Category Archives: Feminism

Iranian MPs speak out as women are barred from World Cup qualifier | World news | The Guardian

“I didn’t want to stay at home and do nothing. I wanted to at least protest,” she told the Guardian by phone from Isfahan. “I printed a banner, which the guards confiscated from me in the most brutal manner.” A picture taken outside the stadium shows her face painted with an Iranian flag, as she holds up a placard that reads: “I, too, want a seat at Azadi – let women in.” Azadi means freedom in Farsi.AdvertisementShiva Nazar-Ahari, a prominent women’s rights campaigner previously imprisoned for her activism, said around 20 women had protested outside the stadium. She said she had bought two tickets earlier in the week, each priced at 15,000 rials (around £3).“We were hopeful that they would let us in. We queued up for two hours. They said they needed to check if they could let us in, and at times we thought they were going to do so, and we saw Syrian female fans passing through without a problem, and then they said: ‘No, you can’t enter,’” she said by phone. “It was a very bitter experience. I was close to tears – never before have I felt so defeated and humiliated.”Tuesday’s game ended 2-2, keeping Syrian hopes alive for reaching the World Cup finals in Russia next year.Iran, which has already secured its place in the finals, is a staunch supporter of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. One user on social media joked: “The guards will struggle to decide which team to support.”

Source: Iranian MPs speak out as women are barred from World Cup qualifier | World news | The Guardian

Is Doxxing Ever Okay? | Dame Magazine YES!

I don’t “out” Neo-Nazis as a hobby because I dislike “bad behavior online.” I “outed” Neo-Nazis because after I made a joke about owning a gun vaporizer, they put a Photoshopped pig nose on my Twitter avatar, put that picture on their Daily Stormer Neo-Nazi blog, and unleashed a flood of angry white men into my mentions, telling me they hoped I would be raped by black men and kill myself as a result. I “outed” Neo-Nazis because they depend on fear and silence to keep their victims compliant. I “outed” Neo-Nazis because if your fucking kid is a Neo-Nazi, you need to fucking know it, Debbie.

Source: Is Doxxing Ever Okay? | Dame Magazine

Can I wear this in Turkey? – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Here I am, writing my story for you, still living in Paris. I’m not saying it’s the best place for a woman to live, however it’s somewhat better than Istanbul. I have to admit that it took me a lot of time to understand that the Turkey I knew was just an illusion. I was privileged, as I was raised in a middle class family who provided me with a proper education and were not particularly religious. Most importantly, even though I did rebel a lot during my adolescent years in order to live my life the way I wanted to, at the end of the day, I could. And I was not murdered for it! That was a big privilege. I had no idea that it even was a privilege.Now, I follow what’s happening in Turkey for women, and as a feminist, and as a former activist, my heart breaks into a million pieces. Every other day I read about a woman being attacked on the street because of the way she’s dressed. The last one I read was from my home city: two women were sexually harassed on the street. They asked the policemen who were standing at the corner for help. And what did the police do? They physically attacked the women, saying that they deserved to be harassed because of the way they were dressed. What’s next? Whipping women in public because the way they are dressed is not modest enough? I’ve been saying this for a very long time, but it feels scary to write about it publicly; I think a compulsory hijab law in Turkey is not very far away.

Source: Can I wear this in Turkey? – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Rebels Need Heroes Too. | Rebelle Society

At 35 years old, I can happily say I have a hero for the first time in my life. P!nk, keep doing you, you are an inspiration to us all. As someone with a tattoo on her right forearm, where the whole world can see it, of Gandhi’s “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” I can safely say that you are changing the world for the better.Here’s to us. Here’s to us following your lead and realizing the world isn’t quite as black and white as gay vs straight or black vs white — may we all find the P!nk in the world.

Source: Rebels Need Heroes Too. | Rebelle Society

F*ck You Billabong. Seriously, f*ck you. – Women 2.0

We get enough of this sh*t elsewhere, I assure you. We don’t need it from you too. So show me some badass (and beautiful, if you must) women out there shredding waves and having fun on the beach. Show me what is possible for me, as a woman, if I buy your products. Sell me that dream. Isn’t that what this whole business is about anyway?I’m your target market and you’re losing me. Do better.

