Month: July 2009

U.S.: New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women

(U.S.) New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women
— NYT: “The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States.”
— “In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum, abused women will need to show that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country”
— “They must show that they could not find protection from institutions at home or by moving to another place within their own country.”
— “The new policy does not involve women fleeing genital mutilation.”
— “Any applicant for asylum or refugee status in the United States must demonstrate a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or ‘membership in a particular social group.’ The extended legal argument has been whether abused women could be part of any social group that would be eligible under those terms. Last year, 22,930 people won asylum in this country fleeing all types of persecution; the number has been decreasing in recent years.”

— See also reports on misogynist violence against women
— See also reports on extremist violence and oppression of women
— See also U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report 2009 and Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking

Will such a new United States asylum policy help protect women from extremist “honor killings” and other institutionalized violence against women around the world?

In the past month, these are just SOME of the stories of the continued INSTITUTIONALIZED misogyny and violence against women, rationalized by extremists:

Saudi Arabia: Abused woman flees shelter; shelter “accused of helping woman flee”

Saudi Arabia: Brother kills two sisters in Social Affairs shelter over “honor”

Saudi religious police blamed in ‘honour’ killing of sisters

Saudi Arabia: Child Marriage Not Prohibited Under “Sharia Law”

Pakistan: ‘Violence against women on rise as perpetrators go scot-free’

Pakistan: “122 cases of women being burnt were reported in Lahore”

Pakistan high court orders release of “honour killing” convict

Pakistan: “Honour killings in Sindh rise in second quarter: report”

Pakistan’s Lahore: Man kills sister in the name of ‘honour’ —  in front of other family members

Pakistan “Honor killings”: Couple, including teenage bride, mother, sister murdered

Pakistan: 16 year old girl sold to 62 year old man

Pakistan: Another “Honor Killing” of Eloped Couple — Barki

Pakistan:  extremist mob kidnap, strip, beat on pour acid on Christian women – July 7 report, July 1 report

Syria “amends” “honor killing law” – deciding that two years in jail is sufficient punishment for murdering a woman

Iran: No Matter Who Is President of Iran, They Would Stone Me – by Lila Ghobady

Iran: Concerns Over Detained Iranian Christian Women Amid Political Turmoil – may face execution for religious freedom

Gaza woman journalist: Hamas “police” “accused me of laughing in public” – now gets death threats

Gaza women suffer from die-hard custom of “honor killing”

Jordan: “Spree of honour killings in Jordan”

Jordanian stabs sister in “honor killing” for rumors she was dating a man

Afghanistan: “Honor-Killing” in Afghanistan: Father Kills His Daughter and Her Lover

Bangladesh: extremist fatwa used for public whipping of woman 200 times

Iraq: Iraqi-Swede woman attacked, attempted honor-murder suspected

Maldives: Woman gets 100 lashes in public, house arrest in Sharia punishment – govt says Maldives too “squeamish” for other Sharia penalties

Sudanese women flogged in public by extremists for wearing trousers

UK: Report on Sharia courts state women’s word not sufficient – even in abuse cases

UK: Forced Marriage reports up 16 percent – schools warned to watch out for abusive families

Germany: Turk stabs teen daughter in ‘honour killing’ – because daughter “did not want to follow the Muslim way”

Kyrgyzstan: Child Brides — “in accordance with Muslim Sharia law in a wedding ceremony known as a nikah”

Bahrain Offers Women No Protection from Spousal Rape

Russia: Suspect detained in “honor killing” in Chechnya

Belgium: Brothers arrested in suspected honour killing

Sweden: “Honor Killing” Suspected in Balcony Fall Cases

Russia – Ingushetia: Russian human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, found murdered — critic of Extremist Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov

BBC reports:
— “A prominent Russian human rights activist, Natalia Estemirova, has been found dead in the North Caucasus.”
— “She was bundled into a van and abducted as she left her home in Chechnya on Wednesday morning, a colleague said. Her body was found in Ingushetia.”

BBC also reports:
— “Award-winning Russian human rights campaigner Natalia Estemirova, who has been found shot dead in the North Caucasus, documented hundreds of cases of abuse in Chechnya.”
— “Her work for the Russian human rights group Memorial latterly focused on alleged human rights violations by government-backed militias.”

New York Times reports:
— “In recent years, Ms. Estemirova had focused on kidnappings that she believed were carried out under the authority of the Chechen president, Ramzan A. Kadyrov, who has enjoyed unwavering public support from the Kremlin.”
— “Her work met with threats and denunciations from Chechen authorities. In March of 2008, after Ms. Estemirova criticized a new law requiring women in Chechnya to wear head scarves, Mr. Kadyrov summoned her to a personal meeting and threatened her, an experience so frightening that she went abroad for several months, said Tatyana Kasatkina, deputy director of the Rissian human rights group Memorial, where Ms. Estemirova had worked since 1999. Friends tried to convince Ms. Estemirova to stay away, but she felt compelled to return.”

