Afghanistan

• Gunmen Kill Women's Official. [Associated Press] Two men on a motorbike killed the provincial director of the Ministry of Women's Affairs outside her home here Monday, in apparent retribution for her efforts to help educate women, officials said. Safia Ama Jan was shot outside the front gate of her home as she was walking to her office, said Tawfiq ul-Ulhakim Parant, senior adviser to the women's ministry in Kabul. Ama Jan was known for her work for women's rights and education in this former Taliban stronghold, a region where insurgents have turned increasingly violent in the last several months. President Hamid Karzai said he was deeply saddened by her death. "The enemies of Afghanistan are trying to kill those people who are working for the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan," he said in a statement. "The enemies of Afghanistan must understand that we have millions of people like her who will continue to serve this great nation."

• Suicide Only Option for Majority of Widows. [India eNews.com] Poverty, hardship and unemployment are driving women in Afghanistan to prostitution, with suicide the only option to escape their miseries, says a UN study.

• 5 Women Killed in Wedding Attack. [Houston Chronicle] An outdoor wedding celebration north of the Afghan capital was attacked by assailants who threw a grenade, killing five women and wounding 18, an official said. Four suspects were detained after the blast Monday in the village of Sayadan, about 40 miles north of Kabul, said Abdul Jabar Takwa, the governor of Parwan province. The women were celebrating in a garden when the assailants threw the grenade over a wall, Takwa said. The motive for the attack appeared to be a private feud, he said. Men and women celebrate separately at Afghan wedding parties.

• Uncounted and Discounted. [Reliefweb] As of yet there has been limited research regarding the nature and extent of violence against women in Afghanistan.

• Violence Against Women Unabated. [Gulf Daily News] Violence against women is a global issue, but in Bahrain it continues unabated because of society's failure to confront it, say campaigners who are determined to break the silence.

Bangladesh

• Change Attitude Towards Women to Ensure Gender Equality. [The Daily Star, Bangladesh] Speakers at a seminar yesterday called for a change in the attitude towards women to stop all forms of violence against them. Men must come forward to promote gender equality and ensure human rights, they said. Khan Foundation organized the seminar titled 'Judicial Gender Equality and Human Rights -- Broadening the Spectrum' at its auditorium in the city. Some 50 judges from across the country attended the seminar.

• Come Forward to Resolve Violence Against Women: Chief Justice. [The New Nation, Bangladesh] Not only women but also men must come forward to resolve all sorts of violence against women and secure human rights. Chief Justice JR Mudassir Husain said this as chief guest at a seminar on 'Judicial Gender Equality and Human Rights- Broadening the Spectrum' organized by Khan Foundation at Democracy Auditorium in the city yesterday.

• Sonia, Nooyi Among 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. [Hindu, India] Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Chief Executive-designate of PepsiCo Indra Nooyi and ICICI Bank's Lalita Gupte and Kalpana Morparia, are on Forbes magazine's list of 100 most powerful women in the world. Gandhi occupies the 13th position on the list while India-born Nooyi finds herself as the fourth most powerful woman. Joint Chairpersons of ICICI Bank Gupte and Morparia are on the 93rd position while Vidya Chhabria, Chairperson of Jumbo Group, Dubai, is at the 95th spot.

• Women Entrepreneurs to Help Build Brand Bihar. [Monsters and Critics.com] Women entrepreneurs are to help build Brand Bihar by showcasing the art, craft and cuisine of the state.  Bihar Mahila Udyog Sangh (BMUS) - a body of women entrepreneurs - will hold exhibitions in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore to display the state's handicrafts.  'BMUS wants to market Bihar as a brand by showcasing products that have not been shown before. We will invite entrepreneurs from across the country to see our handicrafts,' Pushpa Chopra, president of BMUS, told IANS. 'We plan to join hands with the government to market the products,' she said.

• Women in Delhi, Mumbai Face Less Harassment at Work Place. [Hindu, India] Women working in metros like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi suffer least mental harassment against those employed in Ludhiana, Kolkata and Pune. A survey on 'Night Shift for Women' has also revealed that women employees across the country face maximum insecurity in sectors such as leather and textiles, while hospitals and BPO industry provide them with maximum security. Mental harassment for women employees is reported lesser in Bangalore at six%, followed by seven% in Chennai, eight% in Hyderabad and nine% in Mumbai.

• Women Staff Least Harassed in Bangalore. [DailyIndia.com] Women employees in Bangalore face least mental harassment at the workplace among major cities in the country, while Ludhiana, Kolkata and Pune were found to be least supportive to them.
  The findings of a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) on 'Night Shift for Women: Growth & Opportunities' reveals that women employees across the country face the maximum insecurity in sectors such as leather and textiles while hospitals and the BPO industry provide them with the maximum security. It highlights that 85.15% women employees are satisfied with their employers' attitude towards them.

