Finally a good news from Africa!

 Human rights campaigners who have been struggling for years to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) in West Africa got a boost this week as news emerged that

a group of Muslim clerics and scholars in Mauritania had declared a fatwa, or religious decree, against the practice.

The centuries-old practice involves removing part or all of a girl's clitoris and labia, and sometimes narrowing the vaginal opening. About 72 percent of the women in Mauritania have undergone FGM which health workers say often causes severe

bleeding, problems urinating and potential complications during childbirth.

"Are there texts in the Koran that clearly require that thing? They do not exist," the secretary general of the Forum of Islamic Thought in Mauritania, Cheikh Ould Zein, told Reuters.

In many parts of West Africa, FGM has been presented as a religious obligation for practising Muslim women, leading most to believe that if they are not circumcised they are unclean and their prayers will not be heard.

Which makes the decision by 34 imams and scholars -- supported by the government of Mauritania and UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency -- all the more unusual.

 http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/mauritanian-muslim-imams-initiate-rare-ban-on-female-circumcision

Iranian security forces have carried out a new wave of arrests of activists and journalists, accusing them of charges such as "acting against national security". Marzieh Rasouli,  blogger and  jouornalist, is one of the latest arrested on such charges.

 This week another woman, Parastou Dokouhaki, a blogger and women rights activist, was also arrested. she was taken on Sunday from her home; security forces also confiscated her and her relatives' personal property. It is reported that she too has been transferred to Evin and charged with "propaganda against the regime".

 http://www.wluml.org/news/iran-new-wave-arrests-marzieh-rasouli-and-parastou-dokouhaki-taken-evin-prison

A Pakistani regional assembly has passed a law making it illegal for parents not to extend property rights to female family members, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports.

The bill was presented in the assembly in the northwestern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by deputy Noor Sahar and was unanimously passed on January 5.

Under Islamic Shari'a law a daughter should receive half as much property from her parents as her brother would receive (two sisters' shares put together would equal that given to a brother). This is the standard the province's government expects its citizens to follow.

 Arshad Abdullah, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's law minister, told Radio Mashaal that those refusing to give property rights to women family members would be punished with a five-year jail term and a 50,000 rupee (around $550) fine.

"This is a great effort and a big change in the law [of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]," Abdullah said. "Now it is up to the women to be aware of and to fight for their rights."

  http://www.rferl.org/content/pakistan_region_gives_women_legal_right_property/24444424.html

Sahar Gul became the bruised and bloodied face of women's rights in Afghanistan after she was rescued in late December when an uncle called police.

Speaking in an interview Saturday from a hospital in Kabul, Gul blamed her husband, his parents and his sister for her ordeal.

"I want them to be in jail," she said. "They gave me electric shock. ... They beat me with cables and tortured me."

She is being treated for multiple injuries that include broken fingers and ripped-out fingernails.

Police in Baghlan province where Gul was rescued have said her in-laws locked her up and tortured her after she refused to work as a prostitute. Her husband's parents and sister have been arrested. They deny any wrongdoing.

 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBBg79A4goU1a-z9wD8YjxSwfROg?docId=48eedea6ba7e445f8961103c0fb2b949

Good news from the Caribbean.

 Supporters of Jamaica's first woman prime minister are celebrating after she staged a dramatic comeback with a landslide victory in the general election yesterday.

Portia Simpson Miller, leader of the centre-left People's National Party, tapped in on voter-disillusionment, especially among Jamaica's poorest people, during an energetic election campaign.

 'I am humbled as I stand before you and I wish to thank the Jamaican people for their love, for their support and for giving the People's National Party and the leader of the party her own mandate,' she said, after receiving hugs from numerous candidates, some crying.

Today the White House announced that FBI Director Robert Mueller has approved the change recommended by several committees of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Service. The new definition, as it appears on the FBI website, is: "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."

"Updating the FBI Uniform Crime Report definition of rape is a big win for women," said Eleanor Smeal, president of Feminist Majority Foundation. "We appreciate the support for this change from the Obama Administration, led by Vice President Joe Biden and by Lynn Rosenthal, White House Advisor on Violence Against Women, and Hon. Susan B. Carbon, director of the Office on Violence Against Women in the Department of Justice, as well the FBI."

