Three NY High School students ignored directives from their teachers to not read excerpts from The Vagina Monologues at an open mic night. They were then suspended for daring to utter the V word. One of the students, Elan Stahl said:
“Our aim was not to get in trouble. We want to put the word (vagina) out there and make people comfortable with using it.
“If they can just admit that the word vagina shouldn’t have been censored because it’s not lewd or obscene … then that apology would be gladly accepted,” she said.
Congrats to these girls for being so switched on.
Still, how depressing that vagina is a word that people find offensive. I suppose if they’d changed it to ‘pussy’ or ‘hoo-ha’. It would have been alright *sigh*.
Published by Sarah at March 4, 2007
in Iraq, Politics, Saddam Hussein, World, death, imperialism, law, struggle, violence, war and women in power.
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”’
In some states, the minister said, newborn girls have been killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils.
“The minute the child is born and she opens her mouth to cry, they put sand into her mouth and her nostrils so she chokes and dies,” Chowdhury said, referring to cases in the western desert state of Rajasthan.
“They bury infants into pots alive and bury the pots. They put tobacco into her mouth. They hang them upside down like a bunch of flowers to dry,” she said.
“We have more passion for tigers of this country. We have people fighting for stray dogs on the road. But you have a whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children.”
That’s the Indian Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury talking about the still prevalant practice of female infanticide in India. According to her 10 million girl children have been killed in India in the past 20 years.
Unfortunately it will continue to hapen until women gain even a semblance of equality in that country but that’s far from realised. Girl children will continue to be thought of as not only worthless but a burden until they have the means to economic equality, education and social acceptance.
Abortion has long been illegal in Nicaragua but had, up until now, been allowed where it would save the woman’s life if three doctors testified that the woman would die if she didn’t undergo the procedure. Now even that exception has been ripped away from Nicaraguan women.
Some figures from the Guttmacher Intstitute to keep in mind. In Nicaragua:
- A quarter of all births (35,000) are among 15-19 year-olds but 86 per cent don’t want a child within the next two years and 36 per cent don’t have adequate access to contraception.
- Half of 20-25 year old women had had a child before their 20th birthday
- Nearly half of all births are unplanned
- The rate of childbirth among adolescents is the highest out of any other Central American country.
- Also higher than any other Central American country is the rate of maternal deaths which is 230 for every 100,000 births.
The WHO estimates that 78,000 women die from illegal and unsafe abortions each year (13 per cent of maternal deaths). Most of those of course occuring in developing countries such as Nicaragua. So even if access to a cheap illegal abortion is possible there’s no real out for these women. Imagine being powerless knowing that your death was imminent because your government couldn’t give a fuck. Pro-life indeed.
The leftist, Sandanista and former president Daniel Ortega sold women up shit creek in order to try to gain support from the Roman Catholic voting block and regain presidency. According to the linked NYTimes article his support for the ammendment was critical.
Brownfemipower has written about the Indigenous struggle in Oaxaca, women’s role within it and feminism’s oversight of the state oppression and worsening crisis playing out there:
All feminists MUST pay attention to what is happening in Oaxaca. Indigenous women are leading the way to female liberation–which means that just as their demands for access to birth control carry the same weight in their actions that their demands for access to community radio do, they are also taking the brunt of the violence liberation often brings. But thier entire community recognizes that they will never have liberation (aka community health, freedom from poverty, clean air to breath, workers rights, sexual freedom, control of the land etc) as long as the nation/state has ultimate control over what happens to their bodies and souls–or as long as violence against women is acceptable in any form.
The current crisis saw the military invade the area on October 27-8 as the Teacher’s union is demanding the resignation of the governor because of his anti-labour policies. Anyway read the original post and there is addresses and contact info of people to write to and lobby.
And there are continuing updates on Women of Color BlogÂ
Recent Comments