Often referred to as the weaker, fairer sex, women around the world and their voices have been silenced under the din of patriarchy. Though throughout eras, there have been women who have managed to scream and make them heard; even for the betterment of their sisters; it is now, at this moment precisely that women across the world have put a collective foot forward, taken the narrative into their own hands, broken the glass ceiling and emerge as the voice of the universe.

From domestic violence to sexual abuse, equal rights and even overthrowing governments, women have now stood up to be the superpower that will hopefully make the sly rabble rousers and wrongdoers accountable for their actions now and in the future.

From India to Mexico, from Brazil to America, here is a look at how women are claiming their rights, not as the second gender, but the equal one.

India: From Razia Sultan to Savitribai Phule to the Dadis of Shaheen Bagh

India has produced historic iconic women who have championed various causes – be it education, science or art. Be it the valor of Razia Sultan – the first and last female ruler of Delhi who proved her worth as a just ruler, who was an ace administrator or the undying perseverance of Savitribai Phule who founded the first girls’ school in the country, India has witnessed a spurt in social reforms through the actions of such brave women.

From then to now, not much has changed. From women forces behind the success of Mangalyaan to Adivasi activists learning how to fight for their jal, jungle, zameen; women in India have now taken the centre stage in a bid to protect their identity.

Post the announcement of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the possible implementation of the nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC) that is set to affect the minority communities and the marginalized, the women in India have hit the streets to make the government accountable of its fascism and repeal the above mentioned CAA and NRC.

This is possibly the first time that women have become the face of political protests in India. In Shaheen Bagh, a working-class, majority-Muslim neighborhood, the protests began with a small, peaceful sit-in and candlelit vigil by local women. It has been over 70 days now that the women continue undeterred by threats to their lives and possible police and state sponsored atrocities. With children in their laps, they shout slogans for a united and secular India.

Age no bar, it is now the grandmothers who are leading the protests from Shaheen Bagh in Delhi. Following their footsteps, women throughout India have become inspired to come out of their homes and take responsibility for their future and their childrens’ future with mini Shaheen Bagh’s sprouting all over the country.

With artwork, poetry recitals, interfaith prayers, community kitchens that keep the stomach full and the fire burning along with the Constitution of India in hand, the women are going from strength to strength to stand up with their sisters from different communities and overthrow the oppressive policies of the government.

Speaking to Time Magazine, veteran activist and the frontrunner in the Save Narmada Movement Medha Patkar said, “The specialty of a women-led movement is that they can be sustained longer. Women don’t give up. India sees women as shields, but in fact, they are the swords.”

Chile: ‘Never again without us women’

With the slogan – “Nunca más sin nosotras” – Never again without us women, the women in Chile are raising their voices against patriarchal violence, fighting for specific ender-related issues like an end to domestic violence, equality at the workplace and legal abortion, says Alondra Carrillo of La Coordinadora Feminista 8M, the largest feminist advocacy group, reports The Guardian.

The anti-rape song, Un Violador en Tu Camino – A Rapist in Your Path, popularized by a Chilean feminist collective, Las Tesis, was sung by women everywhere across the world to denounce the inaction of the police, judges and the highest authorities in preventing sexual violence.

The song read, “The patriarchy is a judge that judges us for being born, and our punishment is the violence you don’t see,” the chant begins. “It’s femicide. Impunity for the killer. It’s disappearance. It’s rape. And the fault wasn’t mine, not where I was, not how I dressed. … The rapist is you. It’s the cops, the judges, the state. The president. The oppressive state is a rapist.”

According to a report by the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women, 42 cases of sexual abuse are reported each day. Paula Cometa, a member of Las Tesis told The Guardian that the song was never intended to be a protest song, but the women of the marches transformed it into something more.

She said, “It adapted to the moment that we are now living in Chile. The violence and the human rights violations that women have been exposed to recently.”

Talking about the part of the song where the performers squat down, assuming a position similar to that of arrest she said, “It’s a simple form of torture and punishment carried out by the Chilean police.”

Feminists in Chile say that the right-wing government hasn’t done much to address women’s issues. Belén Calcagno, a woman organizing protests throughout the country says that women have always pushed social movements in Chile.

Camila Vallejo, the former student protest leader said, “We will all march for our own reasons. But every woman will march for her own reasons, and on 8 March we will unite with a common demand: to be respected.”

Mexico: ‘This is our feminist spring’

3,825 Mexican women were killed in 2019, out of which the government accounted 1,006 to be femicides – where women are killed because of their gender.

On March 9, the women in Mexico are planning a national strike #UNDIASINMUJERES, or “a day without women” to throw light on the unending violence on women there. On Monday, March 9, women in Mexico will stay off the streets and purchase nothing throughout the day to put across the message – “what if we all just disappeared?”

A total of 1,006 killings were officially classified as femicides, based on a variety of criteria, including whether the victim’s body showed any signs of sexual violence and whether there had been a “sentimental” relationship between the victim and the killer, reported the LA Times.

Now, a call for action is growing louder and protestors are bringing the world’s attention to the failure of the Mexican government to put a stop to the femicides. Speaking to The New York Times, Sabina Berman, a Mexican novelist and feminist activist, said that the nucleus of these latest protests was a younger generation of women who have lost patience with a more measured approach to activism.

Last month, masked feminists covered the presidential palace with blood-red paint and graffiti, calling out the president’s failure to protect women.  

“This is not the fight against any government,” she said. “t is against the entire Mexican state, against the private sector, against the men who harass, who rape, who kill, and against those good men who stand by and do nothing.”

Carolina Barrales, one of the founders of Circulo Violeta, a Tijuana-based feminist collective says, “This is our feminist spring here in Tijuana … and we won’t stop until we get justice.”

Fighting to keep the world safe – From India to Brazil to Greta Thunberg

Citizen’s for Justice and Peace, an NGO, tells us the story of Sokalo Gond – the Adivasi warrior, a human rights defender and one of the most important forces in the struggle for the implementation of forest rights act 2006 in Sonbhadra, a heavilty forested region in Uttar Pradesh.

