Category: Women’s Rights Matter

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

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”

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.”

Belgium: Brothers arrested in suspected honour killing

(Belgium) Brothers arrested in suspected honour killing
— Gulf Times reports: “Two Pakistani brothers were being held in custody in Belgium on murder charges,  a magistrate said in Brussels yesterday, on suspicion that they carried out an honour killing”
— “Hammad Raza Syed and his brother Hassan were charged with ‘deprivation of liberty and murder’ over the death of Hammad’s wife Claudi Lalembaidje, a 32-year-old Belgian woman of Chadian origin.”
— “The woman’s beaten body was found on June 29 in a suitcase in a canal in northern France. A funeral service  was held for her in Brussels yesterday.”
— “The dead woman was in the process of divorcing Syed. Her family claimed he had beaten her and wanted to  control what she wore and how she conducted her life. She went to police twice insisting he had tried to strangle her.”

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

— (Maldives) Woman faints after 100 lashes, says judge
— “An 18-year-old woman was flogged in public outside the Justice Building and sentenced to a year of house
arrest today for having extra-marital sex.
— ” The woman received 100 lashes after confessing to having extra-marital sex with two men on separate occasions earlier this year”

— Amnesty calls for moratorium on flogging
— Faiz’s comments came in response to news of an 18-year-old woman who was publicly flogged last week for extra-marital sex.”
— “She was sentenced to 100 lashes and a year of house arrest after confessing to having sex with two men on separate occasions.”
— Maldives “Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed said Sharia has only been enforced in the Maldives in the  last 30 to 40 years… In the past, said Shaheed, Maldivians were too ‘squeamish’ to enforce the punishments stipulated in Sharia.

Saudi religious police blamed in ‘honour’ killing of sisters

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”

Pakistan: U.N. Posted Red Cross Report on “Honor Killings” in Pakistan

(Pakistan) U.N. Posted Red Cross Report on “Honor Killings” in Pakistan
— “Human rights groups say Pakistani women suffer severe discrimination, domestic violence  and ‘honour’ killings, and are increasingly isolated by spreading Islamist fundamentalism.”
— Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD), Pakistan: honour killing of men; availability of state protection, 9 July 2009, a-6813

Sweden: “Honor Killing” Suspected in Balcony Fall Cases

— 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.”