Category: Childrens Rights Matter

Save Children Now

(U.S.) Legislation to Eliminate Child Marriage Passed in House of Representatives

(U.S.) Legislation to Eliminate Child Marriage Passed in House of Representatives
— “The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2009, an initiative to end child marriage in developing countries, passed in the House of Representatives on a 235-187 vote last week as part of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act.”

UK: Suspected “Honor Killing” – Update on Shafilea Ahmed Case

(UK) Father fails in fight to change unlawful killing verdict
— Shafilea Ahmed
— “A few months earlier, she had refused an arranged marriage, and, during a visit to Pakistan to meet
a prospective husband, had drunk bleach and spent five weeks in hospital.”
— “After her death, police initially worked on the theory that she had been the victim of an honour killing
and arrested and questioned her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, on suspicion of kidnapping”
— “But a Crown Prosecution Service investigation found there was no chance of anyone being convicted
on the evidence available”

—  Previous Reports:
— “A Muslim girl who had refused her family’s wish to have an arranged marriage was murdered,
a coroner ruled yesterday.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1575306/Shafilea-Ahmed-was-murdered.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1575307/Shafilea-Ahmed-Timeline.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1455201/Teenagers-body-had-been-hidden.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shafilea_Ahmed

Egypt: “Family of Abducted Christian Coptic Teenager Assaulted By Muslim Mob”

Egypt: “Family of Abducted Christian Coptic Teenager Assaulted By Muslim Mob”

Egypt – AINA reports:

— “In another incident of abduction and forced Islamization of Coptic minor girls, 16-year old Nermeen Mitry was abducted by a Muslim man to coerce her into converting to Islam. She was successfully recovered on the same day by her family, who did their own investigation and search to locate her.”
— “Nermeen was abducted from El-Mahalla by Muslim Hossam Hamouda in conspiracy with his aunt Leila Attia; she was hidden away by a third person called Nasser Abu Deif from Assuit in Upper Egypt, at the home of one of his female relatives called Rasha Soliman in Zagazig.”
— “The success of recovering the Coptic girl led to anger, revenge and assaults from the disappointed village Muslims against her family. Nearly 150 Muslims, armed with swords and clubs, physically assaulted five family members of the abducted Coptic teenager, as they drove back to their village after being forced into reconciliation with the abductor’s family by State Security, compromising their right to pursue the case any further. ‘With every blow on us, they chanted ‘There is only one Allah’ while the Police stood there watching the assault, until we could take no more and three of us were hospitalized,’ said Nermeen’s uncle Sameh Mitry in an aired interview with Coptic News on 6/7/2009. ‘They dragged us out of the car saying ‘Get out you followers of the Dog’s religion!’ They were consumed with anger ever since we got our girl back.’ “

Saudi Arabia: US lawmakers slam Saudi for teaching ‘hatred’

US lawmakers slam Saudi for teaching ‘hatred’
— “US lawmakers on Wednesday called on the Saudi government to stop distributing children’s religious textbooks they claimed incited hatred and intolerance toward Jews, women and homosexuals…”
— “‘This is not some rogue document,’ Congressman Anthony Weiner told reporters. ‘This is the position of the Saudi government … If we’re going to solve the generational conflicts, it’s important not to hate one another'”

Communist China: Tiananmen Mom Remembers Son Killed 20 Years Ago

Tiananmen Mom Remembers Son Killed 20 Years Ago
— Newsweek: “Twenty years after her teenage son’s death in Tiananmen Square, Ding Zilin waits for an apology she says will never come.”
— “On May 17 about 50 elderly parents gathered in a private home for a memorial service to mourn their children who’d died in the June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protestors. One notable absentee was 73-year-old Ding Zilin, founder of the Tiananmen Mothers organization, who’d been slated to deliver a memorial speech. Friends said authorities were severely restricting her movements until after the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square bloodshed.”

