Acid Attacks On Iranian Women For "Bad Hijab"

There has been an upsurge in acid attacks on Iranian women in the historic tourist town of Isfahan for allegedly being "badly veiled."

Police have declined to comment on a motive but suspects have been arrested and an investigation is ongoing, General Hossein Ashtari was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.

He said four acid attacks had been reported in Isfahan, 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Tehran, but he gave no other details.

The violence led to chatter on social networks that there had been up to 13 acid attacks against women drivers who were "badly veiled" with accompanying warnings against leaving car windows open.

The rest here.

Saudi Men Blame Women For Rise In "Molestation" According To Survey

According to a survey, the majority of Saudi men blame makeup for the increase in public molestation of women.

Is that surprising? No.

Saudi men believe women are to blame for the rising cases involving molestation of females on the grounds they are seduced by women’s excessive make up.

The findings were included in a survey conducted by the Riyadh-based King Abdul Aziz Centre for National Dialogue and involved 992 males and females.

The survey, carried by Saudi newspapers, found that 86.5 per cent of the men polled believe that women’s exaggeration in wearing make-up is the main cause of the rise in molestation cases in public places in the conservative Gulf Kingdom.

About 80 per cent of the total persons polled believe lack of deterrent penalties and the absence of specific anti-molestation laws are also to blame for the phenomenon.

The report said 91 per cent of the respondents, all aged above 19, believe another key factor is the “poor religious sentiment” while nearly 75 per cent said the problem is caused by lack of awareness campaigns and warning notices at most public places.

No warning signs? Really?  They need to be told it's not okay to sexually harrass or molest women?

Basically what this survey says is that Saudi men have no clue how to conduct themselves in  a civilized manner, and feel the need to blame someone and not their lack of self control.

Source: Emirates247 

Most Women Edited Out Of Halal Version Of "Happy British Muslims"

The Honesty Policy decided to put together a video to show just how happy British Muslims are. So they filmed a panoply of British Muslims- young, old, males, females with and without head covering- dancing to Pharrell Williams popular song Happy.

The response has been, as expected, both positive and negative. The usual suspects are condemning it for the usual reasons, including the use of adult females.

While its supporters applaud the diverse array of Muslims featured and simple, positive message of happiness, its detractors have an array of complaints that range from the depiction of co-ed dancing to the use of a pop song, Pharrell Williams' "Happy."

Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf believes those trying to show "happy" Muslims are the polar opposite of terrorist/extremists.

So, someone put together a halal version with all the females edited out. The few left in the video are kids. None of the unveiled women are featured.




But many Muslims are just as outraged by this new version.

The original video featured a variety of well-known British Muslims, with scholars like Cambridge University lecturer Sheik Abdul Hakim Murad and Radical Middleway scholar Fuad Nahdi, as well as hip-hop artist Tanya Muneera Williams and journalist and academic Myriam Cerrah.

Cerrah told The Huffington Post via email, "This new video reflects the persistent attempts by a small but vocal band of misogynistic muslims who believe women have no place in the public sphere, to literally erase women from history. Despite what they may think, they're the real embarrassment to our faith." She emphasized that The Honesty Policy has nothing to do with the censored video.

It's always something.

Legalized Marital Rape and Child Marriage Part Of Proposed Iraqi Law

It appears we wasted a heck of a lot of precious U.S. blood in Iraq. Not only has the country continued to be a hotbed of sectarian violence after US troop withdrawl, it's now considering passing a barbaric law that will set women back centuries, and rights activists are hopping mad. 

The current legal age to get married there is 18. With the okay from your parents you can marry at 15. That will all change if the Jaafari Personal Status Law (named for the sixth Shiite imam Jaafar al-Sadiq) is introduced.  Although it does not specifically mention a minimum age that girls can marry, it does refer to a specific age in the "divorce" section. The age of Mohammed's child bride Aisha- 9.

.. setting rules for divorces of girls who have reached the age of 9 years in the lunar Islamic calendar. It also says that's the age girls reach puberty.

Since the Islamic calendar year is 10 or 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar, that would be the equivalent of 8 years and 8 months old.

Other parts of the bill that encourage male-domination:

Men will have all the control when it comes to marriage proposals for their daughters.

