Forced repatriation of Libyan woman violates international law, UN agency says

The forced return from Qatar to Libya of a woman who had made complaints about gang rapes in Tripoli and was later recognized as a refugee violates international law, the United Nations refugee agency said today.

According to media reports, Eman Al Obeidi told reporters in Tripoli on 26 March that she had been gang raped by Libyan Government troops. She was arrested and briefly detained by Libyan authorities, and later fled to Qatar. 

"UNHCR was present at the hotel where Ms. Al Obeidi was staying in Qatar, ready to accompany her to the airport to travel to an emergency transit centre in Romania," said Adrian Edwards, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"She was prevented from leaving for this flight in the early hours of Thursday morning. Ms. Al Obeidi was transported against her will to Benghazi on a flight by Qatar early Thursday," he added.

Mr. Edwards said the agency was trying to meet with Ms Al Obeidi and her family in Benghazi.

"Every effort will be made to ensure that their best interests are respected," he said.

Egypt's women push for legislative revolution

CAIRO - Since the recent revolution, many people have been calling for women to be sidelined from social activities. However, nobody can deny what women have achieved in various fields.The Salafists and certain other men would like Egypt's family laws, issued by former president Hosni Mubarak, supporting by his wife, Suzanne, to be cancelled.Regrettably, in the wake of the revolution, the quota of seats for women in the People's Assembly (the Lower House of Egyptian Parliament) has been cancelled.Other discrimination against women includes their not being allowed to participate in amending the Constitution and other governmental activities.“During the revolution. Egypt's women stood shoulder to shoulder with its men and the whole world praised their working together for liberty and social justice,” says journalist Karima Kamal.“There's only one woman in the current Cabinet and that's not enough. Besides, there weren't any woman in the higher committee formed prior to the constitutional referendum, held last March.”She appeals to the media to correct the image of women, as portrayed in soap operas, that make them look like failures when it comes to raising a family.Karima also stresses that people should be chosen for jobs according to their qualifications, not on the basis of favouritism, while the world accords relating to women's rights, signed by Egypt in 1979, should be activated, to help put an end to their marginalisation.Professor Awatef Abdel-Rahman of the Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University, says that, in Egyptian culture, women rely on men to do the thinking.She says that women's responsibilities have been increasing, while their social position hasn't improved since the revolution, even though they participated in the revolt alongside men.“There is a lot of hostility towards women. Certain laws in their favour, such as the Civil Status Law, have been delayed,” adds Awatef, who says that the media are also to blame for the way people regard women.“Many women in the countryside and Bedouin women are neglected, as are female breadwinners. We need a legislative revolution to help them; there must be wide-ranging political, social, cultural and economic changes.” 

Libyan woman claiming rape deported from Qatar

Tripoli, June 03: A Libyan woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Muammar Gaddafi's troops was deported from Qatar where she sought refuge, and is now in Benghazi, said a UN official on Thursday.

Her sudden expulsion cast light again on one of the most widely covered incidents of alleged abuses by Gaddafi's forces, as NATO continued its relentless nightly bombing raids on Libyan military and security bases, backing rebels who are trying to unseat Gaddafi after a four-decade dictatorship.

A series of at least 10 NATO strikes hit targets in and around the Libyan capital early Friday. The attacks targeted military barracks close to Gaddafi's sprawling compound in central Tripoli, a police station and a military base, said a government official speaking on customary condition of anonymity. He said it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

The US government on Thursday expressed concern for the safety of the Libyan woman, Eman al-Obeidi.

In March, al-Obeidi rushed into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel where all foreign correspondents are forced to stay while covering the part of Libya under Gaddafi's control, and shouted out her story of being stopped at a checkpoint, dragged away and gang-raped by soldiers.

As she spoke emotionally, and as photographers and reporters recorded her words, government minders, whose job is to escort reporters around the area, jumped her and dragged her away.

She disappeared for several days, then turned up in Tunisia and later Qatar. She was heard from little until Thursday, when she was suddenly expelled from Qatar and ended up in Benghazi, the Libyan rebels' de facto capital. No explanation was forthcoming from Qatar.

Rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal said al-Obeidi arrived in Benghazi by plane. "She's welcome to stay, this is her country," el-Gallal said.

The UN Refugee Agency's Sybella Wilkes said al-Obeidi should have been allowed to stay in Qatar, and her deportation runs contrary to international law.

Al-Obeidi "is a recognised refugee, and we don't consider there is any good reason for her deportation”, Wilkes said.

US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US was "monitoring the situation" and working to ensure al-Obeidi's safety.

"We're concerned for her safety, given all that's happened to her. And we're going to work to make sure that she's kept safe, first and foremost, and that she finds appropriate asylum," Toner told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Libyan authorities have alternately labelled al-Obeidi a drunk, a prostitute and a thief.

Al-Obeidi has maintained that she was targeted by Gaddafi's troops because she is from Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

Al-Obeidi's rape claim could not be independently verified.

Human rights violations are one aspect of the rebels' complaints against the Gaddafi regime.

Saudi Arabian women urge Hilary Clinton to back their right to drive

SAUDI activists have written an open letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a champion of women's rights around the world, urging her to publicly press Saudi Arabia to let women drive.

The letter written by Saudi Women for Driving and distributed on Change.org has amassed more than 10,000 signatures of support throughout the United States, according to the website that petitions for social change.

"In the context of the Arab Spring and US commitments to support non-violent movements for democracy, now is the time for US leaders to show their support for Saudi women's rights," said the letter to the chief US diplomat.

"We were encouraged to see media reports that US diplomats have quietly pressured the Saudi government to give women the right to drive.

"But given the recent arrests of women trying to drive, now is the time for the US to show its muscle and make that pressure public," it continued.

The petition comes after Manal Sharif, a 32-year-old computer-security consultant, was arrested on May 22 after posting on YouTube a video of herself driving her car around the eastern Saudi city of Khobar.

Many women are said to have followed her example.

"We write to ask that you (Clinton) make a public statement supporting Saudi women's right to drive," the female activists said.

"We do not make this request lightly, but we believe that you making a public statement of support for Saudi Arabia opening the country's roads to women would be a game changing moment."

The letter said the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia means they miss medical and other important appointments and are prevented from carrying out basic errands in the absence of a good public transportation system.

"Our lack of this basic right to drive our own cars has been repeatedly exploited by abusive fathers, brothers, husbands and even hired drivers," it added.

"Just this week, a Saudi woman reported she was raped by her driver."

123 killed in temple stampede in north India

Over 120 people were killed and 40 injured in a panic at a famous temple in Indian north state Himachal Pradesh Sunday, the police said. The stampede occurred after a railing outside the temple collapsed, the Indo-Asian News Service reported. The crowd had gathered at the temple on the occasion of the 10-day religious fair that began Saturday. Most of the dead were women and children. A majority of the victims were from neighboring Punjab state. A state government statement Sunday evening said that 123 people were killed and 40 injured in the accident.People stand near bodies outside the Naina Devi temple at Bilaspur in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh August 3, 2008. The death toll in a stampede at the temple on Sunday rose to at least 123 people, police said.Rescue operations at the temple, located atop a hill, were hit by inclement weather, the report said. The police said the death toll could well mount further. He said most of the injured have been taken to the hospitals. Traffic on the road leading to the temple has been blocked, the police said. The temple is located 160 km from the state capital Shimla, the popular hill resort in northern India.

Women Smoking Cigarette increases by 10 per cent in Pakistan

The number of young female smokers in the country has jumped to 16 per cent from six per cent in  recent years.This was stated by Dr. Javaid A. Khan, a senior chest physician and researcher in his presentation during the 12^th Biennial Convention of Pakistan Islamic Medical Association (PIMA) “Tobacco is responsible for 100,000 deaths annually in Pakistan. The number of female smokers in their teens and twenties has increased rapidly. These women smokers are also going to face the same health issues due to tobacco usage as those being suffered by male smokers. Pakistanis in general consume Rs. 450 billion worth of tobacco annually and this trend needs to be curbed,” said Dr. Khan, a consultant chest physician, currently associated with the Aga Khan University Hospital.

