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Congo: ground zero per le donne
Nel disinteresse generale continua, in Congo, la mattanza di orrore che va ben oltre la violenza sessuale.
Sono personalmente "infastidito" che tutto ciò non abbia lo spazio che meriterebbe nei media. "Merito" di quegli uomini e anche di quelle donne che sono nelle varie stanze dei bottoni e che decidono quale notizia vale la pena sia pubblicata. Non commento oltre e mi limito a fornirvi materiale informativo in merito.
http://newsite.vday.org/drcongo
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/end-the-humanitarian-crisis-of-violence-against-women-in-dr-congo
http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/about
http://humanitarianrelief.change.org/blog/view/violence_against_women_in_the_congo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090325/stage_nm/us_play_congo
Egitto: lotta alle molestie sessuali nelle strade
Le molestie sessuali nelle strade per le donne sono endemiche in Egitto. Ultimamente alcune donne cominciano a ribellarsi e l'Egyptian Center for Women's Rights ha lanciato la Campagna "Make our streets Safer for All"
According to a 2008 survey of 1,010 Egyptian and foreign women conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights "83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women reported being sexually harassed, regardless of age, class, style of dress or appearance."
The study's conclusions emphasize that harassment, contrary to what is often believed, is not linked to the way a woman is dressed: 71.5 percent of women who reported sexual harassment were wearing veils and covering clothes(19.6% were in fact wearing full burkas).
The problem is tarnishing Egypt's reputation as a tourist destination to the point that the Tourism Ministry has released video clips warning men of the consequences of harassment.
The Egyptian Center for Women's Rights launched a nationwide campaign called "Making our Streets Safer for All", lobbying for a law which would crack down on harassers.
http://observers.france24.com/en/content/20090414-fighting-sexual-harrassment-egypt-women-rights
Di seguito riporto la ricerca "Clouds in Egypt's Sky"
http://ecwronline.org/images/pub/ssh/sexualHarassmentResearchResults2008English.pdf
Burundi: gay e lesbiche fuorilegge
Sicuramente lodevole è il fatto che il Burundi abbia eliminato la pena di morte. Molto meno invece è che abbia reso illegale l'omosessualità con tutto quello che ne consegue per gli uomini e le donne gay ma anche per coloro che possono essere accusati di essere omosessuali a scopo di vendetta o per fini politici.
In molti paesi in via di sviluppo inoltre l'accusa di essere lesbiche, con tutto quello che ne consegue, è lanciata molto spesso nei confronti delle attiviste che si battono in generale per i diritti delle donne.
But some lawmakers criticised the provision criminalising homosexuality, saying it had tarnished the legislation.
"Unfortunately, this penal law is also a regression because it now makes homosexuality a criminal offence, whereas it had been tolerated until now," said MP Catherine Mabobori, who abstained during the vote.
The government of Burundi's latest move comes in the context of considerable hostility to homosexuality in the East African region. Two-thirds of African nations maintain criminal penalties for consensual same-sex behaviour.
The UN recently condemned laws that criminalize homosexuality as being violations of the rights to privacy and equality and has called upon member states that maintain such laws to review them. Members of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights have condemned physical attacks on and the imprisonment of lesbians and gays.http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h-3WcJkCR9P8Y6lNSbWCEl5LPr9A
Burkina Faso: per legge le donne saranno il 30% dei candidati alle elezioni
La loi sur le quota de 30% de femmes sur les listes électorales au Burkina Faso a été adoptée par 87 voix sur 103 députés présents, jeudi dans la soirée par l'Assemblée nationale en vue de réduire l'écart entre les hommes et les femmes dans la gouvernance politique.
Cette loi, a expliqué le président de l'Assemblée nationale, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, vise à lutter contre les inégalités à l'égard des femmes et à promouvoir leur pleine participation à la vie politique.
Sudafrica: in aumento donne elette e donne ministro
Si è parlato delle recenti elezioni in Sudafrica ma quanto si sa di come è andata per le donne la recente tornata elettorale? Direi bene nel complesso se si considera che sono in aumento sia le donne elette che le donne ministro e che è stata annunciata la formazione del nuovo Ministry for Women and Children.
A new ministry has been created to focus on women, youth and children, including people with disability, President Jacob Zuma announced
http://www.buanews.gov.za/news/09/09051017551001
Fourteen Ministers and 11Deputy Ministers are women, putting the representation of women in the new Cabinet at almost 40%.
There was an increase of women by about 45 percent, putting South Africa third in the global women in Parliament rankings, behind Rwanda and Sweden.
This puts the country firmly on course to achieve the Southern African Development Community (SADC) target of 50 percent women in political decision-making by 2015.
Gender Links spokesperson Kubi Rama told BuaNews last week that the increase in women's representation in the National Assembly was the largest seen in South Africa since the first democratic election in 1994.
Sudan: emergenza per le donne
Ci sono diverse iniziative tese a migliorarre le condizioni di vita delle donne sudanesi, in particolare quelle del Darfour. Tra la guerra civile, la violenza, la povertà e l'estremismo islamico la situazione per queste donne è decisamente drammatica. Eppure c'è speranza per il cambiamento.
Si può sostenere una delle iniziative che segnalo o, per chi lavora nei media, srivere articoli ed editoriali sull'argomento.
An example of how our small-scale projects can translate into large-scale impact is evident through the experience of Rajaa. Rajaa was a determined young woman whose goal was to start a business--an International calling center. When she met Sudan-Reach in 2005 she was given a grant to start taking classes and soon thereafter she started a small business selling cosmetics. By the following year, she had almost saved enough money to start her calling center. With an additional grant from Sudan-Reach in 2007 she purchased the equipment needed to start her business and today she is the proud owner of Manshia Telephone Communications Center--which enables clients to place long distance and local telephone calls.
Rajaa's success would not have been possible without the generous support of Sudan-Reach's donors who fund the Empower-a-Woman campaign which makes employment and business opportunities available to women. Donor's to this campaign give $5, $10, or $20 a month to help us continue our work. Rajaa's story is proof that these contributions really do make a difference.
http://www.sudanreach.org/campaign.htm
By UN statistics, about 1.8 million southerners were forced by the prolonged strife to desert their villages and townships and flock to refuges in the north as displaced citizens. The majority of these are innocent women and children.
In Sudan, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than complete primary school. And yet, education in Sudan is desperately needed to break the cycle of poverty.
- 86% have no formal education
- 96.5% cannot read or write than their name
- 99% have no electricity
- 98.5% have no access to running water
- 93% have lost at least one family member
- 68% of married women live in a polygamous marriage
Literacy is the key to their future Once a woman learns to read, write and do simple addition in our program, she can take the next step to run her own business, join a woman’s cooperative and pass her literacy skills on to her children.
A woman's value in Sudan is based on the number of cows paid for her dowry. To divorce, a woman must pay back those cows - a nearly impossible task.
http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/help-women-sudan.php
Facilitating recreational and social activities in two IDP camps to improve the psychological and social well-being of children, youth and women, and build community leadership.
Decreasing women's dependency on aid through livelihood initiatives directly tied to health programs and ensuring strong collaboration between host community and IDP families.
http://ajws.org/emergencies/darfur/sudan_relief_and_advocacy_fund.htmlTunisia: preoccupazione sulla situazione dei diritti delle donne
Un'interessante intervista relativa alla situazione sociale e politica delle donne in Tunisia.
Advocate Bochra Bel Haj Hmida shares her opinions on what is left to accomplish in the field of women's rights and the threats to existing advancements.
Magharebia: In statements earlier this year, you warned against the risk of a decline in Tunisian women's gains. Do you still maintain those ideas? Can you tell us about the nature and source of that risk?
Hmida: Like many human rights activists, I believe that we managed to secure significant gains, starting with the Personal Status Code issued half a century ago, as well as all the supporting and complementing laws, along with the rise in the number of educated girls and family planning policies, in addition to all other measures aimed at enhancing women's position in society.
Nonetheless, those gains remain retractable for a number of reasons.
Magharebia: Why aren't there more Tunisian women in leadership positions in politics, unions, and NGOs, which support your call for gender equality?
Hmida: Tunisia has not made much progress in this area, despite progress in the law. It can be traced back to mentalities, to what we ask of women, and to rivalry in the field of politics. The feminist movement itself was not settled through a feminist perspective, but rather through a political, state-like vision. In my opinion, that situation requires adopting bold measures, such as the principle of quota. Also, enhancing discussions even within women's organisations and within society is important so that women's candidacy and voting for women would not be different from men's candidacy and voting for men. In other words, women are not required to be perfect.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2009/04/21/feature-02
Congo: le donne rompono il silenzio contro la violenza
"It's hard, hard, hard," she says. "I'm alone in this world. My body is partly mended but I don't know if my heart will ever heal. ... I want this violence to stop. I don't want other women to have to suffer what I am suffering."
Now some of the women are fighting back the only way they know how — by talking about what happened.
Video footage of the campaign Women Breaking the Silence shows officials startled by the atrocities recounted. A provincial minister interrupted to ask reporters not to film a woman's face. But she took the microphone to declare: "I am not ashamed to show my face and publish my identity. The shame lies with those who broke me open and with the authorities who failed to protect me.
Nigeria: respitnta legge favorevole a parziale depenalizzazione dell'aborto
With 13 against 1, the Imo State abortion bill euphemistically and craftily couched as women's reproductive right suffered a stunning defeat on the floor of the moderately-furnished Room 201 of the Imo State House of Assembly last Monday. It was a day every Imo citizen will live to remember.
The only support which the Imo abortion Bill received last Monday came from National Council of Women Societies (NCWS). Led by their local President, the NCWS contended that the Bill if passed into law will liberate women from dissemination and oppression.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200906100035.htmlCiad: drammatica situazione per le le donne rifugiate dal Darfour
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), in partnership with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI), has published a report documenting the scope and long-term impact of rape and other sexual violence experienced by women who fled attacks on their villages in Darfur and are now refugees in neighboring Chad. This scientific study, corroborates women’s accounts of rape and other crimes against humanity that they have experienced in Darfur, as well as rape and deprivations of basic needs in refugee camps in Chad.
http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/sudan/news/nowhere-to-turn.pdf
Sudafrica: continua l'epidemia di stupri
Three out of four rapists first attacked while still in their teens, the study found. One in 20 men said they had raped a woman or girl in the last year.
South Africa is notorious for having one of the highest levels of rape in the world. Only a fraction are reported, and only a fraction of those lead to a conviction.
Anti-rape campaigners said the shocking figures demonstrated the need for reform. Dean Peacock, co-director of the Sonke Gender Justice project, said: "We need to make sure the criminal justice system is held to account. We have lots of discussion in this country, but not enough action is taken to ensure that perpetrators will face consequences."
