Sixty-One Women in Iran Prison Begin Hunger Strike after Amini Protester Executed
New Age
Islam News Bureau
25 January 2024
·
Sixty-One Women In Iran Prison Begin Hunger Strike
After Amini Protester Executed
·
Palestinian Activist Ahed Tamimi Among Winners At
Palestine Book Awards
·
Iran Designers Try To Strike Balance Between Colour
And Strict Dress Code For Women
·
2.5 Million Girls Deprived Of Education In
Afghanistan: US Representative Rina Amiri
·
Israeli Women 'Raped, Impregnated' by Hamas Will
Decide Whether to Keep Babies Upon Release: Report
·
Indonesian Women Hope Election Breaks Them Into Boys’
Club
·
64K Women And Girls Became Pregnant Due To Rape In
States With Abortion Bans, Study Estimates
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-prison-hunger-strike-amini/d/131584
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Sixty-One Women In Iran Prison Begin
Hunger Strike After Amini Protester Executed
A group of
female political prisoners took part in a rare protest inside the notorious
Evin Prison on May 23.
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Holly Johnston
Jan 25, 2024
Sixty-one women held in Tehran's
notorious Evin prison are to begin a hunger strike on Thursday to protest
against the execution of political prisoners, after a man arrested during the
Mahsa Amini demonstrations was hanged.
The news "has sparked a wave of
anger and protest in society", jailed Iranian activist and Nobel Peace
Prize winner Narges Mohammadi said on X in a statement announcing the strike.
"The imprisoned women, to keep the
names of the executed alive and to survive, hundreds of individuals in the
prisons of the Islamic republic awaiting execution, will resist," she
added.
The judiciary announced Mohammad
Ghobadlou was executed on Monday, after being convicted of killing of a police
officer during the nationwide demonstrations in 2022 that followed the death of
Amini in police custody. His mother protested outside Karaj prison before his
death.
Rights groups said he was denied legal
representation and his rights were "grossly violated" during his
detention.
Mr Ghobadlou had been under medical
supervision for bipolar disorder since the age of 15 and was denied medication
while detained to extract a "forced confession", Amnesty
International said last May.
The group said his family were stunned
by the execution announcement, which took place as they awaited a retrial.
Ms Mohammadi's father Karim, 90, is one
of dozens who plan to join the 61 prisoners in the hunger strike.
“I am prohibited from making requests
and meeting her. I am longing to hear her voice, but I take pride in their
willpower and resistance and I pledge not to eat morning until night in support
of them,” he wrote in a statement shared by his daughter on X.
“I urge each and every person in Iran to
support the women standing in Evin and strongly oppose the executions.”
Evin holds thousands of political
prisoners and dual citizens the West says are pawns in Tehran's attempts to
gain influence in discussions on resurrecting the 2015 nuclear deal. The
agreement, signed by Iran and global powers, put limits on Tehran's nuclear
programme in exchange for relief from sanctions.
Some of Iran's most revered lawyers,
academics and activists are detained at the prison. Former inmates include
British-Iranian dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Former prisoners and relatives of
foreign citizens held in Evin previously told The National that inmates were
subjected to physical and psychological torture, solitary confinement and mock
executions.
UN experts on Tuesday urged Iran to halt
its "horrific wave of executions" and expressed alarm over the
country's unfair trial process.
“We are shocked that the authorities
went ahead with the execution despite the fact Mr Ghobadlou and his lawyer had
no information about the legal basis for the intended execution,” the experts
said.
The UN continues "to stand against
and condemn the use of the death penalty”, the UN Secretary General's
spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said during a daily briefing in New York.
Prominent activists in danger of being
put to death have also joined the strike, including rapper Toomaj Salehi.
Iran is second only to China in its use
of the death penalty and executed more than 600 people last year. Tehran has
put to death at least eight people arrested over the 2022 demonstrations.
All were faced charges of
"corruption on Earth" after authorities accused them of murdering
paramilitary officers during the suppression of the protests.
