Quote:Nun, 86, is gang-raped and murdered when robbers break in to steal from her missionary in South Africa



Sister Gertrud Tiefenbacher had been bound with a typewriter cord

Her body was discovered by other nuns at her mission in Durban

Police say octogenarian had been robbed of a small amount of cash



By Helen Moss For Mailonline



Published: 16:08 GMT, 21 April 2015

Quote:LEO III 795-816 Created a spiritual cesspool. Following this Pope's rule, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle of 836 CE stated that many monasteries had become the haunts of homosexuals and that many convents had become little more than brothels where unwanted babies were killed and buried. The church introduced laws banning priests' mothers, aunts or sisters from living in the houses of priests, since even relatives of the clergy were unsafe as incest was so rife.

Quote:(4th century Saint) Jerome warned one Roman woman to never remain alone in a room with a priest. Should she find herself in such a situation, the woman was told to "plead that either her bowels or bladder needed relieving".

Christian women were not to be trusted either, according to Jerome. "Never enter the house or be in their company alone," he said.

To Jerome, the only women of virtue to be seen on the streets of Rome were not Christians but pagans.

Quote:Sumedha Sarvadaman



THE PLOT THICKENS! "Plot" as in literally it's mostly about land-Mafia. So the Editor of Afternoon Voice, Vaidehi Taman, who has been reporting from ground zero, raises the critical question - "Why the Nun was raped?"

Quote:Sister Superior of Convent of Jesus and Mary, also failed to describe the rapists inspite of broad light incidence. As per church sources, she has been asked to leave Ranaghat and keep quiet, as the culprits belong to same community.

Quote: Published On: Mon, Mar 23rd, 2015

Why the Nun was raped?



It is a big question that why the nun was raped if we put little stress on the ongoing theories. Still, there is no answer but speculations are many. Eight persons were detained in connection with the rape of a 72-year-old nun in a school at Ranaghat in West Bengal's Nadia district. Police officials claimed that it was not a case of gang-rape. Even the eye-witnesses, other nuns, too told that it was not a gang rape because only one person took the nun towards room and there after they don't know what happened; they just found her on floor. Through this statement, it has established that only one person had raped her.

Quote:Rupa Subramanya

‏@rupasubramanya



Re Bengal nun rape case,every news story refers to mastermind as Milan Sarkar when acc to this,alias,real name:Rehman

www.oneindia.com/india/nun-rape-case-kingpin-arrested-1740551.html …



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11:18 PM - 11 May 2015



Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

.@vickynanjappa yours is only news story which says mastermind in nun rape Milan Sarkar is alias.Real name:Rehman.Could you verify?

28 retweets 15 favorites



Samir ‏@samir__11 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya thats true..i hav read other stories as well..also complete silence from usual suspects further proves dis @vickynanjappa

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Sukhoi ‏@Sukhoi004 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya most pseudo seculars think threat to India is from Hindus..so they make secular headlines ..learn from Nehru..

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Vicky Nanjappa ‏@vickynanjappa 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya his real name is rehman, milan sarkar an alias- his police records in bangladesh & india state rehman alias sarkar aka mint

45 retweets 14 favorites



Vicky Nanjappa ‏@vickynanjappa 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya he is a bangldeshi national, all of them use indian hindu names to commit crime here

49 retweets 16 favorites



Vicky Nanjappa ‏@vickynanjappa 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya wouldn't a lot of them loved it if he was just milan sarkar ha ha ha ha lol

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Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa you've seen the police records?

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Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa It's just unbelievable everyone including international media refers to him as Milan Sarkar!

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Vicky Nanjappa ‏@vickynanjappa 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya the cid version yes

1 retweet 4 favorites

(The above looks to be in answer to Rupa's question: "you've seen the police records?")



Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa thanks. This really is quite something.

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Vicky Nanjappa ‏@vickynanjappa 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya suits the propaganda right

1 retweet 5 favorites





syed ‏@truthalonefor1 12h12 hours ago

@rupasubramanya @vickynanjappa Blaming by you, confirming by others ?

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Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa Yup. Makes one's head spin!

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jayasimha k ‏@hooves2 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa @rupasubramanya let sleeping dogs lie-don't want secular media to get apoplectic fits !!

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sathya narayanan ‏@sathya0709 12h12 hours ago

@vickynanjappa Guess we have to take revenge and refer to AR Rehman as Dilip Kumar @rupasubramanya

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Rupa Subramanya ‏@rupasubramanya 12h12 hours ago

Confirmed by @vickynanjappa who's seen CID report that Milan Sarkar real name Rehman. Domestic/intntl media don't report his real name.Odd.

45 retweets 22 favorites



(English speaking nationalist Indians are so unable to see what's right in front of their nose. Nothing "odd" about it. It is SOP for christianism to frame Hindoos for christoislamic crimes. Like the earlier islamic Deendar Anjuman outfit's attacks on churches. Like christians self-inflicting attacks on churches. Like nun "gangrapes" by christoislamics.)



नवजोत सिंह सिद्धू ‏@sahi_kaha 12h12 hours ago



@rupasubramanya प्रिय दाऊद !

तुम भारत लौट आओ.

तुम्हें कोई कुछ नही कहेगा. आजकल हमारे यहाँ फौरन जमानत हो जाती है,

1 retweet 0 favorites

Quote:Vicky Nanjappa @vickynanjappa · 12h 12 hours ago



even in burdwan case all bangladeshis had an alias hindu name- its a bloody common feature as their voter ids are issued in hindu names

63 retweets 14 favorites

Quote:Lutyens Insider ?@LutyensInsider May 6



Married Hindu woman kidnapped by gang of Muslims. Kept as sex-slave. She's pregnant but court not allowing abortion. ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarat-24yearold-gangrape-victim-asks-hc-to-allow-her-to-abort-27weekold-fetus/538581-3-238.html



552 retweets 116 favorites

Lutyens Insider ?@LutyensInsider May 6



Indian media not disclosing religions, but important to know that. It happened in Gujarat where Muslims are supposed to be 'under fear'.

293 retweets 86 favorites



Lutyens Insider

?@LutyensInsider



Not only she is a Hindu, she belongs to dalit caste. Reality will expose the Dalit-Muslim unity propaganda that leftists try to propagate.



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10:32 PM - 6 May 2015



Lutyens Insider ?@LutyensInsider May 6



Court is not allowing abortion citing medical and legal reasons, and they could be right. But ugly truth is about the communal crime.

170 retweets 38 favorites



[...]

Blue Sky ‏@blue21sky May 7



@LutyensInsider @sanatandesh Media is biggest Enemy of Hindus.



(That's cause Indian media and most international media = christian. And christianism = biggest enemy of Hindus.)

Quote:Oxford University suffering rise in culture of sexual harassment, college head warns



Dr Alice Prochaska said female students face 'excessively harassing and intimidating behaviour'

Victoria Richards Author Biography



Thursday 14 May 2015





The head of an Oxford University college has warned of an "unprecedented" scale of "epidemic" of groping and sexual harassment.



Dr Alice Prochaska said in an email to undergraduates that female students were facing "excessively harassing and intimidating behaviour" amid reports of rape jokes in communal areas, sexual coercion and groping at college parties and on campus.



"Rape is not a joke, as those who have been victims of it could tell you," she wrote.

Rape victim takes Oxford University to court

Ione Wells: Teenage assailant sentenced



"Any level of sexual harassment is also not a joke; it is not acceptable that members of the college and their friends should be made to feel uncomfortable and disrespected here." Ione Wells, who is behind the #NotGuilty campaign (Image: Instagram/Ione Wells) Ione Wells, who is behind the #NotGuilty campaign (Image: Instagram/Ione Wells)



Dr Prochaska, who has been the head of Somerville College since 2010, warned that she had received reports of "rude and sometimes threatening behaviour on a scale unprecedented in my time as principal".



She also said that Somerville, which was attended by Margaret Thatcher and was one of the first women's colleges in Oxford - although now around 50 per cent of its students are male - had also seen incidents of homophobia, the Telegraph reported.



Her comments follow a widely-publicised open letter published by Oxford student Ione Wells, who waived her anonymity to highlight her own experience of being sexually assaulted in London, kickstarting the online campaign #NotGuilty.



Ione Wells has launched the #NotGuilty campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault Ione Wells has launched the #NotGuilty campaign to raise awareness of sexual assault



The Times also reported that a meeting held by the college’s junior common room, which represents undergraduates, heard that deans had received six times more complaints this term than in the past six years combined.



Daniella Shreir, a student who spoke at the meeting, told the newspaper that there was an intimidating atmosphere, adding: "Many left the room extremely shaken and in tears. Only a few of us felt able to speak out."

