Women in Action articles from December 2003

Women in Action archives from December 2003

We're behind bars--but our issues are not.(women in prison)(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... Typically, she's a woman of colour. In the United States, she is eight times more likely to be an African American. In Australia, another English-speaking country, the possibility of incarceration increases if she is an indigenous woman or if...

The other face of narco-traffickers.(clips)
December 1, 2003... Aleida Cuaran, 36, was sentenced to eight years in a Colombian prison on 24 January 2001. She remembers the exact date, and with a frank gaze states matter-of-factly that she is serving time "for drug trafficking." Cuaran is from Mocoa,...

Homosexuality takes a step out of the closet.(clips)(Cuba)
December 1, 2003... Even as other countries are legalising same-sex civil unions and adoptions by homosexuals, homosexuality becomes a subject of public debate in Cuba only now. The daily Juventud Rebelde--the second highest circulation newspaper in this...

Inmates may soon be allowed to vote.(clips)(Kenya)
December 1, 2003... Rights organisations are demanding that Kenya's draft constitution be adopted to allow inmates to vote in 2007. The draft constitution, which is being discussed by 629 delegates, contains a clause that suggests voting rights of prisoners. ...

Savvy businesswomen storm services sector.(clips)(Japan)
December 1, 2003... At 55, Noriko Suda is the proud owner of a chic clothes boutique that enjoys a downtown Tokyo address, and she loves every minute of her work. "With the children grown up and my husband spending long hours in his office, I decided to start my...

Women prisoners not provided with adequate health care.(clips)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A new report concludes that prisoners in England, particularly women, are not provided adequate mental health care, prompting a number of inmates to inflict harm upon themselves. The study, which was conducted this year by the Prison...

Legislators propose virginity tests and forced sterilization.(clips)(Jamaica)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Two legislators in Jamaica have proposed that school girls undergo virginity tests and recommended forced sterilisation for young women with three or more children to reduce unwanted pregnancies. Legislator Sharon Hay-Webster suggested...

Widows face dangerous tradition.(clips)(men designated as "cleansers" of evil spirits spread HIV and AIDS in Kenya)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... A major U.S. newspaper recently investigated a custom involving widows in Kenya believed to be a factor in spreading HIV/AIDS. According to The Washington Post, Kenyan widows must be "cleansed" by the village "cleanser," one of hundreds of...

Rights in detention in Malaysia (1).(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... Detainees' Rights The issue of detainees in Malaysia received public attention due partly to the mass arrests of demonstrators in the past few years. As the detainees were arrested for nothing more than unlawful assembly (in Malaysia, the...

The invisibility of women prisoners' resistance.(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... The following is an excerpt of a much longer, extensively foot-noted, pamphlet with the same title. It is the lead article of the latest issue of Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research and Education, Volume 16, Number 3, Fall...

Girls in a playground called prison: they are little girls, mostly poor, who ran afoul of the law. What is the government doing to help them?(women in prison)
December 1, 2003... Louisa is the eldest of four children born to her mother's first marriage. She was orphaned by her father at age six and after a year, her mother remarried. Louisa reached grade six until financial difficulties forced a stop to her...

Portraits of sadness and survival: women in prison: photos were taken at the Correctional Institute for Women, Mandaluyong, Manila, Philippines, 24 July 2003.
December 1, 2003... Gloria, 29 years old, is in prison because she killed her husband. Gloria started experiencing abuse from her taxi-driver husband soon after they married. She endured this for the sake of her three children. One day, however, her husband came...

The criminalisation of women.(women in prisons)(Panel Discussion)
December 1, 2003... Isis International-Manila took on the topic of women in prison in an attempt to see what lies behind the data and premise that more women in various countries around the world are entering the penal system. Why is the population of incarcerated...

Re-defining warrior: terms of struggle for women abolitionists.(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... For about two years now, I have been involved in prison activism here in California, prison capital of the world. My interest in prison abolition began in college, when my studies in history and political theory led me to consciously understand...

Grief in Gaol: indigenous women's incarceration problems in Australia.(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... Indigenous women in Australia face a multitude of problems when it comes to incarceration. Often, their problems stem from the discrimination they experience because of their ethnicity. These conclusive facts were presented in the 2002 Social...

The silenced few: non-English speaking women in prison.(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... Anna was caught carrying drugs through Brisbane Airport and was remanded to the women's maximum security prison. She spoke limited English. A faceless interpreter explained the induction process. Anna was terrified and was refused access to...

