International News

[*Anya*]

ISIS executing 'educated women' in new wave of horror says U.N.

By AFP | Geneva
Tuesday, 20 January 2015

The UN on Tuesday decried numerous executions of civilians in Iraq by the Islamic State group, warning that educated women appeared to be especially at risk.

The jihadist group is showing a “monstrous disregard for human life” in the areas it controls in Iraq, the UN human rights office said.

The group, which controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and in neighbouring war-ravaged Syria, last week published pictures of the “crucifixions” of two men accused of being bandits, and of a woman being stoned to death, allegedly for adultery.

Numerous other women have also reportedly been executed recently in ISIS-controlled areas, including Mosul, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters.

She said “educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office, seem to be particularly at risk.”

“In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicate that three female lawyers were executed,” Shamdasani said.

A number of other groups are also targeted by the jihadists, Shamdasani said, pointing to “the ruthless murder of two men, who were thrown off the top of a building after having been accused of homosexual acts by a so-called court in Mosul.”

Minorities are not the only ones suffering, with IS meting out “cruel and inhuman punishments” to anyone accused of violating its “extremist interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, or for suspected disloyalty,” she said.

Four doctors were recently killed in central Mosul, allegedly after refusing to treat IS fighters.

The group also reportedly executed 15 civilians in front of a large crowd in Fallujah on January 1, on suspicion they had cooperated with Iraqi security forces, and 14 more in a public square in Dour, north of Tikrit, for refusing to pledge allegiance to IS, Shamdasani said.

Last Update: Tuesday, 20 January 2015 KSA 21:31 - GMT 18:31

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News...says-U-N-.html

[*Anya*]

Saudi Historian Says U.S. Women Drive Because They Don't Care If They're Raped

The Huffington Post | By Ed Mazza

A Saudi Arabian historian trying to justify the nation's ban on female drivers says women who drive in other countries such as the United States don't care if they're raped and that sexual violence "is no big deal to them."

Saleh al-Saadoon claimed in a recent TV interview that women can be raped when a car breaks down, but unlike other countries, Saudi Arabia protects its women from that risk by not allowing them to drive in the first place, according to a translation posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"They don't care if they are raped on the roadside, but we do," al-Saadoon said on Saudi Rotana Khalijiyya TV.

“Hold on. Who told you they don’t care about getting raped on the roadside?” asked the host, a woman who is not named in the transcript.

“It’s no big deal for them beyond the damage to their morale,” al-Saadoon replied. “In our case, however, the problem is of a social and religious nature.”

Two other guests on the show -- a man and a woman -- appeared to be in shock over his comments. Al-Saadoon said they were out of touch.

"They should listen to me and get used to what society thinks," al-Saadoon said.

Since the rape argument didn't seem to be convincing anyone, al-Saadoon tried another approach, claiming that women are treated "like queens" in Saudi Arabia because they are driven around by the men of the family and male chauffeurs. That led the host to ask if he wasn't afraid that women might be raped by their chauffeurs.

Al-Saadoon agreed.

"There is a solution, but the government officials and the clerics refuse to hear of it," he said. "The solution is to bring in female foreign chauffeurs to drive our wives."

That caused the female host to laugh and cover her face with her palm.

"Female foreign chauffeurs?" she said. "Seriously?"

Saudi women face serious penalties if they are caught driving, including lashing. Two women who defied the ban on driving last year, Loujain al-Hathloul and Maysa al-Amoudi, are being tried in a court that handles terror cases.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/0...n_6649896.html

[Cin]

I came across a rather fascinating, albeit disturbing, article in the magazine The Atlantic. It's rather long but who knows maybe somebody, besides me, will find it interesting.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/...europe/386279/

[Martina]

I saw that and the article by Michael Douglas about his son getting harrassed. I had no idea how bad it was in Europe. I was surprised. And Israeli politics are such a mess. Wow. I think the U.S. should welcome anyone who wants to come because of ethnic intimidation.

[*Anya*]

The Saudi Foreign Minister says LGBT rights are 'counter to Islamic law'

Samuel Osborne Tuesday 29 September 2015

UN removes gay rights from the organisation’s Global Goals, saying it is “counter to Islamic law”.

The protest comes from the Saudi Foreign Minister, Adel Al-Jubeir, who told the UN General Assembly that “mentioning sex in the text, to us, means exactly male and female. Mentioning family means consisting of a married man and woman,” AP reported.

He stated Saudi Arabia has the right not to follow any agenda that runs “counter to Islamic law”.

The Sustainable Development Goals program sets a series of “ambitious targets” for the UN’s 193 member states, related to poverty, equality and ending climate change.

However, overt references to LGBT equality were removed from the final agreement, Pink News reports.

The goals pledge to ensure that “human rights and fundamental freedoms are enjoyed by all, without discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, colour, sex, age, language, religion, culture, migration status, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic situation, birth, disability or other status.”

