Gender

A Third Term for DR Congo President Expected to Wreak Social Havoc

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman
Proposals to review the Democratic Republic of Congo’s constitution to permit President Joseph Kabila to seek a third term of office, if accepted, will only plunge the Congolese further into poverty and insecurity, experts warn.

Here Are the Real Victims of Pakistan’s War on the Taliban

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
Three days ago, Rameela Bibi was the mother of a month-old baby boy. He died in her arms on Jun. 28, of a chest infection that he contracted when the family fled their home in Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency, where a full-scale military offensive against the Taliban has forced nearly half a million people to flee.

Looking to Africa’s LDCs to Learn How to Save the Lives of Millions of Mothers and their Babies

By Nqabomzi Bikitsha
Every year, three million newborn babies and almost 6.6 million children under five die globally, but if the rest of the world looked towards the examples of two of Africa's least-developed countries (LDCs), Rwanda and Ethiopia, they would perhaps be able to save these children.

Walking Among the Victims of Pakistan’s ‘War’ on the Taliban

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
It has been just two weeks since the Pakistan army began a full-blown military offensive - codenamed ‘the sword of the Prophet Muhammad strikes’ (Zarb-e-Asb) – to eradicate the Taliban from the country’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), particularly from the sprawling North Waziristan Agency.

Women’s Political Representation Lagging in India

By Neeta Lal
National outrage over women’s security in India – or the lack of it – is nothing new. From the gang rape of a young girl on a Delhi bus two years ago, to the recent rapes and lynching of two teenage cousins in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, gender-based violence has claimed headlines.

OP-ED: Surging Violence Against Women in Iraq

By Zahra Radwan and Zoe Blumenfeld
Shortly after their conquest of Mosul, young men armed with assault rifles went door to door in Iraq’s second-largest city, taking “women who are not owned” for jihad al-nikah, or sex jihad.

Maternal Deaths Due to HIV a Grim Reality

By Miriam Gathigah
An African proverb says that every woman who gives birth has one foot on her grave. Sadly, this is still true today, especially within the context of the AIDS epidemic.

Mexico Rape Victims Face Prison Time for Self-Defence

By Daniela Pastrana
“I just want all this to be over,” Yakiri Rubí Rubio, a young Mexican woman facing trial for killing the man who raped her in December 2013, laments to IPS.

Policy and Attitudes Hampering Fight Against HIV and Aids Amongst Sex Workers in Kenya

By Mary Itumbi
New HIV infections remain high among sex workers in Kenya. In this report from Nairobi, Mary Itumbi says attitudes towards sex workers and policies that criminalize sex work are largely to blame.

From Genocide to African Catwalks – How Rwandan Women are Building their Lives and the Fashion Industry

By Amy Fallon
Before Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, Salaam Uwamariya’s husband, a professor, was the family breadwinner, providing for her and their eight children. Uwamariya sold vegetables at a nearby market to supplement their income.

India’s ‘Temple Slaves’ Struggle to Break Free

By Stella Paul
At 32, Nalluri Poshani looks like an old woman. Squatting on the floor amidst piles of tobacco and tree leaves that she expertly transforms into ‘beedis’, a local cigarette, she tells IPS, “I feel dizzy. The tobacco gives me headaches and nausea.”

Improved Access to Water May Hold the Solution to Ending FGM in Africa

By Joshua Kyalimpa
Could it be possible that if women in Africa had access to water, it could save them from undergoing the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM)? It seems that according to yet-to-be released research by Ugandan-based Gwada Ogot Tao, FGM and other forms of circumcision in Africa could be linked to water.

ARV Shortages Hit Mozambique’s HIV Treatment Programme

By Amos Zacarias
Chronic shortages of antiretrovirals across Mozambique are endangering the health and the lives of tens of thousands of HIV positive people on treatment.

Women Herders Bring Change

By Athar Parvaiz
When Sangan Bhai, a humble man in the Kutch region of India’s western state of Gujarat, was offered a position as an executive member of the local camel breeder’s association, he made a decision that surprised his community: instead of accepting the prestigious post he offered his wife’s name instead.

Op-Ed: Overcoming the Twin Hurdles of Inequality and Climate Change

By Winnie Byanyima
Two major injustices – inequality and climate change – are threatening to undermine the efforts of millions of people to escape poverty and hunger.

Obstetric Fistula Haunts Pakistani Women

By Zofeen Ebrahim
The word on the street was that if there were one place on earth that could treat Mohammad Lalu’s wife, it would be the Koohi Goth Women’s Hospital in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi.

Survivors of Sexual Violence Deserve More Than Just Talk

By Roger Hamilton-Martin
“States must make concrete commitments to enable and protect women human rights defenders, so that they can safely and securely carry out their work in support of victims of sexual and gender-based violence,” Amnesty International told the Global Summit on Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict that wound up Friday in London.

Search for Nigerian Girls May be Impeded by Government’s Longstanding Lack of Coherent Strategy

By Ini Ekott
The search for the Nigerian schoolgirls abducted by Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram, could be hampered by a series of policy and information flip-flops by the government, the latest one of them being a public disagreement on policy between the president and the military chief.

U.N. Releases Guidelines on Reparations for Victims of Sexual Violence

By Thalif Deen
When sexual violence - whether against men, women or children - takes place in United Nations peacekeeping missions worldwide, the world body has been quick to single out the perpetrators and expel them back to their home countries.

Mothers Light Up Homes in Rural Tanzania

By IPS Correspondents
“My mother used to just stay at home, now she has come back and is an engineer and a leader. She is on the Village Energy Committee,” said a 10-year-old girl from the village of Chekeleni, in Tanzania’s southeastern Mtwara district.

Op-Ed: First Decolonisation, Now ‘Depatriarchilisation’

By Lakshmi Puri
At the end of this week leaders of the Group of 77 and China will meet in Bolivia to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the group.
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