Wombs & The Wolves
THE WEEK's journey through some villages in Bihar and Rajasthan revealed the plight of women—many of them allegedly unmarried—whose wombs were removed as “treatment” for everything, from a simple stomach ache to menstrual issues...THE WEEK
Domestic violence by men 'shocking': survey - May 10, 2013
An international survey on domestic violence that interviewed more than 2,000 Chinese found that half of male respondents confessed they have physically or sexually abused their wives or girlfriends...read more from China Daily
Another Italian woman victim of acid attack - May 10, 2013
A 31-year-old woman received hospital treatment on Friday after having acid thrown at her in the third such acid attack to take place in Italy in a month. The woman was attacked by two hooded men after opening the door of her home in the northern city of Vicenza. They made her lie down and one reportedly held her while the other poured a substance over her, according to initial reports. The woman suffered minor burns on one arm and her bottom...read more from Gazzetta Del Sud.
In Pakistan town, men have spoken: No women vote - May 6, 2013
For decades, not a single woman in this dusty Pakistani village surrounded by wheat fields and orange trees has voted. And they aren’t likely to in next week’s parliamentary election either. The village’s men have spoken...read more from Alarabiya
Trafficking: Legislative changes and their implementation in Spain - May 6, 2013
Trafficking in human beings for the purpose of exploitation is a cruel reality that raises the concern of the people who work in the defence of human rights, international agencies and, more recently, of governments. The causes of the phenomenon of human trafficking are unseen and hidden. Women and girls are the most vulnerable to this state of slavery...read more from Gender Justice Journal
New Harassment Act to Tackle Abuse Via Sms and Social Media - April 28, 2013
The Protection from Harassment Act makes it possible for anyone who feels harassed to approach the court without a legal representative and apply for a protection order. Under the act, harassment is not limited to physical and verbal abuse. People who receive threats or unwanted attention via social media and text messages may also apply for a protection order. Those found guilty will have to pay a fine or spend as much as 5 years in jail...read more from Public News Hub
In Rwanda, Nothwithstanding considerable Increase, Contraceptive Use is not Keeping Pace with Desire for Smaller Families.
Complications from Unsafe Abortion Harm Women and Drain Health Resources
Findings from the first national study on the incidence of unintended pregnancy and abortion in Rwanda show that nearly half (47%) of all pregnancies in the country are unintended...read more from Aids Accountability
How my brother tried to kill me in 'honor attack' - April 4, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- It's cold and raining in Kabul and the pothole-filled dirt roads have turned into a sea of mud. We drive up to the gateway of a high-walled compound. A soldier brandishing an AK-47 stands guard outside the building. We've come to a women's shelter to meet Gul Meena -- a 17-year-old girl from Pakistan who shouldn't be alive...read more from CNN
Egypt's female students told to drop pants or face hell - April 1, 2013
Egyptian female students are now faced with threats of “going to Hell” if they continue to wear pants at an Alexandria university, north of Cairo, the New
Women Foundation reported, citing a news article published by al-Youm al-Saba’a online website...read more from Albawaba
Limpopo child bride: Sold into marriage, kept there by the system
From Limpopo comes the alarming story of a 13-year-old who has been married off to a 57-year-old traditional healer, ostensibly to pay the sangoma’s bill. Frank Maponya, Sowetan’s bureau chief for the province, broke the story. He writes that the child is barely a teen, but has already been forced into a union with a man 44 years her senior...read more from Daily Maverick
Survivor Stories
Kolab does not know who her real parents are. She studied to grade 5, then was forced to worked as a family servant, in a karaoke bar, and to sell drugs and sex. Phalla studied to grade 12, then was sold to a brothel..read more from Equality Now
Domestic Violence Against Women In Nigeria: The Present Position (1)
Domestic violence against women in Nigeria is one of the worst gender- based form of violence as it has severe consequences on the women.
It takes different forms and is usually carried out by familiar members of the home...read more from Nigerian observer news
Nigeria: House Okays Life Jail Term For Rapists - March 5, 2013
ABUJA, March 05, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives, Tuesday, approved a bill, which if signed into law, would send those convicted of rape to life imprisonment.
It also warned that the victims of rape have no right to terminate pregnancy resulting from rape...read more from The Will
Song Against Stoning : Prepared and Proper Stone;"From Beneath Hundred Stones"
Music composed by Mr. Omeed Rafizadeh. The lyrics are in English and Kurdish (Sorani). The English lyrics is by Omeed and Kurdish is by Soraya Fallah. Singers are Soraya and Omeed. Translator of the lyrics in Kurdish to English is Cklara Moradian.
This song was made in support of a project by Amnesty International and Broumand Foundation against Capital Punishment in Iran...listen to the song from You tube
Ending Widespread Violence Against Women
Around the world, as many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way - most often by someone she knows, including by her husband or another male family member; one woman in four has been abused during pregnancy...read more from UNFPA
Facts & Figures on VAW
The Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys by Country [ en | es | fr ] . Compiled by UN Women in 2011, presents data available for 86 countries on the prevalence of physical and sexual violence against women, forced sexual initiation and abuse during pregnancy, mainly drawn from leading international surveys, including: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reproductive Health Surveys, Demographic and Health Surveys, Violence Against Women Surveys and the World Health Organization Multi-Country Study..read more from UNIFEM
Dubbed a witch, expelled from school, 10-yr-old Rachael battles college to regain dignity - March 3, 2013
Similar to the recent issue of a school principal that illegally conducted virginity test on her students in Ogun State, a school principal in Osun State has sent a student, accused by her classmate of possessing witchcraft, packing from the school. STEPHEN GBADAMOSI writes on the issue and efforts of the student to get justice...read more from Tribune
Malian women raped, stoned, lashed and forced to marry amid intense fighting - February 11, 2013
BAMAKO, Mali (AlertNet) – When armed Islamist fighters arrived in the northeastern Malian village of Haribomo near Timbuktu, one of the first things they did was sip sweet tea with the local imam. They then told him how they expected the village women to behave...read more from AlertNet
Menstruation taboo puts 300 mln women in India at risk - experts - February 11, 2013
LONDON (AlertNet) – More than 300 million women and girls in India do not have access to safe menstrual hygiene products, endangering their health, curtailing their education and putting their livelihoods at risk, say experts at the Geneva-based Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC)...read more from AlertNet
Gunmen in Nigeria kill nine polio health workers - Febraury 8, 2013
Gunmen on motorbikes have shot dead nine health workers who were administering polio vaccinations in two separate attacks in the northern city of Kano.