A report published by the trade union Solidarity earlier this month said that one child is raped in South Africa every three minutes, with 88% of rapes going unreported. It found that levels of child abuse in South Africa are increasing rapidly.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/17/south-africa-rape-survey
Zambia: progetti per espamdere l'accesso alla contraccezzione
EARLY in the last century, a Scottish family planning pioneer and women’s rights campaigner, Marie Stopes, started a modest family planning clinic in England.
This humble initiative has today grown such a global reputation that it is undoubtedly one of the most widespread and growing family planning and reproductive health service providers in the world.
The entry of MSI into Zambia is a response to a felt need, because the concerns that MSI addresses are commonplace in the country.
For instance, there is lack of universal access to contraception while contraceptive uptake is low when one compares with the ever growing practices of unsafe abortions, spread of infamous sexually transmitted infections, on the one hand, and the recorded great deal of efforts that have been undertaken in the past to promote contraception and family planning services, on the other hand.
We are cognisant that all our development goals to be met, whether health ones or otherwise, a well-guided and vibrant private sector is fixture that we must create, nurture and sustain,” she said in a speech read for her by Ministry of Health spokesperson Reuben Mbewe.
Though the use of contraceptives in Zambia has been increasing significantly and contraceptive update is also on the rise, there was still need to ensure that the country achieved universal access of contraceptives, because the current levels as very low.
The situation, where of all the women that die from pregnancy related conditions, about 30 per cent of them are because of unsafe abortions, is gravely worrying.
This state of affairs, therefore, requires a proactive response to the challenges posed, and in that regard, investments should be targeted at improving access to family planning services. This is what has been shown by MSI.
All said and written, MSI is more than welcome to provide a difference in Zambia.
http://www.times.co.zm/news/viewnews.cgi?category=7&id=1245305417
Congo: violenza sessuale estrema contro 20 donne in carcere
Continuo a chiedermi come mai non si trova mai spazio per queste notizie.
With small budgets and poor facilities, Congolese prisons are generally overcrowded. Malnutrition and easily preventable illnesses are common. In many cases, soldiers, women, and children are mixed in with the general inmate population.
"The rape of female prisoners in a government institution is deeply distressing. This is a horrific example of what has been happening across the prison system throughout Congo," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, HRW's senior Congo researcher.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090623/wl_nm/us_congo_democratic_rape
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31231&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo
http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2009/06/23/rioting_congo_prisoners_rape_20_women/
Ghana: prima donna prete nella chiesa anglicana
Uganda: impegno politico nella lotta contro le mutilazioni genitali femminili
Uganda will pass a law banning female genital mutilation, which is rampant among pastoralist tribes in the country's eastern region, the president said in a statement on Friday.
"The way God made it, there is no part of a human body that is useless," President Yoweri Museveni told a gathering in the eastern Karamoja district.
"Now you people interfere with God's work. Some say it is culture. Yes, I support culture but you must support culture that is useful and based on scientific information," he added.
http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-07-03-uganda-to-outlaw-female-circumcision
Mozambico: iniziativa legislativa di contrasto alla violenza domestica
Up until now, there has been no such crime as domestic violence on the Mozambican statute book. When a husband beat up his wife, this was treated as
The bill states that in any case of domestic violence, the minimum and maximum prison terms established for crimes such as assault and causing grievous bodily harm will be increased by a third. But, after assessing the family situation, the court may replace a prison sentence by a period of community work.
The bill defines domestic violence as a "public crime" - which means that prosecuting the offender does not depend on a complaint from the victim. The police can act without waiting for a complaint, and anybody else who becomes aware of the violence can denounce it to the police or prosecution service.
Helena Zitha pointed out that widows in the Mozambican countryside are victims of pitiless violence from their late husbands' relatives. "Everything that a widow managed to obtain when she was living with her later husband is torn away from her", she said.
Nobody pushed their objections to a vote, and so the bill passed unanimously and by acclamation. It will now be amended in committee before coming back to the plenary for a final vote in mid-July.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200906291384.htmlCamerun: la chiesa luterana approva l'ordinazione delle donne
Le 26eme synode de l’Eglise Evangélique Luthérienne au Cameroun est celui des plus grands changements.
Les femmes théologiennes reçoivent leur ticket pour leur ordination au ministère de la parole et des sacrements.
La question de l’ordination des femmes qui depuis des années ne faisait pas l’unanimité de tous a finit par donner avis favorables aux femmes. Lors de ce synode à 90 %, les délégués ont voté en faveur de l’ordination des femmes. Ce résultat est certainement le fruit de plusieurs semainières et enseignements organisés ça et là par les théologiens pour expliquer aux fidèles que sur le plan Biblique ou théologique l’ordination des femmes au ministère pastoral ne posait aucun problème. Le dernier séminaire a eu lieu en novembre dernier et a été marqué par la présence du Dr. Kareen Blonquist du département de la théologie de la fLM.
http://africa-lutheran.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=232&Itemid=1
Congo: denunciato immobilismo del governo nei confronti degli stupri
Vorrei sapere quanti articoli vengono dedicati a questo argomento....
Congo must crack down on rampant sexual violence perpetrated by military generals and other top officers, a prominent international human rights group said Thursday.
Congolese authorities have failed to prevent widespread rapes, Human Rights Watch said in a new report, citing U.N. data showing 7,703 cases of sexual violence by the army were reported last year. Most victims were adolescent girls.
While soldiers now face legal action for rape, senior officers "continue to be untouched," said Juliane Kippenberg, Africa researcher for the group.
"Their own crimes and their command responsibility for the crimes of their soldiers must be investigated and held to account," she said.
Tens of thousands of women and girls in Congo have suffered from abuse, including gang rape and other violent sexual acts that have led to unwanted pregnancies, serious injuries and death.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_CONGO?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Per chi avesse un minimo di interesse per la sorte di queste donne riporto sia il comunicato stampa che la ricerca di Human Rights Watch.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/07/16/dr-congo-hold-army-commanders-responsible-rapes
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2009/07/16/soldiers-who-rape-commanders-who-condone-0
Sudan: donne ricevono colpi di frusta per aver indossato i pantaloni
No comment!
Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, who says she is facing 40 lashes, said she and 12 other women wearing trousers were arrested in a restaurant in the capital, Khartoum.
She told the BBC several of the women had pleaded guilty to the charges and had 10 lashes immediately.
Khartoum, unlike South Sudan, is governed by Sharia law.
Several of those punished were from the mainly Christian and animist south, Ms Hussein said.
"I was wearing trousers and a blouse and the 10 girls who were lashed were wearing like me, there was no difference," she told the BBC's Arabic service.
Ms Hussein said some women pleaded guilty to "get it over with" but others, including herself, chose to speak to their lawyers and are awaiting their fates.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8147329.stm
The force, which is similar to the Saudi religious police, randomly enforces an alcohol ban and often scolds young men and women mingling in public.
Hussein said she decided to speak out because flogging is a practice many women endure in silence. She even sent printed invitations to the press and public figures to attend her expected trial.
"Let the people see for themselves. It is not only my issue," she said. "This is retribution to thousands of girls who are facing flogging for the last 20 years because of wearing trousers," she said. "They prefer to remain silent."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31897384/ns/world_news-africa/
Sudafrica: la cantante Melanie Lowe si dichiara lesbica
Melanie Lowe è, come tutte le lesbiche, una racchia. Si vede vero? Sguardo truce, lineamenti rudi, capelli rasati, peli sulle braccia, canotta da muratore, etc. Quanto mi piace l'ironia!
Riporto l'intervista del suo coming out.
http://www.mambagirl.com/article.asp?artid=3331
Sudan: violenza contro le sostenitrici di Lubna Ahmed Hussein
Police have fired tear gas at supporters of a Sudanese woman charged with wearing "indecent clothing", shortly after her trial was postponed.
Lubna Ahmed Hussein says she was arrested for wearing trousers.
She has adopted a defiant attitude, urging authorities to try her although she faces up to 40 lashes in public.
Earlier, she told the BBC she was not afraid, saying: "Flogging is not pain, flogging is an insult to humans, women and religions."
Ms Hussein has resigned from a UN job that would have given her immunity to take on the case - indicating she wants it to become a test case for women's rights in Sudan.
"If the court's decision is that I be flogged, I want this flogging in public," she told the BBC's Today programme.
"Before police caught me, there are maybe 20,000 girls and women getting flogged for dress reasons," she said.
If this could happen in a restaurant in Khartoum, imagine what the situation must be for women in Darfur, Ms Hussein said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8182658.stm
Per sostenere Lubna e le altre donne sudanesi vittime degli integralisti islamici vi invito a scrivere lettere di protesta:
The Sudanese Minister of Justice,
Mr. Abdul-Basit Sabdarat.
P.O. Box 302 - Zip Code: 11111
Nile St. Khartoum - Sudan
Tel: 00249912287609 (The mobile number of the admin of their website)
Fax: 00249183764168
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Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Rashida Manjoo
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
Fax: 00 41 22 917 9006
E-mail:
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Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Manfred Nowak
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
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Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders
Margaret Sekaggya
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (Geneva, Switzerland)
Telephone: +41 22 917 1234.
E-mail:
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. The text of the e-mail should refer to the human rights defenders mandate.
Reine Alapini-Gansou
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
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Tanzania: aperta banca per donne
Tanzania has launched a bank aimed specifically at women in what officials say will be an empowering move.
Margareth Mattaba Chacha, the managing director, said: "We know some women hesitate to come forward - they are too shy and think they don't know anything.
"But here we're going to have a big group of professionals to take women through step-by-step until we really reach our women."
Margaret Sitta, Minister of Community Development, Gender and Children, said the bank would empower women, but stressed that the accounts were open to all.
Nigeria: appello contro la violenza e la discriminazione delle donne
Human rights violations are a global phenomenon. However, as a result of long standing discriminatory practices against women and the girl child and the non recognition of their rights as human rights, much remains to be done to eliminate laws and customs that violate their most fundamental human rights in Nigeria.
As a state party to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on Women’s Rights in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Nigeria must adopt specific and comprehensive legislation protecting women and girls from violence, which should encompass preventive, protective, criminal, compensatory and rehabilitative measures.
Moreover, Nigerian parliamentarians should immediately address gender-based violence, by adopting the necessary laws, by granting the necessary financial resources for the implementation of preventive measures (including training of law enforcement, judicial, health and social service personnel and awareness-raising campaigns), access to legal assistance and shelters, and by establishing qualified, independent and well-resourced institutions to receive and handle complaints in a gender-sensitive manner.http://www.omct.org/pdf/VAW/2009/African_Women_s_Day_Nigeria_310709.pdf
Uganda: attiviste denunciano povertà e misoginia
The impact of this commodification on young women is catastrophic. It breeds misery and reduces them to chattels.
