Parliament

When the 2010 parliament comes to an end on 30 March, 10 of the Labour party’s most high-achieving female MPs and former ministers will be standing down. Some of them began their parliamentary careers in 1987, and together they have clocked up 200 years in parliament.

The Jordanian parliament is no stranger to screaming matches but a recent incident was so controversial that it provoked people to poke fun at their MPs online.

Earlier this week, during a heated argument over the Muslim Brotherhood, independent MP Yehia al-Saud was cut off by one of his female colleagues, Hind al-Fayez.

"Sit down Hind!" al-Saud yelled several times.

A new report on Public perceptions of women in leadership, released in Suva on 5 November, provides a window onto changing community attitudes about the role of women in political leadership in Fiji. The research also provides insight into the views that lie behind women’s increased representation in parliament at the recent elections, to 14%, up from 11% in the 1999 and 2006 elections.