News

Does Legalized Prostitution Increase Human Trafficking?

This paper investigates the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking inflows. According to economic theory, there are two opposing effects of unknown magnitude. The scale effect of legalizing prostitution leads to an expansion of the prostitution market, increasing human trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for trafficked women as legal prostitutes are favored over trafficked ones. Our empirical analysis for a cross-section of up to 150 countries shows that the scale effect dominates the substitution effect. On average, the legalization of prostitution increases human trafficking inflows.

http://ideas.repec.org/p/got/gotcrc/096.html

Long-gun registry battle will go on even after vote in Parliament
Liberals in Senate say they have no intention of 'rubber stamping' the Tory bill
By Jeff Davis, Postmedia News February 15, 2012

MPs vote on the highly contentious bill to end the long-gun registry Wednesday evening, and while it is sure to pass the majority Conservative parliament, the battle will continue for months before the registry is dealt its final coup de grace...

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Long+registry+battle+will+even+after+vote+Parliament/6155364/story.html#ixzz1mZxTyNpA

HONOUR KILLINGS ‘UN-ISLAMIC,’ FATWA DECLARES IN WAKE OF SHAFIA TRIAL
Canadian Press, February 4, 2012

Controversy surrounding the Shafia murder trial prompted imams from across Canada and the United States to issue a moral ruling Saturday officially condemning honour killings, domestic violence and misogyny as “un-Islamic.” Thirty-four imams belonging to the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, including a handful of American members, signed the fatwa in an effort to counter misinterpretations of the Koran, they said. While it has no legal teeth, the fatwa is “morally binding” for all Muslims, said Syed Soharwardy, a Calgary-based imam who founded the council. “So if anybody is thinking that honour killing is allowed in Islam, or domestic violence is okay or misogyny is okay, we are saying no, you are dead wrong,” he said Saturday in announcing the measure...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/honour-killings-un-islamic-fatwa-declares-in-wake-of-shafia-trial/article2326829/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_content=Google+Reader&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-National+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+National+News%29

Should we call it ‘honour killing’? No!
It's a false distancing of ourselves from a too-common crime: the murder of females

By Yasmin Jiwani and Homa Hoodfar, January 30, 2012, Montreal Gazette

The extensive media coverage of the Shafia trial and convictions raises important questions about how violence against women is framed in the media. Just as a photograph is framed by the photographer, so is the media’s framing of a particular issue; the focus of our attention is on what is in the picture only. Out of sight is the background we will never know. In the case of the Shafia murders, the media frame the story as an honour killing....

http://www.montrealgazette.com/story_print.html?id=6074266&sponsor

Pankh: Campaign against female foeticide
31.01.2012

Pankh Organises Signature Campaign Against Female Foeticide: Huge Turnout makes the event a Huge Success.

Pankh, a women rights organisation based in India, did a commendable job once again to uphold its stance of opposing all forms of Violence against women. This time it was in the form of a signature campaign, that was held at the Avadh Girls' Degree College, an Institution of higher education at Lucknow.

It was here that the girls were sensitised to the importance of womanhood and the need for controlling the growing menace of female foeticide that is creating lot of trouble in a country like India which is otherwise known for its veneration towards the Female forms of divinity. Dr. Sheba Rakesh, the Executive Director of Pankh stressed the need to awaken the masses towards such heinous atrocities which have large scale social ramifications in the form of human trafficking, prostitution, dowry and domestic violence and other forms of harassment, both emotional and sexual against womenfolk...

http://english.pravda.ru/society/sex/31-01-2012/120382-female_foeticide-0/

Understanding the dynamics of a 'crime of honour'
Dakshana Bascaramurty and Colin Freeze
Globe and Mail, Monday, Jan. 30, 2012

The murders of four women at the hands of their closest relatives may serve as a wakeup call for wider Canadian society to the social ills that those closer to traditionalist communities have long grappled with.

The convictions of Mohammad Shafia, his wife, Tooba Yahya, and his eldest son, Hamed, on Sunday followed a long trial in which evidence showed that teachers, police and social services saw repeated warning signs that the teenaged daughters of the family were at risk of life-threatening violence....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/understanding-the-dynamics-of-a-crime-of-honour/article2319090/

THERE'S NO HONOUR IN 'SHAMELESS MURDERS'
by Christie Blatchford, The Montreal Gazette, January 30, 2012

. . . It was, as the shy prosecutor Gerard Laarhuis said outside the lovely old Frontenac County courthouse, "a good day for Canadian justice. ( . . . ) This verdict sends a very clear message about our Canadian values and the core principles in a free and democratic society that all Canadians enjoy, and even visitors to Canada enjoy." The "visitors" reference was a kind and graceful nod to Rona Amir Mohammad, Shafia's unacknowledged other wife. Unlike the rest of the sprawling clan, she was brought to Canada as a domestic servant and was on a visitor's visa, its renewal held over her head like an axe ready to fall by her co-wife Yahya and Shafia . . .

At (the heart of this case), as prosecutors argued, were not only the three lost teens and Rona, but also the very notion of what is a girl. As Shafia once howled to Yahya, in what they imagined was the privacy of their minivan just days after their household had been almost halved: "Every night I used to think of myself as a cuckold. Every day I used to go and gather (her) from the arms of boys." If the question was downright creepy - why on Earth would any father ever feel like a cuckold? - the answer was far worse: Because, of course, that father believed he was the one who had absolute control of his daughters' sexuality . . .

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/There+honour+shameless+murders/6070834/story.html

'STOLEN BABIES' TRIAL AWAITS U.S. DOCUMENTS
By Kelly Hearn, Women's ENews, January 23, 2012

Buenos Aires, Argentina -- In a major trial here, the government is accusing 11 former leaders of the military junta of systematically appropriating infants belonging to some of the 30,000 citizens who were killed for being deemed "leftist subversives" during the so-called Dirty War from 1976 to 1983.

The trial, expected to close this year, is being closely watched by a group of women now in their 80s or 90s, known as the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. For 30 years they have driven a very public effort to find stolen grandchildren and to bring their children's killers to justice. Now they are finding an ally in a (U.S.) Democratic Congressman named Maurice Hinchey, who (. . .) is seeking the declassification and release of CIA and Pentagon records that could help identify some of the missing grandchildren. "We know that many people at the time went to the U.S. embassy and gave testimony about what happened to them," said Estela Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers. "Thirty years have passed and we think it is time to release them" . . .

http://www.womensenews.org/story/the-world/120122/stolen-babies-trial-awaits-us-documents

HOPE FOR HAITI'S WOMEN
by Amanda Klasing, Human Rights Watch, January 17, 2012

It is easy to give up on Haiti reading through the litany of articles about where the country stands after two difficult years since the January 12, 2010 earthquake  . . .  Women's rights is one example of huge problems and work ahead, and yet it also shows why no one should give up on Haiti. Groundbreaking work is being done to promote the rights of women and girls -- who have suffered immeasurably in Haiti's disasters and instability -- through new legislation. Haiti's current criminal justice system does little to protect women and girls from rape and gender-based violence  . . . Rape survivors described brutal attacks and poor state health and justice system responses  . . .  Medical and judicial communities cannot agree on the necessary forms to record forensic medical evidence of rape. The penal code fails to encompass most forms of violence against women, and provides virtually no victim protection measures.

