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niyad's JournalThe Perception Paradox: Men Who Hate Feminists Think Feminists Hate Men
The Perception Paradox: Men Who Hate Feminists Think Feminists Hate Men
PUBLISHED 4/11/2024 by Amber Wardell
Feminists, on the whole, don’t hate men. We hate sexism and sexist oppression. After all, men are harmed by patriarchy, too.
The perception that feminism is motivated by anti-male sentiment, or misandry, has been used to delegitimize and discredit the movement, has deterred women from joining it, and motivated men to oppose it, sometimes with violence. (Maskot / Getty Images)
The “feminists are man-haters” trope is getting old. For far too long, opponents of feminism have claimed that our movement is rooted in misandry—the prejudice, contempt or hatred against men. Men who have not bothered to educate themselves about what feminism stands for declare loudly and proudly that, if possible, feminist women would subjugate men, destabilize civilization, and summon forth the end of humanity. Until recently, refuting these claims has proven difficult. After all, every feminist-hating man has an anecdotal story of “that one feminist” he knows who definitively hates men. Thankfully, contemporary research has finally given us real, irrefutable evidence that feminists do not, in fact, despise men. A 2023 study measured levels of hostility toward men among feminists, non-feminists and other men. Interestingly, across six experiments conducted in nine nations and almost 10,000 participants, the results revealed that feminist women show no more hostility toward men than both non-feminists and other men. It turns out that just about everyone, including men, has a fair amount of hostility toward men.
Feminists Won’t Coddle Men’s Egos
Something that stood out in the results of the study is that although feminist women appear to have no more hostility toward men than non-feminist women, they are significantly less likely to be benevolent toward men. Whereas non-feminist women are likely to excuse or ignore men’s bad behavior toward women, feminist women will, more often than not, call it out. They will not pull their punches to spare men’s egos. They expect much from men, and will hold them accountable to the behavior they know men are capable of.And it appears that this is where the man-hating feminist trope has its roots.
. . . . .
But the existence of some feminists who hate men does not prove that all feminists hate men. In fact, although feminism is a movement that seeks to center women’s equality and liberation, it has also done much for the liberation of men. After all, men are harmed by patriarchy, too, and feminists seek to abolish all forms of gender-based discrimination that are propped up by patriarchy. Establishing gender-based equality has clear benefits for men. For example, feminists seek family court reform (where things like custody, child support and alimony are determined) because family courts often engage in gender-based stereotypes that are harmful to both mothers and fathers. Mothers may end up with close to full-custody, leaving them responsible for the heavy lifting of parenting, while fathers end up missing out on the majority of their kids’ lives. Feminists also advocate for men’s mental health, believing that patriarchal structures that depict men as weak or “unmanly” if they need help with their mental health are actively harming men (and, as a result, also harming women).
The Mismatch of Perception and Realty
Although feminists will likely never center men in their work, they see men as their partners (but not co-equals) in gender-based oppression. They seek to improve civilization for both men and women by abolishing patriarchy and sexist oppression. In that work, they will often come across entitled, angry men who despise women generally and feminists specifically. When that happens, they will likely choose to go toe to toe with those men, refusing to coddle their egos and addressing their bad behavior instead. Rather than using this feedback as an invitation to challenge their beliefs and join us in the fight to end sexist oppression together, those men will decide to call those feminists man-haters. In reality, it is far more likely that those men simply hate women. They may never change their views about women. But for the many women around the world who choose not to identify with feminism because a man who hates women told them that feminists hate men, we need to correct the perception problem. Feminists, on the whole, don’t hate men. We hate sexism and sexist oppression, and we will not mollify, excuse or enable any man who chooses to uphold them.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/04/11/feminists-hate-men/
Four Afghan girl guitarists escaped the Taliban. Will they be forced back?
Four Afghan girl guitarists escaped the Taliban. Will they be forced back?
Teenage musicians Yasemin, Zakia and Shukriya and Uzra, just 7, fled the repression of women in Afghanistan. Will a Trump order and Pakistan send them back?
