Afghani law explicitly discriminates against women

In a sad follow up to the March 3 post about domestic violence shelters increasing in Afghanistan, the NY Times ran a story today about President Hamid Karzai's disgusting support of a law that clearly limit the rights of Shiite women. The law, among other glaring problems, limits a woman's ability to leave the house, and obliges her to have sex with her husband at all times (unless "ill").

President Karzai's objection, a frequent one with non-western leaders, is that the western media has misconstrued the reality of the law. I call bogus. I cannot stand when discrimination against women is called a "cultural difference". I think when we started this blog, we hoped for a place where non-western and western feminists could convene and share thoughts, ideas and frustrations. Afghani, specifically Shiite women's voices are missing from this debate. If anyone reading this has any thoughts/feelings/connections with this debate, and feels like they lack the platform in which to express them, please do so.

For the full story, click here

G20 Summit

Because there is far too much to report about it, I would encourage everyone to read as many news stories as possible about the G20 summit. Which leaders seem to realize the important role poverty plays in gender inequality? Which countries' financial stability takes priority?

Abortion Criminalization in Brazil

The New York Times ran a story today on the controversy surrounding doctors who performed an abortion on a 9 year old Brazilian victim of incest. The girl and her 14 year old sister had been the victims of rape at the hands of their step father for years. Pregnant with twins, the young girl had to travel over 100 miles from her rural town in North Brazil to the nearest abortion clinic. Doctors ruled her womb was too small to support the pregnancy of twins, and performed an abortion. Upon learning of the abortion, a Brazilian archbishop ex-communicated everyone involved in the abortion except the step father accused of rape. In a country with more Catholics than any other in the world, this sentence carried a significant weight.

This story makes me feel tired. What progress have we made? How did this child find the courage to seek out an abortion? What are primarily male governments world wide doing to protect women who seek abortions?

Read the full story here.

Discrimination Against Indigenous Women

An interesting story about an anti-discrimination lawsuit in Nicaragua caught my eye this morning. Although it starts with a somewhat arbitrary anecdote about not being let into a club, the article then starts listing some nearly insurmountable odds for indigenous women in Nicaragua.

As with many women of color, these Nicaraguan indigenous women often have to chose which "part" of them is being discriminated against, although more than likely both non-white/male characteristics are equally as damning. The hierarchy of indigenous community leaders is almost completely male, as are those of the university, governmental, and corporate worlds. Women are openly discriminated against based on their city of origin, the university from which they graduated, and the accent with which they speak Spanish.

Feminism Without Borders!

Check out today's theme for the National Young Women's Leadership Conference: From Campus to Congress Given by FMF:

Welcome to day two of our National Young Women's Leadership Conference: From Campus to Congress. Our speakers and workshops have been great! This morning we are discussing FEMINISM WITHOUT BORDERS!

This plenary will be LIVE online this morning! Join us LIVE on UStream at 10:00 am Eastern Time.

What:	Opening Plenary - FEMINISM WITHOUT BORDERS
When:	Sunday March 21 at 10:00 am - 11:45 am Eastern Time
Who:	Eleanor Smeal, President, FMF Anushay Hossain, Global Programs Coordinator, FMF Lorraine Sheinberg, Board Member, FMF; Producer of "CEDAW: The Secret Treaty" Susan Rubin, Writer and Narrator, "CEDAW: The Secret Treaty" Lisa Cohen, Chief of Staff, Office of Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-1) Mavis Leno, Chair of FMF Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls, FMF Board Member Atossa Leoni, Actor, The Kite Runner Feroza Yari, Women For Women International, FMF Afghan Scholar Tamana Naveed, High School Student, Kabul, Afghanistan Dr. Sima Samar, Chair, Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission; Founder, Shuhada Organization and Clinic
Where:	UStream

For Women's Lives,

Eleanor Smeal
President

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!