tagged w/ Mauritania
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"Mauritanian women expressed their outrage at a fatwa issued by the advisor of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz which bans women from becoming presidents even though they are allowed to contest the elections.
“Women can run for the presidency as long as they have no chance of winning. They can just do that for fun,” said Islamic scholar and presidential advisor Aslamo Ould Sidi al-Mustafa.
The fatwa stirred the indignation of the Association of Female Heads of Families, one of Mauritania’s most prominent women’s right’s organizations. According to the association, the fatwa constitutes a flagrant violation of women’s rights as well as of Mauritanian laws.
“The fatwa is also very contradictory for it gives women the right to run but not the right to win,” said the statement issued by the association.
According to the statement, the fatwa implies sanctioning the rigging of votes in case preliminary results show that a female candidate may have a chance to win.
“The danger in this fatwa is that it is issued by a prominent cleric who works as the president’s advisor and this makes it more credible, thus more alarming for women’s rights activists.”
The statement noted that the fatwa is against the Mauritanian constitution which states that all citizens are equal and have the same rights.
The association saw this fatwa as part of the general deterioration women’s rights have been lately undergoing in Mauritania.
“Women are now deprived of occupying several important state positions due to the pressure exercised by a group of anti-women officials in decision-making institutions.”
The fatwa, the association’s statement added, also dealt a severe blow to hopes for more female participation in politics especially following the new law that stipulated dedicating 20 percent of party lists and independent candidacy to women in legislative and municipal councils.
It is noteworthy that no women took part in Mauritania’s last presidential elections after the only female candidate decided to withdraw.
However, previous presidential elections witnessed remarkable female presence. The most famous female presidential candidate in Mauritania was Aisha bint Jidan who ran in the 2003 elections under the slogan, “You have tried a male president, so why not try a female one?”"Mauritanian women expressed their outrage at a fatwa issued by the advisor of... more
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Fom its inception in the 80s doulos has remained true to its philosophy of community integration, to understand and address the issues facing the poor by living amongst them.
http://whattookyousolong.orgFom its inception in the 80s doulos has remained true to its philosophy of community... more
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Traveling as locals had never felt better; after 10 hours on the train we reach Choum where we changed to a packed up pickup; 6 people inside the car and 7 people in the bed, and the WTYSL team were of course those 7 hardcore people in the back on top of a pile of luggage stacked 3 feet over the bed’s capacity and held in with net. Throughout the 4 hours through the canyons and dune-ridden landscapes boasting shades of red, tan and yellow, we felt as if we had landed on Mars.
Arriving at Atar, it takes us one hour plus to mobilize the owner and driver of a bush taxi to take us to the capital. Without enough sleep the driver finally agrees to take the team and 2 more passengers down south. In the car with 10 people packed like sardines at 40 degrees Celsius (105 Fahrenheit), the air surrounding us becomes a sauna. A 6 hour ride turns into a 10 hour struggle against the machine a.k.a. the car we are traveling in. First problem: 2 hours after departure the tire bursts and changing it adds 45 minutes to the ride. Second problem: finding another tire to replace the next flat adds another hour. Third problem: at every police control the engine dies, forcing us to get out of the car and push-start the taxi again. It usually took us 3 or 4 pushes before the engine finally agreed to get back into the game. 4th problem: 6 hours down the road the car stops – we are out of fuel. The driver hitchhikes back to a town to pick up more fuel and the incident added 1 hour to our bush taxi experience.
http://whattookyousolong.orgTraveling as locals had never felt better; after 10 hours on the train we reach Choum... more
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Our quest to ride the iron train-cum-public-transport derives from our vision to travel as locals do, while giving us a way to connect, share and receive ideas and thoughts with the recently urbanized nomad population of Mauritania: the unofficial border country between Western Arab and sub-Saharan Africa.
http://whattookyousolong.orgOur quest to ride the iron train-cum-public-transport derives from our vision to... more
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A new fast food delight is hitting the Arab world. It's a middle eastern take on the hamburger. CNN reports that diners in Dubai are snacking on camel burgers. The manager of Local House, the chain behind the burgers says: "Everyone's bored of beef and chicken. So, as soon as the word got out, we had queues of customers eager to give it a try."
