Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Healthy headlines?

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 09:33 AM PDT

Abiola Awojobi-Johnso
WVoN co-editor 

'Pregnant? Don’t drink.’

'Implants? Yes, they’re safe apart from the ones made by a certain European company – if you've had them they'll have to be removed.'

'A drink a day keeps disease away.'

'HRT – the best thing for  menopausal women?’

‘C-Section? A 10% chance of getting an infection.’

‘Pregnant?  You can drink. In moderation.’

These are just a selection of headlines that I’ve noticed recently that relate to women's health.

It seems barely a day goes by without the publication of a new report advising women what they can and can't do when it comes to their bodies and their health.

Whether it's medication regarding family planning, substances that can affect your unborn child, warnings that too much tv may make your toddler obese, or concerns over artificial hormones when you are past childbearing age – it's enough to make you take to your bed!

What's giving me a headache is the extent to which information is contradictory.

One minute, it's good news – a scientific report from one source says you can drink a stipulated number of units of alcohol when pregnant. But then another counters it, saying that pregnant women should not drink. At all.

One day it's ok to drink wine – but only red not white. And chocolate can aid one thing but will damage another. And can we really reduce the risk of breast cancer by walking for at least 2.5 hours a week?

With mankind’s (womakind’s too!) increased scientific knowledge, consumer access to this sort of health information is growing fast. And women's health in particular is continually being put under the spotlight, causing confusion about what we can and cannot do.

It goes without saying that discussion and debate together with robust research and enquiry are vital to help increase our understanding of health issues and try and stay in premium health through women's different life stages.

But often the headlines can be startling and sensational. And if the headline is the only piece of the article you get to read as it catches your eye from the newstand or as you snatch a quick glance of a fellow commuter's newspaper, that's all you're going to take away from it. And so you'll stay Miss Informed.

With online media and social networking taking over from traditional media forms, headlines and bite-size pieces of information have become the norm and are what people are now frequently used to consuming. With this in mind, headlines have an obligation to stop being so sensational and, become more responsible. This is especially important when it comes to health. Reports need to ensure comparisons are made with recent similar studies so that women have all the information at hand to equip them to make the most appropriate decisions for themselves regarding their health and lifestyle choices.

But while the headlines persist so too does the sensationalism without substance. And this is irresponsible– perhaps as almost much as not following the advice that the latest survey suggests.

Scare headlines such as 'Cat Ladies being more likely to commit suicide' or  'Children born by C-Section are twice more likely to be obese' or 'Sunscreen Ingredient linked to Endometriosis' and the like, need to ensure they offer substantial proof of what they are suggesting rather than just startling headlines.

In a recent survey conducted by China Youth Daily's Social Investigation Center and quoted in The English People's Daily in China, 60% of respondents have been misled by sensational headlines.

It writes 'When reading news, over 20% of respondents only read headlines and over 66% scan full stories after reading the headlines. Only over 11% read full stories thoroughly.'

The saturation of sensational headlines in our media outlets, especially online, means people are being seduced with eye-catching headlines and where the actual content in the story often does not match up. Even taking into consideration the fact that new research is being undertaken all the time and meaning advice given to pregnant women for example, five years ago, may now be out of date, it’s the headlines which those mums-to be heard five years ago, that they will remember.

Dr Jennifer Blake, Head of Women's Health and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at both Women's College Hospital and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, quoted in Women's Health Matters  advises that instead of being overwhelmed by sensational headlines that women 'use common sense, work with your doctor, know what works for you and above all adopt a healthy lifestyle.'

So, maybe it is ok for me to indulge in that extra glass of wine after-all. I'm off to enjoy it. According to research it won't hurt – or will it?! Depends on whether it's red or white I guess – and which piece of research I choose to follow.

We need explicit messages about FGM

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 08:30 AM PDT

Abiola Awojobi-Johnson
WVoN co-editor 

What did you get up to in the summer holidays?'

That’s the question children around the world will be asking each other when school returns after the summer vacation.

But for some girls, their summer will be tainted by a terrifying and illegal experience, one which will affect them for the rest of their lives.

According to The Guardian, between 500 and 2,000 girls will innocently set off on holiday this summer, only to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM) – often at the hands of their own family.

