Category Archives: Feminism

Niqab-wearing tourist stopped from entering Italian museum – The Local

The Musei Eremitani, located in the cloisters of a former convent, houses the city’s archaeological museum and medieval art gallery, as well as provides access to the Scrovegni chapel – the walls of which are daubed with world-famous Giotto frescoes. When she refused the request and demanded to know why she was not being permitted access to the museum, staff called the police, who eventually convinced the woman to show her face so they could check her identity. After she was identified, the woman and her husband were granted access to the museums, but they chose not to enter. Although Italian law does not forbid the wearing of the burka or niqab, since 1975 it has been forbidden to walk around public spaces with your face covered – for example, by a scarf or motorbike helmet ‘without a valid reason’. In a controversial move last December, Veneto’s neighbouring province of Lombardy amended these laws making it illegal to walk around in public wearing the either the niqab or burka.

Source: Niqab-wearing tourist stopped from entering Italian museum – The Local

Palestinians create seed bank to save their farming heritage in the Holy Land’s hills | World news | The Guardian

In the rocky hills of the Palestinian West Bank, farmers learned long ago how to adapt to extremes of climate that make spring the shortest season. In a part of the world where agriculture was first practised, they found crops that could survive even if watered only by the occasional rain storm. But a form of farming that informed both Palestinian culture and identity – seeping into the language, songs and sayings – has increasingly come under threat from a combination of factors, including manmade climate change, the incursion onto Palestinian land by Israeli settlement, and agricultural companies’ marketing of hybrid varieties to farmers. Now, however, an initiative is being launched to save Palestine’s agricultural plant heritage, with the first seed bank dedicated to preserving traditional varieties used by farmers for generations – before they vanish for ever. The Palestine Heirloom Seed Library – to be formally launched in June – is part of an effort both to educate Palestinians about traditional forms of agriculture in the Holy Land, which are in danger of being forgotten, and about the culture associated with them. The seed library will preserve “heirloom” varieties particularly adapted to the West Bank. Supported by the Qattan Foundation, the project is the brainchild of Vivien Sansour, who studied and worked abroad before returning to the West Bank city of Beit Jala.

Source: Palestinians create seed bank to save their farming heritage in the Holy Land’s hills | World news | The Guardian

Turkey’s ‘Campus Witches’ take on sexual harassers – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

In a newspaper interview, Campus Witches co-founder Meral Cinar painted a gloomy picture even for young urban women, describing how the group formed in 2013. “I was one of five female students in an engineering class with 80 males. The professors would address the males as they lectured. Then, there would be off-color jokes and obscenities,” she said. Cinar added, “We were facing harassment in the dorms as well. The security guards would draw up rankings or top 10 lists of the prettiest girls according to room number. At Ege University [in Izmir], the lane to the subway station was unlit, and all the women passing through there would be harassed. Mersin University has the same problem. Two female students were murdered [in unlit areas]. All those reasons led us to take action to try to create an atmosphere where women can express themselves freely on campus.”

Source: Turkey’s ‘Campus Witches’ take on sexual harassers – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Brazil: Democracy at Risk

“There is no judicial basis for this process of impeachment,” Rousseff said. “I am not accused of crimes of corruption, diversion of public funds, nor do I have accounts abroad or any accusations of money laundering.” She said even some members of the opposition are beginning to support her, not necessarily because they agree with her policies, but rather because they see the impeachment push as a threat to Brazil’s democracy.

Source: News from The Associated Press

Japanese MPs visit Tokyo war shrine, China and South Korea displeased

Japanese members of parliament visited a Tokyo war shrine Friday. The ritual will no doubt anger China and South Korea, with memories of Japan’s military record still very raw.

(and the relative of hundreds of thousands of people in South East Asia, US, Australia, New Zealand… of service people who died at the hands of Japanese lead by a government bent on enslaving peoples for their fascist government’s advantage.)

Source: Japanese MPs visit Tokyo war shrine, China and South Korea displeased

» Safe Home

No home is safe for me. Always I am in danger.

Where is my safe home?
I am not safe anywhere.
My father abuses me,
My brother scorns me,
My husband disrespects me,
For the crime of being female!

My penalty is to be hated,
Hated simply for being female,
Hated for being a daughter,
Hated for being a sister,
Hated for being a wife.

No home is safe for me.
Always I am in danger.
I want a safe home,
But that home will come
Only after my death.

That home will be my grave.
I will live without fear,
I will sleep soundly,
I will go into darkness,
Safe at last.