Despite the Ugandan constitution according equal rights to women, the law is not protecting young girls from being used as economic commodities
Mifumi is attempting to go through the courts to try to get women's constitutional rights upheld and to get bride price banned or regulated, but it is an uphill struggle. Women's economic disempowerment is upheld and entrenched by this tradition. And it has to be stopped.
http://www.mifumi.org/index.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2009/aug/18/money-womenCongo: le donne si organizzano contro la violenza
V-Day’s latest V-Moment comes to us from eight Congelese who are working every day to end violence against women and girls in the DRC. We are honored to have Jeanine Gabrielle Ngungu, Justine Masika Bihamb, Kongosi Onia Mussanzi, Chantal Moboni, Drocele Mugomoka, Nounou Booto Meeti, Lydia Masimango and Kenneth Enim Ampi share their words of strength, determination and faith with us.
Mali: violente proteste contro la riforma del diritto di famiglia
No comment.
Tens of thousands of people in Mali's capital, Bamako, have been protesting against a new law which gives women equal rights in marriage.
The law, passed earlier this month, also strengthens inheritance rights for women and children born out of wedlock.
The head of a Muslim women's association says only a minority of Malian women - "the intellectuals" as she put it - supports the law.
"We have to stick to the Koran," Ms Dembele told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "A man must protect his wife, a wife must obey her husband."
"It's a tiny minority of women here that wants this new law - the intellectuals. The poor and illiterate women of this country - the real Muslims - are against it," she added.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8216568.stm
More than 50,000 Muslims in Mali on Saturday protested against the new family code adopted by the Parliament, which their leaders argue, is not Malian but rather "modeled on Western civilization".
The president of a national women's association of NGOs, Oumou Touré, said the family code was a â?constitutional and democratic demand' that promoted social justice.
'Many girls married at 10, 11 or 12 have died in recent years in the region of Kayes, (500km northeast of Bamako)'
'The new code will put the brakes (on this) because the guilty will from now on be punished and fined.'
IRIN said Amnesty International estimated in 2005 that more than 60 per cent of young women in Mali married before the age of 18.
Mali: riforma del condice di famiglia bloccata dalle proteste di integralisti islamici
A new family law in Mali is causing a furore, partly because it no longer stipulates that wives have to obey their husbands.
Such has been the anger in the majority Muslim country that President Amadou Toumani Toure has sent the law back to parliament for MPs to re-consider.
For many people here the new law is an attack on their religion and traditions and there have been loud protests against it ever since it was adopted by parliamentarians at the start of August.
Kane Nana Sanou, a women's rights activist who is on the committee that has been lobbying for the new family law, says women across Mali should be overjoyed at the new code and disputes the idea that the majority of women are against it.
"How can people say that the majority of women in this country are against the code? Have they done a poll to find that out? They haven't.
"I believe this new law is good for Mali. It makes all citizens equal before the law."
Ms Sanou says she understands why some women might argue that the law should contain a provision that they have to obey their husbands, even if that might mean less rights for them.
"Like me, these women have grown up in traditional families. They have always been told that it's the right thing to do to obey your husband, so of course they believe that," she says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8223966.stm
Tens of thousands have turned out at protests in Bamako in recent weeks and there have been other demonstrations against the law across the country.
It is a political defeat for President Toure, who was a strong backer of the new law.
It has only been the continuing angry protests by Muslim groups that have forced him to send the law back to parliament.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8223736.stm
Sudan: Lubna Hussein, arrestata per aver indossato i pantaloni, liberata
Decisamente una buona notizia. Rimane il fatto che è quanto meno sconcertante che una donna debba vivere un tale incubo per il semplice fatto di indossare i pantaloni.
A female Sudanese journalist, jailed for a month after being convicted of "dressing indecently" by wearing trousers, has been freed after one day.
Mohedinne Titawi, of the Sudanese Union of Journalists, said the union had paid the fine to secure her release.
Ms Hussein, in her 30s, had faced a penalty of up to 40 lashes.
International rights groups criticised the trial from the start, with the UN on Tuesday saying the charges against her breached international law.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8244339.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/world/africa/09sudan.html?_r=1Sudafrica: parziale apertura della chiesa anglicana verso gay e lesbiche
We have also received the resolution of the Diocese of Cape Town requesting us to provide guidelines for the pastoral care of those in committed same sex relationships. Despite the misconceptions created by media reports that Cape Town Diocese is intending to proceed with the blessing of same sex unions, we recognise the request to be pastoral in nature (reflecting the new situation created by the South African Government’s legislation allowing for civil unions between same sex couples) and not in any way in conflict with Resolution 1.10 of the Lambeth Conference of 1998. The task of responding to this request has been referred to a task team, which will prepare a preliminary paper building upon the resolutions and statements made thus far by ACSA.
http://www.anglicanchurchsa.org/view.asp?ItemID=214&tname=tblComponent1&oname=News&pg=front
This Synod,
Affirming a pastoral response to same-sex partnerships of faithful commitment in our parish families;
Gives thanks to God for:
--The leadership of our Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and his witness in seeking to handle these issues in a loving and caring manner; and
--The Bishops of our Province for their commitment to the unity of our Communion and Province, working together seeking God’s way of truth and reconciliation;
Notes the positive statements of previous Provincial Synods that gay and lesbian members of our church share in full membership as baptized members of the Body of Christ, and are affirmed and welcomed as such;
Affirms our commitment to prayerful and respectful dialogue around these issues, mindful of the exhortations of previous Lambeth Conferences to engage with those most affected;
Asks the Archbishop to request the Synod of Bishops to provide pastoral guidelines for those of our members who are in covenanted partnerships, taking due regard of the mind of the Anglican Communion.
http://archbishop.anglicanchurchsa.org/2009/08/resolution-of-diocese-of-cape-town-on.htmlUganda: donne attaccate per aver indossato i pantaloni
No comment!
Male rioters in a suburb here on September 11 attacked about 20 women wearing trousers.The men, in Rubaga, a Kampala suburb, began detaining women during their protests, police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba said at a press conference that took place that same day.
Women wearing skirts were allowed to pass, Nabakooba said, but those wearing trousers were forcibly undressed and left to walk home in their underwear.
The abuse occurred amid violence in the Ugandan capital, which officials say has claimed 14 lives and injured about 70.
Women's rights advocate Jackie Asiimwe denounced the rioters for using the clash to abuse women and commit criminal acts in New Vision, a Kampala-based newspaper. "It is an invasion of women's privacy," the newspaper quoted Asiimwe as saying.
"Traditionally, trousers are not acceptable and are a Western thing," Rizzan Nassuna, a writer and human rights advocate in Kampala told Women's eNews. "In (the kingdom of) Buganda, you are supposed to wear long skirts. This is coming out of a local belief that women are not supposed to wear trousers, but this has never been formalized or really come out in the open. They violated their dignity as women, making them walk naked, because they are wearing trousers."
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/4140/context/archiveMarocco: arresti e minacce per protesta laica di interruzione del Ramadan guidata da donne
To protest against "this interference in private life," the Movement for defense of individual liberties (MALI) launched an appeal through Facebook to symbolically break the fast before sunset and protest the Law.
The meet up was at the train station of Mohammedia, a few miles from Casablanca. 70 people indicated their intention to attend but only a dozen made it through a cordon of security personnel. "We have called a lot of people because we were surprised by the heavy police presence that we encountered" said Ms. Zineb Elghzaoui, journalist and a founder of MALI along with Ibtissam Lachgar , a psychologist.
"Our aim was to show that we are Moroccans, but that we do not fast, and that we have a right to exist," said Ms. Elghzaoui. “And although the Moroccan Constitution guarantees freedom of worship, each year there are arrests’ for public fast breaking, she added.
A government security spokesperson denied that any arrests were made this year for public eating during the month of Ramadan.
Ms. Elghzaoui spoke about the case of a citizen who was attacked and denounced in the city of Fez and handed to the police by civilian vigilantes last year for drinking in the street. He was free hours later, after his family showed he was a diabetic.
Only children, the elderly, the sick, pregnant, lactating or menstruating women are exempt.
The Official Moroccan Council of Ulema (theologians) denounced the protesters stunt and described them as "agitators".
http://www.moroccoboard.com/news/34-news-release/664-death-threats-and-arrests-for-facebook-ramadan-fast-break-protesters
Sierra Leone: emergenza sanitaria per la mortalità delle madri gestanti
The report Out of Reach: The Cost of Maternal Health in Sierra Leone uses graphic and personal testimonials to show how women and girls are often unable access lifesaving treatment because they are too poor to pay for it.
In Sierra Leone, one in eight women risk dying during pregnancy or childbirth. This is one of the highest maternal death rates in the world.
Thousands of women bleed to death after giving birth. Most die in their homes. Some die on the way to hospital; in taxis, on motorbikes or on foot. In Sierra Leone, less than half of deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant and less than one in five are carried out in health facilities.
Ciad: livelli allarmanti di violenza sessuale contro le donne rifugiate dal Darfour
Continuo a non capire come mai notizie come questa non trovino spazio nei giornali. Evidentemente non sono considerate importanti. Per me invece lo sono.
Darfuri refugee women and girls face high levels of rape and other violence on a daily basis both inside and outside refugee camps in eastern Chad, despite the presence of UN security forces, a new Amnesty International report reveals.
In No place for us here: Violence against refugee women in eastern Chad, Amnesty International documents rape and other violence against women and girls in the camps, who face attacks carried out by villagers living nearby and members of the Chadian National Army.
“The rape that countless women and girls experienced in Darfur continues to haunt them in eastern Chad,” said Tawanda Hondora, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme.
“These women fled Darfur, hoping that the international community and Chadian authorities would offer them some measure of safety and protection. That protection has proved to be elusive and they remain under attack.”
The report says that refugee girls also experience sexual harassment at the hands of their teachers at schools in the camps. Some girls have reportedly been threatened that they would receive poor marks if they refused to have sexual intercourse with their teacher, leading some to drop out of school.
A 13-year-old girl in Farchana Refugee Camp was raped by a Chadian nurse working for an organization that manages health centres in the camp. She became pregnant following the rape and gave birth in January 2009. The man accepted that he was responsible for the pregnancy and negotiations were conducted with him, after which he agreed to marry the girl and pay a dowry to her family. He later fled the area. Despite complaints being filed with Chadian officials, by May 2009 it did not appear that there had been any effort to find him, nor had any legal action been initiated against him.
