Evicting over 3,000 prostitutes from Bangladesh's largest brothel violated women's right to work, says the High Court. The court ruled March 14 the prostitutes should petition lower courts to get the right to return to their brothel and also ruled police should free 116 prostitutes detained here since a raid last July. "Even though prostitution is not socially recognized, there is no law in Bangladesh to prevent anyone from it,'' the court ruled, in a lawsuit filed by human rights groups and 59 women. "This is a milestone verdict that will go a long way in establishing the rights of the country's sex workers,'' says Sigma Huda, the plaintiffs' attorney. Usually small rows of huts, according to the Associated Press, Bangladeshi brothels operate in most of the country's 64 cities and towns. The number of prostitutes in Bangladesh is estimated as high as 170,000.
COQUITLAM, BRITISH COLUMBIA - A middle school thinks Coca-Cola is sending more than the real thing subliminally: images of curvaceous women on Coke machines to sell the soft drink as sexy to the wrong audience. The images, real or imagined, aren't exactly racy, but Como Lake Middle School says some students were offended by the images on the school's two soda machines. "They are trying to program us to associate Coke with sex appeal," says one student, who pointed the images out to his teacher last week. "For guys who are already having sexist ideas, this is pushing them over the edge," says another. But still other students tell the Vancouver Sun it's much ado about nothing - a random pattern. "Most of us," says one of those students, "have seen more nudity than that in the movies." Coke insists nothing is on the front of the machines except a Coke can, a Coke bottle, and ice cubes. But the company says it will review complaints and possibly raise a discussion with school students.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
