Would Banning Penthouse And Playboy Hurt Military Morale?

Hey guess what–Playboy and Penthouse aren’t pornographic, at least according to the military:
“U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.”
A Department of Defense committee […]

Murder Attempt Against Puntland’s Last Woman TV Presenter

Murder Attempt Against Puntland’s Last Woman TV Presenter
Reporters sans Frontières
PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2008
Reporters Without Borders said today it was disgusted by a murder attempt against Bisharo Mohammed Waeys, celebrated presenter on the privately-owned Eastern Television Network (ETN), on 4 May, the last woman working openly as a journalist in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, north-eastern […]

Anna Greer on the Media Use Of Passive Voice In Describing Gender-Motivated Violence

Anna Greer has a very thought-provoking piece in Wo! Magazine about the use of the passive voice in describing gender-based violence. She writes:
“One of the first things journalism students learn is to avoid the passive voice. So, you have to wonder why journalists are drawn to using passive voice when the subject of their […]

Stop The Impunity And Demand Justice For Barbara Italia Mendez And The Women Of Atenco

From Amnesty International:
Stop the Impunity and Demand Justice for Barbara Italia Mendez and the Women
of Atenco!
Dear Supporter,
Just over a month ago we told you about Barbara Italia Mendez who was one of 26 women arrested without explanation at a protest in May 2006, beaten, and raped by members of the Mexican police. May […]

Women’s Space: Why So Little Attention To Tracy Barker/Halliburton Story?

Heart  over at Women’s Space has an excellent, comprehensive report on Tracy Barker another Halliburton/KBR employee who experienced hrorendous sexual harassment and assault while working in Iraq. The blog takes a hard look not only at the facts of the case but also why it has received relatively little attention compared to the […]

Yet Another U.S. Serviceman Charged With Assaulting A Japanese Child

Note: It bears noting that the BBC devoted 13 paragraphs to this story, the New York Times only felt it merited one paragraph World Briefing. This then from the far more informative BBC report:
“A US serviceman on the Japanese island of Okinawa has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 10-year-old girl.
Armando Valdez, a […]

Guatemalan Congress Approves Law Against Femicide

From LatinaAmerica Press”
“On April 5, 16-year-old Carmen del Rosario Aguirre and her friend Yesenia Adaly Pérez Arévalo, 17, went to the local market of La Parroquia. Both girls came from the village of Rincón de la Peña, in the municipality of Palencia, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Guatemala City.
Six hours later the two girls […]

Increase in Domestic Violence Among Iraqi Refugees in Jordan and Lebanon

Press Release from IRIN:
A study published in March by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the mental state of Iraqis in Jordan and Lebanon has pointed to mounting social and economic problems as the cause of increased domestic violence.
[Read this report in Arabic]
“Most families prefer to sweep their problems under the carpet […]

The Global Pandemic Of Military Misogyny

Yesterday on the Feminist Peace Network blog, I posted three stories about military misogyny, one about the murders of a a mother and her children in Gaza, one about the court-martial of a Marine for the rape of a 14 year old Okinawan girl, and one making the connection between the suspicious deaths of female […]

Sisters in Death: The Systemic Misogyny of Militarism Leads To Deaths of U.S. Servicewomen and Iraqi Civilian Women

In a piece published today, Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright documents the suspicious numbers of deaths of women in the U.S. military after they have been sexually assaulted.
“94 US military women in the military have died in Iraq or during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). 12 US Civilian women have been killed in OIF. 13 […]