NOTE: To get a full text of the Hillary Rodham Speech in Beijing, write irenestuber@delphi.com and in the subject line write: send Rodham Clinton speech. !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! ! ! ! Catt's Claws ... A Feminist Newsletter #62 ... September 10, 1995 ! ! ! !.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.! A year ago during the World-Wide Population Conference in Cairo, a news show aired that contained graphic, sound film of female genital mutilation, complete with the child's screams, performed by a barber at a family celebration. Egyptian authorities and society reacted sharply but not in a way that any decent person could have predicted. The TV producer has been harassed and the following was revealed by a Voice of America broadcast: "After the TV report last September, the Egyptian health minister decided it would be better to allow circumcisions in clinics to protect the child from the unclean methods of barbers and midwives. So he advised hospitals to set aside certain days when families could bring in their daughters. "Sayeed Thabet teaches gynecology at Cairo University and is an outspoken advocate of female circumcision (mutilation). His arguments range from using it to control sexual urges in adolescent girls to curbing the spread of disease. He even suggests that circumcision will stop sexual desires sparked by the static electricity of synthetic underwear. "Since the late 1950's, Egypt has forbidden government-approved midwives and health clinics from performing the surgery to cut or remove the female genitalia." But now - "a religious edict has been issued by an Islamic scholar who says those who oppose the practice of female genital mutilation could be executed. The Egyptian Human Rights Organization is suing the islamic scholar on the grounds his pronouncement has endangered the lives of thousands who are working to end the brutal custom. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 85 million girls between the ages of three and ten have suffered the pain and indignity of a practice health officials call barbaric. It is performed in more than two dozen African countries, in some parts of the Arabian peninsula, and in Egypt." "In Egypt, it is estimated seven out of ten girls still fall victim to the practice." The Vatican and Pope John Paul II oppose birth control and abortion; Islamic scholars advocate the mutilation of women's genitals ... Something is very, very wrong. ....................... * ........................ On the night of Oct. 26, 1991, Krista Absalon, 27, passed out in the restroom of the Casablanca Restaurant in Goueverneur near the Canadian border in New York State after an evening of drinking. To our knowledge, no tests were taken of her system to determine if she passed out drunk or was given a "mickie" of some sort. Five guys (? where was the management or the other customers ?) thought they should have some fun and dragged her out of the restroom, stripped her naked, and took turns raping and abusing her UNCONSCIOUS BODY in a restaurant booth. St.Lawrence County District Attorney Richard Manning CLAIMED he lacked the evidence to convict, allowed the five men to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of sexual misconduct with sentences of community service and $750 fines. Absalon refused to agree to the settlement and women's rights groups went ballistic at the plea bargaining. Then NY Governor Cuomo appointed a special prosecutor who found that the felony rape charges were illegally dismissed. Now, one of the men Gregory Streeter has plea bargained for probation will testify against the other four who will face up to 25 years in prison on first-degree rape charges. The other macho men who raped and abused an UNCONSCIOUS woman were David Cummings, Mariano G. Pistolesi, Mark A. Hartle, and Michael Curcio. These are men? Who have to rape an unconscious woman? Ugh. ....................... * ........................ "You will be the key players in determining whether this conference goes beyond rhetoric and actually does something to improve the lives of women," Hillary Rodham Clinton told about 4,000 women packed into a movie house in Beijing last week. "This conference is about making sure that women, their children and families have the opportunities for ... the internationally recognized human rights no matter who they are or where they live." For a copy of the FULL TEXT of the speech, email irenestuber@delphi.com and on the subject line write, send Rodham Clinton speech. We have sent it to Laurie Mann who will probably put it on her Web page: http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/achievement.html http://worcester.lm.com/lmann/feminist/cattsclaws.html It's a HELLAVU speech, kiddies ... ....................... * ........................ Right to the bloody end, Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, R-Kan., said she still opposed open hearings on Senator Packwood. "My reasoning in the first place was not the protection of Sen. Packwood but the institution," she said. "I still question whether public hearings resolve anything. At this point, I don't see what that resolves." Kassebaum, who was awarded a silver slipper when she was born into one of the most prominent Republican families of the nation, just doesn't get it either. I guess being a woman is overshadowed by all that money. Ms. Kassebaum is awarded Catt's Claws Barf Bag of the Week award for her unconscionable action of putting an institution above and beyond human decency. But really, it ought to be a co-award with her senior senator from Kansas (Republican leader in the U.S. Senate and front-runner for their party's Presidential nomination) Bob Dole: "It wasn't hard to get Packwood to leave quickly, but it was somewhat ungracious of Democrats to demand that he do so. " Wasn't hard to get Packwood to leave quickly? Oh, Mister Dole ... three years of investigation is quickly? Ungracious to demand that a blot on the human race be removed? Anyone else read the excerpts from the diaries in which Packwood BOASTED about his sexual conquests - excerpts which Dole read LONG, LONG time ago? ......................... * ...................... We know better than anyone that Catt's Claws is a relatively limited online newsletter and so it rather pleased us to see the Sunday AP/ITN story saying that the networking of women in Beijing was perhaps the major effect of the fourth U.N. Conference on Women...an AP/ITN story was filed two days AFTER one that Catt's Claws published online and, yes, CC is being sent to China. "HUAIROU, China (ITN) * In the muddy, spartan surroundings of a small town in China, the world women's movement may have been transformed. "In the past 10 days, more than 25,000 women came together at Huairou from every continent, trading ideas, exchanging e-mail addresses, finding allies for their causes in the unlikeliest places.... "Now, as more and more of these women plug into the Internet, they are poised to form truly global pressure groups, which in turn means more effective lobbying of national governments and the United Nations." ------ Two days before the above story was filed, the 61st edition of Catt's Claws published 09-07-95 contained a lengthy article on the way the media was ignoring the real results of the Beijing conference, emphasizing how the women were getting to know each other: "Hey, guys, the BIG story in Beijing (and vicinity) wasn't what happened inside a bus and it isn't going to be in any document ... it's the networking that developed among the thousands of STRONG women who met and saw the same gleam in each other's eyes and the same commitment to the betterment of their sisters ... they were women leaders from grassroots level to heads of state to U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton's getting to know each other ... "Can you imagine the absolute power surge that hit every woman delegate when she saw that she was part of a POWERFUL GROUP OF WOMEN from every continent, of every nationality, of every race, of every hue and size and age? "Do you honestly think that she is not coming home to spread the word that regardless of what the patriarchal media and the patriarchal sanctioned governments and religions say, the fact is, boys, "The Sisterhood is alive and well and strong and getting stronger!" Yet, what may well be the most lasting result of this conference won't be the platform - although it is the glue that holds ideas in one place - the most lasting result will be that most of these powerful women are (or will soon be) In-computerized (Internet-computerized).... "Yes, the lasting result of the Women's Conference in China is that millions of women will be networked. "It is ironical that China should be the scene of the largest birth in history: the baby is effective world-wide feminist communication." ......................... * ...................... Ottawa, Canada, appears to have a serial killer of prostitutes on its hands. Three have been killed there in the last five years. We know three appears to be small numbers, but Ottawa is said to be reeling from a record number of 16 murders in the region this year. Violence is not a way of life in Canada. ......................... * ...................... The bigotry stands even if cloaked in niceties. Texas State District Judge Samuel Kiser apologized for his language but not his intent. He ordered a mother to speak English instead of Spanish to her daughter in the home and said, "You're abusing that child and you're relegating her to the position of a housemaid." He has since apologized for the remark but said the order stands. The bigots have learned to control their language but not their actions. ......................... * ...................... Oh, I love it. When in the name of all that's sensible are we ever going to get it through these guys' thick skulls ... they think they're being so logical when in fact it is they who are the airheads of the human race: Arthur Cozma, first secretary of the Moldovian ministry of foreign affairs, is a delegate to the U.N. Women's Conference. In a recent interview, he stated, "Most women (on the railroad trip he took to Beijing) expressed so much anger against men. Also they insisted on a division of employment between men and women on a basis of fifty-fifty. That I think is impossible. "By nature women are not made for politics or other hard jobs, but for children, family, love and so on." (Unabashedly) he went on, "Frankly, I think women involved in politics stray from their role in the family." And then this sweetheart who believes he, as a male, is logical, added, "But my country has a European tradition. We don't discriminate against women." {Original text sans CC comments from HRNET/WOMEN; author : theearthtime@igc.apc.org} ....................... * ........................ Jane Fonda, who was a panelist on women, health, and education discussion group organized by the World Health Organization in collaboration with UNESCO in Beijing said the mass media should be used more widely to promote health education and she cited soap operas in Mexico and India, radio programs in Kenya and television spots in Colombia that have effectively informed women on contraception, reproduction, and other health issues. (Can you imagine such information on U.S. TV without the Republican/ religious supremacist Nazi party coming unglued? Can't you see lock-step Dole, Pat Robertson, and Ralph Reed watching afternoon soaps where a man actually says he's going to use a condom ??? ) ....................... * ........................ Spokesperson (a woman, of course) said during a press conference in Beijing said that there was NO POSSIBILITY of any alliance with Islamic countries. The Vatican and the Islamic countries have been cooperating with their anti-woman campaign against women's rights and self-reliance, birth control, health care, abortion and stuff like that, but CC guesses just persecuting women and trying to make them brood mares can't be called an alliance. Both the Vatican and Islamic nations (along with a bunch of other patriarchally-controlled nations and religions) are opposing much of the proposed Platform for Action that will be adopted at the conference. Seems they don't like the idea of women's controlling their lives, their bodies, and their futures. At the same conference, the Vatican chose to emphasize through its woman spokesperson, "No way Maria - you ain't gonna be no priest." ....................... * ........................ Have you noticed how the religious supremacists are getting women puppets to do their talking for them lately? ....................... * ........................ Horrifying pictures of genocide, rape, and other atrocities were vividly narrated by women from Rwanda, Somalia, Burundi, Mozambique, Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia recently in Beijing. One scholar reported: "Of 58 wars around the world, 20 are in Africa. Over the last decade, 1.5 million children have died in various wars; 4 million were made permanently disabled; 85 million land mines remained scattered in 62 countries around the world, Africa being most afflicted with 30 million land mines in 18 countries." It is estimated (regardless of what male dominated TV camera crews show) that 80-90% of all refugees are women and children, who get even less a percentage of food and clothing than TV coverage. ....................... * ........................ The World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna) clearly stated that the human rights of women throughout their lifecycle are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of universal human rights. Yet the Platform for Progress at Beijing, which repeats the same fundamental point in greater detail, is still in brackets (still being objected to by patriarchal groups). Amnesty International said, "It is ... astounding that two years after 171 governments from around the world agreed in Vienna that women's rights were an integral part of human rights, this issue is again opened up for debate. "How can some governments at the end of the 20th century still be seriously questioning whether women are full human beings who are entitled to full human rights? How can this be controversial?" CC-->> How can it be controversial? How could slavery be controversial and be upheld by Biblical traditions in 1860 in the United States? Or racial prejudice in 1960, or sexual prejudice in 1995. ................................................. To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note No name, nothing else. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to irenestuber@delphi.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed three times a week: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information and is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<<