#nasrin ngo

[gaiaintl]

NASRIN NGO “Venus”

AGE: Nineteen COMPANY: Gaia International POSITION: Eternity’s Miss April FACECLAIM: Jessica Vu PLAYED BY: Kimberly

nasrin was born on 970327 in luxor, egypt. both of her parents were internationally recognized scientists which required the family to relocate many times. nasrin was named after the nurse that helped her mother. not too long after she was born, her parents moved to the united states where they spent a majority of their time in new york. nasrin lived in manhattan, specifically, until the end of grade school. her parents had to move, yet again.

most things in her life weren’t consistent. her parents presence, staying in the same rented house more than a year, keeping friends and always having to adjust. the only thing that kept her sane was music, dance and vocal specifically. nasrin enrolled in multiple dance classes and vocal lessons, inside and outside of school. whatever she was offered, she took. being on stage and putting on a show made her happy and the most comfortable.

this time, her parents moved to their native vietnam. nasrin was entering middle school at this point and this is when she decided to take music more than just a hobby and on a serious level. her parents were disappointed at first, since they wanted their daughter to follow in their footsteps, but nonetheless supported her in what she wanted to do. in vietnam, nasrin took traditional dance and singing lessons from her grandparents’ friends. the family moved, again.

they moved back to the states but this time to california. nasrin finally gained courage to post music covers on youtube. she started out small until she gained a massive following since she branched out to using different social media platforms. she even gained notice from a few stars on twitter. it wasn’t until she got scouted online that things became real.

a gaia recruiter had noticed some of her music covers that went viral and sent her an email. ironically enough, her parents next move was going to be in south korea. time flew and eventually the ngo’s head out to seoul. days passed until it was the date of nasrin’s audition and she presented the judges the best performance she could have ever done, since she spent days perfecting everything. the judges constructively criticized her singing, saying she had a powerful voice but she just needed to train it properly. she soon became a trainee for gaia in late 2014.

she worked as hard as she could. her parents stayed with her for a little while until their jobs required them to move again. it was extremely hard to live in a foreign country when nasrin didn’t speak an ounce of the language. nonetheless, she pushed and pushed through. if she wasn’t practicing dancing or singing, she was studying korean. her dreams and hopes were all on the line if she fell behind. she went so far, she couldn’t just give up. plus her parents were rooting for her. her hard work soon paid off when she was announced as part of the line up for gaia’s newest rookie band, eternity. nasrin chose the stage name venus since it was less of a mouthful compared to aphrodite. she is so utterly giddy to debut and showcase herself to the world. she is excited to debut with her members since she’s known some of them through the duration of her trainee period and were some of her first friends. nasrin isn’t sure what to make of the rivalry and sort of expected it but she stays neutral on the matter. she’s really worried on how the public will like the group and like her but she’s trying her hardest not to dwell on it. for now, she sticks to her trainee routine of practicing and studying as she waits in anticipation for her soon debut.

[culturesofresistancefilms]

The Right Livelihood Awards, also known as the "alternative Nobel Prizes," were announced today!

Congrats to the laureates: imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh in Iran, civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson in the US, Indigenous rights and environmental activist Lottie Cunningham Wren in Nicaragua, and human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the NGO Human Rights Centre “Viasna” in Belarus!

Find out more about the 2020 laureates here: https://www.rightlivelihoodaward.org/.../human-rights.../

The RIGHT LIVELIHOOD AWARD has served as a more grassroots alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize. While the Nobel Prize has in many cases recognized and elevated worthy activists, it has at times gone to some very dubious picks. The most egregious example is former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is undoubtedly a war criminal. U.S. Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter have won, and each had some positive accomplishments; yet one can point to lots of ways that, as U.S. presidents, they upheld militarism and imperial power—or maintained U.S. alliances with human rights abusers and undemocratic regimes. Shimon Peres was awarded as Israeli PM for promoting the peace process, alongside Rabin and Arafat, but many people pointed out that Peres was a key promoter of Israel’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. Aung San Suu Kyi was a pro-democracy hero when she won the Nobel, but since becoming a head of state in Myanmar/Burma she has become controversial and is implicated in human rights abuses against the Rohingya. These are just a few examples. Overall, a complicated history...

[duaneodavila]

Celebrating Women Lawyers During Women’s History Month

It’s Women’s History Month, and I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about it during the month in the context of women lawyers, which, as you know, is a favorite topic of mine.

