Call Me Stormy

Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “women’s rights”

23 Aug 2012

Saudi City For Women

Saudi Arabia has announced plans to build a city whose workforce will be composed exclusively of women. The announcement has prompted debate, with some seeing it as a modest, half-way measure toward granting more gender equality while others maintain that it’s a subterfuge and doesn’t alter the backward nature of Saudi Arabia’s Sharia Laws.

Those laws are strict — Saudi Arabia remains the only country in the world where women aren’t allowed to drive.  But some new freedoms are being permitted. Women can now attend college, work in certain professions and, beginning in 2015, will be permitted to vote and run for office in local elections. The establishment of the women’s-only enclave outside Al Hofuf, west of Bahrain, will give women new opportunities in the pharmaceutical and textile industries.

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But Ezra Levant, commentator for Sun News in Canada, says the establishment of a women’s-only city in Saudia Arabia constitutes “gender apartheid,” eerily similar to the practices of segregation and discrimination once applied to race in South Africa. He says the proposal amounts to “a gulag for uppity women,” rather than truly advancing equality between the sexes. He discusses the issue with Pamela Geller, whose US-based blog, Atlas Shrugs, has extensively covered human rights abuses carried out under the guise of Sharia Laws. H/T iOwnTheWorld

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22 Aug 2012

Girl’s Guide to the Internet

Internet scientists Sarah and Alison refute the meme: “There are no girls on the Internet.” Of course, the web remains a mysterious and sometimes deceptive place, where girls might be boys, and where children might be FBI agents.

Sarah and Alison offer tips for women who want to go slumming in Chat rooms without disclosing their sexuality.  For instance, the UserName “DiamondPonyKiss” is a dead giveaway you’re a girl. The alternative suggestion: “BisonWarlock69.” H/T Know Your Meme

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18 Aug 2012

Ukraine’s Topless Feminists

Femen (Фемен), the women’s protest movement from the Ukraine, appears to be turning up everywhere these days — boldly flashing their boobs across much of Europe to advance their political beliefs. What are their beliefs? Why have they adopted the tactics they use? Where will it all lead?

Femen, founded in 2008, originally came into existence to battle against the sex trade in the Ukraine and to stop the exportation of Ukraine women to serve as prostitutes in Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. Not only is sex tourism flourishing across the Ukraine, but it’s estimated that as many as one-fourth of Europe’s prostitutes were recruited from the former Soviet republic.

Members of the activist group Femen protest what they see as the manipulation of the democratic system in Kiev, Ukraine, on Feb. 7, 2010.

It might seem strange for a protest group opposed to the sex trade to turn around and use sex as its chief weapon. Why has Femen gone this route? The answer is simple. The media attention brought by this shock tactic magnifies the group’s impact far beyond its numbers. Only about 300 activists belong to Femen, but the group has its sights set on becoming the largest feminist organization in Europe, and eventually the Americas.

“The European feminists differ from us,” says Alexandra Shevchenko, one of Femen’s founders. “They don’t use their bodies and sexuality to get to the goals that are important to women. We use them and hope that in 20 years, people will talk about feminists as beautiful naked women, not as butch, bald and tattooed women.”

Much like Pussy Riot, Femen’s warriors have faced charges of hooliganism at home and come under fire for desecrating symbols associated with the state and church. But they have branched out internationally as well, recently staging a topless protest in London against Olympic participation by Islamic nations that have embraced Sharia Laws that discriminate against women.

To better grasp what all the commotion is about, here’s a 30-minute Finnish TV documentary on Femen, with English subtitles (hit the CC button to see the English captioning). The two Shevchenkos identified in the film are both Femen founders, but they are not sisters, hailing originally from different towns. (NSFW)

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17 Aug 2012

Pussy Riot Sentenced: 2 Years

A Russian  judge today found three members of the punk band Pussy Riot guilty on charges of hooliganism for their February concert at a Moscow cathedral protesting the rule of President Vladimir Putin. In the concert, an act of guerrilla theater, the trio called upon the Virgin Mary to drive Putin away from Russia.

The band members each received sentences of two years imprisonment, commencing from the time of their arrest in March. The specific charges, “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” carried stiff sentences of up to seven years, but prosecutors were recommending that the band members be jailed for three years, and Putin himself had advocated leniency in their case. Judge Marina Syrova read from the lengthy verdict for about three hours before announcing the sentencing around 6 pm Friday, Moscow time.

“We accept this as our ethical misdemeanor, but an ethical misdemeanor should not be a cause of criminal punishment,” band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said. Meanwhile, outside the courtroom, arrests occurred as supporters and opponents of the band gathered. Those detained included chess master Garry Kasparov, a vehement Putin critic. Pussy Riot vigils also were staged in New York, London, Paris and elsewhere.

Here’s a World Edition report on the trial from Taiwan’s TomoNewsFunnies.

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And here’s an interview with the three other members of the band — Sparrow, Squirrel and Balaclava — who remain at large and have continued to elude Russian authorities.

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Meanwhile, a Femen protester in Kiev uses a chainsaw to cut down a cross in support of Pussy Riot. The cross was near Independence Square in this Ukraine city.

