This news has made headlines on various newspapers.

Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, told a stunned [Pakistani] parliament that northwestern tribesman had done nothing wrong in first shooting the women and then dumping them in a ditch.

“These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them,” he said.

“Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid.”

The women, three of whom were teenagers and whose “crime” was that they wished to choose who to marry, were still breathing as mud and stones were shovelled over their bodies, according to Human Rights Watch.

The three girls, thought to be aged between 16 and 18, were kidnapped by a group of men from their Umrani tribe and murdered in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district.

According to some reports, Baluchistan government vehicles were used to abduct the girls, and the killing was overseen by a tribal chief who is the brother of a provincial minister from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party.

Some accounts said that two older relatives had tried to intervene, but they too were shot and buried alive with the teenagers.

Loving someone and choosing own partner to marry is immoral whilst killing is not???? Here is the picture of the man who defends killing but mocks a young person’s desire to love …

It was a woman senator Bibi Yasmin Shah who raised this issue in the Pakistani Senate.

How did the Senate react?

With silence. Only three other senators supported Bibi Yasmin Shah, the rest kept quiet.

…

A woman in India has been killed who refused requests from her husband and his family to undergo a sex-selection abortion on her unborn baby girl. Neelam Kumar, who lives in Samaspur village in northern India, was allegedly strangled to death by her in-laws.

The victim’s brother, Sushil Kumar, filed a complaint with police and alleged that his sister was killed yesterday after refusing the abortion.

According to a UPI report, Kumar said Neelam’s body was cremated and that her husband family informed no one of her death and cremation. Police are apparently searching for Neelam’s in-laws, who are reportedly on the lam.

This is sadly the reality for women not just in India but in any country that practices son-preference. Women are emotionally and physically abused if they refuse to abort. I’ve seen a couple of cases myself. A lady was forced to drink acid. Another was threatened divorce. The one who was forced to drink acid still lives with burnt oesophagus and had to agree to abort at the end anyway. Same for the other. She lives with the regret of losing her child but she had to save her marriage for ‘societal’ sake. Both of them are from well-to-do upper class families.

Do you still think that the same arguments that apply for abortions (used by people who call themselves pro-lifers) can be used for female foeticide? Who is more important? A mother’s life or fetus?

Hi all,

Read this wonderful article by Hetal Vyas in Mumbai Mirror where the High Court went out of their way to help a young girl who refused to fill in the `Father’s Name’ category for her passport.

Her situation is heartrending, but indeed, not uncommon. My maid was telling me her story only yesterday. She had left her abusive and dowry-demanding husband. He didn’t help at all with her three children, either financially or otherwise. She brought them up all on her own (can’t stop admiring her nerves of steel). Finally, she was enraged when her child’s school refused admission unless she brought a letter from her husband, and his birth certificate. “I don’t know where that drunkard is. He hasn’t met us in 5 years. From where will I get his birth certificate?”she pleaded. But the authorities refused to budge. Finally, she had to spend a month’s salary on getting some false documents made. She was mad with anger. “I’ve kept my children in my stomach for 9 months. I have endured the labour pains. I have worked hard to pay for the clothes they wear; the food they eat. I have fed them and washed them. Yet, all they want is the father’s name, who doesn’t even care about them.” This incident has scarred her for life. But I was glad to see that anger in her. It is needed. It’s worrying when people stop getting bothered and just accept things.

Read the fabulous story below. Please write to the editors on mirrirfeedback@indiatimes.com. Also Mumbai Mirror is holding a poll on the same issue. The poll is “SHould Father’s Name be mandatory in documents”. For SMS – Type MTPOLL, leave a space, and send your opinion to 58888. OR email mumbaitalking@indiatimes.com and leave your opinion. You can also call 22735700 and leave your opinion. The results will be out. tomorrow, so bombard them with a `No’ people!

(From Wikipedia)

Female genital cutting (FGC), also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision or female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), refers to “all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons.”[1] The term is almost exclusively used to describe traditional, cultural, and religious procedures where parents must give consent, due to the minor age of the subject, rather than to procedures generally done with self-consent (such as labiaplasty and vaginoplasty).[2][3][4] It also generally does not refer to procedures used in gender reassignment surgery, and the genital modification of intersexuals.[5][6][7]

FGC is practiced throughout the world, with the practice concentrated most heavily in Africa. Its practice is extremely controversial. Opposition is motivated by concerns regarding the consent (or lack thereof, in most cases) of the patient, and subsequently the safety and long-term consequences of the procedures. In the past several decades, there have been many concentrated efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) to end the practice of FGC. The WHO separates FGC procedures into four categories (see World Health Organization categorization below).