Amnesty International said that it is not possible to know the exact number of women and girls who have been victims of rape and other violence inside and outside refugee camps in eastern Chad, as women rarely report such crimes primarily because of fear of stigma, including from their own family members, and trauma.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/chad-refugee-women-face-high-levels-rape-inside-and-outside-camps-despit
Egitto: piano per proibire l'uso del niqab nelle università
Un pò di sano buon senso dall'Egitto.
"The Supreme Council of Al-Azhar has decided to ban students and teachers from wearing the niqab inside female-only classrooms, that are taught by women only," a statement said.
The ban extends to women's dormitories and to schools affiliated with the university, it said.
The face-veil, or niqab, is worn by some devout Muslim women. Local press reported that Mohammed Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar, said last week that he intended to ban the practice in the university.
The supreme council's statement added that Al-Azhar does not oppose the niqab, which it said only a minority of Muslim scholars consider an obligation, but it opposes "imprinting it on the minds of girls."
The decision came after female students who wear the niqab were banned from the women's dormitory of the state-run Cairo University.
Most Muslim women in Egypt wear the hijab, which covers the hair, but the niqab is becoming more popular on the streets of Cairo.
The government has shown concern over the trend. The religious endowments ministry issued booklets against the practice, saying the niqab is not Islamic, and the health ministry wants to ban it among doctors and nurses.
In the Middle East, the niqab is associated with Salafism, an ultra-conservative school of thought practiced mostly in Saudi Arabia.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091008/lf_afp/egyptislamwomeneducation
Somalia: donne ricevono frustate per aver indossato il reggiseno
NO COMMENT!
A hardline Islamist group in Somalia has begun publicly whipping women for wearing bras that they claim violate Islam as they are 'deceptive'.
The insurgent group Al Shabaab has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust, residents claimed yesterday.
The women are then inspected to see if the firmness is natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra.
If they are found wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breasts, residents said.
'Al Shabaab forced us to wear their type of full veil and now they order us to shake our breasts,' a resident, Halima, told Reuters, adding that her daughters had been whipped on Thursday.
'They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.'
Guinea: ondata di stupri contro le donne
Ma ovviamente nella stampa italiana la notizia ha poco spazio. Già, evidentemente gli stupri brutali contro le donne sono inezie, cose di poco conto...
Eyewitnesses told New York-based Human Rights Watch that security forces stripped female protesters and raped them in the streets. The rights group, citing eyewitness reports, said soldiers also stabbed protesters Monday with knives and bayonets.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/29/guinea-protest-soldiers-r_n_302633.html
“They raped me. I went out of the stadium naked, naked, naked,” said one political activist, recalling the brutal clampdown by the soldiers of Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, Guinea's new strongman.
Another eye-witness told FRANCE 24 that she saw a group of soldiers gang-rape five girls. "I went back behind the gate, I found another soldier there. He took his gun (…) and he forced it into the vagina of a girl,” she said.
Around 30 women have given testimonies to human rights activists corroborating these accounts, saying they were raped and beaten during a massacre of opposition supporters in a Guinea stadium on September 28.
They are a horrifying array of claims. Unable to run and escape soldiers’ shots, the women say they were beaten and raped, their clothes stripped off with knives and their genitals mutilated with guns.
Nigeria: migliaia di donne muoiono ogni anno per aborto clandestino
Dr Ejike Oji, Country Director of IPAS, an NGO, said in Abuja on Monday that 760,000 induced abortions occurred in Nigeria annually.
Oji said this at the opening of a one-day training workshop organised by IPAS for the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) on maternal mortality and improving women’s reproductive rights.
He said 60 per cent of the abortions were unsafe and that they accounted for most maternal deaths in the country.
``An estimated 15,000 women die in Nigeria yearly from unsafe abortions because abortion is illegal in Nigeria and women who sort it do so it under unsafe procedures.
``The law regarding abortion should be reformed because the reproductive rights of women need to be protected.
`A lot of women are dying from unsafe abortions as well as other causes of maternal deaths such as haemorrhage, obstructed labour, entopic pregnancy, lack of family planning, infection and low contraceptive usages are being addressed.
``It is sad to note the extent some women go to terminate pregnancies through the use of cassava plant leaf and stem, bahaman grass, alligator pepper, native chalk and alum,’’ he added.
`The right to reproductive health is very crucial as women suffer severe consequences in their bid to regenerate the society.
``The commission views the rights of women as crucial and any circumstances that abridge these rights or attempt to abridge them are unacceptable.
Congo: continua l'epidemia di stupri contro le donne
Some 5,400 women have reported being raped this year in one province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations said on Tuesday.
"Night-time attacks against civilians by unidentified armed elements, and rape against women, remain widespread," Byrs said, describing in particular an Oct. 5 rape of five women "by armed men believed to be members of the national army".
"One of the victims was killed, while the four survivors are being treated in a health centre," she told a news briefing in Geneva, where most U.N. aid agencies are based.
At least 5,387 cases of rape against women have been reported in South Kivu in the first six months of 2009, Byrs said, calling for the violations to stop and the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the biggest U.N. aid operations. Hundreds of thousands of people in the east of the country have been driven from their homes due to government fighting, many of whom need protection from violent attacks.
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSLK397891._CH_.2400
Somalia: integralisti islamici uccidono una donna che si rifiutava di indossare il velo
Islamic militants have shot and killed a Somali Christian woman because she declined to wear a veil as prescribed by Muslim custom, Christians said in comments monitored by BosNewsLife Wednesday, October 28.
Members of the Suna Waljameca group killed Amina Muse Ali, 45, on October 19 in her home in Galkayo, in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region, said Compass Direct News, a well-informed Christian news agency.
Ali had told Christian leaders that she had received several threats from members of Suna Waljameca for not wearing a veil, symbolic of adherence to Islam, Christians said. She had said members of the group had long monitored her movements because they suspected she was a Christian.
Somalia: donne picchiate e persguitate da integralisti islamici per non aver indossato le calze
Direi che non c'è neanche il bisogno di commentare...
"Just today, Al-Shabaab dispatched men with whips to the streets around Bakara market and they are flogging any woman who is found not wearing socks," according to a female maize trader at the Mogadishu market, who spoke Thursday.
She did not want to be named for security reasons.
In the past two days, more than 130 people, including women who were not wearing headscarves and men chewing dried khat leaves, have been detained for violating Al-Shabaab's interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, according to witnesses and officials.
Hooded Al-Shabaab gunmen rounded up 50 women on Wednesday from Mogadishu's Bakara market for not wearing the veil that is required for women under some interpretations of Islamic law, according to the maize trader.
"Most of these women were vegetable traders, so they are poor and can't afford to buy veils for 600,000 shillings [about $23 U.S.]," she said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/10/29/somalia.women.flogged/index.html
Somalia: integralisti islamici chiudono organizzazioni delle donne
Tutto questo non dovrebbe sconvolgere? L'opinione pubblica non dovrebbe reagire di fronte a chi dice che le donne non devono lavorare?
Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents closed three grassroots women's organisations in the rebel-held town of Balad Hawa on Monday to stop women from going to work, a rebel leader said.
The group wants to impose its own version of Islamic law on areas it controls, and Washington says it is al Qaeda's proxy in the Horn of African nation.
"We have taken this step after we recognised that women need to stay in their homes and take care of their children ... Islam does not allow women to go to offices," Maalim Daaud Mohmed, the chairman of Balad Hawa, told Reuters by telephone.
The organisations closed by al Shabaab are the Halgan Businesswomen's Organisation, the Sed Huro Human Rights Organisation and Farhan Woman for Peace, he said.
Uganda: proposta legge antigay
Aggravated homosexuality will be punished by death, according to a new bill tabled in Parliament yesterday.
The private member�s bill was tabled by Ndorwa West MP David Bahati (NRM).
A person commits aggravated homosexuality when the victim is a person with disability or below the age of 18, or when the offender is HIV-positive.
The bill thus equates aggravated homosexuality to aggravated defilement among people of different sexes, which also carries the death sentence.
The Bill, entitled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, also states that anyone who commits the offence of homosexuality will be liable to life imprisonment.
This was already the case under the current Penal Code Act.
The provisions, according to the bill, are meant to �protect the traditional family by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex.�
They are also meant to prohibit the �promotion or recognition of such sexual relations in public institutions and other places through or with the support of any government entity or NGO.�
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/697859
"This bill is a blow to the progress of democracy in Uganda," said David Kato of Sexual Minorities Uganda. "It goes against the inclusive spirit necessary for our economic as well as political development. Its spirit is profoundly undemocratic and un-African."
"Certain provisions in this bill are illegal; they are also immoral," said Kate Sheill, Amnesty International's expert on sexual rights. "They criminalize a sector of society for being who they are, when what the government should be doing instead is protecting them from discrimination and abuse."
Over recent months, there has been increased campaigning against homosexuality in Uganda, led by churches and anti-gay groups. The media have joined this campaign, and have publicly pointed to individuals they accuse of being gay or lesbian.
People suspected of being gay have faced death threats and been physically assaulted. Many have been ostracized by their families or faced discrimination, including dismissal from their place of employment.
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/15/uganda-anti-homosexuality-bill-threatens-liberties-and-human-rights-defenders
Botsawana: prima donna speaker al parlamento
La notizia, sicuramente positiva, nasconde però una situazione fortemente negativa riguardante il numero di donne elette nella nazione.
The appointment of Margaret Nasha as the first woman to occupy the post of Speaker of the National Assembly in Botswana signals another step towards gender equality in southern Africa.
However, the low number of women who made it into Parliament in the recent elections is a setback in a region committed to reach 50 percent parity in decision-making by 2015, in six years time, following just one more election.
Out of a total of six women who took part in the parliamentary elections on 16 October, only two women won seats in Parliament.
Dr Nasha believes her elevation should lay the foundation which the country can build on and allow more women to assume high positions in society.
"I feel elated, honoured and humbled to be the first woman to assume the position of Speaker of the National Assembly," she said. "This shows that people have confidence that I can lead the House."
She urged women, the electorate and political parties to work together to ensure the gains made by Botswana in the field of women representation in politics and gender equality is not reversed.
http://www.sardc.net/Editorial/Newsfeature/09351009.htm
Egitto: aumento dell'uso del niqab
Egypt's state-run religious establishment wants teachers like Mohamed to remove their veils in front of female students, sparking a backlash by Islamists who say women should be able to choose to cover their faces in line with their Islamic faith.
The spread of the niqab, associated with the strictest interpretations of Islam, is a potent reminder to the government of the political threat posed by any Islamist resurgence emanating from the Gulf, where many young Egyptians go to work.
"It increased mainly because of the major influence from the Gulf. This habit is not from the heart of Egyptian society. It is imported from the Gulf," political analyst Hala Mustafa said.
"(Extremism) has been increasing in Egyptian society for the past 30 years and therefore Egyptians are accepting more extremism and becoming more closed off," she said.
