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Malik Muhammad, Muhammad Aslam and unnamed Dhurnal village elders and Kohistan clerics #sexist #fundie scmp.com

Naeem Kausir says she would like to vote in Pakistan’s coming election – if only the men in her family would let her[…]
The 60-year-old former principal and her seven daughters – six already university educated – are forbidden from voting by their male elders

“Whether by her husband, father, son or brother, a woman is forced. She lacks the autonomy to make decisions independently”[…]
“These men lack the courage to grant women their rights,” the widow said

Although voting is a constitutional right for all adults in Pakistan, some rural areas in the socially conservative country are still ruled by a patriarchal system of male village elders who wield significant influence in their communities

In the village of Dhurnal in Punjab, spread across crop fields and home to several thousand people, men profess myriad reasons for the ban of more than 50 years

“Several years ago, during a period of low literacy rates, a council chairman decreed that if men went out to vote, and women followed suit, who would manage the household and childcare[…]?” said Malik Muhammad, a member of the village council[…]
Muhammad Aslam, a shopkeeper, claims it is to protect women from “local hostilities” about politics, including a distant occasion that few seem to remember in the village when an argument broke out[…]
Others said it was simply down to “tradition”

The Election Commission of Pakistan has stressed that it has the authority to declare the process null and void in any constituency where women are barred from taking part[…]
The elders in Dhurnal rely on neighbouring villages to fill a government-imposed quota, which maintains that 10 per cent of votes cast in every constituency must be by women

Those who are allowed to vote are often pressured to pick a candidate of a male relative’s choice

In the mountainous region of Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province[…]religious clerics last month decreed it un-Islamic for women to take part in electoral campaigns

Hibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #sexist #wingnut scmp.com

Taliban leader claims Afghan women have ‘free, comfortable, prosperous life’

The supreme leader of the Taliban released a message on Sunday claiming that his government has taken the necessary steps for the betterment of women’s lives in Afghanistan, where women are banned from public life and work and girls’ education is severely curtailed.

The statement from Hibatullah Akhundzada was made public ahead of the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will be celebrated later this week in Afghanistan and other Islamic countries.

Akhundzada, an Islamic scholar, rarely appears in public or leaves the Taliban heartland in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province. He surrounds himself with other religious scholars and allies who oppose education and work for women.

In his Eid message Akhundzada said that under the rule of the Islamic Emirate, concrete measures have been taken to save women from many traditional oppressions, including forced marriages, “and their sharia rights have been protected”.

Moreover, “necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of society in order to provide them with a comfortable and prosperous life according to the Islamic sharia,” the message continued.

Lately, Akhundzada appears to have taken a stronger hand in directing domestic policy, banning girls’ education after the sixth grade and barring Afghan women from public life and work, especially for non-governmental organisations and the United Nations.

The message was distributed in five languages: Arabic, Dari, English, Pashto and Urdu. Akhundzada said the negative aspects of the previous 20-year occupation related to women’s wearing of the hijab and “misguidance” will end soon.

Jinan University Press, Suqian Intermediate People’s Court and the Suyu District People’s Court #homophobia scmp.com

A Chinese court has upheld a ruling that a textbook description of homosexuality as “a psychological disorder” was not a factual error but merely an “academic view”.
[…]
Ou Jiayong, who also uses the name Xixi, said the court’s decision about what constituted a “factual error” was “random and baseless”.

In 2016, during her first year of study at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, Xixi came across a psychology textbook that described being gay as a mental disorder.

The 2013 edition of Mental Health Education for College Students, published by Jinan University Press, listed homosexuality under “common psychosexual disorders” – along with cross-dressing and fetishism. It stated that homosexuality “was believed to be a disruption of love and sex or perversion of the sex partner”.
[…]
In 2017, Xixi sued the publisher of the textbook, and online retailer JD.com that stocks it, demanding that it remove the reference and publicly apologise. She said the book was “poor quality work” as the statement was wrong, with no scientific basis to back it up.

Late last year, the Suyu District People’s Court in Suqian ruled in favour of the publishing house, saying that the opposing views of Xixi and the publisher were due to differences in opinion rather than a factual error.

Jair Bolsonaro #wingnut #psycho scmp.com

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has suggested that the army might be called into the streets to restore order if lockdown measures against Covid-19 that he opposes lead to chaos.

In a television interview on Friday night with TV Criticia in the Amazon city of Manaus, Bolsonaro repeated his frequent criticism of restrictions imposed by local governments to curb infections – measures he claims do more harm than good.

“That lockdown policy, of quarantine, is absurd. If we have problems … we have a plan of how to act. I am the supreme head of the armed forces,” Bolsonaro said.

He said the army could be summoned to “reestablish Article 5 of the Constitution,” which mentions the right to freedoms of movement and of religion.

Bolsonaro also said the restrictive measures are aggravating hunger in the country.

“I am, together with my 23 ministers, talking about what to do if a generalised chaos is implanted in Brazil because of hunger, because of the cowardly way of how some are making the people stay at home,” he added.

