Source: IPS
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 19, 2012 (IPS) - The proportion of abortions deemed unsafe rose from 44 percent in 1995 to almost half (49 percent) in 2008, according to a new study released Thursday.
Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday told women to be free to wear "what you want", saying the country had no dress code barring women from wearing trousers.
A new study by the New York Guttmacher Institute states that the number of women having induced abortions has stayed stubbornly high since the last such report in 2003, and that the marked reduction in the eight years before that has not been maintained.
Source: Human Rights Watch
The Ethiopian government under its “villagization” program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.
Women are at a crossroads in the Middle East and North Africa. This is widely reflected in the current battles over the adoption of quotas aimed at improving women's chances of being elected into parliaments. Although women's quotas were introduced as early as 1979 in Egypt, there are new efforts underway in the Middle East to implement them.
Source: Zimdiaspora
A 15-YEAR-OLD girl from Marange who was married off to a geriatric member of the largest polygamist Johanne Marange Apostolic Sect — but was lucky to escape, this week bared her soul and exposed the torturous abuse she encountered at the hands of the churchman and her own father.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
There is a story told in my family about a feisty great-aunt who changed the course of history by the simple act of speaking. This great-aunt was the host of a radio show when Zimbabwe was still Rhodesia and my generation, the "born free" generation, didn't exist.
Source: Sudan Tribune
Sudan has demanded the United Nations Security Council to reduce the number of the Joint African Union United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) saying the positive developments in the region since July 2011 justify such demarche.
Source: Zambia Daily Mail
WOMEN in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) has said alcohol abuse and failure to stiffen laws regarding gender-based violence (GBV) have contributed to the increase in the cases, adding that there is need to quickly implement the anti-GBV Act.
Source: International Business Times
Betty Makoni is an activist who set up Girl Child Network Worldwide to help girls who have been abused in Zimbabwe and other African countries. She experienced hardship and abuse in her own life, but rather than give up she fought even harder for her rights and those of others.
Source: Southern Times
Although many societies are becoming more tolerant to prostitution as the years roll by, women remain the primary victims of the violence and degradation that comes with the "world's oldest profession".
Source: Angola Press
The minister of Family and Women Promotion, Genoveva Lino has appointed a technical group from the sector to monitor, support and capacity building of family counselling centre.
Source: RNW
Malawi's police have arrested a gang that had been terrorising trouser-wearing women in the capital Lilongwe by stripping off their clothes, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Source: Truthout
Why do some men assume they are entitled to sex in any way they can get it - incest, date rape, marriage trafficking, buying it in prostitution, extorting it in exchange for food in refugee camps or sexually assaulting their fellow soldiers? For more than 100 years, activists worldwide have fought against the victimization of women through sexual violence.
A group of men gathered around Amira El Bakry in Tahrir Square as she brandished a newspaper photo that shocked many Egyptians. It showed troops dragging a female protester along the street, her robe ripped open to reveal a blue bra and bare midriff.
A coalition of Sierra Leone women groups plan to stage a march to push for better security in the country.
Source: Shabait
Women who engage in weaving activities after receiving training by the Ministry of Labor and Human Welfare said that they have been able to generate income, and that their life is improving.
Source: The New Times
In this month of January, the White Ribbon Alliance (WRA) is featuring courteous maternity care by promoting Universal rights of expectant women.
Source: The Daily Observer
The vice president and minister of Women's' Affairs, Aja Dr Isatou Njie-Saidy, Tuesday presided over the validation of the African Gender and Development Index (AGDI) report at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Kololi. AGDI is a composite index of gender equality introduced by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
Source: OSISA
The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) today joined the fight to repeal parts of Lesotho's discriminatory Chieftainship Act, which only allows the first-born son to succeed to chieftainship, by filing submissions in a landmark case that is due before the country's Constitutional Court next month.