Recently added articles from off our backs:
From the collective.
Jul 01, 2008 ... What could be more important than peace? Peace with justice; peace with an end to all violence against women; peace that ends racism, classism, and imperialism; peace that is not just the absence of war. Peace activist Lucinda Marshall, our guest editor, has compiled a ...
Sudan men rape almost all women in refugee camps.(AFRICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... ZAM ZAM DISPLACEMENT CAMP-Aid workers with the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations say that almost all of the women and girls as young as four-years old are raped by men in refugee camps. However, these relief workers don't want to speak out too much about the rapes, ...
Tanzania Eastern African conference on reproductive and sexual health.(AFRICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... ARUSHA--During the week of June 23, representatives from the five countries of the Eastern African Community (EAC) met in Arusha, Tanzania, to address the issues of reproductive and sexual health. The meeting was organized by the EAC Secretariat and sponsored by the UN ...
Kuwait no women win seats in parliament.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... KUWAIT CITY--This May, 27 women ran for seats in Kuwait's parliament, but none won. Fundamentalists, both Sunni and Shiite, increased their numbers in the 50 elected seats from 20 to ...
India nearly 1,000 lesbians and gays march for rights.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... NEW DELHI--On June 29 nearly 1,000 lesbians, gays and their families marched in India's largest lesbian and gay rights march. Supporters in three other cities held demonstrations. Lesbianism and homosexuality are illegal in India, with a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. ...
India women athletes refuse to be pornified.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... CHENNAI--Members of the eight-woman Indian volleyball team, preparing to participate in the International Volleyball Tournament in Chennai, refused to abide by the rules of the International Volleyball Association's (IVA) dress code, which stipulates that women players wear bikinis. When ...
Nepal women comprise over 33 percent of government representatives.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... KATHMANDU--Nepal's newly formed democratic government surpassed its goal of forming an elected Constituent Assembly (CA) composed of at least 33 percent women. While 161 seats (33 percent) in the CA were allotted for women, women won 191 seats in the CA. The majority of these women (74) ...
Pakistan girls leave school because of bombings.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... PESHAWAR--Several schools in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have been losing their female students because of bombings by the local Taliban, who have been threatening women school teachers and girls who refuse to wear the traditional veil. There have been 118 ...
Yemen nine-and ten-year-old girls forced into marriage, fight for divorce.(ASIA)
Jul 01, 2008 ... JIBLA--Nujood Ali, who is 10 years old, went by herself to a courthouse and demanded a divorce in April. She was lucky. The judge listened to her and granted her a divorce. Many judges would not have done the same. Unlike most of the few women (and far fewer girls) who obtain divorces, she ...
France legislation would make promotion of extreme dieting a crime.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... PARIS--On April 15 France's National Assembly passed a bill that would make the promotion of extreme dieting a crime. The punishment could be up to two years in prison and fines of up to the equivalent of $47,000. Member of Parliament Valerie Boyer, who authored the bill, said ...
France:state appeals annulment based on lack of virginity.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... PARIS--France's Justice Ministry is appealing a lower court decision allowing a man to annul his marriage because his wife wasn't a virgin. In Lille, in northern France, in 2006 a man left the nuptial chamber and told his wedding guests that the woman he had just married wasn't a virgin ....
Greece mayor penalized for performing same-sex marriages.(EUROPE)(Mayor Anastassios Aliferis)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... TILOS--In May a mayor on the island of Tilos performed Greece's first same-sex marriages, one for two women and one for two men. Mayor Anastassios Aliferis, a Socialist, said the marriages were legal because the nation's laws on marriage said nothing about the parties' gender. But when a ...
Norway lawmakers vote to allow lesbian, gay marriages.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... OSLO--The upper house of Norway's parliament voted June 17 to allow lesbian and gay marriages. The legislation, which also will allow same-sex couples to adopt children, will ...
Sweden government targets pimps and johns instead of prostitutes.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... STOCKHOLM--The Swedish government recently announced their 36-point plan to stop the abuse of women in prostitution. The plan calls for an expansion of social services to meet the demand of prostituted women for these services. More rehabilitation centers will be available for prostituted ...
United States congress considers International Violence against women act.(N.AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... WASHINGTON, D.C.--Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives this spring, the International Violence Against Women Act, would link foreign aid programs and diplomatic relations to efforts to end violence against women. Women from various nations came to Washington to ...
United States California court legalizes lesbian and gay marriages.(N.AMERICA)
Jul 01, 2008 ... SAN FRANCISCO--On May 15 the California Supreme Court held in a 1-3 decision that lesbians and gays have "a fundamental" right to marry, even though the state had a law prohibiting same-sex marriages. Discrimination based on gender violates the state constitution's equal protection clause, ...
United States don't ask, don't tell targets more lesbians than gays.(N.AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... WASHINGTON, D.C.--Under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans open lesbians and gays from serving in the military, the U.S. army and air force have discharged a far higher percentage of women for being lesbians than men for being gay. Women are only 14 percent of army ...
United States domestic workers demand rights.(N.AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... NEW YORK--In early June domestic workers held a conference in New York City where they learned about their rights. About 100 women attended, most of them immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and India. They called for passage of a New York ...
Brazil Brazilian congress votes 57 to 4 against legalized abortion.(S.AMERICA)(Brief article)
Jul 01, 2008 ... RIO DE JANEIRO--The Brazilian Congress voted 57 to 4 against a bill to legalize abortion. Brazilian feminists had been campaigning for seventeen years to get this bill passed. Brazil's penal code imposes prison sentences of up to three years for women who have abortions. The punishment for ...
Women envision peace.(women and peace)
Jul 01, 2008; ... Without negating the light, we reclaim the dark: the fertile earth where the hidden seed lies unfolding, the unseen power that rises within us, the dark of sacred human flesh, the depths of the ocean, the night--when our senses quicken; we reclaim all the lost parts of ourselves we have ...