Taleban Kill 3 Women Aid Workers. [Afghanistan] Taleban guerrillas on Tuesday shot dead three Afghan women working for a Western aid agency in northern Afghanistan, a provincial official said. The women, who worked for German-funded Action Aid, were victims of a drive-by shooting while travelling in a car to the northeast of Shiberghan, the capital of Jowzjan, a province where the Taleban are present but less active. Their driver was also killed.

Stares, Glares for Female Drivers. [Afghanistan] Everyone she passes _ each taxi driver, every man and burqa-clad woman _ is looking at Sofia. The stares and glares are no surprise: She's female, she's driving, and she's just 14 years old. Women drivers are so rare in Afghanistan that it's a head-turning, hand-pointing shock for most people who see one. The license bureau reports that of the more than 17,000 licenses issued in the Kabul area last year, only 85 went to women. Abdul Shokoor Ziaee opened Bakhtan Technical and Driving Course school after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, which had banned women from driving. He has seen a small increase recently in the number of women at his school, where colorful traffic signs cover the walls and a greasy, disassembled car engine sits on the front table. "More women should learn how to drive because men and women have equal rights. The other thing is that Afghanistan is developing, moving forward," he says. Female drivers weren't always such a rarity. Women's rights were relatively advanced during the 1980s, when a Soviet-backed government ruled Afghanistan, and women could then drive in Kabul, though not in the provinces. In the 1990s, the Taliban took over. Today Afghan women drivers tend to be employees of foreign aid agencies and come from wealthier, educated families. Ziaee estimates that of the 3,000 students who have taken his 40-day, $60 course over the last three years, only 100 of them were female. Although many more might like to drive, husbands, fathers and brothers have the final say, and invariably accompany learners to their first class to give their approval of the school, Ziaee said. Then there's the question of safety _ many female drivers report being harassed.

India to Frame Laws to Halt Female Infanticide. [India] New Delhi, June 15  - Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on Wednesday that India is planning to frame strict laws to tests to determine the sex of unborn babies. It is being done to prevent the killing of thousands of female fetuses. Though there is a complete provision to prevent its misuse under India's Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 that    outlaws doctors from carrying out sex determination tests, but medical professionals always took it light and have been violating it freely and the govt. have also been negligent in checking this aspect. Besides, families seek sons over daughters and unscrupulous doctors attempt to get around the law, making enforcement difficult, they say. A joint study carried out by researchers in India and Canada recently suggested that half-a-million unborn girls may be aborted in India every year, with parents preferring boys as being a better asset to the family. Following a meeting with womens' groups, members of parliament and social activists, Ramadoss told a news conference that a series of amendments aimed at giving the law more teeth were being discussed. "We are going to take into consideration everyone's view in order to further strengthen the act and its enforcement and implementation," he said. "This is an issue where we need quick action."

Sting: Seven Female Doctors Exposed. [India] Seven women doctors have been suspended for their alleged role in female foeticide following a TV news channel sting operation beamed on Tuesday. The doctors - Sumitra Gill (Jhunjhunu), Shanti Bansiwal (Tonk), Meenu Korpal (Kota), Priyanaka Saxena (Sawaimadhopur), Madhu Mathur (Jhalawar), Rajkumar Choudhary and Seema Choudhary (Bharatpur) - were sent on awaiting posting order and asked to report to the medical directorate, family welfare department director SP Yadav said. A chargesheet will be served to them and a department inquiry also will be conducted into the case, he said. Taking strong exception to the medical code of conduct, health minister Digamber Singh has asked the department to investigate the role of private fertility and diagnostic centres involved in such cases. About 25 private clinics had been identified for action, an official spokesman said.

'23,000 Female Foetuses Aborted in Delhi Last Year'. [India] Around 23,000 female foetuses were aborted in the capital last year with, experts said Wednesday. 'Whereas Denmark had 23,000 births in 2005, the same number of female foetuses were aborted in Delhi alone,' said Puneet Bedi, a leading medicine expert, quoting records of the Delhi government. 'In a recent audit on ultrasound clinics based on three months data, we found that only 700 out of the registered 1,800 ultrasound clinics in Delhi are submitting monthly reports mandated under the PNDT (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques) Act,' Bedi told IANS. He was talking in a conference on prenatal sex selection organised by the Delhi government, Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) and a number of UN-based bodies here. DCW chairman Kiran Walia said female foeticide is genocide and to increase conviction, 'such cases should be handled by special fast track courts'.

Vellore Women Show the Way. [India] It could be said that change in Vellore began with the Kalanjiam (granary). In just the way a deeply scarred society heals itself, some parts of the district have hit the path of recovery. The prime agent of change is Kalanjiam, a federation of women's self-help groups. Over 260 SHGs are members of this group that brings about attitude change in the villages. "Our men are useless, all drunkards. Long ago, we realised that depending on them was impractical. So we have taken things into our hands," says Rachel, president of the federation, headquartered in Gudiyatham. Working in an area that is nearly `endemic' to child labour, with the local beedi and matchstick industries hiring children for work, the women decided to storm this Bastille. The other aspects of their agenda are to prevent fresh recruitment of child labourers, outlaw the sale of alcohol, put all children in school, provide them tuition, books and notebooks, create employment opportunities for adults and use their savings to benefit women and children. The federation has been instrumental in securing the release of 644 children from match and beedi units. For this, they have mobilised Rs.30,000 in savings to pay off the owners who had loaned paltry sums to the children and were holding them to labour until the money was repaid.

A Tireless Fighter for Hindu Women Liberation. [India] Vandaniya Mausiji heard Mahatma Gandhi speak the following words on the rights of women in the early 1930s at Wardha: 'I am uncompromising in the matter of women's rights. In my opinion she should labour under no legal disability not suffered by man. I detest child marriages. I deplore the criminal indifference of parents who keep their daughters utterly ignorant and illiterate and bring them up only for the purpose of marrying them off to some young men of means. To me, the domestic slavery of women is a symbol of our barbarism'. Mausiji came under the spell of these words.  

70 Detained at Protest Over Women’s Rights. [Iran] Iranian police detained 70 people at a demonstration in favour of women’s rights, the judiciary said on Tuesday, adding it was ready to review reports that the police had beaten some demonstrators. About 100 women had gathered in central Teheran on Monday to protest against what they called the Islamic Republic’s discriminatory laws against women. Some men joined them at the gathering, which the judiciary said was “illegal”. A Reuters correspondent at the protest saw women and men being put into buses and others being beaten back with batons. Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad said 42 of those detained were women. “Normally most of these people are released,” he told a news conference at Evin prison in north Teheran. When asked by reporters about police beating demonstrators, he said: “If there was any beating, it will be reviewed.” Some women had protested about the difficulties in getting a divorce and securing guardianship for their children after divorce. Others decried unjust inheritance laws and the fact that their court testimony is only worth half that of a man’s. Some women said men were abusing with impunity their right to polygamy, which allows up to four wives.

Al Qaeda Terrorizing Iraqi Women, Says Report. [Iraq] On orders of the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, men in black have begun terrorizing women who do not conform to their rules, it was reported. Following a sermon by Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, the head of Iraqi Al Qaeda, new rules were announced regarding women's behavior, The Sunday Times of London reported. "Women cannot drive; women cannot go out after midday; women and men are not allowed to go out and walk together, they must walk separately," a local official announced. Violations will be punished sternly by men in black, all Sunni Muslims - with punishments ranging from shaved heads to death. Women live in fear, while nothing is done to curb the ongoing terrorism, the newspaper said. "The police don't investigate because they are too afraid", a local politician who wished to remain anonymous told the Sunday Times. "The Americans are too scared of roadside bombs, so when they go out they accomplish their mission and return directly to base. They don't see anything."

Report Cites Female Acceptance of Domestic Abuse. [Jordan] Women's rights activists said on Thursday that they were "horrified but not surprised" to learn that a majority of single women in the kingdom approved of physical punishment by husbands for disciplinary reasons. "It's unimaginable that women's dignity has sunk to the level of accepting humiliation and beatings," said Adab Saud, a member of parliament and women's rights activist. A health ministry study released on 30 May revealed that 53 percent of unmarried women accept the idea of physical punishment, compared to only 40 percent of their male counterparts. The study further showed that some 45 percent of married men and women also approve of the phenomena. Women's rights activists said the study served to reflect the magnitude of "the social tribulations in the kingdom" and represents "a wake up call" to the government and civil society. Activist Reem Abu Hassan, for one, believes the findings should be met by government efforts to establish a system to protect women from domestic abuse, adding that Jordan's current legal system does not encourage victims of domestic violence to come forward. "If a woman complains to authorities, the husband will be sent to jail," said Reem. "This isn't an option, because no woman wants to put her husband behind bars – she only wants him to stop beating her."

Women Encouraged to Join the Legal System. [Jordan] More women are being encouraged to join the legal profession in Jordan by a local NGO, the Jordanian National Forum for Women (JNFW). An awareness campaign aimed at encouraging women to work at different levels in the judiciary is to start soon. The legal profession is a highly male-dominated preserve in Jordan, although there are no rules in the kingdom which prevent women from working in the judicial system. According to 2006 figures from the Jordan Bar Association, out of a total number of 6,915 lawyers 1,284 are women. "Our goal is to break barriers and social misconceptions about the legal profession", said Ruba Matarneh from the JNFW. As part of the campaign, the NGO will conduct a survey on women in the legal profession to identify the main obstacles they face. The findings of the research will published in a brochure to be distributed to law students in various universities in Jordan. The campaign will simultaneously seek to raise awareness among women, especially in rural areas, of their legal rights. "Most of those women do not know about their own rights", said Matarneh.  

Female Labourers Hard Pressed to Get Minimum Wage. [Jordan] Female workers are discriminated against and still often paid below the minimum legal salary a month after the government raised the minimum wage by the equivalent of US $22, according to workers and union leaders. In May, the government raised the minimum wage per month from the equivalent of US $120 to US $142 in an effort to offset increases in living costs that came following recent fuel price hikes. However, workers and labour leaders complain that women working jobs in several sectors have been paid wages much less than their original salaries before the pay rise. Some women reportedly earn the equivalent of only US $60 a month for working 10- to 12-hour days. Recent labour ministry figures indicate that more than 200,000 of the national workforce are women, the majority of whom come from impoverished families. Many women say they are forced by their employers to sign contracts stipulating that their earnings match the minimum monthly wage set by the government. According to union leaders, such practices usually occur in isolated towns and villages, where inspectors rarely make an appearance. Many company heads, however, insist they are paying workers in compliance with the law. "Ask any of my employees – they'll tell you they're getting the minimum wage set by the government," said Abu Fares, owner of a chemical factory where several employees told IRIN that they received salaries well below the set minimum. His comments were typical of several employers interviewed. Labour leaders, meanwhile, say their hands are tied, and blamed both the government and employees for the predicament. "We're fighting an uphill battle to have the minimum wage implemented, mostly in light industry, where women are the employees of choice," said Fathallah Emrani, vice-president of the General Federation of Jordanian Labour unions, which represents more than 1.5 million workers.

A Female Pilot. [Turkey] Istanbul's second airport is named after Turkey's first female fighter pilot-Sabiha Gokcen. A 30 year old Colombian pilot- Martha Pabon which flew Air Arabia's first scheduled flight from Sharjah UAE to SAW yesterday was met by the SAW airport officials with a special welcome. It is understood that the airport officials were happy with the gesture of Air Arabia sending a female pilot on their first flight."

Forced Marriages, Domestic Violence Contribute to Female Suicide. [Turkey] 1 June 2006 – Traditional practices, such as forced marriages, domestic violence, and denial of reproductive rights, often play a key role in suicides of women and girls in Southeast and Eastern Turkey, while the authorities often do not implement protective laws, according to a United Nations expert who has just concluded a 10-day visit to the region. “The majority of women in the provinces visited live lives that are not their own but are instead determined by a patriarchal normative order that draws its strength from reference to tradition, culture and tribal affiliation and often articulates itself on the basis of distorted notions of honour,” the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, Yakin Ertürk said. “Diverse forms of violence are deliberately used against women who are seen to transgress this order. Suicides of women in the region occur within such a context,” she added in a press statement on her visit that ended yesterday. She thanked the Government, national and local authorities and civil society for their cooperation and support. She noted that Turkey is a party to all major international human rights instruments and its domestic legislation provides for the equality and human rights of women and addresses violence against women.

Female Landowners Wage Gender Battles. [Turkey] Women who are listed under the category of “hidden unemployment” in statistics are now returning to the fields. The southern city of Adana constitutes a good example of this. Women who have graduated from European colleges have come back to Adana to run thousands of acres of land. In employment life, agriculture seems to be a sector that is open to female labor but in reality, men dominate this sector. Agricultural land creates the basis for conservative lifestyles in rural areas. Farmers are men, and this is not coincidental. Women may join in collecting cottonseed; however, even if women make up the whole workforce of an entire area, a designated man is always in charge of organizing them. The same situation persists in collecting fruit and olives. Those unwritten rules handed down from generation to generation have kept female management out of the fields. But for female agriculture bosses in Adana, these rules don't count. They had arguments with male workers who refused to take directions from them, on their own land, for months. They had to make rounds of persuasive tours even for minor changes, for instance, to change their fertilizer. But in the end they have achieved what they wanted to. In a male-dominated world, they have been able to have their say.

Female Genital Mutilation, the Taboo Subject. [Yemen] Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a very serious subject but also a very sensitive issue in Yemen. Many people dare not speak about it, while some would rather forget it, claiming that it’s not a real problem in Yemen. However, such denial doesn’t prevent the fact that many international organizations classify Yemen as one of at least 28 nations worldwide that practice FGM. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded the 1997 Yemen Demographic Mother and Child Health Survey, 23 percent of Yemeni women have undergone FGM procedures. In sparsely-populated Red Sea and Aden coastal regions, the figure rises to 69 percent, compared with 15 percent in the heavily-populated highlands and five percent in plateau and desert regions. The Pacific Institute for Women’s Health (PIWH) conducted a 2000 study on FGM, focusing on five Yemeni governorates – Sana’a city, Hodeidah, Hadramout, Aden and Al-Mahara. The study, which included 2,163 women, sought to determine the extent of the practice and analyze its attitudinal and physiological aspects. The PIWH study indicated that more than 97 percent of respondents in Hodeidah had experienced FGM, 96 percent in Al-Mahara and Hadramout, 82 percent in Aden and 45.5 percent in Sana’a. Some professionals who read the study were shocked and disputed the figures, saying that the areas where interviews were conducted had a high percentage of immigrant populations, leading to inflated numbers of women who had FGM performed on them. However, Soheir Stolba, Ph.D., who worked in Yemen in this field, confirmed, “Most educated Yemenis denied the custom’s existence, attributing it only to limited coastal pockets of populations where African immigrants live. My continued work on this phenomenon over a six-year period revealed that FGM is deeply rooted in Yemen.”