Human Rights Not Akin to Legal Rights. [India] Human rights 'is a practice' and not akin to legal rights, contended Nobel laureate Amartya Sen Saturday. Describing human rights as 'an enormously powerful canvas', the well- known economist said two 'distinctions' needed to be made about it which 'have caused an enormous problem by not recognising them'. Sen, speaking after the release of his latest book 'Capabilities, Freedom and Equality' during a 'conversation' with Chicago University economist Martha Nussbaum, elaborated on the 'distinctions'. 'One is that the claim to human rights is not a claim to a legal right from which flows a certain obligation of the state. 'Secondly, rights are the child of the law. Without a legal right you cannot have any entitlement to rights,' he added.

Attack on Women's Peaceful Gathering in Tehran. [Iran] The gathering of hundreds of women in Tehran to mark the International Women's Day was brutally attacked by security forces on Wednesday, March 8. A unique video clip from this barbaric act against a peaceful gathering has been provided to the Iranian Resistance. The attached clip here shows clearly how women were attacked and beaten up by truncheons and forced to disperse.

Sporting Chance for Women. [Iran] Women in Iran are to be allowed to attend major sporting events, ending a ban that has held since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the lifting of the ban would "promote chastity" among all Iranians. Women must have a chance to watch all sporting events, he said, and must be given the best seats in the house. The move was welcomed by women's rights campaigners, who have long protested against their banishment from stadiums. Speaking on state-run television, Mr Ahmadinejad said he had ordered the head of Iran's Physical Education Committee to make sure women were adequately catered for during Iran's major sporting occasions. "The presence of women and families in public places promotes chastity," he said. "The best stands should be allocated to women and families in the stadiums in which national and important matches are being held."

NGO Warns of Rise in Violence Against Women. [Iraq] A Baghdad-based NGO called the Woman Freedom Organisation (WFO) has warned that incidents of violence against women have increased in frequency since the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation of the country. "We've studied reports from local NGOs on women's rights in the past three years, including violence, kidnappings, forced prostitution and honour killings," said WFO President Senar Muhammad. "And the extent to which women have lost their rights in Iraq is shocking." According to the study, released on 9 March, the most worrying trend was the large number of kidnappings of women, many of whom reported being sexually abused or tortured. While such occurrences were largely unknown during the Saddam Hussein regime, more than 2,000 women have been kidnapped in Iraq since April 2003, the report noted. "Money has become more important than lives, and kidnapping women – easy targets because of their weakness – is a quicker way to get a good ransom," said Muhammad. The report also noted that many Iraqi Women were also being sold as sex workers abroad, mainly to the illicit markets of Yemen, Syria, Jordan and the Gulf States. Victims usually discover their fate only after they have been lured outside the country by false promises.

Women Were More Respected Under Saddam. [Iraq] According to the findings of a recent survey by local rights NGOs, women were treated better during the Saddam Hussein era – and their rights were more respected – than they are now.  "We interviewed women in the country and met with local NGOs dealing with gender issues to develop this survey, which asked questions about the quality of women's life and respect for their rights," said Senar Muhammad, president of Baghdad-based NGO Woman Freedom Organisation. "The results show that women are less respected now than they were under the previous regime, while their freedom has been curtailed." According to the survey, women's basic rights under the Hussein regime were guaranteed in the constitution and – more importantly – respected, with women often occupying important government positions. Now, although their rights are still enshrined in the national constitution, activists complain that, in practice, they have lost almost all of their rights. Women's groups point to the new government, many members of which take a conservative view when it comes to the role of women. "When we tell the government we need more representation in parliament, they respond by telling us that, if well-qualified women appear one day, they won't be turned down," said Senar. "Then they laugh at us."

No Day is a Woman's Day. [Iraq] - "There is chaos in Iraq now, and there is danger everywhere," 27-year-old Nora Ahmed told IPS. The situation has gone "from bad to worse, and only when the occupation ends, women in Iraq will be in a better situation," said Fatima al-Naddaf. The women seemed to speak for many others. Militias and criminals alike have been accused of targeting women in the absence of the authority of a central government. Fatima al-Naddaf from Women's Will, an advocacy organisation in Baghdad, works to highlight the difficulties faced by women in Iraq. "Before, Iraq was under sanctions, but at least it was a free country, not occupied," she told IPS. "Iraq is bleeding now from the occupation." Women's Will has been working on women's issues and also on detention of men. Mass detentions of Iraqi men are endangering women, and their children, she says. Women's Will is working particularly on the issue of women detained in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. The Iraqi government and the occupation have repeatedly shown a disregard for due process and adequate evidence before making detentions. "The most dangerous issue facing the Iraqi women is that some of them are being arrested under occupation," said al-Naddaf. "Until now there are still many Iraqi women in the Abu Ghraib jail." Women are looking to the closure of Abu Ghraib jail and continued steps towards solidifying an Iraqi government as a step to establishing security for women. International Women's Day passed unnoticed in Iraq this year but Baghdad resident Jinan Jabbar believes she will be able to celebrate it in the future. "Women in Iraq want the occupation forces to go back home," she said. "They want to make a new and strong government in Iraq. Then we can celebrate the 8th of March." The Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq released a statement Mar. 8 that said, "Crimes of the occupation are the major threat to Iraqi women's rights. Before, women could go to work and study safely, today they are exposed to many threats such as kidnappings, murder and rape."

