Hill fort in Iraqi Kurdistan could be lost city of Natounia: Researchers

Hill fort in Iraqi Kurdistan could be lost city of Natounia: Researchers
The lost ancient city of Natounia once served as a major urban center of the Parthian Empire, which sprawled across Mesopotamia about 2,000 years ago. (Rabana-Merquly Archaeological Project)
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Updated 21 July 2022

Hill fort in Iraqi Kurdistan could be lost city of Natounia: Researchers

Hill fort in Iraqi Kurdistan could be lost city of Natounia: Researchers
  • Decade-long dig reveals temple used for worship of water goddess Anahita

LONDON: An archaeological breakthrough in Iraqi Kurdistan has led researchers to discover the ruins of what could be the lost ancient city of Natounia, Sky News has reported.

The city once served as a major urban center of the Parthian Empire, which sprawled across Mesopotamia about 2,000 years ago.

But no direct evidence of the city has been found, with its existence only hinted at on several ancient coins.

Following a decade of study, researchers from the Directorate of Antiquities in Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, together with Dr. Michael Brown of Germany’s Heidelberg University, say that the established fortification site of Rabana-Merquly could house the ruins of Natounia.

The research, published in the journal “Antiquity,” details how excavation work conducted between 2009 and 2022 at the Rabana-Merquly fortress revealed well-preserved buildings hidden underground.

Researchers discovered a temple-like building that appears to have been used for water worship, suggesting a link with the ancient Iranian goddess Anahita.

The worship of Anahita was associated with fertility, healing and good health, according to classical accounts of the region.

The full name of Natounia, Natounissarokerta, contains the name of its ruler, Natounissar, the founder of the Adiabene royal dynasty. It also includes the Parthian word for fortification.

And as a result, that title “could apply to Rabana-Merquly,” Brown said.

He added that inscriptions at the entrance to the fortress could depict Natounissar or a relative, because of similar imagery discovered about 230 km away elsewhere in another Parthian site.

Brown said: “The considerable effort that must have gone into planning, building and maintaining a fortress of this size points to governmental activities.”


Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
Updated 11 sec ago

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers

Algeria to send imams to Italy for Taraweeh prayers
  • Imams to be sent to France for same purpose; Germany and Belgium have made similar requests
  • Italy made request ‘so all Muslims will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan,’ Interior Ministry source tells Aab News

ROME: Twenty-nine imams from Algeria will be sent by their government to Italy to help local imams perform Taraweeh prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

The imams will be sent “upon a specific request by the Italian authorities,” Algerian Religious Affairs Minister Youssef Belmehdi told state radio.

He added that 128 imams will be sent to France for the same purpose, and that Germany and Belgium have made similar requests.

A source in Italy’s Interior Ministry told Arab News that the request for imams from Algeria was made “so that all Muslims in Italy will be given good spiritual care during Ramadan.” The source said Algeria’s government “enthusiastically and promptly agreed” to the request.

Giuseppe Ciutti, a Catholic priest who is engaged in ecumenical dialogue, told Arab News: “At such an important time as Ramadan for Muslims, it’s important that everyone can get good spiritual assistance.”

According to the Union of Islamic Communities in Italy, 2.5 million Muslims live in the country, comprising 4.7 percent of the total population. Moroccans represent the largest Muslim community in Italy.


Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
Updated 16 min 32 sec ago

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence

Iran urges France to listen to protesters, avoid violence
  • Protesters clashed with French security forces in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt
  • Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests

TEHRAN: Iran on Friday urged France to listen to protesters and avoid violence after more than 450 people were arrested and nearly as many police were injured in demonstrations against pension reforms.
Protesters clashed with French security forces on Thursday in the most serious violence yet of a three-month revolt against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the retirement age.
“The French government must talk to its people and listen to their voices,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani tweeted.
“We do not support destruction or rioting, but we maintain that instead of creating chaos in other countries, listen to the voice of your people and avoid violence against them,” he added.
Kanani was referring to criticism, including from France, of Iran’s response to months-long protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini after the 22-year-old’s arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Hundreds of people have been killed, including dozens of security personnel, and thousands arrested in connection with what Iranian officials described as “riots” fomented by Israel and the West.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Iran for its response to the protest movement, led mostly by women.
“Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” Kanani said, adding that such “violence contradicts sitting on the chair of morality lessons and preaching to others.”
On Friday, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 457 people had been arrested and 441 members of the security forces injured the day before during the protests.
Darmanin dismissed calls from protesters to withdraw the pensions reform.
“I don’t think we should withdraw this law because of violence,” he said. “If so, that means there’s no state. We should accept a democratic, social debate, but not a violent debate.”


Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
Updated 38 min 17 sec ago

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal

Israel’s attorney general: Netanyahu involvement in judicial overhaul is illegal
  • ‘The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary’

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s violated the law by saying he would get personally involved in a judicial overhaul plan, the attorney-general said on Friday.
In the face of intensifying protests against the proposed changes, Netanyahu said on Thursday that he was putting aside all other considerations and would do “anything it takes” to reach a solution.
Netanyahu added that his hands had been tied, but a new law limiting the circumstances in which a prime minister can be removed gave him more space for maneuver.
However, Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara, in a letter addressed to Netanyahu, disagreed.
“The legal situation is clear: you must refrain from any involvement in initiatives to change the judiciary, including the makeup of the committee for the appointment of judges, as such activity is a conflict of interest.”
“Your statement last night and any action you take in violation of this matter is illegal and tainted by a conflict of interest,” Baharav-Miara added.


11 dead in US strikes on Syria after drone kills American contractor

11 dead in US strikes on Syria after drone kills American contractor
Updated 35 min 10 sec ago

11 dead in US strikes on Syria after drone kills American contractor

11 dead in US strikes on Syria after drone kills American contractor
  • US troops are in Syria as part of a coalition fighting against remnants of the Daesh group

BEIRUT: Eleven pro-Iran fighters were killed in US air strikes on Syria carried out in retaliation for a drone attack that left an American dead and wounded six others, a war monitor said Friday.
A US contractor was killed, and another contractor and five US service personnel were wounded, when a kamikaze drone “of Iranian origin” struck a maintenance facility on a base of the US-led coalition near Hasakah in northeastern Syria, the Pentagon said.
In response, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that, at President Joe Biden’s direction, he had ordered “precision air strikes tonight in eastern Syria against facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
“The air strikes were conducted in response to today’s attack as well as a series of recent attacks against coalition forces in Syria by groups affiliated with the IRGC,” Austin said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor with a wide network of sources on the ground in the war-torn country, said 11 people had been killed by US strikes, including two Syrians.
“US strikes targeted a weapons depots inside Deir Ezzor city, killing six pro-Iran fighters, and two other fighters were killed by strikes targeting the desert of Al-Mayadin, and three others near Albu Kamal,” said the Observatory’s head Rami Abdel Rahman.
The United States deploys about 900 troops in bases and posts across northeastern Syria as part of the international coalition fighting remnants of the Daesh group.
Iran-backed militias have a heavy presence across Syria, especially around the border with Iraq and south and west of the Euphrates in Deir Ezzor province, where the latest US strikes took place.

American troops also support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Kurds’ de facto army in the area, which led the battle that dislodged IS from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.
The US personnel are frequently been targeted in attacks by militia groups.
Two of the US service members wounded on Thursday were treated on site, while the three other troops and one US contractor were medically evacuated to Iraq, the Pentagon said.
“We will always take all necessary measures to defend our people and will always respond at a time and place of our choosing,” said General Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command.
When the strikes were announced, Biden had already traveled to Canada, where he is set to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In January, the US military said “three one-way attack drones” were launched against the coalition garrison at Al-Tanf in Syria, with one breaching its air defenses and wounding two allied Syrian fighters.
The Observatory said it was likely Iran-backed militants had carried out that attack.
Last August, Biden ordered similar retaliatory strikes in the oil-rich Syrian province of Deir Ezzor after several drones targeted a coalition outpost, without causing any casualties.
That attack came the same day that Iranian state media announced a Revolutionary Guard general had been killed days earlier while “on a mission in Syria as a military adviser.”
Iran, a key ally of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, says it has deployed its forces in Syria at the invitation of Damascus and only as advisers.


