Cameroonian kid beats internet ban to win coding competition

A 17-year-old Cameroonian has won Google's annual coding award, despite the partial shutdown of internet in his country. Nji Collins Gbah is the first African to win the competition.

Deutsche Welle, 15 February 2017

Young Africans sitting in front of computers (AFP/Getty Images)

The population of the English-speaking North West and South West regions of Cameroon are elated after teenager Nji Collins Gbah became the first African winner in Google's annual coding competition.

The 17-year-old beat all odds, including the internet blackout imposed by the government, to emerge the winner. The Cameroonian government cut off the internet in the English-speaking regions four weeks ago, saying this was necessary to quell unrest and to stop people from using social media to spread what the government calls "anti-state messages."

Protests began in October last year, targeting the alleged marginalization of English speakers by Cameroon's francophone majority. Since then, at least six protestors have been shot dead and hundreds have been arrested.

Undeterred by all this, Gbah traveled to a neighboring town to apply for the global award.

Locals have been thronging the family's home in Bamenda to celebrate the young hero whose win came at a difficult time for  Cameroonians in the South and Northwest regions.

This is an English-speaking part of the country where there are complaints about alleged discrimination and what people see as the francophone establishment's failure to respect the status of English as an official language of Cameroon.

Computer or chores?

Apart from getting round the internet blackout, Gbah also had to borrow his father's computer.

" He used to take my computer and I was not very happy with it because I was feeling that he was only spending time without doing house chores.” Nji Patrick said.

" So at times I used to seize my computer and lock it in the house and I told him not to use it any more because I was believing that he was just spending time on that computer for nothing," Gbah's father told DW.

Gbah went ahead to register for the competition. He had to travel to a French-speaking zone in Mbouda where he could get an internet connection to complete the Google competition tasks.

"They told us to know some basic things in computer science and some basics in computer science programming and how to use certain software. So you basically just need to create an account or use your Google account if you have one,” Gbah explained.

Google's coding competition is now
in its 14th year

After his initial skepticism. his father admitted that his son is now a role model for many youths after beating all odds to win  the Google coding competition.

"I was very very surprised. I blamed myself for being so hard on him but now I am very very happy," Nji Patrick said.

Victory is an inspiration

For many young people in Cameroon, like Atteh Francis, the victory shows how much they are losing due to the internet ban in their region.

"This young man had that inspiration to go to Bafoussam, but you don't know how many of them are there who could have been on the podium but who do not have the chance because of the absence of the internet, and it is a big shame because I don't know how I can live for a day without the internet," Francis said.

For the young winner, his victory is an inspiration to find solutions to problems like the current internet ban in his area.

"I would like to study computer science at university. The main thing is to focus exactly on what you want to do. Once you have a goal and you see that you are going to get benefits at the end, or you are going to learn something new from it, then you should totally go with it," Gbah said.

Meanwhile, the gvernment says the ban will continue.

"Social networks provide lots of opportunities. You can get early warning signals in cases of disasters, but we have noticed that many people use it for unhealthy purposes," ​Cameroon's Minister of Post and Telecommunication Libom Li Likeng  said.

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"You Don’t Know How the Frog Jumps"–  Jan11, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“…  Last week, I gave you a message about the potentials of 2011. And there were those in this room who attended. I'm going to repeat something I said there, for you need to hear it and it has to do with politics. It would seem intuitive to every single Human Being in the room that in order to accomplish what you do as Americans in Congress, you must have at least two parties. For that is the way it has always been - the red and the blue.

What if I told you that there will come a time when there will be no parties? You might then say, "Well, that's impossible, Kryon, because you're not Human and you don't know how funding works." You might say, "It has to be a party that creates the power to raise money for the ones who cannot, and then the funding is spread around and this is the way we work. If you didn't have parties, you'd have no funding. Nobody could advertise, and no one could get elected."

Oh, really?

Are you aware right now, that you have a president who was elected on the Internet? He figured it out. When everybody can talk to everyone, you have plenty of funding. A few dollars here, a few dollars there. You talk to millions at the same time, they talk to millions at the same time. It's a new paradigm of communication. The young people know all about it, and you can't stop it. Watch for more from this new paradigm.

