All posts tagged: women’s rights

France-based Begum TV channel offers a lifeline to Afghan women

France-based Begum TV channel offers a lifeline to Afghan women

In a tiny television studio in the French capital, two unveiled Afghan women face the camera on a mission to provide a lifeline to their fellow countrywomen back home.  Issued on: 20/03/2024 – 07:25Modified: 20/03/2024 – 07:53 4 min “Tonight we’ll be discussing the different forms of violence against women in Afghanistan,” says 25-year-old Diba Akbari, speaking in front of a green screen. A new France-based satellite television channel called Begum TV is beaming educational programmes and a little light relief to women stuck at home in Afghanistan. “They wed a woman and put her in a corner. She’s reduced to household chores and her only aim in life is to breed children,” says Akbari. “But preventing her from continuing her studies and training, that’s violence.” Taliban authorities have tightly restricted women’s access to education since they seized power in 2021, imposing a strict interpretation of Islamic law that means all women must be veiled and largely excluding women from public life. Teenage girls and women are barred from schools and universities, and thousands of …

Strict abortion ban threatening women’s healthcare in Louisiana

Strict abortion ban threatening women’s healthcare in Louisiana

Louisiana’s strict abortion ban is having spillover effects across women’s health care in the US state, leading doctors to turn away patients for routine prenatal visits and perform unnecessary Cesarean sections, according to a report released Tuesday. Issued on: 20/03/2024 – 03:11Modified: 20/03/2024 – 03:15 3 min Conservative Louisiana, in the Deep South, joined a dozen other states in implementing a near-total ban on abortion after the US Supreme Court overturned the federal right to the procedure in 2022. But a joint fact-finding mission conducted from May to November last year by four medical NGOs charges that Louisiana’s abortion ban has led to practices that “degrade long-standing medical ethical standards, and, worst of all, deny basic human rights to Louisianans seeking reproductive health care in their state.” In one case, a woman was denied a prenatal appointment until she had passed the first trimester of her pregnancy. She ended up having a miscarriage before she was able to receive an appointment, she told the report’s investigators. In the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, miscarriages are …

Gambian lawmakers debate bill lifting ban on female genital mutilation

Gambian lawmakers debate bill lifting ban on female genital mutilation

Gambian lawmakers on Monday debated a highly controversial bill seeking to lift the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in force since 2015, before suspending the vote for at least three months.  Issued on: 18/03/2024 – 18:15 2 min The issue has divided the tiny West African nation for months, with hundreds gathering to protest outside parliament.  Pro-FGM campaigners outnumbered those calling for the ban to remain in place, according to AFP journalists. “The bill seeks to uphold religious loyalty and safeguard cultural norms and values,” Almameh Gibba, the lawmaker who introduced the bill, said during the debate. “The use of a ban on female circumcision is direct violation of the citizens’ rights to practise their culture and religion,” he added. But activists and rights organisations say the legislation reverses years of progress and risks damaging the country’s human rights record.  “There’s the inherent risk that this is just the first step and it could lead to the rollback of other rights such as the law on child marriage… and not just in The Gambia …

Iran’s new generation: Meet the young women fighting for freedom

Iran’s new generation: Meet the young women fighting for freedom

Back to homepage / Shows / Reporters Issued on: 15/03/2024 – 12:06Modified: 15/03/2024 – 12:16 12:25 REPORTERS © FRANCE 24 In Iran, the death of 22-year-old student Mahsa Amini triggered an unprecedented uprising that is still having repercussions. Arrested on September 13, 2022 by Iran’s morality police for wearing an “ill-fitting” headscarf that did not fully cover her hair, Amini died three days later in hospital, provoking a wave of anger and protests across the country. A new generation of women is now daring to defy the mandatory Islamic veil law imposed by the mullahs. Who are these young women ready to break the law, and how do they differ from their elders? Our reporters Catalina Gomez Angel and Pouya Parsa Magham went to meet the Iranian women determined to fight for their freedom despite threats and intimidation. Read more on related topics: Source link

Ireland PM concedes defeat in constitutional referendum to redefine family, women’s roles

Ireland PM concedes defeat in constitutional referendum to redefine family, women’s roles

A dual referendum in Ireland on redefining family and women’s roles in the constitution has been defeated, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday. Issued on: 09/03/2024 – 18:07 2 min The government had supported the proposed changes, which would have widened the definition of the family and clarified the duties of women in society.  “I think it’s clear at this stage, that the family amendment and the care amendment referendums have been defeated,” Varadkar said at a press conference in Dublin. The votes are the latest attempt to reflect the changing face of European Union member Ireland, and the waning influence of the once-dominant Catholic Church.  But by 1200 GMT it was clear that counting was showing a trend towards a “No” on the two questions about care and family. Read moreIreland votes on removing constitutional reference to ‘women in the home’ Varadkar said the referendums had been “defeated comprehensively on a respectable turnout”.  “It was our responsibility to convince a majority of people to vote yes,” he said. “I think we struggled to …

