Τό γυναικεῖον τῆς Ὑπατίας - An Áit Bhanda na Hypatia - Hypatia's Gynaeceum

By fatima - Mirrored from Feministing
(I am thrilled to see someone speaking out about this, so brilliantly... right on, fatima)

http://community.feministing.com/2009/04/the-truth-about-femmesor-we-fu.html

the truth about femmes...or we fuck with misogyny so it's just easier to ignore us

i originally wrote this as a piece when me and couple other people in chicago were trying to start our own femme mafia (http://www.myspace.com/femmemafia). i thought it would be useful for people to ponder here at feministing as well, since i have seen some femme-bashing in some of the comment threads. i hope this can open up your minds to what a queer femme identity looks like.

on any given night, approximately 293584577432 hot queer women of all shapes and sizes, races, ethnicities, ages, religions, abilities venture into their local queer bars in search of a good flirt, fuck, or maybe even someone to fall in love with. they wear dresses, lipstick, long hair, and heels. they are outgoing and shy, the most dominant of tops and the most submissive of bottoms. they are funny, brilliant, and friendly. one thing is for sure and that is that they are HOT. and yet so many complain that no one approached them, that no one even saw them, and that everyone assumed they were straight. because queer femmes are largely ignored by the 'mainstream' queer community. the fact that they are even separate from the 'mainstream' just shows how fucked the whole thing is anyways. because that means that they are the 'other' and that the 'mainstream' are the people who look stereotypically gay.

okay so i like to wear lacy bras and undies. i live in dresses. hot pink lipstick makes my lips look amazing. and i wear eyeshadow. i like to knit and i want to learn how to sew. when i have time, baking and cooking are actually fun for me. all this and i love women. everything about them is beautiful to me. they make me excited about life and love and sex. i am femme and i am queer. if people can't see both of those things as being complementary to each other then it shows nothing more than their FEAR of the gender that i have chosen for myself.
( there's more... )
so when feminists and queers decide that they are ready to really kick patriarchy in its privileged balls, of course we will need the genderqueer, androgynous, and butch people, but we will also need the people who adorn the lipstick, the heels, the push-up bras. open your eyes and truly see us. because we are femme and we are fierce.

I'm crying, this is so beautiful. Women of America have just made a significant advance in equal rights.




I'm still pinching myself that we actually have a president of this caliber. I just want to hug him.

We won!

Last night, Lilly and I were there when the U.S. Senate passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — without any harmful amendments. This is exactly what we had hoped for — and what women of this country need!

The vote count was 61 to 36. Check out how your Senators voted.

And watch this video we shot with Lilly right after the vote:

Watch the Video

Thank you for your wonderful support during the nearly two years we have been working on this bill. Your thousands of phone calls and e-mails really made a difference. 

With only procedural votes left, we expect that President Obama will soon make it official by signing the bill at the White House. 

President Obama has already expressed his strong support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. We will let you know as soon as this important legislation is signed.    

Again, thank you for your tremendous effort in support of fair pay. We look forward to continuing our efforts together, and we hope the Paycheck Fairness Act will soon be moving forward as well. 

Sincerely,

Jocelyn Samuels
Vice President for Education and Employment
National Women's Law Center

P.S. Thanks again! We couldn't have done this without you. Check out how your Senators voted.

(both Virginia senators voted Yea)

Do you know how valuable you are?

January 23, 2009

Four years ago, CODEPINK founders spent inauguration night in a miserable jail cell, charged with disorderly conduct for unfurling a "Stop the War" banner during the ceremony. This year, instead of handcuffs, we got front row seats--and hugs and kisses from the crowd as we unfurled peace banners, danced the can-can while singing "Yes we can-can end war" and handed out thousands of pink ribbons calling on President Obama to keep his peace promises.

As The Washington Times noted, "You know things have changed in Washington when CODEPINK gets seats up front at the inauguration." You know things have changed when Army Chief of Staff General Casey enthusiastically let us tie a Promises for Peace ribbon on his wrist and pledged to join us in working for peace. You really know things have changed when Obama, on day one, started addressing some key promises--#2 (Shut down Guantanamo), #3 (Reject the Military Commissions Act) and #4 (Stop Torture). Thanks to everyone who participted in a hunger strike until Inauguration day to make this a reality!

