NEWS & ARTICLES

WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
Resolution to Create U.N. Agency for Women
Campaign for Authentic, Diverse Female Beauty In Lebanon

WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Move to Take Domestic Violence Cases out of Religious Courts in Lebanon
Baghdad’s Women Leaders Fight for Education

GENDER RIGHTS
Lubna Hussein Released From Jail After Fine Paid Against Her Will
Saudi Arabia - 78% of Saudi College Educated Women Jobless

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Rape and Other Torture Victims at Renewed Risk in Iran
Killings of "Feminized" Men Betray Fear of Women in Iraq
UN Finds Evidence of War Crimes During Gaza Conflict
Ahmadinejad's Women Ministers not Representative
Gulf: Nepalese Women Domestic Workers Suffer Sexual & Physical Assault

GENDER & PERSONAL STATUS LAW
Forced Divorce—Women under Perpetual Guardianship of Male Relatives in Saudi Arabia

BOOKS & REPORTS
Being Lesbian, bi, trans woman in the Middle East: Survival Kit
Combating Trafficking in Persons in Accordance with Principles of Islamic Law

GENDER EQUALITY
Budgeting for Women's Rights - CEDAW Compliance - 4 Languages

NEWS & ARTICLES
WOMEN’S RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
Resolution to Create U.N. Agency for Women
After more than three years of political foot-dragging, the 192-member General Assembly adopted a historic resolution on Monday. The decision to create a separate powerful body to deal exclusively with gender-related activities comes years - or decades - after the United Nations created specialised agencies to deal with specific issues, including children, population, refugees, food, environment, education, health and tourism, among many others.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565322

Campaign for Authentic, Diverse Female Beauty In Lebanon
How many Lebanese women have you seen today with plastic surgery or who look like they’ve spent several hours preening? With Lebanon having acquired something of a reputation abroad for its predilection for surgery, the answer is likely to be several. Tired of being subjected to pressures of physical appearance, one Lebanese woman has launched a campaign in order to celebrate authentic, diverse beauty – the kind she argues is rapidly being lost to “look alike” surgeries that are often styled on the features of a select few celebrities and models.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_...

WOMEN’S RIGHTS ACTIVISM

Move to Take Domestic Violence Cases out of Religious Courts in Lebanon
As lawmakers struggle to form a government three months after Lebanon's parliamentary elections, women's rights activists await the opening of parliament to debate a new bill on domestic violence. Ghida Anani, programme coordinator of KAFA, a Lebanese organization campaigning against violence and the exploitation of women, estimates that as many as three-quarters of all Lebanese women have suffered physical abuse at the hands of husbands or male relatives at some point in their lives. http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565399

Baghdad’s Women Leaders Fight for Education
Mahdia Abdulhussein’s frustration with the Baghdad school system drove her to stand for the provincial council, where she is fighting alongside other women members to advance education and children’s issues. Abdulhussein, whose background is in education, said her primary mission is to improve the quality of schools devastated by war and provide more support for students and teachers.
http://www.iwpr.net:80/?p=icr&s=f&o=355690&apc_state=henh

GENDER RIGHTS
Lubna Hussein Released From Jail After Fine Paid Against Her Will
According to reports, the Sudanese Journalists Union paid the fine at the behest of the Sudanese government. Lubna Hussein then spent the afternoon attending an international press conference in Khartoum. In a telephone interview with Asharq Al-Awsat following her release from prison, Lubna Hussein revealed that the director of the prison had met with her, and informed her that the Sudanese Journalist Union had paid her fine, and that the presiding judge had ordered her release. She said "Outside, I found a group of journalists who were not allowed to visit [me], however the Journalist Union was allowed to do so." For more information please follow this link: http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565270

Ahmadinejad's Women Ministers not Representative
Since Iran's Ahmadinejad named the Islamic Republic's first women to cabinet-level posts, rights activists have denounced it as a cynical move. Leila Mouri explains why the nominees now facing Parliament don't represent her. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad--the man many Iranians believe stole the presidency in Iran's contested June 12 elections--two weeks ago nominated three women to head ministries and this week Iran's parliament begins the vetting process. These are the highest positions for which women have been nominated since the emergence of the Islamic Republic 30 years ago.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565253

GENDER & EDUCATION

78% of Saudi College Educated Women Jobless
Unemployment in the Kingdom has dropped at an annual rate of 5.5 percent but still 9.8 percent Saudis are jobless, according to a report compiled last year by General Department for Statistics and Information at the Ministry of Economy and Planning. The total number of unemployed Saudis stood at 437684, of which 239176 or 6.9 percent of total Saudi workforce were men and 177174 or 24.9 percent were women. The number of jobless expats stood at 21298 representing 0.40 percent of the total workforce in the Kingdom.
http://saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=200909...

