Category Archives: Fundamentalist terror

Afghan Mullah Leading Stoning Inquiry Condones Practice – The New York Times – FAIL! 

One of the leaders of that presidential delegation, however, is a prominent, pro-government mullah who believes the stoning and flogging of adulterers is perfectly justified — as he made clear both in a sermon on the Ghor killing at Friday Prayer and in a subsequent interview on Friday.“If you’re married and you commit adultery, you have to be stoned,” said the mullah, Maulavi Inayatullah Baleegh, during his sermon at Pul-e Khishti mosque, Kabul’s biggest, on Friday. “The only question was whether this was done according to Shariah law, with witnesses or confessions as required,” he said. “It is necessary to protect and safeguard the honor of women in society, as it was done in the past during the time of the prophet.”

Source: Afghan Mullah Leading Stoning Inquiry Condones Practice – The New York Times

Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Stoning Rukhshana

What is justice?

Why is a 19-year-old girl stoned to death?

Why do police take no action?

Rukhshana is gone and our

Hearts cry for her

Rukhshana, I hope one day women

Change this country

Government is absent when it comes to women

Advocacy does not change it

Protesting does not end it

It happens over and over

It is time now to protect women from wrong traditions

Rukhshana was stoned because a

Girl in Afghanistan does not have a

Right to love, does not have the

Right to choose her life partner

Shall I write more?

Who will read and who will listen?

I am tired.

On Facebook I see only bad news about women in Afghanistan but

Good news about women from Afghanistan in other countries

We are the victims living here.

By Seeta

Source: Afghan Women’s Writing Project | Stoning Rukhshana

Poems by Ismat, Safdar to vanish from Rajasthan textbooks – The Times of India

JAIPUR: In its ongoing mission to revolutionize school education, the Vasundhara Raje government plans to omit from Hindi text books stories and poems written by noted Urdu writers Ismat Chugtai and Safdar Hashmi and short narratives that revolve around Muslim characters. The move has drawn flak from educationists.

Source: Poems by Ismat, Safdar to vanish from Rajasthan textbooks – The Times of India

Fear and Silence in Bangladesh as Militants Target Intellectuals – The New York Times {Whole Nation is Hostage!}

Ms. Farzana, 37, cannot shake the feeling that, as she puts it, “there is a blueprint,” and that someone, somewhere has added her name to a list.“I am really scared this time,” she said. “I have something in mind that maybe they would like to open up a new chapter and kill a woman. These days, you may not have a single idea how you are related to the whole thing. But maybe you are the target. You never know.”So far this year, four bloggers and one publisher have been hacked to death in Bangladesh — a tiny number for a country with a population of around 160 million. But anonymous threats are common, and the cumulative psychological effect has been profound, prompting public figures to steer away from discussing the terrorist threat openly.Salil Tripathi, chairman of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee, approached a long list of Bangladeshi writers for a commentary after a blogger was killed in May. All refused, saying that attaching their name to the subject would be too dangerous. He was reduced to publishing a column written by an expatriate, under a pen name.By threatening intellectuals, “you’re trying to silence opinion, and shape opinion, and I think that’s happening,” said Mr. Tripathi, the author of “The Colonel Who Would Not Repent,” a book about Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan and its legacy.

Source: Fear and Silence in Bangladesh as Militants Target Intellectuals – The New York Times

58% of Israelis want Palestinians out of Jerusalem

Israel wants to create ghettos for Palestinians and strip them of any citizenship – but will not call them concentration camps?

PNN/ Jerusalem/A recent poll released on Tuesday by the Israeli Midgam Institute showed that 58% of Israeli’s back canceling the resident status and its accompanying rights for Arab residents of east Jerusalem.According to Israeli media, the poll comes after the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested stripping residency from Jerusalem Arabs this week and announced he may take a tour of the area to consider the move.Withdrawing the Israeli card from the Palestinians means that they will not be able to move or

Source: 58% of Israelis want Palestinians out of Jerusalem

IOF assault, kidnap two sisters, claim they had knives: Hebron | PNN

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Tuesday noon have brutally assaulted and kidnapped two Palestinian girls from Hebron, claiming that they had knives.The Imam of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Munther Abu Al-Feelat said that the sisters who were identified as Nour and Jihan Erekat, were passing in front of the mosque when Israeli soldiers stopped them to search them, but they refused.The Imam continued by saying that then, the mosque guards interfered to stop the soldiers from potentially shooting the girls.The two guards, Salah Al-Ja’bari (52) and Jehad Al-Ja’bari (30) were both arrested for “defending the girls.”

