Recently added articles from Women's Feature Service:
India: Fugitive Histories As Fiction
Feb 23, 2009; ... Noor Zaheer, author of 'My God is a Woman', reviews Githa Hariharan's latest novel, 'Fugitive Histories'. It is an engrossing fictional account based on a long list of reports, interviews, witness accounts and the writer's own impressions of Ahmedabad and its environs after the 2002 Gujarat ...
USA: Still Screaming Quietly Within Four Walls
Feb 23, 2009; ... One out of three women in the world are victims of abuse or sexual violence in their lifetime. In the United States alone, an estimated three million women face abuse. The South Asian community in the US is also affected by domestic violence - two out of five South Asian women have experienced ...
India: Pinki's Tryst With The Oscars
Feb 23, 2009; ... Pinki, the six-year-old protagonist of the Oscar-nominated documentary 'Smile Pinki', flies off to the US this month to attend the glittering, star-studded event. The protagonist of the 39-minute documentary, who until a few weeks ago could not face the world because of the 'deformity', now has ...
Australia: Rising From the Bushfire Ashes
Feb 23, 2009; ... As the state of Victoria in Australia lives through its worst natural disaster in over a century - bushfires have razed 1.1 million acres of land, gutted more than 1,800 houses, rendered over 7,000 displaced and killed over 200 people - women and men have come out in large numbers to lend ...
Opinion: Slumdog Millionaire: Fantasies Amidst the Shanties
Feb 23, 2009; ... The unbelievable trajectory of Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' in the universe of film awards has evoked endorsement and loathing in equal measure. Poverty porn/hymn to hope; slum tourism/no-bull honesty; cliché-ridden bilge/heart-warming tribute - the contending adjectives multiply with ...
Global: It's Women's Day and It's Back To Basics
Feb 23, 2009; ... Even as preparations for the centenary celebrations of the International Women's Day (March 8) gain momentum, women's rights activists are gearing up to reclaim the memorable event. It was in 1908 that more than 15,000 women marched the streets of New York City demanding shorter hours, better ...
India: Anjali Stormed The Desert On Wheels
Feb 23, 2009; ... It was a double first this year at the 7th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm Rally '09. As around 90 cars and over 184 participants sped across the 2,060-kilometre stretch, Anjali Sharma, 26, the first Indian woman to take part in the recent six-day motor sport event, disappeared in a cloud of dust on ...
India: Deliver These Birth Attendants From Despair
Feb 23, 2009; ... In a public health system where the ratio between nurses, attendants and patients is extremely disproportionate, women from the Matang community - who have been dais, or traditional birth attendants, for generations - could be engaged by hospitals for their expertise in childbirth ....
France: Mum Has Birth Rights, Too
Feb 23, 2009; ... Recently, the question of maternity leave made it to the front pages not as an issue of social concern but as a celebrity news item: the woman in question - French Minister of Justice Rachida Dati - had returned to work just five days after giving birth to a baby girl. While reports indicate ...
Opinion: Slumdog Millionaire: Fantasies Amidst the Shanties
Feb 16, 2009; ... The unbelievable trajectory of Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' in the universe of film awards has evoked endorsement and loathing in equal measure. Poverty porn/hymn to hope; slum tourism/no-bull honesty; cliché-ridden bilge/heart-warming tribute - the contending adjectives multiply with ...
Switzerland: Davos Woman, Lost In The Crowd
Feb 16, 2009; ... Among the over 2,500 participants from 91 countries at Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF), there were also present more than 360 women leaders. This was a six per cent increase from 2001, but still lower than the record 17 per cent overall participation recorded last year. Thus, the Davos ...
USA: Growing Up In a Glass Bowl: Malia and Sasha Obama
Feb 16, 2009; ... About 40 children have lived in the White House during their formative years but it hasn't always been easy living in what Margaret Truman, an adult when her father was in office, described as "the Great White Jail". Nevertheless, growing up in the White House has its perks: there's a movie ...
India: "No Woman Fights To Become A Prostitute"
Feb 16, 2009; ... Catharine MacKinnon, a well-known American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist, specialises in sex equality issues under international and constitutional law. She pioneered the legal claim for sexual harassment and created ordinances recognising pornography as a civil rights ...
India: The Water Women of Barmer's Sands
Feb 16, 2009; ... In Rajasthan's Barmer and Jaisalmer districts water security is a critical requirement. Women, being the ones responsible for fetching and disbursing water, are the worst affected and, therefore, remain at the forefront of demanding, building and repairing 'naadis' (large water harvesting ...
Global: Pakistani Authors Bridge the Gap
Feb 16, 2009; ... The terrorist attacks on Mumbai have raised the ire of Pakistani novelists, who find themselves wedged between readers of two countries that share similar tastes, interests, and a common pre-partition history. Kamila Shamsie, author of 'In the City by the Sea'; Moni Mohsin whose recent work is ...
India: After School, It's Beedi Rolling Time
Feb 16, 2009; ... Women and school-going girls, who account for the majority of about 50,000 home-based 'beedi' rollers in Dhubri district of lower Assam, work in extremely hazardous conditions to produce approximately 15 million 'beedis', or indigenous cigarettes made from leaf rolls filled with tobacco, every ...
Nepal: Stifling Dissent: A Woman Journalist's Murder In Nepal
Feb 09, 2009; ... The savage murder of Uma Singh, a 24-year-old journalist, is a grave setback to the women's rights movement in Nepal. Through her articles and radio programme, Singh spoke out against domestic violence, dowry and violence against women - demanding punishment for the perpetrators. She also ...
India: Pinki's Tryst With The Oscars
Feb 09, 2009; ... Pinki, the six-year-old protagonist of the Oscar-nominated documentary 'Smile Pinki', flies off to the US this month to attend the glittering, star-studded event. The protagonist of the 39-minute documentary, who until a few weeks ago could not face the world because of the 'deformity', now has ...
USA: Mompreneurs: Balancing Babies and Business
Feb 09, 2009; ... A number of stay-at-home mothers have graduated to become mompreneurs - women who balance motherhood while managing their own commercial enterprise. Many mompreneurs find it only natural that their small businesses are in the baby and children niche - often a result of their parenting ...
India: Lakshadweep's Muslim Women Conquer The Earth
Feb 09, 2009; ... Two young women, Haseena and Tajunnisa, from the Agatti island in Lakshadweep, were recently conferred the 2008 Earth Heroes awards in recognition of their effort to mobilise local people to become the keepers of nature. When the Bombay Natural History Society-led International Marine Protected ...