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Archive for the ‘Women’s rights’ Category

Blogging outside my bleak box …

Posted in International Adoption, Sex, The United Nations, Women's rights, World politics, tagged on August 17, 2009| 7 Comments »

It’s time for me to let outrage spill into the blog again, and although I could pound on about health care in America, the abomination in Burma, the double standard on internationally adopted children and much more, this gets my dander itching this morning …

It is now legal in Afghanistan for a man to starve his wife to death if she refuses to have sex with him.

Rape, of course, is not an issue, as that goes without saying. Beating to death is common enough and usually without repercussions, and now starvation is condoned.

And how will the world react? With its usual impotence …

Western leaders and Afghan women’s groups were united in condemning an apparent reversal of key freedoms won by women after the fall of the Taliban.

Oh, the dreaded “united condemning”!

Shall we wait to see how much food that puts into an Afghan woman who’s not in the mood for abuse?

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Adding insult, and a fine, to injury

Posted in Children, England, Women's rights, tagged , , , on May 6, 2009| 2 Comments »

I was actually feeling rather festive this morning with it being Cinco de Mayo in Mexico still … Feliz de Cinco de Mayo! … starting off the day in a chipper enough mood, until I started trolling for blog fodder. (Yeah, I should know better.)

I had even managed to divert a bit of my horror and amuse myself in the reading of this report about child rape and murder in the UK.

Okay … it’s a terrible story of abuse of the worst kind involving a mother and her boyfriend and rape of a two-year-old and death and unimaginable savagery , but provided some some relief by pointing out that the “government’s expert on children’s services” is a guy named … get this … Lord Laming.

So, yes, already heading downhill mood-wise, I then come across this shit:

A court in Dubai has found a woman who lost her unborn child in a traffic accident guilty of manslaughter in what is said to be an unprecedented ruling.

The Lebanese woman, who was nine months pregnant at the time, was also ordered to pay blood money. She said she had not caused the accident.

Now, that just pisses me off.

This is, of course, a ruling based on Islamic law, or someone’s interpretation of that sees women as a vessel, a baby-growing container with no more right to a life of her own than a thermos jug.

Bottom-lining the thought process is this from the head of traffic prosecution:

… women in the third trimester of pregnancy should avoid driving altogether to protect their own and their foetuses’ lives.

Since … what? … men don’t get in accidents when pregnant wives are in the car? Or is the point really, with the prosecutors arguing that the sentence should “act as a deterrent,” that women should blady well just stay put until they pop?

Women in Saudi aren’t allowed to drive at all … I’m sure this case will be trotted out as justification for keeping chicks wheel-less … and in some Muslim nations anyone female out and about without a male relative of responsible years can be tossed in the clink, so a pregnant woman driving alone has trouble written all over her.

Of course, the “blood money” version of punitive damages really grates my cheese. As if this woman hasn’t paid in blood already! And I can’t help but wonder if the fetus had been a boy if the father wouldn’t be suing her, as well.

We really need to stop putting up with this crap, girls.

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Using what ya got: Girl Power in Africa

Posted in Sex, Seychelles, Women's rights on April 30, 2009| 4 Comments »

I am all for girl power, and here in Africa it can take some dynamic forms.

Liberia’s president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is an example of a woman taking the reins and driving forward.

Here in Seychelles it manifests in business and government, where women hold positions of power in the National Assembly and the Cabinet and run the show in many companies. (Not the 50+% represented in the population, but a better than average ratio when compared globally.)

For millions of African women, however, power is rationed out, when at all, in tiny, sweat-laden droplets and overwhelmed by the lack of.

Too many women have no power to protect their children from deprivation, starvation and disease, and hundreds of thousands have lost theirs to war, either as casualties or to soldiering.

They have no power over what is done to their bodies, aren’t allowed to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS or unwanted pregnancies, and often don’t have any voice in defending their own genitals. (For a country-by-country look at FGM in Africa, see this from Amnesty International.)

So, when women step up, we should pay attention no matter what form it takes. That’s why this report, “Kenyan women hit men with sex ban”, catches my eye this morning.

Womens activist groups in Kenya have slapped their partners with a week-long sex ban in protest over the infighting plaguing the national unity government.

