Posts Tagged ‘Jordan’
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
Rana Husseini; 1/4/10
The criminal court on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old man to 10 years in prison for murdering his divorced sister in Aqaba in September 2009. The court declared the defendant, M. O., guilty of the manslaughter of his 17-year-old sibling and handed him a 15-year prison term. But the tribunal decided immediately to reduce the sentence to 10 years because the victim’s father and mother dropped charges against their son. The victim was married almost three months before her murder, according to court transcripts. In August, her husband divorced her and she returned home to live with her family, but the defendant “suspected her behaviour and morals”, the court stated.
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Tags: Honour Killing, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Laila Azzeh; 1/4/10
HRH Princess Basma, the honorary president of the Arab Women Media Centre (AWMC), on Wednesday stressed that women have value as human beings equal to that of men, and violence against women deprives them of this value. During a ceremony marking Arab Media Women’s Day, Princess Basma underlined that everyone has the right to enjoy mental and spiritual as well as physical health, noting that a woman’s mental health helps create appropriate living conditions to enhance the well-being of her family. Underscoring that violence against women is widespread all over the world, she noted that psychological violence, though it remains difficult to address, is an act of humiliation and degradation that impacts not only women but entire families.
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Tags: Domestic Violence, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
1/4/10; (2 Items)
A Belgian parliamentary committee has voted to impose a nationwide ban on wearing face-covering veils in public.The country’s home affairs committee agreed unanimously to support the move, which must be approved by parliament to become law. The ban includes any clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab and burqa. If passed, the measure would be the first clampdown of its kind in Europe.
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Tags: Europe, Jordan, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Womens Rights
Posted in Human Rights, Religion, Womens Rights | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010
Rana Husseini; 31/3/10
Participants in a two-day conference that ended yesterday said integrating issues related to violence against women and children in school curricula is vital in combating the problem in the region. “It is essential to include material related to prevention and help in domestic violence cases in high school textbooks as well as the curricula which physicians, judges and other relevant professionals depend on to graduate,” said Salwa Najjab, director of the Juzoor Foundation for Health and Social Development Organisation in Palestine. She made the remarks following the conclusion of the conference, titled “Combating Violence Against Women: Towards Building a Transformation System for Abused Women”, and organised by the Juzoor Foundation. The conference focused on the plight of Palestinian women, who suffer trauma from both occupation and domestic violence, and ways other countries in the region have dealt with the issue of domestic violence against women and children.
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Tags: Jordan, Migrants & Refugees, Womens Rights
Posted in Asia, Human Rights, Womens Rights, Workers | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
Hani Hazaimeh; 13/1/10
Ishara Hemanthi, a Sri Lankan domestic helper who was admitted to a hospital for injuries allegedly inflicted by her employer, was bailed out on Monday after spending 12 days in prison, according to the Sri Lankan embassy. Hemanthi was detained at the Jweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre after the employer filed a lawsuit accusing her of sexually abusing their seven-year-old daughter, according to the embassy’s lawyer Motasem Yassin. He added that Hemanthi’s employer also lodged another complaint with the authorities, accusing her of stealing JD1,000, a diamond ring and two gold rings… “The interrogation was conducted without a translator, although the prosecutor knew that the defendant could not speak or understand Arabic, and without the presence of any representatives from the embassy,” Yassin said, adding that the prosecutor ordered that Hemanthi be detained for 14 days. Despite the fact that the domestic helper filed a complaint against her employer with the authorities, her lawyer said the employer was never arrested or questioned by the police… Hemanthi, who arrived in Jordan in November 2008, ended up in the emergency room with severe bruising and swelling all over her body after she made it to her country’s embassy in search of help.She told The Jordan Times last month that she endured daily beatings.
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Tags: Jordan, Womens Rights, Workers
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Friday, January 8th, 2010
Daoud Kuttab; 8/1/10
The latest news about Jordan’s demands that Canada seize the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were on display in Toronto, brings back many childhood memories for me. For perspective this is what has happened. Jordan has requested Canada to take custody of the scrolls, citing the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories. On display at the exhibition were artefacts taken from the Palestine Museum (also called the Rockefeller Museum) in East Jerusalem. Last April, the Palestinian Authority tried to convince Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to refuse the exhibition. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad made the request during Harper’s visit to Ramallah. Israel has rejected Jordan’s claims using some unusual language. Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, made the preposterous claim that Jordan’s rule over fellow Arabs before 1967 was an “occupation” and stated that the “Kingdom relinquished all claims on the territories in the 1980s”, Ironically the Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaty clearly states the Kingdom’s role in as far as Jerusalem is concerned. What really irked me was the lame excuse that the capture of antiques from a museum in an occupied area is legitimate, because “the scrolls have no connection to Jordan or the Jordanian people”. Palmor argues for Israel’s right to these stolen artefacts on the basis that the “Dead Sea Scrolls are an intrinsic part of Jewish heritage and religion”.
