Epidemic of acid-attacks on Islamic women

Originally Submitted by Barbara Bassett 7/25/10

I recently received two emails containing some very horrifying stories along with even more horrifying pictures. One was entitled “Epidemic of Acid-Attack on Women in Pakistan”, the article is about women who volunteered to lift their veil and show their burned faces and let a picture speak a thousand words and tell their truth. These women are courageous because they are Muslim women and under Sharia law the act of showing her face is a crime, even if it’s burned and no longer resembles a woman’s face.

I want you to think about this — these women are victims of a heinous crime. However, the heinous crime is not considered as such, it is considered an act of defending ones honor. A man whose marriage proposal is refused is defending his honor by throwing acid onto the body of the woman who refused his proposal. How dare she refuse him, his feelings are hurt and he is just so pissed off. But hey, we are talking about Islam, where men whose feelings are hurt by a woman get to act out their anger.

Yep, in Islam Mr. Refused is told not to seek counseling but seek revenge –throw acid in her face, you can even make a human torch out of her, you need to defend your honor man and we will back you up –you are the victim and she wears a veil that covers her face so we can hide our methods of peaceful honor defending. That is until she decides to lift her veil and show the world the horrific barbaric truth of what really goes on within the walls of the honorable religion of peace.

Warning the following photos are graphic and horrifying and real!

Story of Irum Saeed

Irum Saeed, 30, is a resident of Rawalpindi. She recalls how 12 years ago, when she was only 17, a boy, whose marriage proposal she had rejected, followed her to her college. The street he chose for the scene of crime was narrow, and Irum was unable to escape his hot pursuit of her. The rejected boy proceeded to throw a jug full of acid on her. As she turned to avoid this, he threw the remaining acid onto her back and shoulders, badly burning them. The photograph was taken at her office at the Urdu University of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Thursday, July 24, 2008. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times to try to recover from her scars.

Story of Shameem Akhter

Shameem Akhter’s face was mutilated with acid when she was only 17. Now aged 20, she is still unable to comprehend how she fell victim to criminals, who kidnapped and raped her for revenge. Then they left her face mutilated, hoping her appearance would silence her forever and ensure that she would never marry. They have succeeded in destroying her life and much of her spirit. Shameem has undergone plastic surgery 10 times to try to repair from her scars.

 Story of Najaf Sultana

Najaf Sultana, now 16, of Lahore, was burned by her father at the age of five while she was sleeping, apparently because he didn’t want to have another girl in the family. The burning left Najaf blind. Abandoned by both her parents, she now lives with relatives. She has undergone plastic surgery around 15 times to try to repair her scars.

 Story of Shehnaz Usman

Shehnaz Usman, now 36, of Lahore was burned with acid by a relative due to a family dispute five years ago. She has undergone plastic surgery 10 times.

 
Story of Shahnaz Bibi

Shahnaz Bibi, now 35, of Lahore, was burned with acid ten years ago by a relative due to a family dispute. She has never undergone plastic surgery.

Story of Kanwal Kayum

Kanwal Kayum, now 26, of Lahore was burned with acid one year ago by a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has never undergone plastic surgery.

 Story of Munira Asef

Munira Asef, now 23, of Lahore was burned with acid five years ago by a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has undergone plastic surgery 7 times to try to heal her scars.

 Story of Bushra Shari

Bushra Shari, 39, of Lahore was burned with acid thrown by her husband five years ago because she wanted to divorce him. She has undergone plastic surgery 25 times.

 Story of Memuna Khan

Memuna Khan, 21, of Karachi was burned by a group of boys who threw acid on her to settle a dispute between their family and Menuna’s. She has undergone plastic surgery 21 times.

 Story of Zainab Bibi

Zainab Bibi, 17, of Islamabad was burned five years ago by throwing acid on her face a boy whom she rejected for marriage. She has undergone plastic surgery several times.

 Story of Naila Farhat

Naila Farhat, 19, of Islamabad was burned five years ago by throwing acid on her face by a boy for rejecting his marriage proposal. She has undergone plastic surgery several times.

The case of Naila Farhat was brought to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in November 2008 and received great publicity. The perpetrator was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay Rupees1.2 million in damages. This represented a landmark decisions in dealing with gender violence, but the judgment could hardly stem the menace of acid-throwing. This was also somewhat exceptional case in the landscape of acid attacks in Pakistan. In most cases, measures, if at all taken, are still disproportionately low as compared to the sufferings inflicted by the attacks.

 Story of Saira Liaqat

Saira Liaqat, 26, of Lahore was 15, when she was married to a relative. The families had agreed she would join him only after finishing school. But then he demanded her to live with him after the marriage and eventually attacked her with acid when his demand was not met. Saira has undergone plastic surgery 9 times.

