Women And Girls

As a woman in the Army, Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt is barred from serving in the infantry. But that didn't stop commanders in Afghanistan from tapping her when they needed a female soldier to accompany men on their door-kicking missions. Hunt's job on those house-to-house raids was to search any women and girls they came across. Not having trained with the teams, she says, made the work more dangerous. "The infantry operates together," she said. "Then I get kind of dropped in on them, and I don't know what their operating procedures are. If 'X' happens, what is their reaction to it?"

March is Women's History Month, but the headlines give us little to celebrate. Women who dare to attend protests in Egypt are routinely beaten and subjected to brutal "virginity tests. " Girls in Afghanistan are beaten or disfigured for attending school. Infant girls are poisoned or abandoned to die in India and China because they are a burden to the family. Honor killings, the forced marriage of young girls to older men, the rape of virgins in Africa because they do not carry the AIDS virus - the list of horrors goes on and on. Indeed, as much of the developing world is shaken awake by democratic movements or plain old capitalism, the lives of women, made so clear to those of us in the West because of the globalization of news, seem to be trapped in amber.

Harford County Sheriff's deputies are seeking information on the whereabouts of nine missing women and girls, including an Aberdeen resident who disappeared days after four other women were attacked or killed in the area, police said. Jennifer Lynn Blankenship, 25, of the 100 block of Spesutia Road, was last seen June 4, two days after Sheila Ann Turner, 42, was found dead in a field in Perryman. Another woman - Lillian Abramowicz Phelps of Elkton - was found dead two weeks later, and two other women told police they were choked and left for dead in secluded locations, as well.

"I flew a mother and two young daughters, probably 4 and 7 years old, and as we took off I heard this shrieking from the back of the plane," said Lin Caywood, a 12-year pilot. A mother and recent grandmother herself, Caywood thought the kids were upset about the flight, and banked to circle back to Frederick Municipal Airport for a quick landing to calm the hysterical children. "Then I caught a look at them, and they weren't upset," said Caywood, a Baltimore native and graduate of Poolesville High and Hood College.

They call themselves the Company of Women. But they're girls at heart.Founded six years ago in Boston, the Company of Women is based on the combined principles of Kristin Linklater, a nationally recognized vocal coach, and Carol Gilligan, a research psychologist whose work focuses on studies of women and girls.The company, which was in residence at Goucher College last month and returns there to perform in September, has a twofold mission: 1) It produces all-female productions of Shakespeare's plays, and 2)

In generations past, the world's oldest profession was a tawdry trade practiced mostly in the shadows of unlit street corners and darkened alleys. Today, vulnerable young women and girls are still being tricked or forced into selling their bodies to strangers by predatory and amoral pimps who deceive, threaten and abuse them - but the locus of "the stroll" has changed from sidewalks to computer screens. Increasingly, traffickers are going online to market their victims, and as a new study by the Abell Foundation warns, the rise in Internet sex trafficking is rapidly outstripping efforts to combat it. The study's authors concede that hard numbers are notoriously difficult to come by, since the vast majority of transactions take place out of view of authorities, and traffickers have become extremely sophisticated in managing their businesses.

Twenty-five years into the AIDS epidemic and halfway through the initial phase of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, there is increasing international consensus about the need to target women and girls. One area where the U.S. could make a real difference in women's lives has until recently been largely overlooked: integrating HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services. This presents important new opportunities for the U.S. AIDS program to become more effective and sustainable.

Violence against women is a global epidemic, threatening the lives and safety of women and girls around the world. Today, one out of every three women worldwide will be physically or sexually abused during her lifetime, with rates reaching 70 percent in some countries. These are horrifying statistics. As chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I recently joined efforts to tackle this egregious problem by co-sponsoring the International Violence Against Women Act. Violence against women ranges from gang rape to domestic violence and from acid burnings to so-called honor killings.

A RECENT report on sexual abuse and exploitation of civilian women and girls by United Nations peacekeepers demands quick and unequivocal action by the organization's full assembly. The world body should adopt comprehensive recommendations made in the report, including prosecution of perpetrators by their home countries and on-site courts-martial in the countries where mission members served. The U.N. report verifies a deeply troubling and widespread problem that first came to light last year with allegations of rape and other abuses by peacekeeping personnel in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where some 63 implicated peacekeepers have been expelled and where 106 other cases of abuse, including gang rape, are being investigated.

