struggle within Islam

Outrage as Taliban bar women from medical training

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) condemned a new Taliban directive barring Afghan women and girls from attending classes at medical institutions, warning that it will have devastating consequences for the country's healthcare system. OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani stated: "The measure is profoundly discriminatory, short-sighted and puts the lives of women and girls at risk in multiple ways. It removes the only remaining path for women and girls towards higher education and will decimate the already inadequate supply of female midwives, nurses and doctors." (Photo: ArmyAmber/Pixabay)

Pakistan: truce follows weeks of sectarian clashes

A ceasefire agreement was reached between two warring tribes in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province following weeks of clashes that left 130 people dead in Kurram district, along the border with Afghanistan. A Grand Jirga of tribal leaders was called to mediate the truce. The violence exploded when a convoy of Shi’ite pilgrims traveling to a shrine in Peshawar was ambushed by armed assailants, killing at least 42. The ensuing clashes pitted members of the mostly Shi'ite Bagan tribe against their Sunni neighbors, the Alizai, with shops and homes ransacked and whole villages displaced. A land dispute between the two tribes had also caused clashes that led to 50 fatalities in September, and ended when some 100,000 local residents marched for peace. (Map: USAID via ReliefWeb)

Syria

Neither Jewish State nor Islamic Republic

Israel's long-awaited strikes on Iran have targeted military and industrial installations in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, with air-strikes also reported in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs. It is now Iran's turn to retaliate in the escalatory tit-for-tat game, as the brink of regional and even world war looms ever closer. In Episode 249 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg advocates a neither/nor position that rejects the militaristic and reactionary regimes of both Zionism and political Islam, and looks to a secular order in the Middle East. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: @iranprotest2019)

ICJ case against Taliban over ‘gender apartheid’

Twenty-six countries expressed their support for a legal initiative to hold the Taliban accountable at the International Court of Justice for systematic human rights violations against women and girls in Afghanistan. In a joint statement, the countries emphasized Afghanistan's obligations under international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), an international bill of rights for women. Since the Taliban's seizure of de facto power in 2021, Afghan women and girls have faced severe violations of their rights. The Taliban government has taken various measures to limit their participation in public life and has engaged in systematic discrimination, which has been called "gender apartheid." (Photo: 12019/Pixabay via Jurist)

Bangladesh leader condemns attacks on Sufi shrines

The interim leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, issued a stern condemnation of recent attacks on Sufi shrines across the country. Bangladesh has experienced a recent rise of extremist violence targeting religious and cultural sites, including both Sufi shrines and Hindu temples. Protests have erupted across the country, with thousands of Hindus and followers of Sufi saints taking to the streets to demand greater protection for their religious sites. (Photo: Dhaka Tribune)

Syria

Iran: revoke death sentence of Kurdish activist

Over 26 rights organizations, including the Kurdistan Human Rights Network and Center for Human Rights in Iran, issued a joint statement calling for the immediate revocation of the death sentence imposed on Kurdish women's rights activist Pakhshan Azizi. This sentence, handed down by the Iranian judiciary, has sparked international outrage, with the organizations calling it "a blatant violation of human rights principles and standards as well as international conventions and treaties." Held in solitary confinement for months, during which time she was subjected to torture to coerce confessions, Azizi was sentenced to death by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran on charges of "armed insurrection" and "membership in opposition groups." Her lawyers maintain that Azizi has no involvement in any armed groups, but that she spent years working in displaced persons' camps in Syria's Rojava region, providing humanitarian aid to those displaced by ISIS violence. (Image: ANF)

Demand Saudi Arabia release detained cyber-dissidents

A group of 40 rights organizations issued a joint statement calling on authorities in Saudi Arabia to release all those unfairly jailed for their online activities before Riyadh hosts the United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in December. The organizations stated that the detentions contradict the IGF’s stated values of advancing human rights and inclusion in the digital age. They charged that Saudi authorities are subjecting citizens to unprecedented repression, including decades-long prison sentences for expressing critical views online. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

West Africa: dissidents detained, disappeared

Amnesty International urged Malian authorities to immediately release dissident Youssouf Daba Diawara and 11 other arbitrarily detained opposition politicians. According to the statement, Mali's junta has been arbitrarily holding these political figures solely for exercising their civil rights. Diawara was forced from his car by armed men in Bamako and taken to the Gendarmerie's Criminal Investigations Brigade. He was charged with "opposition to legitimate authority" for participating in a protest against power cuts and inflation. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has also expressed concern over the "disappearance" of activists in neighboring Guinea. Both Mali and Guinea have been led by military juntas since coups d'etat in 2020 and 2021, respectivey. (Map: World Sites Atlas)

Syria

Syria: protests against HTS face repression in Idlib

Security forces of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist militia that controls much of northwest Syria, put down protests that broke out in cities and towns across Idlib province. In the Idlib cities of Binnish and Jisr al-Shughour, HTS forces beat protesters with batons, deployed armored vehicles, and fired tear-gas and even live rounds to disperse demonstrations calling for the fall of the militia group and its leader, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani. Since then, HTS has increased security in the region, establishing checkpoints and roadblocks, especially aimed at preventing protesters from gathering in the provincial capital, Idlib City. Protests against HTS rule have been mounting in Syria's northwest since the start of the year (Photo: Macro Media Center)

HRW: Afghanistan Hazara community at risk

Inadequate protections by the de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan continue to leave the Shi'ite Hazara community at risk of being targeted in atrocities that may amount to war crimes, according a report by Human Rights Watch. The report emphasized the threat from the self-declared Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), which continues to carry out attacks targeting Hazara mosques, schools and neighborhoods. In the most recent such attack, a presumed ISKP militant opened fire on worshippers at a Hazara mosque at Guzara, in western Herat province, killing six, including a child. (Photo: Hazara of Daykundi province in 2011. Credit: Karla K. Marshall/USACE via Wikimedia Commons)

Iraq: harsh backlash hits sexual, cultural dissidents

Iraq's parliament has passed a law criminalizing same-sex relations, with a punishment of 10 to 15 years in prison. An earlier draft of the law had proposed the death penalty. The new law also includes prison terms for those who "promote homosexuality" or "intentionally" act "effeminate." Just as the law was being passed, Iraqi TikTok star Om Fahad was shot dead outside her home in Baghdad. Om Fahad, whose real name was Ghufran Sawadi, won nearly half a million followers for sharing videos of herself dancing to pop music. In February 2023, she had been sentenced to six months in prison after a court found that her videos contained "indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality." (Image via Instagram)

Afghanistan: UN decries restrictions on women’s rights

A United Nations report found that the Taliban's restrictions on women's attire and its requirement that women have a male guardian in public are limiting Afghan women’s freedom of movement and access to education, employment, health care and other basic rights. The report by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) states that many Afghan women are not leaving their homes alone due to decrees issued by the Taliban. The hardline Islamist regime has demanded women wear specific attire in public, such as the all-covering burqa, and only venture outside if accompanied by a close male relative, known as a mahram. (Photo: 12019/Pixabay via Jurist)