Sandwiched between International Women’s Day on March 8 and the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on March 19 is another date that marks a tragic nexus of the two: the day one year ago when 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Al-Janabi was stalked, gang-raped, shot in the head and her corpse burned in her own home in Mahmoudiya, Iraq. Four U.S. soldiers and one former soldier are charged with the crimes committed March 12, 2006.

A friend of mine is turning 50 today. Our friendship was brief but intense. I didn’t get invited to her glitzy celebrity and fashion-hype parties. We don’t run in the same circles any longer. Al...

Is he black enough? Is he black enough? Is he black enough? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. As a biracial person, I too, like Senator Barack Obama, have known the pain of rejection by th...

Update: Augustine Aguayo was convicted of missing movement and of desertion and sentenced to eight months in prison. Because he has already served nearly six, he is likely to be released in less tha...

The first feminist political uproar of 2007 was not about Hillary Clinton but about two, relatively unknown-to-the-mainstream stars of the feminist blogosphere. Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon and Melis...

You may have heard the film “Norbit” was number one at the box office on its opening weekend earlier this month. You’ve probably also seen the ads at bus stop benches and on billboards: the image of...

“I’m down with that.” According to prosecutors, this was Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman’s response when hearing of a plan to rape 14 year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. Spielman is undergoing court martial on various charges involving her rape and murder and the murder of her mother Fikhriya, father Qassim, and little sister Hadeel.

Sgt. Paul Cortez, the second soldier to plead guilty to the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, as well as the murder of her parents and sister, was sentenced on Thursday, February 22, to 100 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Under the terms of a plea agreement made before the court martial took place, Cortez avoided life imprisonment without possibility of parole in sentencing handed down by the judge, Colonel Stephen Henley.

“She screamed and cried and tried to keep her legs together.” That is how Sgt. Paul Cortez described the reason he was fully aware that his premeditated rape of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Rasheed Al-Janabi was not consensual but criminal.

It existed, in the 1980s and early 1990s: plays written and directed by women were being produced—off-Broadway, at theatres dedicated to the work, such as the Women’s Project and Productions, and ev...

It existed, in the 1980s and early 1990s: plays written and directed by women were being produced—off-Broadway, at theatres dedicated to the work, such as the Women’s Project and Productions, and ev...

The first day of the court martial of Sgt. Paul Cortez began in the small courthouse near the Burger King on Ft. Campbell, at the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. Only a few onlookers, mostly reporters and military escorts, were on hand to watch as the military judge quizzed the tall, thin Cortez about the multiple charges to which he pled guilty.

“It’s plain and simple harassment . . . an old ploy to intimidate and sidetrack us,” said Philippines Representative Liza Maza. The Gabriela Women’s Party member received a subpoena Wednesday afte...

Prairie Lights Bookstore, a beloved, iconoclastic, independent bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa, closed its doors early on January 30. They had received letters, e-mails, and phone calls indicating ther...

With Nancy Pelosi the new House speaker and Hillary Clinton throwing her hat into the presidential ring, feminist art also looks to the future in 2007, while still debating its past. A group of fema...

While he was still secretary-general designate, in his first address to the General Assembly, Ban Ki-Moon promised he would “lead by example” and announced that one of his goals was to appoint more ...

In recent weeks, if you scanned the Broadway theatre listings in New York you would see the names of some of the most prominent actresses of our time, such stars as Angela Lansbury, Vanessa Redgrave...

The home is a way to move a trapped segment of the population out of poverty. The home is a way to move ahead post-Katrina. —Una Anderson Days after Una Anderson and her husband evacuated safely t...

While Senators Barack Obama and Joe Lieberman made headlines last week for their high-profile visits to New Orleans, we heard precious little about the ongoing battle public housing residents have b...

Molly Ivins died January 31, while under hospice care at her home in Austin. This tribute appeared the day before. The news over the weekend was not good. Molly Ivins, everyone’s favorite smart-mo...

Independent journalist Sarah Olson has won her First Amendment fight against a government subpoena ordering her to testify in the court martial of war resister U.S. Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. On Jan...

“If only men had voted—had there been no Susan B. Anthony and women’s suffrage—we would be looking at a Republican House and Senate,” Eleanor Smeal told a recent Women’s Media Center political brief...

Marchers against the Iraq war in Washington, D.C., on Saturday could expect a more receptive atmosphere than in the past, according to women peace movement leaders. While antiwar actions often went ...

I’ve been asked, as one who has thrown her own hat in that particular ring, what advice I’d give to Hillary Clinton now that she’s announced her candidacy. But Hillary probably knows more about runn...