Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
NEW YORK, Sept 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Leading feminist figures from around the world lent their support on Thursday to scores of Congolese women gathered in a bid to end the Central African country's rape epidemic.
Giving women a role in peace efforts in the conflict-torn nation could help address its astronomical rate of sexual violence, they said, which has earned it the tag of "rape capital of the world."
Women's rights activists in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, braved hot weather Thursday to protest recent domestic violence in which seven women were slain or disfigured by their partners.The protesters, many of them women, wore black attire, and at one point they lay in the street to symbolize mourning.
President's initiative secures Tunisian women's right to choose spouse despite opposition from mainstream Muslim clerics.
Rape, torture, pillage, murder and forced displacement by the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC) rebel forces are the new horrifying realities faced by communities in Basse-Kotto, Central African Republic, according to the prominent London-based human rights group Amnesty International.
The Sustainable Development Goals seek to change the course of the 21st century, addressing key challenges such as poverty, inequality, and violence against women and girls.
Maputo - Maputo will on Friday host the second of five conferences organised by the African Commission aimed at developing new ideas and opportunities for women's employment in Africa.
Lusaka - When Zambian Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga announced recently that government had directed local authorities to intensify land allocation to women with immediate effect, there was general approval.
Source: AllAfrica
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) says it will support Nigerian female politicians vying for elective positions in the 2019 general elections.
Source: The Washington Post
TUNIS, Tunisia — Some denounce it as a violation of Islamic law, others embrace it as revolutionary: An initiative by Tunisia’s president to make inheritance
and marriage rules fairer to women is reverberating around the Muslim world, and risks dividing his country.
Over 3.5 million refugee children did not have the chance to attend school in the last academic year, according to a report published today by the United Nations refugeeagency, which is calling for education to be a vital component of humanitarian response.
Source: allAfrica
Girls in Geita District are caught between a rock and a hard surface. Despite grappling with cultural norms and values that reduce them to mere sources of income upon marriage while on the other hand strive to dodge early pregnancies and marriage traps; they are disheartened by lack of sanitary facilities in schools.
No one should ever have to choose between starving to death and exposure to HIV, however, millions of women and children struggling to survive in the drought-stricken countries of southern Africa aren’t being given a choice.
While women are active and successful mediators at the grassroots level, they remain largely invisible in international peacemaking. Dr. Catherine Turner says it is urgent to raise the profile of women mediators.
Source: France 24/7 International News
For the past three years, Frenchwoman Laurence Fischer, a three-time world karate champion, has travelled to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to help female victims of rape. Alongside the renowned surgeon Dr. Mukwege, the top athlete teaches these traumatised women self-defence and tries to help them regain self-confidence and rebuild their lives.
Source: IPS
Elizabeth Ayumpou Balang is a teacher at a nursery and primary school in Rumbek, a town in central South Sudan. It is her dream job, but it did not come easily. Like many girls in South Sudan, Ms. Balang was married, and became a mother, while just a teenager.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Buoyed by record gains in last month’s elections, Kenyan activists say they hope the nation’s top court will enforce women’s right to better political representation, following a surprise decision to nullify the presidential election.
For Kebela Gure, 30-year-old mother of five from the Adamitulu District in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, a good education for her children and an improved family income were the priorities. Today, she is on her way to accomplishing both these goals. She lives with her family in the village of Anano Sheso, where her children can access elementary school. What’s more, she has already purchased materials to build her dream home in the nearby town, where her children can continue their education in high school and beyond.
“We need peace. We are tired of conflicts. So many innocent people have died and we have to stop the violence. That is why I contribute to peace-making”, says Hadiza Adam, a 38-year-old woman from Angwan Rogo community in Jos North, located in the northern Nigerian state of Plateau. At least 4,000 people have been killed in the recurring communal violence in the Plateau State since 2001. The predominantly Muslim community of Angwan Rogo, 2.1km (1.3 miles) from the state capital, Jos, was one of the hardest hit areas. The ethno-religious crisis was precipitated by political and economic rivalry, and disputes among indigenous and non-indigenous groups. Tensions continue to simmer over land rights, allocation of state resources, as well as politics and religious differences, among other issues.
Salamatu Umar, who was force d to marry a Boko Haram fighter, holds son Usman Abubakar. Salamatu Umar was abducted by Boko Haram in 2014, when she was just 15. She and five other girls were herded in the bush. She was forced to marry a Boko Haram fighter. She and another girl eventually escaped, running away while they were collecting firewood for cooking. Umar was pregnant at the time.