Monday, July 6, 2009

The new feminism: life and death

Thanks to Paul Sheehan for finding a woman warrior with doom and gloom fit for my current mood. I'm revving up for a big issue on girls in sport, but till then just remember. Abortion is still an issue of legalities in Australia. There is a campaign abreast to remove abortion entirely from the statutes and make it a personal and medical matter.

Paul Sheehan's excerpt on Malalai Joya... "For many women, the difference between life and death is a piece of string, a clean razor blade, a fresh bandage and a bar of soap. That's why a pitiful amount of money can save a woman, or a newborn baby, or both. And that's why, while the Australian government is expending hundreds of millions of dollars fighting a war in Afghanistan, civilian volunteers in Australia are sending thousands of simple birthing kits (bandage, blade, string, soap, plastic sheet) to Afghanistan, because it is one of the most oppressive places in the world to be a woman.

Last Wednesday, 500 people gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney for a glimpse of this reality. The event was sold out. The speaker was a young, attractive former member of the Afghan parliament, Malalai Joya, 31, the author of a new memoir, Raising My Voice. She gave the audience a taste of the new front line of feminism, the women fighting and dying for their freedom." .. continued

Posted via web from andragy's posterous

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