EU-US relations: US faith-based conservative EU lobbyists billionaires funding EU culture war - by Michael Bird and Blaz Zgaga

The number of faith-based conservative EU lobbyists in Brussels is growing and the Roman Catholic Church is itself a big spender.

But US billionaires, some of whom are friends of American president Donald Trump, are also paying anti-abortion groups in Europe tens of millions of dollars to influence policy and law.

The US groups have not scored any big wins yet.

But they are acting in concert and they are just getting started, European MPs who work on sexual and reproductive health have warned.

And the culture war is broader, with women's rights, LGBTI rights, embryonic research, and euthanasia also involved in the clash of values.

Some 21 religious think-tanks, NGOs, and other entities currently spend €2.1m to €3.1m a year lobbying the European Parliament and European Commission on these fronts, according to the EU transparency register. 

Read more: US billionaires funding EU culture war

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Saudi Arabia: Two dual US - Saudi citizens and ten Saudi citizen supportive of women's rights arrested

Saudi Arabia arrests 12 supportive of women's rights, including 2 dual U.S.-Saudi citizens

Read more at: 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/saudi-women-rights-arrests-us-1.5086928

Saudi Arabia himan right - democracy: Saudi women get the right to drive — but what about everything else?

Rights advocates say that while welcome, the innovations hailed around the world as signs that the absolute monarchy had entered the 21st century are only scratching the surface.

“All the changes that we are hearing about are economic and entertainment changes," said Nasreen Alissa, a Saudi lawyer who created the Know Your Rights app to help women navigate the confusing tangle of strictures that govern them. "The rules and regulations are the same regarding women's basic rights. Not a single thing has changed except for driving and entertainment."

The news has been good for women and girls who want to participate more in Saudi society. Women attended a soccer match for the first time this month — the latest in a series of firsts. Women are also now members of the consultative Shura Council that advises King Salman, who saying it bluntly "is the master of all living things on Saudi-Arabia" - a close ally of the United States.

The labour market is also slowly opening up, with some women working outside the home. The country’s fearsome religious police have been defanged. The Saudi embassy in Washington has named a woman, Fatimah Baeshen, as its spokesperson.

But the kingdom's persistent male guardianship system is still among many women's chief complaints. Every Saudi woman has a male guardian — father, brother, husband or even son — whose permission she needs to get a passport, travel abroad and get married, for example.

Majrashi told NBC News that her movements and choices were restricted for decades by her husband, until he suffered a heart attack a few years ago. That's when he changed his conservative attitude and decided it was time for his wife to get a job.

“It was really hard with my guardians — my dad and my husband. They didn’t let me go out,” she said, describing the patchwork of laws and customs controlling the lives of Saudi women and girls.

Read moreSaudi women get the right to drive — but what about everything else? | Euronews

Womens Rights Middle East: Tunisia passes landmark law to ‘end all violence’ against women

Tunisia’s parliament has approved a bill aimed at ending “all violence against women” in a move welcomed by rights groups.

The new law, which is expected to enter into force next year, defines violence against women as “any physical, moral, sexual or economic aggression” against women based on discrimination between the two sexes.

It includes the key elements of the definition of domestic violence recommended in the United Nations Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women.

Read more: Tunisia passes landmark law to ‘end all violence’ against women - France 24

French Parliamentary Elections: Women to take more than a third of seats in France's parliament

In the second round of legislative elections on Sunday, 223 women were elected to France’s lower house. With 38.65% of seats in the National Assembly, the election marks a new record for female representation in the French parliament.

It’s good news for equality: Women now hold 223 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, a significant increase over the previous legislature’s 155, which also set a record at the time. These are notable advances since the 33 pioneering female lawmakers of 1945, but they still fall short of true equality in representation.

Note EU-Digest: Womens Rights - Vive La France  !

Read more: Women to take more than a third of seats in France's parliament - France 24

Saudi Arabia: Saudi King Hopeful Over Sunday's Summit With Trump - really ?

High level diplomacy or just plain hypocracy?

Saudi King Salman on Monday expressed hope a "historic" summit to be held Sunday between Arab and Muslim nations and US President Donald Trump will enhance ties and promote tolerance.

The summit will be one of three forums held during a visit by Trump, who is making Saudi Arabia his first overseas stop since assuming office in January.

Trump has frequently been accused of fueling Islamophobia but aides described his decision to visit Saudi Arabia as an effort to reset relations with the Muslim world.

