Video - Egyptian Women's Rights Activist Nawal El Saadawi in Support of Homosexuals: They Are Very Normal

Female MPs to Present Iran's Position in the 57th session of the UN Commission on Violence against Women in New York.

Female MPs to Present Iran's Position in the 57th session of the UN Commission on Violence against Women in New York. (Fars).

"Ending violence against women is a matter of life and death," Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the opening of the two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York on Monday, the UN News Center reported on Tuesday.

"The problem pervades all countries, even in the most stable and developed regions," Eliasson added.

Eliasson stressed that it will take multiple approaches to tackle this issue, from governments implementing policies to empower victims and prosecute perpetrators, to creating a culture where gender stereotypes are broken by encouraging men and boys to take an equal share of responsibilities in their home and families.

"Violence against women pervades war zones as well as stable communities, capitals as well as the countryside, public space as well as the private sphere," Eliasson said. "Since it is an unacceptable feature of daily life, we have to respond everywhere and on every level."

According to the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), up to 70 percent of women in some countries face physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. In countries such as Australia, Canada, Israel (the Zionist regime), South Africa and the United States, intimate partner violence accounts for 40 to 70 percent of female murder victims.* In addition, some 140 million girls have suffered female genital mutilation and millions more are subjected to forced marriage and trafficking.

Eliasson underlined that eliminating violence against women and girls is also an issue intricately linked to development and peace. It is critical to achieve the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), he said, as access to sanitation, is essential to guarantee women have safe places to seek privacy. This is not possible when there are currently more than one billion people without access to toilets.

The Women's Fraction of the Iranian Parliament dispatched two female MPs to the UN Commission of the Status of Women (UNCSW).The Iranian parliamentarian delegation includes members of Iranian Parliament Sakineh Omrani and Nayyereh Akhavan who left for New York to attend the 57th session of UNCSW meeting at the UN headquarters.

"In this summit, the representatives of the Islamic Republic will state Iran's stance on legislative and executive bids to reduce and prevent violence against women," Omrani said.

The Iranian lawmaker added that CDs and catalogues containing the views of the Islamic Republic with regards to women's status would be distributed among the participants of the conference.In mid 2010, The United Nations elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to Tehran.In the four-year period beginning in 2011, Iran will help set UN policy on gender equality and the advancement of women.Other countries joining Iran for the term include Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe. Read the full story here.

Related: Qaradawi Organization Wants To Be Consulted Before Islamic Countries Sign Int. Treaties about "Violence against Women" as it might 'contradict' Sharia Law.

* Hmmmm.....Nice to see that the Iranians news forgot to mention Turkey , Saudi Arabia , Pakistan , Afghanistan and i could just go on, but lets just look at their BFF Turkey:
The US Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 says violence against women, including domestic violence, is a "serious" problem in both urban and rural areas of Turkey.

In a May 2011 report on family violence in Turkey, Human Rights Watch cites a 2009 survey by the Turkish Hacettepe University that showed that 42 percent of women in Turkey, between the ages of 15 and 60, and 47 percent of women in rural areas, had "experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their husbands or partners at some point in their lives" (May 2011, 10). Similarly, an article in Today's Zaman says that "[m]ore than 40 percent of women in Turkey have suffered from violence at some point in their lives" (19 Feb. 2012). In addition, Roj Women's Association (Roj Women), a London-based "Kurdish and Turkish grass-roots women’s rights movement" (n.d.), notes that, in southeast Turkey, one out of two women are victims of violence; nationally, it is 39 percent (Mar. 2011, 5).

In a March 2012 report, the parliamentary Human Rights Commission noted that, since 2008, domestic violence, as well as violence against women, in Turkey had "doubled" Today's Zaman 13 Mar. 2012). The report includes statistics from the police and the gendarmerie on the incidence of domestic abuse and violence against women: 48,264 cases in 2008, 62,587 in 2009, 72,257 in 2010, and 80,398 in 2011 (ibid.). Hurriyet Daily News reports similarly that, between 2008 and 2011, the number of cases of domestic violence recorded by law enforcement agencies increased by almost 70 percent, from 48,000 to 80,000 (5 May 2012). Bianet, a multi-media Turkish information site, reported that a study by the General Police Directorate revealed that, between February 2010 and August 2011, there were 78,488 registered incidents of domestic violence in Turkey (10 Nov. 2011).

