I paused for a long time before an American news article about stars that have a good record, with emphasis on Kim Kardashian, the star of the reality TV show “Keeping up with the Kardashians” and the producer of numerous other programs. The article also mentioned the names of other actors and actresses who do not abuse alcohol or drugs, and have no scandals in their lives of the type often sought by tabloids. This is nice. However, it was the exception to the rule in what I read in recent weeks. All the news concerning women, from our countries to theirs, were negative, even frightening. Last week, The Independent, which is published in London published four articles on honor killings, written by Robert Fisk. The details were horrific. I paused at the title of one of the episodes, which was “a Matter of Dishonor". In Fact, it is also my opinion that I have recoded in this column time and again, as I consider the murder of a daughter, sister or wife not to be a matter of honor at all, but a matter of shame. From Pakistan and India, to several Arab countries and even London, Fisk recorded the details of crimes committed on behalf of the high honor that cannot be protected except if blood was spilled for its sake. The renowned author left out no details, and so all I want to say is that the Arabs and Muslims who lost war, peace and the battle for advancement and progress, and were defeated by a gang of thieves in Palestine, could find no method to reassert their manhood other than by oppressing their womenfolk (for instance, a young woman was murdered, because an unfamiliar number was found on her mobile phone). These articles in The Independent coincided with a report in The Observer about the Iranian regime's persecution of Iranian women, especially those active in human rights issues and dissident women. The regime had provoked worldwide condemnation when it announced it would stone Sakina Mohammed Ashtiani for adultery. Recently, the Iranian government decided to suspend the stoning, but not to cancel it, after giving the defendant 99 lashes. There is also Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who did not return to her country since the 1999 presidential elections after she learned that she was going to be arrested. I support any bid by the Iranian regime to acquire a nuclear bomb, as long as Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal. However, I oppose the Iranian regime and protest its policies in every other thing, and I hope that the regime's staunch supporters explain to me the wisdom behind attracting the world's ire against Iran and Muslims in general. There are enemies of the Iranian regime that are looking for any excuse to incite against it. Yet, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is providing ammunition to his enemies for free, for them to use it against him, from the ill-treatment of women to his denial of the Nazi Holocaust, to the extent that Fidel Castro himself asked him to stop denying it. What matters to me, when it comes to the subject of the Holocaust, is that it is the Christian West that perpetrated it, or the West that is hostile to Iran. And yet, President Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust as though he is the one being accused of perpetrating it, instead of using the issue of the Holocaust in the ongoing confrontation with the United States and the European Union. Those among them, who did not participate in the Holocaust, were late to put an end to it and save the Jews. In the west, women may dissent publicly, and are not stoned to death. However, freedom is almost backfiring against them. The Guardian published a lengthy feature on the sex trade. Not going into its details, its bottom line is that the researchers concluded that this type of sexual debauchery has increased twofold in one single decade, and has almost become acceptable to society. The report was published against the backdrop of the scandal surrounding the famous football player Wayne Rooney, who was caught with two prostitutes (his wife Coleen had forgiven him a similar relationship in the past). Here, too, I will not go into details. I just want to tell the readers that one of the prostitutes (a euphemism) is from a well-off middle class family; it is known that she studied in private schools and is one hundred percent British. However, a picture of her published by The Sunday Mirror showed on her leg a part of a clear tattoo that says “…makes the dream a living reality”. The second prostitute is the daughter of a university lecturer. She decided to become a professional (another euphemism) because she got pregnant outside of wedlock, and decided that this profession is easy with a guaranteed income. Thus, women are persecuted, in our countries, until they are suffocated or strangled by a father or brother under the guise of honor, and in the West, [some] women are out of control. Does the reader want more? At the same time, there was news about Taliban fighters blowing up schools to deny education to girls. These men are religiously and humanly backwards, and God will punish them severely. Since I perhaps ruined the reader's otherwise joyful morning coffee, I will conclude with something feminine and nice, which is the interview with the interesting Lebanese writer and journalist Joumana Haddad, the publisher of the quarterly magazine ‘Jassad' [Body]. She belongs to a generation that emerged in Lebanon after I left, so I do not know her. Joumana says that she lives in a country that hates her for her boldness. However, what intrigued me most in the outstanding interview with her was when she said that smart people study medicine or engineering, a tradition that we had in our days and that seems to have endured. The doctor or engineer has a guaranteed high income. As for the liberal arts students like me, they often end up as teachers, i.e. less worthy to people than a fig.