It is worldwide communication, one person at a time. It doesn't matter how many laws you pass, and it doesn't matter what you decide about who is in charge of it, you can't stop it. It's out of the bag now, and the communities of the young are going to be communicating. This is how the politicians are going to be communicating to you, literally coming into your home in a holographic form perhaps, explaining their position one by one, without a party. Then you will elect them to your Congress without a party and they will sit in the chairs without a division and there will be no such thing as the "other side of the aisle."

And that, Human Being, is called unity and there is a paradigm that you cannot even imagine. And it's in the works. And then you'll have a Congress that works together and gets things done without the current duality.  ….”

Africa - "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"..  Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit. …." 

Kidjo says 'Africa on rise' in latest Grammy win

Yahoo – AFP, 16 February 2016

Angelique Kidjo recieves the award for the Best World Music Album, Sings, onstage

 during the 58th Annual Grammy music Awards in Los Angeles on February 15, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Robyn Beck)

Los Angeles (AFP) - Angelique Kidjo, one of Africa's most prominent musicians, won her third Grammy on Monday and dedicated it to aspiring artists on the continent.

The Beninese-born singer won the Grammy for Best World Music Album for "Sings," a collection of her songs infused with Western classical traditions in a collaboration with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.

This is the second straight year that Kidjo has won the Best World Music Album prize, after last year's "Eve" that paid tribute to African women.

A visibly happy K  by a pit orchestra.

"I want to dedicate this Grammy to all the traditional musicians in Africa, in my country, to all the young generation," Kidjo said.

"Africa is on the rise, Africa is positive, Africa is joyful," she said.

"Let's get together and be one with music, and say no to hate and violence," she said to applause.

The album merges African songwriting and rhythms with European classical instrumentation, a fusion on which Kidjo has repeatedly experimented.

Kidjo described the album as an artistic challenge as traditional African bands follow the lead of the soloist much more closely, unlike Western orchestras that generally play off refined scores.

This is the second straight year that Kidjo has

 won the Best World Music Album prize, after

 last year's "Eve" that paid tribute to African

women (AFP Photo/Frederick M. Brown)

Kidjo, who is based in New York and plans another concert at Carnegie Hall in the upcoming season, said she was open to further work with artists of other genres.

"I work with everyone who believes that music is the tool of peace. For me, music is the only form of art that connects the entire world," she told AFP after accepting the award.

'Open-minded' awards

Kidjo has long worked with Philip Glass, one of the leading living US composers.

Glass notably worked with Kidjo on music set to three poems from Yoruba mythology.

Collaborators on "Sings" include not only classical musicians but the bassist Christian McBride, who separately won his latest Grammy on Monday in the category of Best Improvised Jazz Solo.

Kidjo hailed the Grammys as being increasingly open-minded.

"What astounds me more and more is the openness of spirit by the Grammys compared with other events," she told AFP.

"They are showing musical diversity to the rest of the world," she said. "What is great at the Grammys is to have people who aren't only into commercial things."

The artist with the most nominations at Monday's Grammys is Kendrick Lamar, whose album "To Pimp a Butterfly" has been hailed for its meditative look on the state of black America.

"Sings" beat out a highly innovative Grammy nominee from Africa -- an album by Malawi's Zomba Prison Project.

The 20-track album, arranged by the US producer Ian Brennan, explored the unexpected musical talents of prisoners at a maximum-security prison.

"I am a reformed person, and music has helped me to be cool and deal with the situation of being incarcerated for life," Elias Chimenya, who is serving a life term for killing a man in a quarrel, told AFP earlier in Malawi.

The three others in contention for the World Music Grammy were all previous nominees -- sitarist Anoushka Shankar, Brazilian legend Gilberto Gil and South Africa's Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Controversy-Hit Samba School Wins Rio Carnival Title

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Feb 19, 2015

Members of the samba school Beija-Flor perform on the second day of the
 parades of the special groups of the Carnival of Rio de Janeiro, at the Sambodromo
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 16 February 2015. (EPA Photo/Luiz Eduardo Perez)

Rio de Janeiro. A Brazilian samba school shrugged off a controversy over alleged funding by an African strongman president and went on to claim its 13th win at the Rio Carnival championship on Wednesday.

The Beija-Flor school, whose name means hummingbird, has denied media reports it was bankrolled to the tune of nearly $5 million by the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Obiang Nguema and his son are facing allegations of money laundering and corruption. The leader holds an iron grip over tiny, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea and critics have labeled him a ruthless dictator.

