Jerusalem. Her family were Catholic Arab Palestinian Christians from Bethlehem.  Abu Akleh spent time in the United States, obtaining United States citizenship through members of her mother's family who lived in New Jersey. 

Abu Akleh attended secondary school in Beit Hanina, then matriculated at the Jordan University of Science and Technology to study architecture, but decided not to pursue the trade; she instead transferred to Yarmouk University in Jordan from which she graduated with a bachelor's degree in print journalism.  After graduating, Abu Akleh returned to Palestine.

Abu Akleh worked as a journalist for Radio Monte Carlo and Voice of Palestine. She additionally worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); Amman Satellite Channel; and MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy. In 1997, she began working as a journalist for Al Jazeera, becoming well known as a reporter on their Arabic-language channel.  She lived and worked in East Jerusalem, reporting on major events related to Palestine including the Second Intifada, and additionally covering Israeli politics. She often reported on funerals for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.

Abu Akleh's career inspired many other Palestinians and Arabs to become journalists. Her live television reporting and distinct signoffs were particularly well-known. Abu Akleh continued in her role with Al Jazeera until she was killed on May 11, 2022.  At the time of her death, she had been studying Hebrew in order to better understand narratives in the Israeli media, and had recently earned a diploma in digital media. 

On May 11, 2022, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced the death of Abu Akleh. According to Al-Jazeera, she had been shot and killed by the Israel Defense Forces  I (IDF) while reporting on IDF raids in the Jenin refugee camp. Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Abu Akleh was killed by the IDF, with an Agence France-Presse photojournalist also reporting Israeli forces had shot and killed her.  

A00023 - Asma Khader, Jordanian Women's Rights Activist

 Khader, Asma 

Asma Khader (b. January 25, 1952, Zababida, West Bank under Jordanian rule – d. December 20, 2021, Amman, Jordan) was a Jordanian politician and women's rights activist. She served as Jordan's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2005 and was a member of the Senate from 2014 to 2015. Khader died from pancreatic cancer on December 20, 2021, at the age of 69 in Amman.

Asma Hanna Khader was born on January 25, 1952, in Zababida, a town in the West Bank, which at the time was under Jordanian rule. Her father, Hanna, was a translator for the Jordanian Armed Forces. Her mother, Martha, owned a clothing shop in Amman. Asma attended school in the city and worked in her mother’s store.

Khader earned her undergraduate law degree from the University of Damascus in 1977. She established her own legal office in 1984 and was one of Jordan’s few practicing female lawyers.

In Jordan, Khader experienced life under martial law, imposed by King Hussein after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The law banned political parties and large public meetings, and gave the government broad powers to restrict freedom of speech and the press and to try ordinary criminal cases in military courts.

Khader joined the male-dominated opposition movement, becoming a vocal political activist despite the risk of detention. She also represented political prisoners.

She established the Solidarity is Global Institute in Jordan in 1998 to provide women with legal services and educational programs, and to lead campaigns for legislative and policy reforms. She served as the institute’s executive director until her recent illness.

Khader, along with other female activists, organized support, did research and lobbied lawmakers in an attempt to protect human rights in Jordan by revising the country’s penal code. That work led to the repeal of a law that had allowed rapists to avoid punishment by marrying their victims. In later years, Khader's Solidarity Is Global advocated the suspension of capital punishment in Jordan.

Khader married Adel Daibes, a lawyer, in 1977. They had four children, Osama, Ruba, Hanan and Farah.

A00022 - Amina, Queen of the Hausa

 Amina

Amina (Amina Sukhera) (Aminatu) (c.1533-c.1610).  Queen of the Hausa state of Zaria (Zauzau) during a period of rapid expansion during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.  A legendary figure, Amina extended Zaria’s empire over Nupe and the Jukun kingdom of Kwararata (Kororofa), and dominated Kano and Katsina.  She is also credited with building many of the famous earthworks of the Hausa city-states.  During her reign east-west trade became an important supplement to the trans-Saharan trade through Zaria.  

