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Rob Long, at the Wall Street Journal, is concerned that the world may no longer be able to protect itself from terrorist transvestites.
His hilarious fear stems from a UN report notable for its nuance and sensitivity towards people who find themselves marginalized due to their gender expression.
Martin Scheinin, UN Special Rapporteur, wrote a report for the UN General Assembly titled “Protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism”.
In it, he makes ‘controversial’ statements like:
Gender is not synonymous with women but rather encompasses the social constructions that underlie how women’s and men’s roles, functions and responsibilities, including in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity, are defined and understood. This report will therefore identify the gendered impact of counter-terrorism measures both on women and men, as well as the rights of persons of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. As a social construct, gender is also informed by, and intersects with, various other means by which roles, functions and responsibilities are perceived and practiced, such as race, ethnicity, culture, religion and class. Consequently, gender is not static; it is changeable over time and across contexts. Understanding gender as a social and shifting construct rather than as a biological and fixed category is important because it helps to identify the complex and inter-related gender-based human rights violations caused by counterterrorism measures; to understand the underlying causes of these violations; and to design strategies for countering terrorism that are truly non-discriminatory and inclusive of all actors.
See my previous posts on this topic here and here.
Shackdwellers Movement under attack in Durban, South Africa
Friday, October 9 2009
12:00pm- 1:30pm
outside the South African consulate
333 E 38th St, btwn 1st & 2nd Aves
(near 4/5/6 trains at 42nd St)
Members of Picture the Homeless, the Poverty Initiative, and Domestic Workers United, three NYC grassroots organizations, met with representatives from the South African Shack Dwellers Movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) in NYC in August. As AbM faces attack and repression in Durban, poor and struggling people and our allies in NYC make common-cause & stand with our friends in South Africa!
For more information, contact Picture the Homeless at 646-314-6423 or brandon@picturethehomeless.org and tej@picturethehomeless.org
More information about what’s going on in South Africa: http://abahlali.org
***
Abahlali baseMjondolo is making the following suggestions, in terms of folks doing actions in solidarity with their movement:
1. Affirm our right to exist and our right to be critical of the government.
2. Organize in support of our demands.
3. Support those of us who have lost their homes and all their possessions with material support.
4. Support those of us who are traumatized, including the children, with counseling and spiritual support.
5. Organize serious discussions about the nature of democracy in our country – and include delegates from poor people’s organizations in those discussions on the basis of equality.
You can also take action NOW by calling or e-mailing the South African Consulate and supporting the demands of the Shack Dwellers!
Call: 212-213-4880 or e-mail: consulate.ny@foreign.gov.za
I’ve divided today’s issue into sections. Oh boy!
Overseas
The Czech people are celebrating the collapse of American plans to put (more) American military equipment in their country! Go Czechs!
Idiot far-right German political party NPD sent offensive letters to “parliamentary candidates of immigrant heritage, telling them to go home.” It’s part of their cynical plan to stir up the not-properly-riled dormant xenophobic neo-nazi element in German society to vote for NPD in future elections.
Good news for the gheyz!
Not only does Nevada’s same-sex Domestic Partnership Registry Act take effect today, but the ban on same-sex marriage in Texas was declared unconstitutional!
So Topical!
Ed Kilgore wrote about David Brooks and anti-anti-racism. Did you read what he calls Brooks’ “unintentionally hilarious column”?
American Girl debuts “Gwen”, their new homeless doll! How topical! Here’s a snippet of her story:
Gwen and her mother Janine fell on hard times when her father lost his job; they later lost the house as they were unable to keep up payments. Soon after, Gwen’s father left them and they became homeless the fall before the start of the book’s events.
LOL your post-racial America!
(got that title from Shakesville btw)
US attorney Jim Greenlee in Mississipi targeted convenience store owners based only on the evidence that their names sound Muslim. Not like kinda on the DL, but as a stated initiative. The Convenience Store Initiative, to be precise.
Of the more than 100 people listed as being investigated by federal authorities, nearly every name appears to be Islamic. FBI officials would not comment.
FAIL. Good thing my pals at Mississippi Immigrants Rights Association are ON IT.
