Woman to be executed for witchcraft in 2008

Somedays I just feel like curling up into the fetal position and crying. How do we combat all the fear and hatred directed at women? It's fucking everywhere! In every country, every religion. We got politicians (FRICKIN POLITICIANS) in America calling young women "sluts" and lamenting that rape just ain't what is used to be cause women aren't chaste anymore.

And all that looks like NOTHING when compared to what's going on in developing countries.

Rape at epedmic levels in Africa: Women are being gang raped as a tactic of war.

A man in Afghanistan is to be executed for simply reading about women's rights.

And now today I log on to this headline: Saudis to execute woman for witchcraft.

This is what happens when women are demonized through society and religion as "other." I'm so sick of it. It seems to be that this society is terrified of women. This is a country where women cannot drive, rape victims are sentenced to 200+ public lashings, and a woman can't even be seen at Starbucks with a male co-worker for fear of being arrested.

But yes, fear the women, they give you impotence.

Witchcraft is considered an offense against Islam in the conservative kingdom.

In Falih's case, the judges relied on a coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them to convict her in April 2006, according to the group.

Falih later retracted her confession in court, claiming it was extracted under duress, and said that as an illiterate woman, she did not understand the document she was forced to fingerprint.

The Saudi court cited an instance in which a man allegedly became impotent after being bewitched by Falih, the rights group said.

An appeals court ruled in September 2006 that Falih could not be sentenced to death for witchcraft because she had retracted her confession. But a lower court subsequently reissued the death sentence for the benefit of "public interest" and to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country," the group's statement said.

Is it just me or is the WOMEN who need protection???

Please tell our leaders that it's not OK to sweep rape under the rug

Two years ago, 20 year old Jamie Leigh Jones was drugged, assaulted, and viciously gang raped on the job by her fellow coworkers. Learning of the attack, her employers placed her under armed guard in a shipping container for 24 hours without access to food or water.

Two years later, these horrific acts of unspeakable violence, as well as, the unbelievable reaction by her employers have gone unpunished and justice has not been served.

Why? How this could this happen? Because the 20 year old victim was a government contractor at KBR in the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq.

Jamie Leigh Jones, an American citizen, while employed by KBR, a former subsidiary of Halliburton was brutally gang raped by fellow KBR employees two years ago while stationed in Iraq. Army doctors performed a medical examination which showed that she had been raped (vaginally and anally). However, the rape kit was turned over to KBR and portions of the rape kit have vanished.

Jamie was then ordered by her KBR employers to remain in a shipping container under armed guard for 24 hours without access to food or water until she was rescued after her Member of Congress demanded action by the State Department.

After two years, not only has the Justice Department not brought any criminal charges, but ABC News recently reported that they could not confirm that any federal agency was investigating the case at all.

There are over 20,000 Americans employed by US government contractors in Iraq. These individuals have the same right to treatment, services, and proper investigations when they are the victims of violent crime as those of us here at home. Their offenders, who are paid with American taxpayer dollar, should be held accountable.

Since Jamie has gone public with her story, it is clear that this is not an isolated incident; many women working for US Government contractors face sexual assault and harassment. Yet, the perpetrators of these violent crimes are not held accountable and justice is not served.

The current state of affairs is absolutely unacceptable. Action is required.

Congresswoman Louise M. Slaughter along with Congressman Ted Poe and Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, are taking the first step to ensuring accountability. They are sending letters to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanding answers in the KBR rape cases and asking them to clearly define the steps they are taking to ensure that what happened to Jamie will ever happen again.

They need YOUR help to get your Member of Congress to sign on to these letters. It’s been two years and it is obvious that the Departments of Defense and State are not taking this issue seriously. We need to show them that the House of Representatives demands action.

Please call your member of congress as soon as possible and ask them to sign on and demand answers about the KBR rape cases and how they plan to prevent these occurrences in the future.

With your help, we can take the first step to preventing what happened to Jamie from ever happening again.

Because I love the Office

and because my life has become crazy and I'm too exhausted to post anything worthwhile it seems.... here's a You Tube Clip I found of Office actor, BJ Novak doing stand-up on the well-known "72 virgins" story.



You know what I love about this? EVERY comedian did a bit on this. And almost every single one of them went at the joke from the angle of: "yeah, they were so ugly/disgusting/annoying/fat they couldn't get laid on earth--- haha, screw you terrorists!"

But then there's BJ Novak. Who makes a funny joke (I think) but manages to look at it from the angle of what this means for the women in this fundamentalist, scary world. Brave move. Smart move. And still funny. You see, you don't have to stoop to misogyny for laughs!

....

*sigh* I miss the Office.

Just too tired

To deal with how sick and wrong this is

Under fire for its treatment of a rape victim, the Saudi Arabian government on Saturday said that the woman had an "illegitimate relationship" with a man who was not her husband, and that both "exposed themselves to this heinous crime."

Um--- ewwww. Also interesting how our western media keeps ignoring the fact that a man was raped that day too.

The government statement said that according to the woman's signed confession, she called a man on her cell phone and "asked to be with him alone, illegally." The two met at a marketplace, then rode in the man's car to "a dark area of the beach, and stayed there for some time," the ministry said.

The group of attackers "saw her in a compromising situation, her clothes on the ground," the statement said. "The men at this point assaulted her and the man with her."

The woman knew that being alone with a man who wasn't her husband was illegal, "and therefore she violated the covenant of marriage." However, the woman was engaged -- not married -- at the time.

Victim blaming-- it's for every culture apparently.

I have to get to bed so no more writing-- but I think I can simply leave it at "too f***ed up for words"

Iran: the homo-free zone?

You know how scary conservatives are always yammering about "If you don't like America go to Iraq"?

Well I have a suggestion for them. You should head over to Iran. You won't have to worry about homos anymore-- cause IRAN DOESN'T HAVE 'EM.



(I love the audience reaction).

Newsflash, Bush: War never "kicks ass"

Another reason I can't stand our president.

A great football win kicks ass
Frozen Yogurt kicks ass
Rock concerts kick ass


But the disruption of a country
millions of refugees
war-torn poverty,
countless dead civilians
and the loss of our nation's sons and daughters in military conflict that began on LIES

DOES NOT

"kick ass"


What a freakin' tool.

Iran believes porn stars should be executed

Yes Really. They just passed the law.

Now I want to be really careful here not to come off as anti-Muslim but this is the sheeyat that really scares me. Yes I'm aware that our own government is heavily influenced by patriarchal Christian values. But to date, I'm not aware of any law being introduced to execute strippers, prostitutes, porn stars or the like. And yet, it's introduced and PASSED in Iran. And where do they draw inspiration from-- oh right, the Quran.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corrupter of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corrupter of the world."

The term, "corrupter of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

Just frickin' delightful. I wonder if progressive Muslims get as pissed as progressive Christians that their holy book is being used to advocate death.

I'm not a fan of porn. I've seen some-- whatever type you can order in hotel rooms (never roadtrip with college men) and I was grossly unimpressed if not turned-off altogether. But this message is very very dangerous. Displays of sexuality are punishable by death.

Convenient that the "porn" term is not really defined. Would a woman showing shoulders eventually be seen as pornographic? Would a pop star dancing sexily be porn? And yes, I really do think this law will be heavily sided to punish women. That's sort of the name of the game with radical Islam taken to extremes.

Placing so much hatred and fear around the subject of sex just makes me sad on so many levels.

Everyone in Iran better be very careful with their private home video stash.