GENEVA: A group of UN human rights experts on Friday called for the immediate release of three Iranian women given long jail terms for protesting laws compelling women to wear veils.
The trio were charged after a video posted online showed them handing out flowers on Tehran’s metro on March 8, International Women’s Day, according to a statement co-signed by five UN special rapporteurs and another expert.
The women — named in the statement as Mojgan Keshavarz, Yasaman Aryani and Monireh Arabshahi — were not wearing veils.
They “peacefully protested against Iran’s compulsory veiling laws and advocated for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to wear the hijab,” the statement said.
According to the experts, who are independent and do not speak for the world body, the women were detained in April, “forcibly disappeared” for up to two weeks, and denied access to a lawyer through the initial investigation.
“Their legal representatives were also reporte

dly prohibited from representing them at their trial,” the statement said.
Keshavarz has been sentenced to 23-and-a-half years in prison while Aryani and Arabshahi were both given 16-year terms.
All were convicted of national security violations, spreading anti-state propaganda and “encouraging and providing for (moral) corruption and prostitution,” the UN experts said. Keshavarz was convicted of the additional crime of “insulting the sacred.”
“We call upon the Iranian authorities to quash these convictions and immediately release all human rights defenders who have been arbitrarily detained for their work in advocating women’s rights,” the statement said.
It was co-signed by Javaid Rehman, special rapporteur on rights in Iran, Dubravka Simonovic, UN expert on violence against women and Michel Forst, rapporteur on human rights defenders.
David Kaye, the expert on freedom of expression, Meskerem Geset Techane, who heads the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls, and Ahmed Shaheed, rapporteur on religious freedom, also signed the letter.

The experts said Tehran responded to their concerns by noting that the women “had been arrested on charges relating to morality and national security offenses.”
The rapporteurs also reported that arrests of women’s activists have risen in recent weeks, with Iran’s government having issued an official warning that those who do not wear a veil will face severe punishment.
They cited unidentified reports that 32 people had been arrested, and at least 10 imprisoned, since January of last year for protesting against ruled mandating that hijabs be worn.

BEIRUT: After being suddenly deported from Turkey, Nidal Hussein stood dazed just inside war-torn Syria, the latest victim of neighboring countries growing tired of hosting millions of Syrian refugees.
“I left my wife and three children in Istanbul,” the 48-year-old said last month, after he was deported for not having permission to reside in the Turkish city. “I will try to get back” into Turkey at any cost, he said.
Syria’s conflict has displaced millions of people since 2011, and its neighbors have absorbed the majority of those fleeing abroad.
But today, with no political solution to the conflict in sight, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan — who together host at least 5.2 million Syrian refugees — are increasingly seeing that population as a “burden.”
Rights groups have warned of mounting hate speech and increased government pressure on Syrians to return home, especially in Turkey and Lebanon.
While Jordan has not yet upped the pressure, it too has said the Syrian presence is weighing down its infrastructure and compounding its economic woes.
“With no clear-cut solutions for Syrian refugees to return, campaigns against them are increasing,” said analyst Nasser Yassin.
“Neighbouring countries have become exhausted,” said the head of the Beirut-based Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs.
Turkey hosts the most Syrian refugees in the world at 3.6 million.
In recent weeks, rights groups have denounced reports of hundreds of refugees being deported back into Syria as part of a crackdown on those without the right residency papers.
“The hostile atmosphere toward Syrians … has worsened recently with a consensus among political parties and the media that Syrians are a source of problems,” said Yildiz Onen, spokesman for the Turkish campaign “We are all migrants.”
It “is opening the way to measures designed to make life difficult for migrants,” she said.
But “sending Syrians to a country that is still at war, particularly with the deadly bombardments in Idlib, is putting people in mortal danger,” she warned.

, referring to the ongoing Russia-backed campaign in northwest Syria.
Turkey’s government has flatly denied the reports, saying anyone returning to Syria — a total of 337,729 since the war began — has done so voluntarily.
It also rejects claims Syrians were forced to sign return forms in Turkish that they did not understand.

