Archive for the 'Politics' Category

it takes a village to erase an idiot

Published by
outfox
at October 14, 2007 in In other news and Politics. 3 Comments

When feminist anarchist Emma Goldman said “If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal” - she obviously wasn’t anticipating Howard using less blatant tactics to hinder the voters who love him least.

With the November 24th federal elections now announced, eligible voters have until this Wednesday night to enrol, update your addresses and remind any overseas friends who can vote that it’s on. Then hopefully the political ad spam will be over and we can get on with the real thing.

Thanks to the Libs new enrollment legislation - reducing the time period that you can enrol in once the election’s been called - larger numbers of voters will ‘miss out’ on their voter rights this election. With compulsory voting, the figures of 1st time youth voters especially will be influenced, when they’re more pro-Rudd overall. AEC media release + link about enrolling.

Australian Electoral Commision

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has been advising the public during 2007 that there have been important changes to the deadlines for enrolling to vote at federal elections.

“If you’re not on the electoral roll and you’re entitled to enrol, you must fill in an enrolment form immediately and return it to an AEC office by 8pm, Wednesday 17 October,” …

“If you’re already on the roll but still need to update your address details, to ensure your vote you must complete an enrolment form and return it to an AEC office by 8pm Tuesday 23 October”.

Enrolment forms can be downloaded from the AEC website at www.aec.gov.au and are available at any Australia Post outlet or AEC office and now also at any Medicare, Centrelink and ATO office and selected Rural Transaction Centres.

You can check your enrolment online at www.aec.gov.au or by phoning 13 23 26.

And there’s still anarchy, activism, local media, Get Up & You Decide for those too young or stateless to vote to speak for yourselves about the impending state election spin.

*In the 2004 federal election, 136,000 youth voters (aged 18 to 25) enrolled after the election was called. Up to 100, 000 youth stand to miss that chance in 2007.

No license to abuse in anyone’s culture

Published by
Sarah
at June 7, 2007 in Politics, Uncategorized, law, media, race, racism, violence and violence against women. 0 Comments

The issue of violence against women, and particularly violence within certain cultural and religious communities have characterised some of the most heated debates on race, culture , immigration and women’s rights in recent times.

Wo! magazine interviews two academics- Dr. Christina Ho, a lecturer in Social Inquiry at the Faulty of Humanities and Social Science, and Penny Crofts a senior lecturer in law, at the University of Technology, Sydney- at the “No license to abuse” conference in Bankstown. The forum was a one-day event which aimed to address awareness about racialised violence against women survivors of domestic violence in particular the access women from diverse backgrounds have in accessing protection from the law.

We talk Dr. Chris Ho to on her address “Hijacking Feminism- The politics of Women’s Rights in contemporary Australia” in which Dr. Ho looks at the representation of violence against women in Australian politics. Dr. Ho argues that violence against women is a global issue but many Australian commentators portray it as a problem of cultural minorities; in particular within the Lebanese or Muslim communities. She addresses why conservative commentators are only concerned with violence against women when men of minority backgrounds are the perpetrators. Dr. Ho analyses the politics behind these current debates and offers some thoughts on how advocates of women’s rights can respond.

We also have a chat to Penny Crofts, a specialist in criminal law theory. In her address “Tolerating intolerance: Liberal Culturalism and Ethnicity in Provocation” Penny discusses the legal principles relating to the cultural defence in domestic violence cases. In her overview of the use of the Provocation defence in law she refers to theoretical framweorks which argue that liberal cultures are not ‘colour-blind’ and she poses such questions as: is the court truly neutral? If so, what capacity does the court have to recognise cultural differences; and how far should cultural differences be recognised if at all where there are values of bodily integrity to be resolved.

Woman! Be fruitful and multiply!

Published by
Sarah
at May 2, 2007 in Politics, choice, femininity and wtf?!. 1 Comment

The archaic ministers of the Howard Government are at it again. Whether it’s controlling access to abortion or accusing Deputy Opposition Leader Julia Gillard of the heresy of being “barren” it seems as if women’s bodies, choices and lives are a recurring obsession with them. And we thought we had enough of these hijinks with Hilarious Hilaly running around comparing women to “cats meat”.

Does it scare anyone that we have these men in authority with their perverse perceptions of female sexuality influencing policy??

The boys club of politics seems like an oversized fraternity- unable to deal with the presence of real women as equals and competitors in modern life they resort to puerile jibes at their opponent’s femininity as a way of discrediting them. It’s a recurring theme in politics- Whether its Bush feeling up Germany’s Chancellor at an international conference or US Presidential hope Hilary Clinton being accused of getting plastic surgery- these insults are so cheap their laugable. Grow up!!

