Afghan Schoolgirl Gunned Down By Taliban

A 10th grade schoolgirl in Kapisa province in Afghanistan was murdered by the Taliban. Although they have yet to fess up to the crime, who else would target a young female trying to educate herself? Anisa was also helping with the polio campaign, which the Taliban frowns upon. In Pakistan  and certain parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban have outright banned it.

The young girl was on her way home from school when she was gunned down by a group of men.

According to Kapisa Head of Women's Affairs Saifoora Koohestani:

"This girl was tenth grade student of Mahmoud Raqi Girls High School in the second part of Koohestan, Kapisa Province. This girl was not only a student, but also a volunteer worker for the (Ministry of) Public Health in the polio campaign," she said.

Malala, now Anisa.

How many more will be murdered by a bunch of cowards, afraid of young girls?

"Gendercide" Abortion Ban Defeated In House

It's interesting how liberals view women's issues. There was such a huge outcry in response to the Republican birth control controversy, but nary a peep out of them regarding sex-selection abortions. They somehow fail to see that asking taxpayers to not pay for women's birth control is a major non-issue compared to allowing women to selectively abort babies because they happen to be female. That's basically gendercide. They do that in China and India, and as a result of China's rampant femicide (because of the one-child policy and the inherent preference for males), there is now a dearth of women and men have no-one to marry. 

Abortion is a contentious issue, and there are levels of agreement as to what should or should not be allowed. There are those who believe that abortion is a woman's right, with no restrictions, and should be their choice alone. On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who think that abortion is murder, and regardless of circumstances should never be performed. Then you have those who live somewhere in the middle who believe that abortion should be legal in the case of incest, rape or if the life of the mother is at risk. Wherever one stands regarding abortion, one would think that most people (with a conscience) would agree that aborting an otherwise healthy baby simply because of its gender was unconscionable. So the Republicans wrote up the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), H.R. 3541, which would have criminalized abortions targeting gender. Doctors who performed those kinds of abortions would be fined and jailed.

However, the bill was defeated by 246-168 votes, including seven Republicans who voted against it. Twenty Democrats actually voted for the bill, and it would have needed thirty more votes to pass.

Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) said,

"This is an important issue to the American people. This type of sex selection most Americans find pretty repulsive, and our members feel strongly about it. That's why it is being brought to the floor."

Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), sponsor of the bill, said:

"In 2007, the United States spearheaded a U.N. resolution to condemn sex-selective abortion worldwide. Yet, here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we are the only advanced country left in the world that still doesn't restrict sex-selective abortion in any way."

Some Democrats who claimed they oppose 'sex-selective abortions' refused to vote for the bill because of its 'enforcement provisions.'

"We can all agree that women should not choose to terminate a pregnancy based solely on gender, but this bill criminalizes a legal procedure," Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) said Thursday afternoon.

"The bill includes a provision that would allow a women's husband or parents, by merely alleging that an abortion is because of gender, to seek injunctive relief to prevent the doctor from performing abortion procedures, sending an incredibly private and personal decision into the courts," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) added Thursday.

"It is another Republican intrusion into a woman's right to choose," said Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) of the GOP bill on Wednesday. "Women should be able to make such sensitive and private decisions with their families, their doctors and their god, free from the fear of the police."

Of course, liberals would see it that way.

Here is how The House voted:

Republicans voting against the bill were Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Charlie Bass (N.H.), Mary Bono Mack (Calif.), Robert Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Nan Hayworth (N.Y.), and Ron Paul (Texas).

Democrats voting for it were Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Jim Cooper (Tenn.), Jerry Costello (Ill.), Mark Critz (Pa.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Joe Donnelly (Ind.), John Garamendi (Calif.), Tim Holden (Pa.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Daniel Lipinski (Ill.), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Nick Rahall (W.Va.), Silvestre Reyes (Texas), Mike Ross (Ark.) and Heath Shuler (N.C.).