But this under-developed and unwieldy system is capable of change, and in fact, it's under way...

Excerpted from Huffington Post, see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amanda-klasing/haiti-women_b_1210382.html

THE NEW MUSLIM SUFFRAGETTES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
By Charlotte Rachael Proudman, The Independent, 18 January 2012

An increasing number of Muslim women activists 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. With heightened media sensitivity surrounding forced marriage, honour based violence and domestic violence we are all too aware of the suffering experienced by vulnerable and marginalised Muslim women. But we know little about the Muslim women activists who risk their lives to fight for the rights of oppressed Muslim women. These women are the New Muslim Suffragettes (NMS) of The United Kingdom...

Excerpted from The Independent, see:
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/18/the-new-muslim-suffragettes-of-the-united-kingdom/

FORCE-FED AND BEATEN – LIFE FOR WOMEN IN JAIL
New UN guidelines are being flouted worldwide
by Molly Guinness, The Independent, 18 December 2011

Female prisoners around the world are being subjected to body cavity searches, beatings and force-feeding, are held in padded cells, shackled during childbirth, and made to work in chain gangs. Some of the worst conditions are in developing countries, but there are also serious abuses and overcrowding in Europe and North America. These are the major findings of a survey by The Independent on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of United Nations rules governing the treatment of women in prison. The "Bangkok Rules" make stipulations about contact with families, gender-specific healthcare, psychological treatment and hygiene, and they forbid strip searches in most circumstances. The guidelines were adopted on 21 December 2010, but reports from around the world show they are being widely flouted...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/forcefed-and-beaten--life-for-women-in-jail-6278849.html

Call for change in law to protect prostitutes from violent crime
Brothel attacks prompt debate whether police priority should be prosecuting sex workers or catching dangerous criminals
by Owen Bowcott, guardian.co.uk, January 16, 2012

Decriminalising prostitution could mean better safety and improved relations with police for sex workers. A series of gang attacks on brothels in east London has triggered calls for changes to the prostitution laws after victims who reported knifepoint robberies said they ended up being threatened with prosecution.

A police investigation has been launched as senior Labour and Conservative members of the London assembly and the English Collective of Prostitutes allege that violent crime is being given a lower priority than less serious sex offences.

The attacks highlight the growing debate over calls for New Zealand's pioneering decriminalisation of sex work to be considered – an approach recently supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/16/change-law-prostitutes-crime-violent?fb_action_ids=10151156344015123&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline

IN JERUSALEM, WOMEN ARE VOICELESS AT A DECIDEDLY WOMANLY EVENT
Patrick Martin, Jerusalem, Globe and Mail, January 10, 2012

The controversial exclusion of women from various settings in Israel because of pressure from ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders reached a new level this week with a major conference on gynecological advances that is permitting only males to address the audience. The conference on “Innovations in Gynecology/Obstetrics and Halacha [Jewish law]” is being held by the Puah Institute this Wednesday in Jerusalem. It will include such topics as “ovary implants,” “how to choose a suitable contraceptive pill” and “intimacy during rocket attacks,” in which there are many qualified female professionals, but none will be permitted to speak, at least not from the podium. Women are allowed in the audience, in a section separate from men...

Excerpted from The Globe and Mail, see:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/worldview/in-jerusalem-women-are-voiceless-at-a-decidedly-womanly-event/article2297159/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=World&utm_content=2297159

In US more women were raped last year than smoke cigarettes

http://www.care2.com/causes/in-us-more-women-were-raped-last-year-than-smoke-cigarettes.html

***Abolitionists of the prostitution system: who we are, what we want!***

The following manifesto was published January 5 on the Le MONDE.FR website:

http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2012/01/05/abolitionnistes-du-systeme-prostitueur-ce-que-nous-sommes-ce-que-nous-voulons_1625629_3232.html

By Mouvement du nid, Collectif féministe contre le viol, Fédération nationale solidarité femmes, Centre national d'information sur les droits des femmes, and many other feminist organizations

On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/trisha-baptie/fantastic-abolitionist-manifest-by-french-feminists/10150567574038933

The Penn State Scandal:
Connect the Dots Between Child Abuse and The Sexual Assault of Women on Campus
By Claire Potter, November 10, 2011

As you absorb the news about the key people at Penn State who ought to have reported what they knew of coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged assaults on little boys, please keep one thing in mind. Penn State’s cover-up is embedded in the interest it, and all universities, have in keeping many forms of sexual violence and sexual harassment a private, internal matter. The mistake Penn State made was, in many ways, a simple category error: they mistook these pubescent boys for women. They forgot that children occupy a very different status in the law than do the female students, faculty and staff who are most frequently the object of unwanted sexual attention and/or violence. If a college woman doesn’t file a rape charge, usually very quickly, the crime doesn’t exist. Delay the report by as little as 24 hours and the chances of even an internal judicial proceeding (much less an arrest and a trial) diminish dramatically. Universities substitute private hearings, counseling and mediation for legal proceedings: while women often choose this route, rather than filing felony charges against their assailants, it doesn’t always serve their interest to do so. But it always serves the interests of the institution not to have such cases go to court....

http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/tenuredradical/2011/11/1401/

Israelis protest ultra-Orthodox treatment of women
The Associated Press, Dec 27, 2011

Thousands of people in Israel rallied against religious extremism on Tuesday, protesting against the way some ultra-Orthodox Jews treat girls and women.

Protesters held signs reading, "Free Israel from religious coercion," and "Stop Israel from becoming Iran."

Ultra-Orthodox extremists want to impose a number of restrictions, which include not allowing women to be interviewed on radio stations, not accepting pictures of women in newspapers or billboards, and demanding women sit at the back of the bus....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/12/27/ultar-orthodox-jews-israel-protest.html

Native Women's Association of Canada: Press Release – For Immediate Release

UN Will Conduct Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada
Ottawa, ON, December 13, 2011

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The Committee, composed of 23 independent experts from around the world, is the UN’s main authority on women’s human rights. The Committee’s decision was announced today by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)...

http://www.nwac.ca/media/release/13-12-11

15 tips for protecting your privacy online
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/12/06/f-online-privacy-tips.html

Juárez: Protocol for missing women scrutinized
by Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera, El Paso Times, 11/28/2011 

JUAREZ -- The banners plastered through the streets of the city's downtown show empty quinceañera dresses and fitted clothes floating in the air: the forms are there but not the women.

The posters are part of a new campaign by the state of Chihuahua to prevent and report missing women in Juárez, a problem that has tormented the city for two decades and continued behind the veil of generalized violence in the last four years...

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_19423144

New website for families with missing persons
by Jordan Maxwell, Portage la Prairie News, November 29, 2011

A new tool has been devised to assist families in the search for their loved ones.

The Coalition of Families of Missing and Murdered Women in Manitoba and Ka Ni Kanichihk Inc., an Aboriginal non-profit corporation, have partnered to launch the Manitoba Toolkit to Assist Families of Missing Persons and Persons at Risk, a website which offers critical information to help families in the first 24 to 48 hours when a person's gone missing...

Manitoba Toolkit to Assist Families of Missing Persons and Persons at Risk: www.kanikanichihk.ca/?page_id=761

Female RCMP officers’ accounts of sexual harassment in force prompt new hotline
by Suzanne Fournier, The Province, November 25, 2011

A national hotline for female RCMP officers and others affected by sexual harassment or violence at the hands of police will be up and running by Monday.

One phone call from a female officer, anywhere in Canada, will connect her to “confidential emotional support,” ensure she is safe and refer her to “legal remedies including class action lawyers,” Angela Marie MacDougall of Battered Women’s Support Services said Thursday.

MacDougall said BWSS, which will staff the service, has had numerous calls since “courageous” RCMP officers like Catherine Galliford and Krista Carle spoke out....

MacDougall said the hotline will be available for women RCMP members during business hours at 1-855-687-1868.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Female+RCMP+officers+accounts+sexual+harassment+force+prompt+hotline/5763916/story.html#ixzz1eq1TDYnB

TOPLESS UKRAINIAN ACTIVIST DETAINED IN VATICAN AFTER PROTESTING UNDER POPE'S BALCONY
By Brian Whitmore, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. November 10, 2011

A member of the Ukrainian women's rights group Femen was detained in the Vatican on November 6 after holding a topless protest against the Roman Catholic Church's "misogynist policies" under the balcony of Pope Benedict XVI. Wearing tight black jeans and a see-through black top, Oleksandra Shevchenko managed to slip into St. Peter's Square in the heart of the Vatican. She held up a placard demanding "Freedom For Women," struck provocative poses, chanted "Freedom! Freedom! We Are Free!" in Italian, and removed her shirt before being surrounded and detained by police. Two other Femen members were detained before they could reach the square, Interfax reported.

Shevchenko's protest took place just moments after the pontiff had delivered his traditional Sunday blessing to pilgrims in the square. A statement on the group's website said the stunt was a "protest against papal patriarchal propaganda," which "imposes medieval ideas about women on the world." ...

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/153039/topless_ukrainian_activist_detained_in_vatican_after_protesting_under_pope%27s_balcony?page=entire

Second prostitute-support group running out of money
Robert Matas, VANCOUVER— Nov. 15, 2011

A support group for prostitutes that has been a fixture of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 17 years will run out of money in three weeks.

Providing Alternatives Counselling and Education Society, also known as PACE, is the second well-established organization led by former prostitutes to reveal this week that programs for some of the most vulnerable people in the city’s poorest neighbourhood may be discontinued this spring...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/second-prostitute-support-group-running-out-of-money/article2237563/

Vancouver prostitutes to lose agency that helps them leave trade
Robert Matas
VANCOUVER— Globe and Mail Nov. 14, 2011

The only agency in Vancouver dedicated to helping women leave prostitution will be forced to close its doors this spring as a result of the “Wal-Martization” of the B.C. government’s employment programs, says the executive director of PEERS Vancouver.

The provincial government is in the process of revamping its employment programs to provide accessible one-stop centres to move people from training to jobs as quickly as possible. The new centres are expected to replace numerous non-profit groups in communities across the province...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/bc-politics/for-prostitutes-seeking-to-leave-the-trade-a-little-less-help/article2236223/

Over It
by Eve Ensler, Huffington Post, 11/11/11

I am over rape.

I am over rape culture, rape mentality, rape pages on Facebook.

I am over the thousands of people who signed those pages with their real names without shame.

I am over people demanding their right to rape pages, and calling it freedom of speech or justifying it as a joke...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/over-it_b_1089013.html

'YOU ARE THE NOW OF NOW!' THE FUTURE OF (ONLINE) FEMINISMby Courtney E. Martin, The Nation, November 2, 2011

In late February of this year, Lamar Outdoor Advertising unveiled a billboard on Sixth Ave and Watts in SoHo, not coincidentally right around the corner from a Planned Parenthood, featuring the picture of a young black girl and the words, “The most dangerous place for African Americans is in the Womb.” The ad was sponsored by the Texas anti-choice group Life Always. An editor at Feministing posted about the billboard on February 24, featuring an excerpt from an inspired statement by SisterSong and the Trust Black Women Partnership, along with the contact information for Lamar. Readers expressed their outrage, and the billboard was taken down the very same day...

http://www.thenation.com/signupad/164338?destination=article/164338/you-are-now-now-future-online-feminism

Women bloggers call for a stop to 'hateful' trolling by misogynist men
Anonymous trolls regularly threaten female writers with rape

The Observer, Sunday 6 November 2011

Crude insults, aggressive threats and unstinting ridicule: it's business as usual in the world of website news commentary – at least for the women who regularly contribute to the national debate.

The frequency of the violent online invective – or "trolling" – levelled at female commentators and columnists is now causing some of the best known names in journalism to hesitate before publishing their opinions. As a result, women writers across the political spectrum are joining to call for a stop to the largely anonymous name-calling...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/05/women-bloggers-hateful-trolling?newsfeed=true

The Scars of Prostitution
The Star October 31, 2011

The challenges to prostitution and its harms have entailed claims of abuse and exploitation on behalf of some, victimization and subordination by others. As with other sweeping claims, such as alleging that capitalism is inherently exploitative or that many people in industrialized countries benefited from colonialism, this one is highly contested.

The Swedish parliament in 1998 recognized prostitution to be a form of sex inequality related to gender-based violence, which typically exploited and harmed the prostituted person, and thus decided to criminalize purchasers while decriminalizing prostituted persons. The harms were understood to be intrinsic to prostitution. In taking this action, Sweden rejected the route taken by nations that legalized certain forms of prostitution on the grounds that the harms could be controlled and alleviated...

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1079125--the-scars-of-prostitution?bn=1

COMMONWEALTH TACKLES FORCED MARRIAGE

(October 30, 2011, Agence France Presse, PERTH, Australia) — Commonwealth leaders Sunday placed renewed emphasis on tackling forced marriage as they wrapped up a three-day summit at which they committed to empowering girls and women. In a communique pitched towards overhauling the 54-nation bloc to make it more relevant, the grouping said it would "promote the implementation of measures to tackle early and forced marriage"...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jTyErMKygvcp0o6Tti27MWjP8DCg?docId=CNG.5f90b5d1553ad0aa1cc0c370085cac75.a1

GIRLS EQUAL IN BRITISH THRONE SUCCESSION
28 October 2011
Sons and daughters of any future UK monarch will have equal right to the throne, after Commonwealth leaders agreed to change succession laws.The leaders of the 16 Commonwealth countries where the Queen is head of state unanimously approved the changes at a summit in Perth, Australia. It means a first-born daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge would take precedence over younger brothers. The ban on the monarch being married to a Roman Catholic was also lifted...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15492607

New GPS Device To Help Warn Domestic Violence Victims About Abusers
If Attacker Enters Area He Or She Shouldn't Be, The Cavalry Will Be Notified
November 1, 2011

Staten Island will begin using the devices to keep track of abusers starting next year

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — It’s a tragedy that happens all too often.  The victim of domestic violence gets a restraining order against her abuser, only to be beaten or killed when that order is ignored...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/11/01/new-gps-device-to-help-warn-domestic-violence-victims-about-abusers/

Free Violence Response Hotline Launches in Haiti to Support Victims of Sexual Assault
by Ximena Ramirez, October 30, 2011

It’s incredible how far technology has come and how many innovative ways we can use it for good. Take for example the “Fight Back” phone app that was recently launched in New Delhi to help women fend off potential attackers with their phone. Now in Haiti an organization called Digital Democracy, a New York-based non-profit working globally to empower marginalized communities to use technology to fight for their human rights, is launching the only phone-based emergency response system dedicated to rape and sexual assault. With KOFAVIV, the Commission for Women Victims for Victims, the two have designed, tested, and launched the Call Center which will serve like the American 911 system for reporting emergencies.  The Call Center, the first of its kind in Haiti, can be reached by dialing 572...  

http://www.care2.com/causes/free-violence-response-hotline-launches-in-haiti-to-support-victims-of-sexual-assault.html#ixzz1cNU1ZllN

Experts urge Quebec-led registry
By Max Harrold, THE GAZETTE October 27, 2011

MONTREAL - A Quebec long-gun registry could be an effective tool for police, and might even start a trend of other provinces setting up co-operative long-gun registries, experts say...

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Experts+urge+Quebec+registry/5619397/story.html

Yemen women burn veils to protest violence by government supporters
by Hamoud Mouanassar, Agence France-Presse, Oct 26, 2011

SANAA – More than 20 Yemeni civilians, government troops and dissident soldiers were killed in overnight violence after President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s latest pledge to step down, medics said on Wednesday...

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/26/yemen-women-burn-veils-to-protest-violence-by-government-supporters/

Women May Get Right To Know If a Boyfriend Has History of Violence
Police can already reveal a man's violent past, but only if there is an urgent need to prevent crime
United Kingdom, Paul Cahalan, 26 October 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/women-may-get-right-to-know-if-a-boyfriend-has-history-of-violence-2376009.html

There’s An App For That: Fight Back App Protects Women in New Delhi
by Ximena Ramirez, October 22, 2011

It seems that these days there’s an app for just about anything. With just the click of a button, women in New Delhi will soon be able to fend off potential attackers with their phones...

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/theres-an-app-for-that-fight-back-app-protects-women-in-new-delhi.html#ixzz1bchoioKD

Monumentos 'se pintan' de rosa contra el Cáncer de Mama
miércoles 19 de octubre de 2011

Edificios emblemáticos y monumentos de Hidalgo y Jalisco se iluminaron de rosa para recordar a las mujeres que deben realizarse estudios de mastografía o autoexploración a fin de prevenir el cáncer de mama, enfermedad por la que cada día mueren 12 mujeres en el país...

http://defendiendoalasmujeres.blogspot.com/2011/10/monumentos-se-pintan-de-rosa-contra-el.html

THE DEATH ROW WIDOWS OF KABUL
The Independent, 20 October 2011

For years, Gul Guncha had put up with her violent and abusive husband. He raped his seven-year-old daughter, then married her off to an old man, who also raped her. He sold their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter for 200,000 afghanis (£2,600) and was attempting to find a buyer for their other baby girl. He started beating Gul Guncha and the children when she asked the community for help. But their help was no use – and, one day, she snapped. As he beat them yet again, she grabbed a metal pole used to extract hot bread from the kiln, and clubbed him to death ( . . . )

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-death-row-widows-of-kabul-2372975.html

SOMALIA – DEATH THREATS FAIL TO STOP WOMEN`S BASKETBALL
BY Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

MOGADISHU, Oct 18 (IPS) - When Al-Shabaab militants called the Somali national women’s basketball team captain, Suweys Ali Jama, and told her she had two options: to be killed or to stop playing basketball, she decided that neither was really an option at all. "I will only die when my life runs out – no one can kill me but Allah … I will never stop my profession while I am still alive," Jama told IPS. "Now, I am a player, but even if I retire I hope to be a coach - I will stop basketball only when I perish," Jama said. The Al-Qaeda-linked military group controls large parts of Somalia and occupied almost half of the country’s capital, Mogadishu, until its surprise withdrawal on Aug. 6. However, the group’s presence in the city remains as Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack on the capital on Oct. 4, which killed at least 70 people...

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105501

CAMILA VALLEJO – LATIN AMERICA'S 23-YEAR-OLD NEW REVOLUTIONARY FOLK HERO
Chile has been engulfed by student protests – and their young leader has huge public support in her fight against the elite - by Jonathan Franklin in Santiago, guardian.co.uk, 8 October 2011

As the Friday afternoon sun dipped towards the horizon, some students at the University of Chile played ping pong or football and couples lounged and kissed in the last warmth of the day. But others had more serious matters on their minds: the wildly popular student uprising that has transformed the nation's political agenda...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/08/camila-vallejo-latin-america-revolutionary?fb=optOut

HELPING ABUSED CANADIAN WOMEN COSTS $7 BILLION
UPI, Oct. 11, 2011 at 5:51 PM VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 11 (UPI)

It costs Canadian taxpayers and charities about $7 billion a year to help women who leave their abusive partners, researchers calculated. Professor of nursing Colleen Varcoe of the University of British Columbia colleagues and comprehensively identified the economic costs for services used by women who leave a violent partner...

ttp://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/10/11/Helping-abused-Canadian-women-costs-7B/UPI-58331318369893/?spt=hs&or=hn

YEMEN: THOUSANDS OF WOMEN DEMONSTRATE, DOZENS INJURED
by Mohammed Jamjoom and Hakim Almasmari, CNN, October 10, 2011

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Days after a prominent Yemeni human rights activist became the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, dozens of women were injured after gangs attacked during a march in her honor, witnesses in the city of Taiz said Monday. Thousands of women gathered in the southern Yemeni city to celebrate Tawakkol Karman's honor Sunday. Demonstrators also called on the international community to support a revolution in Yemen, witnesses said...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/10/world/meast/yemen-women-injured/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_mostpopular+%28RSS%3A+Most+Popular%29

Why the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry fails
By Harsha Walia, October 11, 2011, rabble.ca

Over 200 women blocked traffic and called for a 'new fair, just, and inclusive inquiry that centres the voices and experiences and leadership of women, particularly Indigenous women, in the DTES.

