off our backs back issues from April 2006:
From the collective.
Apr 01, 2006 ... The stories and articles you will find in this issue of off our backs are moving, intense and utterly essential to a fuller understanding of reproductive issues. These articles tell what is lost when a Native culture's midwife-assisted births at home are replaced by medicalized treatment ...
Correction to last issue.(Correction notice)
Apr 01, 2006 ... On page 19 of the article, "Confronting the Religious Right," Phillip ...
Somalia: civil war violence impacting Islamic school for women and girls.(AFRICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... MOGADISHU -- In the midst of a civil war in Somalia, an Islamic school for women and girls was hit with an explosion, wounding seven people and causing massive damage to the building. Escalating violence in the capital is believed to be linked to the struggle for power ...
Burma/myanmar: indigenous women targeted by military.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... In Burma's Karen state, military troops have used widespread terror tactics against women, according to a new report by the Karen Indigenous Women. The report documents 4,000 cases of abuse, including rape, murder, torture and forced labor in over 190 villages by troops from over 40 ...
India: a rape victim's plea to the president.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... BIHAR -- A 14-year-old Indian girl has written to Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam asking for justice in her rape case or to give her "permission to die." The alleged rapist's family continues threatening and tormenting the girl, accusing her of the false accusation and slandering the ...
India: one in four children are sexually abused.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The non-profit organization Prayaas, with support from UNICEF, recently completed the first-ever comprehensive study of child abuse in India. This study finds that at least 25 percent of all children in the country have been sexually abused. This study--which has ...
Israel: arab lesbians hold conference.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... HAIFA -- Arab lesbians gathered on March 28 in Haifa at a rare public event sponsored by ASWAT, an organization for Arab lesbians. Only a few of the 250 attendees were lesbians and they were not identifiable in the crowd. The conference featured poetry readings, music and Arab women ...
Iran: more women's rights demonstrators arrested, journalists denied visas by U.S. government.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... TEHRAN -- Last June 12, some 40 women and 30 men were arrested in Tehran for peacefully demonstrating for women's rights. They were advocating the abolition of polygamy, the right of divorce by women, joint custody of children for mothers and fathers, equal rights in family law, increasing ...
Japan: comfort women demand justice.(ASIA)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Women who were kidnapped and imprisoned on the orders of the Japanese government during World War II, then forced into sexual slavery as so-called "comfort women," testified before Congress in February asking that the U.S. government pressure Japan to acknowledge its torture and brutality ...
Russia: bodies of murdered trafficked women and girls found.(ASIA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A mass grave was found in the Urals, outside the town of Levikha. The grave contained the remains of as many as 30 women and ...
Italy: government moves on rights for same-sex couples, then backs off.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... ROME -- The government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi, a socialist, moved a bill through parliament that would have recognized lesbian and gay couples but not legalized same-sex marriage. The bill would have allowed lesbian, gay and unmarried heterosexual couples rights in areas such as ...
Portugal: vote favors abortion, but turnout too low.(EUROPE)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... LISBON -- Voters in a February 11 referendum approved liberalization of Portugal's abortion laws, but the turnout was too low for the vote to be legally binding. Voters favored the change by nearly 60, but only 44 percent of registered voters came to the polls. A 50 percent turnout is ...
Canada: Canadian high court protects women-only space.(NORTH AMERICA)(Vancouver Rape Relief)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... VANCOUVER -- On February 1, 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear male-to-female transsexual Kimberly Nixon's appeal from the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruling upholding Vancouver Rape Relief's decision that Nixon should not serve as a volunteer peer ...
Guatemala and Mexico: femicides in progress.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Men have murdered more than 2,500 women in Guatemala since 2001 and more than 6,000 women in Mexico between 1999 and 2005. Most of the women, who were young, poor women under the age of 40, were raped, strangled, decapitated or otherwise mutilated. According to Adriana Beltran, ...
Mexico: Mexico City expected to legalize abortion.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... MEXICO CITY -- Abortion for any reason during the first trimester may soon be legal in Mexico City. The city's Legislative Assembly is expected to approve the legislation in April. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has said he would sign it. Mexico, like much of Latin America, now allows ...
United States: report finds sexualization harms girls.(NORTH AMERICA)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A new report documents that sexualization of girls has negative consequences for girls and for the rest of society. The American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls defined sexualization in the report as occurring when "a person's value comes only from her ...
United States: Massachusetts lawmakers to vote again on lesbian/gay marriage.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... BOSTON -- The Massachusetts General Assembly, which voted in 2005 to allow lesbian and gay marriages after the state supreme court ruled that the state constitution required extending the right to marry, will consider a proposed constitutional amendment to ban lesbian and gay marriages. ...
United States: doctors say fashion industry must not use super-thin models.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... On January 9, the Academy for Eating Disorders called on the fashion industry to adopt reasonable weight standards for models. For example, the guidelines say that a model who was five feet, nine inches tall would have to weigh at least 126 pounds. The academy, which is composed of medical ...