It's a new era indeed, and your activism helped make it so. And thanks to you, CODEPINK just received a thrilling honor from The Nation Magazine--being named the Most Valuable Progressive Organization of the entire Bush-Cheney era!
( continued )
Please help us make that mark by pledging to remind Obama to keep his promises, including an end to the occupation of Iraq and direct talks with Iran, and then invite five friends to join you.

Check out this week's USA Today editorial by Medea Benjamin called "End the Occupation." After you read it, be sure to sign our pledge and pass it along!

Thank you for being one of the Most Valuable Progressives of the Bush years. Here's to a brighter four years!

Keeping our promises for peace every day,
Audrey, Dana, Deidra, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Janet, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Lydia, Medea, Nancy, Paris, and Rae

p.s.

* Check out the inspiring photos of the hundreds of CODEPINK women who streamed into DC to join us for this historic inauguration!
* We're also inspired by all the CODEPINK women who gathered in their own communities to celebrate the inauguration and renew their commitment to working for peace!

Well, I hope this is a promising portent for the new Congress and new administration...

from Feministing:

Breaking: Lilly Ledbetter and Paycheck Fairness Acts Pass House

Amen! Via AP:

Energized by the prospects of a pro-labor president, House Democrats marked the first week of the new Congress Friday by pushing through two bills to help workers, particularly women, who are victims of pay discrimination.

Unlike President George W. Bush, who threatened to veto the two bills when they came up in the last session of Congress, President-elect Barack Obama has embraced them.

"Today we face a transformational moment," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., chief sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. "With a new Congress, a new administration, we have a chance to finally provide equal pay for equal work and make opportunity real for millions of American women."

The bill could reach the Senate floor as early as next week, so make sure your senator knows about your support. Here's more info about Lilly Ledbetter and read the whole AP piece for more details on today's passage.

Women in Islam: Damsels in Distress?
by Soumaya Ghannoushi
from Alternet

( The west should stop using the liberation of Muslim women to justify its strategy of global dominance )

1. I looked into trans feminism and found that some voices associated with it are advocating that feminists ought to be concerned with transgender issues. When I read it just now, this was new to me.

If anyone had asked my idea of what trans feminism is, I would have seen it from exactly the other side. I would have said trans women ought to be concerned with feminist issues. Like, ask not what your feminism can do for you-- Ask what you can do for your sisters.

2. When it comes to Islamic feminism, I have always believed both at once: It works for the sake of Muslim women--and it is accomplished by Muslim women. The latter part of this is particularly important to emphasize.

I have to be uncharacteristically restrictive here and say only Muslim women can carry it out.
I'm sorry but that's the world we live in which makes it like that.
I like when non-Muslim feminists lend support, but it has to be quiet, not overt.
When non-Muslims lead it, Muslim women's rights go backwards.
When Muslim women do it all, they can advance their rights.
The patriarchal Islamist forces gain and hold power by inciting us versus them--
"them" being the west--and women's rights are always the first casualty in this struggle.
Already you can't say feminism because it has the reputation of a white western Christian imperialist plot against the Muslims to destroy Islam-- which is total bollocks but they get ignorant people riled with that kind of crap, using fear and hatred to gain and hold power.
So in the Muslim world progress in women's rights needs to be indigenous and the work entirely of Muslim women themselves.
Many women of color felt alienated by second wave feminist leadership that was seen as overwhelmingly white, western, privileged classes who had no clue about other class issues or people of color, thus third wave feminism arose to meet a great need.
Affluent white western women have accomplished much on their feminist issues... but what about the rest of the world...
The need in many areas is more acute than ever, and feminism's focus and center of gravity needs to head there.