• UN Hails Decision to Send 125 Female Police Officers for Peacekeeping. [Un News centre] India’s landmark decision to send 125 female police officers, one complete specialized unit, to assist United Nations peacekeeping operations in Liberia in October is an “unprecedented” move that sends a message not only to other post-conflict countries about the importance of having women officers, but also to police contributing nations, senior UN officials said today.

• Police Curbing Crime Satisfactorily. [Hindustan Times, India] Rare praise came Delhi Police's way on Saturday with NCW chairperson Girija Vyas lauding its efforts in curbing the crime rate in the national capital. "Delhi Police has made efforts in the last one year to bring the crime rate down. I hope they keep up the good work," Vyas told reporters in New Delhi. She noted that police was showing more promptness in registering FIRs in cases of crime against women. Vyas also appreciated the force for conducting training in self-defense for women.

• All-Women Police Pursue Dowry Complaints. [Women's e-News] In her three years working at the Basavangudi all-women police station in Bangalore, Constable Mylaaiah Rangajura has taken hundreds of statements of women with dowry-related complaints. Some are freshly bruised, others have been starved for days and some fear that their husbands or in-laws will burn or strangle them to death, a tragically common end to a dowry dispute. When a wife's husband and her in-laws are called in for lengthy interviews, Rangajura listens as family members explain and often deny the accusations of abuse and harassment. While dowry was once a gift from a bride's family to a daughter often consisting of cash, jewelry and fine clothing, it has increasingly come to be seen as a payment to her husband and his family that reinforces or improves their financial and social standing. Abuse frequently begins when additional dowry demands are unmet. It is a form of emotional and physical blackmail that continues until the wife's family finally relents.

• Women's Right to Property, Assets. [CNN-IBN, India] One of the four primary risks women face is unequal division of inheritance. Other three risks are financial dependence, lower share of assets and failure of marriage. The unequal division of inheritance talks about sharing of properties and assets that exist in the spouse’s family of a woman and those exist in her father’s family.

• Women Take to Streets to Stake Claim to Their Rights. [Hindu, India] It is an "acquired" trait that women in the Capital who choose to walk the streets every day have learnt to master -- blanking out lewd remarks, popular Hindi songs and the odd pinch. Ignoring eve teasing may have become second nature to most in the Capital, but a blog, Blank Noise Project, is now giving women a chance to reclaim their forgotten anger and make a point. Started three years ago as a participatory project, Blank Noise Project -- that documents the experience of women in cities to eve teasing online -- has now become a sort of a "virtual" movement. And to transcend from the cyber world to the real one, the founders have organized events in different parts of the country to get women to come out on the streets to stake claim to their rights. Holding its first nocturnal program in the Capital, Blank Noise Project organized a night walk on Friday. Complete with a dress code, "Something you wanted to but couldn't", the walk was undertaken from Delhi Haat to Sarojini Nagar Market.

• Women Against Eve Teasing. [Times Now.tv] Come as you are - this was the idea of a night-time walk by a group of women protesting against eve teasing. These women are part of an online project called Blank Noise whose motive is to challenge all forms of eve teasing and campaign against sexual harassment. "All kinds of women get harassed, whether it is a 3-month-old baby girl or 90-year-old women. Women in Saris, burkhas, jeans, trousers are harassed, irrespective of the time of day or night. So, it's not so much to do with the clothes you wear," says Deepti, an activist. The numbers who took to the streets may not have been impressive. But the protestors came to make personal statements in terms of what they wore and their mode of protest, like the use of spray paints to express themselves.

• Violence Against Women Shows Upward Trend in J&K. [Zee News, India] Violence against women in J&K has increased in the recent past and the State Commission for Women (SCW) has been receiving three to four complaints everyday. Secretary SWC Hafiza Muzaffer said cases involving violence against women were experiencing a rising graph which should be a matter of concern for all. Meanwhile, the Minister for Social Welfare Haji Nissar said all institutions meant for protecting and safeguarding women’s rights needed to be given more teeth so that violation of women s rights could be highlighted effectively.

• How Secure Are Women in Metros? [Times Now.tv, India] Women in the metros don’t just have the advantage of better career prospects, but according to a new survey, women in these cities feel far more secure. This despite the growing number of atrocities against women being reported from the metros across the country. A gruesome murder of a BPO employee in cyber city Bangalore in December 2005 shocked the entire country raising the moot question just how safe women are working in night shifts in BPOs across metros. Industry body ASSOCHAM has tried to quantify perceptions. Of the metro cities in India, women in Delhi feel least insecure, with only 15% feeling it. The figure rose to 44% in Bangalore, probably reflecting the number of women who work in BPOs in graveyard shifts.

