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Great period

The cover of the book Great Women Painters includes these three words—great women painters, but a colorful line crosses out the word women. “The title of this book states its mission,” writes Marissa Moss in a review in The New York Times. “By including the descriptor women, but crossing it out, claim is clearly made: […]

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Great women painters

Linda Nochlin, an art historian, once asked, “Why have there been no great women painters?” Marissa Moss, writing in The New York Times, says Nochlin and the book Great Women Painters answer the question in the same way—“by showing us a range of brilliant, talented women painters. “Because the answer is that there have always […]

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Avoid restaurants with gardens!

The Taliban have banned families and women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province, The Dallas Morning News reported in its April 11, 2023, issue. They’re concerned about “the mixing of genders” in such places!?

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A single drop

Manal Al-Sharif was put in prison in Saudi Arabia when she dared to drive in 2011. It was seven years later, in 2018, when women finally were allowed to drive in the country. As Manal Al-Sharif says in her book Daring to Drive, “The rain begins with a single drop.”

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Prostitution and pornography

In 2011, after Manal Al-Sharif was went to prison for driving in Saudi Arabia, the country’s highest religious council presented a report warning of the dire consequences if women were allowed to drive. Prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce would “surge,” they declared. What’s more, “within 10 years, there would be no more virgins” in Saudi […]

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Daring to drive

It was 2011 when Manal Al-Sharif dared to drive. A woman driving wasn’t illegal in Saudi Arabia. One scholar Al Albani even suggested that in Muhammad’s time women could ride a donkey; so, why not drive a car? However, women driving was considered by many to be an assault on the country’s patriarchal culture. They […]

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How are the women treated?

The best of you are those who are best to the women,” the Prophet Muhammad said. I found this quote in Manal Al-Sharif’s book Daring to Drive. –Joy

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300 years to equality?

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, in a report issued in March 2023, warns that progress won over decades is vanishing because “the patriarchy is fighting back.” Women’s rights are being “abused, threatened and violated” around the world and gender equality won’t be achieved for 300 years if we stay on the […]

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Women are people, too

Someone asked Fredrik Backman, the Swedish author of The Winners, how he does such a good job creating women characters. “I write with the assumption that they’re people, too,” Backman told the audience at an Arts & Letters Live presentation on October 3, 2022. Later, he added, “I don’t understand women. I don’t understand humans. […]

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My bodily autonomy?!

Former Vice President Pence wants to implement a nationwide ban on abortion and to continue the fight “to restrict bodily autonomy.” Bodily autonomy is “the right to governance over one’s own body.” Yikes! Former Vice President Pence has no right to restrict my bodily autonomy—or the bodily autonomy of any woman. –Joy

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