Source: Thomson Reuters News
More than 200 million girls and women globally have suffered genital mutilation, far higher than previously estimated, which highlighted the need to accelerate efforts to eradicate the practice, the United Nations said on Friday.
Source: GlobalVoices
The attacks that have recently struck the Western world have dominated the front pages of the media. Attacks on less wealthy countries do not often receive the same level of media coverage, as though a life lost in the Sahel or Iraq will inspire less compassion than a life lost elsewhere.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation News
When Fatia, 25, leaves her home to sell sex in the grungy hotels and hastily parked cars of the Ugandan capital, Kampala, she keeps her hand clenched around her phone.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation News
Girls in Guinea are increasingly being subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM) before the age of 10, and support for the practice among women and girls in the West African nation is on the rise, the United Nations rights office said on Monday.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation News
When Clarisse's husband died of malaria last year in the Cameroonian city of Douala, she was kicked out of their home by his family and forced to marry his brother.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation News
DAKAR, July 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Women's rights activists on Friday welcomed Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's decision to ban child marriage, but said jailing parents who marry off their daughters could spark a backlash in a country where a third of girls are wed before they turn 18.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is in South Africa from 10 - 19 August for the national celebration of “Women's Month”. This year South Africa is marking several important milestones for women's rights, including the 60th anniversary of the 1956 “women's march”, which convened 20,000 women of all races marching to South Africa's Union Buildings to protest apartheid laws requiring black women to carry permits to be able to work in or pass through 'white' areas'; the 40th anniversary of the Soweto uprising; and the 20th anniversary of South Africa's Constitution.
Source: thguardian
Civil law in Pakistan permits men to have up to four wives but Noori, a visually impaired woman, married into a family where the preference is for one. Nonetheless, Noori’s husband remarried because she had a disability.
Source: UN Women
Archbishop Abune Markos from East Gojam Zone Diocese in Ethiopia believes in gender equality. He is committed to end child marriages and all forms of violence against women and girls in Ethiopia. “Education is power and the key to freedom,” he says. “Marriage should only happen when people are ready…. You can only marry when you are an adult, at least at 18 years old.”
Source: UN News Centre
As World Water Week kick off today, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has highlighted that the opportunity cost from a lack of access to water disproportionately falls on women and girls who collectively spend as much as 200 million hours – or more than 22,800 years – every day collecting this vital resource.
Source: Inter Press Service
Despite their prominence on the world stage, female political leaders like Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel are part of a tiny minority of women who have risen to the top of politics.
Source: The Ethiopian Herald
Nowadays, the lives of women and girls around the world have been improving dramatically in many respects. In developed and underdeveloped economies the rights of girls such as school enrolment have been growing. But, there is an urgency to narrow down the existing gender gaps. For instance, almost everywhere across the world, a large number of women earn less than men. Moreover, they have less opportunities to shape their lives and make decisions than men.
Source: Nyasa Times
First Lady Getrude Mutharika has urged young girls in the country to stay in school as it is the only ticket to end poverty in the country.
Source: The New Times
Partnership is vital for women to address their challenges and gain self-reliance, Gender and Family Promotion minister Diane Gashumba has said.
Source: SMBC News
A leading women’s rights activist in The Gambia on Friday officially launched her candidacy for President of The Gambia with an anthem of equality and unity for change and progress.
SOURCE: allAfrica
The Secretary of Local Education Authority (LEA) in Abaji Area Council, Dr Hassan Suleiman, decries child abuse and hawking, saying two third of school dropouts are girls.
Source: Inter Press Service
In some parts of the world, the proverbial “glass ceiling” is shattering. As Theresa May and, most likely, Hillary Clinton join Angela Merkel at the leadership of three major world powers, women’s leadership in politics is on the ascent.
Source: allAfrica
Last week, ZANU-PF and the State media hit new lows in their attempts to discredit Zimbabwe People First leader, Joice Mujuru, who is going around the country, mobilising support for her party. The Sunday Mail of August 21, 2016 was the most vicious.
Source: GE Report Africa
In South Africa, August is celebrated as Women’s Month, in recognition of over 20 000 women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria – the official seat of government – on 9 August 1956, protesting against the extension of apartheid pass laws to women. Women’s Day, on 9 March, is a public holiday recognising the contribution these women made to the liberation struggle.
Source: Inter Press Service
Barely 17 years old and from the Gajapati district in Odisha, India, Susmita has never gone to school. She rears the few animals her family owns, and this is her primary duty besides attending to household chores.