Men will have all control over their wives when it comes to sexual relations. Raping wives will be legal.

Women will need permission from their husbands to leave their homes.

Women will have fewer rights when it comes to post-divorce child custody.

Men will have an easier time taking on more wives.

The bill is apparently catering to the majority Shiites who were persecuted under Saddam Hussein's reign of terror, and some believe tied to the upcoming elections.

Baghdad-based analyst Hadi Jalo suggested that election campaigning might be behind the proposal.

''Some influential Shiite politicians have the impression that they should do their best to make any achievement that would end the injustice that had been done against the Shiites in the past,'' Jalo said.

Naturally, Sunni females aren't too happy about the proposal.

.. lawmaker Likaa Wardi believes it violates women's and children's rights and creates divisions in society.

''The Jaffari law will pave the way to the establishments of courts for Shiites only, and this will force others sects to form their own courts. This move will widen the rift among the Iraqi people,'' Wardi said.

Secular Shiites are just as opposed.

Qais Raheem, a Shiite government employee living in eastern Baghdad, said the draft bill contradicts the principles of a modern society.

''The government officials have come up with this backward law instead of combating corruption and terrorism,'' said Raheem who has four children, including two teenage girls.

''This law legalises the rape and we should all reject it.''

Hopefully they will reject it, but who knows.

Saudi Sheikh: Driving Adversely Effects Ovaries and The Female Pelvis

Amazing what some Muslim men will do to keep women firmly under the control of the male population. We all know women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive. I think it's the only country in the world where they are prohibited from doing so, even though there's no valid "Islamic" reason why they shouldn't. In fact, in a recent statement, Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh, the chief of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,  said that Sharia law does not prohibit women from driving.

“Islamic sharia does not have a text forbidding women driving."

Not that this will necessarily change things any time soon in the Saudi Kingdom, but it's a promising turn of events, and women are continuing to lobby (as they have been for a very long time) for permission to drive. There's even an online campaign- oct26driving.com- set for October 26, where Saudi women are being urged to get in a car and drive, and are demanding they be given driving tests and licences if they pass.

In response, we now have some loon telling women that driving will cause female problems. Yep, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan told women that he believes that if they drive,

 “.. [it]could have a reverse physiological impact. Physiological science and functional medicine studied this side [and found] that it automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis. This is why we find for women who continuously drive cars their children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees."

The good Sheikh happens to be a judicial and psychological consultant of some sort, to the Gulf Psychological Association.

Al Arabiya has some good responses from the Twittersphere.

Iranian Councilor Barred For Being Too Pretty and Sexy For Office

Hassan Rowhani, duly elected president of Iran, promised change in his country, especially for women.  One of his campaign promises was:

“Discrimination against women will not be tolerated.”

He also said in a campaign debate:

“I will form a women’s affairs ministry to return their trampled rights to them.”

But good luck trying to find one female member of his cabinet.

And the government of this so-called champion of women's rights has barred Nina Siakhali Moradi, city councilor for the city of Qazvin, from taking office because she's too pretty and  "too sexy."  Even though Moradi was fairly elected, the religious hardliners overturned it.

Even with more than 10,000 votes in the June election, putting her 14th out of 163 candidates and winning her a council seat, the 27-year-old engineer and website designer had her political career cut short because she was deemed too attractive to take up the post.

“We don’t want a catwalk model on the council,” a senior official in Qazvin told local press.

Moradi ran under the slogan “Young ideas for a young future,” pushing for better women’s rights in Qazvin, the restoration of the old city and greater youth involvement in town planning. She had been vetted and approved as a candidate by Iran’s judiciary and intelligence services. Her liberal views appeared popular with the electorate, The Times reported.

And  even though she adhered to strict Islamic dress code (full hijab with no hair showing) in her campaign posters, the conservatives complained to the governor calling them  “vulgar and anti-religious,” and anti-Islamic.

Others took umbrage with the fact that her headquarters

... became a gathering place for local young people, whose behavior and clothing provoked criticism from her opponents, mostly older conservative men.

The complaint was challenged but ultimately upheld. She was disqualified for not “observing the Islamic norms.”

She wasn't the only female candidate targeted. Maryam Nakhostin-Ahmadi and Shahla Atefeh both were detained and questioned and had their campaign posters removed.

Unaccompanied Women Banned From Shopping In Northwest Pakistan

More ignorance from tribal northwest Pakistan. Clerics have declared that women must be accompanied by a male relative if they want to shop because it spreads "vulgarity and spoils men's fasting during Ramadan." No-one knows if the ban is permanent or just during the month of Ramadan. Local Karak district police, however, have said they won't enforce the ban.

Source: RFE/RL

Saudi Women Jailed For Helping Canadian Woman and Her Kids Leave Husband

No good deed goes unpunished in Saudi Arabia, especially if you're a woman. That's because women are nothing more than the property of their husbands and male family members.

A Saudi court handed two Saudi women 10-month jail sentences on Saturday for seeking to help a Canadian woman who wanted to leave her Saudi husband with their children, human rights activists said.

The court also banned Fawzia al-Ayuni and Wajiha al-Huaider from leaving the kingdom for two years, rights activist Aql al-Bahli said.

They have a month to appeal against the judgment.

The two women were convicted of the Islamic sharia law offence of takhbib, or incitement of a wife to defy the authority of her husband, Bahli said.

They had been briefly detained by police a year and a half ago in the company of the Canadian woman who at the time wanted to flee the kingdom with her children after a row with her husband, he added.

I'm sure it was probably more than just a row.

When will women finally learn that marrying a religious Muslim man and moving to a country that practices Shariah law is not going to be all fun and romance. Who hasn't heard of "Not Without My Daughter", the gripping true-life story about American Betty Mahmoody's attempts to escape from her husband and life in Iran with her child.

Read the rest here.

The Problem Of Female Genital Mutilation In The UK

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a barbaric practice that won't easily be eradicated. In fact it's a growing problem in Western lands, with the UK now ranking number one in Europe. It's understandable in countries where the bulk of the population lives in ignorance and poverty, but one would think the practice would not survive in the civilized Western world. But not so. The problem is- immigrants bring their religious and cultural practices to their adopted countries, and are loathe to let them go. But it's such a problem that England is willing to invest £35 million to try to reduce the practice in at least 10 countries within the next 5 years.

The Gatestone Institute discusses the huge problem of FGM in the UK:

British authorities are redoubling their fight against the spiraling problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) after a weekly primetime television show broadcast by the BBC forced the previously "taboo" subject into mainstream debate.

FGM is endemic in Muslim-majority countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Three million girls between infancy and age 15 are subject to FGM every year, and it is believed that 140 million women worldwide are suffering from the lifelong consequences of the practice.

FGM has emerged as a major problem in Europe due to mass immigration. The European Parliament estimates that 500,000 girls and women in the European Union are living with FGM, and every year another 180,000 girls in Europe are at risk of being "cut."

Britain has the highest levels of FGM in Europe. According to a government-funded study published in 2007, at least 66,000 women and girls in Britain have had the procedure performed on them, and more than 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are currently at risk.

These figures, however, may be only the tip of the iceberg. A 2011 Department of Health policy paper warns that "it is possible that, due to population growth and immigration from practicing countries…FGM is significantly more prevalent than these figures suggest."

FGM is thought to be common in Britain among immigrant groups from Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Kurdistan, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Northern Sudan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Yemen.

The rest here.

It's unbelievable to think that this still happens in the 21st century in the West, and that it's actually becoming epidemic. It's all about education, but the only ones who can influence the parents of these young girls are the Imams, and that doesn't seem likely, because FGM is just another way to control women, in a religion that has little respect for them.

Muslim Brotherhood Blasts UN's Bid To End Violence Against Women

"Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations." 

The Muslim Brotherhood's Credo 

This is the true face of the Muslim Brotherhood: The following is a statement posted on their website Ikhwanweb regarding the UN's attempts to "End Violence Against Women".

The 57th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), taking place from March 4 to 15 at UN headquarters, seeks to ratify a declaration euphemistically entitled ‘End Violence against Women’.

That title, however, is misleading and deceptive. The document includes articles that contradict established principles of Islam, undermine Islamic ethics and destroy the family, the basic building block of society, according to the Egyptian Constitution.

