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Is India the worst place in the world to be a woman?

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India the worst place for woman

(DW) India is the world’s most dangerous nation for women due to the high risk of sexual violence and regressive traditions, said a new study. Activists disagree with its methodology, but agree that gender crimes are up.

Repeated instances of brutal and horrific sexual crimes in India have often grabbed global headlines over the past several years. They have spurred a far-reaching debate about the safety of women and deeply entrenched patriarchal tendencies in the world’s second-most populous nation.

They have forced the Indian government to tighten laws on sexual assault and trafficking, and take measures to ensure women’s safety in both domestic and public spaces.

These measures, apparently, haven’t brought about the desired change, as revealed by a new poll conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It concluded that India is the most dangerous country in the world to be a woman because of the high risk of sexual violence and slave labor.

The results were based on a survey of 550 experts on women’s issues across the world, including academics, health workers, policymakers and NGO workers. The experts were asked to consider parameters like sexual and non-sexual violence, human trafficking, cultural traditions, healthcare and discrimination.

Embarrassingly for India, it emerged in this survey as the most dangerous place for women due to the high risk of sexual violence against them, as well as human trafficking for domestic work, forced labor, forced marriage and sexual slavery, among other reasons.

In the same survey seven years ago, India was the fourth most dangerous country for women. But this time around, India fared even worse than places like war-torn Afghanistan and Syria, which ranked second and third on the list.

India was also the most dangerous country in the world for retrograde cultural practices that impact women, the survey said, pointing to issues like female genital mutilation, acid attacks and child marriage.

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One person dead after woman ‘sucked through plane window’ in mid-flight emergency at 32,000ft

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Depressurisation is believed to have caused the female passenger to be partially sucked through window before others intervened on Southwest Airlines flight 1380

One person has died after a woman aboard a Southwest Airlines flight in the US was reportedly ‘sucked through the plane window’ during a mid-flight emergency.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Robert Sumwalt confirmed the fatality during a press conference this afternoon.

The left engine on flight 1380 is believed to have failed at 32,000 feet, causing shrapnel to fly off and hit the side of the plane, according to reports.

The plane was en route to Dallas from New York’s LaGuardia Airport but diverted to Philadelphia International Airport during the incident at around 11am local time this morning.

Mr Sumwalt confirmed this is the first passenger fatality on a US airline since 2009.

Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Adam Thiel said seven others aboard the aircraft were treated for minor injuries.

In a phone interview with CNN, passenger Marty Martinez said a window exploded mid-flight, causing a woman serious injuries.

Mr Martinez said: “The injured woman’s arms and body were sucked toward the opening in the plane.

“Objects flew out the hole where the window had been, and passengers right next to her were holding onto her.

“And meanwhile, there was blood all over this man’s hands. He was tending to her.

“We could feel the air from the outside coming in, and then we had smoke kind of coming in the window.

“Meanwhile, you have passengers that were in that aisle, trying to attend to the woman that was bleeding from the window explosion.

“That was just chaos all around.”

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Armenian Rights Watch, issued an announcement on the attacked and physically assaulted two female members

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The Armenian Rights Watch Committee of the Armenian Bar Association issued an announcement late Tuesday after members of the Republican Party of Armenia attacked and physically assaulted two female members of the Yerevan City Council. Below is the announcement.

On the heels of the newly-enacted domestic violence laws in Armenia, certain men in the Yerevan City Council chose to open the inaugural session with a display of base thuggery directed against their female counterparts on the Council. The brutishness is patently unbearable at this point.

These men cannot be lawmakers. They are not even law-abiding. Dare we say, they are not even true men. Watching the melee in the City Council chambers unfold, one could only watch in utter astonishment as unabashed brow-beating, actual slapping, violent striking and shameless and unrestrained bullying of Armenian councilwomen by their male counterparts ensued. Surely, something terribly significant is absent from the upbringing and moral fabric of these people. The behavior witnessed is something relegated to animals, not men—and is certainly unbecoming of those elected to serve in a law-making body.

Yet, these are the actual legislative representatives of an entire society of men and women. They represent the beater and the beaten in Armenian society. These men and women reflect the very current in the society they serve. And, as such, we should be alarmingly unhinged: imagine that which these criminals are capable of behind closed doors, in their own homes and with the women in their own families. This is not modern society.


Spare us the platitudes and politics already circulating—that the women instigated the men, that the women were the aggressors, that the men were defending themselves; they are meaningless. The video is clear: criminal Armenian men in suits pushing Armenian women, slapping Armenian women, striking Armenian women, handling Armenian women and dragging Armenian women around like refuse to a dumpster. If this cannot be a country that respects the dignity of our Armenian women, our Armenian mothers, our Armenian sisters and our Armenian daughters—then this cannot be a country that respects the Armenian people.

