women

( Globalvoices.org ) – They call themselves the Ismailağa Brotherhood, and they are among countless religious orders and brotherhoods in Turkey. But though these religious groups normally slip under the radar, the Ismailağa Brotherhood has been making the headlines in recent days over a child bride scandal. According to local news reporting, one of the members […]

Authoritarianism

Women’s Revolt in Iran reaches Household of Leader Khamenei, as his Sister denounces “Despotic Caliphate”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Badri Hosseini Khamenei, the sister of Iran’s clerical Leader Ali Khamenei, just issued a public broadside against him on her son’s web site, denouncing him as a dictator who is entangled in a web of high-level corruption and disgraceful thuggery. Thus, the women’s revolt in Iran, which has been led […]

Democracy

Living Politics, Embedding with Workers, Standing up to the Lies of the Rich

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “Welcome back!” read my friend Allan’s email. “So happy to have you back and seeing that hard work paid off. Thank you for all that you do. Please don’t cook this evening. I am bringing you a Honduran dinner — tacos hondureños and baleadas, plus a bottle of wine.” The tacos […]

Authoritarianism

Women are the Victors in Iranian Officials’ Trial Balloon on Abolishing the Morals Police

Farhang Jahanpour

By Farhang Jahanpour | – Oxford (Special to Informed Comment) – Various Iranian and foreign news agencies have reported that Iran’s Prosecutor General has announced the shutting down of the. Guidance Patrol (often referred to in the West as the morality police). In response to a question about the dismantling of the Guidance Patrol, Prosecutor […]

Feminism

Turkey marks International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women with disturbing Femicide Numbers

Global Voices

By Arzu Geybullayeva | – ( Globalvoices.org) – Scores of women are killed in Turkey on regular basis, according to local women’s organizations. The number of femicides remains high, while the existing protective measures lack effectiveness. A local platform, We Will Stop Femicides, which tracks femicides and suspicious deaths of women, reported at least 282 […]

Feminism

Headwear and Hegemony: how ‘Turban Tossing’ Protests are threatening Iran’s ruling Clergy

The Conversation

By Negar Partow, Massey University | – (The Conversation) – The ongoing protests in Iran over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s “Guidance Patrol” (or morality police) have made world headlines. But there is another form of protest that has received less mainstream attention in Western media. Whereas […]

Culture

The Other Iran: Veiling and Puritanism vs. the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The ongoing rallies and demonstrations that have wracked Iran since mid-September have been many things. It is a women’s protest against severe patriarchy It is a Gen Z youth protest demanding greater personal freedoms from their 85-year-old Theocrat. It is an ethnic protest by Sunni Kurds and Baluch against Shiite […]

Arab World

No more “Marry your Rapist”: Repeal Laws Discriminating against Women in the Middle East – ‘Equality Now’

Middle East Monitor

By Amelia Smith | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – The women’s rights NGO, Equality Now, has released a policy brief to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on how inadequate justice for women and girls, and a lack of deterrents for perpetrators, has increased violence against women. According to […]

Authoritarianism

Iran’s Creative Resistance: From Hugs and Kisses to Tossing Turbans

Global Voices

By Fred Petrossian | – ( Globalvoices.org ) – It has been eight weeks since protests erupted across Iran on September 16 in response to the death of Mahsa (Zhina) Amini, who was detained by the country’s morality police for allegedly violating hijab regulations. Despite harsh repression, the killing of at least 360 people, including […]