By Nasrin

Source: » Safe Home

A Mini-Skirt Might Also be a Brainwashed Choice, and Other Points From a Transfeminist Conversation – The Ladies Finger

On Women’s Day

– “When they wish us ‘Happy Women’s Day,’ they also take the liberty to define womanhood in the process. The radical nature of the movement – protests and struggles being led by dalit-bahujan women and working class women – is ignored. This reinforces caste and class divisions in society, rather than breaking them.”

– “Speaking of Working Women’s Day – what do we understand by the word ‘working’? There are women who don’t get a salary. But we can’t say, under any circumstances, that they’re not ‘working.’ Their workplace may not be a factory or an office, but it is certainly the 24×7 grind of home. Are we excluding them from our conversations?”

– “I came to know about Women’s Day when I was a teenager, around twelve or thirteen years old. I saw something about it on the glossy paper of the Lifestyle section: there it was, written in pink, ‘Happy Women’s Day.’ Next to this there was a picture of a smiling, thin, light-skinned girl dressed in a red saree. This narrow way in which society wants to see womanhood is constantly asserted so that this day can be corporatised.”

– “A few years ago, some boys wished me ‘Happy Women’s Day’ and this made me feel good, because I felt that I was being accepted as a woman. My mother too is a woman, but this day means nothing to her. We can’t truly celebrate this day if we don’t feel free as women. I don’t.”

[…]

Source: A Mini-Skirt Might Also be a Brainwashed Choice, and Other Points From a Transfeminist Conversation – The Ladies FingerThe Ladies Finger

I Am More Than Just My Trauma: Life As Victims Of War Crime In Croatia. | Rebelle Society

Source: I Am More Than Just My Trauma: Life As Victims Of War Crime In Croatia. | Rebelle Society

In Snježana’s case, her assailants’ criminal court proceedings were delayed by 12 years, and once they were finally incarcerated, they were released from jail awaiting their trial after only 1 week. One of them sold his home and fled to neighboring Serbia. The second one, a policeman, was let go due to a lack of evidence. He was suspended from his job only after she publicly accused him of the rape, but he continued to receive his salary. He, too, eventually fled Croatia. Both rapists were charged with a 6-year prison term, yet neither man served any of his sentence. Snježana is relieved that they fled the country, and thinks that this is better than having to live in fear of their release. Even so, the family of one of the perpetrators still lives in her hometown. In the past, her assailant’s family members would threaten her and her husband when they crossed paths in town.

» Live Today

What if I die tomorrow?
Nothing is so easy.
I don’t live in yesterday
because it is gone.
I don’t live in the future
because it is not here yet.
It will come, whether I am alive or not
I live today. It is the moment!
Live today,
Not the regrets of yesterday,
Not the worries of tomorrow…
Enjoy the moment,
The smile, the tea, the food,
The dance, the song, the walk
Enjoy the love and existence.
Live in today
Forget yesterday and tomorrow.
They are gone or not here yet.

By Raha

Source: » Live Today

Agenzia Fides News

Cairo (Agenzia Fides) – If laws ban Muslim women from wearing the full veil (niqab), at that point, to avoid discrimination, we must also ban Christian women wearing necklaces with crosses. This – as reported by the Egyptian media – is the controversial comparative argument put forward in recent days by sheikh Ahmed Karima, a Sunni professor of al-Azhar University, to defend the use of the niqab by the growing mobilization of Egyptian organizations that are calling for the abolition in public places. In February, such campaigns achieved significant success, with the ban on wearing the full veil imposed on all women who work in the University hospital of Cairo.
According to scholar Karima, known as the Islamic Law expert (Sharia), such campaigns are an expression of a planned strategy put in place to hit the Islamic traditions of the Country, which risks fueling extremist reactions by radical Islamic groups. According to the sheikh, an eventual ban on wearing the full veil imposed by law to Muslim women should have in consideration the ban for Christian women to wear the cross.
For weeks, the scholar and other Islamic leaders are launching the alarm about the spread of “secularist” tendencies in Egypt which in their opinion aims to outlaw everything that expresses their belonging to Islam. Sheikh Karima reiterated that, in his view, the so-called “renewal of religious discourse”, wished for several times in Egypt also by President Abdel Fattah Sisi, will certainly not lead to the abolition of what is required by the Sharia, because Egypt is an “Islamic country” and “Islamic rituals must be respected”. (GV) (Agenzia Fides 14/04/2016)

Source: Agenzia Fides News