Tunisia and Egypt: "l'héroïsme ordinaire des femmes"

Click here for photos on Le Monde website of women in the Tunisian uprising.

If you are on Facebook, click here for women taking part in the mass protests in Egypt.

Urgent appeal: Jailed woman trade union leader in Bangladesh

From LabourStart ...
It has now been more than five weeks since the illegal arrest of Moshrefa Mishu, President of the Garment Workers Unity Forum in Bangladesh (pictured).

There was no warrant for her arrest at the time that heavily-armed plainclothes officers took her off to jail, where she remains - in poor health and badly treated.

Her real crime was leading a protest campaign to demand the implementation of the legal minimum wage.

I'd like to ask you to take a moment to send off an urgent message of protest to the government of Bangladesh demanding her release.

Please click here - http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=846 - to do so.

If you're on Facebook, please also sign up to support the cause there.

And also please forward this message to your fellow union members - let's mobilize thousands of trade unionists around the world to demand Mishu's release now.

International Women's Day, March 8th

Anyone have any events they know of ?



Happy to plug them here .

Friday Fuckwit - Mayor of Doncaster

Yep, apparently we could all learn from the Taliban :

Peter Davies, who has made it his personal mission to rid Doncaster of political correctness, said that under the Taliban, Afghanistan had an "ordered system of family life".

By contrast he said social policies which disregarded the importance of the traditional family had "created mayhem" in Britain.

Under the Taliban, women were banned from working outside the home, studying in schools or universities, from talking to men who were not family members, and from wearing cosmetics, high heels, or clothes made in "sexually attracting colours".

They were stoned to death if caught having sex outside marriage, and whipped for not covering their ankles in public or being unaccompanied by a suitable male relative in public.

Despite these shortcomings – which Amnesty International concluded "virtually confined women to the home" – Mr Davies said the Taliban's rule did have some advantages.

WTF, it is like saying the trains ran on time under the Nazi's, so lets not worry about concentration camps. Sometimes a regime is so oppressive that nothing can be added to the equation as an 'advantage.'

But what does the Mayor consider makes up for girls and women living as less than second class citizens, where they risk physical attacks or death by going to school or clawing back the bare minimum of control of their own lives and bodies:

He said: "The one thing to be said about the Taliban is that they do have an ordered society of some sort and that they don't have hundreds of cases of children under threat of abuse from violent parents, as we have in Doncaster."

Err, women and girls DO face abuse . It is abuse to treat them as the Taliban does , to be controlled through violence by men , including their fathers.

Of course he doesn't like the Taliban, but :

He stressed that he "detested" the Taliban, but added: "The point I was making was that even a regime as hideous as the Taliban at least appear to have sort of decent sort of family affairs. In fact probably...they have an ordered society.

"We in this country have created mayhem through lax social policies of disregard for marriage and the family and we have created mayhem in society."

Now before some of you get your knickers in a twist and say that I'm supporting the invasion of Afghanistan, think the situation is great for women etc etc , I'm not. I'm talking about the Taliban because that is what the nasty little fuckwit in Doncaster is talking about. I'm addressing his points , its not a post about the general oppressive way women are treated , whether by the Karzai administration or the Taliban. Clear?

Here are some posts that look at how women are not better off under the invasion.

Anyway, this man is a fuckwit. See here for a campaign against him.

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh sentenced to twenty years

In Afghanistan a student has been sentenced to 20 years for downloading and circulating articles on women's rights that also question parts of the Koran:

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh, the student journalist sentenced to death for blasphemy in Afghanistan, has been told he will spend the next 20 years in jail after the country's highest court ruled against him – without even hearing his defence.

The 23-year-old, brought to worldwide attention after an Independent campaign, was praying that Afghanistan's top judges would quash his conviction for lack of evidence, or because he was tried in secret and convicted without a defence lawyer.

Instead, almost 18 months after he was arrested for allegedly circulating an article about women's rights, any hope of justice and due process evaporated amid gross irregularities, allegations of corruption and coercion at the Supreme Court. Justices issued their decision in secret, without letting Mr Kambaksh's lawyer submit so much as a word in his defence.

Mr Kambaksh was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to death last year for circulating an essay on women's rights which questioned verses in the Koran.

It later emerged he was convicted by three mullahs, in secret, without access to a lawyer. The sentence was commuted to 20 years on appeal. At that appeal, in October, the key prosecution witness withdrew his testimony, claiming he had been forced to lie on pain of death. The prosecution then appealed to the Supreme Court to reinstate the death sentence. The defence appealed to quash his conviction altogether.

Meanwhile, the student has been languishing in a Kabul jail, fearing for his life. Islamic fundamentalists have been baying for his blood while moderate groups have led marches countrywide demanding his release.

Much of the attention is on the fact that it was clearly not a fair trial,but surely the fact that someone could face potentially a death sentence for being in anyway critical of the Koran and seemingly questioning the rights of women in society is scary . Its bad enough in this country when religious groups, of all faiths, get upset at criticism and take offence, but to face death or long imprisonment? Is religious belief that fragile ?

That is why I do think a secular state is better than one founded on religion . It allows religious freedom but not privilege , of any belief and none. Though I think the 'none' to describe atheists presumes they do not have strong ethical and principled beliefs , they can have though not ones based on gods .

