Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison a Sponsor of Same-sex Immigration Bill
Monday, March 23, 2009
Turkey: Transgender Activist Murdered; Government Should Prosecute Violence, Prohibit Discrimination
From Human Rights Watch
Turkey: Transgender Activist Murdered
Government Should Prosecute Violence, Prohibit Discrimination
Members of Lambda Istanbul, which works for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual (LGBTT) people, told Human Rights Watch that in the last month Ebru had asked the Prosecutor's Office for protection from the man who had beaten her on several occasions and threatened to kill her. Lambda Istanbul was told that a few weeks ago police detained the man but released him two hours later. The same man is under police custody as the murder suspect.
"The Turkish police have a duty to respond to all credible threats of violence, whoever the victim," said Juliana Cano Nieto, researcher in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights program at Human Rights Watch. "Investigating violence against LGBT people, prosecuting suspects, and passing effective legislation to ensure equality are all critical to ensuring that these murderous abuses end."
This is the second killing of a member of Lambda Istanbul in the past year. In July 2008, an unknown person shot and killed 26-year-old Ahmet Yildiz as he was leaving a café near the Bosporus. No one has been charged with this crime.
Members of Lambda Istanbul described Ebru as a leading figure in the organization, who worked to end police harassment and ill treatment of transgender people in Taksim, a central area in Istanbul. The LGBTT Platform for Human Rights, a coalition of several LGBTT organizations in Turkey, held a vigil on March 12, 2009 in front of Ebru's home.
In 2007, Lambda Istanbul twice submitted a file of 146 cases they had documented to the Istanbul Provincial Human Rights Board, many dealing with reports of violence against transgender people, including cases of violence by the police. Several of these cases had been reported to the police. The then-deputy governor of Istanbul told Lambda Istanbul that the governor's office had found no records of these allegations and complaints in the police districts involved.
"Until an anti-discrimination law is in place to protect the LGBT community and the police take seriously their duty to protect everyone, these murders will continue," said Cano Nieto. "Turkey cannot continue to ignore its obligations when lives are at stake."
The European Court of Human Rights has held that Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to life, requires police forces to take reasonable steps to protect a person when they receive credible information that there is a risk to that person's life.
A May 2008 Human Rights Watch report on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Turkey, "We Need a Law for Liberation," documents the long and continuing history of violence and abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity there. A subsequent December 2008 report specifically documents police violence in the country and features cases of harassment and abuses against transgender people in Istanbul.
In these reports, Human Rights Watch called on Turkey to pass legislation protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Picture of the Week: Stylish Muslims
Olivia Arthur / Magnum for TIME
Stylish
Hala dons a pink hijab for a date on Valentine's Day. Muslim women's attitudes about the appropriate amount of make-up to wear and the proper amount of hair to reveal vary widely.
Full Article.
Stylish
Hala dons a pink hijab for a date on Valentine's Day. Muslim women's attitudes about the appropriate amount of make-up to wear and the proper amount of hair to reveal vary widely.
Full Article.
Hardline Saudi Clerics Urge TV Ban on Women, Music
By DONNA ABU-NASR
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 22, 2009; 6:48 PM
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- A group of Saudi clerics urged the kingdom's new information minister on Sunday to ban women from appearing on TV or in newspapers and magazines, making clear that the country's hardline religious establishment is skeptical of a new push toward moderation.
In a statement, the 35 hardline clergymen also called on Abdel Aziz Khoja, who was appointed by King Abdullah on Feb. 14, to prohibit the playing of music and music shows on television.
"We have great hope that this media reform will be accomplished by you," said the statement. "We have noticed how well-rooted perversity is in the Ministry of Information and Culture, in television, radio, press, culture clubs and the book fair."
Although it raises the pressure on the new minister, the recommendation is likely to have little effect. Khoja's appointment was part of a government shake-up by Abdullah that removed a number of hardline figures and is believed to be part of an effort to weaken the influence of conservatives in this devout desert kingdom.
"No Saudi women should appear on TV, no matter what the reason," the statement said. "No images of women should appear in Saudi newspapers and magazines."
Saudi Arabia was founded on an alliance with the conservative Wahhabi strain of Islam that sees the mixing of sexes as anathema and believes the playing of music violates religious values.
The former information minister, Iyad Madani, earned the ire of hardliners several years ago by allowing music in government-run TV and female journalists to interview men, despite the country's strict gender-segregation rules.
Women also appear on Saudi television with their faces showing, though most in public totally cover themselves.
Newspapers publish pictures of Saudi women, but almost always with their heads covered, while pictures of Western entertainers are shown but bare arms and cleavage are painted over.
The clerics include several professors from the ultra-conservative Imam University, Islamic research scholars, a judge in a court in the resort of Taif and some government employees.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, in town for meetings with Saudi officials, told a news conference that during lunch he sat between a female Saudi surgeon and a female journalist. He said while one woman is allowed to perform surgery and another is allowed to teach, neither is permitted to drive.
"I find that bizarre," he said.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Picture of the Week: We Want Education in the Swat Valley
A little girl in Karachi holds a placard condemning attacks on girls' schools in Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley
Related Story from the Associated Press.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Video: Iranian Pop Band in London
Iranian pop band in London.
Video from the BBC. - February 27, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Facebook Adds Arabic and Hebrew
From BBC - March 12, 2009
Facebook engineers are developing the site in a further 60 languages.
Full Article.
I've developed online habits! I'm used to navigating Facebook in English and from left-to-right
Marwa, Iraqi Facebook user in London
Full Article.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
US to Sign UN Gay Rights Declaration
From the Associated Press - March 18, 2009
Sources: US to sign UN gay rights declaration
Sources: US to sign UN gay rights declaration
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will endorse a U.N. declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality that then-President George W. Bush had refused to sign, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. officials said Tuesday they had notified the declaration's French sponsors that the administration wants to be added as a supporter. The Bush administration was criticized in December when it was the only western government that refused to sign on.
