Feminism

By Kinda Alsamara, The University of Queensland; Eleanor Gordon, Monash University, and Elliot Dolan-Evans, Monash University (The Conversation) – Women’s political participation is often treated as a measure of a country’s commitment to equality and democracy. Earlier this year, Syria’s new leader, President Ahmed al-Sharaa, described his country as moving in a “democratic direction” after […]

Feminism

Iran’s Streets ‘Transformed’ As More Women Shun The Mandatory Hijab

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By Fereshteh Ghazi and Farangis Najibullah ( RFE / RL ) – Iranian journalist Zeinab Rahimi has refused to wear the mandatory hijab for over two years, despite the risk of arrest and imprisonment. She is among a growing number of women and girls who have stopped covering their head in public, in direct defiance of […]

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On Int’l Women’s Day: In Memory of Iranian Women who have Struggled for Freedom

Fariba Amini

Newark, Delaware (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – When Ruhollah Khomeini was still in Neauphle-le-Château, in various declarations and interviews, he had promised that women would have the freedom to choose their attire. That they would have the same rights as men. “In an interview with a left-leaning Lebanese newspaper, he said that Islam believes in the total […]

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On Int’l Women’s Day: Women’s Equality: What will it Take, What will it Yield?

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – International Women’s Day (now March 8) had its origins in great social unrest, turbulence and critical debate among women in Western countries regarding their oppressive working conditions in factories and their lack of voting rights. Marching through New York City in 1908, 15,000 women demanded shorter hours, […]

Climate Crisis

In a Time of Oligarchy, a New People’s (Women’s) March for a Green New Deal

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Pick up any US liberal newspaper today and there are reams of columns speculating on the fate of our country. What will happen and how quickly to our country with Trump as president and a cabinet of billionaires as they destroy an already shredded social safety net? […]

Feminism

Iran Detains Singer Who Performed Without Head Scarf

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

Update: Ms. Ahmadi was released from prison Sunday. She will face trial for the concert. By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda ( RFE/ RL ) – Iranian police released singer Parastoo Ahmadi in the early hours of December 15 following a brief detention after she performed without the mandatory head scarf, her lawyer has confirmed. Ahmadi caused […]

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Woman, Life, Freedom: Rachel, Shireen, Mahsa and Ayşenur

Fariba Amini

Newark, Del. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – A few days before the invasion of Iraq by American forces under G.W. Bush, on March 16, 2003, a young woman from Seattle, Washington, who had gone to Rafah, in Gaza to help Palestinians halt the demolition of homes died under the bulldozer of the Israeli army. […]

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Bigger than Dobbs: The War on Women is a War on Democracy

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In 2018, the US National Sexual Violence Resource Center published that 81% of women reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault in their lifetime. Further, the majority of violence against women is perpetrated by male intimate partners and acquaintances. There are myriad other misogynist […]

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A Tale of two Femicides: Remembering Victims in Iraq and Italy on Int’l Women’s Day

Ibrahim Al-Marashi

San Marco, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – In early February 2023 a 22-year-old Iraqi YouTube star, Tiba Al-Ali was strangled by her father in an “honor killing,” part of the quotidian violence the nation has endured over the last two decades. In November 2023 Giulia Cecchettin, a 22-year-old engineering student from the Venice region […]