ANNnnnd to cap it all off with the worst thing ever: a white woman claiming to be an immigration officer stabbed an immigrant woman and stole her 4-day-old baby. This 
happened yesterday in Tennessee to mother Maria Gurrolla. Her missing baby’s name is Yair Anthony Carrillo. Investigators said:
“The child was taken by a white female who was posing as an immigration worker. She had come to the residence and demanded the mother give her the baby. When the mother refused to comply she stabbed the mother approximately 8 times.”
I can only hope for the safety of these housing activists and their impoverished communities. Mazwi, the first speaker, is one of the Abahlali members whom I met at a poverty camp here in the States. He is a very young man, and yet as you can see in the video he has the fire in him!
Please refer to my previous post on this matter, Shack Dwellers Attacked – People Have Been Killed to find out how you can get involved.
There will be a protest in London at 6pm today outside of the South African’s Trafalgar Square embassy. Find out more at London Coalition Against Poverty.
Also, here’s a statement from the NGO Children of South Africa on the attacks.
Below is a solidarity statement from Slum Dwellers International.
TODAY from Durban, South Africa:
Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC)
Emergency Press Release, Sunday 27 September 2009
Kennedy Road Development Committee Attacked – People Have Been Killed
Last night at about 11:30 a group of about 40 men heavily armed with guns, bush knives and even a sword attacked the KRDC near the Abahlali baseMjondolo office in the Kennedy Road settlement. The movement was holding an all night camp for the Youth League but the camp was not attacked but the people at the camp were intimidated and threatened.
The men who attacked were shouting: ‘The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.” Some people were killed. We can’t yet say exactly how many. Some are saying that three people are dead. Some are saying that five people are dead. Many people are also very seriously injured. The attackers broke everything that they could including the windows in the hall. They destroyed 15 houses before launching their attack. They were knocking on each door shouting ‘All the amaZulu must come out’ and then destroying the shacks. As far as we know two of the attackers were killed when people managed to take their bush knives off them. This was self defense.
The Sydenham police were called but they did not come. They said that they had no vans but they didn’t radio their vans to come. This has led some people to conclude that this was a carefully planned attack on the movement and that the police knew in advance that it had been planned and stayed away on purpose. Why else would the police refuse to come when they are being called while people are being openly murdered? When the attack happened one officer from Crime Intelligence was there in plain clothes.
The rest of this press release is below the fold.
This is heart-breaking. I recently met some leaders from Abahlali baseMjondolo at a poverty camp in the States. They are back in South Africa now. I am worried about their safety.
Read this amazing solidarity letter.
Sign a petition to South African President Jacob Zuma to end the violence.
Crap loads of interesting stuff going on in this here world:
Trans Methodist Minister Finds Acceptance from his Congregation. Via Box Turtle Bulletin.
Acting Like Native Americans Is a Cult German Hobby.
Canadian Christianists Oppressed by the Teaching of Religion in Public Schools. Don’t worry, that doesn’t make sense to me either. Essentially, it appears they are angry their children are learning that religious besides Christianity exist.
Baptist Preacher Says of Gays: “I Hope You Get Brain Cancer”.
Actress Openly Discusses Her Schizophrenia. I think it is awesome she wants to be public about her mental condition. Yay!
Islamophobia Claims a Life in London. The elderly Ekram Haque was killed by a gang of whites in front of his 3-year-old granddaughter.
Sudanese Journalist Convicted of Wearing Pants. Lubna Hussein’s subsequent actions show true courage and solidarity. Holla!
The Wall Street Journal kindly reminds us that Christians are terribly, terribly oppressed in America. And are totally not the dominate majority who enjoy state privileges that non-Christians could never dream of.
Almost exactly a month ago I wrote about a man who busted into a queer youth support group in Tel-Aviv and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing two and injuring fifteen.
Queers Without Borders has posted an amazing response.
Israel is marketed as a gay-friendly tourist destination and a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. In fact, LGBTQ people of all ethnicities and religions face discrimination and violence in Israel, just as we do in all other parts of the world…
Contrary to the mediated attempt to describe Israel as a force of liberation and progress, we see objecting to apartheid Israel as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, including LGBTQ Palestinians. LGBTQ Palestinians are not going to be “saved” by a so-called gay-friendly Zionist state. Organized LGBTQ Palestinians reject the myth of Israel as an “oasis of tolerance.”
