We the Women

Iran created a new propaganda in retaliation to Blair’s demand of ‘unconditional release’ of the 25 year old mother with her 14 comrades.

Part of the propaganda was a hand written note which the Iranian diplomats claimed to be written by the abducted sailor calling for British troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.

Addressed to ‘representative of the House of Commons’, the one-page letter reads, ‘Isn’t it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future.’ It is signed ‘Faye Turney’ and dated March 27, three days ago.

It concedes the key issue in the present crisis, which she and her fellow hostages were in Iranian waters when they were seized, which Britain strongly denies - and stresses her captors ‘have looked after me well.’

The authorities are of the view that the write up has been written under pressure. Downing Street said,

It is cruel and callous to do this to someone in this position. To play games like this is a disgrace.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said,

We have not seen the letter but we have grave concerns about the circumstances in which it was prepared and issued. This blatant attempt to use Leading Seaman Turney for propaganda purposes is outrageous and cruel.

Tehran had said she would be freed after ‘confessing’ that her Navy boarding party had ‘trespassed’ in Iranian waters but it back-tracked on the pledge.

Hardline Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani accused the British Government of ‘arrogance’ and warned it to end its ‘fuss’ and ‘media campaign’.

Mr Blair vowed to ’step up the pressure’ on the Iranian regime and condemned the video footage of Mrs Turney as sheer ‘disgrace’.

Iranian TV broadcast what it claimed was evidence that the Navy boats had repeatedly violated its territorial waters - despite data which Britain insists shows the incident occurred 1.7 miles inside Iraqi nautical waters.

In the footage, lasting just five seconds, gunshots are heard and a helicopter hovers above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Iranian boats are shown cruising around with a couple of revolutionary guards shooting into the air.

The scene of Mrs Turney being compelled to read out a statement on Iranian TV approving her captors has also focused attention on the way today’s servicemen and women are ordered to conduct themselves if detained.

Conventionally they have been told to refuse to give anything other than name, rank and number. But now they are trained to cooperate with their captors if they believe their lives are at risk.

Iran’s decision to suspend the release of Mrs Turney distressed her family and those of the 14 other political pawns. It also reopened the debate as to whether women members of the Armed Forces should be put in the front line of battle.

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Kamilat Mehdi, a twenty one year old girl has been stalked by a person in Eithiopia. While she was on her way back home, the person came from the shadows and threw sulphuric acid on her face. Not only the acid distorted her face but it also disfigured the faces of her siblings as well who were walking next to her.

Dr Elaine Rocha, a professor at Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Gender Studies, said

It is only the most extreme cases like this that ever come out into the open. A woman is taught to tolerate abuse from a very, very early age. We could be talking about beating, abduction, harmful traditional practices like genital mutilation. The only time she might talk about it is when her life is at risk.

Why it happens?

The victims are attacked for many reasons. In some cases, the attack takes place because a young girl or woman has spurned the sexual advances of a male or has rejected a proposal of marriage.

Recently, however, there have been acid attacks on children, older women and sometimes also men. These attacks are often the result of family or land disputes, dowry demands or a desire for revenge.

Is it a Rising trend?

According to the British charity Women at Risk acid attacks against women have been accounted in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, India, three cities in Britain and Uganda.

Although laws have been initiated in safeguarding women but there is still a problem with enforcing these new laws.

Emotional trauma

The offenders succeed in putting an end to the normal life of women. It is an extreme form of revenge on women. The families hesitate to go ahead with legal battles to punish the offenders who come out on bail easily due to imperfections in the prosecution statements. Once they come out, they threaten the victim’s family with further damage. Hence, the conviction rate for this crime is very low.

Sometimes I think the perpetrators in question should be given acid showers to understand what they put the women through.

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Eight women who were working as counselors or officers sued the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino, claiming they were subjected to rampant sexual harassment by male inmates and that state officials neglected to take any action after the incidents were reported.

