Feminism Is A Movement Geared Toward Dismantling Toxic Patriarchies. It Is Not About Hating Men, Dominating

Sexist ✓ Racist ✓

This meme is perpetuating one of the worst stereotypes black women face.

(via Your Brain on Beer Vs Coffee)

Muslims, dalits and tribals make up 53% of all prisoners in India - The Times of India

Muslims, dalits and adivasis — three of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society — make up more than half of India’s prison population, according to an official report.

“Poverty is more prevalent among these three communities and that becomes an obstacle in dealing with the legal system,” said Colin Gonsalves, human rights activist and lawyer.

“Our system has an ingrained communal and casteist bias. Also, the proportion of these communities in the police officers and even judiciary is less. These are key factors behind this shocking imbalance,” he added.

We really need to talk about Boko Haram...

They haven’t been covered much in the mainstream media but Boko Haram have been terrorising Africans with devastating, widespread and long-lasting consequences.

Responsible for more deaths than ISIS

According to the Global Terrorism Report, they have overtaken ISIS as the world’s deadliest terrorist group. It should be noted that in March this year, they pledged allegiance to ISIS. The two groups are responsible for more than half of all terrorist attacks in the world.

Who are they?

Boko Haram promotes a version of Islam which makes it “haram”, or forbidden, for Muslims to take part in any political or social activity associated with Western society.

This includes voting in elections, wearing shirts and trousers or receiving a secular education.

Boko Haram regards the Nigerian state as being run by non-believers, even when the country had a Muslim president - and it has extended its military campaign by targeting neighbouring states.

800,000 people have fled their homes since June

Since the beginning of Boko Haram’s attacks in 2009, 2.1 million people have been forced to leave their homes with a staggering 800,000 having fled between June - September 2015.

An estimated 1,100 schools have been destroyed this year alone

The UN have stated that over a thousand schools have been destroyed in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria in 2015 so far.

This is a list of their major attacks so far in 2015:

Although the figures of deaths are numerical, please remember that these are people who had jobs, lives, families, dreams, hobbies, just like you. They are more than numbers on a screen.

January 3 - 7th: The town of Baga in the north-eastern state of Borno is attacked.  Bodies lay strewn on Baga’s streets with as many as 2,000 people having been killed.

January 9th: Following the Boko Haram massacre, 7,300 flee to neighbouring Chad while over 1,000 are trapped on the island of Kangala in Lake Chad.

January 18th: Boko Haram militants kidnap 80 people and kill three others from villages in north Cameroon.

January 28th: Boko Haram fighters killed 40 people while on a rampage in Adamawa State.

February 15th: A suicide bomber kills 16 and wounds 30 in the Nigerian city of Damaturu.

February 20th: Boko Haram militants kill 34 people in attacks across Borno State and 21 from the town of Chibok.

February 24th: Two suicide bombers kill at least 27 people at bus stations in Potiskum and Kano.

March 7th: Five suicide bomb blasts leave 54 dead and 143 wounded in Maiduguri.

March 18th:  A mass grave of 90 people is discovered in the city of Damasak .

March 29th: Voting in the Nigerian general election is delayed for a second day. 25 people have died in Boko Haram attacks.

June 12th: Several days of nighttime raids on six remote villages that left at least 37 people dead in Northeastern Nigeria

June 16th:  Twin Suicide Bomb attacks in Chad capital killed 24 people and wounded more than 100.

June 17th: Bombs found at Boko Haram camp kills 63 people in Nigeria

June 23rd: Twin female suicide bomb attacks at busy fish market in Maiduguri kill 30 people.

June 28th: Five dead in suicide blast at Nigeria hospital

June 30th: Militants attacked Muslim residents after they had finished prayers, leaving 48 men dead.

July 1st: Attacks on Muslims praying in Mosques before breaking their Ramadan fast kills  97 people in Kukawa.

July 2nd:  Two female suicide bombers attack a village in Borno state killing at least 10 people

July 3rd: Militants slit the throats of 11 people

July 3rd: Several suicide bombers killed dozens of people in Zabarmari village.

July 7th: Bomb attack kills at least 25 people and wounded 32 others in northern Nigeria’s Zaria city

July 11th: At least 14 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack at a crowded market in Chad’s capital 

July 17th: Suicide bombs have killed more than 60 people in multiple blasts in the north-eastern towns of Gombe and Damaturu.

July 22nd: A double suicide attack killed at least 11 people in the far north of Cameroon

July 25th: A child and a middle-aged woman detonated suicide vests in two separate attacks, killing 34 and wounding over 100 people

Aug 2nd: 13 people killed and 27 injured in an attack on Malari village in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state

Aug 3rd: Eight people were killed and about 100 others were kidnapped in an overnight raid on a village near Cameroon’s northern border

Aug 5th: Militants behead a policeman in Nigeria

Aug 7th: Boko Haram attacks on two villages in Yobe kill nine people

Aug 11th: A bomb attack on a packed market in north-eastern Nigeria killed about 50 people.

Aug 17th: Insurgents raided a village in Borno state, Nigeria, near the border with Niger, killing 7 people

Aug 18th: Up to 150 people drowned in a river or were shot dead fleeing Boko Haram gunmen who raided a remote village in Nigeria’s north-eastern Yobe state

Aug 23rd: Army Chief’s convoy attacked, 11 people killed, 5 injured

Aug 25th: Extremists killed 28 people during attacks on remote farming and fishing villages in northeast Nigeria.