• Punjab Government, ADB Completes Rs 968 Million Women Health Projects. [PakTribune.com] Punjab Government with the collaboration of Asian Development Bank has successfully implemented the Women Health Project in the eight districts at the cost of Rs. 968 million. The project was aimed at creating Women Friendly Health System in the project districts. Director Women Health Project Punjab, Dr Sabeha Khurshid Ahmed said this while addressing a seminar organized by a local NGO here Friday as the Chief Guest. She told about six year back the Women Health Project was launched in the selected districts which includes Sargodha, Shekhupura, Jhelum, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Multan, Bhakar and Rajanpur. She mentioned that this project has facilitated `mother and infant` care adding that with the Grace of God we succeeded to bring about a visible improvement in the sector.

• New Technology to Fan Female Feticide. [Mangalorean.com, India] The unholy specter of illegal sex selection to prevent or destroy female offspring - at the pre-conception stage or the pre-natal - just doesn't seem to stop. Even as the country is battling to remedy its skewed sex ratio, newer onslaughts are afoot through technology driven procedures available in cyberspace; the warped Indian brain is quick to learn and adapt with ulterior aims. All in an effort to circumvent existing laws prohibiting sex selection for purpose of eliminating the very possibility of a girl child being born.

• Bangle Sellers Take Up Cudgels Against Female Feticide. [Telugu Portal, India] Bangle sellers, popularly called maniharins, are the latest recruits to advise women in rural India against killing their to-be-born female children, says Grassroots Features. In the process, they risk confronting the rich and powerful. But these frail, impoverished women seem determined to stop female feticide in rural India. These maniharins enjoy the confidence of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Specializing in door-to door marketing of bangles their cosmetics advice makes them intimate with customers. At a meeting July 2-3 in Bhajneri village, maniharins from nine states decided to work towards preventing sex determination tests and female feticide. Female feticide is big business for unscrupulous doctors and health workers, especially in Haryana, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

• Disturbing Trend of Female Feticide. [Times Now.tv] After reports of an increase in female feticide cases, a desperate Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury has turned to religious leaders for help. She has written a letter to them seeking their support in creating awareness and changing traditional perceptions. In a country steeped in spiritual lore, it is no surprise that the influence of contemporary spiritual leaders cuts across all sections of society, and this time, it’s the government that is seeking their support. A rather desperate Women and Child Development Ministry, fast running out of options, has written to these leaders asking for their help in stemming the disturbing trend of female feticide and changing traditional perceptions about the girl child.

• PNDT Act Proves Ineffective Against Female Feticide. [The Tribune, India] It is more than a decade since the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994 came into being but it was only this year, on March 28, that a doctor was sentenced to two years in prison for violating the Act in Palwal, Haryana. It is obvious that the system has failed to protect the unborn daughter. In Punjab, of the seven cases that went to court, only three convictions occurred while the rest of the cases were discharged. And none of these convictions amounted to a severe and deterrent punishment. The action taken against 194 ultrasound or imaging centers, clinics and hospitals across the state in the form of suspension/cancellation of registrations too has been almost ineffective. In many places they were back in business within no time. Clearly the existing strategies are not working. The challenge is formidable as the crime involves not just the doctor who conducts the test but the pregnant woman, the person who carries out the abortion and in most cases the entire household of the pregnant woman who coerced her into it.

• Gory Tale of Punjab's Lost Girls. [BBC News] The government in India's Punjab state is investigating the possible involvement of state officials in setting up illegal clinics and ultrasound centers accused of female feticide.

• Women Tie Bands to Protect Husbands. [Times of India] A new fad has caught on in Rajasthan. To protect their husbands from evil eye, caring wives are tying special bands on any five married women. After tying the band on women, the ritual is repeated at a nearby temple - this time the band is tied on the wrist of goddess Parvati. "A friend told me that doing this would end all my husband's woes. I have so far found three willing women and am searching for two more," says Meghna Mathur, a housewife here. Most do it unthinkingly, but deny they are being superstitious.

• Orissa Women Beat Up Drunkard. [Telugu Portal, India] Fed up of being at the receiving end of drunken men, a group of women in an Orissa village caught hold of a sozzled youth roaming the streets, tied him to a pillar and then beat him up as an example to others. Police here said some women of Tulasipalli in Ganjam district spotted a drunken Kalia Naik on the streets and kept beating him till police rescued him. The women of Tulasipalli, which has a population of about 1,000, have formed a self-help group to protest the sale and consumption of alcohol in the village. They announced that anyone involved in the liquor trade would be punished as would anybody found inebriated.

