Gender

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro receives death threats on a regular basis. Credit: Melanie Haider/IPS

MEXICO: Women Reject Normalisation of Gender Violence

By Melanie Haider
Ninety percent of the non-governmental organisations in Mexico are founded and run by women, says journalist and women's rights activist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, even as crimes against women remain cloaked in impunity.

TUNISIA: Women Seek to Set Their Stamp

By IPS Correspondents
Nine months after a popular election toppled the dictatorship of former Tunisian president Zine Abidine Ben Ali, voters headed to the polls Sunday to cast their ballots for fresh leaders to rewrite the laws of the country's political system.

DR CONGO: No Hope for Free and Fair Elections

By Zukiswa Zimela and - -
With six weeks to go before the presidential and parliamentary elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society organisations say the elections will not be fair, as many doubt the ability of the country’s electoral authorities to ensure transparency.
Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the UNCCD, at Changwon. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

Q&A: ‘Soil is Key to Global Warming, Food Security’

By Manipadma Jena
Luc Gnacadja, in his second three-year term as executive secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is widely seen as delivering on his commitment to manage the world's drylands.
Mercy Hlordz (l), Akos Matsiador (centre) and Mary Azametsi (r) are all victims of climate change. Credit: Jamila Akweley Okertchiri/IPS

GHANA: The Woes of Women Amid Climate Change

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
As streams dry out, groundwater levels dwindle, and forests and other vegetation yield to droughts or sever storms, women who live their lives in the rural areas of Ghana have to spend more time and energy finding water and food for their families.
Credit- Manipadma Jena:IPS

SOUTH KOREA: Drylands Meet Deserts Gender

By Manipadma Jena
Delegates to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) meeting underway in this South Korean city are convinced that women, though affected most by desertification, hold the key to addressing hunger through land regeneration.
Xana, a typist before the crisis, now works as a prostitute. Credit: Mario Queiroz/IPS

PORTUGAL: Crisis Pushes Women into Prostitution

By Mario Queiroz
The severe financial and economic problems in Portugal are driving many women to desperation and pushing them into prostitution as a last resort to support their families.

LIBERIA: Former Warlord Backs Johnson-Sirleaf for Second Term

By Robbie Corey-Boulet, Stephen Binda, and - -
Former warlord Prince Johnson, who placed third in Liberia’s election last week, has endorsed the re-election bid of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who was named a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize just days before the vote.
The Somali national women

SOMALIA: Death Threats Fail to Stop Women’s Basketball

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
When Al-Shabaab militants called the Somali national women's basketball team captain, Suweys Ali Jama, and told her she had two options: to be killed or to stop playing basketball, she decided that neither was really an option at all.
The village of rape survivor Angeline Mwarusena continues to be threatened by militia. Credit: Einberger/argum/EED/IPS

DR CONGO: No End to Mass Rapes: “It’s a Miserable Life”

By Kristin Palitza
Angeline Mwarusena, 61, sits on a small wooden bench in front of her hut, head bent, shoulders slumped. Her voice is barely audible. Four years ago, three soldiers from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) entered her home, hit her and raped her repeatedly. One after the other.
Panguna mine's copper and gold await political settlement before extraction can resume. Credit: C.E. Wilson/IPS

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Women Call the Shots on Mega Copper Mine

By IPS Correspondents
Whether the world’s largest open-cut mine on this island territory of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will resume copper and gold production, after being mothballed for 22 years, will depend on how satisfied matrilineal landowners are with the proposals.
FAO official Alipio Canahua, with campesinas from Puno, carrying part of their quinoa harvest. Credit: Courtesy of FAO Peru

PERU: Campesinas Protect Traditional Diversity of Food Crops

By Milagros Salazar
Dina Apomayta is heir to the 3,500-year legacy of the Andean cultures of Tiwanaku and Lupaca, which venerated the land. And she and many other rural women in Peru continue to nurture the agricultural biodiversity that has been handed down from generation to generation.
A provincial official (speaking) and the members of the Tribunal at the opening of the Hearing. Credit: Marcela Valente /IPS

Women in Rural Argentina Speak Out on Climate Change

By Marcela Valente
Rural and indigenous women in northern Argentina, hit hard by the expanding agricultural frontier, deforestation and the spraying of toxic pesticides, spoke out about their problems and set forth proposals for discussion at the next global summit on climate change.

CUBA: Women’s Department Draws Attention to Inequality

By Dalia Acosta
Continuing its mission to promote gender studies and use academia to demonstrate the inequalities between women and men in Cuba, the Women’s Studies Department is celebrating 20 years of work with new challenges in terms of researching and drawing attention to the disadvantages faced by the female population.
Adelaida Avelino (in the baseball cap) with customers at her market stall. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS

MEXICO: Rural Women Organise to Weather Multiple Crises

By Emilio Godoy
Adelaida Avelino, 60, is still devastated by the loss of her corn and wheat harvest, which were destroyed by the freeze that hit the Mexican state of Tlaxcala a month ago. But at least her medicinal plants survived.
Supporters from President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Liberians Turn Out in Numbers to Vote

By Robbie Corey-Boulet and Stephen Binda
Liberians cast their ballots Tuesday in an election that has so far been described as orderly and peaceful, though concerns persist that a disputed result could anger voters and fuel minor unrest.
Bleblocoula Sylvain (foreground) lost eight members of his family during a March raid in Diboke, Ivory Coast. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

LIBERIA: “Security Risk” at Ivory Coast Border Ahead of Elections

By Robbie Corey-Boulet
As Liberia gears up for Tuesday’s presidential and legislative elections, officials stationed near the border with Ivory Coast have expressed concern that insufficient border security - a problem highlighted by two recent cross-border attacks - could fuel electoral violence.
Opposition party supporters demanded that Nobel Peach Prize winner Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf be out of office. Credit: Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

LIBERIA: Mixed Reviews for Johnson-Sirleaf’s Nobel Peace Prize

By Robbie Corey-Boulet
As the Norwegian Nobel Committee named Liberian President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf a joint winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, opposition party supporters were flooding the streets of Monrovia to demand that she be voted out of office in the upcoming election.
Basket-weavers in Kerala, funded by microcredit. Credit: ESAF/IPS

INDIA: Microcredit Fights to Regain Credibility

By Manipadma Jena
As microcredit institutions - once touted as the vital ‘last mile' in extending credit to poor rural women -fight a government backlash that has encouraged honest borrowers to turn defaulters, hopes for revival hinge on a new bill awaiting passage in India's parliament.

Liberian Muslims Allege Disenfranchisement

By Robbie Corey-Boulet
It seems all of Liberia is paying close attention to the campaign for the Oct. 11 presidential and legislative elections. But Sekou Camara is one exception.

Women must be more active in African government

By Zukiswa Zimela
Women should take a more active role in ensuring peace and security on the African continent. Zukiswa Zimela reports from the fifth ordinary session of the Pan African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.
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