US finally decriminalizes homosexuality

While those of us who advocate for equal rights for LGBT members of our community so desperately need one right now, I still hesitate to call this a "victory". The United States finally agreed to sign on to a UN declaration decriminalizing homosexuality. I mean... that's great, but this is long overdue and is not taking any steps to give equal rights to gay people, it merely affirms that the private, consensual acts they commit in their homes are not illegal! Oy. We have a long way to go.

Trafficking in Europe and New Zealand

The BBC ran two articles about trafficking this morning: one discussing sex workers' rights advocates' vocal opposition to the criminalization of buying sex from a "forced or coerced woman" in the UK and the other about child trafficking in Wales.

While the two articles brushed the surface of the complexity of the trafficking debate, neither one adequately explored it. The first article seems to favor the point of view of sex workers, advocating that they chose this profession freely, and the criminalization of their employment was merely a "moral crusade". The BBC cited a few government studies "demonstrating" that the population of women coerced into prostitution was far smaller than previously believed. Both of these statements are troubling to me, because the average reader will probably not scrutinize the population in question closely enough to realize that most trafficking victims would not speak on record to a newspaper!! Women who are under the control of violent pimps, a small extreme according to this article, are the least visible part of this population, and women confident enough to speak to a journalist do often represent the minority, in my opinion, of women in prostitution completely of their free will.

Who conducted these government studies? What was the ethnic demographic of the women? Were these women rounded up in a brothel raid and then told that if they confessed to being coerced they would avoid criminal charges or deportation? In a population with this many complex vulnerabilities, many questions must be asked.

Full disclosure: I personally believe the majority of women in prostitution have been coerced. If not by a gun wielding violent pimp (which is not just a stereotype but something I see at work all the time) then by an intimate partner, a friend, even a parent. This choice is never made in a vacuum, and the dire economic circumstances in which the choice is made, as well as lack of other employment opportunities for women who may or may not have much education, are not to be ignored. I find it ironic that in the same issue the BBC publishes the article opposing the criminalization of buying sex from "coerced women", it also publishes an article on the alarming rate of child trafficking in Wales.

The last line of the article about child trafficking quotes Christine Beddoe, from child protection organization ECPAT UK. "Trafficked children were found throughout Wales but there was evidence of a number of barriers to identifying children and keeping them safe. Of these barriers the most worrying was that professionals didn't believe it could happen. This left children vulnerable. "

This debate continues, and I encourage you to read both articles and add any comments.

European ban on coerced prostitution

Child trafficking in Wales

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.