Women banned from using mobile phones.

[OkToBeTakei]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/indian-village ... 01123.html

"It always gives us a lot of embarrassment when someone asks who has eloped this time," said Manuwar Alam, who heads a newly-formed committee tasked with enforcing the ban, referring to queries from neighbouring villages.

Oh noes. The men are embarrassed!

[FlorenceHamilton]

Interesting that agencies aiding women who are in distress/danger make a point of arming these at-risk women with cell phones. This empowers them to make emergency phone calls, arrange the safety of their children and themselves and secure finances if there are any available.

Why to religious fundamentalists always pull the sexual purity/sin card when they really mean that they want to dis-empower woman? Why do they need to take away the autonomy of half the human race? Do they not understand that a trusting, loving respectful partnership keeps a woman close and that creating chattel keeps a woman closed?

Arghhhh.

[jenny_islander]

If you start from the assumption that a woman is always going to be dimwitted, shortsighted, selfish, at the mercy of her own physical impulses, and easily bamboozled by people who want to use her (for exactly what you want to use her for but never mind), then it makes perfect sense to not allow a woman to use a cell phone. You don't trust a big toddler that you can have sex with to understand the big picture (i.e., what is most convenient for you).

Getting fundamentalists in any religion, or secular tradition for that matter, to accept that women are neither big children nor livestock--that's the big battle right there. Of course, as soon as women are assumed to have just as much intelligence and autonomy as men, fundamentalist systems crumble.