NEW ITEMS ARE ADDED AT THE BOTTOM

Why Multiculturalism Is a Fraud
and a Disaster for Women's Rights

by Brenda Walker

Islamic woman in burqua Multiculturalism argues that all cultures are equal expressions of our human variety. In fact, some diversity adherents even portray traditional cultures as superior to our crass western ways. Colorful ethnic attire and interesting cuisines do have a certain cachet when seen from a distance. But when the reality of women's brutal oppression worldwide is considered, multiculturalism can be seen as a fraud. Indeed, it supports the continuation of the monstrous crimes against women by its “celebration” of traditional cultures while ignoring the dark side.

handcuffs While the social status of women in western cultures has improved markedly in recent decades, the experience of life for women outside of Europe and America remains largely one of cruelty and coercion. For example, Sixty Minutes reported in 2000 that India is missing 22 million women and girls because of sex-selective abortion, infanticide and the murder of adult women by their husbands for insufficient dowries. In several Latin American countries a rapist can be legally absolved by offering to marry the victim. The scourge of “honor killing” continues around the Islamic world, a practice where thousands of women are murdered for the smallest affronts to rigid social codes. An unproved charge of sexual infidelity or even a husband's paranoid dream may result in a woman being burned or hacked to death. Her murderer receives the approval of family and community for his action.

The false ideology of multiculturalism with its accusations of racism toward anyone who will not submit has intimidated Americans into believing it is desirable to welcome millions of immigrants from cultures which consider women inferior. Western culture, for all its faults, is a comparative oasis of equality for women, unlike the traditional cultures so esteemed by the multiculturalism proponents. It is alarming that some Americans are so naive or brainwashed that they seek to increase such retrograde diversity in our institutions and in the nation as a whole, evidently to prove their rejection of racism. However, the absurd preference for third-world cultures in our immigration policy amounts to importing sexism. Is that supposed to be some sort of improvement — trading racism for sexism? Don't we already have enough male privilege in this society without inviting the misogyny of the world?

Truly appalling is the program of “diversity visas” run by the State Department. Every year the government runs a “lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States,” apparently under the supposition that the United States is not yet diverse enough. For the year 2005, 50,000 new immigrants will come from countries including Sudan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Peru. For the most recent diversification, see this State Department listing. These are countries that have cultural traditions of slavery, purdah, “honor killing,” female genital mutilation and exoneration from the crime of rape if the perpetrator marries the victim. America's diversity will indeed be increased by the addition of these cultures — unfortunately.

MORE ARTICLES ON THIS WEBSITE:

Immigration is a women's issue
(because we are importing misogyny)

Taliban USA
A different idea for the American future, i.e., an Islamic one, as advocated by certain immigrants

Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
A review of the book

Cause of Central Park Attacks Goes Unreported
Gangs of misogynist men show their violent cultural roots.

The Diversity File
A fact-based consideration of diversity, wondering why anyone would believe nonsense like “Diversity is our strength” and other unexamined slogans that clearly undermine the safety and social standing of women.

FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

Women, Immigration, And Multiculturalism's Big Lie
Brenda Walker's article on Vdare.com delivers a brief overview of the idea that the diversity ideology is BS. For a version in Finnish, visit here.

Women's Issues — Spotlighting the Third World
A thorough resource from the About series of websites. Weekly news from the same site.

Amnesty International's Work on Women
Read reports from the human rights organization's campaign for women's rights and safety

The Taliban's War on Women
A health and human rights report from the Physicians for Human Rights

Baghdad on the Plains
An article from The New Republic illustrating how millennia of misogyny do not disappear with immigration to America. Case in point, when the 13- and 14-year-old daughters of an Iraqi immigrant started acting like Americans, he decided that the answer was to sell them into forced marriages. The subsequent legal intervention was the cause for debate about the requirement that persons living in America follow its laws.

Female Circumcision Comes to America
The Atlantic highlights another problem the U.S. is importing because of the unconsidered infatuation with “diversity.”

Boston Review: Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?
An academic discussion of this issue. These articles were the basis for the book of the same name.

Feminism's Unfinished Business
Katha Pollit's review of “Speaking of Sex” which demonstrates how far women have to go in this country to achieve equality. So why is the government importing millions of retrograde men who disapprove of women's equality and hate American women for their freedom?

The Veiled Threat
Islamic values as they exist in modern-day Iran (The New Republic)

Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan
Facts about conditions for women under the Taliban, who consider themselves Islamic purists.

Patriarchy and Landlordism: Immigrants' baggage should not include harmful practices
An Indian woman admits that all is not wonderful about her culture in this Asian Week article (2/24/00). She notes that the practice of dowry (the source of much violence against women) is going strong despite being officially outlawed in the 1960s.

San Francisco Chronicle: Focus on Sex Traffic (1/24/00)
Out-of-control immigration means increased sex trafficking and slavery brought to America.

Slaying points to economic, social chasm, leaders say
In May 1999, a black American man was bludgeoned to death by two Yemeni immigrants after he objected to rude sexual remarks made to his 12-year-old daughter.

From Haiti to America in servitude
This Saint Petersburg Times op-ed describes the Haitian custom of “restavec” — child slavery (with mostly girls as the victims) now imported to the United States.

Slavery in America
PBS NewsHour's report shows immigrants preying on other immigrants in extreme fashion.

It Matters What Kind of Islam Prevails
Islamic “chauvinists aspire to make the United States a Muslim country,” according to this Los Angeles Times article by Daniel Pipes.

Presbyterian Culture Clash: Many Asian American members oppose liberal leanings
Korean-Americans oppose ordination of women and gay rights (San Francisco Chronicle, 6/23/00)

Suspect Just 'Having Fun'
Some details about suspects from the Central Park attacks on women as part of Puerto Rican Day (New York Daily News, 6/17/00). “'He doesn't need to do any of that stuff. He has a girlfriend,' said [suspect's father] Andre Vargas, 44, a Dominican immigrant.”

Immigrant Women and Abuse
“Sixty percent of marriages in which a husband has control over his wife's legal status in this country involve abuse.” (From National Public Radio, 9/10/00)

Polymaritally Perverse
An examination of polygamy, women's rights and the ACLU (The Nation, 10/4/99). When the ACLU had to choose between women's rights and multiculturalism, women lost.

Honor killing demands global response
“Honor killing” in Jordan. (Minnesota Daily, 1/29/99)

Honor killing trial (NewsNet 5, local television)
“Honor killing” in Cleveland, Ohio. Evidence looked pretty convincing but the accused got off.

Indian landlord Lakireddy Bali Reddy in Berkeley brought in teenage girls for sex that he purchased in his home town.
He got away with sexual slavery until one of the girls died as a result of a faulty heater. High-tech visa scams were part of the business. Perverse family values were revealed when Reddy's two adult sons were indicted for beating and raping three additional victims.
Such crimes are normal in India was the defense strategy. However, Reddy was sentenced to eight years in prison — a sentence nearly two years longer than the one recommended by the prosecutor.

India criticized over birth bias
Female infant mortality is 40 percent higher than for males; the sex ratio is 960 women for every 1,000 men — a statistic reflecting the lower status of women in India, who are more likely to be deprived of food, education and health services.

Acid Attacks in Bangladesh
Hundreds of young women in Bangladesh are being attacked with sulfuric acid simply because they dared to say no to men. One noted in this article was 13 years old when her refusal of marriage to a 20-year-old man resulted in his attack on her as she slept. Acid as a weapon has the advantage of being cheap, just a few cents worth of battery acid will ruin the life of a young woman. Authorities report an explosion of the crimes in the late 1990s, coinciding with the increased participation of women in public life. This article describes the attack on a nine-year-old child, promised in marriage to a grown man who was angered that he wouldn't get her right away.

No Excuse for Abuse (Being Arab)
Women in Dearborn, Michigan, fight domestic abuse in the local Arab community. (A poll found that a majority of those men and women approved of physical violence if a woman ignored a man.)

World Health Organization Fact Sheet on FGM
Includes statistics on prevalence within African countries. For example, in Somalia 98 percent of women and girls are estimated to be so mutilated.

Cultural Issues in Defense
When it's culture vs. women in the courts, women generally lose.

Honor Killing in Pakistan
One murder in particular is highlighted, that of Samia Sarwar in her lawyer's office as she sought protection.

Kuwaiti court rejects vote for women
No franchise still.

Soccer for women considered un-Islamic in Kuwait
Hoops and tennis are okay though.

“I Was Sold to a Man”
In Pakistan, women are murdered for refusing forced marriages.

Immigrants sent home on charges of harassment
School girls as young as five years old in Greenfield, California, were being harassed by gangs of illegal immigrants, so the INS stepped in and deported them. Local immigrant advocates claim racism even though the town is 85 percent Hispanic and it was Latina moms trying to protect their daughters. Furthermore, after 39 illegal aliens were deported, not everyone in the town was happy about it, though the mothers were relieved. INS spokesperson Sharon Rummery remarked, "Our agents surveilled the situation for several weeks. They saw men coming out of the (game room) and blocking the sidewalks, rubbing themselves on the girls who tried to pass. There were whistles, catcalls and obscene remarks. These were children of every age, from elementary school up through high school age. We felt there was a potential danger there."

Millions Suffer in Sexual Slavery
“Two million women and children are being held in sexual servitude worldwide, and the easing of border restrictions and other trade barriers has exacerbated the problem.”

Diversity vs. Freedom: Jihad on the Campus
Women's rights and safety lose again.

Kin kill 3 women in Pakistan
A man slashed the throats of his estranged wife, her mother, and his 4-year-old sister-in-law because he suspected the wife of adultery. He was aided by five companions wielding sickles to kill the three in an act of “honor killing.”

Support for Bangladesh female franchise
Although officially allowed to vote, women in rural Bangladesh are often prevented from doing so by the religious edicts of Muslim clerics. Disobeying the fatwas brings severe physical punishment, including flogging and stoning.

Beneath the Veil
This is the website for a BBC documentary about the oppression of women in Afghanistan and generalized brutality, filmed by a women journalist and her crew as they traveled around the country. One scene showed a woman being publicly executed before thousands in a Kabul soccer stadium. CNN showed the film in August 2001 and included the transcript online.

Abortion fight erupts in Mexico
Rape victim, 12, is at center of controversy. Other details include rape by the father, the girl's mental age of 8. Abortion is supposedly legal in the case of rape in Mexico, but the girl's mom is having difficulty finding a doctor to do the procedure because of legal double messages and pressure from the Roman Catholic Church.

