Friday 13th November

Fotokids – Out of the Dump

How an organisation that attempts to bring young people in Guatemala out of poverty by providing training in the visual arts began life, and why it is still spreading into the most dangerous areas.
Monday 9th November

Ugandan gays and Muslim women:a common struggle to redefine family

What have gay rights activists in Christian-majority Uganda and Muslim women fighting for family law reform in Asia got in common? You’d be surprised…
Saturday 7th November

No pressure, then: religious freedom in Islam

The Quranic statement: “There is no compulsion in religion” – erupted into controversy again in 2006 when the Pope selected the most illiberal view of the text available. But when the thirty-eight Muslim scholars responded that he was wrong, they were necessarily misrepresenting history. To understand why they might wish to do this, we have to go back to 720-750 AD.
Monday 2nd November

Gender in Afghanistan: pragmatic activism

War and mismanagement have produced a breakdown of trust, decency and reciprocity in Afghan society. Gender activism needs to be understood in that context, and not be tempted by crude cultural determinism.

Could the Conservatives detoxify immigration politics?

Ayesha Saran reflects on her experience at the recent party conferences
Tuesday 27th October

A Powerful Women's Agency: will the UN deliver?

As the UN moves to create a strong women's agency led by an Under Secretary General, Charlotte Bunch argues that leadership and funding will determine the real success of the new unit and how powerful it will be.
Thursday 8th October

Liberia: Women Peacekeepers and Human Security

In her second report from Liberia Kristen Cordell looks at the impact of the all female Indian police unit working in Monrovia.

The deployment of female peacekeepers has recently become recognized as not simply "desirable, but an operational imperative." In the words of Rachel Mayanja UN Assistant Secretary-General, "without women's participation in peace efforts there can be no peace and security."

One highly visible step to including women in peacekeeping operations has been the all- women police unit serving as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). 130 Indian policewomen currently make up the Formed Police Unit (FPU) in Liberia, the third such unit to be installed post conflict. The primary function of the group is to provide security within the city during public events with high profile leadership. I spent time with the group during my recent work with the UN in Liberia. I found the experience nothing short of inspirational.

No Help for Sex

Kristen Cordell reflects on the countrywide effort in Liberia to stop sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers.

Last month the UN Security Council unanimously approved Resolution 1888, reaffirming the UNs commitment to ending rape as a tool of war. The UN Mission in Liberia is leading efforts in six countries in Africa to check its own staff on a highly visible and challenging part of the problem: sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers. 

Monday 5th October

Balancing on Wheels of Hope

Alice Welbourn questions the role of the health authorities in caring for their own health staff with HIV
Saturday 3rd October

“Deal with your demons, and you will be free”

A disease of homosexuals, junkies, minorities; the myths surrounding HIV are parasitic, feeding off the vulnerability of those who have already been consigned to the margins of society. They are woven into a fictitious world where the sick and healthy are discrete and identifiable categories, and where membership in each is determined arbitrarily by race, sexual orientation, and gender.

They are the myths that the Sophia Forum is seeking to dismantle. Initiated in 2005, the Forum is a voluntary women's network based in UK exploring how HIV affects women at home and abroad. In its panel discussion on October 1st entitled "In Sickness and In Health: Women and HIV in 2009", the Sophia Forum drew attention to the acute need for gender specificity in understanding a condition that effects not merely homosexuals or the "socially marginal", but an estimated 30,000 women in the UK every year.

A disease of homosexuals, junkies, minorities; the myths surrounding HIV are parasitic, feeding off the vulnerability of those who have already been consigned to the margins of society. They are woven into a fictitious world where the sick and healthy are discrete and identifiable categories, and where membership in each is determined arbitrarily by race, sexual orientation, and gender.

They are the myths that the Sophia Forum is seeking to dismantle. Initiated in 2 5, the Forum is a voluntary women's network based in UK exploring how HIV affects women at home and abroad. In its panel discussion on October 1st entitled "In Sickness and In Health: Women and HIV in 2 9", the Sophia Forum drew attention to the acute need for gender specificity in understanding a condition that effects not merely homosexuals or the "socially marginal", but an estimated 3 , women in the UK every year.

Friday 11th September

Attention: Global Moles at Work

The financial crisis has discredited macho business ways; the cunning of historical progress is at its mysterious work

No openDemocracy reader is alike – A tribute to Joan Burchardt

A single life can span the globe and the century, embrace science and sky and soil, while always rooted in the corner of a corner of England. A warm tribute to a great woman
Wednesday 2nd September

Iran: Players or Pawns?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a man of many labels; Iran's ‘everyman' crusading for the nation's downtrodden, champion of the Muslim world, self-fashioned historian with an amnesic grasp of 20th century events and, most recently, vote rigger of questionable skill. To date however, Ahmadinejad's reputation has not been readily associated with women's rights. His recent decision to nominate three female cabinet ministers has consequently aroused surprise and suspicion in many camps.

Sunday 23rd August

Banksy in Bristol

The enigmatic urban artist Banksy's return to his home city is a triumph of liberating dissent  
Wednesday 22nd July

Women choosing to be

Have women’s lives in Gaza been constrained by a patriarchal ideology under the rule of Hamas? One Gazan resident says no: quite the reverse.
Monday 20th July

India's rape victims lost in political row

A war of words over compensation for rape victims has overshadowed the real issue, of violence against poor women
Sunday 12th July

Those of us with a voice to speak

On 30 June 2009, Mairead Maguire was taken into custody by the Israeli military along with twenty others, including former U.S. Congress member Cynthia McKinney.

Checkpoints and counter spaces

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian talked to Jane Gabriel about her latest book ‘Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East'. A Palestinian case-study. In which she analyses Palestinian women's agency and the many different ways in which they create counter spaces to the militarization of their daily lives.
Friday 3rd July

Everybody on the ground wants peace

Nobel Women's Initiative calls for the immediate release of Mairead Maguire and other Human Rights activists detained by Israeli authorities on June 29th.

War-related rape: shortchanged at the peace table

The UN and partners have been trying to forge practical ways of addressing conflict-related sexual violence during peace-making processes.
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