• The lawsuit also reveals that the players were asked not to wear bras or underwear, in order to better promote "accidental nudity." • NBC's program "The Sing Off" has slowly become almost all-male, according to Neil Genzlinger for the New York Times. Last night the two all-women groups were on the chopping block, which lead Genzlinger to wonder: "Are men just better at this kind of singing than women? Or, put a different way, is the male vocal range more conducive to a cappella harmonies than the female range?" •  Sonika Kaliraman, 26, was raised on wrestling. Her father, Chandgi Ram, was India's wrestling champion, and now Sonika is living out his dream. She won gold at the Asian Women Wrestling Championship in 2000, but only really became famous when she appeared on the Indian version of Celebrity Fear Factor. She's since learned the importance of "presentation" - i.e. looking pretty. •  A woman from central Israel only narrowly escaped death after swallowing a driedle. Paramedics found the 30-year-old woman on the bed and in critical condition. They have removed the plastic driedle, and she is now in recovery. •  Lawmakers in Spain voted today to relax abortion laws. If the bill is passed in the Senate, women will be allowed to obtain abortions up until 14 weeks. Currently, women are only allowed to obtain an abortion up to week 12 - but only if the pregnancy is the result of rape. • Mehmet Goren has been sentenced to at least 22 years in prison for the honor killing of his 15-year-old daughter. Goren is originally from south-eastern Turkey. He reportedly murdered Tulay Goren on January 7th, 1999, because she had fell and in love and ran away with a Sunni Muslim, while Goren's family was Alevis. Police believe he buried Tulay in their backyard, but her remains have yet to be recovered. • Sad news: Elizabeth Poblete's baby has passed way. Nine days after the Chilean Olympic weightlifter gave birth while training - without even knowing that she was pregnant - her infant son died in a hospital in Sao Paulo. • 455 women in Uganda were interviewed before and after their partners were circumcised, and less than 3% said sex was less satisfying after the operation. Circumcision reduces the spread of HIV, but some people believe that it makes sex less enjoyable for women. Researchers hope their findings can help fight the rumor. • A Florida woman was charged with domestic battery after coming home from a bar and pouring beer on her sleeping boyfriend. She was mad that he's thinking about moving out of state, but now that plan sounds pretty smart. • For Esquire's "What I've Learned" column, Miss America Katie Stam offers words of wisdom like, "When you have to burp, you burp. And then you say, 'Excuse me' very politely." • Despite our best efforts, Sarah Palin continues to get more and more popular. According to a Gallup poll released today, Palin's favorability rating has risen 4 points since October, which puts her at 44%, within 9 points of President Obama. •

• A new study claims that eating extra amounts of choline, a chemical found in eggs, while pregnant can lead to an increased risk of developing breast cancer in offspring. • Nielsen Online says that the number of employees visiting porn sites while working has increased 23% over the past year. • A new study reports that young gymnasts are suffering new types of injuries to their hands, wrists and arms .• Women who have undergone breast augmentation and are being treated for early-stage breast cancer may have more treatment success with brachytherapy, a partial-breast radiation treatment.• Inducing labor before the 40 week gestational age has become more common in the U.S. • The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is taking the estate of Beverly Rogers to court over the estate's planned auctioning of Mary Pickford's 1930 Oscar for best actress. • Honor killings have increased by 70% in the southern Iraqi city of Basra where women can be murdered for "honor killings" by hired hitmen for as little as $100. • Amnesty International is asking the Haitian government to do more to stop the widespread rape of girls in the country's slums.• A BBC reporter's 12-year-old daughter gets the Somali pirates on the Sirius Star to talk. • Canadian researchers say that gay men who feel undesirable are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior and develop psychological problems. • A recent survey claims that British men and women beat out the people of Italy, Germany, France and the US as the most sexually liberal. • We may have just missed the beginning of Advent, but surely this condom Advent Calendar will keep us up-to-date. • An Italian book that reveals unpublished excerpts of Amanda Knox's diary says that sex was a "predominant aspect of her life" and influenced her relationships with men and women. • A new study claims that individuals who wash their hands before making judgments tend to make less strict rulings. • More and more men are beginning to take primary care of their elderly and ill parents. • Meanwhile, the Gender-Based Violence Forum estimates that 60% of Sri Lankan women have experienced domestic violence.• An art critic for the BBC's Antiques Roadshow received criticism when he referred to a woman in a portrait as having "Shropshire ankle" (or fat ankles). • Are you ready for a relationship boot camp? • A Texan man claims that God told him to ram into a woman's vehicle on a highway while going 100 mph on Friday because she "wasn't driving right" and needed to be "taken off the road." The two only suffered minor injuries. •

"Notice in both stories, the focus is on what the senator said (or didn’t say)," MMW notes. "The horrific murders of these women happened in July, over a month ago…There was nothing in major Western news outlets about this. But as soon as a senator says something horrible about the incident, there are three stories within a week. As if what the senator said in defense of the murders is more newsworthy than the murders themselves."

