From work: Sarah Jaffe on New Orleans 4 years after the flood

In my biased opinion, this piece on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was very, very good. It’s easy to forget New Orleans if you’re not actually in it, right? I’m not going to give you any platitudes about poverty and disaster, you can say them in your head already. Just, you know, let’s all pauseContinue reading “From work: Sarah Jaffe on New Orleans 4 years after the flood”

What Luma witnessed: the sacred status of male abusers in Jordan (and how it hurts both men and women)

When something like this happens in public in Amman, I think it highlights one of the main reasons why the so-called honour killing law has still not been changed. Family is turned on its head, and the reverence for family becomes a reverence for psychological and physical abuse. Of course, the situation described is alsoContinue reading “What Luma witnessed: the sacred status of male abusers in Jordan (and how it hurts both men and women)”

In a society where married men feel free to hit on young girls…

Women get stabbed to death for much less. The post-mortem virginity tests on the bodies of honour crime victims are just another kind of violation, methinks. It shouldn’t matter if a woman was having an affair or not. Her precious life was deemed worthless, and that’s the only thing that matters. Jordanian society is lopsidedContinue reading “In a society where married men feel free to hit on young girls…”

Delwar Hussain on homophobia in Tower Hamlets: hmmmmm

The awesome Andrea tweeted a link to this piece by Delwar Hussain on Comment Is Free, and as much as I think the author’s intentions are good, his attempts at making sense of the homophobic violence plaguing the multicultural Tower Hamlets borough result in several assumptions that just don’t sit right with me. First ofContinue reading “Delwar Hussain on homophobia in Tower Hamlets: hmmmmm”