women's rights
September 28, 2009
- Dear Reader,Traveling to foreign countries, being on TV and the radio, it all sounds so glamorous! And it is ... but it's also very hard work.I arrived in Stockholm at about 4 p.m., to greet my publisher Shadi Bitar of Earbooks, waiting for me bearing a sign with his own name on it (a security precaution). After a warm handshake he drove me to the Rival Hotel, a truly wonderful place (especially ...
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September 24, 2009
- About once a year the media decide it's time to talk about the state of women's happiness (or unhappiness as it turns out), and frankly I am tired of it. Not because I think that women's happiness isn't an important subject, but inevitably our media and other talking heads seem to miss the point. Take Ross Douthat, conservative columnist for the New York Times for example. His piece, entitled, ...
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September 3, 2009
- In some countries, women are killed for not being virgins. In a May 2005 paper entitled, "The Economic Advancement of Women in Jordan: A Country Gender Assessment," the World Bank reported that 95% of the women killed in Jordan in 1997 for alleged violations of family honor were later found to be innocent of immoral behavior. In other words, they were still virgins, even though ...
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August 22, 2009
- Just want to say a quick but heartfelt, "Ramadan kareem!" to my Muslim readers. For those who may not be familiar with this pillar of Islam, my blog of last year offers a brief explanation. It's the first day of Ramadan in Jordan and, since the holy month commences in accordance with the lunar calendar, I'm not sure whether it's begun yet in Algeria or India or other countries ...
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July 29, 2009
- The Associated Press is reporting that Jordan has established a special tribunal to speed up the trials for dishonor killings cases in the country. That is all well and good, but I've never heard even a single person in Jordan--or any human rights activist, for that matter--whinge that the legal process for these crimes is too lengthy. What most of us wonder is why the victims and the ...
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July 21, 2009
- A Tale of Two ParadigmsKnowing the world's largest special forces training center just opened in Jordan doesn't make me feel any safer. Sometimes I really have to question how my taxpayer dollars are being used and why the mainstream media aren't doing a better job of laying it out for us.Amman Revoking Palestinians' Citizenship The comments following this article are every bit as interesting ...
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July 17, 2009
- Dear Reader, As author of "The Jewel of Medina," published by Beaufort Books last fall, and its sequel, "The Sword of Medina," debuting in the U.S. in October 2009, I've done quite a bit of reading on the topic of veiling. Veiling debuted in Byzantine Christian society long before Islam came along. Aristocratic Byzantine women did not choose to wear the veil but were required ...
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July 9, 2009
- One of the headlines in the July 10th issue of the Jordanian English-language daily newspaper is "No legal exemptions for 'honour crimes'." Of course, news like that is going to get my attention. There have been whispers that the Jordanian Parliament is reviewing the laws impacting the penalties for these crimes. Parliament has done so on a number of occasions over the past ...
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July 2, 2009
- Today the BBC and other news outlets are reporting that Syria has amended its dishonor killing law. President Bashar al-Assad, son of the Lion of Damascus, decreed that Article 548 of the Syrian penal code be abolished. Article 548 effectively decriminalized dishonor killings by allowing a maximum sentence of just one year for them.On the surface, this would seem to be good news. However, ...
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June 20, 2009
- At the traffic light riding pillion on this snazzy bike was a woman in a burqa, only the slits making her eyes visible. This is not a regular sight in Mumbai. She was holding on tight to the fellow riding the bike. They were a young couple. What surprised me was this guy. He was wearing tight crotch-hugging jeans; he had a diamond ear stud, his hair had blonde streaks and was gelled back and he ...
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