• ‘Plus-Sized Women Should Just Wear a Sari’. [Mumbai Mirror, India] Tarun Tahiliani ventures into ‘everydaywear’. “The idea is to give Indian women a sexy, modern alternative. Every one is doing girly frocks, but how many women you can see around you who would be able to carry that off?” he asks. Pointing at the bubble-skirt the editor is wearing, he playfully asks her to twirl it around, and she obliges. “How many Indian women could do justice to that?” He questions. Though Tarun has the average Indian woman in mind, he has little interest in designing for plus-sized women, a section that has been generating some buzz lately. “Plus-sized women should just wear a sari,” he says dismissively. “Honestly, they could never look as good in a Versace as a slender woman would. Another common mistake they do is they dress in tight clothes, which accentuate their bulges. It looks rather ugly,” and then he adds mischievously, “Trust me, I have been through that space myself!”

• Iranian Women's Painting to Warsaw Sept. 8. [IranMania News, Iran] Farideh Lashaii and Mitra Kavian will represent Iran at the opening ceremony of an Iranian Women’s painting exhibition at the Museum of Asia and the Pacific in the Polish capital Warsaw on Sept 8, the Cultural Heritage News (CHN) agency reported. Dena group has already dispatched Lashaii to Warsaw and will send Kavian to the capital before the ceremony.

• Iraq Women Treasure Map-Shaped Necklaces. [Houston Chronicle] Roba al-Asaly fingers the sliver of gold on her necklace and explains that it reminds her of a place "that's not there anymore." The gold is shaped like the map of Iraq, and at a time when sectarian violence has fanned fears of civil war, it has become a gesture of defiance and of yearning for national unity.

• Karbala Killing: 4 Days On, 11 Indian Women Still Stranded. [Indian Express, India] It's been four days since three Indian men were executed by unidentified terrorists in Karbala. But the 11 Indian women who accompanied them are still stranded in the Iraqi city with no passports, documents, flight tickets or cash. The widows of two of the victims — Masooma Khatoum from Hyderabad, and Zahira Fatma from East Godavari district—are also part of the group. Speaking to The Indian Express over phone from Karbala, group leader Sayeda Zainab said, “Masooma and Zahira are still in shock after seeing how violently their husbands were killed... We are so helpless here, we have just been sitting in our rooms, waiting for our passports.’’ Fatma refused to speak but Masooma said that she is just waiting to reach India. “All our money, passports, everything was looted from us."

• Four Israelis on 'Forbes' List of Most Powerful Women. [Combined Jewish Philantropies] Four Israeli women have been included in "Forbes"' list of the 100 most powerful women worldwide. Heading the Israelis on the list is Oracle president and chief financial officer Safra Catz, who was ranked 21st, and described as the most powerful woman in Silicon Valley, ahead of eBay Inc. CEO Meg Whitman. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni came second, in 40th place on the list, ahead of US First Lady Laura Bush. Bank Leumi CEO Galia Maor came third, ranked 88th on "Forbes" list. The fourth Israeli woman on the list, the charismatic Orit Gadiesh, CEO of international consultancy firm Bain & Co., and adviser to some of the leading blue chip company managers worldwide, was ranked 99th, after making it to the top 50 in previous years.

• Women Leaders Call for Renewed Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations. [International Herald Tribune] Israeli and Palestinian women met Wednesday with female heads of state and foreign ministers in their continuing efforts to work toward a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The recent war in Lebanon has given the International Women's Commission new purpose and a new opportunity. The conflict showed, the commission said, that what some considered a narrow conflict has the ability to destabilize the entire region and demands an international solution. The IWC spoke with Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and other female leaders from European Union countries, asking them to join their initiative. The Finnish president, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, pledged support for the group and said she would look into developing a task force to address their proposals

• Female Detainees Attacked in Telmond Detention Facility. [International Middle East Media Center, Palestinian Territories] The Tulkarem office of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported that female detainees in Telmond Israeli detention facility are facing repeated attacks and abuse by Israeli troops, and that these attacks have increased over the last several days. The office released a statement saying that soldiers broke into the rooms of the female detainees, searched them and confiscated the their belongings. Also, soldiers attacked several detainees while searching them and searching their rooms and confined at least ten detainees to solitary. The PPS added that soldiers used military dogs during the searches.

• Katsav Accused by Two More Women. [Jerusalem Post, Israel] President Moshe Katsav decided Thursday to heed the advice given by retired Supreme Court Justice Mishael Cheshin and to absent himself from the ceremony at which Justice Dorit Beinish will be inaugurated as President of the Supreme Court.  Katsav will not feign a diplomatic illness, but in view of the controversy in which he is embroiled, he has chosen not to attend so that public attention will be focused on the new president of the Supreme Court rather than on the president of the State of Israel.

