Scenes from another life: Maremma, Italy, September 2019
Hello, readers, and welcome to The Week in Women, a roundup of women’s rights news from around the world, followed by links to a few good features, longform pieces, podcasts, and radio stories in the universe of gender equality, international human rights, politics, and whatever else is interesting on the internet.
Enjoy, subscribe (or upgrade your subscription!), and share.
What to Know
Institutionalized Misogyny: Manuela, an El Salvadoran woman, lost her pregnancy in what she said was a miscarriage. El Salvador’s “pro-life” government threw her in jail for homicide, where she died because she couldn’t get adequate treatment for her cancer. Now, her case is being heard in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, where feminists argue that El Salvador’s treatment of Manuela amounts to gender violence.
Icon: Nawal el Saadawi, an Egyptian feminist, physician, author, and world-changer, is dead at 89. She was jailed and exiled, called an apostate and a traitor, put on death lists and under police guard. She changed the face of feminism, and was wildly influential in her own nation and across the globe.
Know Her Name: We’re still learning more about the horrific shootings in Atlanta, which left eight dead and seem to have targeted Asian women. Here’s what we know about the victims.
Her and Her and Her Too: Australian women are fed up, and they’re taking to the streets in the tens of thousands to demand an end to sexual violence.
Backslide: Ten years ago, Turkey was the first nation to sign a European treaty that promised to protect women from violence. Now, the country has pulled out, saying that the treaty is at odds with Turkey’s conservative values, and that it harms the traditional family — ostensibly by saying it’s ok for women to divorce their abusive husbands.
Femicide-Homicide: Her husband abused her for years. One night, he tortured her so badly she killed him. Now she’s on trial for murder, in a case that has brought Turkey’s domestic violence crisis to fore: Under the country’s conservative leadership, murders of women soared, up until the administration simply stopped releasing data on them.
Fail: Meanwhile in the U.S., we can’t even pass a law that says women and men have equal rights, and Republicans overwhelmingly voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
Solo Motherhood: Birth in the time of Covid.
Misogyny Inc: The Catholic Church: Still hates women, still hates LGBT people.
Madame President: After John Magufuli’s death, Tanzania has its first female president in Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Hot Shot: The 86-year-old female sharpshooter who has become a feminist icon in India.
Girls Interrupted: Women in Northern Ireland won abortion rights. Their politicians won’t accept it.
Rest in Power: Robina Asti, the world’s oldest flight instructor and a transgender woman who fought the government and won, is dead at 99.
Freedom: Tunisian women’s and LGBT rights activist Rania Amdouni has been released from jail after being charged with “insulting police and abuse of morals” — she had gone to the police station to file a harassment complaint.
Madame Vice President: Vice President Kamala Harris is the first female American Vice President, and (duh) the first one to speak at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
War on Women: In Senegal, women’s bodies have become battlegrounds.
Hell Hath No Fury: Women in the UK are livid over the murder of Sarah Everard, and they’re insistent that more policing isn’t the answer.
Women for Women: Liberia’s female peace-builders are still working together and advocating for each other.
Protected: A Kenyan court upheld the nation’s ban on female genital cutting.
Unsurprised: A woman in the top ranks of Canada’s military has resigned after sexual misconduct allegations were leveled against other top brass, saying she’s sickened but not surprised, and tired of waiting for the institution to change.
Franco-failure: The alleged ongoing sexual abuse of 13-year-old girl cannot be tried as rape, a French court rules, in part because France does not have a functional age of consent law. Meanwhile, 150 female French sports journalists signed onto a statement published in Le Monde outlining the sexism and harassment they face.
Powerhouse: Abby Phillip and Gayle King and Lindsay Peoples Wagner? Yes please, do read.
What to Read
The Smearing of Kristen Clarke. [New York Magazine]
Take a Break
…and come on a writing + yoga retreat with me in Tuscany! Covid-willing, the retreat is from Sept. 11-17th on a woman-owned organic farm in the Maremma region. One of my own yoga teachers, Emily Shapiro, will teach daily Vinyasa flow classes; I’ll teach daily writing classes and a yoga workshop or two. There will be lots of food and wine, meals under the Tuscan sun, a mozzarella tasting, more pasta than you can possibly eat, extremely cute farm dogs and cats, and a beach you can bike too. Covid vaccination is required, and Covid best practices will be in effect on the farm. And because so much is still in flux, we’re offering a flexible refund policy, and will cancel the retreat (and refund you fully) if travel bans go back into effect. There are four spots left and we expect them to fill up soon. Just hit reply to this email to request more information.
And that’s it! Please feel free to share this newsletter, and feel even freer to subscribe.
xx Jill