Sheema Kirmani| Women's Rights Dance Activist

Christian Science Monitor introduces us to Sheema Kermani, a women’s rights activist and dancer, for whom dance is a passionate vehicle for addressing the issues that issues that divide societies, genders, classes and countries.

For 30 years, Ms. Kermani has staged plays in low-income urban and rural communities that touch on taboo topics, including domestic violence, rape, child molestation, the claustrophobic fate of unmarried women, and the importance of education for girls.

Searching for more info on Sheema Kirmani, I found this recent video in a series launched by Pakistani newspaper Dawn.com, with Pakistanis speaking directly to Indians in advance of the recent elections. Meet Sheema Kirmani:

Message to India - Sheema Kirmani

Sheema Kermani

Christian Science Monitor introduces us to Sheema Kermani, a women’s rights activist and dancer, for whom dance is a passionate vehicle for addressing the issues that issues that divide societies, genders, classes and countries.

For 30 years, Ms. Kermani has staged plays in low-income urban and rural communities that touch on taboo topics, including domestic violence, rape, child molestation, the claustrophobic fate of unmarried women, and the importance of education for girls.

Searching for more info on Sheema Kirmani, I found this recent video in a series launched by Pakistani newspaper Dawn.com, with Pakistanis speaking directly to Indians in advance of the recent elections. Meet Sheema Kirmani:

Message to India - Sheema Kirmani

 

Angelina Jolie Is Deadly Serious about Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir

Last fall, Tina Brown’s new website The Daily Beast delivered a left-hand compliment to Angelina Jolie, “She’s Actually Smart”, based on Jolie’ comments at a Council of Foreign Relations meeting on Darfur.

The Darfur Case

While the tabloids — and even USA Today — have Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt sleeping in separate houses on the 24-acre Seacroft Long Island estate, where Jolie is filming the movie “Salt”, and more than one woman around the world is secretly hoping that the relationship will falter, Jolie was busy last week, writing in TIME magazine, calling for the ouster of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Seacroft estate; via UK Daily MailSmart Sensuality woman Jolie is furious that al-Bashir, the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity, kicked out 16 international aid groups from Sudan.

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The Mosuo Matriarchy as Experienced by Ricardo Coler & Sara Gouveia

via Flickr’s Sara Gouvela; The Mosuo matriarchal society and tourism of the Lugu Lake, Yunnan Province, China Argentinian writer Ricardo Coler was interviewed in Germany’s SPIEGEL newspaper about what life is like for a man in a matriarchy. Coler is a doctor, photographer, and ounder of the Argentinian culture magazine Lamujerdemivida.

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Angelina Jolie Releases Statement on Thomas Lubanga

We have an update on Angelina Jolie’s attendance at the Hague trial of Thomas Lubanga. Lubanga is a Congolese militia leader accused of using children, both boys and girls, during the five-year civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from 1998-2003.

Angelina Jolie with International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. Photo: AFP PHOTO / ICC - KIM VERMAATIn a statement released by Angelina Jolie, who is a goodwill ambassador for the UN’s refugee agency, the actress said: “Children deserve special protection. Using children in conflict is a heinous crime and destroys the very fabric of a society.”

“I imagined how difficult it must be for all the brave young children who have come to testify against him,” Jolie continued.

The prosecution accuses Lubanga’s militia of abducting children as young as 11 and taking them to military training camps where they were beaten and drugged. The girls among them were allegedly used as sex slaves.

More children in war facts: Girl Soldiers are Neglected By-products of Global Conflicts

Secretary of State Clinton calls for Suu Kyi release

My apologies, dear Smart Sensuality women, for being so serious lately in Redtracker.

I’ve just covered a marvelous, upbeat article on Desiree Rogers and Valerie Jarett over on Michelle-Style. Perhaps I need to feature them here on Smart Sensuality asap.

Reality is — and this is the entire point of our focus on the mindset of Smart Sensuality women — that political life has reared its ugly head, in the jailing of Burmese democracy leader Suu Kyi, whose six-year sentence of house arrest was set to expire in two weeks.

Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi jailed, to be charged

Yesterday, Secretary of State Clinton called for Suu Kyi’s immediate release. The popularly elected leader of Burma faces trial on Monday and is considered to be in ill health.

There is no doubt that Nobel laureate Suu Kyi received the unwanted and apparently uninvited visit by a US man, who swam across the ‘moat’ to her lakeside home, for a second time. Guards did nothing to stop him, and Suu Kyi was moved to prison for breaking the law governing her house arrest.

As Smart Sensuality, Cultural Creative women of style — but also a global, caring, engaged and aware mentality — we must follow Secretary Clinton’s lead in being concerned about Suu Kyi’s upcoming trial.

For more on Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, read WSJ’s Reports of Suu Kyi’s Health Raise Concerns and an in-depth piece in the London Times The Strange Incident of an Intruder in the Night. A