Stopping Long Enough to Celebrate: Recent Win for Violence Survivor and Asylum-Seeker Holds Critical Lessons

The DOJ has granted asylum to Ms. A.B., a Salvadoran woman who fled domestic violence. The victory reaffirms: Violence in a home is not a private matter; marriage is not an excuse for rape; and gender-based violence is reason for urgent action.

I spoke with one of Ms. A.B.’s formidable attorneys, Blaine Bookey, from the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, at U.C. Hastings, which took on the previous administration’s bullish attempts to push intimate partner violence back into the shadows. 

Keeping Score: Afghan Women Hopeless Ahead of Taliban Rule; Cuomo Resigns Amid Sexual Harassment Allegations; Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill

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 in this biweekly round-up.
This week: the Taliban seizes power in Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw; Kathy Hochul will replace gov. Andrew Cuomo, becoming the first female governor of New York; LGBTQ+ Olympians make history at the Tokyo Games; the Senate passes major infrastructure bill; IPCC warns of irreversible climate change and the consequences to come; and more.

Feminist Leaders Implore Biden-Harris Administration: Don’t Abandon Afghan Women and Girls

In a letter signed by almost 100 signatories, feminist leaders and advocates are urging the Biden-Harris administration “not to agree to a deal that includes recognition and support of a Taliban regime” and that “any deal by the United States that would include recognition and support of the Taliban regime would be a reversal of U.S. commitments that were made …” and would undermine the administration’s commitments to human rights globally. 

New York Is About to Get its First Woman Governor. Let’s Make Sure it’s Not Their Last.

Kathy Hochul’s ascension to the New York governorship is an historic moment for the state of New York and a small step in the right direction for the U.S. as a whole. But until the the entrenched structural barriers women face in politics are eliminated with systemic and intentional action, women’s representation at the gubernatorial level may be just as reliant on a male governor’s resignation as it is on a woman candidate’s qualifications.

Feminist Mobility Solutions Can Drive a More Just Transportation System

A new Women’s Environment and Development Organization report makes the case that by realizing the potential for intentional and equitable investment that prioritizes universal access and affordability for all, takes into account the differentiated needs of users it has historically marginalized and learns lessons from feminist transportation advocates, U.S. mobility infrastructure can actually serve as a critical pathway to achieving racial, economic and gender justice.