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.
Doctor Who Tried To Save Neda Speaks Out Despite Fearing For Life
Friday, 26 June 2009
Neda's Last Moments Inspire Doctor Who Tried To Save Her
Susan notes: this video speaks for itself. This man happened to be passing by when a young woman was shot in the street in Tehran. He also happened to be a friend of world-famous author (and one of my favourite writers) Paulo Coelho, who by chance saw a video of Neda's death and recognised his friend. Now the doctor tells the story of her last moments, even though in the telling, he puts his own life in jeopardy.
Everything happens for a reason.Thank you for speaking out. In solidarity with all Iranians and victims of violence everywhere.Never give up hope for freedom and peace. We are all connected.Wherever you make your voice heard, please try to do it peacefully.
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Today, the hearts and hopes of people around the world are with protesters facing awful risks on the streets of Iran. Regardless of who won the election, the question now is one of fundamental human rights.
Top Iranian leaders are divided, so every bit of pressure matters. With massive new protests imminent, Iranian activists are urgently appealing for a united international response to oppose the violent crackdown.
Click on the link to sign the petition calling on ALL governments to condemn the crackdown and withhold recognition of any Iranian government until election concerns are peacefully addressed. Let's build a massive global outcry of 1 million voices against the crackdown:
Ebadi said that Iran's constitution allows people to protest peacefully without permission [EPA]
Shirin
Ebadi, a prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and Nobel peace prize
winner, has told Al Jazeera that she is prepared to represent the
family of a young woman shot dead during a protest in Tehran.
The
woman, named as Neda Agha Soltan on social-networking websites, has
become a symbol for people protesting against the disputed
re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president.
Ebadi
told Al Jazeera on Wednesday: "I am personally prepared to legally
represent her family against the people who ordered the shooting and those who fired at her."
Susan warns: This CNN story includes graphic video images of a young woman Neda, who was shot and killed in the streets of Tehran during the recent demonstrations. It is very disturbing. The rest of the story talks about the important role women are playing in the events in Iran.
In eerie, deserted silence on the outskirts of Phnom Penh sits the Prey Speu detention centre.
Barely legible on its grimy walls a few weeks ago were cries for help and whispers of despair from the tormented souls once crammed into its grimy cells. “This is to mark that I lived in terror under oppression,” read one message.
It recalls a Khmer Rouge torture centre from the genocidal 1970s. But in fact the building was used just last year as a “rehabilitation” centre, where detained sex-workers, along with beggars and the homeless, learnt sewing and cooking. They were rounded up in a crackdown on trafficking for the sex industry.
At first an
attempt to clean up Phnom Penh, it soon escalated into a violent
campaign by the police against prostitutes and those living on the
street. According to Licadho, a local human-rights group, guards at the
centre beat three people to death, and at least five detainees killed
themselves.
Sreymoa, a trafficked sex-worker, detained in May 2008 with
her four-year-old daughter, recalls daily beatings, rapes and one death.
I'm following developments in Iran with interest on several different levels. First, it's fascinating to observe transition and change on a macro level as an entire nation experiences yet another revolution of sorts. Second, of course, is the role that women have to play in making change. Third, is the impact of technology and media, social media in particular, in the mix.
A couple of weeks ago, I began to follow Naseem, a 24-year-old UAE National student on Twitter. I was intrigued by her insightful tweets on a diversity of topics. I later learned that she is part Iranian and highly politically aware. Naseem has been tweeting virtually non-stop for three days on the developments in Iran. I'm amazed and inspired by her passion, her persistence and her desire to play a part on an indvidual level in the destiny of her mother's country of birth.
This morning I salute Naseem, and all women (and men) around the world who do whatever they can to initiate positive change in the world. You can follow Naseem, directly or through me, by clicking on the links in the Twitter stream on the right-hand-side of the page.
Below, Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior Arab affairs editor, talks about the role of technology in Iran's presidential election.
Hopefully you've heard the good news by now – yesterday, because of your fast-acting calls and emails sent to Congress during the final moments before a critical vote on women's human rights, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make the U.S. Office for Global Women's Issues permanent.
This major victory just proves that when you speak up for human rights, the people in power do listen. It may have taken us a lot of effort to seal the deal, but today, the fight seems well worth it. Because of you, the doors are now opened for major advancements in combating violence against women and improving women's health care, education, and economic stability.
Thank you for taking action to help empower women worldwide! We'll continue to keep you posted as the bill moves on to the Senate before finally landing on President Obama's desk.
Twenty-seven-year-old Amanda Young had spinal meningitis three times before she was two.
Each time, doctors told her parents she was going to die. Somehow she lived.
Two weeks before her ninth birthday, doctors amputated her left leg and hip to stop the spread of gas gangrene and clostridia septicemia, a combination of infections that had not been seen since World War II.
Since then, Young has suffered countless life-threatening diseases and conditions, the cause of which mystified doctors for 22 years.
Then, in 2003 after more than two decades of testing, researchers were finally able to identify a genetic defect called IRAK-4 as the basis of her health problems.
As her doctors continue to search for treatments and possibly a cure for her condition, Young has reportedly decided to become a motivational speaker. She says the fact that doctors have been able to name her extremely rare condition and that she may be getting better as she gets older is “a hopeful thing.”
“Just to know that I have a name (for the condition) now is phenomenal," she says. "I went 22 years without knowing what was wrong with me. Twenty-two years later we finally found the name for it. I want people to know that (they should) keep hope. Hope is there. As long as you have it, things can happen.”
Wedad Lootah may not be the Arab/Muslim equivalent of world famous sexpert Dr. Ruth Westheimer yet, but she has achieved some notoriety in the United Arab Emirates with the recent publication of her book ”Top Secret: Sexual Guidance for Married Couples.”
Ms Lootah, one of nine children born to an illiterate water-seller in Dubai, married early and taught elementary school for years before becoming a marriage counselor attached to the Dubai courts, a job she has done for the past eight years.
A New York Times online article reports:
…she is also the author of what for the Middle East is an amazingly frank new book of erotic advice in which she celebrates the female orgasm, confronts taboo topics like homosexuality and urges Arabs to transcend the backward traditions that limit their sexual happiness.
The book, “Top Secret: Sexual Guidance for Married Couples,” is packed with vivid anecdotes from Ms. Lootah’s eight years as a marital counselor in Dubai’s main courthouse. It became an instant scandal after it was published in Arabic in the Emirates in January, drawing praise from some liberals and death threats from conservatives, who say she is guilty of blasphemy or worse.
Dear Susan,
Wedad Lootah may not be the Arab/Muslim equivalent of world famous sexpert 
