Parliaments & Representatives

The Chairman and CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has urged Nigerian women to actively participate in politics to shape national discourse and contribute meaningfully to the country’s development.

Dabiri-Erewa made the appeal while delivering a keynote address at the 2026 International Women’s Day celebration organised by Zenith Bank at the Civic Centre, Lagos.

Speaking on the theme, “Take It, You Own It,” she encouraged women to support one another and work collectively towards nation-building, stressing that unity and collaboration among women would strengthen their voices in leadership and governance.

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The vision of an inclusive democracy, forged on the streets during the July uprising, has collided with a formidable structural wall.

While the movement promised to remove discrimination from society, including those enforced by patriarchy, the February 12 election this year has instead exposed a pattern of systemic exclusion.

Initial ambitions for gender parity were incrementally diluted, with demands for 100 direct seats eventually shrinking to just 84 female candidates contesting the election, of whom only seven secured seats -- a disparity that reflects a failure to penetrate the country’s true epicentre of political influence.

Ahead of International Women’s Day today, The Daily Star sat with five female candidates, a professor of women and gender studies at Dhaka University, and a senior leader from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

Their collective experiences surrounding the recent national polls reveal that the structures of power remain guarded by deeply entrenched patriarchy, which manifests through immense capital, systemic muscle power, and coordinated digital warfare.

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As usual, Congress gathers around this time of year to try to extract some electoral advantage from International Women’s Day. Close to March 8, lawmakers typically hold a joint effort to approve measures aimed at female voters—initiatives that, on their merits, few would oppose. They include important proposals to combat violence and femicide and to promote health programs specifically focused on women. But it is necessary to scratch beneath the surface.

In Comoros, gender equality and women’s rights are upheld by the Constitution and the  2017 National Policy on Gender Equality and Equity. Gender issues are also addressed in the  country’s development roadmap, Comoros Emerging Plan 2030, which promotes the empowerment of women and girls across all sectors (Madjid, 2023). 

However, gender inequality is a pressing concern in the country. Comorian women have  notably lower literacy rates than men (67% compared to 73%). They are less likely than men  to attain post-secondary education and more likely to have no formal schooling (Union of  the Comoros, 2022). 

Women’s economic participation is significantly lower, with just 39% of working-age  Comorian women actively engaged in the labour force, compared to 58% of men (Union of  the Comoros, 2023). This disparity heightens their vulnerability to abuse. Among 78 reported  cases of economic violence from April to June 2025, 64% involved women (United Nations  Children’s Fund, 2025a). 

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HAVANA TIMES – Women’s political participation in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased over the last 25 years, especially in the legislative branch, but this rise has been accompanied by more discrimination and violence, amplified and accelerated by cyberspaces.

A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) notes that, despite the progress, the region “is still far from achieving gender parity,” since, “as female participation grew, so did the challenges women face.”

“Among the persistent barriers, digital political violence has become an increasingly significant obstacle,” the report states.

In its most recent Graph For Thought, the regional UNDP emphasizes that in 2024, the Latin American and Caribbean region registered the highest proportion worldwide of Congressional seats held by women, with 36.5% of the total seats.

That statistic places them above the 33.3% overall Congressional participation of women in the OECD countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), which are mostly industrialized nations, as well as the global average of 27%.

That same year, the proportion of women magistrates in supreme courts was five times higher than in 1998, rising from 5.5% to 28.2%. Representation in national Parliaments and municipal councils also doubled during that period.

Meanwhile, the percentage of women holding Cabinet-level positions increased from 17.1% to 30.4%. Some local spaces showed greater resistance to change, however: in 2024, only 15.9% of mayors in the region were women, making this the area with the lowest female representation.

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