Defusing the War Over the "Promiscuity" Vaccine. [United States] Viewpoint: The controversy over a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer is a sign of the deep suspicion on both sides of the cultural divide. It needn't be that way. The new vaccine, known as Gardasil, was approved earlier this month by the Food and Drug Administration, as the first ever designed to prevent cancer; it works by guarding against the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is thought to cause about three of every four cases of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women, and the third most deadly around the world. It kills close to 4000 women each year in the U.S. alone. Public health experts say that vaccines generally work best when everyone gets them: the laws of "herd immunity" dictate that the more people are protected against a particular virus, the more likely it is to eventually disappear altogether. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection; the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 20 million Americans carry it. By vaccinating children before they are sexually active, there is a hope of dramatically reducing the prevalence of at least some strains for the next generation. That means the next question is whether it belongs alongside measles and mumps and polio in the schedule of shots that children get before they're allowed to attend school. And this is where the fight breaks out. Back in the fall when the vaccine was submitted for FDA approval, some conservatives began asking whether physical protection could come at a moral cost: the technical term is "disinhibition, which the CDC defines as "an increase in unsafe behaviors in response to perceptions of safety caused by introduction of a preventive or therapeutic intervention." (Once upon a time the concern was raised about introducing anesthesia during childbirth, or using penicillin to treat syphilis, as spurring more sexual activity; more recently, the argument is made about needle exchange and condom distribution.)  

Bishop Election Upsets Episcopal Diocese. [United States] One of three Episcopal dioceses that rejects ordaining women appealed for help Monday from the head of the Anglican Communion after the U.S. church elected a female bishop as its national leader, the first woman ever to lead an Anglican province. On Sunday, the convention chose Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female presiding bishop for the Episcopal Church, the U.S. arm of the global Anglican Communion. Many Anglicans believe women should not be ordained. Only two of the 37 other Anglican provinces — New Zealand and Canada — have female bishops, although some allow women to serve in the post. Beside Fort Worth, the two U.S. dioceses that do not accept women priests are Quincy, Ill., and San Joaquin, Calif., according to the Anglican Communion Network.

Female Clergy Look For Local-Level Gains. [United States] While many female clergy in the Carolinas -- and a number of men -- are proud that women were elected to lead two national denominations, some warn that the hardest part of the fight for equality awaits: Promoting women to the head of the church back home. Progress on the national level bodes well, said the Rev. Millie Snyder of Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte. "When it filters down to the local level, it's just slow progress." Episcopal Church delegates meeting in Columbus, Ohio, on Sunday named Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as its presiding bishop -- the first woman to lead the U.S. body of 2.4 million Episcopalians, according to The Associated Press. Meeting in Birmingham, Ala., the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) elected the Rev. Joan Gray of Atlanta to serve as moderator of the 2.3 million-member group, the AP reported. Other women have held that post. Their two triumphs inspired headlines for something other than their denominations' continuing fight over whether to ordain gays as church leaders. It also stirred a sense of optimism among female clergy in both denominations.

50 Years Later: Women Weigh In on Female Ordination. [United States] Mindy Coates, pastor of Patapsco United Methodist Church in Finksburg, polished her pews at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday. Coates, with helpers, joined a traditionally female task with a position some think women shouldn't hold. The Rev. Mary Ellen Glorioso, pastor of Oakland United Methodist Church in Sykesville, said some parishioners still can't accept women as authority figures. As the United Methodist Church celebrates the 50th anniversary of ordaining and granting full clergy rights to women, three local female clergy agreed they face only minor discrimination in jobs they adore, but still have to work harder than men to gain acceptance. "You have to prove you're better than the men," Glorioso said. Even so, more and more women are coming out of the ministerial pipeline: 22 percent of United Methodist clergy, or 9,500 of them, are female, according to www.umc.org, a growth trend repeated in other mainline Protestant denominations. To Bishop John Schol of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, a man whom Coates calls a blessing to female clergy, it's critically important to get women in the pulpit. "Women bring a great perspective to ministry and to life," he said. "If we are only served by men, we are only seeing one experience."

Effort to Accommodate Muslim Women's Modesty Spurs Debate. [United States] Muslim women in the USA have been asking the public to accommodate their religious beliefs about modesty, a trend that some Muslims worry will provoke a backlash. In some recent examples: • In Lincoln Park, Mich., Fitness USA relented when Muslim women demanded that the gym wall off a co-ed aerobic center from their women-only section because men could see them working out. • In Bridgeview, Ill., a Muslim school says it wants its girls' basketball team to play road games against non-Muslim schools provided the public schools ban men and teenage boys from the game. • In North Seattle, Wash., a public pool set up a swim time for Muslim women in which men, even male lifeguards, are banned. In all of the examples, businesses and public facilities were asked to accommodate followers of one interpretation of Islamic law that says the sexes must be separate if women are not covered with headscarves and modest clothing. Meeting such demands could create a backlash against Muslims, says Zuhdi Jasser, chairman of American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which advocates separation of religion and government.