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Zakia (left), American musician Lanny Cordola, Shukriya and Yasemine (right) pose for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
By Rabia Mushtaq
Published On 29 Mar 202529 Mar 2025
Islamabad, Pakistan – On a pleasant February afternoon in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, the sound of strumming guitars fills a small bedroom in a two-storey home that houses tenants from neighbouring Afghanistan. A flight of slippery marble stairs leads to the room on the first floor, where the bright rays of the sun enter through the window and bounce off the musical instruments, which belong to four young guitarists. These guitarists – 18-year-old Yasemin aka Jellybean, 16-year-old Zakia, 14-year-old Shukriya, and seven-year-old Uzra – are Afghan refugees who, with their families, fled the country after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. Yasemin and Uzra are sisters, as are Zakiya and Shukriya. This is where Yasemin and Uzra are now living with their family. The bedroom is where the girls spend hours at a stretch practicing and jamming from Saturday to Thursday. Friday is their weekly day off. On the day Al Jazeera visits, the girls are busy tuning their guitars. They tease one another as they strum squeaky, off-key chords in between.
. . . .
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Yasemin – aka Jellybean – sets the strings of her guitar before playing a tune at her home in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
The girls learned to play the guitar at Miraculous Love Kids, a music school for children in Kabul set up in 2016 by Lanny Cordola, a rock musician from California. The girls, whose first language is Dari, also learned to speak basic English from Cordola in Kabul, where they attended regular school as well. Their world was turned upside down when the Taliban re-took power on August 15, 2021, after 20 years. The girls were afraid to step outside their homes following a spate of restrictions imposed on women. Cordola, who left Kabul for Islamabad the day the Taliban returned to power, began hatching plans to pluck his students and their families out of Afghanistan so the girls could continue to pursue their music dreams. After months of lobbying donors for funding and negotiating with agents who promised to help the families escape, Cordola finally managed to get seven of his students out, to Islamabad, in April 2022. Even as he continued to teach them there, Cordola worked towards eventually resettling them and their families in the United States, which had announced a programme to
Three of the seven girls were relocated to the US over the past few months. Yasemin, Zakia, Shukriya and Uzra – and their families – were supposed to fly on February 5.
. . . .
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Yasemin (left), Shukriya, Lanny Cordola, Uzra and Zakia (right) smile for a photograph in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
’
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A custom guitar pick featuring the band’s original track, ‘Girl with a Guitar’ [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . .
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Cordola shows on his laptop an unreleased music video of the girls singing a rendition of Sia’s track, Unstoppable, in Islamabad, Pakistan [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . .
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Little Uzra holds her small guitar as she practises a tune at her home in Islamabad, Pakistan [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . .
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Zakia, 16, from Kabul, plays her guitar while practising in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
Escaping the Taliban – and waiting on Pakistan
. . . .
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Yasemin reads from her diary of songs in the Dari language at her home in Islamabad, Pakistan [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . .
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Shukriya strums her guitar during a practice session at Jellybean’s house in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 14, 2025 [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . . .
But Cordola and the girls refuse to give up. The teacher has been reaching out to musicians and people with contacts in the US government to make the relocation possible. “I am sending out messages to people who can perhaps contact the upper echelons in the American government. The girls have collaborated with some of the most well-known musicians in the US and UK. We are not looking for extra favours, but to get them opportunities,” he says.
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Yasemin plays the guitar at her home in Islamabad, Pakistan [Rabia Mushtaq/Al Jazeera]
. . . . .
The girls, Cordola adds, could also be relocated to other countries that are “willing to welcome them and provide legal and safe residence”, adding that a leading advocate for female Afghan musicians is interested in relocating them to Northern Ireland’s Belfast, a UNESCO-recognised city for its music. Most of all, the girls just want to stay together – in whichever part of the world will have them.“When I’m out of here, it is my dream for all the girls to come together and stand strong on our feet. I can’t do it alone. When all of us girls come together with Mr Lanny at the same place, we will do something,” says Yasemin. Fauzia, Yasemin and Uzra’s mother, says she is grateful to Pakistan for hosting them. But she knows that the family’s future hinges on Western governments giving them sanctuary soon. “Our lives were at risk in Afghanistan and even in Pakistan there is no peace. Whether it is the US or any other government, we request help for those whose lives are in danger,” she says. Until then, the girls have their guitars, their music and their dreams to live with. “Whenever I’m sad, I hold my guitar and forget all of the sadness,” says Yasemin. “It has changed my life.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/3/29/four-afghan-girl-guitarists-escaped-the-taliban-will-they-be-forced-back
The SAVE Act's Impact on Women Voters Isn't a Coincidence. It's Voter Suppression.
The SAVE Act’s Impact on Women Voters Isn’t a Coincidence. It’s Voter Suppression.
PUBLISHED 3/26/2025 by Beth Lynk
A dangerous attack on voting rights comes amidst critical local elections in 2025.
People participate in a protest against the Trump administration’s mass firing of government workers and civil servants in front of the Capitol building on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 17, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images via AFP and Getty Images)
Shirley Chisholm said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” I carry these words with me every day, along with the awareness that if they try to take your seat, it means that they are intimidated by your power. And it’s our responsibility to fight to keep it—like my grandmother, Doris Sheafe, who, at age 23 in 1937 (before all Black women had the right to vote) made her voice heard and testified before Congress about the American Youth Act. Now, in 2025, we are spending Women’s History Month not only celebrating our power but also fighting for it as we honor the women who paved the way. Women—especially Black women—are still fighting for equal rights and opportunities in the U.S. Meanwhile, members of Congress are threatening to undermine the hard-fought, fundamental right to vote for all Americans, including millions of women, under the guise of misleading allegations of voter fraud. And they’re ironically calling it the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
Make no mistake: The SAVE Act is not going to “save” anything. This legislation would create unnecessary barriers to registering to vote in every state. It would require all voters to provide proof of citizenship documents in person when registering to vote or updating their registration—provisions that effectively end online, automatic and mail-in voter registration. Women who change their name after marriage or divorce would face unnecessary barriers to registering to vote.
Hoping your birth certificate will be sufficient proof of citizenship? Think again, because as many as 69 million married women do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name, and as many as 3.3 million eligible trans voters face the same barrier. How about your passport? The reality is that more than 140 million American citizens, including 56 percent of Black Americans, do not have a passport, a document that also requires a legal name.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks to the media after a vote on the government funding bill at the Capitol on Sept. 18, 2024. Johnson was determined to include the SAVE Act in the budget bill, but after the bill failed to pass, he removed it. It was initially passed by the House in July 2024 as a standalone bill with a recorded vote of 221-198, but was never taken up by the Senate. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
. . . . .
Additionally, in a post-Roe reality where the courts have more say on women’s reproductive healthcare than ever before, more than 1,000 judges are on ballots across the country this year, including critical state supreme court races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Women’s rights are always on the ballot, and the SAVE Act is a targeted effort to silence voters with the potential to impact millions of women. Right now is the time to call our U.S. senators and tell them to vote no on this dangerous bill. With so much at stake, it is more important than ever for us to check and update our voter registration to make sure we stand ready to decide the future of our communities and protect our democracy in 2025.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/03/26/save-act-voting-rights-women-trans-voters-elections/
The SAVE Act's Impact on Women Voters Isn't a Coincidence. It's Voter Suppression.
The SAVE Act’s Impact on Women Voters Isn’t a Coincidence. It’s Voter Suppression.
PUBLISHED 3/26/2025 by Beth Lynk
A dangerous attack on voting rights comes amidst critical local elections in 2025.
People participate in a protest against the Trump administration’s mass firing of government workers and civil servants in front of the Capitol building on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 17, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images via AFP and Getty Images)
Shirley Chisholm said, “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” I carry these words with me every day, along with the awareness that if they try to take your seat, it means that they are intimidated by your power. And it’s our responsibility to fight to keep it—like my grandmother, Doris Sheafe, who, at age 23 in 1937 (before all Black women had the right to vote) made her voice heard and testified before Congress about the American Youth Act. Now, in 2025, we are spending Women’s History Month not only celebrating our power but also fighting for it as we honor the women who paved the way. Women—especially Black women—are still fighting for equal rights and opportunities in the U.S. Meanwhile, members of Congress are threatening to undermine the hard-fought, fundamental right to vote for all Americans, including millions of women, under the guise of misleading allegations of voter fraud. And they’re ironically calling it the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
Make no mistake: The SAVE Act is not going to “save” anything. This legislation would create unnecessary barriers to registering to vote in every state. It would require all voters to provide proof of citizenship documents in person when registering to vote or updating their registration—provisions that effectively end online, automatic and mail-in voter registration. Women who change their name after marriage or divorce would face unnecessary barriers to registering to vote.
Hoping your birth certificate will be sufficient proof of citizenship? Think again, because as many as 69 million married women do not have a birth certificate matching their legal name, and as many as 3.3 million eligible trans voters face the same barrier. How about your passport? The reality is that more than 140 million American citizens, including 56 percent of Black Americans, do not have a passport, a document that also requires a legal name.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) speaks to the media after a vote on the government funding bill at the Capitol on Sept. 18, 2024. Johnson was determined to include the SAVE Act in the budget bill, but after the bill failed to pass, he removed it. It was initially passed by the House in July 2024 as a standalone bill with a recorded vote of 221-198, but was never taken up by the Senate. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
. . . . .