The bloggers at MMW also point out that the western media's coverage of these women ignores the strength of these women who defied cultural norms to seek happiness. "The women were not meek or timid…they were starting a revolution of their own and gave their lives for the cause. In order for their deaths to not be in vain, news outlets must recognize their bravery and their defiance instead of making them look like weak and submissive little girls," blogger Fatima writes.

The BBC is now reporting that two bodies have been exhumed, and that those women were shot and buried without a shroud. Despite the UPI's news that they were buried alive, these women appeared to have been dead before they were put in the ground. Police have arrested six people in connection with the murders so far, and these people are said to be related to the dead women. Sadly, two older women who tried to help the would-be brides were also kidnapped, according to the BBC. Despite the unfortunate comments of Sardar Israrullah Zehri, the Leader of the House, Mian Raza Rabbani said, "We condemn the heinous act and assure the House that a complete report on the incident would be submitted."

Burying Girls Alive Draws Pakistan Rebukes [UPI]
Pakistan Opens Investigation Into 'Honor Killings' Of 5 Women Who Tried To Choose Own Husbands [AP]
Mouth to Mouth: How Pakistani Senator’s Comments Overshadow the Real Story [Muslimah Media Watch]
Pakistan Women's Bodies Exhumed [BBC]

So anyway, a lot of these donors appear to be dudes, so I'd like to give a shout out to dudes, since women's rights are human rights and it was a dude who broke this story and even if it's just you guys using your boyfriends' PayPal accounts that's still more comingling of funds than dudes in this town are generally apt to abide:

John Wignall, Andrew McNamara, Francis Mitchell, Polka Dots and Motherboards, david wilson, Robert Wynne, Gabriel Mikhael, A W Johnston, Amy Muhlberg, Eric Young, Sheep to Shawl, TS Robinson, Melissa Martin, Matthew Fredrickson, Amanda Jonsson, Jen Myers Design, Agust Elfar Johannsson, Jennifer Brunet, David Nevel, John Wignall, Fred Bremmer, Mattison Narramore, Steven Theiss, Susan Vdovichenko, Anna-Marie Carey, C Micah Pilkington, morgan gillespie, Maria Raviele, Alison Holton, alexandra dumont, Nanna Freeman, Joshua Warner, Steven Theiss, Skepchicks, Intl., Maria Walters, Staci Sontag, Susan Vdovichenko, Teri Hebert, Kelly Bray, Greg Rowan, nolto216, Diana Wadke, Amy Forbes, Sara E Royster, C Micah Pilkington, Alexandra Golaski, Tina Lawrence, Minerva Alvarez, Kristina Meshelski, Aja Hicks, Stacy Baertson, Maria Raviele, James Wylie, Brienne Callahan, Jane Hansen, Sarah Walsh, Alison Holton.

We'll keep you updated as the women (hopefully) manage to start migrating.

Love Has To Be Calculated In Iraq Today: They Think Women Are Machines

Welcome To Basra, Where Beating Your Daughter To Death Gets You High-Fived By Cops

Mom Who Fled Her Honor Killing Husband In Basra Shot Down On The Street; How You Can Help

For The Woman Of Iraq, The War Is Just Beginning [Independent]

But who are "they" exactly? In the case of one Sunni-Shia couple, college sweethearts deeply in love with one another, "they" was her (Shia) family, under pressure from Shia religious leaders, leaders under pressure from any number of forces — the famed Moqtada Al-Sadr, insurgents, local officials, it's never quite clear. The couple divorced; he shot himself two weeks later.

Stories like this go generally unreported in Iraq today; as for Rand's honor killing, it warranted 15 seconds on the local news, according to Sarhan. Everybody is too fucking scared. There is no shortage of good men in Iraq, but to be a good husband these days, as with many basic things we take for granted, can require an inordinate amount of bravery, as in the case of the husbands of a couple women in Basra who took it upon themselves to start an NGO promoting women's rights.

Thanks to some help from the Guardian, you can help those women and their husbands, along with six other women who work for the NGO, by emailing my PayPal account with funds so they can get the hell out of Basra and into Jordan. But what of the women — and men — who stay? If you can't fuck, what is there to live for? "TV, funerals and bad news," says Sarhan, with whom I spent the past few hours Skype-chatting.

