new

Unnamed Saudi man #fundie gulfnews.com

Riyadh: A Saudi man was arrested after he shot a male obstetrician, arguing that he had no right to assist his wife’s delivery and that a woman gynecologist should have been around.

Dr Muhannad Al Zabn, who has a Jordanian father and a Saudi mother, delivered the baby one month ago at the King Fahad Medical City in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

According to media reports, the father went to the hospital and told the doctor he wanted to see him to thank him for helping his wife with the delivery of the baby, Saudi news site Sabq reported on Thursday.

The two met in the garden of the hospital and during the conversation, the shooter took out a gun he had concealed under his clothes and fired at the doctor.

As the Saudi father fled the scene, medics rushed the victim to the emergency department then to the intensive care unit. The shooter was later arrested by the police.

Bassam Al Buraikan, the spokesperson for the hospital confirmed the incident, saying that a doctor was shot and that his condition was now stable.

He added that the security authorities launched an investigation after collecting evidence from the scene of the attempted murder.

Most social media users shared their sympathy with the obstetrician and harshly criticised the shooter.

However, some commenters argued that women gynecologists should always be given priority in the delivery of babies in order to avoid cultural clashes.

Siraj ul-Haq, Tehreek-e-Insaf, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa politicians and elders and unnamed Peshawar judge #fundie gulfnews.com

Islamabad: In some of the most socially conservative regions of Pakistan this weekend’s local government elections will be men-only affairs.

Local politicians and elders say parties contesting elections for district and village council seats in Hangu and parts of Malakand, districts of the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), have struck deals barring women from voting.

There are fears of similar arrangements across KP, a province bordering Afghanistan where many Pashtun communities observe purdah traditions so strict that many female candidates do not publish photographs on election posters.

The cultural difficulties are often compounded by dire security in areas where the Taliban and other militant groups are active. In a parliamentary by-election in Lower Dir this month, none of the eligible 50,000 women in the constituency turned out to vote. One report said mosques broadcast warnings to women, and polling stations were guarded by “baton-wielding men” who blocked the few women who did try to vote.

On Wednesday, the high court in Peshawar threw out a petition lodged by 12 women from Lower Dir who demanded the election be rerun. Shahab Khattak, the women’s lawyer, said the case was dismissed after 15 minutes, during which the judge seemed unsure whether women really were entitled to vote.

“The honourable judge asked whether it was a fundamental right for women to vote,” Khattak said. “We said indeed it is a fundamental right and a constitutional right.

“That there has been massive discrimination against women should be clear from the zero participation at the polls.” Siraj ul-Haq, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that jointly controls the KP government, argued that the women of Lower Dir had merely chosen to respect local traditions by not voting.

Jamaat-e-Islami governs KP in coalition with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is led by the former cricketer Imran Khan. One of the PTI’s elected provincial representatives said the party had been complicit in keeping women away from the ballot box in KP, including in this weekend’s poll in Hangu.

In the run-up to the 2013 general election, the PTI in Upper Dir signed a written agreement with other parties barring women from voting and stipulating large fines for anyone breaking the agreement. In the end just one woman’s vote was recorded.

Kuwaiti MP Abdul Rahman Al Jiran #homophobia gulfnews.com

Lawmakers in Kuwait have lashed out at Amnesty International for criticising a proposal to introduce ‘clinical tests’ to bar homosexual or transgender foreigners from entering and working in any of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member counties.

The proposal was reported last week by a local daily newspaper that quoted a Kuwaiti health ministry director who said that it would be discussed by the GCC Central Committee for Expatriate Labour Forces Programme of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Oman on November 11.

Amnesty International said that the proposal “to introduce compulsory ‘medical tests’ and bar any migrant workers deemed to be ‘homosexual’ or transgender from entering Kuwait and other Gulf countries was outrageous and should be rejected out of hand.”

“Instead of continuing to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals, authorities in Kuwait should work to ensure that people are not harassed and abused because of who they are and repeal laws that criminalize sexual acts between consenting adults,” said Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

However, in remarks published by local daily Al Rai on Monday, MP Abdul Rahman Al Jiran said: “The decision to bar homosexuals from entering Kuwait is a sovereign decision. Amnesty International should take care of lofty and noble goals for which it was established, leave aside homosexuality and deviations and stop defending delinquents. The organisation should heed the annual rates of births outside the institution of marriage in Europe and abortions as well as the high rates of underage mothers and other moral crimes forbidden by all divine religions.”