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#MehfoozBachpan: Pakistani Activists Demand Policy to Safeguard Children from Sexual Abuse in 2018 Elections · Global Voices
Anushe Noor

A child holds the campaign poster at a #MehfoozBachpan (Protected Childhood) seminar. Photo used with permission.
On January 9, 2018, a seven-year-old girl named Zainab was found dead on a heap of garbage in Kasur, Pakistan. The minor was strangled to death after being raped. This incident shone a spotlight on child sexual abuse in Pakistan. Activists led protests and demonstrations demanding quick action against the person(s) responsible.
Subsequently, the police arrested the alleged perpetrator, Imran Ali, on January 23, 2018. On February 17, after an expedited trial, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court has handed down a death sentence to Ali for the rape and murder of Zainab.
Despite the fact that the alleged culprit was arrested and tried, people from all sections of society raised concerns, demanding the establishment and implementation of tougher laws against child sexual violence.
Bushra Iqbal Hussain, a journalist with the Waziristan Times, along with fellow activists, launched an online and offline campaign titled #MehfoozBachpan (Protected Childhood in Urdu language) which calls for legislation for safeguarding children. The campaign also encourages concerned citizens to vote only for political parties in the upcoming general elections in Pakistan that have a policy for child sexual abuse.
Hussain, also a television and radio presenter, and social activist working in the field of violence against women and children, promotes this campaign to ensure that Pakistani children enjoy ‘protected homes, protected schools and protected playgrounds’ with the help of a more aware and vigilant society.
Talking to Global Voices, Hussain said:
Being a journalist I always feel a need to address the youth. Most often we talk about the deprived children but lack a holistic approach towards an overall situation of children, especially their psychological, emotional and physical grooming. And this blind eye attitude made our children vulnerable. In recent days many cases of child sexual abuse and killing burst the artificial bubble of our social moral structure.
Hussain believes that parents lack awareness that leads to cases such the rape and murder of Zainab. Twitter user Amjad Qammar expressed frustration over parents’ general lack of awareness while sharing an incident from Karachi, Pakistan:
آج کراچی میں ایک قاری نے مدرسے میں نو سالہ بچے کو تشدد کر کے قتل کر دیا۔ یہ بچہ قاری کے خوف سے بھاگ کر گھر گیا تھا ۔ اور باپ نے اس کے رونے دھونے کے باوجود واپس لا کر قاری کے حوالے کر دیا۔
اس قتل کا زمہ دار کون ہے ؟#mehfoozbachpan
— Amjad Qammar (@amjadqammar) January 21, 2018
Today, in Karachi a cleric in a Madrassah (religious school) raped and killed a young boy. That boy had earlier ran away from the Madrassah and expressed fear. Yet, his father still handed him over to the cleric. Who is responsible in the murder of the child?
Hussain is holding workshops with parents in order to teach them how to safeguard their children and teach them about the notion of “good and bad touch,” a common way to talk with children about inappropriate touching and ownership over one's body. The first seminar was held in Peshawar, the cpital of Khyber Pakhtunkwa province of Pakistan. Her campaign is in the initial stages and she believes she will be able to reach out to as many people as possible.
Twitter user Amin Mashal praised Hussain for this initiative:
A seminar was conducted by Bushra Iqbal on the theme of #MehfoozBachpan that how we can protect our children and can compete with burning situation after #Qasoor and #Mardan incident. It should be the manifesto of political parties in the upcoming election. pic.twitter.com/iLdqoiqZg7
— Amin Mashal (@AminJmc123) February 12, 2018
Hussain shares her experience raising awareness with parents:
Some parents initially deny their carelessness on their kid's wellbeing but later they understand when I tell them children are young individuals with their unique needs, you may buy them everything on earth but they will still need your time, care and love. The concept of “respect your children” is novel for many. And mostly fathers in our society think that it is a mother’s responsibility to safeguard children but I try to change this mindset by saying that children are not a liability but a blessing that both parents enjoy so both are responsible.
Hussain says that media has always been an important part of our society and thinks that media can spread information and generate debate. Qammar agrees:
@Malala #mehfoozbachpan is a campaign to support the party that will make legislation for child protection in Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/jPbb9yfIhX
— Amjad Qammar (@amjadqammar) January 15, 2018
She also believes:
Protected childhood is a collective dream, each of us is responsible for our children. We must try to stand with parents who lost their kids, create awareness, talk to parents, involve local leadership and make a demand. We will vote for protected childhood in next election.
Hussain took to Twitter to reinforce this notion:
Stop #childabuse and raise voice for #mahfoozbachpan pic.twitter.com/va2NB7zMQR
— Engr Asmar Hussain (@AsmarHussain) February 9, 2018
The Zainab rape and murder case had a swift trial as it received international media attention as well as much attention and pressure from citizens. The verdict has offered hope that such cases can be dealt with swiftly to enforce the rule of law and prevent such crimes against children from happening again.
Pakistan has an existing child protection bill which is not without flaws and the lack of enforcement of the law is not a major concern for the politicians.
So, the predicament of child sexual abuse still exists in Pakistan, and more awareness campaigns such as #MehfoozBachpan are required to end it.

author: Anushe Noor


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Protests in Trinidad’s Capital as Residents Face Off with Police · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

A screenshot from a Trinidad and Tobago Police Service YouTube video, showing aspects of a joint police-army patrol after protests in east Port of Spain, January 19, 2018.
On Febuary 19, 2018, many social media users in Trinidad and Tobago woke up to a WhatsApp voice note that had gone viral, warning that certain districts of the country's capital city Port of Spain were blocked off due to street protests over the  fatal shooting by police of Akile “Christmas” James, a resident of the community of Laventille.
Laventille is a low-income urban area bordering the capital. It has been labelled as a “hotspot” and point of origin of some of the country's violent crime. One 2014 Vice News report made specific reference to the country's role in the drug trade and the resulting impact on gangs and illegal guns in the downtrodden community. It is a stereotype that the local media perpetuate and that is often parroted by the rest of society, though some netizens have recently been questioning the narrative.
Police, however, maintain that James was a murder suspect, allegedly in the recent killing of a prison officer. Residents say otherwise.
The situation has highlighted the distrust that community members have for the authorities, as well as the contempt in which much of the rest of the country holds the Laventille community.
The voice note which alerted citizens, sent by an unidentified woman who found herself “in the middle” of a protest, said that residents had blocked the roads and that “guys [were] running around threatening to shoot people”. Sirens can be heard in the background of the recording. Mainstream media journalists soon started tweeting images:
Heavy police and army presence remains in East Port of Spain, following a protest this morning where residents of Basilon Street blocked their roadway as well as upper Picadilly Street, following the killing of Akile “Christmas” James at 3am today.@expressupdates @tv6tnt pic.twitter.com/v6VEA5tBQB
— Alexander Bruzual (@NateGreyy) February 19, 2018
Meanwhile, netizens were recording the protests from their mobile phones. In one incident, a garbage truck dumped its contents — apparently by force — in the middle of an intersection:
Residents were also apparently aided by someone with access to a garbage truck as video circulates online showing the vehicle dumping its contents onto the roadway.
A woman is heard condemning the action while young men are heard supporting it. https://t.co/FRDvIgjJzL
— Alexander Bruzual (@NateGreyy) February 19, 2018
In another video, a woman's voice is heard urging schoolchildren to get away from the heart of the protest. Soon afterward, people run towards the camera while loud noises (assumed to be gunshots) are heard in the background:
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service soon released a media statement saying that “police and army personnel went into action from 6:00 am today, in East Port of Spain, to quell disturbances among residents and remove debris that had been strewed across several streets, following a police involved shooting incident at around 3:45 am on Monday 19th February, 2018.” The release continued:
Members of the Inter-Agency Task Force attempted to execute a search warrant for firearms and ammunition on premises located at Calvary Hill, when they were fired upon by the occupant of the house. There was a return of gunfire and the suspect was struck. The assailant, identified as Akile “Christmas” James, was taken to the Port of Spain General Hospital where he was pronounced head at 4:20 am. A Glock 45 pistol and seven rounds of ammunition were recovered at the scene.
The media statement from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service about their search operation and the resulting riots in Port of Spain, shared widely via social media.
The Facebook page NewSauce shared the statement and, using the hashtag #extrajudicial, commented, “Police admit they killed ‘Christmas’ and contained the subsequent unrest.”
An extrajudicial killing is exactly what protestors are accusing the police of. One resident was recorded giving an interview to a local television station, in which he said, referring to James, “The person we are talking about is not a person that you would watch and say well, he's a ‘best’ child. Everybody knows he is a child of trouble [but] he had recently come out of prison and since he's come out of prison, you could ask anybody […] he's changed [..] he has a daughter and he's a changed individual.”
The man alleges that video exists of the police knocking at James’ door, which he opened, and then the police “put him to kneel down and execute the young man”. James was 25 years old.
The resident continued, “And what is annoying me, and annoying plenty of the residents in the community is that on the news […] they now said that he was killed in a shootout with the police. If he was killed in a shootout with the police, why they didn't leave the body there for the investigators to come […]?” Calling the situation “overbearing”, the man added, “The same youths who you want to kill out for no reason: now, I'm not saying some of them [are] innocent, I'm not saying they are saints, […] but the right thing is the right thing. What you want for your family, you have to want for somebody else[‘s] own.”
Towards the end of the video, another resident is heard off camera saying, “The prison officer…who dead on Frederick Street…they now saying on the news…” A woman interrupts, “Is ‘Christmas'? Oh God, how they could say that??”
There were also complaints of police threatening and abusing residents. Adding fire to the flame was Ian Alleyne, host of the controversial show “Crime Watch”, who did a Facebook Live broadcast from the community.
On the heels of the outcry, the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) announced that it was aware of the video footage that was circulating and that it has begun an independent investigation into James’ shooting. The press release asked witnesses to come forward with information.
While police regained control of the streets, there was another surge of unrest later in the day, resulting in the shooting of another man from the area, some say by a stray bullet. Others are blaming the police.
The protest action caused chaos in downtown Port of Spain, with commuter gridlock, some parents taking their children out of nearby schools, and three health centres unable to open for business.
Some social media users were unmoved by the plight of the protestors. In a public Facebook post, Gerard Joseph commented:
Only in sweet T&T ….this could happen, and allowed to happen. I do hope when when the tables turn on you….dont say oppression…..you holding the working and travelling public to ransom…..on a Monday ?…I have no pity
Emily Alexander reverted to the common narrative that dismisses such protestors as “pests”:
Steupzz setta pest. Why don't they protest like this when innocent ppl are killed and robbed by these same criminals they're defending?
Steups. They are a set of pests. Why don't they protest like this when innocent people are killed and robbed by these same criminals they're defending?
Marsha Huggins echoed her sentiment:
So…. an alleged criminal is killed by police and East Port of Spain erupts into protest!…. But school children could get bun up [burned to death] in a car and people being robbed, raped and killed daily… no protest?… ??
Hmmm….
Perhaps the narrative — from any quarter — hasn't changed much after all.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


text:
Serbian Journalists Face Harassment for Investigating Spending by Defense Minister (and His ‘Aunt From Canada’) · Global Voices
Marko Angelov

