Global Feminism
When Do We Call It "Gendercide"?
Published September 14, 2009 @ 10:51PM PT
That is essentially the question posed by Andrew Sullivan this week as he quotes a passage from
But this isn't considered a story. While we rightly roared at racial apartheid, we act as though gender apartheid is a natural, immutable fact.
So if 2 million girls disappear, but CNN doesn't cover it - did they ever really exist? That is one of many questions we must deal with before even deciding if "gendercide" is indeed happening.
But, before taking on CNN, I'll flip it to you all - how many women and girls have to die before "gendercide" is a real policy and media concern? How do these numbers make you feel and think? What can we do next?
Photo credit: Delcio G.P. Filho
"Finding Bibi" Bridges the Divide Between East & West
Published September 08, 2009 @ 04:08PM PT
A Twitter friend passed along this inspiring trailer today called Finding Bibi - a documentary by Bita Haidarian, an award-winning Iranian American filmmaker who sets off on a journey around the world to answer the big questions - "who am I, where do I come from, and where can a girl find a good laser hair removalist?"
Born in America to Baha'i refugee parents from Iran, Bita tells the tragic-comic story of her family coming to America, her childhood in Texas, trying to fit in, and even the experience of competitive cheer leading. In her film, Bita goes from ‘Tehrangeles' where Iranian girls get their noses re-shaped in posh Beverly Hills, to the garment district of LA where she cut her teeth in the fashion industry, to high society London where veiled women take lessons on how to secure a husband.
Finding Bibi smashes worldwide stereotypes about women in the Middle East and is simultaneously a clarion call for the emancipation of women around the world.
I suggest you watch the trailer and become inspired yourself:
You can join the movement on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, subscribe to blog posts, and share it with your friends. They also want to hear your side of the story – what is inspiring you, pissing you off, making you laugh – about straddling two cultures, about being a woman seeking empowerment or trying to make things right. You can also donate to help Finding Bibi become an official nonprofit dedicated to bridging the divide between women in the Middle East and the U.S.
Buy Fair Trade Coffee And Support Women's Rights
Published August 28, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
I think it's great when innovative people get together to deliver a consumer product while helping a cause like women's rights at the same time.
The Chicory Center’s Resistance Coffee Project, which is based in Chicago, roasts beans grown by the women of La FEM cooperative in Nicaragua. If you’ve had this coffee, you know its quality, and supporting La FEM also means supporting Nicaraguan women’s ability to acquire and own land and thus take fuller control over their fates.
According to a profile written by Just Coffee (their main U.S. fair trade distributor),
La FEM is not simply a coffee growing cooperative. Founded in 1996, they organized to work on issues of domestic violence against women, women's health, education, and job training. When we met them we were immediately impressed with their level of organization and their dedication to women's rights as a political and social imperative.
I'm excited by the entrepreneurial spirit in women around the globe and I think it's important that we support projects that empower women to benefit from fair trade. You can purchase La FEM Co-Op grown beans at Just Coffee or if you're in the Chicago area, get fresh Resistance Coffee delivered to your door.
Do you have a favorite consumer product or brand that helps to empower or support women? Share your thoughts in the comments section.
CRUDE: Women and Children Pay for the Real Price of Oil
Published August 20, 2009 @ 10:13AM PT
Coming to theaters next month is a documentary film called CRUDE, which chronicles the epic battle to hold oil giant Chevron (formerly Texaco) accountable for its systematic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon – an environmental tragedy experts call "the Rainforest Chernobyl."
Besides the basic fact that women and children often face disproportionate risk in cases of environmental contamination, there have been studies looking at the specific impact on women in the region. One study cited by Han Shan, a coordinator of the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign led by US-based NGO Amazon Watch, has demonstrated the presence of contamination by oil pollutants in communities close to oil fields, at levels high enough to cause alarm. It also provides some evidence of an increased risk of spontaneous abortions in women living in the proximity of the oil fields, after adjustment for other better-known risks common in developing-country settings.
