By Stephen Lendman* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The Al-Zaytouna Centre for Studies and Consultations is a Beirut, Lebanon-based organization engaged in "strategic and futuristic studies on the Arab and Muslim worlds, (emphasizing) the Palestinian issue. In early 2010, it published the second of its series, "Am I Not a Human," a report titled, discussed below.

In spite of their "exceptional suffering," Palestinian women display remarkable endurance qualities. Living under stress in poverty, their homes destroyed, lands razed or expropriated, children sick, husbands imprisoned, fathers killed, and more, they plant seeds of hope, fulfill their daily social role, and participate in political and every day resistance. Since the 1948 Nakba, they've been denied basic human rights, security, free expression and movement, a safe and healthy environment, and education. They became refugees in their own land and abroad, bearing burdens beyond the capacity most women can bear anywhere.

Under occupation, they struggle daily to endure, survive, and provide the best for their families and children - as spouses, mothers, caregivers, fighters, nurses, workers, and teachers.

Annually on March 8, International Women's Day commemorates their economic, political, cultural, scientific, and social achievements, but for Palestinian women, it's more - their struggle under Israeli occupation, their lost freedoms, and imposed hardships, testing them to the limit to cope. For Gazans bordering on Israel, one mother said she:

"sleeps with her eyes wide open, and lives with her heart broken, expecting grief to be renewed at any moment."

Another woman searches daily for a medicine her son Muhammad needs, hospitalized without it. Some mothers have only photos of lost loved ones, or others imprisoned out of reach.

In Gaza, the burden is greatest. Also, however, after Israel's 2003 law banning family unifications of Israeli citizens married to Palestinian spouses in Gaza or the West Bank. It legalized Israel's longstanding practice, forcing some women to live illegally as virtual house prisoners to avoid arrest or deportation without their husbands and children.

Other problems include poverty, unemployment, regular violence, home demolitions, and the dilemma of living day to day in uncertainty, a step away from enough essentials to survive. Too little of everything, including few medical centers, endangers their health, especially when pregnant or coping with serious illness.

Maysoon Saleh Nayef al-Hayek described her experience, saying:

"It was 25 February 2002, not long after midnight, I started having contractions. I woke up Muhammad, my husband, and we went to his parents' house to call an ambulance. We couldn't get through, so my husband took his brother's car and we set off for the hospital in Nablus. My father-in-law came with us. We arrived at Huwara checkpoint (and) were stopped by Israeli soldiers."

"Muhammad was ordered out of the car and they checked his papers. Then my father-in-law and I had to (show ours). Then the car was thoroughly searched. We told the soldiers I had to go to the hospital to give birth as soon as possible, that I was in severe pain. They first refused, then told me to uncover my belly, so they could see I was telling the truth. After all this (for about an hour), we were told to go ahead. We drove on and after a few hundred meters I heard shots. There was heavy gunfire coming from the front of the car."

"The car stopped, and I saw that my husband was hit and was lying on the steering wheel. He had been shot in the throat and upper body, and was bleeding heavily."

Her father-in-law was also hit in the upper body, and shrapnel and flying glass injured her. Contractions were coming faster. Soldiers pulled her out of the car, made her undress to be examined, then left her on the ground, bleeding and in labor.

When she finally reached the hospital, she gave birth to a baby girl in the elevator. Her husband died. Her father-in-law remained in a coma for 40 days. The incident irrevocably changed her life.

Other pregnant women face similar situations, harassed and forced to give birth at checkpoints with no adequate hygienic or medical care to help. In February 2007, the UN Commission on Human Rights addressed the matter in a report titled, "The Issue of Palestinian Pregnant Women Giving Birth at Israeli Checkpoints," noting 69 cases from 2000 - 2006, according to Information Health Center of the Palestinian Ministry of Health records.

Among them, 35 newborns and five women died for lack of care. In six other cases, Palestinian women were injured as a result of being beaten, shot, or affected by Israeli fired toxic gas.

