- Former police officer Debra Hartley, who has been walking 225 miles from her home in Effort, Pennsylvania , arrived in Washington, DC Monday. Her mission is to raise awareness on sex bias that impacts women in law enforcement. Hartley hopes to meet with First Lady Michelle Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss policies that would address this issue. Hartley left her post in 2003 after filing complaints that she was treated differently than her male co-workers.
- After more than 60 years of fellowship, former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement last week announcing he is leaving the Southern Baptist Church due to their treatment of women.
- Judy Chu won the special election for California's 32nd Congressional District last Tuesday and was sworn in today as the first Chinese-American woman in Congress.
Iranian women's rights activist, lawyer and journalist Shadi Sadr was beaten and arrested by plainclothes police officers last week. Several men approached and seized Sadr without displaying a warrant, beat her with batons when she tried to escape before forcing her into a waiting car. Sadr founded Zanan-e Iran (Women of Iran), the first website dedicated to women's rights activism in Iran.
The 41st Bulgarian Parliament elected their first female speaker, Tsetska Tsacheva last week.
Natalia Estemirova, a journalist and human rights advocate in Chechnya was abducted from her home and killed last Wednesday. This is on the heels of an escalation in amount of human rights abuse in Chechnya where there has been at least 50 kidnappings and 4 deaths so far this year.
Last Friday, 13 Sudanese women were arrested and 10 flogged for wearing pants. The floggings occurred after the women were arrested by public order police enforcing Sharia law, which stipulates that women are expected to dress in traditional attire and Western-style clothing is frowned upon. The women were each fined, pled guilty and received lashes immediately.
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey and the Nepalese government released a budget for fiscal year 2009/2010 last week, which includes a cash incentive for men who marry widows.
Federal
Last week, the Obama administration filed a legal brief that reverses a Bush administration policy that prohibited battered women from seeking asylum in the US. The brief suggests that battered women are covered by the definition of refugees and asylees, however, the new policy of asylum will not protect women who are victims of genital mutilation.
Congresswomen and global health administrators held a briefing on Capitol Hill last Tuesday to highlight the issue of maternal health in Afghanistan. According to UNICEF, Afghanistan has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the world.
States
An Illinois law requiring parental notification before abortions for teenage girls was ruled constitutional by a federal appeals court in Chicago lasted Tuesday. Originally passed in 1984, the law mandates that physicians notify the parents at least 48 hours before the abortions of girls 17 or younger.
Photo courtesy of [sic!]ut.at on flikr.com
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