• Man Suspected of Sexually Harassing Elderly Women. [Jerusalem Post, Israel] The Haifa District Court indicted a 20-year-old Acre resident on Thursday on suspicion of sexually harassing two women aged 68 and 69. According to the charges, the man approached the elderly women in a public park and touched them in intimate parts of their bodies. When the women resisted, the man stole one of their bags and made 30 phone calls with the cellular phone that was inside.

Jordan

• Wounded British and Australian Women Discharged from Jordan Hospital. [International Herald Tribune] Two women, one British and the other Australian, who were wounded in a gun attack near downtown Amman's Roman amphitheater were discharged from a hospital Tuesday as the U.S. Embassy warned its citizens to stay away from the area.

• Failed Female Bomber Sentenced. [Houston Chronicle] Seven people were sentenced to death Thursday for triple hotel bombings that killed 60 people in Jordan's capital last November, the country's deadliest terror attack in recent memory. The only defendant in custody was a 35-year-old Iraqi woman, Sajida al-Rishawi, who confessed on Jordanian television shortly after the blasts that she intended to carry out a suicide attack on one of the Western hotels. Six others, including another Iraqi woman, were sentenced in absentia and remain at large. They are believed to be hiding in Iraq.

• Jordan Sentences Female Would-Be Bomber. [Forbes] A court sentenced an Iraqi woman to death for her role in an al-Qaida-led triple hotel bombing that killed 60 people in Jordan's worst terror attack ever. Sajida al-Rishawi, 35, was intended to be one of the suicide bombers in the Nov. 9 attack. She entered a hotel ballroom with her husband, both strapped with explosives belts. Her husband set off his own belt, ripping through a wedding party in the room. Initially, al-Rishawi said in a televised confession that her own belt failed to detonate and she fled. But she later told her trial that she was an unwilling participant in the attacks and never tried to set off the suicide bomb. Al-Rishawi was one of seven defendants in the case, but the other six were still at large and tried in absentia. Like al-Rishawi, the six were also sentenced to death by hanging. Al-Rishawi is the first woman sentenced to execution in Jordan on terrorism charges.

• Police Joins Search of Missing US Female Soldier. [RIA Novosti, Russia] The authorities of the U.S. military air base in Kyrgyzstan have notified local police about the female soldier who went missing Tuesday in the capital, Bishkek, a spokesman for the base said Wednesday. The woman was last seen Tuesday in a city mall after she left a group of fellow servicemen from the Manas Air Base while they were shopping.

• Female US Air Force Officer Found Alive in Kyrgyzstan. [International Herald Tribune] A U.S. Air Force officer who disappeared earlier this week in Kyrgyzstan was found alive and returned to the American air base in this Central Asian nation, a U.S. military official said. Maj. Jill Metzger, 33, was located by Kyrgyz law enforcement agents in Bishkek, the capital, where she had last been seen before vanishing during a shopping excursion Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. base at Bishkek's airport, Capt. Anna Carpenter, told The Associated Press. Metzger was found on the side of the road with her head shaven, her father-in-law, Kelly Mayo, said in a telephone interview with the AP from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

• In a Kyrgyz Dump, Girls Dig Up Silicon for China. [International Herald Tribune] Across a vast landfill just outside this tiny farming town in eastern Kyrgyzstan, the heads of girls continually pop up from narrowly constructed 3-meter, or 10-foot, shafts. Mothers and other female relatives wait on the rim, hands outstretched to take the flakes and gnarled pebbles of silicon that the girls have retrieved from the soil. There are some men, too, and they bark threats to outsiders who walk past their holes. Local environmentalists and doctors who have visited the landfill have warned the Kyrgyz government of the site's health risks, especially from high levels of radiation. But few salvagers of silicon in Orlovka can afford to let health issues stop their unsanctioned digging.

• Veils And Jails. [alt.muslim] On February 22, 1979, the then President of Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq began his infamous "Islamisation" campaign and promulgated four separate ordinances collectively known as the Hudood Ordinances. The Hudood Ordinances (plural for the singular Hadd, meaning limits), which cover theft, adultery, rape, and bearing false witness, amended Pakistan's laws to make sexual offences crimes against the state. The number of women in Pakistan's prisons swelled from 79 on the date of the promulgation to several thousand in the months and years that followed.

• Pakistan's Charade Debate. [The Boston Globe] The battle for basic women's rights - including the right to have a rapist prosecuted - is back on the agenda. Whether women will ultimately benefit from the debate remains to be seen. The amendments offered by Musharraf's ruling party fall short of demands by jurists, Islamist scholars and women activists for an outright repeal of the ordinances. Musharraf's party and its coalition partners hold about 60% of the legislature's seats. A simple majority would be enough to pass the amendments. Yet the ruling party has entered private negotiations with religious parties to come to a "compromise." Ultimately, women's fundamental rights are not the deciding issue. Musharraf is struggling to legitimize his rule. Amendments to the Hudood ordinance are a bargaining chip to use to keep the religious coalition from bringing up questions about his own authority.

