Masarrat Misbah is a woman who brought hope, who inspired many around the world to contribute to her foundation, Depilex Smile Again. Depilex Smile Again was set up to help women disfigured by acid burns. It would find them a new life and help pay for expensive reconstructive surgery. Her foundation captured the imagination. The […]
Many of us fail to think that in today’s modern society there is truly a caste system and that populations, including children, would be deemed ‘untouchable’. For me what first comes to mind is the Biblical references to the Lepers, or how our society once condemned most with mental or learning disabilities to a life […]
New vaccine might protect children from malaria An experimental malaria vaccine that boosts immune responses has produced powerful antibodies in young children during initial trials, U.S. researchers say. Scientists hope the vaccine can be used to bring an end to the 1 million deaths a year associated with malaria. Polio survivors face new threats Post-polio […]
Haiti housing concerns mounting Haitian authorities and aid groups are in a race against time to ensure earthquake survivors have shelter before the rainy season begins in March. Aid groups are hoping to encourage the use of transitional shelters that can later be reinforced into more permanent structures over tents. Some food aid sold via […]
We’re looking for a super intern who will devote 10 hours a week to our dear site. Main duties are writing posts and promoting Women and Foreign Policy in the blogosphere, the Diggosphere and beyond. This is perfect fit for an undergraduate or graduate student with an interest in international affairs who wants to gain […]
Following Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement last summer that burqas are “not welcome” in France, the French Parliament recommended a partial ban last week on any veil that covers the face. For now, that ban would only cover public transportation and public buildings such as school and hospitals, not women generally on the streets. It also only […]
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China in 1995. With one hundred and eighty-nine Member States adopting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which laid out a comprehensive agenda for women’s political and economic empowerment and the foundations for gender mainstreaming. The […]
January 2nd was the National Annual Journalism Awards Day. But for many Iranian journalists, it was just another day behind bars. Aidan White, secretary-general of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), said at a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels that three board members of the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ) had been […]
Larissa Douglass Recently, one of my friends told me that the anglosphere is dead and the future lies in Asia. Beyond the condition of the world economy that this fashionable attitude reflects, the fashion is actually typical of the anglosphere itself. The term “anglosphere” became briefly popular in conservative circles around 2003-2004, reviving Churchillian values […]
From the I.C.C. Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: In this situation, three cases are being heard before the relevant Chambers: The Prosecutor v. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo; The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda; and The Prosecutor v. Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui. The accused Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui […]
Today is National Freedom Day, marking the anniversary of the ratification the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution under Lincoln, promising freedom from slavery and involuntary servitude. The day was enacted by President Harry Truman on June 30, 1948, as he signed the bill proclaiming February 1 as National Freedom Day. I spent the evening […]
The world capital of libel is London. Not that there is a list or anything. And people are still finding imaginative ways of making money, despite the crisis. Take the English libel law. Under UK libel law, a defendant is guilty until proven innocent. Doesn’t matter if you are British or not. “English libel law […]
News of irregular immigration into the United States often focuses on those trying to cross the border via land. Huge fences and security cameras monitor the divide between the US and Mexico (less so the northern border with Canada – that is material for another blog post), while scanning machines and dogs search cars and […]
The Christian Science Monitor carried an interesting feature yesterday about the prospects and potential for land reform in Africa. In it correspondent Jina Moore argues that land and access to resources is at the heart of most of the continent’s conflicts; thus, fixing land issues could offer a preventative fix for a region prone to […]
Lynndie England became infamous around the world in 2004, when photos of her and other U.S. soldiers humiliating and torturing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison became public. In 2005, the then 22-year-old England received a three-year sentence for her role in the abuses. She was paroled after 521 days of serving her term and […]