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Christian

• Appointment of Female Archbishop Highlights Theological Differences. [GenerationQ, Australia] The recent election of the first female archbishop in the American branch of the Anglican Church has caused dissension and highlighted the differences between two differing streams of theological thought. The election of Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori as Arch-bishop of the Episcopalian Diocese of Fort Worth, on June 18th heightened debate over homosexuality after the bishop publicly stated that she does not consider homosexuality to be sin. In an interview with CNN, the Jefferts Schori said: "I believe God creates us with differing gifts." This debate is not new and Jefferts Schori's election serves to highlight the major differences between liberal and traditional theology. Liberal theologians believe that God created diversity and that He champions the cause of the poor and underprivileged. They believe that God calls the church to create a place where segregated members of the community will find acceptance. More traditional theologians believe that God's grace is extended only to those elect who come to Him and that God calls them to uphold the Bible as the inerrant and perfect word of God. Traditional conservative theology teaches that women should not hold positions of authority in the church, and that all homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of God. Feminist and GLBT groups hailed Bishop Schori's appointment as a forward step and a sign that the church is moving towards a more inclusive climate.

• Episcopal Church Appoints 1st Female Bishop in Cuba. [Christian Post] The Episcopal Church has named a woman as bishop in Cuba, the first such appointment by the church in the developing world, church officials said. The Rev. Nora Cot Aguilera was named suffragan bishop during a service in the Cuban city of Matanzas, said Robert Williams, director of communications for the U.S.-based Episcopal Church. "Her appointment is a wonderful reminder that in some nations, leadership is primarily about gifts for service and not about gender," said U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who took office in November as the first woman to lead the church. Cot will be consecrated in Havana on June 10, along with Cuba's other newly named suffragan bishop, Ulises Mario Aguiera Prendes. Cot, 69, told The Associated Press that she was "tremendously honored" but also faces "a great challenge" as the church, with some 10,000 members, moves toward greater national autonomy.

• Women Overlooked in Workplaces: Vatican Envoy. [CathNews, Australia] While equal pay for equal work is accepted as a principle of labor policy, United Nations Holy See envoy Archbishop Celestino Migliore says that women in the workplace "are still too often overlooked or undervalued". In his remarks to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Archbishop Migliore said that the presence of women throughout the workplace can only help to improve the situation. The UN body's Commission for Social Development met on 8 February to discuss the theme of "promoting full employment and decent work for all", Catholic Online reports. He said that equality between men and women should also be shown in their treatment in the workplace, salaries, and acquisition of pensions.

• Young Women Begin Peace Fellowship. [CathNews, Australia] The Australian bishops have selected seven women from three states for the second Young Catholic Women's Interfaith Fellowship program that promotes young women's participation in the Church. According to a bishops' statement, the Fellowships are being offered through the Australian bishops' Office for Participation of Women and with the generous sponsorship of many religious orders, catholic agencies and dioceses. The Director of the Office, Kimberly Davis says that this year's Fellowship follows the successful inaugural program in 2006, of which she is a graduate. "The fruits of the Young Catholic Women's Interfaith Fellowship are difficult to articulate in a short 'outcomes-based' statement. It was an experience that allowed personal growth, academic growth and spiritual growth," Ms Davis said.

• Knesset Parley to Debate Pros, Cons of IDF Service for Religious Women. [Jerusalem Post, Israel] Rabbis will rub elbows with religious women soldiers, many of them high-ranking officers, at a Knesset conference Wednesday aimed at discussing what in most religious circles is considered taboo - army service for women. The conference was organized by MK Rabbi Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad). Chief Rabbi of Haifa, She'ar Yishuv Hacohen, who plans to attend, said that army service for women should not be a recommended first choice. "But if a religious girl decides to enlist, the IDF should allow her to do so on a voluntary basis," said Hacohen. "That way if she changes her mind in the middle of service she can quit." Hacohen said that according to Halacha, a girl is not permitted to leave the custody of her mother and father. Enlisting in the IDF entails the parents' forfeiting of custody over their child, said Hacohen. Therefore, the vast majority of rabbis oppose army service. Despite rabbinic opposition, at least three post-high school educational institutions prepare religious women for army service.

• Malaysian: Chastity Belts Can 'Help' Women. [Bangkok Post, Thailand] leading Malaysian Muslim cleric has suggested that all women should be fitted with chastity belts as a deterrent to rape and incest, a news report said. Abu Hassan Al-Hafiz, an influential cleric from the northeastern Terengganu state, said that women were most safe from sexual predators if they donned some form of barrier to their sexual organs. "We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children are not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection," Abu Hassan said in a sermon, quoted by the Star daily. "My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs. Besides, husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean." Abu Hassan said that the practice of women wearing chastity belts in Malaysia could be traced to as recent as the mid-1960s.

