Make Way for the New Neighbors – Arabs Forced to “Host” Israeli Settlers

A divided house, and divided lives, in Jerusalem

Luke Baker (Reuters)

If they look out of their windows, Fawzia al-Kurd and Bryna Segal share the same view from the same house across the rooftops of East Jerusalem.

But that’s where their shared vision ends.

Kurd, a 54-year-old Palestinian, raised her five children in the house, which sits half-way up a hill in Sheikh Jarrah, one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Arab East Jerusalem.

Segal, a 25-year-old Jewish settler born in Israel to parents from New York, moved in nearly four months ago…

Moved in = Took over a portion Fawzia al-Kurd’s house as a “settler”. Oh, and the rent paid by the “settlers” does not go to al-Kurd. And Segal wonders why al-Kurd seems a little standoffish. @@

Cruise Control in Iran: Status, Money and ‘Flash’ Cars

Driving passion, Iran style

Young Iranians are speed-dating in cars to find love – and escape the militia…

Nargess Shahmanesh-Banks (Independent)

This whole process sounds very shallow and materialistic. And, for those without looks, money or a nice car, I’m sure this whole display is quite depressing.

Afghan Women Still Facing Abuse, Discrimination (Not to Mention Hunger, Grinding Poverty and Life in a War Zone)

No ‘real change’ for Afghan women(BBC News)

An international women’s rights group says guarantees given to Afghan women after the fall of the Taleban in 2001 have not translated into real change.

Womankind Worldwide says millions of Afghan women and girls continue to face systematic discrimination and violence in their households and communities…

Until basic rights are granted to Afghan women in practice as well as on paper … it could not be said that the status of Afghan women had changed significantly in the past five years.

Malnourishment and Starvation Continue Unabated Despite Pledges

World ‘failing on hunger pledges’

(BBC News)

Little progress has been made in tackling world hunger despite pledges by leaders to halve the number who are underfed, the UN’s food agency says…

…The promise to cut by 50% the number of underfed people by 2015 was made at the World Food Summit (WFS) in Rome in 1996…

…”Far from decreasing, the number of hungry people in the world is currently increasing – at the rate of four million a year,” said Mr Diouf, speaking at the launch of the annual State of Food Insecurity in the World report.

See also: The State of Food Insecurity in the World (2006)

Another Saudi Woman Busted for DWF (Driving While Female)

Saudi woman gets traffic fine despite driving ban

(Reuters via Yahoo)

Just because women are banned from driving in Saudi Arabia, it doesn’t stop police fining a woman for not carrying a driving license.

The Shams newspaper said police insisted the 300-riyal ($80) fine imposed on Dalal Chewish had to be paid before her passport could be renewed…

Charitable Donations: Muslims Fear Ending Up on Government ‘Watch’ List

Fears of Inquiry Dampen Giving by U.S. MuslimsNEIL MacFARQUHAR (NY Times)

…Fearful that donations to an Islamic charity could bring unwanted attention from federal agents looking into potential ties to terrorism, many Muslim Americans have become reluctant to donate to Islamic causes, including charities…

Mahar Arar’s Ordeal: Turned Over to Syria For Torture by the US

The Horrors of Extraordinary Rendition

Maher Arar (Information Clearinghouse via Counterpunch)

Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who is barred from entering the United States, delivered his acceptance speech for the Letelier-Moffitt International Human Rights Award in a pre-recorded videotape. This is a transcript of his speech, which was viewed at the award ceremony hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies on Oct. 18, 2006 in Washington, DC…

Support for Hizballah is Strong in Lebanon. Support for USA? Not So Much…

Hizballah enjoys following

Niraj Warikoo (Detroit Free Press)

Wrapped in a hijab and wide sunglasses, the Lebanese woman walked up to the Hizballah leader and asked him: Can you help me find my dead child?

In July, Aliah Amrouh’s 26-year-old pregnant daughter was killed after a bomb struck her apartment in Dahiya, a southern suburb of Beirut. But in early October, her body hadn’t been found.

The Hizballah official, Mohammed Berjawi, reassured her that his group is working hard to find her and other dead bodies lost in the rubble after a 34-day conflict with Israel. Amrouh walked away satisfied.

I’m “proud of this organization,” Amrouh said after talking with the Hizballah leader. And she said she’s not the only one…

Hizballah has given $12,000 to everyone who lost a home during the conflict, Berjawi said. The group also has paid rent for families displaced by the fighting…

Forced Child Labor in Africa: “Remove the fish faster, or I will cane you.”

