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 […]
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Feminism
Season of Sadism: With right wing Republicans running on the New Misogyny, can Dems Riposte Effectively?
By Nina Burleigh | – ( Tomdispatch.com) – Ever since the early morning hours of November 9, 2016, standing in a ballroom with red-hatted Trump election celebrants in the New York Hilton, I’ve been waiting for this moment. This eruption of misogyny, unlike any since perhaps the witch trials and the burnings of midwives at […]
Like Bad Science Fiction: The Growing Danger of Anti-Abortion Extremism
By Mitchell Zimmerman | – (Otherwords.org ) – Contraceptives banned. Miscarriages prosecuted. Pregnant people under surveillance. Is this the future Americans want? By Mitchell Zimmerman | July 27, 2022 It’s January 2026. The Republican president thanks Congress for banning all abortions and makes an enthusiastic plea for a law that would require a national registry […]
Women Protest Iran’s Hijab And Chastity Day By Removing Their Veils In Public
By RFE/RL’s Radio Farda | – Iranian women’s rights activists posted videos of themselves publicly removing their veils on July 12 to coincide with National Day of Hijab and Chastity. The videos appeared on social media networks as women — and in some cases men — expressed their opposition to Iran’s law mandating that women […]
How to Prevent an American Theocracy
By Mitchell Zimmerman | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Barely a month ago we lived in a world where all Americans had the right to decide for themselves whether to continue a pregnancy. For much of the country, that’s now history. Just weeks ago, states could implement at least some common-sense limits on carrying guns. […]
Iran Moves To Tighten Abortion Restrictions
By Golnaz Esfandiari | – ( RFE/RL ) – Maryam ended her pregnancy two years ago using abortion pills. Her husband supported her. The couple already have a boy and a girl, and they decided they did not want a third child. Abortion pills are not easily accessible in Iran due to government restrictions. Maryam […]
Returning to Reno: In the Shadow of Roe’s Undoing
( Tomdispatch.com ) – Recently, I told my friend Mimi that, only weeks from now, I was returning to Reno to help UNITE-HERE, the hospitality industry union, in the potentially nightmarish 2022 election. “Even though,” I added, “I hate electoral politics.” She just laughed. “What’s so funny?” I asked. “You’ve been saying that as long […]
There is no one Islamic interpretation on ethics of abortion, but the belief in God’s mercy and compassion is a crucial part of any consideration
Zahra Ayubi, Dartmouth College | – As a scholar of Islamic ethics, I’m often asked, “What does Islam say about abortion?” – a question that has become even more salient since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed 50 years of constitutional protection for the right to get an abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health […]
Abortion decision cherry-picks history – when the US Constitution was ratified, women had much more autonomy over abortion decisions than during 19th century
Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino | – Justice Samuel Alito appears spellbound by the 19th century. In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision Alito wrote overruling 50 years of constitutional protection for women’s right to get an abortion, he deploys arguments that are based on several historical precedents. He uses the phrase “history […]