Thanks to JonB - your two left yesterday, the 29th.
Thanks also to GuyB - yours will leave tomorrow, the 31st.
I will be making a goodish donation to an Independent newspaper appeal in the next few weeks; those who have already received and looked at what I sent them will understand why.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/a...men-beaten-and-abused-in-kashmir-1851473.html
Independent Appeal: Safe haven for women beaten and abused in Kashmir
For the past two decades, domestic violence has been a low priority in one of India's most troubled regions. But a bold initiative is now addressing the issue – bringing Hindus and Muslims together, reports Andy Buncombe
Monday, 28 December 2009
The woman who has accused her husband of beating her has a moon-shaped face and a gentle smile, but he insists she is controlled by an evil spirit. "I cannot take her back. She is under the influence of a djinni [a supernatural being]," says the husband. "But I have never beaten her."
His wife, Rafika, tries to staunch her tears, while gripping their six-year-old daughter. "No, he has hit me many times. I have gone to the police," she says. "Whenever I ask for money he gets angry. He beats me with his fists."
At this point, the man's father – also sitting in the room of the hearing – angrily gets to his feet. Not only is the woman controlled by a spirit, he shouts, before he is escorted out by officials, but it is a Hindu spirit. "We will be happy if she goes to the Imam [Muslim priest] to have it dealt with."
Few of the cases of marital dispute that come before the Commission for Women in Kashmir involve claims of supernatural power. Many, however, involve allegations of violence: of women being hit with sticks, with brooms and with fists.
For a long time in this troubled place, women had few places to turn to for help and few people to talk to. Amid a two-decades-old separatist insurgency that has claimed more than 70,000 lives, the issue of domestic violence was often considered much less of a priority. At the height of the violence, with people being killed or wounded almost every day at either at the hands of the militants or the security forces, women were told that they had to support their husbands, to keep quiet. How will it help things if you raise this issue? they were told by friends and relatives, many of them women. A spiralling addiction to drugs by many men made matters worse..........