I have commented before that the lot of women and girls is pretty crap in Afghanistan and that they are failed by the occupiers, the new Government and that the Taliban still strikes fear and uses violence. On another post about attacks on girls some said ...but yeah the Taliban are *still* better blah blah blah. Well it seems that whether its the present Government, occupiers or the Taliban its women and men who challenge the religious fundamentalists, who question and think for themselves that suffer .

The occupiers haven't helped and the Taliban won't , however much they really really don't like the US.

Women imprisoned in Afghanistan for the 'crime' of being raped.

A report in The Independent makes for depressing reading:

In Lashkar Gah, the majority of female prisoners are serving 20-year sentences for being forced to have sex.

Beneath the anonymity of the sky-blue burqa, Saliha's slender frame and voice betray her young age.Asked why she was serving seven years in jail alongside hardened insurgents and criminals, the 15-year-old giggled and buried her head in her friend's shoulder.


"She is shy," apologised fellow inmate Zirdana, explaining that the teenager had been married at a young age to an abusive husband and ran away with a boy from her neighbourhood.

Ostracised from her family and village, Saliha was convicted of escaping from home and illegal sexual relations. The first carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, the second 20. These are two of the most common accusations facing female prisoners in Afghanistan.

Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah's medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man.

Colonel Ghulam Ali, a high-ranking regional security officer, explained sternly that he supported the authorities' right to convict victims of rape. "In Afghanistan whether it is forced or not forced it is a crime because the Islamic rules say that it is," he claimed. "I think it is good. There are many diseases that can be created in today's world, such as HIV, through illegal sexual relations."

It seems 'progress' is being made. And what's that you may ask? Does that mean women will not be imprisoned for choosing who to have sex with or love or being raped , both as adults and children? Nope :

A female shura, or consultative council, was established in Helmand province last week to try to combat the injustice of treating an abused woman as a criminal, and not a victim. British officers and Afghan government officials from the province's reconstruction team are also overseeing a project to build humane accommodation for the 400 male and female prisoners.

Yep, lets just make their prison a little nicer :

In a separate area are the female "criminals" – the youngest is just 13 years old – along with their small children, who must stay with their mothers if no one else will claim them. Their only luxury is a carpet, two blankets, basic cooking facilities and two daily deliveries of bread. They have neither medical care nor, as Colonel Ali acknowledged, "basic human facilities", such as washing areas, electricity and drinking water. All this he hopes will be rectified when the new building his finished.

One case demonstrates the brutality and lack of worth accorded to not just women but young girls :

Pushing her five-year-old son's arm forward imploringly, Zirdana, 25, pointed to the festering wound buzzing with flies. The little boy was just two months old when his mother was convicted of murdering her husband, his father. Zirdana had been handed over to him at the age of seven, as part payment in a financial dispute. She gave birth to the first of her children when she was 11 and was pregnant with her fourth when her husband disappeared and she was accused of killing him. Her three older children were taken from her by her brother-in-law.

A report highlights the situation for women :

Earlier this year a report by Womankind, Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On, revealed that violent attacks against women, usually in a domestic setting, are at epidemic proportions – 87 per cent of women complain of such abuse, and half of it is sexual. More than 60 per cent of marriages are forced and, despite laws banning the practice, 57 per cent of brides are under 16. Many of these girls are offered as restitution for a crime or as debt settlement. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with a higher suicide rate among women than men.

So much for the west riding to the rescue of women. That doesn't mean a cheer if the Taliban take control though, even if some on the left might see that as a victory for anti - imperialism. My enemy's enemy is my friend does sod all for women, LGBT people, socialists and trade unionists .
There is nothing progressive in this, however much they hate the US, an organisation that would stop girls from having an education through violence and intimidation.

I await the first comment where I am told its all a bit unfortunate but that we must remember who the real enemy is. Tell that to the women suffering in prison or the schoolgirls attacked. The West should not be in Afghanistan but the Taliban will not be liberators in any true sense .The left should support socialists and progressive forces.As Dave puts it :

Because revolutionary socialists are implacably opposed to US imperialism, it does not follow that we are therefore indifferent to what undermines it.

Zimbabwean Women Activists Arrested

Breaking News - Women of Zimbabwe Arise

AT FOUR AM today Law and Order Police officers started to go door-to-door arresting members of WOZA. As it stands four members, Rosemary Siziba, Margaret Ndlovu, Idah Ndebele and Maria Moyo are confirmed to have been taken. Other members refused to open their doors in the dark.

At 4:45 am they arrived at the gate of Magodonga Mahlangu, broke her gate padlock and proceeded to try to break down the front and back doors. They did not succeed and left taking 'snowy' the dog with them. They were heard insulting both Mahlangu and Williams who are both leaders.

In Masvingo, Police also searched the homes of two members late last night and upon finding nothing promised to return to arrest the members who were not at home. Police officers said they are looking for information about the 'Sheroes Congress'.

WOZA and MOZA conducted their annual assembly in rural Matabeleland this past weekend and it is assumed that these arrests and searches are an attempt to obtain information about the congress resolutions.

News is still coming in from other areas ..

Ends
24 August 2007

A Zimbabwean Feminist Speaks

Hat tip to Chris for pointing me in the direction of this very interesting interview with a Zimbabwean feminist. Shereen Essof is described as "a Zimbabwean feminist and revolutionary activist currently based in Cape Town, South Africa." She describes a country in which inflation runs at 1,700%, and where life expectancy for men is 37 and for women 34 - but where luxury cars drive around Harare. A country where Mugabe (pictured) is an appalling repressive dictator, but the opposition MDC is far from perfect.