Awe Inspired partners with Sad Girls Club, hosts a panel on motherhood and mental health in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month with Alyssa Milano at their flagship store on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles: May 11, 2023
LOS ANGELES, May 11, 2023 (Newswire.com)
– Celebrity-favored jewelry brand Awe Inspired has partnered with Sad Girls Club, the viral social organization de-stigmatizing mental health for young women of color. This Thursday, Sad Girls Club founder and filmmaker Elyse Fox will moderate a panel at Awe Inspired’s Melrose Avenue flagship “Sanctuary” on the topic of “Moms, Mental Health, and Manifesting Awe.” Panel participants include actress Alyssa Milano, former LA Times and WWD editor Melissa Magsaysay, and influencer/empowerment coach Felicia LaTour. The event will also livestream on Awe Inspired’s Instagram @aweinspired.
Awe and Sad Girls Club will also debut a pendant of the Goddess Erzulie – the Vodou spirit associated with self-love. 100% of product sales will be donated to Sad Girls Club and 100% of the sales from the event will also benefit the organization. Previous charitable collaborators have included Planned Parenthood, NAMI, NAACP, and GLSEN.
Awe Inspired designs ethically sourced fine jewelry as a vehicle for spiritual discovery. With a mission to create empowering jewelry that celebrates the divine feminine, Awe has achieved significant cultural impact since launch in 2018. The brand’s Goddess Collection – medallions depicting iconic women from mythology and history – is cherished by women around the world, including the brand’s legion of celebrity fans from pop stars and actresses to political icons. A portion of proceeds from all sales are donated to causes championed by Awe’s customer community.
Awe Founder Jill Johnson shared: “Pregnancy and motherhood is very demanding; we struggle to find balance, to meet all of the challenges of children/spouse-partner/friends/work – there is no time to compromise your mental health – you need to make it a priority, that’s why at Awe for more than four years, we’ve partnered with NAMI and now Sad Girls Club.”
Awe Co-Founder and CEO Max Johnson notes: “I am honored to partner with my friend Elyse Fox and her tremendous organization. Mental well-being and self-empowerment are core values to the Awe Inspired brand. It is a privilege to use our platform to help amplify the call for mental health awareness.”
For more information, please contact: CMO, Shruti Saini shruti@aweinspired.com
Awe Sanctuary address: 8446 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90069
Linda Hovanessian Larsen, MD, a breast cancer radiologist with Keck Medicine of USC and the director of the Division of Breast Imaging at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, is available to talk about the new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending mammography starting at age 40 rather than 50.
According to Larsen:
“The new guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommending mammography starting at age 40 rather than 50 are a significant benefit to patients and physicians that will help better address the disparities in breast cancer screening and treatment among Black, Hispanic, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American and Alaskan Native women.
“However, as a breast cancer radiologist, I strongly believe, in accordance with the American College of Radiology, that mammography should be performed annually rather than every other year in women of average risk to detect breast cancer earlier.
“In addition, breast imaging physicians with Keck Medicine often provide supplemental screenings using ultrasounds or MRIs in addition to mammograms for women with dense breasts because they are at a higher risk for developing cancer.
“Nevertheless, these new guidelines are moving in the right direction.”
Newswise — CHICAGO, May 9, 2023 – Breast cancer is one of the most common and deadly types of cancer, and the best outcomes stem from early detection. But some screening techniques may be less effective for people with darker skin.
Seonyeong Park of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will discuss experiments to measure this bias in her talk, “Virtual imaging trials to investigate impact of skin color on three-dimensional optoacoustic tomography of the breast.” The presentation will take place Tuesday, May 9, at 6:15 p.m. Eastern U.S. in room Chicago F/G, as part of the 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America running May 8-12 at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile Hotel.
Current standard screening for breast cancer is done with X-ray mammography, which can be uncomfortable and is less effective on dense breast tissue. An alternative, optoacoustic tomography, uses laser light to induce sound vibrations in breast tissue. The vibrations can be measured and analyzed to spot tumors. This method is safe and effective and does not require compression during imaging.
The technology that underlies OAT imaging is not new; it has been used in pulse oximetry for decades. Concerns about its interaction with darker skin have existed for almost as long.
“In 1990, a study found that pulse oximetry was about 2.5 times less accurate in patients with dark skin,” said Park. “Recently, an article suggested that unreliable measurements from pulse oximeters may have contributed to increased mortality rates in Black patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
With OAT emerging as an effective breast cancer screening method, Park and her team, led by professors Mark Anastasio at UIUC and Umberto Villa at the University of Texas at Austin, collaborating with professor Alexander Oraevsky of TomoWave Laboratories, Inc. in Houston, wanted to determine if this same bias was present. Rather than navigate the cost and ethics issues surrounding human test subjects, the team instead simulated a range of skin colors and tumor locations.
“By using an ensemble of realistic numerical breast phantoms, i.e., digital breasts, the evaluation can be conducted rapidly and cost-effectively,” said Park.
The results confirmed that tumors could be harder to locate in individuals with darker skin depending on the design of the OAT imager and the location of the tumor. Fortunately, a virtual framework developed by Park allows for more comprehensive investigations and can serve as a tool for evaluating and optimizing new OAT imaging systems in their early stages of development.
“To improve detectability in dark skin, the laser power should be increased,” said Park. “It is recommended that skin color-dependent detectability should be evaluated when designing new OAT breast imagers. Our team is actively conducting in-depth investigations utilizing our virtual framework to propose effective strategies for designing imaging systems that can help mitigate racial bias in OAT breast imaging.”
In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/.
LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS
ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are summaries (300-500 words) of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.
PRESS REGISTRATION
ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at [email protected]. For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.
ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.
A new draft recommendation about mammograms to screen for breast cancer in women, lowering the minimum age to 40, was just issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. If it becomes final, that means screening mammograms will be available without cost to even more women, under a provision of the Affordable Care Act that uses USPSTF as a key guide for preventive care.
But a court case currently winding its way to the Supreme Court, called Braidwood v. Becerra, could upend this free access for many women as well as no-cost access to many other preventive health services for women, men and children.
Dr. Mark Fendrick, who heads the University of Michigan Center for Value-Based Insurance Design and is a general internist at Michigan Medicine, is following this case closely, as is his colleague Nicholas Bagley of the U-M Law School.
They are available to comment on the background and potential impacts of the Braidwood case and a potential path to changing health policy so that the eventual verdict in the Braidwood case would not affect services recommended by USPSTF.
The Association of Health Care Journalists is featuring Dr. Fendrick in a free webinar on May 10, and a recording will be available afterward: https://healthjournalism.org/calendar-details.php?id=2592&EventType=0&EventSubType=0&Topic=calendar
Parliamentarians attending the Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit. Credit: APDA
by Cecilia Russell (johannesburg)
Inter Press Service
JOHANNESBURG, May 09 (IPS) – Parliamentarians from more than 30 countries agreed to send a strong message to the G7 Hiroshima Summit in Japan later this year, focusing on human security and support of vulnerable communities, including women, girls, youth, aging people, migrants, and indigenous people, among others.
The wide-ranging declaration also called on governments to support active political and economic participation for women and girls, enhancing and implementing legislation that addresses gender-based violence (GBV) and eradicating harmful practices like child, early, and forced marriages. During discussions and in the declaration, a clear message emerged that budgetary requirements for Universal Health Care (UHC) should be prioritized and the exceptional work done by health workers during the pandemic be recognized.
In his keynote address, Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio reminded delegates that Covid-19 had exposed the “fragility of the global health architecture and underscored the need for UHC.”
Kishida said that the central vision of the G7 Hiroshima Summit was to emphasize the importance of addressing human security – through building global health architecture, including the “governance for prevention, preparedness, and response to public health crises, including finance. We believe it is important for the G7 to actively and constructively contribute to efforts to improve international governance, secure sustainable financing and strengthen international norms.”
Apart from contributing to resilient, equitable, and sustainable UHC, health innovation was needed to promote a “more effective global ecosystem to enable rapid research and development and equitable access to infectious disease crisis medicines … and to support aging society,” Kishida said.
Former Prime Minister of Japan Fukuda Yasuo, Chair of APDA, and Honorary Chair of JPFP said this conference and its declaration would follow in a tradition of delivering strong messages to the G7 that improving reproductive health was crucial to the development and the future of a planet which now had 8 million people living on it.
