Turkish Parliament Sees Highest Number Of Female MPs
New Age Islam News Bureau
04 December 2020
• Violence Against Women In The Arab Region Increases By 55 Percent During Coronavirus Crisis
• Calls Flood In After Dhaka Police
Launch Women’s Cyber Support
• Pakistan’s First Woman Referee Saman
Zulfiqar Officiates At National T20 Women Championship
• Gov’t Determined To Protect Women And
Family: Erdoğan
• 2 Women Charged With Train Terror Near
Canadian Border
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/turkish-parliament-sees-highest-number/d/123664
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Turkish Parliament Sees Highest Number Of Female Mps
December 04 2020
File
photo
Since
women were given the right to elect and be elected in Turkey, women
representatives in the current Turkish parliament is at its highest.
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Since women were given the right to
elect and be elected in Turkey, women representatives in the current Turkish
parliament is at its highest.
After the Dec. 5, 1934 amendment on the
Constitution and Election Law granted women the right to elect and be elected,
17 female deputies entered the Turkish parliament for the first time as a
result of the elections held on Feb. 8, 1935.
Following this date, the ratio of
women’s representation in the assembly remained between 0.7% and 4.6%.
That ratio could not be surpassed till
the 23rd term in 2007.
In the parliament, where 550 deputies
work in total, the female representation rate became 9.1% in 2007; 14.3% in
2011, 17.6% on June 7, 2015 election, and 14.7% on Nov. 1, 2015.
As of the last election held, the figure
has risen to the highest level to date since 1934’s legal regulation.
In the 27th term parliament, which has
600 MPs, 104 female deputies entered the elections on June 24, 2018, pushed the
female representation rate to 17.1%.
The proportion of female MPs represented
in the 25th term *Parliament, which had 550 MPs, was 17.6% in the election on
June 7, 2015.
According to the last distribution of
seats, 54 out of 289 deputies in the ruling AKP are women, as well as 17 female
deputies of 138 in the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), 23 of 56 in
the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), 4 of 48 in the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP), 2 of 36 in the Good Party (İYİ Party) are located.
HDP has the highest female deputy ratio
among the parties in the assembly.
27th term parliament, which currently
has 584 deputies due to losses for various reasons, 101 of them are female. This
brings the proportion of women represented in the assembly to 17.29%.
The youngest MPs of the 27th term
parliament consist of female ones.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-parliament-sees-highest-number-of-female-mps-160587
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Violence against women in the Arab
region increases by 55 percent during coronavirus crisis
2020-12-02
A UN Women report launched Wednesday
showed an increase in cases of violence against women in the Arab region in the
wake of the coronavirus crisis by 55 percent.
The report was based on a survey which
examined the impact of the pandemic on violence against women and girls in 15
Arab countries including Jordan between May and November.
Civil society organizations attributed
increased violence to increased stress due to financial difficulties, staying
in enclosed spaces for long periods due to total lockdowns, the suspension of
services and support systems for women, and the exploitation of perpetrators of
violence on the internet due to social distancing and the prohibition of
gatherings.
The results of the study showed that
refugee and migrant women and women with disabilities have been exposed to
higher rates of violence, increased food insecurity, and the loss of their
livelihoods, and in some cases, they have lost support mechanisms such as
health and social services.
https://en.royanews.tv/news/23885/Violence-against-women-in-the-Arab-region-increases-by-55-percent-during-coronavirus-crisis
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Calls flood in after Dhaka police launch
women’s cyber support
November 19, 2020
DHAKA: Two days after launching an
all-female team to combat online abuse targeting women, Bangladeshi police say
they have received almost 1,000 complaints of cyber harassment.
“The phones are ringing constantly. We
are receiving calls from women all over the country,” Nasrin Akter, assistant
superintendent of the police cyber support for women (PCSW) unit, told Arab
News.
“Since launching the service, we have
registered around 1,000 phone calls,” she added.
The cyber support unit was initiated by
Bangladeshi police chief Benazir Ahmed following growing public concern at a
rise in gender-based violence and cybercrimes against women.
“Around 68 percent of women in the
cyberspace have been victims of cybercrimes. Of these, 73 percent have been
subjected to cyberbullying or harassment,” Ahmed said this week.
Police hope the unit will encourage
women to report digital abuse, including “revenge porn,” misuse of social media
content and blackmail, since complainants will share their personal details
with an all-women team instead of men.
“Although we had several specialist
units to deal with cybercrimes, there was none to help women and children
exclusively,” Sohel Rana, assistant inspector-general of police, told Arab
News.