Hailing from the Rio suburb of Nilopolis, Beija-Flor scored 259.9 points to land its 13th title and see off rivals Salgueiro by 0.4 points.

Known for its creativity, the Beija-Flor team will now bring the final curtain down on this year’s carnival festivities at Saturday’s Parade of Champions, comprising the top six schools.

The Portela school came third, and last year’s grand champions, Unidos da Tijuca, were in fourth place.

The press service for Beija-Flor, whose theme was a “strong, joyful and colorful” Africa, told AFP they had merely received “cultural support and imported fabrics” from Equatorial Guinea, which is located on the Atlantic coast in central Africa.

After results were announced, Beija-Flor supporters burst into wild cheers at the Sambadrome in downtown Rio, where Sunday and Monday night the top 12 samba schools had battled it out for glory.

“I am very emotional, very happy,” Rayssa Oliveira, one of Beija-Flor’s beauty queens, told Globo television.

The jury considered various aspects of each team’s performance in carefully choreographed parades at the Sambadrome in front of crowds of some 72,000 people.

The jurors award points in categories ranging from the highly decorative school floats, the quality of their massed ranks of percussionists and how well the roughly 4,000-strong team move in sync with each other while singing their school song.

The record of carnival celebrations dates back to 1723 – but the first samba school was not formed until 1928.

Agence France-Presse

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Congolese doctor receives EU prize for helping rape victims

Yahoo – AFP, 26 Nov 2014

Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynaecologist, has been awarded the European
Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize (AFP File)

Doctor Denis Mukwege received the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize on Wednesday for his work in helping thousands of gang rape victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz, who presented the 59-year-old with the award at a ceremony in Strasbourg, said Mukwege "fought for the dignity of women, justice and peace in his country".

"You have eased the pain of countless women and girls and offered them a helping hand so that their injured bodies and broken bodies may be healed," said Schulz.

A Congolese delegation sang for joy and waved flags from the parliamentary gallery as Schulz handed Mukwege a plaque to mark the award, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.

Mukwege -- who was named as recipient of the award in October for his work in treating the appalling injuries inflicted on the victims -- said he hoped the prize would help to bring the plight of women in his country to an end.

"By this prize you have decided to raise the visibility of the struggle of Congolese women," he said to repeated standing ovations from European MPs in the huge parliament chamber.

"In every raped woman I see my wife, in every raped grandmother I see my mother, in every raped child I see my children," added Mukwege, whose spouse attended the ceremony with him.

He has previously been tipped as a possible Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Members of the pro-Western Ukraine democracy and rights group EuroMaidan, which led the popular revolt against deposed president Viktor Yanukovych, were invited to the ceremony as runners up for the prize.

The third candidate was prominent Azerbaijani rights activist Leyla Yunus.

Rival forces fighting for control of the vast mineral riches in eastern DR Congo have used mass rape for decades to terrorise the local population into submission.

Mukwege trained as a gynaecologist, going on to found the General Referral Hospital of Panzi near Bukavu in South Kivu province which has seen some of the worst violence.

He survived an assassination attempt two years ago after speaking out about the continued use of rape in the conflict and accused the world of failing to act.

Last year, however, he defied threats and returned home to a warm welcome from thousands of people.

The Sakharov prize in 2013 was won by Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, while previous winners since the award was founded in 1988 include late South African rights icon Nelson Mandela and Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Liberia's president defends 'nepotism'

RNW, Sophie van Leeuwen, 13 November 2012

((C) Sophie van Leeuwen)

Johnson-Sirleaf at Tilburg University
(C) Sophie van Leeuwen

Accusations of corruption

Last month, the Nobel prize-winning rights

advocate Leymah Gbowee quit her post

in Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's government,

criticising her fellow laureate for corruption

and nepotism.

Gbowee and Johnson Sirleaf, Africa's first

freely elected female head of state when

she came to power in 2005, were named

joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize in

2011 for their work promoting peace in

Liberia.

Gbowee had been serving as head of

Liberia's Peace and Reconciliation

Commission.

A spokesperson said that Gbowee

resigned over concerns Johnson Sirleaf

had failed to root out corruption and

nepotism in her  government, but he 

declined to elaborate.

