The Tahirih Justice Center is a United States-based non-governmental
organization that serves immigrant women and girls who are fleeing
from gender-based violence and persecution through pro bono direct
legal services and social and medical service referrals. Tahirih
helps
women who are attempting to escape from such abuse as female genital
cutting, domestic violence, human trafficking, torture and rape. The
organization also conducts public policy initiatives designed to
achieve legislative change for women fleeing from human rights
abuses,
to highlight problems faced by immigrant women in the United States,
and to end the possible exploitation of mail-order brides by
international marriage brokers. The organization is named after
Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in nineteenth
century Persia who campaigned for women's rights. Tahirih is a
Bahá'í-inspired organization, although its clients and employees vary
widely in ethnicity, religious identification, and nationality.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahirih_Justice_Center
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1580:
The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as Francis Drake
completed his circumnavigation of the globe.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake)
1687:
The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed during an armed
conflict between Venetian and Ottoman forces.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon)
1907:
Newfoundland and New Zealand became dominions within the British
Empire.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_and_Labrador)
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand)
1957:
West Side Story, a musical written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and produced and directed by Jerome
Robbins, made its debut on Broadway.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story)
1983:
Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Union averted a
worldwide nuclear war.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov)
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Wikiquote of the day:
What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is
always present. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which
we
did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden.
--
T. S. Eliot in The Four Quartets
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot)