Mixed reports are circulating that an Afghan woman was stoned to death for reportedly committing adultery in the northeastern Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. According to BBC News, Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission stated that that the 29-year-old woman, Amina, was sentenced to death by a decree from a local religious scholar. A witness told Reuters […]
By declining to hear an appeal of a lower court ruling, the US Supreme Court earlier this week let stand a Massachusetts law that prohibits protesters from coming within six feet of abortion clinic patients to disturb them or hand them leaflets. The law, which also establishes an 18-foot zone around abortion clinics in which […]
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act on Tuesday in both houses of Congress to address the pay gap between men and women in the US. Although the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, women working full-time, year-round only make 76 cents for every dollar that […]
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is urging Islamists to end forced marriages and to fight violence against women. At a meeting of religious leaders and government employees, Karzai stated that his government will continue to work for women’s rights, reports Agence France Presse. Karzai also announced that Afghan officials will be sent on fact-finding trips to […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee today on identical party-line votes approved two extreme right-wing Bush nominees to the federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, sending them to the full Senate. Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown were both blocked in the last Congressional term by Democratic filibusters. They were renominated by President Bush earlier this year, along […]
Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL), author of the law that prohibits the use of federal money for abortion services, announced on Monday that he will retire at the close of this term after more than 30 years in office. Rep. Hyde is widely known as the creator of the Hyde Amendment of 1976, passed just three […]
Canada’s federal government announced on Tuesday that it will now allow emergency contraception (EC) to be available over-the-counter (OTC) to women for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. EC, sold under the name Plan B and distributed by Paladin Labs Inc. in Canada, will be kept behind the counter and dispensed without a prescription from a […]
In a move that would be a major step towards granting Kuwaiti women political rights, Kuwaiti parliamentarians gave initial approval to a law that would allow women the right to vote and run for office for the first time in Kuwaiti history. In two weeks the bill will have to pass a second reading, and […]
A new United Nations reports shows a majority of the 115 million children worldwide who are excluded from receiving an education are girls. Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries with the widest gender gaps in education. The “Progress for Children” report states that barriers to achieving gender parity in education include poverty, HIV/AIDS and […]
The allegations that Lester Crawford, President Bush’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, had an inappropriate personal relationship with a female colleague have been referred to the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee received an anonymous letter on Wednesday, prompting […]
Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D) vetoed a bill on Friday that would have given the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) increased control over abortion clinics, allowing the department to single out abortion providers to meet standards above and beyond what other physicians must meet. The Feminist Majority sent a letter to Governor Sebelius […]
Marla Ruzicka, a 28-year-old American aid worker and activist, was killed by a suicide bomb that was directed towards a convoy of US contractors in Iraq while she was on her way to visit an injured Iraqi girl. Ruzicka is the founder of an organization called Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict (CIVIC) that documents […]
Governor Christine Gregoire (D) of Washington State signed a bill on Thursday that will allow pregnant women to divorce their husbands. The bill, sponsored by state Representative Mary Lou Dickerson (D-Seattle) and passed unanimously by both the state House and Senate, was prompted by the case of Shawnna Hughes who was denied the right to […]
Pakistan’s conservative Islamist party alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), introduced a bill to ban women from appearing in advertisements. The proposed bill seeks to imprison any ad agency that uses women models. Last week the MMA stopped women’s participation in outdoor sports. In Punjab, hundreds of Islamist demonstrators armed with bamboo sticks blocked a ten […]
The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved Thomas Griffith for a seat on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Griffith was approved 14-4, with Democratic Senators Patrick Leahy (VT), Edward Kennedy (MA), Joseph Biden (DE) and Russell Feingold (WI) voting against him. Griffith will now face a full Senate vote. Griffith […]
Citing anonymous allegations on Wednesday against Lester Crawford, President Bush’s nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration, the Senate Health Committee has postponed a vote on his nomination. Crawford has been serving as the agency’s acting commissioner for over a year. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), the committee’s chair, announced on Wednesday, however, that the […]
In an attempt to end the high numbers of maternal deaths due to backstreet abortions in Iran, Iran’s parliament voted to liberalize its restrictive abortion laws to allow pregnancies to be terminated in the first four months if the fetus is mentally or physically handicapped. Under the new bill, both parents must still give their […]
Several American Cardinals chose to avoid a special service in honor of Pope John Paul II on Monday conducted by Cardinal Bernard Law, the controversial former archbishop of Boston. Cardinal Law was forced to resign as archbishop of Boston in 2002 due to his mishandling of priests who were accused of sex abuse, according to […]
Saudi Arabia’s top cleric has announced a ban of forced marriage. Sheik Abdul Aziz said, “Forcing a woman to marry someone she does not want and preventing her from wedding that whom she chooses…is not permissible” under Islamic law, reports BBC News. Saudi newspapers are reporting that forced marriages are believed to be a major […]
The Department of Justice on Friday announced that Eric Robert Rudolph was pleading guilty to all four of the bombings he is accused of committing, including the bombings of abortion clinics in Atlanta and Birmingham. He has signed plea agreements with federal prosecutors agreeing to plea guilty and waive all appeals, as a result of […]