Source: thenationalnews.com
https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/2024/01/25/sixty-one-women-in-iran-prison-begin-hunger-strike-after-amini-protester-executed/
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Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi among
winners at Palestine Book Awards
Palestinian
activist Ahed Tamimi wins award for her memoir 'They Called Me a Lioness: A
Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom' [Getty]
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24 January, 2024
Palestinian writer and activist Ahed
Tamimi was among the winners of the Palestine Book Awards (PBA) on 18 January,
with the ceremony being held virtually to allow Palestinians from across the
occupied territory to attend.
The PBA returned for its 12th year
running to showcase Palestinian literature with Tamimi - who was released by
Israel as part of a hostage and detainee exchange between Hamas and Israel in
November - among those honoured.
Tamimi won the memoir award alongside
Palestinian-American journalist Dena Takruri for the autobiographical novel
They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom.
This chronicled Tamimi's activism
leading to her eight-month imprisonment by Israeli forces at the age of 16.
Tamimi thanked her father Bassem Tamimi
during her acceptance speech, who Israel has detained without charge, and
called for his release along with an end to the war on Gaza.
"I can’t feel joy until the war
ends and he’s back with us," Tamimi said.
"I wish that the world will restore
our hope in this life again, because sadly we have lost our faith in all
international organisations, in the international community- and in humanity
and its meaning, really after everything we’ve seen and continue to see."
Takruri used her acceptance speech to
highlight US President Joe Biden's "complicity" in Israel’s war on
Gaza.
She also praised Tamimi for her
contributions to Palestinian resistance, calling her “steadfast and inspiring”.
"This occupation is out of control
and Israel has really escalated to next level genocidal mania, which is
alarming to all of us. But we remain steadfast and hopeful in our dream of
liberation and freedom," Takruri said.
Other writers who received accolades
include creative award winner Dareen Tatour, for her bilingual poetry book I
Sing From the Window of Exile, and translation award winner Ibrahim Muhawi, for
his translation of Among the Almond Trees: A Palestinian Memoir.
Middle East scholar, activist, and
journalist Dr Rosemary Sayigh was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for
her work that focuses on the narratives of displaced Palestinian women.
Source: newarab.com
https://www.newarab.com/news/ahed-tamimi-among-winners-palestine-book-awards
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Iran Designers Try to Strike Balance between Colour
and Strict Dress Code for Women
25 January ,2024
Moving away from dark clothing, Iranian
designers are trying to strike a fine balance between a growing trend favoring
bright colors and the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code for women.
“As a young woman, I choose clothes in a
modern design with bright colors,” 22-year-old designer Hadis Hassanlou told
AFP at a fashion exhibition in the historic Saadabad Palace in Tehran.
Since shortly after the 1979 Iranian
Revolution, women in Iran have had to observe a strict dress code and wear
loose-fitting garments while also covering the head and neck.
When they venture out into the streets,
many women opt for head-to-toe black chadors. But in recent years, Iranian
designers have also sought to include brighter colors in their creations.
New designs at the exhibition, where
some 50 garments were on show, included everything from black chadors to long
floral-patterned dresses and coats fitted at the waist.
“When designing, I first take society’s norms
and rules into consideration,” said designer Sanaz Sarparasti.
She says her colorful designs aimed to
keep up with growing trends among young Iranian women.
They “want to be freer, more modern and
more up-to-date in how and what they wear,” Sarparasti said.
The strict dress code for women has been
the subject of heated debate since nationwide protests following the death in
custody in September 2022 of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had
been arrested for allegedly breaching the dress code.
During the protests, many women
demonstrators cast off their headscarves or even burned them. Others
increasingly began to flout the clothing rules, leading to a severe crackdown
by the authorities.
Strict norms
Designers say the shift to brighter colors
has not been easy, especially as many women still stick to darker shades.
“Societal norms and the country’s
regulations often require darker colors,” said Afshin Parsaee.
“We still need to produce them as well,”
the designer said.
Besides wearing a hijab covering the
head and neck, women who work in government offices are required to wear dark,
long uniforms.
