“My wife Nasrin Sotoudeh has been unjustly and cruelly imprisoned since June 2018 for her legal work representing Iranian human rights and women’s rights activists. … I call on the United Nations to conduct an independent investigation into all of Iran’s prisons, and for Qarchak women’s prison to be immediately closed. The dignity, health and safety of women, children and families everywhere demands no less.”
‘Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink’: How Water Pollution Affects Our Health—From Disrupted Hormones to Lead Poisoning
Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill takes some important steps toward greater water safety, replacing lead pipes. He’ll have to overcome calls for budget cuts, but will he also confront our Pentagon and our water infrastructure’s reliance on unsafe or untested chemicals? Our children’s safety and our future—not corporate profit or government cost—must come first.
“Imminent Danger” in Afghanistan: Kamila Sidiqi in Conversation With Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
On Saturday, three car bombs detonated in Kabul, Afghanistan, in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school—specifically targeting young girls. At least 85 people were killed. The escalating violence in the country has been made worse by the recent Biden administration decision to withdraw troops from the region by September 11 of this year.
This interview between Kamila Sidiqi, an Afghan serial entrepreneur, and Gayle Tzemach Lemmon was conducted just days before the Kabul weekend attack, and gives a sense of the simultaneous sense of fear, hope and dread on the ground in Afghanistan.
Linking Reproductive Rights and Climate Solutions Is the Only Way Forward
As the pandemic has brought our world’s climate and health crises into sharp relief, the time is ripe to include women’s reproductive rights as part of our climate solutions toolbox.
Colleges Must Support Student Parents Even After COVID
No category of college students has been harder hit than one that is often invisible: students who are also mothers (and fathers). Despite being largely left out of the national higher ed conversation, student parents make up about one-quarter of all college students, and face barriers like soaring college costs and lack of affordable childcare and housing.
Women’s Representation: For Asian Americans, Violence Falls Along Gendered Lines
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: 80 percent of Asian Americans say violence against them is increasing; the role of Black women in the first 100 days of the Biden administration; a profile on Dr. Jill Biden; tracking the representation of women of color on public sector boards in California; how gender quotas and proportional voting rules used by The Academy of Motion Pictures ensures a level playing field for women; the role of ranked-choice voting in the New York City primaries; and more.
Linking Voter Suppression and Abortion Restrictions: “If We Lose Voting Rights, We Lose Women’s Rights”
The defeat of Donald Trump, and Biden’s attempts to dismantle Trump’s white supremacist agenda, have inspired a fevered campaign by state-level Republican lawmakers of voter suppression and abortion restrictions. While at first glance these efforts might appear to be unrelated, they are deeply connected.
The Weekly Pulse: 2021 “Most Hostile” for Abortion; FDA Bans Menthol Cigarettes; Advocates Urge Biden to End Helms and Step Up Global Vaccine Campaign
This week: The 2021 legal session is the “most hostile” for reproductive rights in at least a decade; reproductive health advocates urge the Biden administration to take up the mantle of abortion care, starting with the repeal of the Helms Amendment; the FDA moves to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars within the next year; and the global vaccination effort remains slow due to a lack of support from developed countries.
Mother’s Day Flowers That Reflect the True Value of a Mother’s Work: $800 Billion
In the “Moms Deserve More Flower Store,” bouquets range from $800 billion for the Unpaid Work Bouquet to $3,500 for the Mental Stress Bouquet—representing the real value of mothers’ work. The price tags highlight the ways in which our current national policies and COVID-19 relief efforts are failing to support our mothers.
Attorneys General Appeal ERA Lawsuit, Press Biden Administration to Recognize the 28th Amendment
On May 3, attorneys general from Virginia, Illinois and Nevada filed an appeal with a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking a declaration that the Equal Rights Amendment is now part of the U.S. Constitution.
“How much longer should the women in this country wait to be afforded equal protection under this country’s founding documents?”