Women's Issues

Critic-at-large John Powers salutes the Chilean-born writer and the new literary "It" boy, Roberto Bolano, who died in 2003. Bolano's novel, 2666, is a "massive epic of modernity," says Powers.

Some feminists have had a hard time accepting Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin as a symbol of women's empowerment. But political science professor Ronnee Schreiber argues that conservatism and feminism are not mutually exclusive ideologies.

Baghdad-born activist Yanar Mohammed directs the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq.

Writer Nuruddin Farah's new novel, Knots, is about the terrible conditions for women in Somalia. The central character is a Somali-Canadian woman who returns to Mogadiscio, her native city.

Our book critic reviews The Abortionist's Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde. The novel's plot centers around the death of an abortion clinic doctor and the possible murder suspects involved.

Coleman is a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank. She's an expert on economic development, Afghanistan and women's initiatives in the Middle East.

The novel Veronica by Mary Gaitskill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) recently made headlines with her tough questioning of Condoleezza Rice during her confirmation hearings for Secretary of State. Boxer was also the only senator to object to the certification of Ohio's electoral votes.

We remember former Episcopal Bishop of New York, Paul Moore. He died Thursday at the age of 83. Moore was known for his activism and concern for human rights. He was part of the civil rights movement and protested against the Vietnam War. As Bishop, he brought the church into dialogue with the poor and oppressed in New York. And he transformed the Cathedral of St. John the Divine into a thriving place for the community. In 1997 he published his memoir, Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City. This interview first aired December 15, 1997.

The HBO hit series Sex and the City, begins a new season July 21. We'll hear from two people involved with the show: Actress Sarah Jessica Parker was just nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She's been acting for most of her life, including playing Annie on Broadway, the young bimbo in L.A. Story, and a fed-up fiancee in Honeymoon in Vegas. This is her fifth season starring in Sex and the City, as Carrie, a columnist who writes about the sexual mores of New Yorkers.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews The Dive From the Clausens Pier (knopf) the debut novel by Ann Packer.

Sociologist Cheryl Benard is the author of the book, Veiled Courage: Inside the Afghan Women's Resistance. Under the Taliban, the group known as RAWA (The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), educated girls and women in underground schools, ran small businesses and secretly photographed Taliban beatings and executions. Benard has worked with the organization for ten years. She is also the wife of an Afghan refugee who is one of President Bush's key Afghanistan advisors.

Irish writer Nuala OFaolain. Her first novel, My Dream of You, (Riverhead Books) has just come out in paperback. Her critically acclaimed 1998 memoir, Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman was on the New York Times bestseller list. OFaolain is also a columnist for the Irish Times; she has been at the paper for over 12 years.

Human Rights Lawyer Asma Jahangir. Shes been at the forefront of the movements for womens rights, human rights and peace in Pakistan for twenty years. She co-founded the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In her work shes defended a boy against the charge of blasphemy-the penalty would have been death. Shes defended the right of women to chose their own husbands. Because of her efforts shes been arrested, received death threats, and been the target of hostile propaganda.

We talk about the Taliban with Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid. His new book is called Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press). In the mid 1990s, the Taliban Movement gained power in Afghanistan, a country in the wake of a civil war. The Taliban declared they wanted to restore peace and enforce traditional Islamic law. Instead, The Taliban has shown itself to be a troubling development in Islamic radicalism. It has launched a genocidal campaign against Shiite Muslims in Afghanistan. It has sanctioned acts of international terrorism.

Husseini writes for the Jordan Times, the country's only English-language daily. Her reporting on "crimes of honor" has brought to light the practice of a woman being murdered by her own relatives when it's thought the woman brought dishonor upon them. In one instance a 16 year-old schoolgirl was killed by her older brother because her younger brother raped her. Police and prosecutors have taken little notice of "honor killing" but that attitude has begun to shift because of Husseini's efforts.

Historian Ellen Carol Dubois teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles. She's the author of the new biography: "Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage" (Yale University Press). Blatch was the daughter of the famous suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. When her mother died, Blatch carried on her mother's work, encouraging women of all classes to participate. Dubois also edited "The Elizabeth Cady Stanton-Susan B. Anthony Reader" (Northeastern University Press)

Historian Barbara Goldsmith. Her new book is both biography and a history of the time. It tells the story of the 19th century feminist and spiritualist Victoria Woodhull, "Other Powers: The Age of suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull" (Knopf). Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to run for president. She was an ardent feminist who championed for women's rights, but her spiritualism put her outside the mainstream suffrage movement, as well as her attempts to blackmail her enemies.

Gillian Caldwell and Steven Galster went undercover to investigate the emerging illegal sex trade in Russia and the newly Independent States.

Mahnaz Afkhami, executive director of the Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI), and Azar Nafisi, professor of English Literature at Tehran's Tabatabai University discuss this weekend's Sisterhood is Global conference in Washington D.C., a symposium addressing issues such as cross-cultural education and women's rights on a global scale. Afkhami has written a substantial manual for women's rights education in Muslim countries. Nafisi has conducted ongoing workshops in Iran, one of six SIGI world workshop sites, on women, their identities, and their rights.