Monthly Archives: February 2022

Awaken Your Inner Balance is the book Get Balance that will help you find, manifest,and live a life that is full of personal empowerment, self-discovery, and life-changing events. Its thebest self-help book for both men and women.

Beverly Hills, California, United States February 18, 2022 /MarketersMEDIA/

Humanitarian, philanthropist, global peace leader, human rights advocate, and outstanding author Dr Dame Munni Irone recently released book Get Balance has garnered her a great deal of admiration and respect. On the first day of its publication, the book surpassed all sales records and became Amazon 39 best-selling title, breaking all prior marks.In this book, the reader will learn how to choose a life path that helps them to achieve harmony in their spiritual, personal, and professional lives.

Book Description: Get Balance is a resource for spiritual growth as well as self-improvement. Based on her incredible and life-changing experiences, Dr Dame Munni Irone has written a book to help others learn how to cope with life ups and downs and awaken their spiritual principles.

To help people understand and appreciate the value of living in the present now, Dr Dame Munni has launched Get Balance, which she hopes will serve as a model for many women who have experienced life-altering experiences. Everything else is just a waste of time and energy.A guide to the ideas Dr Dame Munni has followed throughout her life that has enabled her to live the life she has is what you ll discover in this book, not another self-help book. Even though she has two exclusive luxury mansions surrounded by aristocrats, she maintains a lack of attachment to material things. She can do all of this because she is familiar with human beings and the realities of life.

Get Balance is full of stories that will make you laugh and cry, but they also reveal the extraordinary journey of this exceptional woman and the pearls of wisdom that are concealed on each page. Get Balance is an easy-to-read, self-help book with a positive message that everybody can get something out of. This book was intended for people like you, and for everyone else whowants to make a better life for themselves.

Munni has completed her lifes purpose and found out how to put together all of her many puzzles. She hopes that her book will help millions of people realise that Peace starts with me! and that You are in charge of your destiny!

We have downloaded this book and my students will benefit from this book. Many discussions aretaking place already. Many people are teaching but she is sharing her stories with her successstories and my students are connecting with her.

When Dame Munni said, her purpose we were sold on her mission and her intention to bring globalchange. These students are going to be the best leaders with book knowledge and they will understandlife. This is the best gift she has given to our school.

In a short time, this book is going to use by professors and students. Teaching others is differentthen living and sharing.1. His Royal Highness Alhaji (Dr.) Yahaya Abubakar.2. Pastor O.M. Paseda the Principal Christ the Redeemers college,3. Pastor S. Adewumi. Redeemers International School4. Proprietress. Mrs Christy Iwuaba living spring college5. Paladugu Parvathi Devi College of Engineering & Technology6. In the Laboratory in California where Covid testing is manufactured and they have 61 scientistemployees. To create a positive workplace.

This story is released by worldmedianetwork.uk.

Contact Info:Name: Satish ReddyEmail: Send EmailOrganization: World Media Network ltdAddress: 160 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NXPhone: +19295232545Website: https://worldmedianetwork.uk/

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Get Balance Is The Perfect Self-Help Book With All the Supports-Dr. Dame Munni Irone - Digital Journal

Biigtigong Nishnaabeg lawyer Nicole Richmond, pictured at the 2021 Gathering of the People Powwow in Thunder Bay, recently delivered two presentations on mindfulness and meditation during Nokiiwin Tribal Councils A Healthier You virtual wellness week.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY Biigtigong Nishnaabegs Nicole Richmond shared two presentations on mindfulness and meditation during Nokiiwin Tribal Councils A Healthier You virtual wellness week, held Jan. 31-Feb. 4.

Nokiiwin has a really big emphasis on workplace wellness and personal wellness and they asked me to give some presentations about emotional regulation and working through relationships with people, says Richmond, a lawyer, wellness consultant and educator. Its all in view of the (COVID-19) pandemic, its how everybody is coping going through this because its been going on for such a long time.

Richmond says her first presentation was on relational mindfulness.

It was about paying attention to your emotions, paying attention to things that come into your awareness that help you make better decisions, Richmond says. So the key message is when things happen, it either is guiding you to make a different decision within yourself or sometimes you have to make a different decision about how you interact with others.

Richmond says the presentation included some discussion and contemplation about emotional states and different emotional responses.

