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| 21 Jun 2009 - 09:17 | VOA News Online
URL: www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-18-voa70 . . .
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Former US Teenage Prostitutes Escape Brutal Street Life
By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
Life on the streets is brutal for U.S. teenage runaways, some of whom are lured into prostitution. Agencies that help them say the problem persists in Los Angeles and other American cities. Our correspondent spoke with two teenagers who are turning their lives around at a charity called Children of the Night.
Continues...
www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-18-voa70.cfm
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| 21 Jun 2009 - 09:05 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Supporters push teen prostitution legislation
By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Arrested teenage prostitutes are often sent back to the streets and the pimps who control them because juvenile lockups are filled with more serious offenders, a police officer who specializes in such cases told state legislators Tuesday.
Atlanta police Sgt. Ernest Britton and others asked members of the House Non-Civil Judicial Committee to support a bill that would decriminalize prostitution for those 17 and younger. Britton said that would help the legal system find help and treatment for teenager prostitutes, who are usually victims of exploitation.
Teenage prostitutes need help, not jail time, said coalition member Colleen Rouse of Norcross.
But Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta), a member of the committee, opposes the bill.
“It will encourage child prostitution, because it will no longer be a crime,” he said.
Atlanta is a U.S. center for the child sex-trafficking trade, the FBI has said.
The nonprofit Juvenile Justice Funds estimates that 200 to 300 adolescents and teenagers are prostituted in Atlanta every month.
Committee members discussed concerns about wholesale decriminalization as opposed to finding better ways to allow police officers to get help for teenagers.
Cheryl DeLuca-Johnson of Gwinnett County, a coalition leader, said that the packed committee meeting was just a warmup for when the Legislature opens in January.
“Our plan is to have hundreds here, then thousands,” DeLuca-Johnson said.
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| 20 Jun 2009 - 12:28 | Page F30
URL: www.pagef30.com/2009/06/how-to-help-now- . . .
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How to help now that Google Translate is available in Persian / Farsi
www.pagef30.com/2009/06/how-to-help-now-that-google-translate.html
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| 20 Jun 2009 - 12:08 | Feminist Peace Network
URL: www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/06/15/ . . .
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Statement From The Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism In Iran (WFAFI) On The Iranian Election
Received via email from WFAFI:
With the widespread protests in full swing, Iranians are sending a strong message to the world that there is no republic in the “Islamic Republic of Iran”. Iranians live under a system of theocracy which makes mockery of democratic processes such as elections. Still, the doubtful White House refuses to call the recent elections in Iran a sham and rigged because it is pinning is hope on negotiation even with the unelected and Supreme-Leader-selected Ahmadinejad.
The fact is, theocracy has been in full swing since 1981. Over the past four years, many have come to know what Ahmadinejad is all about, the excitement is now over the new guy, Mirhossein Mossavi. A quick glance on history of crackdowns, massacres and wave of suppression, however, implicates both Ahmadinejad and the so-called “opposition candidate” Mossavi. Both men were directly and indirectly engaged in:
The 1980 engineering of “Cultural Revolution” in the universities and the subsequent crackdown on all opposition groups from 1981-1986 which led to mass arrests and executions, including execution of pregnant women, 9-year-old girl and 70-year-old grandmother.
The 1988 massacre of political prisoners which led to killings of thousands including many women. The chain killings of the writers and intellectuals with at least 133 people killed, mostly in Tehran, during the 1990’s.
The worldwide assassination of exiled political opponents which took lives of at least 210 people from 1991 to 1997.
The crushing of student movement, mass arrests and executions in the summer of 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003.
The crackdown and mass arrest of women on International Women’s Day in 2004, 2005, and 2006
The weekly public hanging including several hangings and stoning of women in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
So, even if the Supreme Leader, Khameini, would have sanctioned Mossavi’s presidency, he is still responsible for his crimes against the Iranian people given the above glimpse into his past. One has to keep in mind that the post-election protests in Iran is not about Mossavi. It is about rejecting the regime in its entirety. As the demonstrators shout “down with dictatorship”, they are taking advantage of the opportunity of regime’s infighting to press for their demands and desire. Unfortunately, the mainstream western media and analysts have failed to recognize this glaring fact.
The world community must look beyond Mossavi and take note of the message that is coming from the Iranian people. It is time to isolate the regime and recognize its illegitimacy of all its factions. It is unacceptable that as Iranian people paying the the price of freedom with their lives, the world continues to “monitor the situation” in silence. Washington needs to be reminded that democracy is more than the mocked elections that just took place in Iran. The ongoing protests is about human rights, equality, respect for civil society, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of association and that is the weapon Iranians are using against the regime in Tehran.
www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/06/15/statement-from-the-womens-forum-against-fundamentalism-in-iran-wfafi-on-the-iranian-election/
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| 20 Jun 2009 - 11:40 | Why We Protest
URL: iran.whyweprotest.net/keeping-your-anony . . .