Fallon Church Leader Praises Nevada Female Bishop's New National Role. [United States] Members of Fallon's Holy Trinity Episcopal Church who will be celebrating their congregation's 100th anniversary in four months received an exciting and totally unexpected premature birthday present five days ago. Word reached Holy Trinity members late Sunday that Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has headed the statewide Episcopal Diocese of Nevada since 2001, was elected presiding bishop of the country's 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church at the denomination's general convention in Columbus, Ohio. "We're just overjoyed at the news of Katharine's election," The Reverend Deacon Gini Hart of Holy Trinity Church told me this week when I visited her at the church at the corner of Churchill and Fairview streets. A frequent visitor to the church here since her election as Nevada's Episcopal bishop five years ago, Bishop Schori will return to Fallon the weekend of Oct. 1 to join 120 church members celebrating their 100th anniversary, as well as presiding over the Nevada Episcopal Church's annual convention to be held at the Fallon Convention Center.  

California Legislature's Female Ranks May Shrink This Year. [Unites States] The California Legislature, once a nearly all-male political bastion, experienced gender integration during the 1990s, thanks to term limits that opened up dozens of seats to newcomers, court-ordered redistricting that reduced incumbents' advantage and a "year of the woman" drive. From a handful, the ranks of women quickly expanded to nearly a third of the 120-member Legislature and they made their presence known on issues, albeit not without some inter-gender friction, such as a conflict over the rules governing alimony. Matters reached a flashpoint in 2001, when the Legislature drew new legislative districts as part of a bipartisan deal and it became apparent that the all-male team of negotiators had created state Senate districts that effectively blocked the senatorial ambitions of several female Assembly members. "Whether it was intentional or not, there are more women who stand to lose under the proposed Senate plan," Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, one of those effectively barred from the Senate, complained. With resentment over redistricting still simmering, gender conflict flared as the 2001 session drew to a close. The Assembly's male leadership pointedly sidetracked a couple of female-authored bills as a gesture toward the business community and Assemblyman Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, uttered some fighting words in accusing Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, of reneging on a promise to amend a bill. "It's a terrible bill and it was dishonestly moved," a very angry Wright declared, adding, "This woman utterly disregarded the process. ... She believes it is not necessary to have any consideration about honor." Wright had been the author of the alimony overhaul legislation that was enacted one year and then repealed the next at the behest of women's groups, and his "this woman" remark sparked a brief but very sharp gender war that ended only when Wright publicly apologized. Ever since the Wright blowup, gender relations in the Capitol have been fairly cordial, women have made some inroads into leadership positions and four female legislators are seeking statewide office this year, albeit by running against each other.

TV Does a Favor For Female Politicians. [United States] Remember when we were told that a woman who wanted the top job had to be twice as good as a man? The first woman in any post would be inspected with a microscope and dismissed for the smallest flaw. Now the first woman president of the United States of Television has failed to get a second term -- excuse me, a second season -- because she was too good to be true. Is this progress? Mackenzie Allen got to the ABC White House virtually untainted by politics. She was a college president and an independent picked to be vice president by a conservative Republican candidate trying to attract women voters. Talk about your fantasy figures. Of course, our gal Mac suffered blows familiar to women in politics. Like every female candidate with a hemline and a hairdo, more media attention was paid to her appearance than to her position papers. Singlehandedly, as First Woman and Working Mom saving America from terrorists and saving Halloween for the kids, she brought the late, unlamented, superwoman cartoon out of retirement and into the White House. The opening of the TV show was accompanied by a survey that showed 79 percent of the American public was comfortable with ``a woman" in the White House. We have long assumed that comfort zone would shrink when ``a woman" got a name and a face and a flaw. But what if the public is ahead of the punditry again? Am I allowed the optimistic view that the closing of this TV show suggests perversely that the American public may be more ready to see and accept women as both individuals and imperfect?

Poll: Clinton Gets High 'No' Vote for 2008. [United States] With the presidential election more than two years away, a CNN poll released Monday suggests that nearly half of Americans would "definitely not vote for" Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Respondents were asked whether they would "definitely vote for," "consider voting for," or "definitely not vote for" three Democrats and three Republicans who might run for president in 2008. Regarding potential Democratic candidates, 47 percent of respondents said they would "definitely not vote for" both Clinton, the junior senator from New York who is running for re-election this year, and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party's candidate in 2004.

