· January, 2007

Stories about Women & Gender from January, 2007

Africa: women's rights, Africa and China

  31 January 2007

Sociolingo's Africa blog has a post about a new book by Fahamu on Women's rights, Africa and China, “The traditional perception of African women is that they face grinding poverty and harsh cultural, traditional and social prejudices. Yet while it is true that African women are not equal to men,...

Morocco: War between Village Women!

  30 January 2007

Cory Driver, an American who lives in Morocco, withnessed a hilarious war between the women of a village he was visiting. “All the grown women.. were throwing grown-women-sized-rocks at each other. The men were mostly just standing around watching; occasionally cheering, occasionally trying to talk some sense into rock-throwers… but...

South Asia: Forced marriages in the UK

  30 January 2007

A House of Lords discussion in the UK on forced marriages covered at Pickled Politics. “Lord Lester said that on the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, it was scandalous that we were turning a blind eye to the sexual and domestic slavery of women; he said is was fully...

Kuwait: What is a Muhajababe?

  29 January 2007

K the Kuwaiti has just come across an interesting book, which he has ordered online, provided, of course, it gets past the Kuwaiti customs! The book is entitled Muhajababes: Meet the Middle East's next generation. As an explanation, K tells is that: “muhajabah noun (Arabic) a woman who veils muhajababe...

Israel: Jamming Against Forced Prostitution

  26 January 2007

Tel Avivian blogger Yohay Elam today attended a jamming session to make noise against forced prostitution. “Hundreds of women are held against their will in central cities in Israel, and “employed” as prostitutes. The authorities know where they are, and don’t act to release them. The media usually ignores these...

Russia: Roma Wedding and Christmas

  26 January 2007

The flag of the Roma people. According to Wikipedia, it “was approved at the First World Romani Congress in 1971, held in London, UK. The flag consists of a background of dark blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively. The flag also contains a red chakra, or spoked...

Arabisc: Hijab-clad Doll Under Fire in Tunisia

  25 January 2007

This is Fulla, the Hijab-clad Arab Muslim adaptation of the decadent West's Barbie doll. Our Barbie wears the Hijab (head scarf) and Islamic attire – a long dress with long sleeves. While she is a blessing to many parents in the Muslim world who are happy to see their children...

Poland: HIV and Politics

  25 January 2007

The beatroot writes about the politics surrounding the case of the African refugee infecting women with HIV: “This time it's not AIDS and gays, however, it’s AIDS and Africans.”

Jordan: Segregated Weddings

  25 January 2007

Jordanian blogger Khalidah Mufleh is just back from a segregated wedding in Jordan, where the women and men attend separate parties. “I am against these kinds of parties because chaos conquers in them. I believe that it is tidier and classier for the whole family to be seated on the...

Israel: Segregated Bus Lines

  24 January 2007

Writing in Jewlicious, Israeli blogger Laya complains about segregated buses, in which men sit in front and women at the back in Israel. “(W)omen have reported being threatened, harassed and intimidated for exercising their right to sit where they want. They are public buses, after all,” she writes.

Europe: Bulgarain Xenophobic MEP

  24 January 2007

“It’s about time EU politics had some entertainment again,” writes Europhobia. The ‘entertainment’ is the 23-year-old Bulgarian MEP Dimitar Stoyanov, known for the anti-Semitic and anti-Roma views he's not trying to hide.

Malawi/Zambia: Remembering John Chilembwe, Debate Over Using Yahoo Messenger At Work and ICTs and Gender Based Violence

  23 January 2007

Malawian blogger Soyapi Mumba is excited about the introduction of Internet and Pay-Per-View TV services by Malawi Telecom (MTL): Malawi's Internet infrastructure, especially to people's homes, is very poor and for MTL to provide these service, it means they will either drastically improve the current infrastructure, or introduce new alternatives...

Japan: kogal phenomenon

  23 January 2007

Neomarxism has an informative post about the kogal phenomenon in Japan: For foreigners looking at Japan from abroad, the kogal appeared to be empowered young women forming a revolutionary army against the patriarchal mores of traditional society…

The Global Voices Show #4

  22 January 2007

Finally — the fourth episode of The Global Voices Show has landed! In this edition we feature excerpts from the following podcasts: - The IndiCast (India) – also see Global Voices article “The Blogospheres on Big Brother, Shilpa Shetty, Bullying and Racism“ – Pambazuka News (Zimbabwe) – Palabras Libres (Bolivia)...

Cambodia: Getting Married to the Family

  22 January 2007

Vutha writes about the tradional marriages in Cambodia and the customs associated with such a marriage including the dowry that the groom's family has to pay to to the bride's family.

India: Motherhood and Technology

  20 January 2007

The Mad Momma on mommy blogging, technology and communication and its contribution to making motherhood a slightly different experience. “Yet here we are, tech savvy women, changing templates (!), mailing other bloggers from our blackberrys while in the labour room (yes, I know someone who was doing that), more concerned...

Trinidad & Tobago: School porn ring and cell phone cameras

  19 January 2007

Keith Francis on the recent discovery of a school porn ring in Trinidad involving videos recorded on cell phone cameras: “The fact is that despite our wilful efforts to ignore the fact, children have been screwing children – indeed adults both male and female have been screwing children – from...