Over the weekend, Yemen’s Houthi rebels released a young model who sometimes appeared without a headscarf and had been imprisoned for nearly five years over alleged violations of local moral codes, which she denied, her lawyer and a security source told AFP on Sunday.
Selfie posted on Intissar al-Hammadi’s Facebook page. Undated photo, obtained on 21 April 2021.
Intissar al-Hammadi, who modelled for local fashion designers, often with her hair uncovered, and shared photos with her thousands of followers on Instagram and Facebook, was arrested in 2021 while on her way to a photo shoot with a friend.
The following year, a local court sentenced the two women to five years’ imprisonment for “fornication”, “prostitution” and “drug use”- charges that were baseless and an affront to women’s freedoms, according to her lawyer and NGOs.
“Intissar al-Hammadi was released last night and is now at home,” her lawyer, Khaled al-Kamal, told AFP on Sunday. “She suffered numerous ills, and her condition deteriorated as a result of the injustices she endured,” he added.
A few months after her arrest, Amnesty International called for the model’s immediate release, stating that she had been “mistreated”, “forced to confess to several offences” and punished for defying “deeply patriarchal” social rules.
Born to an Ethiopian mother and a Yemeni father, Intissar al-Hammadi posted dozens of photos online, in traditional dress, jeans, or a leather jacket, with or without an Islamic headscarf- and also appeared in two local TV series, according to the organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW).
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A French consumer watchdog found that besides Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein, five other online platforms sold illicit products in France, a spokesperson for Commerce Minister Serge Papin said on Friday.
Temu
The watchdog, called DGCCRF, said AliExpress and Joom were selling child-like sex dolls, while weapons such as brass knuckles and machetes were available on Wish, Temu and eBay, the spokesperson said, confirming an article by Le Parisien newspaper.
DGCCRF found that Wish, Temu and U.S.-based Amazon, the largest e-commerce company by market value, failed to filter underage shoppers from adult content, he said.
The spokesperson said Papin referred the platforms to public prosecutors and would invite the European Union’s commerce ministers to Paris to discuss this issue.
Amazon, Temu, eBay, AliExpress and Joom did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
The broad French crackdown on large foreign e-commerce leaders is an attempt to protect local retailers who feel threatened by unfair competition from cheaper and better-marketed products on their own turf.
Papin used to lead supermarket chain Super U.
Similar EU initiatives include the decision on Thursday to bring forward by one year the customs duties on low-value parcels arriving in the bloc to crack down on cheap Chinese e-commerce imports.
Earlier this month, the French consumer watchdog sparked outrage against Shein when it said it had spotted child-like sex dolls, weapons such as machetes and knives, and other illicit products on the Chinese-owned marketplace. A public prosecutor then opened an investigation into Shein as well as Temu, AliExpress and Wish for different potential breaches of rules.
Following the furore over Shein’s marketplace, the French government started the process to block the platform in the country, with Finance Minister Roland Lescure threatening to entirely suspend the website in France if banned products continue to be found for sale.
A week ago, after acknowledging Shein had withdrawn all illicit products from its website, the government suspended the process to block Shein and said it was looking into other platforms it did not identify.
The Welcome on Board – Mode & International event will be held in Paris on November 20, a day entirely dedicated to assessing new export strategies for fashion brands. More than 250 participants are expected, among them brand founders, CEOs, and senior executives in charge of international expansion and exports, e-commerce and direct retail, as well as international fashion buyers.
DR
The event is organised jointly by various French industry associations and public bodies, like the Women’s Ready-to-wear Federation, Promas International, the Association of Apparel Producers, the Knitwear and Lingerie Federation, the Fashion and Haute Couture Federation, UFIMH, DEFI, the French Footwear Federation, CCT, Francéclat and Entreprises France. The programme includes conferences and workshops designed to help brands expand their international presence.
There will be sessions on the impact of geopolitics and market transformations on international trade, and on the expectations of international buyers. The line-up of speakers includes representatives of international names like Kirna Zabête (USA), Guffanti (Italy), Hankyu Hanshin (Japan) and Attica (Greece), alongside French experts like Michaël Azoulay, founder and CEO of American Vintage, Caroline Goiffon, managing director of Statement Paris, Louis-Gabriel Nouchi, designer at LGN, Claire Bismuth, COO of Coperni, Lisa Nakam, managing director of Jonak, and Mathieu Grodner, president of Simone Pérèle.
Workshops on customs and logistics, brand security in the digital age, finance and market opportunities will be held in the afternoon. Also under the spotlight, lean growth strategies, how to deploy sustainable international D2C strategies, and how to use AI and data analytics to improve global performance.
Welcome on Board will combine analysis of market data and the experiences of several brands with practical workshops, giving participants the tools to kickstart, consolidate or accelerate their international expansion within a constantly changing environment.
Over the first nine months of the year, the French leather industry recorded a 3% decline in exports to 13.7 billion euros, according to the Economic Observatory of Alliance France Cuir, which cites a drop in orders from Asia and the United States.
Shutterstock
The Observatory’s economic report notes a 7% fall in exports to Asia. This downturn affected China and Hong Kong (-5%), Japan (-8%), Singapore (-27%) and South Korea (-7%). Exports to the United States also contracted by 2%, while European demand strengthened by 0.7%.
By product, exports of raw hides and skins fell by 2%, and those from the tanning and dressing sector by 1%. The decline came to 3% in both the footwear and leather goods markets. However, the leather goods sector was the only one to end the period with growth in cumulative revenue across its companies (+3%).
Imports remained stable over the period, at 10.4 billion euros. The Observatory notes a 7% drop in orders placed in Europe, while supplies from Asia rose by 7%. This situation benefited Vietnam (+13%), Indonesia (+6%), India (+6%), Cambodia (+22%) and, to a lesser extent, China (+3%).
This shift in sourcing from Europe to Asia is pushing down the average prices recorded by customs, with declines of 3% for shoes and 13% for handbags.
By sector, increases in imports were seen in footwear (+2%) and in tanning and dressing (+4%). Imports of raw hides and skins fell by 6%, as did imports of leather goods. In this category, handbag production, all materials combined, is estimated to have fallen by 2.7%.