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Saturday, November 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
RIGHTS-INDIA: Hi-Tech Beats Sex Selection Ban
When a magistrate in the western port city of Mumbai convicted two doctors in November for advertising sex selection services, it showed determination to enforce laws aimed at stopping gender determination tests linked to the mass abortion of female foetuses.
SOUTH AFRICA: Hard Lessons for Small Business on the West Coast
The sound of sewing machines fills the room with a low, continuous hum. A handful of women sit behind the machines, their heads bent in concentration on their work.
ZAMBIA: Let our Chiefs Govern
The Litunga of Barotseland, King of the Lozi, has no judicial or legislative authority. No supervisory control over government projects, and worst of all he cannot stand for elected office. Yet successive Zambian presidents have deferred to him.RIGHTS-EGYPT: Bloggers Name and Shame Torturers
People might expect fresh-faced Noha Atef to spend a lot of time writing blogs and perusing social networking sites, but they are often surprised by the content of her posts and tweets. The 25-year-old Egyptian journalist uses the Internet to expose police abuse and torture in her home country.INDIA: Teacher Training For Gender Sensitive Schooling
Four years ago, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a premier educational institution, laid down a new curriculum, radically changing the content of textbooks, particularly in social sciences, in Indian schools.CAMBODIA: Media Still Struggling to Break Gender Barriers
Cambodia's media organisations are a 'battleground' for old ways and new approaches when it comes to gender.
JAPAN: Careers On Hold For Most Women
Tomoko Ando and her husband divorced because she refused to quit her job as a lawyer and start a family. The shortage of daycare centres has created a dilemma for women like Ando who want to continue working, but also start a family.
SOUTH KOREA: Low Birth Rate Blamed on Women
On Dec. 9, Sungshin Women’s University in Seoul organised an event titled, 'Happy Childbirth - Rich and Strong Future', aimed at trying to raise awareness about the country's very low birth rate.UGANDA: Political Parties Fail to Declare Funding
The Electoral Commission of Uganda says if they tightened the noose around parties which fail to declare election funding, all of them would probably be deregistered.
ZAMBIA: Violence Threatens Polls
Prisca Musonda is an ardent supporter of Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata and his party. She has travelled with him to most parliamentary constituencies campaigning in elections.
SOUTH SUDAN: Women Perpetuate Culture of Submission
All day Rosalinda Duany sells vegetables from her stall at the local market, earning a living to feed her family while her husband spends his days idling with his friends. But when his days become too boring and he demands his conjugal rights, Duany wordlessly stops work just to oblige him.NEPAL: Widows Break Tradition – Wear Red
Bhagwati Adhikari was a teenager when she was married off to a village boy of the same caste. Just a few years later when she was in her early 20s, she became a widow. Her husband, who worked as a security guard in Kathmandu, was murdered. Adhikari was left alone to support her family.
SOUTH SUDAN: Making of a Nation still Holding on to the Past
The five children of Mary Muwombi have grown up in the war of south Sudan. It was a harsh existence - living on the brink of death and eating whatever they could find just to survive.
SIERRA LEONE: Woman Breaking Traditional Walls in Chieftaincy Elections
A war is raging in the eastern part of the country, once the centre stage for battles during the 10-year civil war and the place where "blood diamonds" were once mined. But this time the war is not for diamonds, but about whether a woman has the right to stand for paramount chief in the local chieftaincy election.
MALAWI: Women Fight Harmful Cultural Practices
An experience which Belita Simpokolwe went through in December last year remains deeply etched in her memory. "Sometimes I fail to concentrate in class when these things come back to my mind," laments 13-year-old Simpokolwe, a grade six pupil at Kawale Primary School, in the northern Malawi district of Chitipa.POLITICS-AFRICA: Seeking a Democratic South Sudan
The atmosphere is heavily charged with political tensions, alliances are already in the offing, expectations are high and the pressure for the country to achieve a successful transition from an interim government to a democratically elected one is immense.
Q&A: “Poverty Kills Women’s Awareness”
Five years ago, Morocco amended its family law to promote the idea of equality between men and women.RIGHTS-INDIA: Women Rally Together to Fight Injustice
Rajbala, 40, learned in the cruelest way possible that poverty exacts an exorbitant price, especially if one is pursuing justice.MIDEAST: Human Rights Deteriorated in 2009, Report Warns
Human rights abuses in Arab countries increased throughout the Middle East and North Africa during 2009, according to the annual report of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, released earlier this week.RIGHTS: U.N. Still to Accredit Its First U.S. LGBT Group
Sixty-one years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, sexual orientation and gender identity still pose a threat to the dignity and sovereignty of individuals around the world.
RIGHTS-TANZANIA: ‘I Feel Like Less of a Woman’
In the darkest corner of the room, under the clamour of twelve women’s voices, sits Ghati Chacha*, she can barely be heard. Her newborn suckles as she speaks softly about how she refused female circumcision.« 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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