WASHINGTON - The government should encourage women and girls to reduce the amount of meat, whole milk and other fatty foods they eat as a way of protecting themselves and their offspring from dioxins, harmful residues of natural and industrial combustion, an expert panel said yesterday. The Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit health policy advisory body, recommended that the government do more to educate women and girls about limiting consumption of dioxins, which can be passed through the placenta to a fetus or through breast milk to an infant.

In generations past, the world's oldest profession was a tawdry trade practiced mostly in the shadows of unlit street corners and darkened alleys. Today, vulnerable young women and girls are still being tricked or forced into selling their bodies to strangers by predatory and amoral pimps who deceive, threaten and abuse them - but the locus of "the stroll" has changed from sidewalks to computer screens. Increasingly, traffickers are going online to market their victims, and as a new study by the Abell Foundation warns, the rise in Internet sex trafficking is rapidly outstripping efforts to combat it. The study's authors concede that hard numbers are notoriously difficult to come by, since the vast majority of transactions take place out of view of authorities, and traffickers have become extremely sophisticated in managing their businesses.

As a woman in the Army, Staff Sgt. Jennifer Hunt is barred from serving in the infantry. But that didn't stop commanders in Afghanistan from tapping her when they needed a female soldier to accompany men on their door-kicking missions. Hunt's job on those house-to-house raids was to search any women and girls they came across. Not having trained with the teams, she says, made the work more dangerous. "The infantry operates together," she said. "Then I get kind of dropped in on them, and I don't know what their operating procedures are. If 'X' happens, what is their reaction to it?"

Advance registration is now open for those who want to help Ocean City set a record for the world's longest bikini parade. The Guinness World Record is now held by Panama City Beach, Fla., which stole it from Australia back in the spring. The folks Down Under plan to recapture the record with an event in October, so O.C. will really have to bring it. For the win, the town needs more than 450 women, teens and girls to show up in their two-piece swimsuits for the Aug. 25 event, part of the Uptown Beach Bash, a newly launched three-day festival feature art shows, music, food, a paddleboard regatta and a bike stunt show.

Violence against women is a global epidemic, threatening the lives and safety of women and girls around the world. Today, one out of every three women worldwide will be physically or sexually abused during her lifetime, with rates reaching 70 percent in some countries. These are horrifying statistics. As chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I recently joined efforts to tackle this egregious problem by co-sponsoring the International Violence Against Women Act. Violence against women ranges from gang rape to domestic violence and from acid burnings to so-called honor killings.

The list of sins against women in the United States is long. We still badly lag our male counterparts in pay. We just about outnumber men in college but are only a fraction of the bosses in business. We just about outnumber men in law school, too. But there are only two women on the Supreme Court. We work outside the home but still handle most of the chores in it. We are in regular danger of having our reproductive rights revoked. Our daughters are muscled out of the way in science classes.

WASHINGTON -With a flick of his pen, President Barack Obama finally laid to rest Freud's most famous question and iterated one of man's hardest-won lessons: Women want what women want. And the wise man sayeth: "Yes, dear." Thus, it came to pass that the president created the White House Council on Women and Girls to ensure that all Cabinet-level agencies consider how their policies affect women and families. Presumably, men and boys may expect to benefit from what is helpful to women and girls.

"I flew a mother and two young daughters, probably 4 and 7 years old, and as we took off I heard this shrieking from the back of the plane," said Lin Caywood, a 12-year pilot. A mother and recent grandmother herself, Caywood thought the kids were upset about the flight, and banked to circle back to Frederick Municipal Airport for a quick landing to calm the hysterical children. "Then I caught a look at them, and they weren't upset," said Caywood, a Baltimore native and graduate of Poolesville High and Hood College.

Student artwork to be auctioned Saturday The Columbia Association's Teen Advisory Committee invites Howard County students to submit artwork to be sold at a student auction and fundraiser, to be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia. Fifty percent of the proceeds will go to the artist; 50 percent to Smile Train, a charity providing free surgery for poor children in developing countries in need of cleft palate or lip repair. The charity also provides training for doctors and other medical professionals.