The World Council of Churches has strongly condemned Israel’s deportation of its associate general secretary Dr. Isabel Apawo Phiri.In a statement on Tuesday, the Geneva-based ecumenical organization said that Apawo Phiri had been “apprehended, interrogated and deported” upon arrival at Tel Aviv airport.The World Council of Churches said it “deeply regrets the Israeli antagonism against the WCC’s initiatives for peace with justice for both Palestinians and Israelis.”Apawo Phiri was the only African member of a WCC staff delegation and “the only one denied entry,” according to the group. The reason Israeli authorities provided, according to WCC, was “prevention of illegal immigration considerations.”The WCC said it had instructed lawyers to appeal against “this patently unjust and discriminatory action.”
Category Archives: Feminism
No Women Were Harmed in the Making of this Movie – The Ladies Finger
Perhaps if there was less of a tendency to idolise these directors’ genius, their impulsive, violent and deeply sexist whims would not be misconstrued as an acceptable flexing of creative license muscle, and be exposed instead for what it really is. When Maria Schneider cried in that scene, her tears were real. This is what Bertolucci and Brando prized. This is what we should remember before we congratulate them for their commitment to real art.
Source: No Women Were Harmed in the Making of this Movie – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger
Both Feeling Threatened, American Muslims and Jews Join Hands – The New York Times
After joining in blessings over home-baked challah and sparkling grape juice (instead of wine, out of consideration for the Muslims), Ms. Firdaus talked with four Jewish women she had never met before, balancing plates of Indian food on their laps. They found that the spate of hate crimes and the ominous talk by Mr. Trump or his advisers about barring Muslims from entering the country and registering those living here had caused all of them to think about Germany in the years before the Holocaust.“When did you know it was time to leave?” Ms. Firdaus asked one woman who had just recounted how her relatives had fled the Nazis. “The ones that didn’t leave are the ones who went to Auschwitz.”The Jewish women tried to convince her that they would not let it come to that. “If Muslims have to register, we’re all going to register,” said Mahela Morrow-Jones, who is helping to build the first West Coast chapter of the Sisterhood in Santa Barbara, Calif. “You’ve got to believe it, sister.”Groups are reaching out not just to clergy members, but also to laypeople, including business executives, students and women.
Source: Both Feeling Threatened, American Muslims and Jews Join Hands – The New York Times
‘I have never felt so terrified’: Harassment of female runners a gendered issue with no simple solution – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
‘It is a highly gender-based experience’But the experiences of these women are far from unique.A recent study by Runner’s World found that 43 per cent of female runners experienced harassment at least sometimes — compared with just 4 per cent of men.The study also found that 63 per cent of women ran where they felt it was unlikely they would encounter a person who might harm them, and 41 per cent ran where they thought they would be less likely to received unsolicited attention.For men, the figures were 23 per cent and 9 per cent, respectively.Thirty per cent of women reported being followed by someone — and 18 per cent had been sexually propositioned while out running.
More than a quarter of Europeans say rape is ′okay′ sometimes | Europe | DW.COM | 30.11.2016 – “Sexism and delusional thinking are universal – much more work needed on the dense and those who delude themselves – thinking it could never happen to them.”
What the numbers sayAccording to the study, 27 percent of EU citizens – more than one in four – polled in the survey feel that “sexual intercourse without consent can be justifiable.” This means, women should not complain about sex without their consent if they happen to find themselves in certain situations, including being drunk or being on drugs, voluntarily going home with someone, wearing provocative or sexy clothes or not clearly saying no or not fighting back. The Eurobarometer poll shows women are more likely to be targets of gender-based violence compared to menIn 16 member states, respondents said being drunk or using drugs justified sexual intercourse without consent. The numbers were the highest in Romania (30 percent), Hungary (24 percent) and Bulgaria (21 percent). In Romania, over a quarter of respondents said rape was justified if a woman voluntarily decided to go home with someone. Only 3 percent of the poll participants in Spain and Sweden thought this way.For Germany, the figure was 7 percent, while 14 percent thought that sex without consent could be justified if the victim did not clearly say no or didn’t fight back. Altogether, in Spain and Sweden, only 6 percent of the respondents thought sexual intercourse without consent was justified. Some 55 percent of Romanians agreed that at least one situation justified sex without the partner’s approval, a view shared by 27 percent of German, 28 percent of Italian and 31 percent of French respondents.Differing attitudesEurope’s 27 percent figure is not very surprising, considering the differences between attitudes in Western and Eastern European nations. According to Kanchana Lanzet, gender advisor and former head of the UN Women’s national committee in Germany, “It is my observation that in Western Europe – I have also experienced this – children are brought up differently. Things are open here. The media also talks against violence against women and about responsible sex and they also say sexual intercourse should take place between two adults with their consent.”
Source: More than a quarter of Europeans say rape is ′okay′ sometimes | Europe | DW.COM | 30.11.2016
Dutch lawmakers endorse limited burqa ban | NRS-Import | DW.COM | Shame does not count any more for Dutch?
Almost as shameful and ironic as possible where leaders once wore Star of David to give support to Jews hated by Germans. Now, they join those who want to brand all Muslims as people to be feared, hated and distrusted.