That's why I'm an Islamic feminist. Shout out to alixkat, who is showing a good example for a non-Muslim feminist on how to support us. She is publishing an anthology of Muslim women's writing, giving voice to the sisters who never were allowed to have a voice before, letting us speak for ourselves. She also hosts the islam_feminism community for us. I need to say to my non-Muslim sisters, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, please get out of the way if you want to lend a hand. I hope this will be understood in the positive constructive spirit in which it's meant. Shout out to invisione for holding this dialogue with me.

More of what Bush's illegal intervention has meant for Iraqi women--

Iraqi policewomen are told to surrender their weapons
BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi government has ordered all policewomen to hand in their guns for redistribution to men or face having their pay withheld, thwarting a U.S. initiative to bring women into the nation's police force.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, issued the order late last month, according to ministry documents, U.S. officials and several of the women. It affects all officers who have earned the title "policewoman" by graduating from the police academy. It does not apply to men in the same type of jobs.

Critics say the move is the latest sign of the religious and cultural conservatism that has taken hold in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's ouster ushered in a government dominated by Shiite Muslims.

It is also thought that this will significantly hamper rape investigations. This news came right after revelation of Halliburton coverup of the gang rape of Jamie Leigh Jones in Iraq.

This also comes at the same time of increasing news of outright murders by Islamist militias of Iraqi women and even young girls for not wearing hijab.

Seven human rights groups including Amnesty International have urged Iran to set aside a prison sentence for women's rights activist Delaram Ali. She was sentenced to 39 months in jail and to be flogged with 10 lashes for the "crime" of participation in a peaceful gathering of women’s rights defenders in June 2006, in Hafte Tir Square, which ended with police violence and brutality and the arrest of 70 protesters. Other women sentenced in connection with that rally are Fariba Davoodi Mohajer: three years suspended sentence and 1 year prison term; Nooshin Ahmadi Khorasani: two years suspended sentence and 6 months jail term; Parvin Ardalan: two years suspended sentence and 6 months jail term; Shahla Entesari: two years suspended sentence and 6 months jail term; Sussan Tahmasebi: one year and 6 months suspended sentence and 6 months jail term; Azadeh Forghani: two years suspended sentence; and Bahareh Hedayat: two years suspended sentence.

Jelveh Javaheri was arrested on Saturday for creating an Iranian women's rights web site, Change for Equality (Taghyir bara-ye Barabari). This site has a report from Maryam Hosseinkhah who is also in prison now.

Hana Abdi was arrested on November 4 and is being held incommunicada; her family does not know her whereabouts. Her colleague Ronak Safarzadeh was arrested on October 9, and is being held with no access to lawyers.

These women are leaders in the One Million Signatures Campaign, petitioning to change Iran's discriminatory laws. Over 30 women's rights activists have been arrested in Tehran this year. Most of them have been taken to Evin Prison, infamous for its cruel treatment of prisoners. Mothers of these activists have made a web site in Persian, Mothers for Peace (Madaran-e Solh).


Take action now to help get these women released!

(mirrored from Feministing)

Women activists in Saudi Arabia are protesting the recent ruling that sentenced a gang-rape victim to 200 lashes and six months in jail for being in a car with a man who wasn't her relative.

Activist Wajiha al-Hweider said "[T]here is injustice against women in courts. It is a bitter situation that Saudi women have to endure...The kingdom is in an embarrassing position. King (Abdullah) should step in and stop this farce."

Hatoon al-Fassi, another women's rights activist, said, "It is good that the case has taken an international dimension. It is shameful that such a case could have stayed unspoken of...This is a ruling that has treated the victim as a culprit." She added, "Such logic is so distant from Islam. It is the result of a male-chauvinist reasoning."

And to add insult to injury:

Hweider highlighted the humiliation faced by women inside the courtroom, saying that a judge, who is always a clergyman, addresses only her male guardian.

"The woman does not have the right to represent herself in a court. She enters the court covered entirely in black. Some judges do not even allow her to speak," she said. (Emphasis added)

Sigh. In speaking out against the ruling, Senator Hillary Clinton brought up the Beijing Platform for Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women: "In 1995, I went to Beijing and said, 'It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights.' We have made some progress since then. But we have not made enough." Indeed.

