Daily Archives: September 20, 2021

Tugging at the folds of the traditional hijab dress, two young sisters jostle and laugh to try to get their mother's attention as she fries onions on the stove.

Along with their 6-month-old sister, the girls are oblivious to the threat they now face from the Taliban, Afghanistan's new rulers.

Their mother, Nabila, is one of 250 female judges ordered not to return to work by a regime that doesn't condone women in senior positions. CNN is only using Nabila's first name for her own protection.

Nabila said she feared reprisals, not only from fundamentalists, but also the men she once jailed. When they came to power, the Taliban opened the gates of prisons, releasing thousands of convicted criminals.

"Now we do not feel safe; the same criminals are going after my own life, the lives of my family," Nabila said. "God forbid if they seek revenge."

After the Taliban takeover in mid-August, a few dozen women judges fled Afghanistan, and those left behind are now in hiding, according to Judge Vanessa Ruiz from the US-based International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).

All of the judges who worked under the former Afghan government -- male and female -- have been now replaced by Taliban appointees, two judges told CNN.

But Ruiz said women judges feared their gender made them particular targets for a regime that assigns greater value to men.

Many of the women judges presided over the worst cases of violence against women, including rape, murder and domestic abuse.

"They would be angry at any judge who sentenced them, but that a woman had official authority, and sat in judgment of a man, is rage of a completely different order," said Ruiz.

The IAWJ and other organizations are racing to find a safe passage out for the women -- but they say they need more help from the US and other Western nations, before it's too late.

The risks for Afghanistan's women judges pre-date the Taliban's takeover of the country.

In January, two Supreme Court judges were shot dead in Kabul by unidentified gunmen, though the Taliban denied responsibility, according to Reuters.

Since then, threats against Afghan women -- and people affiliated with the former government -- have intensified.

Last week, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michele Bachelet told the Human Rights Council her office had heard "multiple allegations" of the Taliban going door to door, looking for specific government officials and people who had cooperated with the United States.

Furthermore, she said women had been "progressively excluded from the public sphere," and faced increasing restrictions in "numerous professional sectors."

Nabila said it wasn't long before she received death threats.

"A day or two after the Taliban arrived in Kabul, my personal number was called and I was threatened with revenge, threatened with murder," Nabila said.

She canceled her phone numbers, and the family is now moving from house to house every few days to avoid being tracked down.

Another judge, Bibi, has been in hiding with her three young children since the Taliban entered Kabul.

"My worst fear is that my kids ... they can't see their mother being killed," said Bibi, who is only using her first name for safety reasons.

"We haven't slept well, we haven't eaten well. We just wait, we have stopped living like a normal human being."

Bibi had to leave her workplace in a hurry as Kabul fell and wasn't able to return to her office, which contains all her work files and her personal information, including her photograph, phone number and home address.

She fears the Taliban -- or former prisoners -- could use the information to track them down.

"They feel like it's their right to find me, to hit me, to kill me, they don't have anyone to be afraid of," she said.

Both Nabila and Bibi and their families are trying to leave Afghanistan with the help of organizations including the IAWJ, but progress is slow.

Ruiz said they are doing all they can, but their resources are limited, and she urged Western countries to do more.

"Governments need to be better, more agile, more generous frankly, in giving admission to people who are in danger in Afghanistan right now," Ruiz said. "You've got to cut the red tape when you're dealing with an emergency, and we're dealing with an emergency."

Ruiz said the US in particular should be trying to help these women, as several dozen of the judges passed through a judicial education program funded by the US government. "It's their association with us, in many ways, that puts them at risk," Ruiz said.

The US says it has continued to evacuate Americans, Afghans and other nationals from Kabul, even after the August 31 deadline. Two evacuation flights left Kabul in the last two weeks, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on Tuesday.

"We will continue to help Americans -- and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment -- depart Afghanistan if they choose, just as we've done in other countries where we've evacuated our embassy," Blinken said. "There's no deadline to this mission."

Only a few dozen women judges have managed to escape Afghanistan so far.

One experienced judge made it out on a flight from Kabul to Poland along with family members including eight nephews and nieces.

But it wasn't an easy journey.

"I was at the airport gate for two nights with too many crowds, and I had a lot of kids with me," said the judge, who did not want to be named to protect family members still in Afghanistan.

