Iranian women's rights activist, 20, is jailed for 15 years for 'spreading prostitution by taking off her hijab'

An Iranian women's rights activist has been jailed for a total of 24 years - including a 15-year term for 'spreading prostitution by taking off her hijab'.

Saba Kord Afshari, 20, was handed the sentence Tuesday by Tehran's Revolutionary Court after being found guilty of removing her headscarf as well as 'spreading propaganda against the state' and 'assembly and collusion'.

Afshari and her mother, Raheleh Ahmadi, had been prominent members of the White Wednesdays protest group, which spoke out against the compulsory hijab.

The pair routinely posted videos of themselves walking around the streets of Tehran without their headscarves to encourage other women to flout the law.

She was first arrested in the Iranian capital in August last year and jailed for a year, according to Iran Human Rights Monitor. [Daily Mail] Read more

Norwegian mosque apologises to Crown Prince Haakon after three women refused handshake

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon visited the Al-Noor Islamic Centre last week to show support after the 10 August shooting attack on the mosque. Many people noticed that three women did not accept the Crown Prince’s outstretched hand as he attempted to greet them.

The Bærum mosque shooting, or the Al-Noor Islamic Centre shooting, was an attack that occurred on 10 August 2019 at the Al-Noor Islamic Centre mosque in Bærum, Norway, about 20 km west of the capital city of Oslo. One person was injured, and the gunman’s stepsister was later found dead in their family home. The shooter was taken into police custody after being subdued by mosque-goers. The shooting has been described as one attack in a recent “resurgence of white supremacy”.

Waheed Ahmed, information officer at the Al-Noor mosque, told NRK that they were unaware that the women did not want to shake the hand of the Crown Prince. [Royal Central] Read more

Review 'could see anti-radicalisation scheme scrapped' says Lord Carlile

A FORMER MP for Montgomeryshire tasked with reviewing the Government's anti-radicalisation programme Prevent has said "everything is up for discussion" including scrapping the scheme.

Lord Carlile was appointed by the Government earlier this month to conduct a review into Prevent.

Part of the Government's wider counter-terrorism strategy, Prevent seeks to stop people at risk of being radicalised from being drawn into terrorist ideologies.

In an interview with the BBC's Newsnight programme, Lord Carlile said if it is to continue "it should be seen as fair by all communities".

Lord Carlile acknowledged his advice might be that police take "even less of a role than than they have now". [POWYS County Times] Read more

Bangladesh to remove the word 'virgin' from Muslim marriage certificates

The word “virgin” must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country’s top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the “humiliating and discriminatory” term.

Under the South Asian country’s Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate – whether she is a Kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced.

In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with “unmarried”, said deputy attorney general Amit Talukder.

The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then.

“It is a landmark verdict,” Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups which filed the case challenging the term in 2014 said.

Rights groups have long criticised the term – used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 – saying it is “humiliating and discriminatory”, and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married. [The Guardian] Read more

We must not introduce new blasphemy laws

.... So far the government has showed more caution than most by rejecting the definition. But in the final months of her premiership, Theresa May set the wheels in motion towards adopting some definition of Islamophobia. She appointed Imam Qari Asim as an adviser. He had previously criticised Boris Johnson for fanning the flames of Islamophobia.

We have no reason to hope that any new definition reached by the government would be any less damaging than the last. Concerns are being expressed from all directions. But there is a real risk they will be swept under the carpet, and our civil liberties with them.

There are many ways to deal with the discrimination faced by Muslims, as a new Civitas anthology explores, but chilling free speech is not one of them. [Spiked] Read more

London mosque where children groomed for terrorism gets interim manager

The Charity Commission has appointed at interim manager at an east London mosque where children were trained by a man convicted of terrorism offences.

Emergency measures were deemed necessary after court evidence revealed young people at the Ripple Road mosque in Barking were shown Isis videos by convicted extremist Umar Haque.

Boys at the mosque were said to ”traumatised” by the violent propaganda and role-playing training exercises.

Social services and police discovered Mr Haque had attempted to radicalise 55 children between the ages of 11 and 14 at after-school classes.

Mr Haque was jailed for life with a minimum of 25 years at the Old Bailey in March this year.

He was found to have planned gun and car bomb attacks designed to strike 30 high-profile targets in the capital - including Big Ben, the Queen’s Guard and Westfield shopping centre. [The Independent] Read more

‘Islamophobia’ definition curtails free speech, campaigners warn

The widespread adoption of a proposed definition of 'Islamophobia' risks curtailing freedom of speech and the exposure of extremism, a collection of essays has warned.

An anthology published by the think tank Civitas warns that the definition proposed by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on British Muslims poses a threat to liberal values.

The collection features a piece submitted by the National Secular Society, with other contributors including NSS honorary associates Peter Tatchell, Richard Dawkins, Pragna Patel and Maryam Namazie.

