Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

UK campaigners celebrate withdrawal of abstinence Bill

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Summary of story from Secular Europe Campaign, January 21, 2012 Campaigners cheered as it was announced that British MP Nadine Dorries's sex education bill, which called for teenage girls to be taught abstinence, had been unexpectedly dropped a few days ago. The protesters who gathered outside the parliament to hear the news were pleased yet [...]

Police spies had children with activists to reinforce fake identity

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Summary of story from The Daily Mail, January 21, 2012 Several undercover British police officers ordered to infiltrate political activist groups, have been accused of entering into sexual relationships and fathering children with activists they were supposed to monitor. The revelations have emerged despite claims from police chiefs that officers living under fake identities were [...]

Faulty breast implants: worried patients hound hospitals with inquiries

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Summary of story from The Guardian, January 20, 2012 In response to the recent breast implant scandal (see WVoN story) hospitals in the UK are facing a flood of inquiries from patients concerned that they may have been given faulty products. The phone calls started in December and became so numerous that phone lines have [...]

UK ministers to end benefits loophole for multiple wives

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, January 21, 2012 UK ministers are determined to put a stop to a benefits loophole which favours men with multiple wives. Although bigamy is illegal in Britain, men who married more than one woman in countries where the practice was legal and then brought them to the UK, have [...]

Moldovan dancer tells her side of the Costa Concordia disaster

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Summary of story from the Telegraph, January 23, 2012 Domnica Cemortan, the woman seen dining with Captain Francesco Schettino just 30 minutes before the doomed liner Costa Concordia careered into rocks and sank, has denied that she was romantically entangled with him. Cemortan said: “I am not the captain’s lover. You know why? He was always showing [...]

Sherlock actress’s feminism provokes pubic hair row

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Liz Draper WVoN co-editor  An interview with British actress Louise Brealey in the Observer newspaper yesterday, caused quite a stir on my twitter feed this morning. Brealey, who plays Molly Hooper in the BBC’s Sherlock, talked openly about her feminism, which is of the “Militant” variety, as she put it. The following are among my favourite quotes from the [...]

Youngest Briton to reach South Pole is 21-year-old woman

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Summary of story from This is Nottingham, January 21, 2012 It seems that Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton is not the only woman pushing boundaries in Antarctica recently (see WVoN story). Twenty-one year old Bryony Balen from Derbyshire in England has completed a 700-mile trek across the continent, becoming the youngest Briton ever to reach [...]

Blue Peter presenter completes South Pole challenge

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Summary of story from BBC, January 22,2012 Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton has completed her gruelling 500 mile expedition across Antarctica for Sport Relief. Her 18-day adventure ended at 10.40pm on Saturday, British time, when she arrived at the South Pole. She is the first person to use a bike as part of an expedition [...]

Fake partners for China’s young singletons

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Summary of story from the Guardian, January 20, 2012 Chinese twenty-somethings are increasingly looking to hired help when it comes to a choice between revealing their single status or disappointing their parents. As grown-up Chinese children return home to visit relatives for the lunar New Year, those without a partner may well hire a fake [...]

New requirements for US employers and insurers on contraception

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Kate Townshend WVoN co-editor From August 2012, most new and renewed health plans for US employees will be required to include coverage for contraception at no extra or shared cost. The US department of Health and Human Affairs secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a statement clarifying the new rulings, under which non-profit employers with religious objections to contraception will [...]

Rights group calls for repeal of discriminatory law in Kuwait

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Sue Tapply WVoN co-editor Kuwaiti police have tortured and sexually abused transgender women using a discriminatory law, passed in 2007, which arbitrarily criminalizes "imitating the opposite sex," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report, released recently. It has called for the government of Kuwait to repeal the law, article 198 as amended in 2007, and [...]

Potter Julia Carter Preston has died, aged 85

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, January 18, 2012 Julia Carter Preston, a masterful potter in the best traditions of the Arts and Crafts Movement, has died aged 85. Her work is preserved in both private and public collections, including the USA’s Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Characterised by their intricate patterns, her designs were most [...]

Punk group held after Moscow protest song

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Summary of story from The Telegraph, January 20, 2012 Russian police have detained all eight members of a female punk group after they performed a protest song criticising Vladimir Putin next to Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The group, called Pussy Riot, wearing brightly coloured mini-dresses and balaclavas climbed over railings onto a stone platform [...]

Drugs given to pregnant women may cause cancer in daughters

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Summary of story from The Independent, January 22, 2012 Tens of thousands of British families are to be asked if they are victims of a drug given to pregnant women which can cause fatal illness in the second, and possibly even third, generations. Diethylstilboestrol (DES), a drug given to women for 30 years up to [...]

Worrying trend of cheap weight-loss surgery

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Summary of story from The Independent, January 22, 2012 Leading British surgeons have warned against what they regard as a worrying trend of women going abroad for weight-loss surgery. Medical procedures such as gastric band operations have become an increasingly popular option in the UK, and thousands of British women are now being enticed to [...]

Tagore’s Women: strong women who dominate on and off the stage

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Asiya Islam WVoN features writer It's not often – and certainly not often enough – that you come across theatre dominated by strong women characters. It's even more rare for women on stage to express their sexual desires, talk of pleasure and take the lead in the 'act'. 'Tagore's Women', a double bill of the [...]

Dutch teenager becomes youngest person to sail round world alone

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Summary of story from UK eurosport, January 22, 2012 Laura Dekker, the Dutch teenager who set out a year ago to sail round the world, has beaten the previous record by eight months to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe on her own. However she will not be recognised in the Guinness Book [...]

Guatemalans climb volcano in protest against domestic violence

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Summary of story from BBC, January 22, 2012 Around 12,000 Guatemalans have climbed an extinct volcano in a protest against domestic violence. The activists formed what they hope was the world’s longest human chain all the way to the peak of the 3,765m (12,352 feet) Volcan de Agua. Among those taking part in the “Walk [...]

Women in Sudan face multiple threats

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Summary of story from IRIN, January 20, 2012 According to a survey by the Sudan Human Security Baseline Assessment, women in Sudan face multiple threats. These derive from chronic deficits in health, economic opportunities, access to food and gender equality, rather than weapons, despite the prevalence of militias and armed conflict. "In the home, the [...]