women's rights

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Women-Only Saudi Hotel Raises Debate on Progress

Critics worry about segregation

(Newser) - Saudi businesswomen are embracing a hotel for women-only that frees them of the pressures from a society in which they can't drive and, until January, couldn't check into a hotel without permission from a male guardian. But others are concerned the Luthan Hotel & Spa simply reinforces the kingdom's gender...

Good Sex Heats Up Politics in Ecuador

Lawmaker wants women's satisfaction protected by law

(Newser) - Politics are getting steamy in Ecuador these days. Maria Soledad Vela, a member of the nation's ruling party, wants to give Ecuadorian women the right to seek sexual happiness. Her proposal is sparking controversy in the conservative country, where women are traditionally seen as sexual objects or child bearers, the...

Masseuse Chastity Pants Spark Uproar in Indonesia

Parlor rules could become national bill

(Newser) - Reacting to clients’ demands for sex, some Indonesian masseuses have begun wearing locked pants reminiscent of ancient chastity belts, the Los Angeles Times reports. What began as one parlor entrepreneur's idea to deflect pushy clients has spread and may now spawn legislation. But many, including Indonesia's minister for women’s...

Guardian System Has Saudi Women 'Perpetual Minors'

Doing almost anything requires male consent in kingdom, report finds

(Newser) - Women in Saudi Arabia need to gain a male guardian’s consent to do almost anything, living as “perpetual minors,” the Telegraph reports. Research by Human Rights Watch found that male permission is needed to go to a doctor, travel, and even get dressed. In addition, strict segregation...

US-Backed Militias Curb Iraqi Women's Rights

'Sahwa' stabilize areas but rule with medieval customs

(Newser) - Women's rights in Iraq are devolving under the rule of US-backed militias, Newsweek reports. These Sahwa or "Awakening" groups have stabilized regions, but rule with medieval laws and customs: In some areas, women are commonly kept at home, forced to wear headscarves, or are married into polygamous relationships, Newsweek...

Citigroup Will Pay $33M to Settle Gender-Bias Suit

Bank plans to change infrastructure as result of action brought by 2,500 women

(Newser) - Citigroup will pay $33 million to some 2,500 female brokers to settle a gender-discrimination lawsuit brought by women at its Smith Barney unit, Reuters reports. The bank will also make operational changes in response to the class-action move, adding diversity-watchdog positions, working to retain and promote female workers and...

Slowly Changing Painful Customs

Kenya group develops alternatives to female circumcision

(Newser) - The practice of female circumcision has been twice banned in Kenya, but nearly 40% of young women still undergo the painful and dangerous rite of passage into married life. The Christian Science Monitor profiles activists at the Tasaru Girls Rescue Center who work with villagers—using role models, lessons about...

Saudi Video Protests Driver Ban
Saudi Video Protests Driver Ban
Mar 11, 2008 7:15 PM CDT

Saudi Video Protests Driver Ban

YouTube clip shows woman driver calling for change in law

(Newser) - Activists have posted a video online to protest the Saudi ban on women drivers, the BBC reports. Made to honor International Women’s Day, the 3-minute clip on YouTube follows protester Wajeha Huwaider as she turns onto a forbidden highway and discusses the legality of the ban. “Many women...

'Honor' Violence Against Women Surging in UK

Immigrant daughters forced into marriage, even killed for 'honor'

(Newser) - Violence in the name of family honor affects at least 17,000 women every year in Britain, and the number of unreported incidents may be drastically higher, the Independent reports. Forced marriages, sexual assaults, domestic violence, and so-called "honor" killings are reaching crisis levels, British officials say; they are...

Saudi Religious Cops Toss US Exec in Pokey

Her crime? Sitting with a male colleague at Starbucks

(Newser) - A 37-year-old American businesswoman says Saudi Arabia's religious police swooped her out of a Riyadh Starbucks and bundled her off to jail, where she was strip searched, humiliated, and bullied into signing confessions, reports the Times of London—all for sharing a table with a male colleague when the Internet...

