england
England is willing to pay for Northern Irish women in need of abortion
UK government announced their plans to provide abortion services for Northern Irish women. In addition, women seeking an abortion will receive ‘state support to pay for their travel costs’, says the newspaper Irish Examiner.
While abortion is a sensitive and illegal subject in Ireland, it is not so in other parts of the UK. In order to get an abortion, Northern Irish women often travel across the English soils. In fact, around 700 women a year travel from Northern Ireland to England, Wales or Scotland for abortions. However, those trips cost a lot. The price to pay is often ‘around £900’, The Guardian reveals. It is a fact, having an abortion requires to be financially stable. The problem needs to be fixed and Justine Greening, the Minister for Women and Equalities, declared that the ‘charge was an injustice and the government would change its stance.’
By the end of the year, Northern Irish ladies will access to free abortion services in England. Also, women will be able to arrange an appointment with a healthcare professional, thanks to a central telephone booking system.
As a result, women are not only helped in getting an abortion, their human rights are also slowly being recognized. Indeed, Stella Creasy, British Labour Co-operative politician, noticed women in Northern Ireland were being denied a basic human right and this whole situation could be a step forward. “Today we also pledge to keep standing with them until they have equal access to abortion services in Northern Ireland itself,” she said. “Our sisters need to have their human rights to be upheld and we won’t give up until they have so.” The Guardian reported.
Tiphanie Bénard, IEJ2B
The poppy of the discord
England and Scotland football teams will face each other on 11th of November, on Armistice day, for FIFA world cup elimination in Wembley, London. For this occasion, both of the teams plan to wear a poppy on their jersey, as they usually in their respective championships in tribute to victims of World War I.
Only problem, the FIFA forbids every political, religious or commercial message on national teams’ jerseys. They have already threatened both of the national federations with sanctions if they wear the poppy.
In the Barclay’s premier league and the Scottish Premiership, teams are wearing poppy from the beginning of October to the 11th of November. This game between England and Scottish squads was the occasion of a great commemoration. However, the director of the FA (English Football Association), Martin Glenn, believes that no laws are being broken, and that the FIFA is only misinterpreting the situation.
Still according to Martin Glenn, believing that it is not a political message, both teams will wear the poppy, and are not expecting big sanctions: “I’m confident it won’t come to anything draconian.”
We will see the 11th of November, at 7:45 PM if both teams will honor the victims of WWI.
Elie Soussan, IEJ 3E
British Nobel Prize author Doris Lessing dies
As the leaves fall from the trees the 94-year-old bestselling author, Doris Lessing decided to slowly penetrate the underworlds .
She left us novels, poetry, press articles and a sense of humour that just sizzled a generation.
Doris May Tayler was born in Kermanshah, in Iran, where her British father was a clerk with the Imperial Bank of Persia.
In 1925, her family moved to Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe where crimson sunsets were contrasting with social inequalities.
Lessing suffered from an education at the opposite of her personality. Her mother was obsessed with the idea of raising a « perfect daughter ». She also sent Doris to a convent with nuns.
Through the author’s rigid education we can imagine what influenced her to write « The Fifth Child », one of her most famous novels. A novel about childhood, loneliness, full of horror and marked by the impression of feeling different.
Lessing is better known for being the first British author of 88 years old who recieved a Nobel prize in 2007. A true consecration for the million pages she covered with her words .
Considered as being a little weird and anti-conformist, the author was engaged in politics and social concerns. She wrote against social inequalities especially the apartheid. She was also a self actualization’s fighter.
For a woman of her age, she had a life that we could qualify as exceptional. Lessing’s trips around the world from Iran, to south Africa and finally the UK contributed to her awareness of world’s problems. Her words are relative to what she suffered from her education. Her engagements are as huge as her intelligence. An intelligence coming from two organs : her brain and her heart.
What we can say is that the unfeminine Doris Lessing was always free, even in her marriage from whom she ran away leaving her husband and two children behind.
In our libraries and memories she will remain.
Doriane Ligorio – 3F1 – Chloe Kerommes – 3F2
