Monthly Archives: March 2016

Religion + Belief

Pakistan News | Christians

Pakistani Taliban kills scores in Easter suicide attack in Lahore targeting Christians
  • At least 69 have been killed and 300 injured by a suicide attack at a park in Lahore, Pakistan’s second largest city and a cultural center of the country.
  • Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility and confirmed that Christians had been the target of the attack.
  • The park was packed with families for the Easter holiday, with many of the victims women and children.

Read more:
“Suicide blast kills at least 69 in Lahore park” (The Express Tribune)
“Explosion at Park in Lahore, Pakistan, Kills Dozens” (The New York Times)
“Taliban faction says carried out suicide bomb attack on Pakistan park, says Christians were target” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: AFP, via The Express Tribune)

Nationality + Migration

Global Feature | Palestinian-Syrian Refugees

Syria’s Stateless Refugees

More than half a million in number, Syrian-born Palestinians face a unique and particularly challenging vulnerability when applying for refugee status. While they have been born in Syria, many lack Syrian citizenship (and thus a Syrian passport) due to Syria’s citizenship laws as well as the desire to maintain their Palestinian nationality to retain the right to return to Palestine. Most of Syria’s neighbors have traditionally denied entry to Palestinians as part of complex politics resulting from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As residents of Syria, Palestinian Syrians have faced the same circumstances as other Syrian refugees, and immigration officials have been instructed to extend the same consideration to Palestinian Syrians as other Syrians. Al Jazeera investigates cracks in the process of asylum application and other challenges faced by Palestinian-Syrian refugees.

Read more:
“Palestinian Syrians: Twice refugees” (Al Jazeera)

Additional reading:
“Palestinian Refugees from Syria” (Inter Press Service)
“Arab Countries Are Forcing Palestinian Exiles Back Into Syria” (The Daily Beast)

(Image Credit: UNRWA via AP, via Al Jazeera)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Brazil News | Indigenous Peoples

Study shows 90% of indigenous peoples in Amazonian Brazil suffering from mercury poisoning
  • Illegal gold mining in northern Brazil has contaminated the water and food sources of at least 19 different Yanomami and Yekuana communities along with Nahua tribes in Peru.
  • In addition to the rise of illegal mining over the last three decades, uncontacted Yanomami communities have faced environmental crises and decades-old controversies over the status of their blood used for genetic testing by American anthropologists.
  • The study was a joint project of Brazilian health foundation Fiocruz, the Hutukara Yanomami Association, the Yekuana Association, and Brazilian NGO Socio-Environmental Institute.

Read more:
“Mercury poisoning of Amazon Indians: alarming new statistics revealed” (Survival)
“90% of Indigenous in Brazil’s Amazon Suffer Mercury Poisoning” (teleSUR English)
“Indigenous tribe’s blood returned to Brazil after decades” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Fiona Watson/Survival)

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Germany Feature | Women & Refugees

Securing Women’s Bodies in Germany

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of women were grabbed and sexually assaulted by a group of mostly Algerian and Moroccan men during holiday festivities in Cologne. In the fallout, a contentious international debate exploded, impacted by ongoing tension over Germany’s refugee policy. While both sides have accused the other of information distortion for political purposes, some feminists have shifted the focus to the lax laws that enable such sexual assaults to take place, arguing that such violence has been a problem since long before refugees arrived. With a mere 13% of rape cases resulting in conviction, advocates have sought to change laws that require evidence of overwhelming offensive and defensive physical force for a case to be considered rape. BuzzFeed News examines the intersection of sexism, racism, xenophobia, and feminism in the fight to secure women’s sexual agency and refugee integration in Germany.

