🌍This Week In the War on Women: Mia Mottley, Barbados PM, brings global leadership to UN

“Barbados PM Mia Mottley Takes No Prisoners at the UN”Brought to DK by gmoke at this post: YouTube VideoTranscript in top right corner at this utube video page. Sep 27, 2024 UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERSMia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister, Minister for National Security and the Public Service, and Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment of Barbados, addresses the General Debate of the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (New York, 24 - 30 September 2024).World leaders gather to engage in the annual high-level General Debate under the theme, "Unity and diversity for advancing peace, sustainable development, and human dignity, everywhere and for all." Heads of State and Government and ministers will explore solutions to intertwined global challenges to advance peace, security, and sustainable development.The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is the main policy-making organ of the Organization. Comprising all Member States, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter of the United Nations. Each of the 193 Member States of the United Nations has an equal vote.General debate website: https://gadebate.un.org/____________________________________________MORE FROM AROUND THE U.S. AND THE WORLD:_________________________________________________________________A Georgia judge just struck down the state's 6-week abortion ban. From the judge’s opinion:“Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote,” he wrote. “Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have.”_________________________________________________________________Nearly 1/4 of women voters who think abortion should be legal all or most of the time STILL plan to vote for Trump, according to analysis of the latest 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll.For these women, other issues — the economy, immigration, and inter-related — are more important, and they broadly see their position as in line with Trump, despite his conflicting statements on much of them. They think that his stance of putting abortion in the hands of the states will increase access, even though it has largely done the opposite since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision Trump takes credit for.___________________________________________________________________ Fawzia, a Yazidi girl kidnapped by ISIS from Iraq and brought to Gaza at just 11 years old, has finally been rescued by the Israeli security forces. For years, she was held captive by a Palestinian Hamas-ISIS member. She has now been reunited with her family. Her story is a... pic.twitter.com/nkVotqYdov— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) October 3, 2024Ha'aretz Yazidi Woman Freed From Gaza After Decade in CaptivityA 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq a decade ago was freed from Gaza this week in a secret [international] operation [four] months in the making [between the U.S., Israel, Jordan and Iraq, even though Israel and Iraq have no diplomatic relationship]....Fawzia Amin Sido, was reunited with her family after being held against her will in Gaza by a Palestinian who supported Hamas... ISIS members who kidnapped Sido when she was 11 sold her to a Hamas operative affiliated with their group [who] held her until he was killed during the war in the Gaza Strip ... after which she escaped to a hiding place in the territory [and later] smuggled out of Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in recent days, crossed through the Allenby Bridge to Jordan, and then continued to Iraq, where she was reunited with her family.As a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority primarily found in Iraq and Syria, Sido is part of a group that [in 2014 in what the U.N. has termed as genocide....] saw more than 5,000 members killed and ... more than 6,000 ... captured by Islamic State militants from the Sinjar region in Iraq, with many sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkey and Syria. Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, while approximately 2,600 remain missing. Many are feared dead, but Yazidi activists believe hundreds are still alive.__________________________________________________________________US news/#MeToo —Country music star Garth Brooks accused of sexual assault in civil lawsuitAnonymous hair and makeup artist alleges sexual assault and battery www.theguardian.com/...__________________________________________________________________With roughly a month until the presidential election, The19thNews voting reporter Barbara Rodriguez spoke with women on college campuses and women-led voting organizations about the realities of get-out-the-vote efforts with college students. ___________________________________________________________________On Wednesday, the Guardian reported that Melania Trump is an advocate of abortion rights. ... turns out that the former first lady thinks abortion is a “personal freedom" and writes more about this in her forthcoming memoir.____________________________________________________________________TheConversation How the Taliban’s new ‘vice and virtue’ law erases women by justifying violence against them. Afghani human rights activist Sima Samar, and scholar Dyan Mazurana, PhD, working on Afghanistan since 2002, have been documenting the Taliban’s attacks against women for decades.Since returning to power three years ago, the Taliban have been enforcing oppressive laws that violate people’s freedoms and human rights, especially those of women and girls. But a newly passed “vice and virtue” law goes further. It is among the most repressive and discriminatory measures ever enacted by the Islamist fundamentalist group.The new law seeks to completely silence women in public. They are prohibited from speaking, singing or praying aloud. The law also attempts to literally erase them from view, ordering women to cover every part of their body and face in public. The edict suppresses most of women’s political, civil and human rights guaranteed under international law. And if women resist, it orders the use of violence to repress them.After 2001, when the Taliban were removed from power, millions of Afghan women and girls went to school. They became professionals – lawyers, artists, athletes, engineers and human rights leaders. They voted in large numbers and served in all areas of government.But the Taliban ... have aggressively rolled back two decades of advancements [with] over 100 decrees and directives that violate women’s and girls’ rights under international law and Afghan national law...[Afhani women there and abroad are responding with horror and dissent]...BBC - June 2024 What happened to the women who took on the Taliban?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________From BBC- India government says criminalising marital rape 'excessively harsh':The Indian government has opposed petitions in the top court that seek criminalisation of marital rape, saying it would be "excessively harsh"....The top court is hearing petitions seeking to amend a British-era law that says a man cannot be prosecuted for rape within marriage.Violence within marriage is rampant in India - according to a recent government survey, one in 25 women have faced sexual violence from their husbands.Marital rape is outlawed in more than 100 countries, including Britain which criminalised it in 1991.But India remains among the three dozen countries - along with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia - where the law remains on the statute books.____________________________________________________________________ Heartbreaking: Inbar Segev Vigder, a 33-year-old mother of a 9-month-old, was brutally murdered yesterday by Palestinian terrorists in Tel Aviv, in front of her child. The baby’s life was saved and taken to the hospital. Six other people were murdered that day. May Inbar’s and... pic.twitter.com/3Kqm8KzT9U— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) October 2, 2024____________________________________________________________________From Punch- Outrage as South African farmer kills two women, feeds them to pigs:The case of two black women allegedly shot and fed to pigs by a white farmer and his workers has sparked widespread outrage in South Africa, BBC reports on Wednesday.Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were reportedly searching for food on a farm near Polokwane in Limpopo province when they were shot in August.Their bodies were then allegedly fed to pigs in an attempt to conceal the crime.____________________________________________________________________ReligionNewsService Despite Vatican's evasions on ordination, women demand answers at upcoming synod ____________________________________________________________________A federal judge has ordered the Crawford County Public Library in Arkansas to put LGBTQ books back into circulation in the latest legal win for librarians and freedom-to-read advocates.____________________________________________________________________NativeNewsOnline TIME Magazine Names Abigail Echo-Hawk (Pawnee) to Its "Next List" Abigail Echo-Hawk, a prominent Indigenous researcher and citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, has been named to the 2024 TIME100 Next list, which honors 100 individuals who are shaping the future of global leadership.Echo-Hawk is the Executive Vice President of the Seattle Indian Health Board and the director of its research division, the Urban Indian Health Institute ... This recognition highlights her groundbreaking work in public health and data sovereignty, especially in relation to Indigenous communities.The TIME100 Next list, an expansion of TIME magazine's iconic Person of the Year and TIME100 lists, focuses on up-and-coming leaders in diverse fields, including health, politics, climate, arts, and more. Echo-Hawk’s selection solidifies her influence as a leader who is redefining the role of Indigenous values in western research frameworks.... . YouTube Video