Category Archives: Women’s rights and gender equality

‘It’s not against Islam’: Pakistani trans actor tells of deep sadness over film ban

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Exclusive: Alina Khan, star of award-winning Joyland, speaks out as the movie’s licence for domestic release is revoked, putting its Oscar contention in doubt

The transgender star of an award-winning Pakistan film that depicts a love affair between a man and a trans women has said she is very sad at the government’s decision to ban the movie and hopes it will be reversed.

Alina Khan, who stars in Joyland, the first major Pakistani motion picture to feature a trans actor in a lead role, said: “I’ve been very sad. There’s nothing against Islam and I don’t understand how Islam can get endangered by mere films.”

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Fresh protests erupt in Iran’s universities and Kurdish region

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Movement against country’s regime sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death keeps going in face of crackdown

New protests erupted in Iran on Sunday at universities and in the largely Kurdish northwest, keeping a seven-week anti-regime movement going even in the face of a fierce crackdown.

The protests, triggered in mid-September by the death of Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for allegedly breaching strict dress rules for women, have evolved into the biggest challenge for the clerical leadership since the 1979 revolution.

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Iranians defy crackdown with fresh protests, as president dismisses US vow to ‘free Iran’

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Ebrahim Raisi declares streets ‘safe and sound’ while shopkeepers strike and student demonstrations sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death reach 50th day

Iranian students protested and shopkeepers went on strike despite a widening crackdown, according to reports on social media, as demonstrations that flared over Mahsa Amini’s death continued for a 50th day.

Saturday’s protests came as President Ebrahim Raisi said Iran’s cities were “safe and sound” after earlier dismissing a pledge from the US president, Joe Biden, to “free Iran”.

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Dozens arrested as Iranian security forces attack university campuses

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Detained students could face death penalty, human rights groups report, with at least 277 people killed as protests enter eighth week

Iran’s security forces have launched a series of attacks on university students at campuses across the country with dozens of students being arrested, according to the Students’ Union of Iran.

According to student organisations and human rights groups, the attacks on universities intensified this week as young people gathered to mark 40 days since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. The death of the 22-year-old woman sparked eight weeks of nationwide protests against the regime. The highly symbolic 40th day traditionally marks the end of mourning.

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Mapping Iran’s unrest: how Mahsa Amini’s death led to nationwide protests

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Interactive map shows spread of demonstrations over five weeks after woman’s death in custody

Iran has been gripped by protests since the death in custody on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin who had been arrested three days earlier for allegedly breaching the Islamic dress code for women. This interactive map shows how protests spread between 16 September and 21 October, fuelled by public outrage over a crackdown that has led to the deaths of other young women and girls. Now in their seventh week, the protests show no sign of ending.

Methodology

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Young girls being sold in India to repay loans, says human rights body

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Notice issued to Rajasthan state government demanding police inquiry into ‘abominable’ practice

Young girls in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan are being sold as “repayment” for loans their parents cannot afford, the national body that protects human rights has said.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the state government demanding a police inquiry and answers within a month to what it called an “abominable” practice.

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Iran protests reignite at funerals and commemorations for those killed

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Protesters turn out in dozens of towns and appear to take control of largely Kurdish city of Mahabad

Protests against the Iranian government have suddenly regained momentum as funerals for those killed and a highly emotional commemoration of the movement have stretched security forces drawn into a further cycle of arrests and repression.

Dozens of towns were rocked by protests on Wednesday night as mainly young crowds used the cover of darkness to mark the 40th day since Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody, sparking unprecedented unrest.

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Iran’s security forces reportedly open fire as thousands mourn Mahsa Amini

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Teargas also used against protesters gathered in home town of 22-year-old Kurdish woman, says rights group

Iranian security forces have clashed with protesters who had gathered in their thousands in Mahsa Amini’s home town to mark 40 days since her death, with reports that shots were fired.

“Security forces have shot teargas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city,” Hengaw, a Norway-based group that monitors rights violations in Iran’s Kurdish regions, tweeted without specifying whether there were any dead or wounded. It said more than 50 civilians were injured by direct fire in cities across the region.

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Canada to host meeting on Iran protests for world’s female foreign ministers

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Canada’s foreign minister Melanie Joly said they will meet to discuss protests ignited by the death of Mahsa Amini

Canada is to host a virtual meeting of female foreign ministers to discuss Iran’s “brutal” crackdown on protests ignited by the death of a young woman who was detained by morality police for “improper” use of the hijab.

Canada’s foreign minister, Melanie Joly, said she and 14 others will meet virtually on Thursday to discuss the state of women’s and human rights in Iran, Joly’s office said, adding that it would give them an opportunity to coordinate efforts and discuss “ways to increase their collective support for the Iranian people”.

