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Wednesday, November 11, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
PERU: Humala Pledges Justice for Sterilisation Victims
Peruvian President-elect Ollanta Humala will push the legal system to investigate and prosecute those responsible for a massive forced sterilisation campaign targeting poor indigenous women carried out by the government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), said the spokeswoman for Humala's party, Aída García Naranjo.
Thirty Years On, AIDS Epidemic a Women’s Battle
As world leaders gather in New York for a high-level conference on HIV/AIDS, United Nations agency heads, goodwill ambassadors and activists alike hope they will remember the virus's most vulnerable victims: women and girls.COTE D’IVOIRE: Challenge of Restoring Security
In a shelter covered by a tattered blue tarpaulin, Ibrahim Traoré sits beside his militia commander to hear complaints from residents of the Abidjan neighbourhood of Abobo-Avocatier.ZIMBABWE: Beating the Housing Blues
Every month Cynthia Dube and the nine other women from her co-operative make sure they sell enough clothes and appliances to put 100 dollars each in a joint savings. When they have enough money, they will buy each member a plot of land. And eventually they will help each other build their own homes.
Street Harassment, Not ‘Compliments’
Men say they are giving compliments, or even claim they are being poetic. But to many women, cheeky or lewd remarks from men on the street are a form of harassment which is offensive, insulting and even denigrating.OP-ED: Community Defenders in Peru: Planting Hope to Root Out Violence
Where is the justice? In Peru, a nation still struggling to recover from a sordid 20-year cycle of terror and political uncertainty, this simple yet poignant question has become an almost daily litany.Female Journalists Break Silence on Sexual Violence
On Feb. 11, while the world was celebrating former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's fall from power, CBS television correspondent Lara Logan was being "mercilessly assaulted" by a group of well over 200 men in a dark corner of Tahrir Square.
ARGENTINA: Avoidable Maternal Deaths on the Rise
Argentina is moving backwards in terms of maternal mortality, with a rate three times higher than those of its neighbours Chile and Uruguay. Maternal deaths, which are actually increasing, are often the result of unsafe abortions, in a country where the practice is illegal.
PAKISTAN: Lonely for Women Who Succeed
As you climb the ladder at the workplace, from the mid-management level to the senior leadership positions, you find fewer and fewer women. Little wonder then that Naz Khan - chief finance officer at Engro Fertilizers, a subsidiary of one of Pakistan’s largest conglomerates, Engro Corporation - says it gets lonely at the top.DEVELOPMENT: Microfinance Craze Conceals Multiple Problems
The microfinance industry is expanding at breakneck pace, with more banks and private equity firms now entering the fray. Yet there is growing unease about the naive assumptions, and evangelical predictions, of its advocates.Paradoxes of Iranian Society Spur on Heroic Women
Haleh Sahabi is the latest Iranian woman to die in political violence.U.S. Takes Action Against ‘Gendercide’
Every year on Jun. 1, the People's Republic of China pulls out all the stops – hosting festivals, printing greeting cards and sponsoring public games and parades – in celebration of International Children's Day, a holiday widely acknowledged to have originated with the rise of communism and now observed primarily in communist or former communist countries.
INDIA: Unwed Tribal Mothers Seek Aid
For Janu, walking the streets to beg for alms is the only option for survival. After all, she has a two-year-old daughter to feed, and she herself, at 14 years old, is little more than a child.ARGENTINA: Power Still Overwhelmingly in Men’s Hands
In Argentina the overwhelming majority of decision-making posts in the most diverse areas are occupied by men, with the exception of the presidency, held by Cristina Fernández.INDIA: Violations May Hit Vaccination Plans
After a government report confirmed major ethical violations in trials of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines on Indian schoolgirls, senior doctors are calling for transparency in clinical trials conducted under private-public partnerships.G8: ‘Arab Spring Could Lead to African Drought’
Stressing that there is only so much money to go around, development experts worry that the aid package the Group of Eight (G8) has announced for North Africa may mean fewer funds for the rest of the continent.
PAKISTAN: Women Lose Livelihood Centres to Militants
Housewife Shahida Jabeen was devastated when she heard the news that she could no longer take sewing and embroidery classes at the local training centre in her hometown in South Waziristan in north-west Pakistan.
ZAMBIA: Hope for Women Politicians
Mirriam Kauseni is on a quest to become her town’s first ever female parliamentarian. She has yet to be elected to run for the post by her party, the Patriotic Front (PF), but Kauseni has already been conducting door-to-door campaigns, telling people to vote for her in the country’s national elections.
Queer Film Fest Breaks India’s Social Glass Ceiling
More than a decade ago, when India’s first lesbian-themed film - ‘Fire’ by Deepa Mehta - was released, it was booed and met with protest and vandalism, forcing many fear-stricken theatre owners to take the film off their screens.ZIMBABWE: Rural Women Voting With Their Feet
At independence in 1980, Loyce Tshuma (55), a villager in rural Tsholotsho in Matebeleland North, was a loyal believer in politics as a powerful vehicle to change and better lives. Since then she never missed an opportunity to cast her vote.
NEPAL: Women Battle for New Constitution
With the May 28 target for a new constitution approaching and Nepal’s coalition government admitting it would not make the deadline, women are pushing for rights they want enshrined in the document.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Women make up half the world's population, but don't nearly share half of the world's wealth, well-being and opportunity. Two-thirds of the world poor are women, disproportionally exposing women to precarious living conditions, disease and unmitigated natural disasters. The media, meanwhile, remains a male-dominated sector in much of the world, contributing to women's voices lacking a crucial amplifier to put their concerns on political agendas and unleash the development potential of their ingenuity. Rather than then stereotypical victims of local and global forces, women are also organizer, innovators, conservators and community builders. These are some of their stories.
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