Women Affairs

Sold into slavery at the age of 12, Hadijatou Mani says she was forced to labour for her master and his family for 10 years. She quickly became one of several sexual slaves, or "sadakas" and was made to bear her master's children. She was subjected to regular beatings. Now the former slave from Niger has won a landmark case against her government, which a regional West African court found had failed to protect her. The court has ordered the government to pay her 10m CFA francs (£12,430; $19,750) in compensation. "I will be able to build a house, raise animals and farm land to support my family. I will also be able to send my children to school so they can have the education I was never allowed as a slave," Ms Mani said afterwards. The ruling could have broad implications for countries nearby where slavery is still practised, including Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Mali, according to observers. Human rights organisations say more than 40,000 people are still in sl...

Economic impulses and commercial forces drive globalization, but its impact goes far beyond the economy to affect all facets of social and political life. Powerful commercial interests have given rise to a commercial and commercializing global culture that, it is quite apparent, will not be satisfied until it reaches into the deepest recess of social life. Most recently the commercial global culture has generated a new form of slavery, more brutal and degrading than any form of slavery known thus far. Millions of vulnerable women and unsuspecting children throughout the world, some as young as ten years old, are trapped into a vicious and ugly world of exploitation, disease, and abuse. These children are sold, traded, prostituted, and trafficked under the watching eyes of a world community that has decided to ignore their plight. Most of these sex slaves are kept by their masters until their commercial value deteriorates as a result of their deteriorating health conditions with the a...

According to the UN, 50 per cent of young women in the violent shantytowns of Haiti have been raped or sexually assaulted. Of the handful of victims who seek justice, a third are under 13. Alex Renton reports from a Caribbean hell crippled by poverty and torn by gang violence, and talks to the women who live in daily fear of sexual abuse Cité Soleil is called the worst slum in the western hemisphere. It's an ant hill of a third of a million people that seethes and swelters on the salt marshes between the blue Caribbean and the outskirts of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. Soleil lies, as third-world slums so often do, next to the international airport, under the irony-laden roar of jets taking off to leave the country. One of these, a small passenger plane, crashed into the slum in September, the day we arrived. No one died, but it was front-page news in Haiti's daily papers. They told how, within an hour of the crash, everything had been stripped from the plane: the luggag...

Fifteen-year-old Hadjo Garbo's child-like features belie a history more tragic and life-altering than many adults four times her age will have experienced. Two years ago this petite girl, who likes to fiddle with her elaborately braided hair and once dreamed of being a housewife, was married to one of the older men in her village in the Dosso region of southwest Niger. She was just 13 years old. The marriage was consummated, and by 14 she was pregnant with her first child. But before her 15th birthday she had lost the baby - and her 42 years old husband. Hadjo's anatomy proved unready for the task of delivering a baby and after an excruciating three-day labour, the unborn foetus was cut out of her, stillborn. The horrific labour left the girl with what gynaecologists call an obstetric fistula, a tearing of the tissue that develops when blood supply to the tissues of the vagina and bladder and/or rectum is cut off during prolonged obstructed labour. The condition mostly affects ...

Cindy Shiner Preliminary findings of a new study by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Columbia University may have given relief workers the evidence they say they need to focus greater attention on the problem of sexual violence in Liberia. Violence against women and girls, they say, has potentially far-reaching consequences on education, health and development in Liberia as it struggles to recover from 14 years of civil war. "One of the biggest or more common excuses that we hear [from governments and donors] when we try to bring up the issue of violence against women and girls is 'Show us the numbers if you say this is such a big problem,'" said Heidi Lehmann, senior technical advisor on gender-based violence for the IRC. Now, she said, the agency has the figures to back up what it has known through its work in Liberia for several years. The study, which surveyed 600 women and girls in eastern Nimba and central Montserrado counties, revealed communities r...

