After Half a Century, Women Head to the Polls

For 70-year-old Ghulam Fatima, the upcoming general elections on May 11 promise to be unlike any she has witnessed before in Pakistan.

What Pakistani Women Want

As Pakistan inches closer to the May 11 elections, and the accompanying heat and dust get even thicker, it is pertinent to stop for a moment and ask: what do women voters in Pakistan want?

Kenyan Women to Break Glass Ceiling in Cabinet

Kenya’s nominees for cabinet secretary positions, who include an unprecedented number of women - six out of 18 - will undergo a gruelling public vetting process by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments Thursday.

Women Taking the Lead in Northern Pakistan Province

“Women in Pakhtun society have traditionally helped their men in hard times,” declares former Pakistani lawmaker Shagufta Malik. They are doing so again, and how, going by their hectic campaigning activity in northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Q&A: The Security of a Nation Is Its Women

Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, a human rights lawyer and the general secretary of the global rights network World YWCA, knows what it is like to struggle against poverty and violence: she herself comes from a poor family in Magaya village in Murewa district, which lies northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.

OP-ED: Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and Democracy: A Sputtering Start

The governing programme of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood has been disappointing. His commitment to genuine democracy has been faltering, and his efforts at inclusion and political tolerance have been wanting.

Daring Woman Enters the Contest

“My sole motive is to serve my people, especially women who have had no role in politics so far. I feel we can make progress only by bringing in women into mainstream politics.”

Treason Case May Fuel Unrest in Malawi

Malawi’s first-ever tripartite elections in May 2014 will be a litmus test for President Joyce Banda, who is faced with an opposition majority in parliament, soaring food prices, and a potential treason trial.

Digging Deep for New Conflict

If Herod the Great was a controversial figure of his time, 2,000 years on the controversy isn’t about his legacy; it’s about who holds the rights to excavate and preserve his artefacts.

Voting Will Change the Lives of Zimbabwe’s Women

“Ten reasons why women must vote ‘Yes’ for the draft constitution…” says the Constitution Select Committee’s campaign radio jingle that plays over the airwaves in a grocer’s store at Mukumbura border post business centre on Zimbabwe’s northeastern border with Mozambique.

A Political Tug-of-War Over Militarism and Gender Violence

When the largest single gathering of women met at the United Nations in February last year, the adoption of a future plan of action was undermined by rigidly conservative governments opposed to women's reproductive rights - largely misinterpreted as a right to abortion.

Nobel Laureates Back “Strong, Autonomous” Inter-American Rights System

Six women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday lauded the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), offering additional high-level support for the institution just weeks ahead of a critical vote on a reforms process that many worry could irreparably weaken the Inter-American system.

Q&A: “A Pastoralist Woman Is Like a Working Machine”

"In some communities, you can’t talk about violence against women," says Agnes Leina, executive director of Il'laramatak Community Concerns (ICC), a group that promotes the human rights of pastoralist communities in northern and southern Kenya, with a special emphasis on women and girls.

Millions of Kenyans Vote in Historic Election

On Monday, Mar. 4, Betty Amollo was one of the millions of Kenyans who turned out in large numbers to cast her ballot in the country’s first general election since the 2007 disputed polls left almost 1,200 people dead and displaced 600,000 in the resultant inter-ethnic violence.