Central Asia

Dossier 17: Afghanistan goes to absurd lengths to implement Islamic laws

The innumerable bans imposed by Taliban renders everyday life a veritable punishment.

The latest orders for regulating the life of Afghans came into force yesterday. Their severity reveals the determination of the Taliban, out to capture the parts of the country that have so far evaded them.

In Kabul, life has become a never-ending punishment. Since the enforcement of law on "the commandment of the good and interdiction of the evil", whose latest measures are applicable as of yesterday, everything is forbidden. For the Taliban government, gaiety is suspect.

Dossier 17: Stretching The Limits: A Feminist Reading of the Shari’a in Post-Khomeini Iran

Women’s issues are now an integral part of modern Islamic discourses, as evidenced in the plethora of ‘Women in Islam’ titles in religious publishing projects all over the Muslim world.[1] In practice, this has entailed re-readings of the old texts in search of solutions - or more precisely, Islamic alternatives - for a very modern problem, which has to do with the changed status of women and the need to accommodate their aspirations for equality and to define and control their increasing participation in t

Dossier 14-15: Women in Iranian Civil Law 1905-1995

Only the blind overlook the worsening condition of women under the Islamic regime.

Dossier 3: Women, State and Ideology in Iran

The Islamic ideology regards women with a mixture of fear and paternalism, and sees them both as the source of evil and as the most vulnerable member of the household, in need of constant surveillance and protection. the policies of the majority of Muslim states are accordingly framed, often equating women with children and the insane.

Islam, which literally translated means total submission, is not merely a belief system, but also a way of life and Muslims are expected to run their lives according to the Qur’anic injunctions.

Iran: Attempts to persecute human rights defender Mehrangiz Kar by silencing her husband

Mehrangiz Kar, journalist and Iranian women's rights activist, who was jailed in April 2000 for her writings and speeches on women's rights, was allowed to leave Iran for medical treatment for breast cancer in fall 2001. After she arrived in the United States, her husband, journalist Siamak Pourzand, was disappeared. He was brought to the phone a number of times to call Mehrangiz and their daughters Leila and Azadeh to pass on the message that they must refrain from speaking on his behalf and must avoid contact with the media.

Afghanistan: Urgent need to include representatives of women's organisations and civil society organisations in the Bonn Conference - November 2001

On the eve of the Bonn conference, we repeat our call to the UN to support and facilitate Afghan women's involvement in peace and reconstruction processes.

Afghanistan: Include women in transition processes

A call upon the UN, better-positioned than any other entity, to support and facilitate Afghan women's involvement in the decision-making and transition processes in the coming months.

Iran: Attempts to persecute human rights defender Mehrangiz Kar by silencing her husband

Iran: Lift Harsh Sentences Imposed on Human Rights Activists

17 human rights activists imprisoned after secret trials.

Occasional Paper 10: Volunteer health workers in Iran as social activists: Can "governmental non-governmental organisations" be agents of democratisation?

The dilemma of the Iranian regime in dealing with one of its very successful large scale public mobilizations in the seemingly innocuous activity of low-income women delivering basic health and family planning information.