Iran bans female chess player for not wearing hijab, and her brother for playing with Israeli counterpart.

Iran bans female chess player for not wearing hijab, and her brother for playing with Israeli counterpart. (IFP).

The Islamic Republic of Iran has banned chess players brother and sister from any upcoming tournament due to the former's playing with an Israeli representative and the latter's not wearing hijab.

Dorsa Derakhshani, an 18-year-old member of the Iranian Women's National Chess Team and the sixth world champion in under-18 games, was expelled from the national team for not covering her hair in the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, which was held in late January and early February 2017, Iranian media quoted Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, head of Iran's Chess Federation, as saying.

Her 15-year-old brother, Borna Darakhshani was also expelled from the national team because of playing with an Israeli counterpart.

"The first step in dealing with them would be to deprive them from playing in Iran, and they won't have a chance to be in the national team,” Pahlevanzadeh said.

He also said the issue is a matter of “national interest” and the Chess Federation will deal with the siblings in the “severest way possible.”

Dorsa is presently studying in Spain and had participated in the Gibraltar games independently. Her brother, who had also registered in the games on his own, played with Alexander Huzman, a grandmaster from Israel.

The Islamic Republic does not officially recognize Israel and bans members of its national teams to compete with Israeli citizens in international tournaments.

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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)."

Video - Lifting the veil - Saudi Arabia Uncovered

With undercover footage and on-the-ground reporting, FRONTLINE reveals a side of Saudi Arabia that's rarely seen, and traces the efforts of men and women who are working to bring about change.            

A quarter of the world's women were child brides, Turkey one of highest rates in Europe.

A quarter of the world's married women were child brides. (Statista).

Over one quarter of women in the world have been child brides. This depressing statistic was announced by Unicef, who surveyed women aged between 20 and 24 in 122 countries, covering 79 percent of the global population of women. The results reveal the drastic scale of child marriage around the globe.

Such practices were found to be most prevalent in South Asia, where 44 percent of women surveyed had been a child bride - 17 percent were under the age of 15 at the time.

At the current rate, girlsnotbrides.org estimates that there will be an additional 1.2 billion girls married globally by 2050.

Turkey has one of the highest rates of child marriage in Europe with an estimated 14% of girls married before the age of 18.

However, statistical data available may not be representative of the scale of the issue since most child marriages are unregistered and take place as unofficial religious marriages.

The crisis in Syria and subsequent influx of refugees into Turkey and other neighboring countries has caused a dramatic rise in the number of child marriages.

Child marriage increases dramatically in emergencies due to increased poverty levels and a need to reduce household expenditure as well as parents wanting to protect their daughter’s honour and avoid sexual harassment and violence in an increasingly fragile environment.




A UNHCR survey conducted in 2014 revealed that the average age of marriage for Syrian refugee girls in Turkey was between 13 and 20 years with many respondents saying if they had the money, they would not have resorted to marrying off their daughters at such a young age. Read the full story here.

French Families minister Laurence Rossignol: Hijabis like 'negroes who supported slavery'.

French Families minister Laurence Rossignol: Hijabis like 'negroes who supported slavery'. (AlAraby).

A French government minister on Wednesday compared women who wear the hijab to "negroes who supported slavery".

Families minister Laurence Rossignol, sparked outrage on social media with her comment that came after former fashion mogul Pierre Berge lashed out at designers creating Islamic clothing and headscarves, accusing them of taking part in the "enslavement of women".


Berge, the partner of the late fashion legend Yves Saint Laurent, took aim at the wave of big fashion chains that have followed the Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana in catering specifically to the Muslim market.

Rosssignol, who is also responsible for women's rights, maintained she was referring to an abolitionist tract by the French philosopher Montesquieu, "On the Enslavement of Negroes", when she made her controversial comments to BFMTV and RMC radio.

The minister admitted later to AFP that she had made "an error of language" by using the n-word. "But other than that... I don't take back a word," the socialist minister said.

While France - home of Europe's biggest Muslim population - bans face-covering veils, some of its big fashion houses were among the first to tentatively embrace Muslim-specific style.