Amina Sukhera (also called Aminatu) was a Muslim princess of the royal family of Zazzau (now Zaria), in what is now northeast Nigeria. She was born c. 1533 and is estimated to have died around 1610. Amina was a preeminent gimbiya (princess) but various theories exist as to the time of her reign as queen. One explanation states that she reigned from approximately 1536 to 1573, while another posits that she became queen after her brother Karama's death, in 1576.

When Amina was seven years old her mother, Bakwa Turunku, became queen. During this point in her life, she became involved in the Zazzau military, earning much admiration for her bravery. Her military achievements brought her great wealth and power.

She is credited as the architect of the earthen walls around the city of Zaria. These walls are often referred to as Ganuwar Amina. During her reign, Amina was responsible for conquering many of the cities in the area surrounding Zazzau. In her thirty-four year reign, Amina expanded the domain of Zazzau to its largest size. Some sources state that her main focus was not on the annexation of neighboring lands, but on forcing local rulers to accept vassal status and permit Hausa traders safe passage.

The introduction of kola nuts into cultivation in the area is attributed to Amina. A statue at the National Arts Theatre in Lagos State honors her, and multiple educational institutions bear her name.

Amina Sukhera see Amina
Sukhera, Amina see Amina
Aminatu see Amina

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2021 Addendum

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Aminatu (also Amina; died 1610) was a Hausa Muslim and a historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (present-day city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigreria. 

Amina was born in the middle of the sixteenth century CC to King Nikatau, the 22nd ruler of Zazzau, and Queen Bakwa Turunku (r. 1536–c. 1566). She had a younger sister named Zaria for whom the modern city of Zaria (Kaduna State) was renamed by the British in the early twentieth century.  According to oral legends collected by anthropologist David E. Jones, Amina grew up in her grandfather's court and was favored by him. He carried her around court and instructed her carefully in political and military matters.

At age sixteen, Amina was named Magajiya (heir apparent), and was given forty female slaves (kuyanga). From an early age, Amina had a number of suitors attempt to marry her. Attempts to gain her hand included a daily offer of ten slaves from Makama and fifty male slaves and fifty female slaves as well as fifty bags of white and blue cloth from the Sarkin Kano.

After the death of her parents in or around 1566, Amina's brother became king of Zazzau. At this point, Amina had distinguished herself as a leading warrior in her brother's cavalry and gained notoriety for her military skills. She is still celebrated today in traditional Hausa praise songs as “Amina daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man that was able to lead men to war.”

After the death of her brother Karami in 1576, Amina ascended to the position of queen. Zazzau was one of the original seven Hausa States (Hausa Bakwai), the others being Daura, Kano, Gobir, Katsina, Rano, and Garun Gabas.  Before Amina assumed the throne, Zazzau was one of the largest of these states. It was also the primary source of slaves that would be sold at the slave markets of Kano and Katsina by Arab merchants.

Only three months after being crowned queen, Amina began a 34-year campaign against her neighbors, to expand Zazzau territory.  Her army, consisting of 20,000 foot soldiers and 1,000 cavalry troops, was well trained and fearsome. In fact, one of her first announcements to her people was a call for them to “resharpen their weapons.” She conquered large tracts of land as far as Kwararafa and Nupe.

Legends cited by Sidney John Hogben say that she took a new lover in every town she went through, each of whom was said to meet the same unfortunate fate in the morning when her brief bridegroom was beheaded so that none should live to tell the tale. Under Amina, Zazzau controlled more territory than ever before. To mark and protect her new lands, Amina had her cities surrounded by earthen walls. These walls became commonplace across the nation until the British conquest of Zazzau in 1904, and many of them survive today, known as ganuwar Amina (Amina's walls).

Beyond her expansion of Zazzau territory, Amina created trade routes throughout Northern Africa.  Additionally, Amina has been credited with ordering the construction of a distinctive series of ancient Hausa fortifications, known as ‘Amina’s walls’, and with introducing kola nut cultivation in the area.

A00021 - Amina bint Wahb, The Mother of the Prophet Muhammad

 Amina bint Wahb 

Amina bint Wahb (b. 549 CC [66 BH], Mecca, Arabia - d. 577 CC [36 BH], Al-Abwa, Arabia), was a noble woman of the Banu Zuhrah clan, and the mother of the Prophet Muhammad. 

