Mission & Justice

Habib Toumi, 15/8/08

Tunisian women celebrated their national day amid calls by their first lady for greater involvement of women in scientific research and a better contribution in promoting knowledge “for the sake of a durable and balanced development of the nation.” Tunisia, regarded as the most advanced Arab country in women’s rights and political, social and economic empowerment, has been celebrating Women’s Day on August 13 since 1957 when the Personal Status Law was promulgated and hailed as a great step forward by the predominantly Muslim North African country. The celebrations, marked by a public holiday, provide an opportunity to assess the progress achieved by women and to plan the year ahead.

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Frank Nyakairu; 13/8/08

Ugandan authorities have launched a mass circumcision drive with the hope it will reduce HIV/AIDS rates in the east African country. Some studies indicate circumcision could be 70 per cent effective in protecting men against infection by the disease during heterosexual intercourse, when used in conjunction with condoms and other safe-sex practices. Government officials in Kampala have decided to take advantage of a month-long traditional “circumcision season” practiced by some tribes to drive the message home. “Socially, it is uniting, and now it has also been proven medically, that is gratifying and it is part and parcel of now the strategy for fighting AIDS,” Kibale Wambi, chairman of Sironko district in eastern Uganda, said.

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Connie Levett; 13/8/08

The farmlands of West Africa look desperate to the untrained eye - sandy, barren and hostile. But despite much talk of desertification as the Sahara’s dunes creep ever southward, a quiet green miracle is taking place. And the efforts of an Australian development worker have provided the impetus for the homegrown project. More than 200 million new trees have grown up in the region in the past 20 years, reforesting 5 million hectares of semi-desert in the Sahel, a strip of land directly below the Sahara. A substantial part of that regrowth is due to regeneration of underground forests. The Dutch researcher Dr Chris Reij says the regreening is largely due to the farmers adapting their practices. The farmers have not planted and watered new trees but tended regrowth from seeds and dormant root systems. “The whole aspect of underground forests is you almost find, I don’t want to say as much biomass underground as you find above ground, but it’s obvious that the root systems of the trees that are now growing increasingly in parts of the Sahel are as important as what is above ground,” he says.

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Henrietta H. Fore; 12/8/08

Young people under the age of 25 make up more than 50 per cent of the population in the Middle East and North Africa. More than 100 million are between the ages of 15 and 29. Youth are three-and-a-half times as likely as older workers to be unemployed, and their sheer numbers tax already overstretched health and education systems. Yet, with this challenge comes a great demographic opportunity. A large youth generation is the region’s best hope for economic growth and progress. The last similar regional demographic bulge was in Southeast Asia in the late 1980s. The countries of that region harnessed the power and creativity of their young people and fuelled an economic boom, a boom that weathered multiple financial crises and continues to pay rich dividends today. Young people are energetic and productive workers. They are avid consumers of goods and services. And when the ratio between the working age population and the nonworking age group shifts in favour of those working - as will soon happen in the Middle East and North Africa - it opens up the door to even higher productivity and incomes.

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Sarah-Jane Collins and Miki Perkins; 5/8/08
Riding home from his part-time job at KFC last October, 17-year-old Sudanese refugee Ajang Gor was attacked by a group of youths who shouted racist taunts at him. In an unprovoked assault they called him a “black c–t”, punched him and hit him over the head with a Bacardi Breezer bottle, before leaving the Melton resident unconscious on the road and stealing his mobile phone.

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Cameron Stewart; 23/7/08

It is a drug that cost Fartun Farah her marriage and one she says is fuelling domestic violence across the nation’s African community. But what makes her story unusual is that the drug in question, khat, is legal in Australia despite being banned in other countries such as the US, Canada and New Zealand. Now Ms Farah and a group of Somali women in Melbourne are taking on the men in their own community by pushing for Australia to also ban khat - an African shrub that is chewed for amphetamine-like effect - saying it is destroying the social fabric of African communities. “Each month, we see women walking into our centre saying khat is destroying their family,” says Ms Farah, who heads the East African Women’s Foundation in Melbourne.

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13/6/08

Authorities in Denmark have charged a couple with subjecting two of their three daughters to genital mutilation in Sudan. The practice, also known as female circumcision, has been outlawed in Denmark since 2003. The couple were remanded in custody for eight days pending further investigation of the preliminary police charges. Local media quoted police as saying the girls, now aged 9 and 11, were believed to have been circumcised in 2003 when their parents travelled with them to Sudan.

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Ramadan Al Sherbini; 9/6/08

Mustafa, a father of three girls, is proud of having his children circumcised, and vows to do the same if he gets a new baby girl. Under a new law passed by the Egyptian Parliament this week, female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM) is criminalised. “This is nonsense,” said Mustafa, a native of the south Egyptian city of Sohag who has been living in Cairo for around 20 years. “Circumcision for girls is a must as it protects their chastity,” added the 48-year-old Muslim father. “Islam also encourages circumcision for girls as well.”

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9/6/08

The Egyptian parliament has outlawed female circumcision but parliamentary sources say an exception to the ban - cases of “medical necessity” - could undermine it. Female genital mutilation, which dates back to pharaonic times, will now be punishable by a jail term of three months to two years or a fine of 1000 to 5000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$1000), they said on Saturday. The new legislation is part of a bill on children’s rights that has been the subject of fierce parliamentary debate for several weeks. Those who supported the practice argued that it was appropriate when female genitals protruded too much. They also said it was needed to preserve the woman’s virtue.

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Jewel Topsfield; 17/5/08

When former immigration minister Kevin Andrews sparked a race row over his claims that African refugees were engaged in crime and failing to integrate into Australia he was acting contrary to advice from his own department. In a confidential briefing to the minister, obtained by The Age, the Immigration Department stressed that studies suggested it was not ethnicity that determined criminal behaviour but a combination of socio-economic problems and other disadvantage. The briefing was prepared for Mr Andrews in response to an article in the Cranbourne Leader suggesting that transit police believed Sudanese men were responsible for 99% of assaults and armed robberies on two Victorian rail lines.

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