“Honor Killing” Rises in Pakistan Despite State and Religious Opposition
Hundreds of women are killed every year in Pakistan for behaviors like speaking to men who are not their relatives.

70 girls attacked by rape gangs
In Australia, a crime wave is occurring which consists of gang rapes by men “of Middle Eastern extraction” against girls who are Caucasian, aged 13-18. For media critcism and a review of coverage, see this commentary.

Patrols against Kashmir acid attacks
Women in Kashmir have been attacked by Islamic men who throw acid in their faces for not being completely veiled.

China's unwanted girls
Chen Rong makes her living from scavenging garbage, and over the years she has found five little girls thrown away with the trash. So low is the value placed on girls that a million female foetuses are aborted and tens of thousands of baby girls are abandoned every year.

Pakistan's rising toll of domestic violence
Women's advocates in Pakistan insist that the government provide shelters and legal remedies for women who suffer horrific instances of violence and mutilation at the hands of their husbands.

Taliban's Bravest Opponents
Afghan women are brutally punished for the slightest infraction of Taliban law, yet continue to risk their lives to document Taliban crimes and resist oppression by running clandestine schools for girls and other forbidden activities.

Curbs On Population Growth Drive Up Female Abortions
This article puts the number of “missing” females in India at 50-100 million — many more than the relatively small estimate by Sixty Minutes a few years back that the number was 22 million. The technology of fetal scanning has made the murder of baby girls less necessary, since they are aborted as early as the gender is discovered. For example, in Punjab, 793 girls are born for every 1,000 boys.

Atta's Rage Rooted in Islam's Misogyny
The starting point for this article by Jamie Glazov is the curious will of terrorist Mohamed Atta, filled as it is with the most amazing hatred of women: “I don't want any women to go to my grave at all during my funeral or any occasion thereafter,” he wrote.

The Sexual Rage Behind Islamic Terror
Also by Mr. Glazov, what happens in a culture where unimaginable misogyny and total sexual repression are the norm. Other symptoms include the rejection of pleasure, particularly sexual, and relationships based on power rather than affection.

The Taliban's List
A catalogue of the activities forbidden to women under Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, from no employment to no laughing loudly. In short: no life.

The abuse of women: British tolerance of Muslim culture should not include condoning the savage treatment of young girls
While favoring the broadening effect of other cultures on British cuisine, the author condemns the experience of many Pakistani girls living in England: their passports are confiscated by parents and the girls are packed off to the home country to marry some strange male not of their choosing, or even acquaintance. If the girl refuses, she will be starved into submission or killed.

Militant Islam - world without women
As extremist Islam has pushed women out of the public sphere throughout the Middle East and beyond, an unmoderated warrior culture has taken hold. In many areas, abuse and hostility toward women have increased, since men may see women's issues as representing modernity and a threat.

Vietnam to Ban Gender Testing
Officials are concerned about the country's gender imbalance because of the preference for boys and the ease by which technology enables Vietnamese to eliminate unwanted girls.

European Union Muslims 'must integrate fully'
The European Commissioner in charge of social affairs said that the EU's 10 million Muslims are not entitled to ignore western standards for treatment of girls and women. “There are fundamental values in our societies and, if somebody participates in these societies, they must respect our values,” stated Anna Diamantopoulou. “We see some very extreme social attitudes, such as genital mutilation, that they bring here and we cannot accept it. In Britain alone we had over 3,000 cases of this reported in 1999.”

Film About One Of India's Ugliest Secrets
The 2001 film Maya exposes the practice of enslaving young girls into the grasp of a religion in which they are ritually raped by the priests while the family enjoys a feast. The girls are eventually sold as prostitutes. Variously known as Devadasi and Jogini, the custom is officially outlawed in India but reportedly still occurs in rural areas.

Married 203 Times, He Has Only Memories, Not Wives
An Egyptian man has an unusual hobby — when considered by western standards.

TV Show Opens Sesame for Egyptian Kids
Sixty percent of Egyptian girls are illiterate, so this revamped version of Sesame Street provides basic education and is welcomed by many parents. Twice as many girls as boys do not attend school in the country.

France: Teachers Walk Out over Headscarfs
French teachers regard the Islamic requirement for girls to hide their hair as an oppression not suitable for a modern European country.

Condition of Women in India
One statistic is the 6,000 dowry murders per year. Also, female literacy is only 58 percent and violence against women is a pervasive problem. A study of amniocentesis in a Bombay hospital found that 96 percent of female fetuses were aborted, compared with only a small percentage of male fetuses.

Star pilot's reluctant lawsuit against Air Force
Fighter pilot Martha McSally is suing the Air Force over her treatment in Saudi Arabia. The former champion triathlete and Harvard graduate has been forced to dress and act like a Saudi woman even though she is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. armed forces. There is no similar requirement for State Department women serving in Saudi Arabia.

Protest in Sweden over Kurdish Man's Murder of His Daughter
Several thousand Swedes took part in a torchlight parade to voice their disapproval of the execution of a 26-year-old woman by her father. He killed her because she chose to pursue an education and have a white Swedish boyfriend. The father will use an insanity defense, it was reported. CNN reported that the earlier death of the woman's boyfriend in a car accident is being reinvestigated as a possible murder.

Rape of children surges in South Africa
Shocking crimes of child rape are now common, with minors accounting for 40 percent of rape victims. Some recent victims have been under one year old. It is theorized that uneducated Africans believe sex with a virgin will cure AIDS; others think the cause is that "women's empowerment" has made them less easy targets, leaving tiny children as the remaining marks.

Father jailed over daughter's murder
A Pakistani man living in England was sentenced to life in prison for killing his 24-year-old daughter when finding her boyfriend in her room. The Manchester judge was unmoved by appeals that Mohammed was a strict Muslim and was "provoked" into the multiple-stabbing death of his daughter.

Taliban Sexually Enslaved Women
Perhaps those burqas weren't such a bad idea after all. Now we learn that Afghan women were kidnapped by the Taliban for their amusement. This article says that "More than 600 women vanished during a 1999 Taliban offensive on the Shomali Plain, north of Kabul."

Thousands of Women Killed for Family 'Honor'
In February 2002, National Geographic presented a documentary considering culturally condoned violence against women, from the 5,000 Indian women killed annually for having insufficient dowries to the thousands of "honor" killings that occur without punishment in the Islamic world. The photo gallery is instructive.

Clinics' Pitch to Indian Émigrés: It's a Boy
Okay, you may admit, there's a lot of nasty stuff out there as far as how women are treated, but immigrants wouldn't bring that rot with them to America, would they? See this article in the New York Times about sex-selective abortion being marketed to Indian immigrants, who evidently don't want a female child no matter where they live.

Islamists — Not What They Say
While the general focus of this article is the colossal hypocrisy of fundamentalist Muslims, there is particular attention paid to their disrespect of women.

Equality of Women in Sikh Theory and Practice
According to this article, the founder of the Sikh religion advocated the equality of all people, including women, back in the 15th century. However, the reality today remains one of inferior status, which the author demonstrates by recounting her relatives' disappointment that she was born a girl. Here's a photo of Sikhs in the USA.

Reader, She Married Him — Alas
A doctor in England recounts some experiences treating women from immigrant communities. One frustrated teenager of Pakistani parents began wetting the bed when she was informed that her education was to end and she would be forced to marry a man she did not know. Another young woman's skull was fractured by a brother with a baseball bat for waving to a young man from a taxi.

Taliban-style group grows in Iraq
A radical Islamic group emerged in northern Iraq shortly before September 11. It issued a fatwa against secular society, burned down schools for girls and murdered women who refused to wear burqas.

Saudi police stopped fire rescue
Saudi religious police prevented school girls from escaping a burning building because they were not properly Islamicly attired and could not be seen in public. "Lives could have been saved had they not been stopped by members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," stated a Saudi newspaper.

Kurd murder sparks ethnic debate
In Sweden, the murder of a young Kurdish woman by her father sparked enormous outrage and debate. The crime of Fadime Sahindal, according to her father, was choosing a Swedish boyfriend and a western life as an individual person.

Pakistani feminist faces fight of her life against the system
No good deed goes unpunished, particularly for Shehnaz Bokhari who has tried to protect Pakistani women from physical abuse and murder as well as to reform misogynist Islamic laws. She is being prosecuted for some dubious charges which could put her in prison for 15 years.

Condoleezza Rice's Oddball Critic
Washington Post columnist Colbert King goes to bat for the National Security Advisor concerning some rather odd criticisms of American culture by an Arab journalist who said that American women were more oppressed than women under the Taliban, for instance. King followed up the next week with more details of Muslim life in Saudi Arabia's Apartheid

Transcripts reveal cabdriver's story: Slaying suspect blames 'the devil'
In 1999, Julie Day was murdered after an evening of night-clubbing in San Francisco, apparently by a Jordanian national who drove the cab she hired. Jehad Baqleh was filmed by bank surveillance tapes using Day's ATM card after her death.

Kuwaiti women seek right to vote
It's the 21st century, and women in Kuwait are still struggling to get the right to vote. Women got the vote in Iraq in 1980 and in Egypt in 1956, so it is not exactly unheard-of even in benighted Muslim countries that women should have some rights.

"The American Snake," from Egyptian Opposition Weekly
The Middle Eastern Media Research Institute translates articles from the Arab press and puts them online. In this instance, MEMRI reveals a most insulting tirade against Condi Rice, President Bush's National Security Advisor. Author Kamal Sa'ad states, "Some have called her an insolent woman, like the dangerous anaconda snake that attacks anyone in its path. She is suited only to work at a nightclub or to make her bed in the heart of the jungles and forests of Brazil, as a predatory woman!" He concludes by noting that Arab men keep their women under control, "We thank Allah that there are no similar [women] in our Arab world, otherwise our lives — we men — would be absolute hell."

Swazi king takes ninth wife
Swaziland clings to its "traditional" culture, which means a full harem for the king. Other cultural artifacts include a nude audition-dance performed by the teenaged girls followed by a degrading marriage ceremony of sorts. King Mswati has 15 offspring by his multiple wives, but he is a piker when compared to his father, King Sobhuza II, who had more than 50 wives and nearly 300 children.
WIFE COUNT UPDATE Wife number 10 accrued, as of September 2002. More interesting marriage customs revealed, mostly degradation of the new wife. This article gives the number of wives had by the king's late father at 125.

