3 September 2012

Stories from 3 September 2012

Morocco: Sexual Abuse to Cry Long Live the King

  3 September 2012

Once we got to the police station, they stripped us of all of our clothing and stuck hard objects into our anuses. They also ripped out our eyelashes, reports Nour Essalam Kartachi, in order to force us to cry, “long live the king.” reports Moroccan site Mamfakinch on the plight...

Bahrain: Leading Opposition Figures on Trial

  3 September 2012

Bahrain's High Court of Appeals is expected to announce its verdict in the case of 13 leading opposition figures accused of plotting to overthrow the regime tomorrow [September 4, 2012]. While international human rights organisations describes them as “prisoners of conscience,” Bahraini authorities and the local Press call them “terrorists” for their role in anti-government protests, which started in Bahrain on February 14, 2011.

Bahrain: “Our Women are Iron Women”

  3 September 2012

Bahraini Twitter users took a break from politics and had some fun this morning on the microblogging social network. Artist Anas Al Shaikh read a news article which said that an Iraqi woman had killed herself in protest against her husband watching dubbed Turkish soap operas. Bahraini women respond they will not do such a thing because ... they are iron women.

Azerbaijan: Nationalism, Extradition, and an Axe Murderer

  3 September 2012

Scary Azeri comments on the extradition to Azerbaijan of Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani soldier who murdered an Armenian counterpart on a NATO training course in Budapest, Hungary, with an axe. The blogger criticizes the presidential pardon and honoring of the killer in her native Azerbaijan while also abhorring the celebration...

El Salvador: A Homage for a Salvadoran Heroine

  3 September 2012

Blogger Mariposa in the blog Hunnapuh [es] writes about María Guardado (also known as “Lenchita”), a Salvadoran woman who was tortured in 1980, during the Salvadoran Civil War. Lenchita was recently diagnosed with colon cancer.

Germany: Improve Reporting on Disabled People

  3 September 2012

It ought to become something understood in the language that disabled people do things not in spite of or because of, but with their disabilities. During the Paralympics in London there have been more and more reports on “against-it-all people” or “supercripples” in the media. leidmedien.de explains how to get...

Tunisia: Racism on the Rise ?

  3 September 2012

Frederick Gore Djo Bi wrote [fr] on africavox.com about the rise of racism against black Africans in Tunisia. In his post, Bi  quotes a testimony of Fabien Siei, an Ivorian engineering student living in Tunisia since 2007 [fr]: Not a day goes by without a black African suffering from racial abuse....

Africa, Turkey: Turkish Citizens With African Roots

  3 September 2012

Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere writes on en.qantara.de: When asked about their self-definition, the large majority said they defined themselves primarily as Turks. Only a minority saw themselves as “Turkish citizens with African roots.” And the desire to be fully assimilated in society was more important than the maintenance of their identity.

Hong Kong: Students’ Patriotic Record

  3 September 2012

Although the Hong Kong government claimed that it is not mandatory for elementary schools to adopt national education in the next three years, a teacher exposed that the Hong Kong Education Bureau requires teachers to file record on students’ activities related with national education. More from the Dictionary of politically...

Angola: Brazilian firm's electoral advice to ruling party leaked

  3 September 2012

Club-K leaked a study conducted by Brazilian firm SENSUS in July [Pt] which significantly informed the ruling party's electoral strategy. It warns Angolans are dissatisfied with inequality with young people using Facebook and mobile to organize, and of the charisma of Abel Chivukuvuku (CASA-CE). It also suggested the best margin for...

Russia: Governors’ LiveJournals Ranked

RuNet Echo  3 September 2012

Writing in his own LiveJournal, Sergei Nikitskii (the director of Governors.Ru) ranked [ru] the LJ accounts of Russia's 13 blogging governors. Kirovskaia oblast Governor Nikita Belykh [ru], a former oppositionist politician, scored highest on the list. Andrei Turchak [ru], the Governor of Pskovskaia oblast, was ranked last, on the grounds that he's apparently abandoned his...