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30 March, 2015

Gendered Dis-preference In Indian Society
By Roli Misra

In present context with the advent of new technology the practice of female infanticide has been replaced by genocide of millions of women known as female foeticide – denying the girl its very right to take birth. The rapid spread of the use of ultrasounds and amniocentesis for sex determination followed by sex selective induced abortions has created a situation of daughter drought with tragic consequences

12 March, 2015

Understanding Women’s Labour
Book Review By Suparna Banerjee

This book is an analysis of the dialectic of women’s labour and the processes of capital accumulation in Asian economies — an analysis that blends empirical research with theoretical reflections. Indeed, one of the book’s stated aims is to examine the relationship between Marxist political and economic theories with feminism, and the author offers theoretical corrections — based on empirical data — to Marx’s and Proudhon’s theories on women’s labour and on women’s roles in society

10 March, 2015

The Paradox Of Women's Day: Commercialization, Depoliticization
And CommodificationOf A Dynamic Radical Revolutionary Idea

By Shalu Nigam

Women's emancipation entails changing the mindset, initiating revolution and bringing radical transformation in the ways contemporary capitalist patriarchal society operates. It demands meaningful understanding and interventions in day to day to struggles of women situated in different contextual background. Focusing on prejudices, stereotypes and discriminatory attitudes that have denied women of their constitutional or human rights is essential. The women's liberation movement in the modern Indian society needs to focus on the issues relating to struggle for substantive equality, freedom from violence and survival issues. Commercialization is not a solution; the answer lies in political and social mobilization around everyday issues relating to women lives on daily basis. The need is to strive for dignity and respect at the work place, within homes and public spaces and reimagining the new world order based on social justice

07 March, 2015

The Capitalist Origins Of The Oppression Of African Women 
By Garikai Chengu

The greatest threat towards the African woman's glorious future is her ignorance of her glorious past. Armed with knowledge, Africans must now fight to restore women to a position of respect and of economic freedom that exceeds that which she enjoyed before colonialism

When Will The Good Times (Achhe Din) Come For Women In India?
By Shobha Shukla

While stone statues of the female form (Saraswati, Lakshmi, Durga/Kali) are worshipped in temples and religious rituals, a large number of those made of flesh and blood face violence on the streets and in homes, and encounter discrimination throughout their lives that begins at (or even before) birth, and continues during childhood, adolescence and adulthood

Women's Empowerment: Not A Copy Paste Model
By Dr.Fayaz Ahmad Bhat

There is no denying that the condition of women in West is relatively better than India but not so excellent that we will blindly follow it and become one dimensional. Before following or adopting any model of women empowerment we must understand its positives and negatives as well. The only model of women empowerment which seems suitable to any context is sociological model of development. Which aims inclusive empowerment, in social sphere, economic sphere, and political sphere, moreover empowerment associated with critical thinking and consciousness raising

06 February, 2015

Seat Chodo Activist: Control By Any Means
By Arshie Qureshi

Since the choice of clothing should be utterly personal bearing in mind the setting, the dissent here has the potential of becoming the main arena of societal disharmony. Dressing up based on choice and not having to be shamed would represent a critical marker of social identity of the women for a human ceases to be so when he/she cannot chose and relaxing them from exercising their choice is freeing them from a larger responsibility

09 January, 2015

Reproductive Sovereignty or Bust!
By Carol Downer

A radical feminist group's goal is reproductive sovereignty. Sovereignty means being independent or autonomous. A nation is sovereign when it has its own set of laws that it can enforce within its boundaries without interference. A woman is sovereign when she can decide her own destiny without State interference

03 September, 2014

From The Margins: Revisiting The Concept Of `Marginalized Women’
By Shalu Nigam

A few days back, I attended a seminar on `Violence Against Marginalized Women and Gender Justice’. The seminar discussed about issues relating to various subgroups within the category `women’ like widows, dalit women, tribal women, refugee women, so on and so forth. The deliberations made me think as to who constitute `marginalized women’ when `women’ being women are marginalized in the patriarchal world

12 December, 2013

Women, Politics And Development
By P Radhakrishnan

For women's development an equal share as of men in the development pie is necessary but not sufficient. Share in development should be backed by changes in women's existential conditions which determine their existential necessities through changes in the existing social arrangements. This can happen only through an active and articulate civil society, which is absent now

15 October, 2013

Violence Against Women In India – A Review Of The Popular Mythologies
And Their Implications For VAW

By Cynthia Stephen

A detailed analysis of the myths, which are very much part of the daily life of the vast majority of Indians, appear to reinforce traditional hierarchies, which, far from being ideal, are in fact promoting and glorifying an idealised form of behaviour for women which is actually regressive and backward-looking

21 February, 2013

The Women’s Movement, The Next Half-Century
By Ruth Rosen

I always knew this was the longest revolution, one that would take a century or more to unfold. It’s upended most of our lives, and significantly improved so many of them. Nothing will ever be the same. Yet there’s still such a long way to go. I doubt I’ll see full gender equality in my lifetime

02 September, 2012

Supersexualised Market And The New Body Politic
Braj Ranjan Mani

The consumerist culture celebrates hypersexuality and peddles the idea that the young and the sexy means new brains, new bodies that bring in new approaches and new ideas. But this is appearance, not reality. It is not a movement away from the traditional trajectory of domination and subordination. The supersexualised market and its mindless validation encourage the assumption that feminist and all equalitarian struggles have ended, that equality for all women and men has been achieved, and the deserving lot can now have anything they want. Its sexy-selfish template trivialises all social commitment and mocks any serious engagement with arts, literature, politics, or spirituality

29 August, 2012

The Maternal Instinct Versus The Realities Of Unwaged Labor
By Hadley Suter

To allow for the workplace’s colonization of the domestic sphere is to repaint even the most explicitly “productive” work. The happy mommy-slave is as ripe for exploitation by her office as she is by her home

19 August, 2012

Oh Woman! Tell Me, Are You A Woman?
By Nisha Biswas

Life of a woman, since the time of her birth, identified as one on the basis of absence of a penis, is a story of struggle, irrespective of the cast, class or country to which she belongs. She is required to prove her womanhood, has to follow the pattern that society sets for her, while she aspires for an identity other than being the daughter, wife or mother of someone in the big man's world. This happens at home as well as in the profession that she chose for herself. Nisha Biswas narrates this ordeal through the lives of a few athletes

11June, 2012

Masculine, Feminine, Collapse, And The Next Culture
By Carolyn Baker

The article offers a disturbing analysis of the current gender role situation within industrial civilization, how we got here, and what will be needed to transform those roles in the next culture. It also mentions and takes issue with James Howard Kunstler's assertion that gains made by women and minorities will be totally lost in the Long Emergency

10 March, 2012

Women, Poverty And Food Security In India
By Kiran Sharma

The gender aspects of social security assume significance as it is widely recognised that, the position of women is particularly vulnerable to continued poverty and destitution when they attain old age and/or are widowed or divorced

06 March, 2012

International Women's Day, March 8, 2012:
Uphold The Rights Of Women In Struggle

By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression

Statement by Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression on International Women's Day, March 8, 2012

24 January, 2012

An Ode To The Women Who Became Statistics
By Samar

New Delhi, the capital of the biggest democracy of the world witnesses a rape every 18 hours, and an incident of sexual harassment takes place here every 14 hours

