November 2004
Issue No. 373
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Keynote
Nikki van der Gaag looks at what has changed for women over the years – and what has not.
A long and winding road
Snapshots of the struggle down the ages.
A Black woman took my job
Michael Kimmel shows how the behaviour of men is the single greatest obstacle to equality – and explains why sharing housework means more sex.
A woman's rite
Why is it so hard to change traditional practices? Nikki van der Gaag reports on a group that is trying.
What price freedom?
Has the occupation of Iraq at least made things better for women? Jo Wilding reports.
Fish money
Relations between the sexes in rural Gambia.
A drama unfolds
As the tide turns against abortion across the world, Hersilia Fonseca and Patricia Pujol report on Uruguay’s unique experiment.
Women who have moved worlds
A few of the many who are creating justice.
The other side of silence
Violence against women is a bigger killer than cancer or traffic accidents. Nikki van der Gaag explains what can be done.
News, views, and & voices
Letter from Lebanon
Reem Haddad uses the fatalism of Lebanese society to her own advantage.
View from the South
Torture is used not to protect people but to terrorize them. Eduardo Galeano examines its uses and abuses.
Currents
Brazil cancels most of Mozambique's debt
Countryside suffers opium withdrawal
Dramatic fall in asylum numbers
Environmental blue in the Danube
The energy tug-of-war
The World Bank wades into an energy tug-of-war
Western charity undermines African textiles
Western second-hand clothing hampers local production in Uganda
Worldbeaters
Iran’s new breed of neo-conservatives brook no dissent. They include Saeed Mortazavi, implicated in the beating to death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazami in 2003.
Mixed media
Music
Mapou by René Lacaille
Books
Gaza Blues by Samir El-Youssef and Etgar Keret
Film
A Way of Life directed by Amma Asante
Making Waves
Homophobia is still so strong in Indian society that Shaina, from the Organized Lesbian Alliance for Visibility and Action (OLAVA), does not want to give her real name.
Essay - Democracy is dead
Paul Kingsnorth asks if democracy can be reinvented.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
A magazine about women’s rights with a man on the cover? A decade ago, when I did the last New Internationalist on women (NI 270), I would never have dreamed of such a thing. I believed women’s rights were about women, and women needed their own space.
I still believe in women’s space, but having seen what some women have gained and what many have lost in the last 10 years, I am firmly convinced that if things are going to change, it will take a revolution in men’s lives on the same scale that there has been in women’s.
My 16-year-old daughter believes she is just as good as any boy. But my son, who is 13, still has to behave in certain ways in front of his peers to gain their respect. He must tread carefully when he does well at school because it is not the done thing for boys to get good grades, and although his dad does most of the cooking, feels it is not really cool for men to be in the kitchen. It gives me a daily reminder that there is still a long way to go before we can have the kind of humane society that frees boys and girls, men and women, from the straitjackets that male and female stereotypes put upon them. A reminder which was reinforced during my visit to the Gambia – thank you Ali and Fatou – to see what had changed for women there.
So that is why the first major piece you will read here after the keynote editorial is also about men. And why I make no apology for it.
Nikki van der Gaag
for the New Internationalist Co-operative
nikkivdg@newint.org
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
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