WOMEN attending the international conference on economic and political empowerment and peace building in Harare have backed the quota system that enables them to take up decision making positions.
Fungai Masuku (not a real name) is still haunted by the events of the election re-run campaign of March 2008.
An advocacy group says there are 407 women candidates registered for the May 2 federal election representing 31 per cent of all those running for seats in Parliament.
Women from all the main parties are set to join forces next week - to demand an increase in females in the next Assembly. Yet only one in six candidates fighting it out for the 108 seats are women - a marginal drop compared to the last Stormont election.
The woman in Tahrir Square was worried. "The men were keen for me to be here when we were demanding that Mubarak should go," she told me when I visited Cairo last month.
Through protesting, organising, blogging and hunger-striking, women have taken a central role, but it remains to be seen whether their rights will improve
The Liberal Democrats face the prospect of having no female MPs after the next election if their current poll ratings continue, the Fabian Society says.
Political parties have announced deputy candidate lists. Women organizations argue that female deputy candidates were placed in the least likely spots on the lists to be elected and were used like filling materials.
When anti-government demonstrations first began in Yemen three months ago, many predicted that they were likely to fail because - unlike Tunisia or Egypt - Yemen would not be able to mobilise half of its population.