Author: Ophelia Benson

Well that’s nice – not just suppression and punishment of protest, not just breaking promises to citizens and the rest of the world alike, but a sadistic bait and switch into the bargain. ‘We’re having the Olympics; we’re in a cheerful and generous mood, so you can protest; here, we’ve even allocated three parks for the purpose, where you can protest. Have fun. We love you.’

At least a half dozen people have been detained by the authorities after they responded to a government announcement late last month designating venues in three city parks as “protest zones” during the Olympics. So far, no demonstrations have taken place.

Ah. Three parks. The Olympics almost two weeks old now. Half a dozen people or more ‘detained’ for taking the bait – and so far no demonstrations at all. Hmmm. Why that almost begins to sound as if the authorities don’t actually mean to allow any demonstrations to take place after all. It even begins to sound just a little bit as if all they ever intended was to lure people into applying for permission to demonstrate so that they could then exclaim ‘We didn’t mean you!’ and arrest them while laughing themselves into fits.

Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that 77 people had submitted protest applications, none of which had been approved. Xinhua, quoting a Public Security spokesperson, said all but three applicants had dropped their requests after their complaints had been “properly addressed by relevant authorities or departments through consultations.” The last three applications were rejected as incomplete or violating Chinese law.

Ah. 77 applications – and not one approved. Violating Chinese law – the one against protesting, no doubt. That announcement about the protest zones seems to have forgotten to mention that the law against protests is still in effect. Hahahahahahahaha – they’re a funny bunch, those Public Security jokers.

Gao Chuancai, a farmer from northeast China who was hoping to publicize government corruption, was forcibly escorted back to his hometown last week and remains in custody. Relatives of Zhang Wei, a Beijing resident who was also seeking to protest the demolition of her home, were told she would be kept at a detention center for a month. Two rights advocates from southern China have not been heard from since they were seized at the Public Security Bureau’s protest application office last week.

Suckers! Hahahahahahahahaha.

Two women in their late 70s have been sentenced to a year of “re-education through labor” after they repeatedly sought a permit to demonstrate in one of the official Olympic protest areas, according to family members and human rights advocates. The women, Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, had made five visits to the police this month in an effort to obtain permission to protest what they contended was inadequate compensation for the demolition of their homes in Beijing. During their final visit, on Monday, Public Security officials informed them that they had been given administrative sentences for “disturbing the public order,” according to Li Xuehui, Wu’s son. Li said his mother and Wang, a former neighbor who is nearly blind, were allowed to return home but were told they could be sent to a detention center at any moment. “Can you imagine two old ladies in their 70s being re-educated through labor?” he asked.

No, I can’t! Stop with the jokes, you’re slaying me.

Religion is outdoing itself this week. The good old Catholic Church for instance, always vigilant for the well-being of humanity.

A vaccine against cervical cancer will be given to schoolgirls without them receiving any safe sex advice as a result of a controversial deal struck between the Catholic Church and health officials [in Scotland]…The Catholic Church originally raised objections to the jab on the grounds it could encourage promiscuity, but has made a U-turn after reaching an agreement with health and education bosses. The deal means girls getting the HPV jab will not receive any accompanying advice on the need to use condoms to protect themselves from other sexually transmitted diseases.

Typical. A bogus worry about a bogus guessed-at possibility of a non-problem motivates the church to object to a measure that would protect women against a fatal disease. Healthy sense of priorities they have; sensible view of what matters and what doesn’t. What is ‘promiscuity’ anyway? And what business is it of theirs? What if the vaccine did ‘encourage’ women to have sex with more than one person – so what? Why does it matter? Why does it matter enough to warrant risking their lives by preventing them from getting a vaccination? And why is it up to the Catholic church to intervene? Why do health officials in Scotland have to bargain with the Catholic church at all? Why do they have to ‘strike a deal’?

