Category: Women’s Rights Matter

Sudanese Woman Journalist Invites Press to Her Flogging to Demonstrate Oppression of Women

Sudanese Journalist Who Invited Press to Attend Her Court Hearing and Flogging: I Am Fighting for All Women
— “The issue of abuse of women by Sudan’s public order police recently gained prominence in the Sudanese and other media, after Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmad Hussein and 12 other women were arrested in Khartoum on July 3, 2009, for wearing trousers. Two days later, 10 of the women were summoned to the police station and received punishments of 10 lashes each. Charges were brought against three others, including Hussein, for inappropriate dress and conduct.”
— “In an interview with Al-Arabiyya TV, Hussein explained that she had given out the invitations because otherwise no one would believe that she was to be flogged for wearing ordinary clothes: ‘I wanted the punishment to be executed in the presence of observers, so that they see for themselves why I was being flogged.'”

“Egyptian Security Refuses to Return Abducted Christian Coptic Girl”

“Egyptian Security Refuses to Return Abducted Christian Coptic Girl”
AINA reports:
— “Two incidents of abduction of Coptic girls to force them to convert to Islam took place within one week in Upper Egypt. In both cases the Egyptian security predictably played a key role in the outcome of the cases.”
— “Rania Asaad was returned to her family, while Irene Labib is still missing, in spite of pleas from human rights organizations to the security authorities to end this Coptic family’s misfortune.”
— “Irene Hanna Labib, 20-years old, disappeared on 7/1/2009 from Sahel Tahta, Sohag Governorate, 500 km south of Cairo.”
— “The family of 21-year old pharmacy student Rania Tawfik Asaad from Samalut, Minya Governorate, were successful in getting back their daughter, one week she disappeared on 6/27/2009; she was held by her abductor in the small village Of Taha Bosh, Nasser district, in the Beni Suef Governorate.”
— “Rania was approached by Muslim army officer Mohamed Sayed Farag, 29 years old, who posed as a Copt called Mina who was living in Cairo. After a brief courtship, the army officer proposed to her and asked her to meet his elderly mother. According to Ayman Eid of Free Copts advocacy Rania knew the true identity of her abductor only when she arrived at a secluded house in Beni Suef.”
— “Mohamed was also discovered to be a member of the Islamic Welfare Association, which is affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood. He asked Rania to convert to Islam and marry him, but she refused. After a great ordeal her family discovered her whereabouts and learnt that she was forced to convert to Islam by the Association and married Captain Mohamed two days after her abduction.”

Russia: Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov ‘to lead’ activist’s murder inquiry

Russia: Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov ‘to lead’ activist’s murder inquiry

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

— March 1, 2009 – Russia: Chechen President defends extremist “honor killings” – says women deserve to die