Islamic scholars to decide role of women in Afghanistan, says senior Taliban member

A senior Taliban leader has said that the role of women in Afghanistan, including their right to work and education and how they should dress, would ultimately be decided by a council of Islamic scholars.

"Our ulema (scholars) will decide whether girls are allowed to go to school or not," Waheedullah Hashimi, who has access to the group's decision-making, told Reuters.

"They will decide whether they should wear hijab, burqa, or only (a) veil plus abaya or something, or not. That is up to them." 

The hijab is usually a scarf covering the head, the burqa is an all-enveloping robe while the abaya is a robe that leaves the face uncovered. 

On Tuesday, the Taliban's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told a news conference in Kabul that women would be allowed to work and study and "will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam."

During their 1996-2001 rule, also guided by Islamic law, the Taliban stopped women from working. Girls were not allowed to go to school and women had to wear burqas to go out, and then only when accompanied by a male relative.

Those who broke the rules sometimes suffered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban's religious police.

Western leaders have said they will judge the new Taliban by their actions, including how they treats girls and women.

"We will judge this regime based on the choices it makes, and by its actions rather than by its words, on its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access, and the rights of girls to receive an education," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday.

"People in Afghanistan 99.99% are Muslims and they believe in Islam," Hashimi said. "When you believe in laws, definitely you should apply that law. We have a council, a very prominent council of Ulema. They will decide what to do." 

Despite its surge across Afghanistan in recent weeks, Hashimi said even the Taliban had not expected to enter Kabul so soon. But chaos ensued in the capital after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, he said. 

"Therefore our leadership ordered our Taliban to Kabul city. There was no one to resist. No one at all. So we entered and everything was laid kind of empty. So we occupied and now we are in control of Kabul city." (Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

-reuters-

Afghan women forced from banking jobs as Taliban take control

In early July, as Taliban insurgents were seizing territory from government forces across Afghanistan, fighters from the group walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women working there to leave.

The gunmen escorted them to their homes and told them not to return to their jobs. Instead, they explained that male relatives could take their place, according to three of the women involved and the bank's manager.

 "It's really strange to not be allowed to get to work, but now this is what it is," Noor Khatera, a 43-year-old woman who had worked in the accounts department of the bank told Reuters.

"I taught myself English and even learned how to operate a computer, but now I will have to look for a place where I can just work with more women around."

The incident is an early sign that some of the rights won by Afghan women over the 20 years since the hardline Islamist militant movement was toppled could be reversed.

The Taliban have steadily overrun the country since US troops began withdrawing in May and the insurgents entered the capital on Sunday.

When they last ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, women could not work, girls were not allowed to attend school and women had to cover their face and be accompanied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes.

Women who broke the rules sometimes suffered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban's religious police under the group's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

During hitherto fruitless talks over a political settlement in recent years, Taliban leaders made assurances to the West that women would enjoy equal rights in accordance with what was granted by Islam, including the ability to work and be educated.

'THE WORLD SHOULD HELP US'

Two days after the episode at Azizi Bank, a similar scene played out at a branch of another Afghan lender, Bank Milli, in the western city of Herat, according to two female cashiers who witnessed it.

Three Taliban fighters carrying guns entered the branch, admonishing female employees for showing their faces in public. Women there quit, sending male relatives in their place.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to a request for comment about the two incidents. Spokespeople for the two banks did not respond to requests for comment.

On the broader question of whether women would be allowed to work in banks in areas it controls, Mujahid added that no decision had yet been made.

"After the establishment of the Islamic system, it will be decided according to the law, and God willing, there will be no problems," he said.

The United States and others Western powers fear that the Taliban will roll back many of the freedoms won by women.

Gains made in women's right have been touted as one of the biggest accomplishments during the 20 years that US-led forces have been deployed in Afghanistan, although they have mostly been made in urban centres.

Afghan women working in fields including journalism, healthcare and law enforcement have been killed in a wave of attacks since peace talks began last year between the Taliban and the US-backed Afghan government.

The government blames most targeted killings on the Taliban, who deny carrying out assassinations.

"The Taliban will regress freedom at all levels and that is what we are fighting against," an Afghan government spokesperson said.

"Women and children are suffering the most and our forces are trying to save democracy. The world should understand and help us."

Scores of educated Afghan women took to social media to appeal for help and express their frustration.

"With every city collapsing, human bodies collapse, dreams collapse, history and future collapse, art and culture collapse, life and beauty collapse, our world collapses," Rada Akbar wrote on Twitter. "Someone please stop this." 

(Reporting by Rupam Jain in Mumbai; Writing by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Mike Collett-White and Philippa Fletcher)

-reuters-

Virus fears, violence hit International Women's Day rallies

PARIS — Tens of thousands took to the streets across the globe to mark International Women's Day on Sunday despite many events in Asia being canceled because of the new coronavirus outbreak, and attacks on women at some events in Europe and Asia.

Women were attacked at events in Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan, police fired tear gas at women marching in Turkey and some politicians condemned what they said was police violence at a women's rally in Paris.

Some women who marched in ultra-conservative Pakistan came under attack with stones and sticks, reflecting the movement's challenge in a society where females are still put to death under ancient "honor" codes.

And in Kyrgyzstan, masked men attacked one rally in the capital Bishkek, tearing up placards carried by the participants, police arrested dozens of demonstrators.

A police spokesman said they were detained for their own safety.

In Turkey, Istanbul police fired tear gas to stop hundreds of women marching on the city's central avenue after the authorities banned the march for the second year running.

