Female engineer: 'We can take Palestine to space and beyond'


Bayan Abu Salameh [Bayan Abu Salameh]

Anjuman Rahman
May 1, 2022 

When Bayan Abu Salameh enrolled in a mechanical engineering degree, she was one of only four women in an intake of more than 70 students at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah.

Her career choice had previously encountered doubts among her schoolteachers and peers, who questioned whether it was suitable for a girl or even realistic.

Despite the discouragement, she persevered.

The 25-year-old from a small village near Jenin called Faqua was awarded the Chevening Scholarship, funded by the British government, to study at Queen Mary University, where she successfully designed and analysed what she hopes will be the first Palestinian cube satellite and named it Palestine 1.

"It was around the age of 15, when I read the Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, when I knew that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life," says Bayan.

Inspired by Hawking's discoveries, Bayan wanted to create a machine that helps unearth more secrets of the wider universe. It was that early longing to explore and study space that charted her degree choice.

"But when I would tell my university classmates in Palestine that I want to study space, they'd laugh and make fun of me saying 'yeah because we have NASA in Palestine.' They made it sound far away, unreachable. But I did my research, I knew what I was talking about," says Bayan.

"It was something impossible for Palestinians to comprehend at the time, so I came to London, but it was during lockdown, unfortunately. And then I started my research about cube satellites."

Cube satellites, explains Bayan, are miniature satellites deployed into space for different missions, including the study of climate change, urban growth and water sources desertification.

The United Arab Emirates, she notes, launched its second cube satellite from the International Space Station last year, which was designed and built by Khalifa University of Science and Technology students at Yahsat Space Lab.

"It's a great indication of the country's academic competence, which I envision for the future of Palestine," she says.

"Palestinians deserve representation in space, we have great minds! The MENA region is facing a lot of problems and we need scientific-based solutions for such issues. However, it was very difficult to conduct research in lockdown because I had limited resources from the laboratories and library."

Moreover, the threat of eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah had unfolded at the time, which sparked weeks of violence last year, culminating in Israel's brutal 11-day military assault on the Gaza Strip that killed 230 Palestinians, including 65 children.

"I saw so many friends of mine getting arrested. Watching footage of my sweet friends getting attacked by Israeli soldiers made me cry for hours. I was here feeling helpless and continuously speaking to my mum and asking for updates."

Despite the psychological pressures hitting hard at the time, the events in Palestine made her more determined to focus on her thesis and exams, in hopes she will succeed and make her people proud.

"I did it," she says with a large smile. "I managed a structural design of the cube satellite and wrote my thesis, which I defended and received a distinction for it."

"That was the happiest day of my life because what I've been working on actually worked!" She announced her achievement on Facebook and shed light on the potential benefits of launching a Palestinian cube satellite into space one day. The news went viral.

Suddenly, Palestinians everywhere shared the same dream. Along with Bayan, they want Palestine to reach space.

Having recently been accepted into Imperial College London to pursue her PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Bayan says she will continue working on the Palestine 1 project.

She also recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds required for the PhD programme and the project, which she is determined to keep full ownership of.

"I don't want anyone taking the opportunity to turn this project into political propaganda, I just want it to be an academic project to benefit people academically worldwide."

"It's still a new industry and people are trying new ways to develop the structure of satellite cubes because currently, out of 100 cubes, almost 49 cube satellites fail. So, what I'm attempting to do with the Palestinian cube is modify the structure and efficiency of it, which will minimise the failure."

Palestine will benefit greatly from this project, notes Bayan. In Birzeit University for instance, students studying urban planning will have access to raw aerial data that will allow them to understand and excel in their field of study, she explains.

"It will also help the MENA region in general, not just Palestine," she adds. "A major problem threatening the Middle East right now is climate change. I've been following climate change conferences worldwide and, in every conference, they repeat that they need new western foreign policies to combat the problems of climate change."

However, foreign policies shouldn't be imposed on the MENA region as if they represent the most ideal solution to climate change. Instead, explains Bayan, a scientific basis from outer space – such as satellite imagery – should be utilised to identify the most appropriate response to solving the rising climate change problems.

Around the world, only 18 per cent of women in college and universities are pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, compared with 35 per cent of men, according to the UN.

"For women in engineering in the Middle East, it's not only about proving to themselves that they can succeed in it, it's also about proving it to everyone else. And that means twice the effort than a male engineer because every step of the way, she's being reminded that she does not belong in this field," says Bayan.

"I was one of four females in a classroom of more than 70 and had to face sexist comments from my professors who believed that I did not belong there. A professor of mine even told me that I'd end up hanging my certificate on a wall and not doing anything with it."

This needs to change, she says, emphasising the need for a conscious effort to eliminate this gender bias and encourage more girls to explore STEM-related courses.

"My motivation is to create a world where my daughter and females of the future will be comfortable studying engineering."

"Whilst also trying to minimise the gap between Palestine and space, I aim to establish a network of women in STEM, where we can come together and learn from each other's expertise to create magnificent projects. We need to stop thinking that space is so far away, we have the potential to reach there and beyond."

The UK will be complicit in the rise of far-right terrorism if it adopts the Shawcross review


William Shawcross in London, UK on 10 March 2011 

[Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty Images]


Muhammad Hussein
alhussein1001
May 30, 2022 

It was only a matter of time before a right-wing figure in the West finally revealed the true depth of their agenda by deliberately drawing attention away from the extremists at their end of the political spectrum. That is exactly what William Shawcross, appointed by the British government to lead the review of the Prevent counterterrorism programme, appears to have done.

According to draft extracts of the review leaked to the Guardian, Shawcross criticises Prevent for having a "double standard when dealing with extreme right-wing and Islamism," calling for it to focus on Islamic extremism rather than right-wing extremism.

