Migration Category: Global Old Site

This week a young man in Saudi Arabia was convicted and sentenced to 90 lashes and four months jail time after being caught on mall security cameras kissing a woman, reported the Associated Press. The man, seen in the company of two females, was arrested by the Saudi religious police for publicly “exchanging kisses and hugs” with one of the women accompanying him. The two women were also arrested.

According to a local newspaper, the man will receive the 90 lash punishment in three separate sessions and is forbidden from malls for the next two years, reported the Associated Press. The arrested women will be tried in a separate court at a later date.

The Saudi religious police enforce a strict moral code which forbids unrelated women and men from interacting. According to the Associated Press, officers regularly arrest unrelated couples dining in restaurants or mingling in coffee shops.

Saudi Arabia’s legal guardianship system, which requires women, both minors and adults, to be accompanied by a male guardian outside the home is also enforced by the religious police. If women wish to conduct themselves in public business, work, or to drive, they must obtain permission from or be accompanied by their male guardian, who may be her husband, father, brother, or even a minor son, according to Human Rights Watch. The Saudi Arabian government promised in June 2009 to follow United Nations suggestions to remove this restrictive system, but has not made this change.

In May a Saudi Arabian woman punched a religious police officer in the face while he was interrogating her for illegal socialization with an unrelated male. The couple was reportedly walking together in an amusement park when they were stopped by the police. She may face prison time and lashes.

In March, another Saudi Arabian woman, Sawsan Salim, was sentenced to 300 lashings and one and a half years in prison for filing harassment complaints about government officials and appearing in court in the northern Qasim region without a male guardian present. Salim appeared without a male guardian because her husband, her sole male family member, was in prison at the time. Similarly, in March 2009, Khamisa Sawadi, an elderly Saudi woman, was accused of fraternization with men after two men outside of her family brought her bread. She was sentenced to 40 lashings, 4 months jail time and deportation. In February 2008, an American business woman was arrested for being in the family section of a Starbucks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a male colleague.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a new joint collaboration to address women’s and children’s health during his opening address for the second global Women Deliver conference this week in Washington, DC. The collaboration, supported most notably by the Gates Foundation and their recent $1.5 billion pledge, will include a push to focus on women’s health issues at the Group of Twenty meeting occurring in Canada later this month.

Ban and Gates Foundation co-founder Melinda Gates revealed a comprehensive five-year plan to assist and improve women’s maternal health, family planning, access to contraception, nutrition, and vaccination needs, reports Reuters.

Ban acknowledged that lack of health care was a result of discrimination against women, saying, “the women and children are always last in line for health issues.” He continued, “It’s just morally unacceptable…this is a real human rights issue,” reported Reuters. Ban expressed hope that the US will lead the way, both financially and politically, in the push for improved global women’s health, but recognized the need for poorer countries to join the effort. Ban suggested that developing countries promise health issues at least 15 percent of their national budget. Gates reiterated, “this is a government issue, and it is going to take large scale government funding to make it work,” reported Reuters.

The three day Women Deliver conference is the largest meeting on international maternal health to occur in the past ten years with some 3,500 attendees. According to a media advisory released by the event, the conference is designed to gather global leaders to review recent maternal health trends, discuss challenges to women’s health, and “underscore the priority for funding health services for women and girls worldwide.”

The first same-sex marriage was performed in Portugal yesterday after the country legalized gay marriage in May. Language altering the country’s constitution to allow for same-sex marriage went into effect yesterday, reported On Top Magazine. The couple, Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, have been together since 2003 and played a strong role in campaigning for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the predominantly Catholic country. Pires and Paixao were married during a 15-minute-service in Lisbon, Portugal. They are both divorced Portugese mothers in their 30’s.

The bill that legalized same-sex marriage was passed by Portugal’s Parliament in January and reluctantly ratified by President Anibal Cavaco Silva in May, as he felt that a veto would have been overturned by liberal lawmakers in the country’s Parliament, reported the Associated Press. The conservative party previously sought a national referendum after collecting 90,000 signatures opposing the bill, but the referendum petition was rejected, reported the BBC. Under the new law, same-sex couples are still not allowed to legally adopt children.

