Women’s Rights

Our Girls Are Still Not Home: Boko Haram & The Politics Of Death

January 29, 2015 Ajamu Baraka, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! Nigeria, usa, Wars and Militarism, Women's Rights

The advocates of a purely military response ignore or are unaware of the fact that before Boko Haram went underground to wage its military campaign against the Nigerian state, it represented a mass movement that had a significant popular base. And while the war may have eroded that popular base and Boko Haram’s connections to the elite of Northern Nigeria, to ignore the social/economic conditions and religious ideological factors that still provide the foundation for Boko Haram’s recruitment and popular support is to fall prey to the simplistic caricatures projected in the Western media and mimicked by the African press. There is no doubt that Boko Haram has committed egregious crimes against humanity. But so has the Nigerian government. In every major city and town that is being contested militarily, from Baga to Maiduguri, it has been documented that the Nigerian authorities committed massive human rights violations including torture, extrajudicial killings, house burnings, kidnapping and rape.

Attempt To Pass Extreme Abortion Law Backfires

January 24, 2015 Jon Queally, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! Abortion, Health Care, Women's Rights

Proving that its long-planned assault on a women’s right to control their own bodies was too contentious even for some of its own members, the Republican majority in the House on Wednesday night withdrew plans to debate a bill that would have banned nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Citing dissent among some female GOP lawmakers and others who acknowledged that the bill would have turned off women voters. The failure of the bill was characterized by some as a political “embarrassment” for the party which for first time in more than eight years now controls both chambers of Congress. Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, described the attempt to pass the extreme law as a classic case of “bait and switch,” in which the party tried to ram through a policy it knows is unpopular with a majority of voters, especially women.

How Do Mothers of Slain, Unarmed Black Daughters Grieve?

January 6, 2015 Kali Nicole Gross, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! police brutality, Racial Justice, Women's Rights

Few seem to care about the mother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the 7-year-old Detroiter killed by white officer Joseph Weekley during a botched police raid on her home. So far attempts to punish Weekley have stalled. Meanwhile, the deceased's father has been sentenced to 40 years in prison on a murder charge. News footage of Charles Jones' sentencing shows Lyvonne Cargill, the mother of Je'Rean Blake, 17, reading a statement to the court about her suffering and loss. Even in the brief clip, her grief ispalpable. But the pain of Dominika Stanley over the senseless loss of her baby girl, Aiyana, is also unimaginable. Hard to suffer, too, is the crushing weight of isolation and alienation as the world responds to tragedies like that of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown Jr., and Eric Garner to the exclusion of the loss of black women's and girls' lives.

How Lifetime Of Violence Led to In-Prison Activism

December 29, 2014 Victoria Law, www.wagingnonviolence.org Resist! Prison, Women's Rights

Nineteen years ago, in 1995, Kelly Savage was arrested and jailed after her abusive husband killed her 3-year-old son. Three years later, she was convicted of torture and first-degree murder, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and sent to Valley State Prison for Women, then one of California’s three women’s prisons. I wrote about Kelly’s case and the efforts to free her for Truthout. After enduring a lifetime of violence and abuse and then facing the rest of her life behind prison walls, it would be easy for a person to become bitter, disillusioned and self-destructive. But instead, as I spoke with Kelly, outside advocates and the attorneys helping her file her writ of habeas corpus, I found that, rather than sinking into despair, Kelly has instead become an in-prison activist.

Saudi Women To Be Tried In Terrorism Court After Defying Ban

December 28, 2014 Aviva Shen, www.thinkprogress.org Resist! Saudi Arabia, Women's Rights

Two Saudi women jailed for defying the nation’s ban on women driving were sent to antiterrorism court Thursday. Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, was arrested along with a journalist, 33-year-old Maysa al-Amoudi, when she tried to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates earlier in December. But the two will not be tried for driving, which is not officially banned by law (though the state does not issue licenses to women and Saudi clerics have explicitly forbidden it). Instead, the Specialized Criminal Court will scrutinize their social media posts under a law ostensibly intended to fight cybercrime. The court has been used not only to try terrorism cases but also to dole out lengthy sentences to political dissidents and human rights workers, according to the New York Times.

One Group Has A Higher Domestic Violence Rate Than Everyone Else

December 25, 2014 Marcie Blanco, www.mic.com Educate! domestic violence, police brutality, Women's Rights

In families of police officers, domestic violence is two-to-four times more likely than in the general population — from stalking and harassment to sexual assault and even homicide. As the National Center for Women and Policing notes, two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families experience domestic violence, in contrast to 10% of families in the general population. America's police domestic abuse problem was on full display in Monday's horrific murder of Valerie Morrow, who police say was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend, Stephen Rozniakowski, a Philadelphia-area police officer. Morrow, 40, had just been granted a protection from abuse order against Rozniakowski, who had been charged with 75 counts of stalking.