The Shawcross review also criticises the programme's funding of civil society organisations and community projects, which it accused of having "promoted extremist narratives, including statements that appear supportive of the Taliban." That alleged misallocation of funding, says the review, meant that few of those organisations "could be seen to publicly contest extremist discourse." Hence, "the government must cease to engage with or fund those aligned with extremism."

The extracts from the supposedly independent review, which was delivered to the Home Office in late April, even make it a point to focus on that Islamic extremism and the mental health of all individuals referred to Prevent even if there is no actual evidence of extremism. This emphasis in Britain is flawed in many ways, not least because such cases account for only a small minority of Prevent referrals. According to government statistics, barely a quarter of the 4,915 referrals to the programme by the end of March last year were cases of Islamic extremism, three per cent lower than the number of far-right referrals. Over half of the total referrals involved extremism of an unclear, mixed or unstable ideology.

While the veracity of data may be questioned and there will always be inaccuracies and examples which are unaccounted for, such statistics immediately negate the claim that Islamic extremists are the main demographic posing a threat to national security in Britain. That dubious honour belongs to far-right extremists who have been on the rise in recent years, milking various issues such as refugees and the increase in crime rates to create their own twisted narratives of hate.

The threat they pose has already been seen in attacks by far-right individuals, such as the Finsbury Park van attack and the killing of Jo Cox MP. The same has been seen overseas, with New Zealand's Christchurch mosque shooting and the more recent Buffalo supermarket shooting in the US. All signs point to the formation of a transnational, intercontinental far-right movement with extremist elements across the Western world, which attract a relatively small share of mainstream attention when compared with that paid to Islamic extremists, the majority of whom are condemned by Islamist figures and parties.

The same condemnatory tendency can hardly be said for the likes of Shawcross, who complains in the draft review that Prevent has had an expansive view on right-wing terror, being "so broad it has included mildly controversial or provocative forms of mainstream, right wing-leaning commentary that have no meaningful connection to terrorism or radicalisation." If only he had such a charitable view of what the review calls "Islamist narratives".

READ: A new age of transnational terrorism threatens the West after Ukraine's foreign fighters return

Putting aside the serious issue of which poses the bigger threat, the credibility of Prevent itself must again be called into question, given the government's appointment of a controversial right-wing figure like Shawcross to lead the review of the programme. His affiliations and public utterances pushed hundreds of NGOs and civil society activists to insist that he was completely unsuited to carrying out an objective review of Prevent.

In his days as a board member of the anti-Muslim Henry Jackson Society (HJS), Shawcross was known for making negative comments about Islam in Britain and Europe. "Europe and Islam is one of the greatest, most terrifying problems of our future," he said a decade ago. "I think all European countries have vastly, very quickly growing Islamic populations." He openly supported the ongoing detention of terror suspects in America's Guantanamo Bay prison facility, and defended the use of torture as a "natural response" to the risk of terrorism.

Richard McNeil-Willson, an expert and Research Fellow in critical extremism and counter-extremism, told Middle East Monitor that despite the widespread criticism from the Muslim community and human rights advocates against the Prevent programme and now the biased review, "The UK government, aided by a poisonous culture of neo-conservative think tanks, chose to target only Muslim critics." He called this "a deliberate attempt to delegitimise British Muslim voices, painting criticism of Prevent as a solely Muslim issue and attempting to divide critics of Prevent." While the review of the programme was "initially welcomed by voices across civil society as an opportunity to have a positive, constructive debate," the government's appointment of Shawcross to lead it "showed hostility towards those who have raised concerns about Prevent. The leaked report confirms this hostility and downplays the threat of the far-right."

Despite the leak coming only "days after deadly White Supremacist violence in the US," he said, "reactionary voices within and around Prevent have sought to use the Review as an opportunity to push a hard-right anti-Muslim agenda." If the leak is proven to be true, then the government must know that it "will undermine any lingering trust in the programme and galvanise civil society opposition against it," warned McNeil-Willson.
The politicisation of counter-extremism

The impact that Shawcross had upon charities and community organisations during his time as the chair of the Charity Commission – also supposed to be an apolitical, objective position – was seen by the now infamous increase in formal investigations of Muslim charities.

MEMO's senior editor Ibrahim Hewitt was the chairman of the board of trustees of the British charity Interpal for almost 25 years, and witnessed a definite change in attitudes under Shawcross. The Charity Commission's scrutiny of Interpal stemmed from allegations that it supported Palestinian organisations regarded by pro-Israel Western governments as "terrorists", including the 2003 US listing of the charity as a "specially-designated global terrorist entity", a designation picked up by Canada and Australia "to get Brownie points from George W Bush." Israel banned Interpal in 1996, but Hewitt was still allowed to enter the country with two British MPs to see Interpal's projects in 1998.

"Our deep engagement with the Charity Commission pre-dated Shawcross, and was generally at a time when it was there to help charities," Hewitt told me. "That changed with Shawcross, when the commission took on more of a policing role, rather than advisory and guidance."

Despite a major investigation and inquiry, the commission's findings that Interpal was not guilty of any wrongdoing were always questioned by Israel's far-right supporters. "The absence of any police involvement [in Interpal] is hugely significant," said one senior Metropolitan Police officer. According to Hewitt, "The fact that Interpal was never sanctioned in this country and has charitable status to this day speaks volumes about the politicised nature of the allegations against the charity." He pointed out that this political bias was confirmed when the US Treasury told Interpal's New York lawyer to let the charity know not to spend more money on legal fees trying to be removed from the terrorist list, "Because the designation was a political decision by the State Department which will require another political decision to remove the 'terrorist' designation."

