Category Archives: Women

‘Thousands’ of young girls denied abortion after rape in Argentina

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Anti-choice doctors and health officials accused of obstructing legal terminations after 11-year-old girl gave birth to rapist’s child

The lives of thousands of girls in Argentina are being put at risk as legal abortions are delayed and obstructed by doctors trying to force pregnancies to full term.

The issue of anti-choice doctors, medical institutions and government officials deliberately trying to hold up legally sanctioned terminations was brought into sharp focus last week when it emerged that an 11-year-old girl’s baby was born alive because health officials delayed her request for an abortion. The girl had fallen pregnant after being raped by her grandmother’s boyfriend.

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UK pledges £2m to help end stigma and shame of period poverty

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As well as global funding, Penny Mordaunt announces creation of £250,000 taskforce to tackle problem in Britain

The UK government has announced £2m to support organisations around the world to end period poverty by 2030.

The minister for women and equalities, Penny Mordaunt, also announced £250,000 for the creation of a taskforce comprised of government departments, businesses, charities and manufacturers to come up with new ideas to tackle the problem in the UK.

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Facebook criticised after women complain of inaction over abuse

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Amnesty says social media firm must do more to support users who report harassment

Human rights campaigners have called for action after a survey revealed that more than half of the reports that women lodge about harassment on Facebook are met with no action from the social media company.

The Survation poll, commissioned by the feminist campaign group Level Up, found that 29% of the 1,000 women who took part had been harassed on Facebook.

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Screen queens: the funny, fearless women who revolutionised TV

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge exploded into our living rooms with Fleabag, her vicious comedy about an angry, awkward woman. As it returns, Guardian writers pick their TV heroines

Who gets to be the bitch?

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Ocasio-Cortez’s critics babble and bluster … but can’t ignore her | Arwa Mahdawi

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The young congresswoman has turned the tables on the Wall Street Journal after it accused her of taking ‘pride in ignorance’

Large swaths of America appear to be suffering from a debilitating condition known as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Derangement Syndrome (AOCDS). Symptoms include bouts of extreme condescension, an inability to stop sputtering the word “socialist”, and overwhelming anger that a young woman of colour is unapologetically succeeding.

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Saudi Arabia: detained women’s rights activists to be put on trial

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More than dozen arrested in 2018 and rights groups say some have been tortured

Saudi women’s rights activists detained last year in a sweeping crackdown on campaigners will be put on trial, prosecutors have said.

“The public prosecution would like to announce that it has concluded its investigation and prepared the indictment list against the defendants ... and will refer the case to the relevant court,” the state-controlled Saudi Press Agency said on Friday.

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‘Girl power’ charity T-shirts made at exploitative Bangladeshi factory

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Over 100 workers claim to have been sacked after protesting about low wages at factory that makes ‘girl power’ T-shirts

Charity “girl power” T-shirts sold in the UK are made at a Bangladeshi factory where more than 100 impoverished workers claim to have been sacked after striking in protest at low wages, it can be revealed.

The £28 garments are sold online by F=, which claims to be “all about inspiring and empowering girls”, with £10 from each T-shirt donated to Worldreader, a charity that supplies digital books to poverty-stricken children in Africa. Television presenter Holly Willoughby recently reposted a 2017 picture of her and Spice Girl Emma Bunton wearing the T-shirts.

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Girl, 11, gives birth to child of rapist after Argentina says no to abortion

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Campaigners condemn authorities who ignored girl’s plea ‘to remove what the old man put inside me’

An 11-year old girl who became pregnant after being raped was forced to give birth after Argentine authorities refused to allow her the abortion to which she was entitled.

The authorities ignored repeated requests for an abortion from the child, called “Lucía” to protect her identity, as well as her mother and a number of Argentine women’s right activists. After 23 weeks of pregnancy, she had to undergo a caesarean section on Tuesday. The baby is unlikely to survive.

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‘Centuries of entitlement’: Emma Thompson on why she quit Lasseter film

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In her resignation letter from the film Luck, the actor questions whether any company should work with disgraced film executive John Lasseter

When the actor Emma Thompson left the forthcoming animated film Luck last month while it was still in production, it was done without public fanfare, and was only confirmed when film-industry publications such as Variety magazine picked up on it. Now Thompson has put herself firmly above the MeToo parapet with the publication publishing her incendiary letter of resignation addressed to the film’s backers, Skydance Media, one of Hollywood’s most prestigious studios.

It was known that Thompson was unhappy with the arrival in January of former head of Pixar John Lasseter as the new head of Skydance Animation. But the letter goes into extraordinary detail about her disquiet over the appointment of a studio executive whose downfall had been one of the key landmarks of the Me Too and Times Up campaigns.

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Workers making clothes for Australian brands can’t afford to eat, Oxfam reports

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Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam working for Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On earning 51 cents an hour

Women in Bangladesh and Vietnam making clothes for the $23bn Australian fashion industry are going hungry because of wages as low as 51 cents an hour, an Oxfam report has found.

The aid group interviewed 470 garment workers employed at factories supplying brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, and found 100% of surveyed workers in Bangladesh and 74% in Vietnam could not make ends meet.

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Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong fear death penalty if deported

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Pair say they have fled family abuse and will either be killed or made to marry if forcibly returned

Two Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong say chronic physical abuse by male family members prompted them to flee the kingdom, where they fear they will be forcibly returned.

The two are the latest example of Saudi women trying to escape from the ultra-conservative kingdom who find themselves dodging officials and angry family.

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Labour promises universal right to flexible working from day one

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Dawn Butler to tell conference women need an economy that works for them, not against them

A Labour government would give everyone the right to choose when they do and do not work from the day they are employed, its shadow women and equalities secretary will tell Labour’s women’s conference on Saturday.

“Women do the vast majority of unpaid care, but this must not be a barrier to women in work,” Dawn Butler will say. “That’s why I’m announcing Labour’s plans to introduce rights to flexible working from day one of employment.

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Voyage to the Garbage Patch: the female sailors taking on plastic

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Plastic is everywhere, and it’s not going anywhere – potentially posing serious risks to our health. A crew of scientists and activists is conducting a hands-on investigation

When I arrive at the marina in Victoria on a late-July morning, the sky and water are complementary shades of azure. On the deck of the 72ft shiny-bright Sea Dragon, moored here in the island capital of British Columbia for just one day, are four young women, part of the crew of the research voyage “eXXpedition”. They’re hauling buckets of black sludge up to the deck from the ocean floor.

The team will meticulously pack the wet sand from the harbor floor into little glass jars. These jars will be added to a library of sand, water, and air samples that they’ve collected over the past six weeks from across the north Pacific. They’ll ship some of those samples off to Plymouth, England, to be analyzed by eXXpedition’s marine scientist Imogen Napper. The idea is that by cataloging this library, she and the team will begin to get a better sense of what kind of plastic is out there in the ocean.

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‘We can’t end FGM without talking to men’ – in pictures

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More than 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation and about 3 million more are at risk every year. Africa has the highest numbers, but its young people are fighting back

Photographs by the Girl Generation

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Everyone had an opinion about how to hang the curtains: on a woman’s right to use tools | Phoebe Paterson de Heer

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I had to gain the confidence that always seemed to come naturally to my partner to release my inner handywoman

Last year my partner and I moved into a new house. The whole exercise was exhilarating – finally, a place we owned – but it also unearthed in me a desperation, a deep frustration. For a long time I’ve wanted to be someone who fixes things, builds things, someone who is capable in practical day-to-day tasks. I own tools, I have ideas and I tinker with my surroundings, but I’ve never felt completely at ease in the tasks that various men in my life seem to take on with no backward glance.

In our just-built house there were so many jobs to do with drills, hammers, caulking guns. My drive to learn by doing was offset by disorientation and self-doubt. I wanted to begin improving our house, but I didn’t know what sort of screws I needed for the curtain rod brackets, or whether I could just drill straight into the plasterboard. My partner, a man, didn’t have much more experience in these things than I did, but approached the situation with a confidence and bluster that only confused me more.

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A new documentary about Lorena Bobbitt sheds light on the weirdness of the 90s

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Nineties women who dared to speak out, from Anita Hill to Courtney Love, were derided with a glee that was downright Victorian

I was born at the end of the 1970s, which means I am somewhat in a no man’s land, generationally – at the fag end of Gen X, too old to be a millennial. “Xennial” someone suggested recently, and what that term lacks in clarity it also lacks in pronouncability. So I prefer something less snappy but more descriptive: too young to remember John Lennon’s death, but old enough to remember Tiffany.

One thing that is non-debatable about my generation is that we all came of age in the 1990s. Any sensible adult will look back on their teenage years with vague bemusement. (And any adult who doesn’t should be avoided at all costs: the best thing about the film Juno was Jason Bateman’s character, who illustrated the toxicity of a grown man who still thinks he is 18.) But these days it does feel that the 90s was an exceptionally weird time, especially for girls.

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The Breadmaker: on the frontline of Venezuela’s bakery wars – video

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In the midst of Venezuela’s spiralling economic crisis, Natalia and fellow members of a Chavista collective have stepped in to take over production at a local bakery, La Minka. Authorities had suspended operations when the owners were accused of overpricing their loaves and hoarding flour. In March 2017, with the tacit support of the government, the collective began selling affordable bread. This is the story of their fight to safeguard the bakery’s future and keep the Chavista dream alive

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Love Commandos: guardians of forbidden romance accused of extortion

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Sanjoy Sachdev helped scores of Indian couples marry across cultural lines, and against family wishes – but police are asking if he was a fraud

It was a world-famous charity dedicated to rescuing star-crossed Indian lovers. For the past nine years, using a network of secret safe-houses across India, Love Commandos sheltered thousands of young people seeking to marry outside their caste, religion or clan – and who feared their families might kill them for it.

Sanjoy Sachdev, the organisation’s chairman, became one of India’s most celebrated activists. Bollywood star Aamir Khan interviewed him on television. International clothing brand Bjorn Borg raised money for his group. Filmmakers and journalists found the craggy, chain-smoking activist who could quote Robert Frost irresistible.

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