Source: The Herald
By Phyliss Kachere
Over the past few days Zimbabwe's social media has been on fire.
Debate has been raging on various social media platforms after news filtered from a workshop held last week by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care in Kadoma that during debate, parliamentarians were pushing for the reduction of the age of sexual consent from 16 to 12 years.
Source: allAfrica
In Sierra Leone, cases involving the abuse of women have rarely been prosecuted. Spousal abusers, child abusers and even rapists have, too often, walked free.
Source: Quartz Africa
Wole Soyinka called it: Nigeria’s women authors are at the center of something of a literary phenomenon.
Source: New Zimbabwe
Legal watchdog Veritas Zimbabwe has launched an Interactive Women's Platform which will provide information on the rights and status of women in Zimbabwe.
The platform will also provide information on where to turn and what legal options are available if women feel their rights are being violated or ignored, the organization said Wednesday.
Source: Capital FM
Nairobi — The vote on the two-thirds Gender Bill has flopped once again due to a quorum hitch in the National Assembly.
Source: VOA News
A court in Garowe, in northern Somalia, Saturday sentenced five male teenagers to death for the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Galkayo last month, officials said.
Source: Thomas Reuters Foundation
Women on average have only three-quarters of the legal protections given to men during their working life, ranging from bans on entering some jobs to a lack of equal pay or freedom from sexual harassment, the World Bank said on Wednesday.
Source: New Era Live
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest airline group, has confirmed that it has finalised all preparations to once again celebrate International Women’s Day by operating an All Women Functioned Flight, this time on the Addis Ababa to Stockholm to Oslo route on March 8.
Source: Talk Nigerian
Women’s representation in the Federal Government has now steadily declined for three general elections cycles, women hold less than 5% of seats in the National Assembly and 11 State Houses of Assembly including Kaduna State have zero women in office.
Source: Malawi News Agency
By Daniel Nyanjagha
Mulanje — Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD) has called on political party leaders to support women aspirants in order to help such candidates attain elective leadership positions.
Source: Al Jazeera
Three-month delay prompts dismay among Kenya's LGBT community and its allies.
Kenya's High Court has postponed a much-anticipated ruling on whether to scrap colonial-era laws which criminalise gay sex, citing a heavy caseload.
Source: Daily Maverick
By Chanel Retief
Several incidents have raised concern about the levels of safety women can expect while using public transport. Women worry about the risk of violence and intimidation, especially when they are travelling on their own.
Source: Premium Times
By Ibrahim Mohammed
Women have turned out in large numbers to vote in the presidential and National Assembly elections in Kaduna State.
Source: Thomas Reuters Foundation
Arminda Sa was working 15-hour days for half the pay she had been promised when her boss’ brother tried to rape her.
Source: Daily News
ANNASTANZIA Bhoke (Not her real name) escaped from her home in Tarime District, Mara Region to Dar es Salaam in November last. She was running away from the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) practices she was about to undergo.
Source: The Gaurdian
The Labour Force Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics in December 2018 was trailed by mixed reactions, sparking heated debates on social media with many dismissing the reports as ‘fictitious’, ‘buffed up’ and ‘tainted’. The Labour Statistics Report, which reveals Nigeria’s unemployment and underemployment figures between 2017 (Q4) and 2018 (Q 1 – 3) increased by showed that the rate of unemployment grew from 18.8% to 23.1%.
Source: Daily Monitor
Kampala — Human and women rights activists have appealed to Members of Parliament not to criminalise prostitution as they debate and pass the pending Sexual Offences Bill of 2015 into law.
Source: The Namibian
The government, through the ministry of gender equality, has decriminalised baby dumping to allow mothers to leave their unwanted newborn babies at safe places without the risk of prosecution.
Source: This Is Africa
By Sada Malumfashi
Is the tide turning in Northern Nigeria for men who have grown accustomed to abusing women with impunity? asks Sada Malumfashi.
Source: UN News
Despite the signing of a peace deal between belligerents last September, UN investigators found that at least 175 women and girls have been raped or suffered other sexual and physical violence between September and December 2018.