“International Community is becoming increasingly confrontational and divided, and there is the emergence of a national leader who is threatening the use of nuclear weapons. No nuclear weapons have been used in the nearly 80 years since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We must work together to prevent the use of nuclear weapons, which can take many precious lives and people’s daily lives. In this instance, I would like you to search for the path toward appeasement and not division. We must keep all channels of dialogue open so as to ease tension,” Fukuda asked of the conference.
While calling on parliamentarians to work together to address challenges, Fukuda also expressed concern about the widening inequities caused by Covid-19 and climate change and noted: “This network of parliamentarians on population and development has been a vital resource for parliamentarians who share the same concern for not only their own countries but for the entire planet and future generations.”
Kamikawa Yoko, MP Japan, Chair of JPFP, said that with a world population of 8 billion, it was essential to “realize a society where no one is left behind … and Japan would share its experiences of being on the frontlines of an aging society with declining birth rates. “We are living in an aging society … and given these challenges in Japan, we will try to share with you our experience and lessons through our diplomacy while trying to deepen our discussions and exchanges to seek solutions.”
Japan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa said it was essential for all to cooperate during the “Anthropocene era, when human activities have promised to have a major impact on the global environment, global issues that transcend national borders, such as climate change, and the spread of infectious diseases, including Covid-19 are becoming more and more prevalent.”
He reminded the delegates that at the center of Japan’s economic growth post World War II was mainly through health promotion and employment policies.
Delegates of the Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit agreed to send a strong message on human security to the Summit. Credit: APDA
Director of the Division for Communications and Strategic Partnerships of UNFPA, Ian McFarlane, said it was not about the “numbers of people but the rights of the people that matter. It’s not about whether we are too many or too few, but whether women and girls can decide if, when, and how many children to have.”
A recent UNFPA report indicated that nearly half of the women across the globe could not exercise their rights and choices, their bodily autonomy, and expressed hope that policies in the future continue to focus on humanity and universal human rights.
Despite being close to the 30th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), the conference heard that much still needed to be done regarding women’s rights.
New Zealand MP and co-chair of AFPPD Standing Committee on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Angela Warren-Clark, reminded the audience that women still only held 26 percent of parliamentarian seats globally. While women make up 70 percent of the workforce in the health sector, only 25 percent have senior leadership positions.
“It is women in this pandemic who bore the increased burden of unpaid work at home as schools were closed, and it is girls and the poorest families who were taken out of school and forced into early marriages … We believe that if women had an equal say in decision-making during the pandemic, some of these mistakes would have been avoided.”
Baroness Elizabeth Barker, MP from the United Kingdom, told parliamentarians their role was to ensure that “no person on earth, from the head of G7 country to a poor person in a village, can say that they do not know what gender equality is. And they do not know what gender violence is.”
Barker suggested they use international standards, like the Istanbul Convention on Violence Against Women, to compare countries. “And you know that if your country doesn’t come out very well, they really don’t like it.”
She pointed to two successes in the UK, including stopping virginity testing and tackling the practice of forced marriages. She also warned the delegates that there was a right-wing campaign aimed at destroying human rights gained, and they chose different battlegrounds. The overturning of abortion rights in the United States in the Roe vs. Wade case was an example, as was the anti-LGBTQ legislation in Uganda.
Hassan Omar, MP from Djibouti, gave a host of achievements in his country, including ensuring that women occupy 25 percent roles in politics and the state administration and the growing literacy of women numbers in his country.
Risa Hontiveros, MP Philippines, painted a bleak picture of the impact of Covid in her country.
Hontiveros said GBV increased during Covid and extended to the digital space.
“The Internet has become a breeding ground for predators and cyber criminals to prey on children, especially young women, and girls. The online sexual abuse and exploitation of children … has become so prevalent in the Philippines that we have been tagged as the global hotspot.”
In a desperate attempt to provide for their families, even parents produced “exploitative material of their own children and sold them online to pedophiles abroad.”
To address these, she filed a gender-responsive and inclusive Emergency Management Act bill, which seeks to address the gender-differentiated needs of women and girls, because they were “disproportionately affected in times of emergencies.”
Former MP from Afghanistan Khadija Elham’s testimony united many in the conference and even resulted in proposals from the floor to include a condemnation of the Taliban’s women’s policies.
Elham said GBV had increased since the Taliban took over – women were forced to wear a burqa in public, they were not allowed to work, and those who wish to “learn science or (get an) education are forced to continue their studies and hidden places like basements.”
If their secret schools are exposed, they face torture and imprisonment. During the last two months, 260 people, including 50 women, were publicly whipped – a clear violation of their human rights. Women’s representation in political life has been banned, and women are no longer allowed to work in NGOs – and it has been “550 days since women could attend high schools and universities.”
She called on the international community, the United Nations, to pressure the Taliban to restore women’s work and education rights.
Nakayama Maho, Director of the Peacebuilding Program at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, announced new research on factors contributing to men’s propensity to GBV. The research found that the higher a man’s educational attainment, the lower the level of violence. There were also lower levels of violence with “positive” masculinity – such as a man being employed, married, and capable of protecting his family. Men who experienced violence during times of conflict tended to support violence to instill discipline, or protect women and communities.
Dr Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director of Women in Global Health, summed up this critical session by saying, “Equal leadership for women in all fields is a game changer, particularly in politics and health.”
Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Minister, Kato Katsunobu, noted during his closing address that the G7 countries “share the recognition that investment in people is not an expense, but an investment… and as you invest in people you can create a virtuous cycle between workers well-being and social and economic activities.”
He said Japan had a lot to offer concerning aging populations.
“Japan has been promoting the establishment of a comprehensive community-based care system so that people can continue to live in their own way in their own neighborhood until the end of their lives and is in the position to provide knowledge to the G7 countries and other countries who will be facing (an aging population) in the future.”
Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Director-General of IPPF, commended the conference and said he was “thankful” that the conference declaration would tell G7 governments to set an example. “Marginalized and excluded populations are at the heart of human security and can only be achieved in solidarity, and that message from this conference is clear.”
Professor Takemi Keizo, MP Japan, Chair of AFPPD, summed up the proceeding by saying that parliamentarians as representatives of the electorate were vital to creating a “positive momentum in this global community and overcoming so many difficult issues.”
Takemi elaborated on some issues facing the world now, including climate change and military conflicts, but as parliamentarians, there was the opportunity to “build up the new basis of the global governance, which can be very beneficial.”
NOTE: Global Conference of Parliamentarians on Population and Development Toward the 2023 G7 Hiroshima Summit was organized by the Asian Population and Development Association (APDA), the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (AFPPD), and the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population (JPFP).
It was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Japan Trust Fund (JTF), and Keidanren-Japan Business Federation in cooperation with the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).
The report, Improving maternal and newborn health and survival and reducing stillbirth, assesses the latest data, which have similar risk factors and causes, and tracks the provision of critical health services.
Overall, the report shows that progress in improving survival has stagnated since 2015; with around 290,000 maternal deaths each year, 1.9 million stillbirths – babies who die after 28 weeks of pregnancy – and a staggering 2.3 million newborn deaths, during in the first month of life.
The report shows that over 4.5 million women and babies die every year during pregnancy, childbirth or the first weeks after birth, equivalent to one death happening every seven seconds, mostly from preventable or treatable causes if proper care was available. The newpublication was launched at a major global conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Health systems under stress
The COVID-19 pandemic, rising poverty, and worsening humanitarian crises have intensified pressures on stretched health systems. Just one in 10 countries (of more than 100 surveyed) report having sufficient funds to implement their current plans.
According to the latest WHO survey on the pandemic’s impacts on essential health services, around 25 per cent of countries still report ongoing disruptions to vital pregnancy and postnatal care and services for sick children.
“Pregnant women and newborns continue to die at unacceptably high rates worldwide, and the COVID-19 pandemic has created further setbacks to providing them with the healthcare they need,” said Dr. Anshu Banerjee, Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO).
“If we wish to see different results, we must do things differently. More and smarter investments in primary healthcare are needed now so that every woman and baby — no matter where they live — has the best chance of health and survival.”
Fighting for life
Funding losses and underinvestment in primary healthcare can devastate survival prospects. For instance, while prematurity is now the leading cause of all under-five deaths globally, less than a third of countries report having sufficient newborn care units to treat small and sick babies.
In the worst-affected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia, the regions with the greatest burden of newborn and maternal deaths, fewer than 60 per cent of women receive even four, of WHO’s recommended eight, antenatal checks.
“The death of any woman or young girl during pregnancy or childbirth is a serious violation of their human rights,” said Dr Julitta Onabanjo, Director of the Technical Division at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“It also reflects the urgent need to scale-up access to quality sexual and reproductive health services as part of universal health coverage and primary health care, especially in communities where maternal mortality rates have stagnated or even risen during recent years.
We must take a human rights and gender transformative approach to address maternal and newborn mortality, and it is vital that we stamp out the underlying factors which give rise to poor maternal health outcomes like socio-economic inequalities, discrimination, poverty, and injustice“.
Lifesaving care
To increase survival rates, women and babies must have quality, affordable healthcare before, during and after childbirth, the agencies say, as well as access to family planning services.
More skilled and motivated health workers, especially midwives, are needed, alongside essential medicines and supplies, safe water, and reliable electricity. The report stresses that interventions shouldespecially target the poorest women and those in vulnerable situations who are most likely to miss out on lifesaving care, including through better planning and investments.
Improving maternal and newborn health further requires addressing harmful gender norms, biases, and inequalities. Recent data show that only about 60 per cent of women aged 15-49 years make their own decisions regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Based on current trends, more than 60 countries are not set to meet the maternal, newborn, and stillborn mortality reduction targets in the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
“Health facilities and hospitals should be safe havens in times of crisis,” the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Saturday, condemning an attack on a hospital in Khartoum.
Laila Baker, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) regional director, said pregnant women in capital city are facing perilous conditions.
“We are acutely concerned,” she said. “There is no way we can monitor them, there is no access to safe delivery services, no way to ensure even meagre communication.
In addition, women can go into premature delivery, and complications can arise from panic, she said, adding that “the circumstances are so tenuous.”
Epicentre of violence
Two weeks of brutal fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have turned Khartoum, the epicentre of the violence, into a warzone and thrown the country into turmoil.
More than 500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to leave their homes, either within the country or across borders to neighbouring Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.
Many of those fleeing have already been displaced multiple times due to political instability, hunger and climate crises, with untold numbers taking refuge in unsafe, crowded and unsanitary makeshift camps.
Health sector collapsing
Only one in four health facilities in Khartoum are fully operational, with most damaged only partially functioning, leaving millions of people without access to critical care, UNFPA said.
Dozens of attacks on hospitals, healthcare staff and ambulances, alongside widespread looting of already scarce medical supplies, water, fuel and electricity, are pushing the health sector to the brink of collapse.
Severe supply shortages
“We have a severe lack of supplies in Khartoum, especially oxytocin and umbilical clips,” said Jamila, a midwife working in a UNFPA-supported health centre in Khartoum. “Although services continue for the time being, we are praying for more supplies to arrive soon.”
Blood, oxygen, and other medical necessities, such as fuel for ambulances, are also running dangerously low.
Despite the catastrophic circumstances, those hospitals and health centres still functioning – and standing – are proving to be a lifeline for pregnant women and new mothers.
Where access is jeopardized, community midwives and skilled birth attendants trained by UNFPA are supporting pregnant women to give birth in the safety of their homes.
Midwives play key role
For women and girls, including the estimated 219,000 who are currently pregnant in Khartoum alone, not receiving essential health services could prove life threatening.
Access to midwives is the single most important factor in stopping preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Some 24,000 women are expected to give birth in the coming weeks, in the throes of chaos and bloodshed, making it extremely hazardous for them to seek essential antenatal care, safe delivery services, or postnatal support.
Refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan seek shelter under a tree in the village of Koufroun, in neighbouring Chad.
Fighting threatens safe deliveries
Incessant fighting in the Jabal Awliya village in Khartoum State has severely affected reproductive health care.
“We have designated phone numbers to receive requests for home births, and a midwife goes to perform the delivery,” said Saadya, a midwife working in Jabal Awliya. “We are able to accept all requests for now.”
With continued strikes on infrastructure, there is a risk of electricity lines being cut and even these emergency hotlines being severed for people in dire need.
Some 90 UNFPA-trained community midwives are currently assisting pregnant women and girls to give birth safely, mainly at home, in the Kalakla, Jabal, Naser and Al Azhari areas of Khartoum.
Over the past two years, UNFPA has trained 460 midwives who are reaching even remote communities, including in humanitarian crises, building trust and delivering high-quality maternal health services.
Surge in gender-based violence
There are also alarming reports of surging forms of gender-based violence – sexual violence against women and girls fleeing the fighting, domestic abuse fuelled by movement restrictions and tension, and women and girls being targeted when they go out to get supplies.
In response to the rising risks for some 3.1 million women and girls who were already at risk of violence before the current crisis, efforts are underway to train service providers to provide remote psychosocial support.
Prior to the current crisis, UNFPA distributed supplies for more than 19,000 safe births and supplies to meet the reproductive health needs of more than 45,000 people, including for the clinical management of rape and treating sexually transmitted infections.
UNFPA partners are currently making sure these reach those health facilities and hospitals that are still functioning across Sudan.
Heading to a breaking point
Sudan was already one of the world’s most impoverished countries before the conflict broke out, with one third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance and facing acute hunger.
The recent violence and attacks on health centres are a violation of international law and the right to health, the agency said.
As the situation reaches breaking point, and despite mounting risks, UNFPA said it will continue to assist safe births, seek protection for vulnerable women and girls, and support midwives to save lives.
The ads for the movie adaptation of “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” emphasize that it’s “a show for all ages.”
At an early screening, that claim held up. The theater was filled with mothers and their middle-school-aged daughters, as well as younger and older women and a sprinkling of men. The book’s exploration of the bodily changes, spiritual searching and reevaluation of family and values at the onset of puberty resonates with generations of people.
The #MargaretMoments trailer that ran before the film captured the feeling of reverent anticipation. In short interview segments, women shared what the book meant to them as well as their memories of early puberty and the more recent challenges that left them feeling confused and alone.
When the trailer finished, my friend and I turned to each other with the same question: Where were we? Both of us are 54. Nearly all the women featured appeared to be at least 10 years younger. The adult moments they spoke of tended to focus on early motherhood.
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” was published in 1970, and most of us who read it in its first decade are far from the new-parent years, if we ever had children at all. When I talked to Gen X women about their first encounters with Judy Blume, they noted striking parallels between puberty and where we find ourselves now, approaching or past menopause.
“‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret’” was formative to me on a spiritual level,” said Angie Lieber, a career coach in New York. “I knew that Judy Blume was Jewish, and Margaret’s mixed. I grew up in a family that was Jewish, and we practiced, but God wasn’t part of it. It was an intellectual, ’70s, New York atheist mentality. That book let me know that I’m allowed to wonder about something else besides what’s here on this Earth. To this day, when I’m feeling a shame spiral, I will say ‘Are you there God? It’s me, Angie.’”
Women who weren’t as similar to Margaret in background or culture also recognized themselves in Blume’s book.
“I’m not Jewish. I wasn’t on the East Coast. But I was very curious about periods, and what was going to happen as my body changed,” said Martha Bayne, a writer and editor in Chicago. “One of the things that resonated about the book was the way it so openly acknowledged curiosity.”
Melissa Blount, a therapist and artist in Evanston, Illinois, said she remembers feeling relieved that someone named her “anxiety about not having a period or breasts yet.”
“I also remember having the additional challenge of not only wishing for my period and breasts but having ‘good’ hair too. My friend circle at the time [was] Black but lighter-skinned than me, and they had wavy, soft, curly hair. I’d put [Luster’s] Pink Lotion in my hair with a plastic cap and pray every night for soft, wavy, curly hair. I was lonely, and this book made me feel seen.”
“[Blume] presented changes and desires in the body in a straightforward and matter-of-fact manner. What I wouldn’t give, as my body goes through another similar upheaval, to have her guidance.”
– Anjali Enjeti, author
For many “Margaret” fans, when the boobs and periods came, the reality didn’t always meet the expectation.