In his key-note address on ‘Tobacco Control – Key to Disease Prevention’, he said, “The usage of tobacco in the form of Shisha or Hookah is gaining popularity among youngsters in urban areas of the country. However, it must be noted that smoking Shisha for an hour is equal to smoking 100 cigarettes in the same time. Since Shisha also contains nicotine and tar, it can lead to lung cancer and heart attacks. Its unfortunate that many people consider Shisha a non-hazardous leisurely activity.”

The chest physician referred to a WHO study that showed that parents who had 15 per cent acceptability for smoking cigarettes reflected over 70 per cent acceptability for Shisha smoking.

Dr. Khan deplored that in countries like Pakistan a single cigarette pack was cheaper than a loaf of bread and consequently smoking was getting popular among youth due to its easy availability and affordability.

“Appropriate and efficient measures to prohibit smoking and tobacco chewing will not only prevent deaths but also curtail heavy expenditure incurred on diseases caused due to consumption of tobacco and its bi-products,” he said.

He further added that Tarceva, a medicine used for the treatment of lung cancer, costs patients more that US$ 4000 per month, and is unaffordable for majority of Pakistani.

Meanwhile, a PIMA press release issued here on Monday stated that the two day 12^thBiennial Convention of the Association concluded on Sunday evening at Hyderabad. The event was attended by renowned consultants, including Pediatricians, Cardiologists, Nutritionists, Oncologists, Gynecologists, Hematologists and other medical professionals. A large number of postgraduate students and pharmacists from all over Sindh also attended the moot.

Attacking women in Pakistan

Back in the spring, when the Pakistani Taliban still controlled the Swat valley, video footage of a girl being flogged became one of the most powerful images of their rule. The footage, shot on a mobile phone and circulated on YouTube, turned public opinion against the Taliban and helped lay the groundwork for a military offensive there.

In the latest spate of bombings sweeping Pakistan, women have again become targets.  First came the twin suicide bombing on the International Islamic University in Islamabad which included an attack on the women’s canteen.  Then last week, more than 100 people were killed in the car bombing of a bazaar in Peshawar which was frequented largely by women.

“It was the deadliest bombing in Pakistan in two years and its target was clear: not the police, not the security forces, not political leaders, but Peshawar’s women,” wrote Rafia Zakaria in the Daily Times. ”The site of the blast, Peshawar’s Meena Bazar, as is well known in the area, is an exclusively women’s shopping area where women and children shop for clothing, household wares and similar goods. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of those killed were women and children.”“While the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan have denied involvement in the bombing, investigations, the modus operandi of the attack and most importantly the target of the bombing all point to their culpability. Most significant of these factors is that the attack targeted women. It is after all females who have borne the brunt of the TTP’s onslaught since they began their reign of terror in the northwest of Pakistan. As the Taliban’s war against the Pakistani state has ensued, the marginalisation of women, the destruction of schools constructed for their education and their banishment from public spaces like the Meena Bazar have been a central facet of the Taliban’s campaign of terror and hatred. This latest attack thus fits perfectly into this grimly familiar design. The massive and indiscriminate killing of scores of innocent women and children who had dared to leave the walls of their home inculcates the very fear that the Taliban seek to instil among Pakistani women across the country.”

There are many overlapping reasons for women being killed, of which forcing them to stay at home is only one.  Misogyny, in any culture, has always been the preserve of the weak who cannot show their power in any other way. So what seems to be happening here is actually about power. By attacking women and children, along with the teenage girls in Islamabad University, the militants can prove they will stop at nothing in order to drive fear into the civilian population.My question is how this should be addressed.

In Afghanistan, the west has begun to “load-shed” the rights of women on the grounds that the environment is already complicated enough.

But what if we turn this around and say that the only way to respond to the current wave of violence sweeping Afghanistan and Pakistan is by looking at the 50 percent of the population who are women?

Old Woman by Pakistan

Poor Women Attacked for Aid Supplies PKFLOODS

An injured woman from Pakistan. She is displaced by recent floods in Pakistan. She was attacked for her ration of aid in Bannay Wala, Punjab province, Pakistan.

