Yemen: Tiny Voices of Child Brides

Yemen confronts plight of child brides

Ginny Hill (Christian Science Monitor)

… According to estimates based on surveys by university researchers and development agencies, half of all brides in Yemen are age 18 or younger. But there are no reliable national figures.

Child brides are prevalent in Yemen because the minimum marriage age of 15 was revoked a decade ago to allow parents to decide when their daughters should marry. The ruling abides by an interpretation of the Koran that claims there is no prescribed age for marriage.

Deep-rooted traditions also play a role. “Early marriages are universal in Yemen because of the cultural premium placed on shaping a young bride to meet the husband’s needs,” explains Naseem ur-Rehman, the chief of communications for the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen….

Pakistan: Burn Victims Operate Beauty Salon for Other Victims of Abuse

Cruelty meets beauty for Pakistan burn victims
After acid attacks, women find refuge, independence as beauticians

NAHAL TOOSI (Associated Press)

… Liaqat and Akbar got into the beauty business in the eastern city of Lahore thanks to the Depilex Smileagain Foundation, an organization devoted to aiding women who have been burned in acid or other attacks….

Salman Rushdie on Censorship: Pot Calling the Kettle Black

Rushdie has filed suit to have unflattering references to himself edited out from the recently published “On her Majesty’s Secret Service” n which he is referred to as “Sir Scruffy” by one of the former agents charged with protecting him following the fatwa against him. At the same time, he is perturbed that Random House halted publication of Sherry Jones’s novel, “The Jewel Of Medina”, a romantic novel about the relationship of Prophet Mohammed and Aisha.

Rushdie attacks censorship – while trying to stifle criticism of himself

Amol Rajan (Independent)

Saudi Arabia: Interview with Female CFO

Saudi Arabia’s First Female CFO
In a Country Where Only 6 Percent of Women Work, Meet a Rising Star

LARA SETRAKIAN (ABC News)

Saudi Arabia: About the Non-Existent Womens Olympic Team

Where are my Saudi sisters?

MONA ELTAHAWY (Globe and Mail)

As Mona points out, one place you won’t see our Saudi sisters is at on the all-male Saudi Olympic team in Beijing. According to certain Saudi religious authorities, sports are a way to entice women from their homes and turn them into lesbians.

From Eltahawy’s article:

If you’re wondering how sports could be a sin, look no further than a 2006 book by Muhammed al-Habdan. “This [sports for women] is exactly what the disbelievers in the West want,” he wrote. “Their plan is to lure Muslim women out of their homes and subsequently out of their headscarf too.”

It gets worse: Besides the plotting of the West, it is those all-too-tempting women themselves. Mr. al-Habdan says girls might be attracted to each other after seeing their classmates in tight leotards and tops…

I believe that if the Saudis will not permit women to compete in the Olympics, then the Saudi team should be banned.

USA: Immigration Detainee Suffers Horrible Death in the “Care” of Prison Officials

Hiu Lui Ng was accused of faking his illness while being held pending the disposition of his immigration case. He wasn’t “faking”. He was dying, and his illness was obvious to his family and to his fellow detainees (who, at the end of his life had to carry him to the toilet). Because he was too weak to stand in line for medication, he couldn’t even get pain meds. (Turns out he had cancer of the liver and spine. His back deteriorated so much that it broke, but was untreated. Sounds painful, does it not?)

There is no excuse for the treatment he received while in custody. The people responsible for his neglect should be held accountable for their cruel actions.

Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands

NINA BERNSTEIN (New York Times)

… In April, Mr. Ng began complaining of excruciating back pain. By mid-July, he could no longer walk or stand. And last Wednesday, two days after his 34th birthday, he died in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a Rhode Island hospital, his spine fractured and his body riddled with cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated for months….

USA: Muslim Marine Profiled

Marine Helps Break Down Cultural, Language Barriers

(MTV)

USA, MD: Police Invade Home, Kill Mayor’s Dogs

And the Mayor is lucky that they didn’t kill him, too. This is really scary. The County police are refusing to acknowledge that the mayor and his wife are innocent of drug trafficking although it is obvious that a mistake was made and the real criminals were subsequently arrested.

