Aug. 30, 2006 - 22:23 MDT

STATE OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT

There are too many battered women in our country, that is for sure. However, Kathryn Jean Lopez of Newspaper Enterprise Association has an article in todays Rocky Mountain News that tells us how it is in other countries - - and what we are NOT doing about it. Herewith quoted in full, Bolds and Italics are mine:

WHEN LEFT AND RIGHT AGREE

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," the words attributed to Irish statesman Edmund Burke still hold true three centuries later."

"Right now, good men and women are doing something crucial: raising their voices in outrage, trying to save the lives of Nazinin Fateh, Malak Ghorbany and many other women just like them."

"Fateh, as of this writing, awaits retrial for murder in Iran. Young Nazanin killed a man in self-defense as a group of men attacked and tried to rape her and her niece. During her first trial, she reportedly said:

"I wanted to defend myself and my niece. I did not want to kill that boy. At the heat of the moment I did not know what to do because no one came to our help." (Presumably, because this is Iran, where Islamic sharia law rules, had she allowed the men to rape her and/or her niece, the victims could both be facing possible execution as adulterers anyway, in the name of a perverse conception of honor.")

"When I first heard about Nazanin's horrific case, though, I knew that her execution could be thwarted. In 2003, a Nigerian woman named Amina Lawal faced a death sentence after a court convicted her of adultery, but an international coalition fought for her life -- and succeeded. And in this new case, too, good people have stepped up."

"Iranian-born Nazanin Afshjin-Jam, a Canadian model and pop singer (and former Miss World runner-up), refuses to let the issue die and has the attention of celebrities and diplomats. When she heard about her namesake's case, she had the flash that it could have been her, had her own family not fled Iran after her father's torture there at the hand of the same regime."

"A coalition of folks spanning from my conservative National Review to liberal human-rights groups like Amnesty International have spoken out about Nazanin Fateh's case of self-defense. Most recently, her devoted advocate Afshin-Jam, has been honored by a group called Artists for Human Rights, with an award presented by Actresses Anne Archer and Jenna Elfman."

"In May, Afshin-Jam interviewed her namesake by phone. Said Fateh: "Don't just help me, help all 'Nazanins' and help us to go back to a normal life."

"There is no shortage of Nazanins. In yet another case out of Iran, Malak Ghorbany, mother of two and convicted of adultery, has been sentenced to death by stoning. In Ghorbany's case, too, Left and Right are united. There are many disagreements on Iran-related issues -- the country's nuclear program, its involvement in terrorism, its Mike Wallace interviews -- but Legal Rights Institute president Lily Mazahery, who has set up a website on behalf of Ghorbany, says: "If there is one thing that I have learned from my human-rights work, particularly on behalf of women and girls in Iran, it is that everyone agrees and forms a united front against these atrocities, regardless of his/her political affiliation."

"But the consensus must, in the end, go beyond advocacy for individual women's lives. Michael Rubin, editor of The Middle East Quarterly, is emphatic,: INCIDENTS SUCH AS THESE SHOULD UNDERSCORE JUST HOW ANTITHETICAL IT IS TO U.S. INTERESTS TO LEGITIMIZE THE REGIME.""

But he charges that in Condoleezza Rice's State Department, while "there has been much talk of bribing Iran with incentives . . . . human-rights preconditions have been TAKEN OFF THE TABLE."

+++++++++++++

In many countries overseas women are in a lose-lose situation, if they submit to rape then they are executed as adulterers, if they kill someone in self defense then they are classified as murderers.

Although not mentioned in this article, I have read of the sexual mutilation of women practiced among those nations also. Another cruelty inflicted or women and girls who have no defense to that either.

What will it take to get our government to move in the right direction on women's rights and human rights worldwide and U.S. wide also ?

An ailing entity and seems to be a STATE OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT . . . . . . . .

Blog