Women in Journalism and Other Intriguing Realms of Commercialism, Sustenance and Art

Heroic, Female and Muslim

2010-12-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: December 15, 2010
The New York Times

What’s the ugliest side of Islam? Maybe it’s the Somali Muslim militias that engage in atrocities like the execution of a 13-year-old girl named Aisha Ibrahim. Three men raped Aisha, and when she reported the crime she was charged with illicit sex, half-buried in the ground before a crowd of 1,000 and then stoned to death.

That’s the extremist side of Islam that drives Islamophobia in the United States, including Congressional hearings on American Muslims that House Republicans are planning for next year.

But there’s another side of Islam as well, represented by an extraordinary Somali Muslim woman named Dr. Hawa Abdi who has confronted the armed militias. Amazingly, she forced them to back down — and even submit a written apology. Glamour magazine, which named Dr. Hawa a “woman of the year,” got it exactly right when it called her “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo.”

Dr. Hawa, a 63-year-old ob-gyn who earned a law degree on the side, is visiting the United States to raise money for her health work back home. A member of Somalia’s elite, she founded a one-room clinic in 1983, but then the Somalian government collapsed, famine struck, and aid groups fled. So today Dr. Hawa is running a 400-bed hospital.

Over the years, the hospital became the core of something even grander. Thousands and thousands of people displaced by civil war came to shelter on Dr. Hawa’s 1,300 acres of farmland around the hospital. Today her home and hospital have been overtaken by a vast camp that she says numbers about 90,000 displaced people.

Dr. Hawa supplies these 90,000 people with drinking water and struggles to find ways to feed them. She worries that handouts breed dependency (and in any case, United Nations agencies can’t safely reach her now to distribute food), so she is training formerly nomadic herding families to farm and even to fish in the sea.

She’s also pushing education. An American freelance journalist, Eliza Griswold, visited Dr. Hawa’s encampment in 2007 and 2008 and was stunned that an unarmed woman had managed to create a secure, functioning oasis surrounded by a chaotic land of hunger and warlords. Ms. Griswold helped Dr. Hawa start a school for 850 children, mostly girls. It’s only a tiny fraction of the children in the camp, but it’s a start. (Ms. Griswold also wrote movingly about Dr. Hawa in her book “The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches from the Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam.”)

In addition, Dr. Hawa runs literacy and health classes for women, as well as programs to discourage female genital mutilation. And she operates a tiny jail — for men who beat their wives.

“We are trying an experiment,” she told me. “We women in Somalia are trying to be leaders in our community.”

So Dr. Hawa had her hands full already — and then in May a hard-line militia, Hizb al-Islam, or Party of Islam, decided that a woman shouldn’t run anything substantial. The militia ordered her to hand over operations, and she refused — and pointedly added: “I may be a woman, but I’m a doctor. What have you done for society?”

The Party of Islam then attacked with 750 soldiers and seized the hospital. The world’s Somalis reacted with outrage, and the militia backed down and ordered Dr. Hawa to run the hospital, but under its direction.

She refused. For a week there were daily negotiations, but Dr. Hawa refused to budge. She demanded that the militia not only withdraw entirely but also submit a written apology.

“I was begging her, ‘Just give in,’ ” recalled Deqo Mohamed, her daughter, a doctor in Atlanta who spoke regularly to her mother by telephone. “She was saying, ‘No! I will die with dignity.’ ”

It didn’t come to that. The Party of Islam tired of being denounced by Somalis at home and around the world, so it slinked off and handed over an apology — but also left behind a wrecked hospital. The operating theater still isn’t functional, and that’s why Dr. Hawa is here, appealing for money (especially from ethnic Somalis). She has worked out an arrangement with Vital Voices, a group that helps to empower female leaders, to channel tax-deductible contributions to her hospital.

What a woman! And what a Muslim! It’s because of people like her that sweeping denunciations of Islam, or the “Muslim hearings” planned in Congress, rile me — and seem profoundly misguided.

The greatest religious battles are often not between faiths, but within faiths. The widest gulfs are often not those that divide one religion from the next, but those between extremists and progressives within a single faith. And in this religious season, there’s something that we can all learn from the courage, compassion and tolerance of Dr. Hawa Abdi.

I invite you to visit my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on December 16, 2010, on page A39 of the New York edition.

In Siberia Race, Ruling Party Uses Clenched Fist

2010-12-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
Published: December 10, 2010
The New York Times

NOVOSIBIRSK, Russia — On the eve of regional elections, an opposition candidate named Olga V. Safronova arrived at a school for a campaign finale. She planned a rousing speech with a refrain that Russia had been seized by a dictatorial ruling party.

But operatives from that very party showed up to stop her.
What displeased them was this: Ms. Safronova’s political party was supposed to be a fake opposition, created by the Kremlin to give the illusion that Russia was a thriving democracy. Now, though, this puppet party was rebelling here in Siberia — battling for votes, defying the governing party and even assailing Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin himself.

The governing party — in coordination with the authorities themselves — soon responded. And their efforts to suppress Ms. Safronova’s party, A Just Russia, seemed to underscore how laws intended to guarantee free and fair elections carry little weight in Russia.

The governing party operatives tried to bar Ms. Safronova from the school. They called the police to interrogate her. They warned teachers and others that they would be fired if they attended, and most left. Ms. Safronova ignored the threats and began speaking in an auditorium that was nearly deserted. Even so, the operatives sought to shout her down.

“You do not have permission to speak here!” said Gennadi V. Bykovsky, a former prosecutor and aide to the governing party candidate. “We don’t want to hear your blabbering.”

Ms. Safronova lashed back. “You are corrupt!” she said. “Do you see this? They can violate the law as much as they want. And me? How dare I! I should be lined up against the wall and shot for just trying to express my point of view.”

All around Novosibirsk, A Just Russia came under pressure, and had little chance of defending itself. The police raided the party’s offices, and the state television channel accused it of conducting a dirty campaign. Local officials even emblazoned logos of the governing party, United Russia, on city bulldozers to give the party, not the government, credit for fixing roads.

On Election Day, hundreds of soldiers from a military garrison were marched to a polling place and ordered to vote for United Russia, according to nonpartisan voting monitors.

It was as if the governing party and the government had merged, just as in the Communist era. And in many ways, they have. United Russia effectively controls regional governments, prosecutor’s offices, courts, police departments and election commissions.

Up against this colossus went Ms. Safronova, 53, a former Kremlin supporter who grew increasingly frustrated with the country’s political stagnation and decided to do something about it this year. She mounted her campaign for regional assembly, and worked to transform A Just Russia in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third largest city.

From the start, Ms. Safronova realized that the odds were against her.
She dressed like a corporate lawyer on the campaign trail, slogging through the mud of a dairy farm in the city suburbs in high heels. But the truth was that she was a widow with little money who lived with her mother, son and granddaughter in a threadbare housing project that looked as if it had not been renovated since Brezhnev’s time. She had long blond hair that she sometimes styled in a classic Slavic peasant braid, as if to hark back to her rural roots.

An economist by training, she had made many enemies as regional leader of a group called the Public Anticorruption Committee and, before that, as an advocate for small business in Novosibirsk. She expected that the governing party would be infuriated with the regional branch of A Just Russia. And so she was not surprised when she received menacing phone calls from people who would not identify themselves.

“They say, if I don’t end my campaign, they will kill me,” she said.
Still, she thought that even if she did not win, she could secure a high enough percentage of the vote to help prove that Russia had a viable new opposition at the regional level.

If United Russia went unchallenged, she insisted, then Russia would end up like the Soviet Union: foundering under the corrupt and incompetent reign of a single party.

“We are hoping that a massive number of people will come out on Election Day and declare that they will not take this anymore,” she said shortly before the voting. “We are striving to create a true multiparty system, a real democracy in Russia.”

To United Russia, those were fighting words.

A Puppet Rival Party

When the Kremlin birthed A Just Russia in October 2006, Mr. Putin, then Russia’s president, said the new party would “promote democratic values.” But it would also allow the Russian leadership to declare that the country had a multiparty system — even though A Just Russia was loyal to Mr. Putin.

(To read the rest of this article, please click on the link in this blog post's title above.)

Batgirl and Other Fair Pay Heroes

2010-11-30T17:40:00.000-08:00

By Linda D. Hallman
Women's Media Center
November 30, 2010

While the Senate recently bungled its chance to advance paycheck fairness, gender pay equality has impressive champions ready to join the battle again, as AAUW’s executive director Linda D. Hallman explains.

On November 17, the Senate filibustered the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would have empowered women to learn more about how they’re paid while making businesses think twice about doling out discriminatory paychecks.

The vote ended in a 58 to 41 tally to move the bill forward, which, in most places, would have been a victory. However, the Senate makes its own rules, and without 60 yea votes on the procedural motion, the Paycheck Fairness Act cannot proceed.

But that’s enough doom and gloom. So many people worked so hard on this bill, and, while we’re not done yet, AAUW and I would like to give proper due to all those who did—and didn’t—contribute to our efforts to end the gender pay gap.

The MVP Award: Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) wins our sincerely given and much-deserved MVP award. As a longtime champion of women’s rights and House sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, DeLauro personally made thousands of calls to colleagues and was an ever-present advocate as the bill went to the Senate. Her commitment and that of her staff to women and their families continually inspires us and humbles us.

The Never Give Up Award: After barnstorming the country to convince Congress to right the Supreme Court’s wrong in her precedent-setting case, the indomitable Lilly Ledbetter wasn’t finished. She spoke about the Paycheck Fairness Act in her speech the day President Obama signed her namesake bill, and she has been a vocal, moving advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act every day since.

The Boots on the Ground Award: Thousands of women and men all over the country picked up their phones, grabbed their favorite pens, or sat down at their computers to let their senators, local newspapers, and blog readers know how important this bill was to them. They made lobby visits at home and on Capitol Hill, called into radio shows, and commented on blogs. This kind of grassroots support is priceless. We can only hope that next time a bipartisan group of senators will listen.

The Bully Pulpit Award: For their efforts to rally attention and votes, the Obama Administration wins this award and our thanks. It is beefing up equal pay enforcement, working across the government in its Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, and ensuring that the issue of pay equity is alive and well at the Women’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. The president even thanked AAUW and the coalition in the Roosevelt Room this week for our efforts. You’re welcome, Mr. President, and we’re not done yet.

The Groovy Newbie Award: Fresh from their election victories, newly sworn-in Senators Joe Manchin (D) of West Virginia and Chris Coons (D) of Delaware said yes to the Paycheck Fairness Act. This vote is a wonderful start, and we hope to count on the support of these senators on AAUW priorities in the future.

The Blast from the Past Award: A big thank you goes to Batgirl for showing the world that even Caped Crusaders can suffer from pay discrimination—and that we can fight back. Her starring role in our update to a 1972 public service announcement displayed the urgency of this issue in a fun, accessible way.

Honorable Mentions: Many thanks go to Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Tom Harkin (D-IA), all longtime pay equity advocates who championed this bill.

The Lamestream Award: Just one day after the Paycheck Fairness Act, an economic game-changer, failed to pass in the Senate, many news outlets focused instead on Bristol Palin’s upset on Dancing with the Stars and Prince William’s engagement. Congratulations to both, but we’re disgusted that the media saw no reason to cover a matter so important to the livelihood of American women and their families.

The Half Nelson Award: Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson was the lone Democrat to vote against the Paycheck Fairness Act. While it’s disappointing that Nelson voted no, we are ever optimistic and trust that he would have voted the right way if even one Republican had joined him.

The Lockstep Award: Despite their record of support for women’s and civil rights, Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins decided to stick with their party on this bill. AAUW hopes that their vote against the Paycheck Fairness Act is not a signal that bipartisanship is already dead in the newly elected Senate.

The Father Does Not Know Best Award: It’s unfortunate that Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) cannot accept this award in person, because we’d be interested to hear him justify his no vote to his two daughters, not to mention the very blue state where he will face reelection in 2012.

Paycheck fairness advocates lost this battle, but the war on discrimination continues. We’ll no doubt encounter more stubborn senators with deaf ears, but AAUW and our coalition partners are determined to move ahead and to continue breaking through barriers for women and girls. Stay tuned.

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

A Woman. A Prostitute. A Slave.

2010-11-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 27, 2010
The New York Times

Americans tend to associate “modern slavery” with illiterate girls in India or Cambodia. Yet there I was the other day, interviewing a college graduate who says she spent three years terrorized by pimps in a brothel in Midtown Manhattan.

Those who think that commercial sex in this country is invariably voluntary — and especially men who pay for sex — should listen to her story. The men buying her services all mistakenly assumed that she was working of her own volition, she says.

Yumi Li (a nickname) grew up in a Korean area of northeastern China. After university, she became an accountant, but, restless and ambitious, she yearned to go abroad.

So she accepted an offer from a female jobs agent to be smuggled to New York and take up a job using her accounting skills and paying $5,000 a month. Yumi’s relatives had to sign documents pledging their homes as collateral if she did not pay back the $50,000 smugglers’ fee from her earnings.

Yumi set off for America with a fake South Korean passport. On arrival in New York, however, Yumi was ordered to work in a brothel.

“When they first mentioned prostitution, I thought I would go crazy,” Yumi told me. “I was thinking, ‘how can this happen to someone like me who is college-educated?’ ” Her voice trailed off, and she added: “I wanted to die.”

She says that the four men who ran the smuggling operation — all Chinese or South Koreans — took her into their office on 36th Street in Midtown Manhattan. They beat her with their fists (but did not hit her in the face, for that might damage her commercial value), gang-raped her and videotaped her naked in humiliating poses. For extra intimidation, they held a gun to her head.

If she continued to resist working as a prostitute, she says they told her, the video would be sent to her relatives and acquaintances back home. Relatives would be told that Yumi was a prostitute, and several of them would lose their homes as well.

Yumi caved. For the next three years, she says, she was one of about 20 Asian prostitutes working out of the office on 36th Street. Some of them worked voluntarily, she says, but others were forced and received no share in the money.

Yumi played her role robotically. On one occasion, Yumi was arrested for prostitution, and she says the police asked her if she had been trafficked.
“I said no,” she recalled. “I was really afraid that if I hinted that I was a victim, the gang would send the video to my family.”

Then one day Yumi’s closest friend in the brothel was handcuffed by a customer, abused and strangled almost to death. Yumi rescued her and took her to the hospital. She said that in her rage, she then confronted the pimps and threatened to go public.

At that point, the gang hurriedly moved offices and changed phone numbers. The pimps never mailed the video or claimed the homes in China; those may have been bluffs all along. As for Yumi and her friend, they found help with Restore NYC, a nonprofit that helps human trafficking victims in the city.

I can’t be sure of elements of Yumi’s story, but it mostly rings true to me and to the social workers who have worked with her. There’s no doubt that while some women come to the United States voluntarily to seek their fortunes in the sex trade, many others are coerced — and still others start out forced but eventually continue voluntarily. And it’s not just foreign women. The worst cases of forced prostitution, especially of children, often involve home-grown teenage runaways.

No one has a clear idea of the scale of the problem, and estimates vary hugely. Some think the problem is getting worse; others believe that Internet services reduce the role of pimps and lead to commercial sex that is more consensual. What is clear is that forced prostitution should be a national scandal. Just this month, authorities indicted 29 people, mostly people of Somali origin from the Minneapolis area, on charges of running a human trafficking ring that allegedly sold many girls into prostitution — one at the age of 12.

There are no silver bullets, but the critical step is for the police and prosecutors to focus more on customers (to reduce demand) and, above all, on pimps. Prostitutes tend to be arrested because they are easy to catch, while pimping is a far harder crime to prosecute. That’s one reason thugs become pimps: It’s hugely profitable and carries less risk than selling drugs or stealing cars. But that can change as state and federal authorities target traffickers rather than their victims.

Nearly 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, it’s time to wipe out the remnants of slavery in this country.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on November 28, 2010, on page WK8 of the New York edition.

Female Officers to Begin Serving on US Navy Submarines

2010-11-01T14:29:00.001-07:00

October 25, 2010
MS Magazine

On Thursday, the US Navy announced that women will start serving on US submarines in December 2011. Twenty-four female officers began training in July and will become the first women to serve on American submarines, according to CNN. Though women have served on the Navy's non-combat surface ships since 1973 and its combat surface ships since 1993, they have never been allowed to serve on submarines.

The Associated Press reports that women were previously barred from submarine duty due to the extended deployments and the close quarters required for submarine service.

The female officers were chosen from US Naval Academy graduates, ROTC programs, and Officer Candidate School, reports CNN. The women will serve on four submarines, including the USS Wyoming and USS Georgia, which are based in Kings Bay, Georgia, and the USS Maine and USS Ohio, based in Bangor, Washington. The 560-foot submarines were chosen for their large size, which will allow the Navy to create accommodations for women onboard.

The Associated Press reports that the Navy is currently allowing only female Officers to serve on submarines.

Media Resources: CNN 10/22/10; Associated Press 10/21/10

Path From Corner Office to Political Office Eludes 2 G.O.P. Women

2010-10-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Meg Whitman, in Spreckels, Calif., on Thursday, has spent $141 million on her campaign, but is still viewed unfavorably.

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: October 28, 2010
The New York Times

LOS ANGELES — At one point, it appeared that 2010 might be the year of the female Republican chief executive in California. Two of them — Meg Whitman, a candidate for governor, and Carly Fiorina, a candidate for Senate — have presented themselves as credible, competent and wealthy products of the corporate world in a state that, while decidedly Democratic, nonetheless seemed tired of the status quo and hungry for reform.

But less than a week before Election Day, both Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina find themselves struggling. Indeed, a poll released Thursday showed not only that Ms. Whitman was badly trailing her Democratic opponent, Jerry Brown, but also that she was viewed unfavorably by more than half the voters. That is, presumably, unwelcome news for someone who invested at least $141 million of her own money, a record, into her first campaign for public office.

The difficulties of Ms. Whitman — and to a lesser extent Ms. Fiorina, who seems in a better position against Senator Barbara Boxer, a veteran Democrat — are raising questions about money, gender and Americans’ views of candidates who come out of corporate boardrooms. No matter what happens Tuesday, the outcomes in California seem likely to reverberate in campaigns across the country.

For all the obstacles facing any Republican in today’s California, Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina could hardly have asked for a more favorable environment and two better foils as opponents. At a time when voters are in a mood to shun incumbents and career politicians, Mr. Brown, who was California’s governor from 1975 to 1983, and Ms. Boxer, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate, are the faces of the California status quo, symbols of liberal policies and nearly as old as talking pictures.

In a Field Poll released on Thursday, Mr. Brown led Ms. Whitman by 49 percent to 39 percent, consistent with a series of other recent polls. Ms. Boxer appears to enjoy a slightly smaller lead over Ms. Fiorina in public and private polls taken in recent days. In this volatile atmosphere, any outcome remains viable, and both Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina campaigned vigorously across the state on Thursday, saying they were confident of victory.

For all the talk that money has become such a powerful factor in elections — this year more than ever — a loss by Ms. Whitman would certainly raise questions about that theory, at least in California. Should Ms. Whitman fall short, she will be the third California millionaire in the past 15 years to have been sent home after investing a chunk of a personal fortune into a losing campaign. She would follow Michael Huffington, a Republican who narrowly lost to Senator Dianne Feinstein in 1994, and Al Checchi, who lost the Democratic nomination for governor to Gray Davis in 1998.

Ms. Whitman’s advisers and some independent analysts argue that she could not have gotten so far in such an expensive state without spending as she did to get herself and her positions known. “I would not discount the importance of money,” said Linda DiVall, a Republican pollster who has polled here this year for The Los Angeles Times. “If it were not for money, she wouldn’t be in the ballpark.”

Yet ballpark or not, polls suggest that Ms. Whitman has grown more unpopular as she has spent more money, while views of Mr. Brown have been largely unchanged. Much of her erosion came as she struggled to explain how she came to employ an illegal Mexican immigrant as a housekeeper for nine years.

But several analysts pointed to the constant barrage of Ms. Whitman’s advertisements on television and said that this increased focus on her spending and might well have helped feed the rising negative view of her.

“The attack against her is that she’s rich and therefore she’s out of touch,” said Shawn Steel, the former Republican chairman, even as he described that line of attack as unfair and unfounded.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the Field Poll, said, “At a certain point, people might start thinking about how that money could have otherwise been spent, how it’s a waste or how frivolous the rich are.”

The Fiorina and Whitman candidacies also provide evidence that it is not so easy in this environment to go right from the boardroom to an election. At a time when animosity toward Wall Street and banks remains high, the main line of Democratic attack has been to focus on the layoffs Ms. Fiorina oversaw while chairman of Hewlett-Packard. A current television advertisement shows former employees talking about the disparity between their losing their jobs and Ms. Fiorina drawing a hefty bonus.

Ms. Whitman’s spending alone — and the focus on it — also helped Democrats portray her as a product of business; she is a former chief executive of eBay. (Ms. Fiorina is not as wealthy, and thus was unable to put anywhere near as much of her fortune into the campaign.)

Robert Shrum, a Democratic media consultant who worked for Mr. Checchi, suggested that the public might be more tolerant of male corporate executives who dumped much of their personal fortunes into campaigns than female ones. “It’s actually easier for a Democrat to spend more of his or her money than a Republican,” he said.

And all this flows into the question of gender. California, of all states, has shown little reluctance to vote for women: Both of its senators are women, Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Democratic primary for president here in 2008 and this is the state that sends Nancy Pelosi to Congress.

But Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina are among the first of this new breed of tough female corporate executives looking to shift into public office. This has not always proved to be the best pedigree for a male candidate, and some pollsters and analysts suggested, that it might prove even more complicated for a woman as gender roles continued to evolve.

“What’s new this year are these very successful corporate women — C.E.O.’s or self-made women — with a tremendous amount of money to spend coming into a political campaign for a high-level office with no significant political background,” said Ruth B. Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. “We associate business success and wealth with powerful men.”

And in a state that might have pioneered the notion of identity politics, these races show that women are the last voters that Ms. Whitman and Ms. Fiorina should be counting on. Women here are much more likely to vote ideology and issues than gender. In Thursday’s poll, the last Field Poll that will be done before the election, Mr. Brown led Ms. Whitman among women by 51 percent to 35 percent.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 29, 2010, on page A15 of the New York edition..

US will not back peace that 'sacrifices' women: Clinton

2010-10-28T17:38:00.001-07:00

(AFP) – 2 days ago

UNITED NATIONS — The United States will not support a peace in Afghanistan or any conflict zone that sacrifices women's rights, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

Clinton also said the mass rape of hundreds of women in Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year was a "tragic rebuke" of international efforts to help women caught in conflict zones.

Women's involvement in peacemaking efforts is now a "necessary global security imperative," the US secretary of state told a special UN Security Council debate on women and security.

Clinton -- to many observers the world's most powerful woman -- highlighted US efforts to reinforce women's representation in Afghanistan, where US-led international forces are battling the Taliban militia which repressed women when in power.

"We believe the potential for sustainable peace will be subverted if women are silenced or marginalized," Clinton said. "No peace that sacrifices women's rights is a peace that we can afford to support."

The debate was held on the 10th anniversary of a landmark UN Security Council resolution 1325 which called for the greater involvement of women in ending conflict and greater protection for women and girls in wars.

"There is no starker reminder of the work still ahead of us than the horrific mass rapes in the Democratic Republic of Congo last summer," Clinton said.

Hundreds of women were raped by militia and rebels in late July and early August. UN peacekeepers were criticized for not doing more to help them.

"Those rapes and our failure as an international community to bring that conflict to an end and protect women and children in the process stands as a tragic rebuke to our efforts thus far."

She called on the international community to take stronger action to bring to justice those who carry out "these horrible violations of human rights" and "those who permit them to do so."

Despite international action to give special training to DR Congo soldiers to counter sexual violence, Clinton said: "Unfortunately there is not the will either in the DRC itself or in the UN or the international community to help bring about an end to impunity."

A Security Council presidential statement vowed "enhanced" efforts to bring to justice those who attack women and girls and appealed for greater numbers of women peacekeepers in international forces.

It also called a new review meeting in five years time, which brought a new rebuke from Clinton.

"Well we had better have more to report and we had better have accomplished more between now and then, otherwise there will be those who lose faith in our international capacity to respond to such an overwhelming need," she said.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

Studio Kabul

2010-10-25T15:41:00.000-07:00

By ELIZABETH RUBIN
Published: October 21, 2010
The New York Times

At the age of 27, after 14 years of marriage, with seven children and a husband 30 years older than she was, a husband who was addicted to opium, who once deprived her of food because she gave birth to a girl and not a boy, who beat her when she took too long to conceive, who pulled out her hair and knocked out her teeth to make her too ugly to remarry, who beat her again when he couldn’t find money for opium because he had spent it on phone cards for the mobile to call his lovers — after 14 years, Abada had had enough. She cried, screamed, pulled out her hair, desperate to die. She put her littlest daughter outside the room where she cooked. She turned on the gas and waited for peace.

This life had never been hers anyway. From the time her father died and her mother remarried, she was deposited in someone else’s idea of life. First the stingy stepfather, who saw her as nothing more than a financial burden. Then the marriage at 13 to the 43-year-old addict. Then the mothering. Her first children were twins, and she found the will to live for her babies. One of them had a liver disease they called black tongue, and there was no one to buy her medicines but Abada. She began giving private lessons to the children in her neighborhood, teaching Dari, math, Koranic studies. And though the old addict insisted Abada stop her own studies, she and her mother devised a secret scheme for her to take exams at odd times, with the collusion of her teachers. She finished high school, then paid her way through college and earned a degree in education. Under the Taliban, when schooling for girls was illegal, she went on giving lessons. She gave birth to five more children, and her financial burden grew along with her husband’s irrationality.

“I wanted to die,” Abada told me. But as soon as she turned on the gas, she heard her little girl say, “Oh, God forgive her.” “Immediately with my hand I shook. I thought, Oh, this is a message from God.” She flung open the windows and turned off the gas, grabbed her daughter and said, “I’ll live, I’ll make it work so she can have a better life.”

That’s when she found acting. Was it a métier, a calling? Not really. It was a job. She has been acting now for three years. Often she finds herself acting her own life out onstage. She once had a lead role as a mother begging her abusive but comical husband not to marry off their 12-year-old daughter to an old man who, in exchange, would give his own little daughter to her husband. “I didn’t have to act very much,” she said, “and by the time he beat me and I collapsed from a heart attack onstage, all the children were on me to save me.” Just like at home. What’s more, she had her own 12-year-old daughter play the girl’s role.

I met Abada on the set of Afghanistan’s first TV soap opera, “The Secrets of This House,” produced for Tolo TV. She has a small role as the good wife who comes back from America and is adapting to her new life in Kabul. Abada earns $100 an episode. It sounds lucrative, but there is no guarantee how long her character, and thus her job, will survive. She still teaches too, and had just returned from giving lessons, her daughter in tow. The show’s set was a three-story house in a residential neighborhood in Kabul that Tolo was renting.

I was sitting on a bed next to another actress, Shekiba, who was breast-feeding her youngest child while waiting for her scene. We were discussing the possibility of official negotiations with the Taliban. “If the Taliban come back, they’d behead all of us,” Shekiba said.

Abada, who’d been quiet, jumped in: “There’s no need for the Taliban to come back. Even now my brother-in-law tells my husband that he’s not a man anymore because I appear on television.” And then out flowed Abada’s life story. “I still think of suicide,” she said, “but then who will take care of the children? I have to pay the rent, feed them, my daughter has a liver problem. It’s for these reasons that I act, though I take so much humiliation for it, even my fellow teachers tell me things. . . . ” She broke off. She cried. Her daughter fiddled with a string hanging off her school backpack. Everyone in the room became sad. Then the assistant director, a woman named Shahla Rachidi, leaned in the door and asked us to be quiet for the shoot.

Abada tried to be quiet. She showed us the bangles on her wrist — props. Her husband, she said, is convinced they’re real gold from a rich lover. “He says to me, ‘Why are you getting fatter?’ ” — a sign of beauty and happiness. “ ‘Why don’t you die?’ ” So after the shoot she was going to the jeweler’s with her husband to prove to him they weren’t gold. The absurdity was too much. Abada, and everyone else, broke out laughing.

(To read the rest of this article, please click on the link in this blog post's title above.)

EXCLUSIVE Feminism and the 14-Year-Old: Tavi Gevinson Says “Do What You Want”

2010-10-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

By Catherine Epstein
Women's Media Center

Fresh from covering New York Fashion Week and being profiled in The New Yorker, 14-year-old blogger Tavi Gevinson talks to journalist (and former WMC intern) Catherine Epstein.

Tavi Gevinson started high school this fall. She also runs a fashion blog, StyleRookie, that gets a million and a half hits a month. I ask her what it’s like, as a semi-professional fashion critic, to walk the halls observing her schoolmates and their various fashion senses. Tavi says she knows girls in sweatpants aren’t trying to make a statement. “I think it would be sort of ridiculous if I was like, ‘Well, this person is really nice, but their t-shirt really puts me off.’”

StyleRookie stays fresh through multitudinous fashion seasons thanks to Tavi’s wry and frank writing. (One post features Tavi modeling freshly dyed blue hair. Her caption: “I was told I look like an Oompa Loompa during lunch and it made my day increasingly better.”) When I ask if her blogging style came naturally, she says, “It definitely took a while, I’m still working on that.”

Over the course of our conversation, Tavi reminds me of this a lot. She recently styled a shoot for BlackBook and was a guest blogger on Jezebel. She’s written for Harper’s Bazaar, she was recently profiled in The New Yorker, and she’s got 54,000 daily readers. But she’s 14, so fair enough —she’s still working on it.

In June, Tavi gave a presentation at Toronto’s IdeaCity and focused her talk on Sassy, the now-defunct cult teen magazine that Tavi describes as “the best thing ever.” Launched in 1988, it had a lot going for it—honesty, humor, covers featuring stories like “Smells Like Prom Spirit.” But Tavi argues that its greatest legacy is feminism.

Too many girls of her generation, she says, shy away from identifying themselves as feminists for fear of association with negative stereotypes. But, explained Tavi at IdeaCity, “You’re doing something just by identifying yourself as [a feminist] because you’re changing the stereotype. You’re showing that a bunch of different people can be one.”

She says, “I have a lot of friends who are feminists but they don’t know it,” and she quotes the ever-vexing starter, “‘I’m not a feminist, but, dot dot dot.’ That’s a bummer, but they’re familiar with the stereotype more than they are the actual word…that’s why I excuse the initial wrong impression.” She goes on, “the really ironic thing is that, at school there are a lot of liberals, but they buy into that [feminist] stereotype and as a result can be demeaning. And I’m like, ‘Rush Limbaugh and other horrible people like him, who you don’t like, are the people who propagated those ideas.’”

She’s planning her own zine—its first issue is not yet complete—to be called Joey Ramona Quimby: “like Joey Ramone and Ramona Quimby [of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series].” A sample of prospective content: “I took looks from the Fall 2010 season that reminded me especially of Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love and Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth], and I drew them wearing the respective outfits.” I ask her what she hopes her future girl reader will take from JRQ. “I hope she likes it. I hope it inspires her to make her own zine.”

Kathleen Hanna is an idol of the 90s Riot Grrrl movement and leader of Bikini Kill (the name of both Hanna’s underground zine and her band). She’s a hero of Tavi’s, and now a friend. When I ask Tavi about Hanna, she seems to get tripped up trying to express herself. “I don’t even really know how to explain it, I felt like—I mean, it’s just, such like—I just started high school, and the more that it goes on, the more I find the need to, like, really listen to her music.”

Tavi mentions a line in one Bikini Kill zine: “Lame, lame, so very lame.” She says it articulates the frustration she’s felt arguing about feminism. Debates are especially difficult when, thanks to the Internet, there are just so many people to fight with.

