TresSugar

Birth Control Rises Among Muslim Women, Don't Tell the Men

TresSugar — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:00:10 -0800

Nothing in Islam forbids birth control, but like Christianity the religion does extol procreation. So as the pill becomes more accessible in Afghanistan - a country with a fertility rate of six children per woman - it's no surprise it's controversial. Now that many women have access to it, they are forced to take it behind their husbands' backs.

Afghanistan is not the only third-world country (or any-world country, really) where women hide birth control. The trend became apparent when a Double X writer traveled through Kenya this Summer and interviewed more than 100 women and 25 medical professionals about contraception use and women's health. One doctor said the number of women asking about contraception, without their husband’s knowledge, has increased from around 100 per year to 100 per month in just a year. Yet, there are still doctors who refuse to prescribe the pill (that happens in the US!), nurses who report its use to husbands, and conspiracy theorists who believe those promoting it are on the "Americans' payroll."

Consider the ramifications of a woman lying to her husband in a Muslim country, and this all sounds like a bittersweet victory. Yet it's not all that different from how the US spent the better part of the 20th century, when, even after the pill became legal in 1960, doctors refused to prescribe it, black nationalists believed it would lead to race suicide, and the women who did take it often did so in secrecy, behind their husbands' backs.

Women Worry That Obama Is Throwing Them Under the Bus

TresSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:42:32 -0800

Back in January, feminist magazine Ms. hailed Barack Obama as a super feminist. But the president's recent tepid response to protecting abortion rights might mean that the love affair with Obama is about to end for many women. Over at the Daily Beast, women's rights activist Amy Siskind argues that the Stupak amendment, which treats women's rights as a political bargaining chip that can be traded for healthcare reform, is just one more example of how Obama couldn't care less about women . . . except when he's trying to win their votes of course. She writes:

He appointed fewer women into his cabinet than President Bill Clinton. He surrounded himself with czars, more than 90 percent of whom are male. He appointed Larry Summers, of "girls are inferior in math and science" fame, to a key economic post. He played basketball, golfed and fished with men and men only. He had beers with Skip Gates, but ignored it when Rihanna was almost strangled to death. And so on.

Of course it's not all bad. Ms. released a report chronicling the giant strides Obama made for women during his first 100 days in office. These actions included: signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, instituting a new ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls, and overturning the "global gag rule" in order to re-fund global family planning organizations.

Has the Obama administration let you down when it comes to women's rights?

"Men's Rights" Groups Say Feminist Society Oppresses Men

TresSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

We've all heard of women's rights activists, but are you familiar with men's rights activists? MRAs are men who believe that the emancipation of women and the emergence of feminism has led to the oppression of men. (Because, you know, it can't be a win-win proposition!)

Double X provided an extensive exploration of a movement that is trying to appear more mainstream. Here are some MRA claims:

False domestic abuse allegations are rampant.
A feminist-run court system wrongly separates innocent fathers from children.
Battered-women shelters scam taxpayers by transferring federal money to feminists.
Domestic violence laws help mail-order brides fraudulently get green cards.
Men are unrecognized victims of domestic violence themselves.

According to Double X, there's evidence that MRAs have greatly exaggerated many of their concerns about custody and domestic violence. For example, abuse accusations don't automatically win custody for mothers, and often incidents these men count as violence against men are really cases of self-defense. If you think this form of activism sounds too out there to be taken seriously, know that MRAs have had some very real influence. In 2008, they claimed responsibility for helping block the passage of four domestic violence bills.

What do you make of MRAs?

Life For Afghan Women: Not Better Under Karzai

TresSugar — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:45:00 -0700

Women everywhere fight for their rights - but women in Afghanistan have it particularly bad.

BBC reporter Jane Corbin was invited by a French charity, based in Herat, Afghanistan, that treats women who have self-immolated. Most of these women set fire to themselves to escape a forced marriage or a violent husband. In the photo above, a woman comforts her 20-year-old daughter in the hospital. In an attempted suicide to protest a forced marriage to an elderly man and escape rumors of an affair with a younger one, she set fire to herself and now suffers from burns over 85 percent of her body.

