By Angela Hayden

Where do you think you are? In America? Some men believe its a pain in the ass for women to want equal rights. Hell, my mama raised five kids on her own after my drunken, abusive father left. He broke her nose twice and nearly killed me. She didn't have time to think about being a feminist. She was just a poor woman trying to survive in our society.

We recently received a communication from Azer Majedi , leader of the Organization for Women's Liberation, an Iranian feminist organization. Azer Majedi lives in exile in the UK. In her statement, she calls upon the people everywhere to join together and say,"No to a US military attack."

She was especially concerned with the recent meetings between George Bush and Nicholas Sarkozy, which resulted in some bellicose rhetoric directed against Iran. Her organization opposes the current Islamic regime in Iran and points out that along with the other misery that a war brings, it would make the job of the democratic resistance in Iran even more dangerous and difficult.

Her complete statement follows:

Come to Women and Children First Bookstore on Thursday, November 8 to hear Paula Kamen talk about new book, Finding Iris Chang

2007 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Iris Chang’s landmark book, The Rape of Nanking, which chronicles the Nanking massacre -- the torture and murder of Chinese citizens at the hands of the Japanese. The book brought Chang worldwide fame as a human rights pioneer, yet Chang herself was a mystery.

Paula Kamen's bio of writer Iris Chang is due in the bookstores on October 22. Iris Chang committed suicide in November 2004 after a long battle with depression.

Iris Chang's best known book was The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. The book tells the story of the infamous 1937-1938 Nanking massacre which took place during the Sino-Japanese War.

As the terrible repression continues in the nation of Burma, here is a video of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi talking about the importance of non-violence in the struggle for democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest by orders of the corrupt Burmese military regime for most of the past 17 years. If the people of Burma could realize their dreams, she would be leading the country instead.

Aung San Suu Kyi in a 1999 interview

For the past 17 years, students at the University of Maryland have participated in a rape awareness program where victims and advocates against sexual violence hang T-shirts along a huge clothesline on campus. Some victims also write the names of their assailants on their shirts.

A day after the September 11, 2001 attacks, feminist writer Robin Morgan sent out this letter from her home in Greenwich Village, NYC not far from where the Twin Towers had once stood.

On this anniversary of the attacks, we thought it appropriate to republish her original letter. We also recommend her book The Demon Lover, which is one of the best explanations of terrorism available.