The House of Representatives in the Netherlands has voted in favor of prohibiting the face-covering burqa and niqab in some public places. The government has insisted the move is soley for security purposes.
Source: Dutch lawmakers endorse limited burqa ban | NRS-Import | DW.COM | 29.11.2016
Greek refugee lawyer targeted by police | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2016
“This really devastated me, because in all of this, the fact that I have always fought against indiscriminate violence and represented over 1,000 Greek police officers for violations of their own human rights has been ignored. Can you imagine the entire police force of Greece saying my actions as a lawyer are behind them feeling unsafe and needing more security, while I don’t even allow the derogatory term ‘cops’ in my Facebook timeline?”This isn’t the first time that Koutra has been targeted by police. In 2013, the World Organisation Against Torture highlighted an incident in Thessaloniki when the lawyer was detained in a police cell for 20 minutes after demanding access to a transgender client. The police station refused to file a complaint. She filed the complaint that same night at another police station. In 2015, prosecutors closed the case, judging that Koutra had willingly locked herself in the cell. The police officer in question lodged a civil action against her for 80,000 euros alleging “defamation.”One of her Koutra’s main concerns is that such events will put younger colleagues off human rights work. “After this, some team members have been discouraged from active involvement in the Pleiades probono lawyers’ team. It really is a loss.”
Source: Greek refugee lawyer targeted by police | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2016
I Was Raped / I Was Battered – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
I passed signs boasting “98% of Our University is Nonviolent!” while on my way to a sexual assault survivors group to meet with twenty other women who were raped on campus in the last year.Hers: four men behind the science building, her face grating the asphalt, turns taken from behind. Two officers found her, they took no notes, they asked her to calm down, she was hysterical.Hers: a rapist with a name engraved on some campus building, a rape kit that showed her lacerations, a rape kit that showed his semen, a rape kit that was thrown out prematurely, a rapist that walked.Hers: a professor, but he was tenured.Hers: a long walk to the police, freshly raped, dress wadded between her legs, bloodied from all that tearing. The officer asked if she was sure it wasn’t her period. “Are you sure?” he pressed. “Are you sure? Are you sure?”Hers: a drug in a drink at a frat party, her body left between the cars in a gravel parking lot, a mandatory alcohol-education course courtesy of the Institution. The class met on Fridays; she heard the frat parties’ music through the cinder-block walls.Once, we counted all the other rape survivors we knew. There should have been two hundred of us there, not twenty.And at the end of the semester, the Institution reported zero assaults. They hung banners in the halls.
Source: I Was Raped / I Was Battered – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
How Donald Trump Is Building a Fourth Reich | Dame Magazine
It’s been two weeks and already we’ve been inundated with debates and think pieces on how and why our nation’s voters elected a lying, unstable, unqualified, egomaniacal racist and misogynistic candidate as the 45th president of the United States of America. Donald Trump’s victory proves that in America, white men—even the most morally degraded—only have to be fractionally as good as everybody to be successful.Mainstream media outlets, which profited off Trump’s campaign and failed to uphold their basic responsibility of reporting the facts, educating the public and correcting lies, will not act like retrospect experts. Not only are they refusing to be held accountable for their incessant coverage that helped Trump’s winning the election, they are using any backlash that ensues in the streets to build their ratings.Many pundits are already professing their shock, asking how we got here. And the media are quickly normalizing a man who built—and indeed won—on a campaign driven by hate while pretending to push a narrative of “unity.” And they’re not just normalizing him, but his whole chaotic transition team and proposed cabinet filled with far-right henchmen who will enact the white-supremacist, anti-Muslim, misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, xenophobic messages Trump spouted off on the campaign trail.
Source: How Donald Trump Is Building a Fourth Reich | Dame Magazine
Israeli army jails two new conscientious objectors | +972 Magazine
Tamar Alon and Tamar Ze’evi, who are asking to perform civilian national service instead of military service, see things differently. “From a young age I met my parents’ Palestinian friends — I met people who are supposed to be my enemies who smiled at me, played with me, and spoke with me,” wrote Tamar Alon in a declaration ahead of her refusal. “I can’t accept the claim that the oppression of another people, the denial of basic human rights, and racism and hate are necessary for the existence of State of Israel.”Alon added that she finalized her decision to refuse serving in the army after hearing the speeches of two bereaved brothers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, at a joint memorial day ceremony in which they both asked others to learn from their personal tragedies and instead work for peace.“On the one hand, it’s my legal and societal obligation, which I always intended and expected to fulfill — the right to safeguard the security of my home and the people most dear to me,” Tamar Ze’evi wrote in her declaration. “But on the other hand, is a childhood in the shadow of terror attacks and wars real security? What about the security of those human beings on the other side of the walls? Am I, as a daughter of the people controlling the another people, responsible for their well-being? Where is the line where we stop collaborating, have we already crossed it? I am not willing to lend a hand to a situation in which two peoples are living in fear of each other, and are paying such a heavy price for dozens of years. Out of love for this land and the human beings who live in it, I want to believe, and I do believe that there is a different path and that we can effect change.”
Source: Israeli army jails two new conscientious objectors | +972 Magazine










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