Homosexuality is illegal under Sharia law in Saudi Arabia and punishments for those engaging in same-sex relationships include execution, chemical castration and imprisonment.

The United Nations was criticised recently for handing Saudi Arabia a key human rights role, despite its record on human rights abuses and freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents.

Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador at the UN was elected as chair of a panel of independent experts on the UN Human Rights Council. He has said calls for Saudi Arabia to support rights for same-sex couples were “unacceptable” and a “flagrant interference in its internal affairs”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sa...-a6671526.html

[*Anya*]

The World Economic Forum believes it will take another 118 years - or until 2133 - until the global pay gap between men and women is finally closed.

Women are only now earning the amount that men did in 2006, data from the WEF's Global Gender Gap report says.

It says progress on closing the gap has stalled in recent years at a time when more women are entering the workplace.

In fact, nearly a quarter of a billion more women are in the global workforce today than a decade ago.

In several countries, more women are now going to university than men but - crucially - this is not necessarily translating into more women occupying skilled roles or leadership positions.

The WEF report looks at whether men and women have the same rights and opportunities in each country in four areas: health, education, economic participation and political empowerment.

Nordic countries are still doing the most to close the gender gap overall, just as they were 10 years ago. They may not have achieved total equality, but Iceland (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Sweden (4) occupy the top four rankings out of 145 countries.

"They have the best policies in the world for families," says the report's lead author, Saadia Zahidi. "Their childcare systems are the best and they have the best laws on paternity, maternity and family leave."

Not far behind, though, is Rwanda (6) which sits above the US and the UK in the index. Its high score is down to the number of female politicians active in the country.

Struggle to the top

Over the last decade one of the most dramatic changes has been in education. In fact, the report shows that a reverse gender gap is emerging in higher education, with more women in university than men in 98 countries.

Ms Zahidi says there are six times more women in university than men in Qatar, which has seen a strong push towards women's education in recent decades. In Barbados and Jamaica, two-and-a-half times more women are enrolled at university than men, she adds.

And as more women go to university, families want to see a financial return on that education. Sixty-eight countries in the world now have more women than men in skilled positions, such as doctors, teachers and lawyers.

But despite this, women still do not seem to reach the top positions in business, politics or public service in the same way that men do. The WEF believes only three countries have more women than men in leadership positions: the Philippines, Fiji and Columbia.

There may be some eyebrows raised that Saudi Arabia (134) scores more highly than Jordan or Lebanon. But Ms Zahidi is convinced that change is being made there under the surface.

"It's actually one of the countries that has made the most progress over the last 10 years," she says. "There's a pretty clear strategy in place by the Ministry of Labour to try to get more women into the workplace."

Call for cultural shift

The global picture, though, is not always one of continual progress toward equality. A handful of countries have been moving backwards in the index: Jordan, Mali, Croatia, Slovak Republic and Sri Lanka.

And the authors say they are particularly disappointed that progress on closing the wage gap has been "stalling markedly" in the last few years.

The data suggests women are earning now what men were 10 years ago - a global average of just over £7,300 ($11,000; €10,400) compared with £13,500 ($20,500; €19,200) paid to men.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34842471

[Cin]

Cologne sex attacks 'not even crimes according to German rape laws'
'If you don’t in the end have any physical harm to show for it - you haven’t been ripped apart, you haven’t gotten bruises, you’re not getting a conviction'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a6954586.html

The reported sexual assault of as many as 1,000 women on New Year's Eve in Cologne may not even be considered a crime in Germany.

Currently, Germany's rape laws only include attacks where a victim can prove they physically resisted and verbally said "no".

“The German law accepts that a man generally has the right to touch a woman, to have sexual intercourse with a woman. It’s his right, unless the woman shows her resistance very, very strongly,” Chantal Louis, an editor at Emma, Germany’s oldest feminist magazine, told Buzzfeed.

“We have a situation where … even touching the breasts or vagina can’t be punished in the logic of that law, because if the perpetrator does it very quickly, you don’t have time to resist. It seems weird and crazy, but that’s German law.”

The law focuses on the overwhelming force of the perpetrator, reportedly requiring there to be a "threat of imminent danger to life and limb".

As such, for a court to rule a woman was raped, she must prove she physically resisted her attacker with bruises or other injuries on her body.

“You have to be able to show that violence has been committed against you,” Nancy Gage-Lindner, a member of the German Women Lawyer's Association, told Buzzfeed.

“If you don’t in the end have any physical harm to show for it - you haven’t been ripped apart, you haven’t gotten bruises, you’re not getting a conviction."

The government has approved an amendment which no longer requires physical refusal. Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet signed off on the change, which will now go to the parliament for approval before being passed into law.

Refugees were widely blamed for the attacks, leading to a hardening of attitudes towards Ms Merkel's open door policy.