Rape[Istan] India Blocks 857 Websites for 'Porn'.

Rape[Istan] India Blocks 857 Websites for 'Porn'. (NDTV).

Since Saturday, Indians have been unable to access more than 800 websites, blocked by a government order on the grounds that they host porn, though that is not against the law in India. Here is your 10-point cheat-sheet to this story:

1) The ban has provoked a furious debate online about extreme and unwarranted moral policing by the government.

2) The sites that are banned include some of the world's biggest porn sites like Pornhub and Xvideos.

3) But also included in the lengthy list are torrent sites, video sharing sites, as well as comedy and dating sites.

4) A copy of the government's order, which has been marked as 'restricted', has been leaked by the Centre of Internet Studies.

5) Dated Friday, July 31, the order is issued by the Ministry of IT's Department of Telecom (DoT), and is addressed to all Internet service providers (ISP) like Airtel and BSNL.

6) The order calls for "disablement of the following URLs under the provision of section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as the content hosted on these websites relate to morality, decency as given in the Article 19(2) of the Constitution of India."

7) The order is a result of PIL pending before the Supreme Court, which seeks ban of child porn and other such sites. During the previous hearing of the case, the Court had asked government what action had been taken.

8) "We had given names of 800 websites," said Vijay Panjawani, lawyer of the PIL petitioner. As a counter to those who said the government has no business deciding what an adult does in the privacy of his home, the lawyer said, "How can one say fundamental rights are violated? If I sleep with a prostitute or a boy within the four corners of my room, it is an offense."

9) The Supreme Court recently refused an interim order to block porn websites in India. "Somebody may come to the court and say look, I am above 18, and how can you stop me from watching it within the four walls of my room. It is a violation of Article 21 [right to personal liberty]," Chief Justice HL Dattu reportedly said last month.

10) On Twitter, author Chetan Bhagat and film-maker Ram Gopal Verma are among those campaigning against the ban."Don't ban porn. Ban men ogling, leering, brushing past, groping, molesting, abusing, humiliating and raping women," Bhagat. 

Hmmm.....I don't know if the ban was imposed for 'religious' (Islam) reasons, but banning porn won't stop the rape epidemic in India, there is a rape 'culture' present and it needs re education.

'The War on Women' - Egypt: 99% of Women Are Sexually Harassed.

'The War on Women' - Egypt: 99% of Women Are Sexually Harassed. (DS).

According to the survey released in April 2013 by The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on sexual harassment, 99.3 percent of Egyptian women are sexually harassed in one way or the other, 96.5 percent of whom said that harassment was physical, and 95.5 experienced sexual harassment through verbally abusive language.

The distinction between physical and verbal abuse within the context of sexual harassment led to a wider and debatable definition of the term; is verbal slur considered a form of sexual harassment? If so, how about when a man sexually gazes at women, is that a form of harassment or a much milder type of provocation that is devoid from any sexual meaning?

According to Monica Ibrahim, Harassmap’s Communication Manager, an initiative intended to create an environment rejecting all kinds of sexual harassment, harassment is “any word or action which has any kind of sexual connotation and is provoking the space of the person being harassed without his/her consent”.

Ibrahim brought much emphasis on the term “consent” being the most important part of the definition, since it has to be expressed in any way known and without it, the action or word is considered as harassment.

Sexual harassment is no longer confined within the physical context of the act, especially among those who are young of age as reported in a study conducted by Harassmap.

Respondents aged 25-29 of both genders seemed to have a broader perception of what sexual harassment is than respondents aged 40-45. Among the younger group, 37.1 percent consider catcalls as one form of sexual harassment unlike the latter group with only 18.9 percent of them thinking the same.

Despite having a more concrete definition among those who are young of age, there’s no wide consensus on the reasons causing this phenomenon due to “the lack of studies before 25th Jan revolution,” as Ibrahim pointed out.

With societal acceptance of sexual harassment reaching critical levels, and public spaces being rendered as unsafe spaces for women of all ages, harassment is sometimes used as a tool to serve other goals.

This was obviously seen in mob assaults on female activists and protesters back in 2011 in order to prevent and scare them from participating in 25th Jan revolution. Read the full story here.

Delhi Father Tortures and Kills Daughter's Alleged Rapist, Then Turns Himself In.

Delhi Father Tortures and Kills Daughter's Alleged Rapist, Then Turns Himself In. (NDTV).

A man who tortured and killed his daughter's alleged rapist before turning himself in wanted to send a message that those who commit such crimes cannot escape justice, his wife has said.

The 36-year-old father of six turned himself into police last week and confessed to strangling his neighbour after the man allegedly admitted raping the 14-year-old.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the police he acted after discovering that his daughter was pregnant.

Distraught, the teen's mother told news agency AFP her husband was a gentle man.

"I only had the chance to see him briefly and he told me he wanted to warn potential rapists that they can never escape justice," said the 32-year-old as she wiped away tears. Her husband remains in police custody.

According to the police report, the teenager told her father she had been raped by the family's trusted neighbour and tenant, who had threatened to kill her if she told anyone. A doctor's report confirmed the assault, said the police.

"I was shocked because we treated the tenant just like our family member. He breached my trust," police quoted the father as saying.

The father, who made around Rs. 200 a day selling snacks on a hand-cart, told his wife he was influenced by the gang-rape of a college student on a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.

"He said the convicts in the (December 2012) case were yet to be hanged. He felt our daughter may never get justice, so maybe that's why he decided to take things in his own hands," she said.

According to the police report, the girl's father confronted the tenant, becoming enraged when he showed little remorse.

"He then attacked the tenant, gagged and strangled him. After that, he heated a steel spatula on the stove and burned the man's genitals," investigating officer Arvind Pratap Singh told AFP at the local police station.

