"We Just Want To Live" Women Around the World In 5
In the ongoing series, Document Women highlights noteworthy news related to women around the world. This week’s post covers October 1 to October 7.
Iran
Protests in Iran are now in their third week with young women at the frontlines. The death of sixteen-year-old protestor Nika Shakarami, who activists believe died in detention, has become another rallying point.
Girls in secondary schools have been removing and burning their headscarves, chanting “death to the dictator,” and stomping on pictures of regime leaders.
Reports indicate that students were shot with paintballs and rubber bullets, and that at least fifty students were detained at Tehran’s elite Sharif University after they refused to attend classes.
Read more here.
Afghanistan
This week, a suicide attack at the Kaaj education center in Kabul left fifty-three dead, including forty-six girls and women, according to the United Nations. The attack gave rise to women-led protests.
Young women took to the streets over the weekend to call for justice, defying the Taliban’s ban on protesting. Protestors chanted, "Security is our right! Education is our right! Stop genocide!" State security forces responded with violence, including locking female students in their dormitories to prevent them from joining protests.
Read more here.
Ecuador
This week, hundreds of women protested in Ecuador against femicide, which a gender-based violence NGO said has claimed the lives of nearly 200 women.
The protesters were outraged by last month's case of a lawyer named Maria Belen Bernal, 34, who disappeared after entering a police station on her way to meet her husband. When reported, the police identified her husband as the main suspect and he is currently on the run in the case. Her body was recovered four days later on a hill about five kilometres from the police station.
Protest held in the capital Quito and other regions. The demonstrators carried placards that read, "Look at me carefully because I could be the next victim." The protesters yelled, "We want to live."
Read more here.
United States of America
A North Texas megachurch released an investigation this week, revealing that a former youth pastor had sexually abused 14 girls at two different churches.
The former Denton Bible Church youth pastor is in federal prison serving a sentence for sexually assaulting two girls on church youth trips.
Youth workers reported seeing Shiflet spending time alone with girls in his car, home and a hotel room. The letter says two youth workers raised concerns directly to Nelson.
Read more here.
Nigeria
The University of Lagos has seen its first female vice-chancellor in the school’s 60-year history, and the 13th vice-chancellor of UNILAG.
Folasade Ogunsola, a professor of clinical microbiology, has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
Ms Ogunsola is a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection Control (NSIC) and was the leader of a team responsible for infection control during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in the country.
Read more here.