Activists: Harassment Across Arab World Drives Women to Seek Cover

The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab World is driving them to cover up and confine themselves to their homes, said activists at the first-ever regional conference addressing the once taboo topic.

Activists from 17 countries across the region met in Cairo for a two-day conference ending Monday and concluded that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don't punish it, women don't report it and the authorities ignore it.

The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, appears to be designed to drive women out of public spaces and seems to happen regardless of what they are wearing, they said.

Amal Madbouli, who wears the conservative face veil or niqab, told The Associated Press that despite her dress, she is harassed and described how a man came after her in the streets of her neighborhood.

"He hissed at me and kept asking me if I wanted to go with him to a quieter area, and to give him my phone number," said Madbouli, a mother of two. "This is a national security issue. I am a mother, and I want to be reassured when my daughters go out on the streets."

Statistics on harassment in the region have until recently been nonexistent, but a series of studies presented at the conference hinted at the widespread nature of the problem.

As many as 90 percent of Yemeni women say they have been harassed, while in Egypt, out of a sample of 1,000, 83 percent reported being verbally or physically abused.

A study in Lebanon reported that more than 30 percent of women said they had been harassed there.

"We are facing a phenomena that is limiting women's right to move ... and is threatening women's participation in all walks of life," said Nehad Abul Komsan, an Egyptian activist who organized the event with funding from the U.N. and the Swedish development agency.

Open discussion of the harassment issue first emerged in Egypt three years ago, after blogs gave broad publicity to amateur videos showing men assaulting women in downtown Cairo during a major Muslim holiday.

More at FoxNews

Palestinians return home, harassed by settlers

Ali Waked

For 10 years, residents of the Palestinian village of Khirbet Bir al-'Idd in the Hebron area have been living with relatives for fear of being harassed by settlers.

Last week, after receiving approval from the Israel Defense Forces, they returned to their homes, but say the attacks were renewed shortly afterwards.

Between the years 1999 and 2000, some 20 families living in the village were forced to evacuate themselves gradually due to repeated cases of harassment by settlers from the Mitzpe Yair outpost, who according to the Palestinians and their representatives in the Rabbis for Human Rights organization harassed them on a regular basis and prevented them from using the road leading to Khirbet Bir al-'Idd.

The Palestinians claimed that the army would turn a blind eye to the harassment, forcing the residents to leave the area. In recent years they turned to the rabbis' organization, which petitioned the High Court through Attorney Kamar Mishraki, demanding that the army allow them to return to the place they had left.

Following talks between the sides, Attorney Einav Golomb of the State Prosecutor's Office declared on May 2009 that the residents would be allowed to return to the village and that the road blocked by the settlers would be reopened.

The area's brigade commander decided to implement the decision, and four families returned to the village last Sunday. According to the Palestinians, however, they were assaulted by settlers on Thursday, one of their sheep was slaughtered and the residents were instructed to stop using the access road they had paved themselves.

The Palestinians claim that the settlers again blocked the road leading to the village and resumed their attacks on the residents. A Rabbis for Human Rights organization led by Rabbi Arik Ascherman visited the area on Monday.

Attorney Mishraki, who also arrived there, told Ynet that the settlers attacked and insulted the visitors in front of the soldiers.

"One of the settlers even took the brigade commander's decision, which orders the opening of the road, from Rabbi Ascherman's hands and tore it in front of soldiers.

Another female settlers, who did not know that I was Arab, shouted at me, 'Would you agree to have your boys and girls grow up next to Arabs?'"

The lawyer noted that one of the residents suffering from the road being blocked was a woman in advanced pregnancy.

According to Mishraki, the fact that the road is closed prevent the Palestinians from getting water and running their everyday life. She added, "The army that confirmed that the evacuation was illegal and decided to bring back the residents must implement the decision and defend the residents, rather than treat them like a security threat.

The law must be enforced against those harassing them."

More at YNet

Muslim Veterans Group Says No Reports of Harassment of Islamic Soldiers

A Muslim veteran affairs organization says it has not received reports of harassment from Islamic soldiers, contrary to claims by a relative of the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Abdul-Rashid Abdullah, deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told FoxNews.com that the nonprofit group has not received a single report recently of a U.S. soldier being harassed "simply because he was Muslim."

"That kind of report is inconsistent with what we've heard," Abdullah said prior to a press conference in Washington to denounce Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and 38 wounded. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist who was reportedly due to be deployed later this month, is accused in the mass shooting.

Abdullah said his organization, which condemned the "unspeakable" attack, serves "several thousand" Muslim soldiers.

Hasan was shot four times during the Thursday attack and remained unconscious early Friday. He reportedly had told relatives in Virginia that he began having second thoughts about his military career after fellow soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim.

Hasan's aunt, Noel Hasan, of Falls Church, Va., told The Washington Post her nephew wanted out of the military following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks due to harassment about being a Muslim.

"Some people can take it and some people cannot," she told the newspaper. "He had listened to all of that and he wanted out of the military."

Nawar Shora, legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, expressed his sympathies to the victims and their relatives on Friday.

"We were all shocked at the tragedy yesterday at Fort Hood and the act of cowardice by the attacker," Shora said. "We were all attacked yesterday. Let's remember that this was an attack on all Americans and it’s a time for all Americans to come together in unity and in faith."

Alejandro Beutel, government liaison for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the Muslim-American community is "appalled" by the incident.

"We unequivocally denounce this heinous act against our brave men and women serving in the military to protect our country," Beutel said. "We pray for [the victims'] well-being and for the safety of the entire nation."

Lt. Col. Les Melnyck, a Defense Department spokesman, said that as of August, 3,557 active duty troops of roughly 1.4 million identified themselves as being Muslim. According to the self-reported figures, the largest religious preference identified was Roman Catholic (284,000), followed by "no preference," he said.

"It's self-reported so you don't have to fill in that box," Melnyck said, adding that 1,710 Muslims are currently serving in the Army, by far the most of any service branch.

Source: FoxNews

Egyptian women fight harassment

Egypt's Centre for Women's Rights conducted a survey last year which revealed that 93 per cent of Egyptian women have endured harassment of some sort at least once.

For some, what should be a leisurely stroll through the streets of Cairo, Egypt's capital, has become more like a gauntlet run.

Campaigners say the male-dominated society leaves women feeling vulnerable and unprotected by traditional forces like the police.

The problem has become so acute that the government is now considering making the abuse a criminal offence.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera's Amr el-Khaky meets a group of women in Cairo who are taking the fight in their own hands: they are taking lessons in karate.

Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian writer and activist, says that almost every woman she knows has been sexually harassed or groped.

"It is no exaggeration to say this is an epidemic," she says.

"This is much more than sexual frustration.

"This is about power, about humiliation, about the way women have been portrayed, not just in the media but also through religious sermons.

"… The respect that Islam gives to women ... is missing from a lot of religious discourse in Egypt."

Source: Al Jazeera (English)

Little Somali Islamonazis Harassing a Gay Man in Minneapolis

By Amita Parashar

Approximately 15 youths physically and verbally taunted a gay man as he was leaving Twin Cities Pride in Minneapolis on Saturday, in an incident captured on video.

The Somali youths asked the man if he was gay, and when he responded yes, the young people yelled "I hate gay people" and reportedly threw rocks at the man, whose name is not known.

On the video various youths can be heard saying "I hate gay people" repeatedly, along with "Gay is not the way" and "Fuck gay people. They can go fuck each other."

About one minute into the video, a police officer can be seen walking through the crowd of young people.

The man who was taunted walked away, telling the kids, "See how I'm not scared at all?"

Source: Advocate
H/T: Atlas