Quote:Oxford University suffering rise in culture of sexual harassment, college head warns



Dr Alice Prochaska said female students face 'excessively harassing and intimidating behaviour'

Victoria Richards Author Biography



Thursday 14 May 2015





The head of an Oxford University college has warned of an "unprecedented" scale of "epidemic" of groping and sexual harassment.



Dr Alice Prochaska said in an email to undergraduates that female students were facing "excessively harassing and intimidating behaviour" amid reports of rape jokes in communal areas, sexual coercion and groping at college parties and on campus.

Quote:Gina Riveros: Argentinian mother posted joke about rape culture on Facebook, had no idea it went viral



The post has since been shared on Facebook nearly 300 times; reposts on Twitter have reached nearly 31,000 shares

Loulla-Mae Eleftheriou-Smith



Wednesday 29 April 2015



When a woman in Argentina made a small observation about a drunk, passed out man at a bus terminal and made a passing joke about rape culture, she had no idea she would be speaking to such a big audience.



Gina Riveros, who works at the terminal, wrote a simple comment on Facebook, which has now been shared nearly 300 times. But what shocked her was the screenshot of the post that has now been shared more than 31,000 times.



[img]



Her post reads: "Yesterday, when I arrived at the bus terminal at 6:00am, there was a skinny man who was so drunk that fell into deep sleep after 10 minutes.



"He had oversized pants that left his underwear and half his ass exposed.



"In short: young, drunk, middle of the night, in a sketchy place like the terminal is at that time, and with his ass in the air and not even me, nor any of the women who passed him during the spectacle, raped or killed him.



"You see guys, it's not so hard and no matter how drunk you are or how you dress, you can respect the lives of others???"



[img]



Riveros said she has received both messages of support and negativity for her opinion since gaining notoriety. Some of the negative commentators have branded her a "rebel feminazi".



But she is used to voicing her opinion about rape culture: Riveros used to work on a health radio programme, where she was "disgusted to hear all the people who justify street harassment, groping, rape, etc."



Men and women should "pay less attention to the clothes worn by girls and deal more with teaching boys of future generations" to no violate or harass people, she told the website.



Read more:

• End the culture of blaming rape victims, says Harriet Harman
  
  
• US high school bans football team t-shirt 'connoting rape culture'
  
  
• Man's 'Eat, Sleep, Rape, Repeat' T-shirt sparks outrage (- Typically islamic. His islamic Iranian surname "Khawaja" means eunuch, who were men castrated by islamania for the express purpose of serving as victims of islamic sexual abuse. So methinks the reference is indeed to this Khawaja's daily experiences at the hands of some islamaniac males.)
  
  
  
  

Quote:Department Store Pulls Offensive Shirt With Slogan 'It's Not Rape. It's A Snuggle With A Struggle'

The Huffington Post | By Emily Thomas



A major department store in the Philippines has pulled from its shelves an offensive T-shirt bearing a slogan mocking the definition of rape, following public outrage and criticism of the retailer online.



[...]*



Last year, Amazon came under fire for allowing one of its merchants, online retailer Solid Gold Bomb to sell a shirt bearing the slogan "Keep Calm and Rape a Lot," a play off the famous World War II slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On."



SM did not immediately return a request for comment.



Posted: 09/24/2014 9:54 am EDT Updated: 09/24/2014 3:59 pm EDT

Quote:James Morgan Photographer & Retoucher at White Orange Productions



I worked in retail and talked to the buyers of that retailer. These guys knew exactly what this shirt said, meant, and that it was in the store.

Reply

21 September 24, 2014 at 11:43am



Emily Ash Top Commenter Volunteer Tutor at Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA)



I was about to say, yeah right they didn't know. They have to either order it, or they get inventory that says it on the sheet exactly what they've gotten in. And someone stocking sees it on the shelves.

Reply

11 September 24, 2014 at 2:00pm

Quote:Broadcaster: TV channel "PBS" (American public broadcasting station)

Programme: "OffBook"

Episode "The Culture of Reddit"

7+ minutes



Shows:

* 72% (median) of US Reddit users = male

* Users are by far mostly from North American & Europe, which is a fact shown in the final seconds of the episode

* The subsection on Gender Relations on Reddit shows not just rape jokes used to curtail female activity or responses but also threats of violent rape issued by the male users. In their mentalities, it seems these things are a matter of course.

Quote:"U BE A MAN, CHASE AFTER HER, AND RAPE HER. NOW." [+76]

Quote:A third of male university students say they would rape a woman if there no were no consequences

Jon Stone

Wednesday 14 January 2015

[...]

Roughly one third of male university students who took part in a study would rape a woman if there were no consequences, according to a new scientific study.



The research, published in the scientific journal Violence and Gender, presented mostly white male American participants a questionnaire on how they would act in certain sexual situations.

Quote:5. A quarter of men in some parts of Asia admit to rape

In the aftermath of high-profile trials for rape in India, a study has revealed the extent of sexual violence in other parts of Asia



11 September 2013

From magazine issue 2934 Labelled: News

Quote:A quarter of men in some parts of Asia admit to rape



11 September 2013

Magazine issue 2934. Subscribe and save

For similar stories, visit the Crime and Forensics Topic Guide



Read more: Click here to read the original, longer version of this story



IT'S a much bigger problem than you might think. A new study reveals the breadth of sexual violence in some countries. A tenth of 10,000 men asked in six countries (Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea) admitted raping a woman other than a partner. Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea emerged as possibly the most dangerous place for women – nearly 27 per cent of men quizzed there admitted such rapes. The overall figure across the countries rose to a quarter when rape of a partner was included.



(Papua New Guinea/PNG is mostly christianised already. A small proportion of unconverted people remain, but I doubt they'd be living in a place called "Bougainville Island" which sounds like a colonised=christianised place.)



The results, out this week (The Lancet, doi.org/nrd and doi.org/nrf), are an invaluable guide to factors motivating rape, says study author Emma Fulu of Partners for Prevention, a UN programme to tackle gender-based violence.



Of those who had raped, 58 per cent first did so in their teens.



"People begin committing these acts while quite young, so education programmes need to target them," said Scott Berkowitz, of the US Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.



This article appeared in print under the headline "Rape hotspots"

(That final phrase is indicative of the kind of conscious categorising that actually points to the eternal western supremacist objective to delineate their own kultur from that of Asia as being more superior and moral from the ground up, as being more civilised by nature (of whiteness).

Asian unsaved kaffirs should all set up studies too. Not just to "reverse the gaze", but also to implicate what parts of the rape mentality present in their bounds is entirely due to contact with the west and the imposition of christoislamicommunism and subsequent departure from native heathenisms and other native Asian values.)

Quote:Abuse Survivor: Cops Guarded As I Was Raped



Esther Baker tells Sky News she was sexually abused by different men, with officers sometimes standing guard for the perpetrators.



11:07, UK, Tuesday 26 May 2015

Video: Cops Stood Guard As I Was Raped



By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent





A woman has told Sky News how uniformed police officers stood guard as abusers sexually assaulted her as a young girl.



(Then is it any wonder that such complicity should go all the way up to the British govt, busy concealing the paedophile rings in its midst, not just shying away from the ones headed by islamaniacs from Pakiland but also long conpiring to protect the Saville et al type paedophile rings operated by and for high-profile Brits?



And when UK cops are so readily in on just such things, no wonder then that the BBC is more concerned with suppressing the documentary exposing Saville and gang than exposing the problem they created?



When will all this end? When will these children see justice? And when will future generations and their parents feel safe?)



Waiving her right to anonymity, Esther Baker, 32, spoke exclusively to Sky News about her tormented childhood that saw her sexually abused by men at various locations.



She claimed police officers would stand guard for the perpetrators and on some occasions even joined in the abuse in woodland on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.



She said: "I got the feeling very much that they were protecting somebody, that they were with one of the men.



"One of them (police officers) I knew from church. There were a few occasions where they would be in uniform, and I kind of knew, I learnt that when they were in uniform that it was going to be a rough night.



"On occasion they would - they would sort of join in," she added.



Ms Baker recalls one police officer apologising to her.



Video: Child Abuse Inquiry Will Be Robust



"There was one that I can remember, one of the times I tried to run away and tried to get away from them and he came after me, caught up with me and he was carrying me back to where the rest of them were and he said he was sorry," she said.



From the age of six, Ms Baker was taken to be abused by different men on Cannock Chase, at various properties around Staffordshire and beyond.



Other children were often there and sometimes they were given alcohol: "We were all pretty much the same, same ages, we never spoke, I don't know where they came from, who brought them."



She says the sexual abuse was often filmed and involved men of varying ages from different parts of the country.



She said: "I don't quite know how to explain. I was brought up in a religious household and one thing that kept me so sure that what they were doing was right was that there were references to people, Lords and a judge.



"I picked up on those names, because I thought one of them must have been God because one of them was 'Our Lord'.



"I just thought that they were on God's authority."



(Note the above admits that christianism conditions christians from childhood to be acquiescent to abuse inflicted on them by members higher in the christo power or casta hierarchy.)



Decades on, Ms Baker has now finally decided to speak out and has made the painful decision to approach the police again, who have assured her that her claims will be investigated thoroughly.



She has recently taken part in a series of gruelling video interviews with detectives recounting the abuse.



She decided to speak to Sky News in the hope of finding other victims or the police officers who were involved.



She said: "I would say to the one that was sorry that he knows who these people were and why they were there.



"I need them to fill in the gaps that I just don't know, I need people that were adults then but they couldn't stop it for whatever reason, it is time for them to stop it now."



The other children who were allegedly abused on Cannock Chase may also hold vital information.



Ms Baker added: "I know they are terrified to come forward, I know what they were told, I know what threats were made and I know why they are scared.



"But every one of us that comes forward will hold a different piece of the puzzle. I can't fill it in on my own."



Ms Baker has given the name of one politician to the police and a detailed account of the years of abuse.

(Links to news.sky.com/story/1490575/politician-abused-me-regularly-survivor-says)



She said: "I always swore I would never go near the police again - never ... but I have hid it for 20 years, that has not worked, that hasn't taken the fear away - I have got nothing to lose anymore."



Ms Baker has ongoing support from the Lantern Project on Merseyside who work with survivors of sexual abuse.



:: Anyone who has concerns about a child or wants advice can contact the NSPCC for free 24 hours a day, by calling 0808 800 5000, or emailing help@nspcc.org.uk.

Quote:Politician Abused Me Regularly, Survivor Says



A rape survivor tells Sky News that a politician was one of the "core members" of the group who allegedly abused her.



11:08, UK, Tuesday 26 May 2015



[Photo caption of young Esther:]

Esther Baker told Sky News she was abused as a child in the 1980s and 1990s





By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent



Abuse survivor Esther Baker has named a politician as one of the men who abused her while police officers stood guard.



She told detectives at Staffordshire Police that he was one of a number of men who would regularly abuse her in the 1980s and 1990s.



She believes a Lord and a judge may also have been among her abusers.



Ms Baker described the political figure as: "One of the core members. He was there quite often - I was one of his favourites.



"I used to play the piano, and he was quite taken with that ... there were different houses.



"I would sit on his lap and he would want me to play."



Video: Child Abuse Inquiry Will Be Robust



The politician is not from Staffordshire but is from the current political era.

(Who's betting he's a christist? Regular church-goer? And the judge and "Lord" too.)



Ms Baker has given a graphic and detailed account to detectives and explained to them how she only recently realised who the man was.



She said: "I would know that face anywhere. I have lived with it and others in my head for over 20 years, I know every inch of him."



Urging other potential witnesses or survivors to come forward, Ms Baker said: "I always swore I would never go near the police again - never.



"I was scared because it feels like, yeah, they are going to know I have said something so the only way I can now protect myself is now to tell.



"I just hope others will do the same. That is the only way we are going to be safe."



Ms Baker has ongoing support from the Lantern Project on Merseyside, which works with survivors of sexual abuse.

Quote:In 2005, British investigative journalist Clive Gresswell discovered a collection of secret pamphlets being distributed to young Muslim men in Luton, UK. Excerpts run thus:



“A Message to Moslem Youth: Real Khilafa – A Political Reality from Dr. K M Farukh. (For Private Circulation)



We call upon our fellow youth to come and join us in our mission—universal and global Islam. The job is big but nothing is impossible. If the kafir non-believer does not accept by gentle persuasion or reasoning then other methods which are allowed for in the holy Quran must be used such as—going to war with the kafir or converting them by manipulation. We need to send out our boys to bring into the umma or community of Islam. This task is getting easier by the day as the Sikh and Hindu girls are not taught (as is done in Islam) much about their religion at all. They have a westernized upbringing and the school college and university campus is the ideal place for our youth to carry out their duties easily in this way. It is easy to take the Sikh girls out on a date as they generally like a good drink and from these gradually they can be brought into Islam. This is not a hard job at all as the Kafir women they like Moslems. Hardly surprising as we are attractive and intelligent compared with Kafirs… Otherwise why would Indian films have so many Moslem actors. There is not a single Hindu or Sikh actor in Pakistani films. We need more funds desperately to carry on our job and we need volunteers from amongst the youth specially. We need your help at this crucial time when our Moslem brothers and sisters are being killed in countries all over the world.”



Jihad, in all its forms is likely to stay for a protracted period. It is not just a war of weapons, but also of culture and mores. In an article in 1993, Huntington writes, “It is my hypothesis that the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.”



Perhaps it is coming, what philosopher Francis Fukuyama calls, the end of history. Surviving it is the modern world’s greatest challenge.



With Inputs from Romeos of Terror by Sangram Parhi's in The New Indian Express

newindianexpress.com/magazine/Romeos-of-Terror/2014/09/06/article2416263.ece

Quote:Hardly surprising as we are attractive and intelligent compared with Kafirs… Otherwise why would Indian films have so many Moslem actors.

Quote:This is not a hard job at all as the Kafir women they like Moslems.

Quote:Game Of Thrones, TV, and where's the line?



Den of Geek

simonbrew



(img caption Game of Thrones' Sansa Stark © HBO Game of Thrones' Sansa Stark



As Game Of Thrones continues to shock, does there come a point where the balance just seems to be a little off?



This article contains spoilers for Utopia series one, and Game Of Thrones season 5.



I'm turning into my father. When I was younger, my dad was wary of TV shows that would turn my clearly pure mind. His particular ire was when he caught me taping Prisoner Cell Block H of all things, arguing to teenage me that if it was meant for people my age, they'd have put it on during the day, rather than half one in the morning.



That argument did not pan out well, as you can imagine.



Game Of Thrones, though, is on throughout the day via on-demand, and is shown at 9pm in the UK. That's not my beef, though. Instead, in season 5 in particular, I'm wondering why we're being shown things I'm not ultimately sure we needed to see. That in the constant battle to push buttons, to get a reaction, and to shock the audience, Game Of Thrones is willing to try pretty much anything to get a Twitter reaction.



Allow me to slip my fuddy-duddy, old fart coat on and explain more.



There are two scenes in the generally muted (until recently) Game Of Thrones season 5 that have garnered the most controversy. In both cases, I find myself not on the side of the show. That is rare.



The first, which has been dissected in detail elsewhere on the internet, was the rape of Sansa Stark. I've never really got on with the Game Of Thrones books in truth, so didn't realise until afterwards quite how much the show's narrative differed from George R R Martin's prose. But even before I had more detail, it was a chilling, nasty scene, one that didn't feel necessary from a narrative point of view, nor on screen. I write this accepting that HBO's take on Game Of Thrones show has rarely, if ever, pulled its punches. But I did sit there wondering what I was sitting through in the name of entertainment.



Was this really the only way, given the talent involved in the show, to make the point it was trying to make? Was this the only way to progress Sansa's story? And to further establish just what a vile man Ramsay Bolton is?



Because, no matter how dark the storytelling is, that's what Game Of Thrones is. Entertainment. Storytelling should explore dark places, and as books, television and film have shown time and time again, often it's what you don't see, rather than what you do, that hits home. But that's only half the issue with the Sansa Stark rape. It's not just that they chose to show it as they did, but that it was felt necessary in the first place. It's not my story to write, but I don't have to like and agree with what I see. And I didn't.



Then? In this week's episode, they burnt a child at the stake. And decided to show us. The scene in question wasn't quite as graphically done as the demise of Ciaran Hinds' Mance Rayder back in episode one, but still: really? That Stannis felt he had to make a blood sacrifice I could go along with, but surely this was the Bambi's mother moment? Surely as much, if not more shock, would have been generated simply by leading Shireen away?



But that's decreasingly a tactic in Game Of Thrones' armoury. Instead, be it a beheading, a violent sexual assault, or brutal sacrifice of a minor, there's a push to show as much as possible. There are boundaries: a moment of (heavily) implied paedophilia in The Dance Of Dragons left me chilled too, but here, the show knew better where to draw the line. It made its point by giving us the information, and not a jot more.



(Tomorrow's edgy/equally 'cutting-edge'/'pushing-the-boundaries' replacement for today's 'Game of Thrones' will doubtless start showing paedophilia graphically too. Since all other 'sensationalist' stuff would have been depicted by then and little else would be left to shock the masses of the future.