That was a really good presentation, and the end part of the presentation talked about different personality types or challenges that we can run into in the workplace, Richmond says. The people were really engaged this is something that people are very interested in. This idea of mindfulness has been in the news for a long time. Our people naturally had mindfulness practices, we do drumming, we do singing, we are meditators, we are prayers, so to integrate ideas about mindfulness into emotional well-being and into relationships is something that weve already done but were just kind of reinvigorating skills to help people understand these practices and what that looks like.

Richmond says her second presentation was an intuitive guided meditation class.

Ive done all kinds of training but I started to teach in 2015 and went online with the pandemic, Richmond says. Sometimes I teach lawyers in law firms because Im a lawyer and I often get invited to teach groups. So we just kind of went through a variety of practices like learning how to breathe, learning how to relax, learning how to just separate your thoughts from your mind and how to address thoughts that keep recurring in your mind.

Richmond says they also went through a series of healing techniques looking at emotional blockages in the body.

One of the teachings in the spiritual world is about chakras, Richmond says. This is an Indian from India teaching that there are seven energetic centres in the body. So we just spent probably four to five minutes looking at our chakras and thinking about our body and being aware of how we felt and where energy was running or not running in our bodies.

Richmond says the main response to the presentation was about the need to start an introduction to meditation group.

The big thing that is missing for people right now is a sense of connection and a sense of personal empowerment, Richmond says. I think people going through the pandemic really need support and they really need empowerment and they need each other.

Richmond says she is planning to start a four-week introductory to meditation class in March.

They can learn the skills, they can come to some of my more advanced groups after that if they want, Richmond says. I am available to facilitate for groups, Im more than happy to do that.

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Biigtigong Nishnaabeg Anishinaabekwe focuses on workplace and personal wellness during Nokiiwin Tribal Council's virtual event - Anishinabek News

The Little Red Company's Sisters Are Doing it For Themselves is an uplifting, toe-tapping celebration of female empowerment.

Director Naomi Price and co-creator Adam Brunes clearly understood the assignment. A slice of nostalgia that brings the heat, Sisters Are Doing it For Themselves relives the joy and heat of the Sister Act soundtracks whilst nourishing the soul. As soon as our celestial guides - Prinnie Stevens, Angela Fabian, Irena Lysiuk and Alisha Todd - sing their first note, you immediately feel a sense of lightness and that lightness is only exemplified throughout the performance with every song and dance.

There was funk, there was soul, and there was groove, sprinkled with some sassy remarks about the lack of restrictions for religious gatherings when music and arts festivals are constantly being cancelled. Stevens was the Goddess of Sultry, Fabian was the Goddess of Wow I Didn't Even Know that Note Existed, Todd was the Goddess of Soul and Irena was the Goddess of How Do Those Vocal Pipes Fit In Such A Small Body. They covered all of the famous songs from the soundtrack including My Guy (My God) and I Will Follow Him, supported by an electrifying live band including musicians Mik Easterman, JaZZella , Michael Manikus, and OJ Newcomb. And boy was the band on point.

My favourite part of the show, other than the music of course, were the personal anecdotes that each lead, all reigning from culturally diverse backgrounds and upbringings, shared of how they developed their voice and their identities not only as women, but as performers. It was such a gorgeous, personal touch and it just made the performance even more powerful. It also brought a sense of relatability for a number of us women (and gents) in the audience who have chosen the arts as their career path and reminded us of all of the setbacks that we've experienced and continue to experience.

The recitation of Sister Act 2's famous quote: "Singing does not put food on the table, singing does not pay the bills, singing is no guarantee for a future. There are a lot of people out there singing their shoulda coulda wouldas," really hit hard for me. Harder than I thought it would as it conjured about the image of me sitting across a member of the faculty at my high school at a career counselling meeting. The disappointment of the faculty member's face when I told them that I was pursuing drama school was all I could see. Funny how those things still stay with you after all of those years...

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves is the best way to spend your Friday night as far as I'm concerned. It'll make you dance and sing and the surprise at the finale is heavenly and honestly, just so much fun. You'll have to go see it yourself to know what I mean...

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Photography by Steph Do Rozario

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Review | SISTERS ARE DOING IT THEMSELVES by The Little Red Company - Broadway World

A couple of years later you have trans and gender identity issues put in the lap of feminism, she says.

They are, for me, the biggest departures from what had gone before.

While Second Wave feminists of the 60s and 70s were stereotyped as bra-burning man-haters, younger generations, loosely grouped as Third Wave feminists, have reacted against the rigidity of their elders when it comes to rejecting gender roles, care for personal appearance, and the inter-personal politics of sex.

Recent splits between Millennial and Gen Z feminists have led some to ask whether we have arrived at a Fourth Wave of feminism, powered by social media, changing ideas about gender, and a form of identity politics that doesnt automatically centre female oppression.

Tilly Lawless, a 29-year-old author and sex worker, believes the Fourth Wave has arrived.

The third wave was about empowerment at the individual level, it was obsessed with representation: We need Hillary Clinton in the White House because shes a woman, Lawless believes.

Fourth wave feminism is a little more critical of supporting people just because of their gender.

Its looking at things more systemically rather than just looking at individuals.

Young women such as Tame and Brittany Higgins, who is 26, have recently shot to prominence as the nations most visible young feminists.

Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins at the National Press Club in Canberra last week.Credit:James Brickwood

Both have largely delighted older feminists with their frank and unapologetic confrontation of structural power.

But other older people (including the Prime Ministers wife Jenny Morrison) were dismayed by what they perceived as Tames lack of politeness when she met the Prime Minister at an Australian of the Year function last month, generating news photographs that went viral.

Women have been angry for a really long time, says Rosewarne.

The difference is the visibility of that anger.

Unlike previous generations, todays young feminists dont need the mainstream media to notice them or amplify their cause.

Grace Tame with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Jenny Morrison.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

They can launch critiques of powerful figures (notably the Prime Minister Scott Morrison) from wherever they happen to be with their smartphone.

These young women are digital natives who have come of age with the internet, and they can control their narrative, says Rosewarne.

Young women can raise their voices via social media, but they can also be educated through it.

There are young people who have learned their feminism from [social media website] Tumblr, says Rosewarne.

These young women are digital natives who have come of age with the internet, and they can control their narrative, says Rosewarne.Credit:Justin McManus

But the central role of social media in contemporary feminism attracts its own critique.

Should the complexities of the womens movement be condensed into a bite-sized TikTok video? Can they be?

Lawless, who has 50,000 Instagram followers, says that unfortunately, we are having complex, nuanced things reduced to soundbites.

Things that have multiple books written about them are reduced to an infographic stuck up on someones [Instagram] story, she says.

If social media serves as a gateway to knowledge, thats fine.

I would love if the feminism-lite or Feminism 101 people access via TikToks, led people to further engage and think about feminism, Lawless says.

But as she is the first to admit, TikTok and Instagram are also visual mediums that reward aesthetically pleasing content, not to mention female nudity.

If I want something important to be read, I have to post a semi-nude photo, she says.

Social media does force you to think about aesthetic. And some things that are important dont have an aesthetic.

Social media has also led to the rise of influencer feminism and others who make money on the internet under the banner of feminism, but with a loose connection to it.

So you will have Kim Kardashian posting a photo of herself naked on International Womens Day with the hashtag #empowerment, explains Rosewarne.

You see this picked up by advertising, this idea that any individual decision is empowering, that youre doing this for you, and not for the male gaze.

But to Rosewarne, thats not feminism.

How does that advance female equality?

Its not issues-based feminism, its a justification for personal choice.

Probably the most controversial point of difference between older and younger generations of feminists is over trans people.

Younger feminists are more likely to believe that trans women are women and welcome trans people to the movement.

This is confronting to some older feminists who believe biological sex, and the experience of living in a biologically female body, is central to the cause.

Prominent older feminists including Germaine Greer and JK Rowling have challenged the idea that trans women are women, earning themselves the charge of being TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists).

TERF is an insult freely thrown by Millennial and Gen Z feminists, although TERFs prefer to call themselves gender critical feminists.

Second wave feminism is obviously full of TERFS and SWERFs, says Lawless (a SWERF is a sex-worker exclusionary radical feminist).

They think that sex workers and trans women and trans men are traitors working undercover for the patriarchy.

Young feminists are also more likely to emphasise intersectionality - the idea that womens overlapping identities, such as their race, class, and sexual orientation, will impact the way they experience oppression.

