Global Heroes Honored in L.A.
An Afghan rapper. The founder of the first primary school for girls in a Kenyan village. A trailblazing member of Congress who fights to create an AIDS-free generation. An advocate for women’s and children’s rights and empowerment. Tonite in Los Angeles, the Feminist Majority Foundation (publisher of Ms.) will award these four women with its...
Female Teacher Murdered in Pakistan
Earlier today, female teacher Shahnaz Nazli was shot by two men of unknown affiliation on her way to work at a girls school in the village of Shahkas. She died of her injuries in the hospital. The Khyber tribal district in northwest Pakistan is asking the government to implement greater security measures for women and...
First Woman President of South Korea Sworn In
South Korea’s first female president, Park Geun-hye, was sworn in Monday. Her election was an historic event for a country where women earn forty percent less than men, and women’s groups hope that Park’s presidency will include many advances in gender equity. She has nominated two women for Cabinet posts so far. The current priority...
Media Blackout: Why Is the World Not Acknowledging Shahbagh?
When I was a little girl, I always wanted Bangladesh to be famous. I did not like that whenever people asked me where I was from I would have to explain, “Bangladesh, this tiny country on the East of India.” Why could people not just know where my Motherland was? At the age of 18...
The Female Factor: Bangladesh Protests Break Boundaries
It is over a week now that crowds refuse to die down in Shahbagh Square in the heart of Dhaka, Bangladesh. While most of the “western media” has either ignored the swelling numbers of ordinary Bangladeshis joining the movement, others have wrongly labeled it as a mass demand for capital punishment. This is perhaps the biggest misconception about...
India’s Tipping Point: Death of Rape Victim Sparks Global Outrage
The brutal gang-rape and death of a 23-year-old female medical student in India has prompted outrage and horror around the world. The physiotherapy student was tortured and raped by a group of six men on Dec. 16 armed with a metal bar on a private bus in New Delhi. She died from her injuries in a Singapore...
The Global War on Women
While everyone is consumed in the upcoming election and “women’s issues”, there is yet another disturbing threat at large—the global war on women. The global war I’m thinking of goes beyond reproductive rights to the basic necessity of living free of fear. Last week Malala Yousafzai’s shooting grabbed the world’s attention. Her...
The Silence of a Laureate: Ethnic & Religious Tensions Rise in Burma
When I was growing up in Bangladesh, Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi never ceased to amaze me. Burma is right next door to us geographically, but as a little girl all I understood about the military junta in Burma was primarily through pictures. I just could not wrap my head around what kind of threat...
Cost/Benefit Analysis: 27 million women will get much needed contraception…with a side of PMS
Bayer Pharmaceuticals recently announced their partnership with the Clinton Foundation to provide half priced implantable contraceptives for 27 million women living in developing countries worldwide. The contraceptive, known as Jadelle (or Norplant), is a progestogen-only plastic rod which is implanted under the skin and last up to five years, or until a woman decides to...
Women Only: Saudi Arabia Further Segregates Society
The fight for Saudi women’s rights has been well-documented in the press, especially the high-profile protests women’s rights activists launched on the heels of the Arab Spring in hopes to win the right to drive in the Kingdom, the only place in the world where women are legally not permitted to get behind the wheel. This observation...
Women’s Rights Key To Effective Global AIDS Response
A new report by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, an independent body of former world leaders and top legal, human rights and HIV experts, released on the eve of the London Summit, has labeled the global response to the AIDS epidemic as “stifled.” The ground-breaking account, “HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights...
Egypt’s Veiled First Lady: Clues To Where Women Fit Into New Egypt?
Everybody wants to know where women fit into the new Egypt. After an electrifying revolution, leading to the end of President Hosni Mubarak‘s three decade long dictatorship, the “women question” awaited the country’s first democratically elected leadership. The world watched as Egyptian women, young and old, Christian and Muslim, fought alongside their brothers, slept next to them...
