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

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.”

“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!

IT: What if IT comes out? Flush IT or bring IT here for the toxic treatment!

Barbara Bassett

Via Hot Air, this will make you sick:

Live Action’s undercover journalist went to a Bronx abortion clinic to discuss the potential outcomes of a 23-week abortion — that’s nearly 6 months along — and got the kind of advice that one would expect from Kermit Gosnell himself:

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What happens, the young woman asks, if the baby is moving and breathing when it comes out? No worries, says the abortion-clinic saleswoman — the toxic solution will make it “automatically stop.” If the baby spontaneously delivers, she advises the mother to “Flush it!” Or, failing that, stick the baby in a plastic bag and bring him or her to the clinic for the toxic solution. Don’t go to the hospital, she warns, because the hospital might actually try to save the baby.

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Maybe I am overly sensitive about this topic. This June 27th will be twenty-three years since the day my youngest child was born prematurely. I still vividly remember watching that tiny little girl struggle to breathe for four days before giving up the ghost. I cannot imagine someone intentionally killing a live baby:

In an exchange laden with euphemisms on both sides to conceal the gruesome nature of the discussion, the pregnant woman wondered aloud what would happen if “it” (her fetus) emerged from her intact and alive.

The employee assigned to take note of medical history reassured the woman, “We never had that for ages” (a seeming admission that a baby did survive abortion at the clinic at least once) but that should “it” “survive this,” “They would still have to put it in like a jar, a container, with solution, and send it to the lab. . . . We don’t just throw it out in the garbage.”

Oh, and this innocuous-sounding “solution” was, of course, a toxic substance suitable for killing an infant.

“Like, what if it was twitching?” asked the pregnant woman.

“The solution will make it stop,” said the clinic employee. “That’s the whole purpose of the solution . . . It will automatically stop. It won’t be able to breathe anymore.”

 

An Open Letter to: Eve Ensler

BettyJean Downing

Eve Ensler: ONE BILLION RISING, 2/14/13 V-Day’s most ambitious campaign yet

Eve,
I absolutely spread the word far and wide and made sure all my contacts did the same. I am writing to share how shocked I was that in all my years advocating for women and working in the filed  fighting violence against women – that this is the first time I have heard about ONE BILLION RISING! What a fantastic idea- thank you and please help me and other groups understand how to help make sure every woman and girl is aware of it in time to participate in ONE BILLION RISING 2014.

I am concerned that all women’s groups are not united and therefore our rally cries are not loud enough and powerful enough to shake the foundations of power against us. What can we do to enlist other women’s groups to engage in each other’s causes, to encourage all women to participate in every movement out there that empowers women? What can we do together to show the powers that be we really are a power to be reckoned with? As a whole, women do not present a united front; instead we are the women against violence, mothers against drunks, LGBT, Pro Life, Pro Choice, Anti War etc. etc. When will we just be the majority that we are? When will we again present ourselves as the WOMEN of America

You are absolutely right 33% of us will be beaten or raped, 4 a day in this country are murdered at the hands of a loved one who had beaten them before and was released to kill. About 50 % of us are adamantly against the other 50% politically, which mockingly keeps us politically weakened and unable to hold positions of power at home, on the job or in politics. An even larger percent ( I estimate upwards of 85%) of us is powerless financially because we are not united enough to grab and hold the power to self govern.

We stand at the point of sink or swim, we rally for particular issues and it’s like missing the forest for the trees. We are woman- we are the majority. The violence stops when we have our rights and full power. We won’t have that till we stop fighting amongst ourselves over the issues that were manufactured to keep us divided and fighting amongst ourselves. That old “a house divided against itself cannot stand” is true. Let history teach us and others that united we can overcome. We women are equal and can stand ready to lead and rule our own lives. Let’s demand respect, full equality, an end to violence can only come when we are united as the majority, powerful and voting as one block demanding full rights to self govern. Let the issues remain issues to be dealt with when we are in the position to govern but lets first get in the position to self govern.

Women’s History Month begins on Friday, March 1, 2013 (in 8 days) and ends on Sunday, March 31, 2013. 

Let’s demand a slot every day in honor of women’s history!

BettyJean
Thank you for joining ONE BILLION RISING, V-Day’s most ambitious campaign yet. 

When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women. Since then, hundreds of thousands of V-Day activists in audiences and on stages in over 140 countries have come together to demand an end to violence against women and girls. The funds we’ve raised together have kept organizations’ doors open, and the issue front and center in local media. 

But still today, the United Nations states that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime that’s more than one billion women and girls alive today. 

V-Day wants the world to see our collective strength, showing them exactly what one billion looks like. 

ONE BILLION RISING is a promise that on February 14th, 2013, we will ensure that millions of women and men rise up around the world to say, “ENOUGH. The violence ends NOW.” 

BettyJean, there is so much more to come. But for right now, you can help us launch ONE BILLION RISING with a few simple actions:
Share ONE BILLION RISING with your networks
Sign up for our text message updates in the US by texting BILLION to 50555
Follow V-Day on Facebook and Twitter

ONE BILLION RISING will make the earth move by uniting us through dance across every country.

BettyJean, I look forward to dancing, striking and rising to end violence against women and girls together with you.

In solidarity,

Eve Ensler

Susan B. Anthony Birthday Remembrance

 

February 15, 2013

Susan Brownell Anthony, born 193 years ago today, dedicated her life to winning for women their political, civil, economic and educational rights. The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections has acquired several artifacts related to the life of Miss Anthony, a resident of Rochester from 1845 until her death in 1906.

http://rochester.edu/news/susan-b-anthony-bday2013/

Listen to the story of how Susan B. Anthony worked to get women admitted to the University (mp3).

