tagged w/ women’s rights
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To highlight the 10th anniversary of US and British forces’ intervention in Afghanistan ActionAid recently carried out an extraordinary survey where 1,000 women from Afghanistan were polled to gain a rare insight into their opinions about living through the last ten years of war and the current reconciliation process with the Taliban.
As part of the campaign, ActionAid is calling on the UK government and the international community to protect women who have defended women’s human rights in Afghanistan in the last ten years, to support women’s organisations with direct, long-term funding and to ensure that women’s voices and views are heard at the Bonn conference in December, where the international community will discuss Afghanistan’s future.
For full details about the campaign, please visit: http://www.actionaid.org.uk/10yearsonTo highlight the 10th anniversary of US and British forces’ intervention in... more
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The Obama administration has issued a new interim rule excluding abortion coverage from the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plans, or high-risk insurance pools, created by the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Even using their own private funds, individuals will not be able to buy policies that cover abortion in these pools. The only exemptions will be for women who have been raped, who are the victims of incest or who will likely die if they carry a pregnancy to term. Under this new rule, women with serious health conditions such as heart disease may be forced to carry pregnancies to term despite serious harm to their health.The Obama administration has issued a new interim rule excluding abortion coverage... more
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A sharply divided federal appeals court has exposed retail giant Wal-Mart to billions of dollars in legal damages after it ruled that a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination over pay for female workers can go to trial.A sharply divided federal appeals court has exposed retail giant Wal-Mart to billions... more
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In a bold new strategy, women’s rights advocates in Africa are using clever, non-confrontational techniques to win power for women. It’s all about getting the men on board by convincing them equality is in their own interest.
For activists focused on women’s rights in Africa, this fall brought a whirlwind of conflicting news. First, the devastating: On Sept. 28 in Guinea, during protests against the ruling military junta, masses of women were publicly assaulted and raped by government forces. The sexual violence, which took place at a sports stadium in the coastal capital city, Conakry, echoed that of other conflict around the world. But this time, images of the stripped, humiliated women were captured on cellphone cameras and distributed internationally, resulting in a Page One New York Times exposé.
A week later, across the continent in Somalia, came a human rights victory. Fourteen villages in the country’s northeast Puntland region publicly vowed to abandon female genital mutilation, declaring the Koran does not require the procedure. Two thousand people, including local village chiefs and religious leaders, attended the ceremony to announce the policy change, which was the culmination of a two-year education effort by women’s rights organizations.
At the center of both these stories is an undeniable, yet uncomfortable truth: The fate of women in traditional societies is often in the hands of men. It is men who perpetrate sexual and domestic violence, and men who have a stranglehold on political power in societies obsessed with sexual chastity and obedience. Women’s rights activists have learned that without the support of men there is little hope for empowering African women. Since the 1990s, a number of advocacy groups have developed sophisticated strategies for pursuing feminist aims through non-threatening outreach to men, eschewing the sort of Western paternalism that, in past decades, allowed local opinion leaders to brand opponents of female genital mutilation and proponents of family planning as latter-day colonialists, to be resisted by right-thinking Africans.
The idea that it is men’s duty to protect “weak” women is deeply ingrained, but activists have found they can use this to their advantage.
More @ linkIn a bold new strategy, women’s rights advocates in Africa are using clever,... more
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It is now seen as an article of faith that the world suffers from overpopulation but exactly who are there too many of? You, me, my friends? For World Population Day 2009, we should be celebrating our increased numbers and looking forward to more not less of the earth’s richest resource, humanity. Volunteers present the case in this inspiring riposte to modern Malthusians.It is now seen as an article of faith that the world suffers from overpopulation but... more
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