The very same grassroots community of women who have been advocating for a public inquiry into the deaths and disappearances of women in the Downtown Eastside for over two decades are now denouncing the B.C. Missing Women's Commission of Inquiry as an insult to the women of this Vancouver community...

http://rabble.ca/news/2011/10/why-missing-womens-commission-inquiry-fails

Changes in California Domestic Violence Laws

As of September 14th, a new lawin California allows victims of domestic violence to require landlords to change their locks within 24 hours of receiving a written request and a copy of a restraining order or a police report that is no more than 180 days old...

FACEBOOK IS FINE WITH HATE SPEECH, AS LONG AS IT'S DIRECTED AT WOMEN:
The social network's 'jokes in the pub' analogy, defending its decision not to take down pro-rape pages, is offensive
by Cath Elliott, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 October 2011 ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/04/facebook-hate-speech-women-rape

Petawawa agrees to host the women's monument

By SEAN CHASE SCHASE@THDAILYOBSERVER.CA
PETAWAWA - The town has agreed to host the site of a monument to remember area women abused or killed as a result of domestic violence...

http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3310413

An Open Letter from Black Women to SlutWalk Organizers

We, the undersigned women of African descent and anti-violence advocates, activists, scholars, organizational and spiritual leaders wish to address the SlutWalk. First, we commend the organizers on their bold and vast mobilization to end the shaming and blaming of sexual assault victims for violence committed against them by other members of society. We are proud to be living in this moment in time where girls and boys have the opportunity to witness the acts of extraordinary women resisting oppression and challenging the myths that feed rape culture everywhere...

Read full text: http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?article3992

D.C.’s violent crime down in 2010, but rapes increased by 25 percent
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dcs-violent-crime-down-in-2010-but-rapes-increased-by-25-percent/2011/09/19/gIQABPnXgK_story.html

World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development
The World Bank has just issued this year`s report. This link is to a full copy of the report in English as well as to shorter versions in French and other languages:
http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/EXTWDR2012/0,,contentMDK:22999750~pagePK:64167689~piPK:64167673~theSitePK:7778063,00.html

NEW FACTS ON THE GENDER GAP FROM THE WORLD BANK
The Wall Street Journal has the following summary, September 18, 2011
The World Bank’s latest World Development Report, which focuses on gender equality around the world, offers some stark facts about how women and girls fare in developing countries despite decades of progress...
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/09/18/new-facts-on-the-gender-gap-from-the-world-bank/

Walk 4 Justice concludes cross-Canada journey on Parliament Hill
rabble staff, September 19, 2011
Hundreds gathered on Parliament Hill today to remember and demand justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women at the conclusion of the 4th annual cross-country Walk 4 Justice...
 http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble-staff/2011/09/walk-4-justice-concludes-cross-canada-journey-demand-justice-mis

WOMEN'S 'SEX STRIKE' ENDS FIGHTING IN MINDANAO VILLAGES - UNHCR
From ABS-CBN News, September 16, 2011
MANILA, Philippines - Women ended armed clashes in 2 Mindanao villages by not having sex with their husbands unless the men laid down their weapons, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The success of the "sex strike" allowed families to start rebuilding their communities, the UN's refugee agency said.
Watch the UNHCR's video report on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFR-7OuUPKs

Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality
Discussion in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review by Catharine A. McKinnon of the ideology behind current "sex work" discourse:
http://harvardcrcl.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/MacKinnon.pdf

Dawson shooting victim wants stronger gun laws:
Semi-automatic rifles still legal 5 years after Dawson College shooting
CBC News Posted: Sep 12, 2011
Hayder Khadim, with the parents of Dawson shooting victim Anastasia De Sousa in the background, speaks at a news conference in 2006, calling on the government to keep Canada's gun registry. Hayder Khadim, with the parents of Dawson shooting victim Anastasia De Sousa in the background, speaks at a news conference in 2006, calling on the government to keep Canada's gun registry. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/09/12/quebec-dawson-anniversary-gun-laws.html

Opinion: Denial of justice at the Missing Women Commission more than a shame to the country
By Catherine Morris and Gail Davidson, for the Vancouver Sun September 12, 2011

The refusal of the BC government to provide representation to groups granted standing at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry is more than a national shame. It’s part of Canada’s internationally known pattern of international human rights violations against women and indigenous people...

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Opinion+Denial+justice+Missing+Women+Commission+more+than+shame+country/5389332/story.html#ixzz1XncIiVjR

Women seek to 'take back' trail at Westwood Lake in weekend event
By Walter Cordery, Daily News, Nanaimo BC, September 12, 2011

... Angry at the ongoing incidents of groping, accosting of women and men exposing themselves to women who walk around the trail at Westwood Lake, Haven organized its first 'Take Back the Track' event...

http://www.canada.com/Women+seek+take+back+trail+Westwood+Lake+weekend+event/5387385/story.html

Good News: It Pays to Speak Up About Sexist Remarks
by Annie U., Care2, September 9, 2011

...The good news, however, is that confronting men about their sexist comments actually makes them treat you better. According to a study from Loyola University Chicago that was mentioned in the Forbes Woman article, men who are confronted for sexism are actually nicer to and report liking the woman who confronted them more than those who are not confronted.  The men who were confronted also reduced their use of sexist language...

http://www.care2.com/causes/good-news-it-pays-to-speak-up-about-sexist-remarks.html

Indian women now reporting more violent crime, study shows
Stephanie Nolen, DELHI— Globe and Mail, September 5, 2011

There has been a huge spike in the level of violent crime reported against women in India in the past 18 years – and that’s good news, according to new research...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/indian-women-now-reporting-more-violent-crime-study-shows/article2153523/
ARE MEN CRAZY?
by Leslie Bennetts for Daily Beast,  September 1, 2011

... In an essay called “Supremacy Crimes,” Gloria Steinem noted that “hate crimes, violent and otherwise, are overwhelmingly committed by white men who are apparently straight. ... White males—usually intelligent, middle class, and heterosexual or trying desperately to appear so—also account for virtually all the serial, sexually motivated, sadistic killings, those characterized by stalking, imprisoning, torturing, and ‘owning’ victims in death.”  In trying to understand such depredations, Steinem added, “Our national self-examination is ignoring something fundamental, precisely because it’s like the air we breathe: the white male factor, the middle-class and heterosexual one, and the promise of superiority it carries... We will never reduce the number of violent Americans, from bullies to killers, without challenging the assumptions on which masculinity is based: that males are superior to females, that they must find a place in a male hierarchy, and that the ability to dominate someone is so important that even a mere insult can justify lethal revenge.”...

see full text at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/01/the-dsk-medical-defense.html

Woman Left Tied Up For 5 Hours After Police Show Up
by Shannon M., August 26, 2011

The Russell Williams case shocked and horrified Canadians, both in the grisly nature of the crimes — rape, humiliation and murder — as well as the identity of the perpetrator: a well-respected Colonel in the Canadian military, who at the time of the offenses was in charge of thousands at a military base and who had piloted planes carrying such dignitaries as the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence.