Candidates Fight for Female Vote. [Mexico] Mexico's presidential candidates are reaching out to women in a tight election race, appearing on television shows aimed at housewives to tell how they wooed their wives or show off their skills with a barbecue grill. All three leading candidates have appealed to female voters while crisscrossing the country in the campaign's final frantic push ahead of Sunday's vote. "Like a lot of Mexicans, I was educated in a way that was, honestly, macho: that women are second-class citizens," conservative candidate Felipe Calderon said recently on the popular daytime program Hoy. "That's not right. Women and men are equals." That's a relatively new idea in Mexico, where women weren't allowed to vote -- or even be defined by the constitution as citizens -- until 1953.

U.S. Lags in Role of Women in Politics. [India] For all the talk about Hillary Rodham Clinton and Condoleezza Rice battling for the presidency in 2008, the closest a woman has come to the Oval Office is actress Geena Davis, star of the recently canceled TV series ``Commander in Chief.'' Yet, in other nations, a woman leader isn't just the stuff of television drama. Countries as diverse as Britain, Chile, Liberia and Israel have elected women to their highest political office. When it comes to women representation in national Parliaments, the U.S. ranks 68th in the world. A primary reason for the success of women in politics elsewhere, according to one observer, is the effort on the part of women themselves. ``Women in other countries have made more strong-willed efforts than we have,'' said Marie Wilson, head of the New York-based White House Project, a nonpartisan group that works to increase women's participation in politics. ``They have gelled with each other to say: `We know women matter in these positions. We must have more women.''' No woman has ever led the presidential ticket of a major political party in the United States. Only one — Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 — has been nominated for Vice-President by either the Republicans or the Democrats.  

A Crack in the Door. [Burma] For a number of years now, the military leaders of Myanmar, formerly called Burma, have seemed impervious to international calls for democratic reform. A special UN envoy for Myanmar, Rezali Ismail, was prohibited for more than two years from even stepping foot in the country. Last month, something seemed to change. Myanmar's locked door popped open a small crack. The government also allowed me to see the country's best-known political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has been under house arrest for most of the past 17 years. Myanmar's senior leader, General Than Shwe, agreed to the rare meeting when we spoke in Myanmar's remote new capital of Nay Pyi Daw. Since my return, there have been mixed messages from Myanmar. Disappointingly, Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended for another year. Secretary General Annan, who had pleaded personally for her release, lamented this missed opportunity for Myanmar to back up its expressed commitments with actions. In recent days, however, Myanmar freed a lesser-known dissident, for whose release I had also appealed. Ms. Su Su Nway had been jailed last October after protesting alleged forced labor practices.  

Women Activists Detained for Demanding Say in Constitution. [Nepal] Over two dozen women activists demanding representation in the committee set up to draft an interim statute to replace the present constitution were detained by the police Sunday, witnesses said. The government and the Maoists on Friday decided to set up a five- member committee headed by pro-democracy activist and former Nepalese Supreme Court judge Lman Prasad Aryal. The all-male statute-drafting team is expected to submit a draft of the new interim statute within the next two weeks. The interim statute is expected to replace the present constitution and pave the way for the dissolution of the restored parliament and the formation of an all-party interim government including the Maoists. The women, demanding one third of the seats in the drafting panel, staged protests in front of the country’s Central Secretariat from where over two dozen were arrested.

Bahraini Female Diplomat Elected President of Upcoming Assembly Session. [Bahrain] Haya Rashid Al-Khalifa of Bahrain was elected by acclamation on Thursday as the President of the General Assembly's 61st session beginning next September. Her election in the assembly hall was attended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa. "I am particularly pleased that we do have a woman president for the first time since 1969. I met her and I found here quite impressive. All member states are determined to work with her and to support her. I think she is going to bring a new dimension to the work here and we should all be happy that she has been elected," Annan told reporters following the election. Security Council President Ellen Margrethe Loj of Denmark told reporters "it is very important to have a female president of the General Assembly for the gender balance and especially for one from the Middle East region. All females working at the UN will enjoy that."