Read more:
“Why The New Year’s Attacks On Women In Germany Weren’t Even A Crime” (BuzzFeed News)

Additional reading:
“Germany tightens rape law in wake of Cologne assaults” (AFP via The Local)
“Germany to tighten rape laws in wake of Cologne attacks” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed News)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Latvia Feature | LGBT

The Rise of “Family Values” Activism in Latvia

Caught between the Western-democratic values of the EU and conservative nationalists and Kremlin supporters, Latvia has seen a surge in so-called family values activism in recent years. Activists have increasingly targeted LGBT rights and visibility as symptoms of cultural decline, and anti-LGBT sentiment has been connected to wide-ranging issues including the rights of Latvia’s Russian minority, abortion, corporal punishment, and academic freedom. EurasiaNet investigates how groups like Asociācija Ģimene (Family), Mūsu bērnu (Our Children), Dzimta (Kin), and Sargāsim mūsu bērnus! (Let’s Protect Our Children!) have grown their reactionary causes, including the influence of Russia’s hard-line anti-gay, “pro-family” campaign next door.

Read more:
“Looking at Latvia’s Cultural Fault Line” (EurasiaNet)
“The ABC of ‘Traditional’ Values Activism” (EurasiaNet)

(Image Credit: Dean C.K. Cox/EurasiaNet)

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

Brazil Feature | Women

The Coerced Pregnancies of Brazilian Women

As cases of Zika infection and newborn microcephaly have exploded in heavily Catholic and evangelical Brazil, the country’s tough abortion laws—preventing the procedure except in cases of rape, maternal health endangerment, and child inviability—have come back into the international spotlight. Legislators have proposed the possible prison sentence for women who undergo an abortion from one to three years to four-and-a-half for women who abort because of detected microcephaly, with doctors facing up to 15 years. Brazil’s class divide has exacerbated healthcare restrictions, constraining women of less means to life-threatening procedures (including black market pills, Internet-advised intervention, acid injections, and self-attempted extraction)  while wealthy women enjoy access to overseas healthcare and hidden networks of clinics and doctors. Vocativ takes a look at the dire straits Brazilian women seeking an abortion find themselves in and attempts to gain reproductive rights.

Read more:
“From Sketchy Pills To Upscale Clinics: Illegal Abortion In Brazil” (Vocativ)

Additional reading:
“Brazilian Legislators Look to Increase Abortion Penalties in the Wake of Zika Outbreak” (TIME)
“Illegal abortions claim lives of Brazilian women” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Chrisophe Simon/AFP/Getty Images, via Vocativ)

Ideology + Affiliation, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Malaysia News | Artists & LGBT

Malaysian film banned for LGBT and government-mocking storylines
  • Banglasia, directed by Malaysian YouTube star Namewee, was banned by the government for “mocking national security issues” and highlighting “negative sociocultural lifestyles such as lesbian gay bisexual transgender (LGBT).”
  • The film focuses on a diverse group of people overcoming their differences and took comedic aim at controversial political events from Malaysia’s history.
  • A Kickstarter campaign to recoup lost finances and secure an Internet release for the film stalled.

Read more:
“Ministry: ‘Banglasia’ film banned for ridiculing national security, promoting LGBT” (The Malay Mail)
“Malaysian film promoting LBGT rights banned for ‘mocking national security’” (The Guardian)
Banglasia trailer (YouTube)

Gender, Health + Ability

Palestine Feature | Women

Video

Hair and Hope for Palestine’s Cancer Victims

teleSUR English profiles an effort by the Aid and Hope Program to provide Palestinian women who have experienced hair loss during cancer treatment with wigs. With cancer the second-leading cause of death in Gaza, the campaign, entitled Be Beautiful, addresses the physiological and psychological effects of chemotherapy among the many afflicted women.

View the video on teleSUR English’s YouTube channel.

Health + Ability

South Africa Feature | Autism

Video

Parenting Autistic Children in South Africa

In South Africa, parents of children on the autism spectrum struggle to find support as they attempt to manage the difficulties of parenting children with special needs. Part one of an SABC News special report highlights challenges facing both children and parents, including abandonment, institutionalization, symptom management, controversial treatments, and a lack of resources in the country.

View the video on the SABC Digital News YouTube channel.

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Undocumented Immigrants

New Mexico university recruits undocumented students as student activists continue to fight for reform
  • Silver City–based Western New Mexico University has begun an outreach program to recruit undocumented students, a group known as DREAMers after the proposed legislation providing a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.
  • Undocumented students face uncertain prospects for higher education because of their status, with financial aid restrictions and legal precarity constraining their prospects.
  • As colleges face declining enrollments, undocumented students have seen their appeal to admissions offices increase, while students across the country fight for visibility and legal reform.

