Fundamentalisms

Algeria: Art about rape of women by fundamentalist armed groups censored

Even as the Arab spring unfolds across the region, I learned with profound astonishment that Mr. Jack Persekian, director of the Sharjah Art Foundation, has been dismissed as “punishment” for allowing an artist invited to the Sharjah Biennial total freedom of expression. I am the artist in question. My installation “Maportaliche/Ecritures sauvages” [It has no importance/Wild Writings] has been censored and removed from the Biennial.

سورية: احذروا المساومات على أجساد النساء السوريات! الحكومة السورية تبعهن بواحدة من الفضة

ليس جديدا على الحكومة السورية أن تتاجر بالنساء تجارة بعض رجال الدين ممن باعوا ضمائرهم وقيمهم وإنسانيتهم ليشرعوا لذكوريتهم أن تستعبد النساء وتجعلهن مادة لغرائزها وتصوراتها المريضة. فهي قد فعلت ذلك مرارا وتكرارا. لكن المخيف اليوم أن هذه الحكومة بدأت تقدم "ثمن" المواقف التي أعلنها بعض أولئك، ويبدو أن النساء سيكن هن ضحية هذه المساومات، مثلما حدث في مرات سابقة، وفي أماكن أخرى!

Syria: Government compromises women's rights to appease conservatives

It is not a new thing that the Syrian government traffics women like some religious figures who have sold their consciousness, values and humanity to enable their masculinity to enslave women. The government seems ready to do this again again. What is really scary this time round is that the government started to pay “the cost” of the attitudes taken by few of those religious figures, and it seems that women would be again the victims of this compromise in many ways.

مصر: قانون السلفيين يتحدي قانون الدولة ويرهب النساء في مصر

القاهرة، 28 مارس 2011: تلقي المركز المصري لحقوق المرأة بقلق بالغ الخطورة حادثة محافظة المنوفية التي تعد سابقة خطيرة في تحدي دولة القانون في مصر والتي تمثلت في حصار نحو 350 من السلفيين منزل سيدة في مدينة السادات بالمنوفية، واقتحم عدد منهم المنزل وطردوها منه وألقوا بالأثاث في الشارع وأحرقوه وهددوها بالقتل في حالة الرجوع لمنزلها مرة أخري، وكان ذلك بإدعاء ممارسة أعمال منافية للآداب، ولم يجدوا أحداًُ لديها في المنزل فأخرجوها عنوة وقاموا بعدة أعمال إرهابية، الأمر الذي يشكل تطورا خطيرا.

Egypt: "The Law of the Salafis challenges the Law of the State and terrifies women in Egypt"

(Cairo, March 28, 2011) The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights received the news on incidents in Minufiya governorate, for it witnessed a dangerous incident for the first time: 350 Salafis confronted the state law and surrounded a house of a woman in Sadat city, forced her out of her house, threw her house's furniture on the street, burned the house and threatened to kill her if she returned to her home. They did so claiming that her conduct was immoral and dishonorable. When they broke into the house, she was alone; they terrified her and took her out of the house by force. This is considered a dangerous incident, especially as it is not the first time something like this happened.

Criminaliser la sexualité: Les lois relatives à la zina, une violence à l’égard des femmes dans les contextes musulmans

Ce document par Ziba Mir-Hosseini fait partie d’une étude transnationale sur les lois relatives à l’adultère, commanditée par Femmes sous lois musulmanes (WLUML). La tradition juridique islamique traite tout rapport sexuel hors mariage comme un crime. La principale catégorie de crimes de ce type est la zina, qui s’entend de tout rapport sexuel illicite entre un homme et une femme.

UK: Appeal for Expressions of Solidarity with Dr Usama Hasan

A recent hate campaign has been waged against the London-based academic and imam, Dr Usama Hasan. He has been victimised, accused of apostasy and has received death threats for his comments on evolution and the woman's right to choose whether or not to wear hijab. The Board of the Muslim Women’s Network-UK (http://www.mwnuk.co.uk/) strongly condemns the bullying and harassment of Dr Hasan.

UK: Support Usama Hasan and Freedom of Conscience within Islam

[Statement from City Circle] In recent months, it has been very distressing for us to watch Dr Usama Hasan, a core member of City Circle's management team who has also served with distinction as our Director, endure a nasty, intolerant campaign to remove him as an imam from his boyhood mosque and to cast him outside of the fold of Islam on account of views he has expressed as a scholar and a scientist in good faith and conviction.

UK: London imam subjected to death threats for supporting evolution

An imam of an east London mosque has been subject to death threats and intimidation for expressing his views on evolution and women's right to refuse the veil. Dr Usama Hasan, vice-chairman at Leyton mosque and a senior lecturer in engineering at Middlesex University, ceased delivering Friday prayers after 25 years of service when 50 Muslim protesters disrupted his lecture by handing out leaflets against him and shouting in the mosque for his execution. A statement from the secretary of the mosque, Mohammad Sethi, that was leaked to extremist websites, said Hasan had been suspended after his lecture resulted in "considerable antagonism" from the community and for his "belief that Muslim women are allowed to uncover their hair in public".

باكستان: قتل وزير الأقليات بباكستان على خلفية "قانون التجديف"

لقي الوزير المسيحي الوحيد في الحكومة الفدرالية الباكستانية مصرعه برصاص مسلحين، وذلك على خلفية معارضته لـ"قانون التجديف". وقد جاء اغتيال وزير الأقليات، شهباز باتي، بعد شهرين فحسب من اغتيال حاكم البنجاب سلمان تسير، الذي كان يدعو هو الآخر لإصلاح هذا القانون. وقالت الشرطة إن سيارة باتي، الكاثوليكي الذي يناهز عمره الأربعينات، تعرضت لوابل من الرصاص في وضح النهار خارج بيت أسرته قرب سوق بالعاصمة إسلام آباد.