Yasmin Poole, 23, is one such feminist.

She is a youth advocate and a national ambassador for girls charity Plan International Australia, and she defines her intersectional feminism as including diverse women and non-binary people.

Yasmin Poole is a youth advocate and a national ambassador for Plan International Australia.Credit:Martin Ollman

If we want to create a free world, we also have to have conversations about race and class, she says.

Young women view it as structural. There is less about the individual onus and girlboss feminism, more about questioning why certain structures have historically kept us out.

Girlboss feminism is a reference to the Millennial feminist trend which updated the sisters doing it for themselves ethos of the 1980s.

Girlboss feminism emphasised individual choice, leaning in in the corporate sphere, and put forward the idea that all womens choices were inherently feminist because a woman made them.

We are sceptical of that, says Poole.

It isnt just about women having a position of power, its about what you do with it. You have to do more than that to create an equal world.

The arguments and occasional tensions within the feminist movement are the best testament to its ongoing relevance, and its vitality.

Rosewarne says that there has always been gatekeeping in feminism, and refers back to her PhD supervisor.

Its kind of like the culture wars within the culture wars.

Twitter: @JacquelineMaley

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Grace Tame, TikTok and the emergence of feminisms Fourth Wave - Sydney Morning Herald

The Prime Video series, entitled Watch Out For The Big Grrrls, is unscripted, fabulous and goes behind the scenes of what it takes to be a professional dancer on a sold-out world tour.

The stakes are high and the pressure even higher, but from the looks of the trailer, its also set to be a heart-warming watch all about empowerment, confidence and feeling fierce no matter the situation. Something we all need a reminder of from time to time.

Lizzos Watch Out For The Big Grrrls follows her as she embarks on the search for bad-ass women to join the elite ranks of the Big Grrrls and join her world tour.

Like any good reality show, the base of the show is a shared house, known as the Big Grrrls House. With 10 hopeful women moving into it, there are obviously some doses of drama but mainly, the desire to prove they have what it takes to make it to the end and join Lizzo in front of a global audience on the center stage.

Joining Lizzo to help her in the search for dynamic dancers are legendary choreographer Tanisha Scott and O.G. Big Grrrls performers Chawnta Marie Van, Shirlene Quigley and Grace Holden. There will also be several special guest appearances including choreographer Charm LaDonna, body movement expert Rashida KhanBey Miller and multi-platinum singer and songwriter SZA.

As well as fronting the series, Lizzo is also serving as an executive producer for what looks like the affirming, light-hearted and totally addictive watch we all need a bit more of in our lives.

Its set to drop on Prime Video this May so in the meantime, youll want to lap up the brand-new trailer to get a taste of whats in store.

Girls that look like me dont get representation. [Its] time to pull up my sleeves and find them myself, a determined Lizzo says to the camera.

We pan to high-energy auditions, overwhelmed fans and some jaw-dropping dance performances.

Its hard to love yourself in a world that doesnt love you back, is just one of the emotional sentiments Lizzo can be seen sharing with the contestants. Self-reflective scenes like these are dotted throughout the short trailer and show that the journey to be Lizzos background dancer isnt just all costumes, make-up and fun but a very real personal journey for many involved.

You dont have to be light-skinned, you dont have to be skinny youre just beautiful the way you are, one of the contestants shares tearfully.

Its juicy, its real and we cannot wait to see the Big Grrrls on our screen.

Watch the trailer for yourself here:

While we dont have an exact release date, we do know that we dont have too long to wait as the series will be dropping very soon.

Well be sure to update as soon as we know more.

Lizzos Watch Out For The Big Grrrls will be available exclusively on Prime Video this May.

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Lizzo's Watch Out For The Big Grrrls is the empowering, feel-good show we all need right now - Stylist Magazine

In a London season bristling with performative phenomena embodying generational valuesto admiringly mangle Anders Christian Madsenthis Eftychia collection felt ironically like a tantalizing outlier. For not since Paula Gerbases sadly-evaporated 1205 has London shown a startup female-designed womenswear brand rooted in a deep knowledge and appreciation of tailoring.

