Category Archives: human rights

Barbara Myers: The Other Conspirator

The secret origins of the CIA’s torture program and the forgotten man who tried to expose it.

via Barbara Myers: The Other Conspirator.

Free distribution of medicinal plants at Chandravana – The Hindu

The college, which possesses more than 30,000 species of plants, was currently making available 12 sought-after varieties of medicinal plants, some rare, for free to the public. “There was a huge demand for the Hippali plant, whose leaves and fibrous roots are used for the treatment of respiratory allergies and indigestion,” Dr. Bhat said.

via Free distribution of medicinal plants at Chandravana – The Hindu.

Behind the Niqab: The (Male) Photographer’s Perspective of Life Through the Veil – Part 1 — BagNews

It’s true that in many countries women wear niqabs without threats of legal punishment or death; however, to assert, as does Ammar, that “for most, the niqab is a choice,” glosses over the ways in which women are compelled by religious tradition, family expectation, or societal convention to adopt a religious practice that is so confining and restrictive, it would never have survived as a requisite sign of religious piety had men been required to participate. The Quran instructs both women and men to “lower their gaze and guard their modesty.” If the goal is reducing the likelihood that men will lust after women, doesn’t it make as much sense for them to use a veil to curtail their own gaze as it does to enshroud women in perpetual darkness?

via Behind the Niqab: The (Male) Photographer’s Perspective of Life Through the Veil – Part 1 — BagNews.

Evicted under the World Bank’s Watch

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Forcible demolition of 34 Watta homes when court case was ongoing, September 2014. Photograph by Selvaraj Rajasegar.

“We were removed from our homes by force. The Army officers told us that they will bulldoze our houses whether we move out or not. They told us that we can either take these apartments or live on the street”.

via Evicted under the World Bank’s Watch.

Zapatistas Comandanta Dalia ‘Waking up to the good fight’

2015Comandanta DaliaComandanta DaliaGood evening compañeros and compañeras, brothers and sisters.I’m going to explain a little bit of what compañera Comandanta Rosalinda said.Just as she explained, it is now my turn to talk about how we become authorities. From 1994 on, we knew that we had rights as women. That was when we woke up. This is how little by little we grew to

via Zapatistas Comandanta Dalia ‘Waking up to the good fight’.

Controversial (fascist) population control bill becomes law in Myanmar

Myanmar’s president has signed off on a law that says couples must space their children 36 months apart. This is the first of four “race and religious protection” laws proposed by Buddhist nationalists.

“Takes lots of gall for these folks to claim to be Buddhists.”

via Controversial population control bill becomes law in Myanmar.

A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets

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It’s Teachers’ Day. And in Mexico the teachers have been some of the most militant and vocal forces against privatization, government corruption, police repression and the failed drug war.

via A Teachers’ Day Protest in Mexico City Brings an Army of Police into the Streets.