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A small group of feminists has taken The Vagina Monologues to Pakistan a brave move in a country notorious for its treatment of women. Eve Ensler's play explores how women relate to their bodies in ways not designed to de light the powerful Mullahs of Pakistan. One of the participants, Nadia Jamil has been quoted as describing the performances as:
... a revolution. This is a society where it is taboo to talk about or even say the word sex. The idea of standing up and saying the word vagina is ludicrous, un imaginable. [Australian 24/3/2003]
Rehearsals were carried out secretly and admissions have been by invitation only. According to The Australian a small army of bouncers was hired in case of attempts by Mullahs or militant Islamic youths to stop the performance. Pakistan's top actresses attended shouting, 'We're going to turn Islamabad into Vaginabad!' Girlie congratulates these brave artists but doesn't think there is such a thing a bad vagina!
Brisbane barrister, Graeme Page, a member of the prestigious so far male only Tattersalls Club has put up a motion at the AGM to admit women. Page has been accused of being a turncoat and a mischief-maker and has received threats of reprisal: According to Page he is yet to hear any reasonable arguments against admitting women. He is quoted in The Australian thus: 'The ones that I've heard go along the lines that if we allow women in we won't be able to swear and fart and scratch our balls'. Well women members certainly won't be scratching their balls but they could perhaps tickle the Mickey and as for farting and swearing women can actually do those things just as well as men, however, they usually prefer to communicate in more civilised ways.
Stella Stott turned 100 years on 24 March 2003. A celebration was held in her honour at the Ballarat Queen Elizabeth Centre Nursing Home. As the tones of Happy Birthday rang out so too did the smoke detectors! It appears Stella's cake had so many candles burning the alarms were set off. By the time the Country Fire Authority arrived Stella had extinguished the blaze her self, presumably in the traditional manner, and each of the fire fighters received a cream cake for their valiant efforts (Herald-Sun 25/3/2003).
Girlie, being an Ozzie, usually leaves the chundering up to the blokes but wants to vomit every time she turns on the telly these days. The way the media is covering the US invasion of Iraq is tantamount to some kind of massive Grand Prix or sporting event. Even the promo's sound like over-excited sports broad casters. An exception was an article by Aida Kaisy that appeared in The Guardian and was reproduced in The Age (25/3/2003). Aida is one of thousands of Iraqi people living in countries that are part of 'the coalition of the willing'. She can't avoid television. She needs to find out if the houses of her relatives may have been struck. For her the fear that the news will dry up, as happened during the Gulf War, is worse than the horror of watching her country literally smashed to smithereens. Aida knows from the last attack on Iraq what it is like to live without electricity, water or infrastructure with people living in terror for their lives or those of their children. She writes of the media coverage:
A quick flick through the newspapers and television channels and it is pain fully clear how much the graphic departments are enjoying it all. Bombing Iraq has become a big game, one big competition to see who can come with the best illustration of a Tomahawk.
The Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training at the University of New South Wales has produced a study of 1000 employees that concludes women earning less than $30,000 a year will benefit most from legislated paid maternity leave. The federal government has claimed such a scheme would only be of benefit to middle income earners. The study was conducted by Dr Marian Baird who has said the results do not support federal Finance Minister Nick Minchin's claim that such a scheme would be tantamount to 'middle class welfare'. Dr Baird has also found
that women who work in low paid occupations such as hospitality, business services or farming would benefit most. Currently professional women earning more than $40,000 working for large organisations are those most likely to receive paid maternity leave from their employers. Baird has also shown that many women are not attracted to the government's 12 months unpaid leave option and many women leave the workplace after having their first baby losing their career opportunities, income and superannuation. Their employers lose the women's skills, knowledge and loyalty.
Evie Dense
Evie is a Feminist Lawyer
103
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AltLawJl/2003/28.html