Dr Comfort Momoh, Public Heath Specialist at Guys and St Thomas Hospital in London who set up the African Well Women's Clinic, has warned in the past that “‘this is the time when all the professionals need to be really alert.”

Even those who don’t go abroad are at risk from so-called ‘cutting parties’ at which a whole group of girls may undergo the procedure in a sort of mass ’ceremony' in which parts of their external female genitalia are cut and removed.

Which is why it is so essential to keep the issue of FGM in the headlines during these summer months.

So it was with horror that I recently read an article in The London Evening Standard about a women's group in South London who were staging a sit-in at a primary school over a row about an advice poster warning about the dangers of FGM.

The local council had allegedly accused the Lambeth Women's Project of leaving 'sexually explicit' material around in areas where children could see it.

The poster was, of course, meant to be seen by children. It was sponsored by the police to promote services for London girls at risk of FGM.

The real story got lost in the argument between the women's group and the council about money and was a missed opportunity to promote the dangers of FGM to readers.

If even one parent had thought twice after reading the article about taking their daughter home this summer holiday to undergo the procedure, that would have been one less damaged child.

And if that parent had passed the message onto another parent and another, potentially whole communities would hear the message being reinforced again and again – that FGM is dangerous, abuse, and totally unnecessary. It is also illegal.

In the UK it carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment. To date, there have been no prosecutions under UK legislation.

According to a recent report on BBC’s Newsnight, the UK is seen as a soft touch in Europe for its failure to prosecute, thus encouraging people from many communities to send their daughters to the UK to have it done.

In all, about 28 African countries practise FGM as well as Yemen, Kurdistan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, America and Canada.

Nine women were recently sentenced in The Ivory Coast  for performing FGM -a small, but significant step forward, marking the first time a case like this has resulted in a prison sentence in the country.

Sadly, they only received two years each.

In Liberia, newspaper reporter Mae Azango has been in hiding since writing an article on FGM, which appeared on the cover of FrontPage African for International Women's Day in March.

Although the paper is known for its investigative stories, the backlash was intense, with women threatening to cut Azango herself and warning that she had been told to stay away from the story. She was also told he would be killed if she went to rural Liberia again.

The privacy surrounding the procedure and the secrecy with which it is done mean that exact figures are hard to come by.

And that's why it's so wrong to describe the material about FGM on the poster in that  London school as being 'sexually explicit' and as if it was therefore somehow inappropriate.

If being explicit can prevent deaths and a lifetime of health complications from FGM – then yes, it's appropriate is to be as explicit as necessary.

Clinton backs gay rights activists in Uganda

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 07:00 AM PDT

Jackie Gregory
WVoN co-editor

Gay rights activists in Uganda have received the backing of the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in their fight against persecution.

Reuters reported that Clinton presented a coalition of Ugandan rights groups with a Human Rights Defender Award as a clear signal to the Ugandan government that Washington supports the activists opposing legal and political persecution of homosexuals.

In 2009 the Ugandan government drew up a draft law targeting gays and lesbians prohibiting same sex relations or the promotion of them and proposed the death penalty for those who fell foul of it.

The draft law drew a public outcry and stalled in Parliament, but it has recently been re-introduced in a watered down form which drops the death penalty but still advocates punishment.

Clinton told the group that she had raised the issue with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni.

“It is critical for all Ugandans – the government and citizens alike – to speak out against discrimination, harassment, and intimidation of anyone.

“That’s true no matter where they come from, what they believe, or whom they love,” Clinton said. “You are a model for others and an inspiration for the world."

In June this year Uganda banned 38 organisations accused of promoting homosexuality.

The Guardian reported that Simon Lokodo, the country’s ethics and integrity minister, had claimed that the NGOs were receiving support from abroad for Uganda’s homosexuals and “recruiting” young children into homosexuality.

The raid was concemned by Amnesty International with Michelle Kagari, AI’s deputy director for Africa, saying:

"This ludicrous and senseless harassment of human rights activists has no basis in law whatsoever and has to stop. The continued persecution of LGBT rights activists by the Ugandan authorities is beginning to take on the sinister characteristics of a witch hunt."

In February, Lokodo raided another LGBT rights workshop and attempted to order the arrest of Kasha Jacqueline Nabagasera, a prominent LGBT rights activist and winner of the 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (see WVoN story). She was forced to flee from the hotel.

