March Round Up – Abortion

15 April 2009 in Abortion Contraception, Global

Abortion laws in spotlight in Timor-Leste A call for more lenient abortion legislation in this predominantly Catholic country is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists. A working group convened by Fokupers (“Communication Forum for Women from the East”), a local NGO supported by others such as the Alola Foundation [see: http://alolafoundation.org/], has been [...]

March Round Up – IWD

15 April 2009 in Global, IWD

High time women are kept safe from violence say groups in Malaysia It is time for men to stand up to men, and the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) is not talking about fist fights here. Rather, it is against men who batter their wives, says WAO executive director Ivy Josiah. “I’m inspired by the ‘Ring [...]

Apologies – March Round Up

15 April 2009 in womensphere admin

Apologies for not keeping up with postings in March – a high level of work including our IWD blog – has meant we have got a bit behind. So the next few postings are a round up of some of the stories we did not post at the time. We have also added an RSS [...]

LA’s Untested Rape Kits Represent Lost Justice

2 April 2009 in Legal Police, North America, Publication, Rape and Sexual Assault

Human Rights Watch released a report Tuesday finding that Los Angeles County has at least 12,669 untested rape kits sitting in storage facilities. Sarah Tofte, a researcher for that study, calls it a case of major injustice to rape survivors. Catherine, who lives with her young son in Los Angeles, was awakened at midnight by [...]

‘Worse than the Taliban’ – new law rolls back rights for Afghan women

2 April 2009 in Asia, Family Marriage Partnership, Government, Rape and Sexual Assault, Violence Against Women

Hamid Karzai has been accused of trying to win votes in Afghanistan’s presidential election by backing a law the UN says legalises rape within marriage and bans wives from stepping outside their homes without their husbands’ permission. The Afghan president signed the law earlier this month, despite condemnation by human rights activists and some MPs [...]

Serious concern over arrest of 12 Women’s Rights Activists in Iran

2 April 2009 in Government, Legal Police, Middle East

Iran: Twelve Women’s Rights Activists Arrested for Planned New Years Visit Ten of those arrested are members of the One Million Signatures Campaign. The activists were arrested on 26 March 2009, on Sohrevardi Avenue in Tehran, while meeting up to go for New Years visits of families of imprisoned social and political activists. (Change for [...]

Call for Action: Imprisonment and Whipping of 75 year-old Woman in Saudi Arabia

2 April 2009 in Campaign, Faith, Government, Middle East, Violence Against Women, Women's Group

WLUML, and its allies, demand that Saudi Arabia demonstrate its commitment to human rights and release Khamisa Sawadi, Fahd al-Anzi, and Hadiyan bin Zein and revoke the order of deportation. On March 3, 2009 Mrs. Sawadi, a 75 year old woman living in Hail, northern Saudi Arabia, was accused, and found guilty, of ‘illegal mingling’ [...]

Recession ‘hits Third World women’

2 April 2009 in Employment Work, Financial, Global, Government

Women workers in Third World countries are being hit hardest by the global recession, according to research released by Oxfam ahead of the G20 summit in London on Thursday 2 April. Female employees tend to be the first laid off as bosses make job cuts, the charity says, and because of their lower status in [...]