Caricature of Serbian Government Minister Aleksandar Vulin carrying a bag of money with an attached card “Love, Auntie ♥.” Photo by KRIK.RS, used with permission.
How many times must a hypothetical aunt of a government minister travel from Canada to Serbia in order to transfer 205,000 euros in cash?
Serbian law says that one can only enter the country with less than 10,000 euros in cash. Yet according to Serbian authorities, the answer to this seemingly simple mathematical problem is not  “at least 21 times”, but a very forceful nothing to see here!
Inquiring Serbian minds want to know, after years of controversy surrounding Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin, his 2012 purchase of a spacious 205,000 euros apartment in Belgrade, and his claim that the money came from his wife's aunt in Canada. By law, public officials in Serbia must account for all funds they receive while in office.
In September 2017, the Crime and Corruption Reporting Network (KRIK) — an independent Serbian media outlet — revealed that Minister Vulin didn't produce evidence of the source of 205,000 euros (over 242,000 US dollars). He first claimed that he got the money by selling other real estate properties (worth only 38,000 euros), but then backtracked and said that the money came from his wife's aunt.
According to Serbian law, a maximum of 10,000 euros in cash can be brought into the country without being declared at customs; anything over that amount is a crime. So, hypothetically, Vulin's generous aunt had to make more than 21 round-trips between Canada and Serbia to transfer those 205,000 euros. Thus far, there is no evidence of any such trips being made.
The Anti-Corruption Agency of the Republic of Serbia in fact confirmed that Vulin had not produced evidence of the source of the money, but the agency didn't disclose this information publicly until KRIK filed a request under Serbia's Freedom of Information Law. The Agency first denied the request, but then released it after the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance ordered it, acting upon KRIK's complaint.
Meanwhile, the Agency forwarded the results of its investigation to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, filing a criminal complaint because public officials must account for all funds they receive while in office. After two years of deliberation, the Public Prosecutor's Office dropped the case in August 2017, claiming that the act allegedly committed by Vulin falls outside of its jurisdiction. Two other prosecutor's offices also reviewed the case and dropped it too.
A caricature of the ‘saintly’ alleged aunt of Serbian Minister of Defence Aleksandar Vulin, by KRIK.RS. Used with permission.
On January 29, 2018, KRIK published a new report showing that three different state authorities — the Basic Prosecutor's Office, the Higher Prosecutor's Office, and the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime — had excused themselves from responsibility for investigating the case of the Minister of Defense Aleksandar Vulin.
First the Basic Prosecutors Office, then the Higher Prosecutors Office, and now the Prosecutors Office for Organized Crime conducted investigations without questioning either the minister or his aunt, who allegedly lent him a large sum of money to buy real estate. All three prosecutors concluded that Vulin didn't break the law when he filed an official report with inaccurate data declaring his property, which is a requirement of Serbia's transparency and accountability legislation. Instead, they rationalized it as “a possible mishap” or “imprecision” on the part of the minister.
From as far back as 2013, Aleksandar Vulin has served at several ministerial posts within the Serbian government. After the KRIK story came out, his party — the Movement of Socialists (part of a right-wing coalition led by the Serbian Progressive Party, a member of the European People's Party) — issued a communique intended to insult, defame and discredit journalists who had written about the accountability of public officials in the country.
In Serbia, such libelous articles do not beat around the bush; rather, they directly attack the dignity of the target. In this case, the target was KRIK editor Stevan Dojčinović. The Movement of Socialists published an announcement in September 2017 (widely shared by Serbian mainstream media) that portrayed as a sadomasochistic ‘junkie who hates Serbia’:
Čime se Dojčinović zaista bavi, osim što ponekad ima čudne sklonosti da visi po plafonima, probada bradavice iglama i samopovređuje se? Nije tajna da je Dojčinović plaćen iz inostranstva za svaki tekst kojim napada Vulina, a nije tajna ni da uzima narkotike. Ako hoće da nas demantuje, tražimo da izađe sa svim računima, a posebno da se podvrgne testu na droge. Odmah vam kažemo neće smeti. Narkomani obično neće. Ali, tako drogirani, rado svoje fantazije stave u tekstove…
What does Dojčinović actually do, except practice his curious habits of hanging from ceilings and piercing his nipples with needles to inflict bodily harm upon himself? It is not a secret that Dojčinović is paid from abroad for every text attacking Vulin, and it's not a secret that he uses narcotics. If he would like to issue a denial, we demand that he produces all his evidence first, and in particular, undergo a drug test. We can already tell you he won't dare do it. Junkies usually don't. And under the influence, they often put their fantasies into words…
The Movement of Socialists soon amended the announcement, which said that the journalist “immensely hates” everyone who, like Vulin, loves Serbia, and replaced it with another statement, more vulgar in tone, which repeated the allegations about drug abuse and concluded, “We sincerely hope that you cure yourself, but we know that that's impossible in your case.”
Dojčinović responded by filing libel lawsuit against the Movement of Socialists. The co-ruling political party denied they called him a junkie, saying they merely asked that such allegations be examined.
“We'll be happy if investigation proves that this young man hasn't used narcotics,” was their response.
Some media outlets which had published the original announcement subsequently removed their articles about it.
Alongside finding themselves as the target of defamation campaigns and threats, KRIK editors and reporters, along with other investigative journalists, have increasingly been subject to malicious libel lawsuits by politicians, draining their already limited resources. For instance, another government minister, Nenad Popović, filed four lawsuits against KRIK after it revealed that he was named in the leaked Paradise Papers.
When asked about the announcements made by her coalition partner, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic called them “an emotional reaction”, claiming that these “statements” are not those of Minister Vulin, but rather, announcements of a political party. She described the issue as a “clash” between a party and a media outlet, with no connection to the Government of Serbia. She did not acknowledge the direct connection between the party and Vulin, or the fact that the president of that party is a member of her government.
The prime minister added that she too had “an emotional reaction” to that media outlet, but she focused instead on producing statements that would be “tolerant and balanced”. Zora Drcelic, a journalist at Vreme, a weekly news magazine, commented that the prime minister has tried to put on an act, sending a message to citizens that they should not concern themselves with the “emotional reactions” of government officials who are challenged about their integrity in public office.
The term “emotional reaction” quickly become part of contemporary political jargon. Serbian citizens have been making the connection between this case and the overall decline of freedom of expression, including the closing down of local newspaper Novine Vranjske, which was edited by Vukašin Obradović:
Vukašinu Obradoviću pretili da svašta može da mu se desi ćerki.
Nisu to pritisci, zna i Brnabić, to su emotivne reakcije.#StojimUzVranjske
— Biljana Lukić (@BiljanaLuki) September 26, 2017
Vukašin Obradović received threats that anything can happen to his daughter.
These were not pressures, as Brnabić would know, those were only emotional reactions.
#IStandWithVranjske
While most of the Serbian mainstream media have decided not to cover the affair of the alleged “aunt from Canada”, citizens using social networks support the efforts of investigative journalists, who are determined to keep following the story.
Netizens have been using the hashtag #TetkaIzKanade (#AuntFromCanada) to amplify the reach of new information, as well as to link the case with similar instances of suspected government corruption:
Priča kaže da su dokazali da postoji Vulinova tetka. Daljim istraživanjima će pokazati da je Vulinova tetka uzela pare od svoje tetke, koja takođe ima tetku. Na kraju tog niza stoje Adam, Eva i Bog i eto sve su dokazali šta vam više nije jasno??#TetkaIzKanade
— Hipoaktivni (@Neopravoslavac) January 15, 2018
Some people say the authorities proved that Vulin's aunt exists. Further research would show that Vulin's aunt took the money from her aunt, who also has an aunt. At the end of the line stand Adam, Eve and God — so everything is investigated and proven, so what's not to understand??
#AuntFromCanada
A yellow rubber duck at a protest in Russia. Photo by Daggets via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Another tweet brought up various unresolved abuses of power in recent years, including illegal demolition in the Savamala district to make room for a government construction project, a cover-up in the arrest of a state secretary's drug-dealing brother, and the case of right-wing politician Miša Vacić, who was threatening war against Albanians and silencing critics with promises to mobilize their children. His stance was subject to public ridicule, thanks in part to his physical shape, considered less than ideal for army service:
Možda oni otkriju ko je rušio u Savamali, ko je švercovao heroin sa kosova u službenom autu ministarstva rada, ko je #tetkaizkanade, kako skinuti trbušinu pre mobilizacije..?
— Hound Dog (@oneyedog) January 31, 2018
Maybe they'll discover who was destroying buildings in Savamala, who smuggled heroin from Kosovo in a car owned by the Ministry of Labor, who is the #AuntFromCanada, how to reduce the size of your belly before you get mobilized..?
Some Serbians immediately connected the aunt affair to the recent public appearance of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wore purple socks adorned with a pattern of yellow ducklings at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Since 2015, a giant yellow duck has become the symbol of the protest movement against government corruption in Serbia. Mocking conspiracy theories, some connected these two sets of ducks to draw a conclusion about the Canadian aunt as well:
Vulin da pozove #TetkaIzKanade, a ova da ulozi Protestnu Notu Kanadi u ime Srbije…! Kakva je ovo Provokacija..?! Kanadski Premijer dosao u Davos, da rusi Vucica i destabilizuje Srbiju..! pic.twitter.com/gpMC5C8ok9
— Umrljan penom od Piva (@EolVerbal) January 25, 2018
Vulin should call his #AuntFromCanada so she would file a protest note to Canada in the name of Serbia…! This is such a Provocation..?! Canadian Prime Minister came to Davos to topple Vučić and destabilize Serbia..!

