Womens Rights // Current

Water crisis: nearly 30,000 Hippo Rollers have been distributed

For many of us, clean water comes with the twist of a faucet. But for 1 in 6 people, access to water requires hard work: hours of... more

ninthstate
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17 responses

1 day ago

$100 a victim: honor killings on the rise in Basra

Fathers and husbands who openly hire assassins on the streets of the city are going unpunished.

Authorities in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have admitted they are powerless to prevent 'honour killings' in the city following a 70 per cent increase in religious murders during the past year.

There has been no improvement in conviction rates for these killings. So far this year, 81 women in the city have been murdered for allegedly bringing shame on their families. Only five people have been convicted.

During 2007 the Basra security committee recorded 47 'honour killings' and three convictions. One lawyer in the city described how police were actively protecting perpetrators and said that a woman in Basra could now be murdered by hired hitmen for as little as $100 (£65).

The figures come despite international outrage which followed The Observer's coverage of the death of 17-year-old Rand Abdel-Qader, who was murdered by her father last April in an 'honour killing' after falling in love with a British soldier in Basra. The 4,000 British troops stationed in the city since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 withdrew to the airport last September.

Rand Abdel-Qader was killed after her family discovered that she had formed a friendship with a 22-year-old infantryman whom she knew as Paul. She was suffocated by her father then hacked at with a knife. Abdel-Qader Ali was subsequently arrested and released without charge.

Rand's mother, Leila Hussein, who divorced her husband after the killing, went into hiding but was tracked down weeks later and assassinated by an unknown gunman. Her husband had told The Observer that police had congratulated him for killing his daughter.

Seven months after the murders, the problem of these killings in Basra has become worse, according to lawyers. Ali Azize Raja'a, an Iraqi prosecutor who has represented the victims of 32 'honour killings' since 2004, said that, despite accumulating sufficient evidence to prove who was responsible in each murder, he had won only one case.

More at link...Fathers and husbands who openly hire assassins on the streets of the city are going unpunished. Authorities in the southern... more

jh64487
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14 responses

3 days ago

50% of campus health centers refer girls to Anti-Abortion "Crisis Pregnancy Centers"

this is frightening. Of 398 campus health centers at four-year colleges that responded to a questionnaire, 48 percent... more

matea
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9 responses

19 days ago

MSNBC Admits Palin Story A Lie

Wonder why the media was so quick to hop on a false story and circulate it without properly checking the sources? What happened to... more

doithengiaorg
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2 responses

20 days ago

Afghan Girls Scarred in Acid Attack

This happened in area known for Taliban attacks! Girls were banned from attending schools under the Taliban government, which... more

doithengiaorg
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6 responses

20 days ago

Members of human trafficking networks jailed

Human trafficking continues at an alarming rate, affecting children and women promised a new start but ending up raped, robbed,... more

doithengiaorg
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0 responses

27 days ago

The John McCain Sex Scandal

John McCain is a strong supporter of abstinence- only sex education in the schools — a program that has been shown to be... more

covelogibbs
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51 responses

1 month ago

Graphic Website Names Abortion Clients

A anti-abortion organization claiming to be "above the law" posts the names,addresses,phone numbers,places of... more

donnyin3d
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13 responses

1 month ago

Iran holding American student in prison

CAIRO, Egypt: An American university student in Iran to visit family and research women's rights has been arrested and held... more

Eat_Disco
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0 responses

1 month ago

Women set for pensions boost!

Thousands of UK women who took time off to look after children will be able to boost their state pensions under a top-up scheme... more

Beta_Boy
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0 responses

1 month ago

10 Ways the International Community Must Help Africa

10. Address the HIV/AIDS Epidemic According to the 2008 UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic, an estimated 1.5 million... more

goldenways
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4 responses

1 month ago

Afghan journalism student sentenced to 20 years

An Afghan appeals court overturned a death sentence for a journalism student accused of blasphemy and instead sentenced him... more

goldenways
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3 responses

1 month ago

Congo’s women speak up to protect others from rape

Local and international efforts are bringing more attention to rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is seeing more... more

goldenways
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5 responses

1 month ago

In Nicaragua, political dissidents targeted

A noted journalist, Oxfam, and a women's organization have become enemies of the state. Thirty years after legendary... more

TravG73
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0 responses

1 month ago

A glimpse at the life of Maryam Rajavi

Maryam Rajavi was born in 1953 to a middle class family in Tehran. She has a degree in metallurgy from Sharif University of... more

goldenways
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11 responses

1 month ago

60 percent of women harassed on daily basis - Cairo

CAIRO: Being an Egyptian woman is to accept sexual harassment as daily routine, according to a recent report from the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR). The study outlines, 60 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women are harassed on a daily basis.

This is not a new problem. In fact, the problem has been simmering silently since the fall of 2006, when dozens of men and boys attacked and assaulted women outside a downtown a Cairo cinema. In a mob style attack, the perpetrators attempted to grope and tear at any passing woman’s clothes in the October attack.

