Sahar Gul, a 15-Year-Old Afghan Girl, Is America's Pet Rock

From one of the alleged main objectives for the war in Afghanistan to a cumbersome pet rock weighing down our country's mighty rucksack:

The Bush Administration

"Three years ago, women were viciously oppressed and forbidden to work outside the home, and even denied what little medical treatment was available. Today, women are going to school, and their rights are protected in Afghanistan's constitution."
President Bush's remarks in a press conference with President Karzai of Afghanistan
The Rose Garden, Washington, D.C.
June 15, 2004

"Under the Taliban, women were oppressed, their potential was ignored. Under President Karzai's leadership, that has changed dramatically. A number of innovative programs designed in collaboration with the Afghan government are increasing the role of women in the private sector."
President Bush's remarks in a press conference with President Karzai of Afghanistan
The Rose Garden, Washington, D.C.
June 15, 2004

"In January, Afghans approved a new constitution that protects the right of all Afghan citizens, including women. ...they agreed upon a fundamental law that respects tradition and establishes a foundation of modern political rights, including free speech, due process, and a vote for every citizen."
President Bush's remarks on Development in Afghanistan
Washington Convention Center
May 18, 2004

"...the women and children in Afghanistan have a much brighter future because we removed a barbaric regime that refused to even educate young girls."
President Bush's remarks
Buffalo, New York
April 20, 2004

"Women were given no rights. Young girls did not go to school. It was a barbaric regime. ... People are [now] free in that country."
President Bush's remarks on Freedom for the People of Afghanistan
Hershey, Pennsylvania
April 19, 2004

"Now the country is changing. There's women's rights. There's equality under the law. Young girls now go to school, many for the first time ever, thanks to the United States and our coalition of liberators."
President Bush's remarks on the National Economy
Appleton, Wisconsin
March 30, 2004

"Today, the Taliban regime is gone, thank goodness. Girls are back in class. The amazing accomplishment, though, is that Afghanistan has a new constitution that guarantees full participation by women. The constitution is a milestone in Afghanistan.s history. It's really a milestone in world history, when you think about it. All Afghan citizens, regardless of gender, now have equal rights before the law."
President Bush's remarks on efforts to globally promote women's human rights
March 12, 2004

"The Afghan people, especially Afghan women, do not miss the bullying and the beatings and the public executions at the hands of the Taliban."
President Bush's remarks to the Australian Parliament
Canberra, Australia
October 23, 2003

"The Afghan people face continued struggles in rebuilding their government and the nation. But the days when women were beaten in the streets and executed on soccer fields are over."
President Bush Presses for Peace in the Middle East
Remarks in Commencement Address at the University of South Carolina
May 9, 2003

Sahar Gul's Reality

KABUL (Reuters) - A 15-year-old Afghan girl was brutally tortured, beaten and locked in a toilet by her husband's family for months after she refused to become a prostitute, officials said Saturday.


Sahar Gul was in critical condition when she was rescued from a house in northern Baghlan province last week, after her neighbors reported hearing Gul crying and moaning in pain.


According to police in Baghlan, her in-laws pulled out her nails and hair, and locked her in a dark basement bathroom for about five months, with barely enough food and water to survive.


"She was married seven months ago, and was originally from Badakhshan province. Her in-laws tried to force her into prostitution to earn money," Rahima Zarifi, head of women's affairs in Baghlan told Reuters.


...


Despite progress in women's rights and freedom since the fall of the Taliban 10 years ago, women throughout the country are still at risk of abduction, rape, forced marriage and being traded as commodity.


However it can be hard for women to escape violent situations at home, because of huge social and sometimes legal pressure to stay in marriages.


Running away from an abusive husband or a forced marriage are considered "moral crimes," for which women are currently imprisoned in Afghanistan.


Some rape victims have also been imprisoned, because sex outside marriage, even when the woman is forced, is considered adultery, another "moral crime."

The Obama Adminsitration

Yet while Clinton's commitment to keeping women front and center is clear, the White House's interest in deploying political capital on Afghan women's behalf is far less certain. Women received no mention in Obama's December 2009 West Point speech announcing the ‘surge' of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, and the President referred to them only once in last month's address regarding the withdrawal timeline for those same forces.


Around Washington human rights advocates and policy wags wonder whether Clinton and her State Department have any chance at winning their fight to help women gain a substantive role in the nascent reconciliation process. Does the United States really intend to veto a peace deal that leaves women out and puts the Taliban in, particularly given the eroding public support for the war and the growing desire for a swift Afghanistan exit?


Already there are signs that political realism may trump American ideals. Those familiar with Obama administration thinking say that the White House wants to be able to point to concrete achievements in the country in the run-up to 2012, while wrapping things up in Afghanistan "at any cost" -- and that a far more narrow definition of American interests in the region is in the offing.