Additionally, in a post-Roe reality where the courts have more say on women’s reproductive healthcare than ever before, more than 1,000 judges are on ballots across the country this year, including critical state supreme court races in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Women’s rights are always on the ballot, and the SAVE Act is a targeted effort to silence voters with the potential to impact millions of women. Right now is the time to call our U.S. senators and tell them to vote no on this dangerous bill. With so much at stake, it is more important than ever for us to check and update our voter registration to make sure we stand ready to decide the future of our communities and protect our democracy in 2025.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/03/26/save-act-voting-rights-women-trans-voters-elections/
Twenty-Nine States Have a Not-So-Secret Weapon to Fight for Democracy
Twenty-Nine States Have a Not-So-Secret Weapon to Fight for Democracy
PUBLISHED 3/27/2025 by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf
In the states, equal rights amendments are protecting people where the federal government can’t—or won’t.
Ting Ting Cheng, director of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Project at NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center. (The ERA Project)
This story was originally published on The Contrarian.
As the Trump administration’s attacks on women’s rights, reproductive access and LGBTQ equality continue in force, state executive leaders have emerged as potent frontline responders. Last month, Maine Gov. Janet Mills stood in opposition to the executive order banning trans athletes from women’s sports, informing Donald Trump that she’d see him in court. This past weekend, he took to Truth Social, still stewing apparently, to demand her personal “full throated apology” and statement to “never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again.” Meanwhile, the U.S. Departments of Education, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services have commenced multiple investigations that threaten denial of federal funding to the state. New York’s executive leadership formed something of a firewall on access to healthcare. Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to extradite a New Paltz, N.Y.-based doctor to Louisiana charged with prescribing abortion pills online to residents there and signed legislation enabling physicians to withhold their individual names on prescription labels. Attorney General Letitia James put all New York hospitals on notice of their legal obligation under state law to continue offering gender-affirming care to minors.
Among the tools in states’ arsenals are often underused state-level equal rights amendments (ERAs). Even as the federal ERA remains in limbo, an unlikely bulwark for the next four years—see professor Laurence Tribe’s Contrarian piece explaining its legal status—29 states have some form of an ERA (e.g., broader sex equality language than the U.S. Constitution) written into their constitutions. Several have already been used to advance abortion rights (Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Mexico); many are broadly worded and inclusive of protection against pregnancy discrimination, age, disability and immigration status. Issues such as pay transparency and addressing gender-based violence also could be bolstered by a state ERA.
. . . .
Finally, Cheng highlights practical outcomes of state ERAs for mandating hospital accountability. In New York, the Hospital Transparency Act would require hospitals to publicly report service limitations like restrictions on abortion, contraception, gender-affirming care and miscarriage management. Such transparency is critical for all patients, especially those in need of emergency treatment who often have no idea they will be denied care until they are already in the hospital.
According to Cheng, there is growing momentum for leveraging state ERAs across the country, mirroring reproductive rights strategy since the 2022 Dobbs decision. “State ERAs are a boon,” she notes, “not only for countering regressive federal policies, but for reimaging and reshaping legislative frameworks in ways that affirmatively advance equality.”As state governments and leaders continue to play a crucial part in the defense of American democracy, 29 of them can leverage the ERA is a way to lead on behalf of their residents—and the entire nation.
https://msmagazine.com/2025/03/27/state-era-equal-rights-amendment-ting-ting-cheng/
"You can't trust government or the media." The reichwingnutjobs and foreign
assets hammered that theme every time Dems were in power. Projection, of course, because the lies and BS and misdirection are THEIR specialty, as is the chaos that ensues. We can no longer trust in so many areas.
This thought was in my mind as I read about the death of the former EDVA prosecutor Jessica Aber, and what might be the outcome of any investigation. This is a very depressing way to start one's day, but has become a daily feature since Day One of the Orange Reign of Terror.
Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners - report
Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners – report
First such study finds laws on abortion, debt and dress help increase rate of women being jailed twice as fast as for men
Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report. With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said there was a risk that laws would increasingly be used to target women, forcing more behind bars. More than 733,000 women are in prisons around the world and the number is growing much faster than rates of incarcerated men. Since 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has grown by 57%, compared with a 22% increase in the male prison population. The first global report of its kind, to which the Guardian was given exclusive access before its launch on 17 March, examined how laws criminalised acts of survival. Women were disproportionately jailed for petty theft, such as stealing food for babies and children, for begging and for working in the informal economy.
