Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Pakistan’s new ‘Acid Bills’ a good first step

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Sue Tapply WVoN co-editor Pakistan’s Senate unanimously passed two landmark women’s rights bills yesterday, after campaigns by activists across the country's political spectrum. The two bills, The Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010 and The Prevention of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment) Bill 2008, aim to protect women and to increase penalties for [...]

Montserrat Figueras, soprano, UNESCO Artist for Peace, has died

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, December 11, 2011 Montserrat Figueras, a soprano who one of the leading voices in the early music movement has died, aged 69. She explored many aspects of 15th, 16th and 17th-century music, concentrating largely on reinterpreting the Mediterranean performance style of the period. Her particular interest was the way [...]

Burma allows Suu Kyi’s party to register

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Summary of story from The Independent, December 13, 2011 Burma’s government has approved opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party to register for a coming by-election, state-run media said. This formally brings her pro-democracy group back into the country’s political arena. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, boycotted last year’s general elections because of [...]

Israeli ministers meet to discuss exclusion of women from public spheres

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Summary of story from Haaretz, December 13, 2011 Israel's Ministerial Committee on the Status of Women is due to convene today in the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem and discuss the increasing exclusion of women from the public sphere (see WVoN coverage). It will consider setting up a task force to consider imposing sanctions against [...]

Beware of Santas offering drinks

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Summary of story from The Sun, December 12, 2011 A Santa who drugs women with spiked drinks is on the loose at a festive market in Berlin. A 15-year-old girl became his eighth victim in the German capital recently when she took a swig of cherry brandy offered to her by a man dressed in [...]

US defense advisor to step down next year

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Summary of story from the NewYorkTimes, December 12, 2011 Michèle A Flournoy, the chief policy adviser to US Defense Secretary Leon E Panetta and one of the highest-ranking women in the history of the Pentagon, has said that she will step down from her job early next year. She wants to "rebalance" her personal life [...]

Law to protect EU crime victims adopted

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Summary of story from europa, December 13, 2011 Crime victims who are granted protection from their aggressors in one European Union (EU) member state will be able to get similar protection if they move to another, under new rules adopted by the European Parliament today. This 'European Protection Order' (EPO) aims to protect victims of, [...]

Clinton stands up for gay rights at UN

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Summary of story from The Atlantic, December 7, 2011 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a bold step for US foreign policy (and common decency) recently by declaring in front of the United Nations that it is a “violation of human rights” to commit violence or discrimination against people because of their sexual orientation. In [...]

Kazakh students to sue university over head scarf ban

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Summary of story from RFE/RL, December 8, 2011 Eight female students at a university in Kazakhstan say they will sue school officials for not allowing them to attend classes while wearing head scarves. The students have been unable to attend Saqtaghan Baishev University because a duty officer refused them entry to the school wearing hijabs. [...]

US Catholic leadership out of step with public on birth control

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Summary of story from The Atlantic, December 9, 2011 While the Vatican has spoken out about the morality of the vastly unequal global financial system, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) seems to be focusing on the issue of birth control. The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace called last month for international standards [...]

Canadian government bans face veils at citizenship ceremonies

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Summary of story from Al Jazeera, December 13, 2011 The Canadian government this week banned the wearing of face veils at oath-taking ceremonies for new citizens. According to immigration minister Jason Kenney, new Canadians should recite the oath in full view of their fellow citizens. Kenney said that some politicians and citizenship judges had complained [...]

Oldest Korean “comfort woman” dies

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Summary of story from The Korea Herald, December 12, 2011 Park Seo-woon, the oldest Korean “comfort woman”, has died at the age of 94, according to the Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery during World War II. She died of old age on December 4 in China where she had lived since [...]

Cultural factors responsible for gender gap in maths aptitude

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Summary of story from msnbc.com, December 12, 2011 A new study on the gender gap in maths skills indicates that cultural rather than biological factors are to blame for gender differences  in maths aptitude. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin investigated correlations between gender and maths abilities in 86 countries and found that women's performances [...]

Police caught slapping detained woman in Turkey

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Summary of story from CNN,  December 12, 2011 Police officers in Turkey have been caught hitting and pulling the hair of a detained woman whilst she was handcuffed. The incident, which was caught on CCTV in the western city of Izmir, happened five months ago but was revealed on Turkish television last week. The silent [...]

Australian delegation promote gender equality in the Pacific

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Summary of story from The Solomon Times, December 13, 2011 A bipartisan Australian delegation visiting the Pacific this week will focus on gender equality. The delegation includes Richard Marles, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop, Coalition MP Teresa Gambaro and Government MP Bernie Ripoll and Australia’s Global Ambassador [...]

Nigeria commissions its first female Air Force pilot

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Summary of story from Next, December 12, 2011 Blessing Liman is Nigeria's first female Air Force pilot, having been commissioned along with 126 male candidates at the Nigerian Air Force base in Kaduna. The 25-year-old spoke of her pride in making history. She said, "I believe that all females have equal opportunity to dignify their [...]

First Indian American woman to run for US Congress

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Summary of story from Progressive Democrats of America, December 1, 2011 An Arizona woman, Wenona Benally Baldenegro, has announced that she will run for the US House of Representatives, Arizona Congressional District One. If successful she will be the first Indian American woman to serve in the US Congress. Her interests include the welfare of Arizona's [...]

Fiji’s security forces ‘torturing’ sex workers

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, December 13, 2011 Fijian sex workers are being subjected to practices that "amount to torture," according to an Australian report. Researchers at the University of New South Wales have published findings on the treatment of sex workers in Fiji since the introduction of a Crime Decree in 2010. According [...]

Melinda Gates talks about her global anti-poverty mission

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Summary of story from Slate.com (taken from the Financial Times) December 11, 2011 In an interview with the Financial Times, philanthropist Melinda Gates (wife of Bill) talks about the global humanitarian work carried out by her charity, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Foundation, which she set up with her husband, Microsoft founder Bill, in [...]

Gender equality for Istanbul’s mosques?

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Summary of story from The Atlantic, December 11, 2011 A project in Istanbul is working to make the city's mosques more woman-friendly, despite opposition. The "Beautification of Mosques for Women" campaign has been working since March 2011 to gather data on facilities for women in the city’s approximately 3,100 mosques with the aim of providing equal [...]