Eftychia Karamolegkou has understandably been working through a professional existential crisis of sorts, given that her brands original focus was work/business attire and the bottom fell out of that market during the pandemic. She sprinkled in softer pieces during the last few seasons, and here again there were silk satin slip dresses and skirts aplenty in a dedicatedly brown-based palette with occasional gulps of pale yellow and cream, sometimes played against panels of velvet. These tended to be strafed by sutures executed with rouleau loops and mother of pearl buttons to create a what-lies-beneath dialogue of surface with space.

In her notes Karamolegkou said the collection, named Unfathomable Lights, was inspired by the depths of the ocean: it would have been interesting to also see some colors drawn from the surfacesomething a little punchierapplied to these sophisticated softer pieces. As for the tailoring, backstage the designer indicated the resolution of her meaning-of-tailoring crisis was to consider this collection as casual evening wear.

That tailoring, which riffed inventively on the hoary old menswear tuxedo, was clever. The shtick was to take traditional elements of evening wearsuch as the satin faux-regimental side stripe and the satin lapeland then put them through a mixer: the side stripes were moved to the front of the leg, creating a flatteringly elongated effect, while the flashy satin lapel was broken up and slimmed down in panels resting alongside wool. There was what looked like an adapted shortened Chesterfield that took that styles velvet collar and extended the velvet to act as pocket flaps. The silhouette was flattering and mature: low suited jackets above pleated tapered pants. A curving vector that ran from armpit to hip via collar and skirt on double-breasted jackets was particularly elegant, and mirrored the curve of those buttoned sutures. There were also some handsome high-waisted Nehru collar jackets, vaguely regimental again. All of this was worn against vintage boots and menswear shoes that are part of Karamolegkous personal collection. Sophisticated, thoughtful, and excellently executed, this was a refreshing recalibration of tailorings traditionaland tangledrole as the uniform of empowerment.

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Eftychia Fall 2022 Ready-to-Wear Collection - Vogue.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio Local business initiative The Real Black Friday (TRBF) offers more than just an expo this weekend. At Saturdays event in Tower City Center, there was a big focus on shopping small but the festival-like atmosphere also included live music, a fashion show and other activities.

The expo continues Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. as NBA All-Star Weekend wraps up.

The expo got off to a great start with thousands of attendees pouring into the shopping center. Men and women from more than 100 Northeast Ohio Black-owned businesses were stationed at Tower City, covering every kind of trade. You could find fashion accessories, personal trainers, snack foods, credit unions, candles, bath products, wellness centers, gyms and more. KeyBank, the presenting sponsor, gave out free merchandise.

Plenty of booths also incorporated basketball themes into their offerings. Basketball-shaped cake pops were available at one booth, while jersey-shaped koozies were available at another.

TRBFs expo brought some huge crowds to Tower City, on every level of the building, for a unique, community-focused shopping experience.

Natika Polk, owner of womens plus-sized boutique The Curve Vault, runs her business online and through pop-ups like TRBFs business expo. Polk said she first got involved with the event in 2018, and returned for 2022 due to the success she previously experienced.

Its a super event, Polk said. It gives a chance to shine a light on a lot of Black small businesses that otherwise wouldnt have a chance to be spotlighted.

The event started in 2015, when organizer and TRBF founder LaRese Purnell created the supportive event for small businesses. The expo grew larger over the years, finally landing its biggest year yet at Tower City during NBA All-Star Weekend.

On Saturday, Kyerra Herbin was working a booth with her mother, Kelly, who owns Wristwerk Custom. The business creates single bracelets, along with stacked versions with two or more bracelets combined.

There have been a lot of customers, in and out, Herbin said. We are doing pretty good. Its definitely going great.

Lifestyle business House of B&J Collection participated in TRBFs expo for the first time this year. Named after owner Aisha Midgetts late grandmothers initials, the brand aims to provide positivity-focused products for Black women.

I went through a difficult transition last year, where I felt unseen, unmotivated, unappreciated. I felt like I didnt have a purpose, Midgett said. I feel like women in general, but women who look like me, sound like me, talk like me, may be feeling the same way. I wanted to offer a space that really provided empowerment, encouragement and motivation.

Midgett said the experience has prompted her to pursue vending spaces at other upcoming events.

I think its truly amazing to just be in an atmosphere like this, thats so liberating, so supportive, Midgett said. I think its a good opportunity to network and really just pour back into the community. Thats what its about.

