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Showing posts from March 19, 2017

MEN AND BOYS ARE VICTIMS OF SEXUAL TORTURE, TOO

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Something unusual happened on the first day of the public hearings being held by Tunisia’s national Truth and Dignity Commission. Sami Brahim came forward to give personal testimony of having survived sexual violence in prison during the Ben Ali regime. Mr. Brahim told the hundreds of Tunisians listening in the room, and thousands more following live on TV and the Internet, about his arrest as a student in the 1990s and his experience of abuse and torture while in jail: All the prisoners were stripped, the young and the elderly. For an entire week, everyone was kept naked. Why? What was our crime? What was our punishment? His  testimony  helped bring to light an issue considered too sensitive in most cultures to speak about, leaving countless victims in the shadows. It shows that sexual violence is not just a women’s issue that can be left to women’s rights advocates. It is an issue requiring broader attention and action, particularly given how universal it is in scope. As

Accusations of anti-Semitism taint French presidential race

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A day after his party was accused of painting a presidential campaign rival in an anti-Semitic light, conservative candidate François Fillon finally called for those responsible to be punished. Fillon’s  Les Républicains  party was accused of attacking the independent centrist  Emmanuel Macron  on anti-Semitic grounds on Friday, the same day a leftist rival drew an awkward parallel between Macron’s campaign and Nazi gas chambers. The two incidents are a watershed of poor taste in a remarkably tumultuous campaign. The lead-up to April 23’s first  presidential election  round has already been punctuated by the constant drumbeat of scandals affecting key players, namely  Fillon  and far-right leader  Marine Le Pen . On Friday, the conservative Les Républicains party tweeted a caricature that appeared to borrow heavily from anti-Semitic 1930s iconography depicting Macron encircled by allies. The former French economy minister was drawn with a long hooked nose and a top ha

"Heaven will wait": on the religious radicalization of young women

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Two teenage girls fall into the clutches of radical Islamists: A new French movie takes a look at the real threat of Islamist radicalization in Western societies.  One encounters these stories often in the daily media, in the news or in political magazines: a young woman or man, 17 or 18 years old, from a western European country, most often a middle class family, suddenly breaks away and turns to radical Islamists. Sometimes these young people have already left for Syria or Iraq. Sometimes they remain in their homeland and have been arrested by the authorities. Shocked and baffled parents are left behind to ponder how it ever happened. French director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar directly addresses this fraught subject in her fourth feature film, "Heaven will wait," which follows two young women as they become ensnared by IS and jihad. The path to jihad  The story begins with the character Melanie, who still lives at home with her mother Sylvie. The two get alo

Shi'ite Militias Could Turn Against US Forces After IS Leaves Mosul

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WASHINGTON —  As Iraqi forces come closer to expelling so-called Islamic State from Mosul, a Shi'ite militia aligned with Iran is threatening to turn against the U.S.-led coalition after the city is retaken. U.S. officials say there won't be a hasty withdrawal of more than 9,000 U.S. and coalition forces after Mosul's capture. And one of the aims is to stabilize a region outside Mosul where more than 25,000 troops, including paramilitary forces made up of Sunni tribal fighters and Shi'ite militiamen, have been clearing IS from villages. A leader of the grouping of 40 Shi'ite militia known as Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, or PMF, many linked to Iran, says they will not welcome U.S. forces. “If American forces refrain from leaving Iraqi territories after the annihilation of IS, the Islamic resistance of Iraq will target them,” Jafar al-Hosseini, a spokesman and a senior commander of the PMF, said in an interview with the Iranian official Islamic Repu

Analysis: Al Qaeda groups reorganize in West Africa

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On Mar. 2, a merger of al Qaeda groups in the Sahel was announced. The “Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims” (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) brings together four existing al Qaeda organizations under one banner. Ansar Dine, Al Murabitoon and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s (AQIM) Sahara branch are all part of the new entity. The Macina Liberation Front, an arm of Ansar Dine, is as well. Iyad Ag Ghaly, the longtime leader of Ansar Dine, heads the new joint venture. Ghaly, a Malian Tuareg jihadist, explained why the merger was necessary in a video that is more than seven minutes long. And he emphasized that his group is part of al Qaeda’s international network. “On this blessed occasion, we renew our pledge of allegiance [ bayat ] to our honorable emirs and sheikhs: Abu Musab Abdel Wadoud, our beloved and wise sheikh Ayman al Zawahiri and…the emir of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan Mullah Haibatullah, may Allah protect them and support them,” Ghaly said. Ghaly’