Stories about Women & Gender from March, 2007
South Africa: Busisiwe, Rest in Peace
Earlier this month, the South African blogosphere lost a blogger, writer, artist and poet, Busisiwe Sigasa (25). She started her blog, My Realities, at the end of last year with the help of Sokari Ekine. Busisiwe, whose name means “the Blessed One” in Zulu, was also known as Latifah. She...
Jordan: Car Trouble
Jordanian blogger Tololy discovers the advantages of living in a patriarchal society after having car trouble and a total stranger came to her rescue without her having to ask for it.
Jordan: Protect Migrant Workers
Jordanian blogger Lina Ejeilat calls for tougher laws to protect women migrant workers in her country after reading about yet another conference to discuss their plight.
India: Feminism and Bangles
Jag's Blog points out to the ways that people take to insulting the cricketers who didn't make it to the World Cup. In this case they were shown as wearing bangles. “Does it mean that those who wear bangles – women – are … what? Useless? Incapable? Weak? Unskilled? Unable...
India: Women Sufis
Indian Muslims on women sufis in and from Delhi. “Among the other early women mystics are Umm Haram whose tomb is in Cyprus, Rabia bint Ismail of Syria, Muadha al Adaiyya of Syria, Nafisa of Mecca, Zainab and Ishi Nili of Persia. These women made major contributions to the vitality...
Sri Lanka: Women and Work
True Sri Lankan adds his take on the issue of women with children below the age of five years not being allowed to seek employment abroad. “This is a careful line to tread and I believe that the ban while solving some problems will only increase other problems such as,...
Guyana: Purity or Responsibility?
The latest US phenomenon – Purity Balls – causes Stella Ramsaroop to raise the question of teen sexuality : “We can be such prudes sometimes with our own sexuality that we shy away from the important task of educating our teens about sex. In the meantime, they are learning about...
Martinique: Owing De Beauvoir
Says Blog de Moi[Fr]: “I am not sure that young women of today are fully aware of what they owe an author such as Simone de Beauvoir and to feminism in general given how hard some of them work to distance themselves from it.”
Korea and Japan: Sex Trade
Robert Koehler from Marmot's Hole reports that: There are currently an estimated 40,000-60,000 Koreans illegally residing in Japan. Of these, 30,000 are believed to be working in the sex trade. And the number of Korean men in Japanese host-bar is increasing rapidly.
East Timor: Want a Native First Lady
Republika Banana wants Francisco Guterres “Lu Olo” to win the upcoming presidential elections in East Timor as the blogger wants a native first lady. The other candidates either have foreign wives or are unmarried. One of the other candidate has a East Timorese wife but she has not lived long...
The Oldest Blogger in the Balkans
In the evening, Radmilo Ristic, a 74-year-old retired high school professor, likes to attend theater plays, gallery openings, literary nights, round-table discussions and other similar events that take place around Kragujevac, the city in Central Serbia. When Ristic comes back home, instead of the traditional paper and pen, his computer...
Iran:All women activists are free
According to Asieh Amini [Fa], two more jailed women activists are out of prison now. This means all women activits who had been jailed at the beginning of march, were released before Norouz,Iranian new year.
Kuwait: A Week Goes by
The Kuwaiti blogosphere has it all this week – from business developments to the opening of a new mall, the death of a bookshop and segregation at Kuwait University. Q, back at Kuwaitism, talks about the shift of business power and how other businesses around the Gulf region are acting....
Bahrain: Storms and D-cups
Bahrain was enveloped in a heavy dust storm on Thursday night, the beginning of the weekend, and TechZ wrote about getting caught in it: I couldn’t see anything ahead, other than for the windshield and my wipers. Headlights were useless in this much sand and rain drops. I had to...
Jamaica: Sara Lawrence Replacement?
Sara Lawrence, the medical student who won the coveted Miss Jamaica title and placed sixth for her country at the Miss World pageant last year, has relinquished her crown. YardFlex.com reports that it is the first time in the Jamaican contest's 23-year history that a winner was dethroned because she...
UAE: Hooters in Dubai
US famous restaurant outlet Hooters will open an outlet in Dubai in the next two years, writes blogger Fahad Al Mahmood. Meanwhile, blogger John B. Chilton says the concept with fit right in while a raging debate continues at Bahraini blogger Mahmood Al Yousif‘s Den.
India: 50 million missing girls
A flickr group called 50 million missing attempts to collect pictures of Indian women and girls. “It is the HOPE of this website to have as many possible of the 50 million missing represented by a photograph. These can be of Indian women or girls, of any age, and community...
Ethiopia: stalker spills acid on a woman
Ewenet Means Truth in Ethiopia writes about the sad story of Kamilat Muhisin, “Everyone who is following Kamilat Muhisin's story is absolutely horrified at what has happened to her. She lies in a hospital in excruciating pain, disabled and horribly disfigured when a man called Demesew spilled sulfuric acid on...
Kuwait: Where a Woman's Place is in the Office
Kuwaiti blogger Princess works in the human resource department of a company with 700 plus employees. All was well .. until she got a call from a trainee who refused to acknowledge she was a woman and continued addressing her in the male gender.
Mauritius: the abortion debate
Christina Meetoo's take on the abortion debate in Mauritius. “On the whole, their discourse is basically geared towards instilling a feeling of guilt in people, specially women. And today, Mgr Piat in L’Express declares that the State should not be neutral on that issue, claiming that the government should protect...
Tajikistan: Women & the Power of Men
Gulru writes a post in response to a question she was recently asked about why Tajik women accept the dominance of men.
