It is outrageous from the beginning that she was arrested and prosecuted instead of investigating the physical assault against her… The sentence shows the status of the Egyptian judiciary today, which is largely in the service of the political interests of the government, rather than assisting in delivering justice. — Amr Magdi, Egypt researcher at Human Rights Watch, Middle East Eye, March 17.

An Egyptian court has convicted the 26-year-old film editor, writer and activist Sanaa Seif on charges of spreading false news, misusing social media and insulting a police officer on duty, sentencing her to 18 months in prison. Sanaa’s sister, Mona Seif, confirmed the March 17 conviction in a tweet stating that her sister has been charged with spreading “false news related to the Covid 19 pandemic,” and “using a Facebook account to terrorize people.”

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Read here about how girls and young women are speaking out against Female Genital Mutilation. Marked annually on 6 February: The International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.

In this episode of Creating Local Peace, Kelly Curry of CODEPINK is joined by author and activist, Carolyn North. They discuss Carolyn’s book, “World Shift Happens! Facing Down the Fear, Waking Up the Mind” and the ways in which we can create local peace in our communities. “World Shift Happens!” is a book of linked stories-within-stories about the invisible and visible worlds; about life and death; about people on Earth in a post-apocalyptic time we might consider a Utopia.

To order the book you can do so here: https://www.amazon.com/Worldshift-Hap…

George Kraychyk In the fictional country of Gilead, an environmental disaster has caused infertility amongst women.

The Handmaid’s Tale, a critically acclaimed television series which has won 38 Emmy awards, may be about a fictional “alternative reality”, but the show’s creators have gone to great lengths to ensure that references to themes such as climate change, human rights abuses, and refugees, are as real and accurate as possible, by collaborating closely with UN experts.

The TV version of The Handmaid’s Tale is based on the classic 1985 book of the same name by acclaimed author Margaret Atwood, about a dystopian USA, renamed Gilead, ruled by a brutal theocracy in which people, particularly women, have been stripped of their rights.

In the story, an environmental disaster has led to most women becoming infertile, and the small number who are still able to become pregnant are forced to become handmaids, women who are owned by the ruling elite and systematically raped in order to provide them with children.

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