From the quiet confines of the university library where she worked, to
the mud-laden environs of her ‘adopted’ slum of Mehbullahpur has been a
challenging journey for 35-year-old Shakila Begum.
Hundreds of poor
families live in this slum, a mere 8 km from the upmarket Hazratganj
locality in the heart of Lucknow. Shakila wanted to help the Muslim
women here understand their rights.
Now a fellow with Jagori, a women’s
training and resource centre, she has so far enrolled around 200 slum children in schools; organised women in
self-financing income-generating groups; and imparted information on
health and gender equality. She has, in fact, steered the community
away from poverty and the unkind stereotypes projected about it.
Giving up her secure job at Lucknow University, she set up Aagaze
Insaaf (initiating justice). However, when she first walked through the
area and saw the plight of the hungry, malnourished children teeming
around, she wondered how she could break the ice and win their
confidence.
Click here to read the full story on The Hindu Business Line
Related links:
It Only Takes Eight Days To Change The World
Amazing Young Women Making A Difference RIGHT NOW!
2009-11-15
Posted in Women In the News
Susan notes: According to Wikipedia, The New York Post is the 13th oldest newspaper in the United States, and the sixth largest by circulation. It's owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
The New York Post editor fired after speaking out against a cartoon
depicting the author of the president's stimulus package as a dead
chimpanzee has sued the paper. And as part of her complaint, Sandra
Guzman levels some remarkable, embarrassing, and potentially damaging
allegations.
Guzman has filed a complaint against News Corporation, the New York
Post and the paper's editor in chief Col Allan in the Southern District
Court of New York, alleging harassment as well as "unlawful employment
practices and retaliation."
As part of the 38-page complaint, Guzman paints the Post newsroom as
a male-dominated frat house and Allan in particular as sexist,
offensive and domineering. Guzman alleges that she and others were
routinely subjected to misogynistic behavior. She says that hiring
practices at the paper -- as well as her firing -- were driven by
racial prejudices rather than merit
According to the complaint:
"On one occasion when Ms. Guzman and three female employees of the
Post were sharing drinks at an after-work function. Defendant Allan
approached the group of women, pulled out his blackberry and asked them
'What do you think of this?' On his blackberry was a picture of a naked
man lewdly and openly displaying his penis. When Ms. Guzman and the
other female employees expressed their shock and disgust at being made
to view the picture, Defendant Allan just smirked... [N]o investigation
was ever conducted and the Company failed to take any steps to address
her complaints."
Read the full Huffingtom Post article by Sam Stein here.
Related links:
2009-11-10
Posted in Women In the News
Malalai Joya, a 31-year-old activist and politician, was once called
“the bravest woman in Afghanistan” by the BBC.
During the Taliban
years, she defied her country’s rulers by running underground girls’
schools. After the Taliban’s fall, she helped start an orphanage and a
medical clinic, and eventually became the youngest member of
Afghanistan’s legislature.
She has been fearless in taking on the
warlords who populate the government of Hamid Karzai—declared the
presidential victor Monday after a runoff election was canceled—so much
so that in 2007, her political opponents voted to suspend her from
parliament on the grounds that she had “insulted” the institution.
Calling for her reinstatement, six female Nobel Peace Prize laureates
compared her to Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, describing her as “a model for women everywhere seeking to make the world more just.”
Related links:
Malalai Joya (Politician/Activist)
Afghanistan's Bravest Woman
Malalai Joya On Wikipedia
Photo @ Tom Stoddart / Getty Images
2009-11-08
Posted in Women In the News
A Swiss investment company plans to raise awareness about the
shortage of women on corporate boards around the world and generate
returns for its investors in the process, The New York Times’s Julia Werdigier reports from London.
Naissance Capital, based in Zurich, is to start the
Women’s Leadership Fund in January, which will invest exclusively in
companies whose boards include women, or take minority stakes in
companies that do not “understand the need for greater female
representation” and use it as leverage to push through changes.
R. James Breiding, a co-founder of Naissance Capital and a former director of Rothschild Corporate Finance,
said the fund was created after several studies showed a correlation
between the number of female directors and a company’s performance.
“We feel companies that select and recruit people on merit should do
better,” Mr. Breiding said. “Having greater diversity and independence
of opinions helps.”
The fund’s board includes Kim Campbell, the former prime minister of Canada; Cherie Blair, a lawyer and the wife of Tony Blair,
the former British prime minister; and Jenny Shipley, the former prime
minister of New Zealand. Naissance has lined up $200 million from
institutional investors and individuals to invest in 30 to 40 companies
around the world, and plans to increase the size of the fund eventually
to about $2 billion.
Naissance, which was founded in 1999 and specializes in what it
calls “niche investment opportunities,” is one of a handful of firms
that have created funds over the past three years to invest in
companies with female senior executives.
Click here to read the full story on The New York Times
Thanks to:
Lynn Harris
Author, Unwritten Rules
Montreal, Canada
2009-11-05
Posted in Women In the News
Transsexuals in the Gulf call Bahraini lawyer
Fawziya Janahi "guardian angel". She is the Arab world's only female
lawyer who takes up cases on behalf of clients who want to change their
sex.
Janahi's clients want legal permission to undergo sex
change operations. While the law is quite straightforward on this in
Bahrain, the lawyer says it is more difficult in other countries in the
region.
"But that wouldn't stop me from helping transgendered trapped in their bodies," she says. "I'm ready to challenge the odds!"
Janahi, 47, spoke with IPS about her unusual practice, her
future and hopes of greater acceptance of transgendered/transsexuals in
Gulf societies.
Click here to read the full story:
By Suad Hamada
Inter Press Service News
2009-11-05
Posted in Women In the News