IWI Survivors' Blog: 'She is just a CHILD not a BRIDE'

internationalwomensinitiative:

“No girl should be robbed of her childhood, her education and health, and her aspirations. Yet today millions of girls are denied their rights each year when they are married as child brides”, Michelle Bachelet, M.D., Executive Director of UN Women.

According to United Nations…

I know I say this a handful of times, but the UN is doing it right. The UN is fast becoming the place in the world where individuals can speak frankly about very serious problems affecting our world. I go back and forth on Ban Ki-moon and the leadership teams at the UN; but this post, combined with this week’s discussion that GENDER, as a whole, should become an individual priority within the Millennium Development Goals are for your attention. Yes, the same agenda that insists on access to sanitation, clear water, basic education, maternal care, for all by 2015, should include gender development as an individual agenda item.

I agree with the critics, the UN’s mechanism for action is weak, underfunded, undersupported, and at some times, yes, questionable. But international governance is pretty new, people, and we’ve got to start somewhere. We’re not talking about the 400+ year-old nation-state. We’re talking about the idea of an institutional where leaders can meet and discuss issues that construct a barrier to peace.

We cannot agree on action without first allowing the full conversation to take place. The UN is a place for that. And despite a few bumps, most notably the inability of the UN and former Secretary-General Kofi Annan to prevent the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq, the UN provides a space where individuals can speak frankly about injustice and have heard their cries for peace.

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humanrightswatch:

(via The Telegraph)

Burma carrying out ‘policy of ethnic cleansing’ against Muslims

Human Rights Watch calls for an international inquiry into the violence in Burma as they release evidence that Burmese security forces organised and stood guard over Buddhist attacks on Muslim settlements before burying scores of bodies in mass graves.

Evidence of official involvement in the massacres that left hundreds dead was gathered by Human Rights Watch researchers at 27 different sites in Arakan State, including at four mass graves dug between June and October last year.

The report released today by Human Rights Watch is the most comprehensive evidence yet that the Burmese government colluded in a wave of ethnic attacks and was released just hours before the EU was due to drop sanctions on the Burmese regime as a reward for reformist pledges at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

“During this period of time, thousands of Arakanese civilians descended on Muslim villages, burned the villages down to the ground, security forces either stood by and watched or directly participated in abuses,” report author Matthew Smith told The Telegraph.

In the worse single massacre of the three month outbreak more than 70 people, including 28 children were hacked to death in a day long massacre at Yan Thei village.

I will reblog until EVERYONE knows.

This is not the buddhist way … ever before. What has happened to this world? Why do buddhist now hate Muslims so much that they would not only kill, but attempt genocide?! I realise this is “ethnic”, and there is land history here … still? Attempting.genocide.

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mortisia:

viα awkwardsituationist

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MUST SEE amazing up-to-date infographic of every drone strike in Pakistan

Harrowing, from the Guardian. Very well done.

A must see.

Russell Brand: My life without drugs

read it.

all of it.

people don’t have problems. society does.

whether it’s slut shamming, fat shamming, or addict shamming, we need to look inwards, long-term, at ourselves as a product of our environments, constructed from society to find a better path. awareness and education are our tools to build the future.

without these tools as the force that propels our forward motion, humanity will die. the earth will die. the great experiment of humanity will end in the worst ways possible.

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19 plays

Project logs shocking ‘everyday’ sexism women encounter

A must read for anyone involved in ANY struggle for equality or justice.

This is how we create awareness. This is how we stop being brushed off for being ‘too sensitive’ (etc.) by the patriarch.

If the link doesn’t work, listen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21520385 (tumblrbots are not being conducive to posting!)

H/T K Starnes

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guardian:

Follow our live coverage of the day and share your pictures and video with us - click on the picture for more (via One Billion Rising – live coverage | Society | guardian.co.uk)

Amazing photos and coverage - a must see.

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oxfamgb:

IF governments and companies are transparent about their actions, together we can create a world where food is distributed equally: http://bit.ly/14uI1Da

Do you know about the If campaign?

