Dilip Simeon's blog

NB: It seems there's no difference between the totalitarian fantasies of 'leftist' and 'rightist' governments. DS Dozens of feminist groups in Nicaragua that provide crucial support to vulnerable women have been labelled “foreign agents” and outlawed by the government, meaning they can no longer operate. Reproductive healthcare services, shelters for survivors of gender violence, and loans and training for peasant women – to cite just a few activities run by feminist groups – are vanishing as a result of the government ban, say activists. “It’s a delusion of absolute control,” says María Teresa Blandón, a sociologist and prominent feminist who coordinates one of the affected groups, La Corriente . The authorities “know there is critical thinking, a defence for human rights and a democratic vocation in feminist organisations," she told openDemocracy. Last month, the Nicaraguan National Assembly – which is controlled by the ruling party, the Sandinista National L...

The leaked opinion draft, authored by conservative justice Samuel Alito, overturns the landmark 1973 ruling as well as the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision that placed stricter rules on abortion rights, but upheld the constitutionality of Roe. The draft, in the strength of its language, also illustrates the court's ideological turn - despite conservative justices having promised moderate senators (most notably Maine's Susan Collins) during their confirmation hearings that Roe was settled law. The reality is this: The decision is a potential key step in instituting a national abortion ban . According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, at least 26 states are certain or likely to ban abortion without Roe in place.  In Texas where I live, the situation is already particularly draconian , with new restrictions passed last year forcing many women out of state and complicating care for women who miscarry. For Black women living in ...

The Ruling this week forces all Americans to now follow the strict religious beliefs of the Catholic Church and much of Christianity which has concocted a fantasy that a fertilized egg is a human being - even though their own founder and God, Jesus Christ, never said any such thing. In fact, the word “abortion” appears absolutely nowhere in the New Testament. This Supreme Ruling, from a Court consisting of a majority of Catholic Justices, has ordered the citizens of the United States of America to now  obey  a major tenet of the Catholic Church - or be found guilty of a crime.  One hundred seventy million American women and girls were suddenly informed on Monday that they have been removed from the ranks of full citizenship, and that their rights are now diminished so severely they will heretofore be commanded to give birth, whether they want to or not.  Once pregnant, the government will now make all women prisoners of their wombs,   automatically   f...

Even as the pace of modernization in the Arab world shows some signs of acceleration, we all must recognize that deep-rooted cultural norms around women’s roles and rights are slow to evolve. Guess who is going to change that? The women of Generation Z. I was an Arab Muslim girl in an American school in Bahrain from elementary through high school. I grew up between two cultures. Of course, my Arab Muslim side dominated, but I was struck by the beauty, independence and inspiration from my American experience. I wove those threads of independence into my own professional life, taking on roles as a CEO, activist, and an advocate for change. In researching my book, Hear Us Speak: Letter from Arab Women, I met with Gen Z Arab women in their late teens and early 20s. They’ve grown up exposed to the outside world through social media, and they’re emboldened! These women are determined to live life on their own terms and they believe that, in the foreseeable future, Arab women will be treate...

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell which began this week in Manhattan will not hold to account the powerful and wealthy men who are also complicit in the sexual assaults of girls as young as twelve Maxwell allegedly procured for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, the J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barack, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell, Harvey Weinstein and many others who were at least present and most likely participated in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia, are not in court. The law firms and high-priced attorneys, federal and state prosecutors, private investigators, personal assistants, publicists, servants, drivers and numerous othe...

US conservative groups behind a  Supreme Court legal battle  that could shape the future of American abortion rights have  spent at least $28m  around the world between 2016 and 2019 on campaigns against women’s and LGBT rights, openDemocracy reveals today. They have also received almost $100m from 2016 to 2020 from anonymous donors, funnelled through two leading US charities that manage massive amounts of money and are accused of funding “hate groups”. On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case against a law passed in Mississippi in 2018 that bans abortions after 15 weeks. This law was deliberately designed to challenge – and eventually overturn – the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalised abortion nationwide, allowing terminations until week 23. Overturning Roe would pave the way for abortion bans to be implemented throughout the US.... https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/us-rightwing-mississippi-abortion/ Donald Trump's gift to A...

