Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

ANSWER: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!


AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has a

Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women

Do you hear it?

It's the world's most pervasive human rights violation. It's the violation most often ignored.

Every minute of every day, women and girls around the world are assaulted, threatened, raped, mutilated, killed.

Can you see it?

It's happening right now in homes, streets, schools, workplaces. It's happening in court rooms, prisons, legislatures, war zones.

Women are routinely denied the protection that is their right. And those who carry out acts of violence are rarely brought to justice.

It's time to see violence against women as a global human rights crisis. It's time to expose the silence that confronts so many women and girls when they seek justice, safety and rehabilitation. Violence against women is everyone's problem.

It's time to speak out

Human rights violations stop when enough people demand change. Join Amnesty International’s global campaign to stop violence against women.


Each voice counts. Your voice can make the difference.

Refuse to accept violence against women in your family, community, school and workplace. Support women who are working to end violence. Take action online. Tell others about Amnesty's campaign.


Continue reading the campaign overview... at the site listed below AND

...when you visit the site... you will find:

Campaign Overview
Take Action
Get Involved
Learn More
Have Your Say
What's Here / Help
Slideshow

Go to: http://www.amnesty.ca/stoptheviolence/overview.php OR
the amnesty online chapter in the country of your choice

WHERE IN THE WORLD is a woman safe???


EUR 41/006/2005
12 May 2005


Spain: Authorities must act effectively now to protect women's rights in the home

59-year-old Teresa, who left her husband after 38 years of insults, beatings and forced sex, is convinced that if she reported him, her situation would get worse...She does not trust public institutions to protect her. At the time of her interview with Amnesty International, she had spent nine months shut in her home with the blinds lowered so that her husband would think she had left the city.


Teresa's story is far from being rare. The number of women killed by their partner or former partner as a result of gender-based violence has continued to increase since 2001, according to official statistics. In 2004, 72 women died at the hands of their partner or former partner. Seven of these women had been granted protection orders.

Survivors of domestic violence face considerable obstacles in getting help, protection, and justice, according to an Amnesty International report. Official statistics show that over 95 per cent of women suffering ill-treatment do not make a complaint. Those who do report such crimes are met with indifference or face insensitive interrogations which discourage them from pursuing their case further.

"The Spanish state has a responsibility to prevent violence, investigate abuses, punish those responsible and compensate the victims, and must do so without delay using all appropriate means," said Maria Naredo, Women's Officer at Amnesty International Spain.

Despite welcoming the drafting of a new law on gender-based violence, Amnesty International is concerned that the onus for setting protection measures in motion will continue to fall on the victims, and comprehensive help will only be available to those who lodge official complaints.

"This law is only a working framework, a starting point for alleviating the obstacles facing women, which women themselves have been pointing out," said Maria Naredo. "The Spanish government must put effective measures in place to make the rights of every woman a reality."

Drawing upon the testimonies of women who have survived violence in the home, the organization found evidence of prejudice and discrimination in the response of public institutions. A particular concern was the lack of protection afforded to women from vulnerable groups, such as undocumented immigrant women, Roma women, disabled women, and women with psychological problems or addictions.

Undocumented immigrant women encounter particular barriers in getting help, despite it being acknowledged that they should receive the same protection as others. In some regions survivors have to be sponsored before they can enter a refuge; in others, they are barred access and are referred instead to general immigrant support centres. To receive financial support, women who have been granted a protection order must be seeking employment -- but undocumented immigrants are unable to do so because of their administrative status.

The UN committee which monitors discrimination against women has alerted the Spanish government to the prevalence of violence against women and the increase in killings. It highlighted the lack of protection for vulnerable groups, including undocumented immigrants, and expressed concern at the lack of coordination between the central government and different regions in the care of victims of violence.

The report makes a number of recommendations to the Spanish government, including:

Minimum standards for response to gender-based violence throughout the country
Effective action to bring about early detection of domestic violence, and to provide health care for survivors
A review and evaluation of existing measures, with the involvement of survivors and women's groups.

from: http://www.oneworld.ca/external/?url=ht ... tre%2BNews

Mexico to tackle women's murders

The UN has criticised Mexico's handling of the Juarez murders
The Mexican attorney general's office says it is setting up a unit to investigate the murders of more than 350 women in the city of Ciudad Juarez.