While I remember all too well how few women lawyers there were when I started out in dinosaur days (Jimmy Carter had just been elected President) and how much better the landscape looks more than 40 years later, women lawyers in this country still have a long way to go to achieve full gender and income parity, and it won’t be in my lifetime.

I am reading First, Evan Thomas’s detailed and admiring biography of Sandra Day O’Connor and remembering how it wasn’t all that long ago (less than 40 years) that President Reagan fulfilled his campaign promise of putting a woman on the Supreme Court. Justice O’Connor was first, but as we all know now, thankfully not last.

Whether you agree or not with Justice O’Connor’s jurisprudence, she has led the way for other women lawyers (Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan) to join the Supreme Court and for that alone, I think that all women lawyers are forever in her debt.

While I like the idea of “first” (as opposed to “none”), I can’t wait (and it’ll probably be after I’m taking a dirt nap) until “first” is no longer a big deal or any deal at all for women lawyers. Charlotte E. Ray was the first African-American woman lawyer in this country, but after a few discouraging years in practice, she turned to teaching instead. Stories like that are less frequent today, but they’re still out there.

I don’t know if Women’s History Month is celebrated in any other country, but I’m fascinated by the stories of women lawyers overseas, who blazed trails in their countries as women lawyers. So, for example, Cornelia Sorabji was the first woman to graduate from Bombay University, the first woman to study law at Oxford, the first female advocate in India, and the first woman to practice both in India and Britain.

Other examples of “first” women lawyers and judges appear in this article compiled by the Library of Congress. It figuratively spans the globe.  Each vignette is fascinating and worth more than my mention here.

However, as tough and long a road as we still have to go, it’s way tougher for women lawyers in certain countries around the world. For example, in Saudi Arabia, while several thousand women have law degrees, the number of women actually licensed to practice is far, far less.  The article, written three years ago, is a fascinating look at the different world of women lawyers in Saudi Arabia, and the small subset of those who are actually licensed. It’s also a fascinating look at the different cultural issues that women lawyers face there. I don’t know about you, but I would be enormously frustrated if I had the law degree but couldn’t get licensed, probably akin to what people in this country feel after repeated failed attempts to pass whatever state bar they need for licensure here.

Being a human rights lawyer and female in a country that does not value the contributions of women and/or human rights lawyering must be incredibly difficult. Read the story of Nasrin Sotoudeh, a woman and human rights lawyer in Iran. Imagine being sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes (yes, you read that right) for defending women protesting the country’s mandatory headscarf law. Whatever “benchslap” or sentence a court might hand down here in the States, 148 lashes or even one lash (other than a good tongue lashing) would not be part of the sentencing scheme here.

Amnesty International is circulating a petition protesting Sotoudeh’s sentence. Please sign it. I did. Whatever your personal feelings may be about this NGO, this is a lawyer doing her job and as lawyers we should support her. Shouldn’t we stand up for lawyers doing their jobs in the most difficult of circumstances?  Just imagine if this was any one of us doing what lawyers do and suffering these kinds of consequences for what we are supposed to do. We all say it can’t happen here, but one never knows and I hope we never learn.

Whatever problems we women lawyers have in this country, and I am certainly not diminishing them, they pale beside Sotoudeh’s sentence, who is being punished for her advocacy.

Women’s History Month reminds us that despite all the progress that women lawyers here have made here in the last 140 years or so, we still have a long way to go and much to do. 2020 marks 100 years since women won the right to vote, really not all that long ago. It took more than 60 years after that before Justice O’Connor became one of The Nine on the Supreme Court.

There still aren’t enough women equity partners in Biglaw. Women lawyers compose 31 percent of general counsel, but they’re paid almost 40 percent (not a typo) less than their male counterparts. I found this report infuriating. When do income and gender parity become realities and not just aspirations? Your guess is as good as mine. Just because Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire’s dance partner (and yes, I know I’m dating myself), could dance backwards in high heels doesn’t mean that we should.

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

Celebrating Women Lawyers During Women’s History Month republished via Above the Law

[rivalskrp]

We’d like to thank everyone who has applied, and welcome those who have been accepted! Below the cut is a list of all the characters who have been accepted into rivalskrp. To those listed below, please follow the checklist and happy roleplaying!

congratulations kimberly! jessica vu has been accepted as nasrin ngo (venus), eternity’s miss april!

congratulations sophie! chong tingyan (elkie) has been accepted as wong biyu (aurora), sparkle’s lead vocalist.