The bill makes Portugal the sixth country in Europe to allow same-sex marriage, after Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Norway. Many other nations allow same-sex civil unions.

According to the Associated Press, Portugal’s socialist government passed the law as part of its effort to modernize Portugal, where homosexuality had been illegal until 1982. The law has faced intense church opposition, although the New York Times reported that “Portuguese society appears to be largely supportive.”

A Malawian couple who had been sentenced to 14 years of hard labor for being gay was released Saturday after a presidential pardon. A court in Malawi found Steven Mojenza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, guilty of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” in May 2010. The couple was first arrested at their home in December 2009, a day after publicly celebrating their engagement at a hotel. Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika reportedly issued the pardon on “humanitarian grounds only,” reported the Associated Press, and restated that homosexuality remains illegal in Malawi.

Malawi’s Minister of Gender and Children Patricia Kaliati told the BBC that “it doesn’t mean that now they are free people, they can keep doing whatever [they were] doing.” If the couple resumes their relationship, they could be rearrested. The couple’s lawyer, Mauya Msuku, further explained to the BBC, “the pardon only applies to the offence under which they were convicted. If, for example, they go back [to prison] and the state is of the view that they have recommitted the offence, the pardon will not apply.” Since their release from prison, several news reports have indicated that the pair are in hiding or that one of the two is missing.

The US State Department and many others globally had condemned the couple’s sentence. The State Department called the sentence “a deeply troubling violation of human rights” and vowed “to stand against any efforts to marginalize, criminalize, and penalize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gender community worldwide.”

Homosexuality is currently illegal in 37 African countries and legal only in South Africa. Currently in Uganda, the Parliament is still considering legislation that, in its original form, would have imposed life imprisonment as the minimum sentence for being gay and would have allowed for the death penalty.

The United Kingdom’s first television ad for abortion services ran earlier this week. The ad (see 0video) is sponsored by Marie Stopes International (MSI), one of the world’s leading family planning organizations, and advertises MSI’s 24-hour hotline. The ad will not air in Northern Ireland, as abortion continues to be illegal there. The ad will run approximately 25 times throughout the next month, reported the New Zealand Herald.

According to an MSI press release, the ad was created after a study showed only 42 percent of adults in the UK know where they can go, aside from a general practitioner, for advice if they or their partners were faced with an unplanned pregnancy. MSI’s CEO, Dana Hovig, said, “We hope the new ‘Are you late?’ campaign will encourage people to talk about abortion more openly and honestly, and empower women to make confident, informed choices about their sexual health.”

Naomi Phillips of the British Humanist Association told the Guardian UK that “Many will be surprised that only now will the first advert be broadcast on television to give women information about options they have following an unwanted pregnancy.” She continued, “It is vital that women with unintended and unwanted pregnancies are able to access, in a timely way, accurate, objective information about all of the options open to them. It seems that television advertising could be an effective way of reaching thousands of such women, and is to be welcomed.”

The French Council of Ministers approved a bill last week that would ban both the burqa and the niqab. This action sends the bill to the French Parliament for consideration. The burqa is a head-to-toe garment worn by some Muslim women and the niqab is a similar garment that has an opening for the eyes.

Last week, the French government said, “given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice (wearing a burqa or niqab), even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place,” reported CNN.

The French Parliament adopted a non-binding formal resolution earlier this month against the burqa. According to the Telegraph UK, the resolution states, “radical practices which violate the dignity and equality between men and women, such as the wearing of the full veil, are contrary to the values of the republic.”