“It’s moments like those when you’re arguing, arguing, and some people can just be very narrow-minded or apathetic, and that’s when it is really nice to listen to Bikini Kill, and hear girls scream. And basically be the opposite of what girls are told to be, which is, you know, loud.”

A mood board that Tavi created and posted to StyleRookie.
It’s rarely made explicit, but young women I know—myself included—sometimes fall into the trap of equating a no-makeup, I-could-care-less look with an “authentic” feminist. It’s tough, when feminism fights an uphill battle promoting women’s minds over their bodies, to embrace an industry that is appearance. I ask Tavi how she handles skepticism about women, like herself, who are just as eager to dissect the latest Marc Jacobs collection as The Feminine Mystique. “I think you have to take the approach that feminism is ultimately about freedom.”

Hanna, for instance, “wasn’t allowed to be like, hot, and a feminist. Maybe one could argue that there’s nothing very radical about wearing lipstick and shaving your legs and wearing more makeup. But feminism is not about an obligation to look like you’re above what some might call materialistic things, because none of us are, really…[if you dress down just to look smart,] you’re still compromising your own interests for the sake of what someone else finds suitable, when really the most subversive thing you can do as a girl is just do what you want.”

I ask Tavi if the success of StyleRookie has taught her anything about herself. “Oh, my god,” she said. “Yeah.” For the last two seasons of New York Fashion Week, Tavi went to parties and rubbed elbows with celebrities, and always obliged photographers who wanted her picture. This year was different. “There was a moment when one woman [photographer] said, ‘Oh, just one photo.’ Then obviously a bunch of other photographers crowd around. And I just left, I headed straight for the door and I left. And it felt so good.”

She paused. “I’m sure this all sounds really like, ‘Oh life is so hard—photographers!’ But it’s confusing…I don’t want to make anyone’s job hard for them. But if I do the photos it’s [perceived] like, ‘Oh I love getting my picture taken.’ And if I don’t do them, it’s like I think I’m too good. There are so many instances like that where I just cannot win. So I just try to do what I’m most comfortable with before I consider the way it will be perceived.”

When I begin to tell her that this kind of wisdom is rarely gained in 14 years, Tavi quickly replies. “I’m still working on it.”

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

Free Tunisian Journalist Fahem Boukadous

2010-09-30T15:54:00.001-07:00

Target: President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Sponsored by: Care2.com

Fahem Boukadous is an independent Tunisian journalist who is currently sitting in prison, suffering from severe asthma and not receiving proper medical attention. Many people, including his wife, fear that his four year term will turn into a death sentence.

Fahem was arrested the day after he was released from the hospital, on charges of "belonging to a criminal organization" and "disseminating material liable to disturb public order."

These charges were brought up because he was doing his job, reporting violent labor protests in the Gafsa mining region of Tunisia in 2008. The government is a self-professed democracy, but is not allowing Fahem Boukadous the freedom to do his job.

It's time to let the Tunisian government know that the world is watching, and if they want to have the respect of the international community, they need to respect human rights and freedom of expression.

Tell the Tunisian government to release Fahem Boukadous and allow him to get proper medical treatment.

The National Women’s History Museum

2010-09-29T14:35:00.001-07:00

AAUW Action Network
Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010

The National Women’s History Museum has created a petition in support of the National Women’s History Museum Act (S. 2129), and your voice is needed to ensure its passage. This petition would allow the NWHM, a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution, to purchase land across from the National Mall for the purpose of building a museum in appreciation of women’s many accomplishments and contributions to our nation.

Dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the diverse historic contributions of women and integrating this rich heritage fully into our nation's history, the NWHM would purchase the land at fair market value and would privately fund all construction costs for a permanent museum, but they need Congressional action to allow them to do so. In 1999, the President’s Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History called for a women’s history museum in Washington, D.C. and cited the efforts of the NWHM toward that goal. While several previous attempts have been made to this end, a permanent museum to celebrate women’s role in history still does not exist in our nation’s Capital.

Although women constitute a majority of the population, their lives, achievements, and contributions are often underrepresented in museums in the United States. AAUW strongly supports S. 2129 and is a proud member of the NWHM Coalition, a group of national women’s professional and service organizations committed to supporting the NWHM mission. We recognize the importance of remembering how far we have come and honoring the women who have played an integral part in getting us here.

Recognition of the achievements made by American women will promote a better understanding of our history and culture for all. Urge your representative to support legislation by signing the petition to make this dream a reality.

Take Action!

Sign the NWHM petition to drive the Senate to act, just click on the link below or copy and paste it into your Internet browser. Then follow the instructions to send your message.

http://www.nwhm.org/get-involved/promote/sign-petition

Mystery Diva

2010-09-17T15:19:00.000-07:00

By EMMA BROCKES
Published: September 17, 2010
The New York Times

In 1874, Sarah Bernhardt wrote a letter to Jean Mounet-Sully, her lover and leading man, in which this great French actress and self-dramatist seemed, for once, to stop performing. He would never be enough for her, she wrote, because she was “not made for happiness.” She was made for sensation: “My heart demands more excitement than anyone can give it. . . . I’m an incomplete person.”

In “Sarah,” Robert Gottlieb’s sharp, efficient biography, the woman whose name is a byword for theatrics emerges as the first modern celebrity, skilled at P.R., canny with endorsements, engaged in her own mythologizing and with a howling emptiness at her core. Her first publicity coup was to shout, “You miserable bitch,” at a grande dame of the Comédie-Française and slap her round the face, after the woman shoved Bernhardt’s younger sister. Bernhardt refused to apologize (“Let her apologize to my sister first”), resigned from the theater and became famous overnight. Luckily, her acting stood up to the scrutiny.

At least, that’s how it went in the retelling. Bernhardt, who never let the facts get in the way of a good story, wouldn’t disclose the identities of her father and her child’s father and was inconsistent with the details of her place and date of birth, as well as every charming anecdote she told. More revealing, perhaps, are the things she chose not to conceal: she was never coy about her illegitimacy — her father was probably a naval officer from Le Havre — or about the illegitimacy of her own child. (On tour in England in 1880, she asked that they be introduced at receptions, scandalously, as “Mlle. Sarah Bernhardt and her son.”) And in an age of virulent anti-Semitism, she was proudly public about her Jewish roots. (This book is part of Yale’s “Jewish Lives” series.) Technically, her motto, Quand même, means “All the same” or “Nevertheless,” but in Bernhardt’s hands it comes off as a jaunty “So what?”

Indisputably, her background was grim. Bernhardt’s mother was from either a Dutch or a German-Dutch Jewish family, and after moving to Paris became a high-class courtesan. She gave her daughter no encouragement beyond trying to pimp her out when she came of age. When Bernhardt appeared onstage for the first time, at the Comédie-Française, her mother nastily said about a negative review: “See! The whole world calls you stupid, and the whole world knows that you’re my child!”

Out of such fires great stars are forged. After flouncing from France’s most famous theater, Bernhardt went to its rival, the Odéon, where she established her florid acting style. She returned triumphantly to the Comédie-Française and, through roles like Joan of Arc, Camille and even Hamlet, became the most famous woman in the world. Victor Hugo, with whom she apparently had an affair, admired her. Henry James — after she pulled off stunts like traveling with her own coffin, keeping a zoo in her apartment and wearing a hat adorned with a stuffed bat — thought she was an advertising genius. Chekhov considered her “smothered in artifice,” and Turgenev found her “false, cold and affected.” George Bernard Shaw lambasted her egotism and then years later confessed that he had attacked her because she reminded him of his Aunt Georgina.

In solid diva tradition, Bernhardt, so brilliant at work, could be hopeless in private. One of her ex-lovers, the actor Lou Tellegen, wrote an exploitative memoir called “Women Have Been Kind,” to which Dorothy Parker, reviewing it in Vanity Fair, suggested the addition “of Dumb” to the title. The father of Bernhardt’s son was probably a passing Belgian fancy, the Prince de Ligne, and she was married once, to a Greek playboy who cost her a lot of money and on whom Bram Stoker would later say he had partly based Dracula. So much for judgment. It was, Gottlieb writes, “the greatest mistake of Sarah’s life.”

She got over it. Halfway through the book, Gottlieb — formerly editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf and The New Yorker — runs out of synonyms for “drive” and “determination.” Bernhardt’s zeal was moral. She was an early feminist. On tour in America, she stood up for a black woman who had been prohibited by a hotel from attending a suffragist convention. The only big argument she ever had with her son was over the Dreyfus Affair; he was anti-, she pro- the Jewish officer charged with treason who became a barometer for racism in France and beyond.

Her last bon mot, uttered in 1923 as she lay dying, was to observe of the waiting journalists, “They’ve tortured me all my life, now I’ll torture them.” Colette wrote of Bernhardt’s “indomitable, endless desire to charm, to charm again, to charm even unto the gates of death.” And, as this biography admirably shows, well beyond that point, too.

Emma Brockes writes for The Guardian and is the author of “What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed My Life.”

A version of this review appeared in print on September 19, 2010, on page BR13 of the Sunday Book Review.

Paige One: Yes For Women Journalists

2010-09-17T13:56:00.000-07:00

September 17, 2010
CBS New York

"With certain athletes and teams performing badly when it comes to female journalists in the locker room, the question still remains: Do female journalists belong in the male dominating locker room?

Absolutely!

They have paid their dues a long times ago and I have a simple plan to end the controversy of females journalists in the locker room.

I wholeheartedly support female journalists. As a former president of the New York Association of Black Journalists and the Boxing Writers Association of America, I have never had a problem with women covering sports.

Once as head of the BWAA, a new boxing promoter wanted to hold a press conference at a strip club in New York City.

I informed him that I couldn’t cover his event because of the location and the fact that I have female members of the organization.

I didn’t attend. It was the right thing to do.

Female journalists work just as hard and are just a dedicated to covering sports as their male counterpoints.

When I was editor of The City Sun newspaper in Brooklyn, I had a writer who covered women’s sports for the paper.

She always covered the PSAL girl’s basketball championship at Madison Square Garden.

One year she asked me for two credentials to cover the championship.

I was puzzled. She didn’t want a credential and a ticket, just two credentials.

When I informed her I had a full staff covering three championship games in total, she told me she need another credential for her nurse.

Patricia Lynch was on daily dialysis for kidney failure. She needed her nurse to be with her because the veins in her left arm had collapsed. She rested her notepad on her left arm and did her interviews in longhand. Her nurse was there in case any problem occurred.

I got her the extra credential.

Pat died a few years ago, but I’ll never forget her dedication to her craft.

Today, people are in a tizzy because a “good-looking” woman in a short skirt dared to wear her outfit to cover sports.

If New York Jets players had a problem with Mexican TV reporter Ines Sainz and her dress or lack there of, then they should’ve complained to their public relations staff with words and not with catcalls and rude remarks.

I understand the problem with females in a male locker room and as I do with men in a women’s locker room.

Once when I covered a WNBA game at the Garden, the journalists were waiting in the hallway to enter the locker room. Then it hit me. I turned to one of the PR reps and asked if the women are dressed when we enter.

I was told that the room doesn’t open until the last woman is dressed.

That’s how you solve this problem of women journalist coming into a male locker room when the men are in various stages of undress.

Just keep the room closed until the last player is dressed.

In this time of instinct access, keeping the locker room closed for another five minutes won’t cause the writers to miss their deadline.

Is that too much to ask so women can do their job?

Hell, I don’t feel like looking at naked male athletes so close the locker room for a few more minutes. It’ll make both genders happy."

Tell Congress to Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

2010-09-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

I received this letter today from the ACLU.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Meet Major Margaret Witt:

In 1993, as an Air Force Nurse, she was the "poster child" for the Air Force Nurse Corps recruitment flyer.

In 2003, she was awarded an Air Force Commendation Medal for saving the life of a Defense Department employee who collapsed aboard a flight from Bahrain.

In 2006, she was fired by the Defense Department. Why? Because of the discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Maj. Witt is one of 13,500 men and women whose military careers were prematurely terminated because of this policy.

The outrage of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has gone on long enough. Contact your senators right now and urge the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The ACLU is helping Maj. Witt challenge her military discharge in court so she can continue to serve the country she loves.

Her story is a dramatic reminder of how unfair and counterproductive "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is—and why Congress needs to put an end to it.

Contact your senators right now. Urge the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

The House of Representatives has already acted. Now, we just need the Senate to follow suit and put this critical equal rights measure on President Obama's desk. If enough people act, this can be one of the most important civil liberties breakthroughs of 2010.

The country is lucky to have someone like Maj. Witt serve in the military. As she puts it, "Wounded people never asked me about my sexual orientation. They were just glad to see me there."

It's time for Congress to do the right thing. Stop punishing brave and loyal Americans who want to serve their country.

Contact your senators right now. Urge the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Thank you for speaking out,

Laura W. Murphy, Director
ACLU Washington Office

In Middle East Peace Talks, Clinton Faces a Crucial Test

2010-09-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

The New York Times
Diplomatic Memo
By MARK LANDLER
Published: September 4, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the United Nations in August, is taking a hands-on approach to Mideast diplomacy.

WASHINGTON — For much of her tenure as secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been less an architect than an advocate for the Obama administration’s Middle East policy. With the resumption of direct talks last week, she now has no choice but to plunge into the rough and tumble of peacemaking.

Mrs. Clinton will be in the thick of the negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, when they meet on Sept. 14 in Egypt. Her role, several officials say, will be to take over from the administration’s special envoy, George J. Mitchell, when the two sides run into serious obstacles.

It may prove the greatest test yet for Mrs. Clinton, one that could cement her legacy as a diplomat if she solves the riddle that foiled even her husband, former President Bill Clinton. But it could also pose considerable risks to any political ambitions she may harbor.

“I understand very well the disappointments of the past; I share them,” she said in convening the talks, an allusion to Mr. Clinton’s failed effort to broker a deal, most vividly at Camp David in 2000, when peace seemed tantalizingly close only to vanish amid recriminations in the Maryland mountains.

The tableau of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas chatting amiably Thursday in front of the marble fireplace in her office, officials said, testified to her relentless phone calls in recent weeks as she wore down the reluctance of the Palestinians to come to the table and drummed up support from Arab neighbors like Jordan and Egypt.

“One of the best indications that this could succeed is that Hillary Clinton is willing to get involved,” said Stephen J. Hadley, who served as national security adviser to President George W. Bush. “Because that makes me think two things: She thinks it’s possible and, because she is as skilled as she is, it increases the likelihood of success.”

Among the many hurdles that Mrs. Clinton will face is the often tense relationship that this administration has had with Israel. Mr. Obama is viewed with distrust by many in Israel and among some Jewish groups at home, where his outreach to the Muslim world and public criticism of Israeli policies have been denounced by some critics as anti-Israel.

But Mrs. Clinton has preserved her own credibility among these groups, analysts said, which will make her perhaps the administration’s most effective salesperson for the peace process. She also has a politician’s feel for Mr. Netanyahu, her aides say, which could help her push him to make hard choices, provided she is willing.

The question, some Middle East experts asked, is whether Mrs. Clinton has the negotiating grit to keep both men at the table — the mysterious combination of bluster, theatrics, hand-holding and guile that secretaries of state, like Henry A. Kissinger and James A. Baker III, have deployed to forge agreements between Arabs and Israelis.

“She’s plenty tough, tougher than her husband,” said Aaron David Miller, who worked on peace negotiations in the Clinton administration. “But does she have a negotiator’s mind-set? These are tough people in a tough neighborhood, who know how to manipulate people.”

Early in her tenure, some questioned the scope of Mrs. Clinton’s role after the appointment of highly visible special emissaries like Mr. Mitchell and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Others suggest that in the case of the Middle East, where Mr. Mitchell has an influential voice in making policy, she was insulating herself from potential failure. If so, that is no longer an option.

Mrs. Clinton got her first taste of high-wire negotiating last October in Zurich when she headed off a last-minute dispute that nearly scuttled an agreement between Turkey and Armenia on normalizing diplomatic relations. Sitting in a black BMW limousine, she juggled two cellphones, slowly nudging two ancient enemies together, if only temporarily.

In June, at a hotel bar in Lima, Peru, she finalized a deal with a Chinese diplomat over which companies could be named in a United Nations resolution punishing Iran for its nuclear program.

But these are sideshows compared with the challenge of bringing together wary foes who have spent six decades avoiding a deal. Even after what officials said was a promising start last week, no one in the administration knows if the talks will survive past Sept. 26, when Mr. Netanyahu has promised to allow a moratorium on settlement construction to expire and Mr. Abbas has threatened to walk out if it does.

For an American politician, the risks of delving into the Middle East are obvious. Already, Mrs. Clinton has taken arrows from American Jewish groups for her full-throated advocacy of Mr. Obama’s pressure on the Israeli government to freeze settlements.

“At the beginning of the administration, she was used as a foil; she was very tough on Israel,” said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization.

It was not the first time that Mrs. Clinton raised hackles. As first lady, she hugged Suha Arafat, the wife of Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, after Mrs. Arafat had made incendiary remarks about Israel. (Her aides said her reaction was based on an incomplete translation of the comments.) In 1998, Mrs. Clinton called for the creation of a Palestinian state, a proposal that was disavowed by the White House at the time but is now American policy.

For all that, Mr. Foxman said, Mrs. Clinton still has a reservoir of support, accrued from her years working for Jewish voters as a New York senator. It did not hurt, some noted, that Chelsea Clinton was recently married in a ceremony where her Jewish groom wore a traditional prayer shawl.

Some analysts say Mrs. Clinton’s few trips to Israel and her delegation of negotiating duties to Mr. Mitchell speak to her caution. “She has sensed this is a dog, and wanted to stay away from it,” Mr. Miller said.

But others said it made sense for her to hold her political capital in reserve until the prospects for talks ripened. Since March, when tensions flared over Israel’s settlement policy, two-thirds of the phone calls Mrs. Clinton has made to foreign officials have been about the Middle East, according to an adviser.

“It’s absolutely the case that she feels very strongly about this, in part to complete the job done by her husband,” said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel who advised her during the campaign.

It is also true, however, that the White House, not the State Department, drove the initial phase of policy-making in the Middle East. The strategy of publicly pressing Israel over settlements was devised by Mr. Obama’s staff with his active involvement, according to several officials.

As she has on other issues, Mrs. Clinton has been the good soldier, amplifying the president’s message. In March, when Israel announced new Jewish housing units during a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., she willingly took on the job of scolding Mr. Netanyahu.

But more recently, as the chill with Jerusalem began rattling lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Mrs. Clinton has counseled the White House to keep its criticism of Israel private, according to officials. Mr. Mitchell, they said, has also pushed for a more diplomatic approach.

“If you look at some of the problems the administration has had, both with the Israeli public and with some Jewish groups at home, she is pretty well positioned to be an answer to both of those,” said Robert Malley, another former peace negotiator for the Clinton administration.

To prepare for this moment, Mrs. Clinton has asked her staff for an exhaustive analysis of all the major peace initiatives, to spot trends, sticking points, areas of agreement and so on.

The choreography last week, a White House dinner followed by talks at the State Department, bore the imprint of Mrs. Clinton, officials said. The administration debated having her travel to the Middle East to restart the talks, but she persuaded Mr. Obama to take a central role.

“The decision-making and policy-making that got to these talks were really handled between the two of them personally,” said Denis McDonough, the chief of staff of the National Security Council.

Mrs. Clinton, more than most, understands that presidents are indispensable in Middle East peacemaking. She likes telling colleagues a story about Mr. Arafat’s calling her husband in late 2001 to tell him that he was ready to make a deal with Israel. “That’s great,” Mr. Clinton replied, “but I’m not in office anymore.”

Helene Cooper contributed reporting.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 5, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Lesbian Catholic school AD forced out of job after marriage

2010-09-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

By Cameron Smith
Fri Sep 03
Yahoo! Sports Prep Rally

Tuesday evening, Christine Judd was still the Athletic Director and Dean of Students at Cathedral High School in Springfield, Mass. Then suddenly, after a single meeting on Wednesday morning, she was not.0

According to MassLive.com, Judd met with officials of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield Wednesday after the diocese -- which runs Cathedral and other Catholic schools in the Springfield area -- learned that Judd, an open lesbian, married her longtime partner in August.

Judd isn't a newcomer to Cathedral. The Springfield resident served as AD for three years and dean of students for six years. She'd been at Cathedral 12 years in all before she "resigned," on Wednesday. And though she may have technically resigned, her decision didn't seem to be so open ended when you hear Judd describe the options that the diocese presented her with.

"I was given a choice of termination or resignation," Judd said. "I'm hurt, but I wish nothing but the best for Cathedral, its students, the parents, the athletic teams, administration and faculty. I bleed purple (the school's color)." ...

"I married my partner this summer," Judd said. "I was hoping that my loyalty, my professionalism the last 12 years would supersede the current hypocrisy that has already been shown with the Diocese of Springfield."

Asked to elaborate on her claim of hypocrisy, Judd said she questions if there are lay persons who work for the Catholic diocese who divorce and remarry without an annulment, or employees who use birth control, or men who have had vasectomies, or individuals who are pro-choice on abortion.

Technically, the Springfield diocese is within its rights. While same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts since 2004, it's strictly against diocese policy. That means that Judd breached her contract when she was married this summer. Mark Dupont, a spokesman for the Springfield Diocese, indicated that Judd's departure was a direct result of her decision.

"Without being specific to this matter, it should be clear that all employees of our Catholic schools are made aware of our policies and regulations," Dupont said. "This includes language that clearly states that whenever by public example, an employee engages in or espouses conduct which contravenes the doctrine and teaching of the Catholic Church, that employee may be subject to disciplinary action. To do otherwise would be in contradiction to the values we believe in and are teaching in these same schools. So while we certainly want to be compassionate and understanding, we must be true to who we are."

"We are certainly thankful to Ms Judd for her past service at Cathedral High School and wish her the best in the future," Dupont said.

While Cathedral may already be moving on -- the school named Farrand Violette, the head football coach, as interim Athletic Director -- it's also clear it is losing a pillar of the Cathedral community. As MassLive pointed out, the school website glowed that Judd was "one of the key members of the faculty and staff who serve as positive role models for the students." Members of the local media who knew her best are singing her praises even more loudly.

Now Judd is gone, thanks to a controversial decision she lays squarely at the feet of the Springfield Diocese rather than the school itself.

"Cathedral had nothing to do with this," Judd said. "This was a diocesan decision. In the end, the timing of this issue really affects the kids. That is where it has the most effect."

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

A Million Women vs. Wal-Mart

2010-09-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL The New York Times
Published: August 30, 2010

For nine years, Wal-Mart has fought to stave off a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company has long discriminated against its female workers in pay and promotions. So far it has avoided a trial on the merits of the issue. The battleground instead is whether the million or so women who have worked for Wal-Mart since 2001 really constitute a class, which the company vigorously disputes. In 2004, a federal district court judge said they did, and in April the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, ruling the case could proceed.

Now Wal-Mart has taken the class issue to the Supreme Court. It is probably a smart legal move, given the court’s clear tendency to rule in favor of corporations, particularly when big classes or discrimination claims are involved. We hope the court resists the temptation to toss out the case, which would force women to file lawsuits one by one. Wal-Mart’s employment practices deserve a full hearing.

The case originally began with seven female employees of Wal-Mart who realized that men were being paid more than women for comparable jobs and were getting promoted more often. As District Judge Martin J. Jenkins wrote in 2004, the statistics showed that women working in Wal-Mart stores were paid less than men in every region and in most job categories. The salary gap widened over time even for men and women hired into the same jobs at the same time, he wrote, and women took longer to enter into management positions.

Just because statistics showed a general salary gap, and more than 100 women presented evidence of second-class status, does that mean that each of the more than one million women who have worked at Wal-Mart in the last decade were victims of discrimination?

The company said that was an outlandish claim, and argued that there was no pattern or intent of discrimination. Judge Jenkins found that the potential discrimination was big enough to affect women as a class. The Ninth Circuit agreed and said it was better to deal with the matter in one lawsuit than with thousands clogging up the court system.

If this goes forward it would be the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in American history. Wal-Mart could face more than $1 billion in damages if the case proceeds and the company loses. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest private employer, and as the Ninth Circuit wrote, “mere size does not render a case unmanageable.” The Supreme Court should give the women of Wal-Mart a chance to make their case together.

A version of this editorial appeared in print on August 31, 2010, on page A20 of the New York edition.

EXCLUSIVE Ancient Texts of Everyday Secrets

2010-09-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

The Women's Media Center
By Emily Wilson

Arts commentator Emily Wilson talked to singer and composer Jewlia Eisenberg about her latest installation in San Francisco, a project that brings to life the ancient, secret writings of women in what is now Iraq.

At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco, some people are gathered in a double vaulted dome, sitting on colorful pillows, waiting for a performance to begin. Visitors are invited to whisper secrets anonymously. Then recordings of those secrets play inside the dome.

All of this—the dome, the performance, the secrets—are part of the latest project from Jewlia Eisenberg, founder of the music group Charming Hostess. Eisenberg looks for text that interests her to set to music. That has included Bosnian resistance poetry (Sarajevo Blues) and the diaries of Marxist theorist Walter Benjamin (Trilectic). With her latest album, The Bowls Project: Secrets of the Apocalyptic Intimate, Eisenberg used the text from Jewish Babylonian amulets, in the shape of bowls. Residents of 4th to 8th century Babylon (the area that is now Iraq) buried the bowls in the entrances to their homes.

Eisenberg found the text while in the office of a former teacher and friend, Daniel Boyarin, a Talmudist and professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

“The font was really bad, which is why I pulled it down,” she said. “The title was Corpus of the Aramaic Incantation Bowls, and it was somebody’s dissertation from 1973—what could be more dry, right?”

But Eisenberg found the amulets far from dry, as they exhorted demons and angels to block monsters, bring strength, and curse enemies.

These bowls come from the time of the Babylonian Talmud, which Eisenberg says is at the core of Jewish life, explicating the Bible. The Talmud does not overflow with the female voice, and Eisenberg says what drew her about the text was hearing from women from that time.

“You get a lot of voices from women very specifically and very personally,” Eisenberg said. “They are secrets about their sexuality, their home, their work, and taking care of their bodies, including menstruation and miscarriage.”

When Eisenberg asked Boyarin to read the Aramaic for her so she’d know how to pronounce it, she saw he was having difficulty with some words.

“This man does not stumble over Aramaic,” she said. “It’s his bread and butter. I asked, ‘What was that word?’ and he said, ‘It’s the we form for women.’ It doesn’t appear once in the Talmud. It appears all the time in the bowls.”

In the text of the bowls, everyday concerns run smack up against supernatural forces, Eisenberg says. She calls this the ‘apocalyptic intimate,’ and she says it exists in American songs as well, what rock critic Greil Marcus calls “that old, weird music.” On the album, Eisenberg has included these types of songs as well, such as “Early in the Morning,” which includes the lyrics, “Some people say the Devil is dead/I saw the Devil at the foot of my bed.”

Eisenberg hopes people going to see the installation and hearing the songs will see the connection between their lives and the women who wrote the text on the bowls.

The audience enters a double vaulted dome and relaxes on colorful pillows while hearing secrets from ancient Babylonia and today. Photo by Rien van Rijthoven.

“When I first started thinking about this project, we were very deep in Iraq, but unless you have family fighting in Iraq, most people were not thinking about it,” she said. “With the text here, you can’t help but identify with these Iraqi women from 1,500 years ago. They’re not even that different from you, so how about women who live there now?”

Eisenberg knew right away she wanted to make an installation with this project, rather than just recording a CD.

“I wanted people to see the text and engage with it,” she says. “So people know when I say stuff like, ‘I am standing at the shore of the sea and I adjure you great bird of rivers that you may hear my words and accept my incantation,’ I am not making this up. That’s directly from the bowls, and yes, Jews talked about god as the great bird of rivers. It’s not some fuzzy wuzzy thing or my own feminist manifestation.”

Eisenberg looked for a while for someone who could create an installation to go along with her music. She found that person, architect Michael Ramage, while she was a visiting artist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She wanted to have a space where people could go and engage with the text, she says, and she wanted that space to be shaped something like a bowl and be welcoming.

That’s how it was for Ella Washington, one of the people sitting inside the dome at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Washington, who is visiting San Francisco from Atlanta, was on her way to another performance, when she saw the dome and was drawn in.

“The structure feels very sacred, the cloth feels very Mediterranean, and everything about it is so feminine,” she said. “I don’t know, I just feel good in here.”

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

Over 150 Women Gang Raped in Congo

2010-08-25T15:06:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Ximena Ramirez
August 24, 2010
Care2 News

The use of rape as a tactic of war is nothing new – especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo – but the anger and sadness I feel every time I read yet another story about the horrors these women and girls face every day is something I don’t think I can ever escape.

Take, for example, the rage I felt when news surfaced that at least 150 women were gang raped during a raid last month by Rwandan rebels in a community of villages in eastern Congo.

Although the men who entered the village during the day claimed they were only there for food and rest, another group of men arrived after dark to wreak havoc on the village’s women. Most women were raped by two to six men at a time and some even in front of their children and families.

Coincidentally, the rebels left the area on the same day that the village's chief traveled through the area and soon began reporting the sexual violence. The International Medical Corps who were also documenting the rape cases note that "the numbers keep rising...We had heard first 24 rapes, then 56, then 78, then 96, then 156."

The numbers and severity of the attacks are devastating and have been for years. "Evil in its basest form," said Hilary Clinton of the widespread rape in the region when she traveled to the Congo in 2009.

Turning Pain to Power

No-one has been more affected by the atrocities women and girls in the Congo face than famous playwright and activist Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues. And no-one, no-one, instills in me more hope that an end to sexual violence is possible not only in the Congo, but around the world.

If this is the first you've heard of Ensler you will thank me. The passion, love, dedication, and unwavering drive with which she fights for a world free from violence is infectious, admirable, and awe-inspiring. For myself and thousands, if not millions, of other women she is my hero.

After learning of the horrific violence taking place in the Congo "including cannibalism, chopping off body parts, rape with tools and weapons, and sexual assault of minors as young as 10 months and elders as old as 87 years" Ensler was propelled into action.

Through her organization V-Day, a movement to end violence against women and girls around the world, Ensler launched a global campaign in partnership with UNICEF in 2007 to raise awareness of the level of sexual violence women in the Congo face and advocate for real change. The campaign, "Stop Raping our Greatest Resource: Power to Women and Girls of Democratic Republic of Congo," is helping Congolese women break the silence on the atrocities that have been inflicted on them so they can heal and become part of the movement for change.

The campaign is working to build "The City of Joy," a special facility in the Congo for survivors of sexual violence to seek support and care as they rebuild their lives and communities. The "City of Joy" will provide both a safe space for women to both physically and emotionally heal from the sexual violence they have experienced and learn valuable skills to help them reach economic independence and become leaders in their communities.

The support and love Ensler's campaign has given the Congolese women has transformed their lives, turning their pain into power, their loss into gain, their despair into hope. The war against women in the Congo may not be over, but the revolution to reclaim their bodies and lives has never been stronger.

Progressive Women's Voices

2010-08-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

I received this letter over the weekend. It is definitely worth looking into, if you're interested.

Dear Karen,

Calling all future Steinems, Maddows, Amanpours and Courics! Do you want to become a political commentator or journalist serving as a strong voice in the media? Apply for the last class of Progressive Women's Voices in 2010 today!

Apply for Progressive Women's Voices here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CNNFP8G or click here to nominate a friend: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CNFRD93

Progressive Women's Voices is the premier media and leadership training program for women. Participants receive 50 hours of intensive in-person training to master effective interview techniques, craft strong media messages and newsworthy pitches, incorporate video into their work, and develop and place op-ed articles -- improving their skills to serve as thought leaders for the media. By becoming a part of Progressive Women's Voices, you will join a roster of thought leaders who are visibly and powerfully commenting on the important issues of the day. In the words of Meggan Watterson, Executive Director of REVEAL and a recent participant, Progressive Women's Voices "handed her soul a megaphone."

