Shorts

1. In the Guardian today, I fear Jessica Valenti rather underestimates just how bad the ‘mainstream feminist’ response to the ‘Obama situation’ really is. Not only is there less commentary/action on the sexism that Michelle Obama faces compared to when Hilary Clinton was facing similar during her campaign, The Herald informs us that some Democrat feminists are so mad at Clinton’s loss that they are actually planning to vote for McCain in protest. Messed up much? Here’s hoping Katha Pollitt is right and there’s only, like, five of them.

2. Britain has signed the UN Declaration of Human Rights, CEDAW and the Refugee Convention, introduced its own Human Rights Act and is bound by various European equivalents of the above. In treating women asylum-seekers the way it currently does, then, the British Government breaks international law, European law, and self-made national law. To help the UK Border Agency get to grips with its malpractice and what it can do to transform itself, Asylum Aid has developed a Charter of rights of women seeking asylum. Endorsed by over 50 organizations already, including Amnesty, Liberty, Fawcett and Refugee Council, the Charter lays out a clear framework of principles on how to treat women asylum seekers properly. Click on the link above to find out more, join the google group or endorse the Charter yourself. Watch ‘Random Acts’, a play about the story of one woman asylum seeker developed by Debora Singer, Coordinator of Asylum Aid’s Refugee Women’s Resource Project, here (18 minutes).

3. feministwebs.com has successfully secured funding to develop their site further (which includes the fab I’m not a feminist workshop (Word doc)). I’m mentioning this next phase of theirs because it looks to me like a concrete intervention into that old ‘waves’ chestnut. The group will be training young women in oral history so that they can interview older women about their involvement in feminist youth work from the 1970s-early 1990s. Collected stories and physical artifacts will be collated into an archive that will then be launched online and at Manchester Metropolitan University. They’re currently recruiting for young women to be involved, click here for details. If anyone does participate, can you write back and let us know: are we third wave or what? Inquiring minds want to know. (Apparently. Personally, I’m not that fussed.)

4. The quite impressive Ulfah Arts is developing a Muslim Women Music Makers (MWMM) International Campaign, to be launched at the World Music Expo in Seville in October. One of the main aims of the campaign is


To bring these artists together under a banner to push for space at mainstream festivals and events, radio play, profile etc

If you know any Muslim women artists, please ask them to complete this questionnaire and send it to Naz Koser Ulfah Arts’ Director before 1 September. Isn’t it nice to read a whole paragraph about Muslim women and not have the words ‘forced marriage’, ‘culture’ or ‘cohesion’ bog down your reading?

Photo by Rico Thunder, shared under a Creative Commons license

Posted by zohra moosa on 21 August 2008, at 11:52 PM | Comments (2)

Your Comments

spiralsheep said:

Great post. I personally especially appreciate the ways you've written items 1 and 4. Thank you.

Posted on 22 August 2008 at 10:34 AM

Aimee said:

*grumble* These things are always based in London or the North. There's hardly ever any oppurtunity for us feminists in the South! Can we have more events, groups, workshops etc. in Devon and Cornwall please!

Posted on 22 August 2008 at 5:43 PM

Have your say

In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.

  1. This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
  2. All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
  3. No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
  4. Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
  5. No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
  6. Be nice.

Please note that your email address will not be displayed on this website. All comments are checked, prior to being published on this site.

< back | top ^ | next >

Latest Posts
News and Views
Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Appropriate games for girls
Sheffield anti-violence demo this Saturday
Reclaim The Night London
Muslimah Media Watch
Time wasting tool of the day: GenderAnalyzer
68th Carnival of Feminists, and some thoughts on waves
New Cardiff Feminist Group
OK I eat my hat....
More posts
Latest Comments
Kath on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Mandy on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Rosalind on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
polly stryrene on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Kez on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Laurel Dearing on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Laurel Dearing on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
Laurel Dearing on News and Views
Michelle on 68th Carnival of Feminists, and some thoughts on waves
Ellie on Apparently men have to be Cervix Savvy
More feminist bloggers
There are plenty of fantastic UK feminist bloggers around. For a fantastic introduction to feminist blogging, go to the Carnival of Feminists website, which showcases the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere, including many from UK blogs.
Small Print
All blog posts are the views of the individual post author, and not those of The F-Word.

Inside this section

Blog Home
Archives by Month
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
More Archives
Archives by Author
Abby O'Reilly
Anne Onne
Barbara Felix
Carrie Dunn
Catherine Redfern
Guest Blogger
Helen G
Holly Combe
Jess McCabe
Kate Smurthwaite
Laura Woodhouse
Louise Livesey
Lynne Miles
Milly Shaw
Samara Ginsberg
Sokari Ekine
Yvonne Howard
zohra moosa
News prior to April 2005
XML feed Feeds
Latest Blog Posts
Latest Comments

Contact Us

This webpage lives at: http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/08/shorts