Susan notes: this morning I bought my second favourite print publication in the world (my first is Ode Magazine). I've been reading the Globe and Mail, one of Canada's two national newspapers for years, and it's a close second to Ode, which is my all-time fave.
Today, "The Globe" featured a full-page photograph of an Afghan woman on the front page. This week it's running a multimedia series on women in Afganistan. The series started today and it's going to be absolutely amazing!!! AWR highly recommends that you check it out... here's the intro:
The first in the series of articles (entitled Beyond the Veil), videos, and podcasts contained quotes such as this:
“I never expected security to deteriorate to the point where … in 2009,
I think it’s probably the same level or very close to the level … as
during the Taliban for women,” said Rangina Hamidi, a prominent women’s
activist who was born in Afghanistan but raised in Pakistan and the
United States.
“Every time I leave my home to go buy food, I ask God, ‘Will I come
back home or not?’” said Shukria, a struggling, 32-year-old mother of
six who lives apart from her husband, an Afghan National Police
officer.
“To be honest, right now, even though I’m a very hard-core feminist …
right now for Kandahar, women’s rights … is my last priority. Right now
my Number 1 priority is security – safety and security,” she said.
“If I can’t live to do the work that I’m doing, and if I have to live
every second of my life in fear, knowing that I could be killed the
next second, how can I possibly think of my rights? How can I possibly
think of anybody’s rights?”
Susan notes: September 8 new update: Al Arabiya says journalist union pays USD 209 fine on Hussein's behalf and she is freed (via Ghassan Jaber).
Susan notes: September 8 reports say Hussein has been fined, but she refuses to pay. See links below.
Sudanese journalist Lubna Hussein is about to be tried for the crime of wearing trousers in public (Reuters pic right). She faces a possible 40 lashes and an unlimited fine.
In a Guardian UK article, she says:
In fact the director of police has admitted that 43,000 women were
arrested in Khartoum state in 2008 for clothing offences.
When asked,he couldn't say how many of these women had been flogged.
And it's not just about clothing.
After my arrest, two girls were arrested in a public place and the police discovered that their mobile phones had video clips of scenes from the hugely popular Arab soap Noor and Mohammad in which the main characters kiss each other. The girls were charged with pornography and given 40 lashes.
A September 7 article in The Malaysian Insider reports:
“This is not about pants”, Lubna Hussein insists. “It is about principles”.
“A woman should be able to wear what she wants and not be
publicly whipped for it”, says Mrs. Hussein, a defiant Sudanese
journalist, and today her belief will be put to the test.
Mrs. Hussein has been charged in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, with
indecent dress, a crime that carries a US$100 (RM350) fine and 40
lashings. She was arrested in July, along with 12 other women, who were
caught at a cafe wearing trousers.
Hundreds of Sudanese women — many wearing pants — swarmed in front
of the court where the trial was supposed to take place, protesting
that the law was unfair. Twice now, the trial has been postponed. Some
of the other women arrested with Mrs. Hussein have pleaded guilty and
were lashed as a result. Past floggings have been carried out with
plastic whips that leave permanent scars.
“The flogging, yes, it causes pain,” Mrs. Hussein said. “But
more important, it is an insult. This is why I want to change the law.”
A battered housewife, a Muslim widow and an illiterate mother of
four are among a group of Indian women looking to carve out a living by
breaking into the male preserve of New Delhi taxi drivers.
Hailing
from some of the poorest quarters of the Indian capital, they are part
of plans to launch the city's first radio taxi-service run by women, in
time for the October 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The project is the
brainchild of Meenu Vadera of the Azad Foundation, a voluntary group
that works with disadvantaged women whose employment prospects - if
they exist at all - are usually limited to the world of domestic help.
"We
have trained one batch of nine women and the training of another batch
of 11 is underway," said Vadera, who aims to have five taxis on the
road by February and a fleet of 20 by the time the Games begin.
When Lulwah Abdul Rahman protested against her father’s rejection of
all would-be husbands because they were from outside her tribe, her
life and career were shattered.
Her father locked her in the
family home, revoked her right to work at a bank and beat her. When she
filed a case to lift her father’s guardianship, he consigned her to a
mental institution to “discipline” her, she says.
“The laws and the society confer absolute power on the father and
brother, regardless of how cruel or incompetent they are,’’ says Ms
Abdul Rahman, 28, who has fled her home and currently lives in a
shelter for abused women. “No laws are codified, so your destiny
depends on the judge’s mood and background. He could send me home, even
knowing that I might be killed.’’