Iranian Human Rights Attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh Named ‘Global Human Rights Defender’ by U.S. State Department

Each year, the State Department awards 10 people the special designation of “Global Human Rights Defender.” This coveted award is reserved for individuals “who have demonstrated leadership and courage while promoting and defending human rights and fundamental freedoms; countering and exposing human rights abuses by governments and businesses; and rallying action to protect the environment, improve governance, and secure accountability and an end to impunity.”

Nasrin Sotoudeh—an Iranian human rights lawyer and long-time friend of Ms. magazine who has spent her career fighting for the rights of women and minorities in the Middle East—was one of the 10 recipients.

‘Dark Energy’: Poetry for Harriet Tubman

Last year marked 200 years since Harriet Tubman’s birth. To commemorate Tubman’s bicentennial, Ms. magazine launched the Tubman 200 project, honoring her extraordinary legacy.

The multi-disciplinary project included: conversations with Tubman’s descendants; an interactive timeline of Tubman’s life; essays from experts including Dr. Keisha N. Blain and Kate Clifford Larson; a calculator that determines what the U.S. (literally) owes Tubman; a portal for readers to submit their own haikus celebrating Tubman’s legacy; and original poetry—including the show-stopping “dark energy” by scholar and poet Alexis Pauline Gumbs.

Ms. at 50: Five Decades of Playing by Our Own Rules

“Mightn’t a publication—say, a newsletter—serve to link up women, and to generate income as well? … a publication created by and controlled by women that could be as serious, outrageous, satisfying, sad, funky, intimate, global, compassionate, and full of change as women’s lives really are.”
—’A Personal Report From Ms.‘, 1972

When it launched 50 years ago, Ms. magazine was a brazen act of independence—demonstrating the untapped potential for journalism that centered news and analysis on women and their lives and made a feminist worldview more accessible to the public.

Ms. continues to be the place where feminists find information and inspiration. And we thank you, our loyal readers, for these past 50 years—and the next 50! As the earliest editors of this magazine wrote, “Ms. belongs to all of us.”

The Ms. Top Feminists of 2022

With so many of our rights in jeopardy, social justice advocates have had to work even harder to stand up for the causes they believe in. Tackling voting rights, public health, reproductive justice and much more, here are Ms. magazine’s picks for our top feminists of 2022.

What Does Ms. Magazine Mean to You?

As we approach our 50th anniversary, we want to know: What’s your Ms. magazine story?

Submit your story to see it published online—and we’ll be selecting a number to be featured in our upcoming special 50th anniversary collector’s issue of the magazine.

Join Ms. and Learn to Take Charge of Your Own Reproductive Healthcare

Learn everything you ever wanted to know about birth control, including things your doctor might not even know.

This free conversation will feature Dr. Sophia Yen, CEO and co-founder of Pandia Health, the only women-founded and women-led birth control delivery and telemedicine company. Yen will outline everything she thinks we need to know about birth control, emergency contraception, periods, abortions pills and more. (This event is back by popular demand!)

‘The People’s Lawyers’: Attorneys General Letitia James and Dana Nessel on Reclaiming and Rebuilding U.S. Democracy

On Sept. 7, Ms. recorded a “fireside chat”-style discussion with Attorneys General Letitia James (N.Y.) and Dana Nessel (Mich.)—two trailblazers in the fight for justice and democracy—moderated by election administration expert and governor of the United States Postal Service, Amber McReynolds.

Here are our favorite moments of that conversation.