Farkhunda: The making of a martyr - Newsnight

The War Against Muslim Women - Abdullah Hakim Quick

Abdallah Adhami - Islam Forbids Hitting Ones Wife

 Must watch. Allah bless this Sheikh.

Afghanistan: No Country for Women

Under the Taliban women were banned from going to school and working. They were not allowed to leave their homes without a male relative or be seen in public without a burqa. For defying the regime's repressive laws, women were openly flogged and executed.

But 13 years after the fall of the Taliban, and despite the influx of billions of dollars in development aid, many Afghan women are still living in terror.

A report by Global Rights estimates that almost 90 percent of women experience physical, sexual or psychological abuse or forced marriage. Overwhelmingly, it is their families who are committing these crimes.

"It's a question of control and power," said Sima Samar, a prominent women's rights activist and chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. "You use religion, you use culture, you use tradition, you use gender to keep the power, to keep control."

When Mariam, 25, got married five years ago, she never imagined that she would end up in a shelter.

"When I first saw my husband I thought he was the right man for me," she said, sitting on the floor of the shelter with her head covered in a black scarf.

"I thought I'd have someone to share my pain and my secrets with. I'd have children and live a happy life."

But she says the abuse began almost immediately. Without warning, her husband would erupt into violent rages, at times threatening her with a loaded gun or dragging her by her hair through their home.

When she tried to seek help from the police, they released her husband after a few hours. Even her parents refused to help her, returning her to her in-laws after assurances that she would not be beaten.

Mariam says her husband was diagnosed with a mental illness and prescribed medication. But the torment continued.

"I thought about killing myself but I couldn't go through with it because I was pregnant. I was so tired. Most of the time I didn't even have the energy to defend myself and nobody was there to defend me," she said, showing no emotion.

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Filmmaker Wants To Stop Fathers From Giving Up Their Daughters

 

She fights for the rights of women by telling stories about heroic men.

"The struggle to end violence against women has always been carried out by women activists," says Samar Minallah Khan, who makes documentaries about gender-based violence in her native Pakistan.

"Women have worked very hard to bring awareness, but it will never be enough." That's why she brings men into the picture. And her approach has won acclaim from both men and women.

Khan is one of five women honored with a Global Leadership Award by Vital Voices, a group founded by Hillary Clinton after the World Conference of Women in Beijing in 1995. At the presentation ceremony, held at the Kennedy Center last month, a packed house of women gave her a standing ovation when she dedicated the award to the men in her life: "my amazing supportive and loving father, my husband, my brothers and my son."

Khan's films focus primarily on the practice of swara, where a daughter is given away as compensation for a crime. Swara happens mainly in poor, rural areas.

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Jackson Katz: Violence against women�it's a men's issue

�THE WORLD EXISTS ON HOPE� � MUKHTAR MAI

 

Ramadan Mubarak.

Many of you know the story of Mukhtar Mai, one of my personal heroes.

In 2002, Mukhtar, a Pakistani village woman, was brutally gang raped by four men of a powerful neighboring tribe, on the order of a local council; the attack was said to be punishment for an alleged affair that her young brother had with a girl from another tribe. To humiliate her further, Mukhtar was forced to walk home, nearly naked, as villagers looked on. People expected her to commit suicide; she thought about it. But instead, Mukhtar took the rapists to court. Initially, six men were sentenced to death for the rape. Then in 2011, the Pakistan Supreme Court overturned all but one of the convictions and the men were freed; they continue to live in her neighboring village.

I first met Mukhtar seven years ago when she was in Washington, D.C. for a Vital Voices event. I was asked to be her translator when she was invited to speak with Hillary Clinton at the inaugural Women in the World Summit in 2010; unfortunately she had to cancel at the last minute due to illness. In April we had the chance to meet again when she was in town for a Developments in Literacy (DIL) fundraiser.

She smiles when she greets me, remembering that we had met before; she laughs as she shares some of her stories; but it�s her eyes � her eyes can�t hide the unfathomable pain that she�s endured. Her voice is soft, I sit right beside her to hear her. She seems timid, a bit withdrawn. But Mukhtar Mai has the courage of a warrior, and a voice that has challenged centuries of brutality and injustice against women.

