Illustration by Carlos Latuff

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association - 8 March 2010

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association marks International Women's Day 2010 by honoring, commemorating and saluting Palestinian women political prisoners and detainees in their steadfast resistance against Israeli colonial occupation and struggle towards securing the right of Palestinians to self-determination.

An estimated 10,000 Palestinian women have been arrested and detained since 1967 under Israeli military orders, which govern nearly every aspect of life in the occupied Palestinian territory today, including more than 750 Palestinian women arrested by Israel between the years 2000-2009. While the call to end violence and arbitrary detention against women around the world should take place 365 days a year, Addameer would like to take a moment today to reflect upon and recognize the plight of Palestinian women and their unique experiences of colonial violence within Israel's prison system and unlawful regime of colonial occupation.

As of March 2010, there remain 34 Palestinian women held in Israel's prisons and detention centers, including three women held under administrative detention, eight women held pending trial and 23 women serving a sentence of imprisonment, of whom five are serving life (including multiple life) sentences. Both of the prisons that hold the majority of Palestinian female detainees, HaSharon and Damon Prisons, are located outside the 1967 occupied territory, in direct contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which provides that, as an Occupying Power, Israel must detain residents of the occupied territory in prisons inside the occupied territory. The practical consequence of this unlawful transfer is that many prisoners have difficulty meeting with their Palestinian defense counsel and do not receive family visits as their attorneys and relatives are most often denied permits on "security grounds" not disclosed to them.

In addition, both HaSharon and Damon Prisons lack a gender-sensitive approach and, as such, female prisoners detained there suffer from harsh imprisonment conditions and interlocking systems of oppression which are enacted through medical negligence, denial of education, denial of family visits, solitary confinement, and overcrowded cells. A majority of these cells are infested with insects, dirty, and lack adequate ventilation and natural light. Personal health and hygiene needs are rarely addressed by the Israeli Prison Service, even in cases involving the detention of pregnant female detainees.

Other forms of abuse perpetrated against Palestinian women detainees and prisoners include numerous forms of sexual harassment, namely: threats of rape (in some cases threats of rape are made towards the detainee's family members), sexually degrading insults, and invasive body/strip searches used as a method of punishment. These occurrences are a fundamental part of Palestinian women's prison experiences and should be understood as a common and systematic form of racial and gendered State violence.

Moreover, research has shown that Israel's prison authorities use these forms of sexual harassment to deliberately exploit Palestinian women's fears by playing on patriarchal norms as well as gender stereotypes within particular customs of Palestinian society. Accordingly, occurrences of sexual harassment are a sensitive issue for Palestinian women and their families; this vulnerability makes these measures especially effective tools for interrogators, and is compounded by the lack of available post-assault resources.

Addameer submits that Israel's routine practice of strip searching female prisoners and detainees as a method of punishment violates both international human rights and humanitarian law, including the UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stipulates in Article 7 that: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment...". Similarly, Article 3(1)(c) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) forbids"outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment".

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association condemns the use of all measures of abuse Israeli actors use against female prisoners and detainees, and calls for the immediate release of all Palestinian political prisoners held unlawfully outside the occupied Palestinian territory. Addameer further calls for an immediate stop to Israel's practices of sexual violence, including strip searches and invasive body searches, shackling of pregnant women during labor, and use of threats and/or other forms of sexual assault. In addition, Israeli authorities, in particular the Prison Service, must meet their obligations under the UN Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners and ensure that all subjects under Israeli jurisdiction are granted their full rights to formal education for girls under the age of 18, (including access to books and study materials inside the prisons), nutritional diet programs, especially for pregnant detainees, health care including specialized gynecological services, hospital/doctor visits when required, dental care, and open family visits (especially for mothers of minors). Of particular importance, Addameer demands that female prisoners and detainees be provided unhindered access to religious, cultural and gender sensitive social services, including trained Arabic-speaking women specialist in the field of social work, psychology and counseling. It is important to note that these rights and services must be administered only by Palestinians; as such, the Israeli authorities and the Israel Prison Service must grant full, unhindered access to Palestinian programs and service providers in this regard.

On International Women's Day 2010, Addameer stands in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners and detainees who remain strong in their resistance against Israel's colonial occupation regime, and asks the international community for its continued support and solidarity all year round.

