Monday, December 31, 2018: What US withdrawal from Syria means for Rojava

YPJ (Women’s Protective Force) fighters in northern Syria

The planned withdrawal of US troops from Syria is widely seen as a green light for Turkey to invade Northern Syria. What will that mean for the socialist feminist Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, colloquially known as Rojava? Reflecting on this prospect, we listen to excerpts from my interviews with Sinam Mohamed, representative of the Syrian Democratic Council to the U.S., conducted as Turkish forces were occupying her home in Afrin, and with Janet Biehl, translator of Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women's Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan.

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

Produced and Hosted by Kate Raphael.

Listen to the full interview with Janet Biehl (48:53)
Listen to interview with Sinam Mohamad, Syrian Democratic Council (Rojava) Representative to the US. Mohamad's home in Afrin was occupied by Turkish-backed forces in March 2018. (53:44)

Thanks so much to all of you who donated to support Women's Magazine during the pledge drive. Thanks to you, we made our goal! And KPFA came close.  Looking forward to another strong year at Women's Magazine.  Happy New Year.

Also on today's show:

History of the Vibrator

Naila and the Uprising at Jewish Film Festival

Kate Raphael talks to Julia Bacha, director of the film, Naila and the Uprising, about the central role of women in the First Palestinian Intifada. Julia and executive producer Suhad Babaa will be present at two screenings of the film at the Jewish Film Festival, on Sunday July 29 at 5:00 pm at the Castro Theater, and on Monday, July 30, at 3:25 pm at the Albany Twin.

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

Also on today's show:
Middle Schooler’s organize Feminist Club

Friday, March 16, 2018: Special Women's History Month Programming

Global Feminists Building New Futures

From Kobani in Syria to Cochabama in Bolivia, feminists are creating experiments in collectivism as a means to women’s equality and safety. We hear about the Rojava Revolution, a democratic socialist feminist democracy being constructed in northern Syria, and women’s collectives in Bolivia who are changing the meaning of self-defense in the country with the highest rate of gender-based violence in Latin America.

Guests:  Janet Biehl, translator of Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan;

Leny Olvera-Rojas, grassroots feminist activist, scholar and musician from Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Produced and Hosted by Kate Raphael.

Click here to listen to the show. 1:12:14

Listen to the full interview with Janet Biehl (48:53)
Listen to interview with Sinam Mohamad, Syrian Democratic Council (Rojava) Representative to the US. Mohamad's home in Afrin was occupied by Turkish-backed forces in March 2018. (53:44)

Tune in to KPFA.org next Friday at noon for more Women's History Month special programming.

Monday, November 14, 2016: Palestine & the US Elections

What does the Republican sweep mean for Palestine? 

Human rights lawyer, scholar and activist Noura Erekat discusses how the bipartisan consensus in favor of Israel's permanent military supremacy in the Middle East could be disrupted and the broader implications of a potential turn towards fascism in the U.S.   Noura will be speaking in Oakland on Thursday, November 17 in a KPFA sponsored event.

Tickets: $10 low income, $15 general, $25 supporter, $50 freedom fighter, $100 change-maker! 

Buy tickets now!

$15 tickets at these East Bay bookstores: Moe's, Walden Pond, Diesel

To avoid the service charge, you can also get tickets directly from MECA. Email susan@mecaforpeace.org or call Sue weekdays 9am-3pm: 510-548-0542

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

Also on today's show:

Revolutionary Lesbian Poet Pat Parker

Oakland Public Conservatory

Monday, September 26, 2016: Understanding privilege and practicing solidarity--part 1

"Now you have touched the women, you have struck a rock." from South African sisters' freedom struggle

Today's show begins with two important and empowering women-led events happening in Spain and Gaza, the Truth & Reclamation Pilgrimage and the Women's Boat to Gaza.