Afghan Woman Strangled For Giving Birth To Third Daughter

I just wrote a post about female gendercide, and how prevalent it is in China and India, Taiwan, Pakistan and South Korea. But it's not just in those countries that females are so devalued they wind up dead, pre or post-birth. And it's not just baby girls that are targeted for death- a mother that gives birth to too many girls can wind up losing her life, as well.

That's what allegedly happened to a woman in Afghanistan, but as with most stories out of those regions the details can differ quite substantially.  What we do know is that a woman was strangled by her husband, with the help of her mother-in-law, because she failed to give birth to a boy. However, this is where the stories vary: they have her age ranging from 22 to 30 with most claiming she was killed after bearing a third daughter, although several  mention it was a second baby girl.  Storay or Storai had given birth to a daughter two or three months ago, which so infuriated Sher Mohammad (her husband) that she was apparently tortured and then strangled with a rope. Wali Hazrata, mother-in-law from hell, tried to make it look like a suicide, but the police claim her body had been brutalized, so suicide was ruled out. Hazrata was subsequently arrested as an accomplice. Of course, the cowardly husband, a suspected militia man, has disappeared.

Hazrata denies killing her daughter-in-law, and police are searching for Mohammad.  He is believed to be in hiding with local militia which means he probably will never be found, and therefore not prosecuted.

Tragically, she had told her family that she might be killed if she had another daughter. Perhaps they didn't take those threats to heart because men simply take on new wives if one of them is unable to bear sons.

Thankfully, the baby girl was not killed.

Ironically, it's the man that determines the gender of a child. He should have strangled himself.

Sources: UK DailyMail, NY Daily News, NY Times, Al Arabiya

It's A Girl- Female Infanticide and Foeticide In China and India

Women are not highly regarded in certain cultures, religions and countries.  In fact if you're female in certain regions of the world you'd be lucky if you even make it out of your mother's womb. In those places where males are valued more than females gendercide is astonishingly prevalent. According to the United Nations there are more than 200 million 'missing' girls as a result of 'femicide'.

If you live in China or India (followed closely by Taiwan, Pakistan and South Korea) you have less of a chance of surviving birth or toddlerhood than anywhere else in the world. It's estimated that China and India combined kill more infant girls than are born in the U.S. per annum. If they're not aborted, the infants are killed or abandoned and neglected.

The documentary film "It's A Girl!", produced by ShadowLine Films, documents this tragedy.

It tells the stories of abandoned and trafficked girls, of women who suffer extreme dowry-related violence, of brave mothers fighting to save their daughters' lives, and of other mothers who would kill for a son. Global experts and grassroots activists put the stories in context and advocate different paths towards change, while collectively lamenting the lack of any truly effective action against this injustice.

Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.

The war against girls is rooted in centuries-old tradition and sustained by deeply ingrained cultural dynamics which, in combination with government policies, accelerate the elimination of girls.

Shot on location in India and China, It’s a Girl! explores the issue. It asks why this is happening, and why so little is being done to save girls and women.

According to Safe World For Women, more often than not it's women who are responsible for the death of their baby girls. One harrowing interview in the film trailer (see below), a giggling woman nonchalantly discusses killing 8 of her young daughters. Oftentimes, it's the mother-in-law who forces the issue:

The most insidious force is often the mother in law, the domestic matriarch, under whose authority the daughter in law lives. Policy efforts to halt infanticide have been directed at mothers, who are often victims themselves. The trailer shows tragic scenes of women having to decide between killing their daughters and their own well-being. In India women who fail to produce sons are beaten, raped or killed so that men can remarry in the hope of procuring a more productive wife.

And poverty and ignorance are not always a factor in gendercide.

Firstly, there is no evidence of concerted female infanticide among poverty-stricken societies in Africa or the Caribbean. Secondly, it is the affluent and urban middle classes, who are aware of prenatal screenings, who have access to clinics and who can afford abortions that commit foeticide. Activists fear 8 million female foetuses have been aborted in India in the last decade.

Read the rest of the article on gendercide.

"It's A Girl" is scheduled for a release in 2012.