This declaration, if ratified, would lead to complete disintegration of society, and would certainly be the final step in the intellectual and cultural invasion of Muslim countries, eliminating the moral specificity that helps preserve cohesion of Islamic societies.

A closer look at these articles reveals what decadence awaits our world, if we sign this document:

1. Granting girls full sexual freedom, as well as the freedom to decide their own gender and the gender of their partners (ie, choose to have normal or homo- sexual relationships), while raising the age of marriage.

2. Providing contraceptives for adolescent girls and training them to use those, while legalizing abortion to get rid of unwanted pregnancies, in the name of sexual and reproductive rights.

3. Granting equal rights to adulterous wives and illegitimate sons resulting from adulterous relationships.

4. Granting equal rights to homosexuals, and providing protection and respect for prostitutes.

5. Giving wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger.

6. Equal inheritance (between men and women).

7. Replacing guardianship with partnership, and full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.

8. Full equality in marriage legislation such as: allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, and abolition of polygamy, dowry, men taking charge of family spending, etc.

9. Removing the authority of divorce from husbands and placing it in the hands of judges, and sharing all property after divorce.

10. Cancelling the need for a husband’s consent in matters like: travel, work, or use of contraception.

These are destructive tools meant to undermine the family as an important institution; they would subvert the entire society, and drag it to pre-Islamic ignorance.

The Muslim Brotherhood urges the leaders of Muslim countries and their UN representatives to reject and condemn this document, and to call upon this organization to rise to the high morals and principles of family relations prescribed by Islam.

The Muslim Brotherhood also calls on Al-Azhar (the highest seat of learning for Muslims) to take the lead, condemn this declaration, and state clearly the Islamic viewpoint with regard to all details of this document.

Further, we urge all Islamic groups and associations to take a decisive stand on this document and similar declarations.

In conclusion, we call on women's organizations to commit to their religion and morals of their communities and the foundations of good social life and not be deceived with misleading calls to decadent modernization and paths of subversive immorality.

God Almighty says: "God wants to forgive you, but those who follow whims and desires want you to deviate far away from the Path). {Quran 4 : 27}

The Muslim Brotherhood
Cairo: March 13, 2013

Okay, so the first 4 issues might garner agreement from some conservatives in other religions, but the other 6?

What shameful disregard they have for women and children.

Abused Wives In Yemen Killing Their Husbands

Domestic violence is very prevalent in the Muslim world. This is not so surprising considering the beating of wives is actually sanctioned in the Quran.

QURAN Surah 4:34 - "Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them. Surely God is high, supreme."

Some women have been lucky enough to escape the abuse, like this Algerian ex-Muslimah, Samia Sharif, who fled with her five kids to Quebec, Canada, and now lives under an assumed name, for obvious reasons. But many aren't as lucky, though they are fighting back in their own way. Abused wives in Yemen are actually murdering their abusive husbands, oftentimes with the help of a male relative. 50 women from 25-50 years of age, in 2012 alone, were arrested for doing away with their violent hubbies.

Inequality, domestic violence and “emotional motives” were just some reasons behind such crimes, said the report, adding that the killings took place in Mahweet, Taiz, Hajjah, Sana'a, Amran and Marib.

However, the ministry said that the number of women who were victims of attempted murder was nearly double the number of women involved in killings.

Dr. Mujib Abdul Bari, a specialist in psychiatric and neurological disorders, told AlArabiya.net that constant physical and psychological abuse drastically changes a person.

Daily abuse makes a woman feel despair at her seemingly hopeless situation, said Bari, adding that women in such situations “forget their femininity and resort to killing their spouse.”

He said that the most notable crime in Yemen took place on August 7, 2012 in a village in the province of Marib, in which a 40-year-old woman killed her husband and two sons following a family dispute.

Bari wants the government to help women realize there are alternatives to dispensing with their husbands, by establishing "awareness programs":

The programs would help women to realize that they are contributing members of society and “to learn not to accept humiliation and be able to make their own decisions,” said Bari.

“In case women have taken a wrong decision in marriage, they should resort to legal solutions, such as divorce or going back to their families [who can] help them on a psychological level.”

