Subjects Archives: Feminism

Essayist, thinker and professor in the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, Butler is best known for her studies of gender and sexuality, in which she examines the question of what it means to remake, to resignify, the restrictive normative concepts of sexual life and gender. Is it possible to establish any […]

7 May 2009 — The All Nepal Women’s Association – Revolutionary (ANWA-R) protested against President Ram Baran Yadav’s unconstitutional reinstatement of the Chief of Army Staff, General Rookmangud Katawal, despite the cabinet’s decision to fire him.  The protesters said that the president’s move threatens the civilian rule and democracy. For the background, watch Ben Peterson, […]

  Sex workers from Kolkata took to the streets in their dozens to demand the legalization of the world’s oldest profession on International Labor Day.  Sonagachi is the biggest red light district in Kolkata and one of the largest in Asia. Around 500 sex workers took part in the march, which was organized by a […]

  Earlier this month, the jury in Ward Churchill‘s civil trial against the University of Colorado found, in his favor, that the university had fired him because of critical remarks he made after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  While Churchill awaits a hearing on his ongoing employment at the university, this victory is […]

  L’image de la femme au Maghreb (Images of Women in the Maghreb), a collection of articles edited by Barzakh in Algeria and by Actes Sud and the Mediterranean Center for the Humanities (MMSH) in France, is a work of research by four writers on the representation of women in their countries.  The project was […]

  HAVANA, 26 March (IPS) — While the work of women filmmakers in Latin America and the Caribbean has made its presence undeniable, their work still suffers from certain invisibility in a medium where men have traditionally had hegemony. The “Women in the Contemporary Audiovisual Media” Web site, created by the New Latin American Cinema […]

  The Merideño Institute for Women and the Family is part of a national network of such institutions called into being by the 1998 law on violence against women and the family.  They are tasked with helping protect women and children from abuse, challenging sexist gender stereotypes, and, in effect breaking the “Machista” elements of […]

  André Meier, dir.  Do Communists Have Better Sex? (Sex im geteilten Deutschland).  First Run/Icarus Films, 2006. 52 mins., color, subtitles in English. This film, a mixture of scholarly research and light-hearted presentations of stereotypes about the role of sex in divided Germany (from the end of the Second World War to the fall of […]

This Sunday, the Eighth of March, Assemble at Plaza O’Leary at 9 AM in Silence, to March toward Plaza Los Museos, the Location of the Cultural Festival We Are Marching to Open New Paths.  Big Marches Work Their Magic Because We Make the Path by Marching, Which Is the Legacy of the Collective Memory of […]

  Who Am I? / من انا؟ Observer / متفرجة Excerpts from the Book of Aswat / مقتطفات من كتاب أصوات Aswat / أصوات Aswat (Voices) is a group of Palestinian gay women, home to all lesbian, inter-sex, queer, transsexual, transgender, and bisexual women and women who are just beginning to question their sexual identities.

Throughout the seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine conflict, civil society has been active in responding to crises and advocating for peace and justice.  Kathambi Kinoti of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) interviewed Eilat Maoz, a general coordinator of the Coalition of Women for Peace, an Israeli organization that works for peace in Israel and […]

The implementation of Shari’a reinforced the patriarchal order and institutionalized gender inequality in post-revolutionary Iran.  Nevertheless, the modernization of society has led to profound changes in the lives of Iranian women and in their attitudes regarding men’s authority.  The modernization of women’s attitudes1 has in turn led to their mounting resistance or opposition against gendered […]

See, also, Hajir Palaschi, “Interview with Shahla Lahiji on Women’s Presence in the Labor Market: No Vocation Must Be Prohibited for Women,” Trans. Yoshie Furuhashi, MRZine, 18 February 2008. The Iranian Revolution and its aftermath have generated many debates, one of which pertains to the effects on women’s labor force participation and employment patterns.  For […]

Is talking about homosexuality still a taboo?  In the Arab world, specifically Lebanon, the answer to this question is yes and no.  Sure, you can have an actual discussion about homosexuality.  People can freely discuss homosexuality being a disease, unnatural, and even disgusting.  The Arab world doesn’t seem to have an issue with such discussions. […]

  Islah Jad is a Ph.D holder from SOAS (School of African and Asian Studies), University of London.  She lectures on gender and politics in the Women’s Studies Institute and Cultural Studies Department, Bir Zeit University, Ramallah, West Bank, Palestine. Rochelle Jones: Israel’s attacks on Gaza have taken a heavy toll.  What is your understanding […]

Calm down folks and listen to my story, OK? You need to understand that I live with an absolutely impossible woman.  All I ever wanted was to live in peace and harmony with her.  I was willing to share and share alike. So I let her build us a beautiful house, under my direction.  I […]

  The morgues of Gaza’s hospitals are overflowing.  The bodies in their blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa hospital morgue.  Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls crushed in.  Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother, […]

Toronto, Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 10:25 am A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto.  This action is in protest against the ongoing Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million […]

  Mariela Castro is Director of the National Center for Sex Education in Cuba. Anastasia Haydulina: One day your uncle Fidel Castro . . . is going to die.  Do you think his death will change the status quo of your Cuba? Mariela Castro: First of all, the death of Fidel will bring great suffering […]

“Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we put […]