Post #8: This interview with Sima Samar in The New Yorker discusses women’s rights in Afghanistan’s negotiations with the Taliban. Samar, is the chair of the Afghanistan human rights commission. A native of Afghanistan, she is a global human and women’s rights activists and her past experiences In the negotiations that the trump administration is looking at with the Taliban to have a withdrawal of all US Troops and NATO forces from Afghanistan. Despite the Trump administrations insistence that the Taliban will be able to abide by the piece deal they are looking to put in place, many people in Afghanistan including politicians are skeptical to believe the Taliban. Afghanistan, prior to the defeat of the Taliban in 2001, had some of the worst human and women’s rights abuses in the whole world. Women were often executed for breaking Shariah law and there was no hope for women of ever doing something in the world. Even with the US and NATO presence of troops, women’s rights in Afghanistan are still a major issue. Samar states that the American presence beginning after 9/11 has significantly improved the quality of life, that should they leave, she is not sure how the Taliban will respond without the American’s there to hold them accountable. While she admits the progress that has been made is significant, an American withdrawal may come at the expense of the human and women’s rights in Afghanistan. https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/a-womens-rights-activist-is-concerned-about-negotiations-with-the-taliban
Post #7: In this Washington Post article, it discusses how Pope Francis has openly declared that the catholic church should support women and their rights. The Catholic Church, has often times been seen as “behind the times” on their policies and views on the issues of the present day. The pope wrote a 33,000 word letter to the public calling for Catholics to take a more modernized stance on real world issues. While in the past decade, the catholic church has had their demons to deal with, Pope Francis has been adapting to the times and taking a more modern approach to issues and keeping the Catholic Church’s view on things up on times. In the Pope’s letter to Catholic’s he preaches that worshippers of the religion are more supportive of the ways of the modern world. One thing in particular that the Pope openly addresses is the rights of women being respected. If the Pope, one of the most iconic men in the world is calling for his followers, to practice, maybe it is time that governments start doing it too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/pope-francis-says-church-should-support-womens-rights/2019/04/02/fa7af648-551f-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5d334e38adc6 Post #6: In this opinion piece in The Guardian, it talks about the recent arrest of Julian Assange. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, had been holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 after a Swedish court had issues a warrant for his arrest on sexual assault charges. Assange, has long been the center of a controversy not only due to his work with WikiLeaks, but also his asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy has caused quite the uproar in political relations between England, Sweden and Ecuador. Recently, Ecuadorian officials handed over Assange to the English for extradition to Sweden to face the charges of sexual assault. However, his recent arrest by English authorities had nothing to do with the initial charge he was facing while he was taking asylum at the Ecuadorian consulate. He was accused of spying and using the consulate to help facilitate espionage. Now with this in mind, it brings up the idea that he can be harbored with safe haven despite accusations of sexual assault, the second there is some sort of issue with the American government and spying, he is immediately handed over for arrest and extradition to Sweden. So why does it take the American government to get involved for something to get done? It seems that the only reason the Americans even wanted him extradited is due to the spying issue of recent. So this brings the notion that political relations are more important than womens rights. So a man can be acused of sexual assault and be harbored by one government and then the second the Americans want him on an unrelated issue, he is immediately handed over. So what does that say about governments, politics and womens rights? That governments value themselves and their relations more than womens rights.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/14/julian-assange-case-makes-clear-womens-rights-secondary-political-games
Post #5: This past week, two US nationals were arrested in Saudi Arabia for supporting womens rights. The Saudi Government has been launching a crackdown on people who are supporting womens rights, a position that goes against what the government stands for. In Saudi Arabia, there is no separation of church and state and the ruling religion is Islam. Within Islam, there is a strong stance for the lack of rights that women should be granted. These crackdowns on supporters of women’s rights happen frequently and are a common trend in Saudi Arabia. The US State Department has begun working on a solution to secure the release of the Americans who were detained in the raid. As part of the raid, 6 more Saudi citizens were also arrested, both men and women. What kind of message does this send to the outside world and why does the US continue to keep Saudi Arabia as a key Middle East ally? I understand the geopolitical reasoning for being a close ally due to Saudi Arabia’s oil supply and similar goals with regards to eliminating terrorism in the middle east, but the US would not stand for things like this to happen back on the US mainland. The Saudi government is way different than the US as there is no separation of church and state and the ruling party is a monarchy, not an elected democracy. But still, in light of all that has gone on in the US over the last 24 months, the #metoo movement, the Kavanaugh hearings and much more, you would think the US government would take some sort of stand on what is happening. Particularly in this case when two of their own citizens were swept up and arrested. https://www.bustle.com/p/saudi-arabia-arrested-2-us-citizens-supporting-womens-rights-activists-in-the-country-17017761 Post #4: In this opinion piece/podcast, the writer addresses the portrayal of women withing two very popular TV series and Movies: Game of Thrones and Captain Marvel. Within each series, female characters and gender roles play a very big part of the story line in each. Particularly in GOT, the gender roles involving women and power dynamics are a huge part of the show. My freshman seminar this fall was on The Women of Game of Thrones so I dove into a lot of discussion and exploration of the roles that women played throughout the series. In both series, women’s bodies are used as a way to help interest the audiences that the directors are looking to target. The directors use the women’s clothing and lack therefore of it to help interest audiences. in Game of Thrones, many of the women such as Sansa Stark wear very minimal clothing, which is very revealing and similarly in Captain Marvel, the outfits of the female characters are revealing and make the women seem more like things rather than people. In Game of Thrones, rape, is a tool used to draw viewers and a key part of the storyline. While the timeline and setting of Game of Thrones is no where near present day society, the women are treated with almost no respect. The only way the women gain respect in the show is through violence and earning it from their male peers. Both shows do not give women a fair representation of who they really are with equal rights to men. While it is a different time, he directors of both shows poorly portray women in the modern day eye of the viewer. The producers of the show aim for as much publicity as possible and to create such, they will do anything to attract a large viewing audeince.
