Transformative Changes

An interesting look at transformative justice regarding sexual assault with a group called Philly Stand Up:

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/01/30/some-transformative-justice-links/

http://www.phillystandsup.com/resources.html

UN calls for protecting gay rights worldwide

This article that I found in the paper 24h is about the rights that LGBT people deserve and in an official report the UN called on various governments to protect LGBT people. I think for me personally that this article is great because it provides people with some understanding and what i got out of it was that LGBT people are just like everyone else and shouldn't be persecuted with violence of various forms because of who they are or what their sexual orientation is.

http://eedition.toronto.24hrs.ca/epaper/viewer.aspx

New Laws Protect Women from Abuse in Pakistan

By MUNIR AHMED and SEBASTIAN ABBOT Associated Press

ISLAMABAD December 13, 2011 (AP)

Azim Mai's husband allegedly threw acid in her face last year after she refused to sell their two boys to a man in Dubai to use as camel racers. The 35-year-old mother of five can no longer find work as a maid because her deeply scarred face scares potential employers.

Acid burnings are among the most horrific crimes against women in Pakistan that are now criminalized in a landmark set of laws passed by the parliament. They stand to protect millions of women from common forms of abuse in a conservative, Muslim country with a terrible history of gender inequality.

Rights activists praised the laws Tuesday while stressing their passage was just the first step, and likely not the hardest one. It could be even more difficult to get Pakistan's corrupt and inefficient legal system to protect women's rights that many men in this patriarchal society likely oppose.

"This is a big achievement for the women of Pakistan, civil society and the organizations that have been working for more than 30 years to get women friendly bills passed," said Nayyar Shabana Kiyani, who has lobbied for the legislation as part of The Aurat Foundation, a women's rights group.

"We can't really get good results until the laws are implemented at the grassroots level," she added.

AP

Pakistani acid attack survivor, Azim Mai, 35,... View Full Caption

The two bills containing the new laws, which received final approval from the Senate on Monday, stiffened the punishment for acid attacks and criminalized practices such as marrying off young girls to settle tribal disputes and preventing women from inheriting property.

Mistreatment of women is widespread in Pakistan, a nation of some 175 million where most people are poor, only half the adults can read and extremist ideologies, including the Taliban's, are gaining traction.

In 2010, at least 8,000 acid attacks, forced marriages and other forms of violence against women were reported, according to The Aurat Foundation. Because the group relied mostly on media reports, the figure is likely an undercount.

Women are discriminated against in other ways as well. Pakistan ranked third to last in 2011 in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report, only beating Chad and Yemen. The report captures the magnitude of gender-based disparities in things like health and education.

The new laws explicitly criminalized acid attacks and mandated that convicted attackers would serve a minimum sentence of 14 years that could extend to life, and pay a minimum fine of about $11,200.

Other new laws mandate a minimum prison sentence of three years for forcing a woman to marry, including to settle tribal disputes; five years for preventing a woman from inheriting property; and three years for a practice known as "marriage to the Holy Quran."

Feudal families in rural areas of Pakistan engage in this practice so that women won't receive marriage proposals and their share of the inheritance will stay in the family, said Farzana Bari, head of the gender studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.

"This legislation addresses the patriarchal traditions that have been used against women to violate their rights," said Bari. "People have been doing these kinds of things for so long that they don't even think it's unjust.

Foster kids over-medicated

This is a video about how foster children are over medicated and their real issues (abuse, anger) are never addressed. I picked this article because it reminded of how women and our bodies have been overmedicated instead of our internal issues being dealt with.
It is very interesting to see how marginalized groups are being treated with medication as a solution to all our problems because no one (the doctors) want to address the sytems of oppression that are getting us anxious, and upset.

This however, is somewhat of a hopeful video in that once these children were adopted many of them were slowly weaned off of their medications.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf9U3ZcugSI

Montreal massacre

CBC has a really great section on the Montreal Massacre which happened on December 6th, 1989. I am sure many of us know that a man by the name of Lepine walked into that school and killed 14 women because he blamed them for his not getting into the engineering program, and called them all feminists.
I chose this because many times when the story is covered what is failed to be addressed is that it was not just a trajedy but an act of violence against women (patriarch and its influence in the media).
It is really important to note this becasue many times the media tends to neglect many things as has been seen with the dissappearance of Aboriginal prostitutes by the pig farmer. The media, as a patriarchal system, neglects to focus on how women were impacted by this incident rather focusing on everyone at the School when the incident happened to women. Similarly the Aboriginal women's dissappearances were neglected because of racism (they are Aboriginal), colonization (we take their land and ignore when they are dissappearing), and finally because they are women.
http://archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/topics/398/

Anti-bullying bill a front for ‘sex ed’ agenda, groups say

Today while i was looking over a Church write up on Bill 13 i was horrified to find out that Catholic groups are accusing it of being a cover up to include classes that acknowledge homosexuality.
Being bullied because of their sexual orientation is a part of the problem for the Church to dismiss this is an eexample of why it is such an oppressive and patriarchal system--run by middle aged white men that support only things like anti-abortions Bills which take away the rights of women to their bodies as we discussed in the modules of women and their right to decide what should be done with their body as well as the Module on Aboriginal women and forced abortions.
The media and schools tend to focus on bullying as being related to how one looks (fat, skinny, short, too tall) and other physical factors yet they neglect to talk abou things like race and now sexuality as well.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1097682--anti-bullying-bill-a-front-for-sex-ed-agenda-groups-say

Woman buried in Quebec poised to become 'first' aboriginal saint

This article is really interesting because, they are talking about the first aboriginal saint. This article is not because of my religious affiliations buts because we have discussed Aboriginal women a lot in this Program and the troubles they have faced.
What is interesting when reading her story (which you can access of Wikipedia) is that she was refused to practice her choice religion by her uncle (patriarchy) and this was likely because she was a woman she was expected to go with the dominant group religion. As well, the anger of her people is not examined in that colonization, imposed Christianity on Aboriginal peoples which could explain their treatment of her (which was still wrong). Anyhow, now they are Sainting her for practicing the colonizers relgion otherwise would an Aboriginal woman or she, have been considered for Saint Hood? http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/woman-buried-in-quebec-poised-to-become-first-aboriginal-saint-135886243.html