Word Origin for pulchritude. C15: from Latin pulchritūdō, from pulcher beautiful. Word Origin and History for pulchritude. "beauty," c.1400, from Latin pulchritudo "beauty; excellence, attractiveness," from pulcher "beautiful," of unknown origin.

"When I was thirteen, my mom said she had a dream that I would win Miss Universe in a red dress."
"[Qualifying contestant question; legalizing marijuana] I'm for it being used for medical use, but not so for recreational use."
"Because I think if people will argue, then what about alcohol and cigarettes?"
"Everything is good, but in moderation."
Catriona Gray, Miss Universe 2018

With its lava colour and appearance, her gown's design was influenced by Mayon Volcano in the northeastern province of Albay, from where her Filipina mother hails, Gray said. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/Associated Press)

"Ms. Gray truly made the entire Philippines proud when she sashayed on the global stage and showcased the genuine qualities defining a Filipina beauty: confidence, grace, intelligence and strength in the face of tough challenges."
"In her success, Miss Philippines has shown to the world that women in our country have the ability to turn dreams into reality through passion, diligence, determination and hard work."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte

The new Miss Universe, Catriona Gray named on Monday in Bangkok, Thailand is of Filipino ancestry on her mother's side. She has an Australian father, and Cairns, Australia, is where she was born and raised. She is an accomplished singer and also a model. Her musical education came through the Berklee College of Music in Boston. So she is rather cosmopolitan, and even so, her attitude toward marijuana legalization reflects that of the president of the Philippines whose mission to battle recreational drugs and the proliferation of drug gangs in his country has been on the brutal side.

Miss Universe 2018: For her national costume, Miss Spain donned a traditional Spanish "bata de cola."

There were beauty contestants representing 94 countries competing for the title of Miss Universe, in Bangkok. Among those contestants was a first, a transgender entrant from Spain, Angela Ponce. That the contest accepted a transgender woman represents a tidal turn of tradition. And as it happens, transgender contestant Angela Ponce's beauty certainly rivals that of the finalists as well as the winner, all born female. Possibly, the world is not yet ready to crown a transgender beauty queen.

Angela Ponce said it was "an honor and pride" to be part of the history of Miss Universe pageant

In the presence of so many beautiful, accomplished women, the judges certainly had their work cut out for them. The crowd that assembled in the Thai capital seemed ecstatic at the choice, crowning a contestant from southeast Asia. As the 67th Miss Universe, 24-year-old Catriona Gray appears a fitting symbol of female accomplishment augmenting beauty. Her red gown, she pointed out, was influenced by the Mayon Volcano in Albay, Philippines. She is the fourth Filipino in the history of the pageant to be crowned.

The contestant from the United States failed spectacularly in an outreach to other contestants, her potential popularity hampered by her mockery of contestants from Cambodia and Vietnam whose English-language skills failed to impress her. Sarah Rose Summers ended up apologizing for her rude manners at a pageant whose theme for 2018 was Empowered Women, judged by seven women including former pageant winners, businesswomen and a fashion designer.

Miss Philippines Catriona Gray is crowned 2018 Miss Universe by outgoing title holder Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters. (CR: Frank Micelotta / FOX)

What's Sauce for the Goose is Sauce for the Gander

[His statement was not sexual in nature, it was] intended to convey that the Duchess [of Sussex] possessed charm and beauty and was a suitable match for her fiancee, who has a reputation of possessing charm and handsome looks." 
"No reasonable woman would consider his remark to be a sexual comment about the Duchess."
"[He] felt this over-policing of his innocently intended remark, and its being twisted into an accusation of sexual harassment, was unduly punitive and said so."
"[Two female colleagues] had been looking at a picture of a man, specifically, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau, and stated that he is 'hot' intended as a reference to Mr. Trudeau's sex appeal. [His employer] took no action on this complaint, undertook no investigation and imposed no discipline on the female employee."
"Defendants enforced their policies regarding sexual harassment in a manner that was discriminatory, specifically that they dismissed a male employee with no investigation within two days but took no action when placed on notice of a similar remark by female employees in the presence of witnesses."
Complaint, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Meghan Markle and Justin Trudeau.  Chris Jackson/Getty Images; Chris Young/The Canadian Press