Before the second Intifada, travel time to health facilities was 15 - 30 minutes. Since then it takes two - four hours or longer, and too often security forces prevent it entirely. As a result, many women choose to give birth at home, especially in rural areas and villages, much further away from medical centers and checkpoints needing to get through to reach them - impossible at night for those blocked by the Separation Wall. In all cases, harassment and abuse harm mothers and newborns, at times severe enough to kill.

Rula Ishtaya's birth was imminent, yet checkpoint soldiers blocked her passage. She had to crawl behind a nearby rock to self-deliver, yelling and screaming loudly without help. She survived, but her newborn daughter died, a common experience for other women, making pregnancy the third highest cause of death among child-bearing age women, instead of a joy in anticipation of a new life.

Even with successful deliveries, post-natal complications add other risks, and under Gaza's siege, all of them are far greater, exacerbated by other health problems, malnutrition, and shortages of virtually everything let in, and lack of much more excluded.

As a result, studies show women throughout the Territories are obsessed about death, feel helpless and depressed, experience anger, and have nervous breakdowns. In addition, extreme poverty forces them to ignore personal health and focus on their children and families. Somehow, they persist and endure.

Education is another issue because of checkpoints, barriers, and some schools turned into detention centers, among other issues. As a result, many families keep their daughters at home to avoid harassment and humiliation, and in other cases, they leave school before graduation to help out financially, families prioritizing their sons, expected to provide support when they marry.

For young girls, few opportunities for development, recreation and participation are available, other than school. In other cases, families have no choice but to pressure their daughters to marry early because of poverty and deprivation.

Despite all, learning and school attendance rates are growing, showing where there's a will, there's a way. True also in the labor force, a 2006 study indicating females comprised 14.5% of it. Because of extreme poverty, many must work, though never easily given the high unemployment rate. Others work unpaid in agriculture.

Palestinian women become victims when their husbands, sons or other relatives are arrested, killed or in any way harmed. They're also detained and pressured to help security forces against their loved ones, on threat of home demolitions or worse.

‘Um Mansur Shreim's tragedy is typical. A single mother of three detained sons, her husband died at an Israeli checkpoint en route home from his only visit to one of them. He succumbed to a heart attack because authorities delayed his ambulance. Earlier, the family home was demolished after one son was arrested - how Israel punishes family members when one is sought or detained. If one suffers, they all do, women always harmed most if their husbands and sons are seized or killed.

"Um Nasir Abu Hamid's story is also heartbreaking, a mother of 10 sons. One was assassinated. Seven others are in detention, denied parental visits for "security reasons." Four were sentenced to life in prison, and her home was demolished twice.

Despite it all, Palestinian women persist and endure. "Um Nidal Farhat is one of many. Security forces killed three of her sons. She wasn't deterred, sheltering others Israelis wanted in her home, and being willing to sacrifice her own children for freedom and justice.

Women are also politically active, participating in demonstrations, marches, and other protests as well as providing medical and nutritional aid to the injured. Even armed resistance for family and country at times, putting their own bodies on the line at the risk of death or imprisonment.

It's a tradition, going back to the 19th century, the first one in Afula in 1893 when women demonstrated against the construction of a new Jewish settlement. In 1929, British forces killed nine women in al-Buraq Battle, the event called a turning point in the fight for economic and political status.

The first Palestinian women's conference followed in Jerusalem, and the Arab Women's Association executive committee established the Arab Women's Union in Jerusalem and Nablus.

During the 1936 - 39 revolt against Jewish immigration, transfers of land to Jewish owners, and for a new general representative government, women participated valiantly, supplying food, arms, and taking training to fight.

Again during the 1948 war, women were active, trading jewelry for a rifle, providing food, arms and other supplies, and at times fighting alongside their men. One group of women from Jaffa formed a secret women's squad called the Daisy Flower (Zahrat al-Uqhuwan), charged with urging others to fight and provide aid to the resistance. Another Women's Solidarity Association supplied medical, ambulatory and first aid services.

Post-1948, refugees, especially women facing poverty and deprivation, did whatever they could to survive and help their families. The Nakba ignited their spirit and identity to struggle for the right of return.

