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A veiled woman was out and about in Amman, Jordan. (Mohammad abu Ghosh/Associated Press) (via WSJ)
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Virginity fetishism is doomed, boys. Give it up.
The Artificial Virginity Hymen kit, distributed by the Chinese company Gigimo, costs about $30. It is intended to help newly married women fool their husbands into believing they are virgins—culturally important in a conservative Middle East where sex before marriage is considered by many to be illicit. The product leaks a blood-like substance when inserted and broken. Gigimo advertises shipping to every Arab country.
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Safe refuge for abused women in the UAE
FINALLY..! its so refreshing to hear good news!
ABU DHABI // Women and children who suffer violence and other forms of abuse at home will have somewhere to seek refuge, in the shape of a safe shelter in Abu Dhabi, the first of its kind in the emirate.
Instructions for setting up the centre in co-ordination with the Family Development Foundation were issued by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, in his capacity as chairman of the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, the state news agency, WAM, reported yesterday.The shelter will offer health care and psychological support to victims of domestic violence and provide legal counselling to help them prosecute their abusers. It will attempt to discover the extent of the problem in the emirate by compiling statistics, and identify ways in which the system may be failing victims and discouraging them from reporting abuse to the authorities.
There are plans to set up a safe channel of communication to allow abused women and children to lodge complaints about risks they face within the family.The centre will also conduct awareness campaigns to educate women and children about their rights and how to defend them as well as giving the victims a platform for exchanging experiences and building their ability to confront abuse.
The shelter is part of the ADJD’s plan to tackle social issues that could be a source of violence and crime, WAM reported. Abu Dhabi also offers Ewaa Shelters for Women and Children, which opened in January and can accommodate up to 30 women and girls. The centre is aimed at mainly victims of trafficking, but is also expected to provide for women and children seeking refuge from domestic violence. Ewaa’s creation was announced last year and supported by Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, who is the FDF’s chairwoman.Posted on July 12, 2009 -
arab women struggle for equality
NEW YORK // Women continue to struggle to gain equal access to education, the job market and political life in much of the Arab world, according to the UN’s latest report on combating poverty.
The yearbook on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), released by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, reveals that global economic slump is undermining attempts to tackle hunger, illiteracy and gender equality.Researchers highlight the “particularly dismal” progress on women’s rights in parts of the Arab world, where women suffer as second-class citizens in politics, education and the workplace.
Posted on July 9, 2009 with 4 notes -
The Manifesto of the 343 (French: “le manifeste des 343”), is a declaration written and signed in 1971 by 343 French women admitting to having had an abortion, thereby exposing themselves to criminal prosecution. The manifesto appeared in the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur on April 5, 1971. It was also known as the “Manifesto of the 343 Sluts”or the “Manifesto of the 343 Bitches” (“le manifeste des 343 salopes”).
Image via Wikipedia-Claudine Monteil (author of Simone de Beauvoir, Le Mouvement des Femmes, Mémoires d’une Jeune Fille Rebelle) explains:
In 1970, the word “abortion” was taboo. Even though I came from an educated, liberal family, I had almost never seen the word used in the media or heard anyone around me even mention it. France was still a very Catholic country in the seventies, so no one dared speak of abortion. In 1943, the Vichy government had even inflicted the death penalty on a woman who had performed an illegal abortion. Nonetheless, thousands of abortions had been performed in France in the 1960s and 1970s, maiming many women and killing others.
To beak up this silence, we decided to create an event that would force the media to use the word “abortion”. We wrote a manifesto in which we declared we all had had an abortion. It became the “Manifesto of the 343”. Apart from Simone and her sister, the painter Hélène de Beauvoir, many famous women, like the actresses Catherine Deneuve and Delphine Seyrig, agreed to sign. Like many women,as a gesture of solidarity and support, I signed it also, though I had never actually had had an abortion.
On April 4th 1971, the publication of the Manifesto in the weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, created a scandal. Radios, televisions, and newspapers were using the word “abortion” over and over again for the first time in French history. Our initiative was already a success, even though some women who had signed it encountered problems at their office. Simone accepted to give an interview in the same issue of the magazine to explain our gesture.
It was the beginning of a series of actions which took years and permitted us eventually to obtail a modification of the abortion law. French society became at last concerned by this middle-aged type law.
At the same time, we focused on other matters: rape, battered women, young unwed mothers, inequality in salaries, jobs reserved to men. Women at last could get jobs where they were not previously accepted: ingineers, scientifics researchers, governors, judges, doctors, airline pilots, and so on…
Simone de Beauvoir, who every day was active in our movement, gave us a unique youth. Did we contribute, through our battles, to give her a second youth? I certainly hope so.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=75bbc312-4a64-4563-b82f-13eea70a31e2)
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the global period project
whoever thought this idea up must want to annihalate men all in one go.
oddly hilarious.
Posted on June 24, 2009 -
African "Pleasure Hospital" Will Heal Victims of Female Genital Mutilation
The words “pleasure” and “hospital” aren’t joined together very often. On the contrary, they’re usually thought of as mutually contradictory. But in the town of Bobo-Diolasso in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, the new hospital under construction has made that very connection in hundreds of minds. The “pleasure hospital” which is planned to open later this year, will specialize in free clitoral reconstruction surgery to victims of female genital mutilation.
Mariam Banemanie, the president of Voices of Women, says that the operation, in which surgeons recover a few centimeters of embedded clitoris, takes about 20 minutes and about six weeks of recovery. “FGM strips a woman of her ability to enjoy sex,” she says. “The surgery will restore women’s sex lives and confidence in themselves.”
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Slideshow from NYT: Childbirth in Tanzania
these are some really powerful images, and makes you wonder the simple things we take for granted sometimes. maternal deaths should definitely not happen in this day and age.
A photo slideshow of the conditions women must endure during childbirth in impoverished countries. Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, and has astoundingly high maternal mortality rates because of the lack of proper medical care. I think these pictures are more telling than any statistics, as photographs often are.
More information on Maternal Health and Morbidity:
The World Health Organization: Maternal Health
Articles from Nicholas Kristof of the NYT: “Childbirth By Flashlight” and “This Mom Didn’t Have To Die”
“Maternal Dealths Deemed Inexcusable, ‘An Outrage’: Simple Measures Could Help Save 529,000 Women Per Year, World Leaders Say” — from ABC News
Blog from The Women’s Refugee Commission on the perils of childbirth in the DRC
Posted via infinite hope on June 6, 2009