Malawi president pushes for women’s role in Africa’s peace processes

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 05:30 AM PDT

Faye Mooney
WVoN co-editor

In a speech last month, president Joyce Banda of Malawi emphasized the need for women's involvement in conflict prevention, peace negotiations and consolidation processes in Africa.

Banda, elected earlier this year, pressed for gender empowerment in her keynote address to the 7th African First Ladies Peace Mission (AFLPM) in Abuja, Nigeria.

The AFLPM was established at the Beijing Conference on Women in 1995, with the aim of promoting peace and harmony in Africa.

Banda used her  speech to argue that although women "play pivotal roles in many conflict settings, including reaching out across conflict divides and encouraging parties to abandon entrenched positions …  attitudes towards women's participation in many countries and organisations pose a significant barrier to progress".

She observed that women are still significantly under-represented in African peace negotiations, operations and national governance, particularly at senior levels, despite their growing presence in senior leadership roles in Africa and the United Nations.

She believes that through engaging the First Ladies as a first point of contact in conflict prevention and early warning mechanisms, it is possible to reduce the risk of clashes escalating into costly and destructive wars that can spill across borders.

"Having innovative and creative ways of using the role of First Ladies as peace ambassadors in their countries and within Africa becomes imperative as it quickly increases the number of women participating in peace missions at high levels," Banda said.

"First Ladies Peace Mission can develop mechanisms of monitoring these indicators of potential conflict and devise ways to prevent conflict from occurring."

The president of the AFLMP, Dame Patience Goodluck Jonathan, echoed her sentiments: "I appeal to all of us, as mothers of the continent, to … advocate strongly for peaceful means of resolving differences in our various societies, and work more to prevent violence and war."

Banda also recently met with the newly-elected chairperson of the African Union Commission, Madame Dr Dlamani-Zuma. She acknowledged African men "for creating space" by way of discouraging and removing gender barriers to enable women occupy important decision-making and leadership positions in society.

These messages follow in the wake of a string of reforms since her election which have marked her out as "A New kind of African Leader". She has introduced economic reform in Malawi, liberalised media policies and sparked a public debate on repealing laws that criminalize homosexuality.

Some African commentators take the view that the impact of her speech at the summit will be long term and that her push for gender empowerment may signal the start of a change in women's roles in peace processes in Africa.

One thing is certain: Banda is without doubt a force to be reckoned with on the African political stage.

We must learn the lessons from the murder of Shafilea Ahmed

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Jackie Gregory
WVoN co-editor

Last week the parents of British teenager, Shafilea Ahmed, were found guilty of her murder. Her crime? She had refused to agree to an arranged marriage.

Following the conviction and sentencing of Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed, the young girl’s uncle gave an interview to Pakistan Today.

The Ahmeds lived in Warrington, the north of England, while the uncle lived in a rural village in Pakistan where Shafilea was taken with a view to arranging a marriage for her in 2003.

She resisted and while there drank bleach and had to be brought back to England for hospital treatment. The interview provides an important context for the subsequent horrific events.

Strangely, the link to the interview is no longer available – a few hours after it was put up on Pakistan Today website, it seems to have been taken down.

Whether for technical or legal reasons, it is not known, but type her name into their site search and only one court report appears. Her uncle’s comments have, for whatever reason, now been erased.

Yet for the sake of thousands of teenagers in a similar situation, what happened to Shafilea and the missed opportunities to help her, should not be erased so easily from public consciousness.

Her teachers knew about domestic violence in her home, and Shafilea had written to a housing agency for support, recording her own anguish in her writings but warning signs were not heeded.

The court case heard graphic accounts of how Shafilea was suffocated by her father pushing a plastic bag into her mouth while her mother stood by and her siblings were forced to watch.

Her parents were angry that their 17-year-old was rebelling and, from their perspective, was becoming too immersed in western ways.

Shafilea was described as a bright teenager, who, had she been allowed to live and reach her potential, could have been working as a lawyer by now.

Her own words helped to condemn her parents, highlighting the dilemma she faced between her family’s traditional ways and the life of a British teenager today.

The Independent published an article about how Shafilea’s poetry graphically illustrated the anguish of her situation.

"I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more, desire to live is burning, my stomach is turning, but all they think about is honour," she wrote.

