by Rebecca Burns, In These Times, USA - As President Obama hailed the “extraordinary achievement” of U.S. troops withdrawing from Iraq in December, continuing protests against government repression and abysmal basic services undermined the narrative of a successful democratic transition. Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), has for months helped many Iraqis express their anger.

by Vandana Shiva, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The seed is the first link in the food chain - and seed sovereignty is the foundation of food sovereignty. If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty - and consequently no food sovereignty.

by Kerry-anne Mendoza, OpenDemocracy, UK - In response to a growing realisation that neo-liberal capitalism is morally and literally bankrupt, Britain’s political leadership have provided three visions of ethical capitalism for us to aspire to. So, is there such a thing as ethical capitalism? And why is this question being asked now?

by Elahe Amani, Women News Network, USA - In an amazing coordinated campaign, a Lebanese advocacy group dedicated to protecting women from violence shook up the media world by working closely with men as they asked them to act decisively and without hesitation to stop violence against women.

by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, TED, USA - Women aren’t micro--so why do they only get micro-loans? At TEDxWomen reporter Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues that women running all types of firms-- from home businesses to major factories-- are the overlooked key to economic development.

by Zoë Marriage, OpenDemocracy, UK - Through an account of capoeira, the Brazilian dance-fight-game, we uncover two simultaneous stories of security: first, the gradual monopolisation of violence by the state; second, a somatic, lyrical representation of a history of violence, oppression and liberation.

by Jessica Buchleitner, Women News Network, USA-Bringing rural women’s voices to the decision making table was one of the discussions throughout the recent two week Durban Climate Talks (COP17) which ended on 9 December. One of the conference goals was to bring greater insights for action with solutions for climate change. But are global leaders bringing rural women’s voices to the table?

by Rocío Alorda, Latin America Press, Peru - Use of highly toxic pesticides and other farming chemicals in Chile is rampant, posing serious health risks and damages for the farmers who use them. In response, on Dec. 19, the Agriculture Ministry banned the import, export and sale of several of these substances that could cause cancer among other diseases.

by Claire Provost, The Guardian, UK - Four years ago, soaring food prices and reports of food riots from West Bengal to Mexico made headlines worldwide and fuelled a new demand for global hunger figures. How have people been affected by rising food prices? Has hunger increased? What is the "human cost" of global economic crisis?

by Marianne de Nazareth, Countercurrents, India - The report, Green Economy in a Blue World, argues that the ecological health and economic productivity of marine and coastal ecosystems, which are currently in decline around the globe, can be boosted by shifting to a more sustainable economic paradigm that taps their natural potential - from generating renewable energy and promoting eco-tourism, to sustainable fisheries and transport.

by Michelle Chen, Colorlines, USA - Around the world, as long as people keep moving, politicians will continue to talk breathlessly about the immigration “crisis.” It’s a campaign trail standard in the U.S., but in Britain and Western Europe as well, political figures waste no opportunity to project voters’ deepest fears and wildest misperceptions onto whatever group of newcomers is most visible—whether they’re Egyptian, Roma or Polish.

by Cynthia McKinney, Pambazuka News, Kenya - The ‘Arab Spring’ has sprung and the indelible fingerprints of malignant foreign financed operations must be erased if the people are to have a chance to truly govern themselves. Unfortunately, these foreign-inspired organizations are present and operating in just about every country in the world. The threat is ever-present like sleeping cells - all that is needed is that the right word to ‘activate’ be given.

by Amira Hass, Haaretz, Israel - Who will protect Gaza citizens from their supposed defenders - the government and armed resistance groups?

by Kerry-anne Mendoza, OpenDemocracy, UK - The Occupy Movement, far from having no programme, has revolutionized our sense of self. The Citizen of the World adopts a panoramic view of society and takes the interests of others all over the world to be as important as her or his self interest.

by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, UK - The number of unsafe abortions is rising around the world, while what appeared to be a steady decline in abortion rates in the 1990s has stalled, according to an authoritative new report.

