Gender

BALKANS: Rape Victims Fight a Mostly Losing Battle

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
It takes little to bring out the scars that many women who were raped in Bosnia still carry. Rumours, later shown to be unfounded, that Angelina Jolie would star in a film to be shot in Sarajevo on the war-time love between a Serb man and a Bosniak Muslim girl he raped, had women's groups lodging strong protests.
The growth of evangelical religion is reflected in ubiquitious religious imagery and texts. Credit: Christi van der Westhuizen/IPS

AFRICA: Church Leaders An Obstacle To Preventing Maternal Deaths

By IPS Correspondents
The resurgence in religious fundamentalism and the inordinate influence of certain church leaders over public health policy present major obstacles to the prevention of needless deaths and injuries of women from unsafe abortion on the African continent.

Community Radio Stations – Lifeline in Disasters

By Marcela Valente
"Community radio stations in Haiti play an indispensable role during catastrophes, and so do women, who can identify the most urgent needs of families during the reconstruction of the country," said a representative of one of these stations in the Caribbean island nation.

BURKINA FASO: Cost Major Obstacle to Reducing Maternal Mortality

By IPS Correspondents
Elizabeth Kaboré says she has paid for each of her visits to the clinic, despite a government promise that prenatal check-ups in health centres would be free.
Growing up is hard for Iraqi children in Syria. Credit: Rebecca Murray

SYRIA: Iraqi Kids Struggle on Dangerous Edges

By IPS Correspondents
Leila, 17, presses her hijab-clad head against the front door and strains to hear outside. "There's nothing," she says cautiously, turning towards her mother Rawda, the head of the household, in their quiet basement apartment. Along the brocade couch sit her two sisters, Mona, 19, Nadja, 15, and 10-year-old brother Khaled.*

No Rest for the Weary – Women Declare War on Gender Violence

By Kanya D'Almeida
Women from a dozen countries convened in New York this week to share their struggles to implement state legislation and empower women at the grassroots level to put an end to gender- based violence (GBV) worldwide.

Nicaragua on Obstacle Course to Women’s Equality

By José Adán Silva
Nicaragua has made some progress promoting gender equity and the empowerment of women, but it will have to step up efforts and overcome a number of hurdles if it is to eliminate inequalities between the sexes at all levels by 2015.
Cervical cancer screening in Soroti, Uganda. Credit: Rosebell Kagumire/IPS

Cancer Treatment Out of Reach for Ugandan Women

By Rosebell Kagumire
Josephine Adongo's heart leapt when she heard that two doctors from Kampala were offering free medical exams in Soroti. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer at a regional hospital more than a year previously, but unable to afford to travel to the capital for treatment.

Sexual Violence Is Not “Collateral Damage”

By IPS Correspondents
On the tenth anniversary of a groundbreaking U.N. resolution, a conference on "Women and War" opened here Wednesday to discuss the disproportionate impact violent conflict has on women and possible ways to prevent these atrocities.

BAHRAIN: Poll Win Gives Women Candidates A Push

By Suad Hamada
The recent election of Bahrain’s first female municipal councilor is boosting hopes among women here that they are seeing the beginning of the end to gender-based voting in this country.

CARIBBEAN: Progress Stalls on HIV/AIDS

By IPS Correspondents
Despite the gains associated with antiretroviral treatments (ART) over the last decade, HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death among young and middle-aged adults in the Caribbean, warns a new U.N. report.

CHINA: And Why Not A Baby Girl

By Mitch Moxley
Although Li Xiaoxue and her husband, Dai Chunlin, are already happy parents to a young boy, they plan to skirt China’s one-child policy by having another baby. And like a growing number of affluent, urban Chinese, their fingers are crossed for a baby girl.

Zimbabwe Women Make Themselves Heard on Draft Constitution

By IPS Correspondents
A parliamentary select committee has begun compiling comments on a new constitution, gathered at 4,000 meetings held across Zimbabwe over the past three months. Gender activists are confident that women's views have been expressed; it will be up to the eventual drafters of the new constitution to ensure they are reflected.

BRAZIL: The Ironies of Politics

By Mario Osava
The irony of politics is that the principles upheld by a party are often contradicted in practice, in the struggle for office or the exercise of power. Brazil's elections, in which Dilma Rousseff was chosen as the country's first woman president, offer some apt illustrations.
Jahanara combs the tangles in the jute fibre, preparing to twist it into rope. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

INDIA: Developing Self-sufficiency For Poorest Women

By Manipadma Jena
When Anarahim Laskar, a worker at Sealdah rail station, tripped and fell with while carrying a heavy head load in 2007, he could have easily shattered more than his hipbone.
Credit: Dilma Rousseff's official web site

BRAZIL: Women Still a Small Minority in Congress, But Top Job Is Now Theirs

By Mario Osava
Although women are a majority of the population, the electorate, and doctoral students in Brazil, have more years of schooling on average than men, and hold almost half of all formal sector jobs, they remain a tiny minority in positions of political power. But South America's giant will now have its first woman president, Dilma Rousseff.
Haitian mothers in the waiting area of the Nuestra Senora de Altagracia hospital. Credit: Elizabeth Eames Roebling/IPS

Haitian Mothers Find Care in Dominican Republic, but Future Is Bleak

By Elizabeth Eames Roebling
In the spacious lobby of the Nuestra Señora de Altagracia maternity hospital, more than a hundred people wait quietly in chairs, overlooked by a 20-foot-high coloured mosaic inset portraying the patron saint of the Dominican Republic.

ZIMBABWE: Uncertainty Over Women’s Place in Police Force

By Chris Anold Msipa
Women continue to join the Zimbabwe Republic Police, despite mixed reactions to their presence in law enforcement and allegations of abuse by fellow officers.

Afghan Women Demand Liberation, Not Lip Service

By Kanya D'Almeida
Afghanistan will not know peace until women are equal participants in negotiations, stresses a report released Thursday by the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Motherhood Is A Choice, Say Activists

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
For years, Kanako Nashimura longed to have a child, but was diagnosed as having a blocked fallopian tube. Encouraged by her husband and in-laws, she tried various fertility treatments, but not one of them worked.
Private Linda Mensah patrols the city of Buchanan with the Ghanaian Battalion of the United Nations Mission in Liberia. Credit:

Female Factor Key to Human Rights

By Fatima Asmal
Gender training for peacekeeping operations "is not something you do for two weeks before you go for deployment," says Florence Butegwa, UNIFEM representative to the African Union (AU) and U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
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