• Amended Bill on Women’s Rights Presented to NA: Protest Walkout. [Pakistan Dawn] Slogan-chanting members of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) alliance of six Islamic parties and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) stormed out of the house in protest as the chair amended the day’s agenda to allow the presentation of a special select committee’s report on the bill seeking to protect women from the misuse of two controversial Islamic Hudood laws enforced in 1979 by the then military ruler Gen Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq. But the protesters did not tear up the bill as they had done on Aug 21 when the original draft was introduced and referred to the select committee, which originally had members from all parliamentary groups but was later boycotted by the MMA and the PML-N.

• Debate on Pakistan's Rape Laws Heats Up. [The Brunei Times, Brunei Darussalam] As Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf tries to push through changes to Islamic rape laws, a groundbreaking television series has been credited for helping to open the issue up for discussion. Muslim scholars, clerics and academics recently appeared on prime-time debates broadcast by privately run Geo Television to discuss whether or not such laws should be rooted in the Quran. Early this week, Pakistani opposition lawmakers stormed out of parliament, shouting ``Death to Musharraf'' and tearing up copies of a bill proposing amendments to the quarter-century-old Hudood Ordinances. Since Islamist military dictator Zia-ul-Haq introduced the strict laws in 1979, talk of repealing them has been virtually taboo in this conservative country and has highlighted the split between hardliners and liberals.

• MMA Threatens Resignations if Women Protection Bill Passes. [PakTribune.com] Liaquat Baloch, Central Leader Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal and Ameer Jamaat Islami Punjab has said that the religio-political alliance's Supreme Council has decided that in case the Women Protection Bill 2006 is passed without deliberation with Ulema and religious leaders the MMA members will tender their resignations from the assemblies adding that an All Parties meeting will be called in this regard. While addressing a high level meeting Sunday at Mansoorah, he said that the MMA's decision regarding tendering resignations from the assemblies has been lauded by the masses. "A handful of secular class wants to efface the Islamic identity of Pakistan", he criticized.

• MMA to Resign if Parliament Approves Women Rights Bill. [PakTribune.com] Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) will resign from National as well as Balochistan Assemblies if the government tries to continue with its attempts for approval of the so-called women rights bill in the Parliament.  MMA Secretary General and opposition leader in National Assembly Maulana Fazlur Reham said this while talking to newsmen at a press conference after MMA supreme council meeting here on the residence of Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Tuesday. He said that MMA supreme council has deliberated over the bill and the religious amalgamation was determined not to let the government change the Hudood articles by approving the women protection bill in Parliament.

• MQM Rejects Amendments Proposed by MMA: Women’s Rights Bill. [Pakistan Dawn] The Muttahida Qaumi Movement on Friday hinted that the party would not vote for the women’s protection bill if any amendment was made in it on the demands of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. Speaking at a press conference in the Parliament House cafeteria, MQM ministers and legislators expressed concern over the government’s move to again contact the MMA which seeks changes in Hudood laws.

• Compromise Over Pakistani Rape Law. [CNN.com] Pakistan's government agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic lawmakers Monday over proposed changes to a law that has long made punishing rapists almost impossible in the country. Senator S.M. Zafar, a prominent ruling-party lawmaker, said Monday the government had agreed to compromise by letting rape victims choose between prosecuting suspects under the four-witness rule or under Pakistan's civil penal code. Rape would remain punishable by death.

• Pakistan Bid to End Abuse of Women Reporting Rape Hits Snag. [New York Times] The Pakistani government has run into difficulties in its efforts to pass a law to end the worst abuses suffered by women who report rape or are accused ... The Pakistani government has run into difficulties in its efforts to pass a law to end the worst abuses suffered by women who report rape or are accused of adultery under an Islamic ordinance. The opposition comes from members of the governing coalition, as well as from Islamic parties. A vote on the bill was postponed Wednesday, as senior clerics representing the government and the Islamic opposition parties failed to resolve differences. At least one partner in the governing coalition said it would refuse to accept any amendments being demanded by a coalition of religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal.

• Pakistan to Send Women Protection Bill to Parliamentary Committee. [Zee News, India] Pakistan government has decided to ask a parliamentary committee to reconsider the controversial Women Protection Bill, which aims to change the Islamic law that makes rape victims liable to prosecution for adultery if they fail to produce four male witnesses. The Women Protection Bill, with six amendments proposed by the Ulema Committee, will be sent back to the National Assembly's select committee for re-consideration, Pakistan's ruling Muslim League (PML) president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said. "A debate has been going on the bill for last few weeks. It is unfortunate that a religious bill has been politicized and endeavors have been made to declare it un-Islamic," he was quoted as saying by the news. He said the PML has decided to request the National Assembly Speaker to refer the bill to the select committee again with additional initiatives for re-consideration so that these recommendations may be included in it.