It turns out, however, that it was shocking in other ways: namely, the actions of the very police officers called to help Williams’ victims...

http://www.care2.com/causes/woman-left-tied-up-for-5-hours-after-police-show-up.html#ixzz1WSf75UqJ

Gun control groups slam Canada's stance at UN arms talks

Vancouver Sun (July 14, 2011) Canada has thrown a wrench into negotiations toward a United Nations arms trade treaty by proposing hunting rifles be exempted from the draft accord, gun control groups say.

But firearms advocates are praising the move, calling it evidence that the Harper government is on their side when it comes to gun control...

http://www.canada.com/news/control+groups+slam+Canada+stance+arms+talks/5105128/story.html#ixzz1Vs9Nzavs

JAILHOUSE PHONE CALLS REVEAL WHY DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS RECANT

ScienceDaily (Aug. 16, 2011) — A new study uses -- for the first time -- recorded jailhouse telephone conversations between men charged with felony domestic violence and their victims to help reveal why some victims decide not to follow through on the charges. Researchers listened to telephone conversations between 17 accused male abusers in a Washington state detention facility and their female victims, all of whom decided to withdraw their accusations of abuse. For each of the couples, the researchers analyzed up to about three hours of phone conversations...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110815101535.htm

Saudi beheading fuels backlash in Indonesia

The acrimonious rift between the birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and Indonesia, home to the largest community of his followers, even led to calls for a boycott of Mecca by hajj pilgrims.

The mood became so testy that when Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa announced that he had received an apology over the beheading from the Saudi ambassador in Jakarta, the kingdom’s usually mute embassy promptly issued a statement that accused the minister of lying...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/saudi-beheading-fuels-backlash-in-indonesia/2011/07/17/gIQAc7OU3I_story_1.html

Horror on Hell Island
UK & World News, Jul 24 2011 by Dean Rousewell, The People

THIS is the moment a survivor of the Norwegian massacre begged a crazed gunman not to kill him and was miraculously spared. Adrian Pracon, 21, told how he fell to his knees in front of Anders Breivik and screamed: Please, no, please...

http://www.people.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/2011/07/24/survivors-of-the-norway-atrocity-their-stories-102039-23292399/

Israeli scientists develop date-rape drug detector

The days of having to cart your cocktail to the ladies room may be over: two Israeli scientists say they have developed a sensor that can accurately detect date-rape drugs in drinks 100 percent of the time...

http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-scientists-develop-date-rape-drug-detector-173003431.html

The John Next Door
Newsweek, July 18, 2011 by Leslie Bennetts

The men who buy sex are your neighbors and colleagues. A new study reveals how the burgeoning demand for porn and prostitutes is warping personal relationships and endangering women and girls...

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/the-growing-demand-for-prostitution.html

Syrians protest violence with a vow to marry rape victims
by Sophia Jones, June 21, 2011
As the international community watches the Syrian crackdown in horror, Syrian security forces employ even more deadly means of intimidation and interrogation. Over ten thousand Syrian refugees are believed to be seeking refuge in Turkish refugee camps and border towns such as Jisr al-Shughur have become epicenters of mass graves, torture and now, rape. Four teenage sisters from the Syrian-Turkish border town of Sumeriya are now among the growing number of rape victims in Syria. Though reportedly recovering in a Turkish hospital, the women could face a lifetime of shame in a country where honor killings have been reported to restore a family's honor… http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/20/syrians_protest_violence_with_a_vow_to_marry_rape_victims

Factbox: The most dangerous countries for women

by Amy Fine Collins, Vanity Fair,  May 24, 2011

Even as celebrity activists such as Emma Thompson, Demi Moore, and Mira Sorvino raise awareness about commercial sex trafficking, survivor Rachel Lloyd publishes her memoir Girls Like Us, and the Senate introduces a new bipartisan bill for victim support, the problem proliferates across continents, in casinos, on streets, and directly into your mobile device. And, as Amy Fine Collins shows, human trafficking is much closer to home than you think; victims, younger than ever, are just as likely to be the homegrown American girl next door as illegally imported foreigners…

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/05/sex-trafficking-201105?printable=true#ixzz1NbS1g1MR

SAUDIS ARREST WOMAN LEADING RIGHT-TO-DRIVE CAMPAIGN

By Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times, May 23, 2011
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The government of Saudi Arabia moved swiftly to extinguish a budding protest movement of women claiming the right to drive, a campaign inspired by uprisings across the Arab world demanding new freedoms but at risk Monday of foundering.

Manal al-Sharif, 32, one of the campaign organizers, was detained Sunday in the eastern city of Dammam for up to five days on charges of disturbing public order and inciting public opinion by twice driving in a bid to press her cause, said her lawyer, Adnan al-Saleh ( . . . )

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/world/middleeast/24saudi.html

Battle over condoms enters Philippine Congress

May 18, 2011, by HRVOJE HRANJSKI
Associated Press MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The president says he is ready to face excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church for advocating free access to condoms... The issue pits the powerful and conservative Catholic establishment, which says contraceptives are as sinful as abortions, against reformers who want more openness about condoms and other birth control in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation to slow population growth and help prevent disease.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_PHILIPPINES_CONTRACEPTIVESSITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-18-01-51-42

Missing In India - Six Million Females

Posted by Judy Molland, May 24, 2011, Care2

Women in India are increasingly aborting their second child if they know it to be a girl and they already have a daughter, according to a study published today in the Lancet. ...

http://www.care2.com/causes/womens-rights/blog/missing-in-india-six-million-females/

Slutwalk: To March or Not to March

by Harsha Wallia, Rabble
Since April, when thousands marched in a Slutwalk in Toronto in response to a police officer telling students that the best way to avoid getting raped was to avoid dressing like a "slut," Slutwalks have spread across cities in Canada and the U.S. to the U.K. and Australia...
http://rabble.ca/news/2011/05/slutwalk-march-or-not-march

So What, I'm a Slut

The Tyee, by Katie Hislop, May 13 2011
When a Toronto police officer controversially advised women to "stop dressing like sluts" earlier this year, suggesting preventing sexual assault was a woman's responsibility, he probably didn't dream his careless remarks would spark Slutwalk marches worldwide-- including in Vancouver, which is holding it's own demonstration against victim-blaming on May 15...

http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/05/13/SlutWalk/

Reasons I Will Not Go On The Slutwalk

Sisyphe, by Rebecca Mott, May 6 2011
Slutwalk can appear to be a strong feminist statement, but for me as an exited prostituted woman, it feels a negative way to approach male violence against all women and girls. I do not believe that reclaiming the word "Slut" does anything to say to violent men that their behaviour is out of order, rather it plays into their hands...

http://sisyphe.org/spip.php?article3876

Slutwalks Don't Cause Rape, Rapists Do: Why "Slutwalks" are Sweeping the World

Alternet by Sarah Sletzer, May 11, 2011
The idea behind the Slutwalks is simple, yet so often fails to get through: rape is rape, no matter what the victim wears, says or does...

http://www.alternet.org/story/150906/sluts_don%27t_cause_rape,_rapists_do:_why_%27slutwalks%27_are_sweeping_the_world?page=entire

