In Pakistan there are a quarter million homeless people in the wake of Cyclone Yemyin, the largest natural disaster to hit Pakistan since the earthquakes. The rain has affected the entire country, and even folks in the mountains near Chitral have died to its effects. ( The monsoon rains pushed forward by the Cyclone.) The Cyclone has since moved into Iran, and the storm has even been powerful enough to break the pattern of of “the wind of 120 days” in Afghanistan a short while. Meanwhile, in the Bay of Bengal another cyclone is building. One of the horrors of this storm is finding the bodies of the deceased quickly so they can receive proper burial.
Update: more on the ongoing rescue efforts from AP/Breitbart.
Lal Masjid has been fenced off by security forces after the rumors reported here yesterday of suicide bombers. ( The leaders of the madrassas have been threatening suicide bombers then making retractions for months now, Ghazi and Aziz, the mad brothers.) Meantime the government is stating that there will be no operation against Lal Masjid.
Six female Jamiat-e-Islami members in the NWFP assembly are advancing a bill purportedly to protect against discrimination against women wearing veils, but can’t point to any cases in Pakistan of this really happening. The bill is really just a stalking horse to enact a permanent ban against a play that poked fun at women in veils, according to women’s rights advocates:
However, a women’s rights activist disputed Shagufta’s claim by saying the bill was tabled because of Madeeha Gohar’s banned ‘Burqavaganza’ play. The play was banned in April following criticism from Islamic parties, supposedly because it “ridiculed women who wear the burqa and the burqa itself”. “There has not been a single complaint from any girl or woman claiming they were being discriminated against on the basis of their dress,” Rakhshanda Naz, resident director of woman advocacy organisation Aurat Foundation, told Daily Times. The draft bill proposed that discrimination against female workers or students on the basis of their dress should be a punishable offence. A month-long imprisonment or Rs 15,000 fine or both were proposed as penalty for people found guilty of discriminating against veiled women.
I would wager that western women’s rights advocates will continue to ignore this as they do other misogynistic things done by Qutbists via the tactics the Women’s Rights Movement used in the US in the sixties. Now burqa wearers will become a victim group, and the fines will fly if this goes through. Of course when you act like these crazed crows, you should fully expect some ridicule.
UPDATE: Hundreds of Chinese close business in Islamabad, move to Lahore and China. Story at Malaysia Sun.