The team of more than 30 will start work by reviewing 22 of the killings in the northern city, which began in 1993.

The move comes a day after Amnesty International said that the government was not doing enough to investigate.

Rights groups say local investigators have either botched their inquiries or obstructed efforts to secure justice.

There have been several arrests, but the killings have continued.

Two girls aged seven and 10 were murdered earlier this month.

Rival theories

The killings were first exposed when bodies were found in desert graves and by city roadsides in 1993.


The murders have been variously attributed to serial killers, drug cartels and domestic violence.

Some of the killings are believed to have been sexually motivated.

Many of the victims were poor working mothers employed in factories in the industrial city on the border with Texas.

Earlier this year the government announced a $2.7m compensation fund for relatives of the victims.

Families say the crimes have never been properly explained.

The UN has also criticised Mexico's handling of violence against women.

from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4584951.stm

Stop violence against Indigenous women in Canada

"I don't get the sense the general public cares much about missing or murdered aboriginal women. It's all part of this indifference to the lives of aboriginal people. They don't seem to matter as much as white people." Author Warren Goulding, whose book Just Another Indian documents public indifference to the deaths of four aboriginal women at the hands of a serial killer in Alberta and Saskatchewan, quoted in The Edmonton Journal

"My vision for the future is that we would not even need campaigns such as these because these things would not even be the reality and our women would be viewed and honoured the way they should be. However, this campaign is very important to educate and put forward these issues as first steps towards stopping violence against Aboriginal women. I believe that it is the responsibility of every person in every community to help make these changes." Denise Cook, Native Women's Association of Canada Youth Council

Over the last year, Amnesty International has heard from Indigenous families across Canada who have experienced the tragic loss of a mother, a sister or a daughter, murdered or gone missing in a Canadian city.

We have been told by Indigenous women's organizations that violence against Indigenous women in Canada is so pervasive that almost every Indigenous person is related to or knows a woman who has been murdered or gone missing. This violence occurs in every aspect of Indigenous women's lives, from their homes to their workplaces to the streets where they live.

Amnesty International is in the midst of a research project to document the experiences of Indigenous families who have lost loved ones to violence against women. Through this research we hope to get a clearer picture of the scope of the problem, the factors leading to Indigenous women's vulnerability to violence, and the steps that must be taken to bring this violence to an end.

What is already clear is the lack of information available to the decision-makers we rely on to ensure the safety of all members of society. Each killing or disappearance of an Indigenous woman is treated as an isolated incident. In some cases, police respond admirably, doing all they can to investigate the case. In other instances, family members are left in the dark, uncertain what if anything is being done. But rarely is this information shared among police forces. And nowhere are the individual reports compiled and analyzed to show the patterns of violence and reveal the measures needed to protect Indigenous women and bring their attackers to justice.

Amnesty International is joining with the Native Women's Association of Canada, Canadian churches, and other concerned groups across the country in calling on the federal government to provide adequate and sustainable funding for research and education about violence against Indigenous women, including the establishment of a national hotline and registry to report missing women and register statistics.


Go here: http://www.amnesty.ca/IndigenousPeoples/sisters.php

or go here: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR200012004

from: The New York Times

June 14, 2005
Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

No wonder the Pakistan government can't catch Osama bin Laden. It is too busy harassing, detaining - and now kidnapping - a gang-rape victim for daring to protest and for planning a visit to the United States.

Last fall I wrote about Mukhtaran Bibi, a woman who was sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped Ms. Mukhtaran, then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300.

Ms. Mukhtaran was supposed to have committed suicide. Instead, with the backing of a local Islamic leader, she fought back and testified against her persecutors. Six were convicted.

Then Ms. Mukhtaran, who believed that the best way to overcome such abuses was through better education, used her compensation money to start two schools in her village, one for boys and the other for girls. She went out of her way to enroll the children of her attackers in the schools, showing that she bore no grudges.

Readers of my column sent in more than $133,000 for her. Mercy Corps, a U.S. aid organization, has helped her administer the money, and she has expanded the schools, started a shelter for abused women and bought a van that is used as an ambulance for the area. She has also emerged as a ferocious spokeswoman against honor killings, rapes and acid attacks on women. (If you want to help her, please don't send checks to me but to Mercy Corps, with "Mukhtaran Bibi" in the memo line: 3015 S.W. First, Portland, Ore. 97201.)

