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Reuters blog archive
from The Human Impact:
Saudi Arabia launches first campaign to stop violence against women
Saudi Arabia has launched its first visual campaign against the abuse of women, designed to encourage female victims to come out of hiding and to have a global impact at a time of change in the kingdom.
The advertisement shows a woman wearing a full veil or niqab, her made-up eyes staring out from the heavy cloth with one of them blackened and bruised.
Underneath, a caption reads: “Some things can’t be covered – fighting women’s abuse together.”
The campaign is a collaboration between the King Khalid Foundation (KKF) – a royal non-profit organisation – and the Riyadh branch of advertising agency Memac Ogilvy.
from The Human Impact:
Fiery activist persuades Gambia to ban FGM
Gambian rights activist Isatou Touray has dedicated her life to ridding her country of female genital mutilation (FGM). In return she has received death threats, been imprisoned and suffered repeated harassment.
But Touray has good news. This year, the tiny West African country is finally set to pass a law banning the brutal ritual, which causes horrific pain and long-term health and psychological problems.
from The Human Impact:
Fiery activist persuades Gambia to ban FGM
Gambian rights activist Isatou Touray has dedicated her life to ridding her country of female genital mutilation (FGM). In return she has received death threats, been imprisoned and suffered repeated harassment.
But Touray has good news. This year, the tiny West African country is finally set to pass a law banning the brutal ritual, which causes horrific pain and long-term health and psychological problems.
from The Human Impact:
New Pope praises women, Italian president ignores them
“Women are the witnesses of the Resurrection and they have a paramount role,” Pope Francis said on Wednesday in his address to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square.
The evangelists did no more than write down what the women saw on the day of Christ’s resurrection, the pope - former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio - told the cheering crowd. He also said that women play a special role in the Church: they “open the doors to the Lord,” the Italian daily La Repubblica reported.
from Events:
Roe v. Everyone: States take on abortion
An anti-abortion sign is seen during the Ninth Annual Walk for Life West Coast rally in San Francisco, California, January 26, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Nearly six months after an election that underscored the political divide over abortion, North Dakota's governor enacted a law that bans abortions in most cases once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, or as early as six weeks. It is the most restrictive abortion law in the United States.
from The Human Impact:
Monique Villa: Being a woman in a schizophrenic male world
This past week, chatting away at the dinner table, I was asked about one of my favorite books. My answer was swift: 'Il Gattopardo' -"The Leopard"- the masterpiece of Sicilian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
The novel narrates the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Italian Risorgimento, the revolution which led to the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a unified Italian State in 1861. Central to the story is the idea of change, feared and opposed by the dominant class, but also opportunistically embraced by those willing to re-invent themselves in exchange for a slice of new power. It is Tancredi, the aristocrat joining the revolution to safeguard his family interests, who speaks the novel's most famous line: "If we want things to stay as they are" - he says - "things will have to change."
from The Human Impact:
Divorce may be legal in Morocco, but it’s still controversial
By Maria Caspani
A veiled woman hails a cab late at night on a deserted road in Casablanca, Morocco. As the taxi takes off, the driver asks her what on earth she is doing out alone at such a late hour.
“I was working,” the woman responds as the disconcerted driver asks her whether her husband approves. “I’m divorced,” she says.
from India Insight:
Anti-rape bill goes easy on first-time stalkers, but only if innocent
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
Women have become increasingly worried about their safety in New Delhi after the gang rape and torture of a young woman aboard a moving bus last December. Not for nothing do people call the city India's rape capital. Beyond the leers and the crass words that men often direct at women walking on the street, fresh fears have arisen over stalkers.
from India Insight:
Making a case for tougher anti-stalking laws
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily of Reuters)
Should any well meaning law proposed in a democratic parliament be shelved because it risks being misused in some form?
from The Human Impact:
When is rape not considered rape?
I had always thought – naively as it turns out – that rape is when a person forces another person, either physically or by using threats, to have sex and/or when there’s an absence of a clear ‘yes’.
Apparently not.
According to the laws in some of Southeast Asia’s fast-developing nations, rape within a marriage isn’t rape. Or if you go by some of the decisions handed down by the courts, it’s not rape if there isn’t a physical struggle or the perpetrator is in his 60s.