It also tells us the story of Rajkumari Bhuiya, resident of Sukhda tola [hamlet] in Dhuma village, near Dudhi in Uttar Pradesh who has traveled far and wide to educate people about their rights on their lands for they are dependent on the forest for their livelihoods.

Adivasis often collect Tendu leaves, honey, dry branches and medicinal herbs from the forests and sell those in the markets. Some also have small farms, on which they grow rice or different vegetables. Many Adivasis living in the region have been denied of their lands and rights because of the Sections 4 and 20 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927-a colonial legislation to regulate the movement and transit of forest produce. Many Adivasis have also been charged with false cases under this Act.

The entire region is affected by industrial pollution and displacement of local people has become a regular phenomenon. Researches have pointed out that Sonebhadra’s waters have become poisoned and the air toxic to breathe.

Speaking to CJP Sokalo recounted the horrific firing she and her fellow protestors were subjected to by the police when they were agitating against the Kanhar Dam project. “18 rounds were fired right in front of my eyes. It was terrible. They arrested almost all the women leaders including Rajkumari immediately,” she recalled.

However, encouraged by her and Rajkumari’s unwavering spirit, Adivasis in the region began to file claims to land as a community resource under relevant provisions of the Forest Rights Act 2006.

In Brazil, the indigenous women, the keepers of the Amazon rainforest, came out against President Jair Bolsonaro, also known as the ‘Trump of the Tropics’ and his campaign of destruction claiming that the Amazon forest fires were started deliberately.

Since his inauguration earlier this year, Bolsonaro has worked to dismantle key protections and policies that protect the rights of Indigenous peoples and the Amazon in Brazil. His administration’s devastating assaults on social and environmental protections has led to a surge in deforestation and violations of Indigenous Rights, culminating now in massive fires, reported commondreams.org.

The indigenous women in Brazil have been speaking up for years, in shrill voices, warning about the dangers to the Amazon due to demands of fossil fuel and mining which have been emboldened under Bolsonaro’s administration.

The women’s march in Brazil in 2019, marked another step forward for women-led protests for the protection of the Amazon. Speaking with Amazon Frontlines, Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani leader and President of the regional Waorani political organization of Pastaza, CONCONAWEP, who led her people’s struggle and triumph against the Ecuadorian government, said, “Around the world, the governments are trying to kill us. They want to exploit our lands with no regard for us as human beings. Yet we are the guardians and owners of our territories, which we have cared for and protected for thousands of years. We want to protect our land for the future generations. We want our forest to be free from contamination, free from destruction.”

Across Brazil, indigenous women are taking the baton to spearhead resistance movements for Mother Earth which gives them life. Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara rightly put it when she said, “We don’t have to accept the destruction of our rights. ubmission is not culture. We are here to demystify the idea that indigenous women do not participate in this struggle and to demonstrate that we are prepared to occupy any space.”

Another powerful woman, Greta Thunberg – a Swedish teenage climate activist, deserves a special mention. She began with holding a placard that read, “School Strike for Climate” when she started missing school on Fridays to strike against climate change, while urging students across the world to join her.

Her activism went viral on social media and climate change had a new hashtag #FridaysForFuture. Little did she anticipate in August 2018, around when she started the movement that by December 2018, more than 20,000 students across the world would join her in her fight to protect the earth.

Choosing to travel by road and waterways to practice what she preached, she also travelled to New York in 2019 to address a United Nations climate change conference in a yacht, enduring a journey of over two weeks, to educate people of the consequences of air travel.

She was named Time Magazine’s Person of the year in 2019 after she pulled up world leaders as she boomed into the mic at the climate change conference saying, “How dare you? I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean, yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you?”

She has been mocked by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, but that has not knocked her down. In her fight to make authorities accountable for their actions against the environment and in her protests to create awareness for cutting down carbon emissions, Greta is one girl, who has inspired everyone to fight for the world they live in and that the future children will inherit.

To write about the brave women of the world, all the pages would not be enough. From fighting against sexual abuse to fighting for equal pay, from fighting against domestic violence to fighting for legalizing abortion and reclaiming reproductive rights, from fighting for education to fighting for an identity; women have now broken all shackles to truly identify their power and demand what is theirs.

It is now, with collective solidarity and empathy, that women have found the courage to overcome their fears and march ahead as their own savior.

Related:

Sisterhood unites to fight oppression: Forest workers meet Shaheen Bagh protesters

प्रमिला ताईंच्या शब्दातून कत्तल झालेल्या झाडांची व्यथा

Maa aur Mulk – the non-negotiability of Muslim identity

The post Women of the World, Unite: An ode to women who stood up for the future of the world appeared first on SabrangIndia.

From a continuous sit-in at Shaheen Bagh to forming human chains around their fellow male protestors to ward off the police, women are leading the charge of India’s awakening and revolution. Yet, it is still commonplace for various male leaders to use, “Choodiyan pehen lo” (“Go wear bangles”) as a derogatory slur to talk down to other male opponents. The hands of women adorned in bangles, mehndi, smart watches, and FitBits, wielding laptops, cameras, milk bottles, or kitchen utensils, are much stronger than these misogynistic stereotypes.

The unpaid and unsaid labor of women has been glorified on every Women’s Day, deeming them Goddesses and bringers of life, so is India ready to see women who do not want to be put on a pedestal? Is India prepared for women who want their rights, and are willing to fight for them? And when I say women, I mean all women. Transwomen are women. Transwomen have been fighting very visibly against the discriminatory Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act as well as CAA/NRC that adversely affects transpersons and non-binary people.

Many Indians are quick to dismiss women empowerment with thin arguments like, “Go see the condition of women in Pakistan/Bangladesh and see how empowered Indian women are”. It is easy to take this apparent empowerment for granted, but if Indian women have achieved enough empowerment, why is India still among the most dangerous countries for women? Why is sexual violence so rampant? We are still coming to grips and slowly unraveling the true extent of sexual abuse of women in the Delhi pogrom 2020. The fact that relief materials being collected include emergency contraceptives speaks volumes about the yet to be uncovered cases of sexual violence.