Lebanon too insists some 325,000 returns to Syria since 2017 have all been voluntary, even as rights groups decry measures to make their lives increasingly complicated.
The Mediterranean country of some 4.5 million people says it hosts around 1.5 million Syrians, of which nearly a million are UN-registered refugees.
Since June, more than 3,600 Syrian families have seen their shelters demolished in the eastern region of Arsal, according to the municipality.
Homes made of anything other than timber and plastic sheeting are not allowed.
Last week, the army destroyed a further 350 structures in the north of the country and arrested dozens over not having residency documents, humanitarian groups said.
The labor ministry, meanwhile, is cracking down on foreign workers without a permit in a move activists says largely targets Syrians.
Human Rights Watch has denounced both Turkey’s deportation methods and Lebanon’s pressure on Syrians as illicit.
Yassin, the analyst, said political parties — especially in Turkey and Lebanon — were using anti-refugee rhetoric to build “political and electoral capital.”
In Lebanon, “it’s easy to point a finger at (Syrians) and use them as a scapegoat,” whether to explain a struggling economy, unemployment rates, or increasing hazards to the environment.
“But all that is gross exaggeration.”
Syrians in Jordan have faced less pressure, but Amman still says around 1.3 million Syrians it hosts — more than 660,000 of which are registered refugees — are a considerable weight.
Planning ministry spokesman Issam Majali said their presence “imposed several challenges and burdens on Jordan,” affecting security and services including health care or education.
And “we are facing the challenge of finding jobs for Syrian refugees and Jordanians,” he said.
In July last year, Damascus took back control of the main border crossing between Jordan and Syria, re-opening it after three years in October.
Since then, 25,000 Syrians have returned, the UN refugee agency says.
But even as the war winds down, with the Syrian government controlling around 60 percent of the country, rights groups have warned that conditions are still not ideal for returns.
Many fear “persecution and (lack of) security,” Yassin said, while others have little to return to.
“More than half of Syrian refugees in the region say they have been told their homes have been destroyed or are uninhabitable.”

GAZA CITY: Gazan shops selling pilgrims’ gifts are enjoying a seasonal revival, with worshippers keen to buy from the local markets.

Amid the deteriorating economy in the Gaza Strip, lower prices have inspired pilgrims to buy the gifts they give to their visitors after they return from the pilgrimage at the local market.

Many pilgrims only purchase special gifts from Makkah and Madinah for relatives and friends, where regulations restrict each pilgrim to travel with limited weight.

Jihad Obeid is determined to buy all the gifts he needs locally after his return from Hajj. 

Talking to Arab News before leaving for the pilgrimage, Obeid, 63, said: “I want to take advantage of my time in worship, and I do not want to waste it on shopping and buying gifts. I went to the market and bought the best gifts at reasonable prices, so that I use my time in prayer, and spare myself the trouble of buying and transferring gifts (from Saudi Arabia).”

But Obeid did not hide his desire to bring specific gifts as souvenirs of the holy cities to his family.

Palestinian worshippers have been eager to bring home gifts such as prayer mats and clothes, perfumes and toothpicks. However, because of the complexities of travel in recent years, many prefer to buy them in Gaza.

Mohammed Ashour bought gifts and Hajj supplies for his mother, who  performed Hajj this year. 

“My mother is 70 and cannot bear the burden of carrying gifts. Everything is available in Gaza, so it is enough to bring only Zamzam water, which is the most beautiful gift,” he said.

Gaza merchants are competing to attract customers during the season, especially in light of the severe commercial recession in the markets due to the deteriorating economic conditions. 

Ahmed Abu Ghali, owner of a gift shop, hopes that there will be more market activity in the next few days despite the tough commercial conditions.

He said that the pilgrimage season is great for traders, despite the difficult conditions of the Israeli siege and the salary crisis. 

Abu Musa Lubbad, owner of a gift shop, said that pilgrims are still keen to buy gifts even though most people are facing a deteriorating economic situation.

Lubbad, who has worked in the gifts trade for many years, explained that pilgrims in Gaza did not abandon the custom of buying gifts, but the difficult circumstances made them prefer quality over price.

He urged the responsible authorities to cancel taxes on gifts and supplies for the Hajj season, taking into account the conditions of the pilgrims, who are charged extortionate fees.

According to unofficial estimates, pilgrims in the Gaza Strip spent more than $5 million (SR18m) on gifts, an average of $2,000 per pilgrim, before the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in mid-2007.

BEIRUT: Syrian forces gained more ground from insurgents in the country’s northwest on Thursday, edging closer to a major opposition-held town a day after militants shot down a regime warplane in the area.

The regime offensive, which intensified last week, has displaced nearly 100,000 people over the past four days, according to the Syrian Response Coordination Group, a relief group active in northwestern Syria.

