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This Is for All the Girls Who Grew Up Thinking Abortion Meant Death or Jail

 By Melissa Ayala

Growing up in the 1990s in a Catholic household outside of Mexico’s capital, Mexico City, I learned as a young girl that abortion was out of the question. When I reached my adolescent years, the only representation I had ever seen of abortion in pop culture was in the film “The Crime of Padre Amaro.” In the movie, the priest impregnates a young woman, then takes her to an unsanitary and illegal clinic. The abortion goes wrong; she dies. The message landed: I was sure that having an abortion would lead to death.

This month Mexico got a new message. On Sept. 7 the justices of the Mexican Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it is unconstitutional to criminalize abortion. The court then stated, unequivocally, that our Constitution guarantees the right to choose. No Mexican women or people with the ability to become pregnant should be prosecuted for exercising their rights.Even as feminists across the country celebrate this decision, we also must recognize where credit is due. For more than 29 years, feminists have organized themselves in nonprofit groups such as GIRE (where I work), Fondo María and Balance. Women have taken to the streets again and again across Latin America demanding that our governments guarantee our rights.

Grass-roots movements have transformed the narrative and have made more and more Mexicans see that we need sexual education to discover our bodies, contraceptives to enjoy our sexuality and legal abortion to own our own decisions. (The motto in Spanish is “Educación sexual para descubrir, anticonceptivos para disfrutar, aborto legal para decidir.”) The feminist movement has insisted for years that abortion involves and affects all women, no matter their social status.

When I left my home state, Puebla, in 2010 to attend law school in Mexico City, I learned that first-trimester abortions were made legal in the capital of our country in 2007. From my feminist law professors, my fellow students and I learned, often for the first time, about the right to choose, a right our Constitution grants.After Mexico City opened the door to legalization, states slowly followed. First came Oaxaca in 2019, and this year Hidalgo and Veracruz joined what feminists call the Marea Verde, or the Green Tide. But Mexico is a federation, made up of states. That means your rights depend on where you are standing, a legal system very similar to that of the United States.

This month the Mexican Supreme Court offered hope to all women and girls in our country. The justices said what has long been intuitive to feminist activists: that someone who is not yet born does not have the same protection as someone who already is alive.

The court stated that women and nonbinary people must not be prosecuted criminally for having an abortion. However, the decision does not translate into an immediate decriminalization of abortion in all states, since abortion is still a crime on the books in 28 local criminal codes. The decision means that no judge may send to prison or sanction women or nonbinary persons who exercise their right to choose to terminate a pregnancy. In other words, technically, a woman could still be taken before a judge and exposed before the community, though she would not see jail time.

We are early yet in the story of our rights in Mexico. Not being sent to jail does not mean abortion is accessible for everyone. Women living outside of Mexico City, Oaxaca, Veracruz or Hidalgo — the areas where abortion rights have progressed the farthest — still have to travel to have an abortion. That restriction disproportionately affects those who are economically vulnerable. And in Mexico, that is an enormous restriction. In my country, we say poverty has a female face; out of 65.5 million women, 50 million are in poverty or at risk of economic or social hardship.

Feminist activists should continue to demand that their local representatives work to reform the criminal codes to eliminate the articles that consider voluntary abortion a crime. This is not only legally relevant; it is imperative in order to start eradicating the social stigma that still surrounds those who decide to have an abortion.In Mexico, abortion has long been cast in the context of shame — just as I first learned from Padre Amaro. This is finally starting to change: Protests by those who oppose abortion were held outside the doors of the Supreme Court. But the prayer and protest did not seem to have any effect on the arguments of the justices.

Now it is essential that the Mexican media and pop culture portray abortion as what it is: a right and a choice. I write this thinking of all the girls who, like me, grew up equating abortion with death or jail. Thanks to the Mexican justices, this idea may start to disappear. We still have to continue fighting to guarantee that abortion is a safe, legal, accessible and free medical procedure.