Rape[Istan] - Sexual Assault on Women 'Beyond Menopause Age is Not Rape' New Delhi High Court.

Rape[Istan] - Sexual Assault on Women 'Beyond Menopause Age is Not Rape' New Delhi High Court. (IBTimes).

The New Delhi High Court has acquitted a 49-year-old man charged with raping and killing a woman, on grounds that the victim was "beyond the age of menopause."

The verdict sparked outrage in India as it suggests that intercourse with women, who are going through the menopause, cannot necessarily be considered as rape, regardless if it they were taken by force.

"As regards the offence punishable under Section 376 IPC the deceased was aged around 65-70 years, thus beyond the age of menopause," read the judgement, delivered by a bench comprising Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Mukta Gupta. 

"We find force in the contention of the learned counsel for the appellant that even if the sexual intercourse was forceful it was not forcible and contrary to the wishes and consent of the deceased."

The victim was found dead in her house in December 2010. Investigations and post-mortem exams, which showed the woman had sustained injuries on her vagina, led to the arrest of Achey Lal, who was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The court ruling was not welcomed by some lawyers and activists who argued that the use of the word "menopause" in the verdict is "erroneous".

"The injuries on the victim's vagina proves that there was forced penetration, and the inference will lead to the criminal case of rape," lawyer and activist Vrinda Grover was quoted by news agency DNA as saying.

"On what grounds has the court arrived on the judgement that the case was not one of rape? And where does menopause factor in here? Menopause is a medical condition, and the mention of the word is extraneous and erroneous." Hmmmm.......Delhi is the rape capital of India.....geeesh i wonder why?

Islamic terrorists ISIS orders female genital mutilation in Iraq.

Islamic terrorists ISIS orders female genital mutilation in Iraq.(AA).

The al-Qaeda-Inspired Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation, the United Nations said on Thursday.

The "fatwa" issued by the Sunni Muslim fighters would potentially affect 4 million women and girls, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Jacqueline Badcock told reporters in Geneva by videolink from Arbil.

"This is something very new for Iraq, particularly in this area, and is of grave concern and does need to be addressed," she said.

"This is not the will of Iraqi people, or the women of Iraq in these vulnerable areas covered by the terrorists," she added.

No one was immediately available for comment from Islamic State which has led an offensive through northern and western Iraq.More from Guardian here.

Fatwa can be seen here 

This is a translation of the Fatwa:

For protecting our Islamic nation in Iraq and Syria, our land, and our people, we need to look after our women and their behavior while preventing them from the dreadful modern life they are surrounded with. Abu Baker Al-Baghdady:

A rule to all of the Islamic nations, regions, and districts is to protect women as our Khalifa says and prophet says while the mother Aatyia was circumcising a woman, the prophet said, “Don’t get disappointed, that is good for your husband, and your face”.

In another story, the prophet saw the mother Hajer, who had been known as odalisque’s mutilated woman, and asked her whether she still practice her job or not, the mother Hajer answered with yes. Then she asked the prophet whether it is Haram or not and he answered her with being Halal and he can teach her how to do it.

The prophet says, “it is brighter for the face, and luckier for the husband”. Meanwhile, the prophet says, “if you mutilate, do not exaggerate”.

Abu Harera gives another statement that the prophet says, “All Muslim women, accept circumcision but do not exaggerate on it”. Therefore, this is a call for all women to get mutilated. More on female genital mutilation here.

Update: Fatwa is false:

No, the Islamic State has not ordered all women to undergo FGM

Women in Libyan jails seek right to suicide to end unbearable humiliation.

Women in Libyan jails seek right to suicide to end unbearable humiliation.HT: VoiceOfRussia ; TundraTabloids.

Libya’s female prisoners have appealed to the country’s spiritual leaders to allow them to commit suicide as endless abuse and humiliation make life unbearable for them.

Libyan female activist and rights campaigner Wafa Mabda told in exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia about the brutal mistreatment of women in post-Gaddafi Libya.

How are female prisoners treated in Lybia?

Women suffer horrible torture in Libyan jails. They are burned, subject to electric shocks and placed in solitary cells for weeks or months on end. Women have long been complaining to us about that. We’ve been receiving letters revealing absolutely appalling episodes. Prison wards sell female inmates, letting men rape any woman they choose for a certain pay. Rape victims say that once important people from Qatar came and the prison was turned into a brothel.

Another episode involves drunken Frenchmen. Prison wards lead them into cells and allowed them to rape several inmates. Imagine what wards themselves do.

One woman witnessed how 26 "dirty beasts" raped her cellmate one by one. She lost consciousness but that didn’t stop them. The following day, she died.

What are those jails?

Those atrocities are committed in the Ain Zara, Gargur and Maitiga jails. There reportedly are seven girl inmates in Gargur.

Who controls those jails - the authorities?

Some jails are controlled by the authorities, others – by armed groups.

What does the public do to monitor the situation in jails?

Libyan activists have repeatedly sought permission to monitor the destiny of each and every female inmate, but without success so far. There is no respect for human rights here. When people picketed the Gargur jail, the guards began shooting at them.

What do women ask you in their letters?

They want to die to escape further humiliations. They ask spiritual leaders to issue a fatwa allowing them to commit suicide.Hmmmm.....Lybia....Another 'Obamination'.

Oh Canada - Martial arts class separated by gender to accommodate Muslim man.

Oh Canada - Martial arts class separated by gender to accommodate Muslim man.HT: Sun NewsNetwork.

HALIFAX -- Politicians are scrambling to put a brave face on an ugly situation at a Halifax recreation centre.