Liberia's government confirmed Gbowee's

resignation and said it disagreed with her

criticisms. Johnson Sirleaf has three sons

in top government posts but she has

denied charges of nepotism and has said

ending graft is a top priority.

Liberia is one of the world's poorest and

least developed countries and is seeking

to fund its recovery by drawing investment

in its rich natural resources, which include

vast iron ore deposits and offshore oil.

Rights advocates have expressed concern,

however, that many of Liberia's resource 

deals are marred by fraud and do not

provide the state with adequate revenue.

Anti-corruption watchdog Global Witness

said in September that Liberia's forestry 

department had given out a quarter of the

nation's land to logging firms over the past

two years in a flurry of shady deals.

Source: Reuters

Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was in the Netherlands recently to receive an Honorary Doctorate Degree at Tilburg University. RNW’s Africa Desk was on hand for an exclusive interview.

You are a beloved leader around the globe and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Yet, in your own country you’ve been accused of nepotism and corruption. Three of your sons have been appointed to high government positions. How do you explain this?

“We have a country that has a very low capacity. Some of our institutions – the ones that have to carry out the important reforms for the transformation of our country – simply do not have the capabilities. They also sometimes lack sufficient integrity to be able to do what is right.

“We have to place certain people close to us in positions to carry out our mandate of reform at the level of competence and honesty that is needed.

“Nepotism is putting somebody who is a relative in a position for which they don’t have the qualifications, integrity or competence. There are times when you have to hire relatives, even when it’s a temporary measure, to achieve your objectives.” 

So you will not fire your sons? To show that you are a hero of anti-corruption?

“No, I will not. There is a mandate and there’s a job to be done. When that job and mandate is done, perhaps they’ll move on to other things.”

Government officials in Liberia sometimes earn up to 10,000 dollars a month. Is there anything you can do about that?

“We have to recruit Liberians of certain professional skills and experience to certain strategic posts. If we do not pay them well, we will not be able to recruit them. We actually pay foreigners on our technical assistance programme much more than that.

“If a Liberian is qualified and competitive and if we want to get them, we’ve got to do that. Those Liberians getting positions and getting high salaries are strong, experienced managers, recruited from corporations abroad. Their skills are desperately needed to build our country. Liberians should not criticise those who come home with the right skills to rebuild their country. We need them at home.”

How will you gain trust in Liberia?

“I have trust in Liberia. I’m not talking about the noisy minority – that’s just all part of transformation. I’m talking about a satisfied majority who I meet in rural areas and who are pleased that their lives have changed, their incomes have increased and they’re getting better services.

“We accept the criticism and the comments. We also accept the adulation and the praise. That’s part of moving ahead in a democratic society where all rights are respected and protected. Liberia is making progress and the majority of the Liberians and the international community is quite aware and recognises that.”

Related Article:

Liberia laureates: Gbowee attacks Sirleaf on corruption

Mo Ibrahim prize for African leadership: No winner

BBC News, 15 October 2012

Mo Ibrahim hopes the prize will encourage leaders to leave power

Related Stories 

• $1m prize for 'true-talking' Tutu
• Mo Ibrahim lambasts ANC
• Cape Verde's Pires wins $5m prize

There is no winner this year for the world's most valuable individual prize - the Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa.

The $5m (£3.2m) prize is supposed to be awarded each year to a democratically elected leader who governed well, raised living standards and then voluntarily left office.

The panel said no candidate had met all of the criteria - as in 2009 and 2010.

Last year, Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires won the prize.

He led the fight against Portuguese colonialism, introduced multi-party politics and was praised for living standards.

The $5m prize is spread over 10 years and is followed by $200,000 a year for life.

'No compromise'

Announcing the decision, Mr Ibrahim said: "You make your bed, you have to lie on it. If we said we're going to have a prize for exceptional leadership, we have to stick to that. We are not going to compromise."

"We are not just in the business of positive messages - we would lose our credibility," the AFP news agency quotes him as saying.

"The prize committee reviewed a number of candidates but none met all of the criteria needed to win the prize," said committee member Salim Ahmed Salim.

The two other winners in the six years since the prize was launched were Botswana's President Festus Mogae and Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano.

Earlier this month, Mr Ibrahim's foundation announced a special $1m award to Archbishop Desmond Tutu for "speaking truth to power".

