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Nov
10
13 Year Old Rape Victim Stoned to Death in Somalia
A thirteen year old girl, identified by Amnesty International as Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow was raped by three men while she, on foot, was on her way to visit her grandmother in the war-torn capital of Mogadishu. When she and her parents sought help and justice from the authorities, Duhulow was victimized yet again.
The first reports of this story claimed that Duhulow was not a young girl, but a 23 year old young woman who had confessed to adultery and thus, under Shariah, the legal code of Islam based on the Koran, was sentenced to death by stoning where the young girl was forced into a hole, buried up to her neck and pelted with stones by 50 men in front of a crowd of about 1,000 on-lookers.
This story most certainly does not add up; a child was raped and instead of administering justice, the government made up a warped and untrue story and aged the girl ten years to get away with their conviction because convicting a 13 year old girl for adultery is illegal under Islamic law, while the three men who raped this girl have yet to be arrested.
A human rights activist in the town told BBC that he had received death threats from the Islamic militia for spreading the truth about this incident, accusing him of spreading false information.
Listen to Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International, discuss the stoning and the story behind this young girl here.
Sep
9
The Media’s Ignorance Towards Violence Against Women & Honor Killings
Violence against women and female children is a “century-old tradition” and while more and more cases of violence against women in Pakistan turn up, the media is remaining ignorant to the fact that this type of violence does exist. When the media will report endlessly about the resignation of Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan but so few media outlets report about five women being buried alive, something is terribly wrong.
The media’s ignorance towards violence against women in the world makes you wonder about people who gain much of their knowledge from the media. Why is there no international outrage? The sad truth of the matter is that honor killings and international violence against women does not get much coverage at all and because of that, most people do not know what is going on and what is happening to so many women in Pakistan who are victims of honor killings. While it is a rising pandemic it is also an isolated, household tradition.
Five women in Pakistan were buried alive by tribesmen in the same week that Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan. The crime that these women committed was wanting to choose their own husbands. They defied tribal elders and arranged marriages to men of their own choosing in a civil court. Because of this, these women were abducted at gunpoint by some men and dragged off to a remote field, where they were beaten, shot, thrown into a ditch, and then, while still breathing, smothered to death with rocks and mud.
A member of the Pakistani parliament, Israr Ullah Zehri, said that these killings were merely “century-old traditions” and that they are necessary to stop obscenity. The media also did not deem this condoning of barbaric violence against women important and failed to report anything about it. Because of this, the media is also condoning violence against women and honor killings.
It’s high time that we change the shameful fact that when it comes to barbarity against members of the female half of humanity, the silence of not only the press but also of political, religious and other leaders is almost deafening.
Women’s organizations nationally and internationally have for years struggled to change this, and gradually human rights organizations have paid more attention to the pandemic of violence against women. But men — and particularly men who identify themselves as moral leaders — must also raise their voices. They too must voice their outrage about their “brothers” all over the world who are brutalizing women.
Aug
17
PETA Makes Light of Cannibalistic Attack
On July 31st, 22-year-old Tim McLean was stabbed and decapitated by Vince Weiguang Li on a Greyhound bus in Canada. Li had also consumed McLean’s flesh; McLean’s ear, nose, and mouth having been found in Li’s pocket.
Obviously this cannibalistic attack last month has hit a lot of people hard, some may even be weary of traveling via bus just in case another character like Li happens to be sitting next to them and if they were to doze off, perhaps they fear they may never have the chance to wake up. This attack has also left very deep scars on McLean’s family and friends and also on the fellow passengers that were also on the bus during the attack. This attack was horrifying and disgusting–Just like the ad PETA has put out after the attack which seems to make light of the attack against McLean.
PETA had this to say on their blog:
PETA is running the ad to make people rethink the proposition that it is, rightly so, a criminal act to kill and eat our own kind but that it’s “OK” to kill every other species but our own and eat them.
This is but another case of PETA blowing up their agenda to monumental proportions and not treating human beings with the respect that they so obviously demand for animals. Since the time they posted this ad on their blog along with their agenda for the ad, hundreds of comments were posted on the blog but of course, PETA decided to close their comments and also make the previously posted comments unavailable for the public to read. One can only assume that the reason for this is because most of the comments made on their post about this ridiculously backwards ad weren’t exactly praising them for hopping on the latest horrifying murder case and trying to capitalize on it.
Aug
13
You’re Just Not Pretty Enough
What’s the difference between the two girls pictured above? Well, the little girl on the left, seven year old Yang Peiyi, sang a rendition of “Ode to the Motherland” to be performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The little girl on the right, however, nine year old Lin Miaoke, was the girl who performed; lip syncing to Yang’s voice.
Well that’s odd! What’s even more astounding is that fact that the musical director claims that this was done in the best interest of the country and that Yang was simply not as “flawless” as Lin.
“The reason for this is that we must put our country’s interest first. The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expression and the great feeling she can give to people.”
How, exactly, was telling a seven year old girl that she wasn’t pretty enough to be seen by the public for the best interest of the country? That is pure bullshit and downright disgusting that even at such a young age little girls are being told that they aren’t living up to the standards set by their country when it comes to being pretty.