Though they've become popular in Dubai, people have been eating similar versions where ever camels roam.
This is a camel burger in Manama, Bahrain.
This is the camel burger in Fes, Morocco.
This is a camel burger in Mauritania.
This is a camel burger in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Now I will take lunch. Though unfortunately I probably won't find a camel burgerA new fast food delight is hitting the Arab world. It's a middle eastern take on... more
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In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report to his superiors detailing what he called “the most significant development in the criminal exploitation of aircraft since 9/11.”
The document warned that a growing fleet of rogue jet aircraft was regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. On one end of the air route, it said, are cocaine-producing areas in the Andes controlled by the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. On the other are some of West Africa’s most unstable countries.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, was ignored, and the problem has since escalated into what security officials in several countries describe as a global security threat.
The clandestine fleet has grown to include twin-engine turboprops, executive jets and retired Boeing 727s that are flying multi-ton loads of cocaine and possibly weapons to an area in Africa where factions of al Qaeda are believed to be facilitating the smuggling of drugs to Europe, the officials say.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been held responsible for car and suicide bombings in Algeria and Mauritania. Gunmen and bandits linked to the group have also stepped up kidnappings of Europeans, who are then passed on to AQIM factions seeking ransom payments.In early 2008, an official at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a report... more
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There is growing concerns that Al Qaeda in Africa and Latin American drug cartels are working together. Latin American cocaine flights go to Africa, en route to Europe. Are Al Qaeda members on the empty planes back to Latin America?
Johannesburg, South Africa - It’s known as the Coca Cola plane. In early November, drug traffickers landed a Boeing 727 in the Malian desert in Gao state and offloaded as much as 10 tons of cocaine. Then, rather than fly it back across the Atlantic to Latin America, they simply burnt it, treating it like a used Coke can.
The terrain of northern Mali is stark desert, and a haven for Islamist insurgents with close ties to Al Qaeda. Initially, investigators thought the plane had crashed in the desert on take off.There is growing concerns that Al Qaeda in Africa and Latin American drug cartels are... more
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Along to an Israeli official of Foreign Affairs Mauritania therefore demands to close the Israeli embassy in the West African country because of Israeli recent military operations in Gaza that have caused a tension in the fully diplomatic relations of Mauritania (an Islamic republic) towards Israel.Along to an Israeli official of Foreign Affairs Mauritania therefore demands to close... more
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Mauritania's deposed President, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, has been released from house arrest by security forces who overthrew him in August.
He was taken from his home town of Lemden, where he had been under house arrest, to his house in the capital, Nouakchott, where he was freed.
There has been intense international pressure on the coup leaders to return the country to democracy. France and the US had cancelled their aid, pending Mr Abdallahi's release. The African Union also suspended the country following the 6 August coup.
Mr Abdallahi became Mauritania's first democratically elected leader in 2007 after a coup two years earlier, partly instigated by General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz. On 6 August, Mr Abdallahi, as president, tried to dismiss four senior army officers, including Gen Abdelaziz, the head of the presidential guard, who responded by launching the coup.
It came after a fortnight of political crisis following a vote of no confidence in the cabinet. Gen Abdelaziz appointed a transitional government to stay in power until new elections, to be organised in late 2009.
Mauritania has a long history of coups, with the military involved in nearly every government since its independence from France in 1960.
[Credit: BBC News]Mauritania's deposed President, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, has been... more
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93 nations in the world still legally punish homosexuality. In 7 of these - Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Nigeria, Mauritania - gays and lesbians are punished with the death penalty.
Is this the Twenty-First Century or the Dark Ages? Sometimes I really can't tell.93 nations in the world still legally punish homosexuality. In 7 of these - Iran,... more
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Torture of prisoners in Mauritania - including electric shocks, burnings and sexual violence - is "routine and systematic", a rights group says.
In a report, Amnesty International says anti-terror laws introduced three years ago have led to increased use of torture of terror suspects.
Research for the report was conducted before August's coup.
Amnesty notes the generals who seized power say ending the "terrorist menace" is one of their main priorities.
