Saudi Arabia to Allow Girls to Play Sport at Private Schools
THE GUARDIAN: Students must adhere to 'decent' dress code and sharia law, but move is seen as thaw in kingdom's restrictions on women


Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sport in private schools for the first time in the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women's rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's official press agency, SPA, reported on Saturday that private girls' schools are now allowed to hold sport activities in accordance with the rules of sharia law. Students must adhere to "decent dress" codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the education ministry's requirements.

The decision makes sport once again a stage for the push to improve women's rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics. » | AP in Riyadh | Sunday, May 05, 2013

As the Smoke Clears after Saudi Arabia's Latest Mass Execution by Firing Squad... Charles and Camilla Fly In
THE INDEPENDENT: The Prince isn't expected to raise the issue of human rights with his hosts. Perhaps he should, wonders Jerome Taylor

They were led out at dawn today, one by one, to the public killing grounds. The Seven Saudi Arabian men had been sentenced to death following what human rights groups and the UN said were deeply flawed trials conducted under Sharia law. Some of them were juveniles when they were charged with being part of a gang of thieves in the Saudi town of Abha. But that didn’t save them from the firing squad.

A few hours later, just over 1,000 miles to the north, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall were visiting the victims of another brutal Middle Eastern dictatorship. At a refugee camp in northern Jordan they met some of the one million people who have had to flee the death and destruction now enveloping Bashar al-Assad’s Syria. Charles described the scene he saw as an “unbelievable and heartbreaking situation” while Camilla hailed the “strength of spirit” shown by the women she encountered.

But anyone expecting the Royal couple to show equivalent sympathy for the victims of Saudi Arabia’s authoritarianism when they visit the Kingdom on Friday as part of their Middle Eastern tour will be disappointed. Human rights are off the agenda. Instead, according to the press release put out by Clarence House, the themes of the visit are “military collaboration, opportunities for women in society, inter-faith dialogue, education and environmental sustainability”.

For the struggling human rights activists and reformists in the Kingdom, visits from the US and Britain are a consistent source of disappointment. While London and Washington berate Moscow for its ongoing support of the Assad regime, they rarely if ever go public with criticisms of the Al Sauds – their closest ally in the Gulf. Last week, both the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, and the Attorney General, Eric Holder, returned from separate trips to the Kingdom. Between their visits, the Saudi regime was emboldened enough to press ahead with the jailing of Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamed – two of the country’s most prominent non-violent reform advocates. In the few days between the US delegations and Prince Charles’ arrival, the King also found time to reject clemency for the Abha Seven, despite documented evidence that confessions were extracted under torture, that the men were not appointed adequate legal representation and that most of them were juveniles when they committed their alleged crimes.

Although the Prince is officially apolitical, human rights advocates have expressed dismay that while he is happy to talk about Britain’s military and commercial links to Saudi Arabia, he avoids topics such as the highest execution rates per capita in the world or something as fundamental as a woman’s right to drive. » | Jerome Taylor | Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Queen Fights for Gay Rights: Monarch Makes Historic Pledge on Discrimination and Hints That If Kate Does Have a Girl, That Means Equal Rights to the Throne Too

MAIL ONLINE: First time Her Majesty has signalled support for gay rights in 61-year reign / Also promotes 'empowerment' of women in drive to boost human rights / Insiders say her decision to highlight the event is a 'watershed' moment

The Queen will tomorrow back an historic pledge to promote gay rights and ‘gender equality’ in one of the most controversial acts of her reign.

In a live television broadcast, she will sign a new charter designed to stamp out discrimination against homosexual people and promote the ‘empowerment’ of women – a key part of a new drive to boost human rights and living standards across the Commonwealth.

In her first public appearance since she had hospital treatment for a stomach bug, the Queen will sign the new Commonwealth Charter and make a speech explaining her passionate commitment to it.

Insiders say her decision to highlight the event is a ‘watershed’ moment – the first time she has clearly signalled her support for gay rights in her 61-year reign.

The charter, dubbed a ‘21st Century Commonwealth Magna Carta’ declares: ‘We are implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.’

The ‘other grounds’ is intended to refer to sexuality – but specific reference to ‘gays and lesbians’ was omitted in deference to Commonwealth countries with draconian anti-gay laws.