Sonja Power, 17, was on the cusp of earning her black belt in Aikido at a Halifax dojo when a new man joined the class. He refused to be in contact with women or to spar with any of the female students.

Power and the other women were told to stay on one side of the room and not to approach the Muslim man to respect his faith.

"I felt like a second class citizen, that I was so disgusting and unworthy that this man doesn't even want to interact with me," Power told QMI Agency. "It doesn't make any sense, why would something you choose, your religion, trump something I'm born with, my gender, we wouldn't let a religion trump someone's race."

The incident happened more than a year ago and Power's mother, Michele Walsh, said she has contacted every level of government but was ignored. She said the sensei told her to "get used to" gender separation in Canada. Read the full story here.

Saudi survey shows men blame women's excessive make up for rising cases of molestation.

Saudi survey shows men blame women's excessive make up for rising cases of molestation.(E24/7).

Saudi men believe women are to blame for the rising cases involving molestation of females on the grounds they are seduced by women’s excessive make up.

The findings were included in a survey conducted by the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue and involved 992 males and females.

The survey, carried by Saudi newspapers, found that 86.5 per cent of the men polled believe that women’s exaggeration in wearing make-up is the main cause of the rise in molestation cases in public places in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.

About 80 per cent of the total persons polled believe lack of deterrent penalties and the absence of specific anti-molestation laws are also to blame for the phenomenon.

The report said 91 per cent of the respondents, all aged above 19, believe another key factor is the “poor religious sentiment” while nearly 75 per cent said the problem is caused by lack of awareness campaigns and warning notices at most public places.

Ad shows Syrian girls being sold in Kingdom Saudi Arabia

Ad shows Syrian girls being sold in Kingdom Saudi Arabia.(PressTv).

A controversial advertisement promoting Syrian girls for sale has been published in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, reports say.

According to reports on Wednesday by Iran’s Arabic-language news networkal-Alam the detailed advertisement even embodies a telephone number belonging to someone enlisted as being a “family counselor.”

Al-Watan reported that some social network activists have called the advertisement a form of trade, taking advantage of the crisis in Syria and the basic needs of Syrian refugees.

According to the ad, the asking money for every Syrian girl is 10,000 Saudi rials.( $ 2,666)

Following the rise of foreign militancy and violence in Syria, many Syrians have fled to neighboring countries in search of security and safety.

On November 27, Human Rights Watch (HRW) voiced concern about the safety of female refugees fleeing the violence in Syria. The organization said they had been sexually abused in Lebanon.

According to the United Nations, more than 800,000 Syrians either have registered or are awaiting registration as refugees in Lebanon alone.
Lebanese officials say the figure may be much higher.The UN has also said that Syrian refugees have been abused in Jordan.

Iran - Mullahs have ruled the country over past three decades by imposing discrimination, torture and aggression against women.

Iran - Mullahs have ruled the country over past three decades by imposing discrimination, torture and aggression against women.(NCRI).

Maryam Rajavi calls on women around the world to defend the rights and to provide security for women in Camp Liberty and all oppressed women in Iran

NCRI - On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, saluted all brave Iranian women who have stood up against one of the most violent dictatorial regimes in the world, all women political prisoners in Ali Khamenei’s prisons, and all women around the world who are struggling against all kinds of violence, cruelty, oppression, discrimination and inequality.

She said, “Today, we remember all the women around the world who during the past year became the victims of cruelty and inequality and suffered from all kinds of violence.”

Pointing out that “Oppression and violence against women is the basis for ruling and an essential leverage for this regime’s survival”, Rajavi said: “They have ruled the country over past three decades by imposing discrimination, torture and aggression against women. Torturing and execution of tens of thousands of struggling women and girls, including as young as 13 year old girls, pregnant women and elderly mothers is only part of this regime’s record. 

A so-called religious fatwa issued to justify raping women prisoners has been the guideline for judicial, intelligence and security organs and also the torturers of the mullahs’ antihuman and anti-Islam regime for the past three decade; an ignominious record of this regime’s crimes that is unprecedented in the contemporary history of mankind.”

“Systematic violence against women consists of numerous bans in various aspects including freedom to choose clothing, right to divorce, right to travel, right to employment and many other fundamental human rights.

However, when it comes to women’s right to fight for their country’s freedom, the ruling criminals resort to all types of crimes against women who dare to stand against this regime. Thousands of imprisoned women have been tortured, and PMOI women members and those struggling against this regime have lost their lives, and all the inhumane pressures imposed against the 1,000 women in Ashraf and Liberty, are all proofs of this fact,” said Maryam Rajavi.

Rajavi added, “In the latest attack against Ashraf on 1 September 2013, 52 PMOI members were killed, including six women, and six other women were taken hostage. They are currently in the custody of Iraqi forces and are facing the grave threat of being extradited to the criminal mullahs.”

She emphasized, “Today, efforts to save the lives of these hostages and supporting the security of the women in Liberty, have become a vital humanitarian duty and especially the responsibility of the equality movement.

Many of these pioneering women have been imprisoned in the regime’s dungeons for years; and most of them have three decades of resistance experience, making them valuable assets of the equality movement.”

Referring to the fact that the mullahs’ regime has the pivotal role in imposing violence against women and exporting misogynous viewpoints to the countries of the region, Maryam Rajavi described the struggle to change this regime as an important step in eliminating violence against women in the Middle East and the entire world. 

Rajavi went on to call on women across the globe to rise in defense of the rights and providing security for the women in Liberty, and also all the suppressed women in Iran.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Doctors in Quebec being warned about issuing 'virginity certificates'.

Doctors in Quebec being warned about issuing 'virginity certificates'. HT: NYDN.

A physician's college in Quebec has forbidden its doctors from performing virginity tests and issuing related chastity certificates.