30 December, 2011

Who Is Pure And Impure In India?
By Dr.Shura Darapuri

In India, we are proud to have a woman as our President, lady Chief Ministers and quite a few women ministers, they might not have left any stone unturned in ruling the country or the state with utmost efficiency and dexterity. Yet in their own country that too in the 21st century they should not at all be surprised if they are labelled as ‘impure’ and denied entry into the temple called "Sabarimala" which houses a bachelor God called Ayyappa

16 October, 2011

Not Rational, Not Feminine: Sexualized Narratives Of Violent Women
By Akanksha Mehta

Women who engage in violence are often depicted through sexualized narratives that view violent behavior as an aberration from normal (‘peaceful') feminine traits. These sexualized narratives deny agency to violent women, excluding them from the realm of rationality and viewing them as non-women

11 September, 2011

The Need To Separate Gender And Capitalism
In The Urban Indian Context

By Shreya Sanghani

It is important to untangle the ways in which gender and capitalism have been intertwined in the reactionary discourse in urban India, but it seems equally vital to examine how gender discrimination is a part of the multiple disparities exacerbated by corporate capitalism

11 April, 2011

Sheeba Aslam Fehmi On Islamic Feminism
By Yoginder Sikand

Sheeba Aslam Fehmi is one of India’s only Islamic feminist writers and one of the few Indian Muslim women scholars who writes on Islam (among other issues). She has written extensively on gender-just understandings of Islam, articulating equality for Muslim women using Quranic arguments

19 February, 2011

What About The Women? – The Politicization Of
The Assault On Lara Logan

By Akanksha Mehta

The burial of women in politicized and imperialist discourses built around their bodies and veils, sidelines what actually matters (and should matter) - the rights and agency of the women themselves

29 June, 2010

Feminism, Ecology And Socialism:
Need For Convergence

By Asit Das

After sixty years of independence, our society has reached a crisis stage where the entire country is sold to the corporate interests by our rulers; therefore it is imperative that feminists, socialists, communists and ecologists should unite together resisting the corporate interests and to struggle for an egalitarian, sustainable and democratic India

17 June, 2010

Critiquing Masculinity At The Corps
By Robert Jensen

My task in the next half hour is to explain that porn is a big deal and that we should be concerned about men's use of pornography

26 May, 2010

Nirupama’s Murder: The Violence Of The High-Born
By Kavita Krishnan

A civilised letter from a ‘high-born’ father! Quite a contrast to that post mortem report which testifies to the fact that three people (including, probably, her mother) in Nirupama’s home got together to overpower her, and smother her with a pillow over her head! What is it that can make parents wish to smother the life out of the daughter to whom they gave birth?

17 April, 2010

Mystifying Male Power As Domination: Theological Roots Of Child Sex Abuse
By Carol P. Christ

Not only “the Holy Father” but all fathers and indeed all males benefit from the mystification of male power as domination. It is hard for victims and other witnesses (including wives and mothers) to believe that allegedly all-powerful males are doing something wrong. A church that teaches that God is male is responsible when children and adults conclude that the male is God

15 April, 2010

The ‘Other’ Terrorism: Militarism And Violence
Against Women

By Lucinda Marshall

In order to fully understand militarism, it is necessary to view it from a gendered lens and ddress the question of what it is about militarism that places women at particular risk

09 March, 2010

Global Women: Good News, Bad News
By Katha Pollitt

And the winner is... Iceland! According to the 2009 Global Gender Gap report of the World Economic Forum, the land of glaciers and puffins, population 319,000, is the most gender egalitarian country on earth, with women having closed 80 percent of the gap with men. Finland (2), Norway (3), Sweden (4) and Denmark (7) are in the top ten too, as is New Zealand (5). You could try harder, Spain (17) and Germany (12)--in 2007 you were in the top ten. And O, Canada: 25

07 February, 2010

Understanding Islamic Feminism:
Interview With Ziba Mir-Hosseini

By Yoginder Sikand

Ziba Mir Hosseini, an anthropologist by training, is one of the most well-known scholars of Islamic Feminism. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand she talks about the origins and prospects of Islamic feminism as an emancipatory project for Muslim women and as a new, contextually-relevant way of understanding Islam

06 February, 2010

Why I Am A Man
By Dr. Shah Alam Khan

Female upliftment is the sine qua non of social progress. The civil society of India needs to understand the dynamics of sexual equivalence. The likes of SPS Rathores can only be kept at bay if we start loving our daughters and treating them at par with our sons

27 January, 2010

Poverty And Domestic Violence
By Aditi Paul

Domestic violence perpetrated by partners and close family members on women has long been a matter of silent suffering within the four walls of the home. Aditi Paul enquires about the correlation between poverty and domestic violence

10 January, 2010

Marriage vs. Civil Unions: Separate Is Never Equal
By Mary Shaw

The New Jersey State Senate recently rejected a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in the Garden State

20 December, 2009

Myriad Legal Meanings Of Domestic Violence
In South Asian Legal Systems

By Rukmini Sen

This article traces the different meanings of what constitutes violence within the domestic sphere in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The only reason why this legal regime is taken is because there is a similarity among the societies and cultures. It is an example of how societies which had even legally tolerated domestic violence a few years ago, are now changing

16 November, 2009

Feminism And Dalit Women In India
By Cynthia Stephen

Thus, Dalit women are slowly attempting to come to grips with their invisibility in the discourse, and are beginning not just to speak out, but also to theorise and build wider solidarities so as to earn the place, hitherto denied, under the sun

05 November, , 2009

Gendered Language
By Neerja Dasani & Swati Roy

A list of gendered words we use everyday in our lives

14 October, , 2009

Are Women Getting Sadder?
Or Are We All Just Getting a Lot More Gullible?
By Barbara Ehrenreich

Feminism made women miserable. This, anyway, seems to be the most popular takeaway from "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," a recent study by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers which purports to show that women have become steadily unhappier since 1972. Maureen Dowd and Arianna Huffington greeted the news with somber perplexity, but the more common response has been a triumphant: I told you so

13 October, , 2009

Impact Of Peasant Suicides On Women
By Ranjana Padhi

Preliminary findings of a survey in Punjab

18 August, 2009

On Islam And Gender Equality
By Yoginder Sikand

Rethinking Islam and gender equality in the light of Malay woman lawyer and activist Salbiah Ahmad's book - Critical Thoughts on Islam, Rights and Freedom

30 July, 2009

Socio-Economic Inequality Leads To
Gender-Based Violence

By Nasiruddin Haider Khan

If we want to counter and prevent gender-based violence, we have to think about the reasons for violence in the society with all its complexities

21 July, 2009

Learn Masculinity From Mahatma Gandhi?
By Nasiruddin Haider Khan

Women have raised their voices against gender-based violence. They have fought for policies and laws. But now it is high time that women's movement should engage men. There are enormous challenges to counter violence against women. Without involving men, it is not possible to prevent gender based violence

19 July, 2009

The Words Of God Do Not Justify Cruelty To Women
By Jimmy Carter

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and out-dated attitudes and practices

06 July, 2009

Women And Negative Stereotypes:
An End Before A Start

By Divya Bhargava

We may be reluctant to believe that discrimination against individuals because of their sex, race, age, sexual orientation or health status still exits in institutions in most countries. We also may not want to accept the fact that sexual violence is common in all culture, that women are victims of rape, battering and sexual harassment each day, despite legislation prohibiting such violence, common policing, workplace policies, counseling and training programs exist. Yet this is the reality for most women

05 July, 2009

Gay Rights And Us
By Dr. Shah Alam Khan

It is wrongly felt that by legalising the LGBT community, the Delhi High Court has opened the flood gates for such relationships. "Oh my God, my son will be a gay now", screamed a man from inside his new Skoda on a TV channel. I wish I could tell him that his son will be a gay or a heterosexual not because of the High Court order but because of his sexual orientation and preferences

