UN report on Darfur mass rapes demands justice

Posted on February 4, 2012 by admin

Darfur women have suffered agony and humiliation for being from the land of the Janjaweed. They have been raped and physically assaulted several times to threaten them and their clan. What a pity the government is siding away from such allegations? Women in Darfur have been subject to agony only because they are females that too from Sudan’s troubled Darfur. Their story tells the tale of torture, rape and physical abuse that they have to undergo, thanks to the government-backed Janjaweed, who have actively laid barren the claims. A UN report confirms that rape is increasingly used as a weapon of war against the locals to instill fear in them by humiliating their women. Darfur women have been in the fire ever since the civil war began. Moreover, children of Darfur have been subject to torture and witness to the molestation, rape and sexual assault of their mothers, sisters and friends. What a shame on the part of the government of Sudan, which has closed its eyes to the reality! It is also known that the Janjaweed are actively supported by the Sudanese government against rebel forces. Also, it is the janjaweed that has been committing atrocities on the women and children of Darfur. The conflict in Darfur has dragged into the fourth year, but the people have not found any kind of respite from anywhere. Their woes increase when even non-participants in the conflict are subject to assault. Around 200,000 people have already perished. With millions homeless, without aid, food, water, shelter, medicines, the agony doubles when they find themselves vulnerable to abductions of their children and rape of their women. The UN report on Darfur war crimes needs to be seriously assessed and action taken report demanded from the Sudan Government. The Darfur women deserve something better amidst their poverty. Atleast now their cries be paid heed to and justice prevail. Image1 Image2 Via: MSNBC

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Mexican military schools open doors for women

Posted on February 4, 2012 by admin

To equalize opportunities for women, Mexican government has opened the doors of elite military schools for the fairer sex. Earlier women were not allowed to work as core military officers, they were allowed to take up the job of nurses or doctors in military. This is definitely good news for Mexican women who want to make their career in Military. With this new rule, women will get a chance to raise their career graph up to the rank of general in the male-dominated army. This year 215 women have got chance to work as rifle-toting cadets. Some women are also taking admission in the previously closed military careers that need excessive physical and educational tests. So far, healthy competition has seen between the two sexes, as male cadets have welcomed the women into the new schools. Latin American countries like Bolivia, Chile and Guatemala have already allowed women to participate in combat military operations. Some observers say that the main reason behind allowing women in army is due to the increasingly difficult task keep men in the military for longer duration. Moreover, equality of the sexes is fundamental right now, so allowing women to fill more positions in army is setting good, progressive example for Mexican society. However, merely allowing women in the military would not be enough. The higher authorities should also take care that women do not become victims of sexual and racial discrimination during combat or other military operations.

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India: Afroz making life of women victims worth living

Posted on February 4, 2012 by admin

If there is a will, there’s a way – a famous epigram we’ve heard many a times in our lives but Afroz went a step ahead by proving the statement. She left Jeddah during the crises of Gulf War in 1991 by boarding a plane not knowing where she’s heading for. Her life in her own nation wasn’t a bed of roses, she was born in a conservative Muslim family and got married at a very young age, life became hell for her after that, she recalled how he (her husband) used to watch porn movies and sexually molested her, once he even went to the extreme of selling her. But now, life has altogether different meaning to her, she has taken the charge of all her decisions. Currently residing in Lucknow, India, along with the slum dwellers, she has been able to create a mark, people mostly girls and women look upon her as an inspiring figure. She kicks off her day by offering free tutorial classes for the girls of the adjoining area where she resides with her two children and an adopted girl whom she found abandoned two years ago. Her rest of the day is occupied by visiting tailoring schools initiated by her in the city slums. Her self determination has rehabilitated over 200 women, all abandoned or divorced by their husbands. Not only this, she has also been able to lay the foundation of free handicrafts classes for the poor. Her altruistic work coupled with a desire to win really gave excellent returns. She was able to impart good education to her two children who have been able to get a seat in MBBS and engineering course. Taking the cognizance of her efforts, the government of the state has made her an area supervisor to monitor poverty alleviation programs being run in slums. This definitely is an inspirational story, Afroz has been able to change the lives of the victims of domestic violence. If she’ll get continuous support from government like this, she would be able to make life of such women worth living. Via: Times of India

