Free Republic

Islamabad — As the world marks International Women's Day on Wednesday, the women of Afghanistan have little to celebrate. The Taliban regime has methodically stripped them of their basic rights since reclaiming power over the country in the summer of 2021. Forced from most workplaces and higher education, many women with the means to do so have left their country, and thousands now live as refugees in neighboring Pakistan. Journalist and television presenter Nafeesa Malali is among them. She now lives in a small apartment in a remote corner of Pakistan's sprawling capital, Islamabad. As she spoke to CBS News,...

Hershey’s launched it’s HER for SHE campaign for international women’s day featuring trans woman Fae Johnstone and the internet brought out it’s blow torches and pointy hoods. People were so disturbed by the campaign that they took to twitter to do what people do on twitter, engage in constructive conversation. The Federalist, editor-in-chief, Mollie Hemingway, tweeted: “So @Hersheys is featuring a male in costume as a woman for its international women’s day ad campaign.” Conservative commentator, John Cardillo, tweeted: “This to me is the biggest problem. Women remain silent as they’re reduced to a costume theme.” The Federalist, co-founder and...

This winter, we experienced snow and double-digit temperatures within the space of a week. Aside from the novelty of such a sudden change during lockdown, it’s a worrying sign of the climate crisis we are now facing. This we know, but what is said less often is that climate change is a feminist issue – but it is and on International Women’s Day I want you to know why. Firstly, women and girls are much more likely to be killed or injured in the face of a climate-related disaster. Few are taught survival skills like how to swim or climb...

Since 1970, Earth Day has provided an opportunity for all Americans to come together to celebrate the majestic natural beauty of our Nation and the world. The United States is blessed with breathtaking and plentiful natural wonders and resources, providing recreation and sustenance to millions throughout our country. On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, we pay tribute to our Nation’s long history of environmental stewardship and conservation, and we reaffirm our commitment to protecting our natural treasures for the benefit and enjoyment of all Americans. Following in the rich tradition of environmental leaders like Gifford Pinchot and President Theodore...

MEXICO CITY — Women filled the streets of the world's largest cities Sunday to protest gender violence, inequality and exploitation on International Women’s Day, with the mothers of murdered girls leading a march in Mexico City and participants in Paris inveighing against the “virus of the patriarchy.” While many protests were peaceful celebrations others were marred by tension, with security forces arresting demonstrators at a rally in Kyrgyzstan and police reportedly using tear gas to break up a demonstration by thousands of women in Turkey. “In many different ways or forms, women are being exploited and taken advantage of,” Arlene...

O say can you see, the Statue of Liberty? A portion of Lady Liberty mysteriously went dark save for the iconic colossal's torch and crown on Tuesday night. The statue was cast in darkness for at least an hour around 11 p.m. and even the National Park Service seemed perplexed by the New York harbor’s black void. “Some lights on the Statue were temporarily off tonight,” a spokesman for the Statue of Liberty National Monument tweeted. The “unplanned outage” may have been due to emergency generator project as part of its “last remaining Hurricane Sandy recovery,” but park official Jerry...

The organizers of Wednesday’s international women’s strike support the “decolonization of Palestine,” the platform published on their website reveals. “Against the open white supremacists in the current government and the far right and anti-Semites they have given confidence to, we stand for an uncompromising anti-racist and anti-colonial feminism,” the platform says. “This means that movements such as Black Lives Matter, the struggle against police brutality and mass incarceration, the demand for open borders and for immigrant rights and for the decolonization of Palestine are for us the beating heart of this new feminist movement. We want to dismantle all walls,...

Syrian Hayla Al Ghazal, one of YouTube’s rising Arab female stars, says she is all ready to bring about positive change to her community and inspire more females to express themselves on social media in a bid to shatter cultural taboos. Having produced more than 150 videos for her YouTube channel HaylaTV, the Dubai-based vlogger is famous for her comedy sketches and lifestyle clips that attract thousands of young people in the region. Speaking shortly after being appointed a “change ambassador” to the United Nations, Ghazal told Al Arabiya English she is now on a mission to empower females in...