'UNACCEPTABLE VIOLENCE' 

In France, topless Femen activists, wearing protective glasses and masks, gathered at Place de la Concorde in Paris to denounce "the patriarchal pandemic," despite the best efforts of police to control them. 

"Who's doing the washing up?" they chanted. "We are making a revolution."

But rights groups and politicians denounced what they said was police violence at a women's march in Paris the night before, after scuffles broke out and police arrested nine people.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, currently seeking re-election, said she was shocked by the "unacceptable and incomprehensible" violence and expressed her solidarity with the demonstrators.

Some women tweeted pictures of marchers left battered and bruised, prompting Europe Ecology-The Greens party secretary Julien Bayou to blast what he termed "absolutely unjustifiable police violence".

In China, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, state broadcaster CCTV highlighted the work of female medical workers on the frontlines in the fight against the virus. 

Despite growing fears over the worsening epidemic, marches went ahead in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

A women's marathon planned in India was postponed over virus concerns.

In South Korea, where more than 7,000 virus infections make it the hardest-hit country outside China, several events were cancelled. 

"Although we can't be physically together, our minds for realizing gender equality are stronger than ever," the country's gender equality minister Lee Jung-Ok said in a video message.

'VIOLENCE AND POVERTY GETTING WORSE' 

In Bangkok, protesters called for improved labor protections amid the epidemic that has infected dozens in Thailand, and greater rights under a military-aligned government. 

Hundreds of women and men rallied in the Philippine capital Manila, burning a giant effigy of President Rodrigo Duterte -- whom they accuse of misogyny -- to mark the day.

"The violence and poverty among women are getting worse," Joms Salvador of women's group Gabriela told AFP.

Women also turned out in force in Iraq and Lebanon.

There were rallies too in Mexico, which has long battled deep-rooted violence against women. Women marched in the capital Mexico City, but also in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the scene of a string of murders of women.

Thousands marched in the Spanish capital Madrid, and thousands more in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.

In Peru, women demonstrated in the capital Lima calling for legal abortion, better working conditions and an end to violence against women.

In Sudan, women demonstrated outside the justice ministry in the capital Khartoum on Sunday, calling for an end to discriminatory laws.

In Brazil, several women marched against the policies of the country's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

"The government's policies have consisted of taking away the rights of women workers," 35-year-old Marcela Azevedo, with the group Women in Combat, told AFP.

Agence France-Presse 

Women who have more sex have lower risk of early menopause: scientists

LONDON - Women who have sex at least once a month have a lower risk of entering menopause early than women with less active sex lives, scientists have found in research which they say points to a form of biological energy trade-off.

A study of data from almost 3,000 women in the United States showed that those who said they had sexual activity weekly or more frequently - including intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching or self-stimulation - were 28% less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age than women who said they had sex less than once a month.

“If a woman is not having sex, and there is no chance of pregnancy, then the body ‘chooses’ not to invest in ovulation, as it would be pointless,” said Megan Arnot, a PhD candidate at University College London (UCL) who co-led the research.

She said the findings lend weight to the idea that the human menopause originally evolved to reduce reproductive conflict between generations of females, and to allow older women to increase their fitness through investing in their grandchildren.

Women are more susceptible to disease during ovulation because their immune systems are depressed during this time.

Arnot said the apparent “biological trade-off” is that it would be pointlessly costly to invest energy in the ovulation process if a women is having little or no sex and is hence unlikely to fall pregnant, so the body diverts energy resources into protecting and caring for existing offspring.

“The menopause is, of course, an inevitability for women, and there is no behavioral intervention that will prevent reproductive cessation,” said Ruth Mace, a professor of anthropology at UCL who worked on the study with Arnot.

“Nonetheless, these results are an initial indication that menopause timing may be adaptive in response to the likelihood of becoming pregnant,” she said

The research was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science and was based on data from the U.S. Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, also known as the SWAN study.

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MRIs can better detect cancer in women with dense breasts: study

Many women who have mammograms get normal results that come with a caveat: They are told they have dense breast tissue, which can make their scans harder to read and could leave cancer undetected.

Sometimes those patients are advised to follow up by getting ultrasounds or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, but for many, it is unclear what their next step should be.

Now, a new study provides strong evidence that supplemental MRIs are more effective in finding tumors in these women than mammograms alone.

The study, of more than 40,000 women with extremely dense breasts in the Netherlands, found that those who had mammograms followed by MRIs had more tumors detected than with mammography alone. The research also found that those who had MRIs were less likely to find a cancerous lump in between routine screenings; by the time tumors are big enough to be felt, they tend to be more advanced.

The study, the first large randomized controlled trial of supplemental MRIs in women with dense breasts, was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

Just under half of women over the age of 40 have dense breasts, which means their breasts have more connective and fibrous tissue than usual and relatively less fat. Women with dense breast tissue have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women with more fatty breast tissue.

Dr. Wendie Berg, a professor of radiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and chief scientific advisory for DenseBreast-info.org, said the study’s finding were “very important.”

“The standard practice of mammography alone is not adequate for women with extremely dense breasts,” Berg said, adding that her own cancer was detected early enough to require minimal treatment because her family history led her to seek an MRI.

“Women should be advocating for increased access to screening MRI,” she said.

But though the study results were significant, it is still unclear whether supplementing mammograms with MRIs ultimately reduces breast cancer deaths.

