Saturday, January 12, 2019
Human Rights Watch says #Australian government should have acted with more urgency to help #Rahaf al-Qunun
Human Rights Watch Australia has criticised the government’s handling of a Saudi teenager’s bid for asylum, after the 18-year-old was granted safe haven in Canada.
Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun fled from Kuwait to Thailand, saying she had been abused by her family and feared for her life if deported back home.
The Australian director of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, said while it was “fantastic news Rahaf is headed to safety in Canada”, Australian officials should have acted with more urgency to resolve her case.
“The Canadian government seemed to appreciate the urgency of this case, while Australian officials did not – for whatever reason, Australia was moving too slowly in processing UNHCR’s request,” Pearson said.
“[Peter] Dutton’s comments that the case will be considered ‘in the usual way’ was probably not very comforting for UNHCR, knowing that it can take many months for individuals to be resettled. Her security situation in Thailand was precarious.”
Pearson said Qunun had made it to safety through her own courage and perseverance.
“She has become of a symbol of oppressed young women in Saudi Arabia. Even in Canada, she’ll need to be conscious of her security, but this is a real victory for women’s rights,” she said.
Labor and the Greens have welcomed Canada’s decision to grant a visa Qunun.
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, confirmed Qunun was granted asylum following a request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Labor and the Greens welcomed the decision on Saturday, which followed a tense week during which Qunun barricaded herself in an airport hotel room in Bangkok and used social media to draw attention to her plight.
She had been on her way to Australia and the Australian government had been assessing an application that was being processed at the time Canada granted her asylum.
“We’re pleased the UNHCR process concluded so quickly and that Ms Mohammed Al-Qunun has been offered asylum,” Shayne Neumann, Labor’s immigration and border protection spokesman, said.
“Labor is supportive of any government moves to offer her humanitarian resettlement and we wish Ms Mohammed al-Qunun well.”
Nick McKim, the Greens spokesman for immigration, said he was pleased for the teen.
But he said the immigration minister, David Coleman, had questions to answer about why the Australian government had taken so long to assess her application when Canada managed to do it in one day.
“It’s great news that Rahaf will get freedom and safety,” McKim said.
“We wish her all the best in Canada, but Mr Coleman needs to explain why Australia was taking so long to process her case.
“We should still offer Rahaf a visa so she has the choice to come here if she wants.”
In a statement on Saturday, Coleman said the government welcomed the news that Qunun had been offered a place in Canada.
“The safety of Ms Al-Qunun has always been the Australian Government’s primary concern, and we have been working with the UNHCR and international partners to ensure her claim is assessed appropriately,” he said.
“At the time of the UNHCR’s referral to Canada on January 11, the assessment of Ms Al-Qunun’s case by Australian officials was progressing.”
He defended the government saying Australia had “one of the most generous humanitarian programs in the world, and all applications are considered in accordance with Australian law and procedures”.
“We wish Ms Al-Qunun all the best for her future in Canada,” he said.
@rahaf84427714 - '#Rahaf al-Qunun is going to start a revolution': Teen's plight highlights #Saudi male guardianship
By Tyron Butson
Opposition to Saudi Arabia's male guardianship system has been highlighted by an 18-year-old Saudi woman's flight from her allegedly abusive family.An 18-year-old Saudi woman's flight from her allegedly abusive family has rallied opposition to the kingdom's male guardianship system - with some activists predicting her story could inspire a "revolution" for women in the Muslim country.
Rahaf al-Qunun has now been granted asylum in Canada after fleeing her homeland, alleging she faced persecution and harm from her own family after renouncing Islam.
Some freedoms have been granted under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ended a ban on women driving, eased restrictions on gender mixing, and championed firsts such as allowing women to serve in the armed forces.
But those changes have been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including the arrest and alleged torture of some of the activists who campaigned for decades to improve women's rights - as well as Muslim preachers who opposed them.
Many activists are calling for an end to the guardianship system, which has been chipped away at slowly over the years but remains in force.
Under the system, every Saudi women is assigned a male relative - often a father or husband but sometimes an uncle, brother or even a son - whose approval is needed if she is to marry, obtain a passport and travel abroad.
The plight of Ms Qunun, who slipped away from her family last weekend during a holiday in Kuwait, recalls the cases of other Saudi women who fled mistreatment only to be forcibly returned to the kingdom and never heard from again.