Tallest Woman of Pakistan Zainab Bibi 7ft 2in Pakistani woman

Pakistani city, a "rat woman

Outside a Muslim shrine in this dusty Pakistani city, a "rat woman" with a tiny head sits on a filthy mattress and takes money from worshippers who cling to an ancient fertility rite. 

Nadia, 25, is one of hundreds of young microcephalics -- people born with small skulls and protruding noses and ears because of a genetic mutation -- who can be found on the streets of Gujrat, in central Punjab province.

Officials say many of them have been sold off by their families to begging mafias, who exploit a tradition that the "rat children" are sacred offerings to Shah Daula, the shrine's 17th century Sufi saint. 

"These are God's children. We are proud to look after her," said Ijaz Hussain, the shrine's government-employed custodian, as Nadia shrieked unintelligibly and put coins in a battered wooden box at her side. 

According to local legend, infertile women who pray at Shah Daula's shrine will be granted children, but at a terrible price. The first child will be born microcephalic and must be given to the shrine, or else any further children will have the same deformity.

Indian Held Kashmir

Jammu Kashmir policewomen detain Kashmiri women during a demonstration in Srinagar, India, Friday, Sept. 29, 2006. Police on Friday swung bamboo sticks and fired tear gas at dozens of rock-throwing demonstrators as protests continued for the third straight day in the Indian portion of Kashmir against the upcoming execution of a Kashmiri man convicted of plotting a 2001 terror attack on India's Parliament.

Women tries to rebuild their Houses

Qubo Saeed Khan, Qambar Shahdatkot, Sindh - It is not every day that one can see a poor handicapped village girl in a typically male dominated society working on painting houses and community buildings. This could hardly have been possible in normal circumstances anywhere in Sindh much less in the far flung village Safal Solangi, in the Qubo Saeed Khan area of Shahdatkot in north-western reaches of the province. However, the floods of July-August 2010 have drastically changed the dynamics across the country.

Shahzadi’s StoryShahzadi is a 21 year old girl of this village lost her arm in an accident at an early age. She, however, remained active in her daily chores of helping in the fields and home. With the destruction of all livelihoods for the village residents, she joined a vocational training programme by the Indus Resource Centre (IRC), a partner of UNDP in the Early Recovery Programme. She chose the unlikely trade of painting buildings along with her brother and together they have helped in the rehabilitation of their village.

“I learnt this trade and was also provided tools to practice my skill professionally. I have worked on rebuilding of our village school under the Cash for Work programme”, says Shahzadi. This high spirited and confident girl is now teaching her skill to others in her village as well as looking forward to more projects where she can participate on the Cash for work programme. “I am now looking for work in this field and am willing to wherever similar projects are available”, Shahzadi says.

Vocational Training for villagersThere are many other females who have participated in the IRC training programmes and learnt skills like painting, masonry, and stitching, while male beneficiaries learnt skills including plumbing, electrification, masonry, painting and stitching. Under this programme 42 females and 87 males from 20 villages from district Qambar Shahdatkot have been imparted vocational training and given tools of their trade and an opportunity to work on Cash for Work programmes.

With high hopes and a will to make a difference numerous other females, young and old, have ventured in the fields of masonry as well. Allah Bachai, a 60 year old widow has helped build community latrines and buildings while Ameer Zadi and Feroza are working alongside men to help rebuild houses in their nearby village of Shah Wasaio.

These villages of Qambar Shahdatkot district lie on the border with the Balochistan province and were one of the worst hit areas of Sindh in the floods. Safal Solangi, Shah Wasaio and many other villages remained completely inundated for 2 months leaving just destruction in the aftermath. The residents of this area, while struggling to rebuild their homes and community buildings, face the biggest problem of livelihoods as the agricultural lands in the area are still not able to support crops due to excess salinity.

Rasheed Ahmed, a beneficiary of the UNDP/Indus Resource Centre vocational training programme says that his newly acquired skills of painting will help him earn a living as there is no other avenue of earning for some months to come. “I thank UNDP and IRC for helping me enter a new field where I can earn a living and I will soon be moving to nearby towns and cities to find work in painting houses and buildings”, he says.

