Given that it's still reeling from the controversial, and eventually reversed, decision to suspend funding to Planned Parenthood -- fundraising is reportedly down 30 percent for some of its events -- you'd think breast cancer advocacy group Susan G. Komen for the Cure would want to steer clear of potential political controversy.
Evidently not. As Nathan Hamm notes at Registan, Komen is partnering with Fund Forum, a charity run by Gulnara Karimova, the socialite, part-time pop star daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, to sponsor a series of charity runs in Uzbekistan. In addition to her dad's atrocious and well-publicized human rights record, Gulnara herself has been implicated in a range of illegal business practices, including essentially taking over rival companies at gunpoint. Then there are disturbing reports of widespread forced sterilizations of women in Uzbek hospitals and evidence that's it's being encouraged by the authorities.
You might expect this sort of thing from the fashion industry, or say, Sting, but Komen should probably know better at this point.
Update: Apparently Gulnara's
[view whole blog post 
]
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
See More
Report Abuse