Progressive Women's Voices starts with a competitive application process, with final candidates chosen by a committee that includes WMC founders Jane Fonda, Gloria Steinem, and Robin Morgan. The application deadline for the last class of 2010 is September 3, 2010, with trainings to be held November 5-7 and December 3-5 in New York City. Travel, accommodation, and training expenses are covered by the WMC.

With the 2010 elections just around the corner, the Women's Media Center is working to ensure that broadcast, print and online commentators represent the diversity of our nation. Women representing diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, professions, ethnicities, ages, geographical regions and levels of experience are encouraged to apply (including those who have previously applied). For more information about Progressive Women's Voices, click here: http://bit.ly/pwvinfo

Apply for Progressive Women's Voices here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CNNFP8G or click here to nominate a friend: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CNFRD93

Thanks for all you do,

Jehmu, Jamia & the WMC team

PS: It costs the Women's Media Center $10,000 to train each participant. Can you contribute $50, $250, or $500? www.womensmediacenter.com/donate

PETITION: Justice for Journalist Anna Politkovskaya

2010-08-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Please click on the link of the title of this post to sign the petition.

Target: Prosecutor General Yuri Yakovlevich Chaika

Sponsored by: Care2.com

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya wrote to fight injustice. She covered stories of violence, corruption, and abuse, including the human rights situation in Cechnya. Her articles were published in foreign media, and her books translated into many languages.

Although her work was internationally revered, she was critical of the Russian and Chechen governments, and it also brought her many enemies.

Politkovskaya was detained and her life endangered many times, including one case in which she was poisoned on her way to cover a school hostage crisis in North Ossetia. In 2006 she was murdered outside her home in Moscow.

In 2007, four men were charged with Anna's murder, but acquitted. The Russian Supreme Court has ordered further investigation into the case, but nearly four years later her murderers remain unidentified and at large. Urge Russia's Prosecutor General Yuri Yakovlevich Chaika to to find and bring to justice Politkovskaya's killers.

Women’s Media Center Announces Next Class of 2010 Progressive Women’s Voices Media and Leadership Training Program

2010-08-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
Jamia Wilson, Vice President of Programs
Women’s Media Center
(212) 563-0680
jamia@womensmediacenter.com

WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER ANNOUNCES NEXT CLASS OF 2010 PROGRESSIVE WOMEN’S VOICES MEDIA AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM

July 12, 2010 (New York) – Women’s Media Center is thrilled to announce the next class of its 2010 Progressive Women’s Voices (PWV) media and leadership training program. Now in its third year, PWV continues to be one of the most elite programs in the country, training and mentoring issue experts and emerging commentators.

“Media is a fundamental element of our democracy, yet women make up just 19% of experts in the news media. With the 2010 elections just around the corner, the Women’s Media Center is working to ensure that broadcast, print and online commentators represent the diversity of our nation,” said WMC President Jehmu Greene. “By amplifying the voices of the extraordinarily accomplished thought leaders selected for the program we are changing the conversation in the media.”

Participants in the next class include experts in women’s economic empowerment, human rights, gender and race, public policy, electoral strategy, reproductive justice, media literacy, feminist theology, and pop culture. These women are journalists, organizers, health care providers, and academics, and reflect diversity generally absent from mainstream media coverage. The new class joins more than 70 Progressive Women’s Voices alumnae, forming a roster of media-trained women who are visibly and powerfully commenting on the important issues of the day.

With Progressive Women’s Voices and SheSource – a database of more than 500 women experts – WMC has become the go-to resource for editors, reporters, producers, and bookers seeking expert sources and commentators. PWV alumnae have achieved more than 5,000 media hits in national media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, and hundreds more. To learn more about Progressive Women’s Voices, please visit our website.

Kirstin Falk has more than fourteen years of experience as a brand engagement strategist and collaborative leader, and has technology, non-profit, political, and financial services experience. She has built innovative, brand-driven operations by creating, engaging and leading teams to achieve success. Falk has recently spent the summer in Indonesia advising a Presidential campaign in communications, served as the Chief Marketing Officer of AngelPoints, founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of the New Progressive Coalition, and has held leadership positions with political organizations including EMILY’s List, New Democrat Network, and Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

Andrea Plaid writes as Racialicious’ Sexual Correspondent, where she explores the crucial nexus of race and sex in popular culture. She also writes for the Race in America blog at Change.org, runs her own blog, The Cruel Secretary, and a companion talk show, Secretary’s Break Room. She has discussed race, gender, and sex in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Bitch. She owns a safer-sex kit company called Freak Kits.

Andrea Isabel Quijada is the Executive Director of the Media Literacy Project where she educates and empowers the public to critically consume and create media. She delivers presentations and trainings internationally at professional and student conferences, community forums, on college campuses. She leads workshops for students, teachers, media activists, community organizers, and health professionals discussing the topics of media ownership, health disparities, gender and racial stereotypes, and media literacy as a substance abuse prevention strategy. Quijada has co-founded a number of community organizing projects in NM including Young Women United, and she holds a master’s degree in Art History from the University of New Mexico.

Sheela Raja, PhD, is a clinical psychologist with over ten years of research and clinical experience in health psychology, with an emphasis on minority populations and the treatment of traumatic events. She is Assistant Professor of Dentistry and Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches Health Communication and Behavioral Medicine. She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed post-doctoral training at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, MA. She has published numerous articles exploring the relationship between physical and psychological health and traumatic events.

Loretta Ross is the National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a network founded in 1997 of eighty women of color. She was National Co-Director of the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE), Director of Women of Color Programs for the National Organization for Women, and Director of the National Black Women’s Health Project. She has appeared as a political commentator on Good Morning America, The Donahue Show, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, and BET.

Joelle Schmitz is a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Mossavar Rhamani Center for Business and Government with expertise in economic regulation, the interdependence of public and private sectors, and transportation policy. She has served as a Fulbright Scholar and policy advisor to the Canadian Prime Minister’s office on issues of interprovincial and international regulation, an advisor to the lead negotiator for the United States in multilateral regulatory agreements, and a senior-level industry and government consultant in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She earned a Master’s in Public Policy on scholarship from the Harvard Kennedy School and has completed studies on fellowship at Johns Hopkins SAIS and McGill University, at the Harvard Law and Business Schools, and L’Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

Adele M. Stan is the Washington bureau chief for AlterNet, a progressive news and culture website. She has served as a columnist and blogger for The American Prospect Online and as a featured essayist for The Guardian’s Comment Is Free. Her work has also appeared in The New Republic, the Village Voice, The Nation, The Advocate, Salon.com, the Washington Blade and Mother Jones magazine, as well as the op-ed pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Daily News, and she has served as a contributing editor for Ms. Magazine.

Shira Tarrant, Ph.D is an assistant professor with the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach. She is also a go-to source about the impact of state budget cuts on California’s higher education. An expert in gender politics, feminism, pop culture, and masculinity, Tarrant is the author of Men and Feminism (Seal Press 2009) and When Sex Became Gender (Routledge 2006), and editor of Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex and Power (Routledge 2008). Her co-edited anthology, Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style, is forthcoming (SUNY Press). Her work has appeared in Bitch magazine, Huffington Post, off our backs, Barnard College’s Scholar & Feminist Online, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Genre magazine, and The Women’s Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third-Wave Feminism. She has also been featured in the Baltimore Sun, Denver Post, Sydney Morning Herald, and WBAI radio.

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at American Progress and serves as Managing Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org. She has also served as the Center’s Special Assistant for Strategic Planning, and has held positions at the Office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, the Office of the New York State Attorney General, and the 2004 presidential campaign of Senator Joseph Lieberman. Her writing has been published in the New York Times and Politico, and on the websites of Salon, The Daily Beast, the Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian’s Comment is Free, The American Prospect, and In These Times.

Manisha Thakor is a personal finance expert on a mission to inspire women to take charge of their money. Her financial literacy advocacy work has been featured in The New York Times, BusinessWeek, US News & World Report, Glamour, Real Simple, and Women’s Day. She has discussed the subject of women and financial independence on CNN’s Your Bottom Line, CNBC’s Power Lunch, NBC Nightly News, and ABC’s America This Morning. She is a regular blogger on The Huffington Post and a contributor to the nationally syndicated NPR show “51% – The Women’s Perspective.” She received her BA from Wellesley College in 1992, her MBA from Harvard Business School in 1997, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder.

Meggan Watterson is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of REVEAL and a feminist theologian. With Masters from Harvard Divinity School and the Union Theological Seminary in Feminist Theology and Women’s Spirituality, Watterson has focused her life’s work on the emergence of the divine feminine. She leads a multi-faith women’s spirituality group called The Redladies and is currently working on the REVEAL anthology, titled REVEAL Generation.

To speak with Women’s Media Center President Jehmu Greene about Progressive Women’s Voices, please contact Jamia Wilson, (212) 563-0680, jamia@womensmediacenter.com

Application information and deadlines for the next class will be posted on our website in the coming weeks. For more information, or to apply for the program, visit our website.

UPDATE: Check out our video introducing our latest class!

EXCLUSIVE Letter from a Mama Grizzly to Sarah Palin

2010-07-20T16:16:00.001-07:00

By Sally Kohn

Commentator Sally Kohn, somewhat confused about Sarah Palin’s recent outreach video, asks here for a bit of clarification.

Dear Ms. Palin,

I’m a little confused by your recent video calling for an uprising of “Mama Grizzlies”—the label you give to conservative women who allegedly have their conservative undergarments in a bunch over President Obama’s health care reform, financial regulation and environmental conservation, which will undoubtedly make the world a better place for little cubs for generations but are nonetheless cast by you as anti-mom. I’m not confused by your nonsensical ideological narrow-mindedness. That I’ve come to expect. What I am confused by is how you are now casting your nonsensical ideological narrow-mindedness as protecting “Mama Grizzlies.” Aren’t you the one who hunts bears from helicopters?

I’m asking because, lately, you’ve been shellacking yourself with the varnish of feminism. A few months ago, you gave a speech describing yourself as leading an “emerging, conservative, feminist identity.” Now I don’t want to second guess an experienced, political operative such as yourself, but I imagine you’re trying to broaden your base from beer cozy-carrying white men to breast milk-carrying white women. Smart. Especially given that black folks, Latino immigrants and those latte-drinking upper-middle class whites seem rather cold to your aw-shucks-statesmanship and thinly veiled cultural warfare.

But in courting the mommy set, doncha you think that your anti-mom policies—like opposing efforts to guarantee equal pay for equal work, supporting tax cuts for the super rich that will kill funding for public schools the rest of us rely on, objecting to federally subsidized health care and child care—make you, what’s that big word… hypocritical? Like, um, claiming to champion “Mama Grizzlies” while personally owning several dead grizzly bears? Should the fact that, as governor of Alaska, you passed laws to encourage the extinction of bears be seen as a warning? Are you luring America’s women into the same sort of trap?

Just as your “nature” strategies have systematically killed off the bear population in Alaska, the policies you promote have been shown to kill jobs, economic prosperity, the pursuit of higher education and retirement savings—in other words, making the secure and prosperous American family all but extinct. Seems to me you’re about as pro-woman as you are pro-bear.

As a potentially explanatory digression, I understand that sport hunters like yourself mainly target male grizzly bears. If in fact you have some covert agenda to grow the lesbian bear population, killing the male grizzlies in order to create a Sapphic grizzly heaven, then frankly that’s an armed helicopter I might be able to board. You say, “Gay bears!” I say, “Grrrrrreat!”

Or, now that I think of it, perhaps the real trajectory of your strange bedfellows political base-building is to sidle up to gay male bears. I assume you know that, for decades, rotund and hairy men in the gay community have been nicknamed “bears.” Google “gay male bears” and you’ll get a very graphic idea of what I’m talking about. Given the aforementioned unlikelihood of the Republican big tent bending its ideological tent poles enough to welcome blacks and Latinos and the white upper-middle class, I can see the Palinesque logic of where you’re headed.

The inherent alignment between you and the hairy homosexual population is obvious. You both represent extremely fringe but nonetheless influential subcultures. You both have an affinity for animal skins. And, in both cases, your ideal man looks a lot like Todd. It’s a political match made in San Francisco.

But, um, if that’s not where you’re headed well, then, I’m lost. I cannot think of a more anti-woman candidacy than your vice presidential bid in 2008, which suggested that women’s assent to leadership can and should be based solely on cute looks and folksy sweetness rather than serious experience and competence equal to any man. The fact that there are hundreds of women far more qualified than you to be vice president of the United States of America but you emerged from the election as the new figurehead of women in politics undermines the fight of other women to be taken seriously in the public arena.

Even more, your conquest for cultural and political power through co-opting “Mama Grizzlies” is nothing more than a big business, anti-family agenda in drag. You said in an interview that the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would lengthen the period of time for which men and women could sue regarding very overt cases of pay discrimination, would be a “boon to trial lawyers.” Uh, yes, women who had been systematically discriminated against on the basis of their sex and paid less than male colleagues would need to hire lawyers. But the law (which passed despite your objections) is really a boon to fairness and equal opportunity. It only hurts big business that, over the years, has relied on paying women less in order to increase their own margins of profit. You’d think that would be something to growl about…

In a nutshell, Ms. Palin, you are no feminist—and women across the country, whether they’re soccer moms or hockey moms or “Mama Grizzlies” or not even mothers at all, can see through your hypocrisy and easily spot your fangs and claws.

Yours truly,

Sally Kohn

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

EXCLUSIVE Women’s Response to Chile Earthquake Immediate and Ongoing

2010-07-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

By Maxine Lowy

Journalist and human rights specialist Maxine Lowy reports that women’s advocates have expanded their focus to help women rebuild their communities in southern Chile after the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Four months since one of the most potent earthquakes in history shattered communities and lives in southern Chile, women have proven to be key protagonists in reconstruction and recovery initiatives.

In the pre-dawn hours of February 27, an earthquake measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale struck south central Chile, resulting in 500 deaths and directly affecting two million people by the destruction of more than 200,000 homes and workplaces.

While natural disasters transversely affect men and women, a Pan American Health Organization information sheet of 2001 signals that women are disproportionately affected as a result of the position in society. Media frequently focus their lenses on dazed women and children in the wake of hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes while failing to show that women also play a vital role in mitigation and emergency response to such natural disasters.

Some 300 kilometers south of Santiago, in Talca, a city of 200,000 where practically every building in the historic center collapsed and at least 83 people lost their lives, Benedicta Aravena, social projects coordinator for the feminist organization Centro Social Quidel, says women immediately set up soup kitchens to feed not only their own families but neighbors as well. Subsequently, housing advocacy committees, all led by women, have been formed to demand adequate housing and obtain subsidies to rebuild or buy new homes in a city where 2,400 emergency cabins, which barely protect from the harsh winds and rains of the southern hemisphere winter, have been distributed.

Centro Social Quidel itself became homeless, when the building it shared with four other women’s organizations collapsed in the earthquake.

“I went around constantly with a lump in my throat. The best way to overcome the emotional earthquake was to get out of the house. Since there was no telephone, Internet, electricity or even public transportation, early each morning until late at night we would walk to shelters and neighborhoods all over town to find out what women needed. Every day we heard about a woman whose house caved in, another who was sleeping in the street and someone who had given birth under a grape arbor,” Aravena recalled.

In the initial days and weeks when basic goods were in short supply, Talca women devised a barter network as a system of mutual aid. A woman who had flour but needed sugar would trade what she had with another. Women also shared and exchanged diapers, sanitary napkins, shampoo, and other hard to come by necessities.

Centro Social Quidel, created 10 years ago to prevent domestic violence and treat its victims, has confirmed reports from local clinics that violence to women is on the rise. Empty lots, piles of rubble, and each portable chemical toilet shared by three families in the emergency camps create situations of vulnerability. Men’s frustration at the loss of workplaces—12 percent of workers are unemployed in Talca since the earthquake—is a tinder keg, threatening to ignite in sexual and psychological abuse to women, Aravena fears. Last month the organization held the first of a series of workshops designed to help prevent domestic violence.

Despite the visible activism of women since the days after the quake, Aravena complains that the city government “has never called us to explain its reconstruction plan,” suggesting to her that officials do not value women community leaders. “We want real participation in rebuilding our neighborhoods,” she insists.

Aiming to strengthen women’s participation in rebuilding their communties, in early June the Gender and Equity Observatory brought 80 women, most from the zones affected by the earthquake and tsunami, to Santiago for the two day seminar “Women and the Earthquake: Building Citizenship.” Numerous women reported that although they were separated from their husbands, the deeds to their houses remained in the spouse’s name, effectively depriving them of the heads of household subsidy the government has offered. This situation is common in Chile where divorce has been legal only five years. The workshop created a network of women empowered to demand fair distribution of subsidies promised but delivered to few, due to this legal dilemma as well as cumbersome, bureaucratic processes.

A critical source of support for Centro Cultural Quidel and 12 other women’s organizations in the emergency zone has been Fondo Alquimia, the only foundation in Chile that exclusively funds organizations engaged in women’s rights and feminist activism. The first Monday after the earthquake the foundation set in motion its “Women Donate to Women” fundraising drive, both within Chile and internationally, to channel resources to women’s organizations in the affected areas. The initial disbursement, which continued through late April, consisted of approximately US$100, non-solicited and no-strings-attached, for each organization to spend on medication, water, food, blankets and any other pressing needs they determined in the emergency situation. The next two phases of Fondo Alquimia support are directed, first, to closely monitor respect for women’s rights by funding activities such as Centro Social Quidel’s domestic violence workshop, and, second, to reactivate women’s organizations. The latter contemplates not only a year’s operating expenses but also containment therapy to heal souls damaged by fear, stress, and uncertainty.

Maria Paz Becerra, organizational support staffer for Fondo Alquimia, has observed an unforeseen positive effect of the crisis situation. “Prior to the earthquake, a high percentage of groups, like Quidel, worked only on traditional women’s issues such as domestic violence. The disaster compelled them to address concerns such as employment and housing they had never considered before, opening dialogue with other community sectors and regional government authorities.” The formation of broader alliances, Becerra says, has strengthened women’s organizations. “Despite, the terrible experience they endured, I believe that down the road they will emerge stronger and revitalized.”

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

British Grandma Close to Execution

2010-07-06T06:53:00.000-07:00

Will the governor of Texas grant clemency to a British woman on death row?

As the US Supreme Court refused to reopen the case of Linda Carty, her family has one last chance to save her life - a plea for clemency.

Linda Carty was sentenced to death in February 2002 by a Texan court, for allegedly hiring four men to murder a neighbour. The prosecution claimed she did so because she wanted to kill the heavily pregnant woman and cut out her baby to keep for her own.

Reprieve who are involved in helping Linda tell a different story:

"Linda's court-appointed lawyer was Jerry Guerinot, whose incompetence has already led to twenty of his clients ending up on death row, more than any other defence lawyer in the US. His approach to her case was at best, slapdash, at worst, wilfully inept.

Guerinot's catalogue of serious failings in Linda's case includes: failure to meet Linda until immediately before the trial, failure to inform Linda or her husband of their rights; failure to spot obvious flaws and inconsistencies in the prosecution case; failure to interview witnesses; and failure to investigate key mitigating evidence.

After her conviction, investigators from Reprieve visited St Kitts and learnt that Linda was still remembered as a passionate teacher who frequently held extra classes for children with special needs. She also taught at Sunday school, sang in a national youth choir and led a volunteer social-work group.

This information would have enabled Guerinot to present her to the jurors as a dedicated teacher and community leader – factors that might well have induced them to vote to spare her life. But although Guerinot applied to the court for funds to go to St Kitts before Linda’s trial, neither he nor his staff made the trip."

Linda also has the support of the British government which states that Texas failed to inform the British Consulate of her arrest..

'which prevented them from providing Linda with a competent lawyer'

The British Government also submitted a very strong argument on Linda’s behalf, stating that Texas’ failure to inform the British Consulate of her arrest prevented them from providing Linda with a competent lawyer -- which would likely have saved her life.

“Linda Carty could not afford a decent lawyer"

Linda's daughter, Jovelle recently visited the UK and said:

"It is completely impossible that my mother committed these crimes, but she had no chance to clear her name. Her trial was so unfair. We are trapped in a legal system where if you don't have money, you don't have rights or justice."

As Texas gets closer to its 460th execution in nearly 30 years, we ask "how does the US have the moral right to condemn the Human Rights records of other countries, while at the same time allowing a potential gross miscarriage of justice to result in the death of women like Linda Carthy?"

For further information, please contact Katherine O’Shea at Reprieve’s Press Office katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 020 7427 1099 or go to:

www.reprieve.org.uk/savelindacarty

To obtain a high-quality copy of Bianca Jagga's video appeal, please email katherine.oshea@reprieve.org.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Reprieve, a legal action charity, uses the law to enforce the human rights of prisoners, from death row to Guantánamo Bay.

Reprieve investigates, litigates and educates, working on the frontline, to provide legal support to prisoners unable to pay for it themselves.

Reprieve promotes the rule of law around the world, securing each person’s right to a fair trial and saving lives.

Reprieve’s current casework involves representing 33 prisoners in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, working on behalf of prisoners facing the death penalty, and conducting ongoing investigations into the rendition and the secret detention of ‘ghost prisoners’ in the so-called ‘war on terror.’

Reprieve PO Box 52742 London EC4P 4WS

Tel: 020 7353 4640 Fax: 020 7353 4641

Email: info@reprieve.org.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Website: www.reprieve.org.uk

EXCLUSIVE Wonder Woman in Pants is Not a Feminist Win

2010-07-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

By Shelby Knox
The Women's Media Center

It’s the end of an era. At 69 years old, Wonder Woman has decided to put on some pants.

Actually, the new duds are not an act of self-determination by the woman (formerly) in red, white and blue. According to the New York Times, the new head writer of the series, J. Michael Straczynski, wanted to “toughen her up and give her a modern sensibility.”

This is modernity? Where are her red boots? What about modernization requires her trademark “W” emblem to fade into the background? How is covering her once rippling, now wimpy, muscles a nod to evolved images of womanhood?

I know what you’re thinking: Shouldn’t feminists be happy that Wonder Woman now looks more like a young woman freshly off a college campus, at once ready to go fight some bad guys in an alley or in a pay discrimination lawsuit? Haven’t we been fighting for women role models with more clothing as well as more substance? She couldn’t really fight evil in a bustier—is this not a feminist win?

No, not by a long shot. In fact, it feels like the sad loss of America’s first truly feminist comic book heroine.

This isn’t the first time DC Comics has tried to “modernize” the Wonder Woman character, which debuted in 1930 as the creation of psychologist William Marston. Marston, with the encouragement of his wife Elizabeth, designed her as a “new kind of superhero, one who would triumph not with fists or firepower, but with love.” Wonder Woman, her creator said, was “psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world.”

As such, Wonder Woman, alias Diana Prince, was introduced as a protégé of the classical goddesses and, like her male crime fighting counterparts, possessed a variety of powers and tools, including superhuman strength, agility and cunning, the ability to fly, bracelets that made her invincible and a “Truth Lasso” that barred those bound by it from uttering lies. Unlike her male counterparts, however, she sought to rid the world of evil by first employing logic and mutual human understanding before breaking out the fire power.

A generation of role-model starved women, finally presented with a truly powerful heroine, proved themselves a reliable comic book fan base—at the height of her early popularity, Wonder Woman had a readership of ten million, appeared in four comic books, and a daily newspaper comic strip, reported Philip Charles Crawford in School Library Journal.

Yet, social progress for women wasn’t correlated with the evolution of their superhero. In 1968, DC Comics debuted a “modern” version of Diana Prince who’d lost her goddess heritage and all her superhuman powers, gained a male mentor and his martial arts skills, and developed a propensity for the domestic arts. She also came equipped with a new “mod” costume: a pantsuit with no “W” emblem, no flags, and no invincible bracelet cuffs.

Feminist outrage at the devolution of their heroine was quick. A group of activists, led by Gloria Steinem, leaned on DC Comics to scrap the “new” Wonder Woman in favor of the more powerful original—and they won, convincing the company to restore Wonder Woman’s powers and history during the next version of the series. They understood that along with equal pay and childcare and the right to hold credit in their own name, young women need to be able to see themselves in strong pop culture role models in order to fashion themselves into the real life versions.

Here we go again, it seems. Wonder Woman donning what looks like skinny jeans is being spun as a direct result of the successes of the Women’s Liberation movement, a reaction to requests that female superheroes do a little less baring of buns and a lot more kicking them. Yet in stripping Diana of her overt sexuality the new writers have missed the reason Wonder Woman was a feminist heroine in the first place. As originally portrayed, Diana Prince was sexy not because of her bare legs and cleavage but because her personhood wasn’t defined by them and her powers not derived from fashioning herself for the male gaze. She could work a 9 to 5 job, hold down a relationship, subvert international conspiracies and toss the villains in jail, and perhaps, as the first cover of Ms. magazine suggested in 1972, even be president—and the way she looked was, as it should be, simply an aside.

While it’s yet to be seen whether this costume change signals an intent to again strip Wonder Woman of her super powers, it’s disconcerting to learn that the writers are creating a new back story for the character that deprives her of her upbringing on Paradise Island with her mother, Queen Hippolyta, and her Amazon sisters in favor of being smuggled out of her homeland as a baby as it was destroyed. Wonder Woman’s original feminist creator’s intent in giving Diana the Paradise Island upbringing was to insinuate she knew gender equality existed because she’d lived it and that her powers were derived from living with and learning from her sisters. In effect, all women could become “Wonder Woman” if they tapped into the feminine power around them and strived for a gender just world that, we know from real live history, really did and can exist. Is this rewrite an attempt to impose the myth of “post-patriarchy” on the character, in which she no longer needs to dream of and fight for equality because she’s achieved it?

If the folks at DC Comics weren’t aware, 2010 America is far from a mythical Amazonian paradise. Take for example new statistics from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media pertaining to female role models for young girls. In G rated movies, just one in three speaking roles is female and in PG and R rated films, about 73 percent of the characters are male. While there are notable exceptions, like Dora the Explorer and the girl superheroes in The Invincibles, young women are still hard pressed to find pop culture role models that look and sound like themselves. If, as it seems, Wonder Woman is truly losing some of her characteristic fierceness, that’s one fewer strong female role model for girls to aspire to be.

Jim Lee, the artist responsible for Wonder Woman’s new design, claims he wanted her to look strong “without screaming, ‘I’m a superhero.’ ” Even today, in this “modern era,” it’s still hard not to wonder, what’s so wrong with screaming that?

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

Elders Tobacco Project has elders talking about tobacco

2010-07-02T12:53:00.000-07:00

The Circle - Native American News and Art
Dec 19 2009
Written by Ona Knoxsah

Attention Native smokers: before going out for your next smoke break, be advised that you are likely to be approached by a Native elder who has made a commitment to educate Native smokers in the Twin Cities about the deadly health affects and overuse of non-commercial tobacco.

The elders have been trained to approach smokers in the Native community and speak with them about tobacco. They don’t expect you to extinguish your cigarette, or quit cold turkey. They simply want to uphold their role as Native elders and advise you about the dangers of commercial tobacco, and the value of traditionally harvested tobacco.

The elders were approached a year ago at the Inter-tribal Elder Services and asked to commit to learning about natural tobacco for a few hours a month. They had learning circles to teach them ways to approach smokers in a safe, friendly, and informational way. The elders were also taught how to make traditional kinnikinik (tobacco) from Red Willow.

“They feel more confident in talking to people. As an elder, they feel responsible” says Chris Rhodes, coordinator for the group at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health., which funded the one-year pilot program along with ClearWay for Community Academic Research, and the American Indian Policy Center. The goal of the program is to provide elders with the knowledge and support to be leaders in the tobacco control movement, a new movement that is grounded in the ceremonial traditions of tobacco use.

Each elder’s mission is to speak to individuals about the dangers of commercial tobacco, and to identify ways to build a healthier relationship with tobacco through community strengths and cultural values.

Aside from sharing information about what smoking does to your health, the elders are also likely to talk about the Native way of life. They might menton that you should greet them and honor them as if they are your grandparents. They might also tell you why Natives should not use commercial tobacco. That it is processed, and it is not the traditional tobacco used by our ancestors. And that traditional tobacco should not be inhaled.

One of the elders, Carol Hill says “We need to be returning to a healthier way to use tobacco. There aren’t the health affects if used properly. A lot of times tobacco is not burned, it is made as an offering outside by a tree or near water. The smoke is not inhaled, that is the gift to Creator.”

Another elder, Marcy Hart, talks about the difference between commercial tobacco and traditional/Native tobacco. “Our ancestors did not use processed tobacco. They [the tobacco industry] add chemicals and they use fertilizers and that stuff goes into your body and lungs,” said Hart.

“Think about commercial tobacco versus traditional/Native tobacco. It [Native tobacco] comes from Mother Earth. The tobacco plant itself is natural. It’s organic. The difference of commercial tobacco and natural tobacco is comparable to wild rice and patty rice. The patty rice is grown on large scale and is probably not as natural or organic. Which would you rather eat?” said Hart.

But where can people get natural tobacco? Rhodes said, “You can’t sell tobacco.” Meaning it can’t be bought. “American Indian Spirit is still processed, it’s still commercial” she said.

So how does the Native community begin to uphold what is traditional if traditional tobacco is not readily available? George Spears, Program Director of Health Services at the Division of Indian Work has applied for two grants recently to buy land for an organic garden which would grow natural tobacco. Both grants were denied. He is currently seeking further grants for this purpose.

Some of the elders who might approach you at the Light rail, bus stop, in front of the clinic, near the Indian center, or anywhere outside are ex-smokers themselves, quitting after being approached by their own children.

“My kids came home and told me they didn’t want me to die, so I quit. I was their sole supporter. I didn’t want them to grow up without any parents at all” said Hart.

One elder, Barb Benjamin-Robertson, quit smoking with the support of the elders in the group. “Every day I say, ‘I don’t need to’. I still have a craving, but support helps,” says Benjamin. “Smoking shortens your life by 5-10 years.” But a couple of the elders continue to smoke.

Rhodes said she is now looking into applying for funding for research which would focus on measuring the impact of the elders work.

Shocking statistics on "female genital mutilation"

2010-06-23T13:23:00.000-07:00

Female circumcision a good idea? Ask 73 percent of Kurdistani women.

By Tracey Shelton
Published: June 21, 2010 05:57 ET in Middle East

PASHQROTAL, Iraqi Kurdistan — Along with her pink pajamas and playful eyes, Delan has an 11-year-old’s endearing smile.

She leans against an old stone wall and chats with friends as chickens and geese cluck around her feet. Rocky mountains form a towering backdrop. This is Iraqi Kurdistan, where the people are as tough as their environment.

Sitting on the empty floor of her family’s mud brick home in this remote village, Delan’s smile quickly fades. She speaks of the day, when she was 6 years old, that an “old woman” came to visit.

“I was in the room playing with my cousin and they called us to come,” Delan said. “They cut my cousin. I was very afraid. I was crying and crying. My mother is very fat; I knew if I could run she could not catch me, but she held me too strong. I could not get away. There was a lot of blood from that place. I cried and cried. I hated my mother.”

The tradition of female genital mutilation, or FGM, has survived for centuries in this deeply traditional region of northern Iraq. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), FGM is the “partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons.” Unspoken by society and unquestioned by victims, any mention of the subject is considered taboo.

The women from Delan’s village say the custom is carried out in village homes with the use of a razor blade. The ritual is performed by female relatives or “older women” of the village. Often there is more than one girl, as with Delan and her cousin, and the same blade is used. Delan said no medicine —antiseptic or anesthetic — was given to her. She was sick for two days, but eventually the bleeding stopped.

A report released June 16 by international rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), has underscored Kurdistan’s legacy of FGM and how caught the region is between its rapid development and an ancient tradition with links to religion and a male-dominated culture.