A group of Pakistani-Americans invited Ms. Mukhtaran to visit the U.S. starting this Saturday (see www.4anaa.org). Then a few days ago, the Pakistani government went berserk.

On Thursday, the authorities put Ms. Mukhtaran under house arrest - to stop her from speaking out. In phone conversations in the last few days, she said that when she tried to step outside, police pointed their guns at her. To silence her, the police cut off her land line.

After she had been detained, a court ordered her attackers released, putting her life in jeopardy. That happened on a Friday afternoon, when the courts do not normally operate, and apparently was a warning to Ms. Mukhtaran to shut up. Instead, Ms. Mukhtaran continued her protests by cellphone. But at dawn yesterday the police bustled her off, and there's been no word from her since. Her cellphone doesn't answer.

Asma Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who is head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said she had learned that Ms. Mukhtaran was taken to Islamabad, furiously berated and told that President Pervez Musharraf was very angry with her. She was led sobbing to detention at a secret location. She is barred from contacting anyone, including her lawyer.

"She's in their custody, in illegal custody," Ms. Jahangir said. "They have gone completely crazy."

Even if Ms. Mukhtaran were released, airports have been alerted to bar her from leaving the country. According to Dawn, a Karachi newspaper, the government took this step, "fearing that she might malign Pakistan's image."

Excuse me, but Ms. Mukhtaran, a symbol of courage and altruism, is the best hope for Pakistan's image. The threat to Pakistan's image comes from President Musharraf for all this thuggish behavior.

I've been sympathetic to Mr. Musharraf till now, despite his nuclear negligence, partly because he's cooperated in the war on terrorism and partly because he has done a good job nurturing Pakistan's economic growth, which in the long run is probably the best way to fight fundamentalism. So even when Mr. Musharraf denied me visas all this year, to block me from visiting Ms. Mukhtaran again and writing a follow-up column, I bit my tongue.

But now President Musharraf has gone nuts.

"This is all because they think they have the support of the U.S. and can get away with murder," Ms. Jahangir said. Indeed, on Friday, just as all this was happening, President Bush received Pakistan's foreign minister in the White House and praised President Musharraf's "bold leadership."

So, Mr. Bush, how about asking Mr. Musharraf to focus on finding Osama, instead of kidnapping rape victims who speak out? And invite Ms. Mukhtaran to the Oval Office - to show that Americans stand not only with generals who seize power, but also with ordinary people of extraordinary courage.

E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com


you can find this article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/opini ... nted=print

New York Times
Editorial

June 15, 2005
With Friends Like This...

During a joint press conference last December, President Bush praised the visiting Pakistani president, Pervez Musharraf, for prosecuting "those who would inflict harm and pain" on the Pakistani people. "There is nobody more dedicated in the protection of his own people than President Musharraf," Mr. Bush said.

That line may need to be run through the teleprompter again. At a time when Pakistan is supposed to be going after Al Qaeda terrorists who make merry within the country's borders, our colleague Nicholas Kristof reports that Mr. Musharraf's government has instead arrested a victim of sanctioned gang rape for planning a visit to the United States. Mukhtaran Bibi was sentenced by a tribal council to be gang-raped because her younger brother supposedly had relations with a woman from a higher caste. After the rape by four men, she was forced by village leaders to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd.

Ms. Mukhtaran was unbowed. She testified against her persecutors in court, started two schools in her village, established a shelter for abused women and bought a van that is used as an ambulance in the area. She has also spoken out against honor killings, rapes and other attacks on women.

Her guts in daring to oppose the feudalistic elements of rural Pakistani society earned her invitations from all over the world, including from the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, which asked her to visit the United States this Saturday. But before she could get here, General Musharraf's government arrested her. Pakistan also released her attackers, who had been in prison since they were convicted of raping her. Pakistani newspapers report that the government, bizarrely, is worried that Ms. Mukhtaran might malign Pakistan's image if she is allowed to go abroad - as if it has not taken care of that rather ably by itself.

The Bush administration has made nice with General Musharraf in the joint interest of antiterrorism campaigns. Christine Rocca, the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, said in Congressional testimony yesterday that America is "dismayed" at the abuse of Ms. Mukhtaran, and that administration officials would pursue the matter during the course of the day. Let us hope this one goes straight up to Ms. Rocca's boss, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It makes no sense for the United States to accept the kind of behavior from friends that it would not tolerate from enemies.