We talk about her typical day, her schools, her children, life for women in Pakistan, her fears, her dreams, who inspires her, what makes her so strong.

�Allah jin sey kaam laina hota hey, leta hey,� (loosely translated, �God chooses certain people to do certain things�).

Mukhtar runs the Mukhtar Mai Women�s Organisation. It includes a resource center, which deals with 500 cases of violence against women each year, and includes legal support, a hotline and a mobile emergency unit; a shelter, which started in Mukhtar�s bedroom with women sleeping beside her; and two schools, which provide free education, books, uniforms and supplies; the schools are for both girls and boys until primary, and for girls until high school.

In 2003, she used funds she won from her case to start a school for girls, the first in her village. Illiterate herself, she understood that only education could bring about change.  She laid the bricks with her own hands, she tells me proudly, and enrolled herself as her first student; she made it through primary school, she laughs, then got too busy running her organization. Now the school has 700 children; the second in a neighboring village has 300.

People used to slam the door in her face when she tried to encourage families to send their daughters to her school; now their only wish is for their girls to attend. �If they miss the bus, the parents themselves bring their daughters to school. One way or another, they have understood that girls should get an education,� she says smiling. Visiting the schools is the brightest part of Mukhtar�s day. The kids crowd around her, they all want to shake her hand; sometimes three hands hold on to hers, she says smiling. �The kids love me; the children are very happy at school. And we feel the same way. We consider them our own kids.�

The children of her rapists attend her school too.

Mukhtar got married in 2009, and has two kids of her own, a daughter who is almost five and a son who is three; she also adopted her sister�s daughter, 9. We share stories, and stresses, about our children. She fears for their security. �For myself I don�t worry; whatever happens to me will happen; I worry for my children.� She also worries that her kids are not taking school seriously; since it�s located next to their house and their mother is always there, they don�t see it as a place to study.  Mothers� worries are always the same � our children�s safety, well being, and education.

Her other big stress is funding for her schools; for the past six years, it�s been very difficult to get funds; DIL helps with some of the teacher salaries. �I�ve been so tense; I don�t want the schools to close down. I hope this mission continues.� She has faith that she will get through this difficult time too.

Mukhtar has big dreams, even if limited resources. �I want to open schools all over Pakistan,� she says, �wherever there isn�t a school.� She also wants to make a college for girls so they can continue studying. �One wishes for so many things, our dreams never stop. But what happens is what Allah wants to happen; if He wishes, then this will happen too.�

We talk about her case, and if things have gotten better for women in Pakistan. She�s frustrated that laws for women are made on paper, but not implemented. �If no one gets punished, there�s no justice. A country that does not have an effective justice system, that country will perish.�  Maybe her kids will see justice, she says, even is she doesn�t. And adds, �Omeed pay dunya kaim hay,� (the world exists on hope).Hakumat mai nai, lekin Allah pey to hai (not in government, but [we have faith] in God).

I ask her what gives her so much strength. �First of all, Allah,� she says, �what Allah wants done, he enables it to happen.� She also gains courage from her mother; and from the support of all of us. �I know that the whole world�s duas are with me,� she says.

I set aside my notebook, hold her hands, and ask her how she�s really doing. She says, unconvincingly, that she�s ok, Allah ka shukr. Adding, �Aik cheez insan key andar ajai, phir wo jatee nahi� (one thing if it gets inside you, then it never leaves you). She hasn�t been able to sleep well in 13 years. �But you have to go on; you still have to laugh; no one likes someone who cries all the time. Zindagi to gozarnee hai�(You have to continue to go on with your life).

I assure her that she�s not alone, that we�re by her side; I tell her that I will share her story during Ramadan, and that we will give generously to make sure her schools stay open; I promise her that I will pray for her children, and ask her to pray for mine.

