Islamic Pakistan ranked second-last on gender equality index.

Islamic Pakistan ranked second-last on gender equality index. (ET).

Pakistan has been ranked the second worst country in the world for gender equality for a second year in a row.

The World Economic Forum’s global gender gap ranked Pakistan at a dismal 143 with a 0.556 score. Pakistan ranked just above Yemen among 144 countries, performing way behind India and Bangladesh which ranked at 87 and 72 respectively. War torn Syria performed better than Pakistan with a score of 142.

South Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan secured 100th, 110th, 115th and 121st spots respectively.

In the overall ranking, Iceland took the first spot, followed by Finland and Norway. Interestingly, the United States, with a rank of 45, saw a drop in its rankings owing to decrease on Economic Participation and Opportunity.

In December last year, a UN report said Pakistan ranked 121, better than India and Afghanistan in gender equality.

For those who are interested Islamist 'Dictatorship' Turkey ranked 130 place. In 2006 they were still at the 105 place the Erdogan rule takes it's toll on Gender Equality in Turkey. The number of Women being murdered in Turkey has also risen during Erdogan's rule. Read the full story here.

Women's clothing ‘causing rivers to run dry’, says senior Iranian cleric.

Women's clothing ‘causing rivers to run dry’, says senior Iranian cleric. (ET).

Women’s choice of clothing has long been a topic of discussion with some clerics going as far as claiming it causes earthquakes. In another such bizarre assertion, a senior Iranian cleric has accused women’s liberal choice of clothing and ‘immorality’ as the cause for one of the country’s rivers drying up.

In a recent sermon, Seyyed Youssef Tabatabi-Nejad said, “My office has received photos of women next to the dry Zayandeh-rud River pictured as if they are in Europe. It is these sorts of acts that cause the river to dry up even further.”

The cleric urged the country’s morality police to crack down on ‘improper veiling’ and suggested women’s immodest clothing was having an adverse impact on the environment.

Tabatabi-nejad is a senior official on the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body of 88 senior clerics who appoint Iran’s Supreme Leader. He’s not the only cleric who claimed natural disasters can be caused by dressing immorally.

His comments come following an increase in the number of morality police in Iran and subsequent crackdown on women failing to veil ‘appropriately’, playing music too loudly in their cars or acting in a way that is perceived to be un-Islamic by the authorities.

The imam’s comments have been criticised by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, with one member commenting: “This reflects the typical mindset of the theocratic regime ruling Iran which is no different to the culture of the Islamic State (IS).

“Misogyny is a cornerstone of this mindset. The regime’s increasing isolation with each passing day results in more brutal methods of suppression being employed by the regime,” the member said.

The imam has previously made comments that women should only stay at home while men work, as well as previously condoning violence against women who do not adhere to the country’s dress code. Hmmm......I'm surprised Saudi Arabia and Iran are desert regions.....they should be flooded. 

Dutch woman held for 'Suspicion of Adultery' in Qatar after making rape complaint.

Dutch woman held in Qatar after making rape complaint. (DS).

Update:

Tourist who 'was raped' in Qatar is fined £600 and given a suspended jail sentence for adultery https://t.co/Vf0Qp9xOM0

— Dr Shahid (@Dr_Shahid) June 13, 2016

A 22-year-old Dutch woman is being held in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after she said she was raped while on holiday there, her lawyer and Dutch media said Saturday.

The woman says she was drugged in a hotel, and that she realized she had been raped when she woke up in an unfamiliar apartment.

"She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery, which means having sex outside marriage," lawyer Brian Lokollo told Dutch radio NOS-Radio1.

A Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman confirmed the arrest but said the young woman, whom she named as Laura, has not been charged.

Daphne Kerremans added that "the inquiry is ongoing" and that Dutch authorities are in regular contact with Laura.

The woman's lawyer said that the case concerns a trip his client made in March to a Qatar hotel where the consumption of alcohol is allowed.

"She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realized that" she had been drugged, Lokollo said. "She felt very unwell," he added.

