News

27/11/2013

Last Push for the UN Resolution on WHRDs - Tweet a State Rep!

The resolution for the protection of women human rights defenders is to be discussed in the next 24 hours. This is the first time a resolution on the situation and significance of women human rights defenders has been put on the table. So, we have some hours to make more noise about the importance of the resolution and name the States that are not co-sponsoring or the ones who are silent against the attacks to the spirit of the resolution. Also why not congratulate the ones that have and ask them why supporting the resolution is important!

27/11/2013

Public stoning consideration is latest setback for Afghan women's rights

Twelve years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan's government is considering bringing back a gruesome spectacle that became synonymous with Islamist cruelty: the use of public stoning as a punishment for sex outside marriage.

The sentence for married adulterers, along with flogging for unmarried offenders, appears in a draft revision of the country's penal code being drawn up by the ministry of justice.

It is the latest in a string of encroachments on hard-won rights for women, after parliament quietly cut the number of seats set aside for women on provincial councils, and drew up a criminal code whose provisions will make it almost impossible to convict anyone for domestic violence.

27/11/2013

Universities UK: Rescind endorsement of sex segregation at UK Universities

Universities UK (UUK) has issued guidance on external speakers saying that the segregation of the sexes at universities is not discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way.”

26/11/2013

WLUML gears up for WELDD training in Cairo

Cairo will be the setting for WLUML's third transformational feminist leadership workshop (and the second for the Middle East and North Africa region) between the 7th and 14th of December this year. The workshop - part of our Women's Empowerment and Leadership Development for Democratisation programme (WELDD) - will bring together young female activists from around the MENA region.

25/11/2013

"160 Girls": Making legal history in the fight against sexual violence

A landmark decision by the High Court in Kenya found that police inaction in dealing with rape cases brought by 160 girls had created a climate of impunity for defilement, which rendered the State indirectly responsible for the harms inflicted on the girls by their rapists.

22/11/2013

Trial of Sudanese activists charged with ‘indecent behaviour’ postponed

November 21, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - The trial of two Sudanese activists, are at risk of flogging for alleged ‘indecent behaviour’ has been postponed until 26 November.

Najlaa Mohammed Ali, a lawyer and human rights activist, and Amin Senada, also an activist, were arrested on 21 October in Port Sudan after they were found to be travelling in the same car together.

According to Amnesty International (AI), members of Sudan’s police and security forces took the pair into custody after accusing Senada of placing his hand on Ali’s shoulder. It said officers had threatened to use force if they refused to comply.

22/11/2013

Reflections on Transgender Day of Remembrance

"It numbs me to acknowledge that we have been repeatedly erased from the consciousness of life.
of the millions of lives that were silenced and made invisible.
the wound is deep and seething. It’s time to remember."
— Satya Rai Nagpaul, Sampoorna for Trans* Indians by Trans* Indians across the globe

20/11/2013

UK: Muslim Women more likely to suffer Islamophobic attacks than men - study

Haroon Siddique

20th November 2013

Muslim women are more likely to be subjected to Islamophobic attacks than men, especially if they are wearing the niqab or other clothing associated with their religion, a study has found.

Maybe We Are Hated, a report on the impact of Islamophobic attacks, written by Dr Chris Allen, a social policy lecturer at the University of Birmingham, will be launched in the House of Commons on Wednesday. It is intended to look beyond the statistics and, for the first time, give a voice to the female victims of Islamophobia.

18/11/2013

Kyrgyzstan - The Kidnapped Bride

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/watch/player.html?pkg=303_kyrgyz&seg=1&mod=0

Start video by clicking gold arrow below screen in center.

File 2065

For centuries, Kyrgyzstan was a remote, mountainous outpost along the Silk Road to China. Under Soviet rule, few Westerners ventured here. But since the country gained independence, Kyrgyzstan is slowly opening to the West.

18/11/2013

GOVERNMENTS SHOULD SUPPORT STRONG INTERNATIONAL RESOLUTION ON WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

Governments should support an important international resolution on the situation and protection of women human rights defenders, the International Service for Human Rights said today.