Actress LisaGay Hamilton says about her participation on the boat to Gaza: “It is an honor to be here and join this extraordinary group of women. This issue is bigger than me, than any of us. As a mother, as a daughter, as a sister, I cannot help thinking of Palestinian women in Gaza, who live in an open-air prison because of the occupation. It is so painful to think of them, we have to take action to end the blockade of Gaza.” Read LisaGay Hamilton's Counterpunch op ed  Why I am on the women's boat to Gaza.

Chivvis Moore discusses her memoir

Chivvis Moore discusses her memoir, First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust in God: An American Feminist in the Arab World. Moore spent 17 years living in Egypt, Syria and Palestine, and taught for nine years in the Institute of Women's Studies at Bir Zeit University in Palestine.

CHIVVIS MOORE reads from First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust in God: An American Feminist in the Arab World

Tuesday, September 27, 7 pm

360 42nd Street, Oakland

Book sales benefit Middle East Children’s Alliance

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

Also on today's show:

Sharon Sobotta interviews Shakti Butler and Peggy McIntosh

Monday, July 4, 2016: Chivvis Moore discusses her new memoir

Militarism, Feminism and Nationalism

First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust In God: An American Feminist in the Arab World

Chivvis Moore discusses her new memoir, First Tie Your Camel, Then Trust In God: An American Feminist in the Arab World.  Moore lived in the Middle East for 17 years, including three in Egypt, three in Syria, and 11 in Palestine.  She talks about what attracted her and what she learned about Muslim and Arab culture, volunteering as a medic in Jenin Refugee Camp immediately after the brutal siege of 2002, the impact of Western funding on the Palestinian women's movement, and how community helps people make it through intolerable situations.

Buy the Book

from Moore's website:
Since living in Brazil three years as a child, I have been drawn to live among people of other cultures, whether on a Native American reservation in Arizona, among African Americans in the Fillmore District in San Francisco before ”gentrification,” or in Arab communities in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. As an adult, I lived and worked 17 years in the Middle East —  3 years in Egypt, 2 in Syria, a year in Israel, where I taught Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel, and 11 years teaching at Birzeit University in the West Bank, returning to the US in 2008. I have earned my living as a journalist, a carpenter and general building contractor, an editor and researcher, and a teacher of English for Academic Purposes. I have worked with adults and youth establishing community newspapers in Native American, Latino and African American communities.  I now work with Zawaya, a non-profit organization that teaches and promotes the Arab arts, especially music, in the San Francisco Bay Area. I live in Oakland with my partner and my cat Nahar, born in Nazareth.

Chivvis Moore will be reading and discussing her book on Friday, July 8th at 6PM, Laurel Book Store, 1423 Broadway, Oakland, CA, 510-452-9232.

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


Also on today's show:
Tribute to Pat Summitt
Cynthia Enloe on gender and militarism

Monday, June 27, 2016: Homosexuality in the Middle East

KPFA Women's Magazine Commentary; 

Listen now or Get MP3. 4:42 min

And now for today's show.

As the narrative around the shooting at the gay club in Orlando has shifted from domestic terrorism to the internalized homophobia of a (possibly) closeted Muslim man, we look at some of the other narratives surrounding the massacre fanned by the mainstream media, and examine the real history of homosexuality in Islam. Lisa Dettmer talks to Dr. Samar Habib, scholar, researcher and author of many books on sexuality in the Arab world, including Female Homosexuality in the Middle East and Islam and Homosexuality.

Listen now or Get MP3. 27:09 min







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

Also on today's show:
S.F. Mime Troupe
Women's Community Calendar

Monday, April 6, 2015: Understanding Israel

Understanding the Role of Race, Class, and Gender in Israeli Jewish Society

Smadar Lavie works at The Beatrice Bain Research Group, Berkeley's feminist of color heaven. She is the author of WRAPPED IN THE FLAG OF ISRAEL: MIZRAHI SINGLE MOTHERS AND BUREAUCRATIC TORTURE, and cofounder of the Mizrahi Israeli feminist group Ahoti. Lavie explains the Israeli elections by looking at how race, class and gender function within Israeli society.

Listen now or Get MP3. 28:45 min.






