Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sport in private schools for the first time in the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.
Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, SPA, reported on Saturday that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sport activities in accordance with the rules of sharia law. Students must adhere to “decent dress” codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the education ministry’s requirements.
The decision makes sport once again a stage for the push to improve women’s rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics.
Hey Bro: Posted because responses to several recent stories have served as a painful reminder that videos/messages like these can always use a signal boost. Just do yourself a favor, and avoid the comments section on YouTube.
North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple on Tuesday signed a measure giving the state the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, a bill banning the procedure in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as six weeks.
Dalrymple also said the constitutionality of the measure was an open question and said state lawmakers should appropriate money to a litigation fund for the state attorney general to defend against any possible challenges to the law.
“Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question, this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade,” Dalrymple said in a statement.
Considering many women don’t even receive confirmation that they’re pregnant until four to six weeks after conception, the decision essentially gives women roughly fourteen days (if they’re lucky) to decide whether or not they’d like to be a mother. Because forcing people to rush important decisions, like whether or not somebody wants to be a parent, is always a good idea, right?
The Indian Parliament’s lower house passed a landmark law Tuesday that sets tougher penalties for rapists and police who refuse to file a woman’s complaint of rape, as well as criminalizing sexual offenses such as stalking, voyeurism and acid attacks.
The amendments to the existing law incorporate some of the sweeping changes that were demanded after the fatal gang rape of a young paramedical student in New Delhi in December, an incident that sparked a nationwide outcry against the lack of safety for women.
Despite the unprecedented protests that galvanized tens of thousands of Indians, the number of incidents of sexual assault has not diminished.
Those convicted of sexual assault in India will now face the death penalty in cases where their victim(s) dies or is left in a permanently vegetative state, and mandatory minimum sentences have been raised to 20 years in prison (formerly 7-10 years). Government approval will no longer be needed to pursue charges against policemen, government officials, politicians, or judges either; however, the legislation fails to address cases of marital rape or sex crimes committed by members of the Indian military. Still, it’s pretty hard not to look at today’s changes as signs of progress.
The bill outlaws abortions from the point at which a heartbeat can be detected in the fetus, which can happen as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy. Doctors performing an abortion after this point would face up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, while the woman receiving the abortion would face no penalties. The bill is in direct violation of Roe v. Wade, which permits all women to receive abortions prior to viability (usually 22-24 weeks), and abortions rights groups have already pledged to challenge the law in court if and when Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple signs it. source
The law makes abortions illegal after 12 weeks - a violation of Roe v. Wade, which allows a fetus to be aborted until it’s viable outside outside of the womb (roughly 24 weeks). Democratic Governor Mike Beebe, who unsuccessfully tried to veto the legislation, called it “blatantly unconstitutional,” and several progressive groups have pledge to challenge the law in federal court.
In a historic move this week, Uruguayan President José Mujica has signed into law a bill that waives criminal penalties for abortion in the first 12 weeks of gestation, with certain procedural requirements, and in the first 14 weeks of gestation in the cases of rape.
The law marks a significant development in realizing women’s human rights and preventing unsafe, clandestine abortions in the region.Read more after the jump.
© 2012 Reuters
A huge development on the women’s rights front.
So, which one is it? You sort of have to, you know, take a position on these things. source
martj42 asks: So what is the % of rape victims who get pregnant from the rape?
» SFB says: While definitive statistics for this sort of thing are difficult to come by, they’re not impossible to figure out. An estimate from RAINN puts that number at 5 percent of all victims, on average — a number matched by a 1996 study of the matter. — Ernie @ SFB
Police in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and San Francisco are confiscating condoms from sex workers and transgender women, undermining health department campaigns to reduce HIV.
Don’t take away people’s condoms!
Read more and watch our interviews of sex workers here.
© 2012 Human Rights Watch
Questionable approach of the day. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 300 people in putting together this report, and some of the findings are fairly shocking. “Criminalizing HIV prevention undermines human rights and endangers the public health,” said Human Rights Watch senior health researcher Megan McLemore.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
This, on the one hand, should really be none of our business. And on whatever level the news may be even a tiny bit our business — the human family, the public eye — it should be worth a congratulations to Mayer and her husband, nothing more. On the broader level, though — of the human family, of the public eye — Mayer’s pregnancy means something. How she handles it, publicly, will mean something. “My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I’ll work throughout it,” Mayer said in announcing the news. And that, too, will mean something.
Because here, finally, is Perlman’s “pregnant CEO.” A female chief executive who was hired while she was pregnant — and who will give birth just a few months into her tenure — is a symbolic turning point. As The Verge’s Tim Carmody put it of the pregnancy news, “This is big. This is about our families, our values, our commitment to the people who work in our industry, about what’s said and whispered.”
An interesting take on incoming Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s announcement that she is also expecting her first child.
A federal appeals judge stepped into the fight over the Texas Women’s Health Program on Tuesday, saying he wanted to hear arguments on whether the state should be prevented from enforcing a law that bans Planned Parenthood from participating in the program.
Less than 24 hours after a federal judge in Austin ordered Texas not to enforce a rule banning clinics associated with abortion providers from receiving state funds, Fifth Circuit Appeals Judge Jerry Smith granted Texas an emergency stay lifting the Austin court’s order.
Smith gave attorneys representing the eight Planned Parenthood organizations involved in the suit until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to present their arguments.
A Moroccan woman forced to marry her rapist to protect her family’s honor recently committed suicide, but her legacy left a long trail online after her death. Amina Al Filali’s death shined a harsh light onto laws in the Moroccan legal system, specifically one that allows a man who marries the victim of rape or kidnapping to avoid prosecution. Her husband, Mustafa Fallaq, initially resisted the marriage — which was encouraged by Al Filali’s mother in response to the rape — but was later made aware aware of the legal loophole and used it to his advantage. A sad story, but what came after was amazing. Watch the clip above and read Al Jazeera’s recap. An important story on the strength of protest. (thanks suckersandpunks | EDIT: Clarification thanks to sharquaouia, who is in the above clip)
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