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Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
MAURITANIA: First Steps for Women's Cooperatives
In December 2008, a group of young women staged a protest against the common practice of fattening women before marriage, intended to make them more attractive in the eyes of men. The protest did not immediately result in the end of the practice, but it was a landmark event showing a new assertiveness among Mauritanian women in a society where men use tradition and sharia law to maintain their dominance.SOUTH AFRICA: Fight Sexism to Help Young Mothers
"My mother was surprised that my breasts were getting bigger, and told me to go to the clinic to take a pregnancy test. The nurses told me I was pregnant and so I cried. I cried because I thought I was too young to have a baby and I thought I wouldn't manage."
HEALTH-MADAGASCAR: Eight Women Die During Delivery Each Day
Eight Malagasy women die per day while giving birth, either due to complications during the pregancny or during delivery, according to a recently-published national Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).
PUERTO RICO: Pride in Sotomayor Rekindles Debate Over Status
Sonia Sotomayor's nomination by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court has turned her into a reason for national pride in Puerto Rico. But it has also added fresh fuel to the perpetual debate for self-determination of the people in the Caribbean island, which has been a commonwealth of the U.S. for over a hundred years.
Q&A: Teens Wrongly Excluded From Family Planning
Nafissatou Diop has worked for decades on issues of reproductive health, HIV/AIDS and development in West Africa, including designing and implementing many studies and programmes.DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Losing Freedom, But Not Dignity
If you are a woman in prison anywhere in the world, you would be fortunate to be in one of the new model prisons in the Dominican Republic.
LAOS: The New Silk Road
At the age of 13, Kommaly Chantavong, now 64, walked over 600 kms to Vientiane from her home in Lao’s northern province of Huaphan. She walked through the buzzing war with the French in bare feet. All she took were heirloom pieces of woven silk, legacies from her grandmothers.
POPULATION: Poorest Countries to Bear Brunt of Growth
The world's population - already at least 6.7 billion people - will double in the next 40 years if current growth rates are left unchecked, warns the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
G8: ‘Just Invest in Women’
Investment in the health and the rights of girls and women can help economic recovery, civil society groups are telling G8 leaders.
EAST TIMOR: Politics – Women Take the Plunge
Women in East Timor are being wooed to participate in the local council elections, likely to be held in September.HEALTH: Gender Finally Moving to Forefront of AIDS Fight
With women now comprising 61 percent of all people infected with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, international donors, governments and advocacy organisations are looking more closely at the connections between HIV/AIDS and gender inequality.
BRAZIL: Seasonal Widows
Maria Vieira dos Santos has raised her six children practically on her own. For more than a decade, her husband would be away from home nearly eight months out of the year, travelling 1,500 kilometres down south to cut sugarcane in the state of São Paulo.
RIGHTS-GAMBIA: What Has Govt Got To Hide?
Following a court appearance on Jul. 3, six of the seven Gambian journalists who were arrested and charged with sedition last month were again sent to Mile 2 Prison.ECONOMY: Zimbabwe Can’t Repay Loans; Insisting on "Debt Strategy"
The Zimbabwean coalition government cannot afford to repay debts incurred when President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF was ruling on its own and will not repay those debts.
FRANCE: ‘Where Is the Burqa They Want to Ban?’
There was not a burqa in sight. On the bustling streets around Boulevard de Belleville, in one of the most diverse neighbourhoods here, women wore a variety of clothing, including summer dresses, jeans, chadors, headscarves and traditional African dress, but no burqas.LABOUR-URUGUAY: Stitching a Future Together
The group of women cross this Uruguayan town every morning, some on bike and some on foot, on their way to CODEMUR, a women’s cooperative that resurrected a garment factory abandoned by its owners.DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Song and Dance to Empower Women Farmers
Community theatre will be the main thrust of an innovative pilot project that aims to give women farmers stronger influence in agricultural policy-making in Southern Africa.
BRAZIL: Women ‘Peace Workers’ in the Favelas
It’s another day marked by gunfire in the Morro da Providencia "favela", one of the most dangerous slums in this Brazilian city, and the only area where people can move around in relative safety is in the lower part of the neighbourhood, towards the foot of the hill.POLITICS-BOTSWANA: Parties Block Women Candidates for Upcoming Elections
As Botswana prepares for general elections in October, gender activists are protesting against the lack of female parliamentary candidates.RIGHTS-INDIA: India's Historic Gay Ruling
A day after the Delhi High Court's landmark judgment to overturn a colonial law that criminalised homosexuality, Indians expressed mixed reactions to the verdict.KENYA: A Role For Men in Gender Equality
The recent Gender Festival in Kenya has underlined the important role that male activism can play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.« 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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