Recently in International Category

I was interviewed last week by Newsweek reporter Jesse Ellison about my thoughts on the new MTV series "Exiled." I'm not a huge fan of the concept, to say the least. Latoya Peterson from Racialicious was also interviewed. The show takes girls from the "My Super Sweet Sixteen" series and sends them off to a foreign country for a week.

In the first episode of "Exiled," which aired last week, our girl Amanda, who is now 19 and seems to spend her days sleeping and sunbathing, is surprised by her family and friends (and, presumably, MTV's film crews), with the news that they are sending her to Africa. Amanda is whisked away to Kenya, where she spends a week with the Masai. She sleeps in a dung hut, is asked to touch cow dung (which she refuses to do), carries water for hours and watches the slaughter of a goat.

Several posters noted that the host families on the show seem like props. "The show falls into the theme of using other countries and cultures as teaching tools for people in the U.S." says feministing.com blogger Miriam Perez. "These people are being used as a teaching tool for mostly white, privileged girls. Why was this girl honored? Because she stopped crying after a few days? She was offensive. She wasn't appreciative."

Latoya Peterson, blogger for Racialicious.com, has a similar objection. "They're taking these extremely spoiled kids and going, 'OK, what's the worst thing we can do to them? Send them to Africa!" she says. "That's a terrible mind-set to have. It's the First World balking at the Third World."

Read the rest of the piece here.

What do you all think about the new show? You can watch the first episode for free online.

Members of the European Parliament voted this week in favor of a report that calls for less sexism in advertising.

European lawmakers are concerned that the way women and men are portrayed in marketing and advertising is making it more difficult to dispell old-fashioned ideas of traditional gender roles.

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday adopted a new report that calls on member states to make a greater effort to monitor how gender is portrayed in advertising. Constant images of women in the kitchen while men clean their cars outside are reinforcing sexist stereotypes, the study argues.

The lawmakers' statement said, "MEPs call on the EU institutions and member states to develop awareness actions against sexist insults or degrading images of women and men in advertising and marketing." The report isn't legally binding, but it's still a step in the right direction.

Related: For some vintage sexist advertising fun, check out this gem:

Thanks to Tina for the link.

Say it isn't so, Helen!

In a recent interview, actor Helen Mirren talked about being raped and, shockingly, why she doesn't think women should bring date rape cases to court.

She told GQ: "I was [date-raped], yes. A couple of times.

"Not with excessive violence, or being hit, but rather being locked in a room and made to have sex against my will."

Dame Helen said it was rape if a couple engaged in sexual activity but the woman said "no" at the last second.

However, she said: "I don't think she can have that man into court under those circumstances."

Mirren said that she didn't report her own rape because "you couldn't do that in those days."

I feel terrible for Mirren, but I think her comments are really damaging. Jess at the f-word puts it best: "In reality, in this country, right now, men can rape with impunity. And in this country, right now, rapists are getting away with it because of woman-blaming attitudes."

By asking for "unattractive" women to move to Mount Isa in northern Queensland to remedy the shortage of women to mate with the locals. Ew.

John Molony, from Mount Isa in northern Queensland, said the lack of young, single females meant that local men - predominantly miners and cowboys - were not as fussy as they might be when it came to love. Men heavily outnumber single women in the mining town, which has a population of almost 25,000 and hosts Australia's biggest rodeo.

Mr Molony suggested to the Townsville Bulletin newspaper last week: "If there are five blokes to every girl, we should find out where there are beauty-disadvantaged women and ask them to proceed to Mount Isa.

You know, this sounds like a really classy group of men, I am sure anyone would drop their life to find love in this environment. Yeah, I don't think so. I am all for shifting beauty standards and being open-minded about who you date or marry, but the notion that women who fall outside the unhealthy normative beauty standards, should run to the arms of desperate men, isn't really indicating these people have a lot of respect for women. Because surely, we women that don't like like the girls in the magazine are sitting around waiting for *anyone* to love us.

via.

After the Red Cross conducted a census of sex workers in an effort to curb the spread of HIV, authorities Bauchi, NIgeria identified 320 women from the study and started to arrest them.

Our correspondent says the Sharia commission seems to have been prompted to act by the perception that it was unable to enforce a ban on commercial sex workers in the state.

The Sharia commission normally liaises with the police, he says, but this time they acted directly, using their own security force to arrest the sex workers.

