(Source: cheisenberg, via oprahchopra-deactivated20160121)
A man who has traveled to 217 countries in the world on visiting Iran
http://highlife.ba.com/articles/lessons-learned-from-travelling-to-217-countries/
things like this warm my heart with pride #taarof
(Source: highlife.ba.com, via beautyofiran)
(via bewareyouronlyfriend)
(via bewareyouronlyfriend)
Men will say confidence is the sexiest thing about a woman..until that woman stands up for herself, until that woman has her own opinions, until that woman doesn’t need your compliments to make herself feel beautiful
scary-monsters-and-super-creeps:
Atena Farghadani is a 28-year-old Iranian artist. She was recently sentenced to 12 years and 9 months in prison for drawing a cartoon.
This cartoon, that she posted on her Facebook page last year, depicts members of the Iranian parliament as animals. It was drawn in protest of new legislature in Iran that will restrict access to contraception and criminalise voluntary sterilisation. Atena’s charges include ‘spreading propaganda against the system’ and ‘insulting members of parliament through paintings’.
Last August, 12 members of the elite Revolutionary Guard came to Atena’s house, blindfolded her and took her to the infamous Evin Prison in Tehran. According to Amnesty International:
“While in prison last year, Atena flattened paper cups to use them as a surface to paint on. When the prison guards realised what she had been doing, they confiscated her paintings and stopped giving her paper cups. When Atena found some cups in the bathroom, she smuggled them into her cell. Soon after, she was beaten by prison guards, when she refused to strip naked for a full body search. Atena says that they knew about her taking the cups because they had installed cameras in the toilet and bathroom facilities – cameras detainees had been told were not operating.”
She was released in November and gave media interviews and posted a video on YouTube detailing her beatings, constant interrogations and humiliating body searches. She was then rearrested possibly in retaliation for speaking out and has been imprisoned ever since. In January, Atena went on a hunger strike to protest the horrible prison conditions. Her health suffered dramatically, and after losing consciousness and suffering a heart attack in February, she was forced to eat again.
The quote used in the comic is taken from the speech Atena gave at her trial. It has been translated into English by the Free Atena Facebook page. You can read the whole thing here.
Time is now against her, she has just two weeks to lodge an appeal. Michael Cavna, comic journalist for The Washington Post, has launched a campaign appealing to artists to help bring awareness to Atena’s case by creating their own artwork in support of Atena and using the hashtag#Draw4Atena. Can a bunch of artists and a hashtag really make a difference and put pressure on the Iranian Government to release Atena? Probably not. But just remember that Atena is currently in prison enduring horrible conditions, and if her appeal isn’t successful, she will be there for another twelve years. FOR DRAWING A CARTOON AND POSTING IT ON FACEBOOK. Don’t we owe it to her to at least try?
Alot worse actually happens out there.. once Being a soldier (which turned me into an activist) showed me..
Signal boost.
This definitely deserves a boost
Just nasty….
#IF YA WENT HARD FOR CHARLIE HEBDO YOU SHOULD GO HARD FOR THIS
(via lilspacebabe)
“In my mind, I see a line and over that line I see green fields and lovely flowers, and beautiful white woman with their arms stretched out to me. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.” That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800′s.
Still floored by this speech. Opportunity is key
(Source: captainpoe)
two weeks of long distance and I’m addicted to sad/realistic romantic movies SO if anyone wants to join my Bad Idea here’s what’s on my list:
(rewatch)
going the distance
50 days of summer
like crazy
once
brokeback mountain
bright star
edward scissorhands
50 first dates
blue valentine
celeste and jesse forever
amelie
(first time)
the english patient
amour
west side story
before sunrise/sunset/midnight trilogy
american beauty
3 years ago - 
2
2 #AfterSeptember11 trended on Twitter today. So real. White supremacy manifests in so many sinister ways. These tweets paint a vivid picture.
(Source: fullpraxisnow, via arleensux)
elle:
“This wasn’t the start of another Internet spat. What Minaj did was necessary and even radical. She was refusing to apologize for wanting to be visible and rewarded like her peers. She was calling bullshit on the audacity of a white woman, who has, in the past, responded to people of color with indifference while she bastardizes their language, hair, dance, and visual aesthetics. Minaj did what a lot of black women want to do: call out people when they try to render you invisible, when they try to render your pain insignificant.”
Read more: In Praise of the Radical and Unapologetic Nicki Minaj
ALL. OF. THIS.
Wow. When did elle get so woke? HERE. FOR. IT.
Okay ELLE!
“There’s a price and penalty when black people tell white people how they feel about racism, and how they feel about being marginalized, about how they feel about being sourced and exploited for their culture. Once a black woman gets publicly angry, it’s a scarlet letter that she can never shake.”
(via lilspacebabe)
I think one of my favorite feelings is laughing with someone and realizing half way through how much you enjoy them and their existence.
(via forever-and-alwayss)
Always with theidistouch
(via jesstincase)
oh, my heart.
(Source: deeplifequotes, via jesstincase)
As librarians, one of our greatest challenges in this arena might come when we overlook the differences in cultural dynamics from one group to the next. What might seem loud or disruptive to one group of people might be a totally normal interaction to another. Before we ban and humiliate patrons for being “too boisterous,” I challenge librarians to ask ourselves: “Is this creating a real problem — is anyone actually threatened or in danger here? … Is this really worth adding one more cut to the thousands this person already has?”
A lot of well-meaning librarians have talked about how part of our mission is to guide and teach the public about “the proper way to behave in a library.” When what they really mean, I think without realizing it, is “the proper way to behave white and middle class.”
from We Need Diverse Libraries
(via bookriot)
(via becauseiamawoman)
“am I a fraud?” and other self-doubting thoughts that occur when people seem to believe in you
but also “I can kind of see it”
but then “nah, fraud”
3 years ago - 2
2 In just under 12 hours, YA novelists and readers have raised over £120,000 to help Save the Children’s work with refugees. This is great news, and I hope we are just getting started. Donate here!
But the terrible news is still overwhelming to me.
I am heartbroken by our collective failure to assist refugees from the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, the Central African Republic, and elsewhere. I’m disgusted by the racist and dehumanizing response to the refugee crisis that we’ve seen from governments in Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia.
Ethiopia–one of the poorest nations on earth–is currently home to more conflict refugees than the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom. Ethiopia can help, but we can’t? Bullshit.
Those fleeing the civil wars in Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere are not someone else. They are not some mere Other that can dismiss as less fully human than ourselves. When they die, their blood is on our hands.
When the vulnerable and oppressed die because they are vulnerable and oppressed, the powerful are guilty. I’m proud of what Patrick Ness started this morning in the YA lit community, but let’s make this a beginning rather than imagining it as a solution.
