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• Anglican Diocese of Seychelles to Get First Female Priest. [Seychelles Nation, Seychelles] The Consecration and Ordination service will be led by the Right Rev’d Santosh Marray, Bishop of Seychelles, assisted by members of the clergy. The preacher will be the Rev’d Jody Medicoff of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal, Canada. Rev’d Benoit was the first Anglican female deacon to be ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons in 2004. Noting that the decision to ordain a woman as priest is not one which a church makes easily, a communiqué from the Anglican Diocese of Seychelles says that in the Anglican Communion, each of the 38 different provincial churches has had to decide for itself in accordance with its legal and canonical rules, whether and when it would be appropriate to take the step. According to the communiqué, the Province of the Indian Ocean authorized the ordination of women to the Order of Deacons in 2002. The Provincial Synod in January 2006 moved a step further in authorizing individual dioceses to proceed with ordination of women to the priesthood.

• St. Alban's Welcomes Female Rector. [Annapolis Capital] Cindy Tipton Mainolfi gets strange looks from people in the grocery store. But she's used to that. Women in clerical collars are still pretty uncommon, although there are more of them now, she said. In October, the Rev. Tipton Mainolfi became the first permanent female rector at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Glen Burnie.

• Vatican Shift on Contraception Could Signal Hope for Millions. [Ekklesia, UK] A new study commissioned by Pope Benedict contemplates the possibility of allowing married Catholic couples to use condoms if one of them is HIV positive, according to La Repubblica newspaper. If true, this could be the first major adjustment to the Roman Catholic teaching on contraception which the Church claims preserves the integrity of family values, and which critics (including a growing band of Catholics with significant pastoral responsibilities) say has condemned millions to disease and death. Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who heads up the papal department responsible for health issues, said earlier this week that he had completed the first stage of the review. The resulting 200-page report, reflecting diverse opinion within the church, had been sent to the Pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – which enforces official doctrine, and was formerly headed up by Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Ratzinger.

• Church 'in Need of Women Priests'. [BBC News, UK] The Church of England would struggle in the future without women priests, researchers claim. English Church Census figures show that half of priests ordained in recent years were women. There were 1,262 serving women priests in 2002. University of Manchester researchers say that, without women priests, pulpits would become "depopulated". Rowan Williams, in an interview with the Catholic Herald newspaper earlier this month, said he did not think women priests - first ordained in 1994 - had "transformed or renewed the Church in spectacular ways" nor had they "corrupted or ruined it".

• Black Female Ministries Target AIDS Danger. [Women's eNews, NY] Female ministries are beginning to tackle a fact that activists say African American churches and the U.S. government alike have failed to adequately acknowledge or address: Black women are contracting HIV faster than any other group of women. On a recent Saturday afternoon, Joyce MacDonald, 56, walked through the Church of the Open Door in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she has been the HIV ministry coordinator for the past five years. At an AIDS quilt collecting dust on a wall, she pointed to patches she helped compile. Each patch represents a person infected or affected by AIDS. "There are at least 200 more names of people I need to add," MacDonald said.

• Church Farm Renews Women. [Fort Wayne News Sentinel] Walking in the shadows of Chicago's West Side streets on a recent September night, Debra Cannon heard nothing but the cry of crack cocaine calling her to take another hit. Then, out of the darkness, the Rev. Carmen Colon came to Cannon and offered a vision. There's a farm, the pastor said in her raspy voice. My church has a farm where you can get away from this and change your life. Days later, Cannon was driven nearly 160 miles west across Illinois, leaving sin-littered streets for rolling fields of corn. On a 15-acre farm property near the Iowa border, one of the largest evangelical churches in Chicago has established a rehabilitation center for women who want to quit prostitution, alcoholism and drug addiction. Since 2002, when the New Life Covenant Assemblies of God Church began bringing women to the farm, 22 have completed the five-month spiritually based program. With heroin use surging in Chicago and word about the farm spreading fast, church leaders said there is now a waiting list to enter. Plans are under way for an expansion to increase the number of women who can come there each year from 12 to 30.