Sarhan, who is 29, is not a participant in the Love Drought — he's taken; she's also Brazilian — but he does need work, if any editors are listening. He was kind enough to entertain my stupid questions, which I'll do you the courtesy of not transcribing here, but in summary:

Everyone in Iraq hates America but loves Obama. They hold out hope he will change things. Sarhan, a Lebanese Brazilian raised in Brazil, is one of those "moderate" Muslims the right wing press keeps telling us don't exist. He drinks liquor and is, by most definitions anyway, a feminist, though he keeps his personal views quiet when interviewing the upholders of honor killers and the like. He says the disastrousness of the invasion has almost thoroughly discredited anything smacking of "Western Values" but that, change being the one constant, that could change. In addition to an Obama presidency ushering in a new less audaciously harmful era of US foreign policy, Iraqis harbor hopes planted in them by Egyptian soap operas that they will someday not be dirt poor. They also like soccer, which is one of the many reasons Sarhan, sharing a birthplace with Ronaldo and Ronaldinho, is more popular than the US Military, despite his radical feminist views. (Also he speaks like 90 languages.) "Poverty is the main issue that takes people to crimes and terrorism," he says. "If people had stable lives, work and education, our world would be much better…Iraqi people are good, really good."

If you're interested in Iraq Sarhan recommends the book Mayada

And if you're interested in adding to the Jezebel Exile In Jordan Fund, PayPal a donation to tips@jezebel.com. We'll keep you updated on its size and status.

Afif Sarhan: The Blog [Blogspot]

Earlier: Mom Who Fled Her Honor Killing Husband Shot Down On Street; How You Can Help
Welcome To Basra, Where Beating Your Daughter To Death Gets You High-Fived By Cops

And basically, we got some emails and contact information, and an offer from a Guardian staffer to let us use their bank account since the women's NGO in question lacks its own, so if you would like to help, email us and we'll pass on the info. Because while stunningly horrific, the case is not exactly rare. Four years ago George Packer wrote a New Yorker piece that sorta-prophesied the current rash of honor killings under the rationale that Iraqi citizens, who were much more religiously puritanical than we'd given them credit for before the war, would react to the lawlessness and moral corruption unleashed by the invasion by killing prostitutes, in a warped sort of Fixing Broken Hymens theory of criminology. Here's a relevant passage:

An entire subspecialty of forensic medicine in Iraq deals with virginity, Shaker said. In any criminal case involving a woman, it’s the most important piece of information. “It rules our life,” he added. The surprising thing about these details of his profession is their ordinariness. In the West, Iraqis developed a reputation for cosmopolitan modernity that is now decades out of date. In order to win the support of Iraq’s clerics, Saddam obliged people to adopt a harsh form of traditional Islam. In private matters of religion, family, and the treatment of women, the vast majority of Iraqis are far more conservative than most outsiders understand.
In March, 2003, a week before the start of the war, a sixteen-year-old girl whom the Baathist police had found wandering disoriented through the streets was brought to the Medico-Legal Institute. Upon examining her, Shaker found that her virginity had been recently and violently taken. The girl, named Raghda, was beautiful, with pale skin and large, dark eyes, and she was so miserable she could hardly speak. Raghda seemed nothing like the teen-age prostitutes Shaker examined, and he gently persuaded her to tell him what had happened.
Raghda had gone to audition as a television announcer at the studio owned by Uday Hussein, Saddam’s psychopathic older son. Along with the six other finalists, she was taken to a room where Uday — crippled from a 1996 assassination attempt—was seated in a chair, holding a pistol in his lap. He ordered the girls to undress and walk in a circle around his chair. When one girl begged to be excused, Uday shot her dead. After that, the other girls, including Raghda, did as they were told. In the following days, Uday (who was committing some of his last crimes in power, while an invasion force gathered along Iraq’s southern border) raped the girls, then threw them out on the street, drugged, with a wad of cash, which was how Raghda was found by the police. When she told them her story, they gave her a beating and then took her to the Medico-Legal Institute.
“If you want to help me,” Raghda told the doctor, “go tell my parents their daughter was found dead.”
On March 18th, two days before the war started, Shaker completed Raghda’s paperwork. “Notice that there is the appearance of complete hymen rupture from the top to the base,” he wrote. “In conclusion, the hymen membrane was ruptured longer than two weeks ago; I cannot say how long. End of report.” Raghda was returned to the police; Shaker never learned her fate.
…
I assumed that this forward-thinking man of science—with a flat-top haircut and clean-shaven jaw—wanted a relatively secular, liberal Iraq. I kept waiting for him to catch my eye in the middle of one of his clinical descriptions and shake his head over the backwardness of a society obsessed with virginity and prostitution. It never happened