Being allies with Pakistan should go beyond just selling F-16 fighter jets to General Musharraf in the hope that he will one day get serious about finding Osama bin Laden and stop allowing recruiters for the Taliban to operate in Pakistan. It should also include pressing Pakistan to adopt minimum standards of human rights.

Addendum from WB

...and now we can act in support of her and other courageous people... in the time that it would take to play a video game... please email others... talk to others... sign a petition online...

If it were you held in prison or held hostage or your human rights abused... I/we would do this for you -- I don't need to know you as a friend in order to care... You?

Dohiya (peace)
WB

Indonesia: Girls Working as Domestics Face Abuse
Government Fails to Protect Girls From Abuse and Exploitation

(Jakarta, June 20, 2005) -- Hundreds of thousands of girls working as domestics in Indonesia face physical and sexual abuse as well as gross labor exploitation, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The Indonesian government has failed to provide any oversight to protect these girls.

The 74-page report "Always on Call: Abuse and Exploitation of Child Domestic Workers" documents how Indonesian children as young as 12 work 14 to 18 hours a day, seven days a week, without a day off. They are also forbidden from leaving their place of employment or contacting their families.

Human Rights Watch documented how girls are physically,
psychologically and sexually abused by their employers. Most earn
less than 500 rupiah (or five U.S. cents) an hour. Labor recruiters,
neighbors, relatives and others lure girls from rural areas or poor urban areas with false promises of high wages, the chance to attend school in the city, and limited job responsibilities.

The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 2.6
million domestic workers in Indonesia, of which at least 688,000 are children, including 640,000 girls under the age of 18.

Domestic workers in Indonesia are excluded from the nation's labor code, which affords workers in the formal sector basic labor rights such as a minimum wage, an eight-hour workday and a weekly day of rest. Even the laws enacted to protect children from labor exploitation are not enforced by the Indonesian authorities.

"The Indonesian government has left child domestic workers at the
complete mercy of their employers," said Sahr MuhammedAlly,
children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The absence of legal protections or governmental oversight leaves child domestic workers vulnerable to extreme exploitation and abuse."

Many Indonesians believe that working as a domestic is a safe option out of poverty for children. But Human Rights Watch interviewed children who described being denied food, being beaten and raped, and refused wages. Indonesian authorities rarely investigate or prosecute abuses, and many deny that such abuses occur.

Children often become domestic workers to supplement their family's income or because they cannot afford to complete their education. Many girls drop out of school, unable to complete nine years of education required by Indonesian law because they cannot afford school fees and other costs of education. Child domestic workers who wish to attend school must depend on the goodwill of their employers. Indonesian law fails to limit the working hours of children above the legal working age of 15 in order for them to attend school. Of the 44 domestic workers interviewed by Human Rights Watch, only one was allowed to attend formal school by her employer.

"The Indonesian government must no longer turn a blind eye to such abuse, but should take affirmative steps to protect children from the worst forms of child labor," said Muhammed Ally.

Human Rights Watch urged the Indonesian government to:

amend the labor law to afford domestic workers basic labor rights,
such as an eight-hour work day, weekly day of rest, rest periods during the day, vacation, written contract, minimum wage;

strictly enforce the minimum age of 15 for all employment sectors,
the informal sector (which includes domestic workers) as well as the formal sector;

limit the working hours of children aged 15 and older so that they
may access their right to basic education under Indonesian law,
and continue with secondary education, and;

with the International Labor Organization, implement a time-bound
program to eliminate the worst forms of child domestic labor.

Selected testimonies of domestic workers featured in the report:

"It happened three months after I started working. One day, the
husband was sick so the female employer went to the store to get
medication. It was 4 am, and I was still sleeping. He came into the
room. I was forced to have sex with him. He threatened me. He said he would hit me if I told anyone. He told me that he would throw me out and my mother would get no money. He would come to me three times a week whenever his wife was not home. This happened for three years."- Dian, who began working when she was 13, Medan.