Street harassment globally includes a wide range of verbal and nonverbal acts, including whistles, jeers, winks, grabs, pinches, public displays and often the use of foul and offensive language. Extreme cases can accelerate into physical attacks where clothing is ripped and a woman is bruised, cut or injured.

No woman is left unharmed by acts of street harassment. Exposure to such acts of public humiliation that result in verbal or physical assault are often ignored by the police. In Cairo this is due to the lack of protective enforcement of Egyptian laws.

Although articles 268 and 306 of the Egyptian Penal Code touch on issues rising out of extreme sexual harassment on the streets of Cairo, the specific legal wording to aid in protecting women exists nowhere in the code. This makes prosecution very difficult and extremely rare.

“There is no law criminalizing sexual harassment in Egypt,” says New York based and award-winning Washington Post columnist, Mona Eltahawy. A native of Egypt, international speaker on Arab and Muslim issues and former reporter for Reuters news in Cairo and Jerusalem, Eltahawy has been vigilant in her stand on human rights and women’s rights.

“Police often refuse to report women’s complaints,” added Eltahawy. “And when it is the police themselves who are harassing women, then clearly women’s safety is far from a priority in Egypt.”

The 1993 Harvard Law Review report, “Street Harassment and the Informal Ghettoization of Women,” by Cynthia Grant Bowman, Cornell Law School professor and Gender Studies professor from Northwestern University, outlines the need for specific criminal and civil laws to protect women in public. Street harassment globally has one insidious and common denominator, the use of words that include extreme sexual innuendo and profanity.

“Fighting words statutes seem to offer an appropriate remedy for many kind of street harassment,” says Professor Bowman in her report. “They encompass personal, face-to-face insults that cannot possibly be described as political discourse; they apply to ‘threatening, profane or obscene revilings’; and they turn upon the reaction of the hearer rather than upon the intent of the speaker or harasser.”

Although the ACLU – American Civil Liberties Union has come out strongly in opposition defending the use of ‘fighting words’ as free speech under United States law code, it does lean in the favor in the prosecution of “acts of violence, harassment or intimidation and invasions of privacy.”

“The ACLU recognizes that the mere presence of speech as one element in an act of violence, harassment, intimidation or privacy invasion doesn’t immunize that act from punishment,” said the organization in a 1994 “Hate Speech on Campus” report.

On the streets of Cairo in 2006, eyewitnesses and citizen reporters’ pictures were clear proof that terror against women had taken place, despite denials by police and the Ministry of Interior. Some of the photos revealed police watching from a distance in amusement and indifference to the women’s predicament.

The event proved to be the breaking point for women, and some men, in removing their heads from the sand. It was the first time women had spoken out about the issue, taking to the streets in demonstrations against this enduring social problem.*****CONTINUESCAIRO: Being an Egyptian woman is to accept sexual harassment as daily routine, according to a recent report from the Egyptian... more

goldenways
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3 responses

1 month ago

Iran’s Women’s Rights Activists Are Being Smeared

Women’s rights activists recently succeeded in stalling a bill to ease polygamy, temporary marriage and male-bias in divorce. But Nayereh Tohidi says a nasty smear campaign and continuous arrest show the adversity they are up against.In Iran, the government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently proposed a bill and, in Orwellian fashion, named it the "Family Protection Law."

If passed it would have threatened the stability, equilibrium, and mental health of families by reinforcing and facilitating polygamy, temporary marriage, and men’s privileged position with regard to divorce.

The good news: A diverse coalition of women’s rights activists and even some moderate clerics and politicians persuaded a judicial commission to drop some of the most contested articles and Majles, the Parliament, passed an amended version on Sept. 9. This version makes second marriage contingent upon the first wife’s consent and does not attach any tax on the amount of dowry to be paid to wife in case of divorce.

The bad news: The amended family law and many other laws pertaining to personal status are still very male biased. Temporary marriage (muta), for example, remains a prerogative for married and unmarried men without even requiring its registration. Activists campaigning to change that those laws are still under attack, with five women recently sentenced to prison terms of between six months and four years.

A major sign of the negative climate is a wave of smear campaigns recently waged against those activists, chief among them Shirin Ebadi, the leading human rights lawyer. Similar campaigns in the 1990s were harbingers of homicides.

A series of articles published in early August by the official Islamic Republic News Agency made dangerous allegations against Ebadi, her family, and the Center for the Defense of Human Rights that she founded and chairs.

The articles charged Ebadi, a Women’s eNews 21 Leader, with supporting sexual license, promiscuity, and prostitution. They called her a Zionist agent and alleged that the international Zionist Lobby was behind her winning the 2003 Nobel Prize.

The articles also claimed that Ebadi’s daughter has converted to the Bahai faith, a dangerous accusation because Iran does not recognize Bahaism as a religion and its followers have faced severe discrimination and persecution.

