So, there has been lately some women's issues in The Agonist and I even read the word 'vagina' here. So, here is my contribution, without the word 'vagina':

working as a prostitute until late 2004, describing it as "so much more enjoyable" than an earlier job as a computer programmer.

CNN

She charged £300 for an hour from her victims.

Nov 17

BBC - A Zambian journalist has been acquitted of pornography charges after sending officials pictures of a woman giving birth in a hospital car park.
The incident happened during a nurses' strike and the baby died. Zambian President Rupiah Banda had described the photos as pornographic.
Chansa Kabwela said she had sent them in protest at the effects of the strike that paralysed the country's hospitals.
whew, a sensible outcome in a bizarre trial - background

Yes, yes, I know I've been on my hobby-horse about women's rights in America most of this week. But really, can one describe the desire for equal pay and an equal choice set for fully half of our population as a hobby-horse? I think not. I do realize that women have it very well on our society. But it could be better. Much better, as this post demonstrates.

The only quibble I have with the post--and the report--is that it's too narrowly focused on economic determinants. Matters of choice, education and general quality of life measures would be most welcome too.

And yet, how can such things improve when women are only 3% of CEOS, or, even more worrisome, when women are 'losing ground relative to men in terms of salaries: female CEOs [of non-profits] now make only 66 percent of male salaries, compared with 71 percent in 2000,' or in politics: "In state politics, there are only six women governors, and women comprise only 15 percent of mayors of cities with populations of over 100,000."

I have a sinking feeling that there has been a steady erosion of women's rights in the country over the last twenty-five years and I'd like to see a study focusing on that. Sure, there has been some high profile window dressing in corporate America and in politics, but still. How can 78 cents on the dollar be a good thing?

Guardian - One of the best kept literary secrets of the decade was revealed last night when 34-year-old scientist Dr Brooke Magnanti announced she was the writer masquerading as call girl Belle de Jour.

The author behind the bestselling books detailing her secret life as a prostitute decided to come out to one of her fiercest critics, Sunday Times columnist India Knight, after claiming anonymity had become "no fun". "I couldn't even go to my own book launch party", she said.

Until last week, even her agent was unaware of her name. But now Magnanti, a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol, has spoken of the time six years ago she worked as a £300 an hour prostitute working through a London escort agency. Magnanti turned to the agency in the final stages of her PhD thesis when she ran out of money. She was already an experienced science blogger and began writing about her experiences in a web diary later adapted into books and a television drama starring Billie Piper.

I have come to the conclusion that there is a direct correlation between a man's ability to say that icky word, vagina, and how he treats and sees women. If he can't say the word, he's probably a dick.

This post inspired by Digby.

And while we're on the subject of vaginas this is just wrong on so many levels. Clearly the influence of porn is deleterious on many levels.

goods.

More like this, please:

World Pulse is a media enterprise covering global issues through the eyes of women.

We are dedicated to listening to and broadcasting the unheard voices and innovative solutions of women worldwide.

We produce World Pulse Magazine as well as PulseWire, an interactive community newswire where women can speak for themselves to the world and connect to solve global problems.

From web to print, we’ve created a forum where women’s voices can rise from the ground up and connect across oceans, continents, and cultural barriers to create a new world.

Frankly, I'm surprised something like this hasn't developed sooner.

TruthDig/Alternet, By Penny Coleman, October 23

Every day, for four years as a West Point cadet, Tara Krause lived and worked alongside the men who had gang-raped her.

Still, she managed to graduate in 1982. She served as a field artillery officer during the Cold War and was attached to the 518th Military Intelligence Brigade during the Gulf War. In what she calls "an act of incredible self-destruction," she married a three-tour Vietnam vet in 1985 and, for the next eight years, lived "the private hell of his PTSD."

Miriam Mannak | Cape Town | Oct 6

IPS - Maternal mortality rates in Africa constitute a "monumental tragedy" that requires urgent attention by African governments, health experts say.

"Expectant mothers in Africa, of all pregnant women in the world, are worst off. An average African woman has a chance of one in fourteen of dying during pregnancy or child labour," says human rights and health researcher Ebenezer Durojaye.

