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WORLD Page 10 THE BATTALION Feminist killing focus of women’s rights debates ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Even in death, Konca Kuris was denied her last wish — that women be allowed to pray alongside men. It was a desire that cost the religious feminist her life. Police dug up Kuris’ naked body from the basement of a hideout used by an Islamic group who videotaped weeks of abuse they inflicted be fore suffocating her. The bodies of dozens of male victims also have been found and a second female victim was dis covered Friday. The killings have horrified the country, but Kuris’ slaying also has focused attention on the role of women in Islam, a flashpoint that was un derscored when male relatives at her funeral last week refused to allow her eldest daughter to pray beside her coffin. “Who are the real Muslims, those who have killed Konca or those who go to mosque togeth er, women and men?” asked Necati Dogru, a columnist for the newspaper Sabah. “One more person paid with her life for being different and searching for her own voice,” Sibel Eraslan, a female commentator, wrote in the Is lamic newspaper But at Ankara’s main Kocatepe mosque, wor shipper Nese Ince spoke out against Kuris’ feminist brand of Islam. “I don’t want the Islam that I have believed in for years to be changed,” she said. “I will carry out my mother's last will/' She demanded the right to pray alongside men and that prayers be said in Turkish and not the tra ditional Arabic, which few Turks understand. Kuris’ feminist views infuriated Hezbollah, which is dominated by tradi tional, rural Kurds. In early 1998, she began to receive anonymous telephone calls. "Are you inventing a new religion?” the voices asked, according to the newspaper Milliyet. In July of that year, three tlu — Sirma Kuris Konca Kuris' daughter Kuris at first was a member of the group Hezbollah, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in southeastern Turkey and which is not re lated to the Lebanese group of the same name. She traveled to Iran with a delegation from the organization but gradually became disillusioned with the group’s attitude toward women. people kidnapped Kuris from in front of her home in the southern port of Mersin, and she was never seen again. Tapes of Kuris’ interrogation were discovered about two weeks ago during a police raid on a Hezbollah safe house in Istanbul, Sabah reported. It said they showed people stuffing a picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk Turkey, into her mouth. The newspaper also said i Kuris of seeking to become a Taslima Nasrin, secular Mus ered heretics. Kuris was apparently suflc or clothing in the basement ot tral Anatolian city of Konya. I ler body w as buried in a the basement than those of thi At her funeral, the dispu erupted in full force. “1 will carry out r ed Kuris’ eldest daii| But men blocked the mosque. Another female i pushed the men asid the Islamic preacher hastily ended the fur rused »alman Ruslu im writers co After artil blast, fem weighs dm Jittei te o\ othei News in Brief Priests dying of AIDS at higher rate KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Ro man Catholic priests in the United States are dying from AIDS-related illnesses at a rate four times high er than the general population and the cause is often concealed on their death certificates, The Kansas City Star reported Sunday. In the first of a three-part series, the newspaper said death certifi cates and interviews with experts indicated several hundred priests have died of AIDS-related illnesses since the mid-1980s and hundreds more are living with HIV, the virus that causes the disease. “I think this speaks to a failure on the part of the church," Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of the Archdiocese of Detroit said. “Gay priests and heterosexual priests didn’t know how to handle their sex uality, their sexual drive. And so they would handle it in ways that were not healthy.” The Star received 801 respons es to questionnaires that were sent last fall to 3,000 of the 46,000 priests in the United States. The margin of error of the survey was 3.5 percentage points. Six of 10 priests responding said they knew of at least one priest who had died of an AIDS-re- lated illness, and one-third knew a priest living with AIDS. Three- fourths said the church needed to provide more education to semi narians on sexual issues. “How to be celibate and to be gay at the same time, and how to be celi bate and heterosexual at the same time, that’s what we were never real ly taught how to do. And that was a major failing," Gumbleton said. Demand for Ortho Tri-Cyclen soaring NEW YORK (AP) — Demand for one brand of “the pill" is soaring, with a little help from sales to