I still haven't figured out how to paste my rough draft in here. But I will keep trying different ways today.

I found an organization called WASH while I was looking for solutions to sexual harassment.  The group is Women Against Sexual Harassment. It is made for changing the way men and women think about harassment.  The publish a newsletter called THE WASH RAG with information about the issues in it.  There is a lot of information on the web site.  I hope you check it out.  There are things on why the person started it, how to get help, and there are a few funny jokes too.

I also found an article about women and harassment in the military.  It said that one in seven female soldiers who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and later required health care reported being sexually assaulted or harassed.  And that only .7% of male soldiers reported similar experiences. The article talked about how that is unacceptable and that women have been a valuable addition.  It also said that statistics like that turn women away from joining and that is not what should be happening.

I don't know about you but I didn't find this weeks readings very uplifting.  A few of my last posts haven't been that happy either.  But today I was very excited I found this article. It was about a lawsuit involving three female former police detectives.  They won a one million dollar  verdict. It said in 2006 the employees had accused more than a dozen male employees or posting pornography, making lewd remarks and disobeying orders from women.  It made me happy for there to be some sort of punishment for the men's behavior even if it took them 2 years for it to be finished. 

I found a video about harassment in Egypt.  Its called Sexual Harassment on the Streets of Cairo.

Its a pretty short video so it doesn't drag on and on.  It caught my attention because two and a half years ago I went to Cairo for my sixteenth birthday.  Before we went we were talking to different people and reading up on what to do to respect their culture.  Quite a few times we heard to keep our eyes down and to not look at the men.  They said that sexual harassment was a problem.  I was disappointed to hear that this was still a problem.  One thing it said was that " over half of all women living in Egypt experience some form of harassment on a daily basis."

I found an interesting article today.  Women experience more sexual harassment in work groups with male, female balance.  I thought it was interesting because when I thought about it I assumed that a woman would be harassed more if she was the only woman because every man would notice her.  But the article said "There is a lot more opportunity in these groups because you have a lot of men who have contact on a regular basis with a lot of women, and that's going to great more opportunities for sexual harassment.  When women are less represented or when hey are mainly working with other women, there is simply not as much opportunity."  Their studies said that harassment happened when there were either a lot of women or very few women, but the highest numbers was when it was equal.  I just thought it was an interesting article since it proved what I thought wrong.

I was on the website NOW and I found a page that was titled Violence Against Women in the United States.  It says that everyday four women die as a result of domestic violence.  It also said that 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape.  Also that two to six times women who are raped don't report it. I think that part of preventing violence and rape against women is being informed.  The website also has a page about stopping the violence.  I think that we can all work together and help make people aware of the things that are happening.

Having quite a few of my past articles have been about harassment and bad relationships.  I found a website called Fresh Start.  It helps all kinds of women.  Women going through divorce, don't have a job, live with abuse, have self esteem issues, and many other issues women go through. The place is in Phoenix.  It opened in October of 2002 and is the first self help center for women in the country.  IT was made for women over 18 who want help and information for emotional and financial independence.  One thing that I like about the program was that there is no qualifying criteria to get assistance so any one can get help.

I also found another article about sexual harassment in Egypt.   The article was called Date me or lose your job!  It was about a women that was being harassed by her boss at the end it said that she learned to put up with his harassment and twisted games.  An activist working said that the main reason women don't say anything is because they don't want to damage their reputations.  Women need to feel that they can speak up and there needs to be someone ready to listen.  No one should put up with harassment because they are afraid of what will happen if they tell someone. 

I'm sorry that I did my blogs on the last day, I know it is very helpful when people don't post ahead of time.  I read this article yesterday called Fighting for Muslim women's rights.  It was about how some of the worlds leading feminist got together to discuss issues women face around the world.  There were women from Pakistan, Oman, Malaysia, Indonesia, US, and Egypt.  In Oman women can were what ever they want and choose their education.  But if a woman marries a foreign man she can pass her nationality to her children.  Their big problems are with divorce and marital status.  In Indonesia the big problem is that Muslim women aren't very involved in politics because it isn't feminine to do so.  In Egypt their main issue was sexual harassment, the men think that the control of women's bodies involve them.  All the issues are that women have these roles embedded into them of how to act.  But changes are happening all over the world and it is amazing.

I was skimming around on the Internet and I found this article.  It is a study about abortion.  And reasons people got them.  One thing I found interesting was that "abortion patients were offended and angered by what they had to confront after making this difficult decision.  Over half of the patients surveyed encountered anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic, and more than 80% of these patients felt that the protesters outside the clinic, and more than 80% of these patients felt that the protesters' actions constituted an invasion of privacy."  I never really thought of it that way.  A while ago I was completely against abortion and with my youth group we stood outside the abortion clinic.  Now I am pro-choice but I hope that people pick life.  I think that people need to respect other peoples decisions.  It should be each women's own choice because not everyone uses it as birth control and I think people shouldn't influence other peoples decisions.

I was talking to a person over break and they were telling me all about their relationship.  She told me some questionable things and I was trying to explain to her that it was verbal abuse and that it wasn't okay.  She didn't believe me so I got online and I found an article and it said that about one in three high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship.  I have ten really good friends.  That means that about three of us will be involved in abuse.  The website also had tips on what might lead to abuse and excuses people have for it.  I think that just helping people become informed of how high the statistics are will help people.  Here is a website that has a little bit of information on what to do in situations.