feminine-genius

Applauding divorce

Marriage can end in two ways: there are divorces and there are decrees of nullity (saying there was no legitimate union in the first place). Since other religions don't have the wisdom of the Church to remind them of fundamental elements of human dignity, they must use divorce to separate what should never have been united. Like geriatric men and little girls.

Goodness in Mauritania

While Muslim populations often practice FGM, one has to realise that they do so for cultural and traditional reasons, not from a religious precept. This is good news:

A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders have issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. Cheikh Ould Zein, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, says the scholars believe the Koran does not endorse cutting young girls’ genitals to limit their sexual activity as women. He said Monday that the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.

It may be a steep uphill battle, but it's an excellent step. I commend them heartily -- and pray that their words have an effect. The position of promotors of FGM has not been that the Koran prescribes it, but that their faith doesn't discourage it. (Some Christians in Africa have also preserved this vile practice.) So now some imams have discouraged it. That's very good.

Hillary, call your office

Feminists are an odd bunch, having conniptions about access to abortion, sex ed for children and equal rights for women -- but stories like this don't interest them much:

A girl of 16 was given 50 lashes after a judge ruled her knee length skirt was indecent. Silva Kashif was punished without her family being told after she was arrested while walking alone near her home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Her mother, Jenty Doro, said: ‘I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried. ‘She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along like she was a criminal. It was wrong.’

She was wearing the same sort of blouse and skirt that many women wear, but she seemed to be in a place where passing police wanted to make a point. The law fobids caning persons under 18 but being alone and unable to get help, she was beaten anyway. The law is also supposed to make exceptions for non-Muslims (this girl is a Christian) but that point was also ignored. Shari'a enforcers may bend the laws, no one else can.

Hillary Clinton did a grand tour of Africa in August, but may not have been briefed about how women are marginalised, abused and beaten because of just such legal constructs.

Clinton made it clear during her confirmation hearing that women’s rights would be at the center of her approach to foreign policy. “[O]f particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls, who comprise the majority of the world's unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid,” she said. “If half of the world's population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal, and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity will remain in serious jeopardy. We still have a long way to go, and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women's rights in every country, every region, on every continent.”

Well, a comment or two on what shari'a does to women would add a lot of punch to that "women's rights" schtick, but perhaps she's waiting for the right moment -- for impact. We're waiting, too.

Wardrobe's high price

  There is a well-known journalist in Sudan, Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who maintains an acerbic column, called "Men Talk." She's a relentless critic of the regulations in her country that harass and oppress women.

The Sudanese general discipline law is one of the most discriminatory laws against women as it violates basic freedoms which should be enjoyed by all citizens. The law targets female students and working women, appearing to have been tailored to persecute, humiliate and isolate them in an attempt to prevent them from contributing to public life. The Sudanese police are now using this law against an opposition reporter.

Where she "crossed the line" was entering a restaurant with twelve female companions, all dressed in blouses and pants. All were arrested and some accepted an immediate punishment of ten lashes. Lubna chose to contest the charges and has issued invitations to her trial. If found guilty, she will be punished with forty lashes -- and there will be invitations to that event as well.

Whether the law is defensible in an Islamic country is in question, a further transgression is applying it to non-Muslims:

Several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, Ms Hussein said. Non-Muslims are not supposed to be subject to Islamic law, even in Khartoum and other parts of the mainly Muslim north. She said that a group of about 20 or 30 police officers entered the popular Khartoum restaurant and arrested all the women wearing trousers.

The group "Arabic Network for Human Rights Information is trying to draw attention to the matter:

AHNRI called on all human rights NGOs concerned about freedom of expression and women's rights to support Al-Hussein and make efforts to stop this charade of a trial. The trial violates every international treaty defending freedom of expression and women's rights and makes clear the fact that the Sudanese government persecutes those who oppose it and is willing to use the worst laws and practices it has at its disposal.

We'll see if western feminists can spare some energy for this worthwhile endeavor (which doesn't expand access to birth control or aborion).  Stay tuned.

Trojan goats

From Sudan, we have a nice story about help offered to women in Sudan, with a hint that many women are abandoned by their menfolk and have need of financial sustainability. Maybe, maybe not:

[Linda Ferdinand]: “We have two agricultural projects at the moment. We have a project called the Seeds Business Project. We are working with progressive farmers in six locations. One is in Wau and the other five are outside Wau. We train farmers to produce seeds in that project. We also have free seed distribution to the IDPs and the host communities. We also have vegetable gardening where we train women on how plant vegetables which are important to the health of their children and from which they also get some income. The Ministry of Agriculture sends us advisers who train our project members. We also have goat-restocking program where we give women outside town goats on a revolving basis. 150 women have benefited from this goat-restocking program.”