DKNY, owned by French giant LVMH, pioneered the "modest clothing" trend with a "capsule collection" aimed at the Middle East for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan two years ago.

In January, Dolce & Gabbana became the first major western brand to directly aim at capturing a corner of the Islamic fashion market - estimated to be worth $260 billion (230 billion euros) - with its Abaya range. Read the full story here.

Saudi Doctor: "Husbands to blame for Saudi wives’ problems, Husbands are unfaithful and abusive"

Saudi Doctor: "Husbands to blame for Saudi wives’ problems, Husbands are unfaithful and abusive" (EM24/7).

Saudi husbands are to blame for nearly 95 per cent of their wives’ psychological problems by being unfaithful and abusive to them, according to a Saudi expert.

Dr Hanan Atallah, a well-known psychological guidance expert in the Gulf kingdom, said most married women who visit her clinics in Riyadh suffer from marital problems related to their husbands.

“The husband’s betrayal of his wife is the number one reason for her problems…the second reason is being abusive,” she said, quoted by ‘Sabq’ newspaper.

“The problem is that many of those women come to see me late…they tend to be patient and hope that their husbands will change.”

She said most of her visitors told her they fear divorce for the sake of their children and the fact that divorced women in “our society have no rights”.

Video - Alan Dershowitz just revealed the undeniable truth Israel-haters will never admit.

1 female genital mutilation case reported every 96 minutes in England.

1 female genital mutilation case reported every 96 minutes in England. (RT).

Cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) are being reported at a rate of one every 96 minutes in England, according to the latest official health figures.

Data released on Friday shows that between October 2014 and September 2015, 5,484 cases of FGM were reported to authorities. Experts suggest the actual number of cases may be far higher.

London had the highest level of reported cases, with 758 flagged over the year. The Midlands and east of England came second with a combined 227 cases brought to the attention of authorities.

Female genital mutilation involves some or all of a girl’s exterior sexual organs, particularly the clitoris, being surgically removed or stitched up for non-medical purposes. At its most severe, FGM can make sex and urination painful and can lead to a host of other medical problems.

The data, compiled by the Health and Social Care Information Centre, was released ahead of Saturday’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM. The cases themselves are those reported to medics this year, but many were carried out years ago.

Plan UK chief executive Tanya Barron said the full scale of FGM in England had been hidden until now.

“FGM has been a hidden danger – only now is the full scale becoming clear. “Recognizing that FGM is a fundamental abuse of girls’ rights is the first step to ending the practice.”

FGM survivor Nimco Ali, who later set up Daughters of Eve, which works to prevent FGM, explained that stopping the practice was possible, even within families who see it as tradition.

“FGM is a brutal practice, but it is also a very simple one to end. If you stop one woman having FGM done to her, then you break that link and prevent it being done to the next generation.
“I came from a family that was 100 percent FGM and that has gone down to zero in a generation. It is something that can be ended.
“We are finally shaking the taboo of FGM, but we have to be vigilant and cannot be complacent,” she added.

Ali also said FGM should be included in sex and relationship education in British schools.

Human rights organization Equality Now estimates 137,000 women and girls in the UK have suffered FGM. However, spokesman Brendan Wayne said the figures are “just to tip of the iceberg.”

Tip off by alert teacher uncovers video of gang rape by migrants in Belgium.

Radicalization probe uncovers video of gang rape by migrants in Belgium. (RT).

Belgian police investigating a tip-off by an alert teacher of a technical school in Ostend about the possible radicalization of a 14-year-old male student have discovered a video implicating him and six others in the gang rape of an unconscious girl. Five of the suspects are Iraqi immigrants.

The video was shot on a phone camera and reportedly shows the assailants laughing, singing and dancing around their victim, who has passed out after drinking too much alcohol. The men pulled the girl’s pants down then groped and raped her, police told the Belgian media.

Police officials in Ostend, Belgium’s largest coastal city, discovered the evidence of the sex crime as they were investigating a 14-year-old student of the Ostend Technical Institute, who had been seen showing his friends a photo of himself wearing military garb and holding a sub-machine gun. The gang rape video was found on the boy’s phone.

