Photo Credit: Fanning The Flames of Menopause
Femilicious attended a talk that was held at the University of Windsor with Dr. Shahnaz Khan entitled: Veil Talk: Examining the Many Facets.
In an intimate encounter with five very different women in Brazil, India, Jerusalem, and Senegal (narrated by Susan Sarandon with introductory narration co-written by Edwidge Danticat) THE SHAPE OF WATER offers a close look at the far reaching and vibrant alternatives crafted by women in response to environmental degradation, archaic traditions, lack of economic independence and war.
The documentary weaves together the daily life stories of Khady, Bilkusben, Oraiza, Dona Antonia, and Gila who, through candor and humor, infuse their communities with a passion for change.
The women:
By revealing the women’s revolutionary actions THE SHAPE OF WATER offers a unique view of the complex realities faced by these unsung visionaries creating a more just world.
Photo Credit: Banksy Bombs
When it comes to the numbers on violence against women, there's plenty to be alarmed about.
Tanya Mars, a senior lecturer and program supervisor in visual and performing arts in the Department of Humanities at U of T Scarborough, is among the six winners of this year’s prestigious Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts given for artistic achievement. The awards were announced by the Canada Council for the Arts March 25.
“My main interest is to make narratives that put women at the centre as opposed to the periphery. I’m trying to create images, strong images and positive images, of women,” she said in describing her work. “I feel very strongly about being recognized as a feminist, I’m not ashamed of being a feminist and I’m not buying into the backlash of anti-feminism. I think I’ll beat the feminist drum until the day I die. While some of my work my work may not be directly didactic or directly about feminism, I think it is always about making strong images about women.” But she added, “I like to have a healthy dash of humour. So I like to poke fun at my own political dogma and I think it’s important to laugh at yourself. If there were three words that would summarize my interests they would be women, power and humour.”
I missed posting about International Water Day on March 22 but it's not too late to take part in an online action to tell PM Harper 'Water is for people, not profit' (in case you haven't heard, the "new government" is quietly negotiating away rights to our water)
This year, World Water Day also coincides with the International Year of Sanitation. There is a gender aspect to the issue of water and sanitation in large part - thanks to Eco-feminist Action in the 21st Century
Why Care About Water and Sanitation?
This just in: If you're an obscenely wealthy drug-dealing pedophile stem-cell researcher who drives a Hummer and doesn't recycle, you are totally going to hell. Oh please, like you didn't already know.
The Big Book o' Deadly Sins apparently has a whole new addendum and it looks like it ain't just gluttony and lust and murder and hot porn and witchcraft .... The pope and his posse - or, rather, the Vatican's second in command on matters of hell and penance, Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti - have announced seven new deadly sins for a brave new world.
We can only applaud the Vatican for its efforts to uphold and reinforce global ethical standards with numbers 4 to 7:
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
I, no doubt, will be found guilty of 4 and 5 above. Especially at points in my life when, in youthful ignorance, I bought into the media messages to "buy and consume". Efforts to reform myself later in life will likely not absolve me from going straight to hell in what will be an increasingly crowded handbasket.
There are some sins that are still missing:
Note to the Vatican: You want more true sins? Here are a few on my list:
The woman who first brought the issue of spousal abuse to the forefront in Canada presents her memoirs
When Margaret arrived in Ottawa in 1979 she was shocked at the male-dominated culture. Fortunately her leader, Ed Broadbent, was a feminist convert, and most of her caucus members were sensitized to women's rights.
An incident in the spring of 1982 brought spousal abuse to the forefront of Parliament and the nation as a whole. Many male Members of Parliament responded callously to my statement that one in ten Canadian women was subjected to spousal abuse. Television cameras captured their outrageous behaviour and my furious response
As Mitchell tells it,
"On May 12th I rose in the House to raise the urgent need for government action on a serious and widespread issue. 'The parliamentary report on battered wives states that one in ten Canadian husbands beat their wives regularly,' I began. Before I could continue, an uproar of male shouts and laughter erupted, making it impossible for me to be heard. A nearby Tory joked, 'I don't beat my wife. Do you, George?' When the Speaker finally got order, I rose again in fury. 'Madam Speaker, I do not think this is a laughing matter. What action will the Minister responsible for the Status of Women undertake immediately at the federal level to protect battered women?'"
