The government of Sudan has adopted a new dress code that requires women to wear Islamic dress consisting of a headscarf and a robe or dress that covers their arms and legs. Public order police will enforce the new code. “Women who enter Sudan through any ports and entry points should be dressed in a […]
Hillary Rodham Clinton will chair a 10-city teleconference focusing on the impact of proposed Social Security reforms on women. Washington Rep. Jennifer Dunn will co-chair the event, which is available for airing by cable and broadcast TV stations across the country, and syndicated writer Jane Bryant Quinn will moderate. Americans Discuss Social Security (ADSS) is […]
A new study published in the British Medical Journal found that women between the ages of 20 and 44 who had a history of migraine headaches were three times more likely to suffer a ischemic stroke as were those who did not suffer from migraines. Ischemic strokes are caused by blockage of an artery in […]
Osama bin Laden, the notorious global terrorist suspected of masterminding last August’s bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, has denied responsibility for those terrorist attacks, but admitted to “instigating” others to carry out his holy war. TIME magazine quoted bin Laden as saying, “If the instigation for jihad (holy war)… is a considered […]
Newly-elected German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder last week took steps to allow the sale of mifepristone, a safe, non-surgical method of early abortion formerly known as RU-486. Schroeder’s liberal Social Democratic party succeeded the conservative Christian Democrats, led by Helmut Kohl. The Catholic Church harshly condemned Schroeder’s action to allow the distribution of mifepristone and invited […]
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) released a report which revealed that the number of children, and especially girls, who are unschooled in Afghanistan is increasing, and that the repressive Taliban regime continues to violate a U.N. agreement to stop discrimination against women and girls. According to the report, nearly nine of ten girls and […]
Six women filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Livermore National Laboratory’s 3,000+ women employees, charging sex discrimination in hiring and promotion there. Livermore National Laboratory is operated together by the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California and produces research on global security, global ecology, and biological science. The six women filing […]
President Clinton has proposed a $1,000 tax credit for families caring for elderly or disabled relatives and a $46 million dollar program to identify, investigate, and prosecute deadbeat parents. The $1,000 tax credit is designed to help families who are struggling to pay for expensive services such as adult day care and respite care, and […]
Elizabeth Dole will announce today that she will resign from her position as head of the American Red Cross and may seek the presidency in 2000. Dole is the only U.S. woman to hold two Cabinet offices, as transportation secretary for former president Ronald Reagan and labor secretary for his successor, George Bush. She also […]
A new study commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild charges that American prime-time and daytime television dramas significantly under-represent women, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, senior citizens, the poor, and the disabled. “Casting the American Scene” was the title of the report, conducted by Temple University telecommunications professor George Gerbner. In it, Gerbner noted that women […]
The eastern Chinese province of Shandong has banned all unnecessary use of ultrasound testing as of January 1, 1999 in an effort to reduce the increasing gender imbalance caused by sex-selective abortion there. Shandong’s male-to-female population was measured at 115.9 to 100 in 1990, after many families selectively aborted female fetuses because its male supremacist […]
The Taliban has again refused a State Department request to extradite suspected anti-U.S. terrorist Osama bin Laden. On Monday, the State Department reiterated its request that the Taliban turn over bin Laden for prosecution. In its statement, the State Department also warned that the Taliban may be planning attacks on U.S. citizens. The Taliban has […]
In an awards ceremony for human rights activists last week, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted the Taliban for its abuse of human rights, and particularly women’s rights. “Perhaps the most egregious and systematic trampling of fundamental human rights of any person is taking place in Afghanistan today against women under the iron rule of […]
United Airlines has, for two years, sought to overturn a law which requires companies in the city of San Francisco to extend full benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees. The lawsuit, led the national airline industry group Air-Transport Association, claims that airline should only have follow federal government mandates, and be exempt […]
On Monday, Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adly commanded police to discontinue a practice in which poor and uneducated women seeking passports had to pass “virtue tests” conducted by vice squads before getting authorization to leave the country. el-Adly stated “It is embarrassing that such a procedure even existed,” and said that obtaining a passport was […]
A survey of 1,031 people issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) found that many men and women still underestimate women’s vulnerability to heart disease and overestimate their risk for breast cancer. Heart disease is the number one killer of women, causing more than 500,000 deaths each year, yet women continue to […]
A new study of twins conducted by researchers and Virginia Commonwealth University suggests that bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder common among college-age women, is inherited in approximately 80% of cases. The researchers noted that environment may also play a role. Patients with bulimia nervosa go through cycles of binge eating and then purging through self-induced […]
The California chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) charged UCLA and USC with violating Title IX, a law requiring public schools to provide male and female students with equal resources and opportunities to engage in sports, and filed complaints with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. CA NOW studied UCLA’s […]
The board of the American Psychiatric Association condemned therapies meant to convert gays to heterosexuals, arguing that it could cause “depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior.” APA Joint Committee on Public Affairs head Nada Stotland stated, “All the evidence would indicate this is the way people are born. We treat disease, not the way people are.” […]
Turkey’s Health Ministry has approved a $12 million door-to-door sex education program to stem rapid population growth and high infant mortality rates there. Volunteers for the program will visit women in their homes and teach them about contraception and general reproductive health. Turkey’s population is growing at four times the rate of France’s population, and […]
