...because the Accolade, a rock band made up of four women, is looking for one. I know we're a little behind on this, but it's never too late to recognize some bad-ass women:
"In Saudi, yes, it's a challenge," said the group's lead singer, Lamia, who has piercings on her left eyebrow and beneath her bottom lip. (Like other band members, she gave only her first name.) "Maybe we're crazy. But we wanted to do something different."
In a country where women are not allowed to drive and rarely appear in public without their faces covered, the band is very different. The prospect of female rockers clutching guitars and belting out angry lyrics about a failed relationship -- the theme of "Pinocchio" -- would once have been unimaginable here.
But this country's harsh code of public morals has slowly thawed, especially in Jidda, by far the kingdom's most cosmopolitan city.
The band's namesake is this painting, which guitarist Dina says she likes "because it shows a woman who is satisfied with a man." In some ways, all women-only music groups are transgressive. But the Accolade takes it to a new level.
Here's how the band describes itself:
Dina -the ( guitarist ) was so interested in music.. especialy rock & metal music. Her dream was to make a band!she started learning how to play the guitar at the age of 16.. Also, Dareen ( bassist) was a huge support for her and even shared the same dream, so they started to look for members to create the band.. they met Lamia (vocals ) & Amjad who happened to be intrested in the same thing. By 2008, they took things seriously and started to practice and create their own music!!! Their music is inspired from paintings that tell a story of certain situations in our lives...it's a blend of art & music..
In Iran a cab company has started that is by and for women only. It has provided employment for widowed women and given them ownership over their own means of transportation.
At the centre, the women drivers are also given lessons in basic car maintenance and such essentials as how to change a burst tire. All the operators at the centre are women too. But the concept was the brainchild of a man, Mohsen Uruji, who says he spotted a gap in Tehran's transport system.
"What was missing was a role for women," he says.
"By setting up this purely private sector company, we've been able to provide jobs for many women, as well as a service for other women who want to travel around in a more relaxed way."
Many of the drivers are war widows or divorcees who really need the work, and are referred to the agency by some of the big welfare foundations.
The project has grown in popularity and is hoping to have 2000 women run cars soon. I think this is interesting and very cool all at once. As the article says, it does both reinforce traditional gender roles feeding into the very idea that women and men can't occupy space together alone, but at the same time solves and relieves many problems women are dealing with on a daily basis.
"You know, I don't really talk about my sexual orientation," the Emmy Award winner said. "I didn't feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life,"
"Everybody that knows me personally they know I'm gay," she continued. "But that's the way people should be able to live their lives." [...]
Sykes said the ban (also known as California's Proposition 8) made her feel like she was "attacked."
"Now, I gotta get in their face," she said. "I'm proud to be a woman. I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay."
Need more reason to love Rachel Maddow? Probably not, but it is always good to love her more. In response to Palin's accusations of bloggers not being real media or not doing enough research, Maddow responds. Just watch it, it is so funny.
This video keeps putting me in tears. I have to say after yesterday's tactics by the McCain/Palin campaign that were blatantly racist, I really started to think about what this election means to myself and to the people in this country that have experienced racism and never been allowed to talk about it, had the tools to deal with it and have always been told covertly and overtly that we are inferior. You never quite fit in but then you are told you are imagining it when you experience racism. It means something to us that Obama is so close to the presidency.
It is good to see some mainstream media heads actually take it there.
It is rare that armed resistance movements are given positive news coverage. And understandably so when groups use brutal force on civilians. However, the dialog of acceptable and unacceptable moments of violence has been dominated by a history of colonization. Basically, war is only acceptable when it is protecting the interests of rich and white people. But for those of us that believe in a more fair and just world where everyone should have access to the means of production and women should not be enslaved by patriarchy it is good to hear in some places people are fighting for their own rights. I don't support their tactics of hurting or killing civilians, but I do see what they are fighting for.
The women of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker's Party) believe that without a dismantling of patriarchy no one is free. They have been branded as a terrorist organization by NATO, Turkey, Iraq and the United States. The PKK wants an independent Kurdish state in Kuridistan. The women's demands are simple,
"We want a natural life, a society that revolves around women -- one where women and men are equal, a society without pressure, without inequality, where all differences between people are eliminated," says Rengin, the head of a female battalion of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
Perhaps this is a leap of imagination for those socialized to think there is only certain types of right and wrong violence. We don't want violence in our communities or anyone else's. But given the context they are working with in, a country ravaged by war and a place where women are subject to inhumane conditions, I can actually empathize with their frustrations.
Revolutionary movements have been around for decades now, both using violent and non-violent tactics to fight for the world they want and generally focused on an anti-colonial stance (one notable example being the Zapatistas, who also believe in gender equity). We may not agree with them, but I think it is important to understand them.
So for those of us Feministing gals (Jessica, Vanessa and myself) that went to school in that sleepy upstate town known as Albany we all have a special place in our hearts for Barbara Smith. One of my most formative feminist "click" moments was seeing Barbara Smith lecture at SUNY Albany when I was a young women's studies undergrad (11 years ago, eeeek, LOL).
If you have never heard of her, well she is an anti-racist, feminist, socialist activist and one of the framers of early identity politics. Frankly, her humility extends so far that she rarely gets the recognition she deserves. I am sure her constant calling out of white feminism for their inability to truly incorporate an analysis of race and class certainly has kept her on the sidelines as well.
I was pretty excited to see that Colorlines magazine (always on top of it) has a Q&A with her and what she has been up to, including running for public office. Check it out.
When asked about the racial and gender dynamics for the race to the White House, she says,
It's déjà vu, the same thing all over again. We've seen some really negative responses to an historic primary campaign-with both a Black man and a white woman as frontrunners of the Democratic Party. The assertion that sexism is more pervasive or has worse effects than racism is not only invalid, but it sure alienates women of color from the dialogue. I want to be clear that Clinton was subjected to sexism and that Obama has been subjected to racism, and the recent attacks on Michelle Obama show that she was subjected to both.
The race/gender splits that we saw in the presidential primaries point to the lack of engagement with the complexities of how race plays itself out in the United Sates, especially in tandem with gender. Women from mainstream feminism never had any deep commitment to understanding issues of race or never felt any particular solidarity with women of color as women of color, instead of women painted colors. People who want to get past racism look at Black people as white people painted with color. They don't look at history, 400 years of white supremacy and the impact that has on people of color to this day in this country.
The police officer, Malalai Kakar, who was in her mid-40s with six children, was an iconic figure among women's groups in Afghanistan and abroad. Often profiled in the Afghan and foreign news media, she was one of the leading totems for the wider freedoms gained by women when the Taliban, with their repressive policies toward women, were ousted from power by an American-led coalition in 2001.
Ms. Kakar, with the rank of captain, was head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women. She joined the police in the city in 1982, following in the footsteps of her father and brothers, but was forced out after the Taliban captured Kandahar in the mid-1990s and barred all women from working.
She was the first female police officer in the country to return to work after the Taliban were ousted. Her commitment was particularly notable for the fact that it took place in Kandahar, which became the headquarters for the Taliban soon after the movement was formed in the early 1990s.
I would like to note that although this is problematic, I don't think an increase in military intervention will help the lived conditions of women in Afghanistan. Now is the time to listen to the women's groups of Afghanistan and find ways we can work in coalition with them. I have yet to see either candidate echo any sentiment such as that, but we can always hope and fight for it. Please post other resources in comments.