The London-based body called the cleric "one of Africa's great voices for justice, freedom, democracy and responsible, responsive government".

Sudan-born telecoms entrepreneur Mr Ibrahim says the good governance prize is needed because many leaders of sub-Saharan African countries come from poor backgrounds and are tempted to hang on to power for fear that poverty awaits them when they leave office.

Mo Ibrahim Foundation: Desmond Tutu awarded $1m

BBC News, 4 October 2012

Related Stories 

• Tutu calling for Blair-Bush trial
• Leadership prize: A worthy cause?
• African leaders prize not awarded

Tutu pulled out of a recent leadership
 summit because he refused to share
a platform with Tony Blair

Veteran peace campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been awarded $1m (£620,000) by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for "speaking truth to power".

The London-based Foundation called the cleric "one of Africa's great voices for justice, freedom, democracy and responsible, responsive government".

He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his campaign against apartheid.

The foundation also offers an annual $5m prize to a former African head of state for good governance.

The most recent recipient of that award was Cape Verde's former President Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires in 2011.

Winners must have been democratically elected and agreed to leave office.

In some years the prize has not been awarded because no-one has been deemed a worthy enough winner.

Critic of Israel

Archbishop Tutu, who will be 81 on Sunday, remains outspoken on international affairs.

The South African cleric has been a fierce critic of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as well as China's treatment of Tibetans.

In August, he pulled out of a leadership summit in Johannesburg because he refused to share a platform with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Archbishop Tutu said Mr Blair and former US President George W Bush should be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for lying about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in order to justify invading the country.

Mr Blair issued a strongly worded defence of his decisions, rejecting the archbishop's allegations as "completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown".

Mo Ibrahim was born in 1946 and is a British-Sudanese mobile communications entrepreneur and philanthropist who made billions from investing in Africa.

He argues that his foundation's $5m prize - the world's most valuable individual prize - is needed because many leaders of sub-Saharan African countries come from poor backgrounds and are tempted to hang on to power for fear that poverty is what awaits them when they give up the levers of power.

The inaugural prize was awarded in 2007 to Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique's former president, who has since acted as a mediator in several African disputes.

Jailed Ethiopian journalist Eskinder Nega honoured

BBC News, 2 May 2012

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Eskinder Nega was arrested after
 publishing a column questioning
the arrests of some journalists

An imprisoned Ethiopian journalist and blogger has been given a prestigious freedom of expression award.

Eskinder Nega was awarded the Pen America's "Freedom to Write" annual prize for publishing articles critical of Ethiopia's human rights record.

His wife Serkalem Fasil, who is a journalist and also spent time in jail, received the award on his behalf.

In the past decade, more journalists have fled Ethiopia than any other country, press freedom groups say.

'Withering conditions'

"I accept this award on behalf of Eskinder Nega at a time when freedom of expression and press freedom are at the lowest in Ethiopia," Ms Serkalem said on Tuesday night in a ceremony in New York.

"If Eskinder were standing here, he'd accept this award, not just as a personal honour, but on behalf of all Ethiopian journalists who toil under withering conditions today: Those who went into exile over the years… those in prison with whom he now resides," she said.

Mr Eskinder has been in Maekelawi prison in the capital, Addis Ababa, since his arrest in September last year.

He was found guilty in January under Ethiopia's anti-terrorism laws - which criminalise commentary that is critical of the government - and could face the death penalty when he is sentenced.

He had published a column questioning the government's claim that a number of journalists it had detained were suspected terrorists, and for criticising the arrest of well-known Ethiopian actor and government critic Debebe Eshetu.

Mr Eskinder is "that bravest and most admirable of writers, one who picked up his pen to write things that he knew would surely put him at grave risk", said Peter Godwin, president of the Pen American Center. 

Serkalem Fasil, who accepted
 the award for her husband, gave
birth to their son in jail

"Yet he did so nonetheless. And indeed he fell victim to exactly the measures he was highlighting," Zimbabwean-born writer Mr Godwin added.

The Pen award is given to writers who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising the right to freedom of expression.

Mr Eskinder opened his first newspaper in 1993, and has been detained at least seven times by the government of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

He was stripped of his licence to work as a journalist in 2005, but continued to write for the US-based news forum EthioMedia, which is banned in Ethiopia.