Yet another tediously tiresome and reputation-destructive, employment-ending fallout of the #MeToo movement that has long outlived its temporary usefulness in calling to account genuine instances where men at all levels of society have been brought to task over their treatment of women, from violent rapes to social harassment to careless insults, for too long tolerated by society and by women too subconsciously bludgeoned into acceptance of the 'inevitability' of fallout from accusations.

There is little doubt that many men, empowered by a general laxity in social mores and acceptable and sensitive respect for their opposite gender casually humiliated women they were in contact with as a male entitlement. They are now more conscious of what constitutes acceptable manners and have been newly acquainted with that quaint old notion of peer- and gender-respect. As for the authentic criminal violators of the social compact of violence against women they too are paying their belated dues.

Feminists, intoxicated with the heady brew of finally achieving a good measure of notice and overdue attention to the fact that being male is no entitlement to belittling females, and seeing powerful men brought to the level of social and legal condemnation they finally deserve have dug in their heels to pursue any possible perceived albeit innocent-of-intent assaults against female dignity. Off-colour jokes no longer permitted, no big loss. Courtly gestures or 'implied' inferiority, or simple assertions of admiration have now been placed squarely in the box of the forbidden.

General society has become so cowed by the vehemence with which women on social media 'gang up' to decry male attitudes and behaviour that sensible women tolerate it as too long in coming but with a growing look askance the madness, sensible men head for the hills, no longer willing to risk their reputations by having anything to do with women. Leading women professionals to decry the distance their male counterparts are now leaving between themselves and young women whose careers could be advanced through mentorship....
Former PBS journalist Hugh Heckman is suing the news station for wrongful termination after he was fired for calling Meghan Markle, 'not bad' 

Hugh Heckman, 72, a former editor for PBS NewsHour was working on a story relating to Britain's Prince Harry and then-fiancee Meghan Markle on November 25, 2017. He was overheard to have remarked to a male colleague, both studying a photograph of the two now-royals, the expression "not bad". A woman sitting six metres off to whom the photograph was unseen, commented that his comment was in contravention of company sexual-harassment-in-the-workplace training. "Haven't you learned?", chastized another. 

They then went on to lodge a formal complaint to CBS authorities about his sexist behaviour. Two days later he was fired. Mr. Heckman obtained the services of a lawyer. And with the help of his lawyer has set out to change PBS practices and training to "provide equal employment opportunities for employees based on sex", along with an unspecified compensation for lost earnings, for humiliation, and for loss of professional reputation.

"There are many serious cases of sexual harassment going on, as we know from the #MeToo  movement, and then we have this one."

"That makes people question the seriousness of these issues."
Jillian T. Weiss, lawyer for Mr. Heckman

Hooking Women onto Having It All

"In order to successfully market to women, you need to make it seem like it's part of the well-balanced life ... the good, happy life that includes yoga and running."
"I think lots of these activities are going to be tied to marijuana as a way to get women as customers."
"Maybe we want to be a bit more reflective about what we want our lives to look like."
"If you think, 'Naturally, I'm stressed out, and grouchy and angry and this is going to put me in a better mood', rather than thinking: 'Things here have to change for me to have a reasonable life', then I'm not so sure."
"I don't think the answer can be have another glass of wine, or a joint, and everything will be OK."

