United States: Andrea Dworkin, the radical feminist activist and writer best known for her campaigns against pornography, has died.
The author of more than 13 works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, Dworkin died peacefully in her sleep in Washington early on Saturday morning after a long battle with illness. She was 58.
Famous for her outspoken positions on a range of issues from male-on-female violence to rape and sexual intercourse, Dworkin's uncompromising stance brought fierce criticism not only from liberals, concerned at her attempts to pass laws against pornography, but also from other feminists.
"Andrea was like an old testament prophet," said Gloria Steinem, the feminist writer and co-founder of Ms magazine, who has been a close friend of Dworkin's for more than 30 years.
"She was always warning about what was about to happen and because of that she was frequently misunderstood. But she also had a breadth and depth of intelligence that was refreshing."
Steinem said that it was untrue, as Dworkin's critics frequently claimed, that she wished to ban pornography outright or that she considered sexual intercourse rape. "She was talking about relationships not sex per se," said Steinem. "But she did call attention in an uncompromising way to the unequal power between men and women and what that meant in the lives of both." - (Guardian service)