Republica
पौष २०७७

Gunmen kill two women judges in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan 17: Gunmen fired on a car in northern Kabul on Sunday, killing two women judges who worked for Afghanistan’s high court and wounding the driver, a court official said. It was the latest attack in the Afghan capital during peace talks between Taliban and Afghan government officials in Qatar.

पूर्ण विवरण

सम्बन्धित सामग्री

Floods, landslides kill 83 people so far, 106 injured

Eighty-three people have so far died in disaster-related incidents, including landslides and floods, triggered by relentless rains across the country. The Police Headquarters stated that 33 men, 25 women and 25 children have died in such incidents in various places of the country from June 10 till this morning.

The Rising Nepal 3 महिना पहिले

Gunmen storm Mexican resort, kill 7, including child

It was not clear who was behind the shooting that killed the seven-year-old, three men and three women.

The Kathmandu Post चैत्र २०७९

Russia launches new strikes on Ukraine power plants

Oct 18: Presidential aide Kyrylo Tymoshenko said there had been three explosions in Kyiv, and BBC journalists saw plumes of smoke rising on the city's left bank shortly after 09:00 (6:00 GMT). Two facilities were seriously damaged in the central city of Dnipro and power cuts were reported in Zhytomyr. The latest attacks came 24 hours after Kyiv was hit by "kamikaze" drones. The unmanned drones, believed to be Iranian-made, killed at least eight people in the capital and the northern city of Sumy, and struck critical infrastructure, with power outages reported in hundreds of towns and villages. President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by saying that Russia's occupiers were continuing to do "what they do best - terrorise and kill civilians". It was not initially clear whether drones were involved in Tuesday's attacks, although Mr Tymoshenko, deputy head of the presidential office, said an S-300 anti-aircraft missile was fired at a residential building in the southern city of Mykolaiv overnight, killing one person. The city's flower market was also destroyed. In other attacks early on Tuesday: -Shelling was reported in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv -The strikes on a power plant in Kyiv left one area on the bank of the Dnipro river without electricity and water, reports said -In Zhytomyr, to the west of Kyiv, the mayor said there was no power or water in the city and hospitals were working on backup power -Infrastructure in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia was also hit, although local officials said no-one had been hurt. Earlier, the US said it agreed with its French and UK allies that the supply of drones by Iran violated a UN Security Council resolution linked to a nuclear agreement, barring the transfer of certain military technology. Ukraine has identified the drones used in deadly attacks on Kyiv and Sumy as Shahed-136 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Vedant Patel of the US state department said the US would not hesitate to use sanctions. The EU said it was also gathering evidence and was ready to act. Meanwhile, in one of the biggest prisoner swaps since Russia's war began in February, 218 detainees were exchanged - including 108 Ukrainian women.

