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She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38. Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises - a mother.

He was kicked in head after daughter was slapped.Eight males took turns stomping and kicking the head of a father who had yelled at one of them minutes earlier for hitting his daughter's buttocks at Valleyfair, according to assault charges filed in Scott County District Court. The attack happened about midnight on July 4 after the father confronted two men who touched his 12-year-old daughter. The 41-year-old father's wife heard one of the men use his cell phone to say "he needed his boys over here," the charges said. The wife said a minute later several men arrived and assaulted...

A Pakistani man accused of killing his daughter five days after she filed for divorce to end her arranged marriage wept in court Tuesday, telling a Clayton County magistrate he is innocent. "I have done nothing wrong," Chaudhry Rashid told Chief Magistrate Daphne Walker through interpreter Younis Farhat. Farhat said Rashid speaks primarily Urdu and Punjabi. But police say Rashid, 54, used a bungee cord to strangle Sandeela Kanwal, 25, early Sunday morning in the family's Utah Drive home in Jonesboro. Rashid, who is being held without bond, told the judge he wanted to observe his Muslim beliefs in the...

Well the last 36 hours of my life have been, to put it mildly, surreal. You see I'm a 60 year old guy who has been married twice for a combined total of 27 year. I had two children with each wife. My son with my first wife drowned at a youung age and the psychological damage to his mother was a major factor in the the end of that marriage. Well to make a long story short my 29 year old daughter from the first marriage called me yesterday. We had not spoken for a longer that average interval,...

BOCA RATON, Fla. - The 911 call lasted a split second. Not even a breath was heard. It was Nancy Bochicchio's last desperate plea for help. The single mom and her 7-year-old daughter, Joey, would soon be dead, each bound and shot in the head in the back seat of their black Chrysler Aspen.

Mother-daughter Conflict, Low Serotonin Level May Be Deadly Combination ScienceDaily (Mar. 7, 2008) — A combination of negative mother-daughter relationships and low blood levels of serotonin, an important brain chemical for mood stability, may be lethal for adolescent girls, leaving them vulnerable to engage in self-harming behaviors such as cutting themselves. New University of Washington research indicates that these two factors in combination account for 64 percent of the difference among adolescents, primarily girls, who engage in self-harming behaviors and those who do not. "Girls who engage in self harm are at high risk for attempting suicide, and some of...

'The Day She Died, She Knew She Couldn't Talk To Police,' Mom SaysDELAND, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she'd be arrested. Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend, Natasha Hall, in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself. Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police. In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they...

Tehran, 18 Feb. (AKI) - A man known as Sharif has reportedly stoned his fourteen-year-old daughter to death in southeastern Iran because for allegedly having a relationship with a man. Sharif's wife reported him to police after he and a friend killed the girl in Zahedan, capital of Baluchistan province. Sharif showed no sign of remorse, telling police who interrogated him: "I suspected that my daughter had a relationship with a man and I had to stone her to death as she had besmirched my honour." "I had no other choice," he said, telling police how he had carried out...

NEW YORK (AP) - New York City police say a father whose daughter's burned body was found stuffed in the boiler of his apartment building killed the girl because he was upset with her for text-messaging a boy. Police say 34-year-old Miguel Matias (muh-TY'-uhs) called 911 yesterday morning and claimed he strangled the 14-year-old the night before and dumped her body in the woods. Police aren't sure whether the girl was dead before she was stuffed into the boiler. The medical examiner's office is trying to determine the cause of death. Matias is separated from the girl's mother but had...

The moment she spotted the young woman in the puffy silver jacket, Ginger Mayes screamed her daughter's name and rushed the escalator, oblivious of the other passengers streaming into the baggage-claim area at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Zarminah Al-Rabiah stepped off the escalator and into her mother's arms. The women clutched each other in a minutes-long hug, sobbing and then laughing.

WINTERSET, Iowa - Three generations of Clinton women hit the trail vowing "change across the generations" as Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped up her pitch to the women voters who could hold the key to Iowa's caucuses, which will launch the presidential nominating season in less than four weeks. "We're getting close to the caucuses," said Clinton. "I always think it's better to go to the caucuses with a buddy. Today, I've got some buddies with me." Those "buddies" included 88-year-old mother Dorothy Rodham and 27-year-old daughter Chelsea Clinton, making her first appearance with her mother on the trail in the...

Lawyer suspended over contributions to Jalila Jefferson campaignThe Associated Press November 27. 2007 4:44PM NEW ORLEANS The Louisiana Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended a Gretna lawyer for one year and one day because he paid $1,800 in campaign contributions to the daughter of Rep. William Jefferson upon the request of the congressman's brother-in-law, a sitting state judge at the time. Walter J. LeBlanc Jr. was caught on FBI videotape passing an envelope of $100 bills to state District Judge Alan Green in 2002. Green's office was videotaped during "Operation Wrinkled Robe," an investigation into corruption at the Jefferson Parish Courthouse....

Since so many blogs deal with hygiene of the mind, body and spirit it's difficult to get through even a few without being brought to the brink of self destruction by tales of obsession, compulsion, emotional angst and exasperation. As the father of a fourteen-year-old daughter I often sink into self reflection about the meaning of life; whether life has any meaning and the most important existential question facing fathers of adolescent young ladies: Is life too short, or is life too long?

Source: Oregon Health & Science University Date: October 9, 2007 Hip Size Of Mothers Linked To Breast Cancer In Daughters Science Daily — In a study of the maternity records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer. Wide, round hips, the researchers postulated, represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer. A woman's hips are shaped at...

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — A man accused of shooting and paralyzing his daughter's boyfriend has been charged with first-degree battery and a terroristic act. ... Authorities say Reed came home and found Guzman hiding in the closet of his 17-year-old daughter's bedroom. Police said Reed beat Guzman with a pool stick, then left the room to retrieve a gun. Guzman and his girlfriend blocked the bedroom door with a dresser, and Reed began shooting through the door, police said.

I'm so worried about Richard Dawkins' daughter, Juliet. I shake my head. Shake, shake. Why does he set himself up this way? Perhaps we can help. I've made similar gaffes. Christians are fairly good at driving their children away, but it breaks the heart to see secularists following the path. Here is some of what Richard wrote Juliet when she was just ten. Ten. He did sign it, "Your loving Daddy." That was good. Love is good. Just before that, though, he exhorted her, "Next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them: `What kind...

TIKRIT, Iraq, July 16, 2007 — The first thing Command Sgt. Maj. Guy Boschee does when he wakes up every morning in his hooch in Iraq is give thanks. The first thing his daughter, Spc. Hope Boschee, does every morning when she wakes up in her tent in Afghanistan is give thanks. “I think about all the good memories I hold dear to my heart, and thank the Lord for giving me a great family, and another beautiful day on Earth,” Guy said. Hope is thankful for her family and her father. “Without them, I wouldn’t be who I am...

ATLANTA - Yolanda King, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s eldest child who pursued her father's dream of racial harmony through drama and motivational speaking, has died. She was 51. King died late Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., said Steve Klein, a spokesman for the King Center. The family did not know the cause of death, but relatives think it might have been a heart problem, he said. Martin Luther King's daughter Yolanda Denise King, Jan. 19, 2007.

The late Do Ho's daughter, Dayna Ho-Henry, was found dead Friday, her brother said. The 51-year-old's death comes less than a week after the Waikiki Beach funeral for her father, who died April 14 of heart failure at age 76. Ho-Henry was one of the legendary singer's 10 children. The entertainer is best known for his catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles." No foul play is suspected, police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said. "The family is grieving the loss of my sister and we're just trying to make sense of it," said Ho-Henry's brother, Dwight Ho. The Honolulu Medical Examiner's office said...

Basinger 'hires bodyguard for daughter' after Baldwin phone rant Last updated at 16:58pm on 23rd April 2007 Feuding Kim Basinger hired a bodyguard to protect her daughter Ireland after her ex-husband left an angry message on the girl's phone, it has been claimed. The star is said to have arranged 24-hour cover for Ireland after her father labelled the 11-year-old a "thoughtless little pig" on the voicemail, which was leaked to the media. Mother and daughter were seen in Los Angeles over the weekend - accompanied by the burly security man. On guard: Kim Basinger with daughter Ireland (right) and...