Such exams, during which physicians check whether a woman has had sexual intercourse, are rare, but College des Medecins' CEO Dr. Charles Bernard said that they are still against the profession's code of ethics.

 Issuing a "virginity certificate" or performing a test is a breach in patient confidentiality, Bernard told The Montreal Gazette.

"Imagine a doctor who does a gynecological examination with the sole purpose of (determining if a woman has had sexual intercourse) ... it goes beyond the imagination. And it's degrading to women," he said.

However, Bernard added that physicians should still check in with the patient to see if there was a problem that sparked the request."If you find there is something going wrong, you can recommend a patient to maybe visit a social worker, a psychologist," he told CTV Montreal.They can even refer the patient to the province's child welfare system, he said.

Those that disobey could face disciplinary charges.The issue was raised after two ethicists from the University of Montreal researched virginity testing and found four of such cases, CTV reported.
The tests are sometimes required by families to preserve or save a girl's honor, according to The Gazette.

Canadian Muslims Protest "Honor Killing" Label As Racist.

Canadian Muslims Protest "DisHonor Killing" Label As Racist.HT: TIP.By Abigail R. Esman.

Are they willfully misleading? Or are Canadian Muslims who are fighting federal funding to investigate honor violence in the Muslim (and other) communities simply naïve victims of the same propaganda used routinely to explain away the religio-culturally-based murders of Muslim women?

Every year, according to United Nations reports, 5,000 women worldwide are killed for reasons of "honor" that relate to matters of modesty and obeyance, though most experts maintain the numbers are far higher. 
And the number of victims of honor violence, which can involve beatings, acid attacks, or locking a woman in her home, is literally incalculable. In the United Kingdom alone, more than 3,000 such honor crimes occurred just in 2010, according to a study by the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organization (IKWRO). The vast majority of those crimes, the organization states, were committed by Muslims, though Sikhs and Hindus have also been known to commit honor-related crimes.

In Canada, the decision to earmark funds to combat honor violence began in 2007, after a series of honor crimes over the previous two years resulted in the deaths of two women and one man. Soon after the program was announced, on Dec. 10, 2007, the father and brother of 16-year-old Toronto native Aqsa Parvez, strangled her to death. The reason: she had refused to wear the hijab, or scarf.
Yet recently, some groups have begun speaking out against the idea of specifying these crimes as "honor killings" and providing targeted programs to address them, even as two subsequent events underscore just how urgently such funds and programs are needed.

Yet according to a recent report from Women's e-News, many Canadian Muslim women now are speaking out against the government's new focus on these crimes, arguing that honor violence is no different from any other form of domestic abuse. 
Opponents of the idea call the projects "racist," and claim they put an unwarranted and biased focus on Muslim and Hindi families. "When women of color are killed, we ask these larger questions around their culture. We ask what's wrong with their entire people – their culture, their religion – instead of a particular person," Itrath Syed, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in "Islamophobia" in Vancouver, for instance, told Women's e-News.
What is so tragic about this remark is not just the half-dozen or so ways in which it is patently untrue, but that it seeks to nullify the horror that is honor violence, to deny the profound distinctions between honor crimes and other forms of domestic violence and femicide.

What Syed really was referring to was religion, not race. Or rather, the implication that domestic abuse in Muslim families is related to Islam, and that Muslim families are therefore treated differently than everybody else. It's a common accusation, and an ongoing question: are honor crimes culturally-based, or founded in interpretations of the Koran?

It's a bit of both, according to Carla Rus, a psychiatrist in the Netherlands who specializes in working with victims of both domestic abuse and honor violence. "Honor violence involves a kind of ideology, which you don't find in domestic violence," she points out. "In [Islamic] cultures, where church and state are not separated, it's difficult to distinguish whether honor violence comes through cultural or religious motives – culture and religion are inseparable in those cases."

Moreover, not all domestic violence occurring in Muslim families (some of whom are white) is automatically categorized as an honor crime. But call a crime what it is. When Mohammad Safia curses his daughters for "dishonoring" and "betraying Islam;" when Iraqi-American Aita Altameemi's mother burns and beats her for engaging in "non-Islamic behavior" – and the family says they "are proud of it" – there is no reason not to take them at their word.

Understanding how dramatically honor violence differs from other domestic abuse is, however, critical – a point that the recent Canadian funding aims to address, as do similar efforts in the UK and the Netherlands. As Phyllis Chesler, author of the landmark study, "Worldwide Trends in Honor Killings," has noted, "Westerners rarely kill their young daughters, nor do Western families of origin conspire or collaborate in such murders." Similarly, domestic abuse in Western families does not involve brothers murdering their sisters, as happens in cases of honor killings. To the contrary, siblings most often protect one another.

Moreover, while domestic violence may relate to a man's sense of self-respect, reputation, or "honor" among his peers, it does not – despite what some Muslims argue – reflect his sense of religious honor or his sense, as patriarch, of responsibility for his family's perceived insults to his god. Yet it is precisely this mindset which incites much honor-based violence and murder – and not only on the part of the father or husband. Frequently, religious devotion and patriarchy places pressure on other family members – siblings, aunts, uncles, spouses or even mothers of a victim –to commit the act, often under threat.

That fact underscores two other critical points that opponents to Canada's focus on honor killings apparently do not wish others to see – or perhaps are too culturally blinded to see: Ordinary domestic violence is nearly always spontaneous, while honor violence (and especially honor murder) is almost always calculated, often planned out over time through numerous family meetings.
And the horrific reality is that, these women simply have nowhere to run: no mothers who will shelter them from the husbands they are trying to escape, no sisters or brothers to protect them from their fathers – no one. (Indeed, the sisters and brothers are often recruited to assure a girl hiding from her family to come home, that all is forgiven. But this assertion is almost always a ruse; once she returns, the child is usually killed within days.)

