Cologne Sexual Assaults IX and David Davies Web Chat

[LumelaMme]

On New Year's Eve women in Cologne were amongst those who were sexually assaulted and robbed in mass attacks.
This is a link to the last thread which has links to all the others.

Some of us have begun a petition asking the government to uphold women's rights and freedoms:

THE PETITION _ Please sign and share
The petition

We also hope that tomorrow, Monday 8th February, David TC Davies MP will be on MN for a web chat between 1pm and 2pm - it should be a sticky on either Chat or In The News. David was one of the few MPs who has shown any interest in this whole issue and who has responded sympathetically to those of us concerned about women's rights in a changing world.

"Yazidis are also called Yezidi, Daasin, or Ezidi, the Yazidi are a Kurdish-speaking ethnoreligious community based in Northern Iraq who practice a syncretic religion influenced by pre-Islamic Assyrian traditions, Sufi and Shiite Islam, Nestorian Christianity, and Zoroastrianism."

That sounds utterly fascinating. "Wild woman" or Amazon style. I like it.

www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/26/arezu-yazidi-woman-rescued-isis-neighbours-raqqa

I agree on the never thinking it wont be you, nothing is safe and guaranteed in this life, we all have a duty to be viligant and be aware life can change on a six pence.

would anyone behind the iron curtain ever think their lives would fall to such lows and china....could anyone have imagined the utter maddness they would have to live under, millions of people not allowed flowers FFS the maddess imposed on millions and look at north korea, the country is one huge mad prision camp...

it can happen to us, we all have to be vigilant....

The Kurdish women sound amazing.

18 to 66 is quite a leap Dee.

Im currently watching Keeping up with the Kahns and dont know what to make of it although the racism at the start was appalling.

I watched that too Helena and found some of it quite uncomfortable. I don't think any racial group came over well although that may have been down to the editing

reuters widerimage.reuters.com/story/begging-for-help-in-damascus. That is shocking shortage of insulin in Damascus. 'Medication for the father and son costs about $15 a month'
'What’s more, he cannot afford to shoulder the financial burdens he may face while fleeing and living outside Syria.'

'He and his family have no option but to stay, hoping for a breakthrough to solve their crisis and that of many others in the same situation.

Dee thanks for the article. That is some improvement in police and press reporting compared with the total minimisation of Cologne reports.

I feel like I've fallen down the rabbit hole.

Fewer than 500 signatures to protect women and gay rights - and simultaneously a mumsnet featured sticky blog about how lovely arranged marriage is.

Me too Grace. Just read that David Cameron has blocked a bill for compulsory sex education in all schools, at the same time newly published statistics show that 30% of female rape victims in the UK are under 16yrs, 25% under 14 yrs old. But let's just ignore the fact that child rape is epidemic here in the UK.

I was called racist at the weekend on Facebook by a gay man when other gay men were discussing this situation (and on our side), I asked given the horrendous South African tape statistics whether he'd be happy importing hundreds of thousands of uneducated black South African men.

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Grace youb are right. But wait and see.

simultaneously a mumsnet featured sticky blog about how lovely arranged marriage is. confused

That's an unfair accusation and portrayal of that post which is principally about the wrongness of forced marriage.

It's an overwhelmingly sad post that only briefly mentions arranged marriage. The Guest OP has had to make the best of the situation and it's simply an account of her experience.

The blogger is clearly an intelligent woman and was 23 when it happened. By her own admission she went along with it to save various faces. Yes, it's sad - I didn't say it wasn't. But what chance do we stand when women choose to go along with this backwards shit?

She went along with it because of the huge emotional blackmail put on her.

Saving faces would have included that of her parents. Extremely hard if nigh on impossible to simply disregard what would happen to them and her wider family if she had refused.

They would have been disgraced, talked about, it would affect any unmarried sisters marriage prospects. It's not unknown for any married sisters, if they were already married to perhaps say another family member of the groom, to be divorced summarily. The OP would have faced accusations of anything from being too Westernised to being a slut and so on and so on.

The only analogy I can think of to perhaps try and make those not from that culture understand would be that of the arranged marriages that happened in European families in the last century in high society, aristocracy etc and the unwritten rules of having to follow through to retain titles, land etc

It really isn't so simple as being 23 and intelligent. Some Muslim (and Sikhs and Hindus, although the latter less so), really don't have any real control over lives. Boys / men can also be coerced in the same way.

It appears that suppression of information and speech by Facebook is going ahead. You'll recall that in Sept Mrs Merkel met with Zuckerberg and a conference of some kind to request this, so it's going ahead. The publication Gatestone seems to be for the chop.

Why on earth would a businessman running a lucrative business such as FB agree to political persuasion?

"Last week an article, "Facebook's War on Freedom of Speech" by Douglas Murray, detailed a new initiative by Facebook in Germany, to remove supposedly "racist" comments from Facebook. This initiative by Facebook at the moment appears to include anything critical of the EU's open-door mass-immigration policy.