• First Female Rabbi in US Breaks Barriers. [RU Daily Targum] Sally J. Priesand never dreamed of being first, she just wanted to be a congregational rabbi, and she knew it at age 16. "I never thought very much of being a pioneer," Priesand said - addressing a group of students from Hillel. In 1972, Priesand became the first female in the U.S. to be ordained a rabbi. She received the honor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati after her completion of her studies in rabbinic school. Priesand was the only female in her 1972 graduate class - with no female faculty members either. She said she received both criticism and support during her time in rabbinic school.

• European Muslim Women: Spirituality and Responsibility. [American Muslim] The theme of women’s spirituality is arousing increasing interest and not only in the Islamic world, where, for example, the great Muslim women saints of the past still today provide us with valuable food for reflection. At the same time, in a more general sense, we should consider the responsibilities that the spiritual life involves, now as always. True spirituality is, in fact, hard to find in a period in which secularization has relegated religion to the private sphere, confusing exterior witness with ostentation and proselytism. It is first and foremost a responsibility linked to the custody of a sacred store and the capacity for the transmission of traditional knowledge that has been preserved over the centuries, since the very beginning of the Islamic revelation. A Hadith (a saying of the Prophet Muhammad) states that “Islam was born a stranger; it will finish as it started, a stranger” and that “the sun, which rises in the east, will, at the end of time, rise in the west,” indicating, also from a geographical point of view, the space to which men and women will be called, in the course of the eschatological events, to bear renewed witness to their faith. It is, in fact, natural that spirituality should be renewed thanks to the effort necessary to adapt oneself to situations and conditions that had never occurred in the past, avoiding the sterile and nostalgic repetition of forms.

• Unfair to Women. [Hamilton Spectator, Canada] There has been a lot of hard-line talk recently about what women wear. A Muslim cleric in Australia has opined that unveiled women invite rape; the Dutch government wants to ban women from wearing the burka in public. Both views are repressive and paternalistic, a bid to impose control over women in the guise of protecting them, and those who may be offended in their presence. Legislating appropriate dress for women is not the kind of social order that serves democracy. It is as offensive to democracy as it is to women and those who share their spaces, who are assumed to need operating rules about the female place in society. Until now, no senior politician in Canada has dared suggest that Muslim women should remove their veils in their presence, as has been done in Britain. Now, Mario Dumont, leader of the Action democratique du Quebec, said Sunday a law banning the burka may be useful. He suggested other Quebec political leaders are fearful of defending the values of Quebecers that clash with religious practices of newcomers. The Dutch government says it wants to ban burkas to protect public safety and to facilitate communication. To escape a court challenge based on discrimination, the government will also ban helmets and ski masks.

• Fighting Female Genital Mutilation. [Blogger News Network] One charge against Islam is that is denies rights to women, when actually Islam actually is tolerating long held local customs. This is a continuing struggle made worse by partially trained local clerics who wrongly interpret Mohammed’s tolerance of local customs such as the complete veil as a religious rule. So I am happy to report that the most senior Egyptian cleric has issued a fatwa against female circumcision, a custom that long predates Islam but alas has been spread with that faith, and a custom that many who are uneducated in Islam think is a religious rule. His is not the first fatwa against this custom, but one hopes his authority will help stop this terrible custom.

• India's Shiite Muslim Women Can Initiate Divorce. [International Herald Tribune, France] Leaders of India's Shiite Muslim community have approved changes to the community's marriage laws to give women more grounds for divorce, a news report said. The All India Shia Personal Law Board said women can seek divorce on grounds of mental or physical torture, adultery, or being barred from studying or taking up a job, the Hindustan Times reported. The law board, which is the top body for India's Shiites, rules on personal matters such as marriage, divorce and child custody. India's constitution lets the country's main religious minorities — Christians and Muslims — use their own religious laws for personal matters.

• Female Imams Aid Faith in China. [Fort Wayne Journal Gazette] At a tiny courtyard mosque tucked down a back alley in China’s Muslim heartland, Wang Shouying leads other Muslim women in prayers and chants. Every day, Wang dons a green velvet robe and white scarf and preaches to dozens of women at the Little White Mosque in western China’s Ningxia region. Wang is a keeper of a centuries-old tradition that gives women a leading role in a largely male-dominated faith. She is a female imam or “ahong,” pronounced ah-hung, from the Persian word “akhund” for “the learned.”

• Planned Polygamy Ban Stirs Debate in Indonesia. [People's Daily Online, China] A recent government's move to extend the ban on polygamy to all Indonesian state officials has apparently triggered strong reactions from lawmakers in the parliament, mostly those from Muslim-based parties. The government announced a plan to amend the 1974 marriage law and widen the ban on polygamy from civil servants to legislators, cabinet ministers, elected governors, mayors and regents and soldiers. The move came after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono reportedly received thousands of text messages and emails from housewives and female activists protesting the second marriage of prominent Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar. Gymnastiar -- who has nationwide fans of mostly women and is portrayed a role model as a perfect husband, as well as male admirers for being a modern Muslim scholar -- drew controversy after secretly taking a second wife despite a consent from the first who gave him seven children.

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• Poll: US Ready For A Black Or Female President. [CBS 5, CA] A new poll shows a majority of Americans are now ready for an African-American or female president. The CNN poll found nearly 60 percent believe the nation is ready for a female commander-in-chief, while 62 percent say the U.S. is ready for a black president. It's a boost for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both possible presidential candidates. But will it ring true on Election Day?

• Women Making Slow Progress in State. [Troy Record] The very fact that Pelosi is about to become the first woman speaker in U.S. history is proof that women historically have lagged behind in roles of government leadership. A recent study conducted by the University of Rochester indicated that though things are improving, women, overall, remain largely underrepresented as leaders in New York. With the exception of Dutchess and Westchester counties, the state garnered disappointing grades on a report card generated by the study. "While women make up 52.7% of the New York state voting population, they hold just 17.4% of the seats in county legislatures outside of New York City and, an increase of only 0.8% from a figure of 16.6% in 2002, women still have not reached 'critical mass' in local governments," said Nora Bredes, director of the Anthony Center at the University of Rochester. "Research in sociology and political science shows that when groups reach 35% representation, they support each others' beliefs and values and can affect change," she said.

• Equity Good for Women and Bottom Line. [Lincoln Journal Star] If it’s any consolation, and it isn’t, at least we can say Lancaster County is doing as well or better than the Fortune 500. A local report, “A Place at the Table: An Update,” indicates that women continue to be underrepresented in local politics, on boards, elected offices, government commissions and task forces. Based on surveys conducted between July and September, the report updates the 2003 Lincoln-Lancaster Women’s Commission’s report on women’s participation. Of the 2,420 possible seats on the community’s 219 leadership boards surveyed in 2006, men occupied 70.7% of the seats and women 29.3%, according to the report. Female representation among elected officials has jumped 11.9% since 2003, but the overall female participation rate dropped 0.6%.

• Replacing First Female GOP Chairman Could be Two-Man Race. [Columbus Ledger-Enquirer] The race to replace the state Republican Party's first female chairman could turn into a two-man contest. House Minority Leader Mike Hubbard is running with the governor's support, and state Sen. Scott Beason, another rising star in the GOP, is considering the race. Chairman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh announced last week that she won't seek another two-year term when the State Republican Executive Committee votes Feb. 10 in Montgomery. Cavanaugh was elected in 2005, becoming the first woman to lead a major political party in Alabama.

• Even Women Won't Back Women, So We're Stuck With Men. [Globe and Mail, Canada] There is no disputing the notion that women don't get the same opportunity in politics as the male gender. The imbalance in the power structure, let's just say, is an embarrassment to modern democracy. But — and here's a delicate question — what happens when they do get a chance? The Liberal leadership convention provides a distressing example. The party created a system wherein each of the country's 308 ridings could form a women's club. From each club, the fairer sex could send two delegates. The thinking obviously was that the clubs would be more inclined to support female candidates and give them a bit of an edge. So what happened? In the first place, women didn't even bother to form clubs. In only 82 ridings have women's clubs been created over the past many years. In 226 ridings, they don't exist. Bad enough, you might say. But it gets worse. From the 82 clubs that were created, a mere two delegates were put up to support a female candidate, Martha Hall Findlay. As for the rest, the women's clubs went male — en masse.

• Insulting to Women. [Globe and Mail, Canada] Lawrence Martin has missed the real reason why women do not support female candidates (Even Women Won't Back Women, So We're Stuck With Men -- Nov. 23). Just ask Flora MacDonald, leadership candidate in the 1976 Conservative leadership convention, about this phenomenon. The reason is that women, just like men, vote on the issues and the platform, not on the gender of the candidate. It is, in fact, incredibly insulting to women to suggest that we should vote for a woman solely because she is female. We're far too intelligent for that.

• Tories Like Women `Barefoot, Pregnant:' Liberals. [Toronto Star, Canada] The federal Liberal women's caucus is accusing the Conservative government of trying to keep females "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen," saying the government is pursuing an ideological agenda that ignores women's needs and cuts funding to those who need help the most. The Liberal women released a set of party policies aimed at what they say are the most pressing social and economic issues facing Canadian women, particularly working women and their families, caregivers and seniors. Improving the social and economic equality of women is the driving force behind the first volume of what the Liberals are calling their "Pink Book." The document is the product of cross-country working sessions with women and women's groups held last July, and is slated to be part of the party's election platform.

• Labor’s All-Female Contest. [The Asian News, UK] A former science lecturer is amongst some of the women Labor candidates fighting for the Withington seat in the next general elections. The seat, which is currently held by Lib Dem MP John Leech, will see it be challenged an all female Labor shortlist. Amongst the contenders is Dr Yogish Virmani who stood as a candidate for the Chorlton Park ward during the 2005 local elections. Dr Virmani, who was a lecturer at Manchester University, lives in East Didsbury with her husband Bhim and has been a party member since the 60s. Her work has focused on the improvement of deprived estates in south Manchester.

• Women's Vote 'Still Up for Grabs'. [Guardian Unlimited, UK] Disenchantment with the Government among women has hit record levels, but they are not warming to Conservative leader David Cameron either, according to a new report. The Fawcett Society said its survey of more than 500 women showed that the idea that Mr. Cameron had a female touch lacking in Chancellor Gordon Brown was a "myth." The findings showed greater skepticism among women in politics and political leaders and indicated they were still making up their minds over who to vote for at the next General Election, said the society. Satisfaction ratings with Mr. Cameron have dropped off in recent months, with just one in 10 women saying he was more honest than most politicians.

• Royal Officially Launches Bid to be France's First Female President. [Hudson Star Observer] Segolene Royal's quest to become France's first female president officially got under way as the country's Socialist Party named her its pick. "Together we are opening a beautiful page in the history of France. A new hope has risen in France, like a gathering wave that can only grow," Royal told a crowd of 1,500 at a Paris congress hall. Royal's nomination speech focused on defeating the ruling conservatives and integrating minorities, a key priority following riots by largely immigrant youth last year in neglected housing projects nationwide.

• Euphoria Long Gone as Germany's Merkel Marks 1 Year in Office. [The Associated Press] Angela Merkel has cut a convincing figure on the world stage in a year as Germany's first female chancellor. But at home, her government has lost its sparkle. Even though the economy is powering out of stagnation, Merkel's "grand coalition" of Germany's two biggest parties marks its first anniversary Wednesday with its popularity sagging amid discord among the former rivals and a perceived lack of direction. 

• A Balanced Approach to Gender Will Help Us All. [Sunday Herald, UK] Women make up only one-third of public appointments, and merely 12.5% of the judiciary at high court judge level or above. More women than men are entering higher education, but only 14% of university vice-chancellors are female, and only 15% of Scottish MPs are female. Despite some significant advances - Elish Angiolini's recent appointment as Lord Advocate, or the fact that nearly 40% of MSPs are female - Scotland's movers and shakers tend to be male and white.

• Bracks Defends Dwindling Female Factor. [The Age, Australia] Victorian Premier Steve Bracks has defended dwindling numbers of women in his Cabinet while announcing six new ministers in his Government. As expected after the resounding election win, Mr. Bracks announced Tim Pallas, James Merlino, Joe Helper, Lisa Neville, Richard Wynne and Daniel Andrews as his new Cabinet members. The six MPs replace Candy Broad, Marsha Thomson, Andre Haermeyer, John Pandazopoulos, Mary Delahunty and Sherryl Garbutt. Ms Delahunty and Ms Garbutt have announced their retirement.

• Make 30% Quota Mandatory, Says Women's Caucus. [Jakarta Post, Indonesia] Female lawmakers repeated Friday their demand for a 30% quota for women representatives in legislative bodies nationwide. Speaking at a national gathering of female lawmakers held in Jakarta, activists argued the quota would strengthen women's political bargaining positions in regional and national parliaments. The quota was just one of a list of proposals made in the two-day Caucus of Women Legislators meeting, which was closed Friday by Vice President Jusuf Kalla. During the forum, Golkar Party legislator Eka Komariah criticized the nation's major political parties, which she said had shown little commitment to encouraging more women to participate as lawmakers. "The implementation of the current laws on political parties and general elections gave no significant political gains to the women's movement," Eka said.

• Women Seek Guarantee of 33% Reservation in Parliament. [Nepal human Rights News, Nepal] Women leaders and activists in women’s rights have begun raising voice for ensuring the 33% reservation for them in the forthcoming “interim parliament.” They say they would be “compelled to agitate” if the May 18 Declaration of the House of Representatives is ignored while forming the interim parliament in the near future. Some women leaders and activists, including ministers and the MPs, appear critical of the government and the parties for their failure to implement the reservation provision. Minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare, Urmila Aryal, says the political parties must keep their promise to provide 33% seats to women in the interim parliament.

• South Korea Nixes First Female Top Judge. [United Press International] South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun bowed to opposition pressure in Seoul and dropped his nomination of a woman as the country's top judge. Roh's nomination of Chon Hyo-suk to lead the nine-member high Constitutional Court has bitterly divided the country's National Assembly since he made it Aug. 16, The Korea Times reported. The main opposition Grand National Party claimed he had skirted normal procedure by having Chon resign from her post as a justice so once she was installed as chief, she would be able to serve the full six-year term, the newspaper said. Chon has already served three years as a justice, and would have normally been limited to a further three years. The GNP is also opposed to Roh's nomination of two Cabinet ministers they claim have leftist and anti-U.S. viewpoints, the Times said

• DPP Poll Indicates Lu is Best Known Female Figure. [Taiwan Headlines, Taiwan] Women in Taiwan are playing a greater role in politics, with Vice President Annette Lu the most widely known figure among local female politicians, according to the results of a poll released by the Democratic Progressive Party. Hsu Chia-tian, head of the DPP's department of women's affairs, published the results at a news conference held at party headquarters to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Peng Wan-ju -- a women rights activist and one of Hsu's predecessors who was raped and killed in Kaohsiung after attending a party meeting in the southern county. The cause of her murder remains unknown and the murderer is still at large. According to the poll, nearly 84% of women voters surveyed agreed with the statement that women in Taiwan presently enjoy greater political rights than 10 years ago, more than 8.7% who disagreed.

