Wednesday 1st February

Taking the Pope to court

Shareen Gokal, 1 February 2012
In a landmark effort to bring Vatican officials, including Pope Benedict XVI, to account for crimes against humanity - the widespread and systematic sexual violence perpetrated by the Catholic Church, a case has been filed with the International Criminal Court. Shareen Gokal reports
Thursday 26th January

Are Bosnian and Herzegovinian victims of wartime rape finally being given constructive attention?

Aleksandra Nedzi, 26 January 2012
Unlike perpetrators, victims of wartime rape and sexual violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina do not receive much attention in the media, not only due to social ostracism but also lack of a coherent strategy and resources to address their needs.
Tuesday 24th January

Why women are at the heart of Egypt’s political trials and tribulations

Hania Sholkamy, 24 January 2012
The Egyptian elections delivered a parliament that has one of the lowest rates of female representation in the world. Yet this is the parliament that expresses the political will of the people of Egypt. It may also be one that ignores the social realities of gender and of women’s political participation, says Hania Sholkamy

Unfair, unsafe and undignified: the treatment of women seeking asylum in the UK

Christel Querton, 24 January 2012
In breach of the government's pledge to make the asylum system sensitive to the needs of women, officials are asking women to disclose information about sex work and abuse in the earshot of queuing strangers, and in front of their own children. This lack of privacy can have disastrous consequences, says Christel Querton
Monday 23rd January

Egyptian women: performing in the margin, revolting in the centre

Zainab Magdy, 23 January 2012
"We are constantly aware of our gender and of being watched and judged because of it, so we end up "performing". But in taking to the streets there are no performative acts and there is no audience. Now I feel that there is no going back, After all, there is no text to follow, and no director. It is as it has always been: us and them", says Zainab Magdy
Sunday 22nd January

Gender mainstreaming: the future of feminism? Or feminism’s disappearing act?

Heather McRobie, 22 January 2012
Sylvia Walby’s ‘The Future of Feminism’ makes the case for gender mainstreaming as a successful mechanism for integrating feminist principles into institutions. But doing so runs the risk of subordinating feminist goals to other agendas, a contradiction that Walby never entirely resolves.
Friday 20th January

The Occupy Movement - a revolution in our sense of self

Kerry-anne Mendoza, 20 January 2012
The Occupy Movement, far from having no programme, has revolutionized our sense of self. The Citizen of the World adopts a panoramic view of society and takes the interests of others all over the world to be as important as her or his self interest.
Thursday 19th January

Development and religion: ambivalent policy, grounded practice

Cassandra Balchin, 19 January 2012
Development policy seems to swing between a Marmite-style love-it-or-hate-it approach to religion. Yet practice on the ground is more subtle—and more effective. Cassandra Balchin suggests why this gap exists between policy and practice
Monday 16th January

EU democracy in crisis: mired in a perfect storm or rebounding?

Kirsty Hughes, 16 January 2012
If the heart of the crisis lies in the politics – including in the politics of the economic policy choices being made – then solutions may lie, not in yet more EU institutional changes and the creation of an austerity union, but in the practice and the dynamism of democratic European politics. But a certain tradition of creating a theoretically more democratic Europe for the people even if they do not seem to want it has deep roots in the EU elites. So far, this hasn't worked.

Ruder, more liberal and as class-conscious as ever: how Britain sees itself today

Sunder Katwala, 16 January 2012
As arguments over nationhood and independence once again grab the political agenda, Sunder Katwala, director of a new think tank probing attitudes to identity and integration, finds cause for optimism

The politics of belonging in Britain

Jenny Allsopp, 16 January 2012
'There is no opposite to belonging’: Nira Yuval-Davis in conversation with Jenny Allsopp on religion, migration and the politics of belonging. So is it time to open up the debate and ask what it means to belong 'in' - rather than 'to' - contemporary Britain?
Sunday 15th January

Meet the ‘new’ Hamas: strategic shift or temporary deviation from a violent path?

Benedetta Berti, 15 January 2012
Contrary to the widespread assumption that the recent ‘nonviolent turn’ would be a new and unprecedented development in the evolution of Hamas, the history of the group reveals a constant internal tension along this political-military line
Friday 13th January

How the British justice system makes criminals of children

Shauneen Lambe, 13 January 2012
It is time to reconsider how we deal with child offenders. Just for Kids Law director Shauneen Lambe examines new research showing that the brains of young people are still maturing
Thursday 12th January

Why migrant mothers die in childbirth in the UK

Ramya Ramaswami, 12 January 2012
Maternal mortality among black African women in the UK is up to seven times higher than it is among white women. Doctors’ surgeries are misunderstanding their obligations to migrant patients, says Dr Ramya Ramaswami
Tuesday 10th January

The Saudi response to the ‘Arab spring’: containment and co-option

Madawi Al-Rasheed, 10 January 2012
Saudi Arabia’s response to the ‘Arab spring’ has been an attempt to co-opt movements for change in a bid to maintain the status quo. Madawi Al-Rasheed talks to Deniz Kandiyoti about the contradictions of a ruling elite that promotes a conservative Islam, that threatens women’s existing rights abroad – as in Tunisia and Egypt – while it poses as the emancipator of women at home
Wednesday 4th January

Has neoliberalism knocked feminism sideways?

Rahila Gupta, 4 January 2012
Feminism needs to recapture the state from the neoliberal project to which it is in hock in order to make it deliver for women. It must guard against atomisation and recover its transformative aspirations to shape the new social order that is hovering on the horizon, says Rahila Gupta
Monday 2nd January

Russian provincial life: to be or not to be…single

Elena Strelnikova, 2 January 2012
It’s an age-old adage that things always look greener on the other side of the fence and this is particularly true of married women looking at single women’s life and vice versa. Elena Strelnikova gives a wry account of the problems encountered by single women in the Orenburg Region, where she lives
Saturday 31st December

We may be stateless but we are not voiceless

Mona Kareem, 31 December 2011
The stateless in Kuwait have been trapped in poor conditions for two decades. The Arab Spring has provided hope that at long last their voices might be heard.
Friday 23rd December

Women in the new Libya: challenges ahead

Kathryn Spellman-Poots, 23 December 2011
Will the rights of the women, who participated in the struggles leading to fall of Gaddafi, be put under pressure in the new Libya? Kathryn Spellman-Poots assesses women’s status under Gadaffi and points to the perils ahead.
Thursday 22nd December

2011, Iranians and dictators

Nasrin Alavi, 22 December 2011
The selfless struggle of many brave Iranians against tyranny bestows a legitimacy that their rulers cannot match, says Nasrin Alavi.
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