Category: Gender-based discrimination

Bill banning child marriage fails in Pakistan after Council deems ‘un-Islamic’

Pakistani lawmakers had to withdraw a bill aimed at curbing the practice of child marriage after a prominent religious body declared the legislation un-Islamic.

The bill, which proposed raising the marriage age for females from 16 to 18, also called for harsher penalties for those who would arrange marriages involving children. Despite the laws in place, child marriages, particularly involving young female brides, are common in parts of the country. It’s estimated that some 20 percent of girls in the country are married before they turn 18.

But the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body which gives advice to parliament on the compatibility of laws with Sharia, appeared to slap down the legislation after deeming it “un-Islamic” and “blasphemous,” according toAgence France Presse. It had already handed down a similar ruling in 2014.

Read the full article on the Washington Post now. 

Romanian Priests Push for Gay Marriage Ban

Romanian Orthodox clergy are drumming up support for a change to the constitution defining marriage as an union between a man and a woman alone.

The days following Christmas have been a good opportunity for Orthodox priests across Romania to encourage parishioners to back a campaign for a change to the constitution outlawing same-sex marriage.

Dozens of people on Wednesday attending the Epiphany Day service at the cathedral in Timisoara, in western Romania, queued to sign the initiative, after their Bishop, or Metropolitan, encouraged them to do so during the Christmas mass.

Priests in the Iasi region in the east of the country, while blessing people’s houses for the Epiphany Day – a common tradition in Romania – used the occasion to ask them to back amendments to the fundamental law, according to media reports.

 

By Marian Chiriac
Read the full article from the BalkanInsight website

Pernicious work of World Congress of Families fuels anti-LGBTQ sentiment

The global influence of a controversial Christian coalition poses a serious threat to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

November has brought rough times for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights. First, voters in Houston, Texas rejected the city’s equal rights ordinance, which would have banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Then lawmakers in Russia presented a draft bill that would criminalise any public displays of affection that don’t conform to “traditional sexual relations”. Russia had already banned the promotion of homosexuality in 2013, but apparently this didn’t sufficiently suppress the LGBTQ community.

In both cases, support for the reactionary initiatives was driven, in part, by activists deep in the US heartland. The World Congress of Families (WCF), based in Rockford, Illinois, is an international network of socially conservative activists and NGOs that has been active since 1997. Its organisational partners, which span six continents, work in areas ranging from grassroots counselling to direct lobbying of parliamentarians.

 

By Gillian Kane and Cole Parke

Read the full article from The Guardian website

 

Ban ‘triple talaq’, says Muslim women’s group

The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) on Friday called for a ban on the “triple talaq” divorce system, saying it was un-Islamic and outlawed in several Muslim countries.

“The Quran gives rights to Muslim women during marriage and does not recognise triple talaq,” the group said in a resolution passed at its ninth annual convention here.

“Yet, this evil practice prevails in India. It should be banned like several Muslim countries (have done),” it added.

At the same time, the gathering rejected the idea of an Uniform Civil Code and called upon the government to initiate urgent measures towards reforms in Muslim personal law.

A BMMA statement quoted co-founder Noorjehan Safia Niaz as saying how India urgently needed a codified Muslim personal law based on the Quranic principles of justice and equality.

Zakia Soman, another co-founder, spoke about how an Uniform Civil Code was not the answer to Muslim womens’ quest for justice.

This can happen only by reform in Muslim personal law where matters such as age of marriage, divorce and polygamy can be regulated, she said.

 

Read the full article on the Online India website

OURs - News piece

Indonesia: Aceh Province Law Expands Caning Punishment to Adultery and Homosexual Acts

A provincial law on criminal offenses under Sharia law, passed in 2014, came into effect on October 23, 2015, in Indonesia’s Aceh Province, the only part of the country that enforces Islamic Sharia law.

(Aceh Regulation No. 6, 2014, Aceh government website (Oct. 22, 2014).)

The local regulation prescribes a punishment of 100 strokes of a cane for adultery, public displays of affection by unmarried couples, or any homosexual act. The regulation applies to local residents and to foreigners in the province. (Ashley Hogan, Indonesia’s Aceh Province Begins to Enforce Anti-Gay Law, PAPER CHASE (Oct. 23, 2015); Indonesia’s Aceh Introduces Strict Anti-Gay Law, BBC NEWS (Oct. 23, 2015); Reza Munawir, Indonesia’s Aceh Province Enacts Islamic Criminal Code, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (Oct. 24, 2015).) The canings will be public, reportedly designed to shame those punished. (Munawir, supra.)