The perpetrators should not only be removed from office and prosecuted for gender-motivated hate crimes, but they should be openly shamed by an Armenian nation—both in the Republic and in the Diaspora—for exhibiting behavior unbecoming of civilized human beings, let alone mindful law-makers. It disgusts us through and through.

Shame on them for their brutality, shame on their families for having bred the brutality within them and shame on us for knowing that this Hobbesian predicament was unfolding in Armenian legislative bodies, Armenian courts, Armenian businesses, Armenians homes and Armenian families—and doing little or nothing to stop it.

We call on the resignation of Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan who witnessed, hovered over and condoned man’s inhumanity to woman. The enemy is not so much beyond the western or eastern frontiers as it is in the pretend democratic republic of a place once worthy of the name Armenia. And if there remains one single ounce of manliness in Margaryan the mayor, he will resign. And if there remains one single ounce of manliness in Margaryan the mayor, he will resign.

Armenian Rights Watch Committee—ARWC
Armenian Bar Association

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Saudi Arabia allows women at football game for first time

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Saudi Arabia has for the first time allowed women to spectate at a football match, part of an easing of strict rules on gender separation by the ultra-conservative Muslim country.

Women fans filed into a stadium in the city of Jeddah on Friday, through family gates into family seating, BBC News reports.

But even segregated as they were, their presence in the stadium marked a significant moment for the Kingdom.

It follows a series of reforms intended to modernise the country.

Earlier on Friday, ahead of the football game, there was another small sign of change: the country’s first car showroom dedicated to female customers was opened.

For the first time, women will this June be allowed to get behind the wheel, after it was announced in September that a ban on women drivers would be lifted.

Women at the car showroom milled around inspecting vehicles that they will be allowed to take out on the road when the ban ends.

At the stadium in Jeddah, female ushers were employed to greet the women fans and their families, who loudly cheered on the local team. Both ushers and fans wore the traditional black abaya robe.

A hashtag, translated as “the people welcome the entry of women into stadiums”, was used tens of thousands of times in two hours as the match took place.

Under Saudi Arabia’s guardianship system, women must be accompanied by a male family member to travel, and work. Most restaurants and cafes have two sections, one for just men and one for families, which are for women and their husbands and families.

The recent reforms are part of a gradual process of modernisation under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is attempting to make the Kingdom more moderate.

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Details Of Paris Killings Of 3 Kurdish Women By Turkey’s MİT Exposed

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(Left to right) Leyla Söylemez, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan.

Pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF), which is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has released alleged new details about Paris killings on Friday and claimed that the execution order had been given by four administrators of the Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

On January 9, 2013, the outlawed PKK’s founding member Sakine Cansız, Kurdistan Information Bureau (KNK) Paris representative Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez, who was a member of Kurdish youth movement, were assassinated in their Paris bureau. Suspect Ömer Güney died in prison on Dec. 17, 2016, just a few weeks before the trial.

The trial was planned to start on Jan. 23, 2017 in Paris High Criminal Court. However, the case was closed over Güney’s demise under suspicious circumstances. The probe into the murder of three Kurdish women in Paris has reopened later upon the appeal of lawyers.

“The massacre had reportedly come just a few days after an initiative to launch a new process of peace between Turkish government and the PKK. The process that was later dubbed the Imralı talks was just beginning. Before them, there had been the Oslo talks,” wrote the ANF.

“On January 3, 2013, a civilian committee had visited the Imralı island for the first time. Six days later, the bloody massacre in Paris occurred. The assassin was working for the MİT. He was a hitman, and was the only suspect under arrest. All signs he left behind were pointing to Ankara. The National Intelligence Agency, MİT, to be exact,” added it.

According to the report by ANF, “The MİT was there in the address he gave in code as he was planning his escape from prison. During the investigation, many other pieces of information were leaked. From a document that was leaked to the press on January 14, 2014, it could be understood that the execution order had been given by 4 administrators in the Turkish intelligence agency. Turkish intelligence claimed this document wasn’t genuine, but the document did have a wet-ink signature, and was included as evidence in the investigation file. Turkish officials refused to cooperate.”

“The document dated November 18, 2012 was signed by MİT officials Yüret, U.K. Ayık, S. Asal and H. Özcan. A document signed by MİT administrators showed that murder suspect Ömer Güney had been sent 6,000 Euros for ‘possible expenses’ and ordered to assassinate Sakine Cansız,” wrote ANF.

The document was saying: “In his last visit to our country to meet with us, the source was ordered to make preparations for people determined in the context of attacks/sabotages/assassinations against the organization targets in Europe and other such operative possibilities/capabilities, to acquire necessary equipment for his efforts, and to take maximum care in all communication with us, and has been paid 6.000 Euros for possible expenses.”