There is no better symbol for the disappearance of women’s rights in Afghanistan than the end of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the return of the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. When the Taliban on September 7 announced their new interim government, the vice and virtue  ministry  featured on the list, with a cleric as its newly appointed minister. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs had disappeared, and there were  no women  in the new cabinet. The situation has a feeling of impending doom as a largely unchanged Taliban comes into direct conflict with a generation of young women who grew up hearing about the abuses that the Taliban inflicted on their mothers and older sisters and seizing the opportunities those older women were denied. On a chat group of people who have worked many years in Afghanistan, a journalist friend wrote, “Does anyone else fear these protests are going to end in a massacre?” This possibility seems all too real… h...

In the pantheon of women shamed for exposing the actions of high-profile men - before  Christine Blasey Ford  in 2018 and Monica Lewinsky in 1998 – there was Anita Hill. In 1991, the US president, George HW Bush, nominated Clarence Thomas to the supreme court. Senate hearings for his confirmation were completed without incident, until an interview of Hill by the FBI was leaked to the press. In it, Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment while he was her supervisor in two separate jobs, at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Among other claims, Hill said that Thomas discussed women having sex with animals, and pornographic films depicting group sex or rape scenes, and described his own sexual prowess and anatomy. According to Hill, Thomas’s behaviour forced her to resign from her job. The Senate hearings reopened, and Hill repeated her claims in a series of televised sessions. Not only was she not believed, her character and motivation ...

More than a dozen women staged a protest in Kabul on Sunday, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. The protest came as female government employees in Kabul were told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men. The order was given by the interim mayor of Kabul, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers. Kabul government’s female workers told to stay at home by Taliban ‘We don’t want people to be in a panic,’ says chief of Taliban morality police https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/sep/19/afghan-women-stage-protest-in-kabul-after-taliban-crack-down-on-womens-rights-video-report

The anti-choice movement is just one part of a larger effort by Christian fundamentalists to covertly turn the U.S. into a more theocratic state. Anti-choice politics are driven by  a small and shrinking group  of hard-right white evangelicals who wish to foist their religious views on the majority, in violation of the First Amendment-enshrined value of free exercise of religion. The Texas abortion ban is tied to a larger agenda to undermine LGBTQ rights, replace science with religious dogma, and otherwise violate the constitutional prohibition of the establishment of religion.  Conservatives go to great lengths to hide how much being anti-abortion is about forcing all Americans to live by the religious tenets of the white evangelical minority…. https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/theocratic-christianity/ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slams Texas GOP governor's 'deep ignorance' on abortion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday slammed Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's ...

A group of Afghan women activists staged a small protest in Taliban-controlled Kabul Friday calling for equal rights and full participation in political life, CNN has confirmed. In spite of the risk, a group called the Women's Political Participation Network marched on the street in front of Afghanistan's Finance Ministry, chanting slogans and holding signs demanding involvement in the Afghan government and calling for constitutional law. Footage showed a brief confrontation between a Taliban guard and some of the women, and a man's voice could be heard saying, "Go away!" before chanting resumed... https://edition.cnn.com/2021/09/03/asia/kabul-afghan-women-protest-intl/index.html Noor’s case will be a test for the authorities and for Pakistani society in more ways than one Pakistani professor Junaid Hafeez gets death sentence in blasphemy case HAMNA ZUBAIR - Qandeel Baloch is dead because we hate women who don't conform / When it comes to honour killing, Ind...

Feminist Dissent  views with horror and dismay the betrayal of the people of Afghanistan and all those fighting fundamentalist movements everywhere. Before and since the August 15th 2021 takeover of the country by Taliban, we have watched news of protest marches and heard Afghan women speak out. We are in awe of their steadfast courage in the face of brute force. Feminist Dissent  sees fundamentalist movements as modern political movements of the far right which use religion to exercise authoritarian control, especially over women. The Taliban was never seen by us as simply a form of medievalist Pashtun tribalism, and certainly not as a liberation movement. The dominant views from the ‘anti-imperialist left’, Western ‘peace’ movements, Western governments and counter-terror establishments converge in ways that both stereotype and sanitise the Taliban. The deal struck between the US and the Taliban which excluded the Afghan government, civil society and particular...