Ratopati English आश्विन २०७९

Iranian women who need certificates to prove they are virgins

AUG 11: "You tricked me into marrying you because you're not a virgin. Nobody would marry you if they knew the truth." This is what Maryam's husband said to her after they had sex for the first time. She tried to reassure him that, even though she didn't bleed, she had never had intercourse before. But he didn't believe her, and asked her to get a virginity certificate. This is not uncommon in Iran. After getting engaged, many women go to a doctor and get a test that proves they've never had sex. However, according to the WHO, virginity testing has no scientific merit. Maryam's certificate stated that her hymen type was "elastic". This means she might not bleed after penetrative sex. "It hurt my pride. I didn't do anything wrong, but my husband kept insulting me," she said. "I couldn't take it anymore, so I took some pills and tried to kill myself." Just in time, she was taken to a hospital and survived. "I will never forget those dark days. I lost 20kg [3 stone] during that time." Growing calls to end the practice Maryam's story is the reality of many women in Iran. Being a virgin before marriage is still crucial for many girls and their families. It's a value that is deeply rooted in cultural conservatism. But recently, things have started to change. Women and men around the country have been campaigning to put an end to virginity testing. Last November, an online petition received almost 25,000 signatures within a single month. This was the first time virginity testing was being openly challenged by so many people in Iran. "It's a violation of privacy, and it's humiliating," says Neda. When she was a 17-year-old student in Tehran, she lost her virginity to her boyfriend. "I panicked. I was terrified about what would happen if my family found out." So, Neda decided to repair her hymen. Technically, this procedure is not illegal - but it has dangerous social implications, so no hospital will agree to perform it. So Neda found a private clinic that would do it in secret - at a heavy price. "I spent all my savings. I sold my laptop, my mobile phone and my gold jewellery," she says. She had to sign a document to take full responsibility in case something went wrong. A midwife then proceeded with the procedure. It took about 40 minutes. But Neda would need many weeks to recover. "I was in a lot of pain. I couldn't move my legs," she recalls. She hid the whole thing from her parents. "I felt very lonely. But I think that the fear of them finding out helped me tolerate the pain." In the end, the ordeal Neda endured was all for nothing. A year later, she met someone who wanted to marry her. But when they had sex, she didn't bleed. The procedure had failed. "My boyfriend accused me of trying to trick him into marriage. He said that I was a liar and he left me." Pressure from the family Despite the WHO denouncing virginity testing as unethical and lacking scientific merit, the practice is still carried out in several countries, including Indonesia, Iraq and Turkey. The Iranian Medical Organisation maintain that they only carry out virginity testing in specific circumstances - such as court cases and rape accusations. However, most requests for a virginity certification still come from couples who are planning to get married. So they turn to private clinics - often accompanied by their mothers. A gynaecologist or a midwife will carry out a test and issue a certificate. This will include the woman's full name, her father's name, her national ID and sometimes her photo. It will describe the status of her hymen, and include the statement: "This girl appears to be a virgin." In more conservative families, the document will be signed by two witnesses - normally the mothers. Dr Fariba has been issuing certificates for years. She admits it's a humiliating practice, but believes she's actually helping many women. "They're under such pressure from their families. Sometimes I'll verbally lie for the couple. If they've slept together and want to get married, I'll say in front of their families that the woman is a virgin." But for many men, marrying a virgin is still fundamental. "If a girl loses her virginity before marriage, she cannot be trustworthy. She might leave her husband for another man," says Ali, a 34-year-old electrician from Shiraz. He says he's had sex with 10 girls. "I couldn't resist," he says. Ali accepts there's a double standard in Iranian society, but says he sees no reason to break away from tradition. "Social norms accept that men have more freedom than women." Ali's view is shared by many people, especially in more rural, conservative areas of Iran. Despite mounting demonstrations against virginity testing, given this notion is so deeply rooted within Iranian culture, many believe a total ban on the practice by the government and lawmakers is unlikely anytime soon. Hope in the future Four years after attempting to take her own life and living with an abusive husband, Maryam was finally able to get a divorce through the courts. She became single just a few weeks ago. "It's going to be very hard to trust a man again," she says. "I can't see myself getting married in the near future." Along with tens of thousands of other women, she, too, signed one of the growing number of online petitions to put an end to issuing virginity certificates. Although she expects nothing to change soon, perhaps not even within her lifetime, she does believe one day women will gain more equality within her country. "I'm sure it will happen one day. I hope in the future no girls will have to go through what I did." All names of interviewees were changed to protect their identities. With inputs from BBC

Ratopati English आषाढ २०७९

Ukraine conflict: 'Russian soldiers raped me and killed my husband'

