International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Press Statement

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

May 17, 2011


In every part of the world, men and women are persecuted and attacked because of who they are or whom they love. Homophobia, transphobia and the brutal hostility associated with them are often rooted in a lack of understanding of what it actually means to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). So to combat this terrible scourge and break the cycle of fear and violence, we must work together to improve education and support those who stand up against laws that criminalize love and promote hate. As we mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia this May 17, let us resolve to redouble our efforts.

On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I am proud to reaffirm our support for LGBT communities at home and abroad, and to call for an end to discrimination and mistreatment of LGBT persons wherever it occurs. Whether by supporting LGBT advocates marching in Belgrade, leading the effort at the United Nations to affirm the human rights of LGBT persons, or condemning a vile law under consideration in Uganda, we are committed to our friends and allies in every region of the world who are fighting for equality and justice. These are not Western concepts; these are universal human rights.

Despite these gains and hard work, there is more to do to turn the tide of inequality and discrimination against the LGBT community. If you are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, know that the United States stands with you and we are unwavering in our commitment to ending this cycle of hate.

Saudi Arabia Opens World's Largest Women's University

Saudi Arabia Opens World's Largest Women's University

Written by David E. Miller
Published Monday, May 16, 2011

But where will graduates of mammoth institution find jobs?

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz inaugurated on Sunday the world's largest women's university, spread over eight million square meters (20,000 acres) and costing over 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) to build. But many women are asking where the skills they acquire are going to be put to use.

 Expected to host up to 40,000 students, the Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University in the outskirts of the capital Riyadh will have enough places in its first year classes for 60% of all the kingdom’s female high school graduates. "The King realizes his Dream, Inaugurating the Gate of Knowledge for the Saudi Woman," the Saudi daily Al-Watan ceremoniously announced in its headline Monday.

But the transition from education to employment is particularly hard for Saudi women, who comprise 58% of the kingdom's student body but only 14.4% of its national labor force. The figures for female employment are dramatically lower than in the West but low even compared with neighboring Gulf countries, such as the United Arab Emirate (59%), Kuwait (42.5%) and Qatar (36.4%). 

Fawzia Al-Bakr, an education professor at the King Saud University in Riyadh, said the new university and its 15 departments will open educational fields previously limited to Saudi women, such as computer science, business and nursing. She said that although the new university will probably have no trouble filling its benches with eager students, finding employment will be a challenge for the women.

"Saudi Arabia has a young population and [female] employment is a big problem that the educational institutions will not be able to solve," she told The Media Line. "It is a social, cultural and systemic problem, but education should be provided to everyone, independent of job opportunities."

King Abdullah has been steering a difficult route between liberals, of whom he is believed to be one, and the dominant conservative faction of the country’s religious establishment. Liberalism in Saudi Arabia reached its zenith in February 2009, with the appointment of Nora bint Abdullah Al-Fayez as deputy education minister, the first woman to ever hold a ministerial post in the kingdom.

But some experts say it had been in decline ever since. Saudi women are banned from driving a car or leaving the house unaccompanied by a male guardian. The most recent blow they received came on March 28 when the government announced that women wouldn’t be allowed to vote in the municipal elections. The elections, the second ever held in the kingdom's history, had been postponed from 2009 under the pretext that more time was needed to enable women to vote. 

Even Abdullah, in his opening speech, emphasized the role of the Saudi woman first as a mother than as a bread-winner. "[The Saudi woman] is a loving mother, a constructive citizen and a diligent employee," he said.

             Rima Al-Mukhtar, a journalist with the Jedda-based English language daily Arab News, said she is confident that female graduates of the new university will find work in the kingdom if they acquired skills needed in the job market. She said that large Saudi universities have separate male and female campuses, but the new Princess Nora bint Abdulrahman University is unique in that it served only women. 

"It's like any other country," Al-Mukhtar told The Media Line. "When you have English or computer skills, it's easier to find a job."

Al-Mukhtar said she had no problem finding work in journalism immediately after graduation, adding that men and women sat in separate offices in her workplace, but occasionally mixed in morning meetings. She said that both men and women were free to report about all issues. 

But Al-Mukhtar seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Saudi women tend to specialize in the fields of health and education; with 85% working in education and 6% in public health. Some 95% of Saudi women are employed in the public sector.

Eman Al-Nafjan, a blogger and English teacher living in Riyadh, said women in the kingdom have long bemoaned the inadequate teaching facilities. She said the new state-of-the-art campus, where a mono-rail connects the university buildings, was a welcome introduction to the country's educational scene. She added, however, that even when employed Saudi women will face discrimination in the workplace.

"Even in the health and education sectors where women are employed there's a glass ceiling," she told The Media Line.

Al-Nafjan said Saudi women often opted for higher education because they can’t find a job after high school, not because they expect to have career. Religious conservatives aren’t threatened by the new university because it doesn’t violate two fundamental principals Saudi men held dear -- gender-segregated education and the ban on women driving.

Female teachers can never teach male students, Al-Nafjan said, adding that most humanities faculties in Saudi Arabia employ a closed-circuit TV system where male lecturers can teach women without seeing them. She said female education should be valued even if it is not followed by employment.

"The more educated women are, the more they'll push for change." 

     Tanya Sayagh contributed to this report.  

Copyright © 2011 The Media Line. All Rights Reserved.

Nominations for Outstanding Female Journalists

I met Nadine Hoffman at WPFD. If you have any outstanding female journalists, she is looking for nominations for International Women’s Media Foundation 2012 Courage in Journalism and Lifetime Achievement Award.

Thank you,

Mike

 

From: Nadine Hoffman [mailto:nhoffman@iwmf.org]
Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 11:21 AM
To: Michael Clarke
Subject: RE: nice to meet you

Hi Michael, 

Thanks for your note.  Congratulations on your successful World Press Freedom Day conference!

 

We just announced our 2011 Courage in Journalism and Lifetime Achievement Award winners yesterday – you can read the release here: http://iwmf.org/honoring-courage.aspx

Our Courage winners are Adela Navarro Bello of Mexico, Parisa Hafezi of Iran, and Chiranuch Premchaiporn of Thailand.

As we plan for our Courage Awards ceremonies in October, we also begin the process of identifying candidates for next year.  We don’t have the 2012 nomination form up yet, but I’m including the 2011 nomination form for your reference. 

Here is an overview of the candidate criteria:

Courage in Journalism Award:  Competitive candidates will exhibit extraordinary strength of character, bravery and perseverance in reporting the news; have a strong commitment to press freedom and be well-respected journalists who have shown a commitment to journalism exemplified by a willingness to continually put their life or their freedom at risk to produce a body of work in the face of government oppression, political pressure, physical danger or other intimidating obstacles. Candidates must currently be full-time, part-time or freelance women journalists working in print, broadcast or online media in any country. Candidates employed by organizations whose main objective is not journalism will not be considered for this award.

Please send any leads my way - and thanks for spreading the word!

All the best,

Nadine 

 

 

From: Michael Clarke [mailto:mclarke@irex.org]
Sent: Friday, May 06, 2011 2:58 PM
To: Nadine Hoffman
Subject: RE: nice to meet you

Hi Nadine,

Thank you for your email.  I’m just coming up for air after WPFD, but I will circulate this to my media folks here to see if we have any nominations. I have already sent this out to my Country Director in Iraq, to see if she has any Iraqis in mind. 

 

In the mean time, can you send me more information about the award criteria, that would be very useful.

All the best,

Mike

Posted by email

A New Voice for Women in U.S. Aid

A New Voice for Women in U.S. Aid

Ritu Sharma, Co-Founder and President, Women Thrive Worldwide

Last week marked a turning point for women like Mariam Ouadraogo and her relationship with the U.S. Mariam, who lives on about a dollar a day like many millions of her sisters all over the world, generously hosted me last year in her family compound in the small village of Doulougou, in the West African nation of Burkina Faso. Mariam doesn't know it, but for the first time she now has an advocate within the highest offices of U.S. international assistance programs, whose job it is to ensure that women like her are included in all U.S. foreign assistance efforts.