Before the war, it was the other way around; Shaker used to perform five or six virginity exams a day. Shaker is a Shiite Muslim, and he was appalled by this inversion of the normal order. In his view, a fragile moral relationship existed between the two sections of the Medico-Legal Institute—as if the social control of virginity offered a defense against the anarchy that led to murder. He noted that in Iran, an Islamist theocracy, prostitutes were publicly whipped. He thought the same practice should be instituted in Iraq—where the sex trade, he claimed, had reached epidemic proportions in the lawlessness of the occupation. “It’s strict, it’s horrible, but it has good results,” he said of Islamic law. “Prostitution now is normal here.” He blamed the Americans for the moral laxity in Baghdad, and especially L. Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, for threatening, in February, to veto any interim constitution that declared Islam to be the principal basis of federal law. “When they give everybody their rights, it’s causing bad things in society—it’s corrupting us,” Shaker said. “If Islam is the main source of law, none of these things would happen.”

Mother Who Defied The Killers Is Gunned Down [Guardian]
Caught In The Crossfire [New Yorker]

The wife has left Mr. Abdel-Qader and gone into hiding; he's been relieved of his duties but won't be charged with any crimes:

Abdel-Qader, 46, a government employee, was initially arrested but released after two hours. Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. 'They are men and know what honour is,' he said...'I don't have a daughter now, and I prefer to say that I never had one. That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign solider, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman. 'People from western countries might be shocked, but our girls are not like their daughters that can sleep with any man they want and sometimes even get pregnant without marrying. Our girls should respect their religion, their family and their bodies.

'I have only two boys from now on. That girl was a mistake in my life. I know God is blessing me for what I did,' he said, his voice swelling with pride. 'My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours.'

"My Daughter Deserved To Die For Falling In Love" [Guardian]
Related: How Moqtada Al-Sadr Won Basra

"Each has its own bizarre rules; some threaten to kill women who don't wear veils in public," reports Newsweek. A shop assistant whose brother was killed last year is "asking for trouble if she wears black more than three days running. According to the new enforcers in her neighborhood, anyone who dresses in mourning is committing blasphemy by questioning the will of God."

It's polygamy Monday here at Jezebel because apparently forced polygamy is allegedly on the rise under the rule of some of the local leaders in Iraq. Adds Newsweek, "In Anbar's provincial capital, Ramadi, where tribal troops allow women to work but not to go without headscarves...Women rarely venture out of their homes now."

There is a sliver of hope in ladies like Women's Affair's Minister Narmin Othman, who is waging a campaign against "Honor Killings" in Iraq. She is facing severe opposition, but her mere existence could serve as a beacon. Things might get worse before they get better, because as Newsweek points out, "at present, U.S. forces are too pleased by the sharp drop in jihadist attacks to lose sleep over things like gender issues."

Sacrificed To The Surge [Newsweek]

• Daughters born to women with "wide, round hips" are more vulnerable to breast cancer? Jesus. Researchers hypothesize that "wide round hips reflect high levels of sex hormone production at puberty, which persist after puberty and adversely affect breast development of the daughters in early gestation." [Science Daily]
  
• Lousy relationship? It could kill you, according to a study released today in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which reports that couples with bad marriages were more likely to suffer from heart disease. The "good" news? Women and men are — for once — equally at risk. [MSNBC]
  
• Southwest Airlines forced yet another passenger to change clothes because an outfit was deemed offensive. But this time the offensive passenger was a dude! [CNN]

• More breast cancer news! Time Magazine takes a look at the variety of breast cancer treatments and surgeries, while ABC News spotlights an army of women currently fighting the disease who have offered up their own bodies for research in hopes of finding a cure. [Time, ABC News]
• Honor killings of unmarried pregnant Kurdish women run rampant in Iraq. CBS News has the story of an 18-year old woman who tried to commit suicide twice after becoming pregnant out of wedlock because of the "shame" she brought to her family. [CBS News]
• Thank god for this dissection of the contradicting studies which say that drinking alcohol will either kill you or help you live forever. We know which one we'll choose to listen to! [SFGate]

• Pro-ana's take note — striving to be a size zero is not only crappy for your health, but also for your sex drive. New research indicates that super-skinny women have lower libidos, not to mention fear of breaking bones during the act itself. [Daily Mail]
  
• When does being shy about eating in public evolve into a full-blown eating disorder? Some girls suffering from anorexia say that their eating disorder initially started with a discomfort with eating in front of other people. Interesting. We're way more cruel and judgey towards women who have water with lemon for lunch. [USA Today]
  