Amid global outrage at Saudi Arabia over last year's murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Ms Qanun's tweets from Bangkok airport sparked an online campaign. She barricaded herself inside a hotel room for hours until the Thai government reversed its decision to send her home.
In some countries, her adult age would have prevented the authorities from telling her family anything about her.
In Saudi Arabia, her gender meant she was her father's ward.
"Remove guardianship and we won't all migrate" trended this week on Twitter in Saudi Arabia and across the globe, women have called for an end to the practice, using the #EndMaleGuardianship to share their stories.
Just in case people want to defend the male guardianship law in Saudi - imagine having your life controlled by others just because you’re born female. This is what @rahaf84427714 is fighting against, and so many other women #endmaleguardianship #SaudiArabia
See Micah's other Tweets
#FreeRahaf #endmaleguardianship now!
Grown women should not have to ask permission to travel, work, study, marry. They should not have to flee, to seek asylum to live without fear and abuse. twitter.com/KenRoth/status…
See Cllr Diane Roscoe 
's other Tweets
's other Tweets
List of internationally recognized womens rights activist, misbehaved & tortured by Saudi Arabia-
Samar Badawi
Nassima al-Sadah
Amal al-Harbi
Loujain al-Hathloul
Aziza al-Yousef
Eman al-Nafjan
Nouf Abdelaziz
Mayaa al-Zahrani
Hatoon al-Fassi
Reported by @hrw @sarahleah1 @CiLuna27
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Mai, who identified as a 36-year-old physician, said she was embarrassed to have two children and a degree from Harvard University but still be viewed as a minor.
"I am trusted to make life and death decisions for patients, trusted to raise kids ... but not trusted to make my own decisions regarding MY life. The irony! #EndMaleGuardianship," she tweeted.
Egyptian feminist activist and journalist Mona Eltahawy posted a video on Twitter declaring the incident would trigger change.
"Rahaf Mohammed al-Qanun – mark my words – is going to start a revolution in Saudi Arabia,” she said in the video.
"Go on social media now and watch accounts of so many young Saudis saying 'Rahaf, you’ve shown us that we can do this. Rahaf, you have shown us, that we deserve to be free'."
She said there were more than a dozen Saudi women in jail, imprisoned for challenging the guardianship laws.
"The 15-17 Saudi feminists in prison, being tortured, are the ones who will bring equal rights – it’s not a crown prince who has fooled the world," she said in an interview with DW News.
"And sadly, the world has bought his lies that he’s an emancipator of women."
Social media user Jawhrah said the message resonated with her. "Just hearing this breaks my heart," she wrote in a message posted on Twitter.
At the same time supporters of Ms Qunun take to Twitter to wish her well in her new life in Canada, trolls and supporters of the Saudi government have been using the #revealrahaf hashtag to discredit her as sexually promiscuous. However, #revealrahaf has become a virtual battlefield as supporters of the Saudi teen attempt to use the hashtag to drown out trolls.The status of the guardianship system in law and custom makes it a thorny issue for Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who indicated last year he favoured ending the system but stopped short of endorsing its annulment. "If I say yes to this question, that means I'm creating problems for the families that don't want to give freedom for their daughters," he told US magazine The Atlantic. Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, the Saudi police and judiciary have long cited social customs in enforcing certain prohibitions on women. Many aspects of guardianship stem from informal practice rather than specific laws.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world's most gender-segregated nations, is ranked 138 of 144 states in the 2017 Global Gender Gap, a World Economic Forum study on how women fare in economic and political participation, health and education.Activists launched the "I Am My Own Guardian" campaign in 2016 demanding legal representation. King Salman issued an order the following year allowing women to benefit from services such as education and healthcare without the consent of a male guardian, though rights groups say this is being implemented only on a limited basis.Other challenges remain. There is no formal bar on women buying or renting property but it can be difficult for them to do so without a male relative, according to rights groups. Authorities have removed restrictions on women in the labour code and ended formal requirements for them to obtain a guardian's permission to work, but some employers still demand this and are not penalised for doing so.