This is what solidarity looks like.
Some commentors at the Queers Without Borders post make the ridiculous assertion that Jewish queers are lucky to live where they do and not in an Arab state, because of the natural homophobia of Arabs. This shows a brazen level of misinformation, as Arab countries were known for their greater tolerance of homosexuality before colonialism.
Gay rights activists like Mounir, meanwhile, express surprise that homosexuality has become such a taboo in the Arab world, given a long history of relative tolerance.
“Homosexuality was never a big issue in Arab culture. We have lots of famous poets and singers who were gay,” he said. “Abu Nawas openly wrote about love between men, and Tuwais, one of the most famous singers in Arab history, wasn’t just gay, but almost a woman”.
From Irin.
Urgent Action Appeal
UNITED KINGDOM: Forced Eviction of Dale Farm
17 August 2009
Dear friends,
More than 100 families living in chalets, mobile-homes and caravans in the largest Romani Gipsy and Irish Traveller community in the United Kingdom, at Dale Farm, Crays Hill and nearby Hovefields, Essex County, are facing imminent forced eviction. Approximately 1,000 people have been residing on the estate for more than seven years, including many children. The community has been resisting forced evictions attempts by Basildon District Council (BDC) since May 2005 when it voted to clear a large part of the settlement. Although all residents hold land ownership titles, sections of the site had no planning permission and Basildon Council has subsequently refused all attempts to regularise the situation, preferring the enforcement option.
Dale Farm community
Enforcement orders have been served by Basildon Council requiring plot owners to remove their homes, although previously much of the site had been licensed as a large scrap-yard from 1978 until 2001. After the BDC voted to take direct action, the residents sought a judicial review of this decision and won in the High Court. This judgment was overturned by the Court of Appeal in January 2009 and an appeal to the House of Lords was denied in May. Despite the fact the UK Government has told Basildon it is required to provide land for a minimum of 62 additional pitches by 2011, no alternative site have been made available by Basildon District Council to which the residents can lawfully move.
The wishes of the residents are to remain where it is and not to be split up. There is a strong communal ethic, with the elderly being cared for by the younger generation and small children protected. No one, young or old, wants to be accommodated in bricks-and-mortar housing. Romanies and Travellers feel that having lost the possibility to follow the old nomadic life-style, it is essential to the preservation of their culture and ethnicity to keep Dale Farm community intact.
In line with the Housing Act 1996, it is incumbent on the BDC to consider the claim of the occupants to not be evicted as the families threatened with forced removal have no place to go.
The community is therefore seeking your support to urge the Basildon Council to:
- Put on hold the forced eviction of the Dale Farm community and engage in meaningful consultation discussions with the residents and their representatives for the purpose of seeking to achieve an amicable solution;
- Consider both the possibility of a) issuing planning permission to allow their permanent residence on their present properties; or b) utilising the 4 million Euro set aside for the eviction to provide an alternative area to which the residents can relocate;
- Respect and protect the housing and property and family rights of the Dale Farm community, and in particular the rights of the children.
Suggested Action
Please send an appeal letter by e-mail or fax to the addresses listed below requesting the Basildon Council to act on this issue. Sample letters and further background information are provided below.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Exciting Times is back with some morsels of news for your brain to chew on.
Is golf unethical?
Yes.
There, that wasn’t hard. But here’s an opinion piece by Randy Cohen in which he mulls over this very question. I found it quite interesting.
A Niqab Ban in Michigan Courts?
Is America inching towards a French-style burqa-ban debate? Ginnah Muhammad, who wears a niqab as the result of sincerely-held religious belief, was brave enough to sue a judge, Paul Paruk, who wouldn’t preside over her case if she didn’t remove portions of her religious clothing he didn’t like. CAIR and the ACLU got involved. She lost. The Michigan courts are going to have a field day with this one.
US Indefinitely Holding Reuters Journalist
Ah yes, the Leader of the Free World is at it again.