For more information on female prisoners, please visit: www.addameer.info or contact:

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
PO Box 17338, Jerusalem
Tel: +972 (0)2 296 0446
Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447

Email: info@addameer.ps

This is just getting out of hand. Ridiculous...

A Muslim cleric in Saudi Arabia has called on women to wear a full veil, or niqab, that reveals only one eye.

Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan said showing both eyes encouraged women to use eye make-up to look seductive.

The question of how much of her face a woman should cover is a controversial topic in many Muslim societies.

The niqab is more common in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, but women in much of the Muslim Middle East wear a headscarf which covers only their hair.

Sheikh Habadan, an ultra-conservative cleric who is said to have wide influence among religious Saudis, was answering questions on the Muslim satellite channel al-Majd. [Source: BBC]

This is how Saudi ladies will look like from now on :-(

Why don't they enforce full-face cover and kill the issue? What do you call this? Religion and Islam? No Way!

Oh... by the way... anyone knows which eye should be covered? Left of right? (I assumed left because they keep on telling us to do things with our RIGHT thing... Ah... now I'm getting the rule. "Do the Right things with the RIGHT things only." This is where the Human "Rights" came from and here we see it in action.

Long live "One-Eye Veil."

Woman beat, threatened by 'modesty squad'

Jerusalem woman who left ultra-Orthodox life after her divorce gagged, beaten by group of self-proclaimed 'chastity guards'

Aviad Glickman

A 31-year-old Jerusalem woman was cruelly beaten and threatened with death by members of the 'modesty squad' who took it upon themselves to interrogate her about her relationships with men, an indictment filed Thursday by the Jerusalem Prosecution reveals.

According to the indictment, 29-year-old Elhanan Buzaglo and six other men forced their way into the woman's apartment in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Maalot Dafna several months ago. The Prosecution says that the woman once belonged to the ultra-Orthodox community, but abandoned that life after her divorce in 2005.

After seizing the woman, the men toppled her to the floor, kicked her repeatedly and then gagged her, warning she would be blinded with mace and stabbed if she dare open her eyes. She was then 'interrogated' by Buzaglo and his ilk, as they tried to force her to disclose the identities of men she had been in contact with.

The group, which also hurled profanities at the woman throughout the ordeal, is also accused of threatening to kill the woman if she did not move from her apartment.

The men are also charged with the theft of two cell phones; it is believed the group took the phones with the intent of obtaining the phone numbers of men the woman was seeing.

Based in the religious neighborhoods of Meah Shearim and Geula, the modesty squad has declared a crusade against violations of Halachic law and what it views as 'unchaste' behavior. According to the indictment, the group has elected to employ intimidation and violence as the means to this end.

According to the indictment, Buzaglo received $2,000 for part in the assault. The State Prosecutor's office, by way of Attorney Rivka Alkobi, is charging him with conspiracy to commit a crime, aggravated assault and two counts of extortion.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3582713,00.html

Hat tip: Robin

In last week's New York Times there is a great article about the movement gaining momentum in Egypt to end the brutal and senseless practice of female genital mutilation (a.k.a. circumcision). However, it is important to say that circumcision is an inaccurate term for it. Female genital mutilation is the preferred and more accurate term. It is in no way comparable or parallel to circumcision in men.

Genital mutilation is barbaric and no one should care how deeply rooted it is in certain societies. This is a huge issue at least in Egypt, Sudan and many other parts of Africa. It is unfortunate that genital mutilation is considered a cultural heritage in that part of the world, but respecting other cultures does not extend to allowing them to violate the basic rights humans and their bodies.

Having said that, people who justify this are people watched their parents and grandparents do it because it is part of their culture but this does nothing to change the fact that it is an assault on women and a violation of their human rights and bodies. We have to admit that this practice is a sick way to control women and their sexuality. In other words, it is that part of the society which does not respect women as equals, and this is nothing new in Africa in general and majority of Arab world. However, to say these people are backward and they just do not respect women in general is a bit shallow. It is that ignorant part from the uneducated Egyptians - and other societies - that let them do this act with women.

Anyway, it would be a victory for millions of women if the movement continues to gain influence.

