Source: John K.Abimanyi-All Africa.com
If a woman was raped somewhere in your neighbourhood, you can bet your lunch, somebody out there will raise their vindictive finger of blame and unwaveringly, point it straight at the woman, her dressing to be exact.
Source: AWID
In 2003, Sylvia Tamale was named as the “Worst Woman of the Year” by a conservative bloc within Uganda. Working at the time as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Makerere University (she later became its Dean), she was vilified for weeks within one of Kampala’s major daily newspapers, New Vision, as responsible for everything from the moral degeneration of the nation to the reason Ugandan teenagers were going to go to hell.
Source: UN News Centre
An independent United Nations human rights expert told the General Assembly today that violence against women across the world continues to be pervasive and widespread and reminded States of their obligation under international law to protect women.
Source: UN Women
Introductory statement by UN Women Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships Lakshmi Puri at the Third Committee of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly on the advancement of women, 10 October 2011.
Source: IRIN
Catherine Bertini, the former head of the World Food Programme is beating a drum for teenage girls, especially those girls who live in rural areas of developing countries.
Bertini has led a team from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in writing a policy document called Girls Grow: a Vital Force in Rural Economies, which urges far more attention to the needs of these adolescents, not just because of justice or fairness, but also because it is crucial for the world’s food supply.
She points out that the world is going to need an estimated 70 percent more food by 2050; Africa and Asia are going to have to become much more productive. And since in many developing countries it is the women who are the farmers, the girls of today will have to make this happen. Unless they grow up educated, healthy and confident, the world will face a hungry future. “So if this is a priority,” she says, “we must make the people doing it a priority as well.”
Alongside her at the launch of the report was Nafis Sadik, former executive director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), who spoke with passion about the girls and young women she had known in her long career as a gynaecologist, especially in her own country, Pakistan. What pains her most is the girls’ low status and their powerlessness, even in the decisions that most affect their own lives - whom to marry, when to marry, when to have children. “Religious and cultural attitudes to girls mean that decisions must be dictated by men, or by the whole family. Only she herself is excluded.”
Nearly half of rural women in developing countries are married before they are 18. Sadik recalled exchanges with pregnant young women among her patients. “You can tell them how to protect their health, but then you realize they are not in a position to make those choices. If you advise them to eat better, they look at you as if you are on the moon.”
Practical measures
The newly published report has plenty of concrete suggestions about ways to help these adolescent girls fulfil their potential. It may be straightforward practical issues which are keeping girls out of school - lack of decent toilet facilities, parents’ fears about a long and risky journey, or their reluctance to entrust her to male teachers.
All these things can be fixed. A simple change in teaching hours can allow girls to walk to and from school in daylight. Wells in school compounds can mean girls don’t have to choose between going to school and fetching water; they can attend school, and still go home with water for the family.
The authors suggest “second chance” programmes for girls who were never able to finish formal education, and childcare facilities for girls who have to look after their own babies, or their younger brothers and sisters. It all adds up to schools which fit in with the girls’ lives, not the other way around.
In health terms the report suggests a “12-year check”, the kind of developmental milestone check which is now routine for babies. This can establish whether a girl is healthy, well nourished and developing properly before she embarks on the demanding adolescent years, and allow health workers to offer advice to both the girls and their families.
The report also emphasizes the need for registration of children, since without accurate knowledge of age, it is impossible to enforce existing laws on school leaving age or child marriage.
Much of the wider importance of these rural adolescents lies in their potential as farmers, and the publication urges the inclusion of teenagers in agricultural extension work, making training, small loans, seed and fertilizers available to them as well as to older members of the communities. But it also wants them to raise their sights higher than just farming, perhaps to become junior extension workers themselves, learning and then spreading good practice among their peers; or processing their produce, and building up businesses as budding entrepreneurs.
Indian project
In the West Bengal village of Bholakhali one project is trying to encourage some of these aspirations. “Adopt a Mangrove” enlists girls to plant and maintain barriers against erosion in the Sunderbans and protect the vulnerable islands where they live, giving them useful expertise, and also a small cash income for their families and communities.
