Friday, March 16, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Argentinian Supreme Court decriminalises abortion for rape victims

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 01:00 PM PDT

Liz Draper
WVoN co-editor

The Argentinian Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday to decriminalise abortion for victims of rape.

In a unanimous ruling, the court upheld a lower court's decision to allow a 15-year-old rape victim to have an abortion.

The ruling is a clarification of an existing law. Since 1922, a clause in the penal code has allowed abortion for rape victims, and in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

However, this provision was widely interpreted as only applying to women "of feeble mind".  Abortions were frequently denied by doctors and courts due to personal anti-abortion views and fear of prosecution.

However, following the Supreme Court's decision, neither rape victims nor abortion providers can face legal action.

Further, rape victims will no longer have to seek permission from the courts before undergoing the procedure. Instead, they will be required to provide a sworn statement to the doctor.

According to campaigners, the Court's ruling will save lives. A 2010 report by Human Rights Watch documented how thousands of women suffer in Argentina each year due to poor reproductive health care.

About 40% of pregnancies end in abortion, which are often performed illegally. Despite the fact that unsafe abortion is the country's leading cause of maternal mortality, many rape victims face difficulties obtaining the health care services to which they are entitled.

Abortion on demand remains illegal in Argentina, as in most of South America and the Caribbean. It is banned in all circumstances in much of the region.

New report shows record numbers of women in UK boardrooms

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 11:30 AM PDT

Jem McCarron
WVoN co-editor

The annual report from the Cranfield School of Management has found that the number of female-held directorships in British boardrooms has risen to 15.6 per cent.

Up from 12 per cent last year, Professor Susan Vinnicombe, co-author of the report, said it was a "significant move in the right direction".

But she urged “chairmen, chief executives, executive search firms, investors, journalists and women to stay focused and use this momentum to change the status quo permanently."

The company at the top of this year's ranking was Diageo with four women making up 44.4 per cent of the board.  In second place was Burberry, with three women out of eight directors.

Only 11 companies now have no female board members, among them Glencore International, Aggreko and Xstrata.

The report, published to mark the anniversary of the Davies' review, anticipates that if this rate of change continues, 26.7 per cent of directors could be women by 2015 and 36.9 per cent by 2020.

Davies recommended a minimum target of 25 per cent female representation on the boards of FTSE 100 companies by 2015.

However, the figures need to be put in perspective - there are still only 141 women holding 163 FTSE 100 board seats out of 1,086 board positions.

And there is an increasingly wide gap between the numbers of women non-execs  (22.4 per cent) compared with women executive directors (6.6 per cent).

As Charles Elvin, chief executive of the Institute of Leadership and Management, pointed out:

"While the continued focus and debate on the number of women in senior positions is a step forward, there needs to be a similar focus at every level of management to address the issue at the heart of the problem – the lack of an effective pipeline for female talent.”

Sadly Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities Theresa May did not show the same appreciation of the scale of the problem when she commented that: ”significant progress can be made through a business-led approach ….

“As a woman, I’ve never wanted to get anywhere because I was part of a quota. I’ve wanted to get there because I’d worked hard for a job and because I deserved it.”

Don’t we all? But deserving and getting are two completely different things, Ms May.

Tearfund: mother-daughter relationships

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT

Photocredit: Kieran Dodds / Tearfund

Sara Guy
Media officer, Tearfund

In a series of five features to mark Mother's Day on March 18, Sara Guy from Tearfund presents a feature of case studies of mothers from around the world.

The fourth is on Russia.

If you met Lyuba, 30, and her daughter Yanna, 7, at a coffee shop in their home town of Asbest, Russia, you would think they had the ups and downs of any normal mother–daughter relationship and lived a regular life.

You wouldn't be able to tell that until two years ago Lyuba was a drug addict and that Yanna was being raised by her grandparents. Or that they live in a drug rehab centre, where Lyuba now works.

Or that Lyuba is HIV positive.

Whereas the number of new HIV infections is declining in most other regions of the world, Russia is the unlikely home of the fastest growing HIV-positive population in the world.  An estimated one in 100 Russians are living with HIV.

Again, unlike other areas, the main driver of HIV infection in Russia is intravenous drug use.

It's estimated that 80 per cent of those living with HIV became infected through sharing needles. This fact only adds to the stigma of people living with HIV/AIDS.

Lyuba and her husband were both drug addicts. During a four-year period when they were off drugs, their daughter Yanna was born. Later, Yanna's father died of an overdose.

Lyuba was a drug addict for ten years and has known that she is HIV positive for five.

Being HIV-positive in Russia is particularly difficult: "The doctors treated me as though I were a leper," she explains.

Lyuba became so ill that she couldn't walk. She kept fainting and spent a lot of her time in bed.

