Thursday, January 19, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

‘Survival sex epidemic’ in Haiti ignored

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Summary of story from IPSNews, January 12, 2012 Eighteen-year-old 'Kettlyne', a Haitian orphan living in the rubble-strewn Croix Deprez camp – one of the many remaining tent-cities that houses refugees from the January 12, 2010 earthquake – is unable to feed her three-year-old daughter. Starving and alone, she has, she says, resorted to exchanging sex [...]

Muslim women activists in UK receive death threats

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Summary of story from The Independent, January 18, 2012 An increasing number of Muslim women activists in the UK are receiving death threats, fatwas and even hate-mail from extremist male and female Muslims. Their crime: rescuing fellow Muslim women from violent and life threatening situations. These women are the New Muslim Suffragettes (NMS) of The [...]

French judge looks into Guantanamo torture claims

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Summary of story from VoA, January 17, 2012 A French judge has requested permission from the United States to visit the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to investigate claims by former French inmates that they were tortured. Judge Sophie Clement said she wants access to all documents relating to the arrest and transfer [...]

Joan of Arc’s 600th: a good excuse to excurse

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, January 17, 2012 It’s 600 years since the birth of Joan of Arc. She was charged by God to drive the English out of France, although celebrating that may not be one of the French tourist board’s best ideas for luring Brits across the Channel, as journalist Michael White [...]

Iranian activist detained

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Summary of story from The Green Voice of Freedom, January 18, 2012 An online website says Parastoo Dokouhaki, a blogger, human rights activist and journalist, has been detained by Iranian authorities. She was arrested over the weekend and a number of her personal belongings were confiscated. She has allegedly been detained on national security charges [...]

Ukrainian activists protest India visa rules

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Summary of story from Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, January 18, 2012 Members of Ukrainian activist group FEMEN have staged a protest in front of the residence of India’s Ambassador to Ukraine in Kiev, shouting ‘Ukraine is not a brothel’. Police detained all four protestors. The demonstration came in response to reports in the Indian [...]

Mass graves of Nazi death camps found

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Summary of story from The Huffington Post, January 17, 2012 A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War, but a lack of physical evidence has [...]

University applicant ‘rejects’ Oxford

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Summary of story from BBCNews, January 18, 2012 It is the moment every Oxbridge applicant dreads; the soft swoosh of the polite-but-firm rejection letter landing on the doormat. But one female student turned the tables on a revered British institution, by sending her own version of the rejection letter to Oxford University, following an interview [...]

Nepal women would rather report domestic violence than rape, advocates say

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Summary of story from Women'senews, January 18, 2011 Although the Nepalese government amended the law against rape to include marital rape six years ago, few women have heard of it. This contrasts with the Domestic Violence Law of 2009 which is increasingly being invoked. This, say women’s advocates, is because victims of involuntary marital sex [...]

US conference gives women confidence to get involved in politics

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Summary of story from Standard Examiner, January 16, 2012 A leadership training conference in Utah, US, last week, exposed the lack of women in Congress or statewide-elected office. Nearly 300 women attended the “Real Women Run: Find Your Voice” conference, at Salt Lake Community College, sponsored by the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the University [...]

US study reveals men spend more when they outnumber women

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Summary of story from USA Today, January 17, 2012 A university study in the US has revealed that men borrow more, save less and make more impulse purchases when they think they outnumber women. Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management asked groups of men to read news articles suggesting the local population [...]

UK medical journal criticises regulator over breast implant scandal

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, January 18, 2012 UK medical journal, The Lancet, reported today that the breast implant scandal (see WVoN coverage) was "an inevitable result" of "paralysis" at the healthcare regulator. Editor Richard Horton said experts held "long standing concerns about weaknesses and gaps in the UK's regulatory system", but the Medicines and Healthcare products [...]

Women’s export business gets boost from Commonwealth

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Summary of story from Commonwealth Secretariat, January 16, 2011 Europe's largest buyers’ fair will exhibit products from female entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, following sponsorship from the Commonwealth Secretariat. Nine women from the Commonwealth will take part in the 2012 Spring Fair International in Birmingham, UK, from February 5 to 9, which is [...]

Growing concern over use of Sharia law in UK

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Summary of story from BBCNews, January 16, 2012 There is a growing demand for Sharia law in Britain, but there is also increasing opposition by some groups who argue that the practice discriminates against women. The  informal councils have no legal powers, cannot impose any penalties and deal solely with civil cases, yet many Muslims [...]

Government reforms restrict access to legal aid for domestic violence survivors

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Sarah Cheverton WVoN co-editor Although the UK government has committed to keep legal aid for victims and survivors of domestic violence, new research from Rights of Women and Welsh Women’s Aid shows that almost half of domestic violence victims and survivors will not be eligible for legal aid in private family law proceedings. Under proposed [...]