Obama Approves Rule for Universal Contraception
Today is a monumental day for women.
A chart to remember 2011 by. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 2011 proved a banner year for passing abortion restrictions into law in the United States. These restrictions included everything from attacking insurance coverage to requiring women to go through ultrasounds and waiting periods.
Read the Guttmacher Institute’s review of 2011’s state reproductive health policies.
Can You Tell The Difference Between A Men’s Magazine And A Rapist?
An incredibly disturbing research study shows most people can’t distinguish between quotes found in some men’s magazines and interviews with convicted rapists.
13 Fantastic Female Comics Creators of 2011
This made me happy, as I’ve always been discouraged by becoming involved in comics because I’ve perceived it as a male-dominated arena. I hope these women continue to make comics and gain more support.
A rape victim in Mogadishu. From the New York Times, a sickening story of the alarming rise in sexual assaults against women and girls in war- and famine-torn Somalia:
Somalia has been steadily worn down by decades of conflict and chaos, its cities in ruins and its people starving. Just this year, tens of thousands have died from famine, with countless others cut down in relentless combat. Now Somalis face yet another widespread terror: an alarming increase in rapes and sexual abuse of women and girls.
The Shabab militant group, which presents itself as a morally righteous rebel force and the defender of pure Islam, is seizing women and girls as spoils of war, gang-raping and abusing them as part of its reign of terror in southern Somalia, according to victims, aid workers and United Nations officials. Short of cash and losing ground, the militants are also forcing families to hand over girls for arranged marriages that often last no more than a few weeks and are essentially sexual slavery, a cheap way to bolster their ranks’ flagging morale.
But it is not just the Shabab. In the past few months, aid workers and victims say, there has been a free-for-all of armed men preying upon women and girls displaced by Somalia’s famine, who often trek hundreds of miles searching for food and end up in crowded, lawless refugee camps where Islamist militants, rogue militiamen and even government soldiers rape, rob and kill with impunity.
With the famine putting hundreds of thousands of women on the move — severing them from their traditional protection mechanism, the clan — aid workers say more Somali women are being raped right now than at any time in recent memory. In some areas, they say, women are being used as chits at roadblocks, surrendered to the gunmen staffing the barrier in the road so that a group of desperate refugees can pass.
“The situation is intensifying,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the United Nations’ special representative for children and armed conflict. All the recent flight has created a surge in opportunistic rapes, she said, and “for the Shabab, forced marriage is another aspect they are using to control the population.”
(Photo: Sven Torfinn / The New York Times)
A New Libya: Freedom for Women Too?
“‘We will never again let anyone control us,’ Ms. Shibadi said.”
“Women will be ambassadors. Women will be ministers.” said Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council in his first speech in Tripoli, said to cheering. He also stated that the Libyan government would seek to be one of moderate Islam, rejecting extremism but based on faith.
Help to save the Women of Color categories on Wikipedia!
I created two categories for women of color (African American women and Hispanic and Latino American women), and intended to create more, when one day I went to Wikipedia and found that someone had nominated them for deletion. I found that they were trying to use a rule Wikipedia has for creating gendered categories for the reason for deletion. That is, that a category for one gender should not be created unless it relates to the topic.
But what I don’t really understand is how this person, and now another person who has jumped on the bandwagon who agrees thinks, is how it doesn’t relate to the topic. Why?
Here’s why:
I created these categories for several reasons.
- Research. This is what an encyclopedia is for, right? It should be easier to conduct research for women’s history if we can look for women of color in one place. When they are scattered around in different areas, research is less simplified.
- Respect. Women of color in each ethnicity deserve a category of their own and deserve to be recognized.
- Future use. Girls and younger women will be able to see the achievements of these women.
How can you help?
Please go here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2011_July_11#Category:African_American_women
and follow the directions in the picture above.
As per the directions you type
*”’Keep”’(and type your reason to keep here, remove the parenthesis.)
Please do this if you wish to recognize women of color on Wikipedia.
submission from sickochick
The Political Notebook: Rape, PTSD and Abortion : The Pentagon and its Gender Problems
Mother Jones just posted a fabulous piece by Adam Weinstein about the military’s gender problem, a problem made evident by the military’s rape problem. This is a piece of an old post of mine about military sexual trauma that I posted in connection to a case that has recently arisen about rape…
Afghanistan's Women At the Sharp End of War
“One of the most disappointing things about Afghanistan is that women’s rights have not substantially improved in many parts of the country,” said Mark Lattimer, the group’s executive director. “The future for women in Afghanistan looks incredibly bleak.”
