Turkey. In June 2003, Parliament approved an amendment to the Act on Construction, replacing the word "mosques" with "houses of worship," which in theory removes a legal obstacle to the establishment of non-Muslim religious facilities. In December 2003, the Interior Ministry issued a circular summarizing the legal amendments and directing provincial governors to "facilitate" efforts by religious communities to open places of worship. In January, the Government abolished the Minorities Subcommittee, established by secret regulation in 1962 to monitor minorities as potential threats to the country, and replaced it with the Board to Assess Problems of Minorities. According to the Government, the Board will work to support the rights of non-Muslims. In March, authorities approved an application by a group of German-speaking Christians to establish a religious/charity association in Alanya, Antalya Province. In the past, authorities have routinely rejected such applications on the grounds that the Act on Associations prohibits associations based on religion. Members of the Christian community reported that the Government revised school textbooks in response to complaints about inaccurate, negative references to Christianity. They said the revised versions represent a significant improvement.
Turkmenistan. While serious violations of religious freedom continued in Turkmenistan, the Government made progress in some areas. Government respect for religious freedom, both from a legislative perspective and in practice, improved during the period covered by this report. However, the Government continued to monitor all forms of religious expression. All groups must register in order to gain legal status with the Government. Until recently, the only religions that were registered successfully were Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodox Christianity, which are controlled by the Government; by the end of the reporting period, four minority religious groups had been registered. The March amendments to the law on religious organizations and subsequent Presidential decrees have enabled the Ministry of Justice to facilitate registration of some religious congregations and have engendered a noticeable reduction in harassment of minority congregations. The Government also repealed some criminal penalties for unauthorized religious activity. The President amnestied six members of Jehovah’s Witnesses serving prison sentences for conscientious objection to military service. There is much to absorb here. The Religious Freedom Report is by its nature a qualitative report with an inevitably preachy tone, but another fascinating report out this week is just the facts, ma'am: the Department of Labor's American Time Use Survey:
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today that in 2003:
--On the days that they worked, employed men worked about an hour more than employed women--8.0 versus 7.1 hours.
--Employed adult women (18 years and over) spent about an hour more per dday than employed adult men doing household activities and caring for household members.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
Lemme see, uhm, working to bring back Cthulhu from the city of R'lyeh, and trying to organize an anarcho-syndicalist soccer league. And then there's the grow-op, but we don't talk about that. As for child-care, those thieving street urchins are almost as much bother as the revenue they bring in, so I'd have to call that a break-even.
2 - Eric Olsen
Say, do you know a guy named "Artful Dodger"?
3 - Jim Carruthers
But I do know about food, glorious food. But, yah, I might have seen him. Who wants to know?
4 - Eric Olsen
his mum misses him