Category: women’s issues

Somalia: Jihadist bra ban update!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yes, you read that right.  Back in August we first heard about the ISLAMIC hardline terrorist group, Al Shabaab, banning women in Somalia from wearing bras, here.   Now comes word that the punishments have begun and women caught firming themselves up by wearing bras are being whipped and forced to publically “shake” their breasts.  I kid you not!  

From The Mail:

A hardline Islamist group in Somalia has begun publicly whipping women for wearing bras that they claim violate Islam as they are ‘deceptive’.

The insurgent group Al Shabaab has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust, residents claimed yesterday.

The women are then inspected to see if the firmness is natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra.

If they are found wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts, residents said.

Al Shabaab, which seeks to impose a strict interpretation of Sharia law over all Somalia, also amputated a foot and a hand each from two young men accused of robbery earlier this month.

They have also banned movies, musical ringtones, dancing at wedding ceremonies and playing or watching soccer.

‘Al Shabaab forced us to wear their type of full veil and now they order us to shake our breasts,’ a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped on Thursday.

‘They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.’

Read on, there is more.

Isn’t Shariah Law great?

Somali women’s rights advocate speaks in Utah, no refugees attend

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This woman is probably one of thousands of people from around the world who would make good and legitimate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Speaking in Salt Lake City this week, Asha Hagi elmi Amin had this to say:

Asked what message she had for Somalis now living in Utah, Asha Hagi elmi Amin repeated a single word.

“Education, education, education,” she said, “especially the women.”

Education, Amin said, is the only way to freedom. Education, she said, brought her a national platform to advocate for women and for peace in war-torn Somalia.

Education, she said, will empower women, keep them from poverty and allow men and women alike to claim their human rights.

Read about the challenges she faced and what she accomplished.

Amin embraced the only undisputed identity she had left — her womanhood. In 1992 she co-founded “Save Somali Women and Children” and then later the Sixth Clan movement, which brought together women in cross-clan marriages.

The group successfully lobbied for a voice alongside the five male-dominated ruling clans in the country’s peace talks in 2000 and won a role for women in charting the country’s future.

Today, there are 33 women serving in Somalia’s parliament and the pronoun “she” has literally been incorporated in the country’s governing charter.

Amin’s peace efforts have brought her political and humanitarian recognition.

She credits her mother for wanting her daughters to be educated.

Amin said her mother, a polygamous wife, made the “uncommon” decision to send her three daughters to a Quaranic school. Cultural stigma prevalent then held that educated girls would not make good wives, she said.

“She was very ahead of her time,” said Amin, who raised four children in a “very happy” family with her husband, who traveled to Utah with her.

But, then here is the most telling line in the entire article in the Salt Lake Tribune:

None of the Somalian refugees now living in Utah attended.

I was reminded of this post from last year where Ft. Morgan, CO had a kind of ‘meet and greet’ with the Somalis but only the men attended.  Sounded to me like the men wanted to make sure the women didn’t come out in the world and find out what they are missing!

Rifqa Bary Update

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 8th:  Pamela Geller reports that Nidra Poller has written an important Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about this case, here.   I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Poller in Nashville last May where she made a presentation at the New English Review conference on radical Islam.

We first told you about Rifqa Bary here.  She is the teenager from Ohio who converted to Christianity and ran away to Florida when she feared she would be the victim of an honor killing by her family or others in the Muslim community in Ohio.    Jerry Gordon writing at New English Review has a lengthy analysis of where the case stands as of the end of last week, here.

What occurred both inside and outside the Orlando Circuit Court room on September 3rd at the Rifqa Bary hearing was nothing short of Jihad against all apostates. Muslim fury was focused on so-called ‘Christian extremists’ who had allegedly swayed a teen-age apostate originally from Sri Lanka to convert to Christianity from Islam. In court, the petit teenager dressed demurely wearing a silver cross and holding a bible. Miss Bary’s case is being presided over by Judge Daniel Dawson. Judge Dawson has foremost in mind two basic issues; securing jurisdiction and the safety of Miss Bary. Dawson’s August 21st hearing decision permitting her to remain in child custody in Florida. This has clearly outraged Muslims who demand her return to her Muslim parents in Ohio and an uncertain fate.

Read on.

Hillary brings aid money to Africa and gives it to the IRC

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is probably the richest* of the Top Ten Volags resettling refugees in the US.  That’s the outfit whose CEO (former President of Columbia University, Charles Rupp) makes a cool $412,540 in salary and benefits ( See the 2006 Form 990 here, but heck where are the more recent Form 990’s, it is probably much higher now). So, the rich NGO’s get richer and nothing changes for Africa.

An aside on the health care debate!   The IRC and other non-profits resettling refugees demonstrate why the idea of Health Cooperatives that would supposedly be non-profit would not be a good alternative to government health care from the viewpoint of those of us who do not want the government further involved in our lives.  The NGO’s, like IRC, are really just arms of the federal government but without any accountability to the taxpayers who largely fund them.  The same would be the case for the Coops which would be run by cronyism and insider deals hidden beneath a patina of squeaky clean do-gooder intentions.

Back to my story about Hillary ticking off an African charitable initiative by giving most of the aid money to the IRC.  This is from a blog called VDAY which writes about violence against women and girls in DR Congo.   I guess this is the stuff you won’t hear repeated in the Obama/Clinton-loving mainstream media.

….. everything seemed to be centered on her announcement of a 17 $ aid package that will be administered through USAID. Much needed and appreciated funds – but wait a minute. HEAL Africa, the local organization that was hosting the event, has a hospital with 7 years of experience in treating survivors of sexual violence. However, we learned only through the speech of our honored visitor that USAID is planning to construct a hospital to do the same work, in the same city. And even though Clinton claimed that funds would be distributed to local NGOs, we found out shortly afterwards that the lion’s share would go to the International Rescue Committee.

[…..] 

In the end, it was the roundtable that rocked the house. Activists like Esther Ntoto, Christine Schuler-Deschryver and Chouchou Namegabe made passionate claims for freedom of speech, education for all and the need to get the Congolese army under control. They were applauded for their criticism of an international community that comes here in great numbers and drives up the cost of living with their abundant aid money (yes I am a part of those), yet fails to protect and often leaves local NGOs with only as much as a business card.

As I said, the rich insiders get richer.

I found this posting at VDAY through a blog which titled its post “change in which I don’t believe” here.

*The US Conference of Catholic Bishops probably gets more of your tax dollars than does the IRC but it’s dispersed so widely through so many Catholic organizations it’s impossible to track.

Note to Una:    I am not speaking with sarcasm now!  This is where you should put your youthful energy, a place like DR Congo.  Don’t go to a Muslim country, but go here and really help these women.  You are wasting your idealism on defending the indefensible bureaucracies that the volags have become (or always have been).