In April, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to move forward to legislate a ban on the wearing of the burqa in public despite warnings from France’s State Council that such a law may be unconstitutional. His cabinet is scheduled to meet next week to consider a draft of the bill. If the ban is enacted, violations could lead to a 150 Euro fine ($190) and/or completion of a citizenship course. Forcing a woman to wear either garment could lead to a 15,000 Euro ($19,000) fine and up to a year in prison. The ban would apply to all women in public places, such as markets and public buildings, including tourists.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his opposition to the burqa, the head-to-toe garment worn by some Islamic women, in a speech to a joint session of the French Parliament in June 2009. In this speech, he said “The burqa is not welcome in French territory … In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” reported the Wall Street Journal. This speech, the first presidential address to the legislature in over a century, urged the Parliament to examine the practice of Muslim women in France wearing the burqa. In 2004 the French Parliament passed a law banning students from wearing veils and other religious symbols in public schools.

It is estimated that only about 1,900 women in France wear full veils. There are some 5 million Muslims in France.

The US State Department released a statement yesterday condemning the sentencing of a gay Malawian couple to 14 years of hard labor. A court in Malawi found Steven Mojenza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, guilty of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” earlier this week.

The statement says, “We view the criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity and sentencing to 14 years hard labor as a deeply troubling violation of human rights. Decriminalization of homosexuality is integral to the continued protection of universal human rights in Malawi. It is also crucial to the urgent need to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS – a fight in which the United States is closely allied with the Malawian people.”

It continues, “We remain disturbed by harassment, persecution, and exclusion based on sexual orientation or gender identity wherever it occurs. The State Department will continue to stand against any efforts to marginalize, criminalize, and penalize members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community worldwide.”

Homosexuality is currently illegal in 37 African countries and legal only in South Africa. Currently in Uganda, the Parliament is still considering legislation that, in its original form, would have imposed life imprisonment as the minimum sentence for being gay and would have allowed for the death penalty.

A Saudi Arabian woman who punched a religious police officer who was questioning her for illegal socialization with an unrelated male may face prison time and lashings. The couple, reportedly in their twenties, were walking in an amusement park in the city of Al-Mubarras when they encountered the police officer. According to AOL News, the young man collapsed for unknown reasons while being questioned.

Saudi women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar told the Media Line that “To see resistance from a woman means a lot…People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance,” reported the Jerusalem Post. She continued, “the media and the Internet have given people a lot of power and the freedom to express their anger…The Hai’a are like a militia, but now whenever they do something it’s all over the Internet. This gives them a horrible reputation and gives people power to react.”

The legal guardianship system in Saudi Arabia requires that women, both minors and adults, must be accompanied by a male guardian outside the home. If women wish to conduct themselves in public business, work, or to drive, they must obtain permission from or be accompanied by their male guardian, who may be her husband, father, brother, or even a minor son, according to Human Rights Watch. The Saudi Arabian government promised in June 2009 to follow United Nations suggestions to remove this restrictive system, but has not made this change.

In March, another Saudi Arabian woman, Sawsan Salim, was sentenced to 300 lashings and one and a half years in prison for filing harassment complaints about government officials and appearing in court in the northern Qasim region without a male guardian present. Salim woman appeared without a male guardian because her husband, her sole male family member, was in prison at the time. A similar case occurred in March 2009, when Khamisa Sawadi, an elderly Saudi woman, was accused of fraternization with men after two men outside of her family brought her bread. She was sentenced to 40 lashings, 4 months jail time and deportation. In February 2008, an American businesswoman was arrested for being in the family section of a Starbucks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a male colleague.

A court in Malawi found a gay couple guilty of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency” yesterday and will sentence the couple tomorrow. Steven Mojenza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, could face up to 14 years of hard labor. The couple were arrested at their home in December 2009 the day after celebrating their engagement with a party at a hotel, according to the Associated Press.