The APPG's definition says: "Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness."

The NSS and others argue that the broad and vague definition, and the normalisation of the idea of 'Islamophobia' more widely, will silence criticism of Islam. [National Secular Society] Read more

Saudi Arabia loosens travel restrictions on women, allowing them to go abroad without permission from male ‘guardian’

Saudi Arabia has begun to implement its new law allowing women to travel without the permission of a male “guardian”, its state news agency has announced.

The royal decree approved earlier this month stipulated that a Saudi passport should be issued to any citizen who applies for it and any person over the age of 21 will be able to travel without permission.

The ultra-conservative Islamic state also allowed women to exercise greater control over family matters.

Women were granted the right to register child birth, marriage or divorce, and to be issued official family documents and be eligible as a guardian to children who are minors.

“The passports and civil status departments and their branches in all regions of the kingdom have started to implement the amendments stipulated in the royal decree,” the SPA report said, citing an interior ministry source. [The Independent] Read more

Islamophobia definition will prevent criticism of the 'hateful' ideology of Islam, say leading atheists

A new definition of Islamophobia will prevent criticism of the “hateful ideology of theocratic Islam,” say two of Britain’s leading atheists in new book of essays.

Richard Dawkins and Peter Tatchell - and other authors including a former member of extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir - say attempts to define Islamophobia risk curtailing freedom of speech and work to expose extremism.

In a book of essays published today by the think tank Civitas, Mr Tatchell said he would have fallen foul of the new definition - proposed by leading politicians and backed by Labour - when he attacked Hizb ut-Tahrir over its anti-gay, anti-women comments.

“I was denounced as Islamophobic. But I was merely confronting the hateful ideology of theocratic Islamism, not Muslim people, the vast majority of whom do not subscribe to such murderous injunctions,” he said.

“My protest in 1994 could fall within the sweeping definition of Islamophobia proposed by the APPG, since it talks about Muslimness. [The Telegraph] Read more

Saudi Arabia eases travel restrictions on women

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday began implementing a landmark reform allowing women over the age of 21 to receive passports and travel abroad without permission from a male "guardian", authorities said.

The reform, announced earlier this month, weakens the restrictive guardianship system that has long been a symbol of repression against women.

"The passport department has started receiving applications for women aged 21 and above to issue or renew passports and to travel outside the kingdom without permission," the department said on Twitter.

Women in the kingdom have long required permission from their male "guardians" -- husband, father and other male relatives -- for these tasks, a restriction that drew international censure. [France24] Read more

Detention of Muslims at UK ports and airports 'structural Islamophobia'

Muslims are being detained at ports and airports for up to six hours by law enforcement using controversial counter-terrorism powers so disproportionately that the practice has become Islamophobic, according to human rights group Cage.

The organisation added there is growing anecdotal evidence that Muslim women are being forced to remove their headscarves when stopped, even though the rate that such stops lead to a conviction is 0.007%, according to Cage’s analysis of 420,000 incidences.

Cage said it had made a compliant to the policing regulator, the Independent Office for Police Conduct, on behalf of 10 people, and had written to MPs on the all-party group on British Muslims to spell out the extent of its concerns with so-called schedule 7 stops. [The Guardian] Read more

Why was a GCSE student disqualified for criticising halal meat?

We have to talk about the schoolgirl who was disqualified from a GCSE exam on the grounds that she had made ‘obscene racial comments’ about Islam. This bizarre incident is being chalked up to overzealous wokeness on the part of some GCSE examiners.

But it’s more than that. It tells us a bigger story about 21st-century Britain and the creeping criminalisation of any questioning of Islam. Too many institutions now believe it is their role to monitor and even punish anti-Islam ‘blasphemy’.

The girl — Abigail Ward — is 16 years old and a strict vegetarian. In her GCSE Religious Studies exam she wrote some critical comments about halal meat. She described the butchery involved in the preparation of halal meat as ‘absolutely disgusting’. The exam board OCR accused her of having made ‘obscene racial comments’ and disqualified her exam paper. Her school appealed, and won. OCR apologised for the ‘upset and stress’ it had caused Miss Ward.

But before we move on and shrug off this incident as the behaviour of an ‘overzealous, over-righteous’ examiner — as Miss Ward’s mother put it — we have to ask some questions. Primarily this one: why on earth was criticism of an Islamic practice presumed to be racist? And not only racist but obscenely racist? [The Spectator] Read more

A prison that suffocates Muslims

Iraqi scholar Dr. Abdul Jabbar Al-Rifaee has noticed that the Islamic world's contribution to modern science has not been significant, to say the least. It has, in truth, been pretty much non-existent. "What our culture refers to as loyalty to its heritage is, in fact, a prison that suffocates Muslims."

