Month: April 2018

Chiapas, Mexico (WNV) – Dawn had only just broken over the mountains. While most of the women and children on the camping grounds were still asleep, others were already wide awake, huddling together in the first rays of sunlight and drinking coffee. To a casual observer, this place might have seemed similar to any mainstream festival campsite. A distinguishing factor, however, was that there wasn’t a single man in sight. The sign on the main entrance left no one in doubt that only women and children were welcome at this event:…

Syria (Sputnik) – This month marks five years since the famous Kurdish female self-defense squads arose. The women of Syrian Kurdistan have liberated themselves over the past years to an extent one could previously only dream about in the region. Sputnik has talked to Kurdish combat women about the Turkish operation in Northern Syria, Syrian Kurds’ political ambitions and battlefield feminism. ‘Radical Female Revolution’ It was the death of 26 year-old British female fighter Anna Campbell in a Turkish bombardment in Afrin that quickly reminded the public of the female self-defense squads. Being a female anarchist, feminist…

Thailand (GV) – Alarmed by the low number of women experts interviewed on mainstream media, UNESCO Bangkok has launched a website that links Thai journalists and researchers to female academics, government officials, corporate leaders, and NGO activists. The “Women Make the News” database was launched in 2017 to advance gender equality in the media and society. It provides a list of contacts of female experts to feature more women voices in news reports. UNESCO Bangkok cited a 2014 study by Thai Public Broadcasting Service which found that only one in…

Canada (Conversation) – Over the past few years, I have listened with interest to debates over moving Alberta-sourced natural resources to tidewater for export. Plans have come and, sometimes, gone. One plan that attracts heated responses is Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion proposal. If implemented, it would see the “twinning” of a pipeline running between Edmonton, Alberta and Burnaby, British Columbia. Provincial governments that should be good neighbours and political allies seem like anything but these days. Alberta’s NDP government argues that moving oilsands bitumen toward new markets is essential…