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How to Tunnel Internet Censorship:
Keeping Your Anonimity in Iran (or anywhere)
iran.whyweprotest.net/keeping-your-anonymity-iran/
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| 20 Jun 2009 - 11:05 | Feminist Peace Network
URL: www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/06/18/ . . .
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So Obama Created A White House Council on Women & Girls–And Then What Happened (Big Surprise, As Of Yet Not So Much)
Linda Lowen at About.com offers this timely reality check regarding Obama’s commitment to women:
It’s been three months since President Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls to address issues facing females of every age and stage in the United States. Great optimism surrounded the historic event which took place on March 11, 2009.
Hindsight may offer 20/20 vision, but it begs another question: Three months and five days after the Council came into being, what do we have to show for it?
Women and girls across this country are waiting. By the end of the summer, the Council will have been in existence for half a year - 1/8th of the length of Obama’s first term in the White House. If he’s looking for a second, I’ll say it bluntly: I don’t like to be kept waiting.
Me neither. A search of the WhiteHouse.gov site turns up a Proclamation and Executive Order creating the Council and that’s all. Read the rest of Lowen’s excellent post here.
www.feministpeacenetwork.org/2009/06/18/so-obama-created-a-white-house-council-on-women-girls-and-then-what-happened-big-surprise-as-of-yet-not-so-much/
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 20:43 | Cattrachas
URL: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lic6p8ZSxjM
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Violencia Sexual en Honduras ~
Una Realidad Oculta
Video 10 minutos
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lic6p8ZSxjM
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 19:14 | Promsex
URL: www.promsex.org/contents.php?id=526
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Joven demanda al Estado ante Naciones Unidas
Por negarse, a través del Minsa, a hacerle aborto terapéutico oportuno. Cuando tenía 13 años intentó el suicidio por abusos sexuales que padecía. Operación hubiera permitido que hoy no estuviera cuadrapléjica.
Redacción La República.
Una adolescente de 16 años demandó ayer al Estado peruano ante el Comité para la Eliminación de la Discriminación contra la Mujer de las Naciones Unidas (CEDAW, por su sigla en inglés) por no permitirle someterse a un aborto terapéutico en el 2007 que hubiera impedido su invalidez permanente.
La menor, identificada por sus iniciales L.C., intentó suicidarse en 2007, cuando tenía 13 años, saltando desde un edificio debido a los constantes abusos sexuales que sufría.
Como consecuencia de la caída sufrió el desprendimiento de la sexta cervical y un desplazamiento de la médula espinal. De inmediato fue trasladada al Hospital Nacional Daniel Alcides Carrión del Callao donde se descubrió que estaba embarazada.
Una decisión fatal
“Los médicos después de examinar su estado su salud y diagnosticar que urgentemente se le hiciera una intervención quirúrgica a su columna, para asegurarse de que las heridas pudieran ser sanadas y que el daño causado no sea permanente, decidieron no hacer esta intervención porque estaba gestando”, dijo Lilian Sepúlveda, representante del Centro de Derechos Reproductivos.
L.C. tuvo poco después un aborto espontáneo producto de las lesiones y fue operada de la espina dorsal, pero los médicos le comunicaron que quedaría parapléjica.
Sepúlveda subrayó que, como resultado de la negativa del Estado a interrumpir su embarazo, L.C. “no va a poder volver a caminar y depende por completo de la ayuda de su familia y personas cercanas para poder sobrevivir”.
El aborto terapéutico, al que se somete una mujer cuando su embarazo pone en riesgo su vida o su salud física o mental, es legal en Perú desde 1924, aunque aún no se ha aprobado un protocolo que lo regule.
Demanda internacional
Continua...
www.promsex.org/contents.php?id=526
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 11:08 | SOUTH AFRICAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION
dclark@justice.gov.za
URL: www.doj.gov.za/salrc/dpapers/dp0001-2009 . . .
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SOUTH AFRICAN LAW REFORM COMMISSION
DISCUSSION PAPER 0001/2009
Project 107
SEXUAL OFFENCES
ADULT PROSTITUTION
Closing date for comment:
30 June 2009
Correspondence should be addressed to:
The Secretary South African Law Reform Commission
Private Bag X668
PRETORIA 0001
Telephone : (012) 392-9540
Fax : (012) 320-0936
E-mail : dclark@justice.gov.za ; capienaar@justice.gov.za
Website : www.doj.gov.za/salrc/index.htm
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 10:38 | CIMAC noticias
URL: www.cimac.org.mx
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Un antecedente en Salina Cruz pareciera probar lo contrario
El juicio oral no encubre delitos contra mujeres: Mafud Mafud
Por Jessica Cecilia Martínez/corresponsal
Oaxaca, Oax, 18 junio 09 (CIMAC).- El presidente del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Oaxaca, Héctor Anuar Mafud Mafud, negó que el sistema procesal acusatorio adversarial, o juicio oral, encubra delitos graves como la violación y asesinato con ventaja, como sostiene la familia de Heidi, la niña salinacrucense de seis años muerta a manos de un adulto.