READ: The hijacking of the Prevent review shows the vulnerability of Britain's Muslims

The chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), Massoud Shadjareh, also spoke to MEMO on the Commission under Shawcross. "It became very Islamophobic. Muslim charities were treated with a different standard than other charities," he explained. "Some Zionist charities were raising funds and openly and publicly sending it to Israeli armed forces, which is unlawful according to British law. You can't raise funds for armed forces other than the British armed forces, let alone for a foreign government."

Such open bias by the Shawcross-led Charity Commission "very clearly highlights that this man cannot be in a position to implement a fair policy when it comes to Islam and Muslims" in any review of Prevent. The British government's decision to appoint him "only highlights one thing, and that is the government's unwillingness to be looking at Prevent in any unbiased way… it's like putting the fox in charge of looking after the chickens. It makes a total mockery of the review."

Shadjareh stressed that the government's move was no surprise given its past policies regarding counterterrorism and extremism. "It usually makes a decision before any consultation or investigation which ends up as a rubber-stamping exercise. That's why we, as an organisation [IHRC], stopped taking part in this government's 'consultations' which are simply a tool for it to implement pre-determined policies."

The primary reason for the demonisation of Muslim charities and organisations within the UK, he stated, is an active attempt "to make 'Others' of British Muslims as if they're not part of wider society. What this does is alienate the Muslim community and basically create a second class of citizenship."

A key part of that demonisation is the focus on "non-violent extremism", said Shadjareh. "How do you define non-violent extremism? You could say that the Conservative Party is a [form of] non-violent extremism. And you could put the label on anybody who's got a deep commitment and who's not violent – you could call him a non-violent extremist." He insisted that what the government and its far-right elements are doing with such labelling "is forcing Muslims not to be politically active as Muslims… They have to be subservient to the system. They cannot have an independent mind, because if they do then they are non-violent extremists."

It is no secret that Shawcross's advocacy of counter-extremism measures to focus on Muslim organisations and "Islamists" is, on the whole, part of the current government's overall discriminatory attitude towards the British Muslim community. That attitude has been propagated not only by Shawcross, but also the likes of Home Secretary Priti Patel and doubtless many of the ruling party's officials, MPs, parliamentary assistants, aides and affiliates in Zionist and Hindutva lobby groups.

If the Prevent programme, the government and the security services decide to act on the draft review's recommendation by obsessing over a vague and potentially over-exaggerated Islamic extremist threat, then it is clear that they will be complicit in the rise of transnational far-right terrorism.

READ: One politician is steering Britain to the far-right

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

South Africa's Zingqolweni, "the village of death"


Zingqolweni village -VIDEO https://www.africanews.com/embed/1950204

Copyright © africanewsc
By Rédaction Africanews 

Sleep is something that the inhabitants of Zingqolweni abandoned many months ago.

Tucked in a remote corner of South Africa, this frightened village of 3,000 people has suffered a murder almost every month, occurring with clockwork regularity for a year.

The brutal series of killings has earned Zingqolweni a chilling moniker: "The Village of Death."

All 11 victims have been elderly people, most of whom were women and most of whom lived alone.

They have been stabbed to death in their homes after nightfall, when pitch darkness falls over a village where the unpaved roads are unlit.

Nobongile Fihla, 50, spoke to AFP as she walked back from the cemetery.

Her mother was among the first victims, killed in May 2021.

"I found my mother there, next to the door, lying in a pool of blood. Her throat was slit," Fihla told AFP.

Her aunt was then found stabbed to death in the same thatched round hut where the two sisters lived.

No-one saw or heard anything.

The homes, known as rondavels, are far apart from each other in Zingqolweni, a Xhosa-speaking community lying three hours from the nearest large city of East London.

Here the sun sets behind the green mountains of the Eastern Cape province by 6pm (1600 GMT) in the winter months.

- Never in South Africa -

South Africa is one of the world's most violent countries outside a war zone, with a murder committed every 20 minutes on average.

But even hardened police have been taken aback by the gruesomeness of this killing spree.

All the victims were brutally stabbed. Some also had their throats slit.

"They literally bleed to death," a senior police investigator told AFP.

"A series of murders of elderly people with a psychological motive. No, not seen before in South Africa," said the investigator, who asked not to be named.

Six men have been arrested over the killings, and their trial is set to begin in June.

Local police believe the murders are simply burglaries that have gone wrong.

But local official Gcinikaya Koki, 64, is among those who doubt that thieves are to blame.

"After the killings, when people were searching the house they found the money in the house," he said, adding that other valuables were also untouched.

"Now, you then ask yourself, 'What is it that they want from this person that they killed?'"

The only clue ever found has been a piece of clothing.

Fears of a serial killer on the loose have swept the village. Some have fled and women have started sleeping together at night.

- Code of silence -

A special police unit that investigates serial crimes has visited the area several times.

The murders, the investigator told AFP, share hallmarks that fit the narrative of a lone killer.

In each killing, there is a single modus operandi; the murders occur regularly at the start of each month; and there is no evidence of a criminal motive.

The murderer must be young and strong enough to overpower his victims, according to this scenario. And given the remoteness of the village, he probably lives nearby, and possibly harbours a hatred of the elderly.

"The person must have known the people living there and who was living alone," the investigator said.

Husking maize on a stool in front of her home, 82-year-old Nontukunina Mbenyana says she is afraid but she will not leave.

"If they come for me, I am prepared," she said. "I will die in my own house."

Authorities had for months kept silent on the killings, so vigilantes stepped in.

Seven suspects, all men aged 21 to 27, were found dead. Some were burned alive, others hanged in the nearby forests.

