We were so close...

While I am deeply saddened that Hillary Clinton will not be the Democratic nominee and therefore, the next President, I am supremely proud of how far she came. I believe it is evidence to how much our country is growing beyond traditional notions that a white man must be President. Before taking down my Hillary calendar countdown to 2009, hiding the campaign signs, putting away the "I'm Ready" t-shirt, I believe I am entitled a bit of mourning. Afterwards, I be ready to board that Obama Train. We still have a great future ahead of us.

Here's some very nice commentary...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91232538

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/06/wilson/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/06/walker/index.html

Forced annulment keeps couple apart

By DONNA ABU-NASR, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 20, 4:14 PM ET

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Two years ago, a knock on Fatima and Mansour al-Timani's door shattered the life they had built together.

It was the police, delivering news that a judge had annulled their marriage in absentia after some of Fatima's relatives sought the divorce on grounds she had married beneath her.

That was just the beginning of an ordeal for a couple who — under Saudi Arabia's strict segregation rules — can no longer live together. They sued to reverse the ruling, publicized their story and sought help from a Saudi human rights group.

But the two remain apart and Fatima said she is considering suicide if her recent appeal to King Abdullah does not reunite her with her husband.

"Only the king can resolve my case," Fatima told The Associated Press by telephone in a rare interview. "I want to return to my husband, but if that is not possible, I need to know so I can put an end to my life."

Fatima's case underscores shortcomings in the kingdom's Islamic legal system in which rules of evidence are shaky, lawyers are not always present and sentences often depend on the whim of judges.

The most frequent victims are women, who already suffer severe restrictions on daily life in Saudi Arabia: They cannot drive, appear before a judge without a male representative, or travel abroad without a male guardian's permission.

Recently, the king did intervene and pardon another high-profile defendant — a rape victim who was sentenced to lashes and jail time for being in a car with a man who was not her relative.

The two cases have brought Saudi human rights once again into the international spotlight, revealing not only the weakness of the kingdom's justice system, but the scant rights of Saudi women.

"When I heard that the (rape victim) was pardoned, I couldn't believe it. My case is so much simpler than hers, since my divorce is invalid," Fatima said.

Fatima said her husband, a hospital administrator, followed Saudi tradition in asking her father for permission to marry her in 2003.

"My brother reported good things about him, so my dad accepted his proposal," said Fatima, a computer specialist who was 29 when she married.

She said her father knew that Mansour came from a less prominent tribe than hers, but that he did not mind because he "cared about the man himself."

A few months after the wedding, several of Fatima's relatives, including a half brother, persuaded her father to give them power of attorney to file a lawsuit demanding an annulment, she said.

Then her father died, and Fatima said she had hoped the case would be dropped.

But on Feb. 25, 2006, police knocked on the couple's door to serve Mansour with divorce papers — which said his marriage had been annulled nine months earlier.

"We were shattered. How did this happen? Why?" Fatima asked.

Under Saudi law, a woman needs the permission of her family to marry.

Saudi lawyer Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, who used to represent the couple, said local interpretations of Islamic law hold that relatives of a married couple have the right to seek an annulment if they feel the marriage lowers the extended family's status.

He said authorities are reluctant to overrule such annulment orders, believing they are private matters within extended families.

Fatima took the couple's 2-year-old daughter and 4-month-old son to live with her mother, who had persuaded her to let Mansour deal with the legal issues on his own.

But after three months without her husband, Fatima and the children sneaked out of her mother's house and flew with Mansour to the western seaside city of Jiddah, where they sought to live in anonymity.

Saudi police soon discovered them and imprisoned the family for living together illegally.

"The police told me I either return to my (mother's) family or go to jail," Fatima said. "I chose jail."

"My children and I were thrown in a cell with women sentenced for pushing drugs, practicing witchcraft and behaving immorally," Fatima said. Authorities allowed her to send her daughter back to live with her father, but the infant stayed with Fatima in jail.

"He learned to speak in jail, he learned to walk in jail and his teeth came out in jail," she said.

Meanwhile, Mansour went to court to appeal the divorce ruling, but a Riyadh appeals court upheld the decision in 2007.

Last September, the head of a prominent Saudi human rights group reportedly asked the kingdom's highest court to review the case.

Bandar al-Hajjar, head of the National Society of Human Rights, submitted two Islamic studies concluding that the divorce was invalid, according to the Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily.

The studies, conducted by Islamic researcher Adnan Al-Zahrani and Bassam Al-Bassam, a counselor at the Court of Cassation in Mecca, said that if a woman's legal guardian represented her at the original wedding, then other relatives have no right to object to the marriage based on compatibility.