To learn more about Mukhtar Mai�s work and to donate to her efforts, please visit:http://www.mukhtarmai.org

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Silent Veil a documentary by Depilex Smileagain

Silent Veil a documentary by Depilex Smileagain by depilexsmileagain

India's Daughter - Full Documentary

�We record all the killing of women by men. You see a pattern�

 

MUMTAHINA JANNAT, 29

Strangled in her east London home

Mumtahina Jannat was killed by her abusive husband, Abdul Kadir, on 5 July 2011. Kadir, 49, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 17 years.

Jannat, known as Ruma, was 16 when she married the wealthy Kadir in Bangladesh, but from their wedding night until her death she suffered near continual abuse. They moved to the UK in 2002. �She had such a sweet demeanour. She wanted to be surrounded by books,� said Onjali Rauf, Jannat�s niece.

Kadir became infuriated by her independence, and Jannat confided to her family that he had drugged, beaten and raped her. She was forced to give up a college course and driving lessons. Shortly after their second child was born, Kadir kicked her in the stomach after a caesarean section, causing the stitches to open up.

Struggling with pressures of �family honour�, she endured abuse for years, but when he turned his violence towards her children, she sought help. and fled to a refuge in 2005. With an injunction in place, she tried to build a new life, �She was so proud to get her citizenship certificate in the UK, and felt it was her first step towards becoming an educated woman,� said Rauf. But Kadir did not let go, and a three-year battle over his contact with the children wore Jannat down. Every time she made a renewed effort to break free, he would threaten her family or use the children to get back into her life.

In an attempt to rid herself of Kadir, Jannat applied for sole custody of the children. She told the judge: �I�m scared he will kill me.� The judge said she was being silly. �Ruma gave up then: she just lost hope,� said Rauf.

Kadir was able to force his way back into her home. The abuse continued, and in early 2011 Jannat made her final bid for freedom, telling him he couldn�t return. Two days later she was seen dropping her daughter off at school. An hour and a half later Kadir rang his brother to say: �I�m in trouble.� Jannat had been strangled with her own scarf.

Kadir denied murder, saying the death had been accidental. A jury took less than an hour to return a guilty verdict.

Full article

Jail for Leeds thug who threw can of alcohol over Muslim woman

 

AN ISLAMOPHOBIC thug who threw a can of alcohol over a Muslim woman and her child as they walked along the street has been sent to jail.

Kravier Freeman hurled foul-mouthed racist abuse and threatened the woman with a butcher�s knife during the incident in Leeds.

Leeds Crown Court heard that the victim was a young white woman who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

Freeman targeted the 21-year-old as she walked past his home on Berkeley View, Harehills, on July 5, this year.

Freeman, 31, was out of prison at the time of the incident and had been drinking heavily throughout the day with others.

The victim was walking home with her son after getting food from a takeaway at around 8.30pm.

Nick Addlington, prosecuting, said Freeman approached the woman and said: �Why are you with a p***? Why are you wearing those clothes? You are not a Muslim!�

Freeman then followed her down the street and called her a �Muslim bitch� before throwing the can of alcohol over her and her child.

The woman asked Freeman why he was behaving like that and he replied: �Because I hate Muslims.�

Freeman then produced a sliver butcher�s knife and began waving it around as children stood close by.

He then said: �Watch what I am going to do when your husband comes out.�

 

Police were contacted and went to the house. Mr Addlington said there was a �total lack of co-operation� from anyone at the party despite what had happened.

They arrested Freeman and seized the weapon. Freeman was returned to prison after the incident.

He pleaded guilty to racially aggravated assault, affray and possession of a bladed weapon in a public place.

Nick Hammond, mitigating, said: �This was on anybody�s account a thoroughly unpleasant incident.

�It is right to say that this defendant is thoroughly embarrassed about what has happened. He cannot explain why he did what he did. The fact that he was heavily intoxicated is no excuse. It is an aggravating feature.�

Mr Hammond said Freeman had apologised to the victim and pleaded guilty to the offences at an early opportunity.

Jailing him for 12 months, judge Ray Singh said: �You behaved in a vile, nasty and racist manner. For a Muslim to be doused in alcohol � we can only imagine what was going through her mind.�

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Man, 80, accused over acid attack on ex-partner, 20

 

WTF is wrong with these men?! :( 

 

A young care worker has described how she suffered disfiguring burns to her face and neck in an acid attack allegedly orchestrated by her former partner, who was 60 years her senior.