author: Marko Angelov


text:
#ThemToo: Syrian Women Tell Stories of Rape in Regime Prisons · Global Voices
Maria Mattar

Screenshot from the documentary ‘Syrie, le cri étouffé’.
In December 2017, a French documentary broadcast by TV channel France 2 featured a group of women who had survived rape and torture in the secret prisons of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. In the 72-minute film titled “Syrie, le cri étouffé” (Syria, the Muffled Cry), the survivors, who are now refugees in Turkey, Jordan and throughout Europe, speak about their arrest and subsequent detention, describing how the Assad regime used rape to settle scores with opponents and subjugate communities opposed to its rule.
The documentary emerged at a global watershed moment which set off an avalanche of daring revelations by victims of sexual abuse who took to social media using the hashtag #MeToo. The campaign was sparked by the scandal of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein who used his leverage to sexually blackmail a long list of Hollywood stars. The trend soon spread like wildfire, with increasing numbers of victims speaking up, knocking celebrities and politicians worldwide off their pedestals.
In a bold move rarely precedented, two women opted to speak about their harrowing experiences with full names and uncovered faces. In a patriarchal Syrian society rife with blaming victims of sexual violence, discussing the issue is an entrenched taboo. Blowing the lid off horrendous stories taking place in a dark underworld of torture and rape dubbed a ”torture archipelago” in a 2012 Human Rights Watch report, the documentary shattered the longtime silence that has haunted victims and kept the issue largely underreported.
According to UN estimates,  tens of thousands of people are detained by the Syrian security forces.
It was October..at night..I was sitting at the bedside pondering what will happen next…the door opens..three enormous men entered. I heard one ask another: ”Who is to start first?” My blood ran cold. What does that mean?
The voice of one of the women featured in the documentary shakes as she remembers the dreadful moments leading up to her rape at one of Syria's notorious detention centers. Arrested at a military checkpoint in the southern city of Daraa for taking part in peaceful protests and medical efforts after a military crackdown, the woman says she was accused of “carrying weapons to terrorists,” a common charge leveled at Assad opponents.
She describes how she was first made to watch another woman she identifies as Alwa being raped as a warning that should she withhold any information, the same fate will befall her.
Alwa's hands and legs were pinned down by three men, a fourth on top raping her. She was screaming. What an awful sight! Alwa was unmarried. The wedding dress, party, trills of joy, decoration…Everything she was robbed of came to my mind at that moment.
Speaking in the dark and her face invisible, the woman's voice and movement of hands betray overwhelming emotion and visible agitation as she revisits these bitter memories.
Her own rape took place at the notorious 215 security branch in Kafr Sousa, Damascus. She says:
Three monsters entered the room. The first started to unzip my jacket. He set off to forcefully remove my clothes. I was in denial as to what was happening. I was screaming…in so much pain…I felt my soul leaving my body. My whole world came tumbling down. I was stark naked when I woke up…the sheets were stained. I could not remember what happened…
On one occasion, five men took turns raping her.
With the fourth, I began to feel excruciating pain like I was in labor. I heard one tell another. ‘Go on, it's OK!’ I felt something unusual was happening. When I looked down, I saw a pool of blood underneath me. I tried to rise to my feet but I couldn't, at which point I lost consciousness.
When I woke up, I found myself in a hospital. A doctor told me that I suffered a stroke and lost a lot of blood. The nurse later told me that the doctor made them believe I was dead so that I can escape.
Another rape survivor was Mariam Khleif from Hama, a university student, an employee as well as a mother of four. During the regime's crackdown on protests in her hometown, she engaged in rescue operations amid the staggering death toll and injuries, treating the wounded at a field hospital nearby. Mariam was arrested when security forces raided her house shortly after she secretly dropped by to visit her family whom she had not seen in four months. Speaking with her face uncovered, Mariam reflects on the day she was arrested:
They barged into the house, smashed the door and dragged me on to the street. Men stood watching with their faces cast down, unable to lift a finger.
She was put in an armored vehicle in which five other women were rounded up, among them a 55-year old called Um Mustafa who was beaten and kicked all the way to the prison.
Mariam describes the unspeakable physical torture she underwent that caused severe damage to her kidney.
I was hanged from the ceiling…My hands tied to the wall…severely beaten in an unimaginably brutal way.
The beating happened as a song extolling Bashar al-Assad was being played all the time. As she describes the torture, her voice trails off and she bursts into tears:
I thought that was all and they were done with torture. How naïve I was! Everything that happened up to that moment was nothing compared to what was to come…
When the night falls, they would pick beautiful detainees, take them to someone called Lt. Colonel Sulaiman from Tartous. His room had a door leading to another room, equipped with two beds and a table on which all kinds of alcohol were arrayed. He even invited friends to watch the rapings, one of them was a usual visitor called Colonel Jihad, who took part in raping women.
I watched them rape my friend. Another woman was seven months pregnant when they raped her. She had a miscarriage due to brutal rape and the kicks to her belly. I saw it with my own eyes. I was screaming hysterically. No one ever heard…
They would pour Arak [alcoholic spirit] on the bodies of women…
Mariam herself was gang-raped by four men, among them Colonel Jihad. She describes the daily torture routine for women in the prison as a cycle of beatings during the day and rapes at night.
A female officer from Deraa who served for eight years in the Assad military before her defection says rape, in the beginning, happened only in detention centers. Speaking with her back to the camera, she says that later on, rape became more systematic: women were raped at checkpoints, in the streets, inside their houses before their husbands.
The regime used rape to humiliate the Syrian man. Women were detained to blackmail Syrian men. When a man is engaged in the revolution, his female relatives were detained as a blackmail tactic.
Acting upon the orders of military commanders, female relatives of anti-Assad fighters were raped during raids. Rapes were filmed and the videos sent to the fighters to “crush the men's spirits,” she says.
A recently released woman confirmed a sharp increase in the numbers of detained women lately, especially from rebel-held areas, attributing it to the regime's intention to use them as bargaining chips in prisoner swaps with the opposition.
The raped women's tragedy does not end with their release. In another twist of the knife, the social stigma attached to rape and sexual abuse make their lives nearly impossible.
While men who survive detention are mostly feted as heroes, women receive little or no sympathy, often blamed for bringing dishonor to their families.
According to one of the women interviewed in the film:
In a conservative Syrian society, like all Muslim societies, rape shakes basic Islamic values. It desecrates a sacrosanct thing that is a woman's body. It is hard for a Muslim society to reconcile itself to such thing, that's why utmost secrecy is enforced.
When the raped woman is a mother, the life of the entire family is upended.
For another woman, death would have been easier than rape:
My self-image was tarnished because of a bunch of monsters. Rape is much worse than death.
Many of the raped women were disowned by their families, stigmatized by society.
People tell us that we should not have allowed it to happen. How is that possible? It happened against our will.
This culture of intolerance plays into the hands of the regime which uses rape to inflict as much infamy and dishonor as possible.
Fawziah Hussein al-Khalaf, who survived al-Houla massacre in Homs, also speaks with an uncovered face. Shabiha militia invaded her house. Her pleas for them to rape her but spare her daughters went unheeded. She was raped along with her daughters before the Shabiha militia members slit their throats one after another. Only Fawziah and her daughter Rasha survived the massacre. Engulfed with shame, they never mingled with people thereafter. They avoided gatherings and never took buses.
A former prisoner in a secret prison called “Afaq” who was released in a prisoner swap between the regime and opposition factions said she counted five suicides by raped female detainees in the course of two months.
“Raped women are caught between the anvil of the regime and the hammer of society,” says the woman from Deraa.
Like many of the other women, Mariam became a refugee to escape the stigma and start a new life. As she describes how much she misses Syria, tears roll down her cheeks. She says that Alwa had a much worse fate. Her ambiguous death led many to assume she was killed by her father.
I am now divorced with four children. I am a stranger here…I am nothing…a soulless body,
The documentary caused a stir on social media, with many sharing the video. Some changed their profile picture to the photos of the women who appeared in the documentary. Jean-Pierre Filiu, a French professor of Middle East studies at Sciences Po at the Paris School of International Affairs, wrote an article urging the French President Emanuel Macron to revoke France's Legion of Honor (France's highest civilian distinction) from the Syrian dictator as he did with Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, reminding the French president of earlier statements demanding Assad's ouster and trial for war crimes.
Syrian, Lebanese and French activists launched a campaign on social media led by the French philosopher Frederic Lonoir, signing a petition addressed to the French President, calling on him to intervene for the release of the Syrian female detainees.
However, many saw nothing but a very slim hope of a concrete action despite the furor sparked by the documentary.
Anwar al-Bunni, Head of the Syrian Center for Studies and Legal Research voiced pessimism over efforts to bring perpetrators to justice.
The Syrian people now realize that pleas for the world to stop these violations are futile.
Speaking to Arabi 21, al-Bunni said the Syrian regime is blocking progress on this file which it considers a lifeline.
The regime is using this file as a weapon. It is impossible to make progress as long as Assad remains in power.
Russia and China have repeatedly used vetos to block UN resolutions against the Syrian regime, shielding their ally from sanctions over war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The French president has shown a softening attitude towards the fate of Assad. Rounds of peace talks between the Syrian government and opposition have failed to achieve a breakthrough in the file of detainees.
Jaundiced by a history of inaction, this pessimism was echoed by the women in the documentary. For Mariam:
I am convinced that people will see the documentary, look the other way and carry on with their lives as normal. For over five years, we have been calling on the West to push for the release of Syrian women. Nothing has happened.
This is a call for the women of the West…Do something to help Syrian women…

