Women's political participation

On International Women's Day last month, Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani held a rally in Kabul attended by several thousand women. While they were all wearing headscarves, there was not a full-length burqa to be seen in the crowd. And did something highly unusual in Afghanistan: He let his wife, Rula, a Lebanese-American Christian, address the crowd.

We invite you to read the full article published April 3, 2014

In the halls of Leinster House, Constance Markievicz cuts a lonely figure as the only portrait of a female parliamentarian in the entire building.

When I pass her portrait, I often think this trailblazing woman would be horrified that the party she helped establish doesn’t have a single female TD today.

Electoral research shows once women get on the ballot paper they have the same chance of getting elected as their male counterparts.

Thirty representatives will take part in Tonga's first “Practice Parliament for Women” on April 10-11 in Nuku'alofa, a two-day event that aims to encourage women to run for parliament in the upcoming 2014 General Election in November.

Lord Fakafanua the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly last week announced the names of 28 candidates picked from a pool of applicants. They include nine “noble's representatives”, 17 “people's representatives” and two representatives elected by the Prime Minister from outside.

The campaign for Saturday's presidential election in Afghanistan is featuring women in a more prominent role than ever before. One front-runner has a female running mate, and another has let his wife address campaign rallies—major departures from established practice in a conservative, Islamic country where women have long been kept out of politics.

Activists say the relative prominence of women in the election campaign underlines the progress Afghan women have made since the U.S. ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

The social media experience which came across as a liberating tool for women, was often equated with a living room where one could voice opinions in public sphere. However, of late, a series of incidents have sounded a note of caution against the euphoria around social media. It has been compared to a street where women are abused, threatened, ogled at, rebuked, only virtually.

We invite you to read the full article published April 1 2014

Women from five West African countries converged at the Paradise Suites Hotel from 24 to 28th March 2014 to receive training on leadership skills. The five day training of the women activists from diverse walks of life was organised with the support of Women's Empowerment And Leadership Development For Democratisation (WELDD) and Women Living Under Muslim laws (WLUML) in collaboration with GAMCOTRAP .

PREMIUM TIMES investigations have shown that women are under represented at the ongoing national conference in Abuja.

There are roughly 78 women out of the 492 delegates attending the conference, which is less than 20 per cent, and far below the widely agitated 35 per cent affirmative action plan in Nigeria.

Data from the 2006 National population census shows that out of the country's total population of over 140 million, over 71 million are male while over 69 million are female.

Mariam Wardak is one of those young Afghans with her feet in two worlds: At 28, she has spent much of her adult life in Afghanistan, but she grew up in the United States after her family fled there. She vividly remembers the culture shock of visits back to her family’s village in rural Wardak Province a decade ago.

We invite you to read the full article published April 1, 2014

They called it the Year of the Woman. In 1992, four women were elected to the U.S. Senate —  fueled in part by outrage at the all-male Senate panel that had grilled Anita Hill.  Patty Murray of Washington state, famously denigrated as just a “mom in tennis shoes,” was one of them.

We invite you to read the full article published April 1, 2014