The Womens Development Organization coalition said they would also pay prostitutes to join their strike.

The campaigners are asking the wives of the Kenyan president and the prime minister to join in the embargo.

I’m trying to imagine a nation of men not only gettin’ none for a week, but knowing that the none gettin’ has been orchestrated by the women folk. Do they have it in them to take whatever energy they might have expended in the sack to the table? Can they put aside base urges for the greater good? Will appreciation for the value of their women increase through unattainability?

Or will that DSB (Dreaded Semen Backup) clog the works completely and result in nothing more but a giant circle jerk that leaves a sticky blob?

Whatever …

It’s worth a shot, Ladies. And I can only hope that you’re not stuck cleaning up the mess … again.

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If ya wanna end war and stuff, ya gotta be pretty?

Posted in Celebrities, England, Music I like, Older women, Women's rights, tagged , on April 17, 2009| 11 Comments »

I am so completely awash with thoughts as I start this post that finding a jumping-of point is gluing my fingers to my keyboard as my brain attempts to sort out a beginning, a middle and an end.

Ah … screw it … Dive, dive …

First, an admission: I have never seen an “Idol” show. Not since Arthur Godfrey’s Amateur Hour have I watched hopeful performers set themselves up on television to take the hits that standing metaphorically naked in front of the world can bring. I know who Simon Cowell is only because I own the Shrek DVD that has him as a special feature, but have no idea who others are who sit in judgement.

So …

I’m confused.

Postings on facebook today included many people linking to a vid from a program called “Britains Got Talent” … is there supposed to be an apostrophe there somewhere? … that shows a woman singing.

The “hook” here seems to be that she’s not a babe. Susan Boyle is a 47-year-old rather plain looking person from Scotland who has obviously managed to avoid being styled. She has bushy eyebrows, a double chin and a bit of extra weight under her matronly dress. Her hair is thinning, her accent billboards her roots, and her manner, although confident enough considering the cameras and the crowd, hints of self-deprication.

Since this is a program featuring talent, not a beauty pageant, I am having a hard time understanding why eyes are rolling in the audience and judges barely cover smirks as she introduces herself … much less the stunned reaction when she opens her mouth and belts out a perfect version of the difficult “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.

Since when did someone have to look pretty … in some canned-for-mass- consumption sort of way … to sing beautifully?

Since the advent of music vids, perhaps? Are we no longer able to hear the magic without seeing the performer, and the explanation of just exactly what it is we’re listening to?

Many are referring to this moment in British TV as inspirational. Why? Because a dowdy lass of some years can sing?

Sorry, but I just find the shock and awe of it all disturbing.

Congratulations, Susan Boyle. You were beautiful before you opened your mouth.

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Medical Research Worth Support

Posted in Health, Women's rights on March 26, 2009| 1 Comment »

NIBSC/Photo Researchers A colored scanning electron micrograph of a T-lymphocyte blood cell (green) infected with Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

NIBSC/Photo Researchers A colored scanning electron micrograph of a T-lymphocyte blood cell (green) infected with Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

With the high horse of self righteous condemnation being put out to pasture, many health issues … stem cell use is a good example … should see the glaring light of day.

One that’s new to me (Thanks, Robbie!) and has me jumping for hopeful joy is active research in microbicides … a possible method of preventing the transmission of HIV that would allow people to protect themselves without having to count on the cooperation of sexual partners.

There is progress on the development of gels that can be applied discreetly and are undetectable, but stop the virus from passing one from one person to another.

As this article from the NY Times illustrates, insistence on condom use can and does frequently result in immediate consequences that make safeguarding self impossible …

Women in poor countries need a vaginal gel that blocks the AIDS virus but not sperm because many still want children. They also need one that can be inserted secretly: for too many women, any action that implies that a partner is infected is likely to result in a beating.

Rape is also common in cases of resistance to sexual advances from infected husbands, and domestic abuse is not limited to adults, and if the simple application of a readily available substance can keep the horrible damage to the trauma of the time … and that truly is all that is possible for hundreds of thousands … the world will be a better place.

Please pass the word and support and encourage continuing research into this ray of hope.

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