At the exhibition, Culture Minister
Mohammad Esmaili said clothing was “the most important cultural symbol of any
civilization,” and hailed what he called the “modest” characteristic of Islamic
clothing in Iran.
Hassanlou said she has sought to combine
colors with Iran’s traditional art of calligraphy in her designs which she says
are derived from “original Persian fashion” that has evolved over thousands of
years.
“One of my goals when designing an
outfit is that it be modern and colorful, even while following calligraphic
tradition,” she said.
Others hope to see their work one day in
prominent fashion capitals.
“We’ve put on the agenda promoting Persian
clothing fashion week in Paris, Milan and London,” said Hadis Pazouki, head of
the country’s national fashion, clothing and lifestyle foundation.
“We believe that exquisite Persian
clothes can be worn by anyone, not only Iranians.”
For fashion exhibition visitor Fatemeh
Fazeli, 19, the shift to brighter colors has been a welcome change.
“I can never wear a dark-colored
headscarf ... except at funerals,” she said.
“When you wear bright colors your mood
changes and you feel better.”
Source: alarabiya.net
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/01/25/Iran-designers-try-to-strike-balance-between-color-and-strict-dress-code-for-women
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2.5 Million Girls Deprived Of Education In
Afghanistan: US Representative Rina Amiri
Fidel Rahmati
January 25, 2024
Rina Amiri, the US Special
Representative for Afghan Women’s Affairs, has stated on the occasion of World
Education Day that 2.5 million girls have been deprived of education as a
result of the restrictive measures imposed by the Taliban government.
Ms. Amiri wrote on her social media platform X
on Wednesday, January 24th, that the Taliban regime’s restrictive actions have
denied access to education for 2.5 million girls in Afghanistan over the past
two years.
According to her, millions of girls in
Afghanistan have lost their dreams.
The US Special Representative in
Afghanistan calls on the global community to stand with Afghan women and girls
in addressing the current crisis in Afghanistan.
Amnesty International has also launched
a campaign to support girls’ education in Afghanistan simultaneously with World
Education Day, which falls on January 24th.
The organization stated on Wednesday,
January 24th, that Afghan girls are sharing their stories on this day,
expressing both their heartbreak and hope, as their fundamental human right to
education continues to be violated by the Taliban.
Amnesty International has initiated an
online petition to support girls’ education and calls on education advocates
and its audience worldwide to expand the campaign by signing this petition.
Reports from monitoring organizations
show that this deprivation not only denies girls their right to education but
also exposes them to gender-based violence, forced and early marriages, mental
health issues, and ongoing abuse.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/2-5-million-girls-deprived-of-education-in-afghanistan-rina-amiri/
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Israeli Women 'Raped, Impregnated' by
Hamas Will Decide Whether to Keep Babies upon Release: Report
JANUARY 25, 2024
Rohit
Israeli officials are drawing up plans
to deal with the possibility of unwanted pregnancies in women who were
kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack. Hostages, held under Hamas, who
have gotten “pregnant from being raped in Gaza” will have to decide whether to
keep their baby or terminate the pregnancy after their release.
More than 130 Israelis were held in Gaza
after nearly four months of war including young women and teenage girls.
Preliminary information suggests that some have been subjected to sexual abuse,
both during the initial attack and in Hamas captivity, according to local news
outlet Walla.
There have been talks in hospitals and
among gynecologists across the country about preparing for the return of
Israeli hostages who have been sexually assaulted and are currently at
different stages of pregnancy. A pregnancy termination committee typically
determines whether to grant an abortion request, but officials are considering
bypassing that step to reduce the red tape, The New York Post reported, citing
Israeli media.
SEXUAL ABUSE
The Associated Press last month reported
that the Israeli civilians released by Hamas, both men and women, were sexually
assaulted or abused while in captivity. In a report detailing allegations of
severe and widespread sexual abuse, a doctor who treated some of the 110
hostages released from captivity told the AP that at least 10 men and women
among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused.
