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  Today we're featuring a powerful and necessary guest blog post by author, activist and feminist @sijdah, whose book @redsugarnomore we have previously featured. Sijdah writes about the epidemic of "honor" killings and their prevalence in Pakistan, her home country, where more than 15,000 cases were recorded between 2004-2016, according to government data. She lists some of the more high profile and heartbreaking cases that have been in the news, while also calling out the Prime Minister for paying lip service to this urgent issue. "Even though Pakistan criminalized marital rape in 2006, such incidents still go unreported most of the time. I am angry. Because while we can’t do much, the government can, the police can, the court can. However, the most we see come out of such incidents is victim-blaming and ‘hang the rapist’ chants. How is that going to help us have safe futures? How is that going to help us get over the trauma such news brings to us every single time? It’s like a scar so deep that it keeps getting opened, yet we see no one doing anything about it until a national outcry reaches the PM’s ears and he acts like he cares for a day or two and then it’s back to radio silence again." Every year, people gather for the Aurat March, or Women's March, demanding justice for the victims of honor killings, such as Noor Mukadam, Quratulain Baloch, Bushra Ali, and more. All whose lives were cut short due to men they knew acting in rage toward them. Sijdah offers a call to action for people in Pakistan, and globally, to raise the alarm and not allow those in power to ignore this issue. "The only request I have to the men and women in my country is to call out misogyny whenever they see it. The narrative should no longer be ‘Why she was there? What type of woman was she” it should be ‘Why did he do this? Is justice being served? What are we doing to ensure it doesn’t happen again without locking women in their homes?’ Do something. This is not the time to stay quiet." To read the full piece, head to the link in our bio. ✊🏾 #honorkilling #genderviolence #pakistan #misogyny #auratmarch #womensmarch #womensrights #justice #instagood #change

  4 hours ago

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  Today on the blog, psychotherapist and author Linda Feyder is sharing a personal family story featured in her new book 'All's Fair And Other California Stories'. It is a collection of short stories featuring complex characters, a vast array of strong personalities, woven together by geography in the sunny state of California. One of the big themes is immigration, and Linda wrote about her mother’s story as the daughter of a Mexican immigrant. "I am a second-generation Mexican-American on my maternal side. The world my mother grew up in was quite different than mine. She grew up in scrappy Brooklyn, full of ethnic tension and strong work-ethic grit. She was the only daughter of four children and her mother never learned to speak English. She was my grandmother’s translator amid her own struggles in the English-speaking classrooms, long before ESL was commonplace." One of the issues Linda realized she had to deal with, throughout her own upbringing in post-war suburban California, was the notion of "blending in" and how her own culture seemed shameful at the time to her. "I wanted to blend in with the others. There was, I intuited, something shameful about a Mexican immigrant past. And yet, the Mexican culture was all around us in California." Eventually she was drawn to learning more about her Mexican culture, which her immigrant family found puzzling. She was able to use her upbringing and experience to give voice to many others who, like her own family, felt they didn't have one. "Theirs was a generation that wanted to blend in, not stand out, and I came to understand that in their efforts to succeed in their new country, a portion of themselves was also locked away, hidden from view. I wanted to see where they came from. I wanted to know why they left and sacrificed so much. I realize now that I also wanted to put words to their silence. Read more of Linda's beautiful story by clicking the link in our bio! #mexican #american #immigrant #voice #story #california #culture #author #instagood #best

  1 day ago

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  Don’t mind us, we’re just over here applauding they badassery of the German Women’s gymnastics team. How are women’s bodies still being sexualized in the Olympics in 2021?!?! Let’s hope this bravery spreads like wildfire. Ladies, your new costumes are 🔥🔥🔥 Posted @withregram • @popsugarfitness The German women's artistic gymnastics team kicked off its Olympic experience wearing statement-making full-length unitards, taking a stand against sexualization in the sport and putting an emphasis on choosing comfort. "We wanted to show that every woman, everybody, should decide what to wear." Get more details at the 🔗 in bio. 📷: @gettyimages #olympics #tokyo #germany #gymnastics #women #instagood #badass #bravery #timeforchange

  1 day ago

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  Today on the blog, we're featuring a guest post by author @cylapanin, whose debut novel is called ‘Stalking Shadows’ which is a haunting gothic retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” exploring sibling loyalty as a young woman discovers the truth behind her sister’s curse. In her post, Cyla opens up about how writing became a way of helping her heal from and deal with parts of her own childhood trauma, some of which she wove into the characters in her book. "Do we ever get over trauma? I don’t think so. In my experience, trauma lives somewhere deep under the skin and bursts forth at the most inopportune times, like a bad rash. I’m not a big talker when it comes to deep emotions or revealing trauma. Part of the reason for that, I now understand, was an unhealthy dose of gaslighting when I was younger. For me, I knew I wanted to write about it." Cyla also talks about the responsibility she felt toward young readers when writing her novel: "I write for young adults, who may feel like they alone are experiencing trauma, and there’s a responsibility to that. I wanted my books to be a tiny rock for some—something to hold onto. And did I process my own trauma through writing my novel? Maybe pieces of it. Maybe I understand myself a little better. I’ve learned nothing can carve that trauma out of my soul, but I’m a little more at peace now." To learn more about Cyla's feminist retelling of the classic Beauty and the Beast story 'Stalking Shadows' head to the link in our bio. 🐺 #trauma #author #beautyandthebeast #childhood #writing #healing #instagood #best #story #YAnovel #stalkingshadows

  5 days ago

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