In Chile, the feminist performance art collective Las Tesis created a feminist anthem denouncing violence against women that has become a theme song in the fight to legalize abortion. The chant quickly spread through Latin America. In the song, “Un violador en tu camino” (“A Rapist in Your Path”), Las Tesis berated those who judge us for being born women. The group first performed this anthem in Santiago in 2019 and it was soon sung around the world, including by hundreds of thousands in Mexico City. Days before the Supreme Court made its ruling, Mexican women across the country quoted this song on Twitter.The Mexican Supreme Court and our justices have now sent a signal to the entire Latin American region, where women continue to face obstacles to have a safe abortion. From Argentina to Mexico, the green tide continues the fight for our rights.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/opinion/mexico-decriminalize-abortion.html

Music Video - Ustad Awalimir Afghan Da Zamong Zeba Watan

د آشنا تلویزیون د چهار شنبې خپرونه د ۲۰۲۱ سپتمبر ۲۲ - تلې ۱

#Pakistan - Appeasing terrorists

Zahid Hussain

FIRST, it was the president and then the foreign minister who appeared ready to offer amnesty to the terrorist group which has been responsible for the killing of thousands of people. Curiously, the statements came as the outlawed TTP intensified its attacks on the security forces. Casualties have included scores of soldiers over the past few months in clashes with the increasingly emboldened militants operating from their sanctuaries across the border.

In a recent interview to Dawn News, President Arif Alvi said that the government could consider granting amnesty to the militants who lay down their arms. A few days later, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi made a similar offer in an interview to a British newspaper.Interestingly, these assertions from the country’s top political leadership followed a declaration by the National Action Plan apex committee to step up efforts to deal with the rising terrorist threat. One wonders how amnesty for the militants can help deal with the emerging national security challenges. The policy of appeasement has not worked in the past and it certainly will not work now.Such statements are more puzzling as there is no indication that the militants are willing to renounce violence. According to some media reports, a TTP spokesman has rejected the government’s peace offer and vowed to continue with the group’s battle against the Pakistani state. The amnesty move is certainly seen as a sign of weakness and adds to the confusion in our counterterrorism policy.

The policy of appeasement has not worked in the past and it certainly will not work now.

The TTP has been revitalised in the past few months. Some 4,000 to 5,000 Pakistani militants are reportedly operating from across the Durand Line. Most of them had fled to Afghanistan after the Pakistani military operations in North and South Waziristan. The outfit disintegrated because of internal fighting. Some of them had joined the Middle East-based Islamic State that has been active in eastern Afghanistan. The split had affected the capability of the group to launch high-profile attacks in Pakistan. But early this year, various TTP splinter groups reunited. Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban reportedly played an important role in getting the group together.

Pakistani intelligence agencies had long suspected that the group had been closely linked with the former Afghan intelligence agency and India’s RAW. After regrouping, the TTP stepped up its activities in North and South Waziristan targeting Pakistani security forces. There have also been reports of the TTP reviving its organisation in the region. Many recent terrorist attacks in different parts of the country lead to the TTP. In fact, the group has been linked to the bomb attack on the bus carrying Chinese workers involved in the Dasu hydropower project that killed many of them.

It’s not surprising that the TTP’s revival has coincided with the Afghan Taliban gaining ground next door. The two groups may have different priorities but their objectives are more or less same. Most of the TTP commanders had also been fighting along with the Afghan Taliban against the foreign forces. On its formation in 2007, the TTP had declared its allegiance to the late Mullah Omar, the founder and supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban movement. Some senior security officials agree that they are the two sides of the same coin.

That umbilical cord has never been severed despite Pakistan’s efforts to delink the two. In eastern Afghanistan, Abdul Qayum Zakir, a top Afghan Taliban commander in the region and an important member of the group’s leadership council, is said to have facilitated the TTP sanctuaries. The return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan seems to have revitalised the TTP.Scores of TTP militants have been freed from the jails after the Taliban swept major Afghan cities. Among them is Fakir Muhammad, who once headed the TTP in the former Fata agency of Bajaur. He had fled to the Afghan province of Kunar after the military operation. The former Afghan government had arrested him a few years ago. He was given VVIP treatment after his release. Pictures of him being driven in a SUV went viral on social media.

An emboldened TTP has recently issued a warning to the Pakistani media to refrain from calling it a terrorist outfit. The group seems to be closely monitoring publications in the country. It is not for the first time that the TTP has threatened journalists. The group has killed many journalists in the past. The latest threat to the media must not be taken lightly given the group’s past actions.

In such a situation, the president’s peace offer to the outfit is incomprehensible. Moreover, it’s not clear whether it’s the president’s own wish or if he is enunciating the government’s new approach in dealing with the terrorist group. In either case, such statements are highly damaging for a country facing multiple security challenges.

Given the PTI’s soft spot for the militant group, such statements from the top government leadership may not come as a surprise to many. Imran Khan in the past as opposition leader had called for allowing the TTP to open its offices. The suggestion had come at the height of terrorist attacks carried out by the banned outfit.

One wonders if the latest amnesty offer is a manifestation of the same viewpoint. For any such move, the government must come out with a clear policy to be debated in parliament. It’s a very serious issue concerning our national security. The consequences of pardoning hardcore terrorists responsible for the death of thousands of Pakistanis could be disastrous. The country has paid a huge cost for the peace deals that the state has made with militant groups in the past.

The new Taliban regime in Afghanistan has repeatedly assured Pakistan and the international community that it will not allow its country’s soil to be used for terrorist action against any state. Pakistan’ military spokesman this week said that there is no reason to doubt the assurances held out by the Taliban regime. Yet there is no indication that the Taliban authorities would be willing to take action against the TTP sanctuaries in Afghanistan. A Taliban spokesman has reportedly advised the Pakistan government to make peace with the militants. This is certainly not very assuring for Pakistan.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1647735/appeasing-terrorists

Regional Extremists ‘Energized’ by Taliban’s Takeover Could Pose Threat to Pakistan, China Interests, Expert Says

By Roshan Noorzai & Guofu Yang China and Pakistan expect the Taliban to fulfill pledges to crack down on foreign extremist groups in Afghanistan, but experts say these groups have already been "energized" by the Taliban’s takeover, posing new challenges for Pakistani and Chinese interests.

Last week, during the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Conference summit, President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan both called on the international community to engage with the Taliban and called on the Taliban to fulfill their pledges to clamp down on terrorist groups.The Taliban have said that they will not allow any group to use Afghan soil against any country, without laying out specifics. Some experts say the group’s swift takeover of Kabul has already emboldened extremist groups in the region and regional countries should expect more insecurity, not less.“There is no evidence that the Taliban will clamp down on these groups,” said Aqil Shah, professor of South Asian Studies at the University of Oklahoma and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, adding that the problem with the Taliban is that “they say one thing and they do quite the opposite.”

Shah said the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan leading up to the capture of Kabul was “a morale booster” for the terrorist groups, particularly those based in Afghanistan.

There are approximately 8,000 to 10,000 “foreign terrorist fighters” in Afghanistan, including people from “Central Asia, the north Caucasus region of the Russian Federation, Pakistan and the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China” according to a U.N. report released in June 2021.

A July 2020 U.N. report stated 6,000 to 6,500 of the foreign fighters in Afghanistan are from Pakistan, and majority of these militants are affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a U.S.-designated terror group that has mostly carried out attacks against Pakistani security forces.

Threat to Pakistan

The TTP, which pledges allegiance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, has increased its attacks in Pakistan in recent weeks.

The group killed seven Pakistani soldiers in a gunfight in South Waziristan, a district in northwest Pakistan near the Afghanistan border on September 15. The TTP also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, on September 5 that killed at least three Pakistani soldiers.

Shah added that the TTP is “the main threat” to Pakistan’s security as it intends “to destabilize Pakistan” and eventually “overthrow the government in Pakistan.”Pakistani officials said the TTP is planning attacks from Afghanistan, and they expect the Taliban to make good on pledges to prevent the group from using Afghan soil to attack Pakistani security forces. But there is little public information so far to indicate that any kind of Taliban crackdown against the group is imminent.Abdul Basit, a research fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore, predicts the TTP will continue its attacks.

“For TTP, it is the same. If you can defeat the US, certainly you can defeat the Pakistani army,” added Basit.

Pakistani officials blamed TTP militants for a suicide bomb attack on a bus last month that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese workers who were headed to a dam construction project in the north of the country.Far from promising a crackdown on the TTP, Pakistani officials have made more conciliatory gestures. On September 15, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad is ready to pardon those members of the TTP who promise not to get involved in terrorist activities which the group rejected. He indicated he hoped the Taliban helps convince TTP members to submit to the Pakistani constitution and drop their armed insurgency.Qureshi said he remained concerned over reports that hundreds of TTP fighters were released from Afghan prisons as the Taliban took control of the country.Basit said the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan will further increase “radicalism” in the region, and “as a result, the recruitment for the groups would increase.”

He added the TTP has close relations with other extremist groups, including East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). “TTP provided them refuge. They lived together. They fought together.”

ETIM, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, is a Uighur separatist group that China calls “the most dangerous and extremist terrorist group” in its Xinjiang region. However although ETIM remains a U.N.-designated terrorist group with several hundred fighters reportedly located in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province, the U.S. removed the group from its terror list in 2020, citing “no credible evidence” that it continued to exist.

Threat to China

China now faces multiple threats from the region with America’s complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, Basit said.

“The Americans only fought the jihadists in the region. For China, it’s a double blow, because not only the Jihadists, (but) the ethno-nationalists are also against China.” Basit added, “these (terrorist) groups need a big enemy to justify their violence. For the last 20 years, the enemy was the U.S. forces. Now the next big villain is China.”

The Baloch National Freedom Movement, a terrorist organization that seeks the independence of Balochistan province in southwest Pakistan, has made it clear that China is their target. In August 2020, the Baloch National Freedom Movement announced an alliance with the Sindhu Desh Liberation Army, a terrorist organization based in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Together, the two accused China of expansionism and occupying local resources in the region.

While terrorist attacks inside China remain unlikely because of the tight security there, said Basit, the Chinese Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project in Pakistan is “China’s soft underbelly and (a) good opportunity for these (militant) groups to target and (pressure) China to amend its behavior (toward the) Xinjiang Muslim community. Otherwise, attacks would continue.”

CPEC is a series of infrastructure projects including highways and ports. Prime Minister Khan describes CPEC as the “flagship project” of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to expand China’s political and economic influence to Europe.

China hopes the Taliban will prevent the infiltration of ETIM militants into Xinjiang. That scenario is considered “a major threat” for China, said Huping Ling, history professor at Truman State University and visiting fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

China and Afghanistan may only share a 75-km border, which is undeveloped and largely impassable during winter months, but Ling said the country has invested resources in securing the border.

“For China, it is strategically important to secure the border because that is one of the headaches regarding maintaining the stability,” Ling added.

She said the Taliban is looking to China to build up infrastructure in Afghanistan to extract an estimated $1 trillion to $3 trillion worth of minerals there. “It will be beneficial to both China and the Taliban’s government.” The Taliban has repeatedly stated they want close relations with China, particularly as Afghanistan is on the verge of economic collapse since the international community has frozen donors’ funds and billions of dollars in assets. “China is our main partner and represents a fundamental and extraordinary opportunity for us because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,” Taliban spokesperson, Zabiullah Mujahid told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on September 2.

Washington says China’s crackdown against ethnic Uighurs amount to a genocide against the majority Muslim group, but so far those repressive policies appear to have had little impact on the Taliban’s view of Beijing.

“They (Taliban) are so anxious to have political and economic assistance from China that they are forgetting the fact that China is one of the greatest abusers of Islamic population on the globe,” said Marvin Weinbaum, the director of the Afghanistan and Pakistan Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

“This suggests that when it comes to the practical politics of governing, ideology takes the back seat,” said Weinbaum.

Human rights organizations accuse Beijing of committing crimes against humanity by arbitrarily detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims in internment camps and forcing others into forced labor.

https://www.voanews.com/a/regional-extremists-energized-by-taliban-s-takeover-could-pose-threat-to-pakistan-china-interests-expert-says-/6236892.html

پشتون کلچر ہمارا قومی و تاریخی ورثہ ہے، جس پر پاکستان کو فخر ہے، چیئرمین پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی بلاول بھٹو زرداری

پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی کے چیٸرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے پشتون کلچر ڈے کے موقعے پر جاری کردہ اپنے بیان میں پی پی پی چیٸرمین نے کہا کہ پشتون کلچر پاکستانی ثقافت کے گلدستے کا ایک خوبصورت پھول ہے۔

 انہوں نے کہا کہ پشتون کلچر ہمارا قومی و تاریخی ورثہ ہے، جس پر پاکستان کو فخر ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ ثقافتی دن منانے سے ملک میں امن اور بھاٸی چارے کو فروغ ملتا ہے۔

 چیٸرمین بلاول بھٹو زرداری نے کہا کہ وفاقی حکومت و متعلقہ اداروں کو پشتون کلچر اور پشتو ادب کو عالمی سطح پر اجاگر کرنے کیلئے ہنگامی بنیادوں پر اقدامات اٹھائیں۔

https://www.ppp.org.pk/pr/25532/