Samantha Brennan, feminist theorist, bioethicist, dean of arts, University of Guelph

"Is there a cohort effect happening there [in the 20-to-24-age group]. Or is it simply that women are starting to use at a frequency that's more parallel to men [similar to the way more women are tippling more like men]."
"[We didn't see that same level of increase [in pot use] in the 15-to-19-age group."
"[The federal Cannabis Act prohibits advertisement aiming for kids and youth, or the type associated with] glamour, recreation, excitement, vitality, risk or daring".
Rebecca Jesseman, director of policy, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction 

"If women truly are more likely to have a more rewarding experience with the drug perhaps we will see greater rates of addiction."
"You look at how quickly the rats learn: 'Hey, if I hit the lever on the left I'm going to keep getting the drug'."
Mohini Ranganathan, psychiatrist, associate professor, Yale School of Medicine

"In a society where prohibition has been the overlay that we've all experienced for so long, it feels illicit even when it's legal."
"Once you've titrated and figured out your ideal dose, you're just not intoxicated the way you would be with alcohol."
"Even if after the kids are in bed and you're enjoying a little bit of cannabis and one of the kids wakes up with a nightmare, you're still going to be equipped to take care of your child. If you'd had those three or four glasses of wine maybe you wouldn't be."
"It's smelly [smoking], it's inconvenient, you're going to draw attention to yourself and your kid is going to notice it [so the choice would be micro-dosed edibles, teas, tinctures]."
Jenn Lauder, co-founder Splimm, online pot and parenting newsletter

How we've matured as a society! How complicated the ordinary things of life have become...on our way to the future. At one time, not all that long ago, say the last fifty years, when women decided they'd have children they resigned themselves -- or looked forward -- to raising those children. In their own personal presence. From infancy to their teen years, women were there, emotional support built into their roles as mothers, along with the cleaning, cooking, baking and social steering that mothers have always relied upon to give their children a sound foundation into society.

All that was compromised when women were persuaded by the women's liberating feminist movement that raising children and providing comfort for a family was a waste of their ample, creative resources which could better be put to use in the world of business and commerce. Have children if you like, but plan for a career. Learn to juggle children's needs with your own. No problem, women are capable of multi-tasking and more than able to fulfill themselves and their offspring emotionally in the process.

Except it is complicated, and stress-inducing, and tiring, and quite, quite impossible. Of course, meal preparation was given a boost with the use of processed, pre-prepared and eating-out options. Maybe not quite as healthy as home-cooked meals, but no one can possibly do everything. And in that same spirit children were farmed out to day-care providers who would do for children what their parents hadn't the time for. "Quality time" was set aside in the evenings, when work-exhausted parents might read to their children, help with homework, bathe them, tuck them into bed.

Wearying, albeit rewarding, but stressful and irritating. No.time.for.yourself. Well, always time for a relaxant, and wine might do that, come the evening hours. Have another. And another. And suddenly but stealthily another problem erupts when the wine becomes a necessary part of the relaxing ritual and eventually a vital part. And now, with the recognition of cannabis as a soft alternative, there's the new relaxant, pot.

"A lot of moms, a lot of women, are starting to see that it's not this dangerous, scary thing. The moms who are using cannabis recreationally tend to be self-medicating for stress -- 'I have so much anxiety at the end of the day, I can't take it'. It's an alternative to wine", points out New Jersey-based registered nurse, Jessie Gill, cannabis advocate and MarijuanaMommy blogger.

The "pinking" of booze, which brought "Skinny girl" and "Girls' Night Out", and other low-calorie, ready-to-serve cocktails and wines to the rescue of maxed-out moms, is now passe. Enter cannabis. Doctors alarmed at the rise of female binge drinking where in 2013 over a million American women landed in an emergency room resulting from heavy drinking, now have an alternative to recommend to exhausted, played-out women. Can't tell a woman to stay at home, ditch the job, look after the children, and yourself. But can prescribe pot to keep the kettle boiling.

Pamele Wible, M.D.

Women dosing themselves with marijuana isn't new, according to sociologist Wendy Chapkis, co-author of Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine. While it remains more a male than female issue, the gap appears to be narrowing. The 2015 Canadian Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs Survey reveals that the percentage of women aged 20 to 24 reporting pot use in the previous year saw an increase of six percent between 2013 and 2015, with an increase of five percent among 25-to-44s.

