Saturday, March 10, 2007

miss israel finalist quits

in yesterday's times:

"Doaa Fares believed she could be somebody other than herself: a 17-year old high-school dropout from a deeply conservative Druze village, where most women marry young and settle into traditional roles. The striking brunette with sea-green eyes and pouting lips changed her name to Angelina and entered the Miss Israel beauty pageant hoping to be crowned queen, a title that comes with a cash prize, modelling contract and a car. Instead, Angelina — the first Druze to compete in the pageant — was threatened with death, allegedly by two uncles and other men from her village who accused her of disgracing the family name with promiscuous behaviour. When police uncovered the apparent plot to kill her last week, Ms Fares disappeared into protective custody. When she emerged from hiding she announced that she was withdrawing from the competition, fearing for her life."

the rest of the article is here.

living in a country where one can be an out lesbian can make it easy to forget how difficult it is to be a woman in the rest of the world.

not that so-called civilised countries are necessarily any better ... here's a story from the independent about people trafficking in the uk.

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