One of the beneficiaries,  Juleta Mario, is in her sixties and  lives in Momoi village, five miles from Wau town. Sudan Radio Service visited her in her grass-thatched tukul, where she takes care of her goats.

[Juleta Mario]: “These goats were given to us women who are abandoned by our husbands. My husband left me and bringing up my children was very difficult. So WOTAP gave us these goats to help me in bringing up my children, saying that when the goats deliver more goats they take the ones they gave us and leave us with the ones they delivered. WOTAP gave us these goats in 1994. They delivered twelve more goats. They took their parents and I remained with mine. When I have problems I sell some of them and now I remained with 8 goats. They are still delivering.”

This is where the rubber hits the road in terms of poverty. A goat could make the difference between living and dying (or at least a miserable existence begging). While I'm trying to be postive, something doesn't sound quite right. Women's groups who have the backing of the UN usually aren't so benign, and any group that opts for a "women only" clientele may have a trick or two up its sleeve.

With a little digging, we find that the group promoting this program, WOTAP (Women Training and Promotion) has another dimension, promoting its agenda through "Women's Advocacy Network for Women's Issues," which has been busy advancing the availability of contraceptives and abortions in Turkey.

In order to better track progress and evaluate improvements in the quality of family planning services in Turkey, the USAID Turkey program has implemented an innovative M&E system. The M&E plan incorporates several accepted best practices in monitoring and evaluation. The plan utilizes simple data collection and analysis techniques to encourage the use of data at all levels for the continuous improvement of services. The M&E plan was designed to be a user-friendly tool for health facilities and local program managers, in order to improve prospects for sustainability.

Likewise in Egypt, there is more "assistance" for women and girls:

Local teams in six governorates spent up to six months working with youth participating in CEDPA’s life skills courses to mount a theatrical performance or puppet show advocating for girls’ and young women’s issues related to health, education and the environment. Topics covered included women’s social and political participation, water pollution, illiteracy and reproductive health. The Theme Day performances were well attended by youth, families, community leaders, NGO members and religious leaders.

Let me guess, it's probably not ecological breast-feeding or natural family planning that they're promoting. Beware NGO's bearing gifts. It may not be quite what the family really needs.

Collaboration -- fail

The headline concerning domestic violence caught my eye -- since it noted the large number of male victims. The evidence? Men being asked to do household chores and being denied conjugal rights. This sounds like fall-out from the gender police who hit the African continent with an eye to undoing centuries of mysogynistic damage by empowering women in the classic zero-sum game.

The lobby group released the report on Sunday after an eight-month survey in over 40 Kenyan districts. Progress for Men advocates for men's rights in Kenya. The report said among those who suffer abuse include lawyers, judges and even top politicians. In fact, former and present members of parliament accounted for 39 percent of the number of male victims of domestic violence.

So the source is not traditional men who say that feminists are making their lives hell, but "progressive" men who want the world to know they are suffering in silence. I'm trying to take this seriously, but it's hard, when abuse against women entails violence and rape, and the turnabout is pouting over being asked to wash up after dinner.

There are plenty of men who suffer abuse -- real violence at the hands of aggressive females. They are often uncounted because of the real shame attached to such bullying, but to claim to be progressive and to object to sleeping on the sofa smacks of an odd conglomerate of the neanderthal metrosexual. I don't get it.

I call it mutilation

Here is a comprehensive article on female genital cutting, which explains the cultural support behind this traumatic event and the chronic problems associated with it. There are many layers of argument, many of which get sidetracked in colonialism and tradition, which unfortunately play out on women's bodies. There is an inherent correlation between opposition to this procedure (FGM) and "reproductive rights"  which confuses the issue and makes for unlikely allies. The source appears to be very pro-abortion, but please educate yourself on this ancient cultural element that is still very hard to stop.

UPDATES

My able webmaster has kindly updated my site with most of my recent columns and articles. Please note that I offer a 600 word column every other week, which is available for your Catholic papers and newsletters. (You can even use what's already there with attribution.)

More importantly, though, we've posted an excellent paper by Dale O'Leary which is all you need to know to understand the issue of AIDS and Africa. This would be an excellent tool to discuss the situation coherently with friends and family, and also as a reference for high school and college students who would like to explain and defend the Church's position (which is the only truly loving position!)

When one understands the motivation behind those who are behind the condom campaign, it all, sadly, begins to make more sense.