By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia-After much support from Saudi Arabian King Abdullah calling for women’s rights social reforms, Saudi authorities have been asked to remove the school ban on girls’ sports.

Saudi women, under strict interpretations of sharia law, are banned from driving and must obtain permission from a male relative to leave the country, start a job, or open a bank account.

Saudi Arabia has maintained an official ban on sports classes for girls in state schools due to pressure from religious conservatives.  King Abdullah, however, has implemented great change in women’s rights when he appointed thirty women to the 150-member chamber for the first time, just a year ago.

The Shura Council, which advises the Saudi Arabian government on policy, requested that the education ministry investigate into allowing girls to participate in state-run schools, assuming that they conform to sharia rules on dress and gender segregation.

The Council’s decisions are not binding, but influential in Saudi Arabia because it is the only official forum for the public to discuss new laws and government policy surrounding sensitive social issues.  A law removing the ban would not become official until it received ministry and cabinet approval.

In support of the decision, Council members relied on recent studies showing an increase in obesity related illnesses among Saudi Arabian women.  “The education affairs committee saw that ratifying this decision does not contradict Sharia law, pointing out that a previous fatwa (religious ruling) allowed for sports for women in general,” stated one council member.

Those in opposition argued that most schools are not equipped to allow girls’ sports, while also challenging the notion that physical education lessons has decreased obesity in boys.

Private schools have officially removed a ban on girls sports last year, following many private schools already providing girls physical education classes.

Saudi women were included in its Olympic team for the first time only two years ago, at the London 2012 Games.  The allowance garnered much support but also criticism of the two female athletes, a runner and a judoka, on social media.

Opposition, however, is great as many powerful clerics and their supporters fear the kingdom is losing its Islamic values in favor of western ideas.  Despite these challenges, King Abdullah has made major strides in making it easier for Saudi women to work and study alongside men, while promoting more tolerant views of other religions.

For more information, please see the following: 

Al Bawaba-Saudi girls will soon be able to play soccer, shoot hoops-10 April 2014

Al Jazeera-Saudi considers lifting ban on girls sports-10 April 2014

Guardian-Saudi Arabia may review ban on girls’ school sports-10 April 2014

Reuters-Saudi authorities asked to allow school sport for girls: agency-10 April 2014

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East BEIRUT, Lebanon – Mariam al-Khawli, a Syrian refugee who fled the conflict in her home country two years ago, self-immolation in front of the United Nations headquarters in Beirut Lebanon last Week. She doused herself with gasoline and lit herself on fire in protest of the devastating cuts to aid for refugees that have affected her ability to provide for her family. She came to Lebanon two years ago with her husband and four children after fleeing the violence in her home country. Like many refugees she depended on aid to provide for her family, including treatment for her children’s health conditions, which had stopped in August.

