LONDON: More than 50 high-profile French actors, models, singers and other celebrities have filmed themselves cutting their hair in support of Iranian women amid protests against the country’s harsh hijab laws.
Actors Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert have been joined by the Belgian singer Angèle in the hair-cutting videos of solidarity with Iranian women risking their lives to protest against the regime.
Singer Jane Birkin, her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg and actor Charlotte Rampling contributed their own clips alongside Julie Gayet, the wife of former French President François Hollande.
Cutting their hair “for freedom,” a compilation of the celebrities’ videos was produced with the soundtrack of a Persian version of the Italian folk song Bella Ciao.
Actress Juliette Binoche cuts her hair as a part of a protest following death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini, in this still image obtained from a social media video. (Reuters)
The young Iranian singer Gandom has produced the cover of the iconic song, which was an anthem of the Italian resistance movement during the Second World War, now used regularly as an international cultural symbol for freedom and resistance to tyranny.
The videos were shared on Instagram with the hashtags #soutienfemmesiran (“Support Iranian Women”) and #HairforFreedom.
The videos reflect footage arising from Iran, where women have been removing their hijabs and cutting their hair in protest since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was murdered by a mob after she violated stricter hijab rules brought in my President Ibrahim Raisi.
The compilation on Instagram was shared with the caption: “It is impossible not to denounce again and again this terrible repression. The dead are already numbered in the dozens, including children. The arrests only add to the number of prisoners already illegally detained and too often tortured. We have therefore decided to respond to the call by cutting off some of our strands of hair.”
CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of Interior Mahmoud Tawfiq discussed with Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah cooperation between the two ministries in organizing the Hajj season.
Al-Rabiah is visiting Cairo at the head of a high-level delegation from the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah.
In light of the close historical relations between the two countries, Tawfiq welcomed the visit of the Saudi minister and his accompanying delegation to Cairo.
Al-Rabiah expressed his appreciation for the efforts and organizational measures taken annually by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior to arrange, prepare and supervise the Egyptian Hajj mission, as well as his aspiration to identify the obstacles that Egyptian pilgrims may face during the Hajj season and any proposals to overcome them.
Tawfiq praised efforts by the Kingdom to serve pilgrims and provide them with all the care they need.
He stressed the keenness of the ministry to build communication and enhance the mechanisms of cooperation and consultation with the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah and to facilitate the Egyptian pilgrims’ performing the rituals of Hajj.
The first Umrah flights from Egypt for Oct. 6 left Cairo International Airport following the decision of the Egyptian Cabinet to start grouping Umrah flights on the first of October.
Osama Khairy, a member of the General Assembly of the Chamber of Tourism Companies, said that the first Umrah trips were launched and all trips arrived at Makkah and Madinah without problems.
He continued: “The Egyptian portal for Umrah was a major reason for the success of the Umrah season this season.”
TRIPOLI: The UN mission in Libya has condemned the “heinous killing” of 15 migrants near the Mediterranean coastal city of Sabratha, accusing smugglers and demanding justice.
The bodies were found on a beach on Friday morning, most of them burned inside a charred boat, according to the UN and the Libyan Red Crescent.
“While the exact circumstances remain to be determined, the killings reportedly resulted from clashes between rival traffickers,” the UN mission UNSMIL said in a statement.
It urged authorities in Libya “to ensure a swift, independent and transparent investigation to bring all perpetrators to justice.”
Libya was a key route for clandestine migration even before the 2011 uprising that overthrew Muammar Qaddafi.
The lawlessness that ensued bolstered its position on the world’s deadliest migration route across the Mediterranean to Europe.
People smugglers from the western city of Sabratha — just 300 km from the Italian island of Lampedusa —continue to play a key role.
Migrants often face horrific treatment at the hands of smuggling gangs.
Rights groups have repeatedly accused authorities and armed groups operating under state auspices of torture and other abuses.
The latest killings are “a stark reminder of the lack of protection migrants and asylum seekers face in Libya, and the widespread human rights violations undertaken by powerful trafficking and criminal networks who need to be swiftly stopped and prosecuted,” UNSMIL said.
1/3 UNSMIL strongly condemns the heinous killing on Friday morning of at least 15 migrants and asylum-seekers in Sabratah. Eleven charred bodies were found inside the docked boat with a further four wounded bodies found outside pic.twitter.com/tPJI01XPUv — UNSMIL (@UNSMILibya) October 9, 2022
1/3 UNSMIL strongly condemns the heinous killing on Friday morning of at least 15 migrants and asylum-seekers in Sabratah. Eleven charred bodies were found inside the docked boat with a further four wounded bodies found outside pic.twitter.com/tPJI01XPUv
Libyan media reported that the killings resulted from a “dispute between people smugglers” that led to them opening fire on the migrants, mostly from African countries further south.
One of the groups involved set fire to the boat, according to the reports.
Since the start of the year, more than 14,000 migrants have been intercepted and returned to Libya, the International Organization for Migration said Monday.
At least 216 people have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea and 724 are missing and presumed dead.
Pope Francis made an impassioned defense of migrants, calling their exclusion “scandalous, disgusting and sinful,” putting him on a collision course with Italy’s upcoming right-wing government.
