I just don't get it.

If a bunch of people sat in a room with the task of imagining the most f***ed-up thing they could think of, it couldn't be much worse than this:

A 13-year-old girl is raped by three men, and when her father complains to the authorities, they accuse her of adultery and sentence her to be stoned to death. She is taken to a football stadium where 1,000 people watch as she is placed in a hole in the ground and buried to her neck. Fifty men stone her, and at one point nurses are sent to check whether she is still alive. She is, so they put her back in the hole until she dies. Then a story is fabricated for the press in which she is 23 and pleads guilty to "adultery," accepting her fate, rather than pleading for her life, as she did in reality -- as if these changes of detail makes the hideous spectacle somehow excusable. Later, Amnesty International learned the factual details from witnesses to the execution. One boy was shot in a crossfire as members of the crowd attempted to assist the girl.

So, yes, this is what is happening on the mainland in Somalia.

After reading that horrible, enraging story, I needed to search for organizations that are helping women in places that hold little hope for them -- although, in the case of the organization below, not specifically Somalia, but perhaps they will include that country in the future. But it is helping women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, etc. It looks like a wonderful organization. I have been looking for something like this to support.

Women for Women International

From Somalia: Nearly Unbelievable Cruelty

A 13-year-old Somali girl reports that she had been raped by three men and is accused of adultery and stoned to death, in a stadium full of 1,000 onlookers.

It's almost unbelievable, a caricature of senseless cruelty. But this sort of incident isn't a vestige of an unmodernized culture. It's part of a very "modern," in the sense of "recent" (I guess "anti-modern" would be more accurate) movement in the region, a consciously cultivated practice of misogynistic violence that is perpetrated by militias with a war criminal mindset. If people want a definition of "terrorism," they shouldn't go looking too hard, because this is it.

There is no "lesson" from this for 13-year-old girls in Somalia except to cower behind closed doors, because if they venture outside and are raped, they will be punished with death for the crime of enduring it and living to tell.

Veiled for a Day...

... or "Invisible Like Me."
from Zaiba Malik in The Guardian

Susan Jhirad's open letter to fellow feminists...

... who were Hillary supporters and have been threatening mutiny.

from her op-ed in the Boston Globe

We are not amused.

I agree with Deborah Howell. "Tongue in cheek" and self-deprecating opinion pieces do not come with a moral attached (in the case of Charlotte Allen's piece, that women really are stupid after all, and should stay out of politics, being content, I guess, to gaze at pinups of their favorite politicians from the safety of their kitchens.) Maybe I (and all those Post readers who flooded the editors' inbox) are just sensitive right now (Sensitive! Yes! We're women :-P) but if this is a "tongue in cheek" humor piece, it's lacking a punchline.
Allen's premise seems to be that, since some women get a little too worked up at Obama rallies, (yeah, he's a good-looking guy, and unfortunately, unlike men, some members of our gender are susceptible to attractiveness in the opposite sex) therefore we're all a bunch of hysterical dimwits.
I don't find the following nonsequitur all that rib-tickling: "The theory that women are the dumber sex -- or at least the sex that gets into more car accidents -- is amply supported by neurological and standardized-testing evidence."
If Charlotte Allen wants to call herself stupid, (I'll admit she has a tendency to display gaping holes in logic) then she can speak for herself -- as she does here: "I am perfectly willing to admit that I myself am a classic case of female mental deficiencies. I can't add 2 and 2 (well, I can, but then what?). I don't even know how many pairs of shoes I own."
And then, "I have coasted through life and academia on the basis of an excellent memory and superior verbal skills, two areas where, researchers agree, women consistently outpace men."
And those skills are meaningless? The only skills that matter are the ones at which men statistically excel? That bill of goods sounds familiar. (All women who excel at these other skills, or excel in a spectacular way at any skill, even prissy, frou frou ones like memory and language, are "outliers," according to Allen -- yep, George Eliot and Elizabeth I, Sappho, and Margaret Thatcher were barely women at all. Well, of course... One refused to marry and the other called herself George. It all makes sense. And Sappho was a lesbian. I'll leave Margaret Thatcher alone for now. But Allen is obviously the rare exception of an analytical female, if she can see through these historic women's accomplishments -- each not just equal but superlative in her field -- and conclude that they were merely freaks of nature.)
Yeah, too bad women these days can't take a joke. It must be a hardwired deficiency in our ability to delight in tired, warmed-over insults in a transparent new guise.

What She Said

Lynn Harris in Salon -- Women and Clinton: Damned if they vote, damned if they don't?

Except I'm a little more ambivalent (for which, in itself, I feel I must apologize to someone; I'm not sure who; perhaps Hillary herself? ;) I voted; I gave money, but I haven't trekked down to Arlington to make phone calls. Guilt, guilt.

But voting is so personal, as is the level of one's investment in a candidate. What other ladies do isn't really my business. And gender isn't the only factor in this equation. Still, I can relate to Ms. Harris' points.

And so, now that she lives to fight another day, according to the rules her campaign had voiced via Bill, (and probably regretted for a while there) that she had to win both big states tonight, who knows what the hell will happen next? Besides Pennsylvania. And a lot more punditry. Maybe one more debate, or two.

I still daydream sometimes of that Clinton-Obama ticket... or some kind of alchemical synthesis.

KBR vs. Saudi Arabia on justice for women.

It's even closer than I thought, with "arbitration" pretty much Halliburton lingo for "sharia," as far as sexual assault accusations go.

This is really the limit. I don't know what else to say.

And it looks like they're going to get away with it.

From Time staff writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen's blog:

At Halliburton/KBR, sexual assault is just part of the workplace experience for women.

Related: What else do Saudi Arabia and Halliburton have in common?

Sad on so many levels...

... one being that such a thing is taking up courtroom time from cases of injustice against women that will never even be recognized or considered, much less brought to court.

Forced annulment keeps Saudi Arabian couple apart.

An Embarrassment of Riches for Black Women Voters

Tough choice... but long overdue, and probably one MLK would have been pleased to see.

I've been a stranger to blogging this past week, and have kept away from all the various primary-related melodramas, while trying to do some more in-depth research on the candidates, and mull things over...

And I still have no idea who I'm going to vote for myself next month.

I wish everyone would try to play nice, though. (Or if "nice" is too much to ask, then at least fair.) Is that too much to ask?

And while I'm wearing my feminist hat...

(Don't ask what kind of hat ;)

... I saw Susan Faludi interviewed by Marie Arana, Washington Post Book World editor, on C-SPAN yesterday regarding her new book The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.

It was a fascinating discussion of how, in Faludi's view, the U.S. psychological reaction was defined by the assignment of regressive gender roles. The discussion also placed this reaction in the historical context of captivity narratives dating from the early frontier days, comparing the revision and co-opting of captivity stories like that of Cynthia Ann Parker with that of Jessica Lynch, and the historical frontier women's self-reliance with that of the female first responders on 9/11, whose efforts were written out of the story by the resurgence of the gender-exclusive terms "firemen" and "policemen" to describe the World Trade Center heroes.

What else do Halliburton and Saudi Arabia have in common?

Justice for rape victims, apparently. In fact, Saudi Arabia is arguably more advanced here, in that they actually tried and sentenced the perpetrators.

ABC story on KBR/Halliburton's cover-up of the gang rape of a female employee in Iraq.

And since rescuing her -- from KBR, who had locked her in a room with no food or water! -- at the request of her congressman, the State Dept. hasn't done a hell of a lot, either, nor has Justice. Maybe they will now that it's on the news.

If any good comes of this...

... nearly unbelievable case of injustice in Saudi Arabia, it's an awakening of the rest of the world, and indeed, Saudi Arabia itself, which is actually engaging in debate on the issue, to both the haphazard state of the justice system in that country and the hopeless state of women, whose lives are limited in every aspect from the cradle to the grave.

Although, of course, the State Department doesn't have much to say on the issue, beyond "astonishment." But that's no huge surprise.

Women's Options: Another Casualty of the War in Iraq

This CNN story about women resorting to prostitution when low-paid cleaning work is not enough to feed their children is generating a lot of interest, hopefully enough to make a difference among those in Iraq (and perhaps in Washington) with the power to alleviate the situation, as well as with the average CNN viewer.

But for the average CNN viewer, Arwa Damon provided a link to an organization that is accepting donations to help women in this situation, as well as women in Kurdistan who have been facing a horrific number of "honor killings."

I have to admit that I can't even comprehend what could bring someone to kill an immediate family member for an (often unsubstantiated) claim of dishonor. I can't imagine a father killing his own daughter for any reason at all besides insanity, although it happens at times, in all parts of the world. But for it to be considered routine is beyond what I can fathom.

