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New Accounts of Saudi Arabia’s Human Rights Abuses
July 14, 2021
International rights watchdog Human Rights Watch highlights the endemic torture and abuse of prison detainees in Saudi Arabia, especially women’s rights activists who are subjected to beatings and whippings, sexual harassment, and electric shocks.
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Central Asia Is Positioned as Emerging Regional Hub for Islamic FinTech
July 14, 2021
Central Asia is positioned as an emerging regional hub for Islamic financial technolgy (fintech), given that the region’s OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) member-states are keen on combing sharia finance and banking with digitization to accelerate economic development that can leverage the region’s geopolitical advantages.
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Islamist Groups Ramp Up Geopolitical Agenda with U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan
July 12, 2021
The drawdown of America’s military presence in Afghanistan is laying bare the geopolitical agenda of the Taliban and associated radical Islamist groups, with Taliban leadership warning Central Asian not to support future US “over-the horizon“ counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan.
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Turkey Withdraws from Women’s Rights Convention
July 12, 2021
Turkey’s Islamist regime formally withdrew the country from the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, as the government critiqued the international framework as contrary to Turkish family values and as a tool for promoting homosexuality.
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Pro-Iran Militias Continue Strikes on U.S. Bases in Iraq and Syria
July 12, 2021
Pro-Iranian militias launched another round of drone and rocket attacks against U.S. bases at the Syria-Iraq border, with minor injuries to personnel caused by this latest in a series of attacks by Shiite extremist groups against the international coalition combatting a resurgence of the Islamic State.