“Initially, I was excited to become a teenager,” says Bayne, who was a ballet dancer in her youth. “When I actually did enter puberty, I freaked out. Shortly after I developed breasts and got my period, I developed an eating disorder. I got very thin and my period stopped, but my boobs never went away. I felt conspicuous, and I tried to hide them.”
As Bayne matured and became involved in activities outside of dance, she accepted her breasts as a welcome part of her body. Then last year, at 54, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has been chronicling her experience on a Substack called “Bell, Whistle.”
“If you’re being considered for a mastectomy, when you go see the plastic surgeon, one of the things they ask is do you want to have a reconstruction with implants, or do you want to go flat,” Bayne said. “I had to ponder that question. What does it mean to maintain this signifier of my ‘normal body,’ even though it’s fake? At first, I thought I wanted to get implants. I ended up only needing a lumpectomy, but if the cancer comes back, God forbid, and I have to have surgery again, I think I would go flat. My relationship to my breasts has been changed by going through all of this treatment.”
Blount’s ideas of femininity also changed at midlife. She recalls that when she started menstruating, her mother called people on the phone and said, “Melissa got her period; she’s a woman now.”
Later, she struggled with feelings of inadequacy when her fertility waned.
“I was first told I wasn’t likely to get pregnant again at 41,” Blount said. “I mourned being able to fix all my first-time mothering mistakes and witnessing the blossoming of another human. Fast forward to 2022, when I had a hysterectomy due to fibroids. I was over the myth that my uterus and being a mother confirmed my womanhood. I was relieved to be rid of it.”
Some women never viewed their reproductive capacities as important to their sense of self.
“I was never really interested in having children and never associated my femininity with the ability to get pregnant or give birth, so I don’t have sentimental feelings toward either transition,” author Kristi Coulter said. “For me, they’re just hormonal storms to be ridden out as painlessly as possible until things stabilize again.”
Kathy Bates as Sylvia Simon and Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon in “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
The hormonal shifts at the beginning and toward the end of women’s reproductive lives can wreak havoc no matter how a person perceives fertility.
“My childhood was chaotic and stressful. I was a mixed brown girl in a little white town in the corner of Minnesota,” said Stacey Parshall Jensen, a filmmaker who lives in California and Minnesota. “I was constantly searching to belong, to be seen, to be heard and protected. When menopause came crashing through the door, showing up with a ton of luggage because she was planning to stay for a while, all those feelings flooded back. I felt crazy, mad, dizzy, confused, angry and so hurt.”
None of the women I spoke with felt prepared for the effects of hormonal changes at this life stage.
“My education about puberty may have been limited to a few filmstrips and awkward conversations, but at least I got something,” Coulter said. “The only perimenopause symptom I ever heard much about was hot flashes, and I certainly had no clue that perimenopause could last up to a decade, or that loss of estrogen could have long-term effects on my bone density and cognition.”
Lieber, the career coach in New York, was similarly unprepared for the effects of menopause.
“Five years ago, when I stopped my periods, I had no idea what was happening,” Lieber said. “I was asking, does anyone else have pain during intercourse? I had no information at all.”
But people raised on Blume during a time when feminism was affecting political and cultural change have not been content to remain in the dark or to communicate about this midlife passage only in whispers.
“I was constantly searching to belong, to be seen, to be heard and protected. When menopause came crashing through the door, showing up with a ton of luggage because she was planning to stay for a while, all those feelings flooded back. I felt crazy, mad, dizzy, confused, angry and so hurt.”
– Stacey Parshall Jensen, a filmmaker who lives in California and Minnesota
Lieber has seen a huge change in the amount of information available since she first experienced symptoms.
“Now, I’m going to a menopause symposium and we’re learning about all this,” she said. “There’s a perimenopause TikTok. I’m walking the streets and there are ads that are like, ‘Do you have a healthy vagina?’”
Coulter attributes the increase in knowledge to Gen X women insisting on better care for themselves.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s more information now. We’re the first Title IX generation to hit menopause,” Coulter said. “I’m in a Facebook group for athletic menopausal women, and believe me, when someone’s triathlon performance is suddenly slumping because she’s sleepless and exhausted all the time, she’s not likely to say, ‘Oh well, I guess I’m just old now and should quit!’ She’s going to want answers. I also think Gen X’s skepticism toward pat answers leads us to keep digging and asking questions when we sense we’re being brushed off.”
Lieber directly credits Blume with this shift.
“‘Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret’ helped us talk about menstruation. As Gen Xers, we had that book, and later we had ‘Our Bodies Ourselves,’” Lieber said. “Because we were talking about sexual health all along; now that we’re going through menopause, we are the people saying, this, too, is part of sexual health.”
It’s also part of mental and physical health.
“I was surprised by the intense shifts in my spiritual base,” Jensen said. “The wrecking of my identity. And then, of course, finding my way. I read a lot, whatever I could get my hands on. I found an incredible therapist. I found a Facebook group of writers who were my age who were sassy, beautiful and gave love without question. I learned to be a better friend. I learned the beauty of communication. I honored my creative spirit and reconnected with my Indigenous roots. These were my saving graces.”
Reading, communicating with friends, and acknowledging spiritual questions as well as physical needs are all things Blume encouraged readers to do.
“Blume’s books served as my cheat sheet for adolescence,” said Anjali Enjeti, an author from the Atlanta area. “She presented changes and desires in the body in a straightforward and matter-of-fact manner. What I wouldn’t give, as my body goes through another similar upheaval, to have her guidance.”
Blume is retired now, but her legacy has equipped generations of women — including members of Gen X — to help each other through life’s passages.
Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan.
He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people.
No question of Taliban recognition
Mr. Guterres made clear that the gathering had not focussed on recognition of the de facto authorities, but rather on developing a common, international approach to burning interlinked issues, such as terrorism, the crackdown on human rights, and the spread of drug trafficking.
“To achieve our objectives, we cannot disengage”, he said. “Many called for engagement to be more effective and based on lessons which we have learned from the past. The UN will continue to use its convening power to advance a forward-leaning approach, which puts the Afghan people first, and in a manner that is complementary to existing regional platforms and initiatives.”
The UN chief said the current ban introduced last month by Taliban leaders on Afghan women working for the UN – following on from a ban on them working for national and international NGOs “is unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy.
“Let me be crystal clear: we will never be silent in the face of unprecedented, systemic attacks on women and girls’ rights. We will always speak out when millions of women and girls are being silenced and erased from sight.”
Collective interest
He said the envoys, which included UN Special Envoy, Roza Otunbayeva, had agreed it was important to “understand each other’s concerns and limitations, but agreed that it was in everyone’s interest, foremost the Afghans, to work together.”
They reached agreement on “the need for a strategy of engagement that allows for the stabilization of Afghanistan but also allows for addressing important concerns.”
While different countries placed different priorities on human rights, terrorism, or drug trafficking, “there is a general recognition that they are intertwined”, and needed to viewed as a whole.
Secretary-General António Guterres briefs journalists in Doha, Qatar, on the situation in Afghanistan.
World’s biggest humanitarian crisis
He concluded speaking in his own capacity as Secretary-General, stating it was “difficult to overestimate the gravity of the situation in Afghanistan. It is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world today.”
A staggering 97 per cent live in poverty, while 28 million Afghans, need some form of humanitarian assistance.
Funding is not forthcoming, with the Humanitarian Response Plan, seeking $4.6 billion, having received “a mere $294 million” so far.
The vast majority of the UN personnel delivering lifesaving aid, are Afghan nationals, he stressed and banning women workers “deliberately undermines the development of a country that desperately needs the contributions of all, in order to achieve sustainable peace and contribute to regional stability.”
Stay and deliver
He pledged the UN would never waver in its commitment to support the Afghan people, and the Organization is determined to keep on delivering to preserve the fragile lifeline
Throughout the past decades, we stayed, and we delivered. And we are determined to seek the necessary conditions to keep delivering.
Asked if there were any circumstances when he would meet Taliban leaders, Mr. Guterres said that while today was not the right moment, he would “obviously not refuse that possibility”.
He said he was personally invested in convening a follow up meeting of envoys at a future date.
The aim is to reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking.
“The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues,” the UN said in a statement issued on Sunday.
