Hoo Witch Reburial - Part II

Following on from my original post Hoo Witch Reburial, comes this follow up from BBC News:
"More than 200 people have attended the funeral and burial in north Kent of an unknown teenage girl who was decapitated about 700 years ago.

Her remains were found by an archaeologist on unconsecrated ground next to Hoo St Werburgh Parish Church, near Rochester.

Her head had been placed by her side, suggesting she may have committed suicide or been executed for a crime.

Her body has now been reburied in the church's main graveyard.

The girl was affectionately named Holly by church officials because her remains were found beside a holly tree used over many years to decorate the church at Christmas.

Speaking at Saturday's public funeral service, the Reverend Andy Harding, vicar of Hoo, said: "Whoever this young girl is, whatever she had done, innocent or guilty, she and everyone deserves a dignified and respectable funeral.

"If she had faced a trial then her death was the human penalty and she has paid in full.

"If she took her own life then today's culture tells us that she deserves pity and understanding, not damnation and brutality."

He added: "Holly had an horrific end and the treatment of her body was brutal."

Removing the young girl's head had been an "extra punishment meant to last an eternity".

Mr Harding said that if she had come from the area, then she had now completed her journey and been given the proper burial denied to her several hundred years ago. "

Maths to define fashion

From Physorg:
"Researchers in Japan have turned to mathematics to build a computerized 3D model of the female trunk that could help lingerie and other clothes designers make more sensuous, comfortable, and better fitting product ranges.

The team took a close look at the bodies of 560 Japanese women aged from 19 to 63 years using laser metrology to map "control points" at specific sites on the women's trunks. They could then fit this data to a generic 3D trunk model in the computer and fit the control points to it to build up a database of body shapes.

They then applied statistical analysis to the data employing principal component analysis and cluster analysis to classify trunk characteristics into five different types. Each depends on slimness or otherwise, breast size and angle, neck type, and shoulder slope. They obtained five classes of body shape which they say represent the majority of trunk shape among Japanese women.

The researchers say their analysis will be helpful in producing clothes that fit better for size and shape, and in improving practical functional clothes used for body adjustment and posture improvement."


Finally - maths being used for good not evil!

Secret crime society ignores

From Gulf Daily News:
"It is stunning that so many Bahraini wives filing for divorce have been victims of violence at the hands of their husbands - 91 per cent according to figures published yesterday in the GDN.

I was also shocked to read that Bahrain's penal law exempts even rapists from punishment, if they are able to persuade the victim to marry them.

Given that society tends to put more blame on the victim than the rapist, I suspect quite a lot of women over the years have had to marry the monsters who attacked them.

To them, this would be the lesser of two evils, since they risk being ostracised by society as 'soiled goods', with no-one likely to offer them the chance of a genuinely loving marriage.

Violence within the home is a social disease that crosses all borders, so it is by no means unique to Bahrain.

But in many other countries, it is taken more seriously as a criminal offence, whereas here it is seen largely as a domestic issue, even when it involves violence against, or the sexual abuse of children."

Rape as a "cure" for lesbians

In what has to be one of the most disturbing stories to cross my desk this week, reports are coming in that gangs of South African men are "correctively" raping women in an attempt to "cure" them of being lesbians.

From the Australian:
"SOUTH African lesbians are suffering rapes by men trying to "cure" their homosexuality, in what is becoming one of the most common hate crimes against gay women in the country, according to a new study.

The study by the anti-poverty group ActionAid said that women living in townships in Johannesburg and Cape Town were reporting increasing attacks and murders by men committing so-called "corrective" rape.

South African women generally face a staggering risk of rape in a country with one of the highest crime rates in the world.

At least 31 lesbians have been killed in homophobic attacks over the last decade, but only one case has led to a conviction, it said, warning the real number of killings is likely much higher in a country where 50 people meet a violent death every day."

From the Mail Online:
"The extent of the brutality became clear when Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's national female football squad, became one of the victims last April.

Simelane, one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian and an equality rights campaigner, was gang-raped and beaten before being stabbed to death 25 times in the face, chest and legs.

Triangle, a gay rights organisation, said it deals with up to 10 new cases of 'corrective rape' every week.

Support groups claim an increasingly macho political environment led to inaction over attacks.

Human rights and equality campaigners are hoping the reaction to Simelane's death and the trial of the three men accused of her rape and murder will help put an end to the attacks."

From IOL:
"But lesbians are being singled out by men who think that the rape will change their sexual orientation, said Zanele Twala, head of ActionAid South Africa.

"So-called 'corrective' rape is yet another grotesque manifestation of violence against women, the most widespread human rights violation in the world today," she said.

One support group in Cape Town said it is responding to 10 new cases of "corrective" rape every week, in that city alone, the report said.

South Africa's constitution enshrines equal rights for gay people, but hate crimes based on sexual orientation are not recognised by law or in courts, the study said.

At least 31 lesbians have been killed in homophobic attacks over the last decade, but only one case has led to a conviction, it said, warning the real number of killings is likely much higher in country where 50 people meet a violent death every day."

