Day: July 11, 2009

Saudi religious police blamed in ‘honour’ killing of sisters
— AFP reports: “The Society for Defending Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia said the religious police had placed the sisters’ lives in danger when they arrested them and then placed them in a Riyadh women’s shelter”
— “the society blamed the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or the religious police, for sparking the brother’s anger over his family’s honour by arresting the girls in the first place.”
— “‘The hands of the religious police, as well as the brother’s hands, are stained with the blood of these  innocent young women,’ the group said in a statement.”
— “Under Saudi Arabia’s Islamic sharia legal code, unrelated men and women are not allowed to mix together, and the religious police actively enforce the rules by patrolling areas frequented by young people”

(Afghanistan) New UN report takes firm stand on women’s rights in Afghanistan
— “The ‘Silence is Violence’ report documents the failure of state institutions to protect women from increasing violence in public spaces.”

— Malmo: Woman dies after balcony fall, honor-murder suspected
— “A 28 year old woman died after falling from her 3rd story apartment’s kitchen window Sunday evening.  The woman, from Morocco, had come to Malmo (Sweden) a few days ago and moved in with her husband (32) from the Middle East.   Police say that the couple were the only ones in the apartment at the time and suspect this was an honor-murder.”
— IPT News: “Balcony Falls — Accidents or Honor Killings?”
— “A Swedish police investigation into the death of a 28-year-old woman who fell off a third floor balcony is
trying to determine if it was an accident or an honor killing.”
— “The dead woman had only recently moved to Sweden from Morocco to join her husband, who was briefly arrested in the investigation. According to a report posted by the Islam in Europe blog, a Stockholm University researcher is studying a  similar case involving a 16-year-old girl.”