Because it is also, clearly, abusive.

CAIRO — Year after year, the 42-year-old Saudi surgeon remains single, against her will. Her father keeps turning down marriage proposals, and her hefty salary keeps going directly to his bank account.

The surgeon in the holy city of Medina knows her father, also her male guardian, is violating Islamic law by forcibly keeping her single, a practice known as “adhl.” So she has sued him in court, with questionable success.

Adhl cases reflect the many challenges facing single women in Saudi Arabia. But what has changed is that more women are now coming forward with their cases to the media and the law. Dozens of women have challenged their guardians in court over adhl, and one has even set up a Facebook group for victims of the practice.

Read the whole thing…

Canadian “justice”: Kill your disabled daughter, get life in prison for her murder, get full parole after less than 20 years.

VICTORIA — Robert Latimer, the Saskatchewan farmer who killed his severely disabled daughter, has been granted full parole and will be home by Christmas, says his lawyer.

Jason Gratl says Latimer was granted full parole as of Dec. 6 at a hearing on Thursday.

Gratl says Latimer does not want to discuss the conditions of his release or his current emotional state.

The 57-year-old farmer was convicted of second-degree murder and given a life sentence for the 1993 death of his severely disabled daughter, Tracy.

He described the carbon monoxide poisoning of Tracy at his farm near Wilkie, Sask., as a mercy killing.

Latimer was released from prison in February 2008.

He has been spending five nights a week at the Victoria halfway house for the past two years, and two in his Victoria apartment.

That’s some scary survey, that is:

A new survey says that more than one in three South African men admit to having committed rape.

A study led by the government-funded Medical Research Foundation says that in Gauteng province, home to South Africa’s most populous city of Johannesburg, more than 37 per cent of men said they had raped a woman. Nearly 7 per cent of the 487 men surveyed said they had participated in a gang rape.

More than 51 per cent of the 511 women interviewed said they’d experienced violence from men, and 78 per cent of men said they’d committed violence against women.

A quarter of the women interviewed said they’d been raped, but the study says only one in 25 rapes are reported to police.

I don’t know how reliable this is. It’s possible the numbers are skewed for some reason, and that future surveys will provide some downward adjustment. I sure hope so. But still, that’s a lot of men who ADMIT to having raped a woman. How many more do it and shut up about it?

Good grief:

LUCKNOW, India — A northern Indian village has banned unmarried women from using cell phones for fear they will arrange forbidden marriages that are often punished by death, a local official said Wednesday.

The Lank village council decided unmarried boys could use mobile phones, but only under parental supervision, council member Satish Tyagi said. Local women’s rights group criticized the measure as backward and unfair.

Marriages between members of the same clan are forbidden under Hindu custom in some parts of north India, where unions are traditionally arranged by families. In conservative rural areas, families sometimes mete out extreme punishments, including so-called honor killings, for those who violate marriage taboos. In some cases, village councils themselves have ordered the punishments, though police often intervene to stop them.

The Lank village council feared young men and women were secretly calling one another to arrange forbidden elopements.

Part of me laughs, but mostly I’m horrified, of course. Marriage is tough enough without all those ridiculously backward rules one finds in ridiculously backward societies. Shame on these people.

Paul Tuns has something nice to say about Laureen Harper:

Laureen Harper’s political activities are usually subtle and behind the scenes, so when the prime minister’s wife takes up the cause of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, sentenced to be hanged for alleged infidelity, it is a big deal. She brought together more than a dozen prominent Canadians to brainstorm on the best way to ensure the cause remains in the public eye. I don’t believe Tehran cares one bit about international opinion, but it is nice to see Laureen Harper raising a genuine human rights issue.

I agree. Thank you, Mrs. Harper.

Giving voice to the voiceless: A pro-life video challenge.

About my previous post: I just thought it was funny that Donald Trump would want to run for president. I tried to imagine how the folks who react with something resembling apoplexy at the thought of Sarah Palin (who has been elected governor of a U.S. state) at the top of the ticket would take the news that Mr. Trump might try to spend his way into the race. And I snorted.

But it wasn’t meant to by a Serious Point, so if I left you scratching your head, just ignore the previous post and let’s move merrily along to something less irrelevant.

Oh, that post also (for some reason) generated roughly 4,000 times the usual amount of comment spam so if you have any comment on this story, add them at the bottom of this post please.

_____________________

Andrea adds: Ah, I see your point now. I was one who was left scratching my head. Got it.

Take that!

We mean it’s all over the place and not given the respect it deserves. But try as I might, I could *never* have come up with such a ridiculous ad. Voting is as good as orgasm? Puhhhh-leeaze!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDGXMsmjYcE]

[h/t]

There’s a new website sponsored by Students for Life of America (US), National Campus Life Network (Canada), Law Students for Life (US), Students for Life of Illinois (US), Rock for Life (US), and LifeNews.com (US). It’s called Stand With Carleton. Find out more about it, here.