"The three days and two nights I had in Kabul Airport were really the worst nights of my life, but we got through it. I had no (other) hope of survival."

She knew she had to flee the country after the Taliban tried to track her down.

"Five Taliban came to my area asking my neighbors about me," she said. "When I knew the Taliban came after me, I relocated from that area also, because I was so scared if they found me."

As well as fearing for their families, the women are also mourning their hard-won careers.

"Now I feel like I lost everything," the experienced judge said. "Imagine you have a personality, a career, respect, a home, a car, a life and everything, and suddenly you leave in one set of clothes on your body and leave the country -- now how would you feel?"

For those stuck in Afghanistan, the frustration and fear are mounting.

"We that are left behind, we all express our anger, disappointment," Bibi said.

"We have (been) deprived of our right to work," said Nabila. "We find it impossible for us to live in Afghanistan."

Ruiz of the IAWJ said they won't give up until every woman judge is safe.

"We're not going to abandon them. We're not going to forget them. And we're not going to let the world ignore them," Ruiz said.

"We will not stop until this job is completed, and every woman judge who is threatened, and wishes to leave Afghanistan is able to do so."

Despite the dangers, Nabila is dedicated to her chosen career path and hopes to one day return to the bench.

"I do not regret all about the field I have chosen and for which I have studied for many years," Nabila said.

"We have been working for many years to combat violence, oppression and injustice, and I want to continue with my work."

Nabila's bravery is driven by a passion to protect Afghanistan's most vulnerable women, and to try to create a better future for her daughters -- a generation that now faces a dark reality under the new regime.

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Afghanistan's women judges are in hiding, fearing reprisal attacks from men they jailed - Action News Now

WILLS POINT, TX Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) founded by KP Yohannan, issued this Special Report on the horrific realities girls face, child marriage, human trafficking, abuse & exploitation, and the restoration & redemption that God brings to their lives.

In her article for The New York Times, Hannah Beech shares the stories of Nyo and Phyu, two teenagers from Myanmar who were trafficked to China at age 16. A neighbor promised to find them waitressing jobs, but after 10 days of traveling, the girls realized that was not their fate. They tried to run away twice, but they were caught and locked in a room.

The girls were split up, each paired with a supposed husband, although no marriage paperwork was ever filled out, to their knowledge, writes Beech.

After going home with their new husbands, both girls were locked in rooms. Nyo was often beaten and raped by her husband. Phyus husband repeatedly injected drugs into her arm before forcing her to have sex. Eventually, Phyu and Nyo both gained access to the internet. This allowed police to track the girls down, prosecute the traffickers and husbands, and send the girls back to Myanmar.

But the traumatic experience left both girls with painful life circumstances.

Nyo ended up giving birth in Myanmar to a daughter by her Chinese husband. Phyu suffered physical and psychological damage from the abuse she experienced.

Before this happened, Phyu was so happy and active, Phyus mother told Beech. But they gave her something to make her forget and trigger her sexuality. They beat her. She doesnt know she is ruined.

Bride and child marriage trafficking makes up only a small percentage of the trafficking of girls, a trade that has grown rapidly in recent decades.

of trafficked girls are used for sexual exploitation.

of trafficked girls are used for forced labor.

are used for other purposes (such as forced child marriage, exploitative begging or coerced criminal activities).

of total victims in 2004 are comprised of girls.

of total victims in 2016 are comprised of girls.

When many think of trafficking, they imagine a woman or teenage girl being forced to work in a brothel. While this does make up a large percentage of cases, the trafficking of girls can take a variety of forms. For some, like Ashmita, it means working as a domestic servant.

After Ashmitas father died, she and her mother moved into someones home to earn a living doing housework. Later, Ashmitas mother sent her to work in another familys home. Ashmita, who wasnt yet 10 years old, was forced to wash dishes and clothes, mop floors and massage the legs of her employer. When Ashmita grew physically tired from the labor the house owners demanded, she was beaten and slapped. One time, the woman of the house put chili powder in Ashmitas eyes.

For other girls, human trafficking means forced labor in the internet pornography industry, massage parlors that function as fronts for sexual exploitation, or beggar mafia networks. Whatever the form of trafficking, it leaves a deep, long-lasting mark on a girls psychology.