Security Council resolution
The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and have restricted Afghan women and girls from participating in most areas of public and daily life.
Women nationals have also been barred from working with the UN in a country where nearly 29 million people depend on humanitarian assistance.
Last week, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the decision, saying that it undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.
The 15-member body called for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.”
General Assembly President to visit Jordan
The President of the UN General Assembly, Csaba Kőrösi, will conduct an official visit to Jordan, starting on Monday, to spotlight solidarity with Syrian and Palestinian refugees.
More than two million Palestinian refugees live in the country, which is also among those most affected by the Syrian conflict, now in its 12th year.
Mr. Kőrösi will meet with top officials and senior Government leaders to discuss topics of mutual interest, including water sustainability and follow up from the UN Water Conference, held last month in New York.
He will also visit the Zaatari Refugee Camp, the world’s largest camp hosting people who have fled the war in Syria. The Assembly President will be accompanied by representatives from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and others.
UN deputy chief highlights Africa’s role in multilateralism
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was in Kenya this past weekend, where she urged African leaders to help shape the future of multilateralism as it struggles to remain relevant.
“The UN, under the leadership of ‘SG’ António Guterres, is here to accompany the best opportunity yet for Africa, which is to lead and bridge the broken trust of multilateralism. And let’s make no mistake about that: that trust is broken,” she said in remarks to the Mo Ibrahim 2023 African Leadership Ceremony held in Nairobi on Friday.
She called for action in the areas of leadership and governance, while urging countries to offer more opportunities to young people and women.
Ms. Mohammed prefaced her remarks by highlighting the crisis in Sudan, expressing deep sadness over the unfolding tragedy while also underlining the UN’s commitment to stay and deliver for the people.
She shared with UN News her on-the-ground accounts of “extremely difficult conversations” with victims and their children, and how the UN is addressing issues from child support to DNA testing.
UN News
Jane Connors of Australia is the first Victims’ Rights Advocate for the United Nations.
UN News: How would you assess progress made to date?
Jane Connors: There has been good progress in getting people to understand from policy point of view that the victim and their rights and dignity are extremely important. The challenge is to get that translated into reality on the ground.
We’ve had very good progress where we have victims’ rights advocates on the ground, in Central African Republic, DR Congo, Haiti, and South Sudan.
Sexual exploitation or abuse often results in a pregnancy, and the men almost always abandon the women because they have another family elsewhere. More reports have come forward, and more has been done in supporting victims and, in particular, pursuing paternity child support claims.
One of the big challenges is underrating the impact of sexual exploitation and the notion that there is consent. Just because you are able to use your power to exploit somebody and get them to apparently consent doesn’t mean they consent. Realizing accountability to victims should be our priority. Accountability from a victim’s perspective will be very different to what others might think.
UN News: Are States doing enough to make real progress?
Jane Connors: The paternity cases we know about pertain to personnel working in United Nations peace or special political missions, predominantly uniformed military or police. In terms of identifying the victims, the missions are a long way ahead.
I went to several countries to gain trust and urge them to use their good offices to get the men who fathered children and have been positively identified through DNA matching to do what they’re supposed to do.
It’s a joint responsibility of the Member States and the UN to make sure that the rights of children are realized. They have the right to know their father and be supported by him. It’s also the parental responsibility of the father.
UN News: Can projects supported by the UN Victims’ Assistance Fund make a real difference in the lives of victims?
Jane Connors: I think it does make a difference. Currently, we have projects in DR Congo and Liberia, we’ve had one in Haiti, and soon be in Central African Republic. We need to do much more with prevention, as prevention and response are inextricably linked; you can’t have one without the other.
You need to have the victim element to make people think about the consequences of their conduct. They victimize not only the individual, but also their community and their own family. When we’re talking about abuse, by and large, we are talking about very serious sexual misconduct with children under age 18.
I’d like to see much more focus on behaviour change. It takes a lot of work, sustained resources, and huge leadership to make something unacceptable. Remember when driving when drunk was fine, and now it is regarded as deeply unacceptable. It’s a long, long game.
UN News: Are investigations being carried out fast enough?
Jane Connors: More work needs to be done with investigators coming out of a law enforcement background. They need their minds to shift. They need to know that delay is very bad, that they need to be polite and compassionate, and they need to keep the victim informed. Giving victims information and follow up is not very good, and really has to improve.
UN Photo/Isaac Billy
UN Assistant Secretary-General Jane Connors concluded her five-day visit to South Sudan with a press conference in Juba, the capital, on 7 December 2017.
UN News: Are there common messages that you’re hearing from the victims?
Jane Connors: These are extremely difficult conversations. I will meet with anybody who wants to talk about this issue. I remember one country I visited some years ago where there are a lot of women with children born of sexual exploitation and or abuse, and they were very dissatisfied, had received no support, no assistance; the children were not going to school because they didn’t have money to pay for fees, and they didn’t know what was happening with the paternity claims.
One of them said, ‘People like you, we see you all the time. You come you talk to us, you go, we never hear anything’. I said to them, ‘Look, I’m not a very powerful person, but I will do what I can’.
I had some very good colleagues in the country concerned who raised about $40,000, so those children could go to school. That made an enormous difference. At the end of that year, they met with the women, who said ‘At least she did what she said she would do’.
UN News: You’ve met with victims in several countries. What is your message to them?
Jane Connors: I am amazed at their tolerance for the UN, their patience, their resilience, and I’m also extremely impressed by those who are able to move forward. In terms of ongoing projects, there have been women who have been able to move on to have businesses. This is something we do together.
How the UN helps victims and addresses sexual exploitation and abuse committed by its personnel
Office of the Victims’ Rights Advocate: Working with all UN entities so victims get the assistance and support they need, the Office also collaborates with Member States and civil society to build support networks. Actions include conducting country visits and outreach, mapping services available to victims, and producing annual reports.
Victims’ Assistance Fund: Established in 2016, it relies on Member State contributions and funds withheld from troop or police contributing countries in substantiated cases of sexual exploitation or abuse. The project-based fund provides livelihood support to women, and, in cases of children born of sexual exploitation and abuse, psychological, educational and nutritional support.
System-wide training module: Launched in January, the 2.5-hour module for all UN staff and related personnel provides a clear understanding of victims’ rights, what a victim-centred approach means, and their responsibilities in responding as soon as they become aware of an allegation.
DNA-collection: Through a partnership between South Africa and the UN, DNA is collected from every soldier before deployment to the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
Newswise — DALLAS– APRIL 27,2023 – Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, has appointed nine world-renowned medical and research experts to serve as advisors to the organization. These breast cancer experts will be part of a distinguished group, known as Komen Scholars, who help guide Komen’s research and scientific programs, with a focus on advancing discoveries to improve breast cancer outcomes for everyone.
The incoming class of nine Scholars joins an advisory group of nearly 50 world-class leaders in breast cancer research and advocacy, representing about 30 health institutions across the nation. Their expertise spans many areas, including breast cancer biology, genomics, biomarkers, health disparities, therapeutics, clinical trials and imaging. The Komen Scholars contribute to a variety of Komen programs, including leading Komen’s scientific peer review process and act as Komen ambassadors in communities around the U.S. and the world.
“We’re so excited to welcome these incredible individuals as Komen Scholars. Komen is fortunate to have such a tremendous team of experts guiding our work and research priorities: to advance precision medicine, conquer deadly and aggressive breast cancers and achieve health equity,” said Kimberly Sabelko, Ph.D., vice president of scientific strategy & programs at Susan G. Komen.
The nine clinical oncologists and researchers are:
Carlos Arteaga, M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center
Myles Brown, M.D., Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Susan Domchek, M.D., University of Pennsylvania/Perelman School of Medicine
David Mankoff, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Kathy Miller, M.D., Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
Harikrishna Nakshatri, BVSc, Ph.D., Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
Jeffrey Rosen, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Bryan Schneider, M.D., Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
Antonio Wolff, M.D., FACP, FASCO, Johns Hopkins University/Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
“The Komen Scholars bring their expertise and experience from laboratories, clinics and as patients. They are incredible assets to the transformative work we’re doing at Komen to accelerate research at a time when there is critical need to advance personalized medicine to help everyone impacted by breast cancer live longer, healthier lives,” said Jennifer A. Pietenpol, Ph.D., chief scientific advisor at Susan G. Komen, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President for Research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and Professor of Biochemistry at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine.