 Story of Zubaida Khatoon

Zubaida Khatoon was burnt by her husband to resolve an argument. Her husband had made it a hobby of frequently marrying women from families to lower economic groups. When she discovered this, Zubaida protested his actions. He tried to settle the argument by setting her on fire after pouring kerosene on her. Raising an objection to his lechery was all needed for her to bear these scars.

 Story of Nasreen Sharif

Nasreen Sharif, 23, was once a beautiful girl. When she turned 14, her cousin poured a bottle of sulphuric acid on her face as she slept. His excuse was that he couldn’t stand other boys whistling at her (because of he beauty) when she crossed the street. She no longer bears any resemblance to that youthful beauty. “My skin melted and my hair burned away. I am now blind, I have no ears and I have no sense of smell”,
says Nasreen.

 Story of Parveen Akhtar

Parveen Akhtar, 38, from Jehlum found her life changed when her husband asked her for her written permission to allow him to remarry. Her refusal to it angered him and he tried to murder her by dousing her body with kerosene and setting it alight. He portrayed the incident as an accident and told people that he wanted to remarry because she cannot bear children.

 Story of Bashiran Bibi

Nearly 25 years ago, newly-married Bashiran Bibi (now 57), a resident of Sukheki, Pakistan, was pushed by her mother-in-law into a coal stove. The family proclaimed it to be an accident. Her husband blamed it on a fit of epilepsy that she suffers from. Resolved to her fate, Bashiran continues to live with her husband and in-laws and gave birth to 5 children after this “accident”. Whatever money is donated to Bashiran’s cause, her husband uses it for himself and doesn’t spend any on her treatment.

 Story of Mumtaz Bibi

Mumtaz Bibi, 39, from Khairpur, Pakistan, came under her husband’s wrath while trying to protect her daughters. Her offence was that she refused to let him selling off her girls, shielding them with her life. Because of her lack of compliance, her husband poured acid all over her body, then proceeded to divorce her.

 Story of Tasneem Shahzad

24-year-old Tasneem Shahzad’s story is repeated all too often. A girl, too poor to bring much demanded dowry, she bore the wrath of greedy in-laws. Tasneem’s ex-husband was an addict. It was left to her to support her own household as well as that of her extended family. Tasneem worked in several homes to support all those who depended on her. However, that was not pleasing enough for her greedy in-laws. One day, her clothes were set on fire by her rapacious in-laws and she suffered severe burns. They then proceeded to try and prove that the incident was an accident.

  Rays of Hope

Amidst this grim state of affairs for the unfortunate women of Pakistan, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is working to expose the extent of the gender-violence in Pakistan and the misogynist mindset behind it, which is spreading within the Pakistani Middle Class. The AHRC is working closely with acid-attack victims as part of its involvement for denouncing human rights violations across Asia. 

The Depilex Smileagain Foundation is another organization, which is working with victims of acid-attack to help them smile again, however impossible a task it may appear: they are trying to make impossible possible. In fact, DSF is working in partnership with the Italian NGO Smileagain Foundation that believes, “There is every possibility that these survivors can manage to live the rest of their lives with dignity, with some help.”

A team of Italian doctors, linked to Italian Smileagain Foundation, visit Pakistan every three months to conduct operations on those victims in an effort to give them back as normal a life as possible.

In September, 2008, the team visited Lahore where they carried out two operations and then proceeded to Multan, where surgeries were carried out in Bakhtawar Amin Memorial Trust Hospital. Some 60 patients were evaluated and 8 surgeries carried out.

The stories from Mutlan were strangely different. This is an area where people have property and the disputes often revolve around inheritance. Here wrath knows no gender. Whereas in other parts of the country it is often women who are burnt by acid or fires, here there are as many male victims as well. Those who have been working with Smileagain Foundation, say that what they have seen in Multan is very similar to what occurs in Bangladesh. Property encourages men to lead an idle life, it leads them to indulge in pursuits of personal pleasure, and when they see a chunk of their means of this blissful idle life slipping away, their greed turns them into violent criminals.

Undoubtedly, the life of misery and horror the victims of acid-attacks have to live on is hard to comprehend. While organizations like Smileagain Foundation works toward giving these devastated victims as dignified and normal a life as possible, let us hope that works of Human Rights groups, such as AHRC, of the media and civil-society groups help expose and discredit the Islam-motivated misogyny that is responsible for the malaise, which only can cure this problem and help restore women as a dignified and equal part of men in Pakistan and any other society

“It’s about EQUALITY “

BettyJean Downing

I get weary trying to figure out a new and different way to say – “It’s about EQUALITY”, How many different ways can one present such a simple concept? If you are a liberal you claim to understand this principle,  yet you are intolerant of a multitude of persons and ideals of half of your countrypersons.  If you are a conservative, likewise you claim to know God and follow his precept that All Men (and women) are created equal, yet you treat the majority of our citizens as beneath you at best.