ANF’s report has continued to give details of assassination plan as follow:

“In a voice recording leaked to the press around the same time, Ömer Güney was speaking with unidentified MİT members to plan the murders. The date was January 12, 2014. The voice that was determined to belong to Ömer Güney was talking about assassination plans against Kurdish administrators. The two other voices in the recording were determined to be MİT members.

“The ‘final meeting’ that assassination plans were made according to documents and voice recordings was by early October, coinciding with Ömer Güney’s visit to Turkey. After Güney infiltrated Kurdish associations, he made many secret visits to İstanbul and Ankara. In the indictment, these visits were listed one by one with dates and times.

“The suspect had Sakine Cansız and many other Kurdish representatives in his crosshairs. The time when documents and voice recordings were leaked was also when Güney was planning his escape from prison. The murder suspect was planning to procure guns through his cohorts on the outside, and escape during his stay in the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.

“Years later, on December 17, 2016, the news of his death came from the same hospital. The case was expected to start that same month, but for some not fully explained reason, it got postponed to January 23.

“Later allegations were made that the massacre was planned during the Oslo and Imralı meetings, even that the members of the state committee in the talks were among the plotters. Kurdish journalist Amed Dicle’s book titled “2005-2015 Turkey-PKK Talks: ‘Resolution process operation’ against the Kurdish question’s resolution” pointed out that the order of execution was given during the Oslo meetings.

“The book also pointed out that the MİT members in the voice recording leaked on January 2014 were in the state committee that went to Oslo to meet with the PKK. The man mentioned in the book is code named Ozan, whose true identity hasn’t been confirmed, but is posed as a MİT administrator and was present in all meetings, from the first meeting in Geneva on July 5, 2008 to the last one in Oslo on July 5, 2011.

“According to Dicle, many people present in the Oslo meetings believe it was this MİT administrator code named Ozan in the voice recordings. The man in question was next to MİT Undersecretary Hakan Fidan in the Oslo meetings.

“New information that has surfaced months later confirm the previous. On the fifth anniversary of the massacre, On January 3, The outlawed Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that encompasses the outlawed PKK, issued a statement on the massacre, which also coincided with the fifth anniversary of the first committee visiting Imralı in 2013.

“With the information the KCK shared regarding the two high ranking MİT officials captured in August 2017, they exposed the name of the man who planned the Paris massacre: Sabahattin Asal. According to the KCK statement, he participated in the Imrali meetings in the name of the state along with Muhammed Dervişoğlu.”

The ANF report has stated that Asal is a MİT administrator. One of the four signatures on the confidential document dated November 18, 2012 leaked in January 2014 belonged to  S. Asal. This name announced by the KCK matching the name on the document and the same man participating in the Imralı meetings show that the Turkish government’s role in the Paris killings.

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LA FRANCE #Erdogan in Paris: A provocation and outrage (PCF) “murder of three Kurdish activists”

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The announcement of Turkish President Erdogan’s visit to Paris on January 5, 2018, sounds like a provocation. It will take place the day before an event commemorating the murder of three Kurdish activists five years ago. French justice had however highlighted the involvement of the Turkish secret services in this crime.

The meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Recep Tayyip Erdogan constitutes a new outrage against the families of the victims and the Kurds who undergo a ruthless deadly war. The parliamentarians and mayors of the HDP have had their immunity lifted, been removed from office and now languish in jail after being convicted in unfair trials.

Erdogan’s Turkey is in a chaotic situation, in a permanent repressive flight.

The opposition is silenced while gigantic purges populate the prisons. Politics has become a field of revenge in which Islamist-fascist militias enjoy impunity to kill and lynch those still protesting.

In these circumstances, how can it be said that Turkey remains “an essential partner”? France’s duty is to stand alongside human rights defenders in Turkey.

The PCF condemns the visit of the dictator RT Erdogan and expresses his total solidarity with all the Democrats of Turkey. He calls to make the demonstration of January 6, 2018 in Paris a success for Truth and Justice to be returned to Leila, Sakine and Rojbin.

French Communist Party

Wednesday, January 3, 2018,
Stéphane © armenews.co
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Marie Claire France publishes photo story about Artsakh

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woman of artsakh

woman of artsakh

Italian photographer Karl Mancini‘s photo project about the women of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) was featured in the magazine Marie Claire France.

The project is titled Dreaming Independence and Peace and first published on Maptia.Maptia.

“I believe the women of Artsakh have a lot to say. They support the men on the frontline, suffering in silence and sustaining families alone,” he said once.

“One day, I spent several hours with a female friend of mine in a wonderful place in Artsakh in the middle of nature just telling each other stories. I’ll never forget that moment, those simple emotions that should serve as a basis for every kind of relationship,” Mancini added.

According to the photographer, Armenians are very instinctive and emotional, straightforward in expressing their true feelings and quite honest if they have anything to tell you.