Syrian troops have been on the offensive in Idlib and its surroundings, the last major opposition stronghold in Syria, since April 30. The region is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced in other battles around the war-torn country.

The fighting over the past days has been concentrated on two fronts as regime forces march toward the town of Khan Sheikhoun from the east and west. The latest offensive also aims to besiege opposition-held towns and villages in northern parts of Hama province, according to opposition activists.

The town of Khan Sheikhoun is a stronghold of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the most powerful group in the opposition-held areas. The town was the scene of a chemical attack on April 4, 2017 that killed 89 people.

At the time, the US, Britain and France pointed a finger at the Syrian regime, saying their experts had found that nerve agents were used in the attack. Days later, the US fired 59 US Tomahawk missiles at the Shayrat Air Base in central Syria, saying the attack on Khan Sheikhoun was launched from the base.

The Syrian regime and its Russian allies denied there was a chemical attack.

The regime-controlled Syrian Central Military Media said on Thursday pro-regime forces captured three small villages, just west of Khan Sheikhoun.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, said the villages fell in the morning hours and that the town of Khan Sheikhoun is being bombarded relentlessly.

Syrian state media confirmed that opposition fighters had downed the regime plane on Wednesday. An Al-Qaeda-linked group has released a video of the pilot in which the handcuffed man identified himself as a lieutenant colonel in the Syrian air force.

In the video, the pilot says his fighter jet was shot down when he was carrying out a mission near Khan Sheikhoun.

ISTANBUL: Twenty years after a devastating earthquake ravaged the northwest of Turkey, Istanbulites live with the knowledge that another “Big One” is unavoidable, and that their city of 16 million is not prepared.
On Saturday, Turkey will mark the anniversary of the 7.4-magnitude quake that hit Izmit — around 100 kilometers east of Istanbul — on August 17, 1999, killing at least 17,400 people, including 1,000 within the economic capital of the country.
The question for seismologists is not if another earthquake will hit Istanbul, which lies along the volatile North Anatolian tectonic plate. The only question is when.
Sukru Ersoy, a specialist at the city’s Yildiz Technical University, estimates it could come within the next decade.
“In the worst case, the quake could reach a magnitude of 7.7,” he told AFP. “Is Istanbul ready for that? Sadly not.”
According to him, such a quake would destroy thousands of buildings, leaving a “terrifying” number of dead and paralysing Turkey’s economic and tourist hub.
The former capital of the Ottoman empire has suffered many earthquakes through its long history. In 1509, the city was shaken so badly that the Ottoman authorities referred to the incident as “the little apocalypse.”
Since then, a rapid-response unit — the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority — has been created, quake-proof hospitals have been built, and systems to cut gas lines installed.
But experts say the main problem is that Istanbul has tens of thousands of poorly-built buildings, thrown up during the construction boom of recent decades with little regulatory oversight.
The 1999 quake showed how many buildings had been built using dodgy cement made from unsuitable sand dredged from the sea.
“There was a moment of reflection just after the 1999 earthquake,” said Nusret Suna, head of the Chamber of Building Engineers for Istanbul. “But with time, fatalism took over again. People said ‘It’s destiny’ and people moved on to other things.”
Although regulations have become stricter in the past 20 years, the collapse of a residential building in Istanbul this February, in which 20 people were killed, renewed fears about the solidity of the city’s infrastructure.
There have been efforts to rebuild “at-risk” buildings in sturdier fashion, but Suna said a much bigger mobilization is needed to reach basic levels of earthquake-proofing.
The new mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has vowed to fast-track a plan, including efforts to provide more green spaces — notoriously lacking in the city — that can be used to gather survivors.
In theory, each neighborhood is supposed to have an assembly point for this purpose, but many have been lost under new parkings and shopping centers.
Without rapid changes, Istanbul risks being plunged into “real chaos” by a serious quake, warned Recep Salci, head of the non-government Search and Rescue Association, which was a key first-responder in 1999.
“We cannot prevent an earthquake, but we can enormously reduce its consequences,” he said, citing the examples of Japan and Chile, which are similarly vulnerable but have taken radical measures to brace themselves.
Suna, at the chamber of engineers, said it would take 15 to 20 years to fully prepare Istanbul.
“Since 1999, 20 years have been lost. But we must not be discouraged from the task.”