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Annual May Day marches are scheduled to take place Thursday in downtown Los Angeles. The demonstrations are a show of support for immigrants who aren’t in the United States legally. Marchers plan to urge Congress to pass legislation overhauling the immigration system by putting an end to deportations that divide families. The event typically causes a major traffic tie-up throughout downtown. The march itself will begin at 10 a.m. starting at the Chinatown Gateway, winding through the downtown area and ending at the Metropolitan Detention Center at 535 N. Alameda St., where a rally will be...

Russian workers will parade on Red Square on May 1 for the first time since 1991, organisers said on Tuesday, the latest Soviet tradition to be revived as a wave of patriotism sweeps the country. "Crimea has returned to Russia and the trade unions are returning to the Red Square!" said Sergei Chernov, president of Moscow's trade union federation told a news conference. International Workers Day, or May Day, was a key date in the Soviet calendar, instituted after the Bolshevik Revolution. The celebrations became increasingly elaborate in the later years of the USSR, with party bosses presiding over ranks...

(CNN) -- I can't help but feel humbled and grateful when I hear the stories of women who marched for women's rights in the 1970s and the suffragists who fought for the right to vote. What they accomplished deserves more than a nod and lip service. We must honor them by making our generation's mark on the concerns facing women today. Unfortunately, that still includes goals we've fought too long for, like reproductive rights. Today is International Women's Day and March is Women's History Month. As we celebrate all that women have accomplished in the struggle for gender equality, we...

Is Yahoo celebrating lesbians today? The O's in Yahoo (top left of the page) morph into female symbols every so often.

All I can figure is the two o's at yahoo.com's homepage is supporting lesbians.

While covering a May Day rally in Manhattan’s Union Square on Wednesday, NBC New York reporter Ida Siegal was cornered and asked if her network planned to show the communist imagery the protesters were displaying. Hilarity ensued when Siegal immediately became defensive, denying she had seen any communist imagery and asking of the “Hammer-and-Sickle” flags: “What do they represent?” “You guys are with channel 4 news,” the videographer noted while addressing Siegal and her production team. “Are you guys going to show any of the people with Hammer and Sickle flags?” “I haven’t seen any of those flags,” Siegal replied...

Presidential Proclamation -- Loyalty Day, 2012 LOYALTY DAY, 2012 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION More than two centuries ago, our Founders laid out a charter that assured the rule of law and the rights of man. Through times of tranquility and the throes of change, the Constitution has always guided our course toward fulfilling that most noble promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve the chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. America has carried on not only for the skill or vision of history's celebrated figures, but...

Thousands of protesters in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures. Police fired tear gas to disperse marchers in Oakland, Calif. And black-clad demonstrators smashed windows in Seattle and occupied a building owned by the Catholic archdiocese in San Francisco OAKLAND, Calif. — Thousands of protesters in New York demanded an end to income inequality and housing foreclosures. Police fired tear gas to disperse marchers in Oakland, Calif. And black-clad demonstrators smashed windows in Seattle and occupied a building owned by the Catholic archdiocese in San Francisco. Activists across the U.S. joined in worldwide May Day...

A May Day march without Che Guevara posters and Mexican flags is like a fish with a bicycle. We observed the bemusing spectacle two weeks ago. Now it’s time to reflect. Some marchers , apparently wracked with guilt between the primacy of the two symbols , devised a handy modus vivendi for their tortured consciences’. It seemed that few groups of Mexican demonstrators forget to glorify the man on record (June, 1956) as dismissing Mexicans en masse as, “a rabble of illiterate Indians.” In 1956, while residing in Mexico and training with the Castro brothers for their "invasion" of Cuba,...

Let’s be honest. Barack Obama is the SEIU president. Without that union’s support early on, he would have faded faster than Mike Gravel in 2008. So the SEIU-backed May Day celebration — this year’s theme: ARIZONAZI — reflects on the president. Oddly enough, on May Day, President Obama lectured Americans from the bully pulpit of a commencement speech with a warning not to speak out against the government: “When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.” As Nancy Pelosi put it last summer, it is...

<p>Arizona's controversial new law that allows police to question people about their immigration status has ignited Bay Area efforts to overhaul national immigration laws and promises to draw the largest crowds to traditional May Day rallies in years.</p> <p>People who haven't attended such events before are expected to join activists and families in San Jose on Saturday in a march from King and Story roads on the East Side to a rally at San Jose City Hall. Crowds also are expected to march through San Francisco's Mission District and Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood.</p>