29 April, 2009

Stop South Asia’s Talibanisation, Protect Women
By Amrita Nandy-Joshi

South Asia is fast emerging as the global epicentre of a backlash against women’s rights and liberties. It will be a real tragedy if millions of women across South Asia continue to lose their identities because of creeping fundamentalism. We need to check the tide before it causes havoc

22 April, 2009

Dehumanising The Muslim Woman
By A. Faizur Rahman

The passage of a law in Afghanistan asking Muslim women to unconditionally submit to the sexual whims of their husbands once in four days is a shocking piece of legislation that seeks to dehumanise women reducing them to mere chattels devoid of human rights

02 April, 2009

Hypocrisy Of Brahminical And Mainstream
Feminist Movements

By Surendra Gopinath Rote

Mainstream feminist movement could focus on the livelihood issues of women. However, the point is not to feed the stomach only but it is question of self respect, dignity and of equal status which all denied by caste system. My question still stands there those feminist who worships Rama, Krishna, Shiva and Ganesh how could they become the emancipatory force for Dalit women or even for mainstream women?

14 March, 2009

Girl Gangs With A Noble Cause
By Anjali Singh

What began as self help girl group, a unique concept taken up by UNICEF Lucknow, today is one of the most powerful tools young adolescent girls are using to protect themselves against exploitation and fight for their rights. Called 'Kishori Sabhas' or 'Samuhs' these groups are so popular that they have even managed to do away with practices like child labor and child marriage in the villages

12 March, 2009

Feminism’s Challenge: Articulating Alternatives
To Unsustainable Hierarchies

By Robert Jensen

Although men often treat feminism as a threat, in the 20 years I have been involved in feminist projects I have come to recognize it as a gift to men who want to understand and critique not only gender but other oppressive systems. For me, feminism is a crucial part of the struggle for social justice and sustainability

07 March, 2009

Exposing Human Rights Violations In Pakistan
By Q. Isa Daudpota

Brave women such as Mukhtar Mai and Minallah backed by women’s organizations such as Women’s Action Forum, work to highlight and undue the prejudices and help outdated and diabolical customs. PPP women such as Sherry Rahman, Shahnaz Wazir Ali, Shazia Marri, Sassui Palejo, Farzana Raja and, ace-researcher on Karo Kari, Nafisa Shah must speak out in the public forums against guilty fellow legislators and ministers. They have seriously violated the human rights and particularly that of women. To date, however, their silence is deafening

24 February, 2009

Radical Love
By Mickey Z. interviews Natty Seidenverg

Natty Seidenverg is a writer and an activist from the high desert region of Cascadia. She's been giving radical love workshops for about three years. Mickey Z. interviews Natty

29 January, 2009

Girl Child Marriage In Madhya Pradesh -
Impedes Child Rights
By Seema Jain

Child marriages continue to be a fairly widespread social evil in Madhya Pradesh, despite a law banning it. The DLHS-3 recorded that 40.5% of boys are married below the age of 21 years and 29.2% of girls aged below 18 were married. The scenario of rural parts in the state is nastiest where about 58.5% women aged 20-24 years got married by the time they are 18 years old

26 January, 2009

Dystopians On Estrogen
By Carolyn Baker

Carolyn Baker challenges the notions of the recent article in the New Yorker regarding those who are consciously preparing to live in a post-petroleum, energy depleted, economically depressed world. She also takes the author to task for reporting a preponderance of male responses to the challenge and essentially omitting female voices, noting that the female perspective on the transition is pivotal

25 November, 2008

The Rights Of Women As Casualties Of War
By Ramzy Baroud

Qurban-Bibi and Nahil Abu-Rada are two women, one Afghan and the other Palestinian, who made news with similar tragedies. But their losses also helped further delineate the plight of millions of women in war zones and poor countries

09 September, 2008

The Cry Of The Baby Girl:
Who Will Come To My Rescue?

By Loveleen Kaur

A female in the womb is as vulnerable as the women outside. She is punished for a crime that she is not responsible for…of coming into being…of not being a male

19 August, 2008

Homosexuality In India
By Namit Arora

While the Indian response reduces open conflict, the flip side is a muffled suffering: countless men and women lead double lives, hiding from their true natures and denying themselves the most precious of intimacies and self-knowledge

28 July, 2008

Raksha Bandhan – A hindrance For
Development Of Women Society?

By Pardeep

When sister ties a thread on the wrist of brother and asks him to protect her in difficulties. Don’t all you think this it's showing or impelling that women society is not capable/eligible for protecting herself and she always needs a help. Isn’t it showing that the women society is inferior and can’t help own-self?

18 June, 2008

Can We End Gender Inequality?
By Rahil Yasin

The UN recommended some actions to governments to eliminate the discrimination against women in its Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women. Pakistan must follow the UN declaration as well. Unless and until there is a proper campaign by both political and civil society to alter the anti-women sentiment in our society, the atrocities against women would continue, to the detriment of society as a whole

30 April, 2008

Alas..!! Women
By Pardeep S Attri

Though the top most position of India (President) a woman is occupying but it would be one of the biggest misconceptions “by this women society is going to be empowered” as being claimed by the most of the political parties. We can only hope that Mrs. President will do something for empowering or making women society to live with dignity. Before this let’s see past record of last six to eight months

04 March, 2008

Reflections On The Importance Of
International Women’s Day

By Lucinda Marshall

As women throughout the world gather to observe International Women’s Day on this, the 100th anniversary of the New York City Bread and Roses March, they do so in the face of a seemingly intractable culture of impunity that enables increasingly horrendous acts of violence against women

28 February, 2008

Abuse On Women- Whose Fault?
An Open Letter Legal Luminaries

By Stree Mukti

Shri S R Nayak, State Human Rights Commission Chairperson speaking on "Human Rights and Lawyers' Role" at a programme organized by the Vakeelara Sangha, said (as reported in Indian Express dated 9th Feb 2008), "…. yes men are bad … but who asked them (the women) to venture out in the night... the women should not have gone out in the night and when they do, there is no point complaining that men touched them and hit them. Youth are destroying our culture for momentary satisfaction…"

09 January, 2008

How Maruti 'Celebrates' The Molester !
By Anjali Sinha & Subhash Gatade

The logo of Maruti-Suzuki talks of 'Count on Us'. And as far as women's dignity' is concerned the Maruti needs to introspect whether it can be really 'Counted upon or not'

15 October, 2007

Stop Domestic Violence Now!
By Nasiruddin Haider Khan

The Prevention of Domestic Violence Act is a historic step towards a gender sensitive law in India. However, the big question remains, how is it different from other existing laws of the land? Why is this law unique? Most importantly, what are the benefits an aggrieved person can get from this law?

16 August, 2007

Shaping A Child's Gender Identity: The Role Of School
By Simon Bhuiyan

Looking at the whole system of functioning of schools, it seems like schools are the factory of creating patriarch. When are talking of equality among genders, creating policy and law to uphold quality, how can we talk about all these without looking at our present: the children and their social process of learning. Can we really bring equality among genders through laws and policy without looking at changes in the basis of learning?