The HRW report, “They took me and told me nothing,” documents the extent of FGM and calls for action from the Kurdish government. The report found that FGM rates were as high as 73 percent among Kurdish women aged 14 and over.

“The tragedy is that FGM is perpetuated by mothers, aunts and other women who love and want the best for their children,” the report said. The study added that such women see the practice as necessary for their daughters to grow up as “marriageable” and “respectable” members of society.

One mother quoted in the report said: “It is sunnah ... Everyone is doing this. Of course this is a good thing for my daughter. When someone does something, we all have to do it.”

HRW researcher Nadya Khalife said the 31 women interviewed for the report felt it was a religious obligation. Many had no idea of the physical or emotional risks.

(For the rest of this article, please click on the link in this post's title.)

Received this letter from the Women's Media Center

2010-06-08T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hi Karen,

Thought you'd be interested in this piece. Sarah Shourd is one of three hitchhikers who have been detained in Iran since July 31, 2009, and the last story she filed was published this morning at Women's eNews, thanks to the her mother Nora, who has been actively working for her release: "Syrian Women Reflect on Rare Political Victory." (reprint policy here)

Sarah is not a professional journalist -- she is a teacher-activist who was in a peaceful region of Iraq that is increasingly popular with Western tourists, and was able to capture an incredible story of women's rights groups in Syria who were able to turn back what could have been the most devastating blow to women's rights in Syrian modern history. "The only rights a woman (would have had) under this law is to food and shelter from her husband."

On the heels of the Laura Ling/Euna Lee arrest, the acclaimed publication of Half the Sky, and recent NY Times piece on women's rights dividing Saudi Arabi, it is a deep concern that these daring reporters and activists who are bringing these untold stories brought to light are not forgotten. It has been more than 10 months since the hitchhikers were captured -- information can be found here http://freethehikers.org/. I hope you will consider writing about this, or sharing the story online.

The Women's Media Center has experts available to speak about the hitchhikers as well as the moving piece on Syrian women's rights:

Rita Henley Jensen is Founder and Editor in Chief of Women's eNews, which has built a reputation among freelance writers as an outlet for coverage of women in the Middle East. A prize-winning investigative reporter and a former senior writer for the National Law Journal and columnist for The New York Times Syndicate, Jensen founded the news site in 2000 and launched the Arabic version in 2003. Women’s eNews has won 32 journalism awards relies on independent journalists—many like Sarah Shroud who try their hand at journalism while traveling and many who are experienced professionals—to report and write its news stories unavailable anywhere else. To view her full bio and video visit: http://bit.ly/dvbZdt

Sarah Shourd's mother Nora is also available for interview.

Best,
Rebekah

Rebekah Spicuglia, Program Director

Women's Media Center

rebekah@womensmediacenter.com

(212) 563-0680 ofc

(415) 290-2970 cell

Twitter: rcspicuglia

womensmediacenter.com

Amplifying women’s voices. Changing the conversation.

EXCLUSIVE The Lilly Awards Honor Women in Theatre

2010-06-04T12:14:00.000-07:00

By Melissa Silverstein
The Women's Media Center

Preempting the male bastion that dominates the Tony Awards, supporters of women playwrights took matters into their own hands, as Women and Hollywood blogger Melissa Silverstein explains.

On June 13, the Broadway community will celebrate a $1.02 billion dollar season with its annual Tony Awards. Amid all the pageantry it won’t take long to notice one glaring fact—very few female playwrights make it to the great white way. For the season that just ended, of the 11 new plays eligible for the Tony for best play, three were written by women (and one of those was a one woman show). And of those three, only one, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) by Sarah Ruhl, was nominated.

No one knows exactly why women aren’t produced, but the default explanation is always money, a long-standing urban myth that plays by women don’t make much of it. But a recent study may have finally put a nail in that coffin. Emily Glassberg Sands of Princeton University did an analysis of potential gender bias in theatre entitled “Opening the Curtain of Playwright Gender: An Integrated Economic Analysis of Discrimination in American Theatre.” She found that over the last decade only 11 percent of the plays produced on Broadway were by women, yet those plays had 18 percent higher revenues.

While Broadway remains unwelcoming, the irony is that this past season was actually incredibly successful for female playwrights throughout the rest of the New York City theatre world. An informal statistical look at the plays produced has the number of women written plays at about 40 percent. That’s up from 15 percent a year ago.

There’s a second hurdle for women who manage to get their plays produced: they have a hard time getting recognized at awards time. While we may wish awards didn’t matter, they do. Look at all the hoopla over Kathryn Bigelow winning the best director Oscar—a cultural discussion that has changed the dynamic of the conversation about women film directors. Of all the theatre awards, only the off-Broadway Obies included any substantive presence of women playwrights, with its best play award going to 29-year-old Annie Baker for her breakthrough year, which included Circle Mirror Transformation and The Aliens.

This year, a group of theatre professionals calling themselves “The Committee for Recognizing Women in Theatre” stepped into the breach and created the “Lilly Awards,” named after one of the few female playwrights read regularly in theatre classes, Lillian Hellman. These women and men—including Tina Howe, Julia Jordan, Gary Garrison, Marsha Norman, Theresa Rebeck, John Eisner, Susan Rose, Julie Crosby, and Tim Sanford—felt it was important to celebrate and recognize the work done by female artists, even if the more established awards refused to. Theresa Rebeck, whose play The Understudy ran off-Broadway this season, explained why she was a part of this effort. “It is disorienting every year to witness the way women artists are drastically underrepresented in the many different theater awards,” she said. This year, instead of asking why it happened, “we all asked ourselves the question, ‘what are we going to do about it?’ And the answer to that was simple and muscular: Give out some awards to these amazing women theater artists. Let the awards be inclusive, instead of divisive. No nominations, just awards. Let it be a true celebration.”

So that’s what they did, serving a community that was more than ready: a packed house of 200 people showed up May 24 with just two weeks notice. Tim Sanford, the artistic director of Playwrights Horizons who hosted the event, was thrilled at the attendance.

Women’s Media Center co-founder Gloria Steinem kicked off the evening by likening the women storytellers seated on the stage to the storytellers of the past who would pass down stories from generation to generation around the campfire. An intergenerational connection between past playwrights and female theatre pioneers illuminated a line of succession that may never been previously pieced together. The awards evoked the names of such foremothers as Zona Gale, the first woman to win a Pulitzer as a playwright; Margo Jones, the founder of the regional theatre movement; Aphra Behn, the first woman paid for writing plays; and Mary Chase, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Harvey.

The talent on the stage inspired both the awardees and the audience. The women honored valued the acknowledgment of peers, because while the theatre is a business it is also a community. Playwright Yong Jean Lee, who was honored for her play Lear—controversial because of her “weirdo take on Shakespeare”—is not usually a fan of awards, but, she said “the fact that this particular award was established in the first place gives me a lot of joy and hope.” A lifetime achievement award honored Mary Rodgers, the daughter of composer Richard Rodgers and the mother of Tony award winning composer Adam Guettel (who was described by Marsha Norman “as the filling in the Oreo cookie of the American musical theatre”). A veteran playwright, Mary Rodgers wrote Once Upon a Mattress, which launched the career of Carol Burnett, as well as Freaky Friday. Having been to many a Tony Award celebration, Rodgers declared the Lillys so much better, and, she hoped, “the beginning of a big noise we are going to make.”

This big noise was barely a flutter a year and a half ago when playwright Julia Jordan’s quest to understand why women weren’t getting produced led to the Princeton study. Recalling an early discussion, she remarked on the change in consciousness in just 18 months. “Back at the first town hall meeting the room was filled with women, and very, very few men. And there was anger of course, and lots of frustration. Last night, the room was filled with men and women and there was joy and a lot of laughter.” There is still much more work to do, but after 18 months this issue has morphed into a powerful movement towards equity for women in theatre. Who knows what the next 18 months will bring?

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author alone and do not represent WMC. WMC is a 501(c)(3) organization and does not endorse candidates.

Women Make For Better Candidates, But Still Get Treated Like School Girls

2010-05-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Robin Marty
Care2 Causes and News
May 30 2010

I've been saying it forever - women make amazing candidates for office. I still firmly believe that had women been in charge, healthcare reform would have been a much smoother process with a many more victories for the uninsured and underinsured.

But I'm not the only who believes it. In fact, Elect Women Magazine is so sure it's true, that they have released the "Five Reasons Women Make Better Candidates." And the list is pretty compelling.

Top 5 Reasons Why Women Make Great Local Political Campaign Candidates

1. Natural Communication Skills

While nothing in this post is meant to stereotype men or women, it’s a fact that females are often more talented and comfortable in the realm of effective communication.

Being able to communicate your ideas in a compelling fashion is a vital trait for political candidates, and the person who can do so naturally–without having to be taught how–has an advantage in any campaign. Many voters find the communication style of women candidates more appealing, which helps in both one-on-one grassroots situations and public forums or debates.

2. Higher Thresholds for Campaign Trail Stress

The rigors of the campaign trail–even in local elections–can be much more demanding and stressful than new candidates expect. A woman’s innate ability to process and deal with stressful situations calmly is a huge boon in political campaigns.

Not all men are hotheads, but a male political candidate is much more likely to respond to respond to the steady stress of campaigning in a damaging fashion. Angry outbursts, impulsive comments and bad attitudes just aren’t as common in female candidates.

3. Better Ability Make Supporters & Volunteers Feel Appreciated

One of the most important–and overlooked–things that political candidates can do for their campaigns is making employees, volunteers and supporters feel as though their hard work is appreciated.

I can’t tell you how many male candidates I’ve worked with who treat their staff and volunteers like dirt, which leads to awful productivity. This kind of arrogance and lack of empathy might be present in some women candidates, as well, but it isn’t as common. Women are often much better at letting people know how important and needed they are.

4. Lower Likelihood for “Skeletons in the Closet”

Sure, women can have their secrets, too, but they are much less likely than men to have career-destroying skeletons hanging in the closet. As a campaign manager, one of your greatest fears is that something scandalous is going to be revealed about your candidate in the last few weeks of the election.

Male candidates certainly don’t have a corner on the scandal market, but many of them do seem to have more political baggage. How often do you see a scandal involving a female politician in the news?

5. Greater Voter Appeal and Demographic Advantages

It’s a well-known fact in political consulting circles that a female candidate will often run a few points ahead of a male challenger just because she is a woman. We’re not going to explore the reasons for this, but in most districts, being a woman is automatically going to give you a head start in the race.

Of all of the reasons that Elect Women give, perhaps the only one that I would consider challenging is number 4, that women have less skeletons in the closet. First, as we've recently learned from the Nikki Haley incident in South Carolina, alleged infidelity isn't simply a man's game these days. Also, should the skeletons really exist or not, it often seems like the press guns much harder for scandals involving women, as we saw in the "Is Trig Really Sarah Palin's Baby" rumor of the last election cycle.

Sadly, even if the women candidates do fulfill their promise, and win their elections, they still have to deal with the Frat Boy mentality that is Congress. As Wonkette reports, there is a new book coming out that shows exactly how hard it can be for women politicians to be treated with respect by their male counterparts once they are in office.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar experienced one of her ‘most embarrassing moments’ when, while presiding over the Senate, a page handed her a note signed ‘Anonymous’ that read, ‘Pull up your shirt.’”

That anecdote is one of the more revealing… in a new book, “The Upper House: A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate,” by journalist Terence Samuel.

According to Samuel’s book, the Minnesota Democrat’s unintentional flesh-baring became a joke among some Senators, including Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and the next time Klobuchar presided over the chamber, she got a second anonymous note. “Your earrings don’t match,” it read. “When she looked up, Tester was cracking up in the back row.”

Women may have less scandals than their male political counterparts, but that doesn't seem to stop the men from treating them badly.

For Peru and American Inmate, Much Is Changed

2010-05-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

The New York Times
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: May 26, 2010

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — When Lori Berenson was jailed in Peru on terrorism charges over 14 years ago, she was a fiery young leftist from New York enmeshed in a shadowy Marxist rebel group, stunning a war-weary nation with her clenched fists and defiant statements in support of revolution.

Now that Ms. Berenson, 40, has been granted parole from a women’s prison in Lima, Peru’s capital, both she and the nation that imprisoned her have changed in significant ways. Though her past still looms large, prison officials and fellow inmates now talk about her baking skills, her teaching music to cellmates and her devotion to her 1-year-old son, Salvador.

“He is my reason for living,” Ms. Berenson said in February in an interview at Pavilion A in Chorrillos Maximum Security Women’s Prison.

Peru, meanwhile, has largely vanquished its terrorist threats, except for small Maoist factions feeding off the cocaine trade in remote areas. The country now boasts a growing economy and a democracy that is still coming to terms with the mayhem unleashed by guerrillas and its own security forces in the 1980s and ’90s.

Resentment still festers over Ms. Berenson’s role in that violence, a sentiment that will be hard to avoid given that she has been ordered to remain in Peru while on parole.

Nearly 70,000 people died in 20 years of war with the nation’s rebels. And while Ms. Berenson maintains her innocence in connection with the terrorism charges, a Peruvian tribunal convicted her in 2001 of collaborating with the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement by renting a safe house and scouting for the group in preparation for a foiled plot to take members of Peru’s Congress hostage.

“What indignation,” said Peru’s vice president, Luis Giampietri, after hearing of the plan for her release. “The laws here are applied with a double standard.”

Ms. Berenson, while having mellowed somewhat during her long years in prison, holds a different view, contending that the Peruvian authorities violated her right to a fair trial during closed military proceedings in 1996, and then deprived her of due process rights in another civilian trial in 2001 when she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Her mother still speaks of the trying months Ms. Berenson spent in solitary confinement in the late 1990s. And though Ms. Berenson has publicly apologized for appearing strident after her arrest in 1995 on a city bus in downtown Lima, she seemed despondent at times over her own health problems and the prospect of raising her son in prison or perhaps losing custody of him.

Considering that two American presidents — Bill Clinton and then George W. Bush — both pressed Ms. Berenson’s case with their Peruvian counterparts without securing an early release, the judge’s decision to grant parole came as something of a surprise.

Faced with a public uproar in Peru over Ms. Berenson’s release, Jéssica León, the judge overseeing her case, defended the decision in a statement on Wednesday, saying it was based on a psychological analysis of Ms. Berenson and reports of her good behavior in prisons over the last 14 and a half years. President Alan García said Wednesday that he respected the judge’s ruling.

Yet Ms. Berenson does not hide her leftist convictions. Through her writings, she has criticized a Peruvian trade deal with the United States and the persistent economic inequality in Peru.

“I don’t think she’d be a Tea Partier,” said her mother, Rhoda Berenson, a physicist at New York University, when asked about her daughter’s ideological evolution.

The Peruvian authorities transferred Ms. Berenson last year, while she was five months pregnant and suffering from back problems, to the Chorrillos prison in Lima from another facility in Cajamarca, in Peru’s northern highlands. She gave birth at a hospital in Lima and underwent surgery a few months later for problems related to a fractured vertebra.

Ms. Berenson, the daughter of two New York academics, dropped out of M.I.T. and roamed around Central America before surfacing in Peru in the 1990s.

After her arrest, she spent several years in an isolated prison, 12,000 feet up in the Puno region of southern Peru. That was where she met Aníbal Apari, who was also jailed on charges of collaborating with the rebels. After his release, they wed in 2003 and were allowed to have conjugal visits as is custom in Peru and other Latin American countries.

They are no longer a couple but remain “great friends,” Mr. Apari, who is also Ms. Berenson’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview from Lima. He said she planned to move into a rented apartment in the Miraflores district of the capital once she is released in the coming days, hoping to work as a translator and possibly open a business baking bread and pastries, a skill she polished during her years of incarceration in Cajamarca.

Her father, Mark Berenson, a management professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, said he thought a wealth of opportunities awaited his daughter. “The world has changed so much since she was locked up in 1995,” he said Tuesday morning before traveling to Lima. “She hasn’t seen Facebook or had access to computers, but she has been reading a lot of books in Spanish.”

But many challenges await as well. Television crews descended on her neighbors-to-be in Lima, some of whom expressed disgust at the prospect of living near a “terrorist,” as she is still branded in Lima’s newspapers. As part of her parole, she must report every 30 days to discuss her work experiences and cannot consume alcohol. She is also expected to be barred from leaving Peru until 2015, when her sentence expires.

Ms. Berenson occupied herself in recent months by taking her son outside onto the prison’s patio and pushing his stroller around under the city’s gray sky. One of her favorite books, her mother said, was “Half a Yellow Sun,” a novel on the Biafra rebellion in Nigeria in 1967. Sometimes Ms. Berenson would play the guitar, accompanying fellow inmates on Spanish-language songs. Her friends at the prison helped her care for Salvador, especially when back pain strained her.

“Prison has helped her turn attention to a new phase in her life,” said Camille Boutron, a French sociologist whose writings focus on the inmates of Ms. Berenson’s pavilion. “Lori is a person who is always fighting for something.”

Andrea Zárate contributed reporting from Lima, Peru.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 27, 2010, on page A6 of the New York edition.

For Roaming Palin, Home Base Is Still in Alaska

2010-05-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

The New York Times
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: May 23, 2010

WASILLA, Alaska — Stepping quickly toward his big black Dodge Ram truck, Todd Palin offered a few highlights of the weekend ahead.

An enormous structure rising beside the Palins’ house on Lucile Lake has people talking. Speculation has it including a television studio, among other features.

His youngest daughter, Piper, had a dance rehearsal. His oldest son, Track, would be helping out on the sprawling new addition to the family property on Lucile Lake. The toddlers, his son Trig and his grandson Tripp, would keep everyone on their feet. And his wife would be home for the weekend.

“Everybody,” said Mr. Palin, smiling, the late Alaska light washing over him. “All together.”

Sarah Palin’s big new life is remarkable for its smallness. She is as remote as she is overexposed. Even as she travels the country stirring up Tea Party apostles, poking at opponents and building a robust bank account through speaking fees, book royalties and television contracts, she comes home to one of the more unlikely launching pads in politics — and she apparently will not be pulling up stakes anytime soon.

“Where else would we go?” Mr. Palin said. “Alaska is our home.”

Things have changed, of course. Ms. Palin is often away, sometimes joined by her husband and some combination of their five children. Her father, Chuck Heath, who lives in town, said in a recent interview that he had not seen her in a month. While people say that Piper might turn up at Wasilla Bible Church with a cousin and that her parents attend community basketball games, sightings are far less frequent than they were when Ms. Palin was governor and friends from high school bumped into her at the Wal-Mart Supercenter.

But few people press.

“We don’t want her to feel like we want something from her,” said Adele Morgan, a longtime friend who said she had not seen Ms. Palin since public picnics the governor hosted as she left office last July.

When Senator John McCain chose Ms. Palin to be his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket in August 2008, scrutiny of her also meant scrutiny of Wasilla, from city finances when Ms. Palin was mayor to the city’s strip-mall aesthetic. Places like the Mocha Moose espresso stand or Chimo Guns became props for quickly turned theses on what the Palins and Wasilla said about America. Now, on clear days, the surrounding mountains might seem to swallow Wasilla up again, restoring a measure of obscurity, and something like normalcy.

“The world came to Wasilla,” said Janet Kincaid, a friend of Ms. Palin’s parents, “but Wasilla didn’t change. We’re still what we were.”

Not everyone sees it that way.

“Normal isn’t the same now as it was,” said Craig Pell, who works at Chimo. “Wasilla kind of lost its innocence.”

People who once shared intimate details about the Palins have long since learned to be quiet. Some grumble privately about how the governor they voted for resigned and appears to have become a multimillionaire in short order.

Lyda Green, a former State Senate president from Wasilla and a reliable Palin critic, said: “I don’t hear a lot of favorable comment. I don’t usually bring it up.”

Ms. Palin’s inner circle has contracted in recent months, with some of her closest longtime Alaska aides — including Meghan Stapleton, a spokeswoman, and Ivy Frye, who helped research her book, “Going Rogue” — departing. Rumors of family discord still rumble across the Internet. Reports have tried to pin down Ms. Palin’s accumulation of wealth ($12 million?) since she resigned as governor. Yet virtually no one who might know the truth appears willing to talk publicly. Family members are certainly wary.

“Are you the guy who’s been writing all that crap about us?” Mr. Palin barked at an approaching reporter.

A few moments later, less testy, he seemed amused at the soap opera of it all, grinning, eyes wide, as he feigned curiosity. “Have you talked to Levi?” He lingered on the long vowels in the first name of Levi Johnston, his grandson’s father, whose relations with the family have been strained.

Even the most concrete new development in the Palin family, an enormous structure rising beside their existing 3,400-square-foot house on Lucile Lake, is something of a mystery. Based on the limited evidence in the planning department at Wasilla City Hall (the city does not require building permits), the building’s footprint alone is 6,000 square feet, but much of it is two stories. Various sources have said the project includes a television studio (Fox News, Mr. Heath said), apartments for Mr. Palin or the Palins’ older children (Bristol Palin, 19, has said, however, that she is living on her own with Tripp and paying her own bills with the help of handsome speaking fees) and a well-appointed office for Ms. Palin.

(To read the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above this post.)

France moves to fine Muslim women with full-face Islamic veils

2010-05-21T12:42:00.000-07:00

By Edward Cody
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The Washington Post

PARIS -- The French government decided Wednesday to impose a $185 fine on women who wear a full-face Islamic veil in public, pushing ahead with a controversial ban despite signs of tension between France's Muslims and the Christian-tradition majority.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said his government was forwarding the legislation to parliament because it had a "moral responsibility" to uphold traditional European values in the face of an increasingly visible Muslim population, estimated at more than 5 million, the largest in Western Europe. He called the course chosen by his government "demanding" but "just," and he said the law was not intended to stigmatize Muslims.

France is one of several Western European countries seeking to forbid the full-face veil, called the burqa in Afghanistan and the niqab in North Africa. Belgium's Chamber of Representatives last month approved a nationwide ban, which must now be considered by the Senate. Legislators in several other countries have introduced similar bills, and the Swiss government has vowed to impose a ban administratively.

The French proposal has drawn heavy support, with up to 60 percent of those questioned in opinion polls saying restraints are necessary. But Muslims here have complained that they feel singled out for a practice that, according to an Interior Ministry estimate, concerns fewer than 2,000 women in a country of 64 million inhabitants.

The tensions boiled over Tuesday evening during a debate on the law in a Paris suburb with a large Muslim population. Members of the pro-Palestinian Sheik Yassin Movement tried to shout down the speakers, and scuffles broke out, leading to intervention by police officers who were called in by the organizers.

Last week, a woman wearing a full veil filed a legal complaint against a lawyer who she said insulted her religion in the Atlantic Coast town of Saint-Nazaire, according to local media reports. The lawyer, also a woman, filed a counter-complaint, alleging she was beaten by the veil-wearing woman, the reports said.

Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the government-approved French Council for the Muslim Religion, said recently that 15 mosques have been defaced since the beginning of the year and that Muslim tombs in two cemeteries have been vandalized. In addition, a halal butcher shop was sprayed with automatic weapons fire in Marseille, he said.

The French legislation approved by the full cabinet is scheduled to come to a vote in the National Assembly in July and in the Senate in September. Sarkozy's conservative coalition has comfortable majorities in both houses.

The measure was expected to draw support from some political figures in the Socialist opposition as well, although the Socialist hierarchy has called for narrower legislation. A resolution condemning the full veil as contrary to the values of the French republic passed with an overwhelming majority last week.

The Constitutional Council, France's highest constitutional court, has issued two opinions warning that the full public ban will be vulnerable to challenge in the courts as an infringement on religious freedom. It also could be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights, the council said. But Sarkozy vowed to move forward anyway, saying the government will have to deal with legal challenges as they arise.

After six months of what officials described as "pedagogy" to educate the public after the expected Senate approval, the new law would go into effect about a year from now. It would give police the right to demand that women lift their veils to identify themselves. If they refused, police could hold them for up to four hours for an identity check. If cited for wearing the veil, women would be referred to a prosecutor, who could fine them, force them to attend "citizenship classes" or both.

Saudi woman beats up virtue cop

2010-05-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

By BENJAMIN JOFFE-WALT
THE MEDIA LINE
17/05/2010
The Jerusalem Post

Incident follows a wave of challenges to religious authorities.

It was a scene Saudi women’s rights activists have dreamt of for years.

When a Saudi religious policeman sauntered about an amusement park in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Mubarraz looking for unmarried couples illegally socializing, he probably wasn’t expecting much opposition.

But when he approached a young, 20-something couple meandering through the park together, he received an unprecedented whooping.

A member of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Saudi religious police known locally as the Hai’a, asked the couple to confirm their identities and relationship to one another, as it is a crime in Saudi Arabia for unmarried men and women to mix.

For unknown reasons, the young man collapsed upon being questioned by the cop.

According to the Saudi daily Okaz, the woman then allegedly laid into the religious policeman, punching him repeatedly, and leaving him to be taken to the hospital with bruises across his body and face.

“To see resistance from a woman means a lot,” Wajiha Al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women’s rights activist, told The Media Line news agency. “People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance.”

“The media and the Internet have given people a lot of power and the freedom to express their anger,” she said. “The Hai’a are like a militia, but now whenever they do something it’s all over the Internet. This gives them a horrible reputation and gives people power to react.”

Neither the religious police nor the Eastern Province police has made a statement on the incident, and both the names of the couple and the date of the incident have not been made public, but on Monday the incident was all over the Saudi media.

Should the woman be charged, she could face a lengthy prison term and lashings for assaulting a representative of a government institution.

Saudi law does not permit women to be in public spaces without a male guardian. Women are not allowed to drive, inherit, divorce or gain custody of children, and cannot socialize with unrelated men.

Officers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are tasked with enforcing such laws, but it hasn’t been an easy year for Saudi Arabia’s religious police.

The decision last year by Saudi King Abdullah to open the kingdom’s first co-educational institution, with no religious police on campus, led to a national crises for Saudi Arabia’s conservative religious authorities, with the new university becoming a cultural proxy war for whether or not women and men should be allowed to mix publicly.

A senior Saudi cleric publicly criticized the gender mixing at the university and was summarily fired by the king.

That was followed in December by a surprise announcement from Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, head of the Saudi religious police commission in Mecca, who published an article against gender segregation, leading to threats on his life and rumors that he had been or would be fired.

Meanwhile, the Saudi government has gone to great efforts recently to improve the image of the religious police, most notably by firing the national director of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice earlier this year. The new director Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Humain then announced a series of training programs and a special unit to handle complaints against the religious police.

Last month, however, members of the religious police in the northern province of Tabuk were charged with assaulting a young woman as she attempted to visit her son, in a move that marked an unprecedented challenge to the religious police’s authority.

"There is some sort of change taking place," Nadya Khalife, the Middle East women’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch, told The Media Line. "There is clearly a shifting mentality regarding to the male guardianship law and similar issues. More women are speaking out, there are changes within the government, there is a mixed university, the king was photographed with women, they want to allow women to work in the courts and there are changes within the justice ministry. So you can witness some kind of change unfolding but it’s not quite clear what’s happening and it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight."

Palin calls Fiorina and other Republican candidates 'mama grizzlies'

2010-05-17T16:21:00.001-07:00

By Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 17, 2010

Sarah Palin appears to be building a pack of "mama grizzlies" in the 2010 elections that could send a powerful political message if she decides to run for president in 2012.

In the past 10 days, Palin has thrown her endorsement behind former Hewlett-Packard executive Carly Fiorina, who is running for the Republican Senate nomination in California; state Rep. Nikki Haley, a candidate for governor in South Carolina; and Susana Martinez, the Dona Ana County district attorney seeking the GOP nod in the New Mexico governor's race.

"This year will be remembered as the year that common-sense conservative women get things done for our country," the former Alaska governor said Friday in a speech to the Susan B. Anthony List, a political group opposed to abortion. "The mama grizzlies, they rise up."

All three of the races in which Palin endorsed feature a female candidate running against one -- or several -- men. In California, Fiorina, who has put more than $3 million of her own money into the race, is trying to run down former congressman Tom Campbell before the state's June 8 primary. In South Carolina, Haley, the one-time protege of disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford, faces three men -- Rep. Gresham Barrett, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and state Attorney General Henry McMaster -- in the Palmetto State's June 8 primary. And in New Mexico, Martinez is locked in a tough battle with free-spending former state party chairman Allen Weh.

(Palin is also casting other major issues through the female prism. In a Facebook note -- natch! -- last week, she protested the decision by an Illinois school superintendent to keep a high school girls basketball team from attending a tournament in Arizona because of the state's new immigration law. "Let's help the girls 'go rogue' and go play ball," Palin wrote to her online supporters.)

Palin, by wading into this trio of primaries to back female candidates, seems to be casting the 2010 elections as the year of the Republican woman -- she spoke of an "emerging conservative feminist identity" in her Susan B. Anthony List speech.

To date, Republicans have struggled to elevate female faces in their ranks. Of the 17 women in the Senate, four are Republicans; 17 of the 76 women in the House are Republicans. There are three female Republican governors. (Worth noting: Palin would have been the fourth but resigned last summer, well before her term was to be up at the end of this year.)

Dana Perino, who was White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, said: "Republican women are woefully underrepresented in Congress, and so any encouragement they can get is important. Sarah Palin, regardless of whether you support her policy approach, should get respect from everyone for picking herself back up every time someone took a shot -- which is like 22 times a day."

Palin's strong support for female candidates in 2010 could accrue to her benefit if she decides to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2012. She would almost assuredly be the only prominent woman in the race, a significant position of strength if she could rally Republican women behind her the way that Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to inspire Democratic women in 2008 with the chance to cast their first vote for a female presidential candidate.

According to exit-poll data, women made up 44 percent of the voters in the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses, 43 percent in the New Hampshire primary and 49 percent in the South Carolina primary. Eight years earlier, those figures were 46 percent in Iowa, 43 percent in New Hampshire and 50 percent in South Carolina.

The numbers suggest that if Palin could attract the support of a significant chunk of Republican women in the three earliest-voting states of the presidential nominating process, she would be at or near the top of a crowded field of -- you guessed it -- men.

A Palin presidential bid is far from a sure thing, with even those close to her acknowledging that she hasn't made up her mind about running. But if she does decide to run, her emphasis on helping elect women in 2010 may well be seen as a foundational pillar of Palin's national bid.

Episcopal Church consecrates first openly lesbian bishop

2010-05-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

By the CNN Wire Staff
May 15, 2010

The daughter of a priest, the Rev. Mary Glasspool has said that her sexual orientation is "not an issue."

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly lesbian bishop Saturday in the face of objections from some conservative Anglicans.

The Rev. Mary Glasspool, 56, is a new bishop surrounded by controversy.

Conservative factions in the Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member denomination worldwide that includes the Episcopal Church, have opposed the ordination of gay bishops.

Glasspool is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson took office in New Hampshire in 2004. Episcopalians instituted a temporary ban on gay bishops after Robinson's ordination but revoked that ban last summer.

The daughter of a priest, Glasspool was one of two openly gay candidates on the slate in the Los Angeles diocese. She has said that her sexual orientation is "not an issue."

Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles called Glasspool, an ordained priest for 28 years, a "highly qualified and experienced" cleric.

"She's not afraid of conflict and is a reconciler," Bruno said, according to the Episcopal Church website.

He added that Glasspool and her partner of 19 years, Becki Sander, are an example of living service and ministry.

Glasspool is the second female bishop in the 114-year history of the Los Angeles diocese, consecrated just hours after the first, the Rev. Diane Bruce, was consecrated Saturday.

Glasspool's consecration drew opposition from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said Glasspool's ordination would deepen rifts in the Church.

It "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole," said Rowan, according to the church's website.

