Fundamentalisms

Mondiale: Les intellectuels arabes entre Etats et intégrisme

Là où, dans la plupart des pays arabes, on imagine un affrontement, c’est plutôt un jeu permanent d’alliances, un pacte tacite entre trois puissances inégales : autorisés à élargir leur emprise dans la société, les fondamentalistes cessent de privilégier la conquête du pouvoir politique ; protégés par l’Etat de la férule des intégristes, les intellectuels laïques taisent les travers autoritaires du pouvoir et réservent leur militantisme à des causes consensuelles ; ménagé par les intellectuels et toléré par les religieux, l’Etat autoritaire perdure.

Afghanistan: Taliban stone couple to death for adultery

Taliban forces have stoned a couple to death for adultery in a public execution. With Nato and UN officials in Kabul poring over the latest Taliban proposal to establish a joint commission to investigate civilian casualties, officials in the north of the country were detailing a killing that Amnesty International described as the first confirmed stoning in the country since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. Militants ordered the stoning after a married man and a single woman in Dasht-e-Archi district, Kunduz province, were accused of eloping.

Malaysia: Malacca government to allow underage Muslims to marry

Women leaders from both the government and non-governmental organisations have slammed the move by the Malacca government to allow underage Muslims to marry. Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, while acknowledging that marriages involving Muslim minors would still require the approval of the Syariah Court, hoped the judges would continue to exercise their discretion.

Sudan: Court sentences 19 men for wearing women's clothes

A Sudanese court on Wednesday sentenced 19 young Muslim men to 30 lashes and a fine for breaking moral codes by wearing women's clothes and makeup, a case exposing Sudanese sensitivity towards homosexuality. Many of the defendants tried to hide their faces from the around 200 people who watched as they were lashed straight after their sentencing. The men had no lawyers present and said nothing in their own defence. The trial judge said police had raided a party thrown by the 19 men and found them dancing "in a womanly fashion," wearing women's clothes and makeup. He said there was a video of the party and that one woman who was present had fled the scene. The defendants were charged with violating Sudan's public morality codes.

Feminists on the Frontline: AWID Case Studies of Resisting Fundamentalisms

This collection of case studies is a testament to the women and men around the world who have stood up to reject the imposition of norms and values in the name of religion as well as to expose and challenge the privileged position given to religion in public policies. In 2008 AWID launched a call for proposals to document the strategies of women's rights activists confronting religious fundamentalisms. The final 18 case studies presented here are drawn from a wide range of religious and geographical contexts, and cover various fields of activism.

Kuwait: Bank To Open Separate Trading Hall For Women

Accommodating the growing number of Kuwaiti women wanting to trade, as well as Kuwaiti cultural tradition, the Kuwait Finance House is opening a trading hall exclusively for women at the local stock market exchange. “Women’s banking is no longer limited to deposit and withdrawal,” Tahani Saleh Al-Khamis, an area manager with the bank Kuwait Finance House told The Media Line. “[Women’s banking] has expanded over and beyond to include the demand for diversified products such as participation in investment funds and portfolios, particularly new and existing [ones].”

Saudi Arabia: Keeping women tagged by text

Want to know whether your wife, sister or daughter has left the county? Well, in Saudi Arabia, there's an app for that. Reportedly, male guardians or mahrams in Saudi Arabia are now receiving text message notifications when their female charges leave the country unaccompanied. "iMahram", a friend of mine jokingly called it. According to Wajeha al-Huwaider, a Saudi female activist, when she left the kingdom for a holiday with her family, her husband received a text message from the foreign ministry notifying him that she had departed.

Afghanistan: Time magazine's cover cynical attempt to oversimplify reality of Afghan lives

Reprising a legendary 1985 National Geographic cover, this week's Time magazine cover girl is another beautiful young Afghan woman. But this time there is a gaping hole where her nose used to be before it was cut off under Taliban direction. A stark caption reads: "What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan". A careful editorial insists that the image is not shown "either in support of the US war effort or in opposition to it". The stated intention is to counterbalance damaging the WikiLeaks revelations – 91,000 documents that, Time believes, cannot provide "emotional truth and insight into the way life is lived in that difficult land".

États-Unis: La Cour suprême de l'Utah ordonne un nouveau procès pour un polygame

La Cour suprême de l'Utah (ouest des Etats-Unis) a cassé mardi la condamnation d'un gourou polygame d'une secte mormone américaine, Warren Jeffs, qui avait obligé une adolescente de 14 ans à épouser son cousin, et demandé la tenue d'un nouveau procès. M. Jeffs, 51 ans, est le chef de file et "prophète" autoproclamé de l'Eglise fondamentaliste de Jésus-Christ des saints du dernier jour (FLDS), une branche dissidente de l'église mormone. Il avait fait appel de sa condamnation, en 2007, pour complicité de viol, arguant de multiples fautes de procédure avant le procès.

United States: Utah court reverses polygamist leader convictions

The Utah Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs and ordered a new trial. Jeffs, 54, was convicted by a southern Utah jury in 2007 of two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice for his role in the 2001 nuptials of Elissa Wall, then 14, to her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed. Jeffs is serving two consecutive terms of five years to life in the Utah State Prison on the convictions, but the high court ruled Tuesday that jury instructions on lack of consent were in error. Jeffs is head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The group, based on the Utah-Arizona state line, practices polygamy in marriages arranged by church leaders.