News

We are outraged by the murderous rage of the fundamentalist islamists which once again was displayed in the « El Haicha » area in Hassi-Messaoud, an oil-producing city in south Algeria. We have not forgotten the tragic night of July 13 2001 when almost fifty women suffered an agony in the same area. Indeed, that night, several hundreds of individuals made wild by the preaching of an imam, armed with clubs, knifes and swords, charged women workers and their children. The European Feminist Initiative IFE-EFI stands by the side of Algerian feminists to call all democratic forces to demonstrate their solidarity with the women of Hassi-Messaoud.

Four human rights defenders who were acquitted in the High Criminal Court in October 2009 after the case against them collapsed when forensic evidence proved police statements to be false, have apparently now been convicted and sentenced by the Court of Appeal. Reports indicate that the human rights defenders, Sadeq Jawad Ahmed Al-Fardan, member of the Committee of the Unemployed; Sayed Omran Hameed Adnan, member of the Committee Against One Percent; Fadhel Abbas Mohamed Ashoor, member of the Committee to Combat High Prices; and Habib Mohamed Habib Ashoor, member of the Committee for Detainees were sentenced on the 28 March 2010 by the Court of Appeals to three years in prison, for the alleged murder of a police officer and the attempted killing of two of his comrades during a riot. The four human rights defenders have not yet been re-arrested.

I, Kiana Firouz, an Iranian Lesbian, born in 1983 in Tehran/Iran, have sought asylum in the U.K but my application was turned down by the Home Office, despite accepting the fact that I am a lesbian. I accordingly submitted my appeal which was dismissed incredibly by the adjudicator. According to my solicitor’s point of view there is a little chance to grant a permission to appeal against the adjudicator’s decision. It means that I will face with deportation soon.

A majority of radio stations in southern and central Somalia today stopped playing music and jingles, to comply with a ban by Islamist militants. Hizbul Islam, one of the two main insurgent forces in Somalia, issued the order on 3 April, saying music broadcasts violated Islamic principles. It gave FM radio stations – the main form of news and entertainment in the country – 10 days to comply or be shut down. Islamic groups have previously outlawed music in some areas under their control, along with beards, football, movies, women's beauty salons and bras. The latest ban on all tunes – including those used in commercials – appears to be the most widely applied yet, and indicative of the rebels' ability to instil fear.