Over the years it has been increasingly embarrassing to be Dutch with regards to asylum seekers. Here’s another example why. I apologise for the bad translation. This is from ‘De Volkskrant’, a major Dutch newspaper on 25 October 2006.

“To have an opinion is not something you can just get rid of”

Afghan asylum seekers who have had their asylum request denied can go back, says Dutch minister Verdonk of immigration. However, Marwa (13) who has been in The Netherlands for seven years says women are considered inferior there. There will be protests.

Annemarie Jorritsma, mayor of Almere in the Netherlands and chair personof a gender equality committee, has proposed that the army might consider sending prostitutes along with the troops when they are serving abroad. She said in a morning tv show:

‘The army should provide an opportunity of release. Some have even suggested that with certain missions one could send some prostitutes alongside the troops. I think this should be up for consideration. If there are no female colleagues around, the soldiers might run astray with local women. And we do not want that’

Luckily the Dutch defence forces do not share her view. A spokesperson of the ministry of defence commented: 'We would like more women in the armed forces but not for this reason. Having more women in the army, especially in positions of leadership, decreases unwanted behaviour.'

Genral-Major Frank van Kappen, a military advisor to Nato, commented 'This is the most female unfriendly idea one can think of. Of course there might be women who are prostitutes voluntarily but if you go to an army base in a country far away you must be desperate. Should the army recruit the desperate?

(the translations are mine)

I found an interesting article discussing the claims men's right activists make about men being as likely, or nearly as likely to be victims of domestic violence as women. Michael Flood discusses how these claims are not only hurtful towards women but even potentially towards men:

Claims about Husband Battering

Michael Flood

A recent research project claimed to find that men and women are equally likely to be the perpetrators of domestic violence [Headey, Scott and de Vaus, 1999]. Studies such as these have been taken up by anti-feminist men to claim that 'husband battering' is widespread. In the article below, Michael outlines a critique of such claims. Read more

International Herald Tribune - October 06, 2006 An international study has found that violence against women committed by their live-in spouses or partners is widespread, common in both the developed and developing world, as well as in both rural and urban areas.

In interviews with nearly 25,000 women at 15 sites in 10 countries, researchers from the World Health Organization found that rates of partner violence ranged between 15 percent in Yokohama, Japan, to 71 percent in rural Ethiopia.

At six of the sites, 50 to 75 percent of women said they had been subject to moderate or severe violence in the home. At 13 of the sites, more than a quarter of all women said they had suffered such violence in the past year. "Violence by an intimate partner is a common experience worldwide," the authors wrote of the findings, which are being published in this week's issue of The Lancet, the British medical journal.

MIKE HENDRICKS

The Kansas City Star

The story that touched our hearts this week was about 10 little girls shot point-blank in Pennsylvania’s Amish country.

Not 10 children, as some news reports put it. But 10 girls. The shooter wanted to harm only the girls.

Does it strike you as curious — the way it did me — that more wasn’t made of that?

Read more

Järjestetään iloisen värikkyyden teemalla torstaina 12.10.2006 klo 17 eduskuntatalon edessä.

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