Today has been a depressing, inspiring and eye-opening Saturday. Forced inside because of abysmal weather (sleet, snow, lightening, thunder — you name it), I caught up on the PBS docuseries Women, War & Peace. As I sat reeling from what I’d just watched, I went online and started browsing some of my favorite feminist sites,… [Read more…]
July 18, 2011
I had the honor of attending today’s CEDAW discussion on women in conflict & post-conflict situations. The room was packed with both UN experts and NGO representatives to kick off the Committee’s process of developing a general recommendation on the subject. Speakers with global experience in this matter spoke for three hours, addressing the myriad… [Read more…]
June 14, 2011
The news of Libya’s Gadhafi giving his soldiers Viagra to perpetrate rape as a weapon of war may seem shocking to some. It’s hard to conceptualize such brutality and even harder when news of it seems to come out of nowhere. For one reason or another (this alone warrants a separate post), sexual violence in… [Read more…]
May 22, 2011
A Saudi Arabian woman behind a social media campaign encouraging women to drive cars has been detained by authorities for her actions. See Jezebel. Hundreds of Ugandan women marched in a protest against rising food and fuel prices and recent brutality by police and other security operatives. See Ms. Magazine. British Justice Secretary Ken Clarke… [Read more…]
April 21, 2011
The sudden rise in food and fuel prices in in Uganda is raising concerns. One woman shares her story of how she must survive on one meal a day. See IRIN. The three largest countries of the Maghreb–Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia–have taken drastically different approaches to reproductive rights and gender equality, and as a result… [Read more…]
April 1, 2011
Egypt’s provisional military government is causing consternation in light of stories of 18 women who were stripped, beaten and administered “virginity tests” during a protest in Cairo. See Women’s eNews. Lynsey Addario, newly released from captivity in Libya, explains why it’s important that wars are covered by female photographers as well as men. See New… [Read more…]
March 26, 2011
My stomach is churning from the latest news out of Libya. According to the New York Times, a woman who tried to report being gang raped by 15 members of Qaddafi’s militia was dragged away screaming: A Libyan woman burst into the hotel housing the foreign press in Tripoli on Saturday morning in an attempt… [Read more…]
February 28, 2011
A single mom in Morocco has become the first Arab woman to commit political self-immolation. See The Nation. Mexican women imprisoned in the highlands of Chiapas struggle over scarce resources in crowded rooms. See Women’s eNews. Tunisia‘s long tradition of women’s rights goes well beyond anything else in the region. See New York Times. Mass… [Read more…]
February 18, 2011
Police in Turkana, Kenya, have rescued a 13-year-old girl from an early marriage. See Daily Nation. Two Egyptian women’s rights leaders say Suzanne Mubarak controlled their arena and stymied progress. See Women’s eNews. A new education boost for girls in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. See IRIN. In a study of acid attacks in Bangladesh, Cambodia and… [Read more…]
February 13, 2011
The first of seven planned “maternity waiting homes” in north-central Liberia is scheduled to open its doors. See Women’s eNews. Afghanistan‘s Ministry of Justice is considering adopting a new regulation that would require women fleeing domestic violence to appear before an eight-person government panel before obtaining shelter. See Ms. Magazine’s Feminist Wire Daily. Pastoralist communities… [Read more…]
October 29, 2011
0