No one claimed responsibility but the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which has condemned the use of western medicine, has been blamed for a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks...read more from the guardian
Rapists to face life imprisonment under new law – Reps - February 6, 2013
ABUJA — Chairman, House Committee on Human Rights, Hon. Beni Lar, said, Wednesday, that rapists would face life imprisonment once the current Violence Against Persons Bill becomes law.
Lar, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja, said the National Assembly had decided to expedite action on the passage of the bill, considering the increasing prevalence of rape in the country...read more from Vanguard
Escaping the scourge of female genital mutilation in Tanzania: a Maasai girls’ school provides scholarships for those at risk
“You need to be circumcised to be married, so that if you get pregnant you don’t bring shame to your family,” explains Nengai, a proud, 26-year-old school teacher. In Gelai, the rural village where she grew up, all of the girls she knew were circumcised, usually after they completed primary school...read more from UNwomen
Gender-segregation partitions draw mixed reaction - February 2, 2013
A new ruling issued by Saudi Labor Minister Adel Fakeih and approved by Abdullatif Al-Sheikh, the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, require shops employing both men and women to build segregation walls to enforce the separation of men and women.
The barriers to be built will be no shorter than 6 feet in workplaces that employ members of both sexes...read more from Arab news
Sexual Violence in Mali Casts Shadow Over Peace Efforts - January 31, 2013
Rebels who had conquered northern Mali offered to pay the equivalent of $14 for a 13-year-old girl. When her family said no, they took her anyway. A week later, she died in captivity, after she was repeatedly raped by a group of armed men..read more from bloomberg
New US law criminalises sending girls abroad for FGM - January 31, 2013
NEW YORK (TrustLaw) – Activists trying to end female genital mutilation hope a new U.S. federal law threatening imprisonment for anyone who sends girls abroad for the brutal procedure will deter those who previously did so with impunity...read more from TrustLaw
Acid attack perpetrator sentenced under new Cambodian law - January 30, 2013
On 28 January, Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced Sreyda's ex-husband Be Soeun to five years in prison for intentional violence using acid and ordered him to pay 10 million riel (US$2,500), after he threw battery acid on her face, chest and back when she told him she planned to remarry...read more from IRIN
Morocco to change rape marriage law - January 24, 2013
The Moroccan government has said it plans to change a law that allows rapists to avoid charges if they marry their victims.
The move comes nearly a year after 16-year-old girl committed suicide after being forced to marry her alleged rapist..read more from Aljazeera
Virginity test: Principal to undergo psychiatric examination - January 23, 2013
The Ogun State Government on Tuesday said the principal of Ajuwon Senior High School, Rev. Olufunke Aladeojobi, who allegedly conducted virginity tests on pupils of the school, would be made to undergo a psychiatric examination...read more from Punch
Digital Security First-Aid Kit for Human Rights Defenders
This kit contains short guides for human rights defenders who find themselves in emergencies related to communication and digital security. As guides are being added, individual sections of following scheme become interactive...read more from APC
Mali: Rape and Torture Among Serious Rights Violations Spawned By Mali Crisis - UN Report - January 18, 2013
The ongoing crisis in Mali has led to serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, rape and torture, says a United Nations report released today, which warns that increasing ethnic tensions could have alarming consequences on the North African nation...read more from All Africa
Philippines typhoon affecting maternal health - January 18, 2013
MANILA - With many health facilities damaged or destroyed in typhoon-affected Mindanao, experts have expressed concern about the state of maternal health care...read more from IRIN
Q&A: Hearing women’s hidden stories of sexual violence and enslavement during war - January 14, 2013
Annie Bunting, an associate professor of law and society at York University in Canada, is leading a three-year research project on enslavement in war for forced marriage in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone...read more from Trustlaw
The stigma and blame attached to rape survivors in India - January 8, 2013
In a few weeks, the European Union and India will hold a human rights dialogue. The death of a 23-year-old student who was gang-raped and beaten last month in New Delhi should catapult sexual violence to the top of the agenda...read more from HRW
China: Renewed Restrictions Send Online Chill - January 4, 2013
(Washington, DC) – The Chinese government’s further tightening of internet controls and mandating real name registration threaten security and privacy of internet users...read more from HRW
Gender policies: The odds against women in Nigeria - January 2, 2013
Rose Adu (not real name), a mother of two and heavily pregnant with the third child is a teacher with a private school in Lagos State. Her daily routine begins at 4 a.m. when she wakes up to prepare the children for school. Rose has to prepare lunch and probably dinner for the children who schooled within neighbourhood because her place of work is over an hour drive from her residence...read more from The SUN
Revisit sexual violence cases-Human Rights Groups appeal - January 1, 2013
In 2012 Ghana recorded over 500 sexual abuse cases across the country. Many of these high profile cases including the Benkum Senior High school gang rape saga saw no prosecution of the suspects...read more from Citi News |
