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Image via Sheikyermami

Islamic law permits the practice of polygamy under certain specific circumstances. If, for instance, a man’s wife is chronically ill or barren, it is preferable for him to enter into a polygamous relationship rather than suppress his sexual desires or divorce his wife. For these reasons, polygamy is a legal (but rarely practiced) lifestyle for Muslims in some countries.

In an attempt to make the practice more mainstream, the Ikhwan Polygamy Club was recently founded in Malaysia. According to the Associated Press, the club is a matchmaking service that “claims the noble aim of helping single mothers, reformed prostitutes and women who feel they are past the marrying age.” Having found some success in its country of origin, the club is looking to start a new branch in Indonesia.

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A monster typhoon has pummeled the Philippines, an earthquake has shattered parts of Indonesia, and a tsunami has drowned much of Samoa.  All in all, for Asia Pacific, it hasn’t been a great start to the month.

Photo/Salvation Army

Women are especially vulnerable.  They need sanitary napkins, diapers for their children, birth control pills and emergency contraception, among other staples like food and shelter.  Then they’ll probably need rape kits, counseling and legal help for the bouts of sexual violence that are bound to follow.

Something about the anarchy of disasters — whether natural like Katrina or man-made like Darfur — undermines the usual social norms of respect for rights of women, and an adherence to non-rape.  It’s as if these social norms are held together by scotch tape, and it doesn’t take much for them to be destroyed all together.  The horrid descriptions of rape in the Congo and Darfur are so consistent now they’ve almost become a droning background noise.  But it happened after Hurricane Katrina, too. Read the rest of this entry →

The Goldman Environmental Prize specifically notes pursuit of environmental justice as part of the work it honors, and the efforts of this year’s recipients clearly illustrates the connection between environmental and social issues.

Rizwana Hasan was recognized for her work with the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association combating abuses of laborers and the environment by the ship-breaking industry in which ships used and owned by citizens of wealthy nations are dismantled for scrap by impoverished workers who have little protection from exploitation or the safety and health threats posed by these often toxic hulks. Read the rest of this entry →