The parliamentary Human Rights Commission report described the province of Istanbul as the "most dangerous" for women with respect to domestic and gender-based violence; in 2011, the province totalled 10,207 cases of violence against women (Today's Zaman 13 Mar. 2012). Police records, reports Today's Zaman, show that, between 2009 and February 2012, there were 2,754 incidents of "'domestic assault'" in the city of Istanbul (19 Feb. 2012).

The parliamentary Human Rights Commission also noted an apparent decrease in violence against women in some Anatolian provinces, known for high levels of gender-based violence, forced marriage, and honor killings (ibid.13 Mar. 2012). For example, incidents in Batman decreased from 163 in 2008 to 51 in 2011 and incidents in Diyarbakir decreased from 581 in 2008 to 279 in 2011 ibid.).

The EC progress report noted that, according to official statistics on violence against women, in 2008, 806 women were killed, and, in the first 7 months of 2009, there were 953 (EU 12 Oct. 2011, 32 note 37). Bianet reports that, based on data collected from national and local media, between January and October 2011, 226 women were killed by men and 93 were raped; most of the cases occurred in the Marmara region (northwestern Turkey) and the Aegean (west coast) (16 Dec. 2011). In the month of October of 2011, 20 women were killed by men, most of them by their husbands, in 16 Turkish provinces (bianet 16 Dec. 2011). Out of those, 12 were stabbed to death, 7 shot, 1 killed after she had left a shelter, and 4 after submitting a request for protection or a complaint to the office of the prosecutor (ibid.).

According to bianet, the media reported 22 cases of violence resulting in injury against women by men, the majority of them either a husband or a boyfriend, in the month of October, most of them occurring in Izmir (ibid.). The incidents were as follows: 13 women were beaten; 7 injured with a knife; 1 with a rifle; 1 fell from a fifth floor balcony while trying to escape her husband; and 1 was wounded by a husband who ignored a restraining order (ibid.).

Human Rights Watch notes that, according to a study by the Turkish Hacettepe University, only eight percent of women victims of sexual or physical violence turn for help to institutions, NGOs, or elsewhere (May 2011, 10).Source: UNHRC.

Iran Fashion Police.

Pakistan - Christian girl Rimsha accused of blasphemy granted bail.

Pakistan - Christian girl Rimsha accused of blasphemy granted bail.(ET).ISLAMABAD: An additional sessions judge granted bail to a Christian girl accused of blasphemy, in a case that has sparked an international outcry. Judge Muhammad Azam Khan ordered the release of Rimsha Masih, who was arrested in a poor Islamabad suburb on August 16 accused of burning papers containing verses from the Quran. “I accept her bail application,” Khan announced to a packed courtroom. “The bail application has been accepted against two sureties of Rs500,000 each.” Campaigners stepped up calls for her release after police on Saturday arrested a cleric for allegedly tampering with the evidence. His deputy and two assistants said Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti tried to bolster the case against the girl by planting pages from the Koran among the burnt papers that were brought to him. Rimsha was arrested in a poor Islamabad suburb on August 16 and accused of burning papers containing verses from the Holy Quran, in breach of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. On Friday morning judge Muhammad Azam Khan listened to lawyers from both sides and said he would announce his decision on the bail application later. “The judge listened to both sides and he will give his decision at 3:00pm after Friday prayers,” Rimsha’s lawyer, Tahir Naveed Chaudhry, told reporters. Campaigners stepped up calls for her release after police on Saturday arrested a cleric for allegedly tampering with the evidence. His deputy and two assistants said Hafiz Mohammed Khalid Chishti tried to bolster the case against the girl by planting pages from the Koran among the burnt papers that were brought to him. Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, insulting Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) is punishable by death and burning a sacred text by life imprisonment. Blasphemy is a very sensitive subject in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and allegations of insulting Islam or Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) often prompt a furious public reaction. Rights groups have called on Pakistan to reform its blasphemy legislation, which they say is often abused to settle personal vendettas. In 2011, leading politician Salman Taseer and a Christian cabinet minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, were assassinated after calling for the law to be reformed. Taseer’s convicted killer is being held in the same jail as Rimsha.Hmmm....If you're innocent why would you have to pay Rs500,000 Bail?Read the full story here.

