Mission & Justice

James Apa Gumuno; 16/5/08

Three high school girls were among six women raped by a group of armed men in Nipa, Southern Highlands province, this week. They were among a group of 16 people, including a businessman, who were travelling from Mendi to Tari when they encountered a roadblock at Nipa at about 3am on Wednesday. They were travelling in an Isuzu truck owned by businessman Mathew Jupai. He had on board K82,000 worth of store goods. The six women included three high school girls.

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Linda Hindi; 16/5/08

Although girls are consistently higher achievers at the academic level, they lag far behind as active members of the labour force, according to a recently released report. The report, “Higher Education at a glance in Jordan”, indicates that unemployment rates for women between the ages of 25-29 (seven per cent) are lower than men in the same age group (13 per cent), because of the high percentage of women not seeking employment. Unemployment among women from that same age group who are not enrolled in educational institutions and not seeking employment, which, according to the study excludes them from being part of the labour force, is as high as 77 per cent.

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Yusuf Muhammad; 15/5/08

The Health Affairs Administration in Madinah has denied that an intermingling of sexes took place at a function organized by the city’s Maternity and Children’s Hospital to celebrate World Thalassemia Day on May 9. “An investigation committee found that men and women attending the function were seated separately as mandated by law, although a few women photographers crossed over to the men’s section to get a better view of stage events,” Adil Ashraf, a spokesman for the Health Affairs Administration in Madinah, told Arab News.

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Roni Singer-Heruti; 15/5/08

Two years have passed since indictments were filed against Salame Abu Ghanem and Mohammed Abu Ghanem for murdering their 19-year-old sister, Reem, and the end of the trial is nowhere in sight - even though the two confessed to the crime during the investigation. Legal foot-dragging has prevented the Tel Aviv District Court from even setting dates for the trial sessions. For a year and a half, the court has not conducted sessions on the matter, other than to set new dates. Now the police fear the same legal delays may bring about the Lod brothers’ release. In a Supreme Court session last week, Justice Esther Hayut was asked to extend the remand of the two for the seventh time.

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11/5/08
… As Treasurer of the Papua New Guinea Midwifery Society, Ms. Bagoi recently traveled to Uganda for the first Global Forum on Human Resources for Health convened by the Global Health Alliance. According to the alliance, a total of 4.25 million health workers are needed in 57 critical countries to meet dire staffing shortages,of midwives, nurses and doctors. “I’m part of this forum, because I want the midwives’ voices to be heard,” says Ms. Bagoi. The island nation of Papua New Guinea is situated east of Indonesia, between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean. The situation there is similar to that of many developing countries, Bagoi says, with health workers migrating from rural to urban centres for better working conditions…

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Najah Alosaimi, 12/5/08

Several months after the government’s decision to allow women to stay in hotels without guardians, businesswomen and other travelers started taking advantage of this new freedom. But many say that they sometimes feel discriminated against by hotel regulations. Nada, 29, works for a media corporation. She told Arab News that the new regulation has made her life easier, especially since she frequently travels on work-related business. But she added that she often notices people looking at her with an eye of mistrust when she introduces herself as a single woman wanting to book a room. “People don’t look at me with respect because there is no man accompanying me,” she said.

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11/5/08; http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=7768

Women cyclists ride through the streets of Amman on Friday. The ride, which has become an annual event to campaign for peace and highlight the plight of Arab women, started in the Lebanese capital last week and the cyclists passed through Syria before arriving in the Kingdom through the Jaber crossing. More than 250 women from 30 countries including the US, Britain, Japan, South Africa, Turkey and Iran are taking part in the event, being held for the fourth consecutive year. Yesterday, the women rode to Madaba, where they visited religious and historical sites as well as Mount Nebo and the Baptism Site. The ‘Follow the Women’ bike ride was set up in 2003 by Detta Regan, a well-known international youth work adviser and European Woman of the Year in 2004

11/5/08; http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109781&d=11&m=5&y=2008

A group of tribesmen in the southern Taif area have rallied together and developed a novel way of ensuring that spinsters find grooms. In order to encourage men to take second wives, the tribesmen, who belong to one of the largest tribes in the area, have decided to offer SR20,000 to anyone who takes a second wife. Awad Al-Lahiby told Al-Madinah newspaper that he and a couple of his cousins are funding the award, which will be given two months before the wedding. He added that the purpose of the award is to make marriage easy in order to reduce the number of single women in their tribe.

Rana Husseini; 10/5/08

Authorities are questioning a 22-year-old man, who allegedly killed his pregnant married sister on Wednesday evening for reasons related to family honour, official sources said. The 20-year-old victim, who was not identified by officials, received three fatal bullets to the side of her head, reportedly by her brother, at her in-laws’ house in the Wadi Seer area, according to the sources. The victim was three months pregnant, the sources said, adding that the suspect immediately headed to the nearest police station and turned himself in, handing over the gun he reportedly used to shoot his sibling, to officers on duty. “The suspect told police he had just killed his sister to cleanse his family’s honour,” the source told The Jordan Times.

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Nuha Adlan; 8/5/08

A two-day conference on domestic violence ended yesterday with participants saying there is no justification in Islam for abuse of women and children. They also came up with a list of demands and recommendations to tackle the problem. Experts from across the Kingdom participated in five sessions of discussions at the first National Experts Meeting to Fight Domestic Abuse Against Women and Children, with all participants agreeing that Islam does not condone abuse and that the problem should be brought to an end. “Traditions that allow abuse should be brought to an end,” said Dr. Maha Al-Munief, executive director of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP), which organized the event. “We will start training courses for people who work with abuse victims… We need cooperation from all NGOs,” she said in a press conference held to announce the recommendations.

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