News
June 12 marks the one-week anniversary of an ongoing sit-in by prominent Egyptian writers, filmmakers, performers and intellectuals seeking the removal of Minister of Culture Alaa Abdel-Aziz. They broke into the ministry building on June 5 to protest what they see as efforts to 'Ikhwanize' the arts.
Read more at Al Monitor.
For more on this, read Al Monitor's Minister of Culture Wages Campaign Against Egyptian Artists.
While Egypt is still discussing its future NGO law, which may hinder e.g. human rights organisations in working freely in the country, a court in Cairo has sentenced 43 people to between one and five years in prison for working for unregistered NGOs in Egypt.
Twenty-seven defendants, all of whom were tried in absentia, received five-year jail sentences. Eleven received one-year suspended sentences, and five received two-year sentences.
Read more at Ahram Online.
A Tunisian court on Wednesday convicted three European feminist activists who staged a topless courthouse protest last month, sentencing them to four months and a day in prison, a court official said. The defense called the sentence far too harsh.
Read more at Huffington Post.
Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon, a country with 17 different ethnic and religious sects, went through a bloody civil war from 1975 to 1990. Following the war, a political system based on a certain representation of the major ethnic and religious groups was established and is still used today.
Syrian military forces have been present in the country since 1976, but withdrew completely in 2005 after demonstrations following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. In the summer of 2005 Lebanon held its first legislative elections free of foreign interference since the end of the civil war.
In 2011 many Lebanese took to the streets to protest against the sectarian political system.
| |
| Total population | 4,143,101 |
| Female population | 2,111, 470 |
Total 0-14 years (women) | |
Total 15-64 years (women) | |
Total 65 years and over (women) |
| Life expectancy at birth (women) | 76.62 years |
| Fertility rate | 1.77 children born/woman |
| Total literacy rate | 87.4% |
| Total literacy rate among females | 82.2% |
| School life expectancy ( primary to tertiary education) for women | 14 years |
| Female enrolment at higher education* (2009) | 57 % |
*Higher education is the degree after achieving the high-school diploma
Click on link to view source
Gry Hvass Pedersen, Laura Toft Nielsen & Rikke Hostrup Haugbølle