women’s rights

An Imran Khan victory bodes poorly for Pakistani women

If, as Imran Khan claims, his party — the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — is victorious in the Pakistani general election, the women of that nation may face a disastrous era of gender discrimination and repression. The clues that Khan’s ascent bodes poorly for Pakistani women can be found in the…

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The taboo of talking about periods

Talking openly about menstruation is like uttering Voldemort’s name—eye’s get big, voices drop to a whisper and phrases such as, “you know what” get used in place of the name. With all of this in mind, and using the energy stirred up by a viral hashtag from 2015, a group of…

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Women in Aleppo Choose Suicide Over Rape

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops swept into eastern Aleppo on Monday, recapturing nearly all of the rebel held areas. With the help of Russian forces and Shiite militias under Iranian command, the regime launched a relentless assault has resulted in wanton slaughter. As the 100,000 people packed into roughly five square…

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Remembering Beijing

Twenty years ago this month, I attended an event that changed my life.  On the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and on the anniversary of Hillary Clinton’s speech there, I wanted to share my reflections on an inspiring and unforgettable experience. Twenty years later, the images…

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Gender Dynamics of the Upper East Side

“A wife bonus, I was told, might be hammered out in a pre-nup or post-nup, and distributed on the basis of not only how well her husband’s fund had done but her own performance — how well she managed the home budget, whether the kids got into a “good” school…

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Amanda Quraishi

My passion is service-based interfaith activism: working with people from different faith traditions on community service projects or other meaningful activities that build social capital. Who are you? I grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness (small sect in Christianity) in a very interesting but unstable family. We moved around a…

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Kulsoom Abdullah

 I have been Olympic Weightlifting for four years, and participating in Crossfit for two.  I launched my website LiftingCovered.com to document my experiences weightlifting in U.S. national competitions.   Who Are you? I was born in Kansas City but my family comes from the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa region of Pakistan.  I…

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