Reeti writes:

I first read about Female circumcision when I read an article in Reader’s Digest about supermodel Waris Dirie a few years ago. And now check this out:

Ex-Model Waris Dirie Found in BrusselsSource: AP
Posted: 03/07/08 10:44AM
Filed Under: Celebrity
By PAUL AMES

GettyBRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — Police on Friday found Waris Dirie, three days after the Somali-born model who launched a worldwide campaign against female genital mutilation had vanished.

Dirie, 43, appeared to be in good health and was being questioned by police about the disappearance, said Estelle Arpigny, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office.

She declined to give further details, saying it was unclear what had happened since Dirie vanished early Wednesday. Belgian media reports said police found her Friday afternoon walking the Brussels’ Grand Place square.

Hours earlier, police had announced they were launching a nationwide search for the former model, who had last been seen getting into a cab after a mix-up over a hotel.

Dirie gained international fame as a model posing in Chanel ads and acting in the 1987 James Bond movie “The Living Daylights” before launching her campaign against female genital mutilation in 1996.

She shocked the world with a best-selling book “Desert Flower” that described how her genitals were sliced off with a dirty razor blade without anesthesia, and then stitched together.

Now a U.N. goodwill ambassador, she was due to speak on genital mutilation in Brussels at two conferences on women’s rights organized by the European Union, including one on Thursday attended by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

News of Dirie’s disappearance came a week after French police said they had found the body of another former model of African origin who had campaigned against female genital mutilation. Guinean-born Katoucha Niane was discovered floating in the River Seine in Paris.

The French police said an autopsy showed no signs of foul play, raising the possibility that she may have fallen accidentally into the river. However, Katoucha’s family members say they suspect homicide.

Dirie’s manager, Walter Lutschinger, said she had been involved in an altercation in a hotel reception area after a taxi driver took her to the wrong branch of the Sofitel hotel chain. The police were called and drove Dirie around Brussels looking for the correct hotel because she had apparently forgotten where she was staying.

At one hotel, while staff and police were checking for her name on a computer, Meilleur said Dirie stepped out saying she planned to buy cigarettes from an all-night kiosk, but instead climbed into a taxi and drove away.

An Austrian citizen, Dirie was attacked in her Vienna apartment in 2004 by a Portuguese handyman who had stalked her. The man was given a five-month suspended sentence by an Austrian court.

Associated Press writers Constant Brand and Aoife White in Brussels and George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.

———————————————————————————————–

Story of the book ‘Desert Dawn’:

Fashion model, UN ambassador and courageous spirit, Waris Dirie is a remarkable woman, born into a traditional family of tribal desert nomads in Somalia. She told her story – enduring, at five years old, the ancient and savage custom of female circumcision; running away at twelve on foot through the desert in order to escape an arranged marriage; being discovered by Terence Donovan as she worked as a cleaner in London; and becoming a top fashion model – in her book, the worldwide bestseller, Desert Flower.

Although Waris Dirie fled her homeland, she never forgot the country and culture that moulded her. The very world that nearly destroyed her also gave her the tools to survive. She traces the roots of her courage, resilience and humour back to her motherland, and most particularly to her mother.

Desert Dawn is the story of that return. Desert Dawn is about coming home.

Johannesburg: Indian women in their traditional saris with midriffs showing may find themselves falling foul of Nigerian law if a bill currently under discussion in that country is passed.

Tourists in towelling wraps and Nigerian women in traditional dress with their stomachs exposed could also find themselves behind bars for three months or subjected to fines of $100, according to the Media24 News Service here.

While women’s rights groups have come out strongly against the proposed law, Muslim leaders are supporting the bill, proposed by Senator Eme Ufot Ekaette, who felt that nudity was driving men to engage in corruption and steal from the state in Nigeria.

“Nudity leads to corruption,” Ishaq Akintola of the Muslim Rights Watch, a strong supporter of Akaette’s proposal, told Media 24.

“Nigerians are fighting corruption, through which many of our leaders, mostly men, have stolen fortunes for their personal use. They build colossal homes in London, Rome and New York because they have to spend money on women and have to hide them in these big homes.”

Akintola said scantily dressed women were luring men. “They are being misled every time by a naked woman.”

Women’s rights groups have called the proposed law “laughable”, but are concerned that the House of Representatives in the capital Abuja may push it through, since the assembly has already considered it twice.

Onyinyechi Okechukwu of Alliances for Africa, a women’s rights group, said the law would result in girls as young as 14 sitting behind bars in a country where police are reported to maltreat women regularly. The law would also be open to abuse because the police would have the discretion to seek out offenders on the streets, with the test being whether a woman’s body was exposed lower than two inches above the neck or more than two inches above the knee.

“The police will have to carry tape measures around. How will a policeman know that my dress is two inches below my neck if he doesn’t touch me? I’ll slap him!” Okechukwu said, adding that it was unfair that men may freely walk around topless, while “it is certainly a turn-on for some women”.

