Women under attack in Iraq, Afghanistan

[ECH1969]

Women are facing increasing violence in Iraq , Afghanistan and Somalia, especially when they speak out publicly to defend women‘s rights, a senior U.N. official told the U.N. Security Council U.N. Security Council.

"What UNIFEM is seeing on the ground — in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia — is that public space for women in these situations is shrinking," Heyzer said Thursday. "Women are becoming assassination targets when they dare defend women‘s rights in public decision-making."

"In Afghanistan, attacks on school establishments put the lives of girls at risk when they attempt to exercise their basic rights to education," Guehenno said. "Women and girls are raped when they go out to fetch firewood in Darfur.

"In Afghanistan, attacks on school establishments put the lives of girls at risk when they attempt to exercise their basic rights to education," Guehenno said. "Women and girls are raped when they go out to fetch firewood in Darfur.

http://www.localnewswatch.com/benton/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=19953

[PATRICK]

1. Simply, violence

and chaos begets this situation on the struggling women's movement in Islam. They have made real progress and religious acceptance- often MORE than in the West- where there is peace and democratic opportunity even under totalitarian regimes where their supportive force is recognized as building a strong society. This is completely at odds with Bush's boast about civilizing the area through force. Democracy, women's rights, anything decent or basic at all, are all uprooted in war and violence and hand power to extremists of hatred and violence. It is almost the simplest math- as were the military questions long before the war.

Bush(Cheney) only counts to One, himself, and be damned to everyone else. The pique he displays when things turn out badly is typical of ALL autocrats who expect reality to reward them for their violent aggression that destroys all the goods they claim they intend.

[streamlake]

3. Sadirists target the streets going after christian women

Bush's Iraq fiasco lead to a christian preist getting his head chopped off because of the pope statements.

Sadrists are now roaming the streets raping christian young girls off the streets.

Churches have been bombed in baghdad.

I wonder Falwell thinks of the damage Bush did to the christian community in Iraq.

[streamlake]

4. What this shows is every place u.s has entered has been left a disaster

U.S went into somalia stirred things up and then left a failed state.

Media hasn't covered much how bush stirred up trouble there this year with the cia paying off rival warlords against the islamists which started a mini civil war and the assasination on the puppet president there.

Iraq and afghanistan two other messes u.s went into. Well on afghanistan we can also blame the russians. We then paid the taliban and al queda to fight them then left them on their own and they set up religious schools and became even further radicalized.

Musharaf has gotten on the u.s many times for using them against the russians then leaving them to fester without knowing the consequences.

[Amonester]

2. CondiLIESa sure helped worsen their lives in Iraq.

Plus: she's kinda proud of that! :grr:

Ain't that rich?? Shoes, anyone?

[streamlake]

5. Anyone here ever notice the Bush/Maliki images

After Maliki has basically told bush off the last few days I went to google and typed in maliki bush on images.

The bush people are so clueless they thought maliki would be a pro u.s puppet.

After the first meeting they were saying how much bush liked him. Now seeing those photos that they got a puppet by a sadr puppet and not a u.s puppet makes bush's smirk seem all the more absurd. This whole iraq fiasco seems like a really LONG BAD HORROR MOVIE that won't end.

[rodeodance]

6. They list some countries below:

In Liberia, over 40 percent of women and girls surveyed have been victims of sexual violence. In the eastern Congo, over 12,000 rapes of women and girls have been reported in the last six months alone."

At the same time, Mayanja said, they remain "underrepresented in decision-making, particularly on war and peace issues."

"We cannot ignore the voices of the women from the time we broker peace onwards," McAskie said. "Peacemaking is not just an exercise involving combatants, it must involve all of society, and that means women."

Allegations of sexual abuse have also been reported in peacekeeping missions in Congo, Bosnia, Kosovo , Cambodia, East Timor and West Africa.

[rodeodance]

7. I see it is an AP story and hope it gets picked up a lot.