feminine-genius

"A disgrace for the whole of Egypt"

Another horrific story emblematic of a widespread problem in Egypt. Mary Abdelmassih writes:

(AINA) -- Hundreds of Christian Egyptian girls having been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. But the case of 14 year old Sarah has become symbolic, bringing to confrontation Muslims groups, whose members are implicated in the kidnappings, and the Coptic Church and human rights organizations.

On Sunday, September 30 Sarah Ishaq Abdelmalek, born on August 1, 1998 in the town of el-Dabaa, 130 kilometers from Mersa Matrouh, was on her way to school with her cousin Miriam, when they stopped at a bookshop. Miriam went ahead of Sarah to school, leaving Sarah behind. Sarah never made it to school and no one has seen her since then. Her father was hesitant at first to contact the authorities for fear of harm to his family and his other children by the Salafi Muslims, who have a large presence and influence in Mersa Matrouh and Alexandria. He finally filed a report with the police on October 20, accusing 27 year old bookshop keeper and Salafist Mahmoud Abu Zied Abdel Gawwad, a married man and father of children, of abducting Sarah and marrying her against her will (AINA 11-2-2012).

"Sarah was smuggled across the borders to Libya with the help of the Interior Ministry," said Ebram Louis, founder of the Coptic non-governmental organization Association of Victims of Abduction and Enforced Disappearance (AVAED), which handles cases of abducted Coptic minors. Louis blamed the interior ministry for all the disappearances of Coptic minors, saying the ministry colludes with the Muslims.

The recently elected Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II said the kidnapping and forced conversion of Sarah is a "disgrace for the whole of Egypt." During a meeting with a delegation of the Journalists Syndicate Council at Anba Bishoy Monastery in Wadi Natrunon on November 12, he said "Can any family accept the kidnapping of their daughter and her forced conversion?"

The growing fears over kidnapping are leading many Christian families to pull their girls from school, which is a wider unfortunate effect of the policy. The fact that the authorities turn a blind eye to this means that Christians can never expect justice, girls can never feel safe, and that Islam allows a bizarre underpinning to marriage: namely that unions can be based on coercion and duplicity. 

In a statement, Salafist Front made clear that they will not hand over Sarah under any circumstances. They claim that "When we take up the issue of the girl Sarah, our response is purely in terms of her human rights." Their spokesman, Khaled el Masry, said that once a girl has embraced Islam she has no Christian guardian and can therefore get married without consent.

Age is also a factor, since she is 14, but that's been discussed here and here. Please pray for Sarah, her family, and all those in captivity -- and spread the word.

The Chinese rent-a-man strategy

Chinese culture is still suffering from the upheavals of the imbalance of the sexes, the changes in women's lives (from chattel to career girls), and the expectations of families. All that comes to a head when millions of women head home for their New Year's visit:

Because so many Chinese live and work away from their native towns and villages, and travel home only once a year, the treasured family time is weighted with pressure to show what you’ve accomplished over the last 12 months.

For many young women, showing up at home with a pleasant-looking, well-behaved boyfriend – even if your family never sees him again – is better than enduring two weeks of questions about why there’s no marriage or kids on the horizon. (China can be a deeply sexist society – women who are unmarried past the age of 30 are often referred to as “leftover women,” even in official media.)

So the answer for many is to rent a young man to accompany the woman on her visit:

For the equivalent of $65, Zhou Qihao will let a girl take him home. For an extra $3 or so an hour, he’ll let her take him to a movie – but it costs double if she wants to have dinner beforehand.

Mr. Zhou is 24 years old, a bit taller than average at 1.78 metres, thin and “OK” looking (according to his online profile). Most of the year he works in home renovation, but with the Chinese New Year approaching – and all its attendant pressures on young women to show their parents and grandparents they’re getting closer to settling down and starting a family – he’s earning a little cash on the side as one of 260 “rental boyfriends” available on the China’s eBay-style direct-sales website, taobao.com.

Why these precious men, with thousands of women looking for a husband, chooses to rent himself out is anyone's guess, though (between girlfriends) he notes that he's "out of his league" in this business:

Mr. Zhou’s online pitch is a flexible one: “I’m healthy and have no indecent addictions (such as smoking, drinking, playing mahjong, etc.), although I can certainly take on the addictions if a client needs,” he writes on his taobao.com advertisement, promising to be “client-oriented” in his services.

Hand-holding, hugs and pecks on the cheek or forehead are free, but he won’t sleep in the same bed. He’s cautious about kissing on the lips too, largely because he erroneously believes he could contract HIV/AIDS that way.