View the livestream of “Susan B. Anthony and the Material World,” presented Carolyn Ducey, Curator of Collections at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, University of Nebraska. From the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies 2013 Humanities Project Series

One Woman can do anything, but united we end this war between us & against all womankind- let’s UNITE and end it once and for all! IMAGINE the majority United! ~BettyJean Downing 2010~

What if Elections Mattered Again?

BettyJean Downing Kling

Those of you who know me since I ran for office in 1990 and 1992 have heard me advocate government reform over and over again. You may have read my “Patriot Plan: Voter Imposed Term Limits” drafted in 1990 in which I explain why we need a third party and have to throw the bums out – all of them. I amusingly call our elected officials two wings of the same vulture.
Today I was made aware of a 5 minute speech that got Judge Napolitano fired from FOX news nearly a year ago. If you are not familiar with the Judge he is a brilliant jurist. More articulate than I, perhaps you will take note as he reveals what I have not been able to clearly convey all these years.
The Judge eloquently and powerfully details explicit facts that demonstrate what we have failed to recognize. If we continue to do what we have been doing – we are going to lose the America our founders gave us. Perhaps we are already too late.
Note: Ron Paul is not the answer but – “We the People” are.
Please listen to and digest this speech, if you believe it has merit – pass it on and perhaps “We the People” will begin to take back our country and stop the madness.

So what? I have abortion rights and birth control!

WTF do I need ERA for? What do you mean I don’t have equal rights?

Tax donations needed: puppets or food banks, your money – your choice? Nov. 6

LET EM EAT CAKE!  Have these liberals no shame?

The 99% are on the East Coast this week yet the 1% in the entertainment Industry want our tax dollars for puppets? Ball players want their parades but throw us crumbs in return and insult us every chance they get with racial insults. If it were not for the viewing public there would be NO entertainment industry or spectator sports. Maybe it is time we send that message loud and clear. Let them eat cake!

If we are going to pay taxes – let it go to the devastated as a result of SANDY not to the 1% in the entertainment industry. PLEASE – I beg you pass that message around today and every day till the polls close!

Enough is enough- We have been told that wall street is the 1% but the entertainment industry and the Ball players and Hockey players make as much and hire so few- and where are they now?

Paid millions in salary, Sergio Romo wears ‘I just look illegal’ shirt at S.F. Giants parade paid for by tax dollars.

The entire billion dollar National Football League and players jointly, will donate a million to the Sandy effort while we spend more than that on parades for them when they win – where are they when we need them? http://www.footballnewsnow.com/2012/nfl-nflpa-to-donate-1-million-to-american-red-cross-to-aide-hurricane-sandy-victims/ Do you have any idea the tax dollars we spend on the roads to the stadium we spend each year here in NJ?

And now NPR and PBS who pay their executives nearly a million a year in salary are marching for tax dollar support on a day when the East coast is devastated? Gimme a break- let the entertainment industry pony up for their own – we have to take care of our own. No more tax dollars to the already rich and to the entertainment industry and sporting parades! Let those who have – pay their own way! 

Women’s Issues Ignored: ladies oblivious to the facts!

Survivors Justice begging for attention to women’s plight right here in America  has caused me to rant again: Author asks ” What are we going to do for them???” http://survivorsjustice.com/2012/10/31/what-are-we-going-to-do-for-them/ I responded and am posting my reply as an article- if you agree please let her know suou side with survivors!

Note- this is not about abortion- I am pro-choice for your personal rights! Tthis is about all the other rights that every other woman also has a right to demand and whose choices are not considered as important and whose life , liberty and pursuit of happiness depends on more than reproductive rights! There is more to life then the right to end it- some of us are struggling to live it!

Apparently the war on women has nothing to do with beating them, raping them, abusing them , starving them, or taking away their children to award them to the batterer who wants to avoid child support and alimony. It has everything to do with dividing women into two political groups; those who want children and those who want the right not to have them! In the process the majority is split into minorities without enough power to affect change for womankind but enough power to sway elections. We are being USED ladies and abused. WAKE UP!If you ask me – ignoring all the things that we really need- like the litany of problems I mentioned above and jobs, education, the debt, war, economy: price of food and utilities etc. etc. is the war on women.IGNORING all of US- is the war!

When is the last time you needed an abortion more than food, safety for yourself and your children , a place to live, a job, your batterer jailed for his crime, or a court to listen objectively before turning our children over to the pedophiles or batterers who abused them?

But what do we know – we are beaten, battered, stupid breeders who apparently don’t need equal rights, just a lot of rhetoric that reproductive rights makes us the most powerful beings on earth because we hold the power of life and death.

What a load of shit- we are being murdered at the rate of 4 a day by our intimate partners. We are beaten by those we love and trust every 9 seconds – we are raped every 9 minutes and they tell us all we want is to abort a possible pregnancy?

Gimme a break – I want the right to castrate the bastard who raped me and any other son of a bitch who rapes my child. I want these batterers locked away! I want pedophiles castrated and put on an island. I don’t give a rat’s ass about their civil rights.

I care about the civil rights of the majority – which in case you have not noticed – WE DO NOT HAVE! What we have is the right to abort and nothing more! I care about the rights of innocent children who have no voice and are victimized by adults, the courts, pedophiles and would be mothers who take their rage out on the child instead of the perpetrator.

Maybe you want to hear from other survivors? http://survivorsjustice.com/2012/10/31/what-are-we-going-to-do-for-them/