Source: IOF assault, kidnap two sisters, claim they had knives: Hebron | PNN

One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Numair’s best friend and co-worker clocked in early so she could head out to the protest, where she planted herself between two families with children. “In my first 30 seconds of walking out there, I did get called a whore,” Numair said. “One woman was shaking her head. I knelt down to her kid and said, ‘Do you know about yeast infections?’ ”Onlookers gave Numair the thumbs-up, and some passing cars honked in support, but she was the only counter-protester on the scene. Still, with a spontaneous chant, she managed to break up the protest in under a half-hour. “I don’t know why I started chanting ‘Yeast infections!’ but it just came out. I have this cold, so it was just this obnoxious squeak, cheerleader-like. And I started doing high kicks, which I don’t normally do, in my skinny jeans.” A religious leader was guiding a circle of protestors in prayers for Numair—but as her chants got louder and more grating, they stopped.I’m on board with pretty much anything — including being straight-up obnoxious — that makes it as hard as possible for anti-choicers to gather in front of clincs. A recent British study found that patients found the presence of anti-choice protestors outside clinics distressing, regardless of the protestors’ behavior; a silent prayer vigil by so-called “sidewalk counselors” was just as much of an unwanted intrusion as a more aggressive protest with graphic signs.Unfortunately, our legal system apparently thinks anti-choicers’ right to free speech takes precedence over patients’ right to access a legal medical procedure without harassment and intimidation. As long as that’s the case, the only (imperfect) solution is countering their speech with our speech — and if it’s shouting about yeast infections that makes anti-choicers as uncomfortable as they make those seeking abortions, so be it.

Source: One-woman counter-protest breaks up anti-choice vigil by chanting “yeast infections!”

Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

A demand for records—especially an extensive demand such as the one apparently occurring in Texas—is just as much about serving as a warning to future providers and patients as it is about casting as wide a net as possible in the hopes of finding some sort of error or deviance to potentially prosecute. For doctors, it’s a warning that the act of performing an abortion will inevitably put you under a microscope, where a mistake made in another medical profession that would likely be overlooked could in this case turn into a fine, a loss of a medical license, or worse. For patients, it’s an active reminder that someone, somewhere could find out about your medical past, and that there is always the chance that information could get out.  That’s an especially alarming scenario for the women of Texas, who are already learning the hard way that politics will often trump their health and safety, as the state cuts off family-planning services, refuses to expand Medicaid for low income residents, and will even arrest an undocumented mother while she is visiting her gynecologist.Subpoenaing medical records is just the latest salvo of the state of Texas’s vendetta against Planned Parenthood, and regardless of what the health department finds, the state will most likely be successful in frightening some patients and medical professionals away from the clinics. But like every other political attack in the state, it will do nothing to stop the need for reproductive health services, and instead it will just continue to put those services further out of reach for those who need it.

Source: Texas Is Fishing Through Your Abortion Files | Dame Magazine

Thousands demonstrate in Tel Aviv: ‘No security without a solution’ | +972 Magazine

Thousands of Israelis participated in a protest march in central Tel Aviv Saturday night against the Netanyahu government’s policies in the West Bank and the continuing violence.The demonstrators, many of them from Peace Now — which organized the event — and the left-wing Meretz party, along with several members from the Arab-Jewish Hadash party and Da’am Workers Party, marched from Habima Square to the IDF headquarters on Kaplan Street, waving Israeli flags and holding signs that read “Intifada government, go home” and “There is no security without a solution.”Among the speakers was Peace Now head Yariv Oppenheimer, who accused the government of “taking an entire country hostage in an unnecessary religious war, and we are all paying the price. You have turned the state into a violent, racist, and hopeless place. We have come here to call for an end to the hatred and the incitement, for a struggle against racism, and to demand a political solution — two states for two people.”

Source: Thousands demonstrate in Tel Aviv: ‘No security without a solution’ | +972 Magazine