The women who turn to rental boyfriends don’t seem too interested in the extras, though. Mr. Zhou says his first two clients mostly wanted someone to talk to. Online, those who admit to using the service say it’s all about appeasing their parents. “My parents are very satisfied, so the pressure [on me] is greatly reduced,” one anonymous woman wrote of her experience.

But could one of these “rental” relationships turn into the real thing? Mr. Zhou, who says he’s currently between girlfriends, thinks the odds are long.

The women who can afford to hire him are simply out of his league.

“You know how it is in China,” he writes via instant messenger. “For a young man who doesn’t earn very much, talking about love is unrealistic.”

So we have abundant cheap goods, China has rebooted its communist economy, millions of girl babies are "missing," and aging parents are distraught over the future of their families. The great leap forward and Nixonian rescue has been a disaster for millions, with no viable remedy in sight.

Lovely witness in Nepal

Whatever you've heard of Kathmandu, it was probably exotic and mysterious, but be assured that children there are like kids everywhere. Only, there's horrific poverty -- over half the country lives below UNICEF's poverty line. Interestingly, many who are sentenced to jail for criminal activity simply take their dependent children with them, if there's no one else to care for them.

And, like everywhere else in the world, there are good souls who see a need and feel compelled to help.

[Pushpa] Basnet was just 21 when she discovered her calling, she said. While her family ran a successful business, she was studying social work in college. As part of her studies, she visited a women's prison and was appalled by the dire conditions. She also was shocked to discover children living behind bars.

One baby girl grabbed Basnet's shawl and gave her a big smile.

"I felt she was calling me," Basnet said. "I went back home and told my parents about it. They told me it was a normal thing and that in a couple of days I'd forget it. But I couldn't forget."

Basnet decided to start a day care to get incarcerated children out from behind the prison walls. While her parents were against the idea at first -- she had no job or way to sustain it financially -- eventually they helped support her. But prison officials, government workers and even some of the imprisoned mothers she approached doubted that someone her age could handle such a project.

"When I started, nobody believed in me," Basnet said. "People thought I was crazy. They laughed at me."

But Basnet was undaunted. She got friends to donate money, and she rented a building in Kathmandu to house her new organization, the Early Childhood Development Center. She furnished it largely by convincing her parents that they needed a new refrigerator or kitchen table; when her parents' replacement would arrive, she'd whisk the old one to her center.

Just two months after she first visited the prison, Basnet began to care for five children. She picked them up at the prison every weekday morning, brought them to her center and then returned them in the afternoon. Basnet's program was the first of its kind in Kathmandu; when she started, some of the children in her care had never been outside a prison.

Two years later, Basnet established the Butterfly Home, a children's home where she herself has lived for the past five years. While she now has a few staff members who help her, Basnet is still very hands on.

"We do cooking, washing, shopping," she said. "It's amazing, I never get tired. (The children) give me the energy. ... The smiles of my children keep me motivated."

It's a beautiful endeavor, and I'm delighted that she's found some recognition for her work, which may translate into some much-needed donations. It would seem, though, that the critical element is her maternal love, which flows abundantly. May God reward her generosity of heart.

It's not just baby girls...

...that the Chinese Communist don't like. They also have a problem with elderly women who won't submit to their overlords:

Ms. Jiang, a [65-year-old] “healthy and strong-willed woman,” according to her family, had survived at least three years of forced labor in the past for practicing Falun Gong. When five police officers came to abduct her on September 7, her husband in his seventies, along with several neighbors, attempted to dissuade the police, but they were unsuccessful.

Her family was frantic to find her, but the government was uncooperative.

After several days, Ms. Jiang's son located her at a brainwashing center run by the 610 Office, a Party-based security force leading the campaign against Falun Gong. He was prohibited from contacting her until October 1, by which time Ms. Jiang was in critical condition. He rushed her to an emergency room where doctors identified bruises throughout her body, bleeding, and deteriorated organ function.

Ms. Jiang died the next day.

She had endured three weeks of torture. Such was the courage of her convictions--and such was the response of a government that cannot honour conscience. I don't understand the tenets of Falun Gong, but I know that China is not the only country with draconian policies against people of faith. May she rest in peace, and may we choose wisely in the coming election so that good may prevail.

War on Women

For all the ink spilled in the US, for all the blather about whether tax payers should pay for birth control for college students (unmarried, and evidently able to pay for cell phones, tuition, and beer money) the greater battle against women is still in China, where millions of pregnant women have been violently aborted, and girl babies are more often the victims.

In this particular case, we don't know if the baby was a boy or a girl, but it was still targeted, and the two sisters are now deprived of their mother -- who has had a mental breakdown.

