Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Middle East. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, November 15, 2010
Banned books, Jordan: In Jordan, a bookstore devoted to forbidden titles - latimes.com
Banned books, Jordan: In Jordan, a bookstore devoted to forbidden titles - latimes.com
Banned books — on sex, politics, religion — are a specialty at Sami Abu Hossein's shop in Amman. 'We have them,' he says with a grin, 'but don't tell anyone.'
By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times
November 15, 2010
Reporting from Amman, Jordan
At Sami Abu Hossein's cramped bookstore, the hundred or so book titles listed on a wall aren't bestsellers. They're banned.
And the cheery Abu Hossein can you get you any of them, sometimes in the few minutes it takes to sit down and drink a cup of thick-brewed Turkish coffee.
"There are three no-nos," the owner of Al Taliya Books explains with a big smile. "Sex, politics and religion. Unfortunately, that's all anyone ever wants to read about."
He laughs uproariously.
"These are all the banned ones," he says, gesturing to the list taped to the wall above the store entrance, books on sexuality to ones that critically examine the life and times of the prophet Muhammad, the most taboo topic in the Arab world.
"We have them," he says, grinning broadly, "but don't tell anyone."
The tubby father of five seems to get a tremendous kick out of bucking the rules. (Not that they're strictly enforced; he's never been arrested or even summoned by the authorities.)
His partner in thought crime is Hossein Yassin, a self-described Marxist in a worn beige linen suit. Abu Hossein summons his wiry 48-year-old comrade in for the really tough jobs.
Yassin jokes that he's the Special Forces for getting banned or hard-to-find books. He makes allusions to a murky past as an underground revolutionary. He says he calls upon a network that stretches across the Middle East to locate and transport hard-to-find titles.
"I can get any book," he boasts. "But don't ask how I get them."
The most widely requested banned book remains "The Satanic Verses," the 1988 novel that suggested some parts of the Koran weren't God's words and thereby earned its author, Salman Rushdie, a fatwa issued by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the hatred of pious Muslims worldwide.
Other top requests include "23 Years," by the Iranian scholar Ali Dashti, which questions miracles ascribed to Muhammad in the Koran; and "The Joke in the Arab World," by the Egyptian writer Khaled Qashtin, a sarcastic view of the Middle East, its rulers and customs.
Abu Hossein's shop, in the capital's rambling but lively downtown, also sells nonblacklisted books. His shelves are filled with titles from serious political studies about the Middle East to romance novels and pirated software manuals.
But his shop is known as the place in Amman to get forbidden fruits of knowledge.
Censoring books in the age of the Internet may seem like a quaint idea. Even the government official in charge of restricting them recently announced in a newspaper article that "stopping books from reaching the people is a page we've turned."
The censor, Abdullah Abu Roman, occasionally stops by the bookstore to hobnob with Abu Hossein. So do plainclothes security officials. Abu Hossein serves them his Turkish coffee. They very politely ask him for the copies of the forbidden books. He hands them over. It's all very civilized.
"Allah maakon," he bids them farewell. God be with you.
"They are very sensitive to politics and criticism of politicians," says Abu Hossein, who has been working at his family shop for decades. "But there are some books that are banned arbitrarily. Sometimes a censor will ban a book for a sentence he doesn't like."
Saturday, October 16, 2010
BBC News - Iranian chocolate thief faces hand amputation
BBC News - Iranian chocolate thief faces hand amputation
An Iranian judge has sentenced a man convicted of robbing a confectionery shop to have one of his hands cut off, Iranian media report.
The judge also sentenced the man to one year in prison.
Police arrested the man in May after finding $900 (£560), three pairs of gloves and a large amount of chocolate in his car, Fars news agency said.
Under Iran's Islamic law, amputations are usually reserved for habitual thieves.
Last week, authorities cut off the hand of a man convicted of two robberies in the north-eastern city of Mashhad.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Between Honour Killings, Child Brides And Forced Marriages
allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Between Honour Killings, Child Brides And Forced Marriages
At the Law and Individual Rights Session, the family law issue of child brides and forced marriage was a subject of discourse. Since this is an issue affecting mostly developing countries, the panel consisted of human rights experts from India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. In attendance also were practitioners from developed countries like Britain and Germany given that they are affected as a result of the immigrant population in their countries.
Mr. Ranjit Malhotra, a Family Law Specialist, shared the forced marriage and honour killings issue within India's cultural context. He said this was an issue prevalent among the Hindus and because there is an entrenched caste system in their society, child brides that rebel against such marriages are usually seen to have brought dishonour to their families which results in the murder of such young females.
Honour killings are seen as sanctions justifiable for dishonourable behavior which is common in parts of the world like India, Pakistan and the Middle East. In India, there is no government data on the number of murders perpetrated but NGO estimate report about 900 per year.
Honour killings are especially troubling for the Western world since the provision of the Hindu Act has extra-territorial application which allows for immigrant families in Western countries to justify the killings.
In addition, he explained measures put in place by the Indian government to curb these heinous acts such as provision of Human Rights Commissions that take up cases based on petitions from victims without charges.
However, he advised that to effectively deal with the matter, there has to be policy reform, specific law dealing with honour killings different from murder under the Indian Penal Code and such law must have extra-territorial force.
Mrs. Biola Adimula, women's rights activist and former Chair, Federation of International Women Lawyers (FIDA) dealt with the child brides and forced marriage issues in the African context. For the Nigerian delegation, the issue could not have been more appropriate, given Senator Ahmed Yerima's recent marriage to an underage bride.
She gave statistics on how prevalent it is in Africa. Despite, all African countries (except Somalia) being signatories to the Charter on Rights of a Child, Niger has the highest percentage of child brides at 75% and Zambia the lowest at 42%.Though the Charter and Nigerian laws define a child as human beings under the age of 18, these child brides are given out in marriage as early as 9 years and before they attain puberty.
The reasons for these forced marriages are not dissimilar to India and other countries where such practices occur. They include: poverty, political, religious and traditional reasons. Even though honour killings are not as prevalent as those reported in India, Pakistan or the Middle East, still troubling is the health effects these marriages have on child brides.
Friday, October 08, 2010
Israel: Grant Status Long Denied to Arab Village in Central Israel | Human Rights Watch
Israel: Grant Status Long Denied to Arab Village in Central Israel | Human Rights Watch
(Jerusalem) - The Israeli government should grant legal status to a 60-year-old village with a population of about 600 Palestinian-Israeli citizens, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities have refused to recognize the village as residential, even as they approved an immediately adjacent residential development for Jewish Israelis. The authorities have given no justification for the difference in treatment.
Dahmash, approximately 20 kilometers from Tel Aviv between the cities of Ramle and Lod in central Israel, has been inhabited since at least 1951, and its residents are Israeli citizens. The authorities refuse to rezone the land as residential - although they have done so in neighboring areas - and refuse to provide basic services such as paved roads, sewage, health facilities, kindergartens, and schools, despite numerous petitions by residents. Instead, the authorities consider almost every one of the 70 houses "illegal," and 13 are under threat of demolition. A court is to decide the issue on October 11, 2010.
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