Malala update and call for justice for women and girls around the world

From the AFP:

The 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taleban was in a stable condition in a British hospital Tuesday as well-wishers from around the world left her messages of support.

Malala Yousafzai “remains stable”, according to doctors monitoring her at the specialist Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, which treats British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.

“She spent a second comfortable night at the hospital and continues to be cared for,” the hospital said.

Malala was shot on a school bus in the former Taleban stronghold of the Swat valley last week as a punishment for campaigning for the right of girls to an education, in an attack which outraged the world.

Malala’s story is getting international attention, but please remember that this kind of violence against girls and women happens around the world EVERY SINGLE DAY. Here’s just one story from today’s news that I pasted below. Yet, these crimes and human rights violations against girls and women rarely even make headlines. Please stop calling gender apartheid “a cultural issue.” Don’t be a passive bystander. Do something to stop the violence and donate money today, 100% of your donation will go to help women and girls around the world.

Afghan girl beheaded for refusing prostitution: police

Posted on 2012-10-17 21:14:32

HERAT: Afghan police have arrested four people who allegedly tried to force a woman into prostitution in western Afghanistan and beheaded her when she refused, officials said Wednesday.

Mah Gul, 20, was beheaded after her mother-in-law attempted to make her sleep with a man in her house in Herat province last week, provincial police chief Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada told AFP.

“We have arrested her mother-in-law, father-in-law, her husband and the man who killed her,” he said.

Gul was married to her husband four months ago and her mother-in-law had tried to force her into prostitution several times in the past, Sayedzada said.

The suspect, Najibullah, was paraded by police at a press conference where he said the mother-in-law lured him into killing Gul by telling him that she was a prostitute.

“It was around 2:00 am when Gul’s husband left for his bakery. I came down and with the help of her mother-in-law killed her with a knife,” he said.

Abdul Qader Rahimi, the regional director of the government-backed human rights commission in western Afghanistan, said violence against women had dramatically increased in the region recently.

“There is no doubt violence against women has increased. So far this year we have registered 100 cases of violence against women in the western region,” he said, adding that many cases go unreported.

“But at least in Gul’s case, we are glad the murderer has been arrested and brought to justice,” he said.

Last year, in a case that made international headlines, police rescued a teenage girl, Sahar Gul, who was beaten and locked up in a toilet for five months after she defied her in-laws who tried to force her into prostitution. (AFP)

 

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