Komen also expressed its appreciation for the scientific advisors whose terms have come to an end:
Nikhil Wagle, M.D. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Anne Meyn, M.Ed., Advocates in Science, Houston, TX
“These leaders are the foremost experts in breast cancer and will make a lasting impact to advance progress against deadly and aggressive breast cancers and achieve health equity to benefit everyone affected by this disease,” said Ann Partridge, M.D., MPH, chief scientific advisor for Susan G. Komen and the Eric P. Winer, M.D., Chair in Breast Cancer Research, Vice Chair of the Department of Medical Oncology, Director of the Adult Survivorship Program and Director of the Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We’re grateful for the service of our departing Komen Scholars and appreciate the commitment they, our current, and new Komen Scholars have to ending breast cancer forever.”
Susan G. Komen® is the world’s leading nonprofit breast cancer organization, working to save lives and end breast cancer forever. Komen has an unmatched, comprehensive 360-degree approach to fighting this disease across all fronts and supporting millions of people in the U.S. and in countries worldwide. We advocate for patients, drive research breakthroughs, improve access to high-quality care, offer direct patient support and empower people with trustworthy information. Founded by Nancy G. Brinker, who promised her sister, Susan G. Komen, that she would end the disease that claimed Suzy’s life, Komen remains committed to supporting those affected by breast cancer today, while tirelessly searching for tomorrow’s cures. Visit komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN. Connect with us on social at www.komen.org/contact-us/follow-us/.
Newswise — Running is one of the most accessible forms of exercise with an array of proven cardiovascular and musculoskeletal benefits, and an added bonus of increased mental health. Good quality running gear, such as the right pair of shoes, is vital to improve running performance and reduce injury risk. For women particularly, a well-designed sports bra protects from exercise-induced breast pain, which can be a significant barrier to practicing sports. Up to 72% of women experience breast pain while running.
Previous research has shown that the increased breast support sports bras offer not only influences breast movement but can also positively influence running performance. Greater breast support has been linked to lower oxygen consumption and better range of motion.
Dr Douglas Powell and Hailey Fong and colleagues at the Breast Biomechanics Research Center at the University of Memphis wanted to further investigate the effect of a good sports bra on running biomechanics, and have now published new findings in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.
“The biomechanics underlying improved running performance with greater breast support are not well understood. Our study represents one of a series of research studies on the topic of breast support and whole body biomechanics,” explained Powell. “We wanted to identify strategies to reduce activity-induced breast pain for females, a group that makes up approximately 50% of the population.”
Biomechanics of running
Specifically, Powell and his colleagues looked at the influence of breast support on knee joint stiffness during treadmill running. Knee joint stiffness is a biomechanical measure that indicates how resistant the knee joint is to movement when force is applied. Knee joint stiffness has been associated with lower oxygen consumption, improved running performance, and running-related injury.
A sample size of 12 recreational runners, aged between 18 and 35 years, with a self reported B-, C-, or D-cup were professionally fitted with two different sports bras: a high support bra and a low support bra. For the control condition, the participants were asked to perform the experiment bare chested. Each participant then performed three-minute running bouts in each of the three randomized breast support conditions (high, low, bare/control).
To collect the data the researchers used a 10-camera motion capture system and instrumented treadmill. The movements of the participants were tracked using individual retroreflective markers fitted on different parts of their bodies. The researchers used Visual3D to calculate knee joint excursions, while custom software was used to calculate knee joint stiffness and breast displacements during the stance phase of running in each experimental condition.
The importance of good support
The experiment showed that increased levels of breast support were associated with greater knee joint stiffness due to smaller joint excursions. Compared to the control condition, the low and high support conditions were associated with 2% and 5% increases in knee joint stiffness respectively. Overall, taking into account these results and results from previous research by Powell and Fong, a high support sports bra can improve a female’s running performance by 7%.
“The findings show that breast support not only influences movement of the breasts but that compensations occur across the entire body,” said Powell. These compensations can lead to reduced running performance, increased injury risk, and even the development of chronic pain such as back and chest pain.
Powell continued: “Over the past 50 years, limited evolution in bra design has occurred. Our findings, in conjunction with previous research studies, show that sports bras should be considered not only as apparel, but also as sports equipment that can both improve performance and reduce the risk of injury, playing a role in women’s health.”
The Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023, released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), provides an overview of the fallout resulting from the takeover of Afghanistan by its present-day de facto rulers, the Taliban, in August 2021.
Immediately after the Taliban assumed power, the Afghan economy collapsed, accelerating Afghanistan’s decade-long slide into poverty; with a population estimated by the UN at about 40 million and GDP of $14.3 billion in 2021, Afghanistan is among the countries with the lowest per capita income in the world, with around 85 per cent of the population estimated to be living below the poverty line.
Displaced children livingi in Khoshi District in Afghanistan receive hygeine kits.
Overwhelming dependence on international aid
Whilst the report points to some encouraging signs (a rise in exports, an expected eight percent increase in domestic fiscal revenue, stabilization of the exchange rate, and a reduction in inflation), it explains that this is largely down to the large-scale international aid funding ($3.7 billion in 2022, $3.2 billion of which was provided by the UN) sent to Afghanistan in 2022.
This does not point to a lasting recovery: income per person is expected to decline this year and in 2024: UNDP modelling suggests that, if aid drops by 30 per cent, inflation could reach 10 percent in 2024, and average incomes could fall by 40 per cent.
Any reduction in international aid will worsen the economic prospects of Afghanistan, and extreme poverty will perpetuate for decades: the UN aid appeal of $4.6 billion for international assistance in 2023 is therefore the minimum required to help Afghans in need.
No escape from poverty without women in the workplace
Surayo Buzurukova, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Afghanistan, at the UNDP office in Kabul.
Surayo Buzurukova, the UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Afghanistan, told UN News that the Taliban’s decision to highly restrict women’s ability to study and work is an important reason for the economic woes of the country.
“We have run simulations to see how the removal of women from the workforce will affect the economy going forward,” said Ms. Buzurukova. “We calculated that it will not be possible to achieve growth and reduce poverty without women. That’s the message we try to deliver when we speak to the de facto authorities.”
Ms. Buzurukova remains hopeful that the situation will, eventually become less oppressive for women, particularly in the provinces, where the support of women aid workers is in high demand.
“After August 2021, it was difficult to work here, and it took time to be able to engage with the Taliban and ensure that they listened to me. But now I have created a network of trust with senior members of the de facto authorities, at the provincial as well as the national level; it’s very important that they understand the importance of women to the economy.
We continue to deliver services across the country, through our NGO partners, and we have exemptions for the health and education sector, where women can continue to work but, of course the ban is a challenge and staff morale is affected.”
Over one third of the world’s working women are employed in agrifood systems, which include the production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as related activities from food storage, transportation and processing to distribution.
But in a new report, FAO says that gender inequalities such as less access for women to knowledge and resources, and a higher unpaid care burden, account for a 24 per cent gap in productivity between women and men farmers on farms of equal size.
Women employees in the agricultural sector are also paid nearly 20 per cent less than their male counterparts.
“If we tackle the gender inequalities endemic in agrifood systems and empower women, the world will take a leap forward in addressing the goals of ending poverty and creating a world free from hunger”, said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu.
According to FAO, closing the gender gap in farm productivity and the wage gap in agricultural employment would “increase global gross domestic product by nearly $1 trillion and reduce the number of food-insecure people by 45 million”, at a time of growing global hunger.
A farmer from a women-run vegetable cooperative grows cabbages in Sierra Leone.
Structural inequalities
The report shows that women’s access to land, services, credit and digital technology lags behind men’s, while a higher burden of unpaid care limits their opportunities for education, training and employment. FAO points out that discriminatory social norms reinforce gender barriers to knowledge, resources and social networks – holding women back from making an equal contribution in the agrifood sector.
“In many countries there still is much to do to ensure that women own land in equal proportion to men and that legal frameworks protect their rights”, says the report. Its authors describe as “alarming” the slow pace of change in terms of women farmers’ access to ownership of livestock and essentials such as irrigation and fertilizers.