The young woman remembers nothing more until the following morning when she woke up in a totally unfamiliar apartment "and realized to her great horror, that she had been raped," he said.

The suspected rapist was also arrested but insisted that their night together had been consensual and that the woman had even asked for money. "She completely denies these accusations," Lokollo said.
Update : According to the Dutch paper 'De Telegraaf'  : An officer was shouting at her all the time 'Why did you fuck with him' .

A court hearing is set to take place Monday and the foreign ministry hopes a decision on whether to charge the Dutch woman will be taken.

@MFS001 Off the record, its a very pretty lady BTW https://t.co/0xNsuQQr23

— jmorika (@jmorika) June 11, 2016

Woman Leading Friday Prayers In Switzerland Mosque Sparks Uproar On Social Media

Woman Leading Friday Prayers In Switzerland Mosque Sparks Uproar On Social Media. (Memri).

On May 27, 2016, Dr. Elham Manea, a Yemeni liberal activist residing in Switzerland, reported on her Twitter and Facebook accounts that, at the House of Religions in Bern, a woman had led a mixed congregation of men and women in Friday prayers. The prayer was led by Halima Gosai Hussain, who is the chair in Britain of a project called the Inclusive Mosque Initiative (IMI). After the prayers, Elham Manea herself delivered the Friday sermon. The call to prayer was also performed by a woman. In addition, the service included musical interludes, another feature that is not a part of mainstream Islam.

In the sermon she delivered after the prayer, Dr. Manea called upon Muslim men and women to reject the claims of Muslim clerics that a woman may not serve as prayer leader and that men and women may not pray side by side in mosques. She also urged the women not to wait passively for change to come but to demand it and bring it about themselves.

The news of a Friday service led by a woman and accompanied by music caused a furor on social media. Many responders harshly criticized Manea and the others who participated in the service, accusing them of heresy and showering them with curses and invective. In response to these attacks, Manea posted an article on the Al-Hiwar website and on her Facebook page in which she repeated what she had said in the Friday sermon and stressed that all she and the other participants had done was pray to Allah.

It should be noted that this is the not the first time a woman has led Friday prayers at a mosque. On February 12 this year, it was reported that Danish-born Muslim activist Sherin Khankan had opened the Miriam Mosque in Copenhagen, which offers Friday services led by women and for women only. Khankan said that she sought to challenge the patriarchal character that dominates Islam's religious institutions – just as it dominates other religions – and stressed that the responses of Copenhagen's Muslims to the opening of the mosque were positive and that criticism was "mild."

The first woman-led prayers were held over a decade ago, on March 18, 2005, when Dr. Amina Wadud, an American Muslim of Indian origin who is professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, led a service for a mixed congregation in New York.

The Friday prayers were held at a church in New York City, after several mosques had refused to host it, due to threats by extremists. The call to prayer was also performed by a woman, who in addition to setting this precedent did so with her head uncovered. The service was attended by some 100 men and women. The main organizer of the event was Asra Nomani, an Indian-born Muslim author. The organizers stated that their aim was to set the question of equal rights for women and men on the Muslim agenda, and stressed that women were entitled to be spiritual leaders in Islam.

A week later, Friday prayers were again led by a woman, this time in Boston, by an American Muslim named Nakia Jackson. Also during this week, Asra Nomani herself led a mixed congregation in prayers at Brandeis University, and stated that she would continue to organize similar women-led prayers throughout the U.S. Read the full story here.

Volume 1, Book 9, Number 490:  Narrated 'Aisha:

The things which annul the prayers were mentioned before me. They said, "Prayer is annulled by a dog, a donkey and a woman (if they pass in front of the praying people)."

Switzerland - Male Muslim students at school will no longer have to shake hands with their female teachers.

Switzerland - Male Muslim students at school will no longer have to shake hands with their female teachers. (ET).

GENEVA: Male Muslim students at a school in northern Switzerland will no longer have to shake hands with their female teachers, following a ruling that was on Monday causing an uproar in the country.

A school in the northern municipality of Therwil, in the canton of Basel, reached the controversial decision after two male students, aged 14 and 15, complained that the Swiss custom of shaking hands with the teacher is counter to their religious beliefs if the teacher is a woman.

