Awareness, Feminism | Posted by Julie Z on 07/30/2009

Assiya Rafiq is my hero

Assiya Rafiq of Pakistan was sold at 16 by a female family friend to two criminals who were related to prominent politicians. The men beat and raped her for the next year, until they handed Assiya along with $625 over to police as a bribe. Assiya’s kidnappers had earlier been implicated in a gold robbery and decided Assiya would be a good candidate to blame the crime on. 

Assiya was then beaten and raped by the four police officers, including a police chief, over the next two weeks. Reportedly, a female constable would leave in order to give the men continue their abuse in private.

Assiya’s family learned of Assiya’s whereabouts and attempted to get her back by bribing the bailiff, who was also…

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Awareness | Posted by Julie Z on 07/20/2009

Schools for Girls in Afghanistan

Thomas L. Friedman reports in the New York Times about a new school for girls opened by Greg Mortenson, the author of “Three Cups of Tea.” He writes: 

Indeed, Mortenson’s efforts remind us what the essence of the “war on terrorism” is about. It’s about the war of ideas within Islam — a war between religious zealots who glorify martyrdom and want to keep Islam untouched by modernity and isolated from other faiths, with its women disempowered, and those who want to embrace modernity, open Islam to new ideas and empower Muslim women as much as men. America’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were, in part, an effort to create the space for the Muslim progressives to fight and win so that the real engine of change, something that takes nine months…

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