Patriarchy

Iran: Security Forces Fire On, Kill Protesters: International Pressure Needed to End Use of Excessive, Lethal Force

( Human Rights Watch ) – (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have ruthlessly cracked down on widespread anti-government protests with excessive and lethal force throughout Iran, Human Rights Watch said today. Based on videos of protests, and interviews with witnesses and a security force member, Human Rights Watch documented numerous incidents of security forces unlawfully using […]

Authoritarianism

‘They Have Found The Courage’: Iranian Women Go Hijab-Less In Public Amid Protests

Golnaz Esfandiari

( RFE/ RL ) – Two young Iranian women posted a photo of themselves having breakfast at a restaurant in Tehran without hijabs. The same day, actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya spoke at the public funeral in the Iranian capital without a headscarf. On September 27, a video emerged of a woman without a hijab marching on […]

Climate Crisis

Angry White Guys in Big-Ass Pickups: Climate Change and Fragile Masculinity

Tomdispatch

By Stan Cox | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – In the United States during 16 months in 2020 and 2021, vehicles rammed into groups of protesters at least 139 times, according to a Boston Globe analysis. Three victims died and at least 100 were injured. Consider that a new level of all-American barbarity, thanks to the […]

Feminism

Iran’s Hijab Law Exposes Divisions In The Islamic Republic

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

Mehrdad Mirdamadi | RFE/RL Welcome back to The Farda Briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter that tracks the key issues in Iran and explains why they matter. I’m Mehrdad Mirdamadi, a senior editor and journalist at RFE/RL’s Radio Farda. Here’s what I’ve been following and what I’m watching out for in the days ahead. The Big Issue […]

Featured

Republicans reject Gov’t Vaccine Mandates for Men, seek state Pregnancy Mandates on Women

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Texas GOP delegation in Congress, led by Rep. Chip Roy and Sen. Ted Cruz, are threatening to shut down the federal government over vaccine mandates, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Chronicle quotes Roy’s interview at Fox News: “Congress needs to man up, stand up and fight for the […]

Feminism

A Chill Wind: Texas Unleashes Bounty Hunters on Women

OtherWords

( Otherwords.org) – For now, the Supreme Court has allowed Texas to sic bounty hunters on women seeking constitutionally protected abortions. By Martha Burk | September 8, 2021 Back in the 19th century, Texas was awash in vigilante groups. In those dark years, various self-appointed “law enforcers” modeled after the Texas Rangers embarked on a […]

Donald Trump

Coach Trump: The Superbowl Presidency of Old White Men

Tomdispatch

By Robert Lipsyte< | - ( Tomdispatch.com ) – Attorney General William Barr’s campaign to expand the powers of the presidency to unprecedented imperial levels has been misinterpreted as an attempt to raise Donald Trump to the level of his strongman heroes like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and Jair Bolsonaro. Fake news! It’s really been […]

Patriarchy

The real Mob? Consider Kavanaugh, Trump and the other Spoiled Rich Gangbangers

Tomdispatch

By Robert Lipsyte | – – (Tomdispatch.com) – Brett Kavanaugh’s hellish Supreme Court fraternity pledge week offered many lessons, but the most powerful, if least noted, was about the raising of boys in America — all boys, not just the groomed Georgetown elite from which the judge emerged. Too many boys are raised in packs, […]