Gorilla’s Guides

“In the past five years it is has got [much] worse. It is difficult to described how terrible it is, how badly we have been pushed back to the dark ages. Women are being beheaded for taking their veil off. Self immolation is rising – women are left with no choice. There is no government body or institution to provide any sort of support. Sharia law is being used to underpin government rule, denying women their most basic human rights.

At first glance Shawbo Ali Rauf appears to be slumbering on the grass, her pale brown curls framing her face, her summer skirt spread about her. But the awkward position of her limbs and the splattered blood reveal the true horror of the scene.

The 19-year-old Iraqi was, according to her father, murdered by her own in-laws, who took her to a picnic area in Dokan and shot her seven times. Her crime was to have an unknown number on her mobile phone. Her “honour killing” is just one in a grotesque series emerging from Iraq, where activists speak of a “genocide” against women in the name of religion.

In the latest such case, it was reported yesterday that a 17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq.

In Basra alone, police acknowledge that 15 women a month are murdered for breaching Islamic dress codes. Campaigners insist it is a conservative figure.

Violence against women is rampant, rising every day with the power of the militias. Beheadings, rapes, beatings, suicides through self-immolation, genital mutilation, trafficking and child abuse masquerading as marriage of girls as young as nine are all on the increase.

Continue reading ‘Barbaric ‘honour killings’ become the weapon to subjugate women in Iraq’ »

markfromireland

On Monday, March 24, President and Mrs. Bush hosted the annual White House Easter Egg Roll from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on the South Lawn of the White House. Activities on the Ellipse began at 7:30 a.m. with food and entertainment for all children. Children age seven and under participated in the official White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn.

Source:Whitehouse.gov Easter 2008

Later Bush tried to deny having relations with the bunny :

Continue reading ‘Bush Meats Bunny’ »

Sometimes when we are working on preparing a posting we come across a report that makes us stop and rub our eyes in disbelief. The report below from Reuters which was published yesterday February 28th 2008 is one such:

It’s headline shouts to the world that America is “bewildered” by its image in the Arab countries.

Datelined from Tunis, the Tunisian capital, the report leads by saying that David Welch, Assistant Secretary of State for Middle East Affairs said on Thursday that Washington is bewildered by its image in the Arab and Islamic world.

No, really he did say that, those are the words he used at the end of his visit which included a tour of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia …

“We are bewildered by the image of the United States in the region.”

The report goes on to point out briefly that the image of the United States of America is worst among the Arab and Islamic peoples because of its support of Israel and its actions in the Middle East since the attacks of September 11 September.

Welch went on to make what must rank as a clear early contender for understatement of the century. No, really he did, this is what he said …

“It is not easy to convince people in the region to like the United States politically,”

See what I mean? That’s definitely a strong early contender …

He went on to ask that the people who live here “understand the policy at least.” No, really he did, that is what he said …

“understand the policy at least.”

According to Reuters, and who am I to doubt them, he went on to claim that that matters are not bad as envisaged by some Arab media, adding that there had been great interest in the elections in the United States during his visit and that Americans wanted to reduce their poor image and were concerned to know why it was so poor. The report ends with another clear early contender for century status. This one comes under the heading of “Rip Snortingly Funny For Those Who Like Their Humour Very Very Dark Indeed” :

The United States has allocated billions of dollars to improve its image in the Arab and Islamic world through programmes for human rights, and education reform, and improving the status of women.

So there we were Nur, Saba, Ali, Omar, and me messaging back and forth getting the subscriber’s posting of the day’s events ready, and then I came across that Reuters report. I do have a very dark sense of humour and so do Nur, Saba, Ali, and Omar. You need a very dark sense of humour to deal with seeing, hearing, and above all smelling, the horror that America has cynically, deliberately, and viciously, unleashed upon the Middle East repeatedly. So of course I messaged them the URI to the report, an electronic cacophony of dark hilarity broke out and we damned near didn’t manage to get the subscribers’ version out at all - which would have been a first. As it was it it went out two hours late at which point we started on the non-subscribers’ version.

There’s nothing bewildering, not even slightly, about why America is loathed throughout the Middle East. When a nation is busy waging genocide against an entire group of peoples it is completely unreasonable, but very typically American, not to expect them to detest you for it. America is detested throughout the Middle East not because the people who live here do not “understand the policy” but because they do.

markfromireland

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said on Sunday that military action would not solve the Turkish government’s problem with fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Speaking in Australia, Gates urged Turkey to respect Iraqi sovereignty and improve communication with Baghdad about both the ongoing operation and other efforts against the PKK.

“I think it’s important for everybody to bear in mind the importance of the sovereignty of Iraq,” he said.

Source: Al Jazeera English - News - ‘Respect Iraq’ Us Urges Turkey

Baghdad, Dec 16, (VOI) – Dozens of Iraqi teachers took to the streets on Sunday morning in central Baghdad’s al-Fardous Square and other Iraqi provinces demanding an equal place with their counterparts in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

“Dozens of Iraqi teachers from all over Iraq demonstrated in al-Fardous Square in central Baghdad, calling on the Ministry of Education to increase their salaries along the lines of their colleagues in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region,” the head of the Baghdad-based Teachers’ Syndicate, Jasim Hussein al-Kaabi, who partook in the demonstration, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

“The demonstrators submitted their demands to cabinet officials who vowed to study the requests,” al-Kaabi indicated.

“A delegation of teachers will be assigned to negotiate our legitimate demands with the prime ministry,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the deputy head of the Teachers’ Syndicate, Burhan Nema, said, “We rejected all forms of support from several parties, institutions and association because we are affiliated with a state-run institution.”

According to figures released by the education ministry, Iraqi teachers receive a monthly salary of 200,000-550,000 Iraqi dinars (1 U.S. dollar= 1,117 Iraqi dinars), while teachers in Kurdistan earn 280,000-750,000 dinars a month.

In the central Iraqi province of Wassit, local teachers staged a huge strike, urging the central Iraqi government to put them on equal terms with Kurdistan’s teachers.

A representative for the syndicate in Wassit, Asaad Mahmoud Sahour, told VI that members from all educational institutions took part in the strike. “Teachers showed up in schools this morning but did not give any classes,” Sahour explained.

“A delegation of 150 teachers took part in the sit-in carried out in Baghdad’s al-Fardous Square, threatening to go on an indefinite strike if their demands are not met,” he added.

Speaking to VOI, director of al-Hijra Elementary School in Tikrit, Hassan Nasir, said, “Till when will teachers’ financial status remain the lowest in society?”

Aswat Aliraq

BAGHDAD, 6 December 2007 (IRIN) - At least 27 Iraqi Kurdish women have been murdered for having illicit affairs in so-called “honour killings” in Iraq’s northern semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan over the past four months, an official from the regional government said on 4 December.

“Ten murdered women were from Arbil, 11 from Dahouk and six from Sulaimaniyah [the three provinces making up the Kurdish region], while 97 other women - 60 in Arbil, 21 in Dahouk and 16 in Sulaimaniyah - had tried to commit suicide by self-immolation during the four months,” said Youssif Mohamed Aziz, the regional minister of human rights.
“Since the beginning of this year, the regional government of Kurdistan has formed a committee… to address all forms of violence against women and especially the `honour killings’,” Aziz said.

Since then, he said, awareness-raising campaigns had been conducted, human rights education had been introduced in schools, and Muslim leaders had been denouncing the phenomenon as being against Islam.

Continue reading ‘IRAQ: “Honour killings” persist in Kurdish north’ »