Just 30 years ago, women attended Egypt's flagship Cairo University wearing miniskirts and sleeveless tops. They strolled along the beaches of Alexandria in skimpy swimsuits at a time when society was seemingly more liberal and tolerant.
Analysts say challenging the stricter interpretations of Islam could be a long journey that requires, in particular, introducing reforms on an educational system that has allowed women in niqab to teach small children.
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE59U17V20091102?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=11604Costa d'avorio: le donne sono il 50,8% dei candidati alle elezioni
Pour la premi�re fois, les femmes repr�sentent plus de la moiti� des personnes figurant sur la liste �lectorale en C�te d�Ivoire. Marie-Paule Kodjo, pr�sidente de la Coordination des femmes pour les �lections qui a �t� � la base de la forte mobilisation des femmes lors de l�op�ration d�enr�lement, en donne les raisons dans cet entretien.
Les 50,87% de femmes au niveau de l�affichage de la liste provisoire, c�est du jamais vu et c�est un record. Nous sommes sereines car nous savons que c�est le travail que nous avons fait sur le terrain qui porte ses fruits. Et nous sommes tr�s fi�res. Nous avons fait un travail de fourmi, du porte-�-porte et les zones o� il n�y avait pas d�enr�lement, nous y sommes all�es. Nous avons suscit� l�engouement en mettant tout le monde ensemble. Notre objectif, c�est qu�il faut imp�rativement un scrutin populaire, gage d��lection apais�e. Donc si les femmes, frange de la population la plus importante, comprennent ce que c�est que l�enr�lement, ce que c�est que des contentieux, nous aurons un scrutin populaire et par cons�quent, une �lection apais�e.
Sudan: peggiora la condizione delle donne vittime di stupri
E, come al solito, nessuno ne parla....
Rape victims in Sudan's Darfur region have lost vital medical and psychological support since Khartoum expelled aid agencies working against sexual violence this year, the United Nations and aid workers said.
A Sudanese minister on Wednesday dismissed the reports as "propaganda" saying there was no widespread rape in the region and that foreigners were free to come and investigate.
Ten out of the 13 expelled foreign groups were doing work related to protection and sexual violence, said an official from one of the ousted organisations who asked not to be named.
"Women are now feeling a lot less safe in reporting rapes and there's been a resurgence of the bad old days when women victims are treated like criminals if they report it," the official said.
Rights groups say women who report attacks risk prosecution for having sex outside marriage under Islamic law in Sudan.
A U.N. report this month said sexual violence was "rampant" in Darfur. The conflict surged in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels revolted, accusing Khartoum of neglect.
Even before the expulsions, aid workers in Darfur say authorities harassed them if they spoke openly about abuses.
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSMCD134075._CH_.2400Somalia: donna lapidata per aver commesso adulterio
Le pietre servono per decorare i giardini, non per uccidere le donne.
A 20-year-old woman divorcee accused of committing adultery in Somalia has been stoned to death by Islamists in front of a crowd of about 200 people.
A judge working for the militant group al-Shabab said she had had an affair with an unmarried 29-year-old man.
He said she gave birth to a still-born baby and was found guilty of adultery. Her boyfriend was given 100 lashes.
It is thought to be the second time a woman has been stoned to death for adultery by al-Shabab.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8366197.stmNigeria: bambine e bambini accusati di stregoneria e maltrattati
Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of "witch children" reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.
For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund.
"When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats," he said. "It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change ... and children are defenseless."
The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria's 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.
Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children's Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/18/african-children-denounce_n_324943.html
Zimbawe: Women of Zimbawe arise riceve il Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights Award
The pair are co-founders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, whose acronym WOZA forms an Ndebele word that means "come forward." Behind Williams and Mahlangu around 70,000 Zimbabweans have signed on to do that. Like the founders, many have been beaten and worse; the two leaders say more than 3,000 have been arrested for demonstrating.
The women were interviewed in Washington in advance of Monday night's White House ceremony in which they are to receive the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award from President Barack Obama. Ethel Kennedy, widow of the assassinated senator, will attend.
An absolute for the demonstrations by WOZA and its newer male counterpart, MOZA, is nonviolence, the founders insist. No matter what, demonstrators are told, do not strike back.
The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is not the first organization to honor WOZA and the women who formed it. Among others that have are Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department, which awarded Williams an International Woman of Courage award in 2007.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iohKI1JY8AOqr3GwekEPU2dX8LZQD9C552K80Sudan: ragazza di 16 anni riceve 50 frustate per aver indossato una gonna lunga fino al ginocchio
Il Sudan pare essere sprofondato nell'isteria e nella barbarie più totale e a farne le spese sono le donne.
A 16-year-old Sudanese girl was lashed 50 times after a judge ruled her knee-length skirt was indecent, her family said today.
The mother of Christian teenager Silva Kashif said she is to sue police and the judge who imposed the sentence under Islamic shariah law.
She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along in the market like she was a criminal. It was wrong,' said Doro.
Doro said Khashif was taken to Kalatla court where she was convicted and punished by a female police officer in front of the judge.
'I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried ... People have different religions and that should be taken into account' she said.
Kashif's lawyer Azhari al-Haj said he was preparing a case against the police and judge for arresting and sentencing an under-age girl. He said according to the law, people under 18 should not be given lashes.
'She was wearing a normal skirt and blouse, worn by thousands of girls. They didn't contact a guardian and punished her on the spot.
Marocco: passi in avanti legislativi e sociali per le donne
Women in North Africa have made tremendous progress in promoting and upholding their rights. Women in this region—commonly known as the Maghreb—are at the forefront of the Arab world in terms of individual rights and gender equality, and constitute models for other Arab women to follow. A number of lessons may be drawn from the inspiring experience of women in North Africa, especially in Morocco and Tunisia.
Access to justice has been greatly facilitated by the new Family Courts in Morocco as necessitated by the Moroccan Family Code of 2004. When women marry, they are now able to retain ownership of their property thanks to Article 49 of the code, which allows for a separate contract on property alongside the marriage contract. This is in accordance with Islamic law, in which women may remain the sole owners of their property and have no legal obligation to share it with their husbands.
In addition, mothers married to foreign nationals in Morocco and Tunisia can now pass on their citizenship to their children—a privilege previously allowed only to men.
Women are also more visible in economic and academic spheres than before in the Maghreb. Nationwide youth literacy is gradually becoming a reality with women demanding accessible and standardised educational opportunities. And women often spearhead business ventures, are increasingly choosing their professions freely and feeling safer at the workplace as a result of laws that combat sexual harassment, and have better access to clinics and more independence in making decisions about their reproductive health.
http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=26736&lan=en&sid=1&sp=0
Nigeria: gli studenti in medicina chiedono la liberalizzazione dell'aborto
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Nigerian Medical Students' Association (NiMSA) has called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to review the abortion law which is part of the Criminal Code of 1979.
This Law was adapted from the British Offences against the Person Act of 1861," the medical students said in the communiqué signed by its President, Patrick Ezie and the National Secretary Evarest Okwara.
It would be recalled that barely three weeks ago after the ECOWAS Health Ministers in a meeting which held in Nigeria, called on respective member states to reform their abortion laws based on observations that unsafe abortion was contributing a lot to high maternal mortality statistics in the sub-region.
Abortion law in Nigeria only allows the medical procedure to the performed when pregnancy poses a threat to the life of the woman.
The medical students also identified some of the major causes of maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria to include unsafe abortion, breast and cervical cancer.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200912010378.html
Uganda: proposta legge omofoba
Remember: this is not a debate about the rights and wrongs of homosexuality in the eyes of the public. This is a debate about a proposed law that would permit the Ugandan state to execute any gay or lesbian person if they repeatedly engage in same-sex sexual relationships. Homosexuality has always been illegal in Uganda. This new law will increase the penalties for homosexuality to include judicial killing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ni/2009/12/ugandas_antigay_hate_law.html
After weeks of pressure from around the world, Ugandan politicians are reported to be considering an amendment to their proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This would remove the use of the death penalty and possibly even life imprisonment.
However, this is unlikely to satisfy the Bill’s critics, who insist that it would still be draconian, even with such amendments.
They point out that it would allow the imprisonment of anyone in authority – such as a teacher, priest or minister of religion – who knew of an instance of homosexuality but failed to report it.
While the campaign against the Bill has achieved significant support from Christians, there are fears that the removal of the death penalty clause would make churches in Uganda more likely to support the legislation.
The Anglican Church in Uganda has so far been divided on the Bill. Last week, Canon Gideon Byamugisha condemned the proposals as “state-sponsored genocide against a specific community of Ugandans”. However, his fellow Ugandan Anglican, Bishop Joseph Abura, has welcomed the Bill, describing its opponents as “lovers of evil”.
In its original form, the Bill sets down life imprisonment as the punishment for anyone who “stimulates the sexual organs” of someone of the same sex. The death penalty would be used if the “offender” were HIV positive, or if his/her sexual partner were disabled or aged under 18.
http://ekklesia.co.uk/node/10795
Human-rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the bill. They say it is a product of a campaign by evangelical churches and anti-gay groups that has led to death threats and physical assaults against Ugandans suspected of being gay.
The governments of the United States and France have criticized the proposed law, with France expressing “deep concern.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/ugandas-anti-gay-bill-causes-commonwealth-uproar/article1376503/
Uganda: la mutilazione genitale femminile resa illegale per legge
Un grande passo in avanti.
Female genital mutilation has been outlawed in Uganda under a bill passed unanimously by the Parliament, lawmakers said.
Ugandans convicted of the practice, also known as female circumcision, face up to 10 years in prison. If a girl dies from the surgery, which involves cutting off the clitoris to reduce sexual feeling, convicted offenders would be sentenced to life in prison.
http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/12/12/Uganda-bans-female-genital-mutilation/UPI-25661260646788/Egitto: le donne chiedono di leggere il Corano in pubblico ad alta voce
Cairo Egypt's women have already made inroads into several one-time domains of men. But a suggestion to allow women to recite Islam's holy book the Quran in public has triggered sharp differences among Muslim clerics in this country recently swept by a wave of Islamism.
More than two years ago, Egypt appointed its first women judges. However, a vigorous campaign to empower women, led by Mubarak's wife, has faced stiff opposition from Muslim fundamentalists, say observers.
Official ceremonies are usually opened with verses from the Quran, which are always recited by male shaikhs.
Likewise, Egypt's Muslims usually hire male reciters to read from the Holy Quran in the presence of male mourners in memory of their departed relatives. Never have women reciters been seen doing this.
"Women should have the right to recite the Holy Quran in public," said Souad Saleh, a well-known woman Muslim preacher. She told the same seminar that women's voices are not enticing and as such should not be suppressed
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/egyptian-women-reciting-quran-in-spotlight-1.571065
Congo: oltre 8000 donne violentate nella regione est nel 2009
Ma tanto questa notizia non è considerata cosi' importante....
The number of women raped in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where sexual violence committed by warring factions has become endemic, topped 8,000 last year, according to fresh estimates released by the United Nations Population Fund
http://www0.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=33703&Cr=democratic&Cr1=congo
Botswana: le donne ancora discriminate
Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) has urged government to facilitate progress in giving effect to the provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
BOCONGO noted that CEDAW has not been fully integrated into domestic law in Botswana. Even where attempts have been made to incorporate some aspects of the convention, this has been done in a piecemeal fashion, which limits the effectiveness of such reviews. Chigedzi Chinyepi, the BOCONGO Gender and Development Sector coordinator said government has in response to a list of issues and questions raised by the CEDAW committee, indicated that following the review in 1997 of all laws affecting the status of women in Botswana, some laws were not amended in line with the convention. The laws, which were not amended are Deserted Wives and Children Protection Act, Penal Code Amendment on Abortion, Law of Delicts and Customary Law.
BOCONGO stated that government has failed to ensure both de jure and de facto compliance with the provisions of CEDAW and that the inadequate dissemination of CEDAW and all laws that affect the status of women has denied them the benefits of the convention. Chinyepi said rural women, ethnic women, sexual minorities and women with disabilities are especially disadvantaged as there are no targeted interventions for their needs.
Chinyepi said because abortion is illegal in Botswana except in very limited cases, many women resort to unhygienic termination of pregnancies, which are unsafe and can result in long-term complications or fatalities. BOCONGO contends that failure to provide adequate, safe and affordable sexual and reproductive health services for all women amounts to a violation of their right to health
http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=1&aid=69&dir=2010/February/Thursday4
Kenya: estremisti cristiani antiabortisti strumentali per la proibizione dell'aborto legale nella costituzione
The threat by influential Christian leaders to mobilise a vote against Kenya's draft constitution if it does not explicitly prevent any expansion of abortion rights appears to have succeeded.
The draft assembled by a Committee of Experts for consideration by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) contained no specific reference to abortion, but the National Council of Churches (NCCK) and the Catholic Church were up in arms about a phrase stating that "everyone has a right to life" while failing to define where life begins and ends.
Phrases guaranteeing everyone the right to health care (including reproductive health care) and stating that no one may be refused emergency medical treatment have been deleted; added is a phrase ruling out abortion "unless in the opinion of a registered medical practitioner the life of the mother is in danger".
Grace Maingi-Kimani, the acting executive director of Federation of Women Lawyers Kenya (FIDA), says the move by the PSC is disheartening and will serve to limit access to choice for women and young girls who are raped and end up pregnant.
"The PSC was not thinking about the hundreds of women who were raped during the post-election violence and were forced to have children sired by men who violated them and possibly killed their husbands. The PSC was not thinking of young girls who are abused by their teachers and forced to cut short their education due to unwanted pregnancies," Kimani says.
Currently, abortion is permitted in Kenya only to save the life of the mother. Despite this, every year large numbers of women seek assistance to terminate pregnancies wherever they can find it.
Dr Joachim Osur, an advisor with reproductive health rights organisation IPAS - a member of the RHRA - argues that opponents of expanded abortion rights in Kenya have their heads buried in the sand.
"Despite termination of pregnancy being restricted in Kenya, induced abortions remain common. In Kenya it is estimated that 300,000 spontaneous and induced abortions occur annually, about 29 abortions for every 100 live births," says Osur.
"Unsafe abortions contribute a significant margin to the maternal deaths in this country at 30 percent. It is estimated that 2,000 women die annually from unsafe abortions."
Malawi: via libera alla costruzione Raising Malawi Girls Academy di Madonna
Some 200 villagers in Malawi have ended their protests and agreed to leave their land to make way for a school being built by pop star Madonna.
Work is now expected to start soon on the Raising Malawi Girls Academy outside the capital, Lilongwe.
The AFP news agency says it is expected to be finished in two years' time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8513052.stm
Egitto: discriminazione contro le donne giudice
The Council of State's association voted by an overwhelming majority against appointing women as judges in the council, Egypt's MENA news agency said.
Hossam Bahgat, an expert on human rights law and director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, criticised the judges' decision on Monday.
"I'm disappointed to see that there is a deep-seated bias prevalent among judges against women," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100215/wl_mideast_afp/egyptwomenrightsjustice_20100215191045
Swaziland: alcune donne potranno avere diritto alla proprietà
The High Court of Swaziland ruled on 23 February 2010 that some married women will be allowed to register property in their own name. It has been five years since the new Constitution granted women equal status, after centuries of being classified and treated as minors.
Although the Constitution has granted women equal rights with men, in practice old laws still on the statute books continue to define gender relations. Observers blame a lack of political will for the slow progress in replacing laws that conflict with the Constitution.
Justice Qinisile Dlamini, the High Court's sole female judge, ruled that "Section 151 (2) of the Constitution states that the High Court has jurisdiction to enforce fundamental human rights and freedoms guaranteed by (the Constitution). This includes the right to equality, which is guaranteed by section 20 and 28 of the Constitution."
However, the ruling only applies to women married in a civil ceremony, and with a community of property agreement. About 80 percent of Swaziland's one million people live on communal Swazi Nation Land under customary law administered by chiefs.
"The marriage law must be changed because it assumes that all Swazi women are married the traditional way, which is really arranged marriages that unite two families. A woman is a minor under her parent's homestead until she goes to her husband's homestead, where she is also a minor. The law considers the husband the administrator of the marital property," said Lomcebo Dlamini.
Egitto: alcune donne cominciano a non indossare più il velo
Un'ottima notizia. E speriamo che la tendenza continui.
Salwa cherche ses mots, s’interrompt. «Quand on porte le voile, on oublie qu’on l’a sur la tête. Il fait partie de nous-même. On l’a intégré comme un élément de notre personnalité. Mais pour les autres, il prend le dessus sur tout le reste. Vous êtes d’abord la muhajaba, la voilée. Le voile vous définit socialement comme un être religieux. Même si vous, vous avez l’impression de ne pas être que cela.»
Dans ce contexte d’hyper-religiosité, le geste de Rania, Salwa, Doaa, reste difficile à voir. Et pourtant : il suffit d’évoquer la question autour de soi pour que très vite, on cite l’exemple de telle ou telle, qui s’est «déhijabisée». Dans le quotidien égyptien Daily News, la journaliste Sara el-Sirgany remarque : celles qui enlèvent le voile ont souvent fait œuvre de pionnières, au début des années 90.
Isis, elle, a quitté son voile l’été dernier. Lorsque son père, le penseur Sayed el-Qemany s’est vu menacé de mort par des islamistes, pour ses écrits théologiques jugés apostats, l’obligeant à vivre reclus, sous protection policière. Devant les anathèmes, abasourdie par la vindicte collective, Isis s’est interrogée sur la façon dont ses concitoyens pensaient l’islam. Le voile - que cette jeune ophtalmologue portait depuis trois ans, «pour faire comme tout le monde» - a synthétisé toute son amertume. Elle l’a ôté. «Je ne voulais pas avoir à leur prouver avec ça que j’étais une bonne musulmane. Je jeûne. Je prie. Mais il n’y a que moi que ça regarde.»
ania en sait quelque chose : sans son hijab, tout le monde la prend pour une copte, ces chrétiens d’Egypte qui représentent 10 % environ de la population. «Et alors ? Quel est le problème ? Ça ne me dérange pas, mais ça en dit long sur l’état de la société.»
«Ma dignité de musulmane, assure-t-elle désormais, est dans le voile moral qui protège ma vertu et ma conscience. Pas mes cheveux.»
Sudafrica: gruppi di uomini lottano contro la violenza alle donne
Semplicemente dei bravi ragazzi, di cui si dovrebbe parlare di più.
When Mbuyiselo Botha decided to take the African National Congress League President, Julius Malema, to court for hate speech against women, he was confident from the start that the case had merit. But he also knew that this would be the most challenging test of his 15 years of gender activism.
"My colleagues from back during the anti-apartheid activism days warned that I had taken a career damaging move; I was seen as challenging the black leadership," said Botha.
"After the end of apartheid in 1994, I thought we cannot claim to have total freedom when women are still subjected to suffering through unnecessary cultural practices and perceptions."
When Sonke Gender Justice Network (Sonke) was formed in 2006, the organisation found that a majority of men they surveyed in Johannesburg believed they were not doing enough to end domestic violence. Since then the organisation has been educating and training boys and men to "realign their thinking".
"We have been working in six of the country’s 10 provinces and we are looking forward to expand our foothold," said Regis Mtutu, the organisation's National Programmes Coordinator.
Sonke means "Together" in Nguni languages. And this is the strategy of the organisation in its bid to realise gender equality. "We simply believe that working in the context of men, talking to them together with organisations that push for women's rights, we can attain our goal," added Mtutu.
Elsewhere in Africa, Sonke is working in collaboration with like-minded organisations such as Padare/Enkundleni in Zimbabwe, the Kenya-based Men Can and the Rwanda Men's Resource Centre. Together, the organisations resolved at a 2009 symposium to assist African governments through capacity building and implementation of policy.
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50853Tanzania: le donne reclamano il diritto a possedere la terra
THERE is a significant sense of change among women’s lives in Kisarawe following public education on their land rights, saving them from cultures and traditions which had confined them to the fence of family property.
Findings from this oldest district of 100 years with 76 villages and 15 wards revealed an unfolding impact of public education on the lives of mothers who had suffered for years under disguises of culture and traditions whose character of succession were discriminatory against women.
The ‘Daily News’ pitched camp for two days in this district of 100,000 people to find out if local authorities are conforming to the principle equality between women and men under the watch of different village councils.
Women in the age group of 40 to 60 , who had suffered discrimination in inheritance of family property for decades, are now able to use the information empowerment about their rights to save their colleagues who face the ruthlessness of their in-laws over land when their husbands dies
The Community Development Officer at ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, Ms Grace Mbwilo said the radical move, which was initially facing resistance by forces supportive of cultures and traditions had confined women to the fence of family property, had gradually received acceptance as more women armed themselves with information on what their land rights are and where they can report in case of difficulties.
“We have to right the cultural and social economic wrongs that hinder the economic progress of women and other traditional disadvantaged groups, in all rural Tanzania”,she said
Land rights issues which were initially seen to be putting tradition and modernity in a confrontation is currently gaining approval on either side as girls are viewed as stakeholders of their family land.
Kenya: le donne costrette ad abortire clandestinamente
Con tutto quello che ne consegue per la loro salute.