Unfortunately, it's going to take a lot more than educating the women. He has no idea how hard it is to extricate oneself from an abusive relationship with a controlling male. And he obviously has no clue how difficult it is for a controlling male to relinquish power, one who believes his religion gives him the right to beat his wife. With a  religion and culture that considers women subservient to men, you would need to re-educate the whole male population, and change the religion itself.  That's not going to happen.

Female Rapper In Afghanistan Sings In Spite Of Death Threats

Soosan Ferooz is a 23-year-old Afghan rapper. Some claim she is the first female Afghan (Tajik) rapper, but  there are others. 19-year-old Moshtari lives in Germany but flew to Kabul last year to participate along with Soosan in the 2nd annual Sound Central Alternative Music Festival in front of an audience that looked exclusively male. The extraordinary thing about Soosan is that she pursues this dream in spite of the death threats she has received including from family members. Of her rap music she says:

“My raps are about the sufferings of women in my country, the pains of the war that we have endured and the atrocities of the war,” Feroz told AFP in an interview in the office of a local company that is helping her record her first album, between local performances including at the US embassy in Kabul.

Like most fellow Afghans, the 23-year-old says her life is filled with bitterness -- memories of war, bombing and a life at refugee camps in neighboring Iran and Pakistan.

She was taken to Pakistan as a child by her parents and later to Iran, escaping a bloody civil war at home in 1990s.

Two years after the 2001 US-led invasion of her war-scarred nation that toppled the Taliban, the then-teenager returned home with her family.

She worked as a carpet weaver with her other siblings for a living until she discovered her new talent.

Told that rap and hip hop had become a way for many artists around the world to express daily hardships in their lives, Feroz says: “If rap singing is a way to tell your miseries, Afghans have a lot to say.

“That’s why I chose to be a rapper.”

She recalls her woes at Iranian refugee camps in her first recorded piece of music, “Our neighbours”, which has been posted on YouTube and viewed nearly 100,000 times:

“What happened to us in the neighbouring country?
“We became ‘the dirty Afghan’
“At their bakeries we were pushed at the back of the queue.”

The lyrics are borne from personal experience, Feroz said. “As a child when I was going to bring bread from our neighborhood bakery, the Iranians would tell me, ‘go back, you dirty Afghan’.

“I would be the last one in the line to get my bread,” she said.

[snip]

Feroz was too young to remember the bloody battles of the 1980s between the Russian soldiers and freedom fighters known as mujahedin but her first song is full of war tales, with one line proclaiming: “We went to Europe for a better life (but) in refugee camps we rotted.”

[snip]

Afghan pop star Farid Rastagar has offered to help the young artist release an album, the first song of which will be released in January.

One of the songs is called “Naqis-Ul Aql” which can be translated as “deficient-in-mind” -- a common belief about women among Afghan men.

“In this rap, she sings about the miseries of the women in Afghanistan, about abuses and wrong beliefs that still exists about women,” Rastagar told AFP.

Afghan women have made some progress since the fall of the Taliban but many still suffer horrific abuse including so-called ‘honour killings” for percieved [sic] sexual disobedience.

Feroz, the daughter of a former civil servant and an illiterate housewife who remarkably let their daughter sing, has already made scores of enemies not only among conservatives but within her own family.

After releasing her first song on the internet, Feroz’s uncles and their families have shunned her, accusing her of bringing shame on them. Others, mostly anonymous callers, have threatened to kill her.

“What’s my fault?” she asks. “I always receive phone calls from unknown men who say I’m a bad girl and they will kill me,” she says, her dark eyes welling with tears.

Sitting next to her is her father, Abdul Ghafaar Feroz, who says he prides himself on being her “personal secretary”.

“I’m not deterred,” Feroz said, her father nodding his head in agreement. “Somebody had to start this, I did and I don’t regret it and I will continue. I want to be the voice of women in my country.”

Her dad has also become her bodyguard, because of all the death threats. Brave girl, given where she lives.

There are a number of videos on YouTube of Soosan, with various spellings of her name, but the one consistency is in the comments, by mostly Muslim males, denigrating and condemning her for daring to make music.