They argued that Islam does not permit physical contact with a person of the opposite sex, with the exception of certain immediate family members.

The local Therwil council did not support the school’s decision, “but will not intervene as (it) is the responsibility of the school to set the rules,” spokesperson Monika Wyss told AFP in a statement.

The decision triggered an outcry across Switzerland with Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga insisting on Swiss public television Monday that “shaking hands is part of our culture.”

Felix Mueri, who heads the parliamentary commission on science, education and culture, meanwhile described the custom to the 20Minuten news site as “a gesture of respect and good manners.”

Christoph Eymann, who heads the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education, agreed, insisting: “We cannot tolerate that women in the public service are treated differently from men.”

Basel-Country canton authorities, who have the power to overturn the Therwil decision, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But the canton’s education chief Monica Gschwind told media she viewed the school’s decision as “pragmatic” although “not a lasting solution”.


Muslim groups meanwhile decried the polemic around the issue.

“One would think that the continued existence of Switzerland’s core values was at stake, when this particular case in fact involves just two high school students who have said they wish to greet their teacher in a different way than with a handshake,” the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland said in a statement.

The group pointed out that “classical (Islamic) jurisprudence and the vast majority of contemporary legal scholars … assume a clear prohibition of this contact form (handshakes) between the sexes.”


The Federation of Islamic Organisations in Switzerland (FIOS) however maintained that handshakes between men and women were “theologically premissable” and were common in some Muslim countries, insisting the issue should not be problematic in Switzerland.

Video - Yazidi Teen Who Escaped from ISIS Captivity Recounts Her Harrowing Experiences.

Turkish Pres wife says harem was 'school' for women.

SOURCE

Turkish Pres wife says harem was 'school' for women. (Yahoo).

The wife of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday hailed the harem of the Ottoman sultans as "a school for preparing women for life".

Emine Erdogan's comments come a day after the president triggered protests by saying he believed that "a woman is above all a mother" in a speech marking International Women's Day.

Critics have accused Erdogan's government of trying to impose strict Islamic values on Turkey and curtailing women's civil liberties.

"The harem was a school for members of the Ottoman dynasty and an educational establishment for preparing women for life," Emine Erdogan said at an official event on the Ottoman sultans in Ankara, according to Turkish TV stations.

President Erdogan has come under fire in the past for urging Turkish women to have at least three children and railing against efforts to promote birth control as "treason".

He and his wife regularly speak of their attachment to Islamic principles and the values of the old Ottoman empire, from the ruins of which the modern Turkish state was founded in 1923.

While the term "harem" has long titillated the Western imagination, in the Ottoman period it was an institution with very strict, detailed rules, which even the sultan had to follow, and precise guidelines on the recruitment and education of courtesans.

Each woman would receive an education in whichever discipline she showed the most promise -- for example calligraphy, decorative arts, music or foreign languages.

There was no age limit for the harem and women of 60 could live along side young girls, while the most capable could rise to wield enormous influence over the court.

But a day after her husband's comments drew thousands of women into the streets of Istanbul in protest, Emine Erdogan's remarks came under fire on social media.

Ozlem Kurumlar, a professor at an Istanbul university, tweeted: "In the time of Murad III (a 16th century sultan), books were the only thing that never entered the harem." Hmmm.....I'm sure she regrets not being able to send her daughters to that 'School'. 

Video - 16-year old Afghan refugee charged with rape of female worker at Belgian asylum center.

The 16-year old Afghan refugee reportedly assaulted the 19 -year old girl despite previously attending classes for migrants explaining how to respect women. A spokeswoman for the Red Cross, the humanitarian group is running the center, described the attack.

Red Cross-Flanders gives courses " How to deal with women." Just two weeks ago, a course took place in Menen (Where the rape took place) for all women and unaccompanied minors male applicants . " More here in Dutch news.

Iranian youth get app to dodge morality police.

Iranian youth get app to dodge morality police.  (ET).