If anyone expressed any concerns, the bleeding hearts [like rapist Tarun Tejpal, editor of the 'secular' Hindu-baiting, pro-christoislamic Tehelka] will start yelping 'freedom of expression'. Until rapists and paedophiles start downloading this stuff. And then it will either be sweeping everything under the carpet or a pretend "introspection".)



And I do see the other side. This is a show where a young character was dropped seemingly to his death right near the start. Horrible things have happened since day one. Maybe it's the cumulative effect that kicks in, but it seems to be in a position where it's trying to top its last shocking moment right now, no matter what.



It's little secret that there's been a general air of disappointment surrounding Game Of Thrones season 5, and that to date, it's been the least well received season of the show. Naturally views differ on this. For my part, I'm more with the naysayers at the minute. I think it's struggled, content to move pieces around the board once again, but in nowhere near as compelling a way as the show has managed before. One of the majestic achievements of Matthew Weiner's Mad Men was that nothing could overtly happen for several episodes, yet it felt like plenty had. With Thrones, that's not the case. It's telling that it's the two shock tactic moments that are the most discussed this season. I struggle to think what makes it to third place.



The particular frustration with Game Of Thrones is that it doesn't need to do shock tactics. Take a show like Channel 4's sadly-cancelled Utopia. Its first series had a horrible school shooting episode, that still feels cold to this day. I warmed to Utopia, but it went for an early attention grabber presumably with an eye on tabloid headlines. It made an unknown show into a known one, and that felt, in hindsight, quite calculated. There were lots of highlights to Utopia, but that wasn't one of them.



Game Of Thrones? Tens of millions of people, maybe hundreds of millions, are already on its side. Furthermore, there's such skilful writing and direction that already, across four and a bit seasons, has been winning the show a generally deserved worldwide audience. Game Of Thrones is billed as the biggest TV show in the world right now, and it's hard to begrudge it much of that success.



But the old mantra is that bigger is better. If you're big now, you have to try and grow and grow and grow. And for Game Of Thrones, that growth is seemingly in part coming by prodding and trying to shock its audience. A sense of 'look what we can get away with on the telly now'.



But where do you draw the line? I've no idea, and I don't want to become one of those hacks who says 'this is how it should have been done'. I do also think that context is often, but not always, everything. But is it allowed to do pretty much anything now, safe in the knowledge that it'll be defended on the basis of the tone and extremities it's explored to date? It feels a bit that way. It still (rightly) has reservations, but it feels it's long past exploring where the fence is.



I'm not one of those who thinks that Game Of Thrones has completely lost its way. There's still lots in its favour. But as Ron wrote at the end of his last review, "just because an episode was great doesn't mean I have to be happy about its contents". I agree with Ron.

Game Of Thrones, TV, and where's the line? © Den of Geek Game Of Thrones, TV, and where's the line?

Quote:Mother Locks Two Daughters In Bedroom To Allow Convicted Paedophile Live With Them

International Business Times (AU)

Kay Aviles

20/04/2015



In Devon, United Kingdom, an unnamed mother of two girls aged below 13 was allowed to live with a convicted paedophile. Devon Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, or DMASH, permitted the child abuser to move in with them after the mother submitted “safety measures,” which included locking the girls in their bedroom each night.



She was also able to win the agency’s approval with other precautionary measures such as for example, if the paedophile would attempt to get near “the girls’ side,” he “would have to climb over her body.” While the girls are locked in their bedroom, they can contact their mum for anything, such as the need to use the toilet, through a baby monitor.



DMASH’s decision was blasted with criticisms not only because they permitted a child abuser to move in with the mother and her two children only months after the social workers found the abuser to be “a continuing risk,” but more importantly, because DMASH actually believed the so-called “safety measures” are effective.



“Who in their right mind lets a paedophile live with children? Who is to say that they are sticking to this supposed safety set-up? There is no one from social services monitoring it. Where are the children when their mother is having a shower or a bath? The whole thing is just shambles,” said the father, whose grievance was also shared by the girls’ grandmother, who labelled the alarm and the other precautions “a load of rubbish.”



The father, whose name is also undisclosed, narrated he left their family house after the mother asked him to, but before the latter reconciled with the 40-year-old child abuser. The father resolved to reverse DMASH’s decision. The mother and the paedophile had already been dating during the 80s, but are now married.



Before the marriage, however, the report said the convicted paedophile was on the Sex Offences Prevention Order, which entails no unsupervised contact shall be made with children under 16. But because the mum wanted to spend more time with her then-lover, she applied to be “an approved person” to allow her to supervise any contact between her children and the child abuser lover.



The grandmother said she will do everything to ensure the safety of her granddaughters, although there were reports the social workers did not listen to her. DMASH is composed of some social workers, a few probation officers and police.

Quote:Jun 3, 2015 @ 1:00 PM



Culture

Features

divorce



I Was Divorced By 26

Love is patient, love is kind, and sometimes, love means starting over.

As told to: Hannah Morrill



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When I was 23, I got married at a Hindu temple in Queens in front of 300 guests. I'm a tomboy—most days I wear no makeup, Vans, and a green army jacket that I've had for years—but on my wedding day, I'd gotten up at five to have my eyes rimmed with kohl, and my hair smoothed and straightened into a low, sleek bun. My nails were painted red, my wrists jangled with dozens of bracelets, and an ornate gold necklace—the same one my mother had worn when she'd married my father—was clipped around my neck. I wore a red and gold sari made of six yards of heavy silk. On the day we'd gotten it, my mother had haggled over the price with the salesman. It felt like it weighed twenty pounds.



Before a Hindu ceremony officially starts, the groom sits before all the guests as the bride stays hidden. When I came out for vadhu aagman, or the arrival of the bride, my mother, father, and sisters were by my side. I was shaking—I don't like attention—and was strangely transfixed by the walls, swirling with paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses, the temple's altar set with dozens of idols. Under the mandap, which was curtained with yellow and red fabrics and strung with carnation garland, sat Ajay*, my future husband. He didn't say a word. He wasn't like, "You look beautiful." He wasn't like anything. Years later, I'd remember that moment with a zing. The priest guided us through three hours of prayers, calling every Hindu god to be a witness to our union. And the whole time I was just sitting there and thinking: This is a big mistake. This is such a big mistake.



I'd met Ajay when I was 18, working at a bookstore near the college where we both went. Ajay worked on a different floor. We hit it off, he asked me out, and we started dating. It wasn't much more complicated than that. I thought he was cute, and funny, and devoted. I'd broken up with my high school sweetheart a few weeks before college, and I felt ready for something new.



After five years of dating, I started bugging Ajay to get engaged. Now I regret it, but at the time, it just seemed like the natural next step. I wanted it so bad. On the night of our fifth anniversary, he proposed at a café on the Lower East Side, the same café where we'd had our first date. He said all sorts of romantic things, and I wasn't exactly surprised, but I was pleased. He proposed with a fake ring—like the kind you'd get out of gumball machine—which annoyed me, and as we walked home, he gave me the real one, which he'd had in his pocket all along. Later, when I was miserable in our marriage, dreading coming home to him, wishing I could be anywhere but in our apartment, and in our life, I'd look back on his proposal like it were a sign, too, as though that cheap fake ring held some prophetic significance I could never unfurl.



Ajay did not abuse me, or cheat on me. He didn't use drugs, he wasn't an alcoholic, he didn't have rage issues. And yet, three years into our marriage, I realized, quietly and in my own heart, that I was unbearably unhappy. I was frustrated with every aspect of my life—my job, my finances, my social life, and especially my marriage. I never wanted to have sex. I never wanted to do anything. But I never entertained the idea of leaving; I never told anyone, not even my closest friends. I was convinced that I wasn't trying hard enough, that marriage was about sticking it out. In the Indian community in which I was raised, there is no divorce. For as long as I could remember, my grandparents—who'd had an arranged marriage—had lived separately, each with one of their adult children. They got tired of pretending, but they never divorced.



At that time Ajay had just gone back to college, and after he finished his first semester, I gave him a selfish gift. I paid for a ticket to send him to Los Angeles for ten days to visit his brother. I just didn't want to be around him. Those were, without a doubt, the best ten days of my life. I was so relieved. I could breathe. I went dancing with friends. I stayed out late. I felt alive. And when I realized my life could always be like that, the thought was planted and the idea of leaving him was irresistible. When he came back, he texted me that he couldn't wait to see me, that he'd missed me so much. Once he got home, I just blurted out, "I can't be married to you anymore. This is over."