by Jennifer Dube, The Standard, Zimbabwe - As women continue to seek ways of improving their health, some have resorted to using imported pads believed to have protective qualities. The Anion pads, mainly sold by those who trade in imported herbal products, are said to have qualities which enable them to naturally cleanse a woman’s womb while also reducing her menstrual days and easing period pains.

by Karen Tse, TED, USA - Political prisoners aren't the only ones being tortured -- the vast majority of judicial torture happens in ordinary cases, even in 'functioning' legal systems. Social activist Karen Tse shows how we can, and should, stand up and end the use of routine torture.

by Katy Waldman, Slate, USA - After an hour and a half of trying to soften an increasingly furious—and personal— debate over Palestinian membership in the United Nations on Tuesday, moderator John Donvan gave up and wearily asked his panelists for closing statements. Aaron David Miller started off. “I realize in the last 90 minutes that perhaps one of the most astute things I’ve done, the best decisions I’ve made, was to leave the Arab-Israeli negotiating table,” he quipped.

by Meera Dalal, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The tropical disease kills more people annually than cancer, but researchers think they can win the fight.

by Maureen Corrigan, NPR, USA - As he surely intended, Shalom Auslander opens up a whole big can of slimy moral and aesthetic dilemmas in his debut novel Hope: A Tragedy. Maybe plunking Anne Frank down in your novel — as, by the way, Philip Roth did in The Ghost Writer and, later, in Exit, Ghost — is excusable if there's a big enough point and if your writing is strong enough to carry it off. Maybe artistically appropriating Anne Frank — herself a brilliantly observant artist of her own tragic predicament — is not as creepy as dressing your child up to look like a little girl who, like Frank, was murdered. And maybe I have a headache because Auslander clearly wants to lampoon identity politics, as well as the acutely understandable Jewish sense of victimization, by sending up Anne Frank, aka, as she says here, "Miss Holocaust, 1945."

by Felicity Arbuthnot, Countercurrents, India - As the US occupiers leave Iraq the fate of former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq Tareq Aziz's fate hangs in the balance.

by Rahila Gupta, OpenDemocracy, UK - Feminism needs to recapture the state from the neoliberal project to which it is in hock in order to make it deliver for women. It must guard against atomisation and recover its transformative aspirations to shape the new social order that is hovering on the horizon.

by Afef Abrougui, Global Voices, The Netherlands - The year 2011 was a year of protests and sit-ins in Tunisia. During the first two weeks of the year, the police crackdown on protesters was disastrous, leading to more than 300 deaths. Things only started to change after the fall of the Ben Ali regime. But, in several occasions, Tunisian authorities continued to violently disperse protesters.

by Emily Buchanan, BBC United Kingdom,- A law allowing only women to work in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia is coming into force. Campaigners hope this will end decades of awkwardness in the Islamic kingdom where women have always been served by male shop assistants.

by Christine Shearer, Conducive Chronicle, USA - In a recent article in National Journal, Americans for Prosperity (AFP) President Tim Phillips said there is no question that AFP and others like it have been instrumental in the rise of Republican candidates who question or deny climate science: “We’ve made great headway. What it means for candidates on the Republican side is, if you … buy into green energy or you play footsie on this issue, you do so at your political peril.”

by Kerry Dawborn & Caroline Smith, Countercurrents, India - Permaculture is much more than organic gardening. Some believe it is one of Australia’s greatest intellectual exports, because it has helped many people worldwide to design ecologically sustainable strategies for their homes, gardens, farms and communities.

by Polina Bykhovskaya, OpenDemocracy, UK - Is it possible to challenge censors without losing your livelihood? Polina Bykhovskaya interviews the men and women who wanted to change the world but ended up in the business of job preservation (their's and Putin's)

by Elizabeth Flock, The Washington Post Blog, USA - As the Stop Online Piracy Act heads to a vote in the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow morning, its opponents are lining up to stop it. The bill’s newest foe? Journalists. If passed, SOPA would expand the ability of law enforcement and copyright holders to shut down any site that hosts pirated content. But as the American Censorship group voiced on the blog Boing Boing on Wednesday, many believe “SOPA would not only hurt free speech, it will choke off the Internet workforce and its readers by taking down entire Web sites.”

