Iranian women's rights activist freed

Jinus Sobhani, an Iranian women's rights activist, was released on bail today in a huge victory for the fight for gender equality in Iran. She was sentenced to a three year prison term for participating in a peaceful protest against gender discrimination in Iranian laws. Ms. Sobhani was an employee in the Center for the Defense of Human Rights, started by Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi (whose biography can be read here). The Center was started to defend the legal rights of women, political prisoners and minorities in Iran. The Center's doors were forcibly closed by Iranian police in December 2008, and the Center remains closed today.

Ms. Sobhani had been in solitary confinement since January 14, so this release was a huge victory, no doubt partially facilitated by the pressure of international feminists. Another one of Ms. Sobhani and Dr. Ebadi's coworkers remains in jail, though. 60-year-old Alieh Eghdamdoust remains behind bars, also charged for participating in a peaceful protest.

As western feminists, we walk a fine line between supporting in solidarity and dictating from afar. Supporting these Iranian feminists, brave beyond belief in the face of their unstable and dangerous president (I use that term loosely, as I would rather use the term dictator) is crucially important as we all fight for change in Iran together.

For more information, and to show your support, visit Feminist Majority Foundation.

DV Shelters in Afghanistan

Although it reflects the many struggles they are still facing, I found this article about several domestic violence shelters that have cropped up in Afghanistan uplifting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/world/asia/03shelter.html?th&emc=th

The organization where I work began when one family court attorney let her client and the client's children sleep in her apartment because they had nowhere else to go, and now we have grown into a multi-service non profit with 25 years of experience. The existence of shelters and lawyers ready and able to defend Afghani women's rights is hopeful, because hopefully their education and advocacy will continue to grow into something that is accepted (albeit begrudgingly like in this country) by mainstream society and legal systems.

Crisis in the Congo

My sincerest apologies for not writing in so long.

I know many of us are aware of V-Day's new campaign to bring awareness to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I wanted to post something about it on our blog as well, to make sure as many people as possible are aware of what's happening.

Rape is being used as a systematic weapon of war in the Congo. This is, unfortunately, not the first time this has happened, but it has never happened in such a great magnitude before- roughly 500,000 women and girls have been raped, forced into sexual slavery, and genitally mutilated by soldiers. These women are often so badly damaged that they become incontinent, further alienating them from the community which has already shunned them as victims of rape.

Several factors are contributing to the rampant attacks. The government is unstable and therefore has made no effort to control the bandit soldiers. Western companies are aware of the problem, as they have to protect themselves when they export (with almost no regulation) Coltan, a metal used in the production of most cell phones, computers, etc. but do nothing to stop it.

I got to see Eve Ensler speak about the crisis along with her partner there, Dr. Mukwege, who has "only" treated 20,000 women for fistulas and other problems due to genital mutilation and rape. He was an amazing man who actually gave me hope that men can and will fight to end sexual violence.

Here is a link to the V-Day website where you can find out more information:
http://newsite.vday.org/

There are several things we can do-
Spread awareness (students and young people were mainly responsible for spreading awareness about Darfur, we can do it again)
Donate money to Dr. Mukwege's hospital (it costs $90 to completely treat one fistula)
Donate money to their City of Joy campaign, which will attempt to provide housing for 100 women after they have physically recovered so that they might stay in the city and organize the other survivors to bring about change

Let's make sure everyone knows about what's happening, so we can start to change it!

state-sponsored prostitution

It's the first time I've heard about state-sponsored/state-condoned prostitution by the Korean government of Korean women to American soldiers stationed in Korea. I didn't really like the tone of the article (it seemed a little disjointed and doubtful of the ex-prostitutes' claims), but it certainly is an issue that should be highlighted.

It's funny, or perhaps more tragic, the things that citizens are asked to do in the name of "patriotism."

Cross-posted here.

Rwandan women: We are the future

A friend of mine forwarded me this article that talks about the emerging leadership class of women in Rwanda. In the 80 seat Rwandan parliament, 45 of these seats are filled by women.
I find this fascinating, especially since it could imply that we might need a major shake-up in our societies (like Rwanda's genocide) for women to take on more leadership roles and more responsibilities in the public sphere.

Here is the article.

Does Mr. Clean perpetuate stereotypes?

After posting the previous video, I read this article which says that Dolce and Cabana are amongst the targets of a new European Parliament vote to "scold" advertisers for sexual stereotyping.

According to the article...

The concern, according to the committee report, is that stereotypes in advertising can “straitjacket women, men, girls and boys by restricting individuals to predetermined and artificial roles that are often degrading, humiliating and dumbed-down for both sexes.”

D & G AD

Affirmative depictions of same-sex couples in the media are always something to celebrate and, while this ad may have been out for a while, in case you hadn't seen it, I just wanted to share.

The Democrats Olive Branch

So, it has been too long for me as well since I last posted, but I thought that this op-ed from Judith Warner was interesting (if not a little old). It's no secret that I'm in love with Judith Warner, her progressive pro-choice pro-LGBT stance has always been eloquently discussed with finesse and a little spice that I think everyone here can appreciate.

Her latest op-ed in the New York Times highlights an interesting new trend in the Democrats' communication, chiefly around the topic of abortion rights. Recently, Democrats have been extending the olive branch to the evangelicals in an effort to win the White House in November.

At first, I was a little skeptical. Is this simply ANOTHER case of pandering to the right of center and scaling down firm stances on issues of choice and reproductive health? After reading this op-ed, I'm inclined to believe that this is NOT SO, and that it is a brilliant and long over-due communications strategy. Warner says,

If there is any sort of olive branch on offer to the anti-abortion community right now, it seems to me to consist chiefly of this week’s spin campaign, which gave cover to evangelicals and Catholics who have come out as pro-Obama (or as willing to talk to Obama) and now may well need to save face.

The issue here is not scaling down an affirmative stance on abortion rights, but rather, providing a much broader picture than the old rhetoric offers. Instead of the old dichotemy, Democrats are suggesting a paradigm shift in which they discuss our common goals of reducing the number of abortions keeping women and children healthy.

It's a no brainer that we all cherish these goals and the Democrats, with Obama at the helm have embraced a new communications strategy of rejecting the 10 second media soundbite and REALLY getting into the meat of the discussion and addressing what's really at stake.

UN Makes Violence Against Women a Priority in Ending Small Arms Trade

Hey there, Feministas--
It's been forever since I posted--or even read!--this blog. My August resolution is to get involved again. Saw this and thought it interesting, don't have time to condense or conclude, but figured you're all smart, active thinkers yourselves :)

July 23, 2008, New York: Advocates for women's rights have succeeded in getting violence against women included in a major United Nations initiative to regulate the global small arms trade.

The UN Programme of Action on small arms (PoA) was launched in 2001, and reviewed last week at the Third Biennial Meeting of States (BMS), held at UN headquarters in New York. After intense lobbying by advocates, gender was mentioned by several governments at the meeting. In addition, the final outcome document refers to both gender and civilian possession of weapons.

Advocates hope that this will open the door to the inclusion of other concerns, particularly armed domestic violence. Worldwide, women are about 12 times more likely to die from domestic violence when a gun is the home.

"I think that we made a small inroad regarding the inclusion of gender, and I think that our presence ensured that women are not forgotten," said Sarah Masters, Coordinator of the Women's Network for the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a powerful voice for mitigating the impact of gun violence worldwide.

The IANSA Women's Network, a strategic partner of The Advocacy Project (AP), brought more than 15 of its members to the BMS. During interviews with AP intern Jessie Schwartz, the women talked about the proliferation of guns in their countries, and its impact on women.

According to Rita Santos, from the Economic and Social Council in Portugal, men keep guns at home for hunting, and use this to intimidate their partners. Dr Mirjana Dokmanovic, a leading researcher from Serbia, described a "culture of guns" in post-war Serbia.

In the Middle East, guns are increasingly used by family members against women in honor killings. In Brazil and Jamaica, many women gravitate toward gun-toting men for a sense of protection.

Alba Zelaya, director of women's group Cemujer in El Salvador, said that 99 women have been killed so far this year in her country, and that more than 80 percent died from gun violence.

Concerns about armed domestic violence were widely aired by the IANSA members at last week's UN meeting. Marie Claire Faray Kele from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) gave a formal presentation to delegates on guns and both domestic and sexual violence, and the network held a side event on links between domestic violence and firearms possession. Network members also put together a "clothesline" display of traditional women's clothing that included testimony on the impact of gun violence on women and girls.

The UN has been working for seven years to regulate firearms worldwide, based on the PoA developed in 2001. Women were only mentioned in one sentence in the original document, according to Ms Masters.

This year, the Women's Network released a statement calling on states to include gender data in their national reports on the plan, support research, and push for laws to prevent armed domestic violence. The network highlighted the efforts of Australia, Canada, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago; four countries that have harmonized domestic violence and firearms laws.

Ms Masters said the Women's Network hopes to develop a program focusing on armed domestic violence, building on the connections made at the UN.

"The challenges are that women's issues and gender issues should not be sidelined or seen as an 'additional' or 'optional' extra, which is often the feeling that some of us get when we are at such meetings," she said.

France denies a woman citizenship because she is "too Muslim".

On Friday, it was revealed that the nation's highest administrative authority has denied a woman's naturalization application on the grounds that she's effectively too Muslim.

The July 27 decision was revealed in Le Monde, which began its story asking whether "the burqa is incompatible with French nationality" The story suggested the answer is apparently yes, and unfurled that tale of a 32 year-old native Moroccan woman identified as Faiza M. as evidence. Though married to a French citizen and the mother of their three, French-born children, Faiza M. was denied citizenship on the grounds that she has "adopted a religious practice incompatible with essential values of the French community, particularly the principle of equality of the sexes".

via.

France has gone even farther than not allowing religious symbols in the classroom (effectively discriminating against Muslim women who wear the veil) by actually denying a woman citizenship, because she is Muslim. Wow. Besides the fact that this is clearly the imposition of the religion of secularism by the French state onto this woman, I am appalled at the exploitation of the rhetoric of feminism. I am certainly not the guardian of feminism, but my definition of feminism certainly does not justify xenophobic and discriminatory treatment of women and completely deny their agency as individuals.