Category: Global

Jaahnavi Kandula Did Not Deserve This Death

On Jan. 23, 2023, Jaahnavi Kandula was crossing the street when she was brutally struck by a police cruiser going 74 miles per hour. It is difficult to believe that we aren’t hearing this story until nine months later, but that’s how it goes.

Jaahnavi Kandula was a 23-year-old graduate student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus raised by a single mother in Andhra Pradesh, India. She was due to graduate in three months with a masters in information systems. In a demographic analysis, Kandula and I are no different.

Our lives will always be worth more than a few thousand dollars.

Women Reporting on Ukraine for WaPo Win IWMF’s Courage in Journalism Award

This year, the International Women’s Media Foundation honored the women of the Washington Post covering the Ukraine, with the Courage in Journalism award.

“What’s frustrating to me is that men [soldiers] might take me less seriously, or won’t take me to the frontlines because I’m a woman,” said Ukraine bureau chief Isabelle Khurshudyan. “That aspect definitely exists, that definitely happens. You have to try and show your credentials. Other women will try to slip in other work they’ve done.” 

Ms. Global: Baby Trafficking Network in Peru Uncovered; Rubiales Suspended by FIFA for Non-Consensual Kiss; Iran’s Continued Crackdown

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The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This time with news from Peru, Iran, Antarctica, Sudan and more.

The End of Eating for Two?

An expectation of sacrificial motherhood may explain why eating while pregnant is such a fraught affair. On the food-related anxieties and pressure placed onto pregnant women:

“I discovered that “eating for two” is an anachronism, a unicorn, a thing from a svelter (or hungrier) past. … The pressure for mothers to modify their behaviors based on poorly understood risks plays out in the way that women are ‘educated’ about eating.

“Mothers are exhorted to optimize every dimension of children’s lives beginning in the womb. Good mothering is construed as behavior that reduces even minuscule or poorly understood risks to offspring, regardless of potential cost to the mother.”

Dr. Katalin Karikó’s Hope in Messenger RNA Helped the World Recover from COVID-19

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Dr. Katalin Karikó’s 2021 discovery of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology led to the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Millions of people owe their health—if not their lives—to her perseverance. 

“Science is 99 percent challenge,” said Karikó. “You are doing things you have never done, or nobody has ever done. You don’t even know if it is possible.”

Mexican Supreme Court Decriminalizes Abortion Nationwide, Requires Federal Health Services to Offer Abortion

The Mexican Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday, Sept. 6, that national laws prohibiting abortion are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights. The sweeping decision entirely removed abortion from the federal penal code. The ruling also required the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it. In a statement, Mexico’s Supreme Court said the “criminalization of abortion constitutes an act of gender-based violence and discrimination, as it perpetuates the stereotype that women and people with the capacity to get pregnant can only freely exercise their sexuality to procreate and reinforces the gender role that imposes motherhood as a compulsory destiny.”

The increased access to abortion in Mexico stands in stark contrast to decreasing access in the United States, where 14 states now ban abortion entirely and another eight states ban abortion early in pregnancy.

Sexual and Reproductive Health Is Fundamental to Achieving Universal Health Coverage

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World leaders will gather in New York City on Sept. 21 for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to review progress toward universal health coverage (UHC).

We call on world leaders to step up and make clear and strong commitments defining sexual and reproductive health services—including safe abortion care—as non-negotiable components of UHC.