Following May of 2018, Saudi Arabia began arresting female activists who were fighting for equal rights after Saudi Arabia reversed the law that gave women the right to operate a vehicle. These women fought for equality prior to the vehicle law being passed and saw the overturn as a step back for women in Saudi Arabia. While Saudi Arabia has… Read more »
Thirty-six states at the UN Human Rights Council have criticised Saudi Arabia for detaining women’s rights activists, and demanded their release. The joint statement was the first collective rebuke of the Gulf kingdom since the council was set up in 2006. It reflects international concern at the detention of a number of activists in the past year and also at… Read more »
About 400 Islamic State militants have been captured trying to escape the last piece of land the group holds in Syria, a US-backed militia says. A Syrian Democratic Forces commander said the jihadists were caught overnight as they attempted to slip out of Baghuz with the help of smugglers. Hundreds of others have surrendered and been evacuated from the village… Read more »
Human rights lawyers have filed the first cases against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The lawsuits were submitted on behalf of 28 Syrian refugees in Jordan who say they were forced to flee the country. The legal teams are calling on the ICC to investigate possible crimes against humanity committed since Syria’s… Read more »
About 1,500 children are being detained by federal and Kurdish authorities in Iraq for alleged links to the Islamic State group, Human Rights Watch says. A new report says the children are often arbitrarily arrested and tortured to force confessions. HRW urges the federal and Kurdistan Region’s governments to amend anti-terrorism laws to end such detentions, saying they violate international… Read more »
On Sunday, February 24, the overseer of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab, was detained after several protests near the mosque. Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to Al-Aqsa, a mosque within Jerusalem. This journey is one of the most significant events in the Islamic calendar; however, when Israeli Jews gained control of… Read more »
US-backed fighters have said they are keeping a corridor open to rescue remaining civilians from the last sliver of territory held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Syria, as the UN appeals for urgent assistance. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have evacuated nearly 5,000 men, women and children from the holdout in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz since Wednesday, bringing the US-backed SDF… Read more »
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi after the recent execution of nine people in Egypt, saying he refused to talk to “someone like him”. “They killed nine young people recently. This is not something we can accept,” Erdogan said on Saturday in an interview with Turkish TV channels CNN-Turk and Kanal D, referring to the execution on Wednesday… Read more »
Israeli police briefly detained the head of the Islamic authority that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem early on Sunday following recent protests there. Sheikh Abdelazeem Salhab was appointed to head the Waqf by neighbouring Jordan, which strongly protested the arrest. Jordan’s minister of Islamic affairs, Abdul Nasser Abul al-Basal, said the Israeli action was “dangerous and an unacceptable escalation” that… Read more »
At least 20 people have been killed in Syria when a landmine planted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) exploded under a van carrying farm workers, state-run SANA news agency reported. The blast took place near the central town of Salamiyeh in Hama province on Sunday morning, SANA said, and was caused by explosives left behind… Read more »