by Elizabeth Samson On November 10, 2010, the United Nations took an important step towards committing itself to female empowerment with the election of 41 member states to the board of a new agency—the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. Known as UN Women, the new body brings four organizations that […]
Human rights abuses have been making headlines almost daily in the burning hot battles of Mexico’s drug wars. From the horrific massacre of 72 migrants last week, to the gruesome display of four decapitated corpses strung from a bridge along with a warning sign, to human rights investigators gone MIA, the news is dark and […]
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YGvlwvB3O24″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /] As Al Jazeera reports Iran’s football federation says it is sending a delegation to Fifa – the international football association – to urge the Geneva-based association to overturn its ban on the hijab. The ban effectively prohibits the Iranian women’s team from playing in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore this August. Fifa says the dress contradicts […]
Sean Murphy of FPA’s Global Film Review blog has posted a review of an intriguing documentary called The Glass House. This documentary follows lives of four young Iranian women over an 18 month period at a center in Tehran called Omid e Mehr, where women living on the margins of Iranian society can come for […]
Few links to human rights stories that other people have been following: Rape in the DRC Cassandra Clifford over at the FPB Children Blog has posted story highlighting the seemingly never-ending crisis concerning rape in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although this issue has gained more attention recently, her coverage illustrates how much further […]
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 […]
People marked International Women’s Day yesterday in a variety of ways. In Europe, the Commissioner for Human Rights for the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, made news with the publication of his Viewpoint that bans against the Islamic niqab or burqa would violate a woman’s privacy and could potential violate the European Convention on […]
In case you missed it during your morning stroll through the blogosphere, today is International Women’s Day. In fact, it is the 100th anniversary of when the IWD started to be celebrated as a global day of recognition and appreciation for the role that women play in our societies, as well as a day of […]
By Miranda Jolicoeur (Guest Contributor) The International Violence Against Women Act, commonly referred to as I-VAWA, is the first attempt of its kind to call attention to violence against women in the public and private spheres around the world. For the most part international law focuses on the state, known as the public sphere, […]
Iranian filmmakers- despite heavy restrictions – have over the years provided an intriguing and provocative look at Iran’s dynamic social, religious, and political culture. Reza Aslan explains in his article, Iran’s Cinematic Revolution, what sets Iranian cinema apart from others: The irony is that part of what makes Iranian cinema so unique are the ingenious […]
This year, newspapers all around the world have been dominated by one topic: Iranian post-election turmoil. Therefore, it is not surprising that an Iranian reformist leader is on the Foreign Policy Top 100 Global Thinkers. Though it is a pleasant surprise that the person is Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi. Here is what […]
The World Economic Forum released their annual Global Gender Gap Report today, reporting on how successfully (or unsuccessfully) countries have been in the last year when it comes to closing the gender gap between men and women in the key areas of political and economic participation, educational opportunities, and health. Norway lost out on its […]
Both taekwondo and volleyball associations have announced that they will allow women wearing hijab to compete. There is a definite tendency in the West to vilify hijab. And while I am against women being forced to wear hijab, I am also against women being denied equal rights due to the fact that their head is […]
For the first time in the 30-year history of the Islamic Republic, the Iranian cabinet will have a female minister. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi won the approval from the Parliament to become the health minister. She was one of 18 nominations for President Ahmadinejad’s new cabinet to be approved. Two other women were among three rejected […]
President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet picks are both progressive and hard-line. His choices upset both the clerics and the West. On one hand, Ahmadinejad is breaking a taboo by appointing three women ministers to the cabinet. On the other hand, he is continuing the same anti-West attitude by appointing a minister accused of bombing a Jewish center […]