• 'Women Have Equal Rights in Islam and Can Be Rulers'. [Gulf News, UAE] Egypt's top cleric denied a press report that quoted him as saying Islam forbids women from becoming heads of state, and declared that women can be presidents of countries. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr Ali Gomaa, refuted press reports claiming he issued a fatwa barring women from political leadership. "Women have equal political rights in Islam," he said in a press statement issued. On January 27, the flagship state-owned daily Al Ahram carried a fatwa by Shaikh Gomaa saying that Islam forbids women from becoming heads of state because it would require them to lead prayer - something only a man can do. "This ruling does not refer to the head of a modern state but to the traditional role of Caliph as both secular head of state and imam of the Muslims," he said, referring to a position that was abolished with the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1924. "The head of state in a contemporary Muslim society, be he a president, prime minister or king, is no longer required or expected to lead Muslims in prayer. Therefore, it is permissible for women to hold the highest office in modern Muslim nations," he added.

• Muslim Women Visit Quebec Town That Has Controversial Code. [Canada.com, Canada] A delegation of Muslim women paid a visit to the Quebec town that passed a controversial code aimed at immigrants. Clad in traditional Islamic headscarves, six women and several Muslim students met with the council and residents of Herouxville, 165 kilometers northeast of Montreal. Last month the town council passed the list of societal norms for would-be immigrants, letting them know that a man cannot stone a woman to death or burn her with acid. According to the so-called "code of life," faces are not to be covered except at Halloween and children can't carry weapons, including Sikh kirpans, to school, despite the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada has already upheld that right for Sikh Canadians.

• Kilroy Calls for 'Backward' Islam to Open Mosques to Women. [Guardian Unlimited, UK] Robert Kilroy-Silk set himself on a collision course with sections of the Muslim community when he claimed that most religious doctrine practiced in the UK's mosques was "backward, tribal and from a medieval period". The controversial MEP and former talk-show host made the remarks in an interview with the BBC in which he called for legislation to allow Muslim women into UK mosques. He was speaking as it was claimed that a majority of mosques in the UK—around 60%—do not admit women at all.

• The Unpublicized Female Face of Islam. [?????, South Korea] There are more than a billion Muslims all over the world. 50% of them are women. About 6 million live in the U.S.A. alone. Muslims are spread all over the world and belong to varying cultural backgrounds. Many of their actions are based on cultural or national norms, and are thus a reflection of the region's cultural/social history and not the religion that they follow. In this respect, it is our responsibility and everyone's right to hear the truth based on facts—facts and truth which are manipulated, ignored or often deliberately secluded from our knowledge. Often critics of Islam express their disagreement with Muslim sympathizers and "media-usage" or rather "media-misusage" critics by basing their opinions on how Muslims treat women. Unfortunately however, unable to make a distinction between Muslims and Islam, their commonly used statement is that "Islam suppresses women." Little is it realized that perhaps that idea too is aided by images displayed in the popular media and their interpretations of it. More often than not, humans fall prey to exactly the kind of stereotypes and creation of "other" thinkers around the world have been fighting against.

Hindu

• Sabarimala of Women Readies for Fest. [CNN-IBN, India] The pongala festival at the Attukal Bhagavathy temple in Thiruvananthapuram, which will see the largest annual gathering of women, will he held from February 23 to March 4. About 20 to 25 lakh women are expected for this year's pongala offering, which will be held on March 3, G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, Organizing Committee said. Stating that the festival had found mention in the Guinness Book of World Records, he said the highest attendance recorded was 1.5 million women on February 23, 1997. The Attukal Bhagavathy temple is known as the Sabarimala of women. On the pongala offering day, women gather with their cooking pots to perform the ritual for the health and prosperity of their families, he said.

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• Election Fever Gathering Momentum in Parts of the World. [Financial Express.bd, Bangladesh] Why Americans should suffer from a sense of hesitancy in electing a female president and the commander-in-chief is a question that begs a clear answer. There has been a total remission of election fever in Bangladesh but it is gathering momentum in the US, France and elsewhere much earlier than expected. The presidential elections in the US and France are due next year. Two countries' returning females to the White House and Elysee Palace for the first time in their history is increasingly becoming a distinct possibility. Europe has already seen two female heads of government, Margaret Thatcher in Britain and Merkel in Germany.

