No more Philipino maids in Jordan

Human rights groups on Wednesday welcomed a decision by the government of the Philippines to stop sending domestic helpers to Jordan, saying such a step would highlight the abuse Philipinos and other nationals are subjected to at the hands of Jordanian families that employ them.

"These types of measures will positively contribute to providing protection to domestic helpers who suffer due to lack of proper legislations that could protect them," said Assem Rababah, President of the Adaleh Centre for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) in Amman, Jordan. Hundreds of Filipina domestic helpers working with Jordanian families are being physically and sexually abused, and spend months or years without being paid, according to rights activists. Source: [IRIN]

This is a bold movement by the government of the Philippines. Hopefully it will shine some light on the abuse that many of these maids are subjected to on a daily basis.

The DC Metro female Arab blogger meet-up

Veiled in Georgetown Leilouta has already discussed the embarrassing incident of several days ago, exposing my footwear dilemma (and Hal’s shoe supply service), so I’m not going to dwell on it here, as I’ve yet to recover. Instead, I will focus this post on the wonderful time we had during our Metro area female Arab blogger meet-up here in the nation’s capital this past weekend.

Those who attended the meeting were Beisan, Hala, Leilouta and yours truly. We had a truly wonderful time, hitting it off as if we’d known each other for years. We talked mostly about blogs (of course), Arab politics (what else!) and life in the US. Joking about our different accents also dominated the discussions [can we really avoid that?].

Sometimes it really blows my mind when I think about the number of truly amazing people I’ve been fortunate enough to meet through this remarkable outlet called blogging. Life never ceases to amaze me.

Zarqawi’s elmination: The Jordanian connection

Time magazine has revealed some details about the events that facilitated the military operation that ended the life of Zarqawi. Read the full article here. What grabbed my attention in the story was the new (at least new to me) information about the role that Jordanian intelligence played in the operation. Here is one excerpt:

A Jordanian security official tells TIME that one month after the November 2005 suicide attacks on three hotels in Amman, which killed 60 people, Jordanian King Abdullah II ordered his intelligence officials to set up a new security branch, the Knights of God, to launch an offensive against terrorists outside the country’s borders and eliminate al-Zarqawi. In addition to providing support to anti-Zarqawi tribes in Iraq, the Jordanians sought sources inside al-Qaeda who could lead them to the al-Qaeda boss. The official says that one informant, described as neither Jordanian nor Iraqi, made contact with three of al-Zarqawi’s couriers, all of whom the Jordanians referred to as Mr. X. According to the official, the informant reported spotting one Mr. X in an area outside Baqubah last week. "Mr. X went to Baqubah, so we knew Zarqawi went there," says the official.