women leaders

The Nationwide Women Forum on Peace, Security and Development, jointly organized by women’s human rights organizations and Columbia University, began at the Sky Star Hotel in Yangon yesterday.

The five-day forum is aimed at promoting the participation of women in politics, peace, development, and business activities, in particular to encourage women suffering from conflict and natural disasters to take part during Myanmar’s democratization period.

The women of Afghanistan today aren’t the same women of 2001. They’ve expanded their access to health care, education, justice, and political power. As Inclusive Security Action’s Michelle Barsa noted Tuesday in a congressional hearing, “Afghan women weren’t handed progress; they fought for it.”

As we approach the 2014 deadline for the security transition, organizations like ours that have worked in Afghanistan over the past decade share concerns about the erosion of gains that Afghan women have made.

Women Affairs Minister Hajiya Zainab Maina has called for the adoption of special measures to entrench affirmative action-certain percentage of women- in both elective and appointive positions at all levels in the 2015 elections.

She made the during her key-note address at a 2-day for female parliamentarians on state legislatures on affir-mative action and the quota implementation guideline.

We invite you to read the full article published October 30, 2013

Madi Jobarteh, the programme manager of The Association of Non-governmental Organisations (TANGO) has said that women are the major players in politics but quality participation of women in politics is needed.

He made these remarks during an interview with this reporter at his office in Fajara, after his institution held a two-day workshop on gender quota in politics under its Women in Politics Project funded by the American Embassy in Banjul.

Market women at the Rally Time Market in Central Monrovia have expressed gratitude to President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf for her unwavering commitment to women's issues since coming to office.

In a NewDawn interview, they particularly commended the President for opening free primary schools across the country to enable their children return to school while creating an enabling learning environment.

Khadija Ghaznawi says she knows exactly how to end the long-simmering conflict in Afghanistan: build more factories. A logistics company owner by profession and peace activist on the side, Ghaznawi says that if the government had been diligent about creating more jobs for Afghans, militants would have laid down their arms already.

 We invite our users to read the complete article published October 24 2013

Voters across Israel choose new mayors and city councilors in local elections Tuesday. In one small town, a handful of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women are defying the norms of their community by running for office.

On a recent day, children mob two women in skirts, stockings and purple T-shirts in a neighborhood park in El'ad, or Forever God. The women are candidates for town council. As part of their get-the-word-out campaign, they're blowing up balloons for kids.

In 2008, only six Arab women were elected to local office, but this year, that number is seen rising to 15.

In the last elections, 149 Arab women ran in the elections, with only six elected to local office. This year, there are 173, with forecasts predicting about 15 will be elected. And this year, the women are placed much higher on the local slates.

We invite our users to read the complete article published October 23 1013