“The ultimate test of the value of MRI screening” in these women will be “whether it improves survival — an answer that we will not have for a very long time,” cautioned Dr. Dan L. Longo, a deputy editor of the New England Journal and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, in an editorial accompanying the study.

For all the promise, there is also a downside to using MRIs for breast cancer screening: They yield many false positive results that lead to unnecessary biopsies, and they can detect very early stage tumors that might never become life-threatening, said Carla van Gils, senior author of the study and a professor of clinical epidemiology at University Medical Center Utrecht.

Nevertheless, van Gils said, the significant reduction in interval cancers — cancers that are diagnosed after a negative mammogram — suggests supplementary MRIs may be a lifesaving tool for women with dense breasts.

“It’s not the same as mortality, but it’s the first step. It’s a prerequisite,” she said, adding that the study is ongoing, and mathematical models will be run to make further predictions about mortality and overdiagnosis. “There are more questions that need to be answered.”

Only about 10% of women have extremely dense tissue like the women in the Dutch study. But having dense breast tissue generally makes it harder to see tumors on a mammogram because both the dense tissue and the tumors show up white on an X-ray. Fat, on the other hand, shows up black, so tumors are easily seen.

The Dutch study, called DENSE (Dense Tissue and Early Breast Neoplasm Screening), is a multi-center, randomized controlled trial of 40,373 women between the ages of 50 and 75 in the Netherlands, all of whom have extremely dense breast tissue and had a normal screening mammogram. Scientists randomly invited 8,061 of the women to undergo a supplemental MRI, while the remaining 32,312 had only the mammography.

Though only 59% of the women invited to have an MRI accepted the offer and had the additional screening, 16.5 additional cancers were detected for every 1,000 women who had an MRI.

That in itself was not surprising and had been demonstrated by earlier studies. The researchers were more interested in another question: Did the supplemental MRI screening catch so-called interval cancers that would become symptomatic before the next routine screening, two years hence?

Their analysis found that it did. Among the women in the study who had an MRI, the rate of interval cancer detection was 0.8 interval cancers per 1,000, far less than the rate of interval cancers in the mammography-only group, which was five per 1,000.

Many states now require that women having mammograms be informed that their breast tissue is dense when they get the results, and the Food and Drug Administration is developing similar guidelines. But there is little to no guidance on what women given the information should do about it. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not recommend routine use of additional tests after mammography in women who do not have symptoms or other risk factors, though many patients are referred for a supplemental scan.

“The takeaway is that there is no one perfect screening test, and each patient’s perspective on the best course of treatment needs to be considered,” said Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder of breastcancer.org, an educational resource for patients.

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Thousands rally worldwide against abuse of women

PARIS - Tens of thousands have rallied across the world to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as France unveiled new measures to combat domestic violence.

Demonstrators on Monday gathered in countries as diverse as Guatemala, Russia, Sudan and Turkey, where riot police in Istanbul blocked the path of roughly 2,000 protesters before firing tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse them.

The French government announced it would make it easier for doctors to share information on vulnerable women and write into law the concept of psychological "entrapment", following massive rallies in France over the weekend.

Roughly 87,000 women and girls were murdered across the world in 2017, according to the United Nations.

Monday's rallies -- animated by growing anger over the failure of justice systems to punish offenders -- follow a weekend of protests against what is being termed femicide.

Crowds marched through the streets of Moscow to highlight the government's failure to pass laws protecting women, and hundreds of Sudanese women chanted "freedom, peace and justice" as they gathered in Khartoum in the first such protest in decades.

In Mexico City, masked demonstrators with sledgehammers smashed glass panes of bus stops, spray-painted monuments and clashed with riot police Monday to protest authorities' failure to halt soaring rates of femicide and rape in the country.

'Sexist, patriarchal attitudes'

Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in Madrid on Monday evening following a weekend of protests. Spain's long-standing laws against gender violence have not halted the problem -- 52 women have been killed by their partners or ex-partners since the start of 2019.

South Africa has one of the worst records of any country on gender violence and the government has faced several rounds of mass protests on the issue.

President Cyril Ramaphosa used Monday's events to launch a campaign to improve victims' access to justice and urge men to drop their "sexist and patriarchal attitudes".

The UN warned that more action was needed around the world, singling out Afghanistan as a country where too little is done to counter sexual violence and rape.

And in a rare move, global police cooperation agency Interpol launched an international appeal to find eight men suspected of murdering or committing violence against women.

'Electric shock'

The French government is among those to face sustained pressure for reform -- at least 117 women have been killed by their partner or former partner since the start of the year, according to a count by AFP, compared with 121 women last year. 

Also, 213,000 women have suffered physical or sexual violence carried out by their partner or ex-partner, according to the latest official figures. 

The lights of the Eiffel Tower were switched off for one minute at midnight to mark the day.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he hoped his new measures would deliver an "electric shock" by focusing on ending "absurdities" and "dysfunctional aspects" in the law.

He said the measures, to be put to parliament in January, would be backed by 360 million euros ($400 million) of additional funding.

Advocates for women's rights broadly welcomed Philippe's announcement but called for more concrete help.

"What is needed is to bolster special measures such as offering sanctuary and then supporting the victims," said Francoise Brie, who heads the National Federation of Women's Solidarity.

Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa promised that the new measures would be funded, but also stressed in a newspaper interview that the "fight against marital violence is not just a question of money".

An AFP examination this month of every case of femicide in France showed how the justice system had failed to act in the face of warning signs of the potential for violence.

