Ethiopia, art against early marriage
This photo taken by Stephanie Sinclair in Afghanistan was named 2007 Photo of the Year by UNICEF.
The standard age for getting married for many African and Asian women is puberty or, in some Sub-Saharan African and Southern Asian countries, even before that time. Things aren’t much better in certain areas of Latin America and Eastern Europe, where marriages of female adolescents between sixteen and eighteen are very common. These practices are usually referred to as “early marriages”. In some cases they’re the result of abductions, in other cases they’re a reward for war soldiers, a way for parents to protect their daughters or just a family strategy for economical survival. For sure, they are a true threat to women’s rights. Read more
Filed Under Art, Human Rights
Fly to India and get your heir
Take advantage of your holidays in Bogotà to inflate your lips. For a dental implant, you’d better fly to Budapest, Hungary. Or you can always go to la Habana, get your eyes operated and spend some more days on the Caribbean beaches, just to recuperate. Casablanca is no longer the capital of plastic surgery but the medical tourism business is still expanding and including more destinations and more specialties. Among the latest ones, birth assistance. Read more
Filed Under Modern Life, World Health
Women, cars and climate change
If you scan popular belief, you’ll find out that the relationship between women and cars has been deeply analyzed and defined. First, women are known to be bad drivers, able to perform every kind of illegal and extremely dangerous car maneuver on the four wheels without even realizing it. Second, women choose whom to marry basing their decision mainly on the car model the suitor owns. Third, women usually lay on cars, at least in filthy calendars destined to men. Read more
Filed Under Diversity, Environment
The G-spot test
Take a morning off tomorrow. Go to the hospital, get a few minutes test and wait for your doctor’s response. It’s quick and painless but it’s going to decide about the destiny of your sex life. Positive? Well, you’re going to have fun, girl. Negative? Sorry, you’re among those who will have to be happy with their clitoris. Read more
Filed Under Research, World Health
Green your mobile charger
Almost everybody knows. The planet is warming up and fossil fuels are getting scarcer and more expensive. Which means: we all may run out of energy very soon and not be able to power our ovens, stereos, laundry machines and, what is worst, mobile phones. Arghhh! How will the humanity handle such a handicap? In facts, the number of mobile subscribers in the world is expected to climb from 3 billion to 5 billion by the year 2015 and it won’t be easy to explain to all these guys that no matter how many times they plug-in the charger, their mobile battery will remain empty. A smart solution for this problem comes from developing countries, like India and some African nations. Read more
Filed Under Environment, Technology
Changing gender in Iran
As far as issues of sexuality and gender in Arab countries are concerned, today I’ve found out something very interesting on La Repubblica (in italian). In Iran, one of the Islamic countries where homosexuality can be punished with execution, changing sex is legal and also quite diffused: Iran has indeed the biggest number of sex changes in the whole Middle East. Read more
Filed Under Diversity, Human Rights
Arab and gay. And so?
He’s proud to be gay and he writes about it on a blog. He speaks about the difficulty of coming out with parents and friends and about episodes of intolerance he’s been subjected to. He even describes in detail the fun he had in that luxury gay resort called Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt. Between many comments he normally receives, one politely states: “You faggot queen.” In the end, nothing particularly new nor worth to be told. Unless you get to know where he lives… Read more
Filed Under Diversity, Media & Society, Modern Life