Monday, July 1, 2019: Women Confront the Crisis in Haiti

In this episode of KPFA Women's Magazine we talk about how women are coping with an escalation of government-sponsored violence in Haiti, and a political crisis we hear little about but which has been going on for over a year. Judith Mirkinson, president of the SF Bay Chapter of the National Lawyers' Guild and the Comfort Women Justice Coalition and Leslie Mullin, long-time member of the Haiti Action Committee, talk about what they learned on recent trips to Haiti. Haitians have been in the streets for almost a year protesting government theft of millions of dollars. In November, paramilitaries associated with the Haitian army and police massacred dozens of civilians in the neighborhood of LaSaline, as UN troops did nothing to protect the people.

Click here to listen to the entire show. 59:50 min

Also on today's show:
Toni Morrison Comes to Film

Monday, December 21, 2015: UN Working Group's Myth-Shattering Tour of US

"There is a myth in America that...US women have it all."

South Texas family lock-up.

The United Nations recently sent a team of experts to the US to look at the state of women's rights. They described the inequities they found as shocking and in several key respects far worse than other developed countries, worse even than in some developing countries.  We talk with Frances Raday, a member of that delegation and a legal expert in international human rights and women's rights.

The team visited Alabama, Oregon, Texas and DC. They found that women in the US are deprived of human rights in four vital areas:
1. Maternity leave. 14 weeks of paid maternity leave is required by international human rights law.
2. Accessibility to reproductive health care for the termination of pregnancy.
3. Representation of women in government.
4. Unemployment and the wage gap.

Frances RADAY is a member of the Working Group on Discrimination against women in law and in practice. She assumed her function on 1st May 2011. She is a former member of CEDAW. Professor Raday is currently the Director of the Concord Research Centre for Integration of International Law in Israel at Haim Striks Law School, Colman. She is Professor Emerita, Hebrew University, Lieberman Chair for Labour Law; Honorary Professor, University College London; and Doctor Honoris, University of Copenhagen. She has additionally held academic appointments at Oxford Univ., Univ. of S.California, Tulane Univ. and Univ. of East Africa. Ms. Raday is the author of numerous academic books and articles on human rights, labour law and feminist legal theory. She has acted as legal counsel on precedent-setting human rights cases in Israel’s Supreme Court, including advancing women’s constitutional right to equality in political representation, participation in religious ceremony, religious court procedures and divorce, and combatting employment discrimination, in retirement age, sexual harassment and promotion.

Click here to listen to entire show. 59:49 mim.

Also on today's show:
Starhawk's City of Refuge & Solstice Celebration
Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy

Monday, November 23, 2015: Eliminating Violence Against Women; New Book About Rosa Parks

Oranging the World to Eliminate Violence Against Women

Today we talk to Nanette Braun from the UN Women about the plans for the 2015 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Violence against Women continues to be a global pandemic. 35% of women and girls globally experience some form of physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime. An estimated 133 million girls and women have experienced some form of genital mutilation or cutting and in the U.S one in five  women are victims of violence. Yet violence against women is not inevitable and that is why prevention is the theme of the 2015 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th. And running through December 10th the UNITE to End Violence Against Women Campaign calls for 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence to raise public awareness and mobilize people to bring about change.

Who is the real Rosa Parks?

And on the 60th year anniversary of the Montgomery Boycotts, we talk to Professor Jeanne Theoharis, who discusses her book "The Rebellious Life of Mrs Rosa Parks" which provides a much need corrective to the common misrepresentation of the civil rights activist, Rosa Parks, who is often portrayed as a quiet church woman who single-handedly created a movement, a narrative which leaves out Parks life long commitment to activism, how changes happens through collective struggle and not by the actions of one singular person and  reinforces the idea that we live in a post racial society.

The book is available at your local bookstore and online at Penguin-Random House and Amazon.









Click here to listen to the show. 59:50 min.