In any war, pogrom, or riot, women and children are adversely affected. As long as women’s bodies and lives are treated as property, as conquest, as spoils of war, we cannot say that we have achieved enough rights for women. Another perspective to consider is what empowerment means to women themselves. It is very succinctly put by Pakistan’s Aurat March slogan “Mera Jism, Meri Marzi” (“My body, My will”). This is also the core of the multitude of things that are wrong with the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. How can any authority, any other person, ever determine someone’s gender identity? How can anyone set any criteria- physical or psychological- to certify whether they are trans or not?

Our leaders, our family members, and our fellow citizens may have been conditioned by centuries of patriarchy into believing that women are the weaker sex. Maybe this is why slurs and derogatory comments are inherently misogynistic and transphobic. Yet, this is no excuse to continue perpetuating these notions. Women are fighting an entire regime, putting their bodies in the line of fire, and all you see is a tapestry of bangles, burqas, and bindis that has far greater integrity than any man who stands in the hallowed halls of Government passing orders that can and have ruined lives and communities.

This Women’s Day, do away with glorification and condescention. All you need is to open your eyes and look at the women doing everything in their power to RESIST. Multiple women’s protests and sit-ins have erupted all over the country besides Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Witness their strength and beauty in all its glory.

To all those who think this is a new phenomenon, I urge you to read about the nude protests by Manipuri grandmothers 16 years ago to voice their rage against the brutal gang rape and murder of a Manipuri woman, Manorama, by members of paramilitary forces.

 Image courtesy BBC.com

The message is clear. When you threaten our rights, we will fight, and we will not back down. Our Burqas, Bindis, and Bangles will be the symbols of our protests. These are our lives, our families, our communities, our bodies. Will India accept us without our pedestals?

Related articles:

1. New POCSO Act retains clause “sexual assault on child in course of communal and sectarian violence”
2. Shaheen Bagh interlocutors submit report to SC
3. Sustaining Shaheen Bagh & Challenges that lie ahead

The post Burqas, Bindis, and Bangles: The Femme Revolution of India appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The “official” International Women’s Day website laudably proclaims: “A balanced world is a better world. How can you help forge a more gender-balanced world? Celebrate women’s achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality” [1]. In Australia, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (the ABC, Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC) has marked the event in various ways. Notably, the ABC Classic FM radio is show-casing women classical composers (notably Hildegard of Bingen,  Clara Schumann, and Fanny Mendelsohn as well as  the Australian composers Elena Kats-Chernin, Margaret Sutherland and Miriam Hyde). However in our still overwhelmingly patriarchal post-Agrarian Revolution societies, mothers are tightly linked to care of infants and children [2, 3], and in the high birth rate societies of the Developing World that are subject to deadly impoverishment  children are roughly 50% of the population, females about 50%, women about 25%, and women and children  about 75% of the population [4, 5].

The pre-Agrarian Revolution hunter-gatherer (forager) societies were far more “balanced” in that there was women-empowering division of labour, more female partner selection, greater genetic diversity and broader decision-making. The Agrarian Revolution  meant much greater populations and corresponding food stores,  but this was accompanied by predation, war,  the ascent of patriarchal dictatorships, decrease in genetic diversity and the subjugation of women as chattels, slaves, multiple child producers and child rearers [2, 3]. This violent, patriarchal state of affairs is still widespread today, with a gentler patriarchy still continuing in the rich and democratic West. Thus non-Indigenous, White Australian women got the vote in democratic, newly independent Australia in 1901, but Indigenous Australian women (and men) only got citizenship and the vote after a Whites-only Referendum in 1967, only about 50 years ago [6]. All adult women only finally got the vote in 1928 in the UK (only 90 years ago and about 10,000 years after the start of the Agrarian Revolution).

The loss of “balance”, that began with the Agrarian Revolution  supplanting the sustainable, food-sharing and women-empowering forager societies,  has persisted and worsened over the millennia despite the recent cosmetics of Western-style democracy (de jure equal rights of women to vote for de facto mostly male politicians representing  male-dominated corporations and One Percenters). Life for women was very unpleasant in the post-Agrarian Revolution  world with the accompaniment of violent patriarchy, subjugation, multiple child bearing to death, war, rape, epidemic disease, holocausts and genocides. Despite recent increases in life expectancy in the last century, and lovely lives for the post-WW2 Western “baby-boomers”, Humanity is now existentially threatened by nuclear weapons (a nuclear exchange could happen any time, with a subsequent nuclear winter  wiping out most of Humanity and the Biosphere) [8] and by a worsening climate genocide (about 1 million people presently die from climate change each year but unaddressed climate change may kill 10 billion people this century) [8, 9]. Indeed 15 million people already die avoidably from deprivation each year in the Developing World (minus China) [4].

From these considerations  one can readily appreciate why Professor Jared Diamond (acclaimed for his books “Guns, Germs and Steel” [10]  and “Collapse” [11]) described the Agrarian Revolution as “The worst mistake in the history  of the human race” [12]. However  thanks to the Agrarian Revolution and the continuing 18th – 21st century Industrial  Revolution the world now has a population of 7.6 billion, although this has come at the cost of massive loss of Biodiversity (the extinction rate is now 100-1,000 times greater than normal, this leading to description of the current era as the Anthropocene [13-21]).

The worsening climate emergency and climate genocide [9] is associated with ever-increasing atmospheric CO2 [22] and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) [23-25],  and ever-increasing carbon fuel use for electricity  generation [26]. Eminent climate scientist Professor James Hansen(NASA and Columbia University) has stated that to correct the Earth’s presently disastrous energy imbalance we must urgently reduce the atmospheric CO2 to 342-373 ppm CO2 from the present disastrous 407 ppm CO2. The cost of extracting 1 ppm of CO2 from the atmosphere is $878- $1,803 billion but continuing inaction is not an option – the Paris commitments mean a 3C temperature rise  and eventual inundation of coastal areas by a 15-25 meters sea level rise [27]. The upper estimate of reducing atmospheric CO2 to 300 ppm CO2 (as argued by many experts) is thus 107 ppm CO2 x $1.803 trillion/ppm CO2 = $193 trillion, or about half  the total wealth of the world.  Realistically, it surely is not going to happen.  It is now effectively too late to avoid a plus 2C temperature rise but we are obliged to do everything we can to make the future “less bad” for our children, grandchildren and future generations.