He was shocked. He didn't know how to react. And I was totally emotionless. He went to meet a friend at a bar, and when I went to bathroom, I saw that he'd left his wedding ring on the sink. I don't know why, exactly, but something about that gesture felt so final to me. I packed a Bloomingdale's bag with my taxes, my social security card, and my birth certificate. I put in three shirts, two pairs of pants and some underwear. Then I left.



The actual divorce took longer than it should have, and was incredibly sad. Ajay was—is—a good person, and I feel like I broke his heart and ruined his life. For the first few months after we split, I stayed with friends and with my parents, and then I got my own place. During that time, he was just crushed. He'd call me at all hours of the night, crying and sobbing. And I'd feel so awful. It's been six years, and I still feel tremendous guilt. It's a guilt I'll always live with, like a scar that stays an angry red.



He didn't want to deal with the official procedures of the divorce, so I went to a place that files the papers, and I signed. I think it cost $800. The company told me they'd contact him to sign—I didn't have to do anything. A month later, on one of those sunny, bustling New York City days that feel impossibly full of promise, I'd met a friend for coffee in Union Square. We were walking back to her apartment, and I saw him in there, signing the papers. He didn't see me, and he still doesn't know I saw him. I felt like the entire world stopped. My vision blurred with tears. My throat felt tight and painful. Seeing him there, alone, signing the papers, was one of the most devastating moments of my life. That was the day my heart broke. I still cry now, right on the spot, when I think about that day.



People say divorce is like a death, but a death is more final and more concrete. There is a funeral, and you're allowed to feel sad. You're encouraged to grieve and to process and remember. A divorce is murkier. Ajay and I tried to have lunch a few times, but it was awkward and sad. He deleted me on Facebook immediately, but stayed friends with my mom, and every now and then she'd give me an update, like that he was seeing someone, or had gone out that weekend. That made me happy, because I want him to be happy. For a while, he'd Facebook message me late night—I'd see the time stamp the next day—which always made me sad. I don't think he's seeing anyone now.



After I got divorced, I swore I'd never get married again. But then I met John*, and as they say, I just knew. We married last October in front of my mother and sisters at city hall. On the subway ride to our ceremony, I wore a white dress I'd gotten last minute upstate. Ajay used to say to me, "You're my best friend." And I'd always think, you're not my best friend. Maya is my best friend. Or Avni is my best friend. Now I know how he felt.



My relationship with John has made me a different person. I'm affectionate. I communicate. And, at least for this moment in time, I'm happy. Love is not fair, and it is not easy, and as far as I can tell, it doesn't come with a guarantee. Not ever. But for the moments when it works, at least in my life, love still feels worth trying for.



*Names have been changed.

(Changed to a very biblical one for John, I notice. Oh, was that meant to be subliminal? Will pretend not to notice then, shall I?)

Quote: Russell Peters was doing a comedy show here last week and he noticed an Asian woman and man in the front row. If you’ve ever been to a comedy show, you know better than to sit in the front. Anyway, he asked this Asian guy his name and he made the usual racial joke that his real name must sound like a kungfu move. He asked them if they were together. He said no and that they were just coworkers. He asks him if he’s single and he responds yes. He turns to the Asian woman and asks if she’s single. She responds no.



Without hesitation, he then asks how her parents feel about her dating a white guy. The whole audience was just laughing their asses off. She didn’t do anything except look down. He did manage to stick up for Asian guys though. He said that at least he knows why Indian women might flee Indian men because of arranged marriages but he also joked about body odor and being boring engineers but he actually said that there was no real reason for Asian men to get the shaft.

Quote:Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970)[3] is a Canadian comedian and actor. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008.[4]

[...]

Peters was born in Toronto, Ontario to Eric and Maureen Peters. When he was four, the family moved to nearby Brampton. His older brother Clayton now serves as Peters' manager.[5] Peters is Catholic and of Anglo-Indian descent.[6] His late father was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India and worked as a federal meat inspector; Peters regularly features stories about him in his comedy work.[7]

Quote:The Cairo streets where girls pretend to be boys



Life is hard for the children who scrape a living on Egypt’s streets. They deal daily with horror and hunger, but for the girls the struggle is worse – which is why some of them dress as boys. Patrick Kingsley hears their stories





[photo caption] ‘It’s not just girls on the street. It’s whole families now’: a young mother and her son at the Hope Village** shelter in Cairo. Photograph: Sima Diab for the Observer

Patrick Kingsley



Patrick Kingsley



Sunday 12 July 2015 07.00 BST

Last modified on Tuesday 14 July 2015 10.41 BST



Comments

139



Manal and Ahmed don’t look alike. Manal holds her infant son, who plays with the folds of her hijab. Ahmed looms from a photograph behind her, a baseball cap on his head. Manal is a shy young mum, Ahmed an aggressive young man. They seem like different people.



Except, they’re the same person. “That,” says Manal, pointing at the picture of Ahmed, “is me. And my boys’ clothes are downstairs.”



We are in a shelter for homeless women in Fustat, southern Cairo, the oldest district in the Egyptian capital. Not far away stands Cairo’s oldest mosque. A few of the women here, on the other hand, are examples of a much more contemporary phenomenon.



They are street girls – homeless women and children – who sometimes dress as men. Now 23, Manal is the mother of three children, all born on the street. She first became homeless when she was only eight years old. At 10, she shaved her head, and started dressing as a boy. Then she started taking jobs traditionally reserved for Egyptian men. She worked in a café. She drove a tuk-tuk. People who didn’t know her started calling her Ahmed. The name stuck.



“Boys get complete freedom on the streets – it’s different for girls,” Manal says of her choice. “I just wanted to be a boy.”



To understand why, or at least to try, is to understand a little of what it is to be a child living on the street in Egypt. There are homeless young people in every country of the world – including 1.6 million in the US alone. But the problem is particularly obvious in Egypt. Thousands of children and teenagers eke out an existence in the alleys and thoroughfares of Cairo. Many of them, like Manal, stay there even into adulthood.



To many Cairenes, they are only visible at traffic lights or on the curb outside shisha bars. They are the nameless faces who sell you tissues or beg for change from the other side of your car window, before disappearing in the vanishing-point of your wing mirror. They fall outside of most Cairenes’ lived reality, and as a result the discourse surrounding them also borders on the surreal. Mooted responses to their existence have ranged from the far-fetched – the creation of a special city just for the homeless – to the macabre. One columnist for a leading private broadsheet called for “widespread cleansing campaigns” in which street children could be “executed like stray dogs”.



[photo text & caption] Children lying on a large rug on the floor, some with a blanket over them, at Hope VIllage

Safe haven: children have a nap at Hope Village. Photograph: Sima Diab/Observer



Amid this hue and cry, the humans concerned are rarely heard from. And it is attempting to hear their stories that brings us to Manal and her comrades, to the social workers and psychiatrists who work with them, and the schools and shelters they sometimes frequent. It is work that leads from the streets in the shadow of Egypt’s presidential palace, to the road to the pyramids. From the cliffs of Mokattam, Cairo’s only hill, to ancient Fustat.

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There in Fustat, amid the warren of streets where once stood Egypt’s first Islamic capital, sits a modern four-storey terraced house. Indistinguishable from the rest of the street, it has special significance for children and young people who sleep rough. This is one of the centres run by Banati, a charity for street girls, and it offers respite by day, and occasionally by night, to the likes of Manal and her friend Hadeel.



With a quick wit and an easy grin, Hadeel does not give the impression that she has had a hard life. But her story hints at the complexity and intractability of street life. She ran away from home at eight, and two decades later she is still homeless. She has had at least two marriages, each ending with her returning to the street, and in one case, in the murder of her husband. She has six children, two of whom live with her, while the rest are with their grandmother, who also lives on the street. Born outside the system, the kids have no birth certificates, and so no ID cards. To the state, they essentially don’t exist. So whether they like it or not, the life of their mother and grandmother is likely to become theirs, too.



“Right now, we’re working on the third generation of street kids,” says Hend Samy, a social-worker at Banati, who’s known Hadeel for years. “Now it’s not just girls on the street or boys on the street. Now it’s families, and they’re creating families on the street.”



How many people are in the position of Hadeel’s children, no one can quite agree. In January, the government released the results of a survey that said Egypt has little more than 16,000 street kids – 16,019 to be exact. But as recently as 2007, Unicef estimated there were at least 600,000.



“You can never know the real number, because you can’t track the children,” says Nelly Ali, a volunteer who works with street girls, and is writing a PhD about their experiences. “They move around. They don’t have birth certificates. And they die.”