Providing Livelihoods and Infrastructure Recovery
Besides vocational training UNDP is also many other Community Physical Infrastructure rehabilitation projects implemented by IRC in this area. Numerous schemes of water supply, drainage, and access roads are in various stages of completion on which over 150 male and female skilled workers are engaged in the Cash for Work initiative.

The future is bright for these resilient men and women of Qambar Shahdatkot who have taken innovative and unconventional paths to rebuild their villages and lives.

Women’s Action Forum expresses disappointment at the SC verdict in Mukhtar Mai’s case

Lahore: Women’s Action Forum expressed deep regret and disappointment at the Supreme Courts decision to acquit five out of six accused in the Mukhtar Mai case.Mukhtaran Mai had filed appeals against the order of the LHC, Multan Bench, commuting the sentence of one accused and acquitting the abettors involved in gang-raping Mukhtaran Mai on June 22, 2002. The rape occurred on the orders of a Punchayat (village council) convened by the influential Mastoi tribe in the village of Meerwala in southern Punjab. The Punchayat was called to seek punishment for Shakoor, the 12-year-old brother of Mukhtaran Mai. It was suggested that Shakoor marry the girl with whom he was accused of having an affair and Mukhtaran Mai marry a man of the Mastoi tribe. But the Mastois rejected this and insisted that the offence of adultery be settled with adultery. Mukhtaran Mai was called by the Punchayat to apologies for the conduct of her brother who had already been sodomised by the Mastois. She was allegedly dragged to a nearby hut and raped by four men. A case was registered against 14 accused under the Pakistan Penal Code, the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Hudood Ordinance. Four of the accused were charged with raping Mukhtaran and the rest for abetting the crime. In August 2002, an anti-terrorism court sentenced six men to death (four for raping Mukhtaran and two for being part of the punchayat). The remaining eight were acquitted. Mukhtaran Mai filed separate appeals in the LHC’s Multan Bench against the acquittal of the eight men

Woman in dhaka

A woman prays in the rain in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Women pull bed through water

Pakistani women pull a bed through floodwater caused by heavy monsoon rains in a village near Nowshera, Pakistan.

Woman at market in Bangalore

The Woman of Rural India

The woman of rural India courteous and dutiful,

Victim of Patriarchy, but Oh! So beautiful.

When she is born, her mother is called a sinner,

But her gender is ignored when she becomes a bread winner.

She serves her parents to become an 'ideal' daughter,

But loses her childhood in the barter.

Then comes the most important phase of her life,

This is when she becomes a slave-wife.

Soon she is instructed to multiply,

And Oh! she has more beings to satisfy.

She endures her domestic and maternal drudgery,

As if she was born to bear this overdose of misery.

But, what else can she do?

Education cannot come to her rescue.

A symbol of strength and perseverance,
Few admire her power of endurance.
The woman of rural India, courteous and dutiful,
Victim of Patriarchy, but Oh! so beautiful.

Iraqi Christians women

Islam is an abomination. It destroys human beings. The Burqa is the chains of modern slavery. Hundreds of millions of women are passing their lives with no choice in their destiny, all thanks to Allah.

INDONESIA: As crowd screams for more, Barack Obama’s former homeboys cane a woman for having an extramarital affair

Irdayanti Mukhtar, 34, received nine lashes by Sharia Police for having a relationship with another man, even though she is said to be in the process of divorcing her husband.The harsh punishment was meted out in front of a crowd of 200 people outside the Al Munawwarah Mosque in Jantho, Indonesia.

The jeering crowd recorded the brutal beating on their mobile phones and camcorders and shouted for more beatings in the strict Muslim city.Mukhtar had been sentenced to the punishment the previous day by a Sharia court where prosecutors said that she was guilty of being in ‘close proximity’ to another man. Under Sharia law the offence carries a maximum beating of nine strokes with a cane or a minimum of three. Neighbours had seen Mukhtar with the man and had barged in on her while the couple were in her bedroom, although it is unclear what they were actually doing. The mob then dragged them to the local police station to be charged. (But notice, only the woman got caned)It is believed Sharia Police are also investigating a claim that Mukhtar was molested by the crowd before they took her to be charged.Shortly after the caning on Friday Mukhtar passed out and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.She was one of four people, including the man she was caught with, to be caned for extramarital affairs.