Last month, 36 Iranian universities shocked education and women’s advocates around the world by announcing that 77 college programs, which were previously open to both men and women, will no longer accept female students. This turn of events has not received any formal condemnation from the Iranian Ministry of Higher Education or Iranian President Mahmoud [...]
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What do Todd Akin and Egyptian Street Thugs Have in Common?
As I was walking home today a group of teenage boys passed by. “Oh baby, I love you!” “Blondie, you got it goin’ on!” “AAOOW–I need to be your workout partner!” Etcetera. Eliciting catcalls at my age feels remarkably different than it did at sixteen. Today, I decided to accept this bullying as an unwelcome compliment–take that [...]
#Motherfkd: Economy Will Suffer If People Cannot Plan Parenthood
Social issues Female issues Women’s issues Single issue voters Can we please stop this pretense that effective birth control and safe and legal abortion did not transform society and help families by enabling women to plan their parenthoods and go to work? What purpose does it serve, except to deny reality and mislead people? So [...]
Feminism: The Pursuit of Happiness
Ask yourself: what do you want for your life? The most common answer? To strive to live a life that brings the greatest joy; that is, the goal of being happy. The good news for your virtuous endeavor? The pursuit of life happiness is your basic and inalienable right. Thanks to the know-how of the [...]
Is Your Religion Interfering with Your Orgasm?
Expressing support for the legalization of pre-marital sex in Morocco can get you killed. That’s what the editor of Morocco’s Al-Ahdath Al-Maghribia daily newspaper discovered when he expressed this support during a televised debate. Article 490 of Morocco’s penal code, based on Islamic law, criminalizes sex outside of marriage, with a man and women recently being jailed [...]
Feminism is Dead. Long Live Feminism.
Twice last week, in two different articles, did I read some concoction of ‘feminism is dead.’ It was, of course, in response to the horrific trial verdict for Pussy Riot, the Muscovite punk band who staged an impromptu jam session at an Orthodox church in the city, imploring the Virgin Mary to become a feminist [...]
What do the sanctions on Iran say about Western commitments to Regional Development?
In the past few months, a new wave of sanctions have been imposed on Iran by the U.S. and the EU to ramp up international pressure against their nuclear program. The latest effort along these lines by the Obama administration aims to punish financial sector companies and shippers that help Tehran sell its oil, and [...]
Racial Profiling of Immigrants Has Consequences For All Communities
As a fellow for New America Media, the country’s largest collaboration and advocate for 2,000 ethnic news media outlets, I was tasked with finding an immigrant woman to interview for a story. Oh boy. As I began searching, I was shocked to hear from so many documented immigrant women who were afraid to speak to me for fear that they would [...]
The Olympic Committee’s Missed Opportunity
As an Anglophile, I was very excited to hear that the Olympics would be in London this year. However recently I have become less enthused, upon hearing that the Olympics committee has refused to address violence against women. Specifically they are refusing to address the proven increased instances of sexual violence that occur along with [...]
On World Population Day: Reproductive Health From Kenya to Mississippi
This past week, we celebrated World Population Day. It’s not news to anyone that the world’s population keeps getting larger while the world stays the same size and gets a little dirtier. Population growth is an issue that needs to be carefully addressed in the future, as the world continues to fight poverty, disease, and resource [...]