SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA-- Iran Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Majid Bokaei says if the enemies of the Islamic Republic make a mistake, they will receive their response in the battlefield. Bokaei also described on Friday the US and Israeli officials’ recent anti-Iran threats as “psychological warfare” and “ranting.”  “If enemies make a mistake we will answer their threats in the battlefield,” he said. The Iranian official noted that Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has set a clear framework…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The Saudi Wahhabi cleric and the faculty member at the Islamic University of Imam Muhammad bin Saud, Dr. Saad al-Durihim, called Iraqi Mujahideen (al Qaeda terrorist groups) to kill Shia women and children in order to cause more terror and fear among Iraqi people. Dr. Saad al-Durihim, in his Twitter called Mujahideen to increase cruelty and murder or even captive women and children to scare more people. Following the publication of these writings by the…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh, whose Fatwa has paved the way for destruction of historical Islamic remnants in the holy city of Makkah says it is not only permitted but necessary (!). Saudi authorities try to justify destruction of Islamic and historical sites by saying that it is needed in order to develop religious tourism in the country. Two Saudi scholars, however, underlined the need for preserving the sites and condemned any move to destroy…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Saudi Arabia has sent more tanks and weapons for its troops in Bahrain during the Formula One Grand Prix auto race in Manama. Bahrani activists said on Sunday that the tanks were sent by heavy military transport vehicles, which crossed the main bridge that links the two neighboring countries. Meanwhile, Saudi-backed Bahraini security forces clashed with pro-democracy protesters, who held demonstrations on Sunday across the country against the Grand Prix race. The violence erupted…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has indicated support of allowing women there to drive. He said on Sunday that if women were allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, it would help the kingdom's campaign to cut down on the number of foreign workers. Saudi Arabia follows an ultraconservative interpretation of Islam and bans women from driving. "The question of allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia will save more than 500,000 jobs in addition to…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) - Judicial authorities in Saudi Arabia should take urgent steps to end the indefinite detention of a man who can’t raise the money to compensate an attack victim. Ali al-Khawahar, 31, completed a six-year criminal sentence in 2010 as punishment for a January 14, 2004 incident in which he stabbed a childhood friend in the back near his spinal cord. The stabbing left the friend permanently paralyzed. In addition to the criminal sentence, he also faced…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Saudi authorities need to lift the many obstacles facing the first woman to train as a lawyer in Saudi Arabia before she can enter the profession on an equal basis with men. The Justice Ministry on April 8, 2013, licensed Arwa al-Hujaili, a King Abdulaziz University graduate from Jeddah, as a legal trainee, which allows her to practice law and, after a three-year apprenticeship, to become a fully licensed lawyer. “By licensing a female lawyer, Saudi…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) Saudi Arabia has denied reports that a court in the kingdom has ordered a punishment of paralysis for a man who committed a crime that paralysed another man. The reports about the sentence, which sparked condemnation after Amnesty International urged the Saudi authorities to annul it, were "false", a justice ministry spokesman told AFP news agency on Tuesday. The ministry also used its Twitter account to refute the reports about the sentence, which Britain's Foreign…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- Buried within this New York Times article on the massive expansion of a half-Saudi owned refinery in Port Arthur, Texas is a fascinating buried lede: The refinery is designed primarily to refine various grades of Saudi crude and crudes that Shell produces in the Gulf of Mexico, but it has the flexibility to process crude from Canadian oil sands and from other American and Latin American fields. (The proposed Keystone XL pipeline being considered by the Obama…

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Anti-regime protesters have again taken to the streets in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province to demand the release of senior Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. The protesters defied a protest ban imposed by the Al Saud regime and demonstrated in the eastern city of Qatif on Thursday to voice their solidarity with the jailed cleric and demand his release. On March 28, a Saudi prosecutor reportedly demanded the death penalty for Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, accusing him of…