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"The changing territory of Bera throughout his reign. Bera () (died 844) was the first count of Barcelona from 801 until his deposition in 820. He was also the count of Razès and Conflent from 790, and the count of Girona and Besalú from 812 (or 813 or 817) until his deposition. In 811, he was witness to the last will and testament of Charlemagne. Origins Bera's origins are mostly unknown, although it seems certain that he was a Visigoth.Ramon d'Abadal, Els primers comtes catalans, 1958, republished by La Magrana, Barcelona, 2011, p. 259. He may have been one of the sons of William of Gellone, Count of Toulouse and cousin of Charlemagne, although this is not supported by William's detailed will from 804. In 790, Bera was given the governorship of the counties of Razès and Conflent, possibly by William. The Counties of Roussillon (with the pagus of Vallespir) and Empúries were given to William's son Gaucelm, whose mother was Gunegunde (Cunegonde), one of William's two wives. Background and installation In 796, Sa'dun al Ruayni, the Wali of Barcelona, attempted to break his allegiance to Al-Hakam I, emir of Córdoba. In April 797, he travelled to Aachen and offered to switch the city's allegiance to Charlemagne in exchange for help against Córdoba. Charlemagne summoned an assembly in Toulouse in the spring of 800 which agreed to send his son Louis the Pious to Barcelona. The army included a number of noble men, among them Rostany of Girona, Adhemar of Narbonne, and William of Toulouse. Sa’dun, however, had changed his mind and the Frankish forces laid siege of Barcelona. Eventually, starving and with Sa’dun having been captured by the Franks trying to reach Caliphate of Cordoba in a plea for help, the city's Visigoth population handed the new Wali Harun over to the Franks with their surrender on Saturday, April 3, 801. Louis entered the city on the following day. Soon after, Bera, who was part of the besieging army, was invested as the first Count of Barcelona. Expeditions across the Ebro Bera took part in the Frankish campaigns in 804, 808, and 809 to extend the southern border of the Marca Hispanica to the River Ebro which was felt to be a natural defendable barrier between the two empires. This was despite his Visigoth mother who urged him to keep peace with the Muslims States to the south and west. First expedition In 804, Louis the Pious led an army to Tarragona. At Santa Coloma, the army divided into two. Louis marched his division straight for Tortosa while the other commanded by Bera, Adhemar, and Borrell of Ausona covered Louis' western flank and attacked Tortosa from the south. Bera turned his army around after they had crossed the River Ebro where it meets the Cinca. The army went as far as Vila Rubea before being forced to turn back to Vallis Ibana (this is possibly modern Vallibona), near Morella. They then rejoined the troops commanded by Louis's which has unsuccessfully undertaken a siege of Tortosa. The army then turned north and returned to Barcelona. Second expedition In 808, Charlemagne sent his legate Ingobert to Toulouse to meet Louis and prepare for another expedition south. The plan was to follow the same tactics as in 804. The "Astronomer", author of the Vita Hludovici, writes that the forces of Bera and Adhemar crossed the Ebro in boats while their horses swam across. However, the horse dung was swept by the current past Tortosa which alerted the town's garrison. The Wali of the city attacked Bera, who was forced to retreat north again. Third expedition In 809, Louis led his last expedition as King of Aquitaine into the Marca. This time equipped with siege engines, Tortosa was besieged for forty days by Frankish and troops from the Marca (under Bera). The new Emir of Cordoba, Abd ar-Rahman II, however met the besiegers with an army. The Moorish chronicler Al Maqqari records a Muslim victory, while Astronomus simply states that the besieged offered Louis's the keys to the city and, satisfied, the King of Aquitaine lifted his siege and left. First truce It is probable that Bera was the strongest promoter of peace with Córdoba. This would allow him to consolidate his power in his new possessions. Advised by his mother, and supported by the city's residents keen for continued peaceful relations with the nearby Muslim states, Bera sought to institute a truce. The Frankish court eventually signed a three-year peace treaty with the Caliphate of Córdoba in 812. Bera's father died on 18 May 812 and the Counties of Razès and Conflent passed to him. Following his father's example, Bera gave governorship of the counties to his son Guillemundus. In 812, Bera also travelled to the Imperial Court in Aachen with several other Counts of the region: Adhemar of Narbonne, Gaucelm of Roussillon, Odilo of Girona, Guiscafred of Carcassonne, Ermengar of Empúries, Laibulf of Provence, and Erlin of Béziers. Several Visigoth (hispani) nobles had accused the Counts of Frankish paternity and of imposing unjust tributes and excises on their lands. The Magnates defence was unsuccessful and Charlemagne decided in favour of the claimants Second truce and downfall Around 813, Count Odilo of Girona and Besalú died and these Counties passed to Bera. In 815, the truce with the Caliphate was broken and the war with the Muslims resumed. The Muslim army under the command of Ubayd Allah Abu Marwan, uncle of the Emir Al-Hakam I, attacked Barcelona. However, the attack was beaten back by a mercenary Visigothic army. This victory increased the prestige of Bera, whose relationships with the local Visigoth nobility improved. In November 816, the Wali of Zaragoza travelled to Aachen and negotiated a new three-year truce, which was finally concluded in February 817. However, despite attempts to secure alliances in Pamplona, the Basques remained allied to the Banu Qasi family based in the valley of the River Ebro. They continued to defy Frankish authority, as did Aragón, where the Count was allied with the Basques. Gaucelm and his brother Bernard both claimed that the truce promoted by Bera was against the Empire's best interests and inhibited attempts to force the Basques and Aragón to recognise themselves as vassals of the Empire. In February 820, a general assembly was held in Aachen at which Bera was in attendance. Gaucelm sent his Visigoth lieutenant Sanila in his place, who accused Bera of infidelity and perfidy. The litigation, as was customary in that era, was settled by a duel in the palace. Bera was defeated by Sanila and deprived of his counties.Archibald Lewis, The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050, Chapter 3. However Emperor Louis I, who did not believe the Count was a traitor, commuted the death penalty carried by the defeat into an exile in Rouen. He remained there until his death in 844. He was succeeded as Count of Barcelona by Rampon. References Category:8th-century births Category:844 deaths Category:Nobility of the Carolingian Empire Category:Counts of Barcelona Category:Counts of Girona Category:9th-century people from the County of Barcelona Category:9th-century Visigothic people Category:Counts of Razès "
"Telugu Yuvatha (translation: Telugu Youth) is the youth wing of Telugu Desam Party in India. Leader of Telugu Yuvatha of Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh is 'Pending'. References Category:Youth wings of political parties in India Category:Telugu Desam Party "
"Meena Keshwar Kamal (Pashto/; February 27, 1956 – February 4, 1987), commonly known as Meena, was an Afghan revolutionary political activist, feminist, women's rights activist and founder of Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), who was assassinated in 1987. Biography Logo of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) In 1977, when she was a student at Kabul University, she founded Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), an organization formed to promote equality and education for women and continues to "give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan". Despite the Saur Revolution and women's rights placed high on the Democratic Republic's agenda,https://ahtribune.com/history/636-afghan-women.html Kamal felt that there was no vast changes of women's deprivation in Afghanistan. In 1979 she campaigned against government, and organized meetings in schools to mobilize support against it, and in 1981, she launched a bilingual feminist magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message). She also founded Watan Schools to aid refugee children and their mothers, offering both hospitalization and the teaching of practical skills.Brave Women in a War-Torn World: RAWA and Afghanistan At the end of 1981, by invitation of the French Government, Meena represented the Afghan resistance movement at the French Socialist Party Congress. The Soviet delegation at the Congress, headed by Boris Ponamaryev, left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign. She would eventually move and base her RAWA organization in Quetta, Pakistan, in opposition to the Afghan Marxist government. Personal life Kamal was married to Afghanistan Liberation Organization leader Faiz Ahmad,Brodsky, Anne E. With all our strength : the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. New York City: Routledge, 2003. p. 54 who was murdered by agents of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on November 12, 1986.Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, CIA Op and Homicidal ThugModels and Realities of Afghan Womanhood: A Retrospective and Prospects They had three children, whose whereabouts are unknown. Assassination Kamal was assassinated in Quetta, Pakistan on February 4, 1987. Reports vary as to who the assassins were, but are believed to have been agents of the Afghan Intelligence Service KHAD, the Afghan secret police, or of fundamentalist Mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In May 2002, two men were hanged in Pakistan after being convicted of Kamal's murder. Legacy In a special issue of Time magazine on November 13, 2006, included Meena among "60 Asian Heroes" and wrote that "Although she was only 30 when she died, Meena had already planted the seeds of an Afghan women's rights movement based on the power of knowledge."TIME Magazine 60 Years of Asian Heroes: Meena RAWA says of her "Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sell outs imposed on our women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of population will be awaken and cross the path towards freedom, democracy and women's rights. The enemy was rightly shivering with fear by the love and respect that Meena was creating within the hearts of our people. They knew that within the fire of her fights all the enemies of freedom, democracy and women would be turned to ashes." An enduring quote from Meena states: See also *Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan *Taliban treatment of women Further reading * Meena - Heroine of Afghanistan, (2003) book by Melody Ermachild Chavis . References External links *RAWA's biography of Meena *Meena, an inspiration (Time Magazine, November 13, 2006) *More photos *Full text of Meena's Poem "I'll Never Return" *A song by Korean singer Hae Kyoung Ahn based on Meena's above poem *A Biography Category:1956 births Category:1987 deaths Category:Afghan democracy activists Category:Afghan feminists Category:Afghan people murdered abroad Category:Assassinated activists Category:Assassinated Afghan people Category:Civil rights activists Category:People murdered in Balochistan, Pakistan Category:Afghan secularists Category:Afghan revolutionaries Category:Afghan expatriates in Pakistan "