Articles in Category: Women In the News

Lagging Education for Girls Contributes to Guatemala

Susan notes: Buried at the bottom of an economist article about poverty in Guatemala is this telling statement: “Guatemala lags behind in educating girls in particular.” The piece goes on to say that mothers lacking in education may improperly prepare and distribute food supplements to their starving children, thus contributing to the ongoing widespread malnutrition in a country “rich enough to prevent it.”

malnutrition_guatemala.jpgIt is hardly one of Latin America’s poorest countries, but according to Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world.

In parts of rural Guatemala, where the population is overwhelmingly of Mayan descent, the incidence of child malnutrition reaches 80%. A diet of little more than tortillas does permanent damage.

This chronic problem has become acute. Higher world prices for food have coincided with a recession-induced fall in money sent back from Guatemalans working in the United States (remittances equal 12% of Guatemala’s GDP).

Drought in eastern Guatemala has made things worse still. Many families can scarcely afford beans, an important source of protein, and must sell eggs from their hens rather than feed them to their children.

The government and aid donors are providing emergency food supplies for 300,000 people scattered in some 700 villages. Up to 400,000 more may need help. In Jocotán, in the east, rehabilitation centres have admitted dozens of children who are so malnourished that their black hair has turned blond, their faces are chubby from fluid build-up as their organs fail, the veins in their legs become a visible black spider-web and their face muscles are too weak to smile.

What makes this even more distressing is that Guatemala is rich enough to prevent it.

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The Economist

Photo @ Reuters

Breaking Through The Glass Ceiling

I was recently asked if, as a female professional, I had ever come up against a 'glass ceiling'. The question intrigued me as fortunately I had not, in both my careers in the corporate and non-profit world. However, there are many women out there who have.

Women's rights have been a debatable topic since the days of Virginia Woolfe and Huda Sha'rawi, the Egyptian feminist who broke new ground in the 1920s and 1930s. Back then, the emancipation of women was one of the most controversial topics.

As Woolfe put it, "The history of men's opposition to women's emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself". Although at the time the issue was in its embryonic stage, it caused a great uproar and consequently Woolfe went down in history as one of the most influential people of her era.

Today, the debate continues. The United Nations Development Fund for Women provides us with an interesting quote: "Countries that do not fully take advantage of one half of the talent in their population are misallocating their human resources". This is certainly an issue that we in the UAE do not face.

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Muna Al Gurg

Gulf News

92-year-old Sky Diver Still Finding Adventure

skydive.jpgTaking a 13,000-foot plunge from an airplane will earn most jumpers a certificate. Instructor Paul Peckham Jr. knew that wouldn't be enough for 92-year-old Jane Bockstruck.

Peckham, a former Air Force combat controller, cut the parachutist wings he had sewn 30 years ago on his own helmet bag and gave them to Bockstruck — who celebrated her birthday this month with a flawless, 120-mph free fall in front of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

"These silver wings represent courage, and you certainly displayed that today," Peckham told her after the two landed safely Sept. 19 in Orange, Mass., after a tandem dive.

For Bockstruck, it was just another in a string of adventures in her full life. She has traveled around the world, been married seven times, and loves to boast that she kidded with John Wayne while working as a seamstress on the set of "True Grit."

Click here to read the full story on MSNBC

Photo @ P.j. Jackson / AP

Her 'Duty' Is Helping Muslim Women Heal After Abuse

Toward the end of her marriage, Rabia Iqbal said she feared for her life.

Iqbal was born in New York to parents who had immigrated to the United States from the tribal areas of Pakistan. She had a strict Muslim upbringing and when she was 16, her parents arranged her marriage to a 38-year-old man. She claims her husband turned violent during their 10 years of marriage.

When she finally left him, she did not know where to turn. Going home wasn't an option, she said.


Click here to read the full story on CNN

Clinton Pushes UN Resolution to Curb Violence Against Girls

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday urged global action to curb conflict-related violence and sexual exploitation against young women and girls. Clinton is to chair a special session of the U.N. Security Council on the issue next Wednesday.

Clinton says preventing the exploitation and marginalization of girls is no longer an afterthought but a core foreign policy objective of the United States, which is co-sponsoring a Security Council resolution on the issue next week.

The secretary of state joined her counterpart from the Netherlands, Maxime Verhagen, at a meeting at U.N. headquarters Friday previewing next week's council meeting.

On an Africa trip last month, Clinton met with women and girls raped and otherwise abused by soldiers and irregular forces in the conflict in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the DRC.

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Voice of America News