Three publications from AWID’s Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms

17 July 2009 in Equality, Faith, Publication, Women's Group

The three recent publications (links below) are also available in Spanish and French translations are just being produced. A further two publications are slated for release later this year.
1. Shared Insights: Women’s Rights Activists Define Religious Fundamentalisms
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Shared-Insights-Women-s-rights-activists-define-religious-fundamentalisms
2. Religious Fundamentalisms on the Rise: A Case for Action
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Religious-Fundamentalisms-on-the-Rise-A-case-for-action
3. Exposed: Ten Myths about Religious Fundamentalisms
http://www.awid.org/eng/About-AWID/AWID-News/Ten-myths-about-religious-fundamentalisms
i. Miradas Compartidas: Las [...]

Rabbanit? Rabbah? Maybe just plain Rabbi? What should be the title of an Orthodox woman who happens to also be a rabbi?

17 July 2009 in Equality, Faith, Middle East

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who took part in a conference Monday organized by Kolech, an Orthodox feminist movement, were asked precisely that question.
The vote is a milestone. The very fact that women self-defined as committed to Orthodox Jewish law are deliberating the proper title for a female rabbi – the most powerful figure [...]

Accountability To Women Could Upset Business As Usual

17 July 2009 in Africa, Employment Work, Equality, Financial, Global, Government

Many more women than men are in vulnerable employment, working without pay for a member of their household or self-employed.
A public presentation of the “Progress of the World’s Women” report by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Pretoria, South Africa this week suggests that one of the most powerful constraints on realising [...]

Call For Women Worldwide to Support Women’s Rights in Iran

6 July 2009 in Campaign, Equality, Global, Government, Human Rights, Middle East, North America, Women's Group

Inspired by Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi’s brave promise last week to represent in court the family of Neda Agha-Soltan, murdered by Iranian militia during last weekend’s demonstrations in a rally in Tehran, the peace group CODEPINK has created a letter addressed to Ebadi for women worldwide to sign, a pledge of solidarity to [...]

Third Gender Assert Rights in Nepal

6 July 2009 in Asia, Equality, Government, Legal Police, Lesbian Gay

Bhakti Shah is challenging her dismissal from the Nepal Army for “immoral activities”
Two years ago, 23-year-old Bhakti Shah, a cadet in the Nepal Army, was dismissed because she was seen to spend most of her free time with a fellow female cadet.
“They sacked me and my friend just because they thought we were having an [...]

Viet Nam sets the pace for Asia with new law to prevent statelessness of women who married abroad

6 July 2009 in Asia, Equality, Family Marriage Partnership, Government, Legal Police

Growing up in her native Viet Nam, Phan Thi Phuong Loan never gave a second’s thought to the rights her citizenship conferred. Not, that is, until she married abroad, lost her citizenship, came back home and entered the twilight world of the stateless.
Loan, 40, is one of thousands of Vietnamese women who became stateless in [...]

To Help Women, Leaders Should Dig Deeper than Religious Clothing

3 July 2009 in Equality, Faith, Government, North America, Opinion Comment

President Sarkozy of France has reignited the debate about how Muslim women in Europe should dress by calling for a ban on clothing that, as he puts it, imprisons women and undermines their dignity. But in this burqa debate the voices of Muslim women are strangely absent.
For many men and women, the burqa, the niqab, [...]

A Role For Men in Gender Equality in Kenya

3 July 2009 in Africa, Equality, Men Against VAW

The recent Gender Festival in Kenya has underlined the important role that male activism can play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
“Men have a role to play when it comes to ensuring gender equity. It is not just a women’s affair. Gender equality does not mean women are ruling over men. It only ensures [...]

Saudi Arabia Pledges End of Men’s Control Over Women (UN)

22 June 2009 in Equality, Gender Mainstreaming, Government, Middle East

Saudi Arabia made important commitments on women’s rights, on ending the juvenile death penalty and on other human rights issues during its review by the UN Human Rights Council on June 10, 2009 and should now work to carry out these reforms rapidly, Human Rights Watch said.
Saudi Arabia accepted a recommendation put forward by UN [...]

Obama Addresses Global Women’s Rights in Cairo Speech

8 June 2009 in Equality, Government, North America

President Barack Obama addressed global women’s rights in a speech he gave in Cairo last week. The speech (see PDF), entitled A New Beginning, focused on the tensions between the United States and Muslims in relation to a number of areas including violent extremism, the Israeli-Palistinian conflict, nuclear weapons, democracy, religious freedom, and economic development.
The [...]

