Category: Other

Iran: Human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr reportedly arrested

— Iran: Human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr reportedly arrested
— “Prominent lawyer, women’s rights activist and journalist Shadi Sadr was arrested by plainclothes policemen on her way to Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s much-anticipated Friday sermon, according to several reformist websites.”
— “The activist group blog Mothers of Laleh reported that Sadr was walking with several other female activists when she was approached by individuals in civilian dress who refused to show a warrant before forcing her into a waiting car.”
— “Sadr, who also edits the Farsi news website womeniniran.com, was arrested and held for two weeks in 2007. She has clashed with authorities numerous times over her outspoken stance on women’s rights and capital punishment.”

— CNN: Group: Human rights lawyer detained as Iran unrest spirals
— “Government agents used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, and beat and kidnapped a human rights lawyer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said Saturday, citing witnesses.”
— “The advocacy group said human rights lawyer Shadi Sadr, who was walking with friends to Friday prayers, was confronted by people dressed in civilian clothes. They pushed her into a car and drove off, the group said, citing witnesses.”
— “In a subsequent telephone call to her husband, Sadr said she had been arrested and detained in ward 209 of Tehran’s Evin prison, the group said.”

— Wikipedia: Women’s rights in Iran
— “Despite the heavy participation of women in the Islamic Iranian Revolution of 1979, their rights of dress, employment, movement (by sex segregation) were severely curtailed by the new government under Ayatollah Khomeni.”
— “In the 1990s women began to make small political gains, and in 1997 they heavily voted for the reformist cleric Mohammed Khatami for President who appointed reformists to high positions, including one female vice-president. However, under the administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad women’s rights advocates have been beaten, jailed and persecuted,and the use of Siqeh — or temporary marriages considered by many a form of legalized prostitution — promoted.”

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.”

Iran: Singer gets five-year jail term by Extermists

Iran singer gets five-year jail term
— “An Iranian singer, Mohsen Namjoo, has been sentenced in absentia to a five-year jail term for ridiculing the Koran holy book in a song, reformist daily Etemad Melli reported on Tuesday.”
— “‘He was sentenced on June 9 to five years in jail for insulting sanctities, ridiculing the Koran and dishonouring the holy book of the Muslims,’ it quoted a Koran expert and plaintiff in the case, Abbas Salimi Namin, as saying.”
— “Fars news agency, quoting an unnamed judge involved in the case, said Namjoo who has moved to Vienna was convicted for ‘his unconventional singing of the Koran,’ in a private recording four years ago.”
— “Namjoo, who fuses traditional Iranian music with pop and jazz, has also sang in solidarity with protesters who took to the streets after the Islamic republic’s disputed June 12 presidential election.”

Mauritania: Half a million African slaves are at the heart of Mauritania’s presidential election

(Mauritania) Half a million African slaves are at the heart of Mauritania’s presidential election
— Daily Telegraph reports: “More than half a million slaves are at the heart of a presidential election battle in the former French colony of Mauritania”
— “A year after she ran away from her master, Barakatu Mint Sayed prays that the election on July 18 will mark the beginning of the end of slavery in Mauritania.”
— “like thousands of other slaves and freed slaves across the Saharan country, her hopes are fixed on an inspirational candidate, a man born to slave parents who has sworn to put an end to the practice of ‘owning’ humans if he is elected president.”
— “That candidate is Messaoud Ould Boulkheir”…. “there are an estimated 600,000 slaves, almost one in five of the country’s 3.2 million people”

Iranian Christian leader fears more violence – killing of “Iranians who’ve left the Islamic faith”

(Iran) Colorado Springs Iranian Christian leader fears more violence
— KOAA reports: “The Colorado Springs leader of the group ‘Iranian Christians International’ fears the violence in Iran may get worse.”
— “ICI tries to help Christians who are being persecuted in Iran. Abe Ghaffari is the president of ICI. He became a Christian, fled Iran and founded the international group to help Iranians who’ve left the Islamic faith.”
— “‘Just like you see the protestors in the streets of Tehran, they are taking their lives into their hands so to speak, these Muslims who become Christians, they have no protection under the Islamic constitution of Iran,’ he told News First.”
— “He says Muslims who convert to Christianity in Iran can be killed and the murderer not punished.”