Health experts urged Bolsonaro this month to impose a national lockdown after the nation’s daily toll of Covid-19 deaths reached new peaks. The Ministry of Health says that more than 386,000 have died in Brazil from the disease.

CPC Regulators #fundie scmp.com

Too lavish, too nasty: Chinese state media goes to war against Yanxi Palace and other period dramas

Imperial dramas blamed for promoting extravagance, glamour and pleasure-seeking over the virtues of frugality and hard work

Programme makers also accused of putting commercial profits above providing spiritual guidance to audiences

Some of China’s most popular historical dramas have been taken down from television channels after state media launched an unusual attack on the genre for its extravagance and “negative influence on society”.

The extravagant series Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace about a girl strategically climbing above her rank to become Empress of the Qing Dynasty was scheduled for Monday afternoon on Dragon TV, but was replaced by a reality show, Joyful Comedians.

Some online commentators also claimed Shandong TV had replaced its regular evening showing of the hit series Story of Yanxi Palace with Ode to Joy, a contemporary drama series about five women seeking love and career success in Shanghai.

The change in programming schedules followed an article in Friday’s edition of the Beijing Daily magazine Theory Weekly which called out the “sins” of imperial dramas, claiming they encouraged viewers to pursue the glamorous lifestyles of China’s past monarchs and promoted pleasure and luxury above the “virtues of frugality and hard work”.

The article singled out a number of period dramas – including ?Story of Yanxi Palace and ?Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace – and said a close following of the plots of these series – which usually involve elaborate schemes hatched by back-stabbing courtiers – would worsen the “balance” of society.

The programme makers were also accused of putting commercial profits above providing spiritual guidance to their audiences.

Story of Yanxi Palace broke all viewing records when it was released last summer on video streaming site iQiyi. The 70-episode series has since racked up more than 5 billion views on Chinese streaming services and is especially popular with women.

The drama – set in the Qing dynasty court, where the emperor’s concubines vie for power – became an overnight sensation for its elaborate costumes and set design, as well as its strong-willed and cunning female protagonist, a rarity in typical Chinese court dramas, which usually feature pure and innocent women characters.

Online commentators on China’s social media platform Weibo defended their favourite television drama.

“Yanxi Palace’s contribution to the feminist movement has been hugely underestimated. From little angel Fucha’s silent protest against feudal etiquette — to sister Wei’s leveraging of imperial power to reach the peak of human life, they have reached the limits of what women could do in a feudal society,” one user said.

“The integrity of sister Wei’s character and her independence in love are what many so-called big female protagonists [of other dramas] can only dream of having,” another said.

One top-rated comment on Weibo read: “OK, let’s watch the anti-Japanese dramas they broadcast every day then.”

However, Chinese social commentator Zhang Lijia said she understood the concerns of the people and the authorities.

“I do see some points that the article made. To go far in life, you have to play tricks and be ruthless and nasty to each other. Already there’s moral decline in today’s China,” she said.

Zhang also saw the article’s criticism as a reflection of the current general crackdown, recalling that some conservatives had made similar noises in the past when the political atmosphere was tightened.

For example, a few years ago a senior retired official had criticised young girls with dyed hair clad in sexy outfits on a talent show for being out of line with socialist values.

“These costume dramas are hugely popular and therefore money makers. I’d be very surprised if they are banned. Then, who knows. The top leaders have become less predictable,” Zhang said.

PAPPA BEAR #fundie scmp.com

Re: Tsinghua University suspends Xu Zhangrun, Chinese law professor who criticised Xi Jinping

I'm having my morning cereal and having a good chuckle at the NSA's Team C factory trolls trying to shut down comments that don't fit their talking points (as usual).
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The principle being reported here is being able to criticize, mock or disrespect your political leaders, which they insinuate is freely done in Western countries. And how these trolls go out of their way to condemn Tsinghua U. for suspending the Prof. For the benefit of the lazy trolls here, let me highlight a sample of what happened to citizens of the West who criticized their political leaders:
1. Russia Passes Law Punishing ‘Disrespect’ and ‘Fake News’ - US News, March 2019
2. Dixie Chicks pulled from the air after bashing Bush
3. US DJ fired after saying Bush "skedaddled" after 9/11
4. Phil Donahue's highly rated show was cancelled after criticizing Iraq War
5. Female cyclist lost job after giving Trump the middle finger as he was leaving his golf club in Virginia
6. Australian radio dj fired after asking then PM Julia Gillard about her partner’s sexuality during a live interview.
7. 21-year old Canadian page fired for staging anti-Harper (the then PM) protest.
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Any of you trolls want to cry about "whataboutism" or make other excuses for having your anti-China bias and hypocrisy exposed again?

ykwong230 #racist scmp.com

The Vietnamese are just like Japan. Their people were massacred by the US in the most inhuman way and now they are carrying the US as if they are their God. The killing and raping of the country by the US means nothing as long as they are friend with the US. Shameful nation with leader and people with no pride at all. China should learn from this and never help ungrateful like Vietnam