Articles | Posted by Julie Z on 06/21/2010
An Interview with Zainab Salbi
When Zainab Salbi started Women for Women International, an organization that provides women survivors of war and other conflicts with tools and resources to move from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency, she was 23 years old. She had left her entire family behind in Iraq only a few years before, bringing with her to America only $400. 16 years later, her organization has raised almost 80 million dollars, helped over 200,000 women and impacted over a million children’s lives.
Salbi’s own experience with the Iran-Iraq war inspired her to help all women dealing with the aftermath of war, in order to achieve the greater goal of promoting viable civil societies worldwide, changing the world one woman at a time. And truly, her experience with war affected her …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 06/20/2010
Support Women Artists Sunday: The Prids
The Prids are a band from Portland, Oregon. The quartet’s music can be categorized as a blend of noise pop and post-punk, influenced by Sonic Youth, Built to Spill, The Smiths, Unrest, My Bloody Valentine and Wire. Founded in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1995 by David Frederickson and Mistina Keith, they continued to develop in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. In Lincoln they befriended Harry Dingman III, guitarist of 1980s cult legendary post-punk band For Against. But the Prids has seen its share of tumult over the years. Its founding members, David Frederickson and Mistina Keith, married one another, then got divorced but continued their musical collaboration à la Fleetwood Mac. In 2008, everyone in the group was injured in a highway wreck that cost them their van and equipment (although …
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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 06/19/2010
Perez, Miley and Slut Shaming
Last Sunday, gossip blogger Perez Hilton made the controversial decision to post a photo of Miley Cyrus exiting a car on his twitter, implying that she was not wearing underwear. Now, the internet is firing back, with claims that Perez could go to jail under child pornography charges.
Initially, when I heard about this story, I was pretty disgusted. What an idiot Perez Hilton must be, I thought to myself, so obsessed with attacking people that he doesn’t know where to draw the line. I’m not a fan of Perez or Miley – they both annoy me in general – but seriously? Posting a photo of anybody in a sexual way without their permission is just wrong. But as commenters on the blogosphere, and even Perez himself, started firing …
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Feminism | Posted by Kate S on 06/18/2010
Rape for Granted?
What inevitably followed after graduation was the infamous grad party. Having been raised by strict parents, I felt too naïve as a senior graduate facing college and decided to stop by with my friends; if anything, we thought we would get a good laugh at the drunks.
When things started getting out of hand, we sober ones left to congregate at a friend’s house. We had seen a girl walk out of a room, crying and claiming that she almost had been raped by a drunken guy. It is a typical scenario at a party but we no longer felt comfortable and decided to leave once we made sure that she would be okay.
On our way back, my friends started discussing the safety of such parties, most of them …
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Feminism | Posted by Jaded16 on 06/17/2010
Quite the (Un)Feminist Dilemma
As much as I try, I cannot live in a void. Sure, I can keep to myself, read when none of my LadyFriends are around, ignore the douche dude in class when he’s mumbling, “You think so because you’re a woman.” Hell, I can go as far as to wish reality didn’t exist. Sometimes that works; especially if alcohol is a part of the equation. Most other times, I do realise that I don’t live in a void.
Due to my almost regular residence in the RealWorld, I do have to meet, co-exist and sometimes even share breathing space with Not-Feminist people. It doesn’t always go down too pleasantly. Especially if your argument against bell hooks is that “her nose looks weird” or if you think watching Oprah makes you …
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Feminism | Posted by Selam S on 06/16/2010
Kagan: The Right Woman for the Job?
I’m a first time FBomb writer (yay!) and I am addicted to legal news and ethics, so I chose to write about Elena Kagan, the pending Supreme Court Justice nominee. It has been a year since President Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court. As we remember, the pick was largely celebrated. Yesss! A Hispanic woman on the Court. America gained a victory when the Senate confirmed Sotomayor, a defender of civil and environmental rights, to the Supreme Court that summer, the third woman to sit on the country’s highest bench. It baffles me, and I am sure you also, that we have only had three women sit on the bench. Well, I am not writing this post today to reflect on old but good …
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Feminism | Posted by Aleka R on 06/15/2010
Indian Muslim Women: Excluded from Indian Feminism?
In India, the Dar-ul-Uloom’s (an Islamic school propagating Sunni Islam in India) recently declared a new fatwa which states that it is un-Islamic for women to work with men and talk to them. The fatwa is extremely misogynistic in nature.. A huge furor was created in India after the fatwa was issued and it lead to a wide ranging debate with many Muslims divided on the issue. It indicates that reform measures undertaken in the Indian Parliament to uplift the condition of Indian women are useless when it comes to Indian Muslim women. It seems that, while a silent feminist revolution is in the works in India, Muslim women are largely not included in it.
The clerics who issue such fatwas are unwilling to allow Muslim women to move ahead and advance …
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Articles | Posted by Julie Z on 06/14/2010
An Interview with Gloria Feldt
Gloria Feldt, a former teen mother, was the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood. She is currently an activist, author and leading expert in women’s rights, leadership and politics and blogs about these topics. She has a special passion for encouraging young people, through the media, to participate in the political process on behalf of their own rights and health.
It’s hard to believe that Gloria Feldt, accomplished activist and fearless leader for women’s rights, wasn’t born a radical feminist, ready to slash the patriarchy. In fact, until she was a young adult, Ms. Feldt was set on a more traditional path. A teen mother and young wife living in Texas, it wasn’t until she experienced sexism in her own life that she began to think about feminism.
“I …
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