The Senate confirmed yet another of President Bush’s conservative judicial nominees on Tuesday. In a vote of 73-24, the Senate confirmed Thomas Griffith to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Thomas Griffith is a staunch opponent of Title IX, the landmark federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational […]
Representatives Carolyn Maloney (NY-D) and Joseph Crowley (NY-D) are offering an amendment today to the FY06 Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations bill that would prevent any funding in the bill from being used to prohibit or restrict funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The effect of the amendment would be to ensure that badly needed funds […]
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), first passed by Congress in 1994, was introduced in the Senate for reauthorization this past week. Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) introduced the bill June 8. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) were among the bill’s co-sponsors. A landmark piece of […]
Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Bobby Rush (D-IL), and 10 other members of Congress introduced legislation that strategically aims to redirect attention and funding to the debilitating effects of obstetric fistula on women who live primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. The “Repairing Young Women’s Lives Around the World Act” seeks to […]
French journalist Florence Aubenas, who was abducted in Baghdad on January 5, was freed on Sunday along with her interpreter Hussein Hanoun al-Saadi. Aubenas is a foreign correspondent for the newspaper Liberation. Aubenas was one of what the Washington Post reports to be hundreds of Iraqis and foreigners abducted in Iraq since the insurgency began […]
Approximately 250 women gathered in front of Tehran University yesterday and 200 others gathered nearby to protest sex discrimination imposed on them through Islamic or sharia law. Women demanded that in the upcoming June 17 election, candidates must define how they will change women’s status and the current laws which value women as subordinate to […]
Kuwait named its first woman cabinet minister yesterday, the latest in a series of advancements for women’s rights in Kuwait. Massouma al-Mubarak, a women’s rights activist, political science professor, and newspaper columnist, was appointed to the planning and administrative development departments, reports the BBC. Just a month ago, Kuwaiti women won the right to vote […]
In a victory for women’s collegiate athletics, Assumption College, a Catholic four-year liberal arts college in Worchester, Massachusetts, has reinstated both the men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field teams. The college had planned to cut the teams, citing budget concerns, but received a letter from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice (TLPJ) informing […]
A Kansas state senator who has been quoted as saying she does not support the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote is running for Secretary of State. Republican Sen. Kay O’Connor announced Wednesday that she was running for the statewide office, which oversees elections and voting. This position has become increasingly important in […]
Clementina Cantoni, an Italian aid worker abducted May 16 while working for CARE International in Kabul, was released yesterday after being held hostage for 24 days. Cantoni had managed CARE’s “Humanitarian Assistance for Women” project since 2003. At a news conference following her release, Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told reporters that the negotiations […]
Washington state Superior Court judge John Bridges ruled against the state Republican Party, upholding Governor Christine Gregoire’s (D) win in November of 2004. Gregoire won the election by a margin of 129 votes, substantiated by a final hand count. The Republication candidate, Dino Rossi, challenged the results of the election in January, claiming that a […]
Exhale, an Oakland, California-based organization, expanded its post-abortion hotline to women nationwide this month. Though Exhale is both a feminist and pro-choice organization, it “operates with respect for the social, cultural, and religious beliefs of all of our callers–this is the unique cornerstone of our service and philosophy,” said Aspen Baker, one of the co-founders […]
Less than 24 hours after the Senate voted to confirm extreme right-wing Judge Janice Rogers Brown to sit on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, the Senate has confirmed yet another of President Bush’s far-right nominees. William J. Pryor, Jr. was confirmed by the Senate today for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor, like […]
In a win for women and girls in sports, the US Supreme Court has dismissed a case brought by the National Wrestling Coaches Association against the Department of Education challenging Title IX, the landmark law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs. This move by the Supreme Court lets stand the decision by the […]
A new poll commissioned by the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA) has found overwhelming public support for women’s access to contraception. Eighty-eight percent of respondents supported women’s access to contraception, reports National Public Radio. Of self-identified Republicans, 80 percent supported a women’s right to use birth control, as did 80 percent of […]
On a vote of 56 to 43, the US Senate today confirmed Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Brown, one of the most right-wing and controversial of Bush’s judicial nominees, was blocked by Democratic filibuster in Bush’s first term and re-nominated in February. Ben Nelson of Nebraska was the sole Democrat […]
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision that legalized access to birth control for married persons. On June 7, 1965, the Supreme Court established the right to privacy in its decision in Griswold v. Connecticut, making contraception legal for married women. In an important piece in the summer issue of Ms. […]
Further advancing women’s political involvement in Kuwait, two women have been appointed to the sixteen-member Municipal Council, which focuses on civil planning and social services. The Council is comprised of ten elected members and six members appointed by the Prime Minister. Reuters reports that Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah announced his appointments and the […]
On Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit struck down a Virginia abortion procedure ban that not only restricted a woman’s right to abortion but posed a threat to women’s health. The ban would have made it a crime to perform what it called “partial birth infanticide.” The Center for Reproductive Rights […]
Women in Afghanistan still face violence and abuse both within their families and at the hands of the police or judicial system, according to a new report from Amnesty International. The report, entitled Afghanistan: Women Under Attack, was based on interviews with women throughout Afghanistan and found that mistreatment is widespread and largely unpunished. This […]
