The French newspaper Le Monde described the book as “luminous” if also dense with ideas Angelique Chrisafis in Paris A novel depicting France’s #MeToo movement by the French punk feminist writer Virginie Despentes, irreverently titled Cher Connard – which roughly translates as Dear Arsehole – has become a bestseller, prompting a debate about sexual harassment and… Read More Dear Arsehole
The past few weeks have highlighted more clearly than ever, that the authority and the rule of law within South Africa’s constitutional parliamentary dispensation has gone beyond merely fraying at the edges. Also how confusion can be spread, with potentially dangerous consequences, by the manipulation of news. This manipulation becomes possible because there are too… Read More Terry Bell: South Africa is teetering on the brink of an abyss
NB: It seems there’s no difference between the totalitarian fantasies of ‘leftist’ and ‘rightist’ governments. DS Dozens of feminist groups in Nicaragua that provide crucial support to vulnerable women have been labelled “foreign agents” and outlawed by the government, meaning they can no longer operate. Reproductive healthcare services, shelters for survivors of gender violence, and… Read More Dánae Vílchez: Nicaraguan government outlaws feminist groups serving vulnerable people
The leaked opinion draft, authored by conservative justice Samuel Alito, overturns the landmark 1973 ruling as well as the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that placed stricter rules on abortion rights, but upheld the constitutionality of Roe. The draft, in the strength of its language, also illustrates the court’s ideological turn – despite conservative… Read More Peniel E. Joseph: The US Supreme Court is about to take a huge step away from racial justice
The Ruling this week forces all Americans to now follow the strict religious beliefs of the Catholic Church and much of Christianity which has concocted a fantasy that a fertilized egg is a human being – even though their own founder and God, Jesus Christ, never said any such thing. In fact, the word “abortion”… Read More Michael Moore: The Forced Birth Ruling
Even as the pace of modernization in the Arab world shows some signs of acceleration, we all must recognize that deep-rooted cultural norms around women’s roles and rights are slow to evolve. Guess who is going to change that? The women of Generation Z. I was an Arab Muslim girl in an American school in… Read More SUZAN KANOO: Systemic Change Is Coming to the Arab World Thanks to Gen Z Women
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico… Read More Chris Hedges: American Satyricon
US conservative groups behind a Supreme Court legal battle that could shape the future of American abortion rights have spent at least $28m around the world between 2016 and 2019 on campaigns against women’s and LGBT rights, openDemocracy reveals today. They have also received almost $100m from 2016 to 2020 from anonymous donors, funnelled through two leading US charities… Read More US ‘dark money’ groups spend millions overseas in support of campaigns to limit or ban rights for women and LGBTQ people
There is no better symbol for the disappearance of women’s rights in Afghanistan than the end of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the return of the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. When the Taliban on September 7 announced their new interim government, the vice and virtue ministry featured on the list, with… Read More Heather Barr: For Afghan Women, the Frightening Return of ‘Vice and Virtue’
In the pantheon of women shamed for exposing the actions of high-profile men – before Christine Blasey Ford in 2018 and Monica Lewinsky in 1998 – there was Anita Hill. In 1991, the US president, George HW Bush, nominated Clarence Thomas to the supreme court. Senate hearings for his confirmation were completed without incident, until an interview… Read More Anita Hill on sexual harassment and survival: ‘You have to think: what is my life for?’
After the truth-shower 