A Mother's Dilemma
African immigrants to Minnesota still choose to damage their daughters in the ghastly form of torture known as female genital mutilation. Though illegal in the state since 1994, the potentially life-threatening practice occurs there and in home countries when Africans take their girls for the procedure.

Bangladesh cracks down on acid attacks
In early 2002, the government passed tough new laws to deal with the escalating number of acid attacks against women, the victims being mostly young women who have rejected arranged marriages. The Acid Survivors Foundation reported that there had been a 50 percent increase in such attacks in 2001 over the previous year.

Afghan Expatriates Walk Tightrope
Afghan women who have lived in America have a tough time fitting in to their traditional society. A single professional is regarded as a "loose" woman, no matter how circumspect her behavior.

Abortion of girls on the rise in China
This ongoing horror only gets worse. Misogynist China has the worst gender disparity of any nation, with some areas averaging 144 boy babies per 100 girls. The Chinese national average is 117 males to 100 females, compared to 106/100 as the worldwide ratio. Ultrasound scanners are now found throughout the country, making unwanted female fetuses easy to detect. Furthermore, the prospect of tens of millions of unattached young adult males in Chinese society is feared for the social unrest it portends. USA Today considered the varieties of instability that will be made more likely for China in the next couple decades, including increased crime and outright rebellion (as was the case in the Nien Rebellion in the 1800s when there were also many excess men). The MIT journal International Security has the downloadable study "A Surplus of Men, a Deficit of Peace" upon which the USA Today article was based. This article notes that by 2020, China may have 20 million excess men.

Servants of God — Child Sex Slaves of India
Those who still think that India has some sort of cultural expertise in areas of spirituality should familiarize themselves with the continuing practice of young girls being sold into prostitution in the name of religion. Once a girl is peddled by her parents into the care of the deity Yellamma, she is essentially a sex slave. As a 'devadasi' she can never marry or change her condition of servitude, which is now likely to include AIDS making her life short as well as wretched.

U.S. ignores abuse of Pakistani women: Rights group blames war alliance
It was easy for America to be the friend of Afghan women when the U.S. armed forces routed the Taliban and allowed girls to go to school and women to work. However, "ally" Pakistan has conditions nearly as bad: "An average of two women a day are killed over matters of family 'honor.' A rape occurs every two hours. One in two women falls victim to physical or sexual abuse."

In Mexico, Rape Is an Unpunished Crime
Mexico is still the same machismo culture that it ever was, with women being blamed for rape and unable to get justice in the courts. And that's in the more enlightened cities. In indigenous areas, town elders (invariably all men) regard rape as "more like a courting ritual than a crime." Other important facts: it's estimated that only one percent of rapes are ever punished and women were given the vote in 1953. More on Mexican culture here.

Strictures stagnating Arab world: Lack of freedom, bias toward women
The Arab Human Development Report for 2002 has been released and the results are not cheerful. In areas of government accountability, civil liberties and freedom of the press, Arab societies score lower than anywhere else in the world. More than half of Arab women are unable to read. Other important statistics include the fact that the population of the 22-nation Arab world will grow from its current 280 million to between 410 million and 459 million by 2020. While having great riches on account of oil, the Arab world has used its immense wealth poorly to advance its societies. The BBC account of this report notes that "51% of older adolescents interviewed and 45% of younger ones expressed a desire to emigrate." The report can be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Pakistani Teen Gang-Raped by Order of Tribal Council
A 18-year-old girl's 11-year-old brother was seen walking unchaperoned with a girl of a higher class. The punishment was a brutal gang rape of the boy's sister. Evidently a good time was had by the rapists and their pals, since hundreds of men laughed and cheered outside the hut where the punishment was performed. The teenager describes the attack, noting how her pleas went unheard, even her mention of how she taught the Koran to local children.
We learned later that the original story about the little brother was concocted to hide the fact that he had been sodomized by several men. In this BBC story, the trial of the rapists is reported, along with description of the extreme brutality against a totally innocent young woman.

Korea's (Only) Woman on Top
The appointment of a female person to be Korea's prime minister is quite a step for the nation. Too bad it doesn't signal more egalitarianism for women in general in a society that is exceptionally male-dominated even for Asia. The United Nations Gender Empowerment Measure rated South Korea near the bottom, 61 out of 64. Women are even forbidden from smoking in public.

Kuwait University Separates the Genders
Due to the meddling of conservative Muslims, Kuwait University will become totally gender segregated sometime in 2003, at a cost of more than $180 million. Some women are fearful that Kuwait will become even more repressive than it already is, perhaps similar to Saudi Arabia.

Racist rapes: Finally the truth comes out
Some of the Arab perpetrators of a series of brutal gang rapes against young Australian women were brought to trial, with the press reporting in a predictable politically correct fashion. One exception is the writer of this piece, who tells the truth about the situation, namely that the men came from a culture which has such "contempt for its women that they think of an 18-year-old girl, dressed for a job interview in her best suit, sitting on a train reading a book, as a slut."

Tolerating Intolerance: The Challenge of Fundamentalist Islam in Western Europe
This substantial and thoughtful article from the Partisan Review examines many aspects of the problem of millions of Muslims in western society, including violence against gay people, the prevalence of extremist Islam in Europe, the discouragement of moderate Islamic voices by the French government, the celebration in Denmark of 911 terrorist attacks and other dismal facts. A Danish teacher remarked, "I had a class in which 19 of 33 children couldn't say anything in Danish, even though they were all born in Denmark."

Pregnant rancher kills illegal immigrant intruder
Three illegal aliens broke into the ranchhouse of a pregnant woman, who fatally shot one of them. Press coverage refers to her as "hysterical" — a characterization from the local Mexican consular officer, who is not exactly a disinterested party in this. However, self-defense in one's own home against three intruders is generally not considered hysterical behavior — certainly not in south Texas.

Interview with Mayor of Palo Alto, California
The main thrust of Mayor Liz Kniss' chat with an Indian (southeast Asian variety) publication is her support for H-1B high-tech visas even during a time of economic downturn. However, the ho-hum acceptance by a female public official of massive sexism is rather stunning: "At Sun Microsystems, I worked with many Indian men ranked highly in the company, but absolutely no Indian women. Almost every Indian company in the Valley shows a similar pattern of highly ranked Indian men, but very few Indian women."

FBI Joins Murder Probe
As of August 2002, more than 320 women and girls have been murdered over the last nine years in Juarez, Mexico, but the police force there is evidently not highly motivated to solve the crimes. A local woman remarked, "Our authorities, they don't have the desire or the capacity to stop this." Instead of doing investigative work, Juarez cops have tortured suspects and planted evidence. Meanwhile, the young women of Juarez are at risk for being brutally murdered.

Bengal tribesmen kill 'witches'
"The killing of women suspected of being witches is a frequent phenomenon in parts of eastern and central India," according to this BBC report. A local priest told him to do it, said one of the perps. Some in the area believe that the "witch" ploy is just a scheme to get rid of widows and divorcees to make their property available.

They prefer death over abuse: Afghan women protesting with self-immolation
Although women in Afghanistan have been freed from the noxious Taliban, their improved lives are still terribly brutal and without rights. They can work and go to school but arranged marriages and daily abuse remain in place.

Hundreds accused of witchcraft in Central African Republic
Witchcraft is still a prosecutable crime in the Central African Republic, and the punishment can be execution. Every year, hundreds of people are accused of causing illness or death by means of sorcery, although many of the sick victims actually are suffering from AIDS. According to a local human rights worker, "Witchcraft is so widespread that campaigning to abolish the legal recognition of the crime is pointless, but we are pushing for fair trials of those accused."

'Witch' slain in remote Slovakian town
Folk beliefs in things like witches still hold sway in the Carpathian Mountains, where Milan Mramuch murdered an 80-year-old neighbor because he believed that the woman had caused the epileptic seizures of his young daughter. People in isolated areas continue to consult soothsayers and believe that witches can cause storms and illness.

Battered Westerner Syndrome inflicted by myopic Muslim defenders
Columnist Mark Steyn analyzes the horrific gang rapes in Australia by Lebanese immigrants against young Australian girls. The tough sentence handed down to the ringleader is considered "controversial" and the press has launched into the usual "why do they hate us?" routine of blaming the victim. Steyn responds with appropriate remarks that western culture is better.

Something Rotten in Denmark
Daniel Pipes and Lars Hedegaard analyze the effects of Muslim immigration into Denmark and observe that Danes have suddenly discovered that they no longer like multiculturalism. Of particular note is this fact: "Muslims are only 4 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted rapists, an especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim."

New Laws Ease Restrictions in Saudi Arabia
In purporting to show a small step forward in terms of identification documents, this article details the painful constrictions on everyday life for Saudi women. In fact, they have no legal rights whatsoever, being wards of males at all times in their lives.

Sandy (Utah) Family Kidnap Case Resolved
The case here was a Jordanian family that tried to kidnap and return to Jordan the daughter who had begun practicing a lesbian lifestyle. The charges were essentially dropped, but Deputy Salt Lake District Attorney Kent Morgan said, "Had we not done anything, she [Muna] would be back in Jordan and dead," referring to honor killing. In an earlier New York Times article (Family, Culture and Law Meet in a Utah Court Case, April 21, 2001), she was kidnapped and beaten by her brothers and threatened with death.

Rash of "Honor" Killings in Jordan
Three killings of young women by family members in less than a week. However, that situation is likely to continue since the Jordanian legislature exempts perpetrators from any serious punishment.

Foreign Country Doctors - PBS
Is medicine a job Americans just won't do? PBS doesn't mention that there are more medical residencies per year than American medical school graduates, and thus the influx of foreign doctors. Of note for this page is the example given of a foreign doctor who was fired because he wouldn't see women patients without a male minder being present.

Apprehended Just in Time — U.S. Customs Report on Ohio Honor Killing of February 2001
When a 39-year-old Pakistani woman doctor sued for a divorce, her husband responded by slashing the throats of her plus her 35-year-old sister, her 78-year-old father and her 2-year-old niece. Fortunately, an alert Customs officer guessed the murderer's escape plans and arrested him at the airport before he made it to the safety of Pakistan. More on this case.

