Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that there is no evidence that Japan forced women into sexual slavery during World War II, reversing the country’s previous position. In 1993, the Japanese government issued an apology for playing a role in establishing and managing wartime brothels that forced over 200,000 women – known as comfort […]
A 72-year-old gay Michigan man, Andrew Anthos, died last week after he was attacked allegedly because of his sexual orientation. Anthos, who was helping a wheel-chair-bound friend who was stuck in the snow, was struck with a metal pipe by a man he had been riding the bus with that evening. According to Human Rights […]
The Iranian Judiciary will hold a trial on March 4 to prosecute four female activists for peacefully protesting Iran’s discriminatory laws against women. The four women, Nusheen Ahmadi, Khorasani, Parvin Ardalan, Sussan Tahmasebi and Shahla Entesari, were detained by Iranian police after gathering in a public demonstration and calling for reform. Human Rights Watch (HRW) […]
The Journal of the American Medical Association (AMA) reports that over one-third of American women are infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) by the age of 24. The latest research finds that HPV affects about 7.5 million women nationwide. This is about two-thirds higher than previous estimates. The American Council on Science and Health estimates […]
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach appeared in front of the House Appropriations Subcommittee yesterday, claiming that no decision had been made regarding the alleged budget cut for the Office of Women’s Health. An unnamed, high level official told the Washington Post earlier this week that the FDA intended to withhold $1.2 […]
Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ), who made history by becoming the first woman to chair the National Governors Association (NGA) in 2006, led the 2007 winter meeting of the NGA this past week. The opening plenary session of the meeting featured Gov. Napolitano’s Innovation America initiative, a plan that focuses on innovation as a tool to […]
Frances Allen, an IBM Fellow Emeritus, won the Turing Award in Computer Science, becoming the first woman to receive the honor. The award, which has been presented by the Association for Computing Machinery since 1966, is often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing.” Allen’s contributions to program optimization, parallel computing, and other industry […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to withhold 30 percent of the funding allocated for the Office of Women’s Health in 2007, an unnamed, high level official told the Washington Post. The source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, said that $1.2 million will be withheld from the Office’s $4 million budget, and […]
A group of Texas parents have filed a law suit in response to Governor Rick Perry’s executive order mandating that all sixth grade girls receive Gardasil, the vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV). The vaccine, which was approved by the FDA in June 2006, prevents cervical cancer and genital warts caused by HPV types 6, […]
The Nigerian House of Representatives held public hearings last week on a bill that would criminalize all expressions and forms of homosexuality in Nigeria. This bill, titled the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Bill, includes penalties of five years imprisonment for any individual possessing or purchasing gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (GLBT) literature or film, subscribing […]
The American Psychological Association (APA) released a report linking the abundance of sexualized images of women and young girls in the media to girls’ poor development and negative self-image. The APA studied content in every form of media including, television, song lyrics, movies, magazines, music videos, video games, the internet, as well as advertisements and […]
Two alleged gang rapes of Iraqi women by national security forces caused an uproar in Iraq last week. On February 19, a 20-year-old Sunni woman claimed on Al-Jazeera television that she was gang-raped by Iraqi national police after they took her to their Baghdad headquarters for questioning. Just days later, four Iraqi soldiers admitted to […]
Adding to the chorus of women leaders demanding that President Bush retreat from the possibility of war against Iran, retired Army Reserves Colonel and former high-ranking diplomat Mary Ann Wright asked military personnel to refuse potentially imminent orders to attack Iran. “Attacking Iran will be a crime against peace, a war crime,” wrote Wright in […]
Thirty-nine years after the famed Wimbledon tennis tournament first became a professional event, women singles players will finally receive prize money equal to that of their male counterparts. When Billie Jean King was the “ladies” singles champion at the famed British venue in 1968, she received 750 British pounds, while men’s champion Rod Layer won […]
South Dakota senators in the State Affairs Committee voted 8 to 1 on Wednesday to kill, a proposed ban on abortion similar to the one rejected by voters last year. The bill can still be brought out of committee by a vote of one-third of the full senate; however, such an action appears unlikely, as […]
An increasing number of states are providing public funding for anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), the Los Angeles Times reports. CPCs often hide their anti-choice agenda, advertising as abortion centers or medical clinics in an attempt to lure in so-called “abortion-vulnerable clients” and dissuade them from having abortions with medically inaccurate information. Ten states will […]
All copies of Egyptian feminist writer, activist and medical doctor Nawal Al Saadawi’s latest book, God Resigns in the Summit Meeting, were removed from circulation and destroyed last week by her publisher Mahmoud Madbouli, according to German news service Deutsche Press Agenter. Madbouli said he withdrew the book once he learned it “offended readers’ religious […]
In response to mounting international pressure, the United States has pledged to grant asylum to 7,000 Iraq war refugees, prioritizing the “most vulnerable,” including women and children. The announcement came after the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) released estimates that 2 million Iraqis have fled since the war began in 2003, with another 40,000-50,000 […]
A new study shows that calcium and vitamin D protect highly active young women against stress fractures, which are frequent problems for women military recruits and athletes. Researchers found that 2,000 Mg of calcium and 800 IU of vitamin D daily reduced stress fractures in young women naval recruits by 27%, after only two months. […]
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is investigating a former Justice Department officials joint purchase of a vacation home with an oil and gas company lobbyist, reports the Associated Press. The real estate transaction took place just months before the official signed a consent decree that allowed the company, ConocoPhilllips, to delay installing $525 […]