Save Iranian Teen Prisoner on Death Row

Published by
Sarah
at April 24, 2007 in Ayatollah's Theocracy, Politics, World, fundamentalism, law and violence. 2 Comments
COURTESY OF LILY MAZAHERY- President of the Legal Rights Institute, Washington DC.
Approval of Delara’s Death Sentence in Distinction Branch of the Supreme Court

A source familiar with Delara’s case reports that Delara’s death sentence has been approved and the order will be soon issued to her lawyer.

Delara Darabi, accused of murder, has spent the past 3 years in prison. Recent beatings in prison have left her with a broken arm and she is not feeling well.

Yesterday, Delara’s father filed a letter with the head of the judiciary, seeking a transfer of prison for his daughter. In this letter, Delara’s father states: “Delara is in dire condition and is suffering greatly. She is only accused. We have reasons to show that she is not a murderer. However, even if she were guilty, she has a basic right to be treated fairly in prison, not to have her arm broken. If Delara is a murderer, she should be executed once, not a thousand times. Yet, in Rasht prison, she is executed a thousand times a day. I need your help to save my daughter.”

According to our reporter, given the approval of Delara’s death sentence by the Distinction Branch of the Supreme Court, the only person who can commute this sentence is the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Shahroudi. By finding fault in the case, he can issue a new trial.

Click HERE to view the original report in Farsi.

Please take immediate action to prevent the execution of Delara Darabi by taking the follwing steps:

1. Sign the petition objecting to the impending execution of Delara Darabi and encourage your friends, colleagues, associates, and family members to do the same.

2. Contact the office of Ayatollah Shahroudi by fax or mail to voice your objection:

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi
Ministry of Justice,
Panzdah-Khordad Circle,
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
(From United States, dial 0 first)
Phone: 98 (21) 391-1109
Fax: 98 (21) 390-4986
You can also send your appeals electronically via the judiciary website:http://iranjudiciary.org/contactus-feedback-fa.htmlNote: The fields are written in Persian. 1st line is for your Name; 2nd your Email; 3rd the Subject (which should read “URGENT LETTER TO AYATOLLAH HASHEMI SHAHROUDI REGARDING DELARA DARABI“); 4th is for your Comments.

Should you have any questions, please contact info@SaveDelara.com . For more information, visit: www.SaveDelara.com

“Our Nights are Nightmares”

Published by
Sarah
at March 4, 2007 in Iraq, Politics, Saddam Hussein, World, death, imperialism, law, struggle, violence, war and women in power. 2 Comments

A brilliant documentary (Part One, Part Two) aired on the American Al-Jazeera channel today called “Everywomen”- an account of Iraqi women’s experiences under occupation.

Four brave Iraqi women talk about their experiences in Baghdad and the daily struggles to survive, take care of their families and work as the world around them descends into civil warfare, sectarian violence and chaos.

They are not without humour- the most compelling interviewee Iraqi television journalist Amna Frayeh amusingly reflects on the normalisation of her insane daily reality.

“I wonder what the French talk about. We talk of explosions and car bombs. I expect they have nothing to say and that’s why they are such quiet people.”

Continue reading ‘“Our Nights are Nightmares”’

And the asshat of the month award goes to:

Published by
Anna
at January 29, 2007 in Politics and sexism. 6 Comments

This may be a new regular feature of this blog. Wo would like you, dear readers to vote for the Asshat of the Month for January.

The very deserving contenders are:

1. Japan’s health minister, Hakuo Yanagisawa, who just this Saturday in a speech on the falling borth rates described women as “birth-giving machines“. To quote:

“The number of birth-giving machines [and] devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head.”

That’s right friends. Some of us may be in need of an upgrade to our automated baby-making programming software. Does. Not. Compute. Asshat.

2. Israel’s President, Moshe Katsav, has refused to step down from his post following numerous rape and sexual assault allegations.

The President accused the media of leading a “brainwashing” campaign “against my good name” adding: “For six months my family and I have faced an unprecedented assault — with despicable information sullying my honour.”

Definite asshat.

Nominee number three would have to be our own PM, John Howard for his rhetorical campaign against feminism. It was on the cusp of this month and last month but I’m going to include it anyway. Howard says:

“Fortunately I think today’s younger women are more in the post-feminist period, where they don’t sort of measure their independence and freedom by the number of years they remain full-time in the workforce without having children,” Mr Howard told News Ltd newspapers.