. . . .
Women around the world continue to be arrested under colonial-era laws, including those criminalising abortion, suicide attempts and same-sex relations. Although many of these laws appear gender-neutral, they disproportionately impact women due to patriarchal norms and systemic gender discrimination. In several countries, laws criminalising witchcraft mostly affected women who do not conform to gender stereotypes, said the report, with unmarried women, widows, divorcees or those without children – particularly older and poorer individuals – particularly targeted.
Women’s choices about their dress and appearance were also frequently restricted by laws.
In May 2022, a Zambian businesswoman and social media influencer, Iris Kaingu, was arrested and charged with “indecent dressing”, after attending a fashion event wearing a see-through black dress. In Iran, not wearing a hijab was already a criminal offence under the Islamic penal code, but new morality laws introduced last year allowed significant fines and longer prison sentences of up to 15 years or even the death penalty for “promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing”. The report warned that the female prison population could soon exceed one million, and called for wider collection of data on the topic, more alternatives to prison and decriminalising laws that violate human rights standards and international law.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/12/biased-laws-poverty-debt-abortion-female-prisoners-penal-reform-report
Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners - report
Biased laws and poverty driving huge rise in female prisoners – report
First such study finds laws on abortion, debt and dress help increase rate of women being jailed twice as fast as for men
Poverty, abuse and discriminatory laws are driving a huge rise in the number of women in prison globally, according to a new report. With the rise of the far right and an international backlash against women’s rights, the research said there was a risk that laws would increasingly be used to target women, forcing more behind bars. More than 733,000 women are in prisons around the world and the number is growing much faster than rates of incarcerated men. Since 2000, the number of women and girls in prison has grown by 57%, compared with a 22% increase in the male prison population. The first global report of its kind, to which the Guardian was given exclusive access before its launch on 17 March, examined how laws criminalised acts of survival. Women were disproportionately jailed for petty theft, such as stealing food for babies and children, for begging and for working in the informal economy.
. . . .
Women around the world continue to be arrested under colonial-era laws, including those criminalising abortion, suicide attempts and same-sex relations. Although many of these laws appear gender-neutral, they disproportionately impact women due to patriarchal norms and systemic gender discrimination. In several countries, laws criminalising witchcraft mostly affected women who do not conform to gender stereotypes, said the report, with unmarried women, widows, divorcees or those without children – particularly older and poorer individuals – particularly targeted.
Women’s choices about their dress and appearance were also frequently restricted by laws.
In May 2022, a Zambian businesswoman and social media influencer, Iris Kaingu, was arrested and charged with “indecent dressing”, after attending a fashion event wearing a see-through black dress. In Iran, not wearing a hijab was already a criminal offence under the Islamic penal code, but new morality laws introduced last year allowed significant fines and longer prison sentences of up to 15 years or even the death penalty for “promoting nudity, indecency, unveiling or improper dressing”. The report warned that the female prison population could soon exceed one million, and called for wider collection of data on the topic, more alternatives to prison and decriminalising laws that violate human rights standards and international law.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/mar/12/biased-laws-poverty-debt-abortion-female-prisoners-penal-reform-report
The Mexican women who defied drug-dealers, fly-tippers and chauvinists to build a thriving business
( a fascinating read)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/11/mexico-el-manglito-la-paz-women-mangroves-environment-guardianas-del-conchalito-baja-california-fishing-conservation#img-1
Graciela ‘Chela’ Olachea, one of Las Guardianas. None of the women were well educated but they knew they risked losing everything unless they protected the environment
Seascape: the state of our oceans
The Mexican women who defied drug-dealers, fly-tippers and chauvinists to build a thriving business
The Guardianas del Conchalito ignored chants of ‘get back to your kitchens’, determined to protect the environment and create a sustainable shellfish operation
By Joanna Moorhead in La Paz, Mexico. Photographs by Benjamin Soto for the Guardian
Tue 11 Mar 2025 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Fri 14 Mar 2025 12.27 EDT
Ahead of the small boat, as it bobs on the waters near La Paz in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur, is a long line of old plastic bottles strung together on top of the waves. Underneath them are as many as 100,000 oysters, waiting to be sold to the upmarket hotels down the coast. Cheli Mendez, who oversees the project, pulls a shell up from below, cuts it open with a knife, and gives me the contents to try: a plump, tasty oyster. Mendez is one of a group known as Guardianas del Conchalito, or guardians of the shells, and theirs is the first oyster-growing business in the region run entirely by women, she says.