Amina was born to Wahb ibn Abd Manaf and Barrah bint 'Abd al 'Uzza ibn 'Uthman ibn 'Abd al-Dar in Mecca.  She was a member of the Banu Zuhrah clan in the tribe of Quraysh who claimed descent from Abraham through his son Ishmael.  Her ancestor Zuhrah was the elder brother of Qusayy ibn Kilab, who was also an ancestor of Abdullah ibn Abdul-Muttalib.  Qusayy ibn Kilab became the first Quraysh custodian of the Ka'ba. 

Abdul Muttallib proposed the marriage of Abdullah, his youngest son, and Amina. Some sources state that Aminah's father accepted the match, while others say that it was Aminah's uncle Wuhaib, who was serving as her guardian. The two were married soon after.

Abdullah spent much of Amina's pregnancy away from home as part of a merchant caravan, and died of disease before the birth of his son.

Three months after Abdullah's death, in 570 CC, Muhammad was born. As was tradition among all the great families at the time, Amina sent Muhammad to live with a milk mother in the desert as a baby. The belief was that in the desert, one would learn self-discipline, nobility, and freedom. During this time, Muhammad was nursed by Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, a poor Bedouin woman from the tribe of Banu Sa'ad, a branch of the Hawazin.  

When Muhammad was six years old, he was reunited with Amina, who took him to visit her relatives in Yathrib (later Medina). Upon their return to Mecca a month later, accompanied by her slave Umm Ayman,  Amina fell ill.

She died around the year 577 CC and was buried in the village of Al-Abwa'. The young Muhammad was taken in first by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib in 577 CC and later by his paternal uncle  Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib. 

A00020 - Shirin Aliabadi, Iranian Artist Who Focused on Modern Iranian Women

Aliabadi, Shirin

Shirin Aliabadi (b. March 10, 1973, Tehran, Iran – d. October 1, 2018, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian contemporary visual artist.

Aliabadi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1973. She studied art history and archaeology at the University of Paris. 

Aliabadi was married to the artist Farhad Moshiri.  She was represented by The Third Line gallery in Dubai.

Aliabadi died on October 1, 2018, from cancer, in Tehran, Iran.

Aliabadi's art, which includes photographs and drawings, explores the competing effects on young urban Iranian women of traditional values, religious restrictions and globalized western culture. Her work appeared in solo exhibitions in Dubai, Tehran, London, Switzerland and Denmark and in group exhibitions at the Institut des cultures d'Islam in Paris, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, at Frieze New York, at the Chelsea Art Museum, and in Monaco, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Italy, Norway, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

Her work is held in the collections of Deutsche Bank AG in Gerrnany, the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery and the Farjam Collection in Dubai.

A00019 - Maya Jribi, Tunisian Fighter for Democracy

Maya Jribi, Tunisian Fighter for Democracy, Is Dead at 58

Image

Maya Jribi, the first female leader of a political party in Tunisia, at a meeting of the country’s newly elected constituent assembly, the body in charge of devising a new constitution, in Tunis in December 2011.CreditFethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Lilia Blaise

• June 12, 2018

TUNIS — Maya Jribi, the first female leader of a political party in Tunisia and a tenacious supporter of democracy under the country’s dictators well before the Arab Spring, died on May 19 at her home in a suburb of Tunis. She was 58.

The cause was colon cancer, her sister Najla Jribi said.

Ms. Jribi was an opposition figure during the long autocratic regimes of both Habib Bourguiba and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was overthrown in early 2011 in an upheaval that began the wave of uprisings across the Middle East known as the Arab Spring.

That same year, after the revolution, she was sent to parliament in the nation’s first democratic election, which brought to power the once-suppressed Islamist party, Ennahda. There she became a strong secular voice, leading protests against efforts to enshrine Islamic law in the new constitution and took part in the parliamentary debate that led to its adoption in 2014.

The efforts of secular voices were fairly successful: The constitution guarantees freedom of religion and draws a line between politics and civil society.

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Ms. Jribi became widely known throughout Tunisia and abroad. Thousands of people, including political leaders from across the spectrum, turned out for her funeral on May 20.

