Friday, December 23, 2011

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Five million UK workers cannot afford essentials this Christmas

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Rachel Salmon WVoN co-editor    As you dash out to do the last of your Christmas shopping, spare a thought for the person behind the counter as she is likely to be one of the five million British workers paid too little to cover basic costs like housing, food and clothing.   In a recent report, Low Pay Britain, [...]

Japanese women lead fight against nuclear power

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 22, 2011 The Fukushima nuclear power plant, crippled earlier this year, has prompted an unprecedented rise of women leading anti-nuclear protests. Japan’s nuclear power industry has found its existence threatened by women angered over the failure of officials to immediately report to the public the meltdown of the Fukushima reactors following [...]

Homeless US families find little to cheer at Christmas

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 21, 2011 With the gap between rich and poor widening in the USA, the world’s richest nation is now struggling to employ, house, and feed its poorest, as the BBC finds in two American cities. Colorado is bitingly cold at this time of year, the temperature often below zero [...]

Gender dynamics begin to shift in Canadian politics

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Summary of story from The Huffington Post, December 21, 2011 For the first time ever, four women will be present at a gathering of provincial and territorial leaders in Victoria, Canada, next month. Eva Aariak of Nunuvat, Cathy Dunderdale of Newfoundland and Labrador, Alison Redford of Alberta and Christy Clark of British Columbia will all [...]

Unrest in Yemen leads to increase in child marriages

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Summary of story from IRINNews, December 22, 2011 The number of child marriages in Yemen is being driven upwards by poverty and unemployment and the current political unrest, according to a new study. Asmaa al-Masri, a sociologist at Dhamar University, has found that several hundred girls in Dhamar have been forced into early marriages because [...]

The woman behind ‘Opium Nation’ story from Afghanistan

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Summary of story from France24 blog, December 21, 2011 As described by friend and award-winning international news reporter Leela Jacinto: Fariba Nawa, author of the newly released book, ‘Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords and One Woman's Journey Through Afghanistan,’ is an audacious, Afghan-American journalist, who went through some dangerous experiences to get her story. [...]

Real UK families rely on food parcels – in 2011

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 19, 2011 Edwina Currie may deny it, but the shocking truth is that in Britain today many people have to choose between eating and paying the rent. Broadcaster and former politician Currie said on Radio 5 Live recently that she “really had great difficulty” believing that people in [...]

New book hails Iranian who saved Jews from the Nazis

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 21, 2011 Thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendants owe their lives to a Muslim diplomat in wartime Paris, according to a new book. In The Lion’s Shadow, by Fariborz Mokhtari, tells how Abdol-Hossein Sardari helped fellow Iranians escape the Nazis. Eliane Senahi Cohanim was 7 years old when she [...]

South American trade bloc bars Falkland island ships

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Summary of story from MorningStar, December 21, 2011 Ships flying the Falklands Islands flag of the British-ruled Malvinas Islands have been banned from docking at ports of the South American trade bloc Mercosur, made up of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. Argentina’s president, Cristina Kirchner, also recently rotated in as president of Mercosur, thanked her fellow members [...]

First woman voted onto board of Football Association

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 22, 2011 The English Football Association (FA) has appointed lawyer and businesswoman, Heather Rabbatts, to the board as a non-executive director. In a move which sees the board expanded from 12 to 14 members, Ms Rabbatts was voted in unanimously along with Roger Devlin, a financial adviser to a number of [...]

UAE’s first equestrienne at the Pan Arab Games wins bronze

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Summary of story from Emirates247, December 20, 2011 Farah Al Khojai, the first equestrienne to represent her country at the Pan Arab Games in Qatar, has won a bronze medal in the individual competition. She was the only representative of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the dressage section. Over 6,000 athletes representing 22 countries are [...]

Escalation in sexual attacks on protesters in Egypt

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Summary of story from Human Rights Watch, December 22, 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) has highlighted an increase in the number of physical attacks on women protesters, journalists and activists in Cairo perpetrated by the Egyptian military and police. They are calling for an immediate halt to the attacks and the prosecution of those responsible. [...]

National Trust names new award after Octavia Hill

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Summary of story from The Ecologist, December 19, 2011 The National Trust’s new awards scheme designed to recognise unsung environmental heroes is to be named after Octavia Hill, a Victorian campaigner for the preservation of green spaces and for social justice. Hill was one of the three founders of the National Trust, but also made [...]

Are women let down by revolutions?

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Ivana Davidovic WVoN co-editor From the 1979 Iranian revolution to the Arab uprising of 2011, women have taken to the streets, chanted, protested, tweeted, petitioned and fought. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with their male friends and relatives, demanding the end of dictatorships and a new dawn for democracy, along with dignity and human [...]

Feminist muse central in new Tangore film

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Summary of story from BBCNews, December 19, 2011 Argentine director Pablo Cesar’s new film project is about the iconic Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore’s “intimate but platonic” relationship with Argentine feminist writer, literary magazine editor and cultural activist, Victoria Ocampo. The crux of the film, Thinking of Him, hinges on Tagore’s 1924 Argentine sojourn during which [...]

Double standards and lost billions found

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, December 19, 2011 The UK's HM Revenue and Customs have failed to collect more than £25 billion in "unresolved tax bills" from major firms — the equivalent of £1,000 for every British family — a committee of Members of Parliament claims. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has recently sought [...]

USA calls for sanctions and time for diplomacy over Iran

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Summary of story from RFE/RL, December 22, 2011 The US ambassador to the United Nations has called for full implementation of sanctions on Iran at a United Nations (UN) Security Council briefing on December 21. Speaking in New York at a UN briefing, Ambassador Susan Rice said a report issued in November by the International [...]

Chomsky makes renewed appeal for pardon for judge

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Summary of story from The Guardian, December 21, 2011 Linguist and philosopher, Noam Chomsky, a long-time supporter of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, has asked Chavez in a renewed appeal to free a judge who was controversially jailed two years ago. Maria Lourdes Afiuni, a Venezuelan judge, has been imprisoned since December 2009 and is currently under [...]

Write what you know? The classic pitfall of the misery memoir

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Heather Kennedy WVoN co-editor  Write what you know. It remains one of the most popular adages for the aspiring writer. Taken literally, this truism would deliver you to the door of the autobiography. But how do you begin moulding your subjective life story into a coherent narrative that glistens and throbs with the poignancy you [...]