Loving in the war years: support for black women in detention.(women in prisons)
December 1, 2003... I'm here to tell you a love story about Black women loving women. This story doesn't include white picket fences, or romantic walks on the beach. But inside one of the largest women's prisons in the world, Central California Women's Facility in...

Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... The 20 memoirs and letters by Russian women are from the archives of the Memorial (St. Petersburg), an organisation formed in 1991 to investigate political repression in the Soviet Union. Comprising the stories of women from all classes and...

Couldn't Keep It to Myself: Testimonies from Our Imprisoned Sisters.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Wally Lamb, Carolyn Adams Goodwin, with Women of the York Correctional Institution For the past several years, Lamb has taught writing to a group of women prisoners at York Correctional Institution. At first mistrustful of Lamb, one...

Counseling Women in Prison.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Joycelyn M. Pollock In Counseling Women in Prison, Joycelyn M. Pollock focuses on women offenders in prison and raises issues related to counselling them. She presents an overview of women's prisons, and then focuses on the clinical...

In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Barbara Owen The first book-length treatment of the nature of prison culture among women in thirty years, In the Mix describes the prison culture in a large California prison from the point of view of the women themselves. The book...

Mothering from the Inside: Parenting in a Women's Prison.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Sandra Enos The majority of female prison inmates are also mothers of children under age 18. The study reveals how inmate mothers find places for their children to live, manage relationships with caregivers, demonstrate their fitness as...

Women in Prison: a Reference Handbook.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... A concise survey of the treatment of jailed women in America since the early 1800s, their unique problems, the effect on their families, and the state of prisons today, Women in Prison focuses on women in the prison system. It answers questions...

Women in Prison: Inside the Concrete Womb.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By kathryn Watterson, Foreword by Meda Chesney-Lind A look at women in prison, Inside the Concrete Womb describes in detail the inhumane psychological conditions in which most incarcerated people have to live. Through interviews with nearly...

The incarcerated Woman: Rehabilative Programming in Women's Prisons.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... By Susan F. Sharp and Roslyn Muraskin Women convicted of crimes are typically perceived as moral offenders, while men are believed to be asserting their masculinity. The disparate treatment of male and female prisoners is no more than the...

Web resources.(ISIS resources)(helping women in prison )
December 1, 2003... 1. Prison Activist Resource Centre [PARC) Prison Activist Resource Centre (PARC) is committed to exposing and challenging the institutionalised racism of the criminal injustice system and to promoting anti-racism among its individual...

Women get short shrift in health priorities.(health section)(Bangladesh)
December 1, 2003... Miru, her husband, three children and mother all live in a tiny, windowless hole in a congested slum in the outskirts of Bangladesh's capital. The area is accessible through narrow lanes overflowing with tannery wastes. Yet to the rent of...

Self-harm and women in conflict with the law.(health section)
December 1, 2003... The study on which this article is based, "Prairie Women, Violence and Self-Harm," examined the connection between the critical events in childhood and adult life of women who inflict harm on themselves (self-harm) and their social position....

Whose global knowledge? Women navigating the net.(ICT section)
December 1, 2003... In this article, edited for brevity, Leslie Regan Shade examines the tension between the feminization of the Internet and the use of the Internet for feminism. Although women are using the Internet for their empowerment, she warns, the right to...

Media oppression hits cyberspace: new regulations mean crackdowns on online journalism.(media section)
December 1, 2003... Not long ago, independent journalists and publishers in countries with repressive regimes headed for Cyberspace, where they hoped to publish free from the long tentacles and sharp eyes of their governments. The Internet held out hope for a...

Asia-Pacific NGO Forum prepares for UN-led Beijing + 10 global process.
December 1, 2003... The Asia-Pacific NGO Forum (AP NGO Forum) on the Beijing Platform for Action + 10 (Beijing + 10) will hold a forum at the Mahidol University in Salaya, Thailand on 01-03 July 2004 in preparation for the High Level Intergovernmental Meeting of...

Filipino women's issues discussed as presidential elections draw near: as the Philippine presidential elections draw near, women are making sure that politicians are clearly informed of women's demands and expectations of the country's next leader.
December 1, 2003... Women's basic needs were presented in the forum Ulat Lila (or Purple Report), sponsored by the Center for Women's Resources (CWR). Entitled "Ulat Lila 2004 What Women Want (For Election 2004): Jobs, Food, and Social Services," the forum...

New Family Law affirms women's rights and concerns in Morocco: a new Family Law extending support for women's rights was recently adapted in Morocco.(Issues)
December 1, 2003... The new law is seen as a landmark improvement that will guarantee women's rights, especially when it comes to divorce. Under the new law, the right to divorce is now a prerogative of both men and women, exercised under judicial supervision, and...

