25 Mar 2013 | Tunisia
A 19-year-old Tunisian women’s rights activist, known only as Amina, has come under fire for posting a topless photograph of herself online. Amina is a member of FEMEN, a Ukranian radical feminist group notorious for their topless protests. Weeks ago, Amina uploaded a picture of herself to a website she started for the group in Tunisia, with ”My Body is My Own and Not the Source of Anyone’s Honor” written across her bare chest.
Late last week, the Paris-based head of the group, Inna Shevchenko, claimed that Amina had been committed to a psychiatric ward by her family members. Shevchenko told the Atlantic that she last heard from Amina on 18 March. Her disappearance came after a 16 March appearance on Tunisian talkshow Labes to talk about her controversial photographs. However, her lawyer Bouchra Bel Haj Hmida, told Tunisia live that she is not missing, and denied allegations that Amina has been sent to a psychiatric facility.
While no legal charges have been brought against Amina, Salafi preacher Adel Almi said days before her disappearance that she should be punished with 80-100 lashes, and called for her to be stoned to death. According to Bel Haj Hmida, Amina could face up to six months of jail-time if charged with public indecency.
Women from across the globe have posted photographs of themselves topless online, with messages of support for Amina scrawled across their bodies. A petition for her release has now garnered over 84,000 signatures.
Secular activist Maryam Namazie has called for 4 April to be declared International Day to Defend Amina, in order to “remind the Islamists and the world that the real epidemic and disaster that must be challenged is misogyny — Islamic or otherwise.”
Sara Yasin is an Editorial Assistant at Index. She tweets from @missyasin
10 Apr 2012 | Index Index, minipost
A woman has been sentenced to 50 lashes for swearing at her friend in a text message in Saudi Arabia. Following an argument between two women, aged 33 and 31, about where to go on an evening over the weekend, the two women went their separate ways. Some time later, one of the women sent a text message including a swear word. The recipient went to court and showed the text message to a judge. Although the woman said she was joking when she sent the message, she was sentenced to be lashed 50 times.
15 Aug 2011 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Omani officials are threatening to shut down Al-Zaman, an independent newspaper, after it published allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Justice. Youssef al-Haj was interrogated for writing the articles questioning the Ministry’s decision to prevent Haroun al-Mukbeeli, a long-time civil servant, from appealing a refusal to provide him with an increase in salary and grade. He was eventually ordered to stop any protest of the decision. Following the release of the article, officials banned Al-Haj from writing, and he could potentially serve time in prison. The editor-in-chief of the paper, Ibrahim al-Ma’mari, was also interrogated by officials.
14 Jun 2011 | Index Index, Middle East and North Africa, minipost
Twenty-year-old student, Ayat al-Gormezi, who recited poems critical of Bahrain’s rulers at a Shia-led protest in Pearl Square has been sentenced to a year in prison. In the lead up to her trial she claimed that she was beaten in prison and she has now been convicted of charges which include inciting hatred. One verse of the poem, addressed directly to King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, read: “We are the people who will kill humiliation and assassinate misery. Don’t you hear their cries?” According to her mother, Sada al-Qurmezi, an appeal is planned.
