IAW in Iceland 2011
Women's Rights Worldwide
in several short articles
IAW Board Meeting 2011 in Iceland
The IAW Board met to evaluate the activities of 2011 and to talk about the programme for 2012, organised by IAW Affilate Kvenrettindafelag Islands (Icelandic Women's Rights Association) in the country that 
ranked first on the Gender Equality list.
By the way, the Netherlands dropped this year from the top ten to the 17th place on the Gender Equality List.
We were graciously welcomed by the President of the Human Rights Comission (Iceland has its own Human Rights Commission), visited a very special Kindergarten, met with the members of a project on gender equality for foreign countries, met the president of Iceland and his wife and had took a dip in the Blue Lagoon which is filled with vulcanic heated water.
For more information: click here on the Dutch pages.
The Women's Strike
THe women's movement in Iceland organised a strike on October 25 2010, for Equal Pay for Equal Work and Violence against Women. Women in Iceland put down their work at 14.25 hours and filled the streets of Reykjavik with banners and billboards. The strike was attended by 100.000 participants.
Women have 65.65% of men's total salaries
The ordinary working day is 9-17 o'clock
Women get paid for work from 9-14.25 o'clock
After that we are doing voluntary work,
Why should we do that?
ICELAND - PROSTITUTION ILLEGAL BUT THRIVING
THE BIG SISTER MOVEMENT GIVES POLICE INFO ON BUYERS
Big Sister is watching you in Iceland
A new underground movement called “Stóra systir” (“Big Sister”) has handed over a list to the Reykjavík Metropolitan Police containing 56 names, 117 telephone numbers and 29 emails of men who expressed interest in purchasing the services of prostitutes through the websites einkamal.is, mypurplerabbit.com, raudatorgid.is and classified ads offering “massages” in daily newspaper Fréttabladid.
The movement made its intention known, that Icelandic legislation on prostitution and human trafficking are followed (where the buyer of prostitution but not the prostitute can be prosecuted), at a press conference at Idnó in Reykjavík yesterday where its spokespersons wore cloaks, hoods and masks to remain anonymous, Morgunbladid reports.
Big sister is watching you!
The Big Sisters said the list is the result of three weeks of investigative work. They decided to take matters into their own hands after police authorities claimed they neither had the funds nor the manpower to fight prostitution which they conclude is clearly thriving in Iceland in spite of it being illegal.
“We advertised at einkamal.is and in the massage columns of the papers and in the beginning it was just to check the reaction,” one spokesperson said. “The demand proved extensive and so we expanded into Rauda Torgid and Purple Rabbit, for example."
One night a few of the movement’s members all logged into einkamal.is and asked their respondents to meet them outside an ATM in Mjódd in Reykjavík. They were supposed to identify themselves by carrying a copy of Fréttabladid. They wouldn’t say whether they observed the respondents arriving at the meeting place.
They actually played the same game at yesterday’s press conference, announcing that a “model agency” was having a party at the same time and place. At least one man responded asking whether he could buy a girl at the party.
The Big Sisters say that even though the buyers of prostitution try to hide their identities their computer skills vary and it is usually easy to find out who they are.
“We are good at what we do and we have assistants, for example women who have been involved in prostitution,” they said, explaining that they teach them the industry’s lingo.
Actions
At the press conference a few conversations between the movement’s members and buyers of prostitutions were played. One was between a 48-year-old man and a woman whom he took to be 15, which made him all the more interested in buying her services.
The movement is demanding various actions, first and foremost that laws are complied with, but also shutting down einkamal.is, as well as porn clubs, and that the publication of ads for prostitution in the media in all forms be stopped.
No one is safe now, Big Sister is everywhere, one spokesperson warned.
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