The situation of legalization, yet new on the horizon: how industrious in promoting cannabis the industry will be permitted to be is unknown. The Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Branding, an independent group proposes to absent sexual language or imagery in naming pot strains, and to focus on flavour and taste advertising: "Factually based claims" on brand attributes. For her part, Dr. Brennan is uneasy about health claims linked to pot, from menstrual cramps and insomnia to weight loss and improved sex drive.

Dr. Ranganathan of Yale, is troubled by the acute effects of THC in human females, looking to understand the mechanisms underlying gender differences. Women appear on the basis of initial research, to be more receptive to the 'high' effect of cannabis. On the other hand, committed pot enthusiasts claim cannabis leads to greater introspection, euphoria, creativity and relaxation along with relief from physical aches and pains.

Using sophisticated PET brain imaging, Yale scientists have concluded that women experience greater cannabinoid receptor (CBI) responses, widely distributed in the brain, in comparison to men. In experiments with female rats trained to hit a level to self-administer cannabis, when the tap is turned off the rats keep hitting the lever, receiving no reward. Male rats tend to discontinue hitting the lever; female rats take longer before they stop whacking that lever.

Pot for what ails you, when what ails you is being driven to commit to greater production and less satisfaction in life? Where women respond to the demands of motherhood, often complicated by the stress of looking after the needs of aging parents, while holding down a job and struggling to do it all, managing somehow to hold it together by contracting out child care, house cleaning, cooking, and selling everyone short. Enter pot? That's the solution?

Does that help your depression, my dear?

Canadian Press

Avoiding Islamophobia

"We're still waiting for a march against honour killings, child marriages, polygamy, sex slavery or female genital mutilation."
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Asra Q. Nomania (Muslim Reform Movement)

"If one finds white male sexism intolerable, then one should find all male sexism just as intolerable. Excusing men of colour, Muslims, immigrants or men living in non-Western societies for bad behaviour toward women is an expression of the bigotry of low expectations."
"The result of this mindset is that Christianity is criticized for every misstep against women but Islam is protected from the glare of scrutiny."
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, ex-Muslim Somalian, writer, activist

"What I describe as a 'faux feminism' has arisen in the last 30 years, a postmodern and post-colonial feminism that passionately condemns Christianity and Judaism but dares not critique religiously supremacist Islam for this same reason."
"[Today's Western feminists] are too nervous about being called Islamophobes, racists or colonialists] to dedicate themselves to rescue of victims of rape from Islamic communities]."
"In recent years, I fear that the 'peace and love' crowd in the West has refused to understand how Islamism endangers Western values and lives, beginning with our commitment to women's rights and human rights. The Islamists who are beheading civilians, stoning Muslim women to death, jailing Muslim dissidents, and bombing civilians on every continent are now moving among us both in the East and in the West. While some feminist leaders and groups have come to publicize the atrocities against women in the Islamic world, they have not tied it to any feminist foreign policy. Women's studies programs should have been the first to sound the alarm. They do not. More than four decades after I was a virtual prisoner in Afghanistan, I realize how far the Western feminist movement has to go."
Phyllis Chesler, American feminist

Women wearing the Chador. Getty Images

The campaign by women fed up with their secondary, unentitled place in society engaged in a protracted campaign to shame society with the understanding that in institutionalizing a social contract that diminished the stature and the intelligence and opportunities of women, not only were women and their children suffering great harm, but society itself, like those it targeted, would never reach its full aspirational potential. Equal-pay legislation, marital rights, equal access to education, opening up politics and the professions to women has enabled Western societies to move forward and grow.

