Women's political participation

Nadine Moussa, Lebanon’s first female candidate for the presidency, insists that Lebanon needs a “new social contract,” with women holding half of all parliamentary and governmental posts.

“I know what Lebanese women are capable of, and I know how much they can contribute,” Moussa told The Daily Star.

Moussa, a lawyer who has worked to promote women’s rights for over a decade, is the first female to officially run for president of Lebanon.

African women from 15 countries across the continent gathered in Nairobi, Kenya from April 23rd to the 24th to deliberate and strategize on women's political leadership in Africa. Convened by FEMNET (African Women's Development and Communication Network) and Urgent Action Fund – Africa (UAF-Africa), the meeting engaged seasoned politicians, aspirants, women's rights activists, leading organizations engaged in enhancing women's political leadership, donors, UN agencies and the media.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, where women hold just 23 percent of the seats in national parliaments and there are only three women heads of state, Catherine Samba-Panza, president of the Central African Republic (CAR), is an inspirational figure. Her position as the first female president of a Francophone country is a powerful symbol for African women, showing they can succeed even in countries where armed conflict, corruption and inequality have been the norm.

In late March, Raveela Gangula rallied a dozen women to stop a drunken man from savagely beating his wife in Muthangi, a village in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Although they restrained him and called the police, he was released that evening without charges.

“The police should have locked him up for at least a week and scared him from ever touching another woman like that again,” Gangula said. “The government does not support us.”

Khyber Pakhtunkhawa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak has announced that women police desks would be established at all 500 police stations of the province to facilitate the province’s female population.

Speaking at a ceremony in the provincial capital city, Khattak announced the establishment of Model Police Stations at Gulbahar, Faqirabad and UniversityTown areas under a pilot project which would be later extended to other police stations across the province.

This project empowers rural women in Kenya to engage with (county and national) government and participate in budget making and the prioritisation, monitoring and implementation of development activities. This will improve government accountability and responsiveness. It combines tech and non-tech solutions to address low participation by women in decision making.

A group of around 800 Moroccans, mostly women, staged a march in the capital Rabat on Sunday demanding that a constitutional guarantee of gender equality be applied in the kingdom.

The march from the city centre to parliament was led by the Civil Coalition for the Application of Article 19, which is reportedly made up of some 500 NGOs, and was joined by civil society organisations, lawmakers, rights groups and lawyers.