Hajer Mansoor is the mother-in-law of activist in exile Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who is director of advocacy for the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy. She is imprisoned in Bahrain on trumped up charges, and is suffering reprisals for Sayed’s speaking out against the Bahraini regime’s human rights abuses.
More information about Haker and Sayed’s whole family here: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/sayed-ahmed-al-wadaei
Kamal Qishrah al Shawish works for Mwatana for Human Rights, an independent organisation monitoring human rights violations in Yemen. He lives in Houthi-controlled Hudaydah. He was abducted in August and released in September 2018.
More info on his case here: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/profile/kamal-qishrah
Milwaukee McDonald’s workers were arrested on Wednesday 3rd October during their strike for a living wage and a union.
Photos here: https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10105754989112748&id=26720943
Continuing the thread of protesters, human rights defenders and environmental protectors who have been violently cracked down on by the state, these are the three members of the Frack Free Four who went to prison for ‘lorry surfing’ in September 2018.
Sign the petition against disproportionate sentencing for environmental protesters here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/hold-an-inquiry-into-the-declining-space-for-civil-society-to-oppose-the-uk-fracking-industry-1
Find out more information here: http://frackfreefoursupporters.org/
Some of my friends helped to stop a deportation flight last year. At least 11 of the people due to be deported that day are still in the UK, able to fight their cases. They saved lives that day.
They are now on trial for terror-related charges and face up to life in prison. This is a disgusting crack down by the state on nonviolent direct action challenging the hostile environment.
Love and solidarity to them all.
Drop the charges. No human is illegal. End Deportations.
TEXT:
There’s a ‘Just So Story’ about how the rhino got such folded, wrinkly skin.
Rhino is a grumpy creature with tight grey skin who steals a man’s cake and eats it all. One day, rhino goes for a swim in the sea. Rhino’s skin is left folded on the shore. The man, in revenge for the cake theft, rubs crumbs into rhino’s skin: all over.
Rhino gets out, slips the skin back on, and feels an itch. It’s unbearable. Rhino runs to a nearby tree. The bark rubs up and down on rhino’s skin making it rumple and fold up.
This is how rhinos got folded, wrinkly skin (and why they are always in a bad mood).
Why am I telling you this story? Because this is what pronouns feel like to me. Society keeps rubbing them in: all over.
But why should I get my gender all rucked up round my shoulders? Maybe it could give me thicker skin eventually, but really I’d rather just stay out in the sea.
Naked Non-Binary Babes Reading: Futures in the flesh
Continue reading Naked Non Binary Babes Reading: Call for readers
A friend of mine is organising a vigil celebrating the life of Naomi Hirsi, a black trans woman who was found murdered last month near Heathrow.
A group of teenagers were exploring “Why do the police treat us differently?”, and someone pointed out that there haven’t always been police. This prompted me to investigate the establishment of the London Metropolitan police, which led me to this comic:
Continue reading History of the Establishment of the London Metropolitan Police
Drawn Out Thinking 