First Muslim woman on UK Special Forces TV show describes ‘internal conflict’ at taking part

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Shireen Khan, an aesthetics and tech entrepreneur from London, was chosen among thousands as one of the recruits in the action-packed series “SAS Who Dares Wins.” (Channel 4)
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The sixth season of “SAS Who Dares Wins” started airing on Sunday on UK Channel 4. (Channel 4)
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Shireen Khan, an aesthetics and tech entrepreneur from London, was chosen among thousands as one of the recruits in the action-packed series “SAS Who Dares Wins.” (Supplied)
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Updated 11 May 2021
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First Muslim woman on UK Special Forces TV show describes ‘internal conflict’ at taking part

  • Fitness enthusiast Shireen Khan says “SAS Who Dares Wins” placed her in some uncomfortable situations
  • The entrepreneur of Pakistani origin said her parents did not want her to take part, and share room and toilets with men

LONDON: The first Muslim woman to take part in a popular British TV show, in which contestants are set challenges by former Special Forces members, has described both her pride in taking part but the “difficult situations” she faced linked to her faith and upbringing.
Shireen Khan, an aesthetics and tech entrepreneur from London, was chosen among thousands as one of the recruits in the action-packed series “SAS Who Dares Wins.”
The sixth season, which started airing on Sunday on Channel 4, involves an elite team of ex-Special Forces soldiers putting 21 men and women through a series of grueling physical and mental exercises designed to mirror selection for the Special Air Services (SAS).
“A lot of people thought I wasn’t going to get on the show or even pass their fitness tests,” Khan told Arab News of the entry process. “At one point, I actually thought myself I was’t going to pass, because they were so difficult.”
Even to enter the show, contestants must be able to do 44 push-ups in a minute-and-a-half, and run 1.9 kilometers in nine minutes.
Khan, 28, received the call to say she made it as one of the final recruits, but her parents were not very happy, which posed a “real conflict” for her.
“My mum was like, you are a Muslim girl and how are you planning to go onto the show, when you are going to be sleeping next to men, and going to the toilet, and all of these things, if you go on the show, I am practically going to disown you,” Khan told Arab News.
For Khan, this was “a once in a lifetime opportunity,” although it “was a very difficult situation.”
“There are Muslim women who want to go into the SAS or army, because that is their passion and the big question is, is that something they can do in the correct way of Islam?”
Since then, her father has come around due to her achievement and knowing her values, but her mother has not, however at the time of the interview, they still had not seen her contribution to the show.
On the show, the men and women share open toilets and sleep in army camp beds in the same room. They also get changed together.




The sixth season of “SAS Who Dares Wins” started airing on Sunday on UK Channel 4. (Channel 4)

“I got very constipated, because mentally that is not something I am used to, whereas a lot of the other recruits, they have been in scouts and been wilderness camping since they were young, they have been exposed to these type of things, so they did not find it as a culture shock,” Khan said. “Whereas with me, I have been brought up in a very strict Muslim household in some way, so I physically couldn’t go to the toilet.”
At one point, they returned to camp and were washed off in freezing cold water to clear the mud and filth, and were told to undress and get into their dry kit.
“It meant that everyone had to strip, and when it came to me, I just said no,” Khan said. Instead, she wore her dry kit over her wet clothes, prompting warnings from the show’s staff that she risked hypothermia.
“It was a very uncomfortable situation and what you see on TV and in reality is absolutely nothing what they put you through, they literally just put a few snippets, but you are constantly going through that trauma behind the cameras.”
Another problem she faced was that the show did not not provide halal food.
Women were only allowed to apply for the real SAS since 2018.
On the TV show, Khan is not the first Muslim to take part. In the second season, Iraqi-born Mohammed Abdul Razak, who reached the final stage, used to pray five times a day on the show.
It was filmed in a remote part of Scotland, where the British Special Forces do most of their challenging training.
Despite her best efforts, Khan was the first to be eliminated during the first task, where they had to race 2.2 kilometers up a mountain carrying 18 kilos on their backs, as she along with another contestant, would have been a liability in a real war zone, the judges said.
Contestants often have a story of hardship, which has given them the strength to turn their lives around.
“Since I was young, I was bullied at school, I was not one of the best looking girls, I had a mustache growing up, being from a Pakistani background I was extremely hairy and that was one of the targets for bullies to pick on me and beat me up in the playground,” Khan said.
She suffered from self-esteem issues, which made her binge eat and become overweight. She also went through a really tough time with her parents’ divorce and growing up without much money.
She changed her life to become as physically fit as possible and went from “rags to riches,” training as a nurse before setting up a a chain of beauty clinics across London.
“I have come a long way and...it took a lot for me to do that, but I am a pure example of when you put your mind to something it is possible.”




