News

6/5/2011

International: Osama bin Laden death confirmed in al-Qaida statement

Al-Qaida has confirmed the death of its leader, Osama bin Laden, and vowed veangance, pledging in a statement posted on militant websites that his blood "will not be wasted". In what is apparently the first official reaction from the militant Isamist group since Bin Laden was gunned down by US special forces troops who raided his hideout in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, the group called on the people of Pakistan, "where Sheik Osama was killed", to rise up against their leaders. The group would soon release an audio message from Bin Laden recorded a week before his death, said the statement, dated 3 May and signed by "the general leadership of al-Qaida". There was no independent confirmation that the message was authentic but it was posted on websites through which al-Qaida habitually issues statements.

30/4/2011

UK: Muslim women beyond the stereotype

Tehmina Kazi wears modest western dress and believes in plurality and diversity within her faith, Islam. For her pains, she has been labelled a whore, admonished for not wearing the hijab and accused, inaccurately, of wearing short skirts by people she has never met, writing online. When she defended Usama Hasan, the London imam who faced death threats and was suspended from Leyton mosque last month after he said evolution was compatible with Islam, she had to go to police after receiving threats of her own.

28/4/2011

Iran: Justice for Iran Demands EU to Provide Supervising Mechanisms

Justice for Iran (JFI) commends the decision of the European Union (EU), as announced this month, to sanction 32 Iranian state officials complicit in or responsible for human rights abuses in Iran. The council decision published in the official Journal of the European Union obliges the 27 Member States of the EU to enforce travel bans and asset freezes against a list of judges, law enforcement officials and commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. It also calls upon third States, outside the European Union, to adopt similar restrictive measures.

28/4/2011

International: Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC) project for scholars

The EWIC Scholars’ Database is an invaluable listing of scholars from all over the world and from all disciplines whose work focuses on women, gender, and Islamic cultures. Based on the authors’ database for the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures, this free online publication is a fully searchable directory of connecting scholars, students, policymakers, and activists with each other and with NGOs, governmental agencies, research foundations, publishers, members of the media, and potential employers seeking researchers whose work specifically covers issues on women and gender related to Islamic cultures. The online database, funded by a grant from the International Development Research Center (Ottawa), is published at http://sjoseph.ucdavis.edu/ewic.

27/4/2011

Algeria: UN Rapporteur Frank La Rue urges Algerian Government to probe killing of political activist

The independent United Nations expert on the right to freedom of opinion and expression today called on the Algerian Government to investigate the killing of a political activist he had met on a recent official visit to the North African nation and to bring those responsible to justice.

Ahmed Kerroumi reportedly disappeared on 19 April and his body was found in his office four days later. He was a professor at the University of Oran, and member of the opposition party Democratic and Social Movement and the Oran section of the National Coordination for Change and Democracy.

27/4/2011

Mali: New Family Code And Why Its Promulgation Has Been Delayed

The Personal Status and Family Code of Mali was adopted in 2009 by the National Assembly, but promulgation by the President of Mali has been delayed until now due to the mobilization of Muslim religious organizations opposed to it. AWID interviewed Djingarey Ibrahim Maiga, the President of Femmes et Droits Humains, and Yaba Tamboura, member of the Steering Committee of Collectif des Femmes du Mali (COFEM) on the status of the new Personal Status and Family Code of Mali (hereafter referred to as the Family Code).

27/4/2011

Pakistan: WAF expresses disappointment at Supreme Courts verdict in Mukhtar Mai’s case

Women’s Action Forum expressed deep regret and disappointment at the Supreme Courts decision to acquit five out of six accused in the Mukhtar Mai case. Mukhtaran Mai had filed appeals against the order of the LHC, Multan Bench, commuting the sentence of one accused and acquitting the abettors involved in gang-raping Mukhtaran Mai on June 22, 2002.

22/4/2011

Tunisia: Gender-parity 'revolution' hailed

Tunisia's ruling that men and women must feature in equal numbers as candidates in July polls is an Arab world first that builds on this year's revolt and allays fears of conservative influence, observers say. The decision by authorities preparing the July 24 constituent assembly poll after the uprising that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the north African nation's long-serving president, has been hailed as a regional breakthrough. The Tunisian revolution has sparked similar revolts in other Arab countries. "It is historic," said Sana Ben Assour, president of the

22/4/2011

France: Secularism vs communalism: learning from the ban on full face covering veil

Three days after the enforcement of the French law that prohibits full face covering, and after the first women law breakers have been fined, international media focus on ’protesting Muslims’, while the voices of the vast majority of presumed Muslims in France are ignored. One has to raise issue with the absence of proper coverage by English language international media regarding the public stands taken by French citizens of migrant Muslim descent.

15/4/2011

Palestine: Peace activist murdered by jihadi-Salafi group

Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni has been killed in the Gaza Strip by individuals identifying themselves as belonging to a small jihadi-Salafi group. The discovery of Vittorio’s body came after the Italian’s abductors had released a video announcing their demands and a deadline. In fact, it now seems they murdered Vittorio not long after his abduction. Vittorio was part of the International Solidarity Movement, whose members and supporters in Palestine/Israel and internationally are shocked and saddened.