Iran - U.S female Chess Master faces arrest (refuses to wear hijab )

This is what standing up for women’s rights looks like.

Iran is set to host the world chess championship, but now the U.S. women’s champion and others are accusing chess tournament officials of not standing up for women’s rights because it has allowed Iran to rule that all female contestants must wear the oppressive Muslim headscarf during their stay in the Muslim country.

Worse, Iran has said that female chess grandmasters who refuse to wear the hijab while in Iran will face arrest!

Wearing the headscarves has been strictly enforced by the “morality police” since 1979.  Refusal to do so can result in public reprimands, arrests or fines, the Mail reported.

Fide, the nickname of the World Chess Federation, is now being accused of bowing to pressure from the terrorist exporting nation and not standing up for its female players.

In particular, the U.S. women’s champion, Nazi Paikidze, is attacking Fide as weak-willed.

 

“It is absolutely unacceptable to host one of the most important women’s tournaments in a venue where, to this day, women are forced to cover up with a hijab,” Paikidze said according to the Daily Mail.

“I understand and respect cultural differences,” she added. “But, failing to comply can lead to imprisonment and women’s rights are being severely restricted in general. It does not feel safe for women from around the world to play here.”

“If the situation remains unchanged, I will most certainly not participate in this event,” the U.S. female champ concluded.

U.S. Women’s Champion Nazi Paikidze

Paikidz isn’t the only chess champ from the west who is balking at Iran’s demands. Former Pan American champion Carla Heredia, from Ecuador, also criticized the tournament.

“No institution, no government, nor a Women’s World Chess Championship should force women to wear or to take out a hijab,” Heredia said. She then added, “This violates all what sports means. Sport should be free of discrimination by sex, religion and sexual orientation.”

Others agreed and a group of the female champions have demanded that Fide address the issue. So far, though, the chess organization has timidly refused to even comment and there has yet been no action on the accusations against it.

 

Iran - 16 years in prison for Human Rights activist

Iran: Amnesty International react to “shameful” 16-year-sentence for human rights defender Narges Mohammadi

 Thursday, 29 September 2016 22:05

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NCRI - Amnesty International havehighlighted the recent news that the 16-year prison sentence against Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi, who is critically ill, has been upheld by the Iranian regime’s appeal court.

Their Research and Advocacy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Philip Luther, said: “This verdict is yet another cruel and devastating blow to human rights in Iran, which demonstrates the authorities’ utter contempt for justice. Narges Mohammadi is a prominent advocate of human rights and a prisoner of conscience. She should be lauded for her courage not locked in a prison cell for 16 years.” 

He added that it is “harsh” and “appalling” that this sentence has been given for human rights work that has been carried out peacefully. He said it is clear that the authorities have “laid bare their intent to silence human rights defenders at all costs”. 

Luther said that this sentence is even more shocking because it comes at a time when Iran’s regime is preparing for renewed bilateral dialogue with the EU, and “given that Narges Mohammadi was convicted for her work campaigning against the death penalty and meeting with the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs”. He said that this sentencing raises many doubts about Tehran’s commitment to dealing with the EU over human rights issues. 

“Narges Mohammadi’s conviction and sentence must be quashed and the authorities must order her immediate and unconditional release. We urge the EU to make these calls, too, and put the heightened repression of human rights defenders in Iran at the heart of their dialogue.”

Trump Campaign Plans to Attack Clinton with Her Husband’s Romantic Scandals

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is ready to attack his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, using the infidelities of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, according to lists of talking points prepared for the mogul’s surrogates and obtained by CNN.

In the documents, the idea is developed that Trump “has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton’s accusers.”

The Democratic campaign did not delay in reacting and on Thursday said in a statement that “as many Republicans have warned, this is a mistake that is going to backfire.”

“After his disastrous debate performance and his sexist attack on a former Miss Universe over her weight, Donald Trump is now trying to deflect by going after Hillary Clinton about her marriage,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said on Thursday in a statement.

The mogul admitted on Tuesday in an interview with the Fox cable network that during Monday’s debate he was on the verge of attacking Clinton with her husband’s scandal, but he said “I really eased up because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”

He said he decided not to bring up former President Clinton’s infidelities because their daughter Chelsea was in the audience, and he added that he thought he did the right thing.

What almost motivated Trump to air the Clintons’ dirty laundry yet again was the former secretary of state’s criticism of him for his insults of women, which she highlighted by noting his offensive remarks concerning former Venezuelan Miss Universe Alicia Machado, now a U.S. citizen, who won the 1996 pageant, which the magnate directed at the time.

Trump’s son Eric on Wednesday said on Sean Hannity’s radio show that Bill Clinton had been possibly the worst sexist ever, according to Buzzfeed.

“It’s amazing when you hear her talk about sexism and these various claims, which are ridiculous, aside from obviously Bill, her husband, being maybe the worst that’s ever lived,” the younger Trump said.

It remains to be seen whether Trump, under pressure because it is widely considered – and recent voter surveys show – that he lost the first debate and Clinton has gained several points, resorts to using the former president’s romantic escapades to attack his rival.

For the moment, though, Trump has simply issued a warning that he might “hit her harder” in the next presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 9.

Students Holding Police Chief Hostage in Western Mexico

MEXICO CITY – Teaching students in western Mexico’s Michoacan state are holding a police chief hostage, demanding the release of arrested fellow students, authorities said Wednesday.