Sources close to the Royal Household said she is aware of the implications of the charter’s implicit support of gay rights and commitment to gender equality.

In her speech, the Queen is expected to stress that the rights must ‘include everyone’ - and this is seen as an implicit nod to the agenda of inclusivity, usually championed by the Left. Read on and comment » | Simon Walters | Saturday, March 09, 2013

Sharia Police State? Saudi Husbands Can Track Wives’ Travels Electronically
RT.COM: Saudi Arabia introduced an electronic tracking system that alerts men by text message when their wife is leaving the country, even if they are traveling together. The system was swiftly condemned by activists and Twitter users.

Saudi women – banned in the country from driving, denied the right to travel without their husband’s consent and required to wear a veil from head to toe – are now to be monitored by a new electronic system that tracks cross-border movement, AFP reported.

Woman in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to leave the ultraconservative kingdom without the permission of their male ‘guardian,’ or husband, who must give his consent by signing a register known as the ‘yellow sheet’ at the border or airport. Now, husbands will receive a text message to remind them even if they’re traveling outside the country alongside their wife. » | Thursday, November 22, 2012

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal & Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel Interviewed on Charlie Rose, Bloomberg

Princess Ameerah Seeks to Improve Saudi Womens' Rights (September 2011)
Saudi Princess Ameerah Altaweel, the wife of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and vice chairman of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundations for Charity and Philanthropy, talks about her efforts to empower women and provide economic opportunity for them in Saudi Arabia. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's "In Business” with Margaret Brennan." (Source: Bloomberg)

New Dark Age Alert! Female Circumcision Fear as Fundamentalists Roll Back Women's Rights

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Maldives women face more repression under a rising tide of religious fundamentalism, reports Ben Doherty from Male.

When the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, visited the Maldives late last year, she urged that the practice of flogging women for having sex outside marriage - while very rarely punishing men for the same - should be abolished.

"This practice constitutes one of the most inhumane and degrading forms of violence against women," she told local reporters then.

The response was as fierce as it was unexpected. The next day protesters rallied outside the UN building, carrying placards that read "Ban UN" and "Islam is not a toy" and threatened to "Flog Pillay". A website later promised to "slaughter anyone against Islam".

Similar protests have followed, and a growing religious divide between moderate and fundamentalist Muslims - constitutionally, all Maldivians are obliged to follow Islam - has led many to question the direction of religion in the Maldives and, in particular, the place of women in Maldivian society.

In an interview with the Herald, the Maldivian President, Mohamed Nasheed, conceded an emergent religious fundamentalism had changed the way women were viewed, and treated, in his country. » | Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The True Horrific Face of Islam: Woman Flogged in Public in Sudan

THE TIMES: Sudan protesters arrested after video shows woman flogged by police >>> Tristan McConnell, Nairobi | Tuesday, December 14, 2010 (£)

UN Celebrates a 'Watershed Day' for Women
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Global body launched: The fight against rape, female circumcision, child mortality and poor healthcare takes on a higher priority.

Ban Ki-Moon, United Nations: 'UN Women is recognition of a simple truth: equality for women is a basic human right and a social and economic imperative'. Photo: The Independent on Sunday
Some 65 years after it was founded, and after decades of reports on every species of sex discrimination and its wasteful effects, the United Nations has decided to set up a single, powerful body to promote equality for women around the world.

The General Assembly voted unanimously on Friday to launch a new agency called UN Women. It will begin its work in January, have a high-level leader, probably twice the $250m annual budget now allocated to gender issues, and will be tasked with challenging governments on women's plights and rights.

