More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week:the potential risk to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); France’s prime minister Élisabeth Borne resigns after less than two years in office; St. Paul, Minn., elects an historic all-women city council using ranked-choice voting; and more.
The Taliban has been establishing religious schools all over Afghanistan. This cannot be a substitute for women’s education, nor a reason for the Taliban to gain international acceptance. These religious schools de-prioritize traditional subjects. By focusing on an education that closes off the outside world, Afghan students are being excluded from public life. This is unacceptable.
Compromising modern education means compromising the future of Afghanistan and the global community.
In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, it’s not uncommon for three women to share a hospital bed. Nor is it rare for premature babies to share incubators. Families often cannot afford a trip to the doctor to get help for women or children, and more women are dying on their way to the hospital from pregnancy complications because they need to travel hours or even days to get care.
“It’s a perfect storm: less access to healthcare, less access to reproductive choice, and a declining number of healthcare professionals,” Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch said.
“You need to stop this work. We know where your children go to school.”
Around the world, frontline reproductive healthcare workers are facing physical and verbal abuse, public shaming and humiliation, both in-person and online, harassment, legal threats, death threats, sexual assault and rapes—simply for doing their jobs. Yet, many of those who commit acts of violence against SRHR workers, or those who publicly incite antagonism, largely escape accountability for the consequences of their actions. Enough is enough.
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: how previously unknown problems can be solved by electing diverse leaders; the longest-reigning queen in the world for 53 years, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark is stepping down; rest in power, former Texas Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson; and more.
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: In Florida, reproductive rights groups seeking a constitutional amendment protecting abortion secured enough signatures to put a referendum on the 2024 ballot; anti-LGBTQ laws are on the rise; tracking on-screen abortion representation; millions sign up for healthcare coverage; the pope approves blessings for same-sex couples; New York arbitrators frequently reinstate abusive correctional officers; Gypsy Rose Blanchard is released from prison; being a feminist does not equal hating men, research confirms; and more.
Marco Flores and his mother migrated to the U.S. from El Salvador for a better future. When Marco was 9, a neighbor began sexually abusing him, which continued until Marco was 14. Eventually, Marco’s mother told him the neighbor would soon be moving into their home to babysit his 6-year-old nephew. Convinced that this was the only way to protect his nephew from the abuse he had endured, teenage Marco murdered Jaime Galdamez. Marco accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Now in his early 30s, Marco has served his time and is set to be released—and immediately deported back to El Salvador. Two lawyers are fighting for him to remain. A feminist understanding of immigration ethics offers a better understanding of the moral challenge in question—underscoring why Marco Flores deserves to remain in the United States.
Catherine Filloux’s writing delves into the many ways that human rights are abrogated by gender-based, racial and economic violence. Filloux spoke to Ms. reporter Eleanor J. Bader about her work.
“As a writer, whether of a play or of an opera, I want to focus on the largely male dictators who allow trauma and genocide to exist and flourish. I can’t let this go.”
On Oct. 29, Iranian human rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh was assaulted, arrested and put in prison for attending the funeral of 16-year-old Armita Garawand, who was beaten to death for not wearing a hijab. Despite her injuries, Nasrin began a hunger and medication strike and was released on bail two weeks later. She still faces over 13 years in prison.
But the activist and attorney is not giving up hope. “Democratic resistance and belief in civil society always pays off in the long run. Governments can be dictatorial and autocratic, and they can have all kinds of armies and weapons at their disposal. Despite this, we see them fail over and over again, and something better emerges because of humanity’s collective will. I draw strength from all these experiences. I hope you can, too.”
Launched in 2018, the Reykjavík Global Forum convenes women leaders from all sectors, including politics, business, civil society, academia, the arts and media, to share ideas and solutions on how to further advance society towards female and male equality and to promote and positively develop the number of women in leadership positions.
