The Nahmias Cipher Report

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 15:11 PM EDT, 6 April 2012 AFGHANISTAN – When the book “The Kite Runner” was made into a movie many people, including me, were shocked at the scene where a Taliban leader rapes a boy in the story. I thought that this must be aberrant behavior peculiar to the individual [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 20:50 PM EDT, 5 April 2012 BALOCHISTAN, Pakistan – Recently, we wrote about the Tuareg of North Africa and the battle they are fighting in Mali for independence as an autonomous country. There is another little known group of people also fighting for their independence, as well as control over [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 23:31 PM EDT, 18 March 2012 MOROCCO – On Saturday, 17 March 2011, thousands of people around the world awoke to the horror of the suicide of a young girl who had been forced to marry her rapist. Her rapist was given the option of marrying the girl under Article [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 11:37 AM EDT, 13 February 2012 Most often we in the West are exposed to and challenged by an increased number of news stories of the heinous, misogynistic treatment of women and young girls all over the world. Thankfully, there are a cadre of people and organizations dedicated to bringing [...]

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 00:22 AM EDT, 13 January 2012 In the absence of Al-Qaeda the Taliban has become the new face of extremist Islam. Members of the Taliban condone the stoning death of women who have been raped, who are not covered in accordance with their dictates of modesty, or who dare speak [...]

Women, War & Peace is a bold new five-part PBS series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain. Spotlighting the stories of women in conflict zones from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Colombia to Liberia, it places women at the center of an urgent dialogue about conflict and security, and reframes our [...]

Today, 03 May 2011, the organization Save the Children released its annual report ‘State of the World’s Mothers,’ also referred to as the Mother’s Index, it ranks countries by the care each country provides for its most precious resources – mothers and children. I was sad to learn that America continues to decline in ranking as it embraces corporatism at the sacrifice of family. Many mothers, including myself, often find ourselves on the loosing side of the battle to balance work and motherhood. A battle in which we are required on a daily basis to choose work over our welfare or that of our children.

It is true that many in the world could accuse us of being soft and spoiled and I would have to agree on whole because the quality of life in America far out strips that of most mothers and children in many other countries. However, this fact does not diminish the struggles that American mothers are increasingly facing, and which is evidenced by America’s decreased standing among developed nations.

Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-Chief Last Modified: 22:25 PM EDT, 26 April 2010 KUNDUZ PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Afghan women have been subjected to increasing levels of violence since 2002. The war-torn region is subject not only to external forces as America and its allies attempt to fortify the borders against Taliban insurgents, but to the internal pressures [...]