Tag Archives: Women

Gender, Nationality + Migration, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Global News | LGBT Ugandan Women

Ugandan LGBTI rights activist wins “Alternative Nobel Prize”
  • Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Ugandan lesbian, won the International Right Livelihood Award, known informally as the “Alternative Nobel Prize.”
  • Nabagesera has won recognition for challenging anti-gay activity through legal challenge, including suing a tabloid that had published the names of suspected LGBT individuals as well as the Minister of Ethics for violations of LGBT advocates’ freedom of assembly.
  • She is also the founder and executive director of LGBT rights charity Freedom & Roam Uganda.

Read more:
“Ugandan gay rights activist wins Right Livelihood Award” (Deutsche Welle)
“Ugandan gay rights activist wins ‘Alternative Nobel Prize’” (PinkNews)
Right Livelihood Laureate: Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera

Gender

Turkey Feature | Women

Turkey’s Chic Women

Women from around Turkey converged on Istanbul and 9 other cities across the country for the third-annual Chic Women’s Bicycle Tour, a solidarity bike ride to promote transportation equality for women as well as sustainable transportation options in cities riddled with motorized vehicular traffic. Decked out in a colorful potpourri of dresses, hats, flowers, and balloons, the women dressed in resistance to attempts by conservatives to dictate to women how they should dress and act in public. Al-Monitor spoke with organizers about the history and mission of the ride, while Hürriyet provided a vibrant gallery of event attendees.

Read and view more:
“Pedal power gets Turkish makeover” (Al-Monitor)
“‘Chic women’ across Turkey’s western coast cycle for sustainable transportation” (Hürriyet News Daily)

(Image Credit: AA Photo, via Hürriyet News Daily))

Age, Gender, Ideology + Affiliation

Netherlands News | Women & Youth

European court rules brothel owners in Amsterdam must share language with sex workers
  • The European Court of Justice ruling sided with the city of Amsterdam, which blocked the application of a brothel owner to run a Red Light District window rental space because the owner could not communicate in the language of some of the workers.
  • The business owner had his business plan denied because he rented to Hungarian and Bulgarian immigrant workers who did not speak Dutch and whose languages the owner did not speak.
  • The court cited the safety of women, human trafficking vulnerability, the prevention of sex work by minors, and pimping deterrence as justifications.

Read more:
“Court: Amsterdam brothel owners must speak prostitutes’ language” (The NL Times)
“Double Dutch barred in Amsterdam brothels” (AFP, via Yahoo! News)

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/LeDeuxAlpe, via The NL Times)

Gender, Religion + Belief

Canada News | Muslim Women

Pregnant Muslim woman targeted by youth in Montreal
  • Oumessad Khoufache, 31 and four-months pregnant, was approached by two teenage boys on bikes, who tore at her hijab, causing her to lose her balance and fall.
  • Police are reluctant to investigate it as a hate crime because no hateful words were expressed, but Khoufache’s husband believes the teens’ specific attack on her hijab says otherwise.
  • The incident takes place in the midst of a national debate on the ability of Muslim women to wear niqabs during citizenship oath ceremonies, with public vandalism and other forms of anti-Muslim sentiment having appeared as the debate has worn on.

«Reste qu’il y a une montée médiatique ces temps-ci qui peut alimenter [la haine contre les musulmans]. J’espère que ce n’est pas un acte haineux, car cela voudrait dire que des enfants sont déjà alimentés sur des fausses idées sur le voile»

Translation: “The fact remains that lately there has been a rise in media that can feed [hate against Muslims]. I hope that this isn’t a hateful act since that would mean that some children are already fueled by mistaken ideas about the veil.”

Read more:
“Une femme voilée et enceinte agressée par deux ados” (Le Journal de Montréal, in French)
“Pregnant Muslim woman attacked by Montreal teens, police say” (CBC News)
“Montreal’s Muslim community feels ‘used’ by political parties” (CBC News)
“Has the NDP’s campaign become tangled up by a niqab?” (Montreal Gazette)

Age, Gender

Malawi News | Girls

Malawi program promotes girls’ sexual and reproductive rights by stepping up health education
  • The Unite for Body Rights program was launched as a coalition of sexual rights organizations under the Center for Youth Empowerment and Civic Education in three districts (Dedza, Mangochi, and Chikhwawa).
  • Promoting family planning, re-enrollment for dropouts, and the reporting of sexual and domestic abuse, the program works to combat child marriage and educational disengagement among girls.
  • Thousands of peer educators along with teachers, church leaders, and health service providers have been targeted and trained in the provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive education, with gains tentatively seen in implemented districts.

Read more:
“Stepping up game in girls’ sexual health and rights” (Mana Online)
Unite for Body Rights, Malawi

(Image Credit: via SRHR Alliance)

Gender

Pakistan Feature | Women

Video

Keeping on Trucking

Shamim Akhtar, 53, has become the first woman granted a heavy vehicle license in Pakistan. Radio Free Liberty/Radio Europe profiles the single mother who took up truck-driving in order to support her family and the challenges she faced on the road to her licensing.

