Source: Al Jazeera
In the Pokot community in Kenya young girls are starting to fight against the brutal rite of female circumcision.
The World Health Organisation estimates that between 100 to 140 million girls and women live with the consequences of circumcision or female genital mutilation, a right of passage and a prerequisite to marriage in many societies.
Source: Women's Enews
Wearing white for peace, a Ugandan women's advocacy group has appealed to the United Nations amid a violent police crackdown on protesters. Ten have been killed, 100 injured and 600 arrested since April, a rights group says.
Source: Reuters
Just two women sat among 17 men on a podium in Libya's eastern city of Benghazi this month when rebels paraded new members of their National Transitional Council to the media.
Source: All Africa
Looking at how Kenya's inheritance laws leave women in the lurch, Salma Maoulidi says it's impossible for African women to celebrate Africa Day when they are 'not celebrated in the most intimate of spaces' - their families and communities.
Source: All Africa
At independence in 1980 Loyce Tshuma (55), a villager in rural Tsholotsho in Matebeleland North, was a loyal believer in politics as a powerful vehicle to change and better lives. Since then she never missed an opportunity to cast her vote.
Source:All Africa
Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, has urged women in abusive relationships not to withdraw cases of abuse but to allow the law to take its course.
Source: All Africa
Less than half of pregnant women are seeking delivery services in hospitals greatly putting their lives and those of unborn babies in danger.
Source: All Africa
Very soon wives in Uganda will legally have the right to a share in their husband's property, that's if the country's new speaker of parliament has her way.
Source: Irin
Instead of joining militias or idling at street corners, the youth in Garowe, the regional capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, are learning skills to help them earn a living, officials said.
Source: Plus News
Asha* is in a polygamous marriage, and while she would like to protect herself from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the message from the preachers at her local mosque in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, is that condoms promote adultery.
Source: UN News Center
Secretary-Ban Ki-moon today underlined the huge benefits societies reap from ensuring that girls and women have access to education, saying the opportunity to acquire knowledge creates a new generation of mothers who in turn raise educated and empowered young women.
"Education sends a message – a message of confidence and hope. It tells that child; you have a future; what you think matters," Mr. Ban said at the launch of the Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Source: UNESCO Media Services
A Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education will be launched at a high level forum to be held at UNESCO Headquarters on Thursday 26 May (13:30h Room I)
A group of parliamentarians committed to population and development issues have called on governments meeting at the G8 summit in Deauville, France, to invest substantially in protecting girls, addressing the challenges posed by the world’s population dynamics, and fulfil existing financial pledges, particularly in the areas of health, population and human rights.
Source: UN News Center
Visiting health workers in Ethiopia today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spotlighted the progress made in improving the health of women and children, while also stressing the need to do more to avoid needless deaths.
Source: AWID
The revolution of the 25th of January, 2011 was not born out of the moment, but was the result of a long struggle of all political and civil forces in Egypt. Women participated in all phases of this struggle and bore serious risks to confront the former regime and its security armory. This year, the 25th of May comes after the great revolution in which women participated to its success. Today marks the day in which women paid the price on the day of the referendum to amend article 76 of the constitution in 2005.
Across Africa, cell phones are rapidly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. From an isolated rural village, a business owner can make a bank deposit through her phone; a farmer can access current crop prices; and an expectant mother can learn about antenatal care.
Source: IPS
In an open space near her home in Makoko, a crowded suburb of the sprawling city of Lagos, Latifat Agboola sits in the midst of bags of charcoal, attending to her customers. Some of them call her "the charcoal woman with the dirty job, but she sees herself as a businesswoman on the rise.
Source: All Africa
Reports reaching The Chronicle indicate that women in the three northern regions of Ghana grow older more easily than those in the south, due to uncontrolled birth practices.
Source: South Africa Department of International Relations & Cooperation
Speaking at the re-launch of the ANC Women’s League in 1990, the visionary leader of the historic people’s movement - the African National Congress - Oliver Reginald Tambo unequivocally expressed that “women themselves have to organize and act so as to bring about the changes in attitudes amongst both men and women”
Source: Pambazuka
Members of Uganda's ninth Parliament were sworn-in this week, with female representation in the House reaching an all-time high. Women in the East African country are now sitting in 35 per cent of 375 available MP seats, up from the previous 30 per cent.