Twelve men have been arrested, but then released for lack of evidence.

So the investigation continues, amid a code of silence in the village.

"Nothing happened here," a man climbing into his pickup told AFP.

Lately, the grisly crimes have halted, deepening the mystery.

Increased police patrols and media attention may have deterred the murders "for a while," the investigator said.

"We sometimes see that serial murderers who begin to be uncovered move away. We might come across him again somewhere else..."

The Queen has been beamed onto Stonehenge and people are baffled

Liam O'Dell

The Queen projected onto Stonehenge for Platinum Jubilee

The Platinum Jubilee weekend is just days away, and we’re already seeing some… interesting ways of celebrating the Queen being on the throne for 70 years – with the famous heritage site Stonehenge certainly being up there as one of the weirdest.

Announcing the news on the Wiltshire site’s Twitter profile on Monday, English Heritage shared an image of the display and wrote: “Our spellbinding homage to Her Majesty The Queen! We’ve projected eight portraits of Queen Elizabeth II onto Stonehenge in celebration of the Platinum Jubilee.”

A further update from the organisation, featuring a video of the team setting up the display, explains that each of the eight pictures projected onto stone is from “a different decade of The Queen’s reign”.

For those wondering if the historic Stone Circle has an origin which is perhaps not best suited to displaying images of the monarch, English Heritage themselves have said “the purpose of Stonehenge is unknown to us” and that it has “no obvious practical purpose”.

Meanwhile, other brands have also offered up their take on Jubilee-themed merchandise which absolutely no one asked for, including Heinz rebranding their salad cream to ‘salad queen’ without realising it’s actually a NSFW slang term.

Oops.

And that’s not the only corporate concoction. Marmite has become Ma’amite (which we think is actually pretty clever, to be fair), while M&S have brought out a new version of their Colin the Caterpillar collection and a ham and whole egg sandwich.

We’ll pass on that one, thanks – and we’re not particularly keen on the gourmet jubilee chicken crowns, either.

And while the meaning behind the site remains unknown, Twitter users have begun questioning the purpose of this “tacky” tribute:

Africa: Everyone has a Role to Play in Ending Abuse Against LGBTQI+ Africans

Pixabay
(file photo).

30 MAY 2022
allAfrica.com

By Sethi Ncube

Johannesburg — In April 2022, the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) and the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS, and Gender (CSA&G) at the University of Pretoria together with the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures (CGS) and the Center for Conflict Studies (CCS) at the Philipps-University Marburg launched the first edition of the Pretoria-Marburg Queer Conversations. The conversations come from common interests in work on LGBTIQ+ and queer identities among the centres.

This six-event series, themed Scholarly and Activist Perspectives on LGBTIQ+ Lived Realities in Africa, creates a monthly space for in-depth discussions that bring together scholars and LGBTQI+ activists.

On May 19, at the second event of the series focusing on Threats to Human Rights for LGBTIQ+ Communities: Hate Crimes and Conversion Therapy - Khanyo Farise - an Africa advocacy officer at OutRight Action International led a conversation focused on conversion practices in Africa.

But what are conversion practices? It can include "beatings, rape, electrocution, forced medication, isolation and confinement, forced nudity, verbal offence and humiliation and other acts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse" ... because their sexual orientation or gender identity do not fall under what is perceived by certain persons as a desirable norm", says Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. More simply put, it means trying to force people who identify as LGBTQI+ to conform to a heterosexual identity.

"All of them really depict any and all treatments, practices, or sustained efforts that aim to suppress or change a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. It is rooted in the rejection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer considering them as needing to be cured, or repaired to gain their presumed heterosexual identities," says Farise.

There is still widespread opposition to the rights of queer Africans in many countries. Kenya's Film and Classification Board banned the documentary I Am Samuel, which officials said was intentionally produced to promote lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as normal. This as queer refugees in the Kakuma refugee camp have faced often brutal attacks. While in Ghana, where gay sex is punishable by up to three years in jail and persecution of queer people is common, an Anti-Gay Bill will make it illegal to be queer or to advocate for LGBTQI+ rights. In South Africa, where the community's rights are enshrined in the constitution, the daily reality is often starkly different.

The recent rise in anti-queer sentiment in Africa has it's roots in part to the influence of American evangelical churches. openDemocracy reported that at least 20 U.S.-based Christian right-wing groups have poured million of dollars into the continent since 2008 to oppose sex education, contraception, abortion, and LGBTQI+ rights. But the origins of anti-queer violence dates as far back as colonial times.

Farise's discussion focused on the lived realities of LGBTQI+ people in Africa. She shared data gathered through research in three focus countries - Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. The research started in 2019 and was done in collaboration with local organizations to understand the nature and extent of conversion practices in Africa. "We wanted to build a body of localised knowledge of exactly what these practices look like in Africa and in particular in these three countries, especially because of such a lack of such data. There's just not enough of it and where it does exist. It's not localised. It's not by us, for us," Farise said.

Another goal was to raise awareness about the existence of these practices in African countries and to show the profound harm they cause to LGBTQI+ people all over the continent, especially young people. "As we know, the continent is majority youth and so many young people are affected by these practices. So it was important for us to try to raise awareness of what these look like and then also to build a broad base of support from various stakeholders including policymakers, government actors, civil society, people in the African Union, the African Commission, and various other platforms to build a body of support to say these practices must be eradicated," she said.

"It is already difficult to live in a world where everyone thinks you are different and need to be fixed. We are also human beings and did not choose to be who we are. As much as a zebra did not choose it stripes, black and white. It is not by choice. It is by birth, love us or hate us we will forever remain queer. Love that child. Love him unconditionally, and they will conquer the world with your love and support."

