There’s a focus this month in the AI Groups’ Newsletter on ‘protecting the Protest in South Asia’ where the right to protest is increasingly under threat – in India, in Bangladesh, in Afghanistan. One particular case is highlighted: #FreeKhadij – Khadijatul Kubra (Khadija) (pictured) has been in detention under the Digital Security Act, for a year. Khadija is a 19 year-old university student charged for hosting a webinar where a guest made remarks that were critical of the Bangladesh government.’ Sign a petition here.
Letters of all sorts:
Our lead on the Middle East and North Africa has written to the Tunisian authorities about the detention of former Justice Minister Noureddine Bhiri and about Jaouhalben Mbaruk, who is on hunger strike with five other detainees.
Our Death Penalty lead pointed us to an online petition for Rocky Myers of Alabama, held on death row for 27 years. He’s a black man against whom all the odds are stacked, down to a biased judge and incompetent legal representation.
Our lead on Zimbabwe and Afghanistan has been working at getting back-up from AIUK; there is information and access to petitions and actions. One source is Cherry Bird’s South Asia newsletter, with its shocking account of the deterioration in life today of women and girls in Afghanistan, drawn from Amnesty reports, and their urging of how international pressure can be exerted.
Various choices for Media of the Month: Burmese Days, a novel by George Orwell on the darker side of the British Raj; ‘Ultra-Processed People’ by Chris van Tulleken about the food industry, and ‘Painkiller’ on Netflix about how the Sacklers cynically created the US Opioid epidemic.
Our next meeting will be at 7.30pm on 14 November at the Quaker Meeting House, Bath Place – hope to see you there! We hope Cherry Bird will join us to talk about Kashmir.
STOP PRESS Our letter about the Government’s demonising of refugees made it as the lead on the County Gazette’s letters page, 19 October.
Amnesty International Taunton Local Group 
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