The Nigerian Feminist Forum said in a statement that more pressing issues in the country, such as female circumcision, the high infant mortality rate and rape of babies should get priority from the authorities.

Yep, the flawless logic that Mr. Akintola speaks with is nothing short of intellectually stimulating. Ooh my grades are bad. Must be because my teacher’s a woman. Ooh I took bribe and compromised my responsibility as a police officer. Must be because of that woman who cleaned my office this morning. Ooh I am an evil dictator. Must be because there are women in my country. :/

Hi

Here’s a quick byte about the campaign:

The Bell Bajao Campaign against Domestic Violence is an all encompassing community intervention that uses media, education and pop culture to further its message. The campaign has been created pro bono by Ogilvy & Mather. It seeks to engage men as direct partners ready to ‘ring the bell’, and intervene in situations of abuse – a new venture within the Indian context.

Two TVCs will be screened across all major channels (pro bono support by Zee TV, Star TV, Sony, ETV, B4U, MTV, NDTV Imagine, CNN-IBN) by August 20th. Print ads in various magazines and newspapers and radio spots on radio channels will be released. The campaign’s online avatar is www.bellbajao.org. The site will serve various functions; from educating and informing browsers, to providing an interactive space where visitors can voice their opinions through a variety of media (audio, video, print, photography, blogging) about ever-changing gender issues.

The website has many components that will be used to initiate a discussion and egg people to act against Domestic Violence. These include: Our Campaigns section (which will have all our print, radio and tv ads), a public blog (that will have targeted content to initiate discussions); a wiki resource page amongst many other interesting and interactive elements like games (Zapak), Contests (C2W) and many more.

I am looking for good writers/ activists/ thinkers/ women’s rights groups/ to write on our blog campaign. Also, if they could write about our campaign on their own blogs and give cross links, it’d be AWESOME!

Here are some key areas that we are looking at on our blog. They can write under these sections or write a completely different blog post. But I def need a core group of passionate writers who could blog once a week (Only!) Request goes out to all of you

* Manspeak (Ariticles from men who are against violence against women; and who are affected by patriarchy)
* Viewpoint (articles from a young bunch of journos from delhi who write for a ‘views’ website called www.theviewspaoer.net)
* Star Dust (celebrity bloggers)
* World Over (articles from my US office and intl bloggers on domestic violence)
* Face Off (Hard-hitting regular features with politicos and decision makers)
* AD’Vice & Wise’ – we have blogs that criticize ads as well as applaud them.
* Rural Window (regular column from the India Education team on work on domestic violence in the rural areas)
* In-Film (To initiate discussion and comment on videos and film clips)
* In The News (To initiate discussion and comment on newspaper articles)
Each of these topics have a nice image which will act as a static signature image.

Can you help???

Regards,
Rashmi

–
Rashmi Dhanwani
Ph: +91-9833089658
E-mail: rashmi.dhanwani@gmail.com

Please do get in touch with Rashmi Dhanwani if you can help.

We’ve talked about the state of Punjab on this blog repeatedly for having the worst sex ratio in the country. The sex ratio for the age group of 0-6 in Punjab as per the 2001 census and a UNPF Survey was 798 in 2001 and the lowest in the country. In addition to that, according to a survey conducted by ActionAid, a UK based non-profit organization, this sex ratio has worsened since 2001. Latest figures from one site in the Punjab, India’s richest state, show the number of girls has plummeted to just 300 compared to 1000 boys amongst higher cast families.

Now, another survey done by The Associations of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Delhi (AOGD) shows that it is a Union Territory that takes the lead away from Punjab. The Union Territory Daman and Diu, as per the reports, has only 591 women for 1000 men. So, the summary up until now is that the top two areas in India with the LOWEST sex ratio are:
1. Daman and Diu (Union Territory): Worst sex ratio in the country
2. Punjab (State): Second worst sex ratio in the country

Further, economic reports show that Punjab, despite being the most prosperous state of India in the past, is now gradually staggering behind rest of the states in the country. If newspapers are to be believed, one of them reports:

Punjab, which long prided itself for its highest per capita income, has slipped to the eighth rung since 2001, even behind its one-time backwater sibling Haryana. Worse, it is now saddled with the dubious distinction of being the slowest growing state, only a shade better than Daman and Diu.

Ah! So, Punjab still comes out better than Daman and Diu eh. Let’s get this straight as well. The two areas in India with the LOWEST economic growth:
1. Daman and Diu (Union Territory): Lowest economic growth in the country
2. Punjab (State): Second lowest economic growth in the country

Do you note any connection between LOWEST sex ratio and LOWEST economic growth? There could be a logical explanation behind it or it just could be a sheer coincidence albeit a very interesting one. What do you say?