"So this quote really stood out for me because I think it shows a lot of the pain that many LGBTIQ people in Africa, carry with them and live with because of being subjected to these harmful conversion practices. And also just living in fear of being exposed to them," Farise added.

One of the local partners in South Africa called their campaign against these practices inxeba lami. This translates to my wound, which Farise says really speaks to the deep pain that so many LGBTQI+ Africans live with. "We were celebrating International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia recently, and unfortunately in many countries in Africa, there are still frameworks that are discriminatory and actually fuel these harmful practices that many young people, young and old, in fact, are at risk of experiencing" she said.

The research showed that out of the 2970 LGBTQI+ respondents surveyed, more than half of the respondents had undergone some form of conversion practice.

"We also found that frequently, several forms of conversion practices are combined. Most respondents in the survey indicated that they endure more than one form of conversion practice. We also found that they increase in intensity from the time a person is outed or is discovered to be a member of the LGBTIQ+ community. First, it would start with family talks, and then it escalated to counselling by church leaders and community leaders, and then it gets into violence in many cases and duress, ostracising, starving, torture, and various other forms," said Farise.

The survey showed that some of the respondents were subjected to these practices since their childhood and it continued over many years. Often it included some form of "talk therapy".

"An example here is a quote from one of the respondents who said: "I was caught in the act having sex with my boyfriend, and I was taken to our local counsellor in Machakos hospital. I was forced to be screened for mental health issues, later to be subjected to daily counselling sessions by my counsellor. My dad would like to scare me that they would kill me if I don't stop being gay and out into the whole community."

Another method which was very often found in all three countries was prayer and laying on the hands for 'healing'. "I was told that thinking was demonic and that I missed a ritual intervention to cure the homosexuality spirit. I went through many prayers and at some point, I contemplated committing suicide. I almost lost myself", a respondent said.

"So this person is also showing some of the impacts of being at risk, of being subjected to these conversion practices, where people have a lot of mental health consequences. Another example is false imprisonment by locking persons in homes, churches, or camps. We also saw cases where people were forced to fast and basically deprived of food for a long time," adds Farise.

Respondents also spoke of sexual assault and being coerced into sex, relationships, or marriage. "I'm a Muslim. So when the parents realized I am gay, they went and paid dowry for a girl they wanted to marry me. She would later be brought to my room for me to sleep with her."

Another respondent said: "When my parents realised I was queer, and I love girls' clothes. I was taken to a pastor. When my mom used to go to church they used to pray for me, and at some point, I would be beaten by my brother and father to change and man up."

The survey also showed numerous cases of medical interventions by health professionals. "The research found that in all three countries, religious leaders mental health practitioners, and certain family members were the main perpetrators of these conversion practices, whilst family members were the initiators who once they discovered someone's sexual orientation. They now initiated and approach various actors to try and place this person back," said Farise.

In some cases members of the queer community sought out these practices themselves. "So we also concerningly found that there were many cases where people sought out these practices, where people took themselves to these spaces and that just showed the need for advocacy and affirming services and awareness-raising for people to understand that they're perfect the way they are, and there's no need for them to seek these practices. But it was concerning that there were all these pressures and all this discrimination that actually results in many people going to seek out these harmful practices," adds Farise.

Respondents suffered physical and mental consequences of these practices with many experiencing depression, social anxiety, substance abuse, attempted suicide, and internalised homophobia.

"The independent experts on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity have produced a detailed report which highlights that these conversion practices result in severe pain and suffering and long-lasting physical and psychological damage. Similarly, the Special Rapporteur on torture has said that these procedures ... lead to severe and long-lasting mental pain and suffering. And can amount to torture and ill-treatment," said Farise.

So what needs to be done?

Farise says that every single person has a role to play in eradicating conversion practices, especially on the African continent and that civil society must document and raise awareness that they do, in fact, exist.

"When we share these findings with many policymakers with the traditional leaders and religious leaders, they were very excited about this research because they say now we can actually design programmes that are targeted and that can have an impact because they are evidence-based. Even we as a civil society. We design our programming because we have reliable data on what these things look like. So it's important to continue to collate this data. Of course, there are various other things, including supporting victims and survivors that civil society can do," said Farise.

Religious and traditional leaders should publicly condemn these practices and it's also important for the medical community to prohibit these practices through their associations, she adds.

"Governments have an important role to play but one of the primary things that they must do, as we've seen in the example of Kenya and Nigeria where there are laws that discriminate against LGBTQ people and make consensual same-sex relations illegal, these laws that fuel these practices, and these perpetrators who act with impunity in those contexts, so governments must eradicate laws which fuel these harmful practices," Farise said.

Besides removing these harmful laws, governments should also provide support for the survivors of abuse and collect data on how widespread these practices are, Farise said.

Africa: 'Bisexual People's Existence Constantly Challenged, Erased'

Pixabay
(file photo).

29 APRIL 2022
allAfrica.com

By Sethi Ncube

Johannesburg — The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) and the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS, and Gender (CSA&G) at the University Pretoria together with the Center for Gender Studies and Feminist Futures (CGS) and the Center for Conflict Studies (CCS) at the Philipps-University Marburg has launched the first edition of the Pretoria-Marburg Queer Conversations which will be held monthly from April to September 2022.

The conversations emanate from a convergence of interests in the work on LGBTIQ+ and queer identities among the centers. While the CHR is invested in human rights education in Africa, the CSA&G advances gender, sexuality, health and HIV as key aspects in imagining and re-imagining diversity and inclusivity. The two centers based at the Philipps-University Marburg, the CGS and the CCS, are interdisciplinary institutions engaged in teaching, research, and knowledge transfer in gender studies and peace and conflict respectively.