It's heartbreaking to see how indigenous women in particular are marginalized by big business and an unresponsive government. The trailer below shows one mother calmly explaining that her young daughter has cancer in her liver:
The film opens in New York on 09/09/09, followed by openings in L.A., San Francisco and D.C. In order for the film to gain real national distribution, it must nearly sell out in those key markets. So if you get a chance, please support this important film!
Word-of-mouth is priceless for a grassroots film like CRUDE. There's lots you can do to help spread the word and get involved in supporting the campaign. Visit ChevronToxico.com and you can sign up for updates on the latest news about CRUDE here.
Hope House: A Future For Girls In Calcutta's Red Light District
Published August 18, 2009 @ 09:56PM PT
Kids with Cameras' is launching a big initiative on October 2nd, 2009 called House Parties for Hope that you should know about.
If you aren't familiar with Born into Brothels, it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005. From the film, a foundation was formed to continue the work of empowering children in marginalized communities to become educated by finding their own voice in photography.
The foundation is currently working to complete the legacy project of the film which is called Hope House - a safe haven for 100 girls from Calcutta's red light district to come to live and attend day school. Kids with Cameras' strategically partnered with the Buntain Foundation, a group running numerous hospitals and 116 school across India, who have over 54 years of expertise in humanitarian work in Calcutta.
Hope House will be a state of the art facility with computer labs, arts instruction, music, dance, photography, and all of the physical and psychological support the girls need to be successful.
On October 2nd, Kids with Cameras' is promoting a world-wide house party screening event for the film.
October 2nd also commemorates Gandhi's birthday, and they are looking to activate a base of supporters to be the change they wish to see and help raise the remaining capital needed to build Hope House.
In addition to Hope House, this organization has sold the photos of the kids from the original workshop on their website in books, postcards, and prints, which have been exhibited all over the world. The proceeds of those sales has funded many of the children's educations. One of the kids, Avijit Halder, is now a sophomore at NYU's Tisch School studying film, and another, Kochi, is going to be a junior at a private school in Utah.
The Buntains are also recruiting the girls for Hope House through mobile health clinics in the brothels, and setting up a laundry facility next to Hope House where the mothers can have an alternative for employment and live near their daughters. There will also be a College of Nursing adjacent to Hope House so there will a formal mentorship of the girls with the nurses.
From where I sit - in my far off corner of the world - only good can come from this venture, in addition to a lot of hope for the young women of Calcutta.
So, make sure to Save the Date for October 2nd and visit www.kids-with-cameras.org/houseparty.
Be the change you wish to see.
Blessings: Three Thousand Remarkable Buddhist Nuns
Published July 09, 2009 @ 11:50AM PT
When most westerners think about Tibeten Buddhism, they envision figures like the Dalai Lama and rows of bald-headed men dressed in yellow robes. It's not often that we hear about groups of women, especially from traditional cultures, who are accomplished spiritual practitioners.
That's why I was excited to come across this gorgeous trailer for the film "Blessings" (via Elephant Journal). I was really struck by the strength, beauty and dedication of these nuns and happy to discover that the filmmaker chose to explore Tibeten Buddhist culture through their eyes:
Blessings, which was produced by Chariot Videos, tells the story of three thousand nuns living in the remote nomadic region of Nangchen in Eastern Tibet who practice an ancient yogic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite near extinction during the destruction of the Cultural Revolution, these women emerged to rebuild their monasteries by hand.
From Pundarika.org:
Nuns from both large and small nunneries in Nangchen speak about why they became nuns and what it is like to live a life dedicated to spiritual practice. Their stories of the suffering that prompted them to walk away from the security of traditional roles as wives and mothers and devote themselves to seeking liberation are vivid and universal.
You can purchase the DVD here and contribute to an endowment fund for the Nuns here: www.pundarika.org
The Thriving Slave Trade
Published July 01, 2009 @ 11:14AM PT
Mike Papantonio of Air America's Ring of Fire talks about how there are more people in slavery compared with ever before in history and what efforts are being done to control it. He interviews Benjamin Skinner, author of the book A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern Day Slavery.
Take a listen:
