tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56587616584236953442024-03-19T05:30:09.049-06:00WAG-Women Around the GlobeWAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-39181797102560816642011-03-21T21:31:00.000-06:002011-03-21T21:31:47.507-06:00WAG<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXctTymASwe0rTXcTjzo0pVcQ4YQzuWpOHeHAjDzazrfgy8wKs4YKqc3AIGStoKqBW6PRhGc8IHxbVf8d5G5Bga1m1gyL_mje5DfqQEmqh_jxL5GstQhQUrmT5f0Mv9ugBYfXa82GVMKv/s1600/womens+project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivXctTymASwe0rTXcTjzo0pVcQ4YQzuWpOHeHAjDzazrfgy8wKs4YKqc3AIGStoKqBW6PRhGc8IHxbVf8d5G5Bga1m1gyL_mje5DfqQEmqh_jxL5GstQhQUrmT5f0Mv9ugBYfXa82GVMKv/s400/womens+project.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt -9.35pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Well I guess that concludes my Women Studies Praxis Project 2011—WAG—Women around the Globe. I probably should have some wise and witty conclusion for you all, but unfortunately I don’t. All I want to say is thank you so much for reading my blog and supporting me throughout the last few weeks. I hope that I have been able to open your eyes to some of things, both positive and negative, that women around the world are dealing with today and have dealt with in the past. I hope it has inspired you and brought a new sense of connection between women everywhere. And remember it doesn’t really end here, I hope you take what you have learned and share it with others and maybe even be encouraged to do something to make a difference too! </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt -9.35pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thank you again and have a good one!</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt -9.35pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETD6QSIaQhmquZ3WwXPG06lYJMCNZW75l-EYkRNQr306vSmpb02tsZJTiavP6nTVAqPBOEwL93r0qVQjbwOXDhHg9y66ltsbWx2r2vkOiRSgLg9DGsjgrTgZYbolKfv3pGOPShFnRhVB4/s1600/Copy+of+womens+project.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETD6QSIaQhmquZ3WwXPG06lYJMCNZW75l-EYkRNQr306vSmpb02tsZJTiavP6nTVAqPBOEwL93r0qVQjbwOXDhHg9y66ltsbWx2r2vkOiRSgLg9DGsjgrTgZYbolKfv3pGOPShFnRhVB4/s400/Copy+of+womens+project.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt -9.35pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div></span></span></span></span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-49030089028668619592011-03-18T21:21:00.001-06:002011-03-18T21:25:36.746-06:00USA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSf3S1h7o7CtUqkfvJzSRxKQz9e7qccNrOFdjcJmNjCGf3u3ncdN9v7YWZiVzhDDPNfGxsfDtM282-cnHQq_zk2EsRWJ9rZrskI0EJuXK43oETjBWJYJJqwx_drkmI7BosQ3w_gdDo5fYy/s1600/4KzM47opvqi2lx8maf1nwWkbo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSf3S1h7o7CtUqkfvJzSRxKQz9e7qccNrOFdjcJmNjCGf3u3ncdN9v7YWZiVzhDDPNfGxsfDtM282-cnHQq_zk2EsRWJ9rZrskI0EJuXK43oETjBWJYJJqwx_drkmI7BosQ3w_gdDo5fYy/s320/4KzM47opvqi2lx8maf1nwWkbo1_500.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><em>America’s child beauty pageants. </em><br />
<em>Distrubing...i think yes. </em><em>Scroll to bottom of this blog for shocking videos. </em><br />
<em>Taken from this <a href="http://hoitycoity.com/post/151795543/highglitz">blog</a> ...check it out, also check this <a href="http://shewalkssoftly.com/2009/11/06/high-glitz/">one</a> out too!</em></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 313,232,044</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Washington </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 78.37 years</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $47,400</span><br />
<br />
<br />
• 31% of adult women say they have experience physical abused by a male partner or inmate. Domestic violence costs more than $1 billion a year in medical costs alone; 22-35% of women who visit a hospital emergency room do so because of domestic violence. <br />
<br />
• On average 23 women a week are killed by intimates, of all the women murdered between 1976 and 2005 42% were killed by an intimate or other family me member, 74% of all murders of women form domestic violence occur after the woman has left the relationship, filed for divorce or sought a restraining order against her partner <br />
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• An estimated 50, 000 women are trafficked the USA each year. <br />
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• Up to 700, 000 rapes are estimated to occur in USA each year <br />
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• 798 women die each week from breast cancer (second highest in the world) <br />
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• USA 2002- 42% of girls in Grades 1-3 want to be thinner, 81% of 10 year old girls are afraid of being fat, the average US model is thinner than 985 of all US women, 80% of 13 year olds have attempted to lose weight. <br />
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• US has the biggest cosmetic market at $50 billion <br />
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• Cosmetic surgery in the USA 2006- eyelids-240, 763, nose reshaping-151, 796, facelift: 138, 153, Breast augmentation: 399, 4400, Abdominoplasty: 185, 335, Liposuction- 456, 828, botox injection: 2.8 million, chemical peel: 575, 080, microdermabrasion: 829, 658, and laser hair removal 1.4 million<br />
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• 11.7 million cosmetic procedures where performed in 2007-91% of them on women<br />
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• Americans spent 13 billion on cosmetic procedures in 2006. <br />
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So why it is that American woman are so concerned with their looks, their weight and their bodies? Why do some women spend hours getting ready in the morning, or refuse to eat the sufficient amount of food for their bodies to function, or spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on clothes and surgeries? And why is it starting at such a young age? Check out these videos…<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/G2Gq6xV0jeg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
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This breaks my heart, what is this telling young girls? You have to look a certain way to be beautiful. Makeup, fancy dresses, spending so many hours and money on looks…that is what is important in life? What is our society coming to? What are these girls going to end up like? So much pressure at such young ages. I want to just tell these young girls that they are so beautiful and they don’t need any of that to be beautiful or to be loved or to be successful. I just want to tell every young girl, every teenager, and every woman that they are BEAUTIFUL! We as women, have what it takes, we don’t need products and botex to make us worth something. <br />
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Thanks for reading!WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-69331995344114097132011-03-17T19:41:00.000-06:002011-03-17T19:41:54.937-06:00Canada<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQn_lMQ7W9qNYDnVFT2EYGeBvYHtrpD0VBezsGGRULBB7uV1_KquvJ8klmXP_QgWHTA2NfPEg2oe4z8KqlHQkTKzauzxTN4A8ipxiKLJBzc6yC6fJbFx0Fh9x5qyinlyVyISrPCHzblt4/s1600/canada.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQn_lMQ7W9qNYDnVFT2EYGeBvYHtrpD0VBezsGGRULBB7uV1_KquvJ8klmXP_QgWHTA2NfPEg2oe4z8KqlHQkTKzauzxTN4A8ipxiKLJBzc6yC6fJbFx0Fh9x5qyinlyVyISrPCHzblt4/s320/canada.jpg" width="192" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three truly Canadian Women! <br />
Love you guys!</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><strong><u>Population: </u></strong>34,030,589 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Ottawa </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> English, French</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Roman Catholic 42.6%, Protestant 23.3%</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 81.38 years</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><strong><u>GDP per Capita:</u></strong> $39,600</span> <br />
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So I was trying to figure out what to focus on for women of Canada, in doing research I came across at lot of information on Violence against women in Canada, and then in class today that was actually exactly what we talked about, here is what we looked at in class; <br />
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The following statistics come from the Violence Against Women Survey of 1993,<br />
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• Half of Canadian women have experienced some type of physical or sexual violence since the age of 18<br />
• 3 out of every 10 Canadian women currently or previously married, or in a common-law relationship have experience at least one incident of physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner<br />
• 29% of ever-married women have experience wife assault<br />
• 16% have been kicked, hit, beaten, choked, had a gun or knife used against them, or have been sexually assaulted<br />
• 11% have been pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped<br />
• Children witness violence against their mothers in 40% of violent marriages<br />
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<br />
I found the following statistics from this <a href="http://www.cdnwomen.org/EN/section05/3_5_1_1-violence_facts.html">website</a>, more heartbreaking numbers; isn’t it crazy that this is happening in our very own country?<br />
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• Spousal violence makes up the single largest category of convictions involving violent offences in non-specialized adult courts in Canada over the five-year period 1997/98 to 2001/02. Over 90% of offenders were male.<br />
• Thirty-six percent of female victims of spousal violence and less than 10% of victims of sexual assault reported these crimes to the police in 2004.<br />
• Physical and sexual abuse costs Canada over $4 billion each year (factoring into account social services, criminal justice, lost employment days and health care interventions<br />
• Violence against women occurs across all ethnic, racial, religious, age, social and economic groups. Some women are more vulnerable however, and are more likely to experience violence, including women with disabilities, geographically-isolated women, young women and Aboriginal women. <br />
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<br />
On a different topic, if you are interested in history here are two sites that talk about the Women’s suffrage movement in Canada <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008687">1</a> and <a href="http://www.suite101.com/content/womens-voting-rights-movement-a68648">2</a><br />
Women in Canada have fought quite hard to achieve the status we have today. It’s amazing; I just want to send out my thanks and appreciation to the women who worked so hard for equal rights for Canadian women! <br />
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Moving on, back to violence, another issue that was briefly discussed in class today was the “Montreal Massacre,” I had never heard of it before but it broke my heart and I decided to research it a bit more. This is what our handout in class said about it;<br />
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“1989-Montrel Massacre: On December 6th, at L’Ecole Polytechnique (School of Engineering), Marc Lepin murdered 14 women, and injured 9 women and 4 men, before killing himself. In his suicide note, he blamed feminism for ruining his life and described the murders as a political act, he also identified 19 prominent Quebec women as on his ‘hit list,’ saying that they lived because he started to late.” <br />
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I found this <a href="http://www.gendercide.org/case_montreal.html">website</a> which describes the event in much more detail and calls it “the worst single-day massacre in Canadian history.” Here is what his suicide note said;<br />
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<em>“Please note that if I am committing suicide today ... it is not for economic reasons ... but for political reasons. For I have decided to send Ad Patres [Latin: "to the fathers"] the feminists who have ruined my life. ... The feminists always have a talent for enraging me. They want to retain the advantages of being women ... while trying to grab those of men. ... They are so opportunistic that they neglect to profit from the knowledge accumulated by men throughout the ages. They always try to misrepresent them every time they can.”</em><br />
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The act of the genocide is also described in detail on the website, I encourage you to check it out, I can’t believe I had never heard of this horrific event before today. It’s heartbreaking, and my condolences go out to the loved ones of those killed and to the entire school. <br />
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Thanks for reading.WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-23761910267350029182011-03-16T18:18:00.000-06:002011-03-16T18:18:37.800-06:00Guatemala<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1xYbP7brRtJa0QRCU5oyD60xHBzePdWUMqUtbmd-TLkX2fdOj_Xt33Pjfb8GF1T7b1IppElLRaFLNpYMj18eHYLDZaaOrOmGtmXvEgIZ1U8biWpKHNfr1SCKCTBc4l29MoeCUCcUEufa/s1600/Guatemala+2010+1003-copy+%2528214%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD1xYbP7brRtJa0QRCU5oyD60xHBzePdWUMqUtbmd-TLkX2fdOj_Xt33Pjfb8GF1T7b1IppElLRaFLNpYMj18eHYLDZaaOrOmGtmXvEgIZ1U8biWpKHNfr1SCKCTBc4l29MoeCUCcUEufa/s320/Guatemala+2010+1003-copy+%2528214%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gramma at one of the houses<br />
i stayed at in a Mayan Villiage! </td></tr>
