Women in Politics

‘Marks of Manhood’ Fuel Gender-Based Violence

By George Gao
Some of the most harrowing cases of gender-based violence Kathryn Bolkovac came across while working as a U.N. human rights investigator in Bosnia involved a perpetrator dubbed “the Doctor” by the women and girls he abused.
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OP-ED: Making Cities Safe for Women and Girls

By Michelle Bachelet
There is no city or country in the world where women and girls live free of the fear of violence. No leader can claim: This is not happening in my backyard.

The Open and Rocky Road Post-2015

By George Gao
What values does a Yemeni journalist who fuelled the Arab Spring hold in common with a former principal of the U.S. National Security Council? And how in turn will they see eye to eye with a Jordanian queen, or the president of Indonesia?

Women Navigate Political Minefield in Kenya

By Miriam Gathigah
Few women in Kenya harbour illusions of entering politics. Blatant discrimination, threats and intimidations, an uneven playing field and a largely unsympathetic public have turned electoral politics into a veritable minefield for women hoping to secure top government posts.
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Ending Ban, U.S. Hopes to Reduce Sexual Assaults in Military

By Carey L. Biron
Following on a surprise announcement, U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta on Thursday confirmed that the U.S. military will be rolling back a nearly two-decade-old ban on women in the U.S. military serving in frontline combat positions.

Never-Ending Case Arises Again

By Katie Lin and Çağrı Çobanoğlu
Pınar Selek, a Turkish sociologist who has on three occasions been tried and acquitted over a fatal explosion in Istanbul more than 14 years ago, is being taken to court again Jan. 24.

Iraqi Women Seek a New Liberation

By Karlos Zurutuza
From full literacy declared in the seventies, Iraq is down to 40 percent literacy for women. From the first woman prime minister and the first woman judge in the Middle East in 1959, Iraq has slipped to a place where an abnormal number of widows struggle, and where child marriages are on the rise. Hanaa Edwar is putting up a fight to win Iraqi women their freedoms again.

New Push for U.S. to Ratify Major Women’s Treaty

By Thalif Deen
The United States continues to be in the dubious company of six countries that have either refused or are reluctant to ratify the landmark U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Women Demand Equality in Papua New Guinea

By Catherine Wilson
Papua New Guinea, the most populous nation in the Pacific Islands, is ranked 153 out of 187 countries worldwide for gender equality, which is evident in education, employment, health and political representation.

Fear of Rape Stalks Indian Women

By Sujoy Dhar
While a 23-year-old woman battles for life in a New Delhi hospital after she was gang raped and brutalised on a moving bus in India's prosperous national capital earlier this month, women across the nation say they live in constant fear of sexual assault.

South Korea’s Park Wins Presidential Election

By AJ Correspondents
The daughter of South Korea's former military ruler has won the country's presidential election, promising in a speech to her supporters to heal a "divided society".

Women and Activists Lament Japan’s Election Outcome

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
The return to power of Japan’s conservative and hard-line Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Sunday indicates that voters traded urgently needed social and environmental reforms for traditional male-led leadership, according to analysts here.

Q&A: “Syria Needs a Political Solution with Peace, Justice and an End to Impunity”

By Gustavo Capdevila
The first woman to preside over the United Nations Human Rights Council, Uruguayan diplomat Laura Dupuy, has made it with flying colours through one of the periods of greatest tension and conflict since the council replaced the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 2006.

No Women, No Elections

By Brian Ngugi
Kenya’s rights activists are furious that the country’s highest court “violated” women’s constitutional rights by ruling against the implementation of a gender quota in parliament ahead of the 2013 general elections.

War Widows Struggle in a ‘Man’s World’

By Amantha Perera
Sita Tamang’s husband went missing sometime in 2004, two years before Nepal’s civil war came to an end. A native of Dharan, a town about 600 kilometres southeast of Kathmandu, Tamang waited seven years after his disappearance before she tried to claim compensation offered by the government after a 2006 peace deal ended this country’s bloodshed.
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Q&A: The Challenges of Women’s Empowerment and Equality

By Julia Kallas
Today, approximately 125 countries have laws that penalise domestic violence - a great advance from a decade ago. Yet 603 million women around the world still live in countries where domestic violence is not a crime, and up to seven in ten women are targeted for physical or sexual violence, or both.
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Q&A: Education Is Where HIV Care Begins

By Julia Kallas
When Shorai Chitongo founded Ray of Hope, a support group for female survivors of domestic violence in 2005, she discovered that three-quarters of the survivors in the group were HIV-positive. [caption id="attachment_114724" align="alignright" width="250"]

Why Are Women Shut Out of Peace Talks?

By Thalif Deen
Against the backdrop of an upcoming U.N. Security Council (UNSC) meeting on women, peace and security, a coalition of some 63 international women's groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has decried the absence of women during peace negotiations in post-conflict situations.

Using the Airwaves to Empower Quechua Women in Bolivia

By Jenny Cartagena Torrico
"Atispa mana atispa ñawpajman rinanchis tiyan" ("Power without power, we have to keep moving forward”) in the Quechua language, Ruth Rojas told her listeners at the end of a series of radio programmes on political culture, broadcast to indigenous women in Bolivia.

Young Women Face Double Whammy in Pacific Islands

By Catherine Wilson
With youth populations growing faster than jobs in the Pacific Islands, young women, who are also confronting social pressures to conform to traditional gender roles, account for the highest rates of unemployment in most countries.

Q&A: Honouring the Silent Courage of Afghan Women

By Julia Kallas
Violence against women is internationally recognised as a threat to democracy, a burden on national economies, and a serious human rights violation.
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