‘Reuters is concerned at the continued and protracted incarceration of Ibrahim Jassam, and continues to urge the U.S. military to either charge or release him. Reuters believes that any accusation against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to counsel and present a defense.’
…Ibrahim Jassam, 31, is an Iraqi freelance photographer. Since Sept. 2, 2008, when U.S. soldiers seized him at his home near Baghdad, he has been held without charge in American military prisons.
A Program for Juvenile Offenders that Works? IN MISSOURI?
While America’s juvenile system is often criticized for corruption and abuse, Missouri state officials say its juvenile justice solution has saved billions of dollars and reduced the number of repeat offenders…
Known as the Missouri model, the program focuses on therapy, comfortable living conditions and an emphasis on job training and education…
Each offender is placed in a small group of 10 to 15, assigned a case worker and sent to school during the day. Offenders also put on Shakespeare stage productions and play sports. They learn about teamwork through camping and rock climbing.
Apparently the program has a low recidivism rate, a suicide rate of 0%, a high rate of high school graduation, AND saves Missouri hella cash. Who knew that there were benefits to not abusing juveniles’ human rights?
Welcome to The Exciting Times, a collection of news items that caught my interest!
*There has been another anti-Latino hate crime in Patchogue, New York, a small town with a history of anti-Latino violence, including the murder of Marcelo Lucero. This time a Latino mad was beaten and robbed by a gang of white men. White dudes: get your shit together over there!
*One of the first things I ever blogged about was that Oklahoma had passed a law mandating ultrasounds for women seeking abortion. Ultrasounds are commonly given before abortions, but it is unusual for the government to mandate normally elective medical procedures. My problem with this that it is almost assuredly just another ploy to make abortion less accessible, and it amounts to mandating medical rape.
Well, HUZZAH, because the law has been repealed! Though kind of on a technicality, and might be back again next year. Apparently the law also included a set of rules mandating that doctors go over the ultrasound with the patient and describe to her how much like a baby it looks. Can’t wait to see this one come back next year.
*Canadian citizen disowned and left in jail in Kenya. The woman, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, had immigrated from Somalia to Canada and is a naturalized citizen. For some reason her passport was “challenged” when she was trying to travel from Kenya to Canada this May. She was detained in Kenya, and when she appealed for help from the Canadian consulate, diplomat Liliane Khadour denied Mohamud was Canadian, claiming falsely that she had “carried out conclusive investigations” and determined that “the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned passport.”
All’s well that ends well, right? Am I right? Well, Khadour has been “recalled” and Mohamud, after three months, the help of friends, and DNA testing, proved her identity and returned to her country.
*Don’t miss The Women’s Crusade in the NYT Magazine this week. Though I don’t agree with every statement in the article, there are plenty of intriguing points made. For example:
It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century.
and
[I]t is emerging that male domination of society is also a risk factor [for turbulence and violence]; the reasons aren’t fully understood, but it may be that when women are marginalized the nation takes on the testosterone-laden culture of a military camp… Indeed, some scholars say they believe the reason Muslim countries have been disproportionately afflicted by terrorism is not Islamic teachings about infidels or violence but rather the low levels of female education and participation in the labor force.
ANNNNnnnd finally:
*Need some fuel to win health care arguments with your backwards-thinking relatives and coworkers? Here are some numbers for you to take a gander at, comparing health data collected from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. One of these countries doesn’t have nationalized health care. One of these countries also shows significantly worse health and health care than the others. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH??
I will simply re-post their announcement plus a picture:
THE SHACK DWELLERS MOVEMENT IN NEW YORK – SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY, 19th AUGUST, 2009
Meeting with members of DOMESTIC WORKERS UNITED
Founded in 2000, Domestic Workers United [DWU] is an organization of Caribbean, Latina and African nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers in New York, organizing for power, respect, fair labor standards and to help build a movement to end exploitation and oppression for all.
TIME: 11:00AM – 1:00PM
LOCATION: Domestic Workers United office,1201 Broadway, Suite 907 – 908, New York, NY 10001.
