Tag Archives: 4: Favorable

Class + Socioeconomics, Gender

U.S. News | Women

FDA eases restrictions around abortion pill, increasing access for rural and low-income women
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now allows for mifepristone (Mifeprex) to be legally prescribed and taken further into pregnancy (10 vs. 7 weeks), with reduced dosage (200 vs. 600 mg), and requiring only two rather than three doctor’s visits.
  • Medical professionals and researchers have held that the restrictions, based on science from the 1990s, were out of step with advanced medical and pharmacological understanding.
  • Conservative states have long restricted access to mifepristone, requiring the drug to be administered by licensed physicians and at times in the presence of the prescribing doctor.

Read more:
“New F.D.A. Guidelines Ease Access to Abortion Pill” (The New York Times)
“FDA backs expanded use of medical abortion pill” (Reuters)
“FDA Extends Abortion Pill Recommendations To Later In Pregnancy” (BuzzFeed News)

(Image Credit: Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

India Feature | Women

The Women Enforcers of Ghunduribadi

While international media attention often focuses on oppressive conditions women face in India’s tribal regions, women from Ghunduribadi, in the eastern state of Odisha, have stepped up as the security forces to protect the land rights of their villages. Land rights reforms have sought to reclaim ancestral lands expropriated under British colonial laws, but enforcement has been spotty and, according to some advocates and lawmakers, diluted. As their community suffered from illegal incursions into the forest their village relies on for food and supplies, the women banded together to conduct patrols, stepping in where the law wouldn’t to ensure that their land and community are protected.

Read more:
“These Indian women said they could protect their local forests better than the men in their village. The men agreed.” (Public Radio International)

Additional reading:
“‘Centre, states undermining tribal rights’” (Hindustan Times)
“Cong. protests ‘dilution’ of Forest Rights Act” (The Hindu)

(Image Credit: Sam Eaton/PRI)

Health + Ability

Kazakhstan Feature | Mental Illness & Disability

Discovering Opportunity Beyond Illness in Kazakhstan

With an estimated 200,000 registered in the country as afflicted with chronic psychiatric illness, Kazakhstan has a significant population that has suffered under punitive models of psychiatric care inherited from the Soviet era. Psychiatric professionals and advocates are battling the ward-to-grave pipeline and wasted human potential through new efforts to provide visibility for a community that often languishes behind walls in the Central Asian country. In addition to political and medical reforms, work initiatives have given birth to opportunity through businesses like the Training Café, a restaurant in Almaty that employs people with learning disabilities and other mental illnesses. EurasiaNet profiles ongoing efforts to de-institutionalize and integrate Kazakhstanis with mental illness into productive society.

Read more:
“Kazakhstan: Cafe Dispels Disability Stereotypes” (EurasiaNet)

Additional reading:
“Kazakhstan to eliminate discrimation against disabled persons” (Tengrinews, March 2015)
“Business Centre for Disabled Opens in East Kazakhstan” (The Astana Times, June 2015)

(Image Credit: Joanna Lillis/EurasiaNet)

Gender, Health + Ability

Palestine Feature | Women

Video

Hair and Hope for Palestine’s Cancer Victims

teleSUR English profiles an effort by the Aid and Hope Program to provide Palestinian women who have experienced hair loss during cancer treatment with wigs. With cancer the second-leading cause of death in Gaza, the campaign, entitled Be Beautiful, addresses the physiological and psychological effects of chemotherapy among the many afflicted women.

View the video on teleSUR English’s YouTube channel.

Nationality + Migration

U.S. News | Undocumented Immigrants

New Mexico university recruits undocumented students as student activists continue to fight for reform
  • Silver City–based Western New Mexico University has begun an outreach program to recruit undocumented students, a group known as DREAMers after the proposed legislation providing a path to citizenship through higher education or military service.
  • Undocumented students face uncertain prospects for higher education because of their status, with financial aid restrictions and legal precarity constraining their prospects.
  • As colleges face declining enrollments, undocumented students have seen their appeal to admissions offices increase, while students across the country fight for visibility and legal reform.

