oh this would be such a BIG BIG BIG

and wonderful step! let's hope it comes to fruition

BUT let us NEVER stop working to end domestic abuse EVERYWHERE. wipe it out in every corner of the globe. we CAN and must do it

New Policy Permits Asylum for Battered Women
By JULIA PRESTON
The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States. The action reverses a Bush administration stance in a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees. In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum, abused women will need to show that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country. They must show that they could not find protection from institutions at home or by moving to another place within their own country.........

person of the month:

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser. who is she? she is an EIGHT YEAR OLD GIRL in yeman. why is she the person of the month? because she had the courage to bring her father to court for forcing her to marry a 30 year old man. even better, the judge (IN YEMAN) actually prosecuted her father AND her husband.
8-year-old girl asks for divorce in court
SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse. According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said. ..............

..............Thamer is in jail now. “Yes I was intimate with her, but I have done nothing wrong, as she is my wife and I have the right and no one can stop me," he said.................
(shout out to feministing)

there are places in the world

where women are safer IN prison than out. life goes on. but NOT as it should. people are starving. people are being tortured. kids are in danger and exploited. women suffer, men suffer. families are torn apart. devastation, wars. my god is better than your god and i'm going to kill you if you don't believe it.

i don't understand. i just don't. why does it have to be this way?

Freedom Called Lethal Risk for Jailed Afghan Women

By Aunohita MojumdarWeNews correspondent
Women are jailed in Afghanistan for "crimes" that would make them victims of domestic abuse elsewhere. As the annual festival of Eid brings the prospect of presidential pardons, advocates warn that many women are safer inside prison.
KABUL, Afghanistan (WOMENSENEWS)--Each year the festival of Eid that ends the month-long Ramadan holiday season is commemorated in Afghanistan with presidential pardons for prisoners.
It's a show of cultural benevolence since Ramadan is traditionally celebrated with families coming together.
But as Eid approaches on Oct. 13, women's groups and international organizations are warning that many women, if released, will become homeless, ostracized and vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Others may wind up back in custody for being "unaccompanied" women.
Some may become victims to relatives who carry out punishments as severe as execution.
"Women die after leaving prison," said Dr. Anou Borrey, a gender justice consultant for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in Afghanistan.
"Afghan women in jail are lucky, at least they are alive," said Carla Ciavarella, the justice program coordinator of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan, who has worked with Afghanistan's penitentiary system for four years. "We do not know how many women are killed or abused at home every day."............