The Church of Ireland also issued a strong condemnation. That church is part of the Anglican Communion in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"We wish to express sorrow that Mary Glasspool, a person who is living in a same-sex relationship, is to be consecrated," the Church of Ireland said in a statement. "The elevation to senior church leadership of a person whose lifestyle is contrary to the will of God revealed in scripture is both wrong and disappointing."

Conservatives said the Episcopal Church was taking a provocative step that amounts to a deliberate snub to those in the church who believe homosexuality is a sin.

Reshaping Court’s Culture, a Woman at a Time

2010-05-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: May 10, 2010
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1993, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg predicted that she would eventually be one of “three, four, perhaps even more women on the high court bench.”

It took 17 years, a step back (Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was succeeded by Samuel A. Alito Jr. in 2006) and a good bit of public frustration voiced by Justice. O’Connor, Justice Ginsburg and others.

But President Obama’s nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan on Monday to succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens — following his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor last year to succeed Justice David H. Souter — means there could now be three women on the court for the first time in history.

It was a benchmark that women’s law groups celebrated as a major step toward a sex parity that has eluded the United States Supreme Court compared with the highest courts of several states and countries.

“Even when you had two women, there was still a sense that they were exceptions to the rule,” said Marcia Greenberger, the co-president of the National Women’s Law Center.

That notion, Ms. Greenberger added, was reinforced by how frequently legal advocates would confuse Justices O’Connor and Ginsburg, “even though they did not look anything alike.”

Justice O’Connor, who in 1981 made history when she joined the Scotus, or Supreme Court of the United States, referred jokingly to herself by the mouthful moniker of “Fwotsc” (or “First Woman of the Supreme Court”) in a 1983 letter to the editor of The New York Times.

Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor and O’Connor declined to comment Monday.

Among court watchers and women’s judicial advocates, the significance of Ms. Kagan’s nomination can be boiled down to basic math: in a small and rarefied population of nine, the difference between two and three women can make a significant impact on the culture of the court.

“Any practitioner of diversity will tell you that you can’t bring in a few token people and get a real diversity of viewpoint,” said Pamela Harris, the executive director of the Supreme Court Institute at the Georgetown Law Center.

Ms. Harris said having three women on the court could also be a powerful “optic” that could potentially change the makeup of the lawyers who argue before it.

“If clients are visualizing the court as a predominantly male entity, they are going to want a lawyer who looks like the people on the bench,” she said. “I think this could also be a critical moment in terms of women arguing before the Supreme Court.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 11, 2010, on page A15 of the New York edition.

Obama picks Elena Kagan for Supreme Court

2010-05-10T18:35:00.000-07:00

With control of 59 votes in the Senate, Democrats could win confirmation

Associated Press
MSNBC
May 10, 2010

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama nominated Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court on Monday, declaring the former Harvard Law School dean "one of the nation's foremost legal minds." She would be the court's youngest justice and give it three female members for the first time.

The nomination to replace liberal retiring Justice John Paul Stevens set the stage for a potentially bruising summertime confirmation battle before the court begins its next session, though mathematically Democrats should be able to prevail in the end.

At 50, Kagan is relatively young for the lifetime post and could help shape the high court's decisions for decades. If confirmed by the Senate, she would become only the fourth female justice in history.

Obama cited what he called Kagan's "openness to a broad array of viewpoints" and her "fair mindedness."

Standing beside the president in the East Room of the White House, Kagan said she was "honored and humbled by this nomination."

Republicans are expected to criticize her for attempting to bar military recruiters from the Harvard Law campus while she was dean. That issue was used against her by critics during her confirmation hearing last year for her current post.

On the topic of abortion, The Associated Press reported on Monday afternoon that Kagan, acting as a White House adviser in 1997, urged then-President Bill Clinton to support a ban on late-term procedures.

Documents reviewed by AP show Kagan encouraging Clinton to support a compromise bill that would have banned all abortions of viable fetuses except when the health of the mother was at risk. The documents from Clinton's presidential library are among the first to surface in which Kagan discusses the thorny issue of abortion.

The proposal was a compromise by Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle. Clinton supported it, despite opposition from pro-abortion rights groups. The compromise failed and Clinton vetoed a stricter Republican ban.

Democratic officials said Kagan would begin making the rounds of senators' offices on Wednesday.

With control of 59 votes in the Senate, Democrats should be able to win confirmation. However, if all 41 Republicans vote together, they could delay a vote with a filibuster.

Republicans have shown no signs in advance that they would try to prevent a vote on Kagan, but they are certain to grill her in confirmation hearings over her experience, her thin record of legal writings and her decisions at Harvard.

The senator who will preside over her confirmation hearing, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said, "The Senate should confirm Ms. Kagan before" Labor Day.

"Our constituents deserve a civil and thoughtful debate on this nomination, followed by an up-or-down vote," said the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said his party would make sure there was a "thorough process, not a rush to judgment" on the nomination.

"Judges must not be a rubber stamp for any administration. Judges must not walk into court with a preconceived idea of who should win," he said, adding that Republicans would have a vigorous debate on that principle.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, top Republican on the Judiciary Committee that will conduct the confirmation hearing, said the president's timetable for a vote by early August "should be doable." He said Kagan's lack of experience as a judge was a weakness but wouldn't disqualify her.

Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., said flatly that he would oppose Kagan. He said she had shown "seeming contempt" for the Senate confirmation process and a "lack of impartiality when it comes to those who disagree with her position."

Obama introduced Kagan as "my friend." Kagan and Obama both taught at the University of Chicago Law School in the early 1990s.

Elena Kagan biography

Name: Elena Kagan
Vital stats: Born in New York, member of the Democratic Party, Jewish, graduate of Harvard Law School, Oxford University, and Princeton University.

Career highlights: Solicitor general, Department of Justice, 2009-present; Member, Research Advisory Council at the Goldman Sachs Global Markets Institute, 2005-2008; Dean, Harvard Law School, 2003-2009; Deputy assistant to President Clinton for Domestic Policy, 1997-1999; Associate counsel to President Clinton, 1995-1996; Special counsel to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Joe Biden, 1993; Law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court, 1987-1988; Staff member, Dukakis for President Campaign, 1988.

Solicitors general who joined the high court: William Howard Taft, Stanley Reed, Robert Jackson, and Thurgood Marshall.

"Elena is widely regarded as one of the nation's foremost legal minds. She's an acclaimed legal scholar with a rich understanding of constitutional law. She is a former White House aide, with a life- long commitment to public service and a firm grasp of the nexus and boundaries between our three branches of government," Obama said.

Obama began with high praise for the retiring Stevens, a leader of the court's liberals, calling him "a giant in the law," impartial and having respect for legal precedence.

Kagan "embodies the same excellence, independence and passion for the law," Obama said.

He noted that neither Kagan's mother nor father "lived to see this day, but I think her mother would relish this moment. I think she would relish, as I do, the prospect of three women taking their seat on the nation's highest court for the first time in history ... a court that would be more inclusive, more representative, more reflective of us as a people than ever before."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Kagan would continue to work on cases as solicitor general but would not take on any new ones. He said the administration recognizes that, if confirmed, she will have to recuse herself from cases before the high court on which she has worked. Gibbs said that would probably amount to about a dozen in her first year.

Seven Republicans voted for her confirmation last year as solicitor general.

One of them, Orrin Hatch of Utah, a member of the Judiciary Committee, issued a statement saying his decision this time "will be based on evidence, not blind faith. Her previous confirmation and my support for her in that position do not by themselves establish either her qualifications for the Supreme Court or my obligation to support her."

Kagan would become the only justice who had no prior experience as a judge. The other justices all served previously as federal appeals court judges. She was named to a federal appeals court by President Bill Clinton, but the Senate never brought that nomination to a vote.

That means Kagan has a smaller paper trail than other recent nominees since there are no prior decisions to scrutinize.

But conservatives were already mounting an attack, one they laid the groundwork for when she was mentioned last year as being on Obama's short list for the Supreme Court post last time around.

Obama's White House team was launching its own broad campaign-style outreach to Capitol Hill and the media. That effort is designed to shape the national image of Kagan, an unknown figure to much of America.

Her selection came after nearly a monthlong process of consideration. Obama always had Kagan on his short list but still considered a broader group of candidates, interviewing four.

The president informed Kagan that she would a Supreme Court nominee on Sunday night. He then called the three federal judges he did not choose for the position, Diane Wood, Merrick Garland and Sidney Thomas. He also called the current Harvard Law School dean, Martha Minow.

Monday morning before the announcement, Obama called Senate leaders of both parties.

Kagan is known as sharp and politically savvy and has enjoyed a blazing legal career. She was the first female dean of Harvard Law School, first woman to serve as the top Supreme Court lawyer for any administration.

Kagan has clerked for Thurgood Marshall, worked for Bill Clinton and earned a stellar reputation as a student, teacher and manager of the elite academic world. Yet she would be the first justice without judicial experience in almost 40 years. The last two were William H. Rehnquist and Lewis F. Powell Jr., both of whom joined the court in 1972.

Supreme Court justices wield enormous power over the daily life of Americans. Any one of them can cast the deciding vote on matters of life and death, individual freedoms and government power. Presidents serve four-year terms; justices have tenure for life.

Democrats went 15 years without a Supreme Court appointment until Obama chose federal appellate judge Sonia Sotomayor last year to succeed retiring Justice David Souter. Just 16 months in office, Obama has a second opportunity with Kagan.

Kagan, who is unmarried, was born in New York City. She holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton, a master's degree from Oxford and a law degree from Harvard.

Before she served as a clerk for Justice Marshall, she clerked for federal Appeals Court Judge Abner Mikva, who later became an important political mentor to Obama in Chicago.

In her current job, Kagan represents the U.S. government and defends acts of Congress before the Supreme Court and decides when to appeal lower court rulings.

What Every Girl Should Know

2010-05-09T21:18:00.001-07:00

By GAIL COLLINS
Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
Published: May 7, 2010

A thousand years ago, popular birth control methods in the Western world included spitting into the mouth of a frog, eating bees and wearing the testicles of a weasel. In Córdoba, Spain, which was supposed to be on the scientific cutting edge, women were told to leap up and down vigorously after sex, and then jump backward nine times.

This is by way of saying that on Sunday we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill. We live in troubled times. But let’s give thanks that we avoided the era of the weasel testicles.

Like a great many of our anniversaries, this one is a movable feast. The Food and Drug Administration actually gave G.D. Searle the go-ahead to market the first oral contraceptive (not counting bees) on June 23, 1960. But the F.D.A. announced its intention to approve the pill on May 9, which also happens to be Mother’s Day this year and, therefore, too good to resist.

This is a story about science, and obviously sex. But it’s also a saga about getting information.

American women had been limiting the size of their families long before the pill came along. In the 19th century, the fertility rate was plummeting, and ads for everything from condoms to douching syringes helped keep urban newspapers solvent. My favorite factoid from this period is that a company called National Syringe offered a model with changeable nozzles so it could be used for both birth control and watering plants.

What women did not have was the ability to figure out what actually worked. The powers-that-be believed that the only appropriate form of birth control was celibacy. “Can they not use self control?” demanded Anthony Comstock, the powerful crusader for the Sexual Purity campaign. “Or must they sink to the level of the beasts?”

Comstock managed to get New York authorities to grant him the powers to both arrest and censor, and he bragged that he sent 4,000 people to jail for helping women understand, and use, birth control. He seemed to take particular pleasure in the fact that 15 of them had committed suicide.

One of his targets was Margaret Sanger, a nurse who wrote a sex education column, “What Every Girl Should Know,” for a left-wing New York newspaper, The Call. When Comstock banned her column on venereal disease, the paper ran an empty space with the title: “What Every Girl Should Know: Nothing, by Order of the U.S. Post Office.”

Sanger was the first person to publish an evaluation of all the available forms of birth control. As a reward, she got a criminal obscenity charge. She fled to Europe to avoid going to jail, and her husband was imprisoned for passing out one of her pamphlets. In the end, he got 30 days, and Anthony Comstock got a chill during the trial that led to a fatal case of pneumonia.

It was the courts that eventually gave women the right to not only have access to birth control, but also information that told them what was available and how to use it. (The first big victory had the memorable name of U.S. v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries.) Sanger, meanwhile, helped bring together the wealthy donors and brilliant researchers who would bring forth the first effective oral contraception.

“There’s gonna be some changes made right here on Nursery Hill,” sang Loretta Lynn. “You’ve set this chicken your last time ’cause now I’ve got the pill.”

And we lived happily ever after. Except that over the last 20 years, protests from the social right have made politicians frightened of mentioning birth control and school boards frightened of including it in the curriculum.

Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, remembers getting a pretty thorough grounding in sex and the ways to prevent pregnancy when she was in school — back in the days when the raciest thing you saw on television was Rob and Laura Petrie waking up in twin beds on the opposite side of the room. “Kids growing up today watch ‘Gossip Girl’ and all these shows where every teenager is having sex every day — and now we don’t teach sex education in school,” she noted.

Even though 100 million women take the pill every day, to the great relief of 100 million or so of their partners, the terror of mentioning birth control is so great that the humongous new health care reform act has managed to avoid bringing it up at all. Advocates are hoping that when the regulations are finally written, they will require health insurance to cover birth control pills like any other drug. But nobody is sure.

“If the administration would announce tomorrow that all birth control would be free for every woman in America, I think the health care plan would gain 30 points in popularity overnight,” said Richards.

Record numbers of Republican women are running for House seats

2010-05-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

By Garance Franke-Ruta
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Washington Post

Nearly two years after Sarah Palin became the Republican Party's first female vice presidential nominee, record numbers of Republican women are running for House seats, driving the overall count of women running for both the House and the Senate to a new high.

The surge in female candidates has taken place largely under the radar. The previous high came in 1992, the Year of the Woman, when the percentage of women in Congress reached double digits for the first time. That year, 222 women filed to run for the House and 29 for the Senate.

So far this year, 239 women are candidates for the House and 31 for the Senate, according to data from the Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics. Among them, a record 107 Republican women have filed to run for a House seat, according to the National Republican Congressional Committee -- surpassing a previous GOP high of 91 in 1994 and a sharp increase from the 65 who ran in 2008. And those numbers could grow. In each year that Rutgers has been keeping track, the final tally has exceeded the late April figure by more than 20.

"It looks like it is going to be a record year," said Gilda Morales, who crunches the data for the Rutgers women's center. "What's bringing these numbers up is Republican women."

The jump in female GOP candidates mirrors the enthusiasm among Republicans in general, said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), who leads efforts to recruit female candidates for the NRCC. "I just think overall candidate recruitment is going well for the Republicans after two cycles where it's been more difficult for us."

The majority -- 67 percent -- of Republican women seeking House seats this year will be facing Democratic incumbents if they win their primaries, according to the Rutgers data. That will put the women at a considerable disadvantage, given that House reelection rates did not dip below 90 percent even in the GOP-friendly year of 1994. In 1992, for instance, 22 of the 24 women who won office for the first time did so in open districts.

Similarities to 1992

At the same time, the picture is not entirely dissimilar to the one women faced in 1992, when a surge in female candidates across an expanded playing field lifted a new group of women into office. Only nine of the non-incumbent Republican women this year are challenging a House member from their own party, the Rutgers data show. In contests for open seats, 26 Democratic women and 19 Republicans are running.

"I think there could be some surprises this year," McMorris Rodgers said.

Jan Larimer, who is co-chairman of the Republican National Committee and heads its women's program, attributed the increase to anger over Democratic domestic policy priorities: "The policies of the Obama administration and a Congress led by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have energized women to fight back. First, they were afraid, and now they are angry about health care, their jobs, how to pay for their children's education."

And the example of Palin certainly didn't hurt. Women "are giving the GOP a second look and realizing that our policies, principles and vision make sense and work for their families," she said.

The RNC women's program has held regional summits and conference calls to introduce female leaders and potential candidates to elected officials and policy experts. The RNC is "in the process" of publishing a series of training manuals for first-time candidates, as well, Larimer said.

Martha Roby, a city council member who is challenging Rep. Bobby N. Bright (D) for Alabama's 2nd District, cited a range of economic issues for her decision to run this year. "I am absolutely appalled at what's happening in Washington," she said. "They are spending money they don't have and putting an unbelievable debt on our children and our grandchildren."

So far, the surge in GOP female candidates has not been accompanied by a jump in high-level party support. Only eight women are among the 110 people in the GOP Young Guns program, begun by the party during the 2007-08 cycle and now its leading open-seat and challenger training effort. And only Roby has made it to the top of its three tiers, becoming a Young Gun.

Non-competitive districts

McMorris Rodgers and Larimer said they expect that situation to change as more women win their primaries. But Democratic critics say that many of the Republican women are not running in competitive districts and won't be a threat to the Democratic incumbents.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee declined to provide data on the full spectrum of female Democratic candidates it is tracking. Rutgers puts the number at 132 for the House, including 55 incumbents. Red to Blue, a Democratic program that supports battleground candidates, includes three women among its 13 members.

"It's obviously a lot better than the Republicans but still not high enough," said DCCC spokesman Ryan Rudominer.

This month, there were 73 women (56 Democrats and 17 Republicans) in the House and 17 (13 Democrats and four Republicans) in the Senate, according to Rutgers.

Review of 'The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott,' by Kelly O'Connor McNees

2010-04-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

By Carrie Brown
Wednesday, April 28 2010
The Washington Post

THE LOST SUMMER OF LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

By Kelly O'Connor McNees
Amy Einhorn/Putnam.
342 pp. $24.95

Such is the iconic power of Louisa May Alcott's beloved "Little Women" that it takes hardly any effort to evoke its opening scene. The four March sisters, you'll remember, gather around the hearth on a winter evening, waiting for their mother to arrive home "while the December snow fell quietly without, and the fire crackled cheerfully within." For many readers, this scene and others that follow are so familiar that they have the vivid force of something remembered from one's own life.

In her first novel, "The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott," Kelly O'Connor McNees has responded to her affection for "Little Women" -- and her admiration for its author -- with an imagined story of Alcott's life. McNees invents a youthful (and doomed) love affair for the writer, who never married, and explores the tension Alcott felt between her public ambition and personal life.

Of course, other contemporary novelists have been charmed into the world of "Little Women." Geraldine Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize with her novel "March," inspired by the absent father in "Little Women" and by Louisa May's real father, Bronson Alcott, a fascinating figure Brooks called the "most transcendent transcendentalist of them all."

McNees's novel begins during the imagined summer of Louisa May's 22nd year. The impoverished family has moved to Walpole, Mass., to take up residence in a house offered by a relative. (Bronson Alcott's philosophical preoccupations make him rich in spirit only.) The four Alcott sisters begin life in this new town, meeting other young people their age, including Joseph Singer, the son of the owner of Walpole's dry goods store. Joseph and Louisa are both clever and fond of books. The literary landscape is abuzz with talk of "Leaves of Grass," the revolutionary poetry of Walt Whitman, and Joseph and Louisa are enthralled.

McNees gets the period details just right: the crinolines and carriages; the spare, aesthetic plainness of 19th-century New England. And although the love affair with Joseph is invented, she remains faithful to the broad outlines of Alcott's biography. In fact, "The Lost Summer" is the kind of romantic tale to which Alcott herself was partial, one in which love is important but not a solution to life's difficulties. Devotees of "Little Women" will flock to this story with pleasure

Brown's most recent novel is "The Rope Walk."

Preteen Girl Wins Divorce From 80-Year-Old Husband

2010-04-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Posted by: Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
April 24, 2010
Care2 Causes & News

I feel as though I've been writing a lot of posts recently about child brides, most of them tragic stories in which the girl dies from childbirth or, in the case of 12-year-old Elham Mahdi, internal bleeding following intercourse. But this story is more hopeful. Like 10-year-old Nujood Ali, who walked out on a husband more than three times her age, a girl who was married at the age of 11 to an 80-year-old man has been granted a private divorce.

There are a few differences in circumstance; the previous three cases occurred in Yemen, where the U.N. estimates that 1 in 3 girls under the age of 18 is married. This divorce took place in Saudi Arabia, where there is no minimum age for marriage; child marriages are also common, particularly in poorer areas of the country. Like in Yemen, it's also rare for child brides to challenge the marriage. This case, however, has caused the state-run Human Rights Commission to call for a minimum marriage age of 16.

In the debates over child marriage, some clerics have cited the prophet Muhammad's marriage to a 9-year-old girl as an appropriate precedent; however, the issue seems often to be mostly related to poverty. The father of the girl who just received a divorce was given a little over $20,000 as her dowry. In impoverished regions, it seems likely that child marriages are spurred by hardship, and the prospect both of extra money and one less mouth to feed. To pin the practice purely on Islam ignores the complex interplay of issues that allows child marriage to continue. Some religious leaders have spoken out against it; earlier this year, Sheikh Abdullah al-Manie, a senior Saudi cleric, claimed that prophet's marriage occurred centuries ago and could not be used to justify marriages today.

It seems clear, however, that child marriages are an incredibly dangerous practice, and that they often result in tragedy. As I've pointed out in other posts, maternal mortality is far more severe in girls under 15, and promises from new husbands to refrain from consummating the marriage until their child wife is older are often broken. The Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Justice will issue new guidelines after hearing from child psychologists, Islamic law scholars, and medical experts.

"The main aim is to not allow cases like this to happen again," explained Alanoud al-Hejailan, a lawyer for the commission. Let's hope that the HRC and the Ministry of Justice agree.

New Force Behind Agency of Wonder

2010-04-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: April 12, 2010
The New York Times

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is different from other federal agencies. For one thing, the agency, known as Darpa, created the Internet (really). For another, it is probably the only agency ever to offer a $40,000 prize for a balloon hunt, a contest that was inspired by Regina Dugan, a 47-year-old expert in mine detection, who took over last summer as its director.

Dr. Dugan, who has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology, is the first woman to be the director of Darpa, and those who know her say she has a knack for inspiring, and indeed insisting on, creative thinking.

Last December’s balloon hunt, otherwise known as the Darpa Network Challenge, is a good example. In marking the 40th anniversary of the connecting of the first four nodes of the Internet in 1969, the agency offered a $40,000 prize to the first team of volunteers able to locate 10 large red balloons hidden around the country.

The task only sounds frivolous. It was actually something that experts agreed was impossible using traditional intelligence techniques. The challenge was designed to test new methods, involving the use of social networks.

The idea for the balloon search came out of Dr. Dugan’s insistence that a group of Darpa fellows — rising military stars — who had been posted to the agency for several months do something more innovative and useful than taking the usual field trips and meet and greet sessions. With her repeated prodding, the fellows — captains, majors and colonels — designed and organized the contest.

The balloon hunt, which would ultimately attract almost 500 teams of volunteers from around the world, was won by a group of M.I.T. experts in the analysis of social networks. The results suggested the potential of these new ways of gathering intelligence. For Dr. Dugan, it was a great example of how Darpa can contribute to what she has called a “renaissance of wonder.”

Her biggest challenges, however, lie ahead. She must orchestrate the work of the military, contractors and universities around a set of ideas to produce scientific and technological breakthroughs. Darpa is built around specific projects undertaken by elite scientists and engineers who sign on for several years to provide service to the country. It is results oriented and not meant to be a long-term home for researchers.

In the past, Darpa has supported the design of the ARPAnet, the forerunner of the Internet and many of the technologies that define the modern computer age, as well as military systems including the stealth fighter, unmanned drone aircraft, the global positioning satellite system, and even the M16 rifle.

The agency has also spawned controversy. During the 1990s it became a lightning rod for a bitter political debate over the question of whether the United States should have an industrial policy to invest in hand-picked industries and technologies.

In 2002, Dr. Dugan’s predecessor, Tony Tether, set off a firestorm of opposition from civil liberties advocates when he created Darpa’s Information Awareness Office run by a former Reagan national security adviser, Adm. John Poindexter. Admiral Poindexter wanted to build a computerized data mining system to look for potential terrorists, and Congress responded by cutting financing for the project.

More recently Darpa has been criticized as focusing too closely on “deliverables” for the nation’s soldiers, in the process forgoing the high-risk technology gambles that originally were the agency’s trademark.

Dr. Dugan must try to redress that balance. Under her direction Darpa is focusing on areas as diverse as advanced manufacturing, biological sensors and the rapid development of vaccines, as well as cyberecurity.

Her ability to see the world in nontraditional ways has impressed Gen. James E. Cartwright of the Marines and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has begun working closely with Dr. Dugan in the past four months.

“Watching her work with the service chiefs has been really amazing,” General Cartwright said. “They listen for 10 or 15 minutes and you can feel lights start to come on and then they’re hooked.”

She has also won strong initial backing outside of the military.

Not long after taking the position last year she toured five of the nation’s leading universities in an effort to address the chill that had set in between Darpa and the universities during the eight years that Dr. Tether ran the agency.

“We did a deep dive and we tried to understand what the universities were experiencing and what they were expressing,” she said. What she found was that not only had financing declined but that there were also a variety of indirect effects crucial to the basic research community, like the ability to include foreign nationals in research, the freedom to publish and the limits placed by export control regulations.

“We came to a better understanding of what the agency needs to do, and then we went to the university community with a challenge for their side as well,” she said, “which is to bring their best and brightest to the table to work on defense problems.”

The new approach has paid off in enthusiastic reviews from many of the agency’s recent critics.

“She came to attract brilliant faculty to become program managers as opposed to selling a research agenda,” said Randy Katz, a University of California computer scientist and former Darpa program manager. “My immediate impression was that when she arrived she commanded the room.”

(For the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above this posting.)

McPadnet owner reveals secrets to her sales success

2010-02-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post
By Thomas Heath
Monday, February 22, 2010

I said something disrespectful about salespeople many years ago, and my wife, Polly, upbraided me straightaway.

Selling is a real talent, she said. If you can sell, you can always find work.

I immediately gained a respect for salespeople that I have never lost.

Karen Edwards knows how to sell.

Edwards, 45, owns and runs a profitable Gaithersburg printing company called Milestone Consulting Printing and Design Network (McPadnet).

"I am a sales executive," Edwards said proudly. She is an uber-networker who gave me an hour on the phone before rushing off to a meeting of the Women's Business Enterprise. "I love to sell. It's what I do."

Edwards is all business. She carries a business card with a title, "vice president, sales," even though she owns McPadnet. She speaks in quick, tight sentences. She sounds organized and driven. She even has a bit of a chip on her shoulder.

She needed those qualities to get out of rural West Virginia and make her way to Washington, where Milestone grosses close to $5 million a year and posts profit margins of between 6 and 8 percent. Edwards pays herself a six-figure salary and rolls the profit back into the business.

The company's biggest customers are Marriott International, which hires female-owned companies as part of its diversity supplier program, and some government agencies that Edwards won't talk about. The company has less than 50 employees in two locations; one is Gaithersburg, the other is a secret.

An early start

Edwards, one of six children of a coal miner, has been preparing for a business career since she was a teenager. She took lots of math, accounting and typing courses in high school, and specialized in printing at West Virginia Institute of Technology, which is now part of West Virginia University.

"I tried introductory courses in drafting, engineering and printing, and I loved the printing class," Edwards said. "There is so much more to it than ink on paper. And there wasn't any discrimination against women in my class."

After graduation, Edwards spent 2 1/2 years at a Virginia printing company, where she became a customer service representative. It was the early 1980s, and she made about $30,000 a year.

She left the Virginia company for a better opportunity with a Washington area printing firm. But she didn't leave for more money.

"It was a lateral move," she said. "My gut told me. . . . I knew my career was in management or sales, and it wasn't going that way with the previous company."

Edwards was 25 and one of two new salespeople at her new firm. The other was a friend of a vice president.

"They gave him a list of 400 leads and they gave me the Yellow Pages and two leads," she said, adding that one of her leads was a defunct company. The other was a British telcom that was alive and well.

"I called the guy [at the telcom company] and said, 'I know we don't have a lot of great work for you. I know you don't like the pricing structure.' But I asked him to give me one chance to bid a job."

Edwards won the contract, and when the man left a few months later for General Electric, he stayed with Edwards.

In her first year, she brought in $600,000 in business. It was 1990.

The 'network queen'

Edwards said her sales trick is being direct, reliable and creating a close relationship that her clients can't live without.

"You build their trust. I made unbelievable relationships that I still have," she said.

When a client talked about dry cleaning, she would recommend a dry cleaner. When they talked about school, she could talk about school.

Shopping? Doctor's appointments? Cars?

"I became a resource to all clients . . . the network queen."

By the time she left nearly eight years later, Edwards was making more than $100,000 in salary and commissions a year. She earned 2 to 3 percent on her total sales, which were more than $2 million a year.

When she learned that a boss was trying to take credit for her work, she went home, took a bath -- where she does her best thinking -- and decided to start McPadnet. It was 1997.

Edwards took 100 clients with her. For the first few years, she worked from home, and took little or no salary. She didn't own presses, so she sent work to printing companies in return for keeping the commission.

After five years, she used profits and $80,000 from a private lender to buy presses and equipment from a troubled printer in West Virginia, where costs are lower than in Washington.

I asked Edwards for some sales tips, and to my surprise, many apply to my job, especially my favorite: "Listen more, speak less."

Here are some others:

-- Bring stuff to your first interview. The first thing Edwards does when a client requests a meeting is to get a general idea of what type of project they want to discuss. This allows her to bring catalogs of products or print samples. Most clients buy what they see and if you go in empty-handed, that is how you might leave.

-- Find out all of the details upfront. You must know when, where, and how your client wants to receive their final product.

-- When a client suggests there is no rush, ignore them. They won't mind your urgency.

-- Follow up on every little detail, and if you ever have a doubt, follow up again.

-- Know your audience. Do not try to change your clients.

-- Know your competition. The only way you can beat them is to know as much about them as possible and why your client should choose you instead.

-- Deliver on your promises.

Like a good reporter, Edwards is always on the lookout for new clients (or in my case, sources).

"Any great sales person is always prospecting," she said. "I know my husband wishes we could go out to eat once without my critiquing the paper, font and ink of the menu. I am prospecting if my eyes are open."

Follow me on Twitter at addedvalueth.

Muslim woman's veil case represents clash of values in Spain

2010-02-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, February 13, 2010

CUNIT, SPAIN -- This sunny little resort on the Mediterranean shore has long been a favorite for weekenders seeking to escape the congestion of nearby Barcelona for a dose of sandy beaches and sea breezes.

But Cunit has gained a new distinction: It is famous in Spain as the town where a Moroccan-born Muslim woman with a master's degree and a head of curly hair says she was threatened by Muslim fundamentalists because she took off her veil and tried to live like a Spaniard.

The treatment of Fatima Ghailan, 31, prompted an investigating magistrate to bring charges against the sheik of the local mosque, Mohamed Benbrahim, and the head of the Islamic Association, Abderraman el-Osri, the leading figures in Cunit's Muslim community.

The case also generated demands for the resignation of Mayor Judit Alberich, a liberal Socialist who, her political opponents said, catered to her Muslim constituents at the expense of respect for the law.

The conflict roiling Cunit and its 12,000 inhabitants has shown Spaniards that they are not exempt from the growing tensions in Western Europe over Muslim immigrants who seek to preserve their home-country ways -- and sometimes to impose a conservative strain of Islam -- in societies based on secular democracy and Christian tradition.

The unease has become a major political issue in France, where the government is trying to find a way to ban Muslim women's full-face veils without violating the constitution. In Switzerland, voters decided in a recent referendum to ban construction of minarets, and a petition is circulating for a second referendum to mandate expulsion of any immigrant convicted of a crime.

Spain's Muslim population, mostly immigrants from Morocco just across the Strait of Gibraltar, is about 1 million in a country of 47 million. It is far smaller than France's Muslim population of more than 5 million, which is the largest in Europe. As a result, the government in Madrid has not had to confront the tensions as a national issue, as have its counterparts in France and Switzerland.

Quiet resentment

But the feelings surfacing in Cunit have revealed a quiet resentment among many people who think that traditional European values are being challenged by fundamentalist Muslims.

"This is serious," said Ivan Faccia Serrano, a Cunit city council member. "There is a big part of the population that is not comfortable living with these Moroccans."

In many ways, Ghailan was an unlikely champion of assimilation when she arrived in Cunit as a teenager. Her father had been the sheik of a mosque in Morocco, and until recently, she dutifully wore a scarf.

But things began to change several years ago. Ghailan received a master's degree in Barcelona, and before long she stopped wearing a scarf, letting her hair move freely. She began driving a car.

Then she got a job at City Hall, assigned to work with the town's approximately 1,000 mostly Moroccan Muslims as a "cultural mediator." Her job was to encourage Muslims, particularly cloistered women, to participate in the life of the town, to take advantage of language classes and to leave their homes to attend festivals.

Ultimately, that is what brought her into conflict with Benbrahim and Osri. As a representative of City Hall, Ghailan wielded power over the immigrant community. That, residents said, was something the traditionalists could not accept -- particularly because it involved a woman who refused to cover her hair.

Petitions and complaints

Benbrahim organized a petition demanding Ghailan's firing. Ghailan said the dispute soon escalated; she lodged a formal complaint against Benbrahim in November 2008, charging that he had harassed, threatened and attacked her and her family.

A local court issued a restraining order, barring the sheik from going near Ghailan or her family, and launched a formal investigation in which procedure dictated that Benbrahim be taken into custody. But, Ghailan said later, the mayor, Alberich, intervened to prevent the arrest, saying that it would disrupt relations with Cunit's Muslim community.

In an interview, Alberich said she did not prevent the arrest but discussed the case with the police chief, who decided it would be a bad idea to make an arrest.

At the same time, Alberich undertook to mediate directly with Benbrahim. In her mind, she said, the issue was a personal dispute, not a clash of values.

"There is no coexistence problem in Cunit," she said. "We have never had that."

The situation remained tense but quiet until the magistrate announced two weeks ago that his investigation was finished and that Benbrahim should be jailed for five years on charges of harassment, defamation and threats and that Osri should be sentenced to four years for harassment and defamation.

Spain's national newspapers took notice, and TV crews arrived. Soon afterward, Ghailan's friends said, she was threatened in the street again, this time by some of Benbrahim's followers.

Ghailan, who was briefly hospitalized for anxiety attacks, was unavailable to relate what happened, as was Benbrahim. But Ghailan told local reporters last week that she had been approached by Alberich after the magistrate's announcement with a suggestion that she withdraw her complaint to foster improved relations with the Muslim community and get the problem behind her.

Allegations that Alberich had sought to exempt the Islamic leadership from the legal system were the main issue that generated the calls for her resignation.

"It is important for political leaders to put clear limits, so the Muslims know they have to live with Spain's values," said Montserrat Carreras Garcia, a centrist city council member also unhappy with Alberich's performance.

In the interview, Alberich said she did not ask that the complaint be dropped but recognized that it would be difficult for Ghailan to continue working if Benbrahim and Osri are on trial and risk prison terms. In the meantime, she said, Ghailan is on sick leave.

"When she comes back, we'll have to see," Alberich said.

Gaza Female Journalists Still Optimistic

2010-02-03T19:49:00.000-08:00

IslamOnline.net
Sun Jan 3 2010
By Rami Munir Almeghari
Journalist - Gaza Strip

"We as women journalists find a number of hardships throughout media work in the region. For instance, when I have some work and need to spend some extra hours, simply I cannot , for women cannot come back home late," Samar Aldreimly, a Gazan female journalist spoke out during a special workshop on the image of women in local media that was held this week at the Palestinian Women's Affairs Center in Gaza city.
The workshop tackled women's issues in local media outlets, and how women here are viewed in the various fields of media production in the coastal territory, including print media, radio, TV, and cinema production.

Participants emphasized on the need for more female media work in the region, as Palestinian women have never been taking part in many aspects of the Gaza society, beginning with the Israeli occupation of the strip in 1967, up to the last Israeli war on Gaza in January 2009.

Males Dominate the Scene

Samar told IslamOnline.net that the domination of men over women in workplaces have somehow undermined the role of female media practitioners. However, Aldreimly blamed women media practitioners for being unable to upgrade their status for what she termed women acceptance of being exploited.

Writer Hidaya Shamoun from Gaza echoed the same views, casting her belief that women role in media has been known for traditionalism for prolonged years now.

"Despite the existence of widespread international resolutions that have empowered women status, especially in the field of media, male media practitioners are still viewed as the dominant media workers, while women have a minor media role," she explained.

Etemad Sa'ad, who has been working as an independent film-maker, briefed IslamOnline.net about her own experience as a female media worker: "Since I have begun working in the field, I have faced a lot of troubles and difficulties. During the time of the war in January2009, I risked by getting out of my house to look for a story. I can recall that on the first day of that war, December 27, I was sitting at the office of Alayam newspaper, along with some colleagues of mine, it was a horrible moment, hearing sounds of the Israeli strikes. However, I carried my camera and went out to the street, regardless the risks I would face then."

Male Have Their Say

IslamOnline.net explored views of male media workers in Gaza over the work of female Palestinian journalists. Journalist and poet Nasser Attalah, believes that the presence of women in the media field is more than necessary.

Lecturer of journalism at the Islamic University of Gaza, Mohsen Alefranji, hoped that all those working in media , including journalists, writers, or media production facilities, would reflect what he termed a "real image" of women, involving women effective role in the society.

Tareq Elian, a Gaza-based film director, believes that female media workers themselves should work hard on a real improvement and better showing up in the field of media, in an attempt to change a stereotype image of women in Gaza.

Still There Is Optimism

Lubna Abu Ghadieen, who works as a producer with the Palestinian Women's Affairs Center in Gaza, voiced her optimism and faith in the work she does.

"I believe that a woman could be a means for reform throughout the society; therefore, I believe that women need to constantly improve their professional capabilities for the sake of real social reforms," she said.

Naheel Alsultan, who prepares radio shows with the local Gaza radio of Al-Shabab (Youth), sounded confident of her job, despite what she terms some difficulties, such as society traditions and customs in the conservative society of Gaza.

She explained "despite the existence of some social trends that restrict our work as women, I could have kept up my work, trying to maintain a sort of balance being a female media worker living in a conservative society. Among these difficulties: I have used to going back home early before night falls, because for a woman it is not allowed to walk down late in the street."

Lobna Abu Ghadein, who works as a producer with the Palestinian Women's Affairs Center in Gaza, said that she ignores all negative comments about female media practitioners in the Gazan society.

"I deal with my work as a profession and hobby, trying to continue my work and make some achievements," Lobna revealed.

Nelly Al-Masry, a Gaza-based journalist and researcher with the Palestinian Women's Affairs Center, said that the local community here underestimates the role of female media workers in Gaza, making clear that media production companies and news agencies are dominated by male workers, and that there is very little room for women to join effectively and equally.

"Many of such institutions assign female media professionals with less media tasks, such as library works," Nelly explained.

According to the Gaza-based Al-Kawthar Center, in cooperation with the United Nations Fund for Women (UNIFEM), a case study conducted between 1995 and 2005 showed that 79 percent of all female media work in Gaza reinforced a stereotypic image of females, such as works focused on young women, ignoring elderly ones as well as sidelining rural women.

________________________________

Rami Munir Almeghari is currently a contributor to several media outlets including the Palestine Chronicle, IMEMC, The Electronic Intifada and Free Speech Radio News. He is also a former senior English translator at, and editor-in-chief of, the international press center of the Gaza-based Palestinian Information Service. He can be contacted at rami_almeghari at hotmail.com.

Female Journalist Sentenced To 60 Lashes For Sex Show On Saudi Arabia TV

2010-01-23T16:15:00.001-08:00

DONNA ABU-NASR | 10/24/09
The Huffington Post

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A Saudi court on Saturday sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes after she had been charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex.

Rozanna al-Yami, 22, is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment, but there were conflicting accounts about how the court issued its verdict.

Al-Yami, who worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied working on the sex-show episode, told The Associated Press it was her understanding that the judge at the court in the western city of Jiddah dropped the charges against her. They included involvement in the preparation of the show and advertising the segment on the Internet.

But she said he still handed down the lashing sentence "as a deterrence."

"I am too frustrated and upset to appeal the sentence," said al-Yami.

Al-Yami refused to provide contact details for her lawyer to ask about the legal proceedings, including the basis in Islamic law for the punishment and whether the charges were really dropped.

Sulaiman al-Jumeii, the lawyer for the man who appeared in the TV show, said such "physical punishment is not an indication of innocence or a drop of charges."

"If the judge had dropped the charges, then why did he give her the 60 lashes?" he added.

Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza, the spokesman of the Ministry of Culture and Information, told the AP he had no details of the sentencing and could not comment on it.

In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, the man, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.

Al-Jumeii maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded.

On Saturday, he told the AP that not trying al-Yami before a court specialized in media matters at the Ministry of Culture and Information was a violation of Saudi law.

"It is a precedent to try a journalist before a summary court for an issue that concerns the nature of his job," he said.

The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated.

The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline.

Three other men who appeared on the show, "Bold Red Line," were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each.

Why the world doesn't need an Annie Warhol or a Francine Bacon

2010-01-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

Germaine Greer
guardian.co.uk
Sunday 17 January 2010

In May last year, the Centre Pompidou consigned to storage nearly all its works by male artists and rehung its permanent collection to show only works by women. Camille Morineau, the curator of elles@centrepompidou, said the show was "going to be dramatic in a big way". It wasn't. The art press simply ignored it. The Guardian was one of few newspapers to ask itself the question: "Is the art world finally taking work created by women seriously?"

British galleries are less, not more, interested in women's work than French ones. The National Gallery owns paintings by only 10 women, of whom only four have been deemed worthy of representation in the main galleries, where you will find one Rachel Ruysch, one Berthe Morisot, and two paintings each by Vigée-Le Brun and Catherina van Hemessen. The rest, with the exception of Rosa Bonheur, can be found in Room A, the study collection, which is open for three and a half hours on Wednesday afternoons.

The Centre Pompidou, popularly known as Beaubourg and officially as the Musée National d'Art Moderne, houses works dating from 1905. Morineau was quoted as saying that until now there were not enough works by women in the collection to have been able to mount anything on the scale of elles@centrepompidou. After five years of a deliberate policy of spending 40% of the acquisitions budget on them, works by women now account for 17% of the permanent collection. This compares with the 13% of female artists in the Tate collections.

The exhibition takes up the fourth floor of the vast building, plus odd rooms on the fifth. The entrance is signalled by a purple panel, on which have been mounted large buttons of different colours; 11 bear the feminised name of a well-known male artist, Annie Warhol, Francine Bacon etc. The 12th bears the name Louis Bourgeois. Though this jeu d'esprit, by Agnès Thurnauer, has its admirers, it is after all feeble. Does anyone really think that Martin Kippenberger could have been Martine Kippenberger?

The storm of words that accompanies the exhibition stresses that its intention is to restore women to their rightful place in art history, as if there was a vast mass of wonderful work by women artists just waiting to be brought to light. The exhibition has been treated as a journey of discovery of works that have been forgotten or lost, but many, including the best of them, are stupefyingly familiar. Some major artists have been sampled in a fashion that seems positively flippant. Jenny Holzer's 26 Inflammatory Essays have been reduced to eight, replicated and mounted on a partition in uniform stripes from ceiling to floor, like cheap wallpaper.

Eva Hesse is represented by Untitled (1970), a seven-part sculpture made of fibreglass and polyester resin over polyethylene sheeting and aluminium wire. When it was made, the 34-year-old artist was dying. She never saw the finished work, which differs significantly from her model. The book published to accompany the exhibition claims that the piece was bought by the Centre Pompidou in 1986, other sources that it was presented to the museum by Mr and Mrs W Ganz. Time and poor conservation have reduced it to a sticky mess.

Some of the younger women artists in the show may turn out to be discoveries, but too many of them are making the kinds of female body art that have been doing the rounds for years. Innocents may be excited by Sigalit Landau's Barbed Hula of 2001, a video showing her full-frontal naked doing the hula with a hoop made of barbed wire, but only if they were too young to see Marina Abramowic´ slicing into her naked belly in the 1970s, or Orlan on the operating table in the 1990s. Later this year, Abramowic´ will be performing throughout her planned retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The life's work of Nancy Spero, poorly represented in this exhibition, will be celebrated at the Centre Pompidou. Both shows will be more rewarding experiences than elles@centrepompidou.

The effect of offering a sampler of the work of 200 women is to diminish the achievement of all of them. By lumping the major with the minor, and by showing only minor works of major figures, elles@centrepompidou managed to convince too many visitors to the exhibition that there was such a thing as women's art and that women artists were going nowhere. Wrong, on both counts.

Fear of Death Chills Journalism in Congo

2010-01-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

By Danielle Shapiro
WeNews correspondent
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

After a murderous nine months for local reporters, three female journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo received death threats in September. Many weeks and one national protest later, official investigators offer little hope of bringing justice.

BUKAVU, Democratic Republic of the Congo (WOMENSENEWS)--Jolly Kamuntu hasn't missed a single day of work.

Despite being named in a text message death threat, which was sent to the phones of two female colleagues in early September, Kamuntu continues her on-air work for the local station, Radio Mandeleo, in this war-scarred corner of Central Africa.

"I continue coming to work because it's my passion," said the 33-year old reporter and producer. She is eight months pregnant and already the mother of two.

Kamuntu has a guard at her house over night who accompanies her to work in the morning and back home in the evenings.

Her program, supported by a Swedish nongovernmental organization called Benevolencia, covers legal issues and human rights, much of it related to rape and sexual violence. Though she's been a journalist for nine years, Kamuntu said she is also trained as a lawyer.

"Since I was very little it was my dream to be a journalist, to be the voice of the weak," she said.

The two other women named in the text message were Delphie Namuto and Caddy Adzuba of the U.N.-sponsored network Radio Okapi. Among other topics, both have also covered gender-based violence.

With little progress in the investigation of the threat, many journalists say they also feel at risk.

All three of the women and several of their male colleagues said that receiving threats was nothing new to them. However, the timing of this one was particularly unsettling, coming on the heels of the funeral for the third Bukavu-based journalist to be murdered in the last three years--all of them men.

"The threats were a minor event in the last year, I'm sorry to say," said Florian Barbey, head of Radio Okapi for South Kivu province. The first two journalists killed, Serge Maheshe and Didace Namujimbo, worked for Radio Okapi. Bruno Koko Chirambiza, a Radio Star reporter, was murdered in August. "We had a death, a dead body."

Namuto and Adzuba have left Bukavu and are living in Kinshasa, the country's capital, where they are working at the station's headquarters. Neither has broadcast on air since September.

Missing Direct Contact
Adzuba's work once entailed reporting in the field, interviewing people whose lives have been impacted by Congo's brutal and ongoing conflict. Now that her work is anonymous and restricted to the Internet, she misses the direct contact she had with survivors of rape and sexual violence and those affected by the war.

About 5.4 million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died since 1996, poverty is widespread and instability continues throughout the east despite a 2002 peace accord and elections in 2006.

"These people were so vulnerable," Adzuba, 28, said in a telephone interview from Kinshasa. "They needed support and I was trying to support them."

All three journalists have restricted the hours they work; never too early and never too late.

Namuto, 35, closely monitors her phone calls and used a new number for an interview with Women's eNews.

"Sometimes I feel a revolt because of this threat message. I feel I have to do my job even more professionally," she said in a telephone interview from Kinshasa. "But then I am a mother. My son is 4 years old and my daughter is one-and-half. So I say, what would happen to my children?"

Corruption and impunity are rampant in the Congo, as is general violence. Perpetrators come from the ranks of the military, the many armed militias operating throughout the east and, increasingly, civilians--especially in crime-riddled cities like Bukavu. The lawless combination is a potentially lethal mix for journalists trying to highlight injustice and the sufferings of ordinary citizens.

Barbey, of Radio Okapi, and Kizito Mushizi Nfundiko, director of Radio Mandeleo, said none of the women's previous reporting stands out as likely to provoke a violent backlash. Kamuntu expressed incredulity that the threat to her life came at a time of relative calm in Bukavu.

"I had tough interviews with Laurent Nkunda when the rebellion was high in the city," she said of the former powerful rebel leader now in Rwandan custody. "Now that there is peace and security. To be threatened, I was really worried."

Coverage Remains Unchanged
Although Barbey and Nfundiko said they are cautious about what they broadcast and continually talk about safety precautions with their reporters, they have not changed anything in their coverage. Nfundiko said it is a show of defiance.

Yet Chochou Namegabe, coordinator and a founder of the Women's Media Association of South Kivu (AFEM in French), which prepares broadcasts for 10 stations across the region about women's issues, particularly in rural areas, admitted some self-censorship, especially in reporting about the military.

"We are careful about what we say," she said.

Jean Baptiste Baderha, Radio Mandeleo's lead reporter and a member of Journalists in Danger, a Central African press freedom organization, put the risk calculations he and colleagues in Bukavu make in simple terms.

"It's better to be a bad journalist who is alive," he said, "than a good journalist who is dead."

Soon after the death threat, Kamuntu, Namuto and Adzuba filed a case with the military, as well as with the national police and MONUC, the U.N. mission in the Congo. Attempts to reach the Bukavu-based prosecutor and one of his attorneys handling the case were unsuccessful. A police inspector canceled an interview saying he could not speak without his boss present.

However, several military officials did speak to Women's eNews, though they refused to be named.

Military's Jurisdiction
Because the threat explicitly cited the use of a gun to commit the killings--"a bullet to the head," it said--the military has primary jurisdiction, the officials said.

Military officials said they contacted Vodacom, the mobile phone provider, to trace the number used for the text message threat.

"Vodacom responded that this number was never used before the messages or after," one official said. "I think the person bought the SIM card only to send this message. Therefore, we don't mean that we stop the investigation. We are waiting to see if he'll use it again."

Barbey, of Radio Okapi, said the extensive press the case has received hasn't helped. Had it been kept quiet, he said, there may have been a small chance to better trace the phone number used. His journalists might also have had options other than leaving Bukavu.

But the attention has also lead to an outpouring of support for the women, which they said has buoyed their spirits. The Congolese National Press Union held marches throughout the country in October to urge the government to act to protect journalists.

Kamuntu, who joined the marchers in Bukavu, expressed optimism that the investigation would eventually bear fruit. Others were skeptical.

"I'm sorry, but I find that our justice is like that, like dead," said Nfundiko, of Radio Mandeleo. He and several colleagues cited widespread impunity and corruption throughout all branches of government in the Congo.

Adzuba said she was not at all surprised by the lack of progress in the investigation given that the "more acute cases" of her murdered colleagues were never solved.

A September MONUC press release noted that the murders "have never been elucidated and those who committed them are still at large."

Military officials, however, said they arrested two individuals who were later convicted and imprisoned for Maheshe's murder and have arrested about 10 suspects in Namujimbo's killing. Adzuba questioned the findings.

"They were false investigations," she said.

Danielle Shapiro is a freelance journalist based in New York City.

For more information:
South Kivu Women's Media Association (AFEM/SK)
http://englishafemsk.blogspot.com/

MONUC, the U.N. Mission to the Congo
http://monuc.unmissions.org/

Radio Okapi
http://www.radiookapi.net/

Note: Women's eNews is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites and the contents of site the link points to may change.

Sheryl Crow Takes up Cause of Wild Horses in West

2009-11-27T15:09:00.000-08:00

By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The San Francisco Chronicle

(11-21) 13:02 PST Reno, Nev. (AP) --

Sheryl Crow is joining others in calling on the federal government to halt roundups of wild horses in the West, branding them as inhumane and unnecessary.

The Grammy Award-winning singer has asked President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to scrap a proposed roundup of 2,500 mustangs in northern Nevada.

"With one voice we are insisting that our government stop managing these beautiful and important animals to extinction," Crow said in a statement released by the Cloud Foundation, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based horse advocacy group.

Crow, who has adopted a mustang, campaigned for Obama last year. She opposes Salazar's plan to move thousands of wild horses to preserves in the Midwest and East to protect horse herds and the rangelands that support them.

"It's time for all of us to speak up for our wild horses and burros so we do not lose these living legends and inspiring symbols of our freedom in America," she said.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials said they plan to remove 11,500 wild horses and burros from the range over each of the next three years because booming numbers of the animals are damaging the range.

The agency has set a target "appropriate management level" of 26,600 of the animals in the wild, about 10,000 below the current level. An additional 32,000 of them are cared for in government-funded holding facilities.

"Wild horses have an important place on the landscape, but we have to balance that with other uses," BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said Saturday. "We have to ensure that the long-term health of the landscape is able to support all these multiple uses."

In a letter sent to Obama and Salazar earlier this week, Crow and actors Ed Harris and Wendie Malick, along with Madeleine Pickens, the wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, and more than 100 other groups questioned the BLM's horse numbers and said there may be only 15,000 mustangs remaining on public lands.

The BLM has received more than 7,000 public comments concerning its plans to remove 2,500 mustangs near Nevada's Black Rock Desert this winter. Nevada is home to about half of all wild horses.

Salazar has said his plan unveiled last month would avoid the slaughter of some of the 69,000 wild horses and burros under federal control to halt the soaring costs of maintaining them.

The seven preserves would hold about 25,000 horses. Many of the horses remaining on the range would be neutered and reproduction in Western herds would be strictly limited.
___

BLM wild horse and burro program: http://tinyurl.com/3rb6r7

Cloud Foundation: www.thecloudfoundation.org

Tell Congress to support the Healthy Families Act!

2009-11-15T12:42:00.001-08:00

Like 57 million people in the U.S., Desiree is not allowed to earn any paid sick days at her job. So on Tuesday, she testified before a Senate Committee about her family's experience with getting the flu and not having any paid sick days:

"Families like mine need to be able to earn paid sick days – so we don’t have to borrow from our rent money and go deeper into debt every time our kids get sick...having no paid sick days has really hurt our family’s finances and economic stability."

The H1N1 flu shines a light on the problems that working families face every flu season. And leaders are taking notice! White House endorsed the Healthy Families Act, which lets working people earn a minimum number of paid sick days per year. But White House endorsement is only one step toward the Healthy Families Act becoming law. Send a letter now to your members of Congress asking them to support this important piece of legislation, and to work with their colleagues to get it passed as soon as possible.

Most successful pirate was beautiful and tough

2009-11-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

By Maggie Koerth
"Mental floss"
CNN.com Living

(Mental Floss) -- You can keep your Bluebeards and your Blackbeards. The most successful pirate of all time controlled a fleet of more than 1,500 ships and upwards of 80,000 sailors -- and she did it all without the help of facial hair.

Tall ships like the La Boudeuse used to face threats from pirates as they sailed around the world.

When a Chinese pirate captain named Cheng married a beautiful prostitute in 1801, he wasn't just getting the girl of his dreams; he was making the best financial investment of his career. His new bride, known to history as Cheng I Sao, or "Wife of Cheng," agreed to the marriage on one condition -- that she would share equally in his power and would be given the opportunity to help him secure more wealth.

Sounded like a deal to Cheng, and for the next six years, the husband and wife teamed up to grow their piracy business along the coast of the South China Sea, as far south as Malaysia. But then, in 1807, Cheng passed away. Instead of stepping aside like a "proper" widow, Cheng I Sao promptly took the reins.

Thinking outside the treasure box

Although clearly ahead of her time, Cheng I Sao was shrewd enough to realize that the pirate masses weren't likely as enlightened. So, her first act as leader was to make her husband's second-in-command, Chang Pao, official captain of the fleet.

While Chang Pao led the men into battle, Cheng I Sao focused her attention on business, military strategy, and the enormous task of governing a growing body of ruffians. In the years following her husband's death, she steadily brought more and more outlaws under the banner of her Red Flag Fleet.

In fact, Cheng I Sao was eventually responsible for nearly all the piracy in the region and her fleet exceeded the size of many countries' navies. She also expanded the scope of the business, branching out from simple attack-and-pillage jobs to protection schemes, blackmail, and extortion. Cheng I Sao's reach also extended to the mainland, where she set up an extensive spy network and developed economic ties with farmers who would supply her men with food.

If Cheng I Sao's business practices were exemplary, then her system of pirate law was nothing short of revolutionary. The code of conduct she wrote for her men prescribed much harsher punishments than previous pirate laws had. A disobeyed order was cause for beheading (as was stealing from the common plunder), and deserters stood to lose their ears.

The not-so-bitter end

Murder, thievery, and intricate crime syndicates will eventually garner the full attention of the law, and Cheng I Sao certainly had the authorities on her tail. But, here again, she proved more successful than her male counterparts.

Cheng I Sao repelled attack after attack by both the Chinese navy and the many Portuguese and British bounty hunters brought in to help capture her. Then, in 1810, the Chinese government tried a different tactic -- they offered her universal pirate amnesty in exchange for peace.

Cheng I Sao jumped at the opportunity and headed for the negotiating table. There, the pirate queen arranged what was, all told, a killer deal. Fewer than 400 of her men received any punishment, and a mere 126 were executed. The remaining pirates got to keep their booty and were offered military jobs.

As for Cheng I Sao, she retired with her loot and her new husband (former righthand man, Chang Pao) and opened a gambling house. She died peacefully in 1844, a 69-year-old grandmother.

For more mental floss articles, visit www.mentalfloss.com

Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

Training for women journalists starts today in Janakpur, Nepal

2009-11-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

14-08-2009 (Kathmandu)
UNESCO.ORG News

Nepalese women journalists
© UNESCO 25 women journalists from the Terai region of Nepal will be trained on personal security, human rights, basic journalism skills, and conflict and gender-sensitive journalism. UNESCO and the Nepal Press Institute, which organized this training, hope that it will help women journalists protect themselves and will reduce the amount of violence against them.
UNESCO and the Nepal Press Institute, in a joint collaboration with Sancharika Samua, OHCHR, INHURED International and Article 19, open today in Janakpur the first phase of the four-month training, adressed exclusively to women journalists. It will focus on:
■personal security (14-19 August),

■human rights fundamentals (20 August),

■basic journalism skills (21-25 August) and

■conflict and gender-sensitive journalism (October).
Selected journalists are from very diverse cultural backgrounds and come from several districts within the Terai region: Dhanusha, Saptari, Siraha, Mahottari, Rauthat, Bara, Parsha and Sarlahi.

Female journalists working in some areas of the Terai region often face danger because of their profession. There have been many incidents with female journalists receiving threats because of stories they have written or interviews they have done. The attacks have ranged from intimidation to physical violence and, last January, one of these attacks resulted in a murder. An increasing number of women journalists say there is growing pressure from their families to get out of the profession because of such danger. There is evidence that the number of attacks is increasing and the violence is occurring in more areas of Nepal.

Concerned about the current situation with female media professionals in the Terai region, UNESCO’s Office in Kathmandu and the Nepal Press Institute put together a very innovative training programme divided in two phases, one basic and one advanced, each made up of theoretical and practical modules. Both organizations hope that such training will help women journalists protect themselves and will reduce the amount of violence against them.

The personal security training, which opens the whole programme, will be immediately followed by human right fundamentals and basic journalism skills trainings. These will make the first phase of the programme, after which an important practical module will follow. The participants will spend three weeks in their communities, accompanied by the trainers who will help them apply the skills gained during the first phase of the programme.

The second phase will focus on conflict and gender-sensitive journalism and will also be followed by a three-week practical module, during which the trainees will carry out assignments on the basis of their newly acquired skills, supervised by their trainers.

At the end of the four-month course, the newly formed group of women journalists will be offered internships and/or fellowships within different media houses in the country.

'Three parent babies' take a step closer to reality

2009-11-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Scientists are a step closer to producing a controversial "three parent baby" after they successfully fertilised an egg with two biological mothers.

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent
Published: 7:00AM GMT 12 Nov 2009
Telegraph.co.uk

Researchers used eggs from young donors to repair damaged eggs of older women in order to increase their chances of fertilisation.

They have not yet used the eggs to produce babies, but they have injected them with sperm to produce an early stage embryo in the laboratory.

Gene that 'switches on' ability to speak found by scientists
Millions could be given legal right to see an NHS dentist While the move breathes new life into "old eggs" and could also remove genetic illnesses, it is likely to provoke an ethical storm as critics believe it could lead to hybrid or genetically modified children.

"If we could transfer these constructed new embryos, I believe the success rate would be high," Atsushi Tanaka, the lead author told the New Scientist.

IVF often fails in older women because there are abnormalities in the outside of their eggs, known as cytoplasm, which surrounds the nucleus.

The team at St Mother Hospital in Kitakyushu, Japan, believe one way around the problem would be too implant the healthy nucleus - which contains most of the information to produce a baby - into the cytoplasm of a donor, usually a younger mother.

The team successfully did this in 31 eggs and of these seven formed "early stage embryos" when injected with sperm in a test tube.

Under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act, this kind of treatment – or any that involves genetically modifying an egg – remains illegal in Britain but the government has put in place a framework to relax the rules if and when science shows it can have positive impact on health.

In August, a team at Oregon National Primate Research Center and Oregon Health & Science University successfully bred monkeys from "fixed" eggs.

They replaced damaged Mitochondria - the power pack of cells - from an egg with those of a donor to produce the healthy offspring.

They believe it is so successful that they could begin human trials if the law allowed it.

In 2001, a furore erupted in the US when mitochondria from young eggs was injected into older women's eggs to improve their quality. Fifteen babies were born at the time using the technique, it was claimed.

A number of universities including a collaboration from Newcastle and Durham Universities claim to have created sperm in the laboratory from human stem cells.

Women Journalists Risk Lives To Shine Light On Conflict, Corruption

2009-11-08T12:15:00.000-08:00

October 21, 2009
The Huggington Post
By Adam Taylor

On Monday the International Women's Media Foundation convened at New York's Waldorf Astoria to honor the 2009 winners of the Courage in Journalism Awards.

The awards ceremony was full of many noted names representing western media companies, including Judy Woodruff of The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer and CNN's Christiane Amanpour. What seemed clear, however, was that while the financial troubles facing the western journalism market may be in the spotlight, the exciting and courageous journalism taking part in other parts of the world should not be overlooked.

Three journalists received Courage in Journalism Awards.

International Women's Media Foundation's Courage in Journalism Award winners Iryna Khalip (L) from Belarus, Agnes Taile (C) from Cameroon and 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award winner Israeli Amira Hass (R) at annual awards ceremony October 20, 2009 in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.

Agnes Taile from Cameroon was commended for her commitment and dedication to broadcast journalism. Her reporting began to anger the wrong people, often President Paul Biya. In 2006 she was abducted and almost killed. The incident seriously damaged her vocal chords and caused her radio station to cancel her show. Taile was able to recover, and was soon back reporting, heading to Chad in February 2008 to cover the conflict raging there. As she accepted her award, she finished with: "I will share with you an old saying: that which does not kill you will only make you stronger."

Iryna Khalip from Belarus was commended for her work in highlighting the corrupt and undemocratic processes of President Alexander Lukashenko. As Khalip put it, "Dictatorships don't like journalists." Indeed, Khalip has faced strong government opposition, including being beaten at a rally and watching as the free press in Belarus dwindled and was shut down. She now works for the Moscow-based independent paper, Novaya Gazeta, covering Belarus. Novaya Gazeta is banned in Belarus. It is also the newspaper of the 2002 Courage Award winner Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered for her work in 2006.

One winner who couldn't make it was Iranian journalist Jila Baniyaghoob. Baniyaghoob had been arrested for her role in reporting political unrest and rioting after the Iranian presidential election earlier this year.

The lifetime achievement award went to Amira Hass, a reporter and columnist for Ha'aretz Daily, a newspaper based in Tel Aviv. Hass is one of the few Israeli journalists who ventures frequently to Gaza and the West Bank - in fact she lived in both regions.

The HuffPost talked to Iryna Khalip before the ceremony:

Why did you decide to become a journalist?