All of which have been a tremendous benefit to the societies which finally accepted equality for both genders in every aspect of social, political, and working life. Yet, since those victories were established, with feminists forever cautious that nothing occur to set back the advances that took so many years to accomplish, it is women in the West who have benefited, not women universally. There were overtures to some societies to improve the lives of women virtually held in bondage to patriarchal societies who were condemned for the strictures they placed on women's lives.

But the issue of women living under Shariah law in Islamic countries where it is traditional and a vital part of the culture to assert female inferiority to the place of men has been consistently and deliberately overlooked. Women who ascribe great value in the feminist ideal and the men who support them have hesitated to criticize those cultural practices that dominate and repress women. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a fierce critic of Islam and Asra Q. Nomania, co-founder of the Muslim Reform Movement recently called upon western feminists to re-adjust their focus.

Noting the women's march across the United States decrying the ascension of a crude sex predator to the presidency of the United States, they declared their dissatisfaction, yet while bringing attention to a man whose exploits as a braggart and a bully has brought infamy to the office of the president, pay no attention whatever to the plight of women and girls living in Islamic societies, both abroad and within Western countries where the cultural and religious traditions that have kept women as disadvantage chattels were brought as baggage to be practised in the West.

Feminists, so swift to denounce Western men for not recognizing women as equals and respecting them for the same traits and capabilities that men gain respect for, have chosen to overlook the attitudes and behaviours of Muslim men. Are they regarded as underdogs and therefore to be pitied should they be deprived of "their last source of pride: their domination over their women"? For this is what Islam views as a man's 'honour', that complete control of a woman be exerted. Any Muslim woman's father, brother, uncle, husband, son or brother-in-law has explicit control over her, dominating her life as seen fit lest family honour be shamed.



Phyllis Chesler's feminism dates back to the 1960s and 70s, when she campaigned with the National Organization for Women and allied organizations with the understanding that they were meant to support women everywhere. That has changed. In lock-step with the emergence of Islam as a factor and a growing one by leaps and bounds in the world of the West thanks to rampant immigration and migration. Now, Western societies are aware of child marriages, of female genital mutilation, of social forces that ghettoize Muslim women, of honour killings taking place within Muslim communities.

The heart of Islam beats hard for the misogyny they feel is the correct social order of relations between the sexes; women are not to be trusted, and must be firmly held in place under the heavy fist of a man, and if she requires physical punishment to emphasize her obligations, that is readily arranged. At one time feminists organized rape-crisis counselling centres and helped to bring in new rape laws; even in India which has a long tradition of violence against women has brought in new rape laws though violence has scarcely abated, so engrained is it in the culture of male entitlement.

Now, Phyllis Chesler hopes to influence feminists of their moral duty to advance human rights to aid girls and women "who are being beaten, stalked and threatened with death by their own families because they refuse to veil or to marry their first cousin". She feels there is an obligation to erect shelters as havens from honour-based violence, all the cultural 'norms' of Islamic society imported with immigration to the West. To each thing there is a season and a time for everything....

Muslim women in Amsterdam, wearing different styles of veils

Changing Customs Harming Women and Girls

"We [India in general] spend money on buying tobacco, liquor and mobile phones, but are unwilling to construct toilets to protect the dignity of our family."
"In villages, women have to wait until sunset to answer nature's call. This is not only physical cruelty but also outraging the modesty of a woman."
Justice Rajendra Kumar Sharma, Family Court, Rajasthan state

A new ad in India shows women mocking men who answer nature's call in nature. It's part of a national effort to encourage men to put a toilet in the family home.   Astral Pipes/Screenshot by NPR

A not-uncommon sight in India is that of people squatting in a field, or men face toward a wall in public view, urinating. It is customary in the countryside that in the absence of no toilet facilities in homes or available to the public in public buildings, that people will perform their toilet functions in the outside. This includes not only rural areas but urban enclaves as well. Clearly visible, squatting on railroad tracks, or in fields, but nothing unusual to scandalize a society that has long accustomed itself to seeking relief in public.

