News and Views
Iran: Controversial film a hit at Toronto festival
Rome, 16 Sept. (AKI) - An Iranian feature film that tells the story of a woman being stoned to death has made headlines at the Toronto Film Festival and provoked an angry response from Iranian authorities.
The film, entitled 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' by Iranian-American director Sirous Norasteh, was shown at the festival which ended last Saturday.
The film tells the real-life story of Soraya, an 18-year-old woman and mother stoned to death in 1984 for alleged sexual infidelity in western Iran.
Pakistan: Letter-writing campaign for women buried alive (Shirkat Gah)
From: Shirkat Gah -- Women's Resource Centre
17 Sept 2008: Human Rights Groups express their grave concern for the incident happened in Baba Kot, a remote village of Balochistan where three to five women were brutally shot and apparently buried alive: three for trying to exercise their fundamental right to determine their own lives and to marry men of their choice, the other two for supporting them and trying to save their lives.
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Mother who defied the killers is gunned down
Five weeks ago Leila Hussein told The Observer the chilling story of how her husband had killed their 17-year-old daughter over her friendship with a British soldier in Basra. Now Leila, who had been in hiding, has been murdered
Was Ahmet Yildiz the victim of Turkey's first gay honour killing?
By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Ahmet Yildiz was shot as he left a cafe near the Bosphorus strait in Istanbul
In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey's gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country's deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.
In Afghanistan, Rape Victims Begin To Break The Silence
September 01, 2008
By Farangis Najibullah
Sobbing and barely able to speak, a teenage girl from Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province describes the horror of being gang-raped at gunpoint.
“They raped me for three days and nights. I felt like I was going crazy," she said. "They forced me to drink alcohol. I couldn’t get up. They had guns, knives. They were so cruel and brutal. I screamed and cried, but they didn’t care.”
Woman beaten and threatened with death for divorce
Jerusalem woman who left ultra-Orthodox life after her divorce gagged, beaten by group of self-proclaimed 'chastity guards'
A 31-year-old Jerusalem woman was cruelly beaten and threatened with death by members of the 'modesty squad' who took it upon themselves to interrogate her about her relationships with men, an indictment filed Thursday by the Jerusalem Prosecution reveals.
17 Year old shot for successfully seeking annulment
DESPAIR among human rights workers in Pakistan over a rash of so-called "honour killings" intensified yesterday when it was disclosed that a girl forced into marriage with a 45-year-old man at the age of nine had been killed by her parents because she asked for an annulment.
The girl, 17, who had been fighting a lonely but successful legal battle, was coming out of court in the Punjabi city of Sahiwal after being granted the annulment by a judge when she was surrounded by a group of men and shot in view of police.
Jordan 'honour killings' cover for other crimes
Jordan 'honour killings' cover for other crimes
Men exploit lenient laws to murder women for inheritance, settling family feuds or to hide other crimes.
AMMAN - When 18-year-old Maha decided that she wanted to quit her family's prostitution ring, her brother killed her and alleged it was to "cleanse" the family's honour.
Maha is one of hundreds of women in Jordan and other conservative societies who rights groups say are killed every year by their male relatives in so-called honour crimes for "sullying" the reputation of their families.
Update: More on the 5 women buries alive in Pakistan
The following are various news clips regarding the 5 women buried alive in Baluchistan, Pakistan:
Source: Dawn Newspaper (Pakistan) and Women's Action Forum
WLUML presents various responses by women's human rigths activists.
Pakistan women's bodies exhumed
BBC NEWS
Pakistan women's bodies exhumed
Police in Pakistan have exhumed the bodies of two women allegedly buried alive in western Balochistan province.
They have also arrested six people, including some relatives of the women.
Reports from the area say the women were killed in July because they wanted to marry men of their own choice, against the wishes of tribal elders.
Three other women were also reported killed but police have not found their bodies. Human rights groups have expressed outrage at the killings.
Senator defends honour-killing
ISLAMABAD- A Baloch tribal lord caught the upper house by surprise here on Friday when he came forward defending the honour killing of five women in Balochistan saying ‘these are our norms which should not be highlighted negatively’.
Baloch Senator Israr Ullah Zehri while aggressively interrupting Senator Bibi Yasmin Shah, who condemned the brutal act of burying alive five women in Balochistan on charges of ‘love marriage’, said it was part of their traditions, which, he said, should not be negatively highlighted.
Afghan President pardons men convicted of bayonet gang rape
By Kate Clark in Kabul
Sunday, 24 August 2008
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has pardoned three men who had been found guilty of gang raping a woman in the northern province of Samangan.
The woman, Sara, and her family found out about the pardon only when they saw the rapists back in their village.
“Everyone was shocked,” said Sara’s husband, Dilawar, who like many Afghans uses only one name. “These were men who had been sentenced and found guilty by the Supreme Court, walking around freely.”
The Afghan women jailed for being victims of rape
In Lashkar Gah, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex. Terri Judd visited them and heard their extraordinary stories
Monday, 18 August 2008
Zirdana, right, with her son and Saliha, centre, in Lashkar Gah prison
Zirdana, right, with her son and Saliha, centre, in Lashkar Gah prison
Grass-roots effort in Egypt fights 'cutting' girls
By ANNA JOHNSON – Aug 3, 2008
SULTAN ZAWYIT, Egypt (AP) — In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters.
A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
Let's Unite Against Trokosi
EDITORIAL
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
It is quite disturbing that after more than 10 years of stakeholders bringing the obnoxious Trokosi system to national attention, it is still live and kicking.
A recent research on the practice of Trokosi in Ghana sponsored by Australian Aid Agency (AusAID) revealed that the concept of Trokosi has not changed within the practicing communities, 10 years after the enactment of laws by Parliament to abolish the practice. (See full report on page four).
Taliban executes women in Pakistan
From correspondents in Peshawar
August 20, 2008 08:39pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse
TALIBAN militants shot dead two women in the troubled north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar after accusing them of being prostitutes, police said today.
The hardliners crushed the face of one of the women, apparently using rifle butts and stones, and left a note warning that others who engaged in "immoral'' activities would meet the same fate, they said.
Amnesty International Statement on Suspension of stoning executions a welcome step if carried out
Amnesty International Press release
15 August 2008
Amnesty International has welcomed last week's announcement by the spokesperson for Iran's Judiciary that execution by stoning has been suspended and that several unnamed women who were facing the punishment have had their sentences commuted.
"Stoning is a horrific practice, designed to increase the suffering of those facing execution, and it has no place in the modern world," Amnesty International said. "We look to the Iranian authorities to ensure that this dreadful punishment is never again used."
Bitter Truth: Bangladesh Society must protect the victims
Published On: 2008-07-26
Bitter Truth
Domestic violence: Society must protect the victims
Md. Asadullah Khan
Intimate Violence Remains a Big Killer of Women
Run Date: 07/25/08
By Marie Tessier
WeNews correspondent
Over a thousand U.S. women are killed each year by a current or former intimate partner. Two million a year are injured. A sexual assault occurs every two minutes. Fifth in "The Memo" series on the status of U.S. women.
Religious Leaders Partly to blame for growing problem of domestic violence in Tanzania.
Clerics blamed for rise in domestic violence
By Patty Magubira, Mwanza
Religious leaders are partly to blame for the growing problem of domestic violence in the country.
An official of the Norwegian Church Aid, Mr Evance Luballa, pointed out that some religious leaders fail to expose perpetrated of domestic violence who go to them for confession.
He cited a case of a man in Magu district where church leaders there were aware on an illicit affair the person allegedly had with his daughter, but decided to remain mum.