Of the seven people arrested in connection with the gang rape, two are Belgium nationals and five are Iraqi immigrants. The oldest suspect is 25 years old.

The 17-year-old victim was identified and has been found. She said she had attended a party with her boyfriend and became unconscious after drinking too much alcohol. After waking up, she called a taxi and went home. She said she didn’t remember what had happen to her.

Several of the suspects showed little remorse for the incident, which happened in November, and didn’t even believe it was a crime at all, the police said.

“She has nothing to complain about. Women must obey men,” one of them reportedly told the police.

The attitude sparked outrage among Belgians.
“It is clear that some newcomers have problematic beliefs about relations between men and women,” commented Ostend Mayor Johan Vande Lanotte. “When they have served their sentences, they must leave the country.”

Theo Francken, Belgium's minister for asylum and immigration, made a similar statement: “Rapists won't be given asylum. They will be sent back to Iraq if they are found guilty.”

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

German police deploy water cannon to disperse PEGIDA protesters amid clashes in Cologne

German police deploy water cannon to disperse rapist PEGIDA protesters amid clashes in Cologne. (RT).

Police in the western German city of Cologne have broken up a protest by the "anti-Islamization" group PEGIDA. Water cannon were used to disperse demonstrators protesting after the New Year's Eve attacks on women.

Police on Saturday moved to disband the crowd of protesters after bottles and crackers were thrown at officers.

The North Rhine-Westphalian chapter of the anti-migration PEGIDA group and other far-right organizations called the demonstration in the wake of a series of sexual assaults and robberies targeting women in the inner city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.

“Merkel must go” was another popular rallying cry with the demonstrators. The far-right supporters are infuriated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her soft stance on refugees, and statements that the country could accept over a million asylum seekers.

Supporters of PEGIDA were met by a counter-demonstration from leftist groups and activists. The two rival factions were kept apart by a large police presence.

The anti-PEGIDA supporters chanted “Nazi pigs” and “Nazi’s out.” One slogan on a sign held by a demonstrator read: “There is nothing right about Nazi propaganda,” while another stated: “Fascism is not an opinion, it is a crime,” AFP reported.

Eyewitnesses said most of the offenders looked to be of North African or Arab origin. The incidents have fueled xenophobic sentiment in some quarters of German society, as the country struggles to cope with a huge influx of refugees and migrants, most of them coming from the Middle East and Africa.

Flashmob for women's rights.

Earlier in the day, several hundred women gathered in front of the cathedral in Cologne, situated near the central train station where the attacks mostly took place, to protest against violence to women (top photo).

They carried banners bearing slogans such as "No means no. That is our law. Keep off us," according to a reporter from AFP news agency.

The flashmob was called by women's groups on the Internet.

DPA news agency reported that some 1,000 people also demonstrated against both racism and sexism, with speakers warning against exploiting the New Year's Eve attacks to fuel xenophobic sentiment. Read the full story here.

Swiss artist Milo Moiré protest naked at #Cologne Dom: "We are not fair game . Even if we are naked'' #Germany pic.twitter.com/vArKuVCfGM

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) January 9, 2016

Belgian Secr of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect"

Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect". (Hln)[GoogleTranslated].

Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken (N-VA) wants to give to all asylum applicants courses on how to deal with women. According to him there are "almost daily" fights between Iraqis and Afghans in the refugee shelters. A practice where he wants to put a stop to, and for which there should be tougher sanctions. "The heaviest sanction now, 30 days exclusion from the asylum center, does not make much impression on them."

The Deputy Minister also elaborated on the courses he wants to give to all applicants on how to deal with women. Some centers already started this, but the government wants to expand the system in the coming weeks, writes De Standaard this morning.

The courses should above all ensure that asylum seekers are taught respect for women. "It's about the fact that it is normal that men and women are absolutely equal, women go to work, they can vote, so that a woman is one who is treated with respect and is not a slut or whore. These debates we conducted 50, 60 years ago and we will not have these debates again, we won't give in a millimeter."

That these courses are necessary has for Francken been obvious, even before the events in Cologne last New Year's night. "We have an unprecedented influx of single young men between 16 and 35 years with them, the norms and value system is completely different, these courses are mainly aimed at men but also to women. Them we want to make clear... It is not a problem here that you are working and that your husband can help in the education of the children or in the household. It is a problem if your husband beats you. "Francken follow as the example of Norway, where migrants have long been given such courses. They get lessons on how to treat women. "We will copy the Norwegian model and introduce it the coming weeks and months, in all Belgian refugee centers,".

Sp.a Chairman John Crombez Francken thinks the idea to make all asylum seekers follow the courses "useful, to not it's enough." He is shocked by the sexual assaults committed against women on New Year's night in Cologne. "If this behavior appears we must be quick and react in the hardest possible way to be very clear that this can not possibly be accepted," says the Socialist Party chairman.

"In order to form a close community rules apply. These are for everybody. Equality between men and women is perhaps the most important achievement of Western democracy. It is absolute. The groups of men who have committed ​​these degrading acts, must therefore be identified, prosecuted and punished as severely as possible, "says Crombez to Belga. If it is about people who have fled here, then the appropriate response for the sp.a president is that in this case, they can not remain here.

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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

Court in Pakistan Acquits Muslims Accused of Raping Two Christian Girls.

Court in Pakistan Acquits Muslims Accused of Raping Two Christian Girls.(MS).

Two Muslim men who raped two Christian sisters in Pakistan last year have been acquitted after Islamists pressured a key witness not to testify and a prosecutor failed to show up in court, family and legal sources said.

The two teenaged girls (names withheld) had gone to a toilet in a field near their village of Jaranwala, Faisalabad on Nov. 28, 2014 when the men, Muhammad Shahbaz and Muhammad Azeem, abducted them at gunpoint, beat one for protesting, took them to a house and raped them throughout the night, they said. The girls said they recognized the assailants, said to be between 25 and 30 years old, as they were from their area.

The girls’ father, whose name is withheld for legal reasons, told Morning Star News a witness changed his statement after receiving a bribe, which led to the collapse of a hearing at Jaranwala Trial Court on Oct. 10. The court on Oct. 15 acquitted the suspects.

“The prosecution evidence contains a large number of material infirmities and contradictions, and the benefit of them, necessarily, is to be extended to the accused,” the judge said. “This leads this court to the obvious conclusion that the prosecution remain unsuccessful to provide its case against the accused beyond [any] shadow of doubt.”

The girls’ father told the British Pakistani Christian Association (BPCA) that he was upset and disappointed.

“We didn’t get justice,” he said. “The lawyer didn’t fight the case very well and with commitment. Mostly, he stayed absent from the hearings of the case during the proceedings. The lawyer didn’t even participate in the cross-questioning with the culprits in the court.”

Soon after the men were arrested, the girls’ family survived gunfire on their home, presumably from parties opposed to their attempt to prosecute. The family is in greater danger now, the father said.

“We face serious life threats from the culprits now, as they are being released from jail,” he said. “I will appeal to the High Court, because I want justice for my daughters.”

The BPCA rehoused the girls in Pakistan after the shootings and death threats by Islamists, and the London-based organization is providing the girls education, counseling and other medical help, a servant for the elderly and ailing father and legal aid to file an appeal.

The case has allegedly been lost due to the unreliability of a key witness who originally, in the face of threats, refused to attend the court, then when instructed to attend by the court changed his original statement,” Wilson Chowdhry, head of the BPCA, said in a statement on the BPCA website. “Previously a family friend, [he] has been accused of taking a bribe and altering his statement in lieu of this payment.”

The elder of the two girls has suffered anxiety and depression since the attack and has been even more withdrawn since the court decision, according to Chowdhry.

One the sisters said that as they were walking in the field, the young men were touching them while laughing and jeering, leaving the girls both humiliated and terrified.

“We both prayed to God to free us from their clutches,” she said. “We recognized the young men as they were from our local area, and I pleaded with them not to do anything to us. For talking I was slapped in the face and punched hard in my stomach. We both kept quite after this.”

