#brave women

[byjenie]

🎤 

“God is something that needs rescuing from religion.”

To the absolute legend,

A woman whose brave prescience never wavered against abuse 

Hope you find all the peace that life stole from you.

Rest easy, Sinead O’Connor.

Shuhada Sadaqat, Inna Iillahi wa inna alayhi rajioon 🤲🏽

You will never ever be forgotten. 

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Victoria Amelina

Victoria Amelina was born in 1986 in Lviv, Ukraine. Amelina's debut novel was published in 2014. Her 2017 novel Dom's Dream Kingdom was shortlisted for the European Union Prize for Literature and the UNESCO City of Literature Prize. In 2021, Amelina received the Joseph Conrad Literary Award from the Polish Institute in Kyiv. Her work has been translated into several languages, including German, English, Italian, and Polish. During the war in Ukraine, Amelina set her writing aside to work for the human rights group Truth Hounds, traveling to liberated areas to record the testimonies of witnesses and survivors of Russian crimes.

Victoria Amelina died in 2023 at the age of 37 from injuries sustained in a missile strike.

[deatherit]

[soberscientistlife]

Thank you for posting @liberalsarecool

[miss-biophys]

A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales

Marie Curie-Skłodowská, Nobel Prize winner in both Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911)

[haggishlyhagging]

Yet, despite [Marguerite Porète’s] death as a heretic, and even though the Inquisition declared that to retain a copy of her book made one subject to excommunication, the Miroir was widely read and cherished in succeeding centuries. One copy of the original in French was saved, but there were five medieval translations (two Latin, two Italian and one Middle English) in which the book survived. For a time, it was even ascribed to the celebrated male mystic Ruysbroeck, whose orthodoxy was unquestioned. Porète's work was always more acceptable than her person and her attitude toward authority. Other rebellious women affiliated with social movements considered heretical or revolutionary were savagely persecuted for such affiliation, but Porète represents a more solitary figure. Like Joan of Arc, and, much later, the Quaker Mary Dyer, she followed her inner voice and refused to cooperate with Church or state authority. The fact that, after a year and a half in jail, she remained silent during her trial and refused to obey all orders asking her to renounce and abandon her own writings makes her a heroic figure, braver than Galileo and many others, better known and more celebrated. Galileo, after recanting his theories under pressure from the Inquisition, is said to have stated on his deathbed, "And yet it [the earth] moves. . . ." Marguerite Porète, never recanting, anticipated her martyred death and, after listing all those who would say that she was wrong, defied the future with her proud assertion: "I am not [wrong]."

-Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Feminist Consciousness

[houseofakind2]

My open letter to an icon

And just like that, for the first time in my life, I saw Madonna, the icon performing. I saw it once and probably the only time I will see it. Who knows what the future holds?

After so much speculation, and London friends saying that it was a good experience but that she was clearly struggling, like in pain, I was ready for anything. I am not into watching those fan made videos on social media. I rather save myself to the experience as the artist and their team have envisioned. Lower expectations, better rewarding.

Earlier this year I have been amazed by Beyonce’s Renaissance experience. As a big fan, it was no surprise that she would deliver something on point, but this tour was beyond. She outdid herself when it comes to art direction, storyline, and this is what the pop industry is all about: being able to be on stage and share with the world a positive message in a way that anyone can consume.

But neither Beyonce, Taylor, Gaga, Katy, Dua any of those wouldn’t be possible if Madonna hadn’t changed the game. Madonna arrives in New York full of hopes and dreams and after episodes of abuse, she sees herself with nothing else to lose. Her only shelter and comfort are art and the queer community that embraced her since the beginning.

There Madonna finds her drive and passion. And she puts all her energy to give her best. All her talents, her cleverness, her ambitions are then switched not only to fulfil her own dreams, but to protect this community that was so loyal to her. She is smart. She extremely intelligent. She could spot from the early days all the issues with patriarchy. She didn’t need any Barbie movie to have any realisation moment. She threw herself in the most honest way to her art and it paid off.

As bigger the spotlight would get in the artist, a new facade she would reveal. Never boring. Always surprising the audience. Always making them wanting more. Now go tell your friend what you have seen. And in the most obscene way, Madonna conducted the world slowly and progressively on a journey to understand the importance of feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, fashion, art.

The pop industry has its own formula to “retire” divas as soon as they become Mothers. Again, a patriarchal way to say that women’s body are only a product for consumption under specific standards. Here comes Madge again with a Ray of Light and throws probably one of her best albums, right after becoming a mom for the first time. Again she changes how things are made.

Last night whilst being in her presence I could understand her magnificent of a person she is. In fact, I already knew that. When celebrating her 60th birthday at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in London, whilst looking around, in realised that only Madonna was able to gather such a diverse crowd and make them have such a great night. I’m talking of people of different ages, races, religions, beliefs, coexisting harmoniously, peacefully.

And although life is difficult, and still keeps challenging her, Madonna chooses to be more alive than ever. When the world wants to bury her, she looks into her community’s eye and say “I would die for you”. And I know she would. But to all the white man interested on that, she gives a middle finger and says: “I guess I’m going to die another day”.

All Hail to the Legend. The Supreme. The Queen. The Masterclass of what is like to be an icon.

Thank you Madonna for always being so loyal to your art, to yourself and to our community.

Love you forever.

Daddy Kind.

Xx

[lone-nyctophile]

Watch "Real Women - Beauty Through The Decades The Realistic Way" on YouTube

This video shows the bravery of a common woman during those times.

[an-elveinthesky]

I learned early

But accepted late,

A woman is praised to be convinient, Never brave.

Akshita

[photo-art-lady]

Fine Art Photography - Portrait Of A Female Warrior With Sword And Armor By Laura Sheridan

[siena-sevenwits]

Her Sword

“When I was at Tours I sent to seek a sword

in the Church of St. Catherine, behind the altar. 

The sword was in the ground, 

and upon it were five crosses."

-  Joan of Arc

Come, blade. Sever-snap

this braid of gleaming brown.

Whatever should my passion sap

or bar me from my way, mayhap,

I sever and lay down.

Come, steel. Scarlet taint

the demon where he lurks.

Now memorize the thrust and feint

of hardened swordsmen sans complaint.

Aid me in holy works.

Come, sword. Scabbard sings

as homage renders high.

Cathedral bell clear-clamours, rings

as princes crown again as kings

and one low maid stands by.

Come, blade of licking light!

Come steel me with desire!

Come, sword, and turn yourself aright.

Be cruciform, as my last sight

before me on the pyre.

---

I wrote the first version of this poem about eight years ago - this is the revised version I did in 2015.

@hollers-and-holmes

[importantwomensbirthdays]

Tosia Altman

Tosia Altman was born in 1919 in Lipno, Poland. Altman was an active member of the resistance in Nazi-occupied Poland. A member of Ha-Shomer ha-Za’ir, a Jewish youth movement, she traveled around Poland to organize the movement's members, even though Jews were not allowed to travel by train. Altman smuggled weapons into the Warsaw and Krakow Ghettos. During the Warsaw Uprising in 1943, she helped pass on information within the ghetto and to the outside world, and helped smuggle Jews out of the ghetto. She was injured in a fire and handed over to the Germans. She died in custody in 1943, at the age of 23.

[shallweswoon]

Mahsa Amini’s death could be the spark that ignites Iran around women’s rights

On the day that news of Mahsa Amini’s death spread throughout Iran, a young woman with a shaved head joined protesters who had gathered outside Kasra hospital, where Amini had lain in a coma since her violent arrest by Iran’s morality police days earlier.

In her hand she carried a plastic bag full of her long hair, shorn off in a gesture of solidarity with Amini and in defiance of the increasing crackdown on women by the regime. . .

Understand this. These are some of the bravest, strongest, female warriors in the whole wide world.

[hebrewbyinbal]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hebrew by Inbal 🇮🇱 Tailored To English Speakers (@hebrewbyinbal)

I think about Amit Soussana, and the women who are still there as well as those who came back, every day.

Amit Soussana was a lawyer, and the first time I saw her on video was in an unbelievable video from Oct 7 where 8 armed men! are dragging her to G@za as she is fighting them with strength and courage that I cannot even comprehend, beating her to stop fighting, all the while - she is not even fully dressed!

Next, I see her after her return from being in captivity, starting to talk anywhere for the release of the other kidnapped that are still there.

And now, she came out - with the same unimaginable bravery - speaking of the sexu@l buse she went through, and I feel that she is doing that for the women left behind who are still going through the same, or worse, and for the other women who came back and are incapable of sharing what was done to them by H@mas.

She took all that upon herself, and shared the horrible things done to her with the world.

Words cannot express the respect I have for this woman, and the heartbreak I feel for her. A beautiful brave soul whose life was broken by pure evil and barbaric people who do not deserve to even be mentioned.

לא נשכח ולא נסלח

lo neesh-'kakh ve-'lo nees-'lakh

We won't forget, and we won't forgive

I can promise you that.

[adgp35]

The Capture of the Onboard Thief 1

The big reveal by the triumphant air stewardess.

Flight Attendant Claire Rawlinson, as she pulls the sliding galley door open: “And here he is! The onboard thief captured and unmasked!”

Handcuffed Thief Barney: “B***h!”

Claire [laughing]: “He is so unhappy at being caught. And very rude!”

Sources: dreamstime and iStock by GettyImages

[ifelllikeastar]

Harriet Tubman was an American abolitionist and social activist. She was born into chattel slavery but escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 similarly-enslaved people, including family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad. During the American Civil War, she served as an armed scout and spy for the Union Army. In her later years, Tubman was an activist in the movement for women's suffrage. Harriet died on March 10, 1913 at the age of 91.