Police raid Md. mayor’s home and kill his dogs

BRETT ZONGKER (Associated Press)

Muslim Does the Work Jews Cannot Do on Their Sabbath

I had known about the concept of the “Shabbos Goy”, a non-Jew who helps out observant Jews who cannot work n the Sabbath, but I never knew that they could not even refer to work directly. So, during the Sabbath, the Orthodox Jew cannot ask directly for the air conditioner to be turned on. But he/she can say “I’m hot”, and the Shabbbos Goy will (hopefully) know to turn on the AC.

In Jerusalem, Muslim handles Sabbath chores for Jews

Dion Nissenbaum (McClatchy Newspapers)

USA, TN: Tyson Foods Shelbyville Plant and Labor Day

For several days now the haters have been voicing outrage over the new union contract at Tyson’s Shelbyville, TN plant which added Eid al Fitr as a paid holiday and dropped Labor Day. Since most of the union membership is Muslim (a majority of 700 out of 1200) and the contract allows for only a fixed number of paid holidays, this change makes sense. (It also only affects union members.)

Laughably, some commenters are incensed about according paid-holiday status to a religious holiday (conveniently forgetting about Christmas, I guess).

For what it’s worth, many people work on Labor Day. Its importance as a national holiday has decreased over the years and it doesn’t have the significance or traditions that we accord to Independence Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving or (for Christians) Christmas. I’m sure all of this went into consideration for the decision. Plus, with a mostly Muslim workforce, so few people would come to work on Eid al Fitr that the plant couldn’t operate properly anyway.

Plant Drops Labor Day For Muslim Holiday
More Than Half Of Tyson Plant’s Workforce Muslim

(WSMV)

UPDATE AUGUST 9:

The union contract has been amended to include 9 paid holidays, including Labor Day and Eid al Fitr. Plant workers at Tyson’s Shelbyville plant will be able to do what they’ve done for the past 23 years on Labor Day — they’ll work. Meanwhile, media coverage and public reaction have put the Somali workers on notice regarding how much they are hated.

Somalia: 21 Female Street Cleaners Murdered in Roadside Bombing

No group has stepped forward to “take credit” for murdering these women and maiming others who were participating in a work-for-food program coordinated by the UN.

Somalia bomb kills 21 women street cleaners

(CNN)

Afghanistan: Women Raising Children in Prison

It’s a sad commentary on a society when a child’s life in a third-world prison with his/her convict mother is less risky than their chances in the outside world. Prison in Afghanistan means lack of education, lack of medical care, estrangement from family and, of course, confinement. But life on the outside could mean being murdered by one’s father or uncles, being sold into marriage (if female), being kidnapped or being abandoned.

Afghan mothers keep their kids with them in prison _ it’s safer, more comfortable

ALISA TANG (Associated Press)

Sudan: Risky Business - Women and Alcohol

With high rates of poverty and few economic options, some Sudanese women turn to moonshining to put food on the table.

Booze blues for Sudan women under sharia

(Agence France Presse)

China: Muslims Waiting for Olympics to End So They Can Travel Again

Travel Restrictions for China Muslims

(IslamOnline.net & News Agencies)

Many cannot get on flights. Even train travel is restricted and full of hurdles for Muslim minorities. The situation is expected to last at least until the Olympics are over.

… In one case, a young Uighur woman was forced by authorities to undergo a strip search before boarding a train in Kashgar, a historic Silk Road oasis city near the Pakistan border.

A Uighur woman in her 20s in Kashgar said she had twice been denied a train ticket to Urumqi to start training for a new job.

Her passport had been confiscated by police for “safe-keeping”.

“Many of us are now just forgetting any plans we had and waiting for all of this to end….”

Yemen: Sheik Abdul-Rahman Marwani versus the Extremists

… A Sufi, [Sheik Abdul-Rahman] Marwani uses the messages of Islamic mysticism to convince militants that Islam preaches peace. … Recently, he confronted a firebrand preacher who had exhorted Muslims to kill Christians. “Do you believe Allah is wise and that all things come from Allah?” Marwani asked. The preacher did. “Even that Mercedes you drive?” the sheik pressed on. “Because if you kill all the Christians, there won’t be any of them left to build Mercedeses.”

Hmmmm…. I guess some extremists are responsive to “practical” concerns, such whether or not they can still get a Benz or find a Cadbury bar if all of “Christiandom” is wiped out.

‘If You Kill All the Christians …’

CARLA POWER (Time Magazine)