The report also notes that in agrifood systems, “women’s roles tend to be marginalized and their working conditions are likely to be worse than men’s –irregular, informal, part-time, low-skilled, or labour-intensive”.
Boosting growth, curbing hunger
The UN food agency argues that “challenges to women’s full and equal
employment in agrifood systems hold back their productivity and sustain wage gaps”.
According to the report, creating a level playing field in terms of farm productivity and agricultural wages would add one per cent to global gross domestic product, or almost $1 trillion, and bring down food insecurity by two percentage points, benefitting 45 million people.
This is a striking projection at a moment when global hunger is on the rise. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that more than 345 million people worldwide face crisis levels of food insecurity this year, an increase of almost 200 million since early 2020. Of these, 43 million are one step away from famine.
Untapped potential
The report’s authors also show that agricultural projects which specifically empower women have broad economic and social benefits.
According to FAO, “if half of small-scale producers benefited from development interventions that focused on empowering women, it would significantly raise the incomes of an additional 58 million people and increase the resilience of an additional 235 million”.
The scale of women’s employment in agrifood systems in some developing countries points to the potential impact that equality-boosting interventions could have. For instance, in southern Asia, 71 per cent of all working women are employed in the sector (versus 47 per cent of men).
‘Make agrifood systems work for women’
FAO points out that monitoring and accelerating progress on gender equality in agrifood systems hinges on “the collection and use of high-quality data, disaggregated by sex, age and other forms of social and economic differentiation”, which is currently lacking, as well as rigorous gender research.
On a policy level, the report’s authors recommend urgent action to “close gaps related to access to assets, technology and resources”. They say that improving women’s productivity in the agrifood sector requires interventions which “address care and unpaid domestic work burdens, provide education and training, and strengthen land-tenure security”.
FAO also advocates for social protection programmes which “have shown to increase women’s employment and resilience”. Indeed, the UN agency’s study underscores that “when economies shrink, women’s jobs go first”, as has been the case during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Women have always worked in agrifood systems. It is time that we made agrifood systems work for women”, said Mr. Qu in his foreword to the report.
March 31, 2023 – Health experts around the country are scrambling to determine which preventive services may no longer be free to patients after after Thursday’s ruling by a federal court judge that struck down part of Affordable Care Act.
U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor ruled that the ACA’s prevention mandate, which provides screenings for multiple conditions from lung cancer to sexually transmitted infections with no out-of-pocket costs, violates the plaintiffs’ religious rights and is unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, health experts were researching exactly how many preventive services might be affected and said no changes would likely occur immediately. The Department of Justice on Friday filed a notice that it plans to appeal.
Reactions
Numerous health and other organizations reacted strongly against the ruling while acknowledging that no changes are expected immediately.
In a statement, the American Academy of Family Physicians said it is “alarmed and disappointed” by the ruling and said it will “create insurmountable barriers to screenings, counseling, and preventive medications that improve patient and population health, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications for the prevention of HIV.”
Margaret A. Murray, president of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, which represents 79 health plans that provide coverage to more than 25 million people, said in a statement that the decision, if implemented, would erode access to an entire range of preventive health services. “Families deserve better than having bedrock protections of the health reform law invalidated with a two-page ruling.”
The the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University made clear the ruling could cause important preventive services to skyrocket in cost.
“Unless it is stayed, the decision will make preventive health services unaffordable for millions of Americans and limit their ability to get early treatment for diseases such as colorectal and lung cancer, diabetes, and depression, to name a few,” the group said in a statement.
What’s Next?
Legal experts said that a stay in the case, known as Braidwood v. Becerra, could be granted until the appeal is decided so that services remain in place.
“It could even go to the Supreme Court,” said Cynthia Cox, vice president and director of the Program on the Affordable Care Act for the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit focused on national health issues.
What Care Is Affected?
Under the ACA, preventive services that have an A or B grade from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a volunteer, independent panel of experts, are covered with no out-of-pocket costs. Over the years, the USPSTF has given 53 A or B grades covering 46 recommendations.
The ruling contends that the preventive services mandate is unconstitutional because it violates the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause. That clause requires that such decisions be made by a federal official appointed by the president or a department head. The task force is an independent panel of volunteer experts who comb through evidence before making its recommendations.
According to the court ruling, only those recommendations issued in 2010 or later, when the ACA went into effect, would be struck down. While the USPSTF website does not have a list of how many A or B grades have been issued (or upgraded to A or B) since 2010, Cox estimates that about a dozen would potentially be scrapped.
At a Kaiser Family Foundation seminar on the ruling Thursday, Cox and other experts speculated that some of the newer recommendations, such as lung cancer and skin cancer screenings, as well as a recommendation to provide cholesterol-lowering statins at no cost for at-risk people, might no longer be entirely free.
However, “I think it’s very likely insurers will still cover” those programs, said Larry Levitt, Kaiser’s executive vice president for health policy, but cost-sharing with a copay could be added to certain services.
“This ruling does not affect vaccines,” Cox said. Recommendations for vaccines come from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Pregnancy care is also not likely to be affected, Cox and other experts said. One exception, she said, could be screening for perinatal depression.
“There’s a lot of concern about what this could mean for access to care,” Cox said. “Even small cost sharing [amounts] can deter people from getting preventive care.”
In the next few days, more clarity is expected about which preventive services remain and which do not, she said.
Until more is known, Cox urged people to remember that “The list of services that remains free is much longer than the list that might become subject to cost sharing.” Her advice: “Don’t panic, and still get the preventive care that’s recommended to you.”
Timelines
Levitt and other experts said it’s unlikely any coverage changes would happen immediately, as insurer’s contracts generally are in place for the year.
Changes would probably come, if the ruling holds, next calendar year, Levitt said. Beyond the ACA, states are free to require coverage for these services, he said, and some do. “But states can’t reach self-insured plans, which cover most people.”
Action Plan
Until the legal arguments are sorted out, people can take a number of steps, said Meredithe McNamara, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and an adolescent medicine specialist at Yale University School of Medicine, who has researched the effect of eliminating coverage for the HIV preventive medication known as PrEP.
Among them:
Reach out to your health care provider to discuss how it might affect care.
Call insurance providers and demand continued access to preventive care without cost sharing.
Contact elected officials and request a federal workaround.
Preventive services “get people in the door,” she said, and provide valuable health counseling.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force makes its recommendations based on medical evidence that certain services help prevent disease spread or improve treatment through early detection.
“If cost becomes a barrier to preventive care, that could lead to worse health outcomes, whether it’s later-stage lung cancer diagnoses or more HIV transmission,” Cox said.
Opinion by Saima Wazed, Zain Bari Rizvi (dhaka, bangladesh)
Inter Press Service
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Mar 31 (IPS) – On the occasion of World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April 2023, IPS is republishing ‘When Is Too Much Autism Awareness Still Not Enough?’ When is too much Autism awareness still not enough? This thought recurs every April as we near World Autism Day on April 2, and parents reach out to me after reading enthusiastic and well-meaning news and journal articles – which are actually harmful and hurtful.
Saima W. Hossain
In 2008, along with a few dedicated parents and professionals, we began our effort to raise awareness around Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We eventually came together to form an advocacy, capacity-building, and research-based not-for-profit organization (Shuchona Foundation) established in 2014.
Today, we feel our work in Bangladesh, through effective national and international partnerships with equally dedicated parents and professionals, has impacted the country. Professional training, extensive awareness activities, and inclusion in social situations are demonstrable. The best part is that parents no longer view themselves as victims punished by fate for having a child with a disability.
Despite all the efforts in educating people in the many sectors of our country, including the formulation of a detailed National Strategic Plan, it is shocking to still find blatant disregard for the truth. I have, therefore, requested a parent, a former Shuchona Foundation head of operations and now a member of our executive board, to share her thoughts. Nothing speaks the truth louder and stronger than the person who has been on the receiving end of the discriminatory, hurtful, and unethical behaviour than the parent who hears it over and over again.
Here below excerpts of what I learned from Zain Bari Rizvi
If I had a Taka (Bangladesh currency) for each time someone said: ‘But he looks so normal,’ when I share that my son is on the Autism Spectrum, I would have been able to take early retirement at a villa in the Maldives!