An anonymous team of Iranian app developers have come to the rescue of young fashion conscious Iranians by helping them avoid the country’s notorious morality police known as “Ershad” or guidance.

The new app called ‘Gershad’ will alert users to Ershad checkpoints and help them to avoid them by choosing a different route. Ershad’s mobile checkpoints which usually consist of a van, a few men and one or two women, are deployed in towns across Iran and appear with no notice.

“Police need to provide security for the citizens not to turn into a factor for fear. A while ago, angry with such unreasonable oppressions, we looked for a solution to find a practical way to resist the volume of injustices peacefully with low risk level, to restore part of our freedom”, wrote one of the creators on their Facebook page.

Another added, “Why do we have to be humiliated for our most obvious right which is the right to wear what we want? Social media networks and websites are full of footage and photos of innocent women who have been beaten up and dragged on the ground by the Ershad patrol agents.”

Gershad, a play on the Persian word Ershad, or “guidance,” translated roughly to “getting around the guidance patrol”, gave Iranian women a short-lived chance to wear what they wanted without worrying about getting stopped on Monday, until it was blocked by Iranian authorities on Tuesday.

It works by plotting the location of morality police checkpoints on maps of different Iranian cities. After enough users report seeing morality police at the same location, a cartoonish icon of a morality officer pops up on the map, alerting users of places they may want to avoid.

The app, free for Android users on Google’s app store, had over a 1,000 downloads and had received hundreds of five-star ratings and positive reviews in just one day.

An Iranian human rights group reported they were taking steps to get the app back online.

Video - Al-Azhar Professor Suad Saleh: In a Legitimate War, Muslims Can Capture Slavegirls and Have Sex with Them

Video - Egyptian TV Host Duaa Salah Appears with "Battered" Face to Protest Violence against Women.

Isis terrorists executed first female journalist who reported from inside its territory.

We read some newspapers say that Nissan Ibrahim is with our group we want to Confirm that she is not with #RBSS #IS pic.twitter.com/ffNkWHH9le

— Abu Mohammed (@Raqqa_sl1) January 5, 2016

Isis terrorists executed first female journalist who reported from inside its territory. (Independent).

Isis has executed what is believed to be the first female citizen journalist for reporting inside its territory, Syrian media has reported.

The execution of Ruqia Hassan marks the fifth journalist who reported on Isis to be killed since October, according to Syrian journalism organisation Syria Direct.

Ms Hassan, who also went by the pseudonym Nisan Ibrahim on social media, was a independent reporter. Her death was confirmed by Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group exposing human rights abuses from within Syria.

Abu Mohammed, founder of RBSS, tweeted on Saturday that Ms Hassan’s last words were: “I’m in Raqqa and I received death threats, and when Isis [arrests] me and kills me it’s ok because they will cut my head and I have dignity its better than I live in humiliation with Isis [sic]”

One of her final posts on Facebook mocks Isis, also known as Islamic State, for banning Wi-Fi hotspots in the city of Raqqa. Her post, translated by Syria Direct, reads: "Go ahead and cut off our internet, our messenger pigeons won't complain."

The exact date of Ms Hassan’s execution is unknown, but her presence on social media stopped abruptly on July 21, 2015. Read the full story here.

Yemen - Al Qaeda Stones Woman To Death For Adultery: Witnesses

Source picture.

Al Qaeda In Yemen Stones Woman To Death For Adultery: Witnesses. (NDtv).

Al-Qaeda militants have stoned a woman to death in a southeastern Yemeni city they control after accusing her of adultery and prostitution, several witnesses said today.

The jihadists on Sunday "placed the woman in a hole in the middle of the courtyard of a military building and stoned her to death in the presence of dozens of residents" of Hadramawt provincial capital Mukalla, one witness said.

A copy of the purported verdict issued by the so-called Hadramawt court of Al-Qaeda’s Ansar al-Sharia in December said the married woman had “confessed in front of the judges to committing adultery.”

The verdict said the woman also admitted “without any coercion that she practiced prostitution, as a pimp ... and that she worked with a group of women in brothels.”

She also confessed to smoking hashish, it added.

