Iran ( Temporary marriage is " Up in Iran " a way of continuing a sexual relationship ) Pre-marital sex is illegal in Iran

Friday, 15 November 2013   

Figures released by the Iranian National Statistics Office indicate that Sigha –temporary partnership – is on the rise, while fewer and fewer people are marrying in the conventional way.

Mohabat News -  Figures released by the Iranian National Statistics Office indicate that Sigha –temporary partnership – is on the rise, while fewer and fewer people are marrying in the conventional way.
According to the deputy justice minister, Sigha rose by 28% in 2012 and by a further 10% in the first half of this year. Sociologist Mustafa Aghlima told the ISNA news agency: "The increase in Sigha at the cost of fewer proper marriages means the collapse of family life and its cultural values. Sigha is endemic among wealthy people seeking sexual gratification."
Pre-marital sex is illegal in Iran, and many young men and women resort to temporary marriage as a way of continuing a sexual relationship. University lecturer Dr. Hussein Baher told ISNA: "Getting married is harder now than it ever has been. 90% of the problems experienced by married couples are the result of economic hardship, while in the remaining 10% cultural differences are to blame."
The Iranian authorities however blame foreign satellite television for the increase in family breakdowns, while discounting such problems as the high cost of living, high rates of unemployment and a lack of decent housing./shahrzad

Syria ( Watchdog says Syria most dangerous country for journalists )

             

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

11/28/2013 01:54

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The New York-based group Committee to Protect Journalists cited the case of two kidnapped Swedish journalists.

Syrian opposition fighters drag a rocket launcher near the 80th Brigade base in Aleppo Nov. 13, 2013 Photo: REUTERS

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday that the civil war in Syria posed the greatest danger for working reporters in conflict areas.

“Syria remains the most dangerous country in the world for journalists,” CPJ said. “At least 55 journalists have been killed covering the conflict since 2011, with local journalists comprising 90 percent of the fatalities.”

The New York-based group cited the case of two kidnapped Swedish journalists.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday by a spokeswoman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry, the two had been “taken away” on Saturday. It is unclear whether Syria’s regime or rebel forces kidnapped the men.

CPJ said there were at least 30 local and international journalists missing there.

“The number of journalists currently missing in Syria is nothing short of shocking,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Sherif Mansour.

“We call on all players in the conflict to respect journalists’ status as civilians and ensure their safety.”

Many cases of missing journalists have not been publicized because of family wishes and the probability of damaging complex negotiations to secure their release.

According to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the two journalists were Magnus Falkehed and Niclas Hammarstrom. The Paris-based Falkehed worked for the paper as a freelance reporter, and Hammarstrom as a freelance photographer. The paper said they had not been on assignment for the daily when they disappeared.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders issued an extensive report earlier this month titled “Journalism in Syria, impossible job?” According to the report, “more than 110 news providers have been killed in the course of their work in Syria since March 2011 and more than 60 are currently detained, held hostage or missing.”

The difference in statistics between CPJ and Reporters Without Borders is typical in war reporting where civilian deaths and casualty numbers vary according to sources and methods used to track victims.

Reporters Without Borders is an international organization that seeks to expand freedom of information. It released its report to coincide with the six-month date of captivity for Edouard Elias and Didier François, two French TV journalists.

The report noted that Syrian president Bashar Assad’s forces targeted journalists at the outset of the revolt against his regime in 2011. While Assad continues his crackdown on journalists, rebel jihadi groups in northern Syria also aim to kidnap journalists.

Reporters Without Borders placed Assad on its annual list of “Predators of press freedom” in 2011. The Al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra group was added in 2013.

The advocacy organization now seeks to add the al-Qaida-linked ISIS to its list. ISIS controls large swaths of territory in northern Syria and goes to great lengths to target Western and independent journalists working in the country.

Writing for the Daily Beast website on Tuesday, Jamie Dettmer described how Syrian army forces attempted to kidnap him in the Kurdish-controlled region of northeast Syria.

CPJ said Rami al-Razzouk, a journalist for the local news outlet Radio ANA, was abducted by ISIS gunmen in October. In August, Mohamed Nour Matar, a local journalist, disappeared while reporting on a protest against ISIS in the city of Raqqa. He worked for the non-profit media organization Al-Shara, according to CPJ.