This six-event series, themed: Scholarly and Activist Perspectives on LGBTIQ+ Lived Realities in Africa creates a monthly space for in-depth discussions on topics such as 'queering coming out', 'colonial legacies of anti-LGBTIQ+ rights', and 'queering perspectives on power dynamics'. The discussion sessions will bring together scholars from various disciplines and renowned LGBTIQ+ activists from the continent. The panelists will shed light on the particular topics from their disciplinary and professional perspectives and engage in an interactive conversation with participants at the events.

On 21 April, at the first event of the series dubbed - Queering Coming Out: Nuances Among Queer Individuals in South Africa - Zuziwe Khuzwayo - a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand shared one of the chapters of their PhD thesis titled 'Why Do I Need to Come Out If Straight People Don't Have To'. Divergent Perspectives on the Necessities of Self-Disclosure Amongst Bisexual Women.

According to Khuzwayo, "in terms of looking at bisexuality, looking at any LGBTQI plus queer studies, evidence has shown that there has been limited studies on bisexuality. Historically, most of the focus in terms of studies has been on lesbians and gays, and recently people are looking at trans or intersex studies, but there still continues to be a limited focus on bisexual identity."

"One of the reasons this occurs is that bisexuality is a misunderstood and misconceived sexual identity. Bisexuality is viewed as a phase, as being promiscuous, that for some reasons bisexual individuals cannot necessarily be monogamous, and so that legitimacy continuously happens," Khuzwayo adds.

Khuzwayo says another reason why the misunderstanding occurs is because there's been multiple definitions on bisexual identity, and this adds to the confusion. The misunderstandings of the definition, as well as the negative connotations of the sexual identity, create a stigma towards bisexual individuals, which has resulted in some mud claiming their sexual identity in public.

"When we're looking at bisexuality in South Africa, we must recognize that historically a bisexual identity was part of the LGBTQI movement, fighting against all forms of discrimination. So whether it was queer discrimination, whether it's just the past state system fighting that discrimination, but even in the spaces we'll find that particularly in the LGBTQI movements, you are finding that bisexual identity continues to be the invisibilised and not recognized as legitimate sexual identity," says Khuzwayo.

"Currently bisexuals are part of the movement in South Africa. But nonetheless, the bisexual identity still faces a lack of acceptance and legitimacy within space. Stigma, the lack of representation and acceptance has made bisexuals very hesitant to come out and perform this act. And even those who have come out they still face various challenges," they added.

Click here to listen to the rest of the episode

According to Khuzwayo, bisexuality in the Global North can be traced back to the ancient Romans and Greeks who were engaging in actions and behaviors and attractions towards for those who were male, female, and those who have gender non-conforming. It was in 19th century when a definition came of bisexuality. And that was defined as "forms of life that exhibit physical characteristics of both sexes". Bisexuals not only exist but their existence has always been constantly challenged and erased.

"When we're talking about any sort of sexual identity colonialism has to be discussed, and colonialism brought with it a hetero-normative belief on sexual orientation through a Christian ideology. Now, that's not to say that queer individuals were not historically part of pre-colonial countries and contexts, but unfortunately, there's a limited documentation of non-heterosexual identities, particularly in Southern Africa, in Western Africa I think that there's a lot more documentation. I'm reading about studies where there was a king in a West African country that was engaging as a bisexual man and having these kinds of engagements," Khuzwayo insists.

"In the South African context, whenever we're talking about LGBTQI people or queer individuals, one of the big words that comes up particularly in rural parts, is a word - "istabane". The word study was first sort of documented or used in the 1800s, and it was used to denote men who are associated with banditry and suddenly in the hospitals during the cold rash. Then that definition of that word changed, and it's usually now referred in a derogatory manner to an individual who has both male and female sexual organs, and they were considered to be bisexual. So again, there's a derogatory sort of way of defining bisexuality and same sex organs, but then today, the word is used to refer to all LGBTQI individuals in a negative manner, " Khuzwayo adds.

"Non-heterosexual identity has always existed, the biggest challenge is the fact of the archiving and the documentation. I think with this kind of series, and hopefully it's with my kind of work will highlight that this has always existed, " Khuzwayo says.

"In Uganda, there is a group of women who are in romantic relationships with each other and they have been living for many years in public claiming their sexual identity, but they've never ever actually had to come out. And that indicates to you that queerness or non-heterosexual sexuality has always been a part of the continent, but I think we cannot really underestimate the role of colonialism. Colonialism brought about the ideology in order to bring about a particular economic benefit, the classification of men and woman, and who does what particular labour, the classification of what it is to be heterosexual and what it is to sort of build this family to build this labour in order to support the colonial project," Khuzwayo argues.

"Historically, the reason why people have chosen to come out is that it allows individuals to gain social acceptance and integrate into the communities once they disclose their sexual identity. Coming out has been used as a political act to gain legal right. On the African continent, it has been used to challenge the idea that non-heterosexuality is un-African. So therefore, by performing this act, we're saying that non-heterosexual sexuality has always existed and hence, I'm going to come out to show that this is this is African," says Khuzwayo.

According to Khuzwayo, in South Africa non-heterosexual black women have experienced homophobia through physical violence in numbers and a significant number of cases has resulted in death. Women's sexuality continues to be regulated through a hetero-normative framework and that cannot be underestimated whether it is a woman who's straight or not. The issue of coming out is complicated by how bisexuality is understood, and the 'privilege' that bisexuals have in heterosexual presenting relationships.

