September 2010
59 posts
“When you possess light within, you see it externally.”
– Anaïs Nin
WatchKiran Bir Sethi shows how her groundbreaking Riverside School in India teaches kids life’s most valuable lesson: “I can.” Watch her students take local issues into their own hands, lead other young people, even educate their parents.
A Bill to Protect Women and Girls Around the World
I never met my grandmother. She was burned alive with kerosene doused on her sari and lit on fire. Some think it was suicide, some think it was a dowry murder since her mother-in-law was not pleased with what my grandmother brought into her new husband’s family. She had four children; one of them my mother, the other my uncle, who was just a few months old when she was killed. I cannot imagine...
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Brazil looks likely to elect an extraordinary...
Sunday, 26 September 2010
The world’s most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President of Brazil
As head of state, president Dilma Rousseff would outrank Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, and...
“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.”
– Mother Teresa (via humilitynow)
"An educated woman is an educated family"
TAMPA/NEW YORK, Sept 22: IOC Executive Board member Nawal El Moutawakel was speaking out at the UN Millennium Development Goals Summit being held in New York to support of education for women.
The Olympian is also a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Goodwill Ambassador and has dealt with many of her own trying experiences growing up in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s in Morocco. El Moutawakel is also...
“An educated woman is an educated family and an educated country since women...”
– Nawal El Moutawakel
Teenage girls can change the world
Doug Saunders
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
The Alam family lives in one of the more squalid corners of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, and make their living in a pretty typical way: by deploying their teenaged daughters.
Each morning, 14-year-old Panchali walks down the mud lanes to her house-cleaning job in the nearby high-rise apartments, and 16-year-old Amolika goes out to...
Stepping Out (a poem)
By Maureen Watson
I’m stepping out, don’t mess about. Don’t tell me to be patient. I’ve been wedded, enslaved, white washed, and saved, But now, I’m liberated. I’ve been patted, and moulded, and shaped, and scolded And I learned real fast how to please `em, I was cursed and damned, And all for no good reason. I’ve been put up, and I’ve been put...
Women Can Lead the Way in Tackling Development and... →
The time has come for women leaders to influence the narrative on climate change and how we address its impacts.
Strong woman in history: Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa succeeded her father, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, as empress of the Hapsburg controlled lands of Central Europe in 1740. She made her son, Joseph II, coregent in 1765 after the death of her husband.
Maria Theresa brought about many economic and political changes to her empire.
She increased the size of the army by 200 percent and increased taxes in order to guarantee a steady...
“Give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you.”
– Madeline Bridges
Sarah Brown battles to end maternal mortality
Ex British PM’s wife, Sarah Brown, is preparing to host a meeting in New York of some of the world’s most influential women, the focus of which will be the global health of women and children.
Talking to The Guardian, Brown said: “Birth is such a pivotal moment for women, when all that is good and just in a society works to support us, and all that is unfair and unjust becomes starkly...
“Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left...”
– Jane Addams (American social worker, 1860-1935)
Educating women saves kids' lives →
A study finds that mothers’ educational levels are connected to child mortality rates
Click, click! Indian girls to tell their own...
Pradesh), Sep 16 (IANS) Schoolgirls Pooja Bhadoria and Kanchan Mishra are already feeling empowered. In a world where social prejudices are steeped against girls, they are hoping to wield the camera and tell their stories.
The two are from Bhind and Morena, which figure among the 14 districts with some of the lowest child sex ratios in India - less than 850 girls per 1,000 boys, indicating a...
Dove Continues Movement to Make Beauty a Source of...
When girls feel bad about their looks, 70 percent disconnect from life—avoiding normal daily activities like attending school or even giving their opinion—which can put their dreams on hold, and jeopardize their potential as future leaders, decision makers, and role models.
The Dove brand believes beauty should be a source of confidence, not anxiety, which is why the Dove brand is...
“African women in general need to know that it’s OK for them to be the way...”
– Wangari Maathai
Uniting global feminism
Kenyan Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai. Photograph: Martin Godwin
Feminists must recognise that all women experience social oppression, even if situations elsewhere oppose western ideals
By Nanjala Nyabola
How many feminists does it take to change a lightbulb? Having studied at an all-girls school for most of my life, it was always amazing that the punchline to this...
“If I had my life to live over… I’d dare to make more mistakes next...”
– Nadine Stair
Former Bollywood actress helps women escape abuse...
Somy Ali used to be a Bollywood actress. But after helping a Bangladeshi neighbour escape a decade of abuse by her husband, his father and brother, she decided to set up a non-profit organisation, No More Tears Inc in 2006.
Ali funds her organization in part by giving 10 percent of the revenue from her clothing company, So-Me Designs.
“These people have become part of my family,” she said....
WatchNovelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, looking for hints of how hers evolved.
“Woman must not accept; she must challenge.
She must not be awed by that which...”
– Margaret Sanger
Promote gender equality and empower women 101
The goal
To eliminate gender disparity in all levels of education by 2015, based on the ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; increase the number of women in paid employment outside the agricultural sector and increase the number of female MPs.
Learn more
Case study: Bangladesh – The women of Bangladesh fought alongside men to liberate the country in 1971....
Pink Saris (2010 TIFF film): “There is no higher...
2010 Toronto International Film Festival doc, “Pink Saris,” by veteran director Kim Longinotto has been picked up by New York-based Women Make Movies (WMM). The film, about Northern India’s Gulabi Gang, will have its world premiere at the upcoming festival, which Longinotto will attend.
“Pink Saris” is described as “an unflinching and often amusing look at an unlikely [group of] political...
“Mark my words, it will be women who bring...
Today, the Observer focuses on several Iranian women who have emerged as the face of women’s rights in Iran in recent times. One of these is Shiva Nazar Ahari – a 26-year-old human rights campaigner – the charges against whom are among the most serious that can be levelled in Iran: muharebeh (enmity against God), a crime, in theory punishable by death, originally intended to be used against...
“Women’s rights are human rights — they’re one and the same. Human...”
– Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean
Five African Women Scientists Honored by AU
As a celebration of its 11th anniversary, the African Union (AU) held ceremonies honouring five female scientists. The anniversary marks the transition of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union on September 9, 1999.Each of the winners of the Regional Scientific Awards will receive a cheque of $20,000.
Dr Hassina Mouri, an Algerian woman who achieved an award for her work as...
Six Life Lessons from Marian Wright Edelman
The first lesson that I keep telling over and over again: There is no free lunch in life. Please don’t feel entitled to anything you don’t sweat and struggle for. Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist, reminded us that “many women may not get all they pay for in this world, but they will certainly pay for all they get.” You’ve got to work your way up hard and...
“Courage comes from the medieval Old French word corage, meaning “heart and...”
Invest in women - it pays!
Healthy women deliver for their families, communities and nations.
Women’s unpaid household, caregiving and farm work worldwide equals about a third of the world’s Gross National Product.
Women’s income is more likely than men’s to go for food, education, medicine and other family needs.
Death or disability of a mother raises death and illness rates for children,...
WatchOur lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Malalai Joya: A woman MP among warlords
Malalai Joya (Pashto and Persian: ملالۍ جویا) (born April 25, 1978) is an Afghanpolitician who has been called “the bravest woman in Afghanistan.”[1] As an elected member of the Wolesi Jirga from Farah province, she has publicly denounced the presence of what she considers warlords and war criminals in the parliament. She is an outspoken critic of both the Taliban as well as the...