PH: (212) 481-5747
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19TH, 2009
Shack Dwellers Movement from South Africa at the Brecht Forum
DEAR MANDELA (15 min, 2009), a documentary work-in-progress about South Africa’s Shack Dwellers Movement, will be screening at the Brecht forum as part of the Visual Liberation Film Series, curated by Red Channels.
TIME: 7:30PM
ADDRESS: 451 West Street (that’s the West Side Highway) between Bank & Bethune Streets
DIRECTIONS:
A, C, E or L to 14th Street & 8th Ave, walk down 8th Ave. to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left
1, 2, 3 or 9 to 14th Street & 7th Ave, get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th Street to 8th Ave. left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left.
THURSDAY, 20th AUGUST, 2009
Panel Discussion & Screening at the Poverty Initiative
Please join the Poverty Initiative at Union Theological Seminary for an evening of discussion and film about Abahlali baseMjondolo (the Shack Dwellers Movement) of South Africa. Two of their leaders, Mazwi Nzimande and Reverend Mavuso Mbhekiseni, will be attending the Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Leadership School. They then are spending a week in New York sharing experiences from their work and lives, meeting with Poverty Scholars organizations and building relationships of solidarity with similar movements here. There will be a screening of DEAR MANDELA (15 min, 2009), a documentary work-in-progress about the Shack Dwellers Movement, directed by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza. The evening will also include a discussion with Poverty Initiative leaders about how to build deeper connections across continents.
7:30pm – 9:00pm in Room 205 at Union Theological Seminary, Room 205, New York, NY 10027
LOCATION: Union Theological Seminary is located at 121st Street and Broadway near the Columbia University campus. Take the 1 subway to 116th Street/Columbia University and walk north to 121st Street. When you enter the main entrance at Union Theological Seminary, the guards at the security desk will be able to direct you to Room 205.)
Abahlali baseMjondolo is the largest social movement of the poor in post-apartheid South Africa. The movement’s key demand is for ‘Land & Housing in the City’ but it has also successfully politicized and fought for an end to forced removals and for access to education and the provision of water, electricity, sanitation, health care and refuse removal as well as bottom up popular democracy. Amongst other victories the Abahlali have democratized the governance of many settlements, stopped evictions in a number of settlements, won access to schools and forced numerous government officials to ‘come down to the people’. For more information, visit http://www.abahlali.org
Afghan Husbands Win Right to Starve Wives
…when they don’t supply enough sexxx.
And other horrors. Interestingly, the law was designed in secret.
It’s neat to know that women’s basic human rights, such as, you know, the right to life, are just one bargaining chip amongst many in the game of politics.
When do you think we’ll hear of a country enforcing a woman’s right to starve her husband?
Never? And why exactly would that be?
Isn’t it great that France is so enlightened, and such a champion of women’s rights, that its government has begun to specifically target Muslim women for state harassment?
Isn’t that neat? Maybe, if we’re all lucky, they’ll have a “democratic” vote so that the white majority can decide which pieces of clothing to ban from the Muslim minority.
We have French Urban Regeneration Minister Fadela Amara, herself Muslim, saying that she is “in favour of the burka not existing in my country”. Perhaps she will soon take the path of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim-turned-atheist, who’s popularity in European and American conservative circles seems more fueled by Islamophobia than by anything else.
Ali once said, “The whole idea is for 1.2-1.5 billion [Muslim] people living in the world to start thinking, at least, I mean exercising some sort of intellectual activity, which we haven’t been doing…”
But Amara’s statements about burka-banning are not all.
Now it appears that the burkini, a swimsuit that is loose-fitting and covers everything but the face, hands and feet, is also a threat to enlightened France.
Major public health threat.
Here’s a bit from an LA Times article about a woman banned from a swimming pool in Emerainville that is really, well, astounding:
Emerainville’s mayor and the pool management contend that the burkini ban was invoked strictly because of hygiene concerns, just as shorts, rather than Speedos, are not allowed, because they can be worn outside the pool area.
“This has nothing to do with Islam,” Mayor Alain Kelyor told Le Parisien, “because the pool rules prohibit swimming while dressed.
“Besides, Islamic bathing suits don’t exist in the Koran,” he concluded.
