NI 474 - July, 2014

Feminism fights back

A note from the editor

‘So, pink or blue?’

The sonographer was prodding my belly.

He grabbed a different ultrasound. ‘She’s using the wrong one,’ he said irritably of his colleague, standing next to him – who presumably had a name, and one that he knew.

Apparently the link to feminine pink or boyish blue – and associated life choices – starts in the womb, already established while my foetus was still gulping down amniotic fluid in preparation for breathing.

‘If you mean boy or girl,’ I said, with as much stiff dignity as I could muster, on my back, smeared in cold gel, with the sonographer’s hand resting casually on my crotch, ‘then yes, I would like to know.’ After more prodding, her sex was revealed: it was a girl!

Growing a girl, while I work on this feminism edition, brought the issues into sharper focus. It’s the world I have experienced as a woman in my lifetime and it’s the one that awaits her too. I wonder, how will she navigate the vagaries of consent? Persistent inequality?

But while concerned about what she’ll be up against, I have also been impressed by the fantastic women whose work is likely to make the world that bit more equal by the time she starts to make her way in it.

We were lucky to be able to draw on the expertise and experience of all-round internationalist feminist, the writer Hannah Pool, who has acted as Contributing Editor for this edition.

Women are celebrated throughout this magazine – Mixed Media reviews solely female authors and filmmakers, and this month we’ve elected to highlight Yemeni political activist Tawakkol Karman in Agenda. We are also excited to welcome comedian Kate Smurthwaite, who has a beef with cupcakes.

Elsewhere in the issue we check back in with developments in Haiti and analyse the propaganda war in Ukraine.

Hazel Healy for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Girls strike a pose for an advert for GoldieBox. One of the companies bucking the gendered toy divide, it makes engineering toys for girls.

Photo: Nick UT/AP/Press Association Images

NI 474 - July, 2014

Feminism fights back

A note from the editor

‘So, pink or blue?’

The big story

Women’s rights has got its mojo back – and not a minute too soon. Hazel Healy takes stock of the challenges ahead.

Features

Facts for feminists - the twists and turns along the road to equality.

Nimko Ali is a brave, straight-talking, Somali British woman, who is revitalizing the campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM).

From empowerment-lite to love-jihad, Rahila Gupta explores the perils of hijacked feminist agendas.

What can different generations of feminists learn from one another? Leading Indian grassroots activist and author, 68-year-old Kamla Bhasin, connects with 16-year-old Londoner Lilinaz Evans, co-founder of the Twitter Youth Feminist Army. Facilitated by Hannah Pool.

Ikamara Larasi dismantles one-sided caricatures of black women in pop culture.

Bloggers, activists and artists share their favourite books.

Powerful, persuasive words and images in Ukraine’s information war have led to casualties of truth on all sides. Lily Hyde observes how, as Crimea and East Ukraine break away, a war of words turns lethal.

The TV cameras have long departed, but four years after the earthquake, Haiti remains a country in crisis. Brian Fitzpatrick and Michael Norby report from Port-au-Prince on how hunger and violence rule the roost in a situation nearing boiling point.

Blogs

Andrew Smith speaks to Nicholas Gilby, author, campaigner and winner of a landmark case against the British government.

Opinion

Feminist blogger Danielle Leigh and filmmaker and former model Susan Hess Logeais go head to head.

Fifty years ago the Civil Rights Act was passed into law in the US. Movements not governments propel change, believes Mark Engler.

By Kate Smurthwaite.

Agenda

Regulars

Bangui’s main market is the pulse of the city. Ruby Diamonde goes shopping.

Cartoon by Simon Kneebone.

Country profile of Rwanda.

Igor Lukyanchenko from Ukraine with ‘Change of Perspective’.

Cartoon by P J Polyp.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts.

The bass player, composer and songwriter with Malian ‘desert blues’ band Tinariwen talks about his first guitar, instability in Mali and his hopes for an autonomous Tuareg territory.

Film, Book & Music Reviews

A pick of top films by women directors.

Queen Between by Susheela Raman; Tzenni by Noura Mint Seymali.

A Cut-like Wound by Anita Nair; Sworn Virgin by Elvira Dones; The Hidden Light of Objects by Mai Al-Nakib; and The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon.

A few more reviews that didn't quite make the 'best of' list.

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