Smadar Lavie received her doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. She specializes in the anthropology of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine, with emphasis on issues of race, gender, and religion. She published her book The Poetics of Military Occupation (UC Press, 1990) on resistance theatre of the Mzeina Bedouin of the South Sinai, Egypt.  The book won the 1990 Honorable Mention of the Victor Turner Award for Ethnographic Writing. She co-edited Displacement, Diaspora and Geographies of Identity (Duke Univ. Press, 1996), and Creativity/Anthropology (Cornell Univ. Press, 1993). Lavie was awarded the 2009 Gloria Anzaldua Prize from the American Studies Association for her paper titled, Staying Put: Crossing the Palestine/Israel Border with Gloria Anzaldúa. Lavie's recent book is Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureaucratic Torture (Berghahn 2014). She has served in several feminist and anti-racist social movements and NGOs in Israel-Palestine and the San Francisco Bay area. In 2013, Lavie won the “Heart at East” Honor Plaque for lifetime service to Mizraḥi communities in Israel-Palestine.

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

Also on today's show:
Purvi Patel
Blackademics

Upcoming Events:

KPFA Radio 94.1FM, co-sponsored by Middle East Children’s Alliance & Jewish Voice for Peace/East Bay, presents:

PENNY ROSENWASSER, Ph.D
“HOPE INTO PRACTICE, JEWISH WOMEN CHOOSING JUSTICE DESPITE OUR FEARS”

Hosted by Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace

$12 advance tickets: brownpapertickets.com : 800-838-3006 or at your local bookstore.

In Berkeley: Pegasus Books (3 locations), Moe’s, Walden Pond, Diesel a Bookstore 

In S.F: Modern Times. $15 /door
_____________________________
3rd Annual Restorative Justice Conference | Justice That Heals: Confronting Gender Violence on Campus & in Communities
Sat, April 11, 10:00am – 4:30pm
Calendar
MCC Events
Created by
mcc.collaborations@gmail.com
Description
hosted by OUTLAW

With campus and criminal justice policies under fire for ignoring the needs of survivors of gender-based violence, people are looking for alternatives. This conference brings together academics and activists to explore the possibilities and limitations of Restorative / Transformative Justice in response to sexual violence and misconduct on campus and in communities that experience structural oppression.


Keynote speaker Dr. Mary Koss is the co-founder and principal investigator of the RESTORE program in Arizona, which has designed Restorative processes that emphasize the needs of survivors and responsible parties. She is now applying her expertise to the question of sexual misconduct on college campuses. Workshops and panels will explain RJ / TJ processes and present critical analysis of their capacity to repair flawed or broken systems.

_______________________

A Conference on the Work of Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua

May 26, 2014: Memorial Day Tribute to Daughters

On KPFA radio's Women's Magazine this Memorial day we will be presenting a special Memorial Day's tribute by daughters to the Mothers in their lives and around the world, from Argentina, to Palestine to Iran and in the U.S., to mothers who have survived the hidden war on women both damaged and whole, and been survivors, the peace makers, care takers in the family and in society.  An alternative to the Hallmark Card version of Mother's Day and the Memorial Day celebration of soldiers this special recognizes our Mothers as the hidden soldiers.

Click here to listen to entire show.

March 3, 2014 - On International Women's Day, Gaza Women Say End the Siege!

Colonel Ann Wright, who left her three-decades career in the military in protest against the Iraq War, is heading to Gaza to support women in the beleaguered Strip, demanding an end to the Israeli siege and the right to live in peace.  Ann and the other members of Code Pink's International Women's Day delegation will also check in on Gaza's Ark, an audacious project to enable Palestinians to export their products to the world.

Ann Wright recently returned from the Syrian peace conference in Geneva, where she supported a coalition of Syrian women demanding a seat at the table.

Listen or download (21:48)

Update:  Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, who was also planning to join the delegation to Gaza, was denied entry to Egypt and detained overnight before being deported to Turkey.  According to Benjamin, Egyptian police stomped on her back and broke her arm before dragging her onto a plane.

