Gender

Ángeles Mariscal, second left, in Senate public hearing. Credit: Gonzalo Ortuño/IPS

MEXICO: Women Journalists Face Double Threats

By Daniela Pastrana
The murder of journalist Yolanda Ordaz, whose body was found Tuesday in the eastern Mexican city of Veracruz, once again threw into relief the dangers that reporters face in this country, which in the case of women are compounded by discriminatory and sexist treatment.
Garo tribal women take a tea break from forest patrol. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

BANGLADESH: Tribal Women Take on Forest Ranger Roles

By Naimul Haq
Jasinta Nokrek loves nothing better than to range through the dense Modhupur forest, the way her Garo tribal ancestors have always done.

U.S.: Laws “Not Enough” to Tackle Violence Against Native Women

By Kanya D'Almeida
Juana Majel Dixon, first vice president of the National Congress of American Indians, said earlier this year that, "Young women on reservations live their lives in anticipation of being raped...They talk about 'how I will survive my rape‚' as opposed to not thinking about it at all."
Fátima Hernández at a protest in front of the Supreme Court. Credit: Oscar Sánchez/IPS

NICARAGUA: Court Downgrades Rape to “Fit of Passion”

By José Adán Silva
The rape of a young woman that has become a symbolic case in Nicaragua was ruled a "crime of passion" by the Supreme Court in a verdict that is suspected to have political overtones.
One of the many self-employed women who can access microfinance credit through the Women Enterprise Fund. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

KENYA: Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting at Work

By Miriam Gathigah
For the first time ever, the Kenyan finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars, about 3.6 percent of the primary education budget, to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls.
Bineta Diop (l.) with Asha-Rose Migiro, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Credit: Ryan Brown/UN Photo

Q&A: Challenge Men To Share Political and Economic Power

By Souleymane Faye
Bineta Diop, director of the non-governmental organisation Femmes Africa Solidarité, is at the forefront of the fight for better protection of women in conflict zones and their integration in peace processes.
Mulkharka's women cleaning up the trekking trail that is an economic lifeline for the village. Credit: Arun Shrestha/IPS

Trekking Trails Lead Nepal Women to Empowerment

By Sudeshna Sarkar
Dawa Gyalmo Sherpa’s three sons went to look for blue-collar jobs in Malaysia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, saying Mulkharka, their tiny village in Kathmandu valley, had no livelihood prospects.
Rani displays a fresh batch of the 'toy sweets' that lifted her family out of poverty. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

Bangladesh Offers Lessons in Microcredit Management

By Naimul Haq
Phulo Rani Pal checks for loose dust around her open backyard kitchen. It’s time to prepare the sweets she supplies to vendors and it will not do for her products to be contaminated.
Exterior wall of the Welikada Prison, Colombo. Credit: Ranmali Bandarage/IPS

Sri Lankan Jails “Hell” for Women

By Kanya D'Almeida
Monthly ‘visiting hours’ at the female ward of Sri Lanka’s notorious Welikada Prison are as traumatic for the inmates as they are for their family and friends. A tiny room, measuring 10 feet by seven feet, is divided in half by a mesh counter. On one side, mothers, fathers, children and relatives jostle for standing room. On the other the inmates, in white prison clothes, shout to be heard over the din.
María Chaverra, the

COLOMBIA: ‘Matriarch’ Leads Struggle to Recover Stolen Land

By Constanza Vieira
"God willing, we will make it" reads the sign on a rusty old all-terrain vehicle, ideal for the complicated drive to the remote Curbaradó river valley in the banana-producing region of Urabá in northwest Colombia.
A shoe for the mind. Credit: Step of Mind

HEALTH: Israeli Takes a Step Forward

By IPS Correspondents
"One step at a time," this fairy tale says. "Wonders and miracles, these shoes brought me back my life!" For Miriam Gilebsky, walking is no simple thing, it’s an achievement greater than life, like walking on the moon, perhaps. One small step for health is one giant leap when you suffered a stroke.
The economy of most African countries depends on women who are deprived of the right to own land says Mwanahamisi Salimu, from Oxfam, Tanzania. Credit: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

AFRICA: The Struggle for Women to Own Land

By Miriam Gathigah
Even at the best of times, obtaining a title deed from the ministry of lands is a difficult process. But as the minister of lands admitted on Jul. 13 that his office is rife with corruption, the disorganisation of this office means Kenyan women are no closer to owning land.

OP-ED: Afghan Women Fight Back Against Harassment

By Noorjahan Akbar
My mother entered the house and pushed the door closed with anger. After getting a cup of green tea, she sat in front of the television as her children watched her with concern and confusion.

Turning Education From a Privilege into a Right

By IPS Correspondents
Going to school and receiving an education are opportunities most people usually take for granted. But for 67 million children around the world, such possibilities do not exist.
Woman works in family garden next to forest in village of Pillumallai in eastern Sri Lanka. Credit: Amantha Perera/IPS

ASIA: Activists Press for Gender Equality in Forest Tenure Reforms

By Amantha Perera
A 1993 forest act gave back Nepal its green hills, many believe. Activists say the law was also a catalyst for positive change in an area not readily linked with it – women’s rights in rural Nepal.
Domestic abuse is now illegal in Angola. Credit: Louise Redvers/IPS

ANGOLA: Law on Domestic Violence a Step Forward for Women’s Rights

By Louise Redvers
Domestically abused women who are financially dependent on their abusers can now report the crime with the assurance that they will be able to get financial and medical support from the state, thanks to the country’s new law on domestic violence.

SRI LANKA: Saudi Death Sentence for Maid Shakes Govt

By Feizal Samath
The Sri Lanka government is considering a further tightening of age restrictions on women leaving the country to become domestic workers. But some analysts say this is a quick-fix solution to the problem of women running afoul of the law abroad.
Soldiers are accused of perpetrating gross human rights violations against women in South Sudan. Credit: Protus Onyango

SOUTH SUDAN: Born into Crisis – Violence Against Women Continues

By IPS Correspondents
Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women’s rights.
Two of the women involved in Radio Mulher rehearsing. Credit: Fabiana Frayssinet/IPS

BRAZIL: Women in Favelas Broadcast Peace

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Local women's voices have begun to be heard over a community radio station now broadcasting in Complexo do Alemao, a clump of favelas or shantytowns on the north side of this Brazilian city that were ruled until recently by armed drug gangs.

INDIA: Sex Selection on the Rise Despite Stricter Law

By K. S. Harikrishnan
When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he called her "ill-timed pregnancy". To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl.

JAPAN: Aftershocks Hit Single Fathers

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
In a matter of minutes on Mar. 11, 33-year-old Hiroshi Yoshida became a widower and a single father, as the massive tsunami swept over his home in Rikuzentakata in northern Japan and took away his wife and younger son.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*