What a conundrum the two party system has inflicted upon our nation, successfully offering a supposedly free nation two options and only two, which are diametrically opposed yet the same in terms of standing as an antithesis to the precepts the Constitution was written to promote. Such is the frailty of mankind. Womankind, on the other hand, seems helpless to grab the brass ring.

I must admit, when I witness the vote results, I often ponder why we allow everyone to vote, and I can easily understand why the founders elected to restrict the vote to those with enough sense to understand what they were actually voting for. Initially, the founders were interested in creating a country greater than the sum of its parts, a country free from oppression, freedom to worship so that no one would be burdened by the religious dogma of another. And yet here we are with part of the country hopelessly liberal and another part that tries to bully everyone into practicing their religious, personal, and moral beliefs. Our Constitution states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion—that means either for or against. Congress and the legal process is to be silent regarding religion! Only then are we guaranteed freedom from government sanctioned religious or anti-religious oppression.

Neither side will change the other so why are we fighting losing battles? We do it for the sport of the political parties and for no other reason. In these battles only the politicians get fat! In terms of good for the country, we need to go back to the basics. The founders understood that mankind, if left to their own devices, is selfish and would vote for themselves rather than the good of the country. I will not bore you with a lengthy list of quotes to that effect nor will I remind you of the promises politicians make just to win elections.

Let’s consider for a moment America, the land of the free, two hundred years ago verses 2014. Briefly, the freedom desired was from the oppressive reign of a King, freedom of religion, and freedom from the oppression of an almost caste system that prevented upward societal mobility. Learned men fought and died to form a more perfect union offering opportunity to all. But where blacks, women, and Indians etc., were concerned, the Constitution did not apply at that time. But, the American Constitution, presented by brilliant men, formed a Republic that gave citizens an opportunity to evolve and perfect over time. The framers of our Constitution warned of greed and included checks and balances to protect American rights and freedoms. They warned that freedom would be hard to keep because mankind is (in my words) selfish!

America was the first successful Revolution to remain free to date, and just as freedom was difficult to gain and keep, many Americans have continued to fight for equality, and we are making slow gains. What part of equality do we still not understand that we understood when we passed the 13^th amendment?

To say that black men were entitled to the same status as white men but to totally ignore all women—the majority of the population—was ludicrous at best. Then to wait 50 more years to give women the vote and still not spell out they are citizens in that Constitution is criminal, and to deny women equality under that Constitution, even as it has been amended to include all others besides the majority, is unfathomable.

Our discrimination laws do not include sex! In other words, there are serious legal consequences for discriminating against anyone, unless she is a white woman. Ironically, if she is black, gay, Latino, Islamic, or some minority she may—and I say MAY have some recourse, if she is fortunate enough to catch the eye of the ACLU—If not, she, like the rest of the majority of our nation, is out of luck. Why? We women—52% of the population—have no Constitutional rights! Our government forced Iraq to set up equal rights for women in their Constitution but does not grant America’s own women the same. Our government forced Japan to do the same, in 1945, but has refused American women since we asked for ERA in the 1970’s.

If you think the ACLU is on your side—think again! If you think either political party is on your side, think again. If you think a woman’s group from either side is on your side, think again! Where are they when women need them to save lives? Where is either side when women need them? Who is standing up against violence against women in a meaningful way? Have the death rate from Intimate violence dropped in all these s years? It has not! Is that the banner they carry? Was it front and center on anyone’s platform lately? Which party is promoting ERA on their platform? Which party is promoting stronger laws to protect all women or educate them about all of their rights in matters of life and death? Who is educating mothers on our rights to our children in our courts? Who is helping us when we are destitute and facing divorce against a powerful abuser who wants to take our children and a corrupt court system that turns a blind eye?  I say we need more than just birth control pills and abortions—we need equality. We need for abusers to know they will be prosecuted. We need stronger laws and equal pay, not just the right to sue if we find out we were not paid fairly. Power still lies in the hands of male lobbies in our family courts. Our women and children are still the most vulnerable and the least protected in this the 21^st Century.

The ones who stand up and fight for their rights are the only ones who are heard:

An example of what is in Congress right now:

– Gang of Eight Framework for Immigration Reform

“The framework is designed to satisfy the demands of illegal aliens and their advocates, and business interests that want more cheap labor. It includes nothing that would benefit law-abiding American workers and taxpayers. American taxpayers will be saddled with staggering costs in the future as millions of poorly skilled illegal aliens become eligible for government services and programs.   PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1z3ym)

In the news right now:

 “The pulse of equality is strong in America, and today it beats a bit faster with news that the Boy Scouts may finally put an end to its long history of discrimination,” said Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay-rights group.

