Posts Tagged International

By Courtney • 11 years ago

Malawi’s urgent window of feminist opportunity

If you don’t know about President Joyce Banda, now’s the time to introduce yourself.

Banda, named one of the eight most fascinating Africans of 2012 by The New Yorker, came into office in April of last year after her predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, passed away. Her roots are deep in feminist grassroots activism. Before becoming Vice President in 2009, she was a Member of Parliament and Minister for Gender, Children’s Affairs and Community Services. Before that, she was the founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation, founder of the National Association of Business Women (NABW), Young Women Leaders Network and the Hunger Project. She has and continues to serve on the Aspen Institute’s Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health, ...

If you don’t know about President Joyce Banda, now’s the time to introduce yourself.

Banda, named one of the eight most fascinating Africans of 2012 by The New Yorker, came into office in April of ...
By Amy S. Choi • 11 years ago

Cultural traditions that oppress women are not worth preserving

Writing like this makes me want to pull out my hair. In an otherwise decent New York Times story about the myriad forms of violence that women in India face on a regular basis, sits these paragraphs:

As girls age, the strict controls that many families have over their daughters cannot protect them from rape and sexual assault, since most of those crimes are committed by people known to the women, studies say. But even so, such controls have some benefits, public health experts say. Indian women have, on average, no more than two sexual partners in their entire lives, and most are virgins when they marry, surveys show. This absence of promiscuity is probably an important reason that AIDS never ...

Writing like this makes me want to pull out my hair. In an otherwise decent New York Times story about the myriad forms of violence that women in India face on a regular basis, sits these paragraphs:

As ...
By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Malala Yousufzai released from hospital


The Pakistani girls’ education activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants late last year, was released from hospital in the UK today. According to a statement from the hospital,

She is still due to be re-admitted in late January or early February to undergo cranial reconstructive surgery as part of her long-term recovery and in the meantime she will visit the hospital regularly to attend clinical appointments.

Dr Dave Rosser, Medical Director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery.

Obviously, I wish her a full and speedy recovery, and ...


The Pakistani girls’ education activist who was shot in the head by Taliban militants late last year, was released from hospital in the UK today. According to a statement from the hospital,

She ...
By Syreeta McFadden • 11 years ago

Quick hit: The last presidential emcee battle

So the biggest fallout from the last presidential debate of 2012 might be the most awesome MC diss made by head of state to an opposing candidate. Followed by the best commander-in-chief mansplaining I’ve ever seen in the history of evers:

And the interenets responded with the kind of gumption and American ingenuity that I’d expect.

Perhaps Ann’s round up of responses best captures our collective reactions to the tit for tat between Romney and Obama in this last face off as we head into the final stretch of the forever presidential race.

So the biggest fallout from the last presidential debate of 2012 might be the most awesome MC diss made by head of state to an opposing candidate. Followed by the best commander-in-chief mansplaining I’ve ever seen in ...
By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Northern Ireland’s first abortion clinic to open next week

And everyone is thrilled! Just kidding, there’s been a huge outcry in the heavily Catholic country.

The clinic will be run by Marie Stopes International, and will offer a range of other reproductive health services (which is a bummer, because “abortion mill” is so much easier to say than “abortion and other reproductive health services mill”).

Bernadette Smith, of an organization called Precious Life, is absolutely outraged. “I am absolutely outraged. An organisation which is making profits from the death of unborn children is not welcome in Northern Ireland.” Smith called for more crisis pregnancy centres, which she claims has helped bring down the rate of abortion and the rate of women travelling to England to obtain terminations.

The medical director at ...

And everyone is thrilled! Just kidding, there’s been a huge outcry in the heavily Catholic country.

The clinic will be run by Marie Stopes International, and will offer a range of other reproductive health services (which is ...
By Samhita • 11 years ago

Young Pakistani advocate for girls’ rights shot by Taliban

Being engaged as a young woman is something that should be encouraged, but in some places it’s still dangerous and could cost you your life. Tragedy, heroism and inspiration come together with this story of a 14-year old woman gunned down by members of the Taliban in Pakistan for advocating for young women’s rights. Her gripe? It’s not right that women can’t go to school under Taliban rule.

It gets worse. via the NYTimes,

Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, told my colleague Declan Walsh in a telephone interview that Malala “has become a symbol of Western culture in the area” and had expressed admiration for President Obama. Speaking to Reuters, the militant acknowledged that the victim ...

Being engaged as a young woman is something that should be encouraged, but in some places it’s still dangerous and could cost you your life. Tragedy, heroism and inspiration come together with this story of a 14-year ...
By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Australia to implement paid paternal leave next year

Yesterday, Australian Minister for Families, Community Services, and Indigenous Reform Jenny Macklin made a big announcement: starting in 2013, the Australian government will be providing paid paternal leave so that new fathers can take more time off from work to take care of their kids.

The scheme is clearly designed to make it more culturally normal, as well as more economically feasible, for men to take time away from work.

At the Mummy Blog Mamma Mia, Macklin wrote:

Because we understood how important that time with your newborn is, two years ago our Government introduced Australia’s first national paid parental leave scheme.

Since then, more than 200,000 families, many of them people who never before got any

Yesterday, Australian Minister for Families, Community Services, and Indigenous Reform Jenny Macklin made a big announcement: starting in 2013, the Australian government will be providing paid paternal leave so that new fathers can take more time off ...
By Chloe Angyal • 11 years ago

Australia to make the abortion pill easier to get

Yesterday, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration announced that RU486, the abortion pill, will soon be more widely available. RU486 has been legal in Australia for six years, but until now very few doctors – about 187 physicians in a country of 22 million people – could import or prescribe it.

Thanks to Marie Stopes International, that’s about to change. The ABC reports:

… an application by reproductive health group Marie Stopes International was successful, meaning it will now be more widely available.

The TGA says Marie Stopes International will be introducing the drug in a controlled way.

It says only medical practitioners recognised by the group as having completed appropriate training will be able to prescribe the medicines.

Yesterday, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration announced that RU486, the abortion pill, will soon be more widely available. RU486 has been legal in Australia for six years, but until now very few doctors – about 187 physicians in ...

Load More