Exile

I Support and Stand in Solidarity with Cathy Brennan

Cathy Brennan, a lesbian, was attacked at the New York City Dyke March this past weekend by a group of trans women and their supporters, one of whom was an organizer of the march.  Cathy was one woman and she was targeted by a group of people, one ringleader of which acknowledges she “lost it.”  Cathy used her one voice to speak her own truth and assaulted nobody.

This is despicable behavior, unconscionable and disgusting.  To be silent about it when speaking up is possible, to ignore it, to fail to acknowledge it, would be wrong.  Hence, this post.

Heart

Key

“When reason sets itself against a body that is epitomized by birthing labor, the relationship of birth stands outside speech. Bodily beginnings and some women’s participation in them stand for all that reason is not. When birth figures in reason’s story only as an absence, the birthing woman is silent.”

– Sara Ruddick, in Maternal Thinking: Towards a Politics of Peace, 1989

These are the Rules of War

there will be no compensation
it was of your free will that you stood
on the frontline
rebel woman
these are the rules of war
remember that you fought for your people
i know the freedom’s been hard won
but as you weep
rebel woman
remember that you
were strong

Karzai Throws Afghan Women Under the Bus, Says Women are “Worth Less than Men,” are “Secondary”

Last Friday, the Council, Afghanistan’s highest Islamic authority, issued a non-binding edict saying that women were worth less than men — a statement released by Karzai’s office and then endorsed by the president on Tuesday.

“Men are fundamental and women are secondary,” it said, adding women should avoid “mingling with strange men in various social activities such as education, in bazaars, in offices and other aspects of life”.

Such advice effectively implies that women should not go to university or to work at all, no matter that in the lower house of parliament, for example, 27 percent of seats are reserved for women.

The edict went on to say that women would wear “full Islamic hijab”, should respect polygamy — Islam allows a man to take up to four wives — and comply with Sharia law on divorce, which severely restricts women’s rights.

It further stated that “teasing, harassing and beating women” was prohibited “without a sharia-compliant reason” — leaving open the suggestion that in some circumstances, domestic abuse is appropriate.

Karzai, who has formally outlawed violence and discrimination against women, caused consternation on Tuesday by publicly endorsing the statement, saying that it “reiterated Islamic principles and values” in supporting women.

In response, Afghanistan’s first deputy speaker, Fawzia Koofi, who was this week listed as one of the world’s “150 Fearless Women” by US website The Daily Beast, accused the Council of returning women to the dark days of Taliban rule.

“This move by the Ulema council drives Afghan women rights towards Talibanization,” she told AFP. “Nobody has the right to interfere in women’s rights, not even President Hamid Karzai.”

Link

Woman Sentenced to 20 Years for Firing One Warning Shot in an Effort to Scare Abusive Husband Away

Saying he had no discretion under state law, a judge sentenced a Jacksonville, Florida, woman to 20 years in prison Friday for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband. …

Alexander said she was attempting to flee her husband, Rico Gray, on August 1, 2010, when she picked up a handgun and fired a shot into a wall.

She said her husband had read cell phone text messages that she had written to her ex-husband, got angry and tried to strangle her.

She said she escaped and ran to the garage, intending to drive away. But, she said, she forgot her keys, so she picked up her gun and went back into the house. She said her husband threatened to kill her, so she fired one shot.

“I believe when he threatened to kill me, that’s what he was absolutely going to do,” she said. “That’s what he intended to do. Had I not discharged my weapon at that point, I would not be here.”

Link

And what kind of a guy was Rico Gray, the husband?  He is seven inches taller than Marissa Gray and 100 pounds heavier.  His battering sent Marissa Gray to the hospital. She had a restraining order against him.  He told her if she ever cheated on him, he’d kill her, and that if he couldn’t have her nobody could.  He’s the kind of guy who makes statements like this, under oath, on the record:

‘I got five baby mammas, and I put my hands on every last one of them except for one,” Rico Gray confessed during a November 2010 deposition. “The way I was with women . . . they had to walk on eggshells around me.” He recalled punching women in the face, shoving them, choking them and tossing them out the door.

Link