http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?we_cat=6&art_id=30795&sid=10664024&con_type=1&d_str=20061102
Author, 92, cleared of Islam insult Suzan Fraser Thursday, November 02, 2006 A court in Istanbul acquitted a 92-year- old retired archaeologist who was tried for saying that Islamic-style head scarves date back more than 5,000 years - several millennia before the birth of Islam - and were worn by priestesses who initiated young men into sex. Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, an expert on the ancient Sumerian civilization of Mesopotamia, which arose around the third millennium BC, was the latest person to go on trial in Turkey for expressing opinions, despite intense European Union pressure on the country to expand freedom of expression. She is one of dozens of writers, journalists and academics who have been prosecuted, including this year's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk and novelist Elif Shafak. Charges of insulting Turkishness against Pamuk were dropped over a technicality earlier this year, and Shafak was acquitted. Unlike Pamuk and Shafak, who were tried under Turkey's notorious Article 301, which sets out punishment for insulting the Turkish Republic, its officials or "Turkishness," Cig was accused of insulting people based on their religion. In a trial that lasted less than an hour, Cig rejected the charges saying: "I am a woman of science ... I never insulted anyone," private NTV television reported. The court ruled in her favor on grounds that her actions did not constitute a crime. The trial took place a week before a crucial European Union report on Turkey's progress toward membership, which is expected to chide Turkey for slipping in its reform program, and not acting to change laws that have been used to curb freedoms - in violation of EU human rights standards. The trial against Cig was initiated by an Islamic-oriented lawyer who was offended by claims made in her recently published political book, My Reactions as a Citizen, in which she says that the earliest examples of head scarves date back to Sumerian times, when veils were worn by priestesses who helped young men learn about sex. Pro-secular groups came to the trial in a show of support for the archaeologist, who retired in 1972 and has written 13 books. ASSOCIATED PRESS -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