According to the Bangladesh
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, there are more than 100 million
active internet users in the country. Mobile internet use is believed to be
limited to 33 percent of men and 16 percent of women.
Rana said that with a steady increase in
internet use, it was important to create an “exclusive” space where women could
voice issues related to cybercrime.
“A lot of the complaints are about
harassment. We register the complaints and provide necessary legal advice,” he
said.
The unit employs 12 police officers who
provide support to victims from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week.
“We receive complaints through the
hotline and our Facebook page. In some cases, we provide instant solutions. But
if the case requires further investigation, we refer them to the nearest police
station to file an official complaint,” Akter said.
In all cases, the “identity of the
complainant is kept confidential.”
The launch of the women’s cyber-support
unit follows legislation to introduce the death penalty for convicted
rapists.
Bangladesh was hit by nationwide
protests after two gang-rapes in the country’s Noakhali and Sylhet districts.
However, activists say that neither the
death penalty nor the launch of the cyber unit will “change the reality,”
citing a spike in rape cases in the past month.
According to one media outlet, 183 rape
incidents were reported in the country in the four weeks to Nov. 13 — a 58
percent increase on the previous month.
Women and gender experts welcome the
police initiative, but are calling for an “integrated campaign” to limit
violence against women and children.
“Many women don’t know the proper uses
of social media platforms. They don’t have any idea how to protect themselves
from abuse,” Prof. Tania Haque, of Dhaka University, told Arab News.
“We need to focus on eliminating this
sort of crime through a massive awareness campaign,” she added.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1765156/world
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Pakistan’s first woman referee Saman
Zulfiqar officiates at National T20 Women Championship
Sohail Imran
Nov 27 2020
Saman Zulfiqar, Pakistan’s first and
only female cricket match referee started performing her duties on Friday in
the ongoing National Triangular Women’s T20 Championship.
Talking to a Geo correspondent, Saman
said that she is very happy to be working as the first female match referee in
the country.
The Sheikhupura-born official was the
only female match referee in Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) development panel
for the domestic cricket season 2020-21 announced earlier in September.
Content with her assignments, Saman
said, “I am very happy to supervise the matches. I was so proud when PCB
selected me in the panel but now that I have started working, I consider it a
huge honour.”
The newly appointed official was very
keen to learn and said she wants to gain as much experience as possible. She
appreciated PCB’s effort in supporting her and urged women to join the field.
“My message for girls is to pursue this
field. PCB has provided me a good platform. The girls should also consider
umpiring as a field,” she added.
https://www.geo.tv/latest/320967-pakistans-first-ever-female-cricket-match-referee-saman-zulfiqar-officiates-her-first-match
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Gov’t determined to protect women and
family: Erdoğan
December 03 2020
The Turkish government is determined to
protect the rights of women and strengthen the structure of families, President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said, stressing that women’s rights in Turkey saw most
progress during the tenure of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“We are determined to achieve goals to
strengthen the family and women’s rights,” he said on Dec. 3, speaking at an
event marking the 86th anniversary of Turkish women’s suffrage.
“We consider every attack and threat
made to the family directly as an attack on our existence,” Erdoğan said,
stressing that the government is sensitive about preventing violence against
women.
“We say that our nation is not a
patriarchal or matriarchal nation, but a ‘family-ruled’ nation,” he stated.
In Turkey, there is a group of people
that constantly comment on and criticize issues such as the environment, women,
children and the disabled, he said. “They do not have the smallest acquis on
these very issues they exploit. While we put forth all our efforts, we always
face a disgraceful picture. In this respect, the CHP is a complete disaster.”
[HH] Erdoğan sues CHP chair over
comments on Sledgehammer, Ergenekon cases
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has filed
a lawsuit against main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal
Kılıçdaroğlu for his comments claiming the government backed FETÖ when they
launched Sledgehammer and Ergenekon cases against military officials more than
a decade ago.
Erdoğan has demanded that Kılıçdaroğlu
pay 500,000 Liras for his remarks in a group parliament meeting on Dec. 1.
“Weren’t you prime minister when the
chief of General Staff of this country was jailed on charges of terrorism?”
Kılıçdaroğlu had asked, referring to former top soldier İlker Başbuğ who was
imprisoned for 26 months in 2013. Başbuğ was released only after a verdict by
the Constitutional Court.
It was later proven that Başbuğ and many
other senior military officials were prosecuted and jailed as a result of
judicial plots orchestrated by FETÖ, a terror organization which attempted to
overthrow the AKP government in mid-2016.