Alabama: The Struggle Over IVF | Catherine Coleman Flowers

Alabama: The Struggle Over IVF | Catherine Coleman Flowers

On February 16 Alabama’s supreme court ruled that fertilized, unimplanted embryos created using in vitro fertilization (IVF) are children under state law. The three couples at the center of the case, known as LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, each underwent fertility treatments years ago at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, a clinic based in Mobile. The clinic stored some of their frozen embryos in a cryogenic nursery at a local hospital. It was there, the decision alleges, that in 2020 a patient wandered into the nursery, “removed several embryos,” and accidentally destroyed them. The couples sued the fertility clinic and the company that runs the hospital under an 1872 state law called the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, on the grounds that their embryos fell under the act’s definition of “children.” “All parties to these cases, like all members of this Court, agree that an unborn child is a genetically unique human being whose life begins at fertilization and ends at death,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in his majority opinion, using the language …

France seals constitutional right to abortion on International Women’s Day

France seals constitutional right to abortion on International Women’s Day

France inscribed the guaranteed right to abortion in its constitution Friday, a powerful message of support for women’s rights on International Women’s Day. Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti used a 19th-century printing press to seal the amendment in France’s constitution at a special public ceremony. Applause filled the cobblestoned Place Vendome as France became the first country to explicitly guarantee abortion rights in its national charter. The measure was overwhelmingly approved by French lawmakers earlier this week, and Friday’s ceremony means it can now enter into force. While abortion is a deeply divisive issue in the US, it’s legal in nearly all of Europe and overwhelmingly supported in France, where it’s seen more as a question of public health than politics. French legislators approved the constitutional amendment on Monday in a 780-72 vote that was backed by many far-right lawmakers. Friday’s ceremony in Paris was a key event on a day focused on advancing women’s rights globally. Marches, protests and conferences are being held from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Mexico City and beyond. 17:46 The French constitutional …

Tunisia’s Fields of Resilience: The reality for female farmworkers | Women

Tunisia’s Fields of Resilience: The reality for female farmworkers | Women

In rural Tunisia, a mother toils in the fields to secure life-changing surgery for her daughter. From the cold of winter to the scorching heat of summer, Noura works long hours in Tunisia’s fertile fields to earn a living. Alongside other women, Noura travels every day to the farm on the back of a truck. The women are poorly equipped and paid very little for the extreme working conditions. Noura’s motivation comes from saving her daughter, Reem, from a similar fate. Reem was born with a congenital jaw abnormality and needs multiple surgeries. Noura has little support from her husband who often threatens to leave. She has no option but to fight on her own to secure a better future for her daughter. Tunisia’s Fields of Resilience is a documentary film by Maya Youssef.  Source link

As France makes abortion a constitutional right, UK women see sharp rise in abortion convictions

As France makes abortion a constitutional right, UK women see sharp rise in abortion convictions

As France enshrines abortion access in its constitution, the UK is facing a sharp rise in abortion convictions. A law dating from 1861 is being used to prosecute women in England and Wales, in at least one case leading to incarceration. France has become the only country in the world to protect the right to terminate a pregnancy in its constitution after abortion access was officially added to the freedoms guaranteed in the French constitution on Monday. The move was a direct reaction to the rollback of abortion rights in the United States and elsewhere. But across the English Channel, women are still at risk of prosecution for having the procedure because abortion in the UK has not been decriminalised. Britain is facing a sharp rise in abortion convictions, with a law dating from 1861 being used to prosecute women and in at least one case leading to incarceration.    Between 1967 and 2022, three women were convicted of having an illegal abortion in England and Wales. But in the last 18 months alone, six women have been prosecuted over suspected abortion offences. Of the six …

How Trump’s Veto on Border Security Empowers Mexico

How Trump’s Veto on Border Security Empowers Mexico

In early January, I drove along the Pan-American Highway in the scenic Mexican state of Oaxaca. On the opposite side of the road, the Mexican National Guard had erected a temporary roadblock. A line of cars heading north had halted. Uniformed officers walked down the line, questioning drivers. They were searching for migrants bound for the United States. A few hours later, I returned by the same route. I braced myself for the obstruction and delay. There was none. The roadblock had vanished. In the effort to contain unauthorized migration to the U.S., Mexico is an on-again, off-again partner. Sometimes it helps more; sometimes less. In 2022, Mexico detained almost 320,000 migrants and expelled 106,000, according to a condemnatory report by Amnesty International. Detainees were held under conditions much harsher than would be allowed in the U.S. A migrant from El Salvador described the facility where he was held in Ciudad Juárez, the Mexican border town adjoining El Paso, Texas. As NPR reported in 2023: There was no water and scant food. There was no …