Along with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), at least 18 other Muslim nations have been invited to the summit, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Niger and Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population.

Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran is not invited.

Salman told a cabinet meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah that the meeting "comes in light of the challenges and sensitive situations that the world is going through".

According to the official Saudi Press Agency, "he expressed his hope that this historic summit will establish a new partnership in the face of extremism and terrorism and spreading the values of tolerance and coexistence" while enhancing security.

Note EU-Digest: Amazing that Donald Trump has chosen Saudi Arabia for his first foreign visit. We can only suspect that the image of being warmly greeted by such a strong representation of Sunni Muslim kings, emirs and presidents is a potential bonanza for a U.S. leader beleaguered by domestic troubles.  

The fact that Saudi Arabia has been the cradle of "terrorist awakening",  from where Saudi born terrorists like Ben Laden became the main instigators of the 9/11 NY World Trade Center attack, and many other evil deed's does not  seem to bother Donald Trump, or, unfortunately as it did not really bother any other US President before him, including President Obama.

As one foreign EU diplomat stationed in Ankara  noted. "Donald Trump, or any US President for that matter, will sell their soul to the devil, in order to complete a series of arms deals for the US weapons industry, and with these recent sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $100bn.- they will also gladly even dance with the devil. 

This Saudi visit by Trump has only 10% to do with diplomacy and 90% for showing US gratitude to the Saudi's. for their continued support of the US weapons industry. It can also be classified as "brown nosing" the Saudi's. 

And this brown nosing the Saudi and keeping a blind eye about their lack of respect for human rights is certainly not only limited to the US, but also indulged in by many other Nations around the world, including quite a few in the EU.

It is high time this hypocracy stops, because it has become so flagrant that no-one takes this nonsense serious anymore.

Read more: Saudi King Hopeful Over Sunday's Summit With Donald Trump

Head Scarfs - Top European court upholds France′s headscarf ban

The Strasbourg-based international court's ruling upholds a ban on employees in the public sector wearing headscarves and other religious symbols. In 2000, Muslim social worker Christiane Ebrahimian, who worked in the psychiatric department of a hospital in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.

When she learned that her contract would not be renewed because she refused to take off her headscarf despite complaints from patients and colleagues, she decided to sue the hospital, taking her case all the way to the European Court of Justice.

The Strasbourg judges argued that the ban did not violate freedom of religion in a country where secularism and strict religious neutrality is enshrined in the constitution.

Religious freedom, they stressed, did not mean a right to express their religious views in the workplace.

Note EU-Digest:-Does not belong in secular nations - as long as this ban does not only single out Islamic head scarfs, but also includes those from other religions,  including:  Anglican, Buddhist, Christian, Catholic, Jewish,, Orthodox, and Sikh

Read more: Top European court upholds France′s headscarf ban | News | DW.COM | 26.11.2015

Middle East: Saudi Arabia: From the Eyes of an Insider - by Mona Eltahawy

Nothing prepared me for Saudi Arabia. I was born in Egypt, but my family left for London when I was seven years old. After almost eight years in the United Kingdom, we moved to Saudi Arabia in 1982.

Both my parents, Egyptians who had earned PhDs in medicine in London, had found jobs in Jeddah, teaching medical students and technicians clinical microbiology.

The campuses were segregated. My mother taught the women on the female campus and my father taught the men on the male campus.

When an instructor of the same gender wasn’t available, the classes were taught via closed-circuit television, and the students would have to ask questions using telephone sets.

My mother, who had been the breadwinner of the family for our last year in the United Kingdom, when we lived in Glasgow, now found that she could not legally drive. We became dependent on my father to take us everywhere.

As we waited for our new car to be delivered, we relied on gypsy cabs and public buses.

On the buses, we would buy our ticket from the driver, and then my mother and I would make our way to the back two rows (four if we were lucky) designated for women.

The back of the bus. What does that remind you of? Segregation is the only way to describe it.

The campuses were segregated. My mother taught the women on the female campus and my father taught the men on the male campus.

When an instructor of the same gender wasn’t available, the classes were taught via closed-circuit television, and the students would have to ask questions using telephone sets.

My mother, who had been the breadwinner of the family for our last year in the United Kingdom, when we lived in Glasgow, now found that she could not legally drive. We became dependent on my father to take us everywhere.

It felt as though we’d moved to another planet whose inhabitants fervently wished women did not exist. I lived in this surreal atmosphere for six years.