Read more:
“New Mexico College Seeks Immigrant Students in US Illegally” (AP via ABC News)
“Undocumented students come out of the shadows” (USA Today)
“The Folly of Under-Educating the Undocumented” (The Atlantic)

Nationality + Migration

Armenia News | Syrian Refugees

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A Spice of Home in Yerevan

Despite facing economic and cultural difficulties in integrating into their new home, Syrian refugees in Yerevan have injected new life to the culinary scene of the Armenian capital. Many are ethnically Armenian but have drifted linguistically and culturally from the Armenians of the Caucasus, providing a cultural silver-lining to the tragedy-driven reunion. EurasiaNet reports on refugees’ efforts to acclimate and the unique economic opportunities Yerevan’s restaurant scene offers.

Read more:
“Syrian Refugees’ Cuisine Helps Spice Up Armenia” (EurasiaNet)

Additional reading:
“Syrians in Armenia: Not just another refugee story” (Al Jazeera)
“Aleppo Market: Syrian Armenians bring ‘new flavor’ to Yerevan trade” (ArmeniaNow)

(Image Credit: Emma Grigoryan/EurasiaNet)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Sweden News | Indigenous Peoples

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Judge rules in favor of exclusive land rights for indigenous group in northern Sweden
  • A district court ruled that the Sami, an ethnic group indigenous to northern Scandanavia and northwest Russia, should have exclusive rights to control hunting and fishing in the Arctic village of Girjas.
  • The legal battle began in the early 1990s, when the Swedish government stripped land rights to the village from the Sami, Sweden’s only officially recognized indigenous group who trace their lineage in the region back thousands of years.
  • The victory comes as the Church of Sweden has released a two-volume report detailing the history of its treatment of the Sami, including the segregated schools it ran for from the 1910s to the 1960s.

Read more:
“Sweden’s indigenous Sami people win rights battle against state” (The Guardian)
“Sami minority wins symbolic court victory over Sweden” (The Local)
“Swedish church admits it ran ‘racist’ Sami schools” (The Local)

(Image Credit: Alamy/The Guardian)

Gender

Uganda News | Women

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Ugandan women’s rights groups set up anti-violence center ahead of elections
  • Uganda’s Women’s Situation Room (WSR) has been established as a national monitoring and control center focused on protecting women against physical and psychological violence in tension-laden elections.
  • With elections scheduled for February 18, the center will run from February 15 to 20 and is the latest in a line of WSRs mobilized in African countries since 2011.
  • A central call center and in-field monitors and reporters (some 450 trained women and youth observers) form the main infrastructure of the system, which provides real-time support through coordination with law enforcement officials.

Read more:
“Uganda rights groups set to monitor violence against women during elections” (Reuters)
“Women’s Situation Room: Africa’s unique approach to reducing electoral violence” (UN Africa Renewal)
“Kiggundu urges women to expose poll cheats” (The Daily Monitor)

(Image Credit: Joseph Mathenge/UN Africa Renewal)

Religion + Belief

U.S. News | Muslims

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President Obama delivers fervent speech supporting American Muslims at Baltimore mosque
  • Obama spoke at the Islamic Society of Baltimore in his first visit to a mosque during his presidency.
  • His 45-minute speech condemned ongoing anti-Muslim rhetoric and highlighted the long history and important future of American Muslims.
  • The visit included a pre-speech roundtable that included an Olympics-bound athlete, artists, doctors, community organizers, and other prominent leaders in the American Muslim community.

“You fit in here, right here. You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America, too. You aren’t Muslim or American. You are Muslim and American.”

Read more:
“Obama, in Mosque Visit, Denounces Anti-Muslim Bias” (The New York Times)
“President Obama at Maryland mosque: ‘You fit in here’” (The Baltimore Sun)
“At Baltimore mosque, President Obama encourages U.S. Muslims: ‘You fit in here’” (The Washington Post)

(Image Credit: Drew Angerer/The New York Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

China Feature | Hui Muslims

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Muslim in the Open

Descendants of Persian and Arab traders who arrived and intermarried with local Chinese more than a millennium ago, China’s Hui minority has enjoyed religious, political, and cultural freedom to a much greater degree than their Uyghur brethren in China’s far west. The New York Times examines contemporary Hui culture and the relatively peaceful relationship between the Hui and China’s religion-averse Communist Party, which has allowed for the flourishing of a vibrant Muslim community in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and neighboring Gansu Province.