At a discussion in the Israeli
parliament on Tuesday, Chen Almog-Goldstein, who was released from captivity
after more than 50 days in Gaza, revealed that some of the younger female
hostages have stopped menstruating. “There are girls who have not gotten their
period in a long time. Perhaps we all have to pray that their bodies protect them
and they won’t get pregnant from rape,” the 49-year-old said.
Aviva Siegel, a former Hamas captive,
recently told Israeli lawmakers that she witnessed members of the terror group
bringing female captives “inappropriate clothing, dolls clothes.” Siegel said
the women hostages have been turned into “puppets with whom they could do what
they wanted, when they wanted, and it’s beyond belief that they’re still
there.’’
Urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to act swiftly to free the remaining hostages, relatives of captives stressed
that the longer their loved ones remain in captivity, the higher the risk they
would end up pregnant. If the women are not released in the next few months,
the kin of female hostages fear that it will be too late to end their pregnancies.
Meanwhile, the Israeli media said that women who decide to keep their babies
will receive financial, legal and mental health support from the government.
Source: news18.com
https://www.news18.com/world/israeli-women-raped-impregnated-by-hamas-will-decide-whether-to-keep-babies-upon-release-8753700.html
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Indonesian women hope election breaks
them into boys’ club
January 25, 2024
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s election lineup
next month will be dominated by men, but a number of women are trying to break
into a political scene long overshadowed by patriarchal elites.
More than 200 million people are
eligible to vote in the February 14 election, with slightly more than half of
them women, according to the country’s election commission, yet only a handful
of women represent them in parliament.
“We have a lot of dedicated and capable
female politicians, but there are still many who consider women weak and
lacking leadership qualities,” legislative candidate Lingga Permesti told AFP
from the town of Klaten, where she is running for a seat.
“That is the reality, especially in
(rural) regions,” the 37-year-old said.
Indonesia, long known for its political
nepotism, has had one woman president — Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of
Indonesia’s founding father and first president Sukarno.
But she was not directly elected, rising
to the highest office from the vice presidency after the removal of Abdurrahman
Wahid in 2001. While her party retained high levels of popularity tied to her
father’s legacy, she lost two subsequent presidential races.
In next month’s vote, all 18 political
parties contesting 580 lawmaker seats have collectively met a mandated
nationwide quota of 30 percent women contenders, according to the election
commission’s final list.
Women have held ministerial portfolios,
the current house speaker is a woman and the proportion of women lawmakers rose
to one in five in 2019, from less than one in 10 in 1999. That compares to a
worldwide average of just over one in four, according to data from UN Women.
Despite the recent strides, women’s
representation is still not being taken seriously in Indonesia, according to
experts.
Some women candidates say they are being
treated like they are extraneous.
“During one of my campaigns, a male
district head told the people there that I was just a supplementary candidate.
That I was in the contest just to help my party to meet the representation
quota,” Permesti told AFP.
In the country’s first two presidential
debates, the three men battling for top office — Defense Minister Prabowo
Subianto and former provincial governors Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan —
did not once mention reproductive health care or equal opportunities.
Only one party has met the quota for
women candidates for the nationwide legislative elections in each of the
country’s 84 electoral districts, according to Koalisi Masyarakat Peduli
Keterwakilan Perempuan, a civil society group focusing on women’s
representation.
The election commission has also in some
instances allowed fewer women candidates than required, reinforcing a
reluctance to bring more women into politics, said election expert Titi
Anggraini from the University of Indonesia.
“2024 marks a decline in the affirmation
of women’s representation, indicating the country’s regression in fulfilling
political rights,” she said.
Indonesia’s “patriarchal society” has
stemmed from entrenched attitudes introduced during the decades-long Dutch
colonial era and then reinforced during Suharto’s autocratic rule, said Irwan
Martua Hidayana, an anthropologist at the University of Indonesia.
“If we take a look at the history, some
studies showed that Indonesia had egalitarian relations between men and women
before colonialism changed it,” Hidayana said.
Some women speak of positive experiences
in politics but say they were not reflected across the political spectrum.
