Iranian sentenced to blinding for acid attack pardoned

A noble gesture (though since it comes from Iranian state television, consider the source):

An Iranian man who was ordered to be blinded for carrying out an acid attack on a woman has been pardoned by his victim, state television has said.

BBC News - Iranian sentenced to blinding for acid attack pardoned

India 'Slutwalk' sex harassment protest held in Delhi

A rally has taken place in India's capital inspired by the "Slutwalk" protests held in a number of countries.

The protest is to challenge the notion that the way a woman looks can excuse sexual abuse or taunting - "Eve teasing" as it is known in India.

Hundreds took part in Delhi, though there was little of the skimpy dressing that has marked protests elsewhere.

The protests originated in Canada after a policeman said women could avoid rape by not dressing like "sluts".

BBC News - India 'Slutwalk' sex harassment protest held in Delhi

Tristane Banon Frees Herself by Speaking Out Against Strauss-Kahn - NYTimes.com

Excerpt:

Ms. Banon, who is often shown in magazines here looking like a pale, skinny adolescent and wearing ripped jeans, sounded mature, self-confident and determined. If French prosecutors decide there is not enough evidence to bring her case against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, she said, “I’ll have to live with this, but I’ll live badly.”

In early 2003, she was a 23-year-old journalist, working as an intern for the magazine Paris Match when she interviewed Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a leading Socialist, for a book she was researching about the mistakes of powerful people.

In various settings since 2007, and most recently in the French weekly magazine L’Express, she has described what she says happened — how Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who arranged to meet her in a sparsely furnished apartment, had tried to rape her, undoing her bra and jeans and putting his hand in her underwear.

But for eight years, advised by her mother and her friends to keep silent, Ms. Banon said she did not find the courage to bring a criminal complaint against Mr. Strauss-Kahn, whose second wife was her godmother. “I was too young and fearful at the time,” she said.

In the interview, Ms. Banon said the episode destroyed her self-confidence, affected her relationships with men and hurt her chances to find work in journalism.

“I never understood why some people destroyed my career, my life, insulted me while I was the victim,” she said.

Tristane Banon Frees Herself by Speaking Out Against Strauss-Kahn - NYTimes.com