Marianne Mollmann

Last week, several video-sharing websites were blocked by the two main Internet service providers in India in response to a court order related to movie piracy. The company that had pushed for the court intervention said it hadn't intended such a blanket block. The Internet service providers said...

President Obama's support for marriage equality came just one day after North Carolina voters banned same-sex marriage. Twitter storms followed each development, in which tweeters first declared that black people were homophobic as a group, then just as sweepingly that they were not. Somehow, the North Carolina defeat for marriage...

Last Mother's Day, news had just broken that then-Congressional Representative Anthony Weiner had tweeted a picture of his erect penis to a woman, thinking the tweet was private. The blogosphere immediately erupted in debates over the relative merits of women over men, the moral weight of adultery (Weiner...

Earlier this month, a 31-year-old woman in Sweden was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for having unprotected sex without disclosing to her partner beforehand that she is living with HIV.

Even a perfunctory news search reveals that this is not the first time the...

On 18-20 April, European leaders will come together in Brighton, United Kingdom, to decide the future of the European Court of Human Rights. The importance of this meeting - and the potential for damage - cannot be overstated. For over 50 years, the European Court on Human Rights...

Most of the issues highlighted during this year's run-up to the U.S. presidential election are framed in terms of separating the deserving from the undeserving. Abortion for rape victims, but not those who want to have sex. Immigration for the politically persecuted, but not those who move across borders because...

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court held that states cannot be sued for denying workers sick leave. An employee of the Maryland state courts, Daniel Coleman, had sued for monetary damages after he was fired for requesting time off to take care of his health.

States generally cannot...

This month, one of Belgium's women's rights organizations, zij-kant, caused quite a stir with their annual "Equal Pay Day" message. Instead of merely highlighting that women, on average, earn 22 percent less than men, the organization launched a video starring porn actress Sasha Grey with the...

This week's back-and-forth over Rush Limbaugh's use of the words "slut" and "prostitute" illustrates our deep discomfort with women's sexuality.

And in saying this, I am not referring to the fact that Rush Limbaugh massively misstated, misunderstood, and misrepresented Sandra Fluke's congressional testimony on the medical need for contraception. Anyone...

Last week was National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. Not that you'd know it. Eight days later, Angelina Jolie's right leg at the Oscars is still getting a lot more attention than the eating disorder usually associated with unnaturally thin and awkwardly poky limbs.

There's a reason for that....

Well before anyone could be certain of how Whitney Houston died, several news outlets rushed to describe her as a "crack cocaine user." And in all likelihood many will think of the popular singer as succumbing to illegal drugs, even if alcohol eventually is found to be more...

This month was big on bad news for women. First, a family in Canada was convicted for killing four female relatives, then a woman was allegedly strangled by her husband in Afghanistan, and then a high-profile charity in the United States decides to withdraw...

On Jan. 25, the mayor of Los Angeles signed a regulation that requires the use of condoms by all performers in adult movies filmed within the city's borders. The regulation conditions the issuance of film permits for adult movies on compliance with existing California worker safety rules, which...

Over the past months, candidates for the Republican nomination for president have fallen over each other to declare their opposition to abortion rights. Research indicates that they needn't bother: states are quite capable of restricting women's access to abortion without help from the federal government. In fact, 2011 was a...

"I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised...

Last week, a UK government review of the French breast implants that have caused panic from Australia to Uruguay concluded that there is no evidence the implants should be removed. The Australian Medical Association thinks women should at least get their implants...

If you are poor, chances are it is your own fault. At least that's what Americans thought in 2001. In a National Public Radio poll from that year, about half of those surveyed said the poor are not doing enough to pull themselves out of poverty.

Now, one...

On Tuesday December 6, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Criminal Justice Advisory Policy Board voted in favor of changing its rape definition, which currently dates back from 1929. The old definition covered only female victims and archaically -- and imprecisely -- referred to intercourse as "carnal knowledge,"...

This week, Senators Leahy and Crapo introduced a bill to reauthorize and amend the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a federal law first enacted in 1994.

This is mostly good news. The VAWA mandates federal funding for victim assistance and transitional housing, strengthens provisions to penalize offenders, and...

These past few months have seen many advances on women's participation in post-conflict settings; at least on paper.

In September, female world leaders gathered in New York to speak about the benefits of involving women in politics, in particular after war. In October, the UN...