· April, 2007

Stories about Women & Gender from April, 2007

Saudi Arabia: Saudi Women Bloggers

Saudi blogger Ahmed Al Omran reports that we will soon be able to hear the voices of young Saudi women through blogs initiated by their teacher. “Mrs. Lobat Asadi who teaches English at Al-Yamamah College in Riyadh has sent me a link to her project website that is used as...

Trinidad & Tobago: Akon Controversy Continues

  30 April 2007

A hip-hop artist, a 15 year-old girl, a Port of Spain nightclub, some YouTube - and subsequently, WestIndianTube - videos. The Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere wasted no time in sounding off on the April 12th scandal that's raised numerous issues for the citizens of the twin-island nation.

Why is adultery illegal in Senegal?

  30 April 2007

Why is adultery illegal in Senegal? (Fr) Women are still considered the property of men and religion a justification for law, whether or not you are a believer, the Blog politique du Senegal writes.

Iran: Crackdown on Women Again

Iranian police have begun to crackdown on women’s dress. After the Islamic revolution of 1979, women have been obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures and protect their modesty. Thousands of Iranian women were warned about their poor Islamic dress this week and several hundred were arrested in the capital Tehran in the fiercest crackdown in more than a decade for what’s known as “bad hijab”.

Brunei: Brunei Girl, Sex and Relationship

  30 April 2007

Katie-Ella who calls herself “an old married woman” but remembers being a teenager once writes a post for “young women out there who are still finding their way, (hopefully) enjoying their youth and trying to make sense of modern relationships” .

Iran:Disrespect to the Society

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, reformist politician, reminds us that these days ladies are inspected in many streets of Tehran. The ladies who are not wearing proper veil (hejab) are arrested… the ladies who are traced in the streets these days are mostly born after revolution and they have all been grown...

India: The other side of gender

  28 April 2007

Responding to issue of a gender bias in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), The Other Side presents well, the other side – by pointing to what appears to be the real issue. “But the malaise runs deeper than that. In our society, career choices are made by parents, not by...

Myanmar: Respect for Sex Workers

  27 April 2007

Moe Moe urges men to respect sex workers and practice safe sex. “Least men who want to sleep with them can do, is to treat these sex workers with respect and try to have safe sex. Why should they be treated badly just because they are providing you with a...

India: Women and Engineering Institutes

  26 April 2007

nanopolitan about the possible inherent bias against women in the Joint Entrance Examination to some of the premier engineering institutes in India. “Finally, since when have we started allowing our public institutions to hide behind the society moral shortcomings? If the society is screwed up, I would argue that our...

The French Presidential Election: A View From Outside the Metropole

  26 April 2007

This weekend, more than 60 million French cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential election, narrowing the list of candidates to two: conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal. Both face a run-off vote on May 6th. In the five years since...

India: Provoked

  25 April 2007

An Anthropologist Wannabe on the film Provoked. “Having said that however, I think the movie should be seen because it speaks very strongly about domestic violence suffered by women. And in recent years, South-Asian women in Canada, especially from the immigrant Punjabi community, have witnessed a rise in the number...

Barbados: Media Responsibility

  25 April 2007

What crazy looks like is unhappy about the Barbados media's treatment of the issue of domestic violence following the murders of two women on the island: “Domestic violence is not just a women's issue, it's not just feminists who should be outraged.”

Zimbabwe: police brutality against activists

  25 April 2007

Police brutality against members of Zimbwabean women's civic movement, WOZA: “By 7pm on Tuesday, all 56 members arrested on Monday at the Kuwadzana ZESA sit-in had been assualted in police custody and forced to pay admission of guilt fines to ‘buy’ their freedom. Lawyers served police with orders to allow...

Sex Education in Brunei, a No No

  24 April 2007

Sex education is an extremely taboo issue in the very Islam-conscious nation of Brunei. However a recent newspaper article talking about increasing numbers of teenage mothers got the bloggers busy in Brunei. The bloggers feel that maybe it is high time for schools to start incorporating sex education into the curriculum.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Cyber Crimes

  24 April 2007

Abeni is impressed by the swift action of the St. Vincent Police Force in dealing with cyber-culprits who have allegedly been doctoring photos of young Vincentian girls and sending pornographic material out over the Internet.

India: Life, kids and drudgery

  23 April 2007

The Mad Momma on tailoring life to suit the kids. “Someday they will hear some other mother say that she was bored at home with her children and that it was drudgery.. and my children might wonder if I felt the same about them. I know I would hate to...

Iranian Women's Movement Beyond Gender and Age

Thanks to Kosoof, a leading photoblogger, we can discover some important moments of this movement in photographs from the last two years. Here are six photos chosen to display that in the struggle there is no question of gender or age. We see old and young men and women taking part in the demonstrations as well as female police repressing women activists.

Miss Tahiti 2007

  22 April 2007

Tahiti Polynesie en Live presents the 14 candidates for the May 11th Miss Tahiti contest (Fr).

Singapore: Intimacy and Sex

  22 April 2007

The blogger at The Miracle Season writes about people frowning on teenagers displaying intimacy in public places, peer pressure and teenage sexuality issues. (via tomorrow.sg)

D.R. of Congo: the crime of being born a woman

  21 April 2007

Trailblazer on the plight of women in D.R of Congo: “They may feel that the only crime they have committed was being born into this world as a woman. What’s even a worse, a Congolese woman. Instead of being able to proudly walk this earth, provide for themselves and their...