Educate yourself and join the fight against the monopolization of food security. Grain is essential to most food production. Monopolization is bad for the consumer, bad for international markets, and bad for farmers. Take a stand against agricultural imperialism!

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IWI Survivors' Blog: Marriage can help further your career – but only if you’re a man

Great read. My partner and I’s story has yet to be played out, as he’s currently in the 3rd year of sacrificing his career as a satellite engineer so that I can obtain my doctorate (with another year to go). Here’s one thing that’s absolutely true about work and marriage: when you’re married, you make trade offs, and mostly this means one sacrifices while another gains. No matter how you determine who sacrifices and who gains, you always hope you’ve made the right decision based on complete gender equality - an equality that does not reflect the reality of the professional world, especially in the case of academia.

internationalwomensinitiative:

My youngest brother was born with health complications that made it necessary to have one parent caring for him full-time. My mother assumed this role, and never returned back to work full-time once her maternity leave was finished, in order to care for my brother. This decision made sense…

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A Woman’s Choice: Academia or civil service? Stats say no contest

I often make reference to this article from the Guardian about why women leave academia and why Universities should be worried when I post about my PhD blight - yes, I mean blight, not plight, as it’s become more of an infection I’m always fighting off than a difficult situation. The article is fantastic either way; if you are an academic (male or female) or academic-in-wanting, it’s a must read. The statistics show by year 3 (British PhDs are 3-4 years typically) the number of women who want to go into academia drop from 72% to 37%, and the article details why excellently.

Yesterday, a big name political economist came to Manchester and met with me to talk to me about my thesis. I don’t envy big name academics; there’s so much pressure when your title begins with ‘Distinguished’ instead of just ‘Professor’. I get that there are issues with travel, exhaustion, many new names, new faces, and new places to adjust … but if you’re going to meet with a PhD to discuss research, the least you can do is treat her better than a ‘fan girl’.

It didn’t go well, tumblr. Hopes were dashed; interest was feigned, and expectations were dwindled. The worst thing about meeting this big name political economist was that for the days leading up to, I actually started to reconsider going into academia instead of the international civil service, mostly out of the sheer respect I have for this person’s distinguished career.

But all these mind games, these egos, these inward reflections of well-you’ll-never-be-as-good-as-I or I-don’t-think-you-interpretted-my-framework-properly, what person (male or female) willingly subjects themselves to that?! To hierarchical subjugation based on status, to such belittling, just disregard for commentary.

At least with international civil service, if you’re wrong, you’re told you’re wrong; if you’re being an ass, you’re told to shape up; if you’re blowing hot air for 20 minutes, you’re openly and publicly mocked. I know it’s not all green pastures in the civil service but the sort of open-faced, self-acknowledging pomp is not tolerated - the charter says we are equal, and, we are.

Point is: with academia, you never know where you stand, and that’s part of what (theoretically) drives you to keep publishing, keep improving, keep striving. But it’s also what makes academia incredibly unrewarding, isolationist, and self deprecating. With civil service, you check in and check out, knowing whether you’re paid to be an ass or you’re paid to be an arbitrator - you know where you stand.

As us women types gain confidence in role in the professional world, we’re realising we don’t have to take the shit that’s dealt out at the highest levels of academia, BUT academia does need to worry about retaining us to meet their demographics and quotas. So what’s it gonna be, yeah?

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presented without commentary.

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Mr. Very Important was going on smugly about this book I should have known when Sallie interrupted him to say, “That’s her book.” Or tried to interrupt him anyway.

Rebecca Solnit, “Men Explain Things to Me.” (via utnereader)

Continuing with today’s theme (like there’s a daily theme, ha!) is this gem, which is WAY better than the previous article snippet I posted. Presented without commentary; this woman has a sheer beauty with words.

Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/realizing-the-vision/men-explain-things-to-me.aspx#ixzz24BvdcYUi

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this.

africlecticmagazine:

“They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To” ~ Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. Her recent series ‘Long live the dead queen’ was featured within the city on the side of buildings and other structures as large, photographic murals. The series, like Sibande’s practice as an artist, ‘attempts to critique stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women in our society.’

(Source: africlecticmagazine)

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