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A Different Kind of Graduation in South Lebanon
joined those of the surrounding villages at the local schoolyard in early spring for a different kind of graduation day – this one for grownups, for women.
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Convincing Egyptian Doctors to 'Do No Harm'
This year, the month of June will be a time of celebration in Egypt. Parties will be thrown for young girls who have reached the age of 13 with their sexual organs uncut, having escaped the age-old practice of female…
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Fifty Years after the Pill, More than 200 Million Women Still Lack Access to Contraception
NEW YORK—May 9th, which also falls on Mother’s Day in the United States this year, marks the 50th anniversary of the approval of oral contraceptive pills in the US. The Pill, as the contraceptive became widely known it…
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Sri Lankans Play Around with Gender Stereotypes
HILL COUNTRY, Sri Lanka — In mid-April as the sun moves directly overhead and the harvest comes to an end, Sri Lankans celebrate their New Year, one of the most important times in the cultural calendar. The occasion…
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Creating Good CARMMA for African Mothers
NEW YORK — Beginning today, all medical treatment and medicines for pregnant women, lactating mothers and children under five will be provided free of charge in all government health facilities in Sierra Leone,…
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Breaking the Silence about Maternal Death in Sierra Leone
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — When a mother dies in childbirth in Sierra Leone, the news spreads only in whispers: "The calabash broke." A woman, tradition says, is like a treasured calabash gourd, and her death,…
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Taking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting Out of the Cultural Mosaic of Kenya
NAIROBI — When Lina Kilimo ran for the Kenya Parliament in 2002 on a platform of peace, development and ending female genital mutilation/cutting, her opponents claimed that as an uncircumcised woman, she was unfit to…
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De-Linking Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting from Islam in North East Kenya
MADOGO (near Garissa), North East Province, Kenya — In the scorching heat of the midday sun, shaded by the horizontal branches of a dende tree, village elders and women leaders from five communities listened intently as…
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American Idol’s David Cook Helps Brighten the Future for Adolescent Girls in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Last month, David Cook, season seven winner of the popular television competition, American Idol, learned first-hand about the challenges faced by vulnerable adolescent girls in the slums of…
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