Health campaigners and parents’ groups last night reacted angrily to the deal, warning that the sexual health of thousands of young Scottish women was being put at risk to avoid a moral backlash from the Catholic Church. Many sexual health experts believe it is essential to give out safe sex advice alongside the jab to make it clear they will remain at risk from other STIs including HIV, chlamydia and gonorrhea. More than half of the 5,000 female chlamydia patients in Scotland last year were under the age of 20.

Well it serves them right you see. The Catholic church wouldn’t want them to just get away with it.

The Catholic Church has now decided it will back the programme, with the jabs being available in its own schools. Spokesman Ronnie Convery revealed: “We have been in fruitful discussion with the health and education authorities, and we are satisfied that the programme to be rolled out across the country now is a responsible and ethically appropriate one.”

That’s disgusting. Immoral, presumptuous, intrusive, reckless, and disgusting. Having sex is not of itself irresponsible (unintended conception is irresponsible, but that’s a different matter); obstructing measures to prevent diseases is grotesquely irresponsible. The smugness of this kind of thing becomes unendurable…’we are satsfied’ indeed! Who cares whether they are satisfied or not! It’s not about them, it’s about the girls. Ronnie Convery isn’t going to get cervical cancer, is he, because he doesn’t have a cervix, and neither do any of the other bastards who decide this stuff.

Life in Afghanistan.

Asked why she was serving seven years in jail alongside hardened insurgents and criminals, the 15-year-old giggled and buried her head in her friend’s shoulder. “She is shy,” apologised fellow inmate Zirdana, explaining that the teenager had been married at a young age to an abusive husband and ran away with a boy from her neighbourhood…Ostracised from her family and village, Saliha was convicted of escaping from home and illegal sexual relations. The first carries a maximum penalty of 10 years, the second 20.

‘Escaping’ from home. Escaping from ‘home.’ It was a home she was put into as if she were a parcel, or a prisoner; and in sane parts of the world, people are allowed to ‘escape’ from home if they’re miserable there. But in Afghanistan, you get up to ten years in the slammer for it. And of course twenty years for having sex with someone other than the man you were given to in childhood as if you were a parcel. Women in Afghanistan are treated like livestock.

Two-thirds of the women in Lashkar Gah’s medieval-looking jail have been convicted of illegal sexual relations, but most are simply rape victims – mirroring the situation nationwide. The system does not distinguish between those who have been attacked and those who have chosen to run off with a man…Colonel Ghulam Ali, a high-ranking regional security officer, explained sternly that he supported the authorities’ right to convict victims of rape. “In Afghanistan whether it is forced or not forced it is a crime because the Islamic rules say that it is,” he claimed. “I think it is good. There are many diseases that can be created in today’s world, such as HIV, through illegal sexual relations.”

Yes indeed, and punishing women for being raped is just the way to put a stop to that. Because that of course will discourage men from raping women, because – because – because if they keep doing it eventually all the women will be in prison and there will be no one left to rape? Yeah that must be it. Anyway, note the stupidity of ‘whether it is forced or not forced it is a crime because the Islamic rules say that it is.’

Pushing her five-year-old son’s arm forward imploringly, Zirdana, 25, pointed to the festering wound buzzing with flies. The little boy was just two months old when his mother was convicted of murdering her husband, his father. Zirdana had been handed over to him at the age of seven, as part payment in a financial dispute. She gave birth to the first of her children when she was 11 and was pregnant with her fourth when her husband disappeared and she was accused of killing him. Her three older children were taken from her by her brother-in-law. “When I first came to jail I cried so much blood was coming out of my mouth. My husband’s brother told me he would give my children back when I came out of jail but he has become a Talib.”

She was married to a guy who tooks her as a form of currency, and who fucked her when she was ten if not sooner.

Earlier this year a report by Womankind, Taking Stock: Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years On, revealed that violent attacks against women, usually in a domestic setting, are at epidemic proportions – 87 per cent of women complain of such abuse, and half of it is sexual. More than 60 per cent of marriages are forced and, despite laws banning the practice, 57 per cent of brides are under 16. Many of these girls are offered as restitution for a crime or as debt settlement.

So for women Afghanistan is pretty much one big prison, run by sadistic rapist guards. How nice.