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Recently in Salon Health & Body

I am a smoker
I hate you, too.
By Carina Chocano
[02/08/00]

Camels and cowboys
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[02/08/00]

Column
Annie Sprinkle swims forward
A sex icon takes stock in the aftermath of her devastating houseboat fire and finds satisfaction as a mermaid.
By Virginia Vitzthum
[02/08/00]

Urge: Naked World
You'll never meet Mr. Right with your bed facing north
Can Chinese interior design turn a lonely bedroom into a lusty love nest? It worked for Karen. She moved her bed, painted the walls and met Mike.
By Hank Hyena
[02/07/00]

Smoke 'em if you've got 'em?
No one has studied casual smokers, but their risk level might be lower than expected.
By David McGuire
[02/07/00]

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While urban governments legislate a plethora of progressive decrees, their attempts at enlightenment are often dismissed in the countryside where ancient prejudices prevail. With 84.6 percent of the population living in rural areas this means change, in reality, touches very few.

Visit the Naked World archive Do you have a tale or tip for Naked World? Send e-mail to Hank Hyena

Gender equality was guaranteed in Burkina Faso's 1991 constitution, but women and girls remain miles away from authentic liberation. Last month, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women convened to strategize against its greatest concerns: forced marriage, wife inheritance, polygamy, violence against women, illiteracy and accusations of witchcraft.

Young Burkinabe girls are often coerced into matrimony because customs regard them as "property to be given away as a gift for a friend, a medium of exchange, or to be used for immediate or future interests," according to a report on the Jan. 28 M2 Presswire.

Although these "forced marriages" are illegal, ignorance of the law abounds in a country where 92 percent of the women are illiterate, cannot afford legal action and are geographically isolated from courts.

On an encouraging note, the committee praised Burkina Faso's success at abolishing female genital mutilation, or clitorectomies, and urged the nation to assume leadership in eradicating the horrific practice from Africa. Burkinabe women were also congratulated for having taken the lead in accepting the female condom.

Female activists in this landlocked country on the fringe of the Sahara deserve to be optimistic about their future. Rural migration into urban areas is gradually educating the populace and eradicating the misogynist notions of the past.

The United Nations has launched several programs to elevate the status of women, and slowly, women are making tiny inroads into the political arena. Of the National Assembly's 111 representatives, 10 are women.
salon.com | Feb. 8, 2000

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