Women's Health

RIGHTS-THAILAND: Battered Women, No Longer Alone

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
The frequent telephone calls that a women's rights group in Bangkok receives are one of the many indicators of a dark side of this country known for its smiling, hospitable people.

CAMBODIA: ‘Beer Brands Ignoring Risks to Women Promoters’

By IPS Correspondents
The panel discussions and debates at a regional conference here on sexual health, on the weekend, were a world away from Channa and Sophea’s daily environment-the din of music, clients’ chatter and unwanted advances at the restaurant in Cambodia where they work as beer promoters.

HEALTH: Little Countries Show the Way

By Sanjay Suri
The Caribbean countries lead the few that have unexpectedly reversed the spread of AIDS, says a UN report released Monday.

PHILIPPINES: ‘Church, a Goliath Against Reproductive Health’

By IPS Correspondents
When Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told the U.N. General Assembly recently to "respect the deep Catholicism of the Filipino people" and said that natural family planning is more effective than artificial means like condoms, Filipino activists reacted with disbelief, others with anger.

WOMEN: What If Not Enough Are Around

By Sanjay Suri
A recommendation by a British parliamentary committee to allow a couple to select the sex of their child under certain circumstances is leading to new fears in Asian and African communities.

DEVELOPMENT: The Gender Factor to Be Raised

By IPS Correspondents
Gender experts will gather here this week for an international conference to examine how changing development policies are affecting efforts to promote gender equality and women's rights.

CULTURE: Malawians Pursue the “Bootylicious”

By Pilirani Semu-Banda
On a cool evening, a young woman who identifies herself as Yasmin swings her hips as she walks confidently from her living quarters at the University of Malawi campus, towards a hall where a disco is being held.

HEALTH-KENYA: Many Abortions, Too Little Contraception

By IPS Correspondents
Dubbed the "babies in bags" scandal, the discovery of 15 foetuses last year near a river in Nairobi horrified Kenya - and drew government assurances that illegal abortions would be brought to a halt.

POLITICS-US: Another Bush Disaster Nominee Assailed

By Jim Lobe
A month after President George W. Bush's national disaster chief resigned after bungling the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, his nomination of a right-wing Republican politician as the State Department's next director for refugee programmes is coming under sharp attack.

POPULATION-BRAZIL: Reaching Out to Young Men to Fight Gender Violence

By Mario Osava
Watching his mother receive frequent beatings at the hands of his stepfather, until she finally lost her hearing in one ear, made him a quiet teenager who keeps his gaze glued to the floor.

POPULATION: Better for Women Also Better for Men

By Sanjay Suri
Development needs a new boost - a change in male attitudes, says Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.

POPULATION-SOUTH AFRICA: “Men Must Work with Other Men”

By Moyiga Nduru
For Tukisang Senne, programme director at the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA), the battle to put men and women on an equal footing has to be waged on various fronts.

POPULATION: A Giant Leap From Rhetoric to Reality?

By Thalif Deen
The largest gathering of world leaders meeting at the United Nations last month declared that the international community must keep gender equality, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health at the top of the global agenda over the next decade.

POPULATION: In Tamil Nadu, Women Lead the War Against HIV

By IPS Correspondents
When a group of HIV-positive women dared go public with their health status at a modest function in early October, it was a revolution for this conservative town, famed for its ancient granite pagodas that speak of development in another millennium.

CULTURE: Hotugandans.com + Red Pepper = Controversy

By Evelyn Kiapi
The spread of the internet has opened Uganda to a vast array of trends and influences that would have had little effect in previous years. However, a good many citizens who have peered into this brave new world are not sure they like what they see - especially the two pornography sites featuring Ugandans that took the country by surprise recently.

DEVELOPMENT: Making Children the Sixth Pillar of Islam

By IPS Correspondents
The Islamic world, which encompasses nations as diverse in wealth and culture as Niger and Saudi Arabia, has some of the highest child mortality rates in the world, says a new report that calls on Islamic states to make children the focal point for greater unity and solidarity.

POPULATION: Bush Jihad Against UNFPA Enters Fourth Year

By Jim Lobe
For the fourth year in a row, U.S. President George W. Bush has refused to contribute to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), providing 25 million dollars of the 34 million dollars that Congress had earmarked for the agency to the child survival and health account of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

DEVELOPMENT-JAMAICA: The Power of One Woman Talking

By IPS Correspondents
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which will be under the global microscope for the next 10 years at least, are laudable, ambitious and necessary. For women's activist Carmen Griffiths, they are also largely irrelevant.

DEVELOPMENT: Sanitation, the Great Liberator?

By IPS Correspondents
A high-level focus on sanitation in sub-Saharan Africa could help fast-track the Millennium Development Goals and free women on the continent from a cycle of poverty, child mortality and low productivity.

DEVELOPMENT: Family Planning Subtracted From MDG Equation

By Thalif Deen
When the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were conceived by the United Nations about five years ago, the world body failed to single out the importance of a crucial socioeconomic factor in battling poverty and hunger: population growth.

DEVELOPMENT: Poverty Fight May Be Subverted at U.N. Summit

By Thalif Deen
The U.N. summit, billed as one of the largest single gatherings of world leaders, will prove to be an exercise in futility if its primary focus on poverty and hunger eradication is subverted by other extraneous political issues, according to development experts, senior U.N. officials and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
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