Monthly Archives: April 2004

Pakistan Vows to Crack Down on Honor Killings

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A day after Pakistan Prime Minister Musharraf issued a public call to end honor killings in that country, the BBC reported that two women in were murdered in what were believed to be honor killings.

In one incident, a man murdered his 21-year-old sister and her husband for marrying without first gaining the consent of the family. In the other incident, a man murdered his 17-year-old sister based on his belief that she was having an affair of some sort.

Estimates by human rights organizations suggest that 400-500 women are victims of honor killings every year in Pakistan. On February 10, Musharraf said that such murders were a “curse” and that his government would prosecute people accused of such crimes (Pakistani police have been accused in the past of doing only cursory investigations into suspected honor killings). Musharraf also called for more debate on Pakistan’s Hadood laws that, among other things, require four male witnesses for women to pursue rape charges against men.

Sources:

Pakistan ‘honour killings’ arrest. Paul Anderson, BBC, February 11, 2004.

Musharraf plea on ‘honour killings’. BBC, February 10, 2004.

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Effigies of Taslima Nasreen Burned in India

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In January, Muslim protesters burned effigies of writer Taslima Nasreen who has been in the sites of Islamic extremists since the early 1990s.

In 1994, Nasreen received death threats and was forced to flee her native Bangladesh over her novel, Shame. That book, and both of Nasreen’s subsequent novels, have both been banned in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal for their allaged anti-Islam content (Shame is about a Hindu family mistreated by Muslims).

Nasreen’s major offense has been to declare herself an atheist and protest that the Koran is inimical to women’s rights. Like a Muslim version of Elizabeth Cady Stanton (who made similar arguments about Christianity in the U.S., though without the fatwas). She has called for Bangladesh to drop its Islamic sharia law. In return, a number of Islamic groups put out fatwas offering rewards for her death.

Since 1994, Nasreen has lived in self-imposed exile in Europe and the United States.

Source:

Effigies of writer burned. The BBC, January 21, 2004.

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New Zealand Police Vow Crackdown on False Sexual Assault Claims

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Police in Palmerston North, New Zealand have become so exasperated at the level of false reporting of rape, that they are promising a crackdown and prosecution against people who make false statements about sexual assaults to police.

The Manawatu Evening Standard quoted Detective Sergeant Dave Clifford as saying that the volume of false reports had reached the level where it was diverting too many needed resources to investigate the false claims,

It would be close to one a week now and that’s too much. It’s got to the stage where we have to start locking them up.

. . .

It’s not unusual to have up to six staff investigating a complaint. We put all our resources into major investigations and rape is a major investigation.

Also, if someone is pointed out to us as an alleged offender, there is a stigma attached with that, too, because these things inevitably get out. And if the complainant does become a bona fide rape victim, their history of making false complaints can come back to haunt them. Police need some cynicism to help elicit the truth, but deepening that cynicism does a disservice to genuine victims.

Maybe we could transplant a bit of that common sense to this country.

Source:

Police sick of false sex complaints. Manawatu Evening Standard, January 14, 2004.

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British Study: Men Who Never Marry Happiest

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In December the University of London released a study of 4,000 Britons that found women who married the first man they had a relationship with were the most emotionally healthy women, while men who had multiple cohabitating relationships without getting married were the most emotionally healthy men.

The study claimed that following the breakup of a relationship, men tended to suffer a brief period of depression which waned as they became involved in a succeeding relationship. For women, however, there were longer term effects and the women with the most breakups also had the poorest emotional health.

If true, then the UK is an ideal place to become an emotionally healthy man as the marriage rate there is at its lowest level in more than a century.

Source:

Men happiest as ‘serial monogamists’, says study. Maxine Frith, The New Zealand Herald, February 23, 2004.

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Malaysian City to What Non-Muslim Women Can Wear

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While France and other European countries spend their time passing rules to prevent Muslim women from wearing burkas or headscarves, a Malaysian city decided in January to restrict what non-Muslim women can wear to work.

Kuala Terengganu’s city council is dominated by members of the Islamic PAS party and in January passed a law designed to prevent women from wearing “revealing” clothes to work. According to a BBC story on the new law,

Even non-Muslims will be banned from wearing short sleeved blouses, tight jeans, skirts with slits, or skirts cut above the knee.

Muslim women will have to wear a tudong, a headscarf drawn tightly about the face.

