Free Republic

20 lashes for husband despite wife’s pardon Saudi court says wife could attend the flogging By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief Published: 09:46 September 12, 2013 Manama: A court in Al Qateef in eastern Saudi Arabia has sentenced a husband to 20 lashes after he allegedly hit his wife on her shoulder. The case was filed one month ago by the wife who presented a medical report supporting her claim. However, the husband, in his 30s, denied he meant to hurt his wife and said that he was merely joking with her, local Arabic daily Al Sharq reported on Thursday. Even...

I once lived in a harem in Afghanistan. I did not enter the kingdom as a diplomat, soldier, teacher, journalist or foreign aid worker. I came as a young Jewish bride of the son of one of the country’s wealthiest men. I was held in a type of captivity — but it’s not as if I had been kidnapped. I walked into it of my own free will. It is 1959. I am only 18 when my prince — a dark, older, handsome, westernized foreigner who had traveled abroad from his native home in Afghanistan — bedazzles me. We meet...

One of Britain's biggest colleges on Friday dropped a ban on Muslim face veils after thousands of people signed a petition against the rule. Birmingham Metropolitan College said on Facebook it would change its policy to allow "individuals to wear specific items of personal clothing to reflect their cultural values". The college had earlier said it would require "the removal of hoodies, hats, caps and veils so that faces are visible", a policy that won support from Prime Minister David Cameron. It would in effect have banned the niqab, a face veil worn by some Muslim women which covers everything...

Yemeni Child Bride, Eight, 'Dies On Wedding Night' Yemen locals claim a girl has died of internal bleeding after marrying a man five times her age, but official denies allegations An eight-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said, in a case that has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides. Arwa Othman, head of Yemen's House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl, identified only as Rawan, was married to a...

A girl of eight years old has died after suffering internal injuries on the night of her arranged marriage - to a man more than five times her age. The young girl, named only as Rawan, died in the tribal region of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan. According to Gulf News, she died after suffering a tear to her genitals and due to severe bleeding. There have been calls to arrest her family and husband, who was reportedly 40 years old, as activists demand an end to the practice of child marriages in the...

A dentist who offered to perform genital mutilation on two young girls in a sting by an undercover reporter has been struck off. Omar Sheikh Mohamed Addow, 56, is the first dentist to be struck off by the General Dental Council for the crime, which carries a maximum 14-year sentence in the UK. The council's Professional Conduct Committee found that Addow had also performed an inappropriate examination of the reporter's chest, abdomen and vagina at his surgery, which was illegal as he was not a doctor registered with the General Medical Council. ... When asked to perform FGM on the...

I don’t think there’s a more apt metaphor for what the UK is doing to itself with Islam than the story of Mr. Laurens Vallender. A former trained soldier swapped his Territorial Army beret for a veil and became Britain’s first transgender Muslim woman. Laurens Vallender now calls himself Lucy and says he is finally ‘true to herself’ after a sex change three years ago. He is now married to a Muslim man he met on an online dating site, but he did not know he was once a man when they wed. I just bet. Look at that face....

As head of state at the Vatican, not to mention the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, protocol requires visitors to bow to him when they meet him at the Holy See. But Francis, who has made the forgetting of formalities a trademark of his papacy, bowed when he met a smiling Rania as she visited the Vatican with her husband King Abdullah II on Thursday. "Up until the 19th century visitors would kiss the pope's shoes, and the tradition is still that all visitors, women included, bow to him, but Francis behaves as he did before he became...

The Pope has once again shown his willingness to break with tradition by bowing to Muslim royal Queen Rania of Jordan. As leader of the world's 1.2billion-strong Catholic community, protocol usually dictates that visitors bow to him when they meet him at the Vatican. But when Rania came to the Holy See with her husband King Abdullah II on Thursday, he inverted that formality by lowering his head to her. He made no discernible bow toward her husband, the king. The Jordanian royals were leaving following a private audience with the pope in his library. 'Francis behaves as he did...

A landmark new law passed by Saudi Arabia on Monday makes domestic abuse a crime in the country for the first time, with perpetrators facing up to a year in prison. Until now, violence in the home has been treated as a purely private matter. The law, passed by the country’s Council of Ministers, prohibits various kinds of physical, psychological and sexual abuse, both at home and in the workplace. Abusers will face a minimum jail term of one month, rising to a maximum of one year, or be fined between 5,000 and 50,000 riyals.