El magistrado respaldó a la jueza de garantías en Salina Cruz, María de los Ángeles Morales Díaz, quien tiene el plazo de un año para dictar sentencia, en cumplimiento al nuevo orden jurídico que sanciona con una pena de entre 30 y 40 años al asesinato calificado con ventaja.
Precisó que mientras tanto, el homicida confeso Carlos Leo Villavicencio Miguel, de 28 años de edad, estará preso en el reclusorio regional de Tehuantepec.
Mafud Mafud insistió en que el juicio oral es garantista, rápido y de transparencia absoluta, que no se presta a “chicanadas”.
CIUDADANÍA SE OPONE A JUICIOS ORALES
A un año y medio de entrar en vigor los juicios orales para adultos en el Istmo de Tehuantepec, el caso de Heidi no es el primero en donde la ciudadanía manifiesta oposición a su aplicación. La primera vez fue en septiembre de 2007.
En la primera audiencia pública de juicio oral realizado en el puerto de Salina Cruz, se otorgó la libertad a Martín N, acusado de lanzar insultos y provocar lesiones en diferentes partes del cuerpo a su pareja, Ana Guadalupe Martínez.
El Instituto de la Mujer Oaxaqueña y las organizaciones sociales feministas coinciden en que el tema de la violencia contra las mujeres debe de ser excluido de la mediación, conciliación o cualquier medida alternativa de resolución de conflictos. Para las feministas, los magistrados del Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Estado deben considerar que, en realidad, continúan sacrificando las necesidades, la vida y la integridad de las mujeres.
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 10:24 | Afghan Women's Mission
URL: rethinkafghanistan.com/
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12 minute video
Rethink Afghanistan
Part IV
rethinkafghanistan.com/
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 09:36 | Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force
URL: www.oregonsatf.org
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JOB * JOB * JOB
The Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force of Oregon is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Sexual Violence Prevention Program
Coordinator. The Sexual Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) Coordinator provides technical assistance and support to communities and organizations
in Oregon interested in engaging in the primary prevention of sexual
violence. Additionally, the SVPP Coordinator administers the statewide Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) grant and provides leadership on sexual
violence prevention issues in Oregon.
Please see www.oregonsatf.org for more information and application
instructions. Thank you!
Christine Herrman
Executive Director
Attorney General's Se*ual Assault Task Force
859 Liberty St. NE
Salem OR 97301
office (503)990-6541
fax (503)990-6547
cell (206)940-1902
www.oregonsatf.org
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| 19 Jun 2009 - 09:17 | Guardian UK
URL: www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/sou . . .
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Quarter of men in South Africa admit rape, survey finds
• Research exposes culture of sexual violence
• Government criticised for 'woeful' conviction rate
David Smith in Johannesburg guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 17 June 2009
One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.
Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."
Jewkes and her colleagues interviewed a representative sample of 1,738 men in South Africa's Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Of those surveyed, 28% said they had raped a woman or girl, and 3% said they had raped a man or boy. Almost half who said they had carried out a rape admitted they had done so more than once, with 73% saying they had carried out their first assault before the age of 20.
The study, which had British funding, also found that men who are physically violent towards women are twice as likely to be HIV-positive. They are also more likely to pay for sex and to not use condoms.
Continue...
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/south-africa-rape-survey
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| 18 Jun 2009 - 19:05 | Jessica
jessienmike14@hotmail.com
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I was wondering. If you're a victim of rape is it legal to see the results of the rape kit that was done?
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| 18 Jun 2009 - 19:01 | Vicky
vickygdean@yahoo.com
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Mi nombre es Victoria
* El motivo que estoy enviando este correo electronico es que tengo una companera esta siendo abusada sicologicamente casi todos los dias llega muy alterad,enferma,llora mucho ela
* es maltratada sicologicamente por su esposo, el no trabaja recibe desability permanente,la unica que trabaja duramente es ella.
* Quisiera que porfavor le ayuden urgentemente ella
* dice que ya no soporta mas...
* Gracias de antemano por ayudar a persona como ella.
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| 18 Jun 2009 - 10:05 | Erika
mzerika24@hotmai.com
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Hi my name is Erika and I have a 16 yrs old cousin who was illegally brought to the state by her boyfriend and his mom. They promised her everything a 16 yr old could dream off. After 2 months the boy got her pregnant and they would tell her that she had to say she was 18yrs old so that she won’t get him in trouble and also and if any body will find out her real age they will take her to jail and deport her to Mexico. She was not allow to leave the house under any circumstances cause they made her believe that immigration building was right around the corner. Not long ago the mother in la started hitting her and also her boy friend and every time they would tell her if you call the police they will take you not me.