UN Women will press hard for women to have a more widespread and prominent role in politics, and also try to reduce some of the world's more glaring discriminations. These include lack of access to health and education, forced marriages, rape, female cicumcision, and trafficking. Diplomats at the Assembly greeted news of the new body with spontaneous applause as the decision was announced with a rap of its president's gavel. "This is truly a watershed day," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Member states have created a much stronger voice for women and for gender equality at the global level. It will now be much more difficult for the world to ignore the challenges facing women and girls or to fail to take the necessary action." >>> Nina Lakhani and David Randall | Sunday, July 04, 2010

Fighting for Women's Rights in Iran
THE GUARDIAN: How the One Million Signatures campaign, winner of this year's Raw in War Anna Politkovskaya award, aims to change Iranian society

Watch Guardian video here | Mustafa Khalili and Emily Butselaar | Thursday, October 08, 2009
Petition: One Million Signatures Campaign

Afghanistan Passes 'Barbaric' Law Diminishing Women's Rights
THE GUARDIAN: Rehashed legislation allows husbands to deny wives food if they fail to obey sexual demands

Women wearing the burka in Baharak town, Afghanistan. Photo: The Guardian
Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.

"It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying 'blood money' to a girl who was injured when he raped her," the US charity Human Rights Watch said.

In early April, Barack Obama and Gordon Brown joined an international chorus of condemnation when the Guardian revealed that the earlier version of the law legalised rape within marriage, according to the UN.

Although Karzai appeared to back down, activists say the revised version of the law still contains repressive measures and contradicts the Afghan constitution and international treaties signed by the country.

Islamic law experts and human rights activists say that although the language of the original law has been changed, many of the provisions that alarmed women's rights groups remain, including this one: "Tamkeen is the readiness of the wife to submit to her husband's reasonable sexual enjoyment, and her prohibition from going out of the house, except in extreme circumstances, without her husband's permission. If any of the above provisions are not followed by the wife she is considered disobedient."

The law has been backed by the hardline Shia cleric Ayatollah Mohseni, who is thought to have influence over the voting intentions of some of the country's Shias, which make up around 20% of the population. Karzai has assiduously courted such minority leaders in the run up to next Thursday's election, which is likely to be a close run thing, according to a poll released yesterday.

Human Rights Watch, which has obtained a copy of the final law, called on all candidates to pledge to repeal the law, which it says contradicts Afghanistan's own constitution.

The group said that Karzai had "made an unthinkable deal to sell Afghan women out in the support of fundamentalists in the August 20 election". >>> Jon Boone in Kandahar | Friday, August 14, 2009

Saudi Women Are Virtual Prisoners in Their Own Homes

Saudi Women’s Rights

I Would Fight for Women's Freedom
THE GUARDIAN: If it came to it, like the suffragettes before me, I would fight – even die – for my freedom

The question: Are there beliefs to die for?
I am so lucky! I am a woman and I have not suffered the oppression and unfair discrimination that most women have endured throughout history, and many still do today, because I was brought up in Britain in the 20th century. I was educated at least as well as my brother, I went to one of the best universities in the world, I married the man I loved and got divorced when he and I wanted to, I brought up my children without religious indoctrination. I have been able to go where I want, pay my own way, and walk freely in the streets wearing whatever I like. I've had financial independence and an exciting and worthwhile career.

I have had all these things because other women long ago fought and even died for women's rights. Most of the suffragettes did not die, although many were repeatedly injured. Most did not have to harm, let alone kill anyone, but they certainly needed courage and many suffered abuse, discrimination, ostracism and rejection from family and friends. And some did die.

Would I be prepared to do the same? When I ask myself whether there is anything I would die for I wonder about this.

In Britain today religious oppression of women is creeping back. Children, who have no choice, are sent to faith schools where they are taught to believe ridiculous untruths, convinced that they will be sent into eternal agony after death if they disobey certain rules, and those rules can include the oppression of women by men. >>> Sue Blackmore | Wednesday, May 13, 2009

By Law - Women Must Preen for Men
TIMESONLINE: In male-dominated Afghanistan, women are treated like chattel. What's changed since the Taleban?

Let's take a walk,” I suggested to Aziza. Kabul was in full bloom. The sun's rays had burnt the barren earth, but didn't reach us in the basement apartment in a grey, dilapidated neighbourhood in the outskirts of the city. My back was aching after weeks hunched on the floor listening to women talk of life behind four walls.

“A walk?” She looked at me in bewilderment. “A walk to where?”

“Just around here,” I tried.

Impossible. A walk without a purpose was a forbidden walk. She would just never get permission. The only reasons to leave the house were to run important errands or visit relatives.