Malaysia: Abused Teenage Model Flees

(Malaysia/Indonesia) Teenage model who married Malaysian prince ‘flees abusive marriage’
— Manohara Odelia Pinot: “I’ve been treated like an animal. I’m like his property and I was in his room and whenever he wants to play with me he just goes into the room and plays with me. I’m like an object.”
— Manohara Odelia Pinot states she was injected with tranquilizers and threatened with torture
— Pinot says that “she was subject to a ‘daily routine’ of abuse”

—  April 23, 2009: Malaysian PM dodges questions about missing model
—- Her mother, Daisy Fajarina “said the last time she saw Manohara was when she accompanied the couple on a pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia in late February”

Pakistan: “Brother kills girl for honour”

(Pakistan) “Brother kills girl for honour”
— “Saira Bano, 19, was shot dead by her brother in Mehmoodabad police limits.”
— “A teenage girl was killed by her brother, as she eloped with a non-Muslim man”
— Teenage girl shot dead over matrimonial dispute – shot dead by her brother

Pakistan: Eloping Niece Murdered by Extremist Uncle Over “Honor”

(Pakistan) Punjab: Uncle kills eloping niece over ‘honour’
— “A man allegedly killed his teenaged niece on Wednesday morning over ‘honour’ in the Shahdara Police precincts”
— “According to the locals of the area, victim Noreen of Haji Kot area was eloping with her paramour Kamran when Karamat Ali, girl’s uncle, intercepted the couple. They said Kamran fled in his rented car after seeing Karamat, who took the girl to his house and gunned her down. They said the girl’s family tried to hide the fact to avoid legal complications and save the accused, but some neighbour called the police.”
— “The accused is still at large.”

Pakistan: Taliban whip 17 year old girl

Pakistan: Taliban flog 17-year-old girl for having ‘affair’: Govt orders probe into Swat whipping
— “Taliban spokesman says girl would have been stoned to death if a ‘serious view’ of her ‘crime’ was taken”
— “Govt says girl whipped in January, Taliban say 9 months ago, HR activist says in last 10 days”
— Video of flogging
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videoshow/4354254.cms
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoXHXUu-6ow&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbWdJ0-477c
— ‘Please stop’: Taliban flog girl, 17, as she begs for mercy in ‘honour’ punishment
— Flogging in Swat outrages nation
— “Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told some TV channels that it
was the work of Taliban. He termed the action justified, saying that the girl
had been seen out of her house with a man who was not her husband and
it was enough to punish her for what he said was an ‘un-Islamic’ act.”
— Pakistan Taliban whip teen girl
— In Pak, Taliban flog 17-yr-old girl for ‘misbehaviour’
— Flogging video shakes Pakistan peace accord
—- “Pakistani authorities ordered inquiries Friday into a video showing the public flogging of a screaming woman in a northwestern valley where officials have yielded to Taliban demands for Islamic law”
— The Pakistani Spectator states “Don’t Criticize Islamic Punishments” – by Haris Hashmi
— regarding Taliban whipping of 17 year old girl
— The Pakistani Spectator: “Flogging and canning the males and females
according to the Shariah Law is very much right and we cannot call it ‘barbaric’
or such thing. That is equivalent to insult the Islam and to negate its teachings.”

Pakistani Taliban defends flogging, says Sharia permits it
— Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan: “the punishment awarded to the woman was just as she was of loose character”
— Khan: “No one would be allowed to interfere in Sharia (Islamic law) and if
any man or woman commits sin, we will punish them according to Sharia.”
— “He termed the video played in the media Friday ‘as fake and said
we will punish the man who filmed the video whenever we catch him'”
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-16039.html
— Unrepentant Taliban say 17-yr-old ‘flogged’ girl should have actually been ‘stoned to death’
— Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan: “The actual punishment for
adultery was stoning to death. However, as there were no Qazis at that time, the girl was awarded punishment of 40 lashes”
http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-15964.html
http://www.geo.tv/4-4-2009/39039.htm

Man who made Swat flogging video speaks to Dawn News
— “Shaukat is the only eye-witness who has come forward and spoken
to Dawn News about the incident. He claimed that the incident took place two weeks ago.”
— “Shaukat said the allegation against and the treatment meted out to the girl
was actually a punishment against her for refusing a marriage proposal.”
— “The man who proposed to marry her joined the ranks of the Taliban after
the rejection and this was how he took his revenge from the 17-year-old girl”
— “When asked about the reaction of the people who had witnessed the
whole episode, Shaukat said the people in Swat are so scared that no one has
the courage to stand up and speak out against the Taliban and their verdicts.”

Chand is not the only Swat woman victim
— “the Taliban spokesman in Swat who defended the public flogging in several
interviews on Friday is also named Muslim Khan. He apparently mixed up the two incidents of public lashing of women in Swat on Taliban orders by saying that the girl videotaped during her canning was convicted of having illicit relations with her father-in-law. That incident happened in Ser-Taligram village in Charbagh tehsil while the videotape is of the girl belonging to Kala Killay in Kabal area.”