Victims asserted that they worked in a sexually hostile environment at the facility, which houses about 800 men between the ages of 18 and 25. On repeated occasions, the men were exposing their genitals, performing acts on themselves, throwing urine on plaintiffs, and grabbing female employees by their buttocks or chests.
Unfortunately, even after filing the report, their superiors did nothing to stop the behavior.

Gloria Allred, a lawyer for the women said,

in many incidents where criminal sexual acts were inflicted on the female employees and reports were made by the victims, the cases were not referred to the district attorney for prosecution.

Bill Sessa, the Department of Corrections spokesperson, did not say anything about the lawsuit but stated that the agency is in the process of strengthening its disciplinary process.

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Posing serenely with her baby daughter in her arms and smiling proudly in her uniform, this is the indomitable Faye Turney.

The 25-year-old is a sea survival specialist who always dreamed of serving in the Armed Forces.

Speaking about her daughter, she told The Independent,

I know by doing this job I can give her everything she wants in life and hopefully seeing me doing what I do, she’ll grow up knowing a woman can have a family and have a career at the same time.

Unfortunately, Faye Turney, the mother being held in Tehran by Iran as one of 15 captives seized last Friday.

she had earlier became the first of the 15 British service personnel held captive in Iran to be named, after her family was said to be experiencing a ‘very distressing time’.

As the diplomatic stand-off grew increasingly tense yesterday, her husband Adam and three-year-old daughter Molly waited anxiously for news of her release at the family home in Plymouth.

Tony Blair, in the meantime, issued a stark warning to the Iranian government over the crisis.

She further said she will support her daughter if she too would be interested in the same profession.

The only other captive who has been named is 21-year-old Marine Paul Barton, from Southport, Merseyside.

His policeman father Mark and mother Melanie were reluctant to discuss the increasingly tense situation yesterday. But a neighbor said, ‘his family are very, very proud that Paul is serving in the military. But I don’t know how his mother is coping. She must be out of her mind with worry.’

However, friends said Mrs Turney’s devotion to her family and strength of character will carry her through the ordeal.

The youngest of five children, she married her petty officer husband at a village church in Oxon, Shropshire.

One neighbor said, Faye is a strong woman. She will be thinking of Adam and Molly and that will give her even more strength and determination.

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I firmly believe that one has to abide with the rules and regulations of the country where one is residing, irrespective of the person’s citizenship. For instance, Muslim people living, lets say in the US or UK must adhere to the nation’s norms. I do not stress to the point that they must completely shun away from their religion however, they must give priority to rules and regulations. After all, the rules are meant for safeguarding public interest.

Recently, I stumbled across this article which states that polygamy is a clandestine practice involving thousands of New Yorkers especially immigrants.

Although, Mormons too practice it but it’s not under the legal sanction in the country.

Seeking no way out, these immigrants especially women, goes into submission and accept their so called fate.

No one knows how prevalent polygamy is in New York. Those who practice it have reason to keep it secret because it may become a cause for expulsion from the united Sates under the law of immigration. Also, under state law, bigamy can be punished by up to four years in prison. And who is ready for such penalties?

No agency ever come forward to gather information on polygamous unions, which typically crystallize over time and under the radar, often with religious ceremonies overseas and a visitor’s visa for the wife, arranged by other relatives. Some men have one wife in the United States and others abroad.

Followers of polygamy, give their religious beliefs reason for practicing such a tradition.

There are women of same origin who strongly oppose the ‘traditional belief’ and personify it as a way out to female subjugation. Definitely, that is the reason. Men have always tried to let down women, they have dominated them since ages, consequent upon which, women have been, conditioned to become so.

And when a woman tries to live according to her will, then the same society criticizes her or when she asserts her will for not complying with these traditional patters of living with other women under same ceiling, well, again she is condemned for being assertive.

Yet, there are women who are coming out and asserting their will in living a life of their own, one without restrictions. They are also encouraging other women with the same fate and aiming to liberate them from the religious dogmas.

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A sentence passed by a woman judge in Germany has ignited widespread agitation among masses. The concerned judge gave a verdict that refused a Moroccan born woman to file a divorce case against her husband and basis of her decision was Koran, which has given full sanctions to beat ones wife.