Mohammed al-Issa, a former justice minister who sits on the kingdom's top clerical body, told Reuters last year there was no reason why women should be barred from obtaining a passport or travelling without the consent of a male guardian, but it may take time for society to accept that. Some Saudi women do not want to wait. "We have the right (to) be treated as adults since we're above 18 years," a woman named Fatin wrote online. "This guardianship is no more than modern enslavement system!"https://www.sbs.com.au/news/rahaf-al-qunun-is-going-to-start-a-revolution-teen-s-plight-highlights-saudi-male-guardianship
Bill to terminate Pakistan designation as major non-NATO ally introduced in Congress
Introduced by Republican Congressman Andy Briggs, the resolution 73, introduced in the House of Representatives, seeks termination of Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally and also sets conditions for its re-designation if any.
An influential U.S. lawmaker has introduced a legislation in Congress to terminate the designation of Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally.
Introduced by Republican Congressman Andy Briggs, the resolution 73, introduced in the House of Representatives, seeks termination of Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally and also sets conditions for its re-designation if any.
The resolution has been sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for necessary action.
It states, for future redesignation, the U.S. President need to certify to the Congress that Pakistan continues to conduct military operations that are contributing to significantly disrupting the safe haven and freedom of movement of the Haqqani Network in that country.
It also seeks certification from the Congress that Pakistan has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to prevent the Haqqani Network from using any Pakistani territory as a safe haven and that the Government of Pakistan actively coordinates with the Government of Afghanistan to restrict the movement of militants, such as the Haqqani Network, along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The resolution asks the President to certify that Pakistan has shown progress in arresting and prosecuting Haqqani Network senior leaders and mid-level operatives.
Pakistan journalist in exile fears he’ll meet Khashoggi’s fate if he returns home
AASTHA SINGH
Taha Siddiqui narrowly escaped an abduction attempt last year. Living in Paris in self-imposed exile, he now fears assassination if he returns to Pakistan.
New Delhi: Pakistani journalist Taha Siddiqui who fled the country last year after narrowly escaping an abduction attempt by unidentified armed men now fears that he will be assassinated if he returns to his country.
Speaking to ThePrint, Siddiqui, the journalist and activist who lives with his wife and son in Paris in a self-imposed exile, said that “journalists are being silenced by repressive regimes like that in Pakistan”.
In a piece he wrote for The Washington Post Tuesday, Siddiqui revealed that US intelligence officials informed him about an assassination attempt against him if he returned to Pakistan.
He has been asked to refrain from visiting any Pakistan embassies across the world and even avoid going to “Pakistani-friendly countries”.
Asked about why he wrote the piece and if he feared he’ll end up in a situation similar to slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Siddiqui said, “I’m afraid. But it is not just about me anymore. This is about how journalists are being silenced by repressive regimes like that in Pakistan.
“I am just one of the many who live in such constant threats and we need to highlight this more, given that it seems (Saudi Arabia Crown Prince) Mohammed Bin Salman, who is behind the murder of Khashoggi, may just get away with it and others may feel emboldened to do the same, following his path,” he added.
Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi regime, was killed in Istanbul on 2 October 2018. The Central Intelligence Agency of the US believes that Salman oversaw the 15-member hit team that awaited Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul where he was killed.
Threat from Pakistani Army
Siddiqui, who has often criticised the Pakistan military and accused it of playing a role in silencing journalists in the country, told ThePrint that the army has threatened him directly for many years.
He said the men who tried to abduct him in January last year were shouting phrases such as “What do you think of yourself?”
“It’s not just the ISI (Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence). It is the Pakistan Army, which is known to abduct, torture and kill those who challenge it,” said Siddiqui.
Asked if he would return to Pakistan, Siddqui said he won’t. He mentioned the fact that the current spokesperson of the Pakistani Army’ Asif Ghafoor had “publicly tweeted inviting me back home”.
Siddiqui asserted now that he has the US intelligence report, he knows that the Pakistani Army was “setting a trap” for him.
“So I’m better off abroad from where I will continue to raise the voice for those Pakistanis who cannot do the same back home,” he added.
Work at the moment
Currently working on a book on Pakistan, Siddiqui said that despite taking up several freelancing projects, “things are difficult” monetarily.
After founding a digital platform called Safe Newsrooms, Siddiqui now plans to launch a crowd-funding initiative this year to support him in managing the agency and sustain himself.
Siddiqui has also started work in consultancy, and began teaching journalism this month at Paris’s Sciences Po, a leading university in France.
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