The all-male, religious right organization, Promise Keepers, has closed all eight of its U.S. regional offices and located all field work at their headquarters.
This is the second major reorganizing and cut back for the Promise Keepers. In February 1998, the group had announced that it was firing its entire staff due to a financial crisis. The group later rehired some staff and reorganized.
Nearly 70 Afghans are seeking asylum in Britain following last week’s hijacking of an Ariana Boeing 727. The former hostages are facing resistance from the British government. Home Secretary Jack Straw stated as early as last week that he “wished to see removed from Britain all those on the place as soon as reasonably practicable.” Straw denied any attempt to prejudice the 69 asylum applications that have been received by Parliament. According to government sources, Britain has also entered into discussions with Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazahkstan, India, Pakistan and the U.S. and that the refugees could be removed, either to a third country or to Afghanistan, within days. The released hostages are currently being held in a makeshift immigration center in Gloucestershire.
Emily Lyons, the nurse who was seriously injured in the 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing, is suing bomb suspect Eric Robert Rudolph. The suit is intended to prevent Rudolph from receiving any profits from a book or movie.
Lyons is also seeking damages in her suit against Rudolph, which she filed on Thursday. Rudolph is charged with the January 1998 bombing of the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic that injured Lyons and killed an off-duty police officer.
Rudolph is also charged with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing and the bombing of a lesbian and gay nightclub in Atlanta.
The FBI has placed Rudolph on their 10 most-wanted list and continue to search for him in the rural North Carolina mountains near his home.
The body of Turkish feminist Konca Kuris was found in a hideout used by Islamic militants. The militants tortured her for weeks and documented it on video, which was also found during a recent raid on the hideout.
Kuris was once a member of the Islamic militant group Hezbollah that seeks to establish an Islamic state in southeastern Turkey. She became frustrated with the group’s attitude toward women and demanded the right to pray alongside men. Kuris’ feminist views enraged Hezbollah. In July 1998, three militants kidnapped Kuris in front of her home.
At Kuris’ funeral, her eldest daughter Sirma was not allowed to pray beside her mother’s coffin. Sirma shouted “I will carry out my mother’s last will” as men blocked her from the male section of the mosque. Another female relative successfully pushed her way through to stand beside the coffin.
Afghanistan’s extremist Taliban militia spoke out against the decision by Egypt’s parliament for passing a law making it easier for women seeking to divorce their husbands.
Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen said “we consider the ruling as oppression.”
The Taliban control 90 percent of Afghanistan and since taking control have barred most women from working for pay, going to school, or even leaving their homes without a close male relative.
The parliament’s decision in Egypt gives women a second option when filing for divorce. Women may now file a request for divorce based on incompatibility. Government statistics show that some 1.5 million requests for divorce are filed by women in Egypt each year.
President Clinton, in his final State of the Union address, urged passage by Congress of several women’s measures.
Clinton called upon Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which is a very modest step toward equal pay for equal work. Clinton also urged increasing the minimum wage by one dollar. Women are sixty-percent of minimum wage workers.
In the area of childcare, Clinton asked Congress for $1 billion increase in the Head Start program for early childhood education. He also asked for an increase in childcare expenditures to include another 400,000 children.
Clinton spoke to the issue of violence, specifically urging Congress to pass reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The President also touted Hate Crimes legislation, which includes gender, race and sexual orientation, and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act for lesbians and gay men.
A federal appeals panel ruled that five women who filed a discrimination lawsuit based on Title IX against Louisiana State University can seek unlimited monetary damages damages from the university.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that LSU’s athletic department intentionally violated Title IX, the federal law that requires equal opportunities for male and female college athletes. LSU athletic director Joe Dean was quoted during the trial referring to one of the plaintiffs as “honey,” “sweetie” and “cutie.” Dean also told one plaintiff that if he was forced to start one women’s sport on campus, he would choose soccer because players “look good in their shorts.”
The federal appeals court also ordered a reconsideration of U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty’s decision to deny the lawsuit class action status.
Village leaders across four Afghan provinces demand the return of land they say the Taliban militia seized and accountability for lost tax revenues. A local businessman told reporters, “They want to know what happened to the customs and municipality revenues since the Taliban came. The leaders have reportedly given the Taliban a 15-day ultimatum to meet their demands. The Taliban have previously been implicated in selling land with forged documents.