Women Breaking Out of Political Corset in Uruguay

7 June 2009 in Equality, Gender Mainstreaming, Government, South America

When Uruguay returned to democracy in 1985, “a political corset was put on women,” said a member of the opposition Colorado Party.
In the first parliament to emerge from the 1984 elections that put an end to the 1973-1985 dictatorship, “there was not a single woman lawmaker,” said Glenda Rondán, a city councilor for Montevideo and [...]

The United States led War in Afghanistan and the Implications of the Polarization of the Burqa as a Symbol of the Oppression of Afghani Women

7 June 2009 in Asia, Equality, North America, Opinion Comment, Violence Against Women, War Conflict

The United States (US) led war in Afghanistan is one of the most controversial current events in today’s world. After the September 11th attacks on US soil, the government of George W. Bush declared war against the Taliban, the acting government of Afghanistan. It was their belief that the al-Qa’eda terrorist network and its leader [...]

Thanks to Facebook Young Women Take to Political Activism in Egypt

7 June 2009 in Demonstration March, Equality, Media, Middle East, Women's Group

In recent years, Egypt has witnessed increasing participation by women in grassroots political activism. Local civil rights advocates attribute the phenomenon to novel means of communication and organisation, especially the social networking website Facebook.
“Technological advances have provided a greater scope for political participation by a new generation of young women, traditionally inclined to staying in [...]

Women Sidelined By Military Regime in Fiji

27 May 2009 in Australasia, Equality, Government, War Conflict

Fiji, a multi-racial, multi-cultural country of 300 islands in the South Pacific, has undergone another coup – the fourth in 22 years. The women of Fiji want their voices to be heard as they work on ways to bring peace back to their country, and they are asking for the United Nations to support their [...]

No Modern European Democracy Without Gender Equality

26 May 2009 in Campaign, Equality, Europe, Government, Women's Group

Do you think that women and men should be equally represented in all European Union institutions?
Join the 50/50 Campaign!
SIGN THE PETITION http://www.womenlobby.org/site/form_3.asp
and
TAKE ACTION! http://www.5050democracy.eu/
In 2009, Europeans will elect a new European Parliament. We will see a new European Commission led by its President, and a new president for the European Parliament. [...]

Lithuania Elects First Woman President

26 May 2009 in Equality, Europe, Gender Mainstreaming, Government

Dalia Grybauskaite was elected to be Lithuania’s first woman president yesterday in an overwhelming victory. According to Agence France Presse, with 99.46 percent of votes counted, Grybauskaite held an overwhelming 69.05 percent of the vote.
Grybauskaite ran as an independent and is a former finance minister in Lithuania who currently serves as European Union budget commissioner.
Public [...]

ANC has a gender issue

26 May 2009 in Africa, Equality, Gender Mainstreaming, Government

… but to talk about it might upset our new president warns Lindiwe Mazibuko*
The article by Jackie May (The Times, May 18 2009) shows why women remain so oppressed in our society. May implies that we should respect the taboos that prevent women from criticising the sexual examples set by male leaders — despite the [...]

Fraud fears as Afghan men get women’s vote cards

26 May 2009 in Asia, Equality, Government, Violence Against Women

Afghan men are illegally collecting voter cards in the names of women, raising worries about fraud in the upcoming presidential election, the head of Afghanistan’s human rights commission said on Sunday.
In Logar province which borders Kabul, nearly three-quarters of those who registered as voters were women, a suspiciously high ratio, said Sima Samar, chairwoman of [...]

Kuwaiti women politicians ignore headscarf debate

26 May 2009 in Equality, Faith, Government, Middle East

“To cover or not to cover?” – that is the question now gripping Islamist politicians in Kuwait.
It is a debate that has become increasingly heated in this Arab Gulf state since the parliamentary elections on May 16, which saw the country’s first ever female deputies elected. However, it is not a question that the women [...]

Women’s groups to submit memos for law reform in Malaysia

26 May 2009 in Asia, Equality, Government, Legal Police

The National Council of Women’s Organisations (NCWO) and the Joint Action Group (JAG) for Gender Equality will submit seven memoranda for law reform to the Women, Family and Community Development Minister.
“We are also sending a letter to Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil asking her to accelerate reform,” said Ivy Josiah, executive director of the [...]