First of all I was inspired by the experiences of my father who was a wonderful, excellent journalist - way back in the times of the Soviet Union. Besides, I didn't want to go into a profession that would be too hard, like physics or chemistry, I wanted to do something exciting that wouldn't be too tough! I had no idea that it would be really interesting and really challenging but hard at the same time.

How did you get your career started?

I started my career at the time that the Soviet Union was still around. It was two years prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but it was the time of the perestroika. It was a very exciting time to go into journalism rather than propaganda. At first I thought that like my father I would write about theater, film, the arts, and be a critic, a movie critic or something like that. But then Belarus became a dictator state, and I had to start writing about things that are totally different than the arts.

Does writing about these different things bring its own problems into the mix?

Yes, it certainly does, but a person gets used to the idea of danger if you work in the environment of a totalitarianism state. I was arrested four times; they initiated criminal proceedings against me on three occasions. I've been beaten, I've been threatened, I've been intimidated, but this only proves that I'm doing something right.

As a woman, do you face more difficulties in reporting?

The fact that I am a woman does make my life more difficult. For example, certain young women who are arrested at rallies similar to me got raped in the police cells. And in that respect I was lucky. But I understand being a female does create additional difficulties. Now that I have a two-year-old son I have become even more vulnerable because I feel the responsibly for my son's destiny.

What work are you most proud of?

Paradoxically, on the occasions when I was arrested for my investigations I felt very proud as I came up with information that no one else had been aware of. It was a complete investigation with all the full disclosures. It proved that apart from writing short articles I am capable of conducting fully-fledged investigative research. It also meant that the authorities were afraid of what I was doing otherwise no one would have paid attention to me.

The fact that the authorities are afraid shows that a strong press can help change the situation?

Well, actually, strong and free journalism can do a lot - even under a dictatorship. In absence of free newspapers, because all of them had been shut down, we still came up with underground newspapers and publications, like they did in Poland with Solidarity. These papers are printed in underground print shops, volunteers, young people who just take a stack of publications and carry them door to door, put them in mailboxes, distribute them. It's very dangerous but it works.

There are people who are too lazy to look for alternative opinion and alternative news on the Internet but if they go to their mailbox and they pull out an alternative newspaper, they will certainly be sure to read it.

What does it mean to receive this award?

To me it is very important, it means that the United States recognizes my work, they do not think of Belarus as a black spot on the map that should be surrounded by barbed wire and forgotten. It means that there is a belief that Belarus has a future.

Activism
On Monday the International Women's Media Foundation convened at New York's Waldorf Astoria to honor the 2009 winners of the Courage in Journalism Awards. The awards ceremony was full of many noted n...
On Monday the International Women's Media Foundation convened at New York's Waldorf Astoria to honor the 2009 winners of the Courage in Journalism Awards. The awards ceremony was full of many noted n...

Women journalists prevented from leaving Iran

2009-11-08T12:14:00.000-08:00

October 10, 2009

Shahrzad News: Three Iranian women journalists have been banned from leaving the country. Their passports were confiscated minutes before they were to board their plane at Tehran’s international airport.

Badrulsadat Mofidi, who is general secretary of Iran’s Union of Journalists was one of the three. She said she was told at the airport that she had been banned from leaving the country a month earlier, following a ruling of the Court of Revolution. It was the first she had heard of their decision. The other two journalists, Farzaneh Roustai and Zahra Ebrahimi, also only learnt of the ban at the departure gate. Farzaneh Roustai won the Journalist of the Year award in 2007, and Zahra Ebrahima is a senior correspondent at the Hamshahri newspaper.

107-year-old woman is looking for her 23rd husband (because her current, 37-year-old partner is a drug addict)

2009-09-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

By Mail Foreign Service
16th September 2009
MailOnline

Wedding woe: Wook is looking for new love as she fears that husband Muhammad, 37, will leave her after he comes out of rehab.

A 107-year-old Malaysian woman says she is ready to marry for the 23rd time because she fears her current drug addict husband might leave her for a younger woman, it was revealed.

Wook Kundor first hit the headlines when she married a man 70 years her junior, Muhammad Noor Che Musa.

But Wook is now looking for new love. Muhammad, 37, who is undergoing voluntary drug rehabilitation treatment in the capital Kuala Lumpur, and Wook fears he will leave her once the programme ends.

'Lately, there is this kind of insecurity in me,' she said, showing a photograph of the smiling, wrinkled-faced centenarian wearing a Muslim headscarf.

'I realise that I am an aged woman. I don't have the body nor am I a young woman who can attract anyone.'

'My intention to remarry is to fill my forlornness and nothing more than that,' she said, adding that she felt lonely without her husband by her side to celebrate the coming Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr next week.
Wook said she planned to visit Muhammad on the second day of Eid if her neighbours were willing to drive her to the capital.

Muhammad, who was a lodger in Wook's house, had previously said it was 'God's will' that the couple fell in love.

Firestorm over column linking kidnap victim, sports

2009-09-10T13:40:00.000-07:00

By Mark Whicker (www.ocregister.com / Special to FOXSports.com)
FOXSports.com
Updated September 10, 2009

A piece written by a long-time sports columnist in southern California has sparked controversy and criticism from local readers and around the Internet.

The column, written by the Orange Country Register's Mark Whicker, tells Jaycee Dugard — a California woman who was kidnapped at age 11 and held in captivity for the last 18 years — about the sports milestones she missed during that time.

"She was not allowed to spike a volleyball," Whicker writes, referring to Dugard's time in captivity. "Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey. Now, that's deprivation."

Whicker — who has since apologized for the column — then goes into a 28-point bullet list of notable sports occurrences that happened in the past 18 years.

Dugard was abducted in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. in June 1991 and was recovered in Antioch, Calif. on Aug. 26 of this year. She gave birth to two children during her captivity, both apparently fathered by the kidnapper, 58-year-old Phillip Garrido.

Police believe Dugard was living in her kidnapper's backyard for at least some of that time, a fact Whicker aludes to in his closing line: "Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard."

The piece, which appeared online Monday and in Tuesday's paper, was met with heaps of criticism in the online comments section along with calls and complaints to the paper.

Whicker's apology was issued in Wednesday's edition, saying in part, "It's obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column (would have)."

In an interview with PoynterOnline, Whicker defended himself.

"I vehemently believe I wasn't insensitive about the fact that she was kidnapped," he said. "I never made light about the fact that this woman was abducted. I don't think anyone can cite anything in the column that says I did."

Whicker also blames the Internet culture for blowing the situation out of proportion, saying that he'd only received one critical e-mail by Tuesday night, but that after it had been posted all over Twitter and Facebook, that number increased to 100 the next day.

Whicker says a similar piece he wrote in 1991 following the release of hostage Terry Anderson after seven years in Lebanon failed to generate any outrage. He has been a columnist at the paper for over 22 years.

No flogging for trouser-wearing woman in Sudan

2009-09-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

By MOHAMED OSMAN and SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press Writers
Published: Monday, Sep. 7, 2009
The Sacramento Bee

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- A woman journalist was convicted Monday of public indecency for wearing trousers, but was spared a sentence of flogging. A defiant Lubna Hussein said she would not pay a $200 fine and would take a month in prison instead to protest Sudan's draconian morality laws.

The 43-year old journalist has set out to challenge the police and courts since her arrest in July by insisting the case go to trial, aiming to embarrass the Khartoum government with the publicity. Her prosecution - and the prospect that she could get the full sentence of 40 lashes - drew an international outcry.

The judge's decision to impose a fine equivalent to $200 appeared to be an attempt to curb the criticism.

"I will not pay a penny," Hussein, who during the court session wore the same trousers that sparked her arrest, told The Associated Press after the ruling.

During the session, police rounded up about 40 women protesting outside the courthouse in support of Hussein, some of them wearing trousers as well in a sign of solidarity.

Sudan's government implements a conservative version of Islamic law in the north. Under public indecency laws, anyone committing an act or wearing clothing deemed indecent can be punished with a flogging or a fine, but lawyers and human rights groups say the law is too vague and arbitrary. In the capital the "public order" police enforce the laws, breaking up parties and scolding men and women who mingle in public.

In mostly Muslim northern Sudan, many women wear traditional flowing robes that also cover their hair, but it is also not uncommon for women to wear trousers, even though conservatives consider it immodest.

Public order police arrested Hussein along with around a dozen other women in a Khartoum public cafe. Ten of the women received a quick, closed-door trial and were flogged soon afterward, avoiding the social stigma associated with a public trial on morality charges.

Hussein, however, insisted on a public court and even resigned from her job in the U.N.'s public information office because it gave her immunity.

After a three-hour session Monday, the judge ruled Hussein's outfit indecent and imposed the fine. He said her clothes violated traditions that a woman should only "adorn themselves" for their husbands and not in public, Hussein's lawyer said.

Lawyers said Hussein would be taken to a jail in Omdurman, on the outskirts of Khartoum, after she refused the fine.

Galal al-Sayed, Hussein's lawyer, called the ruling "incorrect" because the judge ignored his request to present defense witnesses and based his decision on contradictory statements from the prosecution witnesses. Al-Sayed said he would appeal the conviction.

He said the judge had apparently opted for a fine, not flogging, to avoid international criticism. "There is a general sentiment in the world that flogging is humiliating."

Even before the ruling, Hussein said she would refuse any fine. "I won't pay, as a matter of principle," she said. "I would spend a month in jail. It is a chance to explore the conditions in jail."

It is not the first time Sudanese courts have raised an outcry. In 2007, a British teacher was charged with insulting Islam after she allowed her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad in a class project, which some radical clerics called an insult to Islam's prophet. She was convicted and sentenced to 15 days in prison, though not the possible sentence of 40 lashes - again, an apparent move to avoid worsening international criticism. She then received a presidential pardon and returned to Britain.

Hussein's case has raised a string of condemnations by international human rights groups, and Hussein has sought to draw attention to Sudan's morality laws.

Amnesty International called on the Sudanese government to withdraw the charges against Hussein and repeal the law which justifies such "abhorrent" penalties. The London-based group said Friday that the law allowing flogging is state-sanctioned torture.

It pointed to an incident in 2003 when eight women were flogged in public with plastic and wire whips, reportedly leaving permanent scars on the women. The women had been picnicking with male friends.

Human rights and political groups in Sudan say the law is in violation of the 2005 constitution drafted after a peace deal ended two decades of war between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south Sudan.

In a column Friday in the British daily Guardian, Hussein said her case is not an isolated one but is emblematic of repressive laws in a country with a long history of civil conflicts.

"When I think of my trial, I pray that my daughters will never live in fear of these police," she wrote.

Hussein said she would take the issue all the way to Sudan's Constitutional Court necessary, but that if the court rules against her and orders the flogging, she's ready "to receive (even) 40,000 lashes" if that what it takes to abolish the law. "We will only be secure once the police protect us and these laws are repealed," she wrote.

Government spokesman Rabie Abdel Attie said Monday that "this is not a way to change the law."

"Changing the laws goes through officials, and it is a continuous matter looked into by the parliament," he said.

Abdel Attie said many women in Sudan wear trousers in government offices and institutions. He said there may be other issues surrounding Hussein's case that led to her arrest, but he refused to elaborate on what they might be.

"These courts are not convened without a crime. Lubna was convicted and she should respect the law," he said.

Women Journalists Came of Age Covering World War II

2009-08-28T18:19:00.000-07:00

U.S. Department of Defense
DefenseLINK
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2001 – The women who cover today's news 24 hours a day should snap a salute to their predecessors who covered World War II.

It wasn't until then that large numbers of American female radio broadcasters, print journalists and photojournalists would produce countless news reports and photographs from stateside and overseas locales. In fact, 127 accredited American female war correspondents brought the sights, sounds and written descriptions of conflict back to civilians at home.

"The war has given women a chance to show what they can do in the news world, and they have done well," said political reporter turned war correspondent May Craig to Women's National Press Club members in 1944 in Washington.

While contemporary female journalists, such as the Washington Post's Molly Moore, who covered the Persian Gulf War, routinely travel the globe to cover conflict, few female journalists worked national or overseas news desks prior to World War II. Although women journalists such as Jane Swisshelm (Civil War, 1861-65), Anna Benjamin (Spanish-American War, 1898), and Peggy Hull (latter part of World War I) had covered warfare in previous conflicts, their numbers were small.

Ironically, a woman named Jose Glover of Cambridge, Mass., owned the first printing press in the colonies. Though she was in operation by 1638, American women would wait almost 300 years until their participation in journalism became commonplace.

Increased education enabled more women to gain entry into American newsrooms at the turn of the 20th century. At that time, many female journalists specialized in writing about so-called women's issues like child rearing, cooking and other domestic subjects.

Female journalists began forming professional associations because they desired both credibility and more varied assignments. Washington newswomen, for example, formed the Women's National Press Club in 1919. They didn't merge with the previously men-only National Press Club until 1971.

After women gained the vote in 1920 via the 19th Amendment, more and more female journalists covered political news and elections across the country. Women also found it easier to join the journalism ranks during the liberal-minded "Roaring Twenties," which crashed in October 1929 along with the stock market.

As the Great Depression cast a debilitating shadow over America's economic and social landscape in the 1930s, many women journalists lost their jobs in favor of men. Stepping up in support, first lady Eleanor Roosevelt instituted weekly women-only White House press conferences, causing news organizations to employ at least one female journalist. Many of these women would go on to become war correspondents.

Women who had gained more leverage in newsrooms began flexing their muscles in the 1920s and 1930s. Helen Reid, made a vice president of the New York Herald Tribune in 1924, used her influence to hire women writers, who began to cover more varied and important events.

In the early 1930s on both sides of the Atlantic, pundits and politicos debated the pros and cons of fascism in Europe. American journalist Dorothy Thompson snared a scoop by interviewing an up-and-coming Adolf Hitler in 1931 for Cosmopolitan magazine. Thompson, who viewed Hitler and his National Socialist followers as a threat to world peace, repeatedly warned her readers about them. Thompson was so effective at reporting the unsavory doings of the fascists that she was kicked out of Germany in 1933, when Hitler was appointed chancellor.

When America entered World War II after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor Dec. 7, 1941, female journalists and photographers were assigned as overseas war correspondents. Some notable correspondents include:

Margaret Bourke-White, hired in 1935 as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, was also the first female American war correspondent and the first allowed to work in combat zones during World War II. Bourke-White covered the London Blitz, the Russian war effort, and various World War II battles. She also was one of the first photographers to enter and document the Nazi death camps.

Marguerite Higgins, assigned to cover the Seventh Army in Europe during 1944 for the New York Herald Tribune, entered Berlin with allied troops and reported on Hitler's demise. She later reported on the Korean War (1950-53) and won a Pulitzer Prize. Higgins died from a tropical disease after covering American military involvement in Southeast Asia in 1965.

Georgette "Dickey" Chapelle, a pre-war barnstorming pilot and photojournalist, covered World War II for Look magazine. After editing Seventeen magazine in 1946, she and her husband documented the war damage in Europe. Chapelle also covered conflicts in Algeria, Lebanon and Korea, and photographed Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba. While covering the Vietnam War in 1965, she was killed by a mine explosion.
After World War II, female journalists continued to make gains. Alice Allison Dunnigan became the first female African American reporter to receive congressional and White House press accreditation. As a White House correspondent, Dunnigan traveled with President Harry Truman's campaign train to California in 1948.

During the socially conscious 1960s, more women were moved to become journalists, while anti-discrimination legislation helped to remove residual corporate barriers. In the mid-1970s, many young female journalists adopted the look and style of television's star news anchor Jessica Savitch.

While today's famous female journalists such as Barbara Walters, Katie Couric, Maria Shriver, Molly Moore and others undoubtedly owe their careers to their hard work, talent and perseverance, the pioneering efforts of the women war correspondents of World War II definitely helped to open doors which were closed years ago.

As May Craig noted, those female World War II correspondents, like pioneers in other fields, made the most of the opportunities they were given.

Related Sites:
The Library of Congress Web site, Women Come to the Front, at http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf

Related Articles:
Martha Gellhorn: War Reporter, D-Day Stowaway

Teacher 'pregnant with record-breaking TWELVE babies'

2009-08-19T17:07:00.000-07:00

By Michael Theodoulou and Fiona Macrae
Last updated at 10:36 AM on 18th August 2009
MailOnline World News

A teacher is pregnant with a record-breaking 12 babies, it has been claimed. The unnamed Tunisian woman, who is in her 30s, is reportedly expecting six boys and six girls. She is said to have turned to fertility treatment after suffering two miscarriages in two years.

But British fertility experts said that although it was possible to conceive 12 babies, such a pregnancy was fraught with risk. There was less than a one in 100 chance of even a single baby surviving, said one.

But the woman claims to be in good health.

‘All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love,’ she told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 250 miles south of the capital Tunis.

‘This is an absolute miracle, and we all feel blessed after struggling so hard to have children.’

Her husband, named only as Marwan, who teaches at the same school in Tunisia, told the Assabah newspaper: ‘In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered.

‘Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.’

But British experts said that a natural birth would be impossible and warned that the strain of carrying 12 babies could lead to labour at 20 weeks – just halfway through pregnancy.

It is unclear what stage the pregnancy is at, but ultrasound scans can work out a baby’s sex only after about 16 weeks, so it is likely she is already nearing the critical stage.

Peter Bowen-Simpkins, a fellow of Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: ‘It is certainly possible to carry 12 babies but not for long.

‘The problem is the capacity of the uterus.

‘This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour there is nothing you can do about it.

'The youngest that babies have survived is at 22 to 23 weeks. They need very intensive nursing and the majority have permanent neurological damage.

‘You’d need a very good intensive paediatric unit to cope with this. We couldn’t do it in this country, we don’t have a unit with 12 intensive care cots.

‘I don’t like to dampen her enthusiasm but the chances are she will deliver at 20 weeks.

'I wouldn’t even give her a one in 100 chance of even one surviving. It’s frightening.’

In California in January of this year, a single mother of six defied doctors’ predictions when she gave birth to another eight healthy babies.

The six boys and two girls were born to Nadya Suleman, dubbed Octomom, through IVF treatment.

Others have not been so lucky. A 23-year-old Greek Cypriot who became pregnant with a then record 11 babies in 1996 had to abort nine to save the lives of two. In the same year a British woman, Mandy Allwood, 32, became pregnant with octuplets after taking fertility drugs.

She ignored medical advice to abort some and lost all after they were born at just 22 weeks.

Fertility doctors say it is unlikely that an IVF doctor would have agreed to implant the Tunisian woman with 12 embryos.

Instead, the bumper pregnancy is likely to be the result of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries.

Read more here.

Living and Fighting Alongside Men, and Fitting In

2009-08-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: August 16, 2009
The New York Times

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, Iraq — There is no mistaking that this dusty, gravel-strewn camp northeast of Baghdad is anything other than a combat outpost in a still-hostile land. And there is no mistaking that women in uniform have had a transformative effect on it.

They have their own quarters, boxy trailers called CHUs (the military’s acronym for containerized housing units, pronounced “chews”).

There are women’s bathrooms and showers, alongside the men’s. Married couples live together. The base’s clinic treats gynecological problems and has, alongside the equipment needed to treat the trauma of modern warfare, an ultrasound machine.

Opponents of integrating women in combat zones long feared that sex would mean the end of American military prowess. But now birth control is available — the PX at Warhorse even sold out of condoms one day recently — reflecting a widely accepted reality that soldiers have sex at outposts across Iraq.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first in which tens of thousands of American military women have lived, worked and fought with men for prolonged periods. Wars without front lines, they have done more than just muddle the rules meant to keep women out of direct enemy contact.

They have changed the way the United States military goes to war. They have reshaped life on bases across Iraq and Afghanistan. They have cultivated a new generation of women with a warrior’s ethos — and combat experience — that for millennia was almost exclusively the preserve of men.

And they have done so without the disruption of discipline and unit cohesion that some feared would unfold at places like Warhorse.

“There was a lot of debate over where women should be,” said Brig. Gen. Heidi V. Brown, one of the two highest ranking women in Iraq today, recalling the start of the war. “Here we are six years later, and you don’t hear about it. You shouldn’t hear about it.”

In many ways, General Brown’s career trajectory since the war began reflects the expanded role for women at war.

In 2003, as a colonel, she commanded a Patriot air-defense brigade that joined the push from Kuwait to Baghdad, losing nine soldiers in a maintenance battalion outside Nasiriya three days after the invasion began. One of them, Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, was the first woman killed in action in Iraq; Pfc. Jessica D. Lynch was captured in the same attack. Now, as the American role in the war declines, General Brown will oversee the logistics of withdrawing the vast amounts of military hardware in Iraq over the next year.

“We’ve needed — needed — the contributions of both our men and women,” said Brig. Gen. Mary A. Legere, the director of intelligence for the American war effort here and the other highest ranking woman in Iraq.

The military, of course, is not gender blind, especially in a war zone.

Sexual harassment in a still-predominantly male institution remains a problem. So does sexual assault. Both are underreported, soldiers and officers here say, because the rigidity of the military chain of command can make accusations uncomfortable and even risky for victims living in close quarters with the men they accuse.

As a precaution, women are advised to travel in pairs, particularly in smaller bases populated with Iraqi troops and civilians. Capt. Margaret D. Taafe-McMenamy, commander of the intelligence analysis cell at Warhorse, carries a folding knife and a heavy, ridged flashlight — a Christmas gift from her husband, whom she lives with here — as a precaution when she is out at night on the base.

Staff Sgt. Patricia F. Bradford, 27, a psychological operations soldier, said that slights, subtle and not, were common, and some were easier to brush off than others. Women are still viewed derisively at times in the confined, occasionally tense space of an outpost like Warhorse.

“You’re a bitch, a slut or a dyke — or you’re married, but even if you’re married, you’re still probably one of the three,” Sergeant Bradford said.

At the same time, she and other female soldiers cope with the slights, showing a disarming brashness.

“I think being a staff sergeant — and a bitch — helps deflect those things,” she added.

The issues that arise in having women in combat — harassment, bias, hardship, even sexual relations — are, she and others said, a matter of discipline, maturity and professionalism rather than an argument for separating the sexes...(to read the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above.)

G.I. Jane Breaks the Combat Barrier as War Evolves

2009-08-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: August 15, 2009
The New York Times

As the convoy rumbled up the road in Iraq, Specialist Veronica Alfaro was struck by the beauty of fireflies dancing in the night. Then she heard the unmistakable pinging of tracer rounds and, in a Baghdad moment, realized the insects were illuminated bullets.

She jumped from behind the wheel of her gun truck, grabbed her medical bag and sprinted 50 yards to a stalled civilian truck. On the way, bullets kicked up dust near her feet. She pulled the badly wounded driver to the ground and got to work.

Despite her best efforts, the driver died, but her heroism that January night last year earned Specialist Alfaro a Bronze Star for valor. She had already received a combat action badge for fending off insurgents as a machine gunner.

“I did everything there,” Ms. Alfaro, 25, said of her time in Iraq. “I gunned. I drove. I ran as a truck commander. And underneath it all, I was a medic.”

Before 2001, America’s military women had rarely seen ground combat. Their jobs kept them mostly away from enemy lines, as military policy dictates.

But the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, often fought in marketplaces and alleyways, have changed that. In both countries, women have repeatedly proved their mettle in combat. The number of high-ranking women and women who command all-male units has climbed considerably along with their status in the military.

“Iraq has advanced the cause of full integration for women in the Army by leaps and bounds,” said Peter R. Mansoor, a retired Army colonel who served as executive officer to Gen. David H. Petraeus while he was the top American commander in Iraq. “They have earned the confidence and respect of male colleagues.”

Their success, widely known in the military, remains largely hidden from public view. In part, this is because their most challenging work is often the result of a quiet circumvention of military policy.

Women are barred from joining combat branches like the infantry, armor, Special Forces and most field artillery units and from doing support jobs while living with those smaller units. Women can lead some male troops into combat as officers, but they cannot serve with them in battle.

Yet, over and over, in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army commanders have resorted to bureaucratic trickery when they needed more soldiers for crucial jobs, like bomb disposal and intelligence. On paper, for instance, women have been “attached” to a combat unit rather than “assigned.”

This quiet change has not come seamlessly — and it has altered military culture on the battlefield in ways large and small. Women need separate bunks and bathrooms. They face sexual discrimination and rape, and counselors and rape kits are now common in war zones. Commanders also confront a new reality: that soldiers have sex, and some will be evacuated because they are pregnant.

Nonetheless, as soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, women have done nearly as much in battle as their male counterparts: patrolled streets with machine guns, served as gunners on vehicles, disposed of explosives, and driven trucks down bomb-ridden roads. They have proved indispensable in their ability to interact with and search Iraqi and Afghan women for weapons, a job men cannot do for cultural reasons. The Marine Corps has created revolving units — “lionesses” — dedicated to just this task.

A small number of women have even conducted raids, engaging the enemy directly in total disregard of existing policies.

Many experts, including David W. Barno, a retired lieutenant general who commanded forces in Afghanistan; Dr. Mansoor, who now teaches military history at Ohio State University; and John A. Nagl, a retired lieutenant colonel who helped write the Army’s new counterinsurgency field manual, say it is only a matter of time before regulations that have restricted women’s participation in war will be adjusted to meet the reality forged over the last eight years.

The Marine Corps, which is overwhelmingly male and designed for combat, recently opened two more categories of intelligence jobs to women, recognizing the value of their work in Iraq and Afghanistan. In gradually admitting women to combat, the United States will be catching up to the rest of the world. More than a dozen countries allow women in some or all ground combat occupations. Among those pushing boundaries most aggressively is Canada, which has recruited women for the infantry and sent them to Afghanistan.

But the United States military may well be steps ahead of Congress, where opening ground combat jobs to women has met deep resistance in the past.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a group that opposes fully integrating women into the Army, said women were doing these jobs with no debate and no Congressional approval...(to read the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above.)

Women at Risk

2009-08-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

By BOB HERBERT
Published: August 7, 2009
The New York Times

“I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me,” wrote George Sodini in a blog that he kept while preparing for this week’s shooting in a Pennsylvania gym in which he killed three women, wounded nine others and then killed himself.

We’ve seen this tragic ritual so often that it has the feel of a formula. A guy is filled with a seething rage toward women and has easy access to guns. The result: mass slaughter.

Back in the fall of 2006, a fiend invaded an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, separated the girls from the boys, and then shot 10 of the girls, killing five.

I wrote, at the time, that there would have been thunderous outrage if someone had separated potential victims by race or religion and then shot, say, only the blacks, or only the whites, or only the Jews. But if you shoot only the girls or only the women — not so much of an uproar.

According to police accounts, Sodini walked into a dance-aerobics class of about 30 women who were being led by a pregnant instructor. He turned out the lights and opened fire. The instructor was among the wounded.

We have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that the barbaric treatment of women and girls has come to be more or less expected.

We profess to being shocked at one or another of these outlandish crimes, but the shock wears off quickly in an environment in which the rape, murder and humiliation of females is not only a staple of the news, but an important cornerstone of the nation’s entertainment.

The mainstream culture is filled with the most gruesome forms of misogyny, and pornography is now a multibillion-dollar industry — much of it controlled by mainstream U.S. corporations.

One of the striking things about mass killings in the U.S. is how consistently we find that the killers were riddled with shame and sexual humiliation, which they inevitably blamed on women and girls. The answer to their feelings of inadequacy was to get their hands on a gun (or guns) and begin blowing people away.

What was unusual about Sodini was how explicit he was in his blog about his personal shame and his hatred of women. “Why do this?” he asked. “To young girls? Just read below.” In his gruesome, monthslong rant, he managed to say, among other things: “It seems many teenage girls have sex frequently. One 16 year old does it usually three times a day with her boyfriend. So, err, after a month of that, this little [expletive] has had more sex than ME in my LIFE, and I am 48. One more reason.”

I was reminded of the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people in a rampage at the university in 2007. While Cho shot males as well as females, he was reported to have previously stalked female classmates and to have leaned under tables to take inappropriate photos of women. A former roommate said Cho once claimed to have seen “promiscuity” when he looked into the eyes of a woman on campus.

Soon after the Virginia Tech slayings, I interviewed Dr. James Gilligan, who spent many years studying violence as a prison psychiatrist in Massachusetts and as a professor at Harvard and N.Y.U. “What I’ve concluded from decades of working with murderers and rapists and every kind of violent criminal,” he said, “is that an underlying factor that is virtually always present to one degree or another is a feeling that one has to prove one’s manhood, and that the way to do that, to gain the respect that has been lost, is to commit a violent act.”

Life in the United States is mind-bogglingly violent. But we should take particular notice of the staggering amounts of violence brought down on the nation’s women and girls each and every day for no other reason than who they are. They are attacked because they are female.

A girl or woman somewhere in the U.S. is sexually assaulted every couple of minutes or so. The number of seriously battered wives and girlfriends is far beyond the ability of any agency to count.

There were so many sexual attacks against women in the armed forces that the Defense Department had to revise its entire approach to the problem.

We would become much more sane, much healthier, as a society if we could bring ourselves to acknowledge that misogyny is a serious and pervasive problem, and that the twisted way so many men feel about women, combined with the absurdly easy availability of guns, is a toxic mix of the most tragic proportions.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 8, 2009, on page A19 of the New York edition.

Sotomayor Confirmed by Senate, 68-31

2009-08-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

Sonya Sotomayor arrived at her home in Manhattan’s West Village on Thursday, after she was confirmed to the Supreme Court.

By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: August 6, 2009
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Voting largely along party lines, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court. She will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was expected to administer the oath of office to Judge Sotomayor, 55, in the next few days, with a formal ceremony likely in September. She succeeds Justice David H. Souter, who retired in June.

Democrats celebrated the successful nomination and relatively smooth confirmation process as a bright spot in a summer when they have been buffeted by several challenges, including rocky progress on their attempts to overhaul the nation’s health care system, President Obama’s falling approval ratings, the climbing unemployment rate and other lingering economic problems.

Shortly after the vote, President Obama said he was "deeply gratified" and confident that Judge Sotomayor would become an outstanding justice. The ideals of "justice, equality, opportunity" that guide the high court are the very ones that made the judge’s "uniquely American story" possible in the first place, the president said...(to read the rest of this story, please click on the link in the title above.)

Euna Lee and Laura Ling Pardoned!

2009-08-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Care2 Causes
Posted by: Rebecca Young
August 5, 2009

I am so happy to be writing this post. The news has just broken - former President Bill Clinton's mission to North Korea was a success, and U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been pardoned by North Korean officials. Euna Lee and Laura Ling will be coming home.

According to the BBC News, the official North Korean News Agency (KCNA) issued a statement saying,"Kim Jong-il issued an order... granting a special pardon to the two American journalists who had been sentenced to hard labour." ABC News is reporting the journalists may board a plane for home as early as tonight.

Thank you to the tens of thousands of Care2 members around the world who signed petitions calling for Euna and Laura's release. Thank you to the tireless volunteers who never let the world forget that these two courageous women have been imprisoned in North Korea since March 17th of this year, simply for doing their jobs as journalists reporting on the issue of human trafficking along the North Korea - China border.

Leave your comments - we'll share all with the volunteers in touch with the families of Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

UPDATE: Read a statement from the families at http://www.lauraandeuna.com/

UPDATE: Sign the online thank you card to President Bill Clinton!

N. Korea says 2 U.S. journalists will be freed

2009-08-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

Announcement of pardon comes after Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong Il

msnbc.com news services
updated less than 1 minute ago

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has pardoned two jailed American journalists and ordered their release following an unannounced meeting with former President Bill Clinton, the North's state media said early Wednesday.

The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peace-loving policy," the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Clinton, who arrived in North Korea Tuesday on a surprise visit, met with the reclusive and ailing Kim — the North Korean leader's first meeting with a prominent Western figure since his reported stroke nearly a year ago.