Iran's Only Female Minister Fired By Ahmadinejad

Since the Iranian Islamic revolution in 1979, when the country took a giant step backwards, there has only been one female cabinet member in the land of the ayatollahs. It took thirty years to hire one and only 3 years before she was fired, in spite of the fact that the woman is apparently conservative.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired health minister (and gynecologist) Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi because she had the audacity to criticize his government over the lack of funds needed to import much needed medicines.

Reports have emerged in recent weeks of shortages of some critical medicines for treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, blood disorders and other serious conditions.

Last month, Dastjerdi said only a quarter of the $2.4 billion earmarked for medicine imports had been provided in the current year and there was a shortage of foreign currency for the shipments.

"Medicine is more essential than bread. I have heard that luxury cars have been imported with subsidized dollars but I don't know what happened to the dollars that were supposed to be allocated for importing medicine," she said on state television.

However, not everyone is thrilled with Mahmoud's decision:

"Although the president has the authority to sack the health minister, the move was not wise and doesn't have acceptable logic," the head of parliament's health committee, Hosseinali Shahriari, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"The dismissal of the health minister was caused by nothing but ... personal issues. I hope the president has the courage to explain why he made this change," Fars quoted Shahriari as saying.

I think it's quite obvious- Mahmoud's ego was bruised by a female, no less.

He appointed a male to the position, so now the government is exclusively male.

In a short statement, he announced the interim appointment of Mohammad Hassan Tariqat Monfared as head of the ministry, replacing Dastjerdi.

"Noting your commitment and valuable experience and based on the ... constitution, I appoint you as the caretaker health minister," read the statement published widely across Iranian media.

That's probably just how the mullahs like it.

Iran Contemplating Law To Restrict Women's Travel

Iran is taking giant steps backwards when it comes to women's rights. Not that women have had much since the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 relegated them to third class citizens. Granted, up until recently they haven't had it as bad as some of their Muslim sisters in places like Saudi Arabia or hell holes like Afghanistan and Yemen- where women are non-entity's completely covered up and separated from the men folk- but they're being pushed in that direction.

Iran recently banned women from 80 university courses,  and is now trying to control their rights to travel outside of the country without the approval of a male family member. A law that is being considered by the 290-seat Majlis will require single women under 40 to get permission to travel abroad from either their father or male guardian. Currently, only single women (and men) under the age of 18 need  permission from their fathers to obtain a passport, while married women must get permission from their husbands. But that's about to change if the lawmakers get their way.

Since women were such a major part in pro-democracy, Green Movement a few years back, it seems the government is doing what it can to diminish the power of women by attempting to control and place further restrictions on their lives.  

Human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that Iran's interpretation of Shari'a law puts girls and women at a distinct disadvantage.

"According to our laws, if a 9-year-old girl commits a criminal offense, she will be tried and punished exactly as a 40-year-old person would," Ebadi says. "But if she wants to leave the country she is required, until the age of 40, to get permission from her father [for a passport]. If her father is deceased, she has to get permission from a judge."

Iran's civil code overwhelmingly favors fathers and husbands in all personal matters related to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and child custody.

Girls may be legally married as early as 13, and some lawmakers argue the age may, under Islamic interpretation, drop as low as 9. All women require permission from a male guardian to marry, regardless of their age.

Under Iranian law, women are also strictly compromised in terms of rights to compensation and giving legal testimony.

They are also bound by a strictly observed Islamic dress and conduct code, which forbids casual contact with the opposite sex and ordains that a woman must keep her hair and body covered in public.

Such laws are often used as a pretext to crack down on political opponents.

There are rights activists who are trying to do their part to gain more freedom for women, but they often wind up in jail. But there have been a few small wins.

One campaign claims to have reduced the number of women facing death by stoning for convictions of prostitution or adultery.

Another, the 1 Million Signatures campaign backed by Ebadi, has helped call attention to the stark legal discrimination against women in Iranian laws.

Ebadi, who now works in London after fleeing Iran amid rising harassment, says the rights movement has caused discomfort among Tehran's ruling establishment.

If the people don't somehow manage to oust the ruling Mullahs, it's only going to get worse for women there.