People Return To Traveling For Abortion

November 29, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.org Organize! Abortion, Health Care, Women's Rights

Despite strong U.S. support for the right to choose, the past three years have seen dramaticcuts to reproductive health care access, with states passing over 231 laws restricting abortion, according to the Guttmacher institute. In the face of these cuts, impacted communities have found creative ways to help each other get needed reproductive health care, while at the same time organizing to defend abortion rights on a broad scale. An article published Thursday in the New York Times describes one such creative grassroots action. Journalist Jackie Calmes tells the story of Lenzi Sheible, who at the age of 20 is the co-founder of Fund Texas Choice, which describes itself as a "non-profit organization funding abortion travel for low-income people in Texas."

‘Not On The Menu’ Rally – Sexual Harassment & Low Wages

October 16, 2014 Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, www.rocunited.org Resist! Human Rights, Labor Rights, Minimum Wage, Restaurant Industry, Women's Rights

New York, NY — Yesterday, dozens of restaurant workers, women’s rights activists, and supporters gathered for a rally calling for the elimination of the subminimum wage and requiring the restaurant industry to pay one, fair wage directly to their employees. Last week, a report released by ROC United and Forward Together, The Glass Floor, revealed that nearly all female restaurant workers — up to 90% — report experiencing some form of sexual harassment, with tipped workers being the most vulnerable. “I was a restaurant worker over 30 years ago, and here’s the tragic story: absolutely nothing has changed,” said Eve Ensler, founder of V-Day and One Billion Rising. “The wage hasn’t changed, the sexual harassment hasn’t changed, the outfits I was forced to wear hasn’t changed, the abuse hasn’t changed. . .

Organizing To Stop Shackling, Abuse Of Women Prisoners

October 8, 2014 Victoria Law, www.wagingnonviolence.org Organize! Mass Incarceration, police brutality, Women's Rights

In 2009, after years of organizing by advocates, including formerly incarcerated women, New York State passed legislation restricting the shackling of pregnant women during labor, delivery and postpartum recovery. But the law is not always followed, as Ursulina and 22 other women have learned. Ursulina was three months pregnant when she arrived in 2012 at Bedford Hills — New York’s maximum-security prison for women. It was three years after anti-shackling legislation was passed and supposedly implemented. But when she went into labor, Ursulina was shackled before being taken to the hospital. When she arrived at the hospital, the doctor told her that she was not dilated enough and that she should go home. “I’m not going home,” she told him. “I’m going back to prison.” She was sent back, in shackles and chains.

U. Of Chicago Students Protest Handling Of Sexual Assaults

September 26, 2014 Staff, www.abc7chicago.com Resist! Sexual Assault, Student Protests, Women's Rights

he University of Chicago is now a school divided as an online feud erupts over the issue of sexual assaults on campus. "Everyone's worried about the safety of the victims, and now it seems they have to worry about the privacy of everyone accused," said Sophie Holtzmann, a University of Chicago student. Over the weekend, the names of six individuals accused of sex crimes against women, both current and former students, were posted on Tumblr. The post also classified the danger of their alleged assaults as code red and code orange. Students say copies of the list were also seen in women's bathrooms around campus. More than hundreds of students, alumni and community members participated in a peace march Wednesday night in the Hyde Park neighborhood. University of Chicago alumna and rape survivor Christina Pillsbury also attended the march. The U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation of the university's handling of several sexual assault cases in February.

Canada To Update Missing-Persons Policy Amid Calls For More

September 8, 2014 Kathryn Blaze Carlson, www.theglobeandmail.com Educate! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Women's Rights

After pledging to ramp up efforts to address the problem of murdered and missing aboriginal women, the RCMP plans to unveil a revised national policy that will include greater emphasis on information-sharing across jurisdictions, a standardized missing-persons intake form and a requirement that investigators set up a communications schedule with the victim’s family. The policy, which is part of the force’s soon-to-be revealed missing-persons strategy, is in the final stages of review and is expected to be released next week. Already, the force has moved ahead with several initiatives since publishing its unprecedented report on murdered and missing women in May – for example, updating its homicide paperwork to identify whether a victim is aboriginal and selecting 10 communities in which to focus violence prevention efforts. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the director of the RCMP National Aboriginal Policing Services discussed the developments, which come in the wake of the slaying of an aboriginal girl in Winnipeg and amid renewed calls for a national inquiry. “Our policies have always dictated that missing-persons investigations are priority investigations that need to be followed through with haste and urgency,” said Superintendent Tyler Bates. “That said, I think the additional investigative tools that are being provided … reinforce the gravity of these instances and the investigational avenues that need to be pursued.”