Central Asian women's poetry series #8

Meena (1956-1987), one of my feminist heroes, founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan in 1977. Her name means 'love' in the Pashto language.



She was murdered by the Soviet-occupied Afghan regime. One of her poems in Dari Persian about her struggle has become famous and often quoted. The refrain from it gives me profound truth, inspiration, and strength for my personal "jihad" (i.e. effort) as an out queer woman facing antagonism.

من زنم كه دیگر بیدار گشته ام
راه خود را یافته ام و هرگز بر نمیگردم

man zanam kih digar bidar gashtah am
rah-e khod ra yaftah am wa hargiz bar na me gardam

I'm the woman who has awoken
I have found my path and I will never return

I think the verb at the end of the second line is better translated "I will never go back" or "I will never turn back," but I've quoted it in the translation that RAWA uses. I have a RAWA t-shirt with Meena's portrait and these lines from her poem. The full translation of the poem goes:

I'm the woman who has awoken
I've arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children
I've arisen from the rivulets of my brother's blood
My nation's wrath has empowered me
My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy,
I'm the woman who has awoken,
I've found my path and will never return.
I've opened closed doors of ignorance
I've said farewell to all golden bracelets
Oh compatriot, I'm not what I was
I'm the woman who has awoken
I've found my path and will never return.
I've seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children
I've seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes
I've seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their ravenous stomach
I've been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage
I've learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the waves of blood and in victory
Oh compatriot, oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable
With all my strength I'm with you on the path of my land's liberation.
My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women
My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands of compatriots
Along with you I've stepped up to the path of my nation,
To break all these sufferings, all these fetters of slavery,
Oh compatriot, oh brother, I'm not what I was
I'm the woman who has awoken
I've found my path and will never return.

This page http://www.rawa.org/ill.htm links to the original Persian and translations in several languages, plus an mp3 of a song composed to this poem and sung in English.

I just want to give a shout out to Meena who has given us a beautiful example of how a really STRONG Muslim woman faces adversity. May we all find strength and inspiration in her example.

Support RAWA in their struggle against Islamic fundamentalism.

SheWrite, colour, 55 minutes, Tamil/ English. Direction: Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayashankar. Music: L. Vaidyanathan. Camera: K.P. Jayashankar. Sound: Elangovan.

HOW do you film poetry? What kind of screen visuals can support the lines of a poem?

How do you marry the medium of print and film? Two Mumbai-based filmmakers have taken on this challenge and have successfully demonstrated how it can be done. Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayashankar have made a short film titled "SheWrite", on four young Tamil poets, all women.

Women poets have been part of Tamil literary history from the earliest times. Kakaipadini lived and wrote during the Sangam age and her works form part of Akananooru anthology. The much-quoted Avvaiyar's poems are also there. The subject of this film, the four poets, Salma, Kutti Revathi, Sugirdharani and Malati Maitri, have been writing for the past five years and have been published in Tamil literary magazines such as Kalachuvadu, Uyirmai and Puthiya Parvai. Winning critical acclaim, they have been translated widely.

Women and words

When Kutti Revathi, the youngest of them all, brought out her second collection of poems in 2001, she titled it Mulaigal (Breasts). This provoked anger and criticism from some male poets. Obscene calls and threats were directed against the poet. Meanwhile more women poets began writing about the female body. One enraged senior male poet said that if he comes across any one of them, he would slap her. In a TV interview, a writer of film songs said that these writers should be burnt alive. The women point out that when men write bawdy songs or erotic poetry there is no protest. But if a woman writes such lines there is outrage against them. One of the four poets points to the works of the medieval poet Andal and says that erotic poetry is not new to Tamil. I recall that when Ambai (C.S. Lakshmi) started publishing her short stories in the 1970s, she was subjected to similar mean sniping. Now the poets have formed a forum called Anangu (Woman) to meet patriarchal opposition to their works. One of the poets sued the songwriter and extracted an apology. A report of this controversy appeared in a weekly tabloid and it attracted the attention of the two filmmakers. They packed their gear, caught the next flight and made the film in just 10 days.