• Female Afghan Minister Pushes for Rights. [Washington Post] Five years after the Taliban's fall, women aren't beaten if they leave home without a male relative. Girls can go to school, and a quarter of Afghan parliamentarians are women _ as mandated by law. But life remains bleak: Many women and girls face domestic violence and forced marriage in this conservative, violence-plagued country. In many provinces where the government wields little power, life for women remains as it was during the rule of the Taliban. "We've had three decades of war in Afghanistan, which have had very bad consequences for women," Minister for Women's Affairs Hussn Banu Ghazanfar said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It takes time to solve these problems." Ghazanfar, the fourth female minister since the fall of the Taliban, was appointed by President Hamid Karzai in August. But like her predecessors, she is up against provincial warlords who continue to refuse women and girls the right to education and even to leave their homes.

• Big Setback for Women. [Gulf Daily News, Bahrain] Clerics are being blamed for women candidate's disastrous performance in the parliamentary and municipal council elections. Seventeen women ran for parliament and four for municipal councils, but only one got in. Latifa Al Gaoud became Bahrain's first female MP when she was elected unopposed to Southern Governorate constituency six, which includes Hawar and surrounding islands. None of the others made it through to the second round of voting in either parliamentary or council elections.  Religious leaders have allegedly been telling voters that it is against Islam for women to be elected as politicians. Now women candidates and rights campaigners are calling for a quota in the next parliamentary and municipal elections. They also want the government to crack down on those who actively support sex discrimination in politics.

• Female Hopefuls Counter Traditional Roles. [Gulf News, United Arab Emirates] They are smart, ambitious and highly educated. They also have a growing sense about the role of literate women in confronting traditions and working on par with men to create a more positive reality for them. They are women whose exceptional fortitude has brought vociferous female voices to male-dominated campaigns in the last five weeks. Dr Jameela Al Sammak did it with extraordinary panache. In fact, she took the battle to a public ground and did not hesitate to tell the people about the relentless onslaught on her and on her team. "When I announced my decision to run in the polls, I was subjected to tremendous pressure to withdraw my candidature for the sake of another candidate. I was told that by running in the elections, I was dispersing the votes in the constituency which, they claimed, was theirs," she said.

• First Female Judge Appointed in Bahrain. [The Media Line] Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin 'Isa Al Khalifa has issued a decree appointing Mona Jasim Al-Kawari as the first female judge in the history of the Persian Gulf states. "I am very proud to be the first woman judge in Bahrain," said Al-Kawari following her appointment to the Higher Civil Court. "This nomination does not surprise me though, because his majesty has been encouraging women since the launch of reforms," said the new judge. Al-Kawari thanked King Al Khalifa, and said his move showed his keenness on ensuring equality between men and women, as was declared in Royal Decree No. 42 of 2002.

• 50% Reservation for Women in Elected Bodies. [Daijiworld.com, India] A legal workshop for women was organized by the District Legal Services Authority in association with Indian Federation of Women Lawyers at Karavali College. Speaking on the occasion, Justice R Gururajan, state High Court, said women must exercise the rights laid down by the constitution. Equality is conserved as a value in Indian constitution. Advocates should construe the existing legal provisions to guarantee justice to the oppressed so that the legal dominion does not remain suppressed. He also expressed the need for the Federation to set up legal aid camps in rural areas. He suggested the introduction of 50% reservation for women in elected bodies and said that the media has an important role in spreading awareness on legal rights of women among the masses.

• Senate Primaries: Female Aspirants Take War to Men, Vow to Dislodge Them. [Vanguard, Nigeria] As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) conducts its senatorial primaries all over the country, a record number of women seek to contest for the Senate in the most ambitious move ever by Nigerian women for representation in the highest legislative chamber in the country. Besides all four serving female Senators who are seeking re-election for a second term, two women in the House of Representatives are believed to be in the race for Senate seats. The two seeking elevation to the Senate from the House are Ms. Temi Harriman (Warri Federal Constituency) and Mrs. Nkechi Nwaogu (Ossisioma in Abia State). What was believed to have been a move by Mrs. Patricia Etteh, the deputy Chief Whip for elevation to the Senate fizzled out and Mrs. Etteh has had to seek for a third straight term of office in the House of Representatives.