. . . .
But this is far from the only success this unusual group of women has had. It all began with four of them sitting round a rickety picnic table, staring out across a rubbish-strewn mangrove plantation in the spring of 2017. They were angry: their fishing village was being ruined by drug-dealers and fast-encroaching tourism, and the shellfish they treasured were being depleted by illegal fishing. We said to the men, ‘we want to clear the place up. And we want to be paid to do it’ None of the women had been educated beyond school, but they did understand that they risked losing everything unless something was done to change things. “The mangroves were dying, the trash was everywhere,” says Graciela “Chela” Olachea, at 63 the oldest of the group. Huge lorries would arrive to fly-tip on a regular basis, and joyriders on motorbikes would screech across the land. Claudia Reyes, 41, says: “Things were bad, and getting worse.”
Soon others had joined them at the picnic table in El Manglito, the neighbourhood of La Paz made famous by John Steinbeck. He wrote about the area’s pearl divers – the forebears of these proud, strong women. “The picnic table became our office,” says Reyes. They had come up with the name for their group by then, based on the callo de hacha, a rare type of scallop that are a prized local delicacy. “We went to the men who were the decision-makers in our community, and we said, ‘We want to clear the place up. And we want to be paid to do it.’”
The men – their husbands, fathers, grandfathers, sons – were not impressed. But they eventually and reluctantly agreed, offering wages for five women. But now there were 14 meeting around that picnic table. The money amounted to 8,500 Mexican pesos a week (£320) between them all, a tiny amount for each woman. “But we agreed to it,” says Reyes. “We wanted to show we could do this: we wanted to make a difference, and we wanted to earn some money.”
. . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/11/mexico-el-manglito-la-paz-women-mangroves-environment-guardianas-del-conchalito-baja-california-fishing-conservation
Israel's attacks on reproductive healthcare in Gaza 'genocidal': UN probe
Israel’s attacks on reproductive healthcare in Gaza ‘genocidal’: UN probe
UN experts say Israel ‘intentionally attacked and destroyed’ the Palestinian territory’s main fertility centre.
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A Palestinian woman bids her grandson Tamer farewell in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, after he was killed along with his mother in an Israeli strike [File: Eyad Baba/AFP]
Published On 13 Mar 202513 Mar 2025
Israel has carried out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during its war on Gaza and using sexual violence as a war strategy, United Nations experts have said. On Thursday, the Geneva-based Independent International Commission of Inquiry said in a new report that Israel “intentionally attacked and destroyed” Gaza’s main fertility centre while simultaneously blocking medicine for pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care from entering the enclave. In its report, the commission found that Israeli authorities “have destroyed … the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group through the systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare”, it said in a statement. It added that this amounted to “two categories of genocidal acts” during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, launched after the attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the UN investigation for “false accusations, including absurd claims”.
“The anti-Israeli circus known as the UN Human Rights Council has long been exposed as an anti-Semitic, corrupt, terror-supporting, and irrelevant body,” Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office on Thursday.
‘War crime of wilful killing’
The report said maternity hospitals and wards had been systematically destroyed in Gaza, along with the Al-Basma IVF Centre, the territory’s main in-vitro fertility clinic. It said Al-Basma was intentionally shelled in December 2023, destroying about 4,000 embryos at a clinic that served 2,000-3,000 patients a month. The commission found no credible evidence that the building was used for military purposes. It said the destruction “was a measure intended to prevent births among Palestinians in Gaza, which is a genocidal act”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, the former UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths said “it’s good that the UN is now talking about genocide, because up to now it’s been very careful about that word”. And while he said that the evidence for genocide was “incontrovertible” and that the findings were “long overdue”, he steered clear of saying that either the International Court of Justice (ICJ) or the International Criminal Court (ICC) would bring those accountable to justice.
. . . .
The report came after the commission conducted public hearings in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday, hearing from victims and witnesses of sexual violence. It concluded that Israel had targeted civilian women and girls directly, “acts that constitute the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing”. The commission added that forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault, comprise part of the Israeli forces’ “standard operating procedures” towards Palestinians.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/3/13/israels-attacks-on-reproductive-healthcare-in-gaza-genocidal-un
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