In the Name of Allah Islamic Mediators and Germany's 'Two Legal Systems'.

In the Name of Allah Islamic Mediators and Germany's 'Two Legal Systems'.(Spiegel).By Joachim Wagner. For years, Islamic mediators have been stepping in to solve family disputes and marital problems among Muslims in Germany. A new book takes a closer look at how their reliance on elements of Sharia law, instead of German law, affects Muslim women.Arnold Mengelkoch, the official in charge of immigrant affairs in Berlin's Neukölln district, is familiar with the "informal Islamic family justice system" in his neighborhood.He estimates that 10 to 15 percent of Muslims in the religiously conservative community use the system to resolve their conflicts.
"There are two legal systems," says Sabine Scholz, a family law attorney in the northern city of Flensburg, "a German one and an Islamic one, which puts women at a disadvantage."
For some Muslim immigrants, Islamic law is more important than German law. Mathias Rohe, an Islamic law expert in the Bavarian city of Erlangen, encountered cases in his field studies "in which Muslim parties performed marriages or divorces, for example, exclusively in accordance with traditional Islamic norms."
Some Muslims mistrust government organizations, says Rohe, who sees himself as an intermediary between Islamic and German legal cultures. According to Rohe, some people are trying "to establish a religious parallel structure, because they do not want to submit to the institutions of a secular, non-Islamic state."
As a result, imams and arbitrators in Berlin, the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein apply Sharia law on a daily basis, even though it is sometimes incompatible with the German constitution and German family law. In particular, Islamic law discriminates against women in the following ways:

• They are not permitted to marry non-Muslims;
• In an arbitration, family unity takes precedence over the woman's right of self-determination, even in cases involving violence;
• In a divorce, the man receives sole custody of the children;
• Polygamy and marriages with minors are allowed; under German law, 16-year-old girls can only marry with the permission of a family court.

Sometimes, however, the Muslim judges are willing to stretch Sharia law. The Islamic law rejects forced marriages, which have their roots in old traditions. But clerics often have no qualms about marrying underage girls, even if it's against their will. Terres des Femmes, an organization devoted to protecting women, repeatedly sees 14- and 15-year-old girls, especially from Kurdish and Albanian backgrounds, who are supposed to be married by imams.Read the full story Here.

Afghan man tries to cut out pregnant wife’s tongue during an argument.

Afghan man tries to cut out pregnant wife’s tongue during an argument.(AA).An Afghan man has been arrested for trying to cut off his pregnant wife’s tongue when he attacked her during an argument, police said on Wednesday. The woman later lost her baby, police spokesman Sher Jan Durani told AFP. “The suspect is in our custody and his wife has been taken to a safe house. She has received eight stitches on her tongue,” he said. The man, identified only by his first name Saleh, reportedly attacked his wife with a knife during the argument on Tuesday in Balkh province, in the north of the country. Physical abuse of women is rife in Afghanistan, where women are often seen as second-class citizens despite a Western-backed constitution that guarantees equal rights for both sexes. In March, President Hamid Karzai indicated support for an edict by the Ulema Council, the nation’s highest Islamic authority, saying “men are fundamental and women are secondary”. Earlier this month, the case of a tortured child bride whose treatment shocked the world led to three members of her husband’s family being jailed for 10 years. Sahar Gul, 15, who refused to work as a prostitute, was burned and beaten and had her fingernails pulled out while locked in the basement of her husband’s house for six months. According to figures by the British charity Oxfam, 87 percent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.Read the full story here.

Women’s rights threatened in Morocco as Salafists assault, strip woman for wearing skirt that was too short.

