women's empowerment

Yingluck Shinawatra was poised to become Thailand's first female prime minister Sunday after her party won a majority of parliamentary seats in the nation's general elections.

The official tally had not yet been completed, but with more than 90 percent of votes counted Sunday night, Yingluck's Pheu Thai party had won 262 seats in the country's 500-seat parliament.

We invite you to read the full article published July 4, 2011

Young Iraqi women aspiring to political careers are getting a boost from a new Young Women’s Leadership School launched recently with the help of NDI Iraq staff member Ferdos Majeed.

The number of Lebanese women elected to municipal offices more than doubled this year, increasing from the 201 elected in 2004 to 530 who were successful in this year’s polls. The increase was particularly noteworthy because it came without the help of a quota law, a technique used in a number of countries in the Middle East and elsewhere to ensure a specified number of seats for women.

The engagement of women in Iraq’s political process has been a major focus of NDI’s efforts in the country since 2006. Through the Women’s Empowerment Program (WEP), the Institute has conducted extensive training programs for women activists that have inspired engagement from the grassroots to the Iraqi Parliament.

Reinforcing presumed religious identities:
Where are women and secularists of Muslim countries in Obama’s speech in Cairo?

by Marieme Helie Lucas
Secularism is a Women's Issue (SIAWI)

It is beyond doubt that many people around the world, of various political opinions and creeds, will feel relieved after the discourse the President of the USA delivered in Cairo today. It is apparently a new voice, a voice of peace, quite far from Bush’s clash of civilisations. But is it so?