Subjects Archives: Feminism

May 27, 2013 When she was 24 years old, in 1979, Fahima Vorgetts left Afghanistan.  By reputation, she had been outspoken, even rebellious, in her opposition to injustice and oppression; and family and friends, concerned for her safety, had urged her to go abroad.  Twenty-three years later, returning for the first time to her homeland, […]

The following comments were made at a panel on the topic “Sexual Taboos and the Law Today” May 19 at a conference titled “Which Way Forward for Psychoanalysis?” and sponsored by the Society for Psychoanalytic Inquiry at the University of Chicago.  While Freud and psychoanalysis were a focus on the event, other themes running throughout […]

I. The Globe See the Globe.  More than half the 7 billion people on the Globe are women.  Women are different from men.  Why are women different from men?  Because, according to international humanitarian agencies, women have special percentages that stick out.  See women’s percentages: Women make up 70% of the world’s poor. Women do […]

Nicaragua’s adoption this year of a sweeping law for prevention and punishment of violence against women marks an important gain for women’s rights in this Central American country, says Sandra Ramos, founder and director of the “Maria Elena Cuadra” Movement for Working and Unemployed Women (MEC). Addressing a meeting at Casa Maíz in Toronto on […]

Women With a Vision (WWAV), a New Orleans advocacy and service organization that provides health care and other support for poor women of color, was the victim of a break-in and arson late Thursday night.  A small organization that has won a national reputation for its work, WWAV was founded in 1991 by a collective […]

  “What this is about for me most is exercising our long-sleeping democracy muscle.” — Marina from Brooklyn Video by Naomi Less.  Music by Glenn Grossman.  For more information, e.g. <anonops.blogspot.com>; <occupywallst.org>. | Print  

The video is profoundly disturbing.  It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), apparently raping an 18-year old Haitian youth.  Two of them have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move.  Perhaps the most unnerving […]

Between June 14 and June 23, 2011, a delegation of 11 scholars, activists, and artists visited occupied Palestine.  As indigenous and women of color feminists involved in multiple social justice struggles, we sought to affirm our association with the growing international movement for a free Palestine.  We wanted to see for ourselves the conditions under […]

Bassam Alkadi is President of the Syrian Women Observatory, Syria’s main women’s rights organization.  A relentless fighter for human rights in Syria, he has been fired from his job, arrested, jailed, and forbidden from traveling, but he continues to be driven by logic and not revenge.  He rejects dialogue for the sake of dialogue.  Instead, […]

  “I liked training and defending my country, and now I’m training women from all ages to use weapons.” — Fatima Masoud 30 June 2011 30 June 2011 Cf. Waniss Otman and Erling Karlberg, “The Growing Role of Women in Libyan Society” (The Libyan Economy: Economic Diversification and International Repositioning, Springer, 2007). | Print  

Women in Mexico are marching not only against sexual violence, but also against the excuses for it and the impunity that surrounds it.  The “March of the Whores,” as they called it, represents a fresh step in the development of Mexican feminism, taking its cue from an earlier protest held in Canada. Women, men, and […]

  Excerpt: Across US counties, life expectancy in 2007 ranged from 65.9 to 81.1 years for men and 73.5 to 86.0 years for women.  When compared against a time series of life expectancy in the 10 nations with the lowest mortality, US counties range from being 15 calendar years ahead to over 50 calendar years […]

  “Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, it’s my fault.  Israel’s PR failure is on my account.  But after you forbid us from protesting, after you pass the law, everything will be different here.  The entire world would know that Israel is a magnificent democracy.  Tourism and trade will flourish.  Anywhere Israelis go, everybody will know that […]

  Executive Summary: According to witnesses who work at Classic Fashion, scores of young Sri Lankan women sewing clothing for Wal-Mart and Hanes have suffered routine sexual abuse and repeated rapes, and in some cases even torture.  One young rape victim at the Classic factory in Jordan told us her assailant, a manager, bit her, […]

  David A. Kideckel.  Getting By in Postsocialist Romania: Labor, the Body, and Working-Class Culture.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008.  xii + 266 pp.  $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-253-34957-6; $24.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-253-21940-4. During the last twenty years, Romanian mass media and most Romanian intellectuals have typically portrayed the miners of the Jiu Valley in Romania […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. “Saudi Women: ‘I Will Drive Myself Starting June 17′” (Jadaliyya, 12 May 2011); “Saudi Women Respond to Exclusion from Voting: Baladi Campaign” (Jadaliyya, 16 May 2011); “The Saudi Women Revolution Statement” (Mona Kareem, 18 May 2011); “Manal al-Sharif: Saudi Woman Drives the Streets of al-Khobar (Video)” (Jadaliyya, 25 […]

  Most of the time, as soon as I mention that I am a feminist activist, I am immediately hit with a question: “Why?  What’s wrong with the situation of women in Lebanon?  What could a woman want?  She has all her rights and more, she is treated with respect, with dignity.  She controls her […]

Friday, 17 June 2011, 5:30 PM, in front of the Saudi Embassy in Beirut Women Driving in KSA If you’re not in Lebanon, organize similar events in your country. For more information, go to .  Cf. “Saudi Women: ‘I Will Drive Myself Starting June 17′” (Jadaliyya, 12 May 2011). | Print

Swiss women and a major Swiss union held a national day of action today for wage equality for women and for a minimum wage of $4,000 a month for all workers.  The Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar are about on par, the franc worth a little more than a U.S. dollar.  The new minimum […]

Introduction by Carol Hanisch A group of international feminists is gathering support for the African immigrant woman hotel worker who was allegedly attacked sexually by (now former!) IMF Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and who is now having her character assassinated in the media.  We have posted a statement “Feminists Demand Freedom from Sexual Assault and Harassment” […]