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</div><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><strong><u>Population:</u></strong> 13,824,463</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Guatemala City</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> Spanish (official) 60%, Amerindian languages 40% (23 officially recognized Amerindian languages)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan beliefs</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 70.88 years</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $5,200</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• More then 2, 4000 women were murdered between 2000-06: 97% of cases are unsolved </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Abortion is illegal or severely restricted only to save a woman’s life </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 50-70% of births are not attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 26-50% of women are illiterate </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Fewer then 75% of girls who start primary school complete it </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 5-14% of women are in government </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Guatemala is a country very close to my heart…how could it not be after spending three months living there, exploring and building relationships? Before I traveled to Guatemala I watched a documentary film called “Killers Paradise,” its about the huge amount of rapes and murders that are happening to Guatemalan women and how the government is doing nothing about it. It’s crazy, women fear for their lives every time they go out, in Guatemala City I was never allowed to walk around by myself, not even during the day. I highly encourage you to watch this documentary, its on you-tube in 15 parts (and yes the beginning writing is in spanish, but don't worry the movies are in english!), below is the trailer and part one just to get you interested…</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://3.gvt0.com/vi/Oa7gwF_d-hM/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Oa7gwF_d-hM&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Oa7gwF_d-hM&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/FUuzOZ4uNkM?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Another thing I wanted to talk about for the beautiful country of Guatemala is a indigenous woman named Rigoberta Menchu, before going to Guatemala I read her biography “I Rigoberta Menchu” (Elisabeth Burgos-Debray (Editor), Ann Wright (Translator)) and was blown away by her story and her bravery. Here is a <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html">link</a> to a very short version of her biography. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She amazes me, she has gone through so much, almost her entire family killed during the Gorilla warfare, she has worked hard, and had to flee her country but now is an activist of human rights and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, what an inspiration! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">People in Guatemala have suffered so much, I remember one lady I met there telling me how when she was born the war was going on and at that time soldiers were outside her home, if her mother screamed while giving birth they would be discovered and most likely killed. Can you imagine, having to be quiet while having a baby! Crazy.</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Also in Guatemala few young girls get the chance to finish school, its heartbreaking, but just so you know when I was there I saw lots of hope, I saw young girls actually getting the opportunity to go to school instead of getting married at age 16! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--So once again I highly encourage you to watch the documentary, it will blow you away, and maybe inspire you to do something for the suffering women of Guatemala. If you don’t have time to watch the movie at least read this:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"Deborah Tomas Vineda, aged 16, was kidnapped, raped, and cut to pieces with a chainsaw, allegedly because she refused to become the girlfriend of a local gang member. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Her sister Olga, just 11 years old, died alongside her. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The raped and mutilated body of Andrea Contreras Bacaro, 17, was found wrapped in a plastic bag and thrown into a ditch, her throat cut, her face and hands slashed, with a gunshot wound to the head. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The word "vengeance" had been gouged into her thigh. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Sandra Palma Godoy, 17, said to have witnessed a killing in her home town, was missing for a week before her decomposing body was found next to a local football pitch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Her breasts, eyes and heart had been mutilated, reports said. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">According to Amnesty International, which has collated these stories and others in a new report on the killing of women in Guatemala, the country's leaders must share the blame for an epidemic of violence that has killed more than 1,500 women in under four years”…..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">“Neither the police nor the government take the problem of violence against women seriously.</span><span style="color: black;">” Hilda Morales <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Trujillo</place></city>, Network for Non-Violence Against Women…</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">….."Every day the numbers are growing, and for two reasons," Sandra Moran, another women's rights activist, told the BBC News website. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">"Firstly, there is no respect for the body of a woman. People feel they can treat women however they want. Also, there is the idea that women are the property of someone.</span> </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you want to read the rest of this article, here is the </span><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4074880.stm"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Link</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. The last quote by Sandra Moran rings so true in my experience, the men do not respect the women, everywhere you go there are catcalls and completely inappropriate comments being made to the women, Indigenous, Spanish and White it doesn’t matter, men feel like they can say and do whatever they want, its heartbreaking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Thanks for reading </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Below are a few pictures from my trip of guatemalan women if you are intrested, </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg67v2uhstXsE81emX3xnHNARFHPK3uLahhk2EtR551BJEliTAySzeVALzGFTNlFzir_V9e9LrgAyh7QrOJYzy2qQtHETnIgsM207kK4r2IIK_2sVxIPacxyDN-Tkmer5zIZPDWoMidnwFg/s1600/Guatemala+2010+506+copy+%252827%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg67v2uhstXsE81emX3xnHNARFHPK3uLahhk2EtR551BJEliTAySzeVALzGFTNlFzir_V9e9LrgAyh7QrOJYzy2qQtHETnIgsM207kK4r2IIK_2sVxIPacxyDN-Tkmer5zIZPDWoMidnwFg/s320/Guatemala+2010+506+copy+%252827%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two women working on traditional Guatemalan clothing!<br />
They spend hours on each one! </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVljNsHEknyIy1Se9YfoAUYkFIfXj7e9IdNIuK8WSEqYgV-IppsuszK2NSWtZDXU3NWxWGETOMPQeoUBJAE2i2X6IkcA5ZApERKkCyl7tisEJLDuUzUi7ACSUgZX8EUcDu_OptNuXh3dAX/s1600/Guatemala+2010-jeff+239.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVljNsHEknyIy1Se9YfoAUYkFIfXj7e9IdNIuK8WSEqYgV-IppsuszK2NSWtZDXU3NWxWGETOMPQeoUBJAE2i2X6IkcA5ZApERKkCyl7tisEJLDuUzUi7ACSUgZX8EUcDu_OptNuXh3dAX/s320/Guatemala+2010-jeff+239.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A beautiful photo taken by my friend Jeff!<br />
A young Mayan girl. </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEFN5BOtqpq5KZiVPNdTGQfb6Cgb2BPeJRhWw9ct-7mF3rYcUE9qfyUyp_ndvj1gY0mrJPPom_oirssAOJZaiFR-h0sm48JQeWBVcVmzokTvS1shp_X-vfCmzIaUNYfgncrrHw1SwnAMH/s1600/Guatemala+2010+2+016+copy+%252845%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisEFN5BOtqpq5KZiVPNdTGQfb6Cgb2BPeJRhWw9ct-7mF3rYcUE9qfyUyp_ndvj1gY0mrJPPom_oirssAOJZaiFR-h0sm48JQeWBVcVmzokTvS1shp_X-vfCmzIaUNYfgncrrHw1SwnAMH/s320/Guatemala+2010+2+016+copy+%252845%2529.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's me with two young Guatemalan girls,<br />
they were such sweethearts!</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-gdYD8ND13Ss6oEd_r2sRk5nOQ5iiWBtEhbCshLyq2Ye904wLwT4tfTk_IBik9qSzYH-wzEKtRBIjYS5Dw_ZfDrfQASA_7ByyDLgReJgRldRsYpiV3tvLDcE0LSp7b5k8P3K3iN_wwbG/s1600/24699_10150158277685455_505700454_11977703_6534969_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip-gdYD8ND13Ss6oEd_r2sRk5nOQ5iiWBtEhbCshLyq2Ye904wLwT4tfTk_IBik9qSzYH-wzEKtRBIjYS5Dw_ZfDrfQASA_7ByyDLgReJgRldRsYpiV3tvLDcE0LSp7b5k8P3K3iN_wwbG/s320/24699_10150158277685455_505700454_11977703_6534969_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We played a mixer game with some of the women, <br />
don't you just love the height difference...it brought laughter to all! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-88685713763854420322011-03-14T21:32:00.000-06:002011-03-14T21:32:11.460-06:00South Africa<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMi1oOsha9Q2maKxyQ89JjV9amXTIpWJqFcaITr8RItOIEGrkl5TTMTpWNT-iPfUKU9YQTu4-FSSKKVqrfXiAcx6Xo_Kg78qPXYqAn3B7-vbkOT2v2lAVSRKT4El7B7UCxtifoSce2i4G/s1600/south-african-women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMi1oOsha9Q2maKxyQ89JjV9amXTIpWJqFcaITr8RItOIEGrkl5TTMTpWNT-iPfUKU9YQTu4-FSSKKVqrfXiAcx6Xo_Kg78qPXYqAn3B7-vbkOT2v2lAVSRKT4El7B7UCxtifoSce2i4G/s400/south-african-women.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://scrapetv.com/News/News%2520Pages/Everyone%2520Else/images-3/south-african-women.jpg&imgrefurl=http://scrapetv.com/News/News%2520Pages/Everyone%2520Else/pages-3/South-Africans-Shocked-over-Rape-survey-results-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html&usg=__NWDKjmlHhfZVpOZ0hpJ_T9NbEKQ=&h=420&w=650&sz=352&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=KkfWVj-hBEzG_M:&tbnh=123&tbnw=179&ei=CN1-TdLzI4-H0QHArPWKCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwomen%2Bin%2Bsouth%2Bafrica%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D511%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=94&oei=CN1-TdLzI4-H0QHArPWKCQ&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=76&ty=82">Link</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 49,004,031</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Pretoria </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> IsiZulu (official) 23.8% -(has 10 other official languages) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Christian 36%</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Life Expectancy:</u></strong> 49.33 years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $10,700</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1994 South Africa was the first country to include equal protection for lesbians and gays in a national constitution </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 25%o of adult women say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Between 40-70% of female murder victims are killed by husbands or boyfriends </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Is a major source and destination county for sex trafficking </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• It is estimated that a women is raped every 83 seconds </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Fewer then 30% of women are in the workforce </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• White women won the vote in 1931, Indian and “colored” women in 1984, black women in 1994 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This <a href="http://countrystudies.us/south-africa/58.htm">website</a> gives a brief outline of the history of women in South Africa, check it out!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here’s another neat article about an organization working for women’s rights--<a href="http://www.mott.org/publications/Mott%20Mosaic/August%202006%20v5n2/cs%20August%202006.aspx">article </a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you don’t want to read the whole thing, here are some quotes that I liked from it---</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“South Africa is supposed to be a democracy. We should be a country that is ‘of the people, by the people and for the people,’ not ‘of men, by men and for men.’ South African women need to benefit from the equality that is spelled out in our Constitution.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“Leaders in the gender-equity field say women collectively are asking: “If we are the ones who carry water for drinking, collect firewood for cooking, and care for the young, old, sick and dying, then why don’t we have an equal voice in making decisions about government policies and projects that affect our lives, our communities and our country?”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And now here is a video for you to watch if your interested; </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/nCYK9fJ_ozo/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nCYK9fJ_ozo&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nCYK9fJ_ozo&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thanks for reading/watching ;) </span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-84692751134649207562011-03-13T15:01:00.000-06:002011-03-13T15:01:24.888-06:00Egypt<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1RQzDe6UqDytfTljRI7PlL3WKbZE1KlbkJ2yAVqfA-nCkP49Dg_88WPL6wByoUAcu5y-WY2iGUpb8K4IN44gsRJlld_lGkJryuN8BqdtiLs-MfooTTt3cCAbjiqdciazxQ2QUmObzbUx/s1600/egyptian-woman-at-one-million-women-march.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1RQzDe6UqDytfTljRI7PlL3WKbZE1KlbkJ2yAVqfA-nCkP49Dg_88WPL6wByoUAcu5y-WY2iGUpb8K4IN44gsRJlld_lGkJryuN8BqdtiLs-MfooTTt3cCAbjiqdciazxQ2QUmObzbUx/s320/egyptian-woman-at-one-million-women-march.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://pumabydesign001.