I think he might be on to something. [Mick Hartley] Read more

Belgium tests EU rules on halal and kosher slaughter

It is the last year that Mohamed Bouezmarni can help sacrifice around 200 sheep in a southern Belgian slaughterhouse for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.

From September 1, the French-speaking region of Wallonia will be the second Belgian authority after Flanders to ban halal and kosher slaughter as it moves to prohibit killing animals without prior stunning.

The bans are the result of a long push by animal welfare activists, but Jewish and Muslim groups fear they are also a sign that the anti-immigrant sentiment of right-wing Flemish nationalists has captured Belgium's political mainstream.

Lamenting this impending legal obstacle to a festival that he describes as “the equivalent of Christmas,” Bouezmarni, the head of the Muslim association in the town of Arlon, feared that sacrifices could be driven underground. [POLITICO] Read more

GCSE student disqualified after examiner mistook hatred for halal meat for Islamophobia

A vegetarian GCSE pupil was disqualified after criticising halal meat in a Religious Studies exam, it has today emerged.

Abigail Ward, 16, was accused of making "obscene racial comments" in her test.

She was informed by exam board OCR after committing a "malpractice offence".

The practicing vegetarian said in the paper in June she found the idea of halal meat "absolutely disgusting", Telegraph reports.

But the disqualification was overturned when the board was told the teenager's distaste for halal butchers came from the fact she is a strict vegetarian.

Abigail took the exam at Gildredge House school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, which appealed against the decision on the grounds that their student had not made an Islamophobic or racist comment about Muslims, but was merely expressing her distaste for halal butchers. [Daily Mirror] Read more

Vegetarian student disqualified from GCSE paper for 'obscene racial comments' after she criticised halal meat

A student was disqualified from her GCSE exam after she was accused of making “obscene racial comments” by criticising halal meat.

Abigail Ward, 16, a strict vegetarian, wrote during a Religious Studies exam in June that she found the idea of halal meat "absolutely disgusting".

The exam board OCR later disqualified Miss Ward from the exam, accusing her of making "obscene racial comments".

The decision was only overturned when her school, Gildredge House in Eastbourne, appealed the decision, insisting Miss Ward had been expressing her distaste for halal butchers and was not making any comment about Muslims.

The school added that no other comments made in the paper could be construed as racist.

The exam board upheld the appeal and later apologised for the “upset and stress” they caused Miss Ward, the Telegraph reported. [Evening Standard] Read more

American mom, 32, forced to live in Saudi Arabia loses custody of her four-year-old daughter after a judge in the kingdom ruled she is 'too Western to raise the child' because she went to Burning Man and has social media accounts 'full of nudity'

A Washington mother, who moved to Saudi Arabia to teach at a university, lost custody of her daughter after divorcing her husband because she was too Western to raise the child, according to a Saudi court.

Bethany Vierra, 32, lost custody of her daughter - four-year-old Zaina - in July after the court determined that the mother was too 'new to Islam.'

'The mother is new to Islam, is a foreigner in this country, and continues to definitively embrace the customs and traditions of her upbringing. We must avoid exposing (Zaina) to these customs and traditions, especially at this early age,' Judge Abdul-Ellah ibn Mohammed al-Tuwaijri said in his July ruling, according to CNN. [Daily Mail] Read more

‘Childbearing is a type of Jihad’ says Khamenei army representative

Childbearing is a type of jihad, said the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Iranian army on Thursday, adding that “enemies” seek to reduce the population of Muslim countries, the Iranian semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

“Childbearing in the current circumstances is considered a type of jihad and it would please the Almighty God,” said Abbas Mohammad Hassani.

“Enemies of Shiism are trying to prevent the Shiite population from growing, while they continue to increase their own population,” he said, adding that their goal is for Muslims not to have enough “defenders.”

“All Shiites must, therefore, take on the jihad of childbearing to counter the goals and conspiracies of the enemies,” the representative said. [Al Arabiya English] Read more

‘Quash’ convictions and release women jailed for protesting against wearing veils in Iran, urge UN rights experts

Decades-long prison sentences handed down to three women protesting the strictly enforced wearing of veils in Iran, have drawn alarm and condemnation from six United Nations independent human rights experts.

“We are alarmed that the arrest and lengthy sentences handed to these women are directly related to the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and assembly in the pursuit of gender equality in Iran,” the experts said in a joint statement on Friday.

They called upon the Iranian authorities to quash the convictions and “immediately release all human rights defenders who have been arbitrarily detained for their work in advocating women’s rights, and to ensure full respect for the rights of women to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and non-discrimination.”

Respect and support for women rights defenders’ activities are essential to the overall enjoyment of human rights, according to the experts. [United Nations] Read more

Iran: Women Detained, Accused of Flouting Stadium Ban

The Iranian government should release women detained because they are alleged to have dressed as men to circumvent a ban on women attending football matches, Human Rights Watch said today.

