We need to find the courage to say no the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity. Barbara de Angelis
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.
Amazing Amanda Young Defies All Odds
Monday, 08 June 2009
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.
Emirati Fashion Photographer Holds Second Solo Exhibition
Saturday, 06 June 2009
Emirati fashion photographer Fatma Abdullah’s second solo exhibition opens Sunday June 7 and runs until the end of the month at Wafi’s Khan Murjan Gallery in Dubai.
Ms Abdullah, who has been fascinated by photography since early childhood, obtained a Higher Diploma in Communication Art from Higher Colleges of Technology in 2001 and, in 2003, established her own photography company, Lady Design.
"Woman is always the centre of my attention, her tears, her weakness, her incomplete joy and her unexplainable emotions,” says Ms Abdullah.
"I've always felt my camera can speak on my behalf - it interprets my feelings effortlessly and delivers my messages accurately."
Yesterday however, on the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen square, I made an exception and wrote a post to salute the bravery of the unknown man
who stood in front of the army tanks. His courageous act inspired me
then, and it continues to inspire me today, two decades later.
Two decades after the military crackdown on pro-democracy
student protests in Beijing, the Chinese government has proven itself
to be just as oppressive toward peaceful free speech today as it was
back then.
Police officers filled the square yesterday to prevent any show of
commemoration for the tragedy, silent or spoken. The government even
went so far as to shut down internet services like Twitter and
university message boards where people could share sympathies or
express dissent.
Foreign correspondents reporting on the scene were forcibly turned away and their views were blocked.
Al Jazeerah ran this report:
I visited Tiananmen Square in May 2004 on a Gulf for Good adventure challenge to The Great Wall of China.
While in the Square, I felt deeply moved as I walked in the same place
where the voices of hundreds of protesters were silenced in a bloody
massacre. When I stopped to contemplate, I wondered if someone had died
on the spot on which I stood. I felt deeply humbled by the experience
of being there.
In her BUST post, Hannah suggests a way for people to "handle the glaring silence: with sympathy and commentary."
I agree. So I am again adding my voice to others around the world, to
commemorate those who were silenced 20 years ago, and to honour those
who continue to be silenced today.
Earlier this month a member of Uganda's
parliament introduced a bill to criminalize female genital mutilation,
a traditional coming-of-age practice of cutting off all or part of a
girl's clitoris.
Though relatively rare in Uganda, the mutilation is
still practiced by two ethnic communities in the eastern part of the
country, and about 500 young women in Uganda endured genital mutilations in the most
recent season for the initiation rite.
Chris Baryomunsi, a doctor elected to Parliament three years ago,
says he has gained overwhelming support so far from male and female
legislators throughout the country for the bill, receiving endorsements
from members of many different backgrounds.
A key backer is the Parliament's deputy speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who
has dedicated 2009 as the year to end female genital mutilation, also
known as FGM, in Uganda.
Rukia Nadama, the state minister for gender and cultural affairs,
has also endorsed the bill. She is working with leaders of the Sabiny
and Pokot communities--where the majority of these rites are carried
out--to educate them about the health risks associated with the
cuttings, such as high rates of maternal and child mortality during
childbirth, HIV transmission and the potential for these mutilations to
cause fatal bleeding.
The first
ever success of women candidates in a Kuwait election brought
unexpected drama to the polls on May 16th.
The four women MPs are among
21 newcomers to the 50-seat National Assembly, with the high level of
churn appearing to reflect voter discontent with the obstructive
approach of parliament in recent times, which has led to repeated
dissolutions and three elections in as many years.
Four female members of parliament
(MPs) managed to break an all-male political barrier and
successfully upstaged opponents who forcefully campaigned against
female participation.
That all four hold PhDs, have a formidable
reputation for professionalism and now represent a proportion of the
population that makes up more than 54% of eligible voters, points to a
radical shift in opinion across Kuwait’s once stratified society.
Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire.
She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging the brutal military regime with peaceful calls for democracy.
Risking danger to speak out for their jailed friends, Burmese activists are demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and calling on the world to help.
Avaaz says it has just six days to get a flood of petition signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon calling on him to make their release a top priority -- he can make this a condition for renewed international engagement.
A Jeddah court judge’s approval of husbands slapping their wives on
the face if they spend money lavishly on unnecessary things triggered a
hue and cry during a seminar on domestic violence here recently.
“If
a person gives SR1,200 to his wife and she spends SR900 to purchase an
abaya (the black gown) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her
on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,”
said Judge Hamad Al-Razine.
The judge made this comment in the
presence of Princess Adila bint Abdullah, deputy chairperson of the
National Family Safety Program, who attended the seminar on the role of
judicial and security institutions in preventing domestic violence.
Sukaina al-Zayer is
an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. At least in the tradiition of Western societies.
She covers her face and body in black
robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She
also admits she's a little on the plump side.
But at Saudi
Arabia's only beauty pageant, the judges don't care about a perfect
figure or face.
What they're looking for in the quest for "Miss
Beautiful Morals" is the contestant who shows the most devotion and
respect for her parents.
Wedad Lootah may not be the Arab/Muslim equivalent of world famous sexpert 
Emirati fashion photographer Fatma Abdullah’s second solo exhibition opens Sunday June 7 and runs until the end of the month at Wafi’s Khan Murjan Gallery in Dubai.
Earlier this month a member of Uganda's
parliament introduced a bill to criminalize female genital mutilation,
a traditional coming-of-age practice of cutting off all or part of a
girl's clitoris.
Burma's democracy leader and Nobel Peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been locked up on new trumped up charges, just days before her 13 years of detention was due to expire.
Sukaina al-Zayer is
an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. At least in the tradiition of Western societies.