It is, in other words, a long-term family affair, and one that, unlike the problems of domestic violence, can be changed.
Which is precisely why funding for, and attention to, understanding and preventing honor violence is so very critical, not only in Canada, but everywhere in the West. It is why women – and especially Muslim women – should be welcoming it, even demanding more.

And yet, countless Canadian (and other) Muslim activists and apologists remain far more devoted to shaping public vision of their culture – even if it means disguising the truth – than to protecting the lives of their Muslim sisters. In some cases, they may go so far as to contend that the very notion of "honor killings" is a "Western propagated myth," reports Darpan. Indeed, one Muslim women's advocate, Rubaiyat Karim, told Women's e-News that, "Immigration policy can be very inclusionary and preach the language of multi-culturalism. But if we really want to talk about multiculturalism, we need to address the Orientalist mentality of government."

She's wrong. What we really need to address is the refusal of some Muslim families to advance beyond medieval and barbaric religio-cultural practices – and to stop excusing them when they don't. Not to do so is to abandon thousands of women, not just in Canada or the United States, not just in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but in every country, every city, every town across the world. We cannot let that happen.
Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New York and the Netherlands.

Video - Sudanese Woman Flogged Under Islamic Law for Riding in Car.

Video - Sudanese Woman Flogged Under Islamic Law for Riding in Car.HT: Aina.

A video has surfaced online showing Sudanese police repeatedly hitting a woman with a whip. For years, local women's rights groups have called for the repeal of a law that allows police to publicly whip women they say are breaking public decency laws.

The video was posted on September 15 by a Sudanese opposition media organisation. The journalist who uploaded the video says someone sent the video to him via email, but does not know who the email address belongs to nor when the incident took place. Judging by the accent of those speaking in the video, it was shot in the region of the capital Khartoum.

The incident takes place in a courtyard -- possibly at a courthouse -- with a crowd of bystanders watching on. A police officer whips a woman seated cross-legged and facing a wall, all while the person filming and another person next to them giggle. At 39 seconds, an officer tells the woman, called Halima: "This is so you don't get into cars anymore". An Observer in Sudan who has watched the video says it is not unusual for a woman to be punished with lashes if she is found in a car with a man who isn't from her immediate family (such as a husband, a father, or a brother).

Punishing women with lashes was written into law following the 1989 coup d'état and the arrival of Omar al-Bashir to power. However, this common practice only started attracting the international media's attention in 2009, when journalist Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein was sentenced to flogging for wearing trousers. Since then, women's rights groups have campaigned for the abolition of article 152 of Sudan's law of 1991, commonly known as the law on public order, which allows for this type of punishment.
Nahid Jabr Allah is an activist for the Organisation for the Defence of Women's and Children's Rights in Sudan. She is taking part in a campaign calling for the law on public order to be repealed. She says:

It is unacceptable to subject a woman or a man to corporal punishment, regardless of the crime the person may have committed. It's a flagrant attack on human rights. In this video, the tormentors wanted to humiliate this woman, because in addition to being whipped, she is exposed to curious onlookers. The treatment is really degrading.
Authorities have set up a special police force, called the public order police, and special courts to deal with these sorts of offences. The legal process is unfair and rushed because in most cases, the accused is judged and sentenced on the spot without the presence of a lawyer, nor any sort of legal assistance.
This is why we have been working for months on repealing this law, which is outdated and insulting to the Sudanese people. Currently, we are working on a campaign supporting a journalist, Amira Osmane, who was arrested for refusing to wear a headscarf. We will fight until these charges are dropped.

RAPE Video - 'It's Your Fault.'

RAPE Video - 'It's Your Fault.'HT: Dawn.

NEW DELHI: A video by a group of comedians that lampoons controversial comments by public figures after the gang-rape of a student in New Delhi last December has gone viral.
The satirical video features Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin and television host Juhi Pandey explaining why women must take the blame for the rising number of rapes in India.
“Scientific studies suggest that women who wear skirts are the leading cause of rape. Do you know why? Because men have eyes,” Koechlin says at the start of the video, which runs for almost four minutes.
Koechlin goes on to show examples of “provocative” clothing, including a woman covered in a black burqa and a spacesuit complete with a helmet.
The video called “It's your fault” has been viewed more than 800,000 times and received more than 4,000 comments since it was published on YouTube on September 19, and has gone viral on Indian networking sites.
Politicians and one of the country's leading gurus made a series of comments in reaction to the gang-rape last December, in which everything from mobile phones to short skirts and noodles were blamed for violence against women.
The attack on the student triggered angry street protests as well as a national debate over the way India treats its women and who was responsible for the rising levels of violence.

The video was made by four stand-up comedians who wanted to change the “massive misconception” that women invite rapes.

“These are deep-rooted patriarchal biases. It happens everywhere in the world and in India especially so,” Tanmay Bhat, one of the comedians, told AFP on Monday.
“We often see families disowning rape victims. We wanted to contribute positively to the conversation about the subject.” The video also takes a swipe at police who are largely seen as insensitive to victims of sexual crimes.
Last month, Mumbai police commissioner Satyapal Singh sparked anger by suggesting that city residents need to choose between a “promiscuous culture” that allows public kissing, or a city made safe by “moral policing”.
He made the comments after a 22-year-old photographer was gang-raped while on assignment for a magazine in central Mumbai with a male colleague.
On the video, a smiling Koechlin says: “If you are tired of being humiliated by rape, you can always go to the cops and be humiliated by them instead.”

The video ends with a series of women of different ages and backgrounds saying “it's my fault” to the camera.