The couple has received international support from gay rights activists though many in Malawi are reportedly in support of the verdict. British activist Peter Tatchell told CNN, “While Steven and Tiwonge freely confirmed their love for each other, there was no credible evidence that they had committed any illegal homosexual acts…With so much hatred and violence in the world, it is bizarre that any court would criminalise two people for loving each other.” Tatchell also reportedly has received messages from both imprisoned men. Chimbalanga reportedly wrote, “I love Steven so much. If people or the world cannot give me the chance and freedom to continue living with him as my lover, then I am better off to die here in prison. Freedom without him is useless and meaningless.” Monjeza said, We have come a long way and even if our family relatives are not happy, I will never stop loving Tiwonge,” reported the Guardian UK.

Homosexuality is currently illegal in 37 African countries and legal only in South Africa. Currently in Uganda, the Parliament is still considering legislation that, in its original form, would have imposed life imprisonment as the minimum sentence for being gay and would have allowed for the death penalty.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged that the United States will not abandon Afghan women and girls today as Afghan President Hamid Karzai is visiting the United States.

According to the Associated Press, Clinton told three senior women Afghan officials who were traveling with Karzai that “We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always.” Clinton also said it is “essential that women’s rights and women’s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled on in the reconciliation process.” Her statements indicate that the US will not support reconciliation with Taliban militants unless they “respect women’s rights,” renounce the Taliban, and abide by the country’s laws, reported the Canadian Press.

In February 2010, Dr. Sima Samar, who leads Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission and Rachel Reid of Human Rights Watch, among others, testified before two subcommittees of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and warned that Afghan women must be included in the reconciliation and reintegration process. Samar stated that the “reconciliation and reintegration cannot be successful without women’s rights and human rights being guaranteed and women being included in all aspects of the rebuilding of Afghanistan. The process must be transparent in order to gain the public support of the Afghan people.” Reid reported that women in Afghanistan “are concerned about the potential consequences of deals with insurgents for their basic rights – even those who are barely able to exercise these rights today.”

Just this week, there were more reports of alleged gas attacks on Afghan schoolgirls and teachers. Dozens of Afghan girls at a school in northern Kunduz Province and at least six from Kabul were sickened. It is unclear if the Taliban were behind the most recent attacks. The Taliban has denied involvement in these attacks, but the government is blaming the attacks on rebels who oppose educating women and girls. Other similar attacks were reported just last week and at least 88 schoolgirls and teachers became ill after similar suspected poison gas attacks at schools in Kunduz Province in April 2010 . In May 2009, more than 150 students were hospitalized after three separate incidents where students became ill soon after reporting strong odors.

In Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, violence against schools that educate girls has been a key part of campaigns against the education of women. In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, more than 130 primarily all girl schools have been destroyed, allegedly by the Taliban. In total, hundreds of schools have been destroyed in Pakistan’s northwest region over the past several years. During the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which lasted until 2001, Afghan girls were forbidden to attend school. To date, more than 1,000 girls’ or co-educational schools have been bombed or burned in Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, Timor-Leste approved its first domestic violence law, eight years after it was initially drafted. The legislature voted overwhelmingly in favor of the law, with 30 votes in favor and three abstentions. Domestic violence is widespread in Timor-Leste, but is severely underreported. Most cases of domestic violence are resolved through traditional practices like the perpetrator paying a fine to the victim’s father.

Under the new law, “Police will be bound to investigate domestic violence crimes and victims will, under law, have access to emergency medical help, shelter, psycho-social and legal support services,” Pornchai Suchitta of the UN Population Fund told IRIN. The law also requires education on domestic violence to be included in school curricula and ensures that victims, not their fathers, receive monetary fines from perpetrators.

According to the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), opponents of the law argued that the law goes against the traditional culture and definition of the family in Timor-Leste. Fernanda Borges, President of the Parliamentary Committee for Government Legislation in the country, told UNIFEM, “we can’t use culture as a justification to commit violence. Violence is a crime. Timorese culture does not teach us to be violent.”

Flora Soriano Menezes, of a local NGO, told Irin “In Timor-Leste, it’s very common for men to pay a bride price, and sometimes they think that paying the price means they own their wives like they own animals.”