by Melissa Harris-Perry, Yale University Press, - USA "Melissa Harris-Perry is one of our most trenchant readers of modern black life. In Sister Citizen, she gives new life to the idea that 'the personal is political.' This book will change the conversation about the rights, responsibilities, and burdens of citizenship."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

by Kate Sheppard and James West, Mother Jones, USA - In climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa, the most urgent calls for action have come from the world's small island nations. For many of those nations, the negotiations aren't about some far-off, abstract problem. It's something they're already living with, as a new Australian research project on the dramatic climate shifts underway for 15 Pacific nations reaffirmed this week.

(IRIN) - Land deals done in newly-independent South Sudan “threaten to undermine the land rights of rural communities, increase food insecurity, entrench poverty, and skew development patterns” in the resource-rich but poor nation, a new report says.

by Bina Shah, Dawn, Pakistan - The controversial Veena Malik cover has got Pakistanis talking — about women, about sexuality and about empowerment — and it seems everyone`s got an opinion concerning Ms Malik`s decision to pose for the men`s magazine across the border.

by Kathryn Olmstead, Bangor Daily News, USA - Gerritsen, 56, who with his wife, Megan, and their family has operated Wood Prairie Farm in Bridgewater since 1976, is on a mission that has put him in the national — and international — spotlight. As president of Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association, the trade organization for the organic seed industry, he is the lead plaintiff in a suit to protect growers and consumers of organic foods.

by Sussan Tahmasebi, Nobel Women's Initiative, Canada - “We are worn out but [are] neither bent nor broken. We continue to stand erect, although with wounded and restless hearts. We bear witness to the efforts of dictators looting a fertile land nurtured by the selfless sacrifices of past and present generations.”

by Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Department of State, USA - Beginning in 1947, delegates from six continents devoted themselves to drafting a declaration that would enshrine the fundamental rights and freedoms of people everywhere. In the aftermath of World War II, many nations pressed for a statement of this kind to help ensure that we would prevent future atrocities and protect the inherent humanity and dignity of all people.

by Gwen Sharp, The Society Pages, USA - After reading the comic, I thought it would be fun to have a round-up of examples of masculinizing the feminine — that is, attempts to sell items to men through repackaging and renaming, drawing on ridiculous stereotypes of masculinity to assure men that they can use these products without becoming girly.

by Leslie Dodson, TED, USA - Real narratives are complicated: Africa isn’t a country, and it's not a disaster zone, says reporter and researcher Leslie Dodson. At TEDxBoulder, she calls for journalists, researchers and NGOs to stop representing entire continents as one big tragedy.

by Rebecca Johnson, OpenDemocracy, UK - Women’s groups such as Women in Black have long led the way in challenging the mindsets and structures of patriarchal power and militarism, but men must recognise that they have the primary responsibility to make the changes.

by Cecilia Remón, Latin American Press, Peru - “Which is more important: water or gold? You don’t drink gold, you don’t eat gold. So mining cannot take over the waterbeds,” said President Ollanta Humala, during his campaign last April in the northern city of Cajamarca, one of Peru’s main mining cities.

by Rana F. Sweis, The New York Times, USA - For eight years, Nima Habashna has been garnering online support for the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their non-Jordanian spouses and children.

by Kim Ghatta, BBC, UK - Hillary Clinton's visit comes amid hopes that Burma may finally be embarking on the path of reform, and could signal the beginning of a turning point for the long ostracised Asian country. Despite elections decried as a sham last year, Burma's military-backed civilian leadership has taken unexpected steps towards reform by releasing dozens of political prisoners and relaxing some media restrictions.

by Juhie Bhatia, Global Voices, The Netherlands - As governments gear up for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) in Durban, South Africa, which starts today, experts are warning that among climate change's greatest consequences in developing countries such as Bangladesh are risks to the agriculture sector, including an increased risk of hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity.

