Violence against women

I feel petty. Here I am complaining about not getting courteous service when there are such horrific things going on across our planet. Atrocities against women and children in particular turn my stomach. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, has a right to get up in the morning and not fear for their lives or their safety.


Just this morning, I read about a 14 year old girl in Bangladesh who was “lashed”, or whipped as we would say, to death for having an affair with a married man.The man, her uncle, was in the midst of raping her when he was caught by his wife who accused them of having an affair. That is not an affair. That is an act of violence. Plain and simple. The man was sentenced to 201 lashes while poor Hena was sentenced to 101 lashes. He escaped after just  a few. She collapsed and later died after 70! The man, his wife (the accuser) and the imam and all those who just stood by should be charged and convicted of her murder. It’s just wrong.

Last week, in Libya, Iman al-Obeidi, a 26 year old woman, claimed to reporters that she was raped by 15 Libyan soldiers over 3 days.The  Libyan government whisked her away and she has not been seen nor heard from since. Her alleged attackers are suing her and her family for liable. What? Excuse me? In Libyan culture, she has brought dishonor to her family. Again, she was A VICTIM. Rape is violence. The men should be the ones who are dishonored and they should be charged with rape and kidnapping.


Female genital mutilation (FGM), a brutal act, is performed on approximately 3 million girls a year according to the United Nations. In its most severe form, the clitoris and labia are removed and the vagina is almost entirely sealed. It is a brutal act. The reasons for FGM are varied, from being proper and traditional, keeping the woman innocent, virginal, feminine and to decrease her sex drive. It’s carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and 15 years old! There is no anesthesia used. Generally, the girl is held down by her mother, sisters, and aunts while the traditional circumciser(male or female) cuts away. In Africa, an estimated 92 million girls from 10 years of age and above have undergone FGM. Don’t look away. Although it’s illegal, it happens right here in the United States. Until the 1950’s, American doctors performed FGM to varying degrees. There are reports of clitoridectomies, to cure nymphomania and melancholia in girls. In the nineteenth century both clitoridectomies and female castration (removal of the ovaries) were practiced by British and American physicians, as cures for melancholia, masturbation, nymphomania, hysteria, lesbianism, and epilepsy. Just last September, a man in San Jose, California circumcised his daughter over the objections of his wife. He had waited until his wife left the house and then locked his three-year-old in the bedroom with him and performed the FGM. He claimed the girl was too wild and this would tame her.

The violence against women and girls is horrendous.


Drom rape, to enslavement, to mutilation, we are being abused.

When one woman is abused, we are all lessened.


On a side note:
Not all my posts will be like this... I had planned to be silly on here, but this just got my goat.
Wait until I get together my post on violence perpetuated on and the abuse of children!