Solidarity Walk Draws Attention To Missing & Murdered Women

August 30, 2014 Matt Gardner, www.paherald.sk.ca Resist! Canada, indigenous, Women's Rights

Reports involving missing and murdered indigenous women have become a depressingly frequent staple of Canadian news. But when Emil Bell saw a photo on Facebook of recently slain 15-year-old Tina Fontaine -- whose body was recovered from the Red River in Winnipeg last week -- something struck a nerve for the Cree elder. “I saw the picture of Tina in Manitoba … and then it hit me,” Bell said. “Right about then I said, ‘Well, I’ve got do something about this.’ “We were quite busy fighting the tar sands,” he added. “But then I think this is also very important that we do get the federal government, (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper, to do something.” On Thursday, Bell, 73, arrived in Prince Albert for the latest stop in his 400-kilometre solidarity walk to raise awareness of missing and murdered aboriginal women and to promote the need for a public inquiry.

Conservatives Refuse To Investigate Missing Indigenous Women

August 20, 2014 PressProgress, www.pressprogress.ca Organize! Canada, Indigenous Rights, Women's Rights

The Conservative government on Friday slammed the door shut on a national inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women. Tory MPs outnumbered NDP and Liberal parliamentarians on a special House of Commons committee to vote down a recommendation for a public inquiry as part of a special parliamentary probe. Claudette Dumont-Smith, executive director of Native Women’s Association of Canada, called the newly released Tory report "discouraging." She said the recommendations are "more the status quo, but the status quo doesn't work," pointing to the steady increase of aboriginal women who go missing or are murdered. "It is appalling that after hearing witness after witness testify that much more needs to be done on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, the Conservatives could produce a sanitized report saying that everything is fine," said NDP Aboriginal affairs critic Jean Crowder. Liberal Aboriginal affairs critic Carolyn Bennett said the report "only contains recommendations approved by the government, and does not reflect the testimony of witnesses, is in flagrant disregard of Parliamentary principles."

Indonesian Women Take Environmental Protection Into Their Own Hands

August 13, 2014 Amantha Perera, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Activism, Environment, Indonesia, Women's Rights

Aleta Baun, an Indonesian environmental activist known in her community as Mama Aleta, has a penchant for wearing a colourful scarf on her head, but not for cosmetic reasons. The colours of the cloth, she says, represent the hues of the forests that are the lifeblood of her Mollo people living in West Timor, part of Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province. “The forest is the life of my people, the trees are like the pores in our skin, the water is like the blood that flows through us…the forest is the mother of my tribe,” Aleta told IPS. “If I were a man, I would have been arrested and thrown in jail by now. Because we women stand together, police are reluctant to act like that.” -- Suryamani Bhagat, founder of the Torang tribal rights and cultural centre The winner of the 2013 Goldman Environmental Prize, she represents an expanding international movement against environmental destruction helmed by humble, often poor, rural and tribal women. For many years, Aleta has been at the forefront of her tribe’s efforts to stop mining companies destroying the forests of the Mutis Mountains that hug the western part of the island of Timor.

Why I Support Abortion Rights Freedom Ride

August 4, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Democracy, Government, Health Care, Human Rights, Protest, Women's Rights, Women’s health

Texas Governor Rick Perry is on the record with his objective to “make abortion a thing of the past.” Looking at the evidence, it is hard not to come to any other conclusion than the war on women is being won by a radical and regressively religious agenda. Six states in the nation have only a single abortion clinic left. By September 1^st of this year, Texas is likely to have only six abortion clinics operating. The group End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women is embarking on an Abortion Rights Freedom Ride across the state of Texas this August, and the freedom ride has set high expectations for itself, including: 1. To forge a national strategic counter-offensive to what is a national war on women. 2. Radically reset the political, moral, and ideological terms of this fight so that millions understand that this fight is about women’s liberation or women’s enslavement and; 3. Mobilize all people of conscience to wage massive, independent, political resistance. Relying on politicians, and the courts, has not halted the barrage of attacks. Not all pro-choice advocates are warming to the idea of Stop Patriarchy non-violent, yet highly dramatic and confrontational style and their oft-repeated slogan “Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.”

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