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17/7/2013
U.N. Deploys Women Protection Advisers to Curb Sexual Violence

 

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 16 2013 (IPS) - Despite the United Nations’ “zero tolerance” policy against sexual violence, there has been a rash of gender-based crimes in several of the world’s conflict zones, including South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Northern Uganda, Somalia, the Central African Republic – and, more recently, in politically-troubled Egypt and Syria.

Describing rape as “a weapon of war”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council last month that sexual violence occurred wherever conflicts raged, “devastating survivors and destroying the social fabric of whole communities”.

“It was a crime under international human rights law and a threat to international peace and security,” he said.

17/7/2013
10 Ways to Help Girls Transform the World

Crowd sourced solutions for girls’ access to education.

 

14/7/2013
Harassment of female voters, aid workers shadow historic Pakistan election

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12/7/2013
Jordan: 'honour killing' support still strong

The belief that so-called "honour killings" are justified continues to be common among Jordanian teenagers, a new Cambridge University study says.

The study by researchers from the university's Institute of Criminology found that almost half of boys and one in five girls interviewed in the capital, Amman, believe that killing a daughter, sister or wife who has "dishonoured" or shamed the family, is justified.

12/7/2013
Sisters of Somalia

Asha Hagi Elmi is a humanitarian activist, internationally recognised for her work helping to build peace and defend the rights of women in Somalia. Witness journeys with Asha to the refugee camps of Mogadishu, swelled to bursting point in 2011 by tens of thousands of Somalis fleeing drought and the threat of famine.

Asha, her sister Amina and other women from the NGO she founded, Saving Somali Women and Children (SSWC), distribute food, clothing, medical and practical aid, lend an ear to the refugees' stories and, most of all, attempt to restore dignity to the lives of the often traumatised and extremely vulnerable women and children they meet in the camps.

12/7/2013
Egypt needs a revolution against sexual violence

In November 2011, after I joined a protest on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in Cairo with a friend, Egyptian riot police beat me – breaking my left arm and right hand – and sexually assaulted me. I was also detained by the interior minister and military intelligence for 12 hours.

After I was released, it took all I had not to cry when I saw the look on the face of a very kind woman I'd never met before, except on Twitter, who came to pick me up and take me to the emergency room for medical attention. (She is now a cherished friend.)

 

1/7/2013
Iran: Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jila Baniyaghoob released from Evin Prison!

On Sunday June 23, 2013, the Islamic Republic regime used Sha’baan, the holy month of Islam to temporarily release Nasrin Sotoudeh from Evin Prison. She is an award-winning lawyer, human rights activist and mother of two who is sentenced to six years in prison. Jila Baniyaghoob, award-winning journalist, women’s rights activist, and spouse of imprisoned journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amouie, was also released from Evin on the same day after she had reached the end of her one-year prison sentence.

25/6/2013
Jordan: Understanding the Subordination of Women in the Arab Region: Wilaya

The concept of wilaya (guardianship over women) is key to discrimination against women. Debates over different interpretations of guardianship under Muslim law ultimately fail to address the key premises underlying hegemonic notions of masculinity and femininity and the institutions that propagate them argues Afaf Jabiri.

21/6/2013
Nobel Laureates: end violence against ethnic minorities in Burma

Twelve Nobel Peace laureates—including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Shirin Ebadi, Muhammad Yunus, Tawakkol Karman and Jody Williams—today called for an immediate end to the violence against Muslims and other ethnic minorities in Burma.

18/6/2013
Turkey: International intellectuals call on the Turkish government to desist from its repression of popular protest

We deplore the recent crackdown of the Turkish government on its own citizens, the clearly unjustified use of tear gas, acts of force, gas canisters and smoke bombs that have resulted in a vast number of injuries, imperiling the lives of those who seek to exercise their basic freedoms of assembly and protest.