In this world, women, no matter how young or how old, are required to have a male guardian – a father, a brother, or even a son – and can do nothing without this guardian’s permission.

Yes, this is Saudi Arabia, the country where a gang rape survivor was sentenced to jail for agreeing to get into a car with an unrelated male and needed a royal pardon; Saudi Arabia, where a woman who broke the ban on driving was sentenced to ten lashes and, again, needed a royal pardon.

Note EU-Digest: Democracy and women's rights - still a major stumbling block in country which considers itself the cradle of Islam. 
 
Read moreSaudi Arabia: From the Eyes of an Insider - The Globali

EU celebrates March 8 International Women's Day in Turkey

EU Supports Turkish Women's fight  against gender inequality

On the occasion of the International  Women's Day, the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey reiterates its support to women in Turkey in fighting gender inequalities, a key issue in Turkey's development agenda and its EU accession process. 

The EU Delegation is organizing between 5-9 March 20 events, revolving around the theme of "Women's Rights and the European Union" in Ankara, Antalya, Bursa, Denizli Edirne, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Samsun, Sivas, Şanlıurfa, Trabzon and Van with the aim of promoting gender equality and generating public awareness through panel discussions, seminars and film  screenings.

In Ankara, the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation, Béla Szombati, will deliver a keynote speech at an event entitled "Being WOMAN in Bold Letters" on March 6, 2015 at the Yunus Emre Cultural Centre in Ankara. The event, which starts at 15:00, will  lso feature a classical music performance by FeminIstanbul and a pantomime show for children.

Read more: EU celebrates March 8 International Women's Day in Turkey

Turkey: Murder of Student Ozgecan Aslan inTurkey Causes Uproar and Focus on Women’s Rights - by RM

The burned body of Turkish female student Ozgecan Aslan discovered on Feb. 13 in a riverbed in the Tarsus district of Mersin in Turkey has enraged people from all walks of life around Turkey.

This has resulted in many demonstrations around the country, where both women and men have expressed their anger and called for justice and equal women's rights in the culturally male dominated Turkish environment.

Three suspects were detained for stabbing the girl to death and later burning her remains.

Female empowerment still lags in most Muslim countries including Turkey. Despite the progress made there in regard to women during the 20th century through the efforts by its first President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey now faces attempts at going backwards again by defining women’s role as mainly domestic.

Even recently elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that women and men cannot be equal because it “goes against the laws of nature.”

The sheer size of Turkey’s protests, however, are perhaps the most important indication yet of how much Muslim women today are challenging traditional male dominance based on the old interpretations of gender roles within Islam.

EU-Digest

Saudi Arabia: First Female Law Firm Opens in Saudi Arabia

In a major milestone for championing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, the first law firm for women has opened. Bayan Mahmoud Al-Zahran took this historic step and is also the first woman lawyer issued the right to practice law in Saudi Arabia. While she says she will be happy to hear cases from both genders, she is excited about the possibility of helping women. Until now, women have not been able to find a female lawyer whom they can trust with their problems. She explained that male lawyers often couldn’t understand the problems of female plaintiffs, making it difficult for them to try their cases in court.

At the opening of her law firm, Al-Zahran said:

I believe women lawyers can contribute a lot to the legal system. This law firm will make a difference in the history of court cases and female disputes in the Kingdom. I am very hopeful and thank everyone who supported me in taking this historical step…This is a very positive step toward the Saudi court and justices as right now, we are four female lawyers who got the license, but I am hopeful that in future, the number will increase.

According to Arab News, Al-Zahran’s father, Sheikh Mahmoud Al-Zahran, is very proud of her. He agrees this is a huge step forward for women’s rights and will help many women who couldn’t get help before.
Saudi Arabia has seen a surge in women’s rights campaigns recently. In 2011, women in Riyadh wore pink and created the largest human breast cancer ribbon to date in order to raise awareness for the disease. Many women in Saudi Arabia weren’t getting early screening for breast cancer, and so as many as 70 percent of women were diagnosed at an advanced stage. Also, in May 2013, the kingdom launched a provocative and powerful advertisement campaign against domestic violence.

The ad showed a woman in a black veil with one black eye. The English version of the ad read, “Some things can’t be covered.” In late August 2013, the kingdom took this one step further and outlawed domestic violence completely. Under this law, offenders would face prison time of up to a year and fines of up to $13,300.