The verdict said that the woman was sentenced to be stoned to death for “committing adultery as a married woman ... and eighty lashes for consuming hashish.”

A local journalist at the scene confirmed the rare stoning, saying that the gunmen prevented photography of the execution.

"This was the first time we have seen such a thing," another witness said.

A copy of the purported verdict issued by the so-called Hadramawt court of Al-Qaeda's Ansar al-Sharia in December said the married woman "confessed in front of the judges to committing adultery".

Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous affiliate of the global network.

It has taken advantage of the state's weakness to expand its control in various areas, including the vast Hadramawt region.

Video - Syria - Isis Allegedly separating Yazidi girls from their parents for Sex Slavery.

Alleged #Isis leaked video;separating Izidy girls from their parents for Sex Slavery unknown location inside #Syria pic.twitter.com/Meu4IFfbqO

— AEJ خليل ้้้้้็็็็Ⓜ (@AEJKhalil) December 20, 2015

Video - Allegedly Isis separating Yazidi girls from their parents for Sex Slavery unknown location inside Syria

Video footage has surfaced that appears to show Yazidi girls being dragged from their families by masked and heavily-armed Islamic State (Isis) fighters. The footage, which takes place in an unknown apartment building presumably in Daesh-held land in either Syria or Iraq, shows a scrum of Yazidi prisoners and IS gunmen separating women from men. It is feared that the girls are being taken to be sold into sexual slavery by the terrorist group.

The apartment building is surrounded by IS fighters and the group's distinctive flag can be seen hanging from a balcony. There is no information about where or when the video was recorded. Read the full story here.

Femicide and Violence against women in 'Islamist' Turkey increases both in number and brutality.

Number of women murdered in Turkey in 2015 on 12 December (Source).

Femicide and Violence against women in 'Islamist' Turkey increases both in number and brutality. (HD).

“What we call femicide is actually murder of women who revolt against abuse and push for independence,” says the We Will Stop Femicides Platform (WSF). But their husbands and male family members respond to this new-found independence with more violence, while protection mechanisms fail to protect the victims.

In Turkey, the number of women who are subjected to violence and murder has increased, but so has the brutality of the violence, according to an Izmir-based jurist.

Nuriye Kadan, who heads Izmir Bar Association’s Women’s Rights and Legal Support Office, says that the last decade has not only seen the increase in the numbers of women subject to violence, but that the violence itself has become more intense and barbaric, “bordering on torture.”

“A woman who came to us for legal protection last year had been stabbed 42 times by her husband,” Kadan told Hurriyet Daily News (HDN) on Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. “These women are not just killed; they are mutilated and subjected to additional violence before and after the murder. The dose of violence borders on torture. The so-called third page news on women’s murders include attempts to burn the body, cut it into pieces or decapitation.”

“We have lost 294 women in murders only last year. That’s the number found through our press monitoring. The state does not share all the data. Our focus is to make sure that there is no penalty reduction for good behavior and that ‘passionate crime’ reasoning is not used for those who carried out female homicides,” Kural said at a TEDx event in Izmir.

“What we want ultimately is an article in the criminal code that prevents anything but maximum penalty for the perpetrators of femicides, with no pardons. We have submitted a bill to parliament and we remind each Family and Social Affairs Minister of this goal.” Hmmmm......With the rise of a certain party the number of Women murders rose as well. (See below). Keep Turkey OUT OF the EU! Read the full story here.

Related: COUNTING DIGITAL MONUMENT FOR WOMEN WHO DIED because of violence in 'Islamist' Turkey

'Islamist' Turkey 45 women killed in 2 months, murder of women increases.

'Islamist' Turkey 45 women killed in 2 months, murder of women increases.(TZ).

The murder of women in large part by their spouses continues to increase, according to a recently released report by the We Will Stop Femicide Platform, with 45 women being killed in September and October.

The report was prepared by Süleyman Demirci, Dr. Semra Günay and Talha Aksoy of the Perspective Strategy Research group and presented to the public by the platform. The platform explained that the majority of these deaths were caused by the victims' spouses and for the most part took place in İstanbul and Diyarbakır. Thirty of the murders were conducted with a gun while 12 were with cutting implements. The majority of the victims were between the ages of 25 and 35.

