women's rights

The Speaker of the Tongan parliament, Lord Fakafanua today launched a program, the Practice Parliament for Women. The program aims at encouraging women to enter parliament.

 Lord Fakafanua announced the initiative this morning, and launched a nationwide public awareness program to encourage interested women to apply for a seat in the 30 seats, Practice Parliament for Women. Two seats would be set aside for youths and and the disabilities. All women from the age of 21 upward may apply for a seat in the 30 seats parliament for women.

In Afghanistan, a dangerous bill has slipped through two houses of Parliament and is poised to devastate women’s rights advocates and victims of abuse. The law would ban all family members of accused criminals—be they abusers, rapists, murderers—from being questioned by police or testifying against them in court. Doctors and psychiatrists would also be barred from providing evidence. In most domestic cases it would be virtually impossible to get a conviction.

Puntland’s new minister for women affairs and Family Development Anisa Abdulkadir Haji Mumin has today officially taken over office in a ceremony held at the Ministry’s headquarters in Garowe.

Former Minister Halimo Haji Hassan handed over to the new minister documents containing the recent developments achieved by the previous team of the ministry and pending plans.

It’s official: Before adjourning yesterday, the Senate formally approved the shift in chairmanships following Max Baucus’s departure that leaves Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu atop the Energy and Natural Resources Committee as Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden moves to the Finance Committee. But don’t expect any sudden action: Landrieu has repeatedly said she wants to meet with committee members before drawing up an agenda for the rest of the year. And in the short term, the Senate has adjourned until Feb. 24.

Hillary Clinton told a packed auditorium of New York University students Thursday that the most important tip she could offer women in public life was a lesson she took from one of her role models, Eleanor Roosevelt: “Grow skin like a rhinoceros.”

In 1967, Shirley Temple Black ran for Congress in California, attempting to become the first woman in the Golden State’s congressional delegation.

“I think men are fine and here to stay but I have a hunch that it wouldn’t hurt to have a woman’s viewpoint expressed in that delegation of 38 men,” she said, according to an Associated Press dispatch of her press conference. “One congresswoman among 38 congressmen is not unfair, fellows.”