Women Rights
ANN ARBOR, MI – While many were focused on Hillary Clinton’s response to the impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump in her visit to the University of Michigan, the former Democratic presidential nominee was interested in tackling subjects that spanned the globe.
Clinton returned to Ann Arbor for the second time since her 2016 presidential election defeat to Donald Trump Thursday, Oct. 10.
In the nearly 90-minute discussion inside Rackham Auditorium, Clinton touched on many topics, including women’s rights to the United States’ lack of response to the protests and unrest in Hong Kong.
Here are five additional highlights expanding on Clinton’s visit to UM Thursday via the Weiser Diplomacy Center. Read more…
Women Share Pregnancy Discrimination Stories in Support of Elizabeth Warren
Women Share Pregnancy Discrimination Stories in Support of Elizabeth Warren
Women are sharing their stories on social media of pregnancy discrimination in support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who came under attack from conservative outlets this week over her claim that she was fired for being pregnant, NBC News reports.
“[I]f you don’t understand what this furor over the Elizabeth Warren pregnancy firing story is about, ask pretty much any woman in your life over 35,” culture writer Anne Helen Petersen wrote on Twitter, prompting some to respond with their personal experiences.
A flurry of blogs and online outlets also came to Warren’s defense, posting stories such as “Elizabeth Warren’s critics forgot: Pregnancy lasts for nine months,” “If You Think Elizabeth Warren Is Lying, You’ve Never Been a Woman in the Workplace,” and “Elizabeth Warren’s Pregnancy Story Is All Too Common. We Know Because We Live It.”
Women are sharing their stories on social media of pregnancy discrimination in support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who came under attack from conservative outlets this week over her claim that she was fired for being pregnant, NBC News reports. “[I]f you don’t understand what this furor over the Elizabeth Warren pregnancy firing story is about, ask pretty much any woman in your life over 35,” culture writer Anne Helen Petersen wrote on Twitter, prompting some to respond with their personal experiences. A flurry of blogs and online outlets also came to Warren’s defense, posting stories such as “Elizabeth Warren’s critics forgot: Pregnancy lasts for nine months,” “If You Think Elizabeth Warren Is Lying, You’ve Never Been a Woman in the Workplace,” and “Elizabeth Warren’s Pregnancy Story Is All Too Common. We Know Because We Live It.” We Know Because We Live It.
CAN YOU judge a nation by the company it keeps?
President Trump’s administration spearheaded a declaration at the United Nations this week calling for the elimination of allegedly “ambiguous” expressions in the body’s documents — primarily, “sexual and reproductive health.” These terms are often used to promote pro-abortion policies, the officials claimed, and “there is no international right to an abortion.” Joining the land of the free? Some of the least-free nations on the planet, from Russia to Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and 12 more.
This, evidently, is what the anti-globalist “America First” philosophy the president hawked at this week’s U.N. General Assembly looks like: This country standing not only among but also in front of a pantheon of human rights offenders.
The move is dispiriting but not surprising. The administration has been on a crusade to replace science-based approaches to women’s health with a focus to “defend life and family.” The State Department’s annual human rights reports have scrapped statistics on the rates of contraceptive access and maternal mortality worldwide. (Those statistics showed, among other things, that 8 percent of such deaths result from unsafe abortion.) The administration has massively expanded the gag rule that prevents organizations from receiving federal funds if they even mention abortion to clients, and it has imposed a similar stricture on providers at home.Read more…
Iranian officials have warned that posting video footage of women removing their mandatory headscarves in public could lead to up 10 years imprisonment, according to media reports yesterday.
The announcement specifically named the US-based social media platform of Masih Alinejad, which since 2014 has been inviting Iranian women to post pictures of themselves without the hijab.
Ms Alinejad has been accused by the Iranian regime of working as an agent of the US government over the website, known as My Stealthy Freedom.
“As Masih Alinejad has a contract with the Americans, all those women who send the video footages of removing their hijab to her will be sentenced between one to 10 years of jail according to the article 508 of the Islamic Criminal Justice Act,” the head of Tehran’s Court of Revolution cleric Mousa Ghazanfarabadi told Fars news.
