Categories
Geopolitics

Paraguay’s First Woman Presidential Candidate Tries To Crack Macho Culture

Lilian Soto is a longshot to win Sunday’s election, but she may have already changed the last South American country to have female voting rights.

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Society

Boys Don’t Cry – The Taboo Of Male Depression

GENEVA – Depression is usually associated, in our minds, with women. Yet of course men suffer from it too, and often it comes with an extra stigma even in our modern society. Genevan psychiatrist Theodore Hovaguimian talks about it in his new book, La Depression Masculine (Male Depression). This breakthrough book helps break a taboo […]

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Society

Bad Old Days Live On For Women Of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta Crime Network

In the southern Italian region of Calabria, the organized crime syndicate known as the “Ndrangheta is known for its cruelty and ever more central role in the international drug trade. But in his book Rebelling Sweethearts, journalist Lirio Abbate is focused on a largely untold chapter in “Ndrangheta’s story: its women. Abbate, an award-winning chronicler […]

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Society

Will Woman-Only Transport Solve Egypt’s Sexual Harassment Problem?

Some say, in the long run, segregating bus and tram lines will actually make it worse.

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Society

How Did Sweden Become A Hotbed Of Anti-Women Hatred?

Known for its gender equality, Sweden has begun to turn ugly. Some point to a “Breivik effect” spreading through Scandinavia since the 2011 massacre in Norway by a right-wing extremist.

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Geopolitics

Women Of The PKK: Fighting For Kurdish Rights And Gender Equality

With the announcement this week of a historic ceasefire from jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, a look at the feminist side of the Kurdish fight for greater autonomy.

Categories
The Next Pope

Women Of The Church And The New Papacy: Make Our Voices Heard

They are neither anti-religious rebels nor feminist iconoclasts, but three nuns and a Catholic theologian. Here’s how they think Pope Francis should face the female question.

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Society

In Kyrgyzstan, Where Kidnapping Brides Is An Accepted Tradition

Forced marriages in this central Asian country are not simply about arrangements between families, but also strangers abducting women to be their wives.

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Society

Why Women Hate It So Much When Men Cry In Public

BERLIN – People who were there said he cried for several minutes at the executive committee meeting on the morning after his defeat. As party members analyzed what had gone wrong in the state election campaign, the governor of the German state of Lower Saxony, David McAllister, burst into tears. Angela Merkel comforted him, and […]

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Society

‘Norma The Avenger’ – Leading The Fight Against Domestic Violence In Latin America

BUENOS AIRES – At 7 a.m., Norma Andia begins her radio show with an ambulance siren and a charming accent from the high plains of Bolivia. “Let’s go, are you listening to me? Why the long face, didn’t you get enough sleep? And you, yes I’m talking to you – don’t hurt your woman thinking […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Historic New Combat Roles For Women In U.S. Military To Create 230,000 Jobs

AP, CNN, REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST (U.S.) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON- The Pentagon plans to outline details Thursday of a groundbreaking decision to lift a ban on women in front line combat service. This is the second historic reversal of longstanding military bans by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, following the 2011 repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell […]

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Society

For Congolese Women, A Trade Is The Path To Independence

BENI – Gisèle Masika, a young divorced woman from this Congolese city, says she wants nothing of her aunt’s life as a housewife. “My aunt can’t do anything, her husband takes care of everything, and he has no consideration for her,” she says. Like other women in Beni, in northeastern Congo, Masika decided to learn […]

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Society

Congo’s Changing Beauty Standards

MATADI – “I used to be ashamed of my small breasts, but I have finally fulfilled my dream of making them bigger,” says a cheerful woman from Matadi, southwest of Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. In this region, big boobs have become the new standard for feminine beauty. “It is sexy and so feminine. Men love […]

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Society

“No Hijab Allowed” – A Veiled Woman Banned From Morocco’s Top Beach Club

CASABLANCA – Saturday September 1st was a sunny day, the afternoon sky was blue and the summer holidays not quite over. A young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Ajouhi wanted to bring their six and three-year-old children to the Tahiti Beach Club on the Corniche Boulevard in Casablanca, Morocco. Established in 1940 and currently owned by […]

Categories
Ideas

The Dark Side Of Feminism – Why Women Don’t Like Powerful Women

-Essay- BERLIN – It would have been better if she had dark circles under her eyes. Maybe a little bit of flab around the middle. At the very least a stain on her blouse – anything. Instead, in her first public appearance since the birth of her son, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was as slim […]

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Society

How Japanese Exercise Brings Peace And Freedom To A Tough Corner Of France

GRENOBLE – Since she joined as staff at the Dojo Grenoblois — the judo and ju-jitsu club located in the heart of the housing projects of Villeneuve, south of Grenoble — Laëtitia Cardaci has gotten used to locking the door of the room where she gives her class in Japanese taïso exercise. For this bubbly, […]

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Society

Is It Better For Her? The Latest Science On The Female Orgasm

BERLIN – Inner tension mounts. Heart rate increases, breathing is faster, small body hairs stand on end. Sudden muscle contractions, spasms, indescribable feelings of pleasure: an orgasm, over relatively quickly for men but sometimes lasting up to 30 seconds for women. Along with intense feelings of release following an orgasm, come feelings of happiness and […]

Categories
Food / Travel

The Feminine Nose: How Women Have Come To Dominate Argentina’s Wine World

BUENOS AIRES – When television was in black and white, women took care of the home, which included buying wine for the family dinner. By the time TV was in color, the reds and whites were typically selected by the men of the house — and the restaurants. But lately, more and more women have […]

Categories
Ideas

The Women Politicians Of Chile Set To Take Their Country Back

-Essay- SANTIAGO – As recent nationwide municipal elections proved once again, there’s never a shortage of surprises when it comes to politics in my country. The elections were a real blow to the rightist government of President Sebastián Piñera, a businessman who three years ago displaced the center-left Concertacion coalition that had led Chile since […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

American Politics’ Fifty Shades Of Sexism

WASHINGTON – As Mitt Romney would say, it’s a particularly well-stuffed “binder full of women.” The 2012 vintage of candidates for public office is one of the best — at least in terms of quantity. More women are running for Congress this year than ever before. The newspapers are comparing it to the 1992 so-called […]

Categories
Society

Spot The Difference: IKEA Photoshops Women Out Of Saudi Arabia Catalogue

METRO (Sweden), SPIEGEL ONLINE (Germany) STOCKHOLM – Need more space in the room? IKEA may have found a new solution. Sweden’s free newspaper Metro noticed that women had been airbrushed out of the Saudi edition of the Swedish home furnishings store’s 2013 catalogue. Sweden’s Minister for Trade Ewa Björling told Metro: “You cannot erase women […]

Categories
Food / Travel

Women And Children First? Fat Chance, Says Shipwreck Study

A shockwave, an explosion, a fire. The boat lets in water and topples over, passengers hang on to life boats or jump into the waves. Few circumstances have the tragic intensity of a shipwreck, which takes mere seconds to throw human beings into life-threatening situations, where the cruelest of decisions have to be made: who […]

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Society

Tunisian Women Refuse To Give Up Their Rights

TUNIS – Dorra Bouzid is elated as she faces the slogan-chanting crowd. “It’s the first time I’ve seen an audience at such a fever pitch,” says this emblematic journalist, who wrote the first feminist column in 1955. She feels validated in her opinion: “I’m from the generation that built independence, I’ve always believed in my […]

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