TRBF set some impressive goals for the expo, aiming for hundreds of thousands dollars worth of spending at various businesses. Based on the thousands of shoppers crowding Tower City on Saturday afternoon, that lofty goal seems attainable.

Find more information about the event at therealblackfriday.com.

See more photos from Saturdays event in the gallery at the top of the article.

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The Real Black Fridays business expo brings thousands of shoppers to Tower City Center during NBA All-Star W - cleveland.com

The hijab forced on a woman is bad, but equally bad is forcing her not to wear oneagainst her will lies the slippery path towards sheer defiance.

Chaotic. Tragic. A sensitive situation on the ground that turns increasingly tense, even dangerous, by the day. A completely uncalled-for mess now embroiling the nation from what began as a stand-off within a small pre-university government college (PUC) in Udupi, coastal Karnataka. As is well-known now, some six young Muslim girlscoming to attend physical classes when the PUC reopened after the long Covid haulwere ordered to remove their headscarves before they could enter the classroom to conform to the uniform/dress code instituted earlier that year by the college management committee (CMC). The girls refused, claiming to have dressed like this only all along. The authorities stood firm: the presence of headscarves disturbed uniform discipline and so had to be removed before the girls could enter the classroom. The girls went home.Whatever the facts about this sartorial change, the question bears asking: why on earth did the college focus on this moot point in the midst of the worst-ever education crisis? At a time when schools and colleges are re-opening tentatively after the extended Covid shutdown? Surely the need, everywhere, is to normalise school/college attendance and prepare for the examinations barely weeks away? Most particularly so, in the case of these girls barred entry to maintain discipline who happen to belong to what is universally acknowledged as the lowest segment of the educational pyramid?The new National Education Policy is committed to dramatically uplift Gross Attendance Ratios (GAR) by almost 50% in the decade ahead. (GAR is the proportion of age group in school/college to the total population in that eligible age group.) The age group in the higher secondary/college stage is the one most critical to the educational stream if the proposed increase in the age-at-marriage and the greater empowerment and employment of women is to be realised. Shouldnt that make it vital to help those already in schools/colleges to continue instead of creating new obstacles in their already obstacle-ridden lives? Can positive changes be imagined via state/institutional coercive-actionparticularly in the case of the young who must abide by familial authority while yet coping with a rebellious phase of life?Muslim womens literacy rates are far lower than those of any other religious community and far below the overall national average (51% versus 67% at last count); drop-out rates too are far higher than the national average (17.6% against 13.2%); their entry into the higher education stream is altogether abysmally low despite a tremendous pick-up in recent years. Analysis of a decades data of National Sample Surveys recently reported shows the female GAR (18-23 age group) made marked strides overall between 2007/8 to 2017/18. All-India the GAR figures practically doubled for the Hindu category but significantly more than doubled for the Muslim category. Karnataka shows a veritable educational revolution and most impressively for Muslim women: while GAR for Hindu women more than doubled, from 11.8 to 23.8, that of Muslim women streaked from a paltry 1.1 in 2007/8 making a fifteenfold leap to a GAR of 15.8 in 2017/18. Udupi itself has a concentration of PUCs and colleges situated as it is in close proximity to Manipal University.There is a pithy Punjabi saying: Dhaunu am khane hun ke ghutliyan ginniyan hun? In other words, do you want to eat the mangoes or count the sucked-cores? Mixing metaphorical fruits let me ask: why upset the applecart, especially when things are going so well?Within days Udupi became the eye of a dark storm that has spiralled uncontrollably, swirling across all Karnataka, even other states and regions. Karnataka saw schools and colleges shut for days; then reopened after a grim paramilitary flag march through Udupis streets in the wake of violence marring protests. From elsewhere, a courageous confrontation between a lone hijab-wearing woman and a jeering slogan-chanting male-mob went viral. Many parts of the state have Section 144 imposed around schools and colleges. The matter is in Karnataka High Court. However, the courts Interim Order to reopen schools/colleges but not allow religious symbols of any kind in institutions with CMC guidelines did not help matters. Rather, the crisis aggravated as the administration issued a strict government order refusing to allow the hijab inside all campus sites and positioned police to monitor. Over the past week, girls refusing to divest the hijab have been turned away; many more have simply stayed away. A few have refused to sit even for preliminary exams when not allowed to retain their hijabs. From an accessory worn through