Egypt’s Parliament voted today to give women a second option when seeking to divorce their husbands. Women may now file a request for divorce based on incompatibility.
Under the current procedure, a woman has to prove that her husband had mistreated her. This procedure is difficult to prove and the ruling usually is against the wife. Regardless, government statistics show that some 1.5 million requests for divorce are filed by women in Egypt each year.
“This is a victory for women who spend years and years of their lives seeking divorce and never getting it” said Hosn Shah, one of the women who campaigned for this reform.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that a 25-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics would not be a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.
The state Senate is considering a bill that would bar individuals from a 25-foot zone around building entrances and driveways unless they had business in the building or were public officials. The Senate submitted the question to the Supreme Judicial Court for legal advice back in November. The SJC concluded that “the interests stated in this bill are substantial government interests.”
The United States Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday in Hill v. Colorado on whether the 1993 Colorado law that establishes a protective 8-foot bubble around persons entering abortion clinics to protect patients and clinic workers from harassment or violates demonstrators’ right to free speech. The Colorado law prohibits demonstrators within a 100 ft. of a health-care facility entrance from getting closer than 8 feet to individuals without their consent. Anyone who violates the law faces up to six months in jail and $750 fine.
The Senate could pass a version of bankruptcy reform legislation allowing Democrats to offer an amendment by Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) that would bar anti-abortion extremists from discharging any legal judgments against them by filing for bankruptcy.
According to one source, Republicans plan to offer two amendments, one of which would require individuals convicted of any type of violence to pay legal judgments against them regardless of whether they declare bankruptcy.
For the second time in two months, Jordan lawmakers have rejected a draft law that would enact harsher punishment for the practice of ‘honor’ killings of women.
If the measure had passed, men convicted of killing female relatives in the name of honor would face the same life-imprisonment punishment as for any other killing. Currently, men convicted of the crime face a maximum of one year in prison.
Dozens of Jordanian women are killed every year in what are described as ‘honor’ crimes. Under the current law, men convicted of killing female relatives in the name of “honor” serve prison sentences of three months to one year.
Rana Husseni, a leading Jordanian journalist who has reported extensively on honor killings, will be one of the symposium speakers on gender-based violence at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Feminist Expo 2000 for Women’s Empowerment, March 31 – April 2, 2000 in Baltimore, MD.
The United States Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Justice Department must approve districting changes, regardless of whether they are discriminatory, as long as the change does not leave minority voters more disadvantaged than before.
The 5-4 ruling effectively dismantles Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires “covered jurisdictions,” those state and local governments with histories of low minority electoral participation, to seek the clearance of either the Justice Department or the federal district court before enacting any voting change.
As a result of this ruling, states can legally choose to draw district lines that effectively maintain the status quo of political candidates as long as there is an absence of “retrogression.” Justice David H. Souter stated in the opinion for the four dissenters that the majority had adopted an “exceedingly odd” interpretation that would force the government to approve “unconstitutional voting schemes patently intended to perpetuate discrimination.”
The Journal of the American Medical Association released a study today found that post-menopausal women who take the hormone combination of estrogen and protesterone could increase their risk of breast cancer.
For those women taking the hormone combination their risk of breast cancer rose by 8 percent, nearly double the risk of those who do not take the combination. Experts caution women not to stop taking the hormone combination on a short-term basis to relieve menopausal symptoms.
However, long-term use is now somewhat problematic. “I think the totality of the evidence on the benefit and risk has become less certain,” said Andrea Z. LaCroix of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a key researcher in the Women’s Health Initiative.
The study was conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the University of Massachusetts and examined the relationship between breast cancer and the combined hormone therapy in 46,355 post-menopausal women for an average of 10 years.
Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations are still waiting patiently in the woods near suspected serial bomber Eric Robert Rudolph’s home in rural North Carolina. Rudolph was believed to be a follower of the Christian Identity, an anti-abortion, anti-gay, white supremacist group based in the area.
Rudolph is suspected in the January 29, 1998 bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic that killed an off-duty police office and injured a clinic nurse. Rudolph was also charged with the double-bombings at an Atlanta abortion clinic and lesbian/gay nightclub.