Two suspected gas attacks on Afghan schoolgirls sickened dozens of girls from the northern Kunduz Province and at least six from Kabul yesterday. According to Reuters, one of the students sickened in Kunduz, Farzana, reported seeing a man whose mouth and nose were covered throw a bottle near the school. In Kabul, a student named Samira told Reuters “I smelled something very sweet and when I went and told my teachers about it they said it was not a big incident but later on I saw girls falling down and collapsing and vomiting so we called the police.”

It is unclear if the Taliban were behind the most recent attacks. According to Al Jazeera, the Taliban has denied involvement in these attacks, but the government is blaming the attacks on rebels who oppose educating women and girls.

At least 88 schoolgirls and teachers became ill after similar suspected poison gas attacks at schools in Kunduz Province in April 2010 and other similar attacks were reported just last week. A similar incident also occurred in May 2009, when more than 150 students were hospitalized after three separate incidents during which students became ill soon after reporting strong odors.

In Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, violence against schools that educate girls has been a key part of campaigns against the education of women. In Pakistan’s Swat Valley, more than 130 primarily all girl schools have been destroyed, allegedly by the Taliban. In total, hundreds of schools have been destroyed in Pakistan’s northwest region over the past several years. During the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which lasted until 2001, Afghan girls were forbidden to attend school. To date, more than 1,000 girls’ or co-educational schools have been bombed or burned in Afghanistan.

Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) introduced the Improving Global Maternal and Newborn Health Outcomes while Maximizing Successes Act (Global MOMS Act) yesterday. The bill aims to reduce maternal mortality and promote maternal health worldwide by increasing access to education resources, family planning, post-partum care, and preventive healthcare. The bill would also require the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative to develop a strategy to both improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality. It has sixteen original cosponsors.

In a statement, Congresswoman Capps said, “Safe motherhood should be a basic right for all women. We have a moral obligation to make the right investments and ensure that all women, no matter where they live, have access to basic, life-saving care. The Global MOMS Act would create a comprehensive strategy that better coordinates our efforts on the ground in the countries where women need our help most. In the same way that the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief aligned existing efforts to better coordinate HIV/AIDS prevention efforts already underway, my bill would coordinate existing efforts to combat maternal mortality.”

Ninety-nine percent of pregnancy-related deaths occur in the developing world and the vast majority of these fatalities are preventable. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5), launched 10 years ago, is to bring the maternal mortality rate down by 75 percent by 2015, compared to the numbers in 1980. Of all the goals, MDG 5 has made the least progress.

The French Parliament adopted a non-binding formal resolution today against the burqa, a head-to-toe garment worn by some Muslim women. The Parliament will reportedly consider a law in July that will outlaw both the burqa and the niqab, a similar garment that has an opening for the eyes. According to the Telegraph UK, the resolution states, “radical practices which violate the dignity and equality between men and women, such as the wearing of the full veil, are contrary to the values of the republic.”

In April, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to move forward to legislate a ban on the wearing of the burqa in public despite warnings from France’s State Council that such a law may be unconstitutional. His cabinet is scheduled to meet next week to consider a draft of the bill. According to ABC News, if the French ban is enacted, violations could lead to a 15 to 25 Euro fine ($22-$36) and jail time up to one week. The ban would apply to all women in public places, such as markets and public buildings, including tourists.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his opposition to the burqa, the head-to-toe garment worn by some Islamic women, in a speech to a joint session of the French Parliament in June 2009. In this speech, he said “The burqa is not welcome in French territory…In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” reported the Wall Street Journal. This speech, the first presidential address to the legislature in over a century, urged the Parliament to examine the practice of Muslim women in France wearing the burqa. In 2004 the French Parliament passed a law banning students from wearing veils and other religious symbols in public schools.

It is estimated that only about 1,900 women in France wear full veils. According to Reuters, there are some 5 million Muslims in France.

On May 4, at a dinner event in Los Angeles, the Feminist Majority Foundation gave its sixth annual Eleanor Roosevelt awards to three women and one man who have distinguished themselves in service of global women’s rights.