26 June, 2007

Mughals And Backwardness Of Indian Women
By Adv. Irfan Engineer

The Presidential nominee of the UPA made an unnecessary statement linking the ghunghat of Hindu women to the Mughal rule

01 June, 2007

Gender Identity And Homophobia In Pakistan
By Tahmina Rashid

Pakistan is in the grip of homophobia after the same sex couple was imprisoned for three years for perjury. The sensational response that this incident received in Urdu and English newspapers highlights our homophobic attitudes, Issues surrounding gender identity and lack of empathy as human beings

31 May, 2007

The Case Of Shahzima Tariq And Shamial Raj
On Entering Into "Same Sex" Marriage

By Nighat Majid

Here is the story of a couple who have been jailed in Pakistan, simply because they chose to get married and happen to be same sex, though even that is not absolutely certain

29 May, 2007

Looking HIV And AIDS Issues Through
Gender And Human Rights Lenses

By Sirajul Islam

While analysing gender, HIV and AIDS and human rights, we acknowledged that when men are fighting a deadly human immunodeficiency virus, women are fighting both a deadly virus and wide-ranging inequity in trying to defeat the hazards of HIV and AIDS. We understood that from corner to corner of the world, they face a number of conditions which swell their possibility of HIV infection in gender-specific ways

13 April, 2007

Whither Autonomous Women's Movement?
By Anjali Sinha

The seventh national conference of women's movement particularly autonomous women's movement was held in Kolkata in the beginning of September 2006. Although it has been more than six months that the conference was held, but looking at the fact that the issues discussed/not discussed had a lot of import for the women's movement in general and the autonomous women's movement in particular, a few observations about the same are being shared with the wider audience

12 April, 2007

Betis As Bombs – Exploding The Borders
Of Caste And Community

By Kavita Krishnan

We need to recognise the links between Babu Bajrangi's assaults on women's freedom, and those structures and practices that we tend to take as normative, natural and acceptable – such as the practice of arranging marriages within one's caste and community, disapproving of independent relationships forged by one's sisters or daughters, holding oneself to be the 'guardian' of one's sisters or daughters, and so on

30 March, 2007

Manhattan Prosecutors Declare War On Families
By David Heleniak

In the October 2006 issue of The Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law School professor Jeannie Suk exposes a disturbing development that had not been commented upon before. In her eye-opening article “Criminal Law Comes Home,” Suk examines a practice in Manhattan that has become routine in criminal cases involving domestic violence, the imposition of de facto divorces in which the government “initiates and dictates the end of ... intimate relationship[s]” by subjecting “the practical and substantive continuation of the relationship[s] to criminal sanction”

27 March, 2007

The Real Gay Agenda
By Mary Shaw

Those who oppose same-sex marriage say that it would undermine the institution of marriage. But isn't heterosexual infidelity already doing that? I fail to see how legalizing same-sex marriage would have any effect on heterosexual marriages

24 March, 2007

Status Of Muslim Women:A Historic Review
By Sana Laila Ehtisham & S.Ehtisham MD

The upshot of the resurgence of Wahabi creed is that women are fast losing ground. They are harassed, made to wrap themselves up into a veritable sack like a bag potatoes, have their movements restricted and generally life made intolerable for them. The reverberations have reached Europe, Canada and USA as well

22 March, 2007

Missing In Action
By Lucinda Marshall

The Peace Movement’s Silence on the Impact of War on Women

19 March, 2007

Save The Girl Child
By Sumita Thapar

Since the late 1970s when the technology for sex determination first came into being, sex selective abortion has unleashed a saga of horror. Experts are calling it "sanitised barbarism". Demographic trends indicate India is fast heading towards a million female foetuses aborted each year

14 March, 2007

Ms. Shilpa Shetty And Her Sisters Of A Lesser God
By Ramesh Kamble

Ms. Shetty achieved both quick publicity and huge money. But, the marginalized women India, for that matter in the world, neither seek publicity nor they seek money. They just seek recognition and action, from both Indian and world community, against violence, harassment and discrimination they suffer in their every day really ‘real’ lives

10 March, 2007

War On Terror, War On Women
By Heather Wokusch

Under Bush, the US has become more militaristic and less tolerant of diplomacy and dissent. Women's rights have deteriorated accordingly.Sabotaging programs for women has become something of a sport for this administration - in fact, one of Bush's first acts as president was to shut down the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach

03 March, 2007

International Women’s Day 2007:
We Stand With The Women Of The World

By Lucinda Marshall

International Women’s Day , which is observed on March 8 is a time not only to celebrate women’s lives and achievements, but also a chance to join hands in solidarity with women around the globe and to focus much needed attention on the many problems women face today

28 February, 2007

The Imperfect Sex. Why Is Sor Juana Not A Saint?
By Jorge Majfud

We can understand in the same way the political and religious factor in two women as different as Saint Teresa and Sor Juana. Perhaps this is one of the reasons for which one of them has been repeatedly honored by the religious tradition and the other reduced to the literary circle or to the Mexican two-hundred peso notes, symbol of the material world, abstraction of sin

16 January, 2007

Girls For Gender Equity
By Mickey Z.

An interview with Mandy Van Deven

28 December, 2006

IGNOU, RTI And The Distant Dream Of
Women's Empowerment

By B Rahul

Analysis of the latest data made available by the Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi (IGNOU) in response to an application made under the Right to Information Act reveals that the average number of female students freshly enrolled each year in the Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree programme in the seven years from 1996 to 2002 was 17146 which is 65% of the total. The average number of female students per year over the same period who had successfully completed the course and been awarded the BA degree was a miniscule 440

23 December, 2006

Shame, Not In Doha But In India
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

I hope that India will grow simultaneously with diversity and dissent in the coming years. How can a nation and a society grow with such scandalous officials and reporters who criminalise the sexual deformity of a person and whose fight for people's right confine to the cases of certain high profile cases of page three parties, and who continue to ignore the bigger issues of dissent and disgust in India and whose ignorant reporters can simply call these dissenters as terrorists or Naxalites

21 December, 2006

Iraqi Women's Bodies Are
Battlefields For War Vendettas

By Kavita N. Ramdas

Almost four years into the Bush Administration's ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other countries of the Middle East

High Maternal Mortality In The Heart Of India
By Anil Gulati

Approximately 10,000 women die every year in Madhya Pradesh during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy. Majority of these could be prevented. Medically these deaths may be due to hemorrhage, infection, eclampsia or unsafe abortion or any of three delays

19 December, 2006

Caught Between culture And weakness:
The Ipswich victims

By Sambaiah Gundimeda

An essay dedicated in memory of Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Alderton, Paula Clennell and Annette Nicholas, the five murdered women in Ipswich, UK

16 December, 2006

16 Days Of Activism To End
Violence Against Women

By Amrita Nandy-Joshi

we are the bystanders to other men's violence, and have to make a choice: do we stay silent and look the other way when our male friends and relatives insult or attack women, or do we speak up? We urge the governments and parliaments that have adopted laws to ensure their implementation

08 December, 2006

What She Wore
By Lucinda Marshall

It is unfortunate when the media continues, with all its damaging and misogynist implications, to insist by inclusion that what women wear or how they look is related to their capability. As Allison Stevens demonstrates, it is in fact possible to write about women and what they have accomplished without trivializing their empowerment by asserting such spurious connection . This is the standard to which journalism should be held in regard to gender

29 November, 2006

War Chic
By Lucinda Marshall

The November issue of the magazine Marie Clare did an outstanding job of in remedying the media’s woeful lack of coverage of the impact of war on fashion. With several hard-hitting articles and a photo spread, MC gives this aspect of war reporting it’s proper due

28 November, 2006

The Pill
By Peter Rost

Just sit back for a moment and think . . . do you think any man would risk any of this? And do you think he would feel comfortable having his sperms destroyed by a pill?

