Global Feminist Link Love: May 17 – 23

Hey Global Feminists!

Here are a list of links about what other global feminists were up to this past week. We also want to know: What have you been reading/writing this week? Don’t forget to spread your own link love in the comments!

Click image for link.

Africa

• Why, as an African, I took a Rhodes scholarship (Racialicious) “Colonialism is to blame for many of Africa’s woes, but as a Rhodes scholar I am better placed to serve Kenya”
• Hot, humid and deathly – Writing about health in Mozambique (Gender Masala)
• The Senator and his child bride (Next) “This is the story of the case of Mr. Sani Yerima.While I find his purported marriage to a thirteen year old girl disgusting, and I would call him out for what he is, a paedophile, I am loathe to actually condemn him, and my reasons are simple: the man, unfortunately has the backing of our laws, as I pointed out last week in a letter to Mrs Ufot Ekaette.”
• Crude Violations: Oil, Human Rights, and Environmental Devastation in Nigeria (FWD/Forward

Asia

• Pakistan: TB-Afflicted Women Struggle to Overcome Social Stigma (IPS)
• Thailand’s on the brink of something – but what? (Global Comment)

Europe

• England and Wales Move to Grant Anonymity to Rape Defendants (The Curvature) “The thing is, this has been tried before. As the article notes, it was tried from 1976 to 1988. What was the reason it was repealed? Feminist man-hating? No — the fact that it made victims less likely to report.”
• Want to know why we should get out of Afghanistan? (Philobiblon) “It was a Human Rights Watch report last year, which found 60-80% of the marriages of Afghan women and girls are forced, and learning that the brave women of Rawa are calling for withdrawal that led me to change my mind. Having just read the autobiography of Malalai Joya, an outstanding Afghan woman MP, I’m now even more strongly of that view.”

Latin America

• Estrategias Frente a los Fundamentalismos Religiosos: 27 de abril (International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission) “Por la mañana la facilitadora Tatiana Cordero (Ecuador) brindó su taller “Curar la Homosexualidad” para lo cual propuso una intensa dinámica de presentación en la que l*s participantes pudieron detectar y compartir todos los factores, negativos y positivos, que posibilitaron su salida del closet (esto es asumir y visibilizar públicamente su identidad de género y su orientación sexual).”

Middle East

• Iranian Women’s Rights in the International Spotlight (Akimbo)
• Violence is sometimes the answer (The Pursuit of Harpyness) “I don’t know if this woman’s actions will spark a rebellion or if it’s just an isolated incident I read about online. I do know not everyone is privileged enough to sit around quoting Gandhi at people in situations like the one women in Saudi are facing.”

Northern America

• Women Fight For the Gulf Coast (The American Prospect) “In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Sharon Hanshaw realized the women in her East Biloxi, Mississippi, community needed a political voice to counteract the big developers and casino owners who took the lead in reconstruction efforts. She helped found the group Coastal Women for Change and now serves as its executive director.”
• Women’s Stake in Fighting Arizona’s New Law (Women’s Media Center)
• Blood Talk (Metro Weekly) “HHS advisory committee will tackle societal and economic – not solely scientific – issues relating to FDA ban on blood donation for men who have had sex with men”
• An Open Letter to Anyone Who Has Experienced One of My Son’s Meltdowns (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)

Oceania

• Backlash Is Our National Gesture (Bad Hostess) “Watson is the only young woman who has been significantly honoured in this nation for anything other than marrying a prince or being fucked on a video in as long as I can remember.  That her endurance and not her appearance was the focus of our appreciation was, in short, just a bit of a relief.”
• Men of good character (Questioning Transphobia) “In the Northern Territory of Australia, five white men admitted beating an Aboriginal man to death, and the judge declares that this ‘crime is toward the lower end of the scale of seriousness for crimes of manslaughter’ and gives them lenient sentences.”

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