women

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Despite US schools’ tendency to give students several years of American history, over and over again, most of us probably have only a foggy idea who Harriet Tubman, chosen to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, was. That she was an abolitionist and helped out […]

Terrorism

ISIL and the New Sex Slavery

contributors

Human Rights Watch | – – (Beirut) – The extremist armed group Islamic State should urgently release Yezidi women and girls they abducted in 2014, Human Rights Watch said today, following new research with recent escapees who were raped and traded between members before they fled. [The so-called] Islamic State (also known as ISIS) also […]

Terrorism

Activism v. Stereotypes: Women fighting Extremism aren’t just Victims or Amazon Soldiers

contributors

By Sanam Naraghi Anderlini | (Inter Press Service) | – – WASHINGTON DC, Apr 6 2016 (IPS) – Violent extremism is the topic du jour, as government officials are busy developing plans of action on “preventing or countering violent extremism” (P/CVE). In these plans there is dutiful reference to engaging “women”. The more progressive mention […]

Haredim

Israel’s “chained women” fight for right to divorce

contributors

By Michael Blum | ( Your Middle East | – – Israel’s “chained women” fight for right to divorce. She is one of Israel’s “chained women” — the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of wives denied a divorce by their husbands and prevented from breaking free by the country’s use of Jewish law. The 30-year-old mother of […]

Reproductive Choice

Republican front-runner Donald Trump: Women’s “punishment” for abortions

contributors

TeleSur | – – Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that women may need to be “punished” for having abortions in the United States. Speaking at a MSNBC town hall in Wisconsin, Trump said “there has to be some form of punishment” for terminating a pregnancy, adding that the specifics would have to be […]

Afghanistan

‘Not Sharia’: Female Afghan Rap Star campaigns against Child Marriage

contributors

Jon Snow | (Channel 4 News Video Report) | – – “Sonita Alizadeh was just 10-years-old the first time her parents tried to sell her as a child bride. She turned to music and began recording raps protesting against child marriage.” Channel 4 News: “Sonita Alizadeh: the Afghan protesting through rap”

Peace

Where are the Women? Syrian, other Peace Talks need female Representation

contributors

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS, Mar 17 2016 (IPS) – “When it comes to peace talks, women have a special stake,” said Gloria Steinem while discussing current peace talks in the Middle East. Steinem, a prominent activist, joined the 60th annual session of the UN Commission on the […]

Turkey

Turkey’s Gender Stereotyping made a Mockery of Women’s Day

contributors

By Ece Basay | ( Globalvoices.org ) | – – March 8 is marked as International Women’s Day in Turkey, and is typified as elsewhere across the world by speeches appreciating the role women play both in the workplace and at home. Yet for the remainder of the year, women face an uphill struggle to […]

Food

A Majority of those going Hungry in the World are Women

contributors

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage | (Inter Press Service) | – – UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Women, responsible for more than half of global food production, comprise of 70 percent of the world’s hungry, said Hilal Elver, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. In a new report released here, Elver found enduring gender gaps in […]