Europe | Great Britain | Crimes

Muslim community shuns women released from prison, says report

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The Muslim community in Britain shuns women who have been to prison while forgiving convicted men, “no matter what they’ve done”, according to a report. Female former prisoners told researchers, Muslim experts in the criminal justice system, that they suffered a “conspiracy of silence” after being released from jail, having to hide or move away in order to not bring shame on their families. The Muslim Women in Prison project worked with 55 women on their release from HMP New Hall and Askham Grange, two Yorkshire jails, helping them reconnect with their families – or to start
South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

Taliban assurance of ‘women’s rights’ has big caveat

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An agreement by the Taliban to respect women's rights may seem like a breakthrough, but activists have questioned how the hardline Islamists - notorious for stomping on freedoms - will interpret the careful wording. A historic meeting between Afghan representatives and the Taliban concluded late on Monday with the longtime foes issuing a joint statement, including a reference to women's rights. Participants at the Doha summit agreed that "assuring women rights in political, social, economic, educational, cultural affairs as per (and) within the Islamic framework of Islamic values", i
South Asia | Nepal | Culture

Why It’s So Hard To Stop Women From Sleeping In A Menstrual Shed

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Every year in Nepal, women die while sleeping in a shed outside their home because they are on their period. The cause of death is often smoke inhalation from lighting a fire to stay warm. The practice, called chaupadi, is linked to Hindu beliefs around religious purity and the idea that menstruation is spiritually polluting. In much of the country, this means that a woman who is menstruating will avoid temples, prayer rooms and kitchens — places important to keep pure in the Hindu religion. In parts of the remote west, an extreme version means nights sleeping outside in a hut or she
Europe | Italy | Scandal

Italy’s highest court overturns decision that woman was too ‘masculine’ to be raped

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Italy’s highest court has overturned a decision that a woman was too “masculine” to be raped, in a turn of events that activists hope will bring about a change in attitudes toward sexual violence and its victims in Italy. Last month, protesters took to the streets outside the appeals court in Ancona, a city on Italy’s Adriatic Coast, after it was revealed why a panel of three female judges had acquitted two men accused of rape in 2017. The protesters took issue with the jurists’ reasoning, disclosed last month through the Italian Supreme Court’s retrial order: The judges reach
North America | United States | Religion

Inside the horrifying, unspoken world of sexually abusive nuns

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It’s the line from Scripture that stayed with Cait Finnegan for nearly half a century as she tried to suppress the painful memories of the sexual abuse she says she suffered at the hands of her Catholic clergy educator. “God is Love,” Sister Mary Juanita Barto told Finnegan as she repeatedly raped her in classrooms at Mater Christi High School in Queens in the late 1960s. The abuse began when Finnegan was 15 and continued throughout her high school years — on school buses to out-of-town sporting events, at religious retreats in upstate New York, at Finnegan’s childhood home in
North America | United States | Corruption

A Woman President For The United States? Absolutely…Just Not This Woman!

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There should never be a candidate for the Presidency of the Untied States, or any public office, that has as much scandal attached to her as does Hillary Clinton. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should not have been allowed to run, let alone become the Democratic nominee and there are a lot of questions regarding how she won the nominee. Femina.com, which highlights and showcases the good that women are doing around the world, cannot support the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. As her untrustworthy number continues to increase (NYT/CBS Poll: Hillary's Untrustworthy Rating Soars
North America | United States | Politics

Hillary Clinton Makes U.S. History As First Woman Presumptive Presidential Nominee

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Hillary Clinton became the first woman presumptive presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party Monday night, inching closer to the invisible barrier that has kept women out of the nation’s highest political office. Clinton surpassed the 2,383 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination, according to a tally by The Associated Press. She cleared the threshold almost exactly eight years after her concession speech to then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the 2008 campaign. After suspending her presidential campaign and endorsing Obama on June 7, 2008, she famously told supporter
Middle East | Syria | Crimes

Syria: Christian women in a hell-like situation owing to abduction and selling incidents

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Syria has factually turned into a hellhole for Christian women. While revealing the hell like condition which the Christian women have to face on daily basis, a Syrian Sister Hatune Dogan while talking with the CBN News has disclosed horrid experiences of Christian women. Syria has happened to be an out-and-out conflagration for Christians, but predominantly so for Christian women, she said. Christian women who wander in their neighbourhood have to face whole lot more than just simple jeers and catcalls from the masses of Muslims. While sharing with CBN News what she has seen in
North America | United States | Society

Women bear emotional and financial burden of incarceration, study finds

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Women, and particularly women of color, bear a large portion of the financial and emotional burden when family members become involved with the criminal justice system, a report has found. A diverse coalition of 20 groups from across the US examined the impact incarceration has on families and communities. Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families focuses on four areas: coping with fees and fines; meeting basic needs; keeping families connected, and health impacts. The report highlights the disproportionate way in which women are affected emotionally, physically and financiall
Middle East | Palestine | Conflict

Women in Gaza: ‘If we want to live here, we want to live in dignity’

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The conflict between Israel and Gaza last July has left the most acute humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip for decades. An international donors’ conference in Cairo last October raised $5.4bn (£3.4bn) to rebuild Palestine – however, according to a World Bank report in May, only a quarter of that sum has actually been delivered to those desperately in need. Life for women in Gaza has never been easy but last summer’s escalation of violence has made the situation much worse for many. Over the last year I have have been in contact with three women whose lives were shattered – and I
South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

First female nominee fails to win seat on Afghan supreme court

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The first female nominee for Afghanistan’s supreme court has failed to win enough votes in parliament. Anisa Rassouli received 88 votes, nine short of the 97 needed for her nomination to pass. Zahir Qadir, the deputy parliamentary speaker who was chairing the session, said: “We ask the president [Ashraf Ghani] to nominate another individual for this position.” Wednesday’s vote came after clerics and conservatives lined up to criticise the choice of Rassouli, who has been a judge for 24 years and is the current head of Kabul’s juvenile court. They claimed only men were fit to si
North America | United States | Science

The 5 Biases Pushing Women Out of STEM

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By now, we’ve all heard about the low numbers of American women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Some argue it’s a pipeline issue. Another theory is that women are choosing to forgo careers in STEM to attain better work-family balance—rather than being pushed out by bias. We conducted in-depth interviews with 60 female scientists and surveyed 557 female scientists, both with help from the Association for Women in Science. These studies provide an important picture of how gender bias plays out in everyday workplace interactions. My previous research has shown tha
North America | United States | Health

Body Image And Social Media: Scientists Analyze Harmful ‘Thinspiration’ Photos Of Women

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Exploring her favorite topics on social media, a young girl may stumble upon all sorts of unexpected images. A new UC Davis study systematically analyzed content that appears on Twitter and Pinterest under two innocuous tags commonly used by those trying to lose weight: "thinspiration" and "thinspo." Nearly half the images featured headless bodies of women and predominantly focused on the pelvis, abdomen, or thighs, while also tending to be sexually suggestive. Yet not all social media is alike, with the two tools differing in key ways. Pinterest tended to show images that had “a littl
South Asia | India | Culture

Building India’s cities, silent workforce of women goes unrecognized

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When newly-wed Kamlesh was told she would be accompanying her husband to work in the city, she was thrilled at the prospect of a better life than in the drought-prone village in central India where she grew up. But arriving in New Delhi 12 years ago, crammed into the back of a truck with her husband and dozens of others, Kamlesh was shown a make-shift tent home on a pavement and realized that city life would not be what she had expected. "We were put to work immediately. The contractors told us to clear all the dirt and soil around the construction site and carry the cement to the masons