News

21/12/2009

Iran: Arrested women human rights defender, Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh, has been released

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network was gravely concerned to learn of the arrest of our colleague, friend and networker, Ms. Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh. Midday on Monday 21 December we received the news through WLUML networkers that Ms. Abbasgholizadeh had been released, but others remain in detention.

18/12/2009

United Kingdom: 'Honour' crimes and namus

Today a Kurdish family hit the headlines after the father of a 15-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared without trace 10 years ago was jailed for a minimum of 22 years after being found guilty of murdering her in a so-called "honour killing". Tulay Goren was killed on 7 January 1999 after falling in love with Halil Unal, a fellow Turkish Kurd twice her age, and running away from home to live with him. Her family disapproved because he was a Sunni Muslim while they were Alevis, a different branch of Islam. Police believe Tulay's body was buried temporarily in the back garden of the family home, but her remains have never been recovered. According to media reports, the family, originally from Elbistan, in south-eastern Turkey, adhered to the code of namus, or honour, practised in many rural communities there.

18/12/2009

Iran: Broken Taboos in Post-Election Iran

The on-camera martyrdom of Neda Agha-Soltan, the 26-year old philosophy student shot dead during the protests after the fraudulent presidential election in Iran in June, caught the imagination of the world. But the post-election crackdown has two other victims whose fates better capture the radical shift in the country’s political culture.

18/12/2009

Western Sahara: Expelled hunger-striking activist Haidar allowed home

A Western Sahara activist expelled by Morocco has been allowed to return from Spain after maintaining a hunger strike for 32 days. Aminatou Haidar, 42, left Lanzarote airport in the Canary Islands on a small, private plane after a deal was reached, details of which are unclear. She said her fast would continue until she was safely home with her children. Living on only sweetened water, she has developed health problems, and left hospital in Lanzarote in an ambulance."This is a triumph for international law, for human rights, for international justice and for the cause" of the Western Sahara, she told reporters as she left.

15/12/2009

Lebanon: Domestic violence not part of penal code and marital rape is legalized

He beat them every day, but some days were worse than others. In those days he would first attack the children -he would tie up and beat their son and daughter. If she tried to stop him, he would put a knife to their throats and threaten to kill them. On other days he would ask her and the children to chose their own instrument of torture - a thick electric cable, a hammer, a hose. After each beating - and some of them lasted for hours - he would rape her and then force all three of them into a shower to wash off the blood.

11/12/2009

Iran: Men Wearing Headscarf in Solidarity with Protesters

On Wednesday, The Lede looked at the response from Iranian bloggers and human rights activists to the treatment of Majid Tavakoli, a student leader who was detained after Monday’s demonstrations in Tehran, and subsequently mocked by official Iranian news agencies that published photographs of him wearing female clothes taken after his arrest.

11/12/2009

Western Sahara: WLUML solidarity letter to Aminatou Haidar

WLUML's solidarity letter to human rights defender, Aminatou Haidar. The Moroccan government is blocking Ms. Haidar from returning to her home in Western Sahara. She is in the fourth week of a hunger strike at Lanzarote airport. (For regular updates on her critical situation, please go to: http://freesahara.ning.com/)

11/12/2009

Arab World: Report: Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform 2009

Today the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies released its second annual report on the state of human rights in the Arab world for the year 2009. The report, entitled Bastion of Impunity, Mirage of Reform, concludes that the human rights situation in the Arab region has deteriorated throughout the region over the last year. The report reviews the most significant developments in human rights during 2009 in 12 Arab countries: Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen. It also devotes separate chapters to the Arab League and an analysis of the performance of Arab governments in UN human rights institutions.

11/12/2009

Afghanistan: Women lead protest against government corruption

In an unusual display of female political activism, several hundred demonstrators demand that President Hamid Karzai purge those connected to corruption, war crimes or the Taliban. Several hundred women, many holding aloft pictures of relatives killed by drug lords or Taliban militants, held a loud but nonviolent street protest today, demanding that President Hamid Karzai purge from his government anyone connected to corruption, war crimes or the Taliban. "These women are being very brave," said the protest leader, her face hidden by a burka. "To be a woman in Afghanistan and an activist can mean death. We want justice for our loved ones!

11/12/2009

Iran: Iranian journalist, Hengameh Shahidi, sentenced to six years

Hengameh Shahidi, a female journalist, has been sentenced to six years, three months and one day’s imprisonment for charges related to her peaceful exercise of her rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. She remains free on bail, pending an appeal against her conviction and sentence, but if imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider her to be a prisoner of conscience and would call for her immediate and unconditional release.