Ontario: "Hundreds of Women living in forced marriages."

Ontario: "Hundreds of Women living in forced marriages." (Yahoo).

"I think the reality is that number is just a tipping point of all those cases we know are not getting reported,"

Hundreds of women in Ontario are in marriages against their will, with a quarter of them married when they were just teenagers, according to a three-year study looking into the practice.

The South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, or SALCO, released its findings today looking at 219 cases of forced marriage that were identified in the province between 2010 and 2012.

The report, titled Who/If/When to Marry: The Incidence of Forced Marriage in Ontario, found that both men and women in the province are coerced into marriage, but 92 per cent of those affected are women. In 25 per cent of the cases, the people involved were just 16 to 18 years old when they were married.

It’s the first study to provide a closer look at these non-consensual unions, which are defined as marriages where individuals are forced to wed against their will, under duress or without full, free and informed consent from both parties.
"I think the reality is that number is just a tipping point of all those cases we know are not getting reported," said Shalini Konanur of SALCO.

"And you have to remember our collection was just in Ontario, so the national picture would be much more, I think, bigger." The study found that the majority of the people affected are Canadian citizens and permanent residents, with people in 31 per cent of cases living in Canada for more than a decade before being forced into marriage.

“This is a Canadian problem,” said Konanur,” and it does transcend communities, religion and ages.”

One woman, who goes by the name Haya and does not want to be identified, had been living in Ontario for several years before her father took her to Pakistan to force her to marry her cousin.

“I thought, ‘Yay, we’re going to go back home for a vacation,’” Haya told CBC News.

“It turns out my dad ends up taking my passport, telling me I can’t go back home to Canada and I’m just going to have to end up getting married,” she said.

Haya managed to escape from Pakistan and is now living in Mississauga, Ont., but said she was disowned by her father. The report lists a variety of reasons people are pressured into marriages — usually by family members, community elders or religious leaders — including upholding cultural tradition, family reputation and honour.

The report says shame and fear are common themes in many of the cases it examined. In some cases, victims were threatened with violence.

“In our society, we are fairly good at understanding issues of violence, particularly violence against women,” said Uzma Shakir, a former director at SALCO. “But this is an aspect of that violence that we are not quite familiar with.”

The report lists several recommendations on how to deal with forced marriages across the country, including a national public awareness campaign, building a better framework for assessing cases and providing legal and social support for victims of the practice.Hmmmm........Medieval laws and traditions don't belong in a modern society.

Saudi Arabia passes kingdom's first domestic abuse law.

Saudi Arabia passes kingdom's first domestic abuse law.(HD).

Saudi Arabia has passed landmark legislation aimed at protecting women, children and domestic workers against domestic abuse, a human rights official said on Thursday, in a move aimed at reducing hidden violence against women in the kingdom.

The "Protection from Abuse" law is the first of its kind in the ultra-conservative country, which has often faced international criticism for lacking laws that protect women and domestic workers against abuse.

The law, approved during a cabinet meeting on Aug. 26, came several months after a local charity launched a nationwide campaign to combat violence against women.

Under the 17-article bill, those found guilty of committing psychological or physical abuse could face prison sentences of up to one year and up to 50,000 riyals ($13,300) in fines.

"This is a good law that serves major segments of the society in the kingdom, including women, children, domestic workers and non-domestic workers," Khaled al-Fakher, secretary general of the National Society for Human Rights, a government-licensed body, told Reuters.

Previously, domestic violence against women, children or domestic workers was treated under a general penal code based on Islamic sharia law.

Judges were left to decide according to their understanding of sharia codes, which were seen as permitting mild application of violence against "disobedient" wives and generally treated domestic violence as a private matter.

"We are always in favour of an explicit law that does not need interpretations or personal judgment," said Fakher, whose organisation helped draft the law.

The United Nations urged the kingdom, a U.S. ally which follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam, to create laws to protect women as early as 2008.

The Supreme Judicial Council in 2007 condemned a 19-year-old woman to 200 lashes and six months in jail on a charge of having been with a man she was not related to after she was attacked and gang-raped. She was pardoned by King Abdullah.

The King Khalid Foundation in April launched an unprecedented campaign to raise awareness about violence against women. The campaign's main poster, which featured a woman wearing a veil that showed one of her eyes blackened, was widely circulated on the Internet.

Underneath the picture, a caption read: "Some things can't be covered - fighting women's abuse together."

Fakher said one reason domestic violence was rampant in Saudi Arabia was because tribal traditions prevented women from reporting abuse for fear of social stigma.

"Women think what the community would say about her if she filed a complaint," he said.

There has also been an increase in reports of cases of domestic abuse in which families mistreat their maids, sometimes resulting in them turning on the children of their employers.

Rizana Nafeek, a Sri Lankan maid, was beheaded in the town of Dawadmy, near the capital Riyadh, in January after she was sentenced to death in 2007. She was accused by her employer of killing his infant daughter while she was bottle-feeding.

The law gives those who report abuse the right to remain anonymous, as well as immunity from litigation should abuse fail to be proven in a court. It also urges witnesses to report abuse without having to disclose their identity, which Fakher said is a significant part of the law.

Rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair said the new law gives women some independence.

"Women were required to bring in a male relative if they showed up at a police station to file a complaint," Abu al-Khair said. This will not now be necessary, he said.

The law could be a step towards changing current regulations which require women to get approval of male guardians - fathers, husbands or sons - to carry out business, apply for jobs or travel outside the country, Abu al-Khair said.

Turkey’s religious head refuses UN fund for violence against women project.

Turkey’s religious head refuses UN fund for violence against women project. (HD).