Then one of her friends told her about the Salvation Centre in Asbest and she checked herself in.

The Salvation Centre runs a two-stage programme.

When addicts are first admitted the focus is on breaking harmful addiction.  After a few months they move to the next stage, where residents learn trade skills and are trained in HIV and drug prevention work.

With support from the Centre, Lyuba has been drug-free for two years. Today she is healthy, has many friends and runs the kitchen at the Salvation Centre's home for those in the second stage of the programme.

Her daughter now lives with her at the Centre. When Lyuba still took drugs and was ill she couldn't look after her daughter and barely knew her.

Yanna had only ever known her mother as a drug addict, and it took time before they got to know each other again.

Their relationship has been restored, as Yanna says: "Sometimes we cry together, ask forgiveness and try to understand each other better."

Together they are making plans for the future. When she was younger Lyuba dreamed of being a doctor. Today she is planning to go to college to study nursing. Yanna hopes to one day be a doctor herself.

Lyuba is in no doubt about what prompted her to turn her life around. "My daughter was the reason I came to rehab and stopped taking drugs." 

In Turkey, a woman is killed by domestic violence nearly every day

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Laura Bridgestock
WVoN co-editor

In Turkey, last week's International Women's Day was dominated by the news that so far this year the country's huge domestic violence problem had resulted in a women dying nearly every day.

The study from the International Strategic Research Organization also reported that some 42% of women in the country are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse – and the vast majority of them do not speak out.

Dilek Karal, one of the report's authors, said there is a sense of 'shame' associated with denouncing domestic violence publicly – and that in any case, women’s past experience has shown a lack of response to domestic violence from police and the legal system.

The government has acknowledged the problem, and is in the process of extending the existing legislation against domestic violence, largely thanks to the efforts of Fatma Sahin, the only female minister in the government.

In Istanbul, a special police force consisting of 50 men and 50 women has been created, and is trained to specialise in the handling of gender-based violence.

Earlier this year, Turkish charity Sefkat, published a handout which advised women to take steps to protect themselves, including carrying a gun, as a last resort to try and stem the tide of women killed in domestic violence (see WVoN story).

This violence is just the tip of the iceberg of the oppression of women in Turkey.

In parliament as a whole, just 14% of seats are occupied by women, and only 1.2% of elected local representatives, including mayors, are women.

Only 27% of women participate in the formal workforce.

More than half of the women who work are unregistered, and therefore don’t qualify for social security. Nearly 40% are unpaid family workers.

So it’s deeply, deeply sad and disturbing, but hardly surprising, that in another recent survey, more than 40% of women said they would rather have been born a man.

 

Doonesbury abortion storyline causes controversy

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Liz Draper
WVoN co-editor

Long-running political comic strip Doonesbury is causing controversy this week with a storyline tackling a Texas law which requires women to undergo an ultrasound before being granted an abortion.

Several newspapers have opted not to print the six-day storyline due to its subject matter.

According to Portland newspaper The Oregonian, the strip goes "over the line of good taste and humor in penning a series on abortion using graphic language and images inappropriate for a comics page".

The storyline follows a woman seeking an abortion at a Texas clinic. On arrival, she is directed to the "shaming room", where a "middle-aged, male state legislator" calls her a slut. She is then read a statement on behalf of Texas governor Rick Perry, welcoming her to a "compulsory transvaginal exam".

Despite the reluctance of some publications to print the storyline, Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau has been forthright in his defence of it.

In an interview in The Washington Post last week, he said that to ignore the "battle over women's health being waged in several states" would have been "comedy malpractice".

The Texas law claims to provide women with the means to make informed decisions about their fertility.

Any woman seeking an abortion is required to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours before the procedure may take place.She may decline to see the ultrasound or hear the foetus' heartbeat, but she is required to listen to a description by the physician.

Trudeau has also been outspoken about transvaginal ultrasounds, which have been proposed in similar bills in other states. In the Washington Post interview, he compared the procedure to rape.

"In order for a woman to obtain a perfectly legal medical procedure, she is first compelled by law to endure a vaginal probe with a hard, plastic 10-inch wand.

“The World Health Organization defines rape as ‘physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration — even if slight — of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object.’ You tell me the difference."

The Texas law was enacted in 2011, but was subsequently blocked by a federal judge after medical providers protested that it forced doctors to enforce the state's ideological message. However, this decision was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Tuesday.

The law is expected to be implemented in the coming weeks.

Angelina Jolie adds her voice to Kony 2012 campaign

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Jem McCarron
WVoN co-editor

American actress Angelina Jolie has added her name to the list of people who ‘hate’ Joseph Kony.