Since its inception, Women Thrive Worldwide has been spearheading the advocacy for the creation of a new high-level position within the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help put the needs and voices of women at the center of U.S. foreign assistance in a systematic way. Not just through stand-alone projects in traditional areas like education or health or microcredit, which are necessary, but also across economic assistance, infrastructure, agriculture, political participation and post-conflict programs.

When I learned last week that the newly-created position of Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment at USAID was real, I immediately thought of Mariam. I also remembered Eluvia and Margarita in Guatemala and Betilde and Leticia in Nicaragua--all of whom in their own way adopted me and helped me understand what life for the world's poorest women really looks like.

Women are the majority of the more than one billion people living on just a dollar a day, and account for 6 out of 10 of the world's hungry. Despite this, because of the many barriers the world's poorest women face, they very often get left out of assistance programs. I've worked in this field for 20 years, but nothing brought home both the challenges and the opportunities for women like actually trying to live like them for just a few days.

Last year, for four days, I slept, worked, and ate alongside my host, Mariam Ouadraogo. After working in her fields and gathering water in the 100+ degree heat, every night Mariam raced against the sinking sun to cook a dinner of "Toh" -- a staple porridge made from ground sorghum and broth made from soaking leaves of the baobab tree in water. I found that a dollar in the local market bought me a bowl of cooked spiced rice to eat as an indulgence for my spoiled American appetite, cooking oil for a few days, some spices, bar soap, matches, detergent, and small amounts of dried fish and okra. I couldn't imagine sustaining myself on this, let alone a family of eight.

My mind spinning, I sat down with Mariam to learn more about her family's expenses. When all line items were counted up, the total annual family budget came to the equivalent of $362. When I noticed that school fees accounted for almost half of that, I understood why only about a third of all children in Burkina Faso attend primary school.

But Mariam was also extraordinarily resourceful. She is the head of the village women's association, which farms entirely by hand a large community plot with vegetables and grains for all members to supplement smaller individual and family fields. The association's women now give each other loans for family emergencies and rides to the hospital when a family member is sick. It is the backbone of the community.

When I asked what they needed, women were clear: draft animals to help them plow, fertilizer, a rice mill. These would cost very little and make a huge impact on the village. They would also help hugely with another kind of poverty women face, called time poverty. In those four days, I barely had time to sit. Starting a new business or going to school are impossible when you're already working 18 hours a day. Very often though, there is little input like this from women before ambitious projects are launched.

This eye-opening experience is just one of the reasons that I applaud USAID's commitment to making sure our aid dollars end up the hands of women like Mariam. Even more reason to celebrate is that the creation of the position of Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment comes as the Agency is also working on a new Gender Policy to mandate exactly how all projects will reach both women and men. Last week was a major step in the right direction, but there are more to be taken before Mariam can start to see a difference. Women Thrive will push to make sure that I can go back to Doulougou and see families like the Ouadraogos not just surviving, but thriving with focused, effective support from U.S. assistance programs. One half of the world's population deserves nothing less.

Ritu Sharma is Co-Founder and President of Women Thrive Worldwide, which advocates for U.S. international policies that benefit the world's poorest women and girls.

Women in Kingdom try to 'buy' their freedom to work

Women in Kingdom try to 'buy' their freedom to work

By ARAB NEWS

ABHA: Saudi workingwomen have embarked on new ways to win the consent of their male legal guardians or husbands to  take a job. This is so in jobs where there are still strong taboos about women working in them.

Many Saudi workingwomen set aside a portion of their monthly income, which enables them to win the consent of their male guardians as well as to enjoy full freedom to do job, according to a report in Al-Riyadh Arabic daily.

These women, who often managed to secure a job after a long period of waiting, see their job as a basic requirement of their day-to-day life. Hence, they are wary of safeguarding it by taking all the precautionary measures. Even if the job does not improve their economic status, it contributes substantially in upgrading their social status compared to jobless women.

Critics point out that legal guardians are cashing in on this particular state of affairs facing Saudi women. These women “bribe” their guardians to secure their permission to take up a job, mainly in the media, health, and educational sectors. They see this “monetary element” as the major factor that influences guardians to allow their women to work, in addition to the opening up of Saudi society with the advancement of the information technology. Some describe this tendency among guardians as “unsuitable utilitarian bargaining,” while others say it is a “medium solution” for women to satisfy their men while reaching out to realize their goal.

Take for example the case of Fatima. She was appointed by the Ministry of Education as a teacher in Al-Baqaa in Asir province in the beginning of the current academic year. Her workplace was located in a remote area where women teachers prefer not to work. Fatima said that she found it very difficult to reach her workplace, which is far away from her place of residence in Khamis Mushayt city. “It took me at least three hours to reach the school. So I asked my jobless brother to take me to school and back for a monthly fee of SR1,500. He grabbed it as a golden opportunity to earn an income, as well as to accompany me as mahram (legal guardian). My colleagues — 10 women teachers — decided to travel together with me. This resulted in my brother earning a huge monthly income of SR15,000 in addition to my share of SR1,500. This also helped me to overcome the objection of my parents to go to work at a remote place in the company of a foreign driver,” she said.

Similar was the case with Nadia, who lives with her husband and children in Jeddah. She got appointed at a school in Mikhwa in Baha province. Nadia was not in a position to abandon her job, due to her family’s financial position and her desire to earn some income for herself. “In the beginning, my husband rejected my request to allow me to take up the job. Later he agreed on condition that I arranged any blood relative to accompany me to and from the workplace. My brother Abdullah, who did not continue his schooling after completion of intermediate level, agreed to transport me to and from Mikhwa for a monthly payment of SR1,000,” she said.

Noura, a nurse, says that she joined a nursing course after promising her father that she attended the course for the sake of obtaining a certificate, and not to start working as a nurse. But after completion of the course, she started searching for a job without informing her father. Subsequently, she managed to secure a job at a primary health center.

“I tried to convince my father about the advantages of having a job, assuring him that there was no gender mixing at the workplace. But my father’s response was disappointing. He started abusing me as if I had committed a grave offense. This situation continued until I received my first salary. When I got two months’ salary, I set aside SR2,000 for my father and SR500 for my mother,” she said, adding that this had an electrifying effect. Her father changed his attitude toward her job. “Henceforth, he has been very keen on seeing me going to my workplace regularly. He does not like me staying away from work,” Noura said, adding that it does not bother her to allocate a portion of her revenue to her parents in return for them allowing her to enjoy freedom to work. “Moreover, my father now allows me more freedom, especially for travel to attend conferences anywhere inside the Kingdom,” she said.

At a time when legal guardians try to prevent women under their custodianship from taking up jobs on the pretext of mixing with men, a number of men block their wives from going out for work on the ground that they must be always available at home to take care of them as well as to bring up their children, says Muna. “Some husbands do not like to see their wives enjoying economic liberty by earning money for themselves. I managed to allay apprehensions of my husband in this respect by lending him a helping hand through meeting a portion of household expenses and settling a part of his debts,” she said, adding that she has been keen to keep a portion of her revenue to fulfill her personal needs. “I lied to him about the exact amount of my monthly salary. I told him that my monthly salary is SR9,000, even though I was drawing a much higher amount,” she said.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Zayed Al-Almai, a prominent writer and human rights activist, is of the view that this type of behavior toward women shows the degradation of values with regard to social integration and family bonds in addition to transforming these relations into a level of “utilitarian bargaining.”

