Waziristan’s Women Squash Champion

South Waziristan always makes local and international headlines as the epicenter of militancy in Pakistan and the stronghold of the feared Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

But Maria Toor, the women squash champion of Pakistan, offers a soft face of the restive mountaineer region and hopes to help clear stereotypes about her homeland.

"My people are wonderful. It’s only a myth that there are only militants or hardliners," Maria, 20, told IslamOnline.net.

"My area has produced a number of people who have proven themselves in different walks of life."

Recalling her childhood days in the town of Shakai, a witty Maria says she used to fight with boys in the streets, which ultimately helped her become a strong and independent woman.

"My father raised me as a boy, and I too have always considered myself a boy," she said, noting that this why her first sport choices was weightlifting.

She disguised herself as a boy to take part in her first ever sports event, which was a weightlifting championship in Peshawar.

"I beat all male players in that championship," laughed Maria, with short hair boyishly cut above her neck.

However, due to the lack of facilities for women weightlifters, she decided to give up the sport, though she still thinks she had the potential to excel in that field.

Maria met former world squash champion Jansher Khan in Peshawar in 2002, sparking her interest in the sport.

Two years later, she became Pakistan’s top female squash player and is currently seeded 85 on the World Squash Federation ranking.

Helping Father

Maria gives credit to her father for all her achievements.

"It’s my father who has brought me here. He had to migrate from Waziristan to Peshawar because he did not accept the so-called tribal traditions, which have nothing to do with Islam."

Her father Shams-ul-Qayyum, a government servant, is a traditional Pashtun who wears the traditional Shalwar Kameez (lose trouser and shirt) and sports a long beard.

He hails from the Wazir tribe, the second largest tribe in South Waziristan after Mehsuds.

He was the first ever man in the tribal area to allow his wife to take the central superior services exams to become part of the government's administration.

"My mother was the first ever woman from Waziristan who appeared in the CSS exams," said Maria.

But by allowing his wife to remove her face-veil, to appear in the CSS exams, Shams-ul-Qayyum violated the centuries-long traditions of the tribal area.

For that, he had to leave with his wife and children.

"I do not regret what I did," he told IOL proudly.

"I did everything for my daughter and other children. I would just say that I am proud of my daughter."

Empowering Islam

Maria admits that there is a little room for women in normal course of life in rugged Waziristan.

"For a majority of women and girls their boundary walls are everything," she notes.

"It’s the entire world for them, which definitely is because of local culture and tribal traditions."

The squash champion insists, however, that this has nothing to do with Islam which is the biggest exponent of women rights.

"Islam doesn’t forbid women to excel in every walk of life," Maria insists.

"I believe that Islam has granted more rights to women than any other religion. And I also believe that we girls should not misuse these rights."

The young lady is preparing to travel to Cambridge University for a five-year scholarship.

"I am not going forever," she says with a big smile on her face.

"Inshaullah I will come back and will struggle to change the lives of our women."

Junta Controls Muslim-majority Niger

Life returned to normal in Muslim-majority Niger on Friday, February 19, a day after a military coup that ousted president Mamadou Tandja.

"I hope the soldiers restore some order ... clean up the political environment," taxi driver Moussa Issa told Reuters.

"We need to start from scratch, without being compromised by the current political class which has been discredited over the last 20 years."

Troops stormed into the presidential palace on Thursday during a cabinet meeting and detained Tandja and his ministers.

At least three soldiers were killed during fierce gunbattles that accompanied the coup.

A watch tower at the palace in downtown Niamey was hit by a rocket while a gate was also damaged during the fighting.

Calling itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD), the junta immediately dissolved the government and suspended the Constitution.

"The defence and security forces have decided to take our responsibilities in ending the tense political situation," junta head squadron leader Salou Djibo said in a statement.

Niger has been embroiled in political crisis for nearly a year since Tandja, who was in power for more than a decade, changed the Constitution to remain in office.

A day after the coup, the capital city appeared calm Friday with people going about their business as normal.

Markets, banks and schools also opened as usual in the uranium-producing west African desert country.

Muslims make up 80 percent of Niger’s 15 million population, while the remaining are followers of Christianity and indigenous beliefs, according to CIA Fact Book.

Condemnation

Condemning the coup, world countries blamed the ousted president for the political crisis in the west African country.

“(The African Union) systematically condemns any unconstitutional change of government and consequently condemns the coup that took place in Niger," it said in a statement.

The pan-African body said the coup was part of the embroiling political crisis in the country.

It happened "in the context of the constitutional and political crisis in which Niger is embroiled."

Spain's ambassador to Niamey said that a coup had been inevitable given Tandja's tactics.

"While we didn't know when something like this would happen, it was clear that the military would intervene at some time or other," Maria Soledad Fuentes said on Spanish radio.

The US government also suggested that Tandja only had himself to blame.

"This is a difficult situation," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters, giving the first US reaction to the coup.

"President Tandja has been trying to extend his mandate in office. And obviously, that may well have been, you know, an act on his behalf that precipitated this act today."

Crowley, however, insisted that the US does "not in any way, shape or form defend violence of this nature.

"Clearly, we think this underscores that Niger needs to move ahead with the elections and the formation of a new government."