According to the Guardian, Ms Jolie said at a recent event marking International Womens’ Day in New York:

"He’s an extraordinarily horrible human being who, you know…his time has come."

Ms Jolie is no stranger to Kony, having stated in a 2010 interview with Cynthia McFadden at ABC news: "Joseph Kony. I hate him." (quote at 07.38m) .

So who is Joseph Kony and why should we hate him?

In a nutshell, he’s the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a militant group which claims to be fighting the Ugandan government on behalf of Southern Uganda’s ethnic groups.

He has been placed at the top of the wanted list of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for human rights violations, which include abducting children from front-line villages, forcing them to fight in a child army on his behalf.

On 12 March the charity Invisible Children posted a 30 minute video  to raise awareness of the crimes of the Ugandan warlord and urging his capture.

The video, which wants to make Kony a household name, went viral almost immediately, receiving over 76 million views on You Tube, over 16 million on Vimeo and trending on Twitter.

Within just 48 hours the Invisible Children had raised £3.2m.

Despite the massive support for the video, questions have now been raised about the finances of Invisible Children and whether the movie is accurate or not.

The chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, defended the campaign, however, in an interview with the BBC, dismissing criticism as "stupid".

“These white kids are spending their time to protect kids of their age in Africa. They are role models,” he said.

Whatever we think about the campaign and the organisation behind it, it is, without doubt, a very powerful demonstration of the ability of social media to effect change in the real world.

Anonymous hacker remanded in custody for stealing BPAS records

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Jem McCarron
WVoN co-editor

Anonymous hacker, James Jeffery, has been remanded in custody after admitting to stealing over 10,000 records from the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).

The Metropolitan police’s central e-crime unit arrested Mr Jeffery in the early hours of Friday morning.

He pleaded guilty to two offences under the Computer Misuse Act on Saturday 10 March.

Mr Jeffery, from Wednesbury in the West Midlands, claims he hacked the website because he disagreed with two women he knew who had decided to terminate their pregnancies.

Along with the data theft, he replaced the front page of the website with the logo of hacking group Anonymous and the following message:

“An unborn child does not have an opinion, a choice or any rights. Who gave you the right to murder that unborn child and profit from that murder?

“The product, abortion, is skilfully marketed and sold to women at the crisis time in her life. She buys the product, and wants to return it for a refund. But it's too late.”
\\\ Hacked by PabloEscboar, Anonymous ///

Mr Jeffery then bragged about his actions on Twitter, under the pseudonym "Pablo Escobar", a notorious Columbian drug lord, saying that he intended to release the hacked information.

Westminster Magistrates Court referred the case to Southwark Crown Court, with the Deputy Senior district judge, Daphne Wickham, branding Jeffery a "zealot with an anti-abortion campaign."

Ms Wickham refused bail saying "Many, many other organisations and people’s private details would be at risk”.

The court heard that although Mr Jeffery had subsequently decided that releasing the information would be "wrong", Ms Wickham said that many women would still be concerned about the security of their information.

The BPAS is a not-for-profit charity that offers counselling and advice relating to unplanned pregnancies and abortion and provides terminations both privately and on the NHS in clinics across the country.

They are taking the situation "very seriously indeed."

Indian women still face significant barriers at work

Posted: 15 Mar 2012 02:00 AM PDT

Laura Bridgestock
WVoN co-editor

Women in India face significant barriers to workforce participation and financial independence at all levels.

According to global consultancy Grant Thornton's latest International Business Report, women occupy just 14% of senior management positions in India.

This is a significant increase from the previous year's 9%, but is still one of the lowest rates worldwide. Indeed, the overall global average (now 21%, up from last year's 20%) remains pitifully low.

And it's not just at the top that women are underrepresented in India's workforce.

Overall, only 33% of adult women in India are reported as participating in the labour market, compared, for example, to 67% in China.

In addition, just 15% of women in India have their own bank account, according to a recent study from research group WIGSAT.

As WIGSAT executive director Sophia Huyer commented:

"[Not having a bank account] will really affect the ability of women to start their own businesses, to go to school, and to make their own decisions in the family, if they always have to go to their husbands or their fathers for money."

One measure on which India ranks relatively well is the number of businesses offering flexible working hours for women; some 66% of Indian companies do this, compared to just 24% in China.

There have also been reports that more women in India are choosing to start up their own businesses. But here too, there are gender-based barriers.

Anjana Vivek, founder of VentureBean Consulting, says investors are to an extent biased against providing start-up funding to women.

That’ll be one of the effects of the ‘patriarchal culture’ identified by the International Business Report as the underlying factor in India's poor performance on 'women in the boardroom'.

The report shows that India’s women are making progress, but like much of the rest of the world’s women, such progress is small and slow.