In 1964, the Union of Palestinian Women was founded to "improve the economic, social, and health status of women, take care of working women, and provide care for mothers and children." A year later, the General Union of Palestinian Women and several charitable socities followed after the PLO was established.

After the 1967 occupation, activist women joined the resistance, engaged in political and social work, and at times armed fighting.

In December 1976, the Israeli military governor amended the 1955 Jordanian election law, enabling all Palestinians aged 21 or over to vote in municipal elections, including women. As a result, women, more than ever, became politically active, causing hundreds to be targeted, arrested or killed.

During the first Intifada, women participated with men. More than 500 arrests didn't deter them nor do they now. After the PA was established in 1994, women worked in public ministries and institutions, mostly in support roles as teachers, secretaries or other non-official capacities, yet some became political candidates and five (out of 88) became cabinet members. In 2006, it became 17 of 132 - representing Hamas, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Third Way, and Independent Palestine candidate lists.

During the second Intifada, women participated actively, including through heroic demonstrations - 163 paid with their lives. A notable instance was on March 11, 2006 when Beit Hanun women rallied for the release of 70 Palestinian resistance fighters besieged by security forces in Nasr mosque.

Without weapons, they faced down Israeli soldiers and tanks, taking overhead gun fire and some direct, killing two and injuring 18 others, several severely. Among them was Jamilah al-Shanti who said:

"The truth was greater and stronger than what you saw on satellite TV screens....we were adamant on ending that Israeli besiegement of the mosque even if it cost us our lives."

Beit Hanun women volunteered to get others injured to hospitals in spite of Israeli forces banning medical staff from helping. Others confronted Israeli forces directly and were killed or injured - similar to other incidents throughout the Territories, but never easily, for women or men against ruthless forces not shy about gunning them down in cold blood.

A Final Comment

Like heroic Palestinian men and children, women have struggled for liberation for over six decades - socially, politically, and at times militantly for justice, in spite of enormous pressures and responsibilities as wives, mothers, caregivers, and, as needed, freedom fighters.

They've endured poverty, deprivation, and enormous suffering, struggling to endure while facing down Israeli aggression. They sacrificed for their families, lost their children, husbands, and homes, yet they persist as Um Leila explained, saying:

"....in spite of all the obstacles, in spite of the opposition from the men, the Palestinian women will participate in the liberation struggle. Every day, people are killed amongst us, every day produces a martyr. If people don't understand (our) situation....they won't understand the pain that makes mothers wish, more than anything else, for their sons to become commandos."

That spirit won't die until a courageous people are free again in their own homes, on their own land in liberated Palestine.

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

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

War Criminal - Tzipi Livni

The Women's Coalition for Peace sent a letter on Wednesday to Israel's former Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, calling on her to cooperate with international investigations into her role in the assault on Gaza last winter, after a British court issued an warrant for her arrest on Monday.

The Israeli organization wrote in the letter, which was attached to a translated copy of the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza, "We are convinced that if you refer to the report you will understand why British citizens and organizations have turned to the courts with a request to issue a warrant for your arrest."

The letter added that the Goldstone report directly refers to remarks by senior political figures in Israel which encouraged indiscriminate attacks on civilians, in contradiction of international law.

It is in this context that Livni was quoted as saying, on 13 January 2009, "We have proven to Hamas that the equation has been altered. Israel is a state that, when its citizens are shot at, will respond insanely. And that's a good thing."

Furthermore, the letter states, "The Goldstone Report details a long list of indiscriminate attacks against civilian populations … In addition, the report surveys the extent of the damage to industrial infrastructure, food production, water facilities, sewage infrastructure and residential buildings; the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields and the targeting of medical staff."

"The testimony of Israeli soldiers corroborates the allegations made in the Report that during Cast Lead heinous war crimes were committed," the group added.

"The attention of the Goldstone commission was drawn to the way the military operations affected women particularly adversely ... Women suffered most of all from the attack which you helped lead, and for which you served as the international spokesperson.