Read more: First Female Law Firm Opens in Saudi Arabia | Care2 Causes

Britain: some 100,000 women have been illegally and brutally mutilated sexually locally

As many as 100,000 women in Britain have undergone female genital mutilations with medics in the UK offering to carry out the illegal procedure on girls as young as 10, it has been reported.

Investigators from The Sunday Times said they secretly filmed a doctor, dentist and alternative medicine practitioner who were allegedly willing to perform circumcisions or arrange for the operation to be carried out.

The practice, which involves the surgical removal of external genitalia and in some cases the stitching of the vaginal opening, is illegal in Britain and carries up to a 14 year prison sentence. It is also against the law to arrange FGM.

Known as "cutting", the procedure is traditionally carried out for cultural reasons and is widespread across Africa. It is thought to be needed as proof of a girl's "purity" for when she marries, but victims are rarely given anaesthetic and frequently suffer long-term damage and pain.

Research suggests that every year up to 6,000 girls in London are at risk of the potentially fatal procedure, and more than 22,000 in the UK as a whole.

EU-Digest

Saudi Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel Lobbies For Women's Rights with great savvy

The uprisings in the Arab world this year that erupted along Saudi Arabia's borders have left Saudi Arabia largely  untouched but they may have helped inspire a quieter revolt.

This summer most women in the Middle East were following a campaign by Saudi women for the right to drive. Activists have posted videos of themselves driving. And recently a few dozen women defied their country's ban and drove on the same day in daylight. One of the most outspoken voices on women's rights in Saudi Arabia is the strikingly beautiful Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel. She's married to Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of the richest men in the country.

Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel hit the New York City "shores" this week, reminding us that there are gorgeous princesses on other continents as well, not only in Europe and Asia.

Princess Ameerah, a member of the Saudi royal family through her husband, HRH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (King Abdullah's nephew), is also the Vice Chairwoman of the Board of the Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation.

This week she spoke at a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, which invited world leaders to discuss employment, sustainability and women's issues. The Huffington Post wrote about her: "We weren't too familiar with Princess Ameerah previously, but we were totally impressed by both her humanitarian interests as well as her chic style".

She was also interviewed on CNN by Pierce Morgan where her intelligence and savvy impressed just about everyone watching the program.

EU-Digest

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Saudi Arabia: Don’t try to control our lives, say Saudi women

Young Saudi women are calling for more freedom and liberty in their own country. On International Women’s Day, university students claim that women in Saudi Arabia need more independence because their daily life is filled with restrictions. “One of our simple rights is to be able to drive to college. I don’t understand why it’s prohibited for us to be in the driving seat,” said 22-year-old Zakeyya Ghulman. “I’m sick and tired of the driver being late and busy with all the work my family is giving him — dropping my mom off at the doctor, picking up my sister from school. I keep waiting for him for hours.”

Under Saudi law, women require their guardians’s permission to leave the country — either by escorting them to the airport and signing an exit waiver or by obtaining single-use or multiple-use permission forms that women keep with their passports.

Having the freedom to choose her future husband is what 25-year-old Amal Al-Ali really wants. “I come from a family that controls young women and does not give them the option to even choose their future,” she said. “Our generation is new and out there, we see and mix with men more than my mother and grandmother did when they were my age,” she said.

As for sports, stadiums are no-go zones for women — something that irks the Kingdom’s many female football fanatics. “This is nonsense,” said 20-year-old Mona Bokhary. “I have a passion for football and it doesn’t make sense that women are not allowed to watch football live and always have to watch it on big screens. I want to attend a football match and hear people cheering for their favorite team and feel the game. What’s the harm in that? Why isn’t it allowed for women to go there? Why not make women’s only sections at local stadiums?”

For more: Don’t try to control our lives, say Saudi women - Arab News

Sun2Surf: Women's Rights - Raped Saudi Arabian woman faces 100 lashes and a year in prison - by Sonia Randhwa

For the complete report from the Sun2Surf click on this link

Women's Rights - Raped Saudi Arabian woman faces 100 lashes and a year in prison - by Sonia Randhwa

In November last year, a 13-year-old Somalian girl was stoned to death, after her father reported that she had been gang-raped. In Saudi Arabia, a woman who was gang-raped and became pregnant after her ordeal faces 100 lashes and a year in prison. The problem is that these women, or girls, are viewed as having given their consent to the rape by being in a situation where men could force themselves upon them. Rape becomes adultery – though neither woman was married – and the women punished for crimes committed against them.

Note EU-Digest: Amazing that this seems to be going on with little or no protest from anyone.