Graffiti Artist Paints for Afghan Women’s Power

tumay aslay September 27, 2021

by Polina Smith

Who is she?

Shamsia Hassani, also known as the “Afghan Banksy,” is Afghanistan’s first female street artist. Hassani was born as a refugee in Iran in 1988. She studied visual arts and got her degree from the University of Kabul, then became part of the faculty as a fine arts lecturer and sculpture professor. Her street art has inspired many, and the poignant messages embedded in each piece have resonated in and outside of Afghanistan; over the years, Hassani has reached international success.

In a place where women’s voices are under constant threat of silencing, Hassani focuses her art on bringing women’s issues into focus—and into the public.

What is her art like?

Hassani aims to empower women in a male-dominated society. According to her website, her art, sprayed on the sides of abandoned buildings crumbling from past bombings, “gives Afghan women a different face, a face with power, ambitions, and willingness to achieve goals.” Many of her pieces feature women with downcast eyes and without mouths, demonstrating the culture of repression in post-war Afghanistan. But Hassani also creates characters who are “proud, loud, and can bring positive changes to peoples’ lives.”

She also hopes to use her art to transform the public view of Afghanistan from something bleak into something a bit more hopeful. She told the Huffington Post in 2016, “I want to cover all bad memories of war from peoples’ minds with color.”

Did she disappear?

The Taliban’s recent Kabul takeover sent women and artists fleeing the capital and even deleting messages and social media, fearful of potential repercussions. Hassani’s social media went silent for a few days in late August, worrying her followers. Eventually Hassani’s manager told DW that she was in a safe, undisclosed location, but was unable to interview.

But Hassani’s social media have continued to stay silent, and close friends have been unable to reach her. One friend who is unable to get in contact with Hassani told the Daily Mail: 'She is a very talented artist known as the Afghan Banksy - but I am very worried now as she hasn't been in touch for nearly a week.'

It is possible Hassani is taking time away from the internet to stay safe, but her absence is worrisome as the Taliban begins its takeover.

Why is her work so important?

Hassani uses her art—and her life—to break the stereotype of the passive Muslim woman. Her powerful images—which can demonstrate hope, fear, and devastation all at once—provide solidarity for girls and women living under an oppressive government like the Taliban. Hassani herself is also an inspiring figure, as art and self-expression were once stifled in Afghanistan under the former Taliban rule.

A piece of Hassani’s art posted to her social media on August 31st shows a crying woman silhouetted against a ravaged city with planes flying overhead. The image is framed by curtains that look like a dollar bill, bringing to mind the corruption and greed that influences societies. The artist captions the powerful image with the message:

“My homeland

My Kabul

I can’t see your destruction, the pain of homelessness and migration is

….burning me little by little

My Afghanistan, my Kabul, my roots and my identity”

Hassani’s art represents the struggles Afghan women face, acting at once as social commentary and a beacon of hope. To see more of Hassani’s art, visit her Instagram @shamsiahassani. Considerdonating to Women for Women International to help protect Afghan girls and women from the Taliban reemergence.

Come Into My Office

tumay aslay September 27, 2021

By Karen Gullo

Working for a tech company or startup in Silicon Valley is a special kind of employment. Swanky cafeterias with professional chefs, foosball tables, a workforce of mostly 25-year-old tech bros, all-white male leadership teams, impossible deadlines, constant pitching for funding, and, if you’re lucky, million-dollar paychecks.

Mai Ton, a human resources executive with more than 20 years of experience working in Silicon Valley, takes us on a journey into the often sexist and diversity-free world of working in tech in her new book “Come into My Office: Stories from an HR Leader in Silicon Valley.” Ton has been VP of Human Resources (HR) at seven Silicon Valley startups and is a consultant and trainer for startup CEOs and HR executives. Her book is an unvarnished insider’s look at tech startup culture, which is in turn infuriating, funny, shocking, and inspiring.

“Come into My Office” traces Ton’s own professional journey from investment banking analyst to a human resources leader and advisor to tech startup CEOs. The trip has been a roller coaster ride, and the challenges at start-ups breathtaking. Often the only woman and minority in an executive position, Ton had to navigate and try to change office conventions created by CEOs who fostered bro cultures that reflected their own world: sports, games, money, and other male-dominated topics. Young CEOs often leaned on her to fix issues with workers that they themselves should have dealt with.