LINK: YouTube - Margaret Mitchell a Champion for Head Tax Families
Today, workers still see the pernicious face of racism on the job, in their communities and in government policies. Recent polls show that as many as 1 in 5 workers feel their employment rights are violated due to racism
Prejudice is the child of ignorance.
~ William Haslitt
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
~ Nelson Mandela
In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
~ M.L.King
Western feminists talk about honor killings and the misogyny of Islam, but hypocritically ignore the legal violence of military occupation.
As feminists and people of conscience, we call for solidarity with Palestinian women in Gaza suffering due to the escalating military attacks that Israel turned into an open war on civilians. This war has targeted women and children,
and all those who live under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, and are also denied the right to freedom of movement, health, and education.
We stand in solidarity with Iraqi women whose daughters, sisters, brothers, or sons have been abused, tortured, and raped in U.S. prisons such as Abu Ghraib. Women in Iraq continue to live under a U.S. occupation that has devastated families and homes, and are experiencing a rise in religious extremism and restrictions on their freedom that were unheard of before the U.S. invasion, "Operation Iraqi Freedom," in 2003.
At this moment in Afghanistan, women are living with the return of the Taliban and other misogynistic groups such as the Northern Alliance, a U.S. ally, and with the violence of continuing U.S. and NATO attacks on civilians, despite the U.S. war to "liberate" Afghan women in 2001.
Women's groups in Nunavut say they are outraged that Levi Barnabas, an MLA convicted eight years ago of sexual assault, was named to cabinet last week.
Barnabas, who represents the High Arctic riding of Quttiktuq, was acclaimed Thursday to fill a cabinet seat vacated by Baker Lake MLA and former finance minister David Simailak.
Premier Paul Okalik has assigned Barnabas the human resources portfolio, as well as made him minister responsible for the Workers' Compensation Board.
The one-time Speaker of the house resigned in 2000 after he pleaded guilty to sexual assault. He was re-elected in 2004.
"I want to see him stepping down and just be a regular MLA," Mary Akpalialuk, the women's co-ordinator with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, told CBC News on Friday.
"It disgusts me when [an] offender like that becomes a minister."
Akpalialuk said she is tired of seeing some male MLAs out drinking and womanizing in Iqaluit, when they are supposed to be role models.
Okalik defended his newest minister, saying it's a free society and Barnabas deserves another chance.
"Mr. Barnabas has served his time for the crime and also been elected by his constituents, who believe that he had cleaned up his act," Okalik said.
LINK: CBC
F-email Fightback has written previously about the British Columbia Supreme Court challenge where Fathers Rights Activist Ken Wiebe went to trial in his legal suit against "radical feminists" within Status of Women Canada and the Federal Minister responsible for SWC
Well, he lost his defamation suit over a report he said portrayed him as "hate-monger."
Wiebe's name, along with a link to his website www.fathers.bc.ca, appeared in a 145-page research paper titled School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for the Masculinist Discourse, Policy Research.
The report, originally printed in French in 2003 and later translated into English, was funded by Status of Women Canada, a federal agency.
In his statement of claim, Wiebe listed various examples from the report which he said identified him "as a hate-monger and a danger to women" associated him "with racists, extremists, pedophiles, pornographers and terrorists" and asserted he had "committed criminal offences."
Wiebe also said he thinks the report likely cost him a government contract.
One of the examples Wiebe cited was a cartoon pulled from his website with a swastika with the bars altered to look like Fs atop a baby gesturing with its middle finger captioned: "We are all tired of feminaziism. So stop it, OK?"
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