Free Republic

A Saudi actor and TV personality found himself on the wrong side of the country’s strict penal code after posing for ‘selfies’ with a group of female fans at a mall, according to Saudi news sources. According to The Gulf Times, Abdul Aziz Al Kassar was taken into custody from the popular Al Nakheel Mall after he was seen taking pictures with a crowd of fans by Saudi Arabia's strict "Mutaween," or religious police, also referred to as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice or CPVPV. Al Kassar, 27, a Saudi national who lives...

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS) has arrested a number of families of PMOI (MEK) and former political prisoners early this week. Shaqayeq Azimi, 22, one of the PMOI members whose parents Mahmoud and Fatemeh Ziae were amid the detainees of October 11, has launched a worldwide campaign to pursue her beloveds’ fate. In a meeting of the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom on human rights in Iran at the UK House of Commons on October 19, 2015 via the internet, She described her torment after hearing the news. Shaqayeq has been unable to obtain any information about where her...

Today, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to the Senate floor to advocate for the changing of the name of the street on which the Chinese Embassy stands to Liu Xiaobo Plaza. Currently, the name of the street is International Place. The move was done quickly, mostly because the President of China is coming to the United States tomorrow. Originally, Democrats had no objection to the move, until Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) stood up to object.

Just last evening, I posted an article about how the UN disgracefully named Saudi Arabia to head its human rights panel. So how do the Saudis plan on celebrating this achievement? By executing a teenager via crucifixion, naturally. I covered this story back in May in the piece, Not ISIS – Saudi Arabia Prepares to Execute and Publicly Display Beheaded Body of Political Activist in “Crucifixion.” Here are a few excerpts: The Saudis have received a lot of bad press as of late due to it consistently breaking its own records for beheadings, but sometimes a simple beheading isn’t sufficient....

The U.N.’s Human Rights Council over the summer quietly appointed Saudi Arabia as head of a panel responsible for interviewing and shortlisting experts focusing on a range of human rights-related themes. Among the candidates for posts considered at meetings chaired by the Saudi ambassador to the HRC, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, since May was one dealing with “violence against women, its causes and consequences” and another focused on “the independence of judges and lawyers.” The kingdom is frequently cited by human rights advocacy groups and Western governments for the fairness of its judiciary and its treatment of women. (Last year...

The United Nations has been criticised for handing Saudi Arabia a key human rights role - despite the country having "arguably the worst record in the world" on freedoms for women, minorities and dissidents. Critics, including the wife of imprisoned pro-democracy blogger Raif Badawi - sentenced to 1,000 lashes for blogging about free speech - labelled the appointment "scandalous", saying it meant "oil trumps human rights". Mr Badawi's wife, Ensaf Haidar, who is leading an international campaign to free her husband, said on Facebook that handing the role to Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia's ambassador at the UN in...

A human rights group has called on the United States government to step up its outreach to Syrian refugees and resettle 65,000 people before the end of 2016. While the U.S. has said that it will accept between 5,000 to 8,000 refugees, the International Rescue Committee said that is far from enough to really help Europe in its migrant crisis. "Not only are Syrians resorting to desperate measures to seek a better life for themselves and their families in Europe, but they are dying in the process," IRC president David Miliband said in a statement. "The U.S. has historically been...

In the past few weeks, some Iranian activists have vocally supported the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (China, Russia, France, United Kingdom, United States and Germany). While we deeply respect the experience and views of these men and women, it is important to hear all perspectives. We represent another collection of Iranian activists who share the world's hope for a better future but believe that appeasing the Iranian regime will lead to a more dangerous world. We have spent our lives advocating for peace, justice and freedom in Iran. We represent a diverse array of Iranians who hope...

Amnesty approves policy to decriminalize sex tradeLONDON (AP) — Amnesty International has approved a controversial policy to endorse the de-criminalization of the sex trade, rejecting complaints by women’s rights groups who say it is tantamount to advocating the legalization of pimping and brothel owning. At its decision-making forum in Dublin on Tuesday, the human rights group approved the resolution to recommend “full decriminalization of all aspects of consensual sex work.” It argues its research suggests decriminalization is the best way to defend sex workers’ human rights.

Amnesty International has sparked a glitzy Hollywood backlash from its usual left wing fan-base by submitting a draft policy calling for prostitution to be legalised in order to promote the human rights of prostitutes.

During his weekly interview with the national radio station, the Zimbabwean president joked that he planned to travel to Washington DC ‘get down on one knee and ask his hand’. Mugabe, who is known for his brutal crusades against homosexuality, was responding in bizarre fashion to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees gays and lesbians the same right to marry as heterosexuals. Speaking on on Saturday, Mugabe said: ‘I’ve just concluded – since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes...