Also on this show:  What Does It Take To Become a Superstar?

Listen to entire show

What Does It Take to Become a Superstar?

What Does It Take to Become a Superstar?

What Does It Take to Become a Superstar?

What Does It Take to Become a Superstar?

October 28, 2013 - Geeky Women, Ex-Nuns and Iranian American Theater

Why Don't U.S. Women Choose Science Careers?

Eileen Pollack was one of the first two women to receive a bachelors in Physics from Yale, but ended up teaching creative writing instead of going on in science. In this interview, Ms. Pollack talks about what happened to her, and why the numbers of U.S. women in math and science have changed very little in the last thirty years.  Ms. Pollack is author of the novels BREAKING AND ENTERING and PARADISE, NEW YORK. She recently wrote a piece for the New York Times entitled "Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?"

Listen Now:

Or get MP3

"444 Days" from Z Below

Golden Thread Productions, recognized as the leading Middle Eastern Theater in the country, opens its fall season with "444 Days." "444 Days" is artistic Torange Yeghiezarian's first full-length play to be staged in 15 years. It explores the relationship between a former American hostage in Iran, and one of his captors, who has come to the Bay Area 25 years later to seek treatment for her critically ill daughter. It has received excellent reviews in local press. Torange Yeghiezarian talks with Kate Raphael about how she wrote the play and what she hopes to accomplish.




Get MP3

Find out how you can get tickets for "444 Days."

Being Out of Order, or How Feminism Rocked the Convent

Carole Ganim and Lucienne O'Keefe spent 38 years between them in an Ursuline convent in the 1950s and 60s. They were very happy there, yet by the early seventies, they, like so many other women, had left their order. In this interview they discuss why they grew restless with the idyllic life of the convent, and how they see the future of the Catholic church.  Ganim is author of the book BEING OUT OF ORDER: THE PROPHETIC GENERATION OF NUNS AND SISTERS. 

Listen:

Get MP3

July 8 - Coup in Egypt; Saving City College; and a Life in Revolution

Egypt: Military Coup or a Further Revolution?

courtesy:  Shimaa Helmy

Blogger and organizer Shimaa Helmy, who was involved in the January 25 revolution in Egypt from Day One, shares her concerns about the military overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the epidemic of sexual violence against women protesters.

Listen (16:02)

Takes an Uprising:  A Memoir in Lesbian Parables

Patricia Jackson walked her first picket line in 1964, as part of a wildcat teacher's strike in Louisville, Kentucky.  That began a life of activism and challenging racism, patriarchy and class inequality from California to the Ozarks.  She lived on women's land, participated in the early Women's Music scene, became a Communist, and is now active in the Gray Panthers and an intergenerational queer storytelling project.

In this interview she talks about her life, the lessons she thinks are most useful for the present, and the adventure of self-publishing her memoir, Takes an Uprising.

Listen to the interview (27:08)

Get the book

Saving City College

San Francisco City College is one of the most innovative community colleges in the country.  It had one of the first Women's Studies and the very first LGBT Studies program in the country.  Last week, the faculty and students of San Francisco City College were shocked when the private Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges—the ACCJC— announced that it planned to terminate the college's accreditation in July 2014. The Herculean efforts of the college over a short nine months were rejected as inadequate. The threat of closure could become real unless the College can turn itself inside out and meet the commission’s demands.

Leslie Simon, former Chair of the Women's Studies Department and current coordinator of Project SURVIVE, the campus sexual violence prevention program, talks about what is behind the commission's recommendation and we can stop it.

Listen (10:47)

Read Leslie's excellent explanation of the roots of the "crisis."

Get involved

April 1st: Focus on Emerging Writers

FAST TIMES IN PALESTINE 

• Pamela Olson discusses her new memoir Fast Times in Palestine: A Love Affair with a Homeless Homeland. An East Oklahoma girl, Olson stumbled into Palestine and ended up staying for two years and becoming the press coordinator for a presidential candidate.

