Tag Archives: women news

Naked Islamic Woman In Body Paint Veil Causes Controversy For Foreign Policy Magazine

Jessica WakemanApril 27, 2012 //

CBS reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted while reporting in Cairo. Read More »

Shut Up, Howard

Howard Stern helpfully tells women journalists to stay out of Egypt. Read More »

Sex With Dead Wife's Body

Egypt is considering a law allowing a man to sleep with his dead wife. Read More »

Foreign Policy body paint niqab pics photo

Wonk-y magazine Foreign Policy‘s most recent issue, The Sex Issue, is right up our alley with a cover story article about the how the real war on women is in the Middle East. Author Mona Eltahawy is an Egyptian-American writer who was beaten and sexually assaulted by police while protesting in Tahrir Square in Cairo. Her piece, “Why Do They Hate Us?“, is worth a read on its own.

But images used for the piece are also causing controversy: an attractive, naked woman is covered in body paint made to look like a niqab (a body-covering veil), with only her eyes showing. Newsweek‘s Tumblr lauded the images as “powerful,” while a Tumblr blogger who goes by the name That Sassy Arab chastised the magazine: “Nope, newsweek [sic], this is not stunning and powerful, or awesome. This is highly offensive and completely misguided.” Other critiques of the images used by FP, and the article by by Eltahawy hereself, are here, here and here.

What do you think, Frisky readers? [Foreign Policy]

Ukraininan Women Will Steal Your Husbands, According To This Dutch Commercial

Jessica WakemanApril 27, 2012 //

Mail Order Bride

New Zealand radio station gave away Ukrainian mail order bride. Read More »

Topless Feminists

Topless Ukrainian feminists draw lots of attention to their causes. Read More »

Sexist Ads

Not all advertising campaigns are sexist and offensive. Read More »

Watch Video

Today in Awkward Diplomatic Kerfluffles: the entire country of Ukraine is pissed at the entire country of The Netherlands for airing a commercial that implies sexy, sexy Ukrainian women are a bunch of husband-stealing sexpots. The ad was made by a Dutch energy company called NLE and references the Euro 2012 soccer games, which will be hosted by the Ukraine. (On a side note, any other Americans find it utterly impossible to keep Europoeans and their various soccer tournaments straight?!) The ad shows a woman Googling the words “Ukrainian women” and coming up with images of super sexy hot Ukrainian ladies. She then immediately goes and purchases an at-home beer tap, presumably so her husband will stay on his couch and not leave her for some random blonde chick in the Ukraine during a soccer match. Ukraine is now pissy that the commercial will affect tourism during the Euro 2012 games. Keep reading »

Last Chance To Schtup Your Dead Wife’s Corpse, Egyptian Dudes

Jessica WakemanApril 27, 2012 //

Lara Logan's Assault

CBS reporter Lara Logan was sexually assaulted while reporting in Cairo. Read More »

Shut Up, Howard

Howard Stern helpfully tells women journalists to stay out of Egypt. Read More »

Lara's Speaks Out

Lara Logan speaks out about being sexually assaulted in Egypt. Read More »

Bringing new meaning to the phrase “before the body gets cold,” Egypt is considering a new law that will allow Egyptian husbands to have sex with their dead wife’s corpse up to six hours after death. But don’t get your panties in a knot, ladies. Wives can have sex with their dead husbands’ corpse as well, because the issue at hand is whether marriage is still in effect after death. (Unless rigor mortis sets in southward, we don’t much see the point.) This very important matter of “farewell intercourse” is just one of many measures Egypt’s Islamist-dominated parliament is considering; the others are not so what-the-fuck as they are human rights abuses. Other laws being considered would restrict women’s access to education and employment and lower the minimum marriage age to 14. Pardon my pun, but those are the real issues here, even if they’re not as sexy as the necrophilia law. [Al-Arabiya; Daily Mail UK]

“Sexist” Brazilian Gym Ad Fails To Capture Our Outrage

Jessica WakemanApril 27, 2012 //

I don’t fully understand why these ads are “sexist” or “offensive,” as per the women’s health blog Blisstree. The Brazilian gym Vila Olimpica ads show big, muscular men standing behind women, their ripped arms doing things like opening jars and bottles of wine. But I didn’t read this as “the iddy-bitty-widdle-lady can’t open a jar of olives,” because the female model actually looks rather fit and toned herself. I read it more as a joke: the lady needs gorilla arms to open these relatively easy products, but those kind of muscles are more of a female body builder thing, so there’s a big dude standing behind her doing it.

It’s a obtuse, sure, but I’d say it’s visually clever. What do you think, Frisky readers? Maybe I’m losing my edge? [BlissTree]

Today’s Lady News: Teacher Claims She Was Fired From Catholic School For In-Vitro Fertilization

Jessica WakemanApril 26, 2012 //

Emily Herx, 31, of Indiana, claims she was fired from teaching at a Catholic school because she and her husband used in-vitro fertilization to get pregnant. IVF is apparently not acceptable according to Catholic teaching. [Huffington Post]
Sandra Fluke, who testified before a Congressional committee about the need for religiously-affiliated employers to cover birth control in their health plans, is engaged. In an epic classy move, a Fox News host asked about the engagement, “To a man?” [Talking Points Memo]
A company is Birmingham, Alabama, is seeking to purchase an abortion clinic that is scheduled to be closed next month. [AL.com]
Terribly sad story out of Harlem: a 13-year-old girl and her mother were both murdered in a domestic violence incident earlier this week. The mother had reportedly asked the killer, her son, to move out because he was not contributing to household expenses. [Gothamist] Keep reading »

British Docs Busted For Offering Female Circumcision (Which Is Illegal And Also Horrible)

Jessica WakemanApril 26, 2012 //

Outlawed

Uganda will finally outlaw female circumcision. Read More »

Home Circumcision

This lady performed a home circumcision on an infant! Read More »

Frisky Feminism!

Everything The Frisky has ever written about feminism! Read More »

A doctor, a dentist, and an alternative medicine practitioner were all secretly filmed offering to perform or arrange female genital mutilation (FGM), according to the UK Guardian. FGM involves removing all or part of the external female genitalia, and sometimes sewing the opening to the vagina shut. It’s all supposedly for the purpose of making it impossible for a woman to have sex for pleasure and therefore ensuring her “purity” upon marriage.

The so-called “female circumcisions” are performed on girls as young as 5 and is widespread across Africa; you can read more about FGM on the World Health Organization’s web site. Thankfully, human rights and women’s rights activists across the continent are condemning the horrific procedure. As such, both performing FGM and arranging for it to be performed are illegal in the UK. But that doesn’t stop FGM from occurring in the UK: the Guardian claims 100K women in the country have been mutilated. I hope those doctors know FGM carries a 14 year prison sentence and are shaking in their boots/heels. [Guardian UK; Telegraph UK]

Today’s Lady News: On Taking Drugs While Pregnant

Jessica WakemanApril 25, 2012 //

This week, The New York Times Magazine explores a difficult and complex issue: prosecuting drug-addicted mothers whose drug use harms their fetus in the womb. The piece zeroes in on Alabama prosecutors who are charging drug-addicted mothers, ostensibly to help the mothers, although it often lands the mothers in jail. It’s a big, complicated issue and definitely worth exploring more in depth. [New York Times Magazine]
Essence, a lifestyle magazine targeted towards black women, has removed managing editor Michael Bullerdick, a white male, after screengrabs of his Facebook wall showed him making racist comments about Al Sharpton and Barack Obama. [News One]
The Senate is discussing the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act as we speak. You can learn more about the history of VAWA here. [Feministing]
So, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life: 45 completely superficial reasons why Hillary Clinton should run for president in 2016. [Buzzfeed] Keep reading »

Planned Parenthood Believes It’s The Target Of A Sting Operation By Anti-Choicers

Jessica WakemanApril 25, 2012 //

Planned Parenthood Federation of America clinics in 11 states have reported a string of suspicious incidents where women come in asking questions about sex-selective abortions, leading the organization to believe it’s being targeted with a “hoax” by an anti-abortion sting operation.

Women claiming to be pregnant came into clinics over two dozen times, asking provocative questions about sex-selective abortion, the Huffington Post reports. (Patient confidentiality prevents PPFA from identifying the clinics.) The women asked questions like how soon they could find out the gender of their fetus and whether they could schedule an abortion if they were expecting a girl. Keep reading »

Today’s Lady News: Celebs Support Lesbian Den Mother Ousted From Boy Scouts

Jessica WakemanApril 24, 2012 //

Celebs including Josh Hutcherson from “The Hunger Games” and Jesse Tyler Ferguson from “Modern Family,” have come together in support of a lesbian den mother who was ousted from the Boy Scouts. Jennifer Tyrrell of Ohio, who has four children with her partner, has collected over 125K signatures on Change.org to ask the Boy Scouts of American to end their policy banning LGBTQ den leaders. [New York Daily News]
Florida’s governor has vetoed funding for rape crisis centers. During Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Good move. [Feministing]
Taxpayer-funded “crisis pregnancy centers” are still using religion to oppose abortion. [Huffington Post] Keep reading »

“The Girl Store” Campaign Sheds Light On India’s Child Marriage Problem

Jessica WakemanApril 24, 2012 //

Military Trafficking

The military's dirty human trafficking secret. Read More »

Child Bride

The plight of a child bride is a sad one. Read More »

Frisky Feminism!

Everything The Frisky has ever written about feminism! Read More »

Today in India is a celebration called Akshaya Tritiya, a Hindu and Jain holy day which is marked by mass marriages. But human rights supporters in India, such as UNICEF, are using the day to draw attention to a less jubilant topic: child brides. Child marriage is officially illegal in India, but that hasn’t stopped too many families from marrying off their young daughters ages 5 to 12 to older “grooms” — which is another way of saying sex slavery. Today, the Wall Street Journal points out one of the more controversial of the anti-child marriage campaigns, called The Girl Store, a website set up to look like an online retailer that advertises “100 percent genuine girls. Young. Innocent. And available. Experience the sensation of buying a girl.” Keep reading »