The Rights of Women: The Authoritative ACLU Guide to Women’s Rights

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:33:00 +0000

By Lenora M. Lapidus, Emily J. Martin, Namita Luthra

The authors claim at the beginning of this book, “The law now can be used to advance women’s opportunities, rather than restricting them as it did in the past.” Yet for many of us (myself included), the law often seems like a daunting wall instead of a useful tool. The Rights of Women tries to mediate this feeling of intimidation by creating a guide that enables women to understand the law and, more importantly, use the law to advance gender equity.

As the book’s title implies, the authors have crafted an exhaustive outline of how women are (mis)treated under the law designed to be utilized by the average person. In a clear and concise fashion, the authors break down the legal underpinnings of trafficking, employment discrimination, housing rights, education, and reproductive rights, among other issues.

Though The Rights of Women is devoid of the legal terminology and complexities that make the law so inaccessible to many of us, the authors do not oversimplify or “dumb down” the material. Instead, the reader finds straightforward answers to the kinds of legal questions we have every day, written in a format that is easy to understand. Similarly, the question and answer format of the book lends itself to quick referencing for a project or just browsing through a particular chapter. This, coupled with the breadth of issues tackled, makes it a great resource for feminists of all ages, backgrounds, and passions. If, as the authors argue, a firm understanding of the law is necessary for feminists to be successful advocates and activists, then The Rights of Women should be on the bookshelf of every feminist. Whether you’re a professional looking for more information about the constitutional rights of women or an individual curious about how the law protects domestic violence survivors, The Rights of Women will serve as an indispensible guide.

Written by: Gwen Emmons, August 5th 2009

Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:23:00 +0000

By Liz Garbus

HBO Documentary Films

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

Tonight at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) you should turn the channel to HBO to watch the television debut of Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech, a documentary about the evolution of freedom of speech in America. At eighty minutes, this film by Emmy Award-winning director Liz Garbus packs an intellectual and emotional punch that is sure to stimulate conversation amongst its viewers, whatever their political leanings. The daughter of civil rights lawyer Martin Garbus, Liz made this film in order to explore the many ways our most fundamental of rights is under attack in the United States.

Beginning with the post-9/11 "patriotic" crackdown on free speech, Garbus makes the case that America is now in an era of Neo-McCarthyism. She walks us through some of the prominent and lesser-known cases in US history, including the ACLU's defense of neo-Nazi protest rallies in Skokie, IL in 1977 and Ward Churchill's termination from the University of Colorado-Boulder thirty years later. The way Garbus sees it, "Free speech is free speech. And free speech means protecting even the ideas you hate"—a sentiment that is repeated often throughout the film.

I appreciated Garbus' attempt to live up to her own ideals, as public figures of many stripes are widely represented in Shouting Fire. Twenty-two interviewees—including former Whitewater Independent Counsel Kenneth Star, gender historian and academic Joan Wallach Scott, United for Peace and Justice co-founder Leslie Cagan, and conservative writer David Horowitz—grapple with challenging questions of where the line should be drawn between academic integrity and academic freedom, when speech becomes a tool of oppressive marginalization, and are limits on speech necessary?

Perhaps because I was working in the New York City public schools at the time, I was particularly moved by the story of Debbie Almontaser, the founding principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), an English-Arabic public school in Brooklyn, New York. KGIA is one of sixty-eight dual language schools intended to assist new immigrants with assimilating to their new home and foster an appreciation for the study of Arabic language and culture. Just one month before the school was slated to open, Almontaser was forced to resign as a result of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim fire that was sparked by Rightwing group Stop the Madrassa, fanned by Fox News, and finally made into an inferno by New York Post journalist Chuck Bennett, who took Almontaser's solicited explanation of the word intifada vastly out of context in order to write a sensationalistic story. The injustice done to Almontaser is devastating, though completely legal according to free speech laws.

From the Pentagon Papers to the Patriot Act, freedom of speech is a complicated issue. Shouting Fire makes a compelling case for why, as Martin Garbus says, if you value the right to speak freely, you must fight for it every day.

Written by: Mandy Van Deven, June 29th 2009