Ethic Soup

Football Coach Brands Bullying Victims 'Queer' and 'Cry Babies'

A high school football coach in Wyoming was forced to resign as coach following controversy over a sexist and homophobic questionnaire he gave to his teenage players called the "Hurt Feelings Report," reports the Casper Star-Tribune.

BULLIED KIDS AT RISK

This a time when bullied kids are committing suicide and massive campaigns to end bullying are emphasizing that kids must tell someone what's happening to them.

Yet, this sarcastic survey demeans any potential complainer who's been bullied in school as a "little sissy and "girly-man," while it calls the bully a 'Real Man.'

And, don't you know that's what the coach calls himself? Although, parents must have better descriptors.

Muslim Fatwa Order: Bangladeshi Girl Lashed To Death After Rape by Cousin

 

IT MAKES YOU ILL -- SICK TO YOUR STOMACH

The ghastly news out of Bangladesh is about a 14-year-old girl named Hena Akhter who has been killed by a public lashing. Hena was raped by her 40-year-old cousin. That's why she was beaten -- she was a rape victim.

Bangladesh is almost 90 percent Muslim and under sharia, or Islamic law, rape cannot be proved without the testimony of four witnesses. As explained by Andrew C. McCarthy, The National Review:

MUSLIM LAW STACKED AGAINST WOMEN

"Rapists tend not to bring witnesses along for their attacks. In any event, moreover, sharia values a woman's testimony as only half that of a man, so the deck is stacked and rape cannot be proved in most cases. Yet that hardly means the report of rape is of no consequence. Unable to establish that she'd been forcibly violated, the teenager became in the eyes of the sharia court a woman who'd had sexual intercourse outside of marriage. Thus the draconian lashing sentence that became a death sentence."

Hena's flogging under a fatwa -- for being a "participant" in her assault --would have been 101 lashes except she fell unconscious when the count was reportedly around 50. She was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to her injuries and died, whipped to death.

VICTIM IS PUNISHED

"Died because she was raped," says the blog Conservative New Jersey. "What a loving religion."  (Pictured above right is another sharia flogging of a woman.) 

Surprise -- last year the Bangladeshi High Court banned punishments handed down by fatwa, or religious edict, following a series of cases of Muslim women who were beaten or caned for religious offenses, reported Huffington Post in July. The court ruling resulted from petitions filed by human rights groups and Bangladeshi women lawyers, who argued that women were publicly whipped for supposed crimes of adultery, having a child out of wedlock or even talking to people of other faiths -- and, of course, being a "participant" in their own rape.

The court's ruling also imposed jail terms for clerics and other members of village courts who order such punishment by invoking Islamic Shariah law.

FATWAS & VEILS RULED ILLEGAL

The same court ruled last April that women who were employed in public institutions were not required to wear the "hijab" or veil against their will, which would be a "flagrant violation" of basic human rights.

TEENAGE GIRL STILL WHIPPED TO DEATH 

Yet, although punishing fatwas were finally against the law, young Hena was whipped to death.

Following Hena's death, the High Court has ordered district officals to explain in 15 days why they failed to protect the 14-year-old rape victim from being beaten as per a fatwa, according to Bangladesh newspaper The Daily Star.

DOCTORS LIED ABOUT WOUNDS

The recent news is that three doctors are being investigated for claiming the teenage girl had no signs of injury in a postmortem examination, says The Guardian (UK):

"But Hena's body was exhumed on orders from the High Court and a second autopsy concluded that she had died from internal bleeding and septicaemia caused by wounds "of a homicidal nature" on her scalp, abdomen, back, chest, arms and legs."

Police are now treating the case as murder and have arrested six, including a Muslim cleric.

CLICK & READ: "Yet Another Saudi Sheikh's Fatwa: Women Must Wear One-Eyed Veils"

CLICK & READ: "Has Saudi Arabia Beheaded Fawza Falih for 'Witchcraft'?"

   

 

by Sharon McEachern

Where are Mattel's Ethics? Undercover Like 'Burka Barbie'

HERE IT IS -- BURKA BARBIE!

Mattel has decided to auction off a Barbie doll dressed in a head-to-toe burka, with a mesh peep hole, as a collectors item. What is wrong with Mattel?

Burka Barbie was part of a 500 Barbie doll collection recently held in Florence, Italy. The most famous anatomically incorrect doll. Barbie was exhibited in international outfits to be auctioned by Sotheby's  ironically to raise funds for Save The Children. It should be "save the children from Mattel."

MATTEL'S RUN-AWAY TRAIN

The giant Mattel is like a runaway train, boxcars full of discarded ethics, speeding down a mountain. It's gonna crash ... it's gonna crash!

Nope, it's Teflon Mattel -- no matter how horrible it acts, how plagued by ethics issues it is. (No, 'is' is not a preposition. For a fun list of single-word prepositions and baby duck photos click here).

The Mattel train, and its subsidiary caboose Fisher-Price, are the largest toy-makers in the world, and they are dangerous -- dangerous for children. 

WITH NO RESPECT DUE

I would start this sentence using "with all due respect," but I no longer have any respect for Mattel and it amazes me that parents and grandparents continue to buy Mattel toys which may well hurt the children they love.

It's classic denial. You don't want it to be true, so you tell yourself that it isn't true. After all, it's Mattel toys that the little ones want. So, somehow, you convince yourself that it's not that bad.

Remember how millions of Mattel toys were recalled several years ago because of lead paint?

Health Insurers Claim They will Stop Charging Women More Than Men

  GENDER PARITY is the latest compromise from the health insurance industry trying to convince lawmakers to not include a new public health-insurance plan in the enormous health-care overhaul Congress is preparing.