Warning: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence In a quiet, rural neighbourhood 70km (45miles) west of Kyiv, we spoke to Anna, who is 50. We have changed her name to protect her identity. Anna told us that on 7 March she had been at home with her husband when a foreign soldier barged in. "At gunpoint, he took me to a house nearby. He ordered me: 'Take your clothes off or I'll shoot you.' He kept threatening to kill me if I didn't do as he said. Then he started raping me," she said. Anna described her attacker as a young, thin, Chechen fighter allied with Russia. "While he was raping me, four more soldiers entered. I thought that I was done for. But they took him away. I never saw him again," she said. She believes she was saved by a separate unit of Russian soldiers. Anna went back home and found her husband. He had been shot in the abdomen. "He had tried to run after me to save me, but he was hit by a round of bullets," she said. They both sought shelter in a neighbour's house. They couldn't take her husband to hospital because of the fighting. He died of his injuries two days later. Anna never stopped crying while telling us her story. She showed us where she and her neighbours buried her husband in the backyard of their home. A tall, wooden cross stands at the head of the grave. Anna told us that she is in contact with the local hospital and is receiving psychological support. The soldiers who saved her stayed in her house for a few days. She says they would point their gun at her and ask her to give them her husband's belongings. "When they left, I found drugs and Viagra. They would get high and they were often drunk. Most of them are killers, rapists and looters. Only a few are OK," she said. Down the road from Anna's house, we heard another chilling story. A woman was allegedly raped and killed, and neighbours say it was done by the same man who raped Anna, before he went to Anna's house. The woman was in her 40s. She was taken out of her home, say neighbours, and held in the bedroom of a house nearby whose occupants had evacuated when the war began. The well-decorated room, with ornate wallpaper and a bed with a golden headboard, is now a disturbing crime scene. There are large bloodstains on the mattress and duvet. In a corner, is a mirror which has a note written on it with lipstick - "Tortured by unknown people, buried by Russian soldiers," it says. Oksana, a neighbour, told us it had been left there by Russian soldiers who found the woman's body and buried her. "They [Russian soldiers] told me she had been raped and that her throat was either slit or stabbed, and she bled to death. They said there was a lot of blood." The woman was buried in a grave in the garden of the house. A day after we visited, the police exhumed her body to investigate the case. The body was found without clothes, and with a deep, long, cut across the neck. Andrii Nebytov, the police chief of the Kyiv region, told us about another case they're investigating in a village 50km (30 miles) to the west of Kyiv. A family of three - a couple in their thirties and their young child - lived in a house on the edge of the village. "On 9 March, several soldiers of the Russian army entered the house. The husband tried to protect his wife and child. So they shot him in the yard," said Mr Nebytov. "After that, two soldiers repeatedly raped the wife. They would leave and then come back. They returned three times to rape her. They threatened that if she resisted they would harm her little boy. To protect her child she didn't resist." When the soldiers left, they burnt down the house and shot the family's dogs. The woman escaped with her son and then contacted the police. Mr Nebytov says his team has met her and recorded her testimony. They have been gathering evidence at the family home - only its shell is now left. Just a few signs of a previous peaceful, ordinary life lie in the charred ruins. We saw a child's bicycle, a stuffed horse, a dog's leash and a man's fur lined winter shoe. The husband was buried in the garden by neighbours. The police have now exhumed his body for examination. They plan to take the case to international courts. Ukraine's ombudsman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova says they're documenting several such cases. "About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha. Nine of them are pregnant," she said. "Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn't want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children." She says they are receiving several calls on support helplines - and also getting information through channels on the Telegram messaging app. "A 25-year-old woman called to tell us her 16-year-old sister was raped in the street in front of her. She said they were screaming 'This will happen to every Nazi prostitute' as they raped her sister," Ms Denisova said. We asked if it was possible to assess the scale of sexual crimes committed by Russian troops during the occupation. "It is impossible at the moment because not everyone is willing to tell us what happened to them. The majority of them currently call for psychological support, so we cannot record those as crimes unless they give us their testimony," Ms Denisova said. She says Ukraine wants a special tribunal to be set up by the United Nations to try Vladimir Putin personally for allegations of war crimes including rape. "I want to ask Putin, why is this happening?" said Anna, the woman who told us she was raped. "I don't understand. We're not living in the Stone Age, why can't he negotiate? Why is he occupying and killing?" With inputs from BBC

Ratopati English फाल्गुन २०७८

Serial killer lured by fake social account gets 160 years

A New Jersey man who used dating apps to lure and kill three women five years ago was sentenced Wednesday to 160 years in prison

Nepalnews भाद्र २०७८

The Dangers of Forcing Gender Equality in Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN, Nov 22: Sitting cross-legged on the floor of a sparsely decorated Kabul apartment, the young, bubbly woman told me why she lies to her neighbors. She tells them she’s a nurse when they inquire, as they always do. She leaves the house in civilian clothes and changes into her crisp uniform only when she’s on base. This Afghan woman in her 20s, who asked that her name not be used for her safety, is part of a small, brave group of women serving in Afghanistan’s security forces. If her neighbors found out, she says, they’d surely kill her.

Republica कार्तिक २०७४

Privacy

Download