“I think they’ve moved on from that demonstration phase… (when) they thought ‘I’ll be letting the sisterhood down if I don’t stay in the workforce until I’m a certain age’.”

Howard’s come out with this ‘post-feminist’ bullshit before. It kind of makes me wonder though, if feminism’s dead, why the hell are you still talking about it? Howard is doing his bit to ensure that women are now (always and forever?) merely considered ‘baby-making machines’. Him and his cabinet are living proof of the need for feminism. What with their attacks on reproductive rights and working mothers. One for the country indeed.

Feel free to nominate your own Asshat of the Month in the comments or vote for one of these. My vote’s going to have to go to Katsav due to the sheer unabashedness of being investigated for sexual assault and refusing to step aside as leader of your country. Although Yanagisawa definitely gets a point for stupidity.

Bollywood Star Bullied on Big Brother

Published by
Sarah
at January 18, 2007 in Culture, Politics, media, pop-culture, race and racism. 2 Comments

A diplomatic incident has nearly broken out over allegations of racist abuse on British reality show ”Celebrity” Big Brother.

We all know the show is hardly a conduit for good taste- as can be attested by the “turkey slapping incident”  last year on Australian Big Brother which created a huge debate in Sydney newspapers about sexual harassment, even prompting calls from the Prime Minister to ban the show.

But what Big Brother does reveal with its massive ratings and its potential to create public controversy is a rare insight into the lives and minds of ordinary and ‘public’ figures at their most uninhibited.

The dynamics of the house are revealing about a whole spectrum of issues- including attitudes to gender relations, racism, culture and sexuality in modern life. 

In this way the show has an ability to uncover a little of the nation’s psyche- mirrored in all its ugliness. 

The victimised housemate- Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, was apparently ganged up upon by four of the housemates, one whose claim to fame was being a member of the defunct band “Steps”, and singling her out to bullying.

Shetty was apparently referred to as “the Indian”,  a “cunt”, made fun of her for her accent, with suggestions made that Indians were so thin because they ate “undercooked” food.

The B-grade starlet has now become a heroine in India and Britain with thousands sending emails complaining to the show’s producers in support of the embattled actress.

The situation has created a firestorm in the UK highlighting simmering racial tensions. Shetty’s experience has obviously struck a huge chord with the British public.

The controversy has touched upon the raging debates that have characterished modern British society- on issues of race, culture, religion, multiculturalism and integration. To the extent that politicians have come to the fore to address the issues in the House of Commons. 

In these debates it has always been the minority groups which have been castigated for their inability to “integrate”. The deluge of complaints reveal the deep chord the Shetty debacle has struck with the immigrant experience.

If “integration” is called for- than this is also a two way street. “Integration” is only possible when people feel welcomed as equals in their society to be their very best. These efforts are severely undermined when you’re being called a dirty “Paki”.

The ”Empire” obviously needs to straighten things out. It’s “subjects” are in revolt.  

 

 

 

Pregnancy counselling and our ‘post-feminist’ world

Published by
Anna
at January 15, 2007 in Politics, abortion, breeding, choice, christianity and fundamentalism. 1 Comment

Apologies to all readers about the lack of updateliness over the festive season. I’ve had a bit of a break but it seems the patriarchy hasn’t.

As I’m sure most of you are aware, Minister for Health, Tony Abbott is up to his old tricks [link above]; restricting Australian women’s access to abortion in granting the Government funded Pregnancy Helpline contract to a company called McKesson Asia Pacific. What’s interesting about this is that McKesson is a company with no obvious bias towards faith-based healthcare provision and yet they have sub-contracted the training of counsellors out to the Catholic organisations, Centacare and the Caroline Chisholm Society. Organisations and individuals with ties to abortion providers were exempt from applying for the contract and yet here we have two organisations involved in the helpline with a most open bias in the opposite direction.

The Catholic stance on abortion is well-known. It has also recently been reported that Catholic hospitals refuse to provide Emergency Contraception/ The Morning After Pill to rape victims. It’s really not that surprising but considering Emergency Contraception prevents conception before sperm meets egg, if the doctors at those hospitals don’t know this, I really think their abilities to provide healthcare should be called into question. But as we all know it has never been about saving the bay-bees but punishing Eve, that wench.

