Some Women Were Born To Preach

When you’re young, friends and relatives ask you the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For Roman Catholic women with strong faith and leadership qualities, it’s a shame that they can’t say, “I want to be a priest.” Although women are defying the strict rules of Catholicism and making it

Catholic Pro-Life Warriors Still OK with Women and Girls Dying

How very pro-life of the Catholic Church:

Today marks the opening of a United Nations general assembly “high level meeting” on Aids in New York City that will evaluate the progress of that body’s response to the pandemic over the past five years and set the agenda for the next decade. Serra Sippel, president of the Centre for Health and Gender Equity (Change), declares that “this meeting is where we decide how serious we are about beating HIV, and how serious we are about women’s equality.” If so, the Holy See has left no doubt about their stance on either issue.

Self-Castration After Sex Change Denied

Being born a man but knowing you are a woman is hard for anyone, but imagine if you had to live your life in the wrong body in a prison where nobody really cares — the only thing that matters is that you’ve committed a crime and you’re paying the price. Virginian inmate, Ophelia De’lonta,

Stop the deportation of Betty Tibakawa

Betty Tibakawa, a young lesbian living in Uganda, had gone for a walk on the beach when she was approached by three men she did not know, but who knew her by reputation, who began taunting her about her sexuality. They took her to a disused building where she was violently assaulted. The men kicked her in the stomach, pinned her down and branded her inner thighs with hot irons. She lost consciousness and when she woke up, the men were gone. Her injuries were so severe that she could not leave her home for two months. Betty then came to the UK where she applied for asylum.

Women Are War Booty

It’s one thing to agree with the exchange of sex for money and quite another to propose it should be legal for women to be sex slaves. Salwa al Mutairi, a female Kuwaiti politician, has said that men should use women as sex slaves. But there’s more. She adds that prisoners from war-torn countries would

Cattle-Branding Women Not Acceptable

The Malaysian police have a lot of explaining to do after officers bound 30 women detained for alleged prostitution in chains, and branded them “as though they were cattle.” Thirty Chinese and Vietnamese women, as well as eight Malaysian men, were arrested in a raid on a Penang nightclub on Thursday. The women were then

California Prisons: Really, Really Inhumane, Says the Supreme Court

Big news for California last week, with a decision in Brown v. Plata, an important case for prisoner rights. This case is primarily being reported in the media as a mandate for prisoner release, which to some extent, it is; it affirms a decision to mandate a reduction in California’s prisoner population to address prison overcrowding. To illustrate how severe the overcrowding is, the state must reduce the prisoner population to a mere 137.5% of capacity in the next two years. The media wants you to know that this case means that California is about to be flooded with a horde of violent criminals, and that’s the main takeaway it wants you to have. Nothing else to see here, move along!

Poland: ECHR ruling says pregnant woman’s human rights were violated

The European Court of Human Rights found on May 26, 2011, that Poland’s failure to ensure that a pregnant woman was given access to available diagnostic services to which she was legally entitled was a violation of human rights.

Facebook gaming for social justice: America 2049

There’s this badass game I’ve been excited to hear about lately: “America 2049″, which showcases how much better Facebook gaming can be than all that “Farmville” crap. (I don’t mean to be elitist, but, like, really. One game designer I know refers to players of “Farmville”-esque games as “victims”.) I haven’t played it, but word is that “America 2049″ involves legitimately engaging puzzles and codes … and real-life tie-in events, which I’m always psyched about. And it’s especially awesome because it’s about social justice. Here’s a profile on Huffington Post; here’s an interview with the company owner and lead actor on Salon; and a more detailed synopsis of the game on the Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Snip from the ARGNet synopsis:

Human Rights Watch Film Festival: The Women

Women directors are dominant in the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival in NYC from June 16-30. The themes of the Festival this year are: Truth, Justice and Accountability; Times of Conflict and Responses to Terrorism; Human Dignity, Discrimination and Resources; and Migrants’ and Women’s Rights. The festival will kick off on June 16 with a benefit for Human Rights Watch and a screening of The Whistleblower starring Rachel Weisz an incredibly powerful movie about a woman who blows the whistle on a large scale human trafficking operation conducted and abetted by peacekeepers working under the UN mandate in Bosnia.

Female genital cutting: a rite, a torture, or both?

In today’s Times, Nick Kristof writes about the dilemma presented by female genital cutting. The practice, which he calls “one of the most pervasive human rights abuses worldwide,” prompts a critical question: where is the line between ending human rights violations and cultural imperialism?

Ugandan anti-gay bill is poised to pass (and what westerners should do about it)

Remember that horrendous Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill we posted about late last year? According to the AP, the bill is once again rearing its ugly head. A Ugandan parliament committee is currently holding hearings on it, and Ugandan lawmakers have indicated the bill could be voted on as early as before Parliament ends its session at the end of the week. Many advocates, including a blogger on GayUganda and Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), suggest that the bill is being debated now to divert attention from recent political demonstrations in Uganda that have attracted police crackdowns. Human Rights Watch says security forces killed nine people in the recent marches.