Women Affairs

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...

EDITH M. LEDERER Actress and United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman speaks Tuesday during a news conference at U.N. headquarters, urging world leaders and ordinary people to join the global fight to end violence against women. The actress, seven months pregnant and passionately committed to her role as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Development Fund for Women, said the violence was probably the "most widespread human rights violation of our time." "One in three women will encounter violence in some way, shape or form against them in their lifetime," Kidman told a news conference at U.N. headquarters. "That's an extraordinary statistic. Yet do we ever hear it?" The 40-year-old Australian star became a goodwill ambassador in January 2006 for the U.N. Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM. Its acting executive director, Joanne Sandler, said Kidman wanted to focus on an issue "where she could mak...

A mother in Tainan County, southern Taiwan, was found to have allegedly forced her three young daughters to serve as prostitutes for more than two years. The woman and five patrons were arrested and questioned by police just before Chinese New Year, local news media reported yesterday. The illegal operation was exposed after the eldest daughter, now aged 13, told her school teacher several days before Chinese New Year's Eve on Feb. 6. The student said that since October 2006, her mother had forced her and her two younger sisters to serve as prostitutes, with patrons mostly men aged over 60. At the time, the three sisters were aged 6, 7, and 10. Following initial investigations, police found that men paid NT$500 to NT$1,000 for each incidence, and some patrons asked to be served by the three sisters simultaneously. The police have already located 8 suspects involved in the cases, and have taken six into custody after interrogations, including the mother and five patrons. The Tainan ...

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 ...