Pakistan – Transexual Couple Seek Justice

 

Bail for Pakistan ’same-sex’ pair

Doctors say Raj is still a woman, despite sex change operations

Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered that a couple jailed for perjury in a row over the husband’s sex should be released on bail, their lawyers say. The couple say they are man and wife, but the Lahore high court ruled last month that the husband was, in fact, a woman, despite sex-change surgery.
Shumail Raj, 31, had sex-change surgery to become a man and then married Shahzina Tariq, 24, a cousin.

The judgement of the high court has been suspended and the Supreme Court has ordered their release Lawyer Babar Awan

She was aware of his condition but says she needed his help to avoid being forced into wedlock with someone else.

The couple originally sought the protection of the courts but were arrested last month after the bride’s family questioned whether Raj was a man.

Judges in Lahore jailed the couple for three years and fined them 10,000 Pakistani rupees ($165).

They found that the couple had lied about Raj’s sexual status and said their marriage was un-Islamic because it was same-sex.

Ms Tariq’s family wants to annul the wedding on the grounds that it is against Islam for two women to marry.

But the couple argue that they married to protect the bride from being sold into marriage to pay off her uncle’s gambling debts.

Ms Tariq says they are not homosexuals and they married because they are in love.

Shumail Raj (left) and Shahzina Tariq appealed to the president

It takes more balls to be gay or transexual in any Islamic country than it does to pack a car full of bombs and run to the market …

Watch closely how Musharraf handles this appeal.

Our Delusional American President

Israel model for Iraq, says Bush – US President George W Bush has appealed for people to give his strategy in Iraq a chance – holding up Israel as a model for defining success there.

He said America would like to see Iraq function as a democracy while dealing with violence – just as Israel does. Speaking at the US Naval War College, Mr Bush said success in Iraq would not be defined by an end to attacks.

The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it’s not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities President Bush

He said: “Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy’s ability to get a car bombing in the evening news.”

Mr Bush suggested Israel as a standard to work towards.

“In places like Israel, terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks.

“The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it’s not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that’s a good indicator of success that we’re looking for in Iraq.”

These are quotes from a maniacal delusional man who just happens to be President of the United States of America.

 

Veterans Screwed Yet Again

It just infuriates me that the more we ask of our soldiers, the more they are neglected. This time the neglect comes from the Small Business Association. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having served in Iraq, Dave Krasner is now back home in Boston, struggling to keep alive the small computer consulting company he left behind.

“I love my country. But what do I do now?” said Krasner, a National Guardsman whose firm was buried in debt while he was away at war for much of 2004 and 2005. “My credit was wrecked. The SBA (Small Business Administration) turned me down for loans. So have banks. I can’t face my children. They see me as a hero.”

The 35-year-old father of four is among a growing legion of reservists who have returned from deployments of up to 15 months to see their small businesses in trouble, if not dead.

In a letter to Kerry’s panel, Krasner wrote: “We are begging for help and cannot understand why, even if this is an unpopular war, we are not given a fair opportunity to keep our home and run a successful business.”

“When a reservist has to shut his business down because his credit plunged while he was serving in Iraq, Washington isn’t keeping its promise to veterans,” said Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Interesting statement for Kerry to make since he is chairman of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. SBA loans for vets have not been upgraded since 1999. Vets had to bring to his attention. Doesn’t Kerry know what’s going on with the programs his committee oversees?

Granted Kerry has only chairman since January, but don’t you think with two wars going on, this should have been the first thing on his mind?

Tom Gotsis, 50, a dentist and Army reservist outside of St. Louis, said he was on his third deployment in five years — each about 110 days — before he learned the disaster loans existed. He said he landed a 30-year, $185,000 loan with monthly payments of $888 at an interest rate of 4 percent.

“It’s like another house payment but it saved my practice,” said Gotsis, who figures each deployment cost his practice between $250,000 to $300,000. “It’s an honor to serve your country, but it shouldn’t cost us our profession.”

“There’s a lot of ’support the troop’ stuff out there, but what does that really mean?” asked Mark Aldrich, a captain in the Massachusetts Army National Guard.

Aldrich, 36, married with two children, came home in October 2005 after 16 months in Iraq. The small marketing firm he formed shortly before being deployed was in financial difficulty. So he knocked on doors for help.

“All trails seemed to lead to the SBA, but they really didn’t have anything,” said Aldrich, explaining myriad rules and regulations eliminated him and others.

Aldrich conferred with Kerry’s staff in the drafting of the senator’s bill and is hopeful it will be passed Congress and be signed into law by President George W. Bush.

“It better become law. More and more reservists are being called up,” Aldrich said.

You can bet with Bush vetoing happy, this bill won’t get signed. After all Bush has shown us over and over again how he doesn’t support the troops.

I have said it before and I will continue to say it: support is not saying it, not a bumper sticker, a lapel pin, a ribbon on your car, or waving the flag. Support is actually helping the troops. Actually supporting the troops seems to be lost on this administration.

Fundamentalist Social Destruction Is Everywere

Egypt forbids female circumcision   By Magdi Abdelhadi  BBC Arab Affairs Analyst

Egypt has announced that it is imposing a complete ban on female circumcision, also known as genital mutilation.

… the death of a 12-year-old girl in Upper Egypt a few days ago triggered an angry barrage of appeals from human rights groups to both the government and the medical profession to act swiftly and stamp out the practice. The doctor who carried out the operation has been arrested.

Egypt’s first lady, Susanne Mubarak, has spoken out strongly against female circumcision, saying that it is a flagrant example of continued physical and psychological violence against children which must stop.

The Grand Mufti and the head of the Coptic Church said female circumcision had no basis either in the Koran or in the Bible.

Recent studies have shown that some 90% of Egyptian women have been circumcised.

The practice is common among Muslim as well as Christian families in Egypt and other African countries, but is rare in the Arab world.

It is believed to be part of an ancient Egyptian rite of passage and is more common in rural areas.

Conservative families believe that circumcision is a way of protecting the girls’ chastity.

Gospels of the Demented are being imposed on people everywhere.

Anything is justified in the name of religion. 

 

Freedom of religion is the freedom to worship according to one’s own heart – NOT the freedom to impose YOUR rules, rites or beliefs onto the unwilling.
Religions have obscure interpretations that can be grabbed to justify any atrocity.

Case in point:  The Right To Life seems to be justifiable to unborn American children, but not the child victims of American warcraft.  How can we justify bombing a whole village in an effort to kill ONE or a DOZEN of the opposition. Collateral damage is NOT acceptable under any justification.

 

I am disgusted and sick to my stomach with the RIGHTEOUS of any religion bellowing from both sides of their mouth about “What God Wants”!  The arrogance of the HUMAN RACE to actually base it’s knowledge of what God wants on thousand year old texts or an army of self-serving blow hards behind pulpits.