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/a-long-battle-ahead-for-egyptian-women/">Link</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 82,079,636</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital: </strong></u>Cairo </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> Arabic (official)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Muslim (mostly Sunni) 90%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 72.66 years</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><strong><u>GDP per Capita:</u></strong> $6,200</span> </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Only males may confer citizenship; children born to women with foreign husbands are not conferred the benefits of citizenship </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 47% of women say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Honor killings regularly occur (2006)—47% of honor killing were because the woman had been raped </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Infant mortality rates are higher for girls then boys </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 90% of girls who have undergone female genital mutilation were under 14 years old at the time. An estimated 90% of FGM procedures are performed by doctors or other trained medical personnel. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Under 5% of women are in government </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I’m sure we are all aware of what’s been going on in Egypt over the past few weeks. Take a look at these quotes from </span><a href="http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46974"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">this</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> article ; the article talks about women and the recent protests and uprisings that have taken place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“The revolution called for democracy, equality and freedom. But importantly, it also advanced the position of women, because it allowed women, and other excluded groups in society, to take part in a movement that was redefining society.”</em> </span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“Egyptian women have the right to an equal position in the new society, and through their role in the revolution they have learned the most important lesson, which is that through ongoing mass protest and determination they will eventually win their demands.”</span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“This should inspire all fighters for women’s rights around the world. Through building a mass movement for change we can win full equality for women.”</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here some more neat articles if your intrested:</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--</span><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2283629/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Egypt protests--thousands of men and no groping! </span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--</span><a href="http://technorati.com/women/article/egypt-are-changes-in-womens-rights/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Changes in women rights-egypt</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--</span><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2011/03/13/women_inspired_by_arab_uprisings/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Women inspired by Arab uprisings</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And here is my favorite quote from the first one, <em>“Egypt has a sexual harassment problem. In a 2008 study, 86 percent of women said they had been harassed on Egypt's streets—any woman walking through a crowd of men in Egypt braces to get groped. But in the square, crammed in shoulder-to-shoulder, men apologized if they so much as bumped into you. After wandering around the protests for days, it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't been groped, a constant annoyance when I'm faced with large crowds in Cairo. When I pointed this out to other women in the square, we all took a moment to reflect. "I hadn't even thought of that," one woman in Tahrir told me. "But it's because we're all so focused on one goal, we're a family here."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I find it amazing that what is happening in Egypt is bringing so many people together and also allowing a chance for women to stand up for what they believe in and an <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">opportunity </span>for change, hopefully women around the world can be inspired by these brave Egyptian women! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thanks for Reading! </span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-48226591765044452772011-03-12T10:28:00.000-07:002011-03-12T10:28:19.095-07:00Sudan<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UiWicdNmX3kKK52Bq66ThqNf9FeozGBVbYq82E892caYhPeAo7jg5OQwU0hlvHC44zUTHy1VUDEOgnJ_H024uen2JpidYVjYpAd4CScXS3j2LHEju2HDPvadDeJgeiRzS5A2z3nQ9pAu/s1600/sudan-women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8UiWicdNmX3kKK52Bq66ThqNf9FeozGBVbYq82E892caYhPeAo7jg5OQwU0hlvHC44zUTHy1VUDEOgnJ_H024uen2JpidYVjYpAd4CScXS3j2LHEju2HDPvadDeJgeiRzS5A2z3nQ9pAu/s320/sudan-women.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january172011/africa-facws-aa.php">Link</a></td></tr>
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Population:</u></strong> 45,047,502</span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Khartoum </span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Language:</u></strong> Arabic (official), English (official)</span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Religion:</u></strong> Sunni Muslim 70% (in north)</span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Life Expectancy:</u></strong> 55.42 years</span></span></div><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $2,200</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Has neither signed nor ratified the treaty of the UN convention on the elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• State laws restrict both women’s movement and dress </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Lesbians and gays are criminalized in national law and subject to the death penalty </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Abortion is Illegal or severely restricted only to save woman’s life </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Over 90% of girls and women between 15-49 years have had female genital mutilation (2001 data) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Rapes of women in Janjawid militias in Darfur are systematic. Prosecutions are non-existent, and some raped women have been prosecuted for adultery. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Under 30% of women work for pay </span><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here is a link to an interesting article, by Jane Edward “reflecting on untold stories of Southern Sudanese women”-- <a href="http://www.sudantribune.com/Reflecting-on-untold-stories-of,38193">link</a>. Here is one quote from it that I love;</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBImb2m0qNM1mnduF9DpP1IMEKP6PYtOl7wZ9tP_qBO-V9hUmEB9jFK7_ag3wVuDyJWQ-aPTU8oufXwth8VX3jqyLHJM3thCTQWguri5dwxJJ3geqouqvhmZTFnJ3bzy45i__Ss872fg0/s1600/sudanese_women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBBImb2m0qNM1mnduF9DpP1IMEKP6PYtOl7wZ9tP_qBO-V9hUmEB9jFK7_ag3wVuDyJWQ-aPTU8oufXwth8VX3jqyLHJM3thCTQWguri5dwxJJ3geqouqvhmZTFnJ3bzy45i__Ss872fg0/s320/sudanese_women.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.themuslimwoman.org/entry/literary-programs-opens-up-new-avenues-for-sudan-women/">Link</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table> <div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“The decision of those women and the man to bury my grandmother confirms women’s courage and determination to uphold some of the most important cultural aspects of their society. It is this kind of courage and commitment that makes those ordinary women extraordinary. The actions of those women further defy the traditionally held assumptions that women are “weak,” “disempowered” and unable to perform or to make crucial decisions in difficult situations.”</em> </span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here is another article about women protesting in Sudan and being arrested. It’s awful that these women are being arrested and being treated so terribly, but I love that there are women who are protesting and standing up for themselves and wanting to make a difference!-- <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/08/us-sudan-protest-idUSTRE7273NJ20110308">Link</a></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“The same law that requires giving a woman forty lashes for wearing pants requires giving a man who rapes a boy, a girl or a woman one month in prison.”</em> –Watch the video below to hear more about this;</span> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/tnIr8gxe3Rk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-48882781534052444412011-03-10T19:26:00.000-07:002011-03-10T19:26:05.481-07:00Ethiopia<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTXQVIxH-I0mehLl1_DSh2ntJzWBCzJxYbiMz7M3sawdHj_LCLrnT6IUr_qr11GppQ8w-4xHZRr-HYUWeM7yWXnPoHNOUhQ6Z1PZ93by9bj1gU-ULa3lfpfh8JXUlMJVKnWgWrpXb_l2yT/s1600/ethiopia.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTXQVIxH-I0mehLl1_DSh2ntJzWBCzJxYbiMz7M3sawdHj_LCLrnT6IUr_qr11GppQ8w-4xHZRr-HYUWeM7yWXnPoHNOUhQ6Z1PZ93by9bj1gU-ULa3lfpfh8JXUlMJVKnWgWrpXb_l2yT/s400/ethiopia.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/fact%20file/a-z/women-1.htm"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">LINK</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 90,873,739</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital: </strong></u>Addis Ababa</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> Amarigna (Amharic) (official) 32.7%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Orthodox 43.5%, Muslim 33.9%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 56.19 years</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $1,000</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Lesbians and gays are criminalized in national law</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Up to 71% adult women have said they have experienced physical abuse by male partner or intimate </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 75% or more of births are not attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In a 2000 study there were between 700-1000 deaths of mothers per 100, 000 live births </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Female Genital mutilation is a common practice between 50-90% </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• There are reports of 1,000 rapes a year in Addis Ababa alone </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Over 75% of women are illiterate </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For Ethiopia I just wanted focus on one thing and that is this video of women from an Ethiopian tribe called the Suri tribe. Keep in mind this is just one tribe in Ethiopia and this practice is not very common, however I found it fascinating! </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Mz1vaTeUSY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The part that I love is the girl who says that “if a boy likes [her] he will give her cattle, or he can go find another girl!” Ya! You go girl! I love seeing a young girl like this stand up for what she believes is right. That’s not saying what these women are doing is right or wrong, but for them it is an important and standard way of life. And i just love the fact that she is going against that! I wish more women would be like her, seriously, stand up for what you believe in and if I guy doesn’t like you for who you are then he’s not worth it! </span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-55880256417491643372011-03-03T15:09:00.000-07:002011-03-03T15:09:15.260-07:00Argentina<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzALMY4opUERzTKoDkWT9cusoz3b_YjrHgh6QgY1x7sBzvkZdf3Hhpo9is-DHjvOBaYaU_aSmewS9fOcxzmcK5XSPbxo96pIiKK0OBCHR876cmRhCSB-qF35unofbsMFXbvim5QGZu3R2Z/s1600/129_0807_04_z%252Bland_rover_discovery_argentina%252Baregentinian_women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzALMY4opUERzTKoDkWT9cusoz3b_YjrHgh6QgY1x7sBzvkZdf3Hhpo9is-DHjvOBaYaU_aSmewS9fOcxzmcK5XSPbxo96pIiKK0OBCHR876cmRhCSB-qF35unofbsMFXbvim5QGZu3R2Z/s320/129_0807_04_z%252Bland_rover_discovery_argentina%252Baregentinian_women.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.fourwheeler.com/eventcoverage/129_0807_land_rover_discovery_3_experiance_argentina/photo_04.html">Link</a><br />
