Jessica is a global contributor for RH Reality Check. You can find her writing at AlterNet, Ms. Magazine, and Feministe, among other places. She currently lives in Seattle. Follow her on Twitter. More here.
Weekly global roundup: a revised family code in Mali oppresses women further; Fawzia Koofi makes waves in Afghanistan and worldwide; Venezuela wrestles with a stubborn maternal mortality rate; and a call for more midwives in Zambia.
Pro-life activist Abby Johnson came to the University of Washington in Seattle last week. While I feel pro-choice protestors were disrespectful of her right to speak, Johnson’s beliefs, being played out in legislation across the country, are the far more dangerous affront to human rights and freedom, especially for women.
Weekly global roundup: Girls overtake boys in Bangladeshi primary schools; Philippines Lawmakers push to get the RH Bill passed; Women are in labor and still doing hard labor in Haiti; Training for sex workers in Rwanda provides options.
It was a youth takeover at the United Nations last week, for the 45th annual Commission on Population and Development, a global meeting to examine whether and how we are protecting the sexual rights and health of our youngest generation.
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Weekly global repro roundup: Foreign Policy’s ”Sex Issue” has hits and misses; Uzbek Government is accused of “sterilization quotas”; women and girls in UK still vulnerable to female genital cutting; Muslim women in India envision a new marriage law.
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With all due respect to the late President Bingu, his death opened a rare window for reform Malawi, and golden opportunity – especially for Malawi’s women. Joyce Banda is a widely respected and heralded champion for women’s rights and health, and has never been shy to speak her mind about it.
What does it mean to be queer and poor? How does one affect the other? At AWID 2012, a panel of GLBTQ advocates discussed their experiences exploring these intersections of sexuality, power, and economic justice.
Sex for money might take just five minutes. But what about the rest of the 7 hours and 55 minutes of a sex worker’s day? What does she do, who does she see, and how is she treated? At AWID 2012, an interactive game provided insights into these overlooked questions.
Fundamentalist religious movements are gaining ground everywhere we look. What does it mean for human rights, and more importantly, how can we move the human rights agenda forward, effectively? A panel of experts on religion and rights examined this question at AWID 2012.
Young Arab women have led and are leading the charge for women’s rights in the Arab world. Yet spring has turned quickly to winter and the prospects they face are grimmer than the world may have realized. At AWID 2012, young Arab women activists speak for themselves.