"The employer hired a new domestic worker and asked me to teach her to clean the bathroom. When I was cleaning the bathroom, I could not remove the dirt-it could not be washed away. The employer got angry and poured Fixal [a cleanser] on my right hand and arm and my existing skin condition became inflamed. The skin peeled off and it was bleeding. I covered it with a handkerchief. I was not taken to the doctor. It took three months for my skin to recover."- Putri, aged 16, Pamulang.

"My employer came from behind-she kicked me. I was kicked twice
on my lower back. She was wearing wooden sandals. She shouted at me and said that I was lazy and not working hard enough. She pointed to the clothes and said they were not washed properly. She slapped me on my left cheek. I was in a lot of pain and could not walk properly. My back really hurt. My employer had slapped me before. I would apologize to her if I made a mistake, but it made no difference."- Zubeida, 16, Jakarta.

"Sujatmi told me that I would take care of her children and would be paid 300,000 rupiah [US$33] a month. I worked at Sujatmi's house for three months. Sometimes I did not get any food. I woke up at 4 am and slept at 10 pm. I would sweep the floor, wash the clothes, and take care of the children. Sujatmi shouted at me, 'You are a poor person.

You have to know your position, you are here to work.' I was not
allowed to go out of the house. I had not seen my family since I left home. I was not paid any salary. Sujatmi would say to me, "I have your 300,000 rupiah with me and I will take you back . . . to see your family." She was lying. She never took me home. She hit me when she was angry. Three times she hit. Once she slapped my face and then kicked me above my right hip. It hurt and swelled up. I did not go to the doctor. She laughed when I asked that I want to see the doctor."- Asma, 15, Medan.

To view this document on the Human Rights Watch web site, please visit:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/06/20/indone11143.htm

June 21, 2005

The 11-Year-Old Wife
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF


When Pakistan's prime minister visits next month, President Bush will presumably use the occasion to repeat his praise for President Pervez Musharraf as a bold leader "dedicated in the protection of his own people." Then they will sit down and discuss Mr. Bush's plan to sell Pakistan F-16 fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons.

But here's a suggestion: How about the White House dropping word that before the prime minister arrives, he first return the passport of Mukhtaran Bibi, the rape victim turned human-rights campaigner, so that she can visit the United States?

Despite Mr. Bush's praise, General Musharraf shows more commitment to his F-16's than to his people. Now he's paying the price. Visiting New Zealand the last few days, he was battered by questions about why he persecuted a rape victim, forcing him to cancel interviews.

Pakistani newspapers savaged him for harming Pakistan's image. And the blogosphere has taken up Ms. Mukhtaran's case, with more than 100 blogs stirring netizens to send blizzards of e-mails to Pakistani consulates or to join protests planned for Wednesday and Thursday at Pakistani offices in New York and Washington.

Yet it's crucial to remember that Ms. Mukhtaran is only a window into a much larger problem - the neglect by General Musharraf's government of the plight of women and girls.

Early this year, for example, a doctor named Shazia Khalid reported that she had been gang-raped in a government-owned natural-gas plant. Instead of treating her medically, officials drugged her into unconsciousness for three days to keep her quiet and then shipped her to a psychiatric hospital.

When she persisted in trying to report the rape, she was held under house arrest in Karachi. The police suggested that since she had cash, she must have been working as a prostitute. Dr. Shazia's husband has stood by her, but his grandfather was quoted as suggesting that Dr. Shazia had disgraced the family and should be killed.

On average, a woman is raped every two hours in Pakistan, and two women a day die in honor killings.

While Ms. Mukhtaran and Dr. Shazia have attracted international support, most victims in Pakistan are on their own. Earlier this year, for example, police reported that a village council had punished a man for having an affair by ordering his 2-year-old niece to be given in marriage to a 40-year-old man.

In another case this year, an 11-year-girl named Nazan was rescued from her husband's family, which beat her, broke her arm and strung her from the ceiling because she didn't work hard enough.

Then there are Pakistan's hudood laws, which have been used to imprison thousands of women who report rapes. If rape victims cannot provide four male witnesses to the crime, they risk being whipped for adultery, since they acknowledge illicit sex and cannot prove rape.

When a group of middle-class Pakistani women demonstrated last month for equal rights in Lahore, police clubbed them and dragged them to police stations. They particularly targeted Asma Jahangir, a U.N. special rapporteur who is also the head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Ms. Jahangir says the directions to the police about her, coming from an intelligence official close to General Musharraf, were: "Teach the [expletive] a lesson. Strip her in public." Sure enough, the police ripped her shirt off and tried to pull her trousers off. If that's how General Musharraf's government treats one of the country's most distinguished lawyers, imagine what happens to a peasant challenging injustice.