24 November, 2006

A Beacon Of Hope In NYC
By Farzana Hassan-Shahid

Is there room for women's equality within Islam's ideological framework? Is secularism the answer to the rights of minorities so often violated in Muslim countries? Would Sufi Islam and its colorful manifestations occupy a genuine place within Islam?

22 November, 2006

Women And Poverty
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat

Dalit women suffer from double disability in our society. The first disability of being woman is doubled with the caste tag over head. Women remain the most 'sought after' 'object' in our society and 'honour' of our families. Her honour is a subject of contention between warring brothers, avenging communities and destroying civilization. From Gujarat to Kashmir, the honour of women became the major issue in our uncivilized world

Big Pharma Hits On Pregnant Women
By Evelyn Pringle

If Big Pharma cared one iota about the unborn fetus, at a bare minimum, it would call off its hired-guns traveling around the country peddling SSRI antidepressants to pregnant women by convincing doctors to prescribed the drugs and ignore the studies and FDA warnings that say SSRIs are associated with serious birth defects

20 November, 2006

What About Women’s Lib?
By Peter Rost

It is only sad that in 2006 so many men still feel emasculated by a relationship with a smart woman and so many women still feel they have to submit to a man to survive

28 October, 2006

Why Can't The Australian Imam Think Beyond Meat?
By Farzana Versey

Sheik Taj Aldin al Hilali chose the month of Ramzan to talk about meat. Unfortunately, he was referring to women in that demeaning fashion. Said he, "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without cover, and the cats come to eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat's?"

Discrimination At The National
Endowment For Democracy

By Bev Clark

George Bush and Robert Mugabe may have a lot more in common than they think, homosexuality being just one of them. I have striven for gay and lesbian equality in a country where our presidents says homosexuals “have no rights at all” and calls us “worse than pigs and dogs”. And in the United States I find myself and my partner being discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation by an organisation that claims, in its Statement of Principles and Objectives that:Democracy involves the right of the people freely to determine their own destiny

20 October, 2006

Behind Closed Doors: The Invisibility
Of Domestic Violence

By Lucinda Marshall

Domestic violence is the most common form of violence against women. A recent study by the World Health Organization found that intimate personal violence (IPV) rates around the world varied from 15% in Yokohama, Japan to 71% in Ethiopia. Here in the U.S. one out of four women will be assaulted by a partner during her lifetime

17 October, 2006

Is Betty Ugly?
By Lucinda Marshall

It has become normal to consider normal women ugly. We abide by the denigration of women's bodies because it is very, very profitable. The result for millions of women is not only damaged self-esteem and unrealistic expectations, but damaged health and bodies as well. And that is a very, very high price to pay

06 September, 2006

What Women Are Saying About
The Violence In the Middle East

By Lucinda Marshall

There has been no shortage of punditry when it comes to the current crisis in the Middle East, however most of the published and broadcast voices have been male. If there is to be any hope of a sustainable peace in this region it is critically important to also listen to what women are saying

10 August, 2006

Teach The Girls To Swim
tsunami, survival and the gender dimension
By S Gautham

In Indonesia, in the four villages in the Aceh Besar province surveyed by Oxfam only 189 of 676 survivors were female. That is a ratio of 3:1. In the worst affected village, Kuala Cangkoy, for every male who died, there were four females. In Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu, almost three times as many women were killed as men, with 391 female deaths, compared with 146 men. In Pachaankuppam village, every single person to die was a woman. Why does this happen?

28 April, 2006

Wanting This And That
By Amrita Nandy-Joshi

Norway’s government passed an order to ensure that in the next two years, forty percent of the board members of the country’s large, publicly traded private companies be women. The penalty for nonconformity is the disbandment of the defaulting corporation. One still has to come at the price of the other. Female labour-force participation rates might have increased while marriage and fertility rates decreased

08 April, 2006

The Urgent Need To Fully Fund VAWA
By Lucinda Marshall

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was unanimously reauthorized by Congress late last year. Funding for the act's various programs, however, is far from assured. For the fifth year in a row, President Bush's budget request did not provide full funding for existing VAWA programs

04 April, 2006

The Price Of Being A Woman:
Slavery In Modern India

By Justin Huggler

The desire for sons has created a severe shortage of marriageable young women. As their value rises, unscrupulous men are trading them around the subcontinent and beyond as if they were a mere commodity

03 April, 2006

Democracy In Ladakh Marginalized Women
By Stanzin Dawa

Democracy in Ladakh doesn't consider women as people, why? Where are the women representation and their leadership in the local democratic set up ? It's shocking that women representation in the existing council of both Leh and Kargil absolutely does not exist

28 March, 2006

Women And War: A First-Hand Perspective
By Sonia Nettnin

At the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Dr. Rashad Zayadan spoke about the situation in Iraq since the US-led invasion over three years ago. She asked a group of lawyers and law students to inform their families and friends about Iraqi suffering because of the war. She talked about justice and peace by ending the military occupation in Iraq

16 March, 2006

President Bush’s Ken-Doll Performance
An Insult To Women

By Lucinda Marshall

President Bush’s fawning attempt to frame himself as a champion of women is not only delusional, his remarks on International Women’s Day were an affront to women everywhere

27 February, 2006

Arab Women’s Movement In US
By Sonia Nettnin

Arab and Arab-American Women will be having a national gathering June 9-11, 2006 in Chicago

15 February, 2006

'It Was A Crime That I Was Born A Woman'
By Indira Jaising

While on the one hand, the judges sympathise about violence against women, on the other hand women lawyers are disrespected in the very temple of justice.Navratna Chaudhary, while appearing in the court of Justice S N Dhingra on January 7, 2006, was told by the judge that he knew how women lawyers make it, implying thereby that they use immoral means

10 February, 2006

Islamic Feminism Revisited
By Margot Badran

Surveying the most recent developments in Islamic feminism, Margot Badran finds an increasingly dynamic global phenomenon that is as varied as it is radical

21 January, 2006

Sex For Sale? The Argument Doesn't Sell
By Remya Mohan

Decriminalisation of prostitution, as suggested by the Planning Commission of India, institutionalises the abuse of human beings and is an obstacle to women’s emancipation

12 January, 2006

Porn Fiesta
By Remya Mohan

The rampant proliferation of pornography has a definite role to play in the numerous cases of internet and camera-phone sex-scandals unearthed periodically across India. The convergence of technology has made it easy to distribute pornography while enabling peddlers and users to maintain their privacy and dodge the law

10 January, 2006

Ten Million Girls Aborted As
Indians Seek Male Heirs

By Jeremy Laurance

At least 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India over the past two decades by middle-class families determined to ensure they have male heirs

05 October, 2005

Are Liberal Abortion Laws
Responsible For Female Foeticide?