Aug 30th: 56 villagers are killed in in Baanu village of Nganzai 

Sept 1st: Gunmen on horseback kill 79 in trio of attacks

Sept 3rd: Militants killed about 30 people and wounded 145 others in attacks on a market and infirmary in northern Cameroon

Sept 20th: More than 100 people were killed in northern Nigeria in a quick succession carefully coordinated bombings

Sept 24th: 15 people killed in an attack by Boko Haram militants on a border village in south-eastern Niger

Sept 27th: 9 people killed in attacks on Mailari Village 

Sept 27th: Militants attacked the town N’gourtoi, a Nigerien village, killing the village head and 14 other civilians.

Oct 1st: An attack on a village in south-eastern Niger killed two soldiers

Oct 3rd: 15 killed in bombings in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja

Oct 4th: Militants killed three civilians and a soldier in a double suicide attack in Niger

Oct 6th: 11 Chadian soldiers killed in a surprise attack near Lake Chad

Oct 10: Five suicide bombers targeted a market and a refugee camp in Chad killing 36 people and wounding 56 others.

Oct 6th: Suicide attacks in northern Nigeria kill at least 17 people, injuring 11

Oct 7th: At least 12 worshipers have been killed in set of twin suicide attacks on a mosque in Borno State

Oct 22nd: 20 people were shot dead outside the Jingalta village Borno state, Nigeria

Oct 23rd: 23 people were killed in a bombing in a mosque in Borno State

Oct 28th: Thirteen people were killed and three injured in an attack on village in south-east Niger 

Oct 29th: Many killed and houses burnt to the ground in Bara town of Gulani 

Nov 8th: A twin suicide bombing near Lake Chad on Sunday killed two people and wounded 14 others

Nov 11th: 25 dead in raid on a village in southern Niger 

Nov 12th: The government of Chad has imposed a state of emergency on the northern region by Lake Chad

Nov 17th: At least 32 people have been killed and 80 injured in a night-time suicide bomb attack at a truck stop in Yola, Adamawa state, Nigeria

I’ll be updating this list as events progress. Please let me know if I have missed anything and I’ll add it in.

Consent: If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. Take the pledge to help stop sexual assault at ItsOnUs.org.

Watch: Poet paints a vivid picture of growing up as a Chinese American — and it hits deep.

When you’re a 17 year-old Dalit girl, your teacher will rape you, the school warden will encourage it, and the admin will collude to hide your murdered body

Delta Meghwal was a 17 year old student at the Jain Adarsh Teacher Training Institute for Girls in Bikaner, a small district in Rajatsthan, India. She was an artist, a brilliant student and an ambitious young woman with big dreams. She also happened to be Dalit. Which is why, her school warden, Priya Shukla, had sent her to ‘clean’ the PT instructor Vijender Singh’s room. Her being Dalit makes it okay for the warden to use her as unpaid labor. It also makes it okay for the said instructor to rape her, in that same room. Her Dalit stauts stops the school from taking any action against the teacher who just raped a student. But it doesn’t not prevent them from forcing her to sign a letter saying the rape was in fact, mutual. That too, only after the terrified child called her father to inform him of the horror. Her ‘lower caste’ guarantees that her dead body will be found in an enclosed, reportedly shallow water tank the next day. And that it will be labeled as suicide. It will also give the ‘school’ permission to have her body be taken away in a GARBAGE TRUCK. Without any evidence or record. Her Dalit identity qualifies the mainstream media to look away, for us to not care, for the insttitution her parents entrusted her safety with to rape and murder her. 

Because it’s normal for Dalits to be treated like this. Because Dalit women’s bodies are never their own. They can be used, abused and killed by any upper caste man, at this will. His caste though, makes sure he gets away. That he is able to do it again. To some other Dalit 17-year-old girl, in another school. Because Dalits, we are used to it.

Delta’s award-winning painting 

Solar System: Things to Explore on Your Phone This Week

Let our apps lead you on a journey of exploration across the Earth, through the solar system and beyond. Here are some to download today:

1. Actually, it is rocket science Rocket Science 101 let’s you select your favorite mission and build a rocket to take you to destinations near and far. Learn how launch vehicles are configured and how their boosters and other component parts work together to successfully launch spacecraft. 

iOS Google Play

2. Go to Mars (sort of) Be A Martian lets you experience Mars as if you were there! Join an international community of explorers. See the latest images of the Red Planet! Learn about Mars, ask questions, and check out behind-the-scenes videos of the missions.

iOS Google Play

3. All the Earth science With Earth Now, watch Earth science satellites in real time as they gather data about our home planet. Get real-time images of the places we call home. Check out global climate data, including surface air temperature, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, and sea level variations.

iOS Google Play

4. Pretty pictures Discover stunning images and videos of our planet Earth, space, stars and planets with Space Images. Find your favorite galaxies and explore our celestial neighborhood.

iOS Google Play

5. Ch-ch-ch-changes Images of Change give you a close-up view of our ever-changing planet. Inside this app, before and after image pairs show areas that have been subject to natural disasters or seen significant change over time.

iOS

Last but not least: NASA on the go With our official NASA app, explore and discover the latest images, videos, mission information, news, feature stories, tweets, NASA TV and featured content from across America’s space program.

iOS Google Play

Our apps let you explore our latest images, videos,and mission news.

Discover the full list of 10 apps showcasing our solar system this week HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Harvard Grad Delivers Powerfully Poetic Speech On Overcoming Injustice