The Indian government is to ban children under 14 working in restaurants and as domestic servants. No doubt the law is one thing and practice another, but still it is a step in the right direction, particularly for girls, who would make up a large proportion of this group.

Senait Mehari has gone from being a child soldier in Eritria enduring some of the worst conditions on earth to being a pop star in Germany.

As her book Heart of Fire graphically describes, Mehari lived in conditions so squalid that she was bitten by rats at night. She had to bury corpses and experience the deaths of other child soldiers.
“The only thing that makes me happy is that I never killed anyone myself. The knowledge of that would kill me,” she says. “I went to the front to fight, but I used to wee in my underwear from fear. The soldiers all teased me about it. They made up a name for me, and used to sing it at me.
“They didn’t want innocence. We were never cuddled. We were drilled to kill; we were all fighting for independence from Ethiopia. The war had a reason; but using children?”

By contrast, The Countess of Mar has a title going back to 1115, an aristocratic hateur and an independent mind, having just resigned in protest from the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.

“I think it is accepted among peers that some have bought their peerages,” she says casually, “although that has probably always been the case. Where it has gone to the dogs in the last 10 years is we have got a lot of people who have lost an election (to the Commons). Why should we get the dross?” If you think that spirited, wait for her view of the appeal tribunal. “I don’t tolerate fools gladly,” she says, appraising me over the floral teacups. “I just grew irritated. The management of the tribunal got so bad. It is an appalling con. My conscience could no longer stand it.” Relations with Hodge nosedived last Christmas. “I had a huge stand-up row with him,” she says.

A feminist nursing home – or rather to put it more subtly, a co-operative for old women. The driving force is “Mme Clerc, a mother of four who turned from a “bourgeois, Catholic housewife” into a militant feminist with her own business after her divorce in 1968.”

“We’re going to take all the decisions. We want to change the way society looks at old people, the way old people look at society and the way old people look at themselves,” she said.
“There will be 17 million people over the age of 65 in France by 2010 and we need to take charge of our own lives.”
The home will function without care assistants or resident doctors.
There will be no men except, perhaps, for occasional high-jinks. “A party now and again cannot do any harm,” Mme Clerc said. She launched the idea in 1997 after the difficult experience of looking after her elderly mother.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

An account of the making of a television programme about the execution of a 16-year-old girl in Iran for a “crime against chastity”.

The programme is on BBC2 tonight for those for whom it is relevant.

Over on Comment is Free I’ve started up a bit of a storm with a post in favour of unisex sport. Just as once Virginia Woolf spoke about the lack of opportunities for “Shakespeare’s sister”, I want to campaign for “Wayne Rooney’s sister”.

A fascinating case reported today in which a young Sikh woman whose life was made an absolute misery by her mother-in-law used legislation originally designed for stalkers to win £35,000 compensation.

“A devout Sikh who entered into the marriage willingly, Ms Singh said she had accepted she would live with her husband’s family – but her mother-in-law’s campaign of torment led to serious health problems and the breakdown of the marriage in March 2003.
She was forced to do menial housework for hours and was kept a virtual prisoner in the house, beginning her domestic duties at 6.30am. Ms Singh told the court her mother-in-law called her a “poodle” and contrived a work routine – including cleaning toilets without a brush – designed to “exhaust and humiliate” her.
Ms Singh claimed that she was not allowed to visit the local Sikh temple, and was allowed only four short visits home to her parents in the weeks after her wedding. She said her telephone use was limited and her calls monitored.
The court also heard that Mrs Bhakar forced her daughter-in-law to have her hair cut to shoulder length, despite knowing her religious beliefs forbade it.”

The mother-in-law in the case had lived in Britain for decades, so while there is undoubtedly a clash of cultures here, as an abuser she can have had no excuse of lack of knowledge of British laws and norms.