Slutwalks sparks worldwide protest movement

SlutWalk, the in-your-face response to violence against women that began with a march in Toronto, has gone viral, inspiring plans for similar protests in more than 60 cities around the world and setting off a debate among feminists about using loaded language even if it brings huge attention to their cause...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/slutwalk-sparks-worldwide-protest-movement/article2017672/

We're Sluts, Not Feminists. Wherein my relationship with Slutwalk gets rocky

May 7, 2011 | Posted by Meghan Murphy

http://www.feminisms.org/2585/were-sluts-not-feminists-wherein-my-relationship-with-slutwalk-gets-rocky/

Mexican Women March For Rights, Mourn Slain Activists

Mexico City, Inter Press Service, Thursday, April 14, 2011
For the first time, Mexico has a female attorney general - the highest post ever reached by a woman in this country. But elation at this achievement is overshadowed by grief over the brutal murders of women police chiefs and activists, and the persecution endured by the family of another woman who was killed in 2010...
http://www.globalissues.org/news/2011/04/14/9275

Murder rates affect IQ tests scores: study

http://www.health.am/ab/more/murder-rates-affect-iq-tests-scores/

HARPER PLANS TO WIN MAJORITY USING WOMEN VOTERS
A Brief Chronological Account of the Erosion of Women’s Rights Under the Tories
http://clearpolitics.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/harper-majority-using-women.pdf

Women in India: The long road from purdah to power
Stephanie Nolen Mogara Kala, Rajasthan— From the Globe and Mail, Mar. 21, 2011
The first time Mumal Barupal went to a meeting of her village council, she sat on the floor, off to the side of the benches occupied by the other members, in purdah – her face completely veiled by the end of her sari.
Then she ran the meeting: She was the newly elected mayor....
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/women-in-india-the-long-road-from-purdah-to-power/article1950957/

The Impact of Sex Selection and Abortion in China, India and South Korea
ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2011) —
In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110314132244.htm

Mexican women protest against ‘femicide’ and militarization
QUERETARO, MEXICO (BNO NEWS) — Mexican women took to the streets Tuesday to mark the 100th International Women’s Day and protest against ‘femicide,’ and the militarization of the country, La Jornada reported. Some 100 members of various organizations defending women’s rights marched through the main streets of Querétaro in central Mexico to demand “not one more death in the country.” They remembered slain activist Marisela Escobedo with pink crosses and called on Mexican authorities to criminalize female homicides, also called ‘femicides’. ...

http://news.rickey.org/mexican-women-protest-against-femicide-and-militarization/2599

Sara Ruddick Dies at 76; Pondered the Nature of Mothering
Sara Ruddick, whose 1989 book, “Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace,” laid the groundwork for a feminist approach to understanding and analyzing the practices and intellectual disciplines involved in rearing children, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 76...
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/us/23ruddick.html

Changing the Long-Form Census –
Its Impact on Women’s Equality in Canada
https://communitydata-donneescommunautaires.ca/node/7034

International Anti-Street Harassment Day - March 20, 2011
Street harassment is something most women deal with year-round, but, without fail, each spring the warmer weather and longer daylight hours bring an increase in street harassment...
http://stopstreetharassment.com/ending/NationalAntiStreetHarassmentDay.htm

BOTSWANA PARLIAMENT'S SPEAKER A WELL-LOVED WOMAN
by Ziggy Mogopodi, IPS News

GABORONE, Mar 11, 2011 - It would have been hard for a teenaged Margaret Nnananyana Nasha to imagine that she would grow up to become one of the most powerful figures in Botswana's government. In the early 1960s, as the country made the transition to independence, there were no women in Botswana's government. Today, Nasha is the first female Speaker of the National Assembly and is among the three most powerful citizens of the country ( . . . )

Excerpted from InterPress Service, see full text at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54814

Feminist lawyer outlines Swedish prostitution success

Public meeting in Vancouver coincides with International Women’s Day
By Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier March 7, 2011
Read more: http://www.vancourier.com/Feminist+lawyer+outlines+Swedish+prostitution+success/4398890/story.html#ixzz1GLXnchG5

Canadian courts overriding immigration officials on deportation of fearful women

OTTAWA — The parallels in the five refugee cases are striking. All feature women seeking to remain in Canada because of well-founded fears for their safety in their home countries.

All had their applications rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board or officers of Citizenship and Immigration Canada even though, in 1993, Canada became the first country in the world to establish formal guidelines for refugee claims by women facing gender-related persecution...

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Canadian+courts+overriding+immigration+officials+deportation+fearful+women/4358976/story.html

Human Rights Report Confirms Rapes by Security Guards at Barrick Mine in Papua New Guinea

(Ottawa - February 1, 2011) A report released today by Human Rights Watch confirms allegations of gang rapes and other human rights abuses by security guards of Barrick Gold's Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This important report represents but the latest attempt to raise public awareness about these long standing abuses at the mine. Until now, Barrick and the personnel of the PJV mine have responded to numerous credible attempts to alert the company to the abuses of its security personnel with denial and, frequently, by attempting to discredit those who raised the issues...

http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/human-rights-report-confirms-rapes-security-guards-barrick-mine-papua-new-guinea

Italian women march against Berlusconi

Feb. 14, 2011: More than 100,000 Italian women and their supporters turned out across the country to protest against Premier Silvio Berlusconi, saying his dalliances with young women humiliate degrade female dignity.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/italian-women-march-against-berlusconi/article1906116/

New UN Women’s head lays out 100-day action plan

24 January 2011 – The head of the new United Nations agency promoting women’s rights and full participation in global affairs laid out a 100-day action plan today, embracing a full spectrum of issues from supporting national partners to promoting coherence within the UN system.

“Women’s strength, women’s industry, women’s wisdom are humankind’s greatest untapped resource,” the Executive Director oof UN Women Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, told the first regular session of the agency’s executive board. “The challenge then for UN Women is to show our diverse constituencies how this resource can be effectively tapped in ways that benefit us all.” ...

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37364&Cr=women&Crl

SOUTH SUDAN, Women Dream of Independence, by Rosebell Kagumire

KAMPALA, Jan 13, 2011 (IPS) - John Garang, the revered late leader of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, once said that women are the "the poorest of the poor and the marginalised of the marginalised". As the reality of an independent South Sudan approaches, the region's women have vowed they will not remain second class citizens.

Margaret Michael Modi, the head of women’s affairs in Central Equatoria State, cast her vote on the first day.
"The first day (of the vote) we did not sleep. I went to the polling station and women were crying as they cast their vote," she told IPS over the phone from the southern capital, Juba.
"For us the separation will be liberation. For so long, we were subjected to Islamic laws which limited our freedom in most ways, and coupled with the traditional values of the south, [women] remained at the bottom of society." ...

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54116

Advocates doubtful of B.C. missing women’s inquiry

The Canadian Press, Thursday Jan. 20, 2011

VANCOUVER — Women in the sex trade have died around Bernie Williams as long as she can remember.