Women and girls tend to wait until the evening hours before they venture out for that purpose. Their innate sense of modesty mitigates against the humiliation of being seen performing such bodily functions in public. In a society where rape of women and girls and the caste system appear to embolden man to feel entitled to sexually molesting the unguarded and the vulnerable, this practise leads to situations where in the dark, women become victims of both rape and murder.

India has achieved great technological strides as well as financial benefit from its enterprising and capable population, those that are educated and forward-looking, yet it remains mired in a medieval mindset when it comes to personal hygiene and performing natural acts of bodily elimination. Thus it has always been and no one seems to see the need to alter this social habit. At least not men; for obvious reasons women feel otherwise.

Several years ago public-health advocates were urging women to refuse marriage to any man who couldn't provide her home with a bathroom. The message was launched in public view that stated: "No toilet, No bride". And in a sense, given a shortage of marriageable women as a result of Indian society preferring male babies, indulging in aborting female fetuses or in infanticide, many man look in vain for a wife, so this campaign would have made practical sense.

The Times of India recently reported that a family court judge determined that grounds for divorce would be acceptable through the argument that a husband had failed to provide a family bathroom, as a cruel act of dereliction of head-of-family duty. This particular case was that of a 24-year-old woman whose husband shrugged off her request for a bathroom with his response that it was an unnecessary convenience.

Old, accepted customs die hard. Although it has been illegal for some time to denigrate Dalits (formerly known as 'untouchables' in Hindu India's caste system), the Dalit community is still suffering social stigmas of contempt and exclusion. And so it is too with the initiative by the government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is attempting to persuade the population of the need for a forward-looking society to build and use toilets.

A campaign across India shows children making fun of people who buy smartphones, flat-screen TVs and motorcycles but continue to defecate in the open. (Rama Lakshmi/The Washington Post)

There is a connection between the caste system where the despised 'untouchables' were considered to be useful only for employment that no one else in society would touch, such a cleaning out toilets. That extends to the thought that installing a toilet in one's home is therefore unclean. Government-run public relations include an advertisement with a child saying "Uncle, you wear a tie around your neck, shoes on your feet, but you still defecate in the open. What kind of progress is this?"

What, indeed.

Civilizing Rural Pakistan

"Back home, you have to go anywhere with your father, mother or brother, because you are a girl."
"We are really proud. We follow her [Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai] and we will follow her in the future."
"In some areas, [of Swat, Pakistan] girls and boys are now even being taught in the same classroom."
"However we can help [by returning to Pakistan], we will."
Shazia Ramzan, 19, Pakistani woman studying in the United Kingdom

"If I'm wearing jeans and my friends [in Pakistan] see pictures online, they say: 'You forgot your culture'."
"Before [prior to being educated in the United Kingdom], my mind was closed. I thought education just related to my family. But now I think about all girls. I want to stand up for them."
"I believe I should go back to my country and try to make change there."
Kainat Riaz, 19, Pakistani woman studying in the United Kingdom

    Malala Yousafzai with Kainat Riaz (left) and Shazia Ramzan (right) in 2012. Photo by Jane Barlow

The two young women now studying abroad were 14 (Shazia) and 15 (Kainat) when they became victims of an infamous attack by Pakistani Taliban against young girls living in the Swat Valley who claimed an education for themselves. They were seated alongside their friend, 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, when the encounter took place: "The Taliban stopped us, two boys -- or men. One was in the front and the other one came to the back (of the bus).

"He said: Who is Malala? [We had our faces covered (with niqabs) but Malala didn't. We were looking at him and then he shot Malala in the forehead. He shot me on my hand and shoulder, and Kainat's shoulder as well. Then he started shooting randomly", explained Shazia. The girls had been in fact, returning from a chemistry exam and the bus they were in was actually a converted truck, the girls sitting among others, on benches, when their attackers stopped the truck and entered it, searching for Malala.