But in an open letter Monday, more than a dozen top French judges urged women to keep faith in a system that is "improving and adapting itself."

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First Saudi woman driver to race car in kingdom

DIRIYAH, Saudi Arabia—Sliding behind the wheel of a sleek electric SUV, Reema Juffali is set to blaze a trail in male-dominated motor sports as the first Saudi woman to race in the kingdom.

Such adrenaline rushes were unimaginable for women in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom until June last year, when it overturned the world's only ban on female motorists as part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's wide-ranging liberalization drive.

Juffali, a 27-year-old who made her motoring debut just months after the decades-old ban ended, will compete Friday and Saturday in the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY, an all-electric race in Diriyah, close to the capital Riyadh.

"The ban was lifted last year and I never expected to race professionally," said Juffali, sitting in her black-and-green Jaguar I-Pace, an electric sports utility vehicle.

"The fact that I am doing it... is amazing," Juffali, clad in a racing suit, told AFP in an interview close to the racing circuit in Diriyah.

Juffali, who hails from the western city of Jeddah and was educated in the United States, will participate as what organizers call a "VIP" guest driver, becoming the first Saudi woman to race on home soil.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's sports authority chief, has touted it as a "watershed" moment for the kingdom.

"Reema will have thousands cheering her on, as a professional racing driver," the prince told AFP.

Juffali, who made one of her first appearances in competitive racing at the F4 British Championship at Brands Hatch in April, has only about a year of professional racing experience under her belt.

But she has had a passion for fast cars since her teenage years and grew up watching Formula One.

She passed her driving test after she moved to the United States to study some years ago, and is now one of only a handful of Saudi woman to have obtained a "racing licence" in her home country, a mandatory requirement to race professionally.

Even outside the Kingdom, only a few Saudi women have raced professionally.

"For a lot of women who haven't had the opportunity to learn how to drive, to get behind the wheel is definitely something scary," explained Juffali.

"For a lot of women in Saudi it's something so far away."

Juffali said her dream is to one day race at Le Mans—a 24 hour competition in France that is one of the world's most prestigious and gruelling competitions.

In Riyadh she will be racing against the season's veterans but will not score any points.

THRILL OF SPEED

Prince Mohammed has sought to shake off his country's ultra-conservative image by allowing greater freedoms for women, including easing so-called "guardianship" rules that give men arbitrary authority over female relatives.

But alongside reforms he has also overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent.

Around a dozen women activists who long campaigned for the right to drive are on trial after being arrested last year, sparking widespread condemnation.

Some allege they were tortured and sexually harassed by interrogators; Saudi authorities deny the allegations.

The driving reform has been transformative for many Saudi women, freeing them from dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives.

Newly mobile Saudi women are now embracing what was previously deemed a male entitlement—fast cars.

Many are defying the perception that only dainty cars in bright colors are popular with women drivers.

Auto showrooms tapping women clients have rolled out a line-up of cherry red Mini Coopers, but sales professionals say many exhibit an appetite for muscle cars like the Chevrolet Camaro or the Mustang convertible.

Some women are taking up drifting—oversteering the car to slip and skid or even spin, and other high-speed daredevilry—which is illegal in public but tolerated in the controlled environment of some theme parks.

Clad in skinny jeans and Harley-Davidson T-shirts, some women are also training to ride motorbikes at a Riyadh driving school, a scene that is still a stunning anomaly in the conservative petro-state.

"Many (people) are surprised by all the changes happening in Saudi," said Juffali.

"Seeing me in a car, racing... For a lot of people it's a surprise, but I am happy to surprise people."

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Vagina Museum opens in London, attracting all generations

Inside the winding alleyways of London’s Camden Market, past walls of combat boots, money exchanges and bustling food vendors, a small white sign announces the presence of the complex’s newest tenant: the Vagina Museum.

On Saturday, during its grand opening, the humble brick space — dedicated to understanding and appreciating the vagina, vulva and gynecological anatomy — was packed, mostly with women but from all generations. I heard visitors exchange confessions like “I didn’t know what a period was until I had one” and “I used to think that all vulvas look the same.” Topics of discussion that are often reduced to hushed tones in public spaces, if they are brought up at all, were thrown around with ease and enthusiasm.

“It’s almost like there’s an embargo in society around having very open, frank, honest and educational conversations around vaginas,” said Marissa Conway, 30, who is a founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy and who attended the opening. “I didn’t expect to have a visceral reaction of gratitude, but there’s an element of relief that we can talk about this.”

The museum is the first of its kind, an answer of sorts to Iceland’s Phallological Museum. With nearly 300 penises and penile parts from local animals, the specimen-rich institution ranks among Reykjavik’s top tourist attractions. While this monument to male genitalia is in many ways an orthodox museum that revolves around a permanent collection of “marvels,” the Vagina Museum is not. Like the city’s Migration Museum, which is focused on the country’s immigrants and refugees, and the Museum of Transology, which purports to be the largest collection dedicated to the lives of transgender people, the Vagina Museum is an institution whose mission is driven by social justice and public health initiatives.

Those expecting to see ancient fertility sculptures, medieval chastity belts or Victorian-era vibrators on display should know that the young, crowd-funded venture includes no such artifacts. At the Vagina Museum, visitors will discover informational posters and sculptures, a small shop with vaginally themed products, and an events calendar that includes a dinner for Trans Day of Remembrance and “Cliterature” (book club) meetings.