'Honor' Murders — Why the Perps Get off Easy
Plenty of blood-curdling examples plus the legal niceties of honor killing in Jordan. As one Jordanian Senator remarked, "Whether we like it or not, women are not equal to men in Islam."

Woman in hiding after she lambasts Islam
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an advisor to the Socialist party in the Netherlands, was forced to do a Salman Rushdie imitation after she remarked that Islam is "a backward religion." Her affront was to criticize the treatment of women in Islamic culture and for that bit of truth she received numerous death threats.

Iran Hires First Woman Bus Driver
Here is some good news, however belated (November 2002). Masoumeh Bolaghi, a qualified nurse, recently began her new job of driving a bus. She joins another professional woman driver, Zahra Lagarudi, who works in the country's all-women taxi company. Nesa Taxi Service allows women to get around without the usual "dirty looks" from regular male-driven taxis.

Somalis find refuge from war in Owatonna
This small Minnesota town has seen the influx of an alien culture that does not appear interested in assimilating to American values. The 500 Somalis live close together in the small community because "they find it easier to maintain their culture and Muslim traditions." Those practices include Muslim dictates on female "modesty" such as covering up and the assumption that any sexual transgression is the woman's fault.

Denmark demands end to female circumcision
The Danish government put its foot down when a local imam said that it was the duty of Muslims to castrate their daughters in the traditional way and that Islamic custom should take precedence over Danish law. Socially liberal newspapers have agreed with the government, calling the procedure a disfigurement and recommending serious prison time as punishment.

Honor killing in Iran
An Iranian father beheaded his 7-year-old daughter because he believed she had been raped by his brother. A post-mortem showed that she was still a virgin. In a hopeful note, the murderer's neighbors wanted him hanged. But under Islamic law, only the father of the victim has the right to ask for the death penalty, so he will evidently receive no punishment.

'Death sentence' on Nigerian journalist
After the terrible Miss World rioting in which more than 200 died, a fatwa was called against a woman writer who had remarked that Mohammed would have chosen a wife from the Miss World pageant. Among the Sharia crowd, any possible insult against the Prophet may be punished by death. However, Nigerian city of Kaduna where the riots occurred has not exactly been a stranger to violence, particularly when Muslims try to impose Sharia law on Christians and pagans. Kaduna has been largely segregated into Christian and Muslim areas since clashes two years ago, in which more than 2,000 people died.

Sacrifice prayers at India temple
Despite the protests of local women's groups, services went forward at a Hindu temple dedicated to the practice of sati, the ritual suicide of an Indian wife after her husband's death. Women feared an upsurge of fanatic Hindu nationalism and a return to religious fundamentalism. In August 2002, a woman committed sati in Rajsthan and police were prevented from stopping her by local crowds who approved of the suicide.

Cameroon princes fights mutilation
Princess Euphrasia Etta Ojong is speaking out against the practice which she was forced to undergo as a child and which still causes her great suffering. A local group, Abemo, has been formed to educate against the procedure. However, there is still support (particularly among circumcisors) who call it a valuable cultural heritage, even though some girls die from blood loss.

461 Pakistani women killed in this year in honor killings
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan announced that at least 461 women have been killed in 2002 for so-called honor killings, a substantial increase over the 372 murders in 2001. A senior official in the rights organization admitted that the number could be much higher. The group noted the reasons for such family murders as including "sex outside marriage, dating, talking to men, being raped or even cooking poorly." There are seven cases where sons killed their mothers. The situation is unlikely to improve any time soon, since the Islamic parties made a strong showing in October's parliamentary elections.

Women blamed for unemployment
In which the Arab News finds another problem to blame on women.

Tug of Taboos: African Genital Rite Vs. American Law
This 1996 article notes that the law of that year against female genital mutilation prohibits any American medical personnel from performing the "operation," after a Seattle hospital considered providing a sort of FGM-lite for local Africans who had been clamoring for the procedure. One Somali refugee was miffed that Medicaid would not pay the bill for maiming her daughter and she would have to pay for tickets to Africa to have it done.

Arab Rage = Get Out of Jail Free
A Jordanian father murdered his daughter by stabbing her 25 times just hours after signing an agreement not to harm her. She remarked to him that her life was her own, thereby "enraging" him to commit the crime — another blame-the-victim scenario. And in September 2003, the Jordanian legislature voted down toughened laws against honor killing.

Israeli Arab Muslim mob lynches porno actress
Amal Kashua, a mother of eight, was severely beaten by a mob of men who objected to her film performance. The Imam of the Arab Muslim city of Tira, Hazi El-Hamdan, remarked that "this is a direct attack on Islam coming through atrocities from the West," and "Muslims have the right to defend themselves — she should be killed."

Somali refugee follows in Fortuyn's footsteps with attack on imams
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is the kind of refugee any community would welcome — articulate, principled and focused on the problem of Islamic crimes against women. In fact, she went into hiding for a while because her fellow Muslims in the Netherlands threatened her with death for calling Islam a "backward" religion. For her honesty, she has been called the Dutch Rushdie and the political heir to Pim Fortuyn.

Women: Quit Jobs or Be Killed
Posters announcing this message appeared in border areas of Pakistan, announcing January 25, 2003, as the drop-dead day for Muslim women to quite their jobs and return to their houses.

Immigrant Crime and the Cultural Defense
Here is a legal consideration of the so-called cultural defense, so often used by immigrant men when they are tried for violence against women.

1991 war cost Iraqi women rights
Can women lose ground in the fight for equality and safety? Yes, indeed, and particularly in Arab-Muslim societies. In Iraq, polygamy has been legalized, schools segregated and travel restricted after progress in the 1970s. An upsurge in Islam is to blame, along with economic deprivation which has fostered more social conservatism.

Female circumcision is topic of two-day health conference
From December 2002: "Female circumcision is a serious issue in Nashville," Brcic said. "We currently have over 300 members and two-thirds of them are circumcised women."

India's Lost Girls
Big surprise: there is a crisis on the marriage markets of India of insufficient young women for wives now since so many female fetuses have been aborted since the advent of fetal scanning — medical technology meant to aid the health of mother and child. "People say, you have two girl children, you have done some sins in your past life," said office manager Surinder Saini. Furthermore, the term "marriage market" is completely accurate, since males purchase young women as wives.

Kerosene, Weapon of Choice for Attacks on Wives in India
The New York Times provides a detailed account of a Bangalore burn ward. Some of the victims have not come across with enough dowry cash for the groom and his family. Others were simply not energetic enough slaves to please exacting husbands' standards. In a survey of 10,000 Indian women, more than half said that violence was a normal part of married life.

At least 31 Palestinian women murdered in 'honor killings' in 2002
These are the official numbers for the West Bank and Gaza. Most victims were under 18 and had been raped or sexually abused by male relatives. In addition, a women's group noted that there were more than 400 cases of incest reported during the year.

Harassment Suit in U.S. Shifts India's Work Culture
A sexual harrassment suit brought in Fremont, California, has put Indian managers on notice that their normal piggyman behavior from the subcontinent won't cut it in the west. Reka Maximovitch alleged wrongful termination and sexual harrassment, and received an out-of-court settlement of an unspecified amount.

Hmong Americans Grapple with Lingering Effects of Polygamy
Polygamy is another of the many bits of cultural diversity brought to America by rampant immigration. St. Paul, Minnesota, has the largest number of Hmong in the US, around 24,000, and Minnesota is home to more than 42,000. A UM doctoral student "estimates between 270 and 450 men are practicing polygamy in Minnesota, each with an average of two wives and 14 children. That would mean that as many as 7,600 men, women and children are living in polygamous families." When a Hmong publication brought the subject out, hundreds of Hmong males defended polygamy as a lifestyle choice, despite the fact that it is a felony in Minnesota.

Interview with Taslima Nasrin
The Bangladeshi feminist has been in hiding since 1994 when fundamentalists shut down the entire country with a general strike in order to demand her death for suggesting that Islam oppresses women. She now lives in Sweden, and though she no longer has round-the-clock security, her address remains a secret even from her family. Islamic fascists have long memories. In October 2002, Taslima Nasrin learned she had been tried and convicted in absentia for making derogatory remarks about Islam. Bangladesh sentenced the writer to one year in prison.

Wife Beating: The Entire Family is Victimized
According to this article in an Islamic newspaper, violence against women is so common in Saudi Arabia that no one bothers to quantify it. Instead, the paper opines that the thoughtful Arab male will consider carefully before putting his wife in the hospital: what will such emotional outbursts solve? One Libyan researcher found that violence against women topped the list of such crimes in the Arab world at 54 percent total.

Palestinian poll: A husband may beat his wife if she hurts his manhood
The proposed future state of Palestine will be no different from the rest of the Arab world for the oppression of women, at least according to this poll from 2002. For example, "47.1% feel that there is no need for intervention of social or law enforcement agencies in instances of husbands attacking wives, because that is a family problem..."

Sisters in Hell
Time magazine notes (Dec. 2, 2002) that violent rape is rampant in the immigrant housing projects of Paris with this article about a demonstration memorializing a young woman who was gang raped and then burned to death. In addition, Algerian-born Samira Bellil has written an explosive book, "In the hell of the tournantes"; the last word is a slang term for gang rape, which has shocked France with its graphic descriptions of violence of Arab men against women. The France segment on NPR's uneven series about Islam in Europe describes Bellil's experiences and the formation of a women's group Neither Whore nor Submissive.

Misogynous Islamic Immigrant Kills One in Berkeley Bar Hostage Situation — Sept. 26, 1990
Iranian Mehrdad Dashti had a thing about blonde women — he hated them. Hostage Douglas Moore reported, "He accused the women of showing too much leg. He accused them of wearing tight skirts, short skirts ... He said it was that kind of trash that was leading guys like him on and that they deserved to be punished. ... He did a pretty good job of degrading the women." During the seven hours in which Dashti held 33 hostages, he shot seven and killed one.

Men Sentenced For Impregnating 13-Year-Old
It's noteworthy that two illegal aliens in Muncie Indiana were sentenced to only a year in jail when they could have gotten 20 years for child molesting. Perp Magario Chiguil "told the judge through an interpreter that he had not realized it was illegal in Indiana to have sex with a 13-year-old."

Great Britain: Police to target wave of murders in the name of family honour
"Asian" women in Britain are subjected to violence and murder for not following the traditions of their culture. Women who want a college education or refuse an arranged marriage can be writing their death warrant. A recent victim was London resident Anita Gindha, 22, who was murdered in front of her toddler. She had renounced her Sikh faith and married a man of her own choosing.