As argued by numerous science-informed people from Pope Francis to Professor James Hansen and other scientists, the most compelling required action  is to put a price on damaging carbon pollution [2, 24, 27-31] and Dr Chris Hope of the University of Cambridge has estimated a damage-related carbon price of $200 per tonne CO2 [30] –  but governments are unwilling to bite the bullet and apply a proper carbon price. In despair, I and others have suggested that resolutely promising eventual, draconian, judicial punishment of the worst corporate, media and politician climate criminals  may be the most effective way to get rapid, requisite action on climate change [32, 33]. However climate change is but part of the threat to Humanity. It is argued that in addition to negative carbon emissions back to a pre-Industrial Revolution  atmospheric level of about 300 ppm CO2 [34-36], there must also be  a 50% reduction in world population and negative economic growth back to about 50% of the present level (with most of the burden being borne by the Developed North as the impoverished South grows to a decent standard of life ) [36].

What women must also protest for the sake of women and children. 
Females are about 50% of Humanity. In the impoverished, high birth rate South, children are about 50% of the population, females about 50%,  adult women about 25%, and women and children are about 75% of the population. Below are some Elephant in the Room mother and child realities of the impoverished South that should be  (but aren’t) canvassed by Western women on International Women’s Day.

1. 75% of the 5 million impoverished Occupied Palestinians and 7 million Exiled Palestinians are women and children.
Of about 14 million Indigenous Palestinians, 7 million  are Exiled (forbidden on pain of death to enter the Homeland that their forebears inhabited for thousands of years to the very dawn of the Agrarian Revolution), 5 million are Occupied Palestinians (deprived of all human rights as specified by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [37], and highly abusively confined to the Gaza Concentration Camp (2 million) or to West Bank ghettoes (3 million), and about  2 million are “lucky” Palestinian Israelis living as Third Class citizens of Apartheid Israel  under about 60 Nazi-style, race-based, discriminatory laws [38, 39]. It can be estimated that in the 21st century an average of about 550 Occupied Palestinians were violently killed by Israelis each year [40] and over 4,000 have died avoidably each year from Jewish Israeli-imposed deprivation [4, 40]. The GDP per capita is a deadly $3,000 for Occupied Palestinians as compared to $40,000 for Israelis [41].  The ongoing Palestinian Genocide has been associated with 2.3 million Palestinians deaths from violence (0.1 million) or from deprivation (2.2 million) since the British invasion of Palestine in WW1 [42-51].  Three quarters of the 5 million  impoverished and sorely oppressed Occupied Palestinians and three quarters of the 7 million cruelly Exiled Palestinians are women and children.

2. 75% of the  2 million inmates of the Gaza Concentration Camp are women and children.
Most of the 2 million inmates of the Gaza Concentration Camp derive from successive mass ethnic cleansings of Indigenous inhabitants of Palestine and adjacent areas by the genocidal Zionists (800,000 expelled  in 1948 and a further  400,000 expelled in 1967) [42-51]. The genocidally racist Israelis have been violently blockading Gaza since 2007 by land, air and sea and with carefully measured Sanctions that deliberately only  permit bare survival. While the per capita GDP is $3,000 for Occupied Palestinians as a whole [41], the per capita GDP in the Gaza Concentration Camp is a mere $900 [52]. The UN says that Gaza’s only aquifer is almost depleted and is salinizing, that potable water does not meet WHO salinity standards, hospitals are struggling,  and that insufficient sewage treatment poses a major health problem [53]. Unemployment is over 40% and UN experts have warned that Gaza is approaching  an “unliveable” state [53, 54]. On top of all of these deliberately imposed and dire circumstances, much of the population is variously traumatized by recurrent Israeli “collective punishment” by high explosive bombardment by air, sea and land forces. Thus,  while retaliatory home-made rockets from Gaza killed only 32 Israelis in the period 2010-2014 [55], horrendously disproportionate Israeli shelling, bombing and shooting attacks in the 21st century (mostly on Gaza) have killed about  10,000  Palestinians, wounded tens of thousands and various traumatized millions [40]. In the carnage inflicted on unarmed Gazan demonstrators since the US moved its embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, the Israelis have deliberately killed over 200 Palestinians and wounded 18,000 (as of November 2018) [56]. According to the UN (2014), “more than 300,000 children are in need of psycho-social support” after the horrendous 2014  Israel bombing [57]. Three quarters of the utterly impoverished, health-challenged and variously traumatized 2 million inmates of the Gaza Concentration Camp are women and children.

3. 75% of the impoverished South are women and children.
The UN Population Division informs that there are about 4.9 million people in the Less Developed World (minus China) [5]. Roughly 50% are children, 50% female, 25% women and 75% are women and children. According to World Hunger : “The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that about 815 million people of the 7.6 billion people in the world, or 10.7%, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2016. Almost all the hungry people live in lower-middle-income countries. There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries” [58]. Three quarters of the impoverished South are women and children.

