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Subhead: Moroccan lawmakers draft a bill threatening jail terms for sexual harassment. In the U.S., Pentagon figures indicate a sharp increase in reports of sexual assault in the military. Byline: WeNews staff
Credit: The U.S. Army on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0)
(WOMENSENEWS)--
Cheers
Moroccan lawmakers have drafted a bill threatening jail terms for sexual harassment that will soon be submitted to parliament, Agence France-Presse reported Nov. 8. The proposed law would affect the author of "any unwelcome act against a third party in public spaces, whether an act, remark or gesture of a sexual nature, or intended to obtain a sexual act." Prison terms ranging from two months to two years and fine of between 1,000 and 3,000 dirhams ($122 to $365).
More News to Cheer This Week:
Women have surpassed their previous employment peak reached in March 2008, according to an Institute for Women's Policy Research analysis of the November employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women have regained all the jobs they lost in the recession, but men have so far regained only 73 percent of the jobs they lost.
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan announced Nov. 8 the creation of Edraak, an education initiative that will be a Massive Open Online Course portal for the Arab world and will bring education to millions of Arabic-speaking students, especially women and girls, around the globe.
Marissa Alexander, a woman from Florida who said she was a victim of abuse and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for allegedly firing a warning shot during a dispute with her husband, was granted a new trial Nov. 7, Yahoo News reported.
By the end of 2013, Anna Schnatzmeyer and five others are expected to become the first women formally assigned to a Riverine combat company, a battlefront Navy job that is just now opening up to women, Yahoo News reported Nov. 7.
FIFA Chief Sepp Blatter appealed to the Iranian authorities on Nov. 7 to end the ban on women's attendance to men's football (known as soccer in the U.S.) matches, in force since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Yahoo News reported.
Councilwoman Letitia James, a Brooklyn Democrat, made history Nov. 5 by becoming the first black woman to be elected to citywide office in New York, The Daily News reported.
Illinois' General Assembly passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage Nov. 5, the Chicago Tribune reported. The state is poised to become the 15th in the country to allow same-sex marriages.
Debenhams department store in London said on Nov. 6 that it would become Britain's first high-end store to use size 16 mannequins as it tries to better represent "the average woman," Singapore's Straits Times reported.
The UN Center for Climate Change launched the 2013 Women for Results Lighthouse Activities, an initiative to aid women in developing countries acclimate to the consequences of climate change, The Daily Beast reported Nov. 6.
Treatment for postpartum hemorrhage has arrived in Tanzania in an effort to cut down on the 13,000 annual maternal deaths in the country, All Africa reported Nov. 4.
Montreal, Canada, ushered in its first Hasidic female city council member, Haaretz reported Nov. 5. Mindy Pollak ran and won against four candidates with 35 percent of the votes for a seat in the municipal council.
The ACLU and Texas health care providers are taking the Texas restrictive abortion law to the U.S. Supreme Court, ACLU said in a Nov. 4 press statement. Pro-choice groups aim to reinstate Judge Lee Yeakel's narrow decision that overturned a single provision that requires abortion clinic physicians to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals.
An Iowa court ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood's Heartland Chapter by tentatively suspending the state's ban on a video conferencing protocol for distributing abortion-inducing pills, the Associated Press reported Nov. 6.
Marvel comics's newest superhero as of February 2014 is a Muslim-American girl, Kamala Khan, The New York Times reported Nov. 6.
Jeers
Reports of sexual assault in the military increased sharply during the last fiscal year, according to new Pentagon figures. There were 3,553 sexual assault complaints reported to the Defense Department in the first three-quarters of the last fiscal year, from October 2012 through June 2013, a nearly 50 percent increase over the same period a year earlier, The New York Times reported Nov. 7. Defense Department officials said the numbers had continued to rise. The reports were revealed only weeks before a defense bill with provisions to deal with the problem is expected to reach the Senate floor.
More News to Jeer This Week:
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., introduced a bill on Nov. 7 that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the United States unless the woman is a victim of rape or incest or her life is in danger, the Huffington Post reported.
A 3 News investigation has uncovered a group of young Auckland men in New Zealand publicly recruiting others to join them in group sex sessions with girls, some of them underage. They're using Facebook to not only recruit, but to name and publicly humiliate their female conquests.
Chem Fatale, a report by Women's Voices for the Earth, claimed that the feminine care industry sells products containing unregulated and potentially harmful chemicals, including preservatives, pesticides, fragrances and dyes.
In a recent survey conducted by a United Kingdom-based travel agency, approximately 51 percent of those surveyed said they trusted female pilots less than male pilots, The Telegraph reported Nov. 4. Only 14 percent of those surveyed said that they would feel safer with a female pilot.
Hollaback!, a movement to end street harassment, released a survey look at harassment on college campuses indicating that harassment is limiting students' ability to benefit from education; and current campus systems and processes are insufficient.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced male and female students living together in dormitories, The Hurriyet Daily News reported Nov. 4.
Noted:
Citing an infringement of a worker's lactation-break rights under the Affordable Care Act, legal advocates are bringing a complaint on behalf of a Pittsburgh factory worker to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the ACLU Women's Rights Project said in a press statement.
A woman in Mumbai, India, petitioned for divorce because her husband had refused to have sex with her over the course of their two-year marriage, TIME reported.
Asian and black women who have in vitro fertilization are less likely to become pregnant than white women using similar fertility treatment, U.K.'s Nottingham University researchers found. The team says they are unsure why this is, but say it could be related to genetics as well as social and environmental factors, BBC reported Nov. 5.
Women in Barbacoas, Colombia, are partaking in a sex strike entitled the "crossed legs" movement, in which they refuse to have sex with their partners until roads are repaired, NBC reported Nov. 5.
The Department of Corrections will model a decade-old University of Cincinnati action plan for gender-specific treatment of prison inmates, The Seattle Times reported Nov. 4.
Medical professionals are calling for aggressive means for ending female genital mutilation practices in Britain, The Guardian reported Nov. 4.
There is widespread speculation around Irish theologian, Linda Hogan, as possibly being appointed the first female cardinal with the Catholic Church in February, The New York Daily News reported Nov. 3. At the current time, women are not permitted to be Catholic priests.
Three times as many women as men make up China's marriage market located in Shanghai's People's Park, CNN reported Nov. 4. The women seeking suitors are termed "leftover women."
In Memory:
The oldest woman to run the Nov. 4 New York City marathon, at 86 years old, Joy Johnson, died two days later, The New York Daily News reported Nov. 6. Having completed her 25th run in approximately eight hours, on the 20th mile, Johnson fell and hit her head. She made history as the oldest women to run the New York City marathon in 2011.
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