News

23/8/2010

India: Appeal for funds for two acid attack victims

The lives and hopes of Samar (31) and Juwariya (25) Atique were brutally crushed in October 2009 by two men who threw a jug of acid on their faces as the women were returning home from a day's work in a rickshaw. Their crime - Juwariya had turned down a marriage proposal from one of the men! They sustained severe burns and injuries to their faces, their eyes and their upper bodies. In acid attack cases, the victims should be hosed down gently with a continuous stream of water immediately to stop the acid continuing to burn into their flesh. But they did not get treatment for five hours after the incident because the woman doctor was threatened with a similar attack by these men and their families.

23/8/2010

Burkina Faso: NGO Report on Discrimination against older women

Parallel report submitted to the 47th session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in relation to Burkina Faso’s Sixth periodic report of States parties, CEDAW/C/BFA/6,October 2009.

23/8/2010

Bangladesh: High Court bars enforced Islamic dress code

The High Court has ruled that no women can be forced to wear burqa at work and educational institutions. The bench of justices A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain also ruled that they cannot be barred from taking to culture and sports. The orders came in the wake of a public interest petition filed by Supreme Court lawyers Mahbub Shafi and A K M Hafizul Alam on Sunday.

20/8/2010

Iran: Women, Islam and...Foreign Policy?

Early July pulsed with reports of Iranian mother Sakineh Ashtiani's impending execution, which, at the time, was to be carried out by stoning. Her alleged crime was zina, adultery or fornication, a moral transgression for which more women are punished than men. Because stoning is defended on religious grounds (in Articles 86 and 105 of the Iranian penal code), its champions afford themselves the authority to acquiesce rarely, if ever, to external demands for clemency. So while diplomatic pressure, international offers of asylum, and a Western media push constitute the most visible efforts to "free Sakineh," a new book suggests that "Islamic feminists," or individuals working within Islamic discourse to promote women's empowerment, constitute a more potent activism over the long term.

20/8/2010

Azerbaijan: Azeri Human Traffickers Target Vulnerable Women

When Aynur Mammadova, who is now a prostitute working the bars of Baku, was 16, she thought she had a chance of escaping a childhood of poverty in southern Azerbaijan for a better life. She met an Iranian called Javad who asked her to marry her, and her parents, struggling to support her and her three sisters and two brothers, were happy to agree to the match. The couple went through the Muslim wedding rite, and that was enough for her family even though they did not register the marriage with the civil authorities. “We celebrated our marriage in Lenkoran and lived together for a week,” Mammadova recalled. “Then Javad said he was taking me on honeymoon to the United Arab Emirates. I said goodbye to my parents, and we set off. But when we got to Dubai, he took me to a strange place, which turned out to be a criminal hang-out. I never saw my husband again.”

19/8/2010

UPDATE: Iran: Shiva Nazar Ahari's will face 3 charges on 4 September

Writing about Shiva Nazar Ahari is more than writing about a human rights activist and fighter. It’s writing about those who take up the mantle of struggle to fight for establishing and consolidating their countrymen’s basic rights, without having a political agenda. Some bear prison and torture, others exile and refuge camps. Still, Shiva Nazar Ahari’s case is a dangerous one and the silence of the media about her is reprehensible, especially as her lawyer says Shiva’s trial date is set for September 4, for charges of moharebeh, war on god, which is punishable by execution.

19/8/2010

West Aceh: District Chief Says 'When women don’t dress according to Shariah law, they’re asking to get raped’

Meet Ramli Mansur, a 46-year-old leader of the Aceh Party, whose members are mostly drawn from the ranks of former combatants of the disbanded Free Aceh Movement. Ramli made headlines earlier this year by sponsoring a controversial Islamic bylaw that banned Muslim women from wearing tight pants. Aceh first implemented Shariah bylaws after gaining greater control over its judiciary and legislative process when former President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s administration granted the separatist province special autonomy in 2001.

18/8/2010

Afghanistan: SKSW/WLUML Statement: Stop stoning and other forms of cruel punishments by the Taliban

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International Solidarity Network condemn the recent incidents of violent punishments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

18/8/2010

Israel/Palestine: Haneen Zoabi standing up to fundamentalisms and apartheid

During the visit by leaders of the Palestinian community to Libya a few months ago, MK Hanin Zuabi (Balad ) stood out in particular - the only woman in the "Arabs of 1948" delegation invited to visit Muammar Gadhafi. When we met with Gadhafi in his tent in the town of Sert, this remarkable woman showed courage that is rare in these parts. The leader preached to us and advised us to practice one of the tenets of Islam - marry four women and bring many children into the world to fight the Israelis. Zuabi, who is known for her struggle for the rights of Palestinian women in Israel, did not hesitate and pointed out to Gadhafi that his philosophy was not acceptable to her because it oppresses women. The tent went silent. It's not customary to interrupt the leader, we had been told in the briefing before the meeting. Gadhafi listened and simply went on with his speech.

17/8/2010

Afghanistan: Taliban stone couple to death for adultery

Taliban forces have stoned a couple to death for adultery in a public execution. With Nato and UN officials in Kabul poring over the latest Taliban proposal to establish a joint commission to investigate civilian casualties, officials in the north of the country were detailing a killing that Amnesty International described as the first confirmed stoning in the country since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Militants ordered the stoning after a married man and a single woman in Dasht-e-Archi district, Kunduz province, were accused of eloping.