Ms. Jribi was nicknamed Maya the Bee for her seeming ability to be everywhere at once, traveling constantly to demonstrations or meetings in her small green Peugeot. “She was always busy with the party, going to a place a day, campaigning, protesting another day for freedoms,” said Safia Mestiri, a longtime friend.

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Maya Jribi was born on Jan. 29, 1960, in Bou Arada, about 60 miles southwest of Tunis. Her father worked at the Ministry of Agriculture, and her mother was a homemaker.

“Our parents taught us rigor,” Ms. Jribi once said, “and to never think something is due for us, to always deserve what we wanted.”

When she was still a child, her family moved to Radès, a suburb of Tunis.

Ms. Jribi studied biology and geology at the University of Sfax, on the eastern coast. There she became politically active, joining the student union and the Tunisian League of Human Rights.

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Several years after graduating, Ms. Jribi began working for opposition newspapers, and in 1983, with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, she helped establish the secularist Progressive Socialist Rally, which was soon renamed the Progressive Democratic Party.

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Ms. Jribi at a 2011 news conference in Tunis at which she announced her candidacy for the constituent assembly.CreditFethi Belaid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Bourguiba had held power for a quarter-century and was opening the door a bit to other parties. But it took five years for the Progressive Democratic Party to gain legal recognition. The Democratic Constitutional Rally party — led by Mr. Ben Ali, Mr. Bourguiba’s successor — won 80.6 percent of the vote in 1989, prompting allegations that the vote had been marred by fraud. The Progressive Democrats boycotted subsequent elections.

In 2005, Mr. Chebbi went on a hunger strike with eight representatives of other parties to protest government pressure on journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates. The hunger strike helped unite a fragmented opposition.

Ms. Jribi took over as party leader in 2006. Soon afterward the regime closed her party’s offices, and she joined another hunger strike, refusing food for 33 days. The experience left her in poor health for years.

“The doctor came two weeks after she started the strike,” her friend Ms. Mestiri said. “He told her she was already a bit too fragile to continue, she was so featherweight. I told her to stop — we could have replaced her with someone. She told me, ‘I always finish my battles.’ ”

Ms. Jribi’s party merged with another to form Al Joumhouri, which succeeded in winning only one parliamentary seat in the last election, in 2014. She stepped down as party leader last year, citing ill health.

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Ms. Jribi was a defender of women’s rights. Along with pushing for equality between the sexes in the constitution, she favored quotas for women in politics and other fields.

“We had heated debates on this because I was against the quotas policy,” Ms. Jribi’s sister Najla said. “But Maya used to say that even if she did not want them for herself, she thought society needed these laws to move forward.”

In addition to her sister Najla, Ms. Jribi’s survivors include two other sisters, Souha Khassiba and Sana Ben Ghorbel, and a brother, Nizar Jribi.

In a statement after the death, President Beji Caid Essebsi hailed Ms. Jribi’s dedication to “democracy, freedom, justice, equality and faith in the civil state.”

Ms. Mestiri called Ms. Jribi a role model for Tunisian women.

“She was a constant fighter, and she used to talk to other women as if she was their equal, not as a top-down member of the elite,” she said.

“She left a vacuum after her death,” Ms. Mestiri added, “because the country still needs people who know the value of liberty and who fought for it before the revolution.”

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Maya Jribi (January 29, 1960 – May 19, 2018)^[1] was a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).^[2] From PDP's merger into the Republican Party in April 2012, until her resignation in 2017, she was the Secretary-General of the centrist party.

