By Cordelia Rizzo The recent deaths of two graduate students from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (the “Tec”), caught in a fight between the Mexican armed forces and a drug cartel gang, challenged the traditional view of the human toll of the country’s war against drugs. They showcased a singular feeling […]
Jessica D’Itri I am reading The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why it Matters by B.R. Myers, an associate professor at Dongseo University in Busan, South Korea. The book purports to explain the national myth that informs the worldviews of North Koreans. The author refutes the standard trope that North Korea is […]
By Sarah Rose Ch. 4: Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 Robert Fortune was patient as the coolie attended to his new coif. A small blue and white tea bowl sat nearby on a dusty crate, and swirling its sediment of leaves, Fortune spilled the cooling liquid out onto the dirty deck. Floors were the place […]
*U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argues that achieving women’s equality is central to global security in an op-ed for The Times of London: Women are still the majority of the world’s poor, uneducated, unhealthy and unfed. They are the majority of the world’s farmers, but are often forbidden to own the land they cultivate […]
by Jessica D’Itri Mu Sochua, 55, the most prominent woman in Cambodia’s Sam Rainsey opposition party is on the campaign trail three years in advance of the scheduled parliamentary elections. Sochua, a human rights and women’s rights activist, faces a tough and at times vicious campaign. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, of the ruling Cambodian […]
At the press conference on 14 March 2010, immediately after the close of the National People’s Congress annual session (NPC, China’s legislature and highest state body), Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao discussed Hong Kong. The speech came in the wake of a stormy political debate over the slow progress towards universal suffrage that has seen clashes […]
China has eight non-communist parties under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). What at first seems like an oddity under an one-party system is not so once we understand the reality of the relationship between the CCP and these parties. Open political debates are strictly constrained in China. The CCP maintains its dominance […]
*Member of the European Parliament and former French Justice Minister Rachida Dati talks politics, class prejudice and fashion while “being fashion,” as my little cousin is fond of saying. My little cousin doesn’t think I am fashion because “you have to be fashion, you have to feel fashion…Fashion people go out to party every single […]
Many thanks for reading WAFP and your comments. We encourage those of you on the very addictive Facebook to become fans of WAFP. I still don’t understand why Twitter is so magical, but we’re on it and can be followed. We also wanted to welcome aboard Jessica D’Itri, our awesome editorial intern. Check out Jessica’s […]
By Jessica D’Itri There are approximately 16,000 unwed mothers raising children on their own in South Korea. Because of a strong social stigma, these women face tremendous economic and social hardships, and most are pressured to have abortions (abortion is an illegal but widely-available procedure in the country) or to give their children up for […]
The Daily Beast’s Tina Brown has announced a three-day summit entitled “Women of the World” which “will showcase the stories of outstanding women leaders”. The summit will take place in New York next March. Attending the summit, Brown tells us, will be Queen Rania of Jordan, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Meryl Streep, Barbara […]
All eyes are on Sarah Palin’s left hand—you might even call it a vast left-wing conspiracy—after it doubled as a cheat sheet during a Q&A at the National Tea Party Convention. For those wondering, the words/talking points she had written on her palm were: “energy,” “tax” and “lift American spirits.” Palin did something I’ve always […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]