Source: The New Arab
Source: Morocco World News
Rabat – Police have reportedly arrested 10 men involved in kidnapping, raping, torturing, tattooing, and holding captive a 17-year-old in central Morocco.The girl, named Khadija, was subjected to the worst forms of violence during the month she was held by more than 10 men in Oulad Ayad, a small town near Beni Mellal and 150 kilometers northeast of Marrakech.
Source: Voice of America
Born into slavery and kept as a servant for 30 years, Haby Mint Rabah is now running for parliament in Mauritania to fight for freedom in a nation with one of the world's worst slavery rates.Rabah's candidacy is a first for the West African country, where more than two in every 100 people — 90,000 in total — live as slaves, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index.
Source: Reuters
Burundi’s rollback on banning pregnant girls and expectant teen fathers from attending school is a victory for child rights, but steps must be taken to curb sexual exploitation and teen pregnancies, campaigners said on Tuesday. Burundi’s education ministry on Friday reversed a month-old policy under which pregnant teens and young mothers, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be part of the formal education system.
Source: AllAfrica
Authorities in Malawi have expressed optimism that a new Termination of Pregnancy law will be enacted once Cabinet ministers complete reviewing recommendations which the Law Commission submitted.Speaking during a media workshop on abortion law reform, Ministry of Health Spokesperson Joshua Malango said the sequence was that after the Cabinet scrutinises the recommendations, the bill would be tabled in Parliament.
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union News
Djibouti’s new legislature is making great efforts to become more representative of the country’s people. Elections in February changed the composition of the National Assembly with an intake of 60 per cent of new MPs. Women are better represented, making up 26 per cent of the intake, up from 11 per cent in the last legislature; the Assembly is also proactively reaching out to civil society and youth.
Source: AllAfrica
Namibia has one of the largest percentages of women in its police force in Southern Africa at 31 percent. This also means that more Namibian women are deployed as part of peacekeeping missions in the region and beyond, according to the recently launched SADC Gender Protocol 2018 barometer.
Source: AfroBarometer
Since its independence in 1968, Mauritius has taken pride in promoting its development based on democracy, good governance, human rights and freedoms, and the rule of law. Its Constitution affirms that all Mauritians should benefit from the right to equal protection and assistance of the law against any form of discrimination.
Source: UN News
Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka’s comments were made on Sunday in Baidoa, the interim capital of Somalia’s South West State (SWS), at the start of a three-day visit to the country, said UNSOM, the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia. Visiting as part of a delegation led by the Somalian Minister of Women and Human Rights Development, Deqa Yasin, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka met with the acting president of South West State, Hassan Hussein Mohamed, cabinet ministers, female members of the SWS regional assembly and civil society representatives.
Source: New Telegraph
Against all odds, politics in Nigeria is no longer a men’s affair. In this report, WALE ELEGBEDE looks at the women who are after President Muhammadu Buhari’s job ahead of the 2019 election.
Source: City Press
All over the world, women outnumber male entrepreneurs. This has led to a renewed focus on gender entrepreneurship and the development of appropriate interventions for gender-specific groups across the globe. At the forefront of this effort in South Africa is the National Empowerment Fund (NEF).
Source: Equal Times
Daring to join the male-dominated world of Nigerian politics was a tough decision for Ladi Mamman Watila, particularly in the conservative north-eastern state of Borno. But in 2003, Watila ran for a seat in the House of Representatives (the lower house of the National Assembly of Nigeria) on behalf of the All Nigeria People’s Party. Most of her opponents were men who felt she was better suited to the kitchen than the rough and tumble of national politics.
Source: International Policy Digest
There is little doubt that Africa will witness rapid yet uneven economic and demographic growth in the next 20 years. Information from multiple sources indicates that its rise can positively affect the global economy by introducing a decisive regional economic force that must be reckoned with. The very steps that will enable this progress such as the Africa Free Trade Area, widespread investments in communications, transportation, and distribution infrastructures, a greater emphasis on advancing agro-industry, and broad changes in education systems to prepare market-ready graduates to fuel the continent’s rise, are lagging.
Source: The Daily Vox
On Wednesday, thousands of women and gender-nonconforming people took to the streets around Southern Africa. They were marching against the scourge of gender-based violence which has taken the lives of many women and gender nonconforming people. The action took place under the platform of a total shutdown with women and gender nonconforming people being asked to stay away from work. The Daily Vox team were at the Pretoria march.
Source: African Independent
Civil society and health sector organizations from South Africa and India recognized the unique opportunity presented by the 10th BRICS Summit and commended South Africa for proposing the creation of a Gender and Women’s Forum.
Sources: Face2Face Africa
Mali is going to the polls on July 29, 2018, and among the list of presidential candidates is a woman: Djeneba N’diaye.
Source: WHO
“There were no signs that the morning of 31 May 2018 would be different until I started feeling the pangs, requiring medical assistance,” said Naomi Muyadeen. "Initially, I dreaded going to the government facility but stepping into the health facility, I immediately noticed the change.”
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
A promise by Liberian President George Weah to change laws that discriminate against women is spurring campaigners to push for legal reform to protect wives’ land rights.
It is crucial that we increase women's participation in political and decision-making structures, from grassroots level and up, says Blessing Vava.
A task team was established on Friday to draft a five-year strategy to empower and develop female police officers at all levels in the South African Police Service (SAPS).