While there is still a long way to go for many others, we women have stepped up over the centuries to work toward equality and civil rights for others. Isn’t it time that we step up and ask that we as a group, be counted, and ask that others support us?

We are the majority, and yet, we as “women” we are the only group that is not covered under the Constitution nor protected from hate crimes, or protected from discriminatory language. That means we just don’t count in America! Whose fault is that? It is our own fault. As the majority we have successfully fought for, and won, many battles for minority groups—now it is our turn to stand up and ask for our equal rights too! Women, we must stand up and demand that we will no longer tolerate inequality on any level.

We need 3 more states to ratify the ERA—get involved. It is about EQUALITY! We have been complacent long enough. ERA now!

Crates of brick-a-brack Liberal Progressives!

By: BettyJean Downing
It’s time to come out of the closet!

Are we going to allow the biggest liar we know to label and intimidate us? Does the audience of thousands nightly look like a “basket of deplorables”? At the very same time Hillary was uttering these vicious words this is the audience listening to Trump live.
I don’t know about you but I have had enough of being denigrated, humiliated, insulted and accused of being a phobic or a hate”ist” of any sort because I don’t vote Democrat!
The label -discredit- shame tactic was quite successful 8 years ago, let’s not let them get away with it again!

Are you going to back down and let the Dems get away with it?
First we allowed them to push an inadequate black man with no experience down our throats and dared us to complain because after all we would be racists! It didn’t matter that he wasn’t qualified, black was all he needed.
Now they have a woman, a proven liar who is more than qualified to continue politics as usual and her claim to fame is her ability to squirm out of every lie she ever told and weasel out of ever mess she ever created.
The Democrats as a party have spent years catering to the lowest common denominator and have managed to gather an array of “Crates” filled with hordes of every sort of brick-a-brack collection of Liberal non traditionals hoping to overturn the America our forebearers fought and died for.
This group, now formed under the banner of Progressives are on a path to demean Conservatives by labeling them as the undesirable! This has already limited Conservative registrations driving many to register as Independent for fear being labeled by the Liberal Progressives. This “You are either with use or against us” rational has poisoned our political system for decades but never so blatantly as in the last 8 years.
Hillary Clinton has straight out called Donald Trump a racist who is “offering a dog whistle” to the most extremist, hateful portions of American society. Clinton said “around half of Trump’s supporters could be classified under the broad heading “basket of deplorables,” meaning racists, sexists, homophobes or xenophobes.
Eight years ago, I was labeled racist for running around the country trying to get Hillary elected now I am deplorable. Millions of us are deplorable, Obama got away with calling us racists, if she gets away with this, we will be deplorables, and we will deserve it.
You only have two choices; give in to her OR make sure she looses.

Please vote Trump, you have more to loose with her and her lying husband.

Human Rights withheld in America

By BettyJean Downing

An Open Letter to my colleagues working for Equal Rights.

What can I do to promote the Human Right still withheld to American women?

MY YEAR OF MOURNING is over and I am at a crossroads, saddened by the lack of response by women for women’s rights! I am deeply and personally wounded and I would like to share those thoughts with you to shed the frustration that almost caused me to turn my back on the ERA fight and women !

But alas after over 50 years, I can no more completely shed that fight than I can cut out my heart . It is however, with a very heavy heart that I continue.

During the 7 years that I have known and worked with most  of you, I have taken your advice and changed our name from FreeUsNow to a more uplifting and positive TheMajorityUnited and renamed the Radio station to WOMEN (Women Organized,motivated, and Empowered Nationwide) yet,  having spent over 100,000.00 of my own money all these years and energy – women would not step up and help in any way let alone to organize for ERA.

Large groups easily organize for a multitude i.e.  for gays who, God love em, comprise less than 10 % of the total population of both sexes, for illegals of all ages and sexes, for blacks, for thugs, for cop killers in jail or on the lamb, but where are the loud, protesting, sign carrying marchers for innocent women slaughtered daily at the rate of 4 a day every day, year in and year out?

We are so easily pacified by government run and or funded programs that do nothing to solve our problems or decrease the violence or the murder rate. The more VAW and DV. Groups That arise the more  funds are required to pay staff hundreds of thousands to run the programs  but that has not decreased the numbers just created many jobs. Where’s the no outrage! No one funds those of us who actually want to make change!

For rape every 24 minutes- no outrage! For beatings every few minutes- no outrage, in fact beatings if caught on video attract women wearing team shirts in support of pro sport abusers!

Blacks say they are targeted for walking while black but forget about the crimes and resisting arrest that precipitated some of these shootings.

Last year 143 blacks were shot by cops most in the commission of crimes or resisting arrest, Michael Brown found to be a thug having just robbed a store and roughed up the owner assaulted the officer and wound up dead. This brought on riots for months causing the burning down of a town in Missouri.

While ten  times 143 is 1430 the statistics are  365 x4= 1460 women were murdered just for being female and not just last year but every year!

