..
Boys in Morocco are not being recognised as victims of sexual exploitation
“Sexual violence against boys is only viewed as sexual assault,
while for girls it is considered as rape.”
Gender norms that place boys as ‘strong’ and ‘able to protect themselves’, means that there is an assumption that they are invulnerable to sexual exploitation and abuse. Not only do these rigid gender norms contribute to boys’ reluctance to disclose sexual violence, or seek help, but they also reinforce self-blame and shame of the male victims.
Additionally, the long-held taboos associated with discussing sex and sexuality that are deeply entrenched in Moroccan culture perpetuate an environment of silence, which further discourages boys from opening up about their experience(s) of sexual exploitation.
“It is important to encourage males to report and to negate the notion that only girls are victims of such crimes. This does not emasculate them in any way.”
~ frontline worker
For more on this story, please go to ECPAT.
"The Regime's Legitimacy Is Eroding"
Iran Protests Continue Despite Brutal Repression
Protesters in Iranian Kurdistan: Despite regime violence, the demonstrations are continuing. Foto: SalamPix / Abaca Press picture alliance
The uprising against the Islamist dictatorship in Iran is entering a new phase and the regime is doing all it can to survive. For how much longer can the mullahs cling to power?
By Anne Armbrecht, Julia Amalia Heyer, Muriel Kalisch, Mina Khani, Maximilian Popp, Christoph Reuter, Omid Rezaee und Özlem Topçu
25.11.2022, 17.49 Uhr
There isn’t a single place where she is safe from the regime’s henchmen, says Anoush, not even in her dreams.
It has been just over a month since DER SPIEGEL first spoke with Anoush, a teacher from the Iranian capital of Tehran in her mid-20s. At the time, the protests that erupted following the September death of the young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini had already spread throughout the country. Anoush says she began taking part in the demonstrations from the very beginning. Now, she has again decided to share her experiences, using long chat messages to do so. She has, however, changed the service she uses: She no longer feels that WhatsApp is secure enough.
The article you are reading originally appeared in German in issue 48/2022 (November 26th, 2022) of DER SPIEGEL.
The regime, she says, has drastically ratcheted up the pressure. The terror, she says, is everywhere, with only a fraction of it making it into the media. An acquaintance of hers, she says, was raped in prison after being arrested, with the guards having fired at her genitals with paintball guns. "Since then, I have been having a recurring nightmare of being raped myself," she says.
Despite the violence, people in Tehran and elsewhere in the country are continuing to take to the streets. Their primary focus this week has been the massacres in the Kurdish areas of the country. It is difficult, however, to determine where the demonstrations are taking place and how large they are since the internet has been blocked in many parts of the country.
"We cry ourselves to sleep and wake up with new hope."
Anoush, a teacher from Tehran
The fight against the dictatorship is no longer finding its expression only in street protests, says Anoush. "We are screaming from the windows, even if security forces are opening fire more frequently. We are boycotting companies that advertise on state television. We are using cash instead of credit cards, collecting money for the people in the Kurdish areas. It is difficult to get help to them, but some people are trying. When we cross the streets, we give each other the V for victory sign. We cry ourselves to sleep and wake up with new hope."
There is much more to this article in Spiegel International.
UK: Children at Islamic Republic of Iran School sing-song that
references apocalyptic myth about massacring Jews
NOV 26, 2022 3:00 PM
BY ROBERT SPENCER
Yes, there is an Islamic Republic of Iran School in London. Why? Because Britain is mad.
Children chant massacre-Jews song at North London school
by David Rose,
The Jewish Chronicle,
November 24, 2022:
An Iranian propaganda video in which dozens of children sing a song that references an apocalyptic myth about massacring Jews was filmed at a school just 15 minutes’ walk from the New London synagogue in St John’s Wood, a JC investigation has revealed.
In the video, shot earlier this year in the playground of the Islamic Republic of Iran School (IRIS) near Queen’s Park station, the children sing about joining 313 mythical warriors in a conflict against the infidels, when (according to the present Iranian regime) Israel will be obliterated and Jews killed.
Some scenes were also shot at the nearby Islamic Centre of England (ICE), which is controlled by the Iranian regime and linked to the school. ICE is currently the subject of a statutory inquiry by the Charity Commission, as the JC disclosed last week.
The song, entitled Hello Commander, has been praised by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who claims its popularity proves his people’s “loyalty to the system”, Iranian pro-regime media has reported.
Its recording in St John’s Wood, in easy reach of several synagogues and Jewish centres, has raised serious concerns among community security officials.
In the London video, rows of boys in white shirts and pressed black trousers and girls in blue flares, white blouses and matching hijabs can be seen saluting and singing their allegiance to their “commander”, Ayatollah Khamenei.
The children, aged between eight and 15, sing: “Without you, this life has no meaning. This life comes alive when you are here for me.”
They then sing about fighting in history’s final battle for the mythical leader known as the Mahdi, last seen supposedly almost 1,200 years ago.
The Mahdi, could very possibly be the anti-Christ of the Bible.
Shia theology says the Mahdi will return to Earth to lead Muslim forces in the war of the apocalypse, accompanied by an elite band of 313 fighters — including, the song suggests, the children in the video.
They sing: “We wait for under the flag of our leaders. Tell me beloved, will you arrive soon? May Allah hasten your reappearance…
“We may be young but do not see us as too young. For you I will rise up and you will not see me fall. From the 313, you will see I will answer the call… Take my oath of loyalty as a warrior and servant.”…
Mir Abbas Hussein, a spokesman for the ICE, denied that what he called the “local” version of the song had this meaning.
He told the JC that he accepted that IRGC leaders said Israel must be obliterated before the Mahdi’s return, but said there was “nothing in the [religious] books about destroying Israel” and the song as recorded in London “is nothing to do with a political agenda. Here we focus on religion.”
The ICE’s constitution stipulates that one of its trustees will always be the UK’s personal representative of Ayatollah Khamenei.
Versions of the song recorded in Iran and elsewhere dominate the country’s official airways.
A report by the pro-regime Iran Press News Agency states: “Hello Commander educates the new generation on the ambitions of the Islamic Revolution and encourages them to be guardians to protect those ideals, which is seen as a step towards promoting the revolution among the generation to come.”…
The school is owned by the Iranian government and ICE’s previous director Mohammad Shomali, the previous ICE director and reportedly its Khamenei representative, has spoken there.
The ICE has received £139,000 from taxpayers under the Covid furlough scheme. Meanwhile, the school’s pastoral and educational standards have been scathingly criticised by Ofsted….
The ICE has hosted numerous speakers over many years who have spewed a torrent of Jew-hatred. In recent weeks, these included an ayatollah who says Jews were responsible for killing of Muslims in Burma and that Zionism “harms all mankind”.
The ICE is one of several centres across Britain and Europe that are controlled by Iran. Police and security services uncovered links to terrorism at one pro-regime hub in Germany.
The ICE and its northern UK counterpart, the Manchester Islamic Centre, have hosted prominent Labour politicians including Jeremy Corbyn the year before he became party leader. He made a speech at the ICE in 2014 on what he called “The Case for Iran”….
It's hard not to agree with Robert Spencer that the existence of schools like this in England is sheer madness.
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