Action

6/3/2009

UPDATE: Pakistan: Mukhtar Mai's case adjourned for third time in a month

With clear evidence of political interference in Ms Mai's case it is uncertain when her case will be heard again, and her legal team are only advised in the last minute by the judiciary. Please see the letter of thanks for the support Ms Mai and her family have received:

3/3/2009

UPDATE: Pakistan: Grave doubts over independence of judiciary in Mukhtar Mai case

Mukhtar Mai’s case has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at the Supreme Court of Pakistan at Islamabad. Ms Mai was just informed by the office of her council Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan. This is an astonishing move. Since 2005, Mukhtar Mai’s case was pending before the Supreme Court without any hearings being scheduled. There continues to be political influence in this case and regular serious threats to her life and the lives of family members in an attempt to pressure her to drop the charges against her perpetrators.

2/3/2009

India: Violent attacks and cases of moral policing in Karnataka

Over the last two weeks, several women have been violently attacked in Bangalore for wearing jeans, going out in the street, and resisting 'moral policing'.

18/2/2009

Madagascar: African Feminist Forum joins Malagasy women to condemn bloodshed

Since 26 January more than 100 unarmed civilians have been killed in protests. AFF urges the African Union Commission to appoint a high-level African woman to be part of the team that will facilitate the resolution of the political crisis in Madagascar and to ensure the equal participation of Malagasy women and their organizations in the subsequent political processes, including elections.

12/2/2009

UPDATE: Pakistan: Supreme Court adjourns hearing of Mukhtar Mai's case indefinitely

Mukhtar Mai's counsel, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, had moved an application for adjournment, which was considered the best course of action in the current circumstances. With no right to a further appeal, Mai's rapists will stay in jail. However, the threat to the safety of Mukhtar Mai, and her family, from those implicated in the interference in her case remains.

9/2/2009

Pakistan: Interference in the case of Mukhtar Mai

The Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) international solidarity network is deeply concerned by the fact that a sitting Federal Minister, Mr. Qayyum Jatoi, has pressured Mukhtar Mai, the well-known women’s human rights defender, to drop charges against the accused in her case.

5/2/2009

Iran: Call for immediate release of Alieh Eghdamdoust

Dozens of women’s and human rights groups condemn the recent arrest and imprisonment of Iranian women’s rights activist Alieh Eghdamdoust. She will serve a sentence of three years imprisonment for participating in a lawful and peaceful demonstration in June 2006/1385 in Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran.

26/1/2009

Bahrain: Harassment of women’s human rights defender, Ghada Jamsheer

Front Line reported, on 17 January 2009, that Ghada Jamsheer, a woman human rights defender in Bahrain, had become the target of a harassment campaign. Ghada Jamsheer and her family have received threats, including many threatening text messages, and have been followed in a car.

13/1/2009

UPDATE: Canada: Canadian polygamist leader arrested

The leader of a polygamous community in western Canada who has admitted having numerous wives and dozens of children was arrested Wednesday [7 Jan. 2009] and charged with practicing polygamy, according to court documents and local officials.

4/11/2008

Somalia: Stoning to death of a 13-year old girl

13-year-old Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was killed on Monday, 27 October 2008, by a group of 50 men who stoned her to death in a stadium in the southern port of Kismayu, Somalia in front of around 1,000 spectators. She was accused of adultery in breach of Islamic law but, her father and other sources told Amnesty International that she had in fact been raped by three men, and had attempted to report this rape to the al-Shabab militia who control Kismayo, and it was this act that resulted in her being accused of adultery and detained. None of men she accused of rape were arrested.