WOMEN PAY MORE FOR HEALTH INSURANCE

Well, they must be desperate to actually offer equality for women when they buy coverage identical to men. Did you know women are charged higher rates for health insurance coverage than what the health insurance industry charges men? In the future, the industry agreed that it will allow men to birth the babies and they'll pay for it.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (D) introduced legislation recently which would prevent insurers from charging women more than men, when women purchase coverage on the individual insurance market.

Karen Ignagni, a woman, and believe-it-or-not, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, told lawmakers she doesn't think gender should factor into women's rates when they're buying individual policies, reports The Wall Street Journal. When did the boys vote her in as president, just in time to testify? They knew a woman would be more believable. 

WHO IS REALLY MORE EXPENSIVE?

An argument for why women's insurance costs are higher -- it is mostly women who are seen in medical waiting rooms. Okay, let's talk. Pregnancy issues aside, it is true that men seek medical care less than women. Men are more often "in denial" and won't admit to health problems and the need for help.

And, despite the machismo myth, men are more frightened of the big, bad doctor than women. And since women see a physician more often, serious illnesses are caught early when care is both more successful AND less expensive. Besides, physicians have long ordered more expensive testing for men than women. The annual executive physical, for example, often costs many thousands of dollars.

For reasons such as these, many argue that there is no good justification for higher insurance rates for women since men cost more in the long run.

INSURANCE INDUSTRY ADMITS IT'S UNFAIR

Rather than a government plan as a check on their industry, health insurers are offering to accept stricter government rules they claim would produce a more fair marketplace. At least, they are admitting it is not fair now.

So, now that the health insurance industry has it's bollocks to the fire, excuse me President Ignagni, perhaps women will finally get parity -- in rates. Maybe it will dawn on lawmakers to bring up the subject of nonpayment of claims and pre-existing illness. Isn't it time to have insurance that follows us where ever we work and live? Now's the time to force the greedy bastards to stop making us go bankrupt in order to save a life.

TO READ "Life and Death Sexism: Fewer Girls  & Women on Kidney Transplant List," CLICK HERE.

By Sharon McEachern

Life & Death Sexism: Fewer Girls & Women on Kidney Transplant List

  If you are the father of a little girl who needs a new kidney in order to live, you're not going to like this news. The guy next door, your neighbor who is the father of a little boy who also needs a new kidney to live, has a much better chance of getting his kid on the kidney transplant list -- because his kid is a boy. You know that boys and men are favored in this country; and as a male, you've been a recipient of this favoritism.

It's not just girls who have a tough time getting on the waiting list for a donated kidney. It's also adult women. Your wife, your daughter's mother, would have a much more difficult time getting on the list than you would. The same applies to your mother, grandmother, sister and aunt. Perhaps you should consider doing something about it.

WHAT ETHICS?

No, no, I'm not talking about China here.  In China, where some families still live on sanpans on the water, you can see the little boys have ropes tied around their waists. That way should they topple into the water, they can be pulled out of the water and rescued. The little girls have no such ropes. Their parents don't feel the girls' lives are worth as much as the boys.

How many Americans would shake their fists, holler and deny that we have that kind of sexism in our country today? One hell of a lot more than those folks who've had daughters or wives they are desperate to get on the Kidney Transplant List.

OLDER WOMEN DIE WITHOUT A CHANCE

Researchers at Johns Hopkins analyzed data from more than half a million patients with renal disease (from 2000 to 2005) and found that female patients over the age of 45 do not have the same access to transplant waiting lists as their male counterparts --even though they fare as well or better than men their age after a transplant. Additionally "as they got older, they had less and less and less," chance according to Dr. Dorry Segev, who led the study. "A lot of older women die without having an opportunity to get on the transplant list."

Has Saudi Arabia Beheaded Fawza Falih for 'Witchcraft?'

It's Halloween and I'm thinking about Fawza Falih. The last time there was word of her was in February. Since then nothing -- nothing that I can find in the news. A death penalty was imposed on this Saudi Arabian woman, illiterate and convicted of witchcraft.  Accused of being involved in supernatural occurrences, they said she bewitched a man when he suddenly became impotent. They talked about either beheading her or stoning her to death.

"The illiterate woman was detaind by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read," reported the BBC. 

After police interrogation, Falih admitted to having bewitching powers. Later she retracted her confession, saying it was made under duress.(I don't want to imagine what they must have done to her). But the strict interpretation of Wahhabi Islam claims the death penalty is needed to "protect the creed, souls and property of this country." In 1692, America had its Salem witch trials. Today, Saudi Arabia is still at it.

Yet Another Saudi Sheikh's Fatwa: Women Must Wear One-Eye Veils

  When will Saudi women stop turning a blind eye to these Saudi sheikh clerics who are issuing fatwa-after-fatwa and  keeping women on the bottom rung of humanity's ladder?  Perhaps when saying "No," doesn't mean injury and/or death. It was just about a month ago that a Saudi sheikh said that "both household mice and their cartoon counterparts must be killed," declaring Mickey Mouse satanic. At least that one took the pressure off women momentarily and, I'm sure they hoped, would show the world just how crazy these guys are.

Now, Sheikh Mohamed Al-Habdan has issued another decree while appearing on Al-Majd satellite channel. Women who wear the niqab (full face veil) are only allowed to show one eye, covering the other eye along with the rest of their bodies. Why's that? Why, the women will try to be seductive and put makeup on their eyes since that's all they are allowed to show. A fatwa on makeup just doesn't do the job. (Do you suppose the cleric sheikhs fear "makeup sex?") Sorry, a little humor takes the edge off my anger.

MOST DEPRIVED AND DEVOID OF RIGHTS

In the United Nation's annual report on the state of women in the Arab world, over the past five years, Saudi women have been ranked as the most deprived and devoid of rights in Muslim society, reported Ynet, Israel News.