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26/10/2012
'They're following me': chilling words of girl who was 'honour killing' victim.

United Kingdom: The murder of Banaz Mahmod by her family in 2006 shocked the country. A documentary now tells her story. 

23/10/2012
Egypt: Anti-harassment campaigns gear up for Eid

Anti-harassment campaigns rally their efforts again to fight sexual harassment during the Eid holiday.

The Be a Man campaign, Egypt’s Girls are a Red Line, the Youth of the Country, the Red Crescent, Start with Yourself and Building Egypt Initiative, are  a few of the campaigns that will be working on the streets to stop sexual harassment in a joint effort.

22/10/2012
Egypt: France 24 journalist Sonia Dridi attacked in Tahrir Square

A journalist for France 24 has described how his female colleague was attacked and groped by a group of men while filming live during protests in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday night.

Sonia Dridi was surrounded while filming in the square, with the mob closing in on her as she was reporting. The news channel said in a statement that she was attacked at about 10.30pm.

18/10/2012
UN Joint Statement: “Adultery as a criminal offence violates women’s human rights”

GENEVA (18 October 2012) –In many countries of the world, adultery continues to be a crime punishable by severe penalties, including, in the most extreme instances, flogging, death by stoning, or hanging. Adultery laws have usually been drafted and almost always implemented in a manner prejudicial to women. Provisions in penal codes often do not treat women and men equally and establish harsher sanctions for women, and in some countries, rules of evidence value women’s testimony as half that of a man’s.

16/10/2012
UN: Marrying Too Young, End Child Marriage Report

"Child marriage is a human rights abuse. It constitutes a grave threat to young girls’ lives, health and future prospects. Marriage for girls can lead to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and in developing countries these are the main causes of death among 15–19 year-old girls. For a girl, marriage can mean the end of her education, can set aside her chances of a vocation or career, and can steal from her foundational life choices.

Investing in girls, developing their social and economic assets, ensuring they have access to education and health services, and ensuring that they can postpone marriage until they are ready; all this means greater dignity for women. It also means healthier families and higher levels of gender equality. This in turn makes for stronger societies and more vibrant economies.
 
Investment in later marriage for girls is investment in development for everyone."
 
To download the full report please click on the attachment below. 
16/10/2012
Algeria: Algeria TV boss convicted for sexual harassment

An Algiers court on Sunday handed down a six-month suspended jail sentence and fined a 76-year-old head of a state television station accused of sexually harassing three women journalists.

16/10/2012
International: Honour the Dissenters

In the past few weeks, in several countries, groups of citizens have openly taken a stand against Muslim fundamentalists, including armed ones.

In Mali, on a number of occasions, citizens attempted to stop public amputations, stonings and floggings; Malian women also attacked AQMI (Al-Qaida au Maghreb islamique) in an attempt to stand up against the imposition of a so-called ‘Islamic dress code’ that is totally alien to their culture ( but have you heard anyone in Europe stand up in defence of their right to preserve their culture, their traditional way of dressing which is NOT the freshly imported so-called ‘Islamic veil’ Saudi style?). In response, fundamentalist armed groups fired at them with sub-machine guns.

16/10/2012
Arab Region: No Revolutions without Equality and Justice: The struggle for women’s rights in rethinking development in the Arab region

Kinda Mohamadieh highlights the shortcomings of the last two decades of policy practice in the Arab Region. She looks at the positions of feminist and women’s groups on economic and social rights and policies in the Arab region addressing how to enforce equality and gender justic‘e in the policymaking in the region. She discusses the economic and social demands that lie at the heart of the revolutions witnessed in the Arab region, as well as the challenges to reclaiming citizenship and democracy within a system of global governance tilted to serve a mainstream orthodox economic model. She highlights the need for deepening the perspective and position of feminist and women’s groups on economic and social rights and policies in the Arab region.

To download the full report please click on the attachment below. 

12/10/2012
UN: Forced Child Marriage, Slavery Like Reality In Every Single Region In The World

Joint Statement by a group of UN human rights experts to mark the first International Day of the Girl Child

“Girls who are forced to marry are committed to being in slavery like marriages for the rest of their lives. Girls who are victims of servile marriages experience domestic servitude, sexual slavery and suffer from violations to their right to health, education, non-discrimination and freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence.

12/10/2012
Iran: Iranian Women's Rights Activists Stop The Registration Of Anti-Women Tradition As 'National Heritage'

On October 1st, more than three hundred human rights and women's rights activists published a statement in objection to the request of our provinces in Iran for registration of an intra-tribal tradition called “cease-blood1” to be placed on the National Iranian Heritage list. Those who objected regarded the request to be against the Human Rights Code and called the action anti-feminist.