By Pavan Nair

When the state whether by default or intent encourages the use of abortion as a method to restrict the number of children in a family, then the law can be misused to have children of the preferred gender. This is exactly what has happened in India

04 October, 2005

I Like Women Like Me!
By Sruti Bala

Palestinian women bring sexuality onto the political agenda

17 September, 2005

1, 2, 3, Not It! : How The Separation Of Powers Is
Helping California Avoid Gay Marriage

By Andrea K Rufo

Sometimes the separation of powers can be harsh. Take gay rights efforts in California – a state with takes pride in just how close it's willing to treat gay unions like marriages but refuses to take that final step to make them legal

07 September, 2005

The Crime And Advertisement
By Sorit Gupto

To create an awareness in the citizens of Delhi against eve teasers, Delhi Police has come up with an advertisement in the news papers, which infact shows the deep male chauvinistic attitude of the police force

13 August, 2005

India And Pakistan's Deadly Code Of Dishonour
By Salman Rushdie

In honour-and-shame cultures like those of India and Pakistan, male honour resides in the sexual probity of women, and the "shaming" of women dishonours all men

03 June, 2005

Dalit Feminism
By M. Swathy Margaret

I appeal to young Dalit women not to get subsumed in the relatively macro-identities of mainstream progressive movements such as the male Dalit movement or the upper-caste feminist movement. It is only by retaining our unique voice within these movements that we can contribute meaningfully to these movements and benefit from them

11 April, 2005

When Catholic Women Are Equal Partners
By Mary E. Hunt

Catholic history is measured in centuries, not decades, and Catholic women have been an integral part from the beginning.One would never know that from observing the funeral, conclave, and plans for a new papacy following the death of Pope John Paul II. A visitor from Venus would think that men gesture, genuflect, and guard, while women pray silently under their mantillas with candles and rosaries in hand

29 March, 2005

The Jurisdiction Dilemma
By Ali Dayan Hasan

Nearly three years after she was raped by four "volunteers" on the order of a village panchayat, Mukhtar Mai still awaits justice. The release and re- arrest of the four and the events surrounding the progress of the case raise yet larger questions about the sorry state of Pakistan's legal system

18 March, 2005

Kerala's Silent Revolution
By Rajaji Mathew Thomas

It was the participation of huge masses in public action and political decision making that transformed Kerala. At present a silent revolution driven by hundreds of thousands of women is in the making. The women self-help group’s, especially the state supported ‘Kudumbasree’ project are turning the poor women of Kerala into small time entrepreneurs

15 March, 2005

Kerala's Sex Industry
By Amrith Lal, P K Surendran & K.Ajitha

K.Ajitha was a revolutionary communist who later turned into a crusader for women's rights in Kerala state of India. Here is an interview with her on the violence against women in Kerala

13 March, 2005

Rape: As An Instrument Of state
Repression In Nepal

By Peoplesmarch

In Nepal women, suspected to be Maoists or sympathisers of Maoists, have been marched nakedly in front of the public, subjected to repeated rape with all forms of sadistic torture on their private parts while in custody

Women's Rights Eroding In Latin America
By Laura Carlsen

Domestic violence claims the lives of 14 women a day in Mexico, but the law in 8 states does not consider domestic violence a crime and 12 do not penalize rape in marriage. It is often the custom to consider a rape case resolved if the rapist offers to marry the victim

12 March, 2005

For Women, Violence A Universal Threat
By Pat Orvis

Thirty years ago--when the first U.N. World Conference on Women was held in Mexico--it was mostly men who came, especially from the more tradition-bound "third-world" cultures, to debate the issues for women. But for the past two weeks for the Beijing Plus +10, conference rooms have been filled to standing-room capacity with women. A report

Sexism And Science
By R Ramachandran

Remarks made by the President of Harvard University on the under-representation of women in the fields of science and engineering bring the issue of gender discrimination to the forefront once again

09 March, 2005

Wangari Maathai Speaks
By Wangari Maathai & Amy Goodman

Nobel peace laureate Wangari Maathai speaks on the environment, the war in Iraq, debt and women's equality

08 March, 2005

Women Still Are Second-Class Citizens
By Dian Harrison

Today is International Women's Day, a worldwide celebration of women's fight for equality and human rights. Let us remember that in much of the world women are still second-class citizens

Women Against Fundamentalism
By Dolores Chew

Repeatedly we see that intrinsic to fundamentalist thinking and operating is the control of women, their autonomy, their sexuality, their choices. That is why women are often the primary or exclusive targets of fundamentalist forces. Control the women, control the community

Victims Of Abuse
By Mita Kapur

Violence against women is the most persuasive human rights violation in the world today. Opening the door on the issue is like standing on the edge of a deep ravine vibrating with collective anguish. Where there should be outrage, there is denial and largely passive acceptance

In The Shadow Of Violence
By Mari Marcel Thekaekara

Despite the celebrations on March 8, the incidence of violence against women is rising. A look at what can be done to change attitudes

Empower Women
By Praveen Dalal

The plight of the women cannot be improved till they are duly represented in the "power structure". In a democratic country the voice of women can be heard only to the extent they are sharing the power structure in the governance of the country

15 February, 2005

Sex Choice As Advertisement,
Rape As infotainment !

By Subhash Gatade

The process of sanitising violence against women to enhance one's business prospects can be said to be a effective marketing strategy the world over and media has been a party to this

Woman And Social Class
By Sarabjit K.

A Critical Study of Roopa Bajwa's "The Sari Shop"

17 January, 2005

Rehana’s Fight
By V.B.Rawat

Rehana Khan, a 37 years old social activist in the Gangoh block of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, face one of the toughest battle of her life. Her social battles against orthodoxy are in no way less than the battle for her rights in her own family

19 November, 2004

Death In The Womb
By Anna Dani

The desire for a male child at all costs in India has now resulted in an alarming scenario. The child sex ratio for the country stands at 927 in 2001, down from 945 in 1991

24 October, 2004

Indian Army And The Legacy Of Rape In Manipur
By Shivali Tukdeo

Masculine military privilege and its visible aggression in Manipur can only be understood in terms of an ancient war tactic which uses rape as a tool to control and dehumanize the ‘enemy’. As Manipuri women take their struggle to streets, they have become an inspiration to everyone suffering and fighting patriarchy. In struggle, together!

17 October, 2004

Mumbai's Other Half
By Kalpana Sharma

"Disenfranchise them." This is the new cry of some middle class people in Mumbai. The poor living in slums are "illegal" in that they are squatting on land not meant for that purpose. So deny them the vote

15 October, 2004

Liberating Iraq! What About Iraqi Women?
By Bhaskar Dasgupta

Iraq's current lack of basic rights for women and the threat of a rise of political Islam are the result of a tyrannical rule, twelve years of economic sanctions, three devastating wars and an occupation

Muslim Women And Gender Justice
By Yoginder Sikand

A recently concluded two-day conference in New Delhi brought together a number of Muslim women activists from different parts of India, as well as some members of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board to discuss a range of issues relating to Muslim women

11 October, 2004

Blood Thirsty Honour
By Githa Hariharan

In India, adults may vote, but they cannot marry who they choose

30 September, 2004

Media Culpability In The Continuum Of
Violence Against Women

By Lucinda Marshall

Stories about violence in the home are routinely trivialized as domestic matters and misogynist violence such as female genital mutilation and honor killings are dismissed as cultural norms

24 September, 2004

The Women Of The Sangh
By Jyotirmaya Sharma

The Sangh relentlessly argues for the liberation, enlightenment, education and employment of Muslim women, something that it rejects in its notion of the ideal Hindu woman

08 September, 2004

Uma And Her Mad Sisters
By Sagarik Ghose

The woman politician in India is sadly anti-democratic

02 September, 2004

Getting Ready For World's First Women's-Only Mosque
By S. Anand

A group of Muslims in Tamil Nadu is set to build the world's first women's-only mosque

16 August, 2004

Acid Test For Being Women
By Ammu Joseph

Nearly 280 women were killed and 750 injured through acid attacks in Pakistan in 2002, according to Human Rights Watch. The Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh recorded 485 such attacks in 2002 alone