Benjamin Weinthal reported for The Jerusalem Post on the Turkey-Syria border, where he entered the Syrian-side of the border town of Jarabulus in September. He is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

GUATEMALA ( City Councilman Gunned Down in Guatemala )

GUATEMALA CITY – A member of the municipal council in the eastern Guatemalan city of Jalapa was fatally shot by unknown assailants, first responders said Friday.

Carlos Valdez was slain Thursday night in the capital of Jalapa province, fire rescue spokesman Mario Cruz told reporters.

The shooting took place as the councilman was getting into his vehicle in a parking lot, according to the official report. Valdez, 49, took office in January 2012 after winning election on the ticket of a short-lived coalition of the UNE and GANA parties.

Authorities declined to speculate on the motive of the killers.

With an average of 15 homicides a day, Guatemala is one of the most dangerous nations in Latin America.

Buenos Aires ( Sex workers protest " Topless " over legal structure for sex work )

Sex Workers Demand Law to Protect Their Rights

by Chiara Gnoli, 27 November 2013. Tags: AMMAR, law, protest, sex work, sex workers, violence against women

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Ammar members protesting yesterday (Photo: Raúl Ferrari/Télam/aa)

A day after the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which took place on Monday 25th November, the sex worker collective Ammar (Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina) organised a manifestation in front of the Congress building in Buenos Aires to support the “self-determination of sex workers.” Holding up a poster demanding for a law on autonomous sex work, the demonstrators called for the government to recognise the violence sex workers suffer as a result of a non-existent legal structure for sex work.
Georgina Orellano, the National Coordinator of Ammar, stated: “In the last few years we have been suffering constant persecution, discrimination, abuse, loss of jobs, and police bribery.”
Ammar’s aim through the demonstration was to shed light on the problems sex workers face on a daily basis, including violence and abuse. According to Ammar, a recent crackdown on brothels and the law to criminalise clients are forms of violence towards the sex workers as it denies their self-determination. In Ammar’s online statement, they write: “Banning our right to exercise our work is violence. The impossibility of being able to decide on issues regarding our body is violence…. the constant confusion between trafficking and sex work is violence.”
Orellano stated that the collective does not believe the state helps sex workers as sexual work in Argentina has no legal foundation. She stated that the work “is not prohibited but it’s not permitted” and emphasised that due to this lack of legality there is a void in which sex worker’s rights are denied and their situation is often confused with that of human trafficking victims. Orellano declared that there are many sex workers that become so voluntarily, and are thus in need of protection from criminalisation, discrimination, violence, and abuse.
“Our sector has always been criminalised and stigmatised, there is a lot of prejudice around our work and we wish for society to see us not as victims but as a subjects of rights,” Orellano stated.
Ammar’s protest in the context of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women comes on the same day NGO Casa del Encuentro presented findings on violence against women. According to their findings, a woman is killed every 35 hours in Argentina. 

Mexico ( Amnesty International Blasts Mexico for Inaction on Human Rights Issues )

MEXICO CITY – Twelve months after taking office, the administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto “has failed to demonstrate that human rights are its priority,” Amnesty International said Friday.

Abuses, such as forced disappearances, violence against migrants and attacks on rights activists, have gone on with impunity during the first year of Peña Nieto’s six-year mandate, AI’s Mexican chapter said in a statement.

Besides abetting existing rights violations, the new government has presided over increased police brutality toward protesters and a rise in arbitrary arrests, the rights watchdog said.

The few advances, including a crime victims’ bill of rights and the creation of a special missing-persons unit in the Attorney General’s Office, have had no “real impact” on Mexico, according to AI.

The clearest sign Peña Nieto’s administration has not prioritized ending the “epidemic of violence and abuse ... that characterized the (2006-2012) tenure of Felipe Calderon” is that the government put off until next March its review of a set of recommendations from the U.N. Human Rights Council, AI said.

Fully implementing those recommendations, issued last month, “would contribute to mitigating this serious human rights crisis,” Amnesty International said.