During the last Iraqi war more female partners died at the hands of their men than did soldiers in Iraq during the same time period! Where are the signs Women’s Lives Matter? Or pictures of the victims labeled  ” I Can’t Beathe?

I ask you what can I do for the ERA but alas, there is little more any of us can do because we are not taken seriously in DC or anywhere because we are not united for women’s rights as a human right.

Clearly we don’t have enough self respect to stand up for ourselves, moreover, our women of color don’t mind being slaves so long as it’s not to whitey- they would rather be black minority than part of the majority and a women with equal rights.

Gay women rather have gay rights than equality which would afford them every opportunity under human rights.

Minorities rather be in minority groups than part of the God given Majority and gain of equal rights.

And so – we- you and I and others like us will fight to the death  to get equality for all but as Harriet Tubman so eloquently put it ” I freed a thousand slaves but I could have freed so many more if ONLY I could have convinced them they WERE slaves.”

Oh my dear ERA sisters, John Lennon was right “women are the niggers of the world” and like Tubman we can’t free them because we may never convince them that they are slaves.
IMAGINE The Majority United!

BettyJean Downing Kling MS. MEd.
FreeMeNow1@Me.com

Founder and President: TMU The Majority United
Founder and Host : W.O.M.E.N. Live on BlogTalkRadio
Founder: Free Us Now – http://www.FreeMeNow.WordPress.com
Founder: W.O.M.E.N. – Women Organized Motivated Empowered Nationwide
Author: Louisa’s Law: Reducing Violence Against Women
Lifelong: Crusader for ERA, Women’s Rights ARE Human Rights!

ACTION ALERT: Remove Deadline for ERA By Executive Order

By BettyJean Downing on behalf of Carolyn Cook of United4Equality

Please ask friends and family to mail a copy of this letter with their name and address to the White House. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, it’s time for equality and justice for All Americans.

November 2014

The Honorable Barack H. Obama
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Re: Moving America Forward By Executive Order: Remove Any Deadline for Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment

Dear Mr. President:

If over half of all Americans are considered second-class citizens without the assurance of equal treatment, responsibility and opportunity under the US Constitution, how can the US claim to be the “Leader of the Free World?”

What is the legacy you plan to leave America now that Republicans control the House and Senate? Through adversity comes opportunity.

What about jump-starting the Equal Rights Amendment by Executive Order that removes any deadline for its ratification? It is for the President to use his authority by Executive Order to eliminate Congress’s arbitrary and unconstitutional deadline and allow the process to continue as it should have all along.

Women are the unsung heroines as partners, mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts and grandmothers. Women’s unpaid labor significantly contributes to our GDP without compensation, health insurance, vacation, or Social Security. Women make up more than half of our workforce and women-owned small businesses are expect to be 1/3 of all new job creators by 2018! It’s no wonder that there is a correlation between the welfare of society and the status of women.

While non-profits serve a vital function by addressing the immediate needs of the underserved, they cannot enact public policies on behalf of the general welfare of our nation as the Executive and Legislative branches can.

At what point will the your Administration gather up all of the studies and testimonials and take action?
• The White House Council on Women and Girls Report,
• “Women In America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being”;
• The 600-page “Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink”;
• The State of Women in America: A 50-State Analysis of How Women Are Faring Across the Nation;
• Many Congressional hearings about women’s health, pay, poverty, sexual assault and domestic violence.

We need action that addresses the structural flaw in our founding document: the absence of women and girls as people.
As a former constitutional law professor, you must see the need to update our Constitution to include Women and Girls. Laws cannot protect the rights of citizens whose rights are not protected under the US Constitution. The Constitution guides law. Laws influence behavior. Behavior influences custom. Custom influences culture. Culture influences progress.

Americans revere the bold leadership that President Lincoln demonstrated when he abolished slavery by Executive Order during wartime. His vision was later reinforced by the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments granting freedom, citizenship, equal protection, and suffrage to all men.

Imagine our society today without the protections of the 14th Amendment.

Envision all of America’s daughters who have continued without that protection since 1868. The ERA is the equivalent of the 14th Amendment for All Women. If Lincoln could abolish slavery by executive order, could not President Obama help women achieve Equal Rights with an executive order?

Centuries of entrenched sex discrimination reinforced by law and custom will not disappear overnight. Slavery didn’t either, but we must begin somewhere. America must return to the very foundation of society to repair the structural flaw that excludes Malia and Sasha on account of being born female. As adults we owe History a repair of this oversight.

Immediate action is required to set the stage for the next Congressional session for equal rights.