Pyongyang accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in "hostile acts." The nation's top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor after their conviction.

Clinton's landmark visit, which was not announced in advance by North Korea or the U.S., comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, foes during the Korean War of the 1950s, over the regime's nuclear program.

North Korea in recent months has conducted a nuclear test and test-fired an array of ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with Washington leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its defiance.

It's only the second visit to Pyongyang by a former U.S. leader. Jimmy Carter traveled to North Korea for talks with Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994 in a groundbreaking meeting during a time of similar tensions.

Though Clinton was in North Korea on a private basis, his visit was treated by North Korea as a high-profile visit, with senior officials — including Kim Kye Gwan, the vice foreign minister who serves as the country's chief nuclear negotiator — meeting him on the tarmac.

Handshakes and flowers

Footage from the APTN television news agency showed the arriving Clinton exchanging warm handshakes with the officials and accepting a bouquet of flowers from a schoolgirl.

Kim later hosted a banquet for Clinton at the state guesthouse, Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported.

"This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the U.S. and North Korea," Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis," said in Beijing.

Lee, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is married and has a 4-year-old daughter in Los Angeles; a native Californian, Ling is the married younger sister of TV journalist Lisa Ling.

The decision to send the former president was kept quiet. The White House said it would not comment on the trip until the mission was complete.

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was encouraged by reports about Clinton's trip.

"This is welcome news and we are pleased to see movement in this case," said Bob Dietz, the group's Asia program coordinator. "The fate of these two women should not be linked to broader issues on the Korean peninsula, and to see both sides make a move toward the release of these reporters will bring some relief to them, their families and friends."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Euna Lee–Still a Mom In Captivity

2009-07-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

By Mallika Chopra
July 22, 2009

I wanted to share a story about Euna Lee, who along with Laura Ling, has been held in N. Korea for four months. As a mother, the story has been haunting me since I heard it. It haunts me because I can totally relate to Euna’s actions.

Several weeks ago, we had Euna’s husband, Michael, over for dinner. I have never met Euna, and it was the first time I met Michael. Because of my brother’s close friendship with Laura Ling, it seemed natural to connect with Euna’s family, as well.

Michael is wonderful – vivacious, smart, funny. It was the first day, since this ordeal started, that he had left their four-year old daughter, Hana. She was spending a night with his father. It was also the first time– at that time, the girls had been in captivity for about three months – that he was alone and could process his feelings. As other parents will relate, we often put aside our own emotions to focus on our children’s emotions.

Michael chuckled as he told us about an urgent message he had received from Euna.

Euna had asked her guards if she could pass her message onto the Swedish Ambassador, who has been the girls only source of contact and information. (The Swedish ambassador has met Laura and Euna - separately - only four times in their four months of captivity. The girls are not being held together.)

She was granted permission by the N. Korean officials.

The Swedish Ambassador then passed on the message to the US State Department, who then contacted Michael.

Euna wanted to make sure that Michael had sent in the registration form for Hana for summer school. Euna had chosen the Korean immersion school for her daughter, but was scared her husband would forget to send in the form!

Hearing this story brought tears to my eyes. Sitting in captivity half way around the world, a mom is still a mom. Coordinating schedules, thinking about what’s best for your child, and worrying that your husband will forget something!

As a fellow mom, I am asking all the moms out there to pass on this story and take action by signing this online petition. The US government, through Hillary Clinton, has formally asked for amnesty and it is important we show public support. You can learn more about Laura and Euna at www.lauraandeuna.com.

In two weeks, Michael and Hana are joining my family for a trip to Disneyland to celebrate my daughter’s fifth birthday. Secretly, I am hoping they don’t show up. I am praying that instead Hana will be cuddling and reuniting with her mom.

What can you do to help?

•Please Sign the Petition asking for Amnesty for Laura Ling and Euna Lee

•Follow ‘FreeLauraEuna‘ on Twitter

•Join the Laura and Euna Group on Facebook

•Visit www.lauraandeuna.com

North Korea may spare US journalists from hard labor

2009-07-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

But the two women sentenced to 12 years in prison still face awful conditions. Their whereabouts since last week remain unknown.

By Donald Kirk | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the June 11, 2009 edition

Whenever the two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea go home, analysts doubt they'll emerge with tales from inside the sprawling gulag where 200,000 North Koreans are thought to be confined.

Those who have attempted to glean insights into North Korea's draconian prison system believe that Laura Ling and Euna Lee – each sentenced Monday to 12 years of "hard labor" – will serve in a conventional jail or a facility run by the national security agency.

"North Korea has four or five different kinds of correctional facilities," says Won Ki Choi, a longtime analyst of North Korean affairs, now based in Washington. A concentration camp – a gulag – is the last possibility."

Mr. Choi cites contacts inside North Korea saying that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were being held in a "guest house" operated by the North's security agency after soldiers picked them up on March 17 on the Tumen River border with China.

Reporting on human rights

The women had been filming a documentary for Current TV, the Internet cable network of which former US vice president Al Gore is chairman.

North Korean authorities accused them of committing "hostile acts" and entering the country illegally, but it's unclear whether they had crossed the river or were standing on the ice in the middle.

They had been reporting on North Korean human rights abuses, a topic that upsets North Korean officials. They were focusing on North Korean women who flee to China.

It is still not clear if North Korean authorities picked up the film they had already shot. The producer and cameraman on the project, Mitch Koss, escaped. He has not revealed publicly what he saw or whether he got away with his equipment and videotape.

Nor is there any indication from North Korea of what has happened to the women since their trial opened June 4.

"North Korea thinks these journalists are very valuable," Choi says. "Maybe they go from their four- or five-star state guest house to a one-star facility. Otherwise, when they get out they will give a big news conference and say how badly they were treated. North Korea is not that foolish."

No hard labor, but 'awful' conditions

Analysts agree North Korea is not likely to subject the women to the horrors of life in a gulag, despite the allusion to "hard labor" in the brief announcement carried by Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.

Still, they believe Lee and Ling face a terrible existence while remaining in the North as pawns in a worsening confrontation between North Korea and the US.

"North Korean prisons are called labor reform institutes," says Kim Sang Hun, who has been aiding North Korea refugees ever since retiring from the UN World Food Program 15 years ago. "They will not be held with ordinary North Korean prisoners but in separate facilities. They know some day they will be released."

Still, Mr. Kim continues, life in a North Korean prison "will be awful."

Lee and Ling "will have no beatings and no hard work," he says, "but they will get very little food and will be very hungry."

He believes they will remain "in solitary cells," unable to communicate with one another and only rarely visited by a diplomat from the Swedish embassy, which represents US interests in Pyongyang.

Ling's sister did secret film in North

It will be "out of the question" for family members to see them, Kim continues. One reason may be that, several years ago Ling's older sister, Lisa Ling, posing as a member of a medical team, did a National Geographic documentary with a hidden camera. The film provided devastating insights into life in the North and the level of thought control imposed by the regime. [Editor's note: The original version misidentified Laura Ling's sister.]

On the basis of interviews with numerous defectors, Kim says prisoners are poorly clothed and typically suffer from extreme heat in the summer and terrible cold in the winter; their diets consist of small portions of rice or wheat.

Asylum for Battered Women

2009-07-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Editorial
Asylum for Battered Women
Published: July 18, 2009
The New York Times

For nearly 15 years, the United States government has been trying to decide whether it can grant asylum to women who are victims of severe physical or sexual abuse. The question is not the fact of persecution, but whether the women would qualify for protection under the law, which limits asylum to those who suffer due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or “membership in a particular social group.”

Does a battered woman belong to a “particular social group”? The legal record is muddled. Decisions from attorneys general under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have gone both ways and in circles.

Now, though, the Obama administration has laid what Julia Preston described in The Times last week as a clear but narrow pathway to asylum for battered women. Not all victims will qualify, but the administration made it clear that some could. A petitioner would have to demonstrate to a judge that domestic violence was widely tolerated by society and government in her country, that women were viewed as subordinate to men and that she had no place within its borders to find a safe haven.

That definition could well apply, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security said, to the Mexican woman whose asylum petition is before an immigration court in San Francisco. The woman, identified in court papers as L. R., was imprisoned, beaten, repeatedly raped and impregnated by a man who stole from her and tried to burn her alive by setting her bed afire.

The department did not immediately recommend asylum for L. R. But it did urge that she be allowed to continue to gather evidence and to refine her case according to the standards it proposed. Advocates who have fought for years to advance women’s rights are celebrating the department’s action, which brings reasoned compassion, and an overdue dose of clarity, to an issue of anguish and difficulty.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 19, 2009, on page WK9 of the New York edition.

First Lady Steps Into Policy Spotlight in Debate on Health Care

2009-07-19T14:17:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama announced the release of $851 million in stimulus money for health centers last month at a Washington clinic.

By RACHEL L. SWARNS
Published: July 18, 2009
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — She has become one of the Obama administration’s most visible surrogates on health care, announcing the release of $851 million in federal financing for health clinics, calling for tougher nutritional standards in the government’s school lunch program and urging Democrats to rally around the president’s efforts to revamp health care.

The high-profile emissary? Not Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, or Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House health policy adviser. It is the first lady, Michelle Obama.

“We’re at a critical juncture in the debate about health care in this country,” Mrs. Obama said at a clinic here in June. “The current system is economically unsustainable, and I don’t have to tell any of you that. And despite having the most expensive health care system in the world, we’re not necessarily healthier for it.”

After several months of focusing on her family, her garden and inspiring young people, Mrs. Obama is stepping into more wonkish terrain. She is toughening her message and talking more openly about influencing public policy as she works to integrate her efforts more closely with those of policy makers in the West Wing.

In June, Mrs. Obama traveled to San Francisco with Melody C. Barnes, the president’s domestic policy adviser, for the start of the administration’s initiative to promote volunteerism.

A week later, she went to a Washington clinic with the director of the Health Resources and Services Administration to announce the release of stimulus money for clinics. This month, her policy director joined a new interagency working group, including health, agriculture and housing officials, that will develop policy, legislation and public outreach to combat obesity.

While her efforts are most visible in the health care arena, Mrs. Obama is also focusing on other issues.

In May, she convened a meeting — with James L. Jones, the president’s national security adviser; Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Peter R. Orszag, the White House budget chief, among others — to consider new policies and programs to help military families. Her staff is also working with nonprofit, corporate and philanthropic groups to help rally resources to support such families.

Mrs. Obama’s aides say the substantive speeches and increased coordination with the West Wing reflect the first lady’s determination to have an impact on the issues she cares about.

“The listening portion of this is over,” said Camille Johnston, her communications director. “Let’s make sure that we’re having an impact and delivering things as well.”

But Mrs. Obama, a Harvard-educated lawyer and former hospital executive, is still treading cautiously as she fleshes out her priorities: promoting healthy living and community service and supporting military and working families.

Susan Sher, the first lady’s new chief of staff, emphasized that Mrs. Obama would not testify before Congress or argue the merits of competing health care plans. Indeed, the first lady did not stand alongside her husband in the White House last week when he praised the Senate health committee for approving an overhaul of the health care system.

Mrs. Obama has chosen instead to deliver her recent remarks in more traditional settings for a first lady — at a clinic, a playground and in the White House garden. Her aides say she will promote policy, not make it, and will continue to concentrate on children and families. They say they do not expect her to be accused of overstepping her bounds as Hillary Rodham Clinton was when she tried to remake health care as the first lady.

Jocelyn Frye, Mrs. Obama’s policy director, said the first lady wanted to “draw the connection between this massive conversation that’s happening about health reform and what’s really happening to people on the ground.”

Mrs. Obama’s advisers say this is a natural progression. After settling her family into the White House, the first lady could more easily turn to the garden and then a discussion of obesity, the importance of preventive care and corresponding government policies and legislation, they say.

The shift also coincides with Mrs. Obama’s decision in June to choose Ms. Sher, her longtime friend, to replace Jackie Norris as her chief of staff. At the time of that announcement, Ms. Sher, who was Mrs. Obama’s boss at the University of Chicago Medical Center, was working on health care issues as an associate counsel to the president.

Since then, as her husband has worked on health care, Mrs. Obama has peppered her speeches with statistics and references to health-related legislation, like the coming reauthorization of child nutrition programs.

She has repeatedly cited the costs of preventable illnesses like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure to the nation’s health care system ($120 billion a year, she says) and the impact of poor diet on children. (“Nearly a third of the children in this country are either overweight or obese, and a third will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lifetime,” she said. “Those numbers are unacceptable.”)

She sent out a mass e-mail message to Democrats across the country, urging them to volunteer to improve health care services and “to make a difference as we work to reform America’s health care system.”

And while she has often focused on motherhood, gardening and other domestic subjects in interviews, she took on a thorny policy issue last month: the prospects for a health care overhaul in an Obama administration.

“There are going to be tough choices that have to be made,” Mrs. Obama said on the ABC program “Good Morning America,” emphasizing that “no system is going to be perfect.”

Still, Mrs. Obama said she believed that the president would succeed where the Clintons did not. The country “has moved to another point in time,” she said. “More and more people are ready for this kind of reform.”

A version of this article appeared in print on July 19, 2009, on page A18 of the New York edition.

Kansas Girl, 7, Makes Art for Charity, Builds Orphanages With Her Profits

2009-07-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

Isabelle Redford Sells Her Artwork Through the Global Orphan Project

By ALICE MAGGIN
July 10, 2009

Seven-year-old Isabelle Redford is a long way from grown up, but her art is more than just kid stuff.

"I kind of always drawed because I loved to draw as I grew up," Isabelle said. "And I just was an artist."

Her drawings are good enough to earn some real money but she isn't spending it on toys or candy.

"I like to draw cards because I can raise money to help the orphans and help them have a home to live in," Isabelle said.

Helping orphans has become Isabelle's cause. It started two years ago when she was five. Her mom, Kelly Redford of Parsons, Kan., told her a story about twin girls in Haiti whose mother died during childbirth.

"She immediately looked at me and said, 'What can we do, we have to help,'" her mother said.

Dangerous Resentment

2009-07-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

July 9, 2009, 9:00 pm
The New York Times
"Domestic Disturbances"

Two years ago in June, Bridget Kevane, a professor of Latin American and Latino literature at Montana State University, drove her three kids and two of their friends — two 12-year-old girls, and three younger kids, age 8, 7 and 3 — to a mall near their home in Bozeman. She put the 12-year-olds in charge, and told them not to leave the younger kids alone. She ordered that the 3-year-old remain in her stroller. She told them to call her on their cell phone if they needed her.

And then she drove home for some rest.

About an hour later, she was summoned back to the mall by the police, who charged her with endangering the welfare of her children.

“Be quiet,” she was told, as she scrambled to explain herself, and a policeman threatened, as Kevane describes it in the current issue of Brain, Child: The Magazine for Thinking Mothers, “that if I ‘went crazy’ on him, he would handcuff me right in front of the children and take me away to jail for the night.”

The children were fine — “smiling, eating candy” — or were, at least, until the police decided to make an example of their mom...(click on the link in the title above to read the rest of this intriguing article.)

Sob Sisters - Heart Wrenching Journalism

2009-06-10T13:01:00.000-07:00

By Lindsey Williams

Sob Sisters

Newspaper publishers were early converts to the feminist movement inasmuch as lady journalists were good with words and related easily to pathos which boosted circulation.

The first sob sister was Elizabeth Cochran. In 1884 she responded to an article titled, “What Girls Are Good For” published in a Pittsburgh newspaper. The article expressed the usual male sentiments of that day – not any too flattering to aspiring womanhood.

The next day, Editor George Madden received a stinging – but well written – rebuttal from Miss Cochran. He was impressed and asked her to do an article on girls and their purpose in life.

Elizabeth wrote the article right away and was invited to drop around for a visit. Madden hired her as a reporter at $5 per week, a handsome sum for a woman in Victorian America.

Miss Cochran was an imaginative and persuasive writer. She was the prototype of all women reporters who came to known in the newspaper business as “sob sisters.”

As was the fashion in those days, Elizabeth chose a penname for her byline.

The famous French authoress Amadine Luci used the male pseudonym of “George Sand” to gain acceptance. Elizabeth determined to use a feminine name. She chose “Nellie Bly” from a Stephen Foster song.

Right away, people began to ask questions about Nellie Bly. “Is the writer really a woman? Who ever heard of a woman reporter? Good grief! What next?”

Nellie had a “nose for news.” Sympathetic to problems of the poor, she went into the slums to find stories. She was a genius at wringing tears from her readers over the plight of the unfortunate. The result was a half-admiring, half derisive description for her special type of journalism.

After establishing a reputation, Nellie headed for New York City. It was then the era of newspaper publishing giants such a Horace Greeley, Charles Dana and Joseph Pulitzer.

The “World” was Pulitzers flagship. It was setting the pace for dynamic journalism. Nellie went there to seek a job.

“Name one idea the World might possibly be interested in,” challenged Pulitzer.

She replied, “I want to pretend I’m insane and get myself committed to the asylum on Blackwell’s Island and live there as an inmate. I have always wanted to find out how the insane poor are really treated and to tell the story.

This was the kind of thing Pulitzer couldn’t resist. He gave her $25 for expenses and told her to go ahead.

Nellie convinced a policeman, a judge and a succession of doctors that she had gone mad. They locked her up!

Ten days later she came out with a sensational story: “Behind Asylum Bars.” It launched a major reform of institutional care. Nellie Bly became Pulitzer’s star reporter and was given free rein as a crusader.

* * *

The story that fired the imagination of the world and made Nellie a celebrity, was her pioneer, record-breaking trip around the world in 1889. Jules Verne had stirred public interest with his fictional “Around The World In Eighty Days.”

Nellie set out to better this imaginary race against time. She left New York City on Nov. 14, 1889, and completed her trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds. She filed long telegrams to Pulitzer at every stop.

Readers of the World were invited to guess the time it would take Nellie to complete the trip. More than a million people entered the contest.

Songwriter Joe Hart, the most popular composer of his day, wrote “Globe Trotting Nellie Bly” about her. A board game was created that traced her journey.

Everyone was asking: “What next for Nellie Bly?”

There were not any more trips, but she augmented her salary as a lecturer and syndicated columnist. Her income for the next several years averaged $25,000 – a substantial sum in those days of no radio, TV, movies, income taxes or inflation.

Nellie retired from journalism when she married Robert Seaman in 1895. After his death ten years later she took over his failing factories and restored them to profitability.

She ran her plants in enlightened fashion – establishing physical-fitness gymnasiums, bowling alleys, health care nurses, teachers and libraries for her employees. While vacationing in Europe at the start of the first World War she was trapped behind the Eastern Front. Whereupon, she filed war stories to various newspapers. She died in 1922.

Vera Brown

Every newspaper, of course, then had to have its own sob sister, Usually she was one of the best paid reporters and adopted colorful manners that went with notoriety.

The last of the old-time sob sisters was Vera Brown who wrote a front-page column “Our Times”of human interest stories for Randolph Hearst’s “Detroit Times.” She began her career by taking flying lessons and reporting her progress. She went on to other things after crashing her plane into the Detroit River during her solo flight.

Vera had a heart as big as all outdoors which she attempted to disguise by a steady stream of epithets which made stevedores blush.

As a Navy Yeoman press liaison at Detroit, Mich., in the early years of World War II, I helped arrange a fly- in by movie star Cary Grant on a new B-28 bomber. The event was a benefit for the Army-Navy Relief Fund. Vera Brown covered the story for the Times.

The plane was late and Vera demanded of the general in charge, “When is that g-d d-m bomber going to get here?”

The general was taken aback and related the remark to Vera’s editor. The editor, accustomed to his sob sister’s blue language, teased Vera about offending a general.

Vera, then a gray-haired grandmotherly type, had removed her dress to type her story --as was her custom on warm days before air conditioning. She never took off her hat, and always had a cigarette dangling from her lips.

Indignantly she rose to her feet, straightened her slip and shouted to the crowded newsroom, “I did NOT say g-d d-m bomber. What I SAID was, g-d d-m B-26.

Having defended her professional accuracy, Vera sat down, lighted a new cigarette and turned out a masterpiece of needs by the widows and orphans of our service men.

After the war, I worked for awhile as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Our “sob sister” was a guy. Jimmy Pooler -- a superb wordsmith I tried to emulate -- who penned a daily, front-page column “Sunny Side.”

Today, sob sisters like Nellie, and Vera, and Jimmy have been liberated to the “beats” and editors’ chairs. Too bad. A lot of sensitivity and soul has gone out of newspapering.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at:

LinWms@earthlink.net

LinWms@lindseywilliams.org

Website: http://www.lindseywilliams.org with several hundred of Lin's Editorial & At Large articles written over 40 years.

Also featured in its entirety is Lin's groundbreaking book "Boldly Onward," that critically analyzes and develops theories about the original Spanish explorers of America. (fully indexed/searchable)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lindsey_Williams

Sotomayor, a Trailblazer and a Dreamer

2009-05-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Woman in the News
Published: May 26, 2009
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — She was “a child with dreams,” as she once said, the little girl who learned at 8 that she had diabetes, who lost her father when she was 9, who devoured Nancy Drew books and spent Saturday nights playing bingo, marking the cards with chickpeas, in the squat red brick housing projects of the East Bronx...(to read the rest of this story, please click on the link in the title above.)

Equal Pay for Women Denied, Again

2009-05-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Editorial
May 21, 2009
The New York Times

The Supreme Court keeps finding ways to deny women equal pay and benefits.

In 2007, it denied a woman’s claim for equal pay because it thought she waited too long to file it. On Monday, the court sided against female retirees who get smaller pensions than their male colleagues because they got pregnant and took maternity leaves before Congress got around to outlawing discrimination on that basis...(to read the rest of this story, please click on the link in the title above.)

10 Women Changing Hyperlocal Journalism Today

2009-05-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

April 14th, 2009 by Tish

Too often, hyperlocal journalism is portrayed in the mainstream media as the province of men who go into it with the intention of finding the Next Corporate Business Model for Journalism . Not so. There are many women who are making this hyperlocal journalism thing work--and work well.

They do the reporting, the "back end" chores, the ad selling, the revenue-producing, and community building. It's not just about creating the new sustainable business model for the whole of journalism--but about keeping their communities informed. When it comes to news, isn't that the most important thing? Here's a list of ten great women who are making hyperlocal journalism happen:

1. Debra Gallant & Liz George of Baristanet who took a simple Wordpress blog and built it out into a highly successful (yes, moneymaking) hyperlocal site covering Bloomfielded, NJ and surrounding suburbs.

2. Lise LePage founder of iBrattleboro Along w/partner Chris Grotke, Lise works on back end, community building, and article writing for a site that has become a go-to for news in Brattleboro, VT.

3. Maureen Mann, former managing editor of The Forum (Deerfield, NH) What happens when the place you live has absolutely no news coverage? Maureen and several other "citizens" got together and created this hyperlocal site. There are a number of women on the staff as well as Maureen who keep the folks off Deerfield and the surrounding areas informed.

4. Ruby Sinreich of Orange Politics At the hyperlocal panel at BlogWorld Expo, Ruby made a point that sometimes you don't do hyperlocal for the money but for the influence. OP has a major influence not just on bloggers but on the politics of Chapel Hill, NC. Oh, and she also works on the "back end" maintaining this Drupal-based site.

5. Heather Brandon of Urban Compass I met Heather close to 5 years ago now, when she was keeping Urban Compass, a blog about Springfield, MA for the Springfield Republican's Masslive.com site. Since then, she's taken this important hyperlocal blog out from under the auspices of the msm, and has also moved to Hartford, CT--where she now blogs on both Springfiled, MA and Hartford, CT.

She's had some of the best coverage on the flap at the Hartford Courant over incivility in their forums...and the criminal charges against the Mayor of Hartford (who was the most vocal critic of the Courant's forums, including a protest on the steps of the paper. such drama!) Oh, and Heather also does the artwork and "back end" of her site as well.

6. Christine Stuart of CT NewsJunkie The place to go for the scoop on the Connecticut political scene. Christine has also done some work for Fox 61, the Hartford Fox affiliate.

7. Gena Haskett of Out on the Stoop Since 2004, Genia has kept this modest blog filled with thoughtful commentary on the political scene, being a woman, and life in Los Angeles. Witty, wise, smart and down to earth.

8. Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog This is the little blog that really, really could! In a (relatively) short period of time, Tracy's built this site into something really special (and money-making) Oh, and she's also great at using Twitter.

9. Borges of KickTime and companion wiki Kickapedia
Kicktime is a huge hyperlocal site serving the Kickapoo Valley, Wisconsin. It's companion site Kickapedia, provides a listing of local businesses, farms, etc. Borges is also the site admin, who's in charge of the "back end"

10. And, last but not least, my compadre Lisa Williams, founder of Placeblogger.com and H2otown What can I say about Lisa that I haven't already said? When it comes to Placeblogger, Lisa and I are out there with the Big Boys of aggregation, probably the only women doing hyperlocal aggregation, that's for sure.

I know that there are a whole lot more women, and a great bunch of guys challenging the status quo, that I could add to this list, all over the country, who are making hyperlocal journalism happen for their communitie--and may do so in another post. In the meantime, if you know of other women who are making hyperlocal happen, please add them to the Placeblogger site or tell us about them in the comment.

Note: This post originally appeared on Tish's blog "The Constant Observer" for Ada Lovelace Day, and has also been posted at Silicon Alley Insider.

Susan Boyle Uniquely Herself: No Extreme Makeover Necessary

2009-05-07T17:46:00.000-07:00

By Lisa Bennett, Communications Director
April 24, 2009
National Organization for Women Foundation

Susan Boyle became an Internet sensation and media darling with her triumphant singing performance April 10 on the television show "Britain's Got Talent." Various clips of Boyle online have now received more than 100 million views, according to viral video tracking firm Visible Measures.

What catapulted Boyle past other singing competition contestants? In addition to her undeniable talent, it was the low expectations of a society that places great value on physical appearance, to the point of prejudging what might be inside. Boyle is 47 years old and not considered attractive or chic by our culture's standards. It's clear that the producers of "Britain's Got Talent" knew that the audience and judges would take one look at Boyle and laugh. The audience did not disappoint, and judge Simon Cowell even rolled his eyes upon learning her age.

Forget for a moment the question of why people would assume that a "frumpy" looking person could not be a talented singer. Boyle quickly put any doubts to rest when she began to sing beautifully. She taught the audience and the judges an old lesson, one that any five-year-old should already know: "Don't judge a book by it's cover."

So, what happens next? The media debate over whether or not Boyle should be made over, of course. Surrounded as we are by images of glamorous celebrities and airbrushed models, most of us can't help but imagine reshaping Boyle into a cookie cutter idea of femininity.

Fashion writer Robin Givhan even suggested in the Washington Post that Boyle herself really doesn't have any say in the matter:

Should Boyle have a makeover?

The politically correct answer: Only if she wants one.

The honest answer: Yes.

Now that Boyle has become famous -- and her fame portends a financial windfall for someone, if not her -- the decision is no longer merely a reflection of her desires. Indeed, the wrong decision has the capacity to unravel the centuries-long tradition of fairy tales.

Ok, if Boyle wants to polish her appearance, that's fine (and it looks like she may have made a few modest changes, judging from recent photos). But Givhan seems to be saying that, whether she likes it or not, now that Boyle stands to make a fortune for some music bigwigs, she must submit to the makeover machine. This is cynical to the extreme.

As cynical as she may be, Givhan apparently has a weakness for fairy tales, and she insists that they be validated in reality. "Transformation is always part of a good story" she says, adding "[t]he tale of Susan Boyle will not be complete until the shy spinster blossoms . . . let Boyle's fairy godmother finish her work."

So, the blossoming of a woman's singing talent is not a good enough story in and of itself? She must become a swan on the outside for the entertainment world to be truly happy? This notion is terribly sad, and it sends absolutely the wrong message to girls and women of all ages.

Fortunately, in an online Washington Post discussion that followed the publication of Givhan's article, the large majority of commenters disagreed with the writer. Most of them understood that the impression Boyle made was due in large part to her apparent comfortableness with and confidence in herself just the way she was -- and shouldn't that be good enough?

The NOW Foundation began its Love Your Body campaign more than 10 years ago to stand up to attitudes like those expressed by Givhan -- attitudes guaranteeing that yet another audience will snicker at yet another "ugly duckling" in the future.

The Love Your Body campaign identifies and challenges our culture's sometimes dangerously narrow beauty standards, offering reassurance to girls and women as they struggle under enormous pressure from the "looks police" who pervade our advertising and media industry. And, best of all, it encourages us all to embrace and love ourselves, regardless of how well we measure up to modelesque ideals.

In fact, Susan Boyle's triumph exemplifies the message of this year's Love Your Body poster contest winner: "Be You(tiful). Beauty. True You."

Read more about the Love Your Body campaign.

After 341 Years, a Woman Is British Poet Laureate

2009-05-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

By SARAH LYALL
Published: May 1, 2009
The New York Times

LONDON — Carol Ann Duffy was named poet laureate of Britain on Friday, the first time in its 341-year history that the post — held by such poets as Dryden, Tennyson, Wordsworth and Ted Hughes — has gone to a woman...(for the rest of this article, click on the link in the title above.)

Islam, Virgins and Grapes

2009-04-23T12:29:00.000-07:00

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Op-Ed Columnist for The New York Times
Published: April 22, 2009

In Afghanistan, 300 brave women marched to demand a measure of equal rights, defying a furious mob of about 1,000 people who spat, threw stones and called the women “whores.” The marchers asserted that a woman should not need her husband’s consent to go to school or work outside the home...(to read the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above.)

Forex Trading - Genderless Paradise For Women Traders

2009-04-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

By Danielle Franklin

Despite the increasing numbers of women in business, journalism, news and politics the world is still possessed by male dominance. The unfair discrimination against women employees and applicants still exist and socially you can still hear how sexual differences are used to justify different roles for male and female. This made me think - can women in online forex trading finally enjoy faceless and sexless identity and earn just as much as male traders do?

The answer is shockingly simple - women forex traders are just as good as men forex traders (if not even better!). Apart from living significantly longer, getting away from troubles using flirting and almost zero probability of becoming the next most-wanted serial killer, women are very good in multitasking and intuition.

In forex trading your success depends on the intuition. It plays a major part in making a decision when to trade, how much to risk and whether it is worth it. Intuition is given to humans by nature but it is a known fact that women tend to be more accurate in using this "six sense". It is basically impossible to make any kind of successful business decision without intuition and the ability to use it right comes in handy for female traders.

Apart from intuition women possess the ability to multitask. According to research performed in University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, women were found repeatedly better in multitasking. Women use more of their brains with any given task and that contributes tremendously to women ability to do several things at the same time. Multitasking allows women to become a professional forex trader, take care of a family and kids, and even find some time for themselves! Then comes the so called "nesting instinct". Most women won't risk what they cannot afford while gambling, investing and forex trading because of the "looking after the family" instinct. According to research women were found to take much less risk than men when it comes to financial investments.

With some computer and internet knowledge, persistence, ability to read and learn how to trade forex and a little time any woman can lift her legs up on the table, trade side by side with male traders and earn just as much. Whether part time or full time, forex trading is sexless and there is no glass ceiling to stop female trader from getting the same profits as fellow male traders.
Forex trading is an ultimate genderless paradise!

Check out more forex articles, tutorials and forex brokers reviews at http://www.forexexplore.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Danielle_Franklin

Women, Extremism and Two Key States

2009-04-15T16:48:00.000-07:00

Published: April 14, 2009
Editorial, The New York Times

There have been two recent reminders of the cost of extremism. In Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai signed a law that effectively sanctions marital rape. In Pakistan, a video surfaced of the Taliban in the Swat Valley publicly flogging a young woman screaming for mercy. Pakistan’s government compounded the indignity on Monday by giving in to Taliban demands and formally imposing Shariah law on the region...(to read the rest of this article, please click on the link in the title above.)