Don't forget older women's rights--HelpAge: in this fast-changing world, older women are invisible in society, even in their own families, reports HelpAge International (HI), a global network of not-for-profit organisations working with and for disadvantaged older people.(Issues)
December 1, 2003... According to HI, older women outnumber older men. In patriarchal societies, older women are more vulnerable since they are doubly discriminated against--because of their gender and now age. HI's documented experiences of older women world-wide...

Gender advocate criticises Tanzania's media: Tanzania's mainstream media generally portrays women in a negative light; thus, media practitioners must themselves put an end to this practice.(Issues)
December 1, 2003... This was the gist of the paper presented by Echikael Maro, a gender activist from the Tanzania Media Women Association (TAMWA), at a seminar conducted by the Tanzania Gender Networking Program (TGNP) last 27 February 2004. In the paper...

UNICEF pushed education for girls to be a global priority: "strong countries need strong women; strong women need a strong start; a strong start needs a good education.".(Issues)
December 1, 2003... This is the gist of the International Women's Day message released by Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). According to the statement, girls are often left behind when it comes to education. If the...

Post-war Iraq still a grim scenario for women: the situation of women in post-war Iraq is grim, reports Madre, an international women's human rights organisation.(Issues)
December 1, 2003... Reports compiled by Madre show Iraqi women are worse off now that the country is in the hands of its so-called liberators, namely the United States. Women's rights are not a priority of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which is...

Turkey on its way to criminalise homophobia: Turkey might be on its way to becoming the first Muslim territory to officially recognise gays and lesbians by banning discrimination against homosexuals and making homophobia a crime.(Issues)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The Penal Code Draft Law, which contains proposals to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians and penalise offenders, was submitted to the Turkish parliament for review in May 2003. The Parliamentary Justice Commission was then assigned to...

Brandy makers refuse to remove sexist advertisement.(Campaigns)(Destileria Limtuaco)
December 1, 2003... The campaign against Philippine liquor company Destileria Limtuaco, makers of the infamous Napoleon Quince Brandy, has intensified in Metro Manila, Philippines, but the manufacturer still refuses to pull out its controversial sexist...

WSIS transition from phase 1 to phase 2 discussed in Tunisia: an informal meeting discussing the transition phase from WSIS Phase 1 to WSIS Phase 2 took place from 02-03 March 2004 in Tunis. WSIS Phase 2 will be held in Tunisia in 2005 while Phase 1 concluded in Geneva, Switzerland last December 2003.(Isis on WSIS)
December 1, 2003... This Tunisia-initiated meeting was led by the country's Minister of Transport, Communication and Technology, with assistance from the Secretary of State of Information and Communication Technology. Several government, civil society...

New WSIS online forum focuses on internet governance.(Isis on WSIS)
December 1, 2003... Lately, Internet governance seems to be the topic most covered as regards the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), especially now that many Internet governance meetings have been concluded and media advocates prepare for the Phase II...

New feminist literary-political webzine now accepting contributions: Fito, a new feminist literary-political webzine, is now accepting submissions for its next issues.(Conferences & Announcements)
December 1, 2003... Based in South Africa, Fito is considered a fringe feminist webzine. Believing change comes through exchange with others, Fito seeks diverse visions and voices and opens contributions from different places. Fito aims to: * Celebrate...

Global Women's Strike translations needed: the world-wide network of women organising the Global Women's Strike (GWS) is in need of volunteers to translate their call in as many languages as possible.(Conferences & Announcements)
December 1, 2003... The translation is part of the organisers' commitment to spread information to more people. They are hoping that if people can read it in their own language, then there will be more people who will support the call and join their efforts. By...

International Conference on Women and Immigration Law in Europe: Gendered Borders: International Conference on Women and Immigration Law in Europe, will take place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands from 30 September to 02 October 2004.(Conferences & Announcements)
December 1, 2003... The conference aims to analyse and evaluate immigration laws in Europe from a gender perspective. Women are involved in immigration in specific ways, hence the rules regulating immigration have specific implications for women. 01May 2004...

Application for Global Access Grant for women: the Partnership for Equality Center (PEC) in Romania now welcomes applicants for the Global Access Grant.(Conferences & Announcements)
December 1, 2003... The programme was established to support global women's participation in international events such as seminars, conferences and training related to women's rights for the emancipation of women. Grants will be allocated for participation in...

Web resources.(women's rights groups)
December 1, 2003... Most of the websites featured here are non-profit and/or non-government organisations within the women's and social movements. We have compiled these URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) or website addresses as a quick reference guide that we hope...