In a statement made by the platform, the organization stated: “Out of the 45 women killed in the last two months, 44 percent were married while four were married in unofficial religious ceremonies. Seven women were killed because they wanted to end their marriages.”

The platform is continuing with its efforts to pass the “Özgecan Aslan Law.” The proposed law was given its unofficial name in memory of a young university student who was brutally murdered when she resisted being raped in February. If passed, it would prohibit judges from reducing a man's sentence for having been “provoked” to murder. In many cases, men are given shortened sentences after killing wives or romantic partners they suspect of having been unfaithful, legitimizing murder as a response to infidelity.

Another pattern that the platform identified is men killing their wives who are seeking a divorce. Members of the women's rights platform expressed their frustration and anger towards the protection of men who kill their wives or ex-wives using their request for separation as a legitimate pretense. Read the full story here.

Related: COUNTING DIGITAL MONUMENT FOR WOMEN WHO DIED because of violence in 'Islamist' Turkey.

"The Prophet says women are entrusted to us": Erdogan today #Turkey pic.twitter.com/S5jSj52o0X

— Mark Bentley (@MarkABentley) March 6, 2015

Kimmo Sasi: 2000 executions carried out in Iran under 'Obama's BFF Moderate' Rouhani.

Kimmo Sasi: 2000 executions carried out in Iran under 'Obama's BFF Moderate' Rouhani. (NCRI).

The human rights situation in Iran has not improved since Hassan Rouhani became President two years ago, Kimmo Sasi, a former Member of Parliament from Finland and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, has said. There have been 2000 executions since Rouhani took office, he added.

Mr. Sasi addressed a Geneva conference on September 18 on the sidelines of the 30th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Iranians plan to rally outside the United Nations in New York on September 28 to denounce the visit by the mullahs' President Hassan Rouhani to the UN General Assembly.

The rally, which is being organized by the Organization of Iranian-American Communities (OIAC), will press the international community to hold the regime in Iran accountable for its abhorrent human rights record.

The mullahs' regime in Iran continues to execute more of its citizens per capita than any other U.N. member state.

Excerpt from the remarks by Mr. Kimmo Sasi, former Member of Parliament from Finland and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe:

If we try to measure somehow what has happened, the fact is that there have been 2000 executions since he took office. And in fact the executions have been very brutal, there have been stonings and amputation of limbs of the human body of people. The latest statistics of Amnesty International shows there has been 699 executions from the beginning of this year until July 15. Why is all this done? It is to create fear so that people do not want to have any resistance in the country because they have to fear for their lives.

We have to do something and what should be done? The Council of Europe has very good and high human rights standards. And the Council of Europe’s legal rights committee has studied the situation in neighboring areas of the Council of Europe countries. And indeed if Iran would have the same standards as Council of Europe has for human rights, I think it would be the first step to create peace in the whole Middle East.

Mr. [Alejo] Vidal Quadras already mentioned the European Union, and he was in the right line at the moment. As the annual report of the European Union shows there is no human rights dialogue today between the European Union and Iran. In fact, it would be very important that in all relations, to have that human rights dialogue, and to put conditions on any improvement to any relations between Iran and the European Union and the European countries as a condition for improvement of the relations. In fact, the European Parliament has given a declaration in that direction in April 2014, saying that human rights should be an essential part of the relations and be conditioned.

But I plead with the national parliaments as well, that national parliaments would study Iran and put pressure on their own countries that they indeed require when they have relations with Iran so human rights will be part of the conditions in those negotiations. Also in the European Union, the Commission plays in important role and when the Foreign Minister [Federica] Mogherini was in Tehran for a visit, during her visit, 11 people were executed at the same time. That is not the right reflection of the Iranian government when the European Foreign Minister visits their country. There must be conditions for the relations. Hmmmm.....The EU would sell father, mother and the kids for financial gain, human rights are of no importance to them.Read the full story here.

Video - Iran Freedom TV, discussing the human rights situation in Iran - Live broadcast in One Hour.

NCR-Iran.org will on Wednesday broadcast online last week's major conference on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva discussing the human rights situation in Iran. The broadcast will commence at 2pm European time (8am EDT).

Video - With red lipstick, a Female Indian acid attack victim makes a bold statement.

With red lipstick, a Female Indian acid attack victim makes a bold statement. (ET).

In her peppy and helpful online video tutorial, Reshma Bano Qureshi promises to teach her viewers “how to get perfect red lips.”

But unlike the more than 200,000 other online videos dedicated to the application of lipstick, this one goes beyond plumping and priming.

After sharing her cosmetic tips, Ms Qureshi, 18, talks about her far more striking facial features. She is missing her left eye, and her skin is badly scarred from an attack in Northern India last year by her estranged brother-in-law and a group of men who held her down and poured sulfuric acid on her face. Her brother-in-law was arrested after the attack, but her family has said that two of his accomplices were never caught.

In her video, Ms Qureshi explains that it is as easy for attackers to buy concentrated acid at a market as it is for her to buy a tube of lipstick — and sometimes, it is cheaper. The video, one of several produced by the group Make Love Not Scars, has garnered more than 900,000 views and led to the hashtag #EndAcidSale.

Bharat Nayak, a representative for Make Love Not Scars, said in an email that bending traditional norms of female beauty was a powerful tactic intended to bring attention to persistent attacks against women in India despite efforts to limit the sale of acid used in many attacks.

In addition to the videos produced by Make Love Not Scars, online activists are appropriating the tactics used by beauty industry marketers to draw attention to survivors. Supporters on social media have posted “faceless selfies” to help raise funds for survivors, and others have circulated a photo calendar online.

Rahul Saharan, a photographer in New Delhi who worked on the calendar, said the project was meant to empower survivors, who often feel isolated and stigmatised. In the calendar, one woman poses in a lab coat, holding a sign that says, “I wanted to be a doctor.” Other victims are photographed standing in a chef’s kitchen, sitting in front of a microphone and holding a book. “The calendar is basically shot on their dreams that they had before their attack,” he said. Hmmm......I salute their courage and determination. Read the full story here.

NCRI releases report on women's rights abuse in Iran under 'Moderate' Pres Rouhani.

NCRI releases report on women's rights abuse in Iran under 'Moderate' Pres Rouhani.(NCRI).

NCRI - The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has published a book entitled "Iranian Women Under Rouhani", highlighting the abuse of women's rights in the first two years of Hassan Rouhani's term in office.

The report looks at the conditions of women during the past two years, revealing two issues: on the one hand, the rise in suppression and pressures against women and on the other, the continuation of protests.

In October 2014, Reyhaneh Jabbari, 26, was hanged for defending herself against an agent of the Iranian regime’s Intelligence Ministry, a man who intended to rape her. This was while many international bodies had called for her release and protested this execution. Reyhaneh’s body was left hanging from the noose for an hour after her death.

Political prisoners have been the prime victims of human rights violations in Iran.

Motahareh Bahrami, Reyhaneh Haj-Ibrahim, Zeynab Jalalian, Sedigheh Moradi and Fatima Rahnama have been deprived of medical treatment despite suffering from serious illnesses.

The physical conditions of Atena Daemi and Atena Farghadani, both under pressure in prison, are unacceptable and they are imprisoned for defending their freedom of expression.

Afsaneh Bayazidi and Atena Farghadani have resorted to hunger strikes to obtain their rights.
Dozens of women have been arrested in rallies protesting acid attacks and other demonstrations.
During Rouhani’s tenure many women have been suppressed and arrested for their beliefs and religion.

As for social damages, during Rouhani’s tenure, women have topped two charts: “suffering from depression” and “cases of self-immolation throughout the Middle East.”


The state-run Tabnak website reported the latest numbers of cases of psychological disorders amongst women has reached 26% adding that women have an 11% higher depression rate compared to men. (State-run Tabnak website – June 22, 2015).