29 July, 2004

Body Of The Nation: Why Women
Were Mutilated In Gujarat

By Martha C. Nussbaum

The woman functions as a symbol of the site of weakness and vulnerability inside any male, who can be drawn into his own mortality through desire. The Muslim woman functions doubly as such a symbol. In this way, a fantasy is created that her annihilation will lead to safety and invulnerability The paranoid anxiety that keeps telling every man that he is not safe and invulnerable feeds the desire to extinguish her

25 July, 2004

The Baby Doom
By Kavery Nambisan

The world's largest minority is an endangered species, thanks to one of the most privileged and influential groups: the doctors. The medical profession has been co-opted in a crime against girls and it is not complaining

21 July, 2004

Whither Gender Parity?
By Ram Puniyani

The India Muslim Personal Law board's meeting gave the hope that it will abolish triple talaq, will take a step towards justice for Muslim women. But that was not to be

16 July, 2004

Sabarimala:For Women's Right To Worship
By Raji Rajagopalan

Sabarimala temple in Kerala, South India, prevents women between the age group of ten and fifteen from entering and worship the idol. This is a discriminatory action which has been going on for ages

23 June, 2004

How Kerala Behaves With Women
By Sreedevi Jacob

Six women reporters of Malayala Manorama travelled acrosskerala unescorted, to experience at first hand the safety and security that God’s Own Country was offering them

21 June, 2004

Triple Divorce - Need For Change
By Asghar Ali Engineer

It is high time that Muslim women in democratic society like that of India struggle for reform within the Qur'anic frame-work and win their rights guaranteed by the scripture

16 June, 2004

Alerting On The Film "Girl Friend"

After watching a film like this, it is impossible for anyone to think of 'women who love women' as normal human beings with two hands and two feet, who may be a friend, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a neighbour, a grand mother and least of all a caring lover

14 June, 2004

Can Science Be Women-friendly?
By Kalpana Sharma

Each time a woman becomes an aeronautical engineer, or a nuclear physicist, or excels in some area previously considered a male preserve, she is applauded and celebrated, but strictly as an exception

10 June, 2004

The Gender Experience At
Aligarh Muslim University

By Nazia Y.Izuddin

Aligarh Muslim University is a romantic dream for Muslims all over the world. But for the girl students of the university it is not so romantic when they are discriminated for their gender

30 May, 2004

Invoking Regressing Symbols
By Kalpana Sharma

Sushma Swaraj's threat to put on the garb of the Hindu widow if Sonia Gandhi became the Prime Minister smacks of sinister, backward politics which also reinforces the plight of the women in the Indian society

Ameena's Dilemma
By Beena Sarwar

This is the story of a mother and her two daughters who educated themselves against the wishes of the community in Pakistan

21 May, 2004

Violence against Dalit Women In Nepal
By Padmalal Bishwakarma

Any violence on the Dalit community is ultimately born by Dalit
women. Specifically during the eight-year of Maoist war, many of Dalit youths have lost their lives by being the victim of both
Maoists and state. It is the Dalit women who have to bear all such unbearable sufferings socially, economically, culturally and
politically at great risk of her own and her children's life

08 May, 2004

Irshad Manji: Islam's Marked Woman
By Johann Hari

Irshad Manji is a lesbian Muslim who says her religion is stuck in the Middle Ages. The outspoken author tells how she became a target for assassination

25 April, 2004

Equality In Death
By Barbara Victor

When Wafa Idris blew herself up in Jerusalem two years ago, she immediately gained iconic status as the intifada's first female martyr. But Palestine's shahidas are often victims of their own society

19 March, 2004

Sati glorification: Crime, Society
And The Wheels Of Injustice

By Rakesh Shukla

Despite protests both within Rajasthan and across the country, no appeal has been filed against the recent acquittal of those accused of glorifying sati, following the death of Roop Kanwar on her husband's funeral pyre back in 1987

15 March, 2004

Give The Girls A Level Playing Field
By Beena Sarwar

As India and Pakistan are battling it out on the cricket field, does anyone think of the girls who are never given a level playing field in life?

09 March, 2004

40m Bachelors And No Women
By Justin McCurry and Rebecca Allison

China, the most populous nation on Earth, could find itself dealing with the combined frustrations of as many as 40 million single men by 2020 because its one-child policy is creating a shortage of female babies

08 March, 2004

Women's Day - Time To Reflect And Celebrate
By Kalpana Sharma

Can Indian women dream of a day when they will be treated with the same respect and rights as men, in fact as all human beings, men and women, should?

04 March, 2004

"Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women"
By Soma Wadhwa

Manish Jha's film "Matrubhoomi: A Nation Without Women" tells of the metamorphosis of the male into animal if the world were to become womanless. The film takes the evil of female infanticide to its logical conclusion

23 February, 2004

Forget Valentine's Day
By Kalpana Sharma

Why should the Sangh Parivari's pay so much attention to Velentine's day? Will this not be better if they tackled the manner in which girls continue to be treated and deal with the mockery of marriage where girls are openly traded?

21 February, 2004

No Honour In Honour Killings
By Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta

In many honour killings, the women of the family actively participated in killing their own daughters or sisters. When the women themselves participate in such a disgusting crime, how can one blame only the men?

15 February, 2004

The Eve Of Destruction
By Karen Armstrong

All religions have had a problem with women and sex - and Christianity more than most

31 January, 2004

The World Women’s Forum
By America Vera-Zavala

Something happened in Mumbai that makes this year’s forum deserve to be named the World Women’s Forum

02 January, 2004

How Natural Is normal?
By Nivedita Menon

The recent episode of a lesbian couple in Kerala having to seek court intervention to stop police persecution initiated by their parents, starkly underlines the fearsome question that lies unrecognized at the heart of the furore around Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code: Is it natural to be normal?

27 November, 2003

Acid Death For Refusing To Marry
Statesman News Service

A 22 year old woman died after criminals threw acid on her face and force to drink it allegedly at the behest of her former tutor whom she had refused to marry

24 November, 2003

Myth Of The Mother
By Tishani Doshi

For all this criticism, Mother Teresa has done one thing. She has irreparably changed the idea of "Mother" in India. She has raised the bar of expectation. Already, we have been trained to think of mothers as ultimate sacrificers

19 November, 2003

India's Hidden Aids Epidemic
By Maxine Frith

Campaigners say a combination of ignorance and huge inequalities between the sexes is allowing HIV to spread quickly, the virus is estimated to infect 25m by 2010

17 November, 2003

Malimath Report: Delusions Of Gender-sensitivity
By Human Rights Features

An Amnesty International report, expressed concern about the Malimath Committee's recommendations relating to the treatment of women in criminal law

04 November, 2003

When Love Spells Death
By Anjali Modi

In parts of North India, if two young people, especially from different communities, hope to build a life together, they are hunted down for daring to think that they can

03 November, 2003

Women And Hindu Marriage Law

Some frequently asked questions


29 October, 2003

Rape: National And international
By Valson Thampu

The rape of a Swiss embassy staffer in Delhi must be condemned.But what is neither acceptable nor understandable is the fact that tens of thousands of other rapes are simply glossed over

28 October, 2003

The Seven Veils
By Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta

The veil is a fascinating piece of clothing. It seems to be present in almost all cultures throughout the centuries. But using the name of God to oppress women is cowardly and should be shunned

22 October, 2003

Rape Capital
By Soma Wadhwa

A series of gruesome rapes and sexual assaults in the last two months in New Delhi have served as rude reminders of how frighteningly unsafe the city has become for women

19 October, 2003

In The Shadow Of Inequality
By Nighat Gandhi

Islamic feminism, or the quest for Muslim women's rights within the framework of Islamic laws, should be seen as a starting point. It may enable them to step out of a world of ignorance, inequality, and indignity