4. 75% of the 15 million people dying avoidably from deprivation annually are women and children.
Western Mainstream media are obsessed with violent deaths in the West and violent deaths of Westerners elsewhere. Of considerably less interest to Western Mainstream media are violent deaths of non-Westerners,   and while there is occasional  interest  in Western preventable  deaths from “lifestyle” reasons (e.g. from smoking or drinking),   there is almost zero (0)  interest in avoidable deaths from deprivation in the South. Avoidable deaths from deprivation in a country in a given period can be readily determined as the difference between the actual mortality and deaths expected in a peaceful, decently-run country with the same demographics (e.g. the same birth-rate and percentage of children in the population) [4]. Using data from the UN Population Division one can readily determine that about 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year in the Less Developed World (minus China) , assuming a base-line mortality for such impoverished, high birth rate  countries of 4 such deaths per thousand of population per year [4]. Annual avoidable mortality from deprivation on this global comparative scale is approximately zero (0) in rich Western  countries  and in China, Japan and South Korea [4]. 15 million people die each year from deprivation on Spaceship Earth with the One Percenters (half female) in charge of the flight deck. Three quarters of the 15 million people dying avoidably from deprivation annually are women and children.

5. 75% of the world’s 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons are women and children.
According to the UNHCR (UN High Commission for Refugees) there are 68.5 million  forcibly displaced persons in the world of whom 40 million are Internally Displaced People, 3.1 million are Asylum seekers,  and  25.4 million are refugees  including 19.4 million under UNHCR mandate and  5.4 million Palestinians registered by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East);  85% of the world’s displaced people are in Developing  Countries; 57% of refugees came from 3 countries, namely South Sudan (2.4 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million) and Syria (6.3 million); and the top refugee-hosting countries are  Iran (1.0 million), Lebanon (1.0 million),  Pakistan (1.4 million), Uganda (1.4 million), and Turkey (3.5 million) [59]. The US Alliance (notably the US, UK, France, EU, Canada Australia and Saudi Arabia) and US-backed Apartheid Israel have variously played a major role in driving these mostly Muslim people from their homes, and to add insult to injury  are variously subverting, threatening, sanctioning, attacking  or bombing the major refugee-hosting countries. Three quarters of the world’s 68.5 million forcibly displaced persons are women and children.

6. 75% of the 27 million Muslims who have died avoidably from deprivation in the genocidal US War on Muslims  are women and children.
About 40 million Asians have died from violence or war-imposed deprivation in post-WW2 US Asian wars [4, 60]. Thus, for example, it is estimated that 28% of the North Korean population died in the US saturation bombing campaign in the Korean War [61].  I am ashamed to say that my own country, Australia, has participated in all of these atrocities  [4, 62], and US lackey Australia is second only to the US as a supporter of nuclear terrorist, genocidally racist, serial invader, serial occupier, serial war criminal and democracy-by-genocide Apartheid Israel [46]. Britain and France have similarly appalling  records of state terrorism [4, 63-66]. It is estimated that 32 million Muslims have died from violence, 5 million, or from imposed deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9-11 false flag atrocity in 2001 [67, 68]. Three quarters of the 27 million Muslims  who have died avoidably from deprivation in the genocidal US War on Muslims (aka the US War on Terror)  are women and children.

7. 75%  of those dying from present US-imposed Sanctions on impoverished countries are women and children.
As variously described by John Perkin in his “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” [69],  William Blum in his “Rogue State” [70] and Philip Agee in his “Inside the Company: CIA Diary”  [71] , ‎the US has an escalating  process of getting pliant foreign governments that successively involves (1) corruption, subversion and sanctions, (2) thence assassination of leaders it doesn’t like, and, (3) if all else fails, outright invasion and installation of pliant Quislings.  Sanctions have played an important part of US “regime change” operations and can be horrendously deadly. Thus, for example,  Iraqi avoidable deaths from deprivation under US Sanctions, from 1990  until US Alliance invasion in 2003, totalled 1.5 million [4, 72, 73]. Indeed on May 12 1996 on “60 Minutes”, the anti-racist Jewish American journalist, Lesley Stahl, famously asked US UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright “We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” to which Albright replied “We think the price is worth it” [74]. US Sanctions on Iran are associated with 55,000 avoidable deaths from deprivation each year [67, 75]. Blockade and war on the Yemen by the US-backed Saudi Alliance is passively killing 110,000 Yemenis each year  in the ongoing Yemeni Genocide [75]. The current Sanctions against Venezuela are egregiously compounding dire economic problems and are deadly – presently over 56,000 Venezuelans die avoidably from deprivation each year in a fabulously oil-rich country struggling under American Sanctions [4, 5]. The US urged and applied Sanctions against North Korea (applied in 1950) [76], and  have been  associated with deadly deprivation and famine  – presently 129,000 North Koreans die avoidably from deprivation each year under   deadly US Sanctions [4, 5]. The US also applies sanctions against relatively prosperous, low birth rate, and low avoidable mortality   countries it doesn’t like, notably China and Russia. Threat and isolation imposed on impoverished China by the US and its allies before general diplomatic recognition of China in the 1970s contributed to the disaster of the 1958-1962 Great Leap Forward in which about 20-30 million Chinese perished in associated famine [4, 77]. Three quarters   of those dying from present US-imposed Sanctions on impoverished countries are women and children.

8. 75% of the 1,500 million people who died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 in a US Alliance-dominated world were women and children.
It has been exhaustively determined that 1.3 billion people died avoidably from deprivation in the period 1950-2005 [4] (about 1.5 billion since 1950 to the present). This still continuing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust has occurred on Spaceship Earth with the US Alliance in charge of the flight deck. Presently 15 million people die avoidably from deprivation each year in the impoverished South. This carnage has been associated with Western imperialism and Western neo-colonial hegemony.  Thus 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries variously occupied in the post-WW2 era total 727 million (UK-occupied), 142 million (French-occupied), 82 million (US-occupied) and 24 million (Apartheid Israel-occupied) [4]. Of course this Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust is utterly avoidable but for One Percenter greed. Thus it is estimated that a 4% annual wealth tax would be sufficient to bring all countries up to the modest per capita GDP enjoyed by China and Cuba, countries for which annual avoidable mortality from deprivation is zero (0) [78]. Three quarters of the 1,500 million people who died avoidably from deprivation since 1950 in a US Alliance-dominated world were women and children.

