In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday 27 March 2010 
  
 Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, was wrongly credited with being the country's first female head of state. That honour goes to Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who served as president from 1980 to 1996 
  
 Iceland is fast becoming a world-leader in feminism. A country with a tiny population of 320,000, it is on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry. 
  
 While activists in Britain battle on in an attempt to regulate lapdance clubs – the number of which has been growing at an alarming rate during the last decade – Iceland has passed a law that will result in every strip club in the country being shut down. And forget hiring a topless waitress in an attempt to get around the bar: the law, which was passed with no votes against and only two abstentions, will make it illegal for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. 
  
 Even more impressive: the Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday: "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold." When I asked her if she thinks Iceland has become the greatest feminist country in the world, she replied: "It is certainly up there. Mainly as a result of the feminist groups putting pressure on parliamentarians. These women work 24 hours a day, seven days a week with their campaigns and it eventually filters down to all of society." 
  
 The news is a real boost to feminists around the world, showing us that when an entire country unites behind an idea anything can happen. And it is bound to give a shot in the arm to the feminist campaign in the UK against an industry that is both a cause and a consequence of gaping inequality between men and women. 
  
 According to Icelandic police, 100 foreign women travel to the country annually to work in strip clubs. It is unclear whether the women are trafficked, but feminists say it is telling that as the stripping industry has grown, the number of Icelandic women wishing to work in it has not. Supporters of the bill say that some of the clubs are a front for prostitution – and that many of the women work there because of drug abuse and poverty rather than free choice. I have visited a strip club in Reykjavik and observed the women. None of them looked happy in their work. 
  
 So how has Iceland managed it? To start with, it has a strong women's movement and a high number of female politicans. Almost half the parliamentarians are female and it was ranked fourth out of 130 countries on the international gender gap index (behind Norway, Finland and Sweden). All four of these Scandinavian countries have, to some degree, criminalised the purchase of sex (legislation that the UK will adopt on 1 April). "Once you break past the glass ceiling and have more than one third of female politicians," says Halldórsdóttir, "something changes. Feminist energy seems to permeate everything." 
  
 Johanna Sigurðardottir is Iceland's first female and the world's first openly lesbian head of state. Guðrún Jónsdóttir of Stígamót, an organisation based in Reykjavik that campaigns against sexual violence, says she has enjoyed the support of Sigurðardottir for their campaigns against rape and domestic violence: "Johanna is a great feminist in that she challenges the men in her party and refuses to let them oppress her." 
  
 Then there is the fact that feminists in Iceland appear to be entirely united in opposition to prostitution, unlike the UK where heated debates rage over whether prostitution and lapdancing are empowering or degrading to women. There is also public support: the ban on commercial sexual activity is not only supported by feminists but also much of the population. A 2007 poll found that 82% of women and 57% of men support the criminalisation of paying for sex – either in brothels or lapdance clubs – and fewer than 10% of Icelanders were opposed. 
  
 Jónsdóttir says the ban could mean the death of the sex industry. "Last year we passed a law against the purchase of sex, recently introduced an action plan on trafficking of women, and now we have shut down the strip clubs. The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognising women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale." 
  
 Strip club owners are, not surprisingly, furious about the new law. One gave an interview to a local newspaper in which he likened Iceland's approach to that of a country such as Saudi Arabia, where it is not permitted to see any part of a woman's body in public. "I have reached the age where I'm not sure whether I want to bother with this hassle any more," he said. 
  
 Janice Raymond, a director of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, hopes that all sex industry profiteers feel the same way, and believes the new law will pave the way for governments in other countries to follow suit. "What a victory, not only for the Icelanders but for everyone worldwide who repudiates the sexual exploitation of women," she says. 
  
 Jónsdóttir is confident that the law will create a change in attitudes towards women. "I guess the men of Iceland will just have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale." ||||| In a break with liberal European practice, Iceland has voted to ban striptease shows, making it an offense for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees. 
  
 Iceland's legislature, the Althingi, passed the ban Tuesday night, with just two abstentions and no votes against, although almost half the country's 63 lawmakers were absent. 
  
 Both opponents and supporters of the bill said Wednesday it was a European first. With the exception of the Vatican and tiny principalities like Andorra, strip clubs operate across the continent. 
  
 "I am quite happy about Iceland being the first European country to take this step," said Steinunn Valdis Oskarsdottir, a Social Democrat lawmaker who supported the ban. 
  
 "Women who work at strip clubs are in many cases the victims of human trafficking and other kinds of abuse," she said. "I have been working in this field for almost 15 years and not yet have I met one woman who dances at strip clubs because she wants to." 
  
 Nude dancing was already heavily regulated in Iceland, a volcanic North Atlantic island nation of just 320,000 people, and only a handful of clubs feature stripping. 
  
 Kolbrun Halldorsdottir, a former lawmaker who was the first to propose the bill, said the law made it clear "that society does not accept that access to a woman's body is sold." 
  
 Club operators dispute the notion that strippers are unwilling victims. 
  
 "They are closing striptease (clubs) because they think there is prostitution there," said Asgeir Davidsson, owner of Iceland's largest strip club, Goldfinger. "They think there is organized crime. They have been thinking this for 12 years. They have had the police running around, and they have not found anything." 
  
 Davidsson said he would fight the ban, which takes effect July 1. 
  
 "I have to talk to my lawyer," he said. "What do they call nude? Is it nude if they are wearing a string?" 
  
 Davidsson said his profits already had been hit by Iceland's economic crisis, which has seen unemployment soar and the krona currency plummet after the global credit crunch triggered the collapse of the country's high-flying banks. Iceland is seeking help from the International Monetary Fund to rebuild its economy. 
  
 Davidsson said that given the country's dire situation, legislators were "like Nero _ playing the violin while Rome is burning." 
  
 Iceland combines liberal social values with a strong women's movement, and almost half the country's legislators are women. 
  
 ___ 
  
 Jill Lawless reported from London. |||||
A law that forbids any business from making a profit off its employees’ nudity has sounded the death knell for strip clubs, and indeed the sex industry as a whole, in Iceland—news that has Julie Bindel hailing the island as the world’s most feminist country. Iceland is the first to put the kibosh on stripping for woman-friendly—as opposed to religious—reasons, Bindel notes in the Guardian. And it’s all thanks to the number of women in high political places: Almost half of its legislators are women, including Johanna Sigurdardottir, the country’s first female head of state—and the world’s first openly lesbian leader. “Once you break past the glass ceiling and have more than one third of female politicians,” one of the number tells Bindel, “something changes. Feminist energy seems to permeate everything.”