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Christina Fernandez de Kirchner takes over as Argentina’s first women President

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

Argentina has a new President. And wonder of wonders, the President is a woman. The men are apprehensive whether she might be one of those weaklings who toe the line of her husband, the ex-President Nestor Kirchner. May be the men are also worried whether being a woman she has enough brains to run a nation. Kirchner unconsciously revealed his patriarchy when he told a television channel that being married to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner for 32 years, he knows better than to interfere. The new President’s virago nature comes out of this. Argentina is recovering from an economic recession. The annual growth rate is now 8% and Al Jazeera English points out the need for the new President to maintain this growth rate during her tenure. Her allies include Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president and Rafael Correa of Ecuador. All are Left leaning ideologues. They are naturally antipathetic to President Bush’s regime in the US. Cristina Fernandez on the other hand, unlike her friends and husband is softer on her stand regarding the US. So she comes as a relief to both the US and her allied. The US would be backing her for it needs at least one person to count on for its presence in Latin America. The allies there need her to pass on their demands to the US. Crisitina Fernandez is thus a stabilising factor in chaotic South America. She, along with other Latin American leaders has called for the release of Ingrid Betancourt, the Colombian presidential candidate who was kidnapped in 2002 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc). Betancourt is thought to be very ill and dying. Fidel Castro is seen as reluctant to free her. The machismo of the aged Castro is threatened by Ingrid Betancourt.

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Ashaiman women vow nude protest

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

Ashaiman women have vowed to march nude and sleep with the Deputy Prime Minster of Local Government & Rural Development, Maxwell Kofi Jumah. This is in protest of the Ashaiman-Adenta municipality’s decision to make Adenta the capital of Ashaiman. Yaa Asantewah, Queen Mother of Ejisu had once resisted white rule with her band of Ghanaian women. Now Madam K. K. Agogoe, Acting Queen Mother of the Ashaiman Market, has stated that since Ashaiman has been in existence for over 100 years, it is unfair to think of making Adenta the new capital. All Africa reports that at a recent hastily called meeting of Ashaiman elders the women unanimously demanded that the government decision be reversed. They pointed out that Ashaiman is logistically better suited for being the area’s capital. The meeting was attended by a veritable who’s who of the Ashaiman people. The importance of this protest is not in the meetings or even the location of the capital. Rather it is in the chutzpah of the women. One wishes that Bihar’s women would teach a similar lesson to the strongman Bahubali who has recently been accused of raping and murdering a woman. African women have been a neglected lot. The international community has well nigh forgotten them. Africa is in the news whenever there is civil war in any one of the continent’s nations. White supremacists immediately point out why they should have never left Africa in the first place. The African people are barbarians who need whites to keep them in check. Only a few days back, Watson of DNA structure fame has unabashedly declared that whites are intellectually superior to blacks for the genes have so decreed. It is in this context that we ought to analyze this women’s uprising. They can manage their own and rightfully claim what belongs to them. And such women’s solidarity is to be seen together with such African female peer-groups like Empowering Hands. The latter is an organization started by escapee warlord-abused children. Here we must also remember that in Manipur women stripped to protest the Indian Army’s atrocities. It is these courageous women throughout the world, marginalized and ignored who are fast becoming beacons to a lost world. At least some where, some people have not yet become spineless. White supremacists of this world better beware black girl-power. Why do women have to take these extreme measures to convince a hardened patriarchy? Are men losing the battle-of-the-sexes? Vengefully, only when women demean themselves, they will deign to hear. Sociologists need to study this issue in the above-mentioned global context.