Minna and Fariba are neighbours and good friends. They support one another. Both have to live under the pervasive curtailment of women's rights and the double standards of today's Iranian society. They make a living walking the streets looking for men. They have a choice between leaving their small children at home alone or bringing them along when they have sex with men. The film is a sympathetic portrait of the two women, exploring their day-to-day life and the workings of prostitution in a country that bans it and prosecutes adulterers, sometimes with the penalty of capital punishment. Many of the clients find a way to buy sex and still comply with Muslim law: they marry the women in what is called 'Sighe', a temporary marriage sanctioned in Shia Islam. Sighe can last from two hours up to 99 years. Both Minna and Fariba enter into Sighe with clients, and Fariba is in a Sighe marriage with a neighbour, Habib, that lasts six months. Giving his perspective on temporary ...

A Kathu Police investigations unit early Tuesday morning arrested an Indonesian adult-film producer in his hotel room after he was caught conducting a photo shoot with one of his starlets - a Thai ladyboy. Pol Sub Lt Nitikorn Rawang, duty officer of Kathu Police Station, said the bust took place at 4:20 am. After receiving a tip-off that a video shoot was taking place in room 314 of the Sup Inn on Soi Patong Resort, the police entered the room to find it had been converted into a makeshift studio with everything needed for the production of pornography and its distribution around the world via the Internet. Police arrested Indonesian Farisa Riyadi, 35, and took 32-year-old Thai ladyboy Phinit "Nong Ning" Lakharn, 32, for questioning at Kathu Police headquarters. Nong Ning, from Yasothorn, who has already undergone complete gender "re-assignment" surgery, told police that she agreed to pose for the Indonesian in return for 1,000 baht cash. Mr Riyadi offered the same ...

Somaly Mam doesn't know her birthday. She has no clue what her real name might be, or if she even has one. Somaly also doesn't know what her age was - though she reckons she was 8 or 9 - on the day she was sold into sexual slavery. She does remember, with complete clarity, the moment she vowed to murder her pimp. It was the night the guy gathered all his little girl prostitutes into a room and told them to tie up one of his slaves. Then, he shot her in the head. She was Somaly's best friend. "I'm the only one not crying," Somaly told me, and her gaze became stern, as if she can see the man's face. "I just looked at him. I decided that I would marry a rich man, get a gun and kill him." But Somaly didn't kill the pimp. Instead, she dedicated her life to saving little girls, like her, forced into the sex trade. Some are as young as 4 years old. That's how she's getting her vengeance. I met Somaly Mam last week at a Midtown restaurant to...

Fei Fei, a 22-year-old from China's Guangdong province, has a souvenir of her eight months in Dubai: burns on her back and arms from cigarette butts crushed against her skin when she refused to work as a prostitute. She eventually submitted when a criminal gang threatened to send nude photos of her to family members. That indignity, she said, would have been worse than selling her body. "They take pictures of me naked in shower," Fei Fei said in broken English as she pulled up her shirt to reveal the dark red circular marks. Soon afterward, she adopted the English name "Lucy," and sold sex in Dubai bars for 500 dirhams (USD $130) a trick to claw back her freedom. Fei Fei's story symbolizes the dark side of Dubai, better known for its skyscrapers, sail-shaped hotel and man-made islands built in the shape of palm trees. The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is the second-largest member, is on a US State Department watch-list for failing to take "meani...

Punjab may be moving ahead with legislation to stop travel agents from cheating youth with the lure of foreign pastures, but such touts are now baiting young girls into the multibillion immigration racket. The revelation that girls and young women are being targeted has come after some of them were rescued from foreign shores this month. The tragedy for these cheated women was that not only were they not taken to the promised destinations for lucrative jobs, but were also being forced into prostitution in other countries. 'This is an alarming development and the centre and state governments should take action immediately. Our daughters from Punjab are being forced into prostitution in other countries,' former federal minister Balwant Singh Ramoowalia told IANS. His Lok Bhalai Party (LBP) has been spearheading the campaign against unscrupulous travel and immigration agents in Punjab. LBP activists rescued four Punjab girls from Singapore and other countries where they were stuck...