Shireen Khan, an aesthetics and tech entrepreneur from London, was chosen among thousands as one of the recruits in the action-packed series “SAS Who Dares Wins.” (Supplied)

Khan joined the show because wanted to experience the real SAS and army, “who are actually going through this day to day just to save us, and for us to be sleeping peacefully at night. Coming off the show, my admiration, I’ve just got no words to describe what they get exposed to every day, it’s a real honor.”
Khan does not think she is capable of a career in the SAS because she discovered on the show she has physical, mental limitations. Weighing 51kg, Khan is 157cm, and said she was physically unable to compete with the men in the same tasks.
“It has definitely changed and shaped the way I look at life in general and I am exposing myself to new challenges,” she said.
Khan said she now plans to focus on her business and charitable work “and give back to the world in a different way.”
Khan runs a charity called Carrott Kids, which helped rebuild an earthquake-damaged school for 100 children in a remote Pakistan village. The new school building opened in March.


Russia fines Google $20 decillion, a record-breaking penalty

Updated 31 October 2024
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Russia fines Google $20 decillion, a record-breaking penalty

  • The amount — 20 followed by 33 zeros — exceeds the estimated total global GDP of $110 trillion, a figure with a mere 13 zeros
  • Unpaid fine dates back to 2020 when Google began banning Russian YouTube channels, and has grown exponentially due to compound penalties

LONDON: A Russian court has fined Google a staggering $20 decillion, the largest financial penalty ever issued.

In fact, $20 decillion (20 followed by 33 zeros), which in Russia’s own currency is equivalent to 2 undecillion rubles (a 37-digit figure), far exceeds the combined gross domestic product of every country in the world, which is estimated to be about $110 trillion (a figure with a mere 13 zeros).

The amount dwarfs the $206 billion paid by tobacco companies to the US government in 1998, which remains the largest civil lawsuit settlement.

Google said: “We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia. For example, civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties. We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”

The fine, which a judge said contained “many, many zeros,” relates to a dispute that began in 2020 when Google-owned YouTube banned Tsargrad, a Russian ultra-nationalist, pro-Kremlin channel, from the platform in compliance with US sanctions.

Since then, Google has blocked more than 1,000 YouTube channels and more than 5.5 million videos from Russia, halted advertising services in the country in March 2022, and paused monetization of content that supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In response, a number of relatively small fines were imposed by Russian courts but they went unpaid and Russian business newspaper RBC reported that the amounts owed have grown immensely as result of compound penalties initially set at $1,025 a day and doubling each week.

Details of the current total of the fine emerged on Tuesday, as Google reported quarterly earnings of $88.3 billion for the three months to September. Based on that amount, it would take the company more than 56 septillion (a figure with 24 zeros) years to pay off the fine, which is more than 4 trillion times the age of the universe.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, urged Google parent company Alphabet to stop blocking Russian YouTube channels. However, he conceded that the massive fine, which he said he cannot even pronounce, is purely symbolic.

“These demands, they simply demonstrate the essence of our channels’ claims against Google,” Peskov said. “Google should not restrict the activities of our broadcasters, but Google is doing this.

“Probably, this (growing fine) should be a reason for Google’s management to take notice and rectify the situation. It’s the best thing the company can do.”