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Iranian schoolgirl ‘beaten to death for refusing to sing’ pro-regime anthem

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Fresh protests ignited around Iran by 16-year-old Asra Panahi’s death after schoolgirls assaulted in raid on high school in Ardabil

Another schoolgirl has reportedly been killed by the Iranian security services after she was beaten in her classroom for refusing to sing a pro-regime song when her school was raided last week, sparking further protests across the country this weekend.

According to the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations, 16-year-old Asra Panahi died after security forces raided the Shahed girls high school in Ardabil on 13 October and demanded a group of girls sing an anthem that praises Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Gunshots and blasts heard at Mahsa Amini protests in Iran

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Government officials struggle to end demonstrations sparked by death in police custody of Kurdish woman

Gunshots and explosions were heard in the Iranian Kurdish city of Sanandaj on Monday as the protests over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini continued to unfold across the country and for first time spread to Iran’s crucial oil industry.

Government officials are struggling to end the protests led by young Iranians, especially women, previously regarded as uninterested by politics.

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Iranian students defy security forces after violence at university

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Rights groups ‘extremely concerned’ about violent repression of demonstrations in Tehran and Isfahan

Iranian students have stepped up their protests in defiance of a crackdown by security forces, who allegedly cornered and shot 12 students at a prestigious university in Tehran on Sunday night.

Anti-government protests ignited by the death of a young woman in police custody in mid-September have spread around the country at various levels of intensity, revealing a cultural chasm between the country’s educated youth and an elderly male religious establishment.

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Sudan campaigners demand action after alarming rise in ‘honour killings’

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Reported deaths more than double in a year, with women attacked by male relatives for appearing to talk to men on smartphones

Campaigners are calling for urgent action to tackle what they say is a rise in “honour killings” in Sudan.

Eleven women and girls have reportedly been killed by relatives so far this year, more than double the number reported in 2021. Two women have died in the past month.

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Iran launches airstrike against Kurdish group in northern Iraq

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Deadly attack comes in response to KDPI support for ongoing protests over Mahsa Amini death in custody

Iran has launched a deadly cross-border airstrike into northern Iraq to punish Kurds for their role in supporting demonstrations over the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in Iranian police custody that are still rattling the Tehran regime.

As many as 13 people were killed and 58 injured in the Iranian drone strikes on military bases in northern Iraq that belong to the exiled Kurdish Democratic party of Iran.

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Iranian authorities must ‘deal decisively’ with protests, says president

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At least 35 dead in eight nights of demonstrations after death of Mahsa Amini in custody, state media report

Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, has said authorities must “deal decisively with those who oppose the country’s security and tranquility”, Iranian state media have reported.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tehran and other major cities for eight straight nights since the death of Mahsa Amini.

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Mahsa Amini’s death could be the spark that ignites Iran around women’s rights

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The country faces a litany of problems, from inflation to a democratic deficit, and the women’s movement is seen as an agent of change

On the day that news of Mahsa Amini’s death spread throughout Iran, a young woman with a shaved head joined protesters who had gathered outside Kasra hospital, where Amini had lain in a coma since her violent arrest by Iran’s morality police days earlier.

In her hand she carried a plastic bag full of her long hair, shorn off in a gesture of solidarity with Amini and in defiance of the increasing crackdown on women by the regime.

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Iran blocks capital’s internet access as Amini protests grow

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Social media platforms have also been cut off in areas of Tehran and Kurdistan as videos of dissent go viral

Iran has shut off the internet in parts of Tehran and Kurdistan and blocked access to platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp in an attempt to curb a growing protest movement that has relied on social media to document dissent.

The protests, which were sparked on 16 September after the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in police custody, show no sign of subsiding. On Thursday, protesters torched police stations and vehicles in several cities.

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Iran sends police to end Mahsa Amini protests as reports say seven killed

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Internet blackouts and Instagram blocks also reported amid anger after 22-year-old woman’s death in custody

Iran has sent police on to the streets in a scramble to end protests that have spread to at least 15 cities, as rights groups and local media reported up to seven people had been killed in crackdowns.

There were reports of internet blackouts in parts of the country while Instagram accounts with Iranian IP addresses were also blocked in an apparent attempt to quell growing anger.

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Hungary tightens abortion access with listen to ‘foetal heartbeat’ rule

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Fears move will pave way for more restrictions in country where terminations are widely accepted

Hungarian women seeking an abortion will be obliged to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure, according to a new decree issued by the government of the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The new regulation is due to come into force on Thursday.

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Oman ‘failing to stop trafficking and abuse of migrant domestic workers’

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Report finds widespread instances of forced labour, with women denied access to passports and subjected to physical or sexual abuse

Oman is failing to protect migrant domestic workers who are victims of human trafficking, trapped in abusive households and subjected to physical and sexual violence with no access to justice or a safe route home, a report has found.

Do Bold, an organisation that works to assist and repatriate migrant workers trapped in the Gulf, interviewed 469 domestic workers from Sierra Leone working in Oman, for the report. It concluded that all but one of the women interviewed were victims of forced labour and human trafficking.

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