Africa’s World of Forced Labor, in a 6-Year-Old’s Eyes

Sharon LaFraniere (NY Times)

… Mark Kwadwo is 6 years old. About 30 pounds, dressed in a pair of blue and red underpants and a Little Mermaid T-shirt, he looks more like an oversized toddler than a boat hand. He is too little to understand why he has wound up in this fishing village, a two-day trek from his home.

But the three older boys who work with him know why. Like Mark, they are indentured servants, leased by their parents to Mr. Takyi for as little as $20 a year.

Until their servitude ends in three or four years, they are as trapped as the fish in their nets, forced to work up to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, in a trade that even adult fishermen here call punishing and, at times, dangerous…

War Chips Away at the Corners of Iraqi Womens’ Lives

Iraqis See the Little Things Fade Away in War’s Gloom

SABRINA TAVERNISE (NY Times)
The things the women missed were almost too small to notice at first.

Simple numbers and dates began to elude their memories. They were hugging their children less. Past pleasures, eating and listening to music, began to feel flat. They were shouting at their husbands like army commanders.

Small as they seemed, these scraps of life were the effects of the war as discussed by four Iraqi women on a cloudy Saturday afternoon in a women’s center in Baghdad.

Their stories began with a familiar theme: the shrinking lives of middle-class families in the capital. Social clubs have emptied out. Weddings have been sparsely attended. But as the circle has become smaller, and as they focus intensely on just staying alive, they said, even the basics are being stripped away…

Evidence Justifying Iraq War Was Gained by Torture in Egyptian Prison

Confession that formed base of Iraq war was acquired under torture: journalist

(Agence France Presse via Yahoo)

An Al-Qaeda terror suspect captured by the United States, who gave evidence of links between Iraq and the terror network, confessed after being tortured, a journalist told the BBC…

…[Iban al Shakh al] Libby … was tortured in an Egyptian prison, according to Stephen Grey, the author of the newly-released book “Ghost Plane” who investigated the secret US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prisons that housed terror suspects around the world.

Alia Ansari Laid to Rest

In solidarity, hundreds mourn Fremont mother shot to death

See also:

Victim’s family urged to refuse outside comfort

Lisa Fernandez (Mercury News)

Mixed Eid Prayer Brouhaha

Mixed Eid Prayers Invalid: Scholars

(IslamOnline.net)

The shoulder-to-shoulder prayers of men and women during Eid are invalid, Egyptian Muslim scholars have said.

“Men-women mixture during the Eid prayers (as shown on TV screens during the prayer of Eid Al-Fitr in Egypt Tuesday, October 24) is unlawful and apprehensible,” Abdel-Fatah el-Sheikh, former dean of Al-Azhar University, told the independent daily Al-Masri Al-Yom Friday, October 27.

He said women should be performing prayers behind men’s lines.

But the prayers would be invalid if women stood shoulder-to-shoulder with men,” he underlined…

Errrrrrrrmmm… the “mixed” prayers referred to in this case were a side effect of overcrowding. To me, these scholars are simply being close minded and annoying. But, to the people whose prayers they’re claiming are invalid, I’m sure this “news” is distressing.

I notice that these scholars are insisting that women must be behind the men during prayers. I know that there are masjids where men are on one side and women on another, perhaps separated by a curtain or low barrier and perhaps not. So are all the prayers in these masjids invalid also?

Tweak Guide for Firefox 2.0

For those of you who have downloaded Firefox 2.0 and want to customize it:

The Tweak Guide for Firefox 2.0.

[For advanced (or adventurous) users, the About:Config options start here.]

(I miss my colored tabs extension. I’m hoping it gets updated for 2.0 soon…)

The public and the private in Iran – and what do we tell the kids?

Raising a Child in Iran’s Cultural Divide

Azadeh Moaveni (Time Magazine)

Coping with the gulf between Iranian private and public life is a difficult skill even for adults to manage. So what should we teach our children?…

Coping with the gulf between Iranian private and public life is an intricate skill that even adults here manage with varying degrees of success. Wearing masks or lying when required, all while keeping your core identity intact, is the daily business of adults who live in authoritarian societies. But how on earth do you teach children these skills? Is it possible, even, to raise an open-minded, healthy child in a culture that is fundamentalist and anarchic?