She stayed in Afghanistan during the Taliban era, working secretly for girls’ education, she stayed in the dangerous Afghanistan of today, and now she’s dead:

Women’s Affairs director, Safia Ama Jan, was killed on the city outskirts [Kandahar] as she left for work yesterday morning. The assailants shot her four times in the head, through a burka, before fleeing.
Ms Ama Jan, 56, has been an advocate for women’s rights in Kandahar, the former Taliban headquarters, since the fundamentalists were ousted five years ago.

A very powerful half-hour net video on the history of the fight for legal abortions in America and the disastrous reality today that more and more women are again having to resort to illegal abortions, from illegal practitioners or self-treatment – with predictable results – death and disability (even in one of the case studied with a severely disabled foetus that had no chance of life). Hideous – but an essential reminder of the fact this is something we have to keep fighting for. And on the positive side, some of the archival footage of the women who carried out the fight last time around is inspiring.

I have a pretty fast link these days, but I got the impression it is not particularly bandwidth heavy to play, so why not give it a go?

According to this week’s Time Out, the first recorded women’s boxing match (at least in the UK) was in 1722, between Elizabeth Wilkinson and Hannah Hayfield, for a prize of three guineas. The event was held in Islington (probably away from the prying eyes of the authorities, I’d suspect) and Wilkinson won. (I couldn’t find a web reference.)

Yet after men’s boxing was legalised and regularised, women’s remained illegal in the UK, and was only legalised in 1996.

The first televised bout will be shown on Chanel Five on Friday September 29 at midnight.

How do I feel about it? Well I’m somewhat in two minds about boxing in general, but if the men can do it, there’s no reason why women shouldn’t.

Depressing news, if given Musharraf’s weakness unsurprising …

PLANS to reform controversial Islamic laws dealing with rape and adultery, which have attracted condemnation in the West, have been watered down by Pakistan’s Government in a compromise with fundamentalist mullahs.

Hundreds of women have been jailed under the laws which made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she failed to produce four male witnesses. Known as the Hudood Ordinance, the laws were introduced in 1979 by the then military ruler, General Zia ul-Haq as part of his programme to Islamise the country. They made it almost impossible to prosecute rapists.

Pakistani and international rights groups had long demanded repeal of the laws which criminalised all extra-marital sex. A woman who fails to prove that she was raped could then be charged with adultery under the same legislation.

I would pray, God, let me wake up as a boy. That was salvation for me. That was where the power lay, and that’s what I became.

That’s from an interview with Laura Albert, the woman who was JT LeRoy, who was an abused young teenager … a reflection of the reality for so many girls and women.

… over on Alternet. Of course it can’t resist asking if blogging can “save” feminism, but otherwise is quite interesting.