News

11/1/2011

Gambia: Police did a poor investigations in GAMCOTRAP case, says former Solicitor General

Former Solicitor General Amie Bensouda has expressed dissatisfaction with the way, and manner the police investigated the GAMCOTRAP alleged theft case saying that the work of the police was the least satisfactory. She told a court in Banjul that the police investigations were improper. Lawyer Bensouda argued that Gamcotrap is not a central bank licensed micro-credit organisation, and therefore not legally permitted to give-out micro-credit, as alleged by the state. But the state witness maintains that he did not know that a central bank license is required for one to operate a micro-credit.

6/1/2011

Israel/Palestine: 'High Court: Gender segregation legal on Israeli buses - but only with passenger consent'

The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that public bus companies could continue the practice of gender segregation on dozens of lines serving the ultra-Orthodox sector, as long as there is no coercion or violence involved.

"A public transportation operator, like any other person, does not have the right to order, request or tell women where they may sit simply because they are women," Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein wrote in his ruling. "They must sit wherever they like."

"As I now read over these lines emphasizing this I am astounded that there was even a need to write them in the year 2010," he added. "Have the days of Rosa Parks, the African American woman who collapsed the racist segregation on an Alabama bus in 1955 returned?"

6/1/2011

Turkey: 'A tangled web: the politics of gender in Turkey'

On 18 July 2010, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held a consultation meeting with women’s non-governmental organisations in the context of the ‘Democratic Initiative and National Unity and Brotherhood Project’, also dubbed ‘the Kurdish Initiative’ in the popular press. This initiative aims to resolve the conflict that has plagued the South-east of the country, pitting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) against the Turkish military. The PM addressed the women in attendance as mothers “whose voices would drown out the sounds of bullets” – thus enlisting them to the cause of peace. Among the 80-odd attendees were members of NGOs with established feminist credentials such as KA-DER and theFoundation for Women’s Solidarity, among others. This goes some way towards explaining why some participants took the PM to task during the question period for addressing them exclusively as mothers, overlooking the fact that they are fully fledged economic, political and juridical personae. It is at this point that the PM apparently interjected: ‘I do not believe in the equality of men and women. I believe in equal opportunities. Men and women are different and complementary’.

6/1/2011

International: 'To see Muslim discourse in politics as a vicious anachronism is to see very little'

Last month in Kuala Lumpur I met the Malaysian politician Nurul Izzah Anwar. Just 30 years old, and formidably well-educated, Nurul Izzah is an MP as well as the mother of two children. Thrown into the political fray by the persecution of her father – Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's former deputy prime minister – Nurul Izzah has risen rapidly within the opposition People's Justice party. Admiring glances and whispers from other diners bounced off our table at a fusion restaurant in the smart suburb of Damansara Heights as she spoke frankly and persuasively about Malaysia's frustratingly racial politics, its restless youth population, the changing role of Islam, and the country's foreign relations. Towards the end of our conversation, she said: "You haven't asked me the big question." Puzzled, I asked: "About what?" Laughing, she replied: "Many western journalists only want to know why I wear a headscarf."

4/1/2011

Iran: 'Objection by Nasrin Sotoodeh and her Lawyers to Court Procedures in Latest Hearing'

Nasrin Sotoodeh’s court hearing to review the latest charges of not observing the Hejab in a video, was scheduled to take place on December 27, 2010 in Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court. But the court hearing was disrupted after Nasrin Sotoodeh and her lawyers objected to the procedures of the hearing. In response Judge PeerAbbassi, issued a five day mandatory prison sentence for Nasrin Sotoodeh for disrupting the court hearing.

23/12/2010

Mauritania: Rape victims fear being jailed for 'zina'

Mahjouba was raped in March on the nighttime streets of Mauritania's capital, but she will not bring charges against the man she says did it since she may be the one who ends up in prison. The 25-year-old says the legal advice she received was to not go to court, leaving her to suffer in silence. There is no law in Mauritania that defines rape. According to a local U.N.-funded group working with the victims, the law criminalizes the women instead of their rapists -- and society ostracizes the women.

20/12/2010

Palestine: Feminist from Gaza reflects on being secular in a religious land

Palestinian feminist Asma Al-Ghoul arrived to our meeting at a Gaza coffee shop sporting blue jeans and a T-shirt—in stark contrast to the Islamic headscarves and tent-like dresses worn by the vast majority of Gazan women. It's not just clothing that sets this 28-year-old secularist apart. She once publicly chastised a senior Hamas military leader—her uncle—who threatened to kill her, and she continues to publish gutsy articles, read banned books, and defy discriminatory policies. "Gaza needs all the liberal, secular people to stay here," she insisted, when I asked why she had declined opportunities to live abroad.

20/12/2010

Sudan: Omar al-Bashir says northern Sudan will adopt sharia law if country splits

Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, said the country would adopt an Islamic constitution if the south split away in next month's referendum, in a speech today in which he also defended police filming a woman being flogged. "If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity," Bashir told supporters at a rally in the eastern city of Gedaref. "Sharia [Islamic law] and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language," he said.

17/12/2010

Iran/Switzerland: Join ‘Free Nasrin Sotoudeh’ protest outside UN from 20 December!

The life of Nasrin Sotoudeh, an Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights activist, is in danger. Nasrin was arrested by Iranian authorities on 4th September 2010 for her activity in defending human rights in Iran, and has been held in prison for more than 103 days. The prosecutor has charged her with propaganda against the state and also for actions against national security. Under Iranian law the accused can only be held in custody for a maximum of seven days without charge after the preliminary investigation has taken place.

14/12/2010

Iraq: Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for closure of bars & liquor shops

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Friday for the closure of bars and liquor shops in Iraq following a renewed campaign by authorities in Baghdad to shut down nightclubs and shops selling alcohol.