Among the women reportedly detained on August 13, 2019 are Zahra Khoshnavaz, a prominent advocate for ending the ban on women and girls attending public sporting events, and Forough Alaei, a leading photojournalist.

Iran bans female spectators from football and other stadiums. The ban is not written into law or regulation, but is enforced by the country’s authorities. The ban is a clear violation of the rules in FIFA’s constitution, the Statutes, and its Human Rights Policy.

Article 4 of the Statutes says discrimination against women “is strictly prohibited and punishable by suspension or expulsion.” In June, the FIFA president, Gianni Infantino warned the Iranian Federation that it must take concrete steps to allow women in stadiums or else face sanctions. [Human Rights Watch] Read more

The 14 Defiant Women Who Want To Change The Islamic Republic Of Iran

Iranian human rights lawyer Guity Pourfazel wants to see change in her country and believes Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei should step down and the ruling clerical establishment be replaced with a democratic system.

Pourfazel is one of 14 women activists in Iran who have publicly called for Khamenei to resign and for a new political system to be installed that is framed by a new constitution that would secure dignity and equal rights for women.

The women from various backgrounds made the call earlier this month in a statement posted online that has received mixed reactions -- many praising it as a bold expression of dissent, while others have described it as an exercise in futility and a naive act that will bring no changes.

The August 5 statement accuses Iran of "gender apartheid" and says that while in many countries women are progressing alongside men in different spheres, women in Iran continue to strive just for basic human rights. [RFE/RL] Read more

Fluenz: ‘Don’t ask faith leaders for vaccine advice’

Health officials have backtracked over guidance encouraging parents “to seek advice from faith or other community leaders” before deciding whether their children can be vaccinated against flu.

Public Health England (PHE) made the suggestion after some Muslims raised concerns about the presence of pork gelatine in the Fluenz nasal spray, which will be offered from next month to children aged two to ten. It has now deleted this advice from its public information leaflets after the National Secular Society complained that it was “confusing and potentially harmful”.

Stephen Evans, the society’s chief executive, wrote to PHE saying: “Religious people are of course at liberty to consult religious leaders on any issue but they should not be directed to do so by a public health authority.”

.... “Now that awareness of the porcine gelatine issue is much more widespread we are updating our documents to make clear that PHE recommends using scientific evidence to help when deciding whether or not to vaccinate.” [The Times (£)] Read more

Brace yourself for more lies about Prevent

At the beginning of the year, the government announced an assessment and review of Prevent, the United Kingdom’s innovative counter-extremism strategy.

Prevent is a component of Contest — an integrated and sophisticated response to the deadly threat that terrorism presents to the citizens of this country. The review is to be welcomed. Where considerations which impinge on both public safety and civil liberties are impacted, it is vital that the correct balance is struck.

The government has prudently appointed the former Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, Lord Carlile, as the new Independent Reviewer of Prevent. His professional reputation, combined with his unsurpassed experience, will ensure that the programme is appropriately fine-tuned.

In the 16 years of its existence, a spectacular level of disinformation has been disseminated about Prevent, much of it quite cynical in nature. Some emanates from organisations which are motivated less by a sincere concern for liberty and rather more by their support for Islamist politics. [The JC] Read more

Cricket club alleges discrimination over Muslim festival

A cricket club claims it has been discriminated against for not playing a match during a religious festival.

Gloucester AIW said it has been docked 22 points, and its opponents awarded a further 20 points as a concession, for refusing to play last Saturday.

The club, which is made up mainly of Muslim cricketers, said the date clashed with the Day of Arafat - the day before Eid al-Adha.

Gloucestershire County Cricket League said it had acted "within its rules".

The club said the league has a specific clause in its constitution - introduced this season - requiring matches to be rearranged where there is a risk of games coinciding with Eid.

Club secretary Ahmed Goga said he informed the league in January about the clash, but "they ignored it".

"The day of Arafat is one of the most important days in Islam which comes a day before Eid al-Adha. [BBC] Read more

Jailed Saudi activist 'told to deny torture in release deal'

Prominent Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul has rejected a proposal to secure her release from prison in exchange for a video statement denying she was tortured in custody, her family has said.

"The Saudi state security has visited my sister in prison recently. They have asked her to ... appear on video to deny the torture and harassment," her brother Walid al-Hathloul said on Twitter on Tuesday. "That was part of a deal to release her."

There was no immediate reaction from Saudi authorities.

Hathloul, who recently marked her 30th birthday in jail, is among around a dozen prominent female activists who are currently facing trial after being detained last year, just as Saudi Arabia ended a ban on women driving cars, for which many of the detainees had long campaigned. [Al Jazeera English] Read more