Happy International Woman's Day

It's March 8th, International Woman's Day or IWD. An official holiday in Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Georgia, Italy, Israel, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Zambia.

A day where we look back on the value of women in our society, a day where we look back at their accomplishments and their struggles for equality. A day we call our mom, sisters, cousins, friends, colleagues, girlfriend or any other women we know and tell them how important they are to us and how thankful we are to have them around.

Not everywhere however, on Tazeen's blog she writes of banners that have appeared in her home town on Karachi, apparently posted by a group called "Women and Family Commission" there are three versions of these posted on her blog.

Here's her explanation of the banners:
"One of the banners says that the quota for women's employment is tantamount to increasing the number of children who will spend their days without their mother's attention. Another one says that 50% quota in jobs for women is infringement of men's rights and my personal favorite is the last one which says, employment is not the solution to the problems of women."

Screw that.
Anyone who reads that and doesn't realize that it's crap is out of their minds!

I'm glad Tazeen posted this because I never would have heard about it otherwise...
At least not in time to wish my female readers a very happy International Woman's Day!

Muchacho Enfermo

Pakistan : Hey Swat...you're still on your own!

Why has Pakistan abandoned Swat? Over the last two years Pakistan made it clear that its policy concerning the goings on in the Swat province was a strategy known as “head in the sand”. Yesterday the people of Swat finally had something to cheer about: The Pakistani government and the radical groups that control swat struck a deal that would make Sharia the official rule of law in Swat.

Apparently all rejoiced at this news in Swat, the Globe and Mail reports people dancing in the streets, markets and schools reopening. Good news for all right? Especially given that the bargaining position of the residents of swat started from the very weak : “Ordinary people want peace at any cost.”

Maybe... but maybe not... What about the schools that have already burned down, what about the market where women get executed for shopping, what about the countless other atrocities? Will the Sharia help the people or help the radicals? Because as we all know the law can always be bent to serve those in power.

NATO experts now fear that Swat will become a hotbed for extremists and Taliban who want to slip in and out of Afghanistan. That means bad news for our Canadian troops. “We should all be concerned by a situation in which extremists would have a safe haven,” NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

The people of Pakistan are worried that a deal like this will set precedence that extremists might seek to repeat in other provinces and regions of the country. The director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said “It will spread to the rest of the Frontier province (...) once it spreads to Frontier, then why not Punjab ”.

I’m no expert on the matter, far from it, but when I hear the words: deal, government, Taliban and peace in the same sentence, something just strikes me as not right.

So just to recap:
-Pakistan has made a deal with the same extremists that wanted to close girl schools and execute women for shopping. Pakistan basically struck a deal with the devil.
-NATO experts are worried
-Pakistanis are afraid that this will set precedence and force Islamabad to strike similar deals in other regions.
-And people are dancing in the street?

What it boils down to folks is this: the only ones who aren’t worried are the ones in power because Swat still belongs to them.

(I’m going to read more on this subject today and hopefully someone will post here and correct me if I’m wrong.)

Muchacho Enfermo

Women must be executed for... shopping?

I read today in a blog I fallow called A Reluctant Mind that in the city of Mingora in Pakistan the Taliban have declared that all women entering the market will be executed. This was originally reported in the Daily Times.

To most of us in the west this seems crazy... as it does to most people living in urban centers in Pakistan. But the bottom line is that things like this happen even in a country that is considered a major US ally in the fight against the Taliban.

I'm just really at a loss for words I'm just in shock...


"‘Women are not allowed in the market,’ reads a banner displayed at the entrance of a market in Mingora. Taliban have banned the entry of women in markets and ordered the killing of women who violate the ban. Most shop owners have sold or shut down their businesses because of falling sales following the restriction." Daily Times

Muchacho Enfermo