Women

This new DVD offering from Undercurrents - released on 8 March to mark International Women's Day - compiles nine short films produced by women film-makers. Includes Helen Iles award winning Life Before Death, which reflects on women's experience of terminal illness and brief shorts taking a, sometimes humorous, look at topics such as ID cards, the mental health system, disability, the Clown Army and direct action against nuclear waste shipments in Germany. An eclectic mix and an ongoing…

On Friday 25 November, more than 500 women marched in the evening through the streets of central London to protest against rape and male violence. This Reclaim The Night march was organised by the London Feminist Network and supported by The Lilith Project and tens of other organisations both national and international.

It was particularly apt timing, given the recent news from an ICM Poll commissioned by Amnesty International, which found that over a third of people surveyed…

I stumbled across this book in the early nineties after listening to the track of the same name, on Consolidated's album Friendly Fascism, in which Adams reads passages from her book.

Having lived in a women-only non-meat-eating community, the ideas expressed in this book - linking the objectification of women and non-human animals - were not exactly news, however the uncompromising delivery, the musical collaboration, and the use of historical literature through which to explore the…

Name: Women in Black

Aims and objectives: Women in Black (WiB) is a worldwide network of women committed to peace with justice, which actively opposes, and makes the links between, male violence, militarism and war.

What is WiB: WiB has a feminist understanding that male violence against women in domestic life and in war are related. WiB aims to bring a feminist perspective to the opposition to war and other forms of violence, focussing on the effects of war on women, and to…

It is now ten years since the Army of the Republic of Srpska, with the support of the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, killed more than 8,000 Bosniaks in and around Srebrenica. All in the uniforms of the state we live in; therefore, in our name.

Sandwiched between International Conscientious Objectors' Day (15 May), and International Day for Children as Victims of War (4 June), is another opportunity for action: 24 May, International Women's Day for Peace and Disarmament (IWDPD).

This day began in Europe in the early 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of women organised against nuclear weapons and the arms race. Activists in the then-numerous women's peace groups declared the day in order to stimulate even more women's…

As Peace News went to press, hundreds of protesters remained on the streets of Uzbekistan, following mid-May's unrest and subsequent massacre by government troops. Sian Glaessner has been talking with the founder of the Uzbek organisation

Women in Black, London group, during the run-up to the general election invited passers-by to question the candidates of all parties on their attitudes to specific issues of militarism and war. Women stated their inten-tion to vote, among other things, for

On 8 March International Women's Day was marked around the world.

In London between 50 and 80 women gathered at the Edith Cavell statue opposite St Martin in the Fields. A silent vigil was paralleled with singing, drumming and readings.

Leaflets, flowers and rosemary were offered to women passing by - many of whom were visibly touched to receive gifts as they hurried home from work!

I first got involved in women's liberation in 1970 and stayed very active for the next 20 years, including ten years as a member of the Feminism and Nonviolence Study Group.

I never gave up on activism or being a radical feminist, but for the following ten years I concentrated almost entirely on campaigning in my local community--fighting for childcare provision and against rampant cuts in local authority spending. Over that period (roughly the 1990s) I kept being told that the…

In January, Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) participated in the Feminist Dialogues II and the World Social Forum 2005. Discussions focused on militarisation and war, fundamentalisms and neo-liberal globalisation, underlining the strategies that the women's movement has used or may use in the future to confront those forces. WLUML issued a statement which called on the democratic movement at large, on the anti-globalisation movement gathered in Porto Alegre and, specifically, on the…

Most PN readers would, I hope, be at least aware of the issue of the “missing women” of India and China and the growing problem of gender imbalance in the populations of these two huge countries. The increasing use of sex-selective abortion as an apparently more socially acceptable option than female infanticide is the latest twist to this tale, the chilling use of modern medical technologies to eliminate socially and economically undesirable girl children.

As a woman and a feminist…

The fact that George W Bush's military record (or lack of) is of such concern to the US public (or certainly the US and international media), illustrates how militarised masculinity continues to be seen as a criterion on which the ability to lead a country is judged. Pitched up against a “real” veteran, even George W, leader of the “war on terror” has been found wanting.

The US peace movement needs our help.
More information and contacts at:…

Did 9/11 force us to redefine our understanding of “war zones”, and acknowledge that the continuum of war and violence has no temporal or spatial boundaries?

As the editors of Terror, Counter-Terror argue, feminists have long been involved in identifying and challenging the continuum of violence experienced by women, and are in a unique position to address the issues of militarism and terrorism, gender and nationalism, globalisation and discrimination that were thrown into…

While the world noted the international day against female genital mutilation (FGM) on 6 February, African women are making their own stand against the practice.

In Kenya, hundreds of girls ran away from home to escape FGM and are now in hiding. In Ethiopia, the wives of four African presidents led hundreds of women in Addis Ababa in a protest against FGM.

FGM is banned in many parts of Africa, but many families practise it in secret. The United Nations estimates that two…