What’s Current: Ireland convicts first man of purchasing sex under new prostitution laws

  • Bryan Mason, 65, is the first man convicted of purchasing sex under under Section 25 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, Ireland’s new prostitution laws, introduced in April 2017. He was fined €200.
  • An independent review has reported that Oxfam systematically failed to respond to women’s complaints about bullying and sexual harassment by staff.
  • Thailand says it will end its policy of involuntarily returning refugees to their home countries following a global outcry over the asylum case of Rahaf Mohammed, an 18-year-old Saudi woman
  • A motion in a class-action suit against Oracle claims that the Silicon Valley company paid female employees $13,000 less than their male peers annually.
  • Eighty three year old poet Mary Oliver died of lymphoma this past week at her home in Florida. Oliver wrote popular, often joyful poetry that captured her sense of wonder at life.
  • In Vietnam, women are campaigning for a formal apology for rapes committed by South Korean troops during the Vietnam War. The Guardian reports:

“A campaign group, Justice for Lai Dai Han (JLDH), is urging the country to recognise both the tens of thousands of children born as a result of rape by Korean troops, and their mothers, of whom around 800 are still alive today.”

Natasha Chart

Natasha Chart is an online organizer and feminist living in the United States. She does not recant her heresy.