Marmash herself is a Jordanian lawyer who has an in-depth knowledge of women’s legal rights in North Africa and the Middle East and was therefore recently invited by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) to take part in a set of conferences of women’s rights in Madrid.

She talked about “women who are afraid to tell their own family” that they are being a victim of gender violence, she talked about laws which oblige adult women to depend on a male figure to exercise their right for property -just as it occurred in Spain only some decades ago-, she exposed the wide persistence of child marriages, “an open secret”, and assured there were 40,000 cases in Morocco in 2017, and another 10,000 in Jordan.

For this leading lawyer, who declares herself a Muslim feminist, patriarchy is a common phenomenon to the misleading historic interpretations of all religions. “I believe all religions begin with fair standards for women and men and, throughout history, they get changed to favour men,” she says to Salam Plan.

The international NGO she directs, AWLN, has set the priority to establish the path for women to be able to “take part in the construction of their societies” ameliorating the civil legal system of the Arab countries. Samah Marmash has seen how more and more men in the region are getting on board in the fight for equality, although not as actively as she would wish.

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Which accomplishments for women’s rights would you highlight in the Arab countries for the last years and what are the main issues you still need to address?

There were so many success stories in the region. For example, in Palestine they have created an Alimony Bureau; so, if a woman gets divorced [and does not get the legal maintenance from her ex husband], you can go to the office and ask them to file a case and get your money, even if the husband is not paying. This is very good to empower women economically and to show men, the Government will go after you and not after the vulnerable person.

In Jordan, we started something [similar] last year and it is on this year’s budget. We are at the beginning of the road, but the good example is Palestine. And we took another good example of Morocco. In Morocco they have family courts, where they review cases of violence against women, family cases or religious topics as well. It is [another] good example, [which] we want to reflect in our country in Jordan for the family violence cases.

The main issues you need to look at now are gender violence then?

Yes, violence against women; the right of nationality, to reflect it on their children [who for now cannot adopt the nationality of their mother in places like Jordan]; to stop child marriages… it’s for all of the region: North Africa or the Middle East. It’s a disease that is currently there. These are the main topics we should highlight now.

“Child marriages are a disease in North Africa and the Middle East that we need to stop”

What is the role of men in the Middle East in the fight for women’s rights?

They didn’t have a role at all. Actually, they were against the feminist movement; not all of them, but a large and good number of them. Recently, in the past ten years, we got them on board. We knew how important it was to make them our partners, because we cannot change attitudes if we work on one part of the community forgetting the other half.

When we started to work with them as partners, we had their voices with us. But they are not as large of an amount as you would wish. Most of them know that this is the trend nowadays, so [they] may talk with you about the same issues, they may try to show you that they are feminists, but in fact -whether they are helping or not- they are reflecting their attitudes on their policies, even in their homes, which is how you know if [their commitment] is true or not.

So, there are large voices of men who are supporting [the feminist movement], but not so many are truly on the ground. At least, we have a good start to work with them. Actually, they are helping us. In our Parliament in Jordan, for example, we have a few men who do believe in women’s rights which need to be reflected in the laws. In Lebanon, we [do also] have a good amount of fair men. In Syria now, nothing is clear yet.

“The attitudes of men on their policies, even in their homes, is how you know if their commitment to women’s rights is true or not”

During your conference, you talked about the influence of sharia on the rights or lack of them for women in the Middle East. To which extent would you say Islam is the reason of patriarchy in the region? Or is it tradition or…?

I believe all religions begin with fair standards for women and men and, throughout history, they get changed to favour men. It is not only in Arab countries. Europeans used to have it, but they used civil rights to change this idea.

We are still suffering from it, because after all the wars we have been through, we have not been able… the bad effect of wars is to give you traditions that you don’t have, ideas that you don’t have, bring you backwards, not forward… So, what we have is mostly in the name of religions, but it’s not us, it’s not religion. It’s the global force to keep persons backwards.

“I believe all religions begin with fair standards for women and men and, throughout history, they get changed to favour men”

You define yourself as a Muslim feminist.

