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White Man to the Rescue?
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
Why McCain and the GOP Are So Afraid of Discussing the Economy
Frances Moore Lappe
Democracy and Elections:
Seven Ways Your Vote Might Not Count This November
Steven Rosenfeld
DrugReporter:
Obama's Biden Pick Signals 'More of the Same' Stupid Drug Policies
Paul Armentano
Election 2008:
The GOP Has Turned a Major Election into an Episode of the Mommy Wars
Judith Warner
Environment:
Boatloads of Trouble: How We Are Importing Our Way to Destruction
Stan Cox
ForeignPolicy:
The Bush Administration Checkmated in Georgia
Michael T. Klare
Health and Wellness:
Hospitals' Lessons From Hurricane Gustav
Sheri Fink
Hurricane Katrina:
From the Bayou to Baghdad: Mission Not Accomplished
Amy Goodman
Immigration:
Leader of Anti-Immigration Movement Calls Issue a "Skirmish in a Wider War"
Eric Ward
Media and Technology:
Only in America Could a Two-Faced Creature Like McCain Attain Such Media Status
Rory O'Connor
Movie Mix:
Does "Working Girls" Still Work?
Ariel Dougherty
Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Rutgers Center Helps Women Enter Politics
Alison Bowen
Rights and Liberties:
On Top of Jail Time, Prisoners Now Face Fees and Surcharges
Emily Jane Goodman
Sex and Relationships:
What Republicans Can Learn from "Gossip Girl"
Sarah Seltzer
War on Iraq:
One Fifth of Iraq Funding Goes to Private Contractors
Willam Fisher
Water:
Is California on the Brink of Environmental Collapse?
Rachel Olivieri
This morning I got an e-mail from Feminist Majority asking me to e-mail the President protesting the Iraqi Governing Council's approval of Resolution 137, which would abolish current family law and allow Sharia to take its place. This depressing development has not been widely reported, but I already knew about it thanks to Madre, the women's international human rights organization. No sooner had I dispatched my message than up popped Amnesty International, alerting me to the work being done to end sexual violence around the world by V-Day, Eve Ensler's feminist activist organization. Then it was Madre again, with news of an Islamic fundamentalist death threat against Iraqi feminist Yanar Mohammed.
My snail mailbox is the same story: news and appeals from Equality Now, which uses letter-writing campaigns and legal action to combat injustices around the world, from female genital mutilation and honor killings to the imprisonment of Nepalese women who've had abortions; the Global Fund for Women, which sponsors a wide variety of pro-woman projects in 160 countries; Network of East/West Women, which supports women's rights activists in the former Soviet bloc; the women's desks of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch; and many more.
I'm reminded of these good people because the New York Times's Nicholas Kristof is once again accusing American feminists of ignoring Third World women and girls. Last spring, he discovered obstetric fistula in Africa -- the tear between the birth canal and the lower intestine that can happen during protracted labor and that, unless corrected, condemns a woman to a lifetime of physical misery and social ostracism. Kristof profiled Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia and wondered why "most feminist organizations in the West have never shown interest in these women." Perhaps, he wrote, "the issue doesn't galvanize women's groups because fistulas relate to a traditional child-bearing role." Right, we all know that feminists only care about aborting babies, not delivering them safely. The Times got a lot of letters (and published some, including one from me) pointing out that feminists, in fact, were behind numerous efforts to combat fistula and other maternity-related health problems in Africa, including the work of the UNFPA, praised by Kristof, whose funding was eliminated by the White House to please its right-wing Christian base.
You'd think he'd learn. But no. Now Kristof is complaining that American women's groups such as NOW and Feminist Majority don't care about sexual slavery and the trafficking of women and children for commercial sex. In a series of columns, he describes his efforts to "buy the freedom" of two Cambodian teenage prostitutes living in a sleazy brothel in Poipet and to get them home to their families. Evangelical Christians, he argues, care about girls like these; feminists are too busy "saving Title IX and electing more women to the Senate," he observed in a Times online forum. Right, why should American women care about equal opportunities and electing to office people who think contraception is as important as Viagra? Never mind that putting more feminists in the Senate -- not more "women" -- would mean more help for the very causes Kristof supports!
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Rutgers Center Helps Women Enter Politics Reproductive Justice and Gender: The Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers trains and encourages women to run for office. By Alison Bowen, Women's eNews. September 7, 2008. |
Five Women Buried Alive -- and the Media Ignore It Reproductive Justice and Gender: Why is it that we get so outraged over war but look the other way when women and girls are beaten and murdered in the name of tradition? By Riane Eisler, AlterNet. September 6, 2008. |
On Top of Jail Time, Prisoners Now Face Fees and Surcharges Rights and Liberties: Prisoners across the country are facing court fees, arrest fees and booking fees in addition to their sentences -- and states are raking in the cash. By Emily Jane Goodman, The Nation. September 6, 2008. |