Nice one Mayor Kelyor! But if that isn’t islamophobic enough for you….
“This is the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg,” National Assembly member Andre Gerin said of the burkini issue, which he claims is part of a “larger national problem” of growing Islamic extremism in France. Wearing the garment in public is a “clear provocation” and “ridiculous,” while helping “undo years of progress toward equal rights for women.”
Can’t we just burn them as witches already? ARRRG.
Here’s what the offending woman, identified only as Carole, has to say: “My only battle is simply to be able to swim with my children in a pool.” Oh, the evils of Islam! The witch Muslim woman has spawned! THEY ARE TRYING TO OUTBREED WHITES!
I’ve already written a careful explanation of why I hold these opinions on burkas, in a previous post where I outline 10 Reasons a French Burka Ban Is Wrong.
Via Womanist Musings.
Please add to this discussion. However, please do not assume that I know nothing about Islam, women’s oppression in the name of Islam, or what a burka is. Read my 10 Reasons post to get a better idea of my stance.
‘Cause I can’t really be sure whether these stories will make much of a splash in the MSM.
Did you know that an American Apparel in Maryland has been vandalized and it’s employees have received repeated threats because they display a t-shirt that says “Legalize Gay” in their window? Via Evil Slutopia.
Did you know that August 1st a gunman killed two adolescents and injured 15 more at a queer youth support group in Tel Aviv? Via City of Ladies.
From the Jerusalem Post:
“These were teenagers,” Yaniv Weisman, chairman of the Israeli Gay Youth organization, told The Jerusalem Post.
With tears in his eyes, Weisman added, “They came to this center from across the country to talk to one another and receive help. This was supposed to be a safe place for them. Someone knew what they were doing when they came here. This is not a pub or a club.”
Here is the link to Israeli Gay Youth.
Here’s some reading for ya!
BBC: Saddam’s rule ‘better’ for gay Iraqis
All the LGBT Iraqis interviewed for Gay Life After Saddam maintained that life was easier for them when Saddam Hussein was in power, from 1979 to 2003.
Some spoke fondly of an underground gay culture that flourished before the war in Baghdad.
Seattle Times: Israel deports activists detained going to Gaza
Israel on Monday deported a former U.S. congresswoman, a Nobel peace prize laureate and other activists who were arrested and jailed after trying to break the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli navy commandeered their boat last week as it tried to sail from Cyprus to Gaza.
…There were 21 passengers and three tons of medical aid on board, and most of the activists were quickly expelled. But Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire and former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, along with six other activists, remained in Israeli custody while the government arranged flights for them…
BBC: Egypt mourns ‘headscarf martyr’
Marwa Sherbini, 31, was stabbed 18 times by Axel W, who is now under arrest in Dresden for suspected murder.
…Ms Sherbini had sued her killer after he called her a “terrorist” because of her headscarf.
…Medics were unable to save Ms Sherbini who was three months pregnant with her second child.
More on death in US immigration detention. New York Times: Piecing Together an Immigrant’s Life the U.S. Refused to See
Tanveer Ahmad, it turns out, was a longtime New York City cabdriver who had paid thousands of dollars in taxes and immigration application fees… His only trouble with the law was a $200 fine for disorderly conduct in 1997: While working at a Houston gas station, he had displayed the business’s unlicensed gun to stop a robbery.
It would come back to haunt him.
And now, a Day Brightener after all this shitty news:
Yay! Great news. Read about it here.
How did it get banned in the first place?
Homosexuality has been illegal in India since 1860 under a statute introduced by British colonial rulers that banned “carnal intercourse against the order of nature.” Conviction carried a fine and maximum 10-year jail sentence.
That begs the question whether gay sex would ever have been illegal if homophobic British colonists hadn’t decided the matter for India.
But yay, now those days are past!
“We are all very thrilled and happy,” said Anjali Gopalan, executive director of the Naz Foundation, a gay advocacy group that had petitioned the court to overturn the statute.
“This is just the beginning. The battle will continue till every member of this community gets all the rights that an ordinary citizen has,” Gopalan told reporters.
I’m glad to see that gay Indians have such a great advocate in their community. Learn more about the Naz Foundation.
