Womens' Rights ??

[Jolie Rouge]

Stone-throwing Afghan crowd swarms women's protest
Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 22 mins ago[/i]

KABUL – Hundreds of Afghans swarmed a demonstration of more than 100 women protesting Wednesday against a new marriage law they say restricts wives' rights. The women were pelted with small stones as police struggled to keep the two groups apart.

The law, passed last month, says a husband can demand sex with his wife every four days unless she is ill or would be harmed by intercourse — a clause that critics say legalizes marital rape. It also regulates when and for what reasons a wife may leave her home alone.

Women's rights activists scheduled a protest Wednesday attended by mostly young women. But the group was swamped by counter-protesters — both men and women — who shouted down the women's chants.

Some picked up gravel and stones and threw them at the women, while others shouted "Death to the slaves of the Christians!" Female police held hands around the group to create a protective barrier.

The government of President Hamid Karzai has said the Shiite family law is being reviewed by the Justice Department and will not be implemented in its current form. Governments and rights groups around the world have condemned the legislation, and President Barack Obama has labeled it "abhorrent."

Though the law would apply only to the country's Shiites — 10 to 20 percent of Afghanistan's 30 million people — it has sparked an uproar by activists who say it marks a return to Taliban-style oppression. The Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, required women to wear all-covering burqas and banned them from leaving home without a male relative.

Shiite backers of the law say that foreigners are meddling in private Afghan affairs, and Wednesday's demonstrations brought some of the emotions surrounding the debate over the law to the surface.

"You are a dog! You are not a Shiite woman!" one man shouted to a young woman in a headscarf holding aloft a banner that said, "We don't want Taliban law." The woman did not shout back at the man, but told him: "This is my land and my people."

Women protesting the law said many of their supporters had been blocked by men who refused to let them join the protest. Those who did make it shouted repeatedly that they were defending human rights by defending women's rights and that the law does not reflect the views of the Shiite community.

Fourteen-year-old Masuma Hasani said her whole family had come out to protest the law — both her parents and her younger sister who she held by the arm.

"I am concerned about my future with this law," she said. "We want our rights. We don't want women to just be used."

As the back-and-forth continued, another demonstration of Shiite women who said they support the law began.

"We don't want foreigners interfering in our lives. They are the enemy of Afghanistan," said 24-year-old Mariam Sajadi.

Sajadi is engaged, and said she plans to ask her husband's permission to leave the house as put forth in the law. She said other controversial articles — such as one giving the husband the right to demand sex from his wife every fourth day — have been misinterpreted by Westerners who are anti-Islam.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090415/...as_afghanistan

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[gmyers]

Good fo them I hope they continue to protest till they get their rights.

[Jolie Rouge]

Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saudi women deserve to be slapped for over-spending

All that drab black fabric may look the same to us Americans, but apparently there are degrees of price and quality, and a woman can pay a nasty premium if she overspends her husband's money.

Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/...ing/index.html

Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.

Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."

Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported.

Not that shocking, though, considering that another Saudi judge recently refused, twice, to allow an 8 year-old girl to divorce her 50-ish "husband." The "marriage" has since been dissolved.


The judge in the slapping case contended that women ask for it when they talk back to their husbands:

Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that "nobody puts even a fraction of blame" on women, the newspaper said.

Al-Razine "also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country," it added.

One can only imagine the unremitting misery of this life.

http://www.punditandpundette.com/200...apped-for.html


Where is Jane Fonda and Gloria Steimen and Oprah ??

[krisharry]

Sunday, May 10, 2009
Saudi women deserve to be slapped for over-spending

All that drab black fabric may look the same to us Americans, but apparently there are degrees of price and quality, and a woman can pay a nasty premium if she overspends her husband's money.



Not that shocking, though, considering that another Saudi judge recently refused, twice, to allow an 8 year-old girl to divorce her 50-ish "husband." The "marriage" has since been dissolved.


The judge in the slapping case contended that women ask for it when they talk back to their husbands:



One can only imagine the unremitting misery of this life.

http://www.punditandpundette.com/200...apped-for.html


Where is Jane Fonda and Gloria Steimen and Oprah ??

Oprah only cares if it is in Africa. How horrible to be a women in the middle East.

[freeby4me]

Its good that the women over there are the ones fighting this.

[pepperpot]

When the men throw pebbles at the women, the women should ban together and throw boulders back.......either that or a carefully aimed pea shooter.....

[anothersta]

When the men throw pebbles at the women, the women should ban together and throw boulders back.......either that or a carefully aimed pea shooter.....

