Saudi Womans Slugs Virtue Cop

(Newser) – A Saudi woman stopped by a virtue cop pulled off every feminist's dream: As her male companion mysteriously collapsed, she proceeded to give the cop a thrashing—to the point where he was taken to the hospital with bruising. The unnamed woman was strolling through an amusement park with her friend when they were stopped by a religious cop looking for unmarried couples, who cannot legally socialize.
If the 20-something is charged, she could face prison time and lashings. “To see resistance from a woman means a lot,” one women’s rights activist tells the Media Line. “People are fed up with these religious police, and now they have to pay the price for the humiliation they put people through for years and years. This is just the beginning and there will be more resistance.”

How can Iran oversee women's rights?

WASHINGTON — If you thought Iran's withdrawal of its bid for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council was a step in the right direction, think again.

There are no circumstances under which it makes sense for Iran to sit on any human rights committee. For it to sit on the UNHRC, would have been the ultimate manifestation of wolves guarding the sheep. Apparently, and thankfully, enough members of the U.N. General Assembly agreed, and Iran withdrew its candidacy.

But that wasn’t Iran’s most preposterous quest. Instead of the UNHRC, Iran will now sit on the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women. Seriously. Iran is being given an opportunity to oversee the rights of women around the world.

The U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women is a four-year assignment tasked with reviewing abuses to women’s rights and helping nations reach gender equity. This body, made up of 45 nations elected on a rotating basis, is “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women.”

So Iran, whose criminal code allows women accused of adultery to be buried up to their necks and stoned to death, will now help oversee women’s rights.

Iran, which deems spousal rape legal, will now monitor how other nations treat women.

Iran, which, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2009 country-by-country report, cracked down on women’s rights reformers protesting the disputed June 2009 elections, will help other nations achieve gender equality.

Iran, as the U.S. State department notes, according to a study published in 2008, is a country where “52.7 percent of women reported being physically abused during their married lives.” It will now have a say in the global treatment of women.

In Iran, even adult women need their father’s consent, or approval of the courts, to marry, and the testimony of two women equals the testimony of one man. An Iranian cleric recently announced that such natural disasters as earthquakes are caused by women who dress and act immodestly.

Iran is particularly unfit to fulfill the vital mission of an organization dedicated to women’s rights.

The UNHRC, to which Iran first sought admission, is already crammed with some of the most unsavory, questionable-on-human-rights nations. The council avoided complete and utter obsolescence by Iran’s withdrawal.

Would that it were so for the women’s council.

A global women’s guardian is now staffed by a nation that severely oppresses more than half its population.

Why Fish Don't Freeze in the Arctic Ocean

Why Fish Don't Freeze in the Arctic Ocean: Chemists Unmask Natural Antifreeze

Bochum researchers have discovered how natural antifreeze works to protect fish in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean from freezing to death. They were able to observe that an antifreeze protein in the fish's blood affects the water molecules in its vicinity such that they cannot freeze, and everything remains fluid. Here, there is no chemical bond between protein and water -- the mere presence of the protein is sufficient.

Vacation Rentals

Women do best in women-led companies

A innovative study has found that women executives in the U.S. working in women-led firms earn between 15 and 20 per cent more in total reward than women working in other firms.

The study, by Haverford College Economics Professor Linda Bell, reveals that having a woman at the wheel of a company is instrumental to the success of other executive women in scientific and significant ways.

But overall, it emerged that top women executives in the U.S. are still paid between eight and 25 per cent less than male executives.

Women executives do better - in relative compensation and numbers - in firms with a female CEO or Chair, especially if the female CEO is a member of the Board.

Women executives also have relatively better compensation and representation among top management in firms with more female Board members.

"My research shows very strong observed confirmation that women leaders are associated with positive outcomes for women executives in substantive and important ways," said Professor Bell.

"It seems a logical conclusion to infer that women leaders help the women below them. If equity for high-skilled and performing women is a policy goal, then the one obvious instrument is affirmative action at the very top of the corporate hierarchy."

Firms in the ExecuComp data constitute more than 80 per cent of the total market capitalization of U.S. public companies.