Read more:
“Light Government Touch Lets China’s Hui Practice Islam in the Open” (The New York Times)

(Image Credit: Adam Dean/The New York Times)

Health + Ability

U.K. Feature | People with Disabilities

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Bodybuilding with Disabilities

After having been born with physical or mental disabilities or suffered a life-altering injury, a small but growing group of men with disabilities in the U.K. have begun taking on a sport reluctant to create space for their inclusion: bodybuilding. The Guardian profiles a few of the competitors, who discuss their road to bodybuilding, challenges faced by the disability community, and what they hope to see as the future of the sport.

Read more:
“Pecs appeal: the rise of disabled bodybuilding” (The Guardian)
Bodybuilding and Disabilities (Facebook)

(Image Credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith/The Guardian)

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Rwanda News | Tutsi

Rwandan pastor convicted of involvement in 1994 genocide
  • Jean Uwinkindi, a former Pentecostal pastor, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of contributing to the slaughter that left 800,000 minority ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead in 1994.
  • The court found that Uwinkindi, arrested in 2010, was responsible for coordinating and leading attacks against Tutsis at Rwankeri and Kanzene hills
  • Uwinkindi had been a pastor at the time of the genocide and reportedly executed Tutsi women and children who sought refuge in his church.

Read more:
“Rwandan pastor jailed for life for genocide-era crimes” (Reuters)
“Rwanda : Génocide, un ancien pasteur condamné à la prison à vie” (Koaci, in French)
“Rwanda genocide: Jean Uwinkindi sentenced to life in prison” (BBC)

(Image Credit: Getty Images, via BBC)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

Canada News | Transgender

Ontario proposes changes to expand gender reassignment referral capacity
  • Ontario’s health minister announced proposals that will allow local healthcare providers to provide referral services for transgender individuals seeking gender reassignment surgery.
  • Currently, those seeking the surgery must be referred through the Gender Identity Clinic program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental health (CAMH) in Toronto, facing up to a two-year wait if referred.
  • Ontario still lacks in-province gender reassignment surgery capabilities, but the health minister indicated that the absence is currently under review.

Read more:
“Ontario expands referrals for gender reassignment surgery” (CBC News)
“Ontario to expand medical referrals for sex-reassignment surgery” (The Globe and Mail)
“Improving Access to Sex Reassignment Surgery” (Government of Ontario)

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

UK News | Racial Minorities & Women

British PM announces name-blind admissions and hiring measures, new gender pay equity policies
  • PM David Cameron announced that the UK’s University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) will switch to name-blind applicant evaluation in 2017 to reduce racial bias in college admissions.
  • Numerous studies have indicated that culturally inflected differences in names significantly impact job applicants’ likelihood of being hired, with those with names traditionally from black and other ethnic minority communities receiving fewer interviews.
  • Cameron also outlined new policies to address the gender pay gap, including forcing private companies to publish bonuses, requiring large public sector organizations to publish pay data, and pushing for the elimination of all-male FTSE-350 boards.

Read more:
“Ucas to enforce ‘name-blind’ applications to tackle racial bias” (The Guardian)
“The perfect name for a job application, based on biases” (BBC)

(Image Credit: David Cheskin/PA, via the Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

France News | Intersex

French court rules in favor of establishing third gender option for intersex individual
  • A French court has for the first time allowed for the establishment of a third gender option for an individual’s legal status, ruling in favor of a 64-year-old intersex individual to change their status from male to “neutral gender.”
  • The judge ruled that the gender assigned to the individual at birth was “pure fiction” and that the creation of a third option was not the recognition of a third gender, but of the impossibility of ascribing binary gender to individuals who present with both male and female sexual characteristics.
  • A 2011 legal memorandum outlined administrative guidelines for intersex newborns, allowing for a one- to two-year deferral of gender assignment on a newborn’s birth certificate if the child presents as intersex, while Europe’s main human rights authority recently spoke out against surgical gender assignment for intersex newborns.

Read more:
“Une personne de «sexe neutre» reconnue par l’état civil” (20 minutes, in French)
“Le sexe « neutre » reconnu pour la première fois en France” (Le Monde, in French)
“French court recognises third gender for first time” (France24)

(Image Credit: Luca Sartoni, via Le Monde)