The justice system of Pakistan was biased in favor of the culprits because of religious discrimination, the girls’ father said. Pakistan’s population is nearly 96 percent Muslim, and crimes against Christians often go unprosecuted due to Islamist threats and the belief that largely impoverished Christians will not have the resources to overcome religious discrimination.

Chowdhry said Christians have been complaining for decades about sex crimes and forced conversions and marriages.

“Christian girls, who are never removed from the custody of their rapists, choose to agree to the terms of their marriage rather than see their families killed before them and receive further beatings and degradation,” he said. “How many girls will cry themselves to sleep forever, before international governments intervene?”

Due to the severity of the threats against the family, the father of the girls said he is worried that it will be impossible to go back to his home in Jaranwala.

The elder of the two girls has suffered anxiety and depression since the attack and has been even more withdrawn since the court decision, according to Chowdhry.

One the sisters said that as they were walking in the field, the young men were touching them while laughing and jeering, leaving the girls both humiliated and terrified.

Chowdhry referred to a report by the Movement for Solidarity and Peace, a Muslim Non-Governmental Organization, which in April 2014 published, “Forced Marriages and Forced Conversions in the Christian Community of Pakistan.”

The report notes that when girls are abducted and forcibly converted to Islam and married, the victim’s family usually files a First Information Report (FIR) for abduction or rape with the local police station.

“The abductor, on behalf of the victim girl, files a counter FIR, accusing the Christian family of harassing the willfully converted and married girl, and for conspiring to convert the girl back to Christianity,” the report states.

While the girl is still in the custody of the abductor, leaving her and her family vulnerable to retaliatory acts, a magistrate typically asks her to testify whether she converted and married of her own free will, according to the report.

“Upon the girl’s pronouncement that she willfully converted and consented to the marriage, the case is settled without relief for the family,” the report states. “Once in the custody of the abductor, the victim girl may be subjected to sexual violence, rape, forced prostitution, human trafficking and sale, or other domestic abuse.”

The report adds that in some cases girls are too young to give legal consent. Incidents of murder resulting from forced marriage have also been recorded, according to the report.

“We ask people moved by this story to sign our petition [www.britishpakistanichristians.co.uk]
and show solidarity with the weeping, Christian women of Pakistan, who lose their earthly lives but holdfast to a better promise in heaven,” Chowdhry said.

If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.  
If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/donate/?   

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Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

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).

Saudi Diplomat Under Investigation For Alleged Gang-Rape, Torture of servants.

Saudi Diplomat Under Investigation For Alleged Gang-Rape, Torture of servants.(NDTv).

Gurgaon: A Saudi Arabian diplomat is being investigated after two Nepalese women rescued from his home in Gurgaon have alleged gang-rape and repeated assault.

"We were treated like animals," one of the women told NDTV.

On Monday, 40 policemen arrived at the fifth floor flat of the diplomat to find the women being beaten by two Saudi women, who allegedly spat on the police and assaulted them.

In an FIR or police complaint that does not mention the diplomat's name but only "Saudi Arab Ke Admi (people from Saudi Arabia)", the women have given the police a disturbing account of gang-rape, torture and slavery.

"We have established the identity and have enough proof against the flat owner, but diplomatic immunity is involved and we will get back to the foreign ministry," said Navdeep Singh Virk, the Gurgaon police chief.

The Saudi Arabian embassy, however, denied called the allegations false and unproven, and lodged a protest with India on the "police intrusion into a diplomat's house against all diplomatic conventions."

The two women had been working with the family as domestic helps for four months. The torture allegedly began in Jeddah and continued in Gurgaon.

The women were allegedly raped and tortured by different men who visited the house. "They raped us, kept us locked up, did not give us anything to eat," one of the women told NDTV.

One of them, a 50-year-old from Morang in Nepal, had divorced recently. The other woman, 30, has two little children in Nepal's Baglung, and a husband who has cancer.

They both took the job in desperation but were never paid.

They said they were afraid to tell anyone because they were beaten and threatened, sometimes with a knife.

The horror in that household was exposed when a newly hired help ran away after seeing the wretched condition of the women. She contacted a non-profit - Meitei India - which went to the police.