Ethiopian in Georgia charged with circumcising 2-year-old daughter
Among the 200,000 African immigrants living in the Atlanta area, the brutal practice of FGM persists. In fact, the lawyer representing the mother of the child stated that there is a network of men who conduct female circumcisions in Atlanta and that "Women are frightened to talk. They are scared of their husbands."

US may ban genital mutilation parents
In October 2002, American authorities have threatened to ban dozens of Somali refugee families from emigrating to America because the parents have mutilated the genitals of their little girls. When the parents heard that the practice of FGM was illegal in the US, they rushed to have it done on their children, even toddlers.

Acid-Hit Pakistani Wife Decries Tradition
Sakina is a brave woman for demanding a long prison term for her husband for disfiguring her by throwing acid in her face. Most women who have suffered her fate accept their misery quietly since even the most heinous violence against women is considered a man's right in the Islamic country.

The True Clash of Civilizations — Foreign Policy magazine
The Muslim world and the west both support democracy at similar levels: the real divide is over the issues of gender equality, abortion, homosexuality and divorce. Don't miss the excellent charts which make the point very strongly.

Slayer of Abuser to Be Released after 22 Years
Maria Suarez was only 16 and living in Los Angeles when she was sold for $200 to a 68-year-old man, Anselmo Covarrubias, who presented himself in the neighborhood as a brujo, a magician. He raped and abused her, utilizing brainwashing where he said he had powers from the devil, as he had done to many Mexican girls held in virtual slavery before her. Another woman bludgeoned Covarrubias to death, and Suarez hid the weapon but was not directly involved in the killing.

Life for India baby girl killers
A small step forward in India, as the murder of a baby girl by the parents is actually being punished. However, the family being imprisoned probably could not afford the fetal scans that many Indians use to determine whether a fetus will be allowed to come to term: males get to live, females not.

A Model Minority — Violence against Women among South Asians
India Currents, an immigrant tabloid published in northern California, observes the common occurance of domestic violence among well-heeled Indians in Silicon Valley. Sucessful Indian women are loathe to admit that their home lives are a horror where they are beaten like animals by husbands in expensive suits. A feminist website similarly notes that Spouse Abuse in South Asian Marriages May Be High.

A Woman by Any Other Name
Saudi Arabia is doing its level best to be number one in the oppression of women since the fall of the Taliban. Consider: women "still need a male guardian's permission to travel; still cannot be admitted to a hospital without a male guardian accompanying them." In addition, a woman's name is not even normally printed on the announcement of her marriage — such is the non-existence of women in the culture. Saying a woman's name in public is socially unacceptable.

Iranian actress escapes lashing
Well known Iranian actress Gohar Kheirandish got in serious trouble for a little smooch on the forehead of a director during a film awards ceremony. She could have received 74 lashes for her crime against Islamic morals, but religious authorities relented and cut her some slack. It's good to be a film star.

Favoring Boys in India
Read or watch this PBS Newshour segment from 2001 about the declining ratio of girls to boys. No wonder, since there were about 5 million sex-selection abortions the previous year. Women and girls have little value in this culture, and various laws and campaigns against dowries have had no effect.

Young Girls Sold as Brides By Desperate Afghan Poor
The Washington Post notes the situation of two little girls who were sold as future wives when they were just toddlers. Zarlaska and Nabas Gul, aged 10 and 9, will live with their parents until puberty, then each will be shipped off to their owner-husbands. "I am a poor man, and this is how I can feed my large family," said their father, "Many others are doing the same thing."

Interview with Bharati Mukherjee
In this wide-ranging interview, novelist Bharati Mukherjee discusses her Indian culture, in which daughters "are trouble. And a mother who, as mine did, has three daughters, no sons, is supposed to go and hang herself, kill herself, because it is such an unlucky kind of motherhood to have." Besides her novels, she wrote an investigative book ("The Sorrow and the Terror") about the Sikh terrorist bombing of an Air India plane in 1980 that was a largely unnoticed precursor to the kind of terrorism we experience today. The trial for the Sikh perps began in Vancouver in April 2003.

Runaway Bride: The Story of an Arranged Marriage
It's reported that there are at least a thousand girls forced into marriage every year in Britain, and this is the story of one. Noor was born in Britain of Pakistani parents and went to a normal British school. She was not prepared when a group of strangers appeared at her door, one of whom was announced to be her future husband, as arranged by her parents with no knowledge by Noor. The 17-year-old was forced to marry, then taken to Amsterdam to live. Fortunately Noor's sister (a victim of forced marriage) got the police to intervene, since violence was threatened.

Scars of Tradition: FGM in Europe
One item noted is that a new Danish law calls for provides for six to 10 years in jail for a parent who takes his or her child abroad for the operation, regardless of whether the procedure is legal in the third country. A similar bill was passing through the British legislature early in 2003.

Honor Killing among Palestinians
The murder of women and girls for insignificant, innocent activities continues the same as a millennia ago. Many are buried in unmarked graves to obliterate the fact that they ever existed. When women are executed in public, there are crowds of cheering onlookers. A Palestinian teenager stabbed his sister 40 times because of a rumor she was having an affair.

Saudi Grad Student Arrested in Idaho
Photo included here to show the degree to which American emancipation of women is embraced by immigrant terrorists — a two-tone burqa get-up.

Secular Iraqis uneasy with clerics
In the power vacuum after Saddam's fall, Muslim clerics move in, sometimes to unexpected places like hospitals. For example, Al-Sadr Hospital refuses women not wearing headscarves from emergency wards unless they are in critical condition.

Women Walkers Face Harassment by Teens
Saudi women who simply want to get out of the house for exercise and fresh air are prevented from doing so by gangs of male teenagers who increasingly harass them for actually appearing in public, as if the women shouldn't be allowed to exist. A local male typically blames the victims, "I think women should walk at home or somewhere private if they want to get rid of the harassment problem. But youngsters have nowhere else to go." Another danger to women in the Kingdom is wearing the normally black abaya after dark, and traffic accidents are happening with more frequency.

Mystery illness concern for adoptions from Asia
This article about SARS notes the detail that 5,000 Chinese babies are adopted annually by Americans — all girls, of course.

A Continent of Brats
This overview of the current wretched state of Europe contains the following statement, "In Amsterdam, it's reported to be quite difficult for European females to use public swimming baths without being harassed by unassimilated Muslim males."

Pakistanis abroad trick daughters into marriage
Immigrant parents in Britain are sending their daughters back to Pakistan ostensibly to get her in touch with her cultural roots. But there's an extra surprise... a forcible marriage to a husband (often a relative). In 2002 alone, 250 British girls were forced into marriages with relatives.

Rise in immigrant domestic abuse cases reflects better outreach (ACTUAL TITLE)
The local shelters in north Georgia are pleased to have more abuse victims (up 30 percent over last year) to rescue and believes that improved communication is the reason. There is no mention that the economic downturn might be the cause of more violence against women among immigrants.

Rickets upsurge among UK Asians
Muslim dress codes for women have led to the disease caused by insufficient Vitamin D, which is generally produced by the interaction of sunlight on the skin. The total covering required by Islam means that women and girls are at risk for the debilitating illness which causes bones to develop incompletely.

Where Murder Doesn't Matter
A better title would be "Where the murder of women doesn't matter," since all of the 258 victims since 1993 in the string of Juarez murders are young women or girls. It's not surprizing the crimes have not been solved, given the sexist, blame-the-victim attitude of the officials quoted in this article, like the Chihuahua governor who remarked in 1990 that it was the fault of the women for wearing short skirts. A state attorney general said that if the women would only obey a curfew then there would be no problem, ignoring the fact that some have to work at their factory jobs late at night.

Domestic violence hotline to help Muslim women
The Islamic movement continues its encroachment into American society, as the Silicon Valley area gets its first phone help line for Islamic women that offers proper Muslim solutions for women getting beat up by their significant other. "For a long time, the Muslim community has not wanted to recognize this," remarked the director of the Islamic Society of North America. Funny, the civilized world has noticed Islam's brutality toward women for years.

Muslim headscarves on Western streets
The author notes how Islamic dress in Europe is worn to challenge western authority. In addition, it's observed that "Because of the growing Islamic influence on France, things are so bad in some parts of the country that even non-Muslim women have taken to wearing the scarf for safety's sake."

Iraqi woman hailed for attacking U.S. troops — and condemned for betraying family honor
The family of Iman Salih Mutlak is upset at the way she died: not because she was a homocide bomber who tried to kill American soldiers. No, they are unhappy, dishonored even, that the 22-year-old Iraqi left the house unaccompanied and without permission. "When she left the house, she lost her innocence," said her 71-year-old father, Salih Mutlak. "Had she returned home, I would have killed her myself and drunk her blood."

Students in Burqas at Paris' School of Eastern Languages
Another nail in the coffin of France here: the nation's preeminent institution for Eastern language studies has had its Arabic language department taken over by Islamic extremists. Women are wearing burqas and refusing to take exams from male professors. A male student prevented a female professor of Arabic from teaching by using "very unpleasant behavior." Numerous professors admit to self-censorship, omitting secular material that might cause negative reaction among Islamist students. In one incident, the brother of a student was discovered taking a test for her, disguised by wearing a burqa, but was found out because of his large feet.

Anti-violence conference on Arab woman: Half of all wives beaten last year
In May 2003, a conference was held in Cairo to consider the status of women in the Arab world, and the findings were not uplifting. Forty-five percent of Egyptian women were beaten at least once per year, while 17 percent women were beat three to six times annually. In addition, 32 percent of the women experienced domestic violence during their pregnancy.

Police suspect that girl, 13, was sold and murdered
Here is a slice of life from Gaza in June 2003. Police have arrested a husband who bought a 13-year-old girl and then apparently murdered her and buried her body in a guava orchard near the Arab village of Tira.

Egyptian woman drowns self after having baby girl
Obviously this woman didn't study Baby Making 101, since the man she married already had fathered six daughters from previous marriages, so he was not a good bet as a sperm donor. As we all learned in basic biology, it's the sperm with its XY chromasomes that determines the sex of the fetus, since the egg makes do with just XX wiring.

