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North America | United States | Activism

Today, This Grandmother Is Going to Jail for Peacefully Protesting the US Drone War

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On Tuesday, a New York grandmother returned to jail on previous charges filed against her for protesting U.S. drone warfare in 2013. Mary Anne Grady Flores, 58, was photographing other activists as they peacefully protested armed drones at the Syracuse Hancock Air Base in February 2013. Judges in the town of DeWitt, where the base is located, had issued “orders of protection” to activists in order to keep them away from the base. Under these orders, often issued by courts to protect victims of domestic violence, Col. Earl A. Evans, a commander at the base, was construed as a “victim�
Latin America | Brazil | Activism

Brazilian women react after sexual comments are directed at a 12-year-old girl

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Women in Brazil are reflecting on their own childhood experiences - and sharing these stories on the internet in big numbers. It begun with a sordid episode on Twitter as the nation watched the junior version of Masterchef, the globally popular TV cooking competition. One of the contestants on the programme was 12-year-old Valentina Shulz and during one episode, several men started tweeting suggestive messages about her online using the show's hashtag. "Does anyone know the Twitter of Valentina? She will date me if she wants it or not," wrote one user. "If she wants it, it's not paedophilia
Middle East | Iraq | Activism

Iraqi City Bans Festival As It Draws Criticism For Mixing Men and Women

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An Iraqi city banned a color festival and erected concrete barriers around a park as the festival would have allowed for the mixing of men and women. According to Agence France‑Presse, Murtada al-Shahmani, a member of the city’s provincial council, said the decision to cancel the festival in Basra, Iraq was out of respect for families who were mourning the deaths of loved ones at the hands of the Islamic State. Those “without conscience or hearts or morals come to hold mixed-sex festivals that bring them out to be joyful, and the families of the martyrs see them and weep for thei
Asia | Hong Kong | Activism

Hong Kong bra protest after woman jailed for ‘breast assault’

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Dozens of activists including men wearing bras staged a protest in Hong Kong on Sunday after a woman was sentenced to three-and-a-half months' jail for assaulting a police officer with her breast. Around 100 people gathered for the light-hearted "breast walk" protest outside police headquarters in Wan Chai district, with some holding up bras and others wearing them over their tops. "We better watch out as one day police might accuse us of attacking with our penis or buttock," a topless male activist wearing a black bra told the crowd. Retired teacher James Hon, 66, wearing a pink bra ov
Middle East | Israel | Activism

NGO to Supreme Court: Protect women’s rights at mikveh

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An Israeli advocacy NGO has asked Israel’s Supreme Court to protect women’s rights at the mikveh, or ritual bath. The ITIM Advocacy Center filed a complaint with the court Sunday on behalf of 13 married Orthodox women against the Chief Rabbinate and the Jerusalem Religious Council, calling for women to be allowed to use the mikveh according to their personal customs and without supervision or with their own attendant if they wish. The organization charges that Israel’s Chief Rabbinate is not implementing directives passed last year that enable women to use the mikveh facilities wit
North America | United States | Activism

Filmmaker Laura Poitras Sues US Over ‘Kafkaesque’ Harassment

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Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Laura Poitras on Monday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. intelligence agencies for subjecting her to what she called "Kafkaesque" harassment at airports throughout the U.S. and the world on dozens of occasions. Poitras, who won an Academy Award last year for Citizenfour, the documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, said she has been detained, searched without warrant, interrogated for hours, and had vital belongings confiscated more than 50 times over the course of six years—without ever being charged w
Africa | Morocco | Activism

Amnesty condemns trial of Moroccan women who wore ‘too tight’ dresses

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Amnesty International has condemned a Moroccan court’s decision to put two women who were wearing dresses on trial for indecent exposure as “part of a pattern of discriminatory laws” in the kingdom. The women, aged 23 and 29, were arrested in the southern city of Agadir in mid-June after walking around a market in outfits deemed to be provocative by passersby. In the police report, the women, both hairdressers, were said to have been wearing clothes that were “too tight”. Liz McKean, the director for women’s human rights at Amnesty International UK, said on Tuesday: “It’s
Middle East | Kuwait | Activism

Kuwait court orders female activist jailed for criticizing emir

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A Kuwaiti court sentenced a female rights activist to three years in jail on Sunday after convicting her in absentia of publicly criticizing the oil-rich Gulf state's ruler. The lower court convicted Rana Jassem al-Saadun of repeating parts of a speech made by prominent opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak for which he is serving a two-year jail term, according to the ruling. Saadun, a founding member of rights group the National Committee for Monitoring Violations, told the judge in March that she repeated the speech not because she supported its content but in defense of freedom of ex
South Asia | Indonesia | Activism

Calls for lifting of female curfew in Indonesia’s Aceh

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Many working women hope Jakarta will reverse night-time restrictions and give them back their freedom of movement. Activists in Indonesia are voicing their opposition to a partial curfew imposed on women earlier this month in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. The provincial government says the new rule, which mandates that females working or visiting nightspots must return home by 11pm, is meant to protect women from sexual harassment and prevent them from being overworked. But opponents of the regulation say the curfew not only takes away the basic freedom of movement but repre
Middle East | Iran | Activism

Women’s Rights Activist On Trial in Iran

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Atena Farghadani, a 29-year-old Iranian painter and women's rights activist, is on trial in Tehran, Iran. She is charged with spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, insulting MPs and insulting the supreme leader, but she is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience. She is known to have spoken against restrictions to access to contraception, for meeting with the families of political prisoners, and for drawing cartoons deemed insulting to the Iranian regime and leaders. She was previously arrested in August 2014, liberated in December 2014 and
Asia | Korea | Activism

NKorean defectors ask women activists to be stopped at border

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North Korean defectors requested an international group of women activists that includes Gloria Steinem be stopped from crossing the DMZ after North Korea claimed two of the activists outwardly praised Kim Il Sung. An article in Thursday's Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's state newspaper, said the Women Cross DMZ delegates toured Mangyongdae, the designated birthplace of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung on Wednesday. According to North Korea, during the tour Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire said she was "highly touched" after learning about Kim Il Sung's revolutionary life. Women
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Activism

Saudi activists cancel women ‘drive-in’ plan

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Activists pressing to end Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving have dropped plans for a "drive-in" on Saturday after threats of  legal action and have opted instead for an open-ended campaign. "Out of caution and respect for the interior ministry's warnings ... we are asking women not to drive tomorrow and to change the initiative from an October 26 campaign to an open driving campaign," activist Najla al-Hariri told AFP news agency on Friday. Several women said they had received telephone calls from the ministry, which openly warned on Thursday of measures against activists who chose t
Middle East | Iran | Activism

Leading Activist Arrested Ahead of Her Trial for Peaceful Civil Activities

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Narges Mohammadi is Transferred to Evin Prison Civil rights activist and Deputy Director of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center, Narges Mohammadi, was arrested at her home in Tehran in the early hours of  May 5, 2015, the Kaleme website, which is close to Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, reported. The report also stated that unidentified security agents threatened Ms. Mohammadi with breaking the door to enter her home. Ms. Mohammadi was reportedly transferred to Evin Prison. The reasons for Ms. Mohammadi’s arrest are not clear. She had appeared before Branch 15 of

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