Africa | Burundi | Crimes

Merck Wants To ‘Empower’ Infertile Women In Africa. Can Music Videos Help?

Source:
In June, an unusual email arrived in the inbox of an NPR global health correspondent. The headline was: "Merck Foundation together with First Lady of Burundi release 'Plus Qu'une Mere' an empowering French Song as courtesy to all infertile women in Burundi and Africa." The email had a link to a video of a performance with an all-female choir. Wearing traditional African clothing printed with the Merck Foundation's logo, they sing a song with lyrics that encourage people not to blame women for infertility. They're performing before an audience of maybe a hundred people, most of them in
South Asia | Afghanistan | Culture

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

Source:
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
Europe | Spain | Career

Fresh abuse claims from women picking strawberries in Spain for UK market

Source:
Human-rights lawyers are warning that abuse claims by Moroccans picking fruit in Spain for UK supermarkets could amount to “state-sponsored human trafficking”. The international lawyers say Spanish authorities have a legal duty to ensure the allegations by the women – that they have faced exploitation and abuse while harvesting strawberries – are properly investigated by the courts. Two months ago, the Observer reported on the case of 10 Moroccan womenwho had fought for more than a year to have their claims of rape, exploitation and abuse, investigated by the Huelva police and
North America | United States | Career

Women Sue F.B.I., Claiming Discrimination at Training Academy

Source:
Women who were once F.B.I. recruits sued the bureau on Wednesday, accusing it of running a “good-old-boy network” at its training academy that discriminates against women, in some cases because of race and disabilities in addition to gender, and sets them up to fail. Male instructors at the academy in Quantico, Va., exposed the women beginning in 2015 to a hostile work environment, sexual harassment and inappropriate jokes, according to the lawsuit. One woman said that an instructor referred to an African-American female trainee as “spaghetti head,” a reference to her braids. The woma
Middle East | Saudi Arabia | Culture

Apple and Google Accept Saudi Smartphone App Which Tracks Women’s Movements

Source:
Apple and Google are facing criticism for hosting a Saudi Arabian smartphone app on their platforms which allows men to track women’s movements and “stop them leaving the country.” According to Insider, the app, named Absher — which is available on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store — is “a government web service which allows men to specify when and how women can cross Saudi borders, and to get close to real-time SMS updates when they travel.” The SMS feature reportedly notifies men “when a woman uses her passport at a border crossing or airport check-i
South Asia | Sri Lanka | Corruption

Sri Lanka women cricketers ‘forced into sexual favours’

Source:
Members of Sri Lanka's women's cricket team were forced to perform sexual favours to keep their places in the team, the sports ministry has said. The ministry said evidence of sexual harassment was uncovered in an investigation begun last year. It was launched following reports a player had been dropped for refusing to have sex with cricketing officials. Disciplinary procedures would now be initiated, the ministry said, without naming the individuals involved. "It is a shameful incident," Sri Lankan Children's Minister Rosy Senanayake told the AFP news agency. It is not clear what
International | Science

Testosterone Rules for Women Athletes Are Unfair, Researchers Argue

Source:
Elite women athletes are currently barred from competing in top-tier competitions, such as the Olympic Games and World Championships, if their testosterone levels are too high. But for women with naturally high levels, this regulation may be premature, as the only two large studies done on testosterone levels in professional athletes give conflicting results on how to define the normal levels for women, researchers argue in a new editorial. Despite the lack of data, the 2011 policy has already barred some women, such as Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, from competing on the world stage.
North America | United States | Politics

Speechless: Austin City Employees Given Training On How To ‘Deal With’ Women: Expect More Questions, More Emotions, More Talking

Source:
For the first time in the city’s history, the Austin city government is now female-dominated, with seven women and four men occupying its 11 top spots. Apparently, the City Manager’s office took this to mean that city employees would need special training in what to expect now that women are in charge. So two “experts” — a (male) politician from a small Florida city whose “expertise” consists of the fact that his city also had a women-dominated government, and a (female) business development consultant — were brought in to tell Austin’s city employees what to expect from
International | Science

Female Scientists Told To Add A Male Author To Their Study

Source:
A scientific journal sparked a Twitter firestorm when it rejected two female scientists' work partly because the paper they submitted did not have male co-authors. Evolutionary geneticists Fiona Ingleby and Megan Head collaborated on a study of gender bias in academia. They found that women with a PhD in biology published fewer articles than their male peers, which the authors argued showed gender bias, reports Times Higher Education. When the women submitted the study to peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, a male reviewer came back with some pretty shocking suggestions.
North America | United States | History

‘Forever Alone’: How Midcentury Movie Magazines Sold Marriage to Women

Source:
It’s June of 1950 and you’ve just finished reading a story in Modern Screen about Bette Davis’s recent divorce, and there at the end is a little box with big letters: “Has YOUR MAN CHANGED toward you? See page 69.” Must have missed an advice column or something. So you turn back and what do you find? A picture of a guy in a white sport coat holding a girl in a dress. Beneath them appears the caption, “Are you always lovely to love?” The answer resides in that guy’s nose. Yes, you’ve just flipped back twenty-five pages for a deodorant ad. It’s a dirty trick, and all the wors
Europe | Turkey | Sports

Outraged over loss, hockey coach buries players in sand

Source:
The Turkish U-16 women’s hockey team was destroyed in the first match of the championship that was held in Alanya, a beach resort in Turkey, losing by 15-0. Their coach, Savas Yilmaz, utterly disappointed with the result, decided to punish the players in a unique way. He half-buried three of the players in sand and walked around them, threatening them with his dog, and terrifying the girls.
Caribbean | Trinidad & Tobago | Politics

‘She has disgraced Tobago’ – Trinidad & Tobago’s Politics Hits New Low

Source:
No-one quite expected the new low to which politics — not to mention logic and common decency — have sunk. Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Orville London has labelled the statements made in Parliament by Tobago East MP Vernella Alleyne-Toppin as disgusting and disrespectful to Tobago women. London said the behaviour of Alleyne-Toppin, who is also Tobagonian, is not one of true representation to the people of Tobago and Tobago women. During a contentious debate in parliament, Vernella Alleyne-Toppin, a female parliamentarian from Tobago, made the distasteful accusati
North America | United States | Politics

Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz backing away from the ‘war on women’ narrative?

Source:
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., was one of the biggest boosters of the "war on women" narrative that worked so well in 2012 but failed so hard in 2014. Now it seems the Democratic National Committee chairwoman is backing away from the favored talking point. Wasserman Schultz is now saying that issues like abortion won't be as important to voters as the economy — a stark change from just last year, when abortion and birth control seemed to be the only issues Democrats thought were important to women. Apparently Wasserman Schultz is admitting she has been out of touch for the past thre
Africa | Kenya | Crimes

Kenya: Women MPs Wants DPP to Probe Sexual Harassment in Parliament

Source:
More than 50 women parliamentarians on Wednesday urged the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate claims of sexual harassment against women. In a media briefing, the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association noted increased cases of sexual assault. Mbita MP Millie Odhiambo said that KEWOPA will use the legal machinery to force the government into action. Kibwezi East MP Jessica Mbalu urged the government to protect the women by ensuring that the Sexual Offences Act is implemented fully.