“It was much smaller than I anticipated, which was disappointing,” said Seren Mehmet, 28, a technical recruiter at Amazon. “I wanted to see more vaginas!”

The museum has secured a two-year lease on its Camden Market lot, but after that, there are plans for expansion. “The ultimate goal is to build a permanent museum, but that takes a lot of time and resources. This is like our starter home,” said the museum’s founder and director, Florence Schechter, in a phone interview before the opening. The debut show, “Muff Busters: Vagina Myths and How to Fight Them,” is intentionally general and instructive. “I think it’s especially useful for younger people, because most of the time we have to figure this stuff out ourselves,” said Jade Dagwell Douglas, 22, who is a student in London.

“The anatomy has such complex politics around it, that we found it was best to first engage people through what they know, so we can teach them things they don’t know,” said Sarah Creed, the museum’s curator. “Menstruation, cleanliness, sexual activity and contraception are things that a majority of people have discussed in some format, or experienced in some way.” The exhibit addresses all of those topics.

“We can talk about cold, hard facts all we want, but that’s not going to change people’s minds. It’s all about unpacking social constructs and changing perspective through engagement,” Creed said.

Charlotte Wilcox, who illustrated the posters in the exhibit, said it was her job to “be as inclusive as possible” in bringing these myths to life. Rini Jones, 25, a policy and advocacy adviser in London, was “pleasantly surprised” by the exhibit. “I was really skeptical of the show as an activist, queer woman and woman of color,” she said. “There’s a really pervasive and unhelpful equation of women’s rights with often exclusively pink and, by association, white vaginas, in a way that is really trivializing and exclusionary.”

Despite outraging some trolls, team members say they have been pleasantly surprised by the Vagina Museum’s reception. Their biggest challenges are on the internet, where their content is often censored for violating community guidelines.

“It’s not a human problem as much as it is an issue with algorithms, which are set to assume anything with the world vagina in it is adult content or porn,” said Zoe Williams, the museum’s development and marketing manager. “Our emails go to spam and our online ads get rejected, and it’s all because of stigma,” Schechter added. “We’ve had to rely on organic reach.”

My most pressing memory of the visit is not the information gleaned but rather how comfortable I felt in the space. It’s evident the Vagina Museum is striving to make male, transgender and intersex visitors feel just as welcome and included. The word “woman" is used sparingly in wall text, and “Muff Busters” eagerly states that a vagina does not a woman make. One of its central messages is that dismantling gynecological taboos is not a gendered issue.

“This is everyone’s dialogue,” Creed said. “By segregating the issue, we only perpetuate it.”


2019 The New York Times Company

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Financial Times names first woman top editor

For the first time in its long history, The Financial Times will be led by a woman.

On Tuesday, the daily known for its robust coverage of international markets, its distinctive salmon-hued paper and its impenetrable digital paywall, announced that Roula Khalaf will be its top editor, starting in January. Khalaf, a 24-year veteran of the newspaper, which has its headquarters in London, will succeed Lionel Barber, a Financial Times journalist since the 1980s and its editor since 2005.

Barber, 64, said in an interview Tuesday that he had consulted with the newspaper’s owners about a transition for more than a year. “You mustn’t see this as some kind of ‘woke’ gesture — it’s got nothing to do with that,” he said. “She is one of our most outstanding journalists. She’s been deputy editor for 4 years, she’s been tested in all sorts of areas, and that’s why she’s the next editor.”

The newspaper, which was founded in 1888 and has a paid circulation of 1 million, including digital and print subscribers, declined to make Khalaf available for an interview. In a statement Tuesday, she said, “It’s a great honor to be appointed editor of The FT, the greatest news organization in the world.”

Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, and educated in the United States at Syracuse University and Columbia University, Khalaf has served as the publication’s Middle East editor, foreign editor and deputy editor. Before joining The Financial Times, she wrote for Forbes magazine, where she made waves with a feature article on Jordan Belfort, the shady stockbroker who became known as the wolf in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film, “The Wolf of Wall Street.” A character based on Khalaf appears in the movie.

Khalaf returned to the subject of Belfort in a 2014 Financial Times article, writing, “I am the journalist who in the movie wrote the 1991 ‘hatchet job’ on Belfort and his respectably named but disreputable Stratton Oakmont outfit. My character — I was a Forbes reporter when I wrote the profile — gets a few seconds’ play, followed by a scene in which Belfort is infuriated by my story. I had described him as sounding like a twisted version of Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers. That was rather charitable since he was also probably fleecing widows and orphans.”

During his 14-year tenure as top editor, Barber guided the newspaper through a decline in the industry, as well as its sale four years ago from Pearson, the British media company, to Nikkei, the Japanese financial news publisher, for $1.3 billion.

He noted that he had traveled in the Middle East with Khalaf, interviewing the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2013 and, in 2015, visiting Mohammed bin Salman, then Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince.

Barber’s legacy will include presiding over the newspaper as it reoriented its business model to be focused on circulation revenue — subscribers paying for access. Many legacy media news organizations, including The New York Times, have made this move in recent years. The Financial Times was among the pioneers, instituting an online paywall as early as 2007.

“We said, ‘We’re going to charge for content,’” Barber said. “By saying that, and also raising prices, that was a message to the outside market that we’re worth it. But it was also an incredibly powerful message to the newsroom: ‘Now we’re really going to have to be the very best.’”


2019 The New York Times Company

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'History unfolds': NASA streams first spacewalk by all-female team

WASHINGTON - The first-ever spacewalk with an all-female team began Friday, footage broadcast by NASA showed.