"With Gatestone's commitment to educating readers about what the media do not want them to know, however unpleasant these events may sound to would-be censors, we are concerned that if we disagree with policies that Facebook believes politically correct, it may decide to censor Gatestone, or even ban it.

"In the past month, Gatestone has already felt the quiet encroachment of censorship: In one instance, a New York-based online advertising network cut us off, saying our articles dealt with "sensitive" topics. These included informing the public of the recent mass-sexual assaults of thousands of women by migrants in Europe. In a second recent incident, a well-known online content-promotion company rejected all of our German-language articles, for, they said, similar reasons."

"David Cameron has blocked a bill for compulsory sex education in all schools,"

Why the hell would he do that?

This will be controversial, so sorry in advance.

How about a second petition along these line (long description, would need to be shortened to 100 characters for the title)

UK rape numbers at record high. 30% of female rape victims are under 16yrs, 25% under 14 16yrs old. Rape leads to long-term, debilitating trauma and diminished quality of life and presents a significant public health issue. Rape victims have a higher incidence of depression, STI, reproductive problems, substance abuse and suicide. We demand the government put in place robust, overarching strategies to promote women's rights as a core British value across all educational settings. Strategies must address equal opportunities, sex education and a zero tolerance approach to sex abuse.

What would you have said if she'd been taken "home" for FGM? Would you apologise for that too?

UK rape numbers at record high. 30% of female rape victims are under 16yrs, 25% under 14 16yrs old. Rape leads to long-term, debilitating trauma and diminished quality of life and presents a significant public health issue. Rape victims have a higher incidence of depression, STI, reproductive problems, substance abuse and suicide. We demand the government put in place robust, overarching strategies to promote women's rights as a core British value across all educational settings. Strategies must address equal opportunities, sex education, bodily integrity and a zero tolerance approach to sex abuse.

one more try.

UK rape numbers are at record high. 30% of female rape victims are under 16yrs, 25% under 14 16yrs old. Rape leads to long-term, debilitating trauma and diminished quality of life and presents a significant public health issue. Rape victims have a higher incidence of depression, STI, reproductive problems, substance abuse and suicide. We demand the government put in place robust, overarching strategies to promote women's rights as a core British value across all educational settings. Strategies must address equal opportunities, sex education, bodily integrity and a zero tolerance approach to sex abuse.

I have no problem with so-called arranged marriages, but obviously not forced ones. “Arranged” means when a person is ready to marry, usually the services of a marriage broker are sought, or word goes around via family friends. An assortment of likely partners is produced, the man or woman picks out a few that sound suitable and the two parties meet. A young man or woman born in this country of Asian parents, who have been to college or uni, are in a job, seen a little of the dating scene from afar but are now ready to settle down save a lot of time this way.

Just think of the totally unsuitable, third-rate guys some of us have met or dated when we were in our 20s – what a waste of time. The important component is that both parties are on the same page, they are both serious about wanting to marry but may be precluded culturally from dating in the usual Western way.

I know Hindus who have met at work or through friends, fallen in love and married – regardless of the fact that they did not meet in the traditional way or whether both sets of parents are For or not. But there are some who don’t feel able to, and by going to a marriage broker a full background check is done on the individual and the family. Once the couple meet, if there is a spark of interest there, they have a series of dates, phone calls, etc. It sounds alright to me …… rather like a singles dating bureau but better.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'apologising'. There is nothing in that account to be apologising for. The culture that caused the OP to be in the position is to be condemned (which the OP has done in the article) but the OP herself did nothing wrong.

I'm simply explaining why she went through with her marriage and essentially she was 'forced' to do so. She really didn't have the option of saying no without the huge ramifications. Under the circumstances I would have done the same. I was in that position but had the good fortune to have got let of the hook due to the grooms family changing the parameters of the union, so I and my family emerged unscathed.

Girls who get taken for FGM are similarly forced. I don't think any of them voluntarily go through with it, but in their case they have actual physical obstructions to their escape. Should we be mad at them too for 'allowing themselves' to have it done to them ?

My comment above was specifically with regard to the Hindu and Sikh cultures, not Muslim. That is a different ball game entirely.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3443725/15-year-old-Somali-stabbed-Swedish-social-worker-death-children-s-refugee-centre-18-says-Migration-Agency.html

"Boy" who killed the swedish girl is over 18. surprise.

not Muslim. That is a different ball game entirely

That's a gross generalisation. Muslims as we've all said time and again are diverse.

Many, if not most of the 3rd generation and a lot of the 2nd generation have, have had arranged marriages in the way you described above.

Increasingly muslims in Britain and even in Pakistan choose their own partners and have 'love marriages'.

The only stipulation is for the prospective partner to be muslim also, but then that is the same for Hindus's and Sikhs where someone from their own religion and even caste is sought.

toofed, that's a good idea and well-worded first draft.