Watch the full Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty feature on YouTube.

Gender

Tajikistan Feature | Girls

Video

Biking Tradition

Young Tajik girls are taking transportation into their own hands by biking to school, a significant endeavor that can involve up to a 10-kilometer round trip. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty learns why one girl decided to take up the trip.

Watch the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty video on YouTube.

Age, Gender

Egypt News | Women

Egyptian student pursues legal action after alleging her exam results were falsified
  • Mariam Malak, a high-achieving student, took action and demanded an independent inquiry after seeing that the handwriting on the test did not match her own.
  • Malak, who scored 97% on the test in the previous two years, has aspirations of becoming a doctor.
  • With suspicions that Malak’s results may have been switched with another student’s, the case has become a symbol of corruption in the Egyptian education system.

Read the full story at the Guardian.

(Image Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images, via The Guardian)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

El Salvador News | LGBT

El Salvador toughens punishments for hate crimes against LGBT individuals
  • The country’s lower chamber approved changes that will see those convicted of identity-based homicide against LGBT individuals facing up to 50 years in prison.
  • The changes increase the maximum penalty for hate crimes–which also include racially, ethnically, and religiously based targeting–by 20 years.
  • Gender continues to lag behind other protected classes, however, with those convicted of homicides against women facing 20 to 30 years of imprisonment.

“We have made a lot of progress in the democracy (of the country). This is a significant step toward the recognition of rights in the LGBT community.”

Read the full story at teleSUR.

(Image Credit: EFE, via teleSUR)

Gender, Religion + Belief

U.K. News | Muslims

London’s Islamophobia Uptick

Image Credit: YouTube, via BuzzFeed
Image Credit: YouTube, via BuzzFeed

With reported Islamophobic incidents in the city having increased by 70% over the last year, London’s Muslims share stories of the harassment they have faced at work, in school, on public transportation, and in many of the other areas of public life. From threats to name-calling to “jokes,” four Muslims share their stories of Islamophobic harassment with BuzzFeed News, including three women who share how the intersection of gender further compounds vulnerability.

Read the full feature at BuzzFeed News.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Latin America & the Caribbean Feature | Afro-Latinas

The Summer of the Afro-Latina

Image Credit: planeta-afro.org, via Global Voices
Image Credit: planeta-afro.org, via Global Voices

Summer 2015 saw a flurry of activities as Afro-Latina advocates and organizations united in forums and campaigns addressing the racial, ethnic, and gender discrimination experienced by women of African descent throughout Latin America. Events including the Afro-descendant Women Leaders of America Summit and advocates including bloggers, Descato Feminista (Feminist Contempt), Teatro en Sepia (Theater in Sepia), and the Red de Mujeres Afro-Latinoamericanas Afro-Caribeña y de la Diáspora (Network of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women of the Diaspora) focused on issues including gender-based violence, domestic labor, and political representation. Global Voices explores the busy summer for Afro-Latina advocacy.

View the feature at Global Voices.

Gender

Nigeria News | Women

Lagos state bans out-of-court settlement for sexual and domestic violence cases
  • The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team announced that cases of rape, defilement, and violence against women would no longer be able to be settled out of court.
  • The team coordinator met with tribal leaders to discuss ways of effective intervention when women come to them for advice on how to handle such cases.
  • Officials have been trying to reroute cases from traditional settlement to judicial settlement through state legal structures.

Read the full story at the Daily Trust.

Gender

Afghanistan News | Girls

Afghan police investigate gas poisoning at girls’ school in Herat province
  • More than 100 girls were taken to the hospital in Herat province for toxic gas poisoning at their school in the village of Enjil.
  • While police investigate whether the incident was intentional, politicians suspect it was the work of conservative factions who oppose education for girls in the country.
  • Most of the girls were discharged the same day as their hospitalization.

Read the full story at Reuters.

Gender

Nigeria News | Women

Women’s rights groups in Lagos continue to combat discrimination and gender-based violence
  • One activist cited more than 500 cases of gender-based discrimination that her organization has handled so far in 2015.
  • Advocates have zeroed in on workplace discrimination as a key area for improvement, with women-unfriendly policies in recruitment and human resource policies like maternity leave erecting barriers to equal opportunity.
  • Women’s rights groups have also secured a pledge from newly inaugurated President Muhammadu Buhari to see women in at least 35% of government roles in his administration, which they plan to take action on should he renege on his campaign promise.

Watch the CCTV report on YouTube.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity

Algeria Feature | Indigenous Berber Women

Video

The Shaped Stories of Ideki

Found in the heart of indigenous Kabyle Berber communities in the Kabylia region of Algeria, the traditional form of Berber pottery known as ideki continues to live on as contemporary Algerian women work with ceramicists to produce the colorful containers. CCTV Africa explores its symbolic language, production process, and threats in the age of globalization.

Watch the CCTV feature on YouTube.