Via Witchvox comes this report of attempts to curtail attacks on those suspected of being witches in India.
Some excerpts from the article: "Recalling the trauma she faced, Ramani narrates: 'I was tortured and forced to eat human excreta just because I was branded a witch by the ojhas (witch doctors).'
Today Ramani is not alone in the fight.
Vaisakhi, another survivor, says: 'It is a blot on our society. We have to face such inhuman torture even in this 21st century. It is a shame that when women have reached space, we are subjected to such horror.'
Vaisakhi, in her 50s, had also been brutally beaten up by a villager, who branded her a witch.
There are scores of women who have been branded witch by villagers and tortured. Many were killed, sometimes by beheading or dismembering their limbs.
Many like Ramani Devi are forced to drink urine or consume human excreta. Some are ostracised and thrown out of their villages."
We like to think that persecution of those thought to be witches ended long ago. It didn't.
Anne Johnson has a report of xians lined up to yell insults at pagans and others who dared to gather for a festival in the US this weekend. Can you imagine the coverage if a bunch of pagans lined up outside the Baptist church and hurled insults at the Baptists as they waited to go inside?
4 comments:
Pagans wouldn't do that.
Keep reading "The Gods Are Bored" to see what these nice Christian men shouted at us.
Damned if that isn't the third report of protestors heckling people at a Faerie Festival I've read or heard of in the past two days. Are all of you in the same area? The first report, and the only one I have sourced for place, was in Pennsylvania. I have a friend who plays with Thrir Venstri Foetr, who played there.
I had thought it was in Maryland, originally, but I did just check again.
Are the wingnuts getting more brash, or are we just noticing it more?
Anne, maybe pagans wouldn't go stand in front of churches and heckle, but I'm a suitably cranky atheist, and I don't think I'd feel much compunction about messing up someone's Sunday morning if they'd messed up mine...
interrobang,
In PA, i think
IT'S ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE THE PERSECUTION THOSE OF NON-CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS FACE IN THIS DAY AND AGE. MY SISTER IS EXPECTING THIS WINTER, AND FOLLOWS THE WICCAN PATH. I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT HER CHILD WILL NOT EXPERIENCE THE ATROCITIES WE EXPERIENCE, DUE TO OUR BELIEFS. ANY GOOD TEXTS FOR PARENTS PLANNING TO REAR THEIR CHILDREN IN THE WICCAN WAY? BLESSED BE...
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