News

27/5/2011

UPDATE: Saudi Arabia: Manal Al Sherif's prison sentence extended for ten days

Manal Al Sherif, according to first reports of her sentence, was supposed to be released today. The local media has taken an official stance on Manal’s case. While columnists in these very same schizophrenic newspapers have taken the opposite position by supporting Manal and advocating lifting the ban on women driving. In one estimate, there were over 60 columns supporting Manal on Tuesday and Wednesday. Meanwhile theofficial stance is that Manal has confessed and repented. The story goes that Manal has broken down sobbingly and said that she was mislead and misinformed by a group of Saudi women, some of whom are in the USA to go ahead with the campaign and driving video.

23/5/2011

Saudi Arabia: YouTube activist arrested for challenging ban on women drivers

Saudi authorities have arrested an activist who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom and posted a video on the internet of her behind the wheel, activists said. The YouTube video, posted on Thursday, has attracted more than 500,000 views and shows Manal Alsharif, who learned to drive in the US,driving her car in Khobar in the oil-producing Eastern Province.

20/5/2011

Pakistan: Young women fight the 'Talibanisation' of rural areas

Much attention has been focused on the process of radicalisation of young men in the areas of Pakistan that border Afghanistan. Peshawar, the town near the border between the two countries, is infamous for being the centre of a vibrant industry and trade in homemade guns. For more than two decades, violence has become the dominant currency of almost every aspect of life in this area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, once known as the North West Frontier Province.

17/5/2011

Palestine: Honour killing laws changed

President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday signed an amendment to Palestinian law to end leniency for civilians found guilty of assault or murder "in defense of family honor." The move, welcomed by women's rights activists, came in the wake of the discovery of a Hebron woman drowned by her uncle because he disagreed with her choice of fiancee.

16/5/2011

Malaysia: SIS founder Zainah Anwar answers your questions

Zainah Anwar, Sisters in Islam (SIS) founder answers ... What are your thoughts on the French government's ban on Muslim women from wearing the burqa in public? Susila B, Johor. Z.A. I believe the state has no role to play in deciding whether a woman should cover or uncover her hair. In Iran or Saudi Arabia, you cannot leave home without the hijab but in Turkey you cannot be in any public school or university or government building with the hijab. I wish the state would leave women's heads alone. However, when it comes to the burqaor niqab (face covering), I find myself conflicted about the role of the state in this.

13/5/2011

UPDATE: Uganda: Anti-gay bill pushed out of parliament

Uganda's reviled anti-gay bill, which mandates the death penalty in some cases, remains in limbo after parliament adjourned without a debate. Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuk, the parliamentary speaker, ruled there was no time to take up the bill this session. He has adjourned the parliament and set no date for its return. A source close to proceedings said parliament could technically come back between now and 17 May but most MPs were leaving for their constituencies. Bills not completed in the old parliament are wiped and must be resubmitted. Update to Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Anti-Human Rights and Anti-Democratic: ACT NOW TO STOP IT!

11/5/2011

Egypt: Revolution's women participate in a march against "sectarian strife"

A large number of Egyptian women participated in a march entitled "No to sectarian strife" which appeared with its ugly face in the district of Imbaba. They participated in this march to stress the values of citizenship and tolerance and to prevent the strife that has been witnessed in the district and in many different places in Egypt after the revolution. The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights affirms that the incidents that happened between Muslims and Christians are a clear attempt to abort the 25th of January revolution through the use of women to fuel strife.

10/5/2011

Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Bill is Anti-Human Rights and Anti-Democratic: ACT NOW TO STOP IT!

The Global Campaign to Stop VAW in the name of "Culture" (VNC Campaign) extends our unequivocal solidarity with the Ugandan lesbians, gays and other progressive citizens that continue to fight against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. The Bill is explicitly anti-human rights and anti-democratic and contravenes the African Charter on Human and People's Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and other international human rights treaties to which Uganda is a party. National dialogue and understanding of homosexuality in Uganda is widely known to being strongly influenced by American Evangelical Christians, some of whom visited the country and took part in an anti-homosexuality conference that immediately preceded the filing of the anti-homosexuality bill in the parliament in 2009. David Kato, the LGBT rights activist whose extra-judicial killing caused worldwide public outcry was one of the main advocates campaigning against the bill, and received numerous death threats for his activism.

10/5/2011

Egypt: Threat against human rights activist Nehad Abu El-Komsan

The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) expresses its deep concern at the threats that Mrs. Nehad Abo El-Komsan, the Chair of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, received owing to her defense of women’s rights regarding the attacks that attempt to eliminate women’s achievements by the pressure to amend the current Personal Status Code.

9/5/2011

Libya: Iman al-Obeidi 'raped by Gaddafi troops' flees to Tunisia

Iman al-Obeidi, the Libyan woman who claimed she was raped by Muammar Gaddafi's soldiers, has reportedly fled to Tunisia with the help of a defecting military officer. Obeidi, who drew worldwide attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to describe to foreign journalists her alleged ordeal at the hands of 15 men, has been given refuge in Tunis by western officials. Obeidi told CNN she had entered Tunisia with a refugee document and was considering her next move. She claimed her court case against the soldiers – who she said had seized her at a checkpoint near Tripoli – had barely progressed.