Violence against women

Afghanistan: SKSW/WLUML Statement: Stop stoning and other forms of cruel punishments by the Taliban

The Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) International Solidarity Network condemn the recent incidents of violent punishments by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Iran: «Il faut empêcher la lapidation de Sakineh»

Libération publie un appel d'intellectuels pour sauver cette femme iranienne condamnée à la peine capitale par lapidation par le régime. «Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani attendait dans la prison de Tabriz, dans l’ouest de l’Iran, où elle croupit depuis cinq ans, la réponse à une demande de réexamen de son cas –prévue, initialement, pour le 15 août.

United States: 'Asylum Granted to Mexican Woman in Case Sets Standard on Domestic Abuse'

The Obama administration has granted asylum to a Mexican woman who was sexually abused and severely battered by her common-law husband. The decision, in a closely watched case, clarifies the exacting standard that domestic abuse victims must meet to win asylum. Department of Homeland Security officials found that the woman had proved that she could not expect the Mexican authorities to protect her from the violence and murder threats of her attacker, and that she could not safely relocate anywhere in the country to escape him. During decades of abuse, the man repeatedly raped her at the point of guns and machetes, and once tried to burn her alive, according to court documents in the case in San Francisco.

Afghanistan: Taliban execute pregnant woman for adultery

Taliban insurgents flogged and publicly executed a pregnant Afghan widow for alleged adultery Saturday, according to reports. The woman, Sanum Gul (also reported as Bibi Sanubar by DAWN), was killed in Badghis province in western Afghanistan Saturday morning, the provincial governor's spokesman said. After being held in captivity for three days and flogged 200 times, Gul -- whose age was given as both 35 and 47 in various reports -- was shot in the head three times, said Hashim Habibi, the district governor of Qades, also located in the province. Though Habibi said Taliban commander Mohammaad Yousuf carried out the execution, a Taliban spokesman has since denied any involvement.

"We have not done anything like that in Badghis or any other province," the spokesman said, calling the report "propaganda" by foreigners and the Western-backed Afghan government. Officials say Gul had been widowed for four years. She was accused of adultery for her relationship with an unnamed man, despite claims that the man had planned to marry her. Various groups have since condemned the killing.

Iran: Les inquiétants « aveux » de Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

En Iran, la « confession » télévisée d'une femme condamnée à mort fait craindre que son exécution soit imminente, ce qui suscite de nouveau l'indignation de défenseurs des droits de l'homme. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, âgée de 43 ans, a déclaré mercredi à la télévision d'État qu'elle avait participé au meurtre de son mari et qu'elle avait eu une relation extraconjugale avec le cousin de ce dernier. L'Iranienne était enveloppée d'un tchador noir qui ne laissait apparaître que son nez et un oeil. Ses déclarations, faites en azéri, ont été traduites en farsi, rendant impossible toute vérification indépendante de son identité. Son avocat, Houtan Kian, affirme qu'il s'agit d'aveux soutirés sous la torture. « Elle a été frappée violemment et torturée jusqu'à ce qu'elle accepte d'apparaître face à la caméra », a affirmé Houtan Kian, depuis la Norvège où il s'est réfugié.

« Son fils Sajad, 22 ans, et sa fille Saeedeh, 17 ans, sont complètement traumatisés après avoir regardé cette émission », a-t-il indiqué dans un entretien publié par le quotidien britannique The Guardian.

Iran: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani 'confesses' to murder on state TV

The Iranian woman whose sentence to death by stoning sparked an international outcry is feared to be facing imminent execution, after she was put on a state-run TV programme last night where she confessed to adultery and involvement in a murder. Speaking shakily in her native Azeri language, which could be heard through a voiceover, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani told an interviewer that she was an accomplice to the murder of her husband and that she had an extramarital relationship with her husband's cousin. Her lawyer told the Guardian last night that his client, a 43-year-old mother of two, was tortured for two days before the interview was recorded in Tabriz prison, where she has been held for the past four years.

UPDATE: Iran: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani's still faces death sentence while Brazil makes formal offer of asylum

SKSW and WLUML are still gravely concerned about the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. On 4 August, Branch 9 of the Supreme Court in Iran began a review of Mohammadi Ashtiani's sentence and agreed to consider a judicial review of the case, submitted by her lawyer. The Supreme Court is expected to either accept or reject the judicial review on or around 15 August. The review appears aimed solely at reducing international pressure on the authorities, by deferring a decision on the method of execution and the stoning sentence remains in place.

Bangladesh: Acid attack survivors struggle for justice

Asma was 13 years old and in eighth grade. She was living with her parents and other siblings in a remote village of marsh land in Bangladesh. She had to walk a mile, cross a river and then walk another mile to attend the high school. She was only girl from her village who was attending high school. Most of the girls of her age were dropt out after completing primary education, getting married and giving birth. She had moved away from home to live with her aunt, who was located much closer to the school because she was under constant harassment on her way to school by a man of 27 years who proposed her a marry. As Asma refused his proposal and failed to push her to accept his offer than he sent his family to Asma’s family with a marriage proposal. The man was uneducated and a “bad boy.” Neither Asma nor her family approved of him. Moreover, Asma’s father told the family, “I want my daughter to continue her studies and I’m not going to marry her off now.”

Pakistan: 'Honour killing' suspected in murder of British couple

A British couple have been murdered in Pakistan in a suspected "honour killing" after calling off their daughter's marriage. A man and his wife from the Alum Rock area of Birmingham, named locally as taxi driver Gul Wazir and wife Bagum, had reportedly visited the country to resolve a dispute over a wedding.

Kuwait: Immigrant maids flee abuse

With nowhere else to go, dozens of Nepalese maids who fled from their employers now sleep on the floor in the lobby of their embassy here, next to the visitors’ chairs. In the Philippines Embassy, more than 200 women are packed in a sweltering room, where they sleep on their luggage and pass the time singing along to Filipino crooners on television. So many runaways are sheltering in the Indonesian Embassy that some have left a packed basement and taken over a prayer room.