July 2010
Open Letter to the Bar Association of Iran: Do not ignore the policy of hostage taking and revenge
Honourable Chair of Iran Bar Association, Honourable members of the management committee,
You are aware that on Saturday 2nd Mordad 1389 (24th July 2010) the security forces invaded the offices of Mr. Mohammad Mostafaei, one of the most active human rights lawyers in Iran, but could not find him. A few hours later they arrested his wife and brother-in-law in front of his office and took them to the Evin Prison. The investigator at Revolutionary Court in Evin prison has told them that they will stay in prison until Mr. Mostafaei gives himself up.
USA: Landmark legislation addresses sexual violence against native women
Amnesty International has welcomed groundbreaking legislation in the USA, which addresses the disturbing rates of acts of sexual violence committed with impunity against American Indian and Alaska Native women.
India: One wife, multiple husbands - a custom fades
Buddhi Devi, 70, was betrothed as a teenager to two brothers in a polyandrous marriage in Malang, India. The custom has not carried over to her five children.
Iran: List of those awaiting execution by stoning
By: Soheila Vahdati
As protests against the stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani arose amongst the public and western officials, the IRI embassy in London announced that the verdict would not be stoned to death. On the contrary, the Secretary of Judiciary Commission of Human Rights declared that death by stoning does exist in the law of the country and that it would be implemented.
Now, it is feared that the Islamic Republic of Iran may decide to suddenly execute all those sentenced to stoning, either by stoning or hanging, in an attempt to quiet the rising western opposition as quickly as possible.
It is especially important to note that the Iranian embassy in London did not mention that Sakineh would be released, just that she would not be stoned to death, leaving open the possibility of her being hanged instead.
Pakistani couple face death by stoning threat after conviction for adultery
A couple have been sentenced to be stoned to death for alleged adultery by a tribal court in north-west , with the woman's life now considered in grave danger.
The man involved, Zarkat Khan, has run away while the woman is in the custody of the court, according to residents in Kala Dhaka, a remote area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The death sentence, handed down in Manjakot village last month, will be carried out once the man is found, a member of the tribal court said.
The woman, whose name is being withheld at the request of human rights groups, is being held in a nearby village, according to campaigners. She is married and believed to have three children.
"As usual, it is the woman who is made to bear the brunt of such atrocious barbarism, injustice, and inhuman, un-Islamic sentences," said the Woman's Action Forum, a Pakistani non-governmental organisation. "Why is the provincial law enforcement system neither de jure nor de facto functional? Where are the women's protection mechanisms and institutions?"
UK: Damian Green says burka ban would be 'un-British'
Banning the wearing of the Islamic full veil in public would be "un-British", the immigration minister has said.
Damian Green told the Sunday Telegraph trying to pass such a law would be at odds with the UK's "tolerant and mutually respectful society".
It comes after Tory MP Philip Hollobone introduced a private members' bill which would make it illegal for people to cover their faces in public.
Spain: Parliament rejects burqa ban
Spanish lawmakers will debate Tuesday July 20, 2010, barring burqas in public, joining other European countries considering similar moves on the grounds that the body-covering garments are degrading to women, the leading opposition party said Sunday. Head-covering veils would not be included in a ban. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)
MADRID — Spain's Parliament on Tuesday rejected a proposal to ban women from wearing in public places Islamic veils that reveal only the eyes.
However, the Socialist government has said it favors including a ban on people wearing burqas in government buildings in an upcoming bill on religious issues to be debated after parliament's summer vacation break.
Following a lower chamber debate, 183 lawmakers opposed the ban, 162 voted for it and two abstained.
Iran: Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani ordered to name campaigners
has put fresh pressure on the woman it last month sentenced to death by stoning, demanding the names of those involved in the campaign for her release.
The case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani has drawn international attention after her children launched a campaign for her release. , but still faced execution by hanging.
The 43-year-old mother of two has been interrogated inside Tabriz prison over the names of the people who have been in touch with her family and the way her photo has been distributed among the media, the Guardian has learned.
Sakineh's photo, which has been distributed all over the world, has become a defining image for activists campaigning against stoning in Iran.
"Sakineh has been under big pressure since the world has paid attention to her case", a source close to her family told the Guardian. "Recently she was questioned and asked to advise her children to remain silent, otherwise they will be arrested too. International attention is the only hope for Sakineh's release", the source added.
India: Prosecute Rampant ‘Honor’ Killings
(New York) July 18, 2010 -- The Indian government should urgently investigate and prosecute those responsible for the recent spurt in reported "honor" killings, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also strengthen laws that protect against kinship, religion-based, and caste-based violence, and take appropriate action against local leaders who endorse or tolerate such crimes, Human Rights Watch said.
Murders to protect family or community "honor" have increased in recent months, in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, where unofficial village councils, called khap panchayats, issue edicts condemning couples for marrying outside their caste or religion and condemn marriages within a kinship group (gotra), considered incestuous even though there is no biological connection. To enforce these decrees and break up such relationships, family members have threatened couples, filed false cases of abduction, and killed spouses to protect the family's "honor." Some local politicians and officials have been sympathetic to the councils' edicts, implicitly supporting the violence.
"Officials who fail to condemn village council edicts that end in murder are effectively endorsing murder," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Politicians and police need to send these councils a strong message to stop issuing edicts on marriages."
Study: In Brazil, 10 women killed daily in domestic violence
(CNN) -- Every day, 10 women are killed in domestic violence cases in a country known for its glorious models, according to a new study released Sunday.
And it takes a high-profile incident -- such as the case against a Brazilian goalkeeper who is the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of a woman -- to bring attention to the problem, said Women's Affairs Minister Nilcea Freire.
The government-sponsored study, called Map of Violence 2010, found that 41,532 women were murdered in Brazil between 1997 and 2007.