The move was made after an interagency review of the Bush administration's position on the nonbinding document, which was signed by all 27 European Union members as well as Japan, Australia, Mexico and three dozen other countries, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Congress was still being notified of the decision. They said the administration had decided to sign the declaration to demonstrate that the United States supports human rights for all.
"The United States is an outspoken defender of human rights and critic of human rights abuses around the world," said one official.
"As such, we join with the other supporters of this statement and we will continue to remind countries of the importance of respecting the human rights of all people in all appropriate international fora," the official said.
The official added that the United States was concerned about "violence and human rights abuses against gay, lesbian, transsexual and bisexual individuals" and was also "troubled by the criminalization of sexual orientation in many countries."
"In the words of the United States Supreme Court, the right to be free from criminalization on the basis of sexual orientation 'has been accepted as an integral part of human freedom'," the official said.
Gay rights and other groups had criticized the Bush administration when it refused to sign the declaration when it was presented at the United Nations on Dec. 19. U.S. officials said then that the U.S. opposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation but that parts of the declaration raised legal questions that needed further review.
According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those parts could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday how the Obama administration had come to a different conclusion.
When it was voted on in December, 66 of the U.N.'s 192 member countries signed the declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with anti-gay discrimination.
But 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality — and in several, homosexual acts can be punished by execution. More than 50 nations, including members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, opposed the declaration.
Some Islamic countries said at the time that protecting sexual orientation could lead to "the social normalization and possibly the legalization of deplorable acts" such as pedophilia and incest. The declaration was also opposed by the Vatican.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Cairo: A Woman's Place is in the Mosque?
- March 2, 2009A woman's place is in the mosque?
BBC Religious Affairs correspondent, Cairo
The role that women play in mosques varies substantially around the Muslim world. Visits to two mosques in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, show just how different women's experiences can be.
The al-Seddeeq mosque, in a prosperous suburb of Cairo, stands in front of a park - unusual enough in an overcrowded city lacking much green space.
The large mosque, built in the last 20 years, forms an impressive focal point in the local community.
But it also represents one potential vision of the future for Egypt's mosques - where women are heavily involved in increasing aspects of the mosque's activities.
As I step inside, I hear sounds I had not been expecting - the raucous shouts of children playing.
About 250 young boys are surrounded by paint, glue, paper and old egg boxes - making artwork from recycled materials.
Earlier in the day, they had been learning to recite the Koran, but by late afternoon it was time for a more hands-on task.
There is nothing unusual about mosques offering educational programmes. But at al-Seddeeq mosque, all of the educational work is run by women.
A new role
On the day I visit, 35 female volunteers are involved - and 2,000 local children are on a waiting list to join the programmes.
Maha al-Mahy runs the mosque's work with children as well as educational programmes for women.
She is clear that women's role in the mosque will continue to develop, just as opportunities for women within Egyptian society also open up.
"Other things will be changed. Maybe we are going to have more work, more roles, in future," she tells me.
Would that mean, I asked her, that women might even fulfil some of the roles still only undertaken by men?
"Why not?" she answers. "Men are good - but also I think women can do what men do. Some roles, it's better for women than men."
But you do not have to travel far to find very different attitudes to women's involvement.
In a poorer part of Cairo, I am driven through crowded streets past several mosques.
Some of those we pass do not have any facilities for women to pray, let alone be involved in other activities.
But at one mosque, we meet Sabriah Ibrahim. She is the only woman involved with leadership - and in this poorer area, no local women are wealthy enough to be able to volunteer.
The mosque could hardly be more different from the gleaming marble structure of al-Seddeeq, in the more prosperous part of town.
Contrasting opportunities
Hemmed in by other buildings, it is a cramped building on a small site, with the men's prayer hall as the main focus.
There is one small office, which doubles up as an administrative base and the place from which clothing is distributed to those in need. But there is not the capacity to offer programmes like those that the al-Seddeeq mosque is able to offer to the hundreds of children in the area.
But perhaps the most striking contrast is in the role that women play in the life of the mosque.
"Most of the week, women don't come for prayer, they only come for the Friday prayer, or when there are lessons or certain activities," Sabriah Ibrahim says.
"But other than this, very few women come to the mosque, and most of them are older women."
The disparity between the two mosques I visited is striking.
In one, women play an active role and dream even of running those activities still the preserve of men - perhaps, one day, even leading prayers.
In the other, one sole woman tries to run women's activities, but in an area where there is little tradition of women being involved in their local mosque.
Some of the factors seem to be financial: Al-Seddeeq's volunteers are women who are wealthy enough to be able to choose to spend time at the mosque rather than needing to work; in the crowded streets of Old Cairo, few women have such an opportunity.
Later, I meet Dr Mohammed Abulaila, recently retired as head of Islamic Studies at Cairo's al-Azhar University.
He too believes that economic factors play a role in whether women attend mosques - put simply, poorer women are more likely to have to stay at home with their families.
But he stresses that Islam itself makes no distinction between men and women, when it comes to the importance of attending the mosque.
"Women, like men, are commanded to go the mosque," he tells me.
"There is no discrimination in Islam. Men are required to pray five times a day, and women as well."
The gap between Dr Abulaila's words and the reality for many women in Cairo is clear.
But religion is just one part of life where opportunities for women are changing dramatically.
In the city's mosques, that opening up of opportunity is happening at startlingly different rates.
Islam, like many other religions, is beginning to face questions about how long centuries of male dominance will continue.
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