Palestinian student wins appeal after UK Home Office revoked visa over Gaza remarks

Updated 31 October 2024
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Palestinian student wins appeal after UK Home Office revoked visa over Gaza remarks

  • Tribunal found Dana Abu Qamar’a comments did not constitute extremism, align with views of human rights organizations
  • Qamar had her visa revoked in December after a speech at Palestinian rally that prompted intervention of the then-immigration minister, Robert Jenrick

LONDON: A Palestinian student has won an appeal against the UK government after her student visa was revoked in 2023 due to statements on the Gaza situation that the Home Office deemed “not conducive to the public good.”

The Home Office had stripped Dana Abu Qamar, a dual Jordanian-Canadian citizen of Palestinian origin and University of Manchester student, of her visa after concluding that her remarks on Gaza’s resistance to Israel posed a risk to public safety.

However, a tribunal overturned the ruling on Wednesday, declaring that her comments did not constitute extremism.

Court documents show that her visa was revoked after the then-immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, intervened in the case. Qamar, who leads the Friends of Palestine society at the university, stated that his involvement “sends a chilling message to activists,” calling it part of a “brutal crackdown.”

The tribunal’s judgment also concluded that Abu Qamar’s reference to Israel as an “apartheid” state aligned with views held by multiple human rights organizations and found her language around “actively resisting” and “breaking free” to be consistent with lawful expressions of Palestinian resistance. The court also determined she was “not an extremist.”

Commenting on her legal victory, Qamar said “justice has prevailed” and that she was happy with the result.

“This ruling validates the right to voice support for human rights for the plight of Palestinians and the right to resist occupation,” she said on Wednesday.

Her statements, which initially attracted government scrutiny, came during a speech at a pro-Palestine rally in Manchester, in which she remarked, “We are full of pride, we are really, full of joy at what has happened,” referencing the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel.

Later, in a BBC interview, she clarified her stance, saying: “The death of any innocent civilian should not be condoned ever, and we don’t condone it at all.”

Abu Qamar, who has lost 22 relatives in Gaza during Israel’s ongoing campaign and whose paternal grandparents were displaced by the 1948 Nakba, reiterated her opposition to harm against civilians, adding: “I’ve always been of the position that I never have or never will condone harm to innocent civilians. It doesn’t align with who I am as a person, with my character and with my views. I’ve made that explicitly clear throughout and I’m glad that the court has seen that.”


Report says crowd-sourced fact checks on X fail to address flood of US election misinformation

Updated 31 October 2024
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Report says crowd-sourced fact checks on X fail to address flood of US election misinformation

SAN FRANCISCO, California: X’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program, called Community Notes, isn’t addressing the flood of US election misinformation on Elon Musk’s social media platform, according to a report published Wednesday by a group that tracks online speech.
The nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate analyzed the Community Notes feature and found that accurate notes correcting false and misleading claims about the US elections were not displayed on 209 out of a sample of 283 posts deemed misleading — or 74 percent.
Misleading posts that did not display Community Notes even when they were available included false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that voting systems are unreliable, CCDH said.

From a page of the "Rated Note Helpful" report of the Center for Countering Digital Hate

In the cases where Community Notes were displayed, the original misleading posts received 13 times more views than their accompanying notes, the group added.
Community Notes lets X users write fact checks on posts after the users are accepted as contributors to the program. The checks are then rated by other users based on their accuracy, sources, how easily they are to understand, and whether they use neutral language. The program was launched in 2021 by the previous leadership of the site — then known as Twitter — and was called Birdwatch. Musk renamed it Community Notes after he took over the site in 2022.

Formerly known as Birdwatch under the old Twitter, the program was renamed Community Notes after Elon Musk took over the popular social media platform in 2022 and renamed it X. (Image courtesy of X)

Last year, X sued CCDH, blaming the group for the loss of “tens of millions of dollars” in advertising revenue after it documented an increase in hate speech on the site. The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in March.
Keith Coleman, a vice president of product at X who oversees Community Notes, said in a statement that the program “maintains a high bar to make notes effective and maintain trust across perspectives, and thousands of election and politics related notes have cleared that bar in 2024. In the last month alone, hundreds of such notes have been shown on thousands of posts and have been seen tens of millions of times. It is because of their quality that notes are so effective.”
San Francisco-based X also pointed to external academic research that has shown Community Notes to be trustworthy and effective.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, however, said the group’s research “suggests that X’s Community Notes are little more than a Band Aid on a torrent of hate and disinformation that undermines our democracy and further polarizes our communities.”