Aziza belonged to a well-off and relatively liberal family. Yet the male head of the family would decide her whereabouts as he did with all the female members of his family.

Years have passed since our talk. Western politicians focus on improving conditions for women and children - and the conservative Afghan culture keeps hitting back. Schools are built to educate girls - and then torched to the ground. Aid programmes aimed at helping women are set up - and Afghan female activists are murdered and silenced. A constitution that proclaims equal rights for men and women is approved - and is then broken daily by the judgments of local shuras and jirgas, traditional assemblies of elders. >>> Åsne Seierstad | Saturday, April 4, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! 'Worse than the Taliban' - New Law Rolls Back Rights for Afghan Women
A burqa-clad Afghan woman walks in an old bazaar in Kabul. Photograph courtesy of The Guardian.
THE GUARDIAN: Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan's presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands' permission.

The Afghan president signed the law earlier this month, despite condemnation by human rights activists and some MPs that it flouts the constitution's equal rights provisions.

The final document has not been published, but the law is believed to contain articles that rule women cannot leave the house without their husbands' permission, that they can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands' permission, and that they cannot refuse their husband sex.

A briefing document prepared by the United Nations Development Fund for Women also warns that the law grants custody of children to fathers and grandfathers only.

Senator Humaira Namati, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament, said the law was "worse than during the Taliban". "Anyone who spoke out was accused of being against Islam," she said. >>> Jon Boone in Kabul | Tuesday, March 31, 2009

"Men and women have equal rights under Islam but there are differences in the way men and women are created. Men are stronger and women are a little bit weaker; even in the west you do not see women working as firefighters." – Ustad Mohammad Akbari, MP and leader of a Hazara political party, Afghanistan

Guardian audio: Afghan women: 'A wife will not be allowed to refuse sex': Jon Boone reveals Afghanistan's new law denying women's rights >>> | Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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Saudi TV Journalist Nadine Al Bedair on Women in Saudi Arabia

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Women's Rights under Iran's Revolution
Women were active in the events surrounding the Islamic revolution in Iran 30 years ago, but the Islamic Republic has been criticised for reversing many of the rights women won under the Shah's regime that was overthrown by the revolution.

Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003 for her work on human rights in Iran.

She tells the BBC World Service how women have responded to changes in their legal status over the past 30 years and how her hopes for Iran's future lie with women and the young.

The slogan of the revolution was 'Independence and Freedom' and they said that the Islamic Revolution would bring this.
Back then people were really hopeful because they really wanted independence and freedom.

Unfortunately after the revolution, while the country was more independent than before, the freedom that people were expecting did not come about.

Only five months had passed since the revolution when the Revolutionary Council took away all the rights that women had won over the previous years even though the new constitution had yet to be passed and the new president had not been elected.

It was in 1979 that a law was passed allowing men to take up to four wives, another law was passed stating that after a divorce the father would have custody of the children and women lost the rights they had gained. >>> | Thursday, February 12, 2009

Listen to BBC audio: Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi discusses the impact of the Iranian Revolution on the country’s women >>>

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EU Tells Turkey to Improve Media, Women's Rights
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE: BRUSSELS, Belgium: In a new report card, the European Commission will tell Turkey on Wednesday that it must work harder to improve women's rights and press freedoms in order to join the European Union.

In a speech at an EU-Turkey conference at the European Parliament on Tuesday, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the report will list several areas that "need to be addressed urgently."

"I am thinking, for instance, of the negative atmosphere against the press, or bans of Web sites which are becoming a source of serious concern, (and) efforts are needed to protect women's rights and gender equality," said Rehn.

The report card is an eagerly awaited annual event for both proponents and opponents of Turkey's membership in the EU.

In Ankara, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, declined to comment on the report until his government has seen it.

The report — which also praises Turkey, according to Rehn — is unlikely to significantly affect the negotiations regarding Turkey's EU membership, which began in 2005 and are expected to last about a decade.

For instance, Turkey's entry negotiations cover 35 negotiating areas, including issues from human rights to many economic issues. To date, only eight issues are under negotiation, and the EU has accused Turkey of being too slow on others.

The report's criticism also will not surprise Turkey's population. >>> AP | November 4, 2008

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