I've heard from Pakistanis who, while horrified by honor killings and rapes, are embarrassed that it is the barbarism in Pakistan that gets headlines abroad. A word to those people: I understand your defensiveness, for we Americans feel the same about Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. But rooting out brutality is a better strategy than covering it up, and any nation should be proud to produce someone like Ms. Mukhtaran.

So while meeting the Pakistani prime minister, Mr. Bush could discuss not only F-16's, but also repeal of the hudood laws. And Mr. Bush could invite Ms. Mukhtaran to the Oval Office as well, both to hail a genuine Pakistani hero and to spotlight the goals of ordinary Pakistanis - not fighter aircraft but simple justice.

Resources

For more information about some of these issues, including the planned demonstrations outside Pakistani offices this week, see www.4anaa.org/projects/mukhtaran-mai.htm. That's on the Web site of the Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, run by a group of Pakistani doctors, and it's also the group that is arranging her visit to the U.S. To help Mukhtaran, don't send checks to me. Instead, you can find out about contributing at www.mercycorps.org .

E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com

Op-ed in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/21/opini ... nted=print

Why do you think Nicholas titled his article "The 11-Year-Old Wife"?

I think... it's because if he had indicated that this was an article about woman abuse... people wouldn't read it...

But say, "11-Year-Old" and "Wife" in the same breath... and even those people who have hardened their hearts against these issues will read on... because they are bizarrely titillated...

And having read... they have no excuse -- they are now conscious of the issue... if they weren't already.

WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE?

WHY IS THERE NOT MORE ANGER, OUTRAGE... ACTION????

I was scanning postings for international relief workers yesterday... there were jobs listed for experts who will promote
"gender awareness"...

Turn to your desk copy thesaurus and you will find that it identifies "awareness" as: consciousness and responsivenss... alertness, wakefulness and attentiveness...

It seems to me that gender in the context of "gender awareness" is mainly synonymous with violence...

The violence must end...

The violence against our mothers, sisters, daughters and friends...

The violence against children, men, trees, water, soil, air, fishes, birds and all manner of beasts... MUST END!

and it WILL end if we collectively become aware... conscious and responsive ...alert, awake and attentive

~WB

Mukhtaran Mai continues the struggle... and so, we must continue to support her!

Hello Friends

So often we hear a story, our hearts are stirred... we take action once and feel satisfied in ourselves. And we should, because our actions do make a difference.

But those in power count on the fact that once we have taken that one action, we move on and forget.

Please do not forget Mukhtar! She is a brave and courageous woman who needs our ongoing support. Her story represents the story of millions of women... if we can help her to succeed in her struggle... than by example she has aided millions. Our part is a small one compared to what she has endured and is willing to continue to endure in the name of ending violence and oppression of women and children.

Please continue to pass on the word and pressure your elected representatives... keep her name on your lips...

On Monday there is an appeal... send her prayer, send her energy... whatever you believe... so that justice will prevail! (See the message below with links from a good friend who is also working to ensure that Mukhtar is not forgotten).

Blessings Bright and Beautiful
I pray that this message finds you well...
with a smile on your heart.

Namaste
So it is.
Janette (aka Whitebird Sings)


----- Original Message -----
From: retha
To: Whitebird
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 1:25 AM
Subject: Important note & more links re: Mukhtar


Seems like there are so many different twists and versions of the story...one (sorry, I don't recall which), is disturbing regarding "conspiracies" re: her travel that will be dealt with after this upcoming appeal on Monday...

We cannot take our eyes off this -- I hope they are not planning on trying her for consipiracy after "allowing" her appeal to be heard...once the world media forgets about her.

http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/sea ... 27&go.y=17

http://www.southasianmedia.net/cnn.cfm? ... y=PAKISTAN

Friday, June 24, 2005
Protests in US in support of Mai
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 2005_pg7_2

Friday, June 24, 2005
US satisfied with Mukhtar Mai’s present situation
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.as ... 005_pg7_46

MORE...articles here from Thursday June 23, 2005
http://cgi.wn.com/?SearchString=mukhtar ... ch&first=0