"As a feminist organization active in Israel, we consider that only a process of legal investigation and prosecution of war criminals by the international community has the power to bring a measure of justice to the women and men of Gaza.

"In our opinion the correct reaction on your part to the Goldstone report would be a coming to terms with the wholesale murder with which you collaborated freely as a senior minister in the Israeli government as part of an election campaign.

“We call on you to cooperate with any international investigation that may be opened against you and to counsel your colleagues in the government and military to do the same."

Israel and the UK confirmed on Tuesday that a British court issued an arrest warrant against its former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for charges related to Israel’s winter war on Gaza.

The incident marks the first time an Israeli official faced arrest in the UK in connection with the Gaza conflict.

Source: Ma'an News

A quick survey in Amman reveals some exciting but (not)surprising strong opinions on subjects such as Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Water, Oil, Economy, Nuclear Energy, Tourism, Honour Killing, Women and Tribal System.

Part 1/2:

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvWEvCl2iVA

Part 2/2:

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocGz-EUt8Mo

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

The latest crime "in the name of social customs and religious rules."

A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged.

The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported.

The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the "strife" the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation.

Saudi preacher Ali al-Maliki has emerged as the leading critic of Facebook, claiming the network is corrupting the youth of the nation.

"Facebook is a door to lust and young women and men are spending more on their mobile phones and the Internet than they are spending on food," he said.

The woman was murdered in August but her death was highlighted following Maliki's comments.

Social customs and religious rules oblige women in Saudi Arabia to cover their head and figure with a veil so that men are not distracted by the female form.

Critics also allege that Facebook is an avenue for the promotion of homosexual relations in Saudi Arabia. More than 6,500 people have signed the online petition in a bid to stop the conservative Muslim kingdom following Syria in banning access to the network from local internet servers.

There are estimated to be more than 30,000 Facebook users in the oil-rich kingdom. Many Saudi women use nicknames and post comic images or drawings on their pages instead of photographs. Some Saudi bloggers have dubbed the network "Faceless".

Women users' contact details and email addresses are often pseudonymous. The popularity of sites for singles has broken taboos on people making contact outside family and class connections.

One of the most popular Facebook groups among Saudi Arabian youth is Single and Looking in Saudi Arabia, which has 1,823 members and hosts many sexually explicit images. [Source]

I just hopes this is not "April's Fool", but even if it is, I have no doubt that sooner or later this will happen!

On behalf of the Palestinian soccer fans and the Palestinian National Women Football team, I would like to congratulate the first Saudi female soccer team.

The first soccer match between female teams has taken place in Alkhobbar (Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province). The match was held between two teams of university students. The Prince Mohammad bin Fahd University team defeated their guests, the Al Yamamah College.

Although the match was held at a 35,000 capacity stadium in al-Dammam, no men were allowed in the stadium, and the referee and her linesman, as well as the fans, were also female.

Looks like the tied is changing -slowly- in Saudi Arabia. Few days ago there were news about allowing Saudi females to drive their cars (next day a lady was arrested for driving!), then Saudi Arabia eases rules for women to stay in hotels alone, today they are playing football, that is great and hoping to grant women more rights in Saudi.

[Source: Iqbal Tamimi - Palestinian Mothers]

A while ago, the International Herald Tribune had an article about how Muslim fashion designers are getting more creative:

But young Muslim entrepreneurs around the world are making their own fashion statements, modestly, challenging the status quo in their communities as well as stereotypes outside.
[...]
Specialty fashion houses and companies starting distinct ranges intended for fashion-conscious women who observe hijab, which means either covering one's head or, more broadly, dressing modestly, is part of a much wider trend. Filling a market gap for products that either comply with Shariah law or that are simply more attractive to Muslim values is a niche that is attracting increasing numbers of manufacturers and retailers. Toys like the Fulla doll, a modest Barbie of sorts, and comic books with Islamic superheroes like "The 99" are as much a part of this sector as the traditional domains of Islamic finance and halal, or permissible, food.