Princess Fawazia, the first wife of the Shah of Iran and a daughter and sister of Egyptian kings has died aged 92, a member of the former royal family has announced. Her death was reported on social media by her nephew King Fuad II, who was Egypt’s last king before he was deposed in 1953, when Egypt was declared a republic. “The royal family of Egypt announces to the nation that it is mourning the passing of Her Royal Highness Princess Fawzia Fuad, daughter of His Majesty King Fuad I and sister of His Majesty King Faruk I and aunt...

Muslims commit 91 percent of honor killings worldwide. A manual of Islamic law certified as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy by Al-Azhar University, the most respected authority in Sunni Islam, says that "retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right." However, "not subject to retaliation" is "a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring." ('Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2). In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law. The Palestinian Authority gives pardons or suspended sentences for honor murders. Iraqi...

The family of a 33-year-old Michigan woman says the FBI had confirmed that she was killed in fighting in Syria. She's identified as Nicole Lynn Mansfield of Flint. David Speelman of Flint says he is Mansfield's cousin. He told The Associated Press that FBI agents visited family members Thursday and informed them of her death.

This is a pretty horrific story that comes out of Afghanistan. The source for it is Mustafa Kazemi, an Indian war correspondent, who has been operating in Afghanistan since 2010 and has worked for AFP. Due to the horrific nature of the story, I am only excerpting a few parts of it. If you want to read the rest, you’ll have to follow the link. But keep in mind that child marriages like these are happening all the time, not just in Afghanistan, but increasingly even in Europe.

Complete Headline: Al Qaeda magazine found on laptop of bomber's widow: Suspicion over FBI Tsarnaev's wife grows after radical Islamist files found along with traces of explosive residue throughout her homeFederal officials investigating the Boston bombings have discovered radical Islamist materials on a computer belonging to the widow of the deceased suspect, it has been revealed. Katherine Russell, 24, has repeatedly claimed through her attorney that she knew nothing about the deadly April 15 bombings allegedly set off by her late husband, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar. However, the discovery of al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine on Russell’s computer,...

BOSTON (AP) — Every time the widow of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev leaves her parents' house, federal agents watching the residence follow her in unmarked vehicles. Federal authorities are placing intense pressure on what they know to be the inner circle of the two bombing suspects, arresting three college buddies of surviving brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and keeping Tamerlan's 24-year-old widow, Katherine Russell, in the public eye with their open surveillance and leaks to media about investigators' focus on her. Legal experts say it's part of their quest not just to determine whether Russell and the friends are culpable...

Female DNA on Boston Bomb NOT from Tsarnaev Widow (Has hospitalized Female Saudi been ruled out yet?) By Shoebat Foundation on May 3, 2013 in Blog, General Ok, so neither the fingerprints nor the female DNA found on one of the Boston marathon bombs belong to Katherine Russell-Tsarnaev, the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. With this news, we’d like to ask one simple question: Has the female Saudi national who was injured in the blast been ruled out as a suspect? Has her DNA been tested? There were two Saudi nationals hospitalized after the bombings – Abdulrahman Ali Al-Harbi and a...

Female DNA Found on Bomb in Boston Attack By EVAN PEREZ And DEVLIN BARRETT Investigators have found female DNA on at least one of the bombs used in the Boston Marathon attacks, though they haven't determined whose DNA it is or whether that means a woman helped the two suspects carry out the attacks, according to U.S. officials briefed on the probe. The officials familiar with the case cautioned that there could be multiple explanations for why the DNA of someone other than the two bombing suspects—Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar—could have been found on remnants of the...

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ex-girlfriend said he used to beat her if she wore Western clothing and tried hard to turn her against the United States. Nadine Ascencao, 24, said that in her three years of dating Tsarnaev, he tried to change her into an Islamic extremist, The Daily Mail reported. She said in the report that she was originally obsessed with him but that she had a “lucky escape.”

Title She cries when she sees video of her son dying': Agony of bombers' mother as FBI agents fly to Dagestan to quiz her The suspects' mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva appeared publicly outside her home for the first time on Tuesday in Dagestan Lawyer asked for the family to be left alone and said they were not ready to speak with anyone Incredible new images emerged on Tuesday which captured the dramatic gun battle between police and suspected Boston bombers The mother of the Boston bombing suspects watches the video of her dead son's mutilated body and cries, her lawyer revealed...