The Pope made his comments as he canonized a 19th century bishop known as the “father of migrants” and a 20th century man who ministered to the sick in Argentina.
Pope Francis, who has made support of migrants a major theme of his pontificate, presided over the ceremony before 50,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.
“The exclusion of migrants is scandalous. Indeed, the exclusion of migrants is criminal. It makes them die in front of us,” he said.
“And so today the Mediterranean is the world’s largest cemetery,” he said, referring to thousands who have drowned trying to reach Europe.
“The exclusion of migrants is disgusting, it is sinful. It is criminal not to open doors to those who are needy,” he said.
IRBIL: Parliament in Iraq’s autonomous northern Kurdistan region has voted to extend its term by a year, postponing polls against a backdrop of a wider national political paralysis.
Legislative elections in Kurdistan had been due this month, four years after the last vote.
Amid disagreements between its two major parties, lawmakers will now stay until a new parliament is elected in late 2023.
Eighty out of 111 representatives voted for the measure, the regional parliament said in a statement, with members of the opposition abstaining.
The delay is the result of disputes between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan over the delineation of electoral constituencies.
But it also is part of a broader power struggle between the parliament’s two biggest parties, said Shivan Fazil, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
KDP, which controls the regional government, has challenged PUK’s claim for the presidency of Iraq, which by convention is held by a member of Iraq’s Kurdish minority. The PUK has held the largely symbolic post since 2005.
“Lack of cooperation and consensus between the two parties at the federal level ... has increasingly led to a lack of cooperation and consensus” in Kurdistan too, Fazil said.
The parliament has extended its term several times in recent decades over political disagreements, and in the 1990s due to fighting between two rival clans, the KDP-affiliated Barzanis and the PUK-affiliated Talabanis.
The UN envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, warned this week that “the political fallout” of not conducting timely elections and “neglecting basic democratic principles will bear a high cost”.
“Monopolizing power breeds instability,” she told the Security Council on Tuesday. “That goes for both Iraq as a whole and for the Kurdistan region.”
Kurdish officials have painted the region as a haven of stability in conflict-ridden Iraq.
It is home to several international charities, and has developed its infrastructure and projects at a faster pace than the rest of the country.
But activists and opposition figures have decried corruption, arbitrary arrests and intimidation of protesters.
The region has also been caught in the crosshairs of geopolitical conflict among neighboring countries, having recently been the target of strikes by both Iran and Turkey.
On Sept. 28, Iran targeted positions of Iranian-Kurdish rebel groups in Iraqi Kurdistan, killing 14 people and wounding 58, including civilians.
CAIRO: Cairo International Airport customs thwarted an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of bullion and gold jewelry, which an Egyptian passenger had hidden upon arrival from Saudi Arabia.
It also thwarted an attempt to smuggle a number of telemetry devices, which were hidden by another passenger arriving from the Kingdom.
Customs authorities said that when the Egyptian passenger’s luggage was scanned through an X-ray machine, officials discovered 10 gold bars weighing 100 grams each, as well as two sets of gold jewelry, weighing a total of 167 grams.
Customs added that the passenger hid the seized items in his luggage upon his arrival from Saudi Arabia. The passenger intended to mislead customs officers, transit the gold and sell it to achieve material gains.
A customs seizure report was drawn up against the passenger, with authorities taking legal measures.
In a separate case, an Egyptian passenger’s luggage was passed through an X-ray device. It was found that there were identical and repeated objects inside the suitcase, and further inspection revealed the presence of 17 expensive remote measurement devices.
Cairo International Airport customs said that the telemetry devices were deliberately hidden by the Egyptian passenger to mislead customs officials, transit and sell the goods, and achieve material gains.
The director general of Passenger Customs at Terminal 1 at Cairo International Airport decided to take legal measures and issue a customs seizure report against the passenger.
According to Cairo International Airport customs, these measures are in implementation of the instructions of Shahat al-Ghatouri, head of the Customs Authority, to tighten control over customs outlets and thwart smuggling attempts.
LONDON: Iranian school children were arrested on school premises on Sunday by security forces, the Guardian reported.
Pictures of security forces arriving at schools in vans without license plates were shared on social media.
According to the Guardian, Iranian Education Minister Mohammad Mahdi Kazem said that students involved in the protests had not been expelled, but their parents were being contacted.
Authorities also closed schools and higher education institutions in Iranian Kurdistan on Sunday, as demonstrations following the death of Mahsa Amini entered their fourth week.
Hengaw, a Norway-based Iran human rights group, shared videos of girls chanting: “Woman, life, freedom,” at a school in Saqqez, Amini’s home town in Kurdistan province.
Other footage from cities across Iran shows hundreds of high school and university students confronting security forces armed with tear gas, clubs and, in many cases, live ammunition, the rights group said.
Iranian authorities denied that live rounds have been used, the Guardian reported.
“At least 185 people, including at least 19 children, have been killed in the nationwide protests across Iran. The highest number of killings occurred in Sistan and Baluchistan province with half the recorded number,” Iran Human Rights said on Saturday.