There was an inspiring sight for indigenous and women's rights in the mountains of Chiapas this week, as more than 3,200 women from 49 countries reportedly gathered together for the second annual International Gathering of Women Who Struggle.
From the opening statement at the event:
As the Zapatistas that we are, we know that they will give us many examples of women who have advanced, triumphed, won prizes and high salaries—who have been successful, as they put it. We respond by talking about the women whom have been raped, disappeared, murdered. We point out that the rights they talk about above are won by a precious few women above. And we respond, we explain, we shout that what is lacking is the most basic and most important of rights for all women: the right to live. We’ve said it many times, compañera and sister, but we’ll repeat it again now:
Nobody is going to grant us our right to live and all the other rights we need and deserve. No man—good, bad, normal, or whatever—is going to grant these to us.
The capitalist system is not going to give them to us, regardless of the laws it passes and the promises it makes.
We will have to win our right to live, as well as all our other rights, always and everywhere.
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Well, this is a big old red flag. And an anti-science lie. Read the rest
Last Sunday, Saudi Arabia lifted its decades-long ban on women driving. On the same day, a young rapper named Leesa A released a music video celebrating her new-found freedom. The video has since gone viral.
BBC reports:
Leesa A, who previously had a relatively small social media presence, posted her video on Instagram and YouTube where it has attracted more than 1.6 million views combined.
She is filmed driving, pressing the accelerator, changing the gears, all the while rapping: "Yo, you seem to be forgetting that today is the 10th, this means there no taxis," referring to the date of 24 June in the lunar-based Islamic calendar.
YouTube commenter TrueGamerX14 translated the song's entire lyrics:
Yo, you seem to be forgetting that
today is the 10th
That means no need for taxis
The steering wheel in my hands
I smash the pedal under my foot
I won't need anyone to drive me
I'll help myself by myself
I've got the drivers license ready with me
So put the seat belt on the abaya (the
outfit she's wearing)
And keep an eye on the sidewalks and the
other on the mirror
R is for going back, D is for going
seeda (straight)
Watch out for every car
If it was a Ford or Cressida, your life
won't be great
Come! Pick me up! Take me there!
Bring me back!
That'll ruin the plan
If you want me to come pick you up,
you gotta pay up
Gas money! Don't underestimate it!
Debt!
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The Awakening by Henry Mayer is considered one of the finest pieces of political art of the 20th-century and is often mentioned as the most beautiful of the "suffrage maps." American women earned the vote from west to east before the right became federal law. Read the rest
Best Coast are headlining a concert in Los Angeles on Saturday (3/4) to benefit Planned Parenthood. It's a killer lineup playing for a cause urgently in need of support.
Along with Best Coast, the show at the El Rey Theatre will feature Grouplove, The Lovely Bad Things, The Side Eyes, MUNA, Nina & Louise of Veruca Salt, The Regrettes, Wavves (DJ Set), Lili Hayes (DJ Set), Jimmy Tamborello (DJ Set), and a special appearance by Liz Phair. Worth every penny. Tickets here.
And in case you missed it, below is our exclusive Boing Boing Video performance/interview with Best Coast, produced with our friends at Remedy Editorial.
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Norma McCorvey, the anonymous "Jane Roe" in the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, has died. Read the rest
Royal Brunei Airlines's first all-women deck crew flew into Saudi Arabia this week. Unfortunately, they will not be allowed to drive there, since Muslim clerics in that country forbid it.
From The Independent:
In December 2014, Loujain al-Hathloul was detained after she tried to drive into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates. Maysa al-Amoudi, a friend who turned up to support her, was also detained. Both were released after more than 70 days in custody.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director for Human Rights Watch said at the time: “After years of false promises to end its absurd restrictions on women, Saudi authorities are still arresting them for getting behind the wheel.
"The Saudi government’s degrading restrictions on women are what bring shame to the country, not the brave activists standing up for their rights.” Read the rest
Because it’s the holiday season, Lady Parts Justice League is giving back by reminding us about the anti-choice forces responsible for creating these terrorists with a reinterpretation of a scene from the Christmas classic, “Love Actually”.
When trying to make sense of these horrifying killing sprees, it's easy to lump the attackers into neat little boxes that give us peace of mind. When we look into those boxes, we don't see ourselves.
There’s a box for the “religious extremist” (but only if it’s in the name of Islam) and one for the “delusional loner” (because if we keep pushing the “loner” idea then we don’t have to face the American epidemic of gun violence).
But there is one mass murderer who doesn’t easily fit into any box: the abortion clinic terrorist.
During his arraignment, Robert Dear said, “I am a warrior for the babies!” 17 times. There's no evidence presented that he had a psychotic episode, but we all hear the voices that dominate our airwaves and the national conversation. Certainly, the clinic terrorist may be a “religious extremist” or a “delusional loner.”
What’s different about the abortion clinic attacker is that the voices in their head are not self-created delusions. Rather, they are the voices of mainstream politicians, mainstream religious figures, and mainstream media. Read the rest
In a Reddit AMA, activists DeRay McKesson, Johnetta Elzie and ACLU’s Nus Choudhury talked policing and police reform in America, and surveillance of activists.
Indo-Tanzanian-Canadian musician singer Alysha Brilla and her two sisters, Tameera and Nadia, said that a police officer pulled them over because they were riding bikes at night without wearing shirts. The officer told them to put their tops on and the three women argued with the officer.
CTV News of Kitchener reports:
"We passed by a cop in an SUV and he immediately makes a U-turn after seeing us from the front," she told CTV Kitchener over the weekend.
"He says, 'Ladies, you're going to need to put shirts on.'"
As the sisters began to argue with the officer, Brilla pulled out her cellphone and recorded the interaction. She said the conversation changed when she began recording.
"What are you stopping us for?" she can be heard asking. The officer asked her whether she had lights on her bike.
"He would have seen our lights shining on him and our helmets and everything," she told CTV.
According to a city clerk in Vancouver, it is perfectly legal for any human being to go topless. The sisters are planning a top freedom ralley in Waterloo this weekend.
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“Trainwreck” director Judd Apatow as Bill Cosby on The Tonight Show. Read the rest
“I have just endured one of the largest trolling attacks in history,” writes Reddit's recently-departed interim CEO Ellen Pao in a Washington Post op-ed today. “And I have just been blessed with the most astonishing human responses to that attack.” Read the rest
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn artist who tried something new to speak up for herself—and address street harassment—through art. Read the rest
India's often-unsanitary public toilets are breeding grounds for disease, leading many women pay to access toilets in places like McDonald's and KFC. The new "pee-buddy" is providing local women with urine liberation, reports the BBC. Read the rest
“The beauty of women can hurt her and attract evil,” it reads.
Fran Moreland Johns sought an abortion in 1956 following a workplace rape. Now the author of
Perilous Times: An Inside Look at Abortion Before and After Roe v. Wade, she survived a back-alley procedure in the days before legalization, and warns that with women's rights under renewed assault, those grim days are returning.
Mother Jones reporter Nina Liss-Schultz asked Anita Sarkeesian why she thinks she has been targeted by knuckle-dragging assholes on the internet--vicious threats, death, rape, and beatings by haters who happen to be men, and believe that women like Sarkeesian should shut up and stay out of their clubhouse. Read the rest
