This week, I couldn’t decide who was most deserving of the Throat Punch on this lovely below zero Thursday, so I decided to do a two-for – one Throat Punch Thursday!
Our first recipients are the father and relatives of 21 year old Pakistani woman, Saima Bibi. According to CNN, Bibi, an ethnic Baluch , defied demands from her family to marry a Baluch relative and instead ran away last month to the southern port city of Karachi to marry a fellow villager, police official Rao Zahoor said. Romantic , right? If this were a movie, we’d all be up in our seats cheering on true love. But this is not a Taylor Swift song or a teen romance movie, this is real life..Pakistani style.
Bibi’s father and several other relatives traveled to Karachi and duped her into coming back home. I’m not sure what they could have said to me to make me think in any way, shape or form that it was OK to go home with them. But for some reason, she believed it was safe. Or maybe they threatened her. Which is what I think would be more likely. She was probably bullied into going home. According to officials, when she didn’t listen to further demands, they allegedly electrocuted her. Like I said, bad idea! If this were a horror movie, I would have been screaming form my seat..DON’T GO!
Bibi’s family told police that she committed suicide, but a medical report showed signs of torture and electrocution on her hands, legs and back, police said. Well, unless she electrocuted herself in some warped, double jointed suicidal stunt, I find this scenario highly implausible.
Human rights groups say so-called ” honor killings” , the murder of women accused of infidelity and dishonorable behavior , are a growing problem in parts of Pakistan. If the problem is known, isn’t there something someone should be able to do? Who do we need to write? Is there a petition I need to sign? Money I need to send somewhere? I’m serious, there has got to be a better way!
A 2009 study by the European Journal of Public Health showed one out of every five homicides in Pakistan was an honor killing. WTF? Are you kidding me? This is 2011, right? I know its a different country with different laws and religious dogma but damn, no matter how you slice it…women should not be getting slain in the street for being humans; having thoughts, desires and wants. Shouldn’t we all have the right to choose happiness and love? Is it all about male gratification over there?I am appalled!Flabbergasted! Sickened!
Some Baluch communities in Baluchistan province and parts of Sindh and Punjab provinces still justify honor killings. Justification? I just vomited in my mouth, a whole bunch!Totally Throat Punch Thursday worthy!
Our next recipient deserves more than a simple Throat Punch. This recipient deserves a Throat punch, a junk punch, all rounded out by a nice hearty round house kick to the proverbial head! This recipient is the House Republicans!
According to CNN, House Republicans are holding hearings this week on legislation to restrict federal support for abortion, a move that has little support in the Democratic-controlled Senate or White House, but is of enormous importance to the GOP’s socially conservative base. WTF? We turn our heads for one moment and they are trying to put Baby right back in a corner!
While the measures have little chance of becoming law, the hearings provide a forum for both sides to publicly air views on the abortion debate. Great, another chance to hear hot air bags ( mostly men) discuss and delegate the consequence of the female standing. Every time I think I’m out, CNN pulls me back in. This is why I am a non practicing Political Scientist ( what? You thought I was just another pretty face? Heck Nah,I’ve got big brains in this head of mine:)
Representative Trent Franks (AZ) equated federal law that legalizes abortion with legal slavery in the American past, and said the bill before the committee was intended to continue the same policy as the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. How can you equate abortion with slavery? Let me just say, though I personally could never imagine having an abortion, isn’t abortion about choice? Wasn’t slavery about the lack thereof? How do the two have anything in common, other than the fact that by abolishing abortion and taking away a woman’s right to choose, you have effectively made her a slave to society’s dictatorship?
Democratic opponents questioned the need for the new bill, saying the Hyde Amendment effectively prevented federal funding for abortion. They also argued that the bill as drafted went much further than claimed by its backers and was an effort to deny women access to legal abortions.This is “truly bad legislation coming out of the House,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington. “It’s about putting insecurity back in the lives of millions of women.”It will not happen “on our watch,” Murray said. “We are not going back in history.””These bills show a heinous disregard for the health and well-being of women in America,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York.
Republicans originally altered the definition of “rape” in the bill, saying that it pertained solely to “forcible rape” as opposed to statutory rape or other forms of assault. They later backtracked, however, after a wave of intense criticism from comedian Jon Stewart and others. So, now not only do women have to be a victim of rape they had best be getting their asses beat hardcore if they want government to back them in their choice to abort any pregnancy that may result of said assault. Apparently, House Republicans think it’s OK to treat women like second class children, to be seen and not heard, with no choices or input into their own lives. Where are we? Pakistan???