• Click here for official schedule for Pamela's spring 2013 book tour. She’d love to see you along the way! Please feel free to let others know about events they might like to attend. Get in touch if you have questions: pamolson@gmail.com. 
• www.pamelaolson.org

Listen now or Get MP3 29:28 min.

PERLA

• Carolina de Robertis talks with Nina Serrano and reads from her novel, Perla, which explores the legacy of Argentina's "dirty war" through one of the "stolen children" of the disappeared.
• De Robertis grew up in a Uruguayan family that immigrated to England, Switzerland, and California. Prior to completing her first book, she worked in women’s rights organizations for ten years, on issues ranging from rape to immigration. She makes her permanent home in Oakland, California, though she is spending 2013 in Montevideo, where she’s working on her third novel, about migration, sexual frontiers, and the tango’s Old Guard in early twentieth century South America.
• Carolina asked you to buy her book at your local independent bookstore.
• www.carolinaderobertis.com

 This piece was produced by Nina Serrano from La Raza Chronicles/Cronica de la Raza

Listen now or Get MP3 18:35 min.

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

November 26th: Women in the Syrian opposition coalition; and gender on TV

Women's Magazine's Kate Rafael discusses the new Syrian opposition coalition with Afraa Jalabi of the Syrian National Council and Mohja Kahf, Professor of Literature and Gender Studies at the University of Arkansas.

courtesy:  Mohja Kahf

"This is not your father's revolution," says Mohja Kahf. There is an active and escalating non-violent, grass roots movement in Syria. Mohja and Afraa give a personal and political account of the Syrian revolution. There are over 33,000 prisoners of conscience in Syria prisons. 472 are women. They have been there for over a year without due process. Stay in tune with the grassroots movements in Syria through links on Stop the Killing Campaign Facebook page.

Listen or Get MP3

"Brides of Peace": In the Middle of Madness, Four Women March for Nonviolence in Syria

By Mohja Kahf

Four young Syrian women staged a women’s march for nonviolence through the middle of Medhat Basha market in Damascus, Syria, on November 21, 2012. In the finest tradition of subversive street theater, all four dressed in bridal gowns and veils, carrying red banners... Read more

Television for the Discerning Feminist Palate

Is television shaping ideas about women, simply reflecting, or are the lives of television women completely divorced from the lives of real women? Next we dissect gender roles on some of the hottest shows on television (Nashville, Revenge, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Girls) with bloggers Camille Morgenstern of TurnUpTheSass and Anna Sterling of feministing.com. 27:02 min.

Listen or Get MP3


Special note to KPFA members: Don't forget to vote for the KPFA board members. Your ballot is due in New York on December 11, so get it out early. And if you're not a member, please donate to KPFA and mention Women's Magazine. Thanks.

To listen to the entire show click here. 59:49 min.

September 24: Focus on Syria

As the United Nations meets in New York, with Syria high on the agenda, Kate Raphael talks with Syrian feminists Afraa Jalabi & Mohja Kahf about the state of the Syrian uprising and the prominence of women in the revolution.  They go beyond the news headlines to talk about the incredible grassroots organizing that is continuing even amidst the violence.  41:00
Listen now

Sarah Shourd discusses the humanitarian crisis in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, and how you can help. 6:10
Listen now

KPFA is in its fall fund drive.  For your pledge of $70, you can get our Arab Feminist Superpack, containing the full one-hour interview with Afraa Jalabi and Mohja Kahf, which is excerpted here, as well as interviews with former PLO negotiator Diana Buttu, legendary Egyptian doctor, author and former political prisoner Nawal el Sadawwi, Egyptian youth organizer Shaima Halmi, and Iraqi feminist historian Nadia al-Ali.  (Nawal el Sadawwi & Nadia al-Ali generously provided by our friends at Making Contact.)  Donate securely online at www.kpfa.org.  If you can't give $70, give whatever you can to keep this member supported station coming to you free and commercial-free.

 

Only one in eight listeners ever becomes a member.  If you're one of them, make that change now.  We can't do it without you!