Free Republic

A New Zealand news anchor fired back at a viewer who she said has repeatedly complained about her traditional face tattoos. Oriini Kaipara, who co-hosts the political current affairs show "Newshub Nation," shut down the remarks from a viewer who she said emailed her and described her tattoos as “offensive and aggressive looking” and a “bad look.” The viewer’s comments come after Kaipara made history last year as the first person with a moko kauae, a cultural tattoo worn by Māori women, to anchor a prime-time news program. “Please refrain from complaining further, and restrain your cultural ignorance and bias...

WORRIED that her daughters' budding breasts would expose them to the risk of sexual harassment and even rape, Philomene Moungang started "ironing" the girls' bosoms with a heated stone. "I did it to my two girls when they were eight years old. I would take the grinding stone, heat it in the fire and press it hard on the breasts," the mother said. "They cried and said it was painful. But I explained that it was for their own good." Breast "ironing" - the use of hard or heated objects to try to stunt breast growth in girls - is...

Tehran, Iran, Oct. 10 – A senior Iranian cleric in the city of Qom called for death sentences to be handed down to prostitutes, a semi-official daily reported on Monday. “Those who try to spread prostitution, corruption, and sins in society must be dealt with”, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, one of the highest-ranking clerics in the holy city, said. Shirazi said that drug dealers were among those who were spreading corruption in society, according to the hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami. “These people are Mofsid Fi-Alarz and must be dealt with under Islamic law”, the senior Ayatollah said. Mofsid Fi-Alarz literally means...

I received an interesting e-mail from Michael Baumgartner, a young businessman who works in Dubai. He was sharing an incident he witnessed in a hotel in Saudi Arabia. Nowadays, he says, one can observe daily the constant tug of war between "the driving forces of Western modernity and the restrictive forces of a hardened ancient cultural tradition." One example: It was only recently that the government lifted a ban on picture mobile phones. Originally, they had been banned because of an outcry over the circulation of photos of women. At the same time, the government has made a recent multi-billion...

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzanian police arrested two men accused of killing a 9-year-old boy and selling his skin for 20,000 shillings ($18) to make sorcerers' get-rich-quick charms, a senior officer said Friday. Police said they arrested Martin Kalunga, 25, and his associate Nico Benson, 31, in Lilwa village in southern Tanzania Tuesday after neighbors overheard Benson accusing Kalunga of plotting with their buyer to skin him as well. The identity of the buyer was unclear. "The two were arrested after they had a loud quarrel, because Benson suspected Martin of colluding with their buyer to skin him," Suleiman...

NEW DELHI - A man with a sword cut off the hands of a government social worker in central India for trying to stop child marriages, officials said Wednesday. The attack on the woman highlighted the difficulty of ending the centuries-old practice in the region. Shakuntala Verma, a supervisor with the Department of Women and Child Development in Madhya Pradesh state, was attacked Tuesday night in Bhangarh village, Superintendent of Police H. L. Borana was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India. Wednesday marked a Hindu festival in which hundreds of minors are married off. No arrests have been...