Yes, and nowadays we have feminists from all the religions which are in the Arab region. Throughout the history we used to have Muslim feminist women, but the history does not highlight their efforts. For example, Mohammed’s first wife used to defend women’s rights, that is why she supported him.

But then again, this example refers to one of his wives, something which people often reject or do not understand.

Yes, exactly. But during her lifetime he did not marry any other woman. He did after her death, and according to our religion, he did so, because he wanted to gather so many people. For example, he wanted to show that it is good to marry a widow, so he got married to a widow. According to our law, there was a reason for every marriage, according to Q’ran it is not preferably to be married to more than one [woman], but there are certain circumstances and hard conditions where you can do so.

But, again, people change religions according to their needs: if you ask one sheikh, he will tell you ‘to have more than one wife is good’ and if you ask another religious man, he will tell you ‘no, there were conditions in the Q’ran under which you can do this’. Religions are always like that.

Samah Marmash, executive director of the Arab Women’s Legal Network. © Salam Plan

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The British organization registered at least 1,201 anti- Muslim reports in the UK in 2017. Together with another 129 reports which could not be verified as being of islamophobic nature, this is the highest annual number of incidents recorded by Tell Mama since its launch in 2012.

“We are in deeply worrying times,” director of Tell Mama, Iman Atta Obe, has said. “We are seeing more aggressive street-based incidents, younger perpetrators, increased vandalism and international interference by well organised social media accounts,” he added.

Obe indicated that “the younger perpetrator base seems to indicate that online anti- Muslim hate may be bleeding out into wider society and into a younger demographic. More than ever, we need to come together and redouble our efforts against those who seek to divide and play communities off against each other”.

“The younger perpetrator base seems to indicate that online anti- Muslim hate may be bleeding out into wider society and into a younger demographic”

70% of the verified incidents occurred offline, or on a street-level (839), which represents a 30% rise in offline reports when compared to 2016 (643). Over the last three years, Tell Mama has recorded 3,005 verified islamophobic incidents across the UK. While the number of online incidents has remained relatively constant, it has recorded a steady increase in offline anti- Muslim incidents year-on-year.

The most common age for victims (a total of 978) was 26 to 35 last year, while the most common age for perpetrators (a total of 1,161) was 13 to 18 (where the data was available). But there are also victims and perpetrators under 12, with a much higher proportion of victims (15%) than abusers (4%).

Crimes or incidents occurred online on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter account for a third of reports in 2017, a 16% more than in 2016. The ‘online hate’ figure is part of a wider trend in Tell Mama’s datasets where there has been a marked shift towards more serious offline incidents, such as physical attacks, threatening behaviour and abuse more generally, the NGO indicated in a press release. It may also be due to a growing awareness of this organization resulting in a greater willingness amongst victims and witnesses to report.

Russian Twitter bots

The annual report of Tell Mama has listed examples of Twitter bots which actively promoted islamophobic hatred. One such Twitter account was @DavidJo52951945. Responses to the rhetoric on this account, called for violent action against islamic institutions and on August 30^th 2017, the Times reported that this bot originated from Russia.

Another Twitter account called @SouthLoneStar (now suspended) was responsible in starting a global trend after the Westminster terrorist attack, Tell Mama assures. After the attack on Westminster Bridge it shared a photo of a Muslim woman walking across the bridge on a mobile phone apparently ignoring one victim.

‘The Guardian’ reported that the @SouthLoneStar account was the “creation of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian “troll army” based in St. Petersburg although the bio of the Twitter account said its owner was a “proud TEXAN and AMERICAN patriot”. This army would be where, “in rooms of about 20 people working 12-hour shifts for pay of between 45,000 and 65,000 rubles a month (£575-£830), a disinformation campaign is crafted”, the newspaper explained.

“We need to maintain vigilance against foreign interference, in these cases, emanating from Russia, which seek to promote division and intolerance in the UK”

“We need to maintain vigilance against foreign interference, in these cases, emanating from Russia, which seek to promote division and intolerance in the UK,” Tell Mama says.

