iKnow Politics

The women of the Middle East are offering a huge contribution to the ongoing fight to regain freedom and human rights, yet the mainstream media usually focuses only on negatives and violations.

In this series I will share facts, figures, and real life stories of historic women and of real, everyday women like you and me. Hopefully this will help us draw inspiration to change our world, one step at a time, each in their respective environment.

The adoption of a new bill, now before Cabinet, would help to fully emancipate South African women, said the Minister of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana.

"Within the 100 years, a lot has been achieved to attain the total emancipation of South African women of all races," she said in a speech prepared for delivery at the launch of Women's Month in Freedom Park, Tshwane.

Xingwana paid tribute to women who fought for liberation, including Charlotte Maxeke, Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

As the world continues to watch the wave of uprisings across Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) nations, AWID and other women’s rights organizations around the world, together with our partners in the region, strategize on how to best hold the line to ensure that women’s rights are not jeopardised, while maintaining meaningful spaces for women’s rights activists to actively participate in the transition processes.

Women's political representation is vital to securing greater gender equality, feminists and others argue. Africa has made great strides in electing more women to its parliaments.

Four African countries are among the top ten countries with the highest numbers of women in parliament. But even in these countries, gender inequality persists. Many of Africa's women are still constrained by sexist laws and cultural beliefs that infringe their rights.

Women politicians are making history in New Jersey this year. Because of a quirk in the state’s politics, five women — two Republicans and three Democrats — are running for statewide office.

The Women's Political Caucus of New Jersey (WPCNJ) congratulates New Jersey's Democratic candidate for governor in 2013, State Senator Barbara Buono, in her choice on SEIU 1199 Vice-President Milly Silva as her running mate. According to Center for Women and Politics(CAWP), New Jersey is only the third state ever to field a two-woman major party ticket in the general election for a state's top elective posts, following examples set by Democrats in Illinois in 1994 and Republicans in Kentucky in 1999.

Constituents around the state have been receiving mail declaring that the state Senate has passed historic women's legislation. The Assembly passed the 10-point Women's Equality Act in its entirety, but the state Senate failed to do so. The state Senate passed nine separate bills and refused to even discuss the 10th: the critical reproductive health component supported by 850 organizations and businesses from around the state. 

The All Women Action Society (Awam) welcomes the state of Selangor's initiative to make it compulsory to have 30 percent of members of the local council be women, from the Jan 1, 2014.

This is a necessary step to even out an uneven playing field as women's representation in politics has consistently been poor.

However, Awam would also like to highlight that there still exists systemic obstacles to women's political participation.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the rights of Afghan have progressed: Women are in school, the workplace and government.
 
But those advances could well be jeopardized in coming months, according to a new report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).