Although women were promised equality and human rights by the introduction of democracy, a new constitution, and President Hamid Karzai’s presidency in 2004, the reality of their situation is still bleak.

Sixty percent of women are still forced into marriage as children, sometimes as young as nine or 10. Since Westerners intervened, this was supposed to have changed under a law that stated girls under 16 should not be married. But police don't always investigate the crimes, and male judges often reduce the sentences of men guilty of harming women.

Some women are standing up to the Taliban, which is trying to turn back any minuscule gains women may have from new leadership. Prosecutor Maria Bashir, who requires security guards and has survived bombing attacks, is trying to protect women from men even though laws are supposed to do this. Bashir does this even though it puts her family in danger - the son of another lawyer was beheaded by people who thought he was her son.

A news story today makes an Afghan woman's plight almost unthinkable: a law has passed that allows a man to starve his wife if she refuses his sexual demands. Some accuse Karzai of allowing this barbaric law to pass so that he can get support from the conservative Shia support in next week’s presidential election.

There is a sliver of hope: there are women activists like Bashir who risk their lives fighting for women’s rights and, in spite of an 80 percent illiteracy rate among Afghan women, girls still dream of going to school and having a career.

Women's Gyms to Be Banned in Saudi Arabia

TresSugar — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:00:00 -0700

Feeling too lazy to go to the gym? You might jump on a treadmill or lift a few weights in solidarity with women in Saudi Arabia who face the shutdown of all women-only gyms.

Saudi women already face extreme limitations on their freedoms under Wahhabi Islam: they are not allowed to drive, vote, or run for public office; they must be covered in the presence of unfamiliar men; and they're required to have a male guardian.

And now, because the government has agreed to license fitness clubs for men only - categorizing women's gyms as unlicensed and illegal - they have nowhere to exercise without the scrutinizing eyes of men.

In protest, Saudi women recently launched a campaign called "Let Her Get Fat" which protested the decision to close down all-female fitness clubs that are not under the supervision of a government hospital or clinic.

Even entrepreneurs are frustrated. Interested in hearing why? Then read more.

Businessman Bader Al-Shibani, wanting to open a women's fitness club in Jeddah along with the men's club he runs, was told by the government they didn't have the authority to let him do that. "I ran into a stone wall at every turn," he said. "In the end, I just abandoned the project."

So what's the big deal about women working out? For one thing, in a kingdom that intensely regulates the female body, the idea that a woman would focus on strengthening her body - for her own gratification - must rankle patriarchs on a symbolic level. Leading Saudi clerics see an even more imminent threat. If women exercise, they argue, they'll be tempted to leave their homes and neglect their husbands and children.

Source

Afghanistan Legalizes Rape but Only Sometimes

CitizenSugar — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:00:50 -0700

The UN is in an uproar after Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, hastily signed a law that legalizes rape. But, you know, only between husband and wife.

The bill, according to UN papers, says there's no need for sexual consent between married couples; approves child marriage implicitly; and, in a throwback to Taliban days, restricts a woman's right to leave her home. If you think that's bad, look at the specifics. UN papers, which London's Independent has seen, said:

Article 132 requires women to obey their husband's sexual demands and stipulates that a man can expect to have sex with his wife at least "once every four nights" when travelling, unless they are ill. The law also gives men preferential inheritance rights, easier access to divorce, and priority in court.

I bet you anything "ill" means "has period."

Why erode women's rights now? Election time! Critics say President Karzai rushed the bill through parliament to butter up fundamentalists before September elections. One senator said the bill was never even read in parliament's Upper House much less debated. Hmm. Good thing women (and girls over 12?!) have the right to vote!

Source

Picture It: Hold Tight!

CitizenSugar — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:57:22 -0700

Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama greeted recipients hand in hand at an award ceremony yesterday for this year's Secretary of State's Awards For International Women. Seven women who have shown leadership despite struggles with discrimination and inequality received awards. And, no, not feeling the purple bow tie either!