Kılıçdaroğlu claimed that Erdoğan was in
cooperation with FETÖ in attempts to jail the military brass through the
Sledgehammer and Ergenekon cases in the early years of the AKP rule.
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/govt-determined-to-protect-women-and-family-erdogan-160572
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2 Women Charged With Train Terror Near
Canadian Border
By Christine Hauser
Dec. 2, 2020
Two Washington State women have been
charged with terror attacks after they were captured on camera tampering with
train tracks in such a way as to risk a derailment, the federal authorities
announced this week.
The authorities, who have been
investigating dozens of similar cases this year, believe the actions are
intended to express solidarity with Indigenous people in Canada who oppose the
construction of an oil pipeline, according to the criminal complaint.
The women, Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, and
Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, were arrested on Saturday in Bellingham, Wash.,
and charged with one count of terrorist attacks and violence against railroad
carriers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington
said in a statement. They appeared in the Federal District Court in Seattle on
Monday and were released until their next court appearance, on Dec. 14, the
office said.
The F.B.I.’s Joint Terrorism Task Force
has been investigating the placement of shunts — devices consisting of wires
and magnets that interfere with the signals indicating the presence of a train
— on tracks in the region since Jan. 19, the complaint said. Some shunts were hidden
under rocks, it said.
Since January, there have been 41 cases
of shunts placed on the BNSF Railway tracks in Whatcom and Skagit Counties,
near the border with Canada, causing crossing guard malfunctions, braking
system interference and, in one case, the near derailment of tanks carrying
hazardous chemicals, according to U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran.
“These crimes endanger our community,”
Mr. Moran said in the statement.
On 10 occasions, shunts were placed in
areas where tracks and streets crossed, which could put vehicles at risk of an
oncoming train, the statement said. On Oct. 11, shunts were planted in three
locations in the two counties, setting off a braking system on a train that was
transporting hazardous and combustible material, it said.
The emergency braking caused a portion
of the train to separate from the engine, according to the statement.
“Decoupling has the potential to cause a derailment — in this case — of tanker
cars of flammable gas in a residential area,” it said.
Shortly after the first shunt was
discovered, a claim of responsibility was posted on an anarchist website,
prosecutors said. The site, a “digital community center” for anarchist,
antifascist and anticapitalist movements called It’s Going Down, posted an
article on Jan. 22 saying that the action was “in solidarity with Native
American tribes in Canada seeking to prevent the construction of an oil
pipeline across British Columbia, and with the express goal of disrupting BNSF
operations and supplies for the pipeline,” according to the complaint.
The complaint appears to refer to an
anonymous article saying, in part, that “we disrupted the high-volume railway
that moves resources from the active ports of Everett, Edmonds, Seattle and
further south to the Blaine border crossing into Canada.”
The website, which says it doesn’t take
responsibility for the content it publishes, says it does “not condone or
promote illegal, violent, and unlawful behavior or actions, or acts of
intimidation against individuals or groups.”
The criminal complaint gave no further
details about the Indigenous groups and the pipeline. But a broader movement of
opposition to Canada’s fossil fuel ambitions has prompted some groups to assert
their sovereignty over the land and try to stall oil and gas projects.
Jesse Cantor, the public defender
representing Ms. Reiche, said the case was at a very early stage. “Ms. Reiche
is presumed innocent and she was released from custody on an appearance bond on
Monday,” he said in an email on Wednesday.
A lawyer for Ms. Brooks and a spokesman
from BNSF, which serves the western two-thirds of the United States and three
Canadian provinces, were not immediately available to comment on Wednesday.
The arrests of the two women took place
on Saturday, when Deputy Chief Tyler Nies of the BNSF Railroad Police received
a motion alert from a game camera installed on a stretch of the network in
Bellingham, the complaint said. He reviewed the photograph, saw a “trespasser”
and another object or person nearby, and contacted the Whatcom County Sheriff’s
Office, it said.
Chief Nies then opened his laptop and
noticed that track signals were disrupted in the same area; he then called a
member of the task force, it said.
When the officer, Lucas Shulman, arrived
on the scene, Ms. Reiche told him and a sheriff’s deputy that she and Ms.
Brooks were looking for the keys to her car, which was parked nearby. The car
had a bumper sticker with the words Indigenous Land overlaid on a map of the
United States, the complaint said.
The two were detained for trespassing,
and the authorities later found Ms. Reiche had a bag with rubber gloves, copper
wire and a drill with a wire brush attachment that was believed to have been
used to scuff the track to improve its contact with the shunt, the complaint
said.
The authorities also found a shunt at
the place where the women were discovered kneeling, it said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/us/train-shunt-washington.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1779351_
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