The FBI has placed Rudolph on its 10 most-wanted list of fugitives and offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture and arrest.
Women in Japan are teaching their daughters that they do not have to endure sexual harassment. Juri Yukita, a sexual harassment lawyer in Japan, said “The atmosphere is really changing, and many women realize now that sexual harassment is against their rights.”
Yukita helped to remove Isamu Yokoyama, Governor of Osaka. In December 1999, the Osaka District Court ordered Yokoyama to pay $107,000 in damages to his accuser a record amount for a sexual harassment case in Japan. Yukita represented the 21-year old university student who had worked on the governor’s re-election campaign, who claimed Yokoyama fondled her in a van.
The case against Governor Yokoyama was a landmark case in the battle against sexual harassment in Japan, bringing serious and international attention to the issue. Weeks after the Yokoyama ruling, Japan’s national police chief, Yuko Sekiguchi, resigned in the midst of several departmental scandals involving harassment of female police officers by male police officers.
President Clinton announced today a plan requesting $27 million to help close the wage-gap between men and women and bolster enforcement of equal-pay laws.
To enforce equal pay laws, Clinton is designating $10 million of the $27 million plan for the EEOC to train some 3,000 employers on equal pay laws and fund 1,000 staff inspectors.
If the initiative passes, it would mark the first time since the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) was given responsibility for enforcing equal pay laws in 1998 that the agency would have money to train equal pay inspectors.
Women currently earn 75 cents for every $1 men earn. The president’s domestic policy advisor Bruce Reed said “We want to make sure that the employers and employees all understand their rights and responsibilities on equal pay.”
The president also is asking Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, (D-SD) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CN). That bill would strengthen existing laws prohibiting wage discrimination.
An annual survey of college freshman reports that 30 percent who entered college in the Fall of 1999 reported that they frequently felt “overwhelmed.” Thirty-nine percent of the women surveyed reported feeling overwhelmed while nearly half the number of men (20 percent) reported that feeling.
The 1999 survey, conducted for 34 consecutive years by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, is designed to document trends and changes in attitudes and goals of college freshmen over time. The results are based on the responses of 261,217 students at 462 two-year and four-year institutions.
According to the study, women spend more time studying, volunteering, and participating in student activities while men reported spending more times exercising and playing sports, watching television, partying, and playing video games. “These finding suggest that women spend time on goal-oriented and potentially stress-producing activities, whereas men more often participate in activities that provide a recreational outlet and possible release from stress,” the study said.
In addition to reporting higher levels of stress, students are also reporting less of a commitment to social activism, notably in the areas of race relations, the environment, and “helping others who are in difficulty.”
A study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic revealed that the incidence of anorexia nervosa among young women has risen steadily for the last 50 years.
The findings were published in a recent issue of the International Journal of Eating Disorders. Researchers analyzed 2,806 medical records between 1935 and 1989 of individuals diagnosed with anorexia nervosa as well as bulimia, eating disorder, and amenorrhea, all of which can indicate anorexia. Incidence rates were highest for women and men between the ages of 15 – 19 years.
Dr. Alexander Lucas of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota reported that “in the most vulnerable group, 15- to 24-year-old-females, a continual rise in incidence was observed throughout the 55 years of the study.”
At an Iowa news conference, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush stated that if the FDA approved mifepristone, he “would not be inclined to accept that ruling by the FDA. That’s abortion.” He then reiterated that abortion should be illegal with the exception of rape, incest and saving the live of the mother when questioned about his stance on abortion.
When questioned about Supreme Court appointments, Bush again asserted that he would only appoint “strict constructionists” and defined that term as one who “interprets the Constitution for what it is and doesn’t use the opportunity of the Constitution to pass legislation or legislate from the bench.”
Bush responded to a question about how a “strict constructionist” would determine the legality of abortion claiming “Roe v. Wade was a reach that overstepped the constitutional bounds as far as I’m concerned” and then added “I would remind you I’m not a lawyer.”
When asked what he would do if a relative of his was raped and considering abortion, Bush said “I would hope I would be able to evoke enough sympathy in a rape case to help comfort her as a friend.”