• Women's Bill on Ice Until Musharraf Returns. [Washington Post] Pakistan's government decided on Monday to delay trying to pass a bill reforming laws to protect women until President Pervez Musharraf returns from the United States at the end of the month. The bill is seen both as a barometer of Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation," and a major battle in the long struggle between progressive and conservative forces to set the Muslim nation's future course. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), said he was looking to delay submitting the bill for up to two weeks, although the final decision would be taken by the National Assembly. "It could be delayed to evolve consensus. We are not backtracking," he told Geo News television channel.

• Women Protection Bill Should Be Suspended: MMA. [PakTribune.com] Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Leader of Opposition Sunday said that it would be better to suspend the Women Protection Bill 2006 adding that the bill will bring no good to the women in the country. Talking to a private TV channel he said there is chaos in the House over the bill and it has divided the opposition and the government. In the government party itself there is disarray. The MMA leader said that the bill presented according to the proposals forwarded by the ulema is completely acceptable to the religio-political alliance.

• Suspend Hudood: Women's Group. [CNN-IBN, India] Women's groups in Pakistan are outraged with the Government. Last week the Government struck a deal with a hardline Islamic alliance and accepted their major demands to change the controversial laws. A crime like rape could result in the victim being prosecuted for adultery unless she is able to produce four male witnesses to the crime. "The amendments being presented by the Ulama committee is negating all human rights and against the spirit of Islam. The new strategy, which is adopted in reference with amendments in the bill, we understand, is condemnable," said Farzana Bari, a women rights activists and head of the non-government gender department.

• Parliament Prorogued Abruptly: Women’s Rights Bill Put On Ice. [Pakistan Dawn, Pakistan] The government abruptly prorogued both houses of parliament on Monday, putting the women’s rights bill on ice in what seemed to be a dubious victory for conservatives opposing the proposed amendments. But Law and Justice Minister Mohammad Wasi Zafar said the National Assembly could be called again even during Ramazan — towards the end of September or early next month — to take up the bill.

• Government Committed to Women’s Bill: PM. [Pakistan Dawn] Prime Minister Shuakat Aziz and PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain have rejected any link between Women’s Rights Protection Bill and President Pervez Musharraf’s US visit and reiterated the government’s resolve to get the bill passed in consultation with all stakeholders. Speaking at a joint news conference at the Prime Minister House here on Tuesday, the two leaders also brushed aside an allegation that the bill was aimed at dividing the combined opposition and defuse the Balochistan situation, and that after achieving the two objectives, the government prorogued both houses of the parliament. They declared that no law repugnant to the Quran and Sunnah would be enacted and all future legislations would be moved after consulting all stakeholders, including religious scholars. Reacting to allegations that the bill was moved on the US orders, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said that if the Americans dared demand any such thing, he would ask them to first bring in a law to protect their own women from the crimes taking place in their own country.

• One of the Key Sources of Women Trafficking in World: UN. [Zee News, India] A UN report has described Pakistan as the “one of the key sources of women trafficking” in the world. It said that India had also lately emerged as a key destination and transit point for global trafficking of women and girls. “India and Pakistan are major destinations for trafficked women and girls and also transit points into the Middle East,” the Daily Times quoted the report titled “State of World Population” as saying. Besides India, other sources of human trafficking are Pakistan, Thailand, China and Cambodia, it added. According to the report released by the United Nations Population Fund, human trafficking was the third most lucrative illicit business in the world after arms and drugs and a major source of organized crime revenue.

• Livelihoods Still a Concern for Thousands of Quake Victims. [IRIN] It is almost 11 months since a massive earthquake killed at least 75,000 people in northern Pakistan, but those left behind are still struggling. More than 5,500 women were widowed by the 8 October quake, which left more than 3.5 million homeless.

Palestine

• Female Activist is Kidnapped by Israeli Soldiers. [Al-Jazeerah.info] In the north of the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces broke into Askar refugee camp in Nablus on Thursday morning and conducted a thorough search of many houses. The soldiers seized a Palestinian woman who is allegedly a Fatah activist.

• Telecommuting Options Studied to Get Women Working. [Arab News, Saudi Arabia] The Labor Ministry is studying prospects of expanding job opportunities for Saudi women by allowing them to telecommute, or work from homes or localized work centers by using the Internet as a communication medium with employers. The move is likely to be welcomed by many women as it would provide them greater privacy. “This employment program will create tens of thousands of job opportunities for women,” one source said. The ministry is currently making a survey of departments and agencies that can offer women jobs through telecommuting.

