The Kuwait house legislative panel voted unanimously to deny women the right to vote or run for parliament. House members claimed their decision was based on a Ministry of Islamic Affairs decree, which stated that it is un-Islamic for women to cast ballots or work as politicians.
Pharmacists in Washington State can now attend a three-hour training session that will enable them to write prescriptions for the “morning after” birth control pills. Last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of higher doses of birth control pills containing estrogen and proestrogen for use as “morning after” pills. The pill […]
Abortion providers in Virginia will appear today in a Richmond, VA appeals court to challenge the constitutionality of a parental consent law which took effect July 1, 1997. According to statistics from the Virginia health department and abortion clinics show that teenage girls received 20 percent fewer abortions in Virginia since the law took effect, […]
Clara Fraser, founder of the feminist group Radical Women, died from emphysema February 24, at age 74. Ms. Fraser lobbied for the rights of women, minorities, unions workers, gays and prisoners. She co-founded the Freedom Socialist Party, helped write Washington state’s first divorce-reform bill, and organized Washington’s first pro-choice rally. Ms. Fraser worked for Seattle […]
Mavis Leno, member of the National Board of the Feminist Majority, today testified at a Capitol Hill forum sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to call attention to the extreme human rights violations being committed against women in Afghanistan. Senator Dianne Feinstein spoke of gender apartheid and violations […]
A taskforce of FBI agents and Distict of Columbia police officers investigating a series of murders of women in the Petworth area of D.C. withheld vital information about the crimes resulting in the spread of false information concerning the killings. Petworth residents were told on several occasions that the murder victims had not been raped, […]
Queen Elizabeth II has departed from centuries of patriarchal tradition by deciding that the British Crown shall henceforth pass to a monarch’s oldest child, whether a son or daughter. Lord Williams of Mostyn announced the queen’s decision to the House of Lords, saying “There can be no real reason for not giving equal treatment to […]
Anne Richardson was sworn in as the first female chief of a Virginia tribe since Cockacoeske, chief of the Pamunkey tribe in the mid-1600s. Ms. Richardson, 41, was elected January 31, to take over for her father, Chief Captain “Chawanta” Nelson. She will be known as Queen Anne of Rappahannock. Ms. Richardson’s great-uncle and grandfather […]
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski ruled not to dismiss a case that challenges Alaska’s ban of same-sex marriages. Michalski said that “choosing a partner is a fundamental right,” and that the state must show why it should be able to regulate marriage. State attorneys had asked Michalski to dismiss a case brought by Jay […]
Federal officials have discovered additional physical evidence linking the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic with earlier bombings of a gay nightclub, another abortion clinic and the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Small steel plates found inside the Olympic bomb were found to match plates used in two other bombs planted at a suburban […]
Lawyers for Sgt. Maj. Gene McKinney, the army’s former top enlisted man, charged with sexual assault and harassment of six female soldiers, claimed that McKinney was obtaining an oil change for his car at about the same time that a pregnant subordinate, Sgt. Christine Roy, accused him of assaulting her. McKinney’s lawyers presented an auto […]
The Clinton Administration has accused several Republican Senators of obstructing the nomination of James Hormel for a position as U.S. Ambassador of Luxembourg because he is gay. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) said Senators Time Hutchinson (R-AR), James Inhofe (R-OK), and Bob Smith (R-NH), along with other anonymous individuals, have placed open “holds” on […]
A new study published in the journal Science reports that Candida albicans, a fungus that causes yeast infections and other ailments, depends heavily on a gene called INT1. This gene helps Candida cells attach to the gastrointestinal tract, multiply, and spread throughout the body and may constitute a workable target for treatment. Past studies have […]
Television talk show host Oprah Winfrey was found not liable for a drastic drop in cattle futures prices that occurred after Winfrey aired a program on mad cow disease. The program featured Howard Lyman, a vegetarian activist who had once been a cattle rancher and now campaigns vigorously against the meat industry. Jurors deliberated for […]
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) announced that it is scaling down the search for Eric Robert Rudolph, the man charged with bombing the New Women, All Women’s abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. ATF spokesperson Brian Lett said that approximately one quarter of the investigators sent to search for Rudolph near his home […]
Canadian women are safer in the streets than in their own homes. Dr. Peter Jaffe testified before a Canadian inquest on domestic violence, reporting that women are 13 times more likely to be attacked by current or past partners than by a stranger on the street. Women are nine times more likely to be murdered […]
Women’s groups in Israel are voicing outrage over a rabbinical court’s ruling that a woman who was gang raped must get a divorce because her husband did not say the required, “I don’t believe you,” after it happened. When Yediot Aharonot told her husband that she had been raped he called local functionaries for advice, […]
A new exhibit celebrating the life of feminist Mary Baker Eddy will open on March 7, as one of the “untold stories” at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. The exhibit is part of the 150th Anniversary Celebration of the First Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls, NY, in 1848. Eddy, who was inducted […]
Authorities have charged members of a Mexican family with smuggling women as young as 13 into the United States to work as sex slaves. The women were transported across the border at Brownsville, Texas. Although some women knew they would have to work off a $2,000 smuggling fee in brothels as prostitutes, most were unaware. […]
The Peruvian government has announced intentions to end the targeting of poor women for sterilization. The government had previously been charged with offering rewards to health care workers for sterilizing a minimum number of poor women. The health workers often offered food, clothing and supplies to the women, in exchange for obtaining a tubal ligation. […]