US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir's mission to replace a power controller outside the International Space Station officially began at 1138 GMT.

"Christina, you may egress the airlock," spacecraft communicator Stephanie Wilson told the two.

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IMF chief Georgieva tells women: Don't accept less!

WASHINGTON - Women around the world take on far more unpaid work than men but what they should never do is agree to a lower wage in the workplace, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said Tuesday.

She recounted her experience early in her career during the Soviet era, saying she did not know at the time she could bargain for better conditions.

To women of today she said: "Do not accept to be less paid than your colleague men, ever!"

The International Monetary Fund released a report on Tuesday which found that unpaid work "is a substantial part of economic activity that goes unmeasured and is shouldered disproportionally by women."

In fact, women do 2 hours more of unpaid work than men every day and even "in the most egalitarian countries in the world, women do at least 20 percent more unpaid work than men," notably chores around the home, the report said.

To address that issue, governments must invest in infrastructure, to provide water and electricity and internet access, but also provide services such as childcare and elder care, and improve education opportunities, to help women "replace unpaid work with paid work."

In more advanced economies, that means "implementing family-friendly policies such as parental leave and taxation of secondary earners, enhancing the efficiency of labor markets, and promoting flexible work arrangements."

But asked by one young woman how to achieve professional success, Georgieva offered no easy solutions:

"You have to be competent and to be more confident."

She also said quotas for hiring women in private firms were not a perfect solution "but it's pragmatic" since it could provide a faster path to gender equity in the workplace. Otherwise it will take a "very, very long time."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Saudi Arabia allows women to travel without male 'guardian' approval

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia will allow women to obtain passports and travel abroad without approval from a male "guardian", the government said Thursday, ending a longstanding restriction that drew heavy international criticism.

"A passport will be granted to any Saudi national who submits an application," said a government ruling published in the official gazette Umm Al Qura.

The regulation will be applicable to women over the age of 21, the pro-government Okaz newspaper and other local media reported, citing senior authorities.

Women in the kingdom have long required permission from their male "guardians" -- husband, father and other male relatives –- to marry, renew their passports or exit the country.

Women's rights activists have campaigned for decades against the guardianship system, which renders women as legal minors for their entire lives.

The decision comes amid a wide-ranging liberalization drive spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- the kingdom's de facto ruler -- that is aimed at transforming the conservative petro-state, long criticized for its treatment of women.

His reforms include the much-celebrated decision overturning the world's only ban on female motorists in June last year, allowing women to attend soccer games alongside men and take on jobs that once fell outside the narrow confines of traditional gender roles.

But while transforming the lives of many women, critics said the reforms will be cosmetic for many others until the kingdom abolishes the "guardianship" system that gives men arbitrary authority over their female relatives.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Topless sunbathing going out of fashion in France: survey

PARIS - Once widespread in France, topless sunbathing is going out of fashion, a survey has shown, with fears about harassment, body image and health seen as prompting a trend to cover up more at the beach.

Fewer than one in five Frenchwomen under 50 said they sported a "monokini", compared to 28 percent a decade ago and 43 percent in 1984, according to the survey by French pollster Ifop published Tuesday.

Young women aged 18 to 25 said harassment, criticism of their bodies and being ogled by men were their biggest barriers to going topless.

And while France may be the country of liberty, equality, and fraternity, Frenchwomen are shyer than their European neighbors about stripping off at the beach, compared to Spaniards (48 percent) and Germans (34).

But marketing and social media, rather than modesty, are to blame for the decline, said Camille Froidevaux-Metterie, a political science professor at Reims University and author of French-language book "Women's Bodies, the Battle of Intimacy".

"Women feel that their breasts don't look good enough, so they hide them," she told AFP.

"It's even worse today with social media and influencers. They participate in this commercial system which creates standards to prevent women from liking their bodies".

And while social movements can encourage body positivity, we "still have a long way to go", she said.

The poll for French site VieHealthy.com asked 5,026 women from France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom about their sunbathing habits in an online survey in April.

While women aged 18-25 were most worried about body image and pestering, Frenchwomen as a whole gave risk of sun damage as their biggest incentive to stay covered.

"This can be explained by the success of public health messages about the risks of sun," Ifop's Francois Kraus, who led the study, told French daily Le Parisien.

Women's beach attire is a contentious issue in France, with the heatwave currently stifling the country reigniting a row over the use of full-body Islamic burkini swimsuits. 

The burkini has divided France, which is the country with Europe's largest Muslim population but also has strict secular laws.

Increasing keenness to cover up has its limits, the survey suggests.

In response to the question, "Does it bother you to see a woman in a burkini on the beach?", 68 percent of French people said "yes".

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'DeepNude' app that 'undresses' women shut down after furor

WASHINGTON, United States—The creators of an application allowing users to virtually "undress" women using artificial intelligence have shut it down after a social media uproar over its potential for abuse.

The creators of "DeepNude" said the software was launched several months ago for "entertainment" and that they "greatly underestimated" demand for the app.

"We never thought it would be viral and (that) we would not be able to control the traffic," the DeepNude creators, who listed their location as Estonia, said on Twitter.

"Despite the safety measures adopted (watermarks), if 500,000 people use it, the probability that people will misuse it is too high. We don't want to make money this way."

Articles in The Washington Post, Vice and other media showed how the app could be used to take a photo of a clothed woman and transform that into a nude image, sparking outrage and renewed debate over nonconsensual pornography.