Here are some of the key excerpts (full article here):

"Circumcision, or female genital mutilation, as some opponents refer to it, was suddenly a ferocious focus of debate in Egypt this summer. A nationwide campaign to stop the practice has become one of the most powerful social movements in Egypt in decades, uniting an unlikely alliance of government forces, official religious leaders and street-level activists.

Though Egypt's Health Ministry ordered an end to the practice in 1996, it allowed exceptions in cases of emergency, a loophole critics describe as so wide that it effectively rendered the ban meaningless. But now the government is trying to force a comprehensive ban.

For centuries Egyptian girls, usually between the ages of 7 and 13, have been taken to have the procedure done, sometimes by a doctor, sometimes by a barber or whoever else in the village would do it. As recently as 2005, a government health survey showed that 96 percent of the thousands of married, divorced or widowed women interviewed said they had undergone the procedure - a figure that astounds even many Egyptians. In the language of the survey, "The practice of female circumcision is virtually universal among women of reproductive age in Egypt."

The challenge rests in persuading people that their grandparents, parents and they themselves have harmed their daughters. Moreover, advocates must convince a skeptical public that men will marry a woman who has not undergone the procedure and that circumcision is not necessary to preserve family honor. It is a challenge to get men to give up some of their control over women."

One more brain fart by Saudi Mutaween:

Saudi Arabian religious police call for sex-segregated sidewalks - Saudi Arabia's religious police are insisting that authorities of Medina, one of Islam's holiest cities, should build separate sidewalks for women, the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper said Friday.

The country's Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV), tasked with enforcing Sharia law, believes men and women should not be allowed to mix on the streets of the Islam's second holiest place, where the Prophet Muhammad is buried.

The clerical police, or Mutaween, are authorized to arrest unrelated men and women caught socializing, anyone suspected of being homosexual or a prostitute, and to enforce Islamic dress codes.

The Mutaween enforce Islamic female dress codes, ordering women to wear headscarves and abayas, long black dresses covering the whole body except for face, hands and feet. Women are not allowed to leave their houses without their husbands or immediate male relatives.

Saudi women are also not allowed to ride a bicycle or drive a car, because if the vehicle breaks down, a woman might have to talk to an unknown male.

The police widely apply corporal punishment, including flogging, to punish suspected offenders.

One of the most widely criticized incidents, involving women rights abuse, occurred on March 11, 2002, when schoolgirls were prevented from escaping a burning school in Mecca, because they were not wearing headscarves and abayas. Fifteen girls died and 50 were injured as a result.

I'm just wondering when will these heavenly angles called "Mutaween" will disappear?!

Did prophet Mohammed ordered to have two sidewalks; one for men, another for women? It's ironic to think of having a 'women sidewalks'... I mean, how will they mark them? Paint them in pink? Maybe black to match black abayas and hope that women walking there will become invisible. For God sake, someone with courage should stop this stupidity and send these Mutaween to some true Islamic pre-school and teach them true/basic Islam rules.

On the other hand, for few weeks now, a group of Saudi women are back in the news with their everlasting "Car Driving" rights. A Saudi writer and human rights activist described it well when she said: "Cats and dogs in the developed world have more rights than Arab women," but to be more accurate she should have said "Cats and dogs in the developed world have more rights than SAUDI ARABIA women," for I belive that women in the Arab world, but Saudi, enjoys most of their rights -and sometimes better rights- than many in the 'developed world'. This lady (or group of ladies) is more interested in driving a car than having the right to breath clean air and live normally. But for them it is "something is better than nothing":

Saudi Women Petitioning Govt for Driving Rights - "We demand that the right of women to drive is given back to us," says the petition. "It's a right that was enjoyed by our mothers and grandmothers in complete freedom to (utilize) the means of transportation in those times."

The issue has been a matter of heated debate for many years. In 1990 a group of middle class women were arrested when they staged driving protests. The ban comes from a strict interpretation of the woman's need to be with a legal guardian (a mahram) in public. While this is claimed to be another "Islamic" taboo, but the fact it is not:

"Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said previously that it is not a political issue, it is a social one, and that the government does not object (to women driving)."