The Princess Who Was King. [Egypt] Pieced together from dozens of works of art and hieroglyphic texts carved between 1479 and 1458 B.C., the story of Hatshepsut, the princess who was crowned as a king, reads like a Shakespearean plot. It is the subject of an admirable show on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art until July 9, punctuated by some of the most breathtaking masterpieces of Egyptian art. Few apart from Egyptologists had heard the name "Hatshepsut," which narrowly escaped erasure from history when systematic havoc was wreaked about 20 years after her death on the statues immortalizing her strikingly beautiful features. History sheds no light on the enigma. In the remarkable exhibition book "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh" - edited by Catherine Roehrig, Renee Dreyfus and Cathleen Keller - Ann Macy Roth in her essay on Hatshepsut's predecessors notes that the king in ancient Egypt was seen as a manifestation of the male god Horus. He therefore had to be hailed as a man - which did not preclude women from ruling. Princesses had already exercised power as the "King's Mother." Two queens in the Old Kingdom, both named Khentkawes, associated this title with the phrase "King of Upper and Lower Egypt." Hatshepsut, the widow of Pharaoh Thutmose II, did not have that latitude. Having installed on the throne the young son of Thutmose II by another wife called Isis, Hatshepsut at first ruled on the young's boy's behalf as "God's Wife." These words referred to her role in the temple of the supreme sun god Amun-Re. Scholars believe that the regent queen was forced to assert her legitimacy in unknown circumstances about seven years later, and then felt the need to assume the titles given to a king.

Women Prepare to Vote in Parliamentary Polls. [Kuwait] Kuwait's parliamentary elections on June 29 will not be as pale as they once were. Casting ballots alongside men wearing dishdashas - long white robes – will be women in black cloaks or colorful, modern clothing. For the first time ever, Kuwaiti women will be allowed to vote in full legislative polls. In May 2005, Kuwait's 50 male MPs finally dropped resistance to women's suffrage and their right to run for political office, which the oil-rich Gulf emirate's ruling al-Sabah family wanted to grant six years earlier. It is unlikely that any of the 30 female candidates will prevail against the approximately 310 men who are running, however. Although women comprise 57 per cent of Kuwait's 340,000 eligible voters, the winners of recent elections have been mainly Islamists and candidates with tribal backing. Less than 30 per cent of eligible women voters cast ballots in a Kuwaiti council by-election in April. Two women were in the running, Kuwait's first female political candidates. The turnout was said to be low at least in part because conservative Muslim women did not want to remove their veils and show their faces to male judges for identification purposes.

After Long Wait, Women Campaign. [Kuwait] After years of waiting, Kuwaiti women suddenly have the chance to run for parliament. Now they're rushing to sell voters in this conservative nation on the idea of female politicians. Elections had been scheduled for summer 2007, the first since women were given the right to vote and run for office in 2005. But on May 21, Kuwait's ruler, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah, dissolved the all-male 50-member parliament because of a rowdy dispute over election laws and ordered early elections June 29. Women who thought they had more than a year to plan their campaigns had only five weeks. "The advantage is that we will be working and concentrating harder," said Fatima al-Abdali, who submitted her application to run on the first day of registration last week. The elections department at the Interior Ministry said the 340,000 eligible voters include about 195,000 women - or 57 percent. So far, 17 women have registered as candidates. However, many believe that women in this traditional society will cast their ballots according to the wishes of their husbands, fathers and brothers along tribal, sectarian and family lines.

Free Flights for Female Voters. [Kuwait] Al-Jazeera, a Kuwaiti airline, has announced it will give Kuwaiti women living abroad free flight tickets ahead of the parliamentary elections, the online news portal Elaph is reporting. The parliamentary elections in Kuwait are slated for June 29, and for the first time women are allowed to vote and be elected. Kuwaiti women in Dubai, Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon and Syria will be able to return to Kuwait on June 28 and 29. We are proud to support this magnificent event, in which Kuwaiti women will be able to participate through this initiative,” Al-Jazeera Chairman Marwan Boudi told Elaph. Granting women political rights is yet another step towards freedom, Boudi added,

Women Candidates Fight On Despite Threats. [Kuwait] First came a letter carrying a stern warning: "Quit the race, or else". Next, unidentified attackers cut up and sprayed insults over campaign billboards. But Aisha al-Rushaid -- one of 32 women making history by running in Kuwait's June 29 elections -- vows to pursue her quest for a seat in parliament by taking part in the first general election since the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab oil producer granted female suffrage in 2005. Rushaid is one of several female candidates who have received threats or seen their billboards mutilated during the campaign to elect a new 50-seat house to replace the all-male parliament dissolved by the emir last month. A journalist and businesswoman in her forties, Rushaid says she hopes to win one of the two seats up for grabs in Kaifan district, a stronghold of ultra-conservative Islamists who follow a strict interpretation of sharia and say it is un-Islamic for women to run for office. "This is war, they want Aisha to quit the race," said campaign worker Hamad al-Enezi, referring to what he called a concerted sabotage effort. At least two other female candidates said their billboards had been mutilated, including Fatima al-Abdali, one of two women running in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim Shaab area. She said rivals who felt threatened by her might be behind the vandalism.