The president of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, Yanar Mohammed, received the Eleanor Roosevelt Global Women’s Rights award this year. I try to donate something each year to one or two organizations, and I can't think of a better one than this.

In the meantime, it's free to sign the petition.

Related: Are these supposed to be the good guys?

Today in Darfur...

... is probably much like yesterday, last week, last year...

Stuff like this is still happening regularly.

This is the same world we live in, "over here," but if we truly felt it to be the same world, wouldn't something effective have been done by now to stop it? Does the world lie in thrall to the government of Sudan? What's the deal here?

Are these supposed to be the good guys?

To be fair, this is an insular, non-Islamic sect not representative of the larger Kurdish population, who generally practice a form of Islam more tolerant than that practiced by others in the region, and it's probably not fair even to generalize about the sect based on this one incident, but WTF?
I couldn't even watch it, honestly. Just the thought that humans behave in this manner makes me ill. But it needs to stop, yesterday.

Kurdish Yezidi girl is stoned by a large mob for living with a Muslim man, having been lured back home by her family's claims of forgiveness.

Debunking the Mommy Wars

Here's an excerpt from E.J. Graff's article in the Columbia Journalism Review which pokes holes in an almost entirely media-created controversy:

By offering a steady diet of common myths and ignoring the relevant facts, newspapers have helped maintain the cultural temperature for what Williams calls “the most family-hostile public policy in the Western world.” On a variety of basic policies—including parental leave, family sick leave, early childhood education, national childcare standards, afterschool programs, and health care that’s not tied to a single all-consuming job—the U.S. lags behind almost every developed nation. How far behind? Out of 168 countries surveyed by Jody Heymann, who teaches at both the Harvard School of Public Health and McGill University, the U.S. is one of only five without mandatory paid maternity leave—along with Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland. And any parent could tell you that it makes no sense to keep running schools on nineteenth century agricultural schedules, taking kids in at 7 a.m. and letting them out at 3 p.m. to milk the cows, when their parents now work until 5 or 6 p.m. Why can’t twenty-first century school schedules match the twenty-first century workday?

As if they don't have enough to deal with...

... fighting in Iraq, once the lights go out, women soldiers live in constant fear of being raped by their male counterparts in the latrines, if they are unfortunate enough to need to use them after dark, according to Col. Janis Karpinski (demoted from general after taking much of the blame for Abu Ghraib.) So apparently many of the women avoided drinking water after a certain time in the afternoon, thus causing dehydration-related deaths, which, surprise, surprise, were hushed up.

Karpinski published a book about her life in the military called One Woman's Army.

Bee in my bonnet

Something's been bugging me with regard to the expectations for this presidential season's groundbreaking candidates. Way too much is being expected of them. Obama has pretty much been unofficially canonized (he's already been all but knighted by Oprah, so an official canonization is probably not far off) and Hillary is bearing on her shoulders well over two centuries of American women's once only wistful hopes. Talk about baggage.
It's not surprising that it was (white) women writers and activists, like Harriet Beecher Stowe, who set the moral bar for black men as higher than their white oppressors, because women have been saddled with that role from time immemorial, up to and including the American feminist past rooted in the Temperance movement.
The novelist Angela Carter, most famous for her updated fairy tales and lauded as "the high-priestess of postgraduate porn," was attacked by fellow feminists for her assertion in The Sadeian Woman that women cannot be genuinely equal until they can be equally reprehensible. Understandably perhaps, Utopian feminists were not wanting to hear that. But time has somewhat vindicated Ms. Carter.
Or has it? Maybe politics is the last-conquered realm of any social trend, but until we can have a black or female candidate who is seen as just another candidate with a big question mark over his or her head, instead of the weight of the world, who is permitted flaws and skeletons and even a bad hair/tie day, we still have a ways to go, baby.

Quote du Jour: Kim Gandy

"Decades from now, when this country finally catches up with the rest of the developed world with regard to women's rights, we will look back on the Bush presidency as a temporary detour from our long history of building democracy one right and one freedom at a time. The eight years of mis-rule by this President will be seen as a profound embarrassment that was eventually overcome. I guarantee it."

-- Kim Gandy, president of NOW, from her biweekly column, "Below the Belt"

After the Taliban: Women in Afghanistan

This is the most depressing article I've read in some time.