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MEP Frank Engel marries Armenian woman, holds wedding ceremony at Khor Virap

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MEP Frank Engel marries Armenian womanFrank Engel, a Luxembourgish politician and member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg married an Armenian woman Tatev Manukyan. The wedding ceremony was held today at Khor Virap Monastery, located in the Ararat plain in Armenia, near the closed border with Turkey.

The pair was married by the director of Information Services Department of the Mother See Echmiadzin Rev. Fr. Vahram Melikyan, while deputy defense minister Artak Zakaryan became a godfather.

It is noteworthy that the bride carried a bunch of wheat Instead of wedding bouquet.

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International Women’s Day: What gifts Armenian women want

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Today, 8 March is International Women’s Day. Although the origin of the holiday is highly political, today it has turned into one of the favourite holidays for women. Men, in turn, try to turn this day into a real celebration for women once more praising the female gender and evaluating women’s role in family and society. Gifts seem to be an integral part of this holiday. It is already a few days that the perfume, cosmetics and souvenir shops are crowded unlike other days. In these days, customers of these shops are mostly men. Starting from yesterday, the flower shops are also crowded.

The Armenian women seem not to be very demanding and do not wish to receive “unattainable” gifts from men.

In an interview with Panorama.am, advocate Liana Balyan said: “I am waiting for the spring holidays in a unique way, as the spring brings with it warmth, new expectations, hopes and dreams. March 8 is one of those wonderful holidays, when the form of the most desirable gift for me is not significant – be  it a small bouquet or a more expensive item. The most important thing is that the gift contains love, devotion and sincerity. I have always received flowers and perfumes on March 8. However, for me the happiest and the most cherished moment is when in the morning of March 8 I present flowers to my mom and kiss her on the cheek. And my mother’s sincere smile and happiness are the most important gifts for 8 March that I have always received and continue to receive.”

Head of the Rehabilitation and Intensive Care Unit of Yerevan’s “St. Virgin” medical center Anna Chobanyan wants to receive a very interesting book.

“I always receive diverse numerous gifts – flowers, jewellery or perfume. The presents are quite different. Today I want to receive a very interesting book,” she said.

Project Manager of Enterprise Incubator Foundation Zhenya Azizyan noted: “I do not like to receive gifts from women: only from my daughter or mother. Maybe it is pleasant to receive flowers on this day. The most important thing is the attitude, not the price of the gift. If they remember you and present a small bouquet, be it field flower or snowdrop, it is always pleasant.”

The gift that sculptor Nune Tumanyan wants is not, as she puts it, “very characteristic for a women.”

“It is desirable for me to receive an order to unveil one of my sculptors in the city. And also I want to have a large and bright workshop… it would certainly not do any harm,” N. Tumanyan said.

Gayane, who is a teacher, has already received her gift. “My students have organized an open class by themselves inviting me other teachers. Is there a better gift than this one?” she said.

March 8 was initially inspired by a New York City demonstration on March 8th, 1857, of women garment and textile workers who were protesting low wages, the twelve-hour workday, and uncompensated increased workloads. Although their march was brutally broken up by the police, they repeated their call for improved working conditions and equal pay for all working women as they formed their own union in March 1860.

In 1910 the first international women’s conference was held in Copenhagen by the Second International and an ‘International Women’s Day’ was established, which was submitted by the important German Socialist Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified.

The following year, 1911, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany,Switzerland. Since 1914, IWD is marked on 8 March, as women of Austria, Hungary, Germany, Netherlands and Russia set the tradition.

Armenian law on “Holidays and Memorial Days” of June 24, 2001 defines March 8 official Women’s Day and April 7 Mother’s Day, both non-working days.

 

Source Panorama.am
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Turkish women call for ‘no’ vote in April referendum

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Hundreds of Turkish female protesters in Istanbul have called on the nation to vote “no” in an upcoming constitutional referendum aimed at increasing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

On Saturday, the protesters claimed that if the constitutional changes are approved, it will turn the country into a one-party system with all the power being in the hands of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Earlier, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called on the people to vote “yes” in the referendum, during a rally held in a sports arena in the Turkish capital Ankara.

On February 10, Erdogan approved the bill that will change the country’s political system into a presidential one if approved in a referendum, which is set to be held on April 16.

The proposed constitutional changes have been met with widespread protest across the country, with critics claiming that the AKP is using last year’s failed coup to expand Erdogan’s authority and crackdown on opposition.

More than 250 were killed in a matter of a day on July 15 last year, when a group of renegade army and police officers attempted to oust Erdogan.

The coup failed permanently after the president returned to his office and people forced the putschists to lay down arms. Erdogan then ordered a massive crackdown, which has seen more than 40,000 people jailed and some 110,000 others discharged from their jobs.

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