It is not clear how many of the women have already been arrested.

They could face flogging or prison terms.

Following the arrests, the Red Cross has halted its census.

Horrifying that an attempt to improve women's health could be turned around and used to punish them. What I want to know is how they got a hold of the census?

Thanks to Matt for the link.

Community blogger MaraJ3791 covered this a couple of days ago, and thankfully some good news has come out of this heinousness.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) attempts to mitigate violent crimes in the UK by giving victims reparations. But in their most recent case, a 25-year old woman who was raped was told the £11,000 she was to be given was actually going to be reduced by 25% because she was drinking on the night she was assaulted. She received a letter saying that, "the evidence shows that your excessive consumption of alcohol was a contributing factor in the incident."

"It was just so cruel and unthinking and so wrong because there is nothing you can do to prevent yourself being raped. It is not illegal to go out and have a drink, it is illegal to rape somebody," said the survivor.

The good news is that after some pushing, the decision has been overturned. But unfortunately, this is too little too late for others. The CICA also acknowledged that they had already cut reparations for 14 other rape victims this year, but refused to review the past cases to potentially right their wrong.

"If an applicant accepts our decision then that case is finalised and closed," the CICA said. "If they wish to ask for a review they must do this themselves, in writing."

The fact that these people can be so smug after admitting guilty to blatant injustice through victim-blaming is beyond me. Let the CICA know that they should take responsibility for their shameful actions and give the 14 women their reviews; they certainly shouldn't have ask for it.

Babies have been sold on the black market for a long time and in highly impoverished areas it often seems like a good idea when you stand to gain thousands of dollars. But inevitably, when you are selling not only the product (a baby) but also hijacking the means of production (a woman's body), illegally, gender based human rights violations are pretty much inevitable.

Call it bizarre business, but the fact is that it is booming. It could be described as a baby factory where women who suffer disability in child bearing source babies. The proprietors are clever enough, as the homes are registered as non governmental organizations(NGOs). In the homes, the operators simply source teenage girls who are pregnant and not interested in keeping the babies. In some cases, some who are desperate to make money are lured into the business. They are taken into the homes where there are men ready to make sure that the girls become pregnant.

I find this last line particularly disturbing. How exactly do they make sure the girls become pregnant? How exactly does one "become" pregnant? Are they forced into having sex perhaps?

And to ascertain that the girls are healthy, HIV and AIDs tests are conducted on the girls before being admitted. The girls stay there until they give birth. Once they are through with this assignment, they are allowed sometime before they leave the homes. Depending on their ability to negotiate, the NGOs, according to our source, pay about N50,000 for the baby. In most cases, the girls do not see the babies they carried for nine months, as there is a ready market for them.

Wow, just wow. The police have been raiding homes and arresting the girls, such as this example where neighbors were complaining that the young women were being held hostage against their will. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me-arrest the girls. Also, Nigeria doesn't have the best track record in taking care of their mother's to be.

This is just horrible.

Lin Miaoke performed at the China Olympics ceremony with a rendition of "Ode to the Motherland," which has already made her a national celebrity. The only thing is - little Lin mimed the actual song.

The voice behind the song was Yang Peiyi (the adorable girl to the right), who apparently wasn't pretty enough for the public:

Speaking on Beijing Radio station, musical director Chen Qigang said the organisers needed a girl with both a good image and a good voice. They faced a dilemma because although Lin was prettier, seven-year-old Yang had the better voice, Mr Chen said.

"After several tests, we decided to put Lin Miaoke on the live picture, while using Yang Peiyi's voice," he told the radio station.

"The reason for this is that we must put our country's interest first," he added. "The girl appearing on the picture must be flawless in terms of her facial expression and the great feeling she can give to people." (Emphasis mine)

I love that reasoning - for the good of the country. Like Yang Peiyi's performance would have done some sort of disservice to the nation. Fucking disgusting.

Picture via BBC. And h/t to leonie for the link!

I'd say that's a good idea. Via BBC News:

Gamma-butyrolactone and 1,4 butanediol are available in cleaning fluids and industrial solvents, but when swallowed together they turn into GHB.

Scientific advisors have suggested these were increasingly becoming "a legal substitute" for GHB and may have been used in sexual attacks.

The chemical industry will be consulted before any change to the law is made.