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Tags: Christianity, Israel, Jordan
Posted in Christianity, Human Rights, Israel & Palestine, Religion | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Hani Hazaimeh; 5/1/10
Ishara Hemanthi, the Sri Lankan domestic helper who was admitted to Al Bashir Hospital last week for injuries allegedly inflicted by her employer, is currently being looked after at the Family Protection Department (FPD), the police said on Monday. Public Security Department Spokesperson Major Mohammad Khatib told The Jordan Times that the 23-year-old Sri Lankan was discharged from the hospital on December 31 and escorted by a police unit to the FPD for further investigations into her allegations. Officials at the Sri Lankan embassy in Amman said they were not aware of Hemanthi’s whereabouts, noting that they asked the Foreign Ministry to assist them in locating her. “When we went to visit Hemanthi at the hospital on Thursday, the hospital police told us that she was sent to Al Rashid Police Station. But when we checked there they told us that she was not in their custody,” an embassy official told The Jordan Times yesterday. Hemanthi, who arrived in Jordan in November 2008, ended up in the emergency room with severe bruising and swelling all over her body after she made it to her country’s embassy in search of help. She told The Jordan Times last week that she endured daily beatings.
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Tags: Jordan, Womens Rights, Workers
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Friday, January 1st, 2010
Rana Husseini; 1/1/10
The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a 61-year-old man to 10 years imprisonment after convicting him of murdering his teenage daughter for reasons related to family honour in 2008. The court first handed the defendant a 15-year prison term but decided immediately to commute the sentence to 10 years because the victim’s family dropped charges. The court said the victim was abducted, molested and assaulted by two men one month before the incident. She was taken to hospital for treatment and officers from the Family Protection Department examined her and arrested the two men who abducted her, the court added.
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Tags: Honour Killing, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Rana Husseini; 23/12/09
The criminal prosecutor on Monday charged a nightclub bodyguard with the premeditated murder of his wife for what the suspect claimed were reasons related to family honour, according to official sources. The 30-year-old suspect reportedly confessed to beating up his 21-year-old wife, “because she left the house with a man a week ago”, one source told The Jordan Times, quoting his initial testimony to interrogators. “The suspect said when his wife returned he informed her that everything was fine, and then beat her up at around dawn,” the source said, noting that the couple had been married for almost two months. The suspect at first tried to claim that he returned home at dawn on Monday and found his wife lying dead and that he tried to revive her, Police Spokesperson Major Mohammad Khatib said.
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Tags: Honour Killing, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Wafa Samara; 23/12/09
Agricultural officials and olive producers and exporters will meet soon to discuss a proposed plan to stop exporting olives to Israel and consider alternatives, Minister of Agriculture Saeed Masri said Monday. Meanwhile, agricultural imports from Israel have gone down by 75 per cent so far this year, compared to last year, the official said. “The ministry will meet with olive producers and exporters at the end of the current harvest season to review procedures of exporting local olive fruit to Israel,” Masri told The Jordan Times. He stressed that the new procedures will take into consideration farmers’ as well as consumers’ interests. The Jordan Olive Products Exporters Association (JOPEA) has said exports of olives to Israel, estimated at one-third of the Kingdom’s production, is harming the sector because it hampers full utilisation of the commercial benefits of the produce. “Israel tends to buy Jordan’s high-quality olives from farmers as of September of each year at 600 fils per kilo,” JOPEA Director Musa Saket said, describing the price as more “profitable” for farmers than local prices, which usually ranges between 450-500 fils per kilo. Around 10,000 tonnes of olives from irrigated orchards are exported to Israel every year,” Saket added, underlining the association’s efforts to convince the ministry to discontinue exports of olives to Israel by next year. We seek to prevent selling olives to Israel as it harms the local economy,” said Saket, pointing out that Israel remanufactures the olives into pickles and exports them to other countries claiming that they are Israeli products.
