La Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO) organisait, le 31 décembre 2014, une Conférence de presse pour rendre compte de la situation des Droits humains en Mauritanie, suite à l'arrestation et à la détention arbitraires de Biram Dah Abeid, Président de l'Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitionniste (IRA) et de huit (8) autres défenseurs des droits humains. La conférence a eu lieu en présence de deux membres du mouvement. Fatou Sow, Directrice internationale et Codou Bop, membre du Bureau de WLUML ont participé à la conférence pour dénoncer la fatwa qui pèse sur Aminettou Mint El-Moctar, présidente de l’Association des Femmes chefs de famille.

Pen against kalashnikov: courage against atrocity. People of Muslim heritage call for combatting Islamist ideology by political means and mass mobilisation.

On December 31st, 2014 the African Assembly for the Defence of Human Rights (RADDHO) organized a press conference to review the situation of human rights in Mauritania, further to the arrest and detention of Biram Dah Abeid, President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) and eight other human rights defenders. The conference took place in the presence of two members of the WLUML network Fatou Sow (International Director) and Codou Bop (Board member). They participated at the conference to denounce the fatwa against Aminettou Mint El-Moctar, president of the Association of the Women heads of the family.  The following statment was delivered to the conference.

French version here

A death sentence was issued in June 2014, against Ms. Aminettou Mint El Moctar, president of the Association of Women-Headed Households (AFCF) in Nouakchott. This was not an act of the Mauritanian justice system, but a fatwa from Yadhih Ould Dahi, the leader of a radical Islamist movement, Ahbab Errassoul. This fatwa was relayed in many mosques in the country and in the media, which resulted in violent threats against Ms. Mint El Moctar. The judicial authorities refused to accept the complaint she tried to file against the religious leader.  The pressure on Ms. Mint El Moctar remains very strong.

Dearest friends at Shirkat Gah and other sister organisations in Pakistan,

I am writing on behalf of the Women Living Under Muslim Laws network to express our deep condolences in the wake of yesterday’s attack in Peshawar.  When the news broke, our hearts broke too. 

By Karima Bennoune, 16 December 2014 - After the deaths of two hostages in a Sydney chocolate shop standoff orchestrated by a man who forced his captives to raise black Islamist flags, it is time to recommit to the struggle against the extremist ideology that twists men like him. We need to be intolerant of intolerance.

Via SecularConference.com

Watch videos from the conference here

The two-day International Conference on the Religious Right, Secularism and Civil Rights held in London during 11-12 October 2014 was a rousing success. A broad coalition of secularists, including believers, free-thinkers, agnostics and atheists assembled from the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and the Diaspora at the unprecedented and historic gathering to discuss resistance against the repression and violence of ISIS and other manifestations of the religious-Right, including in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Israel, Libya, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkey, Tunisia and Yemen. 

Muslim women's group Sisters in Islam has gained leave for judicial review of July’s fatwa declaring them ‘deviants.’ The case pits Sisters in Islam against the Selangor Fatwa Committee, the Selangor Islamic Religious Council and the state government in a dispute over the jurisdiction of religious courts.

‘There is such a strong desire on the part of many of us to make clear that “I am not ISIS. I am not like those crazies,”’ according to Ani Zonneveld, founder of Muslims for Progressive Values. She explains the struggle to organize progressive Muslim communities and institutions in a fight back in the era of ISIS, in conversation with Karima Bennoune.

(London) – Women and girls abducted by the Islamist group Boko Haram are forced to marry, convert, and endure physical and psychological abuse, forced labor, and rape in captivity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The group has abducted more than 500 women and girls since 2009, and intensified abductions since May 2013, when Nigeria imposed a state of emergency in areas where Boko Haram is most active.

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