Permesti said she was afforded a wide
range of opportunities to polish her skills in her Prosperous Justice Party, an
Islamic party, but not all were “ready to give women such spaces.”
Anindya Shabrina, a 28-year-old
legislative candidate for the Labour Party, said she once declined to join
another major party because of condescending attitudes from male politicians.
“I hope all parties will be more
accommodating toward women in politics,” she said, calling for political
education for women so their careers can begin at the grassroots level.
While millions of women will head to the
polls across the archipelago next month, some say their status in Indonesian
politics still leaves a lot to be desired.
“We have had a female president,
lawmakers, but it needs to be improved,” said Permesti.
“I hope that in 2029, we’ll have a
female presidential or vice presidential candidate.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2447736/world
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64K women and girls became pregnant due
to rape in states with abortion bans, study estimates
Jan. 25, 2024
Megan Lebowitz
More than 64,000 women and girls became
pregnant because of rape in states that implemented abortion bans after Roe v.
Wade was overruled, according to a new research estimate published online
Wednesday.
The research letter, published by JAMA
Internal Medicine and headed up by the medical director at Planned Parenthood
of Montana, estimated that nearly 520,000 rapes were associated with 64,565
pregnancies across 14 states, most of which had no exceptions that allowed for
terminations of pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape.
Texas topped the list, with 45% of the
rape-related pregnancies occurring within the state, researchers estimated.
Ninety-one percent of the estimated rape-related pregnancies took place in
states without exceptions for rape, according to the researchers.
"Few (if any)" of the women
and girls who became pregnant because of rape "obtained in-state abortions
legally, suggesting that rape exceptions fail to provide reasonable access to
abortion for survivors," the research letter said.
Abortion rape exceptions can be rendered
“virtually meaningless” because of rape reporting requirements, said Dr. David
Himmelstein, who co-authored the research and teaches at the School of Urban
Public Health at Hunter College.
"I think, frankly, those are window
dressing exceptions," Himmelstein said. "They're not actually
exceptions ... [that are] effective in making abortion available in cases of
rape."
The researchers used data from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Statistics
and the FBI to create their estimates.
The numbers were "really shockingly
high," said one of the authors of the research, Dr. Kari White, an
executive and scientific director at the pro-abortion-rights group Resound
Research for Reproductive Health.
"Unfortunately, I think that just
really reflects how common rape is in the United States," she said in an
interview.
Sexual violence affects millions of
people every year in the U.S., according to the CDC. Over half of women and
nearly 1 in 3 men have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact,
according to the CDC.
Abortion bans are also "really
interfering with people's abilities to make decisions about their reproductive
health care that are very personal," White said.
"And particularly for survivors of
rape, you know, they've already had their reproductive autonomy compromised,
and state policy is further getting in the way of them making decisions about
their health care," she added.
Twelve states are enforcing
almost-complete bans on abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a
pro-abortion-rights organization. While it is not banned in Wisconsin or North
Dakota, abortion access has been complicated in the two states by legal
uncertainty in Wisconsin and the decision by North Dakota’s only abortion
clinic to move, the institute said.
The Supreme Court overruled the landmark
decision Roe v. Wade in June 2022, ending decades of precedent. The court's
decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization also ushered in a wave
of states restricting or banning abortion.
Since the Dobbs decision, there has been
an increase in patients traveling across state lines to get abortions. During
the first half of 2023, nearly 1 in 5 people seeking abortions traveled to
other states for abortion care, according to research the Guttmacher Institute
published in December.
President Joe Biden has discussed
expanding reproductive rights as part of his re-election bid; he traveled to
Virginia on Tuesday to reiterate his position that protections provided by Roe
v. Wade should be enshrined into law. He has repeatedly said that if Congress
passes a bill to restore abortion protections that had been provided by Roe, he
would sign it.
Source: nbcnews.com
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/64k-women-girls-became-pregnant-due-rape-states-abortion-bans-study-es-rcna135565
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URL:
https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/iran-prison-hunger-strike-amini/d/131584