Rohingyas Taste Bangladesh Abuses

Fleeing oppression at their homeland for a better life, Muslim refugees from Myanmar are tasting abuses and mistreatment in neighboring Bangladesh, reported The New York Times on Friday, February 19

“Over the last few months we have treated victims of violence, people who claim to have been beaten by the police, claim to have been beaten by members of the host population,” said Paul Critchley, head of mission in Bangladesh for the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Myanmarese Muslim refugees, known as Rohingya, are complaining of daily abuses and mistreatment at the hands of police and locals.

Citing beatings and assaults, many of the refugees say that the police had forced many of them into river to swim back to Myanmar.

“We have treated patients for beatings, for machete wounds and for rape,” said Critchley.

“This is continuing today.”

Every year, thousands of minority Muslim Rohingyas flee Myanmar in wooden boats, embarking on a hazardous journey to Thailand or Malaysia in search of a better life.

While some find work as illegal laborers, others are arrested, detained and "repatriated" to a military-ruled country that washed its hands of them decades ago.

Rohingyas say they are deprived of free movement, education and employment in their homeland.

They are not recognized as an ethnic minority by Myanmar and say they suffer human rights abuses at the hands of government officials.

Many have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh, living in mud huts covered in plastic sheets and tree branches, which provide poor shelter during monsoon rains that cause mudslides and expose them to waterborne diseases.

Bangladesh says there are about 28,000 registered Rohingya refugees in two UN camps near the southeastern resort of Cox's Bazaar.

No Life

Packed into UN-run camps, thousands of Rohingyas are lacking almost everything.

“They cannot receive general food distribution,” Critchley said.

“It is illegal for them to work. All they can legally do in Bangladesh is starve to death.”

Struggling to survive, most Rohingyas work mostly as day laborers, servants or pedicab drivers.

They lack almost everything, from rights, education to other government services.

“We cannot move around to find work,” said Hasan, 40, a day laborer who lives with his wife and three children in a dirt-floored hovel made of sticks, scrap wood and plastic sheeting.

Hasan says he had no way to feed his family.

“There is a checkpoint nearby where they’re catching people and arresting them,” he said.

“We aren’t receiving any help. No one can borrow money from each other. Everybody’s in crisis now.”

David Mathieson, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Rohingyas had been victims of a "pattern of abuses" in Bangladesh for more than 30 years and the government had made it clear it wanted rid of them.

"It's not as if these incidents came out of the blue,” he said.

“They're part of a very long-running brutal process of making life so uncomfortable for the people in the camp that they'll return to Burma," he said, referring to Myanmar by its formername.

"They fled some absolutely horrific human rights violations in their own country. They're justifiably too frightened to return."

IAEA Says Iran Seeks Nukes, Tehran Denies

The UN nuclear watchdog is warning that Iran may be developing atomic weapons, a claim that is sparking Western criticism and calls for tightening sanctions despite Iran’s denial.

"The information available to the agency ... raises concerns about the possible existence in Iran of past or current undisclosed activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Chief Yukiya Amano writes in his first report to its board of governors.

Amano says that available data indicate that Tehran has not halted its nuclear weapon drive.

The information was "extensive ... broadly consistent and credible in terms of the technical detail, the time frame in which the activities were conducted and the people and organizations involved."

In 2007, the US National Intelligence Estimate, which represents the consensus among all the 16 US spy agencies, concluded that Tehran halted its weapon program in 2003.

The 10-page confidential document, which will be discussed by IAEA governors next month, also says that Tehran had begun enriching uranium to higher levels.

Last week, Tehran announced the production of its first stock of highly enriched uranium for civilian technical applications.

The IAEA report says that Tehran continues to stall the UN watchdog’s requests to inspect Iran’s weapons research.

"Since August 2008, Iran has declined to discuss the above issues ... or provide any further information and access to locations and people to address these concerns."

IAEA inspectors verified that none of Iran's declared nuclear material had been diverted, the report says.

"(But also) Iran has not provided the necessary cooperation to permit the agency to confirm that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

The West accuses Tehran of developing a secret nuclear weapons program.

Iran insists that its nuclear program only aims at procuring power to feed an increasing local consumption.

Denial

Iran denied that it was seeking nuclear weapons, saying the IAEA allegations were “baseless” and based on “forged” intelligence.

"Iran will not get emotional is responding to these nonsensical comments, since our religious beliefs are against the use of such weapons," said Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"We in no way believe in an atomic weapon and do not seek one."

Tehran insisted that all documents cited in the IAEA report have been fabricated.

"The issue of the missile or explosives has nothing to do with the IAEA's charter and function," said Iran's envoy to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

The envoy repeated Tehran's stance that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is of a peaceful nature.

"(Iran) will never halt its peaceful nuclear activities nor stop its cooperation with the agency."

Despite the Iranian denial, Western powers called for tightening sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear drive.

"The President (Barack Obama) has on a number of occasions talked about engagement, talked about the benefits of living up to those international obligations," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters aboard Air Force One.

"We always said that if Iran failed to live up to those international obligations that there would be consequences."

Washington is already leading a push for the UN Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

"(The report) shows how urgent it is to act with determination to respond to Iran's lack of cooperation," French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bernard Valero said.

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