Her father is from Tatouine, while her mother is from Algeria. She followed her studies in Radès Tunisia, before studying biology at the University of Sfax, from 1979 to 1983. During that period, she became involved and an active member of the student union, known as UGET, and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.^[2]

Together with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, Maya Jribi co-founded the Progressive Socialist Rally, established in 1983, which was later renamed into Progressive Democratic Party (PDP). Since 1986 she has been a member of the party's executive. On 25 December 2006, Jribi was appointed Secretary-General of the PDP.^[2] She has been the first woman to lead a political party in Tunisia.^[3]

From 1 to 20 October 2007, Jribi, along with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her.^[2]

Jribi headed the PDP’s electoral list in Ben Arous for the Constituent Assembly Elections in October 2011.^[2] The PDP list received one seat in Ben Arous according to preliminary election results. On 9 April 2012, the PDP merged with other secularist parties to form the Republican Party and Maya Jribi became the leader of this party.^[4]

Maya Jribi was an outspoken feminist.^[2] She has labeled Israel as a "Zionist construct",^[5] and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island.^[6]

Maya Jribi, announced her retirement, during the Republican Party convention in 2017.^{[citation needed]}

On 19th May 2018 she died of cancer.^[7]

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Maya Jribi (b. January 29, 1960, Bou Arada, Tunisia – d. May 19, 2018, Rades, Ben Arous Governorate, Tunisia) was a Tunisian politician. From 2006 to 2012, she was the leader of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).  From PDP's merger into the Republican Party in April 2012, until her resignation in 2017, she was the Secretary-General of the centrist party.

Her father was from Tatouine, while her mother was from Algeria.  She followed her studies in Radès Tunisia, before studying biology at the University of Sfax, from 1979 to 1983. During that period, she became involved in, and an active member of, the student union, known as UGET, and the Tunisian League of Human Rights. She wrote for the independent weekly Erraï and later for the PDP-newspaper Al Mawkif.

Together with Ahmed Najib Chebbi, Maya Jribi co-founded the Progressive Socialist Rally, established in 1983, which was later renamed into Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).  After 1986, Jribi was a member of the party's executive. On December 25, 2006, Jribi was appointed Secretary-General of the PDP.  She was the first woman to lead a political party in Tunisia.

From October 1 to 20, 2007, Jribi, along with Najib Chebbi, engaged in a hunger strike to protest against the forced move of the party's headquarters from Tunis, which caused serious health implications for her.

Jribi headed the PDP’s electoral list in Ben Arous for the Constituent Assembly Elections in October 2011. The PDP list received one seat in Ben Arous according to preliminary election results. On April 9, 2012, the PDP merged with other secularist parties to form the Republican Party and Maya Jribi became the leader of this party.

Maya Jribi was an outspoken feminist.  She labeled Israel as a "Zionist construct", and proposed to disallow Israeli pilgrims to visit the El Ghriba synagogue on Djerba island. 

Maya Jribi, announced her retirement, during the Republican Party convention in 2017.

On May 19, 2018, Maya Jribi died of cancer.

A00018 - Asma Jahangir, Pakistani Human Rights Lawyer and Social Activist

Jahangir, Asma
Asma Jilani Jahangir (Urdu: عاصمہ جہانگیر‬‎, transliteration 'Asimah Jahangir,  January 27, 1952 – February 11, 2018) was a Pakistani human rights lawyer and social activist who co-founded and chaired the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.  She was widely known for playing a prominent role in the Lawyers' Movement and served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur  on Freedom or Belief and as a trustee at the International Crisis Group.

Born and raised in Lahore, Jahangir studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary before receiving her B.A. from Kinnaird and LLB from the Punjab University in 1978. In 1980, she was called to the Lahore High Court, and to the Supreme Court in 1982. In the 1980s, Jahangir became a democracy activist and was imprisoned in 1983 for participating in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy against the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq. In 1986, she moved to Geneva, and became the vice-chair of the Defence for Children International and remained until 1988 when she moved back to Pakistan.

In 1987, Jahangir co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and became its Secretary General until 1993 when she was elevated as the commission's chairperson. She was again put under house arrest in November 2007 after the imposition of emergency. After serving as one of the leaders of the Lawyers' Movement, she became Pakistan's first woman to serve as the President of Supreme Court Bar Association. She co-chaired South Asia Forum for Human Rights and was the vice president of International Federation for Human Rights. Jahangir served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion from August 2004 to July 2010, including serving on the United Nations panel for inquiry into Sri Lankan human rights violations and on a fact-finding mission on Israeli settlements.  In 2016, she was named as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, remaining until her death in February 2018.

Jahangir's prominent writings include The Hudood Ordinance: A Divine Sanction? and Children of a Lesser God.