ISSUE #18 CONTENTS:
- Lady Justice: Female Judges Challenge Glass Ceiling
- Red Carded: Booting Women out of Iran's Stadiums
- No Exit: The Struggle for Freedom of Movement
- QUIZ: How do women rise up in Tehran City Hall?
- Become a Partner in CRIME
SPOTLIGHT CASES:
This edition of the CRIME Report celebrates Women’s History Month as well as the Dream Deferred Essay Contest. Each article below is inspired by a noteworthy essay from past years.
Lady Justice: Female Judges Challenge Glass Ceiling
In 2007, Ahmad Ghashmary won second place in the Middle East with an imaginary story about a court case on the honor killing of a young Jordanian woman. The judge in the case was a woman who was suspended for sentencing the defendant (the young woman's brother) to death. Aside from spotlighting the problem of honor killings going unpunished, the essay also touched on the restrictions on women judges. Indeed, it was a fantasy because women almost never serve as judges in criminal cases in Jordan.
Other countries in the region have even tougher restrictions on women in the judiciary. Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia prohibit women from becoming judges altogether. According to a Qatari newspaper article, this is because women are supposedly too emotional. Pregnancy, menstruation and childbirth could interfere with their jobs, the article claimed, and cloud their judgment.
Despite these draconian restrictions, some progressive action has been taken. Recently, the UAE lifted its ban preventing women from serving in federal courts, and the countrys Judicial Institute is now training the first generation of women judges. This move makes the UAE only the second Gulf country, after Bahrain, to allow lady justices on the bench.
Red Carded: Booting Women out of Iranian Soccer Stadiums
In 2006, S.M. (who asked not to be named publicly) won honorable mention for her essay on her first confrontation with the harsh realities of Iranian gender segregation laws. Specifically, she recalled a childhood trip to a local soccer game with her uncle, only to be blocked by a policeman who refused to allow a woman into the stadium. "Although the 500 tomans my uncle paid the guard suspended my evolution to womanhood for the next two hours," S.M. wrote, "I knew that this would be my last time at the stadium."
Since the Islamic Revolution, Iranian women are banned by law from attending soccer games – ostensibly to protect them from rowdy male fans. Die-hard female soccer fans are left peering through the fence, ostracized from the game they love. Nonetheless, groups of Iranian women have protested this ban on several occasions, using sit-ins to demand entrance or sneaking inside in drag.
Earlier this year, the Berlin Film Festival screened the documentary "Football Under Cover" (banned in Iran), which 
chronicles a women-only match between German and Iranian teams. "We women have only half our rights," chants the all-female crowd in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. Or, in the words of director Ayat Najafi, "Women's football in Iran represents a battle for freedom. It is a means of fighting and showing that they won't be tied down."
No Exit: Women and the Struggle for Freedom of Movement
In 2007, one honorable mentions in the Mideast category went to M. Dawood, a young woman who recounted a litany of degradations she experienced traveling throughout the region. One barrier she encountered was a bizarre travel ban, as she was not allowed to join her mother on an international trip without the consent of her father (a deadbeat who refused to sign her permission slip).
While this restriction is found in several countries, Saudi Arabia places the strictest travel restrictions on women. By law, enforced by the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, women are banned from traveling abroad without a written permission slip signed by a male relative. Even a 60-year-old mother cannot leave the country unless her husband - or father, or son, or grandson – signs for her.
Arab News, a Saudi paper, reported on the plight of a local woman whose life has been put on hold by this law. The woman’s husband left her and fled to France – abandoning her without divorce papers or a male guardian who could sign her travel slip. To finalize her divorce, she needs her husband’s signature. To go to France to get the signature, she needs his signature. Stuck in a Catch-22, the woman is trapped in Saudi Arabia and in a failed marriage with no exit.
QUIZ: Quiz: How do women rise up in Tehran's city hall?
Answer: Separately. When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
became mayor ofTehran in 2003,one ofhis first moves was to create separate elevators for men and women in City Hall. Forced gender segregation in elevators was also instituted in municipal buildings across the city.
So much for love in an elevator!
BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here is a list of four quick ways you contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement:
- Forward this newsletter to friends & encourage them to subscribe.
- Write a letter to help free jailed blogger Fouad Al-Farhan.
- Enter the Dream Deferred Essay Contest on civil rights.
- Apply to participate in HAMSA’s civil rights fellowship program.