ISSUE #30 CONTENTS:
- TABOO TERM PAPERS: Your Back-to-School Assignment
- BAD CHEMISTRY: 950 Lashes Likely for Academic Advisor and Student
- Ministry of Errors: Iranian Paper Banned for Revealing Minister's Fake Diploma
- QUIZ: Where does asking a question during a campus lecture lead to detainment?
- Become a Partner in CRIME
SPOTLIGHT CASES:
TABOO TERM PAPERS: Your Back-to-School Assignment
The new school year is beginning, and the CRIME report welcomes you to "Censorship 101." For today's lesson, your assignment is to examine topics students cannot discuss in classrooms across the Middle East. Your homework – due on Friday, August 29 – is to identify three "Taboo Term Paper Topics" To help you get a passing grade, here are some example topics:
• Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia: They comprise over a quarter of the population, but have few rights and no chance at fair representation. In name, slavery was abolished in Saudi Arabia in 1962, but in practice it still exists. Try turning in a term paper in Riyadh on the rights of Indonesian maids.
• Election reform in Tunisia: The ruling party's candidate for president routinely received over 95% of the vote. Try writing a term paper in Tunis on how elections are conducted and results counted.
• Baha'is in Iran: The faith originated in Iran, but the religious is officially banned. Most Baha'is are excluded from government service, monitored by security forces, not allowed to congregate, and suffer regular attacks. Try writing a term paper in Tehran on the destruction of Baha'i cemeteries.
We hope these suggestions inspire you to break the rules. For this homework assignment, violating "academic standards" is encouraged. Turn in your best taboo paper topic to taboo@hamsaweb.org. Outstanding homeworks just might get shared with the rest of the class.
BAD CHEMISTRY: 950 Lashes Likely for Academic Advisor and Student
When Khalid Al-Zahrani, a biochemistry professor in Saudi Arabia, began advising a female student in 2004, he would have never imagined that a consequence would be 600 lashes and eight months of prison time. Moreover, his female advisee has been sentenced to 350 lashes and four months in prison. Their crime? "Maintaining an illicit relationship over the phone."
Unsupervised contact between unrelated members of the opposite sex is illegal in Saudi Arabia, so phone usage is one of the few outlets available for contact between unrelated men and women. No evidence of anything illicit in the academic relationship was presented at the trial, but the post-graduate student had recently divorced her husband and in the court's eyes, this divorce was a result of a conspiracy hatched by Professor Al-Zahrani. The professor stood accused of "influencing" his advisee to divorce her husband, while she was charged with being an "accomplice" in the plot to end her marriage.
Despite facing charges that could lead to prison and torture, the female student was not allowed to be present at her own trial, due to her gender (she was represented by her father). Al-Zahrani was allowed to attend, but not to refute the evidence. The case is currently under appeal, but Amnesty International has declared that if the punishments are carried out, both student and teacher will be "prisoners of conscience." Meanwhile, professors on campuses across Saudi Arabia will have to think twice about advising any students of the opposite sex.
Ministry of Errors: Iranian Paper Banned for Revealing Minister's Fake Diploma
Unable to convince fellow legislators to support his bid for Interior Minister, Ali Kordan decided that colleagues would come round if they knew about his law degree from England's legendary Oxford University. So Kordan showed them an Oxford diploma that bestowed on him an "honorary doctorate of law" for "opening a new chapter" in legal scholarship. Kordan's Oxford charm paid off: he was appointed Minister on August 5th.
Only, Kordan's was a most curious Oxford degree. Alef, a news site with opposition connections, obtained a copy of Kordan's "diploma" and asked Oxford to check its validity. The University promptly replied that it never gave Kordan any degree. Besides exposing Kordan's fraud, Alef also mocked the minister for riddling his "certificate" with English spelling errors. Alef got quite a reward for its scoop. Soon after breaking the story, access to the site was blocked, a common punishment the regime has used against antagonistic websites.
Instead of firing Kordan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended him and rejected criticism because of a "piece of torn paper." Next in news from Iran: Ahmadenijad shows UN inspectors his Columbia University honorary degree, for "opening a new chapter in sexuality studies."
QUIZ: Where does asking a question during a campus lecture lead to detainment?
ANSWER: At Cairo University, where 20-year-old literature major Belal Diab stood up last April during a lecture by Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, who was encouraging Egyptian youth to use the Internet to express their opinions. "Egypt's youth are behind bars," challenged Diab, urging Nazif to release fellow students arrested after organizing a rally via Facebook (video here). The lecture was cut short, and Diab was detained by university security. "They did that in public," explains Diab, "to set an example to all students that this is what happens if you object or express your opinion."
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.
- Join the campaign to free Osanloo by signing this petition.
- Apply to participate in HAMSA’s civil rights fellowship program.