The family of a 27-year-old woman who was allegedly tortured and beheaded by the son of a business tycoon have spoken of their devastation in a case that has pushed  Pakistan  to examine what has been called a “gender terrorism epidemic”. Zahir Zakir Jaffer was arrested on suspicion of the pre-meditated murder of Noor Mukadam, the youngest daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, after allegedly holding her captive for three days at his apartment in an upmarket area of Islamabad. Noor Mukadam murder: 'new details, characters' emerge Noor’s case will be a test for the authorities and for Pakistani society in more ways than one The case, involving two of the capital’s richest families, has shone a light on Islamabad’s elite, the offspring of landowners, politicians and business tycoons. In a country where so-called “honour” killings are common practice, the brutality of the killing has forced Pakistan to confront its poor record on gender-based violence. In the  World Eco...

The Taliban insurgents continue their deadly war to seize control of Afghanistan after the departure of United States and NATO forces. As they close in on major cities that were once government strongholds, like  Badakhshan and Kandahar , many Afghans – and the world – fear a total takeover. Afghan women may have the most to fear from these Islamic militants. We are academics who interviewed 15 Afghan women activists, community leaders and politicians over the past year as part of an  international effort to ensure that women’s human rights  are defended and constitutionally protected in Afghanistan. For the safety of our research participants, we use no names or first names only here. “Reform of the Taliban is not really possible,” one 40-year-old women’s rights activist from Kabul told us. “Their core ideology is fundamentalist, particularly towards women.” From subjugation to Parliament:  The Taliban ruled all of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Everyone faced r...

Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita outside the gates of Tihar Jail, raising slogans and fists, after a year-long incarceration that saw Narwal denied a chance to meet her ailing father before his death. It was a striking image. It is also a picture we have seen before. Young women coming up against the might of the state; their bodies and voices at the centre of crucial political contestations of Indian democracy.  Neither penal action, nor charges under draconian sedition and terror laws, nor prolonged imprisonment, have discouraged them. Think of Amulya Leona, another anti-CAA activist who spent nearly three months in prison after a sedition charge was slapped on her for raising a slogan. Or the thousands of women who stepped out of homes to occupy public spaces across the country in vocal protest against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act. Or Safoora Zargar, another anti-CAA activist who was charged under UAPA, like Narwal and Kalita. Think of Disha Ravi, jailed for e...

The 527-page document is so cluttered with references to the past sexual history of the prosecutrix that it effectively invisibilises the accused    On May 21, 2021, the court of additional sessions judge Kshama M Joshi, Mapusa, pronounced her judgement acquitting former Tehelka editor, Tarun Tejpal, of all charges of sexual  harassment, molestation, rape etc of a young woman employee, in 2013 at the THINK festival in Goa. This 527-page judgement, which grants benefit of doubt to the accused, indicts, slanders and smears the rape survivor. This judgement deserves comment, not because Tejpal stands acquitted of forced oral and digital sex, that is a matter for appellate courts to determine, but because it is replete with statutorily prohibited references, to her identity, graphic details of her past sexual history and censures her character. The reasoning, language and rationale scribed in the judgement is a backlash to the campaign and 2013 legal reforms, challenging ma...

Late last month, an “unknown hill in the Chinese desert” was blanketed in scores of large red and white banners, flapping vitriol in the breeze. “I hope you die, bitch,” said one. “Little bitch, screw the feminists,” said others.  They were all actual messages sent to women, a direct act of harassment anonymised by social media. They were sent during weeks of intense debate about the treatment of women on platforms such as Weibo, sparked by the abuse of Xiao Meili who posted video of a man who threw hot liquid at her after she asked him to stop smoking… https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/13/chinas-feminists-protest-against-wave-of-online-abuse-with-internet-violence-museum HAMNA ZUBAIR - Qandeel Baloch is dead because we hate women who don't conform / When it comes to honour killing, India is neck and neck with Pakistan Modi blows hot air at China in a rally in Arunachal Pradesh - forgetting Vajpayee's surrender in 2003 The Return of the Show Trial: China’s Televised ...