Study: domestic abuse in Hispanic families
A Texas survey revealed that 64 percent of Hispanic families have experienced domestic violence. This news came at the same time as when the Census announced that the Latino population in the USA was growing at a ferocious rate, four times faster than the nation's population as a whole from 2000 to 2002.

A Challenge in India Snarls Foreign Adoptions
Of course there are no baby boys available for adoption. The corrupt system "encourages trafficking in baby girls, who are often seen as a burden by poor families. In some cases, the police say, babies have been sold by their parents for as little as $20."

Condi Rice a 'black spinster'?
Palestinians reveal their enormous cultural sexism by speaking in the most vile terms about the National Security Advisor. While there is polite criticism of Colin Powell, Ms. Rice is called a "black spinster." Previously in the Arab press, she has been called an "anaconda" and suitable only for maid work.

Islamic bloc wins big in Kuwait: Liberals reeling after election — July 2003
More bad news for Kuwaiti women in the most recent election — still no vote. Despite American military successes in Iraq, which some hoped would encourage western values in Kuwait, supporters of modernization in parliament were wiped out by Islamic traditionalists and those loyal to the ruling Sabah family.

A problem with Muslim enclaves
A controversial new book in Norway is "Female Integration" which examines how assimilation by Muslims into Norwegian society is not working out at all. The book's statistical analysis of Muslim immigrants found that Arabs are increasingly forcing their daughters to marry cousins, particularly those from the country of origin, in order to prevent adaption to western society. A couple of telling statistics are these: Between 1996 and 2001, 82 percent of Norwegian daughters of Moroccan immigrants who married did so with Moroccan citizens; and for Norwegian daughters of Pakistani immigrants, the corresponding rate was 76 percent. The writer notes that Muslim immigrants are creating a Norway of two systems of government, with democracy for native Norwegians and autocracy for the Muslim sub-culture.

Bangladeshi Man Sentenced to Death in Acid Attack on Wife
Swapan Gazi poured a glass of acid on the face and head of his nine-year-old wife because she refused to leave her parents' home and join him. The man, who is in his twenties, forced the child, then a third-grade student, to marry him against her parents' wishes. In 2002, more than 300 women and girls in Bangladesh were victims of acid attacks.

Maid Tortured to Death
Another slice of life from The Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) shows how rich Saudis treat the hired help. An 18-year-old Asian girl was burned by scalding water because she failed to understand Arabic by the lady of the house, who then treated the girl with aspirin. However, the girl died, and the woman was eventually sentenced to two years in prison; her husband got four years.

Hmong Wrong For America. America Wrong For Hmong.
Long-time writer on the subject of immigration Joe Guzzardi comes by his wisdom via first-hand experience: he works teaching English as a second language in Lodi, California. This article highlights the sexism and violence of Hmong culture, describing a minor non-incident that caused a near murder in a Hmong family: in making a correction on a paper, Joe's hand inadvertantly touched that of a Hmong married woman, and for that she needed to be killed according to traditional culture.

Witness to a Stoning
A western person views and describes an Islamic execution of a woman for being accused of adultery. Horrific.

Muslim girls denied riding bikes
Among the many evil influences of Western Civilization hated by those of the Islamic religion, we can now add the bicycle. Muslim parents in Norway are alarmed at the potential of the uniquely shaped bike seat to damage girls' virginity: "Leader of the Muslim Women's Network in Oslo, Atiya Islam, is encouraging the Muslim women to dress appropriately, not to jump up and down on the seat and to ride slowly."

For Love of Money
Sixty Minutes spotlights the story of the courageous young Indian woman Nisha Sharma. After her family had put itself into serious debt for the extortionist dowry custom prior to marriage, Nisha put her foot down when her future mother-in-law demanded an additional $25,000 in the middle of the ceremony. Nisha called the police and ended the whole arrangement. But instead of being condemned, Nisha has received adulation ranging from women's groups approval to offers of marriage. The enormous cost of dowries has persuaded many Indian families to abort female fetuses, already leading to a shortage of women in some areas, which will be the future for the whole country unless the dowry is ended.

Defying Dowry
This Australian article about Nisha Sharma considers how the dowry custom has gotten completely out of hand among more affluent and modern Indians who expect more grandiose dowry payments. There are now around 7,000 dowry-related deaths per year, and the decade of the 1990s saw a 39 percent increase from the previous decade.

US team probes Mexico deaths
Perhaps the shame of having American politicians tour the wretched kill zone for the women of Juarez will spur the feckless Mexican government into action. The number of murdered women over a 10-year period ranges from 250 to 370.

Cambodia's penchant for gang rape grows more common:
Elite young men above the law prey on prostitutes seen as less than human

Gang rape is seen an an amusing pastime for privileged young men — one interviewee estimated that he had participated in around 100 gang rapes with his pals, who regard "bauk" as a fun bonding activity with the guys. The article points out the cultural disparities in Cambodia which create such behavior: prostitutes are despised but are necessary because a young woman's virginity is still a requirement for marriage.

Miss Afghanistan could be charged over beauty pageant
Appearing in a beauty contest in a bikini may bring criminal charges against her in Vida Samadzai's home country. The Deputy Head of Afghanistan's Supreme Court said, "I hope that this lady regrets her actions," although he wouldn't say what possible punishment she might receive. The Taliban may be gone, but the belief that Shariah law should rule remains in some minds.

Muslim slays daughter in 'honor killing'
A Muslim Kurdish father living in London was sentenced to life in prison after killing his 16-year-old daughter. Her affront was having a western life, complete with a Christian boyfriend, a Lebanese fellow. Presiding Judge Neil Denison remarked, "This is, in any view, a tragic story arising out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and the values of western society." Police reported there were 12 honor killings in the UK last year.

Islam Comes to Norway
Shebana Rehman likes to live dangerously. She is a Muslim stand-up comic performing in Norway, and does not always receive a friendly response from her fellow Islamic immigrants. She has gotten death threats, but continues to perform gags like the Muslim wedding with vows that begin, "Do your grandmother, father and brother take your uncle's son to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Something aggressive about veils, says Chirac
France may be responding a bit to the dangerous five million unassimilated Muslims living within its boundaries with legislation banning the Islamic headscarf from the nation's schools. Chirac called the head covering "ostentatious signs of religious proselytism." A better quote was from a petition published by 60 prominent French women which recommended an outright ban on "this visible symbol of the submission of women."

Afghan delegate under U.N. protection after outburst against warlords
A brave young Afghan woman had the temerity to speak out in the national council against sacred cow warlords and now they want to kill her.

Kenyans get the scoop on president's polygamy
President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya recently visited the White House, but was polite enough to leave his second wife at home. Polygamy is still widely practiced in Africa but is reportedly falling out of favor among younger women who aren't falling for the BS. "I don't believe in sharing husbands," said Rose Nganga, 20, a Nairobi college student.

Investigation leads to 20 arrests of illegal immigrants in Palmer Township (Pennsylvania)
Tucked into this rather ordinary article about illegals being arrested is the reason for the outrage of local folks: Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli said residents complained that several men living in one house repeatedly tried to lure young girls into the home.

telling it how it is
Writing in a rather indirect way, the Telegraph (UK), mentions that gang rapes occur in London on average one per day. Apparently the police were unhappy that the Telegraph mentioned that many of the perps were "members of ethnic minority groups." Here is one article which upset the politically correct. Actually, the article contains numerous precise statistics about attackers, victims and prevalence.

Ministry Studying Feasibility of Having Female Nurses in Ambulances
Saudi Arabia continues as the world leader in misogyny, as shown by the absurd gender politics of paramedics. Women die because there are only male paramedics, e.g. "In one incident, for example, a wife died in front of the paramedics' eyes while they stood helpless because her husband threatened them with a weapon if they came near his wife."

Prevalence of FGM in Africa
This helpful fact sheet includes a map of the continent which graphically shows how common FGM is by region, as well as a chart of FGM practices by country.

Feminism's Islamist Foe
Well known feminist writer Phyllis Chesler co-wrote this common-sense piece about the strange illusions of today's feminism, e.g. the absurd fantasies that Islam and other third-world cultures are somehow superior to the west. If that were the case, then Ms. magazine should decamp for Riyadh.

Along came Sharia
Is is possible that the European Left has finally recognized that Muslim culture is antithetical to western values? Yes, according to this article. A Belgian Socialist woman remarked to the Guardian that, "It's not normal that in certain parts of Brussels there are more women in veils than in the streets of Algiers," with no PC opprobrium coming down on her. In another sign of progress, a Muslim imam who encouraged violence against women was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Muslim women protest mixed swimming in the Netherlands
Whatever happened to "When in Rome..."? These days, foreigners flood America and Europe and demand that western culture be altered to fit the preferences of the Islamic fundamentalist newcomers. Pools have been a flashpoint in Holland, where European women have been threatened by Muslim youth for going swimming in Dutch pools without being covered in the Islamic style.

Gang rapists told age, culture no defence
Five Pakistani young men were found guilty in 2003 in Australia of aggravated rape of the most horrendous sort. Two teenaged girls were repeatedly raped, threatened with knives and bullets and one was told the other had been killed because she had resisted her attackers. The rapists complained in court of an anti-Muslim conspiracy, lack of knowledge about western culture and youthful indiscretion. Justice Brian Sully responded that there was no excuse for such crimes and that a message needs to be sent.

Girl weds dog to break 'evil spell'
Nine-year-old Karnamoni Handsa married a stray dog in June 11, 2003, because she had a slightly odd dental malformation that was considered a "bad omen." Not to worry about her future though: "The tribe elders [who had insisted on the wedding] said the marriage would not affect the girl's life, and that she would be free to marry again later and did not need to divorce the dog." Another article noted, "District officials on Wednesday said marrying boys and girls with canines was a common practice among Santhals and was supposed to protect them against danger."

Indian farmer marries his 80-year-old grandmother
In other nuptual news from the subcontinent, Narayan Biswas, a 25-year-old rice farmer wed his granny. "I felt she needed extra care because she is old. I can look after her better as a husband than as a grandson," he said.

Muslim clerics preach 'wife beating'
Researchers find that Islam definitely condones, no, encourages corporal punishment of disobedient wives. A Muslim cleric in Spain had gotten into legal trouble there for publishing a book saying that a Muslim husband has every right, according to the Koran, to knock around wives for imperfect behavior, but his views are actually those of the majority of his fellows followers of Islam.

