Category Archives: Feminism

Do Not Cut Off Senator Kamala Harris, Or Twitter Will Come For You : LAist

Senator Kamala Harris was shut down mid-sentence (and mid-interrogation of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein) by the Senate intelligence committee’s chairman, who clearly did not learn from the “Nevertheless, she persisted” debacle that when you cut off firebrand Democratic senators, Twitter comes for you, and it comes for you hard.CNN has a full transcript of the tense moment, in which Senate intelligence committee chairman Richard Burr interjected as Harris questioned Rosenstein over whether he would sign a letter to give Special Counsel Robert Mueller full independence from the Justice Department. Committee chairman Richard Burr cut Harris off as she pressed Rosenstein for “a yes-or-no answer,” asking her to “provide the witnesses the courtesy…for questions to get answered.” “As a career prosecutor and former Attorney General, Kamala Harris has run countless investigations, and she will follow the facts wherever they lead to get to the truth on behalf of the American people,” a spokesperson for Senator Harris’s office told LAist, adding, “That can only happen if witnesses answer questions.”

Source: Do Not Cut Off Senator Kamala Harris, Or Twitter Will Come For You : LAist

When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

the 12th (death threat), well, that’s the one that changes your life; it’s the picture of your home or your office, it’s the one with white powder in the envelope, it’s the one that mentions the hair color of your teenage daughter, or with screencaps of your teenage son’s Snapchats. It comes from a person who is really committed to fucking with you, the kind of crazy person you imagined was behind the first threat you ever received, it’s the one that makes the jaw of the cop who responds to your freaked-out call tighten as he tried to keep his poker face but you can tell he’s worried. It’s the one that makes you take an unscheduled vacation, or break your lease, or drop out of your political race or stop writing on the internet for a while; it’s the one that makes you question whether you should’ve been so sanguine about numbers one through 11, because maybe they’re more realistic than they sounded at the time.They’re the kind of threats that upend the basis of our democracy and our society, by silencing and scaring away and driving out everyone but  the people who would never be silent or scared, no matter how realistic the risk—and, goodness knows, having rational actors who think through risk and reward is reasonably important in government—and by driving out the people more likely to receive the more serious threats. They’re the kind of threats that true public servants, even those who benefit, ought to condemn and discourage, not dismiss and ignore.Or else, you’re essentially guaranteeing that there will be more. And, with 2018 coming, there probably will be.

Source: When Did Running for Office Become So Dangerous? | Dame Magazine

Not falling down – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Since the aftermath of 9/11, the US has been in a state of perpetual reeling. The Bushies exploited the pain and fear of 9/11 to pursue their own warped dream of burning the Middle East to its ashes in the hope that a Phoenix (one kowtowing to the US oil and corporate interests) would arise. In the name of the 3000 killed on 9/11, we, as American voters and taxpayers, enabled the massacre of an estimated million in Iraq. The numbers of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are rarely ever talked about. Then as the years went by, with hubris we went to Libya and left another massive chaos. On Syria we equivocated having understood some of the lessons of Iraq and Libya. But somehow that caution vanished when the Saudis threw a hissy fit and demanded an attack on Yemen. We – the Obama administration – went in with them, fuelling their planes, selling them arms – along with the UK and France of course. So today, we are elbow deep in blood and cholera, with no exit strategy.With the election of no. 45, the US is reeling ever more crazed and clumsily around the world, hugging dictators, dropping drones and bombs, and denigrating other leaders. It is all made worse by the fact that the US president wants to project his own ignorance and arrogance on the rest of us.We need a reality check on this 16 years of militarized reeling. Enough. Enough of all the violence. By us, by our governments, with our taxes. Enough of the giddy reeling by the defence and security industry that has become so bloated and deadly. Enough of the cosying up to the Saudis, who are the progenitors of all the warped groups who claim to represent Islam. Enough of the violence by inhumane men who think they’re entitled to kill or believe that terror gives them a fast track to heaven.Enough of all of it. Let’s admit militarism begets extremism that begets militarism that begets more violent extremism. It’s time to stop reeling and get back to the drawing board. Because right now, this US government is caught in an unreal reel that is taking us all closer to the edge of the abyss. That is just. not. tolerable.