Earlier this year Ms Alinejad met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who “thanked her for her bravery and continued dedication to the cause of freedom for Iranian women”.
In recent days the morality police in Iran has reacted to a number of incidents in which its vigilantees have been attacked in Tehran metro while “advising” women not to remove their hijab. She has denied working for any foreign governments.
Asked by the Fars news agency if sending video clips to an individual in US amounts to a criminal act, Mr Ghazanfarabadi has said: “My understanding of the law is that three types of video recordings are criminal acts; to film our military installations; to record private life of another citizen and the third case is to record a film with the aim of working with an enemy government”.
Iranian women face 10 years for sharing videos of hijab removal Iranian women face 10 years for sharing videos of hijab removal arada arada arada arada
The revolution that swept through Iran 40 years ago ruptured all diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States. This we know all too well. But another bond, one between Iranian feminists and their American counterparts, was also ruptured, which, unlike the other, occurred in virtual anonymity.
In March 1979, days after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini rose to power, the American feminist icon Kate Millett traveled to Tehran. On March 8, Millett looped arms with fellow women demonstrators to protest against Khomeini’s proposal to reinstitute a mandatory dress code for women, the hijab. If there were a moment that could stand for a perfect microcosm of all that was right about Iran then—and for all that was about to go wrong—it was that moment in March. Veiled women, alongside unveiled women, were throwing their fists into the air, demanding gender equality.
When reporters asked the veiled women what they were protesting, since they themselves wore the veil, they unanimously said they objected to the eradication of choice. These women wanted the next generation to have more freedom than theirs did. A reporter asked Millett what she thought of Khomeini. She cast an unflinching look into the camera and said she believed Khomeini was a “male chauvinist.” These were the euphoric post-revolutionary days when most people revered the ayatollah; those who did not knew to keep silent. It was no surprise when Millett was subsequently arrested and expelled—an experience that she later recalled as the most terrifying of her life.
The Flame of Feminism Is Alive in Iran – International Women’s Day The Flame of Feminism Is Alive in Iran – International Women’s Day The Flame of Feminism Is Alive in Iran – International Women’s Day Arada a a a aa a a a a a a a a a a a a a
Iran’s women’s movement, civil society come under ‘maximum pressure’
As tensions between Iran and the United States reached dangerous levels in recent weeks, Iranian human rights activists warned about the dire ramifications of sanctions and other pressures for women and the women’s rights movement in Iran.
The US policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran has been composed of ever-expanding sets of sanctions imposed in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. The pressure has been intensified by a looming threat of imminent war. Not surprisingly, maximum pressure is having a big impact in Iran — but perhaps not the impact the United States claims to seek.
The worsening implications of US sanctions are reaching alarming levels, with women and the women’s rights movement in Iran among the collateral damage.
Indeed, Iranian women complain about the spiraling prices of imported contact lenses, cancer and diabetes drugs and even sanitary pads and tampons. They have had to resort to food rationing and substitution strategies to stretch a weak rial and feed their families as the reimposition of US extraterritorial sanctions batters the Iranian economy.
Washington maintains that sanctions do not apply to medicines and food. While technically true, in reality ordinary Iranians are seeing shortages of drugs, medical supplies and other essential goods as banking channels have been shut down and Iran faces limited access to foreign currency.
One 28-year-old mother from western Kermanshah province told Al-Monitor about her newborn baby, who was diagnosed with acid reflux in April. The doctor prescribed a Zantac (ranitidine) syrup. “We searched all the pharmacies in my hometown and then I called my friends in Tehran but the syrup was nowhere to be found,” said Nasrin, who asked that her last name not be used. Finally, she ordered the syrup, which is produced by British multinational GlaxoSmithKline, from Iraqi Kurdistan through family acquaintances. “We paid 120,000 tomans [$28.50] for the syrup, while the same syrup was available in the pharmacies in Iran for just 25,000 tomans [$5.95] before the [reimposition of US] sanctions.”
US officials have repeatedly stressed that they have legitimate concerns about the Iranian government’s behavior and that they need to take action. Yet so far women, children and ordinary Iranians who were not part of the Islamic Republic’s decisions seem to be those most directly suffering as the country’s economic decline is having broad social and public health impacts.