"I think there's always this underlying belly of legitimacy of the sexual identity. And the way that that illegitimacy is sort of represents itself and this idea that you can be redeemable and then you're gonna go back to being a heterosexual things like that," Khuzwayo says.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Hungary busts massive Israeli-led fraud and money laundering ring

Promising ‘good returns’ on cryptocurrency investment, gang cheats victims out of tens of millions of dollars; less than $2 million recovered so far

By AFP

30 May 2022

A visual representation of Bitcoin, at the 'Bitcoin Change' shop

 in Tel Aviv, February 6, 2018. (Jack Guez/AFP)


Hungarian police busted an international money-laundering ring based in Hungary earlier this month that was led by an Israeli man that cheated people in dozens of countries through online investment frauds, police said Monday.

Around 44 million euros ($47 million) were transferred from some 94 companies set up by the gang, police spokesman Peter Farkas told reporters in Budapest.

The gang was led by a 48-year-old Israeli man living in Hungary, one of five suspects arrested during coordinated raids on May 9 across Hungary.

The fraud schemes were typically online and related to so-called “account-switching” and cryptocurrency investments, said Farkas, speaking at a press conference where seized phones, laptops and some 250 SIM cards were on display.

Cars and jewelry were also confiscated.

“Investments with good returns were promised to people who then transferred monies to over 400 fraudulent bank accounts,” he said.

The money was “quickly transferred onward,” mainly to countries east of Hungary, said Farkas, without specifying where.

Police have so far recovered some 1.8 million euros ($1.94 million) from the 44 million euros, he added.

UK

‘It’s expensive to be poor’: How the cost of living crisis has impacted food prices

Food campaigner Jack Monroe said she hoped new figures from the Office for National Statistics would be taken into account by MPs.

EVIE BREESE
30 May 2022

Image: Victoriano Izquierdo / Unsplash

A shopping trolley of basic grocery items costs on average 6 per cent more than it did a year ago, according to new data.

The annual change in price of 30 grocery items, which includes just one fresh vegetable – onions, (tomatoes don’t count), as well as fish fingers, rice, biscuits, bananas, pizza and potatoes, was measured by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to gauge how much more low-income families were having to spend on food.

The cost of value-branded pasta saw the steepest increase of 50 per cent as of April, with crisps rising in price by 17 per cent and bread 16 per cent. The cost of meat took the sharpest upturn in cash terms, with 500g of beef mince up 32p to £2.34, and chicken breast costs up 28p to £3.50 for 600g.

Some food items bucked the trend by falling in price – the cost of potatoes dropped by 14 per cent, cheese was found to be 7 per cent cheaper, and pizza was 4 per cent less.

Back in January, food poverty campaigner Jack Monro highlighted the disproportionate impact of inflation on low-income families, who are being hit hardest by the cost of living crisis.

The same week, the ONS announced it would “transform” how it examines the cost of living.

Outbreak Investigation of Hepatitis A Virus: Strawberries (May 2022)

Do not eat, serve, or sell FreshKampo or HEB brand organic strawberries purchased between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022, FDA’s investigation is ongoing

The FDA, along with CDC, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, state, and local partners are investigating a multistate outbreak of hepatitis A infections in the United States and Canada potentially linked to fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo and HEB, purchased between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022.

Currently, the potentially affected FreshKampo and HEB products are past shelf life. People who purchased FreshKampo and HEB fresh organic strawberries between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022, and then froze those strawberries for later consumption should not eat them. These products were sold at the following retailers, including, but not limited to:

Aldi
HEB
Kroger
Safeway
Sprouts Farmers Market
Trader Joe’s
Walmart
Weis Markets
WinCo Foods

If you are unsure of what brand you purchased, when you purchased your strawberries, or where you purchased them from prior to freezing them, the strawberries should be thrown away.

Epidemiologic and traceback data show that fresh organic strawberries sold as FreshKampo and HEB brands that were purchased between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022, are a likely cause of illness in this outbreak. The traceback investigations show that cases in California, Minnesota, and Canada report having purchased fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo or HEB prior to becoming ill. Illness onset dates range from March 28 – April 30, 2022.

As this investigation is ongoing, additional products may be included. More information will be provided in this advisory as it becomes available.

Recommendation

Consumers, restaurants, and retailers should not sell, serve, or eat any fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo or HEB if purchased between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022. People who purchased the fresh strawberries and then froze those strawberries for later consumption should not eat them. They should be thrown away. Currently, the potentially affected product is past its shelf life. If you are unsure of what brand you purchased, when you purchased your strawberries, or where you purchased them from prior to freezing them, the strawberries should be thrown away.

If consumers purchased fresh organic strawberries branded as FreshKampo or HEB between March 5, 2022, and April 25, 2022, ate those berries in the last two weeks, and have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A, they should immediately consult with their healthcare professional to determine whether post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is needed. PEP is recommended for unvaccinated people who have been exposed to hepatitis A virus in the last two weeks because vaccination can prevent a hepatitis A infection if given within 14 days of exposure. Those with evidence of previous hepatitis A vaccination or previous hepatitis A infection do not require PEP.

Contact your healthcare provider if you think you may have symptoms of a hepatitis A infection after eating these fresh organic strawberries, or if you believe that you have eaten these strawberries in the last two weeks.

Case Counts

Total U.S. Illnesses: 17
Hospitalizations: 12
Deaths: 0
Last illness onset: April 30, 2022
States with Cases: CA (15), MN (1), ND (1)
Product Distribution: Nationwide

Useful Links

What is Hepatitis A?
Food Safety Tips for Consumers & Retailers During an Outbreak
Who to Contact
Canada Public Health NoticeExternal Link Disclaimer

Who to Contact
Consumers who have symptoms should contact their health care provider to report their symptoms and receive care.
To report a complaint or adverse event (illness or serious allergic reaction), you canCall an FDA Consumer Complaint Coordinator if you wish to speak directly to a person about your problem.
Complete an electronic Voluntary MedWatch form online.
Complete a paper Voluntary MedWatch form that can be mailed to FDA.

