 “Obtaining the vote for women, the divorce law, marriage equality, the gender identity law, the assisted human fertilization law, the law of integral sexual education, the dignified death law were all done fighting clerical power, which seeks to have total dominion over our minds and bodies.”
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Hundreds of Argentines stood in long lines in Buenos Aires and around Argentina this weekend to join a “Collective Apostasy” movement, renouncing their Catholic faith a week after an anti-choice Senate vote sent thousands of Argentines out into the streets to protest.
The forms signed by participants will be given to the Episcopal Conference in the Vatican, according to the Associated Press. Organizers told La Nacion that attendance at the events exceeded expectations.
The “Apostasia Colectiva” movement, begun by the Argentine Coalition for a Secular State, is aimed at weakening the hold of a church of which two-thirds of Argentinian people are members. The huge turnout at Saturday’s events was brought on not only by the Senate’s decision to uphold a ban on abortions for women up to 14 weeks into a pregnancy, but the Church’s power over the nation and the numerous struggles Argentines have fought against the Church over the years.
“Obtaining the vote for women, the divorce law, marriage equality, the gender identity law, the assisted human fertilization law, the law of integral sexual education, the dignified death law were all done fighting clerical power, which seeks to have total dominion over our minds and bodies,” the event’s organizers wrote on social media.
The Catholic Church lobbied aggressively against the legalized abortion bill. Every year, about 500,000 illegal and unsafe abortions take place in the country, and since the abortion rights vote, at least one woman has died from an attempt to perform an abortion on herself.
“The discourse by the church to convince the people to not accept the law was so outrageous that I reached the height of my enmity toward the Catholic Church,” Nora Cortinas, a human rights advocate, told the AP.
On social media, some indicated that numerous cases of sexual abuse in the Church, like the one a grand jury report revealed in Pennsylvania last week, also figured into the growth of the Apostasia Colectiva movement.
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Rohingya children in Burma. Image: Rohingya News Network
Since 2010, when a democratic government was elected for the first time in 50 years, the people of Myanmar have had ample reasons to celebrate the country’s growing democracy. However, for nearly a million Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar, there is little to celebrate. Widespread violence against the Rohingya erupted in June 2012 and sporadically continues today. In one incident, police in Rakhine fired on a crowd of Rohingya Muslims who demanded the release of a deceased Rohingya fisherman’s body that was being held by the police. The gunshots killed eight people and injured many others. Yet, the government of Myanmar has done little to suppress communal violence against Rohingya Muslims, and local authorities are further perpetuating human rights abuse.
The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar extends beyond ad hoc violence to include government policies that are blatantly discriminatory. Presently, a Rohingya woman is only permitted to have two children, and Rohingya men are prohibited from marrying Buddhist women. Even more pejorative than these laws is the government’s refusal to grant the Rohingya citizenship. Without citizenship, the Rohingya do not benefit from the rule of law or the protection of the state. Furthermore, the Rohingya lack access to basic services and are limited in their ability to travel. The situation in western Myanmar has escalated to such a point that Human Rights Watch has describe it as an “ethnic cleansing.”