When the CEO of one company she worked at (none of the companies in the book are identified by name) commented on a photo in a company Slack channel with a racial comment, she marched straight into his office. “What were you thinking?” she asked. He looked at her like she was crazy and defended the comment. Welcome to startup land!

At one job she had to coach a new college graduate who didn’t know how to make the transition from frat life to work life. At another she coached someone who told her that he tried to limit himself to seventeen (!) drinks per work event. At another, a sales manager yelled at her to make a female worker stop taking her daily 10-minute meditation breaks in his team’s corner of the office because he found them annoying and inappropriate. He had no problem with his own team members taking multiple breaks to play ping-pong because, he said when challenged by Ton, that’s what they needed to de-stress.

Ton told him that she wouldn’t make the woman stop taking meditation breaks, just as she wouldn’t put an end to his team’s ping-pong games. When the manager asked if he could talk to the woman himself, Ton said she wouldn’t stop him, but would he mind if she talked to his team about their ping-pong games? That was the end of it, and everyone got to keep their de-stressing practices.

“I realized this silly office squabble was about more” than the worker who meditated, Ton writes. “This was about how my companies and coworkers viewed women in the workplace.”

Ton was undeterred and recounts her efforts to foster inclusiveness and diversity over the years. She hosted unconscious bias trainings, hired external trainers on diversity in the workplace, and launched employee engagement surveys to measure employee sentiments around leadership, collaboration, and other topics. She launched compensation studies to ensure women and people of color were paid as much as their male counterparts and hosted lunch sessions on why diversity matters.

*Mai Ton, tech executive and author of “Come into My Office: Stories from an HR Leader in Silicon Valley”*

It was hard, lonely work that led to burn out, Ton writes. But her efforts brought results—one company she worked at won an award for being one of the one hundred best places to work in the U.S. In all, Ton has won 14 awards for her companies, and has three individual awards including Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Technology, Top 50 Tech Leaders and Top 20 Tech Trailblazers.

In a recent chat over Zoom, Ton talked about her motivation for writing the book and the challenges women continue to face in the tech industry.

Q: The book highlights a personal journey for you. You write that you got tired of being berated and disrespected and started standing up to CEOs and calling out managers for creating a toxic work environment. How did you learn to push back and stand your ground when the executives you worked with were clearly out of line?

MT: I’m a petite Asian female, and my cultural heritage is that “we don’t speak up, and don’t make waves.” In the workplace, that type of upbringing doesn’t serve you well. I worked at a consulting firm where we had 150,000 employees. There’s a lot of politics that are played, and I didn’t realize that was happening around me. I thought if I just worked hard, that was enough. But while I was working, people were off schmoozing on the golf course and at happy hours, not getting their work done, and they were getting promoted. That was my first aha moment—I’m the idiot working my tail off and others were getting ahead. I got tired of seeing that.

My company sent me to a program specifically designed for employees from Asian cultures. Whereas the culture is one that teaches you not to make waves and let your work speak for itself, this program taught me the opposite. At work they don’t care if you’re being mindful and diplomatic. You should state your opinion and speak up. That was a shift for me, and I learned that I had to play the game and schmooze. So, part of me is assimilated, and I thought why bottle all this up? If you want to climb the ladder you have to navigate the politics and speak up.

Q: How much progress has really been made in the tech industry to make workplaces more diverse, fair and equitable, in your estimation?

MT: Diversity means a lot of different things to different people. At tech companies we talk a lot about the need for diversity, and there have been efforts, yet we are barely moving the needle—even with female executives, which is just one part of the problem. But things are changing. Employees are not satisfied with settling for the status quo. They want a mission-driven company that invests in philanthropy, promotes diversity, that doesn’t solely focus on making profit. The times are changing–COVID helped with that because everyone was working from home, and you’d see people in their homes, and see their family in the background. There is more awareness of people’s lives outside of work. There’s more empathy for working parents. All these things are registering, finally. That’s where progress can be made.

And I think we are making progress, but it just doesn’t feel like it. It needs to move faster. We still see issues when people speak up—women get hurt for being whistleblowers. We have a lot more to do. I want to speed up this journey for my daughter Emma, who, when she saw a company photo of me where I was the only woman and Asian on a panel of white men, said, “Why does the world look like this? Why do you work with a bunch of men?” When that picture was taken, I didn’t see it that way as “that was my normal.” I think about my daughter Emma, and I hope she inherits something that doesn’t look like this.

