
In the wild, wild East, in the tribal “badlands” between Pakistan and Muslim India, few girls or women willingly risk being honor killed for refusing an arranged marriage or for wanting to leave an exceptionally violent husband.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler16 Sep 2015, 6:38 AM PST0

The National Iranian American Council organized the letter signed by seventy-three “international scholars” who favor the treaty—no, the deal—no, the deal with secret asides—no, the run-around Congress—no, President Obama’s cynical fait accompli—between Iran and America.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler27 Aug 2015, 4:02 PM PST0

Even as the Western intelligentsia continue to focus upon the fake and inflated refugee crisis among Palestinians, the world’s real refugee crisis– Christians and Yezidis persecuted by ISIS– has become both overwhelming and hidden in plain sight.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler17 Aug 2015, 9:35 AM PST0

The summer is known as the “cutting season.” This means that infants as young as two or three months old are being taken out of the UK to be genitally mutilated in their countries of origin, such as Malaysia, whose customs, like those of Iran, have become increasingly Arabized.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler3 Aug 2015, 9:13 AM PST0

The Yezidis are holding worldwide rallies and Memorial Services tomorrow in Oldenberg, Germany; on August 2nd in Lalish, Iraq (the Yezidi spiritual heartland), and in France; and on August 3rd in Geneva, Armenia, Berlin, and in cities in Sweden, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and the United States (Lincoln, Nebraska; Houston, Texas; and perhaps Buffalo, New York).
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler31 Jul 2015, 1:00 PM PST0

A great soul has just gone on to his Creator: Sir Nicholas Winton, who rescued 669 mainly Jewish children from Prague in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, died today. He was 106 years old.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler1 Jul 2015, 11:48 AM PST0

The Yezidis are now on the move. This has been secretly planned for months. What we now have is a potentially mass exodus from ISIS-controlled Iraq. They have reason to believe that Bulgaria will grant them asylum. However, Turkey, which they must enter and exit on their way to Bulgaria, is giving them trouble.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler27 Jun 2015, 8:08 PM PST0

Just as another “Freedom Flotilla” is sailing to Gaza, veteran filmmaker Pierre Rehov’s latest film War Crimes in Gaza will be shown next week to the European Parliament under the auspices of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler26 Jun 2015, 12:21 PM PST0

The Spanish government is offering citizenship to the descendants of formerly exiled Spanish Jews. No longer will such Jews actually have to travel to Spain; they need only “hire a Spanish notary and pass tests on the Spanish language and history.”
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler15 Jun 2015, 12:32 PM PST0

Oh, how the feminist movement has lost its way. And the deafening silence over ISIS’s latest brutal crimes makes that all too clear.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler8 Jun 2015, 7:23 AM PST0

The Pakistani courtroom proceedings were secret. Despite what reporters were previously told this past April (that ten men had been convicted), Pakistani authorities secretly acquitted eight of the men charged with conspiracy and attempted murder in the case of teenager Malala Yousafzai, who was targeted because she wanted girls to receive an education.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler5 Jun 2015, 10:09 AM PST0

On June 1st, the Supreme Court “reversed and remanded” Samantha Elauf’s high profile lawsuit concerning her right to wear a hijab at work back to the Tenth Circuit’s appeals court for further proceedings. Elauf, represented by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, had been awarded $20,000 by a jury at the trial level; that award was vacated by the appeals court. Now, when the appeals court revisits the case, they may reinstate that jury award.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler2 Jun 2015, 9:10 AM PST0

According to Kurdish media network Rudaw, seventeen-year-old “Suzan,” a Kurdish Yezidi girl was kidnapped, gang-raped, enslaved, and impregnated by ISIS warriors. Incredibly, she managed to escape and has told her story to Delal Sindy, a Swedish-Kurdish activist living in a Kurdish region.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler28 May 2015, 11:18 AM PST0

On Saturday evening, November 8, 2003, I addressed a free-standing feminist “networking” conference of mainly African-American and Hispanic-American women at Barnard College. The conference was sponsored by WERISE (Women Empowered through Revolutionary Ideas Supporting Enterprise), which was described as a grassroots, multi-cultural, multi-generational, and multi-disciplinary organization for women in the arts. The women ranged in age from 20 to 65 and were dressed in corporate business suits, colorful African and ethnic attire, and youthful jeans.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler26 May 2015, 7:18 PM PST0

Earlier this week, an Indian man, Jairam Manjhi, aged either 36 or 25, and Parvati Kumari, a 16-year-old girl related to her lover’s wife, were kidnapped by the girl’s family and brutally beaten to death; the girls’ family publicly burned their corpses while 100 villagers stood by and watched the entire grisly episode.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler14 May 2015, 1:32 PM PST0

The long arm of American justice has reached right into Pakistan, where a heinous overseas revenge-for-honor killing was perpetrated—one that was orchestrated by cell phone from the front seat of a taxi in Brooklyn, New York.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler12 May 2015, 10:09 AM PST0

We are living in infamous times. Reality outpaces fiction, and the worst case scenarios keep unfolding in our daily headlines.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler4 May 2015, 9:46 AM PST0

The PEN award to the survivors of the Charlie Hebdo massacre has drawn some very distinguished fire.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler1 May 2015, 10:00 AM PST0

A petition to support Professor Andrew Pessin’s right to free speech—which includes his pro-Israel point of view—now has almost 10,000 signatures. In addition, this morning, Dr. Pessin tells this reporter, “We trust that the administration is willing to work together with
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler30 Apr 2015, 9:29 AM PST0

Zainub Priya Dala, a South African Muslim author and psychologist, was “violently attacked for expressing admiration for Salman Rushdie” the day after praising the author. After countless phoned-in threats to recant, Dala was placed under psychiatric care in which she was “drugged until I could not walk” and advised to adopt a proper Muslim lifestyle.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler14 Apr 2015, 9:58 AM PST0

Foreign girls who are lured via the internet to join ISIS are being misled by a glamorized vision of women posing with AK-47s and in martial arts positions—in essence, a vision of women performing forbidden, male-only holy mission tasks.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler8 Apr 2015, 10:40 AM PST0

Andrew Pessin, Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College, is the latest casualty in the campus-based culture wars. Dr. Pessin is a well-liked and much published professor, self-described as the “only Jewish professor on campus who openly advocates for Israel.” And now, for remarks made during last summer’s Gaza war, he faces an attack from Palestinian supporters seeking to silence pro-Israel stances on campus.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler7 Apr 2015, 6:10 AM PST0

Yesterday, according to a PassBlue report prominent Indian anti-prostitution activist Ruchira Gupta revealed: “I was surprised that the UN was trying to censor [me and told] me not to speak on prostitution, when my work was with victims of prostitution.”
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler1 Apr 2015, 7:55 AM PST0

Polygamy is widely practiced in Gaza—and the women (or “sister wives”) are not happy about it.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler23 Mar 2015, 10:17 AM PST0

At press time, President Obama has not yet congratulated the new Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.
by Dr. Phyllis Chesler18 Mar 2015, 10:12 AM PST0