Women Lose Out in Their First Election. [Kuwait] A former police officer won Tuesday's local by-election in Kuwait, dashing the hopes of women who voted and ran for office for the first time in the Gulf Arab state. Official results released on Wednesday showed ex-lieutenant colonel Yousef al-Suwaileh got the final seat in the Municipal Council, beating seven other candidates including two women. The other 15 council members were elected or appointed last year. Last May, parliament passed a government-sponsored bill granting suffrage to women who have fought for political rights for more than four decades. The United States has also urged Middle Eastern states to reform their political systems. "The outcome won't depress us," women's rights activist and writer Laila al-Othman told Reuters. "We're full of hope, ambition and determination for women to have a role... this is the first political experience for women and it's a harbinger of good things to come." One of the female candidates, Khaledah al-Khadher, blamed low turnout among women for the result. State news agency KUNA put turnout at 38 percent and newspapers said random polls showed many women had backed male candidates. "In the end, this is a great day for women after 40 years of struggle," Khadher said. The 48-year-old doctor and mother of eight secured about 80 votes, compared to Suwaileh's 5,436. Kuwaitis voted in municipal polls in June but women could not take part because the suffrage bill was delayed in parliament by conservative Islamist and tribal MPs' opposition.

Lack of Protection for Women's Rights Fuels Sex Trade. [Lebanon] One of the last things that Rima (not her real name), a 31-year-old commercial sex worker, said to the staff at Beirut-based NGO Dar al-Amal was that she wanted to be buried with her mother. Three days later, a drug addict shot her six times in the shabby room in which she lived and worked in the Sabra refugee camp on the city's outskirts, according to Dar al-Amal staff. The women she had been talking to identified her body and buried her the following evening. The murderer's motive remains unknown. According to social worker Rania Mansour, who manages the Arab world's only centre devoted to working with and rehabilitating sex workers, Rima, a Turkish Kurd, was an orphan who had been rejected by her relatives as a child. Violence, powerlessness and social marginalisation are common themes in the stories of the roughly 50 current and former sex workers who are now seeking help at Dar al-Amal, which means "House of Hope". The centre provides moral support, medical services, literacy courses and legal advice. Most of the women, some of whom started working in the illegal sex trade when they were only 11 years old, are Lebanese. Others are Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian and North African. Sex work the only option.

NWFP to Enact Law on Violence Against Women. [Pakistan] “Small actions can make big changes,” said Kashif Azam Chishti, minister for population welfare and women’s development, North West Frontier Province of Pakistan adding that the government had taken steps to enact a law on violence against women. The minister, who is in Colombo to attend the three-day Change Makers Assembly of the We Can campaign that concluded today, said that the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government has taken steps to introduce a bill in the Provincial assembly on violence against women. “We have laws against domestic violence, but this will be on violence against women. We will soon pass the bill in the provincial assembly and send it to the national assembly. God willing it will be changed into a national law once it is passed by the national assembly,” Mr. Chishti said “In our province we are supporting such campaigns,” said Mr. Chishti. “The motto of our government is to make women healthy and educated in the coming five years.”

Tired of Male Domination, 5 Women Change Sex. [Saudi Arabia] Tired of playing second fiddle to men in conservative Saudi Arabia, five women decided if you can't beat them, join them. Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a "psychological complex" due to male domination. Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative. The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations. An interior ministry official told al Watan such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but those who undergo sex change are never arrested.

One-Quarter of Wives Suffer Abuse. [Syria] Syria's first comprehensive study of violence against women has concluded that nearly one married woman in four surveyed had been beaten. The study was released last week as part of a report on Syria by the United Nations Development Fund for Women. The findings have been published in local news media, helping to draw attention to topics, like domestic abuse and honor killings, that have long been considered taboo in Syria's conservative society. The study was carried out under the supervision of the quasi-governmental General Union of Women, which oversees the welfare of Syrian women. The study included nearly 1,900 families, selected as a random sample, including a broad range of income levels and all regions. The men and women in each family were questioned separately. "In Syria there was simply no data on violence against women; formal studies hadn't ever been done before," said Shirin Shukri, a manager of the project at the UN regional office in Amman, Jordan. "The issue of violence against women was kept silent here for many years," Shukri said. "But we're making people in Syria aware that this is something that happens everywhere in Europe, in Asia, in the United States, and this is opening up discussion."