So beautiful. I love her wrinkles. </td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 41,343,201</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Buenos Aires</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> Spanish</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> nominally Roman Catholic 92% (less than 20% practicing)</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 76.76 years</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong></u> $14,700</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In just Buenos Aires province, police receive an average of 53 complaints of domestic violence a day </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 103 women die from breast cancer each week</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• According to this </span><a href="http://www.argentinepost.com/2010/08/argentina-ranks-13th-in-world-in-plastic-surgery.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> “Argentina has more plastic surgeries and non-surgical procedures than all but 12 countries in the world. That’s the conclusion of a new global survey carried out by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, or ISAPS. Last year Argentines had 132,486 plastic surgeries; according to the survey. Argentina has an estimated 517 plastic surgeons, putting in 11th place worldwide. That’s more than France (464), Canada (425) and the U.K. (274).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">For Argentina I want to focus on one group of women specifically, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is a human rights activist organization that has fought for over thirty years for the right to re-connect with their abducted children. The mothers' children were abducted by Argentine government agents during the "Dirty War" 1976-1983, many of the children were tortured and killed. "The military has admitted that over 9,000 of those kidnapped are still unaccounted for, but the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo say that the number is closer to 30,000" (</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">link</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The 14 founders of the association include, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti, Berta Braverman, Haydée García Buelas, María Adela Gard de Antokoletz, Julia Gard, María Mercedes Gard and Cándida Gard (4 sisters), Delicia González, Pepa Noia, Mirta Baravalle, Kety Neuhaus, Raquel Arcushin and Sra. De Caimi. These brave 14 women started the demonstrations on the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada presidential palace, on 30 April 1977. Since then the women have continued to gather and protest wearing white head scarves with their children's names embroidered on them every Thursday afternoon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The women have continued to raise awareness and hold on to the memory of their lost children throughout the years by the creation of an independent university, bookstore, library and cultural center. Read more </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_of_the_Plaza_de_Mayo"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">here</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here is another link to the mothers’ </span><a href="http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.madres.org/&ei=xmRtTcVMpLCsAPQ6IjBBQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDUQ7gEwBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dmadres%2Bde%2Bla%2Bplaza%2Bde%2Bmayo%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-ca:IE-SearchBox%26prmd%3Divns"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Below is a well done video of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, it will at least give you some sort of idea of what it looks like</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/LVDZ47liW9I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Also here is the song that U2 wrote about the mothers of the Plaza de Mayo—Its called Mothers of the disappeared. </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/nA7F08NyQ-c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-4782605130717129102011-03-01T19:55:00.000-07:002011-03-01T19:55:07.249-07:00Brazil<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u></u></span></strong></span></span> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55Y953ThNqIyi068psj-dA8wAXcodCrKdseGAD2r6baVR1KNOEUJYSFB96CqynxA3ZYE-aXnAmMeHcLsGKSXqU1KRqp-W_C0kztW9hgXlG5pXAkNANtEZRlWG4uoSG2wYPNw_bDx419av/s1600/gal_guinness_pierced_woman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55Y953ThNqIyi068psj-dA8wAXcodCrKdseGAD2r6baVR1KNOEUJYSFB96CqynxA3ZYE-aXnAmMeHcLsGKSXqU1KRqp-W_C0kztW9hgXlG5pXAkNANtEZRlWG4uoSG2wYPNw_bDx419av/s320/gal_guinness_pierced_woman.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Elaine Davidson is the "Most Pierced Woman" according to the Guinness World Records and she’s <strong>Brazilian!!</strong> Check her out on </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Davidson"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">wikipedia</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> to see just how many piercings she has….you won’t believe it! </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I'm not at all saying that this is a common thing to do among Brazilian women, i just thought it was fascinating.</span> </span><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="background: white; clear: both; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>Population:</u></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #330066;"> </span>201,103,330<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>Capital:</u> </span></strong><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Brasília </span></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></b></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>Language:</u></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span>Portuguese</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>Religion:</u></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span>Roman Catholic 73.6% (nominally)</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>Life Expectancy:</u></span></strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"> </span><span class="categorydata">72.26 years</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><u>GDP per Capita:</u> </span></strong>$10,900</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 30% of adult women who say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 72% of murdered women were killed by a relative of friend </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Abortion is illegal or only done to save women’s life </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 217 women die each week from breast cancer </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Has a total of 6 Miss Universe winners, from 1952-2010, which is one of the highest in the world. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Is a source country for sex trafficking. In fact, “Brazil has one of the worst child prostitution problems in the world and is one of the favored destinations of sex tourists from Europe and the United States” <a href="http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/brazil.htm">LINK</a>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">If you’re interested here is an overview of what women in Brazil have gone through throughout history. It’s very straight forward and full of interesting facts; <a href="http://womenshistory.about.com/library/ency/blwh_brazil.htm">Womens history in Brazil </a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Now moving on to something a little different, Ms. Rouseff! </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Dilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman and economist to hold office in the country, in 2005 she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil. She became a socialist in her youth and "joined various left-wing and Marxist urban guerrilla groups that fought against the military dictatorship. Rousseff was captured and jailed between 1970 and 1972 and reportedly tortured." She help found the Democratic Labor Party in Rio Grande do Sul state. She was included in the Forbes' list of the most powerful people in the world, at the 16th position. You can read all about her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilma_Rousseff">here</a>. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday on a popular television program that she has opened the way for every girl in the country who dreams of being president."</em></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"What is most important about my being president is that now all girls can aspire be president and it will be seen as completely normal in Brazil that a woman becomes president"</em> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"Rousseff said that her taking office as president represents the breaking of a paradigm and blamed the macho mentality for spreading an image of her as a "tough" woman." </em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"Did you ever see a man who became leader of the country being called 'tough?'" the president asked, adding that "women are expected to be fragile, at least the image people have is that women are fragile...and when a woman takes a position of leadership, of authority, she's seen as stepping outside her proper role."</em></span></div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"She said that since poverty in Brazil is worst among women and children, she will adapt government programs for combating destitution to make them favor women more, especially single parents"</em></span></div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here is the <a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/03/01/rousseff-brazilian-girl-dream-president/">link</a> to the article that the above quotes are from </span></div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="ecxmsonormal" style="margin: auto 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Wow! What a role model for girls and women of Brazil and of the world! She's a women who has been through a lot and has achieved a lot. If your interested there is lots of information and biographies on her out there, go ahead and research it! Its so neat to see everything that she has done. She hasn't let the fact that she is a women hold her back! I'm am positive it hasn't been easy for her but now she's inspiring women all over the country, how exciting! </span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijSm7Z5GAxZUV7q9N9jWtHKVyTvk0GeuID24-cpjxshJ3FehkgrgS2q-Y6BTMqkhuk7d2o-9MwgWoUxgccD9070UqHzyDKTsPlhVj5YWUeJbvU-OCvDmu_BPBa0JtZ52-m7hlaRxXIHrve/s1600/Dilma%252520Rousseff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijSm7Z5GAxZUV7q9N9jWtHKVyTvk0GeuID24-cpjxshJ3FehkgrgS2q-Y6BTMqkhuk7d2o-9MwgWoUxgccD9070UqHzyDKTsPlhVj5YWUeJbvU-OCvDmu_BPBa0JtZ52-m7hlaRxXIHrve/s1600/Dilma%252520Rousseff.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">Dilma Rousseff (Kinda opposite of <span style="font-size: x-small;">Elaine Davidson eh?)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><a href="http://www.thirdage.com/news/dilma-rousseff-inaugurated-first-female-brazilian-president-dilma-rousseff-inaugurated_1-3-2011">Link</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-19439945654471657092011-02-27T22:27:00.000-07:002011-02-27T22:27:01.163-07:00Sweden<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5fCtQoEJixXSIWN2Lpo6oZWRALj03EA6ZS0vZtlUXYNDKsxYoOgVAmlX-yXWNO4G9vZzh2-GDqlOcs0V6BDoYKBVm1nRxnAfMpMr2-qKVwyeBtReBCf4WmYdGhxjXfuhCeVCi33PPqpC/s1600/sweden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis5fCtQoEJixXSIWN2Lpo6oZWRALj03EA6ZS0vZtlUXYNDKsxYoOgVAmlX-yXWNO4G9vZzh2-GDqlOcs0V6BDoYKBVm1nRxnAfMpMr2-qKVwyeBtReBCf4WmYdGhxjXfuhCeVCi33PPqpC/s320/sweden.jpg" width="232" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/200535216-001.jpg%3Fv%3D1%26c%3DIWSAsset%26k%3D2%26d%3D5047FA587DE1CADE4ADB20AA8BEB9C8C3A7F69D76971C5C607CD51B57DF532BEB5AF9B7D601FECA8&imgrefurl=http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/200535216-001/The-Image-Bank&usg=__YkFEgb4m-TVsJbuauvJapOZ-Sx0=&h=506&w=337&sz=53&hl=en&start=16&zoom=1&tbnid=qw3T_r2Ao7ZnxM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=82&ei=NzBrTaiWMcmjtgf-uszmAg&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtraditional%2Bwomen%2Bof%2Bsweden%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26biw%3D963%26bih%3D518%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=171&oei=NDBrTeu3BcKBlAeR9ZiDAg&page=2&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:16&tx=36&ty=38"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">LINK</span></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Population</u>:</strong> 9,074,055</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Capital:</u></strong> Stockholm</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Language:</u></strong> Swedish</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Religion:</u></strong> Lutheran 87%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong></u> 81.2 </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>GDP per Capita:</u></strong> $43 654 per capita</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1999 Sweden became the first country to have a majority of female government ministers </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• No other country has a higher proportion of women as parliamentarians (43 percent) and cabinet ministers (50 percent),</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Sweden leads the developed world in the percentage of professional and technical workers who are women. The proportion of women in the labor force is the highest worldwide.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Sweden is considered a leader in gender equality. Advancement in this arena is a significant national self-stereotype, a symbol of what distinguishes Swedes from others. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1999, Sweden became the first nation to criminalize the buyer, not the seller, of sexual services</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Interesting fact: In 1995, Sweden began reserving one month of parental leave for fathers. After the birth of a child, a couple receives fifteen months of paid leave to divide between them, with one month set aside for each parent; a father who chooses not to participate forfeits the couple's parental benefit payment for that month. Check out this </span><a href="http://www.everyculture.com/Sa-Th/Sweden.html#ixzz1FCA7L73D"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> for more info!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Interesting fact: According to many articles, magazines and people Sweden is ranked one of the top places for women to live! </span><br />
