Resistance

Algérie : Cherifa Kheddar battue et arrêtée lors de la journée internationale des droits des femmes

Aujourd’hui, un jour après avoir rendu hommage aux femmes militantes, nous apprenons de l’activiste algérienne, Cherifa Kheddar, qu’elle a été agressée par la police et arrêtée avec certains autres membres de son organisation alors qu’ils/elles tentaient de manifester devant le bureau central à Alger lors de la journée internationale des droits des femmes.

Algeria: Cherifa Kheddar Beaten and Arrested on International Women's Day

12th March 2015

Today, just one day after we delivered a tribute women human rights defenders attacked for their activism, we received news from Algerian activist Cherifa Kheddar that she was assaulted by police and arrested along with several other members of her organization while trying to demonstrate in front of the Central Post Office on International Women's Day in Algiers.

Cherifa Kheddar passée à tabac au commissariat de Cavignac

Le 08 mars 2015, le message féministe d’El Mouradia était censé faire le Buzz. Promesses réformistes, égalitaires et de non-violence.

Pourtant sur l’asphalte algérois la réalité était toute autre.

Six female human rights defenders you should know

Samah Hadid is a global human rights activist from Australia and a member of WLUML's Council. You can follow her work @samahhadid.

As a human rights activist, I know too well the unwavering determination needed to defend the rights of society's most vulnerable and marginalised.

For many activists and human rights defenders, especially women, this struggle for freedom often comes with persecution, imprisonment, exile and political attacks.

WLUML Joins Women’s Alliance For Kurdistan Iraq and Syria and will March Together for International Women’s Day

WLUML is pleased to announce it has joined forces with the Women's Alliance for Kurdistan, Iraq and Syria, and will march with the Alliance on the 7^th March to call for the liberation of all women under “IS” control on the occasion of International Women’s Day. We invite you to march with us and join the call to end violence against women.

Kurdish Women Turning Kobani into a Living 'Hell' for Islamic State

Published 14 October 2014

Fighters for the all-women YPJ militia in northern Syria say they are fighting “a revolution of woman.”

Hundreds of Kurds gathered in a Turkish border town on Tuesday for the funerals of four women killed fighting the Islamic State (I.S.) group, while across the border a Kurdish female militia is playing a leading role in defending Kobani.

Reuters has reported the four coffins that were lowered into the ground in the town of Suruc contained the bodies of fighters from the Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) – the female brigade of the leftist YPG militia.

“We will avenge … those women who were sold as slaves in the markets of the ISIS (I.S.),” the YPJ said in a statement last Wednesday.

Manifeste pour la laïcité

Notre époque est marquée par la montée des extrême-droites religieuses – non pas parce qu’on assisterait à un revivalisme religieux mais plutôt au fait que des mouvements politiques d’extrême-droite et des gouvernements utilisent la religion pour asseoir leur suprématie politique. C’est une conséquence directe du néo-conservatisme et du néo-libéralisme ainsi que des politiques sociales de communautarisme et de relativisme culturel. L’universalisme, la laïcité et les droits liés à la citoyenneté sont abandonnés et ce sont la ségrégation des sociétés en ‘communautés’ basées sur l’ethnicité, la religion et la culture qui deviennent la norme.

WLUML Board Member Karima Bennoune Wins Dayton Literature Peace Prize

WLUML Board member, Karima Bennoune has been announced as the 2014 Dayton Literature Peace Prize Nonfiction winner, for her book Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism.

Update: Trial Of Women Human Rights Defenders Postponed in Egypt

On 13 September 2014, the Police Institute near Tora postponed the trial of the seven women human rights defenders until 11 October 2014. The decision to postpone was taken after the court heard the prosecution’s evidence. The defense attorneys requested the postponement in order to allow a technical expert to examine and determine the veracity of the video footage evidence presented during the session.

Update: Woman human rights defender Sanaa Seif starts a hunger strike

The Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition has grave concerns for the wellbeing of Ms Sanaa Seif, a prominent Egyptian Woman Human Rights Defender, who began a hunger strike on 28 August 2014 to protest the Protest and Public Assembly Law. Ms Seif is currently being held in Qanater prison.

Ms Seif was one of seven women defenders who were arrested on 21 June 2014 while participating in a peaceful demonstration calling for the repeal of the law, which essentially grants security officials and authority figures the discretion to ban any protest without justifying the grounds for banning them. It also allows police officers to forcibly disperse any protest, and sets heavy prison sentences for peaceful protest and expression.

Yara Sallam, Hanan Mustafa Mohamed, Salwa Mihriz, Samar Ibrahim, Nahid Sherif (known as Nahid Bebo), Fikreya Mohamed (known as Rania El-Sheikh) also remain in custody awaiting trial, which has been set for 13 September 2014.