• Protests at Moving of Female Prayer Area. [AKI, Italy] Plans to shift the women's prayer in the Grand Mosque at Mecca to two new alternative sites on the periphery of the huge prayer complex are meeting stiff opposition from Muslim women. A petition posted at the www.petitiononline.com website has to date attracted more than 1000 signatures, from Muslim women worldwide. But the religious authorities insist its real purpose is to lessen chronic overcrowding, which has led to deadly stampedes during past pilgrimages at Mecca. The mosque contains the Kaaba, a large stone structure that Muslims around the world face during their daily prayers.

• EP Report Criticizes Women's Rights. [New Anatolian, Turkey] European Parliament Women's Rights Commission Rapporteur Emine Bozkurt is set this week to criticize a lack of progress on women's rights in Turkey, calling on Ankara to immediately implement reforms rather than leaving them on paper. Speaking to news portal AB Haber, Bozkurt said, "A Turkey that doesn't respect women's rights has no place within the EU."

• Istanbul Trial to Test Freedom of Speech. [International Herald Tribune] In a new case pitting free speech against Turkish nationalists, a young novelist is due in court here next week to defend herself against charges that she insulted "Turkishness" because a character in her newest book, "The Bastard of Istanbul," refers to the deaths of Armenians in 1915 as genocide. Elif Shafak, a Turkish citizen who was born in Strasbourg, is being sued under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, the same law that ensnared Turkey's best-known contemporary author, Orhan Pamuk, in 2005. The plaintiffs are vocal nationalists who oppose the Islamist government's efforts to bring the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and its more than 70 million people, into the European Union. Shafak's trial opens Sept. 21, by a coincidence of timing the week she is due to give birth to her first child. A conviction carries a possible penalty of up to three years in jail.

• Interview: Celebrated Turkish Novelist Recounts Struggle With Ultranationalists. [International Herald Tribune] For best-selling Turkish author Elif Shafak, September promises to be a month of joy and tribulation. Nine-months pregnant, the University of Arizona literature professor is set to give birth to her first child. Another important date looms: the start of her trial on charges of "insulting Turkishness" in her novel that deals with the waning years of the Ottoman Empire.  In a quiet cafe in the backstreets of Istanbul's historic Beyoglu district — where Turks, Armenians, and Jews once lived in harmony — Shafak reflected on the peculiarities of a case in which it is nothing she said herself that is being put on trial, but words she gave to a fictitious Armenian character. "I think my case is very bizarre because for the first time they are trying fictional characters," Shafak, a striking woman with unruly locks of blond hair, told The Associated Press. If convicted Shafak, who divides her time between Tucson, Arizona, and Istanbul, could face three years in prison. Turkey has refused her request to delay the Sept. 21 trial because of her pregnancy.

• Writer Cleared of 'Turkish Insult'. [CNN.com] A Turkish judge acquitted a prominent author on Thursday in a case seen as a fresh test of freedom of expression in the European Union candidate nation. Chief judge Irfan Adil Uncu cleared Elif Shafak, who is in hospital after giving birth last weekend, because of lack of evidence shortly after the controversial trial began in Istanbul. Shafak had faced charges over comments made by her fictional characters on the massacre of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Outside the Istanbul court house riot police with shields tried to contain scuffles between dozens of protesters. Shafak is one of a number of writers, journalists and academics pursued by nationalist prosecutors under article 301 of Turkey's penal code for allegedly insulting "Turkishness." The EU, which Turkey hopes to join, has repeatedly urged Ankara to abolish article 301, saying it violates the principle of freedom of expression and thought.

• Employers in GCC Nations Prefer Female Candidates. [Khaleej Times, UAE] Employers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including the UAE, prefer female candidates for positions, as they cost 10% less than their male counterparts with a similar profile and perform the same function, according to a new survey. The survey, conducted by Gulf Talents.com, a Dubai-based online recruiting agency said: “The employers have started recruiting female candidates even for some jobs which were preserved for men a few years ago. The trend in selecting experienced employees also changed last year. Instead of recruiting experienced employees who can contribute to the organization from day one, employers showed interest in hiring less experienced graduates and investing in their training and development.”

• Al Amal Industries to Participate in Women Expo 2006. [AME Info, UAE] Al Amal Industries Co. (SAOC), the sole diaper manufacturer in the Sultanate of Oman, will showcase its wide range of products at the Child Care Section of Women Expo 2006, which is scheduled on December 10-15 at the Oman International Exhibition Centre in Seeb. "The exhibition will give us an excellent opportunity to proudly display our popular brands of baby diapers, all of which are made according to international standards," said Jean Pierre de la Mora, general manager of Al Amal Industries. "We are fully committed in the making of high-quality products because a mother trusts only the very best when it comes to her baby."