"This is a horrifically destructive invention and we hope to see you soon suffer consequences for your actions," tweeted the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a group that seeks protection against nonconsenual and "revenge" porn.

Mary Anne Franks, a law professor and president of the CCRI, tweeted later, "It's good that it's been shut down, but this reasoning makes no sense. The app's INTENDED USE was to indulge the predatory and grotesque sexual fantasies of pathetic men."

DeepNude offered a free version of the application as well as a paid version, and was the latest in a trend of "deepfake" technology that can be used to deceive or manipulate.

Although the app was shut down, critics expressed concern that some versions of the software remained available and would be abused.

"The #Deepnude app is out there now and will be used, despite the creator taking it off the market. If only there were a way to disable all the versions out there," CCRI tweeted.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Indian women's heads shaved for resisting rape

PATNA, INDIA - An Indian mother and her daughter had their heads shaved and were paraded through their village after resisting an attempted rape by men including a local official, police said Friday.

The world's largest democracy has an abysmal record on sexual crime against women, particularly in rural areas where the majority of the 1.3-billion population lives.

Ward councilor Mohommad Khurshid forcibly entered the women's home in the eastern state of Bihar on Wednesday with other men and allegedly attempted to rape the newly married 19-year-old daughter, police told AFP.

When she and her mother -- whose husband tries to make ends meet by begging -- resisted, they were both physically assaulted and Khurshid brought in the local barber to shave their heads, the elder woman told police.

"Until now only six accused in the case have been arrested. Police have been conducting raids to arrest others as they are absconding after the incident," local policeman Sanjay Kumar said.

The councilor and the barber were among those being held, with the case attracting national media coverage and opposition lawmakers hitting out at the state government.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Billionaire Buffett says women's place is in investing

OMAHA -- Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Saturday that women ought to have a higher profile in investing.

On the sidelines of the annual shareholders meeting of his Berkshire Hathaway empire in Omaha, Buffett made a surprise appearance at a gathering called Variant Perspectives, organized by a group of women financial professionals aiming to end the imbalance.

"It's long overdue," Buffet said of the goal.

"When someone calls me from the outside with an investment idea, I'm not going to ask what their sex is; it wouldn't make a difference," he added, stressing that: "The stock doesn't know who owns it."

Only 3 percent of investment funds in the United States are owned by women, according to Variant Perspectives.

Laura Rittenhouse, who started her own firm, said it's shocking that, with 60 percent of wealth in the United States in women's hands, they typically could not find a woman to handle their investment funds.

For Danielle Town, investor and founder of the Invested practice, a bi-weekly letter, women are often known to be less reactive and more successful financial managers.

"It's much more difficult to be a professional female investor than a man; but we also know that women's returns are better and yet they are not getting assets management positions," she said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Mississippi moves to ban abortion if heartbeat detectable

MIAMI - Lawmakers in the southeastern US state of Mississippi passed a bill Tuesday banning abortion of pregnancies where a heartbeat is detectable -- from six weeks -- as human rights groups vowed to fight the move.

The "Heartbeat Bill" makes exceptions for medical complications, but not for cases of incest or rape.

"Except when a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance with this section, no person shall perform an abortion on a pregnant woman before determining if the unborn human individual that the pregnant woman is carrying has a detectable fetal heartbeat," the law states.

In a tweet, Governor Phil Bryant said he looked forward to signing the bill into state law "very soon."

Elisabeth Smith, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the law would "ban abortion before most women know that they're pregnant."

Last year, the state passed another law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, but a judge blocked it before it was ruled in November that it violated women's rights.

"Already, Mississippi has a slew of abortion restrictions and only one abortion clinic, making it nearly impossible to access abortion before six weeks of pregnancy," Smith added in her statement.

Last week, the state of Kentucky passed a similar law banning abortion where a heartbeat is detectable, but it was immediately blocked by a judge.

And there was a similar scenario in Iowa -- that law was blocked in January.

Lawmakers in Tennessee and Georgia, both southeastern states, are considering their own versions of the "Heartbeat Bill."

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George and Amal Clooney on justice mission for women and gay people

EDINBURGH - Celebrity couple George and Amal Clooney said on Thursday they wanted to use their star power to push for justice globally for women, children, LGBT+ people, religious minorities, and journalists.

The 57-year-old Hollywood actor said some countries were using courts to do "really rotten things" and it was important to "shine a light" on where this was happening.

The couple's Clooney Foundation for Justice, set up in 2016, plans to this year launch, TrialWatch, a project to monitor trials and create an index to track which countries are using courtrooms to oppress minorities and government critics.

Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, said it was important to expose injustices and the countries using courts to target vulnerable people, human rights defenders, and press freedom.

"We now have the highest number of journalists in jail in the world since records began," she told a charity gala organized by the People's Postcode Lottery in Edinburgh.

The Clooneys, who married in 2014, said they were both committed to using their fame to raise awareness about human rights abuses and corruption.

Amal Clooney, 41, said her job was less glamorous than it might seem as it mainly involved piling through vast amounts of paperwork but their fame could be used to their advantage.

"It helps when we want to engage governments to act or business leaders," said the British-Lebanese lawyer.

Her actor husband also played down the glamour of fame, joking about being the father of one-year-old twins, but acknowledged that he had always been determined to use the public spotlight to do good.

"I didn't grow up wealthy," he said. "If you end up getting lucky, you should share that luck."

The Clooneys were in Scotland to collect an award from the People's Postcode Lottery for their humanitarian work.