Source: F*ck You Billabong. Seriously, f*ck you. – Women 2.0

Pussy Riot’s Mariya Alyokhina: ‘Politics is not something that exists in one or another White House. It is our lives’ | World news | The Guardian

Alyokhina says she wants to tell the human story of Pussy Riot and correct some misconceptions: “In our case, the propaganda worked at full speed. They called us sacrilegious, whores and everything else.” But she also would like the book to be a call to action. “I want a 19-year-old girl from Argentina who doesn’t know anything about Putin, Russia, Pussy Riot or protest to be able to understand it,” she says. “Everyone has a choice, at every moment in their lives. This [book] is simply an example of how you make choices.”The Russian language version is being unofficially distributed in the same way that so-called “samizdat” literature – banned writing – circulated in the Soviet Union. But Alyokhina wants the English version to inspire an international audience. She makes regular visits to Europe and the US, and believes the election of Donald Trump as US president has made her experience more relevant than ever. “Political art is simply essential for life in the United States right now,” she says. “It’s not just about Trump. It’s about Nazi groups that are calling for people to be judged according to racial characteristics and so on. If you call someone dangerous then it means you are scared of them,” she argues. “You shouldn’t be scared, you need to act.”

Source: Pussy Riot’s Mariya Alyokhina: ‘Politics is not something that exists in one or another White House. It is our lives’ | World news | The Guardian

My great uncle was alienated in postwar France. Now Americans know how he felt | Hadley Freeman | World news | The Guardian

I still haven’t yet figured out how criticism of a billionaire who bagged the support of America’s highest earners by promising them lower taxes represents “snobbery”, so maybe I’m just slow, but here is what I think of this argument: I think it’s disgusting. There is a word for people who support and normalise Nazis and Nazi defenders, and that word is “appeasers”, and that now includes, shockingly, Israel, as well as the conservative Jews in Trump’s circle such as Jared Kushner – like me, a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor. But a heads up to those groups: this tactic generally does not work out well for you. A Vice documentary from Charlottesville, in which a white supremacist gripes about how Donald Trump “gave his daughter to a Jew, that bastard Kushner”, gives a hint as to why.Alex knew that De Gaulle’s words would embolden antisemites in France, and he was proven right. His speech marked the moment attacks on the character of the Jews became part of anti-Israel rhetoric. That Trump has encouraged antisemites and racists in America is proven every day: just this month, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke thanked Trump for suggesting that those who fight against racists are morally equivalent to racists.Alex didn’t want to leave France, but he felt alienated from the country he called home. Right now, a lot of American liberal Jews are feeling exactly the same way.

Source: My great uncle was alienated in postwar France. Now Americans know how he felt | Hadley Freeman | World news | The Guardian

Women say they quit Google because of racial discrimination: ‘I was invisible’ | Technology | The Guardian

Parthasarathy said she was frustrated by the argument that affirmative action helps unqualified minorities get hired: “People do think it’s easier for me to get into my job … There’s this feeling all the time whenever I do a project, you always have to prove yourself, and that really sucks.”The black woman who worked as a specialist at Google said her experiences with discrimination took a severe toll on her mental health.“There were times I cried at my desk,” she said, adding that she ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the trouble to stay at Google and began looking for jobs outside of the company, not caring that she would be earning a lower salary.At Google, she added, “I was invisible. It was like I didn’t matter. So what was the point of being there?”

Source: Women say they quit Google because of racial discrimination: ‘I was invisible’ | Technology | The Guardian

CTRL-ALT-RT-DEL – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Civil strife should be dismantled right here, right now. Rallies encouraging terrorism and ill-will like these should be stopped early on. Trump’s feeble attempt at condemning the entire mess is a mockery to human intelligence and furthers the cause of hateful individuals who wave the American flag as a symbol of racial superiority. White supremacist identity politics have no room in the character of the nation; they will only contribute more violence, more deaths, and more outward displays of bigotry. It’s appalling to hear about, read, and watch. Its especially appalling when your friend tells you about how her (brown) daughter wasn’t invited to her (non-brown) best friends birthday party because her parents voted for Trump. Or how another friends’ daughter cries behind closed doors due to the bullying and racist comments she faces weekly. Or how to explain my disgust over people with torches to my six year old as he sees me frown and shake my head. There is no room for this in the home, in our lives, our cities or our country. We will not remain silent. We will not tolerate this.

Source: CTRL-ALT-RT-DEL – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.