author: Maria Mattar


text:
‘Voices for Momos’ Campaign Seeks to Protect Myanmar’s Last Remaining Elephants · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Timber elephants, Myanmar. Photo by James Anderson, World Resources Institute. Source: Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Several conservation and environment groups have teamed up to launch a campaign to promote the protection of Myanmar’s dwindling population of elephants, known as “momos” in the Burmese language.
The “Voices for Momos” campaign enjoins the public to reject the illegal trade of elephant parts and other wildlife animals. It also asks the government to implement more programs aimed at stopping the poaching of elephants while providing alternative livelihoods to hunters.
Myanmar’s wild elephant population is estimated to be between 1,400 to 2,000. One elephant is reportedly killed every week, and some have warned that Myanmar’s elephants could be wiped out in two decades if the killings do not stop.
A recent news report warned that the poaching of elephants could intensify in Myanmar because its neighbor China has ordered a crackdown on the illegal sale of wildlife animals. Those looking for elephant parts and other endangered animals could raise the demand for these exotic goods in Myanmar.
It also reported that the selling of elephant parts is thriving near Yangon's pagodas and other shrines where local and foreign tourists often visit. Yangon is the country’s main urban center.
The need to educate the public about protecting elephants is a major goal of the “Voices for Momos” campaign. One of the activities intended to generate public attention was the display of colorful papier-mâché elephant statues all over Yangon. According to local artists, the papier-mâché elephants made out of recycled newspapers were the largest in the world.
✨ SURPRISE! Look who's here… That's right, our giant momos are back! ??? Thank you to our partner Shwe Taung Group for giving voice to our beloved elephants. ? Come see and play with our momos at Junction Square! ??? Take a selfie with them and don't forget to tag #fomomos . #BeKindToElephants #ProtectElephants #elephantsofinstagram #saveelephants #elephantlove #elephantlovers #elephant #elephants #loveelephants #asianelephant #asianelephants #asianwildlife #savewildlife #wildlife #animallovers #conservation #stoppoaching #notopoaching #myanmar #mymyanmar #discovermyanmar #everydayasia #everydaymyanmar #everydayextinction #WorthMoreAlive #publicart #makers #designforchange
A post shared by  VOICES FOR MOMOS (@voicesformomos) on
The display proved to be a hit among children:
Come join us at the Big  British Day Out at the British ambassador’s residence! Today only, all welcome ? Food market, games, elephant face painting and much more! #formomos #bigbritishdayout #SundayFunDay . #BeKindToElephants #ProtectElephants #elephantsofinstagram #saveelephants #elephantlove #elephantlovers #elephant #elephants #loveelephants #asianelephant #asianelephants #asianwildlife #savewildlife #wildlife #animallovers #conservation #stoppoaching #notopoaching #myanmar #mymyanmar #discovermyanmar #everydayasia #everydaymyanmar #everydayextinction #WorthMoreAlive
A post shared by  VOICES FOR MOMOS (@voicesformomos) on
A petition was also initiated as part of the campaign asking the government to boost its anti-poaching drive and the public to stop buying illegal wildlife products. As of this writing, more than 2,000 have signed.
A video of the campaign featured local artists who urge viewers to save Myanmar’s elephants.
The campaign also promoted the sending of love for elephants in time for Valentine’s celebrations on February 14:
Happy #ValentinesDay to all our followers ❤
RT to spread the #elephantlove all over the world today! #formomos #ValentinesDay2018 pic.twitter.com/feL0acLW1g
— Voicesformomos (@Voicesformomos) February 14, 2018
Mobile phone users can also use Viber stickers in support of “Voices for Momos”.
Our partner WWF-Myanmar is now on @Viber and has the cutest elephants (aka “momos” in Myanmar) stickers ? Search Voices for momos in Viber's sticker market to download them and spread the momo love ?❤#formomos #techforgood . #BeKindToElephants #ProtectElephants #elephantsofinstagram #saveelephants #elephantlove #elephantlovers #elephant #elephants#loveelephants #asianelephant #asianelephants #asianwildlife #savewildlife #wildlife #animallovers #conservation #stoppoaching #notopoaching #myanmar #mymyanmar #discovermyanmar #everydayasia #everydaymyanmar #everydayextinction #WorthMoreAlive #elephantlivesmatter
A post shared by  VOICES FOR MOMOS (@voicesformomos) on
Raising public awareness about momos is just the initial phase of the campaign. The next challenge is engaging local authorities and hunters about the need to stop the killing of elephants.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
What Were Global Voices’ Readers up to Last Week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

“Reader! Past, present, future.” Photo by Flickr user Caffeinatrix. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of February 12-18, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 209 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
139. Somalia
153. Maldives
87. Antigua & Barbuda
68. Honduras
125. Bahrain
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


text:
As Leaders Step Down, a Cautious Hope Rises on the African Continent · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike, Rosebell Kagumire, Pernille Baerendtsen, Lova Rakotomalala

Street art downtown Nairobi in Kenya in 2014 Image by Pernille Bærendtsen. Used with permission.
As the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson famously said, a week is a long time in politics. And nothing would bear this out more than recent events in Ethiopia and South Africa.
After months of pressure on the ruling administrations in the two countries, their heads of state resigned: Jacob Zuma from the presidency of the Republic of South Africa and Hailemariam Desalegn as prime minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia as chairman of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Zuma and Desalegn’s falls from grace, though brought about by differing circumstances, have ignited the talk and hope of democratic change in many African countries with high-handed rulers.
Zuma, the fourth president of South Africa, has been in power since 2009. He resigned on February 14, 2018, from the leadership of a nation that has been ready for his exit for years. The eternal target of allegations of corruption, Zuma nevertheless survived numerous votes of no confidence by parliament. His forced exit last week was championed and executed by his party, the African National Congress (ANC), which gave him an ultimatum—resign or face another no-confidence vote. Seeing the writing on the wall, Zuma gave a lengthy surprise interview to the national broadcaster, SABC, where he claimed he had done nothing wrong.
Hours later he caved in, resigning “as President of the Republic with immediate effect.”  Zuma's deputy and head of the ANC, Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, one of the richest men in South Africa, was sworn in as president, announcing in his initial address that “a new dawn is upon us.”
Ethiopia's Desalegn inherited a complicated situation when he took power in 2012 after the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Zenawi had held on to power using the most repressive means while promoting the idea of a “developmental state” concerned only with economic growth. Desalegn also inherited  Zenawi’s “Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan”, which extended the limits of Ethiopia’s capital city into the territory of the Oromo people, the country's largest ethnic group, who have long been marginalised by the ruling Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Even though Desalegn himself belongs to a minority ethnic group, he was part of a government that did not serve the interests of most Ethiopians.
Ethiopia has been gripped by protests since 2015 over the mass imprisonment of politicians, activists and journalists, including the bloggers of the Zone 9 collective. The Oromia and Amhara regions, Ethiopia's most populous, have been the centre of sustained protests and many casualties, though the unrest spread to the rest of the country. In early 2017, a government-sponsored commission reported that over 700 people had been killed in a violent crackdown on the protests. This government responded by imposing a state of emergency for ten months. A few weeks before resigning, in January 2018, Desalegn announced that his government would release political prisoners. So far, 7,000 people have either had the charges against them dropped or been pardoned.
It is not clear as yet who will take over from Desalegn, or whether his departure will bring any real meaningful change, as the party structure that has maintained the repression is still intact.
The departures of Zuma and Desalegn come barely three months after Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was forced out of power after 37 years by an army backing his vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa. The change was executed by the military and the baton passed to a Mugabe crony, but this was nonetheless an important step, allowing Zimbabweans to organise and push for change in the next election, slated for this year.
Togolese citizens have been rallying in the streets since August 2017, and the protests have not let up. The people have mobilized in response to an appeal from a coalition of 40 opposition parties demanding that the president step down, as his current—and third—term is in violation of the country’s constitution.
Faure Gnassingbé has held power in Togo since 2005 when he succeeded his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma, who was president from 1967 to 2005. In November 2017, armed militias labelled “self-defence committees” by the government were mandated to carry out reprisals against the demonstrators, giving observers of Togolese politics and human rights activists great cause for concern. The escalation of the violence has been invoked by the government as a reason to suspend the right of citizens to demonstrate, which has only fuelled the opposition’s anger.
Encouragement on the streets of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya ahead of elections. Image by Pernille Bærendtsen. Used with permission.
Ugandans welcomed the news of Zuma and Desalegn’s resignations just as they did Mugabe's exit last year—with both excitement and longing, many wondering when their own country’s turn will come. President Yoweri Museveni has been in power for 32 years and shows no sign of relenting. At the end of 2017, he signed into law the controversial constitutional amendment popularly known as the age limit bill, that removes the age cap for presidential candidates. Having earlier removed the presidential term limit clause, the 73-year-old Museveni has positioned himself to contest the next presidential elections.
Museveni’s corrupt and patronage-based governance has had a huge impact on Uganda, where the median age of the population is 15 years. The age limit bill was strongly opposed across the country, but with enticements of money here and a bit intimidation there, his party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), which has a majority in parliament, defied the people’s will.
In late 2017, there was a failed coup against Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has held the presidency in Equatorial Guinea for 39 years. Mbasogo blamed the plot on unspecified opposition-backed foreign powers. Although oil-rich Equatorial Guinea has the highest per capita income in Africa, poverty and repression persist. Mbasogo’s son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue serves as the country's vice president.
Equatorial Guinea granted asylum to former Gambian dictator Yahayah Jammeh, who reluctantly stepped down as president in 2016 after 22 years after being defeated in an election.
And the Mbasogo government's surviving the 2017 coup attempt is largely credited to Uganda's intervention. President Museveni reportedly dispatched troops to bolster security after the coup. The Ugandan army said the troops were part of a one-year renewable mission under the Status of Forces Agreement with Mbasogo's government. These days Mbasogo frequents Uganda, notably during prominent public holidays.
“There is a strong wind of change in Africa,” tweeted Zitto Kabwe, leader of the Tanzanian opposition party Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT) on February 15, referring to the resignations of Zuma and Desalegn. The tendency to cling to power is also present in Tanzania, but here it is less about individuals than about the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has dominated politics since independence in 1961.
Although Julius Nyerere, the country's founding father, set a precedent by stepping down voluntarily in 1985, the CCM remains in power and its rule under current president John Magufuli has become increasingly authoritarian.
While Magufuli rejected a call to extend rule beyond a two-term limit, it appears that the more CCM's position is challenged—for example, by more competitive elections—the harder the party and government work to repress those challenges. The period since the 2015 elections has been a tough one for the Tanzanian opposition, which has experienced the banning of opposition rallies and the stifling of independent media through a mixture of sanctions against certain media outlets, intimidation of media actors, and the punishing of citizens for criticising the president. Prominent opposition politicians have been enticed with new high-profile government positions. On Friday, February 16 in Dar es Salaam, a young student was killed allegedly by a stray-bullet, and several others were injured as the police dispersed an opposition rally. Both directly and indirectly, such actions contribute to an atmosphere of intimidation, self-censorship and fear of expressing alternative views about the country’s leaders.
Clenched fist at an opposition rally in Tanzania in 2012. Image by Pernille Bærendtsen. Used with permission.
Nigeria’s 73-year-old Muhammadu Buhari was elected president in 2015 amid a groundswell of hope. The “enormous goodwill” that heralded his ascent to power has been almost depleted by what some perceive to be “glaring failures” by his government. The Nigerian leader has been described as “parochial and clannish” in his appointments to public positions in the country. The government’s ineffectual response to the communal violence between herdsmen and farmers in Adamawa, Benue, Taraba, Ondo and Kaduna states has also been criticized as “inadequate, too slow, ineffective, and in certain instances, illegal.” According to Amnesty International, over 700 lives have been lost to the violence since last year.
This is the backdrop against which two former Nigerian heads of state have publicly asked Buhari not to seek a second term in office. Buhari’s first four-year term expires on May 29, 2019, with presidential elections due to take place in early 2019. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo in a public letter pointed out that Buhari was not only clannish but above all, lacked the capacity to “bring discipline to bear on errant members of his nepotic court.” Obasanjo advised Buhari to take “a dignified and honourable dismount from the horse” because “without impaired health and strain of age, running the affairs of Nigeria is a 25/7 affair, not 24/7.” Similarly, former military head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, publicly advised President Buhari not to stand for re-election because “there comes a time in the life of a nation, when personal ambition should not override national interest.” Babangida stated that Nigeria of the 21st century needs to “tap into the resourcefulness of the younger generation.”
The mood on the continent is one of hope, on the one hand, and of palpable restraint and scepticism on the other. People remember the hard lessons of the Arab Spring, where tyrants were replaced by another set of tyrants or nations collapsed altogether, as in the case of Libya, where a brief period of protests led to western intervention that fractured the country. While the 2016 change of government in the Gambia was welcomed with jubilation, there is growing disillusionment with current president Adama Barrow, who succeeded the dictator Jammeh. After just one year in office, Barrow illegally detained a university professor for criticizing his administration.
In Kenya, similarly, changes in leadership have not led to changes in the system or the dislodging of ruling cliques. Uhuru Kenyatta's recent re-election following a firm action by the country's Supreme Court which nullified his earlier win is one of the many reasons African citizens to remain sceptical. As president, Kenyatta has heavily censored televisions networks for political reasons in defiance of court orders, actions unprecedented since the democratic dictatorship of Daniel Arap Moi. He has also deported political opponents, a move reminiscent of colonial powers who exiled many African chiefs and leaders for dissent. Kenyatta will most likely struggle to retain legitimacy until the end of his term.
Even as leaders change, there's continued contestation of power in the face of growing inequalities within African countries. It takes time to dismantle the systems built by repressive leaders and regimes and build real democracies, and the process is rarely linear, moving in some cases both forward and backward. The departure of Jacob Zuma will bring neither an abrupt end to corruption nor much-needed opportunities for black South African youth, but it is a step. In Ethiopia, meanwhile, it remains to be seen what the departure of Desalegn means, especially for the role of the TPLF and the fight for control of the country in the face of the uprisings across different federal regions.
But in many ways, the cynicism is no match for the hope that has been ignited in many African countries where strongmen still hold power. Zuma was thrown out as a result of a growing democratic consciousness in South Africa. And the resentment in Ethiopia has coalesced into the kind of collective action that is essential for the “destructive creativity” that helps institutions develop into stable democratic cultures. These are palpable signs of hope.


text:
Censorship in Serbia Hits a New Low After Newspaper ‘Edits’ an Obituary · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The cover of the second edition of the book “Vučić i cenzura” (Vučić and Censorship) from the blog of the author, Srđan Škoro. The back page caricature is by Corax. Used with permission.
On February 21, a Serbian newspaper censored part of an obituary of a graphic artist, which noted that one of his last works was a book about censorship.
Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) strongly condemned the censorship of the in memoriam article in the daily Politika, about its recently deceased art director Darko Novaković (1949 – 2018).
Politika removed a segment of the obituary which noted that “one of the last books he designed was entitled ‘Vučić and Censorship,’ and Darko was brave enough to sign his name and surname under his work.”
The obituary, as well as the unmentionable book about the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, were written by Srđan Škoro, a friend of Novaković. In response to the censorship incident Srđan Škoro said:
„Nemam reči, zaista. Kad vlast ozakoni cenzuru, koja je zakonom zabarnjena, onda doživite da se cenzuriše i naslov jedne knjige iz oproštaja od kolege.“
I am lost for words, really. When a government legitimizes censorship, which is in fact forbidden by law, then one can experience censoring of a book title from an article with last farewell from a colleague.
Novaković's son published the full obituary on his website and posted the link and the photo of his father on Twitter.
In memoriam – Darko Novaković
(1949 – 2018)https://t.co/5xadU1TXiD pic.twitter.com/NTDverQOiy
— in mourning (@Singalongest) February 19, 2018
In their reaction, the Independent Journalists’ Assocation said they were shocked, even though in recent years they have “almost gotten used to examples of quiet censorship and galloping self-censorship… Such political ‘editing’ of obituaries is unheard of even by our most senior members.”
A social media user who shared the link to the announcement compared the current situation in Serbia, under the Serbian Progressive Party, with repression that took place when it was ruled by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, led by Josip Broz Tito.
Naprednjaci su i čitulje počeli da cenzurišu. Ovoga nije bilo ni kod Broza.https://t.co/IqabSTZUON
— Srdjan Milivojevic (@srdjanmil037) February 21, 2018
The Progressives had begun to censor even the obituaries. Such a thing has not happened even during Broz's regime.
NUNS osuđuje cenzurisanje In memoriam-a u Politici https://t.co/5z8nFooT58
EU&ostali slobodni svet: “I, šta se dešava u Srbiji?”
Srbija: “Cenzura nekrologa”
EU: “?!”
Srbija: “Ništa još niste videli”
— gordana comic (@gordanacom) February 21, 2018
NUNS condemns censorship of an in memoriam article in Politika.
EU & the rest of the free world: “So, what's new in Serbia?”
Serbia: “Censoring obituaries.”
EU: “?!”
Serbia: “You ain't seen nothing yet.”

author: Filip Stojanovski


text:
Generations of Peasants Have Occupied Land in Paraguay’s Neglected Countryside to Survive · Global Voices
Kurtural

Mariano Castro with pumpkin harvest. Photo by Melanio Pepangi. Used with permission.
Below is an abridged version of a story produced by Kurtural and republished on Global Voices with the authors’ permission. It is part of the series “The landless don’t go to the supermarket,” which will be re-edited for Global Voices.
As a younger man, Mariano Castro helped found the Paraguayan community of Yby Pytã. Today, he has a five-room house and a farm with chicken coops, pig pens, nine cows and a corn crib filled with six tons of corn he harvested by hand. He has dozens of fruit trees, a wood-burning cook stove, and a newly picked crop of giant orange pumpkins. He’s 55 years old, with calm, vulnerable eyes and a shy smile. With his wife, Élida Benítez, he has eight children and five grandchildren. He has lost one son to prison and another to murder.
But there’s one thing Mariano Castro lacks: a title to the land he’s cultivated for so many years.
One winter morning – a hot and sunny morning like so many others during Paraguay’s winters – Mariano Castro is out in the field, as he is so often before the sun rises. He was born in the city of Caacupé in 1962, one year before the formation of the Institute of Rural Welfare (IBR in its Spanish acronym) and the passage of Paraguay’s Agriculture Bill, two changes that have shaped the course of Castro’s life.
When he was 2 or 3 years old, Castro’s father, Enrique, left their home in Caacupé searching for land to farm to support his children. He started near Caaguazú, one of the areas of Paraguay most impacted by the struggle for land reform, an idea that would swamp the whole region in turmoil in the 1970s. In Paraguay, the process of land reform was coopted by then-dictator Alfredo Stroessner to illegally dole out enormous tracts of land to his supporters and friends— about 8 million hectares in all, an area the size of Panama. These improperly allocated lands, called “tierras malhabidas” (ill-gotten lands) in Paraguay, are often the subject of disputes between settlers forming new communities and the land’s putative owners. In his own search for land, Castro’s father would go farther east before finally settling permanently in Curuguaty, a community in the department of Canindeyú on the border with Brazil.
Then, decades later, Castro followed in his father’s footsteps: In the summer of 1996, when Castro was in his early 30s, he found his own land to occupy, located 150 miles from Paraguay’s capital, Asunción.
In 2013, that settlement, which today is called Yby Pytã I, and four other rural neighborhoods joined together to form part of the municipality of Yby Pytã.
Occupying territory has been the primary means for Paraguayan peasants to gain access to land. Three generations of the Mariano family obtained their property through occupation. Photo by Melanio Pepangi. Used with permission.
The farmland in Yby Pytã had owners, but Castro says that those lands were unproductive estates–large parcels in disuse–and subject to legal expropriation. Furthermore, for him land belongs to the people who use it; to use it, you must first occupy it.
Occupying territory has been the main way rural Paraguayans gain access to land. “There is no settlement or community in this country that did not begin as an occupation,” says Perla Álvarez, a member of the National Organization of Rural and Indigenous Women (Conamuri). Researcher Mirta Barreto, who has written several books about the problem of land distribution in Paraguay, agrees that most of the lands controlled by rural Paraguayans have been obtained through occupation.
Measure, hoe, cut, clear. Plant, cultivate, harvest. Care for livestock. Repeat. This is how land is occupied, how settlements are established, how towns are formed. Mariano Castro knows, because he spent a year and a half doing it. For 18 months, he walked 20 miles from his family’s home in Curuguaty to Yby Pyta in a caravan of young men depleted from the exhausting work of hoeing, cutting, clearing, and still more hoeing, cutting and clearing.
For Castro, land belongs to the person who works it, and to work the land, it must first be occupied. Photo by Melanio Pepangi. Used with permission.
It was a long and difficult journey for Castro. “My kids would ask why I wasn’t home, why I abandoned them. I’d spent two weeks at a time at the settlement. Without transportation, and it being hard to walk so far on foot, sometimes I’d be away from home for a long time,” he says.
But little by little the settlement was taking form: Each member of the group developed their own 25-acre parcels, as stipulated in Paraguay’s Agriculture Bill. Castro built a small house, with bamboo walls and roof of hand-hewn wooden boards.
In 2012, Castro had no reason for concern when three of his sons, Néstor, Adalberto and Adolfo, decided to occupy new lands to farm and raise their families. They would follow in their father’s footsteps, just as Castro had followed in Enrique’s. With Castro’s permission, his children chose Marina Kue for their future settlement, on state-owned land located on the far side of Yby Pytã I.
But on the morning of June 15, 2012, Néstor, Adalberto, Adolfo and other members of the new settlement found themselves confronting more than 300 police officers who had entered Marina Kue to dislodge the settlers. By nightfall, six policemen and 11 peasants had been killed, Adolfo among them. Then, after a long and widely condemned trial in which only the deaths of the police were investigated, Néstor was condemned to 18 years in prison.
Children and grandchildren of Mariano Castro posed for a photo in Marina Kue on a Saturday afternoon after a meeting of the settlement’s new inhabitants. Photo by Melanio Pepangi, used with permission.
After the June 15 confrontation, which has come to be known as the Curuguaty Massacre, Castro abandoned his fields to focus entirely on fighting in Asunción for his sons Néstor and Adalberto’s freedom. He spent years protesting, speaking to reporters, helping with his sons’ legal defense. One by one, he sold each of his 29 cows to pay for their attorneys and medical expenses.
But today, Castro is back in his fields. Settlers have returned to Marina Kue, among them Castro’s sons Adalberto and Rodolfo. Once again, Castro wakes each morning at 4:30 to beat the sun, eats breakfast and heads to the field, to the land made fruitful by his hands, where he spends his days in long sessions of plowing, hoeing, and disking, the land he’s fought for more than 20 years to keep.

author: Kurtural


text:
Men’s Health Magazine in Kazakhstan Says Nuts to Women’s Health · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Image used on Men's Health Kazakhstan website to advertise mock viral campaign.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org.
The Kazakhstan edition of Men’s Health magazine has sparked ire on social media by mocking a viral women’s health campaign with a spoof counter-campaign urging males to scratch their scrotums more regularly.
“If there are feminist campaigns, there should be jokes about feminist campaigns, otherwise it is discrimination against men,” Karim Kadyrbayev, a writer for the magazine, argued in a commentary accompanying the launch of the mock campaign, which even has it own hashtag — #ScratchIfItItches (#чешиесличешется).
Kadyrbayev’s blog was posted online on February 13 and featured photos of actor Jim Carey and footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi with their hands over their crotches.
It is a bold assertion indeed to claim that the men of Kazakhstan are oppressed victims of women-led social awareness campaigns, but the country’s misogynists are nothing if not oblivious.
The initiative to which Men’s Health is taking exception originated with Bollywood movie stars, who took to posting pictures of themselves holding up tampons with the hashtags #PadmanChallenge and #Iamnotashamed.
Thank you @pulkitsamrat for nominating me for the #padmanchallenge
I nominate our very own Mr World #RohitKhandelwal, Miss world 2000 @priyankachopra and everyone’s favourite @RanveerOfficial
PS it’s not just a girl thing! pic.twitter.com/2jEIIxD5ac
— Manushi Chhillar (@ManusiChhillar) February 17, 2018
The goal was to break the abiding stigma still surrounding menstruation all around the world. The viral sensation has since gone global, with model Natalia Vodianova emerging as the most prominent face of the campaign in the Russian-speaking world.
#PadMan Challenge ' Goes Global With Supermodel Natalia Vodianovahttps://t.co/eGVmk0ORzr
— Bahubali (@tarun4ihm) February 14, 2018
Forced to respond to the swell of negative online reaction to the Men’s Health Kazakhstan gag, Kadyrbayev wrote on Facebook on February 14 that the #ScratchIfItItches spoof was not aimed at making fun of sanitary towels. Rather, he said, he was criticizing online campaigns that “don’t get a damned thing done” in general.
Despite that line of argument, it is difficult to see the Men’s Health post outside the context of the vituperative patriarchal backlash that routinely awaits any online activity in Kazakhstan intended to promote the interests of women. When Almaty-based doctor Asel Bayandarova posted a status update on Facebook declaring that Kazakh women should not have to submit to the “stupid” expectations of traditional society, the reaction was vicious.
Bayandarova accompanied the text in her post with a selfie of her wearing just the bottom half of a two-piece swimming suit. Along with vast amounts of whole-hearted messages of endorsement, there were copious expressions of outrage, mostly from male traditionalists.
These types of counter-reactions are far from being unique to Kazakhstan, of course. Steve Bannon, an arch-conservative former adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, recently warned darkly that the #MeToo movement posed an existential threat to the Republican Party.
Steve Bannon warns Trump the 'anti-patriarchy movement' will be bigger than the Tea Party #MakeFascistsAfraidAgain https://t.co/Gut0RAnDKz
— Thelonius Fonk (@NoGodNoFlag) February 15, 2018
A similarly themed movement trending under Ukrainian- and Russian-language hashtags translating as “I am not afraid to speak” earned condemnation in 2016 from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The viral campaign de-stigmatizing menstruation, meanwhile, has been greeted with skepticism across the Russian-language internet, according to pro-Kremlin outlet Regnum.
The campaign began on the eve of the release of a Bollywood movie called Padman which explores cultural taboos surrounding menstruation in India. Regnum reported that many social media users suspect Vodyanova of receiving a fee from Padman’s backers and that she was actually engaged in promoting the film, rather than the cause.

author: Eurasianet


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Tunisian Security Forces Target Journalists Covering Anti-Austerity Protests · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Tunisian riot police in the capital Tunis on 6 February 2013. Photo by Amine Ghrabi (CC BY-NC 2.0)
The Tunisian government’s overzealous security response to recent anti-austerity protests has put press freedom in jeopardy.
Throughout January, protesters across the country took to the streets to demonstrate against tax increases that are raising the prices on a wide range of goods and services, including phone and internet services and imported agricultural products.
The increases are the result of the 2018 budget law which introduces a 1 percentage point increase in the value-added tax and increases customs taxes. The budget also imposes new taxes such as a 1 percent social security tax on employees and companies, and a fee for every night spent at a hotel to be paid by residents.
Although most of the protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent, with acts of looting and vandalism. One protester was killed on 8 January, when a police car allegedly hit and ran over him. The government claims he died of suffocation after inhaling tear gas. Hundreds of protesters, including activists who were distributing leaflets demanding economic reforms, were arrested.
In this climate of social tension, where the role of independent media is key to dispelling misinformation and communicating the legitimate demands of protesters, the Tunisian authorities are harassing journalists and drawing criticism from rights groups. Press freedom advocacy groups including the Tunisian Journalists’ Union (SNJT), Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and the North African Correspondents Club have condemned the rise in attacks on journalists by police.
In its monthly report for January 2018, the Tunisian journalists’ union documented 18 cases of violations committed against journalists in the country over the course of the month. The violations, which included assaults, detentions and equipment confiscation, were mostly attempts by security forces to control the free flow of information by hindering the work of the media. The report found that together, security officers and members of security unions were responsible for 11 of the 18 violations documented.
The union and other rights groups documented several cases of police detaining and questioning journalists in relation to their coverage of the protests. Shortly after the start of the unrest, Tunisian police questioned two French journalists, Michel Picard and Mathieu Galtier. Picard, a freelance journalist, was briefly detained on 14 January while covering President Beji Caid Essebsi’s visit to a working class neighborhood in the capital Tunis. Police asked him if he was working with other reporters, photographers or cameramen.
Galtier, a reporter for the French daily newspaper Libération was questioned for an hour by police officers on 11 January who asked him about the names of his sources in Tebourba, a town 30 km from the capital where the unrest turned violent and led to the death of one protester.
On 7 January, police detained Nadim Bou Amoud, a reporter for Tunis Review, seized his camera and smartphone and deleted from his devices all content related to that day’s protests. Two other journalists, Borhen Yahyaoui from radio Mosaique FM and Ahmed Rezgui from radio Shems FM, had their phones briefly confiscated by a police officer while they were covering a protest in Kasserine.
In addition to detentions, questioning and threats, journalists are also complaining of illegal surveillance practices. The union received several complaints from journalists about “the return of police surveillance of their homes, places of work and their movements.” These allegations have not been denied by the authorities. In fact, during a 29 January hearing at the parliament’s security and defense commission, interior minister Lotfi Brahem admitted to the wiretapping of the phone of Galtier, the Libération reporter, because he was allegedly in contact with “vandals.” On Twitter, the journalist denied this, saying he only talked to people on the ground in Tebourba.
These multiple attacks on press freedom prompted Tunisian journalists to take to the streets in a “day of anger” on 2 February to protest what the union describes as a “systemic policy targeting journalists to subjugate and silence them,” and to hinder them from “communicating information, exposing the truth, and documenting the government's violations against citizens’ rights to peaceful protest.”
The union’s chief, Neji Bghouri, also addressed an open letter to President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and head of the parliament, calling on them to take concrete action to stop the escalating police violence against reporters, and to put an end to government policies that put at risk the democratic process. The syndicate also intends to complain to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression about the current situation and invite him to Tunisia to conduct an investigation.
In response, government officials reiterated commitments to press freedom and freedom of expression. Three days after the “day of anger,” President Essbesi received the union’s board members and renewed his commitment to the protection of freedom of information and journalists’ safety. But this rang hollow as Essbesi had described the press in Tunisia as being “too free” at a press conference several days prior.
In a meeting with the head of the union, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said that unhindered freedom of information is vitally important to the country’s democratic process, and that his government is committed to honouring its commitments to press freedom. The parliament’s security and defense commission jointly with the rights and freedoms commission will hear representatives of the journalists and security forces unions’ to collect their recommendations for a respectful work relation between police and the media.
Despite its reiterated commitments to press freedom, the Tunisian government's actions (and inaction) have helped to create the current situation. When the protests erupted, instead of addressing the root cause of public concern, a number of government officials chose to attack the media. President Essebsi has accused foreign media and journalists of “tarnishing the image of the country” in their coverage of the protests. The country’s foreign minister made a similar statement about foreign media’s “non-professional” coverage of the protests.
In addition, the interior minister threatened to prosecute anyone who casts doubts [on social networks] on the security forces, and called for a legal framework to protect the security and armed forces from the ”physical threats they face,” but offered no resolution to the assaults and threats journalists are subjected to at the hands of security forces.
In fact, the interior ministry is pushing for a draft law “on the protection of the security forces” that would restrict press freedom, speech and assembly by criminalizing speech deemed “denigrating” towards the police.
Calls for jobs, social justice and freedoms were at the heart of the Tunisian uprising that toppled the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali more than seven years ago. While the country has achieved progress in terms of freedoms, in particular in the areas of free speech and press freedom, the economic situation remains so dire that nearly 1500 social protests were documented throughout the country in January 2018 alone.
A repressive security response that treats protesters as criminals and doubts the motivations behind their demands places journalists at a delicate situation where they are treated with suspicion — and attacked and threatened as a result — whenever they challenge the government’s narrative, shed light on security forces’ violations or give voice to those protesting.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Australian MP George Christensen’s Joke Gun Photo Denounced as Threat Against ‘Greenie Punks’ · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