• An increasing number of women are getting surgery and laser treatments post-pregnancy to get their bodies back, with 67% of women polled saying they're rather get back their pre-baby body than their pre-baby sex life. Well duh, that's because they know the pre-baby sex was what got them all stretch-marky in the first place! [MSNBC]

• An Aussie mom who got in-vitro and wound up with two babies instead of one is suing the doctor that implanted two embryos in her womb instead of the one she requested. She's suing for $332,000 — the cost of raising a child to age 21 — saying she and her husband even considered putting one child up for adoption because of the extra cost. We can see the fights now — "Mommy, I'm the one you wanted to give away aren't I? Aren't I?!" [MSNBC]
• At least 10% of girls in England have been infected with HPV by the age of 16. Government health advisors have recommended that the HPV vaccine be given to pre-pubescent girls in order to fight the infection which can lead to cervical cancer. [Daily Telegraph]
• School district officials in Toronto have got the same idea, wanting to administer the vaccine to all Grade 8 girls, but the Catholics are all up in arms, saying that doing so would encourage sexual activity amongst teens. Seriously, odds are even Mother Theresa had HPV — the Catholic Church needs to get their head out of their sanctimonious ass. [CTV.ca]
• Some outraged students are saying that Astria Suparak, Art Director for a gallery at Syracuse University, was fired from her position because of controversy surrounding the feminist installation "COME ON: Desire Under the Female Gaze". Apparently the original title included the word "feminist", which Suparak's superiors demanded she change. Since when is feminist a dirty word? [The Daily Orange]
• Did you know that it's a crime to not water and mow your lawn? Yeah neither did 70-year old Betty Perry who's being charged with resisting arrest and not maintaining her landscaping. In a scuffle with police, granny fell and bloodied her nose and by the way, all of this took place in Utah, where real criminals, like child raping polygamists, hang out. Ugh. [CNN]
• Remember when your ex-boyfriend insisted that he had to use Magnums because regular condoms "just don't fit right"? Well, turns out maybe he wasn't lying — condoms are not "one size fits all". [Science Daily]
• Breast cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy find that their bones age prematurely as a result of the treatment. Sigh. Why couldn't today be a good news for people with breast cancer day? [Reuters]
  
• A Wisconsin bill which gives rape victims access to emergency contraception actually includes an amendment that would allow medical personnel to refuse to administer it if it "offends" their religious beliefs. What's next? Catholic doctors can refuse to treat Jewish gunshot patients because they don't believe Jesus was the messiah? [The Capital Times]
  
• A 70-year old Muslim woman is being sentenced today for her role in the "honor killing" of her son's wife — she and her son orchestrated her daughter-in-law's death after they discovered she was cheating on and planning to leave her husband. We love Sally Field, but this kind of refutes her theory. [Daily Mail]

• Catherine Zeta Jones is not alone! More than one in ten pregnant women smoke, reports the AP (via MSNBC), and research suggests that many of those women suffer from depression, making quitting even more difficult. A Columbia University epidemiologist, tracked more than 1,500 pregnant women, and "22 percent smoked at some point during pregnancy" with about 12 percent classified as nicotine-dependent. [MSNBC]
  
• A bunch of spunky girl soccer stars urinated on the opposing team's synthetic soccer field. "I think it's unclassy," sniffed a rival. We think it smells like chicken soup! [Boston Herald]
  
• A 5-foot tall woman was cleared of charges that she raped a 6-foot tall man, after he accused her of spiking his drink with roofies. We know she's innocent and all, but that giraffe print sweater is criminal. [Daily Mail]
  
• Cuesta Benberry, a quilt historian an archivist who helped bring attention to the contributions of African-American woman to the craft, has died at the age of 83. No word yet if Anthropologie sends their regrets. [NY Times]

• Two women and a man are charged with smuggling over 20 women and girls from Togo in West Africa and forcing them to work at hair-braiding salons in New Jersey. Oh shit, we had cornrows five years ago. [International Herald Tribune]
• A controversial British Muslim playwright has turned the story of her mother's brutal honor killing into a play, which she hopes to also adapt into a feature film. In other news, we saw Grease this weekend and it was OMG Awesome! [Daily Mail]
• Hilarious Molly Ivins, who died in January and was totally one of our heroes, is being honored in an NYC Memorial Service tomorrow. We're sure Shrub will be there in spirit. [NY Times]
• A Harvard Medical student is fighting for the right to have additional time to pump her breast milk during the nine hour test she must take to get her degree. Are the examiners worried she's got a cheat sheet on the other side of her nursing bra or something? [NY Times]
• Post menopausal women who drink two or more alcoholic beverages a day may double their chances of getting endometrial cancer. [Science Daily]