by Jennifer L. Pozner, WIMN, USA - "So, so often, entertainment media (which is advertising-driven) and advertising itself are invested in making women feel like we’re incomplete or wrong, sexually, so that they can sell us a fantasy of what it would be like for us to be right...our sexuality is both the defining characteristic of all women and the product being sold. It’s never about our own pleasure, needs or boundaries. It’s always about being a prop in someone else’s play. Journalism & social media all too often unthinkingly repeat and amplify these tropes, because it’s what we’re used to hearing as a culture, so it “makes sense” to most people. There’s very little incentive for any sectors of the media to question this dominant narrative, and often real negative consequences if they do."

by Paulina Tambakaki, OpenDemocracy, UK - It has been argued that the euro-crisis and the events unfolding during the past week raise some serious questions about democracy in the member states of the European Union. The reason behind these questions is the formation of governments headed by technocrats (first in Greece, and now in Italy) following the forced removal of prime ministers viewed, suddenly, as weak and spineless.

by Ann Wright, Common Dreams, USA - Thousands of Egyptians perform Friday prayers during a rally in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 25, 2011. Tens of thousands of protesters chanting, "Leave, leave!" are rapidly filling up Cairo's Tahrir Square in what promises to be a massive demonstration to force Egypt's ruling military council to yield power. The Friday rally is dubbed by organizers as "The Last Chance Million-Man Protest."

by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Huffington Post, USA - Right now, every day, American families are facing decisions between putting food on the table, paying the rent, buying school supplies, and obtaining medical care and prescription drugs. This is no time to leave those who count on unemployment insurance out in the cold.

by Sudeshna Sarkar, Al Jazeera, Qatar - The shrinking and retreating of the Himalayan glaciers - which provide life-giving water to over a billion people - became visible after early 1970. Three decades later, the phenomenon accelerated, resulting in the formation of moraine-dammed glacial lakes which are swelling ominously.

by Silvia Viñas, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, USA - Despite dire statistics on Chile’s inequality, the country’s prosperity cannot be denied and its steady economic growth is looked upon with admiration during the current financial crisis. Nevertheless, unless it effectively targets high rates of inequality, the majority of Chileans will not take notice when the country reaches a “developed country’s” GDP.

by Alka Pande, Arab News, Saudi Arabia - The observance of World Toilet Day was initiated by the World Toilet Organization on Nov. 19, 2001, to raise global awareness of the emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation. Yet it is a disgrace that this completely preventable crisis continues to blight the lives of 2.6 billion people across the globe that do not have access to proper, clean sanitation.

by Nora Kayserian, IANYAN MAG, USA - Queering Yerevan, formerly known as the Women-Oriented Women’s Collective, is a mosaic of female artists, writers and activists from various countries and differing backgrounds from 2007 to 2011. The group initially joined forces to produce creative art events in Yerevan but percolated in to something bigger.

(Reject Online) As the world prepares to mark 16 days of activism against gender violence campaign, sexual exploitation of young girls including gender based violence continues to be reported in Taita-Taveta County with worrying frequency.

(Yale Environment 360)- The acidification of the world’s oceans from an excess of CO2 emissions has already begun, as evidenced recently by the widespread mortality of oyster larvae in the Pacific Northwest. Scientists say this is just a harbinger of things to come if greenhouse gas emissions continue to soar.

(The Washington Post) -All members of Egypt’s caretaker government submitted their resignations to the military leadership on the third day of the bloodiest and most sustained violence in the nation since the military took control in February, Egyptian state television reported Monday night.

by Marieme Helie Lucas, Pambazuka News, Kenya - In an article written on the eve of the country’s elections last month, Marieme Helie Lucas explores ‘what women have to lose, should fundamentalists come to power in Tunisia.’

by Natalie Warne, TED, USA - At 18, Natalie Warne’s work with the Invisible Children movement made her a hero for young activists. At TEDxTeen she uses her inspiring story to remind us that no one is too young to change the world.