One of the most interesting designs are the Burqini Swimsuits, specially this female Muslim lifeguard (to the left) in Australia (photo by brimfulofsasha). Definitely not as sexy as Pamela Anderson in Baywatch (to the right), but it serve the purpose, unless your purpose is something else :-p .

What actually brought this subject to my mind is this new Muslim Fashion Magazine, MSLM. The magazine is for Muslim women in the Netherlands.

A group of young fashion-minded women, mostly second generation Moslem clearly stands out in our society. MSLM shows the fashion of this group. Because these young women grew up in the Netherlands, because they are Dutch, their background creates a fashion-clash which results in new interesting forms and silhouettes for both Moslem and non-Moslem women. Designers are inspired and influenced by this, use elements of another culture or design custom-fit products. From traditional to trendy, from the Mid-East to the West.

By MSLM MAMA is showing how we can play in to the wishes of this group of girls whom, with their extra frame of rules and their colourful background, have specific demands for the way they dress. MAMA is very curious to what the industry has planned for them!

[Source: MAMA]

Natasa Heydra has a little preview of the shoots in the magazine here (click thumbnail on the right) and more exciting shoots from the MSLM Exhibition here!

Also don't miss these photoshoots in MSLM fashion magazine - "Where tradition and modernity meet" :

More here!

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!

The following documentary film provides a compelling account of a life inside Iraq that is rarely seen on news bulletins. Stories of ordinary women whose struggle to survive has only worsened since the occupation of Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq heralded promises of freedom from tyranny and equal rights for the women of Iraq. But years on, the reality of everyday life for women inside Iraq is a different story. To make this 48 min film, two Iraqi women risk their lives to spend three months traveling all over the country with a camera to record the lives and experiences of women they meet. [Hat tip: Yolanda]

[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 attached is from our local Al-Quds newspaper on Nov 1, 2006. A story about a 2-yr old girl who was released from an Israeli prison near Ramallah. Her name is Aiysha, which in Arabic means "life."

Aiysha's mother gave birth to her while detained in an Israeli prison. Aiysha was released two days ago, her mother is still being detained under "Administrative Detention," in other words, no charge, no trial, nothing...just a unilateral Israeli decision to detain her for 6 months at a time, already renewed 4 times!

This poor baby. She knows nothing in life but the walls of her mother's prison cell. She only knows her father from visits, when they were possible. She has never seen a road, a city, grass, trees, a real bed, her own bedroom, a park, a real meal, friends, real toys, etc, etc.

I weep for this girl and pity the father as he is bound to be faced with her first question, "Where's mom?," and her mom, who sleeps tonight, alone.

(click on picture to read the story in Arabic)

May all the strength of those in solidarity with us around the world allow Aiysha to grow up without hate in her heart, and may all the Israeli soldiers that stood guard over Aiysha for the past 2-years and remained silent wake up. [Hat tip: Sam]

Audio Interview: Palestinian Children in Israeli Jails
Stefan Christoff, The Electronic Intifada, 20 May 2006. [Hat tip: Robin]

Listen to an interview with Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a child rights activist from Defense for Children International [Palestine Section] and Adam Hanieh of Sumoud, a political prisoner solidarity group based in Toronto. This interview was recorded during the April/May 2006 second annual Free Palestinian Political Prisoners speaking tour organized by Sumoud, which focused on the realities facing Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, specifically child prisoners.

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Defense for Children International, is a Palestinian NGO 'dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - as articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child'. Today massive numbers of Palestinian children are being arrested and detained by Israeli forces. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, some 350 children were arrested compared to around 700 child arrests in the whole of 2005.

8,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently detained by Israeli authorities, in prisons which major human rights organizations throughout the world. According to a 2006 report from Amnesty International, many Palestinian prisoners 'face medical negligence, routine beatings, position torture and strip searches by Israeli prison authorities'. According to recent figures the Palestinian prison population includes 400 children and 100 women detainees.

For more information visit the website of Defense for Children International & Sumoud, Political Prisoners Solidarity Group. This radio interview was produced by Stefan Christoff for broadcast on CKUT Radio in Montreal.