From The Independent:
A group of female students has been pasting sanitary towels on the walls of a Pakistani university in protest against the taboo over discussing menstruation in the country.
The six women and men [Mavera Rahim, Eman Suleman, Mehsum Basharat, Noor Fatima, Sherbaz Lehri, and Asad Sheikh], who study at Beaconhouse National University (BNU) in Lahore, wrote slogans on the towels such as “it’s something so natural” and “I’m not flawed or poorly made”.
In addition, they painted stains on their white kameezes (traditional dress shirt) and stood next to the hygiene products where they talked with male students explaining “nothing is gross, weird, or wrong”.
One of the students, Mavera Rahim, posted a picture of towels on Facebook. She explained: “The protest was against the stigma attached to menstruation and the sharmindagi [shame] with which we discuss it.
“We are made to put pads in brown paper bags when we buy them, we are made to talk about periods in hushed voices as if it’s a dirty secret, and all-in-all made to act as if it is something we should hide more so than other bodily functions, when it’s really a natural part of our biology.
“Our idea was to break this taboo around the subject in our society.”
The group said part of the inspiration for the protest was that Pakistani women contract diseases because “they are not fully informed of hygienic practices”.
Ms. Rahim told the Express Tribune newspaper that her brother and sisters are “very supportive”.
“This is not a campaign; this was merely an aesthetically based protest as a class project … Women face a lot of stigmatisation and ridicule for menstruation, something they have no control over,” she said.
“No, I’m not some shameless libertine, but I don’t think I should feel shame for this, even though I do feel very embarrassed and self-conscious about this whole experience.”
This work echoes a demonstration by students at Dehli’s Jamia Millia Islamia University in India who last year covered the establishment with sanitary towels to protest discrimination and sexual violence against women.
Eman Suleman, quoted from Scroll.in, had this response to the protest: “The response goes to show exactly why this is an important issue that needs to be addressed. Especially when girls too are disgusted by it. A friend of mine wrote ‘Internalized hatred is real, especially when you’ve been conditioned to view your healthy body functions as disgusting and unnatural’. It’s a life-long process to unlearn these behaviours, for women and men alike. I know that I’m still struggling with it. The patriarchy runs deep.”
The pads were up on the wall on April 7 and April 8.
(via euo)
Powerful photos expose the micro aggressions trans people face every day
Like so many other transgender individuals, Shane Henise is no stranger to microaggressions. But rather than continue to passively receive hurtful, ignorant statements daily, Henise decided to take a stand. His photos show the comments trans people hear constantly — including the all-too-familiar and invasive sex question.
(via chev-brakes-are-snarling)
Snapchat just updated its privacy policy and they can track your web browsing history, searches, how long you’ve been on those sites, cookies, and more cell phone data that’s not even remotely related to the snapchat app. also, Snapchat Terms of Service indicates that it has the rights to reproduce, modify and republish your photos and save those photos to Snapchat’s servers. this is a huge violation of privacy and i heavily urge you to delete the app
They can also, within the terms of service, save and reproduce your name, voice, and face in anything they want.
Reblog and save a life
don’t send nudes y'all
stick 2 texting
(via jamesa-shanese)
the president of nigeria is about to fuck boko haram up and cut his own salary in half and criminalized female genital mutilation
the president of guinea built/is building infrastructure and school and wells all over the country and is decreasing youth unemployment exponentially
the president of cote d’ivoire made school mandatory of children ages 6-16 and banned plastic bags while also building ultra modern trasportation infrastructure
the future is for real in africa
I think this should have a hell of a lot more notes on it than it does. This is what good news looks like folk, and the continent of Africa surely deserves a shed load of it.
Today (April 7th) is Remembrance Day for the Rwandan genocide. While Rwanda still faces challenges, their recovery has been incredible. They now have the highest percentage of women in parliament around the world (one of only two countries to have over 50% women), their gross national income has risen each year, and life expectancy has risen from 48 in 1990 to 65 in 2013.
(via liberal-hippietrash)
Not Famous Enough? Navajo Nation Loses Urban Outfitters Case
The largest tribe in the United States could not prove it was “famous” enough to win a trademark case against the hipster fashion giant.
The Navajo Nation lost two counts in a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Urban Outfitters because the tribe’s trademark is not “famous” enough, the court siding with the fashion giant’s argument that “Navajo” is a generic term for a style or design.
The Indigenous tribe—the largest in the United States—had to prove that the term “Navajo” is “widely recognized by the general consuming public of the United States” to move forward with the trademark dilution case, which few courts have been able to prove, said New Mexico’s District Judge Bruce Black on Friday.
This is so shitty.
this is the text book example of cultural appropriation.
(via itsagifnotagif)
i’m the nurses who tried to beat up a baby for laughing
I’m the tiny hands holding the abortion pills
I’m the baby speaking perfect english
(via lolsomeone-actually)