Women’s rights threatened in Morocco as Salafists assault, strip woman for wearing skirt that was too short.(BM).Women’s rights in Morocco have come under the spotlight recently after a young woman was assaulted in a Rabat market by people she called “Salafists,” or ultra-conservative Islamists. She said she was accosted by the men because of the short dress she was wearing. Other witnesses were reported by the Magharebia news portal as saying the girl was attacked with stones and beaten after the assailants said the dress was “too revealing.” 
Human rights and women’s organizations issued statements denouncing the assault on the Moroccan girl, during which she was stripped of her clothes entirely, reports indicated. Young Moroccan men and women turned to Facebook and online groups to call for protection of individual freedoms in Morocco, including the group “Débardeur and I am fine.” “Though this incident appeared in the media and gained wider attention, that does not mean it is not repeated on an almost regular or semi-daily basis in all the alleys and streets of our cities. It may not end in stripping the girl of her clothing, but the verbal and physical harassment that women may experience is sometimes more heinous and horrible,” said Nora Al-Fuari, an activist journalist at the Al-Sabah daily and a member of the Facebook group. “From here came the idea of creating this page on Facebook, which we made open to everyone, including those in hijab or niqab, or the ‘coarse’ males who share the same vision with us. The selection of Débardeur is just a symbol, in reference to freedom—the freedom of women to wear what they want. Débardeur was mother of the ‘short skirt’,” she added. “In the end, the body is her body and no one has the right to confiscate it.” Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane responded to the controversy by speaking out in defense of personal liberties. “I believe in freedom, God created us free,” the prime minister said. “Who is Benkirane to tell Moroccans to shave your beards or to impose the hijab? Individual liberties are sacred and are not to be touched,” he added. It has highlighted once again the growing conservative nature across the Middle East, which has women’s groups and women worried that they are being pushed aside and attacked due to their gender. Rights group Beit Al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) added its voice to the chorus of protest over the assault. The association said the attack on the young woman took place “under a government headed by an Islamic party, and this would block the move towards democracy, freedoms and the rule of law”. The group added that it was not just about the assault on the young woman, warning also of the consequences of remaining silent about what is happening in several cities under the cover of the “Popular Committees”, which acted to expel women they considered prostitutes, such as Al-Hajeb in the Ifrane region, and to demand closure of bars, as in Kenitra. The incident came immediately after a call by Abu Zeid, a Qur’an reciter and leading member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, for a day dedicated to “chastity and modesty”. He was joined by Salafist jihadist Sheikh Mohamed Fizazi.Read the full story here.

Domestic violence in Turkey on the rise, over 80,000 reported cases in 2011, representing a 70 % increase.

Domestic violence in Turkey on the rise, over 80,000 reported cases in 2011, representing a 70 % increase.(HD).Incidents of domestic violence in Turkey increased from approximately 48,000 cases in 2008 to over 80,000 in 2011, representing an increase of nearly 70 percent, according to information gathered from the nation’s law enforcement agencies. The northwestern province of Bilecik reported the most incidents of domestic violence with 3.3 percent of reported cases, while the central-western province of Isparta trailed a close second with 2.8 percent. The provinces of Karaman, Kayseri, Denizli and Bartın shared third place with 2 percent each. Governor’s offices across Turkey sent Parliament’s Human Rights Commission data collected from police and gendarmerie station commands pertaining to domestic violence cases during the period between 2008 and 2011. Istanbul, Turkey’s most crowded province with a recorded population of over 13 million people, ranked 65th in the list in terms of the absolute numbers of cases referred to law enforcement agencies, with over 10,000 reported incidents.Turkey’s second biggest city Ankara came in 46th place with nearly 5,000 reported incidents, while the Aegean province of Izmir, the country’s third biggest city, came in 17th place with around 5,900 reported cases. The southeastern province of Batman ranked at the bottom of the list with 1 percent, closely followed by the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak, Van, Bitlis, Bingöl, Mardin and the Black Sea province of Trabzon in reported cases of domestic violence in 2011.Read the full story here.

Muslim sub-sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra continues to believe that the removal of the clitoris is the will of God.

