From The Organisation for Women’s Liberation-Iran:
No to women’s oppression
8th March is a day against women’s oppression. On this day, people through out the world have protested and shown their hatred of gender discrimination, violence and inequality. They have achieved gains too. However, women every where still suffer inequality. In parts of the world women are denied their basic rights and live under medieval, religious,
backward and reactionary laws and values. This is why women all over the world gather on this day to claim their rights and declare that the world is not free unless women are free.
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Despite Dubya’s fantasy liberation of women in Afghanistan, a new report illustrates how truly delusional that story line is. According to IRIN,
“Every 28 minutes a woman dies in Afghanistan during childbirth. 54 percent of Afghan children are born stunted. The fertility rate in Afghanistan is the world’s second highest at 7.5 children per woman, according to UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Report.”
With 6,500 maternal deaths per every 100,000 live births, Badakshan province has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world and Afghanistan as a whole has the 2nd highest maternal mortality rate of any country, second only to Sierra Leone., according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
According to the report, “Many of the locals said the women gave birth by the river bank during the summer and in the animal sheds during the winter.” Local officials say that hospitals and clinics are not enough, doctors and midwives are desperately needed as well.
It isn't "vagina" that is obscene...
Kudos to the folks at The Historic State Theater Complex in Elizabethtown, KY for not backing down when one of their board members objected to putting the name of a play being performed at the theater on the marquee. The name of the play? Yes you guessed it, “The Vagina Monologues” and no it wasn’t the word Monologue that caused the problem.
Board member Jim Roberts resigned, telling the News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown that, “I objected to the V-word on he marquee. I consider it vulgar and in bad taste.” The title of Eve Ensler’s play remained on the marquee. Perhaps a production of the Spleen Dialogues would have been more to his taste. We hope that Mr. Roberts got a call from his mama reminding him of just how he got here.