Free Internet Press reports:
— “Ms. Estemirova worked for years helping families uncover details about kidnapped relatives. She was the recipient of several international awards, and in 2007 was the first to win the Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the Russian investigative journalist, who also worked to uncover abuses in Chechnya before she was shot to death in October 2006.”

— “Ms. Estemirova’s work often ran afoul of the Chechen government, led by the Kremlin-backed strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, whom human rights groups have accused of personally torturing kidnap victims.”

— Reuters: Group blames Chechen leader for activist’s murder

— Global Post: “Did Chechnya’s leader just kill this woman?”

March 1, 2009 – Russia: Chechen President defends extremist “honor killings” – says women deserve to die
— “Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had ‘loose morals’ and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings. ‘If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed,’ Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.”

UK: White supremacist Neo-Nazi guilty of bomb plot – Neil Lewington — Ku Klux Klan, Combat 18 Nazi material found

(UK) White supremacist guilty of bomb plot – Neil Lewington
— Neo-Nazi convicted of terror plan
— “Man had turned parents’ home into bomb factory”
— “The search also found the Waffen SS UK members’ handbook, containing his blueprint for a neo-Nazi terror group, and notebooks with details of electronics and chemical mixtures and a book called Counter Bomb. His mobile phone contained hate material from a violent neo-Nazi group called Combat 18 and other material from the Ku Klux Klan was also found.”
— British white supremacist guilty of bomb plot

Pakistan: Jirga orders marrying off three minor girls

(Pakistan) Jirga orders marrying off three minor girls
— “Ghulam Sarwar and his wife Rahila Ghulam, residents of Tehsil Jhat Pat, district Jaffarabad, Balochistan”
— “I have three minor daughters Paras, 4, Sughra, 2, and Rehmat who is just eight months old and I will not marry my daughters to my paternal uncles, said Rahila while bitterly crying”

Canada: “Neo-Nazi hate, courtesy of the CHRC” – Canadian Human Rights Commission

Canada: “Neo-Nazi hate, courtesy of the CHRC” – Canadian Human Rights Commission
— National Post’s Ezra Levant reports: “In her July 11 letter to the National Post, Lynch denies that CHRC staff hacked into the Internet account of a private citizen to cover their tracks as they logged into their memberships in neo-Nazi websites. Lynch says both the Privacy Commissioner and the RCMP ‘found no evidence to support this allegation.'”
— Levant states: “But that’s not true. The Privacy Commissioner’s staff did not investigate the hacking — that is not within their jurisdiction.”
— Levant states: “In fact, CHRC employees have been active members of neo-Nazi organizations for years, and have published countless anti-Semitic, anti-gay and anti-black comments online. CHRC employees have admitted to this under oath. On the same day Monfette testified about the hacking, CHRC investigator Dean Steacy testified there were no guidelines about what CHRC staff could do using their online Nazi memberships.”
— Levant states: “Steacy, for example, used his Nazi membership to write encouraging words to a racist group called B. C. White Pride. He praised them, told them their racist posters were ‘great’ and promised to distribute their literature. Your tax dollars at work.”
— Levant states: “Other CHRC investigators went further. One praised Nazi leaders ( ‘I still say [Adrien] Arcand is our man!’); called for Canadian police to discriminate against blacks ( ‘exactly when will white cops understand that they should stand by THEIR race?!’); and trashed a Jewish youth group ( ‘if people spent the time building fellow WNs [White Nationalists] up rather than tearing them down we’d be dangerous. Unless your goal is to tear people down in which case go join Hillel or something.’)”

New Jersey: State to probe distribution of Ku Klux Klan publication

(U.S.) New Jersey: State to probe distribution of Ku Klux Klan publication
— Courier Post reports: “The state’s Division of Criminal Justice has launched a criminal probe into the distribution of a white supremacist newsletter in parts of Burlington County in May.”
— “The investigation, launched in June, was confirmed in a letter sent to lawmakers in the 8th Legislative District from Lt. Stephanie Stenzel of the division’s Major Crimes Unit.”
— “‘The Division of Criminal Justice has received your letter, dated May 18, 2009, along with a copy of ‘The Klansmen’s Voice,” Stenzel wrote.”
— “The newsletter, distributed by the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was left outside an unspecified number of homes in those two municipalities, according to the lawmakers, who called its racially-fueled contents ‘hate-filled and divisive.'”

— May 27, 2009: New Jersey: KKK spreading hate in Burlington County

— May 19, 2009: New Jersey: Who’s Behind the “Klansmen’s Voice?” — Ku Klux Klan

Sudanese women flogged in public by Extremists for wearing trousers

Sudanese women flogged for wearing trousers
— AP reports: “Sudanese police arrested 13 women in a raid on a cafe and flogged 10 of them in public for wearing trousers in violation of the country’s strict Islamic law, one of those arrested said Monday”
— “The 13 women were at a cafe in the capital, Khartoum, when they were detained Friday by officers from the public order police, which enforces the implementation of Sharia law in public places.”
— “Islamic Sharia law has been strictly implemented in Sudan since the ruling party came to power in a 1989 military coup.”