Vikki Horsman, 20, told a jury she screamed in pain and glimpsed her blistering face and neck in a mirror as she stumbled back from the doorstep after the assault before dousing her face with cold water from the kitchen tap.

Horsman said the acid, which she claimed was thrown by a man wearing a hood and a bandana as a mask, caused �instant burning, piercing pain�.

The prosecution claims Horsman�s former partner, 80-year-old Mohammed Rafiq, planned the attack with 25-year-old Steven Holmes, who allegedly carried it out, and a third man, Shannon Heaps, 23. All three deny causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

It is alleged that the assault at a house in Tividale, West Midlands, took place in April after Horsman split up with Rafiq because she saw him as controlling and jealous.

Wolverhampton crown court heard that Horsman began to rely on Rafiq after her parents died. He bought her a car but she said he began to accuse her of cheating on him and put pressure on her to convert to Islam and change her name to Aleena Rafiq. Asked by Anthony Warner, prosecuting, if she had been happy to convert, Horsman replied: �Not particularly.

 Source

Raped for punishment in Pakistan: Mukhtar Mai

I remember everything. It's not something I can forget - it'll always be a part of my life. It happened in 2002. I remember every single thing, even the time it happened.

I was sitting at my parent's house, and they chose me to go and apologise for what my brother had done. I lament that they chose me, but I didn't want this to happen to any of my sisters either.

I tried to commit suicide twice after the incident because I felt like I wasn't getting any justice. What happened to me is another form of honour killing.

Honour is a toxic word. Honour is only for men here, it's not for women, who are always to blame in any given situation. The owner of a woman's honour is a father, brother, father-in-law.

A girl doesn't even have her own home: first it's her father's home, then her husband's home and then ultimately her son's home.

What happened to me is part and parcel of our system. It says that there is a difference between a son and daughter: one is better than the other.

It starts from the mother. When something is cooked, food is first given to the son and father, and if there's any food left over they'll give it to the daughter.

Men and women both have rights, God gave both rights, but it's all about lack of awareness, false traditions created by society, no law. And if there are laws, they are not implemented. Girls are killed for choosing their own partners for marriage.

And they never get justice because the killer is the father and the prosecutor is the mother - this is the system and it's a vicious cycle. Why doesn't a woman ever get justice - is a woman not a human being?

After 12 years, I am still going through appeals to the courts to get justice. The court says you need four witnesses - well I have the whole village as witnesses - but it boils down to the mindset of men in this patriarchal society.

The biggest problem is feudalism and the fact that people don't get justice. When there is no hope of getting justice, then people go to village elders because the police aren't listening to them.

And the elders will make the same decisions as the decision that was made for me.

These traditions need to end: the world is moving forward, and we seem to be standing in the same place.

Things have not improved; the only difference is that women have started asking for their rights. The media has helped a lot.

A woman never used to raise her voice or leave her house, but now a woman goes out, goes to courts, goes to meet lawyers. She is seen everywhere but there is still no justice.

Since my incident in 2002 there have been no similar events in my village. There has been a shift. The feudal authorities used to make decisions, but now there is no council the way there used to be.

Now the policemen make that decision. Even child marriages have been controlled. When I used to leave the village and come back I would find out that some girls from my school as young as nine had been forced to get married.

But now we have even stopped some weddings from happening.

Source

French Muslims Confront Menace Beneath Ban of Veil

 

Chatar, 40, who spoke with Women's eNews in a phone interview in September, lives in the small village of Meru, in the Picardie region of France, with her three children and husband. But her fear isn't that of a small-town person in a big metropolis. It's due to her custom of covering her hair with a hijab, part of her way of practicing her Muslim faith.

In her town, Chatar feels that her neighbors both know and accept her. But the stories of Muslim women in big cities getting singled out for hate crimes scare her.

