Tweeters Target Facebook; Sex Slur Slung at Warren

(WOMENSENEWS)–

Cheers

Thousands of people across the globe are joining a Twitter campaign asking Facebook to remove pages that promote rape and sexual assault, Change.org said in a Nov 3 press statement. The social media action is part of an ongoing campaign on Change.org with more than 180,000 supporters. People are locating offensive Facebook pages and tweeting them with the hashtag #notfunnyfacebook to pressure Facebook to remove pages that violate the company’s terms of service. One such page title reads, "What’s 10 inches and gets girls to have sex with me? My knife."

More News to Cheer This Week:

• Some 200 Tunisian women demonstrated Nov 1 in downtown Tunis to insist on their rights, following the election victory of an Islamist party, ABC News reported Nov 2.
• Egyptian Buthaina Kamel is set to become the first woman in her country’s modern history to run for the highest office, IPS reported Oct. 31.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers on Oct. 31 named Sue Falsone head athletic trainer-physical therapist, the first woman to hold that position in major professional sports, the baseball team announced on its website.
• An aspiring designer and devout Muslim woman is determined to break down stereotypes such as the assumption that all Muslim women are docile and wear black, with her new line of clothing reported NPR Nov 3.
• A woman in Minnesota has credited the support of Occupy protesters in allowing her more time to move out of her foreclosed home, Democracy Now! reported Nov. 2.
• On Oct. 31 The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota launched a five-year, $4 million campaign to end the prostitution of Minnesota female teens. The Twin Cities is among the nation’s 13 largest centers in the country for the prostitution of adolescents, according to the FBI.

Jeers

Moments into a Nov. 2 speech to volunteers Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate, was interrupted by a Tea Party supporter, reported The Huffington Post Nov. 3.

The man objected to Warren’s expressed understanding of the frustrations expressed by the Occupy Wall Street movement, and argued that the Tea Party has been protesting Wall Street excess for longer. He said: "Well, if you’re the intellectual creator of that so-called party," he said, "you’re a socialist whore. I don’t want anything to do with you."

More News to Jeer This Week:

• The Algerian parliament reversed a law requiring women be listed as 30 percent of all of all candidates for parliament, AFP reported Nov. 3. "This law is nationally and sexually discriminatory towards women," said female MP Amina Gharbi Bounab, a member of the National Liberation Front.
• Thirty-six percent of households living in urban poverty are headed by women with children, the Brooking Institute reported Nov. 2. This analysis is part of a larger Brookings study "The Re-emergence of Concentrated Poverty." In neighborhoods that have "extreme poverty," 22.5 percent of the households are headed by women raising children and in "high poverty" communities, women with children head 13.7 of the households, according to the report.
• Women’s financial security and human rights in the U.K. are under attack on a scale not seen in "living memory" due to the governing coalition’s austerity measures, reported The Guardian Nov. 3, citing a report released the same day by the Fawcett Society. That study finds government cuts pushing women out of the work force, driving down their income and undermining hard-won access to justice and protection from violence.
• In Texas, a family law judge whose daughter secretly videotaped him savagely beating her seven years ago won’t face criminal charges because too much time has elapsed, reported MSNBC Nov. 4. His daughter said that violence was a regular occurrence in her family home, reported CNN Nov. 3.
• Next week Mississippi will vote on a "personhood" amendment declaring that embryos are people, a move that would outlaw abortion and could criminalize other birth control methods, Associated Press reported Nov. 2.
• Women hold slightly more than half of creative-category jobs and their average level of education is almost the same as men, but pay is far from equal, reported The Atlantic Nov. 2. While in men in occupations such as architecture and design earn an average of $82,009, for women it’s $48,077.
• Cardinal Francis George and five other Roman Catholic bishops in Illinois criticized Gov. Pat Quinn on Nov. 2 for agreeing to present a leadership award for an abortion-rights political action committee, reported The Chicago Tribune Nov 3.
• A third former employee of the National Restaurant Association said she considered filing a workplace complaint over what she considered aggressive and unwanted behavior by Herman Cain when she worked for the GOP presidential candidate in the 1990s, The Washington Post reported Nov. 2.
• Women are almost on par with men around the world in health and education, but lag in economic and political participation and opportunities, according to a World Economic Forum report, Reuters reported Nov. 1.
• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. discriminated against female employees in Texas stores in pay and promotion decisions, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 28, Reuters reported Oct. 31.

Noted:

• Iranian Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi said women should voice demands about their rights during the popular uprisings sweeping the Arab world to avoid being short-changed by post-revolutionary governments, reported Reuters Nov. 3. Ebadi is a Women’s eNews 21 Leader for the 21^st Century 2004.
• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost his appeal of his extradition to Sweden to answer sex crime allegations, USA Today reported Nov. 2. The anti-secrecy advocate said he will consider whether to take his protracted fight to Britain’s highest court.
• A South Carolina sheriff is urging women to carry concealed weapons permits and carry guns to protect themselves, the Washington Post reported Nov. 1.

In Memoriam:

Dorothy Howell Rodham, mother of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, died Nov. 1 at the age of 92, Reuters reported Nov.1. Rodham, who lived with Clinton in Washington, died surrounded by her family.