women

Middlebury, Vt. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the current PBS series on Ernest Hemingway’s life and work, Martha Gellhorn, the journalist and novelist who was the third of Hemingway’ four wives, is sympathetically and vividly featured. But one important, perhaps defining, aspect of her life is glossed over. Similarly, in the 2012 HBO movie […]

Books

An Egyptian woman writer who dared: the Nawal El Saadawi I knew

The Conversation

By Omnia Amin | – Throughout the Middle East and beyond, the name Nawal El Saadawi is not one that can be received with indifference. During her lifetime and even after her passing on 21 March 2021, the Egyptian author, physician and activist evokes intense feelings that range from love and respect to hatred and […]

Egypt

Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt’s grand novelist, physician and global activist

The Conversation

By Adele Newson-Horst | – Egyptian novelist, physician, sociologist and global activist Nawal El Saadawi died on 21 March 2021 at the age of 89. The author of more than 50 books, she told me in one of our many interviews, in 2007, that she self-identified as an African from Egypt, not from the Middle […]

Donald Trump

University of Michigan Women Deans Decry Regent Weiser’s urging that ‘witch’ Gov. Whitmer be ‘burned at stake’

Juan Cole

Ron Weiser, a real estate billionaire, is the head of the Michigan Republican Party. In videotaped remarks last Thursday, he referred to Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and two other top state women leaders (Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel [D] and Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson [D]) as the “three witches” and spoke of burning […]

Turkey

Turkey’s Erdogan abruptly pulled out of Convention on Violence against Women; Women aren’t going Quietly

The Conversation

By Devran Gule and Leïla Choukroune | – In a single-paragraph statement issued at around 2am on March 20, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pulled his country out of the Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. Thus, at a stroke – and going completely against Turkey’s constitution […]

Asian-Americans

On a Quilt of Oppression and Injustice: From the Vietnam War to the Murder of Asian-American Women

An Thuy Nguyen

An Thuy Nguyen | – Orono, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – The deadly mass shooting on March 16 targeting Asian American women working at massage parlors in Atlanta, GA is neither a tragic happenstance, nor an isolated case of a (sexually) frustrated white man having “a really bad day” – as in the words […]

Feminism

How a ‘feminist’ foreign policy would change the world

The Conversation

By Rollie Lal and Shirley Graham | – The Biden administration has a woman, Vice President Kamala Harris, in its second-highest position, and 61% of White House appointees are women. Now, it has declared its intention to “protect and empower women around the world.” Gender equity and a gender agenda are two ingredients of a […]

Afghanistan

Women in Afghanistan worry peace accord with Taliban extremists could cost them hard-won rights

The Conversation

Mona Tajali and Homa Hoodfar | – Three Afghan women who worked at a media company were gunned down in Jalalabad in early March. In January, unidentified gunmen killed two female Supreme Court judges in Kabul. These are the latest victims on a long list of assassinations and attempted assassinations of female politicians and women’s […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: Proposed Reforms Neglect Basic Rights: Ongoing Repression, Absence of Civil Society Impede Progress

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch) – (Beirut) – Saudi Arabia recently announced a series of important and necessary reforms, but ongoing repression and a lack of respect for basic rights are major barriers to progress, Human Rights Watch said today. The repression of independent civil society and critical voices that can provide objective feedback decreases the […]