Workers at the Paris Opera recently drew international headlines by ejecting a woman wearing a full face veil, or niqab, which Paris outlawed in 2011. But Chatar's fears are not about the niqab, which she doesn't wear. All she wears is a head covering.

France began frowning on women in hijab in 2004 when the Parliament passed a ban on the display of religious signs in public schools, which meant schoolgirls could not wear the hijab. In 2012, a similar government rule extended to thousands of older women such as Chatar, forbidding them from escorting their children on school outings.

Both bans apply to school settings but for many Muslim women in France today the rulings reach much further, creating a pervasive sense of social prohibition about wearing the hijab that they break at their own risk.

Out of 1,417 Muslims interviewed last year, 2 percent � 30 individuals --reported a physical aggression, found a June 2014 study conducted by the Paris-based Collective Against Islamophobia in France. Women were almost all--97 percent--of those 30 victims.

Elsa Ray, spokesperson for the Collective Against Islamophobia, said street aggressions have been more violent in recent years. In the past veiled women were mainly targets of verbal violence, but the aggression has become more physical.

"The majority of aggressors are men and we have noticed that some women physically attacked were subjected to sexual touching while they had their clothes ripped off. These are signs of male domination," Ray said in an interview at the collective's office.

Last year, a 16-year-old Muslim woman recounted being attacked by two men in a Paris suburb in a piecepublished by the Huffington Post. "Then, he grabbed my arms trying to push me to the ground and he started to press his body against mine while he was holding my head. At that moment, the first guy started to touch my breasts. Then, he took a sharp object and started to scar my face with short and quick movements while the second guy was pressing his body against mine and he was blocking my head," the victim, named Aissetou, wrote.

Full article

Afghan woman, whose genitalia was severed by her husband, fights for justice amid rising violence against women

 

Sadia quietly entered the room, lifted her burqa and took a seat. She's thin, almost emaciated, and old beyond her years.

"It was the second night of Ramadan," Sadia recounted, and she woke her husband up for suhoor, the morning meal served just before dawn.

"I prepared food and I told him to get up. When he got up he asked me why I didn't make milk tea. I told him I would go make it, but he didn't listen. He just started beating me."

Beatings were frequent over the course of their two-year marriage. Two months in, her husband and his family stopped feeding and giving Sadia clothes. They would shut all the windows and doors of the house and take turns beating and strangling her.

"When they beat me, they would tell me, 'You're all alone, scream as loud as you want, there is no one here to hear you.'"

"I asked from God to die."

Three-time abuse rule

Sadia returned to her family home three times because she was beaten so badly. At the husband's family's request, she was sent back, with a promise that the abuse would end.

Afghanistan's traditional justice system, one deeply woven into society, seemingly functions on a three-times rule. If, after the third time, a woman is still being abused by her husband, then elders, who often preside over the cases, will typically allow for a divorce.

Some families, however, intervene immediately so there is no second time. Others, not at all.

Mohammad Islam, Sadia's father, a poor daily labourer, admitted to seeing his daughter being beaten by her husband - not once, but several times. However, Sadia's husband, part of an armed group, sometimes known as arbakai, is led by a well-known, powerful local commander named Noor Mohammad.

Local armed groups have flourished in order to counter the threat from the Taliban as the central government's control barely runs beyond the capital, Kabul.

Afghan first lady in shadow of 1920s queen?

The growing fragility of the north can be seen on the vital highway linking the provincial capital of Takhar, where armed gunmen dot the road passing through the picturesque hills.

"The commander and his men put pressure on Sadia's family, who then come here and tried to pressure us to send her back. They have gone to the hospital and told the doctors to say this incident never happened," said Razmara.

"They also told the prosecutor to not touch the case. They have tried every means possible to get Sadia back."

As the director spoke, Sadia, probably 19 or 20 as she doesn't know her exact date of birth, leaned into the conversation, her hands clasped in her lap, looking down, continuously shaking her head in agreement.

Before passing out on that second night of Ramadan from the beating, Sadia recalls her husband getting on top of her, sitting on her face and then withdrawing his knife.