This afternoon the mother in law and her boyfriend hit her and they took the baby away from her she called my sister to let her know of the situation and my sister called a cousin that we have in Sacramento to pick her up she was afraid to call the cops so she didn’t and left the house with out the baby around 11pm we told her that she had to call the police to let them now and to our surprised the guy had already file for domestic violence against her claiming that she had hit him o the chest and he was in pain, the police went to my cousin house and they take her to Juvenile Hall if the police see the size of that man and my cousin they will see that is impossible for a 5 ft girl to hit a 6 ft 300 lb man we need help to get her out of juvenile hall and recuperate her daughter please help she has only been in the states for 1 year and don’t know her right we need all the help we could get please respond help please help.
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| 18 Jun 2009 - 09:42 | IPS Noticias
URL: www.ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=9244 . . .
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PARAGUAY: Justicia salda deuda con violencia de género
Por Natalia Ruiz Díaz
Operadores paraguayos de justicia se capacitan
Crédito: Natalia Ruiz Díaz/IPS
ASUNCIÓN, jun (IPS) - La justicia de Paraguay busca saldar una de sus deudas: la eliminación de las trabas e inequidades en la atención de casos de violencia contra las mujeres. Cuando las víctimas acuden a ella, no siempre encuentran respuesta y en muchos casos resultan revictimizadas.
Uno de los principales obstáculos para el acceso a la justicia de las mujeres víctimas de violencia es la escasa sensibilidad y falta de capacitación en una perspectiva de género y en los derechos femeninos por parte de quienes aplican la ley.
Un caso resume otros miles. Blanca *, una madre de dos hijos, fue a la policía a denunciar a su esposo por violencia doméstica, todavía magullada por una paliza. En la comisaría tomaron su denuncia y le alertaron que requería una orden del Juzgado de Paz para retirar sus pertenencias del hogar conyugal, del que pretendía huir con sus niños.
Pero en el juzgado le dijeron que sólo después de pasar al menos tres días fuera de la casa, tramitarían su denuncia. Blanca se sintió tan maltratada por el personal del juzgado que acudió a la no gubernamental Fundación Kuña Aty (Reunión de Mujeres, en guaraní), donde recibió asesoría sicológica y legal.
Sólo con la intervención de la fundación, el juez aceptó la denuncia.
"En los juzgados están hartos porque una mujer suele denunciar varias veces, pero luego vuelve al hogar. No comprenden la profundidad del problema y quienes trabajan allí abordan estos casos como un trabajo más", dijo a IPS Clara Rosa Gagliardone, presidenta de Kuña Aty.
Para Gagliardone, la justicia paraguaya la conforman hombres y mujeres con los prejuicios, la educación, la carga social y los vicios de la sociedad machista.
Instituciones y estudios coinciden: persiste el desconocimiento de los operadores del sistema judicial de los efectos de la violencia en la vida de las mujeres y en su entorno. Existen, además, sólo experiencias incipientes de aplicación de los instrumentos internacionales de derechos humanos ratificados por Paraguay.
PROYECTO ROMPE INERCIA
Continua...
www.ipsnoticias.net/nota.asp?idnews=92445
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| 18 Jun 2009 - 09:32 | Joseph Vess, Men Can Stop Rape
jvess@mencanstoprape.org
URL: www.mencanstoprape.org/info-url2697/info . . .
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Hello all,
Wondering how you can stop sexual assault and domestic violence before it even starts? Register for Men Can Stop Rape, Inc.'s three-day "From Theory to Practice" Strength Training (July 16-18 in DC) and learn the primary violence prevention strategies that have helped over 9,000 of MCSR's training recipients engage young men in this work.
This is a great opportunity to broaden your knowledge and expertise in gender violence prevention, build relationships with other professionals in this field, and sight-see in our nation's capitol!
Our 20-25 person trainings usually fill up very quickly, so please sign-up ASAP before registration closes on June 30.
To register, go to this link, scroll down, and click on "Register Online Now" - www.mencanstoprape.org/info-url2697/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=442957
IN FO ABOUT THE TRAINING
"From Theory to Practice" Strength Training
Hosted by Men Can Stop Rape, Inc. (MCSR)
July 16 - July 18, 2009
Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill
Washington, DC
Who Should Attend?
* youth-serving professionals searching for better ways to teach males about healthy masculinity and positive relationships
* rape crisis and domestic violence center personnel looking for ways to engage men
* activist men strategizing new ways to engage males in their community to role model strength without violence
* college and university students, staff, and faculty who want to engage men on their campus
* anyone interested in doing this work
Learn how to:
1) identify masculinity's "dominant stories" and "counterstories" and recognize how "dominant stories" contribute to violence against women
2) explore the challenges of engaging men and learn effective ways to overcome these challenges
3) mobilize men to become better allies with women
4) strategize with others about how to involve men
5) speak with men about sexism and connecting it to other "-isms" or forms of oppression.
Registration:
Training fee is $500 (includes breakfast each day and MCSR's training manual).
Discounted hotel rooms are available at the Hyatt Regency at $139/night (please specify interest when registering).
To register: go to this link, scroll down, and click on "Register Online Now" - http://www.mencanstoprape.org/info-url2697/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=442957.
Contact Joseph Vess with questions at 202/534-1836 or jvess@mencanstoprape.org.
