Women's problems

A shocking video from the New York Times (now subscription only, story here) shows a woman in Pakistan threatened by judicially-justified death unless she leaves her husband to return to continue her forced work in a brothel.

Ms. Mukhtar Mai in 2002, ordered by village elders in Pakistan because her 12 year old brother walked with a women from another tribe.

Or more recently of Nazir Ahmed who slit the throats of his four daughters because one of them married a partner he disapproved of.

I guess she is marginally better-off than the 5,000 women honour-killed each year, mainly in Islamic countries. Islam does not seem to support such killings but it really does need to sort out its public image on these issues.

I have problems treating these sorts of events and the attitudes that underlie them with cultural sensitivity. The treatment of these unfortunate women is barbaric.

Update: The New York Times reports that Mrs Mukhtar Mai is now helping young victims of abuse in Pakistan and prosecuting their tormentors in the courts. The unnamed women being persecuted in the courts by her former pimp has had all charges against her dropped and the pimp has been prosecuted.