"I don't know how much time passed, but when I woke up he started beating me again. His brother's son came to the window and asked what was going on. I got up and walked to the window, my husband followed and continued to beat me. I crawled out of the window and my husband also followed."

When Sadia arrived at the hospital the following morning, according to Dr Safi, the director of public health, and Razmara, they found out that the right side of her major labia (outside fatty tissue covering the vagina) had been severed off by a knife. Her pelvis was mutilated and "abused" by hand, and her vaginal canal had been penetrated - with parts of her insides torn out.

"Violence against women is increasing day by day," Safi told Al Jazeera. "Today we even have a case of a woman with her ear cut off."

"But," he continued, "I have never seen anything like this before � not anywhere."

"In order for her to fully recover she needs plastic surgery. We can't do this in Afghanistan, she would need to go outside the country. We were also not able to give her a proper checkup, so we don't even know the full extent of the damage," Safi said.

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Online abuse of women in Pakistan turns into real-world violence

 

 Internet abuse of women in Pakistan is triggering real world violence against them, but large social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, are moving too slowly to stop it, internet rights group Bytes for All said.

Women face online threats globally, but they run a unique risk in conservative Muslim Pakistan, where there is a tradition of men killing women seen as having injured a family's honour, besides punitive laws against blasphemy.

With law enforcement too weak to fight the violence sparked by online campaigns, activists want giant internet firms to roll out greater protection for users, from streamlining how they tackle complaints to faster action against threats of violence.

"These technologies are helping to increase violence against women, not just mirroring it," said Gul Bukhari of Bytes for All, and the author of a report released this week as Pakistan experiences a surge in sectarian hatred, attacks on minorities and blasphemy quarrels.

"A lot of the crime we are witnessing would not have been possible without the use of these technologies."

There have been more than 170 complaints of cybercrime against women this year in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab, the Federal Investigation Agency says. No figures were available for the remaining three provinces.

None of the cases was successfully prosecuted because women usually reached a compromise with the suspect, said Syed Shahid Hassan, an official with the cybercrime office in the provincial capital, Lahore, where 30 employees work full-time.

Since police rarely act when women are harassed online, few cases are reported, activists say.

About 32 million of Pakistan's 180 million people use the Internet, the group said in its report, mainly on mobile telephones. About 12 million are on Facebook and some 2 million use Twitter, domestic media say.

ASSASSINATION BID

In one case documented by Bytes for All, an online hate campaign last year urging the rape and murder of a prominent human rights defender culminated in shots being fired at the woman and her husband.

She received hundreds of threats and the addresses of her family were posted online, along with pictures of her and her daughter.

"She suffered nightmares of being raped, of family members being harmed because of her," the group said.

Facebook took down the pages, but had to do so again when they were posted by a different user, the group said, and Twitter took a month to deal with her complaint.

Twitter declined to comment on specific cases but says it took tough steps last year to protect privacy and tackle abuse.

Facebook is "passionate" about protecting users, says its content policy director Monika Bickert, who formerly worked at the U.S. Justice Department to target sex traffickers and crimes against children.

"My background has given me an appreciation of how serious this issue is," Bickert said.

But the woman is unlikely to get justice, as police have lost all the evidence, and the sole witness has died.

BLACKMAILED INTO RAPE

In another case that spotlights the limitations of Pakistan's police, a 14-year-old girl was blackmailed into submitting to repeated gang rapes after her boyfriend threatened to post online a video he had secretly shot of the two together.

The slight, shy girl told Reuters she was too ashamed to tell her family and gave into her abuser's demands.

Bukhari's investigation showed police got the girl's age wrong and did not charge her abusers with statutory rape.

"She's 18," one police officer told Reuters, but admitted he had not looked at school records to ascertain her age or searched for evidence of the abuse online.

Though the case is nearly two years old, authorities have not asked Facebook for evidence, the girl's lawyer said. The site said it would investigate if the rape video proved to have been posted on its pages.

Twitter and Facebook had made it easier to report abuse but more needs to be done, said Bukhari.

"The companies are responding a bit better to women in the West," she said. "But voices in other countries are not being heard with as much seriousness and that puts women in danger." 

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