14 October, 2003

Being A Eunuch
By Siddarth Narrain

The eunuchs of India constitute a much-misunderstood community; they are often denied humane treatment by the state machinery and are deprived of the rights that other citizens enjoy

01 October, 2003

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
By Dr Barnita Bagchi

The life and work of multifaceted South Asian Bengali feminist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain provides inspiration and a rich source of insight

27 September, 2003

'Laddu' Means A Boy, `Barfi' A Girl
By Gargi Parsai

A sign language is gaining currency in India devised by unscrupulous doctors to circumvent the law which bans sex determination of an unborn child to prevent female foeticide

20 September, 2003

Demonising Homosexuals In India
By Siddharth Srivastava

The Indian government recently reaffirmed its stand against homosexuality in India, a move that could drive the them further into the fringes of society

06 September, 2003

Renaming 'Women's Studies Center'
By Rochona Majumdar

'Women's Studies Center' at the University of Pune was
renamed as the 'Women's and Family Studies Center'. As the feminist historian Tanika Sarkar put it, "it re-embeds women within the family," ignoring their role in vast web of complex social relations

25 August, 2003

"How Can I Be sexist? I’m An anarchist!”
By Chris Crass

Personal Reflections On Challenging Male Supremacy

13 August, 2003

Domestic Violence Is Not So Private
By Shabana Azmi

Marital and domestic violence may be a private affair but its public consequences are serious

09 August, 2003

Uniform Civil Code or Gender Justice?
Moderator, India Thinkers Net

Ironically those who speak of the Common Civil Code have
not been honest about gender justice.No one is really
interested in the Women's Reservation Bill

05 August, 2003

Uniformity or Gender Justice
By Ram Puniyani

What India need is not a uniform civil code but a gender
just code. A uniform code need not be gender just while a gender just code can be uniform for the whole Nation

23 July, 2003

January 18, 2003- This Day Shall Not Define My Life
By Lucretia Stewart

A rape victim tells the horrors of the rape and it aftermath

09 July, 2003

Muslim Women On The Move
By Asghar Ali Engineer

Muslim women are on the move. They are questioning the traditional interpretations of the Qur’an in respect of women’s rights and demand equal rights for men and women

04 July, 2003

Indira's Ire
By Indira Jaisingh And Malini Ghose

Indira Jaising about the shortcomings of the Domestic Violence Bill

03 July, 2003

We Still Need Feminism
By Natasha Walter

Feminism is pronounced dead every few years, even though its basic goals have never been achieved. Despite the strong awareness of discrimination,people tend to see their experience of inequality as a private rather than collective experience, one that requires private rather than collective solutions

01 July, 2003

Women's Liberty Under Attack In Northwest Pakistan
By Juliette Terzieff

A religious alliance in Pakistan's Northwest provinces is ushering in strict new laws that threaten the rights of women and remind many of the Taliban

17 June, 2003

Girls In The war
By Manjushree Thapa

A visit to the hill districts of Dailekh, Kalikot and Jumla in west Nepal in February 2003, three weeks after the declaration of the ceasefire between government and Maoist forces, reveals that the much-touted female involvement in the Maoist movement is ethically problematic for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN-M)

11 June, 2003

Gender Justice
By Ram Puniyani

The proper campaign has to be for gender-just civil codes, and this has to be implemented through social reform

08 June, 2003

Of Bride Burnings and Astronauts
By Sarita Sarvate

How can a continent of dowries and female infanticideproduce so many successful female Indian scientists, authors and explorers?

06 June, 2003

The Dowry Scourge
By Imtiaz Ahmad

If the anti-dowry legislation was serious about curbing dowry, it should have ensured that women received a share in the family property

01 June, 2003

Hitting dowry for a six
By Kalpana Sharma

So has young Nisha Sharma of Noida sparked off a new anti-dowry movement? One would like to think that this could happen

30 May, 2003

Nisha's Law
By Rajeev Dhavan

The dowry law needs revision... providing for victim compensation and having a single civil and criminal court to try the cases

28 May, 2003

Goa College Girl Raped By Classmates
By Rupesh Sawant

In a shocking incident, an 18-year-old girl studying at the College of Art in Panjim, was raped by her own classmates during a college party

25 May, 2003

Deep-rooted Disease
By Anjali Modi

The giving and taking of dowry, dispite a decades-old law prohibiting it, is done openly

24 May, 2003

An Income Of One's Own
By Nicole Bokat

A hard truth to learn - feminist speak doesn't matter much when you're living hand-to-mouth

23 May, 2003

Saving Private Lynch, Forgetting Rachel Corrie
By Naomi Klein

Jessica Lynch and Rachel Corrie could have passed for sisters. Two all-American blondes, two destinies forever changed in a Middle East war zone.But who is the hero?

Reincarnating Freud: Rules, Planets, and Hysteria
By Susana McCollom

The media and self-help industry produce and perpetuate negative female stereotypes. Self-empowerment, through means including education, sports, and community involvement, is less interesting to the profit-oriented media.

22 May, 2003

Women And Political Power
By Gail Omvedt

It is time to give women the support they need for their ongoing aspirations to empowerment, not through a badly- thought-out Constitutional Amendment, but through direct legal pressure on political parties

18 May, 2003

Women And War: Acclimatised To Violence
By Revathy Gopal

Why women and children become a part of the `collateral damage' in war games?

16 May, 2003

Women's Worst Enemy
By Kumkum Chadha

Do women cooperate with men in perpetuating gender disparities?

04 May, 2003

Putting Her Best Foot Forward
By Rinku Pegu

Women are now looking beyond the 33 per cent reservation in local politics.

01 May, 2003

Indian Women Criticize 'Fair and Lovely' Ideal
By Nicole Leistikow

Skin lightening is coming under increasing criticism in India

A Model Minority
By Kamalika Banerjee

Domestic violence among South Asians in North America is on the rise

28 April, 2003

Gender Bias Worst Among Nairs, X'ians

Astudy on gender and mental health in Kerala reveals that gender disparity is minimal within the Ezhava and Muslim communities while the role of gender disparity in psychological stress is most pronounced among Nairs and Syrian Christians

'Don't Condemn The Institution of Dowry'
Interview with Veena Talwar Oldenburg

"Don't condemn the institution of dowry, which has only become a pathology because of gender relations. "

Miss World Contest is no Longer a Harmless Fun
by Ros Coward

As contestants flee and Nigeria counts its dead, it is now impossible to argue that Miss World is harmless fun

In a world of violence
by Suchitra Behal

Gender insensitive police and judiciary, antiquated laws and prevalent social attitudes make life hell for a victim of rape.

When the victim is put on trial
by Anita Joshua

The rape victim in India is made to feel guilty. Anita Joshua discusses the issues involved in dealing with rape.

Insensitive In Uniform
by Devesh K. Pandey

Problems in dealing with the police lead to many rapes going unreported

The Womb And The Sword
by Sarah Joseph

Noted writer and feminist Sarah Joseph enquires into the plight of women caught up in communal frenzy and the roles that women could play to bring peace

Eve Teasing, Rite of passage?
by Vijay Nagaswami

Vijay Nagaswami argues that the psychodynamics of eve-teasing are closely linked to the issue of masculinity and the masculine agenda.

Sexual harassment: Tightrope walk to justice
by Radhika Chopra

Radhika Chopra enquires why abuses against women are interpreted as the result of misinterpreted signals when complaints are filed against sexual harrassment in India