The traditional loosely draped Malay headscarf will be banned and the rules will apply to all work places.

Source:

Malaysian city rules on women. Jonathan Kent. The BBC, January 5, 2004.

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9/11 Made Her Do It

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Pamela Kaichen, 44, robbed six banks in New York and Connecticut over a 48 hour period in May of 2003. She pretended to have a gun during the robberies, and when she was arrested more than $42,000 was found in her apartment and car.

A judge sentenced her to just 4 years in jail — despite federal sentencing guidelines that call for 7 1/4 years for crimes similar to Kaichen’s. The judge bought Kaichen’s claim that she suffered from a mental condition that was worsened after she volunteered at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks and that she only stole the money in order to give it to 9/11 victims. During at least two of the robberies she told bank tellers that she had either lost a loved one or personally “went through” the 9/11 terrorist attack, both claims that were false.

In giving her a lenient sentence, U.S. District Judge Ellen Bree Burns said,

It’s clear this defendant was acting under significant mental disabilities trigger by her horrendous experience at Ground Zero . . . When Ms. Kaichen saw the sheer magnitude of grief as a result of 9/11, she began to feel like a failure. It is not a stretch to say if it was not for what Ms. Kaichen experienced on 9/11, we would not be here today.

Sources:

“I Went Through Sept. 11″. Associated Press, May 28, 2003.

9/11 experience drops ‘Blond Bandit’ sentence. Associated Press, February 3, 2004.

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Why Would Anyone Lie About Rape?

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When trying to assert that the feminist greatly underestimate the rate of false claims of rape, the usual rhetorical question posted by feminists is “Why would anyone lie about rape?” Well, in the case of three preteen California girls, they did it in order not to get in trouble for being late getting to school.

And their victim, a 36-year-old homeless man, spent eight months in jail before the lie was discovered.

Apparently fearful that their parents would be angry at them for being tardy, the three 11-year-olds told their parents and then police that transient Eric Nordmark had assaulted them in a nearby park. Nordmark was arrested, charged with seven counts of assault and child molestation, and incarcerated for eight months.

The girls were able to finger Nordmark through a police screwup. All three girls were shown the same photo lineup of possible suspects, allowing them to easily agree on which one they would identify and get their stories coordinated.

The Orange County district attorney’s office dropped the charges against Nordmark the same day they discovered the assault charges were false and have referred the three girls to juvenile court for making the false accusations.

Source:

Homeless man jailed 8 months on preteens’ bogus attack allegation. Associated Press, January 28, 2004.

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Victim of Recovered Memory Psychologists Receives $7.5 Million Award

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In the 1980s, psychiatrist Bennett Braun was at the center of the hysteria over Satanic cults and recovered memory. Through his practice at the Rush North Shore Medical Center, Braun convinced otherwise rational women and men that they were part of Satanic cults that were killing babies and committing other crimes. Braun told the individuals that they had repressed their memories of these events, and he used a number of dubious techniques to convince his patients that they had participated in these activities.

In February, Braun was once again at the center of the Satanic hysteria but in a different role — as a defendant seeking to settle a multimillion lawsuit brought by former patient Elizabeth Gale, 52.

Braun, and co-defendant psychologist Roberta Sachs’, actions were particularly pernicious with Gale. After checking into Rush for mild depression, Braun convinced her that she was part of a Satanic cult and had given birth to children who were used as human sacrifices in the cult. Braun and Sachs convinced Gale to voluntarily sterilize herself to prevent the cult from using her to produce future such sacrifices.

Gale’s attorney, Todd Smith, told the court that,

[Braun and Sachs] convinced Ms. Gale she had dozens of different personalities which had been created as a result of the horrific trauma they told her she suffered as a child. . . . [they] convinced Ms. Gale she was a member of a worldwide secret . . . satanic cult . . . that Ms. Gale was a ‘breeder’ for the cult and that she had sacrificed her previous children, when she in fact had never had children.

Braun and Sachs had previously settled with former patient Patricia Burgus for $10.6 million. Braun and Sachs convinced Burgus that she was some sort of high priestess in the worldwide Satanic cult.

If there were any justice, Braun and Sachs would be sitting in jail for their fraudulent and repulsive actions, but the only attempt to hold them criminally responsible failed to garner a conviction.

Source:

Not in cult: Woman gets $7.5 million. Abdon M. Pallasch, Chicago Sun-Times, February 12, 2004.

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