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The age old tradition morphs into a “Human Zoo”

Posted on February 3, 2012 by admin

Have you ever witnessed a “human zoo”, a place where humans, more specifically women are exhibited in lieu of just £4? I know it sounds absurd but it ain’t. Women of the Kayan tribal community in Northern Thailand come under the paraphernalia of such an exhibition, why? well because of their “Long Necks” and hence they are also termed as “Giraffe Women”. The age old tradition – of winding coil around the neck of a girl till the adulthood is still carried out by the people which happen to become a tourist attraction – has actually sealed the fate of women which compels them not to think about education, housing, full citizenship and, above all, peace. Burmese migrants especially the Kayan ethnic group, who entered the neighboring province Thailand so as to escape from the 58-year-long civil war that tormented the lives of the natives, discovered no solace in the new region as well. No doubt the opportunities came to them but were nothing more than a mere mirage. For instance, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and foreign governments have put pressure on the Thai authorities to allow 20 Kayan to take up the opportunity of resettlement in New Zealand and Finland but the authorities did not pay any heed to the said verdict. Rather the Thailand Government is working very hard to keep these women a tourist attraction after all, at least one Thai village head collects tens of thousands of pounds a year from tourists visiting their village to see the spectacle of the “Long Necks”. Nearly ten thousand tourists visit the village per year to see as many as 50 long-neck women and girls who pose for photographs and sell postcards, bracelets and souvenirs. Out of this the women and their families are supplied rice, chilli and cooking oil. The refugees have no other option than to accept what is being offered to them since they are living without hope or any positive prospects coming from anywhere that could provide them with a helping hand. What is it behind winding coil around the neck? There are two beliefs supporting the said notion, first, it was carried because of its personification with the feminine beauty, later the coils also became symbols of wealth and status and were worn as jewels. Secondly it also hints at the society which is saturated with chauvinism where men put the rings on their women to deter slave traders. This reminds me of the age old custom of Foot Binding which was carried out in China, can’t say whether it still persists today or not but what ever the case the maybe one thing is sure, we have never witnessed any such weird tradition, like that of body modification being carried out by men … or is there any?

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Ethnic rivalry behind increase in Congo rape-cases

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

Despite many efforts of United Nations and human right organizations in Africa, plenty of cases related to forced sexual intercourse still hits headlines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It had proved to become the biggest epicenter of one of the world’s major humanitarian crises. In Congo, men of an ethnic group uses rape as weapon to take revenge from other rival group. It is the country where the national army is battling local and foreign militias in a struggle involving unresolved ethnic conflicts. Congo’s rich mineral resources could make the country rich and prosperous but unfortunately regional power dynamics and greed of leaders of different ethnic society have never let them put full stop on current bloodshed in Congo. It is brutal reality that rape has been used to terrorise and punish civilians. In Congo, many women are not able to access medical facilities within the 72 hours after being raped due to poor transportation facilities. So, many women are suffering from HIV and other sexual transmitted diseases. In most of the countries Rape is considered as crime against humanity, but in Congo the rapists are unpunished and roaming free to repeat their crime again and again. Here Congolese authorities need to strengthen the judicial and penal systems to punish rapists. The leader of the national and provincial governments, military commanders, the Catholic Church and other religious authorities should come forward to create small units which start sexual awareness training programme in remote places in Congo.

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Girls gone political…

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

The history of the world is filled with women success stories. Though they could not get equal opportunity in every walk of their lives, they made a distinct and special place in history of human race. Ingrid Mattson, a Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist and the current president of the Islamic Society of North America, said, Our history is not a history of the marginalization and exclusion of women. Our history is a history of the empowerment of women. We’re not trying to invent something new. We’re trying to pick up where we left off. Who can forget Sarah B. Knowles, the writer and animal rights activist; Jane Addams, a founder of the Settlement House Movement and first woman to receive noble prize; Clare Boothe Luce, a U.S. Congresswoman and ambassador to Italy? The women who have been considered as second citizen are writing success stories in their professional lives. Furthermore, women are lagging behind men in the fields that were earlier owned, ruled by them. Yes! In the present scenario, I am going to mention few names who are role models for all of us and who contributed a lot towards society. Women have come a lone way but we still have a very long way to go before we have an equal share of the real power in this world. According to news reports, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, popularly known as Latin Hillary Clinton and the wife of Argentina’s president, Nestor Kirchner, has become the first woman to be elected as president in Argentina’s history. In the starting of this year, Pratibha Patil wins the most prestigious position of becoming president of India despite many obligations and charges created by opposition parties here. In her victory speech, Patil said her election will be a boost to millions of Indian women. In the neighboring Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan like a fighter who is standing firmly against undemocratic ruling of Pakistan. Despite being attacked by Suicide bomber, she is ready with her campaign plans to establish democracy in Pakistan. In Africa, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a Harvard-educated economist and former World Bank official won presidential election, last year. In Philippines, President Gloria Arroyo has been re-elected for the post of President in 2004 again by the people who were very much satisfied with her initiative to eradicate poverty there. In the nut shell, many women work hard in the background to support male members of the family, and this makes them lose out on the most visible, and most profitable positions in their life’s career.

