AWR Frontpage News comprises interesting items for and about amazing and inspirational women. Click here to send us your story ideas and suggestions.
The green you see on the site is to express solidarity with all the people of Iran
(no matter what "side" they are on),
in their struggle to achieve freedom and peace in their country.
Every Day Should Be Mother's Day
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Happy Mother's Day for those celebrating it today. Let's do as Amnesty International suggests, and make every day Mother's Day.
Maria Suarez (Sex Slavery Survivor & Anti-Trafficking Advocate)
Saturday, 13 March 2010
Susan notes: Maria Suarez spent 22 years in prison for hiding the table leg a neighbour used to kill the man who had sexually, physically and emotionally abused Suarez for five years after he hired her as a maid then kept her locked up in his home. She is now an anti-trafficking spokeswoman. Her story is shocking, hopeful and humbling.Read the details below the video.
Maria Suarez: Enslaved and Abused
By Bill Butler for Vision (first published in 2007)
Director Kathryn Bigelow: One Of Only Four Female Directors Ever Nominated For An Oscar
Monday, 08 March 2010
UPDATE: Katheryn Bigelow is first woman to win Oscar for Best Director in 82-year history of the awards. Brava Kathryn Bigelow! We love you.
Kathryn Bigelow will make Oscars history if she becomes the first woman
film-maker to win Best Director in the 82-year history of the Academy
Awards.
But Bigelow's expected victory for her Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker
masks a startling gender imbalance within the movie industry that
researchers have dubbed the "Celluloid Ceiling."
Bigelow, 58, is one of only four women to be nominated for the best director
prize, following Lina Wertm|ller for Seven Beauties in 1976, Jane
Campion for The Piano in 1993; and Sofia Coppola for Lost in
Translation in 2003.
The paucity of female film-makers to earn recognition at the Oscars reflects
an industry-wide trend, according to Martha Lauzen, head of the Center for
the Study of Women In Television and Film at San Diego State University.
Lauzen's annual report on women in the movie industry recently suggested that
of the top 250 highest grossing films in North America in 2009, only seven
per cent were directed by women, a drop of two per cent from a year earlier.
The imbalance is also reflected in other areas of the movie business. In 2009
only eight per cent of credited writers on the top 250 films were female.
"There is a lot of denial regarding women's current place in the movie
business," Lauzen said. "I've heard editors of major trade publications as well as the heads of
studios simply say there is no problem.
"They'll either say no celluloid ceiling exists or they'll rattle off four or
five names of high profile directors who happen to be women and then with a
shrug say 'See - there's no problem.' Well that's incredibly misleading.
Susan notes: Alicia Keys captures the essence of every woman with this amazing song performed live in Madrid in 2007, and posted here to honour International Women's Day, March 8, 2010.
To introduce the song, Keys says: "OK, if I need to hear some good words, I guess I'm gonna have to write them..." The song lyrics appear below the video clip.
Susan notes: this useful re-centering practice is from Fitting in Is
Overrated, a wonderful book by Leonard Felder (a psychologist,
counselor, author and occasional contributor to my favourite publication
Ode Magazine). I blogged about the book here.
When I imagine I'm a grain of sand, it's a pink one under this stunning blue sky...
If and when you find yourself feeling anxious, overwhelmed and/or
disconnected, take a deep relaxing breath in and out.
Then put your
right hand into your right-side pocket or the waistband of your
clothing. Imagine that you take out a note that reads:
Susan notes: Forbes Women columnist Sylvia Ann Hewlett may have been surprised by what she found in Dubai, but I’m not. Khaleeji (i.e.Gulf) women (and Middle Eastern women overall) ROCK!
Even though they are shrouded in abayas, a conference in the Middle East reveals just how many women are ready to move up to the top.
This was no Wall Street or City of London crowd. That was my first thought as I looked around the audience at the second Arab Women's Leadership Forum, held in Dubai last month.
Instead of the Armani-clad executives that you would find at a women's leadership event in New York or London, these women were shrouded in black abayas, many with their heads covered with shailas (head scarves).
Instead of the in-your-face confidence I had grown to expect at high-powered women's conventions, these participants clustered together, shy and silent, like graceful but elusive shadows. Products of a different culture, I reckoned they probably had different values and different goals.
I could not have been more wrong. Three days and dozens of conversations later, I was chastened and deeply impressed.
Far from being trapped in tradition, the Forum--spearheaded by the Dubai Women's Establishment, a government agency, and sponsored by a broad range of private companies--sought to accelerate the pace of Arab women's inclusion in the workplace. Keynote speakers included Selma Aliye Kavaf, Turkey's Minister for Women and Family Affairs, and Aseel Al-Awadhi, member of Parliament for Kuwait.
The sessions centered on how to update antiquated and inflexible work structures to better integrate women and allow them to progress to top jobs.
February 9, 2010, update from the Dubai Today show (weekdays 09:00 - 12:00 on Dubai 103.8):
Jessica Swann, broadcaster extraordinaire, and
Mohammed Parham Awadhi, co-founder of Wild Peeta, interview 27-year-old Elham Al Qasimi, a United
Arab Emirates National woman who intends to be become the first United
Arab Emirates National, and thus also the first UAE National WOMAN, and the first Arab woman, to
attempt reaching the North Pole unassisted and unsupported.
Click on the player to hear the interview and read the story below. Follow Al Qasimi on twitter here: @PolarBent.
February 7, 2010, Dubai, UAE: Shayla- and abbaya-clad Elham Al Qasimi is about to knock some strongly held stereotypes on the head.
She’s poised to be become the first United Arab Emirates National, and
thus also the first UAE National WOMAN, to attempt reaching the North
Pole unassisted and unsupported.
The 27-year-old Emirati, who was born and raised in the UAE (a small
desert nation in the Arabian Gulf), plans to start at 89 degrees
latitude and cross-country ski to the Pole, using her own steam and/or
dogsleds to carry all the supplies she needs for the challenging solo,
three-week, 100-nautical-mile trek.
And she’s not just doing it for fun (!).
Besides raising money for charity, Al Qasimi has clear goals in mind.
She wants to inspire people, particularly young Emirati women, to reach
for the stars and maintain positive attitudes in these troubled times.
"I want to showcase this trek as an example of drive and ambition that
inspires women to aim higher and reach further. I strongly feel that
this accomplishment is one for the entire nation of the UAE rather than
just a personal accomplishment," she says.
"It will illustrate the drive, discipline, and ambition of all young
UAE nationals and symbolise traits which are transferable across all
goals, [be it] educational, professional, and physical," she says.
Al Qasimi is training hard for the trip, which is scheduled to start in
mid-April, and which she says will tap into her reserves of optimism,
ambition, humility and discipline.
Bravo to Al Qasimi for having the courage to even attempt such a
journey. Women with this kind of get-up-and-go demonstrate that the
realm of possibility is limited only by our own imagination.
A woman and her dog were walking along a road. The woman was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to her that she was dead.
She remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside her had been dead for years. She wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble... At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight.
When she was standing before it she saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.
She and the dog walked toward the gate, and as she got closer, she saw a woman at a desk to one side. When she was close enough, she called out, “Excuse me, where are we?”
UPDATE: Katheryn Bigelow is first woman to win Oscar for Best Director in 82-year history of the awards. Brava Kathryn Bigelow! We love you.
Susan notes: this useful re-centering practice is from 
Even though they are shrouded in abayas, a conference in the Middle East reveals just how many women are ready to move up to the top.
February 9, 2010, update from the Dubai Today show (weekdays 09:00 - 12:00 on 
A woman and her dog were walking along a road. The woman was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to her that she was dead.
