From clearing excrement to New York modelling

By Salim Rizvi, New York | BBC News | Friday 4 July, 2008

A former scavenger on the catwalk alongside a professional model 

Walking down the catwalk in front of the great and the good in New York is a far cry from using your hands to clean up human excrement for a living.

But this week a group of such women - known in India as scavengers - have been doing just that. They have been attending a United Nations conference here and doing some modelling at the same time. . .

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Betancourt hails ‘perfect’ rescue

BBC News | Thursday, 3 July 2008 11:48 UK

Ingrid Betancourt rescue 2 July, 2008 | AFP

French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt has hailed as a “miracle” her release from more than six years of captivity in the Colombian jungle.

“There is no historical precedent for such a perfect operation,” she said.

Ms Betancourt and 14 other hostages were rescued without a shot being fired after rebels holding them were tricked into handing them over. . .

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New toilet technology empowers low-caste Indian women

AFP - Wednesday 2 July, 2008

Scavenger women of India attend the United Nations
 
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — Usha Chaumar was seven years old when she began collecting human excrement with her mother in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.

By the age of 10 she had married and, with her mother-in-law, continued going from house to house performing this demeaning task.

“They used to call me ‘Bhangi’ (part of the lowest of Indian castes) and treat us badly,” Chaumar, now 33, told AFP in an interview here.

She was one of the country’s estimated 700,000 so-called human scavengers on the lowest rung of India’s social hierarchy, who for centuries have had the wretched task of cleaning toilets and collecting human excrement. . .

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Rural hell of Ireland’s sex slaves

Louise Hogan - Independent.ie - Tuesday 1 July, 2008

Ukranian prostitute - Image:Axel Schmidt/Getty/AFP

THE majority of women trafficked into Ireland for sexual exploitation are forced to work as sex slaves in large provincial towns, new figures show.

According to Ruhama, the support group for women who are sexually exploited for commercial purposes, the group of 44 victims whom they have helped were forced to work in the sex trade in various locations, including . . .

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Muslim convert who vanished from Gaza

Martin Chulov and Sian Powell | The Austrailian | Monday June 30, 2008

AMID a chaotic swirl of people, car horns and dust, the donkey carrying Tanya Louise Smith slowly approached a place a world away - and civilisations apart - from anything she had experienced in the suburban calm of Sydney: the Gaza Strip.

Almost three months pregnant and no doubt feeling the effects after her long journey from Yemen, Ms Smith, 20, was about to enter a place where few young Australians had ventured.

The Muslim convert’s odyssey from Sydney had taken her to the ancient city of Sana’a, in Yemen, where she met and married a Palestinian from Gaza and immersed herself in Islamic studies along with a small group of similarly devout Australians.

But when Gaza-based militants blew up the border wall with Egypt in mid-January, a door into another world was opened to foreigners for the first time in decades. . .

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Wealthy New Yorker jailed for keeping slaves

The Sydney Morning Herald - Friday 27 June, 2008

Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her husband Mahender Sabhnani. Picture AP

A wealthy New York woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison today for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves, forcing them to work up to 20 hours a day for years after confiscating their passports.

Varsha Sabhnani, 46, was convicted with her husband, Mahender Sabhnani, in December of forced labour, peonage, harbouring aliens, document servitude and conspiracy. . .

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Probing polygamy

Natalie O’Brien | The Australian | Thursday June 26, 2008

Keysar Trad and his wife Hanifeh pictured at their home in Sydney. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

WHEN his wife was away in Lebanon for several months with their six children, Keysar Trad was lonely and considered taking a second wife.

It seemed the natural thing to do for Trad, 44, who lives in Sydney’s western suburbs.

Trad had already lived through the experience of being the son of his father’s second wife, who became part of the family after the first wife became too ill to look after their children. A childhood spent living with a mother and a stepmother was completely normal. . .

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Reprieve for abused Mexican women

Federal Court tosses out refugee board decisions, giving families another chance at a life in Canada

The Toronto Star - Jun 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Lesley Ciarula Taylor, Immigration Reporter

For this Mexican family, who wished to remain anonymous, the Federal Court
decision has provided another chance to stay in Canada after they lost their
refugee hearing because they lacked documents.
Image: GLENN LOWSON FOR THE STAR

In a series of stunning decisions, the Federal Court of Canada has jumped to the defence of Mexican women trying to stay in Canada to escape violence and abuse. . .

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