Biden says AR-15 owners who say they need weapons to ‘take on the government’ would be extremely outgunned

Many gun owners say they need military-style weapons to defend themselves against ‘government overreach’

Andrew Feinberg
Washington, DC

President Joe Biden arrives with Vice President Kamala Harris to lay a wreath at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2022, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

(AP)

Gun activists who claim they need the type of weapons used in a pair of deadly mass shootings earlier this month to defend themselves from hypothetical government tyranny would be hopelessly outgunned, President Joe Biden has said.

Mr Biden, who spoke to reporters upon returning to the White House for Memorial Day, said he has been “pretty motivated” to enact new gun safety laws long before he travelled to Ulvalde, Texas to meet with the families of victims and survivors of the mass shooting that claimed 21 lives at Robb Elementary School last week.

He said he has made a point of eschewing negotiations with Republicans until he visited the tragedy-struck town, and said the pain he encountered there was “palpable,” and he told reporters it was “hard to say” if the GOP would accept any of the proposals that have been floated in the last week.

But the president stressed that he could not “dictate” gun policy through executive action save for the actions he has taken so far in his term.

“I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change a background check. I can’t do that,” he said. He added that he does not know whether negotiations between Texas Senator John Cornyn and Chris Murphy of Connecticut will produce any legislation that can meet the senate’s 60-vote threshold to overcome a likely GOP buster.

Recommended

'

We are never giving up': Senator Chris Murphy demands gun law reform after Texas shooting

Mr Biden did not offer any specifics as to what he would prefer Congress to do, but he implied the assault weapons ban he helped shepherd through Congress as part of the 1994 crime bill signed into law by then-president Bill Clinton made a difference while it was in effect.

“I know that it makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds,” he said. “It did significantly cut down mass murders”/

Mr Biden added his view that there are limits even to the broad right to keep and bear arms enjoyed by Americans under the US Constitution

“Remember … the Second Amendment was never absolute,” he said. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed and you couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons [today]”.

Continuing, the president said those who say they need AR-15 rifles to “take on the government” are “wrong” because the weapons they would need aren’t legal to own.

“To do that you need an F-15, you need an Abrams tank,” he said.

THAT WOULD NOT WORK AGAINST THE A10

While gun rights activists take an absolutist view of the Second Amendment’s protections, the president’s view is in line with the opinion expressed by the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in District of Columbia v Heller, the 2007 case in which the court first guaranteed an individual’s right to keep a firearm in the home for personal protection.

“Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,” Scalia wrote. “History demonstrates ... the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose”.

A short time after he spoke to reporters, Mr Biden warned that the “foundations” of America’s “great experiment” are “never guaranteed” because each generation must act to “defeat democracy’s mortal foes” while speaking at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to mark Memorial Day.

He said democracy is “how we undertake the constant work of perfecting our union”.

“We have not perfected it, but we've never stopped trying ... opening the doors wider, providing opportunity and prosperity and justice for people everywhere,” he said.

 

Robot “just another colleague” for faculty in innovative program

Online News EditorMay 30, 2022

 

By Alejandro Prieto

Rivera, Uruguay, May 30 (EFE).- Getting students’ attention is no problem for UTECO, the most unusual member of the faculty leading a post-graduate program in artificial intelligence and robotics involving universities in Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil.

A lack of eyes or vocal chords is not an impediment to teaching, as UTECO showed in a demonstration at Universidad Tecnologica del Uruguay (UTEC) here in Rivera.

As instructor Andre Kelbouscas told Efe, UTECO is “just another colleague” for the researchers taking part in the program run jointly by UTEC, Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Rio Grande (FURG), and Universidad Nacional de Rafaela (UNRaf) in Argentina.

“It has a series of capabilities such as seeing via cameras, talking through speakers, and also moving by way of motors, feeling touch, and others,” Kelbouscas said of the NAO robot that UTEC obtained from Robot Lab, a company in the United States.

He described NAO, originally created by France’s Aldebaran Robotics, as hardware with “very generic capacity” that can be programmed for specific functions.

For the UTEC-FURG-UNRaf program, the value of the NAO lies in exploring the possibilities of human-robot interaction, Kelbouscas said.

During the recent demonstration for several European ambassadors, UTECO was able to answer basic questions and respond to simple commands.

The robot, according to Kelbouscas, is built to function in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Chinese.

And in addition to their brainpower, NAO models have a talent for soccer that has made them regular participants in international competitions such as the RoboCup.

But Kelbouscas and the rest of the team have loftier ambitions for UTECO, which they hope to provide with a “very large database of questions and possible responses to attempt to ‘generalize’ the conversation.”

“Generalization would be to propose a question that it has not been asked and having the capability to reply,” he said.

Alongside the work with UTECO, the UTEC-FURG-UNRaf initiative is collaborating with a group in Mexico on building “robot @HOME” machines to aid with everyday household tasks.

The program, which is conducted in Spanish and Portuguese and involves both in-person and remote coursework, currently included 10 students from each of the three countries.

Noting that the initiative is open to graduates from any discipline, Kelbouscas said that a lawyer, doctor, or journalist with an interest in robotics and artificial intelligence can gain valuable knowledge in the context of a world ever more focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).

The program welcomes applicants with the aptitude to develop “processes and projects” related to robotics and “Industry 4.0” as well as approaches to “evaluate the social impact and possible ethical complications that the use of these technologies can cause.”

EFE apf/dr