In a speech encouraging young women to see themselves as potential political leaders, Marie Wilson of the Women’s Leadership Fund and the White House Project discussed the results of a recent poll with an audience of young women at the Girls Nation leadership conference in Washington, DC. The survey, conducted by the White House Project […]
The number of Iranian women attending a university has risen substantially in the past two years. Between 1990 to 2000, the number of women entering universities tripled, and women students outnumber men in disciplines such as medicine and social sciences. Despite these changes, women only constitute 14 percent of the labor force and are overrepresented […]
Irish women are nearly three times as likely to have late abortions than British women, according to the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS). Of the 6,214 Irish women who traveled to Britain to have abortions, almost 40 percent of the clients at BPAS had not received counseling. Currently, more than six thousand women in Ireland, […]
Sexual harassment victims in China do not feel that they are receiving enough support, according to a recent survey by the Chinese Women’s College that included 4,000 women residing in urban areas. Many reported that they frequently witnessed situations of sexual harassment at the office and in public, but that they did not realize such […]
Social service agencies and children’s rights groups estimate that there are about 4,000 children in Okinawa abandoned by American servicemen. According to Annette Eddie-Callagain, who has opened a private law practice to help the deserted Okinawan families, the children are deprived of basic human necessities such as food and education due to the desperate economic […]
In Kabul this past weekend, a crowd of thousands watched the first public execution in Afghanistan since an Afghan woman was stoned to death in May for adultery. The brother of one of the killer’s victims was able to cut the man’s throat because it follows the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law where a […]
Republicans will meet this week to design the official party platform that is expected to be ratified at the upcoming Republican National Convention beginning next week in Philadelphia. Although convention delegates admit there is continuing tension within the party regarding abortion rights, 43 percent of those delegates still advocate adopting a constitutional ban on abortion. […]
Just two days after the Congressional Black Caucus charged the Republican-controlled Senate with exhibiting racist and sexist tendencies in holding up President Clinton’s minority and female judicial appointments, senators approved the first black female judge for the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. US District Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson’s nomination to the appellate court post […]
Despite efforts on the part of the United Nations to demand gender equity, the Taliban continues to refuse to lift a ban on women working for aid organizations even though foreign aid officials say that projects in health, education and the provision of food largely depend on women workers. The ban has halted work on […]
Between three and four million people in Afghanistan may starve as a result of severe drought, according to the United Nations World Food Program. The drought comes at a time when people in Afghanistan are suffering from civil war, a devastated economy, and the oppressive aggression of the Taliban regime. Earlier this week the World […]
The world’s diamond industry approved the ban on “conflict diamonds” that fund some of Africa’s bloodiest civil wars, agreeing to adopt strict measure that monitor manufacturing centers. People at the World Diamond Congress, held in Belgium on July 19th, promised to institute an International Diamond Council, which would regulate the expulsion of traders and potentially […]
The miniskirts of schoolgirls and their effect on teachers are being blamed for the AIDS epidemic in Swaziland. The ban on miniskirts, which will go into effect next year, will require schoolgirls 10 years and older to wear knee-length skirts. Girls who breach the ban face expulsion from school. “We are living in tough times […]
The United Nations war crimes court upheld a landmark conviction of a Bosnian Croat paramilitary commander who failed to stop the rape and torture of a Bosnian Muslim woman. Anto Furundzija faces a 10-year prison sentence for standing by as a soldier under his command threatened a woman with a knife and raping her during […]
The anti-abortion group Priests for Life printed a full-page ad in the New York Times today, urging lawmakers, voters, and those running for public office to vote strictly along anti-abortion lines. The group of Catholic priests pledge to preach their anti-choice message throughout the election season “from thousands of pulpits all across America, using print […]
A US House judiciary panel heard testimony on the so-called “Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2000”, proposed legislation that could be used by abortion opponents to argue against the “murder” of “persons” in utero. Among others, the panel heard from anti-abortion activist and perennial congressional witness Gianna Jessen, whose biography includes the claim of […]
In a visit to George W. Bush’s home state of Texas, Vice President Al Gore highlighted what he called a “gross mismanagement” of the state’s budget. Gore pointed out that Texas now ranks number one in the country for industrial pollution while it is number two for children living in poverty and number one for […]
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Zieba Shorish-Shamley of the Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan condemned the Taliban’s oppression of women and girls at a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee hearing on Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs held July 20th. “People living under Taliban rule are subjected to an extreme interpretation of […]
More than 10,000 people protested against the American military’s presence in Okinawa on the eve of a Group of Eight summit. The intense hostility towards the American military base, where over two thirds of the 47,000 US troops stationed in Japan reside, derives in part from a series of incidents, the first of which occurred […]
Recent surveys in Tanzania reveal that the majority of the women contracted the HIV virus because of discriminatory customs and rape, causing the number of infections to soar. According to a 1999 United Nations Human Development Report, Tanzania’s male-dominated culture, which is characterized by customs such as wife inheritance and polygamous marriage, largely explains women’s […]
Less than six percent of Indonesia’s contraceptive users are men, leaving nearly all Indonesian women with full responsibilities for preventing pregnancy. According to Indonesia’s National Family Planning Board, men constitute a mere two percent of the 27.7 million active members of family planning programs. Women use birth control pills, contraceptive injection, implant, IUD, or tubectomy […]