• For Women, Politics is Personal. [San Jose Mercury News] Hillary Rodham Clinton sure got it right when she announced her candidacy for president while sitting on her living room couch. Her success may very well turn on the decisions of millions of women sitting on their living room couches. Clinton advisers James Carville and Mark Penn have said they're counting on the women's vote (the ``X factor'') to catapult their client into the White House. They're obviously hoping that a female candidate will get much more support from women and are banking on the ``gender gap,'' the idea, trumpeted by the media and women's organizations, that women believe in liberal policies and will therefore, as rational political actors, support the Democratic Party. But I have news for Messrs. Carville and Penn: All the gender gap talk notwithstanding, there's no guarantee that Clinton would receive enough votes from women to be elected. I've studied women and women's politics for 20 years, and if there's one thing I know, it's that, except for possibly once in 1996, female voters have not by themselves put anyone in the White House. If Clinton is going to attract the women she needs, she's probably going to have to do something more than simply have a pair of X chromosomes herself. And much as it pains a feminist like me to say it, a lot of her campaign will have to involve putting her on the couch and analyzing her character and motivation. Again.

• Harriet Woods 1927-2007: A Pioneer for Women in Politics. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] In the aftermath of Harriett Woods' loss in the 1982 Missouri Senate election, Ellen Malcolm and a small group of women gathered in Washington to vent their frustration. Woods, a Democrat running when few women dared aim so high, had lost to incumbent Sen. John Danforth by a scant 26,247 votes despite being outspent by 50%. 'She ran out of money or she would have won,' said Malcolm, who described Woods' defeat as a turning point in electoral politics for women. Woods, of St. Louis, who died of leukemia at age 79, went on to be elected lieutenant governor in Missouri.

• Liberals to Run More Female Candidates in Election. [CTV.ca, Canada] The governing Liberals will have a whittled-down set of promises and more female candidates when it faces a tough electorate in October's province-wide vote, campaign chair Greg Sorbara said at the party's weekend policy convention. The finance minister said the Liberals' message this time will be more streamlined than it was when the party was elected on the strength of 231 promises in 2003. "The difference between then and now is that today, and as we go into the election, we have a record,'' Sorbara said as the Liberals wrapped up their weekend policy convention. "We think it's a pretty darned good record. When you're renewing your contract, you speak to that and what you're proposing in the next period.

• Women Panel Refutes SP Leader Charges. [Hindustan Times, India] The spat between Samajwadi Party general secretary Beni Prasad Verma and Labor Minister Dr Waqar Ahmad Shah in Bahraich took a curious turn with State Women Commission chairperson Dr Ranjana Bajpai rubbishing Verma’s charges of sexual harassment of a SP leader Gudia Pathak by a police officer close to the minister. Verma had last week accused Dr Shah of shielding an additional SP of Bahraich Hiralal who had allegedly raped Gudia Pathak. Verma had produced the woman before media to substantiate his charge against the minister. However the woman commission, which probed into the charges, found that the allegations were baseless. Dr Bajpai told newsmen in Faizabad that commission member Shahin Fatima investigated the matter and found the charges were false and baseless. Dr Bajpai said how could a woman like Gudia could be silent after repeated rapes. Dr Bajpai said such women could not tolerate sexual harassment. Without taking name of Verma, the commission chairperson said, “some people have been unnecessarily making it an issue”. She said the issue should not be stretched after the commission’s findings.

• Women Get a Raw Deal in Uttarakhand. [NDTV.com, India] Seven from the BJP, six from the Congress and three from the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. That is the total number of women who have been given tickets by political parties from among the 70 Assembly constituencies. That too in a state where women have spearheaded almost every noteworthy environmental and social movement. Renu Bist is one of the six lucky women to have got a ticket from the Congress but she feels there's no substitute for hard work. "Being a woman Sonia Gandhi too would definitely like to give more tickets to women worker, but it is necessary to win seats so that we can form the government, so I would advice all women to work hard for their ticket," said Renu Bist, Congress candidate, Yumkeshwar Block.

• Parliament Moves Ahead with Women's Rights Legislation. [JURIST] Kuwaiti draft legislation broadening women's rights was approved by a parliamentary panel and will likely be debated in the house in the next two months. The panel's head, MP Saleh Ashour [Kuwait Politics Database profile, in English and Arabic], revealed that the bill would make government housing, currently only offered to married men, available to women who are married to non-citizens, divorced or widowed. Other benefits include two-year maternity leave, a monthly stipend for unemployed mothers, and an increase in paid leave from 40 days to 70 days. If passed by parliament, the bill must then be signed by Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah [BBC profile] to go into effect.

• Uzbek Police Release Wife of Opposition Activist Who Intends to Run for President. [North County Times] Police released the wife of an opposition figure after holding her for several hours and warning that her husband should drop his plans to run for president, a rights activist said. Jahongir Shosalimov, who intends to challenge President Islam Karimov in elections later this year, said several men who identified themselves as anti-terrorism officers had forcibly taken his wife, Gulcherkhra, from her home. She was released later in the evening after being told that her husband "should stop doing that because it agitates public," said Surat Ikramov, a human rights advocate. Activists said the woman was held at a police station. Police have refused to comment on the allegations.