Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/traditions/)
As children, these young women were more valued by their families than daughters in the past generations and they’ve achieved more than women who came before them in their towns. But pressures on them to get married remain strong.
What gets us in trouble is the unexamined belief that various holidays and other special dates are magic time containers of our shared values: Just add water (in the form of perfectly timed and elaborate preparations) and mix.
While in New York recently, Faheema reflected on what drew her to the longstanding but little-documented practice in Afghanistan of “bacha posh,” a Farsi expression meaning “dress up as boys.”
This season, my father’s gardens filled our home with hard work, nutrition, hopes for the next season and thankfulness. For me now, gratitude comes for the support for our work in journalism, one that grows a harvest of positive change.
Skeptics wrinkle their brows at the Ayatollah’s push for larger families and the government’s efforts to restrict family planning and provide incentives for childbirth. Iran’s youth want to be free, says a scholar of the Iranian women’s movement.
France expresses no concern over cyclists who race naked or sunbathe naked on certain beaches, yet is concerned by women who wish not to show their skin and face? I call that a blatant double standard.
The ancient custom of celebrating a forthcoming child is changing in some communities as India struggles to reduce child mortality and malnutrition.
When it comes to twerking, why is the trend now about Miley Cyrus and not the black origins of the dance? With help from Twitter, women of color are talking more about their missing intersections with mainstream media and feminism.
This afterbirth has spiritual and religious significance in different parts of the world, says Y.W. Loke in this excerpt from “Life’s Vital Link.” But perhaps it’s overlooked in Western culture since birth has “become so cold and clinical.”
Feminists have been raising red flags over the discrepancy between men’s and women’s mental health since the 1970s, say Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman in this excerpt from “The Stressed Sex.” One blames it on misdiagnosis and mistreatment.