The discrepancy is also a question of definition. No one agrees on what a street child actually is – not even the children themselves. There are those who are as young as six, and those closer to 16, not to mention superannuated street children like Manal and Hadeel. There are children who weave through Cairo’s streets by day, badgering shisha smokers for loose change – before returning home to their parents each night. There are the children who run away from home from time to time, before returning a few nights later. And then there are those who have made a conscious choice to leave home permanently.



For Ghada Waly, the government minister who released the 16,000 figure, this is the definition that makes most sense. Street children, she says over coffee in her office, are those who “left the governorate where the family is, and lost ties with the family. These sleep under bridges, [in] empty homes. These are the children who are most at risk. These are the ones we surveyed.”

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But ask people on the street themselves, and you might get a different answer each time. Manal thinks the concept is much more fluid than the government makes out. A boy who spends most of his day in the street, and is part of the street’s complex hierarchy, is still a street kid “even if he goes home every day,” says Manal. “He’s part of the group on the street, he’s in the street, so of course, you can call him a street kid.”



Another street girl even thinks the term is only for “ignorant people” in the first place. It implies, says 15-year-old Nadia, that street children are all the same. But, in fact, street children each differ in terms of age, gender and background – differences that mean each child’s experience on the street is unique.



“There is no such thing as ‘street children’, no ‘street boy’ or ‘street girl’,” Nadia told Amira El Feky, a researcher on street girls. “The street doesn’t give birth, it doesn’t raise children, it doesn’t do anything.”



The cliffs of Mokattam jut unexpectedly from the suburbs of eastern Cairo, rare topographical landmarks in a city that is otherwise flat. At Mokattam’s highest point stands one of the outposts of a charity called Hope Village, said to be the first in Egypt to focus on street children. Down a quiet residential street, and high above many more, the house seems a world away from the melee of Cairo. But inside its walls, it nurses some of those most bruised by the city.



It is here that around a dozen teenage mothers are given respite from the street, and a safe space to raise their babies. And if few can agree on when exactly it is that someone becomes a street child, the stories of these women give a clearer sense of why some of them want to go there in the first place.



Years before she reached Hope Village, Maya left home at seven after she says her stepmother confined her to an imaginary circle in a single room for three years – a space in which she had to eat, sleep, and excrete. Finally let out, she was forced to become a maid for her younger half-sisters. A mistake in the kitchen brought further punishment: her stepmother cracked her skull with a garlic-crusher, before her father dragged her to the roof for a beating. Enough was enough and she left soon after.



[photo text & caption] The hands and arms of a girl, with bitten nails and cuts, shown holding a photograph of a group of 6 girls on a beach smiling

Better days: a resident recalls happier times. Photograph: Sima Diab/Observer



Twelve-year-old Farah refused to join her uncle’s prostitution ring. By her account, he then chained Farah up and raped her every day for months. Then one day she pretended she would do what he wanted. So he unchained her, and immediately she sprinted to the fourth-floor window, flung herself out, and broke several bones on landing. Miraculously she survived, and was hospitalised. After leaving hospital, she moved to the street.



Perhaps surprisingly, poverty is not typically something that in and of itself draws children to Egyptian streets. “Poverty is one of the things that causes families to become abusive,” says Mahmoud Ahmed, the centre’s manager. But it isn’t itself a primary cause – unlike repeated sexual abuse, or family breakdown. “A lot of the kids on the street in Cairo have siblings who are still at home,” says Nelly Ali, who has interviewed many of those who live at Hope, and who first recounted the stories of Maya and Farah. “If it was just about poverty, they’d all be on the streets.”



Society’s permissive attitude to domestic abuse is also a contributing factor to a child’s decision to run away. There are laws to deal with abusive parents, and hotlines to report them. But in a culture where many feel parents should have the right to deal with their children how they like, legislation isn’t always followed. “A man could beat his son to death in front of a police officer in the street,” explains Shaimaa, an in-house psychologist at Hope. “But nobody would intervene because it was his son.”



As a result, the street may literally become the only avenue left to abused children. And once there they become fair game for adults other than their parents.



It is 9.30pm and long past dark. Shaimaa, the psychologist, is in northeast Cairo, walking the streets of an upmarket suburb. Wealthy locals sip coffee at tables lining the pavements, or queue to buy ice cream from one of the city’s fanciest parlours.



If I go to help a girl being used by a group of men, then I’m a target. I’m taking a source of income from them



But Shaimaa is not here to meet them. As she often is, Shaimaa is searching for a missing teenager. Sarah was abused by her parents, became a prostitute, and ended up sold by her pimp to men from the Gulf who kept her in a flat in Cairo. Somehow she escaped, and later started turning up at a drop-in centre, where Shaimaa first met her. But now Sarah has disappeared again, and Shaimaa wants to find her. Some of the other street girls said she might be here in Korba.



It is often dangerous work, doing what Shaimaa does. Founded in 1988 by an expat Brit, Richard Hemsley, Hope Village now runs several day-centres and long-term shelters that aim to gradually rehabilitate street children back into mainstream society. Many of the girls Shaimaa coaxes into the shelters can’t stand the imposition of a routine – so, like Sarah, they sometimes disappear. One of Shaimaa’s jobs is to find them.

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But finding them is tough. Coaxing a girl back to the shelter might disrupt a prostitution ring. In any given area, Shaimaa needs the blessing of the local street leader – otherwise she might get attacked. “If I’m going out to get a girl that I know is being used by a group of men, then I’m a target,” Shaimaa says. “I’m taking a source of income from them.”



Sometimes the attackers come to the shelters themselves. At one drop-in centre, four men once entered with machetes and said if a certain girl wasn’t returned to them, they’d cut everyone’s heads off.



And, occasionally, the threat comes from the girls themselves. In a fit of self-loathing, one teenager staying at a shelter stormed out of a group meeting, took out a blade and began to cut herself, slashing Shaimaa when she came near. As a matter of course, Shaimaa and her colleagues at Hope Village have bi-annual check-ups and immunisations against various diseases. Some of the girls they work with are HIV positive, or suffer from hepatitis C.



In such a thankless job, many of those who work at Hope Village have particular memories that keep them motivated. For Shaimaa, it is the image of one of her first patients: a nine-year-old who came to a drop-in centre after being gang-raped on the street.



“All these years later, that girl is still what keeps me going,” says Shaimaa, who thought the job wasn’t for her until she saw the nine-year-old playing at the centre. “I can’t forget her sitting so innocently on the swing as she was still bleeding from the rape.”



[photo text & caption] A doctor performs ultrasound on a girl at the Hope Village centre

Life line: a doctor performs ultrasound at the Hope Village centre. Some of the girls are HIV positive or have hepatitis C. Photograph: Sima Diab/Observer



Rape and coerced sexual contact is a regular fact of most children’s lives. Many teenage street girls will work as prostitutes. And even outside of formal prostitution networks, sex can become a kind of currency. To secure sleeping space on a floor for the night, or access to a station toilet, a street child might offer sex to a shopkeeper or an official as a matter of course. Kids as young as six have been known to offer sexual favours to male workers at some shelters. Their experiences on the street, where they are routinely abused, have normalised the behaviour.



In the street, both girls and boys are sometimes raped by groups of men who know they can act with impunity against children who, without proper paperwork, and without families, technically have no legal status. According to workers at Banati, girls are often “stored”, or locked in makeshift prisons for several days, before being gang-raped.



The brutality does not end with the rape itself. After a virgin is raped, rapists often carve a curved scar on the victim’s face, just below their eye. After subsequent attacks, vertical scars are left on the child’s cheek.



To escape the worst of the violence, a girl might try to avoid sleeping at night – or simply not sleep at all. “I could stay awake for three days or five days,” Yasmine, a 16-year-old, told Amira El Feky.



Other girls have a different self-defence mechanism. They pretend to be boys.



If I go to help a girl being used by a group of men, then I’m a target. I’m taking a source of income from them



About 10 years ago, a young homeless boy arrived at a street shelter in Cairo, saying that he was bleeding to death. The boy was a well-known face at the shelter, and the social-workers quickly referred him to the duty doctor to find out the cause of the problem.



The check-up revealed a number of surprises. First, the blood was caused by a period. Second, the boy – who had been coming to the shelter for months – was thus, in fact, a girl. She had shorn her hair and bound her breasts in order to both escape unwanted attention on the streets and to secure access to the male-only shelter. Until a few years ago, child rights activists and social workers in Egypt largely believed that only boys became street children. This bleeding girl revealed otherwise.

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“This was a way for us to protect ourselves,” says Hadeel, her own son now peeping from the next-door room in Fustat. “We used to cut our hair very short, we used to wear trousers and T-shirts, so basically a man wouldn’t come and say: I want to take this girl, or I want to take that girl.”