Read more:
“New Mexico College Seeks Immigrant Students in US Illegally” (AP via ABC News)
“Undocumented students come out of the shadows” (USA Today)
“The Folly of Under-Educating the Undocumented” (The Atlantic)

Nationality + Migration

U.K. & France News | Migrants & Refugees

U.K. faces refugee surge as France continues Calais camp dismantlement
  • France has begun evicting an estimated 3,500 refugees from the makeshift camp outside of Calais, one of the most prominent symbols of refugee marginalization across Western Europe.
  • U.K. border officials have discovered refugees coming from France in trucks as part of a surge in those attempting to reach the U.K., including an increase in unaccompanied minors.
  • Refugees pay high prices graded by their means to smugglers, who face comparatively lax screenings of their trucks.

Read more:
“Calais camp demolitions ‘forcing more refugees to make crossing to UK’” (The Guardian)
“As France Razes Calais Camp, Some Ask Where Migrants Will Go” (The New York Times)
“Clashes break out as France begins clearing Calais migrant camp” (Reuters)

(Image Credit: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters, via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Belgium News | Foreigners

Brussels bombings claims victims from some 40 countries
  • The IS-connected airport and subway bombings in the Belgian capital has left 31 dead and 316 injured to date.
  • Victims have been identified from countries including China, France, India, the Netherlands, Peru, the U.K., and the U.S.
  • Identification has proven difficult given the attack of heavily international bloodlines in the city, as both the open nature of the attacked spaces and the international effort required to obtain material needed for identification slow efforts.

Read more:
“Brussels bombings claim casualties from over 40 countries” (Reuters)
“Here Are The Victims Of The Brussels Attacks” (BuzzFeed News)
“Brussels attacks victims may not be identified for weeks” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty, via The Guardian)

Gender, Nationality + Migration

Thailand Feature | Migrant Burmese Women

Video

Working Under Threat

As Burmese women have crossed Myanmar’s southeastern border to pursue undocumented domestic work in Thailand, the attractiveness of relatively high wages has been offset by the threat of exploitation at the hands of their employers. The lack of legislation protecting foreign domestic workers has left them vulnerable to mobility restrictions, overworking, and isolation. Migrant advocacy groups struggle to connect with the women, who are housed in private homes and prevented from participating in the public sphere. Voice of America provides a brief look at some of the challenges the women face while seeking opportunity across the border.

View the video on VOA News’s YouTube channel.

Health + Ability

U.S. News | Mental Illness

Texas prepares to execute man despite recognition of mental illness
  • Adam Ward was convicted of the 2005 murder of a code enforcement officer and sentenced to death, now set to become the fifth person executed in Texas in 2016.
  • On appeal, the federal district court acknowledged Ward’s documented bipolar disorder and paranoid delusions, which had been recognized and treated off and on since Ward was 3, but argued that it was insufficient to disqualify him from the death penalty.
  • Ward’s lawyers have appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, including an argument that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Read more:
“Execution Set For Man Courts Recognize as Mentally Ill” (The Texas Tribune)
“Texas Set To Execute Man Amid Claims Of ‘Severe Mental Illness’” (BuzzFeed News)
“Texas to execute Adam Ward unless Supreme Court intervenes” (AP via AL.com)

(Image Credit: tdcj.state.tx.us, via BuzzFeed News)

Ideology + Affiliation, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Honduras News | Indigenous Activists

Indigenous activist murdered days after famous campaigner in Honduras
  • Nelson García, member of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), was gunned down on his way to his family home.
  • His murder follows that of fellow activist Berta Cáceres, the co-founder of COPINH killed in her home after having received threats from police and anonymous individuals.
  • The deaths come as government officials have subjected COPINH affiliates to illegal surveillance and coercive detention, part of an anti-environmentalist environment in Honduras that saw more than 100 killed between 2010 and 2014.

Read more:
“Fellow Honduran activist Nelson García murdered days after Berta Cáceres” (The Guardian)
“Another Member of Berta Caceres’ Group Assassinated in Honduras” (teleSUR English)
“Berta Cáceres, Honduran human rights and environment activist, murdered” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)