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Tags: Israel, Jordan, Trade
Posted in Aid / Trade, Israel & Palestine | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Rana Husseini; 9/12/09
The Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a 69-year-old man to 15 years in prison for murdering his daughter, allegedly in the name of family honour. The tribunal declared the defendant guilty of shooting his 26-year-old daughter six times in the head and neck at their home on April 8, 2007. The court rejected the defendant’s claims that he killed his daughter in a moment of rage and refused to commute the sentence after the victim’s family dropped charges against the defendant. “The tribunal decided not to halve the sentence because of the nature of the murder,” a senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.
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Tags: Honour Killing, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Monday, December 7th, 2009
Richard Spencer; 7/12/09
On one side is the fashionably dressed Queen Rania of Jordan, a symbol of progressive values for Arab women. On the other are her country’s conservative social and religious leaders. At stake is a political test case for reform in the Middle East, one that pits demands for greater democracy against the need to end so-called honour killings of women. Queen Rania, who regularly appears without a head scarf, let alone a hijab, has given her quiet support to women’s rights groups that want to change laws amounting to legal impunity for men involved in honour killings. But standing against her is another symbol of the country’s attempts to show a progressive face. Jordan’s MPs, who have been given more power to hold the Government and royal family to account than in other Arab countries, have shown little enthusiasm for the moves.
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Tags: Jordan, Marriage, Womens Rights
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Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Rana Husseini; 3/12/09
A Jordanian NGO running a legal hotline yesterday said almost half the women who sought help this year were victims of verbal and psychological abuse. “Many of the calls and visits to our office were from women who said they were subjected to verbal and mental abuse by their husbands and close family members,” Women’s Complaint Office Director Diana Shalabi said. According to Shalabi, 48.9 per cent of callers said they were subjected to some form of verbal or mental abuse, 37.6 per cent were subjected to physical abuse, and 36.7 per cent complained of problems related to residency and foreign affairs. She added that specialists analysed 500 cases since the office and hotline opened in February. Of these 500 cases, 338 were calls to the hotline, while 162 were visits to the office by women in need of guidance and legal help, Shalabi noted.
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Tags: Jordan, Marriage, Womens Rights
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Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Rula Samain; 2/12/09
It all started in 1880, when a Palestinian nun, Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas, was inspired to found the Congregation of the Rosary Sisters in Jerusalem. Mother Marie-Alphonsine, who was beatified last week by Pope Benedict XVI, founded the order with only one aim in mind: To spread love, peace and joy among her fellow human beings, according to Catholic priest Father Rifat Bader, Today, the Rosary Congregation has expanded its reach to almost all countries of the Middle East, with 61 centres spread out across the Kingdom, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait, Egypt and the UAE, as well as in Rome. Sister Madeleine Dababneh, principal of the Rosary Sisters School in Shmeisani, told The Jordan Times that the name “Rosary” embraces faith in service, true love for mankind and the joy of duty. She said the congregation’s basic mission is to serve the Arab community with no discrimination as to colour, religion or race.
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Tags: Christianity, Jordan, Rome
Posted in Asia, Christianity, Health & Children, Human Rights, Religion | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Rana Husseini; 2/12/09
Criminal Prosecutor Ali Abu Zeid on Monday charged a 30-year-old man with the premeditated murder of his niece in an Amman neighbourhood, official sources said. The 19-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, was reportedly shot eight times in the head and legs by her uncle at her home on Sunday, one source said. “The suspect left the house and was arrested the following day by police while at his home,” the source told The Jordan Times.Upon questioning, the uncle told the police that he killed his niece to “cleanse his family’s honour”, the source added.
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Tags: Honour Killing, Jordan, Womens Rights
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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Nisreen El-Shamayleh; 1/12/09
Jordan has stood at the front-line of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948, and in the six decades since has been de-mining battlefields where opposing armies once roamed. Jordan has stood at the front-line of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948, and in the six decades since has been de-mining battlefields where opposing armies once roamed. Many of the country’s land mines date back to the 1948 partition of Palestine, the 1967 Six Day War, and hostilities with Syria in the 1970′s. A peace treaty with Israel in 1994 allowed Jordan to speed up its de-mining efforts; 73,000 Israeli mines have been removed from the Wadi Araba border area. In 1999, Jordan ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines. The task for the Jordanians now is to remove some 136,000 mines from a 104-km belt along the northern border with Syria by 2012, a measure stipulated by the treaty, and they have pioneered a new approach that challenges social norms. Many of the country’s land mines date back to the 1948 partition of Palestine, the 1967 Six Day War, and hostilities with Syria in the 1970′s. A peace treaty with Israel in 1994 allowed Jordan to speed up its de-mining efforts; 73,000 Israeli mines have been removed from the Wadi Araba border area.
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Tags: Arms, Environment, Jordan, Landmines
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