United States: Marilyn Frye receives phi beta kappa romanell award.(NORTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Marilyn Frye, a founder of feminist philosophy in the United States and professor and associate chair of the philosophy department at Michigan State University, is Phi Beta Kappa's Romanell Professor in Philosophy for 2007-2008. Awarded annually, the Romanell Professorship recognizes ...
Brazil: model dies of anorexia.(SOUTH AMERICA)(Ana Carolina Reston)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... SAO PAOLO -- The deaths of four women--one a model and another a fashion student-of anorexia has prompted an outcry. In November, Ana Carolina Reston, a model who was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed just over 80 pounds, died after collapsing at a fashion shoot in Japan. A few days later, ...
Chile: morning after pill distributed.(SOUTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... SANTIAGO -- The administration of President Michele Bachelet has made the morning-after pill, RU 486, available for free at state hospitals. Bachelet is a socialist and a physician. Chile is a conservative country--abortion is banned--and is dominated by the Roman Catholic ...
Ecuador: seven women appointed to cabinet.(SOUTH AMERICA)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... QUITO -- Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa, has appointed seven women to his cabinet. He named Guadalupe Larriva as defense minister, the first woman ...
Shakespeare got it right.(in memoriam)(William Shakespeare)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Two teenaged girls from Montgomery County, Maryland, were found dead on February 2 in a double suicide. Rachel Crites, 18, and Rachel Smith, 16, were found in a car dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, the key in the ignition in the "on" position and the engine off having run out of gas ....
A special issue on reproductive justice.
Apr 01, 2006; ... On behalf of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, we are proud and honored to welcome you to this special issue of off our backs, which gives further lift to the voices of indigenous women and women of color in our quest for Reproductive Justice and which ...
Reproductive justice: the ultimate political countermove for black women.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Let's put the cards on the sociopolitical table. Abortion is rarely discussed publicly and remains painstakingly taboo in Black communities--while arguably impacting Black women disproportionately. Statistics about the rate of abortion are abominable for Black women--three times the ...
Understanding reproductive justice: transforming the pro-choice movement.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Reproductive Justice is the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women's human rights. It offers a new perspective on reproductive issue advocacy, pointing out that for Indigenous ...
My divine right to choice.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... "I could never have an abortion, but ..." I know I've said it: I could never. I would never. I wouldn't get myself into that situation. It's the refrain that many young women repeat easily and readily when asked where they stand on abortion, and maybe it's at the very core of why a younger ...
Forging new alliances: mobilizing hip hop activists for reproductive justice.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... We are in the midst of a revolution. Women of color and our allies across the country are joining together to build a movement that addresses the reproductive needs of communities of color. Tired of the mainstream pro-choice movement's ever-narrowing focus on abortion rights, women of ...
Women Warriors help stem the tide in South Dakota.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The South Dakota abortion ban measure was defeated during the November election, by a final 56 percent to 44 percent vote. The abortion ban would have been the most restrictive state abortion law in the country because it made no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother. It ...
Secret confessions of a childless black woman! Where is it written that all women were meant to have children? Is this a foregone conclusion or the pompous attitude of a society that believes a woman isn't complete until she gives birth? How absurd!(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... I've tried baby sitting and I've tried cajoling my cousins, all seven at once. And as a result, I've learned a very valuable lesson: children and Peggy don't mix. Coming from a small family where I was an only child, everyone assumed that I would get married and have a house full of kids ....
What We Deserve.(Poem)
Apr 01, 2006; ... <Pre> Culturally-diversified biracial girl with a small diamond nose ring and a pretty smile poses beside the words "Women Deserve Better." and I almost let her non-threatening grin begin to infiltrate my psyche until I read the unlikely small print at the bottom of the ad: ...
Pro-voice: a vision for the future.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Stories about personal experiences with abortion are hard to come by these days. Though more than one million abortions occur each year in the United States, and over one third of women will have an abortion in their lifetime, their stories are frequently silenced--hidden behind society's ...
Immigrant rights are women's rights.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Throughout the spring and summer of 2006, immigrants around the country marched for the same basic rights marginalized groups have been fighting for throughout history--the right to live with dignity and justice. In cities around the country, people of all ages, ethnicities and languages ...
It's time we recognize: young women of color who have sex with women are at risk for HIV too!(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The statistics are staggering. Rates of HIV infection in the United States have soared among women, particularly young women of color. Those of us currently working in reproductive justice can most likely rattle off facts to our colleagues and friends. "Black and Latina women account for ...
LGBT reproductive rights: an interview with Carmen Vazquez.(reproductive justice)(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people)(Interview)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A thirty-year veteran of political organizing, Carmen Vazquez has been widely recognized for her leadership and intellectual contributions to the women's movement and the LGBT community. In this excerpt from her oral history conducted by Kelly Anderson for the Voices of Feminism Project at ...
Where the whores aren't: examining the lack of prostituted women's voices in news reporting.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Is there never a journalist, anywhere, male or female, who writes about or films the world from the prostituted woman's point of view? I don't care which source I go to--Newsweek, Time, PBS, all the major media--they only see the world from the rapist's point of view. Every day journalists ...
