It’s been 20 years since the first detainees arrived at Guantanamo Bay. Adapted from the bestselling memoir Guantanamo Diary, The Mauritanian reveals how America’s intense need for retribution in the aftermath of 9/11 resulted in the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of Muslim men at Guantanamo Bay. More importantly, though, it highlights why President Joe Biden must indefinitely close the notoriously violent prison.
Tag: Women in Prison
‘Marea Verde’ Feminist Collective Defends the Right To Decide in Mexico: “Sick and Tired of Seeing Our Sisters Go to Jail”
The Marea Verde—or “green wave” in English—is a collective of feminists based in Mexico. The group provides legal, psychological, moral and social support with the goal of eliminating and eradicating violence against women and advocating for the decriminalization of abortion.
“Thousands of women die every year from clandestine abortion because it is seen as a crime here in Mexico. We are sick and tired of seeing our sisters go to jail and being made to look like second-class citizens,” said Yunitzilim R. Pedraza, legal counsel to the group. “Abortion is a personal decision. Women should be supported and not criminalized for it.”
Is It Legal to Order Abortion Pills Online?
As abortion restrictions increase, clinics close, and the cost of abortion goes up, more and more women are ordering abortion pills online and taking them safely at home, with and without telehealth support. Traffic has spiked on the website of the abortion pill advocacy group Plan C, which shares information about how to buy abortion pills online and get them by mail in all 50 states. Over the last several months, Plan C’s website has had over 200,000 visitors with 88 percent new visitors. A quarter of them have come from Texas.
But is it legal to purchase abortion pills online?
The Most-Read Ms. Stories of 2021
Ms. readers are fed up. You know how I know? Your reading patterns.
Explore the most popular articles published this year on MsMagazine.com—measured by page views, average time spent on each page, times shared and a few other technical measures.
“The Traumas of Irwin Continue to Haunt Me”: Non-Consensual Surgery Survivor Seeks Restitution, Calls to Shut Down Detention Centers
In 2019, I became one of about 40 women subjected to invasive non-consensual gynecological surgery while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. What happened to me is not a one-off aberration—it’s a legacy of American white-supremacist pseudo-science going back decades.
For justice to be served, the government, ICE and all culpable individuals must be held accountable for what happened to me.
N.Y. Lawmakers and Activists Speak Out for Abortion Rights and Reproductive Justice: “If We Cannot Control Our Own Bodies, There Is No Democracy”
“If we cannot control our own bodies, there is no democracy. That is the requisite of every democracy,” said Gloria Steinem at a press conference organized by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) with New York political leaders and reproductive rights advocates in front of Planned Parenthood Manhattan Health Center in New York City on Monday.
#ForThoseWhoBleed: Operation Period and the Movement for Menstrual Freedom
Operation Period is a nonprofit that has coined the term “menstrual freedom” to embody their message as an organization. This means taking on systems of oppression and injustice that hinder menstruators in hope of achieving a better world.
“White Torture”: Why We Must Oppose Solitary Confinement
Narges Mohammadi, vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran, has been held in solitary confinement on and off from 1998 and 2020 for her human rights advocacy. On Tuesday night, Mohammadi was arrested by Iranian security forces during a ceremony honoring a victim of Iran’s deadly response to November 2019 protests. She was taken to the notorious Evin prison.
Since her release in October 2020, Narges has tried to draw attention to the practice of “white torture”—a form of solitary confinement—in Evin and other Iranian prisons. That is the topic of this article—the first she has written in English.
How to Send Ms. to Women in Prisons and Domestic Violence Shelters
Out of sight should not mean out of mind and heart. But the tragedy for women in prison is that it often does. This invisibility keeps many from realizing how much women in prison may resemble them.
That’s why we started the Ms. magazine Prison and Domestic Violence Shelter Program. For a tax-deductible donation of $25, you can send Ms. to a woman in prison or a domestic violence shelter for a year. And for just $10 more ($35 total), you can get a year’s worth of Ms. for yourself as well.
Miscarriage of Justice: The Danger of Laws Criminalizing Pregnancy Outcomes
Reproductive rights are under attack, and that means our rights to participate fully and freely in civic life are too. The criminalization of abortion forces a dual deprivation upon people who can become pregnant: Not only do we lose bodily autonomy, we lose our place in the body politic.