A daily newspaper the Tageszeitung reported,

This Moroccan woman has the same right to protection from a violent husband as any German woman. Anything else would be misconceived sensitivity to the benefit of the husband and would amount to racist discrimination against the wife.

The pronouncement has also been criticized by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany.

This is really absurd. Since, the woman is living in Germany so norms of the nation must be applied in the case.

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A ghastly incident of stoning two women to death has come to the fore and this time the incident has occurred in Sudan, recently a similar case has reported to hit from Pakistan.

The women met such a gruesome fate because they were charged with adultery and they couldn’t proclaim for a lawyer and hence, were not in a position to defend themselves. The region implements Islamic sharia law.

One of the victims has a child in her possession in the prison itself. Faysal el-Bagir, a Sudanese human rights activist, said sentences of death by stoning were rare,

but we have heard that in this area there have been other such judgments.

The man who was also involved in the case was set free because of the lack of evidence against him. That is obnoxious!

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Legislature in Spain has put forward a proposal, which targets equality for women in the nation.

The bill has raised a platform for the women folk for getting into elected office and corporate sector.

The highlight of the bill granted 15 days of paternity leave to new fathers and in 2013, the 15 days’ leave would expand to a month.

Other measure given to women is that they must contribute at least 40% of the lists of candidates that parties field in elections. It would be implemented for the first time in May when the country will hold regional and municipal balloting.

Further, the new program aims to promote the hiring of women in both the private sector and for government jobs. If we look at the unemployment ratio, we find, women are 14.4% without job than 7.5% in comparison with men.

Well, the step seems to be moving in the right direction but how far the government is able to take it, time will only tell.

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A controversial Government report regarding the death of six women at Styal Prison in Cheshire between 2002 and 2003 in northern England, has hinted the need of new approach to women in the criminal justice system.

It has come up with an idea of abolishing women’s prisons and replacing it with some kind of centers that would be instrumental in dealing with their problems of mental illness, addiction and history of abuse effectively. Also such centers must be at a reachable distance from their homes so that their families do not suffer which is an obvious fact.

Although the current home secretary, John Reid, has talked of the need to remove vulnerable women from prisons, the report was given a low-key welcome by the Home Office, which said only that it would be carefully studied.

Jean Ann Corston, Labour politician claimed,

I am dismayed to see so many women frequently sentenced for short periods of time for very minor offences, causing chaos and disruption to their lives and families, without any realistic chance of addressing the causes of their criminality.

The population of females in prison is mounting since the last decade. Statistics show that more than 4,000 women were behind bars in 16 prisons in England and Wales.

However, if we look at the ratio, we’ll find that women constitute only 5.4% of the prison population and are detained for petty theft unlike men.

For the children whose mothers were in jail, it’s quite a traumatic experience for them. Even an average sentence of 42 days is enough for them to lose contact with family and children.

The report also revealed that more women than men kill themselves in prison and five times more harm themselves.

Now, the debatable question is, should women be sent to prison?

Some have asserted the statement stating that, offenders, irrespective of its gender, must be put behind the bars so that it may send a powerful deterrent message to society.

While there are others who have a soft corner towards the mothers and they are of the view that it might hinder their responsibilities towards their kids. And patients with addiction problem must be kept in some kind of centers as their presence might agitate the other inmates.

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A giant step towards equality for women was taken at the United Nations when a High-Level Panel on UN reform recommended to the Secretary-General the creation of the world body’s first full-fledged agency for women.

United Nations Secretary General, Kim Ban Ki-moon has expressed public support for the creation of a new U.N. agency for women.

A 15-member ‘High-Level Panel on U.N. System-Wide Coherence’, comprising heads of government, former world political leaders and senior government and U.N. officials made the proposal for a new U.N. women’s agency last November.

On International Women’s Day, which was observed on eight of this month, the secretary-general said such a new body should be able to call on all of the U.N. system’s resources in the work to empower women and realize gender equality worldwide.

Now the question, which emerges out is, from where the UN will get the funding to expand the mandate of the proposed organization.

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