The Nahmias Cipher Report

Can you imagine Michael Jordan hitting the game winning shot and then asking the media not to say anything? Or Barak Obama winning the presidential election and refusing to talk about his victory? Or You discovering the cure for cancer, but not wanting anyone to know?

Well, that’s in essence what Macy’s Department Stores have done. Macy’s is the top department store chain in the U.S., with more than 800 stores in 45 states and annual sales of more than $26 billion.

Rabble.ca provides interesting insight into the phenomena of online dating in the West African country of Cameroon. They state that “the Africa culture generally frowns against women exposing their naked bodies in public. But as technological development is shrinking the world into a global village, local cultures are finding it harder to control the way people express themselves or interact with others the world over. The internet for example has made it possible for hither to timid girls to come out of their closets and have their physical and emotional needs met in a manner that was unthinkable barely few decades ago. This episode of the African Pulse is dedicated to discussing African women’s involvement in the global online dating phenomenon.” Listen and decide.

Finally, there may be a modicum of justice for rape victims. No longer will a woman have to prove that she did not ask to be raped because of her manner of dress, circumstances or any other arbitrary means of casting aspersions on the victim.

South African Dr. Sonnet Ehlers has finally released to the market forty years later Rape-aXe, a latex condom that a woman inserts like a tampon. Jagged rows of teeth-like hooks line its inside and attach on a man’s penis during penetration, Ehlers said.

Once it lodges, only a doctor can remove it — a procedure Ehlers hopes will be done with authorities on standby to make an arrest.

“It hurts, he cannot pee and walk when it’s on,” she said. “If he tries to remove it, it will clasp even tighter… however, it doesn’t break the skin, and there’s no danger of fluid exposure.”

Abandonment is the worst sort of betrayal to recover from because as with the death of a suicide or murderer, the perpetrators are permanently absent from the healing process. Thus, the victims are forced into the unenviable position of trying to answer the unanswerable and suffer through the litany of unvoiced recriminations that can take root and blossom into bitterness.

Like many people, I have suffered great and small tragedies throughout my life, but have come to place in my journey as a writer where I can share my experiences openly without shame. When my husband abandoned me when I was eight months pregnant with our son, it took several years of mourning, spiritual awakening and cognitive therapy, but I finally realized that the power to change my existence lay firmly in my grasp.

As an equestrian, who practices the discipline of dressage, and as an avid horse lover; the imagery evoked by the phrase ‘back in the saddle’ is rich and picturesque. Literally, it can imply one who has been thrown by a horse, and who must immediately get back up on the horse or risk becoming paralyzed by fear and thus unable to ride again; or one who has encountered some great personal tragedy in life, but must find away to move beyond this event and re-engage with life.

“I’m going to smile and make you think I’m happy, I’m going to laugh, so you don’t see me cry, and even if it kills me – I’m going to smile.” ~ Anonymous

Child pageants are as revolting and damaging to female children as the other heinous practices which have been highlighted in this blog. From Leblouh to Female Circumcision, the pain inflicted upon daughters by mothers who willingly participate in their physical and psychological abuse will haunt them for the remainder of their lives. These mothers are not bad people, they just want the best for their daughters when they try to physically mold and conform them to dangerous and idealized standards of beauty.

Ultimately, the problem with child beauty pageants is the sexualization of girls as young as 2 and 3 years old. There is no justification for this aspect of the industry. A child’s confidence lies not in how closely she can approximate a grown woman through the artifice of make-up, but in how we as parents help her to develop her innate gifts and abilities so that her external beauty compliments her personality and talent instead of dominating her existence.

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 17:33 PM EDT, 4 March 2010 UNITED STATES – Nujood Ali is a ten-year old Yemeni girl who secured a divorce from her husband, a man 20 years her senior who violently raped her soon after their marriage. She recounts in her memoir her father promising her to this man [...]