GENDER BASED VIOLENCE

Rape and Other Torture Victims at Renewed Risk in Iran
Victims of rape and other torture by Iranian security forces are facing renewed risk after documents detailing abuses against them were confiscated, Irene Khan, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said today. Ms. Khan called on Iran’s Supreme Leader to ensure the victims’ safety and hold the perpetrators to account. “The Iranian authorities appear more intent on finding the identities of those who claim to have been tortured by security officials than in carrying out an impartial investigation so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice,” said Irene Khan.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565285

Killings of "Feminized" Men Betray Fear of Women in Iraq
The country's militias -- the same ones that spent years waging a sectarian civil war -- have found a new, less apparent target: men suspected of being gay. The systematic killings, which began earlier this year, reveal the cracks behind Iraq's fragile calm. Iraq's leaders may talk of security and democracy from behind barbed wire in the Green Zone, but the surge of murders against gay men is a stark sign of how far Iraqi society still has to go. For more information please follow this link:
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565386

UN Finds Evidence of War Crimes During Gaza Conflict
There is evidence indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict, and that Israel committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity. The report also concludes there is also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes, as well as possibly crimes against humanity, in their repeated launching of rockets and mortars into Southern Israel.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565353

Gulf: Nepalese Women Domestic Workers Suffer Sexual & Physical Assault
According to a press release issued by Nepalese Embassy in Saudi Arabia on Jul. 12 housemaids are sometimes sold from one master to another if they aren't satisfied with them. "Majority of these women are raped, sexually and physically assaulted." On Jul. 11, 15 women between the ages of 22 and 28 landed by a Gulf Airlines flight at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport. One woman was clad in a burqa (a veil that covers from head to ankles), torn slippers on her feet. She was clutching a big plastic bag, tears streaming down her cheeks. Shobha Raut (name changed) was weeping with joy, she says. "I was happy just being alive and I couldn't believe my luck," she told IPS in an interview at a local shelter for abused women, Paurakhi Nepal - a non government organisation working for the welfare of migrant women workers.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565244

GENDER & PERSONAL STATUS LAW

Forced Divorce—Women under Perpetual Guardianship of Male Relatives in Saudi Arabia
Equality Now recently called on the Saudi government to take urgent action to reunite Fatima Bent Suleiman Al Azzaz and Mansour Ben Attieh El Timani, a happily married couple who were forced to divorce against their will. Fatima Bent Suleiman Al Azzaz married Mansour Ben Attieh El Timani in 2003 with the consent of her father (her guardian) as required in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565241

BOOKS & REPORTS

Being Lesbian, bi, trans woman in the Middle East: Survival Kit
Outstanding activists show how it is indeed possible to fight for LGBT rights by working with other Human Rights and feminist partners, positive examples are provided in the fashion of a survival kit. Lesbian, bisexual and trans women from the Middle East and from North Africa are probably the most invisible and discriminated in the whole word. For more information please follow this link:
http://www.wluml.org/english/newsfulltxt.shtml?cmd[157]=x-157-565242

Combating Trafficking in Persons in Accordance with Principles of Islamic Law
Please check this Direct Link to have the Full 70-Page Study:
http://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/UNODC_Trafficking_and_I...

GENDER EQUALITY
Budgeting for Women's Rights - CEDAW Compliance – 4 Languages
This booklet articulates what it means to take an explicitly rights-based approach to government budgets and draws on the lessons of Gender Budgets Initiatives (GBIs) experiences around the world. It links governments’ commitments under CEDAW with the four main dimensions of budgets: revenue, expenditure, macroeconomics of the budget, and budget decision-making processes. It makes these links to help clarify how gender budget analysis can assist in: monitoring a government’s compliance with CEDAW; identifying how CEDAW can be used to set equality-enhancing criteria in budget activities; and guiding GBIs and other initiatives towards achieving gender equality. The Website below offers pdf links to booklet in English, Spanish, French, & Arabic.
http://www.gender-budgets.org/content/view/678/1/