Both studies concluded that Fatima married Mansour with her father's permission, and that only the wife can decide whether she wants her marriage annulled, the paper reported.

Despite their legal fight, Fatima and Mansour remain apart.

After nine months in jail, Fatima moved to an orphanage where she and her son share an apartment with several other women.

Fatima said she is holding out hope the king might pardon her, and recognize her as "married to Mansour, before God."

"I love him more than ever. He's the only one who has stood by me," she said.

Assimilation?

Muslim girls in America are now feeling the pressure to fit in. So, the new style is to wear their Girl Scout sash over their regular clothes. Click on the link to see the NY Times story. How sad is that our country feels better sitting next to a little non-Anglo Saxon girl if she's wearing the American flag on her chest? Shouldn't the idea to be accepting and welcoming of all cultures? The idea of a melting pot has never settled well with me because it implies that others must conform or assimilate into a traditional American culture. It is my belief that American culture is pluralism. It involves the intermingling of many different perspectives, religions, and cultures. While these girls should get involved in Girl Scouts if they want learn new skills and socialize with other girls, they should never feel forced to show off their Girl Scout attire in order to feel welcome in this country.

Congress Looks at Hip-Hop Language

from the NY Times: Congress Looks at Hip-Hop Language

I love hip hop. As a feminist, I have always struggled with those songs and artists that uphold misogynist, racist stereotypes. But I hate that people still generalize ALL of hip hop, saying that hip hop as a genre is the problem. What these people fail to realize is that:
a) Not all hip hop artists and fans subscribe to misogynistic language and images,
b) It's not a symptom of hip hop, it's a symptom of the entire music industry--many artists/songs of other genres use degrading language and objectify women (see Emo: Where Girls Aren't), and
c) The people who ultimately really control the hip hop industry (and pretty much all media) aren't necessarily the artists, but corporations headed by mostly white, heterosexual males.

I'm glad that Congress is giving this issue some attention (and notice what Dr. E Faye Williams had to say). I'm also glad that Master P not only apologized for his demeaning language but pledged to produce clean lyrics. But the solution is not censorship, in my opinion. The solution is making it so that it is no longer acceptable to produce degrading and misogynist images of women. We have to create a diversity of perspectives and viewpoints--those that will depict women in a context outside the heterosexual male fantasy--within the hip hop industry (and ultimately, all music and other media) if we want to see real change. To be honest, Levell Crump has a point when he says, "If by some stroke of the pen hip-hop was silenced, the issues would still be present in our communities. Drugs, violence, sexism and the criminal element were around long before hip-hop existed.''

Thoughts?

Lady, You Can Drive My Car

Go Saudi women!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/23/AR2007092300862.html?nav=rss_print/asection

So many things about this situation are incredible, if that is the right word. For one, the fact that the United States continues to support and aid a country who oppresses women so severely is astonishing. But the courage of these women should be commended. They have waited 17 years before initiating another petition, showing the fear of persecution. I hope these women are successful in their endeavor so they can ensure their own safety, as well as the safety of their families, and find some personal freedom in such a patriarchal society.

Sexism on Campus

Hey everyone,

I haven't yet started school, but I keep getting all these emails from members of my sorority talking about "new rush outfits" and "totally awesome parties with hot frat guys" we're having in the fall. The language used to try to persuade young women to join this exclusive clique is ridiculously sexist, not to mention offensive to me as a woman, college student, and human being in general. I joined a sorority to feel togetherness, compassion, and inclusivity amongst bright, talented women. I didn't sign up for the institutionalized policy of talking behind girls' backs, judging them based on first appearances, and obsessing over things as stupid and pointless as "coordinating outfits" or trying to invite boys over from the "best" fraternities. What astounds me most is that these types of language, rules, and statements are national policies, and are funded and supported by national organizations of women, and have been for decades! It's not 1950 anymore; it's time for leaders of the national Greek community to change their blatantly stereotyping, sexist, and condescending methods of letting girls in and leaving some (most) other girls out of their exclusive little clubs.


P.S. In response to the comments a few posts down, i LOVE that commercial on MTV about condoms! I get excited every time it comes on; I wish I had that speech memorized!

Action

Hi Everyone, I am just checking in to make sure everyone has been reading feministing lately and found out that southwest airlines turns people, women, away when they don't approve of their clothing.....AHHHH I am going to be writing southwest a letter and so are many different women on my campus...so If you have a pen, get it out and start writing...Also go to feminisitng.com to watch the funny videos of what they used to make their female employees wear....You had to be hot, single, under 30, wear heals, etc....and now some woman is turned away for wearing exactly what they used to demand?!?!?!? ugh-