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Create Your Own Greeting Cards

Posted on February 2, 2012 by admin

A lot of greeting cards that are sold in stores these days have messages that seem to be a bit cheesy and none are really very personal either, when you give a person one of these cards it shows that you didn’t really make the effort to give them something that you personally made which is from the heart. So, instead of spending a lot of money on boring and cheesy store bought cards you should create your own, there are many sites that allow you to create your very own personalized greeting cards and you can design them whichever way you want and for whichever occasion you need whether it be a birthday, anniversary or birth it doesn’t matter. Creating your own unique greeting card designs for holidays shows your family and friends that you want to personally create something for them and they will feel loved and like the fact that you created something unique just for them. This gives you the freedom to include images that are as personal as the customized messages that you attach to your designs. You may perhaps decide that you would like to sell your cards or you may just need a lot of them and don’t have the time to print as many as you need – in this case there are many companies that offer online printing and you simply have to send your design to them and they will print it for you without any problem. Making use of these services is an effective and very inexpensive method by which you can make as many personally designed cards as you need to. The best thing about it is that, despite being cheap, it is fast and accurate, meaning that you are guaranteed to have high quality cards in as short a time as possible.

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Women trafficking: Nepal struggling to erase social evil

Posted on February 1, 2012 by admin

Trafficking of women and young girls is on the rise in the tiny Himalayan country of Nepal. It is of no surprise that women from the impoverished parts of the country make up the majority of the trafficked victims. Years of political uncertainty, civil war and the massive growth and influence of South Asian flesh trade mafia have contributed to the rise in trafficking. For regional governments, trafficking is a growing concern. In Nepal, women and child trafficking is a profitable business for the traffickers. The victims are forced into the sex industry, illegal adoptions, factory labor, organ transplantations, etc. According to many unofficial estimates, around 15,000 Nepali women are trafficked each year, although some suggest that this figure has increased two-fold due to the current political and social unrest across the country. Poverty and lack of education make the Nepali women, particularly in the rural areas, vulnerable to the problem. Due to the lucrative nature of the prostitution business in the urban areas, socially and economically deprived women find no other options but to take it as a profession. The Maoist insurgency has played an important role in increasing the trend of trafficking. Many women were left homeless by the bloody conflict making them vulnerable to trafficking middlemen. Sexual abuses against women and girls were common during the insurgency and social restrictions in the Nepali society have made the victims easy targets for traffickers. The porous border between Nepal and India has assisted in the alarmingly high rate of trafficking. Less than satisfying border checks, incompetence in handling trafficking suspects, and bribing have made India the hub for trafficking of Nepali girls and women. Most of the trafficked women are brought to Kolkata from where they are sold to Mumbai and Delhi. Trafficking certainly is not helping Nepal and other South Asian states in tackling the HIV/AIDS virus. A BBC study has revealed that about 40% of the Nepali women trafficked to India have returned to their homes with HIV positive. If trafficking is not controlled, it would be very difficult for an impoverished country like Nepal to handle a HIV epidemic. Nevertheless, the situation is not totally out of control. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) has taken some useful steps in combating the evil of trafficking. Various NGOs and governmental organizations are working tirelessly to raise awareness among the rural poor. Organizations such as Maiti Nepal, ABC/Nepal, SAATHI, etc, are actively working in preventing violence and exploitation against women and children. With some sort of political stability around the corner for Nepal, one can hope for the best but having said that, this is by no means an easy task which would require the active participation of all sections of the society. Link: Kantipuronline

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