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| 17 Jun 2009 - 09:28 | IPS Gender Wire
a
URL: www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47240
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LEBANON: Law to Stop Violence Against Women Takes Time
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT, Jun 16 (IPS) - There was some good news for women’s activists in Lebanon last week.
The government met to discuss a new law criminalising spousal abuse - a giant step forward in a campaign by women’s groups for equal rights.
For the past few weeks, TV channels have been telecasting two powerful public information advertisements on domestic violence. The first shows a man bullying his wife, while the second features a father brutalising his daughter.
The ads are part of a nationwide campaign launched by Kafa - from the Arabic word for ‘enough’ - to stop violence against women.
When it comes to women’s rights, Lebanon has antiquated laws. For example, Lebanese women are not allowed to pass on their nationality to their spouses and children. So-called ‘honour’ crimes still prevail in rural areas, particularly Mount Lebanon and the Bekaa, according to a book by Azza Charara Beydoun, ‘Crimes Against Women in the Lebanese Judiciary’.
"Today, one of the main problems women are confronted with is the nature of the Lebanese legislative system itself," says lawyer Leyla Awada from Kafa. Laws in Lebanon, which are based on an individual’s religious affiliation, are usually less favourable to women.
Abused women can either seek justice from religious courts - these vary from one community to another and depend on the person’s sect - or penal courts.
In case of the latter, a victim can file an official complaint, but this is generally addressed to officers who are not trained for the task or who don’t take spousal abuse claims seriously. In addition, since most women are financially dependent on their husbands, they don’t have the means to pay the legal costs incurred in a civil court.
Kafa has been involved with three kinds of abuse: spousal, pedophilia and trafficking. "Our main concern is to prevent family abuse," explains Awada. There are only a few shelters for victims of abuse in Lebanon. Worse, they do not take in women with children.
Continue....
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=47240
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 22:40 | US State Department
URL: www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/06/1248 . . .
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Remarks at Release of the Ninth Annual Trafficking in Persons Report Alongside Leaders in Congress
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/06/124872.htm
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 22:32 | US State Department
URL: www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/06/1247 . . .
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Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony of the Honorable Melanne Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues by
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/06/124715.htm
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 22:04 | Association for Women's Rights in Development
URL: www.awid.org
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Iran: Women emerge as major political force
Source: Globe & Mail
15/06/2009 10:29 am
Reform candidates promise to enhance their role if elected
Regardless of whether their preferred candidate ends up winning Friday's enthusiastic presidential election in Iran, women have emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the country's politics.
Women have long been a potent force in Iran, and have come out to vote for other candidates in the past – in 1997, for example, 40 per cent of the voters who supported another reform candidate, Mohammad Khatami, were women – but observers this year say that never before have women played such a major part in an election.
The two pro-reform candidates – Mir-Hossein Mousavi and cleric Mehdi Karoubi – said they would seek to enhance the role of women in the conservative Islamic state if they were elected president.
Even the conservative challenger Mohsen Rezaie, former head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, has a women's advisory team and said he would reform the law to ensure greater equality for women.
“Whoever comes to power has to respond to the demands of the women's rights movement,” said rights campaigner Sussan Tahmasebi. “We are no longer invisible.”
Under incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, there was an attempt to push women back into the “private sphere and promote them as mothers and wives,” Ms. Tahmasebi said.
But don't get the idea that women in Iran are as badly treated as in Afghanistan, or have as few rights as women in Saudi Arabia, or suffer from sharply inferior status as in some other Gulf states.
Iranian women are among the most highly educated and socially active in the Middle East. They have a 77-per-cent literacy rate and, since 1999, account for the majority of university students.
Jaleh Farhadpour, 50, has a master's degree in architecture and owns a large children's clothing factory in Iran. She opened the country's first shelter for battered women, and now she splits her time between Tehran and Toronto.
“Iranian women have always been outspoken and well educated,” Ms. Farhadpour said. “My grandmother could speak three languages.”
“In fact,” she added, “I know several Iranian families who immigrated to Canada and it was the woman, not the husband, who met the educational and other standards to be accepted.”
Those very factors of literacy, education, affluence are what's made it particularly hard for Iranian women to accept their relative decline in status since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ms. Farhadpour thinks.
“You have all these emancipated women suddenly being told they have to cover up; they can't be seen in public with a man who's not their husband.”
“That's why I moved my family to Canada,” Ms. Farhadpour said. “I couldn't bear to have my daughter raised as a second-class citizen. I want her to decide if she wants to wear a scarf. I want her to be able to go play tennis with a boy if she wants.”
“It took me years to get the permits to allow me to open that shelter,” she said. “It shouldn't be such a fight.”
Now, a diminutive 64-year-old grandmother, Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Mr. Mousavi, has taken the fight into the open. Not only has she broken new ground by actively campaigning for her husband, but her simple gesture of posing for the campaign poster holding his hand gave a whole new tone to the politicking.
Ms. Rahnavard is no political neophyte. She was a political adviser to Mohammad Khatami, the reformist president from 1997 to 2005, and chancellor of al-Zahra University for women in Tehran – until she was removed by Mr. Ahmadinejad in 2006 because she invited Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian human-rights activist and Nobel laureate, to give a lecture.
She sends unmistakable signals to reformist voters by wearing a floral head scarf and open black chador that reveals colourful clothes beneath.
Three years ago Friday, police broke up a demonstration of women launching a million-signatures campaign to press government to adopt legislation less discriminatory to women.
Last year, Mr. Ahmadinejad's government introduced two bills that would impose a tax on a woman's dowry and make it easier for a man to practice polygamy. The legislation was later dropped, but women fear those bills and others like them will be tabled again.
A lot of hope has been vested in Mr. Mousavi to change all this.
Ms. Farhadpour hopes he will.
Mr. Mousavi was one of Ms. Farhadpour's first-year professors in architecture school. “He taught the history of art and civilization, and I didn't really like him,” she said. “He was very, very religious.”
Perhaps, Ms. Farhadpour thinks, his wife and other women have had an effect on him.
Patrick Martin
15 June 2009
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 21:56 | CIMAC noticias
URL: www.cimac.org.mx
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Fueron canalizadas para su atención especializada
Detienen a pareja que prostituía a tres niñas en Chiapas
Por Manuel de la Cruz/corresponsal
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chia., 16 junio 09 (CIMAC).- Tres niñas que eran obligadas a prostituirse en una cantina del municipio de Rayón, al norte del estado, fueron rescatadas en una operación de la policía local, la cual explicó que dos presuntos miembros de una red de tratantes de personas, identificados como Domingo Juárez e Inés Espinosa, fueron aprehendidos en el “Bar Mari”.
Las menores de edad acusaron a estas personas de haberlas contratado como meseras, pero en realidad las obligaban a prostituirse con los clientes a quienes cobraban entre 200 y 300 pesos por servicio.
Las víctimas, de 12 y 15 años (de las que no fue precisada su nacionalidad), trabajaban la semana completa sin descanso más de 12 horas con un salario mensual de 300 pesos al mes.
La policía les encontró a los detenidos un maletín con 90 mil pesos en efectivo, una camioneta de lujo y varios teléfonos celulares con los números de la clientela asidua a las niñas.
Las niñas fueron canalizadas a una institución médica donde reciben atención especializada para ayudarlas a superar el trauma del abuso y la violencia a que estaban sometidas.
La Procuraduría de Justicia de la entidad recordó que apenas el mes pasado mandaron al penal de alta seguridad El Amate a ocho integrantes de una red de tratantes de personas que operaban prostituyendo a adolescentes en cantinas tanto en Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital chiapaneca, como en varios municipios de la frontera de México con Guatemala. Los tratantes obligaban a las niñas a entregar cuotas de dos mil pesos diarios a cambio de un plato de arroz con frijoles como alimento diario.
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 21:42 | Women of Color Network
jr@pcadv.org
URL: pubs.pcadv.net/wocn/nonovwcultcomp.pdf
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Violence Against Women
CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING ANNOUNCEMENT
Please distribute widely:
DEADLINE THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 19
REGISTER NOW! SPACE IS VERY LIMITED!
 Cultural Competency, Sensitivities and Allies Training
August 5-7, 2009Tucson, Arizona
The Women of Color Network (WOCN), in partnership with the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), will conduct a Cultural Competency, Sensitivities and Allies Training this summer.
The training will be held on August 5-7, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona.
This training is intended for MAINSTREAM ADVOCATESÂ including men and women of majority populations who are seeking to serve as allies to Communities of Color, Women, LGBTQ, Elder, Native, Immigrants and Refugees populations.
WOCN is pleased to announce that we will pay travel and lodging for 10 NON-OVW FUNDED MAINSTREAM ADVOCATES, to join 40 MAINSTREAM OVW GRANTEES who receive training funds and are responsible for their own travel and lodging.
If you are interested in attending, please go to the registration links below.
If you are a MAINSTREAM OVW GRANTEE or work for an OVW funded program, you can apply with the following registration form - please read instructions carefully:
pubs.pcadv.net/wocn/ovwallycultcomp.pdf
If you are a NON-OVW FUNDED MAINSTREAM ADVOCATE, you can apply with the following registration form - please read instructions and criteria carefully: pubs.pcadv.net/wocn/nonovwcultcomp.pdf
Please note - No more than 2 persons per program may attend.
We look forward to receiving your participation!
Contact Jody Rogers at jr@pcadv.org or 800-537-2238 with any questions.
In solidarity,
Women of Color Network
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| 16 Jun 2009 - 09:57 | Colombia Dispatch
URL: www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news . . .
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Judge's treatment of rape victims draws fire
Woman forced into court, told to calm down or else
By Bruce Cadwallader
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Common Pleas Judge Tim Horton was elected in 2006.
Rape cases are often settled without a trial so that the victim can avoid testifying and reliving the ordeal.
But Common Pleas Judge Tim Horton recently ordered two victims to appear in court, in front of their attackers, because he said he wanted to make sure that everyone understood the plea deals that had been worked out by attorneys.
One of the victims, a 13-year-old boy, eventually was allowed to give a written statement through his mother.
But in the other case, a young woman began to break down on the witness stand, and Horton, who has been a judge for three years, scolded her.
"About two minutes here, if you don't gather yourself, I'm about to rip up this guilty plea, and this man in front of you is about to walk. So I would do your very best to gather yourself," Horton said, according to court transcripts.
A victims' advocate is outraged.
And Horton now acknowledges that he wasn't at his best during those moments.
"I don't intend to make this a trend," he said. "I'm still evolving as a judge. (The woman's case) was a plea I learned a lot from. It was not my finest plea."
The 19-year-old woman was raped on a pool table with a knife to her throat at a party in Grove City in 2007. She said she thought the arrest of her assailant and a negotiated plea deal would end her trauma.
"My fear was to see him again and have him see me," she said in an interview this week. "I was scared I would be followed home (from court). I was scared for my family.
"There were so many people in (the courtroom). All the seats were filled up."
Weeks later, Horton also ordered prosecutors to bring the 13-year-old boy to the courthouse so he could look him in the eye and explain why a relative might spend the rest of his life in prison for repeatedly molesting the boy when he was 9.
In that case, Prosecutor Ron O'Brien filed a motion asking that the victim's mother be permitted to act as the boy's representative. She read a statement in court, and Horton was satisfied.
Catherine Harper Lee, executive director of the victims'-advocacy group Justice League of Ohio, commended O'Brien for filing the motion.
"At least this protected the child from further trauma," she said in a written statement.
But she said she was dismayed by Horton's actions in both cases. And she called the comments made by Horton to the woman "inexcusable."
"Let's forgo consideration of the expertise of the prosecutor and defense counsel and threaten a severely traumatized rape victim that if she doesn't pull herself together the judge will tear up the guilty plea and set the rapist free," Harper Lee said. "With that lack of compassion and threat of injustice, it's no wonder why 70 percent of rape victims don't report."
Continues...
www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/06/11/rape_case.ART_ART_06-11-09_A1_LNE557F.html
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| 15 Jun 2009 - 16:24 | CNN Chile
URL: www.cnnchile.com/nacional/2009/06/12/inv . . .
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SANTIAGO, junio 12
Involucran a Armada en casos de prostitución infantil
La denuncia fue hecha por el abogado Hugo Gutiérrez, donde acusa a personal de la Armada chilena y estadounidense de haberse vinculados con menores de edad que ejercían la prostitución.
Después de que se revelaran nexos entre detectives de la Policía De Investigaciones (PDI) y una red de prostitución infantil, la denuncia de la Asamblea Nacional de Derechos Humanos, presentada por el abogado Hugo Gutiérrez, también tenía información sobre supuestos nexos de personal de la Armada con redes de prostitución infantil.
El subsecretario del Interior, Patricio Rosende se refirió a la denuncia que la Asamble Nacional de Derechos Humanos presentó contra miembros de la Armada de Chile.
La denuncia es por encubrir a uniformados extranjeros que se habrían involucrado durante la última operación UNITAS con menores de edad en casos de prostitución infantil.
"Si hay funcionarios de la Armada o de cualquier institución involucrados serán sancionados severamente".
Después de que la Asamblea Nacional de Derechos Humanos denunciara a miembros de la Armada de Chile de encubrir a uniformados extranjeros que se habrían involucrado con menores de edad en casos de prostitución infantil, la institución decidió informar lo siguiente:
"La Armada de Chile se encuentra realizando una investigación interna para aclarar los hechos que se denuncian.
Si se confirman la existencia del delito, la Armada actuará con máximo rigor y se pondrá a disposición de la justicia a quienes resulten responsables de estos hechos".
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| 15 Jun 2009 - 16:16 | DUNA 87.9
a
URL: www.duna.cl/web/archivos/designan-fiscal . . .
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Designan Fiscal Preferente para Indagar Nexo de Detectives y Prostitucion Infantil
Por Rodrigo Alvarez el 10 Junio 2009 en Titulares
El fiscal jefe del Ministerio Público de Valparaíso, Jorge Abott, designó esta mañana a Pablo Avendaño como fiscal con preferencia para llevar a cabo una investigación abierta en relación al vínculo de detectives de la Policía de Investigaciones (PDI) con una red de prostitución infantil que trabajaba en los locales nocturnos de Sergio Jara Ruz, alias “el Charly”.
De acuerdo a lo señalado por Avendaño “los antecedentes que manejamos son básicamente declaraciones de las víctimas, de mujeres que siendo menores de edad trabajaron en locales del imputado Sergio Jara Ruz y que bajo esas circunstancias, mantuvieron relaciones sexuales, a cambio de un pago de dinero, con funcionarios de la PDI”.
Respecto al futuro judicial de loa efectivos vinculados en el reportaje exhibido anoche por el programa Contacto de Canal 13, el fiscal indicó que una de las próximas diligencias será la de “llamarlos a declarar, esa es sin duda una diligencia que se realizará, pero no tengo claro cuando, porque depende de una decisión estratégica de la fiscalía … esta semana se va a pedir la solicitud de formalización para las personas que de acuerdo a los datos que tenemos y que consideramos que está acreditado que tienen participación directa en los hechos”.
Las personas que serán formalizadas, Avendaño explicó que serán formalizados por el delito de favorecimiento de prostitución de menores y específicamente por haber tenido relaciones sexuales con menores. “Hay funcionarios de investigaciones, ex funcionarios de investigaciones y también un particular yen total son ocho o nueve las personas”, puntualizó.
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| 15 Jun 2009 - 09:33 | Madre
URL: www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/05/22/afgh . . .
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Afghan women are killed for demanding their rights
A few of the women who have been killed or threatened for daring to demand their rights.
Women in Afghanistan are routinely denied basic human rights, including education, healthcare, freedom from violence, and freedom of movement. Afghan women who fight to change this reality are attacked and even assassinated by ultra-conservatives.
Meanwhile, US airstrikes that kill civilians further endanger Afghan women and their families. They also increase the power of the Taliban and other reactionary forces as more Afghans turn to them for protection from the United States.
Each woman who is targeted and killed is meant to serve as a warning to any woman who would dare to stand up for her rights. Yet Afghan women continue to do just that. MADRE is supporting their courageous struggle through our Afghan Women's Survival Fund.
Below, we profile a few of the women who have been killed or threatened for daring to demand their rights.
Sitara Achakzai spent the years of Taliban rule in Germany and returned to Afghanistan in 2004 to join women working to promote their human rights and struggling to secure peace. She became a member of Kandahar's provincial council, using that position to advocate for women's rights.
For International Women's Day on March 8, 2009, she played a major role in organizing a national sit-in of more than 11,000 women in seven Afghan provinces. They were joined in this effort by women across the globe, who wore blue scarves in solidarity with the call for peace with justice.
On April 12, 2009, Sitara was gunned down in broad daylight in front of her home. As she stepped out of her car, four men on motorcycles drove by and opened fire. A Taliban spokesperson soon claimed responsibility. Just two weeks before, she had survived a suicide bomb attack on the provincial council building that left 13 people dead.
Continues...
www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/05/22/afghan-women-are-killed-for-demanding-their-rights.html
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| 15 Jun 2009 - 09:24 | Reporters Without Borders
URL: www.rsf.org/-Anglais-.html
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AFGHANISTAN: Radio station director’s murder still unpunished two years later
Zaki, who was also a school principal, was murdered by gunmen who entered her home in the early hours of 6 June 2007 and shot her seven times in front of her two-year-old son.
Radio journalist Zakia Zaki’s murder two years ago tomorrow is still unpunished and her husband assures Reporters Without Borders that the lack of progress with the investigation is almost certainly due to the influence of the murder’s masterminds. The director of Sada-e-Solh (Peace Radio), Zaki was gunned down in her home in Jabalussaraj, in the northern province of Parwan, on 6 June 2007.
Daughters and relatives weep over the body of Zakia Zaki, owner and manager of Peace Radio, who was shot at her home in front of her eight-year-old son. (Photo: AFP)“We have not forgotten Zaki, who was an exemplary woman and a symbol of the renaissance of independent media in Afghanistan,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The interior minister is unable to explain why the investigation into her murder has made no progress. We call for justice to be done. The government must give a serious undertaking to solve this case. Afghan journalists, especially women journalists, will not be safe until those responsible are punished.”
Zaki’s husband, Abdul Anad Ranjbar, told Reporters Without Borders: “There has been no progress. I recently spoke with National Security officials but nothing has been done. The station’s journalists and I continue to be threatened, and the interior ministry is an accomplice to this. The police do not protect us although we have given them the phone numbers of those who are threatening us.”
Ranjbar added: “This year, our family and her friends are going to commemorate the anniversary in private. We do not want to continue being used by officials who say they have come to defend Zakia Zaki’s memory but end up not doing anything.”
Zaki was threatened recently by some factional commanders in her area to shut down the station or face death, the head of Afghanistan's Independent Journalist Association said.
Reuters, June 6, 2007Afghan and foreign officials were present when her family inaugurated a cultural centre in Jabalussaraj on the first anniversary of her death. “It is what she wanted and she had begun the work before she was killed,” Ranjbar said at the time. “It was up to me and my family to keep her memory alive. I think that since her murder, women journalists have been afraid and the impunity has helped to scare her colleagues.”
Zaki, who was also a school principal, was murdered by gunmen who entered her home in the early hours of 6 June 2007 and shot her seven times in front of her two-year-old son. She liked to say that her radio station was “a home for the community’s residents, the only place where they dare to speak freely.” She and her staff had often been threatened by local warlords.
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