View 5 Photos ›

Source

Miss Nepal Pageant Not Looked at Kindly by Maoists

CitizenSugar — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:00:00 -0700

If you're a Nepalese woman in search of a tiara, the outlook is bleak. The ruling Maoist party has postponed the Miss Nepal contest, set to be held this weekend, for the sixth time this year. In the battle between beauty queens and bureaucrats, oddly their takes on the issue are at once at odds and the same.

The women who were supposed to have been in the canceled pageant say they've been "victimized" by the government's decision. The government says they were trying to stop a practice that they say discriminates against some ethnic groups and demeans women. Specifically, according to the Maoist's most senior woman, it's not fair to shorter, darker women and further objectifies the winners by making them appear in toothpaste and shampoo ads.

To see the women's rights ramifications, read more.

The pageant was set to take place in the army's headquarters given the tumult surrounding it. One of the contestants said the cancelation violates women's rights, saying, "I feel like we are under a dictatorship more than being a republic or democratic." The crux of the argument appears to be whether a beauty pageant can further a woman's skills and lifestyle, or whether being judged on looks is a degradation above all else. That argument, however, may be covering up the growing perception that the Maoist party is puritanical and obsessed with social control.

Whose side are you on? Is it a woman's right to be in a pageant? Is the real issue here government control?

Source

Girl Power? Couric Claims Sexism More Common Than Racism

CitizenSugar — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:50:20 -0700

In the fight for girl power, three women have jumped into the ring in the past 24 hours with very different viewpoints. Katie Couric, in Israel covering Obama's world tour made this striking proclamation:

I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable.

Sexism trumps racism? So what's a girl to do? Oh! I know! We'll ask Brooke Hogan (of the dubiously-named Brooke Knows Best) what the role for women should be! Here's her take:

I think it's kind of crazy that a woman is running because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I'm so moody all the time, I know I couldn't be able to run a country, because I would be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, you know?

Surely a gal has to be Wonder Woman to exist in both realms, fighting for a world where woman can and should be allowed to do it all, amid the utterings of a generation of Brooke Hogans who glimpsed the dream of equality and said, "nah." That superhero fighting could be the very element that's undoing feminism. To see how, read more.

This Townhall column, taking on last weekend's NOW National Conference said the leaping-tall-buildings motif is exactly where the so-called fight for women's rights gets it wrong:

The superhero analogy demonstrates the destructive attitude dominating feminism today. It is the attitude that everyone is against women, out to get them. To feminists, women must take on the entire world. They must save everyone, even sometimes from themselves. Like Superwoman, these feminists are constantly fearful that they will find an enemy, like sexism, around every corner.

Are feminists fighting just for the sake of fighting? Katie Couric may be right, studies are still being released showing the prominence of gender discrimination - but how should the battle be fought? If sexism is a foe bigger than racism, comments like Hogan's do nothing to advance the cause. At the same time, perhaps Hogan's comments exist precisely because so much progress has been made. Those who aren't oppressed, don't feel the need to fight against it. And then there's the question of the fight. Is calling attention to inequity, simply creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? Do women now, or will they ever have equal rights? Should they?

Want this tee? Buy it here.

"Men at Work" Signs Out in Atlanta: Sensible or Out to Lunch?

CitizenSugar — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:45:47 -0700

Heading to Hotlanta sometime soon? Don't be surprised if you see construction workers hard at work - without the ubiquitous "Men at Work" sign. Based on complaints by the editor of Pink magazine, a publication devoted to professional women, the Atlanta, GA, Public Works are replacing the manly placards with the more gender-neutral wording "Workers Ahead."

State officials will begin asking contractors to remove signs that insinuate it's just the men doing the heavy lifting - but the, perhaps, more-enlightened wording comes with a price: the new signs will cost $144 a piece. Not content to let the campaign for gender neutrality stop at the stomping ground of the Designing Women, the crusading editor is taking her cause nationwide. "We're calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination."