The Week in Women
Could the Olympics do more to promote human rights?
Gaztelugatxe, Spain, July 2021
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, long-form pieces, podcasts, and radio stories in the universe of gender equality, international human rights, politics, and whatever else is interesting on the internet.
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What to Know
Advocates in North Carolina are trying to end child marriage in the state, which allows girls as young as 14 to wed if they’re pregnant. When underage girls marry adult men, those men aren’t just their husbands — they’re their legal guardians, with the right to refuse medical treatment, schooling, and financial freedom for their child wives. But those seeking to end child marriage are running up against opposition because too many lawmakers “either married as minors, married a minor or know someone who married as a minor.”
Ghana’s anti-LGBT bill is moving forward.
Black women in the US are criminally underpaid.
No, the Taliban hasn’t changed, Afghan women say.
The latest brutal killing of a woman in Pakistan is bringing renewed attention to the growing epidemic of violence against women in the country.
Europe’s shameful history of sterilizing Roma women.
Violence in Rohingya refugee camps is soaring, and women have had enough.
A South Korean Olympic double gold medalist is being harassed online because she has short hair, which suggests she’s a feminist (seriously). And this is far from the first time South Korean women have been harangued, harassed, and forced to apologize for even the suspicion of feminist politics.
The Egyptian government is harassing human rights defenders, including feminists.
A brief history of women at the Olympic games.
Thousands of Yazidi women remain unaccounted for as the world turns its gaze elsewhere.
The International Olympic Committee could adopt a human rights policy. It also could have banned Iran from competing, given the country’s attacks on athletes, and its refusal to allow women to compete across sporting events or even to attend them.
How a 17th century priest was a feminist ahead of his time.
How one woman in Uganda lived through horrific wartime abuse and is now using her experience to demand her government provide necessary services to all women.
A history of so-called “honor” killings.
The price of menstrual products in Lebanon has gotten so high that many women are choosing between sanitary products and food.
A woman in Los Angeles claimed that a trans woman exposed her genitals to children in a local Korean spa. The claim — still unsubstantiated — tore through right-wing media, and let to a series of protests, attacks, and acts of harassment against trans people.
Two of the world’s richest women are giving a lot of their money away to women’s rights organizations (one of those women’s ex husband is spending his money blasting himself into space on a dick-shaped rocket, so).
What to Read
The Big Money Behind the Big Lie: Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy are being promoted by rich and powerful conservative groups that are determined to win at all costs. [The New Yorker]
Don’t Let Anyone Normalize Jan. 6th [The Atlantic]
Take a Break
…and listen to Lucille Ball’s new podcast (really!).
…and come on a writing retreat with me! (Yoga is on offer, too). Retreats are mostly listed here, and I’ve just added another one in California from Oct. 28 - Nov. 1, 2021. Daily yoga, daily writing workshops, wine tasting, hiking, nature, and lots of good stuff.
Three spots also just opened up in a previously sold-out retreat in Tuscany(!) from Sept. 19 - 25, 2021.
And there are still a few spots left for the retreat in Costa Rica from Feb. 28 - Marc 5, 2022.
Just hit reply to this email if you want more information.
And that’s it! Thank you very much for your support. Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested. And if you want to support feminist-minded journalism, analysis, and opinion-writing, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
xx Jill