Women in Politics

Spring Brings Differing Fruits for Tunisian Women

By Louise Sherwood
The revolution that ousted dictator Ben Ali in January 2011 brought new, hard-won freedom to the Tunisian people. However as the country discovers whether secularism and growing political Islam can co-exist, some women are enjoying greater liberty to practise their religion while others are concerned that their rights may be eroded.

Q&A: Empower Indigenous Women to Assert Their Rights

By Silvia Romanelli
Women around the world are exposed to domestic violence, sexual and economic exploitation, gender-based violence, female genital mutilation and child marriage. For indigenous women and girls, however, the risk of being victims of such issues is especially high.

Women in Zimbabwe’s Parliament Will Change Widow’s Lives

By Michelle Chifamba
When Maude Taruvinga* votes in Zimbabwe’s elections later this year, she will be voting for her local female politician as she has placed her hopes for a better future on the presence of more women in this southern African nation’s legislature.

Scales Tip Towards Women in Jewish Religious Rights Struggle

By Pierre Klochendler
The struggle for gender equality and Jewish pluralism took a highly symbolic turn on Sunday at the Western Wall, Judaism's most revered site and emblem of unity, as a group of women known as "Women of the Wall" prayed legally and in a way they saw fit.

OP-ED: A Global Goal on Gender Equality, Women’s Rights and Women’s Empowerment

By Lakshmi Puri
Hardly a day goes by without a news story on some violation of women’s rights. In recent months, appalling incidents of violence against women and girls, from Delhi to Johannesburg to Cleveland, have sparked public outrage and demands to tackle these horrific abuses.

After Half a Century, Women Head to the Polls

By Irfan Ahmed
For 70-year-old Ghulam Fatima, the upcoming general elections on May 11 promise to be unlike any she has witnessed before in Pakistan.

What Pakistani Women Want

By Zofeen Ebrahim
As Pakistan inches closer to the May 11 elections, and the accompanying heat and dust get even thicker, it is pertinent to stop for a moment and ask: what do women voters in Pakistan want?

Kenyan Women to Break Glass Ceiling in Cabinet

By Brian Ngugi
Kenya’s nominees for cabinet secretary positions, who include an unprecedented number of women - six out of 18 - will undergo a gruelling public vetting process by the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments Thursday.

Women Taking the Lead in Northern Pakistan Province

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“Women in Pakhtun society have traditionally helped their men in hard times,” declares former Pakistani lawmaker Shagufta Malik. They are doing so again, and how, going by their hectic campaigning activity in northern Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Q&A: The Security of a Nation Is Its Women

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, a human rights lawyer and the general secretary of the global rights network World YWCA, knows what it is like to struggle against poverty and violence: she herself comes from a poor family in Magaya village in Murewa district, which lies northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare.

OP-ED: Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood and Democracy: A Sputtering Start

By Emile Nakhleh
The governing programme of Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood has been disappointing. His commitment to genuine democracy has been faltering, and his efforts at inclusion and political tolerance have been wanting.

Daring Woman Enters the Contest

By Ashfaq Yusufzai
“My sole motive is to serve my people, especially women who have had no role in politics so far. I feel we can make progress only by bringing in women into mainstream politics.”

Treason Case May Fuel Unrest in Malawi

By Mabvuto Banda
Malawi’s first-ever tripartite elections in May 2014 will be a litmus test for President Joyce Banda, who is faced with an opposition majority in parliament, soaring food prices, and a potential treason trial.

Digging Deep for New Conflict

By Pierre Klochendler
If Herod the Great was a controversial figure of his time, 2,000 years on the controversy isn’t about his legacy; it’s about who holds the rights to excavate and preserve his artefacts.

Voting Will Change the Lives of Zimbabwe’s Women

By Nyarai Mudimu
“Ten reasons why women must vote ‘Yes’ for the draft constitution…” says the Constitution Select Committee’s campaign radio jingle that plays over the airwaves in a grocer’s store at Mukumbura border post business centre on Zimbabwe’s northeastern border with Mozambique.

A Political Tug-of-War Over Militarism and Gender Violence

By Thalif Deen
When the largest single gathering of women met at the United Nations in February last year, the adoption of a future plan of action was undermined by rigidly conservative governments opposed to women's reproductive rights - largely misinterpreted as a right to abortion.

Nobel Laureates Back “Strong, Autonomous” Inter-American Rights System

By Carey L. Biron
Six women recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday lauded the work of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), offering additional high-level support for the institution just weeks ahead of a critical vote on a reforms process that many worry could irreparably weaken the Inter-American system.

Q&A: “A Pastoralist Woman Is Like a Working Machine”

By Mathieu Vaas
"In some communities, you can’t talk about violence against women," says Agnes Leina, executive director of Il'laramatak Community Concerns (ICC), a group that promotes the human rights of pastoralist communities in northern and southern Kenya, with a special emphasis on women and girls.

Millions of Kenyans Vote in Historic Election

By Miriam Gathigah
On Monday, Mar. 4, Betty Amollo was one of the millions of Kenyans who turned out in large numbers to cast her ballot in the country’s first general election since the 2007 disputed polls left almost 1,200 people dead and displaced 600,000 in the resultant inter-ethnic violence.

Q&A: Without More Women, Media Cannot Tell the Full Story

By Joan Erakit
The fact that women are underrepresented in the media industry should surprise few. The severity of this imbalance and its consequences, however, are less obvious. In a new report, the Women's Media Centre exposes these disparities and their effects on society.

Reframing Gender, from Chaos to Creativity Post-2015

By George Gao
The U.N. has opened up public platforms to engage the world on how best to replace the expiring Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and frame a new development agenda, post-2015.
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