Tag Archives: 2: Unfavorable

Gender

U.S. News | Women

Ohio governor signs abortion ban into law
  • The bill criminalizes abortion procedures after 20 weeks of gestation (currently 145 out of the nearly 21,000 abortions performed in Ohio), including because of rape, incest, or severe fetal anomalies.
  • Governor John Kasich vetoed a second controversial bill known as the “Heartbeat Bill” that would have banned abortion procedures as soon as a fetal pulse is detected, which occurs around six weeks of pregnancy (or around two weeks after a woman is able to determine her pregnancy status).
  • The bills emerged as anti-abortion activists have been emboldened by the election of Donald Trump, signaling what they believe will be a new era in abortion politics given the precariousness of the current Supreme Court makeup.

Read more:
“Gov. John Kasich vetoes Heartbeat Bill, signs 20-week abortion ban” (The Columbus Dispatch)
“Kasich vetoes ‘heartbeat bill,’ signs less restrictive abortion ban” (Cincinnati.com)

Related reads:
“Ohio’s governor is weighing 2 abortion bans. Nobody’s talking about the one he might actually sign.” (Vox)

Gender, Religion + Belief

Germany News | Muslim Women

Chancellor Merkel endorses partial ban on Islamic veils in Germany
  • Merkel’s announcement is the first public show of support for her party’s call for a ban on full-face veils in public spaces, a proposal Muslim women leaders have pointed out as unnecessary and inflammatory in a nation that already creates strong social pressure not to wear religious veils.
  • The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has proposed barring veils including the burqa and the niqab from public spaces including courts and educational institutions and during events such as traffic stops and police checks.
  • Merkel, who recently announced a run for a fourth term, has increasingly stressed “integration” and “law and order” amidst rising anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, and nationalist sentiments in the country.

Read more:
“Angela Merkel endorses party’s call for partial ban on burqa and niqab” (The Guardian)
“Angela Merkel Calls for Ban on Full-Face Veils in Germany” (The New York Times)
“Burqa bans: As Angela Merkel supports prohibition, survey shows how Muslim-majority countries feel about veils” (The Independent)

Related reads:
“What’s That You’re Wearing? A Guide to Muslim Veils” (The New York Times, May 2016)

(Image Credit: Michael Gottschalk/Photothek via Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Gender, Religion + Belief

The Netherlands News | Muslim Women

Partial ban on public dress in Islamic veils clears hurdle in the Netherlands
  • The Dutch lower house approved legislation that would ban the wearing of “face-covering clothing” including the burqa and the niqab, sending the bill to the Senate for final approval.
  • The ban, which would impose a more than €400 fine on offenders, would apply to public spaces including educational institutions, healthcare centers, public transportation, and government buildings.
  • Although data indicates only a few hundred women wear the veils, the legislation comes as a part of a wave of European legislation targeting traditional Islamic wear, including in France and Belgium.

Read more:
“Dutch parliament paves way for approval of partial Islamic veil ban” (AP via The Guardian)
“Burka ban backed by Dutch MPs for public places” (BBC)
“Dutch parliament approves partial burqa ban in public places” (The Independent)

(Image Credit: Getty Images, via BBC)

Ideology + Affiliation

Egypt News | Critics, Advocates & Journalists

Travel bans trap Egyptian activists in “giant prison”
  • Two prominent human rights advocates—Aida Seif al-Dawla and Azza Soliman—recently discovered they were barred from traveling in and out of Egypt as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi continues targeting civil society and human rights organizations.
  • Human rights monitors report that 217 people have been subject to travel bans between 2014 and 2016, 115 of whom are critics of the Sisi-led government.
  • Activists and journalists reported being met with deferral or radio silence when inquiring about the cause or origin of their bans, with the government denying a crackdown.

Read more:
“Egypt is giant prison, activists banned from travel say” (Reuters)
“Egypt imposes travel bans on human rights activists” (The Financial Times)
“A Top Egyptian Human Rights Activist Banned From Travel” (AP via The New York Times)

Religion + Belief

Slovakia News | Muslims

New legislation effectively bars Islam from official status in Slovakia for foreseeable future
  • Legislation from the Slovak National Party (SNS) passed through Parliament increasing the number of adherents required for state recognition from 20,000 to 50,000 in the Catholic-majority country.
  • Official status allows for religious communities to run their own schools and receive subsidies from the state.
  • There are only between 2,000 and 5,000 Muslims currently in the country, but anti-immigrant sentiment in the country has ratcheted fears of a massive overrun by immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.

Read more:
“Slovakia toughens church registration rules to bar Islam” (Reuters)

Related reads:
“PM Fico: Islam has no place in Slovakia” (The Slovak Spectator, May 2016)
“Slovakia’s leader said Islam has ‘no place’ in his country. Now he’s taking a leadership role in the E.U.” (The Washington Post, June 2016)

Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Hungary News | Muslims & LGBT

Hungarian city council adopts mayor’s proposal to ban Islamic and pro-LGBT expression
  • The ban encompasses the construction of mosques or other places of worship in the town of Ásotthalom that “undermine” the Catholic Church as well as forms of devotional expression including face- and hair-coverings and the call to prayer.
  • The ordinance also bans “public propaganda” depicting marriage as anything but the union of a man and a woman across all media forms.
  • The mayor of the town, site of a fence along the Hungarian-Serbian border, defended the ordinance as protection against the two “pagans” of migration and liberalism, but the Hungarian Islamic Community (MIK) was quick to denounce it as xenophobic.

Read more:
“Burqas, mosques, ‘gay propaganda’ all banned in Hungarian village” (RT)
“Hungarian Muslim group criticises town’s ‘xenophobic’ decree” (The Guardian)
“Hungarian City Bans Mosques, Burqas And Gay Marriage” (NewNowNext)

Additional reading:
“In Hungary’s migrant vote, only the turnout is in doubt” (Reuters, September 2016)

(Image Credit: Facebook, via NewNowNext)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Netherlands News | Black

More than 100 arrested during anti-Black Pete protest in the Netherlands
  • Despite a day-long ban, demonstrators took to a holiday festival in Maassluis to protest the ongoing national reverence for Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), a controversial figure black Dutch and allies say perpetuates racist stereotypes.
  • The figure has been under fire for years as its status as a national holiday tradition has been called into question for its ties to the Netherlands’ racist colonial history, including by the U.N.
  • Adding to the controversy is the frequency with which Black Pete is performed by white people in blackface in parades and other celebratory events.

Read more:
“Dutch police detain 100 Black Pete protesters” (AFP/Deutsche Welle)
“Dutch Santa’s black-faced helper stokes anti-racism protest, police arrest 100” (Africanews)
“Dutch race hate row engulfs presenter Sylvana Simons” (BBC)

(Image Credit: via Africanews)

Health + Ability, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Tanzania News | HIV+ Queer Men

Tanzania suspends funding for HIV/AIDS programs supporting queer men as crackdown grows
  • The country’s health minister indicated the programs had been suspended “pending a review,” while programs supporting adolescent girls, drug users, and others will continue uninterrupted.
  • The government has accused some community-based and internationally funded programs of normalizing same-sex relationships as part of their outreach to queer men, some 25% of whom are living with HIV.
  • Though same-sex relations are punishable by up to 30 years in prison in the country, the government only recently broke its silence on the issue to condemn groups “promoting” homosexuality, with a number of officials having announced anti-LGBT campaigns.

Read more:
“Tanzania suspends HIV/AIDS programs in new crackdown on gays” (The Washington Post)
“Tanzania suspends some HIV programs for gay men, says health minister” (The Thomson Reuters Foundation)
“‘Seeds of hate’ sown as Tanzania starts LGBT crackdown” (The Guardian, August 2016)

(Image Credit: Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

Ideology + Affiliation

Malaysia News | Artist-Critics

Popular Malaysian political cartoonist detained for work critical of PM
  • Zulkiflee Anwar Ulhaque, also known as Zunar, faces charges for cartoons allegedly insulting scandal-embroiled Prime Minister Najib Razak, the latest in a series of sedition charges he faces.
  • Zunar’s work has satirized Najib’s lavish lifestyle and the scandal involving the alleged diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from a Malaysian development fund into the PM’s personal bank account, which has led to Najib’s use of a colonial-era sedition law to quell critics’ dissent.
  • The detention came after the disruption of Zunar’s exhibition at the George Town Literary Festival, where Penang Umno Youth members stormed the festival and demanded the removal of his work.

Read more:
“Malaysian cartoonist ‘Zunar’ arrested at literary festival, charged with sedition – again” (Deutsche Welle)
“Malaysian political cartoonist Zunar arrested under sedition law” (Reuters)
“Mob storms cartoonist Zunar’s show” (The Malay Mail)

(Image Credit: Zunar, via Deutsche Welle)

Nationality + Migration

Bulgaria News | Asylum-Seekers

Riot at refugee camp in southern Bulgaria leads to crackdown and extraditions
  • More than 400 asylum-seekers detained in the camp at Harmanli in southern Bulgaria clashed with police, throwing stones and setting fire to furniture before police shot them with rubber bullets and a water cannon.
  • Local media had accused refugees at the camp, home to 3,000, of carrying infectious skin diseases, leading to their confinement to the camp and stoking outrage among the detained.
  • The Bulgarian government has initiated arrangements to deport those involved as nationalists have called for the closure of all refugee centers.