As one senior administration official told the Washington Post's Rajiv Chandrasekran, "Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities...There's no way we can be successful if we maintain every special interest and pet project. All those pet rocks in our rucksack were taking us down."

Religious Zealotry, Still Good For Nothing

The Iranian justice system version:

The punishment for being an accessory to murder: 10 years in prison.

The punishment for adultery: Death by stoning...or maybe hanging.

Religious Zealotry, What Is It Good For?

The ultra-Orthodox version:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stepped up pledges to curb Jewish zealotry in Israel on Sunday after an 8-year-old girl complained of being menaced by ultra-Orthodox men who deemed her dress immodest.

...

The statement appeared to have been prompted by an expose on Israel's top-rated weekend news about intra-Jewish friction in Beit Shemesh, a town of about 87,000 people near Jerusalem.

Naama Margolese, 8, told Channel Two television she was terrified of walking to her moderate Orthodox school because of passersby who want her "to dress like a Haredi" - the Hebrew term for the ascetic, black-coated Jews who are in "awe" of God.

"I'm afraid I might get hurt or something," the girl said.

Margolese's mother Hadassa, an American immigrant who wore a headscarf and skirt in deference to religious Jewish tradition, said the sidewalk abuse could include spitting, curses like "whores" and "bastards" and calls to "clear out of here."

"If that's what happens now, and they (authorities) don't do anything, what will happen in another few years?" she told Israel's Army Radio on Sunday. "This is a terrorist group."

Returning to Beit Shemesh on Sunday, a Channel Two crew was mobbed by ultra-Orthodox Jews who stoned their car, wounded a reporter and stole equipment, police said. The crew was rescued by police, who said they were questioning suspected assailants.

WIDE MARGIN

Separately, police said they had arrested a Beit Shemesh man for spitting at a woman, and that he could face assault charges.

In the report broadcast on Friday, Channel Two showed a Beit Shemesh street sign instructing women to keep to one side, away from a synagogue. A few ultra-Orthodox men who agreed to be interviewed sought to justify their forcible occlusion of women.

Israeli media have debated the impact of religious gender segregation on public transport and the conscript army, where some pious troops prefer to shun female instructors and singers.

The ultra-Orthodox make up only about 10 percent of Israel's population of 7.7 million. But their high birthrates and bloc voting patterns have helped them secure welfare benefits and wider influence. One of Netanyahu's biggest partners in the coalition government, Shas, is a party run by rabbis.

According to Channel Two, its Beit Shemesh story has generated momentum for a demonstration against ultra-Orthodox coercion in the town, scheduled for Tuesday.

Moshe Abutbol, the Shas mayor of Beit Shemesh put the number of townspeople involved in the abuse at between 20 and 50.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Never Considered a Potential Organ Donor, 21-Year-Old Emerges From Coma

The story of Sam Schmid, a 21-year-old who awakened from a coma after he was nearly taken off life support, is inspirational. The reporting of the story, on the other hand, is abysmal.

Do a search on "21-year-old emerges from coma" and, between Poised to Donate Organs, Readied to Donate Organs, and doctors were preparing to turn him into spare parts, you'd think this story is about a patient jumping off the table moments before his organs were harvested.

Alternatively, if you look at the fact that Mr. Schmid was never considered a potential donor and his family was never approached about organ donation it's hard to miss the story of incompetent reporters who misrepresent crucial facts in a misguided attempt to fabricate lame, sensationalistic narratives :

PHOENIX (AP) — It will be a special Christmas for the family of a 21-year-old University of Arizona student who was nearly taken off life support before awaking from a coma.

Sam Schmid was walking and speaking Friday at a Phoenix hospital. Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts and sneakers, he was able to use a walker and talk in brief sentences.

"Right now, I'm feeling all right ... except for the rehabilitation, I'm feeling pretty good," Schmid said.

Doctors at Barrow Neurological Institute say Schmid has a long recovery ahead of him to regain full speech, balance and memory abilities.

Schmid was involved in an Oct. 19 car crash in Tucson that left him with a brain aneurysm, among other life-threatening injuries. Because of the complexity of his brain injury, Schmid was flown to Phoenix.

He underwent surgery performed by Dr. Robert Spetzler. With no responsive signs, staff discussed taking Schmid off life support.

"They never approached me to say would I donate his organs," said Susan Regan, Schmid's mother. "The people that were surrounding us were just asking about Sam, his quality of life, what would Sam want if we had to come to a difficult decision."

Spetzler said Schmid was never officially classified as a potential organ donor. And after an MRI scan showed he wasn't at a point of no hope of survival, Spetzler recommended keeping him alive for one more week.