On October 2^nd, Song was alone in her home in Zibo City (Gaoqing County, Heilizhai Town, Qiaojia Village)  while her family was out in the field bringing in the fall harvest.  A mother of 2 girls and nearly 6-months pregnant with their 3^rd child, Song had no reason to believe that she was in any danger.  After all, she had heard nothing from the Family Planning Police about her pregnancy, and it was a national holiday, when no government officials would be working.  Yet, at 5pm that evening, seven Family Planning officials arrived at her home, took her by force into a vehicle and drove her 100 kilometers away to Dongying Universal Love Women’s Hospital.

At the hospital, the officials violently tied Song down, confiscated her cell phone and stripped all of her clothes off.  Because she was so resistant, they forcibly injected her with a sedative, then pressed her finger to sign the voluntary abortion consent form.  They forcibly injected a needle into her womb with a poison to kill the baby and to induce labor. After this, they left her naked on the hospital bed and locked her in.

Now the baby is dead, the mother catatonic, the community anguished at a grave injustice, and the family emotionally shredded. I'm not seeing the Universal Love here.

Beyond the crime of murder and the injustice of intrusion into family family, the draconian state policy has caused a widespread demographic crisis, a toxic social landscape, and a devaluation of the human person. Furthermore, every child aborted is an intimate tragedy that touches the surrounding lives, and until each loss is mourned and repented, there can be no peace. 

Consider what Mo Yan, the recent Nobel laureate, said about his own collusion:

“When I was serving in the army, I was promoted to the rank of officer,” said Mo Yan. “There was another officer in the army who lost his rank…because he had a second child. I was afraid I would receive the same punishment, so I chose not to have another child. If it were not for my own selfish ambition, I would have let my wife have a second or even a third baby. I used a very high-sounding rationale to convince her we needed to abort the baby: we had to follow the Party’s policy and nation’s policy. This has become an eternal scar in the deepest part of my heart. …It became a big shadow in my heart.”

Congratulations to Mr Yan, prayers for Song's family (and all the rest), and let's remind those we meet that choice cuts two ways. If folks are serious about stopping the war on women, then we need to support authentic choice -- that of religious liberty in the West and the freedom to choose life in the East.

Prayers for a brave young woman

Malala Yousafzai was a remarkable 14-yr-old student who had been recognised for her appeals for peace in her native Pakistan. Singled out by the Taliban, she was shot while riding home from school.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) which attacked National Award Peace winner Malala Yousafzai on Tuesday have said that they will target her again if she survives because she was a “secular-minded lady.” A TTP spokesperson told The Express Tribune that this was a warning for all youngsters who were involved in similar activites and added that they will be targeted if they do not stop.“She was young but she was promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas,” he said, referring the main ethnic group in northwest Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Malala was shifted to Saidu Sharif Medical Complex in Mingora immediately after the incident and later she was moved to Peshawar in an Army helicopter. Doctors at the Saidu Sharif Medical Complex said that Malala was out of danger after the bullet penetrated her skull but missed her brain.

After getting done with Malala’s check-up, the doctors said that she might be sent abroad for treatment. As the news made rounds, hundreds of people flocked outside the hospital, willing to donate blood to Malala.

Two bullets hit Malala — one in the head and another between the neck and chest. Malala’s friend, Shazia, while narrating the incident to Express News said, ”When we were coming back from school, unidenfitied men approached our bus and asked us to identify Malala, when we told him, he opened fire.”

Hailing from Mingora, the 14-year-old Malala struggled for restoring peace in Swat and education for girls in the region for which she was awarded the National Peace Award by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. When the Taliban had banned education for females in the district, she kept a diary for the British Broadcasting Corporation and wrote about the misdeeds of militants [from the age of 11!]

Yousufzai also remained a speaker for the Child Assembly in Swat, which works for child rights in the district. Later on, she was awarded the first National Peace Award by the government of Pakistan on December 19, 2011 for rendering courageous services to promote peace during the mayhem.

Prayers for a full recovery, and that her courageous witness has an impact on that troubled area.

UPDATE: In the last fortnight+ Malala was airlifted to a hospital in England, along with her family. After surgery she's doing well. I found this interesting commentary by Eric Patterson on why she is such a threat:

Somehow, this girl threatens the Taliban so much that they tried to assassinate her. What does she symbolize that is so threatening to them? The facts are quite clear: She is an advocate for basic human and civil rights. She has claimed that all citizens, including women—Muslim women, Pakistani women, Afghan women—should have basic access to education. That is all.

Is it just her call for female education that threatens the Taliban? No. There are millions of women — and men — on both sides of the Af-Pak border who call for the education of their daughters, sisters and nieces. Education is not the issue that threatens the Taliban.

