Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he supports new guidelines that would severely restrict the rights of women. This new “code of conduct” was issued by the influential Ulema Council and would be a giant step backwards for women. The code would allow men to beat their wives in certain circumstances and would promote ...
“If this backward law passes, I’m moving to Canada!” “This backward law” could refer to abortion, gay rights, health and education cuts, or countless others; you name it, if it’s going down the gurgler in your own country, chances are you can slap a big Canadian band-aid on it and all will be well. But ...
Shakespeare has given us quite a romantic image of young, forbidden love. From Romeo and Juliet to The Winter’s Tale, he’s portrayed it as the noblest of passions. But in countries like Afghanistan where love is still considered a flimsy base for a long lasting union and where girls are either forced into marriages or ...
“There was a girl here. Ayesha is her name. She is 10 years old. Very tiny. The man she married is 50 years old, with a big belly, like so,” a man called Mohammed explained to a National Geographic writer visiting Yemen to write about the plight of child brides. “Like a rat getting married to ...
When women start serving their country as military troops, walls are broken down towards gender equality on a larger scale. By next year, four Afghan twenty-somethings will be their some of their country’s first female military helicopter pilots. Before them, only one woman had been trained for the job. “We are just at the beginning ...
Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan are the most dangerous countries in the world for women, according to a new study by TrustLaw. The next countries in the top five are India and Somalia. Over 200 experts around the world, from aid professionals, health workers, policymakers, to journalists, participated in the poll. They were asked to rank ...
Kathleen Parker is pissed off that foreign policy takes women completely out of the equation. It’s not just the government that think this way, working as a journalist in the Middle East I was constantly told that stories about women were just not important enough to make the paper (presumably on the assumption that it ...
A Thousand Splendid Sunsby Khaled Hosseini is a story about love, hope, survival, and the strength of women. The story follows the lives of two women living in Afghanistan during times of civil war and upheaval, who are forced into situations they don’t want to be in. The first part of the book follows the ...
Sex slaves and child soldiers are common in Afghanistan and the government has acknowledged this problem to the United Nations. The government is going to sign an agreement with the UN’s special representative for children and armed conflict on an “action plan to combat the problem.” This will be the first time they “officially acknowledge ...
The ethics of America are Wikileaking all over the internet. The site has revealed that US government contractor DynCorp allegedly threw bacha bazi parties in Afghanistan. Translated as “boy play” this traditional practice involves young boys forced to perform singing and dancing routines dressed in women’s clothes so that the adult male audience can choose ...
So, we’re having this baby. It’s due in a few weeks and we’re trying to get organized with all...
I recently heard about what is claimed to be the rising phenomenon of Japanese men remaining virgins for longer...
Ladders. Patriarchal conspiracy. I’ll explain… This week I climbed a ladder. I was trying to reach a loft space,...
Dear Madame X, My boyfriend needs to look at porn while we have sex. It bothers me because I...
Mrs. Dalloway is yet another feminist classic that I had to grow into. Wrapped up in Woolf’s instantly recognizable...
Last week saw a Big Thing come to our soggy little island. Well, it was a Big Thing for...
Last weekend I was entertaining a guest, you know, the sort I was planning to have lots and lots...
All little girls want to be princesses… right?! It’s bad enough that toy aisles are separated out by what...