He and his wife Ms Serkalem were both jailed in 2005 for criticising the government's violent crackdown of protests following disputed elections.

During their 17 months in prison, Ms Fasil gave birth to their son.

Saudi activist honoured as 'Woman of Courage'

RNW, by Karima Idrissi, 7 March 2012

(RNW screenshot) 

  

Saudi Arabian activist Samar Badawi has been selected as one of this year's recipients of the prestigious International Women of Courage Award.

by Jannie Schipper and Karima Idrissi

The prize is handed out by the US State Department and honours 10 extraordinary women from all corners of the globe. Badawi gained international recognition in 2010: she challenged Saudi Arabia's extremely restrictive guardianship system by suing her father. She has also filed lawsuits against the government demanding the right for women to vote and drive vehicles.

Badawi's most recent campaign has been for the right to drive. She requested a driving licence from the motor vehicles authorities in Jeddah, where she lives. After the request was officially accepted, Badawi rang the ministry every day for two months to find out the status of her application.

She says the response was rude and unpleasant. She then filed a complaint with the interior ministry. It is the latest move in the fight being waged by Saudi women in their battle to be allowed to drive. They have also tried petitions and driving cars, which has led to a number of arrests. Fellow activist Manal al-Sharif, who was arrested last year for driving a car, has also filed a complaint with the interior ministry.

Right to lead your own life

Samar Badawi says driving a car is a symbol of the wider right to freedom of movement for Saudi women: "Women can't go onto the streets alone nor can they go to government offices to arrange official documents, including a passport," she says. Badawi tells Radio Netherlands Worldwide, "I think the state wants to deny women the right to travel because that would open the door for other rights." Saudi Arabian women are not allowed to leave the country unaccompanied.

Badawi has personal experience with fighting for the right to lead one's own life. In 2010 she became global news when she ended up in prison without a proper trial. She was jailed because she had failed to obey her father, even though she was a 30-year-old woman with a child.

Father versus daughter

In Saudi Arabia, men control the lives of women: fathers have control of their daughters until they marry and husbands have custody of their wives. If a woman divorces, her father is once again legally responsible for her. Badawi says, "My mother died when I was 13. My father beat me, verbally abused me and threw me out of the house." Even after she married and had a son, her father continued to interfere in her life. Eventually, she divorced and had to move back into her father's house, where the cycle of abuse started again.

She eventually took her son and moved into an abused woman's shelter and started legal proceedings to strip her father of custody rights over her. In turn, he brought a case against her for disobedience. Her brother was also named as a defendant in the case as he supported his sister. Among other things, she was 'accused' of signing a petition calling for women to be allowed to drive. After the initial charges were dismissed, the angry father tried again. The second time around he drew a conservative judge who ruled in his favour and Samar Badawi was imprisoned, without ever facing a proper trial.

She was freed after a seven-month global campaign and she was given into the custody of her uncle. Not long after that, she hit the headlines again; this time she audaciously demanded the right to vote. That was in April 2011: a few months later the Saudi monarch announced that woman will be given the right to vote and run in municipal elections as of 2015. Women were also given the right to be appointed to the Shura Council, a consultative body that advises the king.

Behind the wheel

Badawi is now waiting to hear whether the courts will hear her complaint about her driving licence. "If they don't hear the case, I will demand to know the reason why," she says. She counters the religious and social arguments against driving a car with religious and social arguments for women being allowed to drive: "I am a mother and I work and I don't have my own chauffeur. Which is more dangerous or more likely to lead to licentious behaviour, me getting into a car with a complete stranger or me getting behind the wheel of my own car, by myself?" According to Badawi, men are usually the spanner in the works: "women want to be independent and drive but the husband, the father or the brother is afraid of the authorities or what people will say."

That’s no longer true of her. She has been supported in all the legal battles by the human rights lawyer Walied Abou Khair. She has since married him, again against the wishes of her father. She says, "My husband is my comfort and my support. When I got behind the wheel of a car on the first big women's driving action day on 17 June, he encouraged and supported me."

Related Articles:

Saudi authorities to try woman for driving

Saudi woman driver's lashing 'overturned by king'
Saudi woman to be lashed for defying driving ban

Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections

Woman taxi driver breaks barriers in Egypt

"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator, Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience?