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NEWS & LETTERS, JUNE 2003
Women Worldwide
by Mary Jo Grey The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee voted
April 29 to eliminate funding for all rape crisis programs in Massachusetts.
Women’s groups are rallying international support to stop this travesty before
it takes effect in July. * * * Women from ethnic minority groups in northeastern Burma
are reporting sadistic rapes by the military, which human rights groups are
calling authorized and systematic. Initial allegations were made last year by
the Shan Women’s Action Network, documenting incidents of rape or sexual
violence against 625 women and girls, committed by soldiers from 52 military
battalions--25% of these resulted in deaths. A study by Refugees International,
released in April, charged: “Women are raped during forced labor assignments,
while farming, or in their own homes, and also when they are trying to flee to
Thailand.” * * * More than 200 students, faculty and supporters rallied
at Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio, in March, protesting the university
president’s cancellation of a production of the play, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES.
Father Michael Graham, the university’s president, objected to the play’s
“language and themes” about women’s sexuality. The show did go on,
however, when Economics Professor Nancy Bertaux sponsored it as part of one of
her courses. Students spearheaded the production to raise money for a local
women’s shelter, and to promote awareness of violence against women. The play
was condemned by the Cardinal Newman Society as “vulgar” and “spiritually
destructive” with “no academic or social value to students at a Catholic
college.” * * * A university to serve women of poor Asian nations,
including Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam, is scheduled to open in September,
2005. The government of Bangladesh has donated land and organizers from around
the world are raising money to build and operate the school, providing a
four-year college education for women who could not normally afford it. To learn
more or offer your support, visit www.asianuniversity.org. --Information from off our backs |
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