Quickies

Global Quickies: Pants on Planes, Sexist Sweater Day, and Reinforcing Gender Roles

ITALY (From Dan)
“A man from Lazio is taking his wife to court for “mistreatment of the family” because she did not cook or clean enough, Italian media reported on Thursday.”

CHINA (From Amy)
“Worried that a shortage of male teachers has produced a generation of timid, self-centered and effeminate boys, Chinese educators are working to reinforce traditional gender roles and values in the classroom.”

CROATIA
“Three men who pleaded guilty to raping a 17-year-old girl in Croatia have returned to Australia after paying €20,000 instead of standing trial.”

WORLD
“United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the end of female genital mutilation (FGM) by 2030. The UN estimates that if current trends continue, 15 million more girls between 15 and 19 will be cut within the next 14 years.”

UK
“British Airways has ruled that women and men in their cabin crew are now allowed to cover their legs – i.e. wear trousers – while at work. The decision comes after a protracted legal battle with the cabin crew’s union Unite, ending a dress code that forced some female employees to wear skirts – unless exempted on religious or medical grounds.”

CANADA
“A university has been forced to remove an “inappropriate and sexist” video after using a woman academic to promote National Sweater Day in Canada.”

MEXICO
“Sikh movie star Waris Ahluwalia finally received an apology and reached an agreement with Aeromexico on Tuesday, a day after the airline barred him from a New York flight for not removing his turban.”

IRAQ
Former Isis Yazidi sex slaves take up arms for revenge, to win back Mosul and ‘bring our women home’.”

AUSTRALIA (From Rachelle)
Australia cuts 110 climate scientist jobs… because the science is settled there is no need for more basic research, the government says.

IRAN (From Mary)
“A newscaster for PressTV, Iran’s state-run, English-language TV station, has fled the country after revealing she was sexually harassed at work for years. Two of Sheena Shirani’s supervisors have been suspended after she shared an audio recording and dozens of messages on Facebook from one of them demanding sex from her. “

TAIWAN (From Amy)
“The police have arrested the builder of a 17-story apartment complex that collapsed in a predawn earthquake on Saturday here in southwestern Taiwan, the city government announced Tuesday afternoon.”

ITALY
A six-year-old girl cannot go to school because of the low vaccination rates among her classmates. She suffers from an immunodeficiency that prevents her from getting vaccinated and having 8 of her 18 classmates unvaccinated puts her at risk.

SAUDI ARABIA
A McDonalds ad featuring international soccer superstar Neymar eating a hamburger was taken down because it violated religious sanctity. It is not clear what about the ad was in violation of religious sanctity.

PAKISTAN
“A report carried out by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has revealed that troublingly, more than half of all teenage girls in Pakistan believe that domestic violence is justified for at least one reason. ”

EL SALVADOR
“Women’s rights activists fear that a suspected rise in miscarriages linked to the Zika epidemic could lead to a surge in criminal prosecutions of women for deliberate abortion or homicide under El Salvador’s draconian abortion law.”

ISRAEL
“Cleaning services are being promoted to potential clients in north Tel Aviv with a flyer that prices its cleaners according to their ethnic origin. The advert also refers to its employees in the feminine only.”

Featured image: By Jean Marc Cote – A reproduction of the early 20th century, scan, Public Domain.

Daniela

Born and raised in Mexico City, Daniela has finally decided to abdicate her post as an armchair skeptic and start doing some skeptical activism. She is currently living in Spain after having lived in the US, Brazil and Italy. You can also find her blogging in Spanish at esceptica.org.

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