GHB is already banned in the UK due to the prevalence of its usage for sexual assault but the separate chemicals are not as of yet. A number of kids were hospitalized last year when the ingredients were found in the toy "Aquadots" and - like little kids tend to do with toys - they ate them.

Picture via BBC.

After Janna was so awesome to blog for us from the XVII International AIDS Conference (IAC) this week, the conference comes to a close today, but not without some things to take back with us.

International Planned Parenthood, Young Positives, the UNFPA and the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS collaborated together to release a new guide in an effort to improve HIV prevention among girls and young women.

The guide, "Make It Matter," focuses not only on increasing reproductive and sexual health services for girls and women, but addresses other problems that contribute to millions of women who have HIV every year like socioeconomic status and child marriage. Download the report here.

Contributed by Janna A. Zinzi, Guttmacher Institute

The XVII International AIDS Conference (IAC) officially kicked off on Sunday as 25,000 delegates from all corners of the world descended upon Mexico City for an intensive week of learning, activism and dialogue. My Guttmacher colleague, Joerg, and I arrived a few days before the main event to participate in the aptly-named Fuerza Joven de Mexico (Youth Force of Mexico), a three-day pre-conference gathering for young advocates aimed at raising the visibility of youth HIV/AIDS issues before, during and after the IAC.

More than 300 young people, many connected to international NGOs, make up this vocal coalition promoting youth participation and youth-adult partnerships. Under this year's theme of "Rights, Respect, Responsibility, and Resources," Fuerza Joven's focus is advocating for early, comprehensive, evidence-based sex education to prevent the spread of HIV among young people who make up more than four in 10 new HIV infections. A number of sessions also focused on gender issues as well as the needs of marginalized groups, such as sex workers and gay youth.

Hanaa Rifaey doesn't sleep much. I'll let her explain why. But the next time you find yourself pissed at another policy done wrong, know that Hanaa is on it. And you can be, too. Even if it's a small step, it'll add up.

Here's Hanaa...

Newly-appointed UN human rights chief Navanethem Pillay has long been an advocate for women. A co-founder of women's rights organization Equality Now, Pillay also served as President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and was the first woman of color on the High Court of South Africa.

Pillay replaces Louise Arbour in the position.

Read more about Pillay here and here.

Thanks to Martha for the heads up.

Yeah, don't quit know what to make of this.

Peruvian cumbia singer Leysi Suarez is in shitloads of trouble for taking some photographs that feature her sitting naked on a horse and using the Peruvian flag as a saddle. The pictures appeared in the premiere issue of local magazine D´Farándula ("Showbiz") just a few days after Peruvian Independence Day. Minister of Defense Antero Flores-Araoz has filed a criminal complaint against her for "insulting the symbols and values of the Fatherland."

She may go to jail for up to four years for using a Peruvian flag as a saddle. I guess it is intimidating for the "fatherland" to have a woman's vagina on the flag. All I can say is I hope she got paid well for the pics.

We've posted before about India's Gulabai Gang, but it's even better seeing them in action!

That's a big number!

Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed Thursday.

The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights

83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed, almost half of these women said the abuse occurred every day. Yikes.

I wonder how many women in the U.S would report being sexually harassed - and how many men would own up to having harassed women. (Tried to find these numbers, I had no luck - if you know them, leave a link in comments.)

Living in New York, when I was commuting to work rather than working from home, I can definitely say I was harassed daily. (Though I doubt that's just a NYC thing!) How about you?

For more information on women's rights in Egypt, check out Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (the English page is here).

Apparently it is OK to determine gradients of assimilation when granting people citizenship status in France. According to the BBC, last week, a Muslim woman was denied approval of her application for citizenship because she has not shown that she has been able to assimilate effectively into French society.

Social services reports said the burqa-wearing Faiza M lived in "total submission to her male relatives".

Faiza M said she has never challenged the fundamental values of France.

Her initial application for French citizenship was rejected in 2005 on the grounds of "insufficient assimilation" into France.

She appealed, and late last month the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest administrative body which also acts as a high court, upheld the decision to deny her citizenship.

It appears that no matter how many times Muslim women talk about how their religious choices may not always be directly connected to their experiences with patriarchy, no one listens.

From today's New York Times:

Indian versions of Vogue, Rolling Stone, OK!, Hello, Maxim, FHM, Golf Digest, People and Marie Claire have all sprung up this year, and GQ and Fortune are soon to follow. They join familiar names like Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest. [...]

Some, like Maxim, seem to pride themselves on pushing the envelope of good taste even further than they do in their home markets. The magazine's July issue includes the feature "48 Ways to Get a Gori" (gori is Hindi for fair-skinned woman, and is used in this context to mean a foreign white one). Some ideas the article offers: keep in mind most American women are extremely angry at Indians for stealing their jobs; don't ask an Italian woman if her family is part of the mob; to approach an Israeli woman, try a suicide bomber joke.

Ugh.

(h/t Isaac.)

Family planning is a human right. This is the message that the UNFPA is sending out today for World Population Day, which is pretty damn important considering the fact that the Bush administration has -- for the 7th consecutive year -- blocked UNFPA funding for millions of women in the world who need family planning services.

Check out the UNFPA's release statement commemorating the day.

A former Indian sanitation worker (right) walks the catwalk behind a professional model. (BBC photo)

Today Sharanya at the Indian feminist blog Ultra Violet has a post about a recent UN conference in which Indian sanitation workers walked the runway alongside professional models at a charity fashion show. (Sanitation workers, also called scavengers, are usually Dalit women whose job it is to remove the human and animal excrement from the homes of higher-class Indians.)

The women got the opportunity to hit the catwalk during a fashion show called Mission Sanitation where they appeared alongside top models from India and other countries. Some of the designer clothes worn by the models were embroidered by the women.

The article is full of quotes from women who are former sanitation workers, about how respected and honored they feel to be asked to model on the catwalk. At Ultra Violet, Sharanya writes,

i don't think that modelling is necessarily un- or anti-feminist. But I also don't think that the simple juxtapositioning of a highly enviable profession and a highly undesirable one makes any real statement. [...]

Maybe my feminism is a bit old-school, but attending a UN conference and then "doing some modelling" sort of sounds like a big drop to me. Coming out of one of the most degrading professions in the world... and then hitting the catwalk, en masse? Is that really activism or achievement? Or just another spin on that old oppression-chic cliche?

I have to say that the BBC article doesn't really provide enough information for me to judge just how much of a charade this event was. I suppose if the fashion show was just one component -- if people at the conference took the time to listen to the stories of the former sanitation workers, and to develop some achievable goals and policy changes to help women in similar situations, then maybe it's not so appalling. But, like Sharanya, I have to ask: why modeling? If the UN conference wanted to honor these women and engage with them about their experiences, I fail to see how asking them to walk the runway furthers that aim.

Is this some kind of comic book? A woman in Iraq protested by holding up a naked picture of a woman in front of her while dressed in hijab. She was making a statement against the US soldier use of x-ray machines to look under female clothing to ensure they are not strapped with explosives.

Jaberi explained that she was protesting her treatment while going through the various security checkpoints on the way to her job at the Iraqi parliament building. It was the scan that Jaberi particularly objected to, because, she said, guards are essentially able to see a woman naked as she stands in the scanning booth. The picture she displayed actually looks like a naked female alien, blue-tinted and bald, because the scanner doesn't see hair or clothing. What it sees is the body itself, plus the dark outline of any jewelry or, presumably, any concealed weapon.

Hmm, sounds a little creepy right?

via NPR.

So to speak. According to last week's Chronicle, the age old and very organized movement in India for LGBTQ rights is coming out.

That silence broke Sunday, when gays and lesbians found their voice in three major cities - New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore - in the first large public display of gay pride India has ever seen.

"Up until now, we've been in the public space protesting a violation, or someone being beaten up," said Gautam Bhan, 28, one of the New Delhi parade organizers. "Now we feel like we have enough of a foothold to celebrate a positive presence."

While the U.S. gay-rights movement has progressed to the wedding altar, Indian activists are still fighting for decriminalization of gay sex. Efforts to reform a 19th century law banning homosexuality are galvanizing the gay community as it fights for reforms in a country where arranged marriages are still the norm.

I will ignore that this article started with saying, "protests are as Indian as spicy curry," but I think the immediate comparison to how the US gay-rights movement is leaps and bounds ahead because we are starting to legalize gay marriage is an oversight and framed with the assumption that the US is defining the way we talk about sexual liberation. We have dictated the timeline and so everyone else needs to fall in line. Sounds familiar? It ignores the nuanced ways that queer identities exist in indigenous cultures. The article does quote this however,

In their book "Same-Sex Love in India," authors Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwa wrote that homosexuality was generally tolerated in precolonial India as long as it didn't get in the way of the above-mentioned duties.