9. 75% of avoidable deaths from deprivation in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan have been women and children due to gross Occupier violation of the Geneva Convention.
Further to item #8, one notes that Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War unequivocally state that an Occupier must provide life-sustaining food and medical care to the Occupied subjects “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” [79]. The extremely rich and self-assertedly “civilized” countries of the US Alliance (most notably the US, UK and US lackey Australia) grossly violated these articles of the Geneva Convention in their war criminal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. China has been hugely successful in radically reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality in Tibet and in China as a whole, but in stark contrast, the war criminal US Alliance occupation of neighbouring Afghanistan continues to be associated with an under-1 infant mortality and maternal mortality incidence that are 7 times higher and 4-12 times higher, respectively, than that in Tibet – evidence of gross violation of the Geneva Convention and the UN Genocide Convention by the US Alliance [80]. Avoidable deaths from deprivation in Occupied Afghanistan totalled 4.2 million in the period 2001-2015 [73]. In relation to “to the fullest extent of the means available to it”, while the per capita GDP is  about $600 for Occupied Afghanistan, that for the richest Western US Alliance Occupiers   are $56,000 (US), $51,000 (Australia). $43,000 (Canada), $42,000 (Germany), $36,000 (France), and  $30,000 (UK) [41, 80].  Similarly, 2003-2011 Iraqi avoidable deaths from deprivation  in Occupied Iraq totalled  1.2 million [72, 73] and the per capita annual medical expenditure in Occupied Iraq was only $37  (roughly  the cost of a 5 minute consultation with a General Practitioner doctor in war criminal Australia) [81]. Three quarters  of avoidable deaths from deprivation in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan have been of women and children and occurred in gross violation of the Geneva Convention by the war criminal US Alliance.

10. 75% of the predicted 10 billion climate genocide deaths this century will be women and children.
Presently about 7.5 million people die avoidably (prematurely) each year due to the effects carbon burning pollutants (7.0 million) (WHO) or to climate change (0.5 million). This latter estimate of presently about 0.5 million climate change-related deaths  is likely to be an under-estimate  because UN Population Division data indicate that presently 15 million  people die avoidably (prematurely) each year due to poverty in the Developing World (minus China), with these impoverished, tropical or sub-tropical countries already being severely impacted by global warming. Both Dr James Lovelock FRS (atmospheric composition and Gaia hypothesis) and Professor Kevin Anderson ( Deputy Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, UK) have estimated that only about 0.5 billion people will survive this century due to unaddressed, man-made global warming. Noting that the world population is expected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050 (UN Population Division) [5], these estimates translate to a climate genocide involving deaths of 10 billion people this century, this including roughly twice the present population of particular mainly non-European groups, specifically 6 billion under-5 year old infants, 3 billion Muslims in a terminal Muslim Holocaust, 2 billion Indians, 1.3 billion non-Arab Africans, 0.5 billion Bengalis, 0.3 billion Pakistanis and 0.3 billion Bangladeshis. 10 billion avoidable deaths due to global warming this century yields an average annual avoidable death rate this century of 100 million per year, with this carnage being largely restricted to impoverished countries of the South  [9]. Professor Stephen Hawking has repeatedly stated (2007 to 2018): “We see great peril if governments and societies do not take action now to render nuclear weapons obsolete and to prevent further climate change” [82, 83].  Unfortunately, as discussed above in the preamble to this essay, “action now… to prevent further climate change” is simply not going to happen on present disastrous trends [13-27].  In the absence of requisite climate action in this still male-dominated world, three quarters  of the predicted 10 billion climate genocide deaths this century will be of women and children.

Final comments.

International Women’s Day has seen highly praiseworthy actions and demonstrations around the world for women’s rights (most glaringly absent in Islamofascist, climate criminal  and war criminal Saudi Arabia) , gender equity and cessation of violence against women. However the Elephant in the Room that has been  ignored (and is remorselessly ignored every day of the year in the obscenely wealthy and resolutely myopic West) is the continuing Global Avoidable Mortality Holocaust  in which 15 million people, 75% women and children, die avoidably from deprivation each year in the impoverished global South. It gets worse – in the absence of requisite urgent action on climate change, there are  predicted to be 10 billion deaths this century in a worsening climate genocide and 75%  of these deaths will be of women and children.  Silence is complicity – please inform everyone you can.

