Category Archives: Feminism

Swedish politician suspends Twitter account over ‘hate’ – The Local

A former Social Democrat MP and one of the party’s most outspoken feminist and anti-racist campaigners on Tuesday said ‘lies and hate’ had prompted her to take a break from Twitter.Racist and sexist trolls target Sweden’s Twitter account (06 Oct 16)Veronica Palm, a former member of parliament and chairwoman of the centre-left Social Democrat party’s local branch in Stockholm, said the increasingly hostile social climate on Twitter was behind her decision to suspend her account.”As you have noticed I’ve been tweeting less and less. The reason is simple: it actually bloody hurts,” she wrote in a tweet on Tuesday morning.”I simply don’t have the energy. I am human and want to continue to be human. Not switch off my feelings about what other people say. And in that case, lies and hate hurts. It gets under my skin, every day,” Palm, 43, continued.”I have promised that I won’t be silenced by hate and threats. I know that the democratic conversation and free speech is the foundation of democracy, but right now I just can’t do it. I won’t stay quiet, but I’m taking a break from Twitter.”

Source: Swedish politician suspends Twitter account over ‘hate’ – The Local

US elections: The end of a dream | In English | EL PAÍS

Electing Hillary Clinton would not only have put a woman in charge of the most important country in the world, along with other great nations like Germany (Angela Merkel), the United Kingdom (Theresa May and before her, Margaret Thatcher) and Brazil (Dilma Rousseff until she was impeached). More importantly it would have allowed the United States to make two symbolic moves in two back-to-back revolutions: racial equality and gender equality. And if it were on a roll, why not imagine a Hispanic man or woman in the White House?Instead, the United States has elected the enemy of minorities, women, immigrants, Muslims and the political correctness that has made coexistence possible in democracies. The dream fades and, in its place, a nightmare begins.

Source: US elections: The end of a dream | In English | EL PAÍS

I’m Muslim, but My Roommate Supports Trump – The New York Times

Now that an us-versus-them system has been voted into office, I want to write for those who feel like the latter, the “them.” National unity in this moment may be nonexistent, but the unity among us is real and crucial. To the first trans kid I ever met; to my Muslim and Hispanic and female friends; to my sister and my mother, both hijabis; to all of the individuals who helped me feel love on Tuesday night, who offered me water as I cried on their bathroom floors, who marched from Union Square to Trump Tower on Wednesday — I believe in us, in our ability to regroup and find a course of action.Mobilization depends on all of us — everyone who has been or could be a target of Mr. Trump, everyone who has been appalled by this election, at the parody of American democracy that has unfolded. We do not need to be silent. We do need to find resilience, inspiration and hope in one another.

Source: I’m Muslim, but My Roommate Supports Trump – The New York Times

Hearts Open, Fists Up | Race Files

In the long term, we will need a different kind of politics fueled not by rage but by a deep-seated belief that the future belongs to us. A younger, more progressive, more inclusive, and more diverse generation is already here. The path forward will require a truly and deeply feminist vision that goes beyond simply electing female bodies to office, and instead reaches past the logic of brutal domination and rivalry toward interdependence, humanity, compassion, and respect for the earth. This feminism has its roots in Black feminist traditions and Indigenous world views, and has no meaning without race at the center.We will need to draw on all of our resources – the deep knowledge of survival in queer and trans communities, in Indigenous communities, in criminalized Black and Brown communities – to build the alternative services and systems we will need in this coming period as access to existing services gets dismantled. We will need the humanity of whites who want to live in a different world, one shaped not by the rivalries of race but by the wholeness of justice. We will need to forge a vision for a new economy and society. This will take work, but I know we have the immense talent and fortitude we need in our movements to achieve it.When we do this, we will have arrived not as Asian Americans, not as immigrants, not as people of color, but as a nation that finally acknowledges that society functions best and security can only exist when we all have what we need: home, health, family, education, culture, community, creativity, and spiritual growth. We will have arrived as a people who understands that you are not me and I am not you, and because of this, we need each other. We will understand that our collective survival hinges upon understanding, confronting, and dismantling race.The future is ours. But for now, we must build the unity and genuine capacity we need to declare clearly: No one comes for any of us without going through all of us. Hearts open, fists up.