The film is neatly structured into four parts, one for each poet. Through interviews, images, off-screen voices and titles cards, the filmmakers make their point powerfully. With a hand-held camera and available light, they create a world of cinema verite in which the lines of the poets come alive. Images of teashop, flower vendors, temples, panwallas, rain-drenched streets and rice fields capture the ambience of Tamil Nadu effectively. Some of the visuals created by the filmmakers, such as the three red capsicums, merge imperceptibly with the lines of the poems. The poets are shown in their own surroundings, Salma in a village near Tiruchi, Sugirdharani in Ranipet, Kutti Revathi in Chennai and Malati Maitreyi in Pondicherry. One of the most endearing images of the film is Malati Maitreyi playing pallanguzhi with her daughter Tabitha. A very fine balance is maintained between the images and the lines of the poem recited by the off-screen voice. An additional dimension of the poets that adds to the film is that Salma, the village panchayat president, is a Muslim and Sugirdharani, the school teacher is a dalit. They both discuss these identities on the screen.

The soundscape of the film is another strong point. Music by L.Vaidyanathan comes in unobtrusively and enhances the quality of the images. Care has been taken by him that the bars of his music do not overwhelm the visuals. Other sounds have been imaginatively incorporated to enliven the scenes, such as the muezzin's call from the mosque. Preetham Chakaravarthy reads the poems with empathy.

When I screened this film for a group of university students in a Southern university in the United States recently, the reaction was electric. The sequence that follows Salma's talk about her marriage — two puppets, a male and a female, swirling in the washing machine — attracted notice. This and the conversation between Sugirdharani and her mother on marriage, drew a lot of questions.

This is a recommended viewing for all those who aspire to make films on writers and is a good introduction to the contemporary Tamil literary scene. Here is the poem of Kutti Revathi that started the controversy.

Breasts

Breasts are bubbles, rising
In wet marshlands
I wondrously watched — and guarded —
Their gradual swell and blooming
At the edges of my youth's season
Saying nothing to anyone else,
They sing along
With me alone, always:
Of Love,
Rapture,
Heartbreak
To the nurseries of my turning seasons,
They never once failed or forgot
To bring arousal
During penance, they swell, as if straining
To break free; and in the fierce tug of lust,
They soar, recalling the ecstasy of music
From the crush of embrace, they distil
The essence of love; and in the shock
Of childbirth, milk from coursing blood
Like two teardrops from an unfulfilled love
That cannot ever be wiped away,
They well up, as if in grief, and spill over.
(Translated by N. Kalyan Raman)
--from thehindu.com

SheWrite documentary screening, directors attending, hosted by author Marita Golden
Monday, September 10, 7pm - 9pm
University of the District of Columbia, Building 41/A-03, 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008

I got a letter from Code Pink - please read this and act on it--

Dear Johanna,

Can you imagine being afraid to leave your home because of the very real threat of attack--whether by bomb or bullet or stone? This is a fear, a threat, Iraqi women have to live with every single day.

In April 2006, CODEPINK released Iraqi Women Under Siege, a detailed report on the status of Iraqi women. In it, we describe the serious deterioration of women's rights since the U.S. invasion. We explore how the high level of violence in Iraq has constrained women's lives and limited their options, leaving them and their families to grapple with the traumatic impact of war both physically and psychologically.

We also produced a video based on our sponsorship of a tour of Iraqi women to the United States, Women Say NO to War: Iraqi and American Women Speak Out. You can order it here.

Unfortunately, since we produced these materials, the situation of Iraqi women has gotten dramatically worse. A recent Reuters article documents how sectarian violence is forcing Iraqi women from their jobs and into arranged marriages. We receive heartbreaking letters from our friends in Iraq on a regular basis. Here is an excerpt from one we received a week ago:

Our country before the war in 2003 was beautiful, clean, shiny, full of historic monuments and huge universities. The streets were full of people working, visiting friends and families, drinking tea until very late at night.

