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30 June 2015 - NPWJ News Digest on FGM & women's rights
Articles
U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocks Texas abortion restrictions
by Reuters, 29 Jun 2015
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to block temporarily parts of a strict new Texas abortion law that critics say is aimed at shutting down clinics that offer the procedure. The court granted a request by women's health providers to put a temporary hold on a June 9 ruling by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups had asked the high court to put the provisions on hold until they can file a formal petition asking the justices to take the case. The court was divided 5-4, with conservative Anthony Kennedy joining the court's four liberals in granting the stay request. With the court now recessed for the summer, no further action is likely until at least the fall. At issue are two provisions of the 2013 Texas abortion law. One mandates clinics have certain costly hospital-grade facilities. The other requires that abortion clinic physicians have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (50 km).
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The percentage of Egyptian youth who believe that FGM is necessary in 2014
by Baseera, 29 Jun 2015
61% - The percentage of Egyptian youth (15-29 years of age) who believe that FGM/circumcision is necessary in 2014. The main reason which makes FGM/circumcision necessary is “customs and traditions” with 57%, followed by “religious reasons” with 35%.
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Kenya in court after botched abortion injures raped 15-year-old
by Reuters, 29 Jun 2015
The mother of a 15-year-old rape survivor, who needs a kidney transplant following a botched backstreet abortion, filed a case against Kenya's government on Monday for denying women and girls safe access to terminations. The girl, who said she became pregnant when she was raped by an older man, started vomiting and bleeding heavily after an unsafe abortion. Rape survivors have difficulty accessing safe abortions in Kenya, despite being allowed to under the ministry of health's guidelines on managing sexual violence, the petition said. Kenya has rolled back its limited access to abortion over the last couple of years, although the 2010 constitution permits terminations only in emergencies or when a woman's life or health is at risk.
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Anthropologist reveals FGM practised in western, southern Iran
by Reuters, 26 Jun 2015
When anthropologist Kameel Ahmady began investigating female genital mutilation in his native Iran he had no idea his own mother and sister had been cut - a reflection of just how shrouded in secrecy the practice is. Ahmady, who was born in Iranian Kurdistan but moved to Britain in his 20s, took global campaigners by surprise this month when he published a study suggesting tens of thousands of Iranian women have undergone FGM. Until now Iran has not been widely recognised as a country affected by FGM - an ancient ritual which is internationally condemned as a serious rights violation. The practice, which causes physical and psychological damage, is commonly linked to 27 African countries along with Yemen and Iraqi Kurdistan. But Ahmady's research, based on 4,000 interviews, shows FGM is also performed in "secret pockets" of four Iranian provinces; West Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah in the west and Hormozgan in the south.
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Female genital mutilation: Why Egyptian girls fear the summer
by CNN, 25 Jun 2015
Summer days: They're what childhood memories are made of, glorious afternoons of unchecked freedom to frolic with friends in the sun, unshackled from the earthly obligations of a math class that never seemed further away. But for millions of schoolgirls in Egypt, this time of year represents something much darker: the start of the female genital mutilation (FGM) season.Of the more than 125 million girls and women alive today who have undergone the procedure, one in four live in Egypt. That's more than any other country in the world, according to the U.N. Ninety-two percent of married Egyptian women aged 15 to 49 have been subjected to FGM, according to a government report released in May. That figure is down from 97% in 2000, but the practice is still the norm here. Most girls are cut between the ages of nine and 12, and the operations usually take place during the summer school break so the girls can recover at home.
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