Stone wrote about the IWD march in Istanbul when about 200 women were viciously beaten by police, kicked in the face, stamped into unconsciousness as the women fell to the ground. The footage of this outrage as horrific and nauseating as it is received very little air time in the West, since Turkey was trying to show the Europeans their adherence to human rights regulations.

Continues Stone: "Turkey, whilst being strictly secular on the outside, has a conservative heart which reveals itself primarily through gender discrimination and abuse. An estimated 200 ‘honor’ killings occur yearly, with little or no consequence for the perpetrator. Many times, juvenile male family members are encouraged to murder their older sisters because legal punishment is even more negligible for minors.

It’s not only within the family that bigotry persists. The Government has recently reinstated a law requiring girls who want to study nursing or become medical technicians to undergo a virginity test," Stone continues, and states what possible purpose this last part could fulfill, is a mystery.

The article tells us about the Karen women in Burma: Their ethnicity and gender makes them suffer doubly – getting the brunt of non-combatant sufferings; pressed into service by the Burmese military as porters, cooks, and live landmine locators. Taken frequently from their homes for extended periods, women leave behind children, carry babies with them and endure starvation, disease and the constant threat of death. All of that, before the subject of rape and sexual slavery is addressed.

We are also told by Stone that rape is a time-tested way of demonstrating control and exacting humiliation on the powerless women. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, they like to rape in public with their drugged out buddies, Kalashnikovs in hand, cheering them on. In the former Yugoslavia, women are dragged into bushes or the ruins of their own homes. In Pakistan, women have been sentenced to rape by village courts–in punishment for something a male relative did.

Stone enumerates the problems: Access to good reproductive advice and health care; parity in pay scales; glass ceilings; trafficking of women and babies for adoption. In countries where there is no divorce, no protection for women and children, financial or otherwise. Women are still leading wretched, hopeless lives at the whim of men.

"Take Back the Music" is about anti-women attitudes in rap/rock music; a campaign in America to spark a dialogue about music which has long-been criticized for being misogynistic (women-hating). Newsweek magazine reports that religious and community leaders are speaking out too; they plan to talk to the Federal Communication Commission about an airwaves ban on rappers who don’t respect women.

"If they’ve got the right to call my daughter a b——, I have a right to say ‘Boycott’."

An Emory study by Ralph diClemente and Gina Wingood suggests that disrespectful lyrics may lead to lower self-esteem in young girls, who are more likely to accept the words and images as reality. The 2003 study tracked 522 14 to 18-year-old black girls in rural Alabama and found that those who saw more than 21 hours of rap videos weekly were more likely to engage in risky behavior.

We get it here in the Philippines. Too often, announcers and commentators create, enjoy situations where they can repeat, even exaggerate vulgar songs and limericks that are offensive, downright insulting to women. I heard one on a DZ—, that commentator was snickering, humming to himself, loud enough for the microphone, "Ang mani ni aling Talis, masarap, malambot, matamis…"

over and over. There are those types who get their highs through this. When will they get fired such obscene doble-entendre?