Ethiopian domestic worker “disciplined” by rape in Lebanon

Kafala and its Defenseless Victims

Rape is one of the many risks Lebanon’s migrant domestic workers face as a consequence of the power imbalances created by the sponsorship (kafala) system.  The system renders workers overly dependent on both recruitment agencies and employers, neither of whom are adequately regulated by government agencies. This legal framework of bondage is compounded by gender, racial, and economic stratifications that render workers even more vulnerable to abuse. These overlapping constraints furthermore limit workers ability to report misconduct, as migrants who leave abusive employers may jeopardize their visa status and because authorities are often apathetic to their distress. Workers often chose not to report abuse because receiving a positive, enforced verdict is unlikely and rarely worth the risk.

Consequently, the abuses domestic workers face are purposefully invisibilised; grass-roots organizations such as KAFA and the Anti-Racism Movement work to elevate these narratives into popular and government consciousness.  As a result of their efforts, Lebanese media has increased coverage of  exploitation, suicide, sexual abuse, and other migration issues over recent years. But last week Beiruti’s al-Akhbar published a uniquely in-depth report on a rape crime committed against an Ethiopian domestic worker in the Northern Lebanese village

Sundance 2014 Vindicates Ethiopia's Leading Women's Rights Advocate

Meaza Ashenafi, whose civic organization EWELA (Ethiopian Women's Lawyers Association) has been incapacitated by TPLF mafia, is vindicated at 2014's Sundance International Film Festival with a film entitled Difret which becomes Winner of the Audience Award for World Cinema Dramatic. Difret ( which literally means in Amharic courage) is a film based on a true story and revolves around an Ethiopian young girl who was abducted for forced marriage and killed her husband in self-defense and then represented by a lawyer in this case Meaza Ahenafi. Born of an illiterate mother and a civil servant father in Assosa,a small town near the Sudan border, she received her LLB degree from Addis Ababa University and was qualified as a lawyer in 1986. Meaza established Ethiopia's leading women's legal aid, education and policy-reform organization in 1995

Saudi-Arabia, #1 Freedom-Expression's Predator

To show how some predators of freedom of expression really think, Reporters Without Borders - one of the biggest freedom of expression watchdog- have presented their innermost thoughts in the first person. They had to use a little imagination, of course, but the facts alluded to conform to reality. Here's one of their well-thought and sarcastic depiction of Saudi-Arabia's King Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Enjoy!

Almost 90 years old, I am Saudi Arabia’s sixth monarch and the third most influential person in the world. That’s the opinion of Forbes magazine, not my own.

Since I acceded to the throne in 2005, I have hesitated between openness and