by Rodanthi Tzanelli, OpenDemocracy, UK - Parading on Greek National Days used to be the quintessential celebration of Greek identity. In the age of austerity it has evolved into an arena of contestation of rituals Greeks used to take for granted.

by Susanne Güsten, The New York Times, USA - “My name is Hayat, and I am 15 years old,” she tells the audience. “My husband is 70 years old.”

by Heather Horn, The Atlantic, USA - Germans are widely hostile to far-right groups, but opposition to multi-culturalism is on the rise -- and getting violent.

by Leila Nachawati, Global Voices Advocacy, USA - To track and surveil citizens online, repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa have relied on Western technology for years. Since surveillance technology is as necessary for repressive regimes in order to continue their crackdown against citizens as the weapons they import, would it make sense to see surveillance products and services included in the import bans?

(Global Voices) Recently, a Facebook page was established to promote the rights of homosexuals and to call on them to gather on the 1 January, 2012, in Tahrir Square to demand their rights. "We are a group of gay Egyptian youth. We were in Tahrir and we took part in the revolution. We see that each of us has the right to have a life of respect in public. We are part of Egypt's revolution and we won't allow anyone to question our loyalty."

(Amnesty International) Olympic organizers must urge Brazilian authorities to stop forcibly evicting hundreds of families across Rio de Janeiro amid preparations for the summer 2016 Summer Olympic Games, residents’ groups, local housing activists, Amnesty International and WITNESS said today in a joint letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

by Catherine Porter, The Star, Canada - If you feel sorry for yourself, there’s a spirit spa in Parkdale you should go to. It’s in a long yellow room above the community centre for the poor, where ragged men drink coffee and type emails. Three mornings a week, 12 women gather here to learn how to talk again.

by Erica Silverman, Al Jazeera, Qatar - Eid al-Adha – the Feast of Sacrifice – that fell Monday is one of the most important holidays in the Muslim calendar. This usually festive season reveals the poverty and desperation still gripping most Palestinians in Gaza.

by Barbara Slavin, Asia Times, Hong Kong - A new report on Iran's nuclear program provides substantial evidence that Iran carried out extensive research into how to make a nuclear weapon prior to 2003, but is shaky about how much work has continued.

by Beth Noveck, OpenDemocracy, UK - There is a global movement in the offing that is transforming what we mean by government and democracy from the ground up.

by Liana Aghajanian, Ianyanmag, USA - More than a year after Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s stoning sentence on account of adultery was suspended, international groups are campaigning to influence the Iranian governments decision to remove the barbaric practice from the country’s penal code.

by Laura Miller, Salon, USA - African-American writers are taking on a literary genre dominated by nostalgia for Medieval England.

by Jill Lepore, NPR, USA - The first birth control clinic in the United States opened in 1916. It was operated by Margaret Sanger, who started the clinic after becoming outraged that she couldn't give her patients — poor women in the tenements on New York City's Lower East Side — information about contraceptive options.

by Carolyn Presutti, Voice of America, USA - Unemployment in Haiti is 40% - the rate of underemployment is even higher. But as high as that sounds, it's actually much lower than 10 years ago. One reason for that is the resourcefulness of the Haitian people.

by Diane Wueger, The Atlantic, USA - As wars become less about states and more about societies, women can play a greater role in shaping or ending conflicts. So why do we still think of war as inherently male?

(Democracy Now) More than 10,000 protesters surrounded the White House on Sunday calling on President Obama to reject the proposed Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

(The New York Times) A satirical song that takes a tongue-in-cheek swipe at religious extremism, militancy and contradictions in Pakistani society has become an instant hit here, drawing widespread attention as a rare voice of the country’s embattled liberals.

(Mail & Guardian) As South Africa prepares to host UN climate talks at the end of the month, African farmers say they are struggling to access a key programme meant to help them take part in the fight against climate change.

(AJE) Long-awaited reform to economy could attract overseas money and boost communist nation's revenues.

(openDemocracy) Unlike most of the world's economic powers, Serbia still does not recognise Kosovo as a state. It will need to, though, before it can start down the road to EU accession.