Saudi Man Detained For Sleeping With 1,073 Women

So, this Saudi manwhore gets 'detained' for messing around with some 1,073 women. There are no details on how the religious police found out, but since he has 1,073 female contacts on his cellphone they assume he was sleeping with them all. Can you even save that many contact numbers on a cell phone?

Even more incriminating were the obscene photos and videos of the man beating some of the women. According to Al Arabiya he was blackmailing some of the gals by threatening to post their photos on the web. He wanted money and jewelry,beside all that nooky.

Odds are he'll get off scott-free (he's already spent some time in prison on several occasions), and the women will probably be hauled in and jailed, in spite of the fact that they are “victims of extortion and fraud.”.

1,073? That's a heck of a lot of women. Guess they're not so prudish and religious after all.

IKEA Saudi Arabia Ads Photoshop Women Out Of Photo

Notice anything different between the two IKEA ads above? One is missing the mother, and no, it wasn't intentional in as much as this wasn't some modern day notion of single parenthood: dad joyfully helping his two kids get ready for bed. But  intentional, yes, because this particular ad was destined for Saudi Arabia where women are non-entities, and if they aren't covered from head to toe then they don't deserve to be seen. I guess it was easier to edit mummy out of the photo than photoshop the woman wearing a niqab.

Apparently, IKEA is not too happy with the situation-at least that's what they say- but accepts full responsibility for what happened.

"IKEA Saudi Arabia is run by a franchisee outside the IKEA Group,” the company said in their statement, but the catalogs themselves are produced by the IKEA Group for all their IKEA markets.

The Swedish company has since apologized, saying:

"We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the Ikea Group values."

“As a producer of the catalog, we regret the current situation,” IKEA added.
Additionally, IKEA removed the image of a female designer, featured in their other catalogs, who assisted in designing a line of their home furnishings.

“It’s impossible to retouch women out of reality,” Swedish Minister of Trade Ewa Björling told Metro newspaper. ”These images are yet another regrettable example that shows we have a long road ahead when it comes to gender equality in Saudi Arabia.”

But somebody thought it was a good idea.

Who knew the Saudis had an IKEA!

Iranian Women Banned From 80 University Courses

The Iranian government is further marginalizing women by not allowing them to study almost 80 different course subjects including computer science, nuclear physics, engineering, business, and of all things English Lit. Over 30 universities have implemented the ban just as the new academic year commenced.

No-one is saying why, but people have their ideas. Human Rights Lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who won a Nobel Prize, believes that

"The Iranian government is using various initiatives… to restrict women's access to education, to stop them being active in society, and to return them to the home to weaken the feminist movement in the country"

After the Islamic Revolution women were encouraged to educate themselves, and in fact female university students currently outnumber male 60 to 40, but that is starting to change. According to Human Rights Watch Liesl Gernholtz,

"As university students across Iran prepare to start the new academic year, they face serious setbacks, and women students in particular will no longer be able to pursue the education and careers of their choice."

Of course, others blame it on the economy bolstered by Western sanctions.

"..the dean of Iran's Petroleum University of Technology, Gholamreza Rashed, was quoted by the IRAN newspaper last week as blaming market forces - implying job prospects were shrinking because of Western sanctions.

He said his school was no longer accepting female students due to "the hardship of the work situation, and because the oil industry does not need female students right now."

Still others believe the power and strength of the women in the 2009 revolution has the leaders running scared.

"The women's movement has been challenging Iran's male-dominated establishment for several years," says Saeed Moidfar, a retired sociology professor from Tehran.

"Traditional politicians now see educated and powerful women as a threat."

But it definitely has to do with the continued Islamisation of Iran, and the universities are suffering the fall out. Iran has apparently been pushing for gender segregation in colleges for a while now, and Kamran Daneshjou, minister of science, research and technology says they

"welcome the establishment of one-gender universities, schools for only men or women." He said that was the direction "our religion envisions for us."

Mr Daneshjou dismissed Western criticism of Iran's steps, saying: "The angrier Western media gets, the more we realise we are moving in the right direction."

Unless the Iranians take back their country, women will wind up like Afghan women covered in burqas and banned from education.

Sources: ABC Australia, BBC