Lack of personal hygiene products: Violation of human rights for incarcerated women
It is a victory because now more incarcerated women and girls will have access to a basic necessity that supports personal hygiene and confidentiality.
It is a shame because a woman’s basic need for sanitary products has to be legislated and dependent upon the sympathetic nature of those with decision-making power. This is particularly disturbing given that the growth in the number of incarcerated women has outpaced the growth of incarcerated men in the United States.
The United States is known as one of the world’s leading incarcerator of women housing approximately, 219,000 women in some type of correctional facility whether federal prison, state prison or local jail.
Projected to cost $100,000 each year, the Oregon mandate applies to all correctional facilities in the state. Still, Oregon’s legislation will not benefit the entire body of eligible incarcerated women and girls across segments of the country without such a mandate. Other states that do not have such a mandate fail to recognize sanitary products just as essential as soap and toothpaste.
As nurses who have cared for women in hospitals and community settings, we know the consequences of poor hygiene — especially for menstruating women who are also subject to embarrassment when lacking the necessary hygienic protections during their menstrual cycles.
Women who defer to make-shift materials during this time are also at an increased risk for malodorous disorders along with a number of infectious conditions, including toxic shock syndrome, a potentially deadly condition resulting for an overgrowth of bacteria due to prolonged wearing of heavily soiled tampons.
The true cost of shame and humiliation associated with not having the proper supply of sanitary supplies in our correctional facilities is immeasurable for this population of women. It needs to be considered a violation of human rights.
Day of di African Child: Pregnant girls, young mothers no dey go school – Human Rights Watch
Day of di African Child: Pregnant girls, young mothers no dey go school – Human Rights Watch
International NGO Human Rights Watch tok say plenty pregnant girls and young mothers no dey go school across Africa because dem no dey let dem
Dem tok dis one as dem join pipo around di world to celebrate African Union Day of di African Child.
Di 2019 theme dey focus on children’s rights and action for Africa For di report wey dem release to chook eye for di mata, dem say even though say some Africa gofments say dem go ensure say pregnant girls go school, kontris like Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania dey ban dem from gofment schools FGM: Wetin e be, wia & why e dey happun “Na men dey look down on girls like say we be second-class citizens Di organisation tok say Africa get di highest pregnancy rates for di world according to di United Nations and di tin dey happun for child marriage, something wey African gofments never fit address wella Oda reasons dem give na abuse, lack of sex education and no access to family planning.
Child, early and forced marriage, including in humanitarian settings |
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Child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) is a human rights violation and a harmful practice that disproportionately affects women and girls globally, preventing them from living their lives free from all forms of violence.
CEFM threatens the lives and futures of girls and women around the world, robbing them of their agency to make decisions about their lives, disrupting their education, making them more vulnerable to violence, discrimination and abuse, and preventing their full participation in economic, political and social spheres. Child marriage is also often accompanied by early and frequent pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in higher than average maternal morbidity and mortality rates. CEFM often result in women and girls attempting to flee their communities or to commit suicide to avoid or escape the marriage.
International human rights conventions and international entities stress the need to take measures to address CEFM. Over the last years, actions to end child, early and forced marriage have increased at international, regional and national levels (SeeA/HRC/RES/24/23; A/HRC/26/22; A/71/253). Specific efforts are undertaken to link these efforts to the implementation and monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 5.3 to eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilations. Despite its prohibition by international law and many national legislations, the practice remains widespread. While the prevalence of child marriage is decreasing globally, with the proportion of women who were married as children decreased by 15 per cent in the last decade (from 1 in 4 to approximately 1 in 5), according to UNICEF. Yet, the prevalence rates of child marriage, early union, and adolescent pregnancy remain high, particularly in some regions. To end the practice globally, progress must be significantly accelerated and sustained. In its resolution A/HRC/RES/29/8 (22 July 2015) the Human Rights Council requested the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to organize an expert workshop to review and discuss theimpact of existing strategies and initiatives to address child, early and forced marriage and prepare a report on the deliberations held during the workshop to be submitted to the Council at its thirty-fifth session, which took place on 21 and 22 October 2016 (report A/HRC/35/5).
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