Women’s News Round-Up April 1: 5 Important Stories About Women
(trigger warning for story #3)
1. Girls Make Up the Majority of Winners in a Prestigious High School Science Competition
The Intel Science Talent Search is a highly competitive teen science event with categories in basic research, global good, and innovation, featuring top prizes of $150,000, $75,000, and $35,000. Two of the three winners were girls and The Washington Post reports that:
“Of the 40 finalists for the award, 52 percent were girls, the largest proportion in the program’s 75-year history.”
2. First Look at the New Wonder Woman
Entertainment Weekly revealed a stunning shot (above) of the early Wonder Woman as warrior Princess Diana (played by Gal Gadot) in her island home of Themyscira. The DC Comics film will release on June 23, 2017.
3. Media Coverage on Wartime Rape and Fistula Injuries Increases (trigger warning)
The New York Times, Time, and Vice News have all taken on the very difficult and important subjects of rape, wartime rape in particular, and the life-altering fistula injury that results for some rape victims (fistulas can also occur from delivery complications, especially in countries where women don’t have adequate access to contraception or prenatal care). Learn more in these three pieces:
In South Sudan’s War, Mass Gang Rape Has Become an Everyday Weapon
The World’s Modern-Day Lepers: Women With Fistulas
4. The Swimming Refugee Teen Who Saved Her Boat With Her Sister is Now up for the Olympic Games
It’s truly an amazing story: two sisters, whose refugee boat headed for Lesbos got a broken motor, climbed into the water and spent several hours swimming the boat to shore. Now one of the swimmers, 17-year-old Yusra Mardini, is on the initial list of 43 potential athletes for a refugee team competing at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. In August, the list will be narrowed to 10.
5. Campaign to End Manual Scavenging of Human Waste By Women in India Grows Stronger
In a tradition that is deeply harmful on many levels, some women and children in India are still working as manual scavengers (The Guardian shares that they are derogatorily called bhangis, which means “broken identity”), cleaning up human waste with hands and brooms. Former manual scavenger Ranikumari Khokar and other involved women and girls have been working to address manual scavenging and help those liberated from it for 12 years, along with Jan Sahas, a social and community based organization working for human rights. Stronger penalties for those employing manual scavengers have been put in place and Shai Venkatraman in Hathiyana of The Guardian reports that
“Stronger penalties apart, the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 makes it mandatory to rehabilitate rescued manual scavengers. They now get 40,000 rupees (over £400) as compensation from the government and get trained for alternative employment.”
*Extra News Flash*
Girls age 15–18 can now compete to win a STEM internship with Marvel! Elizabeth Olsen and Emily VanCamp of Captain America: Civil War explain:
-Julia Travers is a writer and artist. Her writing portfolio is here and she runs the artist interview site 5 Questions for the Artist
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