California Assembly Bill 22, if passed by the Senate, would make human trafficking a felony offense in California. Called the California Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the bill was passed by the Assembly on Wednesday with strong support by a vote of 57 to 11. Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View), who introduced the bill this past […]
Ghada Jamsheer, the head of the Women’s Petition Committee (WPC) in Bahrain, faces three trials for slander this month as a result of her involvement in family law cases and her criticisms of Bahrain’s sharia judges. There are two sharia systems in Bahrain, one for Sunni Muslims and one for Shia Muslims, and both courts […]
Indiana Superior Court Judge Kenneth Johnson has ruled that Planned Parenthood of Indiana must turn over confidential medical records of more than 80 patients. Johnson denied Planned Parenthood’s request for an injunction to stop Attorney General Steve Carter (R) from gaining access to the records of over 80 girls under the age of 14. Carter’s […]
Laleh Kashavarz and Farkhondeh Sadegh became the first Muslim women to climb Mount Everest earlier this week. According to Reuters, the two women reached the summit on Monday, becoming the first Muslim women to make the climb and the 101st and 102nd women to complete the mountain. Both women are accomplished climbers in Iran, and […]
Five states have bills currently pending that would make it illegal for pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for ethical reasons. California Rep. Lloyd Levine (D), who introduced a bill in the state of California, says “We are very concerned with this trend of protecting pharmacists first and patients second…what they [pharmacists] are really doing […]
Today, US District Judge Tom Lee threw out a Mississippi law that banned early second trimester abortions at clinics, declaring it unconstitutional. The law would have required women to go to hospitals or surgical facilities to obtain an abortion at any point after 13 weeks. Governor Haley Barbour had pushed the law through the state […]
Sima Samar, former Ms Magazine Woman of the Year and long-time champion of women’s rights in Afghanistan, was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters during Brown University’s 237th Commencement Ceremony on Sunday. Samar is the chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, a position from which she oversees the implementation of a women’s […]
A new study reports that South Africa has one of the highest rates of “intimate femicides” ever recorded, with an average of four women killed by a domestic partner every day. The report was based on 1999 data collected by the Medical Research Council, University of Cape Town and the Centre for the Study of […]
Sunday’s Indianapolis 500 marked a historic moment, as 23-year-old Danica Patrick became the first woman ever to lead the race, and then placed higher than any other women to compete in the Indy 500. Janet Guthrie had been the highest placing woman, winning ninth in 1978, reports the New York Times. Patrick, the fourth woman […]
Despite delays, the new Turkish Penal Code is scheduled to go into effect June 1, 2005. The new code provides greater protection for women’s rights and has been widely praised by women’s and human rights groups. According to Amnesty International, thirty of the thirty-five amendments proposed by a coalition of women’s groups were incorporated into […]
President Bush has rejected out of hand a possible Republican-led compromise on expanding federal research funding on stem cell research. Republican Rep. David Dreier (CA) has been working with Nancy Reagan to find a “middle ground” compromise on stem cell research, saying, “I don’t want the president to be in a position where he has […]
A new study has found that a common test for colon cancer is much less effective in diagnosing women than it is for men. The test, known as a sigmoidoscopy, involves a flexible scope that examines only the lower part of the large intestine. A colonoscopy examines the entire large intestine, but is more expensive, […]
The City Council of New York City passed legislation this week requiring new public venues and those undergoing renovations, such as bars, restaurants, theaters or concert halls, to create restroom equity by establishing a two-to-one ratio of women’s to men’s stalls. Alternatively, businesses can comply by making more of their facilities unisex and increasing the […]
The House of Representatives passed the 2006 military authorization bill late yesterday without an amendment to restrict women’s roles in the military. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), who proposed an amendment initially that would have required Congress to vote on any expansion of women in combat positions, offered a scaled back version yesterday, requiring 60 days’ […]
New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi announced Sunday that 198 convicted sex offenders have received Viagra through New York state Medicaid funds since January of 2000. The next day, Florida Attorney General Charlie Christ said that Florida’s Medicaid program has funded Viagra prescriptions for 218 convicted sex offenders over the past four years. Other states have […]
New Hampshire’s state legislature has given final approval to a bill that will allow women access to emergency contraception (EC) without a prescription. Governor John Lynch (D) has pledged to sign the bill into law, making New Hampshire the seventh state to allow trained pharmacists to provide EC to women without doctors’ prescriptions. A similar […]
Earlier this month, Captain MeLinda Morton, a Lutheran minister and executive officer of the chaplain unit at the Air Force Academy, was removed from her position and transferred to Okinawa, Japan. Capt. Morton was an outspoken critic of the religious climate at the Air Force Academy. According to the Washington Post, she said that evangelical […]
Priscilla Owen, an anti-women’s rights and civil rights nominee to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, was confirmed today in the Senate by a 56-43 vote. Though Democrats had enough votes to launch a filibuster against Owen, she was given a simple majority vote under a deal struck by 14 Senators to stop the so-called […]
The US House of Representatives voted yesterday to expand federal funding of stem cell research, despite threats of a veto from President Bush. The vote of 238 to 194 included 50 Republicans, but fell short of the two-thirds majority required to override a potential veto. The bill is intended to address President Bush’s 2001 decision […]
A 24 year-old Afghan woman who was a presenter on a popular music program on a private television station in Kabul was shot and killed in her home last Wednesday. Shaima Rezayee was fired from her job with Tolo TV in March after pressure from conservative mullahs, who complained about the “un-Islamic values” of the […]