One anti-choice organisation, the Australian Federation of Pregnancy Support Services (formerly known as the Australian Federation of Pro-life Pregnancy Support Services), which trades under the name Pregnancy Help Australia, has already received hundreds of thousands of dollars of Government funding. The AFPSS received $240,000 in 2003-04, $245,000 in 2004-05 and almost $300,000 in the last financial year. Considering their government funding seems to be rising and genuinely pro-woman counselling services are losing funding it seems the anti-choicers have achieved a monopoly over pregnancy counselling services in Australia.

Abbott says, “I hope that the availability of this kind of support service might, in the end, have some downward impact on the number of abortions.” Abbott’s continues to cite the bogus figure of 100,000 abortions each year. This figure is actually derived from a Medicare figure of 73,000 (exaggerating much?) for D&C which is a medical procedure performed for reasons including miscarriage which makes up two-thirds of that 73,000. So the actual number of abortions is closer to 25,000.

The demand for abortions has actually been falling steadily in the under-25 group (12 per cent in the past decade) and probably would continue to fall if faith-based organisations released their tenterhooks from women’s bodies. I wonder how many rape victims who didn’t get EC in time due to going to a Catholic hospital then had to seek an abortion?

Research by the Guttmacher Institute shows that abortion figures are much much lower in countries where it is safe and readily available and where attitudes to gender, sex and sexuality are much more progressive:

Most recent rates per 1,000 reproductive-age women

Legal

Belgium 7

Germany 8

Netherlands 9

Switzerland 9

United States 21

Illegal
Dominican Republic 47

Peru 56

Philippines 27

Uganda 54
Sources:Guttmacher Institute and WHO Regional Office for Europe.

As you can see in the countries where it’s legal the US leads the way in the number of abortions carried out, it also happens to be where the anti-choice movement is strongest. Coincidence? Or are pro-lifers killing the bay-bees?!

The theme for the next issue of Wo! is ‘Choice’ so if you have something to add to the discourse send to editor@wo-magazine.com . Features and articles don’t have to be focused on reproductive rights, the theme can be interpreted as broadly or creatively as you like.

what day is it?

Published by
outfox
at December 6, 2006 in Politics, celebration, things to read and violence against women. 2 Comments

So, does everybody know that Amnesty Internationals’ 16 Days of Activism is on?

 Ok,now you do.

A global campaign, the 16 Days calls for an end to violence against women. Winding up on December 10th, International Human Rights Day, it symbolically links women’s rights with human rights.   
This year Amnesty International Australia’s aiming to collect 16,000 signatures in support of the Australian Government developing a National Plan of Action towards eliminating violence against women. 

It’s not too late to sign the petition or  check out events in several states including music festivals, art exhibits, letter writing events and a rally.  I’m feeling lucky to be in Brisbane again, so I can head to the That Takes Ovaries! open mike event this Friday.   


Since the release of That Takes Ovaries!, Rivka Solomon’s inspiring collection of real life women’s stories of courage, open mike and theatre events have been held worldwide for women to share their personal stories of bravery.
As part of the 16 Days of Activism it’s coming to Brisbane, with Wonder Woman, aka performance artist Evelyn Hartogh flying in to MC. Women are invited to join in the fun and share their tales this Friday at Avid Reader West End, from 5.20pm.  Men welcome too, so long as your stories about a woman in your life who’s done something that took Ovaries!

Should be good.

 

East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet?

Published by
Sarah
at December 4, 2006 in Islam, Politics, World, feminist media, religion and women in power. 0 Comments

“100 of the savviest, smartest, most motivated, and influential Muslim women” have met this month in New York for the first ever Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equity (WISE) conference.

The way in which the western landscape has formed a crucible for the birth of Muslim feminism, and also broader calls for “Islamic Reformation” is interesting.

It seems appropriate that the most powerful catalyst for change will come from the “smart, savvy and influential Muslim women” that have flourished and achieved power and position within the west. The location of New York seems symbolic of this melding of cross-currents.

The way these women navigated the differences of opinion was laudable. They seemed to recognise their goal in the end was the same- empowerment and recognition of the basic human rights and dignity of the female person within both secular and religious contexts. Which is feminism at it’s basic really.

The question is can they work to effect real-world change in the places that really need it?

The speech of Mukhtaran Mai, a gang-rape survivor who now dedicates her life to building schools for girls in her village seemed to remind everyone where it was all at.

“Our only hope is the fight for justice. End oppression with education. To remain ignorant is a crime. To remain apathetic is a crime. It is a crime to avoid oppression. To remain silent about a crime is a crime.”

Change can only come from within and it seems western muslim women in particular, have the skills and knowledge to challenge authority, the opportunity to support activists; and the freedom to engage in serious lobbying efforts internationally.

But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When (women) stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!