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</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So when I was researching women of Sweden I kept seeing the name Irene Anderson, so I decided to check her out a bit. Turns out she is a Swedish body builder. She is known to many as the strongest woman in Sweden. Here is the link to her </span><a href="tp://www.ireneandersen.com/about_ireneandersen_en.asp"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> if you’re interested. And below is one of her videos; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mF3Txr9jg7k?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Just for the record “The first U.S. Women's National Physique Championship, promoted by Henry McGhee and held in Canton, Ohio in <strong>1978</strong>, is generally regarded as the first true female bodybuilding contest - that is, the first contest where the entrants were judged solely on muscularity (Todd, 1999)” –read more <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_bodybuilding">here</a></span></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I find this concept of female bodybuilding extremely fascinating. Sometimes the extremes that some of these women (and also men) go to seem crazy to me. It’s also interesting to think about it in terms of gender definitions. Most people would not deny that these women do have very masculine bodies…for a lot of us this seems strange and not right, but then the question becomes “who is determining what is right and wrong for females and males?” “Who says women can’t have muscles like men, and who says that muscles like that are solely masculine<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">.” It makes me question the terms and definitions that society and culture indoctrinates into us. Is society right? Is it a nature vs. nurture concept? Hmmmmm….so many questions and thoughts to leave you pending with...and <span style="font-family: sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">unfortunately </span>i have no set answers for you, but I encourage you to think about it for yourself!</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thanks for reading! :) </span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-19463829986123338122011-02-24T12:29:00.000-07:002011-02-24T12:29:33.828-07:00France<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiDlAtCoZZ-5vANQ_aw9V6m6zfAcWUUhR7psfNXLZGceWr1sYBm4nECxsViqvyCqRUEiHhbKURUd5JlIiyzMvW7oiuVEOaRs_YBiEwc9u95U-TMJuEjgGSG-KA7qThp6vc6L-gATeql9y/s320/eiffell.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="248" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://prosperearchives.delectablychic.com/wp-content/uploads/eiffell.jpg&imgrefurl=http://prosperearchives.delectablychic.com/2008/04/15/en-france-cest-les-essentiels-in-france-its-the-basics/&usg=__4CDP0x94SpwyWSK7NsFeWDEQ6kg=&h=3333&w=2592&sz=972&hl=en&start=117&zoom=0&tbnid=Qd5Opq3OLuONVM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=84&ei=ZbBmTb7BAZCisAO10bCmBA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwomen%2Bof%2Bfrance%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26biw%3D963%26bih%3D518%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=109&oei=W7BmTfSTJoSglAe4r6WDAg&page=8&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:117&tx=59&ty=52"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">link</span></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBiDlAtCoZZ-5vANQ_aw9V6m6zfAcWUUhR7psfNXLZGceWr1sYBm4nECxsViqvyCqRUEiHhbKURUd5JlIiyzMvW7oiuVEOaRs_YBiEwc9u95U-TMJuEjgGSG-KA7qThp6vc6L-gATeql9y/s1600/eiffell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span></a></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 60,656,178</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital: </strong></u>Paris </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language: </strong></u>French<u><strong> </strong></u></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> Roman Catholic 83%-88%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Life Expectancy: </strong></u>79.6 years</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"><strong><u>GDP per Capita:</u></strong> $ 41, 051 per capita</span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• A women dies every four days as a result of partner violence </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 215 women die a week from breast cancer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1991 a constitutional amendment required political parties to put up 50% of women candidates in almost all local and national election</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Women did not receive the vote until 1944</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 82 percent of parliamentary seats are occupied by men. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• French women earn 26 percent less than men but spend twice as much time on domestic tasks. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• They have the most babies in Europe, but are also the biggest consumers of anti-depressants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I found an article from the New York Times about women in France; here are what I thought were the most interesting quotes from it:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“A recent 22-country survey by the Pew Research Center summed it up: three in four French people believe men have a better life than women, by far the highest share in any country polled”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“French women are exhausted,” said Valérie Toranian, editor-in-chief of Elle magazine in France. “We have the right to do what men do — as long as we also take care of the children, cook a delicious dinner and look immaculate. We have to be superwoman.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“Irrespective of income, parents get a monthly allowance of €123, or about $170, for two children, €282 for three children and an additional €158 for every child after that.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“[I] try to stay longer than [my] male colleagues in the evenings. Otherwise, “everyone will just assume that I’m leaving because of my children and that I am not committed to the job.”</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You can read the article yourself </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/world/europe/12iht-fffrance.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The article talks a lot about how women in France are expected to “do it all.” But for me “Doing it all” just sounds like so much, so where is the balance?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think it’s really neat how France has free nursery and childcare for children not yet in school, I think that would make such a difference in people’s lives. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Also I found the fact that families get a government allowance depending on the number of children they have and no matter how much money they make extremely interesting. “Family allowance is paid to families with two or more dependent children living in France. It is neither means-tested nor related to previous employment periods. The amount of the family allowance as of 1st January 2010 is 32% of the monthly family benefit base (€124.54) for two children and 41% (€159.57) for each additional child.” </span><a href="http://www.cleiss.fr/docs/regimes/regime_france/an_3.html%20."><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">link</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Interesting eh?</span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-29866112884395419892011-02-20T16:24:00.002-07:002011-02-20T16:28:05.846-07:00Russia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xRPikTl4oQ8Al28TZIDwBu02fuNo7xBvNUj9Jts6EpjCbkD4bUznjAVyoJneRC5VCgumqNdQba_LgmJ8o7kE7e66ywNwg7d6ckeiJ5QxUaF83iqewrIrVAUC-uKe2ECeYDS3vpa_6V14/s1600/4128608-md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xRPikTl4oQ8Al28TZIDwBu02fuNo7xBvNUj9Jts6EpjCbkD4bUznjAVyoJneRC5VCgumqNdQba_LgmJ8o7kE7e66ywNwg7d6ckeiJ5QxUaF83iqewrIrVAUC-uKe2ECeYDS3vpa_6V14/s320/4128608-md.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Population:</strong></u> 141, 850, 000</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Capital:</strong></u> Moscow </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Language:</strong></u> Russian </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><u><strong>Religion:</strong></u> <u>Primarily Russian Orthodox</u> </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>Life Expectancy:</u></strong> 67.8</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><u>GDP per Capita:</u></strong> $8 676 per capita </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 36000 women are beaten every day by a husband or partner</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 70% say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate (one of the highest in the world)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1994, 565,000 cases of domestic violence were reported to the police </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 32% of all murders are women killed by domestic violence. In fact approximately every forty minutes one women dies from domestic violence, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 11pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">that’s around 14 000 a year.</span> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Both a source and destination country for sex trafficking </span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://2.gvt0.com/vi/4sMd_QJaW94/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4sMd_QJaW94&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4sMd_QJaW94&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Beautiful art expressing violence against women,</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sMd_QJaW94"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">LINK</span> </span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><em>Russian proverb</em></strong> – “<strong>A beating man is a loving man</strong>”</span><br />
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</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In researching Russia I discovered that domestic violence is a huge problem. And to make it worse police are often hesitant to intervene and “interfere” with family matters. Men who do beat or rape their wives are unlikely to face prosecution; therefore most cases of domestic violence are left unreported. As well women who are looking for help do not have very many options. In 2009 there were only 20 shelters in the entire country for women fleeing domestic violence and not one of them was found in Moscow the largest city in Russia. It’s hard to say that the problem is getting any better, this year alone 18 non-governmental organizations or charities working on issues of domestic violence against women were closed in Russia, due to a lack of federal and local funding. I found and read so many articles that talk about this violence, check them out for your self;</span></div><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-Domestic-Violence-Kills-One-Russian-Women-Every-Hour-66373217.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Domestic-Violence-Kills</span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7441370-russia-domestic-violence-against-women-on-the-rise"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Russia-domestic-violence-against-women</span></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><a href="http://ntldr1962uk.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/domestic-violence-against-women-in-russia/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">World Press- Violence against women in Russia</span></a><br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I couldn’t believe these statistics and more then that I couldn’t believe that I had never heard these shocking numbers before. I mean I know that domestic violence is a big problem around the world, but I had no idea Russia was the worst. I can’t imagine what it would be like for those women, having no where to go and no one to turn to…what would you do, where would you go? </span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigj1Q-cFHD6wm_MSUi2-WM1fjqiGBZMlE3sgWvaFoqaWsDeF27o5SNALqF6Llzn1bbaLFGS92l2r0bx8rfFZnxN5EiegNyQXdx3lmpEmVDzni6YSsj80uBQ9JT4tN2oLuRZrBi9aZygP6z/s1600/guy-without-his-shirt-0206-xlv-large-new.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigj1Q-cFHD6wm_MSUi2-WM1fjqiGBZMlE3sgWvaFoqaWsDeF27o5SNALqF6Llzn1bbaLFGS92l2r0bx8rfFZnxN5EiegNyQXdx3lmpEmVDzni6YSsj80uBQ9JT4tN2oLuRZrBi9aZygP6z/s320/guy-without-his-shirt-0206-xlv-large-new.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.moscowtopnews.com/?area=postView&id=1958"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">LINK</span></a></div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-21544235499077469442011-02-15T19:43:00.001-07:002011-03-02T21:16:42.770-07:00China<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii-F72P_K9UA8IUSRghJ0AFlCfEu3clyc8fyqCydsZCgrD3h9ZEqTqQc6fDtJ-c7C251ImEJzLghN9K9JnPCe9lFoyFRt4j_oCSY1c9P1nZIB376HgrKlIhxXEg7j99jn62Rr8EEjid5U/s1600/Women%2527s+Hair+Ornaments+in+Old+China.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgii-F72P_K9UA8IUSRghJ0AFlCfEu3clyc8fyqCydsZCgrD3h9ZEqTqQc6fDtJ-c7C251ImEJzLghN9K9JnPCe9lFoyFRt4j_oCSY1c9P1nZIB376HgrKlIhxXEg7j99jn62Rr8EEjid5U/s320/Women%2527s+Hair+Ornaments+in+Old+China.jpg" width="256" /></span></a></div></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: center;"><a href="http://china-gift-art-products.blogspot.com/2009/11/womens-hair-ornaments-and-their-social.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Link</span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">Population</span><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;">:</span></strong><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"> 1,330,141,295</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Capital:</strong> Beijing </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Language:</strong> Standard Chinese or Mandarin</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Religion:</strong> Daoist (Taoist), Buddhist, Christian 3%-4%,</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Muslim 1%-2%--note: officially atheist </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong> 74.51 years</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong> $7,400</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 30% say they have experienced physical abuse by a male partner or intimate. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Over 75% of married women are using “modern” contraception; China has one of the highest percentages of the world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Infant mortality rate is higher for girls then boys and there is widespread use of prenatal sex selection techniques and selective abortions of female fetuses. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Has one of the highest death rates for women with breast cancer at 704 women deaths per week. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• China is one of the few counties to have over 55% of their national athletic Olympic team members as female. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• China is a source and destination country for sex trafficking. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• In 1996 China’s first women’s shelter was opened. </span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“When a son is born, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let him sleep on the bed, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Clothe him with fine clothes, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And give him jade to play with. </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">How lordly his cry is! </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">May he grow up to wear crimson </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And be the lord of the clan and the tribe. </span></em><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When a daughter is born, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Let her sleep on the ground, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Wrap her in common wrappings, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And give her broken tiles for playthings. </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">May she have no faults, no merits of her own, </span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">May she well attend to food and wine, </span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>And bring no discredit to her parents.</em> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Book of Songs (800 – 600 B.C.) The Arthur Waley Estate, Arthur Waley. First published in 1937. The Book of Songs is a collection of ancient Chinese songs, dating from 800 to 600 B.C. (731-732 Tienfenbrun)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--"A tradition of infanticide and abandonment, especially of females, existed in China before the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949," note Zeng et al.. ("Causes and Implications," p. 294.) According to Ansley J. Coale and Judith Banister, "A missionary (and naturalist) observer in [China in] the late nineteenth century interviewed 40 women over age 50 who reported having borne 183 sons and 175 daughters, of whom 126 sons but only 53 daughters survived to age 10; by their account, the women had destroyed 78 of their daughters." (Coale and Banister, "Five Decades of Missing Females in China," Demography, 31: 3 [August 1994], p. 472.)….want to read more go to this </span><a href="http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">website</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">--“Trafficking of women in China is a serious human rights violation. Domestic Trafficking is “the most significant problem in China,” and an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 victims are trafficked internally each year. From 1991 to 1996 police freed 88,000 kidnapped women and arrested 143,000 people for engaging in slave trade. From 2001 to 2003, China’s police freed more than 42,000 kidnapped women and children. How many more women in China today remain enslaved in brothels and forced marriages is difficult to determine because of the unsavory nature of the crime and the lack of transparency in China” (</span><a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1522603"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">735 Tienfenbrun</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Wow reading these facts and statistics on the status of women in China and what they have been through...its crazy. Once again I am fortunate enough to have someone I know, this time not a sister but a friend travel to the unique country of China for some 3 months last year, so naturally I went straight to her, asking if there was anything she could tell me about women in China. The first thing she said was… “It’s complicated.” And isn’t everything just always so complicated? Wouldn’t it be nice if for once things just were….not complicated? But then again if it was not complicated, this blog probably wouldn’t be nearly as interesting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Anyway what my friend told me in the least complicated way possible is this. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Women were seen as unequal to men before the revolution, women did not have a choice in whom to marry, they married whoever their families told them to marry, family honor was extremely important. Technically speaking with the revolution women became ‘equal’ to men. Some believe that this made women ‘lose there femininity.’ This 'equality' was mostly implemented in the big cities. Women in the rural areas continued to have unequal opportunities. Today, many rural women are forced to work in ‘sex shop’s’ as a source of income for their families. Their families, mostly the fathers, brothers or husbands will send the women to the cities with the idea they are going to be working in a hair salon or massage place, typically that is not the case. The worst part is that generally the families know exactly what they are getting their daughters or wives in to. Nonetheless the women are expected to send the money back home to the family. My friend actually had the opportunity to meet many women who worked extremely hard only to have the money they made be blown away by the men, they worked regardless. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Another aspect is that a lot of women feel pressure from their families to look good. A lot of ladies have eating disorders, there is a lot of competition to get a good man and they have ‘different’ ideas of what ladies should look like (like bleaching their skin so they can be whiter). I find that interesting because here in Canada women are doing the opposite, tanning their skin just to be darker, fully aware of the risk of skin cancer and other problems. It is interesting to look at the motives though. Many Chinese women feel largely pressured to do this to their skin because of their families expectations, here in Canada I think women are feeling pressure not so much from their family but from the media and from friends…its interesting to compare the two. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">One last point, my friend, had a really neat opportunity to work with a cool organization called “Starfish Project.” It is basically a women’s shelter meant to help exploited women in China. Read this, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>“In 2006 a small group of friends began to reach out to the ones who live in our city. We began going into the the streets to visit the girls in the shops. Week after week we continue spending time chatting with them, taking them out for coffee, throwing birthday parties, and even giving English lessons. We have seen their doubts diminish and friendship begin to grow in its place. Over time, some of the girls have come to trust us enough to leave their old life and come into our shelter. Our shelter is not meant to be a permanent residence. Our desire is to see the girls transformed through a loving community. The women in our shelter receive regular counseling where they begin to heal from their past hurts. We provide for them work as alternative means of support, medical checks and consultation, as well as vocational classes to prepare them for the future.”</em> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think one of the coolest parts about this is the work that this organization provides for these women<em>…"Starfish Project jewelry is hand-crafted by women who have come out of exploitation and abuse. When you purchase Starfish jewelry, you are helping to provide income, education and support for the women in our shelter."</em></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidSPVgcVKqZMpinX4DD5f8FKPbEHtPSFKyiwbYZl8BS8p8iooktT83YUnzbfH84ffGsd5zWCTeatLqP06biRos6op-ZfkGm3J0VHTiWznlGVkdp6kKloZzlImfeY6aCfeKzi8Bd2j9dKU5/s1600/114-004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncLWtBesrUHhnhWsA4rXim4eoAL_rOxCGH4HkSSMhwraBzMsOuzErJK4QNvcDFXUzKjrVSmjm1i6czK3UVX_M6wjDKqdgV6YpPbdE4-4isHzQOCdc7r-loNnS1bo-XU9w9ivrxN1FdoXy/s1600/106-201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" l6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncLWtBesrUHhnhWsA4rXim4eoAL_rOxCGH4HkSSMhwraBzMsOuzErJK4QNvcDFXUzKjrVSmjm1i6czK3UVX_M6wjDKqdgV6YpPbdE4-4isHzQOCdc7r-loNnS1bo-XU9w9ivrxN1FdoXy/s200/106-201.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So as the activist part of this week I have decided to purchase some jewelry myself. I’ve ordered the earrings that you see on the right! What do you think? ….Would like to get some too...well you can! They have a huge variety of things you can buy, its really beautiful stuff either for yourself or someone you love! Check out the website yourself </span><a href="http://www.starfish-project.com/"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">. I’d love to know if you find something you like, let me know! Its a cool and safe way to directly support the women of China!!</span> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"> </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thanks for reading!</span></div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-89425400397698333242011-02-10T18:21:00.000-07:002011-02-10T18:21:06.547-07:00India<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuG3DJj4LhEqUmjEVTU4-CJ6VMSBqvDcoqeTP_lRyWvys6lOzk3Wp7uQPW_kCRKZ_S5cmijWQQuC2G4KOrL6dUc1RpblaW-Id8qMLE8VMfvcahcUhu4yzowwGfqMYXMPmW5CaWcqwKt5h/s1600/indida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpuG3DJj4LhEqUmjEVTU4-CJ6VMSBqvDcoqeTP_lRyWvys6lOzk3Wp7uQPW_kCRKZ_S5cmijWQQuC2G4KOrL6dUc1RpblaW-Id8qMLE8VMfvcahcUhu4yzowwGfqMYXMPmW5CaWcqwKt5h/s320/indida.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/women-and-democracy-in-india/">LINK-NY Times</a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Population:</strong> 1,173,108,018</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Capital:</strong> New Delhi </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Language:</strong> Standard Chinese or Mandarin</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Religion:</strong> Hindu 80.5%</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>Life Expectancy:</strong> 66.46 years</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong>GDP per Capita:</strong> $3,400</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 1990’s, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, 56% of girls were married before age 15, and of those 17% were marred before the age of 10. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 60-80% of women have said they have experienced some from of abuse from their husband, and 42% have said they have been beaten physically. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Honor Killings occur regularly about 10% of all murders in Punjab and Haryana in 2006 were honor killings. In Bihar state, an average of 200 women a year are killed for being witches. An estimated 98 women are murdered a week by their husband or husbands family, often over dowry disputes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• The Punjab-Haryana-Himachal Pradesch belt in northwest India is sometimes dubbed “India’s Bermuda Triangle”—where girls vanish without a trace. In 1991 two states and territories in India had ratios below 88 girls per 100 boys; in 2001 there were five. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Has one of the highest death rates of women with breast cancer in the world at 861 deaths per week.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Under 30% of women work for pay </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As I began my research on women of India I was reminded of an important truth. I think it’s really neat to be able to research women all over the world, but it’s so important to remember that I am just skimming the surface, the issues that women face in these countries are so much deeper and much more complex then I could even begin to get into on my blog. In choosing to look at many different countries it makes it next to impossible to go into the complex history and issues that women from those countries face, nevertheless I believe it is important to have at least some knowledge about the women from each of these countries even if it is just the bare minimum. That being said....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Last year my sister traveled and studied in India for three months, so naturally the first thing I did to start my research on India was email her! So thanks to her for lots of cool references and information! She reminded me that the factors that influence the role of women range immensely in every country. Specifically in India these factors can range from religion, to class, to media (i.e. bollywood). She also mentioned that what the government claims about the state of women might be completely different then what it actually is. Apparently some of the more rural areas still practice widow burning, whereas women in the upper wealthy classes in cities have a much more North American lifestyle. Nonetheless, bars/clubs still have a ‘couples only’ rule, basically enforcing that women can not go out on there own. It’s important to realize that lots of what’s enforced depends on what part of the country you are in and the family you are a part of. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Here’s an section from <strong>“India: In the New Millennium” by Shymala B. Cowik,</strong> Ambassador of India, it talks about her opinion of the state and equality of women;</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">“In 1992, in a decision that has been hailed worldwide as one of the most dramatic initiatives for the political and social empowerment of women, nearly a million Indian women, mostly from the rural areas, entered village and municipal councils across the country, occupying the 30% of the seats reserved for them from then on. These dramatic gains made by Indian women in one of the areas where their participation has lagged, politics, especially local politics, have, over the past nine years, helped ensure that <strong>they have a much greater voice than ever before</strong>, and often the decisive voice in how India is governed at the grassroots. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">In fact, it is not often recognized that the women of India gained complete legal equality very soon after independence. That this happened in what was then a traditional and basically patriarchal society was due in no small measure to the influence of <strong>Mahatma Gandhi, and the stress he laid on the women of India playing a major role both in the independence movement and in the new, free India of his dreams</strong>. Mahatma Gandhi was in truth one of our first feminists. He was convinced that women had a natural aptitude for the doctrines of ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (truth force) that he espoused, and therefore that <strong>they should be in the forefront of the Independence movement, shoulder to shoulder with the men.</strong> And so they did. It was by marching in the streets, getting beaten up by the police and going to jail during those years of struggle that the women of India gained their right to equality. When one remembers the degree of resentment and contempt that the suffragette movements in the West provoked in the establishments of those countries in the early years of this century, the contrast with India could not be more marked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Today, backed up by NGOs, especially women’s NGOs, sympathetic lawyers and an increasingly sensitive establishment, the women of India, even the poorest of them, are <strong>moving forward to assert their equality and gain the rights it guarantees them.</strong> They have also benefited from the rapid expansion of educational institutions in India, and are today 50% if not more of the average college class, whether in the sciences or in the liberal arts, and well over 50% of the honour rolls. In the professions, they have reached out beyond the traditional areas like medicine, the law, the civil services etc. and are to be found in increasing numbers in every sector of the economy. They range from Air Force fighter pilots to computer technicians, from glamorous models and movie stars to machine tool operators. In recent years, Indian women achievers included business tycoons like the new President of Pepsico International, Indira Nooyi, 45, famous writers and activists like the Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, a series of six international beauty queens, Olympic medallist and weightlifter Karnam Malleswari, Cheryl Dutta, the first Indian Air Force helicopter pilot, who, incidentally, is the elder sister of the Miss Universe 2000, Lara Dutta, the first Indian Inspector General of Police, Kiran Bedi, the first police officer from any country to win the prestigious Magsaysay award, and astronaut Kalpana Chawla, the brave and determined aeronautical engineer from the North Indian State of Haryana who died so tragically in the Columbia disaster."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think this clearly shows hope and achievement for women of India. It’s good to know that although there is still most likely quite a bit of discrimination, women are really started to stand up for themselves! But after reading this, its hard not to think about what my sister said in that, what the government says is going on could completely opposite from reality. Although, in this case the actual stories of what some Indian women, including the amassador herself, have achieved are the proof that change is happening! </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTA2dGbvzG1ri7dTVkimCSHW99HhNXrqdORqe_xTIAkUWAt1Xb9x7kkYt5rCAt6pPk5JZSsGqX75aixP3eLpauWav9w3N5iHtGGmwFW0gx5eXI-PObzc1Q0LC8xCMxtkxn5W6pjNiE4Euy/s1600/women_in_india.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTA2dGbvzG1ri7dTVkimCSHW99HhNXrqdORqe_xTIAkUWAt1Xb9x7kkYt5rCAt6pPk5JZSsGqX75aixP3eLpauWav9w3N5iHtGGmwFW0gx5eXI-PObzc1Q0LC8xCMxtkxn5W6pjNiE4Euy/s320/women_in_india.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A sign of hope, women of India, working together for change! <br />
LINK</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I just want to end with one idea, if you have nothing to do this weekend, or even if you do have lots to do...I strongly encourage you to watch the movie “Water” directed by Deepa Mehta. It is a powerful story of a group of widows living in poverty in an Indian temple. It is a moving and beautiful film…I highly recommend it! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thats all for now,<br />
Thanks for reading!</span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-79261584376293479662011-02-08T17:52:00.002-07:002011-02-09T15:47:53.978-07:00Conclusion for Week One<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">So I guess that concludes my first official week of blogging. How thrilling! I don't think I’ll be doing a conclusion every week but I figured for the first week it might be a good idea. And I know I promised that I wouldn't ramble on and on to often, so hopefully this isn't too bad!</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Exploring what it was like to be a woman in the Middle East specifically, Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia has been such an eye opener. There are so many things that I just had no idea were going on. It is kind of cool how doing this type of research can affect a person. What I mean by that is that in my daily conversations with friends I actually started sharing the random facts that I was learning. I had the opportunity to discuss different opinions about the issues that women have faced in this area of world; such as why are they even facing these issues in the first place, are they more so political issues or issues of religion? And this is what I think it’s all about…talking about it, asking questions and raising awareness. I also was trying to find a way that I could do something for women of the Middle Eastern area. I came across something on the Amnesty International site and it’s so simple. I signed an online petition for basic human rights in Israel regarding the investigation violations by Palestinian armed groups after the 2008-09 conflict, no one in Gaza has been brought to justice for abuses during the conflict.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">You are right it is not one of the three countries I researched but it is in the Middle East. And no it is not just or directly related to women although along with the men and children they were equally affected. I also think that this specific conflict is something that could easily happen all over the Middle East as war has been on and off in those countries throughout history. But the point is that by signing this we are actually doing something, we are showing that we are aware and that we care, it feels good to actually play a part in making a difference. I was the one thousandth six hundredth and fifty seventh person to sign the petition online, it will call on the UN Human Rights council to take action to ensure international justice for all Palestinian and Israeli victims of the 2008-9 conflict in Gaza and southern Israel. You guys can read about this conflict and sign the petition as well! Sign the petition <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-victims-gaza-conflict">HERE</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">So there you have it, that’s my action for the week. But that’s not the end. This project is just beginning and I’m so excited to see where it will go! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Thanks for reading!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> </span><br />
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</span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-77552171694572255702011-02-06T14:24:00.011-07:002011-03-03T17:55:49.113-07:00Iran<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgekooUcidLOLnsDR7mhB4jozXeibD8yUlilb1S-RYtm6FImXVdkYrnShK8pbs0iAyU0Uk1_7bmFR3aKixNyuKmtt_Cg_Gjy5sK2VAEj4GYxeu3aWnwhoCOOxeeI5PqaQ_GqwKTBGU6msfZ/s1600/002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgekooUcidLOLnsDR7mhB4jozXeibD8yUlilb1S-RYtm6FImXVdkYrnShK8pbs0iAyU0Uk1_7bmFR3aKixNyuKmtt_Cg_Gjy5sK2VAEj4GYxeu3aWnwhoCOOxeeI5PqaQ_GqwKTBGU6msfZ/s400/002.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">In Tehran, Iran, a female supporter of election candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi shows </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Persian writing on her hands that reads: <em>'Women should have same rights as men.' </em><a href="http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0907/norouzi-bp.html">LINK</a></span></td></tr>
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</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Population:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> 76,923,300</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Capital:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Tehran</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Language:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Persian- 58%</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Religion:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Muslim-98%</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Life Expectancy:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> 69.77 years</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">GDP per Capita:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> $11,200 US</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• There was a UN convention on the elimination of All Forms of discrimination against women status as of January 2008, Iran is one of the very few countries that has neither singed nor ratified the treaty. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Lesbians are criminalized in national law- more then 4000 women have been executed for homosexuality since 1979.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• State law restricts women’s movements and dress</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• 39 women die each week from breast cancer</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Fewer then 50% of girls are enrolled in primary school </span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Women gained the vote in 1963</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">• Under 5% of women in government</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rwRWZNZld2M?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Check out this short video- “10 facts about women in Iran” ...crazy eh?</span></b> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">During my research of women in Iran I happened to come across a very influential Iranian woman. Her name is Shirin Ebadi, the more I read about her the more I was amazed at everything she has done and is doing for her country. She is a former judge, a lawyer and she founded the Centre for the Defense of Human Rights in Iran. In fact, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts for democracy and human rights particularly fighting for the rights of refugees, children and women, she was the first Muslim woman and the first Iranian to ever receive the prize. How incredible is that! However it hasn’t been easy for her, during the Iranian revolution in 1979 she was demoted from a judge to a secretarial position because conservative clerics insisted that Islam does not allow women to be judges. It was not until 1993 that Ebadi was able to practice as a lawyer once again. She has written many books and articles, and is now a campaigner for strengthening the legal status of children and women. If you’re interested you can check out her short autobiography <a href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2003/ebadi-autobio.html">HERE</a>.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“The condition of women in Islamic societies as a whole is also far from desirable. However, we should acknowledge that there are differences. In certain countries, the conditions are much better and in others much worse.”—Ebadi</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“Whenever women protest and ask for their rights, they are silenced with the argument that the laws are justified under Islam. It is an unfounded argument. It is not Islam at fault, but rather the patriarchal culture that uses its own interpretations to justify whatever it wants.”—Ebadi</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">“Women are the victims of this patriarchal culture, but they are also its carriers. Let us keep in mind that every oppressive man was raised in the confines of his mother's home.” –Ebadi</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Above are three quotes from Shirin Ebadi, they definitely make you think. In fact she makes you think, she is a woman that has done so much but yet she comes from a country were most women would most likely never even dream of achieving what she has achieved. I think she is an example of hope for those women and for women all around the world. She gives women hope that we can and should stand up for our rights!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi speaks to the press Tuesday Dec. 9, 2003 at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.