How many do you know?(reproductive justice)(rape victims in Congo, Rwanda)
Apr 01, 2006; ... In the jungles of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), she had just given birth to a stillborn child, when the militia attacked the village. Her husband fled the house and the village but she remained too physically weak to move. As the cadaver of her child laid beside her, at ...
Doctor, don't judge me: African American women and reproductive/preventive health care experiences.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... As an African American woman, I have firsthand experience about how it feels to be unfairly stereotyped and treated with disrespect by health care workers. My motivation to write this commentary and to conduct women's health research about African American women was conceived ...
Implanon: a new and improved bullet?(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... When talking about reproductive rights, abortion isn't the only topic centered on the question of choice. Healthcare providers, activists, and population controllers emphasize again and again that women need a broad range of contraceptive options. We have condoms, shots, rings, pills, ...
Time to take care of our children.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... When Gabriela Flores was jailed for performing a self-induced abortion in Pelion, South Carolina, she did not understand. The abortion wasn't about cruelty to children or babies--far from it. In her statements, Flores continually talks about the children she already has, saying, "I knew ...
Globalization and the politics of Native breastfeeding.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... In 1985, Mohawk midwife and social justice activist Katsi Cook helped create the Akwesasne Mother's Milk Project in response to the toxic contamination of Native women's breast milk within the Akwesasne community by the multinational company General Motors. Initiated by the discovery that ...
Midwives & Native tradition.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... In my community on the Oneida Reservation in Wisconsin, a group of women met every week for eight years at our homes, children in tow, to pass on midwifery knowledge and skills. There was a core group of about six women, with another 20 women who came occasionally. These women studied ...
Prisons as sites of reproductive injustice.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... An African American woman serving time in a California prison was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor. When she went in for surgery, she was given a hysterectomy to which she had not consented. As she explains: "[The doctor] tried to convince me to have a hysterectomy, saying that ...
Violent interruptions.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Three parole officers in a vehicle roll up on me, none of them was even my parole officer. When I looked in the truck I saw a baby seat and asked what that was for. They told me, "It's so when we violate you we can take your daughter" ... they have me off balance, unsure; I never know what ...
Doing what is medically necessary.(reproductive justice)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A California prison advisory committee is looking into doing "voluntary sterilizations" on people in women's prisons and installing IUDs in women in prison. "Doing What is Medically Necessary" is how the committee (1) described its July 2006 decision to examine the cost effectiveness of ...
Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice.(Book review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice By Jael Silliman, Marlene Gerber Fried, Loretta Ross and Elena Gutierrez In the days immediately following the massive April 25, 2004, March for Women's Lives, numerous white progressives commented on ...
Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology.(INCITE! Women of Color against Violence)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology <Pre> What will it take to end the violence against us? --Andrea Smith </Pre> It is a powerful thing when women of color come together to identify and dismantle the oppression that they face. Born from the 2000 Color of Violence ...
Pregnancy and Power: a Short History of Reproductive Politics in America.(Book review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America By Rickie Solinger In Pregnancy and Power: A Short History of Reproductive Politics in America, author and historian Rickie Solinger presents the reader with a clear and thorough chronicle of ...
Women of color and reproductive justice.(for reference)(Bibliography)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Resource List Organizations * AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN EVOLVING www.aaweonline.org * ASIAN COMMUNITIES FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE www.reproductivejustice.org * BLACK WOMEN FOR WELLNESS www.bwla.com * BLACK WOMEN'S HEALTH IMPERATIVE ...
NWSA looks at resistance to empire.(on nwsa)(National Women's Studies Association)(Conference notes)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Plenary sessions on mothering and militarism were the highlights of this year's National Women's Studies Association meeting, held in Oakland, Calif., June 15-18. At the plenary on Motherhood as Resistance/Activism/Social Change, Andrea O'Reilly cited Adrienne Rich's Of Woman ...
Death, Grief and Suffering: Sinister Wisdom, Issue Number 68/69.(Periodical review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Death, Grief and Suffering Sinister Wisdom, Issue Number 68/69 Why talk about death, grief and suffering? If you ignore them, won't they just go away? Well, no. Many people try to avoid these topics--they're "downers." In the dominant contemporary U.S ....
Women's festivals 2007.(on the calendar)(Calendar)
Apr 01, 2006 ... APRIL Camp Sister Spirit Folk School April 6th-8th 2006 Ovett, MS A celebration of womyn's land in the South including music, crafts, night stage events, workshops and more! Commune with nature, sing and dance in a Sacred Circle, and meet ...
Dykes to watch out for.(Cartoon)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Who's your daddy? [c]2006 By ALISON BECHDEL 500 11/29 CYNTHIA IS SPENDING THANKSGIVING BREAK AT THE HOME FOR WAYWARD EVANGELICALS. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
Letters to oob.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Thank you for your special issue on Motherhood! It was WONDERFUL!!! I just finished reading the last article--about the 21-year-old mom who found a community online--and I realized how much I have accepted and internalized that I will never find a community of mamas like me ... this whole ...