treatment of women
Developing Gender Equality among the Fipa
Several NGOs in the Rukwa Region of Tanzania have been campaigning recently for their society to promote more gender equality. They are particularly focused on women having better guarantees to the lands they help farm. Several of the villages mentioned last week in a news report about the situation are located in the traditional Fipa […]
Sexual Harassment by Inuit Leaders
Madeleine Redfern, the outspoken mayor of Iqaluit, complained last month about sexual harassment by powerful male Inuit leaders and she has been excoriated, as well as praised, for her comments ever since. She was addressing a Standing Committee on the Status of Women in the Canadian House of Commons when she said, according to a […]
Victims of Amish Sexual Abuse
A new organization called the Amish Heritage Foundation, formed mainly by Ms. Torah Bontrager, held its first conference at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, three weeks ago. The conference, titled “Disrupting History: Reclaiming Our Amish Story,” focused on ex-Amish people and their reasons for leaving their communities. It was held on September 28 […]
An Uproar over Sexual Harassment
Leh, the town that serves as capital of Ladakh, was in an uproar last week because some policemen sexually harassed a couple female students. The heavy-handed response by police officials attempting to cover up the crime and their repressive approach to the complainers prompted outrage among many Ladakhi women. The incident was described in the […]
Women Foster Changes in a Zapotec Village
The well-known Zapotec rug weaver Pastora Gutierrez Reyes made the news again last week, this time in a New York Times feature. Ms. Gutierrez, a leader for women’s rights in the town of Teotitlán del Valle, in Mexico’s Oaxaca State, was described in Lynn Stephen’s book Zapotec Women (2005) and more recently in a Truthout […]
Discrimination against Ladakhi Women
Anzara Anjum Khan wrote a piece for an Indian daily newspaper last week in which she emphasized that the situation for women in Ladakh is worse than she had thought. Ladakhi women are widely discriminated against, she found: they are often not given a share of their father’s or their husband’s properties. Furthermore, they are […]
Paliyans Handle Conflicts Effectively
Last week, a group of Paliyan women reported that forestry officials subjected them to a strip search while they were walking back from gathering in a forest. Two of India’s major newspapers reported on the allegations and the actions by officials in response to the complaints. According to a report in The Hindu on Tuesday, […]
Winnipeg Conference on Violence against Indigenous Women
A recent conference focusing on missing or murdered indigenous women and girls held in Winnipeg sought to stem the violence perpetrated against Inuit females. The round table meeting, held February 24 – 26, included government and Inuit leaders plus the families of victims. Participants spoke about the importance of finding resources that would end the […]
Microfinance Tourism in Oaxaca
A non-profit organization in Oaxaca called Fundacion en Vía seeks to promote businesses run by women through microfinance loans and education programs. A story in the Huffington Post last week by Carly Schwartz described the program run by En Via that organizes visits by tourists, including the journalist, to tapestry studios and other businesses of […]
Inuit Sex Trafficking
Inuit girls and women are the victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking, both in Nunavut and in major cities, according to a revealing 146 page report prepared by a Canadian consulting firm. Helen Roos, President of Roos-Remillard Consulting Services, recently released her report, “Service and Capacity Review for Victims of Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking […]
