Atrocities: Kidnapping women in Iraq

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Dec 132006
 
We are indebted to Dahr Jamail for his ongoing reporting about what is really happening in Iraq. In his latest dispatch, Dahr reports that women are being kidnapped on a regular basis in Iraq. One woman he interviewed told him,

“I was taken by Americans for three days recently,” Um Ahmed told IPS in Baghdad. “They told me they would rape me if I didn’t tell them where my husband was, but I really didn’t know.”She said that she was turned over to the Iraqi National Guard “who were even worse than the Americans.”

Her husband eventually surrendered to the U.S. military, but she continued to be held “to apply pressure on him to confess things he never did,” she said. “They told him they would rape me right in front of him if he did not confess he was a terrorist. They forced me to watch them beat him hard until he told them what they wanted to hear.”

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 Posted by on December 13, 2006

The Grandmothers’ Revolt

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Dec 132006
 

This post is from Sheroes.

Lately it seems that uppity grannies are in motion everywhere. A group calling itself the Granny Peace Brigade has called for grannies everywhere to gather in Washington on January 18th to lobby Congress. This is a picture of the Grannies on the Brooklyn Bridge on Grandparents’ Day, 2006. If the lyrics to their songs are any indication, they will prevail!

THE GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE (Tune: “Battle Hymn of the Republic”) Our Peace Brigade is on the move and we will not retreat. We send our message far and wide to everyone we greet We tell the world that we’re in style but war is obsolete, The Granny Peace Brigade. Chorus: Move on over or we’ll move on over you, Move on over, we’re the Grannies trekking through! Move on over or we’ll move on over you, The Granny Peace Brigade. We’ve been around a time or two and lived through lots of wars, And seen the senseless killing on so many distant shores. We’re here to say that they can’t take our grandkids anymore! The Granny Peace Brigade. They thought that if they jailed us we would meekly go away, But they didn’t know that Grannies always have to have their say. We say this war must end and all our troops come home today! The Granny Peace Brigade. Our eyesight’s growing weaker and our hearing’s almost shot, Our breasts are slowly sagging and our figure’s gone to pot, But our voice is growing stronger and we will not be forgot! The Granny Peace Brigade. Move on over or we’ll move on over you, Move on over, we’re the Grannies trekking through! Move on over or we’ll move on over you, The Granny Peace Brigade. (Lyrics by Vicki Ryder of the Rochester Raging Grannies, First verse by Corinne Willinger)

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 Posted by on December 13, 2006

Atrocities: Fiji Women Human Rights Defenders Threatened

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Dec 112006
 

from the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WOMEN HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS THREATENED

HUMAN rights organisations and individuals have been threatened with
violence, including rape, for speaking out on the current impasse in Fiji.
The Fiji Women¹s Rights Movement office and FWRM Board member Imrana Jalal,
received threatening phone calls last week.

The threats follow public statements by FWRM and an opinion piece by
activist and human rights lawyer Jalal.

“I received a phone call on Monday afternoon (4th December) ­ an anonymous
male voice threatened me with rape and attempted to intimidate me,” said
Jalal, who has reported the criminal threat to the police.

When she asked the caller to identify himself, “I was told that they would
‘shut me up forever’ and I was to wait because they would come and get me.”

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 Posted by on December 11, 2006

Atrocities: Stoning in Iran

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Dec 102006
 

This is an informative article, but we need to get away from this notion that stoning is “primarily a women’s issue”.  Stoning is primarily done to women, but it is done by men and is therefore a man’s issue, an issue of patriarchal privilege and power.

“Currently, in Iran, there are nine women sentenced to death by stoning on charges of adultery, compared to two men for the same offence – highlighting the fact that this barbaric mode of execution is primarily a women’s issue.
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 Posted by on December 10, 2006

Yanar Mohammed on Laura Flanders

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Dec 092006
 

Yanar Mohammed will be on the Laura Flanders show tonight at 8-9 pm EST talking about the Iraq Study Group.Dear Friends The debate can be heard online later at:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadionationPodcast

———

Radio Nation With Laura Flanders Saturday

The women Baker-Hamilton forgot: Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed and Carolyn Ho, mother of Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, weigh in on the mess in that country. Then, the Granny Rockettes for Peace meet the Church of Stop Shopping Choir.

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 Posted by on December 9, 2006
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