Zain Bari Rizvi
I do not blame these mostly well-meaning people and their lack of awareness when widely read, and circulated dailies choose to use photos of children with Downs Syndrome to illustrate what children with Autism look like. Autistic traits cannot be captured with a still photograph, and most individuals with ASD look just like any other typical peer.
This sort of misrepresentation is not innocent and borders on dangerously harmful.
Deliberately associating a congenital genetic condition with a neurodevelopmental one will confuse the readers into thinking they are the same. This may also prevent parents and caregivers of children with Autism from seeking early intervention services that could potentially improve outcomes because they will have the false sense of comfort that their child ‘looks normal’, aka neurotypical.
There is no one true face of Autism because it is a not-one-size-fits-all spectrum disorder. It stays true to this famous quote by an Autism Advocate and Autistic person, Dr Stephen Shore: “If you’ve met one individual with autism, you’ve met one individual with autism.”
I am not a psychologist nor an expert, but as a parent who had the privilege to be educated and used my spare time and resources to do research, this incorrect and harmful visual misrepresentation enrages and upsets me.
Bangladesh has made considerable strides in Autism advocacy and policy changes due to extraordinary efforts by the leadership team at Shuchona Foundation. The Foundation has selflessly spearheaded the job of educating and opening the minds and hearts of people about what it entails to be on the Autism Spectrum. Because of their single minded dedication to this cause, we, in Bangladesh, are finally having a discourse on what Autism is and acknowledge and accept the differences in our children with Autism. We also have access to world-class services like early interventions such as ABA therapy and parent/caregiver engagement without shame or guilt.
And if there is one thing I learnt working closely with Shuchona Foundation, the key to making a difference is “to acknowledge that people will not always get it right but to look out for whether they want to learn to make it right”.
As World Autism Day on April 2 nears, my humble request to journalists and mainstream media is to do your duty of imparting factual and medically sound knowledge and information. Learn from your mistakes and ensure your stories and visual representations are accurate because media has the power to help or harm.
As I watch my feisty, opinionated and uber affectionate ASD child thrive in a typical school and social setting thanks to early childhood interventions and therapy, I shudder at the thought of what could have been our reality if I had paid heed to the photos of what Autism looks like in Bangladesh media.
I hope those reading this will take heed. Autism is a complex state of being, and no two autistics are alike. Every time I meet and spend time with someone with Autism, I am amazed at how unique, creative, and what a gift they are to the world. I want to change how we treat those we deem to be different, not change who they are.
For centuries all we have done is find creative ways to separate the majority from the minority. I hope the two years of the global pandemic will finally make us realize that when one group of people mistreat another, be it through military, financial or social power, we all suffer, not just the ones we discriminate against.
Saima Wazed Hossain is Advisor to the Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO), on Mental Health and Autism. She is Chairperson, National Advisory Committee for Autism and NDDs, Bangladesh and Chairperson, Shuchona Foundation. She is a specialist in Clinical Psychology and an expert on Neurodevelopment disorders and mental health. Her efforts have led to international awareness, policy and program changes, and the adoption of three international resolutions at the United Nations and WHO.
Zain Bari Rizvi is a Board Member of Shuchona Foundation, an Operations and Finance professional who is a passionate advocate for people with Autism and a mother of two children.
Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.
London, United Kingdom – As debates over gender identities rage in the United Kingdom, several medical professionals have told Al Jazeera that they fear speaking on the issue, worried that by doing so they could face bullying, harassment, and threats of disciplinary action for alleged discrimination.
They also warned that health services could be changed in a way that ultimately harms patients and the wider society, should sex-based medical terminology and practices be eroded while gender identities are favoured.
The three experts Al Jazeera spoke to for this article requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, personally and to their careers.
From a medical perspective, human beings come in two forms, male or female.
But in recent years, gender identities have become more prominent, posing challenges for key sectors such as education and health.
Gender is characterised as a person’s internal idea of the qualities of being male or female or otherwise. It is seen as an identity and is not qualified by biological markers.
It is often fluid but always self-declared.
And to make the matter more complicated, gender has often been used as a polite synonym for sex, especially in the United States.
In February 2020, as a forensic psychiatrist, Edith* became increasingly concerned at the conflation of sex with gender after the Association for LGBTQ+ Doctors and Dentists (GLADD) announced that the UK’s General Medical Council (GMC), the regulatory body that educates and trains doctors, would remove sex markers – which GLADD called “gender” – as a protected characteristic from its online public register.
This meant that doctors would be able to remove their sex from the register, which is a divisive issue.
Some argue that patients, for instance sexual violence victims whose abusers were of the opposite sex, should have the right to know the biological sex of their doctors.
Others say doctors should have the right to identify how they wish.
In November 2022, the British Medical Association (BMA) published a report titled “LGBTQ+ equality in medicine”, saying: “Doctors come from a broad cross section of backgrounds, experiences, sexual orientations and gender identities.
“Discrimination, whether from patients or from colleagues, has a detrimental impact on doctors’ lives. The BMA is clear that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity has no place in the medical profession.”
But according to Edith, there is pressure to push an affirmative approach to all matters of gender identity over evidence-based methods.
“It’s not a psychiatrist’s job to promote positive stories; you’re supposed to be neutral and objective,” said Edith.
At an educational event, Edith submitted questions to a panel regarding trans women in mental-health institutions who change gender while awaiting criminal trials.
“They found it [the question] ‘transphobic’, ‘discriminatory’ and ‘biased’. I’m a forensic psychiatrist, this is what you see. Just because you state a fact and you don’t like the fact, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist … People do game the system.”
Earlier this year, the case of Isla Bryson, who now identifies as a trans woman, prompted concerns. The Scottish Prison Service initially placed Bryson, who was convicted of raping women in 2016 and 2019 while known as Adam Graham, in Scotland’s only all-female prison.
But after criticism from politicians and women’s rights groups, Bryson was moved to a men’s prison.
At the time of publishing, GLADD had not responded to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
When approached for a response, a BMA spokesperson pointed to an online statement of the organisation’s position and said it stood by signing the GLADD charter, which calls for so-called conversion therapy to be banned – another controversial subject.
Some are concerned that such a move could see clinicians providing meaningful therapy prosecuted.
‘People don’t dare speak’
Ashley*, who has years of experience in medical teaching in colleges and hospitals education, said a culture of fear is brewing.
“People don’t dare speak,” Ashley said. “Even doctors don’t, because it’s just not worth it.”
Ashley said a group of students and healthcare workers affiliated with GLADD routinely comb through tweets of clinicians who decline to use gender identity terms, such as “cis”, instead of sex-based medical terminology.
Ashley shared screenshots of a presentation given by a GLADD-aligned diversity director in November last year, which stated hospitals should accommodate trans women in female wards.
“It’s in the interest of the population not to have queer theory, gender identity in the NHS [National Health Service],” said Ashley, “I worry about the elderly being put in mixed-sex wards. It’s safeguarding issues that aren’t being looked at and I do feel like it’s a failure of the government right now because they’re not protecting the population from this.”
For his part, as the gender rows grind on, the UK’s Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, has asked leaders of NHS bodies to review memberships of LGBTQ+ charities and assess the necessity of having diversity officers.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement sent to Al Jazeera: “Taxpayers rightly expect value for money from every penny spent in our NHS. That is why the Health and Social Care Secretary has asked the NHS and all of the department’s arms-length bodies to review whether their diversity and inclusion memberships are good value for money, and consider ways to improve.”
In its first-ever census that included gender identity, the Office for National Statistics stated this year that 262,000, or 0.5 percent of the population aged 16 and over in the UK identify as having a different gender identity than their birth sex.
According to British law, one does not need medical treatment to change from female to male on documents such as passports and driving licences.
But to adapt birth, marriage and death certificates, a five-pound ($6) Gender Recognition Certificate is necessary, and that requires a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and at least two years of living in the “affirmed gender”.
“There are there are clinicians who I’ve spoken to who’ve had men [patients] who identify as women and have had their records completely scrubbed of any information about their biological sex,” said Isadora Sanger, a retired psychiatrist who is still registered as a medical practitioner.
“They [trans patients] present with complaints that could be related to hormone treatment, and doctors are not even able to discuss this openly with them – and so it’s a really strained interaction, not being able to say or inquire … It’s just muzzled doctors from being able to do their job responsibly.”