Malala had gained a reputation for herself as a campaigner for girls' right to an education. She had deliberately made a target of herself by speaking up in an interview on Pakistani television, and by expressing her determination to become educated in an online blog posting, where she also emphasized that girls had a right to an education. Kainat went to a local hospital, and Shazia was treated in Peshawar, in a military hospital which hadn't the wherewithal to treat Malala.

Her injuries were too seriously life-threatening and too complicated and she was flown to the United Kingdom where surgeons there saved her life. The infamy of the attack spread like wildfire around the world, and focused on the plight particularly of Malala. Though other girls were in a similar position to Malala's own, it was she who had brought attention to herself through her public proclamations of dissent and defiance, supported by her father.

When Kainat and Shazia returned home to the Swat Valley after their recovery, the locals viewed them as unwelcome. Neighbours informed Kainat's family they should leave; her presence endangered the rest of the villagers because she had become a target for the Taliban. Neither bus nor taxi drivers would take her to school.The shooting of the girls took place in October of 2012, but by July of 2013 when Malala turned 16, she was invited to address the United Nations to deliver her message.

Offers came flooding in to her from prestigious schools eager to grant her the education she sought, at no charge to her family. Malala settled with her family in Birmingham, England and was enrolled at the private Edgbaston High School for Girls. Mindful of her two injured friends, she asked the international boarding school UWC Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan which had extended an invitation to her which she declined for herself, if her friends could be offered the same opportunity.

And this is how Shazia and Kainat were recognized with full scholarships (paid attendance for a two-year period amounts to $100,000). Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at that time a UN special envoy on global education, helped the girls procure visas. The girls settled in to study at Atlantic College, accustoming themselves to their newfound freedom to go wherever they wished, along with the pleasure of learning to swim.

Malala is now expected to go on to study at Oxford University. Both Shazia and Kainat have been given offers to study nursing at Edinburgh University, with mentor Gordon Brown assisting in finding the required funding. They both plan, on graduation, to return to their country of birth, to do what they can to ensure that all girls and young women have the opportunity to receive an education, and to never have to face the dread situation that they had encountered.

Malala's friends Shazia Ramzan (left) and Kainat Riaz (right) were also shot by the Taliban Credit:  JAY WILLIAMS

Defying Tradition and Culture in Afghanistan

"There was never a better time to set my worst-ever [race] time. The five local [Afghan] women who took part in the [Bamiyan marathon] this year are the new leaders who are stepping outside the norm. They are making a statement by using the marathon as a vehicle to show they are going to do what they need to do and they are not going to be stopped."
"It  was then I made a vow: if I could recover in time, I would run the 206 Marathon of Afghanistan and support Zainab's [first Afghan female runner] efforts to show that sport is for everyone."
"Many of these older [Bamiyan village elders] men had big families, some with four or five daughters. They said, 'No, we want our daughters to get educated, to get on in the world. We want them to run'."
" ... I thought, here is a young woman who has been dealt a tough hand, losing her friends in the [University] bombing, so I decided then that the purpose of me going there was to help Kubra do this marathon, that if she wants to do a marathon then I'm going to help her through it. The next day I gave a running clinic for the five Afghan women [among 60 men runners], talking about nutrition, hydration and pacing, and after the clinic I pulled her aside and said, 'I'm willing to run with you'. So in the end I found my purpose -- helping this brave young woman complete her first marathon."
"The first half was uphill, a continuous climb. Then it was all downhill coming back. I've never done a marathon quite like it. It was so tough."
Martin Parnell, 60, Canadian Marathon Man, Cochrane, Alberta

Canada’s Marathon Man, Martin Parnell, from Cochrane, Alberta, and a 25-year-old Afghan woman called Kubra, took part in 42-kilometre marathon in Afghanistan in early November.