...which I believe is true. It is not about politics or religion, but a social matter. Therefore, I personally believe that "Saudi Women Rights Movement" (whoever that be) lacks strategic planning to win back women rights in Saudi. Driving a car is one of the rights, however is not the most critical but for these women who can afford to have a car. What about the "right to live normally"? C'mon, you can't even walk freely in the street... Ladies, you have a hell of a job to educate your society to accept you as an "equal" human being. While I agree that you should have the right to drive a car, however, I believe that will bring you more trouble than you wish and will halt any further improvement in winning more rights. What about the new "women sidewalks" that you have to march on? What about education, marriage, traveling, shopping, work, etc...

I'm not going to compare religions here, everyone has his own sh*t.

Have you heard of "Israel's modesty buses"? In case you didn't, this is not a good story for those who care about women's right.

When on the bus, I tried to buck the system, moving my way towards the driver but was pushed back towards the other women.

These are what orthodox Jews call "modesty buses".

The separation system operates on 30 public bus routes across Israel.

The authorities here say the arrangement is voluntary, but in practice, as I found out, there is not much choice involved.

Naomi Ragen is one of a group of women now taking the separation bus system to court. She is an orthodox Jew herself.

"I wasn't trying to start a revolution, all I wanted to do was get home," she tells me.

"I was in downtown Jerusalem and I saw a bus going straight to my neighbourhood and I got on and sat down, in a single seat behind the driver.

"It was a completely empty bus, and all of a sudden, some men started getting on, ultra-orthodox men. They told me I was not allowed to sit there, I had to go to the back of the bus."

Not only is the segregation system discriminatory, says Ms Ragen, but it can also be dangerous, she says, for those like her who ignore it.

"I said to him look, if you bring me a code of Jewish law and show me where it's written that I have to sit at the back of the bus I'll move.

"And he tried to gain support from the rest of the passengers and I underwent a half-hour of pure hell - abuse, humiliation, threats, even physical intimidation." [Source: BBC]

Complete story here!

[Cross posted at Daily Kos]

[Image by Carlos Latuff]

In a not-so-surprising newsreport, the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR) reported that Israeli occupation soldiers forced 68 pregnant women to give birth on road blocks after barring them from crossing as they were being transferred to hospitals and medical centers.

Quoting Saed Bannoura's report on IMEMC:
http://imemc.org/article/47767

Also, the PICCR said that the Israeli procedures complicated the lives of the Palestinian civilians including pregnant women by enforcing harsh conditions and carrying illegal practices at these checkpoints.

Since the beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada on September 28 2000 until July 2006, 68 pregnant women had to give birth at checkpoints, and that 34 infants and 4 pregnant women died on these checkpoints.

Nothing can justify this but brutality. It is nothing less than a war crime. Imagine the mother and here newborn infant dying due to deliberate, designed, intentional, intended, purposed, and calculated violation on one of the basic human rights.

One would ask: Do Pregnant Women and Infants Have Rights?

- According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

The special care here are road blocks and denial of medical service.

- The Right to Reproductive and Sexual Health:
http://www.un.org/ecosocdev/geninfo/women/womrepro.htm

The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing defines reproductive health as:

[...] Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe, effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice, as well as other methods of their choice for regulation of fertility which are not against the law, and the right of access to appropriate health-care services that will enable women to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth and provide couples with the best chance of having a healthy infant (para 72).

The Israeli occupation forces should feel ever so proud of itself for this record!

The following is an abbreviated translation from some of the Arabic-language blogs. It was initially published at Global Voices...

Summer holidays, women rights, war in Iraq and war in Palestine. These are some of the permanent scene in the Arabic language blogsphere these days. Here is some of what few bloggers said:

The daily life of a normal Iraqi is not what one can wish to go through. Tara had a horrifying week:

And the summer holiday has begun. In Bahrain; like in many other countries around, people normally have plans to travel aborad and spend part of the holiday outside the country, otherwise, sit at home, watch TV and browes the net. Tafof is one one them:

?Women rights is not an easy taken subject in the Middle East. Ahmad from Saudi Arabia don't see that women are denyed their rights:

And finally, Kamel Nsirat, in a moment of anger, condemn the ongoing Israeli Invasion of Gaza. Yet, he see that all what is happening is not the fault of Israel or America, but, Arabs: