Stories about Women & Gender from April, 2014
Trinidad & Tobago: The Implications of Style
When you see your reflection, are you seeing you or an amalgamation of your racial, historical and social complications? Tillah Willah blogs about the “self-schism that exists [and the] ways that this affects [her] as a black woman living in the west.”
Puerto Rican feminist organization Taller Salud Celebrates 35 years
The feminist grassroots organization Taller Salud [es] (@tsalud), which focuses on education and prevention in the areas of sexual and reproductive rights in Puerto Rico, is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Thirty-five years of hard work and struggle. The organization now works mostly with women and girls in the northeastern coastal town of...
Fighting “Breast Ironing” in Cameroon
Josiane Kouagheu wrote a passionated blog post [fr] against breast ironing [fr] practice in Cameroon: Je n’ai jamais voulu parler de ce sujet trop sensible. Il me touche. Dans tous les sens, j’ai trop de victimes autour de moi. J’ai voulu me taire. Mais, que faire quand autour de toi, la télé, Internet,...
Reconstruction of Historical Memory: Voice of Mass Sterilizations Victims in Peru
With the aim of collecting 3,000 signatures, the association MujeresMundi just launched a petition in the online platform Change.org requesting the Peruvian State a reconstruction of the historical memory in the voice of the victims of sterilizations: […] second period of the government of Alberto Fujimori; it was implemented the...
Activists Battle Religion, Tradition in Gambia's Female Genital Mutilation Fight
Aja Babung Sidibeh followed cultural tradition and became a female genital mutilation (FGM) practitioner after the death of her parents years ago in her native Janjangbureh in the Central River Region of The Gambia. But she has since “dropped the knife” and taken up the fight against the practice. “What I...
Sexy Monday: Between Sexual Expression and Censorship
(All links are in Spanish) David Troya writes for Gkillcity about the Ecuadorian Superintendence of Communication's sanction on the newspaper Extra for its cover picture of model Claudia Hurtado and headline: “Start the week off right with your hot and sexy Monday. Damn, what a hot babe!” Troya reflects: If...
Menstruation Is Not a Shameful Secret. Let's Talk Periods.
“Why do women hush themselves when it comes to discussing menstruation?” asks Sourav Kumar Panda at Youth Ki Awaaz and goes on to discuss that in this day and age, keeping periods a ‘hush-hush’ issue is unnecessary – the time has come for us to break the silence and shame...
Fighting Rising Acid Attacks Against Women in Colombia
A recent spate of acid attacks against women in Colombia provokes feelings of sadness and hopelessness among its citizens.
Video of Mother Hitting Daughter With Belt Goes Viral in Trinidad & Tobago
A video depicting a mother's punitive idea of discipline has gone viral in Trinidad and Tobago, after it was posted on Facebook to supposedly teach the child a lesson.
Who Benefits from Trafficking Women from Madagascar to the Middle East?
Aaron Ross reports on his investigation in the heart of the ongoing human trafficking of young women from Madagascar to Middle Eastern countries: For some enterprising businessmen, the collapse heralded a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So-called placement agencies sprang up in Antananarivo and other cities across Madagascar, promising the good life in...
VIDEO: Judging Boyfriends by Their Housing in Hong Kong
In this funny video, the mother in a viral video reacts differently to her daughter's boyfriend depending on where he says he lives.
Indians in the Caribbean
Active Voice reviews Gaiutra Bahadur’s book Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture and wonders whether “banning words or proscribing them ever achieves the desired outcome”: Should we be trying to sanitize history or recording it in all its ugliness for the benefit of future generations? Can we ever liberate the...
The State Of Women In The Present Indian Society
Transhuman Collective (THC), a brainchild of Soham Sarcar & Snehali Shah, is a multidisciplinary collaborative project based on the philosophy of Transhumanism. In this moving video created and uploded to YouTube by Transhumanism.in it is revealed that there is lack of basic respect for women in Indian patriarchal society. To...
Trinidad & Tobago: Lessons from a Health Scare
Trinidadian diaspora blogger Afrobella shares her mammogram diary in hopes that her experience can help other women.
Macedonians Promote Donations for Less Fortunate on Social Media
Local humanitarian initiatives from Macedonia are successfully using social media to solicit donations for the country's most vulnerable.
Meet India's Most Powerful Women Politicians
With the world's largest elections underway in India, take a look at the women making a name for themselves in the political arena.
“It's a Girl”: Campaign Against infanticide Feminicide in India and China
The website MujeresMundi, directed by Peruvian Belgium-based communication specialist Xaviera Medina, is involved with the awareness campaign It's a girl against infanticide feminicide in India and China: Girls are killed in a gendercide routine in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the twentieth century....
Ministers’ Firing Sparks Debate about Women, Race & Politics in Trinidad & Tobago
Caste, misogyny and race are hot topics of discussion in the Trinidad and Tobago blogosphere, following the recent dismissal of two Ministers of Parliament.
South Korea Launches Probe of Violence and Rape Culture in Sports World
South Korea's women's national curling team coach was fired for sexual, verbal and financial abuse of team members, the latest case in a string of disturbing abuse allegations in sports.