George Christensen posts gun threat to ‘greenie punks’ – Screenshot 7 News video
A conservative Australian Federal parliamentarian has caused a stir in the wake of the fatal shooting of 17 people — including 14 students — at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. George Christensen’s original Facebook post defended gun owners and included a photo of him with a rifle.
He channeled Clint Eastwood’s character from the 1971 movie Dirty Harry in a comment on the post. A photo of him pointing a pistol had the caption, “You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?” He changed it without apology to, “You gotta ask yourself, do you have a sense of humour, greenie punks?” before deleting it soon after following pressure from his own political party, The Nationals.
The Greens party referred the matter to State and Federal police. Queensland police have apparently dismissed the complaint while the Australian Federal Police are considering an investigation. Prominent lawyer and human rights advocate Julian Burnside spoke for many when he replied to Greens senator Nick McKimm’s tweet:
George Christensen has finally revealed his deepest flaws as a human being.
He debases any party he belongs to.
He does not deserve to be in parliament https://t.co/ohH4eoH7Zm
— Julian Burnside (@JulianBurnside) February 18, 2018
Others were just as scathing:
So the same week 17 innocent students were massacred in the US, @GChristensenMP chooses to post pictures of him firing a rifle, along with him firing a pistol with a veiled threat to kill greenies.
George Christensen is a real piece of crap. pic.twitter.com/OkXIMh4v9f
— Richard Tuffin ? (@RichardTuffin) February 18, 2018
However, Christensen has supporters on social media who came to his defense. Daniel Edmonds responded in a post:
Thank you for standing up for the close to 2 million licensed gun owners of Australia. We are (by virtue of having passed the stringent tests to obtain a license), the most law abiding members of the community. It is patently absurd how much police time and resources are wasted policing literally the most law abiding members of the community.
A fellow member of parliament and the parliamentary friend of a shooting group, Ian Goodenough, defended Christensen but conceded that it was “an off-colour attempt at humour”.
That was too much for Marcellus Wallace:
Ian Goodenough comes out in defence of Georgie boy. He was just joking about shooting @Greens supporters, what's the problem?
Try going on a flight and having a “lighthearted joke” about a bomb. Shooting people is not a joking matter @GChristensenMP. #auspol #rnbreakfast
— Marcellus Wallace (@bdrinkwater) February 18, 2018
The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called it “very inappropriate”. The National party is part of his government coalition.
Firearms Owners United defended Christensen, preferring to attack the Greens, especially Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Is there a day that goes by without the Greens confecting outrage […]
The Greens taking the moral high ground about inciting violence. Ok then, Sarah.
No matter what your opinion on Christensen is, the act itself was harmless. Shooting a pistol in a controlled environment while making a movie reference as a gentle stab at his political rivals.
The same day Hanson-Young tweeted about a nasty and threatening email she received headed “Bullets’.
Cameron Blewett weighed the issues on his Linkedin feed:
Are we becoming too “sensitive”?
While there is no doubt that George Christensen's post was not appropriate, does it actually encourage cyberbullies?
If that is a “vile” post, the bar may be set too low. And as a consequence desensitises us to what actually is vile.
Peter O'Brien certainly thought so:
An offensive social media post. Wow. Form a Strike force. Leave no stone unturned. Place all the murder and rape investigations on hold. Let's get to the bottom of this. https://t.co/jwMVrywJh4
— Peter OBrien (@PeterOB24979769) February 18, 2018
On the other hand, Tom in Oz was not amused. He shared a cartoon by the Sydney Morning Herald’s John Shakespeare that was clearly not meant as a joke:
#auspol
GEORGE CHRISTENSEN – DOPEY & DELUDED & DECEITFUL & DANGEROUS – A COMPLETE DRONGO!pic.twitter.com/GKvoD8KGf0
— TOM IN OZ (@SirThomasWynne) February 20, 2018

author: Kevin Rennie


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India’s Investigation Agency ‘Defines’ Duties of a Journalist After Arresting Kashmiri Photojournalist Kamran Yousuf · Global Voices
Vishal Yashoda Manve

Indian forces make a formation to stop the stones after protests erupted in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. Image from Instagram by Ieshan Wani. Used with permission.
India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) — a counter-terrorism law enforcement agency — has outlined what Kashmiri journalists should report on in a court response that was issued after the arrest of 23-year-old Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf.
Yousuf worked as a freelance photojournalist for many local dailies including Greater Kashmir, the largest circulated daily in the valley, and MunsifTV, an English-language news channel. He was best known for his gutsy approach to covering the intensifying hostility between security forces and civilians in the Kashmir valley.
Despite campaigns from journalists and international human rights organizations including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Yousuf has been in jail since September 2017. Indian officials accuse him of being part of an international terrorist group that plans to wage war against Indian security forces in the Kashmir valley. He was arrested in Kashmir's Pulwama district and flown into New Delhi.
#Freelance Kashmiri photojournalist Kamran Yousuf, 23, has been in jail in #India since September. He faces a possible death sentence for his coverage of conflict in the region https://t.co/HtpwXBRotI
— Rory Peck Trust (@rorypecktrust) February 20, 2018
In their statements in front of the court, officials claim that Yousuf is not a real journalist and go on to include a definition of the role of a journalist in their charge sheet:
Had he been a real journalist/stringer by profession, he may have performed one of the moral duty of a journalist which is to cover the activities and happening (good or bad) in his jurisdiction. He had never covered any developmental activity of any Government Department/Agency, any inauguration of Hospital, School Building, Road, Bridge, statement of a political party in power or any other social/developmental activity by the state government or Govt of India.
Notably, NIA's website has no mention of Kamran Yousuf, even in the ‘Arrested Person in custody of NIA’ list.
For decades, Kashmiri journalists have faced interrogation, threats, and intimidation. Some Kashmiri activists who publicly condemned the security forces’ high-handedness and use of pellet guns have been silenced with threats. Even international journalists who attempt to report on Kashmir have faced deportation and have been banned from entering India.
The contradictory nature of the charges clearly shows that Kamran Yousuf is being used as a scapegoat in order to intimidate journalists who try to document the situation in #Kashmir.#FreeKamranhttps://t.co/wrctXapjti
— Parlina Aida (@parlinaida) February 21, 2018
Yousuf was imprisoned in September 2017 but was formally charged on January 18, 2018 with criminal conspiracy, sedition and attempting to wage war against India.
Kamran has spent over 150 days in unjust NIA custody, despite South Kashmir police chief said there is no FIR or complaint registered against Kamran in any police station.#FreeKamranhttps://t.co/EwBpjH6GCU
— Parlina Aida (@parlinaida) February 17, 2018
In its charge sheet, the NIA also points out that Yousuf's failed to report on the Indian army's civic accomplishments. In their charge sheet, they accuse Yousuf of harbouring ‘intentions to only cover activities which are anti-national and earn money against such footages’.
In an attempt to discredit Yousuf as a journalist, the NIA also points to Yousuf's lack of official media training from any institute; however, his lawyer Warisha Farasat claimed Yousuf had fulfilled all the criterions listed to be a journalist.
Meanwhile, Yousuf's family is distraught by the numerous charges that have been leveled against their son including being a stone-pelter. This charge, which the family vehemently denies, carries a heavy weight in the region. Many people associate both stone pelting and the subsequent retaliation from police forces with the greater socio-political conflict affecting Kashmir.
Yousuf's family and friends refute the government's allegations and say he was an earnest freelance photojournalist who simply wanted to carve a niche through his work. Kashmiri journalists have protested against NIA's arrest and its opaque investigations, citing charges have been fabricated against Yousuf for his work covering anti-governmental protests and militant activities.
After Yousuf's arrest, former employer Greater Kashmir disowned Yousuf and even refused to call him a journalist — a move that many felt came as the result of government pressure. The local journalism community was quick to criticise the move and jump to Yousuf's defense. Most notably, co-worker and freelance journalist Junaid Bhat wrote on Facebook:
I'm Junaid Bhat from Sopore, North Kashmir and I was affiliated with the Kashmir's leading newspaper Greater Kashmir. I was attached as a contributor for the said organisation, now after GK disowned my colleague Kamran Yousuf, I have decided to quit the organisation. So hereby I'm informing everyone that I will no longer be part of Greater Kashmir newspaper from now.
Others asked why other journalism associations haven't done more to protest Yousef's arrest. Associated Press photojournalist Altaf Qadri wrote on Facebook:
I feel ashamed to be part of a fraternity which only protests or raise their voice when a particular set of journalists are targeted. Kamran was targeted because his photographs from the South Kashmir from the spots of violence rattled the authorities. Because it challenged their narrative. Charges of stone pelting can be leveled against anyone, but it doesn't mean that he is guilty. This seems to be another way to control media. I honestly fail to understand why is Kashmir Editor's Guild, which came into being to address exactly the same issues faced by journalists, has not called for a protest or at least issued a statement. How about Kashmir Press Photographers Association? Or have we already accepted the charges leveled against Kamran? Today it is Kamran, tomorrow it could be YOU.
Muzammil Jalil wrote on Facebook:
We need to stand up for Kamran and if nothing more, we can at least demand to know what is the evidence against him. Taking pictures, shooting videos, being at the spot are all legitimate journalistic activities. That is no crime.
Yousuf's uncle Irshad Ahmad was quoted by Scroll.in as saying:
If it was the local police, we would have known whom to approach and how to deal with this. But this is the NIA, he is not even in Kashmir. Where do we go?
We would sometimes tell him not to work hard and cover every event given the situation in the valley, but he wanted to keep working. It was his passion […] he deserved to be appreciated and encouraged, not arrested and booked under false charges.
The Asia program coordinator of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Steven Butler said:
India's National Investigative Agency is way out of its league and has no business defining what ‘a real journalist’ should cover. […] Kamran Yousuf's work taking photographs of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir is a public service in the best spirit of journalism. He should be freed immediately.
Meanwhile, CPJ's Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney said:
Indian authorities must stop trying to crush the independent press in the Jammu and Kashmir region. Authorities should immediately release Kamran Yousuf.
The Kashmir Editors’ Guild said:
The pathetic standards of journalism that NIA aims to thrust is not just childishly naive but also reflect a dangerous conspiracy to disempower the fourth estate. If [the] NIA does not understand the basics that separate PR [public relations] from journalism, it puts its own investigating capabilities into question.