long habit the headscarf or hijab has metamorphosed into a proud identity marker.In court the issue escalated from a single judge to a full bench. At the time of writing, the Court remains in hearing as lawyers debate conflicting fundamental rights and constitutionality issues. Meanwhile, hurt psyches have provided welcome grist to political-mills. Political slugfests parallel street-protests, charges of conspiracy and alleged links to sinister organisations are being traded. Equally, media channels have a field day raising TRPs with minute-by-minute breathless reporting (self-claimed thus by one leading channel), endlessly repeating provocative visuals and conversations that further fuel furies. The High Court verdict is much awaited. Yet it is already anyones guess that the outcome will not rest the matter there. Appeal to the Supreme Court (earlier refused to be entertained, awaiting High Court judgement) lies on the cards. A protracted battle stretches with no easy answers. The only certainty is the deleterious effect on the education of the most-lagging subgroup in Indian society who, sadly, are collateral damage.I cannot help but recall here an episode from an early part of my own life that offers interesting illuminating insight. The year was 1952. The Constitution was baker-fresh and the hangover of the British Raj still strong in educational institutions. Then thirteen-years-old, I had already transferred across a dozen schools alongside my fathers frequent transfers. To provide stability to my last two school years my parents had brought me to Tara Hall in Shimla, arguably then the most famous girls boarding in North India. But the post-admission list to equip my stay posed a problem: skirts and blouses stipulated as compulsory uniform. Punjabi households move post-puberty daughters to don salwar-kameez. I too was comfortable with ankle-length salwars hiding spindly legs and wobbly knees!The parents were adamant in asserting tradition and the Mother Superior was aghast. But seeing my downcast face as I feared missing out on the opportunity to enter Taras hallowed halls, she conceded with a gracious smile. 70 years later her words ring strong in my ears, offering a model that needs emulation: Let not petty differences about a mode of dress spoil this childs chance to imbibe the best education. Please make sure her salwar-kameez is of identical material and colour so that overall uniformity of appearance remains and confirms discipline.That cloistered nun had the enlightened bandwidth to tweak her institutions well-established dress-code rather than miss out giving education to a child-in-need. A lesson that our present-day institutions, and courts, could do well to hearken. I might add that I look back at that period as having taught me to handle my very differently-dressed-self with dignity amongst peers initially both overly-inquisitive and teasers. But the experience added strength to character-developmentnot its undermining.Later, as one championing womens rights, I instinctively thought of the hijab as regressive and urged courage to cast it off. But another perspective evolved when I visited Istanbul in 2007. Turkey was still very cosmopolitan then, battling to join the European Union. However, Istanbuls streetsand the ferries plying by the half-hour across the Bosporus Straits that divides the larger Asian mainland of the city from its opposite edge on the European continentwere already chock-a-block with Turkish women and girls, many beautiful in tantalisingly fashionable veils that Kemal Ataturk had outlawed a century earlier. Elegantly dressed, often in Western clothes, very modern-looking young women sat, walked, laughed, chatted, holding their own in mixed groups, but quixotically in hijabs, although Turkey was then nowhere near its present extreme-right swing.The scene was the ever-growing reaction to Frances hostile ban of Sikh turbans and Muslim veils from schools and streets a couple of years before, as I learnt through conversations with myriads of hijab-clad women. Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers may have been forced but we choose, they told me. What right does Europe have to tell us not to wear our symbols? They think the bikini, even nudity is OK, but not the veil. We now wear to show the Western world that Turkish women are equal and Turkey sovereign.That glimpse highlighted for me that hijab forced on a woman is bad, but equally bad is forcing her not to wear oneagainst her will lies the slippery path towards sheer defiance.Furthermore, Priyanka Gandhi Vadras mindless pitch on the right to wear a bikini or a hijab only highlights the travesties to which a judicial ruling vindicating personal choice as an unfettered fundamental right could lay open the area. Conversely, forceful assertion of French-style secularism opens the Pandoras box for many sacred items, from black threads to karas, bangles and bindis et al with capacity to create endless mayhem. Trouble brews at either end of the spectrum. The only way is the middle wayand enormous sagacity and statesmanship to steer the issue along it. Attributes scarce in these troubled times.

Rami Chhabra is a media veteran, who pioneered the first feminist columns in the national press. She has served the country in various capacities, including in GoI and as Member, National Population Commission.

