Source: Thomson Reuters
The government of Burkina Faso has banned an annual beauty contest for women with the biggest buttocks, saying such events are sexist.
Source: UNDP
Gender inequality is costing sub-Saharan Africa on average $US95 billion a year, peaking at US$105 billion in 2014– or six percent of the region’s GDP – jeopardizing the continent’s efforts for inclusive human development and economic growth, according to the Africa Human Development Report 2016: Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa, published today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
SOURCE.allAfrica
Nairobi — The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) on Thursday urged African governments to invest in girls in order to achieve sustainable development.UNFPA Deputy Executive Director Natalia Kanem told a population forum in the Kenyan capital Nairobi that investments in girls will result in significant economic returns for Africa.
SOURCE: allAfrica
Perched on top of a bicycle, she suddenly swerves off the road to avoid a speeding car. The heavy luggage on the bicycle forces her to lose balance, but with skills of a seasoned rider, she controls the bicycle with precision-as one foot firmly grips the tarmac.Along the flat terrain of Ruhuha Sector in Bugesera District (Eastern Province), women riding bicycles is a common scene. When I visited the area, I encountered hordes of bicycle-riding women carrying anything from food, charcoal, firewood and children among other things.
SOURCE: allAfrica
Bulawayo — According to parent associations, thousands of children have been thrown out of classes around the country for failing to pay tuition
Source: MiDNIMO
Somalia’s top political decision-making forum has been lauded for endorsing a 30 percent parliamentary quota for women in the forthcoming general elections.
Source: Nyasa Times
Malawi former president Joyce Banda, a campaigner for women and girls rights, on Tuesday was shown on Ben TV of London in a popular Pauline Long interview show which she said many professional women get discouraged from entering politics because of the treatment they get when they are trying to get into positions of power – the name-calling, the scandalisation and the smear campaigns.
Source: allAfrica
More than 250 marginalised women in Africa will later this year climb Mount Kilimanjaro to advocate women's rights towards accessing natural resources, an official said on Sunday.
Source: The Guardian
Ban Ki-moon argues ‘it’s high time now’ for female leadership of the United Nations as candidates including Helen Clark and Susana Malcorra vie for top job
Source: Al-Monitor
Tunisia’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs submitted to parliament in mid-July a new draft law on the elimination of violence against women. Article 2 of the draft law extends to “all forms of gender-based violence directed against women by any perpetrator, whatever form it takes, without discrimination on the basis of birth, color, race, religion, thought, age, nationality, socio-economic conditions, civil status, health, language or disability.”
Source: IPS
The process for arguably the top political job on the planet is well underway. And the time is right for a woman and a feminist to take the helm.
SOURCE: allAfrica
This week fact-checking ninjas, Africa Check revealed that it's not actually seven million girls who miss school every month because of the inaccessibility of feminine hygiene products. And while the actual number of girls who miss school because the price of pads and tampons is fewer than 7 million, the price of pads and tampons should still be treated as a public health emergency.
Source: Daily News
Last month, the High Court of Tanzania ruled that sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, which allowed girls to be married at an age as young as 14, were unconstitutional. TECMN Chairperson, Ms Valerie Msoka, said it was shocking that the biggest stakeholder would appeal the court decision against such changes.
Source: The Guardian
Tinalbaraka Amano has done well to adapt to life in the desert. Three years ago, the 16-year-old had her own room in a suburban house in Mali’s capital, Bamako. She had school friends with middle-class aspirations and Snapchat. At Mbera refugee camp in southern Mauritania, she sleeps in a tent with her parents. Before bed, she has to shake her sleeping mat for scorpions. The neighbours are mostly nomads who have never been online or in a classroom.
Source:News 24
Johannesburg – South African women continue to be victimised through sexual crimes, the African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday.
Source: BBC News
Farms have been built on ancient routes of a semi-nomadic community in Nigeria, causing violence that has already claimed hundreds of lives this year.
Source: News 24 WIRE
There is a business case to have women in leadership. According to the McKinsey Women Matter report for Africa, released recently, there is a link between companies which perform better financially and that have gender diversity.
Source: Fin24
Johannesburg – Part of the team that helped establish pillars for South Africa’s new democracy and new Constitution in the early 1990s, Dr Yvonne Muthien has come a long way, using her academic expertise to build institutions in government and guide business decisions.
SOURCE: allAfrica
Tanzania Ending Child Marriage Network (TECMN) has made a call to the government to reconsider its decision to challenge a court ruling on child marriage.
Last month, the High Court of Tanzania ruled that sections of the 1971 Marriage Act, which allowed girls to be married at an age as young as 14, were unconstitutional. TECMN Chairperson, Ms Valerie Msoka, said it was shocking that the biggest stakeholder would appeal the court decision against such changes.
"Child marriage is no joke and should be discarded with the highest of contempt as it takes advantage of young children and robs them of their future; development of the human race cannot occur if cultures such as these are tolerated with a casual look as if it is normal," she stressed.
Accompanied by some of TECMN members, Ms Msoka said if Tanzania was to be a country of laws and justice, Attorney General Chambers should respect judgments and ruling which mostly benefit minors in the country.
Founder and Executive Director for Msichana Initiative, Ms Rebeca Gyumi, said the government appeal was "one step forward and two steps back." She added: "We are still confused with the government decision as to date; we don't have a memorandum of appeal and hence we don't even know the grounds of appeal.'
Executive Director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Dr Helen Kijo-Bisimba, said the effect of the Act was to discriminate against girls by depriving them of opportunities that are vital for all citizens.
Dr Bisimba noted that as the Court of Appeal was not the last option for them; they were ready even to go further to the African Court of Justice if the government would win the appeal. Recently, a High Court nullified sections 13 and 17 of the Tanzania Law of Marriage Act, which allow girls to marry at age 15 with parental permission and at age 14 with the permission of a court.
They ruled that the provisions were unconstitutional and therefore, gave the Attorney General (AG) one year from the date of the decision within which to make arrangements for amendments of the law to put 18 years as the minimum age for one to contract marriage.
The court's ruling follows a series of new legal measures, adopted by the government, which makes it a crime to attempt to marry school-going children under 18 years, as well as any "person who impregnates a primary school or a secondary school girl."
Source: BBC
A Kenyan man accused of chopping off his wife's hands and hacking her head with a machete after blaming her for their childless marriage should face the full force of the law, rights activists have said.