Our country was full of colors. Today the only colors are red and dark, red by the blood and dark by the smoke of bombs and cars burning.

We are ready to clean our country, we are ready to rebuild our country with our hands, we are ready to forget that our petrol and our history were stolen. All we ask for is security. Is it so much to ask for?

Unfortunately, security is almost impossible to come by for Iraqi women. In the Kurdish north, the part of the country insulated from most of the violence, the situation of women has reached new lows. Du'a Khalil Aswad, a 17 year old from the town of Bashiqa, in Iraqi Kurdistan, was stoned to death on April 7, 2007. She came from a family of Yazidi faith, and was snatched from her home by Yazidi men who had discovered that she was in love with a Muslim Arab man and had visited him. In front of hundreds of people, including local police, they dragged her to the center of town and stoned her to death. Townspeople watched and even filmed this barbaric act. You can see a portion of the tape here (viewer discretion is STRONGLY advised). The killers, obviously well known in the community, are still free.

We have created a petition which demands that the Iraqi Government and Kurdistan Regional Government condemn this brutal act and bring the killers to justice and that they outlaw honor killings, as well as all violence and oppression of women. You can sign it here.

We will deliver this petition to the Iraqi Embassy and Kurdish Representatives in Washington, DC. Together we can raise our voices to help our sisters in Iraq.

For further information about the status of Iraqi women, and to learn how women in Iraq are organizing to fight for their own rights, please visit the website of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq.

With outrage and compassion,
Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Karin, Libby, Medea, Nancy, Patricia, Rae and Samantha

Bush is a liar (but we all knew that already). He claimed the invasion of Iraq is helping women's rights? Damned liar. The truth is contrary to his claims.

Iraqi women's rights activist Yanar Mohammed, founder of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, spoke on Fresh Air - it's horrifying and heartbreaking. Iraqi women are being kidnapped off the streets and forced into sexual slavery, then dumped. Then their families often kill them because of misguided concepts of family "honor." The American occupation forces have refused requests to protect women's rights activists who are getting death threats. Listen to it, Bush doesn't want you to hear the truth about what he did. You too, Laura.

Iraq used to be one of the most progressive countries in the Arab world for women's equality. But now? Islamic extremists are bullying Iraqi women out of their jobs.

BAGHDAD, 30 May 2007 (IRIN) - When Suha Abdel-Azim, 38, received a letter from her boss saying she had to stop working for security reasons, she couldn't believe it. After three years as an engineer for a local company, she was fired without compensation.

"I was shocked when they told me I was being fired. I was an excellent worker and had done many fantastic and profitable projects but they didn't want a woman with them any more. They tried to explain, saying it was too dangerous for the company to employ women: the company had received threats," Suha said.

"I tried to convince them that I could work from home. I have two children to bring up, and have been alone since my husband was killed by insurgents in 2004 for working for a foreign company, but in vain. They just sent me home," she said.

Suha is now unemployed. She has been trying to find a job but as a woman she is finding it difficult.

"When they see my cv [curriculum vitae] they get excited but later they say they cannot employ me because I'm a woman and it could be too dangerous for them. Most of the local construction companies in Iraq now have only men working for them," she said.

Unemployment affects children

"In about 14 percent of families in Iraq women are the main breadwinners, and often they care for a large number of children. The increase in unemployment among them just means more children without support," said Sarah Muthulak, a spokeswoman for the Baghdad-based Women's Rights Association (WRA).

Ms. magazine reports on the "Talibanization of Iraq."

Bush in effect has turned Iraq over to the extreme Islamists, as though a consolation prize for routing them out of Afghanistan. Trotting out Laura to propagandize women for his invasion hasn't fooled anyone either. No sooner has one really serious situation for women been dealt with, than a possibly worse one is created--because Iraq's population is much larger than Afghanistan's. I want to encourage my fellow feminists to keep agitating about about this the way we did against the Taliban. Although what can be done to help Iraqi women now?

(Thanks to elorie for putting out the word about Feminism Friday.)