Her mother was murdered in 1977, her two older sisters were slain in the early 1980s. She remembers a close female relative vanishing as far back as the 1960s. Only nights ago, two more women she knew died.

With a strong, yet pained voice, Williams relayed her losses one after another Wednesday night to Wally Oppal, a former British Columbia attorney general and judge. Oppal is heading a public inquiry into the scores of women who were murdered and went missing in the province over the years around the turn of the millennium...

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110120/missing-women-inquiry-110120/

With grateful thanks for her summary, a quote from a Canadian feminist:
"One of the phony reasons the U.S. invoked to invade Iraq was to install a democratic government. The result: Christians who had lived there peacefully for millenia are being massacred and women's rights have regressed to a past century. Don't expect anything better in Afghanistan."

2011 LOOKS GRIM FOR PROGRESS ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN IRAQ
Shashank Bengali and Sahar Issa, McClatchy Newspapers, December 31, 2010

BAGHDAD— When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki introduced what he called a national partnership government two weeks ago, he included allies and adversaries, Arabs and Kurds, Shiite Muslims and Sunnis. One group, however, was woefully under represented. Only one woman was named toMaliki's 42-member cabinet, sparking an outcry in a country that once was a beacon for women's rights in the Arab world and adding to an ongoing struggle over the identity of the new Iraq.
Whether this fledgling nation becomes a liberal democracy or an Islamist-led patriarchy might well be judged by the place it affords its women...

Full story: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/12/31/106043/new-iraqi-government-seen-as-setback.html

IRELAND: Group favours new prostitution law
The Irish Times, January 3, 2011

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has welcomed a report in today's Irish Times that the Government is considering reforming its approach to combating sex trafficking and the exploitation of women in Ireland's sex industry.
The Government is considering radical new criminal legislation that would shift the Garda's approach to prostitution by making it illegal for a man to buy sex but not for a woman to sell it. The legislation would put the Garda's emphasis on prosecuting male clients rather than targeting women working as prostitutes...

Full story at http://3.ly/KWzk

Under Siege in War-Torn Somalia, a Doctor Holds Her Ground
The New York Times, January 7, 2011, by MOHAMMED IBRAHIM andJEFFREYGETTLEMAN

MOGADISHU, Somalia

On May 5, just after sunup, 750 militants surrounded Dr. Hawa Abdi’s hospital. Mama Hawa, as she is known, heard gunshots, looked out the window and saw she was vastly outnumbered. “Why are you running this hospital?” the gunmen demanded. “You are old. And you are a woman!”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/africa/08somalia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha22

Equality, a True Soul Food
The New York Times, January 1, 2011, by Nicholas Kristof

John Steinbeck observed that “a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing in mind at a time of such polarizing inequality that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/opinion/02kristof.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y?src=ISMR_AP_LI_LST_FB

Saudi women fight back
Saudi women distribute pamphlets and flyers as part of an environmental campaign to clean up the streets of the Red Seaport of Jeddah.

October 4, 2010
RIYADH - WOMEN in Saudi Arabia are fighting back against tribal traditions that make them hostage to the whims of their fathers and male guardians who alone can decide who their future husbands will be.
Faced with a lifetime of being forced to remain single, an increasing number of Saudi women, many of them university graduates with good jobs, are going to court to dispute their fathers' refusal to sign off on their marriages.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_586497.html

Imagining Urban Life Without Catcalls or Rape
Kanya D'AlmeidainterviewsINESALBERDI,ExecutiveDirector of UNIFEM

UNITED NATIONS,Nov 22, 2010 (IPS)-The U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) launched an ambitious new initiative to improve the safety and well being of women in five major cities Monday - New Delhi, India; Cairo, Egypt; Quito,E cuador; Kigali, Rwanda; and Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53631

Vancouver police launch program to combat violence against women
Globe and Mail, December 6, 2010
"... publicly acknowledged, and apologized for, their failure to act faster in missing women's cases filed in connection with serial killer Robert Pickton ..."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vancouver-police-launch-program-to-combat-violence-against-women/article1827515/

With more than 500 aboriginal women missing, action is overdue
Andre Picard, Globe and Mail, Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009
http://goo.gl/rsB1h

UK Muslim Group Condemns UN Vote Removing Sexual Orientation from Executions Resolution
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/association-of-british-muslims-calls-on-un-to-reverse-decision-to-remove-sexual-orientaiton-protections/

Life on the Street Deadly for Women Says YWCA
Canada's Rose Campaign Historic Association calls for a National Housing Strategy for Women
OTTAWA, Nov. 25 /CNW/ - Citing violence as the leading cause of women's homelessness, YWCA Canada, the country's single largest provider of shelter services for women, launched its annual Rose Campaign to end violence against women and girls today, saying living on the street kills women and calling for a National Housing Strategy for women that brings an end to women's homelessness...
http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2010/11/25/16314026.html

Antonia Zerbisias has written an article in The Toronto Star on Marilyn Waring:
“For me, the patriarchal economic paradigm is the theory and practice of economics that says that women’s unpaid work is not worth anything at all,’’ For example, according to the UN, in some parts of rura lAfrica, women have to use up to 85 percent of their daily caloric intake to fetch water. They suffer from anemia, water-borne diseases, as well as spinal and pelvic deformities from walking miles carrying heavy pots well before their families rise in the morning...
“If you’re not visible as a worker, then you’re not visible in the distribution of benefits.”...
“I see this mirrored in so many conservative governments in the post-recession period,’’ says Waring.“They want to rule according to ideology not according to evidence. So one of the most important things they can do is to obliterate evidences so they can operate on the basis of propaganda.’’ ...
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/882500--feminomics-calculating-the-value-of-women-s-work

CHINA'S CRACKDOWN ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING FREES 16,517 ABDUCTED WOMEN, CHILDREN
English.news.cn 2010-09-2001:24:40 BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -
Chinese police freed 10,621 women and 5,896 children who had been abducted for human trafficking as of September 6, since the Ministry of Public Security launched a crackdown on trafficking the crime in April last year.
Excerpted from Xinhua News, see full article at this address:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2010-09/20/c_13520175.htm

Sweden's fix: Jail the johns
September 30, 2010
Rather than punish those who are sold for sex, hold the purchasers of sex acts liable.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/

The honour killing files: One woman's nightmare, and a crime against humanity
Forced to marry her own rapist, Hanan now lives in terror of losing her son – and of being murdered by her family. Her case-history introduces a four-day series investigating a global scandal that destroys many thousands of lives every year.
By Robert Fisk in Amman
September 7, 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/one-http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/swedens-fix-jail-the-johns/article1735817/womans-nightmare-and-a-crime-against-humanity-2072200.html

LEAF Launches a New Website to Monitor Equality Rights
www.equalityrightscentral.com

Sex trafficking: a national disgrace
A review of Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking, by Benjamin Perrin
REVIEWED BY JULIAN SHER From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 4:30PM EDT
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/invisible-chains-canadas-underground-world-of-human-trafficking-by-benjamin-perrin/article1758620/