Why doesn't the Egyptian Leadership prevent rapes?

In Mubarak's Egypt, with the omnipresent police force, women walked the streets in relative safety. Now, under the auspices of the Muslim Brotherhood, there can be as many as 18 rapes in a single square in a single evening. Most are gang-rapes by groups of men.

The response by the Muslim Brotherhood? "Sometimes a girl contributes 100% to her own raping when she puts herself in these conditions." Read the NY Times article for more shocking details.

Some ultraconservative Islamists condemned the women for speaking out: "You see those women speaking like ogres, without shame, politeness, fear or even femininity," declared a televisions preacher, Ahmed Abdullah, also known as Sheik Abu Islam.

Such a woman is 'like a demon,' he said, wondering why anyone should sympathize with those 'naked' women who 'went there to get raped."

On YouTube you can find videos of these horrific attacks.
I think a fair judgement of the effectiveness of any government is how well it protects its people. Using this creterion, the new Egyptian Government is extremely ineffective.

How's that Arab Spring working out?

Two years ago when I first posted about the Arab Spring, I was dubious of its chances for success. The choices I laid out were a crushing by the dictatorships or a switch-over to the Muslim theocracies like Iran. I had doubts that a true democracy would come to pass.  I think we can see that my prediction was correct. Egypt has converted to a theocracy that is sponsoring Muslim uprisings around the region. They have been implicated in the Benghazi embassy attack, the Algerian oil refinery massacre and the Malian takeover.

Syrians are still fighting off their dictator with mixed success. Algeria and Tunisia are playing with Muslim theocracies. Will there ever be such a thing as an Arab democracy? I don't think I'll see one in my lifetime.

Queen Noor concerned about women's rights in Arab World

A recent New York Times article revealed the concerns Queen Noor of Jordan has about the lack of progress towards Women's Rights in the wake of the Arab Spring. While women were active participants in the revolutions that overthrew the leaders of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, it appears that, as in Iran, political Islam has hijacked the revolution and is working to install Sharia Law with the restrictions this imposes.

“It appears again that women’s rights are once again at risk even as revolution progresses,” she said.

In the same conference where Queen Noor made her comments there were other concerns.

Julia Lalla-Maharajh, the founder of the Orchid Project, which is based in London and campaigns to end female genital cutting, said Egypt had “one of the highest prevalences in the world of female genital cutting: according to Unicef statistics, more than 9 out of 10 women are affected.”

“There are worrying reports that have suggested that female genital cutting is on the rise, with one call in Parliament for a ban on it to be overturned,” she said.

There were warnings about women’s rights in Western nations, as well. Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the northwest of England, said he had dealt with more than 50 so-called honor killings.

“One after another,” he said, “I was seeing these stories of people who were being killed because they had a boyfriend, they kissed somebody in public, they wanted to learn to drive, they wanted to go to school.”

It's hard for me to watch the bright light of revolution over brutal dictators being co-opted by religious fundamentalists who threaten to take the women of this region backwards in time. 

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Sexcapades

Now there's a picture of a swinger. Sexy in his own mind at least. When he's not busy raping young female reporters or New York City maids he's running a sex ring in France.

Read this article about the latest discoveries of this degenerate who was the leading candidate to be running France until he was disgraced in New York. While we couldn't get the conviction he deserved, we seem at least to have derailed his political ambitions somewhat.

Hotel Carlton de Lille

It was at the above hotel that DSK is accused of playing a prominent role in the ring running sex parties.

Below is oneof his charming text messages to an acquaintance:
“Do you want to discover a new dirty night club in Madrid with me (and some equipment)?” He means women when he says equipment, an insight into the deviant's brain.

Saudi women can finally sell lingerie

What's wrong with this picture?

With women banned from retail sales in repressive Saudi Arabia, they were forced to buy from South Asian men. While the restrictive laws were designed to prevent men and women from interacting, the reverse became true as Burqa-wearing women were forced to discuss intimate details with non-related men.

The law also resulted in funny sights such as this.

In 2006 the law was repealed and women were supposed to be able to sell lingerie but, with the restrictions on driving and the lack of trained women, nothing really changed.

But Social Media came to the rescue again. With a Facebook boycott garnering 1300 signatures, King Abdullah put his power behind the rule and gave the shops until June to comply.

While it's a small victory over petty rules that dominate women's rights in Saudi Arabia, there are two very interesting aspects to it that excite me:

1. Facebook, the oil lubricating the entire Arab Spring protests, was involved again and the Saudi royals recognized its power and bowed immediately to the pressure before things became worse for them.
2. Now that the women have a foothold in retail, they will gain experience and start taking over in other areas. They will have to be able to commute to jobs either by a newly developed public transportation system or a relaxing of driving laws.

Could this small change could be to Saudi Arabia what Rosie the Riveter was to the US women's rights?

Women's rights amongst the Haredim



Naama Margolese, 8, the daughter of American immigrants who are observant modern Orthodox Jews.

