Arab Leaders Discuss Peace; Abortion Law Reinstated

Credit: NonviolentPeaceforce.org on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Cheers

More than 100 Arab female leaders and activists met in Amman, Jordan, from Oct. 26 to 29 to participate in a regional training and discussion on women, peace and security. The event was held to address the role of women in peace building and to help ensure women’s participation, inclusion and security in related processes.

“We need to guarantee that women have a platform through which they can engage in any meetings for peace and security,” Hibaaq Osman, the founder and CEO of Karama, one of the event organizers, told Women’s eNews in Amman. “Over four days, we were able to launch a regional network on women, peace and security prioritizing this solidarity and the amplification of these constituencies in key dialogues and processes.”

In addition to Karama, an organization based in Cairo that’s working on ending violence against women by expanding women’s role in decision making, politics and peace building, the event was organized in partnership with the UN Fund for Gender Equality and the UNDP.

More News to Cheer This Week:

Captain Luziviminda Camacho, commander of the 17th Philippine Contingent to Haiti, will be the first female head of a U.N. peacekeeping mission from the Philippines, Inquirer Global Nation reported Oct. 28.

Australian Labor Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek told an aid conference in Canberra that there was no better tool for development than the education of girls and women, The Sydney Morning Herald reported Oct. 31.

Indian jewelry company Tanishq has launched a commercial showing a bride who already has a child getting married to a man who isn’t the father, Buzzfeed reported Oct. 28. The commercial has received overwhelmingly positive reviews on Twitter because it doesn’t comply with the predominant social dynamic of marriage.

A female rap singer who goes by the name of Paradise has joined Afghanistan’s music scene, BBC reported Oct. 28. Paradise’s lyrics revolve around women’s rights and gender equality.

The New York chapter of the National Organization for Women is petitioning Twitter CEO Dick Costolo to push for a woman to be appointed to the board before Twitter’s IPO launch, NOW said in a press statement on Oct. 28. Currently, all board members are males.

Jeers

A panel of judges at the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled on the evening of Oct. 31 that Texas can enforce its law requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital while a lawsuit challenging the restrictions moves forward, CBS reported Nov. 1. The panel issued the ruling three days after District Judge Lee Yeakel determined that the provision violated the U.S. Constitution and said it serves no medical purpose. Yeakel said that the law passed by the Texas legislature violated physicians’ duty to do what is in the patient’s best interests. Without this judgment, a third of abortion clinics in Texas could be shut down and only permit pill-induced abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

More News to Jeer This Week:

Egypt has detained 22 female members of the Muslim Brotherhood ages 15 to 25, The Jerusalem Post reported Nov. 1, fuelling tensions days before deposed President Mohamed Morsi and 14 other leaders of the Islamist group go on trial.

Nigerian police have raided a baby factory in the oil city of Port Harcourt in Nigeria and arrested a woman accused of harboring six pregnant girls and running a clinic illegally, Raw Story reported Oct. 30.

A 13-year-old Pakistani girl was raped and then buried alive in Punjab province, Time reported Oct. 29. The girl’s father told police his daughter was on the way to a religious lesson when two men abducted her, raped her and then buried her near the roadside, believing she had died in the assault.

Police in China’s capital have published guidance for “inadequate” female drivers online, CNN reported Oct. 30. According to a post on the official Beijing Police department account on Weibo, female drivers “usually have inadequate driving skills and often lack a sense of direction.”

Police have interrogated and detained Saudi columnist Tariq al-Mubarak, who supported ending his country’s ban on women driving, Yahoo News reported Oct. 30. Human Rights Watch and activists who know al-Mubarak say he’s in detention with no access to a lawyer.

A rise in breast cancer among women in India is becoming too much for its existing medical infrastructure to handle, Bloomberg reported Oct. 30. The staggering number of patients has led to examinations being conducted without privacy and in a quick, almost haphazard manner.

Independent bookstores dedicated to literature for and by women are closing down in the wake of the economic downturn, NPR reported Oct. 28.

A man in the Sahiwal district of Pakistan has stabbed at least 25 women and girls this month, Reuters reported Oct. 28. Women and girls are reluctant to leave their homes and attend schools.

In a study conducted by a recruitment firm, it was found that only 1-in-8 senior executives based in London are women, The Guardian reported Oct. 28.

A 16-year-old female was gang raped on her way home after attending her grandfather’s funeral in Kenya and then dumped into a 20 foot latrine, CNN reported Oct. 27. Three of the six rapists were ordered to mow grass as punishment.

Noted:

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study exposed the faulty theory that infants are “born alive” and abortion is equivalent to murder, RH Reality Check reported Oct. 29.

Four female lawmakers from Turkey‘s Islamic-rooted government attended a parliament session on Oct. 31 wearing headscarves for the first time in 14 years, Yahoo News reported.

Both men and women look at women’s bodies more than their faces, a study published in the journal Sex Roles showed. The study’s lead author said the explanation may be evolutionary, as men are said to be drawn to more shapely women for childbearing, while women may be checking out their competition.

Four female senators are set to present a bipartisan bill that would increase the rate of background checks on contractors and federal employees, The Washington Post reported Oct. 30.