For some, the aim is not just to avoid sexual assault, but to feel more at home in public space, which in Egypt is traditionally seen as a male domain. It allows girls to smoke, shout, or simply sit in the street, actions that boys can easily do without reproach, but girls can’t. Amira El Feky, a former academic who has researched this topic, explains: “All the privileges that men have – they can have them. They mock the whole idea of gender, they say: ‘Oh you think women are weak? Well I’m just not going to be a woman any more.’”



To make herself marginally less vulnerable, a street girl might also join what researchers call a “street family”. A mixed-gender group of around 10 street children, a family’s members protect each other, share their earnings and usually sleep together for safety.



The members’ work often divides along lines of gender. “The boys will do the muggings,” says Nelly Ali, “and the girls will do the prostitution.” Profits from a day’s work are given to the family leader – usually a boy who has proven himself to be the toughest of the lot.



Surprisingly, the leader is “often someone who’s younger than the others,” says Hope Village’s Mahmoud Ahmed, who’s researched the structure of street families for years. “It’s the person who’s proven to the others that they can do things the others can’t do.” Their unique ability might be practical: someone who can steal better than anyone else. Or it could be physical. A street child who can jump off a bridge without breaking their bones, says Ahmed, might quickly command the respect of his peers.



But the leader receives much more than respect: his word is absolute, and his family would almost always defend him with their life. In return, he gives his charges a collective identity, and offers them protection from outsiders. But within the group he, too, is a threat. “The leader has sexual ownership of the others – boys or girls,” says Ahmed. “He’ll carve sexual marks on them, continuously.”



And for girls, scars aren’t the only reminders he’ll leave.



[photo text & caption:] Play time: a girl behind a curtain at Hope Village. The centre is usually home to about a dozen teenage street mums and their kids.

Play time: a girl behind a curtain at Hope Village. The centre is usually home to about a dozen teenage street mums and their kids. Photograph: Sima Diab/Observer



Ain Shams hospital, buried in a north-eastern suburb of Cairo, isn’t most expectant mothers’ first choice. As a teaching hospital, many of its operations take place in the presence of a crowd of students. And as a teaching hospital, it is underfunded. So its doctors often have to pay for equipment, including blood transfusions, themselves.



But Ain Shams, and other teaching hospitals like it, is often the only choice for mothers who become pregnant while homeless. It is far cheaper than most other options. Entrance costs only 120 Egyptian pounds (around £10), a fraction of what it might cost even in the city’s state hospitals.



But for women who conceived on the street, there is a bigger price to giving birth at Ain Shams – that of their dignity. Many don’t have ID cards, so they officially can only access the hospital with a chaperone, ideally a husband. But if they are victims of gang-rape, they might not even know the father. So entrance is only provided after the most intrusive of interrogations. Then comes the long, painful labour – sometimes endured with only a few painkillers in a cramped hospital waiting room – before finally the demeaning birth itself, which might occur in the presence, and sometimes with the participation, of 20 students.



After a virgin is raped, the attacker carves a curved scar on the victim’s face, just below their eye



It is a sorry sequence, says Yara Younis, a newly qualified doctor who has campaigned for better treatment of pregnant homeless women at Ain Shams. “You have 12 hours on just one vial of analgesics,” she says. “Then you have 20 people sticking their hands into you, and then other people asking you why you’re there. And then maybe some others saying: ‘Why are you screaming? Stop getting pregnant so you don’t scream.’ I’ve heard people say that. I’ve seen people hitting them on their legs to stop them screaming.”



And then the cycle begins again. Campaigners at Hope Village* believe only 20% of the homeless people they work with manage to leave the streets. For their children, who are even less likely to carry identity papers, and who have only known the life of the street, it is even harder.



Manal has managed to leave behind the street, as well as her male alter-ego, and is now in accommodation provided by Banati. But she has only managed to bring one of her three children with her. The other two live with their grandmother, and social workers say they roam the city every day selling drugs.



This isn’t because Manal doesn’t care, says Hend Samy, her mentor at Banati. She’s doing her best – like all street mums. “They have a very deep sense of humanity with them. Even if they leave their child, they still want to be able to see them, they still want to be close to them,” says Samy. “When we speak of them, we shouldn’t forget that they are human beings. If we had experienced what they had experienced in terms of abuse, then very easily we could be one of them.”



Additional reporting by Manu Abdo and Sima Diab. Some names have been changed.

Quote:Woman gangraped by four in UP

Sunday, 9 August 2015

PTI



Muzaffarnagar (UP): A 26-year-old woman was allegedly abducted and gang-raped by four youths at gunpoint in Shamli district.



The woman, who is married, was abducted and gangraped by four youths on July 31 in Bhardi village under Jhinjhana police station area. She was later found on August 3 in an unconscious state, SP Vijay Bhushan said.



The accused persons - Umer, Wakar, Ikram and Shakil - are absconding.



On the basis of the complaint by the family of the victim, an FIR has been registered against the accused, he said, adding, the woman was sent for medical examination and the matter is being investigated.

Quote:Rape case against Mahmood Farooqui sent to sessions court

Sunday, 9 August 2015

PTI



New Delhi : The proceedings in a case involving "Peepli Live" co-director Mahmood Farooqui, who has been named in a charge sheet for allegedly raping an American research scholar at his residence here, will now be conducted by a sessions court.



Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Devender Kumar Garg, who had taken cognisance of the charge sheet filed by Delhi Police against Farooqui, supplied the copy of the final report to the accused and committed the case to sessions court.



"Accused has been charge-sheeted for offences punishable under section 376 (rape) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of IPC. As section 376 IPC is exclusively triable by court of sessions, therefore, the case is committed to the court of sessions for trial in accordance with law," the ACMM said.



The court also directed the Tihar Jail Superintendent to produce Farooqui before the sessions court.



On June 29, the police had filed the charge sheet against Farooqui alleging that he had raped the 30-year-old research scholar from Colombia University at his Sukhdev Vihar house here on March 28.



Police had also annexed medical reports of the woman and statements of more than a dozen witnesses including a common friend.



Farooqui, arrested on June 20, has been in judicial custody since then.



The woman, in her complaint filed at the New Friends colony police station, alleged that Farooqui had raped her when she had gone to meet him to get his help for her research work. She had claimed to have met Farooqui at Varanasi where she had gone to collect information about her research theme based on Baba Gorakhnath.

Quote:[–]NoBolognaTony

My Mom wielded a hat pin in the 1940s and 50s in the NYC subway. Pretty badass now that I think about it.

permalinkparent



[–]jenSCy

This was actually a very common defense against "mashers" as these men were called in the early 1900s. It was so common that Chicago banned hat pins longer than 9 inches.

permalinkparent



[–]pmthebestdayofurlife

There's actually a very interesting historical movement around defensive hat pins and how they were banned. This podcast explains the whole story: http: // thedollop.libsyn.com/213-mashers-and-hatpins

Quote:The allegations piled up even as Mr. Weinstein helped define popular culture. He has collected six best-picture Oscars and turned out a number of touchstones, from the films “Sex, Lies, and Videotape,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Good Will Hunting” to the television show “Project Runway.” In public, he presents himself as a liberal lion, a champion of women and a winner of not just artistic but humanitarian awards.



In 2015, the year Ms. O’Connor wrote her memo, his company distributed “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about campus sexual assault. A longtime Democratic donor, he hosted a fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton in his Manhattan home last year. He employed Malia Obama, the oldest daughter of former President Barack Obama, as an intern this year, and recently helped endow a faculty chair at Rutgers University in Gloria Steinem’s name. During the Sundance Film Festival in January, when Park City, Utah, held its version of nationwide women’s marches, Mr. Weinstein joined the parade.

Quote:Readers' Picks comments

Socrates is a trusted commenter Verona NJ 1 day ago



The repeated use of hush money, paid gag orders and the serial suppression of facts - although technically 'legal' - by this Lothario and other sexual predators is criminal in nature, allowing the predator to remain anonymous and prepare comfortably for his next unsuspecting victim.



The purchase of silence should be made illegal, so that the public can be made reasonably aware of sexual predators, criminals and sociopaths like the 'charming' Harvey Weinstein.



Reply 980Recommend





Winter Garden 1 day ago



I'm sick. I just read his apology letter. He has the nerve to bring up the NRA as if we would be so stupid as to forget the fact that he sexually harassed women for years because we also care about gun violence. Sir, you are going down.



Reply 576Recommend



KRo Los Angeles, CA 1 day ago



Just read his statement.



Is this guy for real? Quoting Jay-Z, saying he "so respects all women," and now saying he's devoting his time to taking on the NRA? How convenient for this fat slob that this article coincided with a national tragedy.



With feminists like Weinstein, who needs Trump.



Reply 573Recommend





Mika Rekkinen Fairfield, CT 1 day ago



How nice of the NYTimes to print Harvey's letter. It reads like a guy who knows he's done wrong but can't admit it. Then, obliquely, to show what a nice guy he is and that he's being outed in the NYTimes he genuflects by saying he's going after the NRA and will make a movie about Trump. Go home, reflect, and write a new letter, loser.



Reply 250Recommend



Kathy Oxford 1 day ago



Everyone working in Hollywood knew Harvey Weinstein was a letch. But if you're successful you get away with it. I heard about him decades ago. He - and let's be honest, plenty of others - traded power and career for sex but not with all. That's the trick to getting away with it, you pick out the most vulnerable, the ones who have the most to lose. Others you treat well so you always have cover. It still goes on and not just in Hollywood. Success rules. Quiet settlements and life goes on. Thankfully, the rules are changing. And I applaud the women with the courage to step forward, it's not easy since the first defense is they're lying. Lisa Bloom, who should know better, is making excuses for truly awful and sleazy behavior.



Reply 140Recommend



Dukke Los Angeles, CA 1 day ago



Stop trying to make this partisan, Republicans - it's pathetic. This seems to be a generational problem with men who have and abuse power. In the same paper today, you'll notice an article about Republican, family values, anti abortion Congressman Tim Murphy urging a family friend he was having an affair with, to get an abortion. And this wasn't Fox News or Drudge reporting this story - it was the liberal NY Times.



Reply 130Recommend

(That's another recurring pattern. One Christians are exclusively famous for.)





Alex Brooklyn 1 day ago



enforceable confidentiality agreements as a coercive condition of settlements are one of the most despicable features of our legal culture.



no one's silence should have a price.



Reply 121Recommend





Carson Drew River Heights 1 day ago



The NYT just reported on the story extensively, scooping two other liberal media outlets rumored to have stories in the works. Your anticipatory whining about liberal bias is ridiculous.



In Reply to Jeff Kelley Reply 110Recommend



(Interesting, the timing of at least 3 media outlets all wanting to go public with outing Weinstein at the same time, despite everyone apparently knowing that this was going on for 3 decades. Guess it was 1. "time" or 2. the puppeteers thinking it's time to break this news so it can deflect the US public's full awareness off something else, a tack the puppeteers have always done in India. The anti-Hindu/anti-India league in India didn't invent it, they were trained in this by their paymasters, the puppeteers. I.e. higher ups in US/western govts.)

Quote: BP Alameda, CA 1 day ago



Look no further for an example of why people want to become rich and powerful - the rules don't apply to you and you can get away with almost anything. Weinstein had a lot of fun over the last few decades (as did Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, and on and on).



"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through." - Jonathan Swift



Reply 120Recommend

Quote:(Interesting, the timing of at least 3 media outlets all wanting to go public with outing Weinstein at the same time, despite everyone apparently knowing that this was going on for 3 decades. Guess it was 1. "time" or 2. the puppeteers thinking it's time to break this news so it can deflect the US public's full awareness off something else, a tack the puppeteers have always done in India. The anti-Hindu/anti-India league in India didn't invent it, they were trained in this by their paymasters, the puppeteers. I.e. higher ups in US/western govts.)

Quote:Hollywood men silent over Weinstein allegations as women speak out

Wednesday 11 October 2017 01.13 BST

...

The liberal film-maker Michael Moore, currently working with Weinstein on a documentary about Donald Trump, also did not respond to a request for comment.

...

Quote:Trump administration orders 'FBI probe into Harvey Weinstein'

The powerful Hollywood producer has been accused of sexual harassment and rape



Mythili Sampathkumar New York

Thursday 12 October 2017 14:43 BST





The FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into the rape and criminal sexual acts allegations levied against Harvey Weinstein.



The Trump administration, specifically Attorney General Jeff Sessions, allegedly asked the bureau to open the investigation over fears the Hollywood producer would remain in Europe after his rehabilitation and avoid prosecution like film director Roman Polanski who was accused of sex with a minor but fled to France, according to the Daily Mail.



It has not been confirmed as yet that the order came directly from Mr Sessions.

...

Quote:Carson Drew River Heights



The NYT just reported on the story extensively, scooping two other liberal media outlets rumored to have stories in the works.

Quote:Here's an earlier case: actor Ben Affleck's brother Casey Affleck. He was still nominated for some Hollywood award or other even after events surrounding him became well-known, from which one can tell Hollywood is perfectly fine with sexual predators:



- msn.com/en-us/entertainment/movies/casey-affleck%e2%80%99s-dark-secret-the-disturbing-allegations-against-the-oscar-hopeful/ar-AAkGbwz

Quote:Ben Affleck apologises for groping Hilarie Burton in 2003

Affleck said he had ‘acted inappropriately’ towards the actor on an episode of MTV’s Total Request Live while another video of the star asking a journalist to expose herself has also come to light



Wednesday 11 October 2017 19.28 BST

Quote:Darique Rodriquez‏ @DariqueR 18h18 hours ago

Replying to @SethMacFarlane



These comments kill me. He had to defend himself when the media was using his name as a prop. He’s not Batman people, #HaveAFewSeats

3 replies 0 retweets 51 likes

NFL Kneelers‏ @Report_Kneeler 18h18 hours ago



No and neither is @BenAffleck.

3 replies 0 retweets 42 likes

Merly Is Wiggered‏ @LaserDuckGaming 18h18 hours ago



Snap

0 replies 0 retweets 7 likes

New conversation

Rydher_haddrr‏ @rydher_haddrr 7h7 hours ago



@BenAffleck just murder any chance the studios had for justice league. Good job Ben. You single handedly destroyed justice league. #abuser

Quote:A makeup artist has alleged she was sexually assaulted by Hollywood actor Ben Affleck, just hours after a video resurfaced of him appearing to grope a MTV presenter's breast.

...

Earlier on Thursday (local time), the Argo star apologised and admitted he "acted inappropriately" with former MTV VJ Hilarie Burton during filming of Total Request Live in 2003.

...

But now Annamarie Tendler, the wife of prominent US comedian John Mulaney, says she wants Affleck to say sorry to her too.



"I would also love to get an apology from Ben Affleck who grabbed my ass at a Golden Globes party in 2014," she wrote.



"He walked by me, cupped my butt and pressed his finger into my crack."



Tendler says Affleck then tried to play the alleged sexual assault off as an accident.



"I guess he tried to play it like he was politely moving me out of the way and oops touched my butt instead of my lower back?" she explained.



"Like most women in these situations I didn't say anything, but I have thought a lot about what I'd say if I ever saw him again."

Quote:Affleck is yet to respond to Tendler's claims. However, another woman, comedy writer Jen Starkey, said that "multiple women" endured similar experiences to Tendler at the same event:



I was also at this party and *multiple* friends had this same exact experience. https://t.co/GlSIllKqAJ

— Jen Statsky (@jenstatsky) October 11, 2017



The revelation has caused people to joke that Affleck's actions should earn him a new nickname:



He is Buttman.

— Robert Zuccaro (@robzuc1997) October 12, 2017



He must have been getting in character as Buttman https://t.co/3XqJXBdPBI

— Nail Horribly ������������������ (@Nooli68) October 12, 2017



BUTTMAN!!!

— CalBlueTahoe (@CalblueRene) October 12, 2017



Batman? or Buttman!#BenAffleck#JusticeLeague

— Cameron JM Clark (@CameronJMClark) October 12, 2017



Can we start calling him Buttman?

— Thomas Thorne (@DrThomasThorne) October 12, 2017



The new Buttman and his Robin sidekick is Weinstein

— Ross (@apnea_breath) October 12, 2017



Batman? More like Buttman, am I right? https://t.co/dt8CuXoSQ5

— Jason Kessler (@TheMadDimension) October 11, 2017

Quote:Dawson's Creek Star James Van Der Beek Says He Was Sexually Harassed by 'Older Men'

Chelsea White / People

Oct 12, 2017

James Van Der Beek has revealed he too was a victim of sexual harassment.



The Dawson’s Creek star, 40, spoke out about his experiences as a younger actor in Hollywood after slamming those criticizing the women who have spoken out about Harvey Weinstein‘s alleged sexual misconduct.



Taking to Twitter late Wednesday night, Van Der Beek said he had been the target of older men.



I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger...

- James Van Der Beek (@vanderjames) October 12, 2017



“I’ve had my ass grabbed by older, powerful men, I’ve had them corner me in inappropriate sexual conversations when I was much younger,’ he tweeted.



“I understand the unwarranted shame, powerlessness & inability to blow the whistle. There’s a power dynamic that feels impossible to overcome.”