Durojaye, a Nigerian working at South Africa’s University of the Free State, told IPS that the situation in Sierra Leone is even worse. "Here, a woman has a chance of one in eight of dying during pregnancy and labour. In countries like Singapore, for instance, the maternal death risk is one in 3,000," he explained.

Durojaye was speaking at the 19th World Congress by the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), in Cape Town, South Africa. The event, which runs from Oct. 4-9, is being attended by over 2000 obstetricians, gynaecologists and health experts from around the world.

"The situation in Africa is an outright nightmare and a monumental tragedy," Durojaye said.

Anytime I read something and I have a viscerally negative reaction to it, I know I need to first take a step back from it, think about why I had the reaction I did and then re-read it. (Same goes for movies.) I remember my first reading of Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale.' Talk about visceral. I literally threw the book across the room several times. But I persisted. And I am glad I did. That's one of the reasons I think literature is essential--I want my preconceived notions challenged. That doesn't mean I come around easily. Sometimes I have to be kicked and dragged into reality. But at least I do come around--or so I hope.

I say all of this, because last night I read this short essay about the porn industry. At first, I felt like it was some kind of post-colonial guilt trip. But then I remembered how the Indian men treated a young lady I met in India earlier this year. Their behavior was terrible--it was junior high behavior on steroids. (This is not to mention some of the behavior I witnessed in Oman towards Western women and among Arab immigrants in Denmark toward young Danish women.^*) After more thought about, and a reminder of the stories I'd heard about impromptu porn cinemas in India, I sat down to re-read the story in question.

Here's the meat of the story:

The village has no electricity, but that doesn't stop a generator from being wheeled in, turning a mud hut into an impromptu porn cinema – and turning some young men into rapists, with villagers relating chilling stories of assaults taking place straight after the film's end. In the nearest city, other young men are buying bootlegs copies of the almost always condom-free LA-made porn – copying directly what they see and contracting HIV. The head of the country's Aids commission says porn risks destroying all the achievements they've made. It's a timebomb, he says.

Now, I'm in no way responsible for the behavior of African men in Africa. But if an industry based in my country can ameliorate the spread of HIV/AIDS with a relatively straightforward PR campaign, well, that's a good idea.

More after the jump.

Aug 23

BBC - Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.

The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.

The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.

Several other protests have taken place in other parts of the country.

The law was adopted by the Malian parliament at the beginning of August, and has yet to be signed into force by the president.

One of the most contentious issues in the new legislation is that women are no longer required to obey their husbands.

Hadja Sapiato Dembele of the National Union of Muslim Women's Associations said the law goes against Islamic principles.

"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."

"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.

Aug 16

BBC -

Women who drink moderate amounts of beer may be strengthening their bones, according to Spanish researchers.

Their study of almost 1,700 women, published in the journal Nutrition, found bone density was better in regular drinkers than non-drinkers.

But the team added that plant hormones in the beer rather than the alcohol may be responsible for the effects.

Experts urged caution, warning that drinking more than two units of alcohol a day was known to harm bone health.

Osteoporosis is a common problem for post-menopausal women, increasing the risk of disabling bone fractures later in life.

Adele Waugaman | June 2 | Reuters

When obstetrician Laura Stachel arrived in rural Nigeria to collect data about maternal care, she was shocked to discover that women were dying in childbirth because clinics had no reliable power supply.

After taking a course on solar electricity, she created what she calls the "solar suitcase" - which is now proving a life-saver in one of the hospitals she visited.

Laura's "solar suitcase", a kit of solar panels and rechargeable batteries, can light operating and delivery rooms, run a blood bank refrigerator and power two-way radios so that staff can call in off-duty doctors for emergency surgery.

WE CARE Solar

AFP - The Mahatma Gandhi prize was on Monday handed over to a representative of Burma's imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, an AFP correspondent said.

The Durban-based committee behind the International Award for Peace and Reconciliation handed over the prize to Aung San Suu Kyi's cousin, the head of Burma's self-proclaimed government-in-exile, Sein Win, as the country's rights icon awaits trial on

Robert Verkaik | July 20

The Guardian - Woman feared she would be stoned after giving birth to an illegitimate child in Britain

A Saudi Arabian princess who had an illegitimate child with a British man has secretly been granted asylum in this country after she claimed she would face the death penalty if she were forced to return home. The young woman, who has been granted anonymity by the courts, won her claim for refugee status after telling a judge that her adulterous affair made her liable to death by stoning.

Her case is one of a small number of claims for asylum brought by citizens of Saudi Arabia which are not openly acknowledged by either government. British diplomats believe that to do so would in effect be to highlight the persecution of women in Saudi Arabia, which would be viewed as open criticism of the House of Saud and lead to embarrassing publicity for both governments.

Saud Abu Ramadan | Gaza | July 10

DPA - One hundred Gaza widows - veiled, wearing long black dresses and gloves - celebrated their second marriages on Friday in a mass wedding arranged by Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.

The 100 women, many of them mothers, lost their husbands during the 22-day Israeli military offensive carried out on the impoverished enclave.

According to human rights groups based in Gaza, around 1,450 Palestinians, most of them women and children, were killed in the offensive that ended January 18.

None of the 100 men, some getting married for the first time, or 100 women were older than 25, and all were dressed in black and loyal to Hamas.

They were accompanied at the mass ceremony by their relatives, friends and their children - the daughters wore white dresses, while the sons wore black suits.

Many of the bridegrooms, who received 2,800 dollars from Hamas in recognition of their marrying a widow, are taking on another wife, and a majority of the men are brothers-in-law of the widows, the late husbands being Hamas militants killed in the Israeli invasion.

Taipei | July 9

AFP - Sex workers in Taiwan have cautiously welcomed a government plan to legalise prostitution, but the scheme is being opposed by an alliance of women's groups who fear it will breed crime and violence.

A red-light area similar to Amsterdam's famed canalside sex-for-sale district has been proposed for the capital Taipei, with legal and zoning measures due in place within six months.

Prostitutes and their supporters say they see a ray of hope after many years of campaigning for legalisation to protect them from both customers and police, but some are concerned about being moved into special zones.

MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer Maggie Michael, Associated Press Writer | Dresden | July 6

AP - CAIRO – Thousands of Egyptian mourners marched behind the coffin of the "martyr of the head scarf" on Monday — a pregnant Muslim woman who was stabbed to death in a German courtroom as her young son watched.

Many in her homeland were outraged by the attack and saw the low key response in Germany as an example of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Her husband was critically wounded in the attack Wednesday in Dresden when he tried to intervene and was stabbed by the attacker and accidentally shot by court security.

"There is no god but God and the Germans are the enemies of God," chanted the mourners for 32-year-old Marwa al-Sherbini in her hometown of Alexandria, where her body was buried after being flown back from Germany.

"Look What You Made Me Do"

Caesar, Hitler, Nixon - War, Racism, Hatred - Alcohol, Mysogyny, Conformity

Seamless trinities...
One needn't ever drink a drop of alcohol to serve in it's churches...
Just as one needn't ever hit women to perpetuate ever worse to them...
Or as one needn't necessarily exit conventional reality to reject the convention.

Seamless subjects. Addiction: money, ego, power, sex, drugs, food, adrenalin, violence, drugs, fear, hatred, guns, vanity, games, the very creative imperative itself -addiction alone makes an endless daisy chain of seamlessly related subjects. They continue on through Blame and Guilt, and Control. Subjects of enthrallment, helpless captivity. It's a necessary convenience to limit the moment's topic. In such isolation, the seamlessness of the chain is not a foregone understanding though, not at all, quite the opposite. It is not a given understanding that to talk of one is to talk of 'them' all... As it should be; that isn't necessarily true, or false.

Donna Abu-Nasr | June 24

The Independent - A Saudi woman holding a child checks out lingerie at a store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A group of Saudi woman launched a campaign aimed at bringing in female sales personnel at lingerie stores. Only men are allowed to sell underwear in almost all stores in this ultraconservative kingdom, making the experience of shopping for intimate apparel for most women embarrassing

Using colorful bras donated by employees at Victoria's Secret, a group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed the first course of its kind to be offered in the kingdom — how to fit, stock and sell underwear — a training organisers hope will help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling underwear in the kingdom.

The graduates held a small ceremony at a college in the western seaport of Jiddah yesterday, capping 40 hours of instruction during which they learned to overcome their embarrassment at doing bra fittings, deal with customer complaints and display the stock in an appealing manner.

The 10-day course comes three months after a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. Almost all the stores in the kingdom are staffed by men.

David Smith | Johannesburg | June 18

The Guardian - One in four men in South Africa have admitted to rape and many confess to attacking more than one victim, according to a study that exposes the country's endemic culture of sexual violence.

Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.

South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.

The study into rape and HIV, by the country's Medical Research Council (MRC), asked men to tap their answers into a Palm Pilot device to guarantee anonymity. The method appears to have produced some unusually frank responses.

Professor Rachel Jewkes of the MRC, who carried out the research, said: "We have a very, very high prevalence of rape in South Africa. I think it is down to ideas about masculinity based on gender hierarchy and the sexual entitlement of men. It's rooted in an African ideal of manhood."

James Marson | Kyiv, Ukraine | June 14

The Independent - In a country hit hard by economic downturn, the industry is expected to double to $1.5 billion this year.

When Tonya came to Kyiv (Kiev) from her small hometown in western Ukraine to study, it was a route out of the dreary provincial life she had grown to hate. She struggled to make ends meet. Her parents, with a combined monthly income of around $200, were hardly in a position to help fund her studies.

Tonya feared she would have to give up and return home. But then she found a way to stay: selling her body to foreign men.

"My choice was to work as a prostitute or go home," she says, glancing around nervously. "I would never have done it but for the circumstances. I don't want to work as a prostitute, but I need to get an education so I can get a decent job."

Tonya is one of thousands of women who are part of an industry that has boomed in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991: sex tourism.

The problem is already so acute that Yuriy Lutsenko, Ukraine's interior minister, declared on national television earlier this year that "The country is becoming a paradise for sex tourism before our eyes."

Mike Thomson | June 12

BBC -

_{(A young girl goes through a rubbish tip while carrying a doll (file photograph)Poverty is robbing many young Zimbabwean girls of their childhood)}

Growing numbers of children in Zimbabwe are turning to prostitution to survive, the charity Save the Children says.

The aid agency says increasing poverty is leading girls as young as 12 to sell their bodies for as little as a packet of biscuits.

It also claims that the coming football World Cup in neighbouring South Africa could soon make things worse.

Unemployment in Zimbabwe is thought to top 90% and many cannot afford to pay for food, medical care or school fees.

The deputy head teacher of a large school with 1,500 pupils east of Victoria Falls told the BBC that hundreds of her female students are now selling their bodies for whatever they can get.

"It could be books, it could be biscuits, chips, some even just to be given a hug."

_{** Zimbabwe appeals for more investment, end to sanctions at World Economic Forum
** Zimbabwe constitution hearings to go ahead: parties
** United States ready to assist Zimbabwe: Clinton
** Bomb Kills Boy}

In 1631, an exhausted 46-year-old woman arrived at the gates of the Vatican. Mary Ward, a Yorkshire-born nun, had walked more than 1,500 miles from her order in present-day Belgium to Rome, knowing that she might end up in prison.

For more than two decades, she had been leading an order of devotees that lived in defiance of the Vatican's strict rules that confined nuns to their cloisters.

Ward had taught her religious sisters not to wear habits and trained them to work with the poor and the persecuted, and to found and teach in Catholic schools. She also encouraged women to perform in plays, a move considered scandalous in Shakespearean times when all female roles were played by boys.

She was living at the height of the Roman Inquisition where accusations of heresy abounded. The pope at the time was Urban VIII, the same pontiff who threw Galileo in prison for daring to suggest that the Earth orbited around the Sun.

Now this revolutionary woman had gone to Rome asking him for official approval of her rebellious order which lived in defiance of centuries of Catholic teaching.

It was, therefore, perhaps of little surprise that Urban threw Ward in jail and issued a papal bull ordering her movement to be suppressed. The Independent

WaPo - ...Herring has worked on more than a dozen pieces of legislation with the Chicago-based Americans United for Life, which takes credit for "helping state after state become more pro-life every year." Her next goal is a law requiring clinic staff members to report the identities of the sexual partners of pregnant underage girls. She is also working on a school curriculum.

"We have helped build a legal fence that helps protect women," Herring said. "The greater goal, even in legislation, is to influence the culture. This is a major culture war that isn't going away."