Then on Oct. 24, Schmid shocked doctors by following commands to hold up two fingers.

Best Cyber Monday Deal, Guaranteed

I have the absolute best deal for you or your loved one:

Check out this ECP carousel I put together to make it easier for you to buy the ECP in advance and have it handy:



I added the condoms because the carousel had to have 6 items minimum, and, for some reason, Nextime (out-of-stock) and Next Choice came up as not found.

Also notice we're now back to the i-Pill on Amazon, with Nextime unavailable, but let's not get sidetracked by that. The i-Pill and Nextime are different brand names for the same drug, a one-pill progestin (levonorgestrel) ECP. Whichever brand is available, it's easy to order at a good price.

The important thing to remember, if you are sexually active and do not plan a pregnancy, is to buy the ECP now, in advance, when you don't need it and keep it handy and use it in case of an emergency.

Have I mentioned it's important to buy ECP in advance and keep it handy?

If you think I'm belaboring the point, think again. Every single day, mostly via this post, I get comments and emails with questions about ECPs. Common questions, nothing out of the ordinary, from an obviously self-selected sample. And on an encouraging note, a good number of these questions come from men. Still, even I managed to be surprised by one common characteristic, one that stands out and not in a good way.

Not once have I seen it mentioned that the person in need of ECP had it handy. It's always 1) unprotected intercourse, 2) mad dash to find and buy ECP, 3) problem.

Combine the anecdotal findings from my blog with the fact that [o]nly 3% of respondents to the 2006–2008 NSFG [National Survey of Family Growth] indicated that they had received any counseling about EC in the past year, a number relatively unchanged from the 2002 survey, and you have a recipe for disaster.

It's enough that you have to deal with an unprotected intercourse emergency. Don't add to the stress of the situation by being unprepared.

Two more brief points related to the trends I noticed in my readers' ECP questions before I give you, once more, my Carousel o' ECPs:

I) One dose (one pill for Plan B One-Step, iPill, Nextime; two pills for Next Choice, Postinor) only covers one act of unprotected intercourse.

II) Doubling down on the dose (two pills for Plan B One-Step, iPill, Nextime; four pills for Next Choice, Postinor) will not, repeat, will not be more effective than a regular dose.

Bottom line: This holiday season do yourself, or a loved one, a favor and buy ECP in advance and keep it handy in case of an emergency.

ACOG Statement on Mississippi's "Personhood Amendment" Proposition 26

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) strongly believes that the autonomy of women to make personal health care decisions must be respected. As the nation's leading organization of women's health physicians, dedicated to all aspects of women's health, ACOG supports quality health care appropriate to every woman's needs throughout her life, including the full spectrum of clinical and reproductive services. Mississippi's "Personhood Amendment," Proposition 26, does not respect the autonomy of women and jeopardizes women's health. We urge the citizens of the State of Mississippi to reject this Proposition on November 8th. Proposition 26 substitutes ideology for science and represents a grave threat to women's health and reproductive rights that will have long-term negative outcomes for our patients and society.

Proposition 26 defines the term person to "include every human being from the moment of fertilization", which has wide-reaching implications that will impact access to women's health, including treatment for cancer, infertility treatment, birth control options, and pregnancy termination. This proposal unnecessarily exposes women to serious health risks and significantly undermines the relationship between physicians and our patients. The vague and overly broad terms in Proposition 26 will prevent physicians from providing the care vital to women's health.

Proposition 26 must be defeated in the best interest of women's health.

(link mine)

Sex Education in the City

Let's see what we learn from this article on sex education in city schools:

1) Some parents and religious leaders are outraged that schools plan to teach evidence-based information.

2) Despite the name, Fox "News" appears to be an entertainment program.

3) City officials are unfamiliar with the abstinence method of birth control.

4) Some parents want schools to offer abstinence-only indoctrination sessions as an alternative to education classes.

5) The Chinese government is incompetent.

6) Our government, not to be outdone in the incompetence department, wasted more than one billion dollars on abstinence-only indoctrination programs.

7) Last, but not least, President Obama magnanimously doled out a $250 million pay off, earmarked to undermine public health, to appease opponents of his health insurance reform.

"It is a disaster for Libyan women"

Rebel Libyan Dude in Charge: We won! Tyrant dead, country free, time to move on. Most pressing order of business ...

Libyans: Um, security, a functioning government?

RLDC: No!

Libyans: Economy?

RLDC: Pfft!

Libyans: Health, education, infrastructure?

RLDC: Don't be silly, people. First and foremost ... wait for it ... here, I'll give you a hint ... has to do with the law of divorce and marriage I've just abolished ... women lose the right to keep the family home if they divorce, huzzah!