HRW report on female genital mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan
Human Rights Watch (HRW) publicou onte un informe dunhas setenta páxinas sobre a mutilación xenital que sofren as nenas e as mulleres na parte do Kurdistán que cae dentro das fronteiras de Iraq (si, ese país que Estados Unidos e os seus aliados invadiron para coller o petróleo coa escusa de fomentar a democracia). Existe un decreto que ordena arrestar e castigar aos que cometan mutilacións xenitais, pero pouca xente o sabe nesta rexión, parece que alí nunca chegou a aplicarse… :-(
O informe leva por título “They Took Me and Told Me Nothing” – Female Genital Mutilation in Iraqi Kurdistan. Copio un extracto da súa introducción (os enlaces e a negrita púxenos eu):
[...] In Iraqi Kurdistan a survey by the Ministry of Human Rights in 2009 suggests that in one district over 40 percent of women and girls aged 11-24 years have been subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM). An NGO survey covering a wider geographical area gives even higher figures. The practice involves the cutting out of the clitoris, and is carried out mainly on girls between the ages of 3 and 12 years at the request of their female relatives, usually by a traditional midwife using an unsterile razor blade. As Gola S. explains, girls are often unaware what is about to happen to them, they experience great pain during the procedure and afterwards, and the practice can have lasting physical, sexual and psychological health consequences.
While internationally recognized as a form of violence against women and girls, the tragedy is that FGM is perpetuated by mothers, aunts and other women who love and want the best for their children, who see the practice as ensuring that girls are marriageable, are conforming to the tenets of Islam, and are growing up to be respectable and respected members of Kurdish society.
FGM poses a difficult challenge for the government and people of Iraqi Kurdistan. It is a complex issue to address, its eradication requiring strong leadership from the authorities and partnerships across the political spectrum and with religious leaders, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and communities to bring about social change. First and foremost, it requires Iraqi Kurds in positions of leadership and influence to recognize and accept that FGM is a problem, one that can be addressed through concerted action that will reinforce Iraqi Kurdistan’s reputation as a society committed to the protection of the rights of women and children, and a society in which Muslims practice their faith without FGM, as is the case with the majority of Muslims across the world.
The Iraqi Kurdish authorities have taken important steps on several aspects of women’s rights and are regarded as regionally forward-looking on issues concerning women. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has set up institutions to investigate and combat domestic violence, and is one of the few governments in the region to pass laws prohibiting reduced sentences for so-called honor killings. In February 2009 amendments to the election law in Iraqi Kurdistan increased the legal quota for women in the legislature from 25 percent to 30 percent. 36 out of 111 members of Parliament are women.
The regional authorities have yet, however, to show decisive leadership on FGM. Small steps taken in previous years have not been built on and, indeed, during the final years of its administration the former government’s commitment appeared to falter. In 2007 the Ministry of Justice issued a decree, binding on all police precincts in Kurdistan, that perpetrators of FGM should be arrested and punished. However, the existence of the decree is not widely known in Iraqi Kurdistan and HRW found no evidence that it has ever been enforced. [...]
Ser ateo
Eu creo en Deus, pero non pertenzo a Igrexa ningunha, ao estilo masónico ou ilustrado. Cada pouco encontro alguén que di “ser ateo”. A linguaxe é imprecisa por natureza e intentarei aclarar as miñas ideas… Non podo comprender (pode que a miña mente sexa moi curta) que alguén racional se declare seguidor dunha relixión chea de dogmas, como as “relixións do libro” (xudeus, cristiáns, musulmáns…). Pero, por motivos similares, tampouco podo comprender que alguén racional se declare ateo. Falo dun ateísmo strictu senso, que non é a negación do dogma, senón o dogma da negación. Ou diso que dicía o salmo 53, Dixit insipiens in corde suo: “Non est Deus” (Nova Vulgata).
Estou de acordo en promover o laicismo e en que deben denunciarse as moitas formas de relixión e as moitas Igrexas que nos prexudican en vez de favorecernos, e que nos oprimen en vez de liberarnos. Non obstante, opino que a posición racional do que non ten fe debe chamarse escepticismo (filosófico ou científico) ou agnosticismo.
Admiro como biólogo a Richard Dawkins, autor de “The Selfish Gene”, pero penso que nos últimos anos está a desperdiciar o seu talento cando usa argumentacións propias do ateísmo nas súas xustificadas e benintencionadas denuncias das relixións. Na “escala de ateísmo” que usa no libro The God Delusion, que vai de 0 a 7, el di estar moi próximo do 7, pero non no 7, porque el mesmo recoñece que un científico honesto non pode declararse ateo strictu senso.
Conclúo cunha cita dun escéptico famoso, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, máis coñecido como Mark Twain, que tomo doutro blog (“Rational thoughts from a religious skeptic”)…
We despise all reverences and all the objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our own list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us.
Empieza el mundial de fútbol: un mes sin crisis, guerras ni hambre (vídeo de El Jueves)
O vídeo “Empieza el mundial: un mes sin crisis, guerras ni hambre” apareceu a semana pasada na páxina do semanario humorístico El Jueves. Fai unha parodia da canción de Shakira coa que fan propaganda do campionato mundial de fútbol. Compartide… :-)