On Tuesday afternoon, in the indigenous village of Carapan, teaching students took Chilchota municipality police chief Alfredo Lucio Rios Chavez hostage after he approached them as they were setting fire to three vehicles – a passenger bus, a tractor trailer and a pickup truck – and having a confrontation with security forces.

Rios approached the angry students to “try to calm the kids down and they grabbed him as a hostage and took him away,” Chilchota Mayor Mario Silva told Radio Formula.

Earlier on Tuesday, security forces had arrested 49 of the students, who study at the Indigenous Normal School for teacher-trainees in the town of Cheran.

The students have been protesting and stealing vehicles – reportedly more than 100 over the past three months, and burning some of them – to demand automatic job placement upon graduation.

On Tuesday, the students took Rios to the community of Tacuro and then to Turicuaro, where they are currently holding him and where they have their “base” of operations.

The mayor said that he has had no direct communication with the students, but they are speaking directly to the Michoacan Interior Secretariat.

“During the course of the day, we’re going to see about the possibility that our director can be released,” said Silva, citing information he had been given by the state authorities.

In addition, the mayor said that the students had “attacked” Rios and “beat him up a little,” although he was not seriously hurt.

The vehicles the students burned on Tuesday come after they had burned three others – a truck, a pickup truck and a private car – in their protests in the town of Paracho to demand the release of their classmates

Bus driver blocks entry for woman in burqa

The driver of a public bus in Vitoria on Thursday refused to allow a woman on board because she was wearing a Muslim veil which covered her face, the latest flare up in the Basque city over tolerance of Islamic customs.

The driver for the city’s Tuvisa transport service who took decided not to allow the women in a veil that to board his bus has now organised a petition among company colleagues and passengers in a bid to gain support for his stance, according to sources cited by Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Tuvisa has opened an investigation into the incident, while the municipal company’s president has called a meeting with politicians from the city council to inform them of what the ABC newspaper says is the latest in a series of flashpoints relating to rules for the city’s Muslims.   

In the summer, Mayor Javier Maroto of the conservative Popular Party imposed rules to prevent women from bathing in public swimming pools wearing Muslim outfits or if they were dressed in ordinary clothing and not just swimming costumes. "The rules at public swimming pools are the same for everyone," the mayor said in June.

"Swimming dressed in all of your clothes and the veil is intolerable."

Maroto is the leading figure behind a PP campaign in the Basque Country to change regional rules governing which families should receive minimum income allowances. The party’s proposal lists requisites such as having been registered as a resident in the region for 10 years and having paid into the social security system, proposals seen by some as discriminatory against immigrants.

The local leader of the Spanish anti-racism organisation SOS Racismo, Fede García, has accused Maroto of "xenophobic opportunism", adding that most immigrants have worked and paid their contributions before, in some cases, finding themselves out of work like millions of Spaniards. “When their subsidies run out, what are they supposed to do? Pack their bags and leave?”

Last year the PP-run city council in Vitoria toughened up laws on commercial premises, a move which led to 45 internet cafés, Chinese-run bargain shops and kebab restaurants receiving sanctions for hygiene problems or failure to have the correct licenses.  

In September, Spain's interior minister said the country could look at a ban on burqas as part of a packet of planned new security reforms.

Pregnant woman in niqab attacked by two men in Spain

Two football hooligans have been detained for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman wearing a niqab in Barcelona, police said on Thursday, as anti-Islam hate crimes soar in Spain

The woman, who is eight months pregnant, was walking through the centre of the seaside city last week with her husband and two children, and was rebuked by the two ultras because she was wearing the Islamic veil, police said in a statement.

Her husband reacted and was assaulted by the pair, who have not been named but are said by police to have links to the far-right Brigadas Blanquiazules group, which supports the Espanyol football team in Barcelona.   

The club banned members of this group from entering its stadium in 2010.    

The woman tried to intervene and one of the ultras kicked her in the stomach, police said, adding the two were subsequently detained and have since been accused of hate crime, discrimination and personal injury.

Hospital checks found no damage to either the woman - who has not been named - or her baby, police said.

The assault comes with anti-Islam hate crimes on the rise in Spain.    

In April, Mounir Benjelloun, head of the Spanish Federation of Islamic Religious Entities, told AFP 534 anti-Islam incidents were reported in Spain last year, a more than tenfold jump from 2014.

He said these acts of violence increased whenever there was a high-profile extremist incident elsewhere, such as the January 2015 attack against satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, police and a kosher supermarket in Paris.  

"We're talking about this case because it has come out into the open," Benjelloun told AFP Thursday.

"But there are incidents in Spain every day."

Baby dies after midwife denies woman's request for c-section

baby died at a Swedish hospital after six failed attempts at vaginal birth before an emergency caesarean section was carried out

The woman arrived at Uppsala University hospital in March this year to give birth to her fourth child. But complications arose during the final stages of labour when the baby would not come out.

Despite the woman's repeated requests for a caesarian section, the midwife engaged in six failed attempts to deliver the baby vaginally, including using a vacuum extractor.

An emergency operation was eventually performed, but the baby had by then been without oxygen for several minutes.

It died days later, according to a report filed to the Health and Social Care Inspectorate by the hospital itself in accordance with Sweden's patient safety laws.

In its report, obtained by Upsala Nya Tidning, the hospital wrote that the midwife had failed to immediately contact a physician after it was discovered that medical equipment in the room did not function properly.

The woman's husband reported the incident to the Inspectorate earlier this year, writing: "It was chaos, the equipment did not work and there was hardly any communication between staff."