The Tahirih Justice Center is a United States-based non-governmental organization that serves immigrant women and girls who are fleeing from gender-based violence and persecution through pro bono direct legal services and social and medical service referrals. Tahirih helps women who are attempting to escape from such abuse as female genital cutting, domestic violence, human trafficking, torture and rape. The organization also conducts public policy initiatives designed to achieve legislative change for women fleeing from human rights abuses, to highlight problems faced by immigrant women in the United States, and to end the possible exploitation of mail-order brides by international marriage brokers. The organization is named after Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in nineteenth century Persia who campaigned for women's rights. Tahirih is a Bahá'í-inspired organization, although its clients and employees vary widely in ethnicity, religious identification, and nationality. Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahirih_Justice_Center _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1580: The Golden Hind sailed into Plymouth, England, as Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Drake) 1687: The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed during an armed conflict between Venetian and Ottoman forces. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon) 1907: Newfoundland and New Zealand became dominions within the British Empire. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_and_Labrador) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand) 1957: West Side Story, a musical written by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, and produced and directed by Jerome Robbins, made its debut on Broadway. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Side_Story) 1983: Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov of the Soviet Union averted a worldwide nuclear war. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) _____________________ Wikiquote of the day: What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. -- T. S. Eliot in The Four Quartets (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot)