by Kimberly N. Chase
- USA –

Walking through any one of America’s big cities, the wind may brush a candy bar wrapper across the street and giant bags of trash might choke the sidewalk. Some people think nothing of it while others try not to notice the garbage in their midst. But for Annie Leonard, society's waste is "the most interesting thing in the world.”

by Shreyasi Singh
- India -

Sometimes, just asking for a small cup of milk to brew your tea can bring domestic violence to a halt. Sounds too simple a solution? Well, it need not be as a recent public awareness campaign in India has proven.

The Bell Bajao (Ring the Bell) campaign urges men to take a stand against domestic violence. The comprehensive campaign, launched in August 2008 with TV and radio spots, print ads, mobile video vans and an online campaign, is aimed at building conversation around domestic violence in India, critical for an issue that has grown with society’s tacit acceptance and uneasy silences.

Photoessay by Tammy Law
- Australia -

One of the oldest countries in the world, Ethiopia is often referred to as “the cradle of civilization” – a country with a tumultuous past, present and future, and yet at the same time, a place of unparalleled beauty. In the Northeastern region of Ethiopia earlier this month, a team of scientists recently unveiled their latest findings, Ardi, a revolutionizing fossil that pre-dates the infamous 3.2 million-year-old skeleton of Lucy.

by Natasha Dokovska
- Macedonia -

"I have 15 years seniority over the human resources officer and the highest level of education. Eight years ago, I was the head of the department, but in the last two years I have been [systematically] demoted. Now I drink daily, take 10 pills, and have been referred to the neuropsychiatry patient clinic - all because of the pressure on me to perform in a new managerial structure at the organization where I work.” Declining to give her name for fear of retribution, 42-year-old A.S. says she doesn’t know what to do or where to complain.

In the current conditions of the continued global economic crisis, “mobbing” - or workplace bullying and harassment - is becoming a prevalent phenomenon in Macedonia’s public and private sectors. Fearing for their jobs, large numbers of employees are dealing with the stress of job insecurity by targeting others. Often this “mobbing” occurs vertically, from high-level employees to those who work under them. Ridiculing, ignoring, threats, and reducing earnings are all forms of mobbing. Evidence indicates that “mobbers” (those who mistreat their colleagues) are often not aware of what they do.

by Katharine Daniels
Executive Editor, The WIP
- USA -

Recently, I had an insightful conversation with Linda Tarr-Whelan, author of Women Lead the Way: Your Guide to Stepping Up to Leadership and Changing the World. As the founder of this online publication it is such a pleasure when I can connect in person with writers in contrast to the virtual world where we usually communicate. This personal interaction always provides a greater depth and context to our work at The WIP, so it’s only natural that my conversation with Linda also brought refined clarity on the impact of women’s leadership and its implications for media.

by Mandy Van Deven
- India -

Unlike the abundance of exploration into the many dilemmas of motherhood by feminists in the West, in India the subject is so under-examined that it might as well not even exist. In fact, the magnitude of the topic is so daunting that my initial approach to Veena Poonancha, the Director of the Research Centre for Women's Studies at Mumbai's SNDT Women’s University and a contributor to the newly published Motherhood in India: Glorification without Empowerment?, yielded much apprehension. Veena was worried our interview wouldn’t be sufficient to do justice to the surplus of issues needing to be addressed—and honestly, she was right.

by Patricia T. Morris, Ph.D.
- USA -

“After the abuse I suffered during the genocide in 1994, I was 16 years old, hopeless and traumatized,” says Marie Chantal Nimugire of Kigali, Rwanda. “I asked God, ‘Why was I left?’ And because God rescued my life, I had a choice: to become a survivor, not a killer or a victim. My choice was not to wait for a man to rescue me, but to accept responsibility for myself and other women.”

According to the United Nations at least one in three women and girls around the world is beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime and some four million women and girls are trafficked annually into forced marriage, prostitution, or slavery. At least 60 million girls who would otherwise be alive are missing, mostly in Asia, as a result of sex-selective abortions, infanticide, or neglect. According to the World Health Organization, between 10-52% of women report having been assaulted by an intimate partner. The UNFPA estimates that 130 million girls and women around the world have undergone female genital cutting (FGC) and at least 2 million girls every year - nearly 6,000 per day - are at risk of undergoing FGC. Despite increased public awareness and two recent UN Security Council Resolutions (1820 and 1888), rape is increasingly used as a weapon of war in armed conflicts. The UN reports that during the Rwanda genocide between 200,000 and 500,000 women were raped, and in Bosnia during the conflict there between 20,000 and 50,000 women were raped.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Crude: The Real Price of Oil is outright sickening. Huge crude oil pits dot the landscape, natural waterways are so polluted that drinking the water causes cancer, and Ecuador’s indigenous communities’ entire way of life is on the brink of destruction. Responsibility for this pollution is the core of a lawsuit filed against Texaco (now Chevron) in 1993. The case has yet to be resolved.

by Lesley D. Biswas
- India -

When Mili held her newborn baby girl in her arms she wept, not with joy but with a deep sense of pain and disgust. The child reminded her of the intense physical pain and emotional humiliation her body and soul had been subjected to by her husband. Petite Mili had just delivered her first child when her husband demanded to have another.

“I was not prepared to have a second child and when he told me that he wanted to have a baby to prove to his friends who had challenged him that he would not be a father again, I was terrified. Despite pleading and reasoning he forced me and made me pregnant,” she says tearfully. Although Mili holds this against her husband, it has never crossed her mind to legally penalize him for his crime. “What he did was wrong, but sending him to jail for it would be a bigger sin,” she reasons.

by Jessica Mosby
- USA -

Burma (also known as Myanmar) is a closed country, literally. Since the 1962 military coup, few outsiders have even entered the Southeast Asian country. News reports are scarce and often unreliable because the news is almost exclusively dispensed by the military dictatorship, which cuts off internet access and cell phone networks during periods of social unrest – further isolating the country’s 50 million citizens. A documentary film about Burma filmed by native Burmese seems as unlikely as it would be dangerous.