Britain's People's Postcode Lottery is one of several charity lotteries set up in Europe since 1989 by the Netherlands-based social enterprise Novamedia.

The lottery awards cash prizes and also donates about 32 percent of sales to charity, which has totaled more than 400 million pounds ($530 million) since 2005.

The organization has given money to some of George Clooney's other charities and has also made a grant to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters.

($1 = 0.7602 pounds)

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In Canada, some moms say cannabis makes them better parents

MONTREAL, Canada - Smoking cannabis has made me "a better mother," says Karine Cyr.

The mother of 2 leads a group of like-minded Canadian women challenging norms and rejecting stigmas around parenting and pot since Ottawa legalized its recreational use last October.

They are tired, she says, of having to hide their use of the mind-altering drug from family, neighbors and others, and have set out to educate their peers about its benefits.

"People are not informed. They still think that when we use cannabis, we sit in front of our television eating pizza like teenagers," Cyr says.

"When I consume cannabis, I do housework, I play with my children. I am more patient with my children, more present. It helps me to be a better mother, a better person."

Doctors disagree. But her message has resonated with hundreds of members of her Des fleurs ma chere (Flowers my dear) Facebook group, which she created to share experiences and thoughts about pot.

The group includes "entrepreneurs, psychologists, models, photographers ... they are women from all walks of life," said "ganja yoga" instructor Cynthia Petrin, herself a member.

Another similar Facebook group, "Mother Mary," based in Montreal, has some 5,000 members. 

Sitting in her living room, the smell of marijuana lingering, Jordana Zabitsky, in her 30s, said she started "Mother Mary" in a bid to push back against "mommy shaming."

"I'm expected to work full time. I'm expected to be with my kids full time. I'm expected to have a clean house. I'm expected to have my bills paid on time. I'm expected to have my winter tires on on time," she says.

"I have so much on my shoulders -- I am only one person. The cannabis allows me to accomplish my daily tasks so much better!"

Canada's health ministry warns parents against consuming cannabis because of the risks of second-hand smoke, while warning it also "may reduce a person's ability to pay attention (to their child), make decisions or react to emergencies."

But Cyr argues that cannabis is a far better alternative than prescribed opioids or anti-depressants to treat anxiety or depression in new mothers.

"Moms feel lonely and do not know where to turn. They feel ashamed and afraid," echoed fellow pot proponent Annie-Claude Bertrand.

'FEMALE VIAGRA'

Cyr began using cannabidiol (CBD) oil, made from a non-psychoactive compound in cannabis plants, after her second pregnancy to relax.

She refused to take opioids prescribed by her doctor that made her feel like a "zombie."

"I wasn't sleeping, I had big sleep disorders, (but) the first time I took CBD oil, I slept through the night like I used to," she said.

According to the government statistical agency, 12 percent of Canadian women have used cannabis, compared to 19 percent of the total Canadian population.

And several studies show that the drug's popularity among women in both Canada and the United States -- where several states have legalized it -- is growing fast. 

Marketers have even taken notice and started targeting their products specifically to women and young mothers.

For women, said Zabitsky, who admitted to consuming "micro-doses" during her first pregnancy and daily when she was pregnant with her second child, "the top question is, 'Can I use cannabis during pregnancy?'"

"Right before I went into labor, I smoked a really big joint, and it was fantastic. All my doctors knew," she says, assuring that her 3-year-old and 1-year-old children are healthy and "too smart" for their respective ages.

Doctor Antoine Kanamugire, however, says marijuana is not recommended during pregnancy because "THC, the psychoactive substance, will cross the placenta, so the baby will get 10 to 30 percent of the dose consumed by his mother."

"Cannabis can greatly influence the development of the central nervous system and the immune system of the fetus," said the author of "The 21 Unspoken Truths About Marijuana."

Cannabis also passes into breast milk.

Those warnings, however, have not dissuaded Zabitsky and the other mothers in her group, who note that a century of prohibition has had the effect of throttling research into cannabis.

In her living room, she unveils THC-infused butter, sweets, soaps and skin creams for her guests, while touting cannabis as good for women's libido.

"It's like Viagra for women," she says with a smile.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Saudi defends app allowing men to monitor women relatives

RIYADH - Saudi Arabia on Saturday defended a mobile app that allows men in the kingdom to track female relatives after rights groups and a US lawmaker criticized tech giants for offering it.

The Absher app provides services for "all members of the society... including women, the elderly, and people with special needs", the interior ministry said.

The free app is available on Android and Apple smartphones and allows users to renew passports, visas and eases a variety of other electronic services.

But critics have said the app enables abuse against women and girls by allowing men to track their movements.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told US National Public Radio earlier this week he had not heard of the app, but would "take a look at it".

US Senator Ron Wyden has called on both Apple and Google to remove the app, arguing on Twitter that it promotes "abusive practices against women".

Under Saudi law, women must have consent from a husband or immediate male relative to renew passports or leave the country.

The ministry criticized what it called a "systematic campaign aimed at questioning the purpose of the services".

It rejected what it described as "attempts to politicize" the tool.

This comes as Saudi Arabia faces intense scrutiny over the shocking murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, which has renewed criticism of the kingdom's rights record.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has garnered international attention with his rapid rise to power and promise of social and economic reforms.

But the kingdom has detained a number of human rights and women campaigners, some of them accused of undermining national security, with scant public information about their whereabouts or the legal status of their cases.

source: news.abs-cbn.com