Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia described the fatwa issued by the Scientific Council of the Ibadi Confession in Ghardaia forbidding the nomination of women in local elections in the province as an “internal fatwa that concerns a particular community.''
Brazilians will return to the polls next week less than a month after voters elected a record number of women as mayors, but gender equality is still a distant goal in a political culture long dominated by men.
The number of women standing in local elections in Armenia has barely changed from four years ago, despite government pledges to increase participation. Activists are now saying it might be is time for local polls to be subject to the same gender quotas as national elections.
A number of community organisations in Solomon Islands met with Government officials this week to try and advance their plans to have more women in Parliament.
The head of the United Nations Development Programme says her organisation will happily support MPs who want to re-introduce legislation to increase women’s political representation.
Across the Pacific, only about 5 percent of parliamentarians are women.
Women hoping to join Parliament will have to face elections if proposals made by MPs and political party leaders are approved by the House.