Washing Machine - Liberator of Women

From Reuters India:
"Feminists of the world sit down before you read this. The Vatican newspaper says that perhaps the washing machine did more to liberate women in the 20th century than the pill or the right to work.

The submission was made in a lengthy article titled "The Washing Machine and the Liberation of Women - Put in the Detergent, Close the Lid and Relax."

The article was printed at the weekend in l'Osservatore Romano, the semi-official Vatican newspaper, to mark international Women's Day on Sunday.

"What in the 20th century did more to liberate Western women?," asks the article, which was written by a woman.

"The debate is heated. Some say the pill, some say abortion rights and some the right to work outside the home. Some, however, dare to go further: the washing machine," it says.

It then goes on to talk about the history of washing machines, starting with a rudimentary model in 1767 in Germany and ending up with today's trendy launderettes where a woman can have a cappuccino with friends while the tumbler turns."

Erika Steinbach

From Speigel Online:
"Erika Steinbach is a hated figure in Poland. She has dedicated her career to documenting the suffering of Germans expelled from Eastern Europe following World War II. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke to her about the most recent flare up in Berlin-Warsaw relations and about what Poles must still learn about history.

When it comes to Germany's relationship with Poland, few play a greater role than the parliamentarian Erika Steinbach. A member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, Steinbach heads up the controversial Federation of Expellees, a group dedicated to commemorating the suffering of those Germans who were thrown out of Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe following World War II.

SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke with Steinbach about her decision not to join the museum board, Poland's relationship with its history, and her position as a magnet for Polish hatred."

Pink equals Women Only

From Middle East Online, a quirky story of a business built upon discrimination:
"A taxi firm in Lebanon has unveiled a new concept geared toward women, complete with a fleet of pink cars and pink-attired female drivers ready to keep the sexes apart.

"Initially, I thought I would have a rough time finding female taxi drivers given that in Lebanon this is a man's job," said Nawal Yaghi Fakhri, owner of "Taxi Banat" or "Taxi for Women" which was launched on Tuesday.

"But to my surprise I got about 40 requests."

The initiative, the first of its kind in Lebanon, has won the backing of the tourism ministry keen to cater to a growing clientele of wealthy female tourists from conservative Muslim countries in the Gulf region.

"This is the second such company to open in (Arab countries of) the Middle East after the United Arab Emirates," Lina Ghanem, a spokeswoman at the tourism ministry, said.

The company's drivers will only serve women.

A women-only cab company was also launched two years ago in the Islamic republic of Iran, which frowns upon the mingling of the sexes, although men and women do sit together in shared taxis.

The idea, however, has not gone down well with some in Lebanon. "This is what you call sexual discrimination," joked Jad Fakhoury, a Lebanese businessman who attended the launch ceremony."

Queen's Jewels

From Yahoo News:
"Egyptian officials says archaeologists have found ancient golden jewelry in a pharaonic-era tomb that belonged to a senior official under Egypt's most powerful queen. The Supreme Council of Antiquities says five golden earrings and two rings were found in the tomb of Gahouti, the head of the treasury under Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt 3,500 years ago.

Tuesday's statement says the tomb was located on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor, a southern Egyptian city famous for its Valley of the Kings and other ruins from pharaonic times.

The tomb had been looted, and its gates were engraved with text from the "Book of the Dead," which Egyptians believed would be needed in the afterlife."

From Bloomberg:
"Spanish archaeologists digging on the west bank of Luxor, Egypt, have discovered jewelry in a tomb of a state treasurer who lived some 3,500 years ago under the reign of Queen Hatshepsut.

The team found five gold earrings and two gold rings that probably belonged to Djehuty -- the so-called overseer of treasury, who supervised works under Hatshepsut -- or his family in a newly discovered burial chamber in his tomb, the Egyptian Culture Ministry said in an e-mailed statement today.

The chamber, the second in the tomb, is the fourth dating to this period that has been found with painted walls, the statement said. Two of its walls are decorated with texts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the ceiling bears a mural of the goddess Nut.

Jose Galan of Madrid’s National Research Center and his team have been excavating at the site in Dra Abu El-Naga on the west bank of Luxor since 2002 and discovered a 3-meter shaft inside Djehuty’s tomb at the end of the 2008 archaeological season. The new burial chamber was then discovered earlier this year, the statement said.

While the names of Djehuty, his father and mother, were erased from the first upper burial chamber found, their names are intact in the recently discovered lower burial chamber, it said.

Hatshepsut, one of the few women to rule Egypt, was pharaoh from 1479 B.C. to 1458 B.C."

International Women of Courage Award

From ABC News:
"First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton marked International Women's Day with the presentation of the International Women of Courage award to seven women from all over the world who have fought against discrimination and inequality in their countries.

Clinton said the women each has her own unique experiences and stories, but together they represent all women who strive for justice and opportunity in every country on every continent, usually without recognition. This year's recipients were from Afghanistan, Guatemala, Iraq, Malaysia, Niger, Russia and Uzbekistan."