The C.R.I.M.E. Report

ISSUE #6 - "FAMILY" EDITION - CONTENTS:


SPOTLIGHT CASES:

After 105 Days in Jail…Homecoming!

After spending 105 days in solitary confinement in Iran’s Evin Prison, Haleh Esfandiari returned home this past week to her family. The 67-year-old grandmother and women’s rights advocate is now speaking out about her ordeal and the joy of returning to her family.

“Interrogations aside, I had the days to myself,” Haleh explained in a recent op-ed. “I adopted and stuck to a strict regimen of exercise, walking (or pacing) in my cell and outdoors when allowed, and reading. I noted that, though they were at first amused by my frenetic activity, some of the female guards were soon pacing up and down the corridor themselves. While exercising, I wrote an entire book - a biography of my grandmother - in my head, editing, transposing paragraphs, rewriting passages.”

While Haleh kept hope alive in jail, thousands of supporters – of all different outlooks and backgrounds – from all over the world rallied on her behalf. Nearly 8,000 people sent emails on her behalf through the Free Haleh Campaign.

After her release, Haleh sent the following thank-you note:  “I could never have imagined the international outpouring of support on my behalf while I counted the days until I was able to be reunited with my family again. There were times when I thought I would be forgotten but everything you did has proven me wrong. I will be forever grateful for everything that you have done to help me regain my freedom.”



Imazighen in Libya: No-Names No More

Playing the name game in Libya is no joke. Berbers (referred to in their own lanuage as Imazighen or Amazigh) constitute a tenth of Libya’s population. But until last year, members of this repressed minority were denied the basic freedom of naming their own children on official documents.

When Muammar Ghaddafi took power in a 1969 coup, his regime refused to recognize Berbers, claiming they were involved in a colonial plot to destroy “the Arab nation.” Public expression of Amazigh identity was criminalized. Earlier this month, Amazigh activists held a conference in a hotel in the Libyan capital of Tripoli – the first legal gathering of its kind in years.

Still, the fight for Berber rights remains an uphill battle, with the community seeking recognition of its language and history. Shishank Issa, a specialist in Berber studies, explains that “Berber identity in Libya used to be a taboo not to be broken.” But now, at last, parents are free to name their children without the government’s censorship.



Lebanese Mothers: What They Can’t Pass On

When Rana Issa, a Lebanese citizen, married a Norwegian man, she lost a key legal part of her identity: the ability to have Lebanese children. Issa is barred by law from passing on her Lebanese citizenship to her children. And when her family tried to visit Norway, her daughter was stopped by officials. “We didn’t know we needed an exit visa for her,” Issa explains. “So when we got to the airport they said, ‘you can leave, but she stays here.’ They didn’t care that her mother was Lebanese.”

According to the UN, only Lebanese males can transfer nationality to their children. And unlike the foreign husbands of Lebanese women, the foreign wives of Lebanese men are able to apply for citizenship within a year of their marriage.

According to the National Commission for Lebanese Women, there is a growing desire to amend discriminatory legislation related to women and the family. Roula Masri, a gender program officer, notes that all that needs to change is “just two words of this law to say ‘a child is born Lebanese of a Lebanese father or mother,’ just two words,” she said.

To read stories of families suffering because of citizenship laws in Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, and other Middle Eastern countries, visit Claiming Equal Citizenship: The Campaign for Arab Women’s Right to Nationality. While there, lend your support to the struggle for gender equality by signing the petition to grant women nationality.

 

GETTING CARDED:
Egyptian Patrons Required to Show ID
A new report in the Egypt Daily News reveals a growing phenomenon at Cairo cyber cafes: users are now required to present identification to get on the net. Café owners report that security officials will sometimes visit to review lists of patrons. As one young Egyptian web surfer tells the paper, “It seems odd to me to have to present an ID to check my email.”

CRIME QUIZ: The Name Game
Libya’s Berbers are not the only minority group in the Middle East that faced an official ban on giving their children traditional names. The Syrian regime also prevents parents in a large minority group from giving their children the names they want, at least on official birth certificates. What kind of names has Syria made illegal? (Answer: Kurdish)

BECOME A PARTNER IN CRIME:
Here is a list of four quick ways you contribute to the Middle East civil rights movement: