Thursday, December 8, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Ex-President of Israel starts jail term for rape

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 7, 2011 Moshe Katsav, the former president of Israel, has begun a seven-year prison sentence for rape. He was convicted of raping a former employee when he was a cabinet minister in the 1990s, and for sexually harassing two other women while he was President (see WVoN coverage). Despite being convicted [...]

President of Chile slammed for ‘sexist’ joke

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 7, 2011 Sebastian Pinera, the President of Chile, has been criticised by fellow politicians for telling a joke that has been deemed both sexist and shameful. After the incident, opposition Senator Ximena Rincon said the president had embarrassed his country by making a “prehistoric and sexist remark”. The joke, [...]

Rural women in Pakistan suffer greater abuse than urban women

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Summary of story from The Tribune, December 7, 2011 Women who live in rural areas of Pakistan suffer greater levels of physical abuse and violence than their urban counterparts, according to Dr Samia Amjad of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q). Addressing a seminar on gender based violence in Lahore today, Dr Amjad urged the state to [...]

UK detention centre criticised for detaining pregnant women

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 7, 2011 The chief inspector of UK prisons, Nick Hardwick, has seriously criticised the number of pregnant women being held at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre, the main detention centre for women facing deportation from Britain. Although children have not been held there since last December, seven pregnant [...]

Speaker of Ugandan parliament wants abused women heard

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Summary of story from New Vision, December 7, 2011 Women who have suffered sexual abuse should be given the opportunity to relate their experiences to their head of state, according to the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga. Ms Kadaga said that the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Heads of State [...]

FBI’s new definition of rape welcomed by women’s groups

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Summary of story from The Mail, December 7, 2011 The FBI has announced its decision to redefine the term rape, a move which has been lauded by women's rights groups. Currently, the FBI's definition of rape is ‘carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will’. This has been the definition since 1929 and [...]

Research links abuse to post-natal depression

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Summary of story from Reuters, December 7, 2011 Forty percent of women who report depressive symptoms following birth also reported intimate partner violence, according to a new study by researchers in Australia. The paper was published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Researcher Hannah Woolhouse said: “That is a very important message to [...]

Call for America to remember Pearl Harbor women

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Summary of story from The Tennessean, December 7, 2011 More than 2400 US  military personnel were killed and almost 1300 injured when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor 70 years ago today. While women were not allowed to serve in the front line military at the time, 82 army and 42 navy nurses were there, working under [...]

Canadians support more government action on gender equality

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Summary of story from AngusReid, December 5, 2011 An online survey has revealed that many Canadians, and a majority of Canadian women, would like the government to take more action to advance gender equality. The survey, a national sample of 1,005 Canadian adults, was released prior to the National Day of Remembrance and Action on [...]

Woman buried alive by boyfriend recounts ordeal

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Summary of story from Daily Mail, December 7, 2011 A Polish woman living in the UK yesterday described to a court how she used her engagement ring to dig herself out of the shallow grave in which her boyfriend had buried her. Unable to move her legs, 27-year-old Michelina Lewandowska used the jewelled ring fiancé Marcin Kasprzak had given her [...]

Free Razan Ghazzawi: Syrian blogger, feminist and activist

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Summary of story from Mondoweiss, December 5, 2011 On December 4, authorities in Syria arrested Razan Ghazzawi, a Syrian blogger, feminist and activist. Ghazzawi was at the Jordanian border on her way to a conference on media freedom in the Arab World. Ghazzawi works as a coordinator for the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of [...]

World Bank report says gender equality vital to economic development

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Summary of story from worldwatch.org, December 6, 2011 According to a new World Bank report, the last several decades of increasing global income have resulted in an “unprecedented narrowing in gender gaps” in education, health and work opportunities, but that large gender inequalities still exist. At the same time, particularly in the developing world, women [...]

American college graduation trends show growing income and gender gaps

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Summary of story from University of Michigan News Service, December 6, 2011 A new study shows that the gap in college graduation between students in the US from high and low income families is growing and is largely driven by women. Economists Martha Bailey and Susan Dynarski compared the records of those born between 1961 [...]

Obituary of British documentary-maker, Loretta Loach

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 7, 2011 Documentary-maker, journalist and historian Loretta Loach, has died from cancer aged 54. Loach was born in Birmingham to an Irish family steeped in Labour activism.  She studied history at Sussex University, graduating in 1979 before going into journalism, beginning at Labour’s newspaper, Tribune. Between 1983 and [...]

Women in Ghana fight for equality

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Summary of story from modernghana.com, December 7, 2011 At a Gender Equality Day symposium in Accra, Ghana, on Tuesday, speakers called for greater equality for women in Ghana. The Symposium was organised by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to commemorate “Human Rights and Integrity Week”. It focused on  women’s opportunities in politics [...]

Afghan women in danger of being forgotten

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Summary of story from The Daily Beast December 6, 2011 The international community met earlier this week to discuss the future of Afghanistan, in particular the departure of international troops from the country, scheduled for 2014. Afghan women leaders worked hard to put pressure on both their government and the international community to make sure [...]

Britain’s austerity measures and their impact on women

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Summary of story from The Independent, December 2, 2011 New research indicates UK women will bear the brunt of the squeeze on pay, tax and benefits - losing almost three times as much as men - following last week’s Autumn Statement by chancellor George Osborne. The House of Commons Research Library says women will foot the bigger part [...]