International Women's Day - March 8 / IPS Inter Press Service

Homepage

Latest News

Languages

About Us

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 08:59 GMT

- Mideast &
Mediterranean

Iraq

HIV/AIDS

- Arts &
Entertainment

800,000 Kashmiris Haunted by Horror
By Sana Altaf
SRINAGAR - Maheen was nine years old when she witnessed the death of her elder brother. At the age of 10 she saw the dead body of her neighbour, killed in the crossfire between Kashmiri rebels and Indian security forces, his guts spilled out on the road.
MORE >>

Despite Rhetoric, Women Still Sidelined in Development Funding
By Charundi Panagoda
WASHINGTON - As U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro once put it, "Women hold the keys to unlocking the barriers to sustainable development."
MORE >>

Political and Economic Turmoil Threaten Women's Progress
By Mathilde Bagneres
UNITED NATIONS - As UN Women celebrated its first birthday, its executive director Michelle Bachelet stressed that political upheveal and shrinking budgets are no excuse to push back the hard-won gains made by the women's movement globally.
MORE >>

Guatemala Heeds the Cries of Femicide Victims
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA CITY - The relentless wave of femicides in Guatemala, which has one of the highest female murder rates in the world, has prompted actions by the government, civil society groups, and two Nobel Peace laureates to try to put a stop to this brutal violence against women, which has reached horrific proportions.
MORE >>

BALKANS-SOCIETY
First Abused, Then Imprisoned
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE - The women languishing in Serbia’s Pozarevac Penal Correctional Institution are victims twice over: survivors of decades of domestic violence, they have been imprisoned for killing their partners and often spend up to 15 years in jail.
MORE >>

ZAMBIA
Chinese Underage Sex Scandal Sparks Emotive Debate
By Lewis Mwanangombe
LUSAKA - Zhang Daliu, 46, a carpenter from China never imagined himself in the dreadful confines of a stinking and overcrowded Zambian jail where conditions are so terrible that they lead to gastronomic disorders and skin diseases within days of confinement.
MORE >>

UGANDA
Rural Women’s Banks Ease Tough Times
By Wambi Michael
WAKISO, Uganda - For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds and many cannot afford the interest rates charged by commercial banks.
MORE >>

PAKISTAN-INDIA
Women Expose Secret Genital Cutting Rite
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI - "It was a dark and dingy room, where an elderly woman asked me to take off my panties, made me sit on a low wooden stool with my legs parted and then did something…I screamed out in pain," recalls Alefia Mustansir, 40, of her childhood experience.
MORE >>

U.S.
Forced Marriages Still an Ugly Secret
By Charundi Panagoda
WASHINGTON - Two years ago, 40-year-old Vidya Sri decided to leave the devastating marriage her parents had forced her into nearly two decades ago. Alone for the first time, she began an earnest quest for support groups, women's organisations or service providers who might help her in the healing process.
MORE >>

Senior Management Heads Roll at World Body
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon continues his search for a new team of senior managers for his second five-year term in office which began Jan. 1, two more heads have rolled at the world body.
MORE >>

LEBANON
Could a New Civil Law Unify a Divided Society?
By Mona Alami
BEIRUT - Odette Klysinska, a Catholic French native, sits in her living room in an affluent neighbourhood in Beirut, clutching her will in one hand, shocked to learn that it is no longer legally valid in the country she now calls home.
MORE >>

JAMAICA
"Mama P" Faces Prejudice, Economic Challenges
Analysis by Zadie Neufville
KINGSTON - Running on promises of job creation, economic growth and wider stakeholder consultations, Jamaica's most popular politician and the country's first female prime minister Portia Simpson Miller swept to power in a victory almost no one had predicted.
MORE >>

MALAWI
Street Vendors Lose Customers after Stripping Women Naked
By Claire Ngozo
LILONGWE - A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre and Mzuzu after the small-scale traders went on a rampage undressing women and girls wearing trousers, leggings, shorts and mini-skirts.
MORE >>

U.N. "Outraged" at Sexual Abuse by Peacekeepers in Haiti
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The Caribbean nation of Haiti, still struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake, is once again trying to cope with the sexual abuse of minors by U.N. peacekeepers - for the third time in five years.
MORE >>

Half of All Abortions Now Unsafe, Study Finds
By Mathilde Bagneres
UNITED NATIONS - The proportion of abortions deemed unsafe rose from 44 percent in 1995 to almost half (49 percent) in 2008, according to a new study released Thursday.
MORE >>

Next >>

	News Feeds RSS/XML
	Make IPS News your homepage!
	Free Email Newsletters
	IPS Mobile
	Text Only

In today's globalised world, women are united -- despite cultural, language, ethnic, political, economic or religious differences -- in their efforts to achieve equality, peace and development. March 8 commemorates the great strides women have made, but also reminds us that everyone must continue in their endeavours to reach those elusive goals.