Africa's newest oil producer held its first free elections last year, but General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz led a military coup on 6 August.
Amnesty said abuses by security forces were used to extract "confessions", which were then admitted as evidence in court.
Government officials in the north-west African nation could not immediately be reached for comment on the allegations.
For years Mauritania has dealt with low-level violence which its governments have blamed on terrorists.
In late 2007, gunmen allegedly linked to al-Qaeda murdered four French tourists, prompting organisers of the famous Dakar Rally to cancel this year's race.
Last month, three men were sentenced to 10 years in prison for reportedly belonging to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - accused of staging attacks across North Africa in recent years.
The rights group said it had documented numerous forms of torture, including "sleep deprivation, cigarette burns, the suspension of detainees from a metal bar, blows and psychological torture".
The report also contains allegations that prisoners are urinated on, have their hair pulled out and are victims of sexual violence, involving truncheons and toothpicks.
"Torture is used against all categories of prisoners in Mauritania - whether they are suspected Islamists, soldiers accused of involvement in a coup, or those detained for simple ordinary crimes," said Gaetan Mootoo, Amnesty's Mauritania researcher.
Amnesty said threats were made to prisoners prior to a visit by the rights group earlier this year.
The report quotes one prisoner as saying: "When they told us about Amnesty International's visit, the guards threatened us.
"They said that we could say whatever we liked, but that we would regret it, because the Amnesty people would be leaving, but we prisoners would be staying there with them.'"
The country's "heritage" of torture had evolved from decades of one-party rule and dictatorship, the report said.Torture of prisoners in Mauritania - including electric shocks, burnings and sexual... more
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Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".
A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.
Now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way. The treatment has its roots in fat being seen as a sign of wealth - if a girl was thin she was considered poor, and would not be respected.
But in rural Mauritania you still see the rotund women that the country is famous for. They walk slowly, dainty hands on the end of dimpled arms, pinching multicoloured swathes of fabric together to keep the biting sand from their faces.
"I make them eat lots of dates, lots and lots of couscous and other fattening food," Fatematou, a voluminous woman in her sixties who runs a kind of "fat farm" in the northern desert town of Atar, told BBC World Service's The World Today programme.
Although she had no clients when I met her, she said she was soon expecting to take charge of some seven-year-olds.
"I make them eat and eat and eat. And then drink lots and lots of water," she explained. "I make them do this all morning. Then they have a rest. In the afternoon we start again. We do this three times a day - the morning, the afternoon and the evening."
Follow this link for more stories from the aptly named Fatematou and her "fat farm".Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the... more
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In a huge remote bay, in one of the poorest countries in the world lie a vast collection of over 300 rotting hulks. Mauritania used to be known as a country where a ship could be disposed of and so they were quietly dumped. As a possible environmental hazard the EU has plans to clear the area but by now the ships have become part of local life, providing an ecology for fishing and a thriving scrap metal marketIn a huge remote bay, in one of the poorest countries in the world lie a vast... more
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Twelve Mauritanian soldiers have been killed in an ambush by suspected Islamist rebels, officials have said.
The attack occurred east of Zouerat, close to the border with Western Sahara, officials said.
They indicated that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which has been blamed for previous attacks in the country, could be responsible.
The group had threatened action after a recent coup that toppled Mauritania's first democratically elected president.
Following the 6 August coup, an internet message attributed to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb urged Mauritanians to take up arms against the military leaders who seized power.
The group is largely based in neighboring Algeria but was blamed for the killing of four French tourists in Mauritania last December.
It was also believed to be behind an attack on the Israeli embassy in the capital, Nouakchott, two months later.
The US has identified the desert regions of Mauritania and its neighbors as a potential haven for Islamist militants, setting up joint-security programmes in the area.
But the US also suspended more than $20m (£11m) in non-humanitarian aid following the August coup. Twelve Mauritanian soldiers have been killed in an ambush by suspected Islamist... more
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Al-Qaida and the United States are not usually on the same side of an issue. One exception though: Mauritania. After the bloodless military coup of Aug. 6 in this North African country, both al-Qaida and the U.S. were quick to denounce very vocally the new regime.
