Media

As France passed a new law that bans women from wearing in public veils that cover the whole face, two young students thought up a novel way of showing their protest. They made a short film of the two of them walking through Paris clad in waist-length niqabs and mini shorts.

In September 2010, the French Senate approved a ban on wearing a full-face veil in public. A woman defying the law will be fined 150 Euros or will have to take a course of citizenship lessons. A man who forces a woman to don the veil will be fined 30,000 Euros and will have to serve a jail term. France has a Muslim population of 5 million, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed to actually use full-face veils like the burka or niqab.

Population First and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have invited entries for the third UNFPA – Laadli Media awards for Gender Sensitivity (ULMAGS) for the Southern Region for 2010-2011.

Surekha Sule introduces a small Marathi magazine that has been changing lives in small towns and villages for the last two decades. Begun as a venture to bring together women, now it has taken into its fold men as well.

Have the women managed to break through the glass ceiling in the fourth estate? Navya D’Souza reports on a panel discussion that looked at the role of women in media, held in Bangalore recently.

Rohini Teresa Mathew looks at the life of women in the great Indian media bandwagon