Q: When I look at that photo, I wonder: how did those executives accept you into their all-white male club? What was that like for you?

MT: They didn’t view me like that. They said: I don’t see you like that. I see you as part of the team, one of us. They just got used to me, and even shared confidential information with me–there was trust. I think they made a lot of progress when I would call them out (for inappropriate or insensitive remarks or emails). On the more serious matters, they absorbed and listened. Generally, they didn’t treat me any differently than others on the team.

I do think there is one wave of folks who are just oblivious, and they don’t think about how things will land. They weren’t paying attention, and that’s their excuse. There’s more awareness now with all the social justice protests in the world around us, and that’s affecting how leaders communicate. The best leaders are the ones who are double clicking, and thinking, how would this sound to people? They might have someone specific in mind, and think: if I were to put this out, how would it come across to them? There’s a way to be empathetic and passionate. And they honestly don’t want to look like an idiot.

Q: When I’m looking up a company online, I always go straight to the “About” section and click on “Leadership Team” to see if there are any women. Often the only woman is the head of HR. Why are corporate HR directors mostly women?

MT: HR is predominantly made up of female professionals. I think a lot of people have accidentally gone into HR. Most of the time people are landing there because of other work or experiences. I have also seen in other big companies that HR, marketing, and diversity departments are the three places where there are likely more women in those professions. The position of Chief of Diversity is important, it’s where you have the best shot of driving diversity in your organization. You often see women or people of color in this job, because companies want to have someone who is different, who brings a different perspective. I choose to look at that with a lot of optimism, that diversity leaders can use their positions as a voice and platform to disrupt the homogeny.

Q: You say in the book that companies are trying their best to find diverse talent for executive jobs. But many industries, including tech, continue to be dominated by white males. What needs to happen for that to change?

MT: It will take all of us to be more thoughtful and look at our biases. You hear people say, “I’m hiring the best for my team.” But they’re drawing from their network of college buddies, and it may not reflect diversity. Ellen Pao founded Project Include, where companies can sign up and pledge and commit to moving the needle faster on various diversity measures. We need companies to join and make real progress on diversity matters, and not just to join the bandwagon.

It will take us more time to get where we need to be. Tech companies have the ability to disrupt, and they’ve been so successful in disrupting consumer product markets. I wish we could push the needle with the diversity component. It will take a back seat if your top executive isn’t behind it. I think of the CEO of Intel who sought to make the company’s workforce more diverse to make the industry a better place for his daughters: He tied his executive team’s bonuses to hitting their own diversity goals. I believe the world can change, but it takes that kind of action from the top to lead by example. After all, tone starts at the top.

Karen Gullo is a freelance writer and former Associated Press and Bloomberg News reporter covering technology, law, and public policy. She is currently an analyst and senior media relations specialist at Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in San Francisco.

Vital Voices of Afghanistan

tumay aslay September 27, 2021

by Polina Smith

Don’t Turn a Blind Eye: How to Support the Women of Afghanistan

Most of us have seen the heartbreaking images that have been flooding social media following the U.S. troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan. The images show Afghan people clinging to airplanes, desperate to escape their country and the Taliban rule currently descending. However, what’s missing from many of these images are those who are most vulnerable to the Taliban’s rule: women and girls. Now more than ever, it’s important to understand the ways to support women in Afghanistan in the reemergence of the Taliban’s oppression.

Afghan women will likely face strict rules concerning their appearance (head-to-toe coverings), laws against them travelling alone, forbidding girls and women to access education or work, as well as bans on TV, music, and non-Islamic holidays. In the past, the Taliban have punished those who have gone against their rules with horrific incidents like beatings, rape, acid attacks, amputations, forced marriages, and public executions.

This is why it is so urgent for us to support Afghan women and girls. It can feel frustrating and hopeless to try to figure out how to help people trapped in a situation so complex and far away. The emotions that come up when we learn about the devastation and destruction caused by the Taliban can cause us to freeze, to decide we are too far removed, or too far geographically, to help with the situation. But that’s not true at all. Below are several ways we can be of aid to the girls and women in Afghanistan.

Women in Afghanistan, courtesy www.pixabay.com

· Educate yourself. This is the first step in helping with any cause, but in this case, it is particularly important since people tend to conflate Islam with extremism when Afghan women come into the conversation. Writer Shireen Ahmed reminds us that it is important not to reduce the entire conflict down to burqas, when the real issues are around trauma, militarization, displacement, hunger, poverty, and more. Reliable sources for educating yourself on the lives of Afghan women include activists like Sakina Amiri, Rana Abdelhamid, Sana Safi, Humaira Ghilzai, and Bushra Ebadi.
Support organizations and activists who are doing the work to directly aid Afghans. Women for Women International offers a program for Afghan women that helps them to “know and defend their rights, lead mentally and physically healthy lives, influence decisions at home and in their communities, generate income, and save money for the future, contributing to economic self-sufficiency in their lives and for their families,” according to their website. The organization also encourages donations on their site.
Contact politicians to ask them to allow more refugees into the United States. The Biden administration has stated it will protect Afghan women. Sign petitions or call politicians directly to express your desire for the administration to honor its commitment to Afghan women. Vital Voices offers an open letter to Biden for advocates to sign, while Afghans for a Better Tomorrow provides call scripts for those interested in calling politicians.
Donate. Of course, donations are essential to supporting women in need. National human rights organizations like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch stay up to date on the issues specific Afghan communities are facing, so these organizations are good places to start. The International Rescue Committee in San Jose has created an Amazon wish list, as well as a donation request list with the hopes of providing basic home goods and children’s items to refugees in need.

Although Taliban leaders recently claimed that their restrictions around women’s rights won’t be as severe as they were in the past, Amin Saikal, the author of Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival said that, "As far as their ideological commitment is concerned, they have not really changed." On August 17th, 2021, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that the Taliban would honor women’s rights within Islamic law. But the violence against women has not decreased. The Taliban shot dead a woman in Takhar province for not wearing a burqa just hours after Mujahid released his statement.

Zainab Salbi, Founder of Women for Women International, reminds us of how dire it is to protect and support Afghan women: “There are moments in history where we will be judged not by whether or not we won or lost but by whether or not we did the right thing. This is one of these moments. We need to protect these women’s lives for the importance of their voice, for their children, for the future of their country, and our commitment to our values.”

Reactivating a Massive Movement to protect Abortion Rights: A response to Texas and the Supreme Court’s shady midnight ruling

tumay aslay September 27, 2021

by Kim Christensen

Most Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade and the right to safe and legal abortion. Of course they do. It makes good sense as public health policy. Most Americans understand that when abortion is made illegal it often leads to tragic acts of desperation and serious risks of potential infection, loss of fertility and death from unsafe methods or back-alley abortions. Most Americans do NOT want to go back to the bad old days before Roe.

In spite of this, abortion has been used as a political wedge issue by the GOP since the 1970s. For nearly 50 years, GOP leaders have been promising conservative voters that they would work to overturn Roe v. Wade and outlaw abortion. Now in Texas they’ve essentially done it with Senate Bill 8 - the most bizarre and restrictive anti-abortion law in the country - and the U.S. Supreme Court, freshly packed with 3 Trump justices, let it go into effect with a 1-paragraph opinion issued at midnight from its ‘shadow docket.’

Roe v. Wade is still on the books, but it’s hanging from a thread. It looks like the U.S. Supreme Court, now dominated by conservative GOP justices, is poised to overturn Roe when future abortion rights cases come before the court, like a Mississippi case on December 1. If Roe is overturned, the issue of abortion goes to the states to decide. California has passed laws protecting the right to safe and legal abortion, so that’s good. But many states in the south and midwest are looking to pass extreme Texas-style abortion bans.

*Texans rally at State Capitol in Austin protesting legislation enacted by Governor Greg Abbott that severely restrictions access to legal abortions. May 29, 2021. Credit: Bob Daemmrich/Alamy Live News*

Texas’ new SB8 law went into effect September 1 and bans abortion in the state after about 6 weeks, which is before most people even know they are pregnant. There are no exemptions for rape or incest. It also creates a type of vigilante system of bounty hunters, encouraging private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who performs or assists someone in seeking an abortion, with awards of at least $10,000. This is shocking. This is diabolical. This is Texas values?