Forced marriages 'may damage race relations'
Asians in Scotland are increasingly engaging in forced marriages according to a recent report which found that half of 200 weddings involving Scottish Asians and a partner from abroad involved coercion. Furthermore, 90 percent of Scottish Asian marriages included one partner from abroad.

Chasing the Ghouls
El Paso Times reporter Diana Washington Valdez has investigated stubbornly where few other journalists have dared to tread — the ongoing Juarez serial murders in which 137 women have been the victims of sexual homicide. She is writing Harvest of Women: A Mexican Safari, in which she proposes a frightening theory: "The best information we have is that these men are committing crimes simply for the sport of it. We know of girls who've told stories about escaping from certain parties — orgies — at which some of these people were present."

Liberation eludes Afghan women
The sexism of Afghanistan is deeply rooted, and the ouster of the wretched Taliban has not ended the subjugation of women. Up to 1 million girls between 7 and 13 do not attend school. Parents still sell their daughters, often as young as 8, into marriages that resemble slavery more than partnership.

Amsterdam mosque: women must undergo FGM
The El Tawheed Mosque shows how little Muslims respect the values of the west by its issuance of a pamphlet "Fatwas of Muslim Women" which demands the brutal procedure. The pamphlet also says that women who lie deserve 100 blows and a husband is no longer required to care for his wife if she refuses him sex or leaves the home without his permission.

Hirsi Ali: shut anti-woman, anti-gay Dutch mosque
Regarding the mosque cited above, Somalia-born MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali demanded 4/22/04 the closure of the El Tawheed Mosque that sells books supporting female circumcision, beating wives and the murder of gay people. Its literature states that gays should be thrown headfirst from tall buildings, and if not killed by the fall, then they should be stoned to death. "This mosque has been warned repeatedly by the authorities that intolerance against non-Muslims and undermining the law is unacceptable in the Netherlands," Hirsi Ali said.

Beaten Saudi woman speaks out Rania al-Baz
Rania al-Baz, a well known news anchor in Saudi Arabia, made headlines by permitting her photo to be published after she was the victim of a horrific beating by her husband. In this BBC piece, she speaks in her own words about how she nearly died.
   Update: August 6, 2004, from MEMRI. In typical Saudi fashion, Rania did not allow the authorities to follow through with her husband's punishment, and requested he be pardoned with only three months in jail and no lashes at all (he was sentenced to 300). MEMRI points out how Arab media often reminds families that Islam entitles men to beat wives, although damage to the face is not permitted.

Outside Encouragement
Sharia law rules northern Nigeria, with some help from the usual Saudi suspects, and women face unimaginable conditions. Women cannot travel in the same vehicles as men, as cab drivers have been beaten for carrying female passengers. Any unmarried woman over the age of 13 is considered a prositute and may be sent to prison.

The New French Revolution
Sixty Minutes examined the horrific violence suffered by young Muslim women in Paris. The streets are a hodge-podge of the worst of both worlds — the youth gang culture of the west and the extreme sexism of Arab Islam. In one chilling moment, the segment showed police collecting evidence at the apartment building where 17-year-old Sohane Benziane was burned alive and the resulting screams of support for the killer from many windows.

Ontario sharia tribunals assailed
Womens groups in Ontario are alarmed at the imposition of Islamic courts for arbitration among Muslims to resolve marriage, family and business disputes. Iranian Homa Arjomand did not come to Canada to have Islam follow her, since she barely escaped alive from Tehran for her feminist activities. However, the arbitration courts already sound like a done deal. This case shows how easily women's rights can be lost in the name of multiculturalism. Here's coverage from the BBC.

Documentary pulled over race fear
Once again, women's safety was sacrificed in order to placate demanding immigrants. The British Channel 4 had prepared a documentary about teenaged English girls being drugged and sexually abused by "Asian" (i.e. Pakistani) men. But Muslim and immigrants groups raised a stink, so broadcasters pulled the program. The idea that British girls as young as 11 were being groomed for the sexual pleasure of Muslim males was thought too incendiary.

European Dishonor: Sharia on the Old Continent
There are many examples of the ill effects of Muslims on western culture here, from the "honor killing" of Fadime Sahindal to a young Muslim male who showed up in an Eboli emergency room with one hand's fingers neatly chopped off. Also disturbing is the report that Muslims in Italy are demanding Islamic marriages, thereby instituting the multiculturalists' dream of different legal standards for various ethnicities. Of course, nothing could be more destructive to women's hard-won rights, not to mention the whole idea of equality under the law for all.

Culture impacts Latino domestic violence
No big surprise: in cultures where women are devalued, there is more violence against women. For example, one study found that Hispanic women in intimate relationships suffered the highest rate of domestic violence, namely 181 per 1,000 couples, compared with non-Hispanic white women (117 per 1,000) and black women (166 per 1,000).

Fighting mutilation
Radio Netherlands notes that Somalia has the highest rate of female genital mutilation, and many Somalis reside in Holland. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, MP with the liberal VVD party, was born in Somalia and has been fighting against FGM. "Somalis and Sudanese tell us that during the summer vacation, women come to the Netherlands to carry out these mutilations on the kitchen table.," she reported. "And we also hear that during school holidays children are taken to their countries of origin, where female genital mutilation is not forbidden and that children are operated on without anesthetics. It's done with scissors, it's done with razor blades, it's done with broken glass and that's really very inhumane."

We Are All Souad
FrontPage editor Jamie Glasov reviews the book "Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men," the story of an Arab woman who survived an attempted honor killing. The author recalls that her own mother smothered nine of her own baby daughters — so despised are females in that culture. Hospitals report many "accidents" occur to baby girls, particularly needles shoved into the stomach, chest and head. Souad only survived the attempt to murder her because a Swiss-based humanitarian worker intervened and sent her to live in Europe under an assumed identity.

Copenhagen Post: Criminologist: immigrants are rape champions
According to Professor Flemming Balvig, a criminologist at Copenhagen University, "Rape is often committed by young men for whom it also represents a kind of proof of manhood. And if you look at the figures, men with an immigrant background are grossly over-represented, compared to the proportion of the population they make up."

Islamic Center of Irving (Texas, near Dallas)
Here is the website of an American mosque. Scroll down to Community Affairs and you will notice that only males are named in the listings about births and marriages.

Zennah Ministries
W.L. Cati was a young American woman who suffered an abusive 14-year marriage to a Muslim. She escaped and now operates a Holmes Beach, Fla.-based group for women married to Muslims who need help.

Advice to Non-Muslim Women on Marrying Muslim Men
Both the Vatican and US State Department warn women against marrying Muslim men. From the State Dept.: "American citizen wives swear that the transformation in their Saudi husbands occurs during the transatlantic flight to the Kingdom. There is the universal recollection of approaching Riyadh and witnessing the donning of the black abayas and face veils by the fashionably dressed Saudi women."

Gypsy king's daughter is sad child bride
Ana-Maria Cioaba, a member of the Roma or gypsy group, was either 12 or 14 when her parents forced her to marry a young man with whose family they had arranged the marriage when the girl was seven. The legal age of marriage in Romania is 16, but authorities looked the other way, despite the girl's distress at being forced into marriage.

ACLU to Join Polygamists in Bigamy Fight
In case there was ever any doubt, the ACLU supports polygamists against women's rights. This instance concerns fundie Mormons demanding that polygamy be decriminalized. "Living arrangements are really the most intimate kinds of decisions people make," said ACLU of Utah legal director Stephen Clark. "Talking to [Utah's polygamists] is like talking to gays and lesbians who really want the right to live their lives, and not live in fear because of whom they love. So certainly that kind of privacy expectation is something the ACLU is committed to protecting."

Irish outlaw Muslim second wives
Ireland too is infested with the problem of Muslim culture and its inherent brutality toward women. The government now requires men from Islamic countries seeking residency to sign an affidavit rejecting polygamy, and men who marry Irish women must make a formal declaration that they will not take another wife on being granted citizenship. A Lebanese man was refused residence for both his wives and 13 children.
  The Irish Council of Civil Liberties said the enforcement was "despicable".

Europe tackles 'honour killings'
June 2004 - Police met in the Hague to strategize about combatting the increasing honor killings there. Because of the nature of the murders, the numbers are unclear, however police in England and Wales are revinvestigating 100 deaths to determine their real cause. Police say that contract killers are sometimes hired by the families and bounty hunters are also used to find the victims.

Child rape victims struggle for justice in Pakistan
The pain to families of having a child brutally violated is made even worse by the refusal of authorities to prosecute the crime. There is enormous social pressure to overlook terrible crimes, such as the rape of 2 1/2-year-old Neha Masih, who may be permanently damaged. According to human rights activists, half of all Pakistani children -- girls and boys -- fall victim to some kind of sexual abuse, ranging from indecent exposure through to rape.

Somalis march over shut hospital
Mogadishu's only free hospital closed after a doctor was threatened with death by some gunmen after he removed a woman's womb in order to save her life. According to Somali values, that was as good as killing her, and the family demanded 50 camels in compensation, the traditional payment for a killed female.

Almost 2m living in France's angry ghettos
A large chunk of French Muslims remain unassimilated and the places where they live are turning into violent ghettos, according to a French intelligence agency report leaked in early July and partially published in Le Monde. Women are in danger, the study notes, particularly those of north African origin who choose to adopt European ways of life.

'Bare Branches' and Danger in Asia
"Bare branches" is the Chinese term for unmarried men, and in this case refers to the sociological time bomb resulting from the removal of girls from the population largely through the use of fetus-identifying technology. The sex ratio for Chinese children through age 4 is over 120:100 (120 boys for every 100 girls), according to the 2000 census. A normal sex ratio for this age group is 105 or less. The authors (Profs. Andrea M. den Boer and Valerie M. Hudson) observe, "In societies where the status of women is so low that they are routinely culled from the population, even before birth, the prospects for peace and democracy are seriously diminished."
  See also the review of "Bare Branches: The Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Population" a new book by the aforementioned authors.

More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing
This is the shocking demographic analysis from economist Amartya Sen in the New York Review of Books in 1990 revealing a Third World holocaust of women and girls. He used the sex-ratio norms to reveal the deadly effects of diminished nourishment and healthcare, along with sex-selective abortions and infanticide.

"Missing Women" - international aspects of female-to-male ratio
Dollars and Sense updated Amartya Sen's analysis of female mortality to show the continuing disparity in the treatment of women and girls around the non-West. Using simple demographic examination, these figures use 2000 census results to reveal 112 million females missing, including 54.9 million in China and 43.7 in India.

