The moko kauae, a sacred female chin tattoo for the Maoris of Polynesia, is making a revival amongst the indigenous women of the region. This body and facial tattooing is known as Ta moko, and amongst the Maori women, "was a rite of passage, maeking the passage between girl and adulthood." This meant to signify family and social heritage, along with beliefs regarding the afterlife. The tattoos... Read more
In the News
A protest of incredible and historical scale is happening near Cannonball, North Dakota. Thousands of Native Americans have gathered at the Standing Rock preservation in camps to protest the building of the $4 billion Bakken Pipeline. Considered the largest gathering in over a 100 years, this one includes members from 280 indigenous tribes. They have travelled from all across America to... Read more
In a recently published report by Amnesty International, it has been discovered that at least 17,723 people have died in custody in Syrian prisons since March 2011. This, the article states, is around “300 deaths per month” - not counting the much larger reality of all those people who have been abducted or are “missing”. Reports of torture in the Saydnaya Military Prison vary from instances... Read more
In this article, a journalist from Kashmir, Gowhar Geelani, relays his experiences in the currently ongoing curfew placed in Kashmir. It has been over 7 weeks since the strict curfew was placed, and the situation appears to be dire, with fear as the general norm in lifestyle. On 9th July, young activist and leader of an anti-Indian occupation movement, Burhan Wani was killed by Indian... Read more
On Jul.30, there was another extremely cruel honour killing happened in Punjab, Pakistan. 35 year-old NazirHussid killed both sisters of his before the day they were going to get married with their fiances because he thought it will be better for them to marry 2 decent distant relatives.In fact, there are 1000 females killed in the so-called honour killing in Pakistan every year, and 5000... Read more
China abandons the One-Child Policy.” The Chinese government has already announced that China has moved towards the Two-Child policy, giving the misleading impression that all coercive population control had ceased. A close analysis of several reports coming out of China, however, demonstrates that Chinese government sources themselves inadvertently have admitted that forced abortion... Read more
A widely criticized refugee detention camp in Australia is going to be shut down. Australia has a very strict rule of refugee policy: even refugees that are qualified for asylum will never be allowed to settle in the country. Instead, arriving refugees or migrants will be sent to detention centers with extreme bad conditions and both physical and psychological torture. Australian... Read more
Ghina Wadi, a nine-year old girl from Madaya, Syria, was shot in the leg while walking with her sister to bring medicine to her mother. Because the surgery she needed was not available in the beseiged town, locals pleaded the government for Ghina to be allowed to leave, but she was not allowed to do so. Fortunately, a social media campaign supported by Amnesty International as well as the United... Read more
Donald Trump, the candidate chosen by the Republican party of the United States, reiterated his plans to limit the immigration of Muslims to the United States, on the grounds of Islam being dangerous to American Women. Citing cases such as honor killings in Pakistan and an Iraqi immigrant who murdered his own daughter because she was too 'westernized', Trump wants to solidify his claim that Islam... Read more