Amending our Constitution doesn’t cost a dime, but it’s worth its weight in gold. On behalf of all Americans, we urge your official, public endorsement by Executive Order to mirror the intent of landmark legislation introduced by Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) to rescue the ERA from its congressionally-imposed political exile and give it your blessing towards victory. It was the Democratic Party led by Senator Sam Irvin (D-NC) that insisted on the deadline for ERA in 1972 and it is proper that the Democratic Party undo this harmful action now.

Human rights do not expire in our democracy, do they, Mr. President? Therefore, the path to achieve the basic human right of Equality for all human beings must exist in perpetuity with no deadline for personhood. Our goal is to set the ERA back on course to victory in three states in 2015 and end the human rights abuses of women and girls worldwide. It starts with Removing the Deadline for Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.

For more information: See http://www.United4Equality.com

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Name

Address

Phone

Women settle for crumbs at the liberals table as Dems continue war against women.

BettyJean Downing

VAWA watered down as part of the war against women, Democrats set the table and Republicans drink the kool-ade!
100 Years Ago, women took to the streets and demanded the right to vote. What will you fight for this year? We the women of the free world are the majority, and yet not only are we not covered under the Constitution of the United States, but we ostensibly need a Violence Against Women Act to protect us. Yet with the new act, we are forced to share what little funds we have with Gay men and non-citizens, as well as with any other peoples our government can find to share the already paltry sum amongst!

Still hanging after all these years? Free us now! ERA to free women – we are the niggers of the world!

How disgusting that we, the women of the greatest country on earth, need an act specifically created to address the violence directed against us in the first place. But now, to have to share it with others totally negates the reason we fought for specific protection in the first place.
Is there nothing our government holds sacred for the female majority of the population? Are there not hate crimes in effect for gays? Are there no other recourse acts to be drafted for others in need that we women, who die at the rate of 4 a day, need to share our pitiful sum, stretch our already overtaxed resources to the breaking point, when not even a dent has been made all these years in lowering the staggering numbers of women who suffer and even die from gender related violence?
What was wrong with the Violence Against Women Act before the Democrats decided to alter it and force the Republicans to sign on or risk being held responsible for denying women protection? Once again, women are being used as pawns. And once again, we settle for crumbs at the Liberal table!
Where oh where were the women while this travesty against women was going on? How many of our own daughters must be slain, battered, and raped before we realize that we have once again laid down for the man and his political machine rather than for our own benefit?
CRY for the women who are dying so that the Liberal can continue to allow havoc to be wreaked upon women and blame it on a war coming from someplace else, when it actually comes straight from the liberal table set by the Democrats and their molls!
Shame on the conservative men and women who refused to step up and fight for all women—who refuse to expose this travesty for what it is. Shame on all those who repeatedly sell out women in the name of government!
Give us an Equal Rights Amendment. Free Us Now!

Title IX, Title X, ERA, Equal Pay, PP & Abortion, Liberals political football !

BettyJean Downing

To hear the Democrats tell the story – you would never know that Title IX, Title X, pledges to support the ERA, Equal Pay, Planned Parenthood funding and Abortion were all started and/or passed under Republican administrations! That’s right they were 70’s advances signed into law that the dems takecredit for today!

When leftist women gather to talk to women about women’s rights – they rarely talk to all women about all women and clearly they are not about uniting women for the benefit of all women. Instead they take over women’s groups and radicalize them around issues that turn away the majority of women and turn women against each other using rhetoric that convinces women that we are enemies. These so called feminists insist women should have a choice- but it damned well better be the choice they have listed on their agenda- – you had better be Pro-abortion- pro gay rights- and a Democrat! What could be more anti feminist than that?

They have no intention of being ‘national women’s organizations’ speaking for all women. They rely instead on the divisive issues that tore the woman’s movement to shreds. The “lib” movement that both parties supported and would have secured equal rights for women in the 70’s , even included a woman’s right to choose abortion- was usurped and turned into a bra burning, man haters club that created a civil war between the sexes instead of equalizing the sexes. What could be more anti feminist than that?

Do a little homework and see what the radicals did to the ERA movement and how they keep the majority from coming together for all women by obfuscating the truth and playing games with semantics rather than finding common ground. See how they work for their own good at the cost of the good of all women. What could be more anti feminist than that?

See how they infiltrated the movement pitting woman against woman, against man and even against children. If you are invited to a women’s group – they will mask it with talk of ERA but all you will see and hear about is abortion, birth control pills and same sex marriage. Is that all women are about? What could be more anti feminist than that?

Can’t we have a group where women are seen as complete entities beyond their reproduction? They ask “if we can’t control our bodies- what can we control?” I respond- control your bodies, you have been since the 70’s- now shut the hell up and let the rest of us have speak our minds too without being ridiculed by the likes of you. You do not speak for 40% of America’s women and I sure in the hell want my rights- my choices, my voice which does not include being called a slut or a voting vagina!!