While it is true that this coup puts a stop to the recent democratization process, it would have been wise for the West to read between the lines and assess that one of the major reasons for this event was to stop the Islamists.
Mauritania has a history of coups: The country has had 31 coup attempts since 1978; some were successful. Sheikh Sidi Ould Abdallahi, the president that was unseated, was the first democratically elected leader of Mauritania in 2007. He was a civilian and a democrat but had been contested within his own majority and the country had witnessed a major political crisis in the three months preceding the coup.
Abdallahi made mistakes that made him unpopular with the population and the very powerful military. He opened up the prisons, freeing at the same time dangerous Islamists. According to a Mauritanian intellectual: "This was a mistake because, in a country with an oriental mentality where the despotic [need] remains very strong, this democratic concession was seen as a sign of weakness." Thus the Islamists have been all the more active for the past two years. Furthermore, the president made several gestures to please the Islamists, such as re-establishing the Muslim week-end (Friday and Saturday), building a mosque in the presidential palace, allowing the creation of an Islamist political party that legitimized Islamists.
But what was not tolerated by many people is the wave of terrorism that Mauritania experienced. Indeed, in a span of one month between December 2007 and January 2008, the Paris-Dakar race had to be canceled because of credible terror threats in Mauritania and three serious terrorist attacks that took place.
Among a large portion of the population, these terror attacks represented a tipping point. Mauritanians blamed the president for not having a strong grip on the Islamists, as his predecessors did. In fact, after the attacks the president seemed hesitant to take the appropriate measures to forcefully tackle the terrorist issue. And contestation of his power started to grow stronger, especially among the military that called for a tougher stance on terrorists.
Mauritanians have a long tradition of tolerance -- it is one of only three Arab countries hosting an Israeli embassy. Ahmed Ould Daddah, a leader of the opposition and nephew of the first president of independent Mauritania, said: "Mauritanians are very humiliated. For us, a foreigner is sacred. Never were any Frenchmen so coldly murdered. This is a new phenomenon, a very serious one."
The security situation also went from bad to worse, and it was not a major surprise that the military decided to seize power to reverse this trend.
Al-Qaida right away knew that this change of regime was going to be a setback for them. So, AQIM issued a communiqué on the web calling for all the forces in the Maghreb to converge to Mauritania to kick out the new regime and install an Islamic state. Also interestingly, AQIM accused the United States and France of being the instigators of the coup. Weirdly enough, at about the same time, the U.S. and France both forcefully condemned the coup calling the new regime illegitimate and suspended their non-humanitarian help, which actually included financial support to fight the war against radical Islam.
The fact that al-Qaida and some Western nations agree over the new Mauritanian regime should make the U.S. and French diplomacy review their troubling assessment of the situation. This all the more so that North Africa has become a very important battlefield for al-Qaida and that Mauritania, a vast and sparsely populated (three million), has always been the soft underbelly of the region.Al-Qaida and the United States are not usually on the same side of an issue. One... more
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The announcement to suspend Mauritania's membership comes following a military coup that deposed the nation's democratically elected president. President Abdallhi was detained by renegade soldiers, lead by General Abdelaziz, after attempting to fire army officers. The president was put in power after the nation held its first free and fair elections in over two decades.The announcement to suspend Mauritania's membership comes following a military... more
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A group of senior military officers in Mauritania arrested the country’s president and prime minister on Wednesday in a bloodless coup against the first freely elected government there in more than 20 years.A group of senior military officers in Mauritania arrested the country’s... more
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devo64
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added this
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3 years ago
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Demonstrations have been taking place in Mauritania both for and against the coup that overthrew the country's first democratically elected president.
Police in the capital, Nouakchott, broke up a protest by hundreds of people against the coup leader, General Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz.
Earlier, about 1,000 people had marched through the capital chanting the general's name.
The African Union has demanded the president's release.
President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was detained by renegade soldiers on Wednesday after he tried to dismiss four senior army officers - including Mr Abdelaziz, the head of the presidential guard.
Read more...Demonstrations have been taking place in Mauritania both for and against the coup that... more
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