The regulation, the Aceh Islamic Criminal Code (Qanun Jinayat), adds to the number of offenses for which caning is a punishment in Aceh. The offenses punished that way under previous provincial regulations include gambling, consumption of alcohol, and fraternizing with the opposite sex outside of marriage. According to Syahrizal Abbas, the Head of the Department of Islamic Sharia of Aceh, the law does not violate the human rights of gay individuals because they can live together as long as there is no sexual relationship. He explained that “[i]t is forbidden because in the sharia context, the act is vile. … It brings [an] unhealthy psychological impact to human development, and it will affect the community.” (Id.; Press Release, Amnesty International, ASA 21/2726/2015, Indonesia: Repeal or Revise All Provisions in the New Aceh Islamic Criminal Code that Violate Human Rights (Oct. 23, 2015) (click on link to download text in pdf).)

Other Sharia-influenced regulations in the province include requirements that boys and girls be educated separately and that Muslim women wear a hijab (a scarf that covers the hair but not the face) and not straddle a motorcycle when riding with a driver. (Id.) Since June 2015, under an order from the mayor of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, restaurants, sports venues, Internet cafes, and tourist attractions in the city are forbidden to host or serve women after 11:00 p.m., unless those women are accompanied by a male relative. (Constance Johnson, Indonesia: Curfew for Women in Provincial Capital, GLOBAL LEGAL MONITOR (June 16, 2015).)

 

By Constance Johnson
Read the full article on the website of the Library of Congress

Some African Countries Are Trying to Use Science to Make Homophobic Laws, Now African Scientists are Pushing Back

Some African countries have tried to use science to justify laws that criminalize homosexuality.

Over the last few years, a number of African countries have passed legislation to outlaw homosexuality, painting it as unnatural and un-African. On June 10, scientists and other academics took a stand against such discriminatory legislation, as Linda Nordling reports for Nature. The Academy of Science of South Africa released a report refuting and condemning the legislation during a recent conference on AIDS research in Durban, South Africa.

The report draws from an array of academic fields, arguing that anti-homosexuality laws have neither a basis in science nor history nor philosophy. The researchers aim to debunk some key misconceptions about homosexuality, namely that it’s “socially contagious,” encourages pedophilia and paves the way for HIV and AIDS. In fact, the researchers conclude that such laws actually make it more difficult to monitor and control sexually transmitted infectious diseases.

To bolster their case, the panel also cites biological evidence for sexual orientation and historical evidence for same sex relationships in Africa dating back to the 19th century. “There is no basis for the view that homosexuality is ‘un-African’ either in the sense of it being a ‘colonial import’, or on the basis that prevalence of people with same-sex or bisexual orientations is any different in African countries compared to countries on any other continent,” they write. Some of the laws draw on religious and anti-Western sentiment. However, the strong reaction from African scientists is largely due to the fact that in some cases, science has been used to justify some of this legislation.

 

By Helene Thompson

Read the full article from the Smithsonian website

EU leaders demand answers from Kyrgyz President over anti-LGBTI, anti-NGO bills

During an official visit by Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev last week, EU leaders  have sought reassurances over pending bills seeking to limit the rights of LGBTI people and civil society in general.

Kyrgyzstan is considering an anti-LGBTI ‘propaganda’ bill, which would outlaw any public information ‘aimed at forming positive attitudes toward non-traditional sexual relations’. Anyone found guilty under the proposals could be jailed for 12 months.

The Russian inspired ‘foreign agents’ bill would force nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) who receive funds from abroad to register as “foreign agents”, subjecting them to additional reporting requirements.

This has led to fears that NGOs working to improve Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan could find themselves unable to operate

During the visit by the Kyrgyz President, EU leaders raised their concerns over the bills. Official communication from Mr Juncker emphasises he had “underscored the link between EU support and the effective commitment to principles of respect of human rights and fundamental values.”

Furthermore, he has “urged President Atambaev not to endorse legislation violating human rights and weakening civil society.”

European Parliament President Martin Schulz and European Council President Donald Tusk also raised the bills with President Atambaev.

This is the latest in a series of actions taken by the EU, after the European Parliament urged the Kyrgyz Parliament to reject the ‘anti-propaganda’ bill in January 2015.

Daniele Viotti MEP, Co-President of the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights and part of the Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Kyrgyzstan, reacted: “By now we should all be aware of the poisonous consequences of these ill-informed and hateful bills: they produce hate and lead to impunity for violence and discrimination against minorities.”

“This has no place in a country that has committed itself through its constitution to full protection of human and civil rights.”

Similar Russian laws have led to an extreme clampdown on civil society, and a climate in which discrimination, hate speech and violence against LGBTI people go unpunished.

Ian Duncan MEP, Vice-President of the Intergroup on LGBTI Rights added: “The situation in Kyrgystzan is desperate. You can’t jail someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“The EU and its member states must be clear in their condemnation of this proposed discriminatory law.”

 

Article originally published by the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights

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