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04 Aug 2012

Putin For Pussy Leniency

Russian President Vladimir Putin often burnishes his tough-guy cred, but it appears he’s harboring a soft spot for the three punk rockers from Pussy Riot jailed for staging an anti-Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral. In an interview with RT, the Russian global TV network, Putin says he doesn’t condone the women’s act of defiance but he also advocates that they “not be judged too harshly.”

Interesting range of YouTube reactions to Putin’s comments, presumably from Russians although one can’t discount the possibility that some of these responses are from ringers. The selections:

* Vladimir Putin is a boss!

* Whatever it takes to keep Russia from falling down the sewer pipe and essentially commiting societal suicide is nearly alright with me. America and the West in general have confused freedom with licentiousness and complete irresponsibility and many people here, old and young alike are getting fed up with it.

* I like how the hard ass Putin is saying “hey take it easy on them”

* OMG. I am not religious, but I would have executed these sub humans.

* What’s this Pusi Riot female crunk group?? LOL!! What is the big deal? Is this what BIG OIL Russian Gov’t is all about going after naked painted pixies? Freakin’ inept morons, no wonder NEOCONS have conquered Geo-political strategy.

* Gee, such an excellent chance for Putin to show what a mild-mannered fella he really is, despite all the rumours about critical journalists being prone to end up in fatal incidents .. A PR counter-campaign couldn’t have been promoted and spinned in a much more efficient fashion.. Nice footwork..

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03 Aug 2012
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Topless to Topple Sharia

Femen protesters from the Ukraine went topless Thursday outside London’s City Hall, demonstrating against “bloody Islamist regimes” taking part in the Olympic games. “They are the fascists of our time, they treat women like third-class citizens,” said Reza Moradi, one of the protesters.  In fake blood, the women wrote slogans across their chests, including “No Sharia,” “Olympic Shame” and “Speed Raping.”  Femen’s tactics might mirror those of PETA, but their targets are much more deserving of the boob treatment. Here’s video of the protest from Telegraph TV, borderline NSFW. H/T American Power

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01 Aug 2012

Bloomberg Nips Baby Formula

Many men are into breasts, but New York’s Nanny Mayor Michael Bloomberg has carried his fascination with breast milk to an illogical extreme — so much so that he’s now not only upset civil libertarians, but also earned the scorn of the liberal women on The View, and even been subjected to ridicule on RT, the global Russian TV network. When even the Russians are pouncing on Bloomberg’s penchant for “regulation rather than promoting policy through education,” you’d think His Highness might see the arrogance of his ways. But after waging war on cigarettes, sodas, trans-fat and now baby formula, somehow it won’t be surprising if he refuses to back off his pious pedestal.

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01 Aug 2012

A Test of Faith

The Department of Health and Human Services Mandate goes into effect today, thrusting Catholic institutions between a rock and a hard place. Catholics now must face a choice of complying with the law or upholding their consciences and religious beliefs. Some 43 Catholic organizations, and counting, have filed lawsuits against the mandate on the grounds that it violates fundamental religious liberties. At specific issue are government requirements that will force Catholic-related employers to offer health insurance plans covering contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, such as morning-after pills.

What’s behind Catholic resistance to the mandate? Here, His Eminence Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, eloquently defends the viewpoints of the church in a Face The Nation interview with Bob Schieffer that first aired in April.

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St. Louis attorney Fred L. Vilbig interviews Cardinal Timothy Dolan about the HHS Mandate — how this section of the vast Obamacare bill came to be introduced as an amendment on the floor of the Senate by Barbara Mikulski, D-Maryland, and adopted with minimal debate. Similarly, HHS Cabinet Secretary Kathleen Sebelius farmed out the drafting of the department’s regulations to an outside agency, the Institute of Medicine. Those recommendations were prepared on an emergency basis, with scant public input, none whatsoever from the affected Catholic institutions.

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29 Jul 2012

Lady Warriors of Kurdistan

From Boudica of the British Celts to Corporal Klinger, few things unsettle the male mind like a lady in arms. The Kurds of Northern Iraq have long recognized this principle and incorporated it into their quest to build a Kurdish homeland in the overlap between Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Fighting alongside their male comrades in a region not exactly known for its progressive stance on women’s rights, the female Peshmerga guerillas of the Kurdish Liberation Movement built a reputation for themselves in the 70s and 80s as demure diaboliques with the deadly poise of Leila Khaled or Tania-era Patty Hearst.

Having secured the northern third of Iraq in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the Kurds have spent the last two decades divesting themselves of their guerilla jamjams, building up a stable and booming economy in their semi-autonomous little hamlet, and generally enjoying not being in the middle of the current Iraq War. Up in the hills abutting Iran and Turkey, however, the struggle for a Greater Kurdistan continues for boy and girl alike — Thomas Morton, Vice News http://vice.com

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30 Jun 2012

Quick Draw McBra

Here”s the latest in fashion accessories for the defense-minded woman — the Flashbang bra holster. Says the manufacturer, “A woman can dress in form fitting clothes and still look sexy if she chooses and carry a defense pistol. The days of dressing like a guy in a baggy shirt are over.”

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