These radicals have us all painted as man hating, sexual wacko’s who care about nothing but same sex marriage and abortions! What could be more anti feminist than that? The very word feminist which should suggest appreciates or respects females instead connotes radical man haters. Thank you very much, now there is no word for those of us who simply want equality and reverence!

In case you think I am stretching the truth about the radical wacko’s hijacking the movement and tearing it apart-  read this major feminist’s work and see why so many women left the movement.

Shulamith Firestone “The Dialectic of Sex”

Published in 1970, her “The Dialectic of Sex” was a key feminist work that presaged today’s issues surrounding birth and science. The book influenced her feminist contemporaries as well as those who followed behind her.

“No one can understand how feminism has evolved without reading this radical, inflammatory, second-wave landmark,” said Naomi Wolf.

According to Amazon.com, “The book synthesizes the work of Freud, Marx, de Beauvoir and Engels to create a cogent argument for feminist revolution. Identifying women as a caste, she declares that they must seize the means of reproduction – for as long as women (and only women) are required to bear and rear children, they will be singled out as inferior.”

According to Wikipedia, “She advocated the use of cybernetics to carry out human reproduction in laboratories as well as the proliferation of contraception, abortion and state support for child-rearing; enabling [women] to escape their biologically determined positions in society. Firestone described pregnancy as ‘barbaric’… . Among the reproductive technologies she predicted were sex selection and in vitro fertilization.”   Firestone wrote in “The Dialectic of Sex”: “…[J]ust as to assure elimination of economic classes requires the revolt of the underclass (the proletariat) and, in a temporary dictatorship, their seizure of the means of production, so…the elimination of sexual classes requires the revolt of the underclass (women) and the seizure of control of reproduction… . The reproduction of the species by one sex for the benefit of both would be replaced by (at least the option of) artificial reproduction: … [T]he dependence of the child on the mother (and vice versa) would give way to a greatly shortened dependence on a small group of others in general… . The division of labour would be ended by the elimination of labour altogether (through cybernetics). The tyranny of the biological family would be broken.”

I personally don’t give a fig who you sleep with or what you do with your body- but I care how you present the rest of us. SHUT UP and stop dancing around in front of the white house dressed up as a vagina! That is a pitiful representation of women- and you do not represent me!

Men have been running this country for hundreds of years and have yet considered it necessary to dress up as PRICKS and dance around Washing DC to elicit support or votes!

Lowering ourselves with “I am more than a VAGINA” shirts or “Vagina’s Vote” umbrella’s does not bode well for womankind, it makes us look ridiculous and unintelligent. Alice Paul was Intelligent- as was Susan B. Anthony and many other suffragists who these Janey come lately’s have a lot to learn from.  Displaying a little more class and a lot less crass would go a long way to earning the respect needed to be taken seriously and to win elections!

The last time I attended the “We Are Woman” rally for women’s rights on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington – See more at: http://2passera.org/#sthash.dmIrZvaF.dpuf , I left disgusted and ashamed to be photographed or associated with the likes of some of these women who claim to represent America’s women. Further, Apparently we disagree on What women’s rights mean. I am looking to pass the ERA for Equal Rights. They DO NOT have it on their table. This was a DEMOCRATIC political rally ! These LIBERAL activists came dressed up as fallopian tubes and vagina’s shouting obscenities on the West Lawn, cursing men and Republicans while insisting there is a right wing war on women conveniently forget to mention where all the women’s rights and advances of the 70’s originally stemmed from.

Sandy Oestreich, Pres., National Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Alliance http://2passera.org/ and myself were the only two of a thousand or so who came to discuss rights of the whole woman. We had 5 minutes out of 5 hours to do so. http://2passera.org/

They forget to tell you – women from both sides of the aisle were once united. AND they forget to explain it was not the Democrats that passed these advances they brag about attaining in the 70’s. Instead they lead you to believe ( see pic left alluding to 73 as if Republicans were not the ones who passed these laws for women!) Instead they would have you believe- The republicans do and have always hated women and kept them “in their place” while the Democrats have always been the party of women. Yeah that was real obvious when they skewered Hillary in 2008 but that is another story. And they are about to uncurl Debbie W S’s hair next!

Before you believe the drivel from any party about the other party – do your research- and stop believing what the media tells you. Either be informed or stop voting. Ignorance is not bliss and the rest of us are paying for voter ignorance! For those of you who give a damned – read on!

The Republican Administration gave women Title IX, Title X, the ERA proposal, Equal Pay, Planned Parenthood funding and Abortion. That’s right — it was passed by a Republican administration!

“Why were we lambasting Romney about birth control and abortion during the 2012 election ?”

For Example: Former Senate candidate, Mrs. Lenore Romney, whose son has accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination 2012, was part of an effort to get a plank in the platform calling for legal abortion., as was Mrs. Eisenhower.

