A day after the Taliban announced that it will agree to peace talks with the United States and Afghanistan, the Afghan government has announced it will not participate until Afghanistan plays a larger lead role. Senior US officials confirmed that two key conditions of the negotiations would be that the Taliban breaks ties with al-Qaeda […]
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 […]
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 […]
Women’s Rights Advocate Slain in Afghanistan
Najia Seddiqi, the head of women’s affairs for Laghman province and known women’s rights activist, was murdered yesterday on her way to her office. She was getting into a rickshaw when two gunmen on a motorbike shot her. She was traveling with no bodyguards despite multiple requests for protection from authorities, according to her family. […]
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 suffering on account of her desire to attend school put into perspective the violence girls and women face as they exercise their basic rights.
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 […]
The Best Place To Be a Woman: A Conversation With Monique Villa
Canada is the best place to be a woman, and India is the worst according to a new poll by Thomson Reuters Foundation. The legal news service launched a global poll of experts this week ranking countries for women in the G20, putting the US, which “polarised opinion due to issues surrounding reproductive rights and affordable healthcare,” in sixth place. Access to healthcare […]
1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History
The post- Liberation War generation of Bangladesh know stories from 1971 all too well. Our families are framed and bound by the history of this war. What Bangladeshi family has not been touched by the passion, famine, murders and blood that gave birth to a new nation as it seceded from Pakistan? Bangladesh was one […]
Donor Nations Pledge $16 Million in Aid to Afghanistan
International donors, including the US and Japan, pledged $16 million in development aid to Afghanistan at the Tokyo Conference yesterday. Four million dollars will be provided annually through 2015. By providing this assistance, the international community expressed its commitment to assist with the stabilization of Afghanistan as international troops are withdrawn from the country. In […]
Saudi Arabia Allows Women in Olympics, But Will Any Qualify?
For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, women from all competing countries will be offered an opportunity to take part in the international event. That’s because the Saudi Arabia government announced yesterday, through its London embassy, that it will permit female athletes to join its team at the 2012 London Games, which begin July 27.
Rio Disappoints on Women’s Rights
I could go on. But if you’ve seen any of the news on the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, you know it did not live up to the hype. Ask anyone from any sector–oceans, food security, education, energy–and they will all express disappointment. But for those of us advancing the sexual and reproductive rights of women, Rio+20 has been particularly disappointing.
Women of Color, the Wage Gap and the Paycheck Fairness Act
The average American woman earns only $0.77 to every full dollar that the average American man earns. What do statistics fail to capture about the lives of women of color? A Black woman in the US earns only $0.62 to every full dollar that a white man in the U.S earns. A Hispanic woman earns […]
Open Letter to Obama, Karzai Urges Women’s Inclusion in Afghanistan Talks
Amnesty International issued an open letter to President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai at their “Shadow Summit” Saturday urging both leaders to safeguard women’s rights. Forty-six people signed the open letter, including Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal and Ms. magazine founder Gloria Steinem. Other signatories include former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright; […]
Wrap It Up India: The Time Is Now For Family Planning
According to “Condom Use Before Marriage and Its Correlates: Evidence from India,” a study published in the December issue of International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, the majority of people in India having premarital sex between the ages of 15 and 24 did not use condoms. Authors K.G. Santhya, Rajib Acharya and Shireen J. […]
Concerns Arise over Maternal Mortality in Afghanistan
Politicians, economists and activists gathered at the Bonn Conference in early December expressed concerns regarding the impact of the withdrawal of th US on maternal mortality. Sarah Pickworth, a public health specialist in Afghanistan stated, “The greatest risk at present is through aid levels dropping off precipitously. Without sufficient funding, there is likely to be […]