Source: Not falling down – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Loud, Angry and Naked. How 120 Argentinian Women Protested Gender-Based ViolenceThe Ladies Finger

The end of the video is a loud, heartbreaking and collective shout. It’s anguish about a rigid system that doesn’t seem to change; it’s a reminder of just how hard women have to fight to achieve gender equality

Source: Loud, Angry and Naked. How 120 Argentinian Women Protested Gender-Based ViolenceThe Ladies Finger

We Need to Fix Racism in Our Institutions, Not Black Hair

When institutions racially discriminate against women because of the texture of their hair, black girls are kept from school and women are denied access to professional advancement opportunities. Racism extends beyond hair texture too, compounding to create a system in which black girls are generally disciplined more aggressively and at higher rates than their white counterparts. Black girls do not misbehave more than other students, yet they are suspended from school more frequently than white girls. According to a report by the NAACP and the National Women’s Law Center, “under-resourced schools, disparate discipline practices, gender-based violence and harassment, and lack of support for pregnant and parenting students […] further compromise educational outcomes for African American girls.”

Source: We Need to Fix Racism in Our Institutions, Not Black Hair

The Silencing of the Hillary Clinton Supporter | Dame Magazine

Over the past many months, I have spoken with many middle and lower-middle class women, who shared stories with me about why they voted for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, including a 34-year veteran school teacher who is so news-obsessed, she has her friends text her news alerts while she’s on vacation, and a 24-year-old college student who “kind of liked” Bernie until she realized that the U.S. was one of the few civilized countries that had never had a woman leader. We’ve seen the millions of women who took to the streets the day after the inauguration. We’ve learned that it’s older women who make most of the calls to Congress, and we have heard that nearly 13,000 women want to run for office since Hillary lost the election. All this while the media has mostly ignored the 90 percent of Black women—many of them lower, working, and middle class—who voted for Hillary. And yet, six months later, the media continues to fixate on the white working-class voters who didn’t cast theirs for her in the autopsy of the 2016 election.

Source: The Silencing of the Hillary Clinton Supporter | Dame Magazine

Isabel Allende and Margaret Atwood are Just Some of the Writers Supporting a New Movement to Tackle Exile and Racism – The Ladies Finger

Our world is in crisis. People have always been forced to move against their will: they’ve fled wars and natural disasters, persecution and violence. But never before has the forced movement of people occurred at such a rate. 1 in 113 people in the world today have been driven from their homes. Simultaneously, a rising climate of nationalistic xenophobia among host nations has made resettlement for those who’ve experienced forced displacement increasingly dangerous and uncertain.

Source: Isabel Allende and Margaret Atwood are Just Some of the Writers Supporting a New Movement to Tackle Exile and Racism – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

Broken and Brave, Still We Ride the Waves. | Rebelle Society

I feel you, Pain. You are hard. You are brutal. You make my knees buckle and my lungs heave. You slice me open and make me bleed. You are heavy. And cold. And dark. You offer not even a sliver of light. But, know this, Pain: I will survive you because I am filled up with light. The light of love given and received. Love is the golden thread that holds me together and warms me from the inside. It makes me solid. It makes me durable.It makes me believe in God and Goodness and Hope and Healing. You will not destroy me, Pain. You will devastate me. You will leave me ravaged and starving, but you will not destroy me. I will ache and break and simmer and rage and seethe and weep and grieve and then, in time,I will let you go.Because even you, Pain, are not meant to be forever.It all comes and it all goes. All of it.Life exists in waves. It undulates.

Source: Broken and Brave, Still We Ride the Waves. | Rebelle Society

Hindu locality: Haridwar girl says attacked with acid because of her faith | Dehradun News – Times of India

A 20-year-old postgraduate student of a city college sustained severe burn injuries after two motorcycle-borne men threw acid at her at Lal Pul near Jawalapur in Haridwar on Monday morning. The girl, who belongs to the Muslim community, alleged that she was attacked because the men wanted her family to leave the locality they were staying in — a predominantly Hindu area of about 200 houses in which the girl’s family are the only Muslims.The girl, who is currently admitted in a government hospital, told TOI that one of her attackers, who has been identified as Sudhir Singh Tomar, a 45-year-old retired Army jawan, had also entered her house on May 25 at about 11pm when her parents were not at home. She alleged that he had threatened her with a pistol and sexually assaulted her, saying that her family should leave the colony as they were Muslims. She repeated the allegations in front of the local cops and the next day she, along with her mother, filed a police complaint.

Source: Hindu locality: Haridwar girl says attacked with acid because of her faith | Dehradun News – Times of India