This doughty man proved his running mettle in Canada and internationally by having completed no fewer than 250 marathons in a single year. He has also been involved in raising over $1.3 million in charitable donations to be used for the Right To Play international charity [which supports underprivileged children's exposure to sports]. A year ago, while recovering from treatment for a blood clot in his brain, he had heard about the inaugural marathon taking place in Afghanistan. The first female runner to be involved in the marathon had been stoned and slandered as a prostitute for doing what no women in Afghan society traditionally involved herself in.

What he read motivated him to become involved in the following year's marathon. He was not the only international runner who determined to become involved in the race, and on October 26 he and a few other runners from Britain, the Netherlands and the United States met up in the Afghan capital Kabul, then flew on to Bamiyan, an isolated town of 35,000 residents located in central Afghanistan, in Bamiyan province. Readers of international news may recall that a world renowned heritage site at Bamiyan containing gigantic statues of Buddha were destroyed by explosive set by the Taliban in 2001.

Smaller of the two Buddha statues at Bamiyan, Afghanistan; photograph from 1977. Both statues were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

The foreign volunteers flew in to Bamiyan because the roads leading from the capital to the valley  though only 240 kilometres from Kabul, are heavily mined with improvised explosive devices, a favourite tactic of the Taliban, well known by NATO forces when the U.S.-led coalition entered the country to disperse al-Qaeda, honoured guests of the Taliban. The people of the province have long been exposed to the rigours of living in their traditional territory while being attacked by the Taliban who doubtless take umbrage at the area's more liberal social stance than other parts of the embattled country.

The race was designed to be run in a manner more physically challenging than might be considered the norm elsewhere, in reflection of the mountainous terrain, than what most westerners are accustomed to. Its pinnacle reaches to an altitude of 2,740 metres, which represents the halfway point at which time any runners who have managed to get to that point, turn around for the return portion of the run. There is a seven-hour window within which runners are held to have achieved their goal; anyone taking over seven hours to complete their run is disqualified.

Martin Parnell was impressed with the attitude of a 25-year-old Afghan woman by the name of Kubra for whom this attempt didn't represent her first run in a long-distance event which had been unsuccessful. She was motivated to try again, and this time the Bamiyan marathon, a gruelling, difficult race that she meant to dedicate to the memory of friends who died when the Taliban set explosives at the Kabul university where she and they were students. She trained, running through Kabul streets, becoming familiar with the taunts of jeering men.

 Mr. Parnell, in assessing the young woman's readiness, attempted to persuade her to commit to a shorter, ten-km event that would take place simultaneously with the longer, more arduous one. She, however, insisted she was committed to the difficult route and meant to accomplish what she set out to do. Pledging to run alongside her, the pair began on a 3C chilly morning, but a fine autumn day full of sunlight. They agreed on their strategy, to run for a nine-minute segment, then walk for one minute and repeat constantly.

For the first three kilometres they ran through the town on a dirt track where burned-out Russian tanks sat, rusting in the landscape, reminders of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan before their army limped back home, defeated by the indomitable Afghan spirit spurning the presence of a foreign army, which eventually led to the rise of the Taliban, nurtured by the Pakistani Secret Service and the American CIA to represent a fighting force to free Afghanistan from the Soviet military presence. It is where al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were inspired. And when the Soviets did leave, Afghan war lords and the Northern Alliance fought the Taliban, but the Taliban conquest led to its extremist Islamist rule of the ruined country.

Once the pair reached the town outskirts where crowds of well-wishers had spurred them and other runners on to their best efforts, it was uphill into the mountains. It took them three hours and 36 minutes to reach the halfway point, before they could turn around and retrace their run. It was at this point where the young Afghan woman was struck with cramps. "I kept looking at the [time], hoping we could somehow make it before the seven-hour cutoff for finishing", explained Mr. Parnell.

"But this woman was tough, she wasn't going to quit and somehow we did it with eight minutes to spare. She had achieved her goal and she was thrilled." The Canadian runner and the young Afghan woman exulted in their finish, and embraced when they reached the finish line, to the amazement of the locals gathered around the finish line.