Male guardianship rules in north Yemen restrict women’s aid work

Male guardianship rules in north Yemen restrict women’s aid work
Updated 24 March 2023

Male guardianship rules in north Yemen restrict women’s aid work

Male guardianship rules in north Yemen restrict women’s aid work
  • Conflict divided country between Houthis in north and UN-recognized government in south

DUBAI: Female aid workers in north Yemen cannot do their jobs tackling one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises as tightening male guardianship rules by Houthi authorities restrict their movement, nine female humanitarians have revealed.

When women refuse to take a guardian, they cannot travel to oversee aid projects, collect data and deliver health and other services. When women do take one, gender-sensitive work is difficult and aid budgets must bear extra costs.

One health project manager normally conducts 15-20 visits a year to projects around the country but said she has not made any since the rules requiring Yemeni female aid workers be accompanied by a close male relative — a “mahram” in Arabic — came out a year ago.

“I don’t have a lot of men in my family,” she said, adding that some women struggle to find willing guardians because relatives are against her working. “Sometimes a woman works without informing someone in her family.” She improvises with video calls, but knows other women have lost jobs because they cannot work effectively.

Yemen’s conflict has divided the country between the Houthis in north Yemen and an internationally recognized government in the south.

The conflict has wrecked the economy and destroyed the health system, leaving two-thirds of Yemen’s 30 million population in need of humanitarian assistance. Aid groups say female-headed households are more vulnerable to food insecurity and difficulties accessing aid.

Without female staff in the field, aid groups say they have trouble doing things as simple as identification checks on women, who may need to lift their face veils, to distribute food aid.

“Mahram requirements are making it even more challenging for humanitarian interventions to reach the most marginalized female program participants,” said one representative of an NGO that works on nutrition and sanitation.

For the past year female Yemeni aid workers have had to take a mahram when crossing provincial borders controlled by the Houthi group, a religious, political and military movement that controls north Yemen. In four provinces, they even need a guardian to move within the province.

“Female (Yemeni) staff have not been able to work outside our offices for almost two years which is catastrophic for their development, morale, motivation and also most obviously for us reaching women and girls in the field in a culturally sensitive way,” said an employee of another NGO, describing the situation in some areas.

Project quality in the NGO’s work on food and health provision has been “very damaged,” she said.

The women all requested anonymity due to safety fears.

A spokesman for the Houthis’ aid coordination body SCMCHA said they supported aid delivery, but organizations should respect traditions.

“Mahram is a religious Islamic obligation and a belief culture ... Why do organizations put up obstacles to Islamic teachings and Yemeni culture?” he said.

The Houthis have increasingly promoted conservative social values since ousting the government from the capital, Sanaa, in late 2014.

Movement restrictions increased ad hoc before becoming more systematic and targeting aid workers with mahram requirements.

The UN and governments including the US say the restrictions impact women’s ability to participate in public and political life and must stop.

In protest, most international NGOs have refused to include guardians when applying for aid work travel permits — resulting in those permits being declined. NGOs have also suspended travel on UN flights from Sanaa in protest.

“This smothering rule gives men power over women’s lives and is an unacceptable form of gender-based discrimination,” Amnesty International said.

Yemeni law does not impose male guardianship rules, and authorities in the south do not impose them.

“We want to achieve more, to be stronger, more independent. But they restrict that,” said one city-based aid worker who cannot monitor distant projects due to a lack of male relatives.

While humanitarians are the main target of mahram rules, directives requesting car hire and transport companies ensure mahram compliance extended it to all women – although these are less strictly applied.

“If women have to travel without a mahram, they are detained at checkpoints and kept until a male guardian arrives,” another aid worker said.

The women described taking boy relatives out of school, driving sick relatives around to ensure a man in the car, and last minute meeting cancellations.

“You have the burden to pay for your relative. To pay for accommodation, transportation, food ... It is not cost effective for us or for donors,” said a health worker.