Source: Hearts Open, Fists Up | Race Files

It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Don’t Feel Fine. | Rebelle Society

Here’s the problem, folks…She doesn’t have a penis.Oh, I can feel your eyes rolling. Your brain is screaming about her f*cking emails, and how oily and polished she comes across. Like a typical politician. To you, I say: I don’t give a !@#$ about her emails. I like oily and polished. In this case, it meant the candidate had equilibrium because she knew what she talking about.Say what you want to say about Hillary Clinton’s off-putting demeanor, her lack of charisma, and her distrustful air. There’s no debating that she’s brilliant. Something Donald Trump isn’t.And see, Trump hates everything I am. Despises what I believe in. He has offended me as a woman. A Latina. And as a person who believes in a God by many names. Any time he offends people who lead with their faith, he is offending me.Before now, when I did not see eye to eye with a candidate and he was elected, I did not feel despair, thrown away, or less of an American because none of those men attacked me personally. None of them told me that the way I showed up in the world was intrinsically less-than. They had not assaulted me with their words and their hatred.Inside my body, in my heart, what I carry is rejection by my country. The country that I love. If this nation could elect Donald Trump to be our leader, I am a disposable American. Everything I am is being tossed in the bin.As Van Jones stated on CNN, “This was a White-lash.” The Men and the Whites rallied to elect Trump because they detest the changes that have occurred in America — what I consider progress.Plainly speaking, I’m terrified for my country. What does this election say about our path? Our legacy? What will the world think, and how will it affect international affairs and the economy throughout the next four years?There is a small part of me still clinging to hope that one day a woman will lead the United States. Another part of me wonders, if it does happen while I breathe, whether it will be a nation I recognize. Or if it will recognize me.The faith I have always held sacred, that has carried me through painful moments, wavers. On this day, I pray God sees us through the next four years. I’m too anxious to focus on my chores and my work.I just don’t know if it will ever happen for us.I haven’t got high hopes to see it in my lifetime.But then again, a racist, xenophobic misogynist with the temper of a hangry lab monkey got elected as the President of the United States.I suppose anything is possible.

Source: It’s the End of the World as We Know It, and I Don’t Feel Fine. | Rebelle Society

Sharia Courts in UK – A Minefield | Nervana

In short, some Muslims may want the psychological comfort that their social and domestic issues are governed by the guidance of their faith, but they fail to realize the complexity of translating their intention into a solid, transparent, and fair practice in Britain. There are many, often conflicting, interpretations of Sharia. Implementing a modern version of Sharia is a minefield even in native Muslim countries. Therefore, it is disingenuous to play the anti-Islam card while campaigning for Muslim law councils in Britain. The last thing Muslims want are courts that rubberstamp regression under the auspices of Islam.

Source: Sharia Courts in UK – A Minefield | Nervana

Two Women Were Branded As Witches and Buried Alive In Assam, But We Are Still Quiet About Witch-Hunting – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

In Assam, two women, both related, were pushed into a well and buried alive on the night of October 31. They were murdered after being branded as witches. According to one of the three men accused of the crime, their actions were justified because the women had “used black magic to infest with insects the well from which we drink water.”This news made us all do a double take: are women still being murdered because someone thought she was a witch, or decided to call her a witch? Depressingly, this isn’t a stray crime — according to these completely horrifying statistics, a ‘witchcraft’-related death is reported almost every third day in India. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows that 2,290 people – mostly women — were killed in India between 2001 and 2014 for witchcraft, and we can guess what these numbers have become in 2016.

Source: Two Women Were Branded As Witches and Buried Alive In Assam, But We Are Still Quiet About Witch-Hunting – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

With Hillary Clinton, We’ve Seen This Witchhunt Before | Dame Magazine

With Hillary Clinton, We’ve Seen This Witchhunt BeforeWe’ve seen unprecedented level of murderous vitriol spewed at the Democratic presidential candidate. But it’s just another chapter in a long history of demonizing women seeking power.

Source: With Hillary Clinton, We’ve Seen This Witchhunt Before | Dame Magazine

U.S. Senator Is Latest Republican To ‘Joke’ About Assassinating Hillary Clinton: Gothamist

now a sitting U.S. Senator has been caught on tape “kidding around” about Clinton being shot. And what the ever living fuck is going on here?Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican and, fittingly, a distant relative of Aaron Burr, made the statement to a group of GOP volunteers in Mooresville, North Carolina on Saturday. CNN obtained a recording of the Senator’s remarks, in which he says that as he walked into a North Carolina gun shop “nothing made me feel better” than seeing a firearm magazine “with a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it… I was a little bit shocked at that—it didn’t have a bullseye on it.”And everyone laughs. (You can hear it starting 34 minutes and 20 seconds into the recording.) Burr, who is in a tight battle for reelection against Democrat Deborah Ross, apologized, saying, “The comment I made was inappropriate, and I apologize for it.”

Source: U.S. Senator Is Latest Republican To ‘Joke’ About Assassinating Hillary Clinton: Gothamist