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The headscarf triggers a national migraine - The Sunday Guardian Live - The Sunday Guardian

ORLANDO Entering the All-Star break of his fourth season in the NBA, Wendell Carter Jr. is showing tremendous growth on the court.

The versatile big man is averaging career highs in points (14.0), rebounds (10.2), and assists (2.7) this season, while also playing some of his best defense since hes entered the league.

Yet, when asked where the Duke alum has shown the most growth this season, his head coach did not point to his improved 3-point shooting, his playmaking or defensive prowess. Instead, Orlando Magic Head Coach Jamahl Mosley praised Carter for his strides in leadership both on and off the court.

The one thing that I really have just loved the most more than anything that has shown up on the court is his off-the-court as well as locker room presence, Mosley said of the 22-year-old Atlanta native. His ability to lead. He does it in such a way that its not necessarily his physical presence, but his voice just says so much to these guys.

So, its only fitting that as the NBA heads into All-Star weekend, Carter tipped off his break not by going on a lavish vacation which would certainly have been well deserved by the way but instead by speaking to a group of young men about the importance of education, leadership, and guidance as they make their journey through life.

On Thursday, Carter met with a select group of young men, ages 14-18, who are part of the Boys2Men mentoring program, at the Repertory Theatre in Orlando and spoke to them about the importance of education and community resources to experience a higher quality of life.

Its an honor. Looking back when I was their age, I never thought I would be in this position where Im able to walk in a room where Ive got all eyes and ears on me and theyre trying to learn things from my life, said Carter. I just want to be able to help as many of them as I can in any shape, form or fashion.

There were many lessons that Carter delivered to group of young men in the Boys2Men mentoring program, a nonprofit organization committed to creating communities of empowerment for all teenage boys on their journey to manhood.

At the forefront was the importance of education, a value instilled in him by his mother, who would not let him participate in basketball games during high school unless he had all As. That standard helped provide him with options upon graduation as he not only had a plethora of athletic scholarships to choose from, but also academic acceptance into Ivy League institutions like Harvard.

I give a lot of credit to both of my parents. I was lucky enough to have both of them in my life, Carter said. I just give a lot of credit to them. Like I said, they werent really big on me going to the NBA. That was never their first goal with me. They wanted me to be good on the academic side and also, just be a good person.

Additional topics included the value of living in the moment and not letting past mistakes or anxiety about future events overwhelm your thought process. That was guidance he picked up from a mentor of his own, legendary Duke Mens Basketball Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Living in the moment (is the biggest lesson I want them to take away). I feel like a lot of people get caught up in the past or things that they went through, Carter explained. People get caught up in trying to see whats going to happen in the future. Sometimes we take for granted what is right in front of us. One of my mentors, Coach K, was the person who taught me that when I got to Duke. Being able to live in the moment and not putting too much energy into the past or the future. Staying present.

Its not just lip service from Carter. Hes put these lessons into action both on and off the court this season and displayed phenomenal personal growth in the process.

Earlier this year, he spoke up at halftime of the Magics home game against the Chicago Bulls on Jan. 23. At the time, Orlando was amidst a four-game losing skid, where the team had either blown a first-half lead or let the game get away from them early in the second half.

Rather than sit back, he chose to speak up, address the team and point out the areas where the group needed to improve in the second half of games.

I definitely grew in that aspect, said Carter, whose words helped lead Orlando to a 114-95 victory over Chicago. Every time we go into halftime and were up I kind of think about that moment. We had been there plenty of times and I felt like it was the perfect opportunity. We had lost a lot of games in a row, and I felt like it was the perfect opportunity to (point out) that weve been here before. I felt like it wasnt on the coaches, it was on us. I spoke up and they got behind what I was saying.

While Carter has developed as a leader, he was quick to point out to the group that he still has room to grow and has a number of life goals to check off along the way.

Among them, play a full season without missing a game, finish his college studies and get his degree, improve his skills as an actor Carter participated in plays during his time at school and most importantly, win an NBA championship.

Itll be no surprise if Carter, just as hes done throughout his life, achieves all of those lofty goals.

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Orlando Magics Wendell Carter Jr. Shares Insight and Stories of Encouragement with Youth from Boys2Men Men... - OrlandoMagic.com