Oded Balilty/Associated Press

  

As if the horrid and worsening state of Women's Rights in the Middle East wasn't bad enough already with Shariah law likely to become more common; in Israel, the Haredim are increasingly exerting their ultra-conservative demands on their neighbors.
Little Naama, pictured above, has been spit upon and called a prostitute by hordes of black-clad men for dressing 'immodestly'. Her American parents dress her in a way that most of the world would consider quite conservative but the Haredim seem to wish to make a point. More from this article.
Israel, a beacon of light for Women's Rights in this otherwise blighted region, is feeling the strain from this sector of their democratic society. When the country was founded, David Ben-Gurion offered subsidies and army exemptions to the few survivors of this group, expecting them to be absorbed in the greater experiment. Instead, they multiplied and now number a million amongst the 7.8 million Israelis. Their votes are valuable and so they have been placated by generations of politicians, encouraging their excesses.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in Beit Shemesh, Israel, rallied around a sign that reads in Hebrew: “Women are asked not to linger in this area.”  By ISABEL KERSHNER

• Organizers of a conference on Women's Health and Jewish law barred women from speaking at the podium.
• The chief Rabbi of the Air Force resigned his post because the army refused to excuse ultra-conservative soldiers from attending events where female singers performed
• Protesters depicted the Jerusalem police commander as Hitler on posters because he instructed public bus lines with mixed-sex seating to drive through ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods
• Vandals blacked out women’s faces on Jerusalem billboards.  More from this article

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators in Jerusalem were denounced by Israeli leaders on Sunday after wearing yellow stars and alluding to other images from the Nazi era.   By ISABEL KERSHNER

Israeli leaders on Sunday denounced ultra-Orthodox protesters who took to the streets of Jerusalem on Saturday night and put young boys on display wearing yellow stars and striped prison camp uniforms reminiscent of the Holocaust. One little boy was instructed to pose for cameras with his hands raised in surrender, mimicking a famous photograph of a small, frightened Jewish boy surrendering to the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
Tensions were further fueled by the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man here last week on a charge of sexual harassment after he verbally abused a female Israeli soldier who had refused to move to the back of a public bus. More from this article.

Until now, Israel has been the Democratic, Modern, Western, beacon of hope for the region. We Americans could point there and show the way to the Arab countries that seem to revel in their brutal dictatorships, dismal Human and Women's Rights records and religious intolerance. Now those who are screaming for Shariah law in Egypt and Yemen can point to Israel and say, "Same thing here."

Women being abused in the Middle East

There go women's rights in the Middle East. For as bad was living under a dictator like Mubarak, woman are worse off now and likely to be further abused if the Muslim majority takes over. As I predicted, the gloves are off and the misogynists are going after the women.

This is just the army abusing women now. Just wait until the Muslim Brotherhood and their rabid cousins take over the country entirely and impose Shariah law on the women.

Watch the video below to see one of these women-haters beating and kicking a helpless woman who was hoping to be rescued by some of the protesters. Be careful, though. the images are quite extreme.

I'm hoping these videos will shame the government to show fairness to half their population but I am pessimistic about the process. It hasn't worked in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Yemen, why should it work in the most populous nation in the Middle East?

The return of polygamy to the Arab ex-dictatorships?

In another blow to women's rights in the old Arab dictatorships, there seems to be a push to return to Shariah law and the polygamy contained within. Just recently, the head of Libya's interim government called for an end to the Qaddafi-era law that placed restrictions on multiple marriages. If Mustafa Abdel-Jalil gets his way, first wives will no longer have to give permission to their husbands before they seek a second wife.
Read details of this newest step backward for women's rights in this article.

Meanwhile, in Tunisia, the formerly banned Muslim party, Ennahda won 40 percent of the vote, giving it the largest share in the recent election. The secular minority are predicting that an Islamist-dominated national assembly will reverse legislation prohibiting polygamy. Read about Tunisia's move to a theocracy in this article.

After reading 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' and 'The Kite Runner', I gained a new respect for the way women's rights are often destroyed after the demise of a secular dictator in this region. Women who were well-educated and held respectable jobs were marginalized with the rise of Shariah law.

I can see why they fought for the end to the dictatorships that crippled their countries and left their children in poverty or jail but are they going to see any improvement under the theocratic governments that are springing up in their place?

Nobel committee highlights women's rights in Middle East

Yemen's Tawakul Karman, the chairwoman of 'Women Journalists Without Chains', shouts slogans during an anti-government protest in Sa'ana. Feb 10, 2011. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

In addition to the winners from Liberia, the Nobel Prize committee chose to highlight women's rights in the governments emerging from the Arab Spring by granting an award to Tawakul Karman. They are saying quite clearly to the world that women's rights in these emerging governments are much on the minds of the West. This move will make great strides in ensuring that these emerging governments, in whatever form they take, must be careful in imposing Shariah law or other oppressive regimes on their women.