***UPDATE 4/3/09: I’ve noticed this post floating around the web in a bunch of different places. That’s fine, I’m glad ya’ll like my thoughts. Please, just be sure to credit The Czech and put in a link when you do so. Thanks.***
What Dori said.
The New York Times and Le Monde both reported today on certain remarks from French President Nicolas Sarkozy calling for the elimination of the burqa.
To wit:
“The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue. It is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “The burqa is not a religious sign. It is a sign of the subjugation, of the submission, of women.”
To enthusiastic applause, he said: “I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory.”
STOP IT!
There are a thousand things wrong with this. Let me count them.
1. Mandating how women should dress is mandating how women should dress, whether it is a mandate to wear a burqa, or a mandate not to wear one. When a man tells a woman how to dress, it’s paternalism and subjugation one way or the other.
2. Plus, as Dori points out, a man telling a woman that too much of her body is covered, and that she needs to expose more of it to his view, is pretty weird. How much modesty is too much? How much exposed flesh is enough to satisfy Sarkozy?
3. A Christian man imposing rules of dress upon Muslim women does little to actually foster the kind of gender equality he claims to be advancing.
4. Sarkozy talks as though there is no “subjugation of women” among the non-Muslim denizens of France. As though France is a wonderland of gender equality. According to WikiGender: “Compared to other countries, France has always been rather late in adopting gender equality as a goal and designing policies to achieve it.” So why suddenly all this concern for a certain subset of French women, who just randomly happen to come from a community hated and feared by many in France?
5. What other items of clothing does Mr. Sarkozy disapprove of? Do they also happen to correspond to certain disfavored, marginalized communities?
6. Any attempt to “eliminate” burqas in France will only serve to further marginalize the women who wear them. Burqas, for some women, represent a compromise. Some individuals believe women are not supposed to be seen in public, or be looked at by men outside of the family. In this extreme view, women would be entirely confined to the house and removed from outside society unless they can put on a burqa and go out. Eliminating the burqa for these women would mean eliminating their access to the world. Better conditions for such women require a little more work than outlawing a piece of clothing.
7. Eliminating burqas in France would not mean that women’s oppression in Muslim communities would end. It would simply be a cosmetic change that would do nothing to actually work with communities and empower French Muslim women to achieve equality. It is a measure that ignores all nuance and avoids all honest work to actually tackle the heart of the problem.
8. All this “eliminate the burqa” talk fits just a little too snugly with the popular “Islam oppresses women” meme that Christian Westerners like to toss around, particularly when they are trying to frame a “War of Civilizations”.
9. Also, doesn’t this just come off as a cheap attempt at burnishing his Women’s Issues credentials while effectively only harassing a marginalized, already-persecuted minority? And doing little to nothing to further true societal equality for all women in France?
10. What real issues do French women, and French Muslim women in particular, actually face that Sarkozy is completely avoiding by diverting attention with this stunt? Why randomly target French Muslims now?
Ok, so that was only 10 things. Huh.
This week the government of South Africa, and President Kgalema Motlanthe, have decided to stand in solidarity with China against human rights. South Africa symbolically denied a visa to the Dalai Lama, who wanted to attend a peace conference for Nobel laureates in Pretoria. China is an important trading partner of South Africa, and so Motlanthe didn’t want to allow in a visitor who may remind people that China has a horrible human rights record. Because that might hurt money flows to elites.
Among those scheduled to attend were: Nelson Mandela, (another SA former president) FW de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, (former Finnish president) Martti Ahtisaari, and Queen Rania of Jordan.
The planners have decided to cancel the conference in protest. The BBC reports:
The incident is a huge embarrassment for the South African government, which has placed a lot of importance on democracy and human rights since the end of apartheid in 1994…
Yeah, it is damn embarrassing to bar advocates of justice from entering your country because that might upset oppressors who pay you off.
The New York Times reports that the Israeli army is experiencing a clash between two groups within its ranks: the secularists and the religious nationalists.
It is all coming out in the aftermath of the Gaza invasion and the revelation of severe abuses against the Palestinians. Religious material was distributed to soldiers that framed the invasion as a religious war. The material claimed that Jews have a God-given right to the Palestinians’ land. The army’s chief rabbi himself, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, is an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank. He handed out a booklet to soldiers containing “a rabbinical edict against showing the enemy mercy.”