President of the Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Mehmet Görmez declared that the department would refuse to continue receiving loans for an ongoing United Nations-led project in Turkey. The gesture is in line with Turkey’s blunt criticism of the U.N. for its perceived lack of action regarding the turmoil in Syria.

“I will not spend a single lira of the U.N.’s money,” Görmez said on Aug. 22 during a signing ceremony for the “Cooperation Protocol for Providing Contribution of Religious Officials in Protection of Family and Preventing Violence against Women,” which was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ and Family, Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin.

The UN should care about crimes against humanity before violence against women, Görmez said, as reported by the Doğan News Agency.

“How can the organizations, institutions who cannot prevent murder against humanity, prevent subjects such as societies’ violence against women, human rights, domestic violence and the like?” he said. The remarks drew a strong reaction from social media users in Turkey, who slammed Görmez’s apparent underestimation of the fight against violence against women.

“From now on, at least on the part regarding the Diyanet, I will not spend a single penny of the U.N.’s money; I do not accept that money. I will spend it from the Diyanet foundation. They should use that money to prevent gross crimes and murders against humanity. Thank God, we have the belief, spirituality, materiality to explain to our nation the harm of violence against women, sympathy and compassion toward humanity,” Görmez added.

Related: 34 percent of Turkish men : "Domestic violence OK sometimes"

Pakistan - Woman mutilated for resisting father-in-law’s advances.

Pakistan - Woman mutilated for resisting father-in-law’s advances.(Tribune).

FAISALABAD - A man on Tuesday chopped off his pregnant daughter-in-law’s nose and hair and caused several wounds to her arms and legs, police and witnesses said.

Riasat Ali, a neighbour, said Bashir Ahmad, 50, had tried to rape his pregnant daughter-in-law Atiyya Bibi. He saw Bashir attack Attiya from the roof of his house. He said several people were attracted by her shouting and tried to stop Bashir who managed to flee from the scene.

Rescue 1122 officials were called and took the injured woman to Allied Hospital. Dr Ghulam Rasool of the emergency ward said that the victim was badly injured in the attack and her arms, legs and face bore serious wounds.

Mansoorabad SHO said, “The police have not received a formal complaint. We can only take action after receipt of a complaint and the medical examination report.” Hmmmm......And if you think the living are living a nightmare in Pakistan : Girl’s body removed from grave with intent to rape. Read the full story here.

US-Taliban Talks in Doha: The West's Capitulation in Afghanistan.

US-Taliban Talks in Doha: The West's Capitulation in Afghanistan.HT: Spiegel.

After 12 years of war and thousands of deaths on both sides, the US and the Taliban are finally ready to talk peace. While the West hopes to smooth its withdrawal, human rights organizations forecast the return of dark times for women and minorities.

On Tuesday, the Taliban held an opening celebration for its new office in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The Islamists want to host peace negotiations there with the Afghan government and the White House. Afghan President Hamid Karzai remains coy on the issue, but talks between the Taliban and the US government are supposed to kick off within the next few days.

The United States and its allies are planning a semi-orderly withdraw of combat troops from the troubled country. At the same time that the Taliban opened its office in Doha, Karzai announced that the Afghan army had officially taken over responsibility for security in the entire country from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan. By the end of 2014, almost 100,000 foreign soldiers are supposed to have pulled out of Afghanistan, leaving only military trainers behind.

NATO countries hope that they can at least leave behind a country that isn't steeped in chaos. In 2001, the West set lofty goals for Afghanistan, including implementing democracy, safeguarding human rights and fostering responsible governance. But the states contributing forces to ISAF gave up on achieving such goals long ago. The United States has signalled that the Taliban will be allowed to do what it wants as long as it refrains from allowing international terrorists to seek refuge in the areas it controls.

The oft-expressed distinction between "moderate" and "radical" Taliban elements straddles precisely this border. On the one side, there are the Taliban members who want to usher in a global Islamic empire with the help of al-Qaida. On the other are those who would be satisfied with ruling in Kabul.

What unites both groups is their disregard for the rights of women and minorities. Human Rights Watch is already painting a grim picture of the future of women's rights in the country, and Amnesty International is complaining about extensive violations of human rights. In its annual report, the latter said that women and girls are already being subjected to particular and repeated violence.

The Haqqani network, in particular, has pledged only half-hearted support for the talks. This powerful offshoot of the Taliban, which has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, also has leverage in the form of a captured US soldier.
The extremists have held Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl since 2009. They are now threatening the talks' chances of success, and even whether they will be held, by demanding that five Afghan prisoners be released from the military prison in Guantánamo Bay in exchange for Bergdawl. 
A Taliban spokesman in Qatar told the New York Times on Thursday that the exchange would be a way to "build bridges of confidence." However, the paper also noted that the five Taliban members "are considered to be among the most senior militants at Guantánamo and would otherwise be among the last in line to leave."Hmmmmm.......Those five wouldn't be the 5 that Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi wanted released by the Obama admin in 2011?The Same sheik who sits together with Huma Abedin's brother on the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies board?Read the full story here.

Related:  Obama Admin still following Muslim Brotherhood Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi plan to release Taliban prisoners from Gitmo.

Report: Radical Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi a Key Mediator in U.S.-Taliban Talks

Video - Kuwaiti Scholar Jassem Al-Mutawa: Wife Beating in Islam Treats Women Suffering from Masochism.

Video - Kuwaiti Scholar Jassem Al-Mutawa: Wife Beating in Islam Treats Women Suffering from Masochism.
 Following are excerpts from an Iqra TV show, aired on April 6, 2013, featuring Saudi scholar Jassem Al-Mutawa, who hosts Professor Muhammad Al-Hajj from the Jordanian University as a guest on the show. Since 2002, when the program was originally broadcast, Jassem Al-Mutawa has become the president of Iqra TV. The program was rerun on Iqra's channel targeting European audiences and broadcasting in French, English and Arabic.

