Global Quickies: Attacks on Innocent Women, Giving Mom’s Their Names Back, Unchecked Privilege, and Elves

AFGHANISTAN
The woman who was brutally killed by a mob last week after being falsely accused of burning pages of the Koran is said to have been arguing with a mullah about his peddling of amulets to women at his shrine. During the argument she was accused of burning the Koran. This week, thousands of Afghans taken the streets to protest the horrific death and the inaction of the police who where there and didn’t stop the mob.

SOUTH AFRICA
“An Indian-origin author in South Africa was brutally assaulted and verbally abused after she praised controversial writer Salman Rushdie whose work has angered Muslims around the world.”

FRANCE
A report from the commissioner for human rights of the Council of Europe reveals that 80 percent of anti-Muslim acts in France are carried out against women. Data from the UK also suggest that Muslim women get more abuse than the men.

SWEDEN (From Veronica)
The Swedish foreign minister has denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia and condemned the Saudi courts for ordering that Raif Badawi receive ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a pro-secular website.

EGYPT
“For men in Egypt and in many other countries in the Middle East, there is a peculiar taboo of not disclosing one’s mother’s name in public, lest her name become a subject of shame and ridicule in public forums.” A UN Women Mother’s Day campaign is trying to “Give Mom Back Her Name”.

ZIMBABWE
“Two former child brides have taken Zimbabwe’s government to court in a ground-breaking bid to get child marriages declared illegal and unconstitutional.”

SWEDEN
The gender-neutral pronoun” hen” will be added to the official Swedish dictionary in April. “The pronoun is used to refer to a person without revealing their gender – either because it is unknown, because the person is transgender, or the speaker or writer deems the gender to be superfluous information.”

NIGERIA
About 500 children aged 11 and under are missing from a Nigerian town recaptured from Boko Haram.

AUSTRALIA
The mother of the 4-week-old baby who died of whooping cough is being harassed online by anti-vaxxers for speaking out about the importance of vaccinations.

AUSTRALIA
“Pregnant women in South Australia are being offered the whooping cough vaccination for free by the State Government in a bid to prevent an outbreak of the deadly illness.”

ICELAND
Road building in Iceland is complicated. They have to plan the roads to avoid interfering with elf rocks. “The elves are seen as friendly, beautiful creatures, but you have to respect them, or they will take their revenge.”

RUSSIA
“A village in Russia has removed several classic books for children from a library for allegedly being harmful to their development” The banned books include Tom Sawyer and Thumbelina.

TUNISIA
“Tunisians are mocking inaccurate media reports alleging that the Star Wars set in Southern Tunisia has come under the siege of the violent extremist group ISIS.”

COLOMBIA
“US soldiers and military contractors sexually abused at least 54 children in Colombia between 2003 and 2007, according to a recently released historic document on the country’s conflict.”

KAZAKHSTAN
“Over the past year and a half, about a quarter of the population of a northern Kazakhstan village has sporadically stopped what they’re doing and suddenly fallen into a deep sleep. And no one can explain why.”

MEXICO
A video produced to celebrate the high school graduating class of 2015 at an exclusive all-male private Catholic school is making headlines for its unchecked privilege and sexism. The article doesn’t link to last year’s video from the same school. It’s just as bad.

Featured image: A painted ‘elf door’ in Iceland (Bob Strong/Corbis)