For the first time ever, the race for the Mayor of Paris was all female. And (gasp) a woman won! The two largest political parties in Paris’ candidates were Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, of the centre-right Union pour un Mouuvement Populaire (UMP), and Anne Hidalgo of the Parti Socialiste (PS). Hidalgo triumphed, claiming 54.5 per cent of…
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Russia’s newly appointed prosecutor-general of Crimea, Natalia Poklonskaya, has set the internet’s heart a-flutter after a video of her first press conference went viral on YouTube. Online users have bizarrely disregarded the fact that she holds a controversial position under President Vladimir Putin’s controlling government, instead labelling her ‘cute and hot’ and quickly creating memes…
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Speaking at the Stanford Centre at Peking University, Michelle Obama told a Chinese audience that they would be unable to advance its education goals without easing Internet restrictions and allowing greater freedom of expression. The First Lady was careful to preface her comments by stating that the United States ‘must respect the uniqueness’ of…
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Catch up with all this week’s feminist news here on Lip! This ‘Walk of Shame’ kit allows you to totally get your tramp on, and raise money for breast cancer research. Hooray! Seriously. Is a ‘Walk of Shame’ still a thing? Are we still calling it that? In 2014? I’ve heard it better dubbed…
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A Chinese travel company that runs trips to North Korea has set its sights on a new market: Western ‘pickup artists’ (or PUAs). Koryo Tours has explained on its website why this ‘love tourism’ isn’t illegal and why foreigners shouldn’t be dissuaded from taking the journey… or ‘challenge’ is probably how they’d choose to frame…
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The fight over equal pay continues to rage in Texas, and the head of a Republican political activist committee, targeting women voters, doesn’t support equal pay because ‘women are too busy.’ During an interview with local news WFAA, Redstate Women Executive Director, Cari Christman said that the GOP doesn’t support laws that address the gender…
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For a while, her name and picture were everywhere. In Nova Scotia, literally, on papers covering the province. Loretta Saunders, a 26-year-old criminology student disappeared on 13 February. She was writing her Masters thesis on the hundreds of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. Saunders, originally from Labrador and studying at Saint Mary’s University…
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Massachusetts passed a bill last Thursday that bans ‘up-skirting’, in response to a recent ruling that said a law aimed at criminalising voyeurism did not apply to the snapping of secret photos up a woman’s skirt without her consent. The bill would make photographing or recording video under a person’s clothing illegal, and now goes…
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Two members of the Russian feminist punk protest group, Pussy Riot, were attacked last week by several men at a McDonald’s restaurant in Nizhny Novgorod. In a video uploaded by the group, several men are seen attacking Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina with rubbish and green paint in syringes. They stand over the two women, emptying…
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The last two rural abortion providers in Texas have closed, following the state’s passing of an anti-choice law last summer, known as HB2. This law requires abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital. The two clinics, both outposts of a network of abortion providers called Whole Women’s Health, stayed open with drastically…
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A Kenyan pastor has banned women from wearing underwear in his church, as he believes it prohibits them from feeling close to god. According to the Kenyan Post, Reverend Njohi said that women attending his services are forbidden from wearing bras and underwear. He believes that those attending The Lord’s Propeller Redemption Church in Nairobi…
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Saudi Arabia imposes a strict interpretation of Islamic Law, particularly concerning women citizens and their rights. This law forbids women to work or travel without the authorisation of their male guardians. It is also the only country in the world which bans women from driving, and a woman cannot obtain an identification card without the…
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New anti-pornography legislation passed by the Ugandan government has been criticised by activists for its impact upon women. The new legislation covers a range of issues related to pornography, including child pornography, pornographic publications and even suggestive music videos. However the main controversy to arise from the changes was the provisions surrounding dress code. According…
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In Spain, abortion has been legalised since 1985. However a current Bill being debated in the Spanish Parliament looks set to change that. The new legislation being considered bans the procedure in most cases, allowing only for exceptions regarding a mother’s health and where the pregnancy was induced as a result of rape. Serious birth…
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