The awardees were novelist/activist Khaled Hosseini, feminist and labor organizer Dolores Huerta, formerly imprisoned Iranian graduate student activist Esha Momeni and Ms. co-founder/feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

Afghanistan-born Hosseini, author of the bestselling books The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, has illustrated through fiction the bitter reality of life for Afghan women under Taliban rule. He continues to fight for women’s rights in his homeland and serves as a U.N. goodwill envoy for refugees.

Huerta has not just marched for decades on behalf of the rights of women and of all farmworkers in the U.S., but has extended her attention to the plight of immigrants and exploited women workers along the U.S.-Mexico border. She’s given particular attention in recent years to the brutal killings of young women in Juarez, Mexico.

Momeni was arrested in Tehran in 2008 while there to videotape women activists for her master’s thesis. She was held in the notorious Evin prison for nearly a month and kept in detention for almost a year; since her return to the U.S., she continues to speak out for women’s rights in Iran.

And Steinem, known for her key role in the U.S. feminist movement since the early 1970s, has always been a powerful voice against global injustice to women, making sure that such issues as sex trafficking, “honor” killings, female genital cutting and international family planning stay high on the feminist agenda.

In a panel discussion following the presentation of the awards, each honoree assessed some of the crucial concerns of women in the world, from those of rural Afghan women – who Hosseini pointed out have an average life span of just 44 years – to those fearless Iranian women activists who come out of prison only to begin protesting again, to U.S. women fighting the draconian new Arizona immigration law. Asked by event host Katherine Spillar (executive vice president of the Feminist Majority and executive editor of Ms.) if she still maintains hope for these situations to improve, Steinem answered yes, but with her patented activist twist.

“Hope is a form of planning,” she said.

A formal investigation into Nigerian Senator Ahmed Yerima’s alleged marriage to an underage girl was launched yesterday by Nigeria’s parliament. A local newspaper reported yesterday that Yerima claimed his new wife is older than 13, but did not specify her age, according to the Washington Post. He reportedly paid a dowry worth $100,000 to the girls’ parents and brought her from Egypt to Nigeria, though reports indicate the girl is still in school in Egypt. Yerima is 49 and has three other wives.

Yerima told the BBC, “I don’t care about the issue of age since I have not violated any rule as far as Islam is concerned…History tells us that Prophet Muhammad did marry a young girl as well. Therefore I have not contravened any law. Even if she is 13, as it is being falsely peddled around.”

Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette, Chair of the Nigerian Senate Committee on Women Affairs and Youth Development presented a petition from 11 groups to the body on Wednesday. The petition said that “the human rights community in Nigeria and beyond has expressed concern and consternation at the alleged actions of the distinguished Senator which are considered both condemnable and patently illegal, especially as they relate to Nigeria’s statutory and case law as well as its international status,” reported Agence France Presse. The petition further alleged that the marriage violates Nigeria’s Child Rights Act of 2003, which bans marriage to those under 18 years of age, and referenced that Nigeria signed the UNICEF Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Nigerian Women Affairs Minister Josephine Anenih told reporters that “If it is true then it is very objectionable, very obnoxious, very condemnable. It is something we cannot condone or allow to happen in this country,” reported Agence France Presse.

Feminists worldwide are outraged over an attempt by Iran to gain a seat on the United Nations (UN) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). Iran reportedly withdrew a bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights council and announced candidacy for membership in the commission last week, according to Radio Free Europe. The CSW meets annually and aims to “evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.”

Iranian women’s rights activists and other feminists worldwide wrote an open letter to the UN opposing Iranian’s candidacy for CSW membership. The letter references that Iranian women have been “arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of [the discriminatory] laws” in place in Iran and also states that “the Iranian government will certainly use [CSW membership] to curtail the progress and advancement of women,” reported Radio Free Europe.