women who don’t want it as a con traceptive. Sales of Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho Tri-Cyclen contraceptive pill have tripled in the last three years, making it by far the No. 1 brand, Student Counseling Services and MSC Current Issues Awareness Present Coping With Trauma After A Major Event A presentation by Dr. Barbara Rothbaum Ph.D., ABPP Dr. Rothbaum is an associate professor of psychiatry at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta GA. She is an expert in the field of post-traumatic stress disorder and has appeared on the CBS Evening News, Dateline NBC, CNN and many other programs. Through her presentation students will learn to recognize post-traumatic reactions in themselves and others, develop ways to deal with trauma after a major event such as Bonfire and differentiate between post-traumatic systems that will decline naturally and those that require treatment. Thursday, February 3,2000 3-5 PM MSC 224 We would like to thank Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co. for providing an unrestricted educational grant in support of our continuing education programs. (k Persons with disabilities needing assistance may call 845-1637 <. \n smith, It Robert Shoal knelt ovc craters now dottinghisp sighed in disbelief as jagged strip of am let) "One hundred would have hit tny Saturday, pointing he shares with his 100 miles southwest Just days earlier, S er family members '00-acre cattle cos cr as Army away at fort Hood of 155 mm Howii tow ard their property. "It roared like a a bomb exploded,’ said. “I didn’t know the next morning wha partly because it is the only oral contraceptive that also may be sold as an acne fighter. “It’s like getting two drugs in one,” Darla Brown, 28, of Houston, who has used the pill for two years, said. “And it has worked wonders on my skin.” The Food and Drug Administra tion gave Johnson & Johnson the right to sell Ortho Tri-Cyclen for acne in 1997 after studies found it helped clear the skin of more than 80 percent of women who took it. Although health experts say all oral contraceptives probably help fight acne, only Ortho Tri-Cyclen has FDA clearance to advertise the added benefit. Medical ethicists doubt the dou ble-duty pill is encouraging more young girls to have sex, but one says it may help them provide a smoke screen for their parents — allowing them to claim they want the drug for acne when their real aim is protection from pregnancy. “Sex and lying have a long his tory of association,” Arthur Ca- plan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said. Johnson & Johnson has exploit ed the pill’s pimple-fighting ability with magazine ads promoting Ortho Tri-Cyclen as a “beauty aid” for women 15 and over. Taiwan holds on declaring freedom TAIPEI. Taiwan (AP) — The pres idential candidate for Taiwan’s pro independence opposition party promised Sunday that the island would not declare independence unless mainland China tried to re take it by force. Also Sunday. China warned Tai wanese leaders not to try to write the island’s claim to separate sta tus into law. In Taiwan, presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian's statement against independence marked a major shift of the Democratic Progressive Par ty’s stance ahead of the Mar. 18 election. “We will not declare indepen dence unless China wants to use force against us and our people can not tolerate or accept it.” Chen told a news conference. If elected. Chen said, he would like to visit Chit A 4-fQoi length of a: meet its leader before taking of of his home cracked.® Most recent polls have pl< 3C0U shrapnel lodged mtheacr Chen in a tie with independent C3CV his son Jay. didate James Sooog. The rultnj \ Nci- "It was unreal, like a tionalist party's candidate. Vice 1 said Ja\ ShoaTiai^lB ident Lien Chan, is m third placx The lone of Wdtat Chen has tried to soften his blasts, which continuea party’s stance on independe hour, sfux'k pictures ti to win voters worried that ten broke a chandelier u fc 2 with China could rise if he is e l^ct- and cracked sections of : ed. Chen has said he will lea V6 it The shelling happ?; QU Y ROGERS & JEFI Ala 88 die up to Taiwar a referendu breaks cor with China. China ant il war in 194 island a rene ,*\erase itud * atialums, si; l ummmituoj tiwan split amid *hina considers Je province and I ilk insisted on reunincatioi necessary. Chen has said that if will not alter the cc DV is wh' *:i until ut >nstiU malize current President Lee Tent the tw< hui’s claim that should treat each other as equ states, a stance that has enragt Beijing. He also has said he will n change the island's official nam the Republic of China. Some par members have suggested renai t th m Repi # oo v jblic of Tired of Rec Cent! 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