Women S Rights

Female activists in Iran scored a rare but significant victory this week when parliament decided to shelve legislation that they said would have reduced the rights of women in marriage. But on Tuesday, a court sentenced four of their leaders to prison. The four women were sentenced to six months for contributing to banned women's websites, Shirin Ebadi, their lawyer, told news outlets. They were identified as Mariam Hossein-khah, Nahid Keshavarz, Jelveh Javaheri and Parvin Ardalan.

Down on Deasy Re "On a mission to change school district's culture," April 8 In the 1980s I was a teacher in the L.A. Unified School District's Incentive Substitute Teacher Program, which was meant to ensure good instruction and classroom oversight in hard-to-staff schools. I can assure readers that "subbing" is one of the least-empowered positions in the district. That L.A. Unified Supt. John Deasy would walk into a classroom unannounced and criticize "well-regarded" substitute teacher Patrena Shankling as she "carried out the assignment left by the regular teacher," and then the next day send her a letter of termination, is nothing more than bullying.

Nearly 2,400 women converged on sacred Indian ground last weekend for the third WomenChurch conference, seeking a vision of unity amid a mosaic of cultural and religious expressions. Participants seemed to generally agree on the conference theme, "WomenChurch: Weavers of Change," but it was clear that the road to change, in this case, is paved with debate, introspection and self-criticism. Speakers at the April 16-18 gathering at Albuquerque's downtown convention center minced no words.

The Lives of Margaret Fuller A Biography John Matteson W.W. Norton: 510 pp., $32.95 Margaret Fuller didn't need to wear a meat dress to attract attention. This socially awkward New Englander, this unabashed questioner and critic, this woman of not just her time but every time since, was an individual of such soaring intellect and opinion that her contemporaries - Emerson, Thoreau, Greeley, Poe and Hawthorne among them - regarded her with varying degrees of respect and antipathy.

The central temple ceremony in the Mormon Church has been changed to eliminate the woman's vow to obey her husband and other elements that some members said were offensive and outdated. In the new version of the rites, women now pledge to obey God and to merely listen to the advice of their husbands.

Naila Ayesh's path to becoming a Muslim activist for women's rights began when she miscarried in an Israeli detention center in 1987 after being arrested for belonging to a Palestinian student union. Today Ayesh, 49, founder of the Gaza Strip-based Women's Affairs Center, has become one of the only feminist voices in the seaside territory that was seized three years ago by Hamas, an armed Palestinian group that aspires to impose Islamic law. Besides being married to Jamal Zakout, a top advisor to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority — Hamas' political rival that rules the West Bank — Ayesh also raises eyebrows in Gaza as she moves in public without covering her head and sometimes even partakes of a shisha water pipe.

Re "Laura Bush Emphasizes Women's Rights at Convention in Jordan," May 22: Isn't it a bit ironic that Laura Bush is speaking out for women's rights for Third World women at the World Economic Forum in Jordan while her husband is working hard to overturn hard-fought rights women have won here in America! It would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. Debbie Wright Rancho Santa Margarita

While I respect Frida Ghitis' intent to protect women's rights universally, her efforts are erroneously geared toward the Muslim world ("A Tragic Fire Unveils Saudi Arabia's Misogyny," Commentary, March 25). Muslim women are proud of their religion and their countries. Yet for some reason, some women of the West cannot get over the fact that these women cover their bodies instead of proudly flaunting their cleavage for the public. Let us be reminded that the tragedy is the deaths of these young girls and not who impeded their rescue.

Re "The ERA: still a bad idea," Current, April 8 Even after three years of law school and 10 years of practice, I am completely baffled by Phyllis Schlafly's analysis of the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment. On its face, the amendment did no more than prohibit the denial or abridgement of rights based on gender. Yet Schlafly insists that it "would actually have taken away some of women's rights." Nonsense. The ERA harbors no potential to subject women to military conscription (even assuming Congress were to reinstate the draft)

Re "Women and 'gendercide,' " Opinion, March 26 This reminds me of a bumper sticker I once saw: "If you're not outraged, you are not paying attention!" We need more activists like Somali-born Dutch legislator Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who lives with 24-hour protection because of death threats yet decides not to be silent on this important issue. If she can find the courage to stand for those who can't stand for themselves, we in our comfortable communities should be able to move mountains. Women's rights are perceived as something special that are given to women rather than basic human rights.