In February, Gender Equality in Iran issued a petition that demands “an end to state-led violence and repression” in Iran. In part, it said, “Over the past eight months, the grass-roots protest movement that emerged following the disputed presidential elections has been suppressed by mounting violence. Physical and psychological violence – through arrest, torture, rape, extended imprisonment, and even execution – has been exercised against civil and political activists in Iran. As of now, numerous women activists from various movements – women’s, workers, students, civil, and political – are detained and/or have received heavy sentences. The list of detainees grows everyday.”

In addition to the continued harassment of activists, during the fall of 2009 a documentary attacking Iran’s women’s rights movement was broadcast on state television. At about the same time, the head of Iran’s state television, Ezatollah Zarghami, declared that state-sponsored television programs will henceforth prohibit women who appear on air from using make-up. Zarghami told the newspaper Eternad that “make-up by women during television programs is illegal and against Islamic Sharia law. There should not be a single case of a woman wearing make-up during a program.”

More recently, a senior Iranian cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, created a firestorm when he blamed earthquakes on women’s attire. He said, “Women who do not dress modestly…lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” reported the Washington Post.

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced the Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act of 2010 late last week. According to Congresswoman Clarke’s press release, the bill (HR 5121), “seeks to strengthen and expand the U.S. government’s current program on international family planning and reproductive health into a more comprehensive sexual and reproductive health program.” Its specific provisions would support family planning programs that aim to reduce unsafe abortion, prevent the spread of STIs and HIV, promote the use of contraceptives, train healthcare professionals, and provide education and outreach services.

The president of the International Women’s Health Coalition, Adrienne Germain, applauded the introduction of the bill, and said in a press release, “Access to contraception and safe abortion services is fundamental to a woman’s ability to exercise her rights to control her body, to self-determination, and to maintain her health. In the 21st century, no woman should die or suffer the traumas of an unsafe or illegal abortion.” She added, “Providing the full menu of services that women and young people need is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.”

Ninety-nine percent of pregnancy-related deaths occur in the developing world and the vast majority of these fatalities are preventable. Representative Clarke further elaborated, “providing contraceptives to the 215 million women in developing countries who are not able to access modern contraceptive methods would avert: 53 million unintended pregnancies; 150,000 women from dying of pregnancy-related complications; 600,000 children from losing their mothers, and 25 million induced abortions each year. Simultaneously investing in family planning services and pregnancy-related care would achieve even greater results by slashing maternal deaths by 70% and newborn deaths by almost half.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced yesterday that he plans to introduce a ban prohibiting women from wearing a full veil in public. According to Radio France Internationale, Sarkozy plans to move forward to legislate a ban on the wearing of the burqa in public despite warnings from France’s State Council that such a law may be unconstitutional. Belgian lawmakers will also begin debate today on similar legislation.

According to ABC News, if the French ban is enacted, violations could lead to a 15 to 25 Euro fine ($22-$36) and jail time up to one week. The ban would apply to all women in public places, such as markets and public buildings, including tourists, reported Radio France Internationale.

After a cabinet meeting chaired by President Sarkozy, French government spokesperson Luc Chatel told Radio France Internationale that the face veil “hurts the dignity of women and is not acceptable in French society. We’re legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and of a rejection of our values.”

Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch said in a statement that “at a time when Muslims in Europe feel more vulnerable than ever, the last thing needed is a ban like this…treating pious Muslim women like criminals won’t help integrate them.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced his opposition to the burqa, the head-to-toe garment worn by some Islamic women, in a speech to a joint session of the French Parliament in June 2009. In this speech, he said “The burqa is not welcome in French territory…In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity,” reported the Wall Street Journal. This speech, the first presidential address to the legislature in over a century, urged the Parliament to examine the practice of Muslim women in France wearing the burqa. In 2004 the French Parliament passed a law banning students from wearing veils and other religious symbols in public schools.

It is estimated that only about 1,900 women in France wear full veils.

In Belgium, full-coverage veils are currently prohibited in 20 out of 589 Belgian municipalities, similar to local restrictions in Italy and the Netherlands, according to Human Rights Watch.