Last week a huge step happened in the right direction for the marriage equality. Courtney writes @ Feministing about that: “Boston judge rules federal gay marriage ban unconstitutional”.

Yesterday, a judge in Boston ruled that the federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional, taking a huge step in the right direction for marriage equality.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Same-sex unions have been legal in Massachusetts since 2004, as many happy couples that have made the Mass or Bust wedding pilgrimage well know. The state argued that the federal law denied benefits, like Medicaid, to gay married couples in Mass., forcing the state to discriminate against its own citizens. This is a huge breakthrough in precedence for future rulings.

Ms. Magazine informs us that “Iranian Woman’s Execution Halted”.

The execution of Sakineh Mohammadie Ashtiani, a 43-year-old Iranian woman who was convicted of adultery and originally sentenced to stoning, has been temporarily halted, according to CNN . Malek Ajdar Sharifi, a judiciary official in East Azerbaijan province, said the verdict has been halted on "humanitarian grounds," although it "still stands and is definite," reported CNN.

A new study on equal pay by The Project for Attorney Retention and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, in collaboration with the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. Kavitha Sivashanker in “Equal Pay for Equal Work: Still a Myth in the Legal Profession” gives us more info about the results (via Womens Take).

A new study released this week highlights the difficulties that female partners face in law firm compensation systems, and analyzes the factors contributing to the large pay disparities between female and male partners in law firms. The Project for Attorney Retention and the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, in collaboration with the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, just released a study entitled New Millennium, Same Glass Ceiling? that surveyed nearly 700 women law firm partners to examine the impact of law firm compensation systems on female partners.

Alex Dibranco tells us that “Kenyan Women Risk Rape Just By Going to the Bathroom”, according to a new Amnesty International Report (via change.org).

I’m sure many people have suffered the experience of being on a long car ride when suddenly they really, really need a restroom. Or perhaps you’ve been stuck in a meeting you just can’t leave, or a never-ending line. It’s highly uncomfortable, and when you gotta go, it can feel like torment. But for many low-income women in Kenya, going to the bathroom carries a much more serious risk with it: the risk of rape.

A new Amnesty International report on women in Narobi slums looks at the less-than-glamorous issue of toilet use. With toilets located outside an individual’s residence and shared by a number of families in the neighborhood, there are major health issues associated with these latrines and a severe lack of privacy. They are also often located a significant distance away from a woman’s home, leaving her vulnerable on the solitary walk there. Amnesty reports that, for many women, using the common toilet facilities after dark is simply "not an option," because of the high risk of physical and sexual violence.