Women-only subway cars may be reintroduced in Seoul next year as part of efforts to reduce sexual harassment of female passengers, subway operators said this week. The Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp. and Seoul Metro, which operate eight underground train lines in the capital and its adjacent cities, said they are considering the plans. Details to be worked out include whether the women-only cars will run during rush hours or all day long, said Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corp. spokesman Kim Han-ki. Now, like their neighbor Japan that also struggles with sexual harassment on trains and was forced to institute women-only cars, Korea is looking to do the same. In 1992, the Seoul Metro ran special cars for women, senior citizens and the disabled during rush hours, but suspended the program a few months later as there was no way to prevent male passengers from entering, said spokesman Kim Jung-mu.

The Employment Relations Authority has ordered ACC to pay almost $10,000 to a woman who was unfairly dismissed, after she and other staff had been targeted in abusive emails. Georgia Choveaux was hired by the Wellington office in August 2004 on a casual contract. She was to provide support and administration to Tim Boyd-Wilson in ACC's data warehousing and business intelligence unit. In February 2006 an offensive email was sent to Mr Boyd-Wilson. It included mentions of Ms Choveaux who was very concerned about its content. It, incorrectly, alluded to an intimate relationship between Mr Boyd-Wilson and Ms Choveaux. ACC engaged Corporate Risk New Zealand, a forensic consultant, the police and internet service provider Microsoft to investigate the source of the email. The email came from an outside source, but is believed to have been sent by an ACC employee. Other abusive emails were later sent accusing Mr Boyd-Wilson of sexual harassment. Not all the emails referred to Ms Choveaux. ...

The issue of sexual harassment in the workplace may be new for many people in this country or may not even be an issue for them, but anecdotal evidence would suggest that its frequency is increasing as a greater number of women enter the workplace. A seminar was told recently by a number of working women and women rights advocates that sexual harassment, especially in the workplace, has not only grown in Pakistan but has adopted new forms. It has emerged that the new tools being used include the computer through which offensive e-mails are sent to women and the mobile phone which is used for SMS messages of the same nature. What is more interesting here is that unlike other forms of harassment where the perpetrator leaves no trace of his misdeeds, in this instance the proof is there for all to see. Granted that emails can be sent from fictitious addresses and SMS from phones which cannot be traced, the fact that this form of abuse is taking place indicates that not enough is being done...

India has introduced a new measure where women who have not completed high school would be allowed to work in foreign countries only if they are above 30, in order to ensure their safety. This rule applies to all women in the Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) category (those who have not completed high school) irrespective of the nature/category of employment, an Indian embassy press statement said here. Many Indian women work as domestic helps abroad, especially in the Gulf region. The new rule has also stipulated that employment contracts should be directly between the worker and the employer and not with the recruiting agent. Also, a pre-paid mobile facility is to be provided by the employer to every household service worker to enable them to contact authorities in the event of any difficulty, the statement said here. The Indian mission in the UAE has already started implementing the rule from Sunday, it added.

Many Asian women in Bahrain are being duped into working as sex slaves for men who lure them with promises of marriage, according to Thai Ambassador Phithak Phrombubpha. He says victims are put up in apartments and visited once a week by their boyfriends, who brainwash them into believing they will eventually live together and start a family. Mr Phrombubpha said women who want to escape are powerless to act as their passports are confiscated and once their visit visas expire they become illegal residents who rack up huge overstay fines that they have no means to pay. His comments come after one victim of human trafficking, who managed to escape from her captor, came to the embassy seeking help. The 25-year-old, whose identity is being protected, is being kept in an emergency accommodation in Zinj until she flies home on Friday. "These people come to Bahrain because of an economic problem and they want to earn money," Mr Phrombubpha told the GDN. "People recruit them by ...

There are a lot of good women out there, even though it's not always easy to find them. Here's a list of women with traits you should actively look for — and that would make any guy happy: Miss Sweet Miss Sweet is a woman who's positive, content with her life, always upbeat — and just a blast to be around. She's a genuine person without a bitch bone in her body. She's always truly happy to see you and you find yourself looking forward to spending time with her. Miss Sweets are usually snapped up out of the dating market right away, so they're pretty rare. But if you can find one, you've got a real treasure on your hands. Miss Equality This type of woman is a true feminist — not one of the radical man-haters, or the hypocritical pseudo-feminists who think that equality means "I demand equal rights and an equal salary, but a man still has to pay for me." The Miss Equalitys of the world genuinely like men, and understand that equality means equali...