Reason number 852 why China should be ashamed of itself.
Aug
6
Maybe I’m Just Cranky, Maybe We’re All Just Cranky
World Youth Day held in Sydney, Australia from July 15-20, is a Catholic event that brought hundreds of thousands of people together. Now since we know right off the bat that religion is involved, although you wouldn’t be able to notice immediately that it is a Catholic event by looking at their website because they like to be discreet like that, we know that something bad is going to do down because there is nothing more corrupt than the Catholic church, besides the government which feeds off the Catholic church and so on.
Around the same time as World Youth Day, there was an airing on Lateline that was speaking about a family whose two daughters were raped by Father Kevin O’Donnell. Because of the rape, one daughter had committed suicide and the other was very ill because of the abuse. The family wouldn’t accept a Papal apology (because really, who would? I certainly wouldn’t!) that wasn’t backed up by positive action. Oh there people go again asking for the church to actually do something and they won’t have any of that positive action stuff going on. Come on, just look at the Catholic church’s history, they have a list longer than The Great Wall that they should be apologizing for and backing up with a lifetime of positive action.
It was the airing of Lateline, that made Bishop Anthony Fisher say the following statement:
“Happily, I think most of Australia was enjoying and delighting in the beauty and goodness of these young people, and the hope for us doing these sorts of things better in the future, as we saw last night, rather than dwelling crankily, as a few people are doing, on old wounds.” [audio here]
Dwelling crankily? Old wounds? I’m sorry, but when you lose your child to suicide because they were raped at a small age by someone they are taught they can trust, you are not dwelling, they are not to be considered old wounds and there is nothing cranky about it.
In the audio, the Bishop also goes on to say that they are trying to create better processes to make sure acts like this never happen again and then ask for constructive advice from people who believe they have the answer to prohibit clergy sex abuse from happening. I have a phenomenal idea! How about you stop protecting clergy sex offenders? Isn’t that a hell of a thought? How about when news comes out that one of the clergy members is a pedophile, you don’t simply relocate him to another church in another area so he can go on to do it again? Try that, asshole.
Apparently Bishop Anthony Fisher believes that any survivor of sexual assault who talks about what happened to them are just cranky. Maybe we all just need to get over it.
More and more suicides occur every year because of sexual assault, because people are told that they shouldn’t talk about it, because people are told that they are the ones who are tainted and disgusting and should be ashamed when really, the sex offenders themselves should be ashamed and not only that, but they should be locked up so they can never, ever, ever do it again.
Via Hoyden About Town.
Mar
23
Innocent Images Takes Down Major Child Porn Ring
This is a few weeks old, but definitely still noteworthy. Hooray for the FBI having an entire program dedicated to catching child pornography and exploitation and an even bigger hooray for arrests and these sites being shut down!
Innocent Images, a program run by the FBI to combat online child pornography and child exploitation has recently busted a major child porn ring.
With messages that read “Mala is to die for in those pigtails.”, “I have a few 5yo [year old] Taras that you do not have.” and “Just dropping in for a hot minute … to help out the dry spell, and to give everyone something to do for an afternoon.” this ring doesn’t seem too different than the others circulating the internet, however, this ring had many features that Innocent Images had not come across before.
This ring was one of the largest and most sophisticated rings that the FBI has ever come across, using maximum security methods to make them increasingly hard to catch. The ring worked more like a business, with several different people spanning over different countries performing specific jobs within the community. The ring had traded, trafficked and posted over 400,000 images and videos and incorporated several operation security measures.
Since discovered, over 20 victims of child exploitation have been rescued and 22 men have been arrested in the United States, Germany, Australia and the U.K. while more rescues and arrests are being pursued.
Mar
8
Happy International Women’s Day!
It’s International Women’s Day!
“International Women’s Day has been observed since in the early 1900’s, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.”
For history on International Women’s Day, click here and for web casts, news, events and logos up for download, go to the official International Women’s Day website.
International Women’s Day, to me, means a great deal. The jobs of women across the world are far from done. While women have seen great success in the last 100 years or so, they have fought tooth and nail for every bit of that success and we are still seeing administrations who are threatening to revoke our rights not only here, but in other countries as well and the women of Afghanistan, in particular, are not seeing the changes that were promised to them, making Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places in the entire world to be female.
When speaking about International Women’s Day with a friend of mine, filmmaker Dany Nieves, who for the record is a man, had this to say:
“I am a man but I also understand the dynamics of society. Men do have the supposed power and use it for evil. After thousands of years of civilization and male dominance, great turmoil still exists. The basic question to be asked is “Is rule by men good for society?” It isn’t. We are born to a maternal world and it should be that way. Women can make good choices and keep society in check. Of course, men should also be more involved with issues they don’t want to deal with, like women’s issues.”
Women have a great deal to contribute to the world and in some countries, women are being applauded and urged to go forward with their work for equality and for women everywhere, even for the women who live in parts of the world where their voices cannot be heard and who are treated not as second-class citizens, but as third and fourth class. International Women’s Day is for all women, everywhere–It is one day where we must really reflect on our history and the history of women and applaud those who have been activists and who have fought in the present as well as in the past for the liberties and freedom that we have as well as raise awareness for those who do not.
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