Look how the granting of a prize to Aung San Suu Kyi has granted her protection and shone a light on the oppressive regime in Burma. I expect a similar light to shine on the women who helped make the Arab Spring revolutions a reality and who don't wish to be shunted off to the sidelines as they were in Iran.

I loved the Tweet from Wael Ghonim about her award:

Hearty Congrats to Tawakul Karman as she made us all proud :) Our ultimate prize is a democratic Arab World that respects human rights.Fri Oct 07 09:31:39 via webWael Ghonim
Ghonim

Below is Tawakul Karman talking to the press after receiving her award.

For more details, click on the link to read the N.Y. Times article.

Strauss-Kahn now wants immunity for rape.

After getting off from criminal rape charges because his victim had a dubious past, Strauss-
Kahn now has the gall to ask for diplomatic immunity against the sexual-assault lawsuit his victim is pursuing against him.

Even though he doesn't have diplomatic status now, he was head of the IMF during the crime so he feels he should be immune from prosecution for any crimes he committed at the time. This claim does wonders for explaining where his head was at while he raped the housekeeper. He truly felt that he was above the law.

In this article, notice the last chapter where the housekeeper's lawyers enumerate the reasons he should be denied immunity:
(1) he is not a diplomat;
(2) according to his own story, he was in New York on ‘personal’ business;
(3) he, not the I.M.F., paid for his room at the Sofitel; and
(4) he was obviously acting in his personal capacity when he violently attacked Ms. Diallo

Meanwhile one of his many other victims has come forth and is pursuing rape charges against him in Paris.

This time the victim, Tristane Barone, has an unblemished past and makes a more believable witness. Let's see how the weasel tries to get out of this one.

Are women worse off after the Arab Spring?

While ridding the Muslim world of the dictators who made life difficult for men living under their iron fists was good for the men, what has this done for the women? Women who were briefly given equality during the Russian occupation in Afghanistan were rudely torn away from their jobs and education as soon as the Mujaheddin took over. Women professors in Iran were fired once the Mullahs took over Iran from the students who started the rebellion and were forbidden to teach.

The story is repeating itself in Egypt and Libya. There have been a spate of articles detailing the disenfranchisement of the women who were equal partners in the rebellion but have been shunted to the sidelines as the men consider enforcing Shariah law.

In this recent NY Times article, the women who aided the rebellion against Qaddafi are being given no place in the emerging leadership. "Libya’s 45-member Transitional National Council includes just one woman. The council’s headquarters does not have a women’s bathroom."

In 'Three cups of tea,' Mortensen writes that to lift a village out of poverty, one must educate the girls. They return to the village and rise it up out of poverty. The same must apply to a country. We must encourage the countries that emerge from the Arab spring to ensure education of women to bring them out of poverty and into the first world.

Leader gets away with rape

Dominique Strauss-Kahn Released

Well, it looks like you can get away with even a high-profile rape if your victim has enough of a criminal background to make a less-than-credible witness. So here's the lesson to all would-be rapists: check out the background of your victims first and you too can go scot-free afterwards.

Take a look below at the smug face of this jerk as he receives his walking papers.

It would all make me terribly sick if it weren't for the one silver lining to the case. Because of the publicity of this case, one of his previous victims has come forward to pursue him with her own rape allegations. Let's hope she is more successful.

Tristane Baron

Here are some of her allegations in the article:  "He grabbed her in a nearly empty apartment as she was interviewing him and dragged her to the floor, pulling off some of her clothes and forcing his hand into her underwear. She said she escaped by kicking him desperately."

How will these people learn that they are not above the law if they keep getting away with crimes like this?

Powerful men think they have immunity

In addition to the usual shenanigans of Berlusconi and others, we have revelations of Arnold fathering an illigetimate child and a high official of the IMF raping a hotel maid. Why is it that men in such positions of power feel that they can get away with anything? It seems to be even worse in France where people are accusing the US of being too harsh on the man. Apparently, in France they would have simply hushed the woman up. Are you serious? This wasn't a grope, he forced her to perform oral sex on him! In the U.S. we call that rape.

So what are the answers? Is it a matter of money and opportunity? Powerful men have the money to buy expensive women, Eliot Spitzer, and they are away from their families for extended periods, (poor lonely babies) so they have the opportunity. But I think it's more than that. They are surrounded by yes-men who laugh at their minor lapses, find women who will do many things for money and soon believe that they can literally get away with anything. They keep pushing the envelope and have powerful people below and around them who hush up their bad behaviour until they finally get caught.

I hope this man doesn't avoid our justice the way Roman Polanski has been doing and spends some time in a US jail to think about the way he treated this poor woman.

And as for Arnold, really? The maid, in your wife's bed, and while your wife was pregnant? Come on!

 At least he waited until his political career was over. Hollywood is a lot more forgiving.