Trumped-Up Charges Several human rights groups, including the Nobel Women Initiative (founded by six female Nobel Peace Prize winners) have compared the accusations to trumped-up charges brought up by the same media against dissident intellectuals in the 1990s that led to several mysterious assassinations now known as "the serial killings."

Women’s status in Iran is paradoxical and complex. Many rural women and those living in small towns suffer from old restrictions and practices such as domestic violence and "honor killing."

As for urban women: While economic necessity compels many to work outside the home, their employment opportunities are limited and often face discrimination and harassment. According to official records, in the course of the past year alone, more than 20,000 women have been attacked by "moral squads" and put under temporary police arrest for breaking Islamic dress code.
********CONTINUESWomen’s rights activists recently succeeded in stalling a bill to ease polygamy, temporary marriage and male-bias in... more

goldenways
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2 months ago

NOW PAC: Palin may be a woman but isn't strong on women's issues, endorses Obama

The National Organization for Women Political Action Committee endorsed the Obama-Biden ticket today. Not a huge surprise -- Obama... more

BuddyP
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19 responses

3 months ago

88 years later: Promises unfulfilled for millions of women voters

All over America, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate women last month: August marked the 88th anniversary of the 19th Amendment's ratification, which gave women the right to vote. Women's Equality Day, which was on August 26, commemorated that victory. There are now more women in the U.S. Congress than ever (88) and 2008 was a year when a woman came within a hair's breadth of becoming a major ticket presidential nominee.

But this year, there's also a real threat to the voting rights of millions of low-income women, and it is in direct violation of Federal law.

Take, for instance, the story of Dionne O'Neal. Ms. O'Neal is a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, where she works part-time while pursuing her GED. Like millions of Americans, Ms. O'Neal receives Food Stamps and government health care benefits to help meet her basic needs. If anybody has a deep concern about the future of economic policy, she does. But her right to have a say in government and what it does is being thwarted because Missouri, like many other states, has long ignored federal voter registration requirements designed to reach low-income voters.

The most disadvantaged women in our society are the least likely to express their voice in the political process. Ms. O'Neal is just one of the 32.5 million women--31 percent of all eligible women--who were not registered to vote at their current address in 2006. Low-income women like Ms. O'Neal are disproportionately represented in that number. In 2006, only 63 percent of women in households making $25,000 or less were registered to vote compared to 81 percent of women in households making $75,000 or more.

There is, though, a federal law on the books to help reverse this trend.

Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993 to increase the number of eligible citizens registering to vote in federal elections. Recognizing that an unrepresentative electorate is one of the greatest threats to a fair democratic system, the NVRA was drafted specifically to ensure equal access to voter registration. One of the law's provisions, Section 7, requires public assistance agencies to offer voter registration services to clients.

But many people eligible to register under Section 7 don't know it, because too many states aren't properly implementing the law.

~~ Read More!~~
All over America, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate women last month: August marked the 88th anniversary of the 19th... more

aswift1
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3 responses

3 months ago

Zombie feminists of the RNC

How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea of a woman in the White House?

I have been dreaming about Sarah Palin. (Apparently, I'm not alone.) I wish I could say that I'd been conjuring witty, politically sophisticated nightmares in which she leads troops into Vancouver or kindergartners in the recitation of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But, alas, mine have been nonsensical, kiddie-style doozies in which she kidnaps my cats, or enjoys a meal with my girlfriends while I bang on the restaurant window. There's also a chilling one, in which a scary witch stands on a wind-swept hill and leers at me.

What troubles me most -- aside from the fact that there is suddenly a Republican candidate potent enough to so ensnare my psyche -- is my sense that these are dreams in which it matters very much that Palin is a woman.

I have been writing about feminism for more than five years; I have been covering the gender politics of the 2008 presidential election for more than two. And I am absolutely gobsmacked by the intensity of my feelings about Sarah Palin. I am stunned not only by the way in which her candidacy has changed the rules in the gender debate, or how it is twisting and garbling the fight for women's progress. But I'm also startled by how Palin herself is testing my own beliefs about how I react to women in power.

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So much of this article is very quotable! My favorite paragraph is:

Palin's femininity is one that is recognizable to most women: She's the kind of broad who speaks on behalf of other broads but appears not to like them very much. The kind of woman who, as Jessica Grose at Jezebel has eloquently noted, achieves her power by doing everything modern women believed they did not have to do: presenting herself as maternal and sexual, sucking up to men, evincing an absolute lack of native ambition, instead emphasizing her luck as the recipient of strong male support and approval. It works because these stances do not upset antiquated gender norms. So when the moment comes, when tolerance for and interest in female power have been forcibly expanded by Clinton, a woman more willing to throw elbows and defy gender expectations but who falls short of the goal, Palin is there, tapped as a supposedly perfect substitute by powerful men who appreciate her charms.

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Read More!How did Sarah Palin become a symbol of women's empowerment? And how did I, a die-hard feminist, end up terrified at the idea... more