NEWS & LETTERS, March-April 2010
Women World Wide
by Mary Jo Grey
Women's rights activists in Haiti say that greater attention must be paid to the immediate needs of women and girls, as well as to their role in the long-term reconstruction of their devastated country, like a group of women brick makers in Leogane looking for support to start a brick making collective. Women and girls face an even higher rate of violence and health emergencies that are exacerbated by the absence of medical care and supplies.
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Angry protesters are opposing the Nicaraguan government withholding life-saving treatment from a pregnant cancer patient because it could harm the fetus. The 27-year-old mother of a 10-year-old daughter is in a state-run hospital that is maintaining, but not treating, the spreading cancer. The ruling Sandinistas disgustingly supported the Catholic Church in passing of a total ban on abortion in 2007.
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As many as 1,200 Iranians signed a statement in February against a bill that would further curb women's rights, according to the web site Change for Gender Equality. The bill gives men the right to take additional wives without telling or asking their current wife, and would impose restrictions on alimony for women. Iranian activists are asking for international support for "freedom and gender equality in Iran," an end to state-led violence and repression, and the immediate release of all political detainees. More than 40 women's rights groups from nine countries are supporting them.
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An Arizona judge ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio to end a requirement for women prisoners to prepay transportation and security costs before obtaining an abortion. The Arizona ACLU said in a statement: "The courts have already confirmed that Arizona prison officials cannot put up roadblocks to abortion care simply because they do not agree with the decision to end a pregnancy."
--Information from Feminist News
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