The California State Legislature passed a bill last month that would make California the first state to ban gender discrimination in community youth athletics programs. The bill (AB 2404) would ensure that state and county-sponsored sports programs met the same guidelines of gender equity that Title IX has required of educational and other institutions that […]
A study released by Harvard University on Monday has found that more than one-third of college and universities do not comply with a federal law that requires them to assist students in registering to vote. The study found that only 17 percent of the schools surveyed were in complete compliance with the 1998 Higher Education […]
The first women-only mosque is being planned by a group of Muslim women in Tamil Nadu, India. According to Women Living Under Muslim Laws, the first women’s jamaat (citizen’s council) in the world, the Tamil Nadu Muslim Women’s Jamaat Committee (MWJC) has made the decision to build their own mosque because they have been refused […]
Earlier this month, Pennsylvania State Police agreed to pay $5 million to four women in order to settle sexual assault allegations against state Trooper Michael Evans, as well as allegations against his commanders for not removing Evans from the force despite knowledge of his behavior. A joint statement released by Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Jeffrey […]
Aid workers fled a Western city of Afghanistan after four United Nations offices and an Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission office were violently attacked and burned down. Approximately 60 United Nations and other foreign aid workers were evacuated by US soldiers to the airport where the Afghan army was stationed, and then to Kabul, reports […]
Earlier this week, the US House of Representatives passed the Maloney/Woolsey/Sanchez amendment which will provide $3 million for 2005 to refund the Women’s Educational Equity Act (WEEA). If passed without this amendment, the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education (HR 5006) would have ended funding for WEEA. Representatives […]
In his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell declared that genocide has occurred in the Darfur region of the Sudan. According to Reuters, Powell stated “that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and genocide may […]
Leading a campus-wide coalition of student groups, the University of Arizona Network of Feminist Student Activists demanded in a press release yesterday that the Pima County Registrar’s Office and the Secretary of State correct erroneous statements made by the County Registrar’s spokesperson on Fox News that out-of-state students who do not plan on staying in […]
The Chief Justice of the Afghan Supreme Court has demanded that candidate Latif Pedram be expelled from the presidential race for questioning marital laws. Speaking at a women’s forum, Latif Pedram suggested that the issue of divorce and polygamy be debated, reports the Washington Post. According to Pedram, it is impossible for a husband to […]
US District Court Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln, Nebraska ruled today that the Partial-Birth Abortion Act is unconstitutional, recognizing the law as a threat to women’s health. The ban, signed into law by Bush in 2003, was challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Dr LeRoy Carhart and three other doctors. A […]
At a recent conference in London, leading reproductive health and family planning organizations sharply criticized the Bush administration’s current policies for contributing to the AIDS epidemic, thousands of unwanted pregnancies, and the deaths of women during childbirth and from unsafe abortion. According to the Associated Press, representatives at the Countdown 2015 conference also attacked the […]
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in federal court last Wednesday against a California school district for requiring pregnant students and students with children to attend alternative classrooms with very little instruction or teaching. These students had been told by the district that receiving the benefits provided by the Cal-SAFE program, such as […]
Despite threats from the Taliban to disrupt the upcoming elections in Afghanistan, campaigns for the first post-Taliban elections began today. A Taliban spokesman, Abdul Hakimi, stated that Taliban fighters would target all presidential candidates, parliamentary candidates running in April’s parliamentary elections, and anyone who voted, reports Reuter’s. In addition, the Taliban has been making recent […]
While reports show that there are over 10 million people registered to vote in Afghanistan’s October presidential elections, it has become evident that the election registration process is Afghanistan is seriously flawed. According to BBC News, this number greatly exceeds the total estimated number of eligible voters for the whole country. United Nations officials originally […]
Figures released by the US Census Bureau last week show that the pay gap between women and men widened in 2003. Women’s pay slumped for the first time since 1999, with women earning only 75.5 cents to every dollar men earn. The Census Bureau stated that this marks the first “statistically significant” decline in women’s […]
Large numbers of Sudanese women are being raped by, or have lost their husbands to, the mostly-Arab militia called the Janjaweed. While refugee camps should offer women safety from more violence, the Globe and Mail reports that more and more women are being raped outside of their refugee camps when they go to gather wood […]
Betty Castor captured the democratic nomination yesterday for the seat of retiring US Senator Bob Graham (D) in Florida with 57 percent of the vote. Castor led the race against US Representative Peter Deutsch and Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas from the beginning, promising affordable healthcare and prescription drugs, the Associated Press reports. With the […]
Last night at the Republican National Convention, Laura Bush, in an obvious appeal to women voters, stated that the Taliban has been removed from Afghanistan, allowing girls to go to school, and women to work. The speech grossly overstated the stability of the nation, as the country is still ravaged by violence, with armed militias […]
As Republicans began to gather in New York this past weekend for their national convention, thousands marched in support of reproductive rights. Major pro-choice organizations brought together between 10-15,000 people for Saturday’s march across the Brooklyn Bridge toward City Hall Park to rally for reproductive rights, according to AlterNet.org. Katy Quissell, coordinator of the Feminist […]
The American Security Company, Dyncorps Inc., suffered a deadly attack in Kabul by a car bomb killing ten people, including three Americans. Just hours later, nine people, eight of them children, were killed by a bomb that exploded outside of their school in Southeastern Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, the Taliban has claimed responsibility […]
