Aunt Flow’s unflattering new name!

I thought I had heard almost every possible name for the period, some definitely very ignorant like ‘the curse’; there are also:  ‘that time of the month’; ‘on the rag’; ‘crimson tide’; ‘cruising on the red river’; ‘monthlies’;  and my favourite – ‘fallen to the communists.’

But today I was in the shower next to the pool and heard a woman announce to her friend, “Damn! I can’t swim now. I’m punctured!”

That is even better than falling to the communists!

My books arrived yesterday

The first batch of the books arrived yesterday after two months! I was told one book was censored and sent back. I’m sure you can guess which one it is!

Bah!

Rainbows, kittens, and unicorns

Just for my friend, Sabi. She asked for rainbows, kittens, and unicorns so I thought I’d post a picture of a rainbow-coloured-unicorn-winged-kitten.

This is not a Science experiment gone bad

Rape epidemic

Dubai: Prosecutors and lawyers have appealed to parents to keep a closer eye on their children after a man allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl even as she clutched the Quran in fear.

The Pakistani visitor faces charges of kidnapping and raping the Bangladeshi girl after she left a Quran learning centre.

He is alleged to have assaulted her in a remote area while she cried and held on tightly to the Quran in her arms.

This is the second recent case in which a child under the age of eight has been raped, prompting prosecutors and lawyers to launch their appeal to parents to be more observant concerning their children’s safety.

The first case involved a 30-year-old Emirati suspect, R.R., who is on trial for raping and murdering a four-year-old Pakistani boy in a mosque’s washroom during Eid Al Adha. The verdict in the case will be announced on January 27…

Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Ali Rustom, Head of Family and Juveniles Prosecution, told Gulf News: “Parents should watch out for their children closely and not leave them unattended, especially with strangers or in strange places… rape or sexual abuse incidents happen in seconds.”

Advocate Eisa Bin Haider said a lack of knowledge makes children more vulnerable to sexual predators. “Parents must guide their children to stay away from strangers and avoid standing in unfamiliar and deserted places,” he said.

Advocate Mohammad Al Sa’adi, who is R.R’s defence lawyer, told Gulf News that “Fathers and mothers should bring up their children properly by teaching them to stay away from ill-mannered friends and to stay away from bad peer influence… parents should watch out [for] their children’s safety and security observantly.”

Prosecutors contend M.S. lured the girl into his car after promising to give her Dh10 and buy juice for her and the other children at the learning centre. They claim when she got into his car, M.S. locked the doors and drove to a building’s parking lot where he allegedly raped her, according to records.

Prosecutors said the girl cried loudly and held on tightly to Quran while the suspect raped her. The suspect allegedly threatened to kill the girl and chop her body into several pieces if she cried out during the rape.

In the charge-sheet, prosecutors have asked that the accused receive capital punishment.

Rustom said: “Child rape or molestation is alien to our society… but parents should constantly monitor their children’s security. Parents should take care of their children in a way that doesn’t scare them or limit their freedom.”

Al Sa’adi said: “Parents should teach their children to stay away from smoking, liquor, drugs and ill-manners… fathers and mothers should advise children against watching indecent satellite channels and surfing indecent websites.”

Bin Haidar said: “Parents must teach their children [in a simple and friendly manner] that they have the right to say no to suspicious strangers…”

(Source: Gulf News – Parents advised to be vigilant, January 15, 2010).

Apparently, lawyers are claiming that child rape is “unheard” of in the UAE and these are isolated cases. That is certainly not true. Minors have been raped in the past and strangely the victims were punished since under the UAE law which is a combination of tribal and shariah law, if the rapist claims that he did not rape the victim but that they had consensual sex, both the rapist and the victim would be punished but no capital punishment would be awarded. If the victim is a boy, the rapist is given capital punishment for sodomy  (in theory) but when the rapist claims that he had consensual homosexual sex with the victim, both are lashed and imprisoned and capital punishment is not awarded to the rapist!

In the previous case mentioned in the article, the Emirati man raped and killed a four year old boy in the bathroom of a masjid on the first day of Eid Al Adha. When he was taken to court he claimed that he had consensual sex with the four year old boy! Can you believe that?! And he has a long history of homosexual rape offenses (since 1996); was even jailed for three years in 2006. I can’t imagine why he was allowed to roam freely in the streets! The animal! To soften the heart of the judge he even claimed that he had recited Quran that morning and visited his father’s grave after which he got drunk and raped the boy. Gimme a break!

And instead of punishing the culprits, lawyers are asking parents to keep their children away from “ill-mannered friends and bad peer influence”! As if these two rapists were friends of the children who were raped. What does that even mean?

“Parents should teach their children to stay away from smoking, liquor, drugs and ill-manners… fathers and mothers should advise children against watching indecent satellite channels and surfing indecent websites.”

Bah!

My crazy, crazy husband!

Remember this?

Now look at what my impatient man did.

Five pictures are worth five thousand words!