[fund] promotion and application of religious laws

The Violence is Not out Culture campaign condemns the brutal murder on 26 January 2011 of LGBT human rights defender, David Kato, of Uganda and extends its condolences to his colleagues at Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). David was a long term activist for rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Uganda, and was a highly respected and admired human rights defender within his community and worldwide.

The Islamic Ministry’s Fiqh Academy hasdeclared that women are not allowed to perform marriages or lead a marriage ceremony according to Islam, and therefore cannot be a judge when performing marriages. The declaration was announced by the President of Fiqh Academy and Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari, together with eight other scholars of the academy.

Des mesures urgentes peuvent être prises pour réparer quelques inégalités en matière d’héritage. Il ne s’agit pas de se mettre en contradiction avec la religion, mais de se conformer à des principes édictés par l’Islam et qui ont permis à nos voisins de s’adapter à la réalité socioéconomique.

Mahjouba was raped in March on the nighttime streets of Mauritania's capital, but she will not bring charges against the man she says did it since she may be the one who ends up in prison. The 25-year-old says the legal advice she received was to not go to court, leaving her to suffer in silence. There is no law in Mauritania that defines rape. According to a local U.N.-funded group working with the victims, the law criminalizes the women instead of their rapists -- and society ostracizes the women.

Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, said the country would adopt an Islamic constitution if the south split away in next month's referendum, in a speech today in which he also defended police filming a woman being flogged. "If south Sudan secedes, we will change the constitution and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity," Bashir told supporters at a rally in the eastern city of Gedaref. "Sharia [Islamic law] and Islam will be the main source for the constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language," he said.

Control and Sexuality by Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Vanja Hamzić examines zina laws in some Muslim contexts and communities in order to explore connections between the criminalisation of sexuality, gender-based violence and women’s rights activism. The Violence is Not Our Culture Campaign and the Women Living Under Muslim Laws network present this comparative study and feminist analysis of zina laws as a contribution to the broader objective of ending violence in the name of ‘culture’. Attached is the whole book, available for download for free. Please do consider making a donation to WLUML.

Sudan's judiciary has launched an investigation into the public flogging of a woman after footage of her being whipped by laughing policemen was posted to the internet.The YouTube video shows an unidentified woman in a long black dress and a headscarf being ordered to sit down in a parking lot (Warning: Video contains graphic images of violence some may find disturbing).A uniformed policeman proceeds to whip her all over her body as she screams in pain. A second officer laughs when he realises he is being filmed, before joining in the punishment, which lasts a minute and a half.

Human rights campaigners have condemned the announcement of an Iranian television programme showing Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death by stoning, at her home apparently discussing her part in the murder of her husband. The release last night of photographs of Mohammadi Ashtiani at her home in Osku prompted speculation that she had been freed. But hopes for her release were dashed when Iran's state English language channel said she had been taken home to make a television programme on her alleged crime

Harmful traditional practices violating women’s rights, including honour killings, child marriage and giving away girls to settle disputes, are pervasive in Afghanistan, says a United Nations report released today that calls on the Government to implement a new law aimed at ending the scourge. Based on research and interviews in nearly all 34 provinces with women, men, Government authorities, religious leaders and community groups, the human rights unit of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) found that the practices occur among all ethnic groups, in rural and urban areas, and that the most harmful among them violate not only Afghan law but also Islamic Sharia law.

قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش في تقرير أصدرته اليوم إن قانونين للشريعة في منطقة آكيه بإندونيسيا يخرقان حقوق الإنسان وعادة ما يتم تطبيقهما بشكل مسيئ من قبل مسؤولي الشرطة ومن قبل الأفراد. وقالت هيومن رايتس ووتش إن الحكومة المركزية الأندونيسية وحكومة منطقة آكيه عليهما اتخاذ الخطوات اللازمة لإلغاء هذين القانونين.

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