Women are being forced into backstreet abortions in Kenya because of the country's restrictive abortion law, a study says.
And the law could soon get even tougher with church groups urging a ban on almost all abortions.
The U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Health, which advocates abortions rights, found that women and girls in Kenya use metal wires, knitting needles and other unsafe practices to abort tens of thousands of unwanted pregnancies.
Now church groups in Kenya are pushing for the new constitution, coming up for a parliamentary vote soon, to make almost all abortions illegal. The church groups want to define 'life as starting at conception,' and heavily restrict abortion except for cases where a mother's life is in immediate danger.
Social workers say that women often don't have choices and that in a country where one-third of maternal deaths are caused by abortions, they say stricter laws will only force women to make choices that could kill them.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/03/23/kenya.abortions/index.html
Egitto: le donne lottano per poter diventare giudici
When women tried to join the bench on Egypt's top administrative court, the uproar from its judges was fierce. Women are too emotional, they insisted
Egypt has a century-old women's movement, and women have long served as government ministers and business executives, doctors and other professionals — not to mention the large numbers working in factories, small businesses and household industries.
But the dispute illustrated how so far, progress for women in the workplace has not soaked down in the public consciousness to create a widespread change in attitudes — particularly at a time when many popular Islamic clerics on television and other media promote a message that women's roles are inherently different from men's, and more centered around family and the home.
Women's groups picketed the State Council, defending their right for the position. They argued that the women had passed all the necessary standardized tests to become council judges.
"They say their decision to ban women from the bench is out of compassion for us, they want to spare women the tiring, difficult work," columnist Amal Abdel-Hadi wrote in the independent daily, al-Masry al-Youm. "These judges have obviously not worked as a public school teacher, a nurse or a midwife."
"Thirty percent of homes in Egypt have women as heads of households," she wrote, "and the reality is that Egyptian women will even travel abroad, leaving their families behind, to find a way to feed them."
The council's supervisory body overruled the assembly on Feb. 22, and council chief Mohamed al-Husseini called the ban unconstitutional. That sparked legal action by the judges in the assembly to oust him.
Finally, the prime minister referred the question to the Constitutional Court. On March 14, it ruled that all citizens are equal before the law, and backed the State Council's supervisory body's jurisdiction over the issue.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_women_judgesAlgeria: ondata di aggressioni contro le donne single
Ma questa notizia non credo apparirà nella stampa a grande tiratura. A chi può mai interessare la sorte di queste donne?
Depuis deux semaines, chaque soir, le scénario de l’horreur se répète, face à l’impuissance ou l’inertie des services de police, alors qu’un commissariat se trouve à quelques centaines de mètres de ce quartier situé dans la ville pétrolière censée être la plus surveillée du pays. Les maisons ne sont pas choisies au hasard. Elles sont repérées dans la journée, puis mises à sac la nuit. La plupart sont habitées par des femmes originaires du nord, qui vivent loin de leurs familles. Rares sont celles qui déposent plainte, car les plus téméraires ont payé cher leur acte. Elles ont fini par abandonner leur domicile, errant d’un quartier à un autre à la recherche d’un lieu plus sûr. Rencontrées sur place, les témoignages de certaines d’entre elles font froid dans le dos et font craindre le pire. Terrorisées, les victimes ont toutes refusé de révéler leur identité. « C’est la misère qui nous a fait faire des centaines de kilomètres à la recherche d’un emploi pour nourrir nos familles.
Nous ne voulons pas perdre le pain de nos enfants. Nous voulons juste gagner notre vie avec dignité et dans la sécurité. Nous sommes des citoyennes au même titre que les autres,et nous avons droit d’aller n’importe où pour travailler », déclare Souad, âgée d’une trentaine d’années.
Elle avait entendu parler des attaques nocturnes contre les femmes qui résident seules, mais elle pensait qu’elle ne serait jamais parmi les victimes, parce qu’elle était appréciée et respectée au quartier des 40 logements. « Pour moi, c’était le choc. Au deuxième coup de pied, la porte d’entrée a cédé. Ils étaient cinq ou six, encagoulés et armés de couteaux, de sabres, de haches de boucherie et de barres métalliques. J’étais comme tétanisée. Les cris de ma colocataire ne les ont même pas dérangés. Ils étaient comme sous l’effet de la drogue.
De nombreux agresseurs vivent tranquillement chez eux, protégés par les leurs, souvent des notables aux traditions très conservatrices qui n’acceptent pas que des femmes habitent seules au milieu des leurs ou qu’elles « arrachent le travail des hommes ». Les assauts répétés contre leurs maisons sont pour eux « une expédition d’épuration » que même les services de sécurité ne peuvent empêcher. Une réalité qui se confirme sur le terrain. Depuis près d’un mois, les femmes des quartiers des 36 et 40 Logements vivent l’enfer. L’inertie des services de police fait craindre le pire en ces lieux livrés à des bandes organisées de délinquants aux visages masqués. A ce rythme, si les pouvoirs publics n’interviennent pas, un autre drame beaucoup plus grave que celui d’El Haïcha pourrait avoir lieu.
http://www.elwatan.com/Elles-sont-attaquees-de-nuit-parAlgeria: le donne di Hassi Messaoud si organizzano per difendersi dalla violenza
Le comité de solidarité avec les femmes violentées à Hassi Messaoud annonce son intention de se restructurer en instance ou observatoire de veille pour alerter sur les violences à l’égard des femmes et les dénoncer. Composé d’une quinzaine d’associations de défense des droits de l’homme en général et des droits des femmes en particulier, ce comité exige de l’Etat qu’il assume son devoir de protection des travailleuses…
A signaler que ce comité est composé des représentants du réseau Wassila, de l’Association pour la défense et protection des droits des femmes (ADPDF), de l’Association pour l’émancipation des femmes (AEF), de l’Association du planning familial (APF), de l’Anadde, de l’Atustep, d’Amusnaw, de l’Association d’aide aux victimes de violence femmes et enfants (Avife), du Centre d’information et de documentation des droits des femmes et des enfants (Ciddefe), du Collectif des femmes du printemps noir, de Djazaïrouna, de Femmes en communication (FEC), des Femmes PLD, de la Ligue algérienne de défense des droits de l’homme (LADDH), de la Ligue algérienne des droits de l’homme (LADH), de Rachda, de SOS Femmes en détresse, de Tharwa Fatma n’Sumer, de l’Association de défense des libertés syndicales. Une liste qui reste ouverte, y compris aux personnalités, selon son porte-parole.
http://www.elwatan.com/Affaire-des-femme-agressees-a?page=plan
Malawi: estremisti islamici ostacolano approvazione della legge contro la poligamia
Muslims in Malawi have been angered by government plans to ban polygamy.
The gender minister said the ban was necessary to prevent women from being abused in polygamous relationships.
She said problems occurred because men could not give their full attention to more than one woman.
But Imran Shareef Muhammed - secretary general of the Muslim Association of Malawi - disputed this.
"The minister is lying - she didn't consult the Muslim community," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
"We are totally rejecting it. There are also other ethnic groups [who practise polygamy] and they also totally reject this," he said.
"If these people go ahead banning polygamous marriages it means many women will go into prostitution.
"Every woman has the right to be under the shelter of a man."
He said under Sharia law, polygamy was optional.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8654326.stmAfrica: appello per investire nelle donne in agricoltura
Investing in women smallholder farmers is the key to halving hunger and results in twice as much growth as investment in any other sector, a new ActionAid report reveals.
At the moment, virtually nothing is being spent on research into crops grown by women, training, credit, early childhood education and access to land, despite food price hikes and shortages likely to worsen as climate change intensifies.
ActionAid believes that by scaling up support to smallholders to at least $40 billion per year globally, world leaders can deliver a 50 percent reduction hunger and poverty by 2015 – the most fundamental of the UN Millennium Goals.
http://www.actionaid.org/main.aspx?PageID=1436
http://www.actionaid.org/assets/pdf/Fertilegroundreport_webfinal.pdfMarocco: la polizia aggredisce donne laiche che manifestano contro le molestie sessuali
Le dimanche 2 mai à 11h du matin, les militants du Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles (Mali) se sont donné rendez-vous près de la fontaine aux pigeons, au centre-ville de Casablanca, pour faire un sit-in pacifique contre le harcèlement sexuel qui sévit dans les villes du royaume. La manifestation prévoyait des slogans humoristiques et s'adressait directement aux jeunes pour les sensibiliser au respect de la femme et à sa liberté d'occuper l'espace public.
A quelques mètres des lieux, les deux co-fondatrices du Mali, Ibtissame Lachgar et Zineb El Rhazoui, sont interpellées par des dizaines de policiers en civil. Elles étaient accompagnées par Pauline Beugnies, photographe de nationalité belge qui travaille pour le Monde magazine.
Sur place, elles ont été conduites dans le hall, empêchées de téléphoner. D'autres policiers les attendaient. Ils ont fouillé le sac de banderoles, vérifié les deux téléphones confisqués, l'appareil photo, et noté les slogans. Après avoir relevé leurs identités, les trois jeunes femmes ont été relâchées, et suivies par des voitures de police jusqu'au domicile de Zineb El Rhazoui. Le militant Rahime Mouktafi, ainsi que d'autres, présents à la fontaine aux pigeons, ont vu se dérouler la scène de loin.
Egitto: nascita del network delle giovani femministe arabe
Last week, 20 participants from across seven Arab countries came to Cairo for a four-day meeting to kick off the first Young Arab Feminist Network (YAFN), an initiative fueled by a determination to seek gender equality, and a desire to “be taken seriously,” according to one Egyptian founder, Engy Ghozlan.
“We decided we want to do a big meeting for young feminists, for older feminists, for people who are interested in the topic to exchange knowledge, to exchange experiences, to learn from each other, to show solidarity with each other. And you don’t have to be a feminist to come,” said Sharaf El-Din. With only one main activity on next year’s agenda, YAFN wishes to encourage offshoot projects that come up as they year unfolds. With such strategy in mind, YAFN is leaving room for each member to come up and implement a project in their respective communities, projects that will be nurtured by the support of other members in the network. After a four-day meeting, participants were pleased with the outcome. “I can’t believe it actually happened and that it happened the way it did; the openness, the criticism, the determination. This is something we have all been yearning for,” said Sharaf El-Din about the last four days. Similarly, Ghozlan said: “It was very enlightening. There was a lot of commitment and people felt that they really need this.” http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=29560
Mali: estremisti islamici attaccano imam che aveva difeso la nuova legge paritaria sul diritto di famiglia in discussione al parlamento
An imam in Mali is living in fear after backing a new family law which no longer obliges wives to obey their husbands, angering Muslim groups.