Mariam al-Khawli survived her protest and is now being hospitalized. According to her doctor, Gabriel al-Sabeh, said 70 percent of Mariam al-Khawli’s body is now covered in severe burns and if she survives she will be hospitalized for several months to treat her injuries. Mariam al-Khawli’s decision to protest the United Nations aid cuts in this fashion was driven by her family’s desperation. Her husband is unable to work due to a lung abscess and three of her four children have blood conditions that require treatment. She said of the UN’s action that “”they burned my heart before they burned my body. They burned my heart from the inside.” Mariam al-Khawli is one of more than one million refugee’s struggling to survive in Lebanon. On 3 April the one millionth refugee to enter Lebanon was officially registered. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called this a “devastating milestone” for a small country whose resources have been stretched extremely thin as a result of the sudden and massive influx of civilian refugees into their population. It is now believed that about one quarter of the population on Lebanon is now made up of Syrian refuges. Ninette Kelley, regional representative for Lebanon at the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Refugees, said Khawli’s case was “a very sorrowful reflection of the enormous desperation and need of the refugee community and it is also a telling reminder of the consequences of the Syrian emergency and the unfolding crisis here in Lebanon”. According to UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres this “devastating milestone” has been worked by the rapid depletion of resources in Lebanon, the host country for more than one million refugees from Syria and previous conflicts in Palestine, which has left the country “stretched to breaking point.” He said, “Tiny Lebanon has now become the country with “the highest per capita concentration of refugees worldwide,” and is “struggling to keep pace.” According to Antonio Guterres “almost half of the Syrian population is displaced.” The United Nations has cut the size of food parcels providing to starving Syrian communities by a fifth because of a shortage of funding form donor states. The United Nations’ World Food Programme managed to get food to a record 4.21 million people inside Syria in March despite funding challenges. However, this was just fort of its target of reaching 4.2 million people. Donor states pledged $2.3 billion for aid agencies helping Syria at a conference in Kuwait in January. However, only $1.1 billion of the funds pledged has actually reached these agencies. The delay in donor states meeting their pledges for the Syrian people has led to a cut in the standard size of a food basket for a family of five people. Last month, Lebanon’s foreign minister said the crisis was “threatening the existence of Lebanon,” a country that is still recovering from its own bloody 15-year civil war that ended in 1990. According to Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, an organization that has about 1,000 relief workers on the ground in and around Syria, Syrian refugees living in Lebanon could be significantly higher than the official numbers. He said not all Syrian refugees living in Lebanon had become officially registered with the United Nations, a process that often takes months. Egeland argued that the scope and breadth of the refugee crisis creating by the Syrian Civil War is not well understood and the international community may not be prepared to deal with the crises. He said, “his is not just another war, this is a generational challenge and we are not up to meeting that challenge.” For more information please see: Al Jazeera – Fund Crunch Forces UN to Cut Syria Food Aid – 09 April 2014 Al Jazeera – Syrian Refugees Hit Million Mark in Lebanon – 03 April 2014 Al Jazeera – Syrian Self-Immolation Case Reflects Tragedy – 03 April 2014 The Times of Malta – ‘They Burned My Heart Before My Body’ – 03 April 2014 The New York Times – Lebanon Hosts Over a Million Who Fled Syria, U.N. Reports – 03 April 2014

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt-Two supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi have been sentenced to death for their actions during a protest after Morsi was ousted.  The two supporters threw two youth off the roof of a building during the violent protests.

The traumatic event occurred on July 5 of last year, two days after Morsi was ousted.  Witnesses claimed it to be one of the most dramatic acts of violence on a day where sixteen other people were killed in Alexandria.

Egypt’s state news agency reported that a court in Alexandria found the two men guilty of murdering a child and a young man during the mass protests.  Judge Sayed Abdel-Latif stated he would issue the verdict against another sixty defendants charged with violence on that day in another two months.   Why the ruling was split, is unclear.

The boy who was killed was nine-year-old Hamada Badr.  Witnesses to the incident, including an Associated Press journalist, reported that the boy was stabbed and then thrown off the roof.

“But I want all the Brotherhood leadership tried and sentenced to death,” said Badr Hassouna, the boy’s father who said the verdict was partial vindication.

The other victim was a man in his early twenties who was hurled to his death and Morsi supporters proceeded to beat his lifeless body.

That same day, another twelve people were killed elsewhere in Egypt as tens of thousands of infuriated Morsi supporters took to the street in support of the Muslim Brotherhood.  Since then, violence has continued.

Last week, 529 Islamists were sentenced to death for killing a policeman in Minya, a province south of Cairo.  Morsi and most of the Brotherhood leadership are detained and awaiting trial from charges ranging from murder to incitement of violence to conspiring with foreign destabilization groups.

Almost no official has been held accountable for the killing of protesters.  Eight months after Morsi’s ouster, his supporters still protest, sparking clashes in the streets with security forces and political opponents.

Last Friday saw the latest act of violence where five people were killed, including a young female journalist who was shot in the head.  Hisham Abdel Hamid, a spokesman for CBC-TV, reported that four others were shot in the head and the chest.

Of the five people killed, one was a Christian woman who was pulled out of her car when protesters spotted a cross inside.  She was then shot dead.

For more information, please see the following: 

Ahram-Two Islamists sentenced to death for throwing children off roof last July-30 March 2014

Al Jazeera-Egypt sentences Morsi supporters to death-30 March 2014

Huffington Post-Egypt Court Sentences 2 Morsi Supporters To Death-30 March 2014

NBC News-Egyptian Court Sentences Two Morsi Supporters to Death-30 March 2014

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has met the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in order to salvage foundering peace talks that were dealt a new blow when Arab leaders said they would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

On Wednesday, Abbas spoke to reporters and said he still was waiting to receive a formal framework proposal from Kerry. He said there have been no talks on extending negotiations beyond the April deadline, adding that the coming month would be “a very important period.”

Kerry and Abbas spoke for more than four hours over a working dinner in the Jordanian capital of Amman that U.S. officials said were “constructive.” No other details of the meeting were released.

Kerry flew from Rome to Amman to see Abbas as negotiations approached a critical April 30 deadline for a settlement. The Palestinians have threatened to walk away before then unless Israel releases a group of prisoners, as it agreed to, by Saturday.

Kerry planned further talks with Abbas and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the coming days.

Wednesday’s announcement by the Arab League, blaming Israel for a lack of progress in the Middle East peace process, put up another roadblock. The communique, issued at the end of a two-day summit, also rejected “the continuation of settlements, Judaisation of Jerusalem, and attacks in its Muslim and Christian shrines.”

In Amman, Kerry met first on Wednesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II before the dinner with Abbas. Kerry planned his return to Rome on Thursday to join President Barack Obama at meetings with Pope Francis and Italian officials.

The League’s announcement that it would not recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people rejected a key demand of Netanyahu. The Palestinians say such recognition would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees and Israel’s Arab minority.

Kerry will then join Obama in Saudi Arabia on Friday and Saturday.

For more information, please see the following: 

Al Jazeera-Kerry meets Abbas as peace process founders-27 March 2014

Reuters-Kerry interrupts Rome visit to salvage Mideast peace talks-27 March 2014

U.S. News-Secretary of State Kerry meets Palestinian leader Abbas in bid to salvage peace process-27 March 2014

Washington Post-Kerry meets Abbas as peace process founders-27 March 2014

 

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt – In the largest mass death sentence to be handed by a court in modern Egyptian history 529 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood have been sentenced to death, charged with several crimes including murder. The verdict was handed down on Monday and according to Egypt’s official news agency, the charges were related to riots in the city of Minya in south Egypt in august of last year, including the death of an Egyptian police officer. The charges against the defendants included charges of violence, inciting murder, storming a police station, attacking persons and damaging both public and private property.

The group of defendants is part of a group of about 1,200 Muslim brotherhood supporters on trial in Egypt, including senior members of the organizations. About 400 of those convicted are fugitives and were convicted and sentenced in absentia; under Egyptian law, they will be entitled to a retrial if they are arrested.

Most of the defendants were arrested and charged with caring out attacks during the violent clashes between protesters opposing the removal of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, a member of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood, that occurred in Minya after the intern military government cracked down on the opposing, forcing the dispersal of two major protest camps, used by the Muslim Brotherhood to demonstrate against the coup, on August 14 of last year.

The defendants are expected to appeal the decision and layers say the verdict is almost certain to be overturned on appeal. Many legal experts in Egypt were surprised by the verdict which is the largest mass trial or conviction in modern Egyptian history. “We have never heard of anything of this magnitude before, inside or outside of Egypt, that was within a judicial system — not just a mass execution,” said Karim Medhat Ennarah, a researcher at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights specializing in criminal justice issues.

Ennarah, who called the verdict “ridiculous”  argued that it would be impossible to prove that more than 500 people each played a significant role in the killing a single police offence, especially after just on session of the trial, which is what occurred in the case. He said; “clearly this is an attempt to intimidate and terrorize the opposition, and specifically the Islamist opposition, but would the judge get so deeply involved in politics up to this point?”

The verdict was the latest example of Egypt’s speedy and brutal crackdown on Islamists and supporters of the Muslim brotherhood, the verdict was the latest in a sting of speedy trials resulting in harsh sentences against Islamists and other supports of Mohamed Morsi, including a ten-day trial that recent ended in 17 year sentences for a group of student demonstrators. Human Rights groups have said Monday’s verdict is a signal that the Egyptian government intended to further tighten its grip on the opposition, including the Muslim Brotherhood, once the nation’s leading party, which has been largely driven underground by the government’s crackdown.

For more information please see:

Al Jazeera – Muslim Brotherhood Members Sentenced to Death – 24 March 2014

CNN International – 528 Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Sentenced to Death in Egypt – 24 March 2014

BBC News – Egypt Court Sentences 528 Morsi Supporters to Death – 24 March 2014

National Public Radio – Egyptian Court Sentences More Than 500 Morsi Supporters to Die – 24 March 2014

The New York Times – Hundreds Of Egyptians Sentenced to Death In Killing Of A Police Officer – 24 March 2014