Diplomacy & Crisis News

A la lumière de contacts récemment pris en Israël, Jean Lacouture évoque ci-dessous l'action de quelques groupes, organisations ou tendances qui jouent un rôle en Israël dans la recherche de la paix, ou simplement dans l'acceptation des procédures pacifiques devant y mener. La paix est-elle possible (...) / Israël, Idéologie, Pacifisme, Politique, Extrême gauche - 1970/09

Cette recension a été publiée dans le numéro d’été de Politique étrangère (n° 2/2018). Rachid Chaker propose une analyse de l’ouvrage dirigé par Christophe Jaffrelot et Laurence Louër, Pan-Islamic Connections: Transnational Networks between South Asia and the Gulf (Hurst, 2018, 288 pages).

Les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux États-Unis, et l’intervention internationale en Afghanistan qui a suivi, ont braqué les projecteurs sur une région jusqu’alors peu connue du grand public occidental. Les populations d’Europe découvrirent alors sur leurs écrans les madrasas pakistanaises et afghanes, où des jeunes enfants apprenaient dès leurs premières années la langue arabe et la récitation du Coran. Ces lieux d’apprentissage furent perçus comme le vecteur de transmission de la radicalisation religieuse, conduisant à l’adoption de doctrines rigoristes débouchant parfois sur la violence. Dans ce contexte, le rôle des monarchies du Golfe, et de l’Arabie Saoudite en particulier, dans le financement de ces structures et la propagation du wahhabisme en Asie du Sud, a été pointé du doigt.

L’ouvrage dirigé par Christophe Jaffrelot et Laurence Louër réunit des contributions de spécialistes internationaux sur les liens entre les pays du Golfe et l’Asie du Sud, notamment l’Inde et le Pakistan. On y apprend notamment que, bien qu’existantes, les relations entre musulmans du Golfe et d’Asie du Sud furent peu développées avant le XIXe siècle, le rigorisme religieux du Moyen-Orient ne convenant guère aux populations des Indes, plus proches d’un soufisme qui se voulait ouvert et tolérant. Toutefois, l’ouverture du canal de Suez, la répression qui suivit la mutinerie de 1857 aux Indes, et la proclamation du Califat ottoman vont permettre la naissance de fortes interactions, avec influences religieuses réciproques.

La naissance du Pakistan en 1947, qui se voulait un État islamique, et la volonté des dirigeants Bhutto puis Zia d’obtenir des financements pour leur programme nucléaire, vont progressivement rapprocher le Pakistan de l’Arabie Saoudite, qui verra dès lors d’un mauvais œil l’influence iranienne dans la région. La guerre d’Afghanistan (1979-1989) fut un accélérateur. Soucieux de combattre l’envahisseur soviétique, le Pakistan, via ses services de renseignement dont l’Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), fera transiter des armes et des fonds, en provenance notamment du Golfe, renforçant ainsi le poids des groupes religieux armés dont le régime des talibans sera une émanation quelques années plus tard, et ce avec la bénédiction des dignitaires religieux saoudiens, dont le grand mufti Ibn Baz.

L’Arabie Saoudite n’est pas le seul État du Golfe à s’être intéressé à cette partie de l’Asie. On apprend dans cet ouvrage que les Émirats Arabes unis ont de longue date entretenu des liens forts avec des groupes talibans afghans : Jalaluddin Haqqani aurait en effet autrefois visité les Émirats, et y aurait rencontré les plus hauts dignitaires du pays. Le Qatar n’est pas en reste. La volonté du petit émirat de peser sur la scène internationale l’a poussé à s’impliquer dans le processus de réconciliation afghan, bousculant parfois son rival et voisin saoudien. La question des financements privés du Golfe à destination de l’Asie du Sud est également abordée, tout comme le rôle de l’Iran dans cette partie du monde.

Cet ouvrage riche et complet retrace avec précision l’historique des connexions entre ces deux sous-régions asiatiques que sont le Golfe et l’Asie du Sud, leur état actuel, en offrant au lecteur des clés essentielles pour comprendre les enjeux géopolitiques liés à ces complexes régions.

Rachid Chaker

S’abonner à Politique étrangère

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American actress Lindsey Lohan recently came under fire after she proclaimed that women who speak up about sexual harassment “look weak” and that some women go to the police “for the attention.”  Although she later on apologized for her remarks, it is still a major blow for all women worldwide to have a woman of her status come out and make such remarks.   The lack of compassion she demonstrated in her remarks highlight that she has lived a privileged life and is out of touch with many women across the world, who have fallen victim to harassment and sexual abuse in the hands of men and yet can only dream of having the privilege of reporting them to the police, who will then proceed to have an impartial investigation.

Take the story of Iranian journalist Neda Amin, who is living as a political refugee in Israel.  Twice, she was raped by the Iranian regime due to her activities against the ruling Islamist government.  According to her, she did not even have the privilege of reporting the rapes to the police for the Iranian regime was on the side of the rapists.  If she had proceeded to report the rapes, she could have found herself criminally prosecuted. In 2014, Iran hanged Reyhaneh Jabbari, a victim of an attempted rape who fought back against her rapist and killed him.   The Iranian regime accused her of committing an unwarranted murder.   According to NCRI Women’s Committee, when 41 women and girls were gang raped recently in Iranshahr in Balochistan Province by the Basij militia, it was the whistleblower and a Baloch man who staged a sit-in protesting against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that were prosecuted.   The gang rapists got off without punishment.