He has received threatening phone calls and local Muslim leaders have tried to dismiss him.
In April, the imam of Kati, 15km (9 miles) north-west of the capital, Bamako, wrote a letter to Mali's High Islamic Council stating he saw nothing in the new family law which infringed the country's social values, much less Islam, the BBC's Martin Vogl in Mali says.
The High Islamic Council has said imams can only be dismissed by their congregation and it is unclear what weight the decision by local Muslim leaders to sack the imam will have, our reporter explains.
But the incident has highlighted the intense feelings among Muslims towards the new family law.
Its most contentious provisions give more rights to women.
Nigeria: senatore musulmano sposa ragazzina di 13 anni
A Nigerian federal court will hear a case over whether the West African nation's religious freedom and privacy laws allow a Muslim senator to marry a 13-year-old girl
The lawsuit filed by the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria on behalf of Senator Ahmad Sani Yerima challenges the country's child protection laws that ban women from marrying before age 18. The suit, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, claims that Yerima's constitutional rights are being trampled over the controversy surrounding his alleged marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl.
The suit names the government's National Human Rights Commission, the Senate president and the speaker of the house as defendants. The Human Rights Commission has urged the police to investigate Yerima, while both chambers of the National Assembly have called for their own investigations.
Human rights groups say the 49-year-old lawmaker married the girl at the National Mosque in Abuja after paying her family a $100,000 dowry. Under child protection laws enforceable in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, a woman must be 18 before being able to consent to marriage. However, those laws aren't enacted in all of Nigeria's 36 states and activists say child brides have been married off in Muslim communities after their first period.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLblNs3s4jk_xGFP5ut23lEMLphQD9G4H3L01
Sudan: le donne del Darfour denunciano il continuo clima di violenza
Dove sono le manifestazioni? Dove sono le condanne? Dove sono le navi cariche di aiuti umanitari che partono alla volta del Sudan? Dove è lo sdegno?
Perchè a solo a pochi interessa la sorte delle donne del Darfour?
A group representing women from Sudan’s war-scarred western Darfur region has denounced the nearly two- year-old conflict, and called on the UN to act against those responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses in the region.
The fighting between the government troops and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Darfur has claimed some 70,000 lives and left 1.6 million people homeless, according to figures from relief groups.
In the name of all Darfur women, the widowed and those who have lost their children, the orphaned, displaced and refugees, we appeal to the government and the armed groups to stop hostilities and commit themselves to signed agreements and UN resolutions concerning the ceasefire and delivery of humanitarian assistance," the women said.
http://ns211683.ovh.net/spip.php?article7586Egitto: la Corte Amministrativa del Cairo sostiene il bando anti-niqab delle università
Un plauso all'Egitto!
The Cairo Administrative Court yesterday upheld the decision of the higher education minister, Hany Helal, and heads of three universities to bar women who cover their faces with a niqab from sitting in this month’s mid-year exams.
The case was filed against the higher education minister and the heads of Cairo, Ain Shams and Helwan universities, the sheikh of Al Azhar, the grand mufti and the minister of religious affairs, Mohammed Hamdi Zaqzouq.
Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al Azhar, banned the niqab in Al Azhar classrooms and dormitories after he forced a 12-year-old to remove her niqab. He said it did not matter as she was in a classroom full of girls and her school was run by women only.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100104/FOREIGN/701039884/1135
Angola: Luisete Macedo Araújo candidata alla presidenza
Araújo is the first Angolan woman to set her sights on the country’s top job, held for the last 30 years by the same man, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
While the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) has more than 70 women among its 191 members of parliament, and several female ministers in government, there are few high profile women in opposition.
The second biggest party the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) has 16 seats in the National Assembly, of which four are held by women. The remaining three opposition parties, sharing 12 seats between them, have no women in parliament.
"I want to be president of Angola because I want change," Araújo told IPS.
"We have so much wealth through oil," she said, "Yet there is also so much misery and suffering. There is a lot of work to be done to improve conditions for people here."
Despite the large presence of women in parliament, the mass membership of the women’s wing of the MPLA, Organisation of Angolan Women (OMA) and the work of the ministry of women and family, Araújo does not believe enough is being done to help women.
She said: "This government is not interested in families otherwise they wouldn’t be leaving people living in such bad conditions." She called for more concrete women-friendly policies such as welfare subsidies for single mothers and victims of domestic violence.
Balbina Martins da Silva, from the campaign group Platform of Women in Action, said Araújo’s presence in politics was an important marker for gender development.
"It’s a valid, positive and necessary step to have a female presidential candidate."
Araújo believes the country requires more than that – a new president. "The situation right now is suffocating. To have one man in power for 30 years, it’s a very long time," she said. "We need someone new, someone with new vision who can think differently for Angola."
Sudafrica: gel vaginale riduce il rischio di infezione da HIV
A new vaginal gel is the first to show promise in preventing HIV infection among women, researchers report. If licensed, the gel could be an effective female-initiated means of HIV prevention, which is especially important in places like Africa where condom use can be difficult for women to negotiate.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls account for about 60 percent of HIV infections. Currently, these women have no way to protect themselves against HIV if their male partners refuse to use condoms. Researchers have been working for over a decade to create a topical gel that women can use vaginally to prevent infection, but none has proven successful.
The new gel contains an anti-HIV drug called tenofovir. Tenofovir is already used in pill form because it helps slow HIV’s spread through a patient’s body. The secret to tenofovir’s success as a topical agent may be that it absorbs into the vaginal wall and into the cells targeted by HIV, says infectious disease epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim, another coauthor on the study.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/61286/title/Gel_shows_promise_against_HIV
Rwanda: le donne pilastro dell'economia nazionale
Her job at the Agaseke Project, a government run cooperative, has earned Ndizigiye a steady wage, her first savings account, and a taste of financial empowerment.
"I can pay school fees for my children. I can buy them clothes and food, and when I go out to the street people can see that I am really smart," she said.
Women like Ndizigiye are the economic backbone of today's Rwanda. The 1994 genocide left behind a population 70 percent female and when the bloodshed stopped it was women who picked up the pieces and started to rebuild.
Today there are still more women than men, and lawmakers are pushing for reform to help them and Rwanda prosper.
"In Rwanda there is a saying. The woman is the heart of the house, so if your heart is working well the whole body I think is also to benefit," said Dr. Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo, a parliamentarian for the Social Democratic Party.
Ndungutse wants women to leave her company to start their own businesses. But there are challenges. Many will need loans, and with high interest rates and Rwandan banks still dominated by men, startup money is still not easy to access.
"So now we are looking, how can we overcome that problem? We must have women in these financial institutions who can understand these problems, "she said.
Parliamentarian Jean Damascene Ntawukuriryayo acknowledges the challenges. He says the government is investing in programs to teach women how to successfully apply for loans. But he says the real solution lies in the minds of Rwandans.
"We have to accept as a Rwandan and we have to accept as men specifically that the woman in Rwanda has to be a key player in our lives and we don't leave you aside or behind any aspect of our life," he said. "Let us empower them economically to make them generate money."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/07/22/rwanda.women.business/index.html
Ghana: Priscilla Lovia Owusu-Asiedu diventa la prima donna prete nella chiesa anglicana
She joined the priesthood alongside Rev Father Gilbert Dua Otuo-Acheampong, Rev Father Joseph Adarkwa-Yiadom Akowuah and Rev Father Augustine Kwasi Boateng Acheampong at an ordination service held at the Obuasi Saint Paul's Anglican Church.
Kenya: la nuova costituzione aumenta i diritti delle donne
Certain provisions in the proposed Constitution will dramatically alter the status of women in Kenya.
The executive director of Kenya's Federation of Women Lawyers, Grace Maingi, said the new constitution includes affirmative action to achieve gender parity in parliament. Women are guaranteed a minimum of one-third of elected and appointed posts in government.
"Under the proposed Constitution, 47 special seats have been set aside for women in Parliament," Maingi told IPS. "When political parties are nominating 12 members to the August House, they will have to pay special attention to gender parity - an obvious departure from what has been the norm."
Dr Joachim Osur, a reproductive health expert, says the proposed Constitution will guarantee better health for the people of Kenya and women in particular.
"Health services have been centered in the urban areas. And with devolution that comes with the proposed Constitution, services will be moved closer to the people, through the creation of Counties which will have their own budgets including a health budget," Osur said.
"We expect better deployment of health workers in all parts of the country, better nutrition and provision of health services. We expect more women to deliver in hospitals and a sharp improvement of family planning services."
Namibia:Johanna Kwedhi è la prima donna comandante di peschereccio
She is a living example of the empowerment of women in Namibia.
Johanna captains the Kanus, one of the largest trawlers operating from Luderitz Harbour, an old port rebuilt for today's fishing boats. It's her responsibility not only to navigate a coastline infamous for shipwrecks, but to bring in a profitable catch.
And this is an industry not used to women being, literally, at the helm.
"My responsibility is to command," Johanna says, working her six-hour shift at the bridge with her male chief mate and second mate.
"I have 23 crew members on board, they are all under my authority. My shipmates on board the vessel are wonderful. Each and everybody has his duty."
And then she adds, "We have procedures we have to follow, and if we don't we will have to see what happens."
"She is the one who gives the order, what have to be done for the day," says Chief Mate Aaron Alweendo. "The orders came from him - I mean from her!"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10893469
Mali: 400 villaggi abbandonano la pratica della mutilazione genitale femminile
Despite some resistance, the fight against female genital mutilations (FGM) has recorded significant progress in Mali, with over 400 villages putting a stop to the practice, PANA learnt from the Ministry of Women, Child and Family on Thursday.
According to the directorate of the National Programme of the Fight against Excision (PNLE), the good result arose from intense advocacy and sensitization programme across the country.
Different associations and NGOs played significant role in the stoppage of the archaic and unhealthy exercise, accounting for a decline of the rate of practice from 95 percent to 85 percent.
Congo: ondata di stupri da parte dei ribelli
Members of a Rwandan militia and other rebels raped at least 154 women in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo three weeks ago and then tried to keep them from spreading word of the attack, the United Nations said.
A joint UN human rights and peacekeeping team reported that elements of the Democratic Liberation Forces of Rwanda, or FDLR, and the Mai-Mai Cheka group committed the rapes in the village of Bunangiri during the last week of July and first week of August, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters in New York today.
The rebels blocked a road connecting the village to a company of UN peacekeeping troops 18 miles away, preventing the villagers from reaching the nearest communication point, he said.
“Victims are receiving medical care and have also been provided psycho-social care,” Nesirky said. “Gathering of information continues. We still don’t have a full picture.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-23/rebels-in-eastern-congo-raped-at-least-154-women-over-two-weeks-un-says.html