Newly-wed doctors flee for their lives
Pakistani MDs Amnat and Ghulam Mustafa are on the run so they will not be killed because her family does not approve of the marriage. "My brothers have threatened to kill me and my husband," 44-year-old Amnat said. "There is no guarantee for my life if I go home."
   Amnat's family has kidnapped and tortured two of her husband's women relatives for more than two weeks and attacked and wounded his nephew to avenge the marriage. "At least 35 of my relatives have left Moro in fear of their lives," he said. In Amnat's home province of Sindh, rights groups say 398 people, including 243 women, were murdered in honour killings in 2002.

Iran police in fashion crackdown
Young Iranian women have been disobeying the strict Islamic dress code there, and the morals police have responded by mass round-ups. Dozens of women were held in shopping areas of Tehran. (7/12/04)

Odds stacked against Indian women'
Bollywood film personality Preity Zinta gives a first-person account of how unsafe it is for Indian women in public. Not only are women still second-class citizens, but now there are knock-offs of western music videos with very sexist depictions of women.

US Muslim woman defies hardliners
Asra Nomani has taken on the mysogynist male leaders of her Morgantown, West Virginia, mosque. The all-male tribunal in charge of the mosque want to banish her for revolutionary activities like entering through the front door. She also objects to the prohibition of women speaking to the faithful in the mosque. Born in Bombay, Nomani came to the United States at age four.

Muslim women fight instant divorce
Several Muslim countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia) have outlawed the practice of "talaq" by which a man may divorce his wife merely by saying "I divorce you" three times. (Women of course have no such right.) But in India, Muslim men still divorce their wives in a minute. Furthermore, modern technology makes it even easier, and now the phone and text messaging are used.

Can tolerant Canada tolerate sharia?
The issue of sharia arbitration tribunals in Canada has been bouncing around for a few months, and the media is finally beginning to get a clue about this legal camel's nose under the tent, remarking "critics worry that the rights of women are being sacrificed for the sake of multiculturalism." Islamic women living in Canada are leading the opposition, because they understand what they may lose. A woman stated at a Toronto rally, "It's shocking to see the seeds of an Islamic republic being sown here in Canada."
  This article reminds us of Canada's "official doctrine of multiculturalism, the notion that a society is made richer when ethnic groups are encouraged to share their cultural expression and values." Interesting that the author mentions in passing "polygamous marriages - unions that aren't uncommon in Ontario's Muslim community."
  Polygamy is illegal in Canada.

Female Genital Mutilation
This is a page of links for organizations, medical society statements against FGM, scholarly articles, legal resources and case studies.

Hmong Refugees: American Woman
The video clip from the television show California Connected is remarkably honest for a PBS program and gives a disturbing portrait of the treatment of Hmong women within their highly patriarchal and supersitious culture.

Girl, 16, hanged in public in Iran
On August 15, Ateqeh Sahaleh was executed in the town of Neka, northern Iran, for having a "sharp tongue". She had no legal representation and defended herself. Apparently she spoke harshly to a judge in court.

Sudan: Islamic law imposed on Khartoum's Southerners
When Sharia is law, non-Muslims are not supposed to be required to obey it. However, reality is often different, as we see in this case of a young Christian woman who was arrested and sentenced to 40 lashes for not wearing a Muslim-style headscarf. No wonder that when a country reaches some critical mass of Muslim population where they start to boss everyone around, Christians leave. As Daniel Pipes notes, Christians numbered 2 million in 1920's Turkey but now only a few thousand remain, and Lebanon's Christian population has gone from 55 percent in 1932 to under 30 percent now.

Declaring 'I Divorce You' by Mail or Mobile Phone Is Easy for Muslim Men
Technology has been quite the help for Muslim men who want to ditch their wives the quickie way through a declaration of "I divorce you" said three times. No longer is human presence required — a text message sent over a digital phone can now accomplish instant divorce. In Malaysia, tech-savvy males rid themselves of bothersome wives by simply texting, "I d4c U, I d4c U, I d4c U."

Rochester man killed wife for "honor"
Ismail Peltek, a legal Turkish immigrant residing in a suburb near Rochester, New York, was arrested for the April 15 murder of his wife with a hammer. He also bludgeoned his daughters (aged 22 and 4), fracturing their skulls. Peltek attacked his wife and daughters after learning that his brother had molested them. According to the Middle Eastern custom of "honor killing," only murdering the females involved in any sort of untoward sexual encounter will cleanse the family's reputation, although the brother doesn't even get a harsh word.
    A Turkish-speaking Rochester police officer asked Peltak, "If you had the opportunity to kill the family again, would you?"
    "My female family, yes. My male family, no," Peltek allegedly replied.

Muslim cut his daughter's throat for taking a Christian boyfriend
Britain is plagued by honor killings now that there are nearly two million Muslims living in the British Isles. (There were six in London alone during 2003 and it's unlikely that all are reported.) One too-familiar story is that of a Kurdish Muslim who murdered his 16-year-old daughter because he disapproved of her western way of life and Christian boyfriend. Abdalla Yones slashed his daughter Heshu's throat and left her to bleed to death. When sentencing Yones to life in prison, Judge Neil Denison remarked that the murder arose "out of irreconcilable cultural differences between traditional Kurdish values and those of western society."

Mole or Savior?
This article about so-called Muslim Moderate Tariq Ramadan by the excellent Arnaud de Borchgrave notes that his views are actually rather extreme, at least by American standards.

    In a televised debate with France's then Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy late last year, Mr. Ramadan declined to condemn "lapidation" — the stoning of adulterous wives as mandated by a strict interpretation of the Koran. Instead, Mr. Ramadan said he favored a "moratorium" in the practice.

Muslims rule major Swedish city
This blog listing contains several translations from Swedish about how bad life has gotten in Malmo in particular. Here's one item:

    Rapes in Sweden as a whole have increased by 17% just since the beginning of 2003, and have had a dramatic increase during the past decade. Gang rapes, usually involving Muslim immigrant males and native Swedish girls, have become commonplace. Two weeks ago, 5 Kurds brutally raped a 13-year-old Swedish girl.

The error of too much tolerance
San Francisco columnist Joan Ryan brought her non-judgmental attitudes with her on a trip to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and was rather surprised at the physical modernity while the lives of women remained mired in the Islamic stone age. She accepted uncritically some politically correct rhetoric from a Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) flack who was an apologist for discrimination against women. (CAIR is an anti-American, pro-terrorist group posing as a civil rights organization — see Anti-CAIR.)
    But Ryan at least came to a reasoned conclusion: "We cannot force another country to change its values and customs so they better reflect our own. But we don't have to accept them, either. Some customs and values are not worthy of our tolerance."

As men go north, wives get forgotten
One little noticed problem with illegal immigration is the number of Mexican wives who are financially abandoned when husbands head north for the promised land. Some men remarry in the United States with no divorce — bigamy is still illegal in both nations. The husband of Virginia Bocato de la Pila was particularly rude when he moved back to his home town with the new wife. Apparently there is no legal recourse there for such obvious criminal behavior.

Man sacrifices wife at Kali's altar
Bharat Lal thought that murdering his wife would rid his 19-year-old son Sandeep of an annoying ghost. Lal hacked his wife to death at a temple of Kali and then proceeded to eat the dead woman's tongue. Here's a selection of responses to the crime. "One thinks the 21st century belongs to India."

Iranian hard-liners call for rollback of women's rights (9/2004)
The Iranian parliament rejected proposals to expand the inheritance right of Iranian women and to adopt the U. N. convention that bans discrimination against women. Instead of moving toward gender equality, lawmakers have called for placing more restrictions on women's attire and on social freedoms. More than 60 percent of university students are women, and nearly two-thirds of the population is under 30, so the argument for gender reform is not going away.

Sentenced to Be Raped
New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof examines the story of Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani young woman who was brutally gang raped over a criminal cover-up connected with the rape of her brother. Instead of committing suicide, as her culture required, she testified against her attackers. As a result, some of them are facing execution and she provided a valuable role model for oppressed Pakistani women.

China fears bachelor future
In 2020, China may have 40 million single men because of the culture's unchanging disdain of females. One doctor estimates that 70 percent of the newborns in her hospital are male. Nationwide, up to two million extra boys are born each year. It's a demographic crisis, but nothing is being done to address the underlying problem of misogyny.

Iraqi women flee colleges
Threats and actual violence by Islamic thugs have forced women who prefer western dress to burqa imprisonment to defer their studies. One-third of women students have requested postponing their classes until safety can be assured. Islamic extremists have also demanded that classes be gender segregated.

Shocking Slay Stats for Women Immigrants
According to a study from the Bureau of Injury Epidemiology of New York City, foreign-born women living there are 87 percent more likely to be murdered by someone they know rather than by a stranger. "Immigration is an extremely stressful event," said Dr. Susan Wilks, who heads the city Health Department. "Relationships change, expectations of gender roles change."

Partial History of the Montreal Massacre
In 1989, a man named Marc Lepine went to an engineering classroom of the École Polytechnique. He separated out the female students and proceeded to open fire, killing 14 and injuring 15 others as he shreiked, "I hate feminists." He then killed himself, after committing Canada's worst act of mass murder. Interestingly, it wasn't until 10 years later that the Toronto Star reported that the killer's real name was Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi and he was the son of an Algerian immigrant who taught his son to hate women.

Europe Weak On Abuse By Muslims
The spineless political correctness of European societies is responsible for the suffering of women and children within their own countries.

    "Western society tends to turn a blind eye to the plight of European Muslim women and girls because 'Muslim culture is different'," Roy Brown, president of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), told the 53-member Commission.
        "Yet in Europe many women find themselves subject to domestic violence, undergo forced marriages or are even killed by family members because of some belief that they have tarnished the family honour," Brown declared.
Another story on this subject has a curious title: Europe fails to protect Muslim women from Islamic extremists, campaigners say. In many cases, the "extremists" are family members. But it contains some good quotes, e.g.,
    Respecting cultural diversity is really a form of "upside-down racism," preventing immigrant women from enjoying the same freedom and protection as native European women, said Iranian activist Azam Kamguian.

Dead Newborn Infant Lies In Gutter Like Trash In China
Several photos reveal what has been reported elsewhere less graphically. Really appalling.

 

© 2005 Brenda Walker All rights reserved.