women

By Gail Ukockis | (Informed Comment) | – – When I first read about the Russian government decriminalizing domestic violence recently, my first thought was: it can’t happen here. Then I realized that the past year has been such a series of unbelievable political events that maybe such unconcealed misogyny could happen in the U.S. […]

Employment

Uber Can be Fixed; and Mideast Women Need It

contributors

By Neslihan Cevik | (Informed Comment) | – – While in such metropolises as New York or Istanbul, Uber is most famous for hacking the commercial taxi system, it has hacked something much bigger in places like Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In KAS, it is still unlawful for women to drive. Women who have […]

Iraq

Freeing Fayza: A Journey to War-Torn Iraq to Rescue a Yazidi ISIL Slave Girl

Juan Cole

By: Brian Glyn Williams and Christopher Natola | (Informed Comment) | – – It began with an electrifying text message from a Yazidi member of a network dedicated to freeing Yazidis (an ancient people from Northern Iraq who adhere to a faith rooted in old Iranian religion and influenced by Sufi mysticism). The message was […]

Children

Demand-Side Slavery, Libyan Instability and European Crime Networks

Neil Thompson

Neil Thompson | (Informed Comment) | – – After several years in which refugees and migration have featured heavily in the Western media narrative, a disturbing correlation between human trafficking and conflict zones is well established. But new studies indicate that conflicts do not just cause human trafficking as refugees seek to flee warzones; wars […]

Iran

Iranian Women push back against Cleric who likened Loosely Veiled Women To Prostitutes

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari. | ( RFE/RL) | – – Judging women by the degree to which they respect the compulsory hijab is nothing new in Iran. In the past, hard-liners have accused so-called “badly veiled women” of being responsible for everything from social ills to natural disasters. But recent comments by the Friday Prayer leader […]

Iran

What Iranian women want: rights, jobs and a seat at the table

contributors

By Azadeh Davachi | (The Conversation) | – – Issues affecting women were conspicuously absent from Iran’s 2017 presidential election. That’s unless one finds useful the leading conservative candidate Hojjat al-Islam Ebrahim Raisi’s comment that his government would enhance women’s dignity within the family, because women should be “good mothers and wives”. The absence was […]

Featured

GOP Greatest Single Threat to Mothers on Mother’s Day

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I know it is sort of gauche to politicize Mother’s Day. But then politicians politicize family values all the time. And besides, the Republican Party is being mean to moms, and today is when they should be called out for it. The way this gentleman called […]

Feminism

Are Feminism and Islam Mutually Exclusive? Fighting Hislam

contributors

By Susan Carland | (The Conversation) | – – Islam is not unique in having theological interpretations that centre on men. Christian, Jewish and Buddhist women (and men) have grappled with the overt and covert sexism within their own sacred texts and traditions in numerous ways. This is because where there are people there is […]

Elections

No Woman Has Ever Run For Iranian President. Will Azam Taleghani Be The First?

contributors

By Golnaz Esfandiari. | ( RFE/RL) | – – Update: Ms. Taleghani has been disqualified. Her journey is still amszing. On April 14, a tiny, frail-looking woman wearing a chador and using a walker made her way slowly up the stairs of Iran’s Interior Ministry in Tehran. Seventy-three-year-old Azam Taleghani was there to register as […]