PARIS: Three French women including a niece of notorious extremist propagandists went on trial on Monday, accused of traveling to the Middle East to join Daesh and taking their eight children with them.
One of the women is Jennyfer Clain, a 34-year-old niece of Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, who claimed responsibility on behalf of Daesh for the attacks on November 13, 2015, when 130 people died at the Bataclan concert hall and elsewhere in shootings that traumatized France.
The Clain brothers are presumed dead. In 2022, they were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment without parole.
The two other women on trial are Jennyfer Clain’s sister-in-law, Mayalen Duhart, 42, and 67-year-old Christine Allain, the women’s mother-in-law.
Each of them faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Duhart is the only one of the three who is appearing in court as a free woman, saying she is now working at a bakery.
The defendants are being tried by a special criminal court in Paris that is sitting without a jury — standard practice in terrorism cases.
The women had traveled to Raqqa, the Daesh group’s onetime capital, with their children in 2014.
After the 2017 battle for Raqqa, which marked Daesh’s defeat, the women spent two years with its retreating forces before trying to enter Turkiye.
Turkish authorities detained the three women in 2019 as they attempted to enter from Syria with nine children between ages 3 and 13.
Eight of the children had been born in France.
The women were then expelled to France, where they were charged with criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.
Clain and Duhart are also being prosecuted for failing to fulfil their parental obligations, notably for voluntarily taking their eight children “to a war zone to join a terrorist group,” the indictment said, exposing them to “significant risk of physical and psychological harm.”
In their decision to refer the three women to a criminal court, the investigating judges noted that they “remained for a long period of time” within extremist groups.
“It was with full knowledge of the facts” that Allain and her two daughters-in-law chose to join the Daesh group in Syria after the caliphate was established, according to the investigating magistrates’ indictment seen by AFP.
Allain’s lawyer said she had worked hard to turn her life around.
“She still considers herself a Muslim, but she has only known one interpretation of Islam, the wrong one,” he said.
“She hates the person she had become.”
The trial is scheduled to last until September 26.
Three French women accused of Daesh links go on trial
https://arab.news/pgd84
Three French women accused of Daesh links go on trial
- The women had traveled to Raqqa, the Daesh group’s onetime capital, with their children in 2014
- After the 2017 battle for Raqqa, which marked Daesh’s defeat, the women spent two years with its retreating forces before trying to enter Turkiye
94 million need cataract surgery, but access lacking: WHO
- Of the 94 million affected, fewer than 20 percent are blind, while the rest suffer from impaired vision
GENEVA: More than 94 million people suffer from cataracts, but half of them do not have access to the surgery needed to fix it, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
Cataracts — the clouding of the eye’s lens that causes blurred vision and can lead to blindness — are on the rise as populations get older, with age being the main risk factor.
“Cataract surgery — a simple, 15-minute procedure — is one of the most cost-effective medical procedures, providing immediate and lasting restoration of sight,” the WHO said.
It is one of the most frequently performed surgeries undertaken in high-income countries.
However, “half of the world’s population in need of cataract surgery don’t have access to it,” said Stuart Keel, the UN health agency’s technical lead for eye care.
The situation is worst in the WHO’s Africa region, where three in four people needing cataract surgery remain untreated.
In Kenya, at the current rate, 77 percent of people needing cataract surgery are likely to die with their cataract blindness or vision impairment, said Keel.
Across all regions, women consistently experience lower access to care than men.
Of the 94 million affected, fewer than 20 percent are blind, while the rest suffer from impaired vision.
- 2030 vision -
The WHO said that over the past two decades, global cataract surgery coverage had increased by 15 percent.
In 2021, WHO member states set a target of a 30-percent increase by 2030.
However, current modelling predicts that cataract surgery coverage will rise by only about 8.4 percent this decade.
To close the gap, the WHO urged countries to integrate eye examinations into primary health care and invest in the required surgical equipment.
States should also expand the eye-care workforce, training surgeons in a standardised manner and then distributing them throughout the country, notably outside major cities.
The WHO was on Wednesday launching new guidance for countries on how to provide quality cataract surgery services.
It will also issue guidance to help support workforce development.
Keel said the main issue was capacity and financing.
“We do need money invested to get rid of this backlog, which is nearly 100 million people,” he told a press conference.
While age is the primary risk factor for cataracts, others include prolonged UV-B light exposure, tobacco use, prolonged corticosteroid use and diabetes.
Keel urged people to keep up regular eye checks as they get older, with most problems able to be either prevented or diagnosed and treated.
The cost of the new lens that goes inside the eye can be under $100.
However, out-of-pocket costs can be higher when not covered by health insurance.
“Cataract surgery is one of the most powerful tools we have to restore vision and transform lives,” said Devora Kestel, head of the WHO’s noncommunicable diseases and mental health department.
“When people regain their sight, they regain independence, dignity, and opportunity.”