The mentioned duties being baby making.

Let me start by saying, I think this is great. Homophobia and hate crimes against the LGBTQ community is a huge threat in India. But also, I find it interesting that the rainbow is being invoked along with similar imagery and slogans from the US gay rights movement are being used for this moment of gay liberation. Is it similar to the US where the movement is majority middle class and where a working class and people of color queer movement generally looks different? Or is it the imagery that caught on and is a way of standing in international solidarity with other gay rights movements?

An 18-year old girl from Auckland has accused four players of the England rugby union team of raping her, and the team has gone into victim-blaming overdrive.

But what has since followed that night at the Hilton is a mountain of suspicion about the woman's intent and an insane thought from the football union's chief, Francis Baron, that this has all been a "sting". Yes, a plot by the "bitter" All Blacks to bring down English rugby.

...The British paper The Independent said those insiders believed the allegations of rape after the first Test in Auckland were "designed to destabilise" England. "If there had been any substance in the case it should have been dealt with," a Twickenham official said. "The whole episode has been unsatisfactory, but you have to remember that New Zealand are still bitter with us over their exit from the World Cup." (Emphasis mine)

Ri-ight. It's amazing how this young woman has been completely erased and dehumanized - she's just part of a larger plan to bring down a team, she was a willing participant, a groupie, a liar. I'm just so sick of it.

Jessica Halloran, who penned the above article about the case, notes that in the past decade, all English soccer players who have had sexual assault allegations made against them have had the charges dropped. And for the past 28 years, "not one professional footballer from any major Australian football code has been convicted of sexual assault." And something tells me it's not because they're all innocent.

Remember how Henry Morgentaler, Canada's best-known abortion-rights crusader was to the Order of Canada? Apparently some folks aren't too happy about it.

A Calgary-based activist group has filed an official request to the Governor General, asking that she strip abortion crusader Dr. Henry Morgentaler of his membership in the Order of Canada.

..."Henry Morgentaler's conduct is unbecoming that of a member of the Order of Canada and thereby tarnishes all recipients of this tremendous award," the coalition wrote in its letter to the Order of Canada advisory committee.

Yes, supporting women's rights is pretty "unbecoming." Sigh.

I'll be honest, I didn't know what the Order of Canada was - but apparently it's very shmancy.

Henry Morgentaler, the country's best-known abortion-rights crusader, has been named to the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour.

...Dr. Morgentaler was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. He was awarded "for his commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organization," the Governor General said in a press release.

Nice.

UN Dispatch covers the fact that this is the seventh consecutive year that the Bush administration has denied funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which provides reproductive health services for women around the globe.

Tamara Kreinin, the Executive Director of the Women and Population program at the United Nations Foundation, says:

"The UN Foundation is looking forward to working with the next administration to restore funding for UNFPA and to strengthen the U.S.'s role as a global health leader. During the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, the United States pledged to work to respond to the world's most pressing development challenges, including poverty, gender inequality and disease. It is past time that the administration acknowledges how fundamental UNFPA is to addressing these global challenges and that the U.S. funds UNFPA's work."

As long as John McCain is not in office; he already voted to defund UNFPA in the past.

There's a really interesting story in the New York Times about sworn virgins in Albania, a custom that's said to have declined because of an increase in gender equality:

The sworn virgin was born of social necessity in an agrarian region plagued by war and death. If the family patriarch died with no male heirs, unmarried women in the family could find themselves alone and powerless. By taking an oath of virginity, women could take on the role of men as head of the family, carry a weapon, own property and move freely.

They dressed like men and spent their lives in the company of other men, even though most kept their female given names. They were not ridiculed, but accepted in public life, even adulated. For some the choice was a way for a woman to assert her autonomy or to avoid an arranged marriage.

“Stripping off their sexuality by pledging to remain virgins was a way for these women in a male-dominated, segregated society to engage in public life,” said Linda Gusia, a professor of gender studies at the University of Pristina, in Kosovo. “It was about surviving in a world where men rule.”

Jill takes the words out of my mouth:

It’s an interesting look at the fluidity of gender butting up against the rigidness of gender roles — while it’s possible for people born as women to “cross over” and live as men (and be totally socially accepted and understood as men), the only way they can do that is to fully embrace traditional gender roles.

Thoughts?

Contributed by Jessica Yee.

As proud as I am as a Native woman, by all accounts from the federal governments across North America, this is a difficult thing to prove.

In both Canada and the United States, being legally recognized as a Native person means you have to be biologically measured; by your blood quantum in fact, as to how Native you really are before you can officially become one. For women in Canada this system is particularly more oppressive, since up until 1985, if we decided to marry outside our race, it meant losing our legal status as “Indian”.

The whole structure of being a “registered Indian” was something the colonizers started as a way to differentiate which racist laws were to be forced upon which population of colour. For our people, besides our land, treaties, and basic human rights being taken away, being registered also meant attending residential, boarding, or mission schools which systematically stripped us of any cultural identity and are now responsible for the generational repression that permeates so many of our communities.

At Thursday's meeting of the UN Security Council along with Condoleeza Rice, a resolution was adopted declaring rape and sexual violence as a “war tactic” that aims to “humiliate, dominate, instil fear in, disperse and/or forcibly relocate civilian members of a community or ethnic group.”

We all know that this has been a long, long time coming, but nonetheless a sigh of relief to see the UN and other groups begin to recognize and document rape as a weapon of war.

Now we need the international community to adopt international law of rape as a war crime; let's hope this speeds the process. Check out the full resolution here.

A WORLD WITHOUT ABORTION

The UK's TrueTube has a series of videos on abortion and reproductive rights. They're all pretty interesting, but this one in particular struck me.

Amir Yaqoubali, a male supporter of the Iranian feminist campaign One Million Signatures, has been sentenced to a year in prison.

According to a feminist website, he was arrested as he collected signatures.

The campaign seeks to change the Islamic republic's laws on marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody by collecting signatures both online and in person.

In recent months four feminists -- Rezvan Moghadam, Nahid Jafari, Nasrin Afzali and Marzieh Mortazi Langueroudi -- were handed down suspended sentences of six months in prison and 10 lashes by Tehran Revolutionary Court for disorderly conduct in public.

Related posts: Iran cracks down on women's rights websites, Arrested Iranian feminists and the One Million Signatures Campaign, Another Iranian feminist arrested,

While 134,000 deaths are mourned in the midst of bringing aid to survivors of the Nargis cyclone, two Canadian advocacy groups are addressing another crisis that has existed in Burma for quite some time - systemic violence against women by the ruling military junta. And they're doing it by sending their underwear to the Myanmar's embassy:

The Quebec Women's Federation and the activist group Rights and Democracy claim the secretive military leaders in the country formerly known as Burma are superstitious and believe contact with women's underwear will usurp their power, CTV News reported.

'The campaign was launched by women from Burma,' Rights and Democracy spokeswoman Mika Levesque told the broadcaster from Montreal. 'They believe this is a very powerful message to the military because they are very superstitious.'

The campaign is called Panties for Peace. The Burmese women's rights group Lanna Action for Burma made a statement regarding launching campaign in the midst of catastrophe: "This campaign empowers the women of Burma a sense of purpose and hope," they said, "and we need hope now more than ever."

For more info on the cyclone, check out Ann's recent post on natural disasters and women.

The Washington Post has an article (and video above) about the very low conviction rate in UK rape cases.

As Vanessa reported last year, 33% of reported rapes ended in conviction in 1977. By 2005, that number had dropped to 5.4%.

In Britain, a nation whose justice system has been used as a model around the globe, government officials and women's rights activists agree that rape goes largely unpunished.

Solicitor General Vera Baird, who oversees criminal prosecutions in England, estimated that 10 to 20 percent of rapes are brought to authorities' attention. According to government figures, 14,000 cases a year are reported and 19 out of 20 defendants walk free.

"There will never be proper female equality and appropriate dignity afforded to one-half of the population if it's possible to rape somebody and get away with it," said Baird, one of the highest-ranking women in the British government.

The article also reports that "acquittals are often won on the 'mucky sex' defense -- that the man got mixed signals from the woman and what resulted really wasn't rape." Mucky sex? Is this the UK version of "gray rape"? Kill me now.

By Roja Bandari.

A few days ago we hit a new low in systematic filtering of women's rights websites in Iran. Along with the website Change for Equality, 11 other sites and blogs belonging to local branches of the One Million Signatures Campaign in several cities or regions in Iran (Arak, Rasht, Mashhad, Esfahan, Shiraz, Zahedan) were blocked simultaneously. The list of blocked blogs included Men for Equality, set up by male activists in the campaign and those of a few Iranian immigrant populations in other countries (Kuwait, Cyprus, Germany, and the US). Campaign websites in Kurdistan and Azerbaijan had been blocked in April 2008.

Change for Equality has had over 10 web addresses since early 2007. The state continuously blocks the site, and in response activists create a new web address and move to a new location. This happens despite the fact that the activists of the One Million Signatures Campaign work strictly legally and despite the fact that they do not oppose the government of Iran.

Other women's publications both online and in print have also been a target of censorship in the past few years; the popular women's rights e-zine Zanestan ("Woman's Land"), and the long-published and well-respected magazine Zanan ("Women") have both been shut down and are no longer published as of and November 2007 and January 2008 respectively.

Read the rest at openDemocracy.

Thanks to Roja for permission to reprint an excerpt of her piece!

If you haven't ever watched Everywoman on Al Jazeera English, you really should. They do great coverage of women's rights issues.

An Israeli tourist responded to a group of New Zealand men whistling at her by stripping naked.

On a balmy late-autumn day, she calmly stripped bare to use an ATM - bringing an abrupt halt to both the whistles and the road work - then put her clothes back on and walked away. Sgt. Peter Masters said the woman told police she didn't take kindly to the men's wolf-whistles.

Because you know most gals "take kindly to" unwanted whistling strangers. "She gave the explanation that she had been ... pestered by New Zealand men. She's not an unattractive-looking lady," said Sgt. Masters.

What her level of attractiveness has to do with this, I don't know, but the police were kind enough (sarcasm included) to treat the incident as a "one-off." Meaning that she was still brought down to the police station and chastised for the inappropriateness of her action.

How about that.

I'm a little late on this, but it's worth noting. Here's the intro to the New York Times story on Monday about Bush's speech in Egypt:

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — After basking in a showy celebration of America’s close ties with Israel, President Bush criticized other Middle East leaders on Sunday, prodding them to expand their economies, offer equal opportunity to women and embrace democracy if they want peace to become reality.

Hard to count how many things are wrong with that paragraph. My first thought was, what a fucking hypocrite. This comes from a president whose country's economy is tanking, who has repeatedly denied women equal rights and opportunities, and whose party is working overtime to gum up our electoral process. And then I realized, hey, it's not like Bush has made peace a reality -- maybe this is some accidentally insightful commentary?

Sigh. Ok, I know it's not. Let's just focus on the countdown -- and on keeping the Bush-ish John McCain from being elected in November.

Some great news out of the UK!

Attempts to cut the upper limit for abortions from 24 to 22 weeks have been rejected by MPs after a free vote.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries, a former nurse who proposed a 20-week limit, said: "There comes a point when it has to be said this baby has a right to life."

But her plan was defeated by 332 votes to 190. A move to bring in a 22-week limit was opposed by 304 votes to 233.

Fuck yeah, I love good news!

Via the f word. Pic from jessmccabe.

A woman in Burma. Photo: Will Baxter / WPN

With recent devastating news of the cyclone in Burma (where the official death toll tops 30,000 and 2 million people face disease and starvation) and the earthquake in China (more than 12,000 dead so far), Suzie at Echidne's blog reminds us:

When a disaster occurs, don’t forget the gendered aspects. During the chaos, women can be more vulnerable to rape and violence by intimate partners. They may trade their bodies for aid. Because women often care for the young, the old and the sick, they may have greater needs or different needs than men. In many cultures, women have to protect their honor or dignity in different ways that may hinder their ability to get help.

With extensive community ties, women also can have an advantage in distributing aid after a disaster.

Cara also links to this research showing that, in countries where women do not have equal rights, they are more likely to be killed by natural disasters:

Professor Neumayer said: 'The feminists got it right. Natural disasters are a tragedy in their own right but in countries with existing gender discrimination women are the worst hit. While most disasters cannot be prevented, policy makers, international and humanitarian organizations must develop better policies to address the special needs of women in the wake of large-scale natural disasters.'

To Help:

MADRE: "MADRE is working with the Women's Human Rights Defenders Network and Burmese women's organizations. We learned from our work with