Guests:

Jessica Mason Pieklo:

Senior VP and Executive Editor, Rewire.newsgroup -- Attorney and former litigator (before becoming a journalist); she is excellent at explaining the law in ways understandable to non-lawyers and is our resident 'Supreme Court Watcher' and interpreter!

Maryam Namazie:

A leader in the fight to liberate women worldwide who are  living under theocracy, Iranian-born, Maryam Namazie leads "One Law for All" in the UK--an organization which works against women being pressured to bring family matters to Shariah Law Courts, that are inherently discriminatory against women. She also leads "The Council of Ex Muslims" which works against and exposes the horrific punishments that can can be meted out anywhere in the world to people from Muslim counties who are seen as 'apostates' or 'heretics'. She has been keeping the flame of the Iranian women's rebellion  in Iran alive through demonstrations in the UK and Social Media reporting. She is a membe of the Worker Communist Party of Iran.

Segment 1

Jessica Mason PIeklo, will help us catch up with late summer developments and what's coming up in the Fall, in regard tp the abortion crisis now unfolding in the U.S. since the Supreme Court overturned legal abortion in this country--Roe v Wade-- a little over 1 year ago.

We'll talk about how Republican presidential candidates are scrambling to find "acceptable" anti-abortion positions, as the polls show that large majorities in the U.S. do not think that abortion should be illegal!

We'll look at the ongoing attempt by Right Wing courts to outlaw the ABORTION PILL--often the only alternative for women in the 20 states with abortion bans. The 5th Circuit Court in Texas, through a Trump appointed Judge, has attempted to over-rule the FDA's decision approving Mifepristone--one of the two drugs that comprise the abortion pill--and the case may be heading for the Supreme Court with its 6-3 conservative majority.

A Colorado law that is one of the protections won by clinics against harassment by anti-abortionists of women seeking abortions, is under seige on the pretext of "free sppech" and Texas is trying to enact a ban on women traveling to other states to seek abortions, using its 'vigilante' framework through which any party who 'feels' that abortion is wrong, can bring a lawsuit. 

Segment 2

This past Saturday, September 16, was the one-year-anniversary of Mahsa "Jina" Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman who was murdered while in custody of the "Morality Police", which had abducted her for 'showing  little bit of hair outside of her hijab'--and which sparked the women-led uprising, with its slogan: Women, Life, Freedom, that went on for the greater part of this past year, despite major crackdowns by the religious fundamentalist government of Iran--and which continues in many forms to this day.

We will present Part 1 of an exclusive interview with Maryam Namazie, one of the central activists keeping the sprit of that insurgency alive and informing the world of further developents around it--which we recorded last week when Maryam was in NYC.

We'll also discuss why she started "One Law For All" and the "Council of Ex-Muslims" and what their work is about!

The program will also contain topical music including thr "Equality Song" sung by young women without veils in the subway system of Iran.