links for 2011-02-12

"Wilder Peña is currently detained in an immigration detention facility in Batavia, NY and scheduled for deportation to Colombia on February 28. His life was threatened following a massacre of ten persons and the assassination of three members of his family and several of his friends at the hands of illegal armed groups. Unfortunately, due to poor legal representation he was denied asylum. Two appeals, made by the same lawyer, were also denied. Pending deportation to a country where he could potentially be killed, Wilder fled to Canada, leaving his partner and their infant son behind. He was detained at the border and has been in detention ever since."

“'Women were at the forefront of the 1919 revolution in Egypt right before Egypt got its independence, in the struggle against the British; women were prominent at the time of the French occupation as well,' Ruheya said. 'So Egyptian women have been involved in protests for many, many years this isn’t something new.'

"But the authoritarian governments that have governed Egypt for the last 60 years have curtailed the autonomy of women’s organizations. Just as they have tightly controlled all freedoms of assembly and expression."