Iran is far from the only regime where the government is not on the side of the victims.  According to the UN, Syrian government forces and militias have raped and sexually abused women and girls in order to punish opposition communities in 20 governmental and intelligence branches, Reuters reported.  Of course, with Assad almost completely winning the Syrian Civil War, the victims of Assad are unlike to obtain justice in Syria.  Although a UN report recommended that Syria be tried for these grave war crimes at the International Criminal Court at The Hague, to date, this has not happened.  Syria is not a signatory of the Rome Statute and thus Assad can only be brought to The Hague if the UN Security Council mandates it.  Since Assad is allied with both China and Russia, this is unlikely to happen.  As a result, some victims of Assad’s regime are seeking justice in German courts but without the support of The Hague, comprehensive justice for the victims is unlikely.   Assad has literally gotten away with perhaps the worst democide of the 21st century so far.

Not having the freedom to publicly speak out against such sexual violence and to obtain justice for such horrific crimes can emotionally kill a woman or girl.  According to Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, a Christian woman in Bangladesh who was the victim of sexual harassment recently committed suicide.  Basu claimed that a mob had entered into her home, demanding money.  According to the report, when the woman refused to give them the money, they tortured her and forced her to pose for a nude video.  They told her that they would give her three days to give them the money or else they would post the video online on social media.   Due to the despair that this incident caused her and the fact that she could not expect justice if she proceeded to prosecute the sexual harassers with the police, Basu stated that she committed suicide, emphasizing that this Christian woman was merely one of many such victims in Bangladesh.

Basu blames the ruling government in Bangladesh for such incidents, accusing them of systematic human rights violations against their own people: “They sell arms to the Rohingya rebels, steal votes, engage in bank robbery, coal theft, gold theft, diamond theft, wage a shameful attack on ordinary peaceful students and engage in rampant corruption across the country.  In addition, they rape minorities, gang rape minorities, force a father, son and uncle to gang rape a mother and daughter, torture, take possession of Hindu crematoriums, evict Hindus from their homes, rape female students while taking a video of it, give sponsorship to terror groups like ISIS, harass ordinary people and for such things, ordinary people cannot escape.”

Compared to female victims who live in countries like Iran, Syria and Bangladesh, every American female should consider herself privileged.   However, even in Western countries like the US and Israel, a woman who is a victim of harassment and sexual violence still is in a disadvantaged position.  I know this from personal experience.  When I was 7 years old, I was raped by my brother’s best friend, which robbed me of anything resembling a normal childhood.  When I finally grew up enough to report the rape to the police, the rapist managed to get off with community service and a fine payable to the US government.  I never saw any of the money.  If it was physical damage caused by a traffic accident, I would have received financial compensation but not for the emotional scars of getting raped at age 7.   What was their justification?  He was a minor when he committed the crime, as if it mattered to me as the victim what age the rapist was.   I was no exception.   According to a 2014 Psychology Today report, there is only a 16% chance that a rapist will ever spend a day in jail in America.

Of course, Israel is no better than the US.   In the 1990’s, 7 teenage boys gang raped a 14-year-old girl on Kibbutz Shomrat in Israel.   To make matters worse, instead of supporting the victim, the kibbutz did everything they could in order to cover up the rape.  According to an academic article that was published in the International Journal of Conflict and Violence, the Kibbutz media at the time blamed the victim for the incident instead of the rapist.  Furthermore, she was completely ostracized by her community for harming the name of the kibbutz.  Even worse, the legal system did not support her as the victim in the way that they should have.  The submission of the indictment was delayed by a number of years due to the mental health condition of the victim.   Originally, the 7 boys were acquitted in the District Court but the Israeli Supreme Court intervened in the case and sentenced them to two to three years in prison.  That’s it.  Two to three years for completely destroying the life of the victim.  To date, the victim is not able to function.  She never managed to get her life back together but the perpetrators only got two to three years behind bars.

Although these incidents happened many years ago, I fear that not much has changed since then.  As a Middle East based journalist, I routinely have been harassed online for over a year now.   Although the harassment is not sexual in nature, the manner in which people here in Israel try to shut me up whenever I wish to speak out about it is sort of similar to how the Kibbutz tried to shut up the poor 14-year-old gang rape victim on Kibbutz Shomrat, whom Israeli society attempted to silence since her story destroyed the visionary dream of the Kibbutz movement.  I am told to suffer silently and to give into the dictates of my male harasser and his friends merely due to his prominent position in society.  My life story during this past year apparently destroys the halo effect around this prominent individual.  Therefore, too many people are trying to silence me as the victim.   And this is precisely why the world needs a Me Too Movement in order to empower female victims to stand up for themselves and to demand justice now.  It is not easy for a victim to make such demands.  Any victim of sexual abuse or harassment will tell you that going public is one of the most difficult things to do in a society that always blames the victim.  Therefore, any woman who goes public exposing such abuse is a heroine, not someone who is weak or a drama queen.

In fact, standing up for justice for victims of harassment and sexual abuse is an important virtue.  As American poet Suzy Kassem proclaimed, “Stand up to hypocrisy. If you don’t, the hypocrites will teach. Stand up to ignorance, because if you don’t, the ignorant will run free to spread ignorance like a disease. Stand up for truth. If you don’t, then there is no truth to your existence. If you don’t stand up for all that is right, then understand that you are part of the reason why there is so much wrong in the world.”For this reason, American actress Lindsey Lohan personally insulted countless women across the world with her statement.

The post Op-Ed: Standing up to harassers and sexual predators worldwide appeared first on Foreign Policy Blogs.

« C'est au nom de notre intérêt national le plus vital que nous devrions rechercher au plus vite la voie d'un règlement pacifique nous permettant de rendre les territoires occupés — la Cisjordanie et la bande de Gaza — à leurs populations ou au régime jordanien, suivant le libre choix des hommes qui (...) / Israël, Palestine, Conflit israélo-arabe, Droit international, Extrême droite, Intellectuels, Presse, Colonisation, Guerre israélo-arabe 1967, Guerre israélo-arabe 1948-1949 - 1969/10

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