While women have sacrificed and peacefully protested side by side with men in nations throughout North Africa and the Middle East, there are signs that women are increasingly being sidelined from the formation of new governments.
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has assured female voters of their safety on election days as well as proper security arrangement at polling stations across the country.
Mad Hamida Harrison, Convener for Women's Manifesto Coalition, a non-governmental organization, has noted with regret that few women in the country hold decision making positions and this "makes the existing political structure undemocratic."
Protests against Moammar Gadhafi have been a daily occurrence outside the White House since weeks before the U.S. and allies established a no-fly zone over Libya.
Voluntary quotas for women on the boards of publicly listed companies, as proposed by the EU commission, do not work, with legally-binding ones needed, a Norwegian official has said on the basis of the Nordic country's leading experience in the area.
Public opinion polls show 46.6% of respondents believe Armenian women are discriminated, while 41.1% disagree with this opinion, said head of Caucasus Research Center while presenting a “Survey on Gender Dimension of Civic and Political Participation in Armenia”.
Activist Egyptian women look forward to forming a voting bloc for the elections and celebrating newfound democratic freedoms. But an Amnesty International report of female protesters tortured by military officers is casting a pall.
While representing a month of liberation for many in the Middle East, March was revolutionary for the area in more than one way. At the culmination of Women’s History Month, I would like to take note of some very famous women as of late: the female revolutionaries of the Middle East.
Afghanistan shows their rights tend to be forgotten in our eagerness to intervene. Libya deserves better