| Female Candidates Face Problems
in Electioneering. [Afghanistan] Several female
constants for the upcoming legislative and provincial council elections complained they
were facing host of problems in carrying out their election drive. A meeting of 84 women candidates was held here last
night during which they discussed the upcoming elections in detail. They observed that besides threats and other
problems, their posters were also been torn and removed from walls and vehicles. |
|
Daughters Pay the Price in Poppy War. [Afghanistan] In the thirsty hills of Nangarhar Province, debt is a way of life. Every
autumn, sharecroppers take loans from drug traffickers to plant their poppy crops. After every harvest, they repay them in poppies,
which are turned into heroin. This year, an
eradication effort has sharply cut Nangarhar's poppy cultivation, but the sharecroppers'
debts remain. Now, some of the region's
poorest farmers say they are being forced to repay traffickers with the only thing they
have left: their daughters. Some Afghans refer
to the practice as "giving bad," a traditional method of conflict resolution in
which a murderer, a thief or a debtor is forced by tribal elders to give a daughter or
sister as payment to the victim's family. Others
describe the practice as a marriage transaction. In
a culture of arranged marriages, where a groom usually pays the father of a bride $200 to
$5,000 depending on her social status and skills, a man can cancel his debt by arranging
for his daughter to marry the lender or the lender's relative. The practice of giving away a daughter to pay a debt
is expected to increase sharply after the aggressive campaign against poppies, especially
if farmers feel they have no alternative but to continue to plant in areas that could be
hit hard by the eradication programs, and thus risk not having enough income to repay
loans they took out to finance their crops. Hangama
Anwari, a human rights activist working to persuade communities to stop human trafficking,
said the victims often live out the rest of their lives in isolation and shame, treated as
servants even if they are wives. |
| Suicide
Blast By Woman Kills 8 Others; 57 Are Hurt. [Iraq] A woman walked up
to the gate of a new army and police recruitment center in Tal Afar, a northern city, and
blew herself up, killing 8 people in addition to herself and wounding 57, hospital and
security officials said. The bomber, who The
Associated Press reported was dressed in men's clothing, struck at 10:45 a.m. outside the
gate of a building that houses the new recruitment center and an American military office
that processes compensation forms for Iraqis, the officials said. She detonated her belt of explosives, spraying metal
balls into a crowd that had gathered, awaiting a security check. Suicide bombers in Iraq are rarely women,
though there has been at least one other. During
the American invasion in 2003, a woman driving an explosive-packed vehicle blew herself up
near an American checkpoint in Anbar Province in western Iraq. |
| 'Dead
Women' Elected in Pakistan. [Pakistan] The women were
elected in two separate constituencies of Upper Dir district of North West Frontier Province (NWFP). A quota system for women at the elections was
intended to boost their representation at a provincial level. But the elections were marred by violence and claims
of vote-rigging. Reports suggest that one of
the women has been dead for 13 years and the other for three years. |
|
Turkish Women Blast Karen Hughes With Iraq War Criticism. [Turkey] A group of Turkish female activists confronted Undersecretary
of State Karen Hughes with heated complaints about the U.S.-
led invasion of Iraq
, turning a
session designed to highlight the empowering of women into a raw display
of the anger at U.S. policy in the region. "This war is really,
really bringing your positive efforts to the level of zero," said
Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, an activist with the Capital City Women's Forum.
She said it was difficult to talk
about cooperation between women in the
United States
and
Turkey
as long as Iraq
was under
occupation. Hughes, a longtime
confidant of President Bush tasked with burnishing the U.S. image overseas,
has generally met with polite audiences -- many of whom received U.S. funding
or consisted
of former exchange students -- during a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey. |