Al-Almai also sees in this something that transforms social and human rights into a commodity, selling one’s dignity to buy one’s interests without any feeling of remorse. He also underlined the need for enacting stringent regulations aimed at protecting the weaker sections, such as women and children, in addition to enlightening male members of society on their duties and responsibilities toward women.

On his part, Abdullah Al-Towairqi, a prominent citizen, said that this attitude is common not only among legal guardians of women, like parents and brothers, but also on the part of their husbands, who see their women as a tool for exploitation and even for blackmailing in certain cases. He denounced the deprivation of women’s right to earn wealth as well as her right to work, in addition to choose her family life and future course of action.

Al-Towairqi ruled out the wrong notion that it is a disgrace for a man who faces financial difficulties to be supported by his wife.

Echoing the same view, Hala Al-Dosary, a human rights activist, said a job is something that enables a woman to have financial capabilities and enjoy more freedom. “It is significant if a woman can play her role in improving the financial level of her family by supporting her husband to meet household expenses,” she said.

Canceled: Gender Salon #3: Digital Media as a Gender Challenge

When: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:00 PM-2:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Board Room

Note: The GMT offset above does not reflect daylight saving time adjustments.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Apologies for yet another email, but we are going to reschedule this session once the video is in house (TBD) so as to guarantee a quality session.

Thank you all for your patience,

Michelle

Due to a scheduling conflict, and as we’re still trying to obtain a better quality video, we are pushing the Salon back a bit—apologies for the inconvenience and hope to see you there!

Thanks,

Michelle

Dear All,

Please join us on Tuesday, May 10th at noon in the Board Room as we view and discuss the World Press Freedom Day panel on “Digital Media as a Gender Challenge.”

Gender influences access to information. Has the digital age given women greater access to news, as consumers or producers, or has it widened the gap? Do men and women utilize digital media in different ways to get information and contribute to global or local discussions?

We hope to dovetail on the excitement surrounding WPFD and wanted to make the session available for those unable to attend. If you can’t join us on Tuesday, you can view the breakout session at (the quality is sub-par and we are requesting a copy of the original video to show at the Salon).

Thank you,

Michelle

Michelle L. Paison • Development Associate •  Development Division •  International Research & Exchanges Board
2121 K St, NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037 | 202.628.8188 x174 | mpaison@irex.org

Words That Paint A Picture: What is Violence Against Women?

Words That Paint A Picture: What is Violence Against Women?

One of the goals of our awareness-raising efforts is to show people the full scope of the problem of violence against women. Violence against women is not just domestic violence and rape. It encompasses a wide array of crimes perpetrated against women because they are women.

We have written and talked about the many different types of violence against women. Today, we’re taking a different route – we’re using Wordle, a visual tool, to very literally paint a picture in words denoting the very many forms that violence against women take:

Image001

We gathered these words from the content on our website and edited the list to combine similar words into one term (for example, raped, rape, and rapes became “rape”). Larger words occur with greater frequency on our site, but the size is by no means an indication of which crime is more important. All are equally heinous and all are equally deserving of our attention.

Tomorrow, we will show the impact of violence against women in another Wordle graphic.

To see today’s Word cloud image in full size, visit wordle.net or click on the word picture.

The Pixel Project is an innovative virtual volunteer-led non profit organisation using social media and online strategies to turbo-charge global awareness about violence against women while raising funds and volunteer power for the cause.

May 25 Launch of Economic Strengthening Interventions for Adolescent Girls in Rwanda and Zimbabwe


From: Coalition for Adolescent Girls [ariana@cgpartners.org]
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2011 12:11 PM
To: Clare Sheng
Subject: May 25 Launch of Economic Strengthening Interventions for Adolescent Girls in Rwanda and Zimbabwe

Trouble viewing this email? Click Here
Coalition for Adolescent Girls Why Girls? Research Action About Us
Photo by Getty Images
Banner Photo
Dear Clare ,

Below please find an invitation to the launch of two new Catholic Relief Service publications on economic strengthening activities for adolescent girls in Rwanda and Zimbabwe at the National Press Club on Wednesday, May 25.  Please RSVP to crsevent@global.crs.org by Thursday, May 19, 2011.

Best,
Ariana

Ariana Childs Graham
Coordinator, Coalition for Adolescent Girls

My Skills, My Money, My Brighter Future

My Skills, My Money, My Brighter Future
Economic Strengthening Interventions for Adolescent Girls in Rwanda and Zimbabwe

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
12:00 – 2:00 p.m. (lunch provided)
The National Press Club
14th St NW, 13th Floor
Washington, DC 20045

As space is limited, kindly RSVP to crsevent@global.crs.org by May 19, 2011.

Catholic Relief Services cordially invites you to the publication launch of “My Skills, My Money, My Brighter Future,” two assessment reports of economic strengthening activities for adolescent girls in Zimbabwe and Rwanda, funded by the Nike Foundation. These publications highlight four different economic strengthening activities along with key findings, successes and challenges in meeting the needs of vulnerable adolescent girls.

Highlighted interventions will include:

  • Vocation and technical training
  • Junior farm field and life schools
  • Bio-intensive kitchen gardens and small-animal husbandry
  • Savings and internal lending communities

Come learn more about how practitioners and donors can help development programs meet the needs of adolescent girls!

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls was initiated in 2005 by the United Nations Foundation and the Nike Foundation, and has been joined by more than 30 leading international organizations, to bring fresh perspectives, diverse resources and concrete solutions to the challenges facing adolescent girls in the Global South. When girls are educated, healthy, and financially literate, they will play a key role in ending generations of poverty. The Coalition's supporters are committed to creating lasting change for communities in the Global South by driving investments to adolescent girls, leveraging existing initiatives, and mobilizing new allies on behalf of adolescent girls.

To unsubscribe from all future email, please click here.

Posted by email

Gender Salon #3: Digital Media as a Gender Challenge

When: Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:00 PM-2:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Board Room

Note: The GMT offset above does not reflect daylight saving time adjustments.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Due to a scheduling conflict, and as we’re still trying to obtain a better quality video, we are pushing the Salon back a bit—apologies for the inconvenience and hope to see you there!

Thanks,

Michelle

Dear All,

Please join us on Tuesday, May 10th at noon in the Board Room as we view and discuss the World Press Freedom Day panel on “Digital Media as a Gender Challenge.”

Gender influences access to information. Has the digital age given women greater access to news, as consumers or producers, or has it widened the gap? Do men and women utilize digital media in different ways to get information and contribute to global or local discussions?

We hope to dovetail on the excitement surrounding WPFD and wanted to make the session available for those unable to attend. If you can’t join us on Tuesday, you can view the breakout session at (the quality is sub-par and we are requesting a copy of the original video to show at the Salon).

Thank you,

Michelle

Michelle L. Paison • Development Associate •  Development Division •  International Research & Exchanges Board
2121 K St, NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037 | 202.628.8188 x174 | mpaison@irex.org

Gender Salon #3: Digital Media as a Gender Challenge

When: Tuesday, May 10, 2011 12:00 PM-2:00 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada).
Where: Board Room

Note: The GMT offset above does not reflect daylight saving time adjustments.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dear All,

Please join us on Tuesday, May 10th at noon in the Board Room as we view and discuss the World Press Freedom Day panel on “Digital Media as a Gender Challenge.”

Gender influences access to information. Has the digital age given women greater access to news, as consumers or producers, or has it widened the gap? Do men and women utilize digital media in different ways to get information and contribute to global or local discussions?

We hope to dovetail on the excitement surrounding WPFD and wanted to make the session available for those unable to attend. If you can’t join us on Tuesday, you can view the breakout session at (the quality is sub-par and we are requesting a copy of the original video to show at the Salon).

Thank you,

Michelle

Michelle L. Paison • Development Associate •  Development Division •  International Research & Exchanges Board
2121 K St, NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037 | 202.628.8188 x174 | mpaison@irex.org