In response:
Avshalom Vilan, then a leftist member of Parliament, accused the rabbi of having “turned the Israeli military’s activity from fighting out of necessity into a holy war.”
…[Rontzki] has written, for example, that what others call “humanistic values” are simply subjective feelings that should be subordinate to following the law of the Torah.
Israeli philosopher Moshe Halbertal says, “The right tends to make an equation between authenticity and brutality, as if the idea of humanism were a Western and alien implant to Judaism. They seem not to know that nationalism and fascism are also Western ideas and that hypernationalism is not Jewish at all.”
This is all thrown into even creepier relief by the revelation of certain army members’ predilection for violent and offensive T-shirt imagery.
The T-shirt on the left depicts a pregnant Palestinian woman wearing Islamic clothing, in the cross hairs of a gun. Underneath it says “1 Shot 2 Kills.”
Some other T-shirt designs of recent Israeli army popularity include:
A Palestinian child in the cross hairs, with the slogan: “The smaller they are, the harder it is”
A dead Palestinian baby with the slogan: “Better use Durex”
A soldier standing next to a bruised woman with the words: “Bet you got raped!”
“Let every Arab mother know that her son’s fate is in my hands!”
A ruined mosque and the slogan: “We came, we saw, we destroyed!”
This past January, the “Night Predators” demolitions platoon from Golani’s Battalion 13 ordered a T-shirt showing a Golani devil detonating a charge that destroys a mosque. An inscription above it says, “Only God forgives.”
…No one had a problem with the fact that a mosque gets blown up in the picture?
[One of the soldiers in the platoon said] “I don’t see what you’re getting at. I don’t like the way you’re going with this. Don’t take this somewhere you’re not supposed to, as though we hate Arabs.”
Huh. I don’t like the way this is going. Sounds like any other country that believes it has a religious mandate to do violence to others. Sounds like where Bush was trying to take the American military. Sounds like the religious right who framed the Iraq war as a “clash of civilizations,” a religious war of Christians vs. Muslims. Not all Americans are Christian. Some Americans are Muslim. Not all Israelis are Jews. Some Israelis are Arab (Jewish and not), some are Muslim.
I wish this holy war frame wasn’t so attractive for certain groups of people who already seem to lack signs of the kind of good judgment one hopes is inherent in war decision-making.
Arg. Most of you probably heard about the Pope’s little African snafu, when he declared that condom use cannot help prevent the spread of AIDS. Of course, like many of the beliefs he propagates, this is demonstrably false.
But many over-looked another, equally incendiary and thoughtlessly dogmatic statement he made while in Angola.
The Washington Times reports:
[Benedict] criticized the “irony of those who promote abortion as a form of ‘maternal’ health care.” The pope was referring to an African Union agreement signed by Angola and 44 other countries that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is endangered.
“How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health,” Benedict said.
Oh yes, how terrible it is that several African countries have taken steps to reduce maternal mortality and death from back alley abortion. It’s such a tragedy that these countries allow rape and incest victims choices regarding how to handle the crime done to them. Indeed, how disconcerting the claim that reproduction has anything to do with a woman’s body, health and life.
The pope has his finger to the pulse. Finger To The Pulse.
The pope left Africa on a final note of the importance of aid to the poor.
On Monday, the pope urged Angola’s leaders to make “the fundamental aspirations of the most needy people” their main concern.
“Our hearts cannot be at peace as long as there are brothers that suffer the lack of food, work, a house, and other fundamental goods,” the pontiff said in his airport departure speech.
However, the Catholic Church in Angola has been seizing land owned by poor families in order to build new Catholic churches. Over 2,000 families have been displaced, some violently. When Amnesty International pled with the pope to address this issue…
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi referred the question to Angolan Bishop Monsignor Jose Manuel Imbamba. The prelate denied anyone had been evicted or houses destroyed.
Nice one! Publicly declare compassion for the poor. Then violently remove families from their land to make way for new churches. Just what Jesus would do.
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