Post #3: This article is an opinion piece from the Washington Post regarding the US Women’c soccer team and their relative lack of pay compared to men. This is an issue that is not only a major problem in sports but also in the real working world. Women in every profession have faced the issue of inadequate workplace compensation compared to their male counterparts. Whether it be in medicine, finance, law, large coorporations, research shows that women are not paid the same. But in all reality, they should be paid the same. In the professional world, they are just as equally productive/successful as men. From this, what difference does it make whether it is a man or women. If they are doing the same thing, they should still get paid the same. The next issue is the prize money in sports. For example in golf, the purses for some of the larger tournaments on the PGA tour are upwards of 12 to 13 million dollars. However on the LPGA tour, the purses for the largest tournaments hardly eclipse 5 to 6 million. But what is the difference. Male professional golfers and female professional golfers are both at the top of their professions, but why do the males make twice as much more? Same goes for the WNBA and NBA. Some of the new NBA contracts pay players almost 50 million dollars a year. The highest paid WNBA contracts are somewhere around $100,000 dollars. Many NBA players have game checks worth that. So what a women makes in a season, a man may make in one night. Something is not right there. In the case of the soccer players, these women on the US National team devote their whole lives to play for it. They work just as hard as the men, and additionally, the oppurtunities they have to make money playing in other leagues is not nearly the same as it is for the men and even when they do get an oppurtunity, there is still a major discrepency in the pay ratio of male to female. But fundamentally, what does it come down to, people would rather go see or watch an NBA or MLB game, providing more revenue from tickets, royalties and TV revenue, and while it is completely wrong, it is why male athletes tend to make more than females. :https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/us-womens-soccer-players-deserve-equal-pay-and-it-shouldnt-take-a-lawsuit/2019/03/08/abe9ad28-41db-11e9-9361-301ffb5bd5e6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e25a0fa4a65d
Post #2: Israel and Palastine have long been in conflict with one another. While often times their issues stem from the mistreatment of one another due to their respective religions, the issue here today is related to Israel being absolved of any wrongdoing involving the mistreatment of women. While the dispute over who occupies Palestine is the driving issue behind the whole conflict, the bigger issue is the mistreatment of Palestinian women by the Israeli government and forces. Women in Israeli occupied Palestine would often resist the rule of the forces and be imprisoned for up to have a year. However, if you look at some cases of the same crimes that involve men, the men frequently aren’t captured who commit the same crimes and in a way what they do gets swept completely under the carpet. In one case, a Palestinian lawmaker was incarcerated for over 20 months without any due process. For men, they are given trials and court dates but in this woman’s case, there was none of that. Women who are in custody often face sexual harassment or the threat of sexual violence during interrogations and it was proved as a tool that the Israelis use to get confessions. Now this raises the question to me, so many of these Israeli soldiers who are participating in these heinous acts also have families themselves with women in them. But this raises the question, why do they do it to other women if they wouldn’t want it done to their own family members? To conclude, I understand that the conflict between Israel and Palestine is messy and always has been, but at what point do you draw the line and say enough is enough?https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/israel-absolved-palestinian-women-rights-abuse-190308090710113.html
Post #1: In recent weeks, there has been a lot made of the President Trump and Stormy Daniels situation. President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen testified against the president and under oath. While there were a variety of topics discussed during the congressional hearing, one of the major topics was President Trump’s relationship with a porn star named Stormy Daniels. The purpose of the hearing was to determine the source of the hush money that Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer at the time paid Stormy Daniels to cover up the relationship she had with Donald Trump. The origin of the money and whether or not it came from the personal funds of Trump or the campaign funds of his are still under investigation. It is the treatment and public perception of the case that show what is wrong with America. While the specifics of what actually happened with President Trump and Stormy Daniels are crucial to the public and governments understanding of what happened, it is the lenses the public views it thru that show what the problem is. Situations involving powerful males in the public eye such as Donald Trump and women in America have become more and more prevalent in the public eye over the last few years. Objectively, Donald Trump is a very polarizing individual, even prior to his taking office. Due to Stormy Daniel’s job title as a “porn star” or “adult film actress” or whatever label someone may choose to refer to her as such, people were not sure what to make of the situation and seemed to provide a cloud of smoke over her side of the story. If you remove the investigation into the origin of the funds that Daniels received, and just looked at the situation, you would see a powerful male involved in a situation with a young women. However, due to her image in the public eye of being a “porn star,” her public image and credibility are in question, when in reality, they shouldn’t be.
http://www.journal-advocate.com/sterling-columnists/ci_32486602/hush-little-porn-star-dont-say-word