IRFN (Sept 4-12): Chechnya: Female Civil Servants Forced to Wear Islamic Head Scarf

Sep 14, 2007

International Religious Freedom Archive
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1. United Methodist Church Now a Legal Entity in Albania (Sep. 4)
2. Fourth Eritrean Tortured and Killed for Religious Beliefs (Sep. 7)
3. India: Anti-Conversion Bill Fails in Chhattisgarh State (Sep. 7)
4. Chechnya: Female Civil Servants Forced to Wear Islamic Head Scarf (Sep. 10)
5. Kazakhstan: Presbyterian Church Investigated for "Treason" (Sep. 11)
6. India: Judge Rules that Bhagavad Gita Should Be National Religious Doctrine (Sep. 12)

Feature:
Ex-Muslims in Europe hope to offer adequate support for others who choose to renounce their religion, from the Associated Press

1. United Methodist Church Now a Legal Entity in Albania
September 4
Albania
United Methodist News Service reports that the United Methodist Church now officially exists in Albania, after the Methodist Bishop for central and southern Europe, Patrick Streiff, signed formal papers in the capital of Tirana on August 20. Albania, a country of 3.8 million, currently has about 150 Methodists. The church has been active in the country since Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire, but missionary work ceased indefinitely when the country became communist after World War II.

2. Fourth Eritrean Tortured and Killed for Religious Beliefs
September 7
Wi'a Military Training Center, Eritrea
Compass Direct reports that on September 5th, Migsti Haile became the fourth Eritrean in under a year to be killed for her religious beliefs. Haile, a member of an independent Protestant group, was one of ten women arrested at a church gathering in Keren, Eritrea. After her arrest she was held at the Wi'a Military Training Center, near the port of Massawa on the Red Sea, where she was tortured. She was eventually killed for refusing to sign a letter recanting her faith. Independent Protestant churches have been outlawed in Eritrea since May 2002.

3. India: Anti-Conversion Bill Fails in Chhattisgarh State
September 10
Chhattisgarh, India
IANS reports that Chhattisgarh's proposed anti-conversion law has failed, after the governor of the Indian state withheld his assent due to certain aspects of the law. The legislation, which would have required a person to submit their conversions for approval by the government and would have enforced a thirty day waiting period for conversions, was introduced by a government dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which describes itself as a champion of Hindu cultural values.

4. Chechnya: Female Civil Servants Forced to Wear Islamic Head Scarf
September 11
Grozny, Chechnya
Reuters reports that Ramzan Kadyrov, the current president of Chechnya, has issued a new edict requiring all female civil servants to wear an Islamic headscarf, saying that women were the root of all crime in the region, as their current clothing choices "invited" men to have sex with them. The new law is in violation of Russian laws which aim to keep the state separate from religion, and has raised fears that Kadyrov will try to turn Chechnya into a "private fiefdom".

5. Kazakhstan: Presbyterian Church Investigated for "Treason"
September 12
Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Forum 18 reports that Kazakhstan's secret police, the National Security Committee, have begun to investigate a church in the town of Karaganda on charges of "treason". Currently, members of the Grace Presbyterian Church are being questioned by the police, while tax authorities run checks on some of the church's 250 congregations across the country. Under article 165 of Kazakhstan's Criminal Code, offenses of high treason may be punishable by ten to fifteen years in prison.

6. India: Judge Rules that Bhagavad Gita Should Be National Religious Doctrine
September 12
Uttar Pradesh, India
AsiaNews reports that S.N. Srivastava, a judge for Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad High Court, recently ruled that the Hindu poem Bhagavad Gita should stand as a national religious doctrine, and that the state must recognize it as such. This would include teaching the poem to members of non-Hindu faiths, which has sparked protests from members of minority religions in the area. Though the poem is a "part of Indian culture, it cannot be seen as a religious text for all faiths," according to the chairman of the Global Council of Indian Catholics. Judge Srivastava has previously intervened in religious matters, declaring earlier this year that Muslims in the region were not to be considered a religious minority, and as such were ineligible for education subsidies.