Read more:
“Bulgarian police fire rubber bullets during migrant camp riot” (The Guardian)
“After riot, Bulgaria to send migrants to closed camps, plans extraditions” (Reuters)
“Migrant crisis: Riot in Bulgaria’s largest refugee centre” (BBC)

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

Gender

Central America Feature | Women & Girls

Young Central American Women’s Fight to Flee

The situation for girls and young women in the “Northern Triangle” of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras has perhaps never been more dire. The persistence of organized crime, with its emphasis on patriarchy and the subjugation of women, has forced many women and girls from their homes, fueling a migration crisis in Mexico and the U.S. From education disruption to sexual slavery, young women have found their prospects circumscribed by a culture of entitlement, intimidation, and violence that severely limits women’s agency in the region. The Guardian investigates the conditions young women face in the region and

Read:
“‘It’s a crime to be young and pretty’: girls flee predatory Central America gangs” (The Guardian)

Additional:
“Central America’s rampant violence fuels an invisible refugee crisis” (The Guardian)

(Image Credit: via The Guardian)

Nationality + Migration

Iraq News | Refugees & Displaced Peoples

Mosul conflict displaces more than 68,000 in Iraq
  • The battle between the Islamic State and a coalition of Western, Arab-Iraqi, and Kurdish-Iraqi forces over one of Iraq’s largest cities has further fueled the migration crisis in the Middle East, with more than half of the displaced from Mosul children.
  • While Syria has borne the brunt of media myopia regarding migration coverage, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees have poured into the migration flows between the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.
  • Regardless of the outcome, analysts anticipate the fight for Mosul will create a migration surge that European countries will have to prepare for, either in accepting disaffected IS-affiliated citizens or refugees escaping the turmoil of the violence.

Read more:
“UN Reports Steady Increase in Mosul Displaced” (Voice of America)
“The Latest: UN says over 68,000 displaced by Mosul operation” (The Washington Post)
“How Mosul’s Liberation Could Send Shockwaves Across Europe” (TIME)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

U.S. News | Native Americans

Tensions escalate in North Dakota as protesters and police clash in Dakota Access Pipeline protests
  • Protesters reported police wielding tear gas and water cannons in the 23-degree weather after claiming the protests had dissolved into a “riot,” heightening already pronounced concerns about hypothermia in the below-freezing conditions.
  • Reports indicated that more than 150 were injured and at least seven hospitalized as a result of the confrontation.
  • More than 400 activists have been arrested since the standoff began over the ongoing dispute over the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Read more:
“Standing Rock protest: hundreds clash with police over Dakota Access Pipeline” (The Guardian)
“Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters Soaked by Water Cannons in Clash With Police” (The New York Times)
“Police, Protesters Clash Near Dakota Access Pipeline Route” (NPR)

(Image Credit: Stephanie Keith/Reuters, via The New York Times)

Religion + Belief

Myanmar Feature | Muslims

The Radical Intolerance of Fake News in Myanmar’s Internet Debut

The debate over fake news and disinformation took center stage in the post-election analysis in the U.S. Facebook in particular has come to stand as an avatar of disinformation tactics, with the rapid spread of factually incorrect stories on the social media platform having contributed, some analysts argue, to the outcome of the election. On the other side of the planet, Myanmar has seen its own struggles with digital information culture as it has begun rapidly digitizing in the wake of its transition to civic government in 2015. As conflict between Muslims and Buddhists in the majority-Buddhist nation has deepened in recent months, false and sensationalist stories masquerading as news have contributed to anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, further inflaming tensions.BuzzFeed News examines how Myanmar is integrating online information culture into both civic and everyday life as its complicated relationship to diversity, inclusion, and free expression is being challenged in countries with longer histories of online engagement.

Read:
“How Facebook Spreads Fake News And Anti-Muslim Views In Myanmar” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Minzayar Oo/BuzzFeed News)

Gender

Lebanon Feature | Women

The Enduring Civil Inequality of Lebanese Women

Lebanon’s complex civil status laws have given broad leeway for religious courts to adjudicate civil matters according to theological law, leaving a tangled relationship between church (or mosque) and state in disputes like divorce and child custody. Fatima Ali Hamzeh’s fight to retain custody of her three-year-old son after her husband married another woman while refusing to divorce her has revealed how the intertwined legal systems intersect to create significant disadvantages for women in what is considered to be one of the Middle East’s most progressive states. Global Voices highlights Hamzeh’s story and the women’s rights movement that has rallied around her to combat gender-based legal inequality in Lebanon.

Read:
“A Mother’s Fight for Her Son Exposes Lebanon’s Institutionalized Sexism” (Global Voices)

Additional:
“Hamzeh custody case draws Berri’s attention” (The Daily Star)

(Image Credit: via The Daily Star)