A report issued Thursday by the Department of State repeatedly refers to sex reassignment surgery in Iran as “gender-confirmation surgery.” Iran has a well-documented record of coercing gay and lesbian people into having the gender reassignment surgery, that is, disrupting rather than “confirming” the gender identity of hundreds per year. Since homosexuality can be punishable by death in Iran, known homosexual men tend to accept the government-subsidized surgery to become women, and vice versa. By referring to the surgeries as “gender confirmation,” rather than the much more widespread and morally neutral “sex reassignment surgery,” the State Department seems to be...

It is likely that the P5+1 nuke “deal” with Iran will be approved soon. Military and other nuke sites which Iran has not “disclosed” will not be inspected. Nor will Iran’s nuke ties with North Korea — which P5+1 member China seems to be helping, Iran’s massive support for terrorism and abysmal human rights record be considered because they are also deemed unnecessary for “deal” approval. Sanctions against Iran are moribund and will not be revived regardless of whether there is a “deal.” However, a bronze bust of Obama may soon be displayed prominently in Supreme Leader Khamenei’s office and one of Khamenei may soon be displayed proudly in Dear Leader Obama’s...

Do the name callers who label people “Islamaphobic” support Qur’an-instructed violence against women and girls?To be “anti-Islam” (and “anti-Shari’a”) is to reject submission to Allah and the Qur’an. To be anti-Islam is to be for protecting women’s rights and human rights. To be anti-Islam is to advocate for children who are powerless and voiceless, to liberate everyone enslaved by Islamic totalitarian ideology.There is nothing bigoted, racist, or fearful about opposing a political ideology that rejects universally accepted human rights laws.If the European Court on Human Rights has repeatedly ruled that Shari’a law is “incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy,” then...

A top UN official has provoked outrage after likening David Cameron’s threat to scrap human rights laws to Nazi Germany. The Prime Minister has warned the Government could withdraw the UK from the convention in order to deport foreign criminals. It is the most radical option as part of plans to scrap the Human Rights Act, which enshrines the convention in UK law, with a “British Bill of Rights” enforced by the UK’s Supreme Court rather than by judges in Strasbourg. But Professor François Crépeau, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, said: “We have to remember...

Statement from Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron ahead of Jason Rezaian’s trial in Iran: The shameful acts of injustice continue without end in the treatment of Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian. Now we learn his trial will be closed to the world. And so it will be closed to the scrutiny it fully deserves. It’s worth recalling what kind of system we’re dealing with. Jason was arrested without charges. He was imprisoned in Iran’s worst prison. He was placed in isolation for many months and denied medical care he needed. His case was assigned to a judge internationally notorious...

The terror group strips girls naked, conduct virginity tests, and send them to slave auctions after they have attacked their villages, often killing their husbands, fathers and brothers ISIS terrorists are picking out the “prettiest virgins” from the women they capture and sending them to their Syrian stronghold to be sex slaves, according to a UN expert. And there are horrific reports about the fate of the brave women who resist the murderous terrorists - including one victim who was burned alive for refusing to perform “extreme sexual acts”. Fierce haggling usually breaks out at slave auctions, where the girls...

Even while the Civil War raged, slaves in Cuba could be heard singing, “Avanza, Lincoln, avanza! Tu eres nuestra esperanza!” (Onward, Lincoln, Onward! You are our hope!) – as if they knew, even before the soldiers fighting the war far to the North and long before most politicians understood, that the war in America would change their lives, and the world. The secession crisis of 1860-1861 threatened to be a major setback to the world antislavery movement, and it imperiled the whole experiment in democracy. If slavery was allowed to exist, and if the world’s leading democracy could fall apart...

The Obama administration has, once again, complained to the United Nations about alleged American human rights violations–and boasted about liberal policies like Obamacare as the solution. The State Department report, released Monday as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council, reads less like an accounting of human rights issues and more like the platform of the Democratic Party–and invites the world to judge America harshly. The so-called “human rights” problems cited in the report include: •Police brutality, including the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri •Discrimination against Muslims who want to build or expand...

Even though the Communist Party of China is officially atheist, and the central government was once wary of religion, subtle signs and increasing activities show there is a changing attitude towards religion in order to unite China and its neighbors. In March last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping stood in the offices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and extolled the profound impact Buddhism has had on China. "Buddhism originated in ancient India," said Xi, the leader of the officially atheist Communist Party of China. "After it was introduced into China, the religion went...