Maybe it is – of the Republicans who currently run the state of Texas. What about Texas businesses? Where do they stand? How will this barbaric anti-abortion law impact their workers, their families, and their customers? Salesforce has offered to help its employees move out of Texas! A few others like Bumble and Match CEOs have spoken out against SB8 and set up funds to support reproductive rights. But many business leaders and corporations have remained eerily silent.

What’s the goal here? To take us back to the 1950s or the 1850s?

The abortion battle is really about control – personal and political. Who gets to control our bodies, our lives, and our government? Who’s free to choose and who has no choice? It’s about the patriarchy trying to maintain its grip on power, even as the country is becoming more diverse, liberal, feminist, and progressive.

The hard truth is that the GOP won this round by staying focused, out-organizing and out-working Democrats on the issue of abortion for decades. Feminist activists have been on the frontlines, laser-focused and working tirelessly on this issue for years, but not enough people have been active and engaged in supporting roles. That needs to change. Help these feminist warriors out! They’ve been carrying a heavy load for everyone’s benefit, but they need fresh energy and new people to get involved in this movement, especially right now!

What can we do NOW to save abortion rights?

Join the “Women’s March for Reproductive Rights” on October 2, 2021” at a location near you!

ELECT WOMEN who support abortion rights in state legislatures across the country. Emily’s List, Emerge America and Sister District are working on this and have ideas on how you can help!

Tell the Senate to pass the WOMEN’S HEALTH PROTECTION ACT, which would protect access to abortion care nationwide if Roe falls. House Democrats just passed it in a historic vote on September 24. But now it goes to the Senate where it could get stalled by GOP filibuster. Call your Senators!

Help ensure that CALIFORNIA remains a “SAFE HAVEN STATE” for abortions, as explained by Meghan Macaluso of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

#ExpandTheCourt – Call on Congress to increase the number of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court to rebalance it, as the extreme conservative majority (6-3) currently dominating the court does not reflect the majority and diversity of Americans. This is urgent as the GOP has been packing the courts with far-right judges for years.

Say the word ABORTION out loud and proud. Encourage Democrats to do the same. Politicians are often timid about using the word abortion and soft peddle their position by calling it ‘choice’ almost exclusively. See “Did Biden Say Abortion Yet? Part of the GOP’s strategy has been to stigmatize the very word abortion, so we need to recognize this and not play their game.

Vote with your Dollars! Find out if corporations that you support with your dollars are actively supporting women’s rights and access to safe, legal abortion OR if they are making political donations to GOP governors and legislators like the ones in Texas working overtime to ban abortion. Find out where big businesses stand on the issue and if they are willing to speak up to pressure Texas to repeal SB8. While a few companies have jumped into the fray, too many business leaders have remained silent on the abortion issue.

Republican women rebel! Republican women can withhold their vote from the GOP for the next few elections. This will get major attention and let party leaders know that banning abortion is not a tenable policy position and that Republic women will rebel! (One can hope.)

The extreme Texas anti-abortion law seemed to come out of the blue and shock many people – especially Republican women who quietly support abortion rights, but typically vote against it because of GOP party loyalty. Now they are shocked, worried, fired up and ready to take action.

Encourage Merrick Garland and the U.S. Department of Justice to fight the Texas anti-abortion law and attacks on Roe v. Wade with everything they’ve got!

Be inclusive! Get comfortable saying “people who get pregnant” and “people who get abortions” to remind folks that trans, non-binary, and other gender-expansive people can get pregnant and should be part of the conversation.

Follow artists, activists and journalists changing the culture and conversation around abortion: Abortion Access Force, Reproaction, SisterSong, We Testify, Whole Woman’s Health, Renee Bracey Sherman, RewireNewsGroup, Amy Littlefield, Dahlia Lithwick, Rachel Maddow and Full Frontal with Samantha Bee!

Watch films and shows about abortion and the struggle to get access in many states, even with Roe v. Wade: Ours to Tell, Trapped, Little Woods, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Obvious Child and Dirty Dancing!

Make political activism fun and part of your social life. Sister District has research showing that friendship really boosts political activism.

We’re down but not out. We need to organize, stay active and stick together. Stay within your comfort zone, you don’t need to be a big hero. The important thing is to do small actions, on an ongoing basis, to help create a powerful movement. Many hands make light work. Let’s turn the tide!