Rather, she is the threat. This girl represents the possible. She represents the kind of woman the Taliban fears: a living, God-fearing alternative to their repressive social order. Indeed, what terrifies the Taliban the most is that Miss Yousafza is a traditional Muslim citizen. This young woman covers her hair; she is modest; she respects the Prophet; she respects Allah; she roots her arguments in common sense, faith and human dignity, and she tells the truth about what she sees.

There is nothing more threatening to the Taliban, because Miss Yousafza is in accord with the values of the majority of Muslims around the world. In short, the Taliban fear her because she represents a vision of the female Muslim citizen that resonates with the Muslim everyman and everywoman — and threatens to dump the Taliban into the ashbin of history.

In contrast to Malala Yousafza, the Taliban does not fear a nude model or pop star from the West. This is because most Pakistanis—men and women — see pornography as sinful and decadent and in many cases taking advantage of women. Likewise, the Taliban is not really concerned about the feminists housed in Western universities. Once again, this type of person is so far out of synch with Muslim culture that she is seen as alien and enemy to their culture — something with which many Pakistanis would agree.

Consequently, there are no fatwas against Madonna, Britney Spears or Women’s Studies professors from Wellesley.

Malala Yousafza is not a morally debased pop star, a social activist or a radical academic. She is a modest, pious young Muslim woman who represents tens of millions of Muslim women around the world who want a better life for the women in their families. That is why the Taliban is scared of a girl.

Maybe. Yet if the majority of Muslims around the world agreed with her, the other deporable statistics that follow Muslim immigrants wouldn't be so troubling, especially among those who emigrate to the West and have all the opportunities to exercise such "common sense." We find, rather, that they do not assimilate, they do not embrace the opportunities available for their daughters, and that FGM, honour killings, child marriages, and misogyny proliferate.

There is no "magisterium" for Islam, only the Qur'an, the ahadith, various interpretations of the sunni, and cultural norms that have been forged in the Muslim world. Those who want to water down the faith and incorporate the "common sense" from outside their tradition are maligned and marginalised. Occasionally they are gunned down.

What is Islam, really? One should read the Qur'an, study history, and think for himself. Mr Patterson has kind words for a brave girl, but I'm not convinced that she's mainstream, and the action of her own country would suggest that this commentator is whistling in the dark.

Regardless, I am glad the dear girl is on the mend!

Every story an urgent story

In China, there are too many stories like this to count, and yet God weeps over each one:

Cao Ruyi, 37, and her husband Li Fu have a six year old daughter. Her husband reports that Cao [five months pregnant] was taken from their home and “dragged by more than a dozen government family planning officials and security guards.”

Bob Fu, president of China Aid Association ... has been in touch with Cao’s husband since the arrest. Fu also spoke to a family planning official in Changsha City and was told that Cao had two options: “to abort the baby or pay over $24,000 penalty.”

She may have already had the first of two abortion-inducing injections. Her husband pleaded:

“Help us - I will never sign the consent form, but we also need the public to help stop a forced abortion. Tell them to please help us!”

Imagine that plea from thousands of couples daily. Steven Mosher was on the Drew Mariani show today, giving more details about the horror that is modern China. I know you'll pray for Cao Ruyi and her baby -- and all the families under duress because of this draconian policy.

In shock from the pressure

Nothing justifies such a sentence, ever:

A Sudanese woman, believed to be around 20, has been sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, and is being held near Khartoum, shackled in prison with her baby son, rights groups and lawyers said on Thursday.

Campaigners condemned the ruling, saying it violated international standards and raised concerns that Sudan might start applying sharia, or Islamic law, more strictly following the secession of mostly non-Muslim South Sudan last year.

The woman, Intisar Sharif Abdalla, was sentenced by the Ombada criminal court on April 22, court documents seen by Reuters showed.

Two lawyers assigned to her case, who declined to be named, said they were launching an appeal adding Abdalla appeared to be under severe psychological strain.

"She's in dire need of a psychiatrist because she appears to be in a state of shock from the social and family pressures she's under," one lawyer said.

Abdalla was illiterate and did not have a lawyer or interpreter in the courtroom, although Arabic is not her native language, the lawyers and activists added.

Arabic is the main language in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation, though a wide range of smaller languages are also spoken, particularly in tribal areas. It was unclear where Abdalla came from.

For those who decry the legislation in this country (the US) that bans the application of Shari'a law in resolving disputes, kindly ask them about this portion of the code. This is exactly the sort of thing that Our Lord stopped -- for nothing is worth this punishment. One would also hope that the feminists would speak out against this mysogynistic attack on women and choice. Waiting...  

And in the meantime, prayers for this young woman -- and her baby. A culture that would mete out this punishment would likely tar him for life with the shame.