Pakistan Woman Asks: “Is it really a punishable crime to beat or scold one’s wife?”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\03\08\story_8-3-2009_pg13_7
— Zardari: “I want to congratulate women of the world including Pakistani women for striving hard to mark their identity.”
http://www.geo.tv/3-8-2009/36787.htm
— Lahore: “Candlelight solidarity expressed for ill-treated women”
http://www.geo.tv/3-8-2009/36778.htm
Day: March 7, 2009
Pakistan – Fear of death stalks women in Swat
Dawn report — AFP report: ‘Every woman fears she will be killed if she comes out of her house.’ “Terrified, locked up at home and courting death if they go out alone, women oppressed by extremists in Swat have nothing to celebrate on International Women’s Day…” “We have to veil ourselves and wear shuttlecock burqas. We are not safe even at home…” “We fear the Taliban all the time. Life is becoming worse and worse for women in Swat”
NY NOW President Stands by Statement on Killings
Local Organizations Say Feminist Group’s Statement Is Damaging
March 4, 2009
WKBW Television – Buffalo, NY
“Groups including the Network of Religious Communities, Western New York Peace Center and the Erie County Coalition Against Family Violence say a statement by the New York president of the National Organization For Women is damaging to women and to Muslims.”
“Shortly after Orchard Park resident Aasiya Zuair Hassan was beheaded in February, NOW released a statement that criticized the media for its lack of covering the Muslim connection to the murder. Her husband is charged in the crime.”
An excerpt of the statement reads:
“‘This was, apparently, a terroristic version of ‘honor killing,’ a murder rooted in cultural notions about women’s subordination to men. Are we now so respectful of the Muslim’s religion that we soft-peddle atrocities committed in it’s name?'”
“But Elea Mihou from WNY Peace Center says this statement might make women feel that suffering in a violent relationship is partly their fault. ‘To associate something that’s going to happen to 1,300 women this year in this country with one religion not only does a disservice to her faith, but it also does a disservice to women who suffer abuse at the hands of men of many faiths and no faith,’ Mihou says.
“The Network of Religious Communities is calling upon people to focus attention on domestic violence, rather than Islam.”
“‘We must all unite in condemning anyone, of any faith or culture, who harms the innocent and recognize that the causes of domestic violence are not limited to any religion or culture,’ writes the Network of Religious Communities Board of Governors.”
“Still, Marcia Pappas, the president of NOW in New York, says she stands by her statement. She also says Muslim women have sent her messages of appreciation, thanking her for bringing this subject to light.”