Trafficking victims often find it difficult to overcome the traumatic reality of their exploitation and share details with law enforcement authorities that could aid in prosecuting their traffickers, states the U.S. Department of State.

Girls in areas of political instability, conflict or oppression become especially vulnerable to forced child marriage and human trafficking.

Trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation occurs within all conflict areas considered, including sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, South-East Asia and others, reports the UN. In some refugee camps in the Middle East, for example, it has been documented that girls and young women have been married off without their consent and subjected to sexual exploitation in neighbouring countries. Abduction of women and girls for sexual slavery has been reported in many conflicts in Central and West Africa, as well as in the conflicts in the Middle East. It has also been reported that women and girls are trafficked for forced [child marriage] in the same areas.

Reports of such conflict-related trafficking occasionally make international news. The world waited for the return of more than 200 girls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria. News outlets recounted how the Islamic State group forced Yazidi and Christian girls into sexual slavery. In some regions, however, political instability has made the trafficking of girls an everyday reality often overlooked by the rest of the world.

Girls in areas of political instability, conflict or oppression become especially vulnerable to forced child marriage and human trafficking.

North Korean girls attempting to flee government oppression may face the greatest risk for exploitation. In China, the only country they can directly cross into, they must try to be invisible. If they are caught, Chinas government will send them back to North Korea, where they will likely face prison time for illegally exiting their homeland (which may involve starvation, sexual abuse or physical torture). As a result, North Korean women and girls easily become prey for traffickers.

According to a report from the Korea Future Initiative, the vast majority of North Korean trafficking victims are girls or women aged between 12 and 29, and many became ensnared in sexual slavery less than a year after fleeing North Korea.

Most of these girls and women end up in prostitution in brothels near the China/North Korea border, while others become entrapped in the growing cybersex trade.

Girls aged as young as 9 are forced to perform graphic sex acts and are sexually assaulted in front of webcams which are live-streamed to a paying global audience, explains the Korea Future Initiative.

In every story, there is conflict that disrupts the protagonists life. And in the stories of many girls lives, antagonists like exploitation, abuse trafficking, forced child marriage or discrimination have brought so much conflict and destruction they have nearly destroyed hope. Without intervention, many girls will never have the chance for an education or a career. They may suffer from lasting health problems due to teenage pregnancy, forced prostitution, rape or physical abuse. They may live the rest of their lives believing they shouldnt expect anything better.

There is, however, a God who created each girl and each woman. He hears the cry of the powerless and the needy and comes to their aid, and He gives them strength to overcome trauma and oppression. There are also many people working to combat trafficking, promote education and teach the value of girls. Many of these advocates were themselves once girls whose stories were defined by tragedy and abuse. Yet these women have risen above those obstacles, and they are helping other girls and women find similar freedom.

Ruths story shifted from tragedy to hope after she met some Christian women serving in her community. They befriended the teenager, encouraged her and invited her to church. There, Ruth heard a GFA pastor share about the love of Christa love that was overwhelming to a girl whose own parents didnt value her. Ruth decided to follow this God who actually loved her.

Later she moved to another city to receive training from the church about how to help other hurting people just like herself. Before she left, she went to seek her fathers blessing, which in her culture is requested by bending down and touching an elders feet. Instead of blessing her, her father kicked her in the face.

During her time in Bible college, Ruth grew closer to Christ. Around the time she graduated, her pastor from her village told her she needed to come back home. Ruths father had changed, he said.

When Ruth got off the bus in her village, her father was waiting for her, and something happened that had never occurred before: He hugged her.

What had caused such a dramatic change in his attitude?

He had become a follower of Jesus, like his daughter. After God transformed his life, Ruths father began to value and support Ruth, knowing she was a gift from the Lord and not a burden.

Lasting global change in the treatment of girls starts when people recognize the value of each girl as a human being created by God. Those who recognize this will protect girls lives and challenge attitudes demeaning girls as less valuable than boys.

Lasting global change in the treatment of girls starts when people recognize the value of each girl as a human being created by God. Those who recognize this will protect girls lives and challenge attitudes demeaning girls.

