Women: From Bad to Better . . .

From Cruelty beyond the call of duty: How must it feel to have lost access to someone you care about? To worry, knowing they are in the hands of vindictive, vicious, unaccountable policemen and women who are hell bent on making sure you can’t find them.

How must you feel when reports finally start to reach you that they are badly injured - bearing injuries they didn’t have before they entered the walls of one of the many police stations dotted around the city - and they are being prevented from receiving medical treatment and legal assistance?

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From Iraqi Women - four years later:
Every-day survival is a priority in a context where lack of security goes side by side with incredibly difficult living conditions. The Iraqi infrastructure which was already severely debilitated as a result of economic sanctions and a series of wars has deteriorated even further since 2003. Electricity shortages, lack of access to potable water, malfunctioning sanitation systems and a deteriorating health system are part of every-day lives in post-2003 Iraq. Intisar K., who works as a doctor in a teaching hospital in Baghdad, summed up what has also been documented in several UN-related documents: “We only have electricity for three to a maximum of five hours a day. There is not enough clean drinking water. Lack of sanitation is a big problem and continues to be one of the main causes of malnutrition, dysentery and death amongst young children.”



From the Bahá'í International Community:

UNITED NATIONS, 18 March 2007 (BWNS) -- Last autumn, Anisa Fadaei started a discussion group on women's issues at her high school. Meeting every two weeks at lunch, about a dozen girls discuss issues like domestic violence, unequal pay rates, and trafficking in girls.

The topics were unfamiliar to most of the participants, which is the point.

"Before we started, most of the others didn't have a clue about gender equality issues or violence against women," said Anisa, who is 17 and lives in the town of Stroud, in Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. "We live in quite a nice area and so most of my friends didn't realize that such problems with inequality were going on around the world."

Though young, Anisa is committed to raising awareness about gender issues. She is involved in the youth caucus of the UK National Alliance of Women's Organizations, and she has been the featured speaker at several school-wide assemblies on women's topics. She was recently profiled in a UNICEF newsletter that focuses on how young people can get involved with global issues.