‘Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.’ This is the opening Principle of the Tasmanian Government’s Taking Action: Tasmania’s Primary Prevention Strategy to Reduce Violence against Women and Children 2012-22 released by Minister for Community Development, Cassy O’Connor this week. At the inaugural Tasmania’s Women’s Gathering in Hobart on 3 September,…
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Malala Yousafzai opens new library in Birmingham Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban after advocating for girls’ rights to education, spoke at the official opening of a new civic library in Birmingham, UK. In her speech, Malala stated that ‘pens and books are the weapons that defeat terrorism.’ According to Malala ‘the…
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Women’s rights in Afghanistan are at risk of being undermined in the peace process, according to a United Nations watchdog. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women says patriarchal attitudes and the country’s political turmoil are partly to blame for existing problems and that the peace process may have a twofold…
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On 13 July 2013, Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai delivered a speech to the United Nations (UN) on behalf of ‘every woman.’ Standing up against the Taliban and Islamic Extremists, Malala asserted that all women and children should have equal rights and access to free education. But not only did her speech reach the heart of…
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Armed with only books and pencils, the superhero of Pakistan’s first animated television show is the Burka Avenger: a schoolteacher named Jiya who wears a burka to disguise her identity as she fights evil in the fictional city of Halwpur. The 13-episode show (running 22 minutes) aims to send positive messages to its young audience,…
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14 women students were killed in a terrorist attack in southwest Pakistan on the weekend. Militants blew up a bus carrying the students and bombed a hospital that was treating survivors. At least 25 people were killed in the two attacks. According to CNN, militants held hundreds of patients, doctors, and nurses hostage in…
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We’re continuing our series on the Dale Young Mothers’ Program (YMP) from Wyong, NSW. Funded by the Youth Connections program and the Wyong Better Futures Local Solutions Local Advisory Group, the Dale Young Mothers’ Program gives young parents the chance to complete their year 12 certificate and form pathways to further education/work by creating a…
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There is a way in which we speak about teenage pregnancy in Australia – it is treated as a dead-end, as a ‘bad decision’, as a sealed fate. The fact is though, that although having a kid as a teenager may not be many girls’ first choice, it doesn’t have to be a total disaster…
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It is feared that a girls’ school in Takhar province in northern Afghanistan has been hit by poison gas, causing up to 74 girls to be hospitalised over the weekend, with some in a critical condition. Events like these, causing mass illness and forcing girls to stop attending school, are not uncommon even in post-Taliban…
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‘A woman’s opinions are useless to her, she may suffer unjustly, she may be wronged, but she has no power to weightily petitions against man’s laws, no representatives to urge her views, her only method to produce release, redress, or change, is to ceaselessly agitate.’ – Louisa Lawson, speech to the inaugural meeting of the…
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The Melbourne Free University (MFU) offers students and academics a place to pursue ‘knowledge for its own sake’, free from fees, enrolment and assessment. It’s even free of a regular venue. MFU was conceived in 2009 by three sessional university teachers (Jasmine-Kim Westendorf, Gerhard Hoffstaedter and Aurelien Mondon) as an alternative to ‘outcome-orientated education’ and…
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American writer Rachel Higgins joins Lip today to discuss the changing state of university education, both in terms of rising costs and demographic shifts. Though much of her data comes from U.S. sources, the thrust of her argument — that the experience is changing in meaningful ways for everyone — is just as valid here…
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I recently visited my hometown of Michigan, USA, and sat down with a few old high school friends of mine for dinner. I had not seen them in almost four years and we had a lot to catch up on. The conversation went from boyfriends to jobs to school. Near the end of the night,…
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Something is rotten in the state of South Australia. Let me introduce you to the new SACE (South Australia Certificate of Education). It would be hard to imagine a world where the state’s education curriculum isn’t a contentious issue. Parents, and children who have progressed beyond just simply resenting the education system, will always have…
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