"With a modern, broader definition, FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics will finally show the true breadth of this violence that affects so many women's lives. Women's groups will work to ensure that this more accurate and complete data will lead to increased resources to combat and reduce the incidence of rape," continued Smeal.

 http://www.feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswirestory.asp?id=13401

We should not forget her...

I wonder why such news does not become front cover news as it should be.

 Add another item to Somalia's long list of woes: A country wracked by violence and famine is also seeing a frightening rise in rape, reports the New York Times, which recounts the findings of aid workers and the tales of victims. The sexual abuse is occurring at the hands of militant group al-Shabab, among others. Reports say these self-proclaimed defenders of a harsh form of Islam are grabbing women and girls and gang-raping them; they're also apparently demanding families hand over girls as young as 12 for marriage—arrangements that typically last a few weeks and basically turn the women into sexual slaves designed to improve fighters' morale.

 It's a move that's also intended to control the population, and to keep their men fighting, with the broke group substituting girls for wages. Those who refuse to marry a fighter are killed. But the Shabab aren't the only ones to blame: The Times calls the country "a free-for-all of armed men," ranging from government soldiers to rogue fighters, who are raping women in refugee camps and those forced by famine to trek long distances, separating them from the protection of their clan. Because UN operations are extremely limited in the country, there are but a few small Somali organizations in place to help these women. Says the founder of one, "There’s no justice here, no protection, people say 'You’re junk' if you’ve been raped

 http://www.newser.com/story/136325/somalias-rising-woe-mass-rape.html

Among the many hardships facing the more than one million Haitians still living in tent camps after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake is the threat of sexual violence.

While there are differing accounts of how widespread rape is in the camps of Port-au-Prince, most analysts agree that sexual violence in Haiti has been exacerbated by the conditions in tent camps.

Amnesty International reported this month that the risk of rape for women living in camps has increased dramatically over the past year. The organization consulted grassroots groups working with women on the ground and interviewed more than 50 victims.

“Women and girls are in a situation of extreme vulnerability [in the camps], especially the girls without the protective measures like school or a safe place to play,” Ducos said. The attackers, he said, are usually groups of young men roaming camps looking for victims.

But Sylvie van den Wildenberg with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) said sexual violence in the camps has decreased since the early months after the quake with the implementation of security measures. Regular patrols by MINUSTAH and the Haitian police were put in place to reign in crime and more lighting in the camps was added.

Amnesty International called for beefing up and expanding the current security measures, as well as encouraging community involvement in cutting down the crimes and full prosecution of perpetrators.

Madre, an international women’s rights group based in the United States, said its sister organization in Haiti, the Commission of Women Victims for Victims, has documented more than 300 rapes in 22 camps it has worked in since the quake.

Many women are scared to come forward for medical help or to pursue prosecution, said Madre's human rights advocacy director Lisa Davis. But the organization has observed that attackers are becoming more brazen and are acting with impunity because so few cases end in a conviction.

“A woman was pulled into a car in broad daylight by five men, so we are starting to see women raped during the day on the streets in front of people,” Davis said.

 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/health/jan-june11/women_01-07.html

A spokesman for Victorian Attorney-General Robert Clark rejected the proposal put forward by the president of the state's Somali community, which has also been dismissed by lawyers.

The government's refusal came as Australian Federation of Islamic Councils president Ikebal Patel said the suggestion of a koranic court "absolutely" fitted with a call he made earlier this year for legal pluralism.

His submission to a federal government inquiry on multiculturalism sparked controversy and prompted Attorney-General Robert McClelland to rule out any changes that would introduce aspects of sharia law in Australia.

The Baillieu government refused to give its reasons for rejecting the proposal, but prominent Melbourne defence lawyer Rob Stary said there was no realistic prospect of separate courts for Muslims.

"I don't see it in the foreseeable future," he said, speaking on behalf of the Law Institute of Victoria's criminal law division....

 http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/12/australias-victoria-state-says-no-to-sharia-courts