Meta says Malaysia’s social media licencing plan lacks clarity, threatens innovation

Updated 30 October 2024
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Meta says Malaysia’s social media licencing plan lacks clarity, threatens innovation

  • Malaysia to require social media licenses by Jan. 1, says platforms must step up monitoring
  • Meta says undecided if it will apply for licencing by deadline due to “exceptionally accelerated” iter and unclear obligations

KUALA LUMPUR: A Meta Platforms official on Wednesday criticized Malaysia’s plan to require social media platforms to apply for a regulatory license by January, saying the proposal lacked clear guidelines and gave social companies little time to comply, risking digital innovation and growth in the country.
Malaysia said in July it will require social media platforms and messaging services with more than eight million users to obtain a license, as part of efforts to curb financial scams, cyberbullying and sexual crimes online.
The companies could face legal action if they failed to do so by Jan. 1, 2025.
The plan has faced a backlash, with an Asian industry group that includes Meta urging the government in August to pause the move. Malaysia however has said it will not delay the proposed regulations, with Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil saying tech companies must comply with local laws to continue operating the country.
Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia Rafael Frankel said the firm has not yet decided if it plans to apply for the license ahead of the January deadline, due to a lack of clarity over the new regulations.
The timeline to apply for a license was “exceptionally accelerated” and the obligations for social media firms under the plan remained unclear, Frankel said in an interview with Reuters.
“These regulations tend to take a couple years to go through multiple iterations... to properly structure them and to balance the need for safety and ensure that you don’t inadvertently cap innovation and digital economic growth,” he said.
Malaysia’s communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the interview.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday following a meeting with Meta representatives a day earlier, communications minister Fahmi thanked the company for its willingness to cooperate with the government but urged it to take more proactive measures against sexual content involving minors on its platforms.
Frankel said Meta shared the Malaysian government’s goal for a safe online environment and was working closely with the communications regulator to remove or restrict harmful content from its platforms.
“We don’t need a licencing regime in order to take online safety seriously. We already take it seriously,” he said.
Meta has shared its concerns with the government and hopes to “bridge the differences” over the proposed regulations before they are implemented, Frankel added, without providing details.
Malaysian authorities deem online gambling, scams, child pornography and grooming, cyberbullying and content related to race, religion and royalty as harmful.
Malaysia reported a sharp increase in harmful social media content earlier this year and urged social media firms, including Facebook parent Meta and short video platform TikTok (8645.HK), to step up monitoring on their platforms.


Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico

Updated 30 October 2024
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Journalist shot dead in crime-riddled western Mexico

  • Mauricio Cruz Solis was a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet
  • Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say

MORELIA, Mexico: A journalist was shot dead Tuesday night in western Mexico, a local prosecutor’s office said, in a part of the country hit hard by organized crime.
Mauricio Cruz Solis, a host on local radio station La Poderosa Uruapan who also published news on the Minuto x Minuto outlet, was killed in the city of Uruapan.
One other person was wounded in the attack, the prosecutor’s office said.
The radio station where Cruz Solis worked mourned his killing in a statement published on social media.
“Mauricio was more than a colleague, he was an unconditional friend, a source of inspiration and a tireless voice in the service of our community,” the station said.
Wracked by violence related to drug trafficking, Mexico is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists, news advocacy groups say.
Reporters Without Borders says more than 150 newspeople have been killed in Mexico since 1994.
Cruz Solis’s murder is the first killing of a journalist under the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, although there have been other attacks on media this month.
On October 18, gunmen shot at the front of the El Debate newspaper’s office in Culiacan, the state capital of cartel stronghold Sinaloa, which has been shaken by weeks of gang infighting.
A day later, a delivery worker with the outlet was abducted by presumed criminal groups and there has been no news about his whereabouts.