Cross posted on Feminists for Choice  I was raised in Pakistan, where abortion is illegal. So as you can imagine, there’s a big market for illegal abortions there, and it’s horrific. In 2012, Nele Obermueller  reported for The Guardian :

“Shamin was not married when she got pregnant. Rather than face the shame of being a single mother in Pakistan, she [...]

I saw this on posted on  Tumblr earlier today:

Interesting how liberals get all up in arms when a woman dies unnecessarily and tragically overseas at the hands of Catholic law but could care less about someone in the states dieing because of a botched  abortion at the hands of Planned Parenthood… Not a word from them… Planned Parenthood let [...]

On November 13 the  Irish Times  reported on Savita Halappanavar’s unnecessary death. They wrote:

Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist, presented with back pain at the hospital on October 21st, was found to be miscarrying, and died of septicaemia a week later. Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar (34), an engineer at Boston Scientific  in Galway, says she asked several times over a three-day period [...]

I’ve posted a variation of the following  as a comment  on the post titled Are post-abortive Pro-Lifers hypocrites? You are brave for sharing your story. Women who choose abortion or don’t choose abortion should always and continue to share their stories. But her story is your own, her experiences do not speak to the experiences of others. For the [...]

Cross posted on Saira Says

In 1961 President Kennedy issued Executive Order No. 10925 which began an era of  Affirmative Action  based legislation that set out to ensure that hiring and employment practices are free of  racial bias , this went on to include schools and colleges. Today,   there are many proponents and many opponents  of Affirmative Action . Tomorrow one of [...]

Fifty-five years ago today Little Rock Central High School was integrated. On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court ruled on  Brown v. Board of Education  and ended  de jure  segregation. The ruling was protested by civilians and government officials. The outcry from white Americans was violent. It took nearly three years to start implementing the historic ruling. It’s important to [...]

Cross Posted on Saira Says Barack Obama embodies the  American Dream , in every way. The same dream that has brought millions upon millions to this country year after year– the dream of achieving a better future. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii to a white woman, Ann Dunham, and a black man, Barack Obama Sr., in 1961. Back [...]

Cross posted on Saira Says  I’m not a vindictive person. Nor do I usually put much thought into my twitter arguments after the fact. Twitter is a hodge podge of liberals and democrats. I’ve had some intelligent debates, I’ve had some downright nasty arguments with some horrifically uninformed people but this one really takes the cake and I [...]

Cross posted on Saira Says A SYTYCB Entry Everywhere I turn I see Todd Akin this and Todd Akin that. Paul Ryan this and Paul Ryan that. And I’m so sick of it. I want Todd Akin and his insensitive and hurtful comments to disappear. I want to ignore it and lay in the sun instead. [...]

A SYTYCB entry The games are over and the 2012 Olympics have officially closed. The opening ceremony didn’t hold a flame to the Beijing ones but with this already in mind, Danny Boyle did his best and applied his vision and the result was pleasant and entertaining. For me, however, it wasn’t the grandiosity of [...]

A SYTYCB entry I don’t really give a damn that someone from Twilight cheated on some else from Twilight. We don’t know the inner workings of any relationship and we have no reason to judge anyone. What I do care about, however, is how it’s being handled and the media attention. Men also lie, cheat, [...]

**TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains graphic images and descriptions of physical assault** Cross posted on Feminists for Choice Here’s the thing about domestic violence and physical assault: You can list off all the statistics available out there ( one in four women has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime ) without realizing what they really mean. It’s not like [...]

Cross posted on my personal blog I wasn’t going to write about this whole Dan Cathy/ Chick-fil-a fiasco that’s going on because there’s so much commentary going on about it, I didn’t think I really needed to jump in but then I read  this. The  Chick-Fil-A Mirror by James Emery White  attempts to portray the general reaction here as a some [...]

Cross posted on my personal blog A few months ago the notoriously  misleading Live Action released yet another doctored Planned Parenthood  “under cover” sting video  that attempted to discredit the organization by stating that they are complacent with sex-selective  abortions. Exactly what it sounds like, a sex-selective abortion  is when a pregnancy is aborted y based on the [...]

Cross posted on Saira Says View video here  What I find so scary about this video is that it demonstrates how willfully ignorant the anti-abortion movement is. Not only do they not think about the consequences of what they are advocating against but when asked about it, none seem to have  ever considered this. These are, by their own [...]

Cross posted on my personal blog. Exactly three years ago today  Dr. George Tiller  was murdered, in cold-blood, by people who call themselves “prolife”. Tiller was a medical director at a women’s health clinic in Wichita, Kansas (nationwide, this clinic was  one of only three  which provided  late-term abortions  or what some people call mercy abortions) and was serving as an usher [...]

Cross posted on Feminists for Choice and my personal blog . In the past two years we’ve seen an onslaught of Republican led bills to limit women’s access to safe and affordable abortions, cheap birth control, and health care.  A recent Kansas bill  allows doctors to lie to women in order to prevent abortions including lying about breast cancer treatments. [...]

Cross-posted on Saira Says **TRIGGER WARNING**: The following post describes sexual assault and domestic violence. I spent middle school and high school in  Karachi, Pakistan . I had a very close-knit group of friends, many of whom I am still close to today. One of the people I don’t talk to much anymore was a boy I’ll call Ali. In [...]

Cross-posted on my blog South Asian  culture reveres light skin . Television, radio, and newspapers are flooded with advertisements for skin whiteners and many salons specialized in skin bleaching  (yuck). For many South Asian women, the quest for a light complexion is crucial, taxing, expensive, and futile.

( Watch Fair and Lovely commercial ) As a South Asian woman, the lighter your skin [...]