In South Asia, where rates of gender-biased abortion are still highdespite it being illegalGFA workers have the opportunity to show through their example and counsel that girls have dignity and value as image-bearers of God. These men and women are able to bring change not only to girls lives but also to entire families and communities. As the mindsets of parents and community members change, girls live in a safer, more supportive environment.

One day, GFA pastor Kanish heard some concerning news from Rajika, a woman who attended his church along with her four daughters. Rajikas husband, Sushil, had already been addicted to drugs. Then, after Rajika gave birth to their fourth daughter, neighbors began to mock Sushil for having no sons and only daughters. The disappointment and humiliation pushed Sushil further into a pit of depression and substance abuse. He began abusing his wife and children.

Thankfully, Pastor Kanish was equipped to talk to Sushil: The pastor himself had three daughters and no sons. Unlike Sushil, Pastor Kanish cherished his daughters. When he visited Rajika and Sushils home, he challenged Sushils attitude toward his daughters. He explained to Sushil that his daughters were blessings from God, not burdens.

Through the pastors encouragement, Sushil decided to depend on Jesus instead of alcohol and drugs. He began to pray regularly, and he welcomed others to his home for prayer meetings. As Sushils mindset and lifestyle were transformed, he overcame his addictions and started loving his wife and children instead of abusing them. He thanked God for restoring his life.

As God transforms the attitudes of people like Ruths father and Sushil, a broad impact sweeps through entire families and communities. When just one person chooses to value and support his or her daughter, this changes not only her life but also the lives she will impact one day. Moreover, this support shows others an example of a healthy family dynamic.

Give to Help Girls at Risk

If you want to help girls at risk in South Asia, consider a one-time donation to stand in the gap for children who have been rescued from desperate situations into Bridge of Hope but still lack permanent sponsors to cover their monthly needs to remain in school.

About Gospel for Asia

Gospel for Asia (GFA World, http://www.gfa.org) is a leading faith-based mission agency, helping national workers bring vital assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially to those who have yet to hear about the love of God. In GFAs latest yearly report, this included more than 70,000 sponsored children, free medical camps conducted in more than 1,200 villages and remote communities, over 4,800 clean water wells drilled, over 12,000 water filters installed, income-generating Christmas gifts for more than 260,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry. For all the latest news, visit our Press Room at https://press.gfa.org/news.

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Traumatized and Exploited Rewriting the Tragedies of Girlhood | Part 2 - Patheos

With the decision to end the use of the Come and Take It slogan at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the university is bowing to the demands of the few and overlooking those of us who have come to interpret the slogan as one of empowerment for our UTSA community.

To me and countless others Come and Take It does not symbolize what UTSA President Taylor Eighmy or the handful of loud opponents claim. Yet, a mere 960 signatures on a petition swayed the leaders of a university with over 30,000 students to make a decision that affects us all.

For me, the so-called symbol of racism and exclusion has evolved to represent defiance in the face of those who want to deny our civil rights. We can use the slogan to defend our rights in the name of racial equality and justice instead of clinging to a historical interpretation that many of us have no connection to. Does that make me racist, as opponents of the slogan would have you believe?

As a Black student growing up in New York, I learned that Texas and the states of the former Confederacy had a long history of oppressing Black and Hispanic communities. My education thoroughly covered the racial legacy of divide, violence, and oppression in the South, but Come and Take It was not included in that legacy.

Come and Take It in the U.S. dates back to the American Revolution, when Col. John McIntosh used the phrase to defy British troops at Fort Morris in Georgia.This defiance in the face of oppression can be translated into a modern-day interpretation in defense of civil rights.

Even co-opted by 2nd Amendment activists, the phrase serves as a reminder to Black and Hispanic communities of our own rights to defend ourselves against racial violence. The defense of the rights of Black and Hispanic people, by arms or without, gives people like me a right to claim Come and Take It as our own.

Instead of making the hasty decision to end the use of a slogan that many of us hold dear, UTSA could have gauged the feelings of students and alumni. The university could have leveraged the alumni association and its media to distribute a survey, or helped the Student Government Association put the decision to a vote. There could have been some effort to open the floor to discussion as to why the slogans meaning may vary wildly among students. If the consensus was to find a new slogan that captures UTSAs fighting spirit, the university and its students could feel good about arriving at a decision together.