Sara Khan, writing in The Guardian’s Comment is Free column, pointed out that there are thousands more teenagers facing a similar dilemma to Shafilea.

Last year police across the UK recorded a total of 2,832 complaints of honour-related crimes but only 234 cases have been prosecuted since 2010.

Khan is now calling for an inquiry into Shafilea’s case as agencies who should have been able to respond to her cries for help, failed to join up the dots.

She added that:: "Shafilea’s life and ultimately her death represent the struggle of many women whose suffering remains unreported, under-researched and unaided.

“In order to combat oppression and empower women, democracy and human rights must begin in the home. We cannot truly call ourselves a democracy if we continue to turn a blind eye to both the abuses and the lack of assistance experienced by so many British women."

It is time these young women were heard, believed and action taken to prevent more repeats of the fate that Shafilea suffered.

And all because she wanted to be her own woman.

France passes new sexual harassment law

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 02:30 AM PDT

Suzannah von Strandmann
WVoN co-editor

The French Government last week unanimously passed a new sexual harassment law, finally filling a legislative gap after the old law was repealed a few  months ago.

Following a complaint by a former MP prosecuted under the old law, France’s highest constitutional authority, the Conseil Constitutionnel, repealed the previous legislation for being unconstitutionally vague – also invalidating all cases being pursued at that time.

Women’s organisations protested against the repeal and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France’s Women’s Minister, agreed that it left a “dangerous void“.

The new law broadens the earlier definition of sexual harassment, addressing a loophole which meant that an offence was only committed if a victim was subjected to repeated incidents of harassment, allowing a single case to go unpunished.

It also tackles infringements, whether they happen once or repeatedly and prohibits discrimination linked to harassment.

The punishment now stands at two years’ imprisonment and a fine of €30,000, rising to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of €45,000 for the most serious cases, such as sexual harassment of a minor.

In a recent interview, Vallaud=Belkacem denied that sexual harassment was more prevalent in France than elsewhere in Europe.

However, given what happened recently in the National Assembly to the French Housing Minister, Cécile Duflot, who was repeatedly jeered by her male colleagues, that is open to debate.

Christine Taubira, Justice Minister, welcomed the new law, saying that:

“Victims can once again seek justice and will be better armed since the (terms) of the crime is better defined and covers a wider spectrum and the penalties are more proportionate to the seriousness of the offence.”

Women’s organisations, however, have pointed out that the law does not address ‘grey areas‘ such as a culture of seduction in France.

According to Marilyn Baldeck, of the Association Against Violence Toward Women at Work, sexual harassment is never straightforward.

“An employer will never tell a young recruit: I hire you if you sleep with me. In all the cases we deal with, it’s far more pernicious.”

Wife of China’s Bo Xilai on trial for murder of British businessman

Posted: 06 Aug 2012 01:00 AM PDT

Kirstie Imber
WVoN co-editor

Gu Kailai, the wife of one of China's most senior political leaders, has been charged with the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Mrs Gu is due to stand trial next Thursday, lawyers say.

In a scandal that has rocked Chinese politics, Gu Kailai, 53, wife of Bo Xilai, the former party secretary of Chongqing and a member of the Communist party's Politburo, faces the death penalty after being formally accused of poisoning the 41-year old Heywood with cyanide.

Mr Heywood was found dead in a room at the Lucky Holiday Hotel in Chongqing last November.

Although the precise nature of Mr Heywood's role with Mrs Gu and the Bo family have caused much speculation, it is alleged that he had been a member of their inner circle, and had shared close business contacts with the family.

Until last Thursdsay, it was understood that Mrs Gu, a former lawyer, had come into “conflict” with Mr Heywood over their “economic interests". Yet recent sources now suggest that Mr Heywood had posed a significant threat to Mrs Gu's 24-year old son, Bo Guagua.

According to The Telegraph, this change in narrative may be part of an effort to portray Mrs Gu, who has a history of mental illness, as paranoid and unstable; possibly a mitigating factor in her defence.

The trial follows the high-profile downfall of Mr Bo, who is under investigation for allegedly violating Communist Party rules, despite making his name tackling corruption in the south-western city of Chongqing.

Lawyers have previously told BBC Chinese that authorities may have concerns about the political influence Mr Bo and his family may still exert in Chongqing and whether that would affect a fair trial.