References.
[1]. “International Women’s Day”: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ .
[2]. Colin White, “A History of the Global Economy. The Inevitable Accident”, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK, 2018.
[3]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “A History of the Global Economy, The inevitable accident” – Indian Holocaust & Genocide Ignored”, Countercurrents, 17 February 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/02/17/review-a-history-of-the-global-economy-indian-holocaust-genocide-ignored/ .
[4]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, including an avoidable mortality-related history of every country from Neolithic times and is now available for free perusal on the web: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com.au/ .
[5]. UN Population Division, “World population prospects 2017”: https://population.un.org/wpp/ .
[6]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[7]. “Women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_Kingdom .
[8]. “Nuclear weapons ban, end poverty & reverse climate change”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/nuclear-weapons-ban .
[9]. “Climate Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/climategenocide/ .
[10]. Jared Diamond, “Guns, Germs and Steel”,
[11]. Jared Diamond, “Collapse”,
[12]. Jared Diamond, “The worst mistake in the history  of the human race”, Discover, 1 May 1999: http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race .
[13]. Gerardo Ceballos, Paul R. Ehrlich, and Rodolfo Dirzo, “Biological annihilation via the ongoing sixth mass extinction signaled by vertebrate population losses and declines” PNAS 25 July 2017: https://www.pnas.org/content/114/30/E6089.full .
[14]. IPCC, “Global warming of 1.5 °C”, 8 October 2018: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ .
[15]. IPCC, “Global warming of 1.5 °C. Summary for Policymakers”, 8 October 2018: http://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf .
[16]. William J. Ripple et al., 15,364 signatories from 184 countries, “World scientists’ warning to Humanity: a second notice”, Bioscience, 13 November 2017: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/bix125/4605229 .
[17]. Gideon Polya, “Over 15,000 scientists issue dire warning to humanity on catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss” ”, Countercurrents, 20 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/20/over-15000-scientists-issue-dire-warning-to-humanity-on-catastrophic-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss/ .
[18]. Andrew Glikson, “The IPCC’s final warnings of extreme global warming”, Countercurrents, 10 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/10/the-ipccs-final-warnings-of-extreme-global-warming/ .
[19]. Gideon Polya, “IPCC +1.5C avoidance report: effectively too late but stop coal burning for “less bad” catastrophes, Countercurrents, 12 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/12/ipcc-1-5c-avoidance-report-effectively-too-late-but-stop-coal-burning-for-less-bad-catastrophes/ .
[20]. Gideon Polya, “Pro-coal Australia & Trump America Reject Dire IPCC Report & Declare War on Terra”, Countercurrents, 17 October 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/17/pro-coal-australia-trump-america-reject-dire-ipcc-report-declare-war-on-terra/ .
[21]. Phillip Levin, Donald Levin, “The real biodiversity crisis”, American Scientist, January-February 2002: http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/the-real-biodiversity-crisis .
[22]. US NOAA, “Full Mauna Loa CO2 record”: https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/full.html .
[23]. “Methane Bomb Threat”: https://sites.google.com/site/methanebombthreat/ .
[24]. “2011 climate change course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course .
[25]. “Global N2O levels”: https://www.n2olevels.org/
[26]. David Spratt, “Our energy challenge in 6 eye-popping charts”, Climate Code Red, 17 June 2018: http://www.climatecodered.org/2018/06/our-energy-challenge-in-6-eye-popping.html .
[27]. James Hansen, “Climate change in a nutshell: the gathering storm”, Columbia University, 18 December 2018: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2018/20181206_Nutshell.pdf  .
[28]. Gideon Polya, “Green Left Pope Francis Demands Climate Action “Without Delay” To Prevent Climate “Catastrophe””, Countercurrents, 10 August, 2015: https://countercurrents.org/polya100815.htm .
[29]. Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter “Laudato si’”, 2015: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html .
[30]. Dr Chris Hope, “How high should climate change taxes be?”, Working Paper Series, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, 9.2011: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/media/assets/wp1109.pdf .
[31]. “Carbon Debt Carbon Credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .
[32].  Gideon Polya, “Resolutely promised prosecutions of climate criminals may force urgent climate action”, Countercurrents, 5 January 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/01/05/resolutely-promised-prosecutions-of-climate-criminals-may-force-urgent-climate-action/ .
[33]. Richard Hil and Gideon Polya, “The silencing of the climate emergency, and what we should do about it” (New Matilda, 5 March 2019: https://newmatilda.com/2019/03/05/silencing-climate-emergency/ .
[34]. Gideon Polya, “How much negative carbon emissions, negative population growth & negative economic growth is needed to save planet?”, Countercurrents, 28 November 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/28/how-much-negative-carbon-emissions-negative-population-growth-negative-economic-growth-is-needed-to-save-planet/ .
[35]. 300.org: . https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org .
[36]. “300.org – return atmosphere CO2 to 300 ppm CO2”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/300-org—return-atmosphere-co2-to-300-ppm .
[37]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel Excludes Occupied Palestinians From All Provisions Of  The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights”,  Countercurrents, 20 May 2012: https://countercurrents.org/polya200512.htm .
[38]. Susan Abulhawa, “Israel’s “nation-sate law” parallels the Nazi Nuremburg Laws”, Al Jazeera, 27 July 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-nation-state-law-parallels-nazi-nuremberg-laws-180725084739536.html .
[39]. “Discriminatory laws in Israel:, Adalah, https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index?page=4 .
[40].  Gideon Polya, “Israelis kill 10 times more Israelis in Apartheid Israel than do terrorists”, Countercurrents, 1 March 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/01/israelis-kill-ten-times-more-israelis-in-apartheid-israel-than-do-terrorists/ .
[41]. “List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita .
[42].   Gideon Polya, “Palestinian Genocide–imposing Apartheid Israel Complicit In Rohingya Genocide, Other Genocides & US, UK & Australian State Terrorism”, Countercurrents, 30 November 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/30/palestinian-genocide-imposing-apartheid-israel-complicit-in-rohingya-genocide-other-genocides-us-uk-australian-state-terrorism/  .
[43]. “Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ .
[44]. Gideon Polya, “Israeli-Palestinian & Middle East conflict – from oil to climate genocide”, Countercurrents, 21 August 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/08/21/israeli-palestinian-middle-east-conflict-from-oil-to-climate-genocide/ .
[45]. Gideon Polya, “End 50 Years Of Genocidal Occupation & Human Rights Abuse By US-Backed Apartheid Israel”, Countercurrents,  9 June  2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/06/09/end-50-years-of-genocidal-occupation-human-rights-abuse-by-us-backed-apartheid-israel/ .
[46]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal  Genocide compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/20/apartheid-israels-palestinian-genocide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/ .
[47]. Francis A. Boyle, “The Palestinian Genocide By Israel”, Countercurrents, 30 August, 2013: https://www.countercurrents.org/boyle300813.htm .
[48]. “The genocide of the Palestinian people:  an International Law and Human Rights perspective”, Center for Constitutional Rights, 25 August 2016: https://ccrjustice.org/genocide-palestinian-people-international-law-and-human-rights-perspective .
[49]. Professor William A. Cook (editor),   “The Plight of the Palestinians. A Long History of Destruction”, Palgrave Macmillan, London , 2010.
[50]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Plight Of The Palestinians. A Long History Of Destruction””,  Countercurrents, 17 June, 2012: https://www.countercurrents.org/polya170612.htm .
[51]. Ilan Pappe, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”,  Oneworld, 2007.
[52]. “Economy of the State of Palestine”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_State_of_Palestine .
[53]. Merrit Kennedy, “U.N. says Gaza is “de-developing” even faster than expected”, National Public Radio, 11 July 2017: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/11/536656901/u-n-says-gaza-is-de-developing-even-faster-than-expected .
[54]. “Gaza conditions “inlivable” 10 years into siefe: UN”, Al Jazeera, 12 July 2017: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/living-conditions-worsen-10-year-gaza-siege-170712045047448.html .
[55]. “Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel .
[56]. “Gaza protests: all the latest updates”, 12 November 2018: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/gaza-protest-latest-updates-180406092506561.html
[57]. “Gaza emergency”, UNRWA: https://www.unrwa.org/gaza-emergency .
[58]. World Hunger, “2018 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics”: https://www.worldhunger.org/world-hunger-and-poverty-facts-and-statistics/ .
[59]. UNHCR, “Figures at a glance”: https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html .
[60]. Gideon Polya, “The US Has Invaded 70 Nations Since 1776 – Make 4 July Independence From America Day”, Countercurrents, 5 July, 2013: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm .
[61]. Michel Chossudovsky, “Know the facts: North Korea lost close to 30% of its population as a result of US bombings in the 1950s”, Global Research, 27 November 2010: http://www.globalresearch.ca/know-the-facts-north-korea-lost-close-to-30-of-its-population-as-a-result-of-us-bombings-in-the-1950s/22131 .
[62]. Gideon Polya, “As UK Lackeys Or US Lackeys Australians Have Invaded 85 Countries (British 193, French 80, US 70)”, Countercurrents, 9 February, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya090215.htm
[63].  Gideon Polya, “British Have Invaded 193 Countries:  Make  26 January ( Australia Day, Invasion Day) British Invasion Day”, Countercurrents, 23 January, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya230115.htm .
[64]. Gideon Polya, “President Hollande And French Invasion Of Privacy Versus French Invasion Of 80 Countries Since 800 AD”, Countercurrents, 15 January, 2014: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya150114.htm  .
[65]. “Stop state terrorism” : https://sites.google.com/site/stopstateterrorism/ .
[66]. “State crime and non-state terrorism”: https://sites.google.com/site/statecrimeandnonstateterrorism/  .
[67]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable  Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .
[68]. “Experts: US did 9-11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[69]. John Perkins, “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”,  ‎Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2004.
[70]. William Blum, “Rogue State”, Common Courage, 2000.
[71] Philip Agee, “Inside the Company. CIA Diary”, Penguin, 1975.
[72]. “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/   .
[73]. “Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: http://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/   .
[74]. Lesley Stahl and Madeleine Albright quoted in “Madeleine Albright”, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright .
[75]. Gideon Polya, “Saudi Crimes: Khashoggi Murder, Yemeni Genocide & Complicity In US-imposed Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Countercurrents, 1 November 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/01/saudi-crimes-khashoggi-murder-yemeni-genocide-complicity-in-us-imposed-muslim-holocaust-muslim-genocide/ .
[76]. “United States embargoes”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargoes .
[77]. “Great Leap Forward”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward .
[78]. Gideon Polya, “4% Annual Global Wealth Tax to stop 17 million avoidable deaths annually”, Gideon Polya,  27 June 2014: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/4-annual-wealth-tax .
[79]. “Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Geneva%20Convention%20IV.pdf
[80]. Gideon Polya, “China’s health success versus passive mass murder of Afghan women and children by US Alliance’, Global Research, 7 January 2018: https://www.globalresearch.ca/chinas-tibet-health-success-versus-passive-mass-murder-of-afghan-women-and-children-by-us-alliance/5625151 .
[81]. Gideon Polya, “Passive genocide in Iraq”, Countercurrents, 11 March 2005: https://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya110305.htm .
[82]. Professor Stephen Hawking quoted in  Will Dunham, “Nuclear, climate perils push Doomsday Clock ahead”, Reuters, 22 January 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN17314370 .
[83].  Stephen Hawking, “Brief Answers to the Big Questions”, John Murray, 2018, Chapter 7.

Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at a major Australian university for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds” (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/australian-complicity-in-iraq-mass-mortality/3369002#transcript

) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/  ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/social-economic-history/listen-the-bengal-famine  ;  Gideon Polya: https://sites.google.com/site/drgideonpolya/home  ; Gideon Polya Writing: https://sites.google.com/site/gideonpolyawriting/ ; Gideon Polya, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Polya ) . When words fail one can say it in pictures – for images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/  .

Courtesy: Counter Current
 

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Hadiya’s father Asokan had earlier approached the police claiming Hadiya was brainwashed into converting to Islam. His allegation ranged from Love Jihad to the conspiracy to turn Hadiya into a sex slave for ISIS! The National Investigation Agency started probing allegations and the Kerala High Court showed utter disregard for an adult woman’s choice by calling her marriage a “sham”. The Kerala HC not only annulled her marriage, but also awarding her custody to her parents.
 
The Bench comprising Justice Surendra Mohan and Justice Abraham Mathew had made some controversial observations like: “a girl aged 24 years is weak and vulnerable, capable of being exploited in many ways” and “her marriage being the most important decision in her life, can also be taken only with the active involvement of her parents.”

The matter eventually wound up in the Supreme Court when Hadiya’s husband challenged this decision. The SC finally heard from Hadiya in person in November 2017 where she not only reiterated that she married Shafin of her own free will, but also insisted that she converted to Islam without any influence or pressure. The SC directed that Hadiya be sent to Shivraj Homeo Medical College in Salem to complete her education. Last month Hadiya sought the court’s permission to live with her husband.
 
But on March 6, her father Asokan came up with a new conspiracy theory naming new people who allegedly influenced and brainwashed Hadiya and planned to sell her as a sex slave in Yemen. He continued to reiterate that despite being an adult Hadiya was unable to take any decisions about her life and needed guidance. However, the court took note of Haiya’s choice and restored her marriage and stated in it March 8, 2018 order:
“Hadiya alias Akhila Asokan is at liberty to pursue her future endeavours according to law.”
 
The entire order can be read here.
 
While Hadiya’s marriage to Shafin Jehan was restored on Thursday, the NIA investigation into cases of fake marriages conducted on the pretext of supplying sex slaves to Middle Easter terrorists will continue.     

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