Battle of the sexes Re "Israel women fear setback," Nov. 13 Why is it that ultra-conservative religions, no matter which one, always get around to deciding that women need to be controlled? A caption for one of the article's photos reads, "Ultra-Orthodox leaders say segregation of the sexes in public places is needed to protect women from exploitation and men from temptation. " Conservative Muslims give the same reasons for forcing women to wear burkas; other religious groups here offer similar reasoning for insisting that women wear strange garb.

In a ruling seen as a setback for women's rights in Pakistan, the country's Supreme Court on Thursday freed five men accused of gang-raping a woman on the orders of a village council. In 2002, elders in the southern Punjab village of Meerwala decreed that Mukhtar Mai, 30 at the time, should be raped in retaliation for her 13-year-old brother's alleged relationship with a woman from a wealthier family. Because of the severe social stigma associated with rape in Pakistan, many victims commit suicide or do not file complaints.

Imagine you decided to have a medical procedure but state law said that, even though your doctor supported your decision, you had to be screened to see if you were mentally fit for it, and then had to go to a clinic that directly opposes doing the procedure and listen to its spiel before you could go ahead. Most of us would call that unconscionable interference in our ability to make decisions about our own health. Now imagine you're a pregnant woman in South Dakota. Under a law signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard last week, women who seek an abortion will have to wait 72 hours, undergo two visits to physicians to be checked for unspecified physical and mental risk factors, and be proselytized by an antiabortion counseling center before they can have the procedure.

Of all the astounding things that Rihab Assad has witnessed during these days of tumult, one stood out for her: the sight of a woman with a megaphone leading a crowd of demonstrators in chants. "And all of these men just chanting after her, repeating what she said," said Assad, an office manager in her 40s who lives in Cairo. "To me, this was something entirely new. " For many Egyptian women, the massive street demonstrations that have shaken the authoritarian rule of President Hosni Mubarak have also raised hopes of a more personal brand of liberation.

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted Thursday of raping an aide and sexually harassing two other women, a verdict hailed as evidence of the nation's independent judiciary and a reminder that no one is above the law. The case, one of the most serious ever brought against a high-ranking government official here, drove Katsav from office in 2007. Although the spectacle of a president being brought up on rape charges became a source of national embarrassment, many found solace in the judges' guilty verdict.

The unveiled one enters. That's what you notice first when Amal Basha, black hair flowing, hurries into the room, deploying sentences like poetic armies. She mentions that she's just returned from a human rights conference and is on her way to a seminar against torture. A man slides a tray before her and disappears. Tea? Coffee? A cigarette? A story? "I had to wear the full niqab when I was 8 years old," she says of the face veil worn by women here. "I couldn't breathe.

We can stop holding our breath. Sort of. On Monday, the United States Supreme Court laid its cards on the table and showed it supports--by one vote--women's right to legal abortion. Sort of. Speaking from both sides of its mouth, the court upheld the "essential holding" of Roe vs. Wade. Women may still have legal abortions. But the states may put up roadblocks, as long as they do not impose "undue burdens"--whatever those are. If you're not confused yet, listen to what the justices had to say.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Last week marked the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the one that gave women the right to vote after a full century of organization, agitation and marching. On Aug. 18, 1920, the Tennessee General Assembly became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, thus making it official.

Mitzi March Mogul, the feisty curator of a summer-long exhibit on women's suffrage at Heritage Square Museum, has a question for the ladies. "Do you think you're too busy to vote?" she asks, gesturing toward a wall covered with yellowed photographs of suffragists in their buttoned-up finest. "These women were plenty busy. Elizabeth Cady Stanton had seven kids!" The exhibit, called "Their Rights and Nothing Less: Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage," celebrates the 19th Amendment and is gleaned from Mogul's personal collection, with a focus on women who defined the movement in Los Angeles.