Jassem Al-Mutawa (holding several long wooden rods in his hand): Today, we will discuss imposing discipline in the family. Sometimes, family disciplining is misunderstood, and therefore, in the modern era, there is a lot of domestic violence, carried out by means of rods such as these. As a result, marital relations disintegrate, leading to instability and divorce. Family disciplining is a right of the husband toward his wife, and vice versa.

There is a saying that goes: “the rod is for the disobedient.” What do you think – is that true or false? This is a little rod. Let’s take the big one, here. This is not a rod to be used on the disobedient. Now let’s take a look together at this big rod here. Some husbands and wives keep a rod like this at home. Someone once said to me: “I have a long rod at home” - a rod just like this one – “and whenever my wife does something wrong, look what I do to her with this rod.” So “a rod for the disobedient” is not a correct notion. On the contrary, it destroys our lives and our homes. We need to deal with our problems through dialogue and mutual understanding.

With some wives, it helps to use harsh words, and with others, it doesn’t. With some wives, it helps to talk calmly, using nice words. With some – if you talk to them harshly, they become even more stubborn, and the problem gets worse. With others, it is exactly the opposite – if you talk to them calmly, they don’t get it and the problem gets worse. So you cannot determine a law, such as: 1+1 =2.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Hajj, professor of Islamic faith at the Jordanian University: A car cannot be driven by two people – only by one. Islam placed the steering wheel of the family in the hands of the husband. Problems within the family are dealt with in the Kuranic verse regarding relationships: “Men are the guardians of women.” Allah says: “As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them, do not share their bed, and beat them.”

The punishment is restricted to cases of rebellion, in which a family life becomes a living hell. In such cases, in order to deal with the problem of a rebellious wife… There must be a remedy for such a problem. So, this progression [in punishment] has been determined: First, as soon as the husband begins to fear disobedience – before actual disobedience has even occurred – the stage of admonishment begins.

If she persists in her rebelliousness, one reaches the next stage - which is refusing to share her bed, as a way of making her feel that I am not pleased with her behavior. If she persists, and the husband gave her another chance – and sometimes months or even years pass by, yet she continues to be rebellious… The wisdom of Islam is manifest in the existence of a further method: that of non-harsh beatings.

Jassem Al-Mutawa: What is the difference between the harsh and non-harsh beatings?

Dr. Muhammad Al-Hajj: Harsh beatings leave marks upon the body or the face, and therefore, it has been decreed that one must not hit the face. So one must not hit the face, and one must not administer beatings that cause fractures or wounds. That is what our jurisprudents have decreed in their writings.

I think it would be immoral to go so far as to say that a wife may punish her husband by beating him, because this would be undermining the authority of the husband. Islam has spared the wife the need to use her hands to beat, in order to preserve her femininity, her honor, and her moral values.

Jassem Al-Mutawa: Ibn Abbas wrote, in his exegesis, that the husband should beat his wife with a handkerchief. Is it conceivable for a man to beat his wife with a rod, like we saw at the beginning of the show? No way. He must beat her with a handkerchief. The interpretation of Ibn Abbas is, in fact, extreme. There are other scholars who claim that he should beat her with a toothpick, because the point of beating is not to take revenge upon her or to be mean to her. A husband who beats out of revenge or meanness is committing a sin. The aim of the beatings is to convey a message: Oh so-and-so, I’m not pleased with your behavior. Start behaving yourself and be good. Otherwise, why would Ibn Abbas have said we should beat with a handkerchief? Can you believe such a thing?

Today, the Westerners criticize us about wife-beating in Islam, but no [Muslim] woman has died as a result of her husband’s beating. And if it does ever happen in our societies, it is considered very rare, and all the newspapers talk about it. Meanwhile, according to the latest U.N. statistics, from 1999-2000, every 12 seconds, a wife is beaten by her husband in the U.S. in some cases, these beatings lead to the woman’s death. When the Westerners criticize us about our issues, we must be confident and talk about their own issues. Even though the Koran [permits wife-beating], we have no cases of death resulting from it, and if there have been any, it is rare. On the other hand, in the West, they do not have the Koran or the Sunna, yet every 12 seconds, a woman is beaten by her husband.

Islam takes into consideration woman’s mentality and biological build. The woman is built weaker than the man. If Islam gave a woman the right to beat her husband – by Allah, the husband would break her, right? A woman cannot compete with her husband’s muscles. However, Islam has given woman the right to have her husband beaten by someone acting on her behalf. So the husband is beaten by another man, and the battle is waged between two men, not between a man and a woman. Therefore, if the husband humiliates his wife, the woman can turn to the courts, and the judge will rule what the woman deserves. If the woman wants her husband to be beaten - he will be, but he will be beaten by court order. That way, the battle will be waged between the husband and the courts, and not between the husband and the wife, within the household.

We all know that some men suffer from a mental disorder known as sadism, and that some woman suffer from a mental disorder known as masochism. What is the cure for such disorders? Beatings. Such a woman must be dealt with harshly. One of the jurisprudents even said that it is possible that this verse was conveyed for those suffering from these diseases. If a man is married to a woman suffering from sadism [sic] – let him beat her. The beatings constitute treatment in her case.
A psychiatrist friend of mine once told me that sometimes people come to him with marital problems, in which the woman suffers from that disease. He advises the husband to beat her in a certain way, and the problem is solved. The Koran deals with such problems. Brothers and sisters, there is no need for concern. Our religion is glorious, and the verses of the Koran impart absolute justice. They are not unjust toward either the woman or the man, but we must learn how to apply the rulings of Islam.Source: Memri.