author: Vishal Yashoda Manve


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Laughing in the Face of an Internet Shutdown In Bangladesh · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Exam time has arrived in Bangladesh. Photo via pxhere (CC0).
Now is the season of school final exams in Bangladesh and the government is trying hard to cope with the issue of exam questions leaking online.
Leaking exam questions have become a regular phenomenon in public examinations like Junior School Certificate (JSC), Senior School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC), medical college and university admission tests, and state-owned bank recruitment exams over the last several years in Bangladesh.
Mostly using Facebook and WhatsApp, people sell exam questions ahead of the nationwide examinations. A few hours before the exam, the questions are often given away for free. The offenders in most of these cases have not been identified. These leaks have cast a shadow over the quality of exams and the process of assessing students.
In January, the Education Minister hinted that Facebook would be shut down during the exams to prevent these leaks.
On February 11, 2018, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission instructed all internet service providers in Bangladesh to shut off mobile internet and reduce broadband speeds to 25 kbps from 8:00am-10:30am on exam days throughout the remainder of February.
But on February 12, 2018 morning, within an hour from the start of the internet shutdown, the government backtracked and ordered ISPs to ensure uninterrupted internet service. It took some hours for the ISPs to implement the new order and things were normal again. The authorities have instead imposed a mobile phone ban near the exam halls.
Netizens criticized the move, using sarcasm and satire to express their dissatisfaction and protest the “rash and whimsical” decision.
Blogger Sabhanaz Rashid Diya tweeted:
No surprises that #Bangladesh govt. has “shut down” Internet access to prevent leakage during exam season. Then again, questions got leaked an hour before Internet was scheduled to go dark.
— Sabhanaz Rashid Diya (@diya880) February 12, 2018
Blogger and activist Imran H Sarkar thinks this seems like chopping your head off to cure the malady.
ইন্টারনেটের হাত-পা আছে, মাথা আছে। ইন্টারনেট দুর্নীতি করে। ইন্টারনেট প্রশ্নও ফাঁস করতে পারে! তাই বাংলাদেশে প্রশ্নফাঁস বন্ধ করতে ইন্টারনেট (প্রায়) বন্ধ রাখার সিদ্ধান্ত নেওয়া হয়েছে।
যারা এমন সিদ্ধান্ত নিতে পারেন তারা মাথা ব্যাথা হলে নিজেদের মাথাও কি কেটে ফেলবেন?
The internet has limbs and a head. The internet is corrupt. It can leak exam questions. So the internet was ordered shut down, as a measure to stop leaking exam questions. Those who can make such decisions – would they chop off their heads just because they had a headache?
Bangladesh is a riverine country. Each year the country faces floods which cause heavy damages. Stand-up comedian Naveed Mahbub wrote:
বর্ষাকালে বন্যা প্রতিরোধে ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ রাখা যেতে পারে…
We can shut down internet during rainy season to prevent flood…
Referencing recent news about defaulters on bank loans, Islam Raz wrote:
ঋণখেলাপী বন্ধের জন্য টাকামন্ত্রীর কাছ থেকে ব্যাংক বন্ধের নির্দেশনা আশা করছি।
I am expecting the Finance minister would instruct banks to close down in order to stop loan defaulters.
Hasnat Jamil opined that cancelling the exam would be the best solution:
প্রশ্ন ফাঁস ঠেকাতে ইন্টারনেট বন্ধ না করে,পরীক্ষা নেয়া বন্ধ করে দেয়া উচিৎ।
তাহলে আর প্রশ্ন ফাঁস নিয়ে দুশ্চিন্তা করতে হবেনা।
To stop the leaks, better to cancel the exam rather than shutting the internet down. Then you won't have to worry about leaks anymore.
This is not the first time Bangladeshis have faced an internet shutdown. In 2015 Bangladesh shut down the internet on security grounds and then blocked Facebook and a number of chat apps for 22 days. In addition to taking away peoples’ abilities to communicate and access important information online, these shutdowns had detrimental effects on the country's economy.
In the current scenario, many have spoken out about the fact that shutting down Internet — even for just two and a half hours for one day — has negative consequences for trade and commerce.
IT expert Fahim Masrur termed the decision as “foolish” and “suicidal” on his Facebook page:
ব্যবসা-বাণিজ্য আর অর্থনীতির উপর এটির বিরাট প্রতিক্রিয়া পড়তে বাধ্যI
কিভাবে?
১/ দেশে কয়েকশত আইটি আউটসোর্সিং প্রতিষ্ঠান কাজ করছে যাদের বিদেশে তাদের ক্লায়েন্টদের সাথে ২৪ ঘন্টা যোগাযোগ রাখতে হয়I এক ঘন্টা সময় বিচ্ছিন্ন থাকলেই ব্যবসা চলে যাবার সম্ভবনা! হাজার হাজার ফ্রিল্যান্সার দেশে কাজ করছে যাদের দরকার ২৪ ঘন্টা ইন্টারনেট কানেকশানI প্রতিদিন ২-৩ ঘন্টা ইন্টারনেট না থাকা মানে নিশ্চিত ভাবে ক্লায়েন্ট হারানো!
২/ দেশের সবচেয়ে বড় রপ্তানি খাত গার্মেন্ট শিল্প এখন ব্যাপকভাবে ইন্টারনেটের উপর নির্ভরশীল I প্রতি মুহূর্ত বায়ারদের সাথে যোগাযোগ রাখতে হয় I অনলাইনে বিডিং করতে হয়I সাপ্লায়ারদের কাছে প্রতিনিয়ত ইমেইল পাঠাতে হয়I সকাল বেলা এই যোগাযোগের ‘পিক টাইম'I ইন্টারনেট কিছু সময়ের জন্য না থাকা মানে ব্যবসার বিশাল ক্ষতি হওয়া I
৩/ বর্তমানে প্রতিদিন সকাল বেলা হাজার হাজার তরুণ Uber , pathao, Muv রাইড শেয়ারিং এপ ব্যবহার করে – কেউ রাইড নিতে, কেউ দিতে I সকাল বেলা (৮ টা থেকে ১০ টা) রাইড শেয়ারিং-এর পিক টাইম (দিনের অর্ধেক ইনকাম আসে এই সময় থেকে) I বিশাল ক্ষতির মুখে পড়বে এর সবাই I
This has a huge consequence for trade, commerce and the economy of the country:
How?
1) Several hundred IT outsourcing companies are working in this country who have to maintain 24 hour communication with the clients across the world. Even a one-hour shutdown can cost a company to lose their business to competitors. There are hundreds of thousands of freelancers working in the country through internet. If they are deprived of Internet 2-3 hours each day they will lose their earnings and even clients.
2) The largest export earning sector is the ready-made garments sector which is dependent on Internet for constant communication with the buyers. They have to bid online and keep a constant communication with the supply chain. If in the morning, during their peak time of business, communication is cut-off they will lose millions of dollars.
3) Many people in this country are increasing using ride sharing (Uber, Pathao, Muv) and other e-commerce apps. The ride-sharing peak hours are in the morning when people go to the office. They will lose big sums of earnings everyday.
A commenter on Masrur's post echoed his comments with a real life example:
আজ রাত ১০ টার সময় নেট চলে যাওয়াতে আমার ২৬৫ ডলার লস। এক ক্লায়েন্টের সাথে ২৬৫ ডলারের একটা কাজ নিয়ে কথা বলছিলাম। হুট করে নেট চলে গেছে। পরে নেট আসার পর দেখি ক্লায়েন্ট অন্য একজনকে হায়ার করে ফেলেছে
The [February 12] internet shutdown has caused me a loss of US $265. I was bidding for a work contract for that amount with a client when the Internet went out. I contacted the client when Internet resumed and found that he had hired another person in the meantime.
According to a Transparency International of Bangladesh report, as many as 63 sets of questions for different public exams were leaked from 2012 to 2015. These question papers are being snapped by mobile phone cameras anywhere from printing press to the exam hall and are being shared instantly on various social media tools including Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat and regular email.
Some members of civil society have commented that methods like open book exams could be a different way to re-establish the quality and authority of state exams.
There have been comments that there are corrupt people within the Education Ministry and those who deal with the matter of question paper printing, safekeeping and distributing to the examination centres. Some have even called on the Education Minister to resign.
The police have on several occasions nabbed different offenders over the years. Earlier this month, the Education Ministry had announced a bounty of BDT 500,000 (US $6000) for information on question paper leak, to prevent such occurrence.
For now, with demand for exam questions increasing, the leaks continue. How the government will choose to combat the problem, short of an internet shutdown, remains to be seen.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)