These women protesting are risking their lives to do it and are heros IMO. I know you were kiddin

I wonder if the demand sex thing counts for 8 year old wives?

This really brings back memories of an Egyptian friend I had in my 20's. She would visit this country alot 'cause she loved it so much. I taught her how to bargain hunt with sales and return things she'd bought by mistake. She was astounded that at how our free market worked and loved it.

Another thing that just AMAZED her was how I spoke to other men. That I would actually have the COURAGE to tell a man to be quiet, I'd heard enough. After a few weeks, I americanized her into it, too

Long story short, we really liked each other. I'd even offered to sponsor her if she wanted to move here and gain citizenship. We wrote weekly letters for 2 years, then all of the sudden,.... nothing from her. Really weird.

Didn't know back then, but last we talked, she didn't want to marry the guy her parents had chosen for her.

I think I now know why she suddenly stopped writing

[SurferGirl]

How sad, is there anyway you can find out if she is alright?

[Jolie Rouge]

UN-believable: Because When You Think ‘Women’s Rights’ You Think ‘Iran’
By Doug Powers • April 30, 2010 12:11 PM

From the “It’s a little like hiring John Edwards to be your marriage counselor but way worse” file, we find yet another pathetic reason the US should have nothing to do with the United Nations:

NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged “immodest.”

Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” according to its website.

They left out that women’s cleavage causes earthquakes, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...es-iran-cleric and women are arrested and who knows what else for the crime of being suntanned. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ress-code.html

Iranian activists circulated and submitted a petition asking that member states oppose Iran’s appointment http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/...ocial-council/ but that piece of paper was apparently tossed on the UN’s pile of unpaid parking tickets and quickly forgotten. http://www.innercitypress.com/nycun1deadbeat011210.html

[Jolie Rouge]

Women to blame for earthquakes, says Iran cleric
Women behaving promiscuously are causing the earth to shake, according to cleric, as Ahmadinejad predicts Tehran quake
Monday 19 April 2010 16.00 BST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...es-iran-cleric


A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

An Iranian woman waits for the bus under a poster of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images Iran is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric's unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. "What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?" Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. "There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes." Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830.

In 2003, a powerful earthquake hit the southern city of Bam, killing 31,000 people – about a quarter of that city's population – and destroying its ancient mud-built citadel.

"A divine authority told me to tell the people to make a general repentance. Why? Because calamities threaten us," said Sedighi, Tehran's acting Friday prayer leader. Referring to the violence that followed last June's disputed presidential election, he said: "The political earthquake that occurred was a reaction to some of the actions [that took place]. And now, if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power ... So let's not disappoint God."

The Iranian government and its security forces have been locked in a bloody battle with a large opposition movement that accuses Ahmadinejad of winning last year's vote by fraud.

Ahmadinejad made his quake prediction two weeks ago but said he could not give an exact date. He acknowledged that he could not order all of Tehran's 12m people to evacuate. "But provisions have to be made ... at least 5 million should leave Tehran so it is less crowded," the president said.

The welfare minister, Sadeq Mahsooli, said prayers and pleas for forgiveness were the best "formulae to repel earthquakes. We cannot invent a system that prevents earthquakes, but God has created this system and that is to avoid sins, to pray, to seek forgiveness, pay alms and self-sacrifice," Mahsooli said.

[Jolie Rouge]

Suntanned women to be arrested under Islamic dress code
Iran has warned suntanned women and girls who looked like "walking mannequins" will be arrested as part of a new drive to enforce the Islamic dress code.
by Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat
Published: 11:09PM BST 27 Apr 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ress-code.html

Brig Hossien Sajedinia, Tehran's police chief, said a national crackdown on opposition sympathisers would be extended to women who have been deemed to be violating the spirit of Islamic laws. He said: "The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehaviour by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values. In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins. We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them."

Iran's Islamic leadership has in recent weeks launched a scaremongering campaign to persuade the population that vice is sweeping the streets of the capital. National law stipulates that women wear headscarves and shape shrouding cloaks but many women, particularly in the capital, spend heavily on fashions that barely adhere to the regulations.

The announcement came shortly after Ayatollah Kazim Sadighi, a leading cleric, warned that women who dressed immodestly disturbed young men and the consequent agitation caused earthquakes.

Another preacher warned Tehran's citizens to flee before the inevitable punishment for flagrant behaviour was visited on the city. "Go on the streets and repent for your sins," Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaqt, one of the country's highest clerics, told worshippers during a recent sermon in northern Tehran. "A holy torment is upon us. Leave town."