52% of the islamophobic incidents reported to Tell Mama in 2017 happened on Twitter (37% on Facebook). The British organization accused the social media platform of “inactivity in removing anti- Muslim hate material”, an attitude it considered not only “deeply worrying” but “a wanton lack of desire to understand this hatred on its platform”.

Its annual report strongly criticizes Twitter’s “inability to stop individuals opening up new accounts repeatedly, when they have been banned from using the platform”. In one case, a victim had to report in eleven separate accounts for harassment, Tell Mama exemplified.

Most common hate incidents

The most widely reported anti- Muslim hate incident was classified as ‘abusive behaviour’ followed by ‘physical attack’ as the second most reported incident.

Vandalism replaced threatening behaviour as the third most common islamophobic incident.

Discrimination was the fourth most common incident. This category included mistreatment, denial of opportunities or denial of services based on “Islamophobic prejudice, some of which was institutional in nature”, according to Tell Mama.

These incidents often happen in busy public spaces, such as shopping areas or transport networks. This may make perpetrators “feel they can act with impunity”, the report says.

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La entrada Anti- Muslim perpetrators in the UK are mostly minors se publicó primero en Salam Plan.

British police reported on Tuesday that a group of three men led by Haque had planned to attack in the long term in London against a variety of targets with the help of children. Umar Ahmed Haque, from East London and born in 1992, involved children in role-playing games in which he encouraged them to stab officers to death. He also showed them violent videos.

“When specially trained officers interviewed the children, they described being shown by Haque horrific videos of extreme terrorist violence including executions,” deputy assistant commissioner Dean Haydon described in a press release of the Met Police.

“The children were paralysed by fear of Haque, who essentially told them that a violent fate would befall them if they told anyone what he was doing”

“The children were paralysed by fear of Haque, who they understood to have connections to terrorists and who essentially told them that a violent fate would befall them if they told anyone what he was doing. They were too afraid to confide in anyone,” he explained

Haque was an administrator at a madrasa in Ripple Road Mosque at Baskin, on the outskirts of London, and had taken advantage of his position to get in touch with the minors.

Police had been tracking Haque since April 2016 when he was stopped at Heathrow airport as he was about to fly to Istanbul (Turkey). Almost a year later, in March 2017, they intercepted an important five-hour phone conversation with one of his accomplices, Muhammad Abid, also from East London and born in 1990. Haque assured him that he had managed to radicalize 16 children.

Police had no evidence that this was true, but after arresting the group that organized the plot, they continued their enquiries and were able to check with social workers that Haque had tried to radicalize 55 children between 11 and 14 years old.

Abid, who was confidant of Haque while he elaborated his plan, has been sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison for having information about terrorist acts. The eldest of the band was Abuthaher Mamun, aged 29, also from East London. He helped Haque to plan the attacks and tried to raise money online to carry them out. He has been imprisoned for 13 years.

Haque was trying to form an army of soldiers, including children

In telephone conversations with his accomplices Haque talked about matters such as how to intensify the effect of a bomb or what type of vehicle to use and what the police response would be. Haydon has described the leader of the group as “dangerous man who was inspired by attacks in Europe and Westminster.” He intended to carry out “numerous attacks at once, using guns, knives, bombs and large cars to kill innocent people”. He was trying to form “an army of soldiers, including children” to fulfil his plan years later.

Before that key telephone conversation to uncover the terrorist plot, investigators had already detected searches of terrorist attacks and executions on his mobile phone and had revoked his passport, although still without evidence. Evidence gathered afterwards by counter terrorism officers demonstrated Haque had begun planning an attack in the UK.

The 55 children affected are getting assistance and 35 of them will still need long-term support, according to the police.

Among the 30 approximate targets identified by the Counter Terrorism Command and MI5 were groups -which the Police have not specified in their PR-, businesses and establishments in London.

Haque has been sentenced to life imprisonment for two counts of preparation of terrorist acts, four counts of collection of information useful to terrorism and one count of dissemination of terrorist publications.

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