a number of stories this week have considered women’s employment and earning patterns. Katrin Bennhold’s piece in the New York Timeson employed mothers, “In Germany, A Tradition Falls, and Women Rise,” is the first of a series in the Times and the International Herald Tribune examining “the female factor,” or “where women stand in the early 21st century.” One answer to that question comes in a study just released by the Pew Research Center on “
Portugal poised to approve same-sex marriage
Portugal’s parliament has passed legislation to authorize gay marriage. If approved by the President, Portugal would become the sixth European nation to recognize same-sex marriage, joining Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden (as well as Canada and South Africa). This article by Barry Hatton in the Washington Post — Portuguese parliament approves same-sex marriage bill – suggests that Portugal’s president is unlikely to veto the bill, which could go i
Polygamy in South Africa
News reports this week describe the wedding of South African President Jacob Zuma in a traditional Zulu ceremony. See this story by Jenny Booth: Polygamous South African president Jacob Zuma weds for a fifth time – Times Online.
Polygamy in Malaysia
This story by Liz Gooch in the New York Times News describes a “polygamy club” in Malaysia that claims 1000 members: “Malaysian Polygamy Club Draws Criticism.”
Multicultural Families in Korea
“Baby Boom of Mixed Children Tests South Korea,” a story by Martin Fackler in the New York Times, reports on the many births that have occurred in recent years to hundreds of thousands of married couples formed by Korean men and women from other countrieses in Asia. Fackler reports that these are known as multicultural families in Korea, and they tend to be concentrated in the poorer rural farming areas. Marriages to foreigners were 11 percent of all marriages in South Korea in 2008.
Polygamy in Siberia?
Here’s a news story by Mira Katbamna called “Half a good man is better than none at all” (published in The Guardian on Oct. 27) which reports on research by anthropologist Caroline Humphrey at Cambridge University. Humphrey discusses communities in Siberia and Mongolia where men and women advocate polygamy (or practice it informally) on demographic and economic grounds.
Wedding Customs
I enjoyed this piece by Choe Sang-Hun in the New York Times, called “Questioning a Korean Wedding Tradition,” which considers recent debate about the practice of making large cash gifts at the time of weddings and funerals. As a point of (loose) comparison, I recommend this story from the Times in July 2003 called “For
Same-Sex Marriage in Argentina
A judge in Buenos Aires ruled on November 13 that a same-sex couple must be permitted to marry on constitutional equality grounds; on November 15 the mayor announced that the city would not appeal the ruling. Here’s an item on Jurist with more details, and here’s an Associated Press story available from the New York Times.
International Child Abduction, Relocation, and Forced Marriage: Conference set in London
The Centre for Family Law and Practice at London Metropolitan Univeristy has announced the program for its inaugural conference in London from June 30 to July 2, 2010, in London. The conference is intended for judges, academics, researchers and practioners; papers were selected after a call for papers and there is an impressive and interesting line-up of speakers from many countries. Information including links to the conference program and a registration form are
Films for Teaching
Documentary films and short fiction can be very helpful in teaching classes or seminars on international and comparative family law. Of the films I have shown students, the best for my purposes is Divorce Iranian Style, by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini (1998). The film is a nice complement to Mir-Hosseini’s book, Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law (rev. ed. 2001).