Also generating controversy is a provision in the bill before the Energy and Commerce Committee that would prohibit the federal government from stripping financial support from hospitals that refuse to perform abortion-related services. Abortion-rights groups said the move could endanger women in potentially life-threatening situations. Anti-abortion activists, however, contend the provision is merely an extension of other “conscience” protections already in place for health care providers. I love that in all the discussion in favor of this bill, no one mentions anything about the woman in questions want or need? Does it not count? If we are going to have legislation concerning abortion changed, maybe we should put it to a vote amongst those who it will actually effect..women. Every single woman in America should be allowed a vote. Take a consensus and then we’ll talk. For now, the Republican House is getting a big fat throat ,junk punch, round house kick to the head. What’s next? Are they going to revoke our right to vote?
If you’d like to be a part of Throat Punch Thursday, go here to get the button to include in your post.Then come back here, leave a comment and let me know you posted!Happy Thursday!
10 comments
I know it made me feel better, I read an article on the Open Hearts Open Minds conference in November. It was people talking about abortion.
Yes, you read that right. Talking. Not arguing. I’ll find the article I read later, but it was incredible, what these people did. I was really impressed.
What the eff is wrong with people?!?!?!?! JEEEEEEEEZ!
I don’t know!I thought Tuesday’s post from articles on CNN was bad.The supply of bad choices and stupidity in the world creates a plethora of recipients for me on Thursday! The world is kind of a scary place..if we read the news:)
I feel so bad for the women of those so called honor killings. It makes me sad and angry that something like that still exists in a world with electic cars, split second communications and laptops in most homes. i guess the same could be said about poverty.
I NEVER get into to abortion debate. The only thing I can say is I wish it didnt’ have to existI
Thx for pissing me off, LOL! I’ll get over it and go back to my mommy bloggy bubble now. (Hey, look, it’s Spongbob on my laptop!)
My college age daughter recently did a term paper on honor killings. It truly made me sick. Honor killings is a thriving custom in many societies and not just in the middle east. Just a few years back, a taxi cab driver in NYC, killed his two beautiful teenage daughters, stabbed them multiple times and left them to bleed to death in the back of the taxi. All because he said they were becoming too American. My daughter played me the 911 call one of the daughters made before she died. It was so horrifying, it gave me nightmares.
In far too much of the world, women are horribly abused in the name of religion and honor and custom and the sad part of it is, the abusers don’t care how much outrage there is against him. The court systems of these backward patriarchal places will support them, claiming it is their God given right.
Ohhh, I could say so much more, but I’ve got to stop or my blood pressure will reach scary levels.
The “Rape” bills are shocking me. From what I’ve read, they want to change the name of rape “victim” to “accuser”… WTF?!
Also, only about 40-60 abortions are being performed with tax payer $ right now as it stands. The bill would lower it to 2-3. Wow… BUT it would also potentially eliminate the ability by victims, oh I mean accusers, to pay for their abortions with their HSA or with using their health insurance.
Also, there is the possibility that the bills will make it impossible to get an abortion for a pregnancy which can endanger a woman’s life or, in my case, a missed miscarriage I had a few years ago (not being caused by rape or anything, I just unfortunately had a missed miscarriage and needed a D&C done, or as one nasty bitch put it once “An abortion for my dead baby”, yeah she deserves a throat punch).
I have an idea for your next week TPT. Christian Domestic Discipline. Google it. You will gasp…
GF, these are sad, horrifying examples of 2011. But your commentary? OMG your commentary! I was so conflicted: shudder with horror at honor killings or laugh hysterically at phrases like “junk punch.” Great, informative post!
Both stories made me cringe. As for the Pakistan story, I know we do not have the right to tell other cultures they must abide by our standards, but this is ridiculous. Honor killings in this day and age? There is no justification. And don’t even get me started on the GOP…
I really like this series that you’re doing. Cheers to you for calling attention to the craziness of our world.
1 out of 5? That’s horrifying.
Honor killings are terrible, and the stories of girls being burned by acid, or prevented from going to school or whatever else they have to endure. You can watch youtube videos of punishments like stoning or hanging. They are real and frequent and brutal — and unfortunately for my species, it’s usually a bunch of cheering men doing it. Makes me sad and angry.