The driving force behind the project is not much older than the tree planters herself - Rishika Das Roy, a 21-year-old political science student from Kolkata. As well as doing important work, she and the girls also clearly have a lot of fun.
Even in a short time Roy can see a rise in the girls’ confidence and in their standing in their families and community. She told IRIN: “There is an increase in status. Everyone takes notice of them, because they are the ones protecting the community. When that storm comes, the trees planted by them take most of the brunt. Last time there was a storm, the men asked the women for help, which is completely against their macho nature in this area, being the protector, being the more dominant one in the family.
“I know it’s a cliché to talk about dignity, but it’s really important. If you work with these girls, you see how they feel they are inferior… I have a huge premium on dignity, and anything that accords them dignity, changes the pattern of society.”
So have the girls started to change? “They are more confident, yes,” says Roy, “but it’s usually restricted to when they are in their peer group. When they are with boys, in a group of 10 perhaps three girls will speak out; the others will stay silent. But a more assertive girl is more receptive to education because she knows she can do something with it. There is no point teaching a girl to grade six and then saying, `OK now let’s just get married.’ You need to make her believe that what she is studying is going to bring her something in life.”
Source: RNW
Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, enthusiastically welcomed the Nobel Peace Prize award on Friday, describing it as recognisition for years of fighting for democracy in Liberia. The announcement comes just days before Sirleaf seeks re-election Liberia's historic presidential and legislative elections on Tuesday, October 11, 2011.
Source: Angola Press
The province of Uíge will host from 13 to 15 October the VII National Forum on Rural Women with activities presided over by the minister of Women Promotion, Genoveva da Conceição Lino aiming to find solution to improve the situation of rural woman.
Source: Angola Press
The Vice-minister of Family and Women Promotionç, Ana Paula Sacramento Neto, is since thsi Sunday in Luena distict, eastern Moxico province, to present on Monday the law on domestic violence.
Source: Sunday Times
The ministry of Health in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund, WFP, the World Food Program and Engender Health is carrying out a campaign to treat and end obstetric fistula in women in Rwanda.
As demonstrations first swelled in Yemen, regime supporters distributed a photo showing Tawakkul Karman at a protest with a male colleague _ cutting out others around them _ to taint her for being alone with a man.
UN Women may be the United Nations’ youngest agency – it officially became operational only 10 months ago – but it is also one of its most ambitious with the aim of tackling the persistent discrimination and inequality faced by half of the world’s population.
Today the Nobel Committee announced that it is awarding its Peace Prize, the world’s top honor for individuals advancing peace, justice, human rights and humanitarian efforts, to three women: Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkul Karman, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
Source: IRIN
Hormonal birth-control injections may double a woman's risk of contracting HIV and passing it on to her partner, according to a new study. The research comes at a time when many governments are looking to scale up their family-planning programmes in a bid to reduce maternal mortality.
Source: New York Times
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three campaigning women from Africa and the Arab world in acknowledgment of their nonviolent role in promoting peace, democracy and gender equality. The winners were Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf — Africa’s first elected female president — her compatriot, peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen, a pro-democracy campaigner.
Source: The Simmons Voice
"Most of them are afraid to speak about what happened to them," says Caroline Tsetsana, a zone manager for the Simelela Centre for survivors of sexual violence.
Source: AWID
FRIDAY FILE: The HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, which criminalizes the transmission of HIV and AIDS in cases where a person is aware that they are HIV positive, was tabled in Uganda’s Parliament in 2010. The Bill has a number of adverse human and women’s rights implications.
A small church house shelters about a dozen Maasai girls escaping female circumcision and early marriage, age-old customs of the Kenyan tribe now frayed by health risks and new laws.
Source: Daily Monitor
If we are to reduce poverty, we have to reach out to the poor, try to understand why they are poor, and find out if as individuals, they have the resolve to get out of their situation.
Source: Heritage
A female senatorial candidate in Grand Bassa County has called for equal participation of both males and females in the decision making process of the county. According to Martha Karnga, the county is behind other counties in term of equal representation at the Legislature
Source: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage
A new global effort to end child marriage was announced today at the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, turning the international spotlight on a harmful traditional practice that affects the lives of 10 million girls in dozens of countries around the world every year.