Jerusalem ( Toddler injured from rock thrown at car in Jerusalem; 4 arrested )

Police arrest four Arab men between ages of 15 and 20; two-year-old evacuated to hospital in moderate-serious condition.

MDA paramedics evacuating woman to hospital in Jerusalem. Photo: Magen David Adom spokesman

Police arrested four Arab men between the ages of 15 and 20 on Thursday night, following suspicions that they had thrown stones at a vehicle in Jerusalem which left two-year-old Abigail Ben-Zion injured.
In what police believed to be a nationalistically-motivated attack, reports emerged on Thursday that a two-year-old toddler was wounded from an object that was thrown at a car that she was riding in, in the Armon Hanatziv area of Jerusalem on Thursday evening.

Related:

• 5 Arab youths indicted for Molotov cocktail attacks against IDF base

Police national spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the police believed the attack was nationalistically motivated. Rosenfeld said that the area Tzur Baher, adjacent to the attack site, was being searched for the perpetrators. He added that stones were thrown on Thursday at a number of vehicles in the area.
Magen David Adom paramedics treated the girl at the scene on Asher Weiner street and transported her to hospital at Hadassah University Medical Center in the city, in moderate condition.
MDA said that the toddler was not fully conscious when they arrived at the scene but that her condition improved on the way to the hospital.
The girl, who was stabilized at the hospital, suffered a head injury.
The girl was riding in the back seat of her family's car with her two brothers when the attack occurred.
Following the attack, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called for increasing criminal sanctions on stone-throwers.
Barkat also visited the injured toddler in hospital and spoke with the victim's family.
"It must be made clear to everyone that a stone is a weapon for all intents and purposes and it must be viewed this way," Barkat said.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu related to the rock attack as well, pledging Thursday night that Israel would bring the assailants to justice.
"We will protect our city," he said.

Israel NEWS ( The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews will contribute $30 million to program )

The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews will contribute $30 million to program, close to 1/4 of budget.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Education Minister Shai Piron announce Schools of Summer program. Photo: Muki Shwartz

Children across the country will get a shorter summer vacation from school starting next year, according to a plan announced by the Ministry of Education together with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (ICFJ) on Thursday.

Under the plan, from July 1 to July 21, young people studying to become teachers and teachers who choose to, will take over the schools and conduct activities designed to awaken pupils’ creativity such as workshops for reading and writing, sessions on community involvement, environmental education, interactive learning as well as sports, among others. Activities will also revolve around learning about social values.

The initiative, entitled “Schools of Summer”, joins other efforts of Education Minister Shai Piron to ensure that the education system takes responsibility for pupils even when they are not at school. These include this past summer’s ‘Educators around the Clock’ program, a collaboration between the ministry, teachers, local authorities and NGOs which offered a range of activities for students to partake in during the summer.

Senior Vice President of the IFCJ Yael Eckstein told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the initiative, which she called “historic,” would help children but also parents across the country.

“The children we have helped and continue to help, often come from single parent households that earn the minimum wage,” she said, “Their mum works a double shift to put food on the table and she doesn’t have time to occupy them.”

Eckstein added that the new project will improve the everyday lives of these families during the summer months.

“I know they worry about this all year long,” she said. 

The Fellowship already begun tackling the issue this past summer by establishing summer camps in 50 different communities across the country for children from low-income families to enjoy during the break, close to NIS 16 million were spent on the project.

Eckstein also explained that in partnering with the state on projects such as the summer school, the Fellowship seeks to “enable the government to help more people”

“We don’t want to give funds on projects that would be happening either way,” she said, “The only way the Fellowship would partner with the government on projects is if the government needs extra funds in order to carry out the project.”

“We don’t want to take over the government’s responsibility, we want to fill the gaps,” she added, “My goal is to have projects here in Israel that no one else is doing and get to the people that no one else is getting to.”

The project aims to provide a solution for working parents who are struggling to find arrangements and improvise activities for their children during the summer months.

“This is not just a pilot program, it’s a revolution,” Education Minister Piron said on Thursday.

“Education includes every child everywhere, all year round,” he added, “The 'Schools of Summer' [plan] gives an appropriate and optimized solution to the needs of teachers, parents and pupils.”