Saudis to Let Women Behind the Wheel

Driving ban lifted to pre-empt growing protest movement

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia’s Royal Court has decided to allow women to drive. The move is calculated to stem growing activism, including protest convoys of women drivers, reports the Daily Telegraph. "If girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when...

Countrywomen Rate Bhutto's Feminist Legacy

Ex-PM advanced women's rights; but not as much as hoped

(Newser) - Benazir Bhutto wasn't always a staunch defender of women's rights, but for Pakistani women the fight for gender equality is a lot tougher now that she's gone. Bhutto may have jump-started women's health care and job programs, but she missed opportunities to repeal harsh anti-egalitarian laws—failures her defenders chalk...

King Abdullah Pardons Saudi Rape Victim

Acts out of compassion, but still believes jail time, lashes were 'fair'

(Newser) - A young Saudi gang rape victim whose case sparked worldwide condemnation when she was sentenced to a lashing and jail time for violating Islamic law has been pardoned, Al Jazeera reports. King Abdullah pardoned the woman in the "interests of the people" and out of compassion for the victim,...

She Does All the Talking, Ergo, He's Not a Man

We don't like couples that break with gender roles, study finds

(Newser) - The fairer sex should also be the quieter, according to a new study that found both sexes look more harshly upon couples in which she does the talking. Gender equality be danged, "We have these gender stereotypes where we expect men to be dominant," the lead researcher told...

Turkey's Women Fight for Equal Rights—Again

Constitution chucks equality clause for one calling them 'needy'

(Newser) - Turkish women are up in arms after a draft of the country's new constitution deemed them a "vulnerable" group in "need of protection," the BBC reports. Over 80 activist groups have slammed the document, which they say inserted the clause in place of language that would have...

Saudi Women Want to Drive
Saudi Women Want to Drive
Sep 18, 2007 1:13 PM CDT

Saudi Women Want to Drive

Neither Islamic law nor country's constitution forbids female drivers

(Newser) - A group of Saudi women is trying to regain a “stolen right”: driving. The group will deliver a petition to King Abdullah this week demanding the right to get behind the wheel. But prospects for lifting the world's only ban on female drivers are cloudy, the BBC reports, because...

India Elects First Female Prez
India Elects First Female Prez
Jul 21, 2007 3:30 PM CDT

India Elects First Female Prez

Patil to take office amidst scandals

(Newser) - India elected its first woman to the largely ceremonial office of president today, in a landslide vote among parliament and state politicians. Pratibha Patil's supporters hail her victory as a breakthrough for women's rights in the country, while critics assert her reputation is already marred by a slew of personal...

High Court Curbs Pay Bias Suits
High Court Curbs Pay
Bias Suits
May 30, 2007 4:55 AM CDT

High Court Curbs Pay Bias Suits

Ginsburg dissents on decision limiting charges to 180 days

(Newser) - The Supreme Court severely limited the right of women to sue employers over pay discrimination in a stormy 5-4 decision yesterday. A lone woman employee at a tire factory sued because she was paid less than male coworkers over her long career; the court held that such charges must be...

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control
Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control
May 29, 2007 7:50 AM CDT

Brazil to Subsidize Birth Control

Cheaper pills give poor women same right to family planning, says president

(Newser) - Just weeks after Pope Benedict XVI decried contraception as a threat to the future of Latin America on his visit to Brazil, Brazil's president announced that the government would subsidize birth control pills at private pharmacies so poor women can have "the same right that the wealthy have to...

Suicide Rises Among Young Chinese Women

At risk: young wives in rural areas bypassed by modernization

(Newser) - Young, rural women in China are killing themselves at startling rates. In a country whose overall suicide rate is double the American, suicides are shooting up among young wives caught between the promise of modernizing cities and the traditional subservience of women that persists in the countryside. "Whenever their...

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