Feminist Activist: Welcome to 2012!

First of all, I want to thank you, my readers, for gifting Feminist Activism with more than 92,000 views last year! And already January has seen over 5,000 views… only 3,000 more until we have a party for turning 100,000! Thank you for your continued readership and support; for liking and sharing this blog and participating in the comments. As always, I want your voice heard too, so feel free to chime in with advice, information, criticism or suggestions.

Even after only one month 2012 has proven to be an important year. Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords (D-Arizona), who was shot in the head last year in a misogyny-driven attack, resigned from Congress to continue on her road to recovery.

After last year’s constant battle against legislative misogyny-driven attacks against reproductive justice in the United States, this year we all must be vigilant in ensuring that laws that are meant to protect us are not taken away. We also have the shame of battling against ridiculous Republican bills designed to distract us from their War on Women.

But on the bright side *sarcasm* Jay-Z has discovered misogyny after becoming a father to a little girl and will no longer use the word „bitch“ in his music. See this piece to learn why so many of us are not impressed with his grand gesture.

Outside the US 2012 has already heated up too.

The Canadian government, in a move that further divides the LGBTQAI communities of Canada and the rest of the world, has recently decided same-sex marriages of foreigners performed in Canada are invalid.

Women in Afghanistan are still facing the same violations of their human rights as they were when the US invaded „to liberate them.“ Police in Afghanistan arrested a woman on charges of strangling her daughter-in-law to death for giving birth to a third daughter and not a son. And rape victims there, while thankfully not being executed for being raped, are still being forced to marry their rapists.

In Juarez, Mexico women are still being murdered in the string of femicides that began in 1993 and has claimed an estimated 400 (but possibly as many as 5,000) women’s lives.

For more information on human rights abuses in Canada, Afghanistan, Mexico and around the world see the 2012 Human Rights Watch World Report.

Obviously there is a lot of work to do already to ensure that 2012 does not end in the massive global violation of human rights that 2011 did. But although internet censorship bills, the slaughter of Syrians, the forgotten famine in Africa, and the potential election of a Republican in the US give me reason to worry about 2012, I am confident that as long as we stand together and keep fighting for equality, education and human rights, this year will definitely be brighter than last.

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