But the university chose to listen to a small but vocal group that insists on stamping the slogan as racist, though modern interpretations are far from it. If Come and Take It is the racist symbol the 960 petition signatories say it is, then by what right can we keep the symbols of the Texas flag? By what right can we keep the cities so named Jefferson, Houston, and Austin? Do the residents of these cities themselves consider themselves racist for still living in towns that were named after people of our honored past that did not have views aligning with our own? By what right can we keep anything in our history if it cannot be re-imagined, or if we hold ourselves guilty of the sins of our fathers?

I respect Kevin Eltifes statement in defense of the traditions and history that mean much to students, alumni, and other Texans. The chairman of the UT System Board of Regents stepped up to challenge UTSAs decision to get rid of a slogan that has come to mean many things to many people. Those of us who have found our own meaning in the Come and Take It slogan shouldnt feel guilty about upholding a tradition that weve reinterpreted. Instead, we should feel empowered to defend ourselves against the loud and oppressive few.

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Come and Take It: A symbol of defiance reinterpreted by UTSA students and alumni - San Antonio Report

15.Sep

September 15th, 2021

In early September, Crimean resident Nariman Dzhelyal woke up to masked people climbing his fence. A few days prior, his house had been searched, so he quickly realised what was going on. About a dozen Federal Security Service (FSB) officers escorted him to a facility, where he spent the rest of the day handcuffed with a bag on his head, unable to eat, drink or even use the bathroom.

Two men enacted a good FSB, bad FSB'' play with Dzhelyal, accusing him of directing others to blow up a gas pipeline. By 4 am, Dzhelyal was put face to face with another detainee. I managed to ask if he was alright, he shook his head. They beat you? He nodded in response, Dzhelyal recalled in his letter from prison.

The FSB made sure he had no lawyer present, so the full picture became clear to Dzhelyal only later. The authorities claimed that a group of Crimean Tatars blew up a pipeline under Simferopol in August after Ukrainian intelligence trained them and paid them $2,000. Dzhelyal, a respected leader of the Crimean Tatar community, was accused of organising the attack, and now faces up to 15 years in prison.

As with other cases put forward by the FSB, almost no information is available to the public. Locals are unsure if there was even a pipeline explosion. With the lack of evidence, another explanation arises: Dzhelyals arrest is a logical step in the state persecution of Crimean Tatars - an ethnic group that the Russian government perceives as a threat.

Crimean Tatars are a Turkic nation and an indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula. Following the Russo-Turkish war, Crimea became a part of the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century. Decades of Russian colonisation climaxed during World War II, at the end of which Stalin forced the deportation of over 200,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia as a collective punishment for perceived collaboration with Nazi forces. Many dozens of thousands died as a result.

The exiled people began to return to their homeland only in the late 1990s. During the subsequent decades, Crimean Tatars gained recognition as native people of the peninsula for the first time in centuries, and as a result, many became loyal to Ukraine. This allegiance became a problem when their homeland was seized and annexed to Russia in 2014.

Following the Russian appropriation of Crimea, the indigenous groups representative body, the Mejlis did not recognise the Russian occupation, causing Russia to label it an extremist organisation in 2016.

According to human rights activists, about 80% of political prisoners from Crimea belong to the Crimean Tatar nation. The pretext for jailing many of them was their supposed ties with Hizb-ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group freely operating in Ukraine and most of Europe.

Nariman Dzhelyals case signifies a drastic change. Up until a few years ago, only a religious fundamentalist or an extremely vocal opposition member was considered a real threat by Moscow. Dzhelyal was always diplomatic and soft-spoken, carefully watching his words; his sole crime was representing his people as a deputy head of the Mejlis, and being one of the last civil leaders of the Crimean Tatars who stayed in Crimea.

In 2014, President Vladimir Putin admitted the wrongdoings of Moscow before the Crimean Tatar nation, and vowed to reinstate their rights and good name in full. Seven years later, Crimean Tatars face 15 years in Russian prison merely for their ethnicity. On World Democracy Day, its worth remembering that the occupation of Crimea was not only the biggest attack on the sovereignty of a European nation in decades, but also a return of state repression of a whole indigenous population.

Image by FreedomHouse

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Crimean Tatars face increased oppression by Russia - Fairplanet