It was the Republicans’ “four more years” gathering for President Richard M. Nixon, Watergate was a break-in not linked yet to full-on corruption… It’s right there in the papers!… What’s also right there is a snapshot of women’s roles and rights under revision in society — we called it “women’s lib” back then — and the Republican Party’s response to the change underway.

“The Administration will . . . continue its strong efforts to open equal opportunities for women, recognizing clearly that women are often denied such opportunities today,” it begins, and then pledges to support passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, fight against sex discrimination and for equal pay, and appoint women to positions of greater power, including to the Supreme Court.

For the GOP in 1972, these were not just promises: The ferment and bra-burning of the 1960s were consolidated into real change in the ’70s. The executive and legislative branches already had written historical gains for women into policy and law, and the Supreme Court the next year would make equal job access and the right to abortion the law of the land.

By the time of the convention, the Nixon administration had passed and implemented Title IX, which expanded educational and athletic opportunities for millions of girls and women, and Title X, which made federal funding available for family planning for the first time. That funding, which House Republicans keep trying to strip away from Planned Parenthood, passed the Senate unanimously and the House with broad bipartisan support in 1970.

The Nixon White House required government contractors to use affirmative action to hire women; more women were in management in federal Washington than ever before.

Read the story from one who was there: A look back at 1972 GOP convention, and emergence of ‘women’s lib’

By Ann Gerhart: Forty years ago, I went to my first political convention as part of the official delegation from Pennsylvania.

The advances we need will not come from division, and don’t be fooled neither party wants us, the Majority united, but united we will accomplish all that we need. What we need is Equality under the Constitution. All else will come when we have full citizenship and most of all RESPECT!

IMAGINE what we can accomplish united into the majority we are instead of divided into 2 political minority camps?

The ERA = “EQUALITY OF RIGHTS UNDER THE LAW SHALL NOT BE DENIED OR ABRIDGED BY THE UNITED STATES OR BY ANY STATE ON ACCOUNT OF SEX.”

Louisa: Gone too soon!

Louisa – Love of my Life my baby girl!

Louisa Passed October 27. 2013

Just a reminder Advocates against domestic violence. To date there have been ONLY 5 contributions!

Is it really possible that after all my years of service to women;s issues – that only 2 women showed up in court to show solidarity on Louisa’s behalf against her attacker and only the same two women came to her funeral this October? Is it also impossible to expect a few bucks be put in the mailbox because after 4 months there are only 5 donations? Silly me – I thought enough donations would pour in to cover a brick for both daughters, but not even one single brink has been covered!

CRY!

Was it also probable that a man who never knew any of us had a seedling planted in her honor after reading her story?

INDIFFERENCE!
If we can’t do better than this – then perhaps that is why we are not taken seriously when we beg for help with domestic violence! Perhaps that is why 4 women a day are murdered by a male they know/or love/trust! If we don’t help each other why should anyone else care?

My two daughters Denise and Louisa both victims of Domestic violence – serious head wounds shown below are now gone! I am left alone and I was hopeful not left alone to carry on to fight against Domestic Violence.

I am not only fighting for all three of us, I am fighting for you and your daughters too! Let us hope others will join the fight so NO other mothers are left childless too!

In lieu of flowers I asked please donate in Louisa’s name toward $400.00 needed for a center circle brick in Van Saun Park’s “Pathway to Freedom” sponsored by “Shelter our Sisters” in Hackensack, NJ 07601 (any amount no matter how small will be appreciated)

Contribute IN LOUISA RICHARDSON’s name directly to
SHELTER OUR SISTERS
405 State Street
Hackensack, NJ 07601

This mother has lost her two daughters – her best friends and has had insult added to injury: no flowers, no advocates, no visitation room full of visitors- I may never get over that! Was our five year fight against DV in vain? I expected so much more and she deserved so much more- may the Lord have mercy on the souls of those who ignored her plight and her fight and did not bother to pay last respects!

I can easily afford the damned bricks – you are all missing the point of this devastation! I need to know my daughter’s agony counted for something! They were beautiful before he bludgeoned one’s head in and blew the other ones brains out!

This is domestic violence and we all need to stand up!

Denise was dying from Cancer when George bludgeoned her

Louisa crying out for help in a nursing home after loosing half her head

Not a women’s advocate in site when I needed support in court!

Louisa Richardson

My baby girl is once again fighting for her life!

Louisa in Critical Condition

Louisa needs your prayers, best wishes, good Karma, and whatever else you have to send her way.
She is in critical condition, battling for her life once again!
Suffering from a month long bout with pneumonia we nearly lost her last night then her lung collapsed.

She has bravely battled for the last 5 years now we all want the Very best for Louisa so I am sending this shout out both to alert you all and to ask for your spiritual help.

Over the last few years you have often asked about Louisa and I know you have prayed for and sent her your best wishes. I thank you!