Muslim women from Bohra community walks past a shop selling pictures of their religious leaders,
       outside a mosque in Mumbai - AFP

Muslim sub-sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra continues to believe that the removal of the clitoris is the will of God.(Yahoo).Eleven years ago, Farida Bano was circumcised by an aunt on a bunk bed in her family home at the end of her 10th birthday party. The mutilation occurred not in Africa, where the practice is most prevalent, but in India where a small Muslim sub-sect known as the Dawoodi Bohra continues to believe that the removal of the clitoris is the will of God. "We claim to be modern and different from other Muslim sects. We are different but not modern," Bano, a 21-year-old law graduate who is angry about what was done to her, told AFP in New Delhi.
She vividly remembers the moment in the party when the aunt pounced with a razor blade and a pack of cotton wool. The Bohra brand of Islam is followed by 1.2 million people worldwide and is a sect of Shia Islam that originated in Yemen. While the sect bars other Muslims from its mosques, it sees itself as more liberal, treating men and women equally in matters of education and marriage. The community's insistence on "Khatna" (the excision of the clitoris) also sets it apart from others on the subcontinent. "If other Muslims are not doing it then why are we following it?" Bano says. For generations, few women in the tightly-knit community have spoken out in opposition, fearing that to air their grievances would be seen as an act of revolt frowned upon by their elders.
But an online campaign is now encouraging them to join hands to bury the custom. The anti-Khatna movement gained momentum after Tasneem, a Bohra woman who goes by one name, posted an online petition at the social action platform Change.org in November last year. She requested their religious leader, the 101-year-old Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, ban female genital mutilation, the consequences of which afflict 140 million women worldwide according to the World Health Organisation. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin is the 52nd Dai-al Mutalaq (absolute missionary) of the community and has sole authority to decide on all spiritual and temporal matters. Every member of the sect takes an oath of allegiance to the leader, who lives in western city of Mumbai.
When contacted by AFP, Burhanuddin's spokesman, Qureshi Raghib, ruled out any change and said he had no interest in talking about the issue. "I have heard about the online campaign but Bohra women should understand that our religion advocates the procedure and they should follow it without any argument," he said. But over 1,600 Bohra Muslim women have since signed the online petition. Many describe the pain they experienced after the procedure and urge their leader to impose a ban. "The main motive behind Khatna is that women should never enjoy sexual intercourse. We are supposed to be like dolls for men," 34-year-old Tabassum Murtaza, who lives in the western city of Surat, told AFP by telephone.
The World Health Organisation has campaigned against the practice, saying it exposes millions of girls to dangers ranging from infections, hemorrhaging, complicated child-birth, or hepatitis from unsterilised tools. In the Middle East, it is still practised in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. "It is an atrocity committed under the cloak of religion," says Murtaza, who along with her husband was asked to leave their family home when they refused to get their daughter circumcised.
"My mother-in-law said there was no room for religious disobedience and we should move out if we cannot respect the custom," she explained. "It is better to live on the street than humiliate your daughter's body."
Asghar Ali Engineer, a Bohra Muslim and expert on Islamic jurisprudence, has known the dangers of fighting for reform. He has authored over 40 books proposing changes, particularly around the status of women, and has been attacked by hardliners inside a mosque in Egypt and had his house trashed by opponents. While both France and the United States have laws enabling the prosecution of immigrants who perform female circumcisions, the practice remains legal in India and Engineer expects this to remain the case. "Female circumcision is clearly a violation of human rights, the Indian government refuses to recognise it as a crime because the practice has full-fledged religious backing," he said. "No government has the courage to touch a religious issue in India even if the practice is a crime against humanity." He says many fathers are simply unaware of the damage they are doing by following the custom. "I prevented my wife from getting our daughters circumcised but in many cases even fathers are not aware of the pain their daughters experience," he says.Read the full story here.

Video - Saudi Sports Commentator Fahd Al-Raoughui: I'd Rather Have Allah Slaughter Me Than See Saudi Women at the Olympic Games.

Interviewer: Do you support the participation of women in the Olympic Games?

Fahd Al-Raoughui: Are you talking about Saudi women?

Interviewer: Of course.

Fahd Al-Raoughui: No. Woe betide whoever supports this. 

Interviewer: And what if they abide by the religious restrictions?

Fahd Al-Raoughui: What religious restrictions?! These women will mix with strangers... A woman’s beauty lies in her chastity, and in how she raises her children in the private kingdom of her home. 

Fahd Al-Raoughui: Women may practice sports in accordance with the religious restrictions. However, if a woman goes to the West, wears pants, mixes with strangers, practices sports, and exposes her nakedness... we may turn ourselves into laughing stocks, but I personally would much rather have Allah slaughter me before I see that day.Source: Memri.

Video - 50 ways to beat your lover.

Putting Women's Rights Back on the Mideast Media Agenda