Picture: John McConnico, (copyright 2003 by AP and YellowBrix)" border="0" height="285" src="http://thewe.cc/thewei/images2/shirin_ebadi2.jpe" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2003/december/nobel_peace_prize_winner_2003.html">Shirin Ebadi</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table></div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-62901068921450937282011-02-03T15:43:00.004-07:002011-02-09T16:09:49.954-07:00Afghanistan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrTNkTyQKe18ZXnG61Vdm33lYRxVWMU8jusOi0NhN8tqwhnXQI_Y-pDXqz8wVMzQZqwvGOUoFfkcLJTrvjEiqXHxAVhhOTdR7LkWu1ER4SktoXMxNLkfGxKDf-xriociy2qz7-5FsP9xI/s1600/AfganWoman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" h5="true" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrTNkTyQKe18ZXnG61Vdm33lYRxVWMU8jusOi0NhN8tqwhnXQI_Y-pDXqz8wVMzQZqwvGOUoFfkcLJTrvjEiqXHxAVhhOTdR7LkWu1ER4SktoXMxNLkfGxKDf-xriociy2qz7-5FsP9xI/s320/AfganWoman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Population:</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> 22, 720, 416</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Capital:</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Kabul</span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Languages:</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Pushto; Dari</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Religion: </span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Islam</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Life Expectancy:</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> 43.9 years</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">GDP per Capita:</span></span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> $1,000 US</span></span></span><br />
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</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• 1 in every 3 Afghan women experience physical, psychological or sexual violence </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• 70 to 80 percent of women face forced marriages in Afghanistan </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• 75% of births are not attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• A total of 1, 900 deaths of mothers per 100, 000 live births </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• Marital rape is not criminalized</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• Has the highest rate of illiteracy for women in the world at 87%</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• Women gained the vote in 1965</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">• Starting with the 2005 elections, legislative quota reserves 25% of seats in parliament for women. In the 2005 elections, over 300 female candidates ran for office. Women candidates won all of the 68 seats they had been allocated plus an additional 17. </span></span></div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Check out this neat write up by Abdullah Qazi: <a href="http://www.afghan-web.com/woman/">HERE</a></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">It is a brief summery of some of the things Afghan women have and have had to deal with. The laws of women have changed immensely over time. What I find the most interesting is that women were seen as equal to men over 1000 years ago, they had the right to do basically anything that a man could do. However during the Taliban reign, they were denied any rights and were forced to completely cover themselves, they had to have male permission to do anything. Now, slowly, women are gaining rights once again. You should defiantly read the article it explains it in much more detail. Plus, the site also has multiple links to other articles; video’s and books on afghan women, I encourage you to check it out. </span></span><br />
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</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">As I was Google imaging pictures of Afghan women, many images appeared with women who had been seriously injured. One woman had set herself on fire because her husband was abusing her and she wanted to stand up to him, she had burns all over her body. Another women’s nose and ears were chopped off, by her husband, she was his second wife. Looking at those pictures made me feel sick to my stomach, not because they are visually disturbing but because I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that women are still being treated like that today. I hate to say it, but so often it feels like two completely different worlds we women live in….but it shouldn’t be. How can we find a connection between those women in Afghanistan who have suffered and are suffering so much to the women here who are so privileged in comparison? That is not at all to say that women here are not abused and often treated unfairly, but the difference is that here people actually do something about it, it is not seen as at all acceptable to have a husband treat you in such a horrible way. I think it’s just so important for us to not be so ignorant and to realize that things like this are happening. We definitely do not live in the perfect little world that we so often convince in our minds, and I believe that once people begin to realize this that is when we can truly start to make a difference.</span></span>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-28976888224131836062011-02-02T22:37:00.002-07:002011-02-09T15:53:01.495-07:00Saudi Arabia<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/2009/04/saudi-arabia-wastes-its-biggest-natural.html" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="[Oppressed.jpg]" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0kGOvFt4xKD4V30HQ-teDXPlUIsop-sDod3EBSsT-p6gbELZEr7YO3CGH21TO0U6fwtUtT6CRae4kjLd2XuhEzvuxf5gaQbgfROCVmdDpZJ0oEeTensSKFButyUHGP_1tuH4HxuLO1r4/s1600/Oppressed.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">picture from: <a href="http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/2009/04/saudi-arabia-wastes-its-biggest-natural.html">Susie's Big Adventure</a></td></tr>
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Population:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> 24,573,000</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Capital:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Riyadh; </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Language:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Arabic</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Religion:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> Muslim</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">Life Expectancy: </span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">72</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;">GDP per Capita:</span></strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #d0e0e3;"> U.S. $11,400</span></span></div></div><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So here in<strong> Saudi Arabia</strong> is where I officially begin. In researching it appears that Saudi Arabia is one of the farthest countries behind when it comes to the rights and equality of women. Here a few facts that stood out to me; </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Women are denied the vote, thus also meaning there are no women in government</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Women are required to have a male guardian </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Women are not allowed to drive </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Only 18% of women work for pay</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• State law restricts women’s movements and dress</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Homosexual Women are criminalized in national law and subject to the death penalty </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• One of three countries to have a strictly all-male Olympic team </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Is a destination country for sex trafficking, and is a major selected trafficking flow. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">• Discrimination exists against women inheriting, owning or controlling property, land and wealth.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Here is an article I found while researching, It has a very different perspective of what it is like to be a women in Saudi Arabia, the most interesting thing is that it is written by a Saudi Arabian woman, Maha Akeel, Check it out: <a href="http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27255&lan=en&sp=0">HERE</a> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I have to admit that I definitely have what Akeel calls the ‘western view’ of what it would be like to be a woman in Saudi Arabia, quite frankly I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like, and its hard for me not to look at it in a very negative way. Many of the laws against women in Saudi Arabia are said to be justified because they are religious practices. I respect their religion, but it gets me questioning what would this country would be like if it did not follow such strict religious laws? I wonder how the women really feel about it. What if you were forced to follow laws of a religion you might not even believe in? I can’t imagine what it would be like being forced to believe in something you don’t. But then again this is coming from my very westernized view of life; maybe they don’t see it in that way. However, being a person who really doesn’t like people telling me what do to it’s just so hard for me to understand. It is such a different life. I’ve heard both points of view, some women like to stay covered; others just do it because they have to. So do we as naïve westerners really have the right to go into this country and tell them what they are doing is wrong? It’s easy to think that we have all the answers when we come from such a privileged place, but truly we have no idea what this culture and religion really means to these women and these people. So what can we do? To be honest I have no idea, I want these women to have a voice and freedom but I don’t want to destroy their culture and religion. So where do we find the balance? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>WAG-Women Around the Globe</b></span> </div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5658761658423695344.post-35926518649217472162011-02-01T20:17:00.004-07:002011-02-09T16:21:48.034-07:00Indroduction<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">So here I am, about to embark in a project that is unlike anything I’ve really done before. At this point, the ‘end product’ of this project is not clearly definable. It is a work in progress that will be shaped as it is created. However isn’t that how the most brilliant of things are discovered, a fuzzy beginning, a multiple of questions, no clear end, only the bare minimum details worked out? Many would argue that no, when people create they should have a definite plan, every detail should be arranged and that is how things are done successfully. Well hopefully I can prove those people wrong, because as of right now I most certainly do not have every detailed work out. Of course I do have somewhat of a plan, ideas are, in fact, floating around in my head, a surprise to many of you I know. However, despite not having a ‘set in stone’ outline, I do hope I can express my ideas well throughout the course of this project, and in the end create something powerful, interesting and relevant for people all over the world. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">So as most good projects begin with something called an introduction, I figured that would be a good place for me to start.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are lots of things that define me. I am a Canadian. I am student. I am a redhead (some might say strawberry blond). I am a swimmer. The list goes on, and among this ongoing list, there is one thing that very specifically defines me, one thing that is the basis and core of this project. However despite the fact that it also defines half of the rest of the world’s population, it is important to realize that this single definition can make such a difference in the course of one’s life. I’m sure many would agree with me that this definition could often be claimed as a curse, but yet at other times it could very possibly be a blessing!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><b>I am a WOMAN. </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Throughout this project, I hope to explore women all over the world, and show the connection between us and the struggles that we face. Yes, those struggles may be immensely different; nonetheless I believe that every woman, from every country deserves a voice to be heard. Throughout history women have gone through multiple tribulations and inequality, but looking at where we have come from to where we are today, I feel as though there is so much hope. Women have gone from Aristotle’s definition that we will always be underdeveloped, incomplete versions of men, to now in most countries being viewed as equal to men. Of course we all know that for many ‘viewing women as equal to men’ is much easier said then done. But I believe that there is a hope that can help woman who are still struggling just to have a voice to be heard.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Now I promise you for the majority of this blog I am not going to ramble on and on like I am doing right now. I am simply going to research, explore and hopefully bring to light the issues that women face in different countries today. For women living in such a privileged country like Canada, it is often hard to imagine what life is like for women across the globe. It’s hard to believe that women in Qatar need male permission to obtain a drivers license, and that in Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive cars or ride bicycles and that a man in Venezuela who rapes a woman can avoid punishment as long as he marries her before sentencing (<a href="http://w-a-g.blogspot.com/p/sources.html">Seager 18</a>).</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Yes I still do believe that we as women have come a long way from the times of Aristotle, but despite that fact, we still have a long way to go. Today women are faced with new issues, yes we can work, but what does our place in the workplace look like compared to men? Sure, an official piece of paper might declare men and women as equal, but are we? There are so many questions to look at and discuss. Each week, I will be researching different countries from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Europe, hopefully showing the wide variety that countries from each of these continents offer, in terms of women’s issues. The countries will vary from the very privileged to the poorest of the poor, from the best places women could live to the very worst. I hope to illustrate the quality of